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."
Dartmouth Republicans leader turned down for every role at Ivy League newspaper for unspecified behavior at Project Veritas event she hosted.
Chloe
Ezzo has been published in The Wall Street Journal and won several
writing and poetry awards in high school, but the Dartmouth Republicans
president can't score any position on America's oldest college
newspaper, allegedly because staffers are afraid of her.
Logan Dubil said he got kicked off Point Park University's student
paper for riling up colleagues by criticizing LGBTQ pandering in Star
Wars and his "misogynistic" complaint about a headline change, among
other offenses.
John Parker got erased from his own column criticizing the increasing
sexualization of campus life at Syracuse University after the Daily
Orange editors publicly denounced him for kink-shaming. He didn't last
long either.
The new sensitivities in college journalism are causing headaches for
right-of-center applicants and staffers, whose viewpoints and
associations are sometimes deemed inherently disqualifying, even for
opinion writing.
A handful of scorned writers who know each other through Campus
Reform, a conservative college news website, showed Just the News their
communications with editors and shared their perceptions of the
conflicts. Ezzo polled them after her experience at The Dartmouth.
Staffers who question progressive orthodoxy have long risked
opprobrium internally but also from the student governments that fund
the publications, particularly since the rise of the Black Lives Matter
movement.
Her reputation as DRs president cast a shadow, however, when Ezzo
applied for a range of positions at The Dartmouth (including opinion,
news, sports and arts ) and its culture magazine, Mirror.
But it was the DRs' event last spring with James O'Keefe
of Project Veritas, which recently exposed purported Pfizer plans to
tinker with SARS-CoV-2 to perpetuate its "cash cow" treatments, that
editor Emily Lu told Ezzo had doomed her chances.
Echoing
the administration's explanation for the Ngo decision, Lu said in
mid-January that newspaper staffers feared for their "personal safety"
around Ezzo based on "your treatment" of them at the O'Keefe event, and
refused to explain further when pressed for details.
This doesn't fly for Ezzo because "the whole event is on film and
there were police officers present," she told Just the News, describing
the audience as mostly elderly. The newspaper had run multiple "hit
pieces" on the club since she took the reins, and while Ezzo joked it
was "fake news" at the event, reporters were invited to grill O'Keefe.
"I have no idea how any of that could be construed as threatening,"
Ezzo said. Rather than give her a credible reason for rejection, "they
instead felt the need to make up this fake story."
Campus security has no record of a report against her around that
time, Ezzo said. Lu didn't respond to queries to explain the "personal
safety" concerns she cited.
Point Park University's Globe staffers dubbed Dubil "homophobic" for
criticizing "Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker" for "throwing in the lesbian
kiss scene" rather than "committing to LGBTQ characters," he told Just
the News. The Hollywood Reporter made the same complaint.
Editor-in-chief Jordyn Hronec responded indignantly when Dubil
complained the Globe replaced his suggested "non-controversial" headline
with a perceived inflammatory one for his column about then-vice
presidential nominee Kamala Harris without telling him.
"Telling me what I 'need to understand' and questioning my decisions
as a leader is extremely offensive, and it honestly comes across as
being quite misogynistic," she wrote in a lengthy email, calling herself
the "boss" and him an "employee."
A trio of Globe staffers also called Dubil into a meeting and
repeatedly called him racist for submitting a column defending
then-President Trump's so-called Muslim ban, Dubil said. He didn't
record it because of Pennsylvania's two-party consent law. Hronec didn't
respond to queries about the incidents.
Syracuse's Parker told Just the News The Daily Orange didn't ask him before removing his name from a column on the proliferation of "inappropriate sexual events" including "Kink 101" seminars and drag shows, which Parker considers stereotypical to LGBTQ people.
Campus Reform reported at the time that the paper immediately faced complaints for running the column, and it published an apology a day later.
The column now includes an editor's note acknowledging its "hateful
speech that harms and disrespects our readers and our community." Parker
said the newspaper fired him a week later, after he asked a few times
"what was going on."
The Daily Orange added a separate disclaimer at the bottom noting a
paragraph had been removed to "protect" a drag performer who had
appeared in an earlier report. It removed Parker's name "to prevent them
from receiving backlash." The paper didn't answer Just the News
queries.
Florida Southern University's newspaper turned on freshman Sasha Kek,
who had high school experience in hard news, when she joined the Young
Americans for Freedom chapter after writing a profile of the nascent
conservative club, she told Just the News.
The Southern news editor "wrote a very demonizing piece" about the
club after she tabled on anticommunism and cultural appropriation, and
told Kek she had to go because her YAF affiliation put the paper in a
"controversial light," she said. The newspaper didn't answer queries
about whether this was a policy across the newspaper or only applied to
specific groups.
Kek pointed Just the News to The Southern's constitution.
One line says: "Writers will avoid bias, except as decided by the
Opinions section editor in regards to their section solely." But it
doesn't flesh out what that means in practice or provide a removal
process. Kek said she hasn't been at the paper long enough to know if
anyone else was removed for their affiliation.
The Islamic Republic claimed that the drone attack had failed and only cause minor roof damage.
An explosion is seen at an Iranian missile and drone test at the 17th Great Prophet drill in Iran.
(photo credit: Ali Yeghane Lari/Mehr News Agency)
Despite Iranian claims, the drone attack on Iran at Isfahan was a tremendous success, according to a mix of Western intelligence sources and foreign sources, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
There
were four explosions at the site, which can even be witnessed on social
media, against a facility developing advanced weapons, and the
damage goes far beyond the "minor roof damage" that the Islamic Republic
is claiming and which it has falsely claimed before also in other
incidents in recent years.
Israel is playing the incident mum, but most Western intelligence and Iranian sources have credited the Mossad
with similarly successful attacks against Iran's Natanz nuclear
facility in July 2020, a different Natanz nuclear facility in April
2021, another nuclear facility at Karaj in June 2021 and with destroying
around 120 or more Iranian drones in February 2022.
There
are also few organizations globally besides the Mossad which are
reported to have the advanced and surgical strike capabilities displayed
in the operation.
Iran's response matches responses to similar incidents
In
each of those incidents, Tehran tried to initially pretend that the
attacks failed and only acknowledged the extent of the damage when
satellite photos or other evidence broke into the public sphere,
outflanking their denials.
Focus on Iran, the Iranian flag in crosshairs (Illustrative). (credit: Akbar Nemati/Unsplash, DAVID YAPHE)
It
is still unclear whether the advanced weapons which were damaged are
related only to conventional warfare or might have dual-use relevance
also to nuclear issues, such as certain ballistic missiles or explosives
equipment that can be used for both conventional and nuclear weapons purposes.
Isfahan has been used on and off for various nuclear issues as well as non-nuclear military issues.
Iran
even at one point told the IAEA that some of the nuclear activities
being carried out at the Karaj nuclear facility until June 2021 had been
moved to Isfahan.
American sources say US, another country which is not Israel, behind attack intended to send message about ballistic munitions exports.
The large explosion at a military site in the city of
Isfahan, Iran Saturday was a drone attack on a munitions factory,
American sources told the Saudi news site Al Arabiya al Hadath. The attack involved the US Air Force and the participation of another country which was not Israel.
Kan News
reported that the sources said that "the action is intended to convey a
message to Iran and Russia that the United States will not allow
factories to be established to export ballistic weapons." The attack was
apparently aimed at an Iranian ballistic missile depot.
Iranian
media reported that three suicide drones of the quadcopter type were
involved in the attack, similar to the attack on a centrifuge factory in
Karaj in June 2021 and the attack on the Hezbollah facility in Beirut
in August 2019. The New York Times reported that the drones
were apparently launched from inside Iran, due to the location of the
city of Isfahan. far from Iran's land borders.
Last week, Israel and other countries simulated an attack on Iran in a
joint exercise. In addition, several senior American officials arrived
in the region. After the head of the CIA, the US Secretary of State of
the United States will arrive in Israel tomorrow, after the IDF and the
American army concluded a four-day joint military exercise.
Iran
had claimed that the drone attack was unsuccessful and only cause minor
damage. However, US and foreign sources have stated that the attack was
very successful and caused significant damage to the site.
Lotter explained that during the Trump administration, the United States was slowly starting to become less dependent on China.
Former
Trump adviser and chief communications officer of America First Policy
Institute Marc Lotter said that in order for the United States to not be
reliant on China, they need to "decouple."
"The first thing we have to admit is that we have to have what's
called a strategic decoupling," Lotter said on Thursday's edition of the
"Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "We can't just snap our fingers,
pass a law and all of a sudden everything that is related or
interconnected to China is just simply going to go away."
Lotter explained that during the Trump administration, the United States was slowly starting to become less dependent on China.
"We actually saw this happening under the Trump administration, as many companies —especially some pharmaceutical companies and other key suppliers — were relocating some of their manufacturing, or at least building additional manufacturing outside of China," he stated.
"It might not have always come back all the way to the U.S., which is
ultimately the goal, but to have it in our allies' control is very good
as long as we can remove the influence from China," Lotter continued.
The former adviser noted that one thing that did stay in place from the Trump administration was the tariffs on China.
"One of the few areas that the Biden administration hasn't undone
from the Trump administration is keeping the tariffs in place on China,"
Lotter said. "Those need to be strengthened. Those need to be
continued."
Progressive politicians have argued Georgia is moving to suppress nonwhites.
A
full 0% of black voters in Georgia report having a “poor” experience
voting in the 2022 midterms, a notable showing after several years of
Democratic politicians arguing that the state is working to suppress
black votes.
Multiple left-wing politicians over the last several years have
repeatedly voiced an extremist conspiracy theory that Georgia worked to
bar nonwhite voters from easy access to the polls. In 2019, for
instance, now-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg claimed without evidence
that “racially motivated patterns of voter suppression” were
responsible for Stacey Abrams losing the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial
race.
Those allegations have never been substantiated. In a poll this
month, meanwhile, not a single black voter in Georgia reported having a
“poor” experience voting in the state this past November.
The poll,
published by the University of Georgia’s School of Public &
International Affairs, asked respondents in part to “rate your overall
experience voting in this election.”
Among black voters, more than 72% said “excellent,” 23% said “good,” just under 9% said “fair,” and 0% said “poor.”
Among Democratic voters, meanwhile, 71% reported an “excellent” experience, while 76% of Republican voters said the same.
Republican Brian Kemp won the state’s gubernatorial election, beating
Stacey Abrams for a second time and by around seven percentage points.
To make the slightest concession to Putin would send all predators the message that they can invade a country, annex it in whole or in part, and commit war crimes to their hearts' content without any consequences.
If Putin succeeds in winning even a little territory, his victory will embolden other predators.
Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp describes Putin's plan
as a "desperate gamble.... Moscow at present does not have the numbers
to decisively overcome resistance from the depleted Ukrainian army".
Putin nevertheless has the ability to turn Ukraine into a grease-spot,
then take on Moldova, the Baltic States and whatever else he wants.
Putin knows that if he loses, it will be the end of his rule, maybe his life.... Russia is relying on its few allies and America's lack of will....
[Many...] seem not to understand that, as opposed to Las Vegas, "what happens in Ukraine does not
stay in Ukraine." Even a partial win for Putin could end up costing
America far more in the long run -- in both lives and treasure. It would
have been so much easier to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.
Western leaders, with the exception of Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán... have reaffirmed that they will support Ukraine until it
wins. Some, including Putin, spoke of negotiations; however, he warned
that all his demands must be met and that he intends to fight until
victory -- meaning that he will accept only unconditional surrender.
Western populations... grasp that to abandon Ukraine will lead to an even wider bloodbath.
Leaders in the West most likely see that without Putin's defeat, a
return to stability in Europe is effectively impossible. To make the
slightest concession to Putin would send all predators the message that
they can invade a country, annex it in whole or in part, and commit war
crimes to their hearts' content without any consequences.
Russia after this war will likely be a devastated country that has lost the last remnants of its status as a great power.
What is clear is that NATO will be strengthened, and fully emerge again as the defense structure of the democratic world.
European leaders who believed that the collapse of the Soviet
Empire would lead to an era of perpetual peace, or who had illusions
about Russia and Putin, or had largely given up their military spending,
discovered the catastrophic extent of these illusions.
The United States -- if it does not lose its nerve and its will
to protect the West -- will emerge as the big winner, but this should
not overshadow the damage and destruction that the Biden administration –
even though it has been extremely generous – caused by dithering and
often providing materiel often too little, too late. If the US had
pre-armed Ukraine, the invasion might actually have been prevented in
the first place. Let us hope that the United States does not make the
same costly mistake by failing adequately to pre-position "porcupine
weaponry" in Taiwan to make the risk to China too great even to think
about invading.
It would be dangerous to forget that without the weakness that
the Biden administration exhibited toward China; without the disaster it
inflicted on both the United States and Afghanistan; without Biden's
suggestion that if Russia limited itself to a "small incursion", that
would be fine, it was in effect green-lighting aggressors. If American
soldiers in Ukraine had not withdrawn a few days before Russia's
invasion, there probably would have been no invasion and no war.
It would also be dangerous to forget that during the first days
of the invasion, U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly offered Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky help to leave Ukraine. The message was that
Biden was ready to abandon Ukraine to Putin. The Biden administration
has so far not provided long-range strike capabilities or air cover to
Ukraine, thereby giving sanctuary to the Russian military to fire into
Ukraine or proceed with a scorched-earth aerial bombardment. The cost to
innocent Ukrainian people will be countless lives lost -- and
prolonging the war.
[T]he Biden administration and the rest of the Western world...
finally [supported] Ukraine. For the future of the West and the Free
World, the Biden Administration should continue to do exactly that.
Russian President Vladimir Putin knows that if he loses in Ukraine, it will be the end of his rule, maybe his life. (Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
December 13, 2022. UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace tells
the House of Commons that, since the start of the war in Ukraine, "over
100,000 Russians are either dead, injured, or have deserted". Today,
the figure is undoubtedly higher. The losses to the Russian army have been such that on September 21, Putin decreed a mobilization. Tens of thousands of men were sent to ,military training. Thousands of others were immediately deployed to the front, with no training, no arms, or with only rusty guns, and sent to a certain death. Another mobilization seems to be in the works. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently said that the Russian army will soon number 1.5 million men, but whatever the number, if front-line soldiers do not have adequate equipment, they will be killed.
Russia's losses of military equipment were also considerable. In November, it was reported that Russia was estimated to have lost half its tanks. Western sanctions essentially prevent
Russia from acquiring many of the microprocessors and electronic
components needed to manufacture high-precision missiles. Russia may
therefore be unable to replenish its stockpiles.
Although the Russian and Chinese militaries have carried out joint maneuvers, China has reportedly not delivered
military equipment to Russia, and probably will not. China's economy is
dependent on trade with the United States; Chinese leaders doubtless
calculate that they too cannot afford to risk US sanctions. On December 30, during a virtual meeting, Putin proposed
building a military alliance to Chinese President to Xi Jinping. Xi
responded with a significant silence. Russia presently can only buy
military equipment from two rogue states, North Korea and Iran, while the US "scrambles" to stop Iran from sending Russia still more deadly drones.
Since the beginning of September 2022, the Russian army has suffered two major defeats, one east of Kharkiv, the other in Kherson, in southern Ukraine. Russia so far has lost 39,000 square miles of the Ukrainian territory it had previously conquered and is now regrouping, building defensive lines to preserve what remains of the Ukrainian territory it still occupies, and reportedly planning for a spring offensive.
The Ukrainian army also lost countless soldiers and much military equipment; Ukrainian soldiers, however, are fighting for the survival and sovereignty of their country. Most Russian soldiers do not know
why they are fighting. That makes a difference. The Ukrainian army does
not have a problem of resupply and will not have one so long as the
United States and the NATO countries continue to send materiel. If Putin
succeeds in winning even a little territory, his victory will embolden
other predators.
Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp describes
Putin's plan as a "desperate gamble.... Moscow at present does not have
the numbers to decisively overcome resistance from the depleted
Ukrainian army". Putin nevertheless has the ability to turn Ukraine into
a grease-spot, then take on Moldova, the Baltic States and whatever
else he wants.
In June 2022, he compared
himself to Peter the Great, a tsar who led wars of conquest against the
neighboring countries of Russia and enlarged the Russian empire by
violence. Putin, however, may also be concerned that he may well go down
in history as the dictator who accelerated Russia's decline and led to its downfall.
A year ago, the Russian military was ranked by some as the world's second-most powerful. One can say now say that it is extremely deficient, "in a woeful state," equipped with poorly maintained weapons, plagued by a lack of financial means as well as by corruption. Russia's only advantage are thousands of nuclear warheads, many dating from the Soviet era. Russia is too poor to maintain a strong military (before the war, its GDP was smaller
than that of Texas) -- a state of affairs that does not seem to have
much chance of improving. Russia appears to be relying on its few allies
and on America's lack of will -- last seen in its disorganized,
impulsive withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chatter of many who seem
not to understand that, as opposed to Las Vegas, "what happens in
Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine." Even a partial win for Putin
could end up costing America far more in the long run -- in both lives
and treasure. It would have been so much easier to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.
Russia also has other problems that make Putin's "desperate" fight even harder.
For several decades, Russia had been confronted with a serious birth deficit, increased aging and a decrease in its population.
In 1991, Russia had 148 million inhabitants; in 2021, it had 143
million. Available data show that in 2022, Russia's already low birth
rate fell even further. Thousands of young Russian men sent to their deaths in Ukraine will now not have children.
Russia is, in addition, experiencing a catastrophic loss of human capital. More than 3.8 million Russians left Russia during the first three months of 2022. The mobilization decreed by Putin in September of 2022 led to the flight of more than 700,000 men
in three weeks. The Russians who left were mostly those with the means
to flee and marketable skills. Russia has been suffering a "brain drain" unprecedented since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian economy, which is not highly diversified, also is not strong. Russia lives mostly from the sale of energy. In 2021, gas and oil accounted for 60% of its exports; revenues from exported gas and oil accounted for 45% of its GDP. Until the war, European countries were the main buyers of Russian gas and oil. Since December 5, 2022, Russia no longer sells gas to European countries, with the exception of Hungary, and European countries no longer buy Russian oil. Although Russia has been selling more gas and oil to India and China, it is sold at discounts
of 30-40% and does not begin to compensate for the loss of European
markets. Russia's revenue losses in 2023 are again expected to be high.
If Russia wants to increase its gas and oil sales to India and China, new pipelines will be necessary. Building them will be an expensive and long process.
Until its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was the word's main exporter of wheat. Russia's agriculture, however, depends
on Western technological means, and Western sanctions have prevented
Russia from acquiring them. Russian wheat production therefore will decline. The microprocessors and electronic components that the Russian arms manufacturers no longer have are also lacking in the car manufacturing and aeronautical sectors. Western automakers,
like many other Western companies, have left Russia. Russian automakers
are not faring well. Additionally, Russian airlines had to suspend many
international routes, and to dismantle airplanes to recycle the parts for use in other aircraft. Although Russia had accumulated financial reserves, those outside Russia, in Western banks, are frozen.
Politically, at the moment, Russia, appears stable.
As Putin has placed men loyal to him at the head of the military,
chances of a coup seem remote. The oligarchs who criticize Putin have
reportedly been undergoing an epidemic of fatal accidents;
others seem to prefer losing billions to losing their lives. No one, of
course, can predict what will happen. Will the Russian army
indefinitely agree to send Russians to die in a meat grinder? Will Russia continue using mercenaries whose deaths do not affect the Russian public? Will Russia turn to unacceptable weapons?
Putin apparently hopes that by destroying civilian infrastructure and
inflicting even harsher punishment on the Ukrainian people, he will break their morale and gain their submission. The Ukrainians, although suffering immensely, have been exhibiting breathtaking resilience.
Putin is probably betting that Western leaders and populations will
eventually stop supporting Ukraine. So far at least, the West has stood strong.
Western leaders, with the exception of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán -- who decided to stay out
of the conflict, a position that has been condemned as a betrayal by
Hungary's Western allies -- have reaffirmed that they will support Ukraine until it wins. Some, including Putin, spoke of negotiations; however, he warned that all his demands must be met and that he intends to fight until victory -- meaning that he will accept only unconditional surrender.
Western populations who view the Russian army's atrocities grasp that to abandon Ukraine will lead to an even wider bloodbath.
Leaders in the West most likely see that without Putin's defeat, a return to stability
in Europe is effectively impossible. To make the slightest concession
to Putin would send all predators the message that they can invade a
country, annex it in whole or in part, and commit war crimes to their
hearts' content without any consequences.
It now seems as if Ukraine will finally be receiving the US M1 Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks it needs, as well as tanks from the United Kingdom (France is apparently looking for excuses not to send its Leclerc tanks); yet Ukraine needs more.
The Telegraph's Defense and Foreign Affairs Editor, Con Coughlin, notes
that "all the indications are that Putin is currently losing his war,
and Western support can make sure he suffers a catastrophic defeat."
"When the war in Ukraine will end is unknown," noted
Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, "but it will likely
mark the dissolution of the Russian Federation (the legal successor of
the Soviet Union) as it is known today."
Whether the dissolution of the Russian Federation takes place or not,
Russia after this war will likely be a devastated country that has lost the last remnants of its status as a great power.
Russia's nuclear arsenal, the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at Russia's disposal, the persistent hostility towards the Western world by Russian propaganda to this day, will all require extreme vigilance.
What is clear is that NATO will be strengthened, and fully emerge again as the defense structure of the democratic world.
The European leaders who believed that the collapse of the Soviet
Empire would lead to an era of perpetual peace, who had illusions about
Russia and Putin, and who had largely given up their military spending,
discovered the catastrophic extent of these illusions. Last year, they
saw that without the existence of NATO and the power of the U.S.
military, they would have faced a crushing hardship. Two European
countries, Sweden and Finland, have asked to join NATO. When that happens, Russia will have an additional 1,340 kilometers of border with a NATO country, Finland.
It is not yet clear whether European countries such as France and
Germany will learn the lessons of the war or whether they will fall back into their illusions. Moldova, Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland might end up having to bring them back to reality.
Ukraine will need to be rebuilt -- an effort that will be long and expensive, but essential. Many other cities have suffered significant damage. Most of the country's power stations have been attacked. The heroic Ukrainian people have suffered unimaginable losses. Finding the Ukrainian children who have been taken from their families and deported to Russia should be an imperative.
The United States -- if it does not lose its nerve and its will to
protect the West -- will emerge as the big winner, but this should not
overshadow the damage and destruction
that the Biden administration – even though it has been extremely
generous – caused by dithering and often providing materiel often too little, too late.
If the US had pre-armed Ukraine, the invasion might actually have been
prevented in the first place. Let us hope that the United States does
not make the same costly mistake by failing adequately to pre-position "porcupine weaponry" in Taiwan to make the risk to China too great even to think about invading.
It would be dangerous to forget that without the weakness that the Biden administration exhibited toward China; without the disaster it inflicted on both the United States and Afghanistan; without Biden's suggestion that if Russia limited itself to a "small incursion", that would be fine, it was in effect green-lighting aggressors. If American soldiers in Ukraine had not withdrawn a few days before Russia's invasion, there probably would have been no invasion and no war.
It would also be dangerous to forget that during the first days of the invasion, U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly offered
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky help to leave Ukraine. The
message was that Biden was ready to abandon Ukraine to Putin. The Biden
administration has so far not provided long-range strike capabilities or air cover to Ukraine, thereby giving sanctuary
to the Russian military to fire into Ukraine or proceed with a
scorched-earth aerial bombardment. The cost to innocent Ukrainian people
will be countless lives lost -- and prolonging the war.
It would be particularly dangerous to forget that it was the failure of the Russian army in the first days of the invasion, the resistance of the army and the Ukrainian population, and the refusal
of Zelensky to abandon his country, all of which essentially changed
the situation and led the Biden administration and the rest of the
Western world finally to support Ukraine. For the future of the West and
the Free World, the Biden administration should continue to do exactly
that.
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
According to Sharif University in Teheran, a survey of 17,078 people in all 31 provinces of Iran, shows that 70 percent of senior managers and highly skilled personnel in the public sector wish to emigrate.
Since 1979, when the mullahs
seized power, Iran has topped the list of countries hit by "brain
drain". However, what was a sectoral hemorrhage may now become a general
bleeding affecting other sectors of the population.
The study shows that the desire to flee Iran isn't caused by
economic hardship, unemployment or inflation. It is not the poor and/or
the unemployed that wish to flee but those who either have or could have
well-paid jobs and a seat on the gravy train of the mullahs and their
security-military associates.
To deal with the consequences of "brain drain", the Islamic
Republic has unveiled a program to attract highly-educated and skilled
people from "anywhere in the world" with a promise of thee-year
contracts, good salaries and "all rights apart from voting".
Since 1979, when the mullahs seized power, Iran has topped
the list of countries hit by "brain drain". However, what was a sectoral
hemorrhage may now become a general bleeding affecting other sectors of
the population. (Image source: Curimedia/Wikimedia Commons)
Since 1979, when the mullahs seized power, Iran has topped the list
of countries hit by "brain drain". However, what was a sectoral
hemorrhage may now become a general bleeding affecting other sectors of
the population.
A feature in the official news agency IRNA was headlined, "It's not only the elite who emigrate."
The daily Javan, an organ of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) also warns that Iran is losing some if its best-educated
people and claims that mass-emigration by "elite elements" is costing
the nation millions of dollars. Emigration is now attracting Iranians
with lower skills or no skills.
According to best semi-official estimates, since 1979, some eight
million people, almost 10 percent of the population, have left Iran,
including an estimated 4.2 million with higher education and skills.
In the past four years, the brain drain has accelerated, with an average of 4,000 medical doctors leaving each year.
According to IRNA, right now 30,000 general practitioners and senior
nurses are waiting for "good standing "certificates that developed
nations require from those wishing to emigrate from so-called
"developing nations" such as Iran.
A study by two Tehran University researchers, Adel Abdullahi and
Maryam Rezai, shows that almost all Iranians who emigrate seek to enter
the European Union or the so-called "Anglosphere" countries such as
Britain, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Only 10 percent of would-be emigrants are willing to go "anywhere else" to get out of Iran.
There are no applicants for immigration to any Muslim country. The
only exception is Iraq, which attracts thousands of Iranian mullahs and
students of theology who head for Najaf and Karbala to escape control of
religion by the government in Tehran.
Would-be immigrants also shun China, India and Russia. The only Asian
countries still attracting Iranians are Malaysia and Japan.
For many would-be immigrants, the first port of call is Dubai, then
Istanbul, Cyprus or, until recently, Yerevan, where application for
visas to desired destinations are lodged. Some would-be immigrants have
to wait up to three years to secure visas to the EU countries, Canada
and the US.
Who is emigrating and why?
Some answers are provided by a three-year study by the Sharif (Aryamehr) University in Tehran.
According to it, a survey of 17,078 people in all 31 provinces of
Iran, shows that 70 percent of senior managers and highly skilled
personnel in the public sector wish to emigrate.
Among entrepreneurs and businessmen, 66 percent desire emigration.
That figure falls to 60 percent for medical doctors, nurses and other
medical staff.
The study shows that a majority of would-be emigrants are young,
highly educated, unmarried people from urban areas. The higher the
education of the individual, the higher his or her desire to leave.
Of those who express "little satisfaction with the present
situation", 43 percent wish to leave the country. That figure falls to
40 percent among those with "high satisfaction", which means that the
desire to leave is deeper than tangential socio-political concerns.
This is confirmed by other figures in the study.
Of those who "despair of the future in Iran", 42 percent wish to
leave, a number that falls to 38 percent for those who still have some
hope for the country's future.
The study shows that the desire to flee Iran isn't caused by economic
hardship, unemployment or inflation. It is not the poor and/or the
unemployed that wish to flee, but those who either have or could have
well-paid jobs and a seat on the gravy train of the mullahs and their
security-military associates.
The highest numbers of emigrants come from Tehran, Isfahan and Qom
provinces, where income per head is 30 percent higher than the national
average. Poorer provinces, such as Sistan-Baluchistan, Boyer-Ahmad &
Kohkiluyeh and South Khorasan come at the bottom of the list for the
number of would be emigrants.
The study gives no figures but there is anecdotal evidence that tens
of thousands of emigrants, especially to Canada and the US, come from
Islamic Republic's ruling families.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Iran is also attracting
immigrants from neighboring Iraq, both Kurdish and Arab-Shiite regions,
the enclave of Nakhichevan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, while hosting
thousands of theology students from Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Nigeria.
China has also dispatched hundreds of theology students to Qom.
According to official media, many of the students remain in Iran after
completing their courses and get married to Iranians.
All in all, Iran hosts over six million "foreign guests", including
Afghan, Pakistani and Iraqi refugees. Interestingly, the desire to leave
seems to have reached the "guests" as well. Between March 2021 and
March 2022 over half a million Afghan refugees returned home.
To deal with the consequences of "brain drain", the Islamic Republic
has unveiled a program to attract highly-educated and skilled people
from "anywhere in the world" with a promise of thee-year contracts, good
salaries and "all rights apart from voting".
An estimated 300,000 fighters who have served under Iranian
leadership in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen are also promised eventual
settlement in Iran and the granting of farmlands to build a new life.
Critics claim that the Khomeinist regime is happy that so many
potential opponents from urban middle class elements are leaving Iran.
Iran's loss of population could be compensated with new arrivals from
poorer Muslims countries who would appreciate a better living standard
under a "truly Islamic" regime.
Other despotic regimes, notably the USSR, Communist China, North
Korea, Vietnam and Cuba benefited from mass emigration by potential
middle class enemies, allowing a "great replacement" scheme to be
implemented.
One of the IRGC's big-mouth generals, Muhammad-Reza Naqdi, put it
like this: "Let those who don't like us leave the country, making room
for those who do."
This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in
Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable
publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.
Under new rules, eligible migrants "don't even have to go through the motions of claiming asylum," said Mark Morgan. "Just hop on the internet to claim your free pass. That's 360,000 would-be illegal aliens this coming fiscal year who will be granted defacto temporary amnesty."
Even
as the illegal immigration crisis along America's southern border
continues to worsen, Biden administration officials are resorting to
sleight of hand to downplay the number of migrants crossing into the
U.S., alleges former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Commissioner Mark Morgan.
The federal government's current immigration policies are "a
perversion and violation of the law on two fronts," Morgan told Just The
News. "First, they've told the entire world, in an exchange to stop
illegally entering the border — and filing fraudulent asylum claims —
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) promises them they can now make an
appointment to walk up to a POE [Point of Entry], continue with filing
fraudulent claims, where they will be promptly released into the United
States."
"Secondly, in direct violation of our parole laws, they have
sweetened the deal even more for immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua,
Cuba, and Haiti," he continued. "Again,The Department of Homeland
Security has made them an offer they can’t refuse. Stop entering our
nation illegally, and in exchange, we'll parole 30,000 of you into the
US, no questions asked!"
"For these migrants, they don't even have to go through the motions
of claiming asylum," Morgan added. "Just hop on the internet to claim
your free pass. That's 360,000 would-be illegal aliens this coming
fiscal year who will be granted defacto temporary amnesty."
Morgan accused federal immigration authorities of "legalizing otherwise illegal activity and then claiming victory."
"As the numbers of those illegally entering in between the POEs
significantly recede, watch how the numbers at our POEs increase in
kind. It's an unlawful, perverse shell game, which serves to mask the
crisis rather than address it in any meaningful way," he said. "They
haven't put forth a single policy to deter or disincentivize the flow —
nor to insert integrity — back into a broken system through ending of
catch and release. They simply transferred their massive release
strategy to the POEs."
Just The News sought responses from the CBP, Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security, and the White
House, but none of the agencies provided official comment for the story.
Defenders of the administration have argued that historically high
figures for border encounters are misleading, bloated by unusually large
numbes who have made multiple attempts to cross the border due to, for
example, increased expulsions under Title 42 to limit the spread of
COVID-19.With regard to
those awaiting court hearings in the U.S., federal law says that
administration, access and processing of requests must take place
when asylum is requested from someone who has set foot on U.S. soil.
Despite
federal authorities' efforts to cut the processing time for asylum
request down to just a matter of months, however, the illegal crossings
continue.
Southern border states became so overwhelmed
with illegal immigrants that they began busing them to so-called
"sanctuary cities" governed by liberal politicians.
In July 2022, Washington, D.C. Democratic
Mayor Muriel Bowser claimed these migrants were being "tricked" into
getting on the buses.
"Local taxpayers are not picking up the tab and should not pick up the tab," she told CBS' "Face the Nation" in an interview. "But
I fear [the migrants] are being tricked into nationwide bus trips when
their final destinations are places all over the United States of
America."
As of the month prior to her statement, nearly $3 million of Texas taxpayer dollars had been spent by
the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bus more than 1,700
migrants to Washington D.C., in an effort to draw attention to the
continuing chaos at the border.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir suggested that the gov't authorize seven outposts in response to the terror attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen in a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on January 29, 2023
(photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to strip family members of terrorists
of residency and or citizenship rights and to expand settlement
activity when he spoke at the start of the weekly government meeting.
"Today,
the government will discuss...revoking Israeli identity cards and
residency of families of terrorists that support terrorism,” Netanyahu said.
He spoke in the aftermath of two weekend terror attacks, including one on Friday night targeting a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood that claimed seven lives.
Security cabinet takes retaliatory, defensive measures following terror attacks
Netanyahu
told the government that the security cabinet had met on Saturday night
and taken a series of retaliatory and defensive measures.
This
included increasing the deployment of security forces in sensitive
areas and the immediate sealing off of the family home of the terrorist,
Netanyahu explained.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen visiting Israelis injured in
terror attacks across Jerusalem on January 29, 2023 (credit: HAIM
ZACH/GPO)
“This morning we sealed off the house of the terrorist who carried out the criminal [synagogue] attack in Jerusalem - his home will be demolished,” Netanyahu said.
The security cabinet also decided to strip national insurance benefits from family members of terrorists,
he told the government. These measures are only applicable to those who
engage in terror who are residents or citizens of the state of Israel.
Both the perpetrators of the weekend terror attacks had east Jerusalem
residency.
The government will discuss expediting gun licenses
to thousands of Israeli citizens, including on medical emergency teams
who are often among the first responders to a terror attack.
“ZAKA
has 3,000 mobile volunteers throughout the country. Only a small
percentage of them are armed. Imagine if they and others were armed. Of
course, this would significantly increase the response capability
because as we have seen, time and again, including yesterday in the City
of David, that heroic, armed and trained civilians save lives,”
Netanyahu said.
In
addition, he said, “we will decide soon on steps to strengthen
settlement in Judea and Samaria in order to make it clear to the
terrorists who seek to uproot us from our land that we are here to
stay,” he said.
Prior to the security cabinet meeting
on Saturday night, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested
authorizing the E1 project, which would allow for close to 3,500 new
settler homes to be built in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.
He
also suggested that the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council
for Judea and Samaria authorize all the settler housing plans on its
agenda.
Ben-Gvir: Authorize seven outpost for seven terror victims
On Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir suggested that the government immediately authorize seven outposts.
Netanyahu
did not expand on the steps he would take to strengthen the
settlements. He said he had “also instructed the Director of the
National Security Council to evaluate additional steps that came up
before the Security Cabinet and which will be presented to the public
later on.”
The prime
minister recalled that he had come to the government after visiting
those wounded in the terror attacks at the Shaare Zedek and Hadassah-Mt.
Scopus hospitals in Jerusalem.
“We
all wish them a speedy and complete recovery and stand with the medical
teams that are treating them with boundless dedication,” Netanyahu
said.
“The terrorists
seek to slaughter us indiscriminately; therefore, we must all unite as
one in the relentless fight against them. We will defeat them,”
Netanyahu said.
"The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history."
It was bound to happen.
After classifying virtually any disagreement on contemporary issues
as disinformation, the leftist expert class has decided to go full
Orwell and declare history to be disinformation.
Some of the nation’s top historians are going after lies and misinformation about U.S. history in a new book.
Nobody has heard of the vast majority of these “historians”. And by
“lies and misinformation”, they mean conventional disagreements in the
past.
The book, released this month, seeks to rebut simplistic
maxims repeated mainly by the right — that the New Deal was bad, the
Reagan revolution was good, and Confederate monuments are nothing more
than historical artifacts.
If we’re classifying the non-leftist positions about the New Deal or
the Reagan revolution was “misinformation”, how long until they’re being
censored and deplatformed by Big Tech?
The debates over policies by the FDR and Reagan administrations were
hashed out long ago. In a free society, people would be free to continue
debating them. But in this creepy 1984 system that the elite Left is
pushing, there’s no more debate. Everything that the lefty elites
disagree with is branded as “misinformation” that needs to be suppressed
because it’s actively dangerous.
Editors Kevin M. Kruse and Julian Zelizer, both Princeton
University historians, say the right has used the conservative media
ecosystem to dismiss evidence about real conflicts in favor of a
patriotic story of triumph and perseverance.
Again, not the language about “evidence” or a “conservative media
ecosystem” as if debates about the New Deal hadn’t long predated the
internet or could be settled by “evidence”.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the full Orwell without a “threat to democracy”.
“The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad
history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have
led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts,
making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy.”
There we go.
People who disagree with us are a “crisis” that makes “dialogue” impossible and are a threat to “democracy.”
Good news. If you don’t like FDR’s socialism, which was repeatedly
struck down by the Supreme Court in his own time, you represent a
“crisis” and a threat to “democracy”.
Not a new idea, really. It was a popular enough take from these same totalitarian propagandists in the FDR era.
Enjoy this clip from Gabriel Over the White House. And remember, they’d like to actually make it happen.
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
