Gatestone Institute

Who Wants to Destroy Israel? You Might Be Surprised.
by Guy Millière • May 15, 2023 at 5:00 am

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It is the first time in Israel's short history that a large-scale movement has been launched using undemocratic means to overthrow a democratically elected government.

The new government, in fact, is trying to restore democracy – by reforming Supreme Court practices that were adopted starting in the 1990s, which allow unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court justices to deliver rulings based on "reasonableness" rather than on written law – often meaning, "whatever I think is reasonable". Israel's Supreme Court is currently said have "virtually limitless power': it asserts the right to veto both political appointments and military decisions; it has no mechanism for recourse, and no requirement for "standing" -- meaning that the litigant need not be directly affected by the decision, such as having a personal wrong righted. On the contrary, anyone can directly petition the Supreme Court, anytime, about anything. The last provision has opened the floodgates for lawsuits by "concerned" non-governmental organizations dissatisfied with decisions Israel has taken. In addition, sitting Supreme Court justices – not the electorate and not the parliament – have the power to approve or veto any appointment of new justices, leading to a closed "club" in which no one is flustered by dissent.

The Biden Administration, staffed by many of the same people who were in the Obama Administration, has behaved as an enemy of Israel from day one. The Administration quickly restored US funding to the Palestinian Authority without asking it to stop supporting terrorism or even to stop inciting violence. The Biden Administration then opened a U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs and installed, as "special representative for Palestinian affairs", Hady Amr who has admitted being "inspired by the Palestinian intifada".

The Biden Administration has, to its credit, during the hundreds of recent missile attacks -- 1,235 rockets over five days, launched at a country the size of New Jersey -- said that "Israel has the right to protect itself and defend its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks launched by terrorist groups" -- yet for the past two years, has done nothing to eliminate Israel's most serious threat – Iran's nuclear program – apart from seemingly trying to have Iran not use any nuclear weapons during the current administration's term.

The Biden Administration has, additionally, considerably eroded America's influence in the Middle Easy, thereby creating a situation of extreme peril for Israel and other erstwhile US allies in the Gulf. Biden, even during his 2020 presidential campaign, repeatedly vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a "pariah"... This rebuff was followed by the Biden Administration's refusal to promise either that it would stop negotiating with Iran for a deal enabling the mullahs to have unlimited nuclear weapons, and fears that the US would not protect Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies in the Gulf from Iran.

Iran's mullahs also can see that the United Arab Emirates in 2021, signed a contract with the Chinese company Huawei, now building a 5G network in the Gulf state – thereby making the UAE totally vulnerable to Chinese intelligence penetration. That contract was followed by the cancellation of a $23 billion arms purchase from the United States.

The seemingly unremitting desire of the Biden administration to reach an agreement with the Iranian regime at almost any price and to realign American foreign policy in the Middle East toward a policy led by Iran was evidently what led to Saudi Arabia's restoration of ties with Iran. Biden's eagerness to treat Saudi Arabia as "pariah" had turned an ally into a question mark. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime, more expansionist by the day -- which the Saudi regime is not -- reveals that despite the decidedly unsavory murder of Osama bin Laden's friend and Muslim Brotherhood acolyte Jamal Khashoggi, the Iranian regime is, by light years, far more dangerous to the stability of the region and beyond, as well as even more hostile to human rights than Saudi Arabia ever was.

Moreover, the strategic cooperation agreement signed in March 2021 between Iran and China has deepened the ties between the mullahs and the Chinese Communist Party, geopolitically and economically, to the detriment of the United States. The means of payment on which they agreed will not be the world's reserve currency for oil, the US dollar, but instead, China's yuan.

A few weeks ago, when a key official in Israel's defense ministry was in Washington to request more American support for Israel in case the Israeli government thinks necessary to attack Iran's nuclear program, no answer was given.

"The land of Israel and the State of Israel are acquired through many trials and tribulations.... They will not overcome us; we will overcome them". — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, April 24, 2023.

A terrorist carried out a car-ramming attack at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market a few hours earlier. Netanyahu was talking about terrorists, but his words could be addressed to all enemies of Israel and to all those who want to destroy it.

For the first time in Israel's short history, a large-scale movement has been launched using undemocratic means to overthrow a democratically elected government. Pictured: Anti-government protesters on March 27, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
On April 17-18, Israel observed Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. Sirens sounded across the country while people stood for two minutes of silence in remembrance of six million Jews who had been murdered. Wreaths were laid at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech calling on Israelis for unity.

The speech, however, was apparently not heard by everyone. Protests against his government soon resumed. A week later, on April 24-25, on Memorial Day, when Israelis pay their respects to soldiers who have fallen so that Israel might live, Netanyahu once again called for unity. The next day, when Israel celebrated Independence Day, some people decided not to participate in the official ceremony and held a "protest celebration" instead.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19645/who-wants-to-destroy-israel

The Biden Administration's Green Light to Iran's Terrorists and Nuclear Program
by Majid Rafizadeh • May 13, 2023 at 5:00 am

"It is unacceptable that a U.S. government program, which makes the United States and its allies safer, provides funds to remediate the victims of terrorism, and generates income for the United States in a cost-effective manner has been allowed to languish. United States sanctions should be enforced to the fullest extent of the law. As Iranian oil sales continue to rise, and the IRGC continues to target U.S. citizens and servicemembers, including inside the U.S., it is imperative that we use all available government assets to limit the activities of the Iranian regime." — Senator Joe Manchin and 11 other Senators, in a letter to President Joe Biden, April 27, 2023.

Under the Biden Administration, however, which suspended new oil and gas leases on US public lands and waters, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China...

Iran reportedly is exporting more than 1.5 million bpd -- approximately 80% of the oil they used to export before the sanctions.

Iran is also shipping considerable amounts of oil to Venezuela without either country fearing repercussions from the Biden Administration.

The Biden Administration's appeasement policies towards Iran is contributing to the regime's increased revenue, the major beneficiaries of which are the IRGC, terrorist and militia groups -- and of course the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons program.


Under the Biden Administration, Iran's oil exports have expanded to more than 1.5 million bpd -- approximately 80% of the oil they used to export before the sanctions. Pictured: An oil facility on Iran's Khark Island. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the Biden Administration, sanctions against the ruling mullahs of Iran have simply become superficial and cosmetic. The Administration appears to be turning a blind eye when Iran's violates the sanctions, thereby allowing the regime vastly to increase its revenues. Most of these usually assist the regime's powerful militia and terror group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State.

Recently, US Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, led a bipartisan group of 12 Senators in urging the Biden Administration to completely enable the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office to seize Iranian oil and gas shipments.

According to a press release on Manchin's Senate website:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19643/green-light-to-iran

Turkey's Hizbullah Terrorists: Erdoğan's New Ally
by Burak Bekdil • May 9, 2023 at 5:00 am
Turkey's Hizbullah is not to be confused with the Lebanese Shia terror group Hezbollah, although their name has the same meaning in Arabic: The Party of God.

Operating primarily in Batman Province, Hizbullah murdered 188 people in and around the mainly Kurdish city of Batman. The victims included 32 shot in the neck: men for drinking alcohol and women for wearing mini-skirts.

A prominent feminist Islamist, Konca Kuriş, was abducted by Hizbullah and tortured for 35 days before she was murdered. Her Islamism was fine; her feminism was not.

The international community would do well to understand that Kurds, US allies in northern Iraq and Syria, are not monolithic. Secular Kurds are allies. But there are also Islamist Kurds who support Erdoğan.

To win, Erdoğan would ally with radical Islamists: certified terrorists.

If Erdoğan does win on May 14, there will be, for the first time, radical Islamist terrorists in the Turkish parliament. Hizbullah terrorists -- responsible for the torture and deaths of hundreds of people in ISIS-style executions -- in the parliament of a NATO member state?! This potential outcome is the biggest talk among Western diplomats in Ankara. Most are shocked. They should not be. It is vintage Erdoğan.

The terrorists of Turkish Hizbullah regrouped and rebranded themselves as the political party HÜDA-PAR. Everyone knew the new party was a disguise for Hizbullah. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamist regime, no one cared. Pictured: Erdoğan campaigns on May 7, 2023 in Istanbul with Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu, leader of HÜDA-PAR and one of the lawyers who defended Hizbullah terrorists. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)
Turkey's Hizbullah is not to be confused with the Lebanese Shia terror group Hezbollah, although their name has the same meaning in Arabic: The Party of God. Turkey's Hizbullah is radically Sunni and pro-Kurdish.

At the peak of its violent campaign between 1991 and 2001, Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate announced that the organization's ideology was "to fight every non-Islamic regime and administration in lands where Islam is not predominant." In those years, Hizbullah had nearly 100 associations and NGOs under its auspices.

After security operations against Hizbullah in 2000, the Turkish public was shocked to learn that the organization had abducted more than 100 rival Islamists, tortured and buried them in what was repugnantly dubbed "houses of graves."
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19615/turkey-hizbullah-terrorists



The Real Meaning of 'From The River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free'
by Bassam Tawil • May 11, 2023 at 5:00 am
It is impossible to imagine that the anti-Israel activists have no idea that the chant is a common call-to-arms for those who want to destroy Israel.

The slogan reflects the wishes of Iran and its terror proxies -- especially Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah -- to replace Israel with a 57th Islamic state – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Iranian leaders and officials have often repeated that their goal is to "wipe Israel off the map."

By using this slogan, Iran and Hamas are saying, bluntly...that the land stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is all Muslim-owned land that cannot be given away to any non-Muslims.

Article 11 of the Hamas charter leaves no room for doubt; it is straightforwardly genocidal: "The Islamic Republic Movement (Hamas) believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered; it, or any part of it, should not be given up."

Articles 13 of the Hamas charter openly advocates the use of violence to kill Jews and eliminate Israel: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad (holy war)."

Article 15 of the Hamas charter goes on to argue that "Jihad is the individual duty of every Muslim...It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters."

The anti-Israel activists who chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" are -- whether they know it or not -- endorsing the ideology of Iran's mullahs, Hamas and other terror groups that have long worked to achieve their goal of destroying Israel.

These activists, who often describe themselves as "pro-Palestinian," do not actually care about Palestinians or "freeing Palestine." If they did, they would instead be calling for better opportunities for Palestinians; Palestinian governance that was less corrupt; the equal application under Palestinian leadership of the rule of law; women's and children's rights, and freedom of speech, assembly and the press.

The current protestors are nothing but Israel-haters -- really, anti-Semites -- who have aligned themselves with Muslim extremists and terrorists.

By chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" on a university campus in the West... these activists are serving as a mouthpiece for Muslim terrorists who daily murder people in cold blood at schools, cafés, or a Jewish mother and her two daughters on their way to celebrate a Jewish holiday. Hamas has even boasted that its men were behind the murder of a British family, the Dees, in a drive-by shooting attack in the West Bank in early April.

The next time someone shouts the "from the river to the sea" slogan in the US, Canada or Europe, they should take note that they are voicing support for the regime of Iran -- reportedly poisoning its schoolgirls by the hundreds and hanging its own citizens for "crimes" such as "insulting religion" -- as well as for Iran's designated terrorist groups: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.

Anti-Israel students on many university campuses in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe often chant the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." This slogan, which basically means Israel has no right to exist on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – in other words, all the land that currently makes up Israel -- has long been endorsed by Islamist groups that openly call for eliminating Israel.

The same call has been repeated at:

A recent meeting of the University of Sydney Student Council, where Jewish students were obstructed from speaking or displaying Israeli flags on Israel's Independence Day by fellow council members.

A rally on April 8, called "Hands Off Al-Aqsa [Mosque]," held by several pro-Palestinian organizations in New York City. At the rally, speakers praised the Palestinian "resistance" and its "martyrs," and repeated the same chant.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19641/palestine-river-to-sea

The Chinese Communist Party's Secret Projects in the US: What Is Going On?
by Pete Hoekstra • April 27, 2023 at 5:00 am

Two Chinese companies, Gotion and CATL, are on the verge of building two new battery manufacturing facilities in Michigan. These companies were lured by billions in state and local tax incentives and infrastructure investments, and the environmental requirements buried in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

[T]he state of Michigan is making a big bet on electric vehicle (EV) technology in concert with the Chinese Communist Party. What could go wrong?

The answer to that is simple: Plenty. At a time when bipartisan members of Congress on the Select Committee on the CCP are conducting war games simulating a U.S. response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, one has to ask is this the right moment to seek more Chinese investment in the state. Especially when one of those projects is just 100 miles from where the U.S. is training Taiwanese troops to defend against a Chinese Communist invasion.

Already, Virginia, home to numerous military and intelligence facilities, has rejected one of the two projects out of national security concerns.

As... outlined in the unprecedented joint news conference by the FBI and MI-5, the threat from the Chinese Communist Party is real, dangerous and pervasive.

Another red flag is the secrecy shrouding the projects. Although the state is in the process of providing substantial sums in taxpayer money to private entities, many of the details have been covered by Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Members of Congress, state legislators, local elected officials, and state and congressional staff have been forced to sign NDAs so they can access information taxpayers and the media have been prevented from seeing. What is so secret that it requires taxpayers to be shielded from information about the projects that their dollars will fund? Local newspapers have requested information through Freedom of Information Act requests, but they have been denied.

Not only are the projects shrouded in a veil of secrecy, there are legitimate concerns about various organizations actually adhering to the Foreign Agents Reporting Act (FARA). This act requires individuals working on behalf of a foreign entity to register their activities with the Justice.... Former Ambassador Joe Cella and I have... have jointly submitted a request to the Justice Department to review specific individuals and their compliance with federal disclosure laws.

[N]ow is the time for both battery projects to be paused. It is time for legislators to engage in their fiduciary responsibility, recognize the changed environment, and reevaluate plans to spend taxpayer dollars to fund two Chinese companies, the CCP, and potentially even the Taliban and the re-emerging Islamic State. It is a new day and US taxpayer money should not be backing potential adversaries.


Two Chinese companies, Gotion and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), are on the verge of building two new battery manufacturing facilities in Michigan, lured by roughly $4 billion in economic incentives, tax benefits, and infrastructure improvements the state of Michigan is handing out. Ford Motor Company is "licensing" Chinese Communist Party technology for its plant with CATL. Pictured: Ford's CEO Jim Farley (L), Ford's Executive Chairman Bill Ford (C), and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer celebrate the announcement of the CATL plant on February 13, 2023, in Romulus, Michigan. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
In 2018, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) celebrated "Michigan-China Week" to highlight the growing economic ties between Michigan and China. At the time, Michigan already had more than 300 Chinese companies located in the state, with more than $4 billion in investment, supporting roughly 6,000 jobs. MEDC wanted to publicize this story in its bureaucratic hopes that more Chinese businesses would follow.

Michigan may be reaping the fruits of this engagement in the coming months as more Chinese money and workers are set to come to the state. Two Chinese companies, Gotion and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), are on the verge of building two new battery manufacturing facilities in Michigan. These companies were lured by billions in state and local tax incentives and infrastructure investments, and the environmental requirements buried in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19607/communist-china-michigan

Another Crisis in Spookdom
by Amir Taheri • April 23, 2023 at 5:00 am

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In other words, the overall effect of the secret reports was to confirm what everyone assumed to be true at the time. The intelligence analyst started from an already established assumption and then tried to confirm it.

Since then we have witnessed numerous examples of that bizarre method. Right to the end, Washington's Kremlin-watchers couldn't envisage the Soviet Empire falling like a house of cards. They focused on Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost, in other words, repeated what they had read in the newspapers. An avalanche of "top secret" reports was produced on individuals who were to become embarrassingly irrelevant figures in the blink of history's eye.

The same intelligence community reported Russia's saber-rattling over the Crimean Peninsula as mere gesticulation by President Vladimir Putin in the context of the power struggle in Kyiv, presumably to endorse President Barack Obama's decision not to enter a fight with the Russians. When Putin did invade and occupy the peninsula in 2014, Obama tried to weasel out of a tight corner by declaring that Russia was a "regional power" and that its actions on its own were not a US "national security concern".

The intelligence community tailored its "top secret" reports to suit Obama's naïve analysis, effusively giving Putin the green light for his second invasion of Ukrainian territory over a year ago. The same reports overestimated Russia's military power, ignoring the fact that much of its weaponry consisted of antiquated hardware inherited from the Soviet era.

The intelligence community got it right when it predicted Putin's invasion last year. But that prediction did not result in Washington decision-makers shaping policies to deal with the crisis.

Maybe decision-makers would have done better to read the newspapers, rather that the "top secret" memos they received and ignored.

Pictured: An image of Jack Teixeira, who is suspected of being behind a leak of classified US government information. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Two weeks after a massive leak of supposedly secret US government documents, the Biden administration seems to be still unable to explain what happened let alone suggest ways of avoiding a remake of the tragi-comic incident. On closer examination, this may not be surprising, as there is still no credible account of what happened when WikiLeaks published 700,000 secret documents almost 13 years ago. However, focusing on the policing aspects of these incidents may divert attention from other more pertinent issues regarding the classification of secret documents and the use made of them by decision-makers.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19591/another-crisis-in-spookdom

Issues of Concern
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali • April 23, 2023 at 5:00 am

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Hamas is an enemy [of Israel], but it is a much weaker enemy than Iran, which is determined to go ahead and develop nuclear weapons with the sole objective of destroying Israel... Hamas is extreme in its ideology, which is radical Islam. They have absolutely no desire to resolve this conflict with Israel in the ways that Western leaders hope and expect -- which is settling the conflict by accepting what we have been calling a two‑part state for a very long time. That is not the objective of Hamas. The objective of Hamas is to destroy the State of Israel.

The Palestinians are unfortunate to have, on the one hand, a leader who is corrupt and really does not care very much about average Palestinians and may even want the conflict to continue so that he can continue to cash in on international handouts from the EU, America and others; then on the other hand, there is Hamas. This terrorist deadly group, also does not care about Palestinian lives. That is where the problem lies.... Both Hamas and the PA are deeply cynical: if they wished to increase the well-being of the average Palestinian, they would pursue peace.... One has to ask if peace with Israel is in their interest....

Hamas is an enemy, but it is a much weaker enemy than Iran, which is determined to go ahead and develop a nuclear weapon with the sole objective of destroying Israel.

In terms of foreign policy, it is important to realize that the threat of radical Islam, it may have faded away from the desks of policy‑makers in the United States...but it has not gone away.... If anybody is paying attention, Islamists remain a force to be reckoned with in Africa: think of Somalia, the Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger), the Lake Chad Basin (Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger), Mozambique, and Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood and sympathetic groups are very much active on American soil, in the UK, and in many other Western countries. Their front organizations pretend to be humanitarian, charitable, educational or religious organizations. In its world view...the Brotherhood is not that different from that of violent groups such as Al‑Qaeda or ISIS. Where they differ is on the tactics to get there. Their activities are just coated in a language that is appealing to the leadership... and especially appealing to Westerners, often including support for "democracy". It is time that we expose the Muslim Brotherhood for what it is.

[A]ny human being who is suffering, regardless of their color, regardless of their geographical location, whatever language they speak, awakens your compassion, your empathy, and your sympathy. I hope that we can do that -- so an African, or an Arab, or anyone from any part of the world will feel empathy with a white person who is suffering and the other way around. That is where the message of common humanity is powerful. That is the only way to defeat these ideologues who are trying to divide us.

What we are seeing happen to women in Islamic communities in Western countries, as well as in majority-Muslim countries, is what has been happening for decades. Everyone has been looking away. There are a number of Muslim women, individuals, who were able to escape their families. The oppression really comes for these women... from their own families, from brothers, fathers, husbands, cousins, nephews.... It's just that there is this constant struggle within the West of trying to undermine the values that are the tools of emancipation and dismissing them as white supremacy, or colonialist, or ethnocentric.

Now, there are women who really want no trouble at all, they just want to emancipate themselves from this straight jacket. They want to go to school. They want to work. They want to pursue a profession of their choosing. They want to live like the average European woman or American woman -- fend for themselves and control their own destiny. Those are the women that are often regarded as abnormal by those around them. their immediate environment.... We can help them by empowering the women who want to emancipate themselves... their right to autonomy in their life.

What if you have hundreds of thousands of young men who come from a society with the opposite norms, and they come into various parts of Europe...? They just come, they are shocked, and then they act -- and people react. It is a huge problem. There have been lots of journalists, commentators, scholars who have been warning European leaders for decades about this collision of values....They have all been ignored or demonized as racists and xenophobes.

Parts of Paris, parts of Marseille are now completely locked in with this confrontation between what they call Islamist separatism, which for decades they pretended did not exist. Many French intellectuals were trying to sound the alarm for decades and were demonized. They continue to be demonized. If you look at some of the entrenched Islamist groups in France, the ideology is hostile towards the civil Republic just as the ideology of Hamas is hostile to co-existence with Israel. They reject the French Republic as much as Hamas rejects the Israeli government. They call it a parallel society. It is like having an alien state within the state.... [T]he objective of the leadership of that infrastructure is to create these parallel states.

With the Internet now, there are opportunities for women that we did not have before. Where we can connect like‑minded people with like‑minded people. It is just that there is this constant struggle within the West of trying to undermine the values that are the tools of human emancipation and dismissing them as based on white supremacy, or as colonialist or ethnocentric.

The problems we have been seeing in Europe is that the punishment and the legal frameworks -- prosecuting, sending people to prison, fines, and other corrections they have in place -- for whatever reason, do not seem to make an impression on some of the perpetrators. When I talk to men who have come to Europe, they say that what would make an impression on them is to be sent back to the country they came from. One of the reasons why, is that the families have invested so much in these young men to send them to Europe. For them to be sent back, the families are going to be met with shame and embarrassment that their child was sent back.

Also, a number of the men who are coming from Syria, Iraq, even as far as Bangladesh and Pakistan, or Somalia and Eritrea have entrenched prejudices against European women that reflect their societies of origin. They look at white women, and they see them from Hollywood, they see them in pornographic movies, and they think when they go to Europe, that is what they are going to encounter. They have an inaccurate picture. Women, they think, are going to have sex with them readily. Then the reality hits, and they see that this is not the case, then they use force and act in groups, and do not understand why they are being punished when the women are out and about. The women are in the parks. Women are going to work, they are dressed as they please. The men are very confused by that.

Now, if we take in hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims, do we sit back and say, well, you can continue to treat women as you like, it is your prerogative, it is none of our business -- even though you now want to build a future within our societies?

Do we say, there are red lines that you cannot cross, and we are going to uphold our norms and values, and particularly, our laws? For me, integration or assimilation means that you uphold those laws, and values, and norms, and that you tie credible consequences to those who refuse to abide by the laws.

Where I grew up, I was raised to believe that unless you had almost your entire body covered, you were regarded as naked. When I first encountered women in parts of Germany and the Netherlands who were in tank tops, and shorts, and mini-skirts, and out and about during the day and all hours of the night I thought this was crazy. It was a revolution; it was shocking.....

I have colleagues, professors who are terrified of publishing papers, of giving lectures, of sharing their views, for fear of being fired, canceled, shamed. It is really horrific. Many of them are just speaking the truth.


"I have colleagues, professors who are terrified of publishing papers, of giving lectures, of sharing their views, for fear of being fired, canceled, shamed. It is really horrific. Many of them are just speaking the truth." — Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Note to readers: Announcing a new series of webinars on free speech, The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Dialogues, with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and expert guests. The first one will take place this Tuesday, April 25, at 1 pm EDT/10 am PDT/6 pm CET. You can register for it here.

For more information on the webinar series, see here.

Even if you can't attend, please sign up regardless to receive a recording of the webinar and future updates on the series.

" The right to think, to speak, and to write in freedom and without fear is ultimately a more sacred thing than any religion. It matters more ...because without it all other freedoms are unattainable. How can you fight for any other freedom if you can't even speak up in defense of it?" — Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19182/issues-of-concern

Biden Administration Still Negotiating a Secret 'Deal' with Iran: As Many Nuclear Weapons as They Like?
by Majid Rafizadeh • April 22, 2023 at 5:00 am

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Nothing seems to stop the Biden administration from wanting to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran with a nuclear deal that will pave the way for the Islamist regime of Iran legally to obtain as many nuclear weapons as it likes, empower the ruling mullahs with billions of dollars, lift sanctions against their theocratic regime, allow them to rejoin the global financial system and enhance their legitimacy on the global stage.

These benefits presumably include further enabling the regime's ruthless expansion throughout the Middle East -- Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip -- and into Latin America.

"The Americans are keeping their desire to negotiate with the Islamic Republic [to revive the nuclear deal] in secret in the midst of denial and silence". — Independent Persian, February 23, 2023.

In addition, Iran, called by the US Department of State a "top sponsor of state terrorism," has been ratcheting up its presence and terror cells in Latin America while using the continent as a sanctuary.

During the Biden administration, the Iranian regime has also attempted to assassinate US officials on American soil.

Even The Washington Post pointed out that the attempted kidnappings should be a serious warning to the Biden administration: "The message for the Biden administration, which has frequently proclaimed its intention to defend pro-democracy dissidents, is that Iran and other foreign dictatorships won't shrink from launching attacks inside the United States unless deterred..."

Instead, the Biden administration remains silent and evidently still wants to reward the mullahs with the nuclear deal and it continues to see "diplomacy" -- read: appeasement -- as the only path to deal with the Iranian regime.

Nothing.... seems to be deterring the Biden administration from trying to give the Islamist regime of Iran the ultimate gift: unlimited nuclear weapons.


(Image source: iStock)
Nothing seems to stop the Biden administration from wanting to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran with a nuclear deal that will pave the way for the Islamist regime of Iran legally to obtain as many nuclear weapons as it likes, empower the ruling mullahs with billions of dollars, lift sanctions against their theocratic regime, allow them to rejoin the global financial system and enhance their legitimacy on the global stage.

These benefits presumably include further enabling the regime's ruthless expansion throughout the Middle East -- Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip -- and into Latin America.

According to the Independent Persian on February 23:

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19590/negotiating-secret-iran-nuclear-deal

Turkey: The Abandoned Iraqi and Syrian Christian Asylum Seekers
by Uzay Bulut • April 21, 2023 at 5:00 am

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Iraqi and Syrian Christian asylum seekers, stuck in Turkey for years, suffer from countless problems such as their children's lack of education, severe poverty, lack of religious liberty, lack of work permits, restricted freedom of movement, the hostility of some Muslims against their faith, and rejections of their asylum applications by Western governments.

"Although the European Union says the full amount has been allocated and more than 4 billion euros have been disbursed, the Turkish government has taken issue with the pace and manner of the payments, which have gone to refugee-serving organizations rather than government accounts." — Migration Policy Institute, April 8, 2021.

Even though Syrian and Iraqi Christian asylum seekers in Turkey face harassment, poverty and discrimination, the asylum applications of many Iraqi and Syrian Christians are rejected by Australia, Canada, the US and other Western countries. Why?

Around 22,000 Iraqi and Syrian Christian asylum seekers currently live in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. They have been exposed to genocide, terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity in their home countries. Where are the Western governments?

So, what has happened to the 6 billion euros given by the EU to Turkey so that Turkey would help refugees more? If such a huge amount of money has been granted to Turkey to provide more for refugees, why are so many refugees and asylum seekers still suffering under horrible conditions in the country? And who are these organizations referred to as "refugee-serving"? Have they taken the money, embezzled it, spent it, and it wasn't enough? The international community, including the EU, urgently needs more transparency regarding how the money has been spent and how many refugees and asylum seekers have benefited from it.

Why not issue non-refugee visas? Especially as, according to figures reportedly released by the Biden Administration, 5.5 million illegal migrants have crossed the Mexican border into the US as well as "more than 414 million lethal doses" of fentanyl just in 2022.

Currently, asylum seekers need humanitarian visas to be resettled in the West. But many Christian asylum seekers are educated or have skills, so they would be qualified to receive work permits to reside in Western countries. They hope to safely migrate for work, using their skills to provide for their families and live dignified lives.

Where are the UN, international women's organizations, the International Rescue Committee and children's rights organizations? These asylum seekers are facing extinction in their homelands, suffering in places such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and hoping someday to find safety in the West.


Iraqi and Syrian Christian asylum seekers, stuck in Turkey for years, suffer from countless problems such as their children's lack of education, severe poverty, lack of religious liberty, lack of work permits, restricted freedom of movement, the hostility of some Muslims against their faith, and rejections of their asylum applications by Western governments. Pictured: Kahramanmaras refugee camp, built to house 11,500 people from Syria, photographed on September 19, 2019 in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)
The Christians of Iraq and Syria have for decades suffered from persecution and instability caused by oppression by the Ba'ath regimes, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the outbreak of Sunni-Shiite fighting in 2006, al-Qaeda terrorism, the 2014 genocide by ISIS, ongoing Turkish airstrikes on Iraq and Syria, and in many cases, pressures and harassment at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. All this persecution has forced many of them to leave their home countries and seek asylum elsewhere.

According to a report by Open Doors:

"Iraq is home to a number of traditional Orthodox and Catholic churches, but all are seriously affected by intolerance, discrimination and persecution from local leaders, government authorities and Islamic extremist groups....In the Nineveh Plains region, church leaders have been kidnapped in the past; those speaking out against local militias or political leaders are particularly at risk."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19550/turkey-iraqi-syrian-christian-refugees

How Some Americans Support Terrorism Against Israel
by Bassam Tawil • April 20, 2023 at 5:00 am

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[F]ourteen Democratic members of the US Congress have joined the Jihad (holy war) against Israelis by urging the Biden administration to reconsider US military aid to Israel.

The Congressmen's letter ignores the dramatic increase in terror attacks against Israelis and makes no reference to the scores of innocent civilians murdered over the past year by Palestinian terrorists. The letter further ignores that Israel's counterterrorism measures, which aim to save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike, are a legitimate act of self-defense.

The Israeli measures, including raids on the homes of terrorists and confiscation of weapons and ammunition, are the direct result of a 300% increase in terror attacks over the past year... When there is no terrorism, there is no need for Israel to launch counterterrorism operations.

By stating that the US should halt military aid to Israel, the signatories of the letter signatories of the letter are in fact saying that Israel has no right to defend itself against those who are openly calling for the elimination of Israel and engaged in daily attempts to murder Jews.

When Israel uses weapons, it is with the purpose of combating terrorism and protecting the lives of its people. When Palestinians use weapons, it is always with the aim of murdering Jews.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, all Israeli Jews are "settlers" living in one big illegitimate settlement, Israel, which needs to be replaced by a 57th Muslim state...

They outspokenly consider construction everywhere in Israel a "settlement project" and all Israeli Jews "settlers."

Hamas and its patrons in Iran are openly opposed to Jews building homes not only in the West Bank and Jerusalem, but anywhere in Israel. The reason? The mullahs in Tehran -- and their proxies in Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah -- believe that the entire country of Israel has no right to exist and state that Israel should be eradicated, primarily through Jihad (holy war).

The Iranian regime and its friends want to see no country supporting Israel -- not politically, not financially, not militarily. They want to see a weak Israel that they can then rip to shreds, as they have done, and are still doing, to Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

"The U.S. State Department reports that Iran provides some $100 million a year to Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad," multiple news outlets reported last week.

Iran and its proxy terror groups are already encircling Israel. They are sitting on its southern border, in the Gaza Strip, from where Hamas and PIJ continue to fire rockets regularly at Israel. They are sitting on Israel's northern border, in Lebanon and Syria, from where Hezbollah also has a strong political and military presence.

The Congressmen's letter, however, does not make any reference to these existential threats that Israel continues to face from Iran and Palestinian and Lebanese terror groups.

The Congressmen who signed the letter claim that US aid to Israel is being used to fund abuses of Palestinians' rights is, bluntly, nothing but libels and lies. Israel's counterterrorism operations are directed solely against the terrorists and their enablers, not against the Palestinian people, most of whom are not involved in the latest spate of terror attacks.

That is why most of the Palestinians killed in these operations were not civilians but armed terrorists.

These antics [using "human shields" -- innocent people deliberately placed in harm's way during incoming fire] are part of shopworn plan to try to make Israel, when it engages in a counterterrorism operation, look bad. As the schoolyard bully put it, "It all started when he hit me back."

If the members of Congress want to find out about human rights violations, they are invited to take a look at the repressive measures taken by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip against their own people.

Where were these members of Congress when the Palestinian Authority security forces beat to death human rights activist Nizar Banat? Where were these members of Congress when Hamas recently arrested Salem al-Sabah, head of the University of Palestine?

Do the members of Congress who signed the letter have anything to say about the abuses committed by Palestinians against Palestinians? Will these Congressmen call on the US administration to halt funding to the Palestinian leaders who are abusing their own citizens?

On the same day the letter was published, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces said... "With divine grace, soon there will be nothing called the Zionist regime. The countdown for the disintegration of Zionism has begun."

Israel's ruthless enemies must be rejoicing each time they see Americans calling for punishing and imposing sanctions on the small state.

Israel and the Jews living in the land, for more than 100 years, have been under attack – since long before there ever were such political pretensions as "1948 borders" or "1967 borders."

Now, as Israelis are once again burying their dead, a group of US Congressmen, instead of standing with Israel and condemning the terrorists, have chosen to call for weakening Israel and preventing it from carrying out even its basic duty of defending itself against terrorists who murder people for the "crime" of being Jews.

The Congressional letter awards a gold medal to the terrorists: it sends the message that if you are a terrorist, the US has your back.


Pictured: Palestinian terrorists in Jenin on March 8, 2023, at the funeral of fellow terrorists who were killed the previous day when they attacked Israeli soldiers. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
As Israel continues to face daily threats and terror attacks from Iran and its militia proxies, fourteen Democratic members of the US Congress have joined the Jihad (holy war) against Israelis by urging the Biden administration to reconsider US military aid to Israel.

The appeal, included in a letter signed by Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Sen. Bernie Sanders, was made public shortly after Palestinian terrorists shot dead a Jewish mother, Lucy Dee, 48, and her two daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, as they were driving to the north of Israel to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19589/some-americans-support-terrorism

Biden Has Abandoned the Middle East to China and Russia
by Con Coughlin • April 19, 2023 at 5:00 am

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In the absence of any desire on the part of the Biden administration to support the Saudis -- for decades one of Washington's most important allies in the region -- China has moved quickly to fill the diplomatic vacuum to launch its own initiative to restore ties with Iran.

[T]he fact that the Chinese can pull off a diplomatic coup involving a country that was formerly a key ally of the US serves as a devastating indictment of the Biden administration's incompetence.

Having previously castigated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto leader, over his alleged involvement in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the Saudis' involvement in Yemen's disastrous civil war, Biden demanded that the Saudis increase oil production to ease the global shortage caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time Biden made it clear that his main policy goal in the region was to resurrect the flawed nuclear deal with Iran, a move the Saudis responded to with utter dismay.

Unsurprisingly, Biden left Riyadh empty-handed, prompting the Saudis finally to cut their losses with the White House, and look for alliances elsewhere.

This is indeed a sorry state of affairs for two countries that once prided themselves on their close ties with Washington but now, thanks to the Biden's administration's ineptitude, now find themselves seeking alliances with America's enemies.

The Biden administration may have lost interest in the Middle East, but it is not a sentiment that is shared by rival powers such as China and Russia. (Image source: iStock)
The Biden administration may have lost interest in the Middle East, but it is not a sentiment that is shared by rival powers such as China and Russia.

While U.S. President Joe Biden has shown nothing but contempt for long-standing allies in the region, both China and Moscow have been quick to exploit Washington's wilful neglect to their own advantage.

By far the most startling change to the political landscape of the Middle East has been Beijing's role in negotiating the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two countries that, until recently, were sworn enemies.

Relations have been strained between Tehran and Riyadh since the 1979 Islamic Revolution established the ayatollahs' deeply repressive regime, with Iran's clerical dictatorship regularly claiming that the Saudi royal family were unfit custodians of the two holy sites at Mecca and Medina.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19578/biden-middle-east-china

Biden Is Emboldening China to Invade Taiwan
by Gordon G. Chang • April 17, 2023 at 5:00 am

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Given the right American policies, China's regime can be deterred.

For decades, the United States has tried to manage the situation across the Taiwan Strait by not angering Beijing.

White House and administration officials, both anonymously and on the record, contradicted the president [that the U.S. would send troops if there was an attack] on all four occasions. The Chinese certainly do not see firmness in the Biden administration but disarray.

This disarray has almost certainly emboldened Beijing to act even more aggressively.

So, what must Biden do at this late date to reestablish deterrence?

Washington should offer to recognize Taipei as the legitimate government of "Taiwan" if it wants America to do so, offer a mutual defense treaty to Taipei, on an emergency basis begin moving weapons and supplies to the island, and base troops there as a tripwire.

Many will say these steps—similar ones on the Korean peninsula have worked—are risky.

Three decades of misguided Taiwan and China policies have left Washington with no risk-free options.... [T]he most risky and dangerous option is to continue with policies that created this situation in the first place.

Beijing's long delay in reporting Ladakh [India] casualties suggests the Communist Party would be hesitant to fight to take Taiwan. China, in short, can be deterred by the prospect of massive casualties—or maybe even just a few of them.

Ultimately, the Biden administration, to establish deterrence, must possess the forces in the field to inflict casualties on China. "[T]he United States has no choice but to initiate a crash program to rebuild a regional/tactical nuclear deterrent, from nuclear artillery shells to short-, medium-, and intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles," Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center told Gatestone.

In the Cold War in Europe, America deterred a militarily superior Soviet Union with its announced willingness to use nuclear weapons, and Ronald Reagan's deployment of the nuclear-tipped Pershing II missile held back an aggressive Moscow. Biden, however, has made it clear that he abhors nukes.

Biden, therefore, better come up with a plan quick.

The Eastern Theater Command of China's People's Liberation Army just declared it is now "ready to fight." Biden, on the other hand, does not appear ready to reestablish deterrence in an era of Chinese aggression and belligerence.


Three decades of misguided Taiwan and China policies have left Washington with no risk-free options. The most risky and dangerous option is to continue with policies that created this situation in the first place. (Image source: iStock)
China just substantially reduced a three-day no-fly zone it had declared northeast of Taiwan. The zone, originally scheduled to run from the 16th to the 18th of this month, was scaled back to just 27 minutes on the 16th.

China's Maritime Safety Administration said the closure was due to "aerospace activities." Apparently, the initial stage of a Chinese space launch vehicle will be falling back to earth at that time.

Taiwan said it had objected to the duration of the Chinese zone as initially announced. Others, including aviation authorities, complained to Beijing as well.

The substantial reduction in duration shows that China, despite protestations to the contrary, reacts to pressure. Can the international community pressure China into abandoning its push to absorb the Republic of China, as the island is formally known?

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19581/china-taiwan-invasion-biden

Why Don't Americans Trust the Biden Administration on Iran?
by Majid Rafizadeh • April 18, 2023 at 5:00 am

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An overwhelming majority of American people reportedly do not trust President Joe Biden on Iran's nuclear deal.

"The Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime." — Senator Ted Cruz, The Washington Free Beacon, February 3, 2023.

"[I]n a timely question in the McLaughlin & Associates survey, 63% of Americans believe that providing Iran a path to building the weapons is a bigger threat to the United States than Russia's invasion of Ukraine (at 21%)." — Washington Examiner, March 4, 2022.

One reason behind this mistrust is likely related to the notion that the Biden Administration has been caught so often misleading the Congress and the American public.

"We are deeply concerned about multiple provisions that reportedly may be contained in the final language of any agreement with the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism." — US House Representatives, mostly Democrats, to the Biden Administration, September 1, 2022.

The major problem is that any nuclear deal would most likely include the previous sunset clauses, which set a firm expiration date for restricting Iran's nuclear program, after which the country's leaders would be free to spin centrifuges and enrich uranium at any level they wished.

Finally, with all the inconsistencies, lies and concessions, it is no wonder why majority of Americans do not trust Biden on Iran. The US Congress and the American public have the right to be informed about this regime that has been killing Americans and taking hostages for almost four decades, not to mention how brutally it treats its own people, or uses its proxies in the Middle East to try to obliterate its perceived enemies. Is the Biden Administration actually about to let a regime such as this acquire nuclear weapons?


The US Congress and the American public have the right to be informed about the Iranian regime, which has been killing Americans and taking hostages for almost four decades, not to mention how brutally it treats its own people, or uses its proxies in the Middle East to try to obliterate its perceived enemies. Is the Biden Administration actually about to let a regime such as this acquire nuclear weapons? (Image source: iStock)
An overwhelming majority of American people reportedly do not trust President Joe Biden on Iran's nuclear deal. After the Biden administration recently issued sanctions waivers allowing Iran and Russia to build nuclear infrastructure, Senator Ted Cruz pointed out, correctly, that "the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime."

According to the Washington Examiner:

"America does not trust President Joe Biden's effort to negotiate a secret new Iran nuclear deal, fears it more than Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and would support a military strike on the enemy nation's facilities, according to an expansive new survey provided to Secrets.

"On the issue of having confidence in Biden's talks, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 52% said they don't "trust" the administration to cut a deal that will prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Just 32% do.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19585/biden-iran-trust

Climate Change Alarmism Is a Lie that Must Stop
by Drieu Godefridi • April 14, 2023 at 5:00 am

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With China opening an average of two new coal-fired power plants a week and India apparently more determined than ever to continue its development curve, as is the entire non-Western world, global CO2 emissions will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. There is not yet any available, inexpensive alternative to fossil fuels.

This increase in global CO2 emissions would be inevitable even if the West persists in its efforts to reduce emissions: Western reductions are -- and will continue to be -- more than offset by the increase in emissions in the rest of the world.

"Setting an example" to regimes and countries around the world that often hate the West simply enables those countries to grow stronger, while the countries setting the example weaken themselves by committing themselves to severe economic disadvantage -- while having virtually no net effect on the climate.... Meanwhile, as they grow, they would doubtless be extremely happy to see the West hobbling itself.

The climate knows neither Europe nor Asia. Nothing that Europe and the West accomplish in this field has the slightest meaning if reduction of emissions is not global.

In its fifth and latest (full) report, the IPCC estimates that a 3° warming -- twice the Paris Agreement target -- would reduce global economic growth by 3%. Three per cent a year? No, 3% by the year 2100. This amount represents a reduction in global economic growth of 0.04% a year, a number that is barely measurable statistically. That is in the IPCC's pessimistic scenario. In the more optimistic scenarios, the economic impact of warming will be virtually non-existent.

[A]ccording to the data of the IPCC itself, the economic growth and well-being in Europe and the United States are more threatened by extremist and delusional environmental policies than by global warming.

"The EU and its Member States have focused on climate policy, mobilizing enormous financial and human resources, thereby reducing the resources necessary for the development of its industry and weakening the security of energy supply." — Jean-Pierre Schaeken Willemaers, Thomas More Institute, president of the Energy, Climate and Environment Cluster, science-climat-energie.be, February 22, 2023.

Future generations will judge us harshly for allowing extremist environmental activism to enfeeble us in the West, while a hostile East – China, Russia, North Korea and Iran -- continue to advance their industrial and military capabilities. Instead of trying to fight CO2 emissions, we would do better to invest in researching ways to make reliable supplies of energy both cleaner and less expensive so that everyone -- by choice -- will rush to use them.

Global emissions and the accumulated stock of CO2 in the atmosphere will, unfortunately, not be decreasing any time soon, but that is no reason to let the global standing of the West decrease instead.

Since 1992, global CO2 emissions have continued to rise, with China opening an average of two new coal-fired power plants a week. Do we really believe that China, Russia and India will let the West dictate their economic conditions and CO2 emissions? Meanwhile, as they grow, they are doubtless happy to see the West hobbling itself by persisting in efforts to reduce its own emissions. Pictured: A steel mill with a coal-fired generator in Hebei, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Since 1992 and the Earth Summit in Rio, the West has been living under the spell of a "climate emergency" that is repeatedly renewed but never happened. Since then, the West – and only the West -- has set itself the main goal of reducing CO2 emissions (and other greenhouse gases, implied in the rest of this article).

It is now 2023, time for a review:

1. CO2 emissions have not stopped growing and will continue to grow.

Since 1992, global CO2 emissions have continued to rise. With China opening an average of two new coal-fired power plants a week and India apparently more determined than ever to continue its development curve, as is the entire non-Western world, global CO2 emissions will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. There is not yet any available, inexpensive alternative to fossil fuels.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19580/climate-change-alarmism

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19583/persecution-of-christians-march
'Remove Your Church': The Persecution of Christians, March 2023
by Raymond Ibrahim • April 16, 2023 at 5:00 am

"You should remove your church, because we cannot watch our members turning to Christianity and keep quiet." — Sheikh Shafi Mukama "ordering the father and son to leave [their church] in 2022, while other from the mob kept watch outside," morningstarnews.org, March 22, 2023, Uganda.

"Requirements for obtaining permission to build houses of worship in Indonesia are onerous and hamper the establishment of such buildings for Christians and other faiths.... [T]hey are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — morningstarnews.org, March 24, 2023, Indonesia.

"According to the UN, ongoing insecurity in eastern DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] has displaced 300,000 from their homes in February alone." — opendoors.ph, March 22, 2023, Democratic Republic of Congo.

"It is a massacre like...killing animals." — A key church minister, persecution.org, International Christian Concern March 20, 2023, Democratic Republic of Congo.

"For leaving Islam to accept Christ," say a Mar. 19 report, "a young mother... was chained in her home, subjected to electrical shocks at a psychiatric hospital and has lost her children." .... [H]er problems began, chiefly from her Muslim husband, who "tried to force her to renounce her faith by chaining her legs and tightening the chains.... [H]er parents and siblings are all Muslims [a local source said], who believe she is suffering mental illness for believing in Christ." — morningstarnews, March 19, 2023, Sudan.

"[S]ince the start of the war, the Christian population has reportedly diminished by more than 80 per cent, from an estimated 1.5 million to 250,000... More than 350 churches have been destroyed in attacks carried out by terrorists during this period.... On the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, therefore, I want to raise awareness about the country's Christians, in the hope that the international community acts to prevent their tragedy from continuing before it is too late." — Report by Natasha Dado, thenationalnews.com, April 16, 2023.

"The rampant trafficking of Coptic women and girls is a direct violation of their most basic rights.... The crimes committed against these women must be urgently addressed by the Egyptian government, ending impunity for kidnappers, their accomplices, and police who refuse to perform their duties.... The large majority of these women are never reunited with their families or friends because police response in Egypt is dismissive and corrupt. There are countless families who report that police have either been complicit in the kidnapping or at the very least bribed into silence." — copticsolidarity.org, March 16, 2023 and September 10, 2020, Egypt.

"For Christians in the Middle East, the Christmas season is not 'the most beautiful time of the year' as in the popular Andy Williams song. On the contrary, after two millennia of Christian presence, the Middle East is slowly but surely being cleansed of Christians.... It is striking that the Western powers, which have a majority Christian population, are not concerned at all by such a disaster." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People," eurasiareview.com, April 15,2023.

"The only country in the region with a growing Christian community is Israel, where the Christian population grew by 1.4% in 2020.... Christians in Israel benefit from the only functioning democracy in the Middle East... According to the Israel Bureau of Statistics from December 2021, 84% of Christians surveyed said they were satisfied with life in Israel." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People."

The report further makes clear that Christians suffer, not just from "terrorists," but Muslim state and society: "The legal political and social order in many Arab countries is a source of discrimination....[T]he system is hostile towards all non-Muslims, especially Christians. Christians are often not second or third but tenth class citizens, they suffer discrimination in the educational system, in the workplace, the community tries to ostracize them." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People."


According to a recent report titled, "Gaza Churches Struggle to Survive", "Gaza's Christian community is struggling to survive after years of steady decline in numbers. Only an estimated 1,000 Christian remain in the Gaza Strip, an area of more than 2 million residents." Pictured: St. Barfirious Church in Gaza City on September 15, 2006, shortly after terrorists attacked it with a hand grenade. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of March 2023:

Muslim Attacks on Churches

France: On Mar. 16, a man, previously "on file for his Islamist radicalization," stormed the Saint-Hippolyte Church in Paris and disrupted its service. He also stole the church's six foot tall Plexiglas cross, which had supported a 400-year-old wooden Christ. It was later found nearby, said police, "smashed into many pieces." The man was "taken to the psychiatric infirmary of the Paris police headquarters, his condition not being considered compatible with his police custody."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19583/persecution-of-christians-march

China Trashing the Global Environment: 'There Is No Fish in the Waters'
by Robert Williams • April 15, 2023 at 5:00 am

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"Risks to marine habitats are most prominent in Caribbean island nations, such as the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, as well as coastal waters across Africa, most notably along Western and Central African coastlines. In the Bahamas, Angola and Mozambique, more than 2,000 km2 of marine habitats face high impact risks." — bu.edu, December 6, 2022

"Across Angola, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, more than 50,000 square kilometers of marine habitats are "facing low but non-negligible risks from nearby projects." — bu.edu, December 6, 2022

Ports built or financed by the Chinese, the study found, pose the greatest risks to marine habitats; the risks remain high even up to 30 kilometers from the port.

China's overseas infrastructure projects are not the only ones ruining marine habitats. China's enormous fishing fleet is simultaneously contributing not only to the severe devastation of marine ecosystems but also to the destruction of the livelihoods of local fishermen.

Chinese fishing boats are destroying the livelihoods of West African fishing communities on the West African coast. Due to illegal Chinese fishing, they could be losing more than $2 billion each year.

In Ghana... illegal fishing boats use Ghanaian flags, but, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation, 90% of those boats belong to Chinese owners.

"There is no fish in the waters. We used to catch up to 90 trays of sardinella fish a day and now we barely get five trays a day." — Dembo Touray, fisherman Bakau, Gambia's largest fishing community, aa.com.tr, 2020.

Even though, in 2019, Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged that the BRI would become "green and sustainable," he did not say when.

"China says it will follow environmental guidelines, but history has shown these protections are nonexistent." — William Laurance, distinguished research professor of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, The Guardian, September 20, 2021

Additionally, China already mines 70% of all rare earth materials, a situation that has made the world virtually dependent on it. The future of the African continent's environment, in short, looks anything but sustainable.


China's overseas infrastructure projects present high-impact risks to the environment. The government in Sierra Leone recently sold off to China 250 acres of protected rainforest and beach land -- an ecotourism spot with rare and endangered marine species. Pictured: Tokeh Beach in Sierra Leone, near Western Area Peninsula National Park, part of which has been sold off to China, with critics calling that move a "catastrophic human and ecological disaster". (Photo by Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)
China's overseas infrastructure projects present high-impact risks to the environment, a new study has found.

The report -- conducted by researchers from the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, the University of Queensland, the University of California Santa Barbara, and Colorado State University -- focused on the risks to coastal and marine ecological systems posed by 114 of China's overseas development projects between the years 2008-2019. According to the document, those 114 projects represent only 20% of all Chinese development finance projects in that time period, meaning that the results of the study are probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19554/china-trashing-environment

What Is Really Happening at Jerusalem's Holy Sites?
by Bassam Tawil • April 13, 2023 at 5:00 am

[T]ens of thousands of Muslims from Israel and the West Bank were able to attend prayers at the mosque, especially on Fridays, in the first two weeks of Ramadan. That is until a group of extremist Muslims decided to turn the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound into a scene of anarchy and lawlessness, violating the sanctity of the holy site and endangering the lives of the remaining peaceful worshippers who came to the holy site with the sole purpose of praying and not engaging in any acts of violence.

These extremists, some wearing masks, seemingly did not come to pray. They came, on the face of it, with the aim of rioting and causing disorder. They came with stones, fireworks, wood planks and iron rods. That is not what Muslim worshippers usually bring to a mosque. They prevented worshippers from leaving the mosque. Their intention was, to all appearances, to create a violent riot against Jewish visitors and the police. In addition, they desecrated the mosque by smuggling fireworks, clubs and stones into the mosque and barricading themselves inside it using iron rods and furniture among other objects.

When the Israeli police moved to evict the agitators, Israel found itself under attack from a number of countries, as well as many in the Western mainstream media, for "assaulting peaceful worshippers" and sending its troops to "storm" one of Islam's holiest sites.

Ironically, Israel is being accused of "obstructing" Muslims' access to the mosque at a time when -- thanks to Israel's hundreds of cost-free coaches that bus Muslims to Jerusalem during Ramadan from all over Israel -- a record number of 200,000 worshippers attended the most recent Friday prayer.

These figures were not provided by the Israeli authorities, but by the Jordanian-controlled Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

The latest tensions began when a few hundred extremists barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque after evening prayers. The instigators claimed that they had decided to spend the night inside the mosque to prevent Jews from "storming" the compound. This claim was totally false: no Jew was planning to set foot inside the mosque.

Jews have, for the past few years, been conducting peaceful outdoor tours of the Temple Mount compound, which is also the holiest site for Jews.

There is no law prohibiting non-Muslims, including Jews, from touring the site. In fact, the Islamic religious authorities have long welcomed non-Muslims as visitors at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas and other Muslim figures, such as his prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, continue to deny any Jewish religious and historical connection to Jerusalem in particular and Israel in general, despite massive archeological and archival evidence to the contrary. This includes the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus Flavius, and even the Qur'an, which mentions the presence of the Jews and Moses in the "Holy Land" multiple times (eg: 17:104; 2:47-48; 9:30; 2:83; 3:110; 3:199; 7:159; 2:62; 22:40; 5:5; 7:145).

Since Abbas's false -- actually, slanderous - accusation ["The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they (Jews) have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We salute every drop spilled for the sake of Jerusalem."], dozens of Jews have been murdered in various terror attacks, including stabbings, car-rammings, shootings and bombings, under the pretext of defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque from Jewish "aggression."

If there is any violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, it comes from Muslims who resort to verbal and physical abuse against the Jewish visitors and police officers accompanying them. The Muslims have even set up groups of men and women called Murabitun ("defenders of the faith") as part of an effort to harass and intimidate Jews who visit the Temple Mount.

The full responsibility for the latest tensions between Israel and the Palestinians lies solely on the Muslims who hijacked Ramadan, evidently to incite violence and spew hatred against Israel and Jews.

By allowing these violent extremists to barricade themselves inside the mosque, the Islamic Waqf Department is acting against its own instructions. On March 21, the Islamic Waqf Department issued a directive in which it stated that Muslims should not stay overnight at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This was agreed to during the recent Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh summits between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as by Jordan and Egypt....

Those who are desecrating the mosque are the people hiding inside it and attacking police officers with fireworks and rocks. Those who are desecrating the mosque are the people who damaged the interior of the mosque by using fireworks as weapons.

By initiating the latest tensions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Palestinian extremists are seeking to rally the world against Israel by depicting it as an oppressive state that has no respect for Islamic holy sites. These instigators are hoping to drag Israel into a military confrontation with other Arabs and Muslims, especially in neighboring Syria and Lebanon, from where Palestinians have fired rockets at Israel in the past few days.

These extremists do not hide their affiliation with Hamas and other Iran terror proxies such as Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran's mullahs say they want to see Israel "wiped off the map." So do Iran's proxies in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

The Palestinians who are desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem are inspired and empowered by Iran's mullahs. The Iranian regime does not care if the mosque is vandalized or burned down by Palestinian terrorists: it knows that many in the international community will continue to blame Israel, and exonerate those who declare Jihad (holy war) on Israel and the Jews.

The mainstream media in the West -- who spout misinformation and outright lies about what is really taking place at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound -- are fully complicit in this naked Jihad to wipe out the Jews.


Those who are desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque are the people hiding inside it and attacking police officers with fireworks and rocks, and who damaged the interior of the mosque by using fireworks as weapons. "The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. (Image source: MEMRI)
Since the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on March 22, Israeli authorities have taken a series of measures to enable free access for Muslim worshippers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), in Jerusalem.

The measures include providing free-of-charge shuttle services for the worshippers, as well as sealing off several main streets in Jerusalem to traffic so that the Muslims will be able to enter and exit the city without delay.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19579/jerusalem-holy-sites

Intelligence Leaks and the Consequences of Israel's Resistance Coup
by Jonathan S. Tobin • April 13, 2023 at 4:00 am

What the demonstrators are attempting is — despite their virtue-signaling about their devotion to democracy, and venting their fears about Netanyahu and his allies installing a dictatorship — nothing less than an anti-democratic coup of their own.

President Joe Biden is supporting their efforts for reasons of his own, which have to do with Washington's desire for a weaker Israeli government that won't make trouble about appeasing Iran.

The truth is that those... who are cheerleading for the protests, are not primarily interested in preserving the unchecked power of the judicial establishment that is essentially anti-democratic. What they want is to overturn the results of the last election, and somehow ensure that the nationalist and religious voters who gave Netanyahu a clear Knesset majority are essentially disenfranchised.

Israel's liberal establishment fears that the leftist parties that represent its interests can never win another election, and so they have done everything they can to undermine Netanyahu with protests akin to the color revolutions that sought regime change in the former Soviet Union.

Having succeeded in creating chaos, they now have the chutzpah to blame Netanyahu for the dangers they have brought about that are undoubtedly harming Israel's security as well as sowing dissension with its allies.

Having convinced themselves that the lies about Netanyahu threatening democracy are true, the Israeli left and its foreign enablers may have rendered themselves insensible to the potentially catastrophic repercussions of their efforts.


Having convinced themselves that the lies about Netanyahu threatening democracy are true, the Israeli left and its foreign enablers may have rendered themselves insensible to the potentially catastrophic repercussions of their efforts. Pictured: Anti-government protesters burn pictures of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 27, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Israel's government was doing damage control this past weekend and, for a change, it wasn't about its losing battle to pass judicial reform, dissension over the surge in Palestinian terrorism or the threat from Iran. Or at least, not directly. Instead, it was put in the unenviable position of having to deny a report published in The New York Times and widely reported elsewhere about leaks from secret Pentagon documents detailing the U.S. intelligence activity.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19575/intelligence-leaks-israel-coup

Central Bank Digital Currencies: Funny Money That Will Destroy What Is Left of Private Property, Free Markets, and Personal Liberty
by J.B. Shurk • April 12, 2023 at 5:00 am

[E]ven when you have followed every law to the letter and paid every fee to the cent, there is still no guarantee that government agents will not later invoke eminent domain laws to swipe what you own because they believe they can use your private property more fruitfully for the "public good" – and, since Kelo v. New London, even for someone else's private good. So much for private ownership.

Competition, in theory, forces markets to naturally discard bad and expensive products, while keeping the prices of the best products low.... In practice, however, mature students of capitalism understand that entrepreneurs are never in search of markets for competition but rather conditions for maintaining monopoly.

The end result is that capitalists are always in pursuit of ways in which they may take advantage of laws and regulations, specialized knowledge, government contracts, or other exclusionary mechanisms to restrict potential competitors from ever entering the market.

The usefulness of money over traditional bartering for goods and services comes from its three chief functions providing (1) a unit of account, (2) a store of value, and (3) a medium of exchange.

[O]ver the last century and a half, the important steps have all been the same: First, some form of paper money is introduced and backed by the government's promise to pay the holder of each note a fixed sum in gold or silver. Next, the introduction of a private central bank comes into existence holding a de facto monopoly power to print paper money according to its best judgment for maintaining a healthy national economy. Finally, the gold or silver backing of those paper money currencies is revoked.

[G]overnments... spend money like drunken sailors precisely because central banks right across the street will buy up their debt and facilitate the printing of more money. How could politicians object to an arrangement that allows them to spend recklessly without any normal free market consequences?

Now with the central banks printing money and reckless government spending pushing Western economic systems to the brink, a new kind of financial hocus-pocus has been proposed: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

If governments and central banks control the creation, distribution, and exchange of virtual money, whatever remains of free markets will disappear. If governments and central banks monitor every transaction between consumers and producers, then all industries will be subjugated to the centralized command of the State. If governments and central banks assert the legal power to determine who may store value, how much value may be personally stored, and how long that value will be permitted to last, then whatever remains of private property will cease to exist. If governments and central banks maintain a digital monopoly over the only legalized forms of money, then they may redistribute wealth or penalize personal behavior without regard for individual rights or limits to their control.

No doubt propaganda campaigns will cloak this oppressive monitoring in the West's own "politically correct" language of fighting "hate" or "racism" or "climate change" or the next COVID-like scare, but the West's system of control over its citizens will be no different from the Chinese communist version: Individuals will have their digital wealth confiscated or replenished according to whether their behavior conforms to the strictures of the State.

[A]n overhaul of the financial system and a transition to mandated CBDCs threaten what remains of Westerners' personal liberties.

[T]hose who value liberty know that personal ownership and the unfettered exchange of goods, services, and ideas remain the bedrock of those free nations that refuse to be enslaved.

(Image source: iStock)
During the Cold War, the East-West divide was commonly portrayed as pitting communism against capitalism. The Soviet Union, its satellites, and allies operated command economies in which centralized authorities directed the allocation of resources, agricultural production, and industrial manufacturing of the State. The United States and the Western Bloc championed liberal democratic norms and free markets. That division, of course, was always too simplistic. Not only did the US support third-world dictatorships when doing so would produce strategic advantages against the USSR, but also the demarcation between free and controlled markets was never so plainly cut-and-dried.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19553/central-bank-digital-currencies

Why Palestinians Cannot Resume Peace Talks with Israel
by Bassam Tawil • April 11, 2023 at 5:00 am
Once a Palestinian leader makes such a serious (and false) allegation against Jews [such as "violent storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque"], he is telling the Arabs and Muslims that the Jews... should therefore be fought against, not welcomed as peace partners.

If you tell your people (again, falsely) that the Israelis are perpetrating "war crimes," "desecrating mosques" and "stealing land," what will the Palestinians think of you when they see you sitting with an Israeli? They will denounce you as a "traitor" and call for your death.

By describing the Jews as "colonizers," [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad] Shtayyeh is seeking to send a message that the Jews have no religious or historical connection to their homeland, Israel.

In the eyes of Shtayyeh and many Palestinians, all Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are "colonizers" and "settlers." These Palestinians see no difference between a Jew living in a Jewish community in the West Bank and a Jew living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. For them, all Jews are foreigners who have no connection whatsoever to Israel and Jewish holy sites and no right ever to live there. Period.

Palestinian leaders such as Shtayyeh are straightforwardly saying that they see Israel as one big illegal settlement that must be eradicated... [and not] as a place for anyone other than Muslims.

[C]ontrary to the false claim made by Shtayyeh and other Palestinian leaders, the Jews who visit the holy site have never set foot inside the al-Aqsa Mosque.

One of those who have failed to call out the Palestinians for their antisemitism and lies is US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Palestinians and Israelis alike are experiencing growing insecurity, growing fear in their homes, in their communities, in their places of worship," Blinken argued.

If the Palestinians are "experiencing growing insecurity," it is because they are enabling terrorists to operate freely against Israel within their own communities. If the Palestinians want to live in their homes in security and without fear, they could stop terrorists from planning and executing terror attacks against Israel. If the Palestinians want to feel safe in their worship places, they could stop attacking and harassing Jews....

The Israeli army does not send its soldiers to Palestinian cities for fun. The only reason Israeli troops enter Palestinian cities and towns is to arrest terrorists or foil terror attacks that are being planned.

The Israeli security forces are actually forced to launch these counterterrorism operations because the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, are not fulfilling their obligations under the terms of their agreements with Israel to prevent and combat terrorism.

Instead, Abbas and the Palestinian leadership continue to glorify terrorists and to reward them and their families financially through the infamous "Pay-for-Slay" program. These are payments for killing Jews – like Murder, Inc.

In a place such as the West Bank that has lived off handouts from Europe, the US, Qatar and Iran, and where the Palestinian Authority never bothered to build any kind of industrial or self-sustaining economic base, paying people to murder Jews has, in a poor region, become a booming jobs program.

Every day, every Jew in Israel literally walks around with a bounty on his or her head. If you are a Jew in Israel, every day is "hunting season."

In the world of Palestinian leaders, a terrorist is entitled to murder or wound Jews, but when the Jews manage to foil the attack or kill the terrorist, the Jews should be condemned for perpetrating "crimes" and "violating international law."

What is more bizarre is that Blinken, who did not utter a word to refute the lies coming out of Abbas's mouth, instead chose to praise the Palestinian leader: "I also appreciate, Mr. President, your consistent and resolute stance against terrorism."

For the Biden Administration, a Palestinian leader who glorifies terrorists as "heroes and martyrs" and pays their families monthly salaries deserves praise for his "stance against terrorism." If this US position was not so dangerous, it would be a sad joke.

If the Biden administration wants to understand why Palestinian leaders cannot resume any "peace process" with Israel, Blinken and the State Department would be advised to listen to the anti-Israel statements and lies of Abbas and Shtayyeh. These lies include charges that Israel is committing "war crimes," "extra-judicial killings," "ethnic cleansing," and "apartheid."

As long as Palestinian leaders continue to incite violence against Israel and Jews, these leaders will never return to any negotiating table with Israel.

Naïve Americans and gullible Europeans keep giving these leaders every incentive to continue their program of "Murder, Inc." by rewarding them with "free" money for terrorism -- with no strings attached. Under those terms, who wouldn't continue killing Jews -- or anyone? It is a gold mine.

Finally, these leaders might simply find it more comfortable to perpetuate the drama of the "cause" rather than the anonymous, less-than-heroic tedium of running a state. Unless, of course, that state could entail driving out the Jews.


By describing the Jews as "colonizers," Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad] Shtayyeh is seeking to send a message that the Jews have no religious or historical connection to their homeland, Israel. In the eyes of Shtayyeh and many Palestinians, all Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are "colonizers" and "settlers." Pictured: Shtayyeh speaks at a meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 18, 2023. (Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images)
As the Biden Administration continues to state its commitment to a "two-state negotiated solution" between the Palestinians and Israel, Palestinian leaders are pursuing their campaign to vilify Israel and demonize Jews. This campaign, which is manifest mostly in the rhetoric of the leaders and the Palestinian media, mosques and schools, has made it impossible – not to mention personally dangerous – for any Palestinian leader to seek a negotiated and peaceful settlement with Israel.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19574/palestinians-israel-peace-talks

"Does This Compromise President Biden?"
by Peter Schweizer • April 9, 2023 at 5:00 am

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The notion that a declining power like Russia, which has domestic problems, a shrinking economy, a shrinking demographic base, is somehow a bigger threat than China is laughable. It is indicative of a larger issue, which is that Biden essentially has a soft spot for Beijing. The question, of course, is why?

This is a commercial relationship that not only has made the Bidens money. It has advanced the strategic and military interests of the Chinese government itself.

The first one is a private equity arrangement or deal that Hunter Biden has with the Chinese government itself. This is a deal that began and was finalized in December of 2013. It led to the creation of something called Bohai Harvest RST or BHR Partners.... the Chinese government poured in a billion dollars. They later expanded that to a-billion-and-a-half dollars.... One of the partnering firms that created BHR was Hunter Biden's firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Hunter Biden was put on the board of directors of BHR Partners.... What is astonishing about this is, first of all, that the Chinese government funded this venture. Again, these are not individual Chinese companies. This is Chinese government money.

In 2017, his lawyers admitted that he [Hunter Biden] also took a personal stake. In addition to the firm that he owned part of, he took a personal stake in these deals. That is deal number one. Then there is deal number two with the Chinese government. This involves a real estate firm called Rosemont Real Estate, of which Hunter Biden was a co‑founder.

Rosemont then becomes Gemini Rosemont Realty. The Chinese government is later to put in more than $100 million in cash. They publicly say that they are going to put billions of dollars of equity into this entity to make it even more successful. Here you have two large deals.

When you look at what that private equity firm does, the first thing they do is they become an anchor investor in a Chinese firm called China General Nuclear (CGN). Why is this interesting? This is a nuclear energy firm that about eight months after Hunter Biden's BHR becomes an anchor investor, they are charged by the FBI in the United States. That firm was stealing nuclear secrets in the United States.

In particular, CGN is trying to gain technologies related to the small nuclear reactors that are put on submarines, which provide a huge military advantage to the United States.

Another acquisition they make is that Hunter Biden's BHR firm buys half of a company called Henniges in Michigan -- and another Chinese entity buys the other half. That other half is bought by AVIC, which is the Chinese state‑owned aviation military contractor. AVIC builds all the military aircraft for the Chinese military.

What I think is important about the Biden story is not simply the fact that the Biden family made money because of the Chinese military and that Joe Biden speaks very kindly about the Chinese since those deals have gone down, but also that the Biden family involving the son of the vice president directly benefit the Chinese military.

China is a power that has demonstrated over the last decade that they want, by 2025, to supplant the United States as the major economic power in the world. Then by 2030, they want to match the United States militarily.

The Chinese government has also spoken openly about their desire to upturn and change the global order for their benefit. What we have in the Biden family is a family that has become wealthy by enabling, helping, aiding and abetting the Chinese in doing exactly that.

In terms of Hunter Biden doing nothing wrong, it does not seem that there has been anything illegal. I have always contended that the problem in Washington DC is that some of the worst crimes or worst acts of corruption are done by people who engage in legal behavior. In Washington DC, the political class gets to make their own rules. They get to rig the game, as it were, to ensure that the real lucrative stuff that is corrupt -- and should be illegal -- is the very stuff that they engage in.

Hunter Biden has stepped off the board of directors of BHR. Here is the problem: he still retains his equity stake with this Chinese firm. He still has other deals that he conducted with the Chinese from which he benefited.

The Biden team has lied repeatedly. I can go into greater detail.... It has been subterfuge from the beginning. They need to be called out on it..... The American people understand if somebody's giving you a sweetheart deal, particularly an actor like China... without getting something in return. They are not that stupid.

The problem is the way that rules are written in Washington DC, they are written by the political class themselves. They carve out certain things.... If [Biden] gets a $250 campaign contribution from a GE executive, it is disclosed by the FEC.... If his adult son flying on Air Force Two, clearly close with the vice president, strikes a series of deals with a foreign government that are lucrative and beneficial to him, there is no requirement for disclosure -- which, to me, is shocking. One of the things that has to change is that we need greater transparency.

The great gold mine that they have discovered are these foreign entities. With Hunter Biden, you have these deals in China. You also have the deal in Ukraine that everybody's familiar with.... [Hunter Biden] is given a million dollars a year by a company even though he has no background in Ukraine and no background in energy. Everybody knows what is going on. Unfortunately, it is legal.

There ought to at minimum be a requirement that you disclose any foreign dealings involving the family members of politicians, Republican, Democrat, executive branch, legislative branch. That would be very, very helpful. The way you discuss this and you explain this to people is: It is not a question about what is legal. There are lots of things that are legal in Washington that are highly corrupt. The key thing is, does this compromise Joe Biden?... Has he done favors for that foreign power?

One of the things that the great Roger Robinson has been working on.... He is looking into the fact that in 2013, the Obama administration signed a letter which said that the Chinese companies listed in the New York Stock Exchange did not have to conform to Sarbanes‑Oxley auditing and some of the other requirements that US and other foreign firms do. It is quite a cutout for the Chinese.

The question about blackmail, to be blunt about it, is, are they going to need to blackmail Joe Biden? Joe Biden's posture towards China is incredibly soft.

[T]here has been a complete lack of curiosity by the media, and even, as we have seen, suppression.

Something may emerge but I am not sure there is something that they want that he is not already prepared to give them.


The Chinese government has spoken openly about their desire to upturn and change the global order for their benefit. What we have in the Biden family is a family that has become wealthy by enabling, helping, aiding and abetting the Chinese in doing exactly that. Pictured: US President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, NY on February 4, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
China is a rival power. They are supplanting the United States on the global stage, both in terms of their economic capability and in terms of their military capability.

They also talk openly about wanting to reorient the world -- to move it away from an American‑led Western coalition. They want to create something very different, and everybody essentially recognizes that, with the exception, it seems, of President Joe Biden.

Now, that is a pretty bold statement. If you look at Biden, what he has said publicly and some of the actions he has taken, he is on an island by himself.

Biden repeatedly says, "China is not a threat. We should welcome the rise of China. It is good not only for China but good for the United States that China is becoming more powerful. The fact is that they are not a threat to us."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19539/does-this-compromise-biden

Türkiye: Waiting for Spring
by Amir Taheri • April 9, 2023 at 4:00 am

The man who faces the electorate on May 14 [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] could be seen as one who has made more enemies for Türkiye than anyone since the siege of Vienna. He has upset NATO allies by flirting with Putin and blocking Sweden's membership of the alliance. Once regarded as a national goal, joining the European Union is now as likely as a snowball's chance in hell. Erdogan has also antagonized Israel, once a valued friend, in the hope of pleasing the mullahs of Tehran. Yet he has also angered the same mullahs by helping the former Soviet Azerbaijan Republic in its war with Armenia, which is backed by Iran. Erdogan's saber-rattling against Greece has put a stop to investment needed to tap energy resources in the Aegean Sea, a potential pot of gold for half a dozen states in the region.

Erdogan has also led Türkiye into shady deals involving sanctions-busting operations to help the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Erdogan now presides over a government that tops the list of nations with the largest number of political prisoners, including journalists.

More importantly, I wouldn't put it past Erdogan to try to fix the election in his own favor. A man who believes he has a divine mission to rule wouldn't shy away from a little bit of election-rigging.

Spring may or may not come to Türkiye, as Erdogan's opponents wish and pray for. But if it does, it would be great news for all those who see Türkiye as a major regional power and one that could assume a leadership position in helping to end the multiple crises that affect the Middle East, North Africa, Transcaucasia, and large chunks of Europe.


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now presides over a government that tops the list of nations with the largest number of political prisoners, including journalists. Pictured: Erdogan speaks at the presidential complex in Ankara, on December 26, 2022. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
It was only three weeks ago that people across Türkiye marked the spring equinox with traditional rites of passage. Yet, many Turks talk of the "real spring" that they hope will start on May 14, when 65 million Turkish voters go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections.

The hoped-for spring is supposed to mark the political end of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has captained Türkiye's wayward ship for longer than any leader since the end of the Caliphate almost a century ago.

Spring is the key word in the electoral slogan chosen by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the once Social-Democratic outfit known as People's Republican Party (CHP) and Erdogan's chief rival next month: I promise you that Spring will return!
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19571/turkiye-waiting-for-spring

The Trump Trials: Changing the Subject
by Pete Hoekstra • April 7, 2023 at 5:00 am

Red lights have to be flashing for the current administration and its supporters: "danger ahead."

Inflation continues threatening to turn into a crushing recession. Iran is reportedly days away from a nuclear-weapons breakout. A Chinese spy balloon just spent a week doing figure-eights over America's most sensitive nuclear sights while transmitting information back to Beijing in real time. Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping is telling his people to prepare for war. And the House Oversight Committee keeps finding more bank evidence that the Biden family appears compromised by foreign payments.

What do the current administration and its supporters do, then? Revert to the tried-and-true playbook of the Trump era and launch the latest "Trump trial" to distract from the administration's challenges. The pattern has been consistent – create a false narrative that is more favorable to themselves and more problematic for whoever is challenging them.

After seeing multiple high-level Democrat operatives from candidate Hillary Clinton herself approving a disinformation operation against then-candidate Trump, her campaign and the DNC reportedly financing the Steele dossier, DNI James Clapper reportedly leaking info on the Steel dossier to the media, Adam Schiff misleading his colleagues about information leading to the first Trump impeachment, and 51 former intelligence officials signing a bogus letter about the Hunter Biden laptop, there should be little surprise that New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg -- whose campaign was indirectly supported by a million dollars from George Soros while Bragg "promised to put Trump behind bars" -- decided to move forward with what ended up a totally fabricated, politically-motivated indictment of Trump. It did not even fulfill the constitutional requirement for Trump "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation" – meaning: Bragg did not even name the supposed federal crime.

Those now in charge will seemingly do almost anything to make the narrative leading up to the election once again about allegations against Trump instead of the geopolitical and economic shortcomings of Biden's policies. If a presidential candidate, a Director of National Intelligence, and a Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee will engage in hyper-partisan political activities under the guise of legitimate government activities, why should we be surprised that a local prosecutor might do the same thing?

The bottom line is that every Republican potential candidate will have to address the "Trump issue," probably multiple times during the upcoming weeks and months, rather than discussing their solutions and proposals to address the economic and national security concerns gripping Americans today. For the current administration, that is "mission accomplished."


The Biden administration and its supporters have reverted to the tried-and-true playbook of the Trump era by launching the latest "Trump trial" to distract from the administration's challenges. Pictured: Former President Donald Trump at an event in West Palm Beach, Florida on April 4, 2023, hours after he was arraigned in a New York court. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
What's a politician to do? Going into a presidential election year, the incumbent president looks to be facing a difficult reelection campaign. Persistently high inflation numbers remain a problem. Energy prices are still up. America's southern border is being overrun with illegal border-crossers and fentanyl. Major bank failures have raised the specter of a banking crisis. There are multiple House of Representatives investigations covering Biden family finances, the weaponization of government agencies, China, and the origins of COVID. For the current administration and its supporters, the answer is as easy as it is familiar: change the subject to Donald Trump. It has been an oppositional go-to foil since Trump dared step onto the political stage in 2016.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19570/trump-trials

'A New World Order'? The Iran-Russia-China Axis During the Biden Administration
by Majid Rafizadeh • April 8, 2023 at 5:00 am

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The Biden Administration has created a vacuum of leadership on the global stage.

If the US further pulls out of Asia, the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Ukraine, Latin America -- anywhere -- the vacuum created will surely be filled by the new axis of China-Russia-Iran. A US pull-out is, most probably, just what they are hoping and waiting for.

If Putin sees any gains in Ukraine, China will try to seize Taiwan.

"We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places... It's an indication that the Saudis and others are [also] trying to hedge their bets with China and Russia, because they don't think the United States has the resolve and the fortitude necessary to do what they need to do to protect the world against Iran and its intentions." — Former US National Security Advisor John R. Bolton, yahoo.com, March 12, 2023.

"The Chinese have a strategy they've been following... We kind of wander around from day to day." — John R. Bolton, yahoo.com, March 12, 2023.

Thanks to the lack of leadership and the vacuum that the Biden administration has created -- and appears continuing to create -- on the global stage, the new axis of Iran-China-Russia has been shaped with Beijing, Moscow and the ruling mullahs -- rather than the brutalized people of Iran. The Axis is seizing leadership of the new world order, or -- if the world's communists manage to defeat the world's democrats, as they seem tenaciously determined to do -- it will be, more accurately, the new world disorder.


If the US further pulls out of Asia, the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Ukraine, Latin America -- anywhere -- the vacuum created will surely be filled by the new axis of China-Russia-Iran. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 14, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
As Winston Churchill famously pointed out, "I never worry about action, but only about inaction". The Biden administration's inaction has led to the creation of a new axis of tyrannies: Russia, China and Iran, with North Korea not far behind. As the Tehran Times, which has close ties to Iran's foreign ministry, wrote: "[T]oday we are witnessing the formation of a new world order...."

Iran, China and Russia recently conducted joint naval exercises in the Sea of Oman, dubbed Marine Security Belt 2023. Iran's state-controlled Press TV boasted that to oppose the United States, China and Russia have also stepped up their "joint military exercises in recent years as part of their aligning of foreign policies."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19562/new-world-order-iran-russia-china

China's Race to Dominate the Military and Emerging Technologies
by Lawrence A. Franklin • April 6, 2023 at 5:00 am

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

Communist China is currently preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives -- when compared to so many people in the world -- for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock.


China has been supercharging its military for years and is preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock. Pictured: DF-17 hypersonic missiles at a military parade in Beijing, China, on October 1, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19563/china-emerging-technologies

TikTok: America's Do-Or-Die Moment with China
by Gordon G. Chang • April 2, 2023 at 5:00 am

Congress is now considering the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats That Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, sponsored by Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.). The RESTRICT Act, as the proposed legislation is known, creates a framework for the secretary of commerce to review foreign-linked social media platforms and to take action if necessary.

The legislation, intended to target TikTok, is controversial and being criticized as overbroad.

Xi is swiftly erecting totalitarian controls inside China, which he undoubtedly will extend to America and the rest of the world if he gets the opportunity. In short, the threat to the U.S. is existential.

The threat is also urgent because China's ambitious ruler is making preparations for war. His regime in fact declared a "people's war" on America, which is the Communist Party's way of justifying a strike on the U.S.

There are, consequently, critical factors that legitimize curbs that would otherwise infringe First Amendment protections.

TikTok, after all, is one of Xi's tools to take down the United States. Radio Free Asia reported in August 2020 that a People's Liberation Army intelligence unit, working out of the now-closed Houston consulate, was using big data to identify Americans likely to participate in Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests and then created and sent them "tailor-made" videos on how to organize riots. Related reporting reveals the videos were distributed by TikTok.

China's app can access each keystroke of every user and even their location at any moment. "It is very much like giving them the keys to the kingdom," said Evan Greer of Fight for the Future, a privacy group, to Fox Business.

"Everything is seen in China," a member of TikTok's Trust and Safety Department said. A "Beijing-based engineer" known as "Master Admin" had "access to everything."

TikTok had said it never shared user data with the Chinese government and would not do so. The BuzzFeed reporting revealed this assurance and similar ones to the federal government were false.

The Communist Party has used TikTok to, among other things, glorify drug use, push critical race theory, and amplify Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. The CCP does not allow the Chinese people to use the app. TikTok's twin site in China, Douyin, promotes patriotic themes.

China's regime has a dagger, in the form of TikTok, pointed at the heart of the United States, and Americans have to figure out a way to make sure the Communist Party can no longer use it, First Amendment or no First Amendment. "The Constitution," as is often said, "is not a suicide pact."


China's regime has a dagger, in the form of TikTok, pointed at the heart of the United States, and Americans have to figure out a way to make sure the Communist Party can no longer use it, First Amendment or no First Amendment. "The Constitution," as is often said, "is not a suicide pact." (Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Adi Robertson, The Verge's senior tech and policy editor, makes an impassioned plea to not ban TikTok, China's popular video-sharing app, on free speech grounds. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speaking on the floor of the Senate on March 29, also raised First Amendment objections to a proposed TikTok prohibition.

Nonetheless, it is time to either ban TikTok or force the sale of all its shares to American parties. The American owners must also control all the app's algorithms, in particular, the algorithms curating content. If Beijing does not permit such a sale, the federal government should expropriate TikTok.

"The First Amendment includes a right for citizens to receive information—even, in fact, foreign propaganda," Robertson correctly writes in "The TikTok Ban Is a Betrayal of the Open Internet." "And banning TikTok would affect not only speech from TikTok but also the speech of users on the platform, who could see their videos made inaccessible."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19551/tiktok-america-do-or-die

The French Model: Another Crisis
by Amir Taheri • April 2, 2023 at 4:00 am

Macron was reminded of one of the key facts of the French political life, according to which governing means rolling a boulder up the hill only to see it roll down again at double the speed. The best you can do is to dodge the boulder and light a Gitane for consolation.

Classical revolutions such as the first big one in 18th century France were led by the semi-privileged in the name of the underprivileged and against the highly privileged. Today's pseudo-revolutions in France are supported by the semi-privileged who represent the majority of the population while the underprivileged suffer in silence and the highly privileged watch things with a mixture of amusement and disapproval.

Both [French President Emanuel Macron and former President Giscard d'Estaing] would have done well to study British Prime Minister James Callaghan's description of democracy as "a system that functions on the edge of un-governability."

Pictured: French President Emmanuel Macron, in Versailles, on March 31, 2023. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
It was almost a year ago when France's President Emmanuel Macron won re-election for a second and final term. In doing so, he broke a curse that had kicked his two immediate predecessors out of the Élysée Palace, providing an occasion for celebration. La Marseillaise was played and the champagne bottle smashed, but the ship didn't launch.

Macron had mused about lofty goals: reforming the ailing European Union, providing leadership for Western democracies, defeating Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, creating a European army and, last but not least, reforming the state pension laws that threaten to bankrupt the republic within the next decade or two.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19548/french-model-crisis

Thanks to Biden Administration, Iran's Mullahs Winners of Russia Invasion of Ukraine
by Majid Rafizadeh • April 1, 2023 at 5:00 am


Russia also reportedly wants to buy ballistic missiles from Iran, which has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. The Iranian regime therefore should officially be considered an accomplice to Russia's war crimes.

The Iranian regime, probably because it knows that the Biden administration will not take any action, is ratcheting up its engagement and weapons exports to Russia.

"President Biden's leadership is non-existent.... Look at what's happening right now with unemployment — eight million jobs are unfilled right now, and President Biden just ushered through a partisan bill to pay people billions of dollars not to work when eight million jobs are unfilled right now. We're paying people not to work, and they're borrowing money from our kids and our grandkids to do it.... We're seeing inflation starting to go through the roof. Our country is less secure. Look at what's happening around the world — the Middle East, Iran — who the President wants to let back into an agreement to get a nuclear weapon. [The Iranians are] helping funnel these bombs that are being shot into Israel. I mean where is the President's leadership on any of these crises?" – US Rep. Steve Scalise, Fox News, May 2021.


The Iranian regime was, from the outset, in favor of the Russian invasion and praised Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine. Since then, it has become a major weapons exporter to a global power – not limited to exporting just drones. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration has been running out the clock, allowing the ruling Islamist mullahs of Iran to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. According to a January 2022 report:

"[T]he United Nations has reported at least 6,919 civilian deaths and more than 11,000 wounded as a result of the war in Ukraine and estimates the actual figures to be much higher. Approximately 6.5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, and about 5 million have fled as refugees to European countries. About 2.8 million Ukrainians are in Russia and Belarus, in some cases against their will."

The Iranian regime was, from the outset, in favor of the Russian invasion and praised Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine. Since then, it has become a major weapons exporter to a global power – not limited to exporting just drones.

According to a recent report from Sky News:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19536/iran-winner-russia-invasion-ukraine

Thanks to Biden Administration, Iran's Mullahs Winners of Russia Invasion of Ukraine
by Majid Rafizadeh • April 1, 2023 at 5:00 am


Russia also reportedly wants to buy ballistic missiles from Iran, which has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. The Iranian regime therefore should officially be considered an accomplice to Russia's war crimes.

The Iranian regime, probably because it knows that the Biden administration will not take any action, is ratcheting up its engagement and weapons exports to Russia.

"President Biden's leadership is non-existent.... Look at what's happening right now with unemployment — eight million jobs are unfilled right now, and President Biden just ushered through a partisan bill to pay people billions of dollars not to work when eight million jobs are unfilled right now. We're paying people not to work, and they're borrowing money from our kids and our grandkids to do it.... We're seeing inflation starting to go through the roof. Our country is less secure. Look at what's happening around the world — the Middle East, Iran — who the President wants to let back into an agreement to get a nuclear weapon. [The Iranians are] helping funnel these bombs that are being shot into Israel. I mean where is the President's leadership on any of these crises?" – US Rep. Steve Scalise, Fox News, May 2021.


The Iranian regime was, from the outset, in favor of the Russian invasion and praised Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine. Since then, it has become a major weapons exporter to a global power – not limited to exporting just drones. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration has been running out the clock, allowing the ruling Islamist mullahs of Iran to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. According to a January 2022 report:

"[T]he United Nations has reported at least 6,919 civilian deaths and more than 11,000 wounded as a result of the war in Ukraine and estimates the actual figures to be much higher. Approximately 6.5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, and about 5 million have fled as refugees to European countries. About 2.8 million Ukrainians are in Russia and Belarus, in some cases against their will."

The Iranian regime was, from the outset, in favor of the Russian invasion and praised Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine. Since then, it has become a major weapons exporter to a global power – not limited to exporting just drones.

According to a recent report from Sky News:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19536/iran-winner-russia-invasion-ukraine

Turkey: A Belated Farewell to Erdoğan?
by Burak Bekdil • March 30, 2023 at 5:00 am

Polls suggest that although the presidential race will be tight, the gap against Erdoğan is widening.... [T]he CHP-led opposition bloc, with the participation of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, would win a combined 55.4% of the nationwide vote.

Reuters reported that new polls show the opposition's presidential candidate, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leading against Erdoğan by more than 10 percentage points ahead of elections seen by many as the most consequential in Turkey's history.

Polling in Turkey can be a murky business. But with or without polls, realities spell existential danger for one of the world's most anti-Semitic and disruptive leaders.
Ahead of elections on May 14, Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is battling for survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly a month and a half before the most critical presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey's modern history, it is still too early to make a guess as to who will win: all indicators show that May 14 will be an extremely tight race. The results may even be inconclusive: there may be chaos, vote rigging, allegations and objections from both sides, the electoral board having to struggle with which side it should politically favor, potential re-runs in disputed districts, further disputes and even potential street violence.

An overall re-vote is also one of the possibilities. Another is that the country's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, battling for his survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power, wins the presidential race but that his party loses its parliamentary majority. This result will mean governmental and administrative chaos.

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