Gatestone Institute

France: Macron Gave Up Fighting Radicalism
by Guy Millière  •  April 11, 2021 at 5:00 am

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There are also teachers who, possibly because they are scared, choose to bow their heads, give up teaching certain subjects and -- when students shout anti-Semitic and anti-Western insults -- to act as if they hear nothing. It has become almost impossible in most French high schools to talk about either Israel or the Holocaust.

Most journalists seem to prefer avoiding all discussion of the advance of radical Islam in France. They know that those who do so are immediately called "racists" or "Islamophobes" and are often threatened, prosecuted, sentenced to heavy fines or fired from their place of work.

Even though what the journalist Éric Zemmour said was accurate and verifiable, the CSA (Superior Audiovisual Council), said that to state certain facts constitutes an "incitement to racial hatred".

In 2015, a French journalist compared the National Rally Party to the Islamic State. [National Rally President] Marine Le Pen responded by posting on Twitter two photographs of crimes committed by the Islamic State and added, "This is Islamic State".... In court, the judge asked Le Pen, "Do you consider that these photos violate human dignity?". Le Pen replied, "It is the crime that violates human dignity, it is not its photographic reproduction".

"Fourteen months before the presidential deadline of 2022, ... the supposition is that ... Marine Le Pen, will necessarily be in the second round of the election and that whoever will face her is no longer guaranteed to win". — Le Monde, March 22, 2021.

Éric Zemmour (pictured), one of the only journalists in France who still speaks freely about the advance of radical Islam, is brought into court at least once a year. The fines imposed on him come to 10,000 euros ($11,800) each time. (Photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images)
November 1, 2020. Didier Lemaire, a high school teacher who works in Trappes, a small town west of Paris, published an open letter in the left-wing magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. He spoke of the murder of Samuel Paty, another teacher, savagely beheaded two weeks earlier by a Muslim extremist. He denounced the submission of the French authorities to religious intimidation and the impossibility of the French school system being able to transmit any real knowledge of history or to give students the intellectual means to think freely. He said that in just a few years, the situation in the city where he worked has deteriorated markedly. Lemaire wrote:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17270/france-macron-radicalism


What Makes Erdogan Tick?
by Burak Bekdil  •  April 11, 2021 at 5:00 am
At the end of the year, there was a Turkey in deep stages of cold-to-colder-war with the EU (in particular, with EU members Greece, Cyprus and France), Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, General Khalifa Haftar of Libya and the United States (over the S-400 dispute).

Not one of these state actors stepped back and appeased Erdoğan or changed policy in the face of Turkish hostilities.

In December, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. would sanction Turkey for its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system....

All that must have made Erdoğan tick. Apparently cornered, Erdoğan launched a new charm offensive in November. He said Turkey's future was in Europe – quite a radical departure from his usual histrionics that Europe is Islamophobic, fascist, racist and Europeans are "remnants of Nazis."

Erdoğan's tough guy manners have finally been decrypted by state and non-state actors in the former Ottoman lands.

"Erdoğan will not back down until you show him teeth. That's what we did when we negotiated the (Syrian) ceasefire in October of 2019. We were ready to crush the economy." -- James Jeffrey, former U.S. special envoy for Syria (and former ambassador to Ankara), Al Monitor

A comparative analysis of where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's aggressive war-mongering and assertive foreign policy -- based on an imaginary Superpower Turkey -- stood a year ago, and today's relative Turkish composure at all problematic fronts should give us invaluable lessons on dealing with the wannabe sultan. The events during the past year offer precious experimental confrontations that reveal an answer to a question that concerns a rich menu of nations: What makes Erdoğan tick?

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17180/what-makes-erdogan-tick

Iran: Between Illusion and Reality
by Amir Taheri  •  April 11, 2021 at 4:00 am
As for voter turnout, we now know that the regime has set the stage for an "historic event". Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Gen. Hussein Salami says the "Supreme Guide" has ordered "an epoch-making turnout" that his force will help assemble.

[I]t is clear that the "Supreme Guide" will not tolerate the slightest deviation from the course he has set: a revolution that he claims is moving from strength to strength. "Today we are stronger and America is weaker," he said recently. One of his ideological gurus, Dr. Hassan Abbasi, aka "Dr. Kissinger of Islam", goes further: "America is the sunset power," he says. "We are the sunrise power!"

[The coming election] could end the illusion that the Khomeinist regime might change course and seize opportunity offered to it to re-join the global mainstream.... The four-decade pursuit of "behavior change in Tehran" would have to be reviewed.

Khamenei speaks of a "conspiracy" to force Iran to become a "normal nation" like everyone else and vows to never allow that to happen.

The Khomeinist system isn't a Middle Eastern version of the people-based Scandinavian Social Democracy.... It is a despotism of the medieval kind with a pseudo-modern varnish borrowed from misunderstood Marxism.

The replacement of illusion with reality, no matter how bitter, may be good news after all.


Iran's upcoming presidential election could end the illusion that the Khomeinist regime might change course and seize the opportunity offered to it to re-join the global mainstream. (Image source: iStock)
The old script is out of the files and dusted, the décor shined and up, and the puppet-master testing the strings and flexing his fingers. But something is still missing: new puppets to make the show attractive to those who have seen the same old puppets once too often.

Got it? We are talking of the presidential election in the Islamic Republic in Iran, scheduled for June but so far attracting little attention. In previous versions of the show, interest in it started up to two years before polling day as rival factions within the regime mobilized to reach for the prize or at least make an impression. On at least two occasions the rigmarole produced one pleasantly surprising result and one unexpectedly horrible one. On a third occasion, it triggered a nationwide uprising that pushed the Khomeinist regime to the edge of collapse.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17269/iran-illusion-reality

Biden Is Determined to Create Jobs... in China
by Gordon G. Chang  •  April 7, 2021 at 5:00 am

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For three principal reasons, his [Biden's] jobs plan will create full employment in China. First, Biden will create substantially more demand for Chinese materials to go into America's planned physical infrastructure improvements. Second, the large corporate tax increases he proposes will drive even more businesses out of the U.S. -- and across the Pacific. Third, Biden's "green energy" ideas will eliminate one of the crucial advantages American manufacturers now have: cheap energy.

"Unless we invest in the capacity to make the steel, cement, and the other materials that go into our roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, we will always be at the mercy of China's Communist Party" — Jonathan Bass, CEO of Whom Home and onshoring advocate, in an interview with Gatestone Institute, April 2021.

"Domestic security, domestic economic security, is essential to international security. If we damage our economy... with all these tax hikes, including the corporate tax hikes, companies will be leaving, not coming here. We will lose jobs, not gain jobs. Our whole economy will suffer." — Larry Kudlow, former director of the National Economic Council, Fox Business, March 30, 2021.

So, do we really need the federal government to do anything? After all, industry is moving in a "green energy" direction on its own.

"We can't have a policy that sets us behind and still win a competition with China." — Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative 2017-2021, Fox Business, March 30, 2021.


President Joe Biden will, in his American Jobs Plan as it's formally called, create millions of good-paying jobs. Many of those jobs, however, will not be in America. For three principal reasons, his jobs plan will create full employment in China. Pictured: Qian'an steelworks of Shougang Corporation in Tangshan, China. Shougang Corporation is one of the largest steel enterprises in China. Last year, China made 56.5% of the world's crude steel. The U.S. accounted for 3.9%. (Photo by Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)
"It's the largest American jobs investment since World War II," President Joe Biden said on March 31 in Pittsburgh, as he announced his $2.3 trillion infrastructure program. "It will create millions of jobs, good-paying jobs."

He is correct. Biden will, in his American Jobs Plan as it's formally called, create millions of good-paying jobs. Many of those jobs, however, will not be in America,. For three principal reasons, his jobs plan will create full employment in China.

First, Biden will create substantially more demand for Chinese materials to go into America's planned physical infrastructure improvements. Second, the large corporate tax increases he proposes will drive even more businesses out of the U.S. -- and across the Pacific. Third, Biden's "green energy" ideas will eliminate one of the crucial advantages American manufacturers now have: cheap energy.

In Beijing, there must be, at the moment, great elation and anticipation.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17250/biden-jobs-plan-china


China's Exploitation of Western Academia
by Judith Bergman  •  April 7, 2021 at 4:00 am

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"In many cases, these UK universities are unintentionally generating research that is sponsored by and may be of use to China's military conglomerates, including those with activities in the production of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as well as hypersonic missiles, in which China is involved in a new arms race and seeks 'massively destabilising' weaponry". — "Inadvertently Arming China? The Chinese military complex and its potential exploitation of scientific research at UK universities," a report by the British think tank Civitas, February 7, 2021.

"This report illustrates how 15 of the 24 Russell Group universities and many other UK academic bodies have productive research relationships with Chinese military-linked manufacturers and universities. Much of the research at the university centres and laboratories is also being sponsored by the UK taxpayer...." — "Inadvertently Arming China? The Chinese military complex and its potential exploitation of scientific research at UK universities," a report by the British think tank Civitas, February 7, 2021.

Australian analyst Alex Joske, in a submission to the Australian Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, "The Chinese Communist Party's Talent Recruitment Efforts in Australia," identified at least 325 participants from Australian research institutions, including government institutions, in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) talent-recruitment programs, with as many as up to 600 academics possibly being involved.... Joske estimated that CCP talent recruitment activity in Australia may be associated with as much as AUD $280 million (USD $217 million) in grant fraud over the past two decades.

According to official statistics, China's talent-recruitment programs drew in almost 60,000 overseas professionals between 2008 and 2016," Joske wrote in his August 2020 report, "Hunting the phoenix - The Chinese Communist Party's global search for technology and talent". "These efforts lack transparency; are widely associated with misconduct, intellectual property theft or espionage; contribute to the People's Liberation Army's modernisation; and facilitate human rights abuses..... Over the long term, China's recruitment of overseas talent could shift the balance of power between it and countries such as the US."

China continues generously to fund Western universities. In the UK, for instance, the Chinese company Tencent funded post-doctoral research in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University.... According to the CIA, Tencent was founded with financing from China's Ministry of State Security.

Oxford University has also received a generous donation from Tencent. Its prestigious Wykeham chair of physics, which was established in 1900, will now be known as the Tencent-Wykeham chair, in honor of the Chinese software giant's donation of £700,000 to the university.

Much of Chinese influence on British universities comes from the CCP's Confucius Institutes, of which there are at least 29 in the UK, according to a February 2019 report on the topic by the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.


Almost 200 British academics from 20 unnamed UK universities are being investigated for possibly sharing British technology with China that could be used in the Chinese government's repression of minorities and dissidents. The revelation came shortly after the University of Manchester cancelled a research partnership with China Electronics Technology Group. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping (second from right) visits the University of Manchester on October 23, 2015. (Photo by Richard Stonehouse/AFP via Getty Images)
Almost 200 British academics from 20 unnamed UK universities are being investigated for possibly sharing British technology with China that could be used in the Chinese government's repression of minorities and dissidents, according to a recent news report by The Times. The revelation came shortly after the University of Manchester cancelled a research partnership with China Electronics Technology Group (CETC).

The cancellation came after the university was warned that CETC is, "one of the main architects of the Chinese government's surveillance state in Xinjiang, China, providing both technology and infrastructure that is being used for the identity-based persecution of more than one million people, predominantly Uyghur Muslims". The university said their research collaboration with CETC aimed to "significantly advance the field of radio astronomy" and that it had been unaware of CETC's alleged role in the persecution of Uyghurs.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17074/china-western-academia

Palestinians: US Taxpayer Money Going to Terrorists
by Bassam Tawil  •  April 6, 2021 at 5:00 am
The memo, however, does not specifically say that the renewed US funding would be conditioned on ending the Palestinians' "pay-to-slay" program. Instead, the Biden administration is only seeking a "commitment" from the Palestinian leadership to end the stipends.

It is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas may make such a "commitment" to the Biden administration. In reality, however, Abbas has announced over the past few years that he would never stop the payments to the imprisoned terrorists and the families of the "martyrs."

In the world of Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero.

"We will not deduct or suspend the allowances. Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars." — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Wafa.ps

The Palestinian leadership is now hoping that the Biden administration will turn a blind eye to the "pay-for-slay' program and allow them to continue funding terrorists and their families.

The Palestinians are letting the world know that the payments to the terrorists will absolutely continue, just not through the banks. The Palestinians are trying to make it look as if this is a problem related only to the method of payment, and not the fact that the money is going to reward terrorists for murdering, or attempting to murder, Jews.

It is clear that any Palestinian "commitment" to cease rewarding terrorists will not be worth the paper it is written on. Abbas and his henchmen are telling the Biden administration one thing in English and their people the opposite in Arabic. They have no intention whatsoever of stopping the blood-soaked payments. In order to ensure that they continue, the Palestinian leadership are funneling the terror funds through the Palestinian post offices.

If and when the Biden administration resumes financial aid to Abbas, those who will resume collecting US taxpayer dollars are the terrorists.
In the world of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero. "Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars," Abbas said. A non-public US State Department report revealed that the Palestinians distributed at least $151 million in 2019 on their "pay-to-slay" program, in which international aid dollars are spent to support imprisoned terrorists and their families. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
The Biden administration's decision to resume unconditional US financial aid to the Palestinians will allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to continue rewarding terrorists who kill Jews, and sometimes, as "collateral damage," others.

Last week, the Biden administration reportedly confirmed to Congress that the PA has continued to use international aid money to reward terrorists and their families.

The Biden administration, however, emphasized that the PA's actions will not impact its plan to renew funding to the Palestinians.

A non-public State Department report revealed that the Palestinians distributed at least $151 million in 2019 on their "pay-to-slay" program, in which international aid dollars are spent to support imprisoned terrorists and their families. Financial statements also revealed that at least $191 million was lavished on "deceased Palestinians referred to as 'martyrs.'"

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17208/palestinians-terrorists-us-aid-money



Indoctrinated in Hate: 'This Is the Start of the New Caliphate'
by Raymond Ibrahim  •  April 6, 2021 at 4:00 am

Hate-filled indoctrination and training in violence is not limited to the "schools" of ISIS or Boko Haram. Public schools all around the Muslim world share elements of this indoctrination. Most recently, a March 2021 study exposed how the school curriculum of Turkey — for decades one of the Muslim world's most secular nations — is also increasingly full of jihadi propaganda.

"The Turkish curriculum has been significantly radicalized in recent years. Jihad war is introduced as a central value; martyrdom in battle is glorified.... Concepts such as "Turkish World Domination" ... are emphasized. The curriculum adopts an anti-American stance and displays sympathy toward the motivations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda.... Christians and Jews are characterized as infidels instead of People of the Book.... The curriculum demonizes Zionism and verges on anti-Semitic..." — "The Erdoğan Revolution in the Turkish Curriculum Textbooks," IMPACT-se, March, 2021.

What will happen in a few decades when all these boys — those raised on absolute hate and violence and those raised on absolute tolerance and nonviolence — become the world's decision-makers?


Documentary filmmaker Alan Duncan recently visited the al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria. According to Duncan: "There are already training camps in there — they are training the ISIS ideologies to the kids... To hate the West... They are training them for future jihad... It's like walking in the caliphate." Pictured: Women displaced from Syria's Deir Ezzor province in the al-Hawl camp on April 18, 2019. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
While boys in the West are all but indoctrinated into becoming girls — if not surgically mutilated, at least spiritually emasculated — boys throughout the Muslim world are increasingly indoctrinated into becoming super jihadis: ISIS 2.0.

The news is coming in fast from a variety of sources.

A documentary filmmaker, Alan Duncan, for instance, recently made a brief video of his visit to al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Although 80% of the camp consists of women and (27,000) children, many of whom had fled ISIS, the camp is known as the "Womb of ISIS."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17207/indoctrination-new-caliphate

Arabs' Real Enemies: Iran and Turkey
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  April 5, 2021 at 5:00 am

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The Arabs are warning the world that Turkey and Iran are funding and arming terrorists, that they a major threat to security and stability in the Middle East, and that they keep meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

The Arabs are also telling the world that the only way to deal with Turkey and Iran is by increasing political and economic pressure on them and holding them to account for their malign actions.

Turkey and Iran, in other words, are telling the Arabs that they can go to hell. They are also telling the Arabs that Turkey and Iran will continue to occupy Arab countries, meddle in their internal affairs, and unleash terrorist attacks to undermine their stability and security.

Veteran Saudi columnist Abdulrahman Al-Rashed warned that Iran's continued "military activities" in the region will likely lead to more chaos that will be increasingly difficult to control.

Al-Rashed also pointed out that the Houthi militia increased its missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia after the Biden administration revoked its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

[T]he latest Arab warning concerning the Turkish and Iranian threats has gone almost unnoticed by the international community and media. They only pay a great deal of attention to the resolutions of the Arab League foreign ministers when they include -- as they frequently do -- a condemnation of Israel.
Turkey and Iran are telling the Arabs that they can go to hell. They are also telling the Arabs that Turkey and Iran will continue to occupy Arab countries, meddle in their internal affairs, and unleash terrorist attacks to undermine their stability and security. Pictured: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (left) and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkey on April 4, 2018. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
After decades of portraying Israel as their mortal enemy, the Arabs have finally woken up to the fact that it is two Islamic countries, Turkey and Iran, that are actually threatening their security and stability.

The Arabs are now seeking to draw the world's attention to these Turkish and Iranian threats.

The Arabs are warning the world that Turkey and Iran are funding and arming terrorists, that they a major threat to stability in the Middle East, and that they keep meddling in the affairs of Arab countries.

They are also telling the world -- in message directed mainly to the Biden Administration -- that the only way to deal with Turkey and Iran is by increasing political and economic pressure on them and holding them to account for their malign actions.
Continue https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17168/arabs-enemies-turkey-iran



Where Are the US and the EU on Iran's Human Rights Violations?
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  April 5, 2021 at 4:00 am
Although Iran ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, President Hassan Rouhani's government has made no effort to alter the country's Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed.

"Iranian courts, and particularly revolutionary courts, regularly fall far short of providing fair trials and use confessions likely obtained under torture as evidence in court. Authorities have failed to meaningfully investigate numerous allegations of torture against detainees. Authorities routinely restrict detainees' access to legal counsel, particularly during the initial investigation period." — Human Rights Watch, "World Report 2021."

In rewarding Iran for malign behavior -- by again showering millions of dollars on the Iranian regime, lifting sanctions and reviving the nuclear deal -- the US and the EU are empowering the ruling clerics of Iran to further suppress and crack down on dissidents, torture and kill their citizens and expand their tyranny abroad.

The Iranian regime's suppression, torture and execution of political prisoners and those who protest against the theocratic establishment have reached an unprecedented level. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the Iranian regime is one of the world's leading executioners. (Image source: iStock)
While the Biden administration and the European Union are forging ahead to revive the Iran nuclear deal – which, by the way, Tehran never signed -- and lift sanctions on the Iranian regime, they are turning a blind eye on the regime's alarming and increasing human rights violations.

Human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime have become even more shattering and appalling. Unfortunately, Iran's leaders have been acting with full impunity. First, the suppression and execution of political prisoners and those who protest against Iran's theocratic establishment have reached an unprecedented level. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the Iranian regime is one of the world's leading executioners. In 2020, Iran's regime executed more than 230 people. These include individuals who committed their alleged crimes when they were children.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17249/iran-human-rights-violations

Biden Administration and Iran: Secret Deals and Appeasement Back on the Table?
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  April 3, 2021 at 5:00 am

"The Biden administration appears to be using loopholes when dealing with the Iranian regime. I am again asking direct, yes or no questions on the United States' involvement in facilitating a South Korean ransom payment to Iran. If the Biden administration is involved in transferring funds to Iran, Congress and the American people must be informed. Biden administration officials continue to deflect and refuse to answer questions from members of Congress regarding this issue." — Congressman Bryan Steil (R-WI), letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, March 25, 2021.

When President Biden was vice president during the Obama administration, the administration was all too eager to grant concessions to the Iranian regime and, it turns out, made multiple secret deals with the mullahs..... These secret deals meant that when sanctions against Iranian banks were lifted and permission given to the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to resume conducting business, there was no longer any mechanism to check or stop Iran's illegal activities such as advancing its ballistic missile program.

The Obama administration also helped swiftly to lift all four rounds of UN sanctions against Iran -- sanctions it had taken decades to put in place. Iran's military sites also were exempted from inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency; other inspections were only to be at the times and places of Iran's choosing -- if ever.

Another concession, usually overlooked, is that Iran never even signed the JCPOA deal -- what sort of deal, then, is that?

Appeasement policies, secret deals and generous concessions to predatory regimes do not work, as history has repeatedly shown. They only empower and embolden leaders whose record reveals that they have no intention of honoring whatever they agreed to in the first place, and for whom commitments have been mainly a means of buying time to accomplish the goals they really want.


The Biden administration is ratcheting up its appeasement policies towards the Iranian regime in an apparent effort to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Appeasement policies, secret deals and generous concessions to predatory regimes do not work, as history has repeatedly shown. Pictured: Then US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, Austria, on July 14, 2014, during negotiations that led to the drafting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). (Image source: US State Department)
The Biden administration is ratcheting up its appeasement policies towards the Iranian regime in an apparent effort to revive the 2015 nuclear deal -- which by the way, Iran never signed.

US President Joe Biden made his intention to return to the nuclear deal public before he took office; after, he appointed as Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman -- a key negotiator in the talks which led to the nuclear deal in 2015 during the Obama administration. Biden actually publicized Sherman's professed accomplishment:

"She has successfully rallied the world to strengthen democracy and confront some of the biggest national security challenges of our time, including leading the U.S. negotiating team for the Iran Deal".

The administration proceeded to revoke the designation of the Houthis, an Iran-backed terror group, as an officially-designated terrorist organization.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17228/biden-iran-secret-deals

Iran Still Hiding Key Parts of its Nuclear Programme, US Trying Bribery Again
by Con Coughlin  •  April 1, 2021 at 5:00 am

The latest evidence that Iran is continuing to conceal vital elements of its nuclear programme from the outside world suggest that, even if there is a resumption of negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme, the regime has little genuine interest in complying with the terms of any future deal.

In another provocative move, Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has ordered the government to start limiting some inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear activities.

The move by the Iranian parliament comes after the IAEA published a report revealing that last summer inspectors found uranium particles at two Iranian nuclear sites that Iran tried to block access to.

The Biden Administration has also apparently been trying to sidestep legally-required congressional approval to funnel more money to Iran and other dictatorships through a new International Monetary Fund programme, "special drawing rights" (SDRs). Through them, Iran would receive an additional $4.5 billion, usable in other currencies. According to the Wall Street Journal, which referred to the program as "Special Dollars for Dictators", Iran's leadership will most likely use these newfound billions to strengthen domestic repression, to intensify regional adventurism -- Iran's proxy Houthi rebels in Yemen have already targeted a "large Saudi oil field" -- and to escalate their nuclear programme still further.


Fresh evidence is emerging that Iran's regime is up to its old tricks by attempting to conceal key elements of the programme from UN inspectors. Pictured: The Isfahan uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, Iran. (Photo by Getty Images)
With the Biden administration seemingly keen to recommence negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, fresh evidence is emerging that Iran's regime is up to its old tricks by attempting to conceal key elements of the programme from UN inspectors.

Iran has a long and undistinguished history of seeking to conceal the existence of key elements of its nuclear programme dating back to 2002, when a group of Iranian dissidents first revealed the existence of the Natanz nuclear enrichment site.

Enrichment is a crucial process in producing weapons-grade nuclear material, and the fact that Iran managed to build the massive underground facility about 100 miles to the south of Tehran in secret was the first major evidence that the regime was developing nuclear weapons.

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China Challenges the US on Iran
by Judith Bergman  •  April 1, 2021 at 4:00 am

According to a leaked draft of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, circulated last year, Iran will receive $400 billion dollars in Chinese investments over the next 25 years in key Iranian economic sectors, including energy, telecommunications, defense, infrastructure, banking, petrochemicals, railways and ports. According to the leaked draft, there will be also an expansion of military assistance, training and intelligence-sharing. Nearly 100 projects are cited in the draft. In return, Iran will commit to providing regular and heavily discounted oil, gas and possibly other natural resources to China.

"Strategically, the BRI is how China is seeking to collapse Western-American dominance in the region peacefully... the BRI is a sophisticated Chinese plan to transfer hegemony from the West and the U.S. to China without war or conflict". — Dr. Mordechai Chaziz, author of China's Middle East Diplomacy: The Belt and Road Strategic Partnership, thediplomat.com, March 10, 2021.

The timing seems hardly a coincidence, but rather an outcome of the Biden administration's appeasing overtures to Iran with its formal offer of restarting nuclear talks. The signing of the agreement itself can be seen as a Chinese-Iranian act of defiance against the US, undercutting sanctions against Iran by supplying the regime with an economic lifeline, while showing China off as an active global power that is able and willing to stand up to the US.

For China, Iran is a welcome counterbalance to US influence in the region, as the only large regional power that is not aligned with the US, in addition to having enormous oil and natural gas resources and providing a large market of more than 80 million citizens for Chinese goods.

"China is pivoting towards more autocratic regimes that represent greater stability for its supply lines than democracies that are, or may become, hostile to Beijing." — Verisk Maplecroft risk consultancy firm, March 17, 2021.


Pictured: Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the signing of the China-Iran comprehensive strategic 25-year partnership agreement on economic and security cooperation, in Tehran, Iran on March 27, 2021. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
On March 27, China and Iran signed a comprehensive strategic 25-year partnership agreement on economic and security cooperation. The agreement was signed in Tehran, where China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi was visiting as part of his tour of the Middle East.

Details of the agreement were not immediately published. The Iranian Foreign Ministry communicated that it was a "roadmap for cooperation" and that no "contracts" were included in it. "Prospects for cooperation, whether economic, political, cultural or strategic, have not been quantified, therefore it does not include numbers on investment or financial and monetary resources," a statement of the Iranian Foreign Ministry reported.

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17229/china-iran-challenge

Terrorists All Set to Win Palestinian Elections
by Bassam Tawil  •  March 30, 2021 at 5:00 am

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[A]s far as most Palestinians are concerned, Barghouti is actually a "hero" who deserves to become president because of his convictions for terrorism.

The message the Palestinian leadership is sending to its people is: A Palestinian convicted of financial corruption is nowhere near as worthy of public office as one who murders Jews and masterminds terrorist attacks.

[I]t would be no surprise to see several Palestinian terrorists, including Barghouti and Sa'adat, in the next Palestinian parliament.

Hamas and the PFLP, whose members are planning to run in the parliamentary election, have, incidentally, been officially designated as terrorist organizations by the US, the European Union, Canada, Israel and Japan.

A terrorist convicted of murdering Jews is far more popular than a candidate who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, such as former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad.

The US, EU, and other countries need to make financial aid to the Palestinian conditional on not electing terrorists. This condition should be presented to the Palestinians before, not after, the election.

This should not be a difficult task. All the international community has to do is remind the Palestinians of the three conditions set by the Quartet in 2006 for recognizing a Palestinian government: that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to non-violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians.

By turning a blind eye to terrorists who plan to participate in the Palestinian elections, the international community is legitimizing terrorism as well as pulling the rug out from under all the Palestinians and other Arabs not affiliated with terrorist groups and who might be hoping that the US would lead them to better lives and peace in the region.

As far as the Palestinian Central Elections Commission is concerned, Marwan Barghouti's role in murdering five Jews is not a "crime or felony against honor or integrity." Therefore, not only will he be allowed to contest the election, but as far as most Palestinians are concerned, Barghouti is actually a "hero" who deserves to become president because of his convictions for terrorism. Pictured: A poster of Barghouti at the campaign office of a group supporting his election, in Ramallah on March 3, 2021. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) recently announced that any Palestinian who wants to run in the upcoming general elections "must not be convicted of a crime or felony against honor or integrity."

That is, of course, unless the "crime" includes murdering a Jew or involvement in terrorism.

The announcement aims to prevent Mohammed Dahlan, an arch-rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, from presenting his candidacy for the presidential election, set to take place on July 31.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17216/palestinian-elections-terrorists

China Grabbing Whitsun Reef: 'Sudetenland' in Slow Motion
by Gordon G. Chang  •  March 29, 2021 at 5:00 am
The failure of the Obama administration to defend the Philippines in early 2012, in a confrontation similar to today's, emboldened China's regime to adopt an even more aggressive posture in its peripheral waters.

China claims all the waters inside the dashes are sovereign as well, terming them "blue national soil." There is no legal basis for an assertion of sovereignty of this sort.

Whitsun, which Manila calls Julian Felipe Reef, is 175 nautical miles from Palawan, an island of the Philippines. The feature is within the Philippine "exclusive economic zone"....

Since December, large Chinese trawlers have lashed themselves together and parked in formations near Whitsun. Vessels come and go, but the numbers have gone up over time. They have not been engaged in fishing.

Near Whitsun, retired U.S. Navy Capt. James Fanell tells Gatestone, China is building "two concentric rings of new artificial island bases."

Washington [in 2012] brokered an agreement for [China and the Philippines] to withdraw their craft [from Scarborough Shoal], but only Manila complied. Beijing has been in firm control of Scarborough Shoal ever since. The Obama administration, despite the brazen Chinese seizure, decided not to enforce the agreement it had just arranged.

Worse, by doing nothing to hold China accountable for deception and aggression at Scarborough, Washington empowered the most belligerent elements in the Chinese political system by showing everybody else in Beijing that aggression worked.

Chinese vessels have continued pressure in the South China Sea, especially at Second Thomas Shoal, also thought to be part of the Philippines, as well as other Philippine-controlled features.

"Many on the Biden team failed to act in 2012. They now have a very rare opportunity to get another chance to do the right thing. Let's hope they will." — Capt. James Fanell, former director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, to Gatestone Institute, March 2021.

James Holmes, who holds the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College, told Gatestone that China's current actions at Whitsun are "an offensive that looks like conquest by increments." Fanell maintains that not opposing China's actions at Whitsun will soon put both Taiwan and the Senkakus at risk.


About 220 Chinese fishing vessels, almost certainly part of China's maritime militia, are now crowding around Whitsun Reef in the Spratly chain in the South China Sea in another attempt to break apart the Philippines. Pictured: An aerial view of part of the Spratly chain, on April 21, 2017. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images)
About 220 Chinese fishing vessels, almost certainly part of China's maritime militia, are now crowding around Whitsun Reef in the Spratly chain in the South China Sea in another attempt to break apart the Philippines.

Whitsun is where the United States and the region should confront an increasingly expansionist China. The failure of the Obama administration to defend the Philippines in early 2012, in a confrontation similar to today's, emboldened China's regime to adopt an even more aggressive posture in its peripheral waters.

Whitsun Reef is inside China's infamous nine-dash line. The line on official maps defines an area informally known as the "cow's tongue," which includes about 85 percent of the South China Sea. Beijing maintains it has sovereignty over every feature there, including Whitsun, which Beijing has named Niue Jiao.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17215/china-whitsun-reef

Erdoganistan: The New Islamic Superpower?
by Giulio Meotti  •  March 28, 2021 at 5:00 am
Erdogan was promoting his global campaign of victimization by "Islamophobia", while in fact it is the critics of extremist Islam who are in danger and frequently killed.

In the Caucasus, Turkey has just supported the Azerbaijani war against Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh in order to create a Turkish Islamic corridor between Azerbaijan, Turkey and other Muslim countries.

"It began in 1989 with the fatwa against Salman Rushdie: no Western country reacted except with words – as if they thought a verbal spell might work!.... The battle lost in Armenia is the first of a war waged in the West against the Judeo-Christian civilization". — Michel Onfray, Reveue des deux mondes, February 1, 2021.

While the new sultan extends his influence to Syria, Libya and the Caucasus, he also extends it to the Mediterranean. For pacifist Europe, that sea only exists when it comes to bringing in migrants.

"What the Turkish regime is doing is using its diaspora as a Trojan horse." — Michel Sifaoui, europe1.fr, February 7, 2021.

In Turkey under Erdogan, school textbooks have been rewritten to refer to Jews and Christians as gavur, "infidels." Earlier Turkish textbooks referred to the members of the two religions as the "people of the Book".... The curriculum adopts an anti-American stance, and shows sympathy for the motives of ISIS and al-Qaeda. — Report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), March 2021.

"We are a large family of 300 million people from the Adriatic to the Great Wall of China". — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minval.az, October 18, 2018.

"It was a very special day, July 24 [2020]," said France's leading expert on Islam, Gilles Kepel.

"It was pilgrimage time to Mecca and, due to the pandemic, no one was there! It was the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, the origin of modern Turkey within its current borders. Erdogan was about to twist the arm of the secular Ataturk, who had turned the old Hagia Sophia basilica into a museum that he had donated 'to humanity'. Erdogan... turned it back into a mosque".

This was the moment, remarked Kepel – who just published a new book, "Le Prophète et la Pandémie" ["The Prophet and the Pandemic"] -- that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the new leader of the umma, or global Islamic community. "Erdogan is trying to appear as the champion of Islam, just like Ayatollah Khomenei in 1989".
More https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17202/erdogan-turkey-islamic-superpower

The Courts and the Election of 2020
by Chris Farrell  •  March 26, 2021 at 5:00 am

[Judge] Benson did not go through the proper rule-making process when issuing the guidance.... That is precisely how elections are stolen.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts scrupulously ignored every 2020 election legal challenge raised by former President Trump in order to assure a legally uncontested Biden victory. Irregularities in six states could not get the attention of the highest court....
Pandemic or not, the last-minute rule changes imposed by judicial and executive branch officials were irregular and perhaps outright illegal. State legislatures govern elections. Changing the rules to extend deadlines, dropping signature requirements for mail-in ballots and other sketchy practices that saw huge voting total swings are all indications of election manipulation.

"We failed to settle this dispute before the election," [Justice] Thomas wrote, "and thus provide clear rules. Now we again fail to provide clear rules for future elections. The decision to leave election law hidden beneath a shroud of doubt is baffling. By doing nothing, we invite further confusion and erosion of voter confidence." He then reviewed the documented risks presented by mail-in balloting, which offers "simpler and more effective alternatives to commit fraud."

The further we get from the November 2020 election, the more we will see documented evidence of voting irregularities, manipulations and gamesmanship. There remain unresolved issues in Georgia, Wisconsin and Maricopa County, Arizona.

We must use every legal tool available to us... to ensure free and fair elections that the American people can trust. That means cleaning up voter registration rolls; having and election DAY (not a "season"); voter ID; enforced rules for absentee and mail-in ballots; paper ballots for audit purposes; and banking-quality cyber security on all electronic voting systems. Those measures are just a start, but should be a minimum standard achievable by the 2022 mid-term elections.


(Image source: iStock)
While the mainstream news media continues to shout down anyone raising even the slightest penumbral emanations of possible 2020 election irregularities, and social media giants suspend, and even erase, people for similar "violations of community standards" (whatever that means) -- a Supreme Court justice and a Michigan Secretary of State have issued written opinions that refute what every sensible MSNBC viewer desperately wants to believe is true.

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17192/courts-2020-election

Arabs: A Warning to Biden about Iran's Mullahs
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  March 25, 2021 at 5:00 am
President Biden's decision to pursue the sanctions against Iran, however, has failed to reduce the fears of many Arabs. They say they remain skeptical about Washington's policy toward the threats posed by the mullahs in Tehran.

"He [Biden] should not make any concessions [to Iran] that do not serve stability in the region. Iran will continue with its tricks and deception to avoid sanctions and attempts to stop it from possessing a nuclear bomb that would pose a danger to countries in the region." — Khaled bin Hamad al-Malek, Saudi newspaper editor and writer, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.
"Iran is an evil, terrorist, and rogue state, and it does not abide by what is agreed upon with it." — Khaled bin Hamad al-Malek, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

"The current Iranian ploy aims to delude the American side into believing that Tehran wants to return to the agreement, but it cannot make concessions due to street pressure, so it needs Washington to drop the sanctions before starting any negotiations.... With regards to Iran, it wants to pursue its goal of achieving nuclear weapons that threaten the region and the world." — Dr. Salem Hameed, Emirati political analyst and academic, Al-Ittihad, March 6, 2021.

"Iran's mullahs are like dangerous poisonous snakes. The mullahs cannot be tamed unless their fangs are completely pulled out. President Biden does not seem to be aware of how dangerous they are." — Mohamed al-Sheikh, prominent Saudi writer, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

The Biden administration, "especially the left-wing of the Democratic Party, still hope to win the mullahs into their camp and pull them out of the Chinese-Russian camp," he remarked.

"The mullahs of Iran are still dreaming of establishing the Great Persian Empire, and for the sake of this goal they are not averse to harnessing all efforts and funds to reach this goal, even if they are forced to be patient." — Mohamed al-Sheikh, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

Former Egyptian diplomat Amr Helmy lashed out at the Biden administration for "dropping" most of the 12 conditions... set for returning to the nuclear agreement with Iran. The conditions ... require Iran... to stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing, provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with unqualified access to all its sites, end its proliferation of ballistic missiles, halt support to Middle East terrorist groups and end its threatening behavior against its neighbors.

"US begging for negotiations [with Iran] will lead to more Iranian intransigence and promote its extremism," [Egyptian political analyst Dr. Tarek] Fahmi said. He warned that the US would be the "biggest loser" if Iran is allowed to continue with its maneuvers and threats against the security of the region. — Al-Ain, March 4, 2021.

Significantly, such voices seem to be shared by a large number of Arabs in different Arab countries – not only the Gulf states.


The Biden administration has decided to extend for another year the "national emergency" (Executive Order 12957), issued in 1995 in response to the threat Iran posed to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the US. This decision, however, has failed to reduce the fears of many Arabs. They say that they remain skeptical about Washington's policy toward the threats posed by the mullahs in Tehran. Pictured: US President Joe Biden at the White House on March 5, 2021, the day he extended Executive Order 12957. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The Biden administration has decided to extend for another year the "national emergency" (Executive Order 12957), issued in 1995 in response to the threat Iran posed to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the US.

The Executive Order imposed a series of sanctions against Iran in response to its support for international terrorism, its efforts to undermine the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and its acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Last week, the White House announced that the "national emergency" must continue beyond March 15, 2021. It quoted President Joe Biden as saying that Iran's actions continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the US. Iran, he added, continues to develop missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities. He also accused Iran of continuing to support terrorist groups throughout the world.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17162/arabs-warning-biden-iran

Soeren Kern: Denmark Cracks Down on "Parallel Societies"
Lawrence A. Franklin: China's Pattern of Anti-U.S. Hostility
Denmark Cracks Down on "Parallel Societies"
by Soeren Kern  •  March 23, 2021 at 5:00 am

"As a society, for too many years we have not made the necessary demands of newcomers. We have had far too low expectations for the refugees and immigrants who came to Denmark. We have not made sufficiently tangible demands on jobs and self-sufficiency. Therefore, too many immigrants have ended up in prolonged inactivity." — Danish government report, "Showdown with Parallel Societies."

The number of residential areas on the government's most recent "ghetto list," published in December 2020, has declined by half in three years, from 29 in 2018 to 15 in 2020. The number of "hardened ghettos" has declined from 15 in 2018 to 13 in 2020. Interior and Housing Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek attributed the decline mainly to more people finding employment or pursuing an education.

"As a society, we must step more into character and stick to our Danish values. We must not accept that democracy is replaced with hatred in parallel societies. Radicalization must not be protected. It must be revealed." — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The Danish government has announced a package of new proposals aimed at fighting "religious and cultural parallel societies" in Denmark. A cornerstone of the plan includes capping the percentage of "non-Western" immigrants and their descendants dwelling in any given residential neighborhood. Pictured: The official opening session of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, on October 6, 2020. (Photo by Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
The Danish government has announced a package of new proposals aimed at fighting "religious and cultural parallel societies" in Denmark. A cornerstone of the plan includes capping the percentage of "non-Western" immigrants and their descendants dwelling in any given residential neighborhood. The aim is to preserve social cohesion in the country by encouraging integration and discouraging ethnic and social self-segregation.

The announcement comes just days after Denmark approved a new law banning the foreign funding of mosques in the country. The government has also recently declared its intention significantly to limit the number of people seeking asylum in Denmark.

Denmark, which already has some of the most restrictive immigration policies in Europe, is now at the vanguard of European efforts to preserve local traditions and values in the face of mass migration, runaway multiculturalism and the encroachment of political Islam.

Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17197/denmark-parallel-societies

China Calling for Civilizational War Against America and the West
by Gordon G. Chang  •  March 22, 2021 at 5:00 am
"Gunpowder" is one of those words Beijing uses when it wants others to know war is on its mind. The term is, more worryingly, also especially emotion-packed, a word Chinese propagandists use when they want to rile mainland Chinese audiences.... China's Communist Party, therefore, is now trying to whip up nationalist sentiment, rallying the Chinese people, perhaps readying them for war.
More fundamentally, Beijing is... trying to divide the world along racial lines and form a global anti-white coalition....
Deng Xiaoping, Mao's mostly pragmatic successor, counseled China to "hide capabilities, bide time." Xi, however, believes China's time has come in part because, he feels, America is in terminal decline.
Xi is serious. In January, he told his fast-expanding military it must be ready to fight "at any second." That month, the Party's Central Military Commission took from the civilian State Council the power to mobilize all of society for war. Militant states rarely prepare for conflict and then back down.
There was a "strong smell of gunpowder" when American and Chinese diplomats met in Anchorage beginning March 18, according to Zhao Lijian of China's foreign ministry. "Gunpowder" is one of those words Beijing uses when it wants others to know war is on its mind. Pictured: American and Chinese diplomats meet at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18, 2021. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
There was a "strong smell of gunpowder" when American and Chinese diplomats met in Anchorage beginning March 18. That's according to Zhao Lijian of China's foreign ministry, speaking just hours after the first day of U.S.-China talks concluded.

"Gunpowder" is one of those words Beijing uses when it wants others to know war is on its mind.

The term is, more worryingly, also especially emotion-packed, a word Chinese propagandists use when they want to rile mainland Chinese audiences by reminding them of foreign — British and white — exploitation of China in the Opium War period of the 19th century. China's Communist Party, therefore, is now trying to whip up nationalist sentiment, rallying the Chinese people, perhaps readying them for war.

More fundamentally, Beijing is, with the gunpowder reference and others, trying to divide the world along racial lines and form a global anti-white coalition.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17196/china-civilizational-war

How Arabs Discriminate Against Palestinians
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  March 19, 2021 at 5:00 am
"Palestinians have effectively been stripped of their identity and travel documents by successive Iraqi governments," according to another report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
In 2003 alone, 344 Palestinian families were forcibly expelled from their homes [in Iraq] by militias. Between 2003 and 2016, an estimated 300 Palestinian refugees were killed by these militias.... Palestinians have been demonized even in social media posts as potential 'terrorists' by accounts linked to the [Iraqi] interior ministry." — Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

In 2017, Iraqi President Fuad Masum approved a law that stripped Palestinian refugees living in Iraq of their rights and classified them as foreigners.

The international reaction would, of course, have been completely different if Israel taken such measures against Palestinians. Evidently, no one really does care about the plight of the Palestinians. They are only cared about if they can be made to appear as victims of Israel, never of an Arab country.

Palestinian leaders are much too busy attacking Israel and demanding that the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecute Israelis for alleged "war crimes" against the Palestinians to notice the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of an Arab country.

The ICC, which appears obsessed with Israel, is unlikely to launch an investigation into Iraq's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Likewise, the United Nations Security Council is unlikely to hold an emergency session to denounce Iraq for its discriminatory measures against the Palestinians. The international media, for its part, will also continue their usually venomous -- and usually unjustified -- attacks on Israel, while ignoring the horrendous treatment the Palestinians receive from their Arab brothers.


Iraq is among the many Arab countries where Palestinians continue to face discriminatory measures and laws. Worse, it seems the Iraqi authorities are carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing against the few thousand Palestinians who still live in Iraq. Pictured: A man rides a bicycle under Palestinian flags hung for the celebrations marking "Al-Quds Day," on May 22, 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has invited Iraq to send observers to monitor the Palestinian parliamentary elections, if and when they are held on May 22. The invitation was extended to Mohamed al-Halbousi, Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, by the PA ambassador to Iraq, Ahmed Akl, during a meeting in Baghdad.

It is not clear whether the Iraqis have accepted the invitation. What is clear, however, is that Iraq is among the many Arab countries where Palestinians continue to face discriminatory measures and laws.

Worse, it seems the Iraqi authorities are carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing against the few thousand Palestinians who still live in Iraq.

According to a recent report, the Iraqi authorities are now demanding that Palestinians who leave Iraq for a period exceeding three months apply for an entry visa.

Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17097/arabs-discrimination-palestinians

Canlorbe: Welcome, Mr. Chang. How do you assess the situation of the new communist giant, namely Xi Jinping's China?
Chang: Xi Jinping now has, in President Biden, the American leader he has always wanted. Biden with his executive orders and other actions has so far given China many gifts and has asked for nothing in return. Among these unilateral concessions are his lifting a ban on Chinese electrical equipment, postponing rules against investments in China's military-linked companies, rejoining the Beijing-dominated World Health Organization, and delaying prohibitions on Chinese apps.
As a result of receiving so many free gifts from Biden, Xi seems more arrogant and is demanding even more.
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17177/stop-xi-jinping

Attention President Biden: Yemen's Houthi Rebels are Iranian-backed Terrorists
by Con Coughlin  •  March 16, 2021 at 5:00 am

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[T]he Houthis have also used the sophisticated weaponry they have received from Iran, such as drones and ballistic missiles, to broaden the conflict into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition military campaign to re-establish Yemen's democratically-elected government.

[US sanctions were] promptly denounced by humanitarian and aid agencies, which claimed that designating the Houthis as terrorists would impede the global effort to help Yemen's starving population, an argument that appears perverse as the Houthis control most of the key aid supply routes, and regularly steal aid supplies to sell on the black market and fund their terrorist operations.

So far this month the Houthis have launched more than 20 drone and missile attacks against predominantly civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. In the most high profile attack, the Houthis used an explosive-laden drone and a ballistic missile against the Saudi petroleum plant at Ras Tanura, prompting global oil prices to rise above $70 a barrel earlier this week, its highest in more than a year.

Mr Biden has indicated he is keen to revive the controversial nuclear deal with Iran and, by easing the pressure on the Houthis, whose success on the battlefield is entirely due to the weapons and support they receive from Tehran, the White House was hoping to send a message to Iran that it was serious about having a constructive dialogue with Tehran. Instead, in the weeks since Mr Biden lifted the FTO, the region has seen a significant increase in Houthi activity.

[B]y helping to facilitate these attacks by providing the Houthis with sophisticated weapons, Tehran is showing that, far from seeking improved relations with the new US administration, it remains committed to pursuing an uncompromising policy of aggression throughout the Middle East, one that is unlikely to result in the resumption of talks on the problematic issue of Iran's nuclear programme anytime soon.


So far this month the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched more than 20 drone and missile attacks against predominantly civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. Pictured: Supporters of the Houthis protest against the US designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, on January 20, 2021, in Sanaa, Yemen. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden has good reason to regret his hasty decision to remove the terrorist designation applied to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen after they responded to his act of benevolence by unleashing a fresh wave of attacks in the Middle East.

The Houthis and their Iranian backers are primarily responsible for starting Yemen's long and bitter civil war after they overthrew the democratically-elected government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2014.

Apart from helping to create what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian disaster, the Houthis have also used the sophisticated weaponry they have received from Iran, such as drones and ballistic missiles, to broaden the conflict into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition military campaign to re-establish Yemen's democratically-elected government.

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17165/yemen-houthi-rebels-terrorists

Denmark Bans Foreign Funding of Mosques
by Soeren Kern  •  March 15, 2021 at 5:00 am

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"The mosque is a gift from Qatar but it's not free. I have always said that they will expect something in return, and this shows that they are making some claims for their money." — Lars Aslan Rasmussen, Copenhagen city councilman.

Officials from nearly all of Denmark's main political parties have expressed their support for the bill to ban foreign funding of mosques.

"It is a real problem if donations are made from organizations that want to undermine fundamental democratic values." — Foreign Affairs Minister Mattias Tesfaye.


Denmark's first purpose-built mosque — the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, officially known as the Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center — opened in June 2014 after receiving a donation of 227 million Danish kroner (€30 million; $36 million) from Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, the former emir of Qatar. Pictured: Qatar's Minister of Religious Affairs Ghaith bin Mubarak Ali Omran Al-Kuwari (second from left) takes part in the official opening ceremony of the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, on June 19, 2014. (Photo by Thomas Lekfeldt/AFP via Getty Images)
The Danish Parliament has approved a new law that bans foreign governments from financing mosques in Denmark. The measure is aimed at preventing Muslim countries, particularly Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, from promoting Islamic extremism in Danish mosques and prayer facilities.

Denmark joins a growing list of European countries — including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland — which have taken varying degrees of action to prevent foreign governments from financing the construction and upkeep of mosques on their territories.

In recent years, Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, among others, have distributed hundreds of millions of euros to finance the spread of Islam in Europe.

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17167/denmark-mosques-foreign-funds

Biden Can Trigger a Regional War by Reviving the Nuclear Deal
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  March 15, 2021 at 4:00 am

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Governments in the Middle East have a valid reason to be concerned about the nuclear deal. They have already witnessed its negative consequences.

[T]his would have not been the outcome if Israel and other regional powers had been part of the negotiations.

The composition of the current negotiating team, similar to the previous one, completely excludes those on Iran's doorstep. In an approach reminiscent of the bygone colonial era, it remains a policy set by governments thousands of miles away.

Arab nations have already seen the consequences of the previous attempt at striking a nuclear deal. The Iranian-armed Houthis simply ratcheted up efforts to cause death and destruction in Yemen, and Hezbollah escalated its involvement and control of large swathes of Syrian territory.

By returning to a deal which brought nothing but heightened destruction and instability to the region, the Biden administration would be abandoning old allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia – which at least has begun instituting reforms -- and instead empowering a regime that remains an existential threat to the entire Middle East.

By returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- also known as Iran nuclear deal -- which brought nothing but heightened destruction and instability to the Middle East, the Biden administration would be abandoning old allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, and instead empowering a regime that remains an existential threat to the entire Middle East. Pictured: Then Vice President Joe Biden meets with then Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal at the Riyadh airbase in Saudi Arabia on October 27, 2011. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration, deep down, unfortunately seems to wish to forge ahead with its agenda to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- also known as the Iran nuclear deal, which, incidentally, Iran never signed -- and subsequently to lift sanctions against Tehran.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17166/biden-iran-deal-war

China and Military Power through Artificial Intelligence
by Peter Schweizer  •  March 13, 2021 at 5:00 am

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Complacency or eased trade restrictions on dual-use technology would be the greater danger. So would any backing-off of counter-espionage investigations into Chinese bribery of American university professors or further infiltrations of PLA-linked Chinese nationals into research centers in the U.S. Both are prime examples of Beijing's willingness to play a long game as regards theft of intellectual property that has potential military applications.

Interestingly, there is another Chinese firm that is often mentioned in discussions of China's push into facial recognition AI development. The company known as Megvii produces a software application called Face++ that has secured many patents in the use of AI for surveillance technologies. One of that company's stakeholders? Bohai Harvest RST, the investment company started by Hunter Biden and his business partners.

We have seen that China is one of the many practitioners of the "Princeling" strategy, which enriches the associates or family members of powerful politicians in order to grease the skids for deals that, if considered on their own merits, would likely not be allowed by the national security gatekeepers whose mission is to protect valuable military technology from getting into the hands of America's adversaries.

Military use of artificial intelligence may well determine the outcome of the next war, and it is far too strategic to American national security to look away for even a moment from the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party.


China's military buildup threatens its neighbors and regional stability in the Far East. Military use of artificial intelligence may well determine the outcome of the next war, and it is far too strategic to American national security to look away for even a moment from the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party. (Image source: iStock)
China's military buildup threatens its neighbors and regional stability in the Far East. Beijing's aggressive military expansion has made its navy the largest in the world, and it has been flexing its maritime muscle in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific region. It continues to build its ballistic missile capacities as well.

Further, China's expertise in cyber-warfare is both well-established and feared. It has allowed the PRC to hack into computers and steal intellectual property, as well as other cyber crimes.

But the junction of China's growing cyber capabilities and its aggressive military buildup is in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to military weapons and systems.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17110/china-military-artificial-intelligence

Palestinians: Why Terrorists Support Mass Murderers
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  March 12, 2021 at 5:00 am

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For Hamas and Islamic Jihad, what matters is the money and weapons coming from Iran. They see Soleimani as a hero because of his role in providing the Gaza-based terror groups with cash and weapons in order to continue their jihad (holy war) against Israel and Jews.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and all of Iran's militias throughout the Middle East have a single goal in common: the annihilation of Israel.

"Instead of providing a fish or teaching how to catch a fish, we taught our allies and friends how to make a hook," Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, adding that Hamas and Hezbollah are now in possession of advanced missile technologies.

Soleimani, the man responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs, is being commemorated as a hero and martyr by these terrorist groups because he was supplying them with cash and weapons. His death has not stopped Iran from continuing its support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

This is why the next US administration must maintain pressure on the mullahs in Iran. An easing of the sanctions will embolden the terrorist groups and facilitate their mission of pursuing their jihad against Israel. Iran's proxies want to see Israel obliterated -- and if that means aligning themselves with mass murderers such as Soleimani, so be it.

While many Palestinians hold Iran's slain military commander Qassem Soleimani responsible for committing massacres against Palestinians and Arabs, especially in war-torn Syria, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continue to heap praise on him for supporting their anti-Israel terrorism. Pictured: A billboard in Gaza City honoring the memory of Soleimani, with a caption quoting Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, describing Soleimani as a "martyr of Jerusalem," photographed on December 29, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
While many Palestinians hold Iran's slain military commander Qassem Soleimani responsible for committing massacres against Palestinians and Arabs, especially in war-torn Syria, the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are continuing to heap praise on him for supporting their anti-Israel terrorist activities.

Soleimani, former commander of Iran's Quds Force, was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq on January 3, 2020. Many Palestinians and Arabs have denounced Soleimani as the "murderer of hundreds of thousands of women and children" in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

The Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad have marked the anniversary of his death by hanging large billboards with Soleimani's picture in some areas of the Gaza Strip. The two terror groups say they miss Soleimani, whom they describe as the "martyr of Jerusalem."

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16931/palestinians-terrorists-murderers-soleimani

Turkey: Erdoğan's War on Peace
by Burak Bekdil  •  March 11, 2021 at 5:00 am

The margin of victory [by the opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoglu in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election] shocked Erdoğan and his party establishment. That night marked an unforgettable defeat for the invincible Erdoğan. It also marked a new, advanced phase in Islamists' war on Kurds.

Erdoğan advocates more subtle ways to intimidate opposition. He has been jailing HDP's democratically elected leaders, MPs and mayors, and appointing trustees in their place.

Erdoğan does not have to shut down the HDP when he has de facto crippled it. The party's two co-chairmen, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, have been in jail since 2016.

In February, the crackdown took a new ugly turn. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a former Islamist, human rights activist and HDP MP, retweeted a post in 2016, advocating peace in the Kurdish dispute. A Turkish court sentenced him to 2½ years in jail for the retweet -- although, ironically, the original tweet source had not been indicted. In February the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld Gergerlioglu's sentence for "spreading terrorist propaganda" -- five years after the retweet.

Erdogan's Kurdish problem, however, has the potential to cost him more than just Istanbul. Research found that the fertility rate in the Kurdish-speaking, eastern part of Turkey was 3.41, as opposed to an average of 2.09 in the Turkish-speaking, non-eastern areas. Kurdish votes in the presidential election year 2023 may reach seven million: Kurds could be the kingmakers.


There are signs that more and more Kurds in Turkey feel disenchanted by the hawkish policy of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A poll in February found that a quarter of Kurds who had previously voted for Erdoğan said they would not vote for him again. Erdoğan's war on peace may prove self-defeating. Pictured: Erdoğan on March 10, 2021. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
The race for the Istanbul election on March 31, 2019 went full steam ahead. Islamist parties had controlled Turkey's biggest city since 1994 – a full 25 years. Istanbul was not just another city to win for any party. Turkey's Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had put it: "Who wins Istanbul, wins Turkey."

In the run-up to the 2019 election, Erdoğan realized that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) might lose if Istanbul's two million or so Kurds voted for the opposition candidate, Ekrem İmamoglu. What to do? State broadcaster TRT read a statement from Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization. Öcalan's letter called on Kurds to remain neutral between the government and opposition candidates. That would result in de facto support for the AKP candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.
MORE https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17149/erdogan-war-kurds

Arabs Warn Biden: We Do Not Want Another Obama
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  March 4, 2021 at 5:00 am

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The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, "has adopted a policy of "antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies."

[Syrian journalist Abduljalil] Alsaeid said he believed that former Obama administration officials, who are now part of the Biden administration, are intentionally trying to damage US-Saudi relations.

"The Obama wing inside the ruling Democratic Party accepts the Iranian regime and turns a blind eye to Iran's terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon." — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Syrian journalist, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.

"President Biden has the right to talk about America's democratic values, but why have these values ​​not been expanded to hold Hezbollah accountable for the recent killing of [anti-Hezbollah Lebanese publisher] Loqman Slim or the slaughter of thousands of thousands of Syrians by pro-Iranian groups?" — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.

The Biden administration was "rewarding Iranian despotism while punishing Saudi Arabia." — Emad El Din Adeeb, a prominent Egyptian businessman and famous political television show host, elsharkonline com, March 3, 2021.

The Biden administration was dealing harshly with Riyadh "because of one crime, the killing of Khashoggi, while rehabilitating Tehran, which has carried out a million crimes worse than Khashoggi's crime." — Emad El Din Adeeb, al-ain.com, March 3, 2021.

Adeeb pointed out that Iran was continuing with its human rights violations while Saudi Arabia has in recent years embarked on large-scale reforms.

According to al-Sawafi, the release of the report on the slain Saudi journalist was a sign that the Biden administration "stands against the aspirations of the Saudi and Gulf people in achieving reform and stability.

"Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was right when he asserted that the Iranian regime understands only the language of force." — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Saudi columnist and political activist, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021.

The last three years of the Obama presidency were "catastrophic in every sense of this word," al-Harthi said. "Will Biden fall into the same trap? Washington's standing declined during the Obama presidency. Will Biden repeat Obama's fatal mistakes? The US dealings at the time with regional issues were a source of ridicule, as Washington delivered Iraq and Afghanistan on a golden platter to Iran and supported the Muslim Brotherhood." — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021.


Prominent Arab political analysts and commentators are dumbfounded that the Biden administration has chosen to appease Iran and Islamists instead of working with Washington's traditional and long-time allies in the Arab world. Pictured: Then Vice President Joe Biden (left) speaks with then Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (center) at the Riyadh airbase in Saudi Arabia on October 27, 2011. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Prominent Arab political analysts and commentators are dumbfounded that the Biden administration has chosen to appease Iran and Islamists instead of working with Washington's traditional and long-time allies in the Arab world.

In a series of articles published after the release of the US intelligence report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, many Arab analysts and columnists have warned that the Biden administration was harming US interests in the Middle East.

Some said they saw the decision to release the report as a kind of sequel to the Obama administration's failed policy of meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

He noted that the Saudi authorities had already punished those involved in the 2018 murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, "has adopted a policy of "antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies."
Continue Reading Article 
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17138/arabs-biden-obama

Europe Divided Over Covid Passports
by Soeren Kern  •  March 3, 2021 at 5:00 am

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Tourism-dependent countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, are urging other EU states to adopt Covid passports, which would be modeled on the "green passport" system implemented by Israel.

"We know that in Israel they've made statements about anybody who tries to forge [a certificate] will face criminal proceedings and possibly be imprisoned. So, they really think that this is a risk that could happen." — Professor Carsten Maple, cyber security expert, Alan Turing Institute.

"In consultation with other EU member states, we are in favor of a digital green passport, similar to the one in #Israel. This should offer the possibility to prove on the mobile phone that one has been tested, vaccinated or recovered. Our goal: to avoid a permanent lockdown & finally to enable freedom to travel within the EU as well as to visit events or restaurants." — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Greece is pressing the EU to move quickly.... But would these certificates only be required for international travel or could they be needed for getting a job, attending a football match, or buying some milk? — Professor Melinda Mills, lead author of the Royal Society report on Covid passports.

"Yet making freedom conditional on facing the needle... takes us perilously close to the concept of compulsory vaccination... hardly likely to reassure anyone whose fear of the vaccine is bound up with a fear of an authoritarian state." — Gaby Hinsliff, columnist, Guardian.


Tourism-dependent countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, are urging other EU states to adopt Covid passports, which would be modeled on the "green passport" system implemented by Israel (pictured).
European leaders are considering a proposal to introduce a common EU-wide Coronavirus vaccination passport. The so-called Covid passports would permit those who have been vaccinated to travel freely within the European Union without the need for quarantining and testing.

The leaders of several European countries heavily dependent on tourism are pushing for Covid passports to be implemented with immediate effect. Others say that it is far too early to consider such a move, especially because the EU's Coronavirus vaccine rollout has been dogged by delays and questions about the efficacy of certain vaccines, particularly in light of the virus's new mutant strains.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17131/europe-covid-passports

Palestinian Terrorists to Biden: Do Not Believe the Palestinian Leadership
by Bassam Tawil  •  March 2, 2021 at 5:00 am
Who exactly is the Palestinian Authority leadership lying to and why?

Hamas issued a statement on February 25 in which it denied that the group had changed its attitude toward Israel. "Our political and national positions are well known and clear," Hamas said. "They are expressed in our official documents and publications. We remain committed to the resistance until the liberation [of all of Palestine]."

Hamas "will pursue its resistance program until the liberation of the Palestinian land, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea." — Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader, alalamtv.net, February 20, 2021.

The Palestinian terror groups certainly deserve credit for being upfront about their true, lethal intentions toward Israel. Unlike the PA leadership, these terror organizations speak in a single and straightforward voice. Their message in Arabic and English is clear: we will spill as much Jewish blood as it takes to rid "Palestine" of the Jews.

Abbas is seeking to fool the Biden administration into believing that he has managed to persuade the terror groups to transform themselves into peace-seeking organizations. Abbas is utterly desperate for US funding. He is lying through his teeth to get the Biden administration to resume pumping cash into his regime -- which is bankrupt in every possible sense of the word.

It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will allow itself to be hoodwinked by the PA's master magician.


The Palestinian Authority claims that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have renounced terrorism and accepted Israel's right to exist. Hamas and the Palestinian factions, however, say this is not true and that they remain committed to "all forms of resistance" against Israel, including an "armed struggle." Pictured: Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinian Authority (PA) claims that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have renounced terrorism and accepted Israel's right to exist.

Hamas and the Palestinian factions, however, say this is not true and that they remain committed to "all forms of resistance" against Israel, including an "armed struggle."

They are also stressing that they have not recognized Israel's right to exist and are determined to pursue the fight "until the liberation of all of Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Hamas and its allies, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are actually saying that the PA leadership is lying when it says that the terror groups have changed their attitude toward Israel.

This raises the question: Who exactly is the PA leadership lying to and why?

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17108/palestinian-terrorists-biden

The US and the UN Nuclear Inspectors Must Stop Appeasing Iran
by Con Coughlin  •  March 1, 2021 at 5:00 am
In the latest example of Iran's increasingly reckless approach to the nuclear issue, the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, just below the 90 percent threshold required to produce weapons grade material.

Thus, while IAEA director general Rafael Grossi claimed the talks had been a success, the IAEA now finds itself in the invidious position whereby it will not be able to ascertain whether Iran is actively working to produce nuclear weapons until after the event.

Even Mr Grossi has been forced to concede that, as a result of Iran's decision to withdraw access to inspection teams, the IAEA's ability to monitor Iran's activities will be reduced by 70 percent.

In the latest blow to the IAEA's credibility, within hours of Mr Grossi concluding his compromise deal, Mr Khamenei exposed the futility of this approach with his threat that Iran was prepared to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, a move that would make any attempt to revive the JCPOA utterly doomed.

As Iran continues to maintain its defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, the failure of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-body responsible for monitoring Iran's activities, is only lending further encouragement to the ayatollahs to indulge in further acts of dangerous brinkmanship. Pictured: IAEA director general Rafael Grossi at the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on November 18, 2020. (Photo by Christian Bruna/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
As Iran continues to maintain its defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, the failure of the UN-body responsible for monitoring Iran's activities is only lending further encouragement to the ayatollahs to indulge in further acts of dangerous brinkmanship.

In the latest example of Iran's increasingly reckless approach to the nuclear issue, the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, just below the 90 percent threshold required to produce weapons grade material.

The ayatollah's threat, moreover, which was made on state-run television, came just hours after Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear programme, made an emergency visit to Tehran after the regime announced it would no longer allow IAEA inspection teams to visit key sites.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17109/nuclear-inspectors-iran