Friday, April 18, 2025

04/18 Links Pt1: Now It Can Be Told: Hamas Is Mortal; Mike Pompeo: We Don’t Need a Fake Deal With Iran; What the Shapiro attack tells us about America in 2025

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Now It Can Be Told: Hamas Is Mortal
This follows a familiar pattern: Israeli and American officials say something that is grounded in experience and rationality and thus is likely correct. The world bellows a collective How dare you? and rolls on. Eventually what the Israeli and American officials said is proved true. No one says “sorry.”

It has long been apparent that if there is hunger in Gaza it is because of Hamas, and if there is poverty in Gaza it is because—primarily at least—of Hamas. The terror group hijacked food aid and then impoverished civilians by raising prices of the very food they were supposed to be given.

Unlike humanitarian aid, which is physical, some aid groups have been able to get money to Gazan civilians through digital cash apps. But to buy their own “free” food back, Gazans then have to use a money-changer to turn that digital currency into cash, and the money-changer probably works for Hamas and charges, according to the Journal, a commission of 20 percent. If the Gazans are able to make it that far into the process, they must then use the “free” money to buy the “free” food at exorbitant prices. Which means in the end, they have paid dearly for less food than they probably should’ve gotten for free.

This is the miracle of “humanitarian aid.”

Now that the aid has been suspended, the Journal reports, “Salary payments to many Gaza government employees have ceased, while many senior Hamas fighters and political staff began receiving only about half of their pay midway through last month’s Ramadan holy period, the intelligence officials said.”

Plus, “the Israeli military has said it killed a money changer who was key to what it called terrorist financing for Hamas.”

This is how you defeat a terrorist army. Hamas isn’t an idea; it’s a human organization surviving on physical goods and paper money. Deprive it of those things and watch it disintegrate.
Trump Admin Eyes Fresh Hamas Sanctions Under 'Human Shield' Law That Biden Admin Ignored
The Trump administration is eyeing fresh sanctions on Hamas over the terror group's use of Gazan civilians as human shields—and using a longstanding law that the Biden administration ignored to do so, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

During President Donald Trump's first stint in the White House, in 2018, Congress passed a law requiring the president to sanction terrorist entities, including Hamas and Hezbollah, that use "innocent civilians as human shields." In the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack, lawmakers amended the legislation to include mention of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and to compel the Department of Defense to submit a report on its work "hold[ing] accountable terrorist organizations for the use of human shields."

Biden, who repeatedly condemned Hamas for using human shields, signed the law as part of an April 2024 package that provided emergency aid to both Israel and Ukraine. But his administration never unveiled sanctions that cited the law and never submitted the human shields report to Congress, according to a senior Senate aide, prompting bipartisan criticism. Now, Treasury and State Department officials are pledging to reverse course as part of a broader "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign on Tehran and its terror proxies.

The push comes as Hamas struggles to pay its rank-and-file fighters amid a halt in humanitarian aid that Hamas seizes and sells to generate funds. Additional sanctions, then, could further bankrupt Hamas.

The powers granted under the human shield law allow the Trump administration to target any terror leader who has authorized the use of human shields, giving the administration broad flexibility to sanction virtually anyone tied to the practice—past and present. Penalties could include the seizure of all property and assets belonging to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members. Though some of those penalties are in effect through existing sanctions, the Treasury Department said it is keen to use "every tool available" to ensure Hamas gets no reprieve from punitive measures.

"It comes as no surprise that the Biden Administration enabled these terrorists through inaction, but we are pleased to be reversing course in order to keep Americans and our allies safe," a Treasury spokesman told the Free Beacon in a statement.

"The Treasury Department is proud to use every tool available to us, working in close coordination with the entire Trump Administration to hold Hamas and other terrorists accountable for horrific actions which clearly violate U.S. and international law."
Seth Mandel: A Mall in Ramallah
Most hilariously, Haaretz quotes Ramy Abdu, the head of an NGO whose sickening fealty to Hamas repulses Palestinians too. Abdu, one of the most widely reviled anti-democracy activists in the conflict, whines that the director of the mall is Qassam Barghouti, son of Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian politician in Israeli jail for his alleged role in numerous terrorist attacks. Barghouti is also considered a serious challenger to PA President Mahmoud Abbas should he be released by Israel. Were Barghouti to eventually become Palestinian president, his constituents would surely benefit more from the construction of shopping centers and the opening of employment opportunities than from an endless commitment to bloodshed apparently preferred by Abdu.

And that’s the crux of it, really. Statehood and self-determination is not as attractive to these Palestinian activists as is mutual, perpetual misery. Who wants food and jobs when you could have war?

In fact, the real objection of so many Palestinian pundits to signs of normality and commerce is the contrast they set with Gaza. Palestinians have made choices over the years. Those choices have resulted in two different national projects: one looks like the West Bank and one looks like Gaza. Which is the more desirable path forward?

The Icon Mall isn’t going to bring peace. But it has a Palestinian branch of an Israeli luxury textiles chain, and that puts Ramallah closer to coexistence with Israel than pretty much every U.S. college campus.

Considering Gaza’s real estate and the unholy gobs of money the world throws at it, Gaza could out-gleam Ramallah any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Gaza’s condition today is what happens when you take all that human and physical capital and put it in Hamas’s hands.

The Palestinian-governed parts of the West Bank aren’t exactly a land of endless prosperity. And the Abbas-run PA is an incompetent and corrupt bureaucratic dinosaur. Yet there is still such a difference between that and Gaza.

The Palestinian pundits and activists quoted by Haaretz don’t want that difference to be emphasized. But Palestinians ought to know how much better their lives would be without Hamas or another death cult in charge. In that sense, the son of an imprisoned terrorist opening an enormous mall in Ramallah is what we call generational progress, even if we’re grading on a Palestinian curve.


The Untold Story of How Israel Failed on October 7
The Hebrew word mechdal has no precise equivalent in English. It signifies a great catastrophe for which human beings are responsible by inaction, error, or irresponsibility. The Yom Kippur War of 1973, which began when an unprepared IDF was taken by surprise by simultaneous Syrian and Egyptian attacks, has often been referred to as a mechdal. The October 7, 2023, attack was an even greater mechdal.

The more you learn about the events of that day, the more it seems that almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. In fact, things could easily have gone far worse.

That the attacks did not kill many more people, and have a vastly more destructive effect on the State of Israel, was largely thanks to the extraordinary heroism of civilian defense teams, local police units, and small groups of soldiers who fought Hamas attacks on communities, cities, and key junctions even as nearby IDF garrisons were overrun. The thanks also goes to special-forces teams that were the first to arrive in the south in response to the invasion.

All these defenders were both outnumbered and outgunned by the Hamas Qassam Brigades that formed the majority of the invaders. (The Israeli special-forces teams that raced to the south expected to confront five- to 10-man groups of terrorist infiltrators, not to be caught up in long, intense battles against 100 or more trained infantry with a vast supply of ammunition.) Many did not survive long enough to be rescued by the Israeli army when its battalions finally arrived that afternoon.

Then came Israel’s Dunkirk-in-reverse: the heroic response of hundreds of Israelis, many of them reservists and retirees, but also active-duty soldiers who did not wait for orders but raced down to the Gaza envelope in private vehicles, rifles and pistols in hand. The fact that these volunteers were able to get so quickly to Route 232 (the sole highway to the battle zone, and the road on which so many were killed by Hamas ambush) makes the many hours it took for sizeable IDF units to get to the combat zone look all the worse.

Errors and indiscipline on the part of otherwise disturbingly impressive Hamas invasion forces also prevented deeper disaster. At least two convoys of Hamas attack trucks got lost, including the one that came upon the Nova music festival while trying to get to the city of Netivot. Some Hamas Nukhba (elite) units that were apparently instructed to penetrate deeper into Israel after overrunning nearby posts and communities chose instead to indulge in hours of looting, rape, and corpse-mutilation alongside Gazan civilians, before eventually returning to Gaza with their material and human booty.

The Blame Game. Certain Israeli institutions and individuals share particular blame for the disaster, alongside the prime minister and his cabinet, who bear ultimate responsibility by virtue of their position. Among those individuals are the men (and they were all men) then in charge of the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Shin Bet security service, the Defense Ministry, and the generals and colonels who at the time headed the IDF’s Gaza Division and Southern Command.

But responsibility for the mechdal goes much wider. While conducting interviews for a British parliamentary report on October 7, one overseen by the historian Andrew Roberts and published this March, I and a small team of researchers from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on UK-Israel, were struck by evidence of deeper unpreparedness that could not all be laid at the feet of the current administration and the current senior leadership of the military and security services. The more people we spoke to, the clearer it became that October 7 was the product of vast systemic failure. Moreover, Hamas’s shocking, murderous triumph depended as much on relatively long-term trends that had led to the decline of the IDF as a conventional army as on the disastrous failings of the intelligence community and the policies of the Netanyahu administration.

This is why the instant historical analogies of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 may be less apposite than a comparison to the British loss of Singapore to imperial Japan in February 1942. That epochal defeat—the largest in the history of the British Empire after Yorktown during the Revolutionary War—was also accompanied and followed by atrocities and war crimes against both civilians and soldiers. It was enabled by willful strategic blindness, poor planning, foolish faith in the colony’s fortifications—and, once fighting began, by the poor performance of under-trained troops badly led by their commanders at every level, followed by abject failures of coordination and communication in battle. At bottom of the failure lay an attitude toward the Japanese that hubristically combined arrogance with unmerited and ill-informed contempt for the enemy’s military capability. Every one of those factors was present in Israel’s October 7 mechdal.
More than 1,000 bereaved families urge continuation of war
More than 1,000 bereaved Israeli families signed a letter published by the Gvura (Heroism) Forum, strongly opposing calls to end the war in Gaza without victory or to refuse military service.

The signatories, who lost relatives to Israel’s wars and Palestinian terrorist attacks, argue that halting the war before achieving its objectives poses a severe threat to national security.

In their message, which highlights some of the fissures with other hostage family organizations, these families implored the government not to yield to pressure, writing: “Do not stop—continue and win the war.”

The letter, published on Friday, was a direct response to recent public appeals against the resumption of military operations, particularly those motivated by concerns over the fate of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

According to the Gvura Forum, signatories include families who have lost loved ones in the current war, dubbed “Operation Swords of Iron,” as well as in previous military conflicts and acts of terrorism. The letter emphasizes that the war must continue until all goals are achieved: the return of the hostages, the destruction of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the elimination of other threats there to Israel.

The families recalled the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led a brutal attack on Israeli civilians, killing, raping, burning and abducting men, women, and children. They describe the war as one of national survival—“a war that was forced upon us and is more just than any other.”

The letter underscores the sacrifices made by Israeli soldiers and families, calling the war effort vital to ensuring that such a massacre never happens again. While recognizing the progress made, the families insist the mission is incomplete and that ending the war prematurely would invite future atrocities.

The Gvura Forum has consistently supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance against a hostage deal that would involve releasing imprisoned terrorists or ceasing military operations. In closing, the letter sends a message of support to the prime minister: “We stand with the government of Israel and its leader—do not stop. Continue, and win the war.”

Separately, the Tikva Forum for Hostages’ Families also condemned recent letters advocating for a ceasefire. Such appeals, it warned, endanger both the hostages and Israeli soldiers. The forum said that many of the letter writers are radical left-wing activists using the hostage issue to push political agendas disconnected from Israel’s security reality.


‘Superman’ musician revamps 9/11 song to honor Hamas hostages, urges anti-Israel protesters, other artists to ‘get on the right side of history
When Alon Ohel is finally home from his brutal life in Hamas’ clutches in the tunnels deep beneath Gaza, the first thing his mother wants him to touch is a keyboard, she told The Post on Wednesday.

The classically trained pianist has always found his strength and purpose in music, Idit Ohel said of her son, so when John Ondrasik — better known by his stage name, Five for Fighting — offered to help bring renewed attention to the more than 20 Israeli hostages still being held by the terrorists after their kidnapping on Oct. 7, 2023, it felt like a perfect fit.

“Music has a way of getting to people. Music helps people connect, connect to the situation that Alon is in,” she said.

“This is important because Alon is still alive. Alon is alive, and he is in a very bad condition. We need people to understand that.”

Ondrasik re-recorded his somber 2000 hit “Superman” — which comforted many in the aftermath of 9/11 — for Alon and the remaining roughly 24 living hostages, tweaking some of the lyrics to fit the undying hope that they will soon return home.

In the revamped version, Ondrasik — also a pianist — croons: “I wish that I could cry/ fall upon my knees/ find a way to lie/ ’bout a home I’ll never say” to “… find a way to fly/ to a home I will soon see.”

“We changed a few to kind of recognize the spiritual fortitude of families like Idit and the hostages who’ve been released that are superhuman and the hope that everybody carries,” Ondrasik said.

“‘Superman,’ I think, resonated and still does, because it’s really about our own innate humanity and that we can’t be Superman, and that we are vulnerable and we can’t be everything for everyone.”


Former Hamas Hostage, Nova Survivor to Debut Artwork Inspired by Captivity in NYC Solo Exhibit
Andrei Kozlov, a Russian-Israeli artist who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and rescued in an Israeli operation last year, will have a solo art exhibition in New York City next month that will feature 12 original pieces heavily inspired by his time in captivity.

The invitation-only exhibit is titled “So-Real Surreal: An October 7th Survivor’s Story” and will take place on May 8 at Lux Contemporary, located in Chelsea.

Kozlov, 28, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has always had a passion for art, specifically painting and drawing in acrylic, oil or just a pencil and paper, he recently told The Algemeiner. He moved to Israel in August 2022 and on Oct. 7, 2023, he was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage at the Nova music festival, where he was working as a security guard, and across southern Israel. Kozlov was held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for eight months and one day until he was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces, along with three other hostages, during a daring IDF operation on June 8, 2024. Upon his return to Israel, Kozlov took a few months to rest and recovery from the trauma he faced in Hamas captivity, but then picked up the paintbrush once again, he told The Algemeiner.

“I started to paint again and I figured out that I have something to show people, first of all about my experience,” he said. “It’s really close to my heart to paint.”

Kozlov met Jewish art dealer and gallerist Emanuel Friedman during a trip to New York, and together they assembled the solo exhibit that will take place at Friedman’s Lux Contemporary.

Some of Kozlov’s artwork that will be on display are inspired by thoughts and emotions he has about his time in captivity. “I have been influenced by this experience on my soul and on my mind,” he said. He has also drawn various scenes he remembers from his experience. He said some of the artwork are based on memories and “looks real,” while the experience “was so surreal.”

He also painted “little things that I remember, most of all, that gave me hope during captivity,” he added. “By accident, I put my hope and faith into these little things. For example, I saw a lot of times, two months before I was rescued, a little bird behind the window and I was able to just see its shadow. Or it was a little electronic candle that the terrorists gave us, to be able to see something in the completely dark room. And on the day when they brought us to Gaza, I saw a couple of times pictures on the wall, just maybe it was posters, with the cartoon Bambi.”


Negotiations continue despite Hamas refusing ceasefire deal, source tells 'Post'
Negotiations for a hostage-ceasefire deal will continue despite Hamas's refusal of Israel's proposal, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

Israel also plans to intensify military and diplomatic pressure, according to the official.

"We will not agree to end the war on Hamas's terms, with them in power — backed by extensive international guarantees that would allow them to regroup and rearm. The future of Gaza can only be shaped after Hamas is eliminated, both militarily and as a governing-civil entity," the official told the Post.

The official also noted that Israel had not received an official statement with regard to Hamas's rejection of the proposal.

On Thursday, Hamas rejected Israel's proposal to release 10 hostages in exchange for 45 days of ceasefire.

Hamas's rejection of the proposal
Hamas negotiating team head Khalil al-Hayya on Thursday said in a statement, "We will not accept partial deals that serve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's political agenda," he said.

Netanyahu’s partial agreements are a cover for his agenda based on continuing the annihilation, even at the cost of sacrificing his captives," he said in the statement. "We welcome the position of the American envoy Adam Boehler to end the issue of the captives and the war together, which aligns with the movement’s position.”
Not Just Hamas: PA Religious Leaders Agree That Islam Prohibits Israel’s Existence
One mistake made by world leaders and even many Israeli leaders, is to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a secular Muslim leadership that rejects religious war for Allah — as opposed to Hamas. But this is a fundamental misreading of Palestinians and the conflict.

Fundamentally, the Palestinian Authority’s political leaders, like Hamas’ leaders, and like most of the Palestinian population, are religious Muslims first and Palestinians second.

The message of all PA religious leaders — some appointed by Mahmoud Abbas himself — is to deny Israel’s right to exist on religious Islamic grounds.

According to PA belief, Islamic law states that land that was once under Muslim rule must be liberated from the infidels as a mandatory religious obligation. Since the land of Israel was under Muslim Ottoman rule for four centuries, the PA is prohibited from making a permanent treaty with Israel that it intends to keep.

PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem explained this “fact” to worshippers at a mosque in Ramallah during a Friday sermon that was broadcast by official PA TV:
PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem: “The Shari’ah legal law of this land, for anyone who doesn’t know, is that it is a waqf land … from its [Mediterranean] Sea to its [Jordan] River, this is its Shari’ah law, from its sea to its river.

The laws of this waqf determine that its status cannot be changed, not by sale and not by purchase, not by collateral and not by exchange… not by addition and not by subtraction… As for the [end] date of this waqf: It is forever and ever, and for all eternity, until Allah inherits the earth and those on it.”

[Official PA TV, Feb. 14, 2025]

Following other PA religious leaders, Al-Qirem taught listeners that “Palestine” — including all of the State of Israel — is a waqf. A waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law.

Palestinians define all of Israel as waqf, and thereby Israel exists on Islamic holy land. Palestinian leaders have explained that under Islamic law Muslims are commanded to free the waqf from non-Muslims.

Similarly, PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who is also PA leader Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, has taught that the Western Wall is exclusively Islamic — according to Allah -– and that Muslims are obligated to fight anyone who challenges this right:
Mike Pompeo: We Don’t Need a Fake Deal With Iran
American isolationists on the right, and their allies in Obama-aligned think tanks in Washington, suggest there are only two options—“war or a deal.” This weakens our position and wanders blindly into the false dichotomy the Iranians want us to believe.

This “war or deal” narrative is being peddled by many of the “populist” Tucker Carlson-esque isolationists who have burrowed inside President Trump’s orbit. They repeat this mantra, exactly as President Barack Obama and Secretary John Kerry repeated endlessly—and wrongly.

This is propaganda. It is a false choice propagated by those who would prefer to coddle the regime in Tehran and cut a deal that will ensure that Iran obtains a full-on nuclear weapons program over time. Ironically, this outcome makes war more, not less, likely.

There are a range of options other than war or surrender.

As CIA director and secretary of state, I observed the United States’s wide array of tools to achieve important outcomes. I can tell you it’s not “war or a deal.” Breathless bleating from Carlson’s camp about “war or a deal” is not only wrong, it uses the same failed logic as from the deep-state careerists I would hear from at the State Department who attempted to thwart President Trump’s agenda.

Just as President Trump did for the last 18 months of his first term, we can apply maximum pressure and deter Iran by denying it the resources it needs to foment terror, rebuild the Shia Crescent, and obtain weapons of mass destruction. Our chokehold on the Iranian regime’s wealth in the first Trump term was effective. Iran was all but broke after less than two years of maximum pressure. The Ayatollah would have faced a massive resource shortfall had President Biden and his team not provided succor to the Iranian regime before Trump’s second term.

Israel, too, sees the opportunity and may well go back to the Begin Doctrine, when then-Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin struck Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, without the blessing of the American president at the time, Ronald Reagan. In essence: Act with U.S. support if possible, but alone when necessary, to prevent a nuclear neighbor from arising.

I’m confident that President Trump understands the range of options and knows that, as he had said of the Obama-Kerry nuclear deal, a bad deal is much worse than no deal. Equally, I assign low probability to the ayatollah signing a satisfactory deal. I hope my skepticism is wrong.

In trying to make a deal, we must not lose sight of the only acceptable outcome: the elimination of Iranian nuclear enrichment, the cessation of its financial and political support for terror proxies, and, ultimately, peace with its neighbors.
Tehran offers three-phase nuclear deal in Oman talks
In recent backchannel negotiations in Oman, Iran proposed to the United States a three-stage deal aimed at capping the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment in exchange for phased sanctions relief, according to diplomatic sources in Tehran.

The proposal was delivered in writing by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff during three hours of talks on Saturday, reported Iran International.

In the first phase, Iran would temporarily reduce uranium enrichment to 3.67%—the limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal—in return for access to frozen financial assets and permission to export oil.

The second phase envisions a permanent end to high-level enrichment, and renewed cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including the reinstatement of surprise inspections under the agency’s “Additional Protocol for verification of nuclear safeguards.” This would be contingent on broader U.S. sanctions relief and European powers refraining from reimposing U.N. sanctions.

In the final stage, Iran would transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to a third country, while the U.S. Congress would approve a new nuclear agreement and lift primary and secondary sanctions.

Though Iran insists it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence maintains that Tehran has not made a definitive decision to build one. Witkoff reportedly welcomed the proposal, surprising the Iranian delegation in Muscat. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also appeared encouraged by the outcome, calling the talks a “good first step.”

However, skepticism remains. A diplomatic source outside Iran suggested Tehran’s main goal is to stall for time to rebuild air defense systems and missile capabilities damaged in recent Israeli attacks.
Trump names ‘Fox News’ host Mark Levin to Homeland Security Advisory Council
U.S. President Donald Trump named Mark Levin, the Jewish Fox News host, to his “revamped” Homeland Security Advisory Council, which the president said consists of “top experts in their field, who are highly respected by their peers.”

Levin, who won the JNS Shield of Jerusalem award last year, has been supportive of Trump’s policies for the most part but has been noticeably critical of Steve Witkoff’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war and Iran as Trump’s special Middle East envoy.

Trump had dismantled the advisory panel when he took office in January, amid allegations that the Biden administration was misusing resources.

The president said that the council “will work hard on developing new policies and strategies that will help us secure our border, deport illegal criminal thugs, stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs that are killing our citizens and make America safe again.”

Other new members of the council include former South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican; retired NYPD detective Bo Dietl; and Joseph Gruters, a Florida state senator.
Trump's Anti-Israel Officials Sabotaging His Efforts to Disarm Iran
The appointment, however, of several officials to key national security positions in the Trump administration, who vehemently oppose direct military action against Iran, has raised concerns that the White House might be backing away from its commitment to eliminate the threat Iran poses to global security.

In particular, these concerns relate to the recent appointments to the Pentagon of influential figures such as John Byers for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (South and South-East Asia), and Michael DiMino, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism official, for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Middle East).

Similarly, concerns have arisen that DiMino will be able to use his position as the Pentagon's new chief Middle East policy adviser to advance an anti-Israel stance while questioning the Trump administration's confrontational stance towards Iran.

As with Byers, DiMino was previously linked to the libertarian Koch brothers, having held tenure as a fellow at the Washington think tank Defense Priorities, which is funded by the Koch team.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently downgraded Trump's professed demands by asking Iran just to lower uranium enrichment -- a statement he quickly had to walk back. Iran has already stated that it could move its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to "safe and undisclosed locations," presumably for use at a later time. Russia, in an apparent burst of generosity, has offered to host the enriched uranium. How kind of them!

While Trump keeps offering perfect negotiating parameters, such as, "All hostages must be released by Saturday or all hell will break out," or, "Iran issue is easy to solve, they cannot obtain nuclear weapons," his statements always seem to be instantly undermined.
Eli Lake: Three Top Pentagon Aides Were Suspended. What’s the Real Story?
One possible leak in the crosshairs of the investigation is a New York Times story from April 4 on how the military was burning through its munitions in the multiple strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, with little success. As the Signal chats published by The Atlantic showed, one of the administration’s leading restrainers, Vice President J.D. Vance, opposed that operation. Hegseth, however, was supportive.

The Pentagon’s computer system logs every button pushed on a keyboard from the lowest level administrative assistant to a powerful senior adviser to the secretary of defense. One Republican operative who works closely on military affairs quipped, “Did these Metterniches not realize that every keystroke in that building is monitored?”

Along with Caldwell, the investigation has also led to the suspension of Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to deputy defense secretary Steve Feinberg, and Darin Selnick, who had just been promoted to Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff. One Trump administration official told The Free Press he expected more officials to be caught up in the leak probe this week.

Caldwell’s exit from the Pentagon is a minor victory for the more hawkish wing of the Trump coalition. Caldwell was a lobbyist between 2017 and 2020 for the Charles Koch–funded Americans for Prosperity. He was also a public policy adviser at Defense Priorities, a new Washington think tank that advocates against American interventionism. That said, the leak investigation does not appear to be cover for an ideological purge. Carroll is not part of this restrainer coalition inside the Trump administration.

If Caldwell, or the other officials who have been placed on administrative leave, provided top-secret information to someone not authorized to receive it, they could face felony prosecutions from the Justice Department.

Whatever happens next, the leaks have not stopped. On Wednesday evening, The New York Times published a juicy and detailed account of how the restrainers won an internal Trump administration debate and persuaded the president to wave off a potential Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. It is unclear whether the officials, or official, responsible for that leak have yet been fired.
Trump releases 10,000 pages of records on Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination
About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate “must be disposed of” and acknowledged an obsession with killing him.

Many of the files had been made public previously, but others had not been digitized and sat for decades in federal government storage facilities. Their release continued the disclosure of national secrets ordered by President Donald Trump.

Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California’s presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.

A Christian Palestinian from Jordan who suffered childhood trauma from the bombings in the Middle East, Sirhan has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel, but he has insisted he doesn’t remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand.

The files included pictures of handwritten notes by Sirhan.

“RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,” read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope with the return address from the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles. In this photo from February 10, 2016, Sirhan Sirhan reacts during a parole hearing at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, Pool, File)

Sirhan also filled a page of a Pasadena City College notebook with variations of “RFK must die” and “RFK must be killed.” In a note dated May 18, 1968, he wrote: “My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more of an unshakable obsession.”


Jonathan Tobin: What the Shapiro attack tells us about America in 2025
Shapiro is one of those Democrats obviously vying for the leadership of his party’s centrist wing. In his case, moderation is more a matter of tone than policy, as demonstrated last July by his graceful reaction to the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pa. He remains very popular in Pennsylvania, something that will likely be boosted by the sympathy for him and his family after the arson attack. A highly-skilled politician, he is regarded as a heavy favorite for re-election in 2026 and is already on the short list of the most serious contenders for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028.

But it remains to be seen how he will ultimately fare in a party in which radical Israel-bashers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is inheriting Sanders’s position as putative leader of the left, seems to best represent the sentiments of Democrats. They clearly want leaders who are willing to wage war on Trump and the Republicans, rather than at least trying to appear to want to unify the country, as Shapiro does.

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the vilification of nominally pro-Israel Jews, even Obama-supporting liberals like the Pennsylvania governor, has been normalized by the political left on college campuses and in the media. This has created an atmosphere in which Jewish public figures who do not disavow Israel are anathema to the Democrats’ intersectional base.

More than that, it also proves that antisemitism isn’t, as Democrats have long asserted, solely a phenomenon of the extremist right. Rooted in “progressive” orthodoxies like critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism, it is now primarily a feature of mainstream political discourse on the left. So strong is the hold of these toxic ideas that it has gotten to the point where liberal institutions like Harvard University would rather forgo $9 billion in federal funds rather than adhere to the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back the tide of woke Jew-hatred.

That has not only isolated liberal Jews who have realized that longtime allies in other minority communities have largely abandoned them and institutions where they once felt at home are now hostile environments. It has created exactly the kind of atmosphere in which Jews of all sorts, whether on college campuses or even in the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, cannot consider themselves entirely safe.
Shapiro avoids ‘antisemitism’ label on arson attack in ‘Good Morning America’ interview
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is holding firm in his choice not to label the arson attack that targeted the governor’s mansion on Passover as antisemitic or a hate crime, saying in a Friday interview on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that he will leave that question to the prosecutors.

“I think that’s a question for the prosecutors to determine. They’re going to determine motive,” Shapiro said. “I recognize when you’re in these positions of power, there are people out there that want to do you harm, but I try not to be captive to the fear, and I try not to worry or think about why people want to do that harm.”

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed Shapiro on the question, noting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on the Department of Justice to investigate the attack as a hate crime. Shapiro stood by his statement made on Thursday that Schumer’s letter was not “helpful.”

Stephanopoulos followed up with an opportunity for Shapiro to address antisemitism by connecting the attack on the governor’s mansion to the 2018 Tree of Life shooting.

Shapiro’s job, Stephanopoulos argued, “is to combat the kind of conditions we’re seeing to create the opportunity for situations like this. Pennsylvania is no stranger to this,” he said. “We saw the attack in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. How do you combat this kind of hate?”

Shapiro pivoted away from the comparison. “By speaking and acting with moral clarity,” Shapiro responded.
House panel leaders condemn attack on Jewish governor’s home
The co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism condemned the Passover attack on the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish.

Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) issued the statement on Thursday after they said that “the Pennsylvania State Police has now confirmed that the Passover attack on Gov. Shapiro and his family was motivated by antisemitism.”

Shapiro “has nothing to do with Israel’s foreign policy, yet he was targeted as an American Jew by a radicalized extremist who blames the governor for Israel’s actions,” they stated. “That is textbook antisemitism.”

“As Jews across the globe celebrate Passover, a holiday commemorating the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage and oppression, this attack is a bitter reminder that persecution of Jews continues,” the duo added.

Cody A. Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, Pa., was arrested after calling police an hour after the attack on the night of April 12 and admitting to firebombing Shapiro’s mansion while the governor, his family, guests and staff slept on the first night of Passover.

“As co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, we strongly condemn this antisemitic violence and urge all Americans to oppose antisemitism in all its forms,” the congressmen stated. “We are thankful that Gov. Shapiro and his family were physically unharmed, and we hope that this individual will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Attack on Governor Shapiro Is Symptomatic of the Pro-Palestinian Movement
On the first night of Passover, Cody Balmer smashed a window at the home of Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro—where he and his family were hosting a seder—and tossed Molotov cocktails inside. Balmer told police that he was motivated by what Shapiro “plans to do the Palestinian people.” Neil Zuckerman comments:
In the hours before this violent act, Governor Josh Shapiro sat at his family’s Passover seder table and read the ancient words of the Haggadah: “In every generation, there are those who rise up to destroy us.” . . . But those same words that name the threat also carry the answer: “God delivers us from the hands of our enemies.” In other words, we are still here. We are not scared. And we are not going anywhere.

This incident resonates far beyond Pennsylvania. It reflects a global conflict in which too many still refuse to accept a basic truth: the Jewish people are not going anywhere. We have been connected to the Land of Israel for thousands of years, and the people of Israel are here to stay, in our ancestral homeland. Any vision for peace must begin with that acknowledgment. To those who have marched since October 7—condemning Israel and aligning with Hamas—I would say this: the best way to support the people of Gaza is to help them come to terms with that reality.

Noah Rothman adds:
The suspect appeared to believe that he had meted out a righteous blow for justice, and he seems convinced that the community of pro-Palestinian activists would celebrate his actions and martyrdom.

That’s not an unreasonable bet. It was that incentive structure that convinced Balmer to execute a pro-Palestinian terrorist attack on U.S. soil. What else would you call this event? It is an unexceptional expression of the violent passions that typify anti-Israel activism, whether it takes place in the West Bank, Western Europe’s streets and synagogues, or America’s college campuses.


How the United Nations Enables Hamas
The United Nations was founded to maintain international peace and security. But the UN subverts that goal when faced with terrorist groups like Hamas.

Hamas has waged war on Israel five times in 15 years, not counting thousands of one-off terror attacks. The group’s genocidal charter envisions the destruction of Israel — and even genocidal assaults on Jews everywhere — to avenge Allah, not to gain self-determination. The Palestinians already have self-determination, thanks to Israeli compromises in the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords.

During each Hamas offensive, the group seizes military advantages through wholesale violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war. Most alarmingly, these religious fanatics target Israeli civilians, use Palestinian civilians as human shields, convert civilian buildings such as homes, schools, and hospitals into military positions, and take Israelis hostage. The four-part mixture of war crimes exploits Israel’s compliance with IHL. Specifically, Israeli commanders accept military setbacks because they willingly operate in a manner that protects Palestinian civilians.

To address this deadly IHL imbalance, the UN has a large workshop of disciplinary tools it could use. For example, because Hamas violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians, the UN Security Council could adopt a legally binding and enforceable resolution ordering Hamas to comply with the law. Alternatively, the UN could refer the IHL violation to its principal judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Similar measures before the UN and ICJ could enforce Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which bans the use of human shields, and the International Convention Against Hostage Taking. The anti-terrorist laws already require all UN member states to prosecute terror suspects or extradite them for prosecution.

Unfortunately, the UN and many member states ignore the above mandates. No UN resolution has ever condemned Hamas for designing war strategies based on war crimes. The UN has never even declared Hamas a terrorist organization.


Jewish leaders call for sanctions on Francesca Albanese ahead of ‘Genocide Roundtable’
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) called on the United States on Thursday to impose sanctions on UN official Francesca Albanese, who is scheduled to speak at the University of Chicago’s ‘Grappling with Genocide’ forum later this month.

Albanese, who serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, has frequently come under fire for perceived antisemitic statements, which have drawn criticism from several UN member nations, including France, Germany, and the United States.

“Francesca Albanese has become arguably the most dominant, official, and professional voice for antisemitism and obsessive hatred for the Jewish state on the world stage,” said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman. “She is becoming persona non grata globally, and it is unconscionable that a purveyor of racist and antisemitic hate should be welcomed in America.”

Albanese’s past statements include justifying the October 7th Massacre, disseminating conspiracies about the Jewish Lobby, comparing the Israeli government to the Taliban, and likening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

As a result of her comments, she has been disinvited from numerous public speaking events, including one last month at the Free University of Berlin and another at the Dutch Parliament.

The ‘Grappling with Genocide’ forum, scheduled for April 21st at the University of Chicago, features numerous panellists, many of whom have also been accused of antisemitism in the past.


US Says Chinese Satellite Firm Supporting Houthi Attacks on American Interests
The US State Department on Thursday accused a Chinese firm, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, of directly supporting attacks on US interests by Iran-backed Houthi fighters and called this “unacceptable.”

Earlier, the Financial Times cited US officials as saying that the satellite company, linked to China’s military, was supplying Houthi rebels with imagery to target US warships and international vessels in the Red Sea.

“We can confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company Limited is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on US interests,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular news briefing.

“China consistently attempts … to frame itself as a global peacemaker … however, it is clear that Beijing and China-based companies provide key economic and technical support to regimes like Russia, North Korea and Iran and its proxies,” she said.

Bruce said the assistance by the firm to the Houthis, a US-designated terrorist group, had continued even though the United States had engaged with Beijing on the issue.

“The fact that they continue to do this is unacceptable,” she said.
IAF intercepts Houthi ballistic missile over Bethlehem
Air-raid sirens sounded in Israel shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Friday as the Israel Defense Forces announced that the Israeli Air Force’s Arrow 3 exoatmospheric hypersonic missile platform intercepted a ballistic projectile fired by the Houthis from Yemen.

The threat caused civilian aircraft to be diverted from their flight paths, causing landing delays, although Ben-Gurion International Airport soon resumed normal service.

Missile fragments fell in the Beit Fajar area, south of ​​Bethlehem in Judea.

This morning’s attack tested the IDF’s new warning system, which is supposed to send out an alert before the sirens are sounded. It worked with mixed results. Many users reported that the IDF Spokesperson’s announcement triggered news alerts in the media, but this was not coupled with receipt of an advance alert via the Home Front Command app. Other users did report receiving the alert in advance.

The missile attack from Yemen came after a night of significant American airstrikes targeting the Houthis. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Thursday night that it had destroyed the Ras Isa fuel port, which is under the control of the rebels, near the port of Hodeidah in northwestern Yemen.

According to the U.S. military, the objective of the strike was “to damage the Houthis’ economic power source.”

The Houthis reported that at least 38 people were killed in the strike, including port workers and rescue personnel, and at least 102 others were injured. Yemeni media published footage of fires and massive fireballs at the port. This was one of the deadliest U.S. strikes in Yemen since the American military’s “Operation Rough Rider” against the Houthis began on March 15.

“The Houthis continued to derive economic and military benefit from countries and companies providing material support to the terrorist organization,” said U.S. Central Command following the strike. “The Iran-backed Houthis use fuel to support their military operations and generate economic profits from import revenues. This fuel should be legitimately supplied to the people of Yemen. Ships deliver fuel through the Ras Isa port, and profits from these illegal sales directly fund the Houthis and their terror efforts.”


Gaza doctor’s post lays bare terror groups’ infiltration of enclave’s hospitals
Mohammed Sakar, head of the nursing department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, published a very unusual post on his Facebook account last week.

In his post, the doctor, who also serves as a spokesperson for the hospital, hinted that he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital.

“As head of the department, I exerted all efforts to reopen the hospital and I succeeded… in serving the wounded,” Sakar wrote. “I made sure that the hospital wards were used only for patients, and not for displaced persons… In this way, I managed to keep the hospital safe and avoid threats of closure.”

Now, he revealed, “I’m being openly threatened, even though I explained to those who came to my office that all the steps I took were to protect the hospital,” he continued. “God will not forgive you.”

The post included a photo of a note Sakar had apparently received that read: “Dear one, you have crossed the line, take heed! – Saraya al-Quds,” referring to the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

The post was deleted a few days after it was published, and since then, Sakar has not posted again on Facebook or appeared in the media.

Sakar’s public disclosure was a rare instance of a medical professional in Gaza addressing attempts by terror groups to infiltrate hospitals. By numerous accounts, these efforts are commonplace in most hospitals in the Strip.
IDF strikes 40 terrorist targets in Gaza
The Israeli military attacked around 40 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday.

The strikes targeted gunmen, weapons depots and infrastructure used by Hamas and other terrorist groups, the military added.

Ground forces continued operations in several parts of the Strip. In southern Gaza’s Rafah, troops in the Tel Sultan and Shaboura neighborhoods killed several Hamas gunmen and destroyed terrorist infrastructure. In the north, soldiers demolished weapons caches and carried out drone strikes on identified terrorists.

The renewed wave of airstrikes and ground assaults comes amid stalled negotiations that have been brokered by Egypt. Hamas said on Thursday that it was willing to release the remaining 59 hostages, living and dead, in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, the rebuilding of Gaza and a complete IDF withdrawal. But it dismissed Israel’s offer as including “impossible conditions,” particularly the demand that Hamas disarm.

Israeli officials have maintained that any agreement must include the complete demilitarization of Hamas and exclude the group from any role in governing Gaza. Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops would remain in a security buffer zone inside the Strip even after a settlement.

Since March 18, the IDF says it has struck some 1,200 Gaza targets, including terrorist tunnel routes. It has also carried out more than 100 targeted killings, as well as the neutralization of hundreds of gunmen and commanders from terrorist organizations in Gaza.


IDF kills 2 Palestinians suspected of throwing stones at Israeli cars in West Bank
IDF troops on Thursday evening killed two Palestinian teenagers who were allegedly hurling stones at Israeli motorists near Nablus in the northern West Bank, amid a recent expansion of the military’s counter-terrorism operation in the area.

According to the IDF, soldiers of the 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit were waiting in an ambush outside the town of Usarin when they spotted three Palestinians hurling stones at cars on a nearby highway. The soldiers opened fire on the suspects, killing two and wounding the third, the IDF said.

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said the troops opened fire during a confrontation with residents of the area following a military raid in nearby Usarin.

The news agency identified the slain Palestinians as Jihad Adham Edeili, 17, and Saif Ghassan Edeili, 19. The wounded Palestinian is aged 20, WAFA reported.

According to WAFA, the bodies of the two dead assailants are being withheld by the IDF. The military’s statement on the incident did not mention if it was holding the bodies.

The killings came a day after two American tourists were injured in the West Bank when assailants threw stones and a paint bottle at a tour bus near Burqa, east of Ramallah, according to the IDF.

Since January 21, the IDF has been carrying out a major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, focusing mainly on the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem. The military announced last week that it had expanded the operation to the area of Nablus.


Call me Back Podcast: The US-Iran Deal Israel Fears - with Jonathan Schanzer
Seven years after President Trump scrapped the Iranian nuclear deal, the U.S. is now engaged in direct negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran to try to reach a new deal. Yet the talks in Oman have so far raised more questions than answers, especially as Steve Witkoff has just clarified the administration's objective with regard to Iran’s nuclear program, and as new reporting emerges of possible U.S.-Israel deliberations over military options.

Joining us is Jonathan Schanzer, Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jonathan has been closely monitoring the negotiations and been in contact with relevant U.S. and Israeli officials.

00:00 Introduction
03:06 Current talks
08:00 Potential backlash against Israel
12:27 Does Iran have leverage?
15:26 What is different today?
18:59 Recent developments
24:49 Worse case scenario for Israel
29:09 Saudi Arabia role
33:11 Russia & China role


Erin Molan: 'We'll Kill You If You Take Our People’: Trump’s Hostage Plan with his Top Negotiator Adam Boehler
Join Erin Molan for an exclusive interview with Adam Boehler, President Trump’s Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, as he responds to the fierce backlash over his direct talks with Hamas. In this gripping conversation, Boehler passionately defends his approach to negotiating with "bad guys," including Hamas, to secure the release of American hostages worldwide.

Dive into never-before-heard details about the intricate art of hostage negotiations, from high-stakes discussions with Hamas to efforts to free Americans like George Glezmann, held by the Taliban, and Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina, wrongfully detained in Russia. Boehler shares insider insights into the Trump administration’s relentless mission to bring every American home, shedding light on cases like Edan Alexander in Gaza and others across the globe.

This interview is packed with raw emotion, strategic revelations, and Trump’s unapologetic stance on doing whatever it takes to save lives. Don’t miss this deep dive into one of the most controversial and high-pressure roles in global diplomacy!


Douglas Murray: So-called Israel-Hamas, Ukraine war ‘experts’ spew false info on Joe Rogan’s podcast — There has to be a standard
Having not spoken to Joe since the wars in Ukraine and Israel started, I had become increasingly irked that the guests he has had on have been almost entirely anti-Ukraine and anti-Israel.

Many of the latter in particular are not just vindictively and maliciously anti-Israel but have been spewing claims that are demonstrably false.

Many are also people who are simply in no way expert at what they are talking about.

Attacks on Israel
One of these is a comedian who goes by the name of Dave Smith.

Claiming some Jewish ancestry, he has spent the 18 months since Oct. 7, 2023, being very unfunny indeed.

Specifically, he has decided to spend his time going around the podcast world sounding off about Israel.

In the process, he largely cites people like him — people who have many views but no obvious expertise.

People like Darryl Cooper, who says he isn’t a historian yet has been invited onto some of the world’s biggest podcasts as “a historian.”

One of Cooper’s many ahistorical claims is that Winston Churchill was the chief villain of World War II.

On these and many other occasions, Cooper has simply lied about history.

When invited to debate the world’s foremost living expert on Churchill last year, he declined, saying that he didn’t know enough to go against such a figure.

Yet still Cooper gets invited on show after show to throw out falsehoods that he can’t even back up.

And on which his online interviewers seem happy not to challenge him.

Another such figure from the world of comedy who is changing his shape to fit the time is Rogan guest Ian Carroll.

This is someone who, when he last went on Rogan’s podcast, very carefully tried to minimize the evil of Adolf Hitler.

Outrageously and completely falsely, Carroll claimed that in the 1930s, Hitler had kept his antisemitism down.

A provably false claim that Rogan did nothing to counter.

All these men have also been palling around online with Holocaust deniers and proud antisemites like Jake Shields.

My bout on Rogan
Two weeks ago, Rogan had his mate Dave Smith on yet again for a long podcast.

But for my return to the show, the deal was that I could come on only if Dave Smith was — once again — in the studio.

As if Joe didn’t want to be unaccompanied.

Or that Joe thought it was I — of all his guests — who must be challenged.

I like a debate as much as the next Scotsman.

But what resulted was more than a debate.

It seems to have led to some kind of podcast-world meltdown.

The first reason was that from the outset, I challenged Joe on his choice of guests and why he had been giving a platform to only one side of a debate — and a very conspiratorial one at that.

He and Smith were immediately defensive.

But the real problem came when I raised the issue of expertise.

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Because as I said then, and have said often, we have lived through a period when the “experts” have gotten an awful lot of things wrong.

From the COVID lab leak to the Hunter Biden laptop, we have lived through years after which distrust of experts has become inevitable.

Yet that doesn’t mean that expertise does not exist.

It does not mean that a comedian can simply hold himself out as a Middle East expert and should be listened to as if he has any body of work.

It does not mean that someone who says they are not a historian but who practices false history should be cited as a historian.

This point seemed to rile both Smith and Rogan.

It appears to have riled their audiences even more.

Because many people seem to think that what I mean is that they are not allowed to have an opinion.

That is wrong.

I think they are.

It’s just that there should be a price to pay for spreading bulls–t.

And part of that price is that you should be called out.
The Spectator: Douglas Murray on Israel's plight and the plague of western guilt
CHAPTERS 00:00 – Introduction
02:07 – Democracies & death cults and October 7th
07:22 – The nature of evil and joy in death
16:06 – Media portrayal of Hamas
17:12 – Myth of "open-air prison"
21:04 – Gaza as an 'apartheid state'
24:51 – Yahya Sinwar
26:47 – Israeli response and proportionality
34:30 – BBC coverage & human shields
40:16 – Western sympathy for Hamas
53:20 – Western guilt and inherited blame
55:20 – Best and worst of the MAGA movement
58:45 – Most beautiful novel and music
59:44 – Most idiotic and dangerous politicians
01:05:09 – Audience questions
01:25:21 – Final reflections


Jewish Learning Institute: Douglas Murray Reveals The Unspoken Truth About the Israel War
‪@douglasmurray‬ analyzes the war in Israel, the possibility of an Israeli victory, and the strange lack of empathy for Israelis. He discusses the roots of anti-Israel sentiment, including Islamic antisemitism and utopian thinking, and why Israel has become a unique global target.


The DARK Truth About Islam You’ll Never See on TV - Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray explains what really happened in his viral debate with Dave Smith on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He breaks down misinformation about Israel, Hamas, and why so many still deny the October 7 atrocities.

We also look at the rise of Nazi-style antisemitism in the Arab world, how Mein Kampf remains mainstream in parts of the Muslim world, and why only 1 in 4 British Muslims believe Hamas committed the October 7 massacre.

Douglas warns about the “Lebanonisation” of Europe, growing instability, and the West’s failure to confront hard truths. We cover Churchill, the UN’s obsession with Israel, woke double standards, and how democracies face terrorist regimes.

Chapters:
0:00 Douglas Murray Highlights
2:00 Joe Rogan - Dave Smith Debate
4:00 This Lie About Churchill
6:30 Debating Flat Earth & George Orwell
9:20 The Debate About Experts
13:45 Douglas Felt Irk
14:15 People Projecting Fears onto Jews
18:00 Islamic Colonialist Expansion
20:50 Woke Privilege
23:00 Actual Nazis in Middle East
26:00 How Nazism Spread From Hitler
29:00 They Hate When This Happens
32:00 Hamas Figures of Deaths Low Compared to Syria
35:00 Humza Yousaf vs Kate Forbes
38:00 Self-Flagellation of Wokeness
41:00 The Two Types of Criticism
44:00 If Douglas Did This in Pakistan
46:45 False Flag October 7 Theory
49:00 Nazis with Go-Pros
52:00 The Sickos Denying It vs Christopher Hitchens
54:00 Israel Uniquely Attacked by UN
58:00 Can We Dismantle the UN?
1:00:30 Does Real Evil Exist?
1:04:00 What Douglas Would Do If He Were Gazan
1:07:00 Salman Rushdie, Iran & the West Bank
1:10:00 Douglas’ Speaking Voice
1:12:30 On Democracies & Death Cults
1:14:20 A Heretic Douglas Admires


Commentary Podcast: Eugenics and the Manosphere Anti-Semites
Eli Lake joins today's podcast as we discuss two major articles in the May issue of COMMENTARY: Christine Rosen on "consumer eugenics" and Seth Mandel on the anti-Semites in the conservative podcasting world.


ADL quietly purged data on European Muslim antisemitism
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, boycotted the Jerusalem International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in late March to protest the event’s inclusion of so-called “far-right European politicians.” Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli countered that the “right-wing” European party members he invited were “allies” in combating antisemitism.

A month earlier, Chikli explained the invitations, saying, “antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration. The European right-wing parties have a point because they realize the problem and are presenting a solution. They understand the challenge of radical Islam, and they are willing to take the necessary steps.”

The ADL has a 20-year record of determining “extreme antisemitism” in different places and among different groups, and for the last 10 years, it has released findings in its “Global 100: An Index of Antisemitism.” Countries are ranked based on how many antisemitic stereotypes out of a total of 11 statements people there agree with. Those who agree that six or more statements are “probably true” are considered by the ADL report to be “harboring” antisemitic views.

Over the years, the report has included results from religious groups, including Christians and Muslims in Western Europe (such as in 2004, 2015 and 2019, and 2023). Yet that data, which shows Western European Muslims harboring significantly more antisemitic views than others in Western Europe, is now missing from the ADL’s website.

After compiling the results of ADL survey reports from 2015 to 2023, we found a grossly disproportionate, two-to-four-fold excess prevalence of Jew-hatred among the Muslims in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

A reported instance where statistical adjustment to remove “confounding” or bias was performed on the ADL’s Western European survey data yielded even more alarming results. Applying multivariable adjustment (controlling for country of residence, age, religion, income, gender, contact with Jews, etc.) to ADL’s 2004 survey data, Yale University educators, in the peer-reviewed The Journal of Conflict Resolution, demonstrated that Western European Muslims had an 8-fold excess risk of harboring extreme antisemitism relative to Christians.

Moreover, when the ADL released the original raw April 2004 survey data, “Attitudes toward Jews, Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in 10 European countries,” no indication whatsoever was made that the survey included a Muslim sample.

We recently discovered that the attempted concealment by ADL of its own disturbing findings on the attitudes of Western European Muslims on antisemitism is an ongoing matter of grave, urgent concern.


Our Crisis of Antisemitism & Islamism | Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Christian, writer, and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali discusses our crisis of antisemitism and Islamism. Her lecture is followed by a Q&A with University of Austin students.

This lecture occurred on April 4 during the University of Austin's first week of spring term.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: 18 months after October 7th: the truth about Israel, the West, and the war for our future Jonathan Sacerdoti's speech at Shutts & Bowen LLP in Miami, April 2025.

Gad Saad: My Chat with Josh Hammer, Author of "Israel and Civilization" (THE SAAD TRUTH_1839)



Anti-Israel Politician Launches Bid For Michigan Senate Seat
Abdul Ed-Sayed, a progressive Michigan Democrat and Israel critic, launched a Senate campaign on Thursday, saying that Congress should “fight back” against the Trump administration.

“I believe pretty profoundly in the goodness of Michiganders,” El-Sayed said. “And I believe that they’re not looking for what your name is. They’re looking for what you intend to do for them. I know I am going to be the best listener in the race.”

El-Sayed, the child of an Egyptian immigrant, first emerged onto the national political landscape in 2018 when he launched an ultimately unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in the Wolverine State. During that campaign, El-Sayed received endorsements from fellow progressive stalwarts Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

El-Sayed has also positioned himself as a fierce critic of Israel. The progressive champion was a prominent supporter of the “Uncommitted movement” a coalition of Democratic officials which refused to support the 2024 Kamala Harris presidential campaign over her support for Israel. However, El-Sayed later clarified that he would support Harris over Donald Trump in the general election.

El-Sayed has been especially critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. On Oct. 21, 2023, two weeks after the Hamas slaughter of roughly 1200 people in southern Israel, the progressive politician accused Israel of “genocide.” He also compared Israel’s defensive military operations to the Hamas terrorist group’s conduct on Oct. 7, writing “You can both condemn Hamas terrorism AND Israel’s murder since.”

In comments to Politico, El-Sayed criticized Democrats’ handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, arguing that Democrats should become the “party of peace and justice” and said that they “ought not to be the party sending bombs and money to foreign militaries to drop bombs on other people’s kids in their schools and their hospitals.” He called on Democrats to stop supporting financial support for Israel, saying “we should be spending that money here at home.”


Labor preferences spark alarm in Jewish community amid rising antisemitism
Despite repeated public assurances from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Labor would not negotiate with the Greens, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has placed the Greens second on his official ‘how to vote’ card—prompting deep concern and disappointment within Australia’s Jewish community. Another Albanese Pinocchio Lie.

This move comes at a time when many Australian Jews are feeling increasingly vulnerable. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, major cities have seen near-weekly rallies that often feature slogans and symbols glorifying terrorism, expressing antisemitic sentiment, and calling for the destruction of Israel. Members and representatives of the Greens have frequently attended or endorsed these rallies.

Adding to the distress, Greens campaign materials across Melbourne have recently focused almost exclusively on the message “Free Palestine.” Online, inflammatory comments posted under Greens candidate announcements include calls for Israel’s destruction and overtly violent rhetoric—rhetoric that remains uncondemned by the party.

This election is being seen by many as existential. At a time when the cost of living is soaring, immigration is at record highs, housing shortages are worsening, and crime rates are climbing, the Greens continue to focus on a single, divisive issue: Palestine. While everyday Australians are grappling with urgent domestic problems, the Greens appear fixated on international activism.

Meanwhile, key Greens figures have remained largely silent on the environment—once the party’s core mission. Critics have pointed to Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who has been more vocal about the conflict in the Middle East than environmental concerns. The party that once championed green values under Bob Brown has, according to many, lost its way. Accusations of hypocrisy have followed: preaching climate action while flying business class, promoting environmentalism while reportedly removing trees to make way for townhouse developments.

This is not just political manoeuvring—this is a matter of Jewish safety and dignity. We’re being told one thing in statements but seeing another on official voting cards. This sounds very much like negotiating with the Greens. Have I tripped you up on another lie Albanese? That’s right, you tripped up but didn’t trip up. I digress.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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