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Saturday, June 21, 2025

06/21 Links: Trump confirms US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites; Iran: the cradle of Islamo-leftism; Emmanuel the egregious

From Ian:

Trump confirms US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites
The US conducted airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, namely Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, US President Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social on Saturday night.

"All planes are now outside of Iran's airspace. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home," Trump wrote.

"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this," he added.

"NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!" he concluded.

Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke after the strikes, a White House official confirmed.

US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers were involved in the strikes, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump then retweeted a social media post by an open-source intelligence analyst claiming that "Fordow is gone."

Trump also added that he will give a public address at the White House "regarding our very successful military operation in Iran" at 10 p.m. adding that "This is a historic moment for the United States, Israel and the world."

"Iran must now agree to end this war," Trump's post on Truth Social concluded.

Trump expressed hope that the strikes would push the Iranian regime into negotiation, and "doesn’t currently plan additional US actions inside," sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Additionally, the US reached out to Iran to say that it would not plan regime change efforts, CBS reported.

Iran confirmed Fordow war struck
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied the strikes occurred, stating that "no evidence has been released so far to confirm Trump’s claim," adding "it is possible that his statement is merely a media show."

The three nuclear facilities have been evacuated, Iranian national television confirmed.

Iran had been expecting attacks on Fordow for several nights, the facility had been evacuated before the airstrikes occurred, and did not suffer irreversible damage, according to an advisor to Iran's Parliament Speaker.

"Two things are certain: 1. Knowledge cannot be bombed. 2. This time, the gambler will definitely lose," the advisor added.

Three senior Iranian officials anonymously told The New York Times that they believed the strikes were conducted at around 2.30 a.m. in Iran.

An Iranian official cited by Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency confirmed that part of Fordow nuclear site was attacked by "enemy airstrikes."

A commentator on Iranian state television later stated that every American civilian or military personnel in the region became a legitimate target.

Six bunker-buster bombs were used during the strike on Fordow, with 30 tomahawk missiles being used on the additional nuclear sites, according to Fox News.
Lee Smith: Trump’s Opponents Want to Humble the USA
Most of the MAGA influencers tweeting against Trump’s Iran policy don’t know that what they’re actually validating is Barack Obama’s foreign policy. They’re just parroting the messaging passed down from the higher levels, where operatives affiliated with the Koch network and its various think tanks have been avidly promoting the Iranian nuke since Obama’s first term. Iran lobbyist Trita Parsi, for instance, has no other function in Washington except to promote Iran’s nuclear program—that’s been his job for almost two decades. Now, of course, he pursues his aims as the vice president at the Koch-sponsored Quincy Institute, providing talking points not to the left but to the right, or, more specifically, its realist, or “restraintist,” school.

Realism’s leading policy intellectual is John Mearsheimer, whose theory of the Middle East is simple, though not obviously realistic. He argues that the region is volatile because of Israel, which has the bomb. Accordingly, stabilizing the Middle East means deterring Israel by getting Iran the bomb, too.

Mearsheimer’s theory is based on two assumptions: One, despite its millenarian convictions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a rational actor; and two, despite the evidence of many thousands of years, Israel is the reason the Middle East is unstable. Is either pillar of Mearsheimer’s realist reading of the region true? To believe so, you’d have to ignore that Iran opened hostilities with Israel in the early 1980s by sending Hezbollah and other terror proxies against the Jewish state. And even if you get past that salient fact, to imagine the region would be tranquil if only Israel didn’t have the bomb, or didn’t exist, you’ll have to set aside intra-Muslim conflict dating back to the founding of Islam, as well as other sectarian fights that neither Israel, nor the Jews who lived in the region before Israel was founded, have anything to do with. The Jews, after all, are a small Middle East minority—imagine a narrative holding that the Yazidis or the Chaldeans are the villain in the millennia-long story of the Middle East. Yes, it’s nuts—and it’s exactly the obsessive focus on Israel that makes Mearsheimer’s theory appealing to people obsessed with Jews.

The crucial point is this: Israel is a U.S. ally and thus a token of American power in the Middle East. Deterring Israel means hobbling America. This was precisely the point of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. He said he wanted to create “a geopolitical equilibrium” in which, as he explained, Saudi Arabia would learn to share the region with Iran. But that was misleading. Riyadh, like Jerusalem, is simply a reflection of U.S. hegemony in the Middle East. Since the 1945 agreement between FDR and Ibn Saud, founder of the modern Saudi state, Riyadh’s main role in the U.S.-led postwar order is to pump cheap oil to keep the U.S. economy humming, in exchange for American protection.

For more than eight decades, the United States has been the Middle East’s main power. Aside from the George W. Bush administration’s screwup in Iraq, it’s been a remarkably successful enterprise, thanks in part to allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. Balancing the Saudis and Israelis against Iran, as Obama and Mearsheimer and the restraintists want, means weakening the United States. Obama was explicit about it, from his apology tour on: His historic task was to humble America. It appears that Tucker Carlson’s obsessions have sadly led him to the same place, for his lengthy X post attacking Mark Levin justified Iran’s nuclear ambitions on the grounds that it needs the bomb to deter the country he calls home.

The self-described pro-Trump opposition to Trump’s Iran policy is just Obama in a MAGA skin suit—opposed to American exceptionalism and keen to cripple what it believes is truly the world’s most dangerous country: ours.
Iran: the cradle of Islamo-leftism
Think of theorist Judith Butler, who in 2006 said that ‘Hamas [and] Hezbollah [are] social movements that are progressive, that are on the left, that are part of the global left’. As sociologist Eva Illouz points out, Butler, alongside other US-based academics, effectively defended the theocratic, repressive nature of the Islamic Republic in 2009 on the grounds that the separation of state and religion and freedom of expression are Western norms. Supposedly, they are being used to unfairly judge and demonise the Islamic Republic.

This leftist critique of criticism of Islamism, of Islamic states and of blasphemy laws, effectively mirrors the Islamic Republic’s own self-justification – that it is engaged in a battle against the imposition of Western culture and norms. This is not just an intellectual move on the part of prominent Western left-wingers. It has practical, political consequences, too.

It allows privileged Western leftists to ignore the resistance and struggles of the Iranian people themselves. To wilfully disregard the strong strain of anti-Hamas, anti-Hezbollah feeling in Iran – ‘death to Palestine’ has been heard chanted at protests since at least 2018. It allows them to dismiss the Green Movement demonstrations in 2009, after a disputed presidential election, as just so much Western propaganda. And to downplay, in the name of anti-imperialism, the huge wave of anti-regime protests at the tail-end of 2019, which cost the lives of over a thousand protesters.

Indeed, against the background of the 2019 protests, leading American leftists, including Angela Davis, Doug Henwood and Vijay Prashad, signed a ‘Letter against US imperialism’, effectively defending the Islamic regime against US and Israeli ‘aggression’, calling for ‘political stability’ in Iran, and dismissing talk of liberal democracy and civil rights as just so much neocolonial cant.

Then there were the ‘Women, life, freedom’ protests which shook Iran in 2022. Hundreds of thousands bravely took to the streets, following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the regime’s morality police for showing her hair in public. Yet the Western left seemed far happier looking the other way, as Iranians put their lives on their line in the fight for the most basic of freedoms.

What we’ve seen over the past week, as zealous ‘progressives’ happily take the side of one of the most repressive, anti-Semitic states on Earth, is hardly a surprise. It is the culmination of the Western left’s dark, cultural turn. Of the degeneration of its anti-imperialism into an all-encompassing anti-Westernism.

Writing in Le Nouvel Observateur in 1978, an Iranian feminist took issue with the Western left’s embrace of the Islamo-leftism then insurgent in Iran. She wrote that while Islam may appear as desirable to someone like Foucault, ‘many Iranians are like me, distressed and desperate about the thought of an “Islamic” government. We know what it is. Everywhere outside Iran, Islam serves as a cover for a feudal or pseudo-revolutionary oppression…’. She concluded that, ‘the left should not let itself be seduced by a cure that is perhaps worse than the disease’.

Too few Western leftists heeded her warning then. That they continue to be seduced by the ‘cure’ to Western-sickness, despite the reality of the Islamic Republic, is a sign of the left’s intellectual and moral collapse. Its descent into a form of radical reaction that the Ayatollah Khomeini himself would be proud of.


‘Very successful’ US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan, Trump says
The U.S. military attacked Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump stated.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan,” Trump wrote. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space.”

“A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” he added. “All planes are safely on their way home.”

Fordow was widely regarded as Iran’s best-defended nuclear site, as it was buried hundreds of feet under a mountain. Those protections raised questions about whether Israel was capable of eliminating the site in the absence of a U.S. attack using large bunker buster munitions delivered from American bombers.

Trump also shared a post stating that “Fordow is gone.”

“This is a decision that will change Iran, the region and have major implications for America’s position in the world,” stated Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran. “It sends a message to China and Russia, reinforces American credibility and bolsters U.S. deterrence.”

“This is a historic decision by President Trump,” Brosky added. “Every president since Bill Clinton has said Iran can’t get a nuclear weapon. President Trump is the only one to have authorized military strikes to prevent one.”

Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, “has always known the United States has the capability to destroy his nuclear program,” Brodsky stated. “But he has long doubted the American will to do so after a series of underwhelming and non-responses to Iranian provocations since 1979. The U.S. strikes tonight reset the deterrence equation for America in the Middle East in a big way.”

“Wow. The United States has bombed Iran’s nuclear sites,” stated John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, which is part of the U.S. Military Academy, in New York.

“The program is now set back,” Spencer stated. “Now is the chance for Iran to end the conflict with an agreement to end their nuclear pursuits. President Trump has done what was needed to end the violence.”


Natasha Hausdorff: Hermer is wrong: international law permits Britain to strike against Iran
Israel’s recent strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran – more rapid, efficient and successful than anyone could have imagined – have been an unparalleled game changer in the Middle East. In the words of Germany’s Chancellor Merz, Israel is doing the “dirty work” of striking Iran “for all of us”, acting in resolute defence of the free world against this existential threat.

Israel’s actions are also potentially creating the circumstances in which the Iranian people may finally free themselves from more than four decades of the most vicious extremist oppression. It is remarkable, one may think, that in these circumstances the predominant discussion of the legal analysis of these developments could have been so resolutely incorrect.

As reported in these pages, the UK Attorney General Lord Hermer KC has advised the Government that it may be complicit in an illegal war if it supports a strike on Iran, but apparently drew a distinction regarding “defensive” support of Israel.

Prof Richard Ekins KC and Policy Exchange have pointed out the curious self-contradictory nature of the position: “It seems very odd that it is lawful to use ‘defensive’ force by, for example shooting down a missile heading for Tel Aviv, but unlawful to use ‘defensive’ force to destroy Iranian missile batteries in Iran.”

Hermer’s advice on the matter seems to fall into this now recognisable pattern of real international law being unceremoniously thrown out of the window by activist lawyers pushing their political agenda and worldview.

This is pretty basic. The right to self-defence in international law is inherent, recognised as such in Article 51 of the UN Charter. It is an exception to the general prohibition on the use of force. It is one of the most fundamental norms.

Likewise, the doctrine of defence of third parties permits other states to use force to defend another state that is under armed attack. There is debate about the extent to which an appeal by the attacked state is required, but it is hard to imagine the UK assisting Israel without being so requested.

The most critical feature of this Iran-Israel war, however, which appears to have been generally glossed over, is its ongoing nature. This is not a new phenomenon. The international armed conflict between these two states has been decades long. The turning point in Iran-Israel relations was the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. The two states had previously enjoyed a close working relationship as major allies and trading partners.
Jake Wallis Simons: Lord Hermer’s reported advice against UK strikes on Iran is a disgrace
Given the infallible rule that anyone who sticks up for enemies of Britain also harbours deep hostility for Israel, the apparent sight of him ruling against British involvement in defending Israel entirely to be expected.

Over a long and ignoble career, Hermer has represented Gerry Adams, the former leader of Sinn Fรฉin; Shamima Begum, the Isis bride; and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of the plotters of the 9/11 terror attacks described as Osama Bin Laden’s “right-hand man”.

He acted for Al Qaeda terrorists like Rangzieb Ahmed, who was linked to the July 7 terror attacks; and Abid Naseer, who was just days from carrying out a bombing attack on a Manchester shopping centre. He also helped the Treasury unfreeze the assets of Mohammed al-Ghabra, an al-Qaeda terror suspect nicknamed the “moneymaker” who was linked to the 21/7 London bomb plot.

Hermer’s office has suggested that he had no choice but to represent these people under the “cab rank” rule, a claim that has been resoundingly decried as cynical rubbish because, it is alleged, the senior lawyer has been long able to pick and choose his clients.

Those who defend Hermer may point out that even those accused of terrorism deserve representation. That, of course, is true. But law and morality are two different things. It says much about the animal instincts of a lawyer that he appears to seek out such clients, resulting in case outcomes that cut against both common sense and the national interest.

Is it any surprise that the attorney general has played a key role in Britain’s disgraceful surrender of the Chagos Islands, which is costing us upwards of £30 billion, a sum that could have purchased three aircraft carriers or an entire nuclear weapons system? Instead, the cash will be used to lower taxes in Mauritius.

In the end, it’s always about Jews, even for the Jews. Ironically, if American B-2s end up dropping 30,000lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on Fordow, they will take off from Diego Garcia.

Recently, Hermer was even forced to apologise for a “clumsy” remark comparing calls to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) with the early days of Nazi Germany. For a member of a synagogue to make such a remark was especially baffling.

The conclusion is unavoidable. Our attorney general has weighed up loyalty to his country and his people against admiration from the left and plumped decisively for the latter.
Iran nuclear effort set back ‘at least two or three years’—FM Sa’ar
Israel has already delayed Iran’s potential to build nuclear weapons “by at least two or three years” since launching “Operation Rising Lion” on June 13, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Germany’s Die Welt daily on Friday.

Without going into detail about the IDF’s capacity to destroy all of Tehran’s nuclear facilities, including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant located deep underground some 20 miles north of Qom in north-central Iran, Sa’ar vowed that Israel will “not stop until we have done everything that is possible to eliminate this threat.”

The foreign minister stressed that the goals of the war are to eliminate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and ballistic missile threat.

Asked whether Jerusalem was seeking to overthrow the mullahs’ rule, Sa’ar replied that the “Security Cabinet has not yet defined any regime change as a goal of this war. At least not yet.”

He declined to answer when asked whether Israel planned to target Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei, saying, “We never speak in advance about what we are going to do.”

Sa’ar said that he does not “particularly believe in diplomacy with Iran. All diplomatic efforts have not been successful so far.”

As for the current negotiations in Geneva between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and the European Union foreign policy chief, Sa’ar said that the Iranians “usually use these talks to deceive, buy time and make further progress [in their nuclear program]. And I don’t believe they will change their behavior.


Iran’s Post-Regime Possibilities
The most recent stage of the conflict Iran began on Oct. 7 is into its second week, and the Islamic Republic is getting routed. Israeli aircraft soar freely above Iran as the mullahs, their remaining commanders, and their nuclear scientists dart furtively from one hiding hole to the next. The Israelis have reportedly destroyed two-thirds of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, Tehran’s drones have been completely ineffective, and its nuclear programs are getting hammered.

This campaign has fundamentally changed the war. Military professionals will study it obsessively, and Israel deserves massive credit for inflicting so much damage at so little cost. Donald Trump may soon unleash at least some American forces on Iran’s remaining nuclear facilities, and it is time to consider what comes after that.

For Iran, there is no remaining achievable objective other than survival. Its terrorist minions failed to destroy Israel, its missile and drone arsenal has been a dud, and Israel stopped Iran’s nuclear program, according to CIA director John Ratcliffe, at the one-yard line. While his subordinates die in droves, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been reduced to pathetically taunting Trump online, effectively daring the president to kill him. After an Iranian attack pummeled the Soroka hospital on Thursday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel is ready to oblige him.

Trump demanded "unconditional surrender" from Iran. This would be a just goal and thus a worthy one, but an air campaign will probably not lead to that kind of victory. The United States has demanded unconditional surrender three times and had to send in the troops twice—against the Confederacy and Nazi Germany—to get it. Imperial Japan surrendered before being invaded, but only after enduring years of military defeats, privation from the U.S. Navy cutting off supplies, carpet bombing of extraordinary ferocity, and ultimately two atomic bomb blasts.

For now, invasions, blockades, and nuclear strikes seem off the table. Some of the remaining options for Jerusalem and Washington are:

Forever war: If Israel, possibly with American help, destroys Iran’s nuclear program and then reaches some sort of accommodation with Iran, the ensuing "peace" will be of the type Ambrose Bierce described in The Devil’s Dictionary: "a period of cheating between two periods of fighting." As they have shown time and again, Iran’s leaders will use any ceasefire to rebuild its terrorist armies, long-range arsenal, and nuclear program that are currently in shambles.

This choice might stop the bloodletting temporarily, but it would leave Tehran free to continue its assassination campaigns in the West, one target of which was then-candidate Trump, and other devilries nearer to home. Unless the peace agreement somehow demilitarizes Iran, this option would lead to more American deaths.

Regime change: Finding a new person, or group, to seize control of Iran could resolve that dilemma. Some of the diaspora are convinced that the Iranian people want a peaceful democracy, and popular protests might lead to one. But there were similar hopes when the shah fled in 1979, and they were dashed: In revolutionary environments, even initially small bands of determined fanatics like the ayatollahs can emerge on top. But if someone whose mind has remained unwarped by the revolution were able to gain control of the state and agree to dismantle the nuclear arsenal and cease exporting terrorism, the war could end on better terms. Israel’s virtual annihilation of Iran’s senior military leadership could open up just such a chance. Many colonels have led successful coups.


What the world is getting wrong on Israel: An interview with Natasha Hausdorff
Natasha Hausdorff, the British barrister who has become an outspoken defender of Israel’s legal rights on global news networks, warns that a “vicious cycle of disinformation” — fuelled by media self-censorship and terrorist propaganda — has warped the world’s understanding of the Gaza conflict, and put Jewish lives at risk.

More notably, the expert in international law has popularized one such law, Uti possidetis juris. It states that newly formed sovereign countries should retain the borders that their preceding area had before their independence. Therefore, at the time Israel declared itself a state, Mandatory Palestine – which included what today is known as Israel, Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. the West Bank) and Gaza – would by law be legal territorial boundaries of Israel. It is a lynchpin argument, she believes, against the charges of “illegal occupation” and “illegal settlements.”

She regularly briefs politicians and international organizations and has spoken at parliaments across Europe.

After her law degree at Oxford University, she clerked for the president of the Supreme Court of Israel in Jerusalem in 2016. In 2018, Hausdorff was a Fellow at Columbia Law School in the National Security Law Program.

Dave Gordon interviewed Hausdorff prior to a talk she delivered at Toronto’s Nova Exhibition on June 12, hosted by StandWithUs Canada.

It would seem uti possidetis juris ought to have been used by Israel decades ago in international forums. Why hasn’t it?

I can fully appreciate that Israel’s official stance is constrained by diplomatic operations and political pressures. It’s a rule that applies automatically, whatever Israel says about the situation.

There are other examples of Israel not standing on ceremony, as far as international law is concerned. One of those relates to Egypt’s obligation to open the border to Palestinian civilians, fleeing civil disorder in Gaza. That’s in accordance with Egypt’s obligation under the Organization of African Unity Convention on (governing the specific aspect of) Refugees, which it signed in 1980.

This is a convention that has a much broader definition of refugee than the international convention. Nobody has been calling on Egypt to open the border from October 2023. But Israel can’t pressure (that), because Egypt threatened to tear up the peace agreement with Israel.
‘They’re still there’: Hostages’ families rally online as Iran war diverts public attention
Families of hostages who fear they’ve been forgotten amid Israel’s new war with Iran gathered online Saturday in place of weekly demonstrations. Over 2,000 people took part in the event — one of several online gatherings in support of the hostages — according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, held virtually due to the restrictions on the size of public gatherings as Iran continues to launch missiles at the Jewish state daily.

Ofri Bibas-Levy, sister of freed hostage Yarden Bibas whose wife Shiri and young sons Ariel and Kfir were murdered in captivity, said, “It feels like the 53 hostages have disappeared from the conversation.

“They’re still there, while people move on to the next front. It’s important for the public to know the hostages could be home now — we are one political decision away,” added Bibas-Levy.

Israel says its sweeping assault, launched on June 13, on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has retaliated by launching over 470 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel.

So far, Iran’s missile attacks have killed 24 people and wounded thousands in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

“Just as there was a brave decision to strike in Iran, and just as leaders showed courage to bring closure in Lebanon — now we are just one decision away from bringing them all home,” continued Bibas Levy.

She also said that such a decision “will bring our brave soldiers home” and “allow us to shift focus and resources to Iran.”
FDD: FDD Uncovers Large Iranian Network Impersonating Israelis on Social Media
An Iranian social media operation is instructing its audience how to use AI and create fake accounts on X where they pose as Israelis and post demoralizing messages in Hebrew. Researchers at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) uncovered this psychological operation targeting the Israeli public.

How It Works
FDD found that a Persian-language Telegram channel called CAR ONLINE (@caronline_original) with more than 400,000 subscribers orchestrates the operation. The account recommends a list of 50 Persian-language phrases to post on X in Hebrew. Examples include “my children just scream,” “I’m tired, God save us,” “I’m saying this as a Zionist, I’m screwed,” and “According to the prophecies, all the cities will be filled with corpses.” CAR ONLINE cautions its audience not to use the exact phrases, likely to avoid detection by X’s moderators.

The Telegram account shares instructions on how to create X accounts and how to use ChatGPT to translate posts into Hebrew. It suggests Hebrew and non-Hebrew names for accounts. It also promotes the success of X posts that it has coordinated.

CAR ONLINE also operates an account on X (@caronlineX) that frequently shares posts from other X accounts that pose as Israelis as well as content that appears inspired by the operation’s Telegram account. The CAR ONLINE Telegram account claims that 60,000 people have signed up as part of its effort, but FDD has not yet been able to determine if there is a factual basis for this claim.

Who’s Behind the Operation?
There are a number of reasons to believe Iranians are behind CAR ONLINE. On June 20, its Telegram account shared links to its account on EITAA, an Iranian Telegram knockoff. It also shared a website, caronlineofficial[.]com, that has an Iranian web hosting server. In addition to X, CAR ONLINE also appears to operate on other Western social media platforms, such as Instagram. Its Telegram channel and Instagram account also list an identical Iranian phone number.

This is not the first time Iranian actors have crowdsourced social media activity. FDD previously observed an Iranian influence operation using a similar tactic during the 2024 U.S. elections, where a central Telegram account called “Revolutionary Twitter – X” (@twtenghelabi) orchestrated posts across many X accounts.
Fake AIPAC Lobbyist Created to Make Jews Look Like Monsters
In the days following Tucker Carlson’s clash with Senator Ted Cruz over, among other things, AIPAC’s role in American politics, a curious wave of anti-AIPAC sentiment has swept across social media. A significant portion of it has centered on a now-deleted X account under the name “Jay Sullivan,” a self-described AIPAC lobbyist from Arkansas.

Jay’s posts were cartoonishly provocative — often cloaked in faux pro-Israel or pro-Jewish language, but transparent in their true intent. Anyone not already steeped in antisemitic conspiracies could recognize the posts as grotesque exaggerations designed to paint Jews as cruel, tribalist villains. Examples of posts include calling on the FBI to investigate Americans who disagree with the idea that Jews are “God’s chosen people” and saying that antisemites should be set on fire. One particular post that drew substantial ire declared: “Jewish lives matter more than anyone’s.” Screenshot of “Jay’s” post

The backlash was swift. Antisemitic accounts piled on — see here, here, here and here, for example — replying with slurs and threats towards Jay and Jews in general. The account was eventually locked and deleted. Only one problem: Jay Sullivan doesn’t exist.

He’s a fabrication — a fake persona seemingly created by pro-Hamas, anti-Israel operatives to poison the discourse around AIPAC and inflame hatred toward Jews.

The Receipts
Based on the account’s bio, cover photo and profile picture alone, it’s easy to see that Jay is a complete fiction:
“The Jay Show” and the Dynamic News Network he claimed to host it on don’t appear to exist anywhere online.
No record exists of an AIPAC lobbyist out of Arkansas named Jay Sullivan.
His listed employer, “Cyber Meta United States,” appears to be fake.
He claimed to have co-founded “Mission Lane & Merik,” but no such business can be found.
His profile photo is clearly AI-generated — as both AI detection tools and anybody with functioning eyeballs can attest.


Macron’s push for a Palestinian state is a betrayal of Israel, France, and democracy
I am writing these words from Nuremberg, Germany, the city where, in 1933, the persecution of Europe’s Jews began.

In what was once the Jewish Quarter, on the banks of the Pegnitz River where the city’s Grand Synagogue once stood before it was burned on Kristallnacht, a memorial stone now stands. Embedded in the stone is a charred fragment from the original synagogue, with a verse etched in Hebrew reading: “Who among you remains who saw this house in its former glory?”

Nearby, another plaque bears the verse from Proverbs: “If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?”

Another memorial marks the site of the former Adat Yisrael synagogue on Essenwein Street, featuring a relief of the synagogue facade and the verse: “Remember what Amalek did to you.”

Eighty years have passed since the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews, yet it seems the world has learned nothing.

A war of light and dark
A Palestinian state would be a reward for barbaric murderers who would turn it into a terror state and a permanent threat to Israel.

In Palestinian Authority textbooks, authored under Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Abbas, one finds antisemitic statements reminiscent of Nazi propaganda from Der Stรผrmer: “Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs who must be destroyed.”

And yet, French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to recognize a “State of Palestine.”

It is worth reminding Macron – and the world – of Vichy France, which served as a puppet government of Nazi Germany between July 1940 and August 1944.

The persecution of Jews under Marshal Philippe Pรฉtain, leader of Vichy France, remains one of the darkest chapters in French and Jewish history.

After France’s defeat in June 1940, Pรฉtain signed an armistice with Hitler and led the Vichy regime, controlling southern France. Despite his public image as a World War I hero, Pรฉtain betrayed the principles of justice and freedom, becoming an active partner in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews.

His regime enacted antisemitic legislation starting in October 1940, barring Jews from public service, media, education, academia, and government. Jews were marked, dispossessed, and hunted. In 1942, Vichy police, on Pรฉtain’s orders and in full cooperation with the Nazis, began deporting Jews to death camps.

In July 1942, about 13,000 Jews, mostly women and children, were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.
Emmanuel the egregious
Money, not morals
Informed sources suggested that the latest anti-Israeli obstructionist measures were not motivated by high-minded concern spurred by the alleged misuse of Israeli weapons but by purely commercial ones, designed to prevent Israel from displaying superior merchandise competing with French-produced systems. Indeed, the French military industry recently took a hit after French-manufactured Rafale jets were reportedly outperformed by Chinese J-10Cs in a recent Indian-Pakistani aerial engagement in Kashmir, which negatively impacted share prices of major French armaments corporations.

Paradoxically—and perhaps predictably—Israel Radio reported that the latest French measure succeeded only in piquing the interest of potential purchasers.

Of course, when it comes to humanitarian concerns, France has little room to claim the moral high ground given its brutal record in its former colonies from Indochina, through Oceania to Central and northwest Africa, where even today the post-independence governments are chafing at the bit to rid themselves of lingering French dominance and military presence.

Pathetic pandering
This leaves the troubling question as to what prompted this poorly timed display of animus by France. According to some sources, at least part of the answer may lie in a recent report, initiated by the French government, that warned that the country’s rapidly growing Muslim influence is becoming a national threat. These sources suggest that through Paris’ newly accentuated pro-Palestinian pivot, Macron is hoping not only to curry favor with, but also placate this increasingly influential Islamic constituency.

It is disheartening to witness French kowtowing to the same dark forces that barely a decade ago perpetrated acts of barbaric slaughter on the streets of Paris (with attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine on Jan. 7, 2015 and the Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015), preferring instead to sanction the very country, that more than any other, has acted to confront and contain the scourge menacing both nations.
'Jews Not Allowed': The Attempted Erasure of an Ancient People
For those Jewish scholars and experts from abroad, often invited by the local community in Australia to visit and share their views and expertise, there is news: you might not be permitted to enter Australia. Your visa, even if approved at some earlier stage, could be revoked and you might be silenced.

If, however, you are a dedicated Palestinian from Gaza, you are most likely welcome in Australia -- little vetting required.

In France, Jew-hatred is on the rise again.... French President Emmanuel Macron, possibly to please his growing Muslim constituency, intended to recognize "steps toward" a borderless, atrociously governed, terrorist State of Palestine – contrary to the interests of Israelis, the Middle East, and especially the Palestinians.

"If France is really so determined to see a Palestinian state, I've got a suggestion for them: Carve out a piece of the French Riviera, and create a Palestinian state. They're welcome to do that... but they're not welcome to impose that kind of pressure on a sovereign nation." — US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, i24 News, June 1, 2025.

Are Macron's government and others not only denying Israel, and its majority Jewish population, the necessary arms to defend itself, but also seeking to recognize a hostile Islamist state inside another country's borders? What is the word for "chutzpah" in French?


The Labour-GreenLeft alliance in the Netherlands calls for ban on Dutch supplies for Iron Dome
An opposition leader in the Netherlands suggested he is willing to see Israeli civilians suffer the consequences of losing access to the Iron Dome as a consequence of voting for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Frans Timmermans, the parliamentary leader of the GreenLeft–Labour alliance and former Vice President of the European Commission, made the comments after his party backed a motion calling for a total arms embargo on the Jewish state in the Dutch parliament.

Asked by a journalist whether “the consequence is that Israeli citizens will be the victims if the Iron Dome, if there are no more resources for it,” Timmermans replied: “You are correct.”

“That is the case if Netanyahu continues on this path,” he added.

The reporter followed up, saying: “That is a very serious consequence.”

Timmermans appeared to agree.

“Yes, but what is the serious consequence for the innocent people in Iran, where a hospital has also been hit, for the people in Gaza, where dozens of victims are again to be mourned in the past 24 hours? For the people in Lebanon who are also suffering from rocket attacks,” he said.

“Ultimately, in a democracy, the citizens are responsible for the actions of the government” he added.


Tehran ‘openly threatening head of IAEA,’ FM Sa’ar says
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Iran on Saturday after one of its top political figures apparently threatened the director general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi.

“It would have been unbelievable if it weren’t about Iran. Now they’re openly threatening the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A mafia state!” Sa’ar wrote on X.

The foreign minister was referencing an earlier tweet posted by Ali Larijani, a former brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, chief nuclear negotiator and speaker of the Iranian parliament.

“When the war is over, we will settle accounts with Grossi,” Larijani wrote in Farsi.

On June 12, a day before Israel launched its preemptive attack against Iran, the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors for the first time in nearly two decades declared Iran to be in violation of its non-proliferation commitments, paving the way for a possible referral to the U.N. Security Council.

This move followed a series of long-standing disputes between Iran and the IAEA, which intensified after the United States, under President Donald Trump, withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran and other world powers in 2018.

On June 12, 19 countries voted in favor of the IAEA resolution in a closed-door session. Eleven abstained, and three—Russia, China and Burkina Faso—opposed the resolution. It was introduced by the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
Sweden exposes Iran’s Europe-wide Israeli assassination network
A groundbreaking European investigation has uncovered how the Iranian regime offered a compelling proposition to Rawa Majid, leader of Sweden’s Foxtrot crime organization.

The deal included protection, refuge and unrestricted movement in Tehran without risk of extradition. The exchange required Majid to deploy his criminal network against Israeli targets, executing kidnappings and murders of Israelis across Europe.

Majid, known as the “Kurdish Fox,” is a 38-year-old Iranian-born Kurdish-Swedish criminal.

Swedish public television SVT‘s investigation documents show the terror campaign began materializing in early 2024.

January witnessed the placement of a grenade near Israel’s Stockholm embassy—intelligence sources characterized this as Majid’s “admission ticket” to Iran, noting that the device was never meant to detonate, but rather to demonstrate serious intent to secure regime sponsorship.

May brought gunfire targeting the same embassy; within two weeks, an explosive device struck the Israeli representation in Brussels, bearing DNA evidence from a 23-year-old gang member.

Parallel developments revealed schemes to plant explosives at Elbit Systems facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden. October brought an additional Stockholm embassy shooting, grenade attacks on the Copenhagen embassy, and renewed targeting of Elbit Systems offices.

Investigation findings indicate a comprehensive “target catalogue” that Iran provided to Foxtrot encompassing Israeli embassy attacks, defense contractor strikes, Israeli citizen kidnappings and assassinations, and assaults on Jewish community facilities and synagogues throughout Europe.

The report details how the organization’s sources received directives to expand operations into Germany, Belgium and Britain, including the murder of exiled journalists working for London-based Iran International television.
Alleged member of Iran’s IRGC arrested in Cyprus over plot to attack military bases
An alleged member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of planning a terror attack, Cypriot media reported Saturday.

The individual appeared before a district court, which ordered an eight-day detention pending inquiries.

No further details would be issued, police said, citing national security.

According to Phile News, the Azerbaijani national was arrested on Friday after security services received “highly classified and reliable intelligence from a cooperating foreign service.” The foreign intelligence identified the man as an IRGC operative, the report said.

The outlet said the suspect had been collecting intelligence since April about the presence of foreign military forces in Cyprus.

The report said the suspect lived in an apartment in Limassol, near British military bases and had been seen on an almost daily basis near the British military facilities in nearby Akrotiri while carrying a large camera with a telephoto lens, as well as three cellphones.

The report said the man seemed to be taking photos and writing notes.

RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is Britain’s largest air force base in the region and currently houses several Typhoon jets as part of the UK’s bolstering of forces in the region amid the conflict between Israel and Iran.

In addition, Phile News said, the suspect traveled by bus from Limassol to Paphos, where he took photos near the Cypriot military’s Andreas Papandreou air base.

The suspect will face charges of terrorism, espionage, conspiracy to commit a felony, and a number of other offenses, Phile News reported.


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff responds to reports that Palestine Action will be proscribed.
Charlie Peters and Miriam Cates interview Natasha Hausdorff on GB News' Saturday Morning Live, following reports that the Home Secretary will proscribe Palestine Action as a terror organisation.


Surgeon's daughter behind militant pro-Palestinian group that targeted RAF base who once campaigned against hummus
The middle-class daughter of a top NHS surgeon who campaigned against hummus at university has been revealed as the leader of Palestine Action.

Huda Ammori, a former campaigner at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, founded the controversial group alongside Richard Barnard, 51, a former member of Extinction Rebellion, in 2020.

The 31-year-old was born in Bolton to a Palestinian father, a surgeon, and an Iraqi mother. She later went on to graduate from the University of Manchester with an international business and finance degree.

Despite her middle class roots, Ms Ammori quickly became captivated by student activism during her time at the prestigious institution - even getting a brand of hummus banned from the campus shop.

The then-student, who had spotted 'Sabra' hummus, jointly owned by a company who invest in Israeli's military forces, was on sale, launched a tireless campaign that eventually saw the chickpea dip successfully blacklisted.

Now, she leads the militant Palestine Action movement. Over the past five years, the group have claimed responsibility for vandalised buildings, ram-raided factories and, most recently, even infiltrated Britain's largest RAF base, damaging two military planes.

Having posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton, the group are now set to be proscribed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, meaning it will be a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action.


Socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani once rapped about his ‘love’ for Hamas terror-funding group ‘Holy Land Five’
Socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani once voiced his “love” for the five leaders of a notorious nonprofit convicted of funneling more than $12 million to the terror group Hamas.

The former C-list rapper-turned-far-left-pol praised the heads of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development – known as the “Holy Land Five”– in a shocking 2017 rap track uncovered by the antisemitism-fighting group Canary Mission, and made public in a one-minute video segment released Friday.

“My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up,” Mamdani – who performed under the stage name Mr. Cardamom – says in a song called “Salaam” which the Queens assemblyman has said is about growing up Muslim in New York.

The five heads of the now-defunct Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh — were all convicted in 2008 by a federal jury of funding Hamas.

“Mamdani sent his ‘love’ to convicted Hamas funders,” the Canary Mission said. “Let that sink in.”

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – the frontrunner heading into Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary – said the revelation of Mamdani’s terror-loving lyrics is a “new low.”


Mahmoud Khalil vows to resume pro-Palestinian activism after release from US jail
Mahmoud Khalil vowed to resume his pro-Palestinian activism as he returned to New York a day after he was released on bail from a jail for immigrants, even as US President Donald Trump's administration said it will continue its efforts to deport the recent Columbia University graduate.

He arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Saturday afternoon to cheers and ululations from friends and supporters. Khalil, 30, was reunited with his wife, a US citizen, and greeted at the airport by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York.

"Not only if they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine again," Khalil said, holding a bouquet of flowers. "I just want to go back and just continue the work that I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished."

Khalil, who recently graduated from Columbia University in Manhattan, was a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that swept campuses last year. Federal immigration agents arrested him in the lobby of his Columbia apartment building on March 8, making him the first target of Trump's effort to deport international students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views.

Khalil greeted by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ocasio-Cortez, speaking alongside Khalil at the airport, condemned the Trump administration for what she called "persecution based on political speech."

"Being taken is wrong. It is illegal," she said. "It is an affront to every American."

"Free Palestine!" Khalil said with a raised fist as he left the airport.


House judiciary panel to hold hearing on Jew-hatred
The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight announced that it intends to hold a June 24 hearing titled “Rising Threat: America’s battle against antisemitic terror.”

The hearing will address “the domestic conditions giving rise to antisemitic attacks in the United States,” and it will focus on “the different steps the Trump-Vance administration is taking to combat antisemitic terror.”

Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, is one of the scheduled speakers.

“At a time when we are all focused on the conflict between Israel and Iran, we need to make sure we are giving time to the situation that is unfolding between terror and democracy in the United States,” Marcus told JNS.

“We need to activate Congress to ensure safety for Jewish Americans and all Americans,” he added.

Dan Schneider, vice president of free speech at the Media Research Center, is also slated to speak, as is Debra Cooper, who is listed as “chief of digital activism at EndJew Hatred and Jewish Advocacy Research and Writer Group.” (JNS couldn’t find a record of the latter and sought comment from the committee and EndJewHatred.)


Report: More than half of Jewish Columbia students faced discrimination last academic year
More than half of Columbia University’s Jewish students reported facing religious discrimination during the 2023-24 academic year, according to a June 2025 report from the Ivy League school’s antisemitism task force.

Just 34% of Columbia’s Jewish students reported a positive sense of belonging at the school, while 53% said that they experienced anti-Jewish discrimination, according to the report, which was published on Wednesday.

Conducted between June and September 2024, the survey includes responses from 9,000 students. Among Jews, 87% reported feeling afraid to express beliefs on campus, compared with 63% of the overall student population concerned about doing so.

“As a proud alumna, who has spent decades championing this institution, I found the results of this survey difficult to read,” stated Claire Shipman, acting president of Columbia.

The survey confirms “the undeniable and painful reality that we failed to adhere to our values and failed to meet the expectations we set for our campus community,” she stated. “We are also dismayed to learn that a majority of our Muslim students felt a distinct sense of alienation and lack of well-being.”

The findings “put the challenges we face in stark relief,” she continued. “The increase in horrific antisemitic violence in the U.S. and across the globe in recent weeks and months serves as a constant, brutal reminder of the dangers of anti-Jewish bigotry, underscores the urgency with which all concerned citizens need to act in addressing it head-on, and the fact that antisemitism can and should be addressed as a unique form of hatred.”

Shipman added that it was right for the Jew-hatred task force to “focus on our entire student population.”
UChicago Prof, the Brother of a Convicted Iranian Spy, Says the 'Only Hope for Peace Is the Power and Durability of Iranian Missiles'
A University of Chicago professor whose brother was convicted of helping the Iranian regime spy on dissidents in the United States is cheering on Iran's missile attacks against Israel.

Alireza Doostdar, an associate professor of Islamic Studies and a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, wrote in a Tuesday X post, "At this point the best and only hope for peace is the power and durability of Iranian missiles." His statement was in response to a video alleging that an "Iranian hypersonic missile attack" had destroyed an Israeli missile defense system in Tel Aviv.

On the University of Chicago campus, Doostdar is an active member of the Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter and has supported unauthorized anti-Israel encampments. He was arrested during a "sit-in" protest in November 2023.

Doostdar's brother Ahmadreza, however, has a more extensive record of run-ins with law enforcement. A federal judge sentenced him to 38 months in prison in 2020 for spying on Iranian dissidents in California and Chicago and for monitoring a number of Jewish centers, including a Hillel Center and a Rohr Chabad Center. Doostdar's brother is also a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen.

Reached for comment, Doostdar told the Washington Free Beacon, "Sorry I refuse to speak to fascists. You can put that as my response."

Doostdar’s defense of Iranian attacks comes as anti-Israel student groups on U.S. college campuses rally around the regime.

Last Friday, as Israel launched its military campaign against Iran and its nuclear program, Columbia University Apartheid Divest—the student group that drove violent campus protests last spring—posted on X that it "affirm[s] Iran’s right to self-defense, sovereignty, and self-determination." Three days later, the group wrote, "From our position in the belly of the beast, this moment demands unconditional support from the brave people of Iran as they fight against the evils of Western imperialism. Anything less is insufficient."

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chicago, a "unified front of Chicagoland SJPs" that includes the University of Chicago, also joined a "Hands off Iran" protest the day after Israel launched its campaign. The coalition plans to participate in a similar demonstration on Saturday.


Prefect of French region asks mayor of Nice to remove Israeli flag
The prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes department in southern France has asked the mayor of the city of Nice to remove the Israeli flag from the front of City Hall.

The prefect, Laurent Hottiaux, who took office a month ago, sent a letter to Mayor Christian Estrosi on Monday and was preparing a circular for all mayors in the department to express his opposition to any foreign flag, whatever they may be, in town halls, “in the name of the principle of neutrality in public service.” Flags outside Nice City Hall. Credit: European Jewish Press.

The Israeli flag has been flying on the front of Nice City Hall since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Estrosi has pledged to leave it there as long as there are Hamas hostages in Gaza.

“I have made commitments to the people of Nice,” the mayor said. “I will continue to devote my energy to fighting all forms of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.”

Estrosi pointed out that several appeals had already been filed with the administrative court to demand the flag’s removal.

So far, the court has only issued one ruling, rejecting on the grounds of “lack of urgency” an appeal filed by three anonymous Nice residents at the end of May 2024.

Since the end of 2023, almost weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been organized in Nice. Each time, the demonstrators demand that the PLO flag fly at City Hall.

Elsewhere in France, the issue is beginning to mobilize state services. in In the Paris region on June 13, the prefect of the Hauts-de-Seine department requested, also in the name of neutrality of public services, the removal of the PLO flag hoisted on the forecourt of the Gennevilliers town hall.

The president of the Seine-Saint-Denis departmental council, Socialist Stรฉphane Troussel, has called for the Eiffel Tower to be illuminated in the colors of the PLO flag. According to him, would “break down the wall of indifference” and “exert pressure to put an end to the horror experienced by the Gazan population.”




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