Tuesday, January 13, 2026

01/13 Links Pt1: At least 12,000 killed in Iran crackdown as blackout deepens; Iranian Leaders' Claim to Legitimacy Shattered in the War with Israel; Syrian Druze leader: ‘Israel saved us from genocide’

From Ian:

Bernard-Henri Lévy: Iran’s Revolution
I tremble as I write these lines.

For Iran—brave and heroic Iran—trembles on the edge of a horrific bloodbath.

And I have no doubt that the fascist regime of the mullahs will take, if it can, a terrible revenge on the civilians who are defying it.

But the reality is clear.

What has been happening for the past eight days in the cities of ancient Persia is not a revolt. It is a revolution. The difference? Both tiny and immense. A revolt—Iranians have known at least five revolts in the past 15 years—demands reform, the mitigation of misery, negotiation. A revolution expects none of that and does not accommodate, at all, the hated order of things; it does not seek the adjustment of the regime, but its replacement.

Tocqueville: A revolution begins when people cease to imagine the future as an anamorphosis of the past.

Hannah Arendt: An insurrection challenges power; a revolution rejects its very principle and foundation.

This kind of event is rare in human history. But this is where the Iranians now stand. When they say, “Death to Khamenei,” they have crossed that threshold and entered this new era of both hope and tragedy.

Of course, the uprising may still be crushed. Of course, we are speaking of thousands of women and men executed in the secrecy of the electronic night that has fallen over the country. And, of course, we know of revolutions that ended drowned in blood.

But what has been has been. The Iranian women and men who have shouted at the top of their lungs that they want to live, but are ready to die for that, will not turn back. They will no longer accept the offers of negotiations made by cornered ayatollahs.

Those who fail to understand this are grotesque.

To those who still dare to reduce this conflagration to some so-called American Zionist plot—shame on them.

They are already and forever in the dustbins of History.
Trump Admin Designates Three Muslim Brotherhood Branches as Terrorist Organizations
The Trump administration on Tuesday designated three of the Muslim Brotherhood's largest branches in the Middle East as terrorist groups, unveiling long-awaited sanctions aimed at financially crippling the global Islamist organization responsible for fomenting violence against the United States and its allies.

The joint action from the State and Treasury Departments targets the Muslim Brotherhood's sects in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon in the first step "of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood violence and destabilization wherever it occurs," according to the Treasury Department. The department noted in its release announcing the move that "additional terrorist designations" may occur as the Trump administration examines "all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism."

"The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired, nurtured, and funded terrorist groups like Hamas that are direct threats to the safety and security of the American people and our allies," Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement. "Despite their peaceful public façade, both the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim brotherhood branches have conspired to support Hamas’s terrorism and undermine the sovereignty of their own national governments."

Congressional Republicans have argued that the United States should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization since at least 2015, but legislation doing so never reached the president's desk. After President Donald Trump took office for a second time and expressed an interest in targeting the Muslim Brotherhood through executive actions, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) introduced a bill featuring a "new modernized strategy" to systematically sanction the groups' branches around the world rather than the brotherhood as a whole. The administration's announcement on Tuesday indicates that it is using Cruz's approach, going after individual Muslim Brotherhood sects across the Middle East.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control went after the Muslim Brotherhood's Jordanian and Egyptian branches, both of which provide material support for Hamas, while the State Department targeted the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood. The Lebanese branch, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah, received both the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist labels from Foggy Bottom, freezing its assets and preventing it from doing business with Western financial institutions.
‘Israel saved us from genocide’: Interview with Syrian Druze leader
‘We are paying a heavy price, but we struggle to remain steadfast and preserve our identity with dignity and pride,’ says Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community.

According to him, the threat does not stem solely from the current rulers but from a continuous ideological current. ‘The previous regime also acted against us, but the current one is the most brutal. They do not want to eliminate only the Druze, but any minority that is not like them.’

Six months after one of the deadliest massacres the Druze community has suffered in generations, Sheikh al-Hijri speaks with rare openness about an open wound, a reality of siege and a clear aspiration to establish an independent Druze entity in Sweida province.

"The only crime for which we were murdered was being Druze", he says in a special interview with ynet. "This is an ISIS-style government, established as a direct continuation of al-Qaeda."

The massacre that took place last July, in which more than 2,000 Druze were killed, included executions, rape, abuse and the burning of people alive, women, children and infants, he says. "This was a decision by Syria’s dark regime and by all the terrorist groups operating from Damascus. It was genocide", he states.

‘The heavy price was not in vain’
Al-Hijri, 60, was born in Venezuela, where his father emigrated along with a large Druze community. Today, around 150,000 Druze live in Venezuela, making it the fourth-largest Druze population worldwide. He later returned to Syria and studied law at Damascus University.

In 2012, he replaced his brother as the spiritual leader of the Druze community following his brother’s death in a car accident that was never fully explained and was widely suspected to involve the Assad regime. Leadership of the community has remained with the al-Hijri family since the 19th century.

"The latest massacre proved that we cannot rely on anyone else to protect our community", he says. "The price was extremely heavy, but it will not be in vain. We are seeking a future in which the Druze are no longer victims."

"Since July 2025, we have been living in a state of full mobilization," he says. "Young and old alike are enlisted to defend our homes and our very existence. They wanted to annihilate us."


WSJ: Iranian Leaders' Claim to Legitimacy Shattered in the War with Israel
Iran's 12-day war with Israel and the U.S. last June broke the regime's carefully nurtured image of invincibility, many ordinary Iranians say. Now the aftermath is helping to fuel a wave of protests. The social compact that endured since the bloody eight-year war that Saddam Hussein's Iraq launched in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution was that Iranians would acquiesce to hardship and restrictions in return for a strong state that protects them from foreign attack.

That assumption came crashing down when Iranian-backed Hamas and Hizbullah attacked Israel in 2023, triggering a regional war that brought death and destruction into the heart of Tehran in the summer of 2025. Israeli strikes across Iran destroyed much of its military leadership, and the follow-on U.S. bombing campaign struck a heavy blow against Iran's nuclear program. It was a humiliation for a regime that had invested so much of the country's national wealth into a proxy network that was designed to deter exactly this sort of assault on the homeland.

"This was the last straw. The regime over the years had argued that although it has not been able to bring about prosperity or pluralism for the Iranians, at least it had brought them safety and security. Turns out, it didn't," said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. History is replete with examples of repressive regimes falling to domestic unrest after military setbacks against foreign adversaries.
Iran Cracks Down. Where Are the Western Protests?
As the people of Iran brave another intensifying crackdown by their rulers in one of the world's most repressive regimes, where are the protests in the West? Where are all those defenders of persecuted Muslims who have been so active on the streets of New York, London, Sydney, Rome and elsewhere the past two years? Where are the demands for justice and freedom for the downtrodden victims of a brutally repressive state?

More than three million Iranians have been driven from their homeland in the 47 years of the mullahs' rule. People have been forced into prisons or into exile in foreign lands, their homes and property stolen, their loved ones punished and frequently murdered.

Where are the movie stars and pop icons with their video pleas for justice? Where is the International Criminal Court's crack team of lawyers to investigate crimes against humanity and issue indictments against Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, as they did for Benjamin Netanyahu?

In the UK, there has been criticism that the BBC has been playing down or even ignoring the dramatic events in Iran. BBC News world affairs editor John Simpson noted how difficult it is to get accurate and reliable information given the reporting conditions in the country. Yet in Gaza, the scarcity of reliable information didn't stop the BBC from broadcasting daily for two years the most lurid accounts of the Israeli offensive there - much of it pure Hamas lies.

Perhaps the reason so many protesters condemn Israel for its legitimate actions and give Iran a pass for its illegitimate ones is that, unlike Israel, Iran isn't run by Jews.
When Threats Become Commitments By Abe Greenwald
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If you think it’s not beyond Trump to leave the Iranian protesters high and dry, you may or may not have a point. But even if you do, it doesn’t matter. He’s warmed to the luster of American military success and isn’t about to undo his image as the commander in chief who finally backs up his threats with action.

Trump’s posture toward Iran, in addition to his ordering the recent American capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, is a seismic change for the man who’s been denouncing American intervention for years. “We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change,” he declared a few years ago. And in June, he said of Iran: “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally, we don't want to see so much chaos.”

Many in his administration still feel this way. In truth, even staunch nation-building hawks have to admit that Trump has a point about chaos. The unknowns are staggering: What follows the deposed regime? Who maintains law and order? How does the new reality play out in the region and beyond? But in foreign policy, conditions are never ideal, and leaders have to choose from an array of options in which none is risk-free.

The Trump administration seems to be somewhere in that choosing stage now, determining what kind of strike on which targets will best hamper the regime without creating a larger crisis. Then again, the president is a master of the head fake and might already have greenlit plans for an attack.

In any case, an American military operation is, by my lights, imminent. And if Trump gets this right—toppling the world’s largest supporter of terrorism and liberating the long-suffering Iranian people without undue fallout—he will change the trajectory of the American right, scramble the conventional wisdom of the foreign-policy elite, reverse the default bipartisan reticence over U.S. power projection—and make the world a vastly safer place.

Hate him all you like, but pray that he chooses wisely.


Hugh Hewitt: Is it a “hinge moment” for Iran and the Middle East?
Haviv joins Hugh to explore what Khomeini and Khamenei have done to Iran and whether a people with nothing more to lose will rise up.


The Brink: Inside Iran: Everything The Legacy Media Won’t Tell You
In this episode of The Brink, Iranian researcher and analyst Kasra Aarabi joins us. He has extensive networks within Iran’s protest movement and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, offering a sobering and urgent account of the situation on the ground.

Drawing on documents obtained from inside IRGC headquarters and direct contact with protest leaders, our guest explains how the regime’s vast infrastructure of repression operates at every level of Iranian society. We discuss the use of military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians, the scale of arrests and executions, and why the death toll is likely far higher than officially reported.

The conversation explores how Iran’s violence is no longer contained within its borders. From regime-sponsored attacks on British soil to the radicalisation of children in the UK, we examine why what happens in Iran directly threatens Britain’s national security. We also confront the failure of Western governments to proscribe the IRGC, the silence of political leaders, and the dangerous double standards applied by the media and international institutions.

Finally, we look ahead to what comes next. We discuss the prospects for regime collapse, the role of external pressure, the risks of insurgency, and what a post-Islamic Republic Iran could realistically look like. From a secular republic to a constitutional monarchy, we ask what the Iranian people actually want and what the West should do if it truly believes in freedom and human rights.

This is a powerful and unsettling conversation about tyranny, courage, and why Iran’s struggle matters far beyond its borders.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
02:30 – Death Tolls, Internet Blackouts & Brutal Crackdowns
04:50 – Kasra’s Background & Inside Access to the Regime
06:28 – Understanding the IRGC From the Inside
08:17 – Regime Threats on British Soil
11:10 – Why What Happens in Iran Affects the UK
12:15 – Why Britain Refuses to Proscribe the IRGC
15:30 – Iran’s Infrastructure of Radicalisation in Britain
18:14 – Indoctrination, Antisemitism & Islamist Ideology
20:38 – The Silence of the Western Left on Iran
24:31 – Media Double Standards & Human Rights Hypocrisy
27:06 – Military-Grade Violence Against Protesters
29:43 – Why the Regime Survives Through Pure Suppression
32:02 – Mass Arrests, Executions & Systematic Terror
34:37 – Mapping Iran’s Repressive Security Apparatus
37:32 – The IRGC, Basij & Total Population Surveillance
40:53 – Can the Regime Fragment or Defect?
46:08 – Why Internal Collapse Is Unlikely Without Intervention
50:25 – What Military Action Would Actually Change Things
51:15 – Episode Continues on Substack


Jake Wallis Simons: Why are the world’s loudest ‘progressive’ voices silent on Iran?
The Iranian uprising is one of the three most moving expressions of human defiance so far this century. If the regime is toppled, it will constitute a fulcrum in the history of the world. Yet the hypocritical response from the liberal establishment has been as nauseating as it has been infuriating.

From Keir Starmer to Gary Lineker, a startling number of our loudest “human rights” voices seem to be taking the words of the Persian mystic Rumi – “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there” – rather too literally.

Surely, if there was ever a moment not to go beyond “ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing”, now would be the time. Yet in addition to Starmer (a weakling statement with France and Germany, and refusing to proscribe the IRGC) and Lineker (silence), armies of Western notables are either downplaying or simply ignoring this dramatic struggle for freedom.

These are the people that are passionate when their activism harms the West, but whose voices seem to desert them when the tyrant wears a turban. This is especially true of those who have built their politics on an obsession with “Palestine”. Which, coincidentally enough, is something they have in common with the Iranian regime.

Remember, for instance, the UN’s oily humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher? He who falsely claimed that “14,000 babies” were facing starvation in Gaza, and went on to post preening video selfies of himself bravely helping the Palestinians? So far, as far as I can see, the chap has posted nothing on Iran. Which, for the “under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs”, is quite the omission.

This wholesale depravity from those who signal their virtue loudest is enough to make you vomit with rage. But it should hardly be a surprise: the Left has form, especially when it comes to Iran.

Rewind to 1979 and progressive intellectuals were falling over themselves to support the Ayatollah as he overthrew the Shah and seized power.


Iran’s regime in its ‘final days,’ says German Chancellor
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday predicted the imminent downfall of Iran’s regime, saying it was in its “final days.”

“When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, it is effectively finished,” Merz told reporters in India, where he was on a two-day visit. “I believe that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Merz’s “double standards,” telling Berlin to “have some shame” and urging it to end its “illegal interference” in the region. Araghachi noted Germany’s support of Israel during the war against Hamas, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

On Monday, President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on goods from countries that are “doing business” with Iran.

Trump has said the Islamic Republic is weakening and should make a deal with the United States to ease sanctions in exchange for dismantling Tehran’s nuclear program.

Merz has said that Israel was “doing the world’s dirty work” during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.

Iran has experienced roughly two weeks of nationwide protests, sparked by a market strike in the bazaar of Tehran. The unrest, in which opposition figures say at least hundreds have died, marks one of the biggest internal challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment with the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

The demonstrations have drawn hundreds of thousands of people by some accounts, Bloomberg reported, and authorities have struggled to quell them.

“The population is now rising up against this regime,” Merz said in India. He added that foreign ministers from around the world are in close contact to ensure that a transition to a “democratically legitimate government can take place in Iran.”


At least 12,000 killed in Iran crackdown as blackout deepens
At least 12,000 people have been killed in Iran in the largest killing in the country's contemporary history, much of it carried out on January 8 and 9 during an ongoing internet shutdown, according to senior government and security sources speaking to Iran International.

After cross-checking information obtained from reliable sources, including the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office, the initial estimate by the Islamic Republic’s security institutions is that at least 12,000 people were killed in this nationwide killing.

Iran International reached the conclusion after reviewing information it received from a source close to the Supreme National Security Council; two sources in the presidential office; accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities.

The killing was carried out on the direct order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government, and with an order for live fire issued by the Supreme National Security Council, Iran International has learned.

Iran International’s Editorial Board has set out its findings on the latest crackdown in a statement titled “The killing of 12,000 Iranians will not be buried in silence,” calling for documents and testimony by the victims' families.


Is This The End of the Iranian Regime?
Eli Lake joins us to go through the history of the resistance to the Iranian regime, what makes this moment so different, and what the United States has to do to ensure the kind of outcome that will make the world a better place.


The Free Press: Exclusive Footage: Inside Iran’s Violent Crackdown on Anti-Regime Protesters
The camera pans across a large, brightly lit auditorium lined with dead bodies. Hundreds of them fill the room. Many more are being stacked outside, in the open air, because there is no space left in the hall.

This is one of many harrowing videos recently sent from Iran to Mehdi Parpanchi, executive editor of Iran International, a Persian-language television network based in London. Even under the near-total digital blackout that was imposed by the Iranian government a few days ago, footage and eyewitness reports have continued to reach his team through Starlink.

The protests began a little more than two weeks ago over the collapse of Iran’s currency, first spreading through Tehran’s Grand Bazaar before erupting nationwide. Last week, millions took to the streets across more than 400 cities, according to Parpanchi.

What followed, he said, was a coordinated and unprecedented violent crackdown: at least 12,000 killed nationwide in just two days, according to official figures that were leaked to Iran International.

“This is not an estimate. It is based on information that came from inside Iran’s president’s office and the Supreme National Security Council,” Parpanchi told The Free Press on Tuesday morning. “The scale of the crackdown on protesters has shaken everyone, including those who work inside [the Iranian government]. These staff members, who are horrified by what they are seeing, have decided to leak the truth.”

For comparison, Iran’s 2019 fuel protests left an estimated 300 dead. The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in 2022 saw roughly 550 killed over several months. This time, Parpanchi said, the scale is different.

“This is a full massacre,” he added.


Restricted video WARNING: GRAPHIC 🔴
Six additional minutes of footage showing protesters who were killed by Iran’s Islamic regime forces. Deeply tragic.😢


Restricted video We have received a number of videos of the Tehran Massacre from our sources inside Iran
They have asked us to publish evidence of their friends and families being murdered in cold blood for protesting in favor of a free Iran

The videos are horrible but must be seen by the world




Truth Isn’t Relative: Melanie Phillips on Oct 7, Multiculturalism & the War on Reality, Episode 450.
Renowned British journalist and author Melanie Phillips joins Andrew Parker for a wide-ranging, fearless conversation about the West’s crisis of truth, the rise of ideological coercion, and why Judeo-Christian foundations still matter in a secular age.

They begin with Phillips’ experience being “canceled before cancel culture,” her break with legacy media orthodoxy, and why the loss of confidence in objective truth has left institutions unable to distinguish reality from propaganda. From the David Irving vs. Deborah Lipstadt trial to today’s revisionism on Israel and antisemitism, Phillips argues we are living through a full-scale battle over truth—now accelerated by technology and cultural intimidation.

The conversation turns to October 7, 2023, the immediate global reaction, and what it reveals about modern moral inversion. Phillips explainseaks about the progressive alliance with the Palestinian Arab narrative, the psychology behind tearing down hostage posters, and why ideology becomes a sealed belief system where evidence no longer matters.

Finally, Andrew and Melanie tackle multiculturalism, national identity, and whether Europe can still be saved. Phillips explains why multiculturalism is not simply tolerance, but a doctrine that can dissolve the shared foundations of a democratic society—and why the West may soon face the difficult paradox of taking “illiberal measures” to preserve a liberal order.

Melanie Phillips is the author of The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It.


Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 78: Do you still want to globalize the intifada?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

Our current question: What was the First Intifada? What was the Second Intifada? What does it mean to “globalize the intifada?”

Chapters
00:00 Understanding the Intifadas: A Historical Overview
06:13 The Impact of the First Intifada on Israeli Society
11:49 The Second Intifada: A Shift in Dynamics
17:52 The Legacy of Violence: Perceptions and Misunderstandings




Controverisal Muslim charity may lose non-profit status for role in anti-Israel protests
The California chapter of the largest Muslim charity in the US may lose its tax exempt status over its organization of anti-Israel protests, The Post has learned.

The powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee of Congress is calling upon the International Revenue Service to investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the state, its largest stronghold in the US.

CAIR “institutionally endorsed and materially supported several encampments on college campuses across California, some of which resulted in violations of the law,” says the Jan. 13 letter from acting US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, which has been seen by The Post.

The letter was also signed by IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano and Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the Committee on Ways and Means.

CAIR California’s Chief Executive Officer Hussam Ayloush responded with the chapter’s own letter to the IRS, denying any wrongdoing and condemning “hate, terrorism and extremism in all forms.”

In a comment to The Post, a lawyer for the group said: “Contrary to the false claims made by Mr. Smith, CAIR-California is a respected civil rights organization with a long record of lawful advocacy and cooperation with government agencies.”

Last year, two government watchdog groups demanded a high-level investigation into CAIR California over the disappearance of more than $7 million in federal cash that was earmarked to help resettle impoverished immigrants.




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