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Wednesday, March 18, 2026

3/17 Links Part 1A

This linkdump was flagged by Google. But when I tested to figure out why on another semi-private blog, I saw that dividing it up into two does not cause the flag. Who knows. So here is Part 1A:

UPDATE: Now 1B is flagged, but not on my test blog. So instead of littering this blog with ever-decreasing test posts to debug, I'm leaving it as is and hopefully this is an anomaly. I deleted the 1B so as not to make my entire blog score get worse. 

Ugh.

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From Ian:

Israeli President Herzog: Europe Should Back Effort to Eradicate Hizbullah   
Israel's President Isaac Herzog told AFP on Monday that "Europe should support any effort, any effort, to eradicate Hizbullah now. They should understand that if you want to get anywhere, sometimes you need to win war."

Israeli officials have repeatedly criticized Lebanese authorities for what they say are failures to honor a commitment to disarm Hizbullah.

On the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Herzog said: "There comes a moment that after well over a generation of endless wars, bloodshed and terror, the root cause of it, which comes from Tehran, will be blocked and stopped, and the whole direction of the region will change."

He insisted defeating the clerical authorities in Iran was "in the innermost national security interests of Europe." Herzog said that Iran had been seeking "10 times the amount of ballistic missiles, which would have threatened Europe big time."

"After talking and talking for a whole generation, it's about time for doing."

"Where is the whole world? Rather than all the time criticizing Israel, let's help us. Let's help the Americans. Let's help us bring a real change so that there will be a different future in the region."
Elizabeth Tsurkov: Iran’s War Is Not Only With the West
In Iraq, pro-Iranian militias killed hundreds of American servicepeople, mostly through roadside bombs. But the number of Iraqi civilians they have killed far exceeds this. During the 2006–08 sectarian civil war, these militias murdered, r#ped, and t#rtured to death countless numbers of Sunnis. In 2014, during the anti-ISIS war, the militias kidnapped Sunni male teenagers and men and disappeared them into a network of t#rture sites. The militias also ethnically cleansed entire Sunni towns, such as Jurf al-Sakhr, and established military bases there, preventing the residents from returning to this day. The militias engaged in widespread looting of private property in Sunni areas, and stripped state assets such as the oil refinery in Baiji and multiple factories in Ninewa.

After years of abusing Iraq’s Sunnis, the militias turned their guns on the country’s Shia in 2019. Starting in the fall and continuing well into 2020, the militias violently repressed the mostly Shia anti-regime Tishreen (“October”) protest movement, spraying activists with bullets, as well as assassinating them or kidnapping them into their black sites. According to testimonies of survivors, in Baghdad the militias used the abandoned houses of Jewish residents as sites to t#rture and gang-r#pe female and male protesters they would kidnap from the city’s Tahrir Square encampment.

An Iraqi Shia seminary student was kidnapped by a militia for cursing Khamenei in front of a commander. The student was t#rtured, and then his father was kidnapped and t#rtured too. The student told me that when he heard of Khamenei’s killing, “I was happy as if it’s Eid al-Fitr,” one of the two main holidays in Islam. “He was part of the destruction of Iraq. He is the reason for sectarianism and extremism,” the student said.

Even the bloodshed caused by Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Lebanon does not compare with what they inflicted in Syria. Under IRGC command, the militias served as the ground troops in major offensives on rebel-held towns, usually augmented by Syrian soldiers and militiamen. The Iranian-backed militias imposed a series of sieges on rebel-held towns and neighborhoods, such as Zabadani and Madaya near the Lebanese border, the suburbs of southern Damascus, and eastern Aleppo, starving dozens, particularly children and the elderly, to death.

The Syrian doctor was the sole surgeon serving a population of about 10,000 people deprived of most medical help. He told me he carried out hundreds of amputations of limbs without anesthesia because of a shortage of staff, medical equipment, and medication. The Iran-run militias prevented all of these goods and personnel from entering the besieged enclave. The surgeon and the people around him would, he said, eat leaves and grass and drink water with spices to quench the hunger pains. He lost dozens of pounds under the siege.

The oppressive Iranian presence was evident in the surgeon’s daily life. “Khamenei lived among us through his proxies: in the checkpoints that besieged our city, in the militias that would storm our homes, in the kidnapped children and missing women, and in our villages that turned into ruins and mass graves,” he told me.

“Khamenei managed his colonial expansionist project from afar, but it was executed over our bodies and our cities.”
Gulf States Press U.S. to Neutralize Iran for Good as Hormuz Strait Crisis Deepens
Many Gulf Arab states are now urging the U.S. not to leave the Islamic Republic able to threaten the Gulf's oil lifeline and the economies that depend on it, three Gulf sources told Reuters. At the same time, Washington was pressing Gulf states to join the U.S.-Israeli war.

"There is a wide feeling across the Gulf that Iran has crossed every red line with every Gulf country," said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center. "At first we defended them [Iran] and opposed the war. But once they began directing strikes at us, they became an enemy. There is no other way to classify them."

Tehran has attacked airports, ports, oil facilities and commercial hubs in the six Gulf states with missiles and drones while disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks have reinforced Gulf fears that leaving Iran with any significant offensive weaponry or arms manufacturing capacity could embolden it to hold the region's energy lifeline hostage whenever tensions rise.

As the war entered its third week, with Iran firing at U.S. bases and civilian targets across the Gulf, a Gulf source said the prevailing mood among leaders was that Trump should comprehensively degrade Iran's military capacity. The alternative, the source said, was living under constant threat. Unless Iran was severely weakened, it would continue to hold the region to ransom.


WSJ Editorial: The Battle for the Strait of Hormuz
Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who has commanded a carrier strike group, recently laid out what a Hormuz operation might look like. First, continue to degrade to a “militarily manageable risk” the missiles, mines, drones and unmanned surface combatants that could threaten U.S. forces and tankers. Second, maintain “an unblinking eye that looks 50 miles on either side of the Strait and 100 miles back.”

Third, keep “four or eight aircraft persistently overhead” during convoy operations, equipped with Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, “a cheap rocket—$25,000—that is extremely effective against Shahed drones.” Fourth, have “armed helos” ready to attack small boats that emerge.

Fifth, deploy 10-14 Aegis destroyers, whose air defenses make them “the perfect escort ship.” These surface combatants first need to be brought into place, and allies could join later.

This is no easy mission, and “militarily manageable risk” won’t be comforting to Americans or energy markets if this goes sideways. But Iran doesn’t hold all the cards. Its action in Hormuz could force Mr. Trump to see the war through, which is bad news for the regime.

Two weeks ago the fear in some quarters was that Mr. Trump would end the war when the U.S. ran out of major Iranian military targets to strike, sparing the legion of smaller regime targets Israel wants to hit. Now Tehran has given the U.S. a challenge that could add up to a strategic defeat if Mr. Trump stops early.

Israel would use the time to further weaken Iran’s regime by carrying out the full campaign, which Mr. Trump had said was planned for four-to-six weeks. Mr. Trump’s comment Sunday that “we may delay” a trip to China, planned for March 31, is a good sign he isn’t limiting the war to arbitrary deadlines.

In the longer term, many states will seek alternative supply routes, to avoid the Strait, and even alternative suppliers—a cost Iran will share with the Gulf states it now attacks. Expect Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. to add more pipelines to bypass the Hormuz chokepoint.

Armed with missiles and drones, Iran’s regime has closed international waters and attacked neighbors’ energy facilities. This is while Iran is relatively weak. Imagine how the regime would blackmail the world—and get away with it—if it were left to amass twice or three times the missiles, or nuclear weapons.

The Battle for Hormuz underscores the U.S. interest in degrading the ayatollah regime—and giving Iranians a chance to overthrow it.
Gulf States Use Israeli Expertise Against Iranian Missiles, Drones
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, said Tuesday that certain Gulf countries are using Israeli expertise in drone and missile interception against Iran, as they have faced more than 2,000 missiles and drones.

"Iran continues to shoot missiles and suicide drones into all of its neighbors - shopping centers, airports, residential neighborhoods, and hotels. We've extended our help to all the Gulf countries interested in receiving it and there are those who are enjoying our expertise in these areas right now."
PM urges Iranians to celebrate Persian fire festival, in apparent bid to spark protests
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to celebrate on Tuesday night a fire festival derided as pagan by the Islamic Republic, apparently hoping to spark demonstrations despite Israeli officials’ reported assessment that anti-regime protesters would be “slaughtered.”

Unverified footage published by Iranian opposition outlets showed crowds marking Chaharshanbe Suri with bonfires in Tehran and other Iranian cities, after local authorities warned against the celebrations, citing the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign. At the same time, Iranian authorities on Tuesday Iran called on supporters to rally nationwide against “potential plots” by the “Zionist enemy.”

The Chaharshanbe Suri holiday is marked on the eve the of the last Wednesday before Nowruz, the Persian new year, which starts Friday evening.

Celebrations surrounding the Persian new year have in recent years sometimes featured protests against the regime, which took power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and discourages the non-Muslim celebrations.

In an English-language video statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu told Iranians, “Celebrate, and Happy Nowruz. We’re watching from above.”

Speaking from the Air Force command bunker at the IDF’s Kirya headquarter in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu noted Israel in the past day killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani and Basij volunteer force head Gholamreza Soleimani, architects of the regime’s massacre of protesters in January.


Rubio tells diplomats to work with Israel on messaging against Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a recent cable encouraged American diplomats to work with local Israeli embassies on messaging efforts to encourage foreign governments to collaborate with the U.S. in its war against Iran, ABC News reported on Monday.

“At post’s discretion, advocacy efforts should be coordinated with Israeli diplomatic counterparts,” a leaked diplomatic cable stated, according to ABC.

In the cable titled “Elevated Concern of [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Activity,” Rubio noted that there is an “elevated risk of attack” from Iran, and told diplomats to encourage the governments where they were posted to “move expeditiously to diminish the capabilities of Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist groups from attacking our respective nations and citizens.”

“We assess that the Iranian regime is more sensitive to collective action than unilateral action, and that joint pressure is more likely to compel behavior change by the regime than unilateral actions alone,” the cable reportedly stated. “We must act while international attention is focused now to end the Iranian campaign of terror in the Middle East and globally. Do not allow this critical movement to pass.”

The report comes as President Donald Trump pushes for other countries to join U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, the point through which oil can be transported out of the Gulf to the open sea.

Rubio also directed diplomats in countries that have not declared the IRGC and Hezbollah to be terrorist organizations to relay the message that they should do so “swiftly,” because “such a designation will intensify the pressure on the Iranian regime and limit its ability to sponsor terror activities across the globe that jeopardizes the safety and security of your populations.”


Buenos Aires 1992: The day Iran's terror came for my family
Today we mark 34 years since the murderous bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which left 29 dead – Israelis, Argentines, and nationals of other countries – dozens of wounded, and bereaved families who carry the scars to this day. Two and a half years later, the Argentine capital was struck by another terrorist attack, this time at the AMIA (the country's main Jewish community center), which exacted an even greater toll: 85 dead and more than 300 wounded.

Two similar attacks: the same city, the same method – a car bomb – and the same architects: Iranian direction, Hezbollah execution. The investigations conducted since, primarily by Israeli authorities led by the Mossad, established beyond any doubt the initial suspicion that Iran – by decision of its highest leadership – "commissioned" the acts of terror, financed, trained and assisted the perpetrators; and Hezbollah, its proxy, served as the operational contractor. A classic partnership between a state sponsor of terror and its agents, designed to obscure the fingerprints.

One was the largest attack ever carried out against an Israeli target abroad; the other was the largest attack against any Jewish target outside Israel's borders. These terrorist attacks were a devastating blow to Israel, to its intelligence and diplomatic security apparatus, and to the Israeli foreign service. They tore open deep wounds that shook Argentine society as well – a country physically and emotionally remote from the bloodshed of the Middle East, separated by some 12,000 kilometers (7,460 miles) from Jerusalem to Buenos Aires.

The day everything changed
For me, as a diplomat at the embassy, this was not merely an illustration of the concept of "the front line of the diplomatic battle." It was a personal encounter with bereavement. In 1989, we arrived in Argentina – my wife Eli (Eliora), our four children and I – to serve at the embassy in Buenos Aires. Not long afterward, our fifth daughter was born there. The city became a warm home. Those were good and beautiful years, personally and professionally.


BEASTMODE: Trump Declares that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer 'Is Not Winston Churchill'
President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that British prime minister Keir Starmer is "not Winston Churchill," blasting London’s reluctance to aid the U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic as a "big mistake."


Trump says US ‘not ready to leave Iran yet,’ but will in ‘very near future’
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US would not be fighting Iran for “much longer,” but declined to give a clear timeline, as he disparaged NATO for not doing more to help.

Speaking at a White House lunch, Trump said he had decided to take a “little excursion” from improving the economy,” adding: “A couple of weeks. It won’t be much longer.”

It was unclear whether he meant that the excursion had lasted a couple of weeks, or that it would last for a couple of weeks longer.

He joked, as he had before, that his “biggest problem” after killing so many of Iran’s leaders is that “We don’t know who to deal with.”

Earlier, in the Oval Office during the St. Patrick’s Day visit of Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, Trump was asked what his day-after plan was for Iran.

He responded that if the US were to end the war, it would take Iran 10 years to rebuild, and that Iran’s “actual top leader was killed yesterday,” in an apparent reference to Israel’s claim that it had killed powerful national security chief Ali Larijani.

Trump said. “We’re not ready to leave yet, but we will be leaving in the… pretty much, the very near future.”

He remained vague about his political plan for the country after the war, saying merely: “We’re going to try to get people that are going to run it well.”
Major U.S. airlines suspend flights to Israel until June
As the Iran war continues, major U.S. airlines have extended suspensions of direct flights to Tel Aviv, upending travel plans for thousands hoping to visit Israel for Passover, when the country typically sees a surge in visitors, and beyond.

As of Tuesday, United Airlines’ website shows direct flights from the New York region’s Newark Liberty International Airport to Israel, a route that usually operates multiple times daily, are delayed through June 16. The only available flights from Newark to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport are operated by Lufthansa, United’s partner, and require a layover in Frankfurt.

United’s direct flights from Israel to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles International Airport, which typically each run a few times a week, are also suspended.

The first available direct New York to Tel Aviv flight on Delta Airlines website is available June 1. When the Iran conflict initially began, Delta said it would delay flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport until at least April 1. The airline had been planning to restart its Atlanta-Tel Aviv flights in April for the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, but now has delayed those plans until Aug. 4.

American Airlines, which has not flown directly to Israel since Oct. 7, has delayed the restart of its service to Tel Aviv until April 23, a spokesperson for the airline told Jewish Insider on Tuesday. It also suspended operations to and from Doha, Qatar, through May 7 due to tension in the region.

Before the conflict with Iran began, American Airlines announced plans to resume direct flights to Ben Gurion from John F. Kennedy starting on March 28, just days ahead of the Passover holiday. Tickets went on sale in October. The announcement, which made American the last of the major U.S. carriers to resume flights to Israel after Oct. 7, came weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

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