Saturday, May 09, 2026

05/08 Links Pt1: Saudi Arabia’s War; Princelings of Persia; IDF kills Hamas terrorist linked to Mia Schem abduction; PA policeman one of three terrorists arrested

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Saudi Arabia’s War
It’s worth noting, for posterity, that the great under-covered theme in this war has been the influence exerted by the Saudis. That story has been under-covered because Western mass media tends toward herd behavior and relies on preconceived narratives. The prevailing narrative is that if any state exerts a controversial level of influence over American warmaking, that state must be Israel. It is the only country subject to this type of coverage.

And yet, the Saudis were urging Trump to launch the war and then loudly protested when Trump signaled that he was looking for an off-ramp. Israel wants to be able to continue its own missions in Lebanon, but it can deal with a U.S.-Iran cease-fire just fine as long as its own hands aren’t tied elsewhere. That’s not true of the Gulf Arab states, which have stuck their necks out to join a U.S. war alliance that includes the IDF.

The Saudis were not quiet about pushing Trump to finish off the Iranian regime. That makes them an immediate target if the regime gets back on its feet. The United Arab Emirates has left OPEC in order to boost American voters’ flagging patience with the war, which puts them on the outs with Riyadh and Tehran simultaneously. If the administration doesn’t have the attention span to stick it out and make sure these Arab states have the security they need after going out on a limb for the U.S., American credibility will fall even faster than gas prices rise.

Israel, however, can afford to be more deferential to Trump. The Israelis have worked to protect the UAE from Iranian retaliation, so it’s not as though they want the war to end here. But it isn’t the Israelis who have publicly tied Trump’s hands and forced him to make the U.S. military defend them or else be made to look a fool over false promises.

It’s tempting to end by merely emphasizing that those who have been claiming that Israel controls U.S. foreign policy, or that American soldiers are risking their lives “for Israel,” have now managed to make themselves look more clownish than ever. But there’s another takeaway here: The public should rethink the reporting and the prognostications made by anyone who has bought or sold the prepackaged narrative about Israeli manipulation. What else about the war have you been misled to believe by mainstream narratives or podcast-bro grifting? Now’s a good time for a reality check.
Princelings of Persia
I used to dismiss what I thought was an urban myth that, to help sell Tehran on the nuke deal, President Barack Obama granted thousands of Iranian spies a backdoor path to residence and ultimately citizenship in the United States. After all, visas and green cards are not like the letters of transit in Casablanca, where you fill in your name and hop on the plane to Lisbon. U.S. consular rules would block such individuals from getting here anyway. Yet in the years after the Iran deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), this story got traction, even as Obama’s spokesmen naturally denied it.

But this year, this supposed myth was given new credibility with the arrest in Los Angeles of Shamim Mafi, an Iranian arms trafficker who came to California in 2013 and was given permanent residency under the Obama administration three years later. And it turns out Mafi is small potatoes compared to what a recent wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and deportations has exposed: that upper Iranian terrorist nobility has been prospering all over the United States.

“They have eyes and ears everywhere,” Iranian American author and human-rights activist Elham Yaghoubian told me about the regime. “It peaked under Obama.”

For a prime example, look first to the $2 million five-bedroom, five-bath modern gray-and-white clapboard house in suburban Los Angeles that has been causing firestorms all over Iranian social media. Its most recent occupants have posted a two-and-a-half-minute video online showing off the grand front, the sprawling interior, and the adjoining elm-shaded McMansions. The camera loiters over the kitchen and dining room surfaces laden with an acre of holiday goodies, a great room of flat-screen TVs and speakers blaring performances nearly drowned out by clapping, while breakfronts full of bric-a-brac reflect, through their glass backing, glimpses of the LA woman documenting the vastness of her lavish residence.

The hostess with the iPhone camera is not Britney Spears, but one Maryam Tahmasebi, sneering at the neighbors’ American flag in contrast to the Shia Imam Hussein banner flying on her own house. And those flat-screen TVs are lit up with screeching mullahs, with a clapping mob cheering them in response. She is the daughter-in-law of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the unhinged “Screaming Mary” spokesperson of the student group that occupied the U.S. Embassy for 444 days in 1979, now an ICE detainee.

The online haters are the outraged Persians around the globe who are fuming at the latest sign of corrupt aghazadeh, or “princeling decadence,” the effrontery of the Islamic Republic’s elite Gen Zers living it up overseas while Iranians go hungry and get shot dead by the thousand at home. The aghazadeh in question is Ebtekar’s son, Eissa Hashemi. Incredibly enough, this scion of two embassy hostage takers “entered the United States in 2014 in visas issued by the Obama administration,” according to a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 11. Even more incredibly, according to the same statement, “in June 2016 – just months after the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] seized two U.S. Navy vessels and captured 10 American sailors – the Obama Administration granted all three Iranian nationals lawful permanent resident (LPR) status via the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.” That would be the same time frame when Mafi, the arms trafficker in Woodland Hills, got her green card. Hashemi is in ICE detention as well, along with the couple’s son.

Americans of a certain age have to pause here to savor the thought of hostage taker Masoumeh, née Nilufar, Ebtekar (the hard-liner Water Lily renamed herself Sinless), watching her revolutionary family members being seized, cuffed, shackled, and hustled into custody for an uncertain but inevitably humiliating fate.

Though Hashemi was Iranian revolutionary aristocracy, he often pleaded to his haters—fellow Iranians—that he was not a fanatic and was not even born when his parents took the American hostages and his mother gloated over her desire to murder them. Not so with Hamideh Soleimani-Afshar, reportedly the niece of Qassem Soleimani, the deceased IRGC-Quds Force chief. Afshar had celebrated attacks on U.S. soldiers and military facilities, praised Iran’s supreme leader, called America the “Great Satan,” and voiced support for the IRGC, a designated terror organization, according to the New York Post, citing the State Department. She and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, were detained by ICE, leaving behind a black Tesla—in which the Post glimpsed Hermès cushions, a Miss Dior bag, and a Sephora bag—in front of their home on Plainview Avenue in Tujunga, on the opposite side of the San Fernando Valley from Agoura Hills.
'We should never have let them in': Labor's 'complete failure' revealed after ISIS brides charged with slavery, terrorism offences
The Albanese government’s decision to allow the return of four ISIS brides and their nine children has been branded a “complete failure” after three of the women were arrested on arrival.

Two women were arrested after touching down at Melbourne Airport on Thursday evening, with a third arrested on arrival in Sydney.

The two Melbourne women, aged 53 and 31, have both since been charged with multiple slavery-related offences, while the 32-year-old Sydney woman has been charged with lesser terrorism-related offences.

The Albanese government has maintained that no assistance was provided to the cohort, but questions have been raised about why the individuals were granted passports and not subjected to temporary exclusion orders.

Shadow home affairs minister Jonathan Duniam said the seriousness of the charges showed why “we should never have let them in”.

“The fact that we are arresting people on their arrival means we shouldn't have allowed them to come to Australia,” he told Sky News.

“We're talking about terror-related offences here and under the Passport Act there is a power for the Foreign Minister to not issue passports to people on grounds of national security.

“I would argue that terror-related offences are a good enough reason not to give someone a passport.

“We're not talking about small misdemeanours… We're talking about some of the worst crimes here.”

The shadow home affairs minister said since they have arrived, the group were now Australia’s problem, with the cost of monitoring them estimated at $2 million per year, per person.

“For the government to allow this to happen is a complete failure of this government's commitment to our national security and protection of the people here," he said.

“We should never have let them in."


Trump says expecting Iranian response to latest US proposal ‘tonight’
US President Donald Trump says he is expecting Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal on a deal to ending the Middle East war by “tonight.”

“I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight, so we’ll see how that goes,” Trump tells reporters outside the White House.


US strikes empty Iranian oil tankers, Iran launches missiles, drones at UAE
US forces disabled two Iranian-flagged oil tankers attempting to violate the US blockade by firing precision munitions into their smokestacks, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Friday.

The M/T Sea Star III and the M/T Sevda were attempting to enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman when US forces disabled them.

The vessels are no longer transiting to Iran, CENTCOM said

UAE intercepts Iranian missiles, drones
The United Arab Emirates air defenses engaged two ballistic missiles and three drones launched from Iran on Thursday, the UAE Defense Ministry announced in a post on X/Twitter.

Three people were moderately injured in the attack, bringing the total number of injuries within the UAE since the onset of "the blatant Iranian attacks" to 230, according to the ministry's statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister accuses US of reckless military adventure
Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, responded on X to a published analysis from US intelligence that claimed that Iran's missile inventory capacity after the war is at 75% compared to its pre-war levels.

Araghchi asserted, “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure.”

He further stated, “The CIA is wrong, our missile inventory and launcher capacity are not at 75% compared to Feb 28. The correct figure is 120%.”

“As for our readiness to defend our people: 1,000%”
Iran launches third missile attack on UAE this week
The government of the United Arab Emirates said on Friday that its territory had been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles for the third time this week.

The Friday attack was one of several points of military friction this week between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, one month into a tense ceasefire in the American-Israeli operation to neutralize Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors.

“The UAE’s air defenses are currently dealing with missile and drone attacks originating from Iran, and the Ministry of Defense confirms that the sounds heard in various parts of the country are the result of the UAE air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones,” the UAE Defense Ministry said in a statement.

On Thursday, U.S. forces engaged with Iranian attackers in the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. guided missile destroyers came under fire.

“Three world-class American destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “There was no damage done to the three destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers. They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated navy.”

U.S. Central Command called the Iranian attacks “unprovoked.”
Suspected oil spill on Iran's Kharg Island, Iran denies
A suspected oil spill covering dozens of square kilometers of sea near Iran's main oil hub, Kharg Island, has been seen in satellite imagery this week, with Maariv on Friday citing an Iranian official as denying the report.

According to Maariv, the Iranian official said the claim was "false" and part of the enemy's "psychological warfare," claiming the spill seen in the area originated from oil tanker waste that was discharged into the sea by a European tanker, damaging the environment.

The likely spill, appearing in images as a grey-and-white slick, covered waters to the west of the 8-kilometer-long island, as shown in images from Copernicus’s Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 satellites on May 6-8.

“The slick appears visually consistent with oil,” said Leon Moreland, researcher at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, who estimated that it was covering an area of approximately 45 square km.

Louis Goddard, co-founder of consultancy Data Desk, which focuses on climate and commodities, agreed that the images likely showed an oil slick, which he said was potentially the largest to occur since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran 70 days ago.

The US military and Iran's mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the images.

The cause of the possible spill and the point of origin are currently unknown, Moreland added, noting that images from May 8 showed no evidence of additional active spills.


IDF kills Hamas terrorist linked to Mia Schem abduction
The IDF has killed several terrorists, including one who participated in the abduction of a young Israeli woman on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli army said on Thursday. Israel also dismantled eight Hamas tunnels, according to the army.

The IDF on April 29 “struck and eliminated Ibrahim Abu Tzakar, a Hamas terrorist who operated as a paramedic and led numerous attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement, which it said followed its “intelligence analysis” confirming Abu Tzakar’s death.

He had “participated in the abduction of Mia Schem from the area of Mefalsim,” the statement said. Mia Schem was abducted on Oct. 7 from the grounds of the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im.

Schem, a French–Israeli citizen, was 21 years old at the time of her abduction. She was shot in the arm at point blank by a Hamas terrorist. After three days, Schem was forced to undergo surgery for her wound. For days, she received no painkillers and had to replace her own bandages.

She was returned as part of a hostage release agreement in November 2023.

Separately, the IDF eliminated on Thursday armed Hamas terrorists in a command center in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF also said, adding they had posed “an imminent threat” to Israeli troops.

“The command center was struck while armed terrorists were inside, operating to advance and carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.” Several terrorists were killed in the strike, according to the statement.

The IDF took steps “to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance,” the statement said.
Hezbollah fires rockets at Haifa area, Nahariya and Acre
Terrorists in Lebanon fired rockets into Israel on Friday, targeting Nahariya, Acre and the Haifa suburbs, two days after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah terrorist in Beirut.

At about 2 p.m. on Friday, the IDF Home Front Command instructed residents in the targeted area to seek shelter.

Earlier on Friday, an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah penetrated Israel and wounded two soldiers, one severely and the other moderately, near the border, the IDF said.

The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital and their families were notified, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said, adding that this was “an additional violation of the ceasefire understandings by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”

In another incident on Friday, Hezbollah launched several explosive drones that wounded one IDF soldier in Southern Lebanon, the IDF said. Hezbollah forces also fired mortar rounds at Israeli troops.

“The Israeli Air Force successfully intercepted one launch, and the mortar shells hit near the soldiers,” wounding none, the statement said.


Palestinian Authority policeman one of three terrorists arrested
The Israel Police arrested this week three suspects it says planned to carry out terrorist attacks, including a Palestinian Authority police officer and an ISIS member.

Israeli police operated in the villages of Dura and Deir al-Asal, both near Hebron in Judea, to arrest two terrorist operatives who planned to carry out attacks in the immediate time frame. During one of the arrests, the forces entered the village covertly and in disguise and placed the building where the suspect was located under siege. Upon understanding the situation, he surrendered.

The suspect, a Palestinian Authority police officer who, according to suspicion, planned to carry out an attack, was arrested and transferred for questioning.

In an additional operation, conducted in the Askar camp in Nablus, Samaria, undercover Israeli police arrived in the area, and simultaneously, a deployment of overt forces was carried out that executed a siege on the building where the suspect was located.

The suspect, who had previously been involved in terrorist activity and had been arrested in the past by security forces, surrendered.


Francesca Albanese receives prestigious award from Spanish Prime Minister
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez presented controversial United Nations envoy Francesca Albanese with the “Commander’s Cross of the Order of Civil Merit” on Thursday, one of Spain's highest civilian honors.

The ceremony took place at the Prime Minister’s residence in Madrid, Moncloa Palace, where the award was officially given in recognition of Albanese's work in "documenting alleged violations of international law in Gaza," according to a report from Euractiv.

During the event, both Sanchez and Albanese underscored the importance of "protecting international law and the independence of multilateral institutions."

Sanchez praised Albanese’s advocacy, especially her critiques of Israeli actions, stating, "Public responsibility also entails a moral obligation not to turn a blind eye." He further described her as "a voice that defends the conscience of the world."

However, Albanese's critics view her portrayal of international events as extreme. As the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Albanese’s fierce criticism of Israel has sparked controversy.

The US has imposed sanctions on her, and European countries like France and Germany have accused her of fostering antisemitic sentiments.


Translation: Francesca Albanese presents her book of hoaxes about Gaza in full diva mode, putting on an intense face amid the applause of an audience fawning at the feet of this utterly shameless antisemite. From the banality of evil to the posturing of evil.


Commentary Podcast: Wars of Choice
It's Friday, and we still don't understand exactly what is going on with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, so instead we discuss unfair comparisons between this conflict and Putin's war in Ukraine, the historical context of so-called "wars of choice," the strange absences from the jacket of Rachel Goldberg-Polin's book, and the Pulitzer prize awarded to photographs from a since-retracted New York Times story. Plus, Seth recommends Ulrich Boschwitz's The Passenger.


Texas judge orders CAIR chapters to disclose donor records, foreign travel records
A federal judge ordered Texas chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday to turn over donor lists and travel records in a discovery dispute tied to a lawsuit challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s designation of CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization.

U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright granted in part motions to compel filed by Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The ruling requires the CAIR Foundation to produce records identifying certain foreign donors and recipients of funds, as well as communications related to foreign funding.

Albright also ordered the production of records related to travel by CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad to Egypt, Gaza, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates between 2019 and 2023.

Amy Mek of the RAIR Foundation, which investigates and combats “threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies,” called the ruling “a massive victory for transparency and national security.”

Brandon Hall, a Republican member of the Texas State Board of Education, praised the ruling.

“Your days of masquerading as a ‘Muslim civil rights organization’ are over, CAIR,” he stated. “We will never stop until we push your terrorist organization out of Texas.”




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