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Thursday, June 04, 2026

06/03 Links Pt1: U.S. Military ‘Aid’ to Israel Is Over. Will Anyone Notice?; Trump delivered a military victory over Iran. Now he’s negotiating it away

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: U.S. Military ‘Aid’ to Israel Is Over. Will Anyone Notice?
In reality, Israel was buying the weapons and other supplies it needed, so this argument was always disingenuous. But it enabled some lawmakers to argue that they were not against Israel’s right to exist or to defend itself while also calling for a break in the U.S.-Israel relationship.

This is in contrast to folks like outgoing Republican Rep. Tom Massie, who makes wild insinuations about Americans subsidizing Israeli abortions, and Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other members of the “Squad,” who simply yell about the Jewish state’s supposed bloodthirst. Meanwhile, the long-debunked “genocide” lie has gone mainstream in Democratic circles, furthering a trend that could make it virtually impossible for a future Democratic administration to rework the U.S.-Israel relationship in any remotely productive way.

Figures like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene continue to dishonestly frame the aid issue as a cudgel against Israel and against Trump. Eliminating this talking point without eliminating the aid, then, has given Trump reason to pursue a restructuring under his own watch.

Netanyahu has long felt similarly, but he also has supported restructuring the aid in a way that doesn’t hamstring Israeli leaders during wartime or stifle domestic Israeli production at a time when the state needs a larger degree of independence from the whims of Western politicians easily bullied by Hamasnik constituents armed with Iranian talking points. As Netanyahu told CBS last month, “let’s start now and do it over the next decade, over the next 10 years, but I want to start now. I don’t want to wait for the next Congress. I want to start now.”

And it starts now, with Stutzman’s resolution. The details will come later, but the general framework will put more emphasis on trade and mutual cooperation on various projects. That will also likely insulate much of it from sabotage by anti-Israel members of Congress at a time when Democrats are nominating the most extreme anti-Zionist crop of candidates in memory.

The question now becomes: Will this satisfy all those who claim that American subsidy is the problem with Israel aid? Or will they find other reasons to bash the plan and move the goalposts in their continuing quest to undo America’s alliances?
David Harsanyi: Trump delivered a military victory over Iran. Now he’s negotiating it away
For weeks now, we’ve been hearing that the United States and Iran are on the verge of a deal in which the clerics will agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire continuation that would allow for more negotiations over the fate of nuclear weapons.

We’ve now been negotiating over the parameters of more negotiations longer than the entire military operation lasted.

The question is, why is the U.S., after delivering an unprecedented military victory against the regime, allowing the mullahs to make demands as if they were on equal footing? And why does President Donald Trump keep giving in to those demands?

We don’t need a deal with Iran. We need the regime to surrender or collapse. If the president isn’t willing to accomplish that goal, walking away would be far preferable to striking another Barack Obama-esque deal, which seems to be where we’re headed. Not only would such a deal end up empowering clerics to restart their nuclear weapons program, retrench, and rearm, but it would restrain Israel and the Gulf States from acting.

The fact that Democrats and isolationists have successfully demoralized the American public doesn’t change the fact that U.S. and Israel decapitated leadership and institutional knowledge within the Islamic regime, set back its nuclear program, vastly degraded its ballistic missile capabilities, and stunted its ability to prop up proxy militias.

Iran will never be in a weaker position. We will never have more leverage. If clerics refuse to strike a suitable deal while their economy is being pounded by a U.S. blockade, what in the history of the regime makes anyone believe they’ll be more amenable when given an economic lifeline?

Though you never know what our mercurial president will do tomorrow, right now it feels like he’s being hoodwinked. The Iranian strategy for survival has always been clear. They’ve employed the same delaying tactics through four administrations.

In the long term, clerics believe they can eke out survival until a Democrat or “non-interventionist” Republican becomes president in 2028.

In the short term, they’re counting on the president not having the courage to resume widespread military engagement. Iran understands that American domestic patience is negatively correlated to high gas prices. They understand that Trump is under political pressure with the midterm elections coming.

This is the reason Iran keeps insisting that a narco-terrorist army in a third country be protected under any ceasefire agreement. Every time the sides are allegedly approaching an agreement, Iran instructs its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, to launch missiles and drones at Israel. When Israel inevitably responds, as any nation would, the clerics break off negotiations temporarily to stretch the timeline even further.

Worse, on Monday, Trump announced that after a “very good” call with Hezbollah, a Justice Department-designated terrorist group that’s murdered hundreds of Americans, he’d convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off planned strikes in Beirut.

In other words, the president saved Hezbollah to placate the mullahs. So much for Netanyahu controlling the U.S. Indeed, Israel is the only country on the planet compelled by its friends to live with non-state terrorist armies on its borders.

Do the president and his advisers really believe this capitulation is going to be construed by the Revolutionary Guard as a good-faith effort? No, it will be seen as a sign of weakness and embolden it.
From Victory to Drift By Abe Greenwald
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The overarching mistake here is engaging diplomatically with Iran at all. This would be true even if the U.S. were speaking with the “right people.” Under the best circumstances, the regime sees diplomacy as an opportunity to con its interlocutors. Iran will always “talk.” Not because the regime is interested in coming to an understanding with America but because talks will, at the least, give Iran time to stave off potential U.S. action and, at best, rope American negotiators into a “deal” whose terms the regime will brazenly violate. Any announcement of “Iran talks”—ever—should be understood as “advantage, Iran.”

But, yes, it’s worse than that. Considering that the regime is aware of all the speculation about the U.S. running dangerously low on both defensive munitions and Arab support, such talks are even more perilous. Iranian leaders (wrongly or rightly) fear nothing in the way of American military strikes. They’ve decided that they can abandon even the pretense of compromise. They’re calling the shots and loving it.

I still think that Trump means it when he says that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. I just don’t know whether, going forward, he’s going to make the hard decisions necessary to win the war. I’m talking about the decision to endure the market spikes and ceaseless criticisms that would come with a long, serious, and unrelenting U.S. blockade on Iranian and Iran-related oil shipments in and out of the Strait of Hormuz. And I’m talking about what has become unthinkable in the mind of the American public: the deployment of U.S. ground troops. With each passing day, both seem less likely.

Do I still maintain that Trump did the civilized world a tremendous favor by leveling Iran’s nuclear program? Absolutely. But it must now be acknowledged that his dithering, if it continues, will introduce a whole new danger. If the only American president who’s been willing to confront Iran proves unable to finish the job, it’s party time not only for Iran but for bad actors in every corner of the globe.


Hillel Neuer: The UN can't afford another appeaser: Why Michelle Bachelet must not lead
Bachelet's obsession with Israel
Most telling of all was her obsession with condemning Israel. Systematically, Bachelet applied a double standard against the Jewish state, which she condemned more than Venezuela, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Cuba, Yemen, and the Taliban.

Her policy toward Jews in the Diaspora was no better. During her four-year term, though Bachelet did speak out often on racism, she never initiated a single condemnation of violent antisemitic attacks that took place worldwide.

So while Bachelet had issued three statements criticizing the US government over violence against African Americans, she never issued a single statement on the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, the 2018 massacre of 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, nor on the 2019 shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California, or the 2022 hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.

Clearly, the familiar maxim that “Jews are news” is only half true: they are news when they can be condemned, but not when they are under attack.

The question now before member states is whether this is the record they wish to reward.

Supporters of Bachelet point to her experience as a former president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Experience, however, is not the issue. Judgment is.

If the UN is to regain any of its credibility, the next Secretary-General needs to push back against aggressors, defend political prisoners, challenge powerful dictatorships, and speak for those who have no voice. Bachelet’s record raises serious doubts about whether she is willing to do so when the perpetrators are influential regimes.

Long before she became High Commissioner, Bachelet faced criticism for her accommodating approach toward her kindred spirits leading the regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Her tenure at the UN did not dispel those concerns – it reinforced them.

The United Nations does not need another Secretary-General skilled at navigating political sensitivities. It needs a leader prepared to confront uncomfortable truths, regardless of which government objects. The victims of repression in China, Iran, Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, and elsewhere deserve more than carefully calibrated silence.

The UN’s credibility is already under unprecedented strain. Elevating Michelle Bachelet would only reinforce the perception that, at the UN, accommodation of dictatorships is a path to advancement rather than a disqualification from leadership.

The world deserves better. So does the United Nations.


Izabella Tabarovsky: Open Hiding
Antisemitism is often viewed as visceral hatred of Jews. But that's a limited understanding of the phenomenon.

Antisemitism is also a politics and a zeitgeist; a conspiracy theory that feeds mass hysteria about Jewish power; an underlying culture that teaches people that Jews are different, they don't belong, they aren't on our side—and ultimately, that they are our misfortune. It draws an invisible line between Jews and the broader society, step by step normalising their marginalisation and disappearance.

That process is already underway across the free world, and Jewish testimonies before Australia's Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, established in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, offer striking evidence to that effect. Eerily reminiscent of German Jews recalling how their lives began to change, they are utterly absorbing: snapshots of the present refracted through a deeply familiar historical memory.

Musician and writer Deborah Conway talks about a call from the director of a writers festival, telling her there's been pushback against her participation in the programme. He assures her everything is fine, but at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by heavy security. At one panel, people rise to their feet, unfurl signs, and start screaming at her. In Brisbane, a dozen masked people pound on the glass of the bookshop where she is speaking, screaming to globalise the intifada, while policemen do nothing. Intimidation bears fruit: music critics sidestep her new album, and she can't book venues to perform it in. Her public presence is quietly diminished. Has anybody noticed?

But it doesn't stop there. Large social media accounts target her daughter, an online food personality. Her hummus adds to Palestinian suffering, apparently, so they threaten to show up at markets where she sells the food. "She had to pack and leave," says Conway. At those markets, did anybody notice she's no longer there?

There is a history of Jews vanishing and others choosing not to notice. "I don't know where the Jews who lived here went—they just moved out at some point," was a common postwar refrain about the murdered Jews next door.

Some of the most striking testimonials in "Some Were Neighbours," an exhibit originally shown at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, come from German Jews recalling non-Jews disappearing from their lives as the antisemitic Nazi state asserted itself. One-time friends, neighbours, classmates, colleagues, dance partners, lovers just marched on into the promise of a great new German future, leaving Jews behind. So strong was the sting of this personal betrayal that neither the horror of the genocide that followed nor the passage of time diminished the force of its memory.


Committee to fight Jewish hate includes former defender of Hezbollah and Yasser Arafat
A new federal committee tasked with addressing Canada’s surging anti-Jewish hatred will include an Edmonton lawyer who filed a Charter challenge in defence of anti-Israel encampments, and an MP who once lobbied for Hezbollah to be removed from Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

The seven-person committee will have just one Jewish representative; Marc Gold, a former Liberal-appointed Senator.

“Our government is building a country in which Jewish Canadians can be visibly, fully, and joyfully Jewish in public life,” wrote the prime minister’s office in a Monday statement announcing the new body, dubbed the Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion.

Arguably the most controversial member of the new council is Omar Alghabra, former Liberal MP for the riding of Mississauga Centre.

Within hours of his appointment, critics pointed to his time as president with the Canadian Arab Federation, which included lobbying campaigns to have groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas removed from Canada’s list of official terror entities.

“I remember Mr. Alghabra lobbying me, before he was in politics, to keep Hezbollah legal. So I’m not sure that he’s the right guy to combat antisemitism,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a reporter for Western Standard on Tuesday.

A profile of Alghabra published Tuesday in the Jerusalem Post pointed to a 2004 letter in which he condemned the Canadian media for using the moniker “terrorists” to refer to groups such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

The example cited was a National Post story containing the line “the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel.”

At the time, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades had been on the list of official Canadian terror entities since the year prior, with an official description calling it an Iran-backed militia founded during the Second Intifada.

But in a September 2004 letter for the Canadian Arab Federation, Alghabra called the story evidence that the National Post’s parent company at them time, CanWest, was “failing its responsibility towards all Canadians, not just Arabs and Muslims.”

That same year, Alghabra would offer public praise for Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian terror leader turned president of the Palestinian National Authority.

Upon Arafat’s death in November 2004, Alghabra was quoted in The Canadian Press as saying “he has played a tremendous role in highlighting the Palestinian struggle for independence and making it visible in the international arena.”


JPost Editorial: Trump's absurd assertions of responsibility for Israel's existence clash with reality
The headlines across Jerusalem and Washington this week were understandably captivated by reports of a heated phone call where US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” over regional strategy.

Yet, while the public remained transfixed by the backstage drama of this apparent shouting match, the real headline was hiding in plain sight.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump quickly confirmed the phone call, casually noting that he told Netanyahu he was keeping him out of jail, before issuing a sweeping historic declaration: “If there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel.”

If Trump is indeed interfering with the judicial system and Israel’s ability to carry out fair trials and investigations, that is an issue of itself, but the latter statement is purely unacceptable.

To hear the sitting American president claim ultimate authorship over the survival and existence of the Jewish state is nothing short of breathtaking.

It is an insane thing to say, particularly when contrasted with the harsh realities while Israel’s North is on fire. Tens of thousands of residents remain displaced from their homes, and communities along the border face daily bombardments.

Trump's claim contradicted US policy
The assertion that Israel owes its continued existence to a single American leader is not just flawed, but contradicted by the transactional and restrictive policies the Trump administration is enforcing.

Right now, Washington is unilaterally anchoring Israel into a highly restrictive ceasefire framework, micro-managing the IDF’s operational boundaries. Most glaringly, the White House has repeatedly intervened to cancel or severely curtail critical military operations in Beirut.

Hours after both Defense Minister Israel Katz and Netanyahu announced the expansion of operations against Hezbollah in Beirut, Trump picked up the phone and called it off to preserve his shaky Lebanon and Iran ceasefires. By tying Jerusalem’s hands in the North under the guise of regional stabilization, the administration is forcing Israel to accept a volatile status quo.

To aggressively restrict Israel’s sovereign right to self-defense while simultaneously claiming to be its sole guarantor of life is an irreconcilable paradox.
Trump confirms he told Netanyahu he’s ‘f–king crazy,’ but they work well together as ‘wartime president’ and ‘wartime prime minister’
President Trump confirmed in an exclusive “Pod Force One” interview with The Post’s Miranda Devine that he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “f–king crazy” during a Monday phone call, but insisted they have “worked very well together.”

“I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” Trump said. The attacks have imperiled US-Iran peace talks due to Tehran’s insistence that the Israeli targeting of Hezbollah cease before a deal is reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and then dismantle Iran’s nuclear program.

“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump insisted after confirming his fiery outburst demanding that Netanyahu hold fire.

“I’m a wartime president,” the commander-in-chief told Devine for the new podcast episode, out Wednesday. “He’s a wartime prime minister.”

Although the president said he’s frustrated by the possibility that the side conflict could derail a larger peace, he said he remains optimistic that he will have a deal “fairly quickly” — and crowed about record-high stock market values, showing the US economy is resilient, and dismissed predictions of even higher oil prices.

“Everyone said it was going to be $300, $400 a barrel, it’s $98 a barrel but that’s not a big price to pay if you look at the possibility of them having a nuclear weapon,” he said.

A memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz as early as this week, alleviating the energy pinch that caused gasoline prices and inflation to surge.

But there have been several false starts — caused in part by alleged Iranian backtracking as well as the Islamic Republic’s days-long courier process to avoid the assassination of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Trump said he was in no rush.


Netanyahu downplays row with Trump, says he and US leader agree on the ‘main things’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in an interview Wednesday that he held a difficult conversation with US President Donald Trump days earlier, but downplayed the significance of the matter and insisted that he and the American leader agree on “the main things.”

The interview, which was conducted live by CNBC, came hours after Trump himself confirmed reports that he called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” during the Monday phone call, saying he was “perturbed” by the premier’s escalation in fighting in Lebanon.

“I’m not going to get into details of our conversations,” Netanyahu told CNBC.

“We’ve had thousands, well, a lot of them,” he said. “And if you think this is a crisis, you should be in some other conversations. But we’ve always found a way.”

He and Trump agree on “the main things,” Netanyahu insisted, including the necessity of preventing Iran from posing a threat to Israel, the region and the world.

“This has been a great relationship because he’s been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said.


One killed, 63 injured in Iranian attack targeting Kuwait
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that overnight Iranian strikes targeting its territory killed one person and injured several others.

Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad later reported that at least 63 people were injured and “seven urgent major surgeries have been performed” since the “brutal Iranian attack on the State of Kuwait.”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the State of Kuwait’s condemnation and denunciation, in the strongest terms, of the brutal and ongoing Iranian attacks using ballistic missiles and drones, the latest of which occurred at dawn today, targeting once again civilian and vital facilities, including Kuwait International Airport, resulting in the death of one individual, injuries to others, and damage to vital facilities, including diplomatic missions,” the ministry said in a statement posted to X.

Kuwait City reserves its “full and inherent right” to respond to the “sinful and repeated Iranian aggressions,” it added.

U.S. Central Command said early on Wednesday that American and partner forces had intercepted multiple Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Gulf region overnight, while also conducting retaliatory strikes and enforcing maritime restrictions.

According to CENTCOM, Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional targets late Tuesday into early Wednesday. Two missiles aimed at Kuwait failed mid-flight, while three others targeting Bahrain were intercepted by U.S. and Bahraini air defenses. Kuwaiti authorities confirmed air defenses engaged incoming threats, and Bahrain’s Interior Ministry reported warning sirens were activated.

Kuwait’s civil aviation authority on Wednesday declared a state of emergency at Kuwait International Airport following the Iranian attack involving drones and missiles that caused several injuries and extensive damage, officials said. Flights were suspended or diverted to other airports as authorities assessed the impact of the aerial assaults.

Hostile drones struck the airport’s main passenger terminal (T1), damaging the building and injuring several individuals, according to a statement by Defense Ministry spokesman Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi.


Seth Frantzman: Iran's Quds Force chief Qaani warns US, Israel against escalation in Gaza, Lebanon
The mysterious leader of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force has issued a new warning to the US and Israel. According to Iran’s IRNA state media, Brigadier-General Esmaeil Qaani “has warned the United States and Israel against further military escalation in Gaza and Lebanon, saying that new fronts could open and maritime traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could mirror the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Qaani is almost a spectral figure. Appointed in 2020 after the US killed his predecessor, Qasem Soleimani, Qaani has largely remained in the background. Reportedly an expert on Afghanistan, he appeared to struggle when taking over from Soleimani. Soleimani was a key figure in building Iran’s proxy networks in the region. He had worked with late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and helped bring the Russians in to back the Assad regime in Syria. He also forged connections to the Houthis in Yemen and helped mobilize militias in Iraq.

Qaani inherited the many-branched empire of Iranian proxies. However, he was seen as neither innovative nor inspirational. Whenever he appeared, it was only for short stints in places like Iraq. He often seemed to be either sidelined or in hiding. This led to some on social media poking fun at him, claiming that he was an agent of Israel. In recent times, he is seen as a survivor of the recent conflicts between Israel and Iran.

“The Zionists’ aggression in Lebanon and Gaza, carried out under the shameless backing of the United States, will further strengthen the resolve of the Axis of Resistance to expand its support for both fronts, move toward activating other fronts, and bring the traffic conditions in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in line with those of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, according to the report.

Bab el-Mandeb strait
Bab el-Mandeb is the strait linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. This is notable, because, apparently, it seems that Iran is ready to raise the pressure. Iran already controls the Strait of Hormuz; utilizing the Houthis to strike at the Red Sea would be a major escalation. If push comes to shove, Israel and the US may have to discuss their options regarding the Red Sea.

The US and Israel have both struck the Houthis in the past. However, the Houthis are a difficult opponent, as they hide in their mountains with drones and ballistic missiles.

Iran wants to connect the region to Lebanon, so that any Israeli operation in Lebanon is met with a response on another front. IRNA notes that Qaani “also warned the Israeli regime that its actions in southern Lebanon and Gaza would be met with military operations by Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements.”
Rubio defends Israeli operations in Lebanon, despite Trump-Netanyahu spat
Despite President Donald Trump’s public acknowledgement of a confrontational phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Israeli operations in Lebanon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday largely defended Israel’s attacks against the Lebanese terrorist group.

He said that Hezbollah reached out to the U.S. government through the Lebanese authorities approximately two weeks ago and said that it would stop launching missiles into Israeli territory if Israel did not attack Beirut. But Rubio said that Hezbollah went back on that agreement and launched rockets at Israel within hours.

“Israel has not conducted massive operations in Beirut for some time,” Rubio said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “Israel has a right to act in its defense.”

Israeli strikes have taken place largely to prevent imminent attacks by Hezbollah forces preparing to attack Israel, Rubio said. He said that Israel’s seizure of territory in southern Lebanon has been intended to deny Hezbollah freedom to operate and launch missiles, and that Israel has not been conducting large-scale operations in Beirut.

Pressed on the current U.S. position in negotiations with Iran, particularly in comparison to the first Trump administration’s condemnation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Rubio largely focused on the nuclear elements of the deal, but said that Iran’s missile program would also be discussed.

He said that Iran would not receive money or sanctions relief unless it agrees to dispose of its highly enriched uranium and give up its enrichment program.

Asked whether the administration would submit any deal reached to Congress, he said that the administration would comply with the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which requires such review. He said in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in the afternoon that the bill, known as INARA, has “very specific requirements about elements of the nuclear program that would have to be noticed to Congress.”


IDF raids Hezbollah weapon storage site, booby-trapped explosive facility
IDF soldiers conducted a nighttime raid on a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Wednesday.

Over the course of the operation, the IDF used six tons of explosives to destroy over 20 terrorist sites in the area.

In a separate operation, the IDF stated, soldiers destroyed a Hezbollah explosives storage facility which had been booby-trapped.

IDF foils attempt at weapon smuggling
In a joint statement made along with the Israel Police earlier on Wednesday, the IDF revealed that soldiers had discovered an apparent attempt at weapon smuggling on Tuesday night.

According to the IDF, soldiers patrolling along the eastern border had found a bag containing ten pistols and ammunition.

The weapons were passed on to the police for further investigation.


Fetterman warns Trump against caving on Iran nuclear deal
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Tuesday that he is growing increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump may agree to a deal with Iran that does not ensure the retrieval of Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium or that the regime will never acquire a nuclear weapon.

Fetterman, who has become the most hawkish Democrat in Congress on Iran and the sole member of his party to vote against every Iran war powers resolution in recent months, spoke with Jewish Insider in Washington about the possible outcomes of the ongoing peace talks. The Pennsylvania senator acknowledged that he and Trump had taken political heat from their respective parties over their stances on the conflict, but argued that solving the Iranian nuclear issue would be legacy-defining for the president.

“Nuclear dust, that’s the reason why we’re here. This is why I was reasoned and OK with setting myself politically on fire to be the only Democrat for the last 90 days voting against these war powers acts,” Fetterman told JI. “Presidents always talk about their legacy. At this point, if you cave just for political convenience, what kind of legacy is that?”

“I appreciate every now and then when Trump will say, ‘Well, it [the war in Iran] is only going to be about that nuclear dust,’ but Israel is never allowed to fully pulverize their enemies,” he continued. “They’re fighting a nation where they like martyrdom and that’s what they celebrate. It’s so dumb.”

The Pennsylvania senator addressed the negative U.S. public perception of the war, arguing that the president was acting in a “Churchillian” manner by taking on the Iranian regime, and expressing concern that reversing course in Iran could indicate the Trump administration’s lack of commitment to Taiwan, in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Hugh Hewitt: This is Israel’s third “war” in Lebanon. What about the first two? Why is this one different?

Feds raid $35M SoCal mansion of tech boss charged with sending secret shipments to Iranian military, nuclear programs
Federal agents, in a daring predawn raid Wednesday, pounced on the opulent, $35 million Newport Beach mansion of an Iranian tech boss charged with supplying US computer hardware to Iran’s military and nuclear programs.

The California Post was there as the feds arrested Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast, who was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and is expected to appear Wednesday afternoon in Santa Ana federal court.

The businessman, who is a dual citizen of Iran and the US, is accused of selling computer hardware to the Iranian government for use in its military and nuclear operations. Prosecutors allege Ghomi made millions on those deals and invented elaborate schemes to hide the transactions.

“Ghomi is accused of aiding our declared enemies by selling US-origin computer networking parts to Iran and earning millions of dollars in violation of US sanction laws,” said Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli.

“We will hold him accountable by seeking an appropriate prison sentence and by seizing his assets, including his $35 million Newport Beach mansion,” he added.


The Amal Movement: Understanding Hezbollah’s Junior Shiite Partner
As media attention remains fixed on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, another key actor continues to escape meaningful scrutiny: Hezbollah’s junior partner, the Amal movement.

That blind spot was on display most recently when both The New York Times and Sky News covered the funeral of a first responder killed in an Israeli strike, yet overlooked the unmistakable red-and-green Amal flags draped across the motorcade carrying his body to the cemetery.

While Amal may not carry Hezbollah’s global notoriety, it has played a pivotal role in Lebanon’s modern history and remains an active participant in the military and political architecture confronting Israel today.



Founded in 1974 by the charismatic Shiite cleric Musa al-Sadr, Amal, an acronym for the “Lebanese Resistance Regiments,” meaning “hope” in Arabic, initially emerged as a movement focused on social justice for Lebanon’s marginalized Shiite population.

Its early mission was focused on the betterment of Lebanon’s impoverished Shiite population, including improving its political position and raising its socioeconomic status. While arising from the Shiite community, Amal’s guiding philosophy was the development of a Lebanese society where all the major religious communities were taken care of.

The outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 transformed Amal from a political and social movement into one of the most significant Shiite militias in Lebanon, particularly in the country’s south.

That evolution accelerated under Nabih Berri, who assumed leadership in 1980 and remains at Amal’s helm to this day.

In 1982, a new Shiite movement arose in southern Lebanon, the Islamist Hezbollah terrorist organization. While Amal was considered to be more moderate and secular, the influence of radical Shiism from the newly created Islamic Republic of Iran created friction within it, with many Amal members dissatisfied with the movement’s centrist approach, leaving to join the more radical and violent Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad organizations.

While Hezbollah and the Amal movement were defined by differing philosophies regarding theology and violence, observers noted that, on the grassroots level, the average organization member did not view the groups as being inherently different, and their choice of membership in one over the other was largely due to personal loyalties.





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