Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 06, 2020

01/06 Links Pt2: Don’t confuse me with facts: It’s always about the ‘occupation’; Bari Weiss: Jews Do Not Cause Anti-Semitism; City of David archaeologists say 2,000-year-old central Jerusalem market found

From Ian:

Ben Cohen: The multiple faces of anti-Semitism

Several years ago, in an article for Commentary magazine, I offered a distinction between two kinds of anti-Semitic mindsets. I named the first one "bierkeller" anti-Semitism and the second one "bistro" anti-Semitism, as a way of illustrating the cultural gulf between these two forms.

Bierkellers, or "beer cellars," were the drinking establishments in Germany that during the 1920s and ’30s were the domain of Nazi thugs. They also provided an arena for Adolf Hitler to refine his foaming gutter rhetoric targeting communism, liberalism, and most of all, the Jews. There was no attempt to camouflage or prettify any of this rhetoric, which loudly declared that the Jews were Germany’s misfortune. The thorough dehumanization of the Jews in Nazi propaganda prepared the ground for a decade of persecution that culminated in the Holocaust.

Bierkeller anti-Semitism, then, was unmistakable and instantly recognizable. But "bistro" anti-Semitism – named a bit mischievously in honor of the cozy restaurants and bars where metropolitan intellectuals tend to gather – was, I argued, harder to identify. That is because Jews as Jews are rarely the direct targets of these writings, speeches, parliamentary resolutions and so on. Instead, the bistro mindset relies upon qualifiers, codes and euphemisms that seek to separate "Jews" and "Judaism" from "Zionism," "The State of Israel," "The Jewish Establishment" and the other bugbears of progressives who advance anti-Semitic arguments while indignantly deflecting the charge of anti-Semitism as a reputational smear without foundation.

This contrast between the full-throated anti-Semitism that denies the Jews their humanity and the camouflaged anti-Semitism that denies the Jews their nationality isn’t the only difference. Arguably more important is the observation that the "bierkeller" form of anti-Semitism explicitly aims to visit physical violence upon Jews, whereas in its "bistro" form, protestations against Jewish power and privilege manifest in the main non-violently form: for example, boycott campaigns, demonstrations against pro-Israel and Zionist speakers on university campuses, the constant opprobrium poured upon the Jewish state in the halls of the United Nations, and by leading human-rights NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Still, as the years have gone by, the gulf between crude anti-Semitism and its more polite expressions (between the "bierkeller" and the "bistro") has narrowed considerably. Among the examples I would cite is the British Labour Party, where the anti-Semitic rhetoric that destroyed its reputation over the last five years was, more often than not, of the "Rothschild Bankers Rule the World" variety. (Not to mention blaming Jews for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, accusing "Zionists" of having "collaborated" with the Nazi regime and a slew of other murky fantasies that had nothing to do with Israeli settlement policy.)

Don’t confuse me with facts: It’s always about the ‘occupation’

Like clockwork, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent observation that “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law” was immediately denounced by the Jewish left.

The head of the Reform Movement in North America, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, said that the U.S. government’s new position on Israeli settlements will undercut the fight against BDS and the delegitimization of Israel in the United States, specifically on college campuses.

It’s not clear when Rabbi Jacobs was last on a campus, but the debate at North American colleges is not about the so-called “occupation” but about whether Israel has a right to exist, period. Pro-BDS groups, including “Jewish” ones, are talking about the illegitimacy of the 1949 armistice lines, not those of 1967.

Moreover, a recent survey conducted by Ron Hassner at the University of California, Berkeley shows that most students who care strongly about the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories” do not have knowledge of even basic facts on the subject.

Jacobs’s lack of understanding speaks to the divergent lexicon of the conflict, and more pointedly to the growing split between American Jews and Israelis. In many “progressive” circles there is little to no understanding of what areas are even in dispute; witness the continued claims that Gaza is “occupied” by Israel. For the BDS movement, everything Israeli, including Haifa and Tel Aviv, is a “settlement” and hence “illegal.”

Far more than American policy, it is the language of “occupation” that plays a key role in what has become the religion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The main feature of that religion is the Palestinian claim that their (alleged) territories are “occupied” by Israel, regardless of where they are located on the map, much less in any legal sense under international law.

The mantra of “occupation,” and the demand that Israel be shunned until the “occupation” is ended—meaning the time when Israel is dissolved by the implementation of the Palestinian “right of return”—is the key demand of the Palestinians and the BDS movement.

The U.S. Should Stop Ignoring the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Anti-Semitism

In September of last year, Columbia University hosted Mahathir Mohamad—who served as Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and returned to the office in 2018—as part of its World Leaders Forum. This year, Mahathir is expected to host the American president in Kuala Lumpur. Mahathir’s virulent anti-Semitism, notes Isaac Herzog, has never stopped democratic countries or their institutions from giving him this sort of respect—and he doesn’t even attempt to dress up his hatred of Jews as criticism of Israel:

This is a man who openly touts his anti-Semitism, repeatedly claiming Jews “are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” [He] has distributed copies of The International Jew—an anti-Semitic diatribe that had a key influence on the Nazis and is still banned in Germany—to his party members. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle recently visited Malaysia for the Obama Foundation’s inaugural Asia Pacific leaders gathering from December 10-14.

With over 60 percent of its population harboring negative opinions of Jews, Malaysia has the highest rate of anti-Semitic views in Asia, [excluding the Middle East]. This is despite the fact that Malaysia has no geographic proximity to Israel, has never had any conflict with Israel, and does not have many Jewish citizens—the last reported to have fled due to anti-Semitism in the early 1980s.

But the most troubling aspect of the Malaysian example is the warm welcome Mahathir receives around the world. The welcome mat has been rolled out for him time and again in global cities, top universities, and leading media outlets. Time magazine has even named him on its 2019 list of the world’s 100 most influential people for his “core values.”

While the events attended by Presidents Obama and Trump in Malaysia are important global forums, America’s leaders and their counterparts worldwide must at a minimum adhere to and reaffirm their commitment to fighting and condemning Mahathir’s anti-Semitism.

Pride and fear

I think I would consider myself a proud Jew. I wear a kippah all the time, I am happy to speak to anyone about Judaism and act as a representative when in a place where people are curious.

But since antisemitic incidents have been becoming more frequent, what is the best response?

My instinct has always been to continue to wear my kippah in public. I want people to consider it to be normal, which can only happen if a critical mass of Jewish men wear them. And it is an appropriate response to Jew-hate - they are not forcing me to change my habits.

Mrs. Elder, however, wants me to wear a cap on top of my kippah when in public. She is scared for me. She doesn't want me to be hurt or killed because some crazy person decides to target identifiable Jews.

I can't blame her. It is easy for me to make a statement for myself, but I cannot only worry about my own life - I'm responsible for my family as well.

I have not seen overt antisemitism towards me in years. On the contrary - most non-Jews are very respectful and curious. In Colorado this past summer, as I walked to shul, non-Jews called out "Shabbat Shalom" to me. (This past weekend in an elevator in a hotel a black guest mentioned that he saw my yarmulka and jokingly asked me if I know how to get discounts on things; I said I wish I knew with the same big smile.)

But there are crazy people out there. We have seen videos. Taking chances for making a statement seems foolhardy.

I don't have any answers. I am certainly not hiding or denying who I am when I wear a cap (and, frankly, the caps religious Jews wear all look the same, we can always tell who we are.)

It is a real shame that the only place on Earth I, and many others, can feel truly comfortable being publicly Jewish is Israel. The people who want that haven to disappear may or may not realize that. Jews should have the right to be in public without fear, but no one has come up with any realistic solutions.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The Jewish Left is silent when white supremacists are featured in Iranian media

From Iran's Tasnim News:

Gen. Soleimani’s Assassination Extra-Judicial, War Crime: Ex-US Senate CandidateTEHRAN (Tasnim) – Mark Dankof, a former US Senate candidate, called the US assassination of Lt. General Qassem Soleimani “extra-judicial” and a “war crime” under international law.

Who is this guy?

Mark Dankof has made broadcasts with David Duke (whose interviews have also been published by Iranian English-language media.) He has written for the white supremacist American Free Press and the neo-Nazi National Vanguard. He has quoted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and has spouted explicit antisemitism on a number of occasions.

His Senate campaign in Delaware in 2000 attracted 0.32% of the vote.

Also published by Iranian media today is this article by Robert David Steele where he blames "Zionists" for misleading Trump about the airstrike on Soleimani. Steele (under a slightly different name, but the same person) has previously written a pamphlet called "Zion in Shiksa-Land: Harvey Weinstein – First Major Jewish Pedophile Domino in the USA." He has written for Tehran Times about the need to unify Muslims and white nationalists against "Zionist Israel."

So why does the anti-Israel Left, who claim to be so sensitive to the white supremacist style of antisemitism that they insist is really the only one, so silent about the white supremacism that is published by Iran's English Language propaganda "news" sites? (Dankof and Steele are hardly the only ones.) Dankof hits all the boxes - former Republican, far right white supremacist antisemite. But when PressTV features Dankof or the other white supremacists who have been interviewed or written for them, and pushes explicitly antisemitic opinions, the Jewish Left who speak non-stop about white nationalist antisemitism is suddenly struck dumb.

Could it be that they hate Israel so much that they support the theocratic, misogynist, terror supporting Iranian regime over Israel, and therefore they are willing to give a pass to white supremacists and pure antisemitism published by Iranian media?

Could they be pretending that since Iran claims to not be antisemitic, its many antisemitic articles published in state-run media are somehow not important?

Or could it be that they claim to be against antisemitism but only when it perfectly aligns with their political beliefs, which are more important than opposing Jew-hatred from any corner, even the far right?

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01/06 Links Pt1: Killing Soleimani Comparable to Killing Holocaust Architect Reinhard Heydrich; IDF Data Shows Rocket Attacks Up, Terror Attacks Down in 2019

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Don’t mourn Soleimani

Unfortunately, because of the polarization that has become more extreme under Trump, his political rivals found it impossible to praise him. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and fellow progressives went so far as to introduce legislation to block funding for any military action connected with Iran without congressional authorization.

Similar sentiments were expressed by other representatives of the Left, emphasizing the possible risk of war as a result of the targeted assassination.

What they ignore is the very high and escalating risk of war that existed under Soleimani, which the arch terrorist himself fostered. As British commentator Maajid Nawaz put it in part of a longer tweet, those opposed to the targeted killing will “proactively and without invitation condemn ‘America in the region’ without saying anything at all about ‘Iran in the region.’”

Care should be taken not to turn this into a partisan issue, despite the obvious temptation to do so in a presidential election year.
Similarly, this should not be seen as the US carrying out Israel’s dirty work for it. It’s true that Israel, across the broad political spectrum including some of the Arab parties, welcomed the removal of Soleimani. So, too, did Saudi Arabia. As did many people struggling against Iran’s pernicious and spreading control in the region.

Iran might want to turn Soleimani into a martyr, but he was no saint. He should not be mourned or missed by anybody with a sense of moral decency.

In response to Soleimani's killing, around the world angered protesters have taken to the streets to rage at…

Israel. pic.twitter.com/dh7DWdVhm0
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) January 5, 2020

Israeli Analyst: Killing Soleimani Comparable to Killing Holocaust Architect Reinhard Heydrich

Veteran Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari told Israel's Channel 12: Soleimani's execution "is the most important assassination from the Jewish point of view since the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Final Solution, in Prague in 1942."

"This man was the brains and the engine of the Iranian machine that is trying to wrap the Middle East in the arms of an octopus. He was the head of the octopus in this regard."

"He is the man that conceived the idea of how to slowly tie the noose around Israel's neck, so I say - second only to Heydrich."

As a high-ranking officer in the SS, Heydrich headed the Wannsee Conference that approved plans for the genocide of the Jews. He was killed by Czech partisans.

Photos: Top 10 atrocities from the now-vaunted Soleimani

As creeps like Rep. Ilhan Omar denounce the rubout of Iranian terrorist kingpin Qassem Soleimani as the killing of a "foreign official," the press calls him "a farm boy" or "icon," and stupid Hollywood celebrities send their condolences to "the Iranian people," (who are celebrating, actually) the ugly hard reality remains that Qassem Soleimani, leader of the terrorist Quds force, was a monster, a stone-cold killer of innocents, the driving force behind Iran as a state sponsor of terror. His funeral song should be "That Smell." He stunk of death all around him and liked the stench. According to the Washington Post:

“The warfront is mankind’s lost paradise,” Soleimani said in a 2009 interview. “One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise. ... The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”

But this isn't stopping the left from lionizing the beast. Here's a list, in no particular order, of the worst of what he did:

10. The first 9/11s. Soleimani was involved in the still-unpunished bombing of the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the even bigger AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed more than 100 people. Up until then, mass casualty murder of civilians was not a terrorist 'thing.' After that, it was. AMIA was said to be the first 9/11, the model for this sick new mode of terror which culminated in 9/11. Soleimani wasn't the chief of the Quds force at the time but the Guardian reports he was thought to have been in on it. We know he got promoted not too long after.

This list is just a little list. The beast's terrorism career extended across the world, with his involvement in attacks in India, in Thailand, in France. He's the creep who gave Hugo Chavez all that protection and entrenchment in Venezuela. Remember the bizarre assassination bid against the Saudi ambassador that originated in Texas? Him again. He never stopped aiming for the big atrocities. Let him explain them now as he meets his Maker.

The Orchard is a novel that ties together literally scores, probably hundreds, of Talmudic stories and expressions into a compelling narrative of Rabbi Akiva, the pre-eminent Torah sage of the generation after the destruction of the Second Temple.

The author, Yochi Brandes, who wrote it in Hebrew, masterfully weaves the legends along with the halachic discussions to create a thoroughly modern book that is feminist and even Zionist. Most of the major figures of Rabbinic Judaism of the first and second centuries CE are intertwined in the story.

The book's voice is Rachel, the wife of Rabbi Akiva, the strong willed daughter of the rich Kalba Savua who rejects her betrothal to the brilliant Rabbi Ishmael and instead chooses to marry 40-year old Akiva, an illiterate shepherd in Kalba Savua's employ. Rachel convinces Akiva to go to a yeshiva and become a Torah scholar, leaving her alone and struggling for many years with her two children.

Akiva goes to study but remains silent during discussions until his brilliance is recognized and revealed. Akiva himself is stunned that his loving wife sent him away and assumes, in his modesty, that she no longer wants him. In fact she realizes that he cannot achieve his potential while he relies on her own wisdom and advice. But she is still bitter that he never returns until circumstances force him to.

In the book, Rachel has uncanny intuition and is the unseen protagonist in many Talmudic stories, as are the other strong women in the book: Imma Shalom, the wife of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and sister of Rabban Gamaliel, and Beruriah, who in this story is Rachel's daughter's best friend.

Brandes describes the political divisions between the Schools of Shammai and Hillel, and in the book Akiva is used as a pawn by leaders of each camp who assume he would be on their side. The politics between Jews and Sadducees, as well as Romans and between different schools of thought for how Torah should be interpreted, are all part of the story where Akiva is given prominence.

The book even has a small subplot about the birth of modern Christianity, where Saul/Paul - in this story, Rabbi Eliezer's maternal uncle - says that Jesus is the actual messiah, but only for non-Jews. He wants to set up a religion where Jews are revered as the Chosen People as a way to counter the existing antisemitism from the pagan world. His sister Judith, another woman who sees things clearly, strongly objects and predicts that Christians will become the Jews' biggest persecutors.

Even the famous Passover seder of the five rabbis in Bnei Brak makes a pivotal appearance in this book.

The Orchard itself is the famous story of how Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha and Rabbi Akiva used esoteric methods to visit the heavenly abode. Ben Azzai died, Ben Zoma (who in this story is betrothed to Akiva's daughter) goes mad, Elisha becomes a heretic and Akiva emerges unscathed. The actual vision is revealed in the novel as an ingenious explanation of their reactions.

We all know that Rabbi Akiva's end is not pleasant and it is elaborated upon as a result of his support of Bar Kochba rather than his teaching Torah, as most traditions state.

For people who actually learn the Talmud, it is necessary to recognize that this is wholly fictional, and many Talmudic stories are twisted to fit the narrative. It is easy to be upset at seeing how the stories we know are changed, and indeed there is a danger of not knowing where the truth ends and fiction begins. Brandes does a brilliant job in taking many disparate stories and even halachic rulings and making them into a consistent story. The book will likely irritate the more didactic. For those who can look past that, it is a remarkable achievement that describes the mindset of the leading Jews in that crucial point in history and how their decisions allowed Judaism to survive in the critical years after all seemed lost.

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Official Saudi news agency Okaz has published an article slamming Hamas for officially mourning Qassem Soleimani, slamming both Soleimani and the terror group.

In a new confirmation of its dependence on the mullahs ’regime and its subversive sectarian agenda in the region, Hamas - the arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza - announced that its political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, called the Iranian Foreign Minister, Jawad Zarif, and offered condolences for the killing of a leader Revolutionary Guards Corps Qassem Soleimani.

Haniyeh was not satisfied with mere condolences, but praised "the role of Soleimani in supporting the resistance and standing by the Palestinian people." The Brotherhood movement did not stop at the borders of fabrication and describing the child killer as a "martyr". Rather, it established a mourning tent in Gaza, in which it raised pictures of Soleimani.

As for Haniyeh, he forgot that the battles of the deceased Soleimani were on top of Arab bodies...We do not know that he killed a single Israeli, but he killed women and elders and children and assassinated the dreams of thousands of innocent people in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

It can be said that his terrorist regime par excellence provided military support or trained gunmen from Hamas, Jihad, or Hezbollah militia, but he did not do so to serve the cause or belief in the liberation of the occupied land, but to polish his image and expansionist sectarian project.

This can be proven: When the Hamas movement's calculations contrasted with Tehran's interest in Syria, the latter stopped support and cut the relationship. When the cries of death for America as the "Great Satan" were rising in the streets of Tehran and Qom, Soleimani and his militias and mercenaries of several nationalities continued to massacre innocents in Syria and Iraq.

Soleimani, who Hamas claimed was a "martyr", was not a fighter defending the interests of the Islamic nation, but he was a symbol of an expansionist project drenched in terrorism, killing, ruin, and sectarianism.

Haniyeh is now in Iran offering his condolences directly and probably trying to ensure that Hamas' funding doesn't dry up.

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After the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani and his friends, Iran is responding by threatening the US - and Israel.

The former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and secretary of the Expediency Council in Iran, Mohsen Rezai, said Sunday in a televised appearance to a gathering of mourners in Iran that Tehran's response to the killing of the commander of the Qassem Soleimani, would include Haifa and Israeli military centers.

Rezai vowed that Iran would wipe Israel from the face of the earth in case of any American attack.

The Tasnim news agency on Saturday evening quoted Ghulam Ali Abu Hamza, the senior leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, as saying that Iran will target 35 vital US targets in the region in addition to Tel Aviv, saying "the United States and Israel must be in a permanent state of terror after the assassination of the martyr Qassem Soleimani."

I have seen no evidence that Israel had anything to do with Soleimani's assassination. Iranian media has tried to come up with some very tenuous "proof." Yet it is completely natural for Iran to say that they will retaliate against Israeli civilians in major cities. Not against England, nor Saudi Arabia, nor any other US ally that is an enemy of Iran - only Israel.

This is one of those cases where leftists would argue that this isn't antisemitism, but merely anti-Zionism. But even if you grant that Iran hates Israel and not Jews, there is still no logic behind holding Israel - civilians or military - responsible for American actions.

Either Iran holds that America is Israel's puppet, or Iran's hate for the Jewish state is so visceral that they will use any excuse to attack it.

Either of those responses proves Iran is inherently antisemitic.

Good luck with getting leftist Jewish groups who claim to care so much about antisemitism to admit it. Good luck getting groups with the name "peace" in their titles to condemn Iran over its threats. Because they are on Iran's side against Israel.

The silence of "Jewish Voice for Peace" over direct and unfounded threats to hundreds of thousands of Jews shows that it isn't for peace, it isn't a voice for peace and it isn't Jewish.

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Highlights of, and comments on, Nasrallah's speech Sunday

Here are some of the highlights of Hassan Nasrallah's speech today.

Hajj Qassem Soleimani achieved his goal on Thursday evening, which is martyrdom. His "personal project" was martyrdom......We do not get defeated... Even when we get martyred we triumph.

Your enemies are more than happy to test that theory. You guys already have much in common.

When the coffins of US soldiers and officers start returning to the United States, the Trump administration will realize that it has lost the region and the elections.

I love when our enemies give our president helpful advice on campaigning.

If the US forces get expelled from the region, the liberation of Jerusalem will become attainable. We might not need a battle with Israel; the Israelis will pack their clothes and leave.

Because Jews have no ties to Jerusalem. And, apparently, American soldiers in the Middle East are the only reason Israel gained Jerusalem.

A fair punishment for the sake of Qassem Soleimani is a fair punishment for the sake of Imad Mughniyeh, Abbas al-Moussawi, Mustafa Badreddine and all the martyrs of this nation.

The list keeps getting longer...

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01/05 Links: Inside the Plot by Iran’s Soleimani to Attack US Forces in Iraq; Podhoretz: Attack on Qassem Soleimani was deterrence, not escalation; Trump name-checks 'Squad': 'They hate Jewish people'

From Ian:

Inside the Plot by Iran’s Soleimani to Attack US Forces in Iraq

In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the US embassy complex in Baghdad.

The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on US targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.

The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight. Soleimani’s plans to attack US forces aimed to provoke a military response that would redirect that rising anger toward the United States, according to the sources briefed on the gathering, Iraqi Shi’ite politicians, and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Soleimani’s efforts ended up provoking the US attack on Friday that killed him and Muhandis, marking a major escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran. The two men died in air strikes on their convoy at a Baghdad airport as they headed to the capital, dealing a major blow to the Islamic Republic and the Iraqi paramilitary groups it supports.

Interviews with the Iraqi security sources and Shi’ite militia commanders offer a rare glimpse of how Soleimani operated in Iraq, which he once told a Reuters reporter he knew like the back of his hand.

Two weeks before the October meeting, Soleimani ordered Iranian Revolutionary Guards to move more sophisticated weapons — such as Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down helicopters — to Iraq through two border crossings, the militia commanders and Iraqi security sources told Reuters. (h/t Zvi)

John Podhoretz: Attack on Qassem Soleimani was deterrence, not escalation

To all those terrified by the prospect of the Iranian response to the killing of Iran’s terror master, Qassem Soleimani, consider the horrors visited upon the United States after these events:

- The Seal Team Six killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2010.
- The killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in October 2019.

Hmmm. No horrors, actually. Those killings seem to have hollowed out the heart of those monstrous organizations.

Well, surely there are even worse examples that have been visited upon Israel due to its aggressive military acts. Let’s take a look:

- Israel destroyed an aborning nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and one in Syria in 2007.
- Israel targeted and killed father-and-son Hezbollah commanders, the Mughniyahs, in 2008 and 2015, as well as Hamas No. 2 Ahmed al-Jabari in 2012.

In all these cases, the organizations and governments struck by Israel vowed hellish revenge. But while hostilities persisted, the hellish specific revenge that was promised — even guaranteed — never came.

Why?

For peaceable people, the idea that the use of force is sometimes the only possible counter to the use of force can be hard to take. If a cycle is begun by acts of destruction, how can addressing it through other acts of destruction be anything but … destructive?

The answer is that all acts of destruction are not equal.

Those who destroy first do so because they are not peaceable — or rather, they do not see peace as the most desirous condition.

Sorry. Here’s a second video where my son helped boost the audio. pic.twitter.com/fbWSL55Oji
— JJ PI (@PoliticalIntent) January 5, 2020

Trump name-checks 'Squad' at evangelical rally: 'They hate Jewish people'

President Trump blasted three of the four freshmen congressional Democrats known as "The Squad" in front of an audience of his evangelical supporters in Miami on Friday, accusing them of holding anti-Semitic views.

“These people hate Israel. They hate Jewish people,” Trump said at the launch of his "Evangelicals for Trump" group inside a megachurch. “I won’t name them. I won’t bring up the name of Omar, Tlaib, AOC. I won’t bring that name up. Won’t bring it up. I will not bring it up."

The president was referring to U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The Squad member he did not mention was U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

The three lawmakers have drawn the ire of conservatives for their criticism of Israel since taking office last January. Omar and Tlaib were among 17 members of Congress who voted against a resolution to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in July.

Omar was accused of anti-Semitism last year for her criticism of Israel and tweeting that a prominent lobbying group was paying members of Congress to support the country. The comment drew rebuke from Democrats as well as Republicans.

Writing about Sarah Tuttle-Singer's work sometimes gets me into trouble. Perhaps that is why it is fun.

Her Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered: One Woman's Year in the Heart of the Christian, Muslim, Armenian, and Jewish Quarters of Old Jerusalem is a poignant and transgressive memoir. It is about love and hatred, happiness and pain and family. This book is very personal and Tuttle-Singer writes in a casual style about her life as a young woman who recently made aliyah. She attempts, layer by layer, to expose her feelings and her life from her journey as a blondie Jewish kid growing up around Los Angeles grappling with the fact that she watched her mother die from cancer.

It is a story of growing into adulthood in the Old City with two children, an absent ex-husband, a rapist, Arab stone-throwers, taxi-drivers with opinions, and the never-ending conflict before her eyes as she explores Jerusalem, sometimes by rooftop at midnight, as the new media editor for the Times of Israel.

Tuttle-Singer is (or was) torn by the fact that her son will shortly be called into the IDF. As a Californian Jew and Israeli who cares about the Jewish people, she is ripped between love and fear. I cannot begin to imagine what that must feel like. Tuttle-Singer knows that she is raising her children in a wild part of the world and shortly she will probably give up her young son to the Israeli military.

The value of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered is that it is deeply personal. This book is not a political analysis, although it has definite political implications. It is not a history text, although history darkly hovers in the background. It is a memoir of a young Jewish woman learning about Israel and the Old City through exploration from childhood to adulthood. This is a painful story of a woman who has devoted herself to understanding what it means to be a Jew and to raise her children within Eretz Israel.

I have written about Sarah Tuttle-Singer before and although we are not friends, we are certainly not enemies. She is also despised by many who I know within the Jewish community, both Israeli and diaspora. Nonetheless, this is a book that should be read because it is honest, from the heart, and intelligent.

Naturally, this does not mean that I do not have my criticisms.

The virtue of Tuttle-Singer's writings is her appeal to basic human decency and her joy in social exploration. She is a hopeful "progressive" raising two children in Israel and what she wants more than anything is peace. Who doesn't? One of the difficulties with Tuttle-Singer's writings, however, is in the grey line between beautiful description and hyperbole. She is excellent at the former but often wanders into the latter, but that is a minor criticism. What she struggles with most is -- aside from her rape by the "Grey Man" in Jerusalem and the death of her mother -- is finding a balance within the never-ending conflict between Israeli Jews and Israeli Muslims.

The blood and the murder and the intifadas are always present in the background. Her fear for her own children is always there. Where she seems to find healing is in the gold between the cracks. Among the themes of this book this one struck me as central:

"Do you know what they do with broken objects in Japan?" my mom had asked me after my first heartbreak, when I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, my heart shattered into several jagged pieces. "They don't throw them away, sweet girl. They repair them. They melt gold and mend the everyday clay objects with the precious modern material."

This is precisely what Tuttle-Singer is endeavoring to do with her book. She wants very much to heal "the broken places" with "gold," i.e., with human decency and understanding because not only does it make it more beautiful, but stronger, as well.

What saddens me about Tuttle-Singer's writings, both in this book and in her Times of Israel column, is that there are reasons why she is not well-liked among many within the pro-Jewish / pro-Israel community. The primary reason is that she often seems to favor the Arabs over the Jews in terms of "the conflict." I do not doubt that she would take extreme exception with that characterization, but as a progressive defender of the underdog, it is natural as day. The problem is that there are about 400 million Arabs surrounding 7 million Jews who, for the most part, do not want those Jews in their midst.

Sarah does not seem to quite get that.

It, therefore, saddens me that she has earned the malice of many of my friends.

But I also understand why.

They see her as squishy and naive in the face of the enemies of the Jewish people and, thus, she is sometimes not trusted. Some even think of her as a traitor to her own people who has hurt some of our best friends, like Ryan Bellerose.

What I think is that she desperately wants peace -- for the sake of her own children and the Jewish people -- and is willing to bend far-over backward in her political thinking toward that effort. I find her writings to be intelligent, well-meaning, and a little naive, but, heck, she's the one who lives in Israel. I am still in California.

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Qassem Soleimani's funeral procession in Baghdad saw thousands of mourners shouting "Death to America!"

His coffin was in a Chevrolet, perhaps the most American car there is.

Social media in Arabic enjoyed this irony a great deal.

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Here are the signs you can download and print for the Solidarity March from the ADL:

Nothing about Jews. Nothing about antisemitism. Just generic anti-hate posters.

There are two big problems with this.

One is that by generalizing a rally against antisemitism into a squishy, generic anti-hate rally, it no longer points out the issue. Anti-semitism is a fundamentally different kind of hate than other bigotries because it is equally ascendant among all groups - even including Jews. Victims of other bigotries can be antisemitic. The rich and the poor, the right and the left - no one is immune. The rally should be specific about those who are attacking and hating Jews and it should point out why the disease of antisemitism can affect anyone. If one wants to draw lessons from antisemitism to other bigotries, great - but don't say that those who hate Jews are similar to those who hate people of color or immigrants. Pretending to universalize the message to cover everyone waters down the message and does nothing to protect the Jews who are under daily attack. People who hate Jews almost never realize it and believe themselves to be fair judges of other people - because they always like some Jews.

The other problem is that sometimes, one should hate. No less an authority than King Solomon said there is a time to love and a time to hate. Should be not hate neo-Nazis? Should we not hate those who want to destroy the Jewish state or America? Should we not hate people who want us dead? Maybe Christian theology says otherwise, but Judaism believes there is a proper time for hate. So "saying no to hate" not only waters down the fight against antisemitism, it is not even true! The people attending the rally presumably hate the philosophies that are used to justify attacks on Jews - and they should!

The rally should be one of Jewish pride, Jewish defiance and solidarity with Jews, as the AJC's downloadable signage says:

I don't want to rain on the parade, so to speak. It is very important to get as many people as possible to stand together against antisemitism, and the subtext of being against antisemitism is there, as I'm sure most of the speeches will mention. Some of the chants being planned specify the issue.

But one cannot imagine a "Black Lives Matter" rally being watered down to "All Lives Matter" - it would be an insult. And the downplaying of the specificity of hate towards Jews can easily turn the rally from an important statement to the world into a mushy, generic event that no one will remember.

Don't let that happen.

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01/04 Links: Ben Shapiro: Trump Taking Out Soleimani Just Made The World A Better, Safer Place; Yes, Targeted Killings Work; NY Times Reporter Blames White Nationalism for Anti-Semitic Attacks in New York

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: Trump Taking Out Soleimani Just Made The World A Better, Safer Place

On Thursday, in the most audacious and brave move of his presidency, President Trump ordered the killing of Iran’s top terrorist, Qassem Soleimani — a man who was also the top general of the country. Commentators have compared Iran’s loss of Soleimani to the loss of the Defense Secretary, head of the CIA, and the head of the FBI simultaneously. Soleimani was the man closest to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and some speculated that he would succeed Khamenei at some point. Now, he’s been reduced to pulp.

His death makes the world a significantly better and safer place. Soleimani was responsible for the killing of hundreds of American troops in Iraq (by State Department estimates, 17 percent of all Americans killed in Iraq were Soleimani’s handiwork), the arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon with tens of thousands of rockets, the Houthi terrorism in Yemen, the building of Islamic Jihad, and a bevy of terror plots all around the world, including the latest assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Speculation that this represents an “act of war” is utterly baseless — Soleimani is a terrorist who was killed while abroad, in Iraq, planning further acts of terrorism.

Suggestions that the Trump administration is responsible for “escalation” with Iran — after months of Iranian aggression in international waters and in foreign countries, after downing an American drone and attacking an American embassy — are absurd and morally disgusting. When Nancy Pelosi tweets that it is “disproportionate” to kill a terror leader planning action against Americans and our assets and allies, she’s not just reflecting moral confusion — she’s evidencing moral foolishness of the highest order.

There is a lot to be nervous about here. Is the Soleimani killing part of a broader American strategy with regard to Iran, or a supposed one-off? Has the U.S. hardened its assets on the ground in the Middle East in preparation for Iranian retaliation? Are America’s allies ready for the surge in terrorism that will surely follow, given the Iranian government’s need to show strength in the face of this devastating loss?

With all of that said, it’s obvious that President Trump was attempting to restore a deterrence against Iran that had been completely disintegrated by the Obama administration. History didn’t begin with Trump, and Iranian aggression didn’t start with the end of the Iran nuclear deal. Far from it. Iran has become more powerful and aggressive thanks to the overt planning of the Obama administration.

President Obama’s preferred strategy with Iran was wishful thinking and bribery. The Obama administration openly lied to the American people, claiming that there was a “moderate” faction inside the Iranian government that would be elevated through signing them checks and ushering them into the world economy. That was utter nonsense, as national security aide Ben Rhodes later admitted. The Obama administration engaged in the worst sort of appeasement, guaranteeing billions of dollars in economic growth to a regime dedicated to the destruction of American interests around the world and hell-bent on regional domination.

Trump: Soleimani's Reign of Terror Is Over

President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States should have taken out Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani a long time ago noting the violent acts recently led by the terrorist leader. The Washington Free Beacon is a privately owned, for-profit online newspaper dedicated to uncovering the stories that the powers that be hope will never see the light of day.

Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Day After Soleimani’s Death

A special episode of the COMMENTARY podcast unpacks the events of the last several weeks in the Middle East, culminating in a targeted strike on Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Qasem Soleimani.

In Just A Few Months, Trump Has Taken Out Some Of The World's Top Terrorists

President Donald Trump has taken out some of the world’s top terrorists in a matter of months, approving military raids and strikes that have decapitated the leadership of various terror-affiliated organizations.

The death of Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, on Thursday night, was just the latest in a line of successful assassinations by the Trump administration.

Hamza bin Laden
While it is unclear when exactly Hamza bin Laden, the son of late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was killed, Trump confirmed his death in mid-September. The younger bin Laden was taking on a more prominent role in al-Qaeda before he was killed in a U.S.-led counterterrorism operation in South Asia.

The State Department had put out a $1 million reward for information on bin Laden’s whereabouts in early 2019, but reports say he may have been killed anytime between 2017 and 2019.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed during a Trump-approved U.S. special forces raid in late October.

The raid reportedly lasted about two hours and took place at al-Baghdadi’s compound in Syria. al-Baghdadi was chased into a tunnel by a special forces canine and, after reaching a dead end, the ISIS leader killed himself by detonating a suicide vest. Three children were also killed in the blast.

Trump later gave a medal to Conan, the dog who successfully chased down al-Baghdadi.

Noah Pollak: Yes, Targeted Killings Work

One of the main arguments against the strike that killed Qassem Soleimani is that targeted killings of terror leaders are ineffective: They invite escalation and reprisals, and the removal of senior terrorists doesn’t degrade the effectiveness of the groups they lead because they can be quickly replaced.

But this argument doesn’t hold up to the experience of recent history. Take two examples of targeted killing campaigns against terrorist groups in the past 20 years: Israel during the Second Intifada, and the Obama administration campaign against al-Qaeda.

In both campaigns, Israel and the U.S. combined precise intelligence with precision-guided munitions to systematically eliminate the leadership and top operatives of dangerous terrorist groups. The key to these campaigns was that they weren’t one-offs — they were sustained over the course of years.

During that time, in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, and the tribal regions of Pakistan, targeted killings did much more than symbolically remove terror leaders from the battlefield. They helped cripple the effectiveness of terror groups by forcing them to shift from offense to defense.

Instead of recruiting followers and planning attacks, they had to spend time and energy worrying about security. The sophisticated intelligence employed by the U.S. and Israel raised suspicions of informants. Distrust grew. The ability of operatives to propagandize, communicate, plan, and move freely was undermined as every phone call and meeting raised the specter of surveillance or a missile strike. As leaders were killed off and replaced, only for the replacements themselves to be killed, morale suffered.

There is nothing "disproportionate" about killing an enemy commander, in a war zone -- where U.S. troops are deployed according to proper legal authorities -- who is planning and executing attacks on U.S. personnel. https://t.co/z4zAiLAatP
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 3, 2020

Don't be terrorized by symbolism

The Daily Express writes:

A flag isn't terrifying.

Iran, and most Muslim nations, are very attuned to symbolism. Symbolism is often more important than reality.

The idea of a red flag over this mosque is brand new. It's never been done before. So the only way to know how serious this is is by believing the Iranians.

The red flag is no more (or less) serious than their rhetoric of revenge is.

But they know that naive Westerners are frightened by things like this, hence the Daily Express calling it "terrifying."

It isn't terrifying. It is a flag.

(There is a faint precedent for the idea of a red flag meaning revenge, as there is a red flag over Imam Hussain’s shrine in Karbala, Iraq, symbolizing that his death was never avenged. Some other Shiite graves have red flags for the same reason, it appears.)

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01/03 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Anti-Semitism is the ultimate marker of cultural derangement; Stop Blaming Jews for Anti-Semitism; Palestinian Boys Are Raised to Be "Martyrs"

From Ian:

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: The keys to understanding American anti-Semitism — and fighting back

The shocking events in Monsey, together with those in Jersey City, Poway, and Pittsburgh, are proof that the darkness has returned. It has returned likewise to virtually every country in Europe. That this should have happened within living memory of the Holocaust, after the most systematic attempt ever made by a civilization to find a cure for the virus of the world's longest hate - more than half a century of Holocaust education and anti-racist legislation - is almost unbelievable.

Cyberspace has proved to be an effective incubator of resentment. The Internet is particularly dangerous for loners, people in whom the normal process of socialization - learning to live with others who are not like us - has broken down.

When bad things happen, bad people ask, "Who did this to me?" They cast themselves as victims and search for scapegoats to blame. The scapegoat of choice has long been the Jews. For a thousand years, they were the most prominent non-Christian minority in Europe. Today, the State of Israel is the most significant non-Muslim presence in the Middle East. It is easy to blame Jews because they are conspicuous, because they are a minority and because they are there.

Anti-Semitism has little to do with Jews - they are its object, not its cause - and everything to do with dysfunction in the communities that harbor it.

Melanie Phillips: Anti-Semitism is the ultimate marker of cultural derangement

Victim culture originated from the West’s pathological reaction to the Holocaust. The realization of its magnitude did not eradicate Western Jew-hatred; it merely drove it underground.

This set up a terrible resentment that people could no longer blame the Jews for the crimes of which the anti-Semitic West believed they were guilty. The claim of anti-Semitism was perceived to give the Jews a free pass for their misdeeds.

A deep jealousy of anti-Semitism therefore set in. Identity politics sprang up to define groups as victims in order to gain similar impunity.

But there was an enormous difference. These “victim groups” wanted a free pass for actual misdeeds. But the Jews’ perceived threat to humanity existed only in the warped imagination of anti-Semites.

Not only has real Jew-hatred accordingly been denied, but the attention currently given to it has bred yet more by multiplying the resentment. So the anti-Semitism prevalent in black, Muslim or Palestinian discourse has been ignored and white people blamed instead.

In Britain’s Independent, Rivkah Brown wrote that Prime Minster Boris Johnson—a social liberal—was the “acceptable face of white supremacy,” and that the anti-Jewish monster “rising from the slime” was not Corbynism but “white nationalism.”

Similarly, New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio previously blamed the upsurge in anti-Semitism on “the forces of white supremacy” and “the right-wing movement.” And U.S. President Donald Trump, arguably history’s most pro-Jewish occupant of the White House, is himself accused of inspiring this explosion of Jew-hatred.

Such preposterous claims are the product of a culture that has abolished objective truth and thus reason itself.

The Jews always get it in the neck during periods of cultural turmoil. But more to the point, the Jews produced the moral compass the West has now lost.

So it’s no surprise that they find themselves the principal targets of this madness. This open season against them will only end if Western society abandons its decadent ideologies and recovers its center of moral gravity.

But liberals are descending ever deeper into the vortex of unreason and moral inversion. Anti-Semitism is the ultimate marker of cultural derangement. And so this threat to the Jews isn’t going to end anytime soon.

Caroline Glick: When will American Jewry wake up?

One of the most powerful caucuses in the House is the Congressional Black Caucus. Its leading members publicly support Farrakhan despite his role in propagating anti-Jewish bigotry in the black community.

In the 2016 presidential race, Trump faced near-daily demands – which he met – to reject the endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and denounce him. The liberal Jewish establishment refused to accept Trump’s repeated renunciations of his support as genuine.

In the 2008 presidential race, then-Senator Barack Obama was asked once to reject Farrakhan’s endorsement. He refused. 88 percent of American Jews voted for him, and declared him "the first Jewish president."

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio passed radical bail reform policies that give thugs get-out-of-jail-free cards. Accordingly, last Saturday a woman arrested after violently assaulting three Jewish women in Brooklyn was released from jail without bail. She was arrested again Sunday after attacking a fourth woman, and promptly released again.

DeBlasio blamed the Monsey attack on Trump.

As far as progressive Jewish activists are concerned, DeBlasio’s policies are anti-black. Last week they criticized DeBlasio’s announcement that he was augmenting police patrols in Jewish neighborhoods claiming, "This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like."

This sort of crazy talk is not cost-free. It is dangerous. Inconvenient truths will not go away just because they are unpleasant.

It is a fact that leftist and black anti-Semites are just as great a threat, if not greater threats to the Jewish community than white nationalist anti-Semites.

It is a fact that the Republican Party rejects anti-Semitism in all its forms and expels anti-Semites found in its ranks, and the Democratic Party enables and advances leftist and black anti-Semites and anti-Semitism.

So long as the liberal Jewish establishment and its members refuse to accept these facts, the attacks against America’s Jews can be expected to increase in frequency and violence.

01/03 Links Pt1: Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in Baghdad airstrike; Democrats, Media Attack Trump For Killing Terrorists Responsible For Killing U.S. Soldiers

From Ian:

Powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in Baghdad airstrike

Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s Quds Force, was killed in an airstrike at Baghdad International Airport, Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials officials said Friday.

The US Department of Defense confirmed it had carried out the airstrike.

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” it said. “General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”

The Iraqi officials said the strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Iranian state television said the attack was carried out by US helicopters.

“Two vehicles were attacked with missiles by US forces” and all 10 passengers, including Soleimani, were “martyred,” Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, told state television.

Noah Rothman: Soleimani Deserved His Fate

This was a long time coming.

The strike President Donald Trump authorized on Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qasem Soleimani neutralized a bad actor with American blood on his hands. According to a Pentagon estimate, roughly one in six U.S. casualties sustained in the effort to subdue the insurgency during the Iraq war was attributable to Iranian actions. Soleimani took an active part in that campaign, establishing training camps and setting up factories to produce the explosive charges that penetrated American armored vehicles.

Soleimani remained outside America’s grip under George W. Bush, and, when the Obama administration began withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq in 2010, the Shiite militias he controlled proved a critical backstop for an Iraqi president who couldn’t rely solely on the hapless Iraqi Security Forces. When the Obama administration lifted travel restrictions on Soleimani amid its quest to secure a nuclear accord with Iran, one of his first stops was in Moscow, to coordinate Iranian and Russian efforts to crush the U.S.-backed anti-Assad rebellion in Syria.

In the months leading up to Soleimani’s death, Iran had begun prosecuting a region-wide campaign of provocations. In 2019, Iran was responsible for the piracy of foreign-flagged vessels in the critical Strait of Hormuz. It engaged in what the nations Iran targeted called a “sophisticated and coordinated” special forces strike on international oil tankers. Iran downed a multi-million-dollar American surveillance drone, and it executed a sophisticated strike on the world’s largest petroleum processing facility in Saudi Arabia. For all this, Tehran faced no proportionate response from the West.

In December alone, Iranian Shiite proxy forces began targeting joint US-Iraq military facilities in Iraq with increasingly sophisticated missile strikes. There had been ten such strikes by the time Secretary of Defense Mark Esper asked the Iraqi government to help prevent attacks targeting U.S. soldiers on December 16th, though to no avail. A rocket attack by an Iranian-backed militia killed an American contractor and wounded three U.S. troops on December 28. In response, the U.S. carried out retaliatory strikes on the militia’s positions in Iraq and Syria. Tehran did not relent.

Paper I wrote a while ago about Iran’s killing of US and British troops, directed by Qassim Soleimani. These represent only a fraction of the death & misery he inflicted. Killing him was the right thing for President @realDonaldTrump to do.https://t.co/CvPe9har1h
— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) January 3, 2020

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal: Iran’s Deadly Puppet Master

Suleimani is no longer simply a soldier; he is a calculating and practical strategist. Most ruthlessly and at the cost of all else, he has forged lasting relationships to bolster Iran’s position in the region. No other individual has had comparable success in aligning and empowering Shiite allies in the Levant. His staunch defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has effectively halted any progress by the Islamic State and other rebel groups, all but ensuring that Assad remains in power and stays solidly allied to Iran. Perhaps most notably, under Suleimani’s leadership, the Quds Force has vastly expanded its capabilities. His shrewd pragmatism has transformed the unit into a major influencer in intelligence, financial, and political spheres beyond Iran’s borders.

It would be unwise, however, to study Suleimani’s success without situating him in a broader geopolitical context. He is a uniquely Iranian leader, a clear product of the country’s outlook following the 1979 revolution. His expansive assessment of Iranian interests and rights matches those common among Iranian elites. Iran’s resistance toward the United States’ involvement in the Middle East is a direct result of U.S. involvement in the Iran-Iraq War, during which Suleimani’s worldview developed. Above all else, Suleimani is driven by the fervent nationalism that is the lifeblood of Iran’s citizens and leadership.

Suleimani’s accomplishments are, in large part, due to his country’s long-term approach toward foreign policy. While the United States tends to be spasmodic in its responses to international affairs, Iran is stunningly consistent in its objectives and actions.

The Quds Force commander’s extended tenure in his role—he assumed control of the unit in 1998—is another important factor. A byproduct of Iran’s complicated political environment, Suleimani enjoys freedom of action over an extended time horizon that is the envy of many U.S. military and intelligence professionals. Because a leader’s power ultimately lies in the eyes of others and is increased by the perceived likelihood of future power, Suleimani has been able to act with greater credibility than if he were viewed as a temporary player.

In that sense, then, Suleimani’s success is driven by both his talent and the continuity of his time in positions of power. Such a leader simply could not exist in the United States today. Americans do not allow commanders, military or otherwise, to remain in the highest-level positions for decades. There are reasons for this—both political and experiential. Not since J. Edgar Hoover has the federal government allowed a longtime public servant to amass such levels of shadowy influence.

Despite my initial jealousy of Suleimani’s freedom to get things done quickly, I believe such restraint is a strength of the U.S. political system. A zealous and action-oriented mindset, if unchecked, can be used as a force for good—but if harnessed to the wrong interests or values, the consequences can be dire. Suleimani is singularly dangerous. He is also singularly positioned to shape the future of the Middle East.

Madman theory and setting the agenda for the Middle East

The main criticism of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and his cronies is that the Trump administration has not thought through the consequences of such an action and it can bring unpredictable and dangerous results.

Yet in a way, that may have been the entire point.

Iran, and Soleimani in particular, have known for many years that they can execute their strategy of slowly taking over the Middle East by doing lots of actions that fall just below the red line of provoking a major reaction. Their actions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as Gaza and Lebanon, are all intended to build a strong, frightening, impenetrable and inevitable Shiite crescent from Iran to the Mediterranean that would strangle Western interests and force Sunni Arab states into submission.

We have all been watching this play out in slow motion, with Iran hiding behind thinly veiled proxies. Yet according to the accepted rules of international diplomacy, there was little the world could do to disrupt what Iran made appear unstoppable.

Enter the Madman Theory, attributed to Richard Nixon but that Donald Trump has embraced. Killing Soleimani definitely qualifies. All of the carefully calibrated calculations behind Iran's slow drip strategy of full hegemony over the Middle East are out the window. They never expected a response like this.

Suddenly, Iranian actions that seemed safe no longer are.

More importantly, the psychological impact on the Middle East is gigantic. In a few minutes, the perception that Iran is running the show and everyone else is playing defense has been shattered. No longer is Iran setting the agenda. Now it is on the defensive. It can no longer assume that its aggressive moves in Yemen or Iraq will go unanswered. It has no idea what the US might do.

Not only that, but the assassination increases the confidence of the Gulf states in countering Iranian moves. It increases the confidence of Iranian protesters. It increases the resolve of the Iraqi protesters against the pro-Iran government there. It is difficult to think of a more effective, less bloody way to achieve all of these gains.

Does Trump have an agenda for the Middle East? I doubt it. I don't think he wants the US to be heavily involved in the region, rather he wants to support US friends in their own goals.

Proving that America really has the back of its Middle Eastern friends - as opposed to the disastrous Obama desire for appeasement, a mindset that Iran took full advantage of - is the single most positive thing to happen in the region in a very long time. And it could only happen because the person who ordered it is perceived to be unpredictable.

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad describe how much Qassem Soleimani helped them

As if we need more reasons to celebrate the timely death of Qassem Soleimani, here is what Islamic Jihad says about him:

Abu Hamza - we think

The spokesman for Al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad movement, Abu Hamza, confirmed Friday that the martyr Qassem Soleimani supervised direct support to Palestine and the transfer of military and security expertise to its jihadists for two decades.

Abu Hamza said on Twitter: "The Al-Quds Brigades bids farewell to a mujahideen leader who has always spread terror in the heart of America and the Zionist entity."

And Hamas:

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a statement: "As we mourn the leader Hajj Qassem Soleimani, we remember his progress and his great and wide role towards the cause of Palestine and support for the resistance, as he focused much of his effort towards working to eliminate the Zionist entity and sweeping it off the land of Palestine."

Did you ever notice that the people who say that the US and Europe must stop selling arms to Israel for supposedly "moral" reasons never say anything negative about Iran giving weapons and technology to terror groups to be used against Jewish civilians?

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Gaza terror groups mourning Soleimani; Fatah silent

The reactions to the killing of senior Iranian terror leader Qassem Soleimani are predictable - and they show how much the Western Left is now allied with terrorists.

In the Muslim world, the ones mourning Soleimani are the terrorists and their supporters.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on more terror in response: "Meting out the appropriate punishment to these criminal assassins... will be the responsibility and task of all resistance fighters worldwide."

A Syrian spokesperson said, "Syria is certain that this cowardly US aggression... will only strengthen determination to follow in the path of the resistance's martyred leaders."

Islamic Jihad said that "America, with its crimes and siding with the Israeli occupation, is the enemy of the nation and the people."

Hamas offered its "sincere condolences to the Iranian leadership and the Iranian people for the martyrdom of Major General Qassem Soleimani - may God have mercy on him - one of the most prominent Iranian military leaders, who had a prominent role in supporting the Palestinian resistance in various fields."

The PFLP "sent its sincere condolences to the Iranian people and their leadership for the martyrdom of Major General Qassem Soleimani, who will not be forgotten by our Palestinian people, his prominent role in embodying the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran by supporting its rights and struggle against the Israeli occupation and supporting the resistance forces and developing their capabilities."

Meanwhile, Gulf News (UAE) celebrated Soleimani's death, reflecting reports of celebrations from Iraqis and others in the Gulf:

The killing of Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, marks a decisive victory against Iranian terror.

Arab states have long complained of Iranian interference in their internal affairs.

They also warned the international community that this was simply not a regional problem, but an international one.

This will greatly increase America's prestige in the Gulf and among Arab moderates, even as many weaker Sunni states like Jordan are calling for caution because they are afraid of being caught in the blowback.

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How will Iran respond to the killing of Qassem Soleimani?

Now that it is confirmed that the US indeed did kill Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force and effectively the second most important person in Iran, responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of civilians and many US troops, here are some thoughts.

Most responses are that this will start a major new war or at least a major escalation with Iran's terrorist proxies targeting US leaders.

First of all, the so-called experts have been wrong every single time they predicted a major response from things Trump decided to do. The "experts" simply aren't.

My guess is that Iran will instruct Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad to shoot rockets into Israel, even though there is no evidence that Israel had anything to do with this (excellent intel, by the way.) This is a face-saving routine and Iran still clings to the idea that escalating things with Israel will get the Muslim world on their side. That isn't true anymore, but this might be Iran's thinking. (Israel closed the ski resort in Mount Hermon anticipating this very scenario.)

Not only Soleimani was killed - also Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias Popular Mobilization Forces, and reportedly Naeem Qasm, Hezbollah's #2 in Lebanon. You have to think that the remaining leaders of Iranian forces and proxy forces are very frightened of being killed themselves. If they escalate, that is a death sentence. I don't think they are that brave.

Furthermore, Soleimani was widely considered a genius in his military and terror activities. He was the one who would have decided on a calibrated response. Whoever is replacing him will probably err on the side of conservatism, because the US is now considered unpredictable - previous administrations would never have done anything like this.

In addition, Iran is hurting from economic sanctions that has already been weakening Iran's military. It seems likely that this attack will embolden Iran's protesters to redouble their efforts, which will strain Iran's military even more. The same thing seems to already be happening in Iraq with protesters against Iranian influence celebrating.

I cannot see the Revolutionary Guards' morale remaining high with the loss of their powerful leader and their countrymen, probably, celebrating.

I do expect a response - Iran is still an honor/shame society and some action, now that the US admitted its role, is deemed necessary. But I think it will be a limited response. Perhaps cyberattacks, perhaps rockets to Israel as I mentioned, perhaps some directed attacks at US troops in Iraq or a 1983 Beirut-style attack against US military installations in Europe.

Today, lots of very dangerous people are very scared. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is going deeper underground than he already was. Maybe even Kim Jong-Un.

There may be - hell, there will probably be - some unintended consequences. But they happen all the time anyway. The precipitating event is by any measure a very good thing, because nothing could weaken Iran in one blow as much as this attack.

Today, Iran's military is significantly weaker in Iraq, in Lebanon and in Iran itself. Rarely can a single attack affect so much in such a positive way. There will probably be blowback, but it is hard to see how that will help Iran recoup its losses. Iranian leaders want to cling to power above all, and extended global adventures do not help that goal when the regime is already weakened.

It is not a symbolic loss for Iran. It is a major, major blow, and one that might be a permanent and serious wound for the regime itself.

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