COMMENTARY / OPINION
Israel: Intelligence Bounty for the USA Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
August 6, 2025
(click here for more on Israel’s mega-billion-dollar benefits to the US)
Does the US extend to Israel an annual foreign aid of $3.8bn, or does the US make an annual $3.8bn investment in Israel, which yields to the US a Return-on-Investment that exceeds – exponentially – the annual investment?
*The US’ power projection – in the Middle East and in the face of Russia and China – has been substantially upgraded by Israel’s battle-proven military and technological capabilities and its surging posture of deterrence. Unlike NATO, South Korea and Japan, Israel has bolstered the US’ regional and global strategic posture without US bases/troops. Israel has done it due to its stability, effectiveness and reliability (irrespective of Left or Right government); and, its pro-active military action against anti-US Islamic terrorism. Israel has contributed to the US defense and economy by acting as a cost-effective battle-tested laboratory for US defense and aerospace industries, which has contributed mega billions of dollars to the saving in research and development costs – and increased exports – of advanced US military systems (combat aircraft, etc.), and sharing innovative battle tactics with the US Armed Forces.
*Israel’s recent military offensive against the Ayatollah regime and Hezbollah has contributed to the extension of the US’ strategic arm, as it has through its geo-strategic location and its unique sources of human (HUMINT) and Signal (SIGINT) intelligence. Israel’s familiarity with the Middle East has provided the US with game-changing data on the cultural, linguistic, ethnic, ideological and religious nature of anti-US Sunni and Islamic terrorists. Through a sophisticated interception of Internet communications, Israel has shared with the US intelligence, which targeted missile sites, aborted anti-US Islamic terrorist action (on US soil, US airlines and worldwide US installations). Israel has shared with the US intelligence on enemies’ battle tactics and capabilities of advanced military systems, which are developed by enemies and by industrial competitors of the US (e.g., ground-to-air missiles, electronics and jamming and hacking devices). Recently, Israel has shared with the US vital intelligence on the advanced Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technology, and North Korean and Chinese ballistic technologies, which were supplied to the Ayatollah regime.
*The uniquely productive US-Israeli intelligence cooperation was demonstrated during the June 13-June 21 Israeli Air Force offensive on the Ayatollah regime, which paved the way for the US Air Force bombing of three critical nuclear installations, unimpeded by the (demolished) Iranian Air Force and air defense systems.
*The late Senator Daniel Inouye, who was the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Chairman of the Senate Full Appropriations Committee told me that the scope of Israeli intelligence shared with the US, was much more than the intelligence provided by all NATO countries combined. He added that Soviet military hardware which was transferred by Israel to the US tilted the global balance of power in favor of the US, amounting to a mega-billion-dollar bonus.
*According to the late General George Keegan, who served as the Chief of US Air Force Intelligence: “If the US were to procure, on its own, the intelligence provided by Israel, it would have to establish 5 CIAs [the classified annual budget of one CIA is assessed to be well over $15bn!]…. The ability of the U.S. Air Force in particular, and the Army in general, to defend whatever position it has in NATO owes more to the Israeli intelligence input than it does to any other single source of intelligence, be it satellite reconnaissance, be it technology intercept, or what have you….”
For example:
<In 2017, Israel shared intelligence about an ISIS bomb plot – centered in Syria – involving explosives camouflaged as laptop batteries, designed to fool airports x-ray machines, leading to the tightening of US and global airport security. Israel has, also, provided the US crucial intelligence on ISIS activities, such as the identity of Westerners who joined ISIS and drone-gathered intelligence over ISIS-controlled area, which enhanced US airstrikes.
<Leading to the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of Iran’s Quds Force, which orchestrates global anti-US Iranian terrorism, Israel assisted in the profiling of Soleimani and tracking his cell phones, which facilitated the determination of his precise location in Baghdad.
<Israel has provided the U.S. with intelligence on Iran’s sophisticated ballistic and drone programs, which target every pro-US Arab regime, Western Europe and the US itself (through Iran’s Latin American foothold). Israeli intelligence tipped off the US about imminent Iranian drone and missile strikes on US installations in Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
<In July 2003, Brig. General Michael Vane, Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Army Training and Doctrine Command stated that Israel’s counter-terrorism experience shaped the US war on terrorism.
<In 1968-70, during the War of Attrition against Soviet-supported Egypt, Israel shared with the US its own aerial tactics – in the face of Soviet missiles – which saved the lives of gunship pilots during the Vietnam War.
<During the Cold War era, Israel provided the U.S. with critical intelligence on Soviet strategic missiles capabilities – which bolstered the US defense against a non-conventional offensive – such as Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle, warhead technology, and advantages and vulnerabilities of hundreds of tons of Soviet military systems, which were captured/hit during Israel-Arab wars and delivered by defecting Arab pilots (e.g., P-12 Soviet radar snatched from Egypt in 1969, MiG-21, MiG-17 and MiG-23 Soviet combat in 1966, 1968 and 1989 respectively, T-54, T-55, T-62 and T-72 Soviet tanks, SA-2 and SA-6 surface-to-air missile batteries and their radars, etc.). The Israeli contribution was significant in terms of research and development, reverse-engineering, radar jamming, battle tactics, global industrial competitiveness and increased export.
The bottom line:
In 1923, Col. Richard Meinertzhagen, the Chief British Intelligence Officer in the western Middle East, stated: “I’ve always considered the Land of Israel to be the key to the defense of the Middle East…. When a Jewish State will be established, Britain shall benefit from air force, naval and land bases… as well as Jewish fighting capabilities… which will secure its long-term regional interests…. Unlike the Arabs, Jews are reliable and do comply with agreements…. The British policy in the Middle East bets on the wrong horse, when appeasing the Arabs….”
While Britain ignored Meinertzhgen’s assessment, and lost its power projection in the Middle East and beyond, the US has recognized Israel’s role as a unique force and dollar multiplier – not a foreign aid recipient, but a beneficiary of a highly-appreciated US investment, which generates a staggering annual Return-on-Investment.
FBI informant TIERNEY’S REAL NEWS
AUG 06, 2025
There is one major fact about the Epstein case and the Russia hoax that ALL the pundits and fake influencers are NOT telling you. This is something I’ve been writing about for years but everybody seems to ignore. Why? Because I believe it’s the REAL REASON somebody took out Epstein before he could spill his guts on his role as an FBI informant for Mueller, Comey & Weissmann and as a partner in the Clinton Foundation. This newsletter is long but worth your time.
There are smoking gun documents that prove that Epstein was an active source for the FBI way before his plea deal in Florida in 2007. What does this mean? Epstein worked for the FBI and was part of the corrupt team of Mueller, Comey, Weissmann & Wray – who have spent years using the FBI to entrap and frame people and taking care of problems for the Clintons and the swamp.
In 2008, official records proved that Epstein was an FBI informant back when Robert Mueller was FBI Director. The same Robert Mueller that was brought back as Special Counsel (along with his sidekick Andrew Weissmann who regularly appears on MSNBC) to try to take down Trump for the Russia Russia hoax.
Mueller was FBI Director from 2001-2013. Comey was FBI Director from 2013-2017. Wray was FBI Director from 2017-2025. THEY ARE ALL TIED TOGETHER. This is complicated but I’m going to try to simplify it and connect some dots for you. I will provide links to past articles I’ve written so you can do more research if you like.
“On 9/11/08, case agent advised writer that Epstein is currently being prosecuted by the State of Florida and is complying with all conditions of his please with the State of Florida. Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon. Case agent advised that no federal prosecution will occur in this matter as long as Epstein continues to uphold his agreement with the State of Florida. Case agent also advised that no further forfeiture assistance will be required for this case. Case agent is requested to contact writer in the event this matter moves forward on a federal level.”
[Ed.: If you do, don’t forget
How One President Is CRUSHING Centuries of Monarchical Control [13:46]
August 6, 2025 – In this episode, Susan Kokinda exposes Donald Trump’s real enemies—European monarchies and the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy—rather than just political opponents like Obama and Clinton. She outlines how Trump is directly challenging this centuries-old imperial system by tackling three major fronts: the ongoing Ukraine conflict fueled by European monarchies, dismantling environmentally destructive policies, and confronting the central banking system epitomized by the Federal Reserve. Kokinda calls for a deeper understanding of these issues among Americans and encourages viewers to join the fight against centuries of imperial control. Sign up for more insights and live Q&A sessions at Promethean Action.
Senator Cotton’s Bill S.2202 MUST BE DEFEATED MICHAEL T. FLYNN LTG USA (RET)
AUG 05, 2025
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is leading the charge to reduce President Trump’s oversight over the intelligence community through his legislation – S.2202 – Intelligence Community Efficiency and Effectiveness Act of 2025 – that would severely reduce the power of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). This is part of Sen. Cotton’s ongoing crusade against DNI Tulsi Gabbard.
Under Sen. Cotton’s bill, the FBI and NSA would receive additional new powers and new authorities reassigned from the vastly-reduced DNI. This is being done to hamstring Director Gabbard’s important work in declassifying documents showing immense failures by the intelligence community that occurred throughout the Obama administration which had a cascading impact on the first Trump administration, tarring it with the brush of Russian collusion based on a pack of lies.
It is not a coincidence that Sen. Cotton is attempting to cripple Director Gabbard right as she announces her landmark investigations of Obama, his DNI James Clapper, his CIA Director John Brennan, his National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and other key officials with these seismic changes to the ODNI that would be implemented over the course of just a few months. Sen. Cotton’s devious scheme would put Director Gabbard’s important work in unearthing the origins of Russia-gate with hard, unassailable evidence in serious jeopardy.
The purpose of the ODNI is to coordinate intelligence across the various agencies and departments, giving any president oversight so they can understand what is really going on within the vast bureaucracy in order to make better more, informed decisions. President Trump and Director Gabbard have effectively used this her office to rein in some of these deep state thugs and uncover past crimes, including President Barack Obama’s illegal coup against our duly-elected President, Donald J. Trump. Without a Gabbard-run ODNI with its appropriate powers intact, there is no hope and no prospect for reform of America’s intelligence apparatus.
Other offensive provisions from Sen. Cotton’s bill are its Orwellian contorting of language to remove oversight from deep state entities. The legislation generally demotes ODNI key staff, cleverly allowing subordinate agencies’ staffs to outrank ODNI employees when they are searching for materials needed by the President or the Director. For example, Sen. Cotton’s legislation removes deputies and reclassifies them as “assistants.” He takes away “principals” and changes “directors” to “heads.” This would allow bureaucracies like the FBI and CIA to evade necessary oversight authority.
The legislation takes away various authorities and responsibilities over bio-threats, narcotics, and terrorism from the ODNI and hands them back to the existing intelligence community apparatus. In a particularly appalling and disingenuous provision, Sen. Cotton added in some redundant language banning DEI from hiring practices in an attempt to bait conservatives and the MAGA base into supporting his measure. These are policies that Director Gabbard already put into place on her first day on the job.
Sen. Cotton uses the rhetoric of government efficiency to justify his measure, but Director Gabbard is already making great progress in this regard. Director Gabbard is dedicated to meaningful and intentional reforms which reduces the DNI office by as much as half to reduce bureaucratic bloat. Sen. Cotton’s proposed legislation is irresponsible and guts the office to an extent which would give a substantial power grab to the FBI, NSA, CIA and the 18 separate intelligence-related entities under the jurisdiction of the ODNI that have been weaponized and managed from afar by the Obama administration.
Before Director Gabbard became head of the ODNI, the agency never uncovered or released the documents implicating Obama and his top apparatchiks in Russia-gate. It cannot be taken for granted how integral Director Gabbard’s role at the helm of the ODNI is when it comes to draining the swamp. If her authority is removed or she is neutered, this could prevent major changes and prosecutions that would put fear into the hearts of the deep state hacks, which is the only way to get them to stop their continuous plot of undermining President Trump’s agenda and the very constitutional order that guides the United States of America.
I am signing this letter because those of us who have endured immense persecution as part of this conspiracy perpetrated by the Obama administration and enforced by the deep state cannot sit idly by while Sen. Cotton’s subversive actions undermine the importance of the DNI’s work. This is an existential crisis for America, and how it is handled will determine whether America can be truly great once again. Director Gabbard must have all the tools at her disposal to expose this conspiracy and serve justice to its perpetrators and S.2202 MUST be defeated in the Senate.
The War Launched Upon Us, Pushing Us to a Greater Israel & the Global Power Shift: What the Media Won’t Tell You by Topaz Ram
August 5, 2025 Pulse of Israel
For over a century, the Middle East was dictated by the whims of foreign empires, from Sykes-Picot to Oslo, and endless UN resolutions. But today, we are living through the collapse of that old world order, and it’s Israel, not Europe, leading the reshaping of the region.
Gone are the days of French and British hegemony. The Gaza war didn’t just shake Hamas, it shattered the crumbling dominance of Europe in the Middle East. What we’re witnessing now is an Israeli-American axis that isn’t asking for permission, it’s establishing the new reality.
Before October 7th, Europe still clung to influence via Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and the “palestinian” Arabs. Not anymore. America is handling the diplomacy. Israel is the military contractor. And together, we are not negotiating. We are determining outcomes.
Look at what “Iron Sword” war has already undone:
– The Iran Nuclear Deal? Dead.
– UN Resolution 1701 in Lebanon? Irrelevant.
– The Oslo Accords? Hanging by a thread.
– Even the dream of a unified Syria? Vanishing.
This is not just about military victories, it’s about changing the rules of the game. The Middle East is no longer a playground of world powers, it’s a battlefield undergoing massive reconstruction.
Iran is collapsing from within. Syria is fragmented. The Druze are quietly protected by Israel. Lebanon is paralyzed under U.S.-Israeli pressure. Gaza is being retaken. Egypt is economically suffocating. The Arab world is exposed. Turkey is economically limping.
And some of our Israeli elites still talk about “rebuilding Gaza”? Friends, the Middle East today is like an ER on Purim, full of chaos and broken pieces.
Meanwhile, the so-called “great powers” of the world are too busy falling apart:
* Europe is in existential crisis.
* Russia is in prolonged war.
* China is facing internal decay.
* The U.S. wants out of global conflicts.
Only one power remains active and rising in the regionIsrael, in strategic cooperation with America.
Sound familiar? It should. This is the exact vacuum in which the State of Israel was born, when the tired empires couldn’t maintain control, we rose to fill the void.
In 1967, we liberated our lands. In 2025, we are preparing to finally rule.
This is no longer just about territory. This is about regional management.
For the first time, Israel is not just defending itself, it is *organizing and shaping the future of the Middle East.
This isn’t Oslo. It’s not another round of “peace processes” destined to fail. This is a tectonic shift, the decline of the old colonial framework and the rise of Israeli strategic control.
Today, the battle is clear:
An exhausted, Islamist-progressive camp vs. Israel and America.
And the advantages are undeniable:
1. Israel is the strongest military and tech power in the region.
2. Israel is the most stable government in the Middle East.
3. U.S. backing means more than anything France or Europe can offer.
This combination = power.
And power = the ability to shape reality.
That’s why the Saudis are panicking, clinging to “the Palestinian state” idea, but even that is quickly losing relevance. America could easily reroute regional energy through Israel. The Europeans are rushing to “recognize Palestine” because they know, they’re losing control of the region.
The future of the Middle East is tied to one thing: energy.
Control the infrastructure, and you control the policy.
Once energy flows through Israel, Israel becomes one of the most important countries in the world. And in many ways, we already are.
Jordan and Egypt remain “stable” only because of Israeli alignment. Lebanon and Syria? Total loss.
We are playing this game wisely. Yes, every decision carries risk. And yes, there must be public debate. But history isn’t written by those who play it safe.
History is written like trading on the stock market:
The best trader isn’t the one who never loses.
He’s the one who knows how to maximize returns, to act coldly, strategically, and without emotional paralysis.
We must not stop this war.
On the contrary, we must push forward to total victory.
We didn’t start this war,but we will end it when we achieve dominance over our enemies so they can never attack us successfully again.
This is not about Trump. This is a convergence of factors:
* A broken Middle East
* Collapsing world powers
* A debt-ridden global economy
It’s time for a Jewish Riviera in Gaza,
A synagogue in Sweida (Biblical tribal land of Menachem, in Southern Syria)
And to finally look at the map and say with pride:
“Haifa is now the center of Israel.”
We are not returning to pre-October 7th.
We are not going backward.
We are shaping a Greater Israel, militarily, diplomatically, and spiritually to usher humanity, and the region, to a better more secure future.
This is our moment.
And with clarity, courage, and consistency, we will win.
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
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EXCLUSIVE: Flynn’s Rules of Diplomacy for American Officials
Epsteingate Is Russiagate 2.0 BY LEE SMITH
Understanding how—and why—another coup attempt against Trump formed
AUGUST 04, 2025 Tablet Magazine
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the press that officials from the Barack Obama administration—including former CIA chief John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey—may be charged for their role in Russiagate, the spy operation designed to topple the first Donald Trump administration. With FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly overseeing a criminal conspiracy case involving Brennan, Comey, and others, there’s reason for optimism that those who targeted the president, his aides, and supporters from 2016 to 2024 will finally be held accountable.
Naturally, those with the most to lose, such as former Obama officials implicated in the biggest political scandal in U.S. history, and the media that served as their willing accomplices, are playing to block. And the instrument they’ve chosen to protect themselves is another anti-Trump conspiracy theory, this one holding that the administration is hiding information about Jeffrey Epstein to protect Trump from being implicated in his crimes. Call it Epsteingate.
Perhaps the most senior former Obama official pushing Epsteingate is Susan Rice, the onetime national security adviser whose Jan. 5, 2017, email may implicate Obama in the anti-Trump conspiracy. In an X post over a New York Times op-ed by Brennan and Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, she wrote that the Trump administration’s Russiagate disclosures are a “shameless, dishonest, defamatory scheme to distract from EPSTEIN EPSTEIN EPSTEIN.” She also reposted an interview with author Michael Wolff who claims that after he published Epstein’s comments on Trump in his 2019 book, Siege, the financier called to say he was worried he might have said too much. Wolff suggests that Trump had Epstein arrested.
The media has a substantial corporate interest in obfuscating the Trump administration’s efforts to bring Russiagate to light, since it may also illuminate the role of the press in publishing leaks of classified intelligence to advance known falsehoods undergirding a criminal conspiracy. The specter of civil suits alone is enough to keep media executives up at night. And thus, according to The New York Times, the administration’s release of documents showing the FBI supported a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign plot to smear the president as a Russian agent comes “as the Trump team seeks to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files.”
Bannon and Carlson’s gambit also puts them at odds with the president while aligning them with the party that pushed the Russia collusion hoax.
The president says Democrats started what he calls the Epstein hoax, but that’s not entirely right. They’re using it to defend themselves from Russiagate, but it was a MAGA-aligned cohort led by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon who weaponized the Epstein narrative, and now parts of the right are as giddy with anti-Trump animus as first-term Never Trumpers are.
“This Epstein thing is probably going to bring President Trump down,” said Douglas Macgregor, a prominent figure on the MAGA podcast circuit who worked in the Pentagon during Trump’s first term. The problem then isn’t just that Russiagate revelations aren’t breaking through to the rest of the electorate but also that podcasters ostensibly aligned with Trump are employing the ghost of a dead sex offender to fracture his base and hobble him, with help from Democrats, after the 2026 midterms, just as Russiagate hobbled Trump’s first term.
After Trump ignored Bannon and Carlson’s warnings against joining Israel in a campaign against Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, they seized on the White House’s clumsy rollout of the Epstein case to target the president. The administration had promised too much regarding the Epstein case. As civilians, Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told podcast audiences there was lots more to what Epstein was up to—but it turned out there wasn’t. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi hosted an Epstein event at the White House and promised the full scoop. When she instead handed MAGA influencers thin binders containing nothing new on the dead sex offender, Trump supporters were rightly upset.
The problem is that nothing the administration produces now will satisfy this faction of MAGA, because Bannon and Carlson are not interested in transparency or accountability. Rather, they’ve rigged the Epstein story to damage Trump. In their telling, Epstein wasn’t just a predator; he was also a spy, an operative using American teenagers as bait to compromise powerful liberal elites on behalf of the Mossad. They’ve framed the affair so that only confirmation of their mad conspiracy theory will put Epstein’s ghost to rest.
“It’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that [Epstein] had direct connections to a foreign government,” Carlson told a Florida audience last month in one of his most public perorations unfolding the Epstein conspiracy theory. “No one’s allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that that’s naughty.” Bannon is also given to manful straight talk: “The Epstein story leads to the intelligence services of this country and of Israel,” he told his podcast audience last month. “Let’s be blunt. That’s why all the Israel First guys say there’s nothing to see.”
The logic is that if Trump doesn’t release the evidence that he’s shielding Israel, it’s evidence that he’s owned by Israel. The setup is as crazy and destructive as Russiagate because it’s the Russiagate playbook, except in this reboot, Netanyahu plays Putin’s part, and it’s not Moscow that controls Trump’s brain, but the Jews.
Trump indicated in a Truth Social post that he’s cut off his “past supporters”—presumably meaning Bannon and Carlson—and in another said his polls have gone up since the Epstein hoax. But other polls suggest he’s been hurt by it. A Rasmussen poll found that 56 percent of likely voters don’t believe the FBI and DOJ are telling the truth about Epstein. According to a The Economist/YouGov poll, 67 percent of Americans believe the government is covering up evidence related to Epstein, including 59 percent of Trump voters.
For Bannon and Carlson, Epsteingate is part of a larger effort to drive down support for Israel among younger Trump voters. After all, if the Israeli government violated U.S. sovereignty to traffic girls and steal American secrets, it can’t be a good ally. Maybe GOP youth want to believe in an American version of an Arab-world style legend—look out for the Mossad dolphins!—to distinguish themselves from the traditionally pro-Israel GOP establishment. But Bannon and Carlson’s gambit also puts them at odds with the president while aligning them with the party that pushed the Russia collusion hoax.
Russiagate was, among other things, an instrument devised to block Trump’s foreign policy, limiting his choices on how to deal not only with Russia but also—indeed, most importantly—with China. Instead of prioritizing China, which Trump has always believed is the main threat to U.S. peace and prosperity, he ended up having to spend much of his first term worrying about the domestic effects of any policy that was remotely related to Russia. Similarly, Epsteingate is also a foreign-policy instrument. When understood this way, it’s hard to ignore that Carlson and Bannon are in alignment with Democratic foreign policy—that is, Obama’s policy.
On Israel’s war in Gaza, the Iranian nuclear threat, and accommodating Vladimir Putin’s designs in Eastern Europe, Bannon and Carlson sound exactly like Obama. When Carlson warned that war with Iran would cost thousands of American deaths, he was simply repeating Obama’s rationale for legalizing Iran’s nuclear weapons program: The only other option to the Iran deal is World War III. When Bannon said Israel was a protectorate and not an ally, that Netanyahu ran to Trump for help, that, too, was the language of the Obama faction, which called the Israeli leader “chickenshit” for not bombing Iran on his own. And when Bannon ranted that there should be regime change in Jerusalem, he was adding his voice to the chorus of ex-Obama aides who filled the Joe Biden administration determined to topple the government of a U.S. ally after it was attacked by a murderous terror army. Like Obama, Bannon and Carlson also sought to protect Iran’s nuclear weapons program by opposing Trump’s strikes, supported by 85 percent of Republican voters. The fact is that if you’re targeting Trump with a version of Russiagate, an instrument built by Obama to target Trump, you’re with Obama.
Bannon appears to be the originator of the Epstein-as-spy theory. After Trump’s onetime strategist was pushed out of the White House in 2017, he started meeting with Epstein at his Manhattan mansion, and reportedly, according to people close to him, he thought his host worked with intelligence services. He recorded 15 hours of interviews with the financier, ostensibly to be used in helping to rehabilitate Epstein’s reputation. That Bannon hasn’t yet released that footage suggests that it contains no evidence to corroborate his allegations. Maybe he’s embarrassed that he spent 15 hours interviewing Epstein and forgot to ask the man he now says was part of a Mossad spy ring if he was a spy. Or maybe he didn’t ask him because he never believed what he’s been telling people about Epstein since 2017.
Bannon appears to have been a source for Vicky Ward’s 2019 book, Kushner Inc., a takedown of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Ward published a story in The Daily Beast about Epstein three days after his July 6, 2019, arrest, in which she relayed a second- or even third-hand account from “a former senior White House official.” According to that unnamed former senior White House official, the federal prosecutor who handled Epstein’s case more than a decade before didn’t prosecute because he was told that the defendant “belonged to intelligence.” This is the first documented account alleging Epstein was a spy. And there’s no sign Ward tried to confirm it with other sources. Recently, she told Wolff she doesn’t really think Epstein was in intelligence. Wolff, it’s worth noting, relied heavily on Bannon’s views on Trump for his first anti-Trump screed, Fire and Fury.
The federal prosecutor in the first Epstein case was Alexander Acosta, who was serving as Trump’s labor secretary when Epstein was arrested again in 2019. He eventually resigned because of the heat he was taking for letting Epstein off the hook in 2008, but who knows if he might’ve saved his cabinet post had he just doubled down on Ward’s story: Yeah, I had to let the pedo walk because the guys at Langley told me Epstein was their guy. It was peak Russiagate, and he might have won plaudits from MAGA for throwing shade at the Deep State.
Instead, Acosta did what he legally could to dispel Ward’s account. In a press conference a day after her story posted, he said, “I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact.” He explained he couldn’t “address it directly” because of DOJ guidelines limiting public comment on pending cases. But, he added, the reporting on Epstein is “just going down rabbit holes.”
Here are the facts: Palm Beach authorities started investigating Epstein in 2005 and indicted him in 2006 on one count of soliciting prostitution. The FBI was so dissatisfied with those charges that it began its own investigation. That’s a big hole in the spy narrative right there: If Epstein was being protected by U.S. agencies, it’s hard to understand why the DOJ would go out of its way to bring a federal case against him, which it did again in 2019. Proponents of the theory that Epstein was protected have yet to address its most obvious flaw: Federal authorities kept charging Epstein with crimes, which is strong evidence that no one in the federal government was protecting him.
It’s the Russiagate playbook, except in this reboot, Netanyahu plays Putin’s part, and it’s not Moscow that controls Trump’s brain, but the Jews.
The Mossad angle is even more absurd. It’s hard to know exactly where the idea that he worked for Israeli intelligence first came from, but any conspiracy theory that involves a Jew—and nearly every conspiracy theory worthy of the name involves Jews—is at some point going to have to incorporate a secret Jewish network. Carlson’s obsession merits at least attribution of ownership if not authorship of the Epstein-Mossad narrative, with guest after guest—Glenn Greenwald, Darryl Cooper, Ana Kasparian, etc.—invited to elaborate on Epstein’s putative work for the Mossad.
Here’s the problem with the Mossad theory. For any foreign intelligence service to run an operation of that scope and for that period of time—two decades at least—it would have to avoid the attention of the FBI, which is the U.S. agency responsible for domestic counterintelligence, like catching foreign spies targeting Americans at home. And there’s no evidence the FBI has ever turned a blind eye to Israeli operations in the United States, never mind protected one. For instance, in 1985, the FBI arrested Jonathan Pollard, who was passing classified U.S. intelligence about Arab states to Israel. He served a 30-year sentence and moved to Israel in 2020 after his additional five-year parole expired.
Indeed, far from protecting Mossad agents on its home turf, the FBI is so determined to out Israeli spies that it invents them when there are none. In 2005, the FBI set up a sting operation and charged two American Israel Public Affairs Committee officials for sharing classified information with Israel. Only this time, there was no evidence that the information the men passed to Israeli, as well as American, officials was classified or even real. The DOJ dropped the charges in 2009.
Greenwald told Carlson during their recent chat about Epstein that U.S. spy services regard the Israelis as a major counterintelligence threat. So, then, what are the chances that a decades-long Mossad operation staged in a mansion in the middle of midtown Manhattan that drew in some of the world’s most famous men—some with private security, some even with secret service details—could have escaped the attention of the FBI? Slim. And with Bill Clinton’s reputation at stake, zero.
According to flight manifests unsealed with thousands of other documents days before Epstein’s August 2019 death, Clinton flew on Epstein’s private plane at least 26 times, with some trips including staff, associates, and Secret Service. Contrary to common wisdom regarding Epsteingate, Clinton’s appearance on that list does not support the idea that Epstein was an intelligence asset blackmailing powerful people—rather, it suggests the opposite.
Since Clinton first came to the White House in 1992 up until Patel took charge of the FBI this winter, the bureau’s most successful mission has been protecting the Clintons. Consider the scandals implicating the Clintons during the 42nd president’s eight years in office that required the FBI to look the other way. Among others, there was Travelgate, Whitewater, Chinagate and, most intriguingly, Filegate, when Clinton aides were given access to hundreds of FBI documents related to security clearances, including the personal information of White House staffers from previous Republican administrations. In retrospect, Filegate looks like a test run for the most notorious Clinton-FBI scandal, when Hillary’s 2016 campaign used the FBI to spy on her rival for the White House—the scandal that became Russiagate.
It’s no surprise the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information concluded she’d done nothing wrong, even though the FBI had evidence that her private server was likely hacked by the Russians. What would later shock Trump and his supporters was the discovery that at the exact same time the director of the FBI cleared her, the FBI also set in motion an operation to frame the Republican candidate for stealing and leaking her emails by tying him to Russia. The only evidence for the allegation that he was compromised by Moscow, an allegation the FBI used to spy on Trump’s campaign, was fabricated by Clinton contractors.
For a quarter of a century, the FBI has been protecting the Clintons. The idea that this same law enforcement agency exposed the Clintons and some of their most prominent donors in Epstein’s circle—such as Bill Gates and Leslie Wexner—to a blackmail operation run by a foreign intelligence service, let alone Israel’s, is untethered from reality. The idea that Trump has buried the Epstein story and is thereby protecting the individuals and institutions that sought to ruin him is deranged.
What’s most vicious about Epsteingate is that it targets Trump supporters from inside the MAGA tent and demands they distrust the president they elected and forget everything they learned during the course of the anti-Trump operation that started with Russiagate. That is, it demands they distrust themselves. Now, just when there’s reason to be optimistic that those responsible for hunting Trump, his aides, and supporters will finally be held accountable, wolves in MAGA skin suits are running a version of Russiagate to replicate the efforts of the original Russiagate conspirators they’re protecting—and for the same reason: to get Trump.
Political Thalidomide: The Deliberate Corruption of Science and State By Mordechai Sones
From the engineered lies of the Soviet lab to the calculated chaos of modern geopolitics, the path to our present catastrophes was not paved with good intentions, but with deliberate, deforming strategies
August 5, 2025
The Bitter Pill
In the late 1950s, a German pharmaceutical company, Chemie Grünenthal, executed a masterful market strategy. It launched a new sedative, thalidomide, as a “wonder drug” for anxiety, insomnia, and, most lucratively, morning sickness. The public was assured it was so astonishingly safe it could be sold without a prescription. It was presented as a gift to humanity.
Contents
A Prophet in the Science Jungle
Orwell’s Warning: The Lie as a Political Strategy
The Numbers Don’t Lie, But the System Is Designed To
From the Lab to the Ledger: A Strategy of Reckless Disregard
Monsters in the Medicine Cabinet
The Birth of Political Thalidomide
Our Deformed Reality: A Creature of Design
But this gift was a calculated deception. The company’s strategy relied on suppressing inconvenient data and pushing claims of safety that its own flimsy testing could not support. The hidden horror within the drug—its ability to cause catastrophic birth defects—was not merely an unknown risk, but a factor deemed acceptable in the cold calculus of market domination. Across 46 countries, the strategy succeeded, and over 10,000 children were born with phocomelia—stunted, flipper-like limbs—the calculated, collateral damage of a successful business plan.
The thalidomide scandal was not a story of a mistake. It was a story of a deliberate strategy, where physical deformity was the known, acceptable price of intellectual and ethical corruption.
This dynamic—a poison knowingly marketed as a panacea to achieve a hidden objective—is not confined to the pharmacy. When the same calculated divergence between public rhetoric and actual policy is deployed at the level of the state, it becomes “political thalidomide.” It is a societal teratogen, a deforming agent administered to the body politic not by accident, but by design. Its purpose is to contort reality, reshape society, and give birth to outcomes that serve a hidden, strategic agenda. The blueprint for this process can be found in the very heart of the scientific enterprise, as diagnosed by a man who saw the rot not as a flaw, but as the system working as intended.
A Prophet in the Science Jungle
In 1967, biochemist Paul Saltman published a blistering critique of his profession titled “The Science Jungle.” He rejected the public image of the noble truth-seeker, revealing instead a system designed to reward not truth, but power. He described a world of frantic, cutthroat competition where the ultimate prize was status within an “egomaniacal” tribe. “The heroes are playing the big stage,” he wrote, “while the peasants are doing the Friday afternoon ten-minute talk in the men’s room.”
This system, Saltman argued, was not accidentally flawed; it was deliberately structured to produce a certain kind of scientist. Graduate school was “semi-slave labor” where professors, driven by the need for grants and publications, demanded data above all else. “I don’t give a damn if you love science,” was the prevailing ethos, “but grind out the numbers!” This process actively filtered out those motivated by joy and discovery, selecting instead for those willing to play the game. It produced “trivial scientists,” but more importantly, it created a culture where dishonesty was a viable career strategy.
The desperate desire to be a hero, Saltman explained, made cheating a feature, not a bug. “By God, you get a theory, it’s beautiful, you love it,” he wrote, “and if the colorimeter doesn’t just record the results you want, you sort of give the machine a little shove.” He recounted stories of faked data and stolen research not as aberrations, but as the logical endpoints of a system that incentivized victory over integrity. Saltman’s “jungle” was not a state of nature; it was a carefully cultivated garden designed to grow ambition and deceit. The corruption was the point. It was the training ground for a mindset that would prove immensely useful to those with power.
Orwell’s Warning: The Lie as a Political Strategy
Decades before Saltman diagnosed the jungle, George Orwell witnessed its ultimate political application. While his masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was seeded by the geopolitical carving of the world into “zones of influence,” its central horror—the state’s power to enforce a lie—was inspired directly by a deliberate strategy of scientific corruption.
The architect of this strategy was Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet agronomist whose fraudulent theories were embraced by Joseph Stalin. Lysenko rejected genetics and claimed he could “train” crops to produce impossible yields. His science was nonsense, but his political utility was immense. Lysenkoism was a tool, a weapon to enforce ideological conformity and purge the state of independent thinkers. It was a deliberate strategy to demonstrate that the Party had power over objective reality itself.
The brilliant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, who stood for real science, was declared an enemy of the people, tortured, and left to die of starvation in a Gulag. His elimination was not an injustice; it was a strategic objective. Across the Soviet Union, scientists were forced to publicly embrace Lysenko’s lies. This was the state holding a gun to the head of science, proving that if it could force its brightest minds to agree that wheat can become rye, it could force its citizens to accept any reality it chose to manufacture. The falsification of biology was the dress rehearsal for the falsification of everything. It was political thalidomide in its purest form: a lie administered to deform the mind of a nation.
The Numbers Don’t Lie, But the System Is Designed To
For years, one could dismiss Saltman’s jungle as cynicism and Lysenkoism as a uniquely totalitarian evil. Then, in 2005, a paper by John P. A. Ioannidis, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” revealed that the machinery for producing convenient falsehoods was built into the very structure of modern science.
Ioannidis used mathematics to show how factors like researcher bias, small study sizes, and the overwhelming pressure for positive results create a system where false findings are not the exception, but the norm. From the perspective of a “Deliberate Strategy Premise,” his work is not merely a description of a flawed system; it is an exposé of a system of information control. “Publication bias”—the fact that journals prefer exciting, positive results—is not a passive flaw. It is an active filtering mechanism. It ensures that research aligning with the interests of funders and institutions is amplified, while inconvenient, negative, or null results are systematically buried.
The “publish or perish” culture Saltman decried is the engine of this machine. It incentivizes the rapid production of data, overwhelming the system’s capacity for verification and replication. A single, strategically useful but false study can be laundered into accepted fact. This is not a system for finding truth; it is a system for manufacturing consensus. It is a sophisticated machine for generating the “scientific” justification for any policy or product a powerful entity wishes to promote.
From the Lab to the Ledger: A Strategy of Reckless Disregard
The late Dr. Jay Cavanaugh, a former member of the California State Board of Pharmacy, saw the lethal endpoint of this strategy in the pharmaceutical industry. In his essay “Reckless Disregard,” he casts industry executives not as misguided healers, but as architects of a deliberate and deadly business model. “This collection of serial killers,” he wrote, “extinguishes the hopes and lives of over 100,000 Americans every year.”
Cavanaugh argued that for these entities, human death is not a tragic side effect but a calculated operating expense. “At least the psychotics Manson and Gacy were aware at some level that they were killers,” he charged. “Not the drug companies. To them, the deaths are nothing more than the unavoidable collateral damage in the war on disease and the pursuit of earnings.”
This is the commercial application of the “Deliberate Strategy.” The pressure to “grind out the numbers” in the lab becomes the strategy to generate blockbuster profits. The “shove” on the colorimeter becomes the multi-billion dollar marketing campaign based on selectively published data. He described a world where regulatory bodies act as partners, not watchdogs, and where universities are “co-opted by the drug cartel” to produce research that serves profit, not public health. The system is not broken; it is a finely tuned machine for converting human suffering into shareholder value.
Monsters in the Medicine Cabinet
The official history of the thalidomide scandal casts it as a tragic mistake, an unforeseeable accident of science. The historical record, however, reveals a story of deliberate strategy.
From the outset, the company’s plan was to dominate the market by rushing the drug out on flimsy evidence and aggressively marketing its unsubstantiated safety. When numerous reports emerged that the drug was causing serious, irreversible nerve damage in adults, the company’s strategy was not to investigate, but to suppress the data and discredit the doctors reporting it.
In this context, the subsequent wave of catastrophic birth defects was not an accident. It was the direct and foreseeable consequence of a business model that had already accepted severe human harm as an acceptable price for profit. The physical deformities were the inevitable birth from a womb of calculated intellectual and moral corruption.
The Birth of Political Thalidomide
Now, let us return to Orwell and Lysenko. If pharmaceutical thalidomide is the offspring of a corrupt commercial strategy, then Lysenkoism is the archetype of political thalidomide. It is the deliberate administration of a deforming ideology to achieve a hidden strategic objective. The public is told the policy is a vitamin for national health, but its architects know it is a teratogen designed to reshape the body politic. Its purpose is to create a controlled, manageable, and ultimately useful deformity.
Orwell saw this and predicted its geopolitical endpoint: a world carved into superstates locked in perpetual conflict, each a self-contained ideological universe demanding total conformity. Today, we see his vision materializing in a new global triad: the Western alliance, the Russo-Iranian axis, and the Chinese superpower. Within these blocs, the truth is no longer a goal but a strategic asset, and dissent is not a right but a threat to national security. This is the fertile ground where new and virulent strains of political thalidomide are engineered and deployed.
Our Deformed Reality: A Creature of Design
This brings us to the modern Middle East, and the case of Israel. Viewed through the lens of “inadvertent consequences,” Israeli policy often appears paradoxical or self-defeating. But through the lens of the “Deliberate Strategy Premise,” the contradictions resolve into a coherent, if chilling, design. The apparent paradox of a state that has, at times, allegedly enabled the rise of the very forces it claims to be fighting—such as the early tolerance or even encouragement of Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO—is no paradox at all. It is the core of the strategy.
This is political thalidomide in action. The strategy is not to achieve a stated goal like “peace” or “a two-state solution,” but to create and manage a state of controlled conflict. A fractured, radicalized, and dependent Palestinian leadership is not a failure of Israeli policy; it is the policy’s primary achievement. It provides the permanent justification for security measures, for totalitarian control, and for maintaining a specific political order internally. The chaos is not a bug; it is the feature. The deformity—a perpetual state of war—is the intended design.
The attacks of October 7th, therefore, were not a “failure of imagination” or a “shock” to a system that had blinded itself. They were the horrific, but entirely predictable, culmination of a long-term strategy of cultivating a monster at one’s border. A strategy of political thalidomide, administered over decades, will inevitably give birth to a monstrous reality. The event was not the failure of the policy; it was the policy’s horrifying success, providing the ultimate pretext for a new phase of a long-planned geopolitical project. The historical horror was not an accident born of delusion, but the inevitable birth from a deliberately poisoned political womb.
The Antidote to Deformity
We are living in the world that Paul Saltman and George Orwell warned us about. The “science jungle” has merged with the political jungle to create a system where deliberate deception is the lingua franca of power.
Brothers and sisters, we live in the age of political thalidomide. It is administered daily as state-sponsored disinformation and as calculated policy designed to produce outcomes that contradict its public justification. It promises security and stability, but its hidden function is to create the deformities—the conflicts, the divisions, the chaos—that serve the unstated goals of its architects.
The antidote is not simply to seek truth, but to expose strategy. It requires rejecting the premise of inadvertent consequences and looking for the hidden design behind the apparent chaos. It requires protecting the dissenters and whistleblowers who reveal the divergence between public rhetoric and actual policy. It demands that we, as citizens, develop the courage to see the world not as a series of unfortunate accidents, but as a landscape shaped by deliberate, often malevolent, design.
The choice is ours. We can continue to swallow the political thalidomide offered to us, accepting the official narratives while the world contorts into ever more grotesque shapes. Or we can spit out the pill, identify the poison and its purpose, and begin the arduous work of healing the Creator’s world that has been deliberately deformed.
How Hamas Sees the West’s Recognition of ‘Palestine’ by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 5, 2025 Gatestone Institute
- Hamas’s primary goal is to remain in power after the war so that it can continue its jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel.
- Western leaders have succeeded in making any negotiations impossible. The message they sent — especially in Europeans — was: Massacre and keep the hostages and be rewarded with a state. The terrorists clearly see, yet again, that terrorism pays off. So keep on doing it!
- Despite their opposition to the “two-state solution,” the Palestinian terrorists are nevertheless prepared to take any land Israel gives them so it can be used as a launchpad to destroy Israel.
- In 2017, Hamas issued a “policy document” that confirmed this approach. The terror group made it clear in its document that it would not oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Hamas, however, stressed that this does not mean that the terror group would recognize Israel’s right to exist.
- Hamas’s policy document has been mistakenly interpreted by some Westerners as a sign of pragmatism, moderation and acceptance of the “two-state solution” on the part of the terror group. False. Hamas, as part of a campaign to deceive and mislead Westerners into accepting it as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena, is pretending that it supports a Palestinian next to Israel. In reality, Hamas is clearly stating that such a state will be used for “the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”
- In the same document, Hamas makes it abundantly clear that it will pursue its jihad against Israel after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
- This is certainly not the right time to talk about a “two-state solution.” The jihadists and terrorists see it as a reward for their atrocities against Israel. It is more important to focus efforts on dismantling and crushing all the Palestinian terror groups and embarking on a process of deradicalization for the Palestinians before talking about a peace process or “two-state solution.”
- Under the current circumstances, statements about recognizing a Palestinian state send a message to the Palestinians that terrorism and violence — not negotiations — are the best way to gain international support for statehood… and anything else.
The recent announcements by France, Britain, Canada and other countries that they intend to recognize a Palestinian state have emboldened the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas. Its members, on October 7, 2023, were behind the worst crime committed against Jews since the Holocaust. The massacre resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and the wounding of thousands. In addition, another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 50 hostages – 30 believed dead and 20 believed alive – are still held captive.
This was Hamas’s initial reaction to the announcements: “The recognition of the State of Palestine with full sovereignty is the fruit of our people’s continuous struggle.” Hamas clearly views the statements made by the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and other countries as the direct result of its October 7 carnage.
The announcements by the Western countries about recognizing a Palestinian state came at a time when Hamas has consistently rejected all proposals for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. Hamas continues to insist that Israel surrender — by ending the war started by the terror group on October 7 and withdrawing its forces from the Gaza Strip as a precondition for a ceasefire-hostage deal. Hamas’s primary goal is to remain in power after the war so that it can continue its jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel.
Instead of exerting pressure on Hamas to release the hostages, lay down its weapons and relinquish control over the Gaza Strip, the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and other Western countries have sent a message to the terror group: The October 7 massacres will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, undoubtedly ruled by Iranian-backed jihadists who murdered, raped, tortured, beheaded and abducted thousands of Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7.
Western leaders have succeeded in making any negotiations impossible. The message they sent — especially in Europeans — was: Massacre and keep the hostages and be rewarded with a state. The terrorists clearly see, yet again, that terrorism pays off. So keep on doing it!
Hamas leaders can only conclude that by not releasing the hostages, they have advanced “in the right direction.” Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim wrote:
“O our great people…
“Based on my monitoring of the international scene, what is happening today around the world is not merely a campaign of solidarity — it is a true global revolution in support of Palestinian rights: for freedom and the right to determine our destiny. It surpasses the borders of the great city [Gaza] that is creating miracles and laying the foundation for future glory — Gaza. I do not believe there has ever been a city or cause in human history that has achieved such unanimous and unwavering global support for victory, despite all differences in religion, race, and language, as Gaza and Palestine have.
“The road ahead is long, difficult, painful, and costly, but it is honorable and precious. We are moving in the right direction — toward victory and liberation — and the steps are closer than we expect. Our enemy and its allies know this very well.
“God Almighty will grant us victory, and when He gives, He gives with honor. And in that moment, all who played a role in this glorious epic will be proud — proud of their contribution to the history of our people and our cause.”
In a post on X, a Hamas-affiliated account praised the Western countries that have announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state: “Legitimacy advances, Occupation [Israel] Erodes.” According to the QudsNet account, the recent statements by Western leaders constitute a “moral blow” to Israel and “increase its isolation in the international arena.”
Hamas and several terror factions in the Gaza Strip have also welcomed the July 30 joint statement of the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain, in which they stressed “our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.”
What could possibly go wrong?
A joint statement issued by Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Sai’qa Forces – terror groups that do not recognize Israel’s right to exist and are strongly opposed to the so-called two-state solution – stated:
“We welcome any international effort that supports the Palestinian people and their rights and demand unconditional recognition of the Palestinian state and the rights of its people as a political entitlement and historical justice.”
These Palestinian terror groups have emphasized time and again that they will never disarm or recognize Israel’s right to exist. They have also repeatedly vowed to continue their jihad against Israel until it is obliterated. Despite their opposition to the “two-state solution,” the Palestinian terrorists are nevertheless prepared to take any land Israel gives them so it can be used as a launchpad to destroy Israel.
In 2017, Hamas issued a “policy document” that confirmed this approach. The terror group made it clear in its document that it would not oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Hamas, however, stressed that this does not mean that the terror group would recognize Israel’s right to exist:
“Hamas believes that no part of Palestine shall be compromised or ceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.”
Hamas’s policy document has been mistakenly interpreted by some Westerners as a sign of pragmatism, moderation and acceptance of the “two-state solution” on the part of the terror group. False. Hamas, as part of a campaign to deceive and mislead Westerners into accepting it as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena, is pretending that it supports a Palestinian next to Israel. In reality, Hamas is clearly stating that such a state will be used for “the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”
In the same document, Hamas makes it abundantly clear that it will pursue its jihad against Israel after the establishment of a Palestinian state:
“Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws. At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and rights of the Palestinian people.”
“There is no sign of ‘moderation’ here, despite Hamas’s description of Islam as a religion of ‘the middle way (wasatiyyah) and of moderation,'” noted Dr. Eran Lerman, senior research associate at The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
“The document aggressively repeats the familiar themes of Hamas ideology – Palestine in its entirety is indivisible, and the rights of the Palestinian people are eternally inalienable. No facts created on the ground by the ‘Zionist Project’ are to be allowed to survive.”
This is certainly not the right time to talk about a “two-state solution.” The jihadists and terrorists see it as a reward for their atrocities against Israel. It is more important to focus efforts on dismantling and crushing all the Palestinian terror groups and embarking on a process of deradicalization for the Palestinians before talking about a peace process or “two-state solution.”
Under the current circumstances, statements about recognizing a Palestinian state send a message to the Palestinians that terrorism and violence — not negotiations — are the best way to gain international support for statehood… and anything else.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
- Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
The media’s shameful modesty over skeletal Israeli hostages Giulio Meotti
Only the New York Post featured Evyatar as its cover story. We no longer hate Jews, we hate the collective Jew, those Zionists, so we can ignore Evyatar David. Opinion.
Aug 5, 2025, 8:59 AM (GMT+3) Israel National News
Evyatar David is skin and bones. He is 24 years old; he was 22 when he was kidnapped 668 days ago by Hamas at the Nova music festival.
Mainstream Western media have given little or no coverage to the video released by Hamas, in which David is forced to dig his own grave in a Gaza tunnel, barely able to hold the shovel, while the other hostage, Rom Braslavski, also emaciated, is shown writhing in agony from hunger. His captors seem to revel in his physical and mental anguish.
Two hostages walled up alive in Gaza’s catacombs built with UN funds.
In a grim imitation of their Nazi heroes, who forced Jews to dig graves before shooting them—as in Babi Yar—Hamas released a video showing an incredibly emaciated Israeli hostage digging a grave.
A few days ago, the New York Times featured an extremely thin Palestinian Arab child, Mohammed al-Matouq, on its front page, using it as a symbol of what the paper called “mass starvation” in Gaza. Days later, the Times published a correction, acknowledging that the child suffered from a “rare genetic disorder.” The photo was clipped to omit his healthy, well-fed brother. NBC, the Guardian, and the BBC did not, however, issue a correction.
No photos of David or Braslavski appeared on the front page of the New York Times, despite the tragic image and true storyline that would have made it a natural headline. There was, however, a photo of aid airdropped into Gaza from Jordan.
As New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote, “The silence about the deliberate starvation of Israeli hostages by Hamas and Islamic Jihad is as deafening as its hypocrisy.”
The BBC mentioned the video of the skeletal Israeli hostages only briefly. The Guardian highlighted allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, while its homepage omitted any reference to the videos. Sky News also focused on the deaths in Gaza, with a sidebar image showing David in one of the videos. CNN‘s main headline focused on political discussions about the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
Further down the website, an article appeared titled “Families of Israeli Hostages Stage Emergency Protest After Gaza Gunmen Release Videos Showing Skeletal Prisoners.” Only the New York Post featured Evyatar as its cover story: “Starved of Humanity.” It goes without saying that no Italian newspaper had a photo of Evyatar David on its front page, as has been the case for over a month in Gaza.
Antisemitism is considered despicable (at least until recently), so hatred found a more acceptable form: anti-Zionism. We no longer hate Jews; we hate the collective Jew. This rhetorical transmutation, which enables all sorts of excesses, is all the more effective because it gives a clean conscience to those who indulge in it. Suddenly, you can hate without shame—because it’s “for Palestine.” And so you can hate even a skeletal Jew.
Auschwitz survivor Naftali Fürst said the images of David and Braslavski took him back in time: “Straight to the camps. I survived Auschwitz. I know hunger. I know fear and horror.”
Fürst recalled meeting released hostage Eli Sharabi earlier this year at the March of the Living in Auschwitz. “When I saw him, I was overwhelmed. I looked at him and remembered how I looked after 1,033 days of captivity. We didn’t need words: we understood each other.”
It’s the Western media that continues to pretend not to understand what’s going on in Gaza.
Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author, in English, of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books, in addition to books in Italian. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.
Hamas knows how to play this game. Do we? Jack Engelhard
Where I come from, we call it socking it to the Jews…and chalk up a win for Hamas. Exactly as they had it planned. Opinion.
Aug 4, 2025, 11:28 AM (GMT+3) Israel National News
As I write, all the networks are reporting from Gaza, zooming in on the alleged “starvation” taking place among the Palestinian Arabs.
All of this is part of a production, made special for TV, and intended to draw emotion from viewers back home.
Call it Show Business. In fact, from newsreel to newsreel, on hand is a producer, a director, and even a writer, who “suggests” what these Gazans might want to say for the cameras.
Some are professional sufferers. Yes, they’ve done this before, and really know how to ham it up for the cameras.
Others, the amateurs, need rehearsal…and may require take after take.
But they all know where to point the finger.
“Who is responsible for your condition?” asks the reporter.
“The Israelis. The Jews.”
Call it a Wrap.
The networks came. They saw. They made up a story. The good guys, the Arabs. The bad guys, the Jews.
I was there. I have seen how this is done…how it is all so SCRIPTED, every actor knowing precisely the performance to be expected.
Is it any wonder why the Israelis face a world of blood libels? The propaganda machine is fully operational, and fully in the hands of Israel’s enemies.
The photos of starving hostages? Who cares. Just ask Piers Morgan.
People on my side are NOW testifying that the EXPULSION was a big mistake. I said so from the start. When will we ever learn? Hamas are not human.
From the start, they knew how to play this game, by dragging out the war month by month, until finally gaining the world’s full attention.
They knew that so long as they kept the hostages, and kept toying with ceasefires, they could count on historic Jew-hatred.
Sure enough, here comes France…famous for the Roundup of Paris and eventually sending more than 70,000 French Jews to the gas chambers.
Macron’s legacy.
That was some 85 years ago, but to my family in Toulouse, it was yesterday, in fact, last night. Last night my father ordered his family to get ready.
We’re leaving.
Forget this house and home.
So began a four-year trek past Nazi checkpoints, over and across the Pyrenees, into Spain, then Portugal, then Canada, all with one suitcase.
Today, France’s Macron…amid his strange dispute with Candace Owens…says he is ready to recognize a Palestine Arab state.
Where I come from, we call it socking it to the Jews…and chalk up a win for Hamas. Exactly as they had it planned.
They know the world better than historians and philosophers. They know the world admires mindless brute strength, and that eventually all adopt the same color.
So then Britain announced…Me Too. Another win for Hamas.
Then Canada? Yes. Canada socking it to the Jews.
Like dominoes they fall.
History is being written.
Who will be recorded in the book of shame?
We dwell alone among nations that have no heart, no pity, no conscience.
Am Yisroel Chai.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings.”
Trump White House makes TWO HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS! [25:16] Stephen Gardner
August 4, 2025
This move has sparked debate, with some praising it as a *tax relief* lifeline, while others, including Democrats, criticize the potential inflationary impact. The proposal builds on Trump’s first-term success with China tariffs, which generated significant revenue before the pandemic. Now, with *tariff revenue* at 5% of federal income—up from 2% historically—this plan could *revive consumer spending* power. #### Texas Democrats’ Redistricting Drama Meanwhile, political tension is heating up in Texas, where over 50 House Democrats fled the state on August 3, 2025, to block a GOP-led redistricting plan. This strategy, backed by the DNC, aims to prevent the loss of up to five congressional seats in 2026. Governor Greg Abbott issued a stern ultimatum, demanding their return by 3 p.m. on August 4 or face arrest and replacement, accusing them of “abandoning their duty.” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has offered sanctuary, escalating the *redistricting battle* into a national showdown. #### RFK Jr.’s Bold Health Moves Health Secretary RFK Jr. is also shaking up the landscape with two major decisions in the last 24 hours. He suspended a Biden-era program rewarding hospitals for staff vaccinations and banned a mercury-based substance from vaccines, moves hailed as a *health policy revival* by supporters like Alex Jones. Critics argue *Big Pharma* influence has clouded public perception, but these actions signal a significant shift in **public health policy**. #### U.S. Submarines Near Russia Internationally, Trump confirmed on August 3 that U.S. nuclear submarines are now positioned near Russia, a response to provocative statements from Dmitry Medvedev. This strategic move underscores Trump’s **foreign policy revival**, aiming to deter aggression while planning diplomatic talks via envoy Steve Witkoff. #### Why This Matters These developments—**tariff revenue rebates**, **redistricting battles**, **health policy shifts**, and **geopolitical strategy**—highlight a transformative moment. For Americans seeking **economic revival**, Trump’s rebate could provide relief, while Texas and health policy changes reflect deeper political and societal shifts. Stay informed and share this news to support independent reporting! *SEO Keywords:* revive, tariff revenue rebate, Trump rebate plan, middle-low income Americans, Texas Democrats redistricting, RFK Jr health moves, U.S. submarines Russia, economic revival, tax relief, public health policy, foreign policy revival.
Olivia Rodrigo ignores the suffering of Israeli children MOSHE PHILLIPS
The issue isn’t whether celebrities have the right to comment on international issues. But they should know what they are talking about.
Aug. 4, 2025 JNS
In mid-July, pop singer Olivia Rodrigo shared an Instagram post condemning the conditions in Gaza, writing: “There are no words to describe the heartbreak I feel witnessing the devastation that is being inflicted upon innocent people in Palestine.” The 22-year-old, known for her multiple Grammy Awards, also encouraged her followers to donate to UNICEF to support what she called “victims of this horrifying situation.”
Rodrigo did include a throwaway line meant to show balance: “There is no child in Israel, Palestine or anywhere in the world who deserves to suffer.”
But this single sentence doesn’t make up for what her post glaringly omits—the suffering of Israeli children, foreign nationals and other civilians who were targeted in in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It is Hamas that has caused “this horrifying situation,” but Rodrigo appears either ignorant of that fact or does not care. That Hamas uses Gazan children as human shields is well-documented.
Rodrigo’s father’s family is from the Philippines, and she identifies as a Filipino American. She may not realize that around the same time she was posting online about Palestinian suffering, a Filipina caregiver who was injured by an Iranian missile during its attack on Israel in mid-June died from her wounds. Her name wasn’t trending. She earned no post from Rodrigo. The caregiver was named as 49-year-old Leah Mosquera. She passed away on July 13, after lingering in the hospital from being wounded on June 15.
Rodrigo also chose to promote UNICEF as the beneficiary of donations. But UNICEF doesn’t provide direct aid to Israeli children at all. Unlike its operations in Gaza and other areas, the U.N. agency does not run active assistance programs for Israeli children. UNICEF has been loudly present in Gaza, releasing reports and funding psychosocial support, but utterly silent on the trauma experienced by children in Israel.
UNICEF’s double standard is even more troubling. The organization may advocate for children in Gaza, but its failure to provide one ounce of support or even a word for Israeli child victims of Hamas and Hezbollah undermines its stated mission. UNICEF, like the United Nations, has lost its moral compass.
Its silence when it comes to the trauma and violence Israeli children have suffered from is scandalous, given the staggering toll. Since Oct. 7, more than 23,000 Israeli children and teenagers have been seriously physically or psychologically harmed. More than 56 have been murdered. Mila Cohen, just 9 months old, was shot dead with her father in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7. Mila was shot while in the arms of her mother, Sandra. In Kibbutz Nir Oz, the burned bodies of 2-year-old Omer Kedem Siman Tov, his 5-year-old twin sisters, and their parents were found together. Israeli children living in communities near Gaza have all been displaced from their homes.
Across the north, near the Lebanese border, another 18,000 Israeli children were displaced for about a year due to Hezbollah rocket fire. Nearly 1,000 Israeli children have been orphaned. Tens of thousands suffer from trauma and displacement, yet they remain largely invisible to UNICEF and the many celebrities who are quick to speak out when they can demonize Israel.
On July 27, 2024, a Hezbollah rocket hit a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a non-Jewish, Druze town in the Golan Heights. The explosion killed 12 children from the Druze community and injured at least 42 others. Most of the victims were between 10 and 16 years old. Rodrigo didn’t take to Instagram when these kids were murdered or remember them with a post on the occasion of the first anniversary of their deaths this year.
And what of the non-Israelis killed or kidnapped by Hamas? Among them were dozens of agricultural workers from Thailand. Twenty-three were released in one deal. Five more in January 2025. Two died in captivity. One, Nattapong Pinta, was only confirmed dead when his body was recovered in June. These individuals weren’t combatants. They were foreign laborers. Their lives mattered, too. Rodrigo hasn’t mentioned them on Instagram.
The deeper issue isn’t whether celebrities have the right to comment on international issues; they most definitely do. But with that platform comes responsibility. If you’re going to speak out in the name of children, be consistent and know what you’re talking about.
Rodrigo’s post may have been well-meaning, but it’s pretty difficult to believe that, especially when she writes “Palestine” and not “Gaza.”
MOSHE PHILLIPS Moshe Phillips, a veteran pro-Israel activist and author, is the national chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI). A former board member of the American Zionist Movement, he previously served as national director of the U.S. division of Herut and worked with CAMERA in Philadelphia. He was also a delegate to the 2020 World Zionist Congress and served as editor of The Challenger, the publication of the Tagar Zionist Youth Movement. His op-eds and letters have been widely published in the United States and Israel.
How to Dismantle the Israel Genocide Lie — A Guide TED GOLDSTEIN
For those who courageously stand with Israel, here is a step-by-step strategy to shut down the false genocide narrative levied at the Jewish state and expose the dangerous double standards fueling it.
AUG 04, 2025
“So, prove to me that Israel isn’t committing a genocide — while standing on one foot.”
If you’ve ever defended Israel since October 7, 2023, you’ve heard this line, maybe not verbatim, but in spirit, and probably not just once. Probably hundreds of times.
And it is one of the most frustrating and futile conversations you can have.
It is painfully obvious that Israel is not committing a genocide. What is happening is painful and tragic, but it is not a genocide. Yet the “anti-Zionist” narrative has been so strong that it seems almost impossible to prove.
The whole situation places the defender of Israel in a hopelessly ironic position: to be both completely on the side of truth and completely incapable of convincing anyone.
Most people I know, myself included, have become exhausted by this constant question. More often than not, we just ignore it. But there are times when you simply cannot ignore it, and, more importantly, it is really not something we can ignore. Sometimes we find ourselves fighting in this futile battle anyways.
If you ever find yourself in that position, here is a strategy for how to conduct the conversation more productively.
Firstly, we have to understand the premise of the question. When someone says that Israel is committing a genocide, they are provoking you. The word genocide is extremely provocative, which is why they use it. The whole dispute hinges on the provocative nature of that one word. Their claim is essentially two-fold: Genocide is the worst thing humanly possible, and Israel is committing it.
If this were a good-faith debate, it would be settled by defining the word genocide, describing Israel’s actions, and evaluating whether or not those actions conform to our definition.
It is the same structure as the debate: “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” Well, first let’s define what a sandwich is, then let’s describe a hot dog, and then let’s evaluate if the characteristics of a hot dog match those of a sandwich.
It is a simple debate structure, one of the simplest that one could ever imagine. We have all tried to have that debate; it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because their argument is in bad faith. Their intention is not to prove that Israel is actually committing a genocide; their intention is to provoke you to anger and then change their terms to prove that, even if Israel isn’t committing an actual genocide, it is still doing horrible things.
Normally, someone making a claim must defend that claim, and, if that defense is defeated, the claim is declared false and the claimant is shamed for being wrong. But there is no shame in accusing Israel of genocide, being proven wrong, and then saying, “Well, fine, Israel maybe isn’t technically committing genocide, but they’re still killing lots of people.”
So the stakes of the argument are all wrong too. If they win, Israel is committing genocide; if you win, Israel is only committing the equivalent of third-degree genocide. Genocide Lite, as it were.
You cannot win an argument if both possible outcomes mean you lose, so you have to change one of the outcomes. You have to make losing this argument actually mean something. Because it does.
These people believe that it is morally righteous to accuse Israel of genocide, even if their accusation is a baseless calumny. “Why does it matter if I use the wrong word?” they say. “Does it matter if I say something is delicious when really I only meant that it was very good?” That is the premise underlying their blase approach to the question — that their words, even if they are wrong, are not hurting anybody.
So, before you even begin this conversation, ask your interlocutor, “How much do words matter?” This will catch them off-guard. Usually, this conversation gets very heated very quickly, so they will not be expecting a calm and collected response. You will probably have to work them around on this a little bit, but your goal is to make them establish that words do matter and using the wrong words can cause a lot of damage.
The example I usually use is AIDS. It goes something like this: “How much do words matter?” “I don’t know, a lot.” “What happens if people use the wrong words when talking about something, can people get hurt?” Here, they will say one of three things: yes, maybe, or no. It doesn’t matter how they answer because you will use the example the exact same way. “Is it wrong for me to say that gay people spread AIDS?”
Usually, they object immediately. (Note: This example has only been used on “progressives,” so you may need a different one for a different crowd.) “Of course it’s wrong to say that, gay people don’t spread AIDS. AIDS is spread by blah blah blah.”
If you are really lucky, and they are really “woke,” they very might well finish up by saying, “and it’s dangerous to say things like that because such misplaced stereotypes can lead to homophobic violence.”
If they don’t see it for themselves, you can just walk them there: “In the 1970s and 1980s, before people understood how AIDS spread, many people just thought it was a disease caused and spread by being gay. How many people do you think got attacked because of those stereotypes and rumors? Words make a huge difference and lives are at stake. Saying AIDS is spread by gay people will lead to homophobic violence while saying that AIDS is spread by unprotected sex will not.”
I like to use the AIDS example because it fits right into the “progressive” wheelhouse; it’s a narrative they know very well. Bad things start happening, gay people get blamed, homophobes attack them, the oppressive ruling class does nothing and maybe even stokes anti-gay sentiments, and gay people suffer the consequences for decades to follow.
They will accept this premise because they believe in the narrative, even if they start to sense that the conversation is shifting. So much of “progressivism” is built on the idea that “language constitutes violence” — that to reject this premise would be to reject the whole of “progressivism.”
Now, you’ve got them. They have accepted the premise that words matter and that the incorrect use of words can lead to violence. So turn the screws. “If that is the case,” you say, “then using the word genocide incorrectly is dangerous and could directly lead to violence against Jews.”
They will probably push back on this, so just ask them, has there been more antisemitic violence since the genocide narrative began, or less? Do not try to prove causation; that is a waste of time. If they push back, just name a few of the major antisemitic attacks that have happened, and ask them if there is more violence now than before. Just get correlation going.
There is a very clear correlation between how many times people accuse Israel of genocide and how many times Jews get attacked in the street. Once they start to see the argument coming together, they’ll start to get a little green around the gills because they have not experienced this before.
There is a smugness that comes from having rigged arguments too often. They get accustomed to winning without trying, and, when they realize that you’ve changed the game on them, their mood will change. But that doesn’t matter; they started this conversation, they made a claim, and it is their obligation to defend it.
Once you have their own claim wrapped around their neck, and you have made sure that the noose is good and tight (they will try to wriggle out of it), it is time to read out their sentence:
“You began this conversation by claiming that Israel is committing a genocide. You just admitted that using misleading language and making false claims can cause tremendous violence. I am about to prove to you why Israel is not committing a genocide, and, if I do, then, based on what you just said, it follows that falsely claiming Israel is committing genocide can cause tremendous violence to the Jewish community, and you and anyone else who continues to use this language will be knowingly putting Jewish people in danger.”
(Typically, this is where I ask them if they have any last words they would like to say.)
Proving the genocide is a lie is easy; getting an “anti-Zionist” to accept that proof means anything is not. You can use any particular proof that you want; it does not matter. Population statistics, historical comparisons, IDF protocols, and so forth.
They will probably continue to fight you and continue to try to prove that if you turn the definition upside down and only read every third word, then technically it is maybe not a genocide — it’s just sparkling ethnic cleansing — but you do not need to engage with that anymore.
You can just say, “Look, it is not a genocide. If you want to claim that it is a genocide, you have to prove that it is a genocide; not the other way around. If you cannot definitely prove that it is a genocide, then you cannot call it one, otherwise, you are knowingly putting Jewish people in danger. Of course, it is not antisemitic to criticize the Israeli government, but it is antisemitic to knowingly making false and misleading claims about Israel that will cause antisemitic violence.”
And remind them that the choice is theirs; no one is forcing them to use the word genocide. The beauty of this argument is that it is entirely their own. They chose the terms of the argument, they fired the first salvo, and they established the ideological premise. You merely took their terms and premises to their logical conclusion.
The “progressive” world has declared that dangerous speech and violence are functionally synonymous, and you have proven to them that genocide-baiting is dangerous speech, which is equivalent to violence. Will they see the beauty of your reason and become a Zionist? Probably not. Will they excise the word genocide from their anti-Israel vocabulary? Probably not.
But they will at least know they cannot use that word around you because you will hold them accountable. They will at least feel some shame everytime they use the word genocide because your voice will be ringing in their head. They will at least walk away without the same smug smile they always walk away from these conversations with.
And you will have won.
Winning a debate is not about convincing the other person they are wrong; it is about proving to yourself and your G-d that you are right. The entire purpose of this genocide-baiting is to sow doubt in our minds about Israel, to make us question if maybe Israel really is committing a genocide. After all, there are 500 million people saying that, 500 million at least.
Can they really all be wrong?
Well, there were well over 500 million people who thought AIDS was caused by gay people. There probably still are, and they were all wrong too.
At the end of the day, truth is truth. You either believe it is worth defending for its own sake, or you don’t. A person of truth can live in a world with falsehood, but he cannot live in a world where people pretend that falsehood is truth.
I would not expect to get most “anti-Zionists” to accept the truth, but I will not let them go on convincing others that their lies are true. So go forth and defend the truth, because, if we don’t, no one else will.
BREAKING: Trump Prepares US Troops To Occupy Gaza – Final Warning To Hamxs Leaders [40:41] Mahyar Tousi
August 2, 2025 Tousi TV
The Most Favored Descendants of Abraham? by Nils A. Haug
August 3, 2025
- At the Islamic Centre of Rhode Island, on May 30, an imam delivered a sermon that, according to Andrew Bostom, “invoked Islam’s supersessionism, its notion of being the true primordial monotheism of Jewish patriarch Abraham.”
- Of course, the main problem in discussing religion is that it is often impossible to prove anything, so that all controversies continue indefinitely.
- It is a contest of legitimacy with Muslims asserting Ishmael to be the rightful, favored heir to Abraham, rather than his only legitimate son and heir, Isaac.
- Islamist claims of legitimacy — and their determination to rid Israel of Jews — are a core element in explaining the perpetual conflict between Islamists and Israel. Consequently, any peace agreement may well be fragile and temporary.
Islamist claims of legitimacy — and their determination to rid Israel of Jews — are a core element in explaining the perpetual conflict between Islamists and Israel. Consequently, any peace agreement may well be fragile and temporary. Pictured: Supporters of the Houthis carry signs showing the group’s motto of “God is Great, death to America, death to Israel, curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam”, during a rally commemorating the Shiite holiday of Ashura in Sanaa, Yemen on September 10, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)
It has been claimed that the recent Iran-Israel war was simply a “violent prelude to a far grander and more terrifying prophetic chapter” in the effort to eliminate Israel and Jews from the face of the earth.
This objective comprises diverse but interconnected strategies, such as pro-Islamic and anti-Zionist propaganda; military attacks on Israel by Iran and its jihadist proxies; and, not least, theological contortions designed to negate legitimate Jewish claims to their ancient divine blessings, including the promised homeland of Israel — Eretz Yisrael — itself.
At the Islamic Centre of Rhode Island, on May 30, an imam delivered a sermon that, according to Andrew Bostom, “invoked Islam’s supersessionism, its notion of being the true primordial monotheism of Jewish patriarch Abraham.” In short, the imam was saying that Islam, not Judaism, is the sole authentic religion emanating from Abraham’s line of descent.
Of course, the main problem in discussing religion is that it is often impossible to prove anything, so that all controversies continue indefinitely.
In support, the imam quoted certain verses of the Quran, particularly 3:67:
“Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allah]. And he was not of the polytheists.”
(Sahih International)
and 3:68:
“Indeed, the most worthy of Abraham among the people are those who followed him [in submission to Allah ] and this prophet, and those who believe [in his message]. And Allah is the ally of the believers.”
(Sahih International)
The Quran is claiming that Muslims are “the most worthy” of the status as the heirs of Abraham — the true believers — not the Christians or the Jews.
The imam scorned Jewish and Christian claims to Abraham as their spiritual ancestor:
“[T]he Christians, can’t articulate what they really believe, what their tawhid [monotheism] means. And the other group [the Jews] has reduced their religion to an ethnic identity that they use to justify a slaughter of innocent people.”
Therefore, not only minor sectarian elements of the Christian Church desire to appropriate blessings due to Jews, but Islam is similarly promoting a doctrinal version of the “Great Replacement,” in which Islam supposedly supersedes both Christianity and Judaism. According to this dogma, Muslims, not the Jews, are rightful inheritors of the divine dedications assigned to Abraham.
Unlike the Christian version of supersessionism, whereby the church is purportedly the “New Israel,” Islamic doctrines do not claim to replace the Jews. According to Sarah Gon, of the Institute of Race Relations, Islamic theology instead “recasts the Jewish prophets as Muslims by creating a direct link with Ishmael, the son of Abraham — the ‘first Muslim,’ according to the Qur’an.” It is a contest of legitimacy with Muslims asserting Ishmael to be the rightful, favored heir to Abraham, rather than his only legitimate son and heir, Isaac.
The narrative of Abraham and Isaac is important in understanding the ongoing Middle East conflict. According to Genesis 16:15-16 and 21:1-7, both Isaac (born to his wife, Sarah) and Ishmael (born to Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar) were born in Canaan – in greater Israel. The Quran, verse 14:37, reads:
“Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.”
(Sahih International)
This means, according to Roy Hirsch, that “God instructed Abraham to leave Hagar and Ishmael in the barren valley of Mecca, while Isaac stayed in Canaan.” The latter construal appears, if the Bible is viewed as the benchmark, to be a fiction that is meant to justify Ishmael’s claim to religious legitimacy.
In the New Testament’s Epistle to the Galatians, Saul of Tarsus writes in a letter to the church at Galatia:
“But what does Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son [Ishmael], for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son [Isaac].'”
Christian doctrine convincingly upholds the Torah on this controversy; and according to this, the descendants of Ishmael (Muslims) have no part of the divine promises made to Abraham and Isaac.
In addition to Islamic claims to divine promises, these assertions are further extended to the Holy City of Jerusalem itself – the centerpiece of Judaism and the intended great prize of Islam. The Qur’an (Al-Isra 17:1) states:
“Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”
(Sahih International)
The verse alleges, according to Roy Hirsch, that Muhammad made a “brief, one-time stop at the farthest Temple Mount during his nocturnal journey to Heaven in 620 CE.” The irony is that all Muslims pray while facing Mecca – their holiest city — not facing Jerusalem.
Whatever the mode of replacement designed to deprive Jews of their status as the “chosen people” and a “people after God’s own heart,” the intended effect is the same — the denial of legitimacy. This is an old heresy, like the subversive question from the serpent in the Garden of Eden: “Did G-d really say…”
Another essential concept that differentiates Islamic attempts at replacing the Jews from Christian attempts is, according to Sarah Gon:
“Vilifying or killing Jews has become a recurring motif in Muslim supersessionism. The Qur’an repeatedly accuses the Jews of falsehood, distortion, and of being ‘corrupters of the scriptures’. It argues that the Jews did not deserve to be the Chosen People, and because of their sins are condemned to ‘degradation in this world.'”
Muslims seemingly aim to be considered the primary chosen people descending from Abraham. The Christian version of replacement theology, shown to be a heresy with no scriptural warrant, has fallen from favor.
A related replacement ideology was adopted by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi propagandists through a theory of their “master race,” Aryans supposedly being superior to the Jews. Hitler was influenced by Martin Luther, the important, vehemently anti-Semitic German church reformer from the 16th century. Nazi replacement ideology and it’s virulent Jew-hatred resulted in the horrors of the holocaust.
Islamist claims of legitimacy — and their determination to rid Israel of Jews — are a core element in explaining the perpetual conflict between Islamists and Israel. Consequently, any peace agreement may well be fragile and temporary.
“Muslim greatness under Allah depends on the subjugation and annihilation of the Jews,” suggests Sarah Gon.
That is something that will never happen.
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Dr. Haug holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology and is author of ‘Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity’; and ‘Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.’ His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, James Wilson Institute (Anchoring Truths), Jewish News Syndicate, Tribune Juive, Document Danmark, Zwiedzaj Polske, and many others.
[Ed.: The moment he is corrected: ‘No Mahmoodi, it’s JEWS, not JUICE!’
“Jonathan Pollard: Are Allies of Israel being Targeted?” [VIDEO 1:08:23] DR NAOMI WOLF
AUG 01, 2025
“Many are unfamiliar with the situation of the Druze in Israel. The Druze are an ancient people who practice a form of Islam that is seen as unorthodox by other Muslim sects. They have chosen to ally themselves with the State of Israel, and even serve in the IDF.
Recently, Jonathan Pollard states, the Druze have come under violent attack, but the world’s attention is elsewhere.
Is a war crime underway that the global media are ignoring?”
Trump’s “America First” rejects Marjorie Greene and Charles Lindbergh’s antisemitism. Dr. Robert Scott Kellner
“America First” is not America Only in Trump’s patriotic, reasoned outlook. Op-ed.
Aug 1, 2025, 8:47 AM (GMT+3) Israel National News
Before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene came right out this week and slandered Israel by saying the Jewish nation was committing genocide in Gaza, Greene strongly insinuated it ten days earlier when attempting to undermine America’s strongest ally to defend itself.
Thankfully, a special wisdom was displayed in the House of Representatives on July 17, 2025, when the members voted against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment to reduce funding for Israel in the Department of Defense appropriations package for 2026.
When introducing her amendment, Greene repeatedly referred to Israel as “nuclear-armed Israel” and said, “That’s a pretty big deterrent for any of their enemies. Any nation that has a nuclear bomb has the greatest threat against their enemies.”
Greene emphatically added that her amendment to strike $500 million in foreign aid would “ensure an ‘America First’ Department of Defense.”
Ironically, Greene’s action was contrary to President Donald Trump’s new kind of an “America First” policy. Neither an isolationist nor neutral, Trump does not forsake allies. Despite referring to himself as a non-interventionist during his campaign rallies, Trump sensibly supports foreign actions that align with America’s security and strategic goals, such as backing Israel in its conflict with Iran.
During the short debate before the vote was taken, Marjorie Taylor Greene went even further and invoked an image of an out-of-control and even genocidal Israel: “I also want to point out that Israel bombed a Catholic church in Gaza,” she said, knowing that this was unintentional, “and an entire population is being wiped out as they continue their aggressive war in Gaza,” ignoring Israel’s unmatched civilian-soldier casualty statistics despite Hamas’ use of civilian shields.
Only five Representatives voted with Greene: Republican Thomas Massie, Democrat Al Green, and three Democrat “squad” members, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Summer Lee–all on record agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s insinuation that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian Arabs (an allegation initiated by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas).
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s denial of aid to an ally and defaming that ally with propaganda generated by brutal killers—and then claiming it was necessary to further a policy of “America First”—parallels one of the worst misjudgments in American history.
A misjudgment made by one of America’s greatest heroes.
In 1936, the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh visited Germany and was deeply impressed by Germany’s air force and how Adolf Hitler had restored his nation to its former eminence after its defeat in WWI. “Hitler must have far more character and vision,” he wrote, than what the leaders in America and Britain were saying about him.
Three years later, Hitler began WWII with a rapid and fierce invasion of Poland. Lindbergh felt certain Germany’s formidable military forces would overpower Poland’s allies, France and Britain. With America unprepared for war, Lindbergh called for strict neutrality and even argued against supporting England because it would only prolong the conflict and put America on the wrong side when Hitler conquered all of Europe.
Lindbergh became the spokesman for the then America First Committee, a loosely knit organization with close to a million members that advocated strict American neutrality and isolationism.
“If we concentrate on our own defenses and build the strength that this nation should maintain,” declared Lindbergh, “no foreign army will ever attempt to land on American shores.”
A majority of Americans agreed with him and wanted to remain neutral, but they were soon taken aback by a dark side of Charles Lindbergh, an antisemitism that kept cropping up in his speeches.
In September 1941, three months before Japan’s airplanes darkened the sky above Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh still believed in America First and neutrality. “The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt Administration,” he stated. And of the Jews, he said, “their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”
Americans were already aware of the terrors being afflicted upon the helpless Jews of Europe, and the newspapers took Lindbergh to task. There was no secret, powerful group of Jews orchestrating world affairs. No “Jewish cabal.” Jews were but scapegoats for other people’s insecurities.
On December 7, 1941, two years after the dictators of Germany, Italy, and Japan began the savage conquest of their neighbors, Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor sunk many of America’s best ships and killed over two thousand sailors. Finally, neutral America was in the war.
By then, Germany brutally reigned over most of continental Europe, from the western coast of France to the outskirts of Moscow. Hitler’s lust for power was fixated on the still undefeated Britain, which President Roosevelt–despite Lindbergh’s harangues and the America First Committee–had been wisely and generously helping all along with war supplies.
The America First Committee disbanded and a disgraced Lindbergh worked hard throughout the war to redeem himself by volunteering to advise army air force units, helping to develop the B-24 bomber, and even going on some combat missions in the Pacific.
It is not clear if Lindbergh’s antisemitic views changed after he saw the concentration camps after the war. He made no public apologies. His widow, though, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, said he “regretted being perceived as antisemitic.” Some scholars believe his underlying white supremacist ideology, evident in his pre-war writings, likely persisted, even if they were no longer so overtly expressed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has not yet learned a lesson from this. But the vast majority of her colleagues understand the vital distinction between Donald Trump’s “America First” and the original America First Committee that was rooted in strict isolationism and often laced with antisemitic rhetoric. America’s strong alliance with the Jewish nation of Israel, and Donald Trump’s willingness to preemptively strike their common enemies, emphasizes how “America First” is not America Only.
Robert Scott Kellner is a U.S. Navy veteran and retired English professor. Kellner taught at the University of Massachusetts and Texas A&M University. The grandson of German justice inspector and diarist Friedrich Kellner, he published his grandfather’s anti-Nazi diary in its original language in Germany in 2011 and is the editor and translator of the English edition, My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner–A German against the Third Reich, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2020
