COMMENTARY / OPINION
Hezbollah’s many friends in the West Giulio Meotti
After October 7, it was clear how well Hamas had cultivated public relations in the West. The same goes for Hezbollah. And it gets worse. Op-ed.
Sep 22, 2024, 9:21 PM (GMT+3) INN – Sometimes it seems that the UN Secretary General draws inspiration from George Orwell’s “1984” for his press releases. Like when he said that October 7 did not happen “out of nowhere”. In short, Israel was asking for it.
Regarding the explosions against Hezbollah in Beirut, Antonio Guterres asked “not to turn civilian objects into weapons”. It is not right to detonate pagers and walkie talkies in the pockets of Lebanese Shiite terrorists. It goes without saying that the Secretary General did not ask himself why the Iranian ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, also had a Hezbollah pager. The UN does not do well on asking itself such questions.
And so many Westerners are too busy criticizing evil Israel to ask themselves why a high-ranking Iranian official was so close to a Hezbollah pager. We all know why.
Nor has Guterres ever asked Hamas not to “turn civilian objects into weapons,” as it has done every day since October 7 and with every civilian resource in Gaza: schools, homes, UN offices, mosques, water and electricity systems, hospitals, ambulances.
Guterres simply cannot say “Hezbollah,” not even when they fired a missile at the Majdal Shams soccer field in the Golan Heights at the end of July, killing twelve children. The secretary’s statement leaves no trace of who launched the missile.
After October 7, it was clear how well Hamas had cultivated public relations in the West. The same goes for Hezbollah.
The flags of the Lebanese “party of God” (a yellow banner with a Kalashnikov and a verse from the Koran in the center) now fly openly on American campuses, from Columbia to Hunter College in New York, to marches for Gaza in European cities from London to Berlin. Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s second-in-command, encouraged student protests in the West, as did his godfather, the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei.
Noam Chomsky, the famous American linguist and godfather of so much Western antagonism, even visited Hezbollah’s headquarters and met its leader Nasrallah.
“I think Nasrallah has a reasoned and convincing argument that they should be in Hezbollah’s hands (the weapons) as a deterrent to potential aggression,” Chomsky said. “Hamas and Hezbollah are progressive movements that are part of the global left,” said Berkeley philosopher Judith Butler in a video that caused a scandal. George Galloway, leader of the radical independent left in England, worked for Al Mayadeen, the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese channel (one of the many Islamist channels to which Galloway has lent his services). And with Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn’s group, which he called Hamas and Hezbollah “friends.”
Officials close to Hezbollah represent the group at meetings of the World Social Forum. An Italian academic delegation also left from Rome’s University of La Sapienza to meet Hezbollah.
And how much Hezbollah has been able to build bridges in the West was seen at the most prestigious Canadian university, McGill in Montreal.
First the partnership with the University of Tehran. Then McGill professors, like Soroosh Shahriari, who tweeted in support of the Islamic Republic’s brutal repression of the women-led uprising against the forced use of the hijab in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini. Then, in 2024, the university that was occupied in the name of Gaza, displaying Hamas and Hezbollah flags and even setting up student summer camps where they learned to fight Israel. Finally, the disinformation experts who found that the anti-Israel protests at McGill University were fueled by a social media campaign with ties to Iran.
And like Hamas, Hezbollah also benefits from the double standards of some of the press.
In late July, the Washington Post apologized for its front page the day before, which juxtaposed an image of family members grieving for a child killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Golan Heights with a headline that read: “Israel Strikes Targets in Lebanon”. The subheading that accompanied the image didn’t even mention the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed twelve Druze children playing on a soccer field in Majdal Shams.
And with thousands of rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel since October 7, with 43 Israelis killed, and 60.000 Israelis forced to evacuate northern Israel, one can imagine many more Western Nasrallah fans on the way.
[INN] Ed. note: But facts are facts. Famed Syrian-Druze journalist, Faisal Al-Qassem, who has millions of followers on social media, including a program on Al-Jazeera, wrote the following about the pager operation: “What happened to Hezbollah today can be classified as the largest preemptive strike in modern history. It can be compared to Israel’s preemptive strike on the Egyptian Air Force before the Six-Day War. Today, Hezbollah has thousands of paralyzed members among its senior leaders and operatives.” And he adds: “If Hezbollah enters a war now, its wounded will not find a single available bed in Lebanon’s hospitals, as they are currently full of casualties. Worse yet, Hezbollah has lost its most important security and military communication devices. Checkmate.”
Zion: A Place Worth Defending by Nils A. Haug
September 23, 2024 at 5:30 am
- In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt to re-establish their ancestral home, their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely despises them. Zion (now Israel), is a place they can gather to practise their faith without persecution. The six ancient cities of refuge were located only within the Land of Israel, just as, in a microscopic sense, the family is a city of refuge.
- The world desperately needs Jewish values and wisdom — those detailed in the holy scriptures. Jewish wisdom was among the first, after the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1,755 BCE), to present the world with social justice — not only in the Ten Commandments — but also in how we treat our fellow creatures:
- “But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do” (Deuteronomy 5:14);
- “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Deuteronomy 14:21);
- “If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young” (Deuteronomy 22:6);
- “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns” (Deuteronomy 24:14);
- “You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets – for he is poor and counts on it” (Deuteronomy 24:15);
- “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15);
- “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child” (Exodus 22:22).
- Jews have historically defended liberty against tyranny and moral confusion…
- The true calling of the Jews, with “the world’s most moral army,” as the IDF is referred to by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, as they now wage a war that was forced on them, is to bring eternal values such as those above, found in the Torah, to the world at large. The Jews remain, after all, a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They are entitled to their land, a place historically theirs — Zion, Israel, their ancestral home. This land was promised to the Jewish nation forever. It is a place worth defending.
Jonathan Pollard: How Can Israel Defeat the Hezbollah? [42:22]
Sep 22, 2024 Machon Shilo – Watch the following discussion between Jonathan Pollard and Rabbi David Bar-Hayim on the Iranian Attack on Israel:
The US wants Israel dead and why the Jordan Option will ensure Israel’s Salvation By Ted Belman
September 22,2024 – In a recent video, Francisco Gil-White made the case for the US wanting to destroy Israel. He said that there is only one party in the US and it supports the policy of destroying Israel. He argued there is no denying the fact that President Clinton forced Israel to accept Arafat and his terrorists into Judea and Samaria. Now President Biden is insisting that the Gaza War should end with a Palestinian State.
I have written many articles on the subject the most important of which is Since When are the Palestinians Entitled to a State. In it, I pointed out that beginning with the Rogers Plan of 1969, every single US administration has pushed for a Palestinian state and protected Arafat so that he could be forced on Israel as Clinton did in backing the Oslo Accords which “rammed Arafat down our throats”.
As Gil-White eloquently argued, “there is no denying this fact”. No one who wants Israel to survive would do this.
So why is the Jordan Option Israel’s salvation?
It anticipates the forced abdication of Abdullah, and the changing of the Monarchy into a Republic to be led by Mudar Zahran. This will happen in the next few weeks.
That will not save Israel. But the creation of a Mid-East NATO will. Mudar Zahran introduced this idea in his video in 2022 titled Jordan’s Future Between the Abraham Accords and an Arab NATO – Mudar Zahran.
It is an idea supported by Saudia Arabia.
What they envisage is that all Sunni states will be part of it, including Syria and Iraq. There is nothing that the US can do about it.
According to the The Washinton Institute, in an article published in 2022,
“More than two years ago, then-U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a “Middle East Strategic Alliance” would be established, quickly dubbed an “Arab NATO” by observers.
Then in my 2022 Webinar, JORDAN: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: The Jordan Option Revisited, Mudar Zahran, the Head of the Jordan Opposition Coalition, referred to what Trump had proposed.
And so, the idea of an Arab NATO was born. It took inspiration from the creation of NATO and after the destruction of Europe in WWII. NATO was a defensive alliance in which an attack on one was seen as an attack on all. In the wake of its creation, Europe enjoyed peace, prosperity and stability. The same is expected to happen in the Middle East by similarly creating a ME NATO.
In my article, The New Middle East, published on August 12, 2024, I pointed out what was in store for Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the heir apparent and current leader of Saudi Arabia, is financing the new Jordanian army making it capable of conquering Syria in 2025 and then Lebanon. While in Syria, they will make certain that Iran is forced out of the country. Thus, MBS will not only control Jordan but Syria and Lebanon as well. He is also allowing Jordanians to enter Saudi Arabia without a visa bringing both countries closer together.
Jordan becomes one region with Saudi Arabia, and visa requirements for Jordanians are cancelled.
Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), ruler of the UAE, will be deposed as will al Sisi of Egypt. The culmination of these efforts will bring the Arab NATO closer to realization. In fact, it will not be an Arab NATO but a ME NATO which will include Israel in the mutual defense treaty.
So, the path to a strong ME NATO is set. Just as the European NATO brought peace and prosperity to Europe, so too will the ME NATO bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East.
The marriage of Saudi money and Israel innovation will ensure it.
CHAPTER 37: Euphemisms, Propaganda, and “Losing Reality Bit by Bit”
Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is* by Linda Goudsmit
Globalism is a replacement ideology that seeks to reorder the world into one singular, planetary Unistate, ruled by the globalist elite. The globalist war on nation-states cannot succeed without collapsing the United States of America. The long-term strategic attack plan moves America incrementally from constitutional republic to socialism to globalism to feudalism. The tactical attack plan uses asymmetric psychological and informational warfare to destabilize Americans and drive society out of objective reality into the madness of subjective reality. America’s children are the primary target of the globalist predators.
September 22, 2024 – American-Canadian psychologist Dr. Kenneth Zucker, founder of Toronto’s Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), is an internationally acknowledged expert on children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. His cautious “watchful waiting” approach respected the natural maturation process in which the vast majority of gender dysphoria resolves itself without medical intervention. In 2015, Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the hospital where Dr. Zucker’s clinic was located, accused him of practicing conversion therapy, and of shaming and traumatizing patients. Dr. Zucker, who was psychologist-in-chief at the time, was fired and the hospital closed the clinic. He was eventually exonerated and awarded damages in a lawsuit against the hospital, but radical gender ideology had won the battle.
Dr. Miriam Grossman writes about Dr. Zucker’s concerns about “iatrogenic persistence,” the result of medical intervention discussed in Chapter 35:
Dr. Zucker calls social transition a dangerous psychosocial intervention “with the likely consequence of subsequent (lifelong) biomedical treatments… (gender-affirming hormonal treatment and surgery).” He argues it’s an intervention often conducted by schools and other institutions unqualified to implement such a course of treatment.
In 2014, even the American Psychological Association still warned that “Premature labeling of gender identity should be avoided” and “early social transition…should be approached with caution to avoid foreclosing this stage of (trans)gender identity development.” (Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness,[i] p. 121)
Before sex assignment surgery takes place, there is a process known as social transition, in which the student adopts a new gender identity, a new name, pronouns, often new clothing, hair style, and use of opposite-sex facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms. During this period of social transition, parents, friends, and teachers are supposed to endorse the student’s belief that he or she is in the wrong body. Dr. Grossman reminds parents that it is their responsibility to support objective reality, and advises parents that supporting a delusion is not a loving gesture, especially when it leads to harm:
“Affirmation” has a positive connotation, and when ideologues chose that word, it was a strategic move. Affirming your child seems kind and loving. Instead of distressed, she’s comfortable. She’s happy. But it’s not kind or loving to validate an untruth.
Adults have a responsibility to represent reality. The reality is your daughter’s sex was established at conception….
If you validate your son’s girl identity, you agree that his body is wrong, and should be rejected. You confirm the disconnect between his mind and his physical reality. You agree he knows best who he is, and what he needs…think of the impact on your son. He feels he’s a girl, and you agree! … He’s never felt so empowered. You’ve turbo-charged his self-esteem. Of course, it feels good, at least temporarily.
Consider also the possibility that your son’s social affirmation may affect the wiring of his brain. You heard me right. Neuroplasticity is the well-established phenomenon in which thinking, behavior, and experience alter brain microstructure. Each time your son hears his new name and pronouns it’s a learning experience that creates a memory. We all know repetition is key to learning. We know as well that the brain is constantly rewiring—its structure is changing—in response to life’s experiences. (Lost in Trans Nation, pp. 119–120)
Dr. Grossman also warns parents about euphemisms, explaining the objective reality that “top surgery” is bilateral mastectomy, or breast amputation. In 2023, while she was writing her book, there were 45,375 girls seeking donations on GoFundMe to pay for what gender surgeons euphemistically call a “masculinized chest.” She points out the staggering hypocrisy:
Mind you, these are the same people who insist that five-year-olds use anatomically accurate terms, not childish nicknames, for their genitals. They soberly instruct us to teach the words “scrotum” and “vulva” to kindergarteners. But the imprecise, trivial-sounding “top surgery”—that language is fine. (Lost in Trans Nation, p. 157)
Dr. Grossman is appalled by the explosion of “gender-affirming” surgeries on children:
Trump Must Disavow Tucker Carlson by William A. Galston
September 21, 2024 The Wall Street Journal – Donald Trump faces a defining choice: Will he allow his running mate, JD Vance, and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to appear on tour with Tucker Carlson later this month? In the wake of Mr. Carlson’s recent interview with Darryl Cooper, an unabashed Holocaust denier, this is a decision that Mr. Trump can’t duck.
Mr. Cooper has said that the Nazis “launched a war where they were completely unprepared to deal with the millions and millions of prisoners of war, of local political prisoners. They went in with no plan for that and just threw these people into camps.” As a result, “millions of people ended up dead there.” Savor the phrase “ended up dead there.” Whoops. The Holocaust was a terrible accident, the consequence of poor planning—this from the man whom Mr. Carlson said may be “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.”
Holocaust denial was only part of Mr. Cooper’s effort to rewrite the history of World War II. He has called Winston Churchill a “psychopath” and the “chief villain” of the war, who rejected Hitler’s proposal to reach “an acceptable solution to the Jewish problem.”
According to Mr. Cooper, the reason for Churchill’s unaccountable resistance to Germany’s Führer was that Britain was pushed into war “by people, the financiers, by a media complex, that wanted to make sure that [Churchill] was the guy who was representing Britain in that conflict.” And Mr. Cooper knows why: Churchill went bankrupt and was bailed out by “people who shared his interests in terms of Zionism.”
The reaction to this interview was revealing. Elon Musk, just named to head up Mr. Trump’s commission on government efficiency, promoted it as “very interesting” and “worth watching.” (He subsequently deleted his post, without explanation.) Republican members of Congress locked in tight races denounced the interview, as did several prominent Jewish Republicans and Republican operatives.
Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, responded with the unadorned truth: “Tucker Carlson and his guest Darryl Cooper engaged in one of the most repugnant forms of Holocaust denial of recent years. These far-fetched conspiracy theories are not only dangerous and malevolent, they are antisemitic.”
The Republican vice-presidential nominee, by contrast, contented itself with this statement from a spokesman: Mr. Vance “doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson.” Translation: Mr. Vance won’t utter a word of rebuke to Mr. Carlson, and he rejects the claim that Mr. Carlson shares the views of the “honest” popular historian to whom he gave a platform to spread his views.
Not so fast, Mr. Vance. Did your staff happen to tell you that while Mr. Carlson acknowledged that people could take issue with Mr. Cooper’s factual claims, he went on to say that “they’re certainly consistent with what I think I know to be true”? It is hard to discern any daylight between Mr. Carlson and his guest. There certainly is little distance between Mr. Carlson and Mr. Vance.
This isn’t a one-day media flap. It goes to the heart of what the Republican Party has become under the rule of Mr. Trump.
Tucker Carlson was given a prime-time speaking slot on the last night of the Republican convention. He sat with Mr. Trump in the former president’s VIP box. He was one of the most important voices urging him to select JD Vance as his running mate. Mr. Carlson’s X account has almost 14 million followers, which makes him perhaps the most prominent voice on the right other than Mr. Trump. His army of supporters has allowed him to cow most Republican officials into anonymity or silence.
In a recent analysis, Jonathan Tobin recalls William F. Buckley’s efforts to purge antisemites from the conservative movement he helped found. The only comparably popular commentator on the right today is Mr. Carlson, who is working assiduously to bring into the mainstream the sort of fringe voices Mr. Buckley worked to expel.
This brings us back to Donald, the only person left on the right who can put an end to this madness. He can denounce Mr. Carlson. He can tell his running mate and his son not to appear on Mr. Carlson’s tour. By reaffirming the truth about the Holocaust and World War II, he can draw a bright line between what’s acceptable and what isn’t. If he doesn’t do this, he will prove that he isn’t strong enough to stand up to the blatant antisemitism in his own party.
Former CIA chief issues grim reality check on the Israel-Hamas war [VIDEO 5:52]
Sep 21, 2024 Fox News – Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman provides analysis of the growing war between Israel and Hamas during an appearance on ‘Fox News Live.’
Hezbollah Gets Their Balls Blown Off [0:30] Ruti Blum
[Ed.: If a musloid gets his pecker blown off, what good will it do him to have his 72 perpetual virgins?]
