Peloni:  As Iraqi Shia militia’s move to support Iran in the current war, the political crisis at home remains.  The choice of a new leadership continues to stand as a political contest between America and Iran, with Iraq’s future weighing in the balance.  Will the political deadlock be maintained or will a political coalition finally come to be formed.  Both the political and military stability of Iraq stand in the shadow of Iran’s power projection, making the outcome of the current war significantly relevant to the Iraq’s ability to choose its own government.  So, while Iran is still able to assemble its military arms in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, the coming vote will show us if Iran still maintains its leverage over the political process in Iraq, or if there has been a shift due to current events, making the April 11 vote a litmus test of Iranian power in Iraq.  Was this relevant in Trump choosing a deadline of April 6 for Iran to agree to his terms?

Jafaj | April 1, 2026

Iraqi polling stations in the 2025 election. Screengrab via Youtube

EXECUTIVE SNAPSHOT

The Iraqi Council of Representatives is set to convene on April 11 to elect a president, marking the most credible attempt in months to break Iraq’s political deadlock.

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Peloni:  Notably, America’s traditional European partners have been dissembling themselves for sometime now, ignoring realities of defense while simultaneously calling for greater involvement in the Ukraine War.  The current blunder of disregarding the threat from Iran, both the threat of its missile development as well as its threat over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reinforces Europe’s eagerness to maintain policies which are antithetical to their own interests.  To what purpose might a military alliance serve when partnering with nations which consistently ignore its own vital interests, both in their own region, and in the Middle East.  Furthermore, their attempts to block America dealing with the threats from China and Iran have demonstrated that Europe is not only ignoring their own security interests, but also leveraging their influence to force America to do the same.

David Brody | All Israel News | Published: April 3, 2026

President Donald Trump with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, May 14, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo by The White House – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

During his two terms as president of the United States, Donald Trump made it clear to our long-time traditional allies in Europe that America would no longer do all the heavy lifting financially or otherwise. Now, with the military conflict with Iran continuing to rage on, the president is back at it again. He’s not happy with some of those so-called “friends” of America. Increasingly, the president is turning to Gulf states as trusted allies and partners. More on that in a moment.

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by Uzay Bulut  •  Gatestone Institute  •  March 31, 2026

Following President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s December 2024 seizure of power in Syria, the jihadist regime’s persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, Druze and Alawites, has skyrocketed as the country undergoes a process of radical Islamization. Pictured: Mar Elyas Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus on June 22, 2025, after an attack by jihadists who murdered 25 Christians and wounded nearly 70 there during Sunday mass. Screengrab via Youtube

• Christians in Syria are once again under attack by Islamic groups affiliated with the country’s jihadist regime, headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

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By David Daoud | April 3, 2026

The renewed Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah that began on March 2 is now over a month old, with little change in the overall picture or disposition of the main actors. However, Israeli officials have reframed initial publicly stated goals for the conflict away from an imminent disarmament of Hezbollah, signaling a more prolonged approach. Simultaneously, political disagreements over the conflict and Hezbollah’s status have arisen in Lebanon while Hezbollah has escalated its attacks against Israel and rhetoric.

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Peloni:  America has two important allies in the Middle East capable of projecting power beyond their borders.  One is Israel, who has repeatedly demonstrated itself to be the Ideal Ally for America that it is, while the other is Turkey, which has demonstrated itself to be something far less ideal than an ally.  Washington would be wise to recognize this fact and respond to it with something more deserving than praise.

By  Christine Douglass-Williams | April 3, 2026

Image via AI

Turkey has an extensive history of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas, and far beyond. Turkey has collaborated with the worst jihadists, including ISIS. It is a particularly dangerous country, so much that it can be reasonably concluded that NATO would be reckless to continue to include it as a member. It should have long ago been ejected as a NATO member.

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Peloni:  What will it take for the American people to receive the justice which they voted for in the 2024 election.  While Trump was victimized by the election fiasco of the 2020 election, so too were his supporters and the American people at large.  From the election fraud to the January 6 persecutions to the Covid scam to the censorship campaigns to the political show trials… are these crimes truly just too big to prosecute?  Trump’s pick to follow in Bondi’s footsteps requires someone motivated to pursue justice rather than protecting the powerful.  Bondi failed the American people in this respect.  Will her successor do any better?

By Pamela Geller | April 3, 2026

Attorney General of the United States Pam Bondi speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Pam Bondi, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

Bondi was out of her depth.

After months of mounting frustration, the DOJ failed to act on explosive evidence, delivering talk instead of accountability. Promised prosecutions never materialized as critics point to a year of inertia inside the Justice Department. Whistleblowers spoke, documents piled up and still no action.

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by Rahul Mishra, Harshit Prajapati and Prisie L. Patnayak •  Gatestone Institute  •  April 3, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Purveyors of radical content, to reach a wider audience, have overtaken the non-confrontational format through memes, commentary video reels and influencer content. Extremist propaganda is being repackaged in local languages. Algorithms on these social media platforms serve as amplifiers for radical content.
• Although concealed as individual efforts, they were systematically planned and organised.

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Peloni:  As if to remind us that we have no choice but victory over our enemies.

IDF strikes in Iran to thwart missile fire, kills some 40 Hezbollah terrorists

All Israel News Staff | Published: April 2, 2026

Millions of Israelis spent the Passover holiday going back and forth to their shelters every few hours, as the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, and the Houthis markedly stepped up their attacks against Israel from Wednesday to Thursday evening.

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Peloni:  As explained in the video below, Tina Peters, the Mesa County Clerk whose actions secured evidence regarding the election tampering in her county, just before that evidence was erased under the order of the Colorado Secretary of State, had her 9-year sentencing thrown out on appeal due to the obvious bias demonstrated by the judge during sentencing.  Despite this, her conviction was upheld and instead of Peters being set free, she is being handed back to the original state court where she will be resentenced.  So, the injustice which has been used to silence those who might expose election fraud in the US will go on.

Sponsored by terror victim, it ends a revolving door system for terrorist killers.

Daniel Greenfield | April 3, 2026

MK Limor Sun Har Melech, following the approval of the death penalty for terrorists law. Screengrab via Youtube.

In 2003, Limor Son Har-Melech was 7 months pregnant and driving home with her husband, Shalom, an ambulance driver, when Islamic terrorists attacked them. The car rolled over, killing her husband and injuring Limor. Seriously injured, the 24-year-old mother survived. So did her newborn daughter. Limor, still carrying the scars of the attack, married again, had children and decided to run for public office in Israel to protect others from what she had suffered.

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By Hugh Fitzgerald | April 2, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump. Photo by Daniel Torok – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

The Islamic Republic of Iran is, for the moment, a mid-range military threat to the United States, and will remain so until it can manufacture both nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles capable of carrying them all the way to the east coast of America. It is a major threat to Israel, and the Israelis are fighting with everything they have got to limit Iran’s ability to hurt the Jewish state. Both Israel and the United States, in fighting Iran, are also helping to limit the damage Iran can do to the Gulf Arab states. Iranian missiles and drones have attacked seven of those states —Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, and Oman. Those missiles and drones have hit oil and gas facilities, airports, desalination plants, power plans, anti-missile batteries, and much more.

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By Robert Spencer | April 2, 2026

Pope Leo XIV by Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Popes of earlier ages would not recognize this man’s teaching.

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Ahmad Sharawi | Apr 2, 2026

Firing Iranian Qadr Missile from a truck launcher in Velayat-90 Naval Exercise. Photo by Mohammad Sadegh Heydari – Ypa.ir, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia

Iran and its allied militias continued launching drones, missiles, and rockets against regional countries between March 28 and April 1. There were nearly 90 incidents in this period, including distinct mass barrage events involving more than 20 ballistic missiles and 30–40 drones across multiple waves in the United Arab Emirates, alongside repeated barrages in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain.

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Peloni: Guermantes Lailari, a retired U.S. Air Force foreign area officer and senior non-resident fellow of the Jewish Policy Center in Taiwan, tells JPC’s Shoshana Bryen that China’s involvement in the war in Iran makes it a participant in the war, whose intelligence sharing, satellite guidance, and radar technicians have been integral to Iran’s ability to incur its strikes on American, Israeli and allied Sunni Arab states.

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Peloni:  Qatar is at an inflection point in its history.  It has been fixed in its current situation for the past 5 decades as it stood in the unenviable position of being in the shadow of Iran’s domination.  Today that domination has shifted, and this is clear from the reporting from Qatar’s media empire.  This fact provides Qatar with choices and possibilities which have never been available to the current regime.  Indeed, events surrounding Qatar will have no small part in choosing its path, and the path that it takes will in turn have no small effect on the region at large.

Ahmad Sharawi & Natalie Ecanow | April 2, 2026

Al Jazeera Media Network Logo design. Photo by Isma4l – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia

Veteran Al Jazeera analyst Leqaa Makki threw viewers a curveball during a recent news segment. He advocated for an escalation against Iran. A familiar face on the network since 2003, Makki argued that strategic sites, including power plants, electricity infrastructure and assets that would make ordinary Iranians “feel the impact of the war” should be hit, to potentially turn against them against the regime.

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