Peloni:  Highly recommended article.  Indeed, China may be envious of the many potentials created by the insidious public-private tag team effort to overcome constitutional norms in the US.

by Kelleigh Nelson

Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.  Edward Snowden

We have to decide whether our fear is going to get the better of us. Once upon a time we had a standard in our country that was ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ We’ve given up on so much. Now, people are talking about a standard that is ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.’ Think about it. Is that the standard we’re willing to live under?  Sen. Rand Paul

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Peloni:  Is Israel to become even more controlled by the US in the wake of the US acting in its own defense against Iran?  Should Netanyahu succumb to Trump’s demands as Trump is simultaneously pressing for the Lawfare against Netanyahu to be dismissed?  The transactional perspective with which Trump seems to assess the world is ever present and defies the history of the Middle East which has been formed in large part around Western interests while ignoring radical and regional ideologies, the result of which has been damaging in many ways, not least to the interests of both the US and Israel.  Is the deal in question connected to the grand bargain leaked to Israel Hayom in recent days?  Despite the denial of the Office of the PM, the timing of Trump’s latest tweet is quite alarming.

As IDF prepares for extensive operations against Hamas, Arabic spokesman calls for civilians to leave parts of Gaza City

All Israel News Staff | Published: June 29, 2025

President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Monday, April 7, 2025, in the West Wing Lobby of the White House. (Photo by The White House – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia)

U.S. President Donald Trump resumed his calls for a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, following speculation in recent days that Israel and Hamas are close to a deal following the end of Operation Rising Lion.

“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,” Trump posted to Truth Social early Sunday morning.

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Peloni:  Mike Doran and Gadi Taub discuss the aftermath of the 12 Day War.  Mike warns that while the war was an enormous operational victory, Iran remains as a threat, likening it to a wounded dog, questioning whether this will lead Iran towards a strategic shift or if it will simply recover and return towards achieving its previous bad behavior.  Explaining further he questions if this war is more analagous to the 6-Day war, or the Yom Kippur War, ie is the 12 Day War an operataional victory which opens the next stage in the war with Iran, or is one which brings the conflict to an end?  He explains that the answer is that there is too much left unknown at this point to accurately judge, most importantly he notes it is unknown how the war will affect the Iranian leadership.  He also warns against being too optimistic as is normal for American foreign policy experts who overwhelmingly like to believe that money rather than ideology rules the world.  Very interesting conversation in total, but focus on the 30-min following the 11min 40sec mark

Peloni:  Exactly correct!

The Lebanese model should be applied to Iran. Israel has redrawn the map of the Middle East, emerging as the region’s top military power, cornering Iran and outpacing Turkey.

by  Prof. Eyal Zisser 

Iranian Funerals from 12-Day War.  (Photo by Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0)

The announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, coming just as Iran appeared to be buckling under the weight of the blows it had suffered, has taken many back to November 2024. That was when, under US pressure, a ceasefire was declared to end the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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by Christine Williams | June 27, 2025

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has declared that Iran “isn’t a nation that surrenders”:

Those very words from Khamenei are reflected in the regime’s move to survive, as it now seeks likely candidates to succeed Khamenei. “Iranian officials consider removing Ali Khamenei in plot to replace supreme leader – report,” Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2025:

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THEY HAVE FLED. WE ARE STILL HERE. WE WIN, THEY LOSE!

Peloni:  Tony Badran explores the myth created to support Iran dominance in the Middle East by bipartisan US politicians, exposing the pro-Iran establishment in the US which completely defies US interests, and which is maintaining its dedication towards empowering Iran today, even after the myth of its strength has been exposed due to the efforts of Trump and Netanyahu pursuing their own national interests, respectively.

Iran's winning hand was an illusion sustained by Washington. Luckily for the rest of us, the behavior of D.C. sewer-dwellers matters far less now, thanks to President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Me in @tabletmag pic.twitter.com/xrUBISVgoz

— Tony Badran (@AcrossTheBay) June 25, 2025

Here is the link:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-flying-monkeys

Peloni:  Only by working together, backing a single candidate, can New Yorkers be saved from this looming nightmare.

Less than a third of New York City’s registered Democrats voted in the mayoral primary on June 24.

Leonard Grunstein

By Bingjiefu He – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia

The New York City Democrat mayoral primary on June 24 ended with Zohran Mamdani, a so-called Democratic Socialist, effectively becoming the party’s standard-bearer in the Nov. 4 mayoral election. Many are rightly troubled by this unfortunate circumstance.

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by Gerald A. Honigman

I just finished reading an excellent analysis by Uri Kurlianchik and offered by astute observers at “Future of Jewish”regarding the Iran-Israel war which echoes my own previous commentary on this same subject…

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by Sha’i ben-Tekoa | June 27, 2025

Recently, a precocious, curious, intelligent young boy in Israel asked why is it that in the United Nations Security Council, among the five permanent members—unlike the other ten states that rotate in and out in two-year terms—the United Kingdom is there among huge powers like China, the United States and Russia, when it is such a little country.

Obviously, the boy had yet to learn of the four centuries during which the English created and ruled over arguably the greatest empire in history, over which “the sun never set.”

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By Lawrence Martin | June 27, 2025

Image by Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA – New York Times Building – New York Times Logo, CC BY 2.0, Wikipedia

 When we lived in New York City many years ago, my wife and I were avid readers of The New York Times. My career brought us to Cleveland, and I changed over to an online subscription which I read less frequently, and never thought much about the paper’s stance regarding Israel. Then in 2017, after retirement, we made our first of several trips to Israel, and I began to dig deep into the history of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the Holy Land. I read books on the subject, and prepared PowerPoint presentations which I gave in my retirement community. I also created a website on the history of the conflict, pointing out the multiple times a 2-state solution had been turned down by the Arabs, who wanted all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

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Peloni: Right on, Avi!  Am Yisrael Chai!!!

Avi Abelow

We’re 20 months into a brutal, exhausting war, that began with a traumatic, brutal massacre that we didn’t start, that is not over, that our holy IDF soldiers, sons, husbands, friends, neighbors are risking and losing their lives fighting.

On top of that, we just lived through 12 days of a direct war with the Islamic republic of Iran, a regime that has spent decades preparing to wipe the Jewish people off the map. For nearly two weeks, we ran daily to safe rooms. Sirens. Explosions. Sleepless nights. Kids shaking. Parents trying to be brave. Soldiers on standby. All of us carrying the weight of knowing: this could be it.

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Hussain Abdul-Hussain| June 24, 2025

Image by Steve Shook from Moscow, Idaho, USA – Victory – Large Letter Postcard, CC BY 2.0, Wikipedia

Israel’s decisive victory over Iran’s Islamist regime has set Tehran’s nuclear plans back years at the least.

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Peloni:  The massive, near total, victories enjoyed in this war by Israel and the US were of course unthinkable just 20 months ago, but we should recognize the still present threat, along with the will to work it, which remains within the Iranian regime which the US was resolved to not overturn, and that threat is directed at the US as much as it is at Israel.  Whereas the need of long-term commitments to the US was avoided in this war, it also preserved the long-term resolve of the Iranian regime to attack the US.  Indeed, among the achievements which were not included in this was was the dissolution of the Iranian tentacles which  stretch straight up to the Western Hemisphere and cross the Mexican-American border as well.  This is not a hypothetical concern, but a very well acknowledged threat which looms as the last untouched asset of the still empowered Ayatollah regime, which might be used to attack the American homeland in the wake of withholding support for regime change in Iran during this war.  Meanwhile, the Mullahs remain adamant in their intent to rebuild their nuclear program, and are not disbanding their aim of developing a missile capable of sending a nuclear payload towards the American people.  Hence, preserving the Ayatollahs in power has only served to preserve the threat which looms over the combined Israeli, American and Western nations, and even today is continuing to act with impunity against the Iranian people once again.  Consider what was gained over the last century from the real policy of Unconditional Surrender when the Axis powers chose to NOT let the Nazi regime remain in power in Germany, and then consider the many regrets which can arise from such a policy not being included in the goals of the 12 Day War.

By JOHN SPENCER | JUNE 25, 2025“War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.” — Carl von Clausewitz

War is not chaos. It is the deliberate application of force in pursuit of political objectives. Every modern conflict must be judged according to those objectives. In the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, three major actors pursued distinct goals: Israel, Iran, and the United States.

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By Christine Douglass-Williams | June 27, 2025

The crackdown is specifically intended to block any possibility of regime change in the direction of secularism and free society.

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‘Teach our children to hate everything about the infidels: the holidays, the dress, the manners’

By Daniel Greenfield | June 28,2025

Zohran Mamdani, who has been chosen by 5% of the electorate and by the Democrat Party, as their candidate, appeared at a Brooklyn terror mosque where an Imam had previously prayed that Allah aid Hamas terrorists and “guide their shooting”.

In January, Mamdani, a Muslim candidate who only recently became a citizen, tweeted that he was joining “Jummah prayers at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge today.” The tweet showed him appearing to speak next to Imam Muhammad Al-Barr.

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