Arlene Kushner | June 17, 2025
We are now in day five: we began this essential war in the early hours of last Friday morning — with a massive attack on Iran.
John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute and codirector of the Urban Warfare Project West Point, describes it so well (emphasis added):
“…Israel’s war against Iran is still ongoing. But what has already unfolded will be studied for decades.
Peloni: It is said that ridicule sometimes presents the best arguments, but in this short and insightful essay, what reads as ridicule is in fact the imposed reality which the West has fashioned for Israel alone. It is a sad betrayal of the values upon which the West was founded, values which were in fact adopted from the Jewish traditions of old, but this is the reality which Israel finds itself today, struggling against the same antisemitic game of ‘For the Jews Only’ once again. And so we will find the means by which to survive this latest attempt to manipulate us against ourselves by our enemies, and hopefully prepare for a better tomorrow, a tomorrow which might hopefully be better informed by these betrayals of today than we stand informed today by similar betrayals of previous generations.
Gary Epstein
They are trying to kill me.
Yes. We understand. It is regrettable. We understand your concern.
Good. Will you make them stop?
Peloni: China is partnered with the wrong party in this war. Trump should pursue a sanction policy which will motivate China towards acknowledging this fact, thus isolating Iran further.
Beijing condemned Israel’s sweeping strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites shortly after they began as a violation of “Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity,” according to a June 14 Chinese foreign ministry readout. Beyond rhetoric, however, Beijing has offered no material aid or mediation plan, underscoring the widening gap between China’s great power aspirations in the Middle East and its limited ability to shape fast-moving crises.
Israel is right to see Iran as an existential threat.
by
“The real divide,” Tucker Carlson declared Friday, “isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.”
Jonathan Feldstein
Photo by AlphaLemur – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
One of the best things in life is to have the privilege of taking one’s grandchildren out for ice cream. Even during a war. Perhaps especially during a war.
Peloni: Iran is a rouge state. It is responsible for the deaths of the Israelis killed on October 7 as well as the international citizens who were also butchered that day. They are responsible for the thousands of US servicemen who were targeted beginning back in 1982 Lebanon barracks bombing, those targeted in Iraq, those targeted during the missile launches against US mideast bases during Trump’s first term, and those targeted by the Houthis over the past two years, as well as the associated Houthi terror war on the high seas. Iran has no right to such blatant acts of aggression made against the nations of the world, and the US has consistently chosen to act in deference of preserving this rogue nation rather than eliminating the threat which has killed too many of its citizens. Even recently, they were granted a two month period of negotiations rather than being dealt with as if all of these war crimes and too many more to list were actually known to the US and the world, and this potential reprieve was granted to them by Trump, who the Iranians targeted for assassination. End Khamenei! End his reign of terror over the Iranian people! End his ability to make war on the nations of the world!
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | June 17, 2025
1. A constructive worldview must be driven by reality, irrespective of how complicated, bloody, insoluble and frustrating it may appear. It should not be driven by alternate reality, regardless of how seemingly obvious, peaceful, soluble and convenient it may seem to be.
2. Isolationists – like most people – are eager to prevent, minimize and end wars and terrorism, rather than launch wars. However, is it possible to prevent, minimize and end wars and terrorism without uprooting a chief epicenter of global wars, terrorism and drug trafficking – the Ayatollah regime?! Can a police chief minimize crime, while negotiating with – rather than fighting against – the chief crime-gangs?!
Avi Abelow
Click Photo to Play Video
Iran Promised a “Long Night” of missiles upon Israel, But the God of Israel Had Other Plans…
Iran warned us of a “long night.” But for the first time since Friday night, thankfully, their missile bombardment was relatively weak compared to previous nights.
Peloni: Shame on Tucker, Bannon and Johnson!
These three intelligent men are specifically acting in support of the Iranian propaganda put forward by DNI Gabard during her testimony before congress which was clearly contradicted by the IAEA as well as any logical conclusion regarding Iran having enough nuclear material to build upwards of ten or more nuclear bombs. Whatever might motivate each of these men towards striking such a bargain with the Iranian terror lords whose hands are drenched in the blood of American citizens, their willingness to do so is reprehensible. It is good to see Trump finally responding to the clarion call of such Iranian kennel barkers as Carlson in his recent post on TruthSocial: “Someone please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” “
Start at about 8min mark.
?HOLY SHIT! When Trump asked what he thought about his Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, stating as recently as last month that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapons, to which he responded, “I don't care what she said, I think they were very close to…
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) June 17, 2025
By Geoffrey Clarfield
In the winter of 1980 I had the privilege of teaching Israeli adults English conversation at a private night school in Jerusalem. One of the discussions, inevitably, focused on security.
Israel has crossed the Rubicon to defend Modern Civilization against its Enemies!
Directly from Tehran, sent by an Iranian witness:
SUPREME LEADER AND IRCG STAFF STILL BREATHING ESCAPE TO PAKISTAN AND RUSSIA, TO JOIN BASHAR ASSAD FOR TURKISH COFEE!
Even as other banks are backing down, the bank that debanked us doubles down.
Daniel Greenfield | June 16, 2025
Image by Bank of America, Public Domain
Last spring, 15 state attorney generals wrote to Bank of America warning that its politically motivated debanking targeting conservatives and religious people was under the looking glass.
Peloni: It remains a puzzlement as to why Trump has excluded the wisdom and expertise of Gen. Flynn from his inner council, especially as he has included such obviously lesser choices, to be generous, as Tulsi Gabbard among others.
Gen. Mike Flynn
Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Michael Flynn, CC BY-SA 2.0
Today’s SITREP focuses on regional and global responses (thread 1 of 2).
The ongoing conflict between Iran & Israel involves direct military strikes, with both sides exchanging missile & drone attacks, causing significant casualties.
Peloni: Iran moves to resume negotiations with US as they recognize that their days are numbered. Instead of acquiescing to such obvious bad faith offers by Iran to abandon its dreams of creating a nuclear holocaust, the US and Israel should continue to lay the ground work for regime change in Iran. Promoting mixed messages such as supporting the Iranian people while also agreeing to allow the Iranian Mullahs to remain in power is both unfair to the Iranian protesters while also emboldening the regime leaders to maintain power. Instead, both the Iranian people and the Iranian leadership should be made to understand that the days of the Mullah’s rule are numbered. As was true in 1945 when the falling regimes of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan each made inquiries regarding what terms might be offered to end the war, they were informed that Unconditional Surrender was the only terms possible, a policy agreed to early in the war by the Allies and maintained thru the end of that war. Shortly thereafter, in each theater of operations, they each surrendered unconditionally. Iran is in a far weaker position than either the powerfully militarized nations of Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, and they deserve no better terms than Unconditional Surrender. Such a policy will also garner greater support among the Iranian people who have been abandoned by the West over the past nearly fifty years. Ending the rule of the Iranian terror regime and freeing the Iranian people should be an agreed upon objectives of the West in this war.
FDD | June 15, 2025
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