Arlene Kushner | April 9, 2026

Trump. Gage Skidmore via Flickr, Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikipedia

In my last posting – https://arlenefromisrael.info/because-we-must-is-why/ – I had praised President Trump highly because he was politically astute enough to recognize the dangers of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and responsible enough to pull the US out of that deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran.

Who could have imagined that, less than a week later, I would find it necessary to take a very different tone.

Read more…

Peloni: In an important article, foreign policy analyst and expert on US-Israeli relations, Mitchel Bard explains that Israel faces a significant strategic dilemma in dealing with Hezbollah in Lebanon for which no good options exist.  The continued threat posed by a heavily armed Hezbollah, but potential strategies such as containment, escalation, or reoccupation all carry significant risks.

Reoccupation of southern Lebanon could result in pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani River, but it would not eliminate the threat of Hezbollah’s long-range missile capabilities, nor would it prevent it from rebuilding north of the Litani. Previously, Israel has relied upon deterrence and limited strikes, but this failed, as Hezbollah continued to strengthen and prepared for a large-scale attack similar to Hamas’s October 7 assault.

Read more…

Peloni:  Perfectly stated.

Weakness in the face of evil isn’t peace. It’s serving evil.

by Daniel Greenfield | April 9, 2026

“And they breaking of My people easily, saying, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace,” Jeremiah 6:14

Everyone who is anyone is calling for peace. The calls for peace, Pope Leo’s ‘Vigil for Peace’ and the protests of peace might have been of more use when Iran had been conducting a Jihad against us for 47 years, killing over 1,000 Americans, kidnapping, torturing and holding others hostages, firing rockets, plotting assassinations and doing other rather ‘un-peaceful’ things.

Read more…

Peloni:  When we look back at this moment from the distance of the future, we will see that great risks were taken in this war, and that great victories were certainly achieved.  Yet, if the coming days see the entrenched evil regime in Iran to maintain control over that powerful and important nation, it is impossible to argue that a grave mistake of incalculable degree loomed large over all the victories of this war.

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Barry Shaw | The View from Israel | Apr 07, 2026

Anti-Hamas Militia, Popular Forces in Gaza. Screengrab via Youtube

According to reports from April 7, 2026, an anti-Hamas militia in Gaza, commonly referred to as the Popular Forces or Popular Resistance Militia and backed by Israel, claimed to have eliminated Musa Al-Aidi, a commander of Hamas’s Sahem Unit.

Read more…

Jafaj | April 8, 2026

Restock. Relocate. Reactivate. And now—take inventory.

In a prior JaFaJ piece, I compared Iran’s behavior to The Mouse That Roared: a movie from the 60’s where a structurally weaker actor (Mouse) initiating conflict not to win outright, but to manipulate the outcome. The analogy holds—not just as metaphor, but as a framework.

We are not watching peace unfold. We are watching a controlled pause—an operational reset by a constrained power optimizing for leverage – an international game of cat and mouse.

Read more…

Peloni:  The Chinese blink in pushing its Iranian pawn towards negotiating was an incredible development.  It demonstrates China’s vulnerability which was being manipulated by Trump’s threat to trigger sending the entire Middle East energy sector back to the stone age.  Given China’s role in securing Iran’s support in the ceasefire, it will be interesting to see how far the Iranians will go to prevent reigniting the war.  As of now, the ceasefire is said to be shaky, but will Iran ignore China and withdraw from the ceasefire?  It doesn’t seem likely.  If this conclusion proves correct, Iran would have abandoned its Hezbollah proxy to comply which China’s push to strike a deal with the US, as the main focus of the IAF is no longer set largely on Iran.  These are important developments, while we are still waiting for some inkling into what the Iran-US deal might actually be, given Trump’s announcement that the official form of the Iranian 10 Point Plan is not what is currently being discussed by the media.

Andrew Korybko | Apr 08, 2026

Iranian strike in Omani oil infrastructure prior to ceasefire. Screengrab via Youtube

The sequence that Trump threatened if no deal was reached before the expiry of his deadline would have cut China off from half of the oil that it imported by sea last year and likely set Afro-Eurasia aflame in resource wars for the indefinite future that would have derailed China’s superpower rise.

Read more…

Peloni:  Trump refuses to release the details of what is being negotiated after referencing the Iranian 10 Point Plan, which is a surrender plan for the Us, and then he complains that there is a great deal of disinformation being discussed.  Perhaps the lack of clarity on this topic was necessary for Trump’s negotiations to move forward, but it is also this which has caused the wellspring o what Trump describes as uninformed disinformation being spread throughout the media.  So, for the moment, we don’t know what we don’t know, even as we are being told that it is somehow related, in one form or another, to a plan put forward calling for America to all but capitulate to Iran on nearly ever topic.  For the full report by Mark Stone about his talk with Pres. Trump see HERE.  For more on Trump’s comment, see HERE.

What’s going on in the US-Iran negotiations? Bottom line, we don’t know. Listen to the clip below from @Stone_SkyNews, Mark Stone, the US Correspondent for Sky News. Here’s a little background.

Iran published a list of ten maximalist demands. Trump then posted on Truth… pic.twitter.com/93wpXc9MoR

— Mike (@Doranimated) April 8, 2026

Text:

Read more…

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Peloni:  Bravo Once Again!  May the IDF continue its just war of retribution against Hezbollah til the last Hezbollah leader lies fallen next to the last of his cub recruits and all their weapon arsenals lie like a shroud around them.

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Peloni:  We need to see the outcome in the coming deal being cut between Iran and Trump.  After that we will know much more than is being discussed currently

‘Not an end to the campaign.  This is a pause on the way to achieving all of our goals.’

Dubbed Video Loads Below

Read more…

Peloni:  The clear security implications raised in this article have a direct bearing on the proposed sale of US F35s now being considered for various Arab states.  Becareful to whom you sell such vital strategic assets, because it one day you might live to seriously regret it.

Yigal Carmon | MEMRI | April , 2026

An F-15E. Photo by Ethan Wagner – Edwards.af.mil, Dvidshub, Public Domain, Wikipedia

On March 4, 2026, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said: “Starting last night and to be completed in a few days, in under a week, the two most powerful Air Forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace.”[1] Nevertheless, on April 3, the Iranians managed to down not only a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle, but also, reportedly, an A-10 Warthog.[2]

Read more…

Barry Shaw | The View from Israel | Apr 07, 2026

Bondi Beach Massacre. Screengrab via Youtube

Bangladeshi Islamic preacher Mizanur Rahman Azhari declared that Hitler was “divine punishment” for the Jews and claimed that Jews are responsible for various global problems, including AIDS, adding that “Jews are the biggest terrorists in the world” and a “poisonous blemish.”

Read more…

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | April 9, 2026

Blackhawk helicopters. Screengrab via Youtube

*Israel’s unique challenges and brainpower have made it a critical platform for research & development centers of some 250 US commercial high tech giants (e.g., Google, John Deere, Nvidia, Microsoft, Facebook, Dell, Apple, Texas Instruments, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Intuit, General Electric), which have leveraged Israel’s capabilities, in order to bolster their global leadership, generating mega-billion of dollars to the US economy. 

Read more…

Peloni:  We seem to be trapped in a time loop, in which the US demands Hamas disarm while giving them a deadline which is ultimately ignored and then after everyone ignoring the fact that this routine has been going on since October, the same set of event seamlessly repeats itself.  These self celebratory savages need to be defeated, not by committees or press conferences, but by bunker busters and F35s.  Their being defeated and destroyed in battle is what will bring about peace, not their compliance with any thing emerging from the well displayed flagging efforts of the Board of Peace to avoid this ultimate resolution in Gaza.

By Pamela Geller | April 8, 2026

Hamas Infiltrating Kibbutz in Yakhini. Screengrab via Youtube.

The terror group in the Gaza strip has—no surprise—been dragging their feet on the earlier agreement to disarm. It’s an early test for Trump’s Board of Peace.

I can’t believe we are still having this conversation.

Read more…

Peloni:  This offers a good roundabout of issues which will weigh in on the answer to the question of who surrendered to whom.  Notably, perhaps the most pertinent set of questions was left unspoken here, and they relate the importance of Iran to China, China to the region, and the struggle between the US and China in the region.

Dubbed Video Loads Below

Read more…

Peloni:  Trump Blinks Bigly!  Trump’s call for Iran’s unconditional surrender turns into negotiations based on a  plan which calls for a US surrender and full retreat from the region.  This humiliating reversal will undermine US influence in the region, while leaving US allies in an unenviable position of having American resolve to support them instantaneously crumble… or is there more going on than we are acknowledging.  In fact, none of this makes sense if we ignore the recent report of Iran’s threat to use chemical weapons which would devastate the region, while grasping the implications of this report in the hours before Trump’s reversal might explain a great deal.  Indeed, accepting the 10-Point Plan would in fact be a hudna, but might it not be one of Trump’s own making while buying time to either reconsider the situation under this latest escalation.

Read more…

By Pamela Geller | April 7, 2026

Screengrab via X

As of April 2026, Marco Rubio is weighing a dramatic overhaul of the American military footprint in Europe—reviewing plans to shutter as much as 80% of U.S. bases after key NATO allies, including Spain and France, refused to grant access to bases and airspace during the Iran conflict.

Read more…