Peloni:  The divisions among the Druze and the disparate interest of the various factions regarding Israel’s support of their situation, it begs the question as to what Israel’s next step should be given the all too likely possibility that air strikes will not secure the safety of the Kurds in Syria.

The Druze in Syria are divided between different leaders and voices. It’s likely that many want a middle ground and prefer some kind of autonomy but don’t want a full break with Damascus.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN | MAY 3, 2025

27th Adir F35 arrival at Nevatim, August 2020 (Photo by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem – DSC_6967SM, CC BY 2.0)

Israel has carried out two sets of airstrikes on Syria over the last two days. In the first hours of Saturday morning the IDF said that “a short while ago, the IDF struck a military site, anti-aircraft cannons, and surface-to-air missile infrastructure in Syria.” On Friday, the IDF said “IDF fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of Hussein al-Sharaa in Damascus.”

Read more…

Peloni:  The West continues to manage democracy rather than be ruled by it.

Sundance | May 2, 2025

In the USA we have the example of “Russiagate” where the FBI, CIA and DOJ-NSD intel community weaponized against candidate Donald Trump.

Read more…

Peloni:  The prescience of the details articulated in this article has aged well, as demonstrated by Peter Hitchen‘s recent Op Ed confession.

By Alexander G. Markovsky, AM THINKER  March 31, 2024

Image: Vladimir Putin by AI.

It is widely accepted that the Ukrainian crisis erupted into a military conflict on February 24, 2022, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the seeds of the hostilities were planted about thirty years earlier by President Clinton and, later, by George W. Bush, both of whom recklessly pushed for NATO’s eastward expansion.

Peloni:  Background for Trump’s recent Sanctions Tweet which focused on Iran and China.  Importantly, Ghasseminejad’s recommendation of applying sanctions to companies and individuals involved in, and/or responsible for, the shipping Iranian oil is a vital addendum which should be pursued.  Doing so will increase US leverage over both Iran and China.

Saeed Ghasseminejad | April 30, 2025

President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Prime Minister Gahr Store of Norway, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Shortly after President Donald Trump started his second term, his new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, promised, “We are committed to bringing the Iranians to going back to the 100,000 barrels a day of oil exports.” Fulfilling that commitment appears far off.

Read more…

Daniel Greenfield | May 1, 2025

David Horowitz (Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0)

In the weeks before David Horowitz’s passing, he wrote an article and finished another book. In and out of the hospital, he would call me on the phone to relay another idea for a series or another article about the Left. When we worked together on an article about the leftist fifth column, he was exhausted and I told him we could work on it next week. There would be time. He sighed skeptically, knowing perhaps what we only know now, but also with a note of relief.

Read more…

by Karys Rhea  •  Gatestone Institute •  May 2, 2025

[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced. Pictured: Detailed map released by @landuse outlining the extent of illegal Palestinian construction in 2005 Wikipedia

• [T]he IDF tends to be… focused on immediate, critical threats from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran.

Read more…

by Karys Rhea  •  Gatestone Institute  •  April 2, 2025 at 5:00 am

Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the Palestinian Authority regularly employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel. First, it identifies a strategic point located far from an existing population center. Second, it illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this “historic” village that never existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the dawn of time, despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it broadcasts any pushback from Israel as “cruel” and “oppressive,” and “ethnic cleansing” Pictured: An internationally-funded school building in Khan al Ahmar, with Israeli Highway 1 in the background, photographed in 2015. (Image source: TrickyH/Wikimedia Commons)

• Israel’s complete jurisdiction over Area C, which legally includes building permits, zoning, construction, law enforcement and planning, was recognized and agreed to by the Palestinian leadership and the world at large for almost three decades. As stipulated in the agreement, only when direct negotiations determine the permanent fate of the territories that had illegally been occupied by Jordan until 1967, can the Oslo Accords be replaced. Until then, it is the law.

Read more…

Independence Day 2025 means we should celebrate Israel’s rebirth while honoring its ongoing struggles.

By GIL TROY | APRIL 30, 2025

By Unknown author – The Israel Internet Association via the PikiWiki – Israel free image collection project, Public Domain

As we approach Independence Day, I repeat my annual call for every Jew and Israel-lover to mark the birth of the state by eating ice cream for breakfast. Despite our current challenges, let’s taste the sweetness of having a reborn Jewish nation, while our kids mark this day as a memorable break from routine.

Read more…

Peloni:  Using the economic dependency of China on Iranian fuel, and Iran’s dependency on Chinese purchases of that fuel provides him with significant leverage over both.  A truly masterstroke which will unfortunately only serve to bring even greater pressure on the Mullahs to sign their latest hudna, to the ultimate regret of the West, Israel and the Iranian people.

? pic.twitter.com/MZj3m1fVZn

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 1, 2025

Peloni:  A shameful display of Nadler supporting antisemites in obeisance of the antisemitic Democratic standard while opposing those who would do what Nadler should himself be doing.

Why is the congressman afraid of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun?

Daniel Greenfield | April 28, 2025

Jerry Nadler (Photo by David from Washington, DC – _25A7329, CC BY 2.0)

When President Donald Trump put forward his new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) urged Senate Democrats “not to provide the Trump administration with a single vote to confirm Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.”

Read more…

Peloni:  Great article by Avi!

Avi Abelow 

Photo by Hynek Moravec – Self-photographed, CC BY 2.5

In addition to celebrating the miracles that brought about the return of the Jewish people as sovereign over our ancestral homeland in 1948, at 77 years old, it’s time for a new vision for our reclaimed sovereign state, one rooted in strength, morality, and Jewish destiny!!!

Since October 7th, we have changed.

Read more…

Not since the Iraq War and those notoriously elusive ‘weapons of mass destruction’ have the people of America and Europe been told bigger lies by their warmongering political leaders.

Leo Hohmann | Apr 28, 2025

Peter Hitchens, in an Op-Ed published by the Daily Mail, says he learned long ago that governments specialize in lying and in getting others, especially the mainstream corporate media, to lie for them.

“It is what they do,” he writes. And yet, seldom has he seen such a massive cloud of lies as we face now with regard to the war in Ukraine.

Read more…

Peloni:  Over 100 Druze are now dead, with some reports claiming the dead are much greater than this.

By Hugh Fitzgerald | May 1, 2025

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former head of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who joined A-Qaeda in 2003, and fought for the terror group in Iraq for several years — and was imprisoned by the Americans between 2006 and 2011 — has tried to reassure the West that he has changed completely. He has put on a jacket and tie, a sign that he’s a man the West can trust. He’s the de facto ruler of Syria but promises that Syria will be a democracy — that is, in five years.

Read more…

Arlene Kushner | April 30, 2025

Israeli box

Peloni:  This is very concerning.  Perhaps unrelated, but this comes just a week following the most recent warning to Israelis traveling abroad.

Two Israeli-Americans Murdered Within 24 Hours, One Held Hostage for Hours and Beaten to Death

By Pamela Geller | Geller Report | April 30, 2025

In the last 24 hours two Israelis have been murdered in LA.

One Israeli-American was tortured for hours and murdered in his own home.

Read more…

The Mandate for Palestine conferred the right of the Jews to settle anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This entitlement has not been changed in international law

Dr. Alex Grobman | Apr 29, 2025

As we celebrate this year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut, there are people in the West who still do not understand that the Jews have a legal, moral, and historical right to live in all parts of the land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, and that Israel is engaged in a religious war—not a war over territory, but over the right of Jews to exist in peace in any part of their ancestral homeland.

When former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman expressed support for Israel retaining part of Judea and Samaria in any future peace agreement, his remarks were greeted with scorn from Haaretz and others. Anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Israeli/Arab conflict might conclude that the Arabs won all of the wars in which they fought and therefore can dictate the terms of the peace.

Read more…

Peloni:  Jay Solomon discusses the recent revelation about a 2013 Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) which was adopted in the US which oversaw Chinese companies having been given an exemption from Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, while still having access to US markets and NYSE.  These regulations were adopted in the wake of the Enron collapse of the 1990’s and were intended to protect US investors from investing in companies pursuing fraudulent or dangerous business practices without public disclosure, and the costs incurred and disclosures required while complying with these regulations are quite extensive.  This 2013 MOU, which gave Chinese companies a distinctly significant advantage over their US domestic competitors, was overseen by then VP Joe Biden, and it was signed just before Biden’s infamous trip with Hunter Biden to China where Hunter Biden was awarded with $1.5 billion investment fund from the Chinese govt.