Peloni:  Establishing a ‘credible threat of military force’, as  described in detail in the Section 3 under the Policy Recommendations header in this essay, will not deter the Mullahs who are motivated by a armeggedonist ideology.  Failing to appreciate this reality will only serve to embolden the Mullahs as precious time is spent in the pretense that such radicals as those who designed the October 7 massacre can be either threatened into capitulation or reasoned into rational compliance.  Instead of establishing a credible threat of military force, the West, led by the US, should eliminate the existing threat emanating from Iran, which is organized throughout both Europe and South and Central America.  Coordinating an attack on its nuclear and oil producing infrastructure with regime change operations should be executed in lieu of demonstrations of force as described below.  By thus cutting the head off this nearly nuclear Hydra, the US led effort will stabilize and protect, not just the Middle East, but the entire world, while also freeing the people of Iran and Lebanon which are currently held fast in the fist of the tyrannical Mullahs.

Andrea Stricker | FDD | Feb 19, 2025

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58077

Executive Summary

A secret team of Iranian scientists is working to shorten the country’s route to nuclear weapons, according to current and former U.S. officials. This intelligence was collected during President Joe Biden’s final months in office, then relayed to the incoming national security team under President Donald Trump.¹

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By GIL TROY | FEBRUARY 20, 2025

The Federations of Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal hosted me from February 2 through February 12, having purchased over 2,500 copies of my book The Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream.

I spoke in Jewish day schools to sixth and twelfth graders, on campus and in Hillels, to fellow professors and teachers of Zionism and Israeli history, to interfaith groups and Jewish federations. The trip introduced me to a post-October 7 Canada – and academic world – I did not recognize.

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Seth J. Frantzman | Feb 19, 2025

The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

US President Donald Trump has conveyed a clear message to Israel. “You do whatever you want,” he says he told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a shift from the messaging during the Biden administration and for Israel’s governing coalition this appears to be welcome news. However, the complete support that Israel is now getting from the White House will now require Israel to come up with a plan regarding Gaza.

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by Daniel Greenfield  •  Gatestone Institute  •  February 20, 2025

Lebanon’s government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is a puppet army. The $3 billion that America squandered on the LAF, like the even larger sums wasted on arming and training the Iraqi military, didn’t counter Shiite Islamic rule, it enabled it. Pictured: Soldiers of the LAF organize displaced persons outside the village of Kfar Kila, in southern Lebanon on February 18, 2025. (Photo by Rabih Daher/AFP via Getty Images)

• The State Department has spent nearly two decades selling the myth that empowering the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] will weaken Hezbollah, but after $3 billion in spending, Hezbollah is more powerful than ever, while American taxpayers are stuck with financing its auxiliary force in the hopes of defeating it.

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Peloni: Where is Netanyahu as Trump again calls for the utter destruction of Gaza?

? JUST IN

Israel’s Channel 14: Trump tells advisors he wants ‘Gaza wiped out’ after Hamas parades coffins of dead hostages mom, two young sons, elderly man

“I want to see Gaza wiped out. I don’t want to see even one building standing.” pic.twitter.com/w1sBcp7D8d

— Awesome Jew (@JewsAreTheGOAT) February 20, 2025

Peloni: Trump should learn from this spontaneous rebuke of Phizer’s CEO by a very enthusiastic crowd which had just been chanting for Trump to run for another term.  The public rejection of the hushed silence surrounding the mRNA tragedies are real and Trump should support this outcry rather than ignoring it.

This Message Brought To You By Pfizer
??????????????

Is President Trump this STUPID??
OR… is he just this BRILLIANT??
He thanks Dr. Albert Bourla CEO of Pfizer for being there today. pic.twitter.com/wSC6AtPEed

— Curtis Fernheiser III (@CurtFernheiser) February 20, 2025

Peloni:  This is an important interview.  Qatar is an existential threat to the West, and to America in particular.  Hence, it begs the question as to why key appointments within the Trump White House have included many who have business ties or lobbyist connections for this nation of Jihadists, such as AG Bondi,  FBI Director Patel, Middle East Envoy Witkof and EPA Administrator Zeldin.  Qatar has infiltrated nations all around the world, and as Carmon discusses in this interview, it came to influence Trump’s first administration regarding the US base in Qatar.  This lesson should be taken to heart, and there should have been a zero tolerance for any connection to Qatar within Trump’s second administration.  This litmus test was unfortunately not employed, and it does not bode well for the current administration’s abiltity to act against Qatari influence, which was most apparent when the damaging Witkof surrender deal was forced on Israel, following Witkof’s consultation with the Qatari’s.

UPDATE ?
– Five buses had explosives on them
– They were supposed to go off tomorrow morning during the hostage release
– Hamas has taken responsibility
– Netanyahu has called for an emergency meeting pic.twitter.com/HSmu1C7ZAh

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) February 20, 2025

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Peloni:  This is a must read article by Tanya Lukyanova which was published by the Free Press.  The revelations in this report will likely surprise many who have come to rely extensively on Ukrainian news reports.  The reality of the facts discussed by the author should of course have been obvious long ago.  Recall the use of the Peacemaker website which lists targets to be purged, and that following their names having been listed on this site, many journalists were in fact eliminated, not the least notorious of these was the Ukrainian secret services having first detained and later murdered the American journalist, Gonzo Lira.  Recall further that the Peacemaker website has been tied to the Ukrainian govt and it has remained active even after the US began overtly subsidizing Ukraine’s government, which was also coincident with the timing of Gonzo Lira’s detention and murder by Ukraine’s state police.

The purpose of the media in any democracy is to maintain transparency and accountability between the govt and the people who chose the govt.  Of course, under the use of USAID, both Ukraine’s govt and media have been weaponized in pursuit of American misadventure.  The consequence of this has led to the decimation of Ukrainian democratic process, such as it was, their freedoms, their elections, their religious choices, and their access to a free press.  This should disgust us all, and it should disgust those who claim any love of the Ukrainian people more than anyone.

The FP’s @TanyaLukyanova_ goes inside the USAID media machine: https://t.co/sJ7gdxXWxh pic.twitter.com/8o8eJFSJs3

— The Free Press (@TheFP) February 19, 2025

Peloni:  Pollard reveals that war with Egypt is imminent, and makes the similar argument recently put forward by David Wurmser for why.  He also explains that the cost of this war will be quite high for Israel and that victory lies with the use of unconventional weaponry.  He continues by suggesting that Israel needs a leader with the skill and gravitas which will use such unconventional weapons, and that Netanyahu is clearly not the leader to do so.  A longtime critic of Netanyahu, Pollard does little to balance his overt criticism of the PM, which might be better presented by Yishai Fleisher’s recent comments.

Peloni:  Fleisher asks many hard questions of Netanyahu, while noting the important role and result which he has produced.  Ultimately, he asks the significant question of whether it might be time for new leadership for the country, and this question more than any other raised, has serious implications no matter which path is pursued.

Should Israel be led by new leadership at this critical moment, who might be the proper choice?  Should it be one of the members of the Right from the Bennet-Lapid govt which empowered the Left and rewarded the Arabs following the 2021 War of Riots & Rockets?  Or perhaps the so called center such as Gantz who acted as Biden’s lap dog should be chosen instead?  Should it be some new member of the general staff which has been too strongly tied to the American perspective to properly support the govt throughout the war?  Should it come from the likes of Ben Gvir whose delegitimization has been a fascination among so many, even as he has too often supported the right path such as advocating for Pal emigration long before Trump or anyone else daring to do so?  Or should it come from some yet to be discovered leader among the heart of Israel’s society which embodied the resolve of the nation to not surrender to terror or the West as they formed the heart of Israel’s defense and sacrifices over the last year?  Or should Bibi be maintained in place to stabilize the chaos and deal with the West in the fashion which he has achieved over the past year and a half.  The answer to this single question will come to dictate the shape of the future for the entire region, as well as the context in which Israel sits within that future.  Choose wisely.

Peloni:  Excellent article!  Korybko provides the full context for Zelensky’s growing feud with Trump.

Andryew Korybko | Feb 20, 2025

Trump has been on the warpath since the inauguration and is politically neutralizing all of his enemies at home so Zelensky should have known better than to become Trump’s newest enemy abroad and risk his wrath.

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Peloni: The murder of the Bibas family and the display of mocking celebration by the Pals of Gaza recalls to mind the sense of vicious savagery within the Pals of Gaza which led to the October 7 slaughter.  This reality, which can not be forgotten, must have a consequence more meaningful than what has thus far transpired.  This war is not over, and in fact, the most brutal aspects of it have yet to be unleashed, as nothing less than total war is followed by total victory over all of Gaza will suffice with the emigration of the Gazans elsewhere taking place either before or after this victory is achieved.

See Khaled Hassan‘s comments below Erin’s

Wasn’t the brutal kidnapping and killing of a mother, baby and toddler enough for these sadistic evil terrorists?

I can’t comprehend what I just watched occur…

My raw, unpolished, unscripted thoughts.

It’s time.

Destroy them. pic.twitter.com/FL89fHaa8G

— Erin Molan (@Erin_Molan) February 20, 2025

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Peloni:  The US-Israeli alliance has the benefit of being between two nations who share a world view based on ideology and values, but the US-Israel alliance will always represent the overlapping interests which exist between the US and Israel.  The campaign to introduce daylight during the Obiden regimes seriously betrayed and damaged the interests of both America and Israel as it literally and figuratively supported terrorism against the interests of both the US and Israel.  The second Trump term has the potential of being even more robust in reaffirming the US interest and Israeli interests than was his first term.  It will require a turn away from Qatari influence, Hezbollah support, and finally eliminating the threat from Iran.  Doing so will grant greater security to Israel and the US, and securing Israel in the region provides the US  with the double benefit of securing US interests in the region.  A strong, secure Israel representing US interests in the region is an American interest, and it remains as a key component of securing the Trump Doctrine.

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative” | February 16, 2025

The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. President Trump is not an impartial leader. As expected, he is driven by US interests, determining that Israel’s capabilities and track record have been a unique force and dollar multiplier for the US, commercially and militarily, technologically and operationally.

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Peloni:  Avi is quite correct about Sisi making a mistake in trying to challenge Trump.  The consequences for this mistake will be sizeable, and as Avi explains, this may have some important caveats for Israel.