Peloni: This would be the greatest policy failure of the Trump administration if the Mullahs are left in power, the consequences of which would be targeting Israel, the US, and the entire Western World.
by Majid Rafizadeh • Gatestone Institute • February 8, 2025
Possessing nuclear weapons provides any regime with a protective shield against foreign intervention, removing the fear of retaliation. Given this reality, no diplomatic effort — regardless of its structure — will convince Iran to relinquish its nuclear ambitions voluntarily. Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
It is hard to fathom why France should display such ire at the Trump proposal to procure Greenland since the idea is hardly new, having been raised several times in the far off and recent past without setting off any outrage.
Dan Scavino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
With the avalanche of “hardcore’ substantive items flooding the news cycle in recent days—from the hostage releases to Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate the Gazan public– some might find it a little frivolous to focus attention on something seeming as remote as the icy expanses of Greenland.
Greenland: The tip of an iceberg?
By Janatan Sayeh | February 6, 2025
The FBI’s Persian-language wanted poster for Ahmad Khazai, Iran’s former counterintelligence deputy in its Ministry of Intelligence.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently issued “seeking information” posters for two operatives of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence services implicated in the 2007 abduction of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson on Iran’s Kish Island.
Peloni: Trump will find that Abdullah’s opposition to accepting the Gazans is very real and any concessions on this point will be very limited, as the Pals represent an oppressed minority under Abdullah’s rule, despite being paid billions of US dollars to improve the living standards of the overwhelming Pal majority in the country. A govt under Mudar Zahran, however, would be far mor obliging to Trump’s demand of taking the Gazan masses, in addition to reforming the Islamist foundation on which Jordan currently exists.
Ahmad Sharawi | FDD
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Following the onslaught in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, Jordan’s King Abdullah II quickly declared that any attempt to resettle Gaza residents in the Hashemite Kingdom would constitute a “red line.” Now, as Abdullah arrives for a meeting with Donald Trump on February 11 — making him the first Arab leader to meet with the U.S. president since his inauguration last month — he faces an administration actively pushing a proposal that crosses that same red line.
Israel apparently knew something was coming but ‘US ownership’ came as surprise
Official White House Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This week, U.S. President Donald Trump did what he does best, smashing decade-old paradigms of Middle East policy with a new idea whose details remain shrouded with questions: The U.S. will take over Gaza, while its inhabitants will move somewhere else, possibly to return after reconstruction.
Amb. Daniel Friedman | X | Feb 7, 2025
Ambassador David Friedman attend an event in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary with Prime Minister Netanyahu and participate in a distinguished panel discussion on Israel’s foreign relations over the years at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem April 23, 2018 Photo credit: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv
Many have expressed doubt over the legality and the theology of Gaza being turned over to the United States. A simple structure properly would satisfy both issues:
Peloni: The interests of the Saudis lies in complete contradiction to the establishment of another Islamist Pal State. Instead, what is needed is to first recognize Jordan as the Arab state which was carved from the Palestinian Mandate for the local Arab population, and to then install a governing leadership under Mudar Zahran which will evict the existing Islamist elements which are well embraced by the usurping Hashemite regime, thus avoiding creating another Islamist state and radically transforming another. The path to any stability and peace requires a clear connection to history and reality, and the way to achieve this goal is thru the Jordan Option.
Netanyahu suggests to his base that if Saudi Arabia insists on a Palestinian state as a prerequisite for normalisation, Saudi should create a Palestinian state on its own territory
US suggestions that a breakthrough in normalisation was imminent appear premature pic.twitter.com/NFleRKtdi0
— Dr Andreas Krieg (@andreas_krieg) February 7, 2025
Peloni: The US surveillance state is about to receive a significant upgrade, all in the name of liberty, economy and good governance…
The sub-heading tells the story. It is essentially, a predictable outcome, a conversation we began here several months ago.
...”At the Education Department, the [DOGE] team has turned to artificial intelligence to hunt for potential spending cuts — part of a broader plan to deploy the technology across the federal government.”… (link)
Peloni: As I have noted before, the US must once and for all end its support of terrorism across the Middle East.
by Feb 7, 2025
“It is really, really a sad day in America,” Rep. Ilhan Omar declared at a rally by Democrats outside USAID headquarters protesting President Trump’s reconstruction of the aid agency.
It wasn’t a sad day for America, but it was so for Somalia.
Peloni: Al-Sain provides an important view of how fellow Arabs view their Pal brothers, that is with such a disdain that few non-Arabs could easily describe their contempt. It is an important factor to consider when considering what to do with the Pals in Gaza. Sending them to Jordan would be the most obvious choice, as Jordan violated international law when it rescinded citizenship from the Pals, and Jordan is already a nation comprised of an overwhelming Pal majority. In fact, what is missing in Jordan is the leadership which would outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies, while also embracing the Pals as being Jordanian citizens. For these reasons and others, Trump must embrace the many strong benefits of the Jordan Option, with Mudar Zahran as the leader of the New Jordanian state.
Mudar Zahran | Feb 6, 2025
Most Jordanians and Palestinians secretly support President Trump’s decision to settle the people of Gaza in Jordan…
If the crossings are opened, not a single Gazan will remain in the hell left by the war…
Trump is right to reject the two state delusion and his proposal to relocate Gaza's population cuts through decades of long-entrenched, failed orthodoxies. pic.twitter.com/RVnE4oqzua
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) February 5, 2025
Peloni: I think that Trump’s decision to move into the Middle East quandary is just part of his continued move against China. In fact, his bold proposal has significant implications for the fickled nature of US allies in the Middle East, whose moves toward China in recent years is simultaneously harmful to the US and emboldening of China. With a base of operations in Gaza, it places the US in a position of independent power projection, the likes it has never had in the Middle East, with which to influence its allies into accepting that American military dominance in the region is far more relevant than Chinese economic incursions into the region. The consequence of this is that Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be under significant pressure to return to their previous positions of being stronger and more reliable allies than they have become due to US waffling in the region. This will also allow the US the means by which to stabilize the region and maintain peaceful support for the development of the launching the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, all while turning Gaza into an enterprise which enterprise which compensates the US presence in the region. Notably, this was among the first initiatives undertaken by Trump, even as more specific elements of his foreign policy are yet to be developed or stated. For all of these reasons, and others, I believe that Trump’s Gaza proposal is very important to his second term, and likely one which he will not easily abandon.
Trump offers a way out of this cycle of bloodshed. He proposes evacuating the civilian population from Gaza, even if temporarily, allowing the process of rehabilitation and rebuilding to begin in a Gaza empty of both residents and Hamas. Yet everyone rushes to refuse the proposal.
Peloni: Highly recommended article.
By Lee Smith | Tablet | Feb 5, 2025
Click on link to read article:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/end-of-palestine
Peloni: Sherman provides an important insight into the almost universally ignored reality of the very segmented aspects of the Israeli body politic which are routinely lumped into the Left vs Right in Israeli political discord when the reality is that a better lens of Doves vs Hawks should be preferred.
Re-defining the political divide in Israel as “Doves vs Hawks” rather than “Left vs Right” is a matter of far-reaching substantive significance, well beyond mere semantics.
“…[dissenting] intellectuals tend to be scorned and abused and vilified as “the Right”; Right-wing”—that all-purpose, nonsensical, infantile insult which is designed to shut down argument. There is nothing remotely right-wing about standing up for truth against lies, justice against injustice, freedom against those who would snuff out freedom
– Melanie Phillips Israeli TV (8th January 2011)
This insightful remark by the ever-incisive British-Israeli political pundit encapsulates much of the deep malaise that has, to a large degree, afflicted both the Israeli political system and civil society institutions with which it interacts—such as Israel legal system, the academe, and mainstream media.
