The are doing that by destabilizing Saudi Arabia which is already frustrated by the US State Department’s attitude towards Iran.

Amb. (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | Aug 21, 2024

Aerial view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  iStock< strong>

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger is author of “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”  bit.ly/4dzWi9V

Since the February 1979 Ayatollahs’ Islamic Revolution – which transformed Iran from “America’s policeman in the Gulf” to the epicenter of anti-US terrorism – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has attempted to erode the US strategic posture, regionally and globally, including Latin America. Thus, the IRGC has agitated and radicalized the Shiite communities in the pro-US, oil-producing, Sunni Arab countries, while training Shiite terrorists and providing them weapons and explosives. The IRGC has focussed on Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (Bahrain’s patron), and especially on Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which is the home of the bulk of Saudi oil reserves, as well as, the main Saudi refinery and export terminal of Ras Tanura, where the Shiites – who are a 20% minority in Saudi Arabia – constitute a majority. Moreover, the Ayatollahs claim title to the major offshore Al-Durra oil and natural gas field, currently controlled by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

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by Victor Rosenthal | August 21, 2024

Israel is losing (some even say she has already irrevocably lost) the information war that is being waged in parallel with the kinetic one that she has been engaged in since 1948, but especially since 7 October 2023. The usual suggestions are technical: spend more money, react more quickly to enemy propaganda, utilize social media more effectively, and so on. All of these are worth doing, but there is one factor that is even more important than all of them together, and it is both simpler and more difficult. There are four paradoxes that can be found in our situation that expose it.

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by Nils A. Haug  •  August 21, 2024

Kibbutz Be’eri is one of 22 Israeli towns and villages that were attacked on October 7, 2023. At the kibbutzim and surrounding areas, a total of around 1,200 people were murdered (including 36 children), thousands more wounded, and more than 250 other abducted (including 30 children) — Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and foreigners, males and females, young and old, civilians and soldiers. It was purposed slaughter, a repeat of the massacres in the shtetls of Europe. Pictured: Covered bodies in front of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be’eri, photographed on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

By Sha’i ben-Tekoa | August 20, 2024

Image courtesy of Sha’i ben-Tekoa.

Conservative Jews who support Israel are known to complain that, while the League of Nations created a jurisdiction called “Palestine” in 1922 to give life to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the League wound up giving 77% to the Arabs (i.e., what became in 1946 the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan). This narrative is true according to the League’s map of Palestine—except that map is a fraud, and we know that by comparing it to maps of “Palestine” as it was known before World War I. However, there’s much more to the story of who’s occupying what land.

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By Ted Belman

On June 28, 2024, Louis Rene Beres posted an article to which I responded, telling him “Col Macgregor raised the possiblity of the use of TNW” and and I asked him what he thought. He raised all kinds of complications in doing so. He looked apon this as preemption and argued that the Rules of War are between States. I argued that Iran is a state and Hezbollah is just an extension.

I also argued that if Hezbollah started attacking Israeli cities, Israel would have a carte blanche to use TNW on Hezbollah to totally totally destry them and their rockets. So it would not be a preemptive action. It would be part of an ongoing war and justified by the Right of Self-Defense. He appears to have taken my advice and said so in the JNS article which may be found here:

https://www.jns.org/possible-advantages-of-a-preemptive-strike-on-iran/

Better late then never.

I also argued that Israel should pre-emptively attack Iran ands destoy all the oil facilities thereby reducing their revenue with which they support their proxies and hit anything else that comes to mind.

See translations below tweets

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??????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ???. ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?????.
?????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ??????. ?????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ?????… pic.twitter.com/1RWFFDabWW

— Rabbi Jacob Y. Herzog ??????? ????? ??????? ?????? (@RabbiHerzog) August 17, 2024

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By Hugh Fitzgerald | August 21, 2024

Elder of Ziyon has taken a look at what the 2024 Democratic Party says about Israel, and compares it to the party’s platform statements about Israeli over the past 20 years. There has been a steady erosion of support for the Jewish state, as phrase after phrase of support once proudly expressed has disappeared — no more “shared values” and “common interests” and praise for the “only democracy in the region” — until we have today’s bland statement of lukewarm support that is little different from that offered to any other country in the world. And in fact, Israel is taken to task for its “settlers” and “settlements” and its attempt – the nerve of those Zionists! — to annex east Jerusalem. This platform statement is a harbinger, I’m afraid, of worse to come.

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Peloni:  This is a great article!

Here are the most important principled arguments pro-Israel Democrats should make in Chicago.

By GIL TROY | AUGUST 21, 2024
A MAN proudly holds up an Israeli flag in support of the Jewish state outside the White House in May, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.  (photo credit: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Beware! The pro-Hamas, anti-American forces are pulling off a great con. Empowered by how much Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fear them in Michigan, encouraged by sniveling academics who gave them amnesty for trashing campuses, they think they’ve got momentum. They claim to represent the American people and the Democratic Party: They don’t! Most Americans remain pro-Israel and anti-Hamas. Most Americans don’t want to see Chicago burning, with hooligans using American and Israeli flags as fuel for the fire.

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Peloni:  See also, Trump Responds To Possible RFK Endorsement

?BREAKING: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, says they are considering whether to continue their campaign or team up with Trump to prevent a Kamala Harris/Tim Walz administration.

Your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/SXgcY0mhaI

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) August 20, 2024

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Peloni: In the first 20 min of this video, Gadi and Mike discuss the important details regarding ongoing dueling narratives between Blinken and Bibi regarding the Philiadelphi corridor.

Click on “Show More” and then Click on “Translate Post”

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??????, ??? ?????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ????????? ???? ??????? – ????? ????? ?? ????.
??? ??????? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???????, ??????… pic.twitter.com/y7164a99rz

— ????? ????? (@forum_tikva) August 20, 2024

Translation:

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By Alexander G. Markovsky

Image by AI.

Few historical events can compare to the stark contrast between boundless optimism and harsh reality and grand aspirations and futile delusions, as seen in socialism’s proliferation. Its ascent and decline represent one of the most sorrowful chapters of the past century.

Socialism as a political movement took root in 1848 when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto.” In a nutshell, socialism is a philosophy of economic equality that promotes a doctrine of universal poverty. True economic equality can only be attained in a state of poverty, as the concept of equal wealth is inherently contradictory. Nevertheless, the illusory ideas of socialism transcend time and continue intoxicating people of all colors and races.
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THEN-PRIME MINISTER Yitzhak Rabin and then-foreign minister Shimon Peres attend a Labor Party meeting in 1993. Rabin had been kept in the dark by Peres about the talks in Oslo, the writer asserts.  (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

This is my sixth trip to Israel since October 2023. During this visit, I spoke to one of my most trusted colleagues, who has worked with many Israeli prime ministers and continues to be a reliable source for advice and consultation in the government. This conversation prompted me to think about Israel’s upcoming diplomatic and military options in a historical context.

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The Jew-haters storming the DNC claim this is “their Vietnam.” No it’s not:

1) those protesting the war in Vietnam were opposing a draft that compelled them to leave their homes and travel 8,000 miles to fight in a conflict they did not understand. With the utmost respect and…

— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) August 19, 2024

By Hugh Fitzgerald | August 19, 2024

Israel too often fails to identify, and disseminate, the information most useful to its public relations campaign. In the same way, when faced with endless claims about the “occupied West Bank,” Israeli spokesmen seldom go on the offensive; now it should. First, it must explain the Mandate for Palestine’s express provisions to “encourage close settlement by Jews on the land.” What land? the spokesmen should ask rhetorically, and answer their own question — “the land that the League of Nations assigned to be part of the future Jewish state — all the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.”

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FDD | August 19, 2024

Latest Developments

Israel supports a new U.S.-backed deal with Hamas that would result in the release of hostages taken captive during the atrocities of October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on August 19. While the full contours of the agreement remain unclear, the deal reportedly addresses Israeli demands for a continued Israeli military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Israeli leader’s statement followed a three-hour meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Israel.

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Peloni:  Excellent article!  One point with which I would argue is that I believe that the outsourcing of weapon procurement to the US did have an impact on military engagements prior to October 7, but the Israeli public was then held in its pre-October 7 conception, and, unlike the current situation, they were willing to accept assurances by the political and military leadership that the threat from the enemy had been contained, as they acquiesce to US pressure to limit their response and thus allow the vicious cycle to start anew all over again.  Of course, October 7 changed everything, and the result of this is that the half baked solutions of past attacks are no longer tolerable, causing the US to more and more boldly leverage Israel’s dependency on US munitions into public view.

For us to fearlessly and to clearly address these existential issues we must re-embrace our sovereign mission to protect our citizens in the one and only Jewish nation-state.

By DOUGLAS ALTABEF | AUGUST 20, 2024

PEOPLE LOOK ON as smoke rises from a fire that broke out near Kibbutz Shamir in the Upper Galilee, as a result of a rocket attack from Lebanon, last week. The writer asks: What about securing the ability of our citizens to return to their homes in the North?  (photo credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

Like most people here, I look at our current situation and scratch my head. It is not the omnidirectional hatred and attacks that have me befuddled. Our enemies are doing what they always do, or at least wish they could do.

But it is us that I can’t figure out. It is the amazing dissonance of our swagger from our actions. It is the nagging sense that everything we do has to be coordinated with, or worse, approved by the Biden administration.

It is the gnawing feeling that we are not calling our own shots, that we are not in control of our own destiny. Bottom line, we have seemingly opted for vassal status instead of being the unambivalent sovereign state that I thought we were.

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