Peloni:  It seems that Rabbi Herzog’s recent warning about Mojtaba’s incapacitation if not death is being supported by nothing less significant than Iranian’s regime’s choice to promote this cardboard replacement for the latest Supreme Leader.

By Robert Spencer | Mar 12, 2026

Iran’s supreme leaders used to be made of stronger stuff.

Screenshot

With so much AI material circulating nowadays, it was easy to assume that the photos were fake, but they apparently were real. Only Mojtaba Khamenei, the new head of Iran’s Islamic regime, was slightly less than real. Photos began circulating Tuesday of Iranians straight-facedly presenting a large cardboard cutout of Mojtaba at a ceremony celebrating his appointment as the country’s supreme leader.

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Peloni:  This should be read as Netanyahu hedging his bets as Trump looks for the IRGC to take over in Iran.  This is a colossal mistake for Israel, the region, America and the world…and the Iranian people who just recently saw 30-50K of their friends and neighbors murdered after being so badly betrayed when Trump called for them to protest and gave them no support.  Then again, perhaps there is no real fight left in the Iranian people, but I would argue against this being true.

By Hugh Fitzgerald | Mar 11, 2026

Israeli tank and soldiers of Operation Defensive Shield, in Nablus, Israel Defense Forces, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 

The IDF has now said that Israel’s goal was never to change the regime in Tehran itself, but to so weaken the regime’s power to repress its citizens as to create the conditions for the Iranians themselves to change the regime. There is a difference. More on Israel’s goal can be found here: “Senior Israeli defense sources: Iran regime change not military goal, creating conditions for it is,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2026:

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Peloni:  In an important article, Daniel Winston argues that the routine responses to antisemitism fail to be effective because they treat antisemitism as if it were based upon simple misapprehension or a PR problem, rather than being the consequence of a deeply rooted hatred. Winston explains that antisemitism is not about ignorance but is instead a consequence of psychological and social functions which act like group identity, scapegoating and moral simplification.  Hence, simply informing people won’t succeed in stopping it.

Winston explains that mainstream efforts to combat antisemitism often feel like symbolic theater which are not without purpose but fail to address the issue of the fact that describing hatred being weaponized against the Jews does not eliminate the threat from those who instinctively and actively hate the Jews.  And so the threat against the Jews persists despite the animated attempts to explain away the hatred held by those who are not swayed by such explanations.  Instead, Jewish communities and institutions need physical security (guards, vetted access, protective measures), law enforcement readiness, serious policing, and clear consequences for violent or hateful acts. Education and history matter, but they are not sufficient by themselves to stem the hatred against the Jews.

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Update:  The vehicle involved in attack on Temple Israel Synagogue is reported to be registered to naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon now residing in Dearborn, Michigan.

Peloni:  The largest Reform Synagogue in all of North America attacked with gunfire and ramming by truck filled with explosive devices.  See additional coverage below Daily Caller article.

Temple Israel Synagogue. Screengrab via X

A man armed with weapons was shot and killed by security officers at a Michigan synagogue on Thursday after ramming his explosives-laden truck through the front doors.

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Iran & Hezbollah continue attacks on Israel | IDF orders more evacuations amid strikes in Lebanon | ‘Wide-scale’ Israeli strikes on Iran incl Tehran nuclear site

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 12, 2026

19:16 – Israeli Air Force strikes Basij militia roadblocks in Tehran

Confirming earlier reports, the IDF revealed that in the past 24 hours it has been striking troops of the Iranian regime’s internal security forces tasked with suppressing its population.

“Following the wide-scale degradation of many Iranian Security Internal and Basij Forces’ assets, the IDF recently identified that soldiers of the Basij Unit had established roadblocks in several locations across Tehran. After identifying the deployment, over the past day, the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, has targeted the Basij roadblocks and operatives,” the IDF said.

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Peloni: One of the most disturbing reports ever written was the revelation of what has earned the infamous unrevealing title of “The Spy Affair.”  Notably, what prevented this report from being the most disturbing report ever written was due to the efforts to prevent this story ever seeing the light of day.  We will be covering this story further in future posts, so prepare yourself for what will challenge your perspectives on almost everything you know about October 7.  The telling of this story was restricted due to a two-and-a-half-year gag order which thankfully was violated by investigation and reporting of the likes of MK Almog Cohen, retired senior police officer and journalist extraordinaire, Avi Weiss, and the intrepid researcher and journalist, Yossi Baum, among others.  The story begins with what is described below, but there is so much more to this story which you will come to see, and with every detail revealed  you will see that this story becomes more and more shocking and less and less believable.  You won’t want to miss my further elaborating comments below the tweet.

? ISRAEL SECURITY UPDATE
After more than two years under a publication ban, Israel’s Supreme Court has authorized the release of details in a sensitive espionage case tied to the October 7 attacks.

The suspect has now been identified as Assaf Shmuelavitz.

Key details:
•… pic.twitter.com/rJIofofG8Y

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) January 22, 2026

Text:

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Peloni & David Fieldstone

The Mark Levin Show. Image by Mark Levin, Public Domain, Wikipedia

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Mark opens his Sunday March 11 show by arguing that preemptive military action against Iran is clearly justified. He highlights that the Iranian negotiators recently told U.S. envoys that the country had enough enriched uranium to produce 11 nuclear bombs within ten days and that they could potentially have enough material for about 25 bombs within several weeks.  In the same moment, the Iranian negotiators refused to halt their nuclear program or even to transfer the enriched material to third parties.

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By Allen Gindler

Photo by Shealeah Craighead – President Trump’s First 100 Days: 1, Public Domain, Wikipedia

Donald Trump returned to power promising “America First.” For his devoted supporters in the MAGA movement, this slogan signified a restrained foreign policy, a rejection of unnecessary wars, and a denunciation of the old Republican or neoconservative temptation to control the world. Many of his supporters believed he would be the president who would finally break with interventionist habits, particularly in the Middle East. However, what actually happened was far more complex. Step by step, crisis by crisis, he became deeply involved in nearly every major conflict, and nowhere more than in the Middle East.

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The Problem Is Never the Man. It Is Always the Rulebook.

Aynaz Anni Cyrus | Mar 11, 2026

Quran. Image by Mustafa-trit20 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia

This is nothing new in my coverage. I have been saying it for years. But today the issue has become more urgent because of what we are hearing from Western politicians as they discuss the future of Iran.

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Mudar Zahran | X | Mar 11, 2026

Iranian strike in Oman. Screengrab via Youtube

* Today, 11 March, Iran attacked an oil-producing site in Oman. The strike hit fuel storage tanks at the Port of Salalah, a major energy logistics hub on Oman’s Arabian Sea coast used for tanker refueling and storage. Reports say drones struck several tanks and set parts of the facility on fire. (https://reuters.com/world/middle-east/oil-storage-facilities-hit-omans-salalah-port-ambrey-state-tv-say-2026-03-11/)

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Madeline Brooks: It is way past time for Americans to come out of their enemy induced trance that tells them it is more important to be “nice” to immigrants than to stay alive or free.

Islam means to take us over. It’s in their instruction book, the Koran. Democrats who abet them are aiding our sworn enemy. Logically, this is treason. There are judicial ways of handling treason.

Let us as a nation begin to think like that, and act accordingly.

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Peloni: This is an important article.  The Hudson Institute fellow, Mike Doran, recently made the argument that Pres. Trump prefers Regime Transformation to Regime Change, and that it was due to the integral aspect of the IRGC’s command over Iran’s entire economy.  In the following essay, Jalal Tagreeb provides an important detailed look into how this stranglehold on Iran’s economy came to be and how that relates to the current attempts at regime change.

By Jalal Tagreeb

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Screengrab via Youtube

For decades, Western analysts have debated the best means of dismantling one of the most destabilizing regimes on the planet. The Islamic Republic of Iran has exported terrorism, funded proxy armies, pursued nuclear weapons, and brutalized its own people — all while hiding behind a veneer of ideological legitimacy. But the key to understanding both the regime’s resilience and its ultimate vulnerability lies not in theology or geopolitics alone. It lies in economics. Specifically, it lies in the vast, corrupt, and parasitic financial empire of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — and in how Israel’s sustained military and strategic pressure is now accelerating the conditions that could finally bring that empire crashing down.

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Iranian drones ignite oil facilities at Oman’s Salalah Port | Trump asserts US can end Iran war ‘any time’ after massive gains | IRGC claims responsibility for vessel attacks along Strait of Hormuz

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 11, 2026

21:51 – Israel prepares for major escalation against Hezbollah

“We are on the eve of a fateful campaign in Lebanon which will determine the future of both countries,” a senior security official told Ynet News, adding that the cabinet was holding a security discussion on Wednesday evening.

“The campaign in Lebanon is going to expand significantly,” he said, which will also include the call-up of more reservists.

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Rabbi Jacob Herzog | X | Mar 11, 2026

Image via X

I confirm this information to you: The leader Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously injured in a joint American–Israeli strike two days ago, and the goal of the operation was the assassination of the Iranian leader Mojtaba.

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Peloni:  Recognizing the limit of any potential unconditional surrender leads to the proper understanding of what can be achieved while pursing the policy of unconditional surrender:  enabling the rise of the Iranian people to claim their right of personal and national dignity while playing the role of their own liberators while supported by and coordinated with the US and Israeli war being waged against their oppressors.

The Iranian ayatollahs are the modern-day Circumcellions whose time is up.

David Wurmser | Mar 10, 2026

The path to the Mahdist mullahs’  ‘unconditional surrender’

When U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he expects this war with the Islamic Republic to end with an unconditional surrender, it set off a debate over what that might mean and how it will happen. To answer these questions, one needs to understand the nature of the Iranian regime.

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China’s infiltration of Canada has become dangerously widespread, presenting a major threat, and the U.S. has every reason to reevaluate its policies toward its northern neighbor.

Janet Levy | Am Thinker | March 11, 2026

Last week, The Bureau revealed that in 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) visited a lab belonging to Bobby Shah, also known as Bahman Djebelibak, a Vancouver businessman sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for links to a Chinese drug syndicate. Worse, a senior RCMP officer emailed Shah a recipe for fentanyl production.

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Peloni:  One of the great challenges for the current US administrations has been to deal with the threat emanating from Turkey which it has failed to contain in many ways.  The early failures to restrain Turkey over the past year has only emboldened the delusional fantasies of Turkey extending its colonial control over the Middle East and Eastern Europe.  This will only serve to undermine Trump’s efforts for a Asia pivot as well as the establishment of the IMEC.

Dr. Nikos Michailidis | MEMRI | Mar 11, 2026

Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan meets Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Screengrab via Youtube.

Turkey’s foreign policy under the authoritarian rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has devolved into a brazen exercise in neo-Ottoman expansionism, flagrantly disregarding international norms and prioritizing territorial aggrandizement over NATO alliance obligations. Officials in Ankara like to describe it as “strategic autonomy.”

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How a $3.8 Billion Talking Point, Half-Truths, and Conspiracy Theories Became a Profitable Media Business

Michel Benchimol 

Screengrab via Youtube

There is a profitable business model in modern media: pick a villain, repeat a simple number of time, feed the audience outrage, and never complicate the story with inconvenient facts.

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Peloni:  Along the Left Hand Column of the Israpundit page are a list of influential and significant books.  In talking with my friend and mentor, Ted Belman, z’l, he once described it as the Banner of Great Books.  In any event, the latest important work we are adding to this column is by my dear and inspiring friend Victor Sharpe and which really warranted being listed here long ago, something to which I know Ted would have very much agreed.  It is the invaluable series “Politicide” by Victor Sharpe.  Our readers here on Israpundit will be familiar with Victor’s numerous important contributions here on Israpundit, all of which are marked by his wit, knowledge and ability to both grasp as well as to articulate the truth as a shield against the open and growing bias raised against our beloved Israel in a world growing mad with rampant Jew Hatred.  So I encourage people to reading Victor’s works collected in a four part series beginning with the first volume of “Politicide, The Attempted Murder of the Jewish State”.

Victor Sharpe

Politicide is a word coined by the late Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, to describe the act of murdering a State: that state being the nation of Israel.

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