Peloni:  The Lebanese lack agency as they lack any independence from their Iranian task masters in Tehran.  Iranian control of that captured nation will remain fixed til either some outside force frees them from the Shia control domination, something which is not likely to ever take place, or til the Mullahs controlling Lebanon as its vassal state are overthrown in Iran.  Hence, while the time to free Lebanon is at hand, it would require decisive action to take place in Iran, not in Lebanon.

By David Daoud | December 10, 2024

The Assad regime has fallen. Meanwhile, the dreaded Third Lebanon War, during which Israel gave Hezbollah an unprecedented drubbing, is either over or in a ceasefire-induced lull. But the Iranian-backed organization has neither been conclusively defeated nor is it past the point of regeneration. Recognizing this situation, the ceasefire deal’s drafter, US envoy Amos Hochstein, included safeguards ostensibly meant to prevent Hezbollah’s regeneration—to ensure, in his words, this would be the final Hezbollah-Israel war. However, Hochstein made a critical mistake, one that will likely prove fatal to his anticipated objectives: much like UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the latest agreement made action by the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) against Hezbollah the cornerstone of the ceasefire.

Read more…

Barak Ravid | Axios | Dec 13, 2024

President-elect Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), two sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.

Why it matters: It was the first meeting between MBS and a member of the incoming Trump administration since the November elections.

• Trump appointed Witkoff, his best friend and one of his closest confidants, as his administration’s Middle East envoy with the clear aim of sealing a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia — a process that started during the Biden administration.
• Trump wants the deal to include a historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia and at least some progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sources with knowledge of Trump’s thinking said.
• “I want a long lasting peace. I’m not saying that’s a very likely scenario … I want a peace where we don’t have an October 7 in another three years. I’d like to see everybody be happy,” Trump told Time magazine earlier this week.

Read more…

FDD | Dec 13, 2024

Latest Developments

• Russia Negotiates To Keep Bases: Officials from Russia and representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — the Syrian rebel group that overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad last week — are conducting direct negotiations over whether Moscow can retain control over its two military bases in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said during a press conference on December 12. Bogdanov said that negotiations were “proceeding in a constructive fashion,” urging HTS to keep its promise to “guard against all excesses” during its takeover.

• No Decisions Yet: Following its military intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015, Russia had been Assad’s key ally in combating rebel groups such as HTS, maintaining a naval logistics facility in Tartus and an air base in Khmeimim — both located in western Syria near the Mediterranean coast. Bogdanov cautioned that no decisions have been made yet, and Syrian official Mohammed Sabra said that a public referendum will decide any foreign presence in Syria. The Financial Times reported on December 13 that satellite images of Khmeimim air base showed the “arrival of several large transport aircraft and the disassembly of Russian helicopters and air defenses — all factors consistent with forces gathering there to depart.”

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Peloni:  A just accounting for the crimes committed on behalf of deploying this fraud on the world must not be left unsatisfied.  The extent and tragic loss of life, liberty and property which came as a consequence to the policies pursued against reason, science, and reality was seismic in it effect and encompassing in its reach.  What is more is that those people who were left shattered by the covid responses, both physically and financially, must be granted what assistance is needed and possible.  The fact that this was not a feature of the recent US election is quite concerning, but hopefully this fact will not prevent the policy change needed to address these victims of societal corruption which is both vast and persistent.

Congressional Committee Condemns (Nearly) Every Feature Of The Covid Response – OpEd

By Jeffrey A. Tucker | December 9, 2024

Are there words in the English language that fully describe what happened during the Covid years that are not already overused? Calamity comes to mind. Disaster. Cataclysm. Ruin, devastation, catastrophe, unprecedented debacle, fiasco, and utter wreckage – all fine words and phrases but nothing quite captures it.

Given that, there is probably no report on the thing that can properly characterize the whole of it. On the other hand, it’s worth trying.

Meanwhile, the results of Covid commissions of governments around the world have become unbearably predictable. So far they have mostly said their government failed because they didn’t act fast enough, did not enforce lockdowns hard enough, did not communicate and coordinate well enough, and so on.

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The left’s dangerous plans ignore a critical truth about the Middle East: things change rapidly, and no peace agreement can be relied upon. Only the strong survive in this neighborhood. Opinion.

Avi Abelow | Dec 12, 2024

IDF in Syria   IDF Spokesperson

Israel stands strong today because of the courage and determination of those who protested in the streets to protect our future. Decades ago, in the early 1990s, the political left, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and supported by senior IDF and intelligence officials, sought to make a peace agreement with the Assad regime in Syria. Part of that plan involved surrendering the Golan Heights—a strategic gem overlooking all of Israel—to Syrian control.

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Stephen Bryen | Weapons & Strategy Dec 13, 2024

Rezonans-NE Radar

National security advisors to incoming President Donald Trump are considering decapitating Iran’s nuclear program in a bombing campaign. They would not be thinking this way had not Israel been remarkably successful in wiping out Iran’s air defenses. The star of the show was the F-35. Interest in the Trump camp, with Elon Musk one of the strongest voices, to replace the F-35 with drones, just took a body blow thanks to Israel.

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Peloni:  Erin Molan doesn’t miss a beat as she responds to Sky News having tried to silence her by firing her by launching her own Youtube Channel immediately afterwards.  Erin stands as both an inspiring and informing voice opposing a sea of misinformed, controlled and approved narratives which have left the MSM as little more than propaganda centers which should earn our great disgust.  Of course, while it may be believed that terminating Erin’s employment at Sky News will silence her, the truth is that they entirely freed her from being silenced.   As Erin explains her situation quite succinctly, “I will not stop, I am only getting started!”  Bravo!

Peloni

Shlomo Fiber, the co-owner of Direct Polls and former Director-General of the Ministry of Communications, gave the following response when challenged by @LittleMoiz with the question of how it might be possible for the Israeli Right to continue to strengthen in the year following October 7:

Here is my response to him and to others who are interested in what has been happening to the right and to opposition voters over the past year:

1. October 7 was a national trauma for the entire nation—both coalition and opposition alike.
2. Opposition voters, most of whom had already been engaged in an aggressive year-long protest and struggle against the government, saw this event as the final nail in the coffin of the Netanyahu government. Read more…

Peloni:  There are many complicating features associated with the plan to settle sectarian tribal violence with the creation of statelets based along ethnic lines of division.  This is but one of those complicating features.

Residents of the Druze village of Hatcher in Syria demand annexation to Israel

The Druze residents declared during the well-attended gathering that they prefer to be part of the State of Israel out of fear of what could happen to the village following the rise of Sunni rebels to… pic.twitter.com/lQIJhemHRt

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) December 13, 2024

Peloni:  Trump’s Time Magazine interview provides an important context for Trump’s vision for peace in the Middle East.  It should be seen as both significant and relevant that as Trump addresses questions put to him about revisiting the TSS, that he raises the topic of October 7, unsolicited, more than once for context, while also chastising those who try to ignore the relevance of that horror.  Also while being pressed on the topic of the TSS, Trump clearly states that there are alternatives to consider, while also noting that the though he wants everyone to be happy, we need to see who can be happy.

Time

[EXCERPT]

Well, another war with a high death toll is happening in the Middle East. You reportedly told Prime Minister Netanyahu that you wanted him to end the war in Gaza before you took office. What did he say?

I think that, before I talk about that, I think that the Middle East is an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. Okay, I just want to say that up front. The Middle East is going to get solved. The Middle East has been—it’s a horrible thing. October 7 was a horrible thing. Everyone is forgetting conveniently about October 7, but that was a horrible day for the world, not for Israel, for the world. And I think the Middle East is going to get—as we speak, things are happening very productively on the Middle East. I think the Middle East is going to get solved. I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to solve.

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Peloni:  Among other things, Danny Seaman relates a report from a source of his that Bibi was given to understand that if he agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon that there would be dramatic things to take place in Syria.  His source also relates that the Americans were very much involved in what took place in Syria.

?BREAKING? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address (in English) to the citizens of Iran: “Your tyrants invested more than 30 billion dollars in supporting Assad in Syria. After only 11 days of fighting, his regime collapsed into dust.” Listen ? pic.twitter.com/ZVVtxjcLOT

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) December 12, 2024

Sundance | Dec 13, 2024

The Office of the Inspector General for the DOJ (DOJ-OIG) has outlined an 88-page report on events around the January 6th, 2021, DC protest. The report is AVAILABLE HERE.

FBI Director Chris Wray announced his decision to resign from office one day before the Inspector General report was released. The report shows that 26 FBI Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) were used officially and unofficially during the J6 events. Four entered the Capitol building, another 13 entered the restricted area around the building.

[OIG REPORT HERE]

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Any Israeli alliances should include the restoration of a profoundly just, moral, and enduring pact with the Kurdish people, as in the days of Mustafa Barazani. Opinion.

Victor Sharpe | Dec 11, 2024

Kurd MilitantIsrale news   photo Creative Commons

Iran, Turkey, and Qatar have swiftly mobilized to falsely condemn Israel’s defensive operations in Syria following the overthrow of the Assad dictatorship. These three nations, notorious for their own troubling actions in Syria, are now hiding their own nefarious involvement in the region by predictably and falsely singling out Israel.

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The election of Donald Trump and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria will compel a recalibration of recalibration of France’s past policies. Opinion.

Martin Sherman | Dec 13, 2024

Emmanuel Macron   Reuters

Often a man’s perfidy will rebound on himself –Jean de La Fontaine

French President, Emmanuel Macron is facing trying times, and recent pronouncements by French officials appear only to exacerbate his unenviable situation.

As will be recalled, last week, the French government fell with a resounding thud that could well reverberate across Europe.

Read more…