Peloni:  Iran’s setback in Caracus

Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” expansion strategy just took a hit

Houthi Drone. Screengrab via Youtube.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Few seem aware of the interwoven strategic geopolitical relationships at play behind the headlines coming from both Iran and Venezuela. However, you can rest assured that neither Secretary of State Rubio, nor POTUS Donald Trump is so naive. The recent action against Nicolás Maduro was billed as taking aggressive steps against a chronic sponsor of narcoterrorism, but the issues are much deeper. At this very moment, a politically diverse range of social media influencers are busy criticizing this intervention. Still, none seem to be aware of or accounting for these deeper geopolitical issues.

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Peloni:  Either the United States is THE world power, or it is a regional hegemon.  If the former is true, why is it that the US is using the same rhetoric which Russia coined in its invasion of Ukraine, ie that Venezuela is in America’s sphere of influence.  In fact, if the US is the world’s super power, the relevance of the concept imbued in the Monroe Doctrine would give it authority which it has used for decades around the world.  In conveying that US actions in Venezuela are related to the proximity of it geographically to the US, is the US abdicating its right of action against similar bad actors presumably committing war crimes against the American people?   While the notion of charity begins at home is a valuable concept, reliance upon the edict of America when it was a nascent state with limited means compared to the empires of the 19th Century reveals a rather stark message to America’s adversaries that this limit of resolve might be a signal to regional powers that they might assume the same role.  Is this a matter of bad messaging, or was this the message intended for America’s peer adversaries.

By Jonathan Schanzer | NYP | Published Jan. 4, 2026

Helicopter force involved in capturing Maduro.  Screengrab via Youtube. [Cropped]

The Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Saturday was a US victory on two fronts: the war on drugs and the great-power competition with China and Russia.

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Mudar Zahran | Jan 5, 2025

The situation in the West Bank is unsustainable and could explode at any moment.
A shocking video reflects a growing reality: violence is local for now, but tension and despair are widespread and intensifying. Corruption within the Palestinian Authority, widespread youth… pic.twitter.com/VA6r9ZrG8O

— Mudar Adnan Zahran ??? ????? ????? (@Mudar_Zahran) January 5, 2026

The situation in the West Bank is unsustainable and could explode at any moment.

A shocking video reflects a growing reality: violence is local for now, but tension and despair are widespread and intensifying. Corruption within the Palestinian Authority, widespread youth unemployment, and the theft of foreign aid have left many with nothing to lose. Last night in Bethlehem, a clash between young men escalated into a vehicle being used as a weapon, a stark warning of how volatile the situation has become. It is increasingly clear that the Palestinian Authority has become a burden on everyone, and without a genuine overhaul, the situation will collapse sooner rather than later.

by Con Coughlin  •  Gatestone Institute  •  January 4, 2026

US President Donald Trump’s demand that Hamas terrorists completely disarm will only happen if the White House is prepared to pressure countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Iran, which have historically backed the terror group, to force Hamas militants to lay down their arms. Pictured: A Hamas spokesman appears in a recorded statement to the media, in the Gaza Strip.  (Screengrab via Youtube)

• Ever since Trump succeeded in implementing the first stage of his 20-point plan for ending the Gaza conflict, Hamas has received widespread backing from its supporters in Ankara, Doha, Islamabad and Tehran for ignoring demands to surrender its weapons.

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Arlene Kushner | Jan 4, 2025

Jim Watson/ AFP

This is my first posting for the year 2026. The transition from 2025 passed me by with scarcely a blip last week, because when I think ‘new year’, I think Rosh Hashana, marked by prayer and introspection.

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Peloni:  Once again the United Nations succeeds in exposing itself as a center of Jew Hatred bias which has been too long tolerated and promoted as if it were a legitimately impartial body.  Notorious for its lack of impartiality, the UN never fails to demonstrate that it can not fulfill its mandate as a source from which honest debate towards useful solutions might be sought, specifically and consistently when Israel is in any way related to the topic at hand.

Americans For A Safe Israel backs U.S. envoy’s forceful defense of Israel during Security Council emergency session on Somaliland recognition.

TheJ.ca Staff | The JCA | Jan 2, 2025

Spokesperson Tammy Bruce holds a press briefing at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., August 12, 2025. (By U.S. Department of State – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

NEW YORK — A leading pro-Israel advocacy organization has publicly praised recent remarks by Tammy Bruce, following her address to an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, where she criticized what she described as persistent double standards targeting Israel.

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Peloni:  The image of rockets felling on innocent Israelis should be burnt into the minds of those in Europe and America, as Iran’s further development of longer ranged rockets is not aimed at reaching Israel.  Indeed, the threat which the West has seen fit to maintain over Israel is grasping to reach the Europeans and American shorelines, something which should be realized and acted upon before such a scenario comes to be realized.

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  Gatestone Institute  •  January 3, 2026

Since the end of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel, there has been mounting evidence that its regime has been ramping up missile production. These missiles – now part of reportedly the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East – can reach not only regional targets but also the U.S. and Europe, a senior Iranian lawmaker has openly boasted. Pictured: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a ‘Qasem Soleimani’ missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo: Iranian Airborne Cruise Missile (By Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia)

• These missiles – now part of reportedly the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East – can reach not only regional targets but also the U.S. and Europe, a senior Iranian lawmaker has openly boasted. The regime does not just brag about these weapons; it uses them.

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David Wurmser | Jan 2, 2025

Image via AI

First of all, there are credible reports that several cities — or at least core structures such as Basiji/IRGC bases and government buildings — have been taken over by the revolt. It started with the fall of an IRGc installation in Fasa, but there appear to be credible videos of government buildings and security installations burning in numerous cities geographically well-dispersed across Iran.

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Roamnrab: WHAT’S it going to take to get Trump to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING DRASTIC and EFFECTUAL against the WORLD’S LEADING SPONSOR OF TERRORISM, UNREST, ISLAMIC-TOTALITARIANISM, JEW-HATRED, CHRISTIAN-PERSECUTION and ANTI-WESTERNISM?!

PRES. TRUMP, IT’S NOW OR NEVER!

Forget about the “Isolationists” in your Government.

DO SOMETHING (REAL) ABOUT IRAN AND HER EVIL TENTICALS- NOW!

Iranians celebrate Maduro’s fall as protests challenge Khamenei

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Peloni:  This is a very important article, detailing the path of solidifying Israeli support in the region, something which was once Israel’s focus prior to its rising dependency upon the establishment of the US-Israeli alliance.  America was not always an ally of Israel, and was initially very supportive of the arms embargo which left Israel’s enemies with a significant advantage over the nascent Jewish state for the first 20yrs following its re-establishment.  While Israel should not ignore the support of its relationship with the US, it should not be constrained to exclusively depend upon it either.

Strengthening ties with Somaliland is not detached from the broader picture, which centers on establishing a system of cooperation between Israel and its neighbors, first and foremost Greece and Cyprus.

by  Prof. Eyal Zisser  | Jan 4, 2025

Flag of Somaliland National Republic. Photo by Yeahwaffles – Own work, CC0, Wikipedia

Most Israelis have never heard of Somaliland, and many would struggle to locate it on a map. The same appears to be true of President Donald Trump, who reportedly dismissed Israel’s recognition of the entity and admitted he had no idea what this “Somaliland” was. But that is hardly a reason to underestimate the strategic importance of strengthening ties between Israel and Somaliland, a state in the making that is moderate, pro-Western, stable and prosperous, and has functioned as a de facto independent country for nearly four decades, even if it remains unrecognized by the international community.

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Peloni:  Trump listed a number of Americans who have been the victims of the Maduro regime’s exploitation of America with its support of drug trade and terrorist groups in America.  Such existential threats are important to both recognize and to eliminate.  Hopefully, this action alongside his recent embrace of Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago marks a change in US policy which saw Trump ordering Israeli planes home, preserving the threat from Iran in place.  As Trump has eliminated the threat from Venezuela for Americans, Israel should encouraged to end the existential threats which emanate against the Israeli people from Iran and her proxies.  The neutralization of the Iranian threat could have been ended early last summer, and the threat from Hamas could have been ended long ago.  As was true with Maduro, negotiations with Iran and Hamas have only serve to preserve terrorists in power, and only resolved actions against these terrorists can serve to remove the threats that they pose, a threat which is not pointed exclusively at Israel but also at Americans as well.

J.B. Shurk | American Thinker | January 4, 2026

Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Early Saturday morning, details emerged of a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that effected the successful capture and extradition of Venezuela’s illegitimate president, Nicolás Maduro, to the United States.  Delta Force operators executed a daring mission in Caracas while combat pilots led the effort to destroy key military installations on the ground.  The narcoterrorist Maduro will no longer wield power over the Venezuelan people or serve as a conduit for America’s enemies to poison Americans and wage hybrid warfare against the United States.  Maduro was blindfolded aboard the USS Iwo Jima as he began his journey toward becoming a criminal defendant in New York (maybe he’ll feel at home with fellow communist Zohran Mamdani at the helm in NYC).

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Peloni: Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, discusses the likely coming war between Israel and Iran.  In the discussion he makes reference to the fact that in the Middle East, it is actions rather than words which are the source of intimidation and deterrence. Trump has a history of making threats which fail to materialize, but his attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the seizure of Maduro from his palace should give the Iranians pause before dismissing Trump’s threats.  This being stated, the most recent statement from Khamenei is “We will not back down before the enemy, we will bring them to their knees” demonstrating the simple fact that Iran is not responding as if deterred, but rather the opposite is true.  Action, not just words, are needed.

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Peloni:  Trump’s refusal to recognize and oppose Turkish expansionism in the region has been and remains a disturbing aspect of his Middle East policies which undermines any potential for peace in the region.

By Christine Douglass-Williams | Jan 2, 2025

Photo by kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia

Shay Gal is a senior strategic advisor and analyst specializing in international security, defense policy, geopolitical crisis management, and strategic communications. Jihad Watch ran an article in July: “Is Turkey ‘the new Iran’? A top Israeli strategic analyst thinks so,” based on Turkey’s consistent actions (as Jihad Watch has covered for years), and on the case that Gal makes that Turkey has indeed evolved into “the new Iran.”

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Peloni:  It is a worrying reality that so many of the Republican establishment have moved to close ranks around Tucker Carlson as his campaign of promoting the normalization of Jew Hatred has had so much success.  Yet, while political talking heads on the Right are in large numbers failing to directly chastise Carlson’s antisemitism, for VP Vance to adopt such a reckless and inexcusable position is a far more threatening reality, as he is not only a very significant contender for the 2028 Republican primary, but he also stands only one heartbeat away from the presidency in his current position as vice president.  America has developed a very serious antisemitism problem, both within the youth, but also within the leadership of both sides of the political aisle.  While it has become commonplace and systemic throughout the Left, Jew Hatred speaks through the talking heads of the likes of Carlson on the Right and has a growing presence, normalizing Jew Hatred as was once the situation on the now entirely rabid Jew Hating Left.  Only by addressing this problem openly, directly, courageously and without condition might the Right rid itself of this rank cancer which is growing among its adherents.  Failing to do exactly this, something which Vance has yet to do himself, will see the poison of Jew Hatred continue to consume the American Right as it did with the Left.  The lack of credible leadership failed the American Left due to their lack of moral fortitude.  Is this to be paralleled within the American Right as well?

by Joan Swirsky | The Post Email | ©2025

Image via AI

At one time in my life, I was an operating-room nurse, both participating in and witnessing the things that just about every person on earth can’t stand to think about.

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Peloni:  Regime change of obviously bad actors who harbor terrorists, facilitate drug trade in the US, and are recognized as rogue state, should be understood as an obvious and exercisable stratagem in the US toolbox of statecraft.  The problem arises when such tools are weaponized against domestic political enemies or against clearly allied nations.  These latter two are the backdrop under which Trump laid down a policy restricting the use of regime change under his watch, but his absolute rejection of such tactics has clearly been amended to allow the arrest and prosecution of Nicholas Maduro.  Given the literally thousands of Americans, soldiers and civilians, who have been butchered by the Iranian Mullahs over decades, along with their proxy Hezbollah’s significant role in facilitating the drug trade towards the US, would it not be wise for Trump to next focus the use of regime change tactics against the oppressive and menacing Mullahs in Iran?

By Samuel Ben-Ur | January 3, 2026

Poster in which the DEA offers more than 15 million dollars for Nicolás Maduro. Photo by DEA – DEA.gov, Public Domain, Wikipedia

On January 3, at around 2 am, the United States military began a wave of airstrikes on military targets in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and surrounding areas. Shortly afterward, at around 4:30 am, US. President Donald Trump wrote that “The United States of America successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.”

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What We Found Is ASTONISHING

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Will Netanyahu leverage this deal to force Egypt to honor its peace commitments, or will he allow the deal to shield Egypt from accountability?

By AVI ABELOW | JANUARY 1, 2026

Netanyahu speaks before UN General Assembly. Image via Youtube

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