Update:  Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem described the proposed Lebanon-Israel ceasefire proposal as “Satan’s dream in heaven.”  He went on to threaten Israel’s northern communities, stating that they will not be safe so long as Israeli forces are present in Lebanon.

Peloni:  Once again, Hezbollah is saved from destruction under the ruse of a Lebanon peace agreement which has no legitimacy if Lebanon does not hold authority over Hezbollah.  Notably, such hypocrisy as to suggest that Lebanon does have any influence over Hezbollah comes right out of nonsensical playbook which led to October 7.  Notably, several thousand Hezbollah fighters have been eliminated over the past weeks, and it is being argued that the diminishing number of Hezbollah militants may give Lebanon the edge to finally wield control over Hezbollah, but this defies the reality of Hezbollah’s control over the Lebanese Armed Forces.  In the more than a year prior to the current engagement with Hezbollah, under the oversight of Amb. Tom Barrack, Lebanon took a year to prove that it lacked any control over Hezbollah, and in fact, the Lebanese effort to pretend otherwise simply provided Hezbollah with the means by which to regroup, rearm and return to battle.  I fully expect we are looking at the same game being played currently, with the notable difference of the IDF being situated in a forward position in Lebanon.

Hezbollah official rejects ceasefire agreement which only restricts Israeli targeting of Dahiyeh

All Israel News Staff | Published: June 4, 2026

Amb. Leighter addressing the agreement to a ceasefire in Lebanon.  Screengrab via Youtube.

In a joint statement on Thursday, Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew the ceasefire, which had been announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in mid-April and has been recently imperiled by fighting between Hezbollah and the IDF.

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Peloni:  Look for more on the legitimacy, ie Constitutionality, of the War Powers Act later today.

Nicole Silverio | Capitol Hill Reporter | Daily Caller | June 03, 2026

Mike Johnson is sworn in as Speaker. Photo by Office of Congressman Mike Johnson – X.com, Public Domain, Wikipedia

President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders lost their attempt to defeat a Democratic-led war powers resolution Wednesday that would limit Trump’s authority to wage war in Iran.

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Peloni:  In acknowledging his remarks about Netanyahu, Trump came to actually criticize Israel’s position regarding Lebanon, and while the notariety of Trump’s frank criticism of Netanyahu has received nearly all the discussion thus far, Trump’s comments regarding Lebanon remains far more troublesome and disturbing to consider.  Emily Schrader makes this point clear.

Peloni:  I have never understood why voting is not a compulsive requirement of citizens in democratic nations.  While people suffer the consequences of political options which are decided without their input, they still fail to enforce the consent of the governed.  The result of what might be described as democratic malpractice has the potential of having a nation’s values erased, its legal standards perverted, and its liberties lost.    Judeo-Christian values form the foundation of Western societies.  Is it not worth the price of voting to preserve it for future generations?

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Peloni:  There is no calculable advantage for either America or Israel to provide any support of linkage between Lebanon and Iran, and it also greatly disrespects the notion that Lebanon has any agency of its own, which would be the so-called peace negotiations currently ongoing between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel must have full freedom of action to act to prevent attacks from Hezbollah against Israeli forces and citizens, and this should not be restricted from targeting Hezbollah’s command and control centers in Beirut.

Hezbollah says it ‘will not accept partial ceasefire,’ as rocket and drone attacks continue

All Israel News Staff | Published: June 3, 2026

Screengrab via Youtube

Israel and Lebanon held a fresh round of talks in Washington in an attempt to achieve an end to the fighting in Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country.

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Peloni:  The incessant attacks from Iran and its proxies are intolerable for Israel and the Arab states to have to endure.

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Peloni:  Trump’s comments about Netanyahu and Lebanon did nothing more than to advantage those who would prefer to see the US-Israel alliance dismantled, and that is very unfortunate.

Iran is little more than a depleted skeleton of a state without a functional leadership. And at that moment, Trump obsessively wants to agree to a deal that lifts sanctions on the regime, unfreezes its assets, and allows oil sales, playing negotiation games with a cheater he can never beat.

Alexander Maistrovoy | Jun 3, 2026

President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop to talk with reporters Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, along the West Wing Colonnade of the White House prior to their meeting in the Oval Office. By The White House from Washington, DC – President Trump Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Public Domain, Wikipedia

This brilliant phrase, attributed to Winston Churchill, perfectly describes Trump’s impending deal with Iran. Victory seemed closer than ever. Following the strikes first in June last year and then in March of this year, the Iran lay in ruins: military infrastructure was destroyed; the IRGC’s top command was eliminated; the Supreme Leader was killed; Iran lost two-thirds of its missile and drone production capacity, hundreds of launchers and 250 air defense systems; damage to the economy reached $140-150 billion; major factories, power plants and bridges were destroyed; more than 85% of Iran’s petrochemical exports were disabled.

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Peloni: Interestingly, I have always linked the point raised in this essay as being the foundation for Ben Franklin supposedly having stated “A Republic, if you can keep it” when quizzed about the form of the new American nation.  The will of the people can be misguided and shifting, and this makes the possibility of consistent national policies somewhat questionable if not impossible.

Of course, the Republican form of govt has served the Americans well up to recently, and I would argue that much of the recent insanity in America has to do with the inability of the American govt to exercise agency over its own borders, governing administrations, and education.  The failure of the Fourth Estate has accentuated much of these failures in American governance, and the consequence of this is that the too many people are not just ill informed, but rather they are purposefully misinformed.  The nuance between these facets is significant, and the willful move to misalign public sentiment at the behest of malevolent foreign actors such as China, Qatar and Turkey is having the desired effect of this foreign cabal to weaponize the the inherent vulnerability of democracies against the national interest.  Recalling that freedom isn’t free, and without the heavy lifting by the world’s democracies to reaffirm their national agency and sovereign obligations, freedom will continue to be diminished from many aspects, but none so dangerous and crippling I would argue than from the loss of journalistic standards which should be shining the light on foreign influence and political corruption, rather than playing a role of complicity in these matters.

Linda Goudsmit:  I am an American with an American perspective. Even if every single item listed in this excellent analysis is true, there is one glaring void in the article. The entire list is intentional––it is planned demolition. Until the public understands that every item listed has been advanced deliberately to collapse America from within, we the people will not be able to defeat the enemies of freedom who are advancing the policies and protocols to destroy the nation-state. And who are our enemies? The globalist elite who fund and foment the escalating destructiveness of their useful idiots: the red/green Marxist/Muslim axis, the radical leftist Democrat party that supports them, and the greedy RINOS (republicans in name only) who vote with them.

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Peloni:  The reality is that the Iranian regime will not surrender, and will never surrender.  To force the regime from power, as indicated in the often raised analogy to the Nazis in WWII, Trump would need to commit a ground force to eliminate the regime in Tehran, as was done with the Nazi regime in 1945 Germany.  Of course, Trump could have used the Kurds, but instead chose to once again abandon such strategies which conflict with Turkey’s interests.  This leaves no such available capable armed force in the region to force the Iranian regime from power, and Trump was never going to use American warfighters in Iran despite his hyperbole and threats.  The Iranians know this, and so they persist.  Hence victory was always going to be ceded to the Iranians.  Trump’s blockade has the means to cripple the Iranians financially, but even as we speak, China and Pakistan are moving to improve the overland transit of oil from Iran to keep China’s Iranian pawn in the Middle East fed with cash, if not also with arms aplenty to use against either the Iranians or the Americans & Israelis if war returns.

The president turns on his ally to attain a false peace.

by Robert Spencer | June 2, 2026

President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Monday, July 7, 2025, at the South Portico of the White House.(Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Trump himself announced the betrayal on Monday:

I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu today, asking him not to go into a major raid of Beirut, Lebanon. He turned his Troops around. Thank you Bibi! I also had a conversation with Representatives of the Leaders of Hezbollah, and they agreed to stop shooting at Israel, and its soldiers. Likewise, Israel agreed to stop shooting at them. Let’s see how long that lasts — Hopefully it will be for ETERNITY! President DONALD J. TRUMP

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Peloni:  Dr. David Wurmser addresses the America First policy as it relates to Israel and the Iran War.

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Peloni:  Expanding Barrack’s role in the region, across nearly the entire region, espouses the notion that his efforts in either stabilizing Syria or instituting peace along Lebanon’s border were successful.  The reality is that the Druze continue to live under constant threat in Syria, and Israelis continue to be murdered with impunity along Israel’s northern border, and both of these very real realities are a consequence of Barrack’s pro-Turkey approach.  In fact, it seems that Trump is disposed to keeping key actors in his govt busy by expanding their roles as we have seen with Rubio and most recently with FHFA Director Bill Pulte being named to now also be Trump’s new DNI, but as the role being played by Amb. Barrack expands, it seems destined to be accompanied by the influence of Turkey over the region, and the implications of this are pregnant with disastrous effects for the future.

US Envoy Tom Barrack has played a key role in US policy in the Middle East over the past year. He was appointed Special Envoy to Syria last year. He is also the US Ambassador to Turkey.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN | JUNE 1, 2026

Ambassador Tom Barrack and President Recep Erdogan. Image via AI

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Sarah N. Stern | June 2, 2026

Antonio Guterres at COP30 in Belem (Nov 20, 2025). By Xuthoria – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia

Misleading claims about Israel frequently circulate at the United Nations. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, consists of 57 member states and aims to represent the voice of the Muslim world.

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