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Israel Just Ended China’s Great Power Status in the Middle East by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21687/israel-iran-china

“There were some very, very relieved people in the Gulf as the sun rose this morning…. The Saudis know that China had armed their enemy Iran with nukes and lesser weapons and fully backed the Houthis, who have been waging war on the Kingdom for years.” — Jonathan Bass, Chief Executive Officer, Argent LNG, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025.

“The Chinese state is only as strong as its main energy provider, and that main energy provider, which so far has not been able to counter Israeli strikes, is unlikely to survive this war in its current form.” — Brandon Weichert, author of The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025.

“With the loss of Syria and Hezbollah, Iran no longer has a command and control center in Damascus, only a two hour drive from Beirut. That means China can no longer manipulate events there.” — Jonathan Bass, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025.

China has a Trump problem in the wider region as well. With the exception of Iran, almost everybody, including Iran’s partner Qatar, seems to love the American president. Trump took the Gulf by storm in his three-nation — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — trip in May.

Israeli air and drone strikes during the early hours of June 13th crippled Iran — and severely set back Tehran’s regional ambitions. The Israel Defense Forces hit nuclear weapons development facilities and ballistic missile sites, and killed senior military officers, including Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the armed forces chief of staff, and Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iranian media announced the death of Ali Shamkhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser.

Tehran said that Israel’s action was a “declaration of war.” This war is continuing, and Iran has struck back with ballistic missile and drone attacks.

Khamenei’s Bunker By Aynaz Anni Cyrus The final act of a dying regime.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/khameneis-bunker/

As missiles close in, the Supreme Leader hides underground with his close aides, security and family. But this game if “survival” won’t save the Islamic Republic—only delay its collapse.

Two well-placed sources inside Iran told Iran International that shortly after Israel launched airstrikes on Tehran early Friday morning, Ali Khamenei was moved to an underground bunker located in Lavizan, in northeastern Tehran.

According to the report, all members of the Supreme Leader’s family—including his influential son Mojtaba—are currently sheltering with him.

Sources added that this is not the first time the Khamenei family has taken refuge underground. During both phases of Israel’s earlier True Promise operations, the family was also relocated to secure locations. At that time, Mojtaba stayed close to his father, but Khamenei’s two other sons, Masoud and Mostafa, were notably absent.

The Israeli strikes have continued into Sunday, expanding beyond Tehran to multiple Iranian cities. For the first time, Israel targeted the city of Mashhad—located 2,300 kilometers from Israel’s borders.

A diplomatic source in the Middle East told Iran International that the strike on Mashhad was intended as a personal warning to Khamenei: there is no safe place left in Iran.

Time for hesitation is over

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/time-for-hesitation-is-over/ar-AA1GJzIf?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=d4a97576140543e8e4387c3b15ae2a70&ei=24

Sir Keir Starmer has not covered himself in glory with his response to the conflict between Israel and Iran. The first instinct of the Prime Minister and his colleagues, confronted with Jerusalem’s attempts to bar Tehran’s progress towards a nuclear weapon, was to call for ­“de-escalation” and an effective return to the status quo.

If the Prime Minister wishes to preach the virtues of de-escalation, he should surely be doing so to the leaders of Iran, who have responded to Israel’s targeted strikes of military assets with a seemingly indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, and whose reckless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction has utterly destabilised the Middle East.

Sir Keir’s track record on foreign policy is poor. In his short time in office he has displayed a lamentable tendency to hesitation and an unwillingness to express straightforward backing of Britain’s interests or those of its allies, which has left our country at significant disadvantage. But even he is surely unable to hold in his mind a belief that Iran would not commit atrocities if ever given the chance, or that it is not in our interest and to some degree our power to diminish its ability to do so.

Has Israel Given Oppressed Iranians a Chance to Seize Freedom? Catherine Salgado

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/06/14/has-israel-given-oppressed-iranians-a-chance-to-seize-freedom-n4940798?state=

Has the nation of Israel given the Iranian people an opening to rise up against their brutal dictators? Is this the beginning of the end of the terror-sponsoring, mass murdering Islamic regime in Iran?

Such questions are speculation, and as such have no definite answer, but while much of the terrorist apparatus is still in place in Iran, the country just lost numerous top military leaders and a good deal of its major weapons and nuclear facilities. Depending on how this conflict goes in the next week or two, this might be a desperate opportunity for domestic rebellion as the Iranian regime is also pummeled from overseas.

It is an unfortunate fact that when the people of Iran periodically try to rise up against the Islamic dictators there, they garner little to no support from any other governments or powerful international entities, including the USA. When tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in protest of the vicious sharia “morality” police in 2022, where was the outpouring of international aid and support that was provided for the jihad-loving Gazans ever since Oct. 2023? It wasn’t provided for Iranians. Countless protestors were arrested, raped, tortured, and killed, as Americans and other Westerners looked the other way.

That is why Iranian dissidents have been the most loyal in praising Israel and condemning Hamas and the other terror proxies of the Iranian regime. They have experienced the horror of living under a genocidal Islamic dictatorship, and they not only want to break free themselves, they want Israel to be triumphant. Perhaps Israel is returning the favor.

Houman David Hemmati, a doctor who fled Iran for the USA when he was young, certainly sees this Israeli strike as a sign of hope for his fellow Iranians that Persia in its former greatness might rise again, that the oppressed people will see the demise of their oppressors. He posted on X:

I fled Iran as a child, carrying in my heart the memories of women beaten in the streets for daring to wear makeup, of girls whose only crime was letting a strand of hair escape their scarves, and of neighbors dragged off to prison for refusing to bend to the regime’s cruelty. Tonight, as I watched the news of Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, I felt a surge of hope: not for the destruction itself, but for the first glimmer of freedom for the people trapped under a government that gouges out women’s eyes for their clothes and tortures dissidents for daring to think differently. This regime has forced every schoolchild to chant “Death to America,” has backed the October 7 terror on Israel, has sent suicide drones against our troops at sea, and has spent decades sharpening its tools of oppression.

Ballymena may be a taste of things to come We can no longer ignore the simmering tensions in our midst. Tom Slater

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/06/13/ballymena-may-be-a-taste-of-things-to-come/

Another community in flames. Masonry and Molotov cocktails thrown at police. A leisure centre, believed to be housing migrants, set ablaze by a bigoted mob. Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before.

This week, Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland became the latest town within these troubled isles to be ripped apart by fear, loathing and rioting – sparked by an alleged crime committed by migrants.

On Monday, two 14-year-old Romanian Roma boys were charged with attempted oral rape of a teenage girl. The BBC could only bring itself to mention the boys’ background obliquely, noting they ‘confirmed their names and ages through a Romanian interpreter’.

This horrific crime appears to have snapped something, in another working-class community experiencing a heady mix of deindustrialisation, strained resources, crime, mass immigration and fraying social bonds.

A peaceful protest was hijacked by thugs. The town has burned for four nights now. Unrest is breaking out across Northern Ireland, too. The tone has been not just anti-migration, but also violently anti-migrant.

On Monday, rioters attacked the homes of the alleged perpetrators, but also those of other, entirely innocent Roma, who now reportedly make up half of Ballymena’s Clonavon Terrace. The flames soon spread further.

In a nearby village, the home of a Filipino man, totally unconnected to the alleged rape, was firebombed. Heartbreakingly, many of Ballymena’s Filipinos have since fled their homes, leaving signs on their doors saying ‘Filipino lives here’ to ward off the mob.

On Wednesday, rioters started fires and smashed in the windows of a leisure centre in Larne. Word had got out on social media that some of the migrants who moved out of Ballymena were sheltering there.

While this loyalist community has its own particularities – a history of sectarianism and demographic angst. These riots are clearly – chillingly – of a piece with what we’ve witnessed across the UK and Ireland in recent years.

We appear to be caught in an infernal loop. In Knowsley, Merseyside in February 2023, a young girl being propositioned by an asylum seeker sparked a riot outside a migrant hotel. In November that year, trams and cars were set on fire in Dublin after an Algerian national stabbed a woman and three kids outside a school.

In each case, an information vacuum left by the media and officialdom was filled with misinfo and rumour. No more so than after Axel Rudakubana’s barbaric murder of three girls in Southport, when far-right influencers pushed BS online about him being a small-boats migrant, fuelling attacks on mosques and hotels.

Do the Saudis Actually Oppose Israeli Strikes on Iran? Follow the Oil Forget what they say, watch what they pump. by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/do-the-saudis-actually-oppose-israeli-strikes-on-iran-follow-the-oil/

Saudi Arabia officially put out a statement harshly critical of Israel’s air strikes on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

But what do the Saudis actually think? Follow the oil.

Israel’s sudden attack on Iran has threatened to disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East, placing the Opec+ cartel’s recent decision to increase crude production into the spotlight.

The Saudi Arabia-led producer group has surprised the oil market this year by fast-tracking the return of idled production even as crude prices fell. It has prompted speculation that the cartel was responding to White House pressure to boost output ahead of a confrontation with Iran.

If the Saudis really wanted to force a rapid end to the war, they would be doing what they have done in the past, which is cut production. And had they wanted to really pressure Trump ahead of a possible confrontation with Iran, they would have refused to boost production.

Oil production is still their best weapon. Boosting oil production provides a cushion ahead of a showdown with Iran.

That is not to say that the Saudis are America’s friend, let alone Israel’s friend, but they are happy enough with a scenario in which Iran’s capabilities get rolled back, without having to get directly involved or take any risks.

Forget what they say, watch what they pump.

‘You, Infidel, Will Meet Allah’: Persecution of Christians, April 2025 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21686/persecution-of-christians-april

In the opening days of April, Muslim Fulani terrorists slaughtered more than 60 Christians in Plateau State, in what Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang termed an ongoing “genocide.” According to a local source, “More than 1,000 Christians were displaced during the attacks, and 383 three houses were destroyed by these bandits.” — Morning Star News, April 8, 2025, Nigeria.

“Eyewitnesses said the attack lasted more than an hour, leaving 103 households destroyed and the entire village displaced. Frustration mounted as residents reported a delayed military response and accused security forces of bias, disarming local Christian youth but not Fulani attackers.” — Morning Star News, April 14, 2025, Nigeria.

On Good Friday, Apr. 18, a Muslim judge sentenced a Christian to death for “blasphemy”…. Among these critics was the Rev. Ghazala Shafique, a Karachi-based rights activist: “The court has convicted a Christian for allegedly carrying out the alleged blasphemous act, but what about those people who burned our churches and homes and are now roaming freely on bail? Why didn’t the police and prosecution investigate those cases with the same zeal that they have shown in Masih’s case?” — Morning Star News, April 22, 2025, Pakistan.

On Apr. 30, a Muslim judge sentenced Sabry Kamel, a 79-year-old Christian man to life in prison on the charge that he molested a five-year-old Muslim child at the school where the accused volunteered. He did so, critics allege, on very little evidence and merely to placate an angry Muslim mob that was growing outside the court house and calling for the instant execution of the elderly Christian…. Essam Mehanna, the complainant’s lawyer… stated: ‘The case was flimsy and would have collapsed were it not for the mob shouting outside the courthouse.’ Several legal experts and independent attorneys—both Copts and Muslims—who reviewed the case files expressed shock at what they described as a wholly unjustified ruling.” — Coptic Solidarity, April 30, 2025, Egypt.

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of April 2025.

Israel’s bravery shames our pusillanimous Prime Minister Opinion by Stephen Pollard

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/13/starmer-and-lammy-are-empowering-iran-after-israel-strike/
It would, to say the least, be helpful if we had a Prime Minister who understood even his own supposed principles. Since taking office last year, Sir Keir Starmer has been admirably strong and consistent in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, at least in his statements, if not in actual firepower.

But his response to the Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear and military sites is not just naïve, it is pusillanimous and shows how empty a vessel he really is: “The reports of these strikes are concerning and we urge all parties to step back and reduce tensions urgently. Escalation serves no one in the region. Stability in the Middle East must be the priority and we are engaging partners to de-escalate. Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.”

Starmer grasps the need to stand up to Putin’s aggression, but crumbles into spineless diplo-speak when confronted by a theocratic tyranny. 

For a leader with a clear understanding of the Iranian threat – of reality, in other words – there should be relief, not consternation. Just yesterday, for example, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared that Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, refusing to answer questions on uranium particles found in undeclared sites in the country and the stockpiling of uranium enriched to nearly weapons grade. Iran then revealed it is operating a previously secret new uranium enrichment centre. The threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon has not been theoretical but very real and increasingly imminent.

According to Sir Keir, “Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.” This is the precise opposite of what it is the time for. Diplomacy led us to the disastrous Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which relaxed sanctions on the regime, handed it huge amounts of money from oil exports, and thus funded not just the Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis but the nuclear weapons programme. 

In this sense Israel has been acting not only on its own behalf but on behalf of all those Middle Eastern states which have been destabilised by Iran – and on behalf of the West itself.

A New Chapter for Geert Wilders The Dutch hero brings down the government – and waxes eloquent on Israel. Bruce Bawer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-new-chapter-for-geert-wilders/

On the morning of June 3, Geert Wilders, member of the Dutch House of Representatives and head of the Party for Freedom (PVV), tweeted that the PVV would be leaving the Dutch ruling coalition. This move at once brought down the Dutch government and began a new chapter in an extraordinary personal – and national – saga. It was a generation ago, in 2002, on the verge of an election that would likely have made him prime minister, that Pim Fortuyn, an outspoken gay sociologist, was gunned down in a parking lot in Hilversum as punishment for his outspoken recognition of the existential nature of the Islamic threat. Two years later, Theo van Gogh, an iconoclastic columnist and raconteur, was murdered on an Amsterdam street in retribution for his own forthright criticism of Islam. For a brief period, the Somali-born Dutch legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was the country’s leading critic of the religion under which she’d grown up, but she was soon forced to leave for America. That left Wilders to take to the pulpit – or, if you will, to put on the boxing gloves.

And what a remarkable job he’s done – and in the face of impossible pressure. Not only have death threats from the adherents of the Religion of Peace obliged him to live under police protection since 2004; as punishment for telling the truth about that execrable ideology, he’s been denounced by corporate leaders, by academics, by clergy, by his fellow politicians, and, not least, by his country’s (and, often, the world’s) legacy media. He’s been called in on the carpet more than once by security and justice officials, and in 2007 no less august a personage than Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, who is now king, rebuked Wilders (although without mentioning his name) with the remark, “Not for nothing do we have the saying, ‘Speech is silver, silence is golden.’” (Obey your own advice, dude.) In 2008, a who’s-who of the Dutch cultural elite signed a statement, published on the front page of the newspaper Trouw, that condemned Wilders’s “intolerance” and urged “a new balance between the values of then and those of now” – in short, rank and cowering appeasement of Islam. In 2009 he was denied entry into the U.K. on the grounds that he might introduce unseemly ideas into a country awash in jihad-happy imams; in 2010, he was put on trial for insulting Islam. As Wilders explained to me that year in an interview in The Hague, “The political elite today is not very successful in beating my party in a political way, so  they are looking for a different way…..The more popular I get with the people, the more people want to shut me up.” Sound familiar?

Dark Clouds Over South Africa by Nils A. Haug

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21682/dark-clouds-over-south-africa

The ANC’s National Democratic Revolution strategy compels dominating the Judiciary; it reads: “judicial independence to be undermined, in part by vesting most appointments to the bench in an ANC-dominated Judicial Service Commission.” It was therefore not unexpected that the Constitutional Court might rule in support of the slogan, “Kill the Boer”.

Sadly, what Ramaphosa actually intends, despite his grand terminology, is that there will be a redistribution of wealth and asset ownership in the form of either expropriation without compensation and/or a mandatory transfer of equity in businesses held by minorities to the black majority. NDR policies allow for this, and in fact the ANC Constitution mandates such actions….

A partial solution might be, as suggested by the commentator Rob Hersov, is that the US and other Western nations should bypass the ANC and instead support the Democratic Alliance (DA) — the official opposition at one stage (now part of the coalition) and the 2nd largest political party.

The DA is a centralist-conservative entity which runs the Western Cape Province – a state thriving in every way. Perhaps when it becomes known how successful the Western Cape under the DA has become, particularly with US and other outside investment, then demand for structural changes elsewhere might arise. In the interim, ominous dark clouds hang over the future of beautiful South Africa and its vibrant and amazing people.

There was a moment with a glimmer of hope for beleaguered South Africa. That moment appeared on May 21, 2025, with a meeting at the White House between US President Donald J. Trump and his South African counterpart, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The purpose of the meeting was to ‘reset’ the relationship between them after violently racist and anti-Western policies adopted by the largest political party in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), which heads a coalition government, were criticised by President Trump.

While Ramaphosa focused on trade at the meeting –- probably believing he could get away with neo-Marxist policies by tempting Trump with trade opportunities, such as availability of critical minerals — Trump instead brooded on the deep injustice against the country’s white minorities. Many onlookers believe they deserving what they are getting as a result of sometimes hundreds of years of discrimination against the Blacks, or “Coloureds,” by South Africa’s White European settlers.