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Israel and Ukraine are fighting wars for survival. Neither wants more land or to impose their values on their neighbors. They are fighting to maintain their independence and to keep their way of life. Iran and its proxies have said they want to annihilate Israel, not shrink its borders. Putin has not gone that far with Ukraine, but the analogy of a camel getting its nose under the tent applies. To the extent that Israel and Ukraine are our allies we have a duty to support them in their existential wars.

Israel is not a colonialist power. Over three quarters of a century it has created a thriving democracy on land from which their ancestors came. Today they combat forces that want to drive them from their land. Former Iranian president Rafsanjani called Israel “a one-bomb state,” that one nuclear weapon could erase Jewish civilization. Palestinians speak of the “River to the Sea,” effectively extinguishing the state of Israel. Israelis fight for their survival. If Rafah is not taken Hamas, a political party elected by Palestinians to govern Gaza, will survive, and threats to Israel will persist.

Ukraine was once part of the Russian empire and later part of the Soviet Union. In 1991 the nation drafted a declaration of independence, which received overwhelming support in a public referendum, and it was recognized as an independent state that year. It now fights to keep its independence. Yet Putin has said that Ukraine is an “aberration that doesn’t really exist.” He considers it a province of Russia and a country whose language should be obliterated. Should we help them? If we do not, does anyone think Putin will stop with Ukraine?

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/06/the-poison-of-islamic-sectarianism/

The UK Green Party’s Mothin Ali had just been elected to Leeds City Council in the Gipton and Harehills ward, when he punched his fist in the air and yelled out: ‘Allahu Akbar!’ Draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, he told his supporters in his victory speech on Friday: ‘We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine!’

Ali’s fiery victory speech spoke to a broader trend. In last week’s elections, voters in vast swathes of England were essentially asked to pass comment on the Israel-Hamas war, rather than local issues like bus routes and bin collections. In many wards with large Muslim populations, this turned out to be a successful gambit. Akhmed Yakoob, an independent endorsed by George Galloway, put Palestine at the front and centre of his campaign for the West Midlands mayoralty. He secured 69,000 votes – which was almost enough to deprive Labour’s Richard Parker of his victory over Tory incumbent Andy Street. Labour lost control of Oldham Council for the first time in 13 years, thanks partly to a surge in support for independents who campaigned on Palestine. Activists in Bradford celebrated their city’s apparent rejection of ‘Zionism’ (even as Labour retained control of the council). A BBC analysis of 58 local-council wards found that in areas where more than one in five voters is Muslim, Labour’s share of the vote plummeted by 21 percentage points compared with 2021. In typical Keir Starmer fashion, Labour has flip-flopped over Gaza, angering many previously loyal supporters in the process. Party strategists are terrified that this could undermine Labour’s chances of a landslide at the next General Election.

What all this confirms is that Islamic identity politics, in which Palestine now plays a pivotal role, is becoming a significant electoral force in the UK. Of course, you do not have to be a Muslim to take an interest in the Gaza war, but polls show that one in four British Muslims names Palestine as his or her most important election issue, compared with just three per cent of the public as a whole.

It seems the victory of George Galloway in the Rochdale by-election in February – a contest he described as a ‘referendum on Gaza’ – was a foretaste of this new sectarianism.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20621/elon-musk-china

A year ago, Tesla held the No. 1 ranking in China’s new-energy vehicle retail segment. In the first quarter of this year, the company had fallen to third place….. It is not clear that Tesla can compete in China, where the regime does just about everything it can to favor Chinese competitors.

Musk has made Tesla reliant on China, and China’s rulers know that.

“What is there to stop them [Chinese officials] from going to Musk directly and saying, ‘We’ll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X, Y, or Z?'” — Congressional Republican aide, Washington Examiner, August 26, 2020.

“Musk should expect China to make demands for technology and data transfers to include Starlink and SpaceX heavy-lift rockets.” — Blaine Holt, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier general and technology entrepreneur, to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.

“Will Congress now look the other way while the often-used CCP playbook of corporate blackmail plays out, compromising our security?” — Blaine Holt to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.

“You have me, and I have you.” — Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Elon Musk, CNN, April 28, 2024.

The words, ostensibly meant to show U.S.-China friendship, are in reality a warning. It is now clear that one person so beholden to China should not be so central to America’s effort to stay in space.

At the end of April, Elon Musk at the last moment cancelled a trip to India, instead showed up in Beijing, and snagged a deal to rescue Tesla. The results were immediate: The shares of the electric-vehicle maker, which had been out-of-favor on Wall Street, soared on the news.

Now Washington has to be worried that China will control Musk’s other company, SpaceX, which is critical to America’s ambitions in space.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20619/iran-proxy-sudan

“What makes the future in this case darker is Sudan’s history of hosting extremists and jihadists from the far right and far left. During the previous regime, Sudan hosted Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Carlos the Jackal. This warm embrace of violent extremists earned Sudan a spot on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”— Areej Elhag, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, January 31, 2024.
The bottom line for America and Europe is that the strategy of engaging and appeasing Iran has failed miserably.
The U.S. and Europe must step up now to counter Iran’s efforts in the Middle East and Sudan.
We cannot allow new “proxies of terror” for Iran.

While the Biden administration is preoccupied trying to win re-election this November, as well as putting out a series of fires it helped start in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, a new area of urgent concern, largely flying under the public’s radar, has been brewing: Iran’s increasing penetration of Sudan.

Pocketing Sudan would provide Iran with more oil, gold and rare minerals, as well as another port on Red Sea from which to continue blocking maritime commercial passage. Sudan would also provide Iran with proximity to Israel, and serve as an additional launching pad from which to swarm Israel with more lethal drone attacks – at least until its nuclear weapons program is complete.

Iran could also add Sudan to the list of the four other countries it already effectively controls in the region: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Sudan, with Iran’s backing, would then be well on its way to being another Hamas, al-Qaeda or Taliban, and spreading its inclinations to the rest of the African continent.

Areej Elhag recently wrote for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

“What makes the future in this case darker is Sudan’s history of hosting extremists and jihadists from the far right and far left. During the previous regime, Sudan hosted Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Carlos the Jackal. This warm embrace of violent extremists earned Sudan a spot on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20613/iran-us-sanctions

Never before have sanctions been so ostentatiously disregarded without any seeming awareness by those violating them of the possible consequences.

The US administration, it appears, has actually been funding Iran to attack Israel and itself.

The Biden administration has provided a lifeline to the Iranian regime by providing it with much-needed financial relief to export more oil and terror.

The evasions of US sanctions by Iran and its allies – largely thanks to the Biden administrations’ sanctions waivers — mark a new chapter in America’s history. Never before have sanctions been so ostentatiously disregarded without any seeming awareness by those violating them of the possible consequences.

Flouting international agreements not only undermines the integrity of the sanctions themselves but has also been demolishing the authority and credibility of the US administration. The problem is that such ostentatious flouting of sanctions has been producing a global lack of respect for the United States. Such derision has been transforming the once formidable reputation of the US into little more than a punchline, and, in the eyes of allies and adversaries alike, reducing America’s stature to that of an attractive target.

Despite the sanctions, Iranian oil exports have continued to surge, funding Iran’s October 7 war on Israel — in addition to more than 150 attacks on US troops in the Middle East by Iran’s militias and proxies. The US administration, it appears, has actually been funding Iran to attack Israel and itself.

In addition, Iran continues sending weapons to Russia, to help it crush Ukraine.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/03/the-biden-administration-must-denounce-the-international-criminal-courts-plan-to-indict-netanyahu/

According to press reports, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is preparing to issue arrest warrants for war crimes against Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza. Such an indictment would not just further isolate Israel over this war; it also would create a dangerous precedent that could lead to indictments of U.S. officials and servicemembers by this unaccountable and unconstitutional international court.

The Biden administration’s response to possible ICC indictments of Israeli officials has been extremely mild. President Biden dismissed them as “over the top.” White House Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre deflected a question about this issue by saying, “We don’t believe the ICC has jurisdiction. We don’t support this investigation.” House Speaker Johnson said on Tuesday that a Biden official would tell the ICC “to stand down.”

These tepid responses to potential serious abuse by an out-of-control international court suggest the Biden administration would not mind if the ICC indicts Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. If this is the case, this position could come back to haunt the United States and set the stage for future indictment of U.S. officials and servicemembers.

The controversial treaty that created the ICC—the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court—was signed by the United States during the Clinton administration in 2000. Clinton officials never submitted this treaty for Senate ratification because of concerns about the threat the ICC would pose to U.S. national security and the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens.

According to John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley and former deputy assistant attorney general, the ICC “represents another effort by a global elite — consisting of European governments, international organizations, and their supporting interest groups, academics, and activists — to threaten American sovereignty.”

David Rivkin and Lee Casey, both noted attorneys and former Bush administration Justice Department officials, warned about the creation of the ICC because…

[t]he creation of a permanent, supranational court with the independent power to judge and punish elected officials for their official actions represents a decisive break with fundamental American ideals of self-government and popular sovereignty. It would constitute the transfer of the ultimate authority to judge the acts of U.S. officials away from the American people to an unelected and unaccountable international bureaucracy. As Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his Democracy in America, “[h]e who punishes the criminal is . . .the real master of society.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20612/hamas-hezbollah-europe

“Hamas sees Western countries such as Germany as a refuge in which the organization can concentrate on collecting donations, recruiting new supporters, and spreading its propaganda.” — Germany’s domestic intelligence service, apnews.com, November 23, 2023.

In February, Belgium’s justice minister confirmed that Hamas operates in Brussels… through a network of front companies raising funds for the terrorist organization… Belgian authorities nevertheless continue to allow Hamas to operate there.

“Hamas has been in Europe for about 30 years. It’s an open secret. Of course, they don’t call themselves Hamas… They will have names like Conference of Palestinians Abroad, Palestinians in (country name), Palestinian Students Abroad, and so on. But when you dig a bit, you find out who the people are behind these associations, and what their connections are back home. It’s always the same cluster of 20-25 people. Their propaganda, their social media patterns, everything is Hamas.” — Lorenzo Vidino, director of the program on extremism at George Washington University, April 12, 2024.

“This is a typical Muslim Brotherhood tactic. They come up with a million different names for their organizations, for two reasons: Firstly, they want to give the impression that it’s a broad movement, so that when they organize a public event, there will be 50 participating organizations, or if they publish a public letter, there will be 50 signatory groups. Secondly, if one of these groups is taken down by law enforcement, well, there’s all the other ones.” — Lorenzo Vidino, April 12, 2024.

In all of this, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a central actor. As stated by the US Congress, the IRGC “trains, funds, arms, and shares intelligence with dangerous proxy forces throughout the Middle East and abroad” and has targeted both European and American civilians.

The US Congress, Israel and thousands of Iranians have urged the European Union to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Last year, by an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament passed a resolution to that effect, but the EU nevertheless refuses to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claims there are legal obstacles; however, that claim has been refuted as a lie.

Iran has ballistic missiles that can reach Europe, and is one minute away from nuclear weapons capability, if not already there.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/28/watch-radical-islamists-rally-in-hamburg-calling-for-caliphate-in-germany/

The German city of Hamburg saw over a thousand Muslims rally on Saturday against the freedom of the press and other liberal values of the country while calling for the imposition of an Islamic caliphate.

Around 1,100 gathered in the central Hamburg district of St. Georg — a progressive area of Germany’s second-largest city often identified as a gay neighbourhood — to demonstrate against what they perceived as an attempt by the media to portray all Muslims in Germany as radical Islamists.

However, the rhetoric reported from the event indicated the radical positions of the group itself, with chants of Allahu Akbar (God is great or Our God is greater than yours). Meanwhile, signs at the rally declare that a “Caliphate is the solution” and others read: “Germany = dictatorship of values”, NTV reports.

The rally was also attended by members of the Muslim Interactive group, a successor to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamic fundamentalist political party seeking to institute a caliphate which was officially banned in Germany in 2003 for extremism.

Muslim Interaktiv, which was founded in 2020, previously organised a demonstration in St. Georg in October in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, despite the city placing bans on anti-Israel demonstrations at the time. The group has also been active outside of Germany, having organised a February 2023 protest against Qur’an burnings in Sweden.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20609/will-the-west-get-ever-serious-about-sanctions-on

[D]espite the clear and present threat Iran poses to the security of both the Middle East and the wider world, Western governments are still proving reluctant to take any measures needed to cripple the Iranian economy.

A key factor in the reluctance of Western leaders to punish Iran for its aggression is the appeasement policy the Biden administration has pursued towards Iran in recent years in the naive hope that, by going easy on Iran, the Iranian regime might be persuaded to agree to a new deal on its nuclear activities.

“The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention. If the Biden administration is really going to have an impact, it has to shift the focus to China.” — Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk service at the Rapidan Energy Group in the US, Financial Times interview, April 17, 2024.

If the West is really serious about holding Iran to account for its aggressive activities, then it ….

should include the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against any country that continues to do business with Tehran in defiance of Western sanctions.

Without Chinese oil imports, for example, the Iranian oil industry would most likely collapse, thereby increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime to mend its ways.

If attempts by Western leaders to impose further sanctions against Iran in retaliation for its direct attack against Israel are to have any validity, they will need to be a great deal more effective than those implemented in recent decades.

For decades, the US and its allies have been imposing sanctions against Tehran in an attempt to restrain its malign support for terror organisations, such as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Wide-ranging sanctions have also been imposed against Tehran to curb its nuclear programme, which most Western intelligence agencies believe is ultimately aimed at fulfilling the Iranian regime’s quest to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal.