RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://bit.ly/3tp5fB4

*The US State Department’s diplomatic option has facilitated the transformation of Iran from “the American policeman of the Gulf” to “the largest anti-American venomous octopus in the world,” stretching its rogue arms from the Persian Gulf through Africa to Latin America and the US-Mexico border, which it perceives as the soft underbelly of the US.

*The diplomatic option – including a frail US response to sustained Iranian attacks on US installations in the Persian Gulf region – has aggravated Middle East instability, threatening the survival of every pro-US Arab regime, and is inducing anti-US global Islamic terrorism.  This is severely eroding US posture of deterrence, benefitting Russia, China and mostly Iran, while undermining US national and homeland security. 

*The diplomatic option has suspended most economic sanctions – without Congressional consent – surging Iran’s oil export from 500,000 barrels per day to 2-3 million barrels per day, increasing Iran’s national income by some $100bn, mostly dedicated to bolster Iran’s anti-US rogue operations, increasingly in Latin America, the US’ backyard.

*The diplomatic option has consistently overlooked the decisive power of the Ayatollahs’ imperialistic ideology, and its determination to export the anti-US Islamic Shiite Revolution. Consequently, the State Department has deluded itself into believing that an astounding financial and diplomatic bonanza would induce Iran’s Ayatollahs to accept peaceful coexistence with their pro-US Arab Sunni neighbors, become good-faith negotiators, and abandon their 1,400-year-old religious, fanatic vision, which is enshrined in their Constitution, K-12 school curriculum, Friday mosque sermons and official media.

*However, as expected, the mega-billion-dollar bonanza yielded by the diplomatic option (e.g., the 2015 JCPOA and the current suspension of economic sanctions) has bolstered its global terroristic network, advancing its vision to topple all pro-US Sunni regimes, and bring the “infidel” West to submission, especially the “The Great American Satan,” while egregiously oppressing and suppressing Iranian women and religious and ethnic minorities.  
*The State Department’s diplomatic option was initiated in 1978/1979, stabbing in the back the pro-US Shah of Iran, and contending that Ayatollah Khomeini was anti-Communist and therefore potentially pro-Western and a stabilizing element geopolitically, “…holding a Gandhi-like position… preoccupied with tractors, not tanks….”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087

By Kristen Welker, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Andrea Mitchell

Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.

Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said.

The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions by U.S. military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027, telling Biden that they were wrong because he has not set a time frame, according to the two current and one former official briefed on the meeting. 

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/15/biden-turns-on-netanyahu-ahead-of-2024/

A few weeks ago, I predicted that after giving Israel a few weeks to end its war with Hamas, President Biden would turn on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 because of growing and outspoken opposition to the war by Mr. Biden’s anti-Israel progressive base.

I was wrong. President Biden began vilifying Netanyahu and his government this week.

This included President Biden making the very damning public statement that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza.

The President also this week called for Netanyahu to “change his government” to expel hardline ministers who oppose a two-state solution peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians and criticized Netanyahu’s administration as the “most conservative government in Israel’s history.

President Biden’s criticism comes at a pivotal time when Israel is facing growing global opposition to the war and a recent nonbinding UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire that passed overwhelmingly.

Although President Biden has described his support for Israel after the horrific October 7 terrorist attack as “rock solid,” his support has been accompanied by public criticism and statements on how Israel should conduct the war. For example, the President conditioned his October 19 visit to Israel on an explicit commitment from Netanyahu to open Gaza for humanitarian aid. He has called on Israel to respect international and humanitarian law, implying that it has not done so. President Biden and his senior officials also have repeatedly stated that the Palestinian Authority must govern Gaza after the war concludes and that Israel cannot occupy Gaza.

Over the last few weeks, Biden Administration officials told the Israeli government they want the war wrapped up in weeks, not months, and want a process to place Gaza under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire or an early end to the war, pledging on December 13, “We are continuing until the end, there is no question. I say this even given the great pain, and the international pressure. Nothing will stop us, we will continue until the end, until victory, nothing less.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20221/houthis-iran-empowered

The Houthis have been fortunate to have, as a powerful patron and sponsor, Iran. Their backers in Tehran will not let them run out of ammunition and the Biden administration will not let the Iranian regime run out of funds.

Iran has been employing every political and military tactic possible — including racing toward nuclear weapons capability — to complete its objectives of annihilating Israel, driving the United States out of the Middle East, and establishing an Islamist caliphate.

Does anyone seriously think that if Iran finally acquires a nuclear bomb, they will not use it — or at least threaten to?

To deter further escalation, the US needs seriously to target the real source of this mayhem — the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its IRGC. Perhaps the US might try incapacitating the Iranian ports that are used for oil exports, or take out a few IRGC facilities — or maybe just send every IRGC officer a picture of his home?

Thanks to the Biden administration’s alarmingly misguided officials and their counterproductive policies of appeasement towards Iran and its proxies, the Iranian regime’s militia and terrorist group in Yemen, the Houthis, has ratcheted up attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and escalated the launching of missiles and attack drones at Israel. Now, the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (“Partisans of Allah”), are threatening to attack any ship headed to Israel, regardless of its nationality or ownership. Why not just replace their flags with American ones?

The current problem with the Houthis began almost three years ago, when the Biden administration, after less than a month in office, reversed yet another policy of the Trump administration. On February 12, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially revoked the designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20207/stopping-iran-mullahs

Not surprisingly, billions from the West have enabled the Iranian regime to help plan, finance and support, among other aggressions, the invasion of Israel and genocidal massacre of Jews perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Western money gifted to Iran is also helping the regime advance its nuclear weapons program to near-completion by “a few weeks or less, after which they can make as many bombs as they like.

The Biden administration’s policy towards the expansionist regime of Iran has been anchored in appeasement policies, including handing over billions of dollars in a seeming effort to bribe Iran’s mullahs not to cause even further trouble in the Middle East before the US presidential election on November 5, 2024.

Not surprisingly, billions from the West have enabled the Iranian regime to help plan, finance and support, among other aggressions, the invasion of Israel and genocidal massacre of Jews perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Western money gifted to Iran is also helping the regime advance its nuclear weapons program to near-completion by “a few weeks or less, after which they can make as many bombs as they like.

The more money the Iranian regime is handed, the more trouble it causes.

Compared to the tens of billion the US delivers to Iran, the US government’s annual $3.8 billion investment in Israel — which invariably inspires extensive howling from some quarters — is proportionately bus fare.

It is high-time for the Biden administration to learn from previous administrations — inconveniently for them, Republican — that only economic and military pressure work on rogue and predatory regimes such as Iran. Appeasement, regrettably…. just ignites conflict.

https://aclj.org/israel/president-biden-must-stop-caving-to-far-left-ceasefire-calls-and-instead-stand-firm-with-israel

As Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza this week, calls for a long-term ceasefire from inside the United States – particularly within the Democrat Party – have remained strong.  Indeed, many had pushed for the previous short-term pause in fighting, which allowed the release of hostages held by Hamas, to remain in place indefinitely.  While we should celebrate the return of innocent Israeli civilians being reunited with their families and loved ones, we must recognize that a long-term ceasefire would play right into Hamas’ hands.  Such a ceasefire would not remove Hamas from Gaza, and it would only encourage future attacks on Israel.

Make no mistake: A long-term ceasefire is exactly what Hamas wants.  In the immediate aftermath of  Hamas’ barbaric acts on October 7, Israeli leaders pledged to wipe out the terrorist organization and the Israeli military has since begun an effective campaign to do just that.  In the face of utter annihilation, Hamas decided to use the hostages it took to ensure its own survival, helped especially by the Biden Administration’s pressure on the Israeli government to allow for a ceasefire.  With the vast majority of Hamas’ forces still intact, there are signs that the Biden Administration is now pushing Israel to accept a long-term ceasefire.

Think, for a moment, of the long-term consequences of such a decision.  The attacks on Hamas were the worst acts of antisemitic violence perpetrated since the Holocaust.  Pressuring Israel to now sign a long-term ceasefire would only encourage future attacks like those we saw on October 7.  It would be a green light to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies that America will not have Israel’s back, making the region far less safe for Israelis and Americans alike.

Yet this would be perfectly in step with Team Biden’s broader approach to the region.  Its weak, ineffectual responses to the attacks on our own military bases in the region – now totaling over 70 – have further emboldened the Iranian regime.  Biden’s decision to issue a sanctions waiver earlier this month, granting the regime in Tehran access to more than $10 billion, will only fuel more attacks on America and raise the risk faced by Israel and our other allies and partners in the region.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/us-efforts-to-extend-gaza-truce-are-objectively-pro-hamas-john-bolton-5540240?utm_source=News&src_

‘I think Israel’s best judgment here is simply to proceed militarily to achieve the objective it says it wants, which is the elimination of Hamas.’

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Saturday criticized the Biden administration for its attempts to extend the truce in Gaza, calling them “objectively pro-Hamas.”

“I think with the initial pause now behind us, I think Israel’s best judgment here is simply to proceed militarily to achieve the objective it says it wants, which is the elimination of Hamas,” Mr. Bolton told News Nation.

“I think the second-guessing by the Biden administration, the efforts to prolong the pause to turn it into a full ceasefire, are objectively pro-Hamas because it denies Israel the self-defense right it has to eliminate the terrorist threat.”

Advertisement – Story continues below

Israel’s war with the Hamas terrorist group resumed on Friday after a weeklong truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, during which Hamas freed 110 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
A day before the truce ended, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged for a longer truce on Thursday. He said, “Our immediate focus is working with our partners to extend the pause so that we can continue to get more hostages out of Gaza and more assistance in.”
Also on Friday, the White House blamed Hamas for ending the truce. “It’s because of Hamas that this pause ended,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, per USA Today.

“They were just simply unable, failed to produce a list of hostages that could help enable that pause extending,” Mr. Kirby added. “The onus is on Hamas to be able to produce a list of hostages that that they can get out so that we can try to get this pause back in place.”