Iran

Report: Iran seeks to take Trump out

Featured image Both CNN and the Washington Post reported yesterday that the Iranian regime is plotting to kill President Trump. Jewish World Review has posted the Washington Post story in accessible form here. Intelligence concerning the plot derives from a human source and is apparently unrelated to the attempted assassination of Trump over the weekend. NRO’s Jimmy Quinn quotes Rich Goldberg’s tweet on the rationale for such an operation: “Donald Trump is »

Ugly lessons of 10/7

Featured image Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at the George Mason University Scalia Law School and the director of its Center on the Middle East and International Law. He is also the head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a think tank in Jerusalem. His X stream offers a stream of commentary and links on matters related to the Hamas/Israel war. His current Tablet column considers “The ugly »

Moms Mabley, phone home

Featured image Iranian president — the late Iranian president — Ebrahim Raisi suffered a hard landing on Sunday. May he rot in hell. He was a murderous bastard, a personification of the evil of the Iranian regime, and an enemy of the United States. Raisi’s nickname was “the butcher of Tehran.” No one thought he didn’t earn it fairly. Under Raisi, Iran armed and assisted terrorists with American blood on their hands. »

Raisi’s hard landing

Featured image The initial AP story by Jon Gambrell on the possible death of Iranian President Ebrhaim Raisi included a euphemistic quote from Iranian media: Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. In the AP sidebar on Raisi »

Iran Triumphant?

Featured image As the dust seems to be settling in the Middle East, who is coming out on top? Perhaps, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh write in the Wall Street Journal, it is Iran. First, some history: Iran’s theocratic regime has to stand as the most successful imperial power in the Middle East since the British Empire. The comparison would offend the mullahs, but both managed to patrol large swaths of »

Israel strikes Isfahan

Featured image Reports overnight indicate that Israel struck a military base in Isfahan from which Iran launched drones against Israel in last weekend’s massive Iranian attack. The Times of Israel story is posted here. The attack is described as “limited.” Reliable information about the attack is itself “limited.” There was a message or two or three in the attack. Yonah Jeremy Bob makes this point at the Jerusalem Post in his a »

Iran Insanity

Featured image Two friends of mine comment on the Obama/Biden administration’s bizarre partiality toward Iran. In the New York Post, Glenn Reynolds writes: Post-[Iran’s] attack [on Israel]— going further yet beyond parody — the Biden administration’s chief effort has been aimed at demanding Israel not retaliate. That’s right. Israel has had more than a thousand of its citizens raped, tortured, murdered and kidnapped, it’s been subjected to a massive missile attack, and »

Strategy à la Biden

Featured image When it comes to Iran’s massive missile and drone attack on Israel this past Saturday evening, President Biden has instructed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let bygones be bygones. I don’t think he cited Sun Tzu in support of the Biden doctrine, but the White House has not released a readout of Biden’s call to Netanyahu following the attack. Rather, the White House released this statement publicly seeking to deter »

In Defense of Joe Biden

Featured image That’s a post title you won’t often see on this site! I want to move on to Iran, but first, what did Joe Biden actually tell Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday? I can’t see that an official readout of the conversation has been published, but this account, based on conversation with a “senior White House official,” seems as authoritative as any: Biden told Netanyahu the joint defensive efforts by Israel, the »

After last night

Featured image The Iranian regime has been at war with Israel, the United States, and the West roughly since the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah of Iran. It is not a war that Israel has chosen. It is a war that has been thrust upon it by a regime of genocidal maniacs. Thirty years after the fact the Court of Cassation in Buenos Aires issued a ruling blaming Iran for bombing the Asociación »

A Slow-Motion War [Updated Again]

Featured image War has broken out between Iran and Israel, with Iran for the first time launching attacks against Israeli soil. By the time you read this, the situation likely will have changed. But for now, according to the frequently-updated Times of Israel, Iran has launched more than 100 unmanned drones toward Israel proper. Those drones will take some hours to reach Israel, and in the meantime the Iron Dome system and »

The deep meaning of “don’t”

Featured image Would that President Biden had not warned the Iranian regime not to attack Israel with his pitiful “don’t” yesterday. In Bidenspeak, “don’t” is an invitation. It something like the shout-out for contestants to “come on down” on The Price Is Right. And as night follows day, the Iranian regime has launched a large drone attack on Israel from Iranian territory. At the moment the targets are unclear. Among the many »

War Drums Sounding?

Featured image It is hard to conclude from media accounts exactly what is up between Israel and Iran right now, because for all of the leaked and disclosed information, there is always more going on behind the scenes that we never find out about for a long time. But this news item just breaking a couple hours ago seems possibly significant: Biden Rushes Back to White House as Iran Weighs Attack on »

War With Iran?

Featured image Iran reportedly is considering an attack on Israel that would widen the war in the Middle East. This is from the Wall Street Journal: Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel as soon as Friday or Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter. A person briefed by the Iranian leadership, however, said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no »

Is Hamas winning?

Featured image Aaron MacLean is host of the School of War podcast and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Before that, Aaron worked on Capitol Hill as senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton and served on active duty as a U.S. Marine for seven years, deploying to Afghanistan as an infantry officer in 2009–2010. Following his time in the operating forces, he was »

What’s wrong with this picture?

Featured image The Biden administration conveys a pathetic weakness for which the physical person of President Biden serves as an apt metaphor. In its current story on administration negotiations with Iran that date back to January, the New York Times reports: Two Iranian officials, one with the foreign ministry, said that Iran had maintained in the talks that it did not control the activity of the militia [targeting Americans], particularly the Houthis, »

Retaliation, Biden style

Featured image In response to the killing of three American soldiers in a drone strike conducted by Iranian proxy forces, the United States struck over 85 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force and Iranian-backed militia targets in Iraq and Syria yesterday. According to Critical Threats, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias said that they will continue attacks targeting US forces until US forces are expelled from Iraq. Centcom’s press release announcing the strikes is »