Iran
November 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. I’m late getting to Cliff’s October 25 column “The second war against the Jews” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post
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November 2, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Herewith another bonus classic format edition, this time featuring an extended conversation with Col. Austin Bay, one of the proprietors of the indispensable Strategy Page, columnist for Creators Syndicate, and author of the splendid Cocktails from Hell: Five Complex Wars Shaping the 21st Century. His column last week is a brief and lucid tour through the proxy wars America is currently confronting (against Russia and Iran, by way of Ukraine
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October 31, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on Lebanon, Hezbollah, Syria, and the geopolitics of the Levant. Tablet originally published his illuminating column “Eyeless in Gaza” on October 18. FDD has cross-posted it here with Badran’s many links. The column provides an illuminating account of “how the U.S. blinded Israeli intelligence gathering efforts on Hamas and other Palestinian groups inside Lebanon.”
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October 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson
IDF Lt. Colonel (reserve) Jonathan Conricus posted another update on the status of the war a few hours ago. I have embedded it below. In this update Conricus focuses on the northern front. Hezbollah and Iran are testing Israel and President Biden. He rightly characterizes himself as “a credible source.” He reports that Hezbollah has been escalating its attacks on Israel. Hezbollah does not appear to be paying Biden’s instruction
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October 20, 2023 — Scott Johnson
As I have noted over the past two weeks, IDF Lt. Col. (reserve) Jonathan Conricus is working overtime to get out the truth about the war in which Israel is engaged. In the tweet below, Conricus takes up the job of media critic to address the characteristic shortcomings of the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza hospital (parking lot) explosion this week. Conricus employs the useful hashtag #HamasHospitalSham. The BBC was
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October 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Walter Russell Mead writes in his Wall Street Journal Global View column today: Iran is unappeasable, but this truth is too inconvenient for the Biden administration to admit. Instead, administration spokesmen continue to minimize Tehran’s involvement with and responsibility for the murders. Iran, which at this point seems to have little fear from an administration it believes it has cowed, is more open. It makes no bones about its support
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October 16, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the monologue that preceded Tucker Carlon’s interview of Vivek the Fake in “Tucker’s tailspin.” Alana Goodman reported on Ramaswamy’s comments to Carlson in the Free Beacon story “Ramaswamy Says GOP ‘Selective Moral Outrage’ on Israel Driven By Money, Lobbying Groups.” Goodman’s account was cruelly accurate and Ramaswamy threw a fit complete with press release denouncing her. John McCormack reviewed Ramaswamy’s critique in the cruelly accurate NRO/Corner post
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October 14, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Dan Senor’s Call Me Back podcast seeks to ascertain “What history can teach us about the current decade we’re in – the 2020s.” In the current episode with Elliott Abrams, they seek to “provide additional detail on the history of Israel-Gaza/Hamas — this time from a White House insider on U.S.-Middle East policy during a critical period in Hamas’s takeover of Gaza — what were leaders in Washington and Jerusalem
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October 12, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson devoted the latest episode of his X/Twitter show to the Hamas/Israel war. He opens by searching for “the wise path forward” and asking what we should “do next in this chaotic moment.” For some reason, he doesn’t directly answer his own question. We are to infer, however, that it’s none of our business. It might be best to avert our eyes. Tucker’s comments constitute little more than an
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October 12, 2023 — Scott Johnson
IDF Lt. Col. (reserve) Jonathan Conricus is a spokesman for the IDF. He has been working overtime since Hamas attacked Israel and commenced its campaign of atrocities on October 7 and has now posted a fifth daily update on the ensuing war (below). I hope to continue posting these updates so long as they remain of interest. As I have observed before, the IDF generally continues to be a more
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October 10, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Four Washington Post reporters have bylines on the story “Hamas received weapons and training from Iran, officials say.” Two more reporters are credited with contributing to the story, whose subhead is “Iran ‘broadly complicit’ in supporting Palestinian militants, but no evidence seen of a direct role in slaughter, officials say.” The six reporters reiterate what should be the common knowledge of anyone who follows the news from the Middle East.
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October 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Submitted for your analysis, the tweet of Secretary of State Antony Blinken (below). In it he discloses the upshot of his conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Turkey is of course a supporter of Hamas. Blinken relates that he encouraged Turkey’s advocacy of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel now that Israel is undertaking its right to defend itself from Hamas. For some reason Blinken has since deleted the
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October 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Biden administration promotes the line that the $6 billion ransom it has posted for the benefit of Iran has nothing to do with Iran’s support for terrorism and this line is faithfully parroted in the mainstream media, including Jennifer Griffin on Fox News. Gabriel Noronha has comprehensively refuted this assertion in an informative thread on Twitter/X. Readers can access Noronha’s thread via the Xeet below. 🧵I'm sorry Jen but
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October 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On Twitter, Victor Davis Hanson draws together several threads relating to the Gazans’ invasion of Israel. How does it fit into the broader currents of Middle Eastern Politics? Why now? What was Iran’s role? And how relevant is the Biden administration’s incompetence and anti-Israel bias? Victor’s tweet is embedded below, but I have taken the liberty of reproducing its text: A 50th Anniversary War? Why did Hamas stage a long-planned,
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October 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State Antony Blinken professes not to have seen any evidence that Iran planned and instigated Hamas’s war on Israel. Evidence is not hard to find. It is available on open sources and elsewhere. The trouble is obvious. Blinken is being briefed by President Biden. The two have no clue. The Wall Street Journal now reports ”Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks.” Subhead: “The Islamic Revolutionary
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October 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
As William Buckley used to say, herewith a few comments on Hamas’s 10/7 attack on Israel (with apologies for those that have already achieved the status of cliché): • Hamas’s 10/7 attack is something like Israel’s 9/11, only worse. Israel’s death toll has hit more than 400 (and rising). Adjusting for population and measuring by the deaths inflicted so far, Israel has suffered (is suffering) an attack that is something
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October 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Who is behind the Palestinians’ attack on Israel? Iran, for one. The London Times minces no words: The British government believes that Iran is linked to the Hamas attack on Israel and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is likely to have played a role in training and the supply of weapons (Dipesh Gadher writes). A Whitehall source said: “The Revolutionary Guards have their fingerprints all over this multifaceted
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