Hugh Fitzgerald

Iran is now more vulnerable to attack than at any time since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. On October 26, the Israel Air Force struck Iran, destroying its ballistic missile plants and all of its missile defense systems, including the Russian S-300 batteries that protected Tehran. The Iranians as a result are now nearly defenseless against attacks from the air, either by Israeli missiles or by its bombers. The Iranians have promised that in response to that attack, they will “crush” the Zionists, but nearly a month has gone by, and they have done nothing, not even launching a single drone toward the Jewish state. They know perfectly well that if they did launch such a attack, no matter how ineffectual such an effort might be, it would provide Israel with the excuse to let loose with a massive attack on Iran's nuclear program.

Ireland has been overtaken by the virus of antisemitism. It's on display in the Dáil, in the cabinet, in the office of the Taoiseach, in the media and the universities. Recently, the Irish government chose to join South Africa in its charge against Israel at the International Court of Justice, hoping to have the tiny and embattled Jewish state declared guilty of “genocide.” Since Israel has not exhibited the “intent to commit genocide” which until now has been deemed essential for the charge to stick, the Irish government has expanded the definition of what constitutes “genocide.” Now it appears to mean something rather vague — “killing too many civilians in a war than we deem necessary,” and your intent, or lack of it, no longer matters; you can still be declared “guilty of genocide.” Using that definition, both the US, with its atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the UK, with the firebombing of German cities such as Dresden by the UK's “Bomber” Harris, are both guilty of “genocide.”

Amidst the chaos in Syria, and with grave doubts about what's to come, despite the soothing assurances about protecting the rights of minorities that Ahmad al-Sharaa (a/k/a Mohamed al-Jolani) keeps issuing, the Jewish state worries that the instability in Syria could lead to a takeover of the country by jihadists, possibly led by other leaders in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who do not share Al-Sharaa's putative change of heart, or by leaders from other rebel factions.

Throughout Western Europe, the Muslim percentage of the population grows steadily, both from continued immigration and from much higher birth rates among Muslims than those exhibited by the indigenous non-Muslim population. There are now an estimated forty-four million Muslims in Europe, about 5% of the population. That number is expected to rise to 7.5% of the population — if nothing is done to halt Muslim immigration — by 2050. And growing antisemitism, which is encouraged and spread mainly by those Muslims migrants, is causing more Jews to think of leaving Europe for Israel or North America. More on this disturbing development can be found here: “Islam conquers Europe and Jews flee,” by Giulio Meotti,

Growing antisemitism, encouraged and spread mainly by Muslims migrants, is causing more Jews to think of leaving Europe for Israel or North America. Yet will they find refuge even in America? “Islam conquers Europe and Jews flee,” by Giulio Meotti,

John Spencer spent 25 years in the U.S. Army, and now is a professor of urban warfare at West Point, one of the acknowledged leaders in the field. He has been mightily impressed with the way the IDF has conducted its campaign in Gaza, especially its tremendous effort to minimize civilian casualties by warning Gazans to leave sites that are about to be targeted by the IAF. Many millions of leaflets have been dropped, millions of text messages have been sent, and millions of robocalls made by the IDF, all in order to warn civilians away from danger. From his study of the IDF, Spencer has concluded that “ Israel's extraordinary efforts to avoid civilian casualties endanger its own soldiers,” and “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Lisa Grande is the Biden administration's Middle East aid envoy and an employee of the State Department's Bureau of Near East Affairs. In other words, she could be considered to be among the last examples of the State Department “Arabists” who were, and are, united in their anti-Israel animus, which began in 1947-48 with their attempts to prevent American recognition of the State of Israel, continued with their devotion to Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and now is expressed in their enthusiasm for the “Palestinians” and that soi-disant “two-state solution” that would require Israel to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines (which those Arabists like to describe, wrongly as “boundary lines”), that would leave Israel with a nine-mile-wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea and provide the Arabs with a 23rd state. Think of such rebarbative “Arabists” from the past as William Phillips, Talcott Seelye, Loy Henderson, Raymond Hare, and Parker Hart, and the parts they played in the formation of America's pro-Arab policy in the Middle East that lasted for many decades. I wrote above that “she could be considered” a State Department Arabist, but that would not be true, for she did not spend her professional life at Foggy Bottom. No, Lisa Grande spent 25 years working for the United Nations, which, however, is also a swamp of anti-Israel attitudes.

The Assads, father and son, always claimed to be the defenders of the Palestinians against the Zionist entity. The truth is quite otherwise. More on how the Assads used and abused the Palestinians can be found here: “For Palestinians, Syria is a closing door and an opening window – analysis,” by Elias Zananiri,

Get over it. Victoria Coates is a former Deputy National Security Adviser in the first Trump administration.

A Muslim in England, who spent almost five years in prison for creating and spreading jihadist propaganda, has come up with a way to supplement the benefits the generous British welfare state is now providing him. He's suing the owner of a local Saracen's Head Inn because the sign painted with the pub's name also displays a malignant and a turbaned Turk, and that image, he claims, has frightened him.