[NYPost] One industry in America pumps out toxic waste day and night, but suffers no penalty for the damage it causes.
It operates at enormous public and private expense, sucking up hundreds of billions of dollars in government money.
Its toxic bilge poisons much of society, but those who complain about it are often dismissed as ignorant or bigoted.
Its product is largely free of state and federal regulation.
That industry is higher education.
And the toxic waste it emits isn’t chemical but intellectual sludge, in the form of racial bigotry, antisemitism and crude Marxism.
“It’s amazing,” constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro said a few days ago in testimony to a committee of the US Commission for Civil Rights: “The heart of antisemitism in America lies on campus, among the most educated and progressive people in the country.”
This isn’t the workplace bias and schoolyard name-calling that once marked antisemitism in this country — it’s now reached the performance stage.
Like the recent incident in which antisemitic Cornell student Austin Franco rejected a job offer from a Jewish-owned startup with the hateful message “Not interested in working for a Jew” — then raised more than $20,000 from equally antisemitic goons on a crowdfunding site.
Franco attends the same campus where antisemitic students this semester trapped the university’s president in his car, holding him hostage after he hosted a civil debate over Israel.
Violence, threats and taunts have hit Jewish students on campuses across the country, from Columbia and Yale on the East Coast to UCLA on the West.
Why have universities been so limp-wristed in addressing this unvarnished hatred?
One reason is money: Arab sheikdom Qatar has pumped tens of billions of dollars into US universities in recent years — and in the academy, money talks.
But another reason is that our universities have been the Petri dish in which this nasty ideology is cultured.
Law schools and humanities departments have embraced Critical Race Theory, which views everything through the lens of oppressor versus oppressed.
No crime, however vile, is treated as beyond the pale if those committing it are classified as “oppressed.”
Meanwhile, those seen as “oppressors” can do nothing right: Their very existence is an offense.
This worldview got a double shot of espresso during the 2020 George Floyd hysteria.
And it’s informed campus thinking — and by extension, all of leftist culture — with a bigoted, frankly racial perspective on everything.
Jews are coded as oppressors — even though Israel was founded as a refuge for victims of the Holocaust — and that justifies rape, torture and murder by “oppressed” Palestinians.
The sickness isn’t limited to race: Academic feminism has divided the sexes and introduced poisonous views of masculinity and femininity as “progressive,” when they’re really just prejudice and hate.
The poison has spread from universities into government and the corporate world through the insidious mechanism of federally enforced “anti-discrimination” rules.
Meanwhile, schools of education turn out teachers who are literally more interested in indoctrinating students in social justice than in teaching them how to read or do math.
Specious academic theories of education have turned out to be far less successful at actually educating children than old-fashioned methods like phonics and drills.
Worse yet, academia has instilled in its graduates an undeserved sense of superiority simply because they attended college.
Yet plenty of smart people don’t have a college degree — and plenty of college graduates didn’t learn much.
Test results confirm that: A major study of 2,300 students not long ago reported that 36% of them showed no improved learning after four years of college.
More Jew hating at the universities. 6/8/2026-6/21/2026:
CU Boulder pro-Palestinian group defends antisemitic firebombing, demands release of culprit.
[CollegeFix] This past week, the University of Colorado Boulder chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine demanded the release of convicted killer Mohamed Sabry Soliman … and justified his firebombing of a pro-Israel event a year ago. Soliman was sentenced last month to “life plus 2,178 years” for attacking a “Run for Their Lives” (an event which supports the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas) last year with a “makeshift flamethrower” at which one victim was killed and over a dozen others burned.
In Jeremiah Wright-style, the CU Boulder SJP described Soliman’s actions as a “case of chickens coming home to roost.”
According to the Daily Camera, the CU Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine was “placed in bad standing” in 2024 due to “policy violations.” It remains “formally unrecognized.” University spokesperson Nicole Cousins “denounced the glorification of violence” and noted the SJP’s statement had been “reported to the ‘appropriate campus offices.’”
CUNY professor lauds Iranian military, declares bring down U.S. empire ‘by any means necessary’
[CollegeFix] A City University of New York pro-Palestinian professor who a year ago screamed “LEAVE!” at pro-Israel counter-demonstrators during a rally in which in she participated recently praised the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps … and called for the “U.S. empire” to be brought down “by any means necessary.”
Corinna Mullin, who also teaches at The New School, told an audience at a Democratic Socialists of America meeting last Wednesday that “a state like Iran needs to divert a significant portion of its surplus into military industrialization, so it can defend its workers,” the New York Post reports. Mullin claimed the Iranian regime “is working on behalf of the working class.
“We can talk about the Epstein class and the depravity of the ruling class today, which knows no limits on violence. So, I’m sorry, I defend the IRGC,” she said. “I defend the incredible role the Iranian state has done to defend the working class.”
Mullin also praised Iran for its “strong gender inclusion” and “prioritization of human life.”
Mullin was fired by CUNY in 2024 after “leading” a pro-Palestinian encampment, but following pushback was reinstated earlier this year. According to Mondoweiss, Mullin is affiliated with the group CUNY4Palestine and her “activism and academic concentration lend to the incorporation of Palestinian history and politics in her university classrooms.”
‼️‼️Nyc 34th and 5th. We don’t want no Zionists here. Jews prevented from walking. Jews don’t say you didn’t see it coming. pic.twitter.com/2XWnC4vhtc
My first step was to see what programs they offered. So, I logged onto Instagram to look through their feeds. What I saw disappointed me. These clubs
associated themselves with a network of far-left student organizations, including the Young Democratic Socialists of America and Students for Justice in Palestine, in a “student power coalition” – “a collective of leftist and multicultural student organizations founded upon four unifying principles,” one of which is anti-Zionism. On top of this, the coalition and its constituent organizations have made several public antisemitic comments, including railing against the dominance of “White Zionists” within the student government and blaming Israel for the October 7 Massacre. By allying with such groups, the disability-related groups sent me a message, whether intentional: Even though I am disabled, because I am a Zionist (a core part of my Jewish identity), I am not welcome.
So, I didn’t join. I was never formally excluded. I set a boundary and deliberately excluded myself. I could not join a group that was deeply opposed to my Jewish identity. My experience is not isolated; I have heard similar stories from other disabled Jewish students who have chosen not to join these groups.
Binghamton has one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country, alongside a leading Center for Israel Studies. Why exclude such a significant portion of the campus?
This past week I testified before the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at a hearing entitled “Discrimination Against Jews on College and University Campuses Since Oct. 7, 2023.” I knew several members of the committee, including my Manhattan Institute colleague Rafael Mangual, and the other witness was my old friend and professional collaborator Nadine Strossen. I’d also previously served on Virginia’s Advisory Committee. So this was all very comfortable and—dare I say it—fun. Apparently the Democratic-appointed members of the committee had voted against antisemitism as a subject of study—one of them resigned in protest—and then had gone incommunicado ahead of the hearing, declining to call their own witnesses and then insisting on having their own hearing afterwards (nothing doing). Controversy! Anyhow, you can watch the raw video of the hearing here, and below are the written remarks that I submitted. —IS
I’ve taught at Stanford more than a dozen times. The real story isn’t that some graduates walked out. It’s that Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google, while the protesters are still protesting Google. One group builds things. The other interrupts commencement speeches. https://t.co/Wo2fsY0fZX
— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) June 15, 2026
Why are they so upset with Pichai and Google? Because the tech giant does business with Israel:
The protest seemed to be a mishmash of leftist causes — including anti-ICE sentiment — but the focus of many seemed to be on Google’s AI work with the Jewish state:
The protest is the latest chapter in a yearslong controversy surrounding Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract jointly held with Amazon to provide cloud and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government. Critics, including some employees and pro-Palestinian activists, argue the technology could be used by Israel’s military and security agencies in ways that harm Palestinians. lou*Google has maintained that the contract is for government cloud services and has repeatedly defended its work.
🚨 I won't sugar coat it: our Education Secretary needs to put on her counter-terror hat and address what's unfolding at the University of Michigan on our dime.
Recently, 8 students were federally indicted for unleashing a campaign of violence against Board Regents for nearly 2 years.
The pic on the right is Makled with Alex Sepulveda.
Alex was one of the 8 students arrested by the FBI. He threw chemical agents through the windows of Board Regents homes, as well as participated in violent attacks against university officials.
Makled has appeared with these 8 terrorist students multiple times.
He's now running in an election to become one of those Board Regents at U of M.
He would be serving alongside the regents WHO WERE ATTACKED and marked for death by the "Gang of 8" for their refusal to divest from Israel.
Makled had MULTIPLE tweets praising Hezbollah terrorists killed by the IDF, as well as praise for Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, which he has now deleted after being exposed.
A 'Board Regent' at U of M is an 8-year-term.
If elected, it would give this terror-supporter significant political influence over the university, as well as oversight of $1.3 BILLION in federal funding.
Our Education Secretary has a duty to investigate this campus.
The message was written by 19-year-old Austin Franco, a member of Cornell’s class of 2028, during his application process for an internship at a software company owned by two Jewish brothers, Gabe and Aiden Einhorn. The message, which Franco sent via the job application platform Handshake, went viral last week after Gabe Einhorn posted it on X. Franco’s comments have triggered a bias investigation by Cornell. They have also been widely condemned by antisemitism watchdogs, the university and government officials — some of whom suggested that his comments should prevent him from being hired anywhere.
Leo Terrell, chair of the Department of Justice’s task force to combat antisemitism, posted dozens of times about the incident from his personal account, including one post urging the public to make Franco “permanently unemployable.”
But in antisemitic corners of the internet, Franco is emerging as a heroic figure, someone seen as willing to speak truth to power and say publicly what many believe about Jews.
“They’re treating him like a hero,” Gabe Einhorn told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview. “There’s these main players with millions of followers across their accounts that their job, literally all they do, is post about antisemitic stuff,” he added. “They’re kind of leading the charge there, so they’re just picking him up and dragging him along with him.”
The support Franco has elicited includes the crowdfunding page created by Miles Routledge, the far-right English YouTuber known as “Lord Miles” who last year said he hoped to see “another Hitler” by 2039. Routledge has also encouraged his followers to leave negative reviews on the Einhorns’ parents’ business page. In another tweet about the fundraiser, Routledge wrote, “I just raised $10k for antisemitism.”
GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding website. The company said in a statement to JTA that it opposes antisemitism but had determined the Franco campaign was permissible under its rules.
Meanwhile, at Cornell, where classes have ended for the summer, a formal investigation into the Handshake incident is in the works, the university told its student newspaper on Saturday. The incident was referred to the university’s Office of Civil Rights, where it will be investigated according to university policy, a spokesperson for Cornell University told JTA in a statement on Monday.
“Cornell condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms,” the spokesperson said. “The university is steadfastly committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for every member of our community.”
Franco told the Cornell Daily Sun he learned that the Einhorn brothers were Jewish based on their “first and last name, LinkedIn, and physiognomy.” Physiognomy is the pseudoscience of determining certain behaviors or traits about a person due to their facial characteristics and is largely considered to be a form of scientific racism.
“They look Jewish. Even got the horns and tails!” But he proved he’s smart enough fir Cornell by using that big word correctly. I’m impressed…
“Unfortunately it’s his First Amendment right to be bigoted,” said Menachem Rosensaft, an attorney and adjunct law professor at Cornell who has advocated against antisemitism there, about Franco. “I wouldn’t be surprised to find him on Tucker Carlson or a similar program, and being made a hero of the antisemitic far right.”
The school canceled the eighth grade’s end-of-year party over the incident and has launched an internal investigation, the Ynet news site reported Thursday, citing Israeli and Jewish parents of students at the school, where a swastika was also found etched in a boys’ locker room earlier this year.
UNIS, where annual tuition costs run up to about $50,000, is also facing a lawsuit from earlier this year by a Jewish veteran French teacher who claims the institution has ignored repeated complaints about antisemitic and anti-Israel abuse from both students and staff.
“We are shocked by the hateful language found in the junior school yearbooks and unequivocally condemn identity-based harm,” the spokesperson said. “Upon learning of the incident, school leadership immediately confiscated the remaining yearbooks and launched a comprehensive investigation.”
Seattle Professor Under Review After Calling for Action Against ‘Zionist’ Employees
[CampusReform] Longtime, tenured Seattle Central College professor David Quintero, also reposted Facebook reels claiming Ashkenazi Jews are the ‘synagogue of Satan,’ accusing Zionists of working with Nazis, and using the hashtag ‘death to Zionists.’
Seattle Colleges publicly says that it supports Jewish students and employees. On a page titled “Seattle Colleges Stands with Our Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQIA2+ Communities,” the district says it “reject[s] and condemn[s] all acts of hate, bias, racism, and injustices against all our communities,” and states that it stands “in particular, with our Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQIA2+ community members.”
#3
When professors are virtuous, tenure protects them from a rapacious university management. When the professors are as vicious as management, if not more so, tenure encourages misbehavour.
[FOX] "My neighbor tiled my roof for free. He said it was on the house."
While that dad joke might elicit a heavy sigh from family members, experts say a silly pun can alter internal body chemistry and lower stress, potentially providing real health benefits.
Dad jokes are uniquely distinguished by their structure, content and comedic devices, according to a study published on PsyArXiv, an open-access preprint repository for psychology research.
In analyzing thousands of examples, psychologists Paul J. Silvia (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and Meriel I. Burnett (University of Massachusetts Amherst) found that dad humor is firmly rooted in puns and wordplay.
While more advanced comedy requires context, a joke about a neighbor's roof may only require someone to understand the dual meaning of a single phrase.
This predictable structure makes dad jokes broadly accessible, creating opportunities for shared humor across generations, the researchers said.
Laughter alters internal chemistry by decreasing stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, while simultaneously increasing happiness chemicals like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins.
[ZERO] History is filled with political movements born from noble promises. Few have been more appealing in theory than socialism. At its heart, socialism promises greater equality, economic fairness, and protection for those who struggle in a competitive marketplace. It speaks to the desire for justice and the belief that no person should be left behind.
Yet history also teaches a sobering lesson: While millions have voted for socialism, millions more have ultimately fled from it.
Why?
The answer is not found in campaign slogans or academic theories. It is found in the lived experiences of ordinary people across generations and continents.
Throughout the 20th century, socialist governments emerged across Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Many came to power promising to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality, and place the needs of the people above the interests of the wealthy. In the beginning, those promises often generated enormous enthusiasm. Citizens were told that government planning would be more efficient than free markets, that collective ownership would create fairness, and that centralized control would produce prosperity for all.
The results, however, frequently fell short of the promises.
One recurring problem was the concentration of power. When governments assume responsibility for directing large portions of the economy, political leaders inevitably gain greater control over employment, investment, production, and distribution. Over time, this concentration of authority often extends beyond economics into other aspects of society.
#3
Pure Socialist, Democracies and Communist Governments seldom last. Such governments are usually just a stepping stone from a Wealthy Ruling class, that was using suppressive and dictatorial powers.
Over time they become heavily modified retaining parts of its original agenda and format. Adopting some characteristics of a Semi-Republic.
Republics, tend to last longer before developing its own Wealthy Ruling class, that uses suppressive dictatorial powers to maintain control and grow its family wealth.
#5
Where have all the Climate Doom Sayers gone?
Has the theme worn itself out and no longer profitable. Given all the facts have repeatedly proven them just Climate $$$ Pimps.
#6
The recent IPCC report admitted that their highest estimates were not supported by the data, NN2N1. Without the scary numbers, the whole thing just isn’t scary. Besides, screaming about the Joooos Israel the Jooooos is much more satisfying to a certain type of mind.
#9
Somebody on TV this past weekend said more people die from European summer heat waves than from guns in the US.
"a well regulated militia climate, being necessary to the security of a free state lunch, the right of the people to keep and bear arms air conditioners, shall not be infringed."
I have no interest in seeing a World Cup game. However I am having a lot of fun following some of the people from other countries who are traveling around the US following their countries team's. It's been interesting & fun seeing the US through the eyes of people from other countries. As bad as it may seem sometimes, we don't realize just how good we have it here.
The awe of Walmart & Costco
How good the food is & the size of the portions and this is for fast food like Taco Bell or Chick Fil A or inexpensive sit down chains like Waffle House, Denny's, In & Out or What A Burger.
And if the two hard drinking & partying fan bases of Germany & Scotland face each in Boston, will the Boston hospitality industry survive?
Link just goes to the X main page, but the tweets are all over X — just keep scrolling down and they’ll appear. Post your favourite in the comments.
#1
It's all good with American hospitality until Europeans find out that they're expected to tip 20% (better more), and often on top of a bill that has already included a "gratuity" of 20%.
But yes, if Germany gets to face Scotland, Boston will run as dry as the Sahara desert (except for Bud light as we'd prefer to drinlk water instead).
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/22/2026 10:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
In Europe the higher wages are paid by the employer instead of directly by the customer, so it’s invisible. But yes, it will be a shock.
#6
The intensity of the drinking by the Scots is impressive. Not sure how they can afford to blow that much money on a two week vacation.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/22/2026 11:22 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I can't stand "automatic gratuity" added to the bill and STILL be expected to tip 20% on top of this. Usually I manage to get the gratuity removed and tip in cash, if the service was good.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/22/2026 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#8
^ Automatic gratuity = the tip. No need to pay more, unless she had big...hands
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2026 12:51 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I went to buy a cup of coffee at one US airport I transited through with the intention of throwing the loose change into the tip jar until I saw there was a mandatory x% mark-up to support the workers or some such statement. The loose change went right into my pocket.
[HumangleMedia] Abubakar Shekau’s fanaticism thrived like wildfire in the Sambisa Forest Reserve. His dramatic reign ended abruptly, but the scars of his terror still linger. This is how he lived.
Summary
In May 2021, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) targeted Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, in Nigeria's Sambisa forest.
Faced with surrender, Shekau committed suicide, ending his reign of terror characterized by mass abductions and executions across northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.
From humble beginnings, Shekau rose to infamous leader, heavily influenced by Mohammed Yusuf and radical Islamic teachings.
His leadership saw Boko Haram engage in severe violence, including bombings and kidnappings, drawing global condemnation. Despite his death, Shekau's legacy endures in ongoing regional instability and the ideologies he propagated continue to influence insurgent groups in Nigeria and beyond.
Jumping down to this key bit:
According to an internal message released by ISWAP, Abubakar Shekau died in the hours between the 18th and 19th of May 2021. Rather than surrender, he reportedly triggered his suicide vest, killing himself and several others present. The man who had used death as a symbol of his sermons chose suicide as his final supplication.
It wasn’t the first time Shekau had died — his death had been rumoured and reported half a dozen times in the preceding years, by the military or competing insurgency groups — but it was the final, definitive time, with confirmation coming just a few days after the blast. His death ended his reign of terror, but his legacy endures across the Lake Chad region, and more broadly in the geopolitical alarm his insurgency helped ignite. It is the legacy of Shekau’s long war of mass abductions, executions, and persecution of Christians that has reverberated so far as to cause figures like Donald Trump to designate Nigeria as a land of Christian genocide requiring urgent U.S. military intervention.
[IsraelTimes] After years of weakening Iran and its proxies, Israel can only watch as Tehran gains leverage over its most important ally, but it’s unlikely to simply accept whatever is decided in talks it’s not party to
Sunday looked like a bleak day for Israel.
As talks opened in Burgenstock, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , on a US-Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... deal that could hardly be more high stakes for the country, Jerusalem was nowhere to be found, or heard.
Relegated to the role of armchair quarterback, Israel could only figuratively yell at the TV as its closest ally — the country that joined it in war against its arch-nemesis Iran some 100 days ago — began formally negotiating with Tehran on a permanent end to the conflict.
As US Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i-owned resort where talks were being held Sunday morning, he was greeted by delegations from Doha, Islamabad, and Tehran, all of whom have a seat at the table.
Israel had no part in negotiating the MOU, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from it. Still, the terms of the opening clause, permanently ending the war and ruling out any resumption, indicate that it is binding on the US, Iran "and their allies." Israeli officials are bitterly opposed to the deal’s terms, which resolve none of the war’s key goals — notably, eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and creating the conditions for the fall of the regime.
The first item on their agenda, according to reports, was an emergency session on Israel’s conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... . Of the two states and one terror proxy group with skin in the game, only Hezbollah, closely controlled and funded by Iran, could be said to have anything resembling representation in the negotiations.
After two and a half years of steadily weakening Iran and its proxies, and proving itself as a powerful regional actor that could fight as an equal alongside the world’s superpower, Israel is now seeing Tehran gain influence over both Washington and the regional agenda.
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding and the talks now unfolding in Switzerland remain fresh and vulnerable to collapse. Yet even if they hold, they are unlikely to mark the end of Israel’s fight against Iran so much as the start of a new phase — one in which Israel’s next confrontation may be more solitary than it once hoped.
STRAIT TALK
As negotiators in Switzerland prepared to discuss the future of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the absence of both Israel and Lebanon suggests worryingly that Jerusalem had been placed in much the same category as Lebanon’s weak central government — or, more troublingly, is seen as an American proxy much as Hezbollah is Iran’s.
While many in Israel understood that any end to the war would ultimately require American-brokered compromises, the rhetoric coming out of Washington has been strikingly unsympathetic to Israeli concerns.
Vance, who did not mention Israel at all in his opening remarks at the negotiations, has made little effort to hide his impatience with the US’s "very small partner," in the words of his boss US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... He has dismissed concerns over the memorandum of understanding and emerging nuclear negotiations, telling news hounds he found "this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd" and a sign of unwarranted "mistrust."
He has argued that "you can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem," urged Israeli critics to "wake up and smell the reality," and, at a recent White House briefing, reminded Jerusalem that Trump is now among the few world leaders openly sympathetic to Israel while noting how much of its arsenal is American-made.
Washington’s growing willingness to pressure Israel in public has boosted the perception that Iran had arrived at these talks carrying the ultimate leverage through the Strait of Hormuz, with Israel seen as an obstacle to getting the vital waterway open.
Wednesday’s MOU dictated no more fighting in Lebanon, but Hezbollah has continued attacking soldiers in the southern Lebanon security zone, prompting retaliatory strikes from Israel.
After Tehran declared the Strait of Hormuz shut again on Saturday — citing continued Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon — the talks’ opening session was restructured around the Lebanon question rather than the nuclear file, showing Iran’s ability to use the threat of economic disruption to constrain Israeli military action.
Trump’s willingness to go along with Iran on Lebanon may pave the way to short-term gains on Hormuz. But it hardly serves US strategic interests, argued Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"Acceding to Iran’s demand on [Lebanon] undermines not one but two American allies — democratically elected governments in Beirut and Jerusalem — as well as the longstanding US policy of supporting direct negotiations between the parties," he wrote on X.
"In the process, this lends wholly undeserved support to Iran’s baseless claim that its backing of a terrorist organization — Hezbollah — gives it legitimate standing to determine the fate of Lebanon," he added.
ELECTION TENSION
The fact that both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are facing upcoming elections — the US is not voting for president this year but so-called midterm elections will determine how much support Trump will have in Congress, as well as foreshadow the 2028 ballot — only heightens the tense political standoff between Jerusalem and Washington, with both leaders seeking largely mutually exclusive goals to sell to their domestic publics.
"In order for Bibi to avoid his worst-case scenario [of losing the election], he needs to keep up a very strong position on Lebanon," said Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to Washington, using Netanyahu’s nickname. "And Trump, in order to keep his position, to avoid his nightmare, he has to prevent Bibi" from doing so.
Israel has bit the bullet and accepted diktats from the US in the past, but Oren argued there was a limit to how much Jerusalem would go along with, especially regarding its defense.
"It’s never a question about what Israel can do. It’s what Israel must do. And this country cannot, cannot countenance or endure Hezbollah fire on our soldiers or our civilians," he said. "You’ll have to strike back... this is a paramount strategic interest of the state of Israel."
Still, Iran will likely continue to test how far its leverage over Hormuz can go in Lebanon, and it very well may test whether the same formula can shield Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s and other regional proxies, or influence future policies in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
TOO MANY EGGS IN US BASKET
None of this means Israel’s fight against Iran or its proxies is over.
Whatever comes out of Burgenstock will likely be framed by Trump as a victory as he tries to show he’s in control.
Netanyahu, as he largely has been up until now, will be in the uncomfortable position of deciding how loudly to object to an agreement Israel never signed.
Yet Israel’s exclusion from the talks is not necessarily a liability. If Jerusalem is not formally party to any understanding reached in Switzerland, it can argue that it remains unbound by it — that its military options against Iran’s nuclear program, regional proxies and remaining infrastructure have not been negotiated away.
Washington may even have structured things this way deliberately, to give Israel a plausible distance. There is also the possibility that the public tensions between Trump and Netanyahu mask continued coordination behind the scenes, as they did in previous US-Iran nuclear talks.
But it’s just as likely, if not more so, that Trump is simply eager to find a diplomatic off-ramp for a war that has angered Americans and driven prices up.
And even if negotiations advance, Israel can still realistically hope that Tehran will eventually overplay its hand and force Trump to break off the negotiations, Oren added.
There seems to be no getting around the shift in the broader strategic landscape, though.
The Gulf states have spent months watching the Hormuz crisis unfold and drawing their own conclusions about the durability of American power in the region and the US-Israel security umbrella.
That poses a challenge for the broader logic that underpinned the US-brokered Abraham Accords normalization agreements.
"The cement of the Abraham Accords was the belief in the staying power of American force. And that’s not happening," Oren said, warning that "there’s a greater possibility that Gulf states will start gravitating toward Tehran now."
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , Pakistain, and Qatar are now seen as key regional mediators, and none of them is likely to push policies that benefit Israel.
None of this diminishes the importance of the US-Israel alliance. Military and intelligence ties forged during the war remain deeper than ever. But it does reinforce the need for Israel to broaden its strategic options beyond Washington.
"About 97% of our security purchases are from the United States. And that’s too many eggs in one basket... also in view of what’s happening politically in America, we have to diversify our foreign policy portfolio," Oren said. "It is the only thing we can do."
Washington remains an indispensable ally for Israel. Yet the conditions that made a genuine wartime partnership possible earlier this year may not return anytime soon. The fight to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear and missile capabilities, rearming Hezbollah and other proxies and consolidating its regional gains could continue for years — and with less help than Israel once expected.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
According to an internal message released by ISWAP, Abubakar Shekau died in the hours between the 18th and 19th of May 2021. Rather than surrender, he reportedly triggered his suicide vest, killing himself and several others present. The man who had used death as a symbol of his sermons chose suicide as his final supplication.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
