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Recent Appearances...

Islamic Scientists Association

Iraq-Jordan

20040529

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Netanyahu quietly leaves White House without announcement of breakthrough in Gaza talks

2025-07-09

A taste. It’s a long article.

[IsraelTimes] PM’s second sit-down with Trump in as many days ends with no public component; Witkoff delays Doha trip in sign talks not yet ripe after expressing optimism deal can be reached this week

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up his second White House meeting with US President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
in as many days without any public announcement of a breakthrough in the ongoing 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...
ceasefire and hostage release talks, which was the primary topic of the sit-down.

The possibility of such a declaration appeared to rise after the meeting was publicly added to Netanyahu’s schedule just hours in advance, with Trump saying they would discuss the Gaza Strip while US special envoy Mideast Steve Witkoff expressed hope a deal could be reached this week.

But as Netanyahu and Trump met for over an hour in the Oval Office along with US Vice President JD Vance, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Witkoff decided to push back his flight to Doha, where he had been slated to join ongoing proximity talks between Israel and Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
Witkoff initially was slated to fly to 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...
on Tuesday, the sources said, adding that a new departure date had yet to be scheduled.

The US envoy informed mediators that he still plans to travel to Doha in order to help bring the deal across the finish line, with his decision to push back the trip indicating that a significant amount of progress still needed to be made.

The Saudi Asharq News outlet cited unnamed "informed sources" who reported that the fifth round of proximity talks in Qatar ended Tuesday night without significant progress.

A Paleostinian official told the news site that talks were "at a standstill," charging that the Israeli negotiations team is "limiting itself to listening rather than negotiating" and consulting on "every issue" with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the lead Israeli negotiator who is accompanying the premier in Washington.

The Paleostinian official claimed the Israeli team lacks authority to make actual decisions, "a continuation of the stalling policy of Netanyahu to obstruct any potential agreement."

Shortly before Netanyahu met with Trump on Tuesday, a delegation of senior Qatari officials held talks with Witkoff for three hours at the White House to discuss the hostage negotiations, a source familiar with the matter said.

After the conclusion of his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu said the discussions "focused on efforts to free our hostages."

"We are not letting up for a moment, and this is possible because of the military pressure exerted by our heroic soldiers," he said in a video shot in the Blair House. "Unfortunately, this effort is exacting a painful price from us, in the loss of our best sons."

Netanyahu stressed that Israel is determined to achieve all of its goals in Gaza -"the release of all our hostages, both living and dead; the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel."

He also discussed "the implications and possibilities" of the operation Israel and the US carried out against 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 ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
with Trump and Vance, said Netanyahu.

"Opportunities are opening up here for expanding the circle of peace, expanding the Abraham Accords," he said. "We are working on this with full vigor."

STICKING POINT(S)
Four sources familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that the US is more optimistic than Egyptian and Qatari mediators about the chances that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal can be reached this week.

Witkoff told news hounds earlier Tuesday that he is hopeful a deal can be reached this week, and that three of the four sticking points were resolved during the past three days of proximity talks in Doha.

A source familiar with the matter said the three issues Witkoff suggested have been solved were Hamas’s demand for guarantees from the mediators that the ceasefire will remain in place even if talks on the terms of a permanent ceasefire have not wrapped up by the end of the 60-day truce under discussion; Hamas’s demand for aid to be surged into Gaza through UN-backed mechanisms; and terms of the hostage-prisoner swap.

The source noted that while progress was made on the first two issues, the identities of Israelis and Paleostinians to be released in the deal have not yet been discussed by the negotiators in Doha, with Hamas insisting that other matters be resolved first.

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the number and identities of those being released are not considered as thorny an issue as the others, the source said, speculating that this was why Witkoff grouped the hostage-prisoner swap component of the deal with the issues that have already been resolved.

Regarding the issue of aid, negotiators in Doha offered initial backing for clauses in the agreement that would prevent the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation from operating in areas where the IDF has withdrawn from, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel.

Only the UN and international organizations that are not connected to either Israel or Hamas will be responsible for distributing aid in areas where the IDF is no longer located, the source said.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Top Iranian Cleric Demands Trump's Execution

2025-07-10

[Breitbart] Leading Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a sermon in Tehran on Friday.

Khatami accused Trump and Netanyahu of “murdering” tens of thousands of people in Gaza, as well as Iran’s top terrorism coordinator Qasem Soleimani, who was liquidated in Baghdad by a 2020 airstrike ordered by President Trump.

The Iranian regime has commanded its subjects to regard Soleimani as a religious “martyr,” but many Iranians refuse to show the mandatory respect to the slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general.

The crowd at Khatami’s sermon, however, seemed to be on the same page as the fire-breathing cleric, chanting “Death to America,” “Death to England,” and “Death to Israel” as he called for Trump and Netanyahu to be executed. “Death to England” is a hardy perennial in Iranian murder chants.

“You are murderers, you need to be punished,” Khatami railed, aiming his diatribe at the American and Israeli leaders and pronouncing them both guilty of capital offenses under Islamic law, including “sowing corruption in the land” and “fighting Allah and his messenger.”

“The ruling regarding Trump and Netanyahu, according to sharia, is that the pair of them should be executed,” he declared.

Last week, a group of senior Shiite clerics in Iran issued fatwas, or religious edicts, condemning both Trump and Netanyahu. The fatwas damned them as moharebs, or warlords who fight against Allah, the same charge Khatami leveled in his sermon calling for their execution. The earlier religious orders said it was a crime for Trump and Netanyahu to discuss targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian dissidents denounced the fatwas as clear incitement for terrorist attacks against the United States and Israel. The regime in Tehran has long threatened revenge for the death of Soleimani, at a “time and place of its own choosing,” as governments that sponsor terrorism are prone to saying.

Iranian state television sought to put an $80 million bounty on Donald Trump’s head during Soleimani’s funeral in 2020, and then tried to crowdsource the blood money by encouraging 80 million Muslims to chip in one dollar apiece.

In December 2023, an Iranian court “ruled” that Trump, his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the CIA, the Pentagon, and various other U.S. government entities and defense contractors should pay Iran $50 billion to “compensate” for the death of Soleimani and “deter future violations.” The case was ostensibly brought to court as a class action by over 3,000 Iranian nationals.

Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, during the finale of Israel’s 12-day Operation Rising Lion to take out Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program, will doubtless be added to Iran’s threats of revenge.

Ayatollah Khatami and the mullahs who issued the fatwas claimed to be more upset about Netanyahu declaring Supreme Leader Khamenei to be a legitimate target during Operation Rising Lion, and Trump chiding Khamenei to show a little gratitude for talking the Israelis out of killing him.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Why the Islamic Republic Must Fall

2025-07-09

[Quillette] On 17 June 2025, I received a video message from a woman in Tehran. Her face was hidden and her voice disguised. She said, "Even while Israel is bombing, I feel more threatened by the Islamic Republic than by Israel."

She isn’t alone in these feelings. I run a Persian YouTube channel with viewers across Iran. I recently asked people to send in messages for Israelis. Within hours, my Telegram blew up with voice notes and video clips. People were filming their carpets, their shadows, their screens—whatever wouldn’t get them caught. They sent the videos to me so that I could translate them into English for our Israeli audience on my English YouTube channel. The messages came from schoolteachers, students, parents, couples, and even a soldier. These people were speaking directly to Israel—and they were saying "thank you."

I’ve lived half my life in Iran. Since I left, I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people still stuck living under the regime. I’ve been part of activist networks for years. In addition to my Persian and English YouTube channels, I run an active Persian Telegram channel and a Persian Discord community, all focused on activism against the Islamic Republic.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

For 2nd time in days, IDF says troops arrested terror cell in Syria working for Iran

2025-07-08

[IsraelTimes] Military says forces captured several members of IRGC-linked terror cell; UK-based war monitor says IDF raided a village in the Quneitra countryside and detained two brothers

For the second time in days, the IDF said Monday morning that it carried out an overnight raid in southern Syria, where forces captured a cell of operatives operating on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Reservists of the Alexandroni Brigade and field interrogators of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 operated overnight in the Kwdana area — close to the border and near an IDF post in southern Syria — to detain the cell, the military said.

Several members of the cell who the IDF said were operating on behalf of the IRGC were nabbed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israeli forces raided a village in the Quneitra countryside of southern Syria early Monday and "carried out searches targeting several homes, which ended with the arrest of two brothers."

On Wednesday, Israel’s military said its forces had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed terrorist cell in southern Syria and seized weapons.

Since Assad’s fall, Israel has carried out strikes and raids in Syria aimed at denying military assets to the Islamist-led interim administration.

Israel has said it is interested in striking normalization agreements with Syria and neighboring Leb
Leb

...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
, but insisted the strategic Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed — would remain part of Israel under any peace accord.

The two countries are currently engaged in "advanced talks" to end official hostilities and resolve the buffer zone issue, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel last week.

The contacts are focused on coordination around security matters, said the official, who would not speculate on when a full peace deal between the two enemy states could turn into reality.

The neighboring states have been in conflict for decades, including direct and often bitter combat from the 1948 War of Independence through the 1982 First Lebanon War.

Link

Arabia

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim cargo ship they attacked Sunday has sunk; anti-Houthi Yemeni govt official says Houthis attacked 2nd ship in Red Sea Monday night, leaving 4 casualties

2025-07-08

[IsraelTimes] Assault on Greek-owned ship and subsequent Israeli strikes raise fears of regional escalation, with hostage deal hanging in balance and Iran weighing continued talks with US

A fat merchantman attacked by Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s 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...
rebels sank in the Red Sea, the group said Monday, raising new concerns over safety in a waterway that is crucial to global shipping, as Israel targeted the rebels with ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s.

The Houthis attacked the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas with drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire on Sunday, forcing its crew of 22 to abandon the vessel.

The Magic Seas attack and subsequent Israeli airstrikes early Monday targeting the rebels raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces to the area, particularly after US President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
’s administration targeted the rebels in a major airstrike campaign.

The ship attack comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
war hangs in the balance, and as 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 ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program, following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites during Israel’s war against the Islamic Theocratic RepublicPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington Sunday to meet with Trump.

SHIP ATTACK FORCES CREW TO ABANDON VESSEL
The attack on Magic Seas, a bulk carrier heading north to Egypt’s Suez Canal, happened about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the Houthis.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, or UKMTO, first said that an armed security team on the vessel had returned fire against an initial attack of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, though the vessel later was struck by projectiles.

Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, said that Magic Seas also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could be a major escalation. It said that two drone boats struck the ship, while another two were destroyed by the armed guards on board.

UKMTO said the ship was taking on water and its crew had abandoned the vessel. They were rescued by a passing ship, it added.

A European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
anti-piracy patrol in the region, called Operation Atalanta, said that 22 mariners had been on board Magic Seas.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military front man, later claimed the attack and said the rebels used missiles and bomb-carrying drone boats to attack the ship.

"Our operations continue in targeting the depths of the Israeli entity in occupied Paleostine, as well as preventing Israeli maritime navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas... until the aggression on 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...
stops and the siege on it is lifted," Saree said.

The Magic Seas owners did not respond to a request for comment. Saree later said the vessel sank in the Red Sea.

FRESH HOUTHI ATTACKS AFTER ISRAELI STRIKES
Separately, on Monday afternoon, a drone launched by the Houthis in Yemen at Israel was shot down by the Israeli Air Force, the Israel Defense Forces said.

No sirens sounded, "according to protocol," the military added.

Hours later, a ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Houthis fell short outside the country’s borders, according to a military official.

The IDF identified the launch, but no sirens sounded in Israel because the missile did not pose a threat.

The two attacks came after the IDF overnight said it struck Houthi-held ports at Hodeida, Ras Isa, and Salif, as well as the Ras Kanatib power plant.

The IDF also said it struck Galaxy Leader, a vehicle-carrying vessel that the Houthis seized back in November 2023 when they began their attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war.

"Houthi forces installed a radar system on the ship and have been using it to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities," the IDF said.

On Monday evening, the IDF released footage showing the strike on the hijacked ship. The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader was affiliated with an Israeli billionaire and had been operated by a Japanese firm, NYK Line.

The Houthis acknowledged the strikes, but offered no damage assessment from the attack. Saree, the Houthi front man, claimed the rebels’ air defense forces "effectively confronted" the Israelis, without offering evidence.

[X]

First video from inside the Magic Seas ship before it was sunk after being targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces. pic.twitter.com/93iZS7kaY4
— Middle Eastern Affairs (@Middle_Eastern0) July 7, 2025

Yemeni official says Houthis behind second attack on Red Sea ship
[IsraelTimes] Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister for Yemen’s internationally recognized government that opposes the Houthis, says the rebel group is behind Monday night’s attack on maritime shipping in the Red Sea.

According to the private security firm Ambrey, the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned Eternity C had been heading north toward the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones. The security guards on board opened fire in the attack.

“The vessel’s engines had reportedly been disabled and Ambrey observed that the vessel had started to drift,” the firm says.

There were no other immediate details on the attack, which is also acknowledged by the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO, center. The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel notes the attack, but the rebels have not claimed the assault.

The US military’s Central Command says it is aware of reports of the attack, but declines to comment further.

The attack occurs in the same area as Sunday’s assault on Magic Seas, another bulk carrier heading north to Egypt’s Suez Canal, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the port of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the Houthis.

Two hurt, two more missing in second Houthi attack on Red Sea shipping
[IsraelTimes] Two crew members of a Greek-managed vessel have been wounded and two more are missing in a drone attack off Yemen, hours after the Iran-aligned Houthis claim an assault on another bulk carrier in the Red Sea that it claimed to have sunk.

The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C was attacked with sea drones and skiffs off the port of Hodeidah, its manager, Cosmoship Management, tells Reuters.

Two crew members are seriously wounded and two are missing, the company says, adding that armed security guards were on board.

The vessel’s bridge was hit, an official at Cosmoship says, adding that telecommunications are impacted and contacting the crew is hard.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US revokes terror label for Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which toppled Assad

2025-07-08

[IsraelTimes] Measure comes amid warming ties between Damascus and Washington, which seeks to reintegrate war-battered country into global economy

The United States on Monday announced that it was revoking its "foreign terrorist organization" designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS), a group once linked to al-Qaeda that took control of Syria in December 2024.
"In consultation with the attorney general and the secretary of the treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
h Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (and other aliases) as a foreign terrorist organization," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
in a memo, with the move to formally take effect on Tuesday.

An armed coalition led by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa overthrew then-Syrian president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
in December, ending half a century of brutal rule by the latter’s family.

The former Islamist guerrilla fighter’s rule as interim president has been cautiously welcomed in Washington, Europe, and elsewhere.

While historic foe Israel initially viewed Sharaa with suspicion, it later expressed interest in striking normalization agreements with Syria and neighboring 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....
. It has insisted that the strategic Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed — would remain part of Israel under any peace accord.

US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
last week formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, saying he hoped to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy.

Trump had lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Group of Europe-based imams visits Israel, bearing ‘message of peace’

2025-07-08

[IsraelTimes] Delegation meets President Herzog; will spend a week touring the country, and meeting military, political and religious authorities, victims of October 7

When Imam Youssef Masbeh introduced himself to President Isaac Herzog on Monday, he could not help but start singing a special chant in Arabic, offering a reinterpretation of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah.

Masbeh, who has served as a religious leader in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway for 20 years, was part of a delegation of about a dozen imams and Moslem community leaders who were visiting Israel from several European countries, including La Belle France, the United Kingdom, and Italia.

Masbeh also encouraged his colleagues and all those present to join him in singing and dancing, celebrating the moment of togetherness.

"We are all children of Abraham, and I believe the historic progress in our region is a progress of dialogue between Moslems and Jews, and Jews and Moslems," Herzog said. "What you’re doing on this visit, and in your courageous work, reflects the silent majority in the Middle East and around the world who yearn for this kind of shared life."

The delegation was organized by ELNET, an NGO that promotes ties between Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and Israel.

On Monday, the group also held meetings at the Knesset, before heading to Jerusalem’s Old City to visit Moslem, Jewish, and Christian holy sites, including the Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa mosque compound stands.

The trip will also include a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, meetings with Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef and with IDF Arabic Spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee, and visits with family members of former Bedouin hostages 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...
and Druze victims of the Majdal Shams massacre at the hands of Hezbollah.

Herzog encouraged the visitors to return to their communities with a message of peace.

"Here in Israel, we want peace," he said. "We want to see all our hostages back home, and we want to see an end to the suffering of the people in Gaza, too. We want to see better lives for everyone."

The president also expressed hope that "peace will come with Syria, with Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
, inshallah even with Saudi Arabia

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
, and that we will continue moving forward."

Almost all of the religious leaders were visiting the Jewish state for the first time. For many, being in Jerusalem was especially meaningful.

"I already did my pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and I was waiting to come to Jerusalem," Ali El Aarja told The Times of Israel.

Based in Turin, Italia, El Aarja serves as the president of the newly established Italian Islamic Confederation (CIIN) and is one of the several members of the delegation originally from Morocco.

On the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Morocco was home to some 270,000 Jews, most of whom emigrated to Israel or La Belle France in the following two decades.

Though only a few thousand Jews remain in the country, over the past 20 years, the authorities have demonstrated growing attention and sensitivity toward its Jewish community.

In 2020, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords, fully normalizing its ties with Israel.

"Morocco is a country open to all religions: Moslems, Christians, and Jews live together, and we hope we can set an example for the world," El Aarja said.

"We are here to send a message of peace," he added. "For our Paleostinian brothers and for our Jewish brothers, we do not want war, we hope we can go back to dialogue."

An ELNET spokesperson told The Times of Israel that participants were selected for the trip in close collaboration with Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, chairman of the Conference of Imams of La Belle France. A Tunisia-born interfaith activist, Chalghoumi has been known to many as "the peace imam" and a steadfast supporter of Israel.

"My message to you is one of deep affection — for you and for your remarkable people," Chalghoumi said, addressing Herzog. "It is a message of brotherhood and solidarity and a heartfelt prayer that the hostages will return home in peace, and that the pain and suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza will come to an end."

The imam stressed that the regional conflict sparked by the Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
atrocities on October 7, 2023, "is not merely a conflict between Israel and Hamas, nor between Israel and Hezbollah—the so-called ’Party of Satan’."

"It is a confrontation between two fundamentally different worlds," Chalghoumi said. "You represent the world of brotherhood, of humanity, of compassion. You stand for the values of democracy and liberty."

According to another member of the delegation, Noor Dahri, founder and executive director of the UK-based organization Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism, Moslem communities in the Western world often struggle to understand the difference between Islam as a religion and Islamism.

"Extremists are more powerful in Western countries than in the Middle East or in Pakistain because, in the Middle East and Pakistain, there are two types of people — Moslems and Islamists — and Moslems know when an organization is an Islamist organization and they either join it or distance themselves from it," Dahri told The Times of Israel.

"In the West, everything is mixed and people do not know how to make the distinction," he said. "For decades, the majority of mosques have been run by Islamist charity organizations, so they managed to establish deep roots in the Moslem communities, and it’s difficult to root out Islamism from Western-world Islam."

For this reason, Dhari said that bringing imams to visit Israel is a very important initiative.

"Since October 7, even those Moslems who were previously supportive of Israel and Israelis either turned their backs or kept silent in fear of their life," he said. "Now, this delegation of imams and religious scholars from different Moslem backgrounds has come to Israel to send one message across the Moslem world — that the Jewish nation is not the enemy of Moslems, that the State of Israel is not against Islam, and we Moslems should not have any enmity toward the Jewish people because they are our cousins, and they are fighting against Islamism."

Link

Europe

France on Edge: Macron Demands "Concrete Solutions" on Islamist Threat

2025-07-08

[JFEED] French President Emmanuel Macron convened a high-level emergency security meeting at the Elysee Palace on Monday to address what he called the ''strategic threat'' of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into vulnerable neighborhoods across the country.

This marks the second such meeting in recent months, following a similar session in May which, according to Macron, failed to produce meaningful action. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the president demanded that his ministers now present ''concrete proposals'' to curb the spread of Islamist ideology, particularly in impoverished suburbs.

The meeting was initiated by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and attended by top officials including the education and sports ministers. According to government sources, Macron was angered by leaks to the press regarding the classified security report that triggered the meeting. The report detailed what officials are calling a ''quiet ideological takeover'' in certain urban zones, warning that these trends pose a direct risk to the unity of the French Republic.

While Macron stressed that not all Muslims in France should be lumped together, he underlined the need to take ideological subversion seriously. ''There's a difference between legitimate criticism and deliberate blindness,'' he said, cautioning against both panic and complacency.

The political reactions have been deeply divided. Left-wing parties accused Macron of stigmatizing entire communities, warning that his rhetoric could inflame tensions. Meanwhile, the far-right National Rally (RN) party led by Marine Le Pen blasted the government for being too soft, calling for sweeping action, including banning certain Islamic organizations, cutting public funding to religious NGOs, and revoking legal recognition from groups with suspected extremist ties.

Within Macron's inner circle, discussions are underway about forming a dedicated intelligence unit focused exclusively on Islamist activity and possibly establishing a special legal body empowered to take administrative action against radical groups—bypassing slow criminal proceedings.

Reports indicate Macron aims to unveil a clear and assertive policy before the French Parliament reconvenes for its winter session. A formal ban on the Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly under consideration, mirroring similar moves already enacted in Jordan and other countries.

As France grapples with rising extremism, demographic shifts, and growing political polarization, the battle over what defines ''republican values'' may soon become one of the most defining debates of Macron's presidency.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran's President Says Israel Attempted His Assassination

2025-07-08

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told American journalist Tucker Carlson that Israeli authorities had attempted to assassinate him. The interview appeared on the journalist's website on July 7.

“Yes, they tried, they acted accordingly, but they failed,” the Iranian leader said in response to Carlson’s question on the matter.

Pezeshkian noted that he was at a meeting where the future of the country was being discussed, while Israel attempted to strike the area where the meeting was taking place.

He added that this attempt was made about a year and a half ago, and the United States was not involved in it.
They're better now.
Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Israel's goal in the conflict with Iran is not a change of power in the Islamic Republic. He named three declared goals of the Zionist regime: the elimination of the nuclear program, the elimination of the missile program, and the elimination of the Iranian command.

Later, US President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of a change of power in Iran if the current leadership fails to implement the slogan "Make Iran Great Again." Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with the heads of international news agencies, refused to discuss the possibility of Israel killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the reaction to this.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Two IRGC members killed trying to defuse bombs left over from war with Israel

2025-07-07

[IsraelTimes] Two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed today while attempting to defuse explosives in an area of the country’s west hit by Israeli strikes last month, Iranian media reports.
"Wait. Let me make this callback - I just got a page"
Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the IRGC, says that “two members of the Guards were killed Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime’s aggression.”

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran invites Western journalists to tour notorious Evin Prison after Israeli strikes

2025-07-07

The propaganda tour. Demanding Israel fight a war without actually hurting people and breaking things.

[IsraelTimes] Analysis finds at least 43 prison staff, at least 4 civilians killed in attack that targeted administrative building, access gates, also hit hospital; NGO says 2 prisoners among dead

Some two weeks after Israel attacked the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran
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 ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
invited Western journalists on an unprecedented tour of the site, known for housing political prisoners and foreigners in harrowing conditions.

Footage captured by Sky News showed damage to the prison hospital, with the windows blown out, damaged equipment covered in debris, and exposed wires hanging from the ceiling.

The outlet also showed the exterior of what Iran said was the heavily damaged visitors center, and noted that there were several other damaged buildings in the vicinity of the courtyard, but that filming was not allowed there.

NBC News, which also sent a correspondent to tour the prison, showed a brief clip of one of the damaged administrative buildings.

The strike — which came on the penultimate day of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last month — sparked concern among family members of those incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
at Evin, who include prominent Iranian dissidents as well as two Frenchies considered hostages by their home country.

The attack, which came alongside a strike on Tehran’s "countdown clock" anticipating Israel’s destruction, was widely taken as a signal that Israel was expanding its targets to symbols of the regime, after an initial focus on military and nuclear targets. The next day, a US-brokered ceasefire stopped the fighting.

ATTACK KILLED AT LEAST 43 PRISON STAFF, TWO PRISONERS – REPORTS

Whether Evin Prison’s staff is hired because they enjoy what they are required to do, or if they merely learn to acceot the requirement to do it, they deserve to die more horribly than they did. Their deaths are no loss to humanity.

A Washington Post analysis published Saturday — separate from the journalists’ tours of the site — indicated that the strike involved some four-to-six separate munitions, and targeted four different areas of the complex.

The targets appear to have included an administrative building, a visitation area, a medical center, and a solitary confinement ward.

According to the analysis — based on online death notices, prison records, and interviews — at least 43 prison staffers were killed in the strike, including several high-ranking officials, as well as two conscripted soldiers; at least four civilians who did not work at the prison were killed, two of them children.

What were the non-working civilians doing there, and why did they bring childr

Among the dead were two prisoners, according to the Washington-based Human Rights Activists in Iran group.

Iran said at least 71 people total were killed in the attack, though that figure has not been independently verified. Iran also said that prisoners were killed in the strike, but has not said who or how many.

Among the buildings hit was Ward 209, a solitary confinement cell block where prisoners are often blindfolded. One inmate told a friend, who then told the Post, that he saw blindfolded prisoners walking around after the strike, with no guards present.

A man who said he was at the prison gate shortly after the strike told the newspaper that he saw prisoners trying to escape, and that guards shot at their feet.

ISRAEL DROPPED 4-6 MUNITIONS, ON DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE SITE
An analyst who specializes in satellite images taken during wars told the Post that the attack on Evin seemed to have two targets: access points to the prison — possibly to enable a jailbreak, though no prisoners are believed to have escaped as a result of the attack — and prison staff in the complex’s central buildings.

Images indicate that a “lower yield munition was used [rather] than larger-scale airstrikes where the intent is to level the building,” said the analyst, William Goodhind, of the Contested Ground group.

He estimated at least six different bombs were used, echoing another analyst with the same specialty, who told the Post, “There must have been at least four separate munitions.”

The report estimated the attack destroyed or damaged 17 buildings within the sprawling prison complex. It noted that some 60 acres of surrounding vegetation was burned in fires caused by the strike, which may account for some of the damage.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment for the Post report, or to answer questions about its targets in the strike.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin has previously stated that “within the prison compound, intelligence activity was carried out against Israel, including counter-espionage,” and that the strike was carried out “in a pinpoint manner, to avoid harm to those uninvolved.”

PRISONERS SAID TRANSFERRED TO OVERCROWDED FACILITIES
Recent reports have also shed light on where prisoners have been transferred after the strike, with some men moved to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary and other men moved to the Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Women have reportedly been moved to Qarchak Prison.

Transferred prisoners have dealt with overcrowding, shortages of basic necessities like toilets and showers, and severe restrictions on communicating with family, according to relatives.

At the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, “They locked everyone up in a large hall that can hold a maximum of 30 or 40 people, but now they are keeping more than 120 people there,” a family member of a prisoner transferred there told the Post.

Prisoners’ relatives told Human Rights Activists in Iran that prisoners in Greater Tehran Prison and at Qarchak have been denied medical care. At Qarchak, women are held “in security conditions without sanitary support,” the group said.

There were similar reports about Evin Prison, which sounds like a theme.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

BRICS nations condemn Israel over Iran war, in victory for Islamic Republic

2025-07-07

[IsraelTimes] Iran won the support of fellow BRICS nations meeting in Rio de Janeiro today, with the bloc condemning Israel and the US for the assault on Iran’s nuclear program and military infrastructure throughout the 12-day war last month.

“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025,” leaders say in a summit statement, without naming the US or Israel.

“We further express serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities,” the bloc says.

The 11-nation grouping says the strikes “constitute a violation of international law.”

The declaration is a diplomatic victory for Tehran, which received limited regional or global support over a 12-day bombing campaign by the Israeli military, which culminated in US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan.

In retaliation Iran, had fired more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing 28 people.

The BRICS gathering includes Israel’s arch foe Iran, but also nations like Russia and China, which have ties with Tehran.

BRICS diplomats had been in disagreement over how strongly to denounce Israel’s bombing of Iran and its actions in Gaza, but ultimately strengthened their language at Tehran’s request.

The pronouncement is basically a pro forma blah blah blah without teeth, just to shut up the party from Iran and the big dogs that support it.

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