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Hamas raped ‘women, grandmothers, children,’ so violently ‘they broke victims’ pelvis,’ Israeli official says

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2023

The mother, and immediate family of Valentin (Eli) Ghnassia, 23, who was killed in a battle with Hamas militants at kibbutz Be’eeri near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, grieve during his funeral on October 12, 2023 at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel has sealed off Gaza and launched sustained retaliatory air strikes, which have killed at least 1,200 people with more than 300,000 displaced, after a large-scale attack by Hamas. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza by land, sea and air, killing over 1,200 people and wounding around 2800. Israeli soldiers and civilians have also been taken hostage by Hamas and moved into Gaza. The attack prompted a declaration of war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the announcement of an emergency wartime government. | Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Hamas terrorists subjected civilian women, grandmothers and children to extreme sexual violence, a Rabbinate corps member of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for preparing victims’ bodies for burial has told media, calling the acts “worse than the Holocaust.”

“We wash the bodies and prepare them for burial. We try to bring them dignity in death,” the Rabbinate corps member, a woman named Shari, who did not give her last name to protect her family, told the Daily Mail and other media outlets. “I heard stories about Auschwitz as a child growing up in New Jersey. But what I have seen here with my own eyes is worse than the Holocaust.”

The woman, who moved from New Jersey to Israel 20 years ago, said what Hamas did to Israeli civilians is “beyond words.”

“There is evidence of mass rape so brutal that they broke their victims’ pelvis — women, grandmothers, children,” Shari said, adding that it’s difficult to break someone’s pelvis.

Shari said she saw “people whose heads have been cut off,” and women in their night dresses “woken up and shot.” She also witnessed “faces blasted off … heads smashed and their brains spilling out.”

She also described a baby “cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.”

“Women and children burned to charcoal. Bodies murdered with their hands tied behind their backs.”

The Daily Wire said reports also suggest that many of the Hamas terrorists were under the influence of Captagon, a drug linked to heightened aggression and commonly referred to as the “ISIS drug.”

The Wire quoted Colonel Rabbi Haim Weisberg as saying there is evidence of “torture and savagery,” agreeing with the Rabbinate corps member.

On Oct. 7, Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel, killing over 1,400 civilians, including 30 Americans. Israel has been carrying out retaliatory airstrikes since Hamas’ attacks.

Hamas has claimed that over 4,100 people in Gaza have been killed since the airstrikes began, with over 13,000 injured.

As civilians are fleeing airstrikes, the Egypt-Gaza border opened Saturday, allowing 20 trucks of aid into Gaza for the first time since Israel’s blockade and airstrikes began two weeks ago, The Associated Press reported.

Aid workers say this is far from enough; 200 trucks with 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting to get in, the newswire said, explaining that Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are facing a dire humanitarian situation — half have left their homes, hospitals are low on supplies, and there’s a territory-wide power blackout.

Five hospitals have ceased operations due to fuel shortages and bombing damage, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, it added.

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US destroyer shoots down 3 missiles, drones fired over Red Sea by Iran-backed faction in Yemen

By: ANDREW CHAPADOS | October 23, 2023

Image via US Military Patriot / YouTube (screenshot)

The United States Navy shot down three cruise missiles and a set of drones stemming from a faction in Yemen who launched them over the Red Sea. These weapons could have “potentially” been heading towards Israeli targets.

The USS Carney took down the missiles and drones after they were launched from the Arabian Peninsula, the Pentagon stated in a press conference briefing.

“The crew of the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney, operating in the northern Red Sea earlier today, shot down three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen,” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said.

“We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea, potentially toward targets in Israel,” he added.

According to the Epoch Times, Ryder declined to acknowledge who authorized the missiles or whether the government knew if the missiles were targeting Israeli or American forces.

Ryder boasted about U.S. defenses and said it was a typical move for forces in the region.

“This action was a demonstration of the integrated air and missile-defense architecture that we have built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests in this important region.”

“Our defensive response is one that we would have taken for any similar threat in the region,” Ryder added. “The decision was made that it posed a potential threat based on its flight profile, and so the decision was made to take it down.”

BREAKING: Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder confirms the shoot down of 3 missiles launched by Houthi terrorists by the USS Carney. pic.twitter.com/dNgDi1mF1a
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 19, 2023

The missiles were reportedly fired by the Houthis, a Yemeni group that has been historically backed by Hezbollah and Iran, according to Brookings.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Houthis allegedly adopted the slogan “God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam.”

The USS Carney, an American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, uses the Aegis missile defense system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, YouTube channel US Military Patriot described. The system is used in combination with standard missile interceptors to track and destroy ballistic missiles.

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Israel’s Herzog: Hamas Chemical Weapons Files Found

By Brian Freeman | Monday, 23 October 2023 01:38 PM EDT

A report that the IDF discovered a USB key with instructions on how to make a “cyanide dispersion device” on the body of a Hamas infiltrator who took part in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Oct. 7 in which 1,400 Israelis were massacred has been confirmed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, according to Axios. Herzog told Sky News that “this is how shocking the situation is where we’re looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide.”

Herzog’s comments were part of a broader Israeli diplomatic attempt to build up backing in the West for the Israeli military campaign against Hamas, according to Axios. Axios reported over the weekend that the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s weapons of mass destruction nonproliferation department sent a classified cable to its embassies in dozens of capitals across the globe, including Washington, late last week under the headline: “Hamas intention of using chemical weapons.”

The authenticity of the Hamas file could not be independently verified by Axios. It is unclear from the file whether Hamas had any operational plan for producing makeshift chemical weapons or whether the terrorist organization had tried to do so.

Speaking to Sky News, Herzog showed printouts of the digital files that he said were recovered by the IDF from the USB key. The Israeli president said that the instructions were part of an al-Qaida manual and presented a drawing of the makeshift cyanide dispersion device that was on the files. Herzog said that the manual, dating to 2003, cements the connective ideology between the al-Qaida and Hamas terror organizations, The Jerusalem Post reported.

A Hamas spokesperson did not respond to an Axios request for comment.

Brian Freeman | editorial.freeman@newsmax.com

Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM “X”

October 20, 2023

"I was born at the heart of Hamas leadership and I know them very well. They don't care for the Palestinian people. They are using the Palestinian cause only to achieve their goals, transforming the Middle East and the world into an Islamic state." pic.twitter.com/xUstyYCsf2
— Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) October 20, 2023

Hey @ucdavis, do you think it’s appropriate that one of your faculty advisors, @jemmaisOKeh, is publicly threatening to murder Jews at their homes and their children at their schools? pic.twitter.com/xAx97LHYbr
— Jason Bedrick 🇺🇸🎗️🇮🇱 (@JasonBedrick) October 19, 2023

pic.twitter.com/Q0YEeOfzp6
— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) October 20, 2023

To the presidents of @Columbia, @nyuniversity, @Harvard and other universities who have stood SILENT as terror supporters have marched through campus and celebrated raping women, executing children and kidnapping grandmothers, you are cowards.

Listen to Columbia Professor and… pic.twitter.com/PoTXnAWZtp
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 19, 2023

Somewhere along the way, the left decided that woman was a dirty word. They’re trying to erase women and girls in the name of political correctness.

We won’t let that happen in Arkansas. pic.twitter.com/0x9mWrnVqS
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) October 19, 2023

Sue the employers that mandated it too https://t.co/V5bCuS9Vdx
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) October 20, 2023

That’s the post, folks 😡 pic.twitter.com/mv4dUmwBPB
— 🦅 Eagle Wings 🦅 (@CRRJA5) October 19, 2023

Saudi TV mocks Biden and Harris
What an embarrassment they are
🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦 pic.twitter.com/bhIU1V0kxJ
— Bama_Jeans (@bamajayt) October 20, 2023

Enough is enough! Denmark took in 321 Palestinian refugees in 1992.

By 2019, 64% had been convicted of a crime (including 34% of their children too).

A very large portion were also on welfare.

Britain must not make the same mistake! pic.twitter.com/0IQsIrMf0e
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) October 19, 2023

Where’s the media reports on this? Bunch of BS pic.twitter.com/7iPasujU4s
— 👉M-Û-R-Č-H👈 (@TheEXECUTlONER_) October 19, 2023

pic.twitter.com/VJvkzLGEF0
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) October 18, 2023

Wow. Doubling down, even with all the evidence. A menace, a bigot, and a disgrace: https://t.co/8y2KJqnwrq
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 18, 2023

This is how you patriot. This woman is courageous and speaks truth.

🔥🔥🔥Islam will not dominate the United States, and by the grace of God, it will not dominate Texas. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/XQ5h05YzQd
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) October 18, 2023

🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/DgqLnErAO3
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) October 19, 2023

TIME TO FLUSH. pic.twitter.com/qSkNt2wjNz
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 19, 2023

NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT'S COMING!!!🇺🇸🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/hqYhXw79td
— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) October 18, 2023

So, which one of these looks more like an “insurrection” to you? pic.twitter.com/QL5pdoS5OB
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 18, 2023

Rmemeber: It doesn't count as an insurrection when the left does it. pic.twitter.com/XL1IuekLDY
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 18, 2023

Great question, Lu. How many Biden supporters are willing to answer the call? You voted for Biden. You should go first. Belly up. #facts101 pic.twitter.com/yiRU6RSNct
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) October 17, 2023

Pierre Poilievre exposes the media as the fraud we all know they are.

pic.twitter.com/Xq7o0BNeA8
— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) October 18, 2023

All I want for Christmas….👇 pic.twitter.com/pjEEV5q3ve
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) October 17, 2023

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Hamas And Hezbollah Are the Symptoms, Iran Is the Disease

BY: CHUCK DEVORE | OCTOBER 20, 2023

Author Chuck DeVore profile

CHUCK DEVORE

VISIT ON TWITTER@CHUCKDEVORE

The U.S. response to Hamas’ Nazi-like massacre of Israelis, Americans, and anyone else in its murderous path has been, almost without exception, robust. But U.S. officials are largely missing the larger picture and risking being drawn into an escalation — on the enemy’s terms.

Hamas and Hezbollah are the symptoms; Iran is the disease.

But President Biden’s Oval Office address to the nation on Oct. 19 danced around the core issue of Iran’s financing, training, and encouragement of violent, brutal forces across the region and beyond, as well as its nuclear missile program. Thus, the gathering might of the U.S. Navy off the coast of Israel in the form of two aircraft carrier strike groups and a Marine Expeditionary Unit betrays unimaginative, linear thinking.

If used, American firepower would augment Israel’s own considerable military force. In theory, this threat helps to deter Hezbollah from unleashing its arsenal of 100,000 missiles on Israel, many of them sophisticated.

But, like Hamas, Hezbollah is expert at digging. They hide their missile launchers in an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers — all guarded by an air defense network that is likely to get lucky enough times to raise the specter of captured American pilots.

The last time U.S. naval aviation operated over Lebanon was in 1983, in response to the Beirut barracks bombing in October — an attack that Iranian authorities arrogantly claimed credit for in the past month. Until 9/11, it was the deadliest terror attack on Americans. Two months later, the Syrian military fired on U.S. Navy aircraft, shooting down two A-6 attack jets and capturing an officer.

Optimal Use of U.S. Air Force and Navy

If the incremental addition of American airpower is helpful to the pending effort to destroy Hamas while deterring a wider conflict, that role can more than adequately be filled by the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Navy should instead be concentrating 2,000 miles to the east in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. There, the U.S. Navy would be playing to its unambiguous strength, enforcing sanctions against Iran by controlling the sea lines of communication that Iran depends on to generate the cash for its empire of terror.

Unfortunately, this would require a Biden administration that was both imaginative and strategic — and not in the thrall of a recently revealed Iranian influence operation that managed to place several advisors friendly to the Iranian mullahs in key national security positions since the Obama administration. Chief among these, Robert Malley, a longtime friend of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and an architect of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, a deal that focused exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program, rewarding the mullahs with cash and sanctions relief while greenlighting their missile program and global support for terror.

Iran’s Nuclear Program

Instead, Biden’s systematic appeasement of Iran, a continuation of the Obama-era policy that weirdly sought to use Iran as a counter to perceived Israeli intransigence on the Palestinian problem, has resumed. Up until the gruesome events of Oct. 7, Biden’s national security team was willfully blind to Iran’s bloody history of sponsoring terror and its determined drive to produce nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.

As a result, U.N. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear, missile, and drone program — never well enforced by Biden — expired on Oct. 18 with the U.S. announcing its own unilateral set of sanctions. The U.S. continues to pretend these efforts are somehow slowing Iran’s drive to push its nuclear program to completion, while Russian use of Iranian combat drones in Ukraine reveals the prior sanctions regime as inadequate to the task.

Reagan-Era Lessons

The U.S. never fully grappled with the Iranian theocracy after the shah was toppled in 1979. During the Cold War, it was assumed that the Soviet Union would come to Iran’s aid and that the military cost of defeating the regime would be too high. Instead, the U.S. was content to see Iran tied down in a bloody stalemate against Iraq after the latter invaded in 1980.

As the war started to threaten oil exports out of the Gulf, America responded by providing a U.S. Navy escort to six Kuwaiti-owned super tankers in July 1987. After an escorting U.S. Navy ship struck a mine on April 14, 1988, the Reagan administration responded only four days later with Operation Praying Mantis. It was the Navy’s largest combat action since World War II, sinking an Iranian guided missile frigate, crippling a second, sinking four other boats, and destroying two militarized oil platforms at the cost of one helicopter with two crew lost.

The operation was thoroughly wargamed a year before, when it was determined that an unambiguously aggressive response to Iran would likely prevent the conflict from escalating. In other words, a disproportionate response would rob Iran of the ability to control the timing and mode of escalation, reducing U.S. casualties and preserving the peace.

Applying Force

This lesson from the Reagan era opens up a final consideration. Rather than following through on the foolish precedent of incentivizing hostage-taking via negotiation and cash payments, America should ditch the carrots and pick up the stick.

Imagine the transformative discussion over the current hostage crisis — and the forestalling of future hostage-taking by Iran and its proxies — if the U.S. were to announce that every hostage taken is worth $1 billion (or $1.171 billion if we wish to account for Bidenflation). That amount would be deducted from seized Iranian assets or taken from oil tankers filled with Iranian oil. The proceeds would compensate hostages and their families, with the remainder used to replenish the Pentagon’s waning stocks of armaments.

This is exactly the kind of naval power application the U.S. Navy was built for. Unfortunately, the radical cadres infesting the Biden administration’s national security staff would never allow such an idea to reach the desk of our cognitively impaired commander-in-chief.

Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and a former California legislator, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. He’s the author of “The Crisis of the House Never United—A Novel of Early America.”

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Hamas Releases 2 US Hostages ‘for Humanitarian Reasons’

Friday, 20 October 2023 01:46 PM EDT

The Islamist group Hamas said Friday it had released two U.S. hostages — woman and her daughter — for what it called “humanitarian reasons” following Qatari mediation efforts.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida issued a statement announcing the release, the first since gunmen from the Islamist militant group burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages. Israel’s Channel 13 News said Israel had confirmed the release of two hostages but gave no further details.

Israel leveled a northern Gaza district earlier Friday after giving families a half-hour warning to escape and hit an Orthodox Christian church where others had been sheltering. Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, relentlessly pounding the strip with air strikes, putting the enclave’s 2.3 million people under a total siege and banning shipments of food, fuel and medical supplies.

The secretary-general of the United Nations visited the crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, and said humanitarian aid must be allowed across as soon as possible. At least 4,137 (???????) Palestinians have been killed, including hundreds of children (?????), and 13,000 (?????) wounded in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said. The U.N. says more than a million have been made homeless.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that achieving Israel’s objectives would not be quick or easy.

“We will topple the Hamas organization. We will destroy its military and governing infrastructure. It’s a phase that will not be easy. It will have a price,” he told a parliamentary committee.

He added that the subsequent phase would be more drawn out, but was aimed at achieving “a completely different security situation” with no threat to Israel from Gaza. “It’s not a day, it’s not a week, and unfortunately it’s not a month,” he said.

CHURCH HIT

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said that overnight Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought sanctuary. It said targeting churches that were used as shelters for people fleeing bombing was “a war crime that cannot be ignored.”

Video from the scene showed a wounded boy being carried from rubble at night. A civil defense worker said two people on upper floors had survived; those on lower floors had been killed and their bodies were still in the rubble.

“They felt they would be safe here. They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them,” a man cried out.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians had been killed, while the health ministry later gave a toll of 16. The Israeli military said part of the church was damaged in a strike by fighter jets on a nearby Hamas command center involved in launching rockets and mortars towards Israel, and that it was reviewing the incident.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) can unequivocally state that the church was not the target of the strike,” it said.

‘EVERYTHING I DREAMT OF’ DESTROYED

Israel has already told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.

In Zahra, a northern Gaza town, residents said their entire district of some 25 apartment buildings was razed.

They received Israeli warning messages on their mobile phones at breakfast, followed 10 minutes later by a small drone strike. After another 20 minutes, F-16 warplanes brought the buildings down in huge explosions and clouds of dust.

“Everything I ever dreamt of and thought that I have achieved was gone. In that apartment was my dream, my memories with my children, and my wife, was the smell of safety and love,” Ali, a resident of the district, told Reuters by phone.

The United Nations humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000(?????) homes – nearly a third of all homes in Gaza – have been damaged, with nearly 13,000(?????) completely destroyed.

The south of the enclave has also been regularly hit. Rescue workers were combing through the wreckage of a house in the main southern city, Khan Younis, for survivors. One carried the limp body of a child.

“We don’t want to receive aid, we want the destruction and the killing of children in their sleep to stop. We are tired,” said neighbor Joumana Khreis.

AID STILL HELD UP

International attention has focused on getting aid to Gaza through the one access point not controlled by Israel, the Rafah crossing to Egypt. U.S. President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, emerged with a promise from Israel to allow limited shipments from Egypt provided the aid is monitored to prevent any reaching Hamas.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres toured the checkpoint on Egypt’s side and called for a meaningful number of trucks to enter Gaza every day and checks to be quick and pragmatic.

“We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.

Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel’s campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting unease about the plight of civilians in Gaza. Many Muslim states, however, have called for an immediate ceasefire, and protests demanding an end to the bombardment were held in cities across the Islamic world on Friday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on Israel to end “its operations amounting to genocide.”

Biden formally asked Congress on Friday for billions of dollars in U.S. military aid for Israel. But, in a televised speech the previous day, he also said: “We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity.”

Enough is enough! Denmark took in 321 Palestinian refugees in 1992.

By 2019, 64% had been convicted of a crime (including 34% of their children too).

A very large portion were also on welfare.

Britain must not make the same mistake! pic.twitter.com/0IQsIrMf0e
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) October 19, 2023

The conflict is spreading to two other fronts.

Clashes at the border between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement have been the deadliest since a full-blown war in 2006, with Israel ordering the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents from the border town of Kiryat Shmona on Friday.

The West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation, has experienced the deadliest clashes since the second intifada uprising ended in 2005.

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Fireman In Chief

A.F. BRANCO | on October 19, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-fireman-in-chief/

Obama helped Iran sponsor terrorism in the Middle East and Israel today with all the money he and Biden gave them.

Biden Helped Start Middle East Crisis — Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – A Hard Spot

A.F. BRANCO | on October 18, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-a-hard-spot/

Republicans still have not elected a Speaker of the House. Who’s at fault?

No GOP Speaker Yet — Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023

DONATE to A.F.Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

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‘Antisemitic Lie’: Orthodox Jewish Rabbis Condemn Rashida Tlaib Blaming Israel for Gaza Hospital Bombing

By: Tyler O’Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / October 18, 2023

Rashida Tlaib grimaces in round glasses — A coalition that represents more than 2,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis condemned Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s decision to blame Israel for an explosion caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Pictured: Tlaib speaks at a press conference calling for the expansion of the Supreme Court on July 18, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Jemal Countess, Take Back the Court Action Fund/Getty Images)

The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents 2,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis in American public policy, condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for rushing to blame Israel for the Wednesday bombing of a hospital in Gaza, despite increasing evidence that a misfired missile launched by the terror group Islamic Jihad caused the blast.

“Rep. Tlaib has repeatedly made it clear that she doesn’t value human rights, she merely hates Jews,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.

“In this case, her devotion to an antisemitic lie is of a piece with blood libels spread by bigots of the past,” Menken added. “That a woman whose rhetoric recalls Nazi Germany is a member in good standing of the House Democratic Caucus should alarm every American, even given President Joe Biden’s strong moral stance.”

“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday night.

She tagged Biden and directed her comments to him.

“@POTUS [President of the United States,] this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate,” Tlaib added. “Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”

Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that. @POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.

Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many… https://t.co/mZYoifT7bj
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) October 17, 2023

Palestinian officials said an explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital killed 471 people Tuesday, Reuters reported. Hamas, the group the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization that runs the government of Gaza and the health ministry that reported the deaths, blamed Israel for the explosion. Yet Israel claims the explosion traces back to a misfired rocket sent by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Iran-backed terrorist group that took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has denied involvement, saying it did not have any activity in or around Gaza City at the time.

Israel released video of Hamas terrorists speaking over the radio about the explosion.

“I’m telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling, and so that’s why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” one speaker says.

“It’s from us?” another asks.

“It looks like it,” the first speaker replies.

Hamas terrorists in their own voices:

Listen to the conversation between Hamas operatives as they discuss the failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/mz31MiePU3
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 18, 2023

Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the explosion appears to have been “done by the other team, not you.”

"We've got to overcome a lot of things."

Pres. Biden tells Israeli leaders it appears Gaza hospital explosion was "done by the other team, not you." https://t.co/z9eNH1M7PG pic.twitter.com/xye9YzQoJK
— ABC News (@ABC) October 18, 2023

The Israel Defense Forces shared footage around the area showing that the misfired rocket damaged a parking lot near the hospital, rather than the hospital itself.

A failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization hit the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City.

IAF footage from the area around the hospital before and after the failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization: pic.twitter.com/AvCAkQULAf
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 18, 2023

Pictures and video of the area on Wednesday confirmed that the explosion took place at a parking lot.

So let’s walk through it.

We now have video of the scene showing the explosion is from the parking lot and the buildings are in tact. There is no crater, no building demolished. This is inconsistent with the type of bomb many were suggesting yesterday. pic.twitter.com/HFKKxS8kvr pic.twitter.com/SpgG3Ktbiy
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 18, 2023

Tlaib did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

The Following is from another report that shows the actual rocket fired and hit.

Hey, disgusting American media, see this? https://t.co/CnPmgBgvkG
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) October 18, 2023

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Israel releases images of babies killed by Hamas: ‘Depravity in the worst imaginable way’

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2023

A member of the Israeli security forces stands close to a car hit by a rocket fired from Gaza, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, on October 9, 2023. Stunned by the unprecedented assault on its territory, a grieving Israel has counted over 900 dead and launched a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza that have raised the death toll there to 560, according to Palestinian officials. | JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s government presented graphic images of dead children and civilians said to have been killed in last weekend’s attack by Hamas after reports emerged of claims that dozens of babies were killed and some beheaded by the terrorist group. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday and was shown the photographs. He spoke about the images while talking with the press at a hotel in Jerusalem that evening.

“It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,” Blinken told reporters. “Images are worth a thousand words. These images may be worth a million.”

“We did see photographs, videos, that the Israel Government shared with us. Some, I think, has actually already been seen in public media. Others were new to me and, I think, new to our team,” he explained.

“It’s hard to find the right words. It’s beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and, God forbid, experience. A baby, an infant, riddled with bullets. Soldiers beheaded. Young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms.”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also released the graphic images shown to Blinken on social media.

“Horrifying photos of babies murdered and burned by the Hamas monsters,” reads a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“It almost defies comprehension, and as I’ve been saying, to me, it, in the most immediate future, hearkens back to ISIS and some of the very things we saw when it was on its rampage that, thankfully, was stopped,” Blinken added.

“So, I think for any human being to see this, it’s really beyond almost anything that we can comprehend, digest. And I’d just add that when you see this, you try to imagine — maybe not try, you can’t help but imagine — yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends, in that situation, in that predicament. And maybe the best word for it for me is overwhelming.”

Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed his counterparts at NATO’s Brussels headquarters, showing the images from the aftermath of the attack on Israel’s southern border communities with Gaza.

“Children were tied up and shot,” Gallant said in his address, according to Reuters. “Yes, I repeat, children, tied up and shot.”

The photographs were taken by the armed forces who found “mutilated bodies” in settlements attacked by Hamas last Saturday, The Times reported.

The Hamas attack on Israeli settlements along the border with Gaza began last Saturday, resulting in over 1,200 deaths and thousands of injuries. At least 150 people were also reported to have been taken hostage. The attack drew retaliatory airstrikes from Israel into Gaza, which the Palestinian authorities say has led to the loss of over 1,400 Palestinians and over 6,000 wounded.

Israeli survivors have shared their stories of how they were fortunate to survive attacks on their homes.

Before the photos were released, there was skepticism surrounding reports of children being massacred in the Israeli Kfar Aza settlement, with an on-the-ground reporter from i24News reporting that Israel’s military discovered the bodies of over 40 babies killed. Dozens of dead civilians were found in the village; some burned beyond recognition. Another kibbutz Kerem Shalom also reported the killing of children, with the Israel Defense Forces releasing photographs of a child’s bed covered in blood at the time, according to The Telegraph.

The Israel Air Force has been conducting bombing raids on Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, since the attack, and tens of thousands of troops are amassing along the border for a possible ground invasion. Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, admitted in a speech to troops Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces failed to protect its citizens and guard the border along the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not do it,” Halevi said, according to Jewish News Syndicate. “We will learn. We will investigate. But now is the time for war.”

Deputy Hamas chief, Saleh Al-Arouri, now claims that the plan was to target only military and “occupation” soldiers, according to remarks released by Hamas.

Israel’s military on Friday issued an evacuation order to over 1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza, instructing them to move to the southern part of the territory, The Associated Press reported.

“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” a statement from Israel Defense Forces reads.

“In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.”

The United Nations cautioned that such a mass exodus would be disastrous, the newswire said, adding, that Hamas dismissed the order as a tactic and urged residents to stay put. The evacuation directive, which also encompasses Gaza City, has incited widespread panic among civilians and aid workers.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said Washington is not placing any conditions on its security assistance to Israel.

Britain is sending two Royal Navy ships and other military assets to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of military support for Israel and to bolster surveillance and security in the region.

“We must be unequivocal in making sure the types of horrific scenes we have seen this week will not be repeated. Alongside our allies, the deployment of our world class military will support efforts to ensure regional stability and prevent further escalation,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.

“Our military and diplomatic teams across the region will also support international partners to re-establish security and ensure humanitarian aid reaches the thousands of innocent victims of this barbaric attack from Hamas terrorists.”

The White House has confirmed that 22 Americans have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel. At a press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that 17 Americans remained unaccounted for.

“We know that these numbers are likely to increase in the days ahead,” she said.

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Kirby: ‘No question’ that Hamas hostage seen in video was speaking ‘under duress’

By Greg Norman Fox News | Published October 17, 2023 12:20pm EDT

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday that there is “no question” in his mind that a female hostage who appeared in a video released by Hamas was making statements “under duress.”

Kirby made the remark on NBC’s “Today” show after the Palestinian terrorist group shared footage Monday of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French Israeli, who, according to Reuters, asked to be returned to her family as soon as possible. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for Schem’s immediate release.

“There is no question in my mind that that woman gave that video testimony under duress, probably forced to do it,” Kirby said. “It’s a propaganda video much more than it is proof of life or certainly proof of concept for Hamas. It’s despicable, deplorable that they would take these hostages and then advertise how well they are treating them when they are the ones who hurt them in the first place.”

Kirby reiterated a call for Hamas to immediately release all of its hostages, estimated to include 199 Israelis and other foreign nationals.

Mia Schem mother Keren — Keren Schem, mother of Mia Schem, and family members of people being held by Hamas militants in Gaza hold a press conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Hamas released a video that showed Mia Schem. (AP / Ohad Zwigenberg)

“We know there is a small number of Americans, but all of them need to come home and be with their families,” he said.

Kirby also said Israel is a “dynamic area – in many ways, a combat zone” as President Biden is preparing to travel there Wednesday.

“The president is well aware of that,” Kirby told NBC. “Obviously, we will take all the appropriate security precautions to make sure he can conduct this trip safely and effectively.”

REPUBLICAN SENATOR CALLS FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ HALT OF US AID TO PALESTINIANS, SAYS IT WILL END UP ‘IN THE HANDS OF HAMAS’

Mia Schem's mother speaks about her captivity — Mia Schem, pictured in background posters, was among the roughly 200 people kidnapped in Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP / Ohad Zwigenberg)

Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented invasion into Israel on Oct. 7, slaughtering more than 1,400 Israelis, including at least 260 attendees of the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival. Schem attended the festival and was among those taken captive. Mia’s mother, Keren Schem, said she was living her “worst nightmare” after learning her daughter was taken hostage by Hamas.

“I didn’t know if she was dead or alive,” she told Fox News’ Mike Tobin. “I knew nothing until yesterday when I saw this video.”

During a press conference Tuesday, Schem called for her daughter’s safe return.

NSC spokesman John Kirby — National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday that all hostages in Israel need to be released so that they can “come home and be with their families.” (Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party to have some fun, and now she’s in Gaza,” she said.

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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Iran Warns of ‘Preemptive’ Strike Against Israel

By Jeffrey Rodack | Tuesday, 17 October 2023 09:12 AM EDT

Iran is warning of a possible “preemptive” strike against Israel soon. The warning, reported by Aljazeera, came as Israel prepared for a major ground offensive in Gaza.

Tensions have flared along the Lebanon-Israel border between the Hezbollah group and Israeli military, The Associated Press reported. While shelling has been limited to towns along the border, there have been fears Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups would escalate their actions to support Hamas should Israel begin a ground operation in Gaza.

“All possible options and scenarios are there for Hezbollah … Naturally, resistance leaders will not allow the Zionist regime to take any action in Gaza, and when it feels reassured about Gaza, move on to other resistance areas in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on state TV late on Monday, referring to his meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah the previous day.

“Therefore, any preemptive measure is imaginable in the coming hours,” he added.

According to the New York Post, he further said: “The resistance front is capable of waging a long-term war with the enemy [Israel] … in the coming hours, we can expect a preemptive action by the resistance front.”

The Post noted that Iran had applauded the brutal attack on Israel by Hamas, which had targeted innocent civilians.

Jeffrey Rodack | editorial.rodack@newsmax.com

Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.

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Anguished Families Cling to Hope for Hamas Hostages

By: Suzanne Bowdey / October 17, 2023

a dad, mom and daughter sit together on a couch in distress — From Israel and Thailand to France and America, the families of Hamas’ 199 hostages are in an aching form of limbo. Pictured: On Oct. 10, Jonathan Polin and his wife, Rachel Goldberg, recount their most recent interactions with son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who went missing after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. At back right is daughter Leebie Goldberg-Polin, 20. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

“I can’t describe such a moment in words, where you watch your whole family get taken away from you,” Yoni Asher tried to explain.

Summoning the courage to keep talking, Asher looked around the room of diplomats, U.N. officials, and other suffering families, and put himself back in the moment where his world changed forever.

“My wife was visiting her mother at one of the kibbutzim, and I stayed home,” Asher said, then stopped, as he probably had a million times in the past week, to let his decision sink in.

“I got a phone call from my wife,” and she was “scared—scared,” he repeated, “whispering, terrif[ied], saying that she’s hearing gunshots and people are entering the house.”

It wasn’t until later that he saw a video of his wife and two daughters after they were forced into one of Hamas’ cars or trucks.

“I recognized them,” Yoni said quietly, referring to his two little girls, Raz and Aviv, and his wife, Doron.

As tears fell freely down his face, Asher finally got out the words that thousands of tortured families have said since Oct. 7, when Hamas struck Israel: “I woke up to the worst nightmare of my life.”

Others, like Yakov Argamani, pace around their houses, clutching a book of psalms. Surrounded by memories, Argaman mourns that his beautiful teenage daughter’s scent is gone from the room.

“Noa was here, there, everywhere,” he told The New York Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman. “All of a sudden, it’s gone. And I’m lost,” the broken father laments.

Hen Avigdori is among other fathers who try to comfort the one child who’s left—while slipping away to cry for his son’s missing sister and mom.

“I’m in this endless loop of hope and despair, hope and despair,” Avigdori said. “I need some proof of life. I need to know where my wife and daughter are.”

From Thailand to France and America, the families of the 199 missing hostages are in an aching form of limbo. Between television interviews and underground meetings with government officials in Tel Aviv, these relatives live hour to hour, haunted by their last conversations and the knowledge of what Hamas is capable of.

To so many, captivity is a fate worse than death. As one heartbroken father told reporters, realizing his 8-year-old little girl had been killed was better than thinking of her in the terrorists’ hands.

“It’s a blessing,” an emotional Thomas Hend told CNN at the moment he learned Emily’s fate.

“She was either dead or in Gaza,” he said, after a 48-hour search. “And if you know anything about what they do in Gaza, that is worse than death.”

The number held by Hamas, which Israeli officials increased to almost 200 over the weekend, is complicating things for Israeli soldiers on the ground. While military teams search the 30-mile Gaza Strip, terrorist Abu Obeida warned that his men had scattered the hostages—babies, grandmothers, young women, newly orphaned children, and soldiers—in “safe places and the tunnels of resistance” all throughout the area.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, a top Israeli military spokesman, insisted that the militar has information on the location of the captives and sought to reassure families that troops “will not carry out an attack that would endanger our people.”

In the meantime, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, issued a stunning declaration, offering himself to Hamas if the terrorists would let the child hostages go.

“I am ready for an exchange, anything, if this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home,” the Catholic priest said.

Countless parents at the makeshift headquarters of the Families of Hostages and Missing Persons Forum would almost certainly do the same.

“All we have been told is that her phone is in Gaza,” Meirav Gonen said helplessly.

Gonen’s daughter Romi, who was kidnapped from the music festival where Hamas massacred dozens, stayed on the line with her mom for almost 45 minutes until her phone went dead.

“I know she was shot,” Gonen explained. “She called me at 10:15 and I was on with her until 10:58, she was fading away and I heard shooting around her coming closer to the car and then people shouting in Arabic … shouting she was alive and that they need her.”

A photo of Romi Gonen’s face is one of many lining the wall of Tel Aviv’s HaKirya government building, a horrifying reminder of the dozens of missing.

“It’s so, so lonely,” Gonen said, choking up. “All the thoughts and feelings that you have once you stop for a minute to listen to them.”

Jerry Boykin, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, understands the pain of hostage crises more than most.

As commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force, Boykin was one of the leaders on the failed mission to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980. Like so many veterans, he knows the incredible lengths America will go to bring its people home.

“I think most of what you see, other than the bombing and the shelling by the Israelis … is reconnaissance to try to locate the hostages,” he explained to guest host and former Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., on “Washington Watch.”

“This is a big issue for the Israelis because there are Americans being held. And I can assure that those people on the ground in [Gaza] include some Americans, our special operators that are experts at hostage rescue,” Boykin said.

But, Boykin warned, “the key thing to hostage rescue is good intelligence, and I think that’s what they’re doing [in Gaza right now]. … They’re in there looking for the hostages.”

” And I pray that they will find them before the end of this campaign … because ultimately,” he added soberly, “these people will be killed if we can’t find them in time.”

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, was cagey Sunday about the involvement of U.S. special ops, saying only that the military “won’t rule anything in or out” about the hostage rescue effort on the ground in Gaza.

For now, Boykin insisted, the world needs to keep its eye on the ball. All of this, he argued, “is on the backs of Hamas.”

“Hamas is responsible for everything that has happened up to this point,” Boykin said. “There is nothing, no one killed, nothing that Hamas is not responsible for. And we have to remember that. … What has happened here is a terrible, brutal, even demonic attack on the Israelis. … And we stand with the Jews.”

More than that, we pray for the Jews—and everyone affected by this unspeakable tragedy.

For a partial list of hostages to remember in prayer, visit Pray for Israel by Name and join us in asking for God’s continued blanket of peace and protection on the innocents who are in the grip of Hamas.

This commentary was published originally by The Washington Stand

COMMENTARY BY

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey is editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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SUMMING UP THE WEEK OF OVTOBER 13, 2023

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Hamas’ Call for Global ‘Day of Rage’ Prompts Terrorist Attacks, Demonstrations Across the World

BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | OCTOBER 13, 2023

Cities throughout the world experienced acts of alleged Islamist terrorism and anti-Israel demonstrations on Friday, following calls by the former chief of Hamas for the Islamic world to partake in a global “Day of Rage.”

For context, Hamas is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that launched a horrific attack against Israel earlier this week, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 innocent civilians. Days after the initial attack, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ ex-chief (2004-2017) who resides in Qatar, called for worldwide demonstrations in support of Palestinians living in Gaza and Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries to wage war against Israel. He also claimed the day represents a “moment for the application” of jihad.

“[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,” Meshaal said. “To all scholars who teach jihad … to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application [of jihad].”

“The entire planet will be under our law, there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors,” he added.

Several acts of violence and anti-Israel demonstrations have since been reported in cities across the world on Friday that appear to be in response to Meshaal’s call to action.

France

In Arras, a Chechnyan man was arrested by law enforcement after stabbing several adults at a local school. While no children were harmed, early reports indicate at least one adult was killed and two injured. According to France24, the suspect allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic, at some point during the attack.

The suspect was also reportedly on a “state watchlist of known people to be a possible security risk,” according to Reuters.

China

An Israeli national who worked at the country’s Beijing-based embassy was reportedly stabbed on Friday. While the attacker’s nationality remains unknown, Chinese authorities claimed the suspect is a 53-year-old “foreign national” who has “operated a small retail business in Beijing.” According to embassy officials, the victim has been hospitalized and remains in stable condition.

A video circulating social media on Friday appears to show the suspect in question stabbing the victim before hobbling away.

Jordan

Jordanian police were forced to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators after the latter attempted “to reach a border zone with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.” According to Reuters, witnesses claimed, “Police fired tear gas to halt about 500 demonstrators who had reached a security checkpoint outside the capital Amman on a highway leading to a main border crossing.” The nation’s government had previously declared anti-Israel demonstrations near the area off-limits.

An unprecedented number of people filled the streets of the capital of Jordan

If King Abdullah II is in Raghadan (royal palace), then an attempt to evacuate members of the Hashemite dynasty from Amman using helicopters or American special forces cannot be ruled out.

Despite… pic.twitter.com/06NlnM8shk
— S p r i n t e r (@Sprinter99800) October 13, 2023

Iran

According to the New York Post, video evidence from Iran shows thousands of the nation’s residents “taking to the streets … burning not only Israel’s flag but the American flag as well.” Demonstrators also reportedly chanted phrases such as “End of Israel” and “Down with USA.”

Other Middle Eastern Nations

In addition to Iran and Jordan, a bevy of other Middle Eastern nations also experienced pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations on Friday. This list includes Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Oman, Qatar, and Yemen, according to Bloomberg News.

Washington State

Students at the University of Washington held a demonstration in support of Hamas on Friday, in which attendees reportedly chanted for the “one solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In praising Hamas, one attendee claimed the terrorist organization is “fighting for their people [and] fighting for their country back.”

“What America is promoting is that Israel is a victim. For what? For Hamas defending their people?” the girl said.

A Muslim woman at the @UW Palestine rally, in which protesters chanted for the “one solution,” says Hamas are heroes defending people. Hamas is an antisemitic Islamist terror group. The rally was promoted with a flyer featuring a Hamas paraglider. pic.twitter.com/mgdU4K9dB9
— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 13, 2023

California

Students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) held an anti-Israel gathering, in which participants could be heard shouting “intifada, intifada,” a term often used by Arab demonstrators invoking the memory of past Palestinian uprisings in the Jewish state.

This is @UCLA where students are screaming "intifada, intifada” – a call to murder Israelis and Jews.

Imagine just for a moment what it’s like to a Jewish student on this campus. pic.twitter.com/I52gh6Bqqe
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 12, 2023

Italy

Video footage posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday afternoon showed Italian police officers in Rome beating back violent pro-Hamas demonstrators.

Rome police beat Hamas supporters. pic.twitter.com/qNNytwEH2u
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) October 13, 2023

This article has been updated since publication to include additional anti-Israel demonstrations and actions.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

Author Shawn Fleetwood profile

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

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Hezbollah takes responsibility for attacks on Israeli military posts along Lebanon border

By Greg Norman Fox News | Published October 13, 2023 2:21pm EDT

The militant group Hezbollah took responsibility Friday for targeting Israeli military posts with small-arms fire along the country’s border with Lebanon, and the Israelis responded with artillery strikes. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a tweet that one of its drones is “currently striking terrorist targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon.” The back and forth comes as Hezbollah Deputy Chief Naim Kassem said at a rally near Beirut on Friday that the group is ready to jump into the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“The behind-the-scenes calls with us by great powers, Arab countries, envoys of the United Nations, directly and indirectly telling us not to interfere will have no effect,” he said, according to Reuters. “Hezbollah knows its duties perfectly well. We are prepared and ready, fully ready.”

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Kassem — Sheik Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, speaks during a protest to show solidarity with the Palestinians near Beirut on Friday. (AP/Hussein Malla)

“The question being asked, which everyone is waiting for, is what Hezbollah will do and what will its contribution be?” Kassem reportedly added. “We will contribute to the confrontation within our plan. … When the time comes for any action, we will carry it out.”

More than 1,300 Israelis were killed and thousands more wounded when Hamas launched a surprise terror attack on the Jewish state Saturday. As many as 150 people are believed to have been taken captive by terrorists and held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

ISRAELI FORCES ENTERED GAZA FOR LOCALIZED RAIDS, IDF TELLS FOX NEWS

Israeli soldiers in Lebanon — Israeli soldiers take positions alongside the border wall and fence with Lebanon as seen from the Lebanese side in Marwaheen, Lebanon, on Friday. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

Israel has called up some 360,000 military reservists to respond to the Hamas-led terror campaign. Those forces have gathered on Israel’s border with Gaza ahead of a possible full-scale invasion to reclaim the hostages and eliminate Hamas terrorists.

Israel has warned the 1.1 million people living in the north of Gaza to evacuate the area within 24 hours as a “humanitarian step in order to minimize civilian casualties” ahead of the military’s response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks.

Israel tanks near Gaza Strip — Israeli tanks head toward the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Thursday. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The IDF also told Fox News its infantry forces and tanks entered the Gaza Strip on Friday to conduct localized raids.

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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The ‘Blame Israel First’ Crowd Strikes Again

By: Deroy Murdock / October 13, 2023

Yemenis wave Palestinian flags and shout slogans against Israel during a demonstration in support of Palestinians on Friday in Sanaa, Yemen. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu/ Getty Images)

Hamas unleashed an unprovoked, surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, during Shabbat and the Simchat Torah holiday. The Gaza Strip-based terrorist group’s Pearl Harbor-style onslaught included 2,200 rockets that blasted communities as far north as Tel Aviv. Regardless, Israel’s critics and enemies point their fingers at the Israelis, as if they had bombed themselves.

The Biden administration’s statements have improved, but its knee-jerk response was dreadful. “We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks,” the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs declared, soon after the mayhem erupted. Washington’s initial message to Jerusalem: Don’t do anything. Just stand there. This wrongfully even-handed X post sparked outrage and soon disappeared.
George Achi, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s director of journalistic standards, instructed his newsroom colleagues: “Do not refer to militants, soldiers, or anyone else as ‘terrorists.’ The notion of terrorism remains heavily politicized and is part of the story.”
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” read a joint statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the situation in Palestine. “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.” Members of 33 undergraduate groups signed this communique.

This manifesto so nauseated hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman and other CEOs that they hope to place its signatories on a do-not-hire list.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., displayed a Palestinian flag in front of her Capitol Hill office, beside the star-spangled banner. Other radical “Squad” members have slammed Israel, even as Israelis hose their countrymen’s blood from sidewalks.
Black Lives Matter of Chicago created an “I stand with Palestine” meme, complete with a paragliding terrorist, like those who flew from Gaza into Israel, with guns blazing.
Pro-Palestine demonstrators in Times Square dressed as Hamas killers. One protester waved a swastika on his cellphone screen.

These doe-eyed dreamers and Islamofascist fifth columnists should focus on Hamas’ atrocities before they denounce Israel and defend its tormentors.

“We saw boys and girls bound, who were shot in the head,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV address Wednesday. “Men and women burned alive. Young women who were raped and slaughtered. Soldiers who were beheaded.”

Netanyahu declared via X: “Hamas is ISIS. We will crush and eliminate it as the world crushed and eliminated ISIS.”

“Babies with their heads cut off, that’s what [the soldiers] said,” i24 News’ Nicole Zedek reported from Kibbutz Kfar Aza near Sderot, just outside Gaza. “Families gunned down, completely gunned down in their beds.”
CNN’s Nic Robertson said, “There were so many murdered members of this Kibbutz. Men, women, children, hands bound, shot, executed, heads cut.”
“They killed babies in front of their parents, and then killed the parents,” said Israel Defense Forces Gen. Itai Veruv. “They killed parents, and we found babies between the dogs and the family killed before him. They cut heads of the people.”
“A pregnant woman in southern Israel was found by Hamas terrorists,” India’s TV9 Network’s Aditya Raj Kaul explained via X. “They dissected her body. Her stomach was cut open, and they took the fetus out with the umbilical cord. And let the unborn child die slowly out of his mother’s womb. This is what inhuman savages Hamas do to people.”
“Israelis—young and old—were slaughtered in their homes,” Aviva Klompas, former head speechwriter at Israel’s U.N. Mission, wrote via X. “Entire families were butchered in cold blood. In one home, a terrorist shot the parents dead, took a child’s cellphone, and livestreamed the horrors on the child’s Facebook account.”
Explosions rattled young Israelis at an outdoor concert. They ran for their lives, and Gazan gunmen mowed them down. These vermin killed 260 music fans.

“Our children suffered the most horrific experience no one could even imagine—going to enjoy music with friends in nature and get bombarded with hand grenades and automatic weapons, and just being slaughtered, one after another,” David Abramov told CBS News. His son Laor, an aspiring DJ, vanished after Hamas swiped him in a pickup truck. “Young, beautiful, happy people go to celebrate life and meeting monsters that come to celebrate death.”

In a Hamas X video, its forces excavate water pipes, slice them, pack them with explosives, and convert them into do-it-yourself bombs, which they lobbed into Israel. “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is great!”) a men’s chorus sings on the soundtrack.

And what was Hamas’ message to Gazans thirsty for running water? Go to hell.

Hamas makes the Palestine Liberation Organization look like moderates. These rats resemble 1970s-era Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.

All told, Hamas has killed some 1,200 Israelis. This has been the biggest orgy of Jew killing since the liberation of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Conversely, Israel acts in self-defense. Any collateral damage that rank-and-file Palestinians suffer will not be because the Israel Defense Forces gunned them down in their living rooms, but because their jihadist leaders launched this genocidal bloodbath.

Until last weekend, Israel had been pursuing peace like never before. In conjunction with then-President Donald Trump, Israel already had signed mutual-recognition treaties with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco. Atop these four Abraham Accords, Israel and Saudi Arabia lately had signaled that a separate peace was within reach.

“I believe that we are at the cusp of … an historic peace with Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu told the United Nations last month. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News: “Every day we get closer.”

This is what it looks like when doves fly.

But that enraged the ayatollahs, arguably the most evil, hateful, destructive, and apocalyptic humans alive. The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran and Hamas engineered this war on Israel to car-bomb any truce between Jerusalem and Riyadh.

Hamas’ ensuing carnage has killed at least 27 Americans, as of this writing. Fourteen other U.S. citizens are missing and could be kidnapped or dead.

These facts alone should quell the Far Left’s lust for Hamas.

Alas, this catastrophe hurts America. Thus, too many on the Left are exactly where one typically finds them—on the wrong side of the Stars and Stripes.

COMMENTARY BY

Deroy Murdock

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor with National Review Online.

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https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1712194971116474411?s=20

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SOME MESSAGES FROM X YOU MIGHT HAEV MISSED

October 13, 2023

Her students would disagree. pic.twitter.com/x8A21Q9VHE
— 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠 (@GregoryEck) October 13, 2023

Harvard President Claudia Gay reacts to pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus:

"Our university embraces a commitment to free expression. That commitment extends to views that many of us find objectionable or outrageous."

"We do NOT punish or sanction people for expressing such… pic.twitter.com/XsnRMdyb8l
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 13, 2023

At a Palestine rally at @UNC, radical left students threaten a man who they perceive to be an Israel supporter. Campus police lead the man away, apparently for his own safety. The leftist rally was promoted with a flyer featuring a Hamas terrorist. pic.twitter.com/8r2iB9Pq3Z
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2023

That's like someone saying to Rep Considine "if you want to grow hair on that bald, shiny head of yours, then just grow hair." https://t.co/k1dgzIW7rZ
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 13, 2023

HUGE protests in the streets of Jordan…

😶😶😶pic.twitter.com/noFAapfUv0
— Not Elon Musk (@ElonMuskAOC) October 13, 2023

"I salute Hamas. A job well done. When I heard the news, I smiled!"

Philly crowd roars and applauds.

Are you ready for what’s coming?

pic.twitter.com/IyjgTJPnl4
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 12, 2023

Jewish students at University of Washington break down after student orgs host pro-Hamas rally on-campus:

“How are you allowing this?! They want us dead!”

https://t.co/IRPGgwm1YS
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 12, 2023

We will not allow terrorists to prevent Floridians from going about their daily lives or exercising their freedom to worship.

FHP and FDLE will continue providing increased security, and I expect universities to fully enforce all antisemitism laws on campus. https://t.co/ezfPmkM9Ml
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 13, 2023

AOC is a sickening Marxist antisemite who hates America and Israel, and I am fed up with her BS, the media promoting her, and ashamed that this two-faced hater is anywhere near the floor of the House of Representatives. You think my words are tough? Well, go back and look at…
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) October 12, 2023

It's noteworthy that not a single Arab country has offered to accept Gaza Palestinians. Not one. And they are silent about Egypt keeping closed the main passageway for the Gaza Palestinians to leave Gaza, because Egypt doesn't want Gaza Palestinians coming into their country.…
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) October 12, 2023

Be prepared and alert. THEY walk among us. Scary.

Muslim: “ I would chop your head off”.

pic.twitter.com/CqAhMfD5vq
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 12, 2023

Ep. 30 What's happening at the southern border isn’t just an invasion, but a crime. The politicians and NGOs responsible for it are criminals, who should be punished accordingly. pic.twitter.com/cbkTSUyogC
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 12, 2023

NEW: Harvard students are freaking out after a truck is driving around the school, displaying names of students who allegedly signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ terror attacks.

Say it with me: Hamas Harvard.

The digital screen on the truck says “Harvard’s Leading… pic.twitter.com/B7g7vyN8Wp
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1712182481208639661?s=20

Wow. Watch to the end. https://t.co/0c3g7GdyYf
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) October 10, 2023

We have no clue who is in our country.

There are people on the terror watch list entering our wide open border. People bringing drugs, crime, and terror into the United States.

This should terrify you. #BidenBorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/3egsKRbe4k
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 10, 2023

If this doesn't cause your hate for these Nazis to erupt, nothing will https://t.co/xF1VpeinAA
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) October 9, 2023

This. pic.twitter.com/Rr72kT7vtT
— Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) October 7, 2023

Iran’s parliament is chanting “Death to Israel! Death to America!

This would not be happening under Trump! Joe Biden just gave them 6 Billion Dollars.

They are using that money to kill women and children pic.twitter.com/m9NbneB0mR
— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) October 7, 2023

IN CONCLUSION FOR THIS WEEK

OMG. Just watch.

pic.twitter.com/PKdtpF82lR
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) September 26, 2023

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Islamic News, LGBTQ+ AND TRANSGENDER, Political

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Beheaded Babies, Whole Civilian Families Found Dead in Wake of Hamas Terror Attacks in Israel

By: Tyler O’Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / October 10, 2023

An Israeli house utterly obliterated in Hamas' terrorist attack — An Israeli Defense Force commander told journalists that soldiers founded babies beheaded in the wake of Hamas terrorists’ assault on Israel. The IDF showed journalists around Kfar Aza, a town near Gaza, on Oct. 10. Pictured: A view of a house left in ruins after an attack by Hamas militants on this kibbutz days earlier when dozens of civilians were killed near the border with Gaza. Oct. 10 in Kfar Aza, Israel. (Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Israeli soldiers report finding the bodies of babies, some of them decapitated, in the ruins of a town ravaged by Hamas terrorists in their surprise attack on Saturday. Israeli Defense Force soldiers took dozens of foreign journalists Tuesday to Kfar Aza, a town about 1.5 miles southeast of the Gaza border. Journalists surveyed the devastation, with explosions and artillery fire occurring in the background.

“It’s not a war,” Gen. Itai Veruv, head of the IDF’s Depth Command, told reporters. “It’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists kill them.”

“It’s not a war … it’s a massacre,” Veruv added.

'It's not a war, it's not a battle. It's a massacre'

Journalists are let into Kfar Aza for the first time, four days after the community came under the shock attack by Hamas terrorists

IDF Major General Itai Veruv describes the scene of brutal violence, where whole families… pic.twitter.com/HJzoMKj2Ta
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023

Nicole Zedek, an i24 News reporter, said that an IDF commander told her they found the bodies of some 40 babies, some of whom had been beheaded.

i24NEWS Correspondent @Nicole_Zedek reports from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a quarter-mile from the Gaza border, and recounts the atrocities that were committed in the small community which remains an active scene as soldiers clear booby traps and recover the bodies of dozens of victims pic.twitter.com/J4ZfWZQYHp
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF reported having regained control over the border with the Gaza Strip, roughly 72 hours after Hamas terrorists blew through sections of the barrier and launched the invasion early Saturday morning, The Times of Israel reported.

Hamas militants attacked Israel on the last day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, as well as the Sabbath day of rest and the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. The terrorists slaughtered over 900 Israelis, including about 250 at a music festival, and kidnapped more than 100.

“This morning, on Shabbat and a holiday, Hamas invaded Israeli territory and murdered innocent citizens, including children and the elderly,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday. “Hamas has started a brutal and evil war.”

“They didn’t go for military targets—they went for civilians, they went for grandmothers, children, babies,” Israeli Defense Forces’ international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said in a video message Sunday. “The numbers are unprecedented.”

“The style of attack is barbaric,” Hecht added. “In a way, this is our 9/11.”

He explained that the Hamas fighters attacked a party near the Gaza strip and kidnapped a grandmother. “Everybody, nearly, in Israel is affected by this.”

Hamas militants shot civilians at bus stops, on roads, and in their cars, photos show, according to Israeli experts who spoke to the Times of Israel. Videos reportedly show Israeli civilians, including women and children, getting abducted and taken to Gaza. Two videos raise concerns of sexual assault or rape.

Operational update with IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. https://t.co/9d9JeiUYFG
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 8, 2023

Read more about the attacks and Israel’s response here.

Read more about Iran’s involvement here.

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International Politics, Islamic News, Political

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Pro-Palestine Student Org Calls for National ‘Day of Resistance’ Backing Attacks on Israel

By: Mary Margaret Olohan / @MaryMargOlohan / October 10, 2023

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in support of the Palestinian people during a rally for Gaza at the Consulate General of Israel on October 09, 2023 in New York City. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza by land, sea, and air, killing over 700 people and wounding more than 2000. Israeli soldiers and civilians have also been kidnapped. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in support of the Palestinian people during a rally for Gaza at the Consulate General of Israel on Sunday in New York City. (Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

A national pro-Palestine student organization is calling for a “day of resistance” on college campuses Thursday in support of brutal terrorist attacks on Israel, emphasizing that they are not only in solidarity with Palestine, they are “PART of this movement.”

A toolkit released by the national Students for Justice in Palestine calls for the student movement for “Palestine liberation” to organize a national day of resistance on college campuses across the U.S. and Canada. The organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,” the toolkit messaging says in bold. “This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement. All of our efforts continue the work and resistance of Palestinians on the ground.”

At least six chapters have already announced such events for Oct. 12, according to the Anti-Defamation League: Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Butler University in Indiana, University of Louisville in Kentucky, University of Binghamton in New York and the University of Virginia.

“We must continue to resist directly, through dismantling Zionism and wielding the political power that our organizations hold on our campuses and in our communities,” the Students for Justice in Palestine toolkit says. “We are asking chapters to host demonstrations on campus/in their community in support of our resistance in Palestine and the national liberation struggle—one which they play a critical role in actualizing.”

Israeli soldiers on Monday remove the body of a civilian killed days earlier in an attack by Palestinian terroists on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza in Kfar Aza, Israel. (Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images)

If a protest is not possible, the national Students for Justice in Palestine encourages other forms of engagement, such as a sit-in, “disruption” or “educational event.”

The Anti-Defamation League expressed concerns about such tactics: “Although these are all nonviolent tactics, they raise the real possibility of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, and the confrontational spirit that permeates the toolkit raises the concern that these actions could lead to acts of harassment or vandalism targeting Jewish students and organizations.”

Victoria Coates, vice president of The Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday that “the corrosive antisemitism that infects American higher education today has been on ugly display since the terrorist attacks against Israel over the weekend.”

“Instead of denouncing the genocidal Hamas terrorists who hunted, tortured, murdered and took Jews hostage, all too many in academia have come out in favor of their depraved and savage rampage as if it were somehow legitimate because the victims were Jews,” Coates said. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

She added: “This bigoted response stands in stark contrast with the wave of support for Ukraine after [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022, when the same campuses that will host these anti-Israel rallies flew Ukrainian flags in solidarity with the victims of Putin’s attack.”

The calls for demonstrations come after the terrorist group Hamas infiltrated Israel over the weekend, firing more than 4,500 rockets and slaughtering more than 1,000 people, including many women, children, and babies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday declared war against Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization since 1997.

Media reports continue to describe unspeakable atrocities committed by Hamas. An Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said Tuesday that Israeli soldiers had found beheaded corpses of babies in a town near Gaza.

DAY-OF-RESISTANCE-TOOLKIT Download

“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mother, the father, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists killed them,” IDF Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv said as reported by Fox News. “It’s a massacre.”

But the national Students for Justice in Palestine messaging states that “when people are occupied, resistance is justified.”

“Normalize the resistance,” the messaging says, urging students to describe the current events as a “struggle for national liberation,” rather than a war or a conflict.

The invasion shows that “Israel is fragile,” the messaging continues. “The Zionist entity is fragile, and Palestinian resistance is alive.”

George Washington University Students for Justice in Palestine weigh in on the devastation in Israel: "WE WILL BE CAGED NO LONGER."

These are DC college students. pic.twitter.com/uwVINQgaQ6
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 10, 2023

Meanwhile, pro-Palestine groups at universities such as George Washington University in Washington, D.C., are expressing support for Palestine without acknowledging the atrocities that the terrorists have committed in Israel.

“This past weekend we witnessed them break free, tearing down the prison walls, and making it known to the world: WE WILL BE CAGED NO LONGER,” says a statement from GW Students for Justice in Palestine. That statement praises the invasion as “history in the making” and “the beginning of a new era in our struggle.”

“GW Students for Justice in Palestine maintains unwavering support for our people’s resistance, in all its forms,” the statement says. “Every single act of resistance moves us closer to the liberation of our homeland. We will never capitulate to the colonizer or his sympathizers, and we stand firm and steadfast in support of our people’s right to resist. We call upon all our people and those in solidarity with us to join us in this struggle.”

The true face of the American Left https://t.co/Wn5qixzaJQ
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 10, 2023

Jewish Insider editor-in-chief Josh Kraushaar reacted to the student statement by calling it a “look at the intellectual/moral climate on top college campuses.”

Lawyer and commentator Erielle Davidson tweeted: “My skin is crawling at the thought that American universities allow bloodthirsty freaks to carry their degrees. GW has a high Jewish population. Despicable.”

And Israeli television anchor Lidar Grave-Lazi said in a social media post that “the world is finally opening its eyes to see the true face of the ‘Pro-Palestinian’ movement.”

“It is not about human rights,” she said. “It is about brutality, barbarism, hatred and the annihilation of Israel. Unfortunately, they have infiltrated college campuses across the U.S. and not enough is being done to counter their hatred. Just look to @Harvard’s deafening silence. Anyone who is civilized and has a shred of humanity should condemn such statements and call them out for what they truly are.”

George Washington University did not immediately respond to requests for comment as to what steps it is taking to ensure the safety of its Jewish students.

Tyler O’Neill contributed to this report.

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International Politics, Islamic News, Political

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‘Wake Up’: Congressman Warns of ‘Genocide,’ ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Against Christians in Armenia

By: Mary Margaret Olohan / @MaryMargOlohan / September 06, 2023

Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on his colleagues Wednesday to recognize that 120,000 Armenian Christians living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing extinction. Pictured: Demonstrators rally to demand the reopening of a blockaded road linking the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia and to decry crisis conditions in the region, in Stepanakert on July 25, 2023. Karabakh has been at the centre of a decades-long dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory. (Photo by Ani BALAYAN / AFP) (Photo by ANI BALAYAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on his colleagues Wednesday to recognize that 120,000 Armenian Christians living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing extinction.

“Delay is denial,” Smith, who chaired the emergency congressional hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “The Biden Administration must say immediately that this is genocide—and stop it.”

The Capitol Hill hearing, held Wednesday, examined the ongoing blockade of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region between Eastern Europe and western Asia that is referred to as the Republic of Artsakh by Armenians.

The region is a disputed territory that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought over for several decades, and the Azerbaijani government has blockaded the Armenians since December 2022. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that Armenians face dire shortages of food, medical supplies, baby formula, fuel, and more.

“This blockade of the 120,000 Armenian Christians is reaching a critical juncture,” warned Turkish journalist and political analyst Uzay Bulut in an August 2023 op-ed. “Food and medicine are running out, and starvation is beginning to set in. Currently, there is no fuel — which has led to a complete transportation shutdown. The Armenians of Artsakh are thus being forced into submission to Azerbaijan through a policy of starvation.”

A view shows an Azerbaijani checkpoint at the entry of the Lachin corridor, the Armenian-populated breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region’s only land link with Armenia, on Aug. 30, 2023. (Photo: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images)

“This crime—it is the crime of genocide—was planned, tested, and imposed by the government of Azerbaijan, that is to say by President Ilham Aliyev, who rules Azerbaijan as a dictator,” Smith said Wednesday. The congressman has met with Aliyev twice, his office said, once in 2013 and again in 2014, to discuss his human rights abuses.

“The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is much more desperate now, and two-and-a-half more months of inaction raises the question whether there is, within our own government, any will to help,” he said. “In August, when the Security Council met in special session to discuss the crisis neither the U.S. nor any other member took this action.”

Smith continued: “Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani government taunts the very people it is starving, as when President Aliyev said his blockade is necessary to deal with the smuggling of cigarettes and iPhones, and Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the U.N. held up photos of supposed Karabakh residents partying and enjoying the high life.”

Smith emphasized that the Biden administration does not want this genocide to end in the deaths or “ethnic cleansing” of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“But that is exactly where events are headed,” he said.

“The Biden administration must wake up, recognize the absolutely grave responsibility it has here, and focus on finding and implementing a humane solution,” the congressman added. “And this must mean that the blockade is lifted and the people can continue to live in their ancient homeland—and not be subject to violence and threats. This situation is now a three-alarm fire.”

One of the witnesses who spoke to lawmakers on Wednesday was Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who released a statement Aug. 7 warning that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.”

“There are no crematories and there are no machete attacks,” he wrote. “Starvation is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.”

The International Association of Genocide Scholars condemned that blockade in February 2023, warning against the “ongoing aggression against the indigenous Armenian population of the region” and “the risk of genocide against the Armenian population of that entity.”

In late July, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that Blinken had spoken with Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev and expressed “deep concern” for the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Secretary Blinken underscored the urgent need for free transit of commercial, humanitarian, and private vehicles through the Lachin corridor, and emphasized the need for compromise on alternative routes so humanitarian supplies can reach the population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Blinken spokesman Matthew Miller said. “The Secretary stressed the need for all parties to keep up positive momentum on peace negotiations.”

Some have expressed concerns in recent weeks that the Azerbaijan is amassing troops and weapons ahead of a coming invasion.

“There’s a very real chance in the coming weeks that #Azerbaijan will seize the rest of #NagornoKarabakh and continue on to southern #Armenia,” warned Robert Nicholson, president of The Philos Project, a Christian organization that advocates “for pluralism in the Near East.”

“Russia, Turkey, and Iran will have signed off on it,” he continued. “And unless something changes, the US will watch it all happen. Where are our leaders?”

There's a very real chance in the coming weeks that #Azerbaijan will seize the rest of #NagornoKarabakh and continue on to southern #Armenia. Russia, Turkey, and Iran will have signed off on it. And unless something changes, the US will watch it all happen

Where are our leaders?
— Robert Nicholson (@rwnicholson_) September 5, 2023

Category:

International Politics, Islamic News, Religion

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Slaughter of Nigerian Christians Warrants International Attention

By: Olivia Hundley / Max Primorac / August 03, 2023

In its first full day in office, the Biden administration canceled a modest grant to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria document atrocities against them. By contrast, Esther Bitrus, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic extremists in 2014 in Nigeria, listens as then-President Donald Trump hosts her and other survivors of religious persecution from 17 countries around the world at the White House on July 17, 2019. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“If we keep quiet, we are going to go extinct,” says Catholic Bishop Chipa Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi in Benue state, Nigeria.

In June, the Congressional Values Action Team caucus met with Anagbe and the Rev. Remigius Ihyula who shared their testimonies of atrocities committed against Christians in Nigeria by Islamic extremists and about the complacency of the Nigerian government. The meeting rallied support behind House Resolution 82, introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., expressing the sense of Congress that the Biden administration officially redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern for grossly violating religious freedoms and appoint a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.”

An estimated 5,621 Christians worldwide were killed for their faith last year. Of those, 90% were Nigerian, according to a January report by Open Doors International, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians. The report says, “Militant groups such as Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and other Fulani militants inflict murder, physical injury, abduction and sexual violence on their victims.”

Western media commonly frames the violence in Nigeria as a “herder-farmer” conflict “propelled by climate change and resource scarcity,” despite U.S. government reports that “one of ISIS’s largest and most powerful regional branches … controls broad swaths of territory and has killed or displaced thousands of people in Nigeria and neighboring countries.” Records show Fulani militants attacking Christian communities, burning churches, summarily killing schoolchildren, kidnapping priests for ransom, and often executing them. Twelve Nigerian state governments officially adhere to Islamic Sharia law, “contributing to discrimination and violence against Christians,” according to International Christian Concern.

The Religious Freedom Institute’s Nigerian Atrocities Documentation Project in an April report shared a survivor’s account of an attack in Zangon Kataf in Kaduna state. He “disclosed that the terrorists who attacked his community were seen in Hilux vans shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while shooting,” the report explained. “That day, about 42 persons were killed and over 300 houses were razed. The attacks did not in any way suggest that it was a conflict between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers.”

There is a problem of mislabeling the crisis, said Richard Ikiebe, a Nigerian who is president of the International Organization for Peace Building and Social Justice, at a July 19 press conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the International Committee on Nigeria. “Stop saying that it’s a farmer-herder clash. And stop saying that it’s a poverty issue … and stop saying it’s a climate change issue.” Those issues are involved, he added, but they are not the core issue.

The State Department denies that religion plays a role in these massacres. In its “2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria,” it stated, “While much of the violence involved predominantly Muslim herders and, depending on location, either predominantly Christian or Muslim farmers … banditry and other criminality, not animosity between particular religious groups or on the basis of religion, were the primary drivers of intercommunal violence.”

That’s false.

In just the past month, “37 Christians have been killed by Fulani militants and other terrorist groups in Nigeria’s Benue state,” International Christian Concern reported July 24. Another report by Nigerian-based research and investigative rights group Intersociety said that more than 1,000 Christians had been killed in the first 100 days of 2023 alone.

Soon after becoming secretary of state in early 2021, Antony Blinken repudiated the Trump administration’s emphasis on religious freedom, declaring that “there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others.”

In its first full day in office, the Biden administration canceled a modest grant to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria document atrocities against them. In contrast, the independent and bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom explicitly recommended the U.S. government “[r]edesignate Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern,’ or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)” in its 2021 annual report, as it has every year since 2009.

Still, the U.S. State Department removed Nigeria from the “country of particular concern” list in 2021 without explanation just before Blinken traveled to Nigeria.

Smith, the New Jersey lawmaker, pressed the administration’s U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Rashad Hussain, about Nigeria’s de-designation at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing last month. “I share your concerns. I don’t think we have much disagreement in terms of the substance of what’s happening on the ground,” Hussain said.

“The killings of people, even pregnant women and children, and the occupation of their lands to cause the cessation of all economic activities mirror the pattern of jihadi elements like Boko Haram in other parts of Nigeria,” Anagbe said in his July 18 testimony at that House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing.

In response to the atrocities, a bipartisan group of 14 members of Congress have co-sponsored House Resolution 82, which seeks to redress the administration’s cover-up.

“It is imperative that the State Department take action by adding Nigeria as a [country of particular concern] and make clear that the U.S. government condemns the continued egregious actions in Nigeria,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., a co-sponsor of the resolution.

The resolution echoes the cries of Anagbe that we cannot remain silent while Nigerian civilians are being killed in large numbers for their faith.

“Nigeria is the regional anchor of West Africa … and when Nigeria is unstable, the entire region is unstable,” said Eric Patterson, the president of Religious Freedom Institute, in his testimony before the subcommittee. “We also do not want to see falling dominos of failing states, millions of destitute refugees, and a global petroleum shock. Nigeria’s friends care about Nigeria, both because it will affect the United States sooner or later, and because the citizens of Nigeria deserve justice and peace.”

COMMENTARY BY

Olivia Hundley

Olivia Hundley is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.

Max Primorac

Max Primorac is director of The Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy. He previously served as acting chief operating officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development. From 2009 to 2011, he was a senior adviser to the Afghan government.

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BORDER PATROL NABBED 17 PEOPLE ON FBI TERROR WATCHLIST AT SOUTHERN BORDER IN DECEMBER

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Iranian illegal immigrant caught at border not on terror watchlist after further vetting: DHS official

By Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin | Fox News | Published February 1, 2023 11:50am EST

EXCLUSIVE: Texas law enforcement arrested an Iranian illegal immigrant at the southern border last week whose name and date of birth were initially flagged as a match on the FBI’s terror watchlist, but who a DHS official tells Fox News was ultimately determined not to be a match on the database after further vetting.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested 29-year-old Alireza Heidari last week after a traffic stop involving a human smuggler at the border in Val Verde County, Texas as part of Operation Lone Star. Heidari was being smuggled in the vehicle along with four other illegal immigrants. He was located in the trunk. Fox is told that Heidari was handed over to Border Patrol custody and later determined to be a match of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).

Fox reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Thursday and multiple times since. Only on Tuesday did DHS refer Fox to the FBI, which declined to comment. The FBI’s website says it does not confirm anyone’s status on the watchlist.

However, on Wednesday, a DHS official told Fox News that after further vetting, Homeland Security officials determined that Heidari was not a match on the TSDB.

**Jan 23, 2022: Authorities stop a human smuggler in Val Verde County, Texas.**

The FBI’s TSDB contains information about the identities of those who are “reasonably suspected” of being involved in terrorism or related activities. There were 17 people stopped by Border Patrol in December alone whose names matched on the list. That brings the total of individuals arrested at the southern border between ports of entry to 38 since October.

There were 98 terror watchlist arrests in FY22, 15 in FY21 and just three in FY 20 at the southern border caught between ports of entry. At the ports of entry at the northern and southern borders, meanwhile, CBP’s Office of Field Operations has encountered 125 people on the TSDB so far this fiscal year. In FY 2022 there were 380 apprehensions, 157 in FY21 and 196 in FY20.

NEARLY 300,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SLIPPED PAST BORDER AGENTS IN LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS: SOURCES

The increase in apprehensions between ports of entry has raised concerns that, amid a historic spike in illegal immigration across the southern border, illegal criminals and terrorists could be slipping by overwhelmed Border Patrol agents.

Video

So far this fiscal year, nearly 300,000 illegal immigrants have evaded Border Patrol, with an average of 2,450 a day in the last 120 days, sources told Fox News last week.

In fiscal 2022, there were nearly 600,000 gotaways. There were 389,155 gotaways at the border in fiscal 2021, and fiscal 2023 is on track to easily outpace those numbers. Last week, agents told Fox News there have been more than 1.2 million gotaways during the Biden administration.

**Jan 23, 2022: Illegal immigrants are caught in the back of a vehicle at the border.**

Tom Homan, a former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, told Fox News on Saturday that the number should “scare the hell out of every American” and said there was a reason these migrants are not turning themselves in to Border Patrol to be processed and released into the U.S.

“Why would they not take advantage of the program? Because they don’t want to be fingerprinted, and there’s a reason for that.”

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter .

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘A Nexus To Terrorism’: Illegals Flagged As Potential National Security Risks Soared Nearly 600% In Last Year

By JENNIE TAER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER | October 03, 2022

67415 — **Jennie Taer//The Daily Caller News Foundation**

The number of illegal aliens labeled as “special interest migrants” for potential national security risks increased by nearly 600% to 25,627 in fiscal year 2022, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Of the total, 60% of the illegal migrants were from Turkey, a country where Islamic State and other foreign terrorist organizations are known to operate, according to the State Department.
“Anybody that doesn’t think that serious threats to this country are sneaking in right now is naïve,” former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the DCNF.

Border Patrol saw an almost 600% increase in fiscal year 2022 in the number of illegal migrants flagged as “special interest” over national security concerns, according to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A “special interest” migrant is someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen who frequently travels in areas designated as national security concerns due to terrorist activity or other types of “nefarious activity,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Border Patrol agents encountered 25,627 “special interest” illegal migrants compared to the 3,675 encounters in fiscal year 2021, according to the data.

“Special interest aliens” can include individuals who “possibly have a nexus to terrorism,” according to 2019 DHS fact sheet. The newly-obtained internal data refers to these individuals as “special interest migrants,” however.

Most of the encounters were recorded at the southern border, with the highest in El Paso, Texas, according to the data.

“When you have an open border, you don’t get to control who or what enters your home,” former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are significant real threats coming across the border.”

“Unfortunately, all the current administration wants to focus on as an economic migrants and trying to say that they have a kinder, gentler migration policy, but they’re putting the entire Nation at Risk, as well as the millions of migrants that are handed to the cartels to be trafficked across the border,” Scott said.

CBP officials encountered over 2,000,000 migrants at the southern border between October 2021 and August 2022, a record number. Of those, CBP encountered 78 individuals on the terror watchlist.

Jennie Taer//Daily Caller News Foundation

Daily Caller News Foundation

“What you’re seeing is like a snapshot of what’s crossing the border, what the agents are encountering. That the bigger threat is they’re so overwhelmed that they’re leaving hundreds of miles of border on patrols every day,” Scott said.

If CBP can’t find derogatory information on them, “special interest” illegal migrants are typically released into the country, according to Scott.

“Unless when they run the record checks on that individual person flagged for some type of derogatory information, they’re going to be processed just like any other illegal alien. It basically means that they’re going to be processed, set up for a hearing in the future and released into the United States. We overly rely on the United States to have by current and valid information people that are global database, and that does not exist.”

Most of the “special interest” illegal migrants were from Turkey, which made up 60% of the grouping, with 15,376 encountered. Border Patrol also encountered 3,246 illegal migrants from Uzbekistan and 2,446 from Bangladesh.

Turkey, for example, is a “source and transit country” for Islamic State terrorists and other terrorists operating in Syria and Iraq, according to the State Department.

The Biden administration has implemented a number of policies that have allowed many illegal migrants to stay in the country. In August, it ended the Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced certain illegal migrants to await asylum proceedings in Mexico.

On the president’s first day in office, DHS issued a memorandum putting in place a 100-day moratorium on deportations. The notice also limited immigration enforcement to those who pose risks to national security, border security and public safety.

“Anybody that doesn’t think that serious threats to this country are sneaking in right now is naïve,” Scott said.

The FBI declined to comment on the matter. DHS did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated.

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Iranian propaganda turning public against Evangelical Christians, religious minorities: USCIRF

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter | August 4, 2022

A stranded Iranian Christian migrant holds the Bible as he prays at dawn in front of a fence reinforced by barbed wire and a wooden barricade at the Greek-Macedonian border near to the Greek village of Idomeni November 30, 2015. | REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

The Iranian government is actively inciting “derogatory public opinion” against Christianity and other faiths by using Iranian media outlets to spread religious propaganda, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

A new report from the bipartisan federal advisory committee says Iran’s government uses official media, government-linked media and social media to spread “falsehoods and misconceptions” about religious minorities to turn public opinion against these communities.

The report “Religious Propaganda in Iran” attributes the effort to a “systematic campaign to deny freedom of religion or belief to groups that do not conform to the government’s singular interpretation of Ja’afri Shi’a Islam.”

For instance, the government describes some Christians as belonging to an “Evangelical Zionist cult” and uses vague national security accusations to target Christian converts.

The phrase was referenced in the Nov. 3, 2021 ruling by Iran’s Supreme Court, declaring that promoting Christianity and establishing home churches are not crimes and do not amount to national security crimes.

The court’s opinion used the phrase “Evangelical Zionist cult” to refer to the Christian converts whose case it was addressing.

Under Iran’s legal system, a ruling by a Supreme Court branch is not necessarily binding on lower courts.

“This misinformation campaign restricts freedom of religion or belief for religious minorities in Iran,” USCIRF Commissioner Sharon Kleinbaum told The Christian Post.

According to USCIRF, Iranian state propaganda against Christian converts is often disguised as anti-Zionism, and Christian converts are regularly referred to as members of a “Zionist” network.

Officials say the reference to Zionism in this context does not refer to specific allegations of links between Christian converts in Iran and the state of Israel but rather “a broad conspiracy in which Evangelical Christians across the world promote political viewpoints that serve Zionist ideology.”

The report also cites what USCIRF called “Iran’s misinformation campaign against Christian converts,” which officials say seeks to differentiate Christian converts from Armenians and Assyrians as recognized religious minority groups.

Hojjat al-Islam Kashani, a Muslim cleric who serves as the secretary of the Islam-Christianity Dialog Association, told an Iranian media outlet, “What is being promoted today as Christianity is not traditional Christianity, but rather it is Evangelical and colonial Christianity.

“Evangelical Christianity is not a religion. It is a policy-oriented towards colonialism.”

According to the report, Kashani accused Evangelical Christian Iranians of pursuing a political agenda of expansion designed to undermine Iran’s government.

Those political aims of Evangelical Christians have “resulted in their alienation from other Christians, and that Iranian Armenians are opposed to Evangelical Christians,” Kashani said.

Iran’s history is replete with examples of outside intervention by colonial powers in its domestic affairs, so this comment appeals to the sense of injustice some Iranians may feel about foreign meddling in Iranian politics, Kleinbaum said.

“The impact on Iranian Christians is that they cannot rely on the government to uphold its obligations under international law to protect freedom of religion or belief, and are more likely to face discrimination from Iranians who internalize the government’s false messaging,” she added.

In addition to Christian converts, the USCIRF report identifies and reviews the significant themes Iran’s government deploys against Jews, Sunni Muslims, Gonabadi Sufis and Baha’is.

Besides providing data and analysis on religious freedom abroad, USCIRF also provides foreign policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state and U.S. Congress to fight religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. Iran is one of 10 countries recognized by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for tolerating and engaging in religious freedom abuses.

Just one year after Iran signed a historic nuclear deal with the U.S. and other Western nations in 2015, USCIRF reported that religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, continue experiencing severe human rights abuses.

The report found that religious freedom conditions “continued to deteriorate,” with Christians, Baha’is and the minority Sunni Muslims facing the most persecution in the form of harassment, arrests and imprisonment.

Open Doors USA, a watchdog group that monitors religious freedom abuses in over 60 countries, ranks Iran as the ninth-worst country regarding Christian persecution.

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Islamic cleric reportedly defends killing of Nigerian Christian woman: ‘Here we kill’

Reported By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter | Wednesday, May 18, 2022

College student Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu was stoned to death in Sokoto, Nigeria on May 12, 2022. | Facebook via Morning Star News

A Muslim cleric in northern Nigeria reportedly defended the murder of a Christian woman over false accusations that she committed blasphemy, which is punishable by death under Islamic law.

Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu was fatally beaten and burned on May 12. She was accused of sending blasphemous messages to a group chat after refusing to date a Muslim boy.

A purported video of her killing showed an angry mob vandalizing cars and other targets while shouting “Allah akbar” as Yakubu’s apparent body is burned underneath a pile of objects.

In response to Yakubu’s murder, Bello Yabo, an Islamic cleric in the Nigerian state of Sokoto, is alleged to have called on Muslims to kill anyone who “insults the prophet,” according to global persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC).

ICC’s report didn’t name the cleric, however, an ICC spokesperson told CP that the group’s field staff stated that Yabo is the cleric who made the comments.

ICC’s translation of Yabo’s comments quotes him as saying:

“A young person in Sokoto insulted Allah’s prophet yesterday. In Sokoto we kill such. We don’t tolerate such idiocy in Sokoto. This is not Kano, which is a commercial center, where someone called the prophet names, including being an adulterer. They have been dragging about it.
“Here we kill. When you touch the prophet we become mad people. No talk of a person being out of his mind. Kill him!
“Anyone who touches the prophet, no punishment. Just kill! Even if the person repents or recants, forgiveness is God’s business. We must kill such. Out of his mind, but buys a device, data, opens social media and insults the prophet? Kill him! Don’t report as a grievance to any authority. Kill him! Even if he is an Islamic teacher, much less a useless rascal.
“Like Shehu Usman Dan Fodio, we are Mujahedeen (holy warriors) and Jihadists.
“No compromise.
“Allah curse whoever touches the prophet. Those of you who displayed your wrath, Allah bless you. Kill and disperse!”

Yakubu was a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education and a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All denomination. She was accused of sending a message to a school WhatsApp group that her classmates interpreted as blasphemous.

“Deborah Emmanuel was complaining in a class WhatsApp group chat, kicking against how they discriminate against Christians in the school in areas of assignments and test in favor of the Muslims,” a local pastor told Morning Star News. “This is what they used as a yardstick to say she insulted Muhammad. She didn’t insult prophet Muhammad, but it was discovered that she turned down a Muslim proposal to date her. That led to him accusing her of insulting prophet Muhammad.”

Yakubu’s father, Emmanuel Garba, told local media outlets his daughter’s violent death was “an act of God.”

Garba said the family is looking for answers after the tragedy.

“We can’t say or do anything, except to take it easy as an act of God. We have left all to God, we have decided to take it like that,” Garba was quoted as saying in an interview with the Nigerian newspaper Daily Post.

He also said he paid the equivalent of nearly $300 to transport his daughter’s corpse back home to the Tungan Magajiya in Rijau local government area of the Niger State so he could bury his daughter.

Her mother, Alheri Emmanuel, told reporters none of the family’s seven surviving children would attend school again to prevent further tragedy.

“What has happened to me is my cross, and I will surely carry it, but none of my seven surviving children will go to school again,” she was quoted as telling Vanguard newspaper.

Police arrested two Muslim men in Yakubu’s death, which sparked riots in Nigeria’s Sokoto state, where a mob of Muslims have vandalized three church buildings and damaged and looted Christian-owned shops.

Holy Family Catholic Cathedral, St. Kevin’s Catholic Church and an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) building were attacked on May 14, according to ICC.

“Hundreds of Muslims here in Sokoto this morning converged at various points in the city to protest the arrest of two Muslims who were involved in the killing of Deborah,” area resident Angela Anthony was quoted as telling Morning Star News. “In spite of efforts by the police and other security agencies to prevent them from becoming violent in their protest, these Muslims still succeeded in attacking and destroying.”

The Rev. Christopher Omotosho, the spokesman for Sokoto Diocese, said the protestors also shattered the windows of the diocese’s Bishop Lawton Secretariat and vandalized a bus parked on the premises. Additionally, vandals attacked the diocese’s Bakhita Centre and set a bus on fire.

Residents of Sokoto told Morning Star News that they’re asking for prayer even as church leaders of the ECWA and the Christian Association of Nigeria are demanding justice from the government.

Reverend Joseph Daramola, a leader in the Christian Association of Nigeria, responded to the violence in a statement last Friday.

“It is the failure of the security agencies and the government to rise to such criminalities in the past that gave birth to terrorists and bandits,” he said. “As long as the state fails to bring these beasts and criminals amidst us to book, so also the society will continue to be their killing fields.”

Islamic militants, including radical Fulani herdsmen and the terror groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, routinely target Nigeria’s Christians for kidnapping and even murder.

In 2021, ICC designated Nigeria as one of the world’s “Persecutors of the Year,” calling the African country “one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians.”

Anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2000, according to the ICC report.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 just one year earlier.

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Iran debuts a new ‘Khaibar-buster’ missile that can reportedly strike Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East

Reported by SAMUEL MANGOLD-LENETT | February 09, 2022

Iran has just unveiled a new missile that can strike targets in Israel and American military bases in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, the Iranian government debuted its new solid-fuel missile on state television. The missile has a range of 1,450 kilometers — roughly 900 miles — and is called the Khaibar-buster.

Khaibar was an ancient Jewish palace that was overrun by Muslim armies under the leadership of Muhammad in the early days of Islamic expansion.

The Khaibar-buster is manufactured completely domestically in Iran and, per the Times of Israel, may be able to circumvent sophisticated missile defense systems.

Iran debuted its new missile as the United States continues to re-negotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement. Iran has long claimed that it does not wish to develop nuclear weapons and insists that its missile development programs are simply a deterrent.

— Yossi Mansharof (@Yossi Mansharof) 1644396897

Iran isn’t able to launch the Khaibar-buster at intercontinental targets, but the new missile is able to reach American military bases in the Middle East.

Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff for the Iranian armed forces, described the Khaibar-buster as a “long-range missile” and said that “the enemies of the Revolution and the Islamic Republic do not understand anything but the language of power and force.”

Iranian leadership is dedicated to wiping the Jewish state of Israel off the map. Ayatollah Khamenei has even referred to the “Zionist regime” as a “long-lasting virus.”

Some argue that the Zionist regime is a reality that the region must come to terms with. Today the #Covid_19 is a reality; should it be accepted or fought?!\nThe long-lasting virus of Zionism will be uprooted thanks to the determination and faith of the youth. #Covid1948

— Khamenei.ir (@Khamenei.ir) 1590136492

Iran’s aggressiveness towards and perpetual harassment of Israel have led to the Jewish state hastening the development of new missile defense systems. Israel is 620 miles away from Iran, well within the Khaibar-buster’s range. This missile is capable of reaching targets deep inside Israel.

This past January, Iran successfully tested a solid-fuel rocket engine that is allegedly designed to launch satellites into orbit. According to an Iranian spokesperson, via Reuters, this rocket launched research devices into space at an “altitude of 470 km (290 miles) and at a speed of 7,350 meters per second.”

Satellite rocket engines are usually powered with liquid fuel, and pure solid-fuel rockets are typically associated with ballistic missile systems, so the international community remains highly skeptical of Iran’s intentions.

It’s unclear whether the rocket reached orbit, but the Iranian government confirmed, “The intended research objectives of this launch were achieved.”

According to the U.S. State Department, this launch violated a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution. A State Department spokesperson said, “The United States remains concerned with Iran’s development of space launch vehicles which pose a significant proliferation concern.”

Last week, the State Department confirmed that Iran was merely weeks away from being able to fuel and power a nuclear weapon.

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10 Christian converts forced to take Islamic re-education classes in Iran: report

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | Monday, February 07, 2022

An Iranian flag flutters in front of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 17, 2014. | Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader

Intelligence agents in Iran’s Khuzestan Province have instructed 10 Christian converts who had been cleared of all charges to participate in “re-education” classes led by Islamic clerics, according to a watchdog report. Agents of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the 10 Christians, including eight who were cleared last November of any crime in a court in Dezful, on Jan. 29 that they will have to attend 10 sessions with Islamic clerics to “guide them back onto the right path,” Article 18, a nonprofit that promotes religious freedom and tolerance for Christians in Iran, reported.

The IRGC had summoned more converts, but they didn’t appear. However, those who didn’t appear were called and asked why they hadn’t appeared.

The IRGC arrested four converts in the southwestern city of Dezful last April and charged them with “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” because they participated in a house church, according to an earlier report from Article 18. The IRGC also summoned other Christian converts for interrogation at the time. The four arrested had personal property confiscated for nearly six months, including necessary items for their children’s schoolwork, laptops and mobile phones.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern states that the “mandatory Islamic re-education classes directly conflict with the rulings of the Civil and Revolutionary Court of Dezful that said the group ‘merely converted to a different religion.’”

“The court noted that this apostasy could be punished under Islamic Sharia law but was ‘not criminalized in the laws of Iran,’” ICC noted in a statement.

In reference to other charges that Iranian Christians often face, the courts also ruled they “didn’t carry out any propaganda against other groups,” ICC added.

In 2021, Revolutionary Guards were responsible for 12 of the 38 documented incidents of Christians being arrested or their homes and churches being raided, Article 18 noted.

“So-called ‘re-education’ sessions have become much more common in recent years, even appearing in the list of ‘corrective punishments’ on official court papers,” Article 18 detailed.

Converts from Islam to Christianity are most at risk of persecution in Iran, especially by the government and to a lesser extent by society and their families, Open Doors USA states in a fact sheet on Iran.

“The government sees the growth of the church in Iran as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran, the fact sheet states. “House groups made up of converts from Muslim backgrounds are often raided, and both their leaders and members have been arrested, prosecuted and given long prison sentences for ‘crimes against national security.’”

Iran is an Islamic republic, and Shia Islam is the official religion of the country. It is illegal for Muslim citizens to convert or renounce their religious beliefs. Conversion from Islam is considered a crime punishable by death. It is also unlawful for Christians to share the Gospel with Muslims. Proselytizing is also a criminal offense. Those who convert to Christianity usually practice their faith in secret. However, in 2020, a survey of about 50,000 Iranians over the age of 20 found that 1.5% of respondents identify as Christian. Applied across Iran’s population of more than 80 million, the number of Christians in Iran is “without doubt in the order of magnitude of several hundreds of thousands and growing beyond a million,” the Netherlands-based secular research group GAMAAN, stated after the study.

Iran ranks as the 9th worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2021 World Watch List. Iran is listed by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in severe violations of religious freedom.

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North Korea no longer the worst persecutor of Christians on Open Doors’ World Watch List

Reported By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter | Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Taliban fighters atop vehicles with Taliban flags parade along a road to celebrate after the US pulled all its troops out of Afghanistan, in Kandahar on September 1, 2021 following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country. | JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images

For the first time in over 20 years, North Korea is not listed as the worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on watchdog Open Doors USA’s influential World Watch List.

Afghanistan has replaced North Korea as “the most dangerous place on the planet to be a Christian” on Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List, released at a virtual press conference Wednesday morning.

Open Doors CEO David Curry said that his organization, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, takes into account “on-the-ground expert consensus about what’s happening around the world to Christians who are targeted simply for their faith.”

The World Watch List measures “pressure, intolerance and violence against the Christian faith worldwide.”

“The 2022 World Watch List reveals the most seismic changes in the history of our research,” Curry said. “For the first time ever, Afghanistan is the most dangerous place on the planet to be a Christian, coming in at No. 1 on the World Watch List. It has supplanted North Korea, which is now No. 2, for the first time in 20 years.”
Curry clarified that “North Korea has not gotten better” but rather that “Afghanistan has gotten worse.”

The ranking comes months after the Taliban Islamic radical insurgency retook control of the Central Asian country after the United States withdrew its military presence. Curry shared the personal story of a young Afghan woman who “fled for her life and went into hiding” after the Taliban took control of the country. The woman finds herself in particular danger because she is both a female and a Christian. Curry recalled a conversation Open Doors had with her and retold it from her perspective.

“A few years ago, the Taliban came, and they took my father away because he was a Christian. They tortured him for months and then killed him. A few months later, my brother also disappeared, and we’ve never heard from [him] again.”
“It’s no doubt that she knows where her fate is, and thus she and her mother are now on the run,” Curry said.

The human rights advocate maintained that the Taliban’s recapturing of Afghanistan led to a global rise in Islamic extremism that extends beyond its borders.

“In September, shortly after the Taliban seized control, a list was circulated with the names of prominent Christians. Somehow, this list fell into the hands of the Taliban,” he said.
“Those listed were among the first to be hunted,” he continued. “The Taliban’s interpretation of Islam considers Christians to be traitors, enemies of the state, enemies of the tribe and community. They are infidels from Islam, and in their mind, the punishment is death.”
Curry declared that every Christian who remains in Afghanistan “is either on the run or in hiding.”
He shared testimony from another Afghan Christian Open Doors USA spoke with, asserting that “the Taliban are going door-to-door and snatching young girls and destroying … families.”

Assessing the state of religious freedom worldwide, Curry said Open Doors’ data shows that “free societies” that protect freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are “facing a war against hatred and discrimination on two separate fronts.”

“The one battle is against tribal, religious and nationalistic extremists that’s sweeping the globe,” he described. “And there’s a second battle against authoritarian regimes who are deploying sophisticated systems of surveillance, censorship and punishment of anyone who believes or worships outside of a strictly enforced boundary.”
“Today, religious extremists and the governments they control or influence lead the World Watch List for the first time,” he said, adding that “extremism and tribalism are skyrocketing” along with “related incidents of harassment against Christians.”
“Nine of the top 10 countries on the World Watch List are run or influenced by radical Islamists or Hindu extremists,” Curry stated.
The only exception is North Korea, which is run by a “murderous dictator with a communist ideology.”

In addition to Afghanistan and North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and India rounded out the World Watch List’s top 10 “countries where it’s most difficult to follow Jesus.”

“Our report shows that 360 million Christians globally now suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination. That’s one in seven Christians worldwide,” he lamented.
Curry emphasized that the World Watch List “also illustrates the challenges … to freedom of conscience and expression for all people, whether they have a religious faith or … consider themselves an atheist or just have different views from the majority of their culture.”

The list contains a total of 50 countries where persecution of Christians is either “extreme” or “very high.”

Open Doors USA determined that the top 10 countries on the list, as well as Saudi Arabia, have “extreme” levels of Christian persecution while the remaining 39 have a “very high” amount of persecution. While the countries on the list are primarily located in Asia and Africa, a handful of countries in the Western hemisphere made it on the list.

Mexico, located directly south of the U.S., is ranked as the 43rd most dangerous country for Christians because of “organized crime and corruption.” Cuba came in as the 37th most challenging country for Christians because of “dictatorial paranoia.”

The complete report, which contains detailed examples of religious freedom violations in each country on the list, is available on the Open Doors USA website.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

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14-year-old Pentecostal girl kidnapped, forced to marry captor in Pakistan

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | Monday, January 17, 2022

Yet another underage girl in Pakistan has been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry her Muslim captor and police have allegedly been slow to act on the case, according to a report. Mahnoor Ashraf, a 14-year-old Pentecostal Christian, has been missing since she left her home, along with her 8-year-old nephew in Lahore’s Cantonment area in Punjab province for a nearby shop on Jan. 4, Morning Star News reported.

The nephew later told Mahnoor’s parents that their Muslim neighbor, 45-year-old Muhammad Ali Khan Ghauri, had abducted her with the help of his friends. When Mahnoor’s father, Ashraf Masih Chaudhry, went to the alleged abductor’s house, he was informed that he had been missing ever since.

“Ghauri’s house is on the same street, and our families had good terms with each other,” Mahnoor’s older brother, Akram Masih Chaudhry, was quoted as saying. “We don’t know when he managed to lure Mahnoor into a relationship.”

The abductor is married with two children.

Chaudhry then filed a police complaint, but the investigating officer was slow to act on their case, Akram said, adding that on Jan. 7, Ghauri’s family informed them that Mahnoor had allegedly converted to Islam and married Ghauri on Jan. 4, the day she was abducted. Ghauri’s friends who allegedly helped in the abduction have been identified as Muhammad Waqas, Raza Ali and Muhammad Imran. A local cleric who performed the Islamic marriage despite knowing that she was a minor has been identified as Muhammad Ibrar.

The marriage certificate states Mahnoor’s age as 19, though her birth certificate shows her year of birth as 2007.

“The police are not doing anything to find Mahnoor,” Akram was quoted as saying.

A 2014 report by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that hundreds of women and girls from Pakistan’s Hindu and Christian communities are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam every year.

“Many victims are minors taken from their families, sexually assaulted, married to an assailant, and held in captivity justified by falsified marriage and conversion documents,” the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said previously. “Violence, threats and grooming tactics are used to compel victims to make statements in court supporting their captors.”

Religion is often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage, ICC previously reported, adding that perpetrators play upon religious biases to cover up and justify their crimes by introducing an element of religion.

International watchdog group Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Pakistan at No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.

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Taliban Vows to Overrun DC with 2,000 Suicide Bombers, Biden Admin Silent as the Grave

Reported By C. Douglas Golden | January 11, 2022

Remember how, after the fall of Kabul, we were promised Taliban 2.0? It was going to be a softer, gentler theocracy — one which was going to include a multitude of voices in government and which definitely wouldn’t be embracing terrorism like it did during its first tenure running the country of Afghanistan.

Yes, well, about that: A report states the group, currently the de facto government of Afghanistan, has now threatened to send 2,000 suicide bombers to Washington, D.C. And yet, there’s nary a peep out of President Joe Biden’s administration.

It’s not that we couldn’t have seen this coming. Since the Biden administration’s capitulation in Afghanistan this summer, the Taliban has made it clear through their actions they’re still the same extremists they were when we chased them from power. The Western Journal has been bringing readers the truth about just how bad the situation in Afghanistan is — and why the president is directly responsible. You can help us bring America the facts by subscribing today.

The suicide-bombing threat was first reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, a watchdog which keeps an eye on communications from extremist groups and media sources.

According to a December report, during ongoing talks in Doha, Qatar — where the Taliban government seeks international recognition — Maulvi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, said that if America wanted troops in Afghanistan to reopen its embassy there, the Taliban wanted an equivalent number of terrorists in our capital.

“If America wants 2,000 English [i.e., American] troops at its embassy in Afghanistan, we also want 2,000 Fidayeen Mujahideen [i.e., suicide bombers] from the Fateh Force at the embassy of Afghanistan in America,” a Dec. 11 tweet from Yaqoob read.

MEMRI noted that “Fidayeen” is another term used by jihadi groups for their suicide bombers.

“‘Fateh Force,’ or ‘victorious force,’ is a ‘martyrdom force’ within the Badri 313 unit of the Islamic Emirate,” the group reported. “Badri 313 is named after the Ghazwa-e-Badr, the first Islamic battle led by Islam’s founder Muhammad in which 313 Muslims defeated thousands of non-Muslim tribesmen.”

It’s not like we couldn’t have seen this coming, either. Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, the deceased co-founder and spiritual leader of the Taliban. When the acting defense minister of Taliban 2.0 is from the family line of the extremist originator of Taliban 1.0, you can bet it’s not exactly an upgrade.

The threat isn’t an idle one, either. Last week, MEMRI reported that Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a Pashtu-language radio station the Taliban is readying units of suicide attackers.

Taliban Spokesman and Deputy Minister Zabihullah Mujahid: Our Army’s Special Forces Will Include Martyrdom-Seeking Battalions #Afghanistan #Taliban pic.twitter.com/BXkDrRhLUd
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 6, 2022

“Our mujahideen in the Ishtishhadi Kandaks [martyrdom-seeking battalions] will be part of the army and [they] will be Special Forces and organized under the defense ministry,” Mujahid said.
“The Special Forces will be established in a specific number and used for special operations.”

One assumes that no matter where the talks between the U.S. and Taliban envoys in Doha go, there won’t be an agreement by which we’re allowed 2,000 troops to open our embassy in Kabul if 2,000 members of the Ishtishhadi Kandaks are stationed in the District of Columbia. However, Yaqoob’s tweet came during the latest round of talks in Doha — and, if the threat was made as reported, it wasn’t anything that fazed the Biden administration.

In October, the Biden administration agreed to send humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after talks in Qatar but refused to recognize the government there. Furthermore, The Associated Press reported the U.S. delegation “made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power Aug. 15 after the U.S.-allied government collapsed.”

The Taliban said those talks “went well.” State Department spokesman Ned Price, meanwhile, said they were “candid and professional” and gave the same line the Biden administration has been giving since the beginning: The Taliban’s actions, not its words, would determine how things went going forward.

During a further round of talks in November, Voice of America reported, the Taliban pressed the United States to end sanctions and unfreeze assets as remedies to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi tweeted that their side “urged immediate unconditional unfreezing of Afghan reserves, ending of sanctions & blacklists, & disconnecting humanitarian issues from political considerations … Overall the sessions were positive and both sides agreed to continue such meetings moving forward.”

Price, meanwhile, said our side “remains committed to ensuring that U.S. sanctions do not limit the ability of Afghan civilians to receive humanitarian support from the U.S. government and international community while denying assets to sanctioned entities and individuals.”

However, to the extent Afghanistan is in a dire humanitarian state, the Taliban are the authors of that mess and bear the brunt of the responsibility for the devastation. Even if they won’t accept it publicly, they need to negotiate that way if they expect aid from Western powers. Instead, we see credible reports Taliban 2.0 is the same as Taliban 1.0, threatening the United States with a wave of suicide attackers and promising to spend some of the country’s meager resources on establishing a suicide-attacker unit within its army.

It’s difficult to imagine any other president — in particular, former President Donald Trump — letting this go unanswered. Just like during the fall of Kabul, however, the Biden administration seems unconcerned with the ugly optics or grim realities their policies have created in Afghanistan.

C. Douglas Golden, Contributor,

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.@CillianZeal Facebook

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Over 400 million Christians live in ‘lands of persecution’: human rights activist

Reported By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter | Thursday, January 06, 2022

More than 400 million Christians live in countries that persecute churches — and that persecution is only worsening, according to the leader of a Roman Catholic human rights organization based in Italy.

Alessandro Monteduro, director of ACS-Italia, the Italian chapter of Aid to the Church in Need, told Vatican News in an interview published last week that there were around 416 million Christians who live “in lands of persecution.”

“I want to clarify that ‘living in lands of persecution’ does not mean ‘persecuted,’ but living in a land of persecution, however, exposes you daily to risks that may arise due to the behavior of the persecutors,” explained Monteduro, as rendered by Google translate.

“Unfortunately, all the reports of the charity agencies, but also those reports that involve the states most willing to do so, such as the United States and Great Britain, tell of a tightening of their conditions.”

Monteduro also told Vatican News that in “certain areas of the planet,” such as the continent of Africa, “the suffering of Christian communities is worsening” due to religious intolerance.

“Across Africa, from sub-Saharan Africa to East Africa, there are at least a couple of dozen terrorist organizations that have the ambition, from their point of view, to install caliphates in their territories,” he continued.

He also spoke of violent persecution in India due to local fears that Christian groups are trying to convert Hindus to Christianity, adding that there was “too much indifference to these tragedies.”

Monteduro’s concerns over the rising intolerance of Christianity in Africa were echoed by the ecumenical Christian group Release International and its Persecution Trends 2022 report.

Release International cited multiple African countries, as well as the nations of India and North Korea, as regions that were “of growing concern” for local Christian communities.

In 2021 in Burkina Faso, for example, local Islamic terrorists engaged in a host of attacks on churches, including bombings, school burnings, assaulting places of worship and murders.

Release International also expressed concern about Afghanistan, which was recently taken over by the Taliban shortly after the U.S. pulled its troops out but left its military equipment.

“In 2022, there is a very real threat of higher levels of violent persecution in Afghanistan,” stated Release International CEO Paul Robinson, as part of the report.

“Our partners tell us that Christians who are unable to follow the outward forms of Islam, such as praying at the mosque and saying the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith, will stand out more clearly.”

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‘Bodies burned beyond recognition’: Al-Shabaab militants torture, behead Christians in Kenya; at least 6 killed

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | Tuesday, January 04, 2022

Suspected al-Shabaab militants tortured and killed at least six Christians, five of whom were reportedly beheaded, in a terror attack on a village in Kenya’s coastal Lamu region that borders Somalia, according to reports.

“It is an ugly sight of people’s bodies lying dead and houses smoking with fire. This is undeniably an awful terrorist attack,” said Pastor Stephen Sila, who was at the site of the attack in Widhu village in Lamu West on Monday morning, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported.
“I counted seven houses that were torched down, four bodies of people burned beyond recognition inside the houses,” he was quoted as saying. “A body shot dead right outside a burned house and another beheaded body next to it. Other villagers escaped into the dark and the police are still looking for them.”

The attack took place at about 4 a.m. local time while people were still sleeping, Lamu County Commissioner Samson Macharia told local media. Five of the six killed had their hands tied from behind before they were beheaded, reported Kenya’s The Standard newspaper. “All the deceased persons had their hands tied from behind. Also several houses were torched within the locality and property of unknown value burned,” it said, citing a police report.

The pastor who spoke to ICC added: “The residents have gathered and are asking why the security officers were not doing enough to protect the Christians from being attacked by the Somali militants. There is a standoff now, but more police officers are arriving to pick the bodies and also evacuate those who need emergency medical attention.”

Commissioner Macharia also called it a terror attack and said security forces were hunting for the militants in a nearby forest, where they might have disappeared after the attack.

In the country’s northeast, the al-Shabaab terrorist group has been a constant threat. Al-Shabaab has fought for years to overthrow the Somali government. The group has been responsible for attacks on both sides of the Somalia and Kenya border as it has long vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending in troops to Somalia to fight the group.

In April 2015, al-Shabaab carried out one of its deadliest attacks when it stormed the campus of Garissa University. On that occasion, militants were said to have separated Muslims from non-Muslims and proceeded to execute all non-Muslim students. At least 148 people were killed in the attack.

Kenya was ranked 49th on Christian support organization Open Doors USA’s 2021 World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. While it’s a Christian-majority country, persecution has spread in Kenya, Open Doors says. “Particularly, Christians with a Muslim background in the northeast and coastal regions live under constant threat of attack — even from their closest relatives. Our research revealed that Christians were attacked and forced to flee their villages, and Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab has infiltrated the local population to monitor the activities of Christians in those areas.”

Organized crime is also a serious problem in the country, Open Doors adds. “Corrupt officials often fail to take measures against persecutors — increasing the potential for further incidents against Christians.”

A church leader overseeing the Lamu West Africa Inland Churches told ICC that believers are still at risk in the country.

“The enemy is still roaming free within our region,” he said. “We are saddened that six Christians have lost their lives and left their families, and the entire body of Christ is hurting. We call upon the government to heighten its commitment to protecting the people of this great nation of Kenya.”

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Family of 12-y-o Christian girl held captive by Muslim man in Pakistan fear she’s being forced into Islamic marriage

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The family of a 12-year-old Christian girl from Pakistan’s Punjab province who was abducted by a Muslim man earlier this month fears she’s been forcefully converted to Islam and married to her abductor, just as many other girls have been in the past. The girl, identified as Meerab Abbas, has been missing since Nov. 2, although police later arrested two suspects, Asia News reported, adding that she lived with her mother, Farzana, a 45-year-old widow who works as a domestic worker in the Sahiwal area.

Meerab was allegedly abducted by 22-year-old man, identified as Muhammad Daud, a native of Balochistan province. The girl’s family believes the abductor took her to Balochistan to force her to convert to Islam and marry Daud.

A relative of the mother, Cecil George, was quoted as saying that Farzana’s mental health has deteriorated since her daughter’s abduction and she’s has been admitted to a hospital.

“Mareeb is only 12 years old, and she cannot marry,” Zahid Augustine, a pastor in Sahiwal, was quoted as saying. “The perpetrators commit these crimes in the name of religion. We just want justice.”

A 2014 report by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that hundreds of women and girls from Pakistan’s Hindu and Christian communities are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam every year.

“Many victims are minors taken from their families, sexually assaulted, married to an assailant, and held in captivity justified by falsified marriage and conversion documents,” the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern says. “Violence, threats, and grooming tactics are used to compel victims to make statements in court supporting their captors.”

In September, a court in Punjab province refused to give the custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl, who was allegedly kidnapped, forced to marry and convert to Islam, back to her parents, ruling that mental capacity gives more weight than age in child conversion cases.

The court rejected the petition filed by Gulzar Masih, a Roman Catholic rickshaw driver from Faisalabad city, seeking the regain custody of his daughter, Chashman, from her alleged abductor, Muhammad Usman, Morning Star News reported at the time. The judge, Tariq Nadeem, said in his ruling that Islamic jurists look at mental capacity and not a child’s age for conversion to Islam. “It is a matter of faith. … Hazrat Ali was only 10 when he accepted Islam,” he said, referring to the fourth caliph of Islam.

International watchdog group Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Pakistan No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.

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US Officials Call Talks With Taliban ‘Candid and Professional’

Reuters • October 11, 2021

FILE PHOTO: Taliban delegates stand in front of a Qatar Airways plane in an unidentified location in Afghanistan, in this handout photo uploaded to social media on October 8, 2021. Picture uploaded on on October 8, 2021. Social media handout/via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The United States said on Sunday the first face-to-face meeting between senior U.S. and Taliban officials since the hardline group retook power in Afghanistan was “candid and professional” and that the U.S. side reiterated that the Taliban would be judged on their actions, not just their words.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. delegation at the weekend talks in Doha, Qatar, focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghans, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society. He said the two sides also discussed “the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.”

“The discussions were candid and professional with the U.S. delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words,” Price said in a statement.
It did not say if any agreements were reached.

The foreign ministry in Kabul said the two-day meeting went well. It welcomed the U.S. offer of humanitarian assistance and said local authorities would facilitate delivery and cooperate with aid groups but said such assistance “should not be linked to political issues”.

“Detailed discussions were held during the meeting about all relevant issues. And efforts should be exerted to restore diplomatic relations to a better state,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that similar meetings would be held in future if required.

On Saturday, Qatar-based Al Jazeera television quoted Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister as saying that Taliban representatives asked the U.S. side to lift a ban on Afghan central bank reserves. It said the minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also said Washington would offer Afghans coronavirus vaccines and that the two sides discussed “opening a new page” between the two countries.

Biden administration officials told Reuters on Friday the U.S. delegation would press the Taliban to release kidnapped American Mark Frerichs. Another top priority would be to hold the Taliban to their commitment not to allow Afghanistan to again become a hotbed for al Qaeda or other extremists.

The Taliban took back power in Afghanistan in August, almost 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The U.S. officials said the weekend meeting was a continuation of “pragmatic engagements” with the Taliban and “not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy” to the group. U.S. officials say they are in contact with dozens of Americans and legal permanent residents who wish to leave Afghanistan and there are thousands of U.S.-allied Afghans at risk of Taliban persecution still in the country.

Washington and other Western countries are grappling with difficult choices as a severe humanitarian crisis looms large in Afghanistan. They are trying to work out how to engage with the Taliban without granting the group the legitimacy it seeks, while ensuring humanitarian aid flows into the country.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Moataz Abdelrahiem in Cairo, James Mackenzie in Islamabad; Editing by Ross Colvin, Peter Cooney and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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The Taliban is holding hostage six planes chartered by Glenn Beck charity to rescue Americans left behind by Biden admin

Reported by CARLOS GARCIA | September 06, 2021

Six planes on a mission to rescue more than a hundred Americans wanting to leave Afghanistan were grounded by the Taliban as negotiations continued with the State Department Monday.

The evacuation effort was a part of a mission chartered by Mercury One, the charity founded by conservative media personality and TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck.

Newsweek confirmed the details through an NGO working on the evacuation.

According to the report, at least 1,000 people were waiting to board the planes at an airport in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“The planes are currently empty and its passengers are still waiting in their safe houses for clearance for takeoff from the Taliban,” said one NGO official to Newsweek. “I have more than 1,000 people on the master manifest that want to fly, of which 123 are Americans and the rest are Special Immigration Visas.”

Earlier on Sunday, the State Department sent an email to members of Congress to alert them about the negotiations with the Taliban. The email reportedly said that the planes had permission to land in Doha, Qatar, but only after the Taliban allowed them to leave.

“The Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans,” said a congressional source to CBS News.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said Sunday on Fox News that the Taliban had the Americans in a hostage situation.

“In fact we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul said. “State has cleared these flights, and the Taliban will not let them leave the airport.”

A spokesperson told Newsweek they were not able to confirm whether Americans were waiting to board the planes to escape.

“We do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region,” the unidentified official said.

Glenn Beck had raised more than $22 million from donors and his radio audience to fund the mission to rescue Christians, Americans, and Afghan allies from the Taliban-controlled nation.

Here’s more about the effort to rescue Americans from Afghanistan:

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‘Hostage situation’: Taliban refusing to let Americans, Afghan translators leave Afghanistan

Reported by By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, September 06, 2021

Taliban, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stand guard along a road near the site of an Ashura procession which is held to mark the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Mohammad, along a road in Herat on August 19, 2021, amid the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan. | AREF KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the Taliban are not letting flights ready to evacuate American civilians and allies leave Afghanistan and are “holding them hostage for demands.”

The Taliban is preventing Americans and allies from leaving the country on six charter planes at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in northern Afghanistan and making demands of the U.S., McCaul told Fox News on Sunday.

“In fact, we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul said.
“The Taliban wants something in exchange. This is really … turning into a hostage situation where they are not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he added.

When “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked how many Americans have been evacuated out of Afghanistan since the withdrawal deadline on Aug. 31, McCaul said, “I understand, zero.” The flights have permission to land in Doha “if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff,” according to an email from the State Department to members of Congress, CBS News reported, quoting sources as saying that the planes are not currently loaded and the passengers are being held nearby.

In response to McCaul’s claim that Americans are essentially being held as hostages, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill on Sunday that since the U.S. no longer has an embassy or staff in Afghanistan, it cannot confirm the veracity of those reports.

“Given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues,” the spokesperson said.
“We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson added, noting that the Biden administration will “hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”

Ascend, a group committed to developing young women as leaders through athletics, was quoted by CBS News as saying that they’ve had two flights waiting for six days to take between 600 and 1,200 people — including 19 American citizens and two permanent residents.

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul last month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which the terrorist group retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others desperately tried to leave the country.

In its email, the State Department advised members of Congress to warn people seeking to evacuate out of Mazar-i-Sharif that the U.S.: “does not have personnel on the ground in Mazar, we do not have air assets in the country, and we do not control the airspace. … It is a Taliban decision to ground flights in Mazar-i-Sharif. We are, however, providing guidance and assistance to the extent possible — and with an emphasis on safety — to private entities working out of Mazar.”

Politico reporter Daniel Lippman posted a photo from Maxar Technologies showing the grounded planes on Twitter. “Newly released satellite images show six commercial airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan that are not being allowed to depart by the Taliban.”

In his interview with Fox News, McCaul said Biden has “blood on his hands.”

“I’ve said all along this president has blood on his hands, and this week, this last week, we had 13 servicemen and women come home, flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Base. This problem is going to get worse, not better, and we have left them behind. That’s the basic creed of the military.”

On Aug. 26, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation.

McCaul also said those who have helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan are being persecuted.

“You have stories of interpreters being taken home to their families and watching their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter,” he said. “This is not a new and improved Taliban. This is the same old Taliban. They are reverting back to with the same brutal practices.”

In an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday, Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said the Taliban was charging between $500 to $4,000 as a “tax” to get past each checkpoint to reach the Kabul airport, which is one reason why the French and British special forces carried out rescue missions to extricate their citizens who were stranded or had been turned away at checkpoints.

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Former Israeli Agent and Researcher: “Kabul is Phase One on the Way to Conquering the World”

Reported By Richard Abelson | Published September 2, 2021

Mordechai Kedar was a member of IDF intelligence for 25 years. The Researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, internationally known scholar, columnist and lecturer, spoke to Italian journalist Giulio Meotti about the fall of Kabul.

“Kabul is pumping new blood into the arteries of the jihad and the results are seen all over the world. We must understand that the Islamic mentality is a ‘zero sum game’. When Islam wins, Christianity loses and the ‘crusaders’ lose. They always see a connection between what happened in the 10th century and what happens in the 21st century”, said Kedar.

“Islam progresses, state by state, continent by continent. Today they speak of conquering Rome after Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Church, while Rome is the capital of the Western Church. Having conquered the Eastern Church in 1453, they are now marching on Rome. We hear this clearly from radical Islam. Kabul is only one phase of a global plan. They think it is proof that their path is the right one. They think they have defeated Western culture, embodied by America, which wanted to spread Westernism in the Islamic world. The battle is always cultural, before one for the land or for people”.

Now in Kabul the battle is between the Taliban and the Islamic State, Kedar says. “I think the Taliban will win because they have a stronger tribal base. There is no Afghanistan, it is just a name that the British gave it. There is also no Afghan language. The Taliban may be more cautious in supporting al Qaeda against America. September 11 was the Pearl Harbor of the Islamic world. But the Islamic State survived the defeat in Syria and Iraq, it is now an idea, present in Sinai, Nigeria, Libya, Yemen, the Philippines, Khorasan … They will try to take advantage of it”.

Hegira: Immigration Jihad

“It is the very nature of Jihad, which is not only a military war, but also a ‘strenuous effort’. And this includes both the military aspect, and also economic jihad: Like Qatar providing money to Islamists in the Middle East such as Hamas. Then there is a media jihad, like Al Jazeera. There is a political jihad, in which Islamists enter European parliaments, to fight those countries from within. And there is the ‘Hegira’ jihad, the Jihad of immigration, which is another manifestation. And we see it very well in Italy. The largest mosque in Europe is in Rome. And what they do in the streets of France, burning churches and physically attacking priests, praying en masse in the open. All they do is strengthen Islam at the expense of other cultures. There is a verse from the Koran, ‘Allah is with those who have patience”.

Europe, Kedar explains , is the final spoils. “The conquest of Europe by mostly illegal immigration and with a higher birth rate than the European peoples. And then the imposition of halal food on schools in the West, the attempts to silence church bells and the imposition of sharia law on public spaces in immigrant neighborhoods in Western Europe. It’s time to wake up, understand and take the necessary steps, before it’s too late”.

It’s time to wake up, before it’s too late

August 15, Kedar concludes, will be remembered in the Islamic world for decades. “Muslims have a great historical memory. It was no coincidence that September 11 was chosen as the date to attack New York, because on September 11, 1683, the Turkish armies were defeated at the gates of Vienna. And since then the Western world has grown stronger and stronger against Islam. September 11 was chosen for a great historical revenge.”

In June 1983, interviewed by Austrian TV, Pope John Paul II said, recalling the enterprise of the Polish king Jan Sòbieski who joined the Duke Charles of Lorraine: “You will commemorate the hour of destiny when, exactly 300 years ago, the city of Vienna was saved from the conquest that was looming, thanks to the joint efforts of Christianity … This very important event will remind today’s Christians of their common responsibility towards Europe ”.

Who today – which Pope, intellectual or politician – would deliver such a speech without incurring, not only an Islamic fatwa, but also Western ex-communication for islamophobia?

Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Israel National News, where this article first appeared.

Richard Abelson is Gateway Pundit international correspondent. Follow him on Parler or GETTR.

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Afghan Christians left behind will be ‘targeted with deadly violence’: Human rights group warns

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, August 30, 2021

Afghanistan, Christians, — Afghan refugee Faridah visits a course preparing her to convert into christian confession by baptism in Berlin, on October 23, 2016. | CLEMENS BILAN/AFP via Getty Images

Human rights group ADF International has urged the international community to address the “dire plight” of religious minority communities in Afghanistan, including 10,000 Christians who are now “at extreme risk of being targeted with deadly violence.” They, too, need to be evacuated, the group says.

Among the communities at risk are “an estimated ten thousand Christians, many of whom are ‘guilty’ of converting from Islam — a crime punishable by death under Sharia law,” Giorgio Mazzoli, a legal officer representing ADF International at the United Nations, said in a statement. The Vienna-based group said it made an oral statement at the 31st Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the serious human rights concerns and situation in Afghanistan last week.

“As disturbing accounts of killings, harassment and intimidation against them are rapidly emerging, we urge States and the international community to give utmost attention to these persecuted minorities and guarantee the conditions for their prompt and safe exit from the country, irrespective of whether they have valid travel documents.”

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul earlier this month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which they retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others have desperately tried to leave the country.

Last Thursday, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation. In response, the U.S. military killed two high profile terrorists from ISIS-K — one “planner” and one “facilitator,” in a drone strike in Afghanistan.

As of Saturday, 117,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan, the majority of whom are Afghans, Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor said, adding that the number includes 5,400 U.S. citizens, over 300 of whom have been evacuated since the Kabul attack.

As the number of evacuees increases, the U.S. will increase its efforts to provide temporary shelter for Afghans until they’re resettled at various locations across the U.S.

ADF International said it applauds efforts to evacuate and resettle vulnerable persons and it urges all parties to secure their safe passage out of the country. But there’s a need to rescue, evacuate and resettle even those who are now at a higher risk of severe persecution in Afghanistan, it said.

“We join the call on governments to temporarily halt deportations to Afghanistan and reconsider the applications of rejected Afghan asylum seekers fearing persecution because of their faith or beliefs,” Mazzoli said.

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VIDEO: Afghan TV anchor tells residents ‘don’t be afraid’ as Taliban fighters stand behind him with guns

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 30, 2021

With Taliban fighters standing behind him brandishing guns, an Afghan news anchor nervously urged viewers over the weekend not to be “afraid” amid the fall of the Afghan government and the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The bizarre scene demonstrates the danger that Afghan journalists are likely to face under Taliban rule and foreshadows the end of journalistic freedom in the country.

Armed Taliban militants stormed into the building of Afghan television network Peace Studio during a live recording on Sunday, proceeding to hold the anchor hostage while he granted favorable coverage to the new regime, Republic World reported.

“Don’t be afraid,” the anchor reportedly said during the broadcast.
“With the Taliban militants breathing down his neck, the TV anchor addressed the news bulletin, talking about the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani-led government and the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the news outlet reported. “Visibly afraid and uncomfortable, the presenter then went on to tell the nation to not be scared of the Taliban.”

Video of the incident has since gone viral, having been viewed more than one million times on social media.

Afghanistan TV – surreal

This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host. The presenter talks about the collapse of the Ghani govt & says the Islamic Emirate says the Afghan people should not to be afraid #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/oEverVgLOE
— Yalda Hakim (@SkyYaldaHakim) August 29, 2021

“Afghanistan TV – surreal,” tweeted BBC World News anchor Yalda Hakim along with a video of the incident.
“This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host,” she added. “The presenter talks about the collapse of the Ghani govt & says the Islamic Emirate says the Afghan people should not be afraid.”

A subsequent photo posted on Twitter by Afghan journalist Zaki Daryabi shows that at least eight Taliban fighters were involved in the news station storming.

“This is what [we] can’t accept,” she tweeted along with the image. “If so, we will stop our work.”

Amid its takeover of Afghanistan in recent weeks, Taliban leaders promised a “lenient” government and “amnesty” for individuals who worked with Western governments and organizations over the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation. But their promises have been empty ones. In reality, Taliban fighters have been “hunting down” journalists and persecuting women and religious minorities, including Christians. The bloodthirsty militants reportedly murdered the relative of an Afghan journalist partnered with German news outlet Deutsche Welle last week. They also killed a 33-year-old Afghan who had translated for U.S. Special Forces and who worked with newspaper Die Zeit.

Republic World added that “the Taliban barred two women journalists … who worked with the public broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan” and “also attacked two other members of the press for covering the anti-Taliban protests taking place in the eastern Nangarhar province.”

Their actions have reportedly caused many journalists and activists to flee the nation in fear.

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WTH? More Than Two Dozen California School Students, Parents Stuck in Afghanistan – Unable to Get to Kabul Airport

Reported By Cristina Laila | Published August 25, 2021

More than two dozen students from Cajon Valley School District in San Diego, California are currently trapped in Afghanistan and unable to get to Kabul airport.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the families traveled to Afghanistan for a summer trip on special visas for US military service.

Cajon Valley School Board President Tamara Otero said the families had tickets to fly out of Afghanistan, “but unfortunately they were not able to get to the airport.” – The Times reported.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

At least 24 students from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad. They are among thousands of individuals waiting to leave the country amid political unrest caused by the U.S. military pullout after 20 years of occupation. The U.S. government is accelerating efforts to rescue Americans as the Taliban takes over the country.

Cajon Valley Supt. David Miyashiro told school district board members via text message Tuesday that he and other Cajon Valley staff met virtually with U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) and his staff about the situation. Miyashiro said that the families are on special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them allies. He said that the district was able to provide information on the families and that government officials are working to locate the children and their families. He said he was encouraged by the assistance.

Meanwhile Joe Biden is smirking and cracking jokes when asked if he will help Americans trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan.

Cristina Laila

Cristina began writing for The Gateway Pundit in 2016 and she is currently the Associate Editor.

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Taliban declares it will no longer allow Afghans to leave the country, will not extend deadline for Americans to get out

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 24, 2021

The Taliban announced Tuesday that it will no longer allow Afghan nationals to go to the Kabul airport in order to flee the country.

“We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters during a news conference Tuesday morning, according to BBC News. It’s a new development that comes just one week before the U.S. and other NATO forces are slated to fully depart Afghanistan. Mujahid reiterated that Americans can continue evacuations until the Aug. 31 deadline, but made clear that Afghan nationals are not to be a part of that process.

“They [the Americans] have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people that belong to them but we are not going to allow Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline,” he stated.

Mujahid said that evacuating foreign nationals beyond the Aug. 31 deadline would be a “violation” of the agreement the U.S. established with the militant regime.

“We are not in favour of allowing Afghans to leave”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid adds it would be a “violation” of the agreement to allow evacuations of foreign nationals beyond 31 August

Latest: https://t.co/PgvjrfQUeS pic.twitter.com/bs8TPYooZz
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 24, 2021

“The way to the airport has been closed now,” the spokesman continued. “Afghans are not allowed to go there now. Foreigners are allowed to go, but we have stopped Afghan nationals to go because the crowd is more, there is danger that people will lose their lives, there might be a stampede.”

The news comes as President Joe Biden considers pushing back the end date for withdrawals as an unknown number of Americans and Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government remain trapped inside the country. Those individuals are believed to be in imminent danger. Several reports have surfaced in recent days indicating that Taliban fighters are executing door-to-door searches and carrying out execution campaigns on women, Christians, and those who worked with the West during the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation.

Yet with the deadline quickly approaching, the Taliban has warned that the U.S. could face “consequences” should they fail to depart the country by the end of the month.

“It’s a red line,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said this week. “President Biden announced that on Aug. 31 they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending occupation.”

Nevertheless, Biden is set to raise the topic of extending the evacuation date with foreign leaders Tuesday at the G-7 summit.

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It’s Worse Than We Thought: Complete List of Armaments US Is Leaving to Taliban and Islamist Groups — Enough to Fortify Them for Years – Secret Warehouse of US Equipment Captured?

Reported By Jim Hoft | Published August 23, 2021

Taliban fighters in US military uniformsI

t’s worse than we thought. Joe Biden has supplied the Taliban terrorist organization and their Islamist accomplices with several years worth of US armaments.

As The Gateway Pundit reported on Sunday — Joe Biden left 300 times more guns than those passed to the Mexican cartels in Obama’s Fast and Furious program. This more complete list was created with public information and help from other intelligence sources. The list does not include all the extra kinds of nonlethal equipment, everything from MRE’s, Medical Equipment, and even energy drinks.

The big story might be the pallets of cash the Taliban have been posting videos of pallets of weapons and stacks of $100 bills they have seized.

Here is a more complete list of US-supplied and left behind equipment list now controlled by Taliban:

-2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAP’s
-75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc
-45 UH-60 Blachhawk Helicopters
-50 MD530G Scout Attack Choppers
-ScanEagle Military Drones
-30 Military Version Cessnas
-4 C-130’s
-29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tocano Ground Attack Aircraft
208+ Aircraft Total
-At least 600,000+ Small arms M16, M249 SAWs, M24 Sniper Systems, 50 Calibers, 1,394 M203 Grenade Launchers, M134 Mini Gun, 20mm Gatling Guns and Ammunition
-61,000 M203 Rounds
-20,040 Grenades
-Howitzers
-Mortars +1,000’s of Rounds
-162,000 pieces of Encrypted Military Communications Gear
-16,000+ Night Vision Goggles
-Newest Technology Night Vision Scopes
-Thermal Scopes and Thermal Mono Googles
-10,000 2.75 inch Air to Ground Rockets
-Reconnaissance Equipment (ISR)
-Laser Aiming Units
-Explosives Ordnance C-4, Semtex, Detonators, Shaped Charges, Thermite, Incendiaries, AP/API/APIT
-2,520 Bombs
-Administration Encrypted Cell Phones and Laptops all operational
–Pallets with Millions of Dollars in US Currency
-Millions of Rounds of Ammunition including but not limited to 20,150,600 rounds of 7.62mm, 9,000,000 rounds of 50.caliber
-Large Stockpile of Plate Carriers and Body Armor
-US Military HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment Biometrics
-Lots of Heavy Equipment Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators

Much of the information included in the above list is public record.

One example is below:

There are also rumblings of a warehouse of high-level US equipment left behind for the Taliban.
From our source:

Some of my sources are from my previous work background as private agency contractor etc. so can’t direct quote. But I can assure you those numbers are correct and if anything are low.

I have one friend on the ground in Kabul right now. He is with UK SRR they are trying to track and account for quantities of US Military and Russian Military Equipment now in the hands of Taliban. I spoke with him last night and tonight.

What’s really disturbing is a rumor circulating about some secured warehouses that only highest levels of security clearance US military staff had access to. No one seems to know what was in them. Taliban is in full control of those warehouses now. And those warehouses were full of equipment whatever it was.

He’s trying to confirm but believes that the Taliban also secured US military drone jamming equipment which is disastrous if true.

CCP has people on the ground right now negotiating on any US technology they see of value. Dealing directly with Taliban based on what he told me tonight.

Not sure if that is any help. I’ll keep you posted if anything else pops up of value.

Hat Tip Lance at @LanceMigliaccio on Gab and GETTR

Jim Hoft

Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

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Taliban fighters are ‘hunting down’ journalists, carrying out revenge executions against Afghans who worked with the West

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 20, 2021

Despite promising “amnesty” to Afghan residents who worked with Western governments and organizations during the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation, Taliban forces in Afghanistan are now reportedly “hunting down” journalists and other supposed dissidents in order to execute them.

According to German news outlet Deutsche Welle, bloodthirsty militants on Thursday shot and killed a family member of an Afghan journalist who works with the Western media organization.

DW director general Peter Limbourg said the heinous attack was carried out during a house-to-house revenge search, during which another one of the unnamed journalist’s family members was seriously injured. The journalist is reportedly safe, having escaped to Germany.

In a statement, Limbourg called on the German government to take action, exclaiming, “We are running out of time!”

“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” Limbourg said. “It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces.”

The New York Times on Friday detailed several other reports of the Taliban carrying out violence against Afghan journalists over the last several days:

Amdullah Hamdard, 33, who learned English as a teenager and translated for U.S. Special Forces — they gave him the nickname “Huggy Bear” — had spent the last four years working with Die Zeit newspaper. He was murdered by Taliban fighters on the street near his home in Jalalabad, the paper reported …
… On Thursday, Taliban fighters beat two Afghan journalists while violently dispersing a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group, noted other attacks against journalists in recent days, including the fatal shooting on Aug. 9 of a radio station manager in Kabul, and the kidnapping of a reporter in Helmand Province. Afghan press freedom groups blamed the Taliban for both incidents.

An American journalist, Wesley Morgan, tweeted this week, “Taliban searching my former interpreter’s house (he’s hiding out elsewhere and can see it via the app on his phone from his home security cameras).”

The violence is in direct contradiction to the public messaging espoused by Taliban leadership since taking control of the country in recent days.

“I must remind you that we forgive everyone because it is in the interest of peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced during a news conference on Tuesday. “All the groups that were confronting us are all forgiven.”

However, it is revenge — not forgiveness — that has been observed, and not only against journalists. Taliban fighters have descended on communities to hunt down women and Christians, as well.

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The worldview of the Taliban

Reported By John Stonestreet, Timothy Padget

File photo of Taliban fighters posing with weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan in this undated photo. | Reuters

After seeing the images out of Kabul in recent days, Maajid Nawaz, a former radical Muslim, said, “Barefoot Taliban conquered a palace. They believed in something and fought for nothing. I have lived with men like this in prison. It is difficult to describe just how seriously they take their cause. There is a lesson here for us in the West, if we are humble enough to see it.”

We hear the terror from Afghan women who now wonder what the lives of their daughters will be like, worried that 20 years of progress in women’s rights have disappeared overnight. We see the desperation of men so afraid of what might come next that they’re literally clinging to the wheels of American aircraft as they depart. Yet, we struggle to have a category for what they actually fear. Many Westerners don’t have the categories to understand the realities of Islamic fundamentalism.

Much of the world has long struggled to understand the worldview that is driving the Taliban conquerors today, or the ISIS fanatics from a few years ago, or the al Qaeda terrorists that struck on 9/11. These groups are driven by their own internal logic, their own worldview.

I’m not going to try to explain the entirety of radical Islam. However, there are a few key points about this worldview that can give us clarity in understanding what’s happening in Afghanistan and what we might expect in the days ahead.

First, for radical Islam, this isn’t about this particular American president or the last American president or any particular foreign policy decision. This is seen as part of a war that’s been going on for over 1,000 years.

In the wake of 9/11, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the second in command of al Qaeda, and in many ways the strategic planner for Osama bin Laden, spoke about his group’s goals for this war with the West. In repeated statements to the press, he referred to waging war until all Muslim lands were restored, connecting the conflict in Afghanistan and the battle for Palestine to a worldwide conflict that spans from Iraq to Spain. Yes, Spain.

To American ears, it doesn’t make any sense. Iraq, Israel, we can follow. Palestine, sure. Spain? You see, what he knew and what many Westerners have forgotten is that the mostly Catholic country of Spain was once the heartland of the Muslim world. Centuries before the Turks or Indonesians followed Islam, Spain was the base of operations for a potential invasion of Europe. It wasn’t until 1492 that Spain was retaken for the Cross.

For radical Islam, once lands have come under the sway of Islam, it is vital that good Muslims do whatever it takes to return those regions to the House of Islam; places where Islamic law and teaching is practiced. Whether we’re talking about Catholics in Spain or Israelis in Palestine, these people are merely occupying what’s rightfully a Muslim land.

This connects to another element of this worldview that we often miss. For Islamists, the West is not the primary enemy. We’re merely in the way of where history’s headed. What they seek is the overthrow of false Muslim rulers who have been corrupted by the wiles of Western influence. These are, as Al-Zawahiri put it, the “near enemy,” and they must be cast down. Only then can true Muslims take control and implement the fullness of Sharia.

In other words, what we’ve seen on the ground in Afghanistan and what we’ve seen in the Middle East for a long time is the working out of a worldview. None of the happenings of the last 20 years, or the last 20 days, can be understood without understanding the worldview.

Now, every worldview answers questions. Among these questions are those that ask, what is wrong with the world, and what must be done to make it right? For Christians, the problem is sin and all of its myriad manifestations. The solution is conversion: the conversions of individuals, as well as the restoration of culture through the grace and work of Christ, and through His Church, the restoration of the goodness of His creation.

For secularists and much of contemporary Western culture, the problem is ignorance. Through education and science, and by becoming aware of the perspectives of others, we can hope to improve the structural failings that have plagued our world.

But the problem is seen differently in radical Islam. The problem is seen as the internal corruption of the Islamic states and the unwillingness of the rest of the world to bow to what is ultimately true.

Here’s how Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis described it:

“For Usama bin Laden and those who share in his views, and there are many of them, the object of the struggle is the elimination of the intrusive Western power and corrupting Western influence from all the lands of Islam, and the restoration of Islamic authority in these lands. When this has been accomplished, the stage will be set for the final struggle to bring God’s message to all mankind in all the world.”

Now, I hope one of the things that you notice is that for a true Muslim, Islam is not a point of personal and private belief. Islam describes the actual condition of the world. It describes what’s happening and where history is going. And for radicals, whatever needs to be done to accomplish that mission is justified. Whatever atrocities are committed along the way will find their purpose in this overriding goal.

For this goal, they are willing to sacrifice themselves by the thousands. Radical Islamic leaders are willing to be incredibly patient to see this goal accomplished, because they are fully assured that one day their work will indeed bear fruit. The brutality, the absolutism, and the unyielding determination that we see in radical Islam are driven by a worldview. Without a true and accurate understanding of the world, they’ll continue to pursue their ends by any means necessary.

We are right to oppose these ideals because lives are at stake. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas, like the bad ideas of radical Islam, have victims. How we push back on these forces will take many different forms, sometimes even force, but here’s what’s clear. We will never make headway if we fail to understand the worldview that animates the whole thing in the first place.

Originally published at BreakPoint.

John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics.

Timothy D. Padgett (PhD) is the Managing Editor of BreakPoint.org with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His focus is on cultural engagement, living out the Christian worldview, and the way Christians argue for diverse viewpoints while sharing a common biblical foundation, particularly regarding the relationship between church and state, Christ and culture, and war and peace.

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Taliban Official Announces Group Will Rule Afghanistan with Sharia Law and ‘No Democratic System’

Reported By Jack Davis |August 19, 2021

Sharia Law is triumphant in Afghanistan and democracy is dead.

Although leaders of the Taliban are making up some pieces of how they will govern the conquered country as they go along, those are the foundational principles, according to Reuters.

“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” senior Taliban leader Waheedullah Hashimi told the outlet.
“We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is Sharia Law and that is it.”

Sharia Law is a strict code of behavior supported by some Muslims. Taliban officials have tried to present a softer side to the world in the aftermath of their victory.

“We assure the international community that there will be no discrimination against women, but, of course, within the frameworks we have,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.

Since taking power, the Taliban has tried to put a gloss on its image to the extent where one CNN reporter characterized a group of Taliban fighters as seemingly “friendly.”

“The entire world now recognizes that the Taliban are the real rulers of the country,” said Mawlawi Abdulhaq Hemad, a member of the organization’s media team, according to The New York Times. “I am still astonished that people are afraid of Taliban.”

A spokesman for the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, Rupert Colville, expressed skepticism about what the words actually mean.

“Such promises will need to be honored, and for the time being — again understandably, given past history — these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism,” he told The Associated Press. “There have been many hard-won advances in human rights over the past two decades. The rights of all Afghans must be defended.”

For example, Fox News reported Thursday that the Taliban “killed a woman in Takhar province after she went out in public without a burqa.”

According to Aliya Kazimy, 27, of Mazar-i-Sharif, women who went shopping alone were told they had to go home and return with men as chaperones.

“I am from the generation that had a lot of opportunities after the fall of the Taliban 20 years ago,” she told the Times.
“I was able to achieve my goals of studying, and for a year I’ve been a university professor, and now my future is dark and uncertain. All these years of working hard and dreaming were for nothing. And the little girls who are just starting out, what future awaits them?” she said.

Hashimi indicated to Reuters that Afghanistan would likely be run by a ruling council, while the group’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would keep overall control. When the Taliban previously ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, it had a council making day-to-day decisions, according to the Post.

Jack Davis, Contributor

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Shocking videos show just how many US military weapons are now in the hands of Taliban terrorists

Reported by CHRIS ENLOE | August 18, 2021

Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to President Joe Biden, admitted Tuesday that “a fair amount” of United States military weapons fell into the hands of Taliban terrorists when they swiftly took control of Afghanistan.

But what, quantitatively speaking, is a “fair amount”? New videos suggest that Sullivan may have been understating just how many American arms the Taliban seized.

With the American military presence now limited to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, billions of dollars’ worth of military arms were left behind as American forces were ordered to leave their installations and Afghan security forces, which were armed in part by American tax dollars, collapsed.

Videos circulating on social media show Taliban forces seizing thousands of firearms and ammunition.

One video showed thousands of various rifles, a seemingly endless number; body armor; and other assorted military equipment — all now in the hands of Taliban terrorists.

Another video showed Taliban terrorists raiding a weapons depot, putting hundreds of rifles into the back of a truck.

In the city of Mazar-e Sharif, the Taliban captured and unboxed numerous U.S. weapons, armored vehicles, body armor, and assorted equipment. pic.twitter.com/MQ8e3RfagL
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 18, 2021

How did this happen?

The Washington Post detailed the Afghan government corruption that helped facilitate the Taliban’s swift victory and also explains how so many American arms fell into the hands of terrorists.

From the Post:

The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan’s military that allowed Taliban fighters to walk into the Afghan capital Sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government’s lowest-ranking officials.
The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official.
Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces, according to interviews with more than a dozen Afghan officers, police, special operations troops and other soldiers.

By all accounts, the amount of American military equipment seized by the Taliban cost billions of taxpayer dollars. Still, neither the Biden administration nor the military have given any indication that U.S. firepower will be recovered.

When asked by a reporter on Monday what steps the U.S. military was taking to recovery U.S. military assets, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said, “I don’t have the answer to that question.”

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Shot, stabbed Afghan woman whose eyes were knifed out by Taliban says they ‘torture us,’ feed remains to dogs

Reported by SARAH TAYLOR | August 19, 2021

An Afghani woman by the name of Khatera says that the Taliban will not respect or honor women’s rights despite the terrorist group’s assertions otherwise.

In a Monday interview with India’s News18, Khatera, 33, recalled the horrific attack that took place in 2020 when her father — a former Taliban fighter — tipped off the Islamist militant group that his daughter was employed.

Women, under Sharia law, are not permitted to work.

In October, Khatera said that her father, who remains unnamed at the time of this reporting, purportedly conspired with the Taliban to stage an attack on her as she returned home from work one day.

During the attack, Khatera — who worked for the police at the time — was shot at least eight times, stabbed, and had her eyes knifed out of their sockets before Taliban fighters left her for dead.

She was pregnant during the horrific attack.

“It’s tough for the world to imagine what we built in the past 20 years,” she told the outlet. “We built dreams. Now they are gone. It’s all over for us. Women who work with the government or police were being hunted and threatened even before the Taliban had taken over the country. Now, the concern has gone beyond letting women work. At this point, I am scared if they would leave these women alive. They don’t just kill women — they make animals feed on their bodies. They are a blot on Islam.”

Khatera said that the Taliban does not view women as “living, breathing human beings,” but “merely some meat and flesh to be battered.”

“[The Taliban] first torture us and then discard our bodies to show as a specimen of punishment,” she said. “Sometimes our bodies are fed to dogs. I was lucky I survived it. One has to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban to even imagine what hell has befallen on women, children, and minorities here.”

After the attack, Khatera fled with her husband and child to Delhi, where she continues to be treated for injuries sustained in the attack.

“The Taliban don’t allow women to visit male doctors, and at the same time, don’t let women study and work,” she told the outlet. “So then what is left for a woman? Left to die? Even if you think we are just reproductive machines, there is not common sense but pure hate. How does a woman deliver her child according to the dictum of these men with guns without medical care?”

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Taliban Frees Thousands of Terrorist Prisoners from Facility US Forces Recently Handed Over to Afghanistan

Reported By Jack Davis August 16, 2021

Terrorists who had been rounded up across Afghanistan are now on the loose.

One prize in the total collapse of the former government and military of Afghanistan was that the Taliban were able to overrun Bagram Air Base on Sunday, where, according to the BBC, occupying forces began to set free inmates there at Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

In early July, when the U.S. handed control of the base to Afghan forces, CNN reported that between 5,000 and 7,000 prisoners were housed there, including “senior al Qaeda and Taliban figures.”

100s of Pakistani Taliban – TTP – fighters including key commanders were freed in various Prison breaks in Afghanistan during recent advances of Taliban especially from Bagram Prison & Pul-e-Charkhi Prison. Fate of Daesh IS-K prisoners probably be decided by Taliban's courts. pic.twitter.com/0OHoet2eVw
— Saleem Mehsud (@SaleemMehsud) August 15, 2021

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley noted Sunday in a call with senators that instead of the original estimate] that terrorist groups could use Afghanistan as a base to rebuild within the next two years, the new timeline could be sooner.

TO READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT, PLEASE GO TO https://www.westernjournal.com/taliban-frees-thousands-terrorist-prisoners-facility-us-forces-recently-handed-afghanistan/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly&ats_es=1703275f97009d3a9c3cbb1a34025de5

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