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US Reaffirms ‘Ironclad’ Support as Israel Braces for Iran Attack


By Jewish News Syndicate Staff    |   Friday, 12 April 2024 10:55 AM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/u-s-israel-support/2024/04/12/id/1160745/

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated on Thursday Washington’s commitment to upholding Israel’s security, as the IDF continued preparations for an expected Iranian attack on the home front. Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “to reiterate ironclad U.S. support for Israel’s defense in the face of growing threats from Iran and its regional proxies,” according to a Pentagon readout of their call.

“Echoing President [Joe] Biden’s unequivocal message to Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, Secretary Austin assured Minister Gallant that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, which Tehran has publicly threatened,” added the statement.

On Wednesday, Biden said his administration was committed to backing Israel amid reports of an imminent Iranian attack.

“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” said Biden.

“Let me say it again, ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,” he added.

Washington and its allies believe a major attack on Israel by Iran has become a matter of when, not if, following the killing of an Iranian general in Syria on April 1, which Tehran blamed on the Jewish state.

Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the attack in Damascus which killed Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahedi, but four officials told The New York Times last week that Jerusalem ordered the strike.

On Thursday, Austin and Gallant “discussed readiness for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel, which could lead to regional escalation… [and] require an appropriate Israeli response,” according to an Israeli readout.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the Middle East, arrived in Israel on Thursday to coordinate with the Israel Defense Forces regarding a possible attack.

Jerusalem is preparing for a strike in the next 24 to 48 hours, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing U.S. intelligence.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem announced on Thursday that “out of an abundance of caution,” government employees and their family members can only travel for personal reasons in the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Beersheva areas “until further notice.”

On Thursday evening, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Israel was “highly prepared for various scenarios, and we are constantly assessing the situation. We are ready on offense and defense using various capabilities, and also with our strategic partners,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces has been placed on high alert, resulting in combat soldiers’ weekend leaves being canceled, and the military calling up additional reserve soldiers to the IDF Aerial Defense Array.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Jewish state would respond in kind to any attack.

Speaking during a visit to the Tel Nof Air Base, he said, “We are in challenging times. We are in the midst of the war in Gaza, which is continuing at full force, even as we are continuing our relentless efforts to return our hostages.”

However, he continued, “We are also prepared for scenarios involving challenges in other sectors. We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”

Read more: US Reaffirms ‘Ironclad’ Support as Israel Braces for Iran Attack | Newsmax.com

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Shifa Hospital Was Hamas Command Center, US Confirms


By Jewish News Syndicate Staff    |   Wednesday, 03 January 2024 08:25 AM EST

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/u-s-hamas-shifa-hospital/2024/01/03/id/1148030/

U.S. spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and another Palestinian terrorist group used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally” proves the modus operandi of Hamas, “which systematically operates from hospitals.”

The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 at Shifa, the IDF said. Nevertheless, critics continued to claim that the IDF had little evidence Hamas used the hospital as a command post.

“In the weeks since the operation, news organizations have continued to raise questions about Hamas’s presence at the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a ‘death zone,'” the Times reported.

But a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the American government was convinced that Hamas used the hospital complex to direct terrorist forces, store weapons and hold “at least a few hostages.” The official also said U.S. spy agencies had information that Hamas destroyed evidence before the IDF operation at the hospital got underway. A U.S. official expressed confidence in the intelligence assessment as it was based on information gathered independently by both Israel and American agencies.

In November, the IDF recovered the body of Cpl. Noa Marciano, who was kidnapped by Hamas, in a building adjacent to Shifa Hospital. Also found next to the hospital was the corpse of another hostage, Yehudit Weiss.

Israeli forces arrested the hospital’s director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, on Dec. 23.

“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA [Israel Security Agency, i.e. Shin Bet] questioning,” the IDF said in a statement.Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.

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International Politics, Islamic News

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Report: US Intel Disregarded Hamas After 9/11


By Charlie McCarthy    |   Wednesday, 01 November 2023 01:28 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/u-s-israel-intel/2023/11/01/id/1140579/

U.S. intelligence agencies virtually disregarded Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in the years following the 9-11 attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Instead, the focus was on leaders of al-Qaida and the Islamic State, according to U.S. officials.

Mainstream media reports in the past several weeks have asked how Israeli and U.S. intelligence failed to discover what Hamas had planned for Oct. 7, when the group’s terrorists attacked Israel. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and more than 200 others were taken to Gaza as hostages. AP reported that the death toll among Palestinians has exceeded 8,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Current and former U.S. officials said intelligence agencies had a handful of analysts tracking events in the Gaza Strip before the attacks, but the U.S. ceded the responsibility for monitoring Hamas to Israel, the Journal reported Wednesday.

“In terms of intelligence failures, which really do lie mostly on Israel, I think we should also share some blame for missing this event,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA operations officer with extensive counterterrorism experience, told the Journal. “Ceding the target to the Israelis now looks to have had consequences.”

Israel’s intelligence services have relied on human intelligence, eavesdropping, and other technical means throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

“It is almost inconceivable how they missed this,” Polymeropoulos told NBC News.

Soon after the Hamas attack on Israel, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote an opinion column under the headline, “Hamas attack is an intelligence failure that may take Israel years to unravel.”

“True intelligence failures result not simply from a lack of information but also an inability to understand it,” Ignatius wrote. “Israelis knew the malevolent hatred that animated Hamas and its backers in Iran. What they didn’t appreciate was the creativity and competence of their adversaries. This was a level of organized malice that was, literally, unthinkable.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a comment Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, blamed the security failures on the country’s defense and intelligence services. However, he soon deleted the post and apologized. Members of Netanyahu’s Likud party have said Israel needs to focus on defeating Hamas before analyzing what went wrong. 

Neither Hamas nor Gaza were mentioned in the U.S. director of national intelligence’s Annual Threat Assessment, which was issued in February.

Jonathan Schanzer, who tracked Hamas as a U.S. Treasury terrorism finance analyst, now is at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He said the Oct. 7 attacks should prompt a review of U.S. policy toward Iran-backed proxy groups.

“There should be one. If there isn’t, it’s foreign policy malpractice,” Schanzer told the Journal.

Charlie McCarthy | editorial.mccarthy@newsmax.com

Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.

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Critics Say Latest Lawsuit Against Beleaguered Masterpiece Cakeshop Baker Inevitable After Weak SCOTUS Ruling

By Ashe Schow | Jan 27, 2023

Read more at https://www.dailywire.com/news/critics-say-latest-lawsuit-against-beleaguered-masterpiece-cakeshop-baker-inevitable-after-weak-scotus-ruling

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips, arguing he violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to bake a cake for a gender transition celebration.

Critics of the ruling point to Phillips’ earlier “win” at the Supreme Court, which narrowly ruled in his favor, as the reason the baker continues to be targeted by activists. In 2017, former Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that some have argued essentially said Phillips could have lost his Supreme Court case if it hadn’t been for Colorado officials openly disparaging Phillips and his Christian views.

That narrow decision has allowed Phillips to continue to be persecuted, critics say. At the Washington Examiner, Quin Hillyer argued that the Supreme Court’s “search for the narrowest possible result merely invited further, seemingly endless rounds of new litigation.”

The latest lawsuit against Phillips comes from an activist attorney, Autumn Scardina, in Colorado who called Masterpiece Cakeshop on the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take his prior case – in which he was accused of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. The attorney requested Phillips create a custom cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside to celebrate a gender transition. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents Phillips, the attorney also called back to request a cake depicting Satan smoking marijuana in order to “correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking.” Phillips declined to make either cake because of the messages they depicted. The activist has now sued.

“Naturally, Colorado’s courts ignored the patently offensive request for a Satan cake and instead again held Phillips responsible for illegal discrimination based on gender, his religious objections notwithstanding,” Hillyer wrote. “Today’s affirmation by the appeals court of the lower court’s ruling takes ample advantage of the loophole left open by the Supreme Court while cherry-picking from other Supreme Court religious liberty decisions to reach its desired, anti-Phillips conclusion.”

On Twitter, prominent conservative PoliMath also blamed the Supreme Court for the ongoing legal struggles of Masterpiece Cakeshop.

“The result of John Roberts pushing for the narrowest possible ruling in the earlier Masterpiece case is that they continued persecuting Jack Phillips for years,” PoliMath tweeted. “They will continue to do this to him until he dies.”

The appeals court on Thursday argued that Phillips only refused to bake the cake after learning the client was transgender and wanted to use the cake to celebrate his birthday and gender transition.

“Thus, it was Scardina’s transgender status, and her desire to use the cake in celebration of that status, that caused Masterpiece and Phillips to refuse to provide the cake,” the court wrote, arguing the cake “expressed no message.”

But ADL argues that “Phillips works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it.”

“Over a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to say things he does not believe. Then an activist attorney continued that crusade,” the ADF said in a statement. “This cruelty must stop. One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that all Americans should be free to say what they believe, even if the government disagrees with those beliefs.”

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Iran’s Parliament Bans Nuclear Inspectors from Military Sites: ‘Death to America’


waving flagBy the Associated Press | June 21, 2015

(AP Photo)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — With some lawmakers chanting “Death to the America,” Iran’s parliament voted to ban access to military sites, documents and scientists as part of a future deal with world powers over its contested nuclear program.

The bill, if ratified, could complicate the ongoing talks in Vienna between Iran and the six-nation group — the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — as they face a self-imposed June 30 deadline. The talks are focused on reaching a final accord that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Of 213 lawmakers present on Sunday, 199 voted in favor stopof the bill, which also demands the complete lifting of all sanctions against Iran as part of any final nuclear accord. The bill must be ratified by the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog, to become a law.

The terms stipulated in the bill allow for international inspections of Iranian nuclear sites, but forbid any inspections of military facilities. The bill states in part: “The International Atomic Energy Agency, within the framework of the safeguard agreement, is allowed to carry out conventional inspections of nuclear sites.” However, it concludes that “access to military, security and sensitive non-nuclear sites, as well as documents and scientists, is forbidden.” It also would require Iran’s foreign minister to report to parliament every six months on the process of implementing the accord.Picture3hate

Iran’s nuclear negotiators say they already have agreed to grant United Nations inspectors “managed access” to military sites under strict control and specific circumstances. That right includes allowing inspectors to take environmental samples around military sites. But Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khameni, have strongly rejected the idea of Iranian scientists being interviewed. In a statement Sunday, the U.S. State Department said inspections remain a key part of any final deal.Picture4

All parties “are well aware of what is necessary for a final deal, including the access and transparency that will meet our bottom lines,” the statement said. “We won’t agree to a deal without that.”

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