The European Union is reportedly preparing to sit down with Iran to negotiate on its nuclear program -- again. Even Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- the UN's nuclear watchdog -- seems interested in engaging Iran in "diplomacy" again.

Iran's regime, not surprisingly, appears more than happy to accept these overtures. On the surface, this international charm offensive may appear to be a constructive effort toward dialogue, but a dryer analysis suggests that such negotiations risk handing a monumental victory to a vicious regime that is vulnerable and weak -- and rabidly opportunistic. By offering Iran another platform for legitimacy, the EU and the UN are shoring up a monumentally brutal regime at a time when, for the West's own good, it should be applying pressure, not extending a hand.

Iran's nuclear program was, after half a century of international procrastination, finally damaged in a significant way by strikes carried out by Israel and the United States. The damage has left the regime not much to offer in return for concessions, although the only concession called for is to stop building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. In a normal negotiation, a party with strong assets might offer something other than what the other party wants, in exchange for sanctions relief, but this is not Iran's situation at the time.

Paradoxically, its vulnerability is precisely why Tehran is in a position to gain from any talks: it can accept almost any terms, secure relief from sanctions, and breathe new life into its struggling economy, its ballistic missile program and its nuclear weapons program, all without giving up anything of real value. That is why engaging in talks now is strategically flawed: it would literally reward bellicosity and hand the regime an opportunity to re-consolidate its power.

Engaging with Iran in formal negotiations setting also confers legitimacy on a regime whose human rights record is deeply troubling, if not abysmal. Over the past year, both the regime's executions -- more than 1,000 just in 2025 -- and its repressive measures have raised alarms across the globe, yet EU and UN officials nevertheless appear eager to sit down with the very leaders responsible for those atrocities. Every handshake and photo opportunity signals normalizing the regime's actions and, by extension, disempowering the moral authority of the international community. The West would be empowering hardline factions, boosting the morale of Iran's military and paramilitary forces, and sending a message that ruthless repression is acceptable -- so long as Iran will sit down to talk and buy itself more time.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("nuclear deal"), negotiated under the Obama administration and European powers, was intended to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief. On paper, it was a diplomatic triumph; in practice, the economic and political empowerment resulting from the deal allowed Iran to expand its influence across the Middle East, and support terrorist groups and militias that destabilized the region, culminating with the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023.

Rewarding the Iranian regime with international legitimacy and economic relief reinforces its aggression; it does not restrain it. Western powers, therefore, should focus not on negotiations, which validate the Iranian regime, but on applying sustained pressure where it is most effective – in particular targeting Iran's oil sector and the financial networks that sustain the regime. These measures would limit Iran's ability to fund its nuclear program, ballistic missile production, and network of proxy terrorist groups and militias. At the same time, there should be a push for a total, extremely verifiable, dismantlement of its nuclear and missile programs, and full cooperation with international inspectors.

Anything short of complete transparency and disarmament simply repeats past mistakes, where concessions were not meaningful guarantees, to say the least, and in fact provided a pathway for Iran to continue developing nuclear weapons.

There is an imperative to consider the voices of the Iranian people, who have risked their lives, again and again, for justice and freedom. Tens of thousands of Iranian citizens have taken to the streets to oppose the Iranian regime over the years despite severe consequences, yet negotiations with Tehran often occur without the slightest interest in their plight. By granting legitimacy to a regime that represses its own citizens, the EU and UN disgrace themselves as well as betraying those Iranians fighting for basic human rights.

The efforts by the EU and the IAEA to resume talks with Iran are misguided and, frankly, dangerous. Iran's regime apparently does not see a need for reforming or have the slightest intention of doing so.

.What did Walz and Ellison know and when did they know it? 

The Somali Muslim ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud was massive in scope. It was one of a series of Somali frauds that has gone nationwide with President Trump commenting on it and Democrats rushing to their defense.

In 2019, Feeding Our Future distributed $3.4 million in taxpayer food aid funds to the non-profits it was sponsoring, In 2020, that shot up to $42 million and then up to $197 million in 2021.
Safari Restaurant, which boasts “traditional Somali cuisine” like french fries and safari chicken quesadilla, where Rep. Ilhan Omar had celebrated her victory party, applied to participate in the Federal Child Nutrition program.
When the money was denied, Feeding Our Future complained that “minority-owned businesses serving almost exclusively economically disadvantaged children of color” were being denied the right to serve “culturally relevant foods” to “youth” during a “national emergency”.
Crying racism worked and at its peak Safari claimed to be feeding 6,000 children a day. That’s a lot of children. Documents note that the Somali eatery claimed to be serving a comparable number of meals to “the entire St. Paul public school district.”
The Feds staked out various Feeding Our Future meal sites and found no one at the places that were supposed to be feeding 50,000 children. According to the FBI, the money being stolen wasn’t used to feed children, it went into various shell companies and fronts operated by Somalis and was used to buy everything from a Porsche to African properties.

Now, Bill Glahn at American Experiment, who was responsible for much of the original reporting on the case, has come across a tape featuring some of the alleged Somali fraudsters and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Attorney General, can clearly be heard pledging his support to individuals who would soon become his family’s campaign donors and later Feeding Our Future criminal defendants.
Ellison describes his interventions with then-DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead. Ellison states on the recording that “we are in the middle of the battle with the agencies now”. Ellison asserts that: ‘Walz agrees with me that this piddly, stupid stuff running small people out of business is terrible.’
Safari Restaurant is referenced by name… Partners in Quality Care (Partners in Nutrition) and Feeding Our Future are first mentioned. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s connection to Safari Restaurant is mentioned…
Ellison agrees with the proposition that there is state agency discrimination against East African businesses. “Just being able to say, just getting the question, just getting the inquiry from the AG is sometimes enough to make people knock it off.”
Ellison’s visitors start getting into the details of their big beef with MDE. Ellison asks his guests basic questions about the food programs, how they operate and specific complaints about MDE.
Specifically, the request is for him, in the AG’s statutory role as attorney for state agencies, to intervene on behalf of these small businesses subject to racist government overregulation. Ellison assures his audience, “Of course, I’m here to help,” and “Let’s go fight these people.”

All of this is really important because one reason Feeding Our Future was able to keep on pulling off its fraud were the claims of racism and discrimination.

MDE or the Minnesota Department of Education tried to pull back and was accused of racial discrimination.

When MDE identified the unexplained growth of Feeding Our Future, MDE immediately reported those activities to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Midwest Regional Office, USDA’s Office of Inspector General, and the FBI until we were able to find someone who would take the troubling spending as seriously as we were. When MDE stopped payments, Feeding our Future hit back with accusations of racism and a sham lawsuit. Because of Feeding our Future’s misrepresentations in that lawsuit, a court instructed the payments to continue.

No one expects anything useful from Ellison’s office or local authorities, but it may be time for the FBI to see how high the fraud went. AG Keith Ellison mentions Gov. Tim Walz as agreeing with him and them. That’s about as high as it can go in the state.

The next question is what Ellison, the state AG, and Walz, the governor, knew and when did they know it.

(Worthy News) – Newly released Hamas Interior Ministry documents—seized by the Israel Defense Forces and analyzed by NGO Monitor—reveal the extent to which Hamas infiltrated and controlled foreign aid organizations operating in Gaza. Spanning 2018–2022, these Arabic-language files describe an “institutionalized framework of coercion, intimidation, and surveillance” that allowed Hamas to shape humanitarian work, manipulate international NGOs, and exploit aid systems for intelligence and military gain. NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg said the level of penetration “was far beyond the scope of our expectations.”

At the center of Hamas’s strategy was its “guarantor” network. These were local Gazans, approved by the Hamas Interior Ministry, who were embedded into senior NGO positions—directors, deputy directors, and key administrators. Their role was to act as intermediaries between aid groups and Hamas leaders, giving the terror group direct influence over operations while maintaining the appearance of NGO independence. A 2022 Hamas document listed 55 such guarantors across 48 NGOs, at least ten of whom were confirmed Hamas members, supporters, or employees of Hamas-linked agencies.

The documents also show that many guarantors functioned as intelligence operatives. In one 2021 case, Hamas threatened the Gaza director of Mercy Corps for alleged misconduct, pressuring him into providing Hamas with “security, administrative, or financial observations” from inside the organization. Other NGOs appeared to adjust their activities to serve Hamas’s needs. An Oxfam irrigation project in a “security sensitive” border zone, for example, was reportedly used to conceal advantageous positions for Hamas fighters. And when local residents complained to the Norwegian Refugee Council about tunnel activity under their homes, NRC staff refused to investigate—highlighting the climate of fear that shaped NGO behavior.

Internal Hamas memos reveal deep suspicion of Western influence. A June 2020 document labeled Oxfam’s Jewish media officer a security “threat.” A 2021 order instructed officials to strengthen intelligence networks inside American NGOs that were reluctant to cooperate. The files also show that Hamas was not alone: the Gaza director of Catholic Relief Services, a U.S.-registered organization, was linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—another U.S.-designated terror group.

These findings align with earlier revelations showing that major humanitarian groups—including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders—operated in the same medical facilities Hamas used as command centers. According to NGO Monitor, NGOs that stayed silent or complied effectively became participants in Hamas’s propaganda ecosystem, condemning Israel publicly while ignoring Hamas’s systematic abuse of humanitarian systems. This imbalance, it warns, has helped skew global perceptions of the situation in Gaza.

As Western nations prepare for post-war reconstruction—and consider restoring roles for UN-affiliated agencies—Steinberg warns that these documents serve as a critical alert. Without strong oversight and sweeping reforms, he cautions, the “aid-to-terror highway” that empowered Hamas for years will simply re-emerge. “The international community must wake up,” Steinberg said, “and take the long overdue measures needed to block Hamas abuse and prevent history from repeating itself.”

 UC San Diego has announced a study abroad program this winter in Israel and Jordan. The university’s Anthropology Department is its sponsor. A student journalist at UC/SD with a deep anti-Israel animus rails against the program, claiming it helps legitimize the colonial-settler apartheid genocidal state. More on his hate-filled screed can be found here: “Israel Sees Momentum in Latin America After Argentina’s Milei Officially Launches Isaac Accords,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, December 1, 2025: 

Following the announcement of the UC San Diego study abroad program in Israel and Jordan this winter, some students — including UCSD Guardian senior staff writer Jaechan Preston Lee — expressed outrage at the Anthropology department’s decision to host the trip.
The critical article that Lee published in the university paper last month parades misinformation as truth, and exacerbates the already fragile climate on campus.
His article conveys Israel as a militaristic, vengeful, malevolent, and hateful state. And his argument promotes exclusion and discourages students from gaining a comprehensive understanding of perspectives they may not agree with.
Accepting Lee’s call to cancel the trip would undermine our school’s commitment to academic freedom, further demonize pro-Israel and Jewish community members, and allow his deeply distorted worldview to continue bullying its way into wider acceptance.
On Oct. 5, the UCSD Anthropology Department sent an email to all undergraduate students offering the opportunity to learn about the region’s “ancient and recent past” by “meeting people of very different religious and ethnic backgrounds.”
Two weeks later, Lee argued that the trip is “unethical and reckless” because it is “a form of American and Israeli soft power influence on the West’s perception of land rights and indigeneity in the Middle East.” He justifies his position in a number of ways, all of which collapse under even modest scrutiny.
First, it’s important to address his false claims. The characterization of Israel as an “apartheid state” and the current conflict with the Palestinians as a “genocide” are easily disproven….
Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel enjoy full and equal rights. They serve in every single level of society — from the Supreme Court and Knesset to all levels of civil life — and policies regarding the disputed territories are either temporary or a response to constant terror threats.

It’s not only that Arabs serve on Israel’s Supreme Court and sit in the Knesset. They also go abroad as diplomats. Until recently the head of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, was an Arab. Jews and Arabs are treated in the same hospitals, by the same Jewish and Arab medical personnel. Jews and Arabs work in the same offices and factories. Jews and Arabs play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras. Jews and Arabs start businesses together, everything from restaurants to high-tech start-ups.

The genocide accusation is equally false. First, there was no intention to commit genocide — which is legally and morally required for the term to ever apply. Israel was fighting a war of self defense after the Oct. 7 massacre. Second, any arguments about population decline in Gaza cannot be proven — because the death tolls released by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry have been falsified and also debunked….

Genocide requires intent. There has been no intent to wipe out the Palestinians. Instead, the IDF has made tremendous efforts to save the lives of civilians in Gaza. In order to minimize such casualties, the IDF has dropped millions of leaflets, sent millions of text messages, and made millions of robocalls, all to warn civilians away from areas, and buildings, about to be targeted. The leading scholar of urban warfare, West Point professor John Spencer, having studied the war in Gaza, has concluded that “Israel has done more and implemented more measures to prevent civilian harm than any military in the history of urban warfare.”

One revealing argument targets Israel’s archaeological work, which Lee portrays as a means for the state to exert control over disputed land. By acknowledging Jewish artifacts beneath the soil, he implicitly affirms the deep historical Jewish roots in the region, yet dismisses that history as irrelevant to Jewish claims to the land. He also overlooks concerns that, under full Palestinian control, many of these sites and artifacts would risk neglect or destruction. The very existence of this debate underscores the importance of students seeing Israel’s archaeological realities firsthand.

Archeologists find the proof of the Jews’ 3500-year history in the land at 20,000 sites, and this is what so enrages Jaechan Lee. He wants the world to ignore the evidence of that Jewish presence; at the same time, he has to admit that such evidence exists. He fails to mention that the Palestinian Arabs have been systematically looting and destroying archeological sites in places under their control, and if they were to have a “state of Palestine” the would be even more able to carry on this work of deliberate obliteration of the Jewish past in the Land of Israel.

Jaechan Lee believes that UCSD students must not be exposed to Israel through this study abroad program. They might find out too much that Mr. Lee would like to remain hidden. What if In Israel they were to discover that there is no apartheid in the country? What if they found out about the IDF’s tremendous efforts to warn civilians in Gaza away from areas about to be targeted? What if those students were to discover that the Israelis turn out not to be the monsters Mr. Lee paints them, as but perfectly reasonable people who have been forced, many times, to fight for their country’s survival? That’s worrisome. Better to shut down that just-announced program before it gets off the ground. Jaechan Lee wants us to follow the slogan from Orwell’s 1984: “Ignorance is strength.” There is no need to weaken anyone’s anti-Israel resolve by actually letting them visit Israel.

While much of Europe appears ever less friendly to Israel, south of the border, down Mexico way, and all the way to Tierra del Fuego, things are looking up for the Jewish state. Paraguay has now opened its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem, joining Guatemala and Honduras. Now President Javier Milei, the Catholic president of Argentina who studies the Talmud and has been a strong supporter of Israel during his entire political existence, is about to fulfill his commitment — by early next year, he now says — to move the Argentinean Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And Israel has been engaged in a diplomatic offensive to win friends in Central and South America, holding out the promise of sharing high-tech advances with several of them. More on Israel’s recent diplomatic achievements in Latin America, linking the Jewish state with more countries in what President Milei calls the Isaac Accords, can be found here: “Israel Sees Momentum in Latin America After Argentina’s Milei Officially Launches Isaac Accords,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, December 1, 2025:  

With the official launch of the Isaac Accords by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Israel aims to expand its diplomatic and security ties across Latin America, with the initiative designed to promote government cooperation and fight antisemitism and terrorism.
Milei formally launched the Isaac Accords last week during a meeting in Buenos Aires with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who has been on a regional diplomatic tour.
Modeled after the Abraham Accords — a series of historic US-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries, this new initiative aims to strengthen political, economic, and cultural cooperation between the Jewish state and Latin American governments.
The Argentine leader called his country a “pioneer” alongside the United States in promoting the new framework, emphasizing its role in fostering closer ties between Israel and the region across key strategic fields.
“While the vast majority of the free world decided to turn its back on the Jewish state, we extended a hand to it,” Milei said during a speech at the 90th anniversary of the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization.
“While the vast majority turned a deaf ear to the growth of antisemitism in their lands, we denounced it with even greater fervor, because evil cannot be met with indifference,” he continued.
Shortly after Milei’s announcement, Saar praised him as “a double miracle, for Argentina and for the Jewish people,” describing his connection to Judaism and Israel as “sincere, powerful, and moving.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also praised Milei, describing his “moral clarity, vision, and courage” as signals of “a new era of common sense, mutual interests, and shared values between Israel and Latin America.”
The first phase of the Isaac Accords will focus on Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica, where potential projects in technology, security, and economic development are already taking shape as the initiative seeks to deepen cooperation in innovation, commerce, and cultural exchange….
Saar also announced that Bolivia has lifted visa requirements for Israelis entering the country, signaling closer cooperation between the two countries.
“This decision will allow many Israelis to visit Bolivia again after many years, enjoy its vibrant culture and remarkable scenery, and strengthen the ties between our nations,” Saar posted on X.
President Rodrigo Paz, a center-right politician, took office this year following years of left-wing government in Bolivia during which the country severed relations with Israel. Paz’s election signaled a shift in policy toward the Jewish state.

Now Bolivia is in the process of renewing diplomatic relations with Israel, ties that were severed under the previous left-wing regime.

Here’s the scoreboard so far:

Three Latin American countries now have their embassies in Jerusalem. These are Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay. Argentina will likely do so this spring. Ecuador, having opened a new innovation office that has diplomatic status in Jerusalem, is well on its way to joining this group. Bolivia has a new center-right leader, Rodrigo Paz, who is well-disposed toward Israel, as demonstrated by his ending a visa requirement for Israeli visitors and restoring diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. He may be amenable to moving the Bolivian Embassy to Jerusalem.

The first phase of the Isaac Accords will focus on Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica, where Israel has offered to help with potential projects in technology, security, and economic development. And as cooperation deepens between Israel and all three states, in commerce, innovation, and cultural exchange, it is most likely that what Israel most wants — their embassies to be moved to Jerusalem — will finally be granted.

“Indeed, Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth, because the garden will be theirs, they will fight in the way of Allah and will kill and be killed. It is a promise that is binding on him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. Who fulfills his covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that you have made, for that is the supreme triumph.” (Qur’an 9:111)

The Torah and the Gospel actually do not promise paradise to those who fight in the way of God and kill and are killed. That idea is in the Qur’an only.

Even after this, however, no law enforcement or intelligence officials will dare to consider the possibility that the Qur’an itself is the source of “radicalization.”

New Orleans ISIS terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar had bomb-making station and Quran open to chilling passage in his home, new photos reveal,” by Jennie Taer, Chris Nesi and Alex Oliveira, New York Post, January 2, 2025:

HOUSTON – ISIS-inspired New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar kept a bomb-making workbench in his ramshackle Texas trailer home — where a Quran was left open on a page about “slaying” in the name of Allah, exclusive photos obtained by The Post show.
Jabbar’s north Houston home was filled with chemical residue and chemical bottles, while an inventory of items seized by the FBI — left behind by investigators who raided his house on Wednesday — included a long list of compounds used in bomb-making.
His Quran was propped atop a bookshelf, a centerpiece in his living room, and open to a passage reading, “they fight in Allah’s cause, and slay and are slain; a promise binding…”
That passage, Verse 9:111, expounds on Muslims’ responsibility to kill Allah’s enemies, and to be willing to die for that mission in return for eternity in paradise.
Numerous books about Islam were also on the shelf and around the squalid home, while a prayer rug was rolled up nearby.
FBI officials on Thursday said Jabbar posted five disturbing videos on Facebook on his drive from Houston to New Orleans just hours before he unleashed carnage on Bourbon Street, leaving 14 innocent pedestrians dead.
In the first disturbing video — posted at 1:29 a.m. — the US Army veteran said he had initially planned on murdering his family and friends, but changed his mind over concerns that the resulting media coverage wouldn’t focus on the “war between the believers and disbelievers,” FBI counterterrorism official Chris Raia said.
In other videos, he said he had joined ISIS “before this summer” and showed off his last will and testament.
Investigators confirmed that Jabbar, 42, was ideologically aligned with ISIS and that he specifically chose Bourbon Street as the target of his monstrous act of terror.
However, they have yet to piece together what precisely brought about his radicalization….
The FBI revealed that Jabbar acted alone in the attack after poring over his social media accounts, conducting “hundreds” of interviews with witnesses and searching three cellphones and two laptops recovered from an Airbnb on Mandeville Street in New Orleans linked to the terror suspect….

When the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal from the Indian army of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Kamalesan on Nov. 25, it settled a narrow dispute about the supremacy of military discipline. But the judgment has sent tremors far beyond military cantonments.

Among India’s Christian community, which is waiting for the nation’s top court to hear its challenge to the many anti-conversion laws, as also the exclusion of Dalit Christians from Scheduled Caste rights, the verdict aggravates fears that the nation’s institutions are increasingly wary of accommodating religious minorities on issues of statutory rights and the practice of faith.

Kamalesan, a Protestant, and an officer in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, had refused to enter the sanctum of his unit’s Sikh temple and gurdwara during mandatory religious observances. He complied with parade protocol, removed footwear, tied the cloth required at the gurdwara’s entrance, and stood respectfully outside.

What he could not do, he said, was cross the threshold into the inner sanctum, which would violate his doctrinal understanding of worship. The army saw this as insubordination and discharged him in 2021. Both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court agreed.

Chief Justice Surya Kant described Kamalesan’s conduct as “the grossest kind of indiscipline,” calling him a “misfit” for military service. The court held that Article 33, which allows restriction of fundamental rights for armed forces personnel, justified the decision.

A large section of serving and retired military officers felt the courts had upheld the multi-religious character of the armed forces, where Sikh, Zoroastrian, Muslim, and Christian officers have risen to the highest ranks.

The land forces in the army since India’s independence have not recruited on the basis of religion, though historically, there are Sikh infantry regiments, several caste-based forces recruiting Dalits from the Punjab and Maharashtra. Several other regiments named after states, such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Madras, and Kumaon, also exist, but soldiers are mostly recruited in special drives held across the country.

The air force and navy have a unified composition, as does the officer cadre of the three services and the nation’s paramilitary forces and state-based police. But there has been disquiet within minorities, the loudest amongst them Sikhs, who say their numbers have sharply decreased in recent years.

 After the 12-day war that they fought against Iran last June, both Israel and the US announced that they had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and severely reduced its store of ballistic missiles, as well as destroying ballistic missile factories. Iran at first denied the extent of the devastation, but now it has admitted that all of its centrifuge arrays, essential to the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade, had indeed been destroyed. More on this admission, and how Khameini plans to proceed in the region, can be found here: “Iran giving up on nuclear uranium enrichment shows Khamenei has gone off the deep end – analysis,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2025: 

Iran finally has come out and said it straight to the public: Five months after the June war with Israel, its fleet of 20,000 centrifuges, including several hundred advanced centrifuges, remains in ruins.
There is zero uranium enrichment going on in Iran right now, an Iranian official confirmed publicly on Monday.
Lest readers scoff at the comment as a cover-up, this is no cover-up.
Israeli intelligence – which incredibly and skillfully took apart each aspect of Iran’s nuclear program in June – confirmed the statement.
There are certainly extensive efforts by Iran to build nuclear facilities and to place them farther underground so that a new nuclear program might be built in the future. Therefore, Israel cannot take its eye off the ball on this issue for even a second.

Iran is building, but is years from completing, a new nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain. The Israelis are able to monitor the progress of the construction; when it gets closer to completion, the Israeli Air Force, without too much trouble — Iran has no credible defense against Israeli air strikes, as became obvious during the 12-Day War — will reduce Pickaxe to the same rubble as the nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan became.

But the current state of play is that the Islamic Republic has made zero progress toward restoring its enrichment capabilities. Why?
Part of the answer is that Israel and the US destroyed Tehran’s nuclear facilities so thoroughly – and left so much rubble on top of them, with many of the facilities being somewhat or deep underground – that Iran simply decided that it would take too long and was not worthwhile to dig through the rubble to rebuild them.
Better to rebuild new facilities, even if they may not be operational for years, it thought….

Iran needs new facilities to raise the level of 60% enriched uranium it now possesses to the weapons-grade level of 90%. Right now its small amount of 60% enriched uranium simply sits there, while Iran tries to build a new enrichment facility. It is estimated that that project will take several years.

If on the eve of the June war, Iran had 2,500 ballistic missiles, Israeli intelligence estimated that this number would more than double to 6,000 sometime in 2026 and that by early 2028 it might top 10,000.
These were numbers which Israeli intelligence feared could overwhelm the IDF’s missile defense shield….

That is why the Israeli Air Force struck Iran’s existing supply of ballistic missiles, and also destroyed the plants where the missiles were produced. It will take years to rebuild those plants, and tens of billions of dollars that, at this point, Iran does not have. Ninety-percent of its oil is sold to China at deep discounts from the market price. Iran’s riyal has sunk to a new low: 1,060,00 riyals to the dollar. Forty percent of Iranians now live below the poverty line. And Iran’s historic drought is so great, according to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, that the entire population of Tehran may have to be evacuated. Where will Iran get the money to pay for rebuilding its ballistic missile plants?

Khamenei has seen how Israel has destroyed the threat from all three of Iran’s proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen — while also devastating the weapons arsenals, the airbases, and the planes that once belonged to Iran’s ally, Bashar Assad’s Syria. This has led Khamenei to turn his attention away from Israel; now Iran is focusing on its rivalry with Sunni Arab states for influence in the region. Israel is on the back-burner.

Iran’s radar systems, including the Russian S-400 anti-missile defense system that protected Tehran, were no match for Israel’s fighter jets, drones, and missiles, which in the first hours of the June war established complete mastery of the skies over Iran. Despite their having been proved of little worth against Israeli planes and missiles, Khamenei is rebuilding those same defense systems. He is also trying to rebuild the ballistic missile manufacturing plants that Israel destroyed, with no improvement in his defenses. And Israel is prepared to destroy those radars and ballistic missiles again, without having to devote any of its effort to devastating nuclear facilities that were destroyed in June and will not be replaced for several years.

The IDF for now is not worried about Iran’s lengthy effort to build a new uranium enrichment plant at Pickaxe Mountain and other, related nuclear facilities. it knows that project will take years. And should the Iranians be coming close to its completion, the IDF can again reduce it to rubble. The IDF is now concentrating its efforts on preparing for attacks on the storehouses of ballistic missiles and the plants where they are built.

Iran is becoming steadily weaker. It is now stripped of all of its proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Assad’s Syria — that once might have helped Iran in a face-off with Israel. If Tehran were to try to launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel, the response would be much more powerful than the one the IDF delivered in June, when the war was halted, some in Israel say too soon, by President Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire on June 24.

With ceasefires in Gaza with Hamas, and in Lebanon with Hezbollah, with the Houthis having declared an end to their attacks on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, and with Assad’s weapons, airplanes, and airbases destroyed, and Syria no longer an ally of Iran, Israel can concentrate all of its military might on Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and manufacturing plants. Iran’s nuclear threat for now has ended; it will take years to build new uranium enrichment facilities. It is military madness for Khamenei to again be building ballistic missiles to be used against Israel. But he lives in a shame/honor culture, and his honor, and that of his country, depend upon his being ready to take on the Jewish state — even if it means a certain defeat — yet again. Honor is preserved in the attempt, not in the result.

Predominantly Catholic protesters in southern India have ended a relay hunger strike on its 414th day after a state court temporarily restored land rights they say were stripped from them nearly five years ago after a Muslim charitable body laid claim to their coastal village.

More than 600 families in Munambam, a fishing village in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, have been protesting since 2023 against the Kerala State Waqf Board’s assertion that large portions of their land are waqf property — religious endowment land under Islamic law.

The villagers, including many Catholics and Hindus, say they legally purchased the plots between 1988 and 1993 and have lived there for decades.

Father Antony Xavier, parish priest of the Valankanny Matha Church located on the disputed land, said the strike was suspended on Nov. 30 following a Kerala High Court order directing authorities to resume accepting land tax from residents as an interim measure.

“We have called off our indefinite relay hunger strike in view of the High Court order that restored our revenue rights on a temporary basis,” Xavier told UCA News. “If there is any hurdle again, we will not hesitate to resume the protest.”

Kerala's Law Minister P. Rajeeve and Revenue Minister K. Rajan formally ended the fast by offering lemon juice to protest leaders, assuring them that the state government would support the villagers’ claim.

The dispute escalated after the Revenue Department, in January 2022, stopped accepting land tax payments, citing the Waqf Board’s claim.

The board claimed some 163 hectares (404 acres) of land in the village was waqf, property gifted for charity, which under Islamic Sharia law is a permanent dedication that cannot be further gifted, inherited, sold or otherwise alienated.

Residents argue that the land was never listed as waqf property when they purchased it, and was designated as such only in 2008 by a government-appointed committee.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court in October dismissed the Waqf Board’s claim, upholding villagers’ ownership. The latest ruling on Nov. 26 by Justice C. Jayachandran ordered the Revenue Department to comply with that decision while final petitions remain pending.

The Kerala Waqf Protection Forum has appealed to India’s Supreme Court, arguing the High Court lacked jurisdiction because the matter lies before the Waqf Tribunal, the statutory body empowered to adjudicate such disputes.

While the main protest has been suspended, a small group of villagers aligned with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a fresh agitation, saying they will continue until full ownership rights are permanently secured.

Chinese authorities released Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a 59-year-old Christian, from prison on Nov. 16, after the man completed a 12-year prison sentence.

The pastor conveyed great joy over his release after regaining his freedom.

“Coming out of prison during this month of Thanksgiving has been full of God’s grace,” said Shaojie. “I have seen the Holy Spirit’s presence every day.” The pastor also stated that he was “deeply grateful for the help and support of the international community,” believing that “otherwise [he] might not be here today and might have been ‘disappeared.’”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., highlighted Shaojie’s plight in a 2017 letter to then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The legislators stated there was a report of torture against the pastor. Specifically, it was alleged that “a prison official at the provincial level was directed by the head of the State Council Research Office to place Zhang Shaojie under ‘strict supervision,’ under which he [was]…deprived of sleep, food, and subjected to constant surveillance.”

Officials detained Shaojie in Nov. 2013 following a land dispute between the pastor and local government authorities. Shaojie, former pastor of Nanle County Christian Church in the central Chinese province of Henan, and his church had legally acquired land on which they planned to build a church.

According to Release International, “church members believed the Chinese authorities had targeted him to obtain the land and to prevent the ministry of the church from growing.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said Shaojie’s charges were “‘obstruction of official business’ and ‘gathering a crowd to disrupt social order,’ a reference to his congregation. The former charge was later changed to ‘fraud.’” The Chinese court handed Shaojie a 12-year prison term as a result.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long persecuted Chinese Christians to maintain total control of the State. Chinese authorities often target pastors and churches if they gain too much traction.

The removal of crosses from buildings, arrests of Christians, and forced insertion of communist principles into Christian church settings have all been attempts to assuage fear within the party that the citizens of China may choose allegiance to something, especially Jesus, over them.

In a congressional hearing on Thursday, Sam Brownback, former governor of Kansas, told legislators that China’s war on religious freedom poses a serious threat.

“China is at war with faith, and it is at war with us,” Brownback stated. “China fears religious freedom more than they fear our aircraft carriers or our nuclear weapons. If the world’s largest authoritarian state can eradicate religious freedom without consequences, it undermines the authority of America’s founding values and global leadership.”

China was included in ICC’s 2025 Global Persecution Index and was listed by the U.S. Department of State as a Country of Particular Concern in 2024.

Story by Lynn Arias 

 China (International Christian Concern)  –  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government is rewriting portions of the Bible in an effort to increase its control over religion in country, according to U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI).  In a meeting of the House Select Committee on the CCP, Rep. Gallagher stated that Chairman Xi Jinping is on a “quest to make the faithful serve the party rather than God.”

Rep. Gallagher referenced a statement from Chairman Xi during the 19th Party Congress in 2017 that declares the intent to pursue “the Sinicization of Chinese religions and provide active guidance for religion and socialism to coexist.” Besides attempting to control Christian doctrine and practice, the CCP is persecuting other Buddhist and Muslim ethnic minorities, according to Rep. Gallagher.

The CCP sees itself as possessing absolute authority over religion in China. For example, in 2018, the Vatican compromised with the CCP on the prerogative to appoint Roman Catholic clergy in China. Multiple sources have warned that the CCP aims to select the next Dalai Lama—the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Thus, the CCP forcing the church to be subservient to the state infringes the Western conception of religious liberty, which is founded on the Christian understanding of the church and the state as distinct institutions ordained by God.

Rep. Gallagher cited two cases of the CCP rewriting portions of the Bible. The first from the account in the Gospel of John of Jesus telling the woman caught in adultery to “go, and from now on sin no more,” after telling the scribes and Pharisees, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:3-11, ESV).” A textbook from a Chinese university appeared in 2020 with the account from the Gospel of John rewritten to end with “Jesus himself stoning the adulterous woman to death,” according to Rep. Gallagher.

The second is a report that CCP authorities in Henan province “forced Protestant churches to replace the Ten Commandments with Xi Jinping quotes,” changing the first commandment from, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” (Exodus 20:3, KJV) to, “Resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology.”

Two Christian pastors at the Congressional meeting testified on persecution in China, noting that many Chinese pastors and Christians are undeterred. International Christian Concern (ICC) recently published a report describing the growth of the underground church in Iran, where government repression seems to cause the church to grow rather than stifle it.  As the early church father Tertullian wrote, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

.BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Budapest, Hungary’s capital and its political, economic, and cultural heart, risks becoming insolvent — the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy — a crisis the opposition blames on the right-wing government’s tax policies.

The standoff between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the city threatens basic services, including public transportation and even garbage collection, during the holiday season.

Budapest and the government have been locked in a years-long court battle over the “solidarity tax” imposed on municipalities since 2019.

Mayor Gergely Karácsony says the levy has cost the city nearly $1 billion — roughly equivalent to Budapest’s annual expenditures — and amounts to political punishment for the capital’s liberal, pro-European Union leanings.

He underscored that message at an alternative city assembly meeting held in a bus depot, after which he led an impromptu torch-lit march of up to 2,000 people to Orbán’s residence in the Carmelite monastery.

CITY ACCUSES GOVERNMENT OF BLACKMAIL

At this week’s rally, Karácsony compared the tax hikes to a landlord raising rent “twentyfold” and accused the government of systematically draining Budapest’s finances while public services such as healthcare and education “rotted” under national policies.

Karácsony and other opposition figures rejected a government offer to assist only if Budapest formally declares itself insolvent. “Budapest isn’t bankrupt, it’s blackmailed,” the Tisza party said.

Tisza deputies boycotted the municipal meeting, calling it “political theater.” The party holds 10 seats in the assembly, tied with Orbán’s Fidesz, and currently leads national polls ahead of April’s parliamentary elections.

Critics say a municipal bankruptcy would allow Orbán to blame the opposition for Budapest’s failings ahead of the vote. Orbán denies wrongdoing saying Budapest is a wealthy region that easily can effort the solidarity tax.

Orbán claims the government is ready to provide “a financial lifeline,” but only after the city assembly adopts a resolution declaring the capital at risk of insolvency. A government decree also states it would step in to cover municipal wages if necessary.

BUDAPEST FACES DEEPENING BUDGET DEFICIT

A draft filed by Karácsony warns Budapest may finish the year with a 33-billion-forint deficit (some $90 million), which would violate Hungarian law and allow banks to cut the city’s overdraft facility, freezing revenues until March.

The solidarity contribution has risen from 5 billion forints (about $14 million) in 2018 to 89 billion forints (approximately $240 million) this year — a twentyfold increase. Critics say the tax is needed as Orbán faces significant deficits while the EU has frozen roughly 18 billion euros (about $20 billion) in funding for Hungary over rule-of-law and corruption concerns.

Hungary’s State Audit Office (ÁSZ) reported in September that Budapest is in “technical bankruptcy,” warning that insolvency threatens essential services.

The audit cited pandemic-era revenue losses, soaring energy prices, inflation, and sharply increased government-imposed payment obligations.

Karácsony also accuses the government of withholding 148 billion forints (roughly $400 million) in previously promised development funds.

TREASURY SEIZURES AND PUBLIC SERVICE RISKS

He says the State Treasury has withdrawn money directly from the city’s accounts to cover arrears as part of what he and other opposition figures view as political retaliation.

Karácsony warns that if 27,000 municipal workers do not receive their January salaries, “the city will come to a standstill,” halting transport, waste collection, and other vital services.

At the extraordinary assembly meeting, he also stressed that Budapest “must remain free, European, and united” despite what he called government pressure.

Representatives of several opposition parties agreed, saying the capital had been “pushed into bankruptcy” by state policies, not mismanagement.

The stakes extend far beyond city limits: Budapest is home to 1.7 million residents, while the wider metropolitan area includes about 3.3 million people, meaning one in three Hungarians could be directly or indirectly affected if the capital collapses financially.

In 135 A.D., following the suppression of the revolt by the Maccabees, the Roman overlords of what was then called Judaea decided to change its name to “Syria Palaestina” — “Syria of the Philistines” — which was then shortened to “Palestine.” The Romans wanted to efface, through a change of toponym, the connection of the Jews to the land that was made obvious in the place name “Judaea.” They also attempted to change the name “Jerusalem” to “Aelia Capitolina” but, unlike “Palestine,” that place name never caught on.

During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, the Arab Legion of Jordan — led by British officers under John Bagot Glubb (“Glubb Pasha”) — managed to seize and hold onto the territory that had been known, for more than 3,000 years, not just to the Jewish people but to everyone in the Western world, as “Judea and Samaria.” It would never do, the Jordanian Arabs believed, to continue to use the toponyms “Judea and Samaria,” which would remind people of who had inhabited that territory for millennia. So, like the Romans with their toponymic change — “Judaea” becoming “Palestine” — nearly 1800 years before, the Jordanians, after a year of reflection (the war officially ended in 1949), in 1950 decided to replace “Judea and Samaria” with the place name “West Bank.” It is a most peculiar appellation. After all, the riparian zone along a river is usually envisioned as of a uniform width, but the Jordanians’ “West Bank” is shaped like an ear. The Jordanians, and their fellow Arabs, by dint of repetition, made sure that “West Bank” was used so often, came more trippingly off the tongue than “Judea and Samaria” (it helped that people were uncertain whether “Judea and Samaria” were two distinct places, inked by a conjunction, or constituted one territory) and stuck so well in the popular mind, that it pushed “Judea and Samaria” out of common usage, save by the Israelis themselves. Even non-Israeli Jews now use the term “West Bank.”

People outside of Israel, including orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians, who persisted in using “Judea and Samaria,” found that “West Bank” had become so widely adopted that it was they who experienced a certain self-consciousness about using “Judea and Samaria.” “West Bank” is now used everywhere; it is up to us to undo that offense to history. When the Western media reports on Israelis, especially on those much-maligned “settlers,” they are often described as “using the Biblical terms Judea and Samaria,” as if that made such usage illegitimate. In other words, the fact that these place names had been used for three millennia by Jews and the rest of the Western world was not a point in their favor, but rather, was held against them. Amusing, isn’t it, that those people who would dismiss the use of “Judea and Samaria” because they are Biblical names have no objection to using the toponym “Gaza,” which is also a place name found in the Bible.

Now Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York have introduced a bill requiring the U.S. government to drop that preposterous “West Bank,” and to use the venerable, correct, imbued with history, place names “Judea and Samaria.” It’s an important bill; if it passes, it will put back into general circulation, by government fiat, “Judea and Samaria.” If every time a government official, from Trump and Rubio on down, gives a press conference, or holds a Congressional hearing, uses the terms “Judea and Samaria,” it will be an important victory, with the world being reminded that this territory has for more than three millennia been linked to the Jewish people; it was in Judea and Samaria, not in Haifa and Tel Aviv, where their history was made.

More about the legislation introduced Tom Cotton when he announced his resolution can be found here.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced the Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act, legislation to require all official U.S. documents and materials to use the historically accurate term “Judea and Samaria” instead of the “West Bank”. This bill would require the use of historically accurate terminology and align U.S. policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region. This legislation was introduced in the House by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-New York).
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” said Senator Cotton.
“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this,” said Congresswoman Tenney. “This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory. I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”

To some this will seem a minor matter. “Words, words, words,” as Hamlet said to Polonius. It is not. It is important to escort back into common usage the words, including place names, that the Arabs have managed to push aside and replaced with others that diminish or efface altogether, the Jewish link to the land. Senator Cotton and Congresswoman Tenney deserve the gratitude of all those who care about history and the truth.

Striking “West Bank’” And Inserting “Judea and Samaria”

The bill making this change of place-name mandatory throughout the American government has now been introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (D.-Ark) and Representative Claudia Tenney (D.-NY). It can be found here.
A BILL
To prohibit the use of materials that use the term ‘‘West Bank’’, and for other purposes.
1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retiring the Egregious   Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria Act’’ or the ‘‘RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act’’.
118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION
Striking “West Bank’” And Inserting “Judea and Samaria”
The bill introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (D.-Ark) and Representative Claudia Tenney (D.-NY) can be found here. https://www.cotton.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/west_bank.pdf
A BILL
To prohibit the use of materials that use the term ‘‘West Bank’’, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SEC.1 SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retiring the Egregious   Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria Act’’ or the ‘‘RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act’’.
118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
2  It is the sense of Congress that the United States Government—
(1) should refer to the land annexed by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War by its historical names of ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’, with the land south of Jerusalem being considered ‘‘Judea’’
and the land north of Jerusalem being considered ‘Samaria’’; and
(2) should no longer use the term ‘‘West Bank”  in official government materials.
2. SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF MATERIALS THAT USE THE TERM ‘‘WEST BANK’’.

3. (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available after the date of the enactment of this Act may be obligated or expended to prepare or promulgate any policy, guidance, regulation, in this section if the Secretary—determines that is in the interests of the United States to do so; and
(2) submits to Congress an explanation for the waiver not later than 30 days after the date on which the Secretary makes the determination.
  SEC. 4. CONFORMING CHANGES TO UNITED STATES LAW. FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1961.—The For- Assistance Act of 1961 is amended as follows:(1) In section 620K(f)(3) (22 U.S.C. 2378b(f)(3)), by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(2) In section 620L (22 U.S.C. 2378c)—
(A) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘THE WEST BANK’’ and inserting ‘‘JUDEA AND SAMARIA’’; and
(B) by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(b) TAYLOR FORCE ACT.—Section 1004 of the Tay- lor Force Act (22 U.S.C. 2378c–1) is amended—
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘THE WEST BANK’’ and inserting ‘‘JUDEA AND SAMARIA’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(c) MULTINATIONAL FORCE AND OBSERVERS PAR- TICIPATION RESOLUTION.—Section 2 of the Multinational Force and Observers Participation Resolution (22 U.S.C. 3421) is amended by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(d) OMNIBUS DIPLOMATIC SECURITY AND ANTITERRORISM ACT OF 1986.—Section 414 of the Om- nibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 (22 U.S.C. 4862) is amended—
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘WEST BANK’’ and inserting ‘‘JUDEA AND SAMARIA’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(e) UNITED STATES-ISRAEL FREE TRADE AREA IMPLEMENTATION ACT OF 1985.—Section  9 of the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (Public Law      99–47; 19 U.S.C. 2112 note) is amend-ed by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(f) IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION ACT OF 2007.—Section 2021(i) of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (22 U.S.C. 2151 note) is amended by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(g) FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FIS-CAL YEAR 2003.—Section 699 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107– 228; 22 U.S.C. 2301 note) is amended—
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘WEST BANK’’ and inserting ‘‘JUDEA AND SAMARIA’’; and
(2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.
(h) NITA M. LOWEY MIDDLE EAST PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE ACT.—Section 8005 of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (division K of Public Law 116–260) is amended by striking ‘‘the West Bank’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Judea and Samaria’’.

Got it?  STRIKE “West Bank” and INSERT “Judea and Samaria.”

O where? Here, there, and everywhere.

  Elias Hasrouni was a leading figure among the Christians in Lebanon, the leader of the Central Council of the Lebanese Forces, who became widely known for his fierce and eloquent attacks on the terror group Hezbollah. This, of course, would never do; Hezbollah had to silence him, and in August 2023, they poisoned him, and then placed his body in a car that was then crashed, making it appear that he had died in a car crash. In killing Hasrouni, Hezbollah not only rid itself of an articulate enemy, but also provided a warning to the Lebanese government: Don’t try to disarm us, nor try to destroy our weapons stockpiles, or shut down our military outposts, because if you don’t do as we say… well, look what happened in August 2023 to Elias Hasrouni. 

More on the latest information, confirmed by the IDF, about Hezbollah’s murder of a Lebanese Christian leader can be found here: “Exposing Hezbollah: IDF claims terror group murdered prominent Christian-Lebanese critic,” Jerusalem Post, November 14, 2025:

Christian Lebanese politician, Elias Hasrouni, was assassinated by the Hezbollah terror group he opposed, the IDF confirmed on Friday.
Known for his staunch criticism of the terror group, Hasrouni worked as the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Forces central council in Bint Jbeil when he was killed in an ambush last year.
The 72-year-old was assassinated by Hezbollah’s Unit 121 in August 2023, according to the IDF, despite the terror group’s rumoring that he had perished in a car accident.
The terror group was said to have ambushed Hasrouni on a road near his home in Ain Ebel in southern Lebanon, where they abducted him. After kidnapping the elderly politician, the IDF claimed the terrorists broke his ribs and poisoned him.
Another member of the Christian Lebanese Forces party was abducted and murdered last year. Pascal Sleiman was kidnapped and killed in the Byblos District of northern Lebanon in April last year. The Lebanese Army announced that they had arrested most of the members of a Syrian gang that they had found were behind Sleiman’s kidnapping and murder….

While a “Syrian gang” of Alawites, who were allies of Hezbollah, may well have murdered Pascal Sleiman, it is also possible that Hezbollah’s Unit 121 carried out the killing, and the Lebanese Army didn’t want to point the finger at Hezbollah, because not only would that infuriate the vindictive terror group, but had it blamed Hezbollah, Lebanese Christians would have pressured the Lebanese Army to go after Hezbollah, something that in 2023, the army was unwilling to do.

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, was a billionaire who had made his fortune as a contractor in Saudi Arabia, and had close ties to the Saudis, as their man in Beirut. Naturally, as an arch-Sunni, the Shi’a of Hezbollah hated him. On February 14, 2005, as his motorcade was driving through Beirut, the car he was traveling in passed a truck parked on the side of the road. A suicide bomber blew up that vehicle, killing Hariri and 21 others.

Hezbollah killed Pascal Sleiman in April 2023 and Elias Hasrouni in August 2023. Since then, the Lebanese National Army has not arrested or disarmed a single Hezbollah member, except for a few individuals who were accused of crimes having nothing to do with being members of Hezbollah. Since February the president of Lebanon has been Joseph Aoun, a Christian who detests Hezbollah, but also would like to stay alive. That is why, despite considerable pressure from Washington, and hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from the Americans, President Aoun is still proceeding very cautiously against the terror group that has had Lebanon in thrall for nearly two decades.

The goal here is to drive all the Christians out of the area and make it an Islamic region. That is the same goal of Islamic jihadis the world over. 

Three Ethiopian Orthodox Christians Reportedly Killed in Latest Attack in Arsi,” Borkena, November 10, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Toronto – Three Orthodox Christians were killed on Monday in the latest string of attack in East Arsi, Oromia region of Ethiopia.
Mahibere Kidusan, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church entity, reported that the incident took place around 9 a.m. in the Teleta Gebriel locality of Arsi.
According to the source, the victims were working on a harvest in their farms. They were riddled with bullets to death in the farm, it was said.
The victims are identified as Diacon Ejigu (apparently serving in a church), Tilahun Boge and Tsadkane Serawitu who is said to be a ten years old boy.
Government forces deployed to the area seem to have failed to prevent killings.
Furthermore, an unspecified number of youth from the area are reportedly arrested over disclosing information on the killings and kidnapping of Orthodox Christians in the area….
Political observers and activists seem to allege that killings in Arsi were orchestrated with a goal of ethnic and religious cleansing. Moreover, they tend to see involvement of government officials in the orchestration of the killings.
Notably, government authorities from the area denied that there has been no killing in the area, and that the reports are “false with a political goal to instigate instability.”