Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertions on June 16 that the United States has perfect intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program are not credible: “We know what they did. We have no doubt. We have absolute knowledge.”

    Former CIA Director Michael Hayden is right to correct Mr. Kerry: “He’s pretending we have perfect knowledge about something that was an incredibly tough intelligence target while I was director, and I see nothing that has made it any easier.” Mr. Kerry’s disregard of the limits of US intelligence is reason enough to reject the deal, since just one nuclear warhead can threaten the existence of the United States.

    A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over the United States would generate an EMP that could black out the electric grid and other life-sustaining, critical infrastructures, such as communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water. The Congressional EMP Commission estimated a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill anywhere from two of every three Americans by a low estimate up to nine of 10 Americans by starvation and social disruption. “Death to America” is more than merely an Iranian chant, Tehran’s military is planning to be able to make a nuclear EMP attack.

    On July 21 at the annual meeting of the Electric Infrastructure Security Summit in Washington, Rep. Trent Franks quoted from an Iranian military textbook, recently translated by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Intelligence University. The textbook, ironically titled “Passive Defense” (2010), describes nuclear EMP effects in detail. It advocates in more than 20 passages an EMP attack to defeat decisively an adversary.

    The official Iranian military textbook advocates a revolutionary new way of warfare that combines coordinated attacks by nuclear and non-nuclear EMP weapons, physical and cyber-attacks against electric grids to black out and collapse entire nations. Iranian military doctrine makes no distinction between nuclear EMP weapons, non-nuclear radio-frequency weapons and cyber-operations, it regards nuclear EMP attack as the ultimate cyber-weapon. EMP is most effective at blacking-out critical infrastructures, while it also does not directly damage the environment or harm human life, according to Iran’s “Passive Defense”: “As a result of not having the other destructive effects that nuclear weapons possess, among them the loss of human life, weapons derived from electromagnetic pulses have attracted attention with regard to their use in future wars. The superficiality of secondary damage sustained, as well as the avoidance of human casualties, serves as a motivation to transform this technology into an advanced and useful weapon in modern warfare.”

    Because EMP destroys electronics directly, but people indirectly, it is regarded by some as Shariah-compliant use of a nuclear weapon. “Passive Defense” and other Iranian military writings are well aware that nuclear EMP attack is the most efficient way of killing people, through secondary effects, over the long run. The rationale appears to be that people starve to death, not because of EMP, but because they live in materialistic societies dependent upon modern technology.

    For example, an Iranian article on nuclear EMP attack, “Electronics To Determine Fate Of Future Wars” (1998), concludes hopefully (from the Iranian author’s perspective): “If the world’s industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years. American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot. Written 17 years ago, Iranian military doctrine has assessed nuclear EMP attack against the United States for now nearly two decades.

    The Iranians have done more than just think about EMP attack. The Congressional EMP Commission found that Iran has practiced launching missiles and fusing warheads for high-altitude EMP attack, including off a freighter. Iran has apparently practiced surprise EMP attacks, orbiting satellites on south polar trajectories to evade U.S. radars and missile defenses, at altitudes consistent with generating an EMP field covering all 48 contiguous United States. Iran launched its fourth satellite on such a trajectory as recently as February 2015. A single nuclear weapon would complete the list of requirements. Finally, because a nuclear EMP attack can be conducted by surprise and anonymously, deterrence may not work against EMP.

    Deterrence depends upon knowing who attacked and being able to retaliate. Unlike a nuclear weapon used to blast a city, high-altitude EMP leaves no collectible bomb debris for forensic analysis to identify the aggressor. Hundreds of satellites are in low earth orbit, unseen when approaching the United States from the south, that could help disguise the origins of an EMP attack. And the EMP could damage the means necessary to identify the attacker and U.S. retaliatory capabilities. One Iranian nuclear weapon is one too many for an Iran ruled by theocratic totalitarian genocidal imperialists. No deal.

Iran and Russia use Nuclear Deal to Boost Military Alliance

Aug. 18….(Fox News) Monday’s meeting between Russian and Iranian foreign ministers is fueling new speculation both countries are forging closer ties after July’s nuclear agreement. Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to foreign policy experts John Hannah and Anna Borshchevskaya about Iran’s evolving relationship with Russia. “We’ve seen the warming of Russian-Iranian relations ties for several years now, now that we have a new deal, they are simply profiting from it,” said Borshchevskaya, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A boost in military and political cooperation has US officials and their overseas counterparts closely monitoring any significant changes in the Middle East from Russia or Iran.

    US officials first raised concerns when it was revealed Iran’s Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani met with Russian officials in Moscow in July. Soleimani was able to travel despite a travel ban and UN Security Council resolutions barring him from leaving Iran. The Iranians also are expecting the Russians, by the end of 2015, to deliver the S-300 air defense missile system to Tehran as part of a deal signed earlier in the year. “This is a very dangerous development of course; this part of the Iran deal,” said Hannah, senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.Hannah suspects that even though the conventional arms embargo remains in place for five years, “we will see Iran go on a shopping spree for the most advanced conventional weapons in both Russia and China.” He sees the Iranians wanting advanced air defense systems because “when Iran is ready to break out a nuclear bomb, it will make its airspace impenetrable from both US and Israeli military attacks.”

    The Iranians and Russians are looking to test their strategic partnership once again in Syria. Both countries support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as it fights moderate rebels and ISIS terrorists. “Russia has been very quick to step into this vacuum on Syria when it came to dealing with Assad, because Russia and Iran agree pretty much on what to do in Syria.

Iran Sending Nuke Deal Money to Terror Groups on Israeli Border

Aug. 18….(Times of Israel) The Iranian regime is set to increase funding for terrorist organizations bent on Israel’s destruction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday from Israel’s northern border, days after the army said it had run drills in the area for a large-scale battle against Iran-backed groups. Speaking during a visit to the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters near the Lebanese border, Netanyahu said that Israel was watching its borders closely and would strike at any entity that threatened its security. “What we have said all along has turned out to be accurate,” Netanyahu said referring to his opposition to the nuclear agreement between world powers and Tehran. “The money that will flow to Iran-sponsored terrorist organizations will be used for one stated purpose, to destroy Israel.” “I’m here to keep a close eye on the IDF’s preparedness for these threats. We are prepared for any scenario. Those who try to harm us, we will strike at them,” he said.

    Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot took part in the visit as well. “I would like to commend the IDF’s commanders and soldiers in general and the Northern Command’s soldier in particular, for securing the borders and keeping them quiet despite everything that is happening across the border. This professionalism is what enables thousands of hikers to enjoy the north of the country,” Ya’alon said. “All is not quiet on the Golan front, and those who seek for it not to be quiet are the Iranians, who are trying to send proxies to conduct terror attacks against us,” said Ya’alon. “Representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are in fact waiting for the implementation of this bad deal with world powers, in order to bring more money to Hezbollah, more to other terror groups, in both the Golan Heights and the Palestinian arena.” He added that the military is prepared, and has until now been successful, in not allowing the disruption of Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights.

    The number of Islamists flooding into the area close to the border with Israel has the IDF on high alert, Channel 2 reported Sunday, adding that the military held a large-scale drill last week simulating a possible advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from border communities. The drill included preparation for a scenario in which Islamist forces launch a sophisticated, multi-pronged attack on Israeli troops, similar to attacks against Egyptian security forces in Sinai in recent months, the report added.

    The IDF is also planning for a possible Hezbollah offensive directed by Iran, with an IDF officer saying that hundreds of Hezbollah members are present in the Golan, and that Tehran has been behind several recent attacks against Israel. Israeli officials have routinely raised concerns over the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters using positions in the Syrian Golan, partially held by rebel forces, to attack Israel. “It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Golan] in the past two years,” the IDF officer said Sunday during a briefing with reporters. “The Iranians are using the border, they establish units, whether it’s [Jihad] Mughniyeh, [Samir] Kuntar, and more, to carry out the attacks.”

    According to Channel 2, Hezbollah has upped its presence on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, joining the Lebanese Army on patrols and exercises, despite limitations set on the terror group’s movements in south Lebanon after the Second Lebanon War in 2006. There have been a number of cross-border incidents on the Israel-Syria front over the past few years as the civil war has raged on, including a number of rocket attacks believed to have been carried out by rebel groups or Assad forces.

    Israel is said to be behind a number of air raids against targets on Syrian soil aimed at preventing Hezbollah from acquiring advanced weaponry. The IDF says Iran routinely tries to deliver weapons to Hezbollah via Syria, suggesting that not all shipments are successfully intercepted.

Iran Arming West Bank Palestinians for New Eastern Front to “Erase” Israel

Aug. 18….(DEBKA) Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, acting on the orders of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this week set up a new Iranian command to fight Israel, debkafile reports exclusively from its military and intelligence sources. It has been dubbed the Eastern Command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.The Al Qods Brigades, which are the external terrorist arm of the Guards, are organized according to sectors, with commands for Hizballah, the Palestinians, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf. Their newest sector is the Eastern Command which, our sources report has been assigned as its first task to start handing out weapons, including missiles, to any Palestinian West Bank group willing to receive them. Tehran’s object is to transform the West Bank into a territory hostile to Israel on the model of southern Lebanon which is ruled by the armed Hizballah and the Gaza Strip under the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. In the first week of August, Tehran published a book of 416 pages written by Ali Khamenei entitled “Palestine.” The cover image was labeled “The flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.” The volume was released to Western sources, who reported that the most constantly recurring phrases in the text in relation to Israel are “nabudi,” meaning annihilation; imha, meaning disappearing or fading out; and “zaval” meaning effacement. Khamenei asserts that Israel must be destroyed because it captured Islam’s third most sacred city and is the foremost ally of “Big Satan” America. The Iranian leader goes into detail about exactly how Israel should be annihilated, not by “classical wars” or “massacres of the Jews” but by means of a “long period of low-intensity warfare designed to make life impossible for a majority of Israeli Jews.” When he visited Beirut on Aug. 12, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zavad Zarif said it was necessary after the nuclear deal, to "confront the challenges of the region, the most important of which is the Zionist and extremist regime."

    Members of the Obama administration wave away these disclosures of Iranian intent as no more than letting off steam to pacify the hard-line opponents of the nuclear deal - US Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 24: “I also told them that their chants of Death to American and so forth are neither helpful and they’re pretty stupid.”

    But in Iran, the supreme leader’s words are treated as decrees demanding obedience. Indeed, at the first conference of the new Eastern Command, Gen. Soleimani read out passages from Khamenei’s book and told the officers that they were under orders to carry those decrees out to the letter.

    Attesting to the seriousness of Iran’s intent, Jmail Majdalani, PLO executive committee member and personal representative of Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, has arrived in Tehran. He is there to arrange his boss’s first visit in many years to the Iranian capital.

Russia and US Matching Wits in Syria

Aug. 18….(DEBKA) Six Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor aircraft from Moscow landed Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Mezze Airbase situated in Damascus international airport, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources disclose. They were followed shortly after by giant An-124 Condor transports, which delivered 1,000 Kornet-9M133 third-generation anti-tank guided missiles. The Russian airlift of advanced weapons for Bashar Assad’s army will last for several days. It betokens Moscow’s intention to keep up its support for the Syrian ruler and counter, by military means if necessary, any secret Iranian diplomatic machinations for terminating the Syria war and with it the Assad regime, such as have been reported in the past week in Western and Arab capitals, especially in the Gulf.

    Our sources report that the decision to send the Syrian ruler advanced aircraft and missiles could only have come from the top, i.e. President Vladimir Putin. It took direct aim at the latest moves made by the US, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia for ending the Syrian war. Every formula they came up with entailed Assad’s exit, either in stages or at once.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made it crystal clear to visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubair on Aug. 11 that Moscow would not stand still for any changes in Assad’s position in Damascus. The Migs and Antonovs which landed in Damascus Tuesday were meant not only as a buttress for the Syrian ruler’s regime but as a rescue operation.

    The message for Washington and Ankara was that Moscow would oppose any US and Turkish plans to establish a no-fly zone over Syria, or intervene directly in the Syrian conflict. The Russians sent exactly six MiG interceptors to match the six F-16 fighters the US deployed at the Turkish Incerlik air base on Aug. 9. So if President Barack Obama decides to deploy more American planes at the Turkish base, he may expect Putin to reciprocate with the same number for Damascus.

WEEK OF AUGUST 9 THROUGH AUGUST 15

The Assault On Donald Trump Shows That Our 2 Party System Is Really A 1 Party System

Aug. 10….(End of the American Dream) Were you sickened by the Republican debate the other night? The hype leading up to the debate was unbelievable. Never before had there been so much interest in a debate this early in an election season, and it turned out to be the most watched program on Fox News ever. A record-shattering 24 million Americans tuned in, and what they witnessed was an expertly orchestrated assault on Donald Trump. From the very first moments, every question that was launched at Trump was an “attack question”. And then the laughable “focus group” that followed was specifically designed to show that “ordinary people” were “changing their minds” about Trump. By the end of the evening, it was abundantly clear that Fox News had purposely intended to try to destroy Trump’s candidacy.

    And of course Fox News is far from alone. Every mainstream news outlet in the entire country is running anti-Trump news stories every single day. Virtually every other presidential candidate in both parties is attacking him, and virtually every “political expert” from across the political spectrum is trashing his chances of success. So why is this happening? Normally, candidates that are not part of the “establishment” do not pose much of a threat. In order to win elections in this country, especially on a national level, you need name recognition and you need lots and lots of money.  Donald Trump has both, and no matter what you may think of him you have to admit that he has star power. And he was never supposed to run for president. You see, the truth is that only members of “the club” are allowed to play. The elite very carefully groom their candidates, and they are usually able to maintain a very tight grip on both major political parties.

    This two-headed abomination that we call a “two party system” is in reality just a one party system. Yes, many Democrats and many Republicans really do hate one another, but at the end of the day there is very little difference between the two parties. That is why nothing ever really seems to change no matter who gets elected. George W. Bush continued almost all of Bill Clinton’s policies, and Barack Obama has continued almost all of George W. Bush’s policies. When they are running for office, they tell us what they think we want to hear, but once they get to D.C. they do exactly what the establishment wants them to do.

    Donald Trump, whether you love him or you hate him, is a threat to this system. He is not controlled by the elite, and he does and says all sorts of things that drive the elite absolutely nuts. If he was polling below 5 percent that wouldn’t be a problem. At first, the mainstream media attempted to portray him as a joke that would never get any real support.  But since then, Trump has proven that he is a serious candidate with some very serious ideas about how to fix this country.  Now that he is receiving far, far more support than the establishment choice (Jeb Bush), he must be destroyed. I can promise you right now that the Republican establishment will pull out every dirty trick in the book to keep Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination. And if Donald Trump runs as an independent, the elite will move heaven and earth to keep him out of the White House.

    This isn’t even just about Trump.  If Ben Carson starts getting too much support, he will be destroyed too. This is how presidential elections in America work. What we witnessed during the Fox News debate the other night was not an accident. The goal was to make Jeb Bush look good and to make Donald Trump look bad. The following comes from Mike Adams. But the one thing that really stood out was the total fraud of what Fox News pulled off. It was clear from the first five minutes that Fox News had pre-arranged softball questions for Jeb Bush to highlight his “heroic actions” and accomplishments. Meanwhile, the kinds of questions directed to Donald Trump were all thinly veiled accusations and insults, designed to attack Trump on issues that had nothing to do with running the country. The typical questions went something like this: (paraphrased)

Fox News: “Jeb Bush, how did you get to be such an amazing leader?”

Fox News: “Donald Trump, why do you hate women?”

    And a survey conducted by Time Magazine also produced these findings. Donald Trump got 47 percent, Ben Carson was in second place with 11 percent, and Jeb Bush got 4 percent. But Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee. Unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong for the Republican establishment, Jeb Bush is going to be the nominee. We have a system that is deeply, deeply broken and that does not reflect the will of the people. Our government does not reflect the will of the people and it hasn’t for a very long time. Instead, it reflects the will of the elite, and the American people are getting sick and tired of it. Right now, surveys show that Donald Trump has far more support than any other Republican candidate. But he is not going to be the Republican nominee. The Republican establishment will make sure of that.

Israel: Opposing Iran Deal ‘is not Meddling in US Affairs

(Jerusalem bitterly rejects president’s complaint of unacceptable intervention)

Aug. 10….(Times of Israel) An Israeli official reacted bitterly Monday to President Barack Obama’s criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ostensibly intervening in internal US affairs by opposing the Obama-backed nuclear deal with Iran.

    In a CNN interview broadcast Sunday, Obama said he could not recall a precedent for such intervention.  But a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the Iranian nuclear issue is not an internal American concern, but rather “has a direct and crucially important impact on Israel’s security.” Israel, said this official adamantly, “is not meddling in internal American affairs.” There was no official Israeli reaction to the Obama interview, however, with diplomatic sources in Jerusalem quoted as saying that Netanyahu had no desire to cause further friction in relations.

   In the CNN interview, when it was put it to Obama that Netanyahu has “injected himself forcefully” into the debate in Washington over the deal, the president said, “right.” Asked whether this was appropriate, the president responded: “I’ll let you ask Prime Minister Netanyahu that question if he gives you an interview,” then added: “I don’t recall a similar example.”

    Earlier Monday, Dore Gold, the Foreign Ministry director general and a confidant of Netanyahu, defended the prime minister’s approach. “We are looking at what the implications of the deal are,” he told Army Radio. “The prime minister has a duty to warn the US public and the world of the implications of the deal.” As an example, Gold pointed to the cash that will flow into Iran as internationally imposed sanctions are lifted in the wake of the deal. He argued that in there would be “$150 billion added to the Iranian coffers and from there transferred to the terror organizations surrounding Israel like Hamas and Hezbollah and groups in Syria.” Israel, he said, wants to highlight such ramifications of the deal in the hope that “in the internal debate in Congress and in the international debate between the US and its allies, they will raise these matters.”

   Gold asserted that Israel’s push against the deal within the US is an acceptable strategy. He noted that he had heard that deputy foreign ministers from Germany, Britain and France had also gone to Washington, where they spoke to congressmen about the deal. “Everyone is talking with everyone and we are part of that debate. That is just the way it is,” he said. “The idea that Israel can give its opinion in public appearances and television programs and even on Capitol Hill is a very legitimate thing.”

    Asked Monday morning in an Army Radio interview about how officials in Washington see Israel’s open campaign against the nuclear deal, US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said that “everyone has the right to express their opinion about the agreement.” Shapiro also clarified Obama’s apparent irritation over campaigns by US Jewish groups aimed at convincing members of Congress to vote against the Iran deal.

    During a two-hour meeting last week, Obama reportedly told Jewish leaders that newspaper ads and facts sheets put out by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group are “inaccurate” and that he has to spend nearly an hour to set the record straight with every legislator that AIPAC has approached. Although he acknowledged he wasn’t at the meeting himself, Shapiro explained that “it is clear that he [Obama] wants the debate, the discussion, the dialogue to be based on the facts of the agreement. So he is trying to convince everyone first of all that it is a good deal but also focus the discussion based on facts of the agreement. “In every political debate there are examples of exaggeration and inaccurate facts. Sometimes people don’t understand how certain parts of the deal work.”

   Israel’s security is “sacrosanct” to Washington, Obama also said in the CNN interview, as he pledged to overcome American political opposition to the recently struck deal with Iran over its nuclear program. “I don’t intend to lose on this,” he said, referring to the battle between the administration and a Republican-dominated Congress over the Iran deal.

WEEK OF AUGUST 2 THROUGH AUGUST 8

News flash for Obama: With or Without a Nuclear Deal, Hizballah’s Iranian Missiles Threaten Tel Aviv

Aug. 6….(DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis) President Barack Obama missed the point when he warned the 22 Jewish leaders he invited to the White House Tuesday, Aug. 3, that if Congress strikes down the Iranian nuclear deal, ”Hizballah rockets will rain down on Tell Aviv,” not on New York, and that Iran would “arm and land proxies on Israel’s borders.” Both these menaces have been fully active for years, and never related to any kind of nuclear diplomacy. For nine years, from the 2006 Lebanese war and up to the July 2014 Gaza operation, missiles and rockets supplied by Iran have repeatedly rained down on Israeli population centers. As time went by, the missiles became more precise and sophisticated. Terrorist attacks staged by Hizballah at Tehran’s behest are not unknown either. Therefore, Obama’s warning to the Jewish leaders does not stand up to the test of logic or reliable intelligence. Furthermore, as the president spoke, the contention that the nuclear accord will keep Israel and the Middle East at large safe, including from the danger of missiles, was belied.

   Debkafile’s military sources report that, at that very moment on Aug. 3, Hizballah units under the command of Iranian officers were firing heavy Iranian Zelzal 3 surface missiles at Syrian rebels barricaded for more than a month in the Syrian town of Zabadani, just 200km from Tel Aviv and even less, 140km, from Israel’s heavy industrial town of Haifa.  Zelzal, a proud product of Iran’s munitions industry, has an optimal range of 200km, which can be extended to 250km, by reducing its payload from 600 to 500 kg.  Israel is familiar with the deadly capabilities of the Zelzal, because it was fired by Hamas on Nov. 20, 2012 the last day of the last Gaza operation. It exploded and razed a whole built-up street in Rishon Letzion, a town situated 14 km south of Tel Aviv and 9.3 km from Israel’s only international airport at Lod.

    On Jan 18, this year, Israel’s air force struck a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah officers as they prepared to set up military quarters and missile pads on the Syrian Golan within shouting distance of IDF border defenses. The above partial catalogue of Iranian and Hizballah aggression was perpetrated alongside negotiations in Geneva and Vienna for a comprehensive nuclear accord with Tehran. It is therefore obvious that Israel faces an Iranian-Hizballah missile threat today, as it did yesterday, and probably also tomorrow, regardless of whether the US Congress endorses or throws out President Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran. He might have made a difference to this grim reality if US negotiators had stipulated that the deal include the lifting of the Iranian missile peril hanging over Israel and that Tehran’s waive its standing threat to destroy the Jewish state. But as things stand now, this particular argument in support of his nuclear deal with Iran is an irrelevancy. 

Ayatollah Calling to Wipe out Israel, Give Iran full Reign in the Middle East

(Iran’s "supreme leader" talks of his apartheid plan against Israeli Jews, Iranian ploys against Israel and discusses that the Holocaust didn't happen, all while insisting he is not anti-Semitic.)

Aug. 4….Jerusalem Post) The supreme leader of Iran is apparently now an aspiring author but one thing is for sure: this is no love story. According to a report on Saturday in the New York Post, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's new book Palestine outlines his case for why Israel must be wiped out and how. "The solution is a one-state formula," he writes, which is called "Palestine." He said this "practical and logical mechanism" would have Israel under Muslim rule with some Jews being allowed to stay as a "protected minority" but only after proving "genuine roots." He advocates strict apartheid against Jews saying that they would not be allowed to vote in a future Muslim state while Arabs would have full rights. He claims that his plan would promote "the hegemony of Iran" while removing "the West's hegemony" from the Middle East.

    Khamenei, who is described in the book as "the flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem," wrote that his views are not anti-Semitic but Islamic and based on "well-established Islamic principles." This goes on the opinion in Islam that land which was once owned by Muslims can never be ruled by non-Muslims again. Along with Israel, this also includes Russia, many parts of Europe, Thailand, India and parts of China and the Philippines. However, Khamenei singles Israel out as an adou [enemy], doshman [foe] and a "cancerous tumor" for several reasons, the first of which is for being an "ally of the American Great Satan" which is waged in a war to overtake "the heartland of the Ummah [nation]."  Second, he says Israel is singled out because of his claim that it has waged a war on Muslims and therefore has become a kaffir al-harbi [hostile infidel]. Third, he claims that Israel "occupies" Jerusalem and calls it "Islam's third Holy City."

    Khamenei says his plan entails low-intensity warfare based on wearing down the patience of Israelis and the international community. He writes that this plan does not entail "classical warfare" and he supposedly does not want to kill Jews. His plan goes on the assumption that all Israelis have dual citizenship and would rather live in the US or Europe.  He recommends therefore to make life in Israel so uncomfortable that they leave voluntarily to avoid threats on them. He then describes using the tactic of "Israel fatigue" wherein the international community would decide to stop supporting Israel's military programs.

    Another section of the book boasted past Iran-supported warfare against Israel using examples from Gaza and Lebanon. He writes that he aims to recruit West Bank "fighters" in units modeled after Hezbollah. “We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006 and in the 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip." Though he doesn't reference an Iranian nuclear program directly, he mentions that a nuclear Iran would be able to deter Israel from taking any military action against the Islamic republic.

    Referring to the Holocaust, Khamenei called it a "propaganda ploy" and writes that "we don't know why it happened and how."

Russia Supports a ‘Permanent’ Home for Palestinians

Aug. 4….(Times of Israel) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of the Hamas terror group, in Doha Monday and offered to help the Palestinians in their pursuit of statehood. “We would like to see the Palestinians have their permanent home,” Lavrov said, according to Russian media reports, adding that Moscow would be working toward that goal.  “We hope that with assistance from Russia and the whole world, this dream will come true,” Mashaal responded. During the meeting, the two discussed the possibility of reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and what Mashaal termed Israel’s “violation of Christian and Muslim holy sites.” Mashaal also presented Lavrov with a survey showing the living conditions of Gaza residents one year after the group’s devastating war with Israel. Lavrov invited Mashaal to Moscow to continue the discussion f the Palestinian statehood initiatives.

Five Consequences of America's Moral Collapse

Aug. 4….(Townhall) Americans have become so “non-judgmental” that many people can no longer tell the difference between good and evil. We congratulate ourselves for being “nicer,” more sensitive and less prejudiced than past generations of Americans, but we don’t stop to consider how much more there is to morality than that. An America that isn’t full of good people won’t remain a good nation, nor will it remain strong and free over the long haul. Our country’s lack of morality has real consequences that are capable of eventually sinking us as a nation.

1) The Collapse Of Marriage:  There used to be quite a bit of social stigma attached to getting a divorce or having a child out of wedlock. That’s no longer true and consequences for society have been horrific. Although there is some dispute about the numbers, roughly 40% of marriages now end in divorce and “half of all children born to women under 30 in America now are illegitimate. Three in 10 white children are born out of wedlock, as are 53 percent of Hispanic babies and 73 percent of black babies.” That’s important because children raised without a mother AND a father are statistically worse off in just about every area imaginable. "Controlling for socioeconomic status, race, and place of residence, the strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is that he was raised by a single parent. By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy-two percent of juvenile murderers and 60 percent of rapists come from single-mother homes. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents, and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced. A 1990 study by the Progressive Policy Institute showed that after controlling for single motherhood, the difference between black and white crime rates disappeared.

    Various studies have come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. According to the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, children from single-parent families account for 63 percent of all youth suicides, 70 percent of all teenage pregnancies, 71 percent of all adolescent chemical/substance abuse, 80 percent of all prison inmates, and 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children.

    A study cited in the Village Voice produced similar numbers. It found that children brought up in single-mother homes ‘are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home.’ Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and social outcasts."

    Instead of trying to reverse the crippling damage being done to our country by the collapse of marriage, we’ve chosen to degrade it even further by allowing same sex unions, soon to be followed by polygamous unions that will degrade the institution ever further. If it’s true that marriage is the bedrock of society, then our nation’s house is built on sand.

2) Crime: Despite the fact that China and India have populations four times our size, it’s stunning that America has the largest prison population on Earth. Not coincidentally, America’s once sky-high crime rate dropped as massive numbers of criminals were locked away. Bizarrely, many people talk about crime as if it’s divorced from morality. We hear about a supposed “rape culture,” school shootings, the “Knockout Game,” child abuse, etc., etc., etc. without making the obvious connection to morals. Good kids aren’t raping anybody, assaulting strangers to prove they’re tough or shooting up movie theaters unless they’re mentally ill. Kids who are taught about good and evil, right and wrong, patriotism, chivalry and honor are going to make mistakes. A few of them will even turn out to be bad apples. However, full though our prisons may be, they are not full of God-fearing men. They’re full of people who are morally adrift.

3) Poor Government: America seems to be becoming progressively less governable and there are many reasons for that. Government has become too big to effectively manage, both parties have moved away from the center, gerrymandering has decreased the power of voters and increased the power of special interest groups, we could go on and on. Despite the fact that it’s seldom discussed, one of the biggest factors is the dishonesty of our own politicians. How does that play a role? Well, it’s impossible to cut any kind of meaningful long-term deal on taxes, spending, immigration or any other big issue because neither party can be trusted to stick to a deal. Politicians lie to the voters, they lie to the other party and they even lie to their colleagues on the same side of the aisle.

    Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, was entirely built on lies. Hillary Clinton has been caught lying more times than Pinocchio, and it’s not much different for the GOP leadership in Congress. Today, as I write this, Ted Cruz has stepped to the Senate floor to call out Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for lying to his own caucus. On the one hand, it’s extraordinarily difficult to govern a nation without long term planning, but how do you plan for the future when no politician’s word means anything?

4) Dependence: Americans have traditionally been some of the most self-reliant people on the face of the earth. People used to be ashamed to be on the dole even if they felt like they had no other choice. Judging by the numbers we see today, that’s no longer true. More than 1/3 of the population, 109 million Americans, are on welfare. That’s more people than there are in the four most populous states in America (California, Texas, New York and Florida) COMBINED. More than 45 million Americans are receiving food stamps. Nearly 11 million Americans, a number larger than the population of Greece, are on disability.

    Does anyone care how many of these people are legitimately having hard times and need a little temporary assistance to get back on their feet versus how many are parasites who are looting the system? It certainly doesn’t seem like it. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people who even feel bad about being on the dole either. In fact, it’s probably more of a social faux pas to suggest that people should feel bad about living off other people’s labor than it is to sponge off the taxpayers without regret. That’s why it’s not just an economic problem, it’s a moral problem and it’s one that is likely to get larger as a smaller and smaller share of workers are asked to shoulder the load for people who don’t work for a living.

5) Lack Of Civility And Manners: The great Samuel Adams once said, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

    Between the anonymity of the Internet, the crudity of much of modern music and TV along with our bad habit of rewarding every reality show star and jackass with 15 minutes of fame as long as they’re willing to go to any lengths to catch our attention, we’ve become a crass, rude and obnoxious culture. We live in a country that often rewards sarcasm instead of wisdom, rudeness instead of insight and the squeaky wheel instead of the farsighted patriot. You’re more likely to get your way in America if you claim to be angry, offended or can just make enough noise on social media than if you’re plain old right. How well is that working out for our country?