Is the Iranian Regime Finally Falling?

There are growing signs of cracks in the Iranian regime, with increasing reports of defections as Iran continues its deadly crackdown on nationwide, anti-government protests despite a US military buildup in the region.

Hundreds of junior and mid-level officers have recently defected from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated Basij paramilitary force, Israel’s channel 12 reported on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence sources.

Such a development could weaken the regime’s ability to suppress the demonstrations.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly ordered the IRGC to take control of the crackdown in part due to fears of defections by the police and regular armed forces.

“He [Khamenei] is in closer contact with the IRGC than with the army or the police, because he believes the risk of IRGC defections is almost non-existent, whereas others have defected before,” a senior Iranian official told The Telegraph. “He has placed his fate in the hands of the IRGC.”

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the regular Iranian military “is generally less ideological and more representative of the Iranian population than the IRGC, which increases the risk that [army] members could defect.”

However, there have been additional signs that the IRGC, an internationally designated terrorist group, could be dealing with internal dissent.

The Intelligence Organization of the IRGC issued a statement earlier this month castigating the protests as part of a “terrorist” plot orchestrated by the US and Israel to topple the regime. In a now-deleted section of the statement, the IRGC also warned that any “defiance, desertion, or disobedience” among the military would be met with “trial and decisive action.”

“The apparent removal of this language likely reflects concerns about triggering a panic, but it nevertheless exposes the depth of anxiety among regime officials,” wrote Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank based in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization also said that it was “dealing with possible acts of abandonment,” similarly suggesting that some Iranian security forces may have already defected or that the regime is concerned about such a possibility.

A Kurdish human rights organization reported earlier this month that the regime had arrested “dozens” of security officers in Kermanshah City who refused to fire on protesters.

Meanwhile, multiple Iranian officials outside the security forces have openly defected.

An official serving in Iran’s Interior Ministry told the news outlet Iran International that he has defected from his post and joined the protests, urging US President Donald Trump to intervene against the Islamic Republic.

Iran International also reported that Alireza Jiranieh Hokambad, a minister-counselor and the second highest-ranking official at Iran’s UN mission in Geneva, has defected and sought political asylum in Switzerland.

Wikipedia becomes global arena for poisoning knowledge, especially about Israel

Ella Kenan (co-founder of the organization Here4Good, she leads content creation and research on the impact of foreign actors on public opinion through social networks and artificial intelligence models, and on exposing disinformation campaigns and networks.))

a comment

This week, Wikipedia marks 25 years since its founding. It once symbolized the internet’s great promise: free, collaborative knowledge accessible to all. But in 2026, that dream is steadily unraveling. Wikipedia is no longer just an information repository. It has become an ideological battleground in which organized interest groups succeed in distorting, deleting and rewriting history, sometimes in a systematic and deliberate way.

If you think Wikipedia is just another website that has become less relevant in the age of AI, you are missing one of the most dangerous arenas of influence of our time. It is among the most visited websites in the world, with between 3.5 and 4 billion visits a month, and a source that almost always appears at the top of Google search results. Beyond that, Wikipedia is one of the central knowledge sources on which artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT are trained. The implication is clear: a distortion or outright falsehood that takes root in a Wikipedia entry does not stay there. It is replicated and spread through AI engines and quickly becomes “knowledge” in the eyes of millions of users worldwide, who use it on social media, in academic work and as general reference. In this sense, Wikipedia is now one of the most influential mechanisms for poisoning knowledge  in the digital age.

This is a real danger to states, communities and public figures. It is important to stress that this is not a legitimate dispute between differing opinions, but the erasure of documented history and the spread of false narratives under a veneer of “neutrality.”

English-language entries dealing with the State of Israel, Zionism, Jewish history and archaeology in the Land of Israel have undergone systematic rewriting. Behind the scenes, organized groups promote a specific narrative, delete established facts and block editors who try to introduce balance, sometimes through votes that lead to articles being locked.

This is not a theory. It is a documented reality. Only recently, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s co-founder, addressed the English-language entry “Gaza genocide” and acknowledged that it was locked for editing due to severe bias and failure to meet the site’s standards. Editors who tried to balance the content found themselves removed or silenced. When it comes to the number of casualties in Gaza, Wikipedia states that the figure reaches about 680,000 people, a number that even Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is fully controlled by Hamas, does not claim.

There are many other troubling examples. Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, is not defined on English Wikipedia as a city in any country, but as a city in the “southwestern Levant.” Even after Wales’ personal intervention, the biased definition returned.

Beyond this, there is a systematic erasure of Jewish history. The historical connection to the Jewish people to Israel was erased, and the narrative reshaped.

For full article go to https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/rkn0tawrwx

Fake Western Morality Fueled by Qatari Money

The article below should be read world wide. It is beyond belief the the West cannot see how rapidly they are losing control to the Islamic tsunnami

DAVID BEN-BASAT

Europe and the United States present themselves as the moral compass of the free world, speaking loftily about human rights, universal justice, and the rule of law. But behind this pseudo-values facade lies a far more troubling reality: selective morality, political fear, economic interests, and big money that dictates the limits of acceptable discourse.

Since Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, Western hypocrisy has been exposed in full force, in a way that can no longer be ignored.

When the State of Israel defends its citizens against a murderous terrorist organization, it is portrayed as an aggressive state, an oppressive power, and a global moral problem.

By contrast, Islamic terrorism, the murder of civilians, the kidnapping of children, and the rape of women are met with rationalizations and at times even justifications, often cloaked in academic language. This is not a mistake. It is a method.

The new antisemitism is no longer confined to street chants and Nazi symbols. It wears a suit, sits on international panels, lectures at universities, publishes in prestigious media outlets, and stars on human rights committees. Alongside hatred of Jews as individuals, it targets the State of Israel as a collective. The delegitimization of the Jewish state has become a “respectable” way to express an ancient hatred in modern, sophisticated language.

Influence of Qatari funding

To understand the depth of the decay, one must look at the sources of funding. For years, billions of dollars have flowed from Qatar into Western academic institutions, primarily in the United States and Europe. These are not innocent donations to science and education but a strategic investment. This money buys silence, reshapes curricula, influences public discourse, and grants legitimacy to anti-Western and anti-Israel narratives.

Prestigious universities, which should serve as beacons of critical thinking, have become arenas of indoctrination. Under the banner of “progressivism,” students are exposed to a one-sided narrative in which Israel is to blame and terrorism is “understandable.”

Professors who attempt to present a more complex view are marginalized. Jewish students are silenced and at times even threatened. This is not academic freedom. It is moral corruption financed by foreign money.

Qatar, a country that is not democratic, does not respect basic human rights, funds Islamist movements, and hosts terrorist leaderships, has managed to influence Western discourse more than any democratic state. And the West remains silent, not out of principle but because of contracts, investments, economic dependence, and fear.

The silence of the West

Europe, in particular, suffers from deep hypocrisy. Countries that lecture Israel on morality struggle to confront Islamic radicalization within their own borders. They fear the streets, immigrants, and violence. It is easier to point an accusing finger at Israel than to deal with failures at home. Israel becomes a convenient scapegoat.

In the United States as well, especially among the younger generation, a simplistic and dangerous worldview is taking root. The world is divided into “oppressors” and “oppressed.” Israel is automatically placed on the oppressor side, while Hamas is granted moral immunity as a “resistance movement.” This is the intellectualization of murder, a process generously funded by Qatari money.

Another troubling dimension has emerged. The new antisemitism has found Jewish partners. Marginal anti-Zionist groups provide the West with a convenient alibi. The most prominent among them is Neturei Karta, a tiny and unrepresentative extremist Jewish sect that opposes Zionism and the State of Israel on radical ideological grounds. Their very existence is cynically exploited: “If there are Jews who oppose Israel, then anything goes.” Thus, fringe elements become tools in the hands of Israel’s enemies.

This phenomenon has now crossed the boundaries of religious extremism and reached the political mainstream. The election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York is seen by many in the Jewish community as a symbol of a broader trend: the rise of politicians identified with anti-Zionist rhetoric and support for boycotts of Israel.

When the city that is home to the largest Jewish community in the world chooses leadership associated with such positions, this is not merely a political event.

The West demands standards from Israel that it does not demand from any other country. It preaches morality while having destroyed cities in Iraq and Afghanistan. It speaks of proportionality, yet lost it long ago. And it is willing to sell its values for gas contracts, investments, and massive donations.

Ultimately, this is not only an attack on Israel. It is a profound moral failure of the West itself. A society that allows foreign money to corrupt its institutions, silence free criticism, and enable a new form of antisemitism to flourish forfeits its right to preach morality to others.

A society willing to remain silent in the face of funded terrorism and murderous ideology has no moral compass. When they finally realize they are losing their countries to radical Islamists, they may wake up, but it will likely be too late.

The author is CEO of Radios 100FM, honorary consul and deputy dean of the consular Diplomatic corps, president of the Israeli Radio Communications Association, former IDF Radio correspondent, and former NBC television reporter.

Is Trump Abandoning the Courageous Iranians – Again?

 Robert Williams  •  January 16, 2026 

• Despite encouraging Iran's protesters to carry on and assuring them that American "help is on its way," Trump has done nothing to compel the regime to permanently stop the killing or its other atrocities.
• The question becomes: Is Trump actually going to leave these psychopaths in power and effectively thwart the brave, unarmed Iranians from ridding themselves of an armed government that has been suppressing, torturing and slaughtering them in the streets over the past 47 years?
• For reasons that are entirely unclear, Trump already has a history, unfortunately, of rescuing the Iranian regime -- called by the US State Department 39 years in a row, since 1984 the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
• Trump first said he did not want regime change in Iran; then posted that he might want regime change if it could "Make Iran Great Again: MIGA!!!", before turning around, yet again, and reimposing the ceasefire. Trump also seems constantly to be "forgetting" that Iran has been attacking the US since 1979...
• Every US adversary -- from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Chinese President Xi Jinping -- can now assume that the Trump administration, while giving diplomacy so much of a chance that it is effectively no help at all, is primarily just huffing and puffing, while every US ally can now assume that the US no longer can be trusted.
• The Trump administration's dawdling appears virtually the same as that of President Joe Biden.... Such acoustics with no follow-up destroy US deterrence and paint the Trump administration as weak and dithering at a time when the future of American preeminence is at stake. That is a terrible look.

The Silence of the Lambs

 Well not lambs but sheep. The useful idiots, the marchers, the students, the lefties, the feminists, the UN and NGOs and the luvvies.

Where are you all Zarah Sultana, Francesca Albanese, Antonio Guteras, Gary Linekar, Miriam Margoles,Olivia Coleman, most of Hollywood, Eric Clapton, Kneecap, Paloma Faith.Oh and Greta

Where have you gone? It is the Middle East and there is resistance against a harsh regime. The people have had enough and deserve at least a slogan or a nifty worded banner. They deserve airtime on the BBC and protests on our streets. Schoolchildren need to walk out in support and there should be aid concerts.

Where are the Jeremy Corbyn’s and all those Gaza independent Mos elected on concern for the oppressed on another continent. This is oppressed people arising .where are the hashtags and all eyes on Iran on social media.

Surely you meant every word when you told us you were on the right side, the side of the oppressed and downtrodden. Against the evil oppressors .

Did I miss something? Did you all go on holiday? Surely you meant every word and had thought it through and researched situations and history when you came out in support of Palestine, and Hamas. Surely you were only doing it because you believed that these people needed your help.

Surely the same applies to the people rising up against an Islamist regime in Iran, or Venezuela. Surely you can see how much this regime has promoted terror with the help of its proxies and destroyed a once vibrant country and surely these people need you now.

No, nothing, no chants, placards, comments on Tik Tok, no face coverings and headbands, no passionate speeches or pleading with our government to help. Have we gone deaf?

How strange. One might be led to think it was never about Palestinians in the last few years. Wonder what it was really about????? The Jews?? Surely not.

 

Resilience Par Excellence

 

Wheelchair-bound Elisha to the rescue

A first-year student was driving on Israel’s Highway 6 at 2am when she had a flat in one of the tyres. She got out of the car, and tried unsuccessfully to stop passing drivers for help. Suddenly, one car stopped. It was Elisha Maidan and his family.

Elisha had both legs amputated as a result of injuries in the war, and recently received the Resilience Medal from Chemdat Academic College. Elisha’s wife Miri took the wheelchair out of the car, Elisha sat in it, and personally changed the tyre for the grateful student.

 

Christmas Tree Set on Fire

Jenin, Church of Deir Al-Latin:
The Christmas tree was set on fire yesterday.