Learn the Basics to Understand Why We Are at War

 Rawan Osman, escaped from the Middle East and settled in the USA.

She writes:- Over Shabbat dinner last Friday in Las Vegas, a sweet lady turned to me and said: "So Rawan, your mother tongue is Farsi, right?"

I looked at her, speechless. Finally I said, "Why would it be? I'm half Syrian, half Lebanese. Arabic is my mother tongue." I would have thought that since 9/11, Americans knew Arabic is a language: the language of the Quran and of the Arab world.

Political Islam destroyed the Middle East we escaped from, and it intends to take over the West where we settled. Every once in a while, a horrific attack makes the news. We watch the culture transform. We watch our backs, and we watch what our children are taught.

October 7 was a declaration of war on Western civilization. Yet most people still struggle to understand why the US attacked Iran. They can't connect the dots, not even between Hamas and the IRGC, or between Qatar and progressive students' support for the Palestinian cause. The masses are enchanted, and they are opening the doors to the enemy voluntarily. Across from the Bundestag, a German throws his flag on the ground and raises the Palestinian flag in its place. Across Europe, feminists side with the misogynistic regime in Iran.

And in our bastion of freedom, the United States, Mamdani is mayor of New York and El-Sayed has just been elected the first Muslim senator in American history. Many Michigan Jews refused to vote for him. But nearly six in ten of those who voted early still did. Atheists are siding with jihadists.

Since October 7, I have spent endless nights in dusty hotels around the world instead of in my comfortable home with my child. We are at war, and I owe him a fight for his future, and for the future of his children and their children. I am doing all I can to share my insights, raise awareness and say out loud what many won't. Including hundreds of hours on planes, in trains, on hair and make up. Trivialities, logistics, emails and comments.

So help me, will you? Since we are at war, at least take the time to learn the basics, so you can understand what is happening around us, to us, and ultimately to future generations.

Learn about political Islam and its history. Learn about the feud between Sunnis and Shia. Learn what happened in Iran in 1979. Learn about the Jews: their relationship with the Prophet Muhammad, their Temple, their Jerusalem. Learn about Al-Aqsa and why Islamists are obsessed with that mosque.

If I couldn't be bothered to learn, I would have supported the Palestinian cause. It's simple, easy, convenient and popular. It's also dangerous, because in the name of the Palestinian cause we will be stripped of basic freedoms you take for granted. If you don’t learn, sooner or later, you will lose the luxury of ignorance. By then, lamenting won't help.

"Genocide" in the Gaza Strip

6,174 births in the Gaza Strip in the past October, according to official data from the Hamas Ministry of Interior.

Further, 202 deaths were recorded in the Strip during this month.

This is a 12% increase in the number of births in the Strip compared to August of this year.

The population growth in the Strip continues at a rapid pace. This is not what an area experiencing genocide looks like!

Israel Not Restricting Winter Supplies To Gaza

 

The IDF in response to international criticism regarding the humanitarian 

situation in Gaza with the arrival of winter state:

Preparations for winter in the Gaza Strip continue: over 91,000 tents 

and more than 8,200 trucks carrying winter supplies; tarpaulins, blankets, 

winter clothing, and additional supplies have 

been brought into the Strip

While Hamas refuses to disarm and continues to exploit the civilian

space and humanitarian aid for terrorist purposes, the IDF and 

COGAT are proactively working to improve the humanitarian 

response in the Gaza Strip ahead of winter.

In recent months, the IDF and COGAT have been advancing 

a preparedness plan in coordination with the Peace Council and 

in cooperation with the UN, international organizations, 

and donor countries.

Coming to a City Near You

 

UNRWA to be Shut Down?

 

The newspaper Israel Hayom reported, citing Arab and Western diplomatic sources, that a plan for the gradual closure of UNRWA and the transfer of its powers and activities to the Peace Council will be presented.

According to the sources, the plan is led by the Acting UNRWA Commissioner, Christian Saunders, and involves the gradual transfer of the organization's tasks to other entities, such as the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Peace Council in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting of UNRWA's Advisory Commission, Saunders presented the plan, linking it to the organization's difficult financial situation and the possibility of transferring a large part of its activities to relevant entities.

UNRWA's deficit for this year has reached between $70 million and $100 million, which is approximately equivalent to one-tenth of its annual operational budget.

The first steps to implement the plan have been approved, but this is drawing fierce opposition from the Palestinian leadership, which fears losing a key political tool in its conflict with Israel—namely, the "refugees" institution, according to the newspaper.

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recently held a meeting in Ramallah and also invited representatives of the UNRWA Workers' Union to attend.

During the meeting, it was decided that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority would work to thwart the plan, as closing UNRWA requires the approval of the United Nations General Assembly, and criticisms were directed at Saunders on the grounds that he was acting with political motives.

At a meeting of the organization's international committee held a few days ago in Amman, the capital of Jordan, a number of Western country representatives opposed the plan, including Switzerland and Ireland. Egypt also joined the opposition, while other Gulf states did not.

The Irish representative announced that he would work to find alternative funding sources for the organization in order to cancel the closure and prevent the initial steps, which include the layoff of thousands of Palestinian workers.

The newspaper learned that talks between UNRWA and the Peace Council have laid the groundwork for mechanisms to transfer authority and activity in two main areas: education and health, two fields for which the Peace Council had been preparing for over a year as part of Trump's plan for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Why Trump Lost the Mid-Terms

 Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary during the Bush administration, in reply to a post published by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, in which he noted that the war in Iran and relations with Israel were at the heart of the Republicans' loss in the midterm elections. This post, which garnered 3.7 million views within ten hours:

a) "Mr. Vice President, Allow me to present a different perspective.

The problem was not the war in Iran. The problem was the ceasefire.

If you start a war, you must win it and bring it to a conclusion. Otherwise, don't start it in the first place.

This war should have ended six months ago, when the Strait of Hormuz was completely open and oil was flowing freely. The second- and third-tier leadership in Iran should have been eliminated, and support given to the pro-Western forces who could have seized power. We stood on the threshold of a new and more peaceful Middle East, but at the decisive moment, we hesitated. We had a chance not only to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but also to get rid of the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

Instead, we reached a ceasefire, followed by months of uncertainty over whether we would finish the job or not. Every day, a different message was conveyed, and that's still the case today. Has the war ended? Is it about to start again? No one knows. Confusion and inconsistency prevail.

In June 2025, the United States was not involved. It was a confrontation between Israel and Iran.

No one forced the United States to strike Iran then, nor in February 2026. That was a decision made by President Trump. In my opinion, it was the right decision.

Once the decision was made, we should not have stopped until the regime was overthrown. But instead, you negotiated a ceasefire that did not hold, did not achieve its goal, and left us in a limbo, with no resolution, higher costs, and our forces still deployed in the field.

Our soldiers could already have returned home, the navy could have gone back to its bases, a peace-seeking regime could have risen in Iran, new alliances could have been forged, and the price of gasoline could have dropped below three dollars per gallon.

No, Mr. Vice President. The problem is not the war. The problem is what is called 'the ceasefire.'"

 

b) The Lebanese Shiite journalist, Nadim Koteish (CEO of Sky News), also writes in a similar vein – you lost the elections because you refused to defeat Iran.

“The Republican Party did not lose the midterm elections because it fought Iran. It lost because it refused to win the war.

J.D. Vance presented the memorandum of understanding signed in June as a victory: the Strait of Hormuz is open, fuel prices are dropping, and the nuclear program has been dismantled. But within weeks, everything collapsed. The war continued, prices remained high, and voters punished the Republicans for the tangible cost of the partial move.

A basic rule in poker: when you have a strong hand and you don’t go all in, even a weaker hand might win the pot.

That’s exactly what happened. The choice not to go all the way, and not the war itself, is what cost the Republicans control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.”

Israel Is Just the Pretext, The Real Target is the West

 (With thanks to Bassam Tawil)

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22941/israel-is-pretext-target-is-west

Why should anyone expect peace between the Palestinians and Israel while

a) Palestinian leaders glorify terrorism and armed groups continue to attack Israelis?

b) the Iranian regime is standing on its feet and supporting the jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel?

c) the continuing willingness of Palestinians to celebrate violence against Israelis while presenting terrorism as supposedly legitimate national resistance.

Israel is just the pretext. If you think that a Palestinian state, or an election defeat of the Israeli Prime Minister or even the disappearance of Israel itself — would solve anything, you would be wrong. What the West is up against is the desire of Muslim extremists, with a leg-up from Marxists, to overthrow the "corrupt" West and replace it with Islamic Sharia law and eventually global caliphate. Only after this transformation will the world have the "peace" part of the "Religion of Peace." Until then, as the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, vowed, "there will be struggle" (lit. jihad).

Reference the riots taking place in so many countries, a few clearly terrified leaders in the West  might think that if there were a Palestinian state, it might keep the mob quiet for a while. Yes, until breakfast. That is also why US President Donald Trump should not make a "deal" with the rulers of Iran.   

 1)     Hamas and other likeminded jihadists have no problem murdering civilians — whether in the US on 9/11, the London transit system, the Barcelona and Madrid attacks, Paris's Bataclan Theater, Nice on Bastille Day, German Christmas Markets, the Manchester concert or anywhere else.

2)        2)     Iran's regime has recently slaughtered more than 36,500 of its own citizens, and continues to kill — so why should they care if they inflict the same horrors on anyone else?

3)        3)     Palestinian factions such as Hamas and PIJ, like the protesters throughout the West, continue to regard violence as a source of pride and a means of advancing their primary objective — in Israel, the elimination of the "Zionist entity" (Israel), and in the rest of the world, overthrowing man-made (as opposed to Allah-made) infidel democracies.

4)        4)     The silence of the Palestinian Authority — and other Arab and Muslim leaders — is also significant.

Israel's countermeasures have indeed caused hardship for local residents. Where, though, is any denunciation of the attacks that caused Israel's security response?

The Palestinian people have been put — by their own leaders — in a horrible position of bearing the consequences of terrorist attacks while the Palestinian organizations that praise the attackers present themselves as champions of the people. They are not. Like the ruling butchers of Iran, they are holding the Palestinians and other Muslims hostage. If these captives hope to live, they cannot even protest.

The Palestinian Authority is frequently described by Western leaders and governments as a potential partner for peace. However, the Palestinian Authority is part of the problem; it is not the solution. Its long-standing policy of paying monthly stipends to Palestinian terrorists who murder or wound Jews ("Pay-for-Slay") makes it as rotten as Iran's Palestinian terrorist proxies – Hamas and PIJ, or all the other terrorist groups whether Al-Qaeda, ISIS or Antifa.

The international community might begin to understand that peace requires more than diplomatic declarations and initiatives, ceasefires, and promises of Palestinian statehood, especially for self-declared terrorists. Peace requires a total rejection of terrorism, of the people organizing it, of those who carry it out, and it requires a political leadership willing to put the lives and future of ordinary Palestinians — and innocent civilians whoever they are — ahead of the interests of terrorists and of their own incompetent political careers.