Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times Bestselling Author of 'The Secrets of the FBI,' 'The First Family Detail,' and the 'CIA at War.'

The US Air Force has quietly deployed missiles that could destroy the electronics of Iran's nuclear facilities with high-power microwaves, rendering them useless, without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing's Phantom Works for the US Air Force Research Laboratory and first tested successfully in 2012. They were deployed—meaning installed in various locations around the globe—and became operational in 2019.

This comes as Israel has conducted strikes in Iran in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault earlier this week, defying US President's warning that more attacks could plunge the Middle East further into conflict.

Mary Lou Robinson, then chief of the High Power Microwave Division of the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, previously confirmed to DailyMail.com that 20 CHAMP missiles were operational and ready to take out any military target, including nuclear facilities.

When asked for comment, Othana Zuch, an Air Force Research Laboratory public affairs officer, said that while 'operational security precludes us from discussing specific operational applications for our technologies,' the CHAMP missiles were considered a demonstration program and 'we have since continued to develop advanced HPEM (High Power Electromagnetic) technologies' building on the original demonstration.

The microwave weapons are fitted into an air-launched cruise missile and delivered from B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly into enemy airspace at low altitude and emit sharp pulses of high power microwave (HPM) energy that fry computer chips, disabling any electronic devices targeted by the missiles without causing any collateral damage.

The missile is equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon. This uses a super-powerful microwave oven to generate a concentrated beam of energy. The energy causes voltage surges in electronic equipment, rendering them useless before surge protectors have the chance to react.

The project has been advancing secretly ever since the Air Force successfully tested a missile equipped with HPM in 2012.

In the test, the CHAMP missile flew over a two-story building on the Utah Test and Firing Range.

The building in the west Utah desert was crammed with computers and security and surveillance systems. The microwaves took down the compound's entire spectrum of electronic systems, including video cameras set up to film the test, without damaging anything else.

'We hit every target we wanted to,' Boeing's CHAMP Program Manager Keith Colman said in a company press release then. 'Today we made science fiction into science fact.'

Until the announcement of the successful test, the project had been top secret. When it was announced, only a few trade publications ran the story.

Since then, beyond several dozen stories in December 2017 when the missiles were still non-operational, the media beyond DailyMail.com have ignored the story.

Because of sequestration budget cuts, the CHAMP missiles did not become operational under the Obama administration.

But after I emailed then Trump National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster in August 2017 information about CHAMP that I was about to include in my book 'The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game,' McMaster thanked me for letting him know about the capability which he was not aware of, agreed to an interview, and ordered a briefing from the Pentagon.

As a result, the Pentagon funded the program and ordered Air Force training worldwide to deploy and operate the missile systems.

The beauty of the HPM missile is that its microwave beam can penetrate bunkers where facilities are hidden without harming humans inside.

Even if a bunker is buried in a mountain, HPM penetrates the facilities through its connections to power cables, communication lines, and antennas. Thus, HPM can penetrate any underground military or nuclear facility and destroy its electronics.

Targeted at command and control centers, the missile could render any country's military inoperable. And one missile can hit multiple targets in succession.

While Iran may attempt to shield its equipment, US officials say that would not be effective against the HPM missiles.

Besides underground bunkers and command centers, HPM can quickly disable fighter planes, tanks, ships, and missile systems. And it can wipe out facilities for developing and testing nuclear weapons.

America's national laboratories operated by the Department of Energy have been working on HPM capabilities for decades. Over the years, HPM devices have been deployed on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq to disable improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and drones.

The HPM missiles are entirely different from cyber-warfare designed to confuse computers. Unlike a cyberattack, they permanently fries electronic equipment.

HPM missiles also differ from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that is created by detonating a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere. Because it is targeted, HPM leaves intact civilian facilities needed to sustain life.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13325343/US-Air-Force-develops-missiles-obliterate-Iran-nuclear-facilities.html

Israel is planning a “painful” strike on Iran that does not cause casualties, according to leaks from a meeting of the prime minister’s war cabinet.

Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly asked the Israel Defense Forces to draw up a list of targets that Israel could choose to hit that the US would not object to.

The carefully calibrated response to Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack on Sunday could come in the form of a precision strike on a facility in Tehran, or a cyber attack, the Washington Post reported, citing an Israeli official familiar with the sensitive discussions.

“Everybody agrees that Israel must respond,” the official said. “How to respond, when to respond, is the question.”

Israel’s Channel 12 news claimed the war cabinet had agreed to strike back at Iran “clearly and forcefully,” and that several options had been discussed that would be “painful” but unlikely to trigger a regional war.

The war cabinet is also aiming to find a way to retaliate against Iran that won’t be blocked by the United States, the broadcaster reported, after Joe Biden told Mr Netanyahu that Washington would not support an Israeli counterattack.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Defence Minister, on Monday told his US counterpart that Israel has no choice but to respond to Iran’s attack, which was thwarted with help from the United States and Britain.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/15/israel-hamas-war-iran-drone-attack-latest-news/

"A lot of people on both sides have been saying that “Israel has lost the propaganda war”.

Well to be honest, who gives a shit. Propaganda is designed to manipulate and influence an audience by flooding media and communications with cunningly selective information to create a desired perception.

That’s what people who lie incessantly do, such as Russia and China and… terrorists like the Islamists. So why would we want to win a war based on lies and deception? Let the propagandists spread their bullshit.

We already know they make up pretty much everything. Fake videos. Fake photos. Fake stories. Fake accusations. Fake genocides. Fake famines. Fake massacres. And they do it without shame. And the only loser in this propaganda war is NOT Israel. It’s the millions of gullible idiots too stupid to think for themselves and use the most basic common sense.

And most importantly, we’re fighting for our survival. So for me, I couldn’t give a rat's ass about winning on lies and corruption and deception. The ONLY thing that matters is winning on the battlefield, even if we have to do it alone because the rest of the world is too spineless and morally corrupt to stand up for both the truth and against Islamist terrorists. I couldn’t care if the world hates me. I care about making sure my family, my people, and my country are safe from the never-ending threat from a group of sadistic psychotic, and deranged Islamists who simply want us dead.

And when we’ve had to deliver and protect our people and our country, there is no army on the planet that has proven to be better than our IDF. There are no people on the planet more resilient and capable than the people of Israel. And when the entire Islamist, socialist, and Nazi world seems hellbent on our destruction, all that’s important is that we do whatever we must to survive.

No other country or people are facing such an existential threat. No other people or countries have had to face such an existential threat for 76 years. No other countries or people have had to face tens of thousands of rockets indiscriminately fired at their cities for decades nonstop, or ceaseless suicide attacks and terror attacks. WE have been forced to live like this and it’s time we do whatever needs to be done to end this cycle. The rest of the world seems quite happy for us to exist like this. But we have the right to decide. We DO NOT have to live like this. And if we have to eradicate every threat entirely in order to stop this century old madness and threat, then so be it.

F*** what the world thinks, says or wants.

F*** the propaganda war.

F*** anybody that believes we don’t have the right to defend ourselves and put an end to this insanity once and for all.

We will survive not because we win or lose a stupid propaganda war. We will survive because we won’t be shackled by other countries who think about their own economic and security issues and happy to sacrifice us for their own interests. We have the right to live in peace and so we will. And if our enemies die trying to exterminate us then that is on them for starting endless wars.

The world can have peace and bring peace to the Middle East by standing up and fighting against the scourge of terrorists who have slaughtered untold numbers of innocent people across the entire world.

The Islamist terrorists won’t stop until the world stops them. All we can do is focus on stopping them from destroying Israel. It’s high time the rest of the world sorts their own mess out. We will go into Rafah and finish this. We will take on Hezbollah and Iran and anybody else who comes at us.

And if anybody has an issue with that, tell someone who cares."

~ Cheryl E 🇮🇱📷📷
@CherylWroteIt

The Israeli military says 99% of the missiles and drones fired by Iran overnight were intercepted without hitting their targets. Iran said the assault was in response to a deadly attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria two weeks ago. Where this goes next from here depends in large part on how Israel decides to respond to last night's attack.

Countries in the region and elsewhere, including those that deeply dislike the Iranian regime, have urged restraint.

Iran's position is along the lines of: "Account settled, that is the end of the matter, do not hit back at us or we will mount a much stronger attack against you that you will not be able to ward off."

But, Israel has already vowed "a significant response" and its government has often been called one of the most hardline in Israeli history.

It responded to the murderous Hamas-led attacks of 7 October on southern Israel within hours and then spent the next six months battering the Gaza Strip.

Israel's war cabinet is unlikely to leave this direct attack from Iran unanswered, however calibrated and limited its effect has been on the ground.

So what are Israel's options?
It could listen to its neighbours in the region and exercise what is known as "strategic patience", holding off from responding in kind and instead continuing to target Iran's proxy allies in the region such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or military supply sites in Syria, as it has been doing for years.

Israel could retaliate with a series of similar, carefully calibrated, long-range missile strikes, targeting only those missile bases from which Iran launched last night's attack.

That would still be seen by Iran as an escalation, since it would be the first time Israel had attacked Iran directly, as opposed to hitting its proxy militias around the region. Or, Israel could choose to climb one more rung up the escalatory ladder, by broadening its possible response to include bases, training camps and command-and-control centres belonging to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps - the IRGC. Either of the latter two options risk prompting further retaliation by Iran.

The key question here is whether this all drags in the US, leading to a full-scale shooting war between Iran and US forces in the region.

The US has military facilities in all six of the Gulf Arab states, as well as in Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
These could all become targets for Iran's massive stockpile of ballistic and other missiles that it has managed to build up over the years, despite international sanctions.

Iran could also do something it has long threatened to do if attacked: it could try to close the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, using mines, drones and fast attack craft, choking off nearly a quarter of the world's oil supplies.

This is the nightmare scenario, dragging in the US and the Gulf states into a region-wide war, which many governments are now working around the clock to avoid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68812094

God1000:
Iran has a lot of sophisticated conventional weapons too, the country has more than 3,000 ballistic and cruise missiles, they are close to building nuclear bomb as well

SadiqBabaSani:
The attackers are not true Muslims

Tranquillity360:
We Nigeria Islamic soldiers will give back up to Iran and Hamas.

Mobilization must start now

Here's What You Need To Remember: Israel currently has overwhelming conventional military advantages, but these advantages depend to some extent on a favorable regional strategic environment. Political shifts could leave Israel diplomatically isolated, and vulnerable once again to conventional attack. In such a situation, nuclear weapons would remain part of the toolkit for ensuring the survival of the nation.

Israel’s nuclear arsenal is the worst-kept secret in international relations. Since the 1970s, Israel has maintained a nuclear deterrent in order to maintain a favorable balance of power with its neighbors. Apart from some worrying moments during the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli government has never seriously considered using those weapons.

The most obvious scenario for Israel to use nuclear weapons would be in response to a foreign nuclear attack. Israel’s missile defenses, air defenses, and delivery systems are far too sophisticated to imagine a scenario in which any country other than one of the major nuclear powers could manage a disarming first strike. Consequently, any attacker is certain to endure massive retaliation, in short order. Israel’s goals would be to destroy the military capacity of the enemy (let’s say Iran, for sake of discussion) and also send a message that any nuclear attack against Israel would be met with catastrophic, unimaginable retaliation.

But under what conditions might Israel start a nuclear war?

If a hostile power (let’s say Iran, for sake of discussion) appeared to be on the verge of mating nuclear devices with the systems needed to deliver them, Israel might well consider a preventive nuclear attack. In the case of Iran, we can imagine scenarios in which Israeli planners would no longer deem a conventional attack sufficiently lethal to destroy or delay the Iranian program. In such a scenario, and absent direct intervention from the United States, Israel might well decide to undertake a limited nuclear attack against Iranian facilities.

Given that Iran lacks significant ballistic missile defenses, Israel would most likely deliver the nuclear weapons with its Jericho III intermediate range ballistic missiles. Israel would likely limit its attacks to targets specifically linked with the Iranian nuclear program, and sufficiently away from civilian areas. Conceivably, since it would be breaking the nuclear taboo anyway, Israel might target other military facilities and bases for attack, but it is likely that the Israeli government would want to limit the precedent for using nuclear weapons as much as possible.

Would it work? Nuclear weapons would deal more damage than most imaginable conventional attacks, and would also convey a level of seriousness that might take even the Iranians aback. On the other hand, the active use of nuclear weapons by Israel would probably heighten the interest of everyone in the region (and potentially across the world) to develop their own nuclear arsenals.

Nuclear Transfer

One of Israel’s biggest concerns is the idea that a nuclear power (Iran, Pakistan, or North Korea, presumably) might give or sell a nuclear weapon to a non-governmental organization (NGO). Hamas, Hezbollah, or some other terrorist group would be harder to deter than a traditional nation-state. Even if a terrorist organization did not immediately use the weapon against an Israeli target, it could potentially extract concessions that Israel would be unwilling to make. In such a scenario, Israel might well consider using nuclear weapons in order to forestall a transfer, or destroy the enemy nuclear device after delivery. This would depend on access to excellent intelligence about the transfer of the device, but it is hardly impossible that the highly professional and operationally competent Israeli intelligence services could provide such data.

Why go nuclear? The biggest reason would be to ensure the success of the strike; both the device itself and the people handling the device would be important targets, and a nuclear attack would ensure their destruction more effectively than even a massive conventional strike (which might well accompany the nuclear attack). Moreover, committing to the most extreme use forms of the use of force might well deter both the NGO and the originating state (not to mention any states that facilitated transfer through their borders; hello, Syria!) from attempting another transfer. However, the active use of nuclear weapons against a non-state actor might look to the world like overkill, and could reaffirm the interest of the source of the nuclear device in causing more problems for Israel.

Conventional Defeat

The idea that Israel might lose a conventional war seems ridiculous now, but the origins of the Israeli nuclear program lay in the fear that the Arab states would develop a decisive military advantage that they could use to inflict battlefield defeats. This came close to happening during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, as the Egyptian Army seized the Suez Canal and the Syrian Arab Army advanced into the Golan Heights. Accounts on how seriously Israel debated using nukes during that war remain murky, but there is no question that Israel could consider using its most powerful weapons if the conventional balance tipped decisively out of its favor.

How might that happen? We can imagine a few scenarios, most of which involve an increase in hostility between Israel and its more tolerant neighbors. Another revolution in Egypt could easily rewrite the security equation on Israel’s southern border; while the friendship of Saudi Arabia seems secure, political instability could change that; even Turkish policy might shift in a negative direction. Israel currently has overwhelming conventional military advantages, but these advantages depend to some extent on a favorable regional strategic environment. Political shifts could leave Israel diplomatically isolated, and vulnerable once again to conventional attack. In such a situation, nuclear weapons would remain part of the toolkit for ensuring the survival of the nation.

Conclusion

It is unlikely, but hardly impossible, that Israel could decide to use nuclear weapons first in a future conflict. The best way to prevent this from happening is to limit the reasons why Israel might want to use these weapons, which is to say preventing the further proliferation of nukes. If Israel ever does use nuclear weapons in anger, it will rewrite the diplomatic and security architecture of the Middle East, and also the nonproliferation architecture of the world as a whole.

Robert Farley , a frequent contributor to TNI, is a Visiting Professor at the United States Army War College. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. This article first appeared last year.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/israels-nuclear-last-resort-how-middle-east-could-get-set-ablaze-178696

rottennaija:
US official says Iran may attack Israel as soon as today.

🇰🇼🇶🇦 Kuwait & Qatar inform the United States that they will not allow bases on their land to be used for attacks against Iran.

rottennaija:
🇮🇷🇬🇧 The Telegraph:

“If Iran strikes Israel, Britain MUST attack.”

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

misreal:
his point Is that Iran will finish Israel.
Not minding that war is not fought online.

Israel's military has said it is prepared for any Iranian threat, as tension builds after Monday's attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack, which Iran said killed seven Revolutionary Guard officers.

An Iranian official said on Sunday that Israel's embassies were "no longer safe", as it prepares a response.

US and Israeli forces in the region have been put on high alert in anticipation of a possible attack.

Reports in the US media suggest Iran's retaliation could take place in the coming days.

"The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] can handle Iran," Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said in a televised statement. "We can act forcefully against Iran in places near and far."

Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran had a "legal and legitimate right" to respond to Monday's strike.

"The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe," he told Iran's Isna news agency. He did not provide further detail as to what shape Iran's response would take.


The Iranian embassy (left) does not appear to have been damaged in the strike on the next door consulate building
In a statement, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the defence establishment had completed preparations to respond to any possible scenario.

The IDF has halted all leave for soldiers serving with combat units and called up reservists to bolster air defence.

Israel has also blocked GPS signals across swathes of the country in order to disrupt missiles and drones.

Media outlets in Israel have reported that some of the country's embassies were evacuated over potential Iranian attacks. The BBC has not independently verified those reports and Israel has not confirmed them.

In an apparent effort to prevent panic, a spokesman for the Israeli army said there was no need for people to buy generators, gather food or withdraw money.

How might Iran seek to hurt Israel after general's killing?
Syria's defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building at about 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Monday.

Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles, but others made it through and "destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside", the ministry added.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that seven of its officers were killed in the strike, including Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi.

Photos and videos from the scene showed smoke rising from the remains of the collapsed building. Hours after the strike, people in Tehran burned Israeli and US flags in protest.

On the day after the attack, Ayatollah Khamenei said Israel would "regret this crime", while President Ebrahim Raisi insisted it would "not go unanswered".

Israel and its closest ally, the US, have been anticipating an Iranian attack ever since.

In the wake of the attack, the Israeli military said it did not comment on foreign media reports.

But an unnamed senior Israeli official told Reuters news agency that those killed had "been behind many attacks on Israeli and American assets and had plans for additional attacks". They also insisted that the embassy "was not a target".

Israel has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran and allied groups which are armed, funded and trained by the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran has said the guards were sent to Syria to "advise" President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war, but it has denied they have been involved in combat or established bases.

Israel's strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria.

Iran has avoided direct confrontation with Israel during the conflict so far, but Monday's attack is seen as a serious escalation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68757080

CoronaVirusPro:
😂😂😂😂😂

They are only chest beating! They won’t try shiit!

Iran has been playing a dangerous game of kinetic brinkmanship with the United States since the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979.

Beginning with the Iran hostage crisis, wherein 52 American diplomats were held for 444 days in Tehran, it has evolved into the funding of Hamas, Hezbollah and other militia and terrorist groups sponsored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), such as the Houthis in Yemen.

Underpinning Iran’s clash with Washington has been Tehran’s decades-long determined pursuit of nuclear weapons. That overarching objective is nearing the goal line. Tehran’s path to nuclear breakout is now measured in days, not weeks, if and when Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chooses.

On Oct. 7, Iran went too far. IRGC support and planning of Hamas’s heinous attack on Israeli civilians has now engulfed the Gaza Strip in total war. On Tuesday, elements of that war spread to Lebanon when Israel carried out the strike that purportedly killed Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis died — and U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by Iranian-backed militias 118 times. Khamenei is in a proxy war with the U.S., and arguably it goes far deeper than that, given Tehran’s growing alignment with Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s faltering war in Ukraine.

Iran’s day of reckoning, however, is nearing. Israel’s decision to target al-Arouri in Lebanon, where he had fled after the Israeli incursion into Gaza, was likely intended as a kinetic wake-up call by Jerusalem to Khamenei and to Hassan Nasrallah, the Shia cleric head of Hezbollah.

Last August, Nasrallah declared, “Any assassination on Lebanese soil against a Lebanese, Syrian, Iranian or Palestinian will be met with a decisive response. We will not tolerate this, and we will not allow Lebanon to become a new killing field for Israel.”‌‌ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet just called his bluff.

Israel’s new unit, known as Nili, a Hebrew acronym for “The Eternity of Israel Will Not Lie,” is now operational. Jerusalem has made it clear that no one who aided and abetted in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel will be safe anywhere. That includes not only Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzouk and other top Hamas military and political officials, but also their sponsors.

The Middle East is now at an inflection point. For decades, Iran has survived as a terrorist regime by playing off of regional interests and benefiting from U.S. domestic politics. First as a check on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, then later as the poster boy for why neocons were itching to drag the U.S. into another “forever war.”

Yet you do not have to be a neocon to grasp that Iran is the cancer infecting the entire Mideast. Tehran in effect funded Oct. 7. The IRGC has turned Shia Hezbollah and southern Lebanon into a loaded weapon aimed at Israel, and propped up President Bashir al-Assad’s murderous regime in Syria.

[b]Khamenei’s machinations have served to undermine ongoing U.S. efforts to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. [/b]Tehran continues to threaten key oil shipping lanes by closing the Strait of Hormuz — a tactic straight out of Iran’s playbook dating back to 1988, which resulted in Operation Praying Mantis against the Iranian Navy after the USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine, severely injuring 10 U.S. sailors.

Meanwhile, Khamenei is presently playing the same game in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab el-Mandeb Strait courtesy of IRGC-backed Houthi rebels operating from northern Yemen. To date, the U.S. response has been minimal, feebly described by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as “necessary and proportionate.”

Iran, to date, has been highly effective in flipping narratives in the Middle East, and a young European and American TikTok-influenced audience is falling for it. Palestinians in Gaza are suffering and dying because Khamenei, likely at Putin’s urging, ordered Hamas to attack Israel as a distraction to its own accelerating nuclear program. Tens of thousands of Syrians have died because of Iran’s backing of Assad.

In Yemen, more than 377,000 people have died directly or indirectly due to Tehran’s proxy war against Riyadh. Ukrainians are dying as a result of Iranian drones. Iraq continues to be marred by deaths as a result of Iran’s meddling. Iran’s human death toll is in the hundreds of thousands, and that does not count the systematic repression and murders of its own people — men, women and children alike.

It is time Washington held Iran to account. Yet because it is a U.S. presidential election year, Khamenei is calculating that he can buy more time for his pursuit of nuclear weapons and efforts to further destabilize the Mideast. Israel’s taking out of al-Arouri should disabuse Tehran of that notion. It was, in effect, the laying down of a gauntlet.

For his part, during a speech on Wednesday marking the fourth anniversary of the death of Qasem Soleimani, Nasrallah signaled he is maneuvering to keep Hezbollah out of the IDF’s crosshairs. He appears to sense Iran’s day of reckoning is coming and he wants to avoid being part of it. The usual bombastic threats and bluster were there, but by the end of the speech his sword remained sheathed.

Wittingly or not, Nasrallah revealed the extent of the web Soleimani and the IRGC had spun across the Middle East on behalf of Iran. Nasrallah credited the former IRGC commander with spawning the “Islamic resistance” movements in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, and transforming them into an “axis of [Islamic] resistance.”

Iran is indeed the cancer killing the region, and Washington had best be ready with a cure.

Israel is likely to keep forcing the issue, widening its attacks against Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tehran’s nuclear program now represents an existential threat to Jerusalem, and Hezbollah is a key cog in Khamenei’s strategy to deter the IDF from attacking Iran’s nuclear program. Earlier, on Christmas Day, Israel put the IRGC on notice as well, killing Seyed Razi Mousavi, one of its key advisors in Syria.

Khamenei’s reckoning is coming. It is only a question of whether Israel or the U.S. delivers it, and in the process saves the Middle East.

Mark Toth, an economist and entrepreneur, is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweetserved 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4387789-irans-day-of-reckoning-is-nearing/

Muslim fatwa declares Gaza-based Hamas ‘illegitimate’

The fatwa, a religious edict, rebukes Hamas for its reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians

In an unprecedented fatwa issued Thursday, senior Muslim clerics declared Hamas “illegitimate” according to Islamic law.

The fatwa, a religious edict, rebukes Hamas for its reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and rules that believing Muslims should not “pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf of Hamas.” The edict was authored by the Islamic Fatwa Council, a trans-sectarian body based in the Iraqi religious capital of Najaf.

A spokesperson for the Islamic Fatwa Council said the ruling was inspired by Whispered in Gaza, a series of animated video testimony by Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, produced by the U.S.-based Center for Peace Communications, which exposed Hamas oppression and brutality within its territory.

“We have seen what Gaza is subjected to under Hamas rule and the atrocities, in our view, which it has perpetrated against Palestinians,” said Fatwa Council spokesman Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Maqdisi in a recorded statement posted to the Council’s website.

A source close to the Islamic Fatwa Council told ALL ARAB NEWS that the Whispered in Gaza series, viewed by millions in Arab and Muslim countries, sparked a public outcry about Hamas brutality in Gaza and prompted hundreds to ask clerics for an official view of whether Hamas is fit to rule.

Grand Ayatollah Fadhil al-Budairi, who chairs the Islamic Fatwa Council, said support for Palestinians must exceed repudiation of actions by Israel.

“We do not accept that any harm be done to [Palestinians], whether by Israel or Palestinian governing elements, be they Hamas or others,” al-Budairi said. The chair is a prominent critic of Iran and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terrorist group based in Lebanon.

Maqdisi, the Council’s spokesperson, also advised Hamas to “seek peace, and urge those who support you to earn the embrace of your fellow citizens and end this senseless killing.”

The issuing of the fatwa underscores growing Arab and Muslim rejection of Hamas rule over Gaza, which Palestinians within the Strip consider “not much different than an occupation.”

The edict has spawned widespread reactions in Arab media, including enthusiasm from opponents of Iranian hegemony in countries where Iran-backed militias dominate. In Lebanon, for example, the anti-Hezbollah Central News Agency praised the fatwa, the catalytic nature of the Whispered in Gaza series and Ayatollah al-Budairi’s principled stance in opposing harm to Palestinians regardless of the perpetrator.

The ruling was also welcomed in Ramallah by official outlets of the Palestinian Authority, which lost power in Gaza in 2007 after a bloody coup by Hamas.

An article on a ruling Fatah party mouthpiece hailed the development as “unprecedented,” noting Palestinian expert Ghaith Al-Omari’s view that the fatwa “represents a direct challenge to Hamas legitimacy and undermines its claim to represent Islam.”

ALL ARAB NEWS asked Joseph Braude, president of the Center for Peace Communications, which produced the Whispered in Gaza series, to share his assessment of the fatwa.

“It’s a significant blow to Hamas’s claims to legitimacy,” Braude said. “It may also open the door to legal action against the organization, its members and their assets in numerous Arab and Muslim countries. Meanwhile, it emboldens Palestinians in Gaza who oppose Hamas rule and want a different and better future.”

Though other armed Islamist groups including al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram have previously been proscribed through fatwas, this ruling marks the first time Hamas was accorded such treatment by an accredited Islamic legal body.

The Islamic Fatwa Council is unusual in that it breaches the sectarian divide in Islam: alongside a revered Shi’ite Grand Ayatollah in Najaf, its broad leadership includes the Sunni grand mufti of the Iraqi governorate of Wasit and a prominent Sufi cleric in the Punjab region of Pakistan. In January, a delegation of the Islamic Fatwa Council to Mecca, led by Ayatollah al-Budairi, met with Muhammad Al Issa, secretary general of the Saudi Muslim World League – a clear signal of Saudi support for the Council’s views.

The fatwa notes its concurrence with prior rulings by the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Fatwa Council that designate the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, as “defam[ing] Islam and operat[ing] in opposition to mainstream Islamic unity, theology, and jurisprudence.”

https://allarab.news/muslim-fatwa-declares-gaza-based-hamas-illegitimate/

Muslim fatwa declares Gaza-based Hamas ‘illegitimate’

The fatwa, a religious edict, rebukes Hamas for its reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians

In an unprecedented fatwa issued Thursday, senior Muslim clerics declared Hamas “illegitimate” according to Islamic law.

The fatwa, a religious edict, rebukes Hamas for its reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and rules that believing Muslims should not “pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf of Hamas.” The edict was authored by the Islamic Fatwa Council, a trans-sectarian body based in the Iraqi religious capital of Najaf.

A spokesperson for the Islamic Fatwa Council said the ruling was inspired by Whispered in Gaza, a series of animated video testimony by Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, produced by the U.S.-based Center for Peace Communications, which exposed Hamas oppression and brutality within its territory.

“We have seen what Gaza is subjected to under Hamas rule and the atrocities, in our view, which it has perpetrated against Palestinians,” said Fatwa Council spokesman Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Maqdisi in a recorded statement posted to the Council’s website.

A source close to the Islamic Fatwa Council told ALL ARAB NEWS that the Whispered in Gaza series, viewed by millions in Arab and Muslim countries, sparked a public outcry about Hamas brutality in Gaza and prompted hundreds to ask clerics for an official view of whether Hamas is fit to rule.

Grand Ayatollah Fadhil al-Budairi, who chairs the Islamic Fatwa Council, said support for Palestinians must exceed repudiation of actions by Israel.

“We do not accept that any harm be done to [Palestinians], whether by Israel or Palestinian governing elements, be they Hamas or others,” al-Budairi said. The chair is a prominent critic of Iran and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terrorist group based in Lebanon.

Maqdisi, the Council’s spokesperson, also advised Hamas to “seek peace, and urge those who support you to earn the embrace of your fellow citizens and end this senseless killing.”

The issuing of the fatwa underscores growing Arab and Muslim rejection of Hamas rule over Gaza, which Palestinians within the Strip consider “not much different than an occupation.”

The edict has spawned widespread reactions in Arab media, including enthusiasm from opponents of Iranian hegemony in countries where Iran-backed militias dominate. In Lebanon, for example, the anti-Hezbollah Central News Agency praised the fatwa, the catalytic nature of the Whispered in Gaza series and Ayatollah al-Budairi’s principled stance in opposing harm to Palestinians regardless of the perpetrator.

The ruling was also welcomed in Ramallah by official outlets of the Palestinian Authority, which lost power in Gaza in 2007 after a bloody coup by Hamas.

An article on a ruling Fatah party mouthpiece hailed the development as “unprecedented,” noting Palestinian expert Ghaith Al-Omari’s view that the fatwa “represents a direct challenge to Hamas legitimacy and undermines its claim to represent Islam.”

ALL ARAB NEWS asked Joseph Braude, president of the Center for Peace Communications, which produced the Whispered in Gaza series, to share his assessment of the fatwa.

“It’s a significant blow to Hamas’s claims to legitimacy,” Braude said. “It may also open the door to legal action against the organization, its members and their assets in numerous Arab and Muslim countries. Meanwhile, it emboldens Palestinians in Gaza who oppose Hamas rule and want a different and better future.”

Though other armed Islamist groups including al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram have previously been proscribed through fatwas, this ruling marks the first time Hamas was accorded such treatment by an accredited Islamic legal body.

The Islamic Fatwa Council is unusual in that it breaches the sectarian divide in Islam: alongside a revered Shi’ite Grand Ayatollah in Najaf, its broad leadership includes the Sunni grand mufti of the Iraqi governorate of Wasit and a prominent Sufi cleric in the Punjab region of Pakistan. In January, a delegation of the Islamic Fatwa Council to Mecca, led by Ayatollah al-Budairi, met with Muhammad Al Issa, secretary general of the Saudi Muslim World League – a clear signal of Saudi support for the Council’s views.

The fatwa notes its concurrence with prior rulings by the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Fatwa Council that designate the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, as “defam[ing] Islam and operat[ing] in opposition to mainstream Islamic unity, theology, and jurisprudence.”

https://allarab.news/muslim-fatwa-declares-gaza-based-hamas-illegitimate/

Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar 'hiding underground', says Israeli army

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whose house they say they have surrounded, is hiding underground.

Earlier today, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.”

Sinwar, a founding member of Hamas, grew up in a refugee camp of Khan Younis.

Asked whether Netanyahu’s statement meant Israeli troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.”

“Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” [/b]Hagari said, adding:

I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. [b]Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.

Sillymoderators:

Only a matured mind will understand that my comment doesn't in any way support Hamas, that is why I said Palestines. Are all Palestines terrorist? But kid and a shallow minded person like you will react out of emotions.
Very soon Nigerian army will be in your village to wipe out criminals, you will also be wiped off since everybody in your village is a criminal!.... Olodo!

UncleKoboko:

Lol
Same way our army will deal with IPOB PIGS AND OSU ALUSI BASTARDS.

dappydozzy:


So the entire world protesting against killings in Gaza, support Hamas, right ? What do you even know about Hamas,? Hamas is the only resistance movement against Zionist occupation and apartheid in the Middle East today. A movement cannot be silenced by brute force, we know better. this conflict will drag but it will be the last conflict when the world will say enough is enough, western hypocrisy and double standards, enough is enough. A united Palestine is the answer and solution to the crisis. By the time, the Palestinians on Gaza and the West Bank start to suffer the same fate they will come to realization that their common enemy is not Hamas, their common enemy is Zionist Isreal. I am a Christian but Isreal is not a state to align with for the following reasons: It is a Zionist State, Zionism is racism and apartheid, A zionist state is not different from Iran 2.They have a lot of right wing politicians, the largest in Isreal History. What makes the average christian on the street support Isreal is because of the Biblical linkage, but Jews themselves are not Christians, the reasons why they hate Jesus Christ is because Christ teachings Contradicted the Torah (Jewish teachings and the Talmud). But supporting a country whose only lien is biblical while denigrating humanity is just rather absurd. Religion is not helping society rather it is creating more problems. The earlier and quicker we recognise and know that we are all the same great humanity, the better and safe it will be for us.

Hussein035:


I blame the great grand fathers of the Palestinians who accommodated their enemy (Israel) with good heart thinking they have done something good in the sight of God

This is why in Lagos Nigeria here one particular tribe (Igbo) who came from East are now being treated and accommodated with caution before they will end up doing what Israel is now doing to their helper

Israel are the most ungrateful nation in this world, I cannot shift for you and you decide to send me packing

Confirmedzombie:


Sharap and stop insulting the Most Holt Prophet Muḥammad (SAW).

Your words are blasphemy. You need to turn a new leaf or face the wrath of the Most Holy Prophet Muḥammad (SAW)

CoronaVirusPro:


Fvck you!

Were you compelled to oink!

Confirmedzombie:
I beat my chest, any more bombing of hospital and killing of innocent people Israel will be levelled down by combined forces of the Arab war.

May the wrath of the most Holy Prophet Muḥammad (SAW) fall on Israel and all her supporters.

May our most Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) look after our Muslim faithfuls in Gaza, Guard and Protect them.

May the Most Holy Prophet lead the peaceful Hamas to victory.

Insha Allah

CoronaVirusPro:


America said same in Afghanistan! How is it going!

You have know idea about our mindset and ideology. It might take long, but victory is guaranteed.