Orientul Mijlociu

During a televised speech to the members of Iran’s parliament last week, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged all citizens to participate in the June 18 presidential election, warning against “those who promote voting abstention” and saying “they do not sympathize with the people.”

Khamenei was clearly responding, while naming no one, to widespread criticism of the decision by the Guardian Council to bar a number of candidates from standing and instead issue a restricted list of just seven people considered eligible to compete in the election.

Since both Israel and Hamas are busy claiming “victory” after the truce which ended 11 days of intense bombardment and rocket attacks, it seems that the only losers in this senseless violence are those who are dead- and there are plenty of them. As per credible reports, nearly 250 people [including more than 100 women and children] lost their lives in Gaza, while 12 people [including two children] were killed in Israel.

Issue 287 of the Islamic State (ISIS) weekly magazine Al-Naba’, which was published on May 20, 2021, includes an editorial discussing the current violence between Israel and the Palestinians.[1] Although clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protestors have been ongoing since the beginning of Ramadan in the second week of April and militant groups in Gaza began to fire rockets at Israel on May 10,[2] ISIS has refrained from commenting on the situation in Al-Naba’ until now. This is in sharp contrast to Al-Qaeda’s Central Command and its affiliates, most of which have issued statements expressing solidarity with Palestinians, praising the rocket attacks on Israel, and calling for jihad against Israel and Jews since Palestinian groups first began to fire rockets at Israel.[3]

n the wake of the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Israel remains in the spotlight for the civilian casualties and widescale destruction of civilian areas caused by its attacks on Gaza. Like most democracies whose air wars kill large numbers of civilians, Israel claims the moral high ground. Though acknowledging that the harm caused to civilians was regrettable, Israel argues that its armed forces took all feasible precautions to avoid it, while taking care to aim their strikes at Hamas military targets. By contrast, according to Israel, Hamas was targeting Israeli civilians directly and intentionally.

Dans Dix Petits Mensonges et leurs Grandes Conséquences (Editions l’Artilleur, 2021), Yves Mamou s’attaque à l’antisionisme. L’ancien journaliste du Monde postule qu’une série de mensonges déforme la perception de l’État d’Israël en Europe. Il a recensé dix de ces mensonges et démontre qu’ils ont un effet dévastateur qui va bien au-delà de la mauvaise perception que nous avons de l’État hébreu : les Français et les Européens sont désarmés face au djihad.

The policy paper, “Preserving Free Society, Promoting Social Cohesion, Fighting Political Islamism,” which whole-heartedly commends law-abiding Muslims who respect Germany’s democratic order, argues that the debate about Islamism in Germany is often reduced to violence and terror, but that it is necessary to focus more on ideology. The proposals include improving research and analysis of political Islam in Europe and the methods by which it spreads; banning the foreign funding of mosques; and reducing the number of foreign imams active in Germany.

It is important to expect that whatever the deal, the Iranian regime will continue to pursue its nuclear ambitions and clandestine nuclear activities: there are historical precedents for it.

Tehran claimed that the “secret atomic warehouse,” located in a village of Turquz Abad in the suburbs of Tehran, was a place where carpets were cleaned.

The IAEA at first ignored the reports. This should not come as a surprise: the IAEA has a long history of misreporting the Islamic Republic’s compliance with the deal and declining to follow up on credible reports about Iran’s illicit nuclear activities.