Thomas Wictor

What keeps the mullahs of Iran going? Hope. They think that if they just continue funding and fomenting terrorism, eventually the rest of the world will give up and die. This conviction has finally backfired spectacularly.

Bahrain’s king holds Hanukkah candle-lighting

French Rabbi Moshe Levin says King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ‘truly loves’ the Jewish people; Bahrain Jewish population numbers about 50

The king of Bahrain has hosted a candle-lighting ceremony at his palace to mark the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, bringing in a rabbi from Europe to conduct the service.

According to the Conference of European Rabbis, Monday’s ceremony in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, was the first of its kind in the Persian Gulf nation’s palace since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Conference Director Rabbi Moshe Levin, who was invited by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, recited the traditional blessings while lighting the candles, and sang a verse of “Ma’oz Tzur,” the traditional Hanukkah hymn. Some 50 Jews were present for the ceremony.

“A little light drives off a lot of darkness,” Levin told the king, according to the press release. “Bahrain under your rule is a little light in a dark world of radical fundamentalism.”

This isn’t getting more coverage because it’s actually quite earth shaking, and neither Israel nor Bahrain want the wrong people to start foaming at the mouth over it. All that matters is that it happened.

It’s very significant that a French rabbi was invited. This is a message that Bahrain is sending to the Islamic State and other Jew-haters. Dare I say, the king was sending a message to European Jew-haters too.

I’m glad that I’m not involved in trying to bring about peace in the Middle East. Although I can tell you what’s happening, that doesn’t mean that I could endure being a part of it. I hate Byzantine plotting, backstabbing, and two-facedness.

Most terrorism sponsored by Middle Eastern governments has a geopolitical function. Qatar, for example, funds terrorists opposed to Saudi Arabia. This is (was?) due to Qatari fears that the Saudis would invade and annex the nation. Turkish intelligence is funding and arming the Islamic State because the Saudis support an independent Kurdistan. Iraq opposed arming the Kurds and threatened to allow Iran free rein if the west didn’t give in to Baghdad.

But now someone is helping the Kurds on a very large scale. The two men marked with red arrows are foreign military advisers.

They wear no national or rank insignia.

After a lot of research, I’ve made a guess that they’re Spanish brigadier generals who help the Kurds carry out combined-arms assaults. A brigadier general can command infantry, special forces, armor, artillery, and air power as one unit. The Kurds have infantry, armor, artillery, and special forces, while the Spanish contribute advanced weapons systems, highly trained assault troops, and massive firepower.

Somebody explained to the Iraqis that holding Iran over our heads as a threat is no longer meaningful. While the Iranians still have all their weapons, almost every single experienced commander has been killed. It’s likely that even the legendary Qassem Suleimani—head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force—was taken out.

Hope and change

Although the Turks don’t want us to help the Kurds, clearly the decision has been made to ignore Ankara’s desires. Kurds who are backed by First World technology will defeat the Islamic State. This is how wars in the Middle East will be fought from now on. Can you spot the “tell” in this silly report?

Frustrated at a worsening humanitarian crisis and rising civilian death toll in Yemen, Western nations are quietly increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to seek a political deal to end the nearly nine-month conflict, U.N. diplomats said.

While much of that pressure has been applied through discreet diplomacy, they said, the United States will shine a global spotlight on the conflict when it chairs a public United Nations Security Council meeting on Yemen on Dec. 22.

“We expect the Saudis will hear some honest criticism when the council meets,” one senior Security Council diplomat said on condition of anonymity. “It’s long overdue.”

Last month the U.S. State Department approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia to help replenish supplies.

Yup. The world is deeply frustrated, while arms sales to Saudi Arabia continue unabated. This UN Security Council meeting is kabuki. “Human rights” organizations have only themselves to blame. They destroyed their reputations by screaming “WAR CRIME!” every time an IDF soldier dropped a cigarette butt into the piles of rubble created by the 1000+ improvised explosive devices that Hamas set off during the 2014 war, the 875 terrorist rockets that landed in Gaza, and the 1700 mortar rounds that Palestinians dropped on the heads of their own people.

Ten former military commanders from Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Colombia, Italy, Spain, and France contributed to An Assessment of the 2014 Gaza Conflict. Their conclusion?

We can be categorically clear that Israel’s conduct in the 2014 Gaza Conflict met and in some respects exceeded the highest standards we set for our own nations’ militaries. It is our view that Israel fought an exemplary campaign, adequately conceived with appropriately limited objectives, and displaying both a very high level of operational capability as well as a total commitment to the Law of Armed Conflict. It did this under challenging circumstances on a formidably complex urban battlefield.

All you have to do is study the Battle of Shijaiyah. I’ve never seen anything like it. This was science fiction made real. Basically Israel stormed a small-scale equivalent of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, except that it had 100,000 civilians as human shields.

Even so, it took the IDF only seven hours to reduce the fortress, at a cost of less than 100 Palestinians killed—the overwhelming majority of whom were terrorists. I’ve examined all the casualty lists. They’re fake. These men, for example, are listed as civilians.

They’re all members of the al-Skafi family, and they’re all terrorists of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad al-Quds Brigades.

Palestinian terrorists are still full of hope, according to An Assessment of the 2014 Gaza Conflict.

There is evidence that Hamas is engaged in a significant project aimed at rearming and regenerating its offensive capabilities… Since the end of hostilities, Hamas has reportedly boosted investment in its tunnelling effort significantly… Hamas has also intensified its rocket and mortar production efforts since the end of the war, using in their manufacture the steel and other domestic commercial materials which it diverts from humanitarian shipments.

Hamas is also preparing for an anticipated renewal of hostilities, by erecting fortifications and enhancing existing ones near the border with Israel. Armed Hamas units have been increasing their visibility on the border with Israel, and its units have been observed conducting infantry and urban warfare exercises. Further, Hamas has initiated a significant new recruitment program to replenish its ranks in the wake of last summer’s fighting.

A recent propaganda video features what appears to be new tunnel infrastructure, as well as training exercises, including simulated assaults on Israeli positions. Utilisation of an ambulance co-opted for these propaganda purposes is clearly visible in one of the exercises.

The Iranian mullahs too hope that they can positively impact the lives of Palestinians.

Iran is trying to build a Hezbollah-style terror group in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Friday night.

Al-Sabirin (the name comes from the Arabic word for “patience”) has begun recruiting an intended initial force of 400 fighters, the TV report said, and is directly funded by the regime in Tehran.

Because it follows Shi’ite Islam — as does Iran and the Iranian proxy militia Hezbollah in Lebanon — it is having a difficult time gaining recruits among Gaza’s Sunni Muslims. Nonetheless, the report said, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is allocating funds to the nascent group, transferred through a charitable organization named after the founder of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Here’s Al-Sabirin’s logo.

Heavily armed Shi’ite terrorists in Gaza. What could go wrong?

Well, quite a lot, actually! This is what the Islamic State did to a Hamas training camp on May 14, 2015.

The image was provided by Hamas, who says that the explosion was caused by a leftover IDF aerial munition. Well, the largest conventional IDF bomb is the MK-84, which weighs 2000 lb (907 kg), of which 945 lb (429 kg) is Tritonal high explosive. Whatever blew up the Hamas training camp was an order of magnitude more powerful than an MK-84.

That’s a “vortex ring” in the photo above. You see them on atomic explosions (red arrow).

A MK-84 can’t make a vortex ring. The Islamic State hit that Hamas training camp with a gigantic truck bomb full of VERY bang-ful explosive.

This was when the Islamic State was beheading Hamas in Yarmouk, Syria, and Hamas was setting Islamic State on fire in Gaza. The truck bomb gave everyone pause. Those Demotix photos provide a false sense of perspective. The Islamic State truck bomb exploded over the horizon; it was much larger than the one below.

Basically the Gaza explosion was like a tactical nuke. No telling how many it killed.

Like the Iranian mullahs, I’m filled with hope for Gaza.