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Missiles Toward Israel, Aimed at Us All: The Iranian Regime’s War on Freedom
Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
As missiles rain down on Israel, they carry more than explosives — they carry a message to the free world: the Islamic Republic of Iran is no longer hiding its agenda. It is unleashing it.
The Iranian regime is not merely a regional menace. It is a global threat. For too long, the world has ignored or excused its open declarations to annihilate Israel, erase Jews, destroy the United States, and dismantle Western democracy from within.
This is not a sudden escalation. It is the culmination of more than four decades of methodical, well-funded aggression. Iran has invested not only in uranium enrichment and ballistic missile systems, but in a sprawling terror infrastructure that spans continents. Through its proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria — Iran has exported death and destabilization far beyond its borders.
Its fingerprints are on bombings, kidnappings, cyberattacks, and assassinations. Its propaganda infiltrates social media, academic discourse, and policymaking spaces. And its operatives are embedded in communities and institutions across the globe.
But what makes this moment particularly dangerous is the world’s silence. Carefully worded condemnations. Equivocal statements. Prioritizing optics over moral clarity. Too many Western leaders still treat Iran as a misunderstood player, rather than what it plainly is: a tyrannical theocratic regime at war with freedom.
The media perpetuates this confusion, often blaming Israel for defending itself — as though a sovereign, democratic nation under sustained attack has no right to ensure the safety of its citizens. But Israel’s response is not retaliation. It is survival. It is a necessity. It is strategic, precise, and consistent with what any nation would –and must — do when facing an existential threat.
Since the Hamas-led atrocities of October 7, 2023, we’ve seen a disturbing pattern: Israel is vilified for doing what every other country does when its people are slaughtered and threatened. Leaders in Washington, London, Berlin, and Paris understand this privately. But publicly, they hedge, they placate, and they equivocate.
Even Arab governments, many of which have long regarded Iran as the greatest destabilizing force in the region, are complicit in this duplicity. Behind closed doors, they hope Israel will succeed where they have failed: in halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions and regional domination. But publicly, they condemn Israel — not out of principle, but out of fear: fear of Iranian retaliation and fear of unrest within their own populations, inflamed by Islamist propaganda.
The threat Iran poses to the Middle East cannot be overstated. It funds terror organizations that undermine moderate governments, destabilize fragile societies, and prolong conflict. Its influence extends from Lebanon to Syria, from Iraq to Yemen, from Gaza to the Persian Gulf. In each of these places, it empowers non-state actors that thrive on chaos and violence.
But the Islamic Republic doesn’t only terrorize others — it brutalizes its own people.
In Iran, women are forced into submission under the regime’s extremist interpretation of Islamic law. The so-called “morality police” enforce mandatory hijab laws with violence and imprisonment. Girls and women are denied basic rights, bodily autonomy, and even the ability to sing or dance in public.
LGBTQ+ Iranians face institutionalized persecution, torture, and execution. Simply existing as homosexual, queer, or trans in Iran is punishable by death. Activists, artists, students, and journalists who dare to speak out against the regime disappear into prison cells — or into shallow graves.
And the cruelty does not stop at Iran’s borders. Iranian intelligence services have a long history of targeting dissidents, former officials, and outspoken critics abroad — including in the US, Europe, and South America. Whether through assassination plots, cyber harassment, or coercion of family members back home, Iran has weaponized fear and violence globally. Those who impede its Islamist agenda or speak the truth about its crimes are marked.
This brings us to what we are now witnessing across cities in the West: the rise of Palestinianism — a radicalized movement that has become a central arm of the broader Islamist agenda.
Let me be clear: This is not a call for Palestinian statehood or peaceful coexistence. It is not rooted in humanitarian concern. Palestinianism, as we now see it in marches, riots, violence, desecration of public property, targeting Jewish communities, synagogues, businesses, schools, university occupations across the Western world, and vitriolic anti-Zionist and anti-Israel social media campaigns, is a politicized cult of grievance and destruction. It aligns itself with the Islamic Republic’s goal of eradicating Israel and undermining liberal democracies like the United States from within.
It merges anti-Zionism with antisemitism, cloaking hatred in the language of liberation. It draws in well-meaning activists and allies, weaponizing progressive values — inclusion, equality, anti-racism — only to subvert them from the inside. What begins as solidarity ends as surrender to theocratic fascism.
As someone who has spent my life advocating for Jewish and LGBTQ+ rights, I have seen how Iran, Qatar, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and ISIS have infiltrated social justice and civil rights movements in the West. Not with compassion — but with coercion. Not with shared values — but with a hijacking of language and platforms.
They use our freedoms to destroy our freedoms. They plant the seeds of division and weaponize identity to dismantle solidarity. Universities, media outlets, and political parties have become vulnerable conduits for their ideology.
I have been warning about this for years. And now, as Iranian missiles target Israel, as terror proxies destabilize the Middle East, and as radicals march in Western cities calling for “Intifada,” the world is finally — belatedly — seeing what we have allowed to fester.
This is not just Israel’s war. This is a global battle for the soul of our civilization.
Islamism — not Islam, but Islamism — is a radical, theocratic political movement cloaked in religious language. It is a modern totalitarianism that uses faith as a weapon. And it is here — on our streets, in our schools, in our governments. We see it in the storming of synagogues, the harassment of Jewish students, the silencing of Israeli speakers, the boycotts of businesses, the glorification of terrorist groups, and the threats against anyone — Jewish or not — who dares to dissent.
The Palestinianist and Islamist uprisings we are witnessing today are not peaceful protests. They are coordinated pressure campaigns –sometimes erupting into outright violence — meant to intimidate, destabilize, and force compliance with a genocidal agenda.
To remain silent is to be complicit.
To equivocate is to enable.
To excuse is to embolden.
To my fellow activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and leaders of conscience:
This is the moment.
To name the threat.
To defend what matters.
To speak truth without apology.
Because the missiles flying toward Israel tonight are not just aimed at Jews. They are aimed at all of us — our values, our freedoms, our future.
And we cannot afford to look away any longer.
Yuval David is an Emmy and Multi-Award-Winning Actor, Filmmaker, Journalist, and Jewish LGBTQ+ activist and advisor. A creative and compelling storyteller, on stage and screen, news and across social media, Yuval shares the narrative of Jewish activism and enduring hope. Follow him on Instagram, YouTube, and X.
The post Missiles Toward Israel, Aimed at Us All: The Iranian Regime’s War on Freedom first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
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