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Putin’s Defeat in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
JNS.org – Last Friday, President Biden announced new sanctions targeting 500 Russian officials and companies.
His aim was to deliver the “devastating” consequences that, three years ago, he vowed Russia’s ruler, Vladimir Putin, would face if Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, were to die in a Siberian penal colony—as he did, on Feb. 16 at the age of 47.
“Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Biden said. “Putin is responsible.”
The sanctions also are intended to hobble Russia’s economy as Putin’s war to conquer Ukraine enters its third year.
To call these 500 sanctions a slap on the wrist would be unfair. To call these sanctions 500 slaps on the wrist would not be unfair. And Muhammad Ali never won a fight by slapping wrists.
If only the United States had allies willing—on their own, without putting American troops at risk—to do the hard work necessary to degrade Russia’s military capabilities, to diminish Putin’s threat to NATO and reduce his value to America’s other adversaries!
Oh wait! America does have such allies. Their capital is in Kyiv, their president is Volodymyr Zelensky and they are only asking for more of the tools necessary to get the job done.
A bipartisan bill to authorize new military assistance—old ammunition made in America which we’d replace within U.S. war stocks by new ammunition made in America—passed 70-29 in the Senate.
But a faction of Republicans in the House is blocking a vote in that body—a vote that would easily garner a bipartisan majority.
Meanwhile, the rulers of Iran, China and North Korea—an axis of anti-American tyrannies—are sending Putin an abundant supply of missiles, drones and other weaponry.
Memo to Donald Trump: You’ve said that upon returning to the Oval Office you’ll negotiate a peace deal. Will you have more leverage if the Ukrainian defenders are making progress, or if the Russian invaders are advancing?
Not so long ago, anyone who called himself a conservative regarded Putin as a villain: a former KGB colonel who said the “demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.
Conservatives winced when Vice President Joe Biden, in 2009, declared that “it was time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas we can and should be working together with Russia.”
In 2013, conservatives criticized President Obama for not enforcing his “red line” after Bashar al-Assad persisted in slaughtering opponents and civilians with chemical weapons. Instead, Obama trusted Putin to rein in the Syrian dictator—which, of course, he did not.
Was it just coincidence that, the following year, Putin invaded Ukraine for the first time?
Conservatives were dismayed by Obama’s weak response; his refusal to give Ukrainians weapons that might have deterred Putin going forward.
Over the past two years, President Biden’s support for Ukraine has not been insignificant. But neither has it been sufficient to allow the Ukrainians to drive the aggressors from their lands.
American and European sanctions have had only a limited impact on Russia’s economy. Russian hydrocarbons remain valuable commodities. China, India and Brazil are eager customers.
Also: A whopping 6% of Russia’s GDP is now going to the military. That has stimulated Russia’s economy, which has been growing faster than expected.
On Friday, Biden vowed “to continue to ensure that Putin pays a price for his aggression abroad and his repression at home.”
If he’s serious, three measures should be at the top of his list.
One: He should immediately send a dozen ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) with unitary warheads (better against hard targets than the cluster munitions variant) and with longer ranges than anything now in Ukraine’s arsenal. He can do that without congressional approval.
Though these missiles wouldn’t be silver bullets, they’d make a difference.
Among the targets they could reach: the Kerch Strait Bridge that connects Russia to Crimea. Built following Putin’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula, it has been attacked several times, but not damaged beyond repair. It was fully reopened in October.
Two: Biden should seize the $300 billion in frozen Russian bank reserves and utilize those funds to help Ukrainians defend themselves and begin rebuilding. It’s an extraordinary measure but one justified by Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion and the multiple war crimes that have followed.
A slight variation: Biden could use the funds as collateral for a lend-lease program for Ukraine.
Three: Biden should reverse his decision to curtail exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Without an abundant and reliable supply of American LNG—sales of which earn profits for Americans—the Europeans will be tempted to increase their purchases of oil and gas from Russia (they’ve never gone cold turkey) or buy more from Qatar, which has spent lavishly over the years on Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
As for getting additional military aid to Ukraine quickly, one other promising path is now in the mix. A bipartisan group of House members have introduced the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, which combines providing weapons to allies with a version of Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy for aliens seeking admission.
That will cause some Democrats to vote against it, but it will pass—if it has the support of Speaker Mike Johnson and some of the Republicans most determined to curtail Biden’s open-borders policy.
They should provide that support, because having allies willing and able to fight common enemies makes America stronger.
And because the axis of anti-American tyrannies would see Putin’s victory over Ukraine as a significant defeat for America.
And they’d be right.
The post Putin’s Defeat in Ukraine first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.