RSS
There Is No Compromise in a Religious War
Golda Meir. Photo: Wiki Commons.
JNS.org – Golda Meir is reputed to have said of Israel’s enemies, “They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don’t know of a compromise.”
As is often said, Israelis live in the Middle East, not the Middle West. No matter what Israel’s enemies say or do, this reality does not penetrate the minds of people who live in different neighborhoods. Instead, politicians speak dreamily of ceasefire agreements, a Palestinian state and normalization with Saudi Arabia.
The root of the conflict is not the so-called “occupation.” When Jordan oversaw the West Bank for 19 years and Egypt controlled Gaza, no one demanded a new Palestinian state. The clamor against “occupation” surfaced only after Israel took control of these territories in self-defense. On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked from Gaza, an area Israel vacated 18 years ago. Israel doesn’t occupy Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen or Iran, and yet it is being attacked by all those countries.
The issue has never been Palestinian self-determination. Arab states invaded Israel in 1948 to carve it up among themselves, not create a Palestinian state. The Palestinians rejected offers of statehood in 1937, 1939, 1947, 1979 (autonomy that would have led to statehood), literally blew up the 1993 Oslo Accords with terrorism and turned down independence provided by the Clinton, Olmert and Trump Mideast peace plans.
What fuels this ongoing conflict is not a fight for Palestinian self-determination but the refusal of Islamist forces to accept a Jewish state in their midst. Most policymakers and pundits can’t process this idea, and students don’t want to believe in religious wars.
At root, religion has always been the basis of the intolerance of Jews in the Middle East. They were, at best, treated as second-class citizens (dhimmis) in Muslim countries before being expelled or forced to flee. In Palestine, the Mufti of Jerusalem incited riots against the Jews two decades before the creation of Israel, demonstrating that anti-Jewish animosity is a cornerstone of the conflict.
Peace cannot be achieved through land or ceasefire agreements since Muslim extremists do not believe that Jews can live on any part of Islamic land. The two-state crowd ignores the Palestinians when they say a Palestinian state would have to be Judenrein, the only place in the world where Jews would not be permitted to live.
Israel’s enemies make their intentions plain, but the world looks the other way. Western leaders argue that Hamas is not just an organization but an “idea,” suggesting that Israel cannot defeat it militarily. If that is true, then how can peace ever be made with an “idea” that calls for the annihilation of Jews?
For those not convinced that Oct. 7 was only one part of the Hamas agenda, I refer you to the group’s charter, which states plainly: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. … The Islamic Resistance Movement is but one squadron that should be supported … until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realized. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine … [emphasis added].
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wisely ignored US President Joe Biden’s pressure to stay out of Rafah, where Israel knew Yahya Sinwar was hiding, the Israel Defense Forces eliminated one head of the Hamas Hydra. Still, it will regrow and ensure that even after its military capability is demolished, terrorism will continue. Hence the idea that Israel should turn over Gaza to West Bank Palestinians who insist that Hamas be part of the government is a nonstarter.
Israel has cut off several of the Hezbollah Hydra’s heads, but it will grow another and another. Hezbollah will remain a danger until the Iranian regime is overthrown and Lebanon is returned to the Lebanese without the domination of Hezbollah. And here’s a reminder of the Hezbollah “idea” that will live on as expressed by Hassan Nasrallah: “If we searched the entire world for a person, more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli.” To reinforce the point that the war is not about land, occupation or Palestinian suffering, Nasrallah expressed hope that Diaspora Jews would all make aliyah. “If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”
War is hell, but it is also sometimes necessary. What is the alternative when the Iranian regime has surrounded Israel with an “axis of resistance,” attacks it with ballistic missiles and is developing nuclear weapons to incinerate it? Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, “The Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.” Like the antisemites on American campuses, he says he has nothing against Jews, just Zionists, who he says “have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime.” According to Khamenei, “elimination of the State of Israel does not mean the elimination of the Jewish people,” even though 75% of the population are Jews.
We’re told peace is possible with the secular “moderates” in the West Bank like Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, who, along with other P.A. officials, praised the Hamas massacre, boasted that some of their fighters participated in the slaughter and eulogized Sinwar as “a great national leader.”
PLO chief Yasser Arafat once declared: “We know only one word: jihad, jihad, jihad. … And we are now entering the phase of the great jihad prior to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.” The former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Bahar, said, “Make us victorious over the infidel people. … Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies … Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don’t leave even one.”
Fatah, led by Holocaust denier Abbas, has a military wing that posts remarks such as, “To all our sons and brothers in the Palestinian Security Forces throughout the West Bank—today is your day. Break into the settlements, strike the sons of apes of pigs, kill everyone who is a settler, slaughter everyone who is Israeli, by Allah, they are the most cowardly among men. Today is a tiding of days of victory, Allah willing—for this is jihad, jihad, victory or martyrdom.”
Look at any P.A. map or the logos of the terrorist organizations to see that the “solution” is not two states but one called Palestine replacing Israel. To advance its cause, the P.A. incentivizes the murder of Jews through its “pay-for-slay” policy of paying the families of suicide bombers and terrorists in Israeli prisons.
The former head of the Shin Bet astonishingly wrote: “Winning on the battlefield does not bring us closer to winning the war—unless we defeat Hamas’s ideology by creating a better political horizon.”
Others, including Biden, have expressed similar nonsense. The Palestinians were repeatedly offered and rejected a horizon for independence precisely because they share the Islamist ideology. Oslo was the best proof as the Palestinians were given a five-year horizon for statehood and killed it by incessant terror. Arafat’s reaction to the prospect offered by Clinton was to start the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005.
Make no mistake, if given the opportunity, the Palestinians and the jihadists in Iran and Hezbollah would kill every Jew if given the chance.
Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration, the Europeans and the United Nations, to spare everyone but the Jews, Israelis stubbornly insist on living and not compromising with those who unapologetically seek its destruction.
As Israelis remind the world, their fight is not only for survival—it is a fight for the West, for the defense of civilization against a barbaric ideology that seeks nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish people.
Americans are in the same fight but dislike talking about it. We are fighting ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists, even at the cost of civilian lives. Israelis are told they are creating more terrorists, but Americans have never hesitated to kill terrorists out of such concern. And while some are telling Israel to “take the win” after eliminating Sinwar, no one proposed that the United States stop the war on terror after Osama bin Laden was dispatched.
There is hope, however distant it may seem.
I am reminded of the British adviser who told a Zionist official the Jews should never have allowed the United Nations to decide their fate in 1947 because the only way they’d get a state was if the United States and the Soviet Union agreed. That would never happen, he said.
He was wrong.
For the next 30 years, Middle East experts said the Arabs will never make peace. Then, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke the psychological barrier by going to Jerusalem in 1977 and signing a treaty with Israel two years later. It took 15 more years before King Hussein of Jordan showed the same courage. Another 25 years passed before the Abraham Accords were signed and another four Muslim Arab states normalized relations with Israel.
Perhaps, one day, a new generation of Palestinians will see that their future lies in coexistence, not jihad. But that day will only come after Israel’s enemies and their hateful ideologies are defeated, just as Nazism and communism were.
The post There Is No Compromise in a Religious War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.