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Why Confronting Iran Should Be a Major Priority for the Trump Administration

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi meets with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Following Donald Trump’s major victory in the 2024 US presidential elections, the new administration is facing a number of international crises that extend from the Korean Peninsula, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and last but not least, the escalating war in the Middle East ignited by the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023 on Israel. It doesn’t require a political expert to figure out that Iran’s unconditional support to Hamas and Hezbollah are behind the current 14-month regional crisis.

In the past year, Hamas and Hezbollah received a heavy beating by Israeli attacks on their strongholds in Gaza, southern Lebanon and Syria, especially with the elimination of both terrorist groups’ leaders Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah. Even with the fall of the longstanding Assad regime in Syria on December 8th, Iran remains the catalyst and purveyor of chaos in the region.

Americans who lost family members during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel filed lawsuits in November against Iran, presenting new evidence that Iran was involved in the terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of 46 American citizens — in addition to the 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers — while other Americans were among the more than 250 taken hostage.

Four Americans remain in Hamas captivity according to former hostage Aviva Siegel. Hamas released a video titled “Time is running out” on Dec. 1, 2024, of 20-year-old Edan Alexander who is still being held hostage in Gaza.

Iran endorsed the terrorist attack, and its Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, lauded the attacks and applauded his Hamas allies.

President-elect Trump vowed on Dec. 2 that there will be “hell to pay” if the hostages in Gaza are not freed before his inauguration.

Iranian Regime’s Threats and Abysmal Human Rights Record

Hardly a week passes without an Iranian leader or commander issuing threats against another country, but these are not empty threats, as some may claim or estimate. Iran has been vehemently working on destabilizing other countries in the Middle East, threatening Israel with annihilation and nearing the completion of a nuclear military program that turn its threats into a nuclear one.

In the span of less than five decades, the Iranian regime created a bizarro world of its own within the country and has been vehemently attempting to export its twisted state model across the Middle East through what it calls “Exporting the Revolution.” The Islamic revolution in Iran of 1979 that toppled the reigning Iranian Shah (emperor) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi shook the foundations of the Middle East, as it initiated a new grim chapter of extremism and terrorism.

Nowadays, Iran is a country producing ballistic missiles that it would launch indiscriminately on enemy militaries and citizens alike, case in point the barrage of over 300 ballistic missiles on Israel last October. At the same time, Iranian citizens are living in an archaic world that belongs to medieval times where adulterers are publicly flogged. Even young women such as Kurdish-Iranian Roya Heshmati are not spared from these punishments simply for appearing on social media without hijab. Barbaric punishments such as public executions using cranes, remain a common scene in Iranian streets and the regime uses them to send warning messages to dissidents.

Women’s rights in the country can only be compared to the same rights women had millennia ago. Iran’s abysmal record of women rights was condemned by every human rights NGO including the United Nations.

Following the September 2022 uprising in Iran, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amina in police custody, the repression of women has increased with new measures like the inhumane Noor Plan.

Though mass protests have subsided over the past two years, the ongoing defiance of women and girls remains a stark reminder that they continue to live in a system that relegates them to second-class status. The regime doesn’t even attempt to cover these abuses; they happen in broad day light and the videos of them have gone viral across the Internet. Nationwide protests for Mahsa’s death resulted in 551 deaths, including 49 women and 68 children, according to a United Nations report.

Roots of Religious Extremism of the Iranian Regime

The Iranian regime represents Shi’a Islam’s most extreme sect which is called the Twelver Shiism. The current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the earthly representative of the last Imam or the Twelfth Imam and hence his word trumps all others in importance. The Twelver Shiism doctrine was adopted following the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, and is used to suppress opposition.

According to the doctrine, an army of believers must be formed which is called the Al Mahdi Army which would be tasked to fight all the other faiths and nations around them to restore justice and equity in the world after it became a place of violence and corruption.

One can only imagine what would happen if the Al Mahdi army was armed by a nuclear arsenal to complete its “holy mission.”

Following the Islamic revolution, the regime believes and endorses the aforementioned set of beliefs as a creed. It is a cult-like doctrine that imposes an inevitable war with everyone who doesn’t believe in it.

The Iranian regime repeatedly stresses that it is the Middle East’s Shia Muslims who are defenders of the faith and protectors from the tyranny of the region’s regimes against them.

Nuclear Threats to the Middle East

Last month, during nuclear program negotiations with Britain, France, and Germany, Iran vehemently repeated the message it has been peddling for years — that its nuclear program is for peaceful and civilian purposes even as it brazenly produces far more fissionable material than would be required for military purposes. Nevertheless, Iran repeatedly threatens to convert its “peaceful” program into a military one or change its nuclear doctrine if it feels threatened. This redundant message is always in the form of threats to annihilate Israel and the United States.

Western countries and politicians who ignore the atrocities of the Iranian regime and seek rapprochement at any cost, are precisely the ones the regime welcomes, However, these politicians are doing a disservice to their countries, as Iranian regime behavior towards anything Western is characterized by disdain and haughtiness.

“The European Union must stop its “arrogant and irresponsible behavior,” said Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs Kazem Gharibabadi on November 29th.

He added that “Europe should not project its own internal issues, particularly those surrounding the Ukraine war onto others.”

Earlier in November Iranian authorities threatened to turn their nuclear program into a military one in case of further threats or pressures.

“If an existential threat arises, Iran will modify its nuclear doctrine. We have the capability to build weapons and have no issue in this regard,” said Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme leader Ayattolah Khamenei on November 2nd.

This threat was reiterated on Nov. 28th by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who was more direct in his threats of militarizing the nuclear program and changing Iran’s nuclear doctrine if his country remains subjected to “pressure.”

Europe imposed further sanctions on Iran last month as a result of its continuous military involvement and support to Russian aggression in Ukraine by supplying a range of its drones and ballistic missiles. These sanctions were added to previous sanctions imposed in response to its abysmal human rights record and its nuclear program.

Continued Financing and Political Support of the Three H’s (Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis)

It is safe to say that without Iranian funding, training and political support none of the three above mentioned perennial global terrorist threats would have ever existed in the first place. Yet, this fact seems to elude most politicians namely Western liberal ones when addressing the issue of Iran.

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 in Lebanon through political and financial support just three years after the Islamic revolution overtook Iran.

The Yemeni Houthi movement is a Shiite terrorist group that was founded in northern Yemen in the 1990s. Funding and support from Iran eventually enabled it to overtake the country in 2014 after a decade of fighting with the Sunni-majority government. The Houthis now represent the most dangerous terrorist group threatening the naval supply line.

Last but not least in terrorist impendence is the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which was formed in 1987 as an offshoot of the global Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas leaders have been and still pledge allegiance to Iran openly.

If Trump’s upcoming second term will be deemed a successful one four years from now, a lot of that success will be measured on how his administration will firmly deal with an Iranian regime that has been a menace to the world and namely America for over four decades. Taking down or neutralizing the Iranian regime may prove to be a gargantuan task for Trump, but if Trump is unable to do it, then it seems unlikely that any other American president or Western leader will be to do it in the foreseeable future.

This is not simply about a regime comprised of lunatics who call America the “Great Satan” or antagonize it with every political decision or speech. As explained above, it goes much further than that — to world security.

Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Senior Fellow Hany Ghoraba is an Egyptian writer, political and counter-terrorism analyst at Al Ahram Weekly and a regular contributor the BBC. He is the author of Egypt’s Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy He is a writer and contributor for over a dozen international outlets, periodicals and networks including Newsmax, OANN, BBC Radio, CSPMEFAmerican SpectatorAmerican ThinkerArab Weekly and Al Arabiya News. A different version of this article was originally published by IPT.

The post Why Confronting Iran Should Be a Major Priority for the Trump Administration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation

A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect

As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.

The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.

On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”

“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.

The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”

Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.

In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”

Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.

Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.

Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”

Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.

In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.

Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.

“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.

In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.

Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.

Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.

However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.

This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.

Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.

The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.

The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.

“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”

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Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’

Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect

The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.

On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.

This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.

Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.

According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.

While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.

In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.

“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.

“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.

This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.

The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.

For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.

Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.

Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”

“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”

Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.

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Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says

Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.

Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.

“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”

NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”

The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.

“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”

July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.

In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.

That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.

“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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