Podcasts about shiites

Donald Trump prides himself on being a deal-maker. And he aspires to be a peacemaker.  Consequently, he is pursuing an agreement whereby Iran's mullahs would actually abandon their ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons – and thereby prevent another “endless” Mideast war.  Mr. Trump's courtiers insist that he'll succeed where his predecessors have consistently failed. For that to occur, however, the mullahs must faithfully forswear their determination to trigger Armageddon, thus bringing back the Shiites' messiah and ushering in their own Golden Age, in which all the world submits to Islam.   Ain't gonna happen. That being the case, the only realistic hope for peace lies with the end of the Iranian regime. A true master deal-maker knows when to cut his losses. This is that time and Israel is prepared to do the heavy lifting.  Let that be your legacy, Mr. President. This is Frank Gaffney.

In the wake of the Syrian civil war, exchanges between Alawites, Shiites, and Christians are often fierce. Taylor Luck reports on how they still manage to break bread together, and how religious minorities there have found encouragement as they probe for answers. Also: today's stories, including Chinese rights groups that are packing up as U.S. financial aid is withdrawn, the expensive, complicated, and slow process that stands in the way of European military self-sufficiency, and how New York appears to be fast preparing to move on without Eric Adams. Join the Monitor's Amelia Newcomb for today's news.

HTS withdraw from Latakia whilst back in Homs Alawites and Shiites get murdered. Meanwhile HTS tries to restore stability, in its way.Support the showReflections and observations from William Morris, Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation

What is Turkey and who actually runs it? How does it now figure into what is happening in Syria and The Middle East and who will they align with - the Sunnis or the Shiites in this historical shift of allegiances and borders right now. Want more history? Go back and listen to this series from the beginning, as Winston Churchill once said “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” so we are going all the way back, so we can understand what is happening now and plan for the future. Register for the new Weekly Jewish History Crash Course on Zoom with Rabbi Ken Spiro ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.myjfi.com/events-and-classes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out more about Rabbi Ken Spiro and his work at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.KenSpiro.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about Ellie Bass and her work at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.elliebass.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about The Jewish Family Institute at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.MyJFI.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To send us questions and ideas for topics email us at rememberwhatsnext@gmail.com  Thank you for joining us on Remember What's Next with Rabbi Ken Spiro and Ellie Bass. This is a project that we do out of love for our people, if you would like to be a supporter or patron of this project please let us know! We would love to continue to do this project and expand it beyond the thousands of listeners we already have! Our podcast has now hit number one multiple times in multiple countries and we want to keep the momentum going. Get in touch with us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rememberwhatsnext@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and let us know your thoughts, topic ideas and how you would like to support us going forward. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe and review us which helps more people find our podcast and have access to the essential knowledge and understanding of who we are as a Jewish people and what is happening in the world today through the vital lens of history. 

Darrell Castle tries to make sense of the Syrian Civil War which has been raging sometimes hot and sometimes cold for many years. Transcription / Notes: THE NEO-OTTOMAN EMPIRE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 13th day of December in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about the Syrian Civil War which has been raging sometimes hot and sometimes cold for many years. It's very difficult to make sense out of something that makes no sense, but I will try to do so. This is the Christmas season here in the Castle household and therefore it is the last Friday that I will be able to bring the Castle Report this year. I will join you again, God willing, on Friday, January 3, 2025. Enjoy the holidays with those you love and by all means celebrate Christmas. The title of this report indicates that I am taking the position that Turkey won the Syrian Civil War because the fall and removal of strong man Bashar al Assad paves the way for strong man Recep Tayyip Erdogan to emerge and reap the benefits of the demise of the Assad family's hold over Syria which has lasted for some 60 years. Erdogan came to power in Turkey in 2014 and my position is that he imagines himself to be the return of Suleiman the Magnificent who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the 1500's when it was at the peak of its power. The Ottoman Empire served as the connection between the Middle east and Europe for some 600 years. The Ottoman Empire, sometimes referred to as the Turkish Empire, ruled the Middle East until it was defeated and dissolved with the British and American victory in World War l. The destruction of the Ottoman Empire led to the power vacuum that has existed, at least to some degree, until today. Great Britain created the nations of the Middle east after its victory by simply drawing lines on the sand and making a map with those lines as separate countries which were really just a collection of Nomadic Tribes. I believe Erdogan came to power in Turkey with a dream of returning his country to the greatness it once had and he is currently going about the business of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire under Turkish control. His rebuilding uses overt war as we have recently seen, but it also operates through diplomacy and even subterfuge which he used to gain acceptance into NATO. Yes, that's right, this Muslim country of Turkey, whose culture, religion, and way of life is completely averse to those of the West is a full-fledged NATO member. A close member of Erdogan's inner circle of advisors recently said in a public interview that the goal of the Erdogan administration is the destruction of Western Civilization. The NATO alliance should remove Turkey because of that, but the problem is that the NATO charter has no provision for involuntarily removing a member or kicking someone out. A majority of NATO members may want Turkey out but the alliance is pretty woke right now and must think this is a woke world, so they try to read the tea leaves and apparently that requires more fear of being labeled Islamophobic than it does having an enemy nation in its midst. Erdogan, in the meantime, apparently seeks to Islamize Europe through Muslim immigration. He has, in essence, held Europe hostage and demanded money to prevent refugees from traveling upward from Syria through Turkey into Europe. The Europeans have paid the ransom in the past but right now one out of every 20 Syrians in the world resides in Germany thanks to Erdogan and the policies of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. I could go on with this Neo-Ottoman story all day but to sum it up a little he is putting together a collection of Sunni nations in opposition to the Shiites that have ruled Syria in the past by way of Iran and to some extent Iraq. This is a coalition against Iran in other words, which brings me to how this played out in the war. I imagine that right now the leaders in Iran are feeling regret that they allowed their p...

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Arab Affairs correspondent Gianluca Pacchiani and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Pacchiani reviews the reactions from Lebanese Shiites following the temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah, and how the Iran-backed terrorist organization will presumably lay low after being battered during the last months of the war with the IDF. He also looks at rebel groups in northwestern Syria fighting the weakened regime of the Bashar Al Assad regime. The rebel forces, who are against Hezbollah, hope that Israel will strike Iranian convoys and Hezbollah forces inside Syria, aiding their cause. Surkes discusses the weak climate bill that's being pushed through the Knesset, a piece of legislation that lacks targets, has no budget and won't serve as a tool in petitioning the government on climate targets. She also looks at a Greenpeace Israel project that tracked used clothing by using AirTags, and found that the used textiles ended up mostly in the West Bank and Africa, where they were primarily dumped or turned into rags. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Lebanon's Shiites increasingly reject role of scapegoat in Hezbollah's war on Israel Who are the rebels battering Syria's regime, and do they pose a risk to Israel? Most used clothes deposited in textile recycling bins end up in Africa — report Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Children take part in recycling and environmental activities in southern Tel Aviv, November 28, 2024 (Photo by Dor Pazuelo/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to be U.S. attorney general just hours after his other choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name. Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial. She’s been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against Trump. She has also been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers. Gaetz stepped aside amid continued fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer. FORESTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A major storm moving through Northern California has toppled trees and dropped heavy snow and record rain after knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people in Washington and Oregon.  VANG VIENG, Laos (AP) — A second Australian teenager who fell critically ill after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos has died, according to a family statement sent to Australian media. GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says more aid workers, health care staffers, delivery personnel and other humanitarians have been killed in 2024 than in any other single year. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s parliament has canceled a session as security was tightened after Russia deployed a new ballistic missile that threatens to escalate the nearly three-year war.  U.S. health officials say a deadly outbreak of listeria food poisoning tied to a massive recall of popular Boar's Head deli meats is over. Ten people died and 61 were sickened in 19 states in the outbreak. The outbreak is considered over 60 days after the last reported illness.  In other news: Democrats strike deal to get more Biden judges confirmed before Congress adjourns. The FBI and DHS leaders won't testify publicly about national security threats before the Senate. A Mexican cartel leader arrested in the US faked his death and assumed a phony name, prosecutors say. Justice Department finds a pattern of misconduct by police in Trenton, New Jersey. Bank makes hundreds of millions in loans available to assist Helene recovery in North Carolina. Alabama carries out nation’s third nitrogen gas execution on a man for a hitchhiker's killing. Jussie Smollett’s conviction in 2019 attack on himself is overturned. What will happen to CNBC and MSNBC when they no longer have a corporate connection to NBC News. Stock market today Wall Street rises with Nvidia as bitcoin bursts above $99,000. Average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the US rises to highest level since July. US home sales rose in October, notching their first annual gain in more than three years. US applications for jobless benefits fall to 213,000, remaining near 7-month lows. 6 agencies investigate after a photographer says he found remains in a burned Georgia funeral home. Penn State wins trademark case over retailer's use of vintage logos, images. The Steelers and Browns brave the elements in Thursday Night Football, the Lakers put their winning streak to the test against the Magic, baseball announces its MVP awards, and one of hockey's stars suffers a significant injury.  At least 38 killed as gunmen open fire on vehicles carrying Shiites in northwest Pakistan. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on an attack on a bus in Pakistan.

Iran's Religious Minorities, Part II: Status of Religious Minorities in Iranian Islam In this episode, we delve into the relationship between Iranian Islam and religious minorities throughout ‎history, focusing on their evolving status and rights. During the early Islamic centuries, religious ‎minorities such as Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians—collectively known as ahl al-kitāb (People of the ‎Book)—were granted protected status (dhimma) in exchange for paying the jizya tax and accepting ‎Muslim authority. This system, although unequal, offered some security and religious freedom.‎ As Islamic theology and jurisprudence developed, interpretations of non-Muslims' roles and rights ‎became stricter, with significant variations depending on the era and ruling authorities. In contemporary ‎Iran, the Islamic Republic's constitution, grounded in Shiite jurisprudence, institutionalizes inequalities ‎between Muslims and non-Muslims. Shiites are afforded privileges unavailable to other groups, while ‎restrictions persist on roles, marriages, and daily interactions. These regulations are influenced not only ‎by Islamic texts but also by pre-Islamic practices, notably Zoroastrian purity laws.‎ We also touch on how the Iranian Revolution of 1979 impacted minority communities, highlighting ‎issues of exclusion, discrimination, and self-preservation among non-Muslim groups. The discussion ‎offers a nuanced perspective on the complex interplay between religion, politics, and minority rights in ‎both historical and modern contexts.‎ Let me know your thoughts, or share any questions in the comments below. Thank you for listening!‎ Keywords ‎#IranianIslam #ReligiousMinorities #Dhimma #IslamicHistory #ShiiteJurisprudence #PodcastDiscussion‎ ‎#Kadivar #Sunni #Shiite #IranianIslam #Dhimma #AhlAlKitab

In the 365 days following the events of Oct. 7, the situation in the Middle East is as complicated as ever. Israel’s genocide in Gaza agonizingly continues, and its invasion of Lebanon and subsequent retaliation at the hands of Hezbollah and Iran has added more fuel to the fire. Tensions are escalating and Middle East expert and writer Juan Cole joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to explain its precedent and what the future may hold. The extremism of the Netanyahu cabinet in Israel, Cole explains, is the basis for the sharp increase in violence and tension in the region. While the Israeli government justifies their actions as necessary for the protection of Jews in the region, Cole argues their actions do the opposite. “The extreme goals of Netanyahu to completely control the lives of people in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon are endangering the lives of ordinary Jews. They're not making them safer,” he says. The attempted expansion into Lebanon, which has brought global attention to the country, is something seen before in the recent history of Israel, Cole says. “It's 1982 all over again. 1982 was an enormous failure, and it produced more radicalization and more headaches in the long term for Israel,” he tells Scheer. Despite their claims of self-defense against “terrorist” organizations like Hezbollah, Cole explains that much like Hamas, Hezbollah’s rise was a direct consequence of Israeli policies. “The Israelis occupied 10% of Lebanese soil, southern Lebanon, for 18 years. And the Lebanese wanted them right back out of their country,” he explains. “The Shiites of southern Lebanon, who nobody ever heard of… before Israel occupied that area, threw up these resistance movements like Hezbollah. It was Israel that radicalized the Shiites of southern Lebanon,” Cole states.

“I never thought there's antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done . . . apparently, not.” Einat Admony is a chef, cookbook author, comedian, and social media star who grew up in Bnei Brak, Israel. With parents from Iran and Yemen, Einat spent her childhood in the kitchens of Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors. Learn about her family's deep-rooted Jewish heritage in Iran and the broader Middle East. Along with her mother Ziona's journey from Iran to Israel in 1948, Einat discusses the antisemitism she's dealt with online and on the streets in the past year. Hear her stories of Jewish-Muslim coexistence in Iran and memories of spices and perfumes that inspire Einat's dishes. Her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk, along with her Manhattan restaurant Balaboosta, reflect a blend of tradition and innovation. “You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran,” says Houman Sarshar, an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. Sarshar highlights the historical relationship between Iran and Israel, noting that Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel post-1948.  The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by Jews in Iran, their cultural integration, and the impact of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: EINAT ADMONY: I've been in Israel a few months ago. It's like you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Iran. MANYA: Whether she's deviling eggs soaked in beet juice, simmering Oxtail in shawarma spices, or sprinkling za'atar on pastry dough, chef Einat Admony is honoring her family's Middle Eastern heritage. Both the places where they have lived for generations, as well as the place they have and will always call home: Israel.   EINAT/Clip: Start with brushing the puff pastry with olive oil and za'atar. Have some feta all around and shredded mozzarella. Take the other sheet and just cut it to one inch strips. Now we're going to twist. Need to be careful. Now we're just gonna brush the top with the mix of oil and za'atar. Get it some shiny and glazy. This is ready for the oven. Bake at 400 until it's golden. That's it super easy, just sprinkle some za'atar and eat. MANYA: For the chef, author, reality TV star, and comedian, food reflects the Zionist roots that have been a constant for Einat, the self-made balaboosta, who is largely credited with introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. That love for Israel goes back generations, long before the modern state existed, when her maternal ancestors lived in the land, that until 1935 was known as Persia, but is now known as Iran. Her own mother Ziona, the third of seven siblings, was even named for the destination where Einat's grandparents aspired to one day raise their family. Returning home to the land of Zion from which Jews had been exiled centuries earlier was always the goal. When you ask her why, Einat laughs in disbelief.  EINAT: Why? Why? That's homeland. I think a lot of Jewish people for hundreds of years was, that's in every prayer, it's in every Shabbat dinner evening. MANYA: The hatred directed toward Israel by Iran's regime in the form of the deadly attacks on Israel by Iran-backed terrorist groups and the Islamic Republic of Iran itself make it hard to believe that Iran was once a place where Jews and the Zionist movement thrived. But in fact, Iran's history includes periods when the wide-open roads between Iran and Israel ran two ways and the countries not only lived in harmony but worked in close partnership.  Iran was the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to recognize the modern state of Israel after its formation in 1948, and the two established diplomatic ties. Regular flights ran between Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.  SARSHAR: We cannot overlook the fact that since October 29, 539 BCE the Jewish community of Iran remains to this day the largest community of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside the state of Israel. To this day. You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran.  MANYA: Houman Sarshar is an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. He has edited a number of books, including Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews.  SARSHAR: The history of the Jews in Iran begins about 2,700 years ago, when the first community of known Jews was taken to Iran. They are commonly believed to be one of the 10 Lost Tribes. And then when we fast forward to when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took Jews into captivity. Some years after that at 539 BCE on October 29, 539 BCE, to be exact, Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, liberated Babylon and gave Jews the permission to go back to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple. MANYA: Cyrus the Great – a Persian emperor particularly renowned among contemporary scholars for the respect he showed toward peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. According to the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus even paid for the restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. SARSHAR: This is known as the Second Temple period in Jewish history, and under the Achaemenid dynasty, Jews participated in every level of society. And a few centuries forward, around the 5th Century, we know the Jews continue to live with many freedoms, because that is the era when the Babylonian Talmud was originally produced in Iran by Rav Ashi. So, you know, there was a thriving rabbanut (rabbanite) in Iran who had the freedom and the luxury and the time to be able to produce such an important document as the Talmud, which has become the cornerstone of all jurisprudence that we know, Western law, and everything. MANYA: The advent and arrival of Islam in Iran in the 7th Century CE changed circumstances somewhat. As was the case across the Middle East, all non-Muslims became dhimmis – residents who paid a special tax and lived under certain restrictions. The situation for Jews worsened in the 16th Century when the Safavid dynasty made the Shiite creed the dominant form of Islam in Iran. Fatwas made life for all non-Shiites quite difficult. SARSHAR: And for reasons that are still open to discussion, all of these restrictions were most vehemently imposed on the Jews of Iran. And because of these restrictions, all non-Shiites were considered religiously impure. And this religious impurity, kind of like the concept of the untouchable sect in India, they were considered pollutive. MANYA: Jews could not look Muslims in the eye. They were placed in ghettos called mahaleh where they could not leave on rainy days for fear the water that splattered on them could contaminate the water supply. They wore yellow stars and special shoes to distinguish them from the rest of the population. They were not allowed to purchase property from Muslims or build homes with walls that were higher than those of their Muslim neighbors. SARSHAR: They could not, for example, participate in the trade of edible goods because, you know, fruits and vegetables and meats carried this pollution. So Muslims could no longer consume the foods that were touched by Jews. And as a result, this created a certain path forward in history for the Jews of Iran.  They went into antique trades. They went into carpet trades. They went into work of textiles. They became musicians. And for the following 500 years, these restrictions kind of guided the way the Jews of Iran lived in that country, even though they had been there for thousands of years previously. MANYA: Houman said the 1895 arrival of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based network of schools for Jewish children throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including within the mahalehs in Persia, was the first step in a series of improvements for Jews there. SARSHAR: Previous to that, Jews were not allowed to get any kind of an education whatsoever. The only teachers were the Muslim clergy, and they refused to teach anything to Jewish students. So this allowed for the Jewish community to finally start to get a Western-style education, which was very important at that time, given all of the dynamics that were going on in society with modernity. MANYA: As educational opportunities increased in the middle of the 19th Century, so did opportunities for the courtiers and elite to travel and see the Western world as it industrialized and modernized, expanding international trade and sharing wealth more widely. SARSHAR: Often they would be sent by their families to go and try to see if they can, you know, find a way to expand the family's businesses and lives as merchants, and they would come back shocked. I mean, Iran was a place where you know of mostly mud brick homes and dirt roads and people riding around on donkeys. And imagine this is all you've known. You never see women walking around the street. The only women you have ever seen with your own eyes in your life are your mom, your sister, your daughter or your wife, and occasionally, sex workers. And that's it. So all of a sudden, you know, you travel a couple of months by boat and train, and you get to Paris, and it's impossible to try to even conceive of the experience. It must have been something like the Hegelian experience of the sublime. What can the world look like? And where is it that I live in, and why isn't my country the same as this? MANYA: By the early 20th Century, the Persian people concluded the answer to that question was in the rule of law. The reason the European nations provided such opportunity for the community at-large had to do with the fact that the law of the land was not arbitrary or enforced by religion or royalty. It was embedded in a constitution – a set of laws that define the structure of a government and the rights of its citizens – a Western tenet that reduced the power of the clergy and created a parliament called the Majles. SARSHAR: They were starting to read travel journals. They were starting to understand the perspective that Westerners had on Iranians, and those perspectives were often awful. You know, the Western world believed, for example –the country was corrupt to the bone in every respect.  So all of these things gradually led to a call for a constitution, the major pivot of which was the establishment of a legislature of law that would start to create a community where everyone can feel like they're equal in the eyes of the law and have something to gain by trying to improve the country as a whole. Iran became the first constitutional monarchy in the Middle East in 1906 when that revolution happened, it was a momentous event. And really, things really, really did, in fact, start to change. MANYA: In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi – an arch nationalist who wanted to propel Iran forward into the industrial age – took over the crown of Iran. He welcomed any Iranian citizen to participate in that agenda. SARSHAR: By now, we had a good two generations of Jews who had been French-educated by the Allianz Society.  They had all gone to France at some point in their lives, so they were able to participate in this industrialization of the country, given the language skills that they had and some of the connections they had built in the Western world. MANYA: Both World Wars in Europe took a massive toll on Iran. Despite declaring neutrality, Iran was occupied by European nations that took over the nation's agriculture, treating Iran as a pantry to feed the armies. Droughts and disease worsened the toll. SARSHAR: One of the lesser-known factoids about history is that during World War I, the nation that lost the most individuals as a result of the war was Iran. Above and beyond all European nations who were at war, because of a famine that had started in Iran. The same dynamic started to happen in World War II. MANYA: With nationalist fever sweeping Europe and Iran, the Allies feared the arch-nationalist Shah would go the way of Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, and Hitler in Germany. They also feared the Shah would collaborate with Hitler's Germany to provide oil for the German oil machine and cease being the pantry the Allies needed it to be. In 1941, the Western powers convinced him to abdicate the throne to his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And when the war ended, Iran was able to enjoy the same economic benefits as the rest of the world at peace time. Most importantly, it was able to profit from its own oil reserves, significantly boosting Iran's national income. SARSHAR: In 1941, it was really the beginning of what is commonly referred to by the scholars of Jewish Iranian history as the Golden Age of Iranian Jewry. From 1941 until the revolution in 1978, the Jewish community of Iran saw a meteoric rise to power and social wealth. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance, real estate development, and other major industries, the aluminum plastics industries in Iran, all were either directly owned by the Jews of Iran or managed under their management.  And during this period, really, we can say that for the first time, after 2,500 years, the Jews of Iran really started to experience the kinds of freedoms that they had not seen since the Achaemenid dynasty. And it is during this time that, you know, we see, really, that life started to change for the Jews of Iran, even though some of the age-old social dynamics were still there.  The institutionalized antisemitism had not been completely wiped out. But for the most part, things had changed because Iranian society in general was also being Westernized, light speed. And many educated people had realized that antisemitism was really looked down upon, you know, that kind of prejudice was really no longer acceptable in the world at large. So many, many sections of the community really had shifted, genuinely shifted. And some, even though maybe their feelings had not changed, knew that their antisemitism was something that they needed to keep private. MANYA: At that time, Iran also became a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe and other parts of the Middle East. On June 1, 1941, a brutal pogrom in Iraq known as the Farhud, incited by Nazi propaganda, targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. Nearly 200 Jews were murdered in the streets. The violence became a turning point for Iraqi Jews. Thousands fled, many stopping in Iran, which became a way station for those headed to Palestine.  In 1942, thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland who had fled across the border into the Soviet Union during the German invasion traveled on trains and ships to Iran. Among the refugees – 1,000 orphaned children.  As Zionist leaders worked to negotiate the young Jews' immigration to Palestine, the Jewish Agency established the “Tehran Home for Jewish Children” – a complex of tents on the grounds of a former Iranian Air Force barracks outside Tehran. More than 800 orphans, escorted by adults, most of them also refugees, moved from Tehran to kibbutzim in Palestine the following year. Later, in 1948, when most Arab League states forbade the emigration of their Jews after the creation of Israel, the Zionist underground continued to smuggle Jews to Iran at about a rate of 1,000 a month, before they were flown to Israel. SARSHAR: The Zionist movement was fairly strong in Iran. It was a very lively movement. The Balfour Declaration was celebrated in all of the Allianz schools in Iran, and very soon thereafter, the first Zionist organization of Iran was established. And truly many of its founding fathers were some of the leading industrialists and intellectuals in Iranian society, in the Jewish Iranian community for the years to come. It was not unlike the kind of Zionism we see today in the United States, for example. You know, the wealthy families of the Jewish communities in New York and Los Angeles, all are very passionate about Israel, but you don't see very many of them selling their homes and packing up and moving to Israel because they just don't want to do it. They feel like they're very comfortable here. And what matters is that a state of Israel should exist, and they are political advocates of that state and of that policy and of its continued existence, but not necessarily diehard participants in the experiment itself. Iranians, after the establishment of the State of Israel, were being encouraged to move to Israel, and the Israeli government was having a lot of difficulty with that, because a lot of Iranians were seeing that life had become better for them, and they weren't as willing to leave, despite the fact that the Kourosh Project provided airplanes to get Jews out of Iran. My own great-grandmother was one of those passengers. She is buried in Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She was one of the early citizens of Israel who went to live out the Zionist dream. MANYA: Both sides of Einat's family – her mother and father's ancestors – were among those early Israeli citizens. Einat's father was born in Tel Aviv. His parents and grandparents had come from Yemen in the late 19th Century. Einat's mother Ziona was 10 years old when in 1948, the family left Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran known for its carpet weaving and woolen shawls. They arrived in Israel with their suitcases ready to fulfill their dream. But living the dream in the new Jewish nation was not easy. After all, the day after Israel declared its independence, Arab nations attacked the Jewish state, launching the first of a series of Arab-Israeli Wars. EINAT: The story of my mom, it's a very interesting story. The family didn't have much money. There wasn't like, rich family that left, very different story. No, both of my parents come from very, I would say, very poor family. My grandpa was, like, dealing with textile. He was like, traveling from town to town with fabric. And that's what they did. They put them in what's called ma'aborot, which was like a very kind of small villages, tin houses. My mom always said there were seven kids, so all of them in one room. In the winter it's freezing; in the summer, it's super hot. But it was also close to the border, so the one window they have, they always had to cover it so at night, the enemy cannot see the light inside that room and shoot there. Also in the ma'aabarot, nobody speaks the same language. So, it was Moroccan and Iraqi and nobody speak the same dialect or the same language. So, they cannot even communicate quite yet. MANYA: Most of Ziona's six siblings did not go to school. To make it possible for Ziona, her parents placed her in a foster home with an Iraqi family in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. EINAT: My mom's family decided that for her, she should get education, because most of the siblings didn't went to school or anything, So they put her in a foster home. In an Iraqi home, and she didn't speak a word there. So my mom, as a 10 years old, became a kid for foster parents that live in a center in Ramat Gan, where I basically grew up. And she got education, which was great. She learned also Iraqi, which is Arabic. So she speaks fluent Arabic, but she had not an easy life in coming to Israel from a different country. MANYA: Ziona has shared many of these stories with her daughter in the kitchen and dining room as they prepare and enjoy dishes that remind them of home. When she visited her daughter at her home in upstate New York at the end of the summer, Einat collected as many stories as she could over cutting boards, steaming pots, and sizzling pans. EINAT: There's a lot of story coming up, some old story that I know, some new stories. And it's really nice, because my mom is 84, 85. So, it's really nice to capture all of it, all of it. There is a lot of interesting stuff that happened during the first 10 years when she came to Israel.  That's the main, I think, I always talk about, like, how I grew up and how much food was a very substantial part of our life, if not the biggest part. You know, it's like, family can fight and this, but when it's come to the dinner, it's just change everything, the dynamic. For us, it was a big, significant part of everything. So obviously, most of these stories and memories come in while we're cooking or eating. A lot of time she used to talk about, and still talking about the smells, the smells of the flowers, the smells of the zafar (perfume). She still have the nostalgia from that time and talking very highly about what Iran used to be, and how great, and the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews back then. My grandpa's best friend was crying when he left, and he said: ‘Please don't go. Stay with us.' And he said: ‘I want to go to homeland.' So, they have a really great relationship. She's always talking, actually, about how they come for Shabbat dinner, the friends if they put the cigarettes outside of the door in Shabbat because they were observant. So cigarettes, lighter, everything, they keep it outside, in the garden, not coming inside the house. So a lot of mutual respect for the religion to each other. And I love that stories. It just showed what's happened when people take it extreme. MANYA: Einat's cookbooks and restaurant menus are filled with recipes from her own childhood and her parents' upbringing. To satisfy the appetite of her father, a former Israeli athlete, her house always had hummus and every weekend, the family made a hilbeh sauce --  a traditional Yemenite fenugreek dip made with cardamom, caraway seeds and chili flakes. Other recipes reflect her mother's Persian roots. And then there are recipes that, at first blush, seem to come out of left field, but are inspired by the Iraqi Jewish foster family that raised her mother, and the Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors that passed through the dining room and kitchen where Einat was raised in Bnei Brak.  Now a Haredi town east of Tel Aviv, it was then a diverse population of Jews from, well, everywhere. Einat still remembers standing on a stool next to the Moroccan neighbor in her building learning how to roll couscous. EINAT: One neighbor that was my second mom, her name was Tova, and she was Moroccan, so it was like, I have another Moroccan mom. But all the building was all Holocaust survivors. None of them had kids, and they were all speaking in Yiddish, mostly. So I grew up with a lot of mix. I wouldn't say, you know, in my time, it's not like our neighborhood. I grew up in Bnei Brak, and our neighborhood was very, it was before Bnei Brak became so religious like today. It was still religious, if you go really in, but we're close to Ramat Gan, and I have to say that it's, I would say, I didn't grow up with, it's very mixed, very mixed.  Wouldn't say I grew up just with Moroccan or Mizrahi, I say that it's very, very mixed. And my mom same. I think a lot of her friend is like, It's my mom would speak some Yiddish. She would do Kugel on Shabbat next to the jachnun and all the Mizrahi food. You know, this is the multi-pot and one things I love in Israel. You can see in one table so many different cultures. And that's something that would have happened in my house a lot. MANYA: That amalgam of Jewish cultures is reflected in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. It also shows up in her menu at the brick-and-mortar Balaboosta, a quaint Middle Eastern trattoria on Mulberry Street in Manhattan.  The name Balaboosta is borrowed from Yiddish meaning “a perfect housewife” – a twist on ba'al habayit, Hebrew for master of the house, or boss. But Einat insists that the term is no longer exclusively Ashkenazi, nor does it refer exclusively to a woman's domestic role. EINAT: An old friend, chef, asked me when I went to open Balaboosta, and I said, ‘I don't have a name.' She said: ‘What do you call a badass woman in Hebrew?' I'm like, ‘balaboosta.' She said, ‘It's a perfect name. We done.' Took five minutes to find this name, and I love it. It's really connected because for me it's so so much different things. You know, I always talk about the 20th century balaboosta. The balaboosta that outside going to work, the balaboosta that asking a man for a date. The balaboosta that it's not just like she's the housewife and the homekeeper. It's much more than that. Today, she's a multitask badass.  It's much more spiritual than what it is. I think it's the one that can bond the people together and bring them together and make peace between two parties clashing. So for me, it's much more than somebody that can cook and clean. So, much, much more than that. MANYA: Einat's parents became more religious when she was 12, which of course had the opposite effect on their daughter: she rebelled. When her time came to do her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force, she was determined not to serve in a role typically assigned to women. She requested a post as a firing instructor. But after reviewing the high school transcript shaped by her rebellious adolescence, the IDF assigned her to the Nevatim Air Base where she served as a chauffeur for fighter pilots. EINAT: Back then most women would be secretaries giving coffee to some assholes. I was trying not to do that, and somehow I got very lucky, and I was in the same division, I was in the Air Force. I had amazing time for two years. I start the military a very different person, and left a very different person. I used to hang with a lot of bad people before, really bad people. And when I get to the military, I was a driver of pilots, it's the top of the top of the top in the hierarchy in the military in all IDF. So now I'm hanging with people that have the biggest ambition ever, and I'm learning new stuff, and everything opened up, even my language changed completely. Everything. I was want to travel more than I ever want before, and I have like, crazy dreams. MANYA: To make sure the elite pilots were well-fed, the IDF bused in a group of Yemenite grandmothers to provide ochel bayit, or home-cooked meals. Einat befriended the kitchen staff and helped out from time to time. Then in January 1991, she was tapped to cook a meal that probably launched her career. The IDF chiefs of staff had convened at Nevatim base to discuss the U.S. plan to bomb Iraq during the Gulf War and what Israel would do if Saddam Hussein retaliated with an attack on the Jewish state. But they needed to plot that strategy on full stomachs. A couple of pilots served as her sous chefs. That night, the Israeli generals dined on Chinese chicken with garlic, honey, and soy. And a rice salad. EINAT: It was definitely the turning point, the military.  I would say there is some values of relationship and working ethics that I wouldn't see anywhere else, and that's coming, I think because the military. They're waking up in the morning, the friendship, they're no snitching or none of this. It's to stand up for each other. There is so many other values that I grabbed from that. So when I start my culinary career, and I was in a fine dining kitchen, it was very helpful, very helpful. MANYA: After spending five years in a van driving around Germany – an extended celebration of freedom after IDF service --  it was time to get serious about a career. A culinary career made as good a sense as any. Einat worked as a waitress in Eilat and enrolled in culinary school. At the end, she marched into the kitchen of Keren, one of the first restaurants in Israel to offer haute cuisine. She got an internship, then a job. The former restaurant, run by Israeli Chef and television host Haim Cohen, is credited for reinventing Israeli cuisine. Now, as a restaurant owner and TV personality herself, Einat is largely credited for introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. But before she became the self-made Balaboosta of fine Israeli dining, Einat was America's Falafel Queen, made famous by two victories on the Food Network's show Chopped and her first restaurant – now a fast food chain called Ta'im Falafel. But her fame and influence when it comes to Israeli cooking has exposed her to a fair bit of criticism. She has become a target on social media by those who accuse Israelis of appropriating Palestinian foods – an argument she calls petty and ridiculous. So ridiculous, she has found the best platform to address it is on the stage of her new hobby: stand-up comedy. Cooking has always been her Zen. But so is dark humor. EINAT: I like comedy more than anything, not more than food, but close enough. EINAT/Clip: Yeah, this year was great here on Instagram, lot of hate comments, though. A lot about food appropriation, me making Arabic dishes. So let me clarify something here. I check my DNA through ancestry.com and I am 97% Middle Eastern, so I fucking bleed hummus. EINAT: It's very petty. Food, supposed always to share. Food supposed to moving forward.  It's tiring and life is much more complex than to even argue and have a debate about stupid things. I'm done. OK, yes, we're indigenous.I have connection to the land. My parents, my grandparents and great grandparents have connection to that land. Okay, I get it. Now we need to solve what's going on, because there was Palestinian that lived there before, and how we can, for me, how we change the ideology, which I don't see how we can, but how we can change the ideology, convince them that they want peace. And they want…I don't know. MANYA: Needless to say, in the year that has followed the attacks of October 7, stand-up comedy has not been the balm it once was. The attacks that unfolded that day by Iran-backed terrorists that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250 more was simply too devastating. EINAT: I was broken there, my husband was with me, I was every day on a bed crying, and then going to work, and it was like I couldn't hear music, because every music thinking about Nova and my friends and then I couldn't see babies with a mom. Everything was a trigger. It was bad. We had a disaster of October 7 and then October 8 to see the world reaction was another. It's not just enough that we going through so much grief and need to kind of contain all that emotion and crazy and anger and rage and now we need to see the world's. Like, ok. I never thought there is antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done, apparently, not. MANYA: The lack of sympathy around the world and among her culinary peers only amplified Einat's grief. As a way to push for a cease-fire and end U.S. support for Israel, nearly 900 chefs, farmers and others in the food industry signed a pledge to boycott Israel-based food businesses and culinary events that promote Israel. EINAT: I felt very, very alone, very alone. The first few months, I felt like, wow, not one call from anyone to check on me. It was pretty sad. At the same time, I'm in the best company ever Jewish community. There is nothing like that, nothing. MANYA: Her team at Balaboosta also checked in on their Israeli boss. But they too were scared. Soon after she posted pictures of the hostages on the window of her restaurant, she confronted a group of teenagers who tried to tear them down. EINAT: I stand in front of them and I said, ‘You better move fast'. MANYA: It's no secret that Iran helped plan Oct. 7. What is not as well known is how many Jews still live and thrive in Iran. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were nearly 100,000 Jews in Iran. Today, Israeli sources say the population numbers less than 10,000, while the regime and Iran's Jewish leaders say it's closer to 20,000. Regardless, Iran's Jewish community remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.  To be sure, the constitution adopted in 1906 is still in place nominally, and it still includes Jews as a protected religious minority. Jews in Iran have synagogues, access to kosher meat, and permission to consume wine for Shabbat, despite a national ban on alcohol. There's also a Jewish representative in Iran's parliament or Majlis. But all women and girls regardless of religion are required to wear a veil, according to the Islamist dress code, and Jews are pressured to vote in elections at Jewish-specific ballot stations so the regime can monitor their participation. Zionism is punishable by death and after Oct. 7, the regime warned its Jewish citizens to sever contact with family and friends in Israel or risk arrest. They also can't leave. Iranian law forbids an entire Jewish nuclear family from traveling abroad at the same time. At least one family member, usually the father, must remain behind to prevent emigration. But Houman points out that many Iranian Jews, including himself, are deeply attached to Iranian culture. As a resident of Los Angeles, he reads Persian literature, cooks Persian herb stew for his children and speaks in Persian to his pets. He would return to Iran in an instant if given the opportunity to do so safely. For Jews living in Iran it may be no different. They've become accustomed to living under Islamist laws. They may not want to leave, even if they could. SARSHAR: The concept of living and thriving in Iran, for anyone who is not related to the ruling clergy and the Revolutionary Guard, is a dream that feels unattainable by anyone in Iran, let alone the Jews. In a world where there is really no fairness for anyone, the fact that you're treated even less fairly almost fades. MANYA: Scholars say since the Islamic Revolution, most Jews who have left Iran have landed in Los Angeles or Long Island, New York. Still, more Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel – possibly more than all other countries combined. The reason why? Because so many like Einat's family made aliyah–up until the mid-20th Century.  It's hard to say where another exodus might lead Iranian Jews to call home. Einat will be forever grateful that her family left when they still could and landed in a beautiful and beloved place. Though she lives in the U.S. now, she travels back to Israel at least twice a year. EINAT: It's a dream for every Jew, it's not just me. It's the safe zone for every Jew. It's the one place that, even if we have, it's not safe because there is people around us that want to kill us. It's still emotionally. You know, I've been in Israel a few months ago, it's like, you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's incredible. And it's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA: Persian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Middle Eastern and North African countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Many thanks to Einat for sharing her family's story. You can enjoy some of her family's favorite recipes in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. Her memoir Taste of Love was recently released in  an audio and digital format.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Chris White, with Bible Prophecy Talk Podcast, presents Part 9 of his 11-part series on “The Islamic Antichrist Theory”. Chris is discussing, from the biblical text, why he believes the Islamic Antichrist theory is inaccurate. Today, in Part 9, Chris addresses the emphasis of Islamic eschatological belief in views developed by authors such as Joel Richardson in the book "Islamic Antichrist". Chris offers a helpful overview of eschatology in Islam, as believed by both Sunni and Shiites, and compares varous similarities & differences betweeen those beliefs, Christian biblical beliefs and other extra-biblical sources. He concludes by presenting the problems Islamic eschatology presents for Richardson's view of  an "Islamic" antichrist that aligns with the Bible.  

Listen to an in-depth conversation on all the latest in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, from the vice presidential picks –Tim Walz and JD Vance – to Israel and antisemitism. Julie Fishman Rayman, AJC's Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs, speaks with Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Kampeas also discussed the importance of accuracy and empathy in reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting the need for journalists to avoid biases and misrepresentations. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Ron Kampeas Learn: AJC's Call to Action Against Antisemitism U.S. Party Platforms Must Take a Stand Against Antisemitism Here are 5 Jewish Issues Republicans and Democrats Must Address at their Conventions Listen: What the Unprecedented Assassinations of Terror Leaders Means for Israel and the Middle East Aviva Klompas is Fighting the Normalization of Antisemitism on Social Media On the Ground at the Republican National Convention: What's at Stake for Israel and the Middle East? Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Transcript of Interview with Ron Kampeas: Manya Brachear Pashman:   This week, my colleague Julie Fishman Rayman, AJC Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs, spoke to Ron Kampeas, the Washington DC Bureau Chief of JTA, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. They broke down the latest in the 2024 US presidential election. Julie, the mic is yours. Julie Fishman Rayman: Ron, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so pleased to have this conversation with you, because we get to flip the tables and someone who's really a beloved and renowned journalist in the Jewish space, and finally, I get to ask you questions. So thank you for making this opportunity available to us. Ron Kampeas:  Thank you. Julie Fishman Rayman: I want to start by talking a little bit about the conventions. You were in Milwaukee covering AJC's event, alongside a number of other things. Thank you for being there with us. What were your biggest takeaways from the Republican Convention, particularly as they related to the issues of Israel and antisemitism? Ron Kampeas:  I think Israel was front and center, and they made it front and center because it's an obvious advantage that they have over the Democrats right now. So, you know, I think the representative moment was, in a way, when Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, he was invited for the first time to address the Republican Convention, and the first thing he said was, let's hear it for Israel, or something like that, or let's hear it for the hostages. And there were cheers, and then he says that couldn't happen in a month at the Democratic Convention. He might be right. And so that was a big plus for them. On antisemitism it's a little more opaque, but it's problematic, I think, because after Matt spoke, he called us Jewish media reporters together for a little gaggle, and we asked him, naturally, about the isolationism that the vice presidential or the running mate pick JD Vance represents. And it's interesting, the way that Matt put it. He said, yeah, it is a problem. He was candid. He said, it's a problem in the party, and we plan to fight it. And, you know, nobody prompted him, but he said, we plan to take on the Tucker Carlson wing of the party. The interesting thing about that is that he said, prevent Tucker Carlson wing from getting a foothold. And Tucker Carlson had very much a foothold at the convention. He spoke on the last night, setting up Donald Trump's speech. He was up in the balcony with Donald Trump. And of course, you know, Matt's point is that Tucker Carlson is very much an isolationist, particularly as far as Ukraine goes, but he's given hints as far as Israel goes. But it's more than that. He's platformed antisemites, and he's kind of ventured into that territory himself – antisemites like Candace Owens, Kanye West – and I think that that is something that Jewish Republicans are going to have to grapple with. Julie Fishman Rayman: One of the things that was discussed at AJC's event alongside the Republican National Convention was the policy positions of not just JD Vance, but others who sort of align with that faction of the Republican Party – I guess, the Tucker Carlson faction – and sort of reading the tea leaves on Ukraine and saying, you know, at what point does the hesitancy around support for Ukraine translate into hesitancy for support for Israel? And does it? What would you say to that question? Ron Kampeas:  You know, it's interesting that at least as far as I could track, that played out an explicit sense only at your event, at the AJC event. There were people who were asking hard questions of the panelists, and two of the panelists were very much not stumping for Trump, they were defending Trump and the Trump policies. Kirsten Fontenrose, not so much. She was more critical, and even though she was part of the Trump NSC. And so the defense that they were saying is that simply, you know, whatever you may think of Trump's position, this is Rich Goldberg has particularly said this, but I think Ken Weinstein also said it, whatever you may think of Trump's positions on Ukraine, the strength he will project in the world. And this was right after the assassination, and Rich Goldberg kept on bringing up that Associated Press photo of Trump looking very defiant after being shot, that strength is going to deter the kind of actions that Putin has taken in Ukraine.  But the flip side of that actually came up a couple of weeks later at a Christians United for Israel conference here in DC, where isolationism was very much on the mind, and what they were articulating and what might have been articulated in an AIPAC conference, if AIPAC still had conferences – it doesn't – but what they were articulating is that it's holistic, that you can't just say, like, JD Vance says, ‘Oh, I'm all for assisting Israel, but we don't need to assist Ukraine, because Russia's bad actions in Ukraine are being supported by Iran. Iran is supplying arms to Russia in Ukraine that it then can, you know, see how those arms work in Ukraine, and they can use them theoretically against Israel.'  We're seeing now, as tensions build up in the Middle East, that Russia has Iran's back. And then, you know, there's also China, which is also problematic and is buying Iranian oil and helping to prop up the Iranian economy that way. So it's not simply a matter of whether one side projects strength better than the other side, and this is the argument coming out of the Christians United for Israel thing. It's a matter of constant engagement and awareness of how all these things can interlock. Julie Fishman Rayman: I think that's a really great point, and I'm glad you made that connection. I know one of the other issues that was present or discussed at the Christians United for Israel conference was the issue of the hostages, and what you said before about the sort of rallying result of Matt Brooks' comments about, you know, let's hear it for Israel, let's hear it for the hostage families. And a similar cry might solicit or elicit at the DNC. What do you think we could expect? You know, would you expect that a hostage family will take to the stage as Orna and Ronen Neutra did at the DNC, and if so, what might the result be? Ron Kampeas:  So that's a good question. I know that they've asked. I know that the hostage families have asked to appear at the DNC. I know that there are people who have told me that the DNC, especially like with Kamala Harris, who has spoken out for the hostages. I don't see how Kamala Harris could not have the hostages or some sort of representation of the hostages at the conference. On the other hand, the Democrats are going to have to worry about, I don't think they're going to be booed, but I think that they're not going to get the same sort of enthusiastic reception that maybe that they got at the Republican conference, and simultaneously the uncommitted movement. The movement was founded in Michigan and spread to some other states that when Biden was the nominee, particularly, they were upset that Biden wasn't doing enough to stop the war in Gaza, wasn't doing enough to force Israel into a ceasefire, and they wanted to show that they didn't necessarily have to vote for him in November, so they didn't vote for him in the primaries.  And they had different effects in different states, but certainly in states like Michigan and Minnesota, I think that they had a pretty good turnout as far as that goes. And they want a doctor from Gaza to speak at the DNC. So you know which might be fine. It might be a legitimate enterprise in their part, but you know that the Democrats are going to be accused of “both sides-ing” it, that the Republicans wouldn't have somebody like that. So because of the Democrats of different constituencies, as much as the Republicans are now, at least the Trump campaign is now trying to reach out to Arab Americans. It's much more a constituency for the Democrats, as are the Jews. It's going to be like a tightrope for them to walk. And so I don't know how that's going to be a play out, but it's certainly something we're going to be tracking. Julie Fishman Rayman: Talking about that, that tightrope, and also, because you mentioned Michigan and Minnesota, let's talk for a moment about the selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the vice presidential nominee. He has both spoken at AIPAC's conferences, stood by Israel after the October 7 attacks, talked about Jewish students on campus dealing with encampments and anti-Israel protests and has really been outspoken about rising antisemitism in this country. On the flip side, he also speaks to the more progressive flank of the Democratic Party, and has urged the party to do more intentional kind of outreach to anti-Israel voters who aren't committed to voting the Harris-Walz ticket. What do you make of him in this moment, as both a campaigner and then presumably, if elected, what would you make of him as a vice president? Ron Kampeas:  It's hard to say right now. Nobody was really aware of Tim Walz a lot outside of Minnesota until last week, but it's so funny because, you know, there was this whole push back against Shapiro from the far left because he was perceived as being – I'm talking about Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Governor who was a front runner – because he was perceived as being too pro-Israel.  But Yair Rosenberg did a really good job. I also did a little bit of reporting into this about how the other candidates, who other likelies that Kamala Harris were considering, are also pro-Israel, and Tim Walz has a long list of accomplishments, but you know, a measure of how fast this summer has gone, how crazy this political season has been, is this a week and a half ago, when Yair put up his story, he didn't even have Tim Walz in it. He was looking at Roy Cooper, he was looking at Mark Kelly from Arizona, and then, because nobody was even thinking about Tim Walz then, and now, he's the running mate.  But from what you can see about him, and like, we just, JTA just did a big story about his master's thesis on Holocaust education, he's somebody who really wants to listen. His recommendation to the Republican Party, you know, he's coined this whole weird thing. That's actually why the Harris campaign noticed him, because he was the first to call the Republicans weird. I mean, the Republican candidates, but he said don't direct that at the voters, direct that only at the nominees, because we have to listen to the voters. And so I think that you can look at what he says about listening to the protesters on campuses in that context. For somebody who was born in Nebraska and lived most of his life in a town of 400 people in Minnesota, he shows, like, remarkably nuanced understanding of things that are of Jewish concern regarding the Holocaust. He's talked about how, you know, one can look at the Holocaust legitimately as an anomaly in history, but also understand it as something that could be repeated, which is actually Yehuda Bauer, the famous Holocaust historian's point. The way he boiled it down was that the Holocaust happened only to the Jews, but it can happen to anybody. And so that's Waltz's outlook, and it shows somebody who's really sort of read up on this and considered it in depth. Julie Fishman Rayman: Because you mentioned that Josh Shapiro had been very much in the running there, I want to get your take on the sort of social media trends of calling him “Genocide Josh” because of his pro-Israel statements and record. Is that just blatant antisemitism that we need to be mindful of, was it specific? Do you think it's just, you know, savvy opposition researchers? What do you make of that? Ron Kampeas:  You know, we often think of antisemitism as, you know, planning to be antisemitic and putting out a statement. There are people who are consciously antisemitic, but the much greater, the much more vexing problem is that, how, it just seeps into the discourse. We have a polarized society, and it's just very easy when you're opposing somebody to grab whatever is in the toolbox to harm them. And for anybody who's Jewish, I mean, you see this and we talk about it openly, you see it when we talk about women in politics, about how attacks on them can be gendered. And nobody, at least nobody on the left, complains about that. Actually, maybe they did a little bit. You know, the Bernie Bros made gendered attacks on Hillary Clinton, and they didn't denied it.  But anyways, so you can say that attacks can be gendered, but it's hard to explain how attacks can also be antisemitic, because that's a tool in the box. And then a lot of people on the left don't want to acknowledge that. They slip into that. And I think that's what happened with Josh Shapiro. I think that there is for some reason, I mean, I can speculate as to, not even speculate – people have said why, even though he was just as pro-Israel as Tim Walz. He's like he's not less pro-Israel. But Mark Kelly did things that I'm sure Josh Shapiro wouldn't have done. Josh Shapiro doesn't like Benjamin Netanyahu.  Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona, went to the Netanyahu speech, shook his hand afterwards and applauded, and they didn't get attacked in the same way. And if you look at some of the reasons that Shapiro was attacked, they talked about his upbringing, his going to a Jewish Day School in the Philly area, and the things that he was exposed to, they talked about his going to Israel when he was a teenager. And those are things that are part and parcel of a lot of American Jewish upbringings. And so you can say those things are indicting, but there's a point, because you're an American Jew coming up in American Jewish communities, going to be exposed to a lot of pro-Israel. But at what point does that become antisemitic? Because that's just the natural part of Jewish life. Julie Fishman Rayman: I want to ask you another question related to the media. I want to sort of get your take. Last week, AJC and the Jewish Federations of North America published an open letter to media outlets generally, really identifying how so many of them got the Hezbollah attack on the soccer field in the Golan so, so, so wrong that, after a dozen Druze kids playing soccer were murdered in the middle of the afternoon, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, others, just totally misrepresented the facts. The Washington Post headlined a story “Hezbollah denies responsibility for the fatal rocket strike.” It wasn't true. Hezbollah celebrated the attack until they learned that children were killed and then walked it back. And then doubling down, a later Washington Post story showed an image of the funeral of one of the children who was killed, but the headline read, “Israel hits target in Lebanon.”  So if you only look at the picture and you only read the headline, you think it's a Lebanese kid that has been killed by a strike in Israel, not that an Israeli Druze kid was killed by a Hezbollah attack. CNN, AP, they all sort of downplayed Hezbollah's role in these really horrific murders. Is this ignorance? Is it bias? Is it both? And regardless, if we're sort of operating under this principle of journalist integrity, is this OK? Ron Kampeas:  No, it's not OK. I don't know what went on at the Washington Post. I was witness, kind of, to one of the most foundational episodes in bad media takes, which happened right after the Second Intifada began, and the AP put out a photo of a policeman helping up a Haredi Jewish kid who had just been knocked down or even beaten by Palestinian writers in Jerusalem. And the AP captioned the photo saying that the policeman was attacking a Palestinian on the Temple Mount, which is so funny because there's a gas station in the back of the picture and there's no gas stations on the Temple Mount. I mean, if you know Jerusalem, you know the Temple Mount, you know how crazy that is. And so, like, what had happened was that I knew the guy who was handling photo editing at the AP that night when he got this picture. And at the time – this is in the early days of the Internet and computers – the picture came across at the AP's, Israeli photo agency affiliate, and Hebrew couldn't work on that machine, so, like, the Hebrew was scrambled. They captioned it in Hebrew. It was scrambled.  So the guy calls up the other guy who's also tired, and he said, was this like some cop beating up a Palestinian on the Temple Mount? He said, yeah, sure, and that's how the thing goes out. So it's just, like, journalists can screw up in ways that speak to a certain underlying bias about the conflict. They expect to see certain things, but it's also can be stupidity and laziness and just screw ups at the last minute. I mean, I imagine that's what happened with the Washington Post front page, but it's awful, and it needs to be remedied, and people need to be more educated, and they need to pay more attention. I think you're right. I think the way that the media has been treating the Hezbollah-Israel conflict in the north, in a way, differently than it treated, at least at the beginning, it treated Israel-Hamas. Hamas is clearly defined as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is an organization that's holding Lebanon hostage. Historically, people now think it was a big mistake to invade Lebanon in 1982. Hezbollah was partly an outgrowth of resentment of the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon. But Israel withdrew to UN. They went to the UN and they said, you decide where the lines are. We're not going to decide where the lines are.  You decide where the lines are, and we will withdraw that to that point. In 2000 Israel did that. Hezbollah continued to attack. Hezbollah launched a war in 2006 that Israel did not want, and conflict with Israel helps uphold Hezbollah within Lebanon. And so I think that because Hezbollah is a very proficient and weathered militia, they fought a war in Syria. They fought a terrible, genocidal war in Syria. They were on the wrong side of that, but they fought a war in Syria. They're good at what they're doing. So maybe there's a reflex to see this as a conflict between two militaries, but it's not.  It's a conflict between Israel and a terrorist organization that unprovoked launched missiles inside Israel on October the eighth, even before Israel was striking back in Gaza as a means of solidarity with Hamas. And so I think that needs to be front, just as I think a lot of media, obviously JTA, but even a lot of like, you know, non-Jewish media always put out there that Hamas started this war. It needs to be reminded that Hezbollah also started its version of the war, and that Hezbollah, it's not an army that's accountable to any kind of civilian infrastructure, never mind a democratic one, like the Israeli army is accountable to elected officials. It's its own militia with a stranglehold on Lebanon.  So yeah, I think that should be evident in everything that's written about that conflict, and maybe that's what helped distort at least the initial reporting from what happened in Majdal Shams, which is just horrible. Julie Fishman Rayman: One of the things that AJC is always trying to call on media outlets to do is to know who to call. Right, if there is an incident related to Israel that they don't fully understand, if there's an antisemitic attack and they need more context, to understand that there are Jewish individuals and organizations who can help to provide insight and texture and understanding so that their reporting can be more accurate. That's one of the recommendations in our Call to Action Against Antisemitism in America, recommendations for media. I wonder if, you know, journalist to journalist, if folks call you and say, “Ron, this is what we're writing, is this right?” Knowing that you are just such a font of knowledge, they should, this is what I'm saying. They should call you. Ron Kampeas:  My son asks me, I mean, very occasionally, I do get calls more having to do with my alleged knowledge of the American Jewish community and how it works and how it functions. I get calls about that. I think on Israel, less so because everybody's an expert. Everybody considers themselves an expert. Everybody flies in. I think what was an unfortunate standard. 20 years ago, it wasn't just the AP, it was all mainstream media, that you get your best takes from a foreign correspondent between three and six months into the assignment, because it takes them three months to learn it, but it takes them six months to go native, which is to sort of really understand the nuances. I think that's unfortunate, because I think going native, really understanding the nuances, sort of delving into a story, becoming familiar with it, becoming sympathetic in ways, with all sides to the story, actually enriches a story. And I think that that's something that maybe you know, I've been doing JTA for 21 years. I've been in journalism for 35 years. I think it's great to have fresh outlooks. It's good. I think it's also good to sometimes rely on institutional knowledge and to listen to people who have been here before. It was weird at AP. I was in a position at AP when I wasn't allowed to use my institute for bizarre reasons. Institutional knowledge, you know. But it was funny, because at the outset of the Iraq War, the first day, the major Iraq war in 2002, 2003, I knew things that signal that it was going to go wrong, because I'd lived in the Middle East, and I wasn't the only one. By far, by far, there were a lot of people who knew those things institutionally. It means literally saying, like what the Israelis said in 1982, the Shiites are throwing rice and you had actual examples in 1982 of Shiites throwing rice at Israelis, and in 2003 of Shiites throwing rice at Americans. They want this. And it never works out that way. It goes awry.  But nobody was listening, because people were too invested in a particular outcome to listen to the institutionalists. And I think that that's a problem. There's a reflex sometimes to say, oh, the institutionalists got it wrong in the past, because the world is still a mess, but that's not their value. The value of the institutionalists, and a great institutionalist just passed away, Martin Indyk, the value of the institutionalists is that sometimes they can actually say, this is where I went wrong, and this is what we misunderstood, and this is how we misunderstood it, and this is how we were deep in the weeds and we misunderstood it. And that's the kind of knowledge that I think shouldn't go wasted. Julie Fishman Rayman: Thanks so much for that perspective. I was going to ask you as a final question, if there was anything that you wanted to raise that we haven't discussed yet. But I would also add to that question, feel free to answer that question. Or is there something that we're getting wrong now institutionally? Ron Kampeas:  Yeah, I think that, you know, there's a lot that we're getting wrong now institutionally. I think that people are, and every side of the Israel-Hamas conflict are they retreating into sort of easy, reflexive understandings of what could go right and what could go wrong. I think that there is a value in understanding how toxic Hamas ideology is, that was, I think, grasped at the beginning after October the seventh, but has slipped away as this seems to be just a conflict, and people are retreating into Israel's bashing Gaza. We have to get it to stop bashing Gaza, which is fine, it's an outlook. It's a legitimate outlook, but it's one that's not going to register at all with any Israeli, unless you take into account how Hamas is perceived among Israelis as a genocidal organization. If it wasn't before October 7, it is now.  On the other hand, I think that sort of reflexive, we can never have a two state solution. I'm not saying, advocating, for two state solution. We never have a two state solution. We're just going to go on as we've gone with the Palestinians. I think that also reflects this kind of like a reflexive blindness that you have to account for the Palestinians, somehow. Nothing is going to be imposed on them. They have to be agents and actors and whatever happens, and it might not happen in my generation, it might not happen in my lifetime, but that has to be back of mind. And I think for a lot of people, particularly in parts of the Israeli establishment, it is not back of mind.  So those are things that I think that people can maybe, you know, if, if these competing, they're not actually enemies, I'm talking about people who are on the same side. They can be on the same side in Israel, they can be on the same side in America, but they're rivals, and they don't like to listen to each other. But if they did talk to each other and listen to each other, maybe they would find nuances that could get everybody to a better place. Julie Fishman Rayman: If we could do a word cloud of some of the themes that have come out of this conversation, listening is definitely one of the words that would be prominent. And I think it's not only a good aspiration, but I also want to highlight that our listening to you on these really important issues is revelatory, truthfully, and we're grateful for all the work that you're doing with JTA every day, but also for being here on People of the Pod with us and for all the wisdom that you've shared. Thank you. Ron Kampeas:  Thank you. Manya Brachear Pashman:   If you missed last week's episode, tune in for my conversation with AJC Jerusalem Director Avital Leibovich on what the widely reported deaths of two terror leaders last week could mean for Israel and the wider region.

Hossam Ouf is currently a research fellow at the Chair of Hadith Studies and Prophetic Tradition at the Center for Islamic Theology in Tübingen, where he researches and teaches Hadith and Sira. He also received his doctorate in 2022 from the University of Tübingen. His dissertation entitled “Hadith Transmission and Confessionality: A Comparative study of “al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ” of al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) and “al-Kāfī” of alKulaynī (d. 329/940) in the Sunni and Twelver Shiite hadith sciences.” He completed his master's and bachelor's degree in Islamic Theology in the German language at AlAzhar University in Cairo, Egypt. His master's thesis was also on the topic “The Hadith Criticism of al-Khaṭṭābī (931-998): An Analytical Study of Matn Criticism in the 10th Century A.D./4th Century A.H.” His research interests include Islamic Theological Hadith Research, classical and modern approaches to hadith sciences and the hadith transmission, comparative Hadith research, Sunnis, Shiites, Muʿtazilites, Hadith hermeneutics and hadith exegesis, and classical and modern exegetical approaches to mushkil al-ḥadīth.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Worst Form Of Government (Except For Everything Else We've Tried), published by johnswentworth on March 17, 2024 on LessWrong. Churchill famously called democracy "the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" - referring presumably to the relative success of his native Britain, the US, and more generally Western Europe and today most of the first world. I claim that Churchill was importantly wrong. Not (necessarily) wrong about the relative success of Britain/US/etc, but about those countries' governments being well-described as simple democracy. Rather, I claim, the formula which has worked well in e.g. Britain and the US diverges from pure democracy in a crucial load-bearing way; that formula works better than pure democracy both in theory and in practice, and when thinking about good governance structures we should emulate the full formula rather than pure democracy. Specifically, the actual governance formula which is "worst except for everything else we've tried" is: Give a de-facto veto to each major faction Within each major faction, do pure democracy. A Stylized Tale of Democracy Let's start with the obvious failure mode of pure democracy: suppose a country consists of 51% group A, 49% group B, and both groups hate each other and have centuries-long blood feuds. Some first world country decides to invade, topple the local dictator, and hold democratic elections for a new government. Group A extremist candidate wins with a 51% majority, promising to enact divine vengeance upon the B's for their centuries of evil deeds. Group B promptly rebels, and the country descends into civil war. This is obviously a stylized, oversimplified picture, but… well, according to wikipedia the three largest ethnic groups in Iraq are the Shiites (14 million), Sunni arabs (9 million), and Sunni Kurds (4.7 million), which would make the Shiites just over 50% (excluding the various smaller groups)[1]. In the 2005 elections, the Shiites claimed 48% of the seats - not quite a majority but close enough to dominate political decisions in practice. Before long, the government was led by a highly sectarian Shiite, who generally tried to limit the power of Sunnis and Kurds. In response, around 2013/2014, outright Sunni rebellion coalesced around ISIL and Iraq plunged into civil war. Now, I'm not about to claim that this was democracy at its purest - the US presumably put its thumb on the scales, the elections were presumably less than ideal, Iraq's political groups presumably don't perfectly cleave into two camps, etc. But the outcome matches the prediction of the oversimplified model well enough that I expect the oversimplified model captures the main drivers basically-correctly. So what formula should have been applied in Iraq, instead? The Recipe Which Works In Practice In its infancy, the US certainly had a large minority which was politically at odds with the majority: the old North/South split. The solution was a two-house Congress. Both houses of Congress were democratically elected, but the votes were differently weighted (one population-weighted, one a fixed number of votes per state), in such a way that both groups would have a de-facto veto on new legislation. In other words: each major faction received a de-facto veto. That was the key to preventing the obvious failure mode. Particularly strong evidence for this model came later on in US history. As new states were added, the Southern states were at risk of losing their de-facto veto. This came to a head with Kansas: by late 1860 it became clear that Kansas was likely to be added as a state and would align with the Northern faction, fully eliminating the Southern veto. In response, South Carolina formally seceded in December 1860, followed by five more Southern states ...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Worst Form Of Government (Except For Everything Else We've Tried), published by johnswentworth on March 17, 2024 on LessWrong. Churchill famously called democracy "the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" - referring presumably to the relative success of his native Britain, the US, and more generally Western Europe and today most of the first world. I claim that Churchill was importantly wrong. Not (necessarily) wrong about the relative success of Britain/US/etc, but about those countries' governments being well-described as simple democracy. Rather, I claim, the formula which has worked well in e.g. Britain and the US diverges from pure democracy in a crucial load-bearing way; that formula works better than pure democracy both in theory and in practice, and when thinking about good governance structures we should emulate the full formula rather than pure democracy. Specifically, the actual governance formula which is "worst except for everything else we've tried" is: Give a de-facto veto to each major faction Within each major faction, do pure democracy. A Stylized Tale of Democracy Let's start with the obvious failure mode of pure democracy: suppose a country consists of 51% group A, 49% group B, and both groups hate each other and have centuries-long blood feuds. Some first world country decides to invade, topple the local dictator, and hold democratic elections for a new government. Group A extremist candidate wins with a 51% majority, promising to enact divine vengeance upon the B's for their centuries of evil deeds. Group B promptly rebels, and the country descends into civil war. This is obviously a stylized, oversimplified picture, but… well, according to wikipedia the three largest ethnic groups in Iraq are the Shiites (14 million), Sunni arabs (9 million), and Sunni Kurds (4.7 million), which would make the Shiites just over 50% (excluding the various smaller groups)[1]. In the 2005 elections, the Shiites claimed 48% of the seats - not quite a majority but close enough to dominate political decisions in practice. Before long, the government was led by a highly sectarian Shiite, who generally tried to limit the power of Sunnis and Kurds. In response, around 2013/2014, outright Sunni rebellion coalesced around ISIL and Iraq plunged into civil war. Now, I'm not about to claim that this was democracy at its purest - the US presumably put its thumb on the scales, the elections were presumably less than ideal, Iraq's political groups presumably don't perfectly cleave into two camps, etc. But the outcome matches the prediction of the oversimplified model well enough that I expect the oversimplified model captures the main drivers basically-correctly. So what formula should have been applied in Iraq, instead? The Recipe Which Works In Practice In its infancy, the US certainly had a large minority which was politically at odds with the majority: the old North/South split. The solution was a two-house Congress. Both houses of Congress were democratically elected, but the votes were differently weighted (one population-weighted, one a fixed number of votes per state), in such a way that both groups would have a de-facto veto on new legislation. In other words: each major faction received a de-facto veto. That was the key to preventing the obvious failure mode. Particularly strong evidence for this model came later on in US history. As new states were added, the Southern states were at risk of losing their de-facto veto. This came to a head with Kansas: by late 1860 it became clear that Kansas was likely to be added as a state and would align with the Northern faction, fully eliminating the Southern veto. In response, South Carolina formally seceded in December 1860, followed by five more Southern states ...

Voters in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim democracy, have cast their ballots to elect a new president. In this country of 270 million people, where Sunni Muslims are the majority, some 12 percent of the population belong to religious minorities: Christians, Shiites, Buddhists and Hindus, among others. This mosaic of religious communities has historically lived together in peace. But over the past two decades, radical Sunni groups have targeted minorities, with more than 600 incidences of violence documented since 2014. Largely ignored during the election campaign, minority groups now wonder who and what awaits them. Our team on the ground reports.

The greatest enemy we face is within. Today, I explain how the Gen Z and Millennial support for Hamas reflects the broader death of the American mind – and American future. We have raised a generation that will believe in every ignorant Third World lie and act accordingly. I also explain why Tucker is wrong about Israel and erroneously thinks Biden is supporting Israel, when in fact, Tucker is the one advocating the Biden position. We're joined by Dan Caldwell of the Center for Renewing America, who provides an affirmative vision on foreign policy that puts America first and is not pacifist but realist. Dan, a combat Marine during the worst years of the Iraq war, explains how we basically strengthened Iran and Hezbollah by serving as their military against ISIS. We are still in Iraq and Syria protecting the Shiites even as they attack us! He also explains how our escapade in Ukraine has depleted our resources and resolve and is harming Israel.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. **Tai-Ex opening ** The Tai-Ex opened up 2.7-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 17,245 on turnover of $3.4-billion N-T. The market gained ground on Thursday after the U-S Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter of percentage point - a move that had been widely expected. **Female Students in Taichung Gain Easier Access to Sanitary Products ** The Taichung City Education Bureau says female students will be getting easier access to sanitary products at schools or receive vouchers to buy them at major retail chains from August 1. According to the bureau, students will also be able get sanitary products at health center in the city's 350 high schools, junior high schools and elementary schools. While some 10,000 female students from low-income households will be given two 100 N-T vouchers per month to purchase the products. The bureau says the 102-million N-T scheme aimed at increasing access to sanitary products in the city is being funded by the Ministry of Education as part of an islandwide program. Taichung received 11.89-million N-T from the ministry to expand its existing scheme (方案) to offer free sanitary products. **UN Calls for Peace in Middle East ** The United Nations says the deterioration of the security situation in the occupied West Bank once again undermines a possible two-State solution. Security Council members on Thursday heard from the Assistant Secretary General, Khaled Khiari who said the situation is becoming untenable (難以繼續的，難維持的). The occupied West Bank is currently experiencing a period of increasing violence and several members have once again raised concern. Jody Jacobs reports from New York… **Kuwait Executes Five Prisoners ** Kuwait says it executed five prisoners including an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group. A statement from Kuwait's Public Prosecution said the five inmates were hanged on Thursday. The 2015 bombing struck during midday Friday prayers inside one of Kuwait's oldest Shiite mosques. The Islamic State group views Shiites as heretics (異教者). The country conducted its last mass execution in November 2022 when it put seven inmates to death. **Vietnam Agrees to Vatican Representative and Office ** Vietnam has formally agreed to let a Vatican representative live in the country and open an office. The Holy See announced the conclusion (結論) of an agreement during a visit to the Vatican by Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, who met with Pope Francis. A Vatican statement said the appointment of a resident representative of the pope to the communist country would support the local Catholic community, contribute to the development of the country and help serve as a “bridge to advance relations between Vietnam and the Holy See.” The agreement Thursday still falls short of full diplomatic relations, which have been strained for decades. But the two sides have held regular talks since at least 1990 studying the renewal of ties. That was the I.C.R.T. news, Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded every day in the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____.

Ibn Zubayr's governor is in Kufah but the Shiite's do not recognize his authority. Two groups of Shiites are growing in Kufah and they want to get revenge for Husayn ibn Ali's death.

Saudi Arabia has removed anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli references from Islamic studies schoolbooks, according to an Israeli textbook watchdog.

(***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Joby Warrick is a 2x Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author, and Middle East Expert. Since 1996, Joby has been at the Washington Post, where he currently serves as a National Security Reporter. His three books –– “The Triple Agent,” “Black Flags,” & “Red Line” (the second of which won him a Pulitzer Prize) –– are all Best-Sellers (links below). “Black Flags” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3WdiGwp “The Triple Agent” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3kgNvmu “Red Line” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3XxTe5W ***TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Joby's remembers his first Pulitzer Prize 6:08 - Joby explains his first book on the infamous 2009 Attack on CIA Base in Afghanistan 14:48 - The hot Jordanian Translator who got Joby into bomber's house; No judgment journalism 26:13 - Homeland's CIA accuracy; General McChrystal's Iraqi kid story 35:51 - The CIA's tracking of Bin Laden in the leadup to Sepp 011 38:55 - Joby's Nucalear Weapons reporting during Iraq War; Building trust in Middle East 45:20 - Rogue translators & developing sources 50:32 - How to determine whether CIA sources are telling the truth 56:39 - The Tom O'Neill WAPO CIA source story 1:03:27 - King Abdullah II of Jordan; Jordan & its role in the Middle East 1:13:28 - Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, The Founder of ISIS; The murder of Nick Berg 1:20:50 - Al Zarqawi's radicalization in prison 1:24:29 - Al Zarqaqi meets Bin Laden; CIA & Zarqawi's early standoffs 1:29:50 - King Abdullah told President Bush NOT to invade Iraq; Sectarian Violence (Sunnis & Shiites) 1:36:36 - Al Qaeda makes Al Zarqawi a franchisee; Iraq's implosion post-invasion 1:41:30 - Nada Bakos - CIA's chief Al Zarqawi targeter; How the US merked Al Zarqawi 1:46:33 - ISIS vs. ISIL naming; Al Baghdadi succeeds Al Zarqawi 1:50:19 - The Arab Spring of 2011; Al Nusra in Syria; ISIS leadership doesn't do dirty work 1:56:22 - When did ISIS come on Joby's radar? 2:01:05 - Caliphate explained; the brutality of ISIS 2:05:49 - The Kurds; 20th Century European Agreements that led to Middle East violence 2:14:04 - Strongman leaders; Bashar Al-Assad & Syria 2:21:43 - The Yazidi Genocide 2:26:56 - How the US neutralized ISIS 2:35:12 - The US Drone Program; The War in Yemen 2:42:37 - What's happening in Iran right now? 2:48:32 - Iran's race to a nuclear weapon 2:52:46 - Israel's new far-right government 2:56:52 - The Jordanian Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat); The Laurence Foley hit 3:00:34 - Joby's Middle East schedule; Joby's upcoming book project Intro Credits: “Homeland” (Showtime) “The Looming Tower” (Hulu) “Body of Lies” (2008) “Munich” (2005) “The Physician” (2013) “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) ~ Get $150 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover (USING CODE: “TRENDIFIER”): https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier Julian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey ~ Music via Artlist.io

The tensions on the border between the Taliban and Iran are flaring on the heels of multiple bombings in Afghanistan that have targeted Shiites. This has caused a flood of migrants to head to Iran in search of a better life. The problem? Iran is suffering serious sanctions and can hardly tread water themselves at this point. With no end in sight to the targeted attacks in Afghanistan, the problem is only growing.(commercial at 11:43)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-states-migration-tehran-1c11473c17ae6377db0bd8b960e25be1

How could someone who's illiterate construct an amazing and powerful work of literature such as the Quran? And what does the answer have to do with religious belief, Western literature, and human history in general? Tune in for a fascinating discussion exploring these questions and more. You'll discover: What formulaic language is, and the tremendous role it's played in literature, including the construction of the Quran One of the main arguments for validating the Quran The terms “Arab” and “Muslim” are often used interchangeably – should they be? The political events from which hatred between Sunnis and Shiites stems   Why studying Islam has made Bannister more confident as a Christian More about Makkah, the holiest city in Islam … is it really where Islam began? Andy Bannister is the Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity, holds a PhD in Islamic studies, and teaches at universities in multiple countries. Having interacted and held lengthy dialogues with Muslims for 20+ years, Bannister shares loads of insight into Islam, philosophy, politics, and more. Press play to hear the full conversation and visit http://www.andybannister.net/ to learn more. Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

Afghanistan's Hazara community, a Shiite minority, is regularly targeted by the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) group, which considers Hazaras as heretics. Dozens of people, mostly girls, were killed in an attack on an education centre in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on September 30. Although the attack has not been claimed, the IS group is the main suspect. Since the Taliban seized power a year ago, Hazaras denounce systemic discrimination and the inability of the new authorities to ensure their safety. Our correspondents report.

Mustafa Bahran teaches physics at Carleton University and was formerly Yemen's minister of energy. He notes that the war has been at least paused for six months. The question is whether the Houthis are just collecting weapons for another round of fighting or whether the extended truces will turn into a ceasefire. He discuss the ideology of the Houthis, who are “Zaini,” a sect of Shiites who believe that some of them, the Hashemites, are descendants of the Prophet Mohammed and entitled to rule. However, most of them (as most of the other religious people in the world) are moderates. Bahran's group of Yemeni academics are planning to create a university which they will teach on Zoom from wherever they are now living. For the video, audio podcast, transcript and comments: https://tosavetheworld.ca/episode-499-postwar-yemen.

The tensions on the border between the Taliban and Iran are flaring on the heels of multiple bombings in Afghanistan that have targeted Shiites. This has caused a flood of migrants to head to Iran in search of a better life. The problem? Iran is suffering serious sanctions and can hardly tread water themselves at this point. With no end in sight to the targeted attacks in Afghanistan, the problem is only growing.(commercial at 15:44)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-states-migration-tehran-1c11473c17ae6377db0bd8b960e25be1

The tensions on the border between the Taliban and Iran are flaring on the heels of multiple bombings in Afghanistan that have targeted Shiites. This has caused a flood of migrants to head to Iran in search of a better life. The problem? Iran is suffering serious sanctions and can hardly tread water themselves at this point. With no end in sight to the targeted attacks in Afghanistan, the problem is only growing.(commercial at 15:44)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-states-migration-tehran-1c11473c17ae6377db0bd8b960e25be1

PODCAST SATELLITETHE VOICE OF ISRAEL28th of Tamuz, 5782 Prince HandleyPresident / RegentUniversity of Excellence CURRENT ISRAEL PROPHECY ~ SECRET INTELLIGENCE A GLIMPSE AT START OF THE END נבואת ישראל נוכחית ~ מודיעין סודי Listen HERE >>> LISTEN NOW Prince Handley 24/7 Commentary (FREE) > BLOG Email this message to a friend and help them! ____________________________ DESCRIPTION In this teaching we will discuss prophecy that is currently evolving for fulfillment. Recent meetings in Iran between Russia, Iran and Turkey are a KEY to God's Prophetic Time Clock. Plus we will discuss secret intelligence concerning Russia. And summarize with End Time geopolitical revelation … including Mossad. ____________________________   CURRENT PROPHECY EVENTS & SECRET INTELA GLIMPSE AT START OF THE END   Iran, Russia and Turkey met recently in Tehran as Partners, Competitors and Opponents. The leaders of ALL these three countries have disagreements with the USA and Israel. What did they hope to accomplish as a result of these meetings? All three nations conflicted on Syria. All three countries have in the past made statements concerning their views of a New World Order. The REAL “Elephant in the Room” was NOT even mentioned by major media … even Christian media! All three of these countries are MAJOR PLAYERS in the future attack on Israel. Turkey has in recent years been anti-Iran—anti-Shia—because Turkey has 90% Sunni Muslims versus 10% Shia (Iran is Shia). But recently Turkey is warming up to Iran. WHY? Turkey suffered massive power cuts to industrial customers in January 2022 at an unprecedented level never seen before after the country's natural gas supplies dipped following a disruption of imports from Iran. One item of super interest between the three countries was Syria. Russia and Iran are against any purported plans by Turkey tor military action in Northern Syria which is at Turkey's border. Also, Iran's presence in Syria has been more visible. Iran wants to keep its influence in Syria, maintain the connection with Iraq, and keep the Shia Belt running from Iran to Lebanon. There is also the issue of which country takes LEADERSHIP in becoming the regional hub in terms of transit routes (land, rail and energy). Turkey is working on the so-called “Middle Corridor” (from China to Central Asia, Caucasus, Turkey and on into Europe). Iran is trying to work its way through Russia to its north and the areas to its south. However the BIG KEY in all these meetings was the diplomacy and relationships of the three countries to cajole with one another. WHY? They have one “hidden” goal: to defeat and control Israel. They want the wealth of Israel. And in the not to far-off future they will desire it even more! See Israel's Future Wealth by Prince Handley. According to the Prophet Ezekiel, Turkey (Togarmah) will one day ally itself with the Islamic confederation led by Iran (Persia) and will also join forces with Russia as a participant in the Gog-Magog War. When you see these three (3) forces―Turkey, Iran and Russia―meeting and planning together, it is ONE MORE STEP forward towards a tripartite cohesion for an attack on Israel. Just as Ezekiel prophesied, Russia, Turkey, and Iran will one day align to form a confederacy (with others) to attack Israel. (Read Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39.) This Ezekiel 38-39 conflict does NOT have to be in the core of the End Times. It MAY be―and could be―well before Armageddon! NOTE ALSO: An attack against Israel from Iran may be well BEFORE the conflict of Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39! ______________________________ AN ATTACK FROM IRAN UPON ISRAEL MAY BE IN PLANNING NOW … AT THIS TIME______________________________ WHAT IS EZEKIEL SAYING ABOUT GEOPOLITICS 1. Russia, Turkey, Iran with two (2) North East African areas will form an alliance to attack Israel. This we know for sure. 2. God will defeat this alliance of Magog and others on the hills of Israel, and leave only 17 percent of them. 3. It will take seven months to bury the dead bodies, and seven years to burn the implements of war (probably radioactive elements). 4. The victory for Israel will be so great and miraculous that ALL nations will realize that the God of Israel is LORD. 5. There will be an earthly Kingdom established―after another great VICTORY when Messiah wipes out all the enemies of Israel at Armageddon―where the Messiah rules from Jerusalem. All nations and their leaders must be subservient to Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah). HOW TO RESPOND Realize that BEFORE the LORD wipes out the Magog Alliance on the hills of Israel (Ezekiel 38 and 39), there will be an attack PLANNED upon Israel by Iran. This is evident by Iranian posture and declarations, by Intel, and by present geopolitical climate. This attack is imminent. However, I believe that Israel will attack Iran in the near future to avoid this. __________________________________ ISRAEL WILL ATTACK IRAN IN THE NEAR FUTURE __________________________________ Right now, Israel is in the position of a woman with a child in her womb, awaiting the promise of birth: the prophetic promise when the child will be exalted to the place of destiny. Meanwhile, Israel must defend herself―and the promise―until the day when God Almighty will defeat the the Magog Alliance. Let me give you an example: If you know your relative automatically WINS the lottery in "X" years and will give it all to you, wouldn't the practical thing to do be to keep them alive until they WIN?! YOU can HELP keep Israel alive NOW, until the battle where God destroys Iran with Turkey, Russia and their allies. HOW? Through prophetic decrees IN FAITH based upon GOD'S WORD. SECRET INTELLIGENCE Russia is afraid of the RADICAL Islamic Shiites (core base is in Iran) causing trouble in Russia in the big five Muslim-Russian areas. Therefore, it was advantageous for Russia to strike a deal with Iran to control the Shiites: to stop them (at least temporarily) from causing problems in Russia. 1. Iran agrees to NOT cause problems in Russia. 2. Iran receives nuclear help and training from Russia. 3. Also, a military commitment from Russia to back Iran in case of war. This emerging confluence of Islamic power structure―with Turkey as the centroid―will be an even greater united force against Israel in the future. SUMMARY Even though Turkey at this time has made "temporary" peace with Israel, she will in the future join with Russia, Iran and North East African allies―in an attack upon Israel to take a spoil―and be defeated so severely that only 17% of their ground forces will remain. NOTE: Remember, the Ezekiel Chapter 38 conflict is a different war than the FINAL Battle of Armageddon where Messiah defeats the nations gathered together against Israel by Satan. NOTICE: There is a substantial period of TIME between the conflicts of Ezekiel 38 and Armageddon―actually, Armageddon will NOT be a conflict as the LORD will destroy all His enemies speedily! In that time frame BETWEEN the two conflicts, Babylon the Great Harlot will become a center of Islamic commerce and religion. (Listen to New Babylon Global Commerce Center by Prince Handley). New Babylon will in some way be aligned quite probably organically with Turkey―but possibly located geographically in the Western Coastal sector of Saudi Arabia near King Abdullah Economic City. Israeli leadership must be mindful that the Tanakh specifically, and in numerous places, declares that ALL the nations which Messiah fights against when He returns―at the Battle of Armageddon) are Islamic. (We know this by reason of geographical and etymological description). Baruch haba b'Shem ADONAI Your friend, Prince Handley University of Excellence ______________________ Rabbinical & Biblical Studies[Scroll down past English, Spanish and French] The Believer's Intelligentsia ______________________

UNIVERSITY OF EXCELLENCE Prince HandleyPresident / Regent PRINCE HANDLEY PORTAL 1,000's of FREE ResourcesWWW.REALMIRACLES.ORG INTERNATIONAL Geopolitics | Intelligence | Prophecy WWW.UOFE.ORG CURRENT PROPHECY EVENTS WITH SECRET INTEL A GLIMPSE AT START OF THE END LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE HERE >>> LISTEN NOW 24/7 release of Prince Handley teachings, BLOGS and podcasts > STREAM Twitter: princehandley Subscribe FREE to Prince Handley Teaching and Newsletter ________________________________________ DESCRIPTION In this teaching we will discuss prophecy that is currently evolving for fulfillment. Recent meetings in Iran between Russia, Iran and Turkey are a KEY to God's Prophetic Time Clock. Plus we will discuss secret intelligence concerning Russia. And summarize with End Time geopolitical revelation. ________________________________________ CURRENT PROPHECY EVENTS & SECRET INTELA GLIMPSE AT START OF THE END Iran, Russia and Turkey met recently in Tehran as Partners, Competitors and Opponents. The leaders of ALL these three countries have disagreements with the USA and Israel. What did they hope to accomplish as a result of these meetings? All three nations conflicted on Syria. All three countries have in the past made statements concerning their views of a New World Order. The REAL “Elephant in the Room” was NOT even mentioned by major media … even Christian media! All three of these countries are MAJOR PLAYERS in the future attack on Israel. Turkey has in recent years been anti-Iran—anti-Shia—because Turkey has 90% Sunni Muslims versus 10% Shia (Iran is Shia). But recently Turkey is warming up to Iran. WHY? Turkey suffered massive power cuts to industrial customers in January 2022 at an unprecedented level never seen before after the country's natural gas supplies dipped following a disruption of imports from Iran. One item of super interest between the three countries was Syria. Russia and Iran are against any purported plans by Turkey tor military action in Northern Syria which is at Turkey's border. Also, Iran's presence in Syria has been more visible. Iran wants to keep its influence in Syria, maintain the connection with Iraq, and keep the Shia Belt running from Iran to Lebanon. There is also the issue of which country takes LEADERSHIP in becoming the regional hub in terms of transit routes (land, rail and energy). Turkey is working on the so-called “Middle Corridor” (from China to Central Asia, Caucasus, Turkey and on into Europe). Iran is trying to work its way through Russia to its north and the areas to its south. However the BIG KEY in all these meetings was the diplomacy and relationships of the three countries to cajole with one another. WHY? They have one “hidden” goal: to defeat and control Israel. They want the wealth of Israel. And in the not to far-off future they will desire it even more! See Israel's Future Wealth by Prince Handley. According to the Prophet Ezekiel, Turkey (Togarmah) will one day ally itself with the Islamic confederation led by Iran (Persia) and will also join forces with Russia as a participant in the Gog-Magog War. When you see these three (3) forces―Turkey, Iran and Russia―meeting and planning together, it is ONE MORE STEP forward towards a tripartite cohesion for an attack on Israel. Just as Ezekiel prophesied, Russia, Turkey, and Iran will one day align to form a confederacy (with others) to attack Israel. (Read Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39.) This Ezekiel 38-39 conflict does NOT have to be in the core of the End Times. It MAY be―and could be―well before Armageddon! NOTE ALSO: An attack against Israel from Iran may be well BEFORE the conflict of Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39! ____________________________________________________ AN ATTACK FROM IRAN UPON ISRAEL MAY BE IN PLANNING NOW … AT THIS TIME____________________________________________________   WHAT IS EZEKIEL SAYING ABOUT GEOPOLITICS 1. Russia, Turkey, Iran with two (2) North East African areas will form an alliance to attack Israel. This we know for sure. 2. God will defeat this alliance of Magog and others on the hills of Israel, and leave only 17 percent of them. 3. It will take seven months to bury the dead bodies, and seven years to burn the implements of war (probably radioactive elements). 4. The victory for Israel will be so great and miraculous that ALL nations will realize that the God of Israel is LORD. 5. There will be an earthly Kingdom established―after another great VICTORY when Messiah wipes out all the enemies of Israel at Armageddon―where the Messiah rules from Jerusalem. All nations and their leaders must be subservient to Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah). HOW TO RESPOND Realize that BEFORE the LORD wipes out the Magog Alliance on the hills of Israel (Ezekiel 38 and 39), there will be an attack PLANNED upon Israel by Iran. This is evident by Iranian posture and declarations, by Intel, and by present geopolitical climate. This attack is imminent. However, I believe that Israel will attack Iran in the near future to avoid this. ____________________________________________________________   ISRAEL WILL ATTACK IRAN IN THE NEAR FUTURE ___________________________________________________________   Right now, Israel is in the position of a woman with a child in her womb, awaiting the promise of birth: the prophetic promise when the child will be exalted to the place of destiny. Meanwhile, Israel must defend herself―and the promise―until the day when God Almighty will defeat the the Magog Alliance. Let me give you an example: If you know your relative automatically WINS the lottery in "X" years and will give it all to you, wouldn't the practical thing to do be to keep them alive until they WIN?! YOU can HELP keep Israel alive NOW, until the battle where God destroys Iran with Turkey, Russia and their allies. HOW? Through prophetic decrees IN FAITH based upon GOD'S WORD. SECRET INTELLIGENCE Russia is afraid of the RADICAL Islamic Shiites (core base is in Iran) causing trouble in Russia in the big five Muslim-Russian areas. Therefore, it was advantageous for Russia to strike a deal with Iran to control the Shiites: to stop them (at least temporarily) from causing problems in Russia. 1. Iran agrees to NOT cause problems in Russia. 2. Iran receives nuclear help and training from Russia. 3. Also, a military commitment from Russia to back Iran in case of war.   This emerging confluence of Islamic power structure―with Turkey as the centroid―will be an even greater united force against Israel in the future. SUMMARY Even though Turkey at this time has made "temporary" peace with Israel, she will in the future join with Russia, Iran and North East African allies―in an attack upon Israel to take a spoil―and be defeated so severely that only 17% of their ground forces will remain. NOTE: Remember, the Ezekiel Chapter 38 conflict is a different war than the FINAL Battle of Armageddon where Messiah defeats the nations gathered together against Israel by Satan. NOTICE: There is a substantial period of TIME between the conflicts of Ezekiel 38 and Armageddon―actually, Armageddon will NOT be a conflict as the LORD will destroy all His enemies speedily! In that time frame BETWEEN the two conflicts, Babylon the Great Harlot will become a center of Islamic commerce and religion. (Listen to New Babylon Global Commerce Center by Prince Handley). New Babylon will in some way be aligned quite probably organically with Turkey―but possibly located geographically in the Western Coastal sector of Saudi Arabia near King Abdullah Economic City. Israeli leadership must be mindful that the Tanakh specifically, and in numerous places, declares that ALL the nations which Messiah fights against when He returns―at the Battle of Armageddon) are Islamic. (We know this by reason of geographical and etymological description). Baruch haba b'Shem ADONAI. Your friend, Prince Handley President / RegentUniversity of Excellence Subscribe FREE to Prince Handley Teachings & Newsletter Prince Handley BLOG________________________________________ Rabbinical & Biblical StudiesThe Believers' IntelligentsiaPrince Handley Portal(1,000's of FREE resources)Prince Handley Books ________________________________________ OPPORTUNITY If you would like to partner with Prince Handley and help him do the Spirit exploits the LORD has assigned him, Click thIs secure DONATE or the one below. God will reward you abundantly on earth … and in Heaven!A TAX DEDUCTIBLE RECEIPT WILL BE SENT TO YOU ________________________________________

In our news wrap Friday, House Democrats approved two bills to restore abortion rights after the Roe reversal with support falling along party lines, thousands of Shiites descended on a Baghdad suburb in a show of protest against a political stalemate in Iraq, an autopsy report shows police in Akron, Ohio shot Jayland Walker 46 times and nearly 1,500 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In our news wrap Friday, House Democrats approved two bills to restore abortion rights after the Roe reversal with support falling along party lines, thousands of Shiites descended on a Baghdad suburb in a show of protest against a political stalemate in Iraq, an autopsy report shows police in Akron, Ohio shot Jayland Walker 46 times and nearly 1,500 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In our news wrap Friday, House Democrats approved two bills to restore abortion rights after the Roe reversal with support falling along party lines, thousands of Shiites descended on a Baghdad suburb in a show of protest against a political stalemate in Iraq, an autopsy report shows police in Akron, Ohio shot Jayland Walker 46 times and nearly 1,500 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In our news wrap Friday, House Democrats approved two bills to restore abortion rights after the Roe reversal with support falling along party lines, thousands of Shiites descended on a Baghdad suburb in a show of protest against a political stalemate in Iraq, an autopsy report shows police in Akron, Ohio shot Jayland Walker 46 times and nearly 1,500 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The tensions on the border between the Taliban and Iran are flaring on the heels of multiple bombings in Afghanistan that have targeted Shiites. This has caused a flood of migrants to head to Iran in search of a better life. The problem? Iran is suffering serious sanctions and can hardly tread water themselves at this point. With no end in sight to the targeted attacks in Afghanistan, the problem is only growing. (commercial at 14:22)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-states-migration-tehran-1c11473c17ae6377db0bd8b960e25be1

The tensions on the border between the Taliban and Iran are flaring on the heels of multiple bombings in Afghanistan that have targeted Shiites. This has caused a flood of migrants to head to Iran in search of a better life. The problem? Iran is suffering serious sanctions and can hardly tread water themselves at this point. With no end in sight to the targeted attacks in Afghanistan, the problem is only growing. (commercial at 14:22)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-states-migration-tehran-1c11473c17ae6377db0bd8b960e25be1

A new Reuters poll shows that 74% of Americans, with strong majorities from both parties, support a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine as Russia continues to shell civilian areas and populations. The Biden Administration, Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, the head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and politicians from across the political spectrum are opposed to any sort of intervention over the skies of Ukraine. The argument is that it'd lead to a wider war, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin has warned against it. No-fly zones are only a recent historical development. Green and Red gets into that recent history starting with the aftermath of the first Gulf War when George H.W. Bush called on the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Shiites in southern Iraq to rise up and depose Saddam Hussein. Their subsequent slaughter by Saddam's helicopter gunships led to the no-fly zones. We also discuss no-fly zones in the Balkan wars and the 2016 debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump over a no-fly zone in Syria. Sanctions and the financial war on Russia's banking systems to the U.S. and NATO arming the Ukrainians to possible no-fly zones are escalations which could lead to further destruction in Europe. It's important to be aware of this history moving forward into 21st century conflict and war. Outro- A Metal Cover of "Danger Zone" featuring Eric Calderone. ----------------------------------- Links// Guardian: Why Clinton's plans for no-fly zones in Syria could provoke US-Russia conflict (https://bit.ly/3HNutKo) GlobalSecurity.org: Operation Deny Flight (https://bit.ly/3KjGEQR) CNN: Blinken and NATO chief warn establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine could lead to a 'full-fledged war in Europe' (https://cnn.it/378jJda) Noam Chomsky:A No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine Could Unleash Untold Violence (https://bit.ly/35BUwYi) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Check out our new and improved website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/ Join our Discord Party: https://bit.ly/36hqx7X Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Scott.

Bark of neem tree may protect against coronavirus variants   University of Colorado and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, February 28, 2022   Extract from the bark of the neem tree may help treat and reduce the spread of coronavirus, according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata. The study, reported recently in the journal Virology, shows that components of neem bark may target a wide range of viral proteins, suggesting its potential as an antiviral agent against emerging variants of coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2). "The goal of this research is to develop a neem-based medication that can reduce the risk of serious illness when someone is infected with coronaviruses," said study co-author Maria Nagel, MD, research professor in the department of neurology and ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.   (NEXT)   Black Seed Oil Puts Deadly Asthma Meds To Shame   University College London, February 26, 2022    A new study published in the journal Phytotherapeutic Research reveals that a powerful little black seed known as nigella sativa-- once referred to as ‘the remedy for everything but death' -- may provide a powerful alternative to pharmaceutical medicine in the treatment of asthma. The new study  was a placebo-controlled RCT performed on 80 asthmatics, with 40 patients in each treatment and placebo groups. NSO capsules were administered 500 mg twice daily for 4 weeks. The placebo group received an equal dose of olive oil.   (NEXT)   Healthy gut microbiome improves success of cancer treatment   King's College London, February 28, 2022   The largest study to date has confirmed the link between the gut microbiome and the response to cancer immunotherapy therapy for melanoma. The study is published today in Nature Medicine and co-ordinated by King's College London, CIBIO Department of the University of Trento and European Institute of Oncology in Italy, University of Groningen in the Netherlands and funded by the Seerave Foundation. Dr. Karla Lee, clinical researcher at King's College London said that "preliminary studies on a limited number of patients have suggested that the gut microbiome, as an immune system regulator, plays a role in the response of each patient to cancer immunotherapy, and particularly in the case of melanoma. This new study could have a major impact on oncology and medicine in general."   (NEXT)   Physical fitness linked to lower risk of Alzheimer's disease   Washington VA Medical Center, February 28, 2022   People who are more physically fit are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people who are less physically fit, according to a preliminary study released today. “One exciting finding of this study is that as people's fitness improved, their risk of Alzheimer's disease decreased—it was not an all-or-nothing proposition,” said study author Edward Zamrini, MD, of the Washington VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. “So people can work toward making incremental changes and improvements in their physical fitness and hopefully that will be associated with a related decrease in their risk of Alzheimer's years later.” The study involved 649,605 military veterans in the Veterans Health Administration database with an average age of 61 who were followed for an average of nine years. They did not have Alzheimer's disease at the start of the study. The group with the lowest level of fitness developed Alzheimer's at a rate of 9.5 cases per 1,000 person-years, compared to 6.4 cases per 1,000 person-years for the most fit group.   (OTHER NEWS)   The Mess that Nuland Made   Victoria Nuland engineered Ukraine's “regime change” in early 2014 without weighing the likely chaos and consequences, wrote Robert Parry on July 13, 2015. The Mess that Nuland Made   Robert Parry.   Special to Consortium News   As the Ukrainian army squares off against ultra-right and neo-Nazi militias in the west and violence against ethnic Russians continues in the east, the obvious folly of the Obama administration's Ukraine policy has come into focus even for many who tried to ignore the facts, or what you might call “the mess that Victoria Nuland made.” Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs “Toria” Nuland was the “mastermind” behind the Feb. 22, 2014 “regime change” in Ukraine, plotting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych while convincing the ever-gullible U.S. mainstream media that the coup wasn't really a coup but a victory for “democracy.” To sell this latest neocon-driven “regime change” to the American people, the ugliness of the coup-makers had to be systematically airbrushed, particularly the key role of neo-Nazis and other ultra-nationalists from the Right Sektor. For the U.S.-organized propaganda campaign to work, the coup-makers had to wear white hats, not brown shirts. So, for nearly a year and a half, the West's mainstream media, especially The New York Times and The Washington Post, twisted their reporting into all kinds of contortions to avoid telling their readers that the new regime in Kiev was permeated by and dependent on neo-Nazi fighters and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who wanted a pure-blood Ukraine, without ethnic Russians. Any mention of that sordid reality was deemed “Russian propaganda” and anyone who spoke this inconvenient truth was a “stooge of Moscow.” It wasn't until July 7 that the Times admitted the importance of the neo-Nazis and other ultra-nationalists in waging war against ethnic Russian rebels in the east. The Times also reported that these far-right forces had been joined by Islamic militants. Some of those jihadists have been called “brothers” of the hyper-brutal Islamic State. Though the Times sought to spin this remarkable military alliance neo-Nazi militias and Islamic jihadists as a positive, the reality had to be jarring for readers who had bought into the Western propaganda about noble “pro-democracy” forces resisting evil “Russian aggression.” Perhaps the Times sensed that it could no longer keep the lid on the troubling truth in Ukraine. For weeks, the Right Sektor militias and the neo-Nazi Azov battalion have been warning the civilian government in Kiev that they might turn on it and create a new order more to their liking. Clashes in the West Then, on Saturday, violent clashes broke out in the western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo, allegedly over the control of cigarette-smuggling routes. Right Sektor paramilitaries sprayed police officers with bullets from a belt-fed machine gun, and police backed by Ukrainian government troops returned fire. Several deaths and multiple injuries were reported. Tensions escalated on Monday with President Petro Poroshenko ordering national security forces to disarm “armed cells” of political movements. Meanwhile, the Right Sektor dispatched reinforcements to the area while other militiamen converged on the capital of Kiev. While President Poroshenko and Right Sektor leader Dmitry Yarosh may succeed in tamping down this latest flare-up of hostilities, they may be only postponing the inevitable: a conflict between the U.S.-backed authorities in Kiev and the neo-Nazis and other right-wing fighters who spearheaded last year's coup and have been at the front lines of the fighting against ethnic Russian rebels in the east. The Ukrainian right-wing extremists feel they have carried the heaviest burden in the war against the ethnic Russians and resent the politicians living in the relative safety and comfort of Kiev. In March, Poroshenko also fired thuggish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky as governor of the southeastern province of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Kolomoisky had been the primary benefactor of the Right Sektor militias. So, as has become apparent across Europe and even in Washington, the Ukraine crisis is spinning out of control, making the State Department's preferred narrative of the conflict that it's all Russian President Vladimir Putin's fault harder and harder to sell. How Ukraine is supposed to pull itself out of what looks like a death spiral a possible two-front war in the east and the west along with a crashing economy is hard to comprehend. The European Union, confronting budgetary crises over Greece and other EU members, has little money or patience for Ukraine, its neo-Nazis and its socio-political chaos. America's neocons at The Washington Post and elsewhere still rant about the need for the Obama administration to sink more billions upon billions of dollars into post-coup Ukraine because it “shares our values.” But that argument, too, is collapsing as Americans see the heart of a racist nationalism beating inside Ukraine's new order. Another Neocon ‘Regime Change' Much of what has happened, of course, was predictable and indeed was predicted, but neocon Nuland couldn't resist the temptation to pull off a “regime change” that she could call her own. Her husband (and arch-neocon) Robert Kagan had co-founded the Project for the New American Century in 1998 around a demand for “regime change” in Iraq, a project that was accomplished in 2003 with President George W. Bush's invasion. As with Nuland in Ukraine, Kagan and his fellow neocons thought they could engineer an easy invasion of Iraq, oust Saddam Hussein and install some hand-picked client in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi was to be “the guy.” But they failed to take into account the harsh realities of Iraq, such as the fissures between Sunnis and Shiites, exposed by the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. In Ukraine, Nuland and her neocon and liberal-interventionist friends saw the chance to poke Putin in the eye by encouraging violent protests to overthrow Russia-friendly President Yanukovych and put in place a new regime hostile to Moscow. Carl Gershman, the neocon president of the U.S.-taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy, explained the plan in a Post op-ed on Sept. 26, 2013. Gershman called Ukraine “the biggest prize” and an important interim step toward toppling Putin, who “may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.” For her part, Nuland passed out cookies to anti-Yanukovych demonstrators at the Maidan square, reminded Ukrainian business leaders that the U.S. had invested $5 billion in their “European aspirations,” declared “fuck the EU” for its less aggressive approach, and discussed with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt who the new leaders of Ukraine should be. “Yats is the guy,” she said, referring to Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Nuland saw her big chance on Feb. 20, 2014, when a mysterious sniper apparently firing from a building controlled by the Right Sektor shot and killed both police and protesters, escalating the crisis. On Feb. 21, in a desperate bid to avert more violence, Yanukovych agreed to a European-guaranteed plan in which he accepted reduced powers and called for early elections so he could be voted out of office. But that wasn't enough for the anti-Yanukovych forces who led by Right Sektor and neo-Nazi militias overran government buildings on Feb. 22, forcing Yanukovych and many of his officials to flee for their lives. With armed thugs patrolling the corridors of power, the final path to “regime change” was clear. Instead of trying to salvage the Feb. 21 agreement, Nuland and European officials arranged for an unconstitutional procedure to strip Yanukovych of the presidency and declared the new regime “legitimate.” Nuland's “guy” Yatsenyuk became prime minister. While Nuland and her neocon cohorts celebrated, their “regime change” prompted an obvious reaction from Putin, who recognized the strategic threat that this hostile new regime posed to the historic Russian naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea. On Feb. 23, he began to take steps to protect those Russian interests. Ethnic Hatreds What the coup also did was revive long pent-up antagonisms between the ethnic Ukrainians in the west, including elements that had supported Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War Two, and ethnic Russians in the south and east who feared the anti-Russian sentiments emanating from Kiev. First, in Crimea and then in the so-called Donbas region, these ethnic Russians, who had been Yanukovych's political base, resisted what they viewed as the illegitimate overthrow of their elected president. Both areas held referenda seeking separation from Ukraine, a move that Russia accepted in Crimea but resisted with the Donbas. However, when the Kiev regime announced an “anti-terrorism operation” against the Donbas and dispatched neo-Nazi and other extremist militias to be the tip of the spear, Moscow began quietly assisting the embattled ethnic Russian rebels, a move that Nuland, the Obama administration and the mainstream news media called “Russian aggression.” Amid the Western hysteria over Russia's supposedly “imperial designs” and the thorough demonizing of Putin, President Barack Obama essentially authorized a new Cold War against Russia, reflected now in new U.S. strategic planning that could cost the U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars and risk a possible nuclear confrontation. Yet, despite the extraordinary costs and dangers, Nuland failed to appreciate the practical on-the-ground realities, much as her husband and other neocons did in Iraq. While Nuland got her hand-picked client Yatsenyuk installed and he did oversee a U.S.-demanded “neo-liberal” economic plan slashing pensions, heating assistance and other social programs the chaos that her “regime change” unleashed transformed Ukraine into a financial black hole. With few prospects for a clear-cut victory over the ethnic Russian resistance in the east and with the neo-Nazi/Islamist militias increasingly restless over the stalemate the chances to restore any meaningful sense of order in the country appear remote. Unemployment is soaring and the government is essentially bankrupt. The last best hope for some stability may have been the Minsk-2 agreement in February 2015, calling for a federalized system to give the Donbas more autonomy, but Nuland's Prime Minister Yatsenyuk sabotaged the deal in March by inserting a poison pill that essentially demanded that the ethnic Russian rebels first surrender. Now, the Ukraine chaos threatens to spiral even further out of control with the neo-Nazis and other right-wing militias supplied with a bounty of weapons to kill ethnic Russians in the east turning on the political leadership in Kiev. In other words, the neocons have struck again, dreaming up a “regime change” scheme that ignored practical realities, such as ethnic and religious fissures. Then, as the blood flowed and the suffering worsened, the neocons just sought out someone else to blame. Thus, it seems unlikely that Nuland, regarded by some in Washington as the new “star” in U.S. foreign policy, will be fired for her dangerous incompetence, just as most neocons who authored the Iraq disaster remain “respected” experts employed by major think tanks, given prized space on op-ed pages, and consulted at the highest levels of the U.S. government.  

In this 'EPISODE 242 EZEKIEL 38 IRAN AND TURKEY IN PROPHECY: WILL THERE BE AN ARMS RACE BETWEEN THEM IN THE NEAR FUTURE OR IS IT ALREADY HAPPENING? WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR IRAN AND TURKEY? PART ONE' author and host Elbert Hardy presents Part One of a Series on Turkey and Iran and the roles they are predicted to play in our future just ahead. Will they both gain nuclear weapons in 2023? Are they in an arms race so they can conquer Israel? 

– It is declared in the two hundred and nineteenth âyat of Sûrat-ush-Shu'arâ of the Qur'ân al-kerîm: “You, that is, your nûr has reached you after having always been transferred from one prostrating person to another.” Explaining this âyat, the Ahl-i sunnat savants ‘rahmatullâhi ta'âlâ 'alaihim ajma'în' have inferred that “All his fathers and mothers were Believers and were sinless.” As is explained in the booklet Sahâba, ‘the blessed', there are also some people who suppose that the great Ahl-i sunnat savants are Shiites and who say that these are the words of Shiites. The great ones of the Ahl-i-sunnat ‘rahmatullâhi ta'âlâ 'alaihim ajma'în' say that his father and his mother Âmina were in the religion of Hadrat Ibrâhîm. That is, they were Believers. Allâhu ta'âlâ enlivened these two and had them hear the word ‘Shahâdat' from our Prophet and express it, not for the purpose of making them Believers, but in order that they might be honoured with being in his Ummat. The âyat, “Do not ask a blessing on your relative,” was intended for Abû Tâlib. It was not intended for his parents. It is written in the translations of Imâm-i A'zâm's book entitled Fiqh-i Akbar, of which there are many copies in the world, that they (his parents) died without belief. Yet it is written in Imâm-i A'zam's manuscript that they died with îmân. Later, it was discovered that his enemies had made this mistake on purpose by erasing the first ‘mâ' . The manuscript of Fiqh-i Akbar by Imâm-i A'zam Abû Hanîfa, along with a part of the Qur'ân al-kerîm, which was written by the blessed hands of Hadrat 'Uthmân, the Amîr-ul-mu'minîn, and which was coloured with his blood of martyrdom, and a number of valuable books were taken to Samarkand in 656 A.H. when Hulâghu burned Baghdâd and massacred more than eight hundred thousand Muslims. When Samarkand was captured by the Russians in 1284 A.H. [A.D. 1868], these books were transferred to Petersburg and kept there with great care. This fact is stated by Shamsaddin Sâmi Bey, the author of Qâmûs-ul-a'lâm, within the entry ‘Samarkand'. The book was taken to the city of Ufa in 1335 [1917 A.D.], and thence to the mosque of Khwâja 'Ubaydullah-i Ahrâr in the city of Tashkand in 1341 [1923 A.D.]. Some pages of the copies of the Qur'ân written by the blessed hands of the Khalîfas 'Umar-ul-Fârûq, 'Uthmân-i Zinnûrayn and Alî-yul-Murtadâ ‘radiy-Allâhu ta'âlâ 'anhum' exist in the Museum of Islamic Works, which is next to the Süleymâniye Mosque in Istanbul. Those who wish may see them. Endless Bliss First Fasicle | Page 255-256

Episode 114: Convert to Islam: https://untoislam.com Podcast: https://untoislam.com/podcast About Us: https://untoislam.com/about-us Contact Us: https://untoislam.com/contact-us Live QA Session: https://untoislam.com/live-qa-session Sponsor|Donate|Support|Help Us: https://untoislam.com/donate Host: Cedric Du Peloux. Guest: Imam Yusef Maisonet. This is Imam Yusef's second episode with us. The first episode was his convert story: https://untoislam.com/podcast/from-harlem-to-mecca-a-latinos-journey-in-islam In this episode we ask Imam Yusef for more advice about converting to Islam. About Imam Yusef: Born in the fifties, Yusef Maisonet's life began to a rocky start. With his parents arrested for drugs, a then three-year-old Yusef and his siblings spent their early years in an orphanage. But after much of his childhood spent in the orphanage, his life changed when he picked up a copy of the Quran. Islam had a profound impact on Yusef's life. Now you can join him as he recounts his unique life as a Latino Muslim, his experiences with religion, and his travels across the planet. From France and England to Jerusalem, Puerto Rico and even North Korea, Yusef gives an enlightening glimpse into Islam around the world, and the vastly different cultures he found along the way. From meeting with Salafis, Shiites, Sunni, Sufi, and everything in between, Yusef has learned from them all. With insights on prayer, life as a Muslim, and his Latino identity, From Harlem to Mecca is a powerful and inspirational account of faith, worship, and the American Latino Muslim community. Imam Yusef's website: https://imamyusef.com/ Imam Yusef's book (From Harlem to Mecca: A Latino's Journey in Islam): https://untoislam.com/links/from-harlem-to-mecca-a-latinos-journey-in-islam About the Becoming Muslim Podcast Do you have questions about Islam? Are you looking for a new direction in life? The Becoming Muslim podcast at https://untoislam.com is made for those who are in the midst of researching Islam. It also suits newly converted Muslims. Our podcast offers a wide variety of audible resources. From captivating stories of converts to discussions on day to day Islamic practices, Unto Islam allows for each individual to cater to their spiritual needs. Find out: (1) How to convert to Islam (2) What it means to be Muslim (3) Why Islam has helped others As Muslims do not engage in missionary work, our site is only here to help those who want to know more about our faith and creed.

The Taliban has long accused Washington of funding ISIS, and now they're indirectly right, as a growing number of US-trained Afghan soldiers and intelligence officials are joining the terrorist group's ranks to fight the Taliban. The US spent a staggering $88 billion arming and training Afghanistan's military, only for Afghan forces to crumble before the Taliban's lightning fast reconquest of the country in August. Though the Taliban have promised amnesty to these personnel, stories of violent reprisals have circulated, and according to the Wall Street Journal, a “relatively small, but growing” number of former Afghan soldiers and spies are flocking to the only outfit currently resisting Taliban rule – Islamic State terrorist group. Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS) Afghan offshoot, IS-K, is eagerly absorbing these US-trained recruits. According to the former security officials and Taliban members the Wall Street Journal spoke to, some former government troops have joined for a paycheck, and others for lack of a better alternative to Taliban rule. “If there were a resistance, they would have joined the resistance,” former spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil told the paper, adding that “For the time being, ISIS is the only other armed group.” Though IS-K and the Taliban are both Islamic fundamentalist groups, their ideologies differ. The Taliban are a predominantly Punjabi nationalist organization with no stated goals beyond Afghanistan's borders, and a tolerance for the country's other Muslim sects. IS-K, by contrast, view Shiites and other Muslim sects as apostates and aim to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate, as IS attempted to do several years ago in Iraq and Syria. Initially suppressed by the Taliban, IS-K mounted a resurgence amid the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, carrying out a suicide bombing outside Kabul Airport in August that killed around 200 Afghans and 13 US troops. For the US military, it was the deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2011. It is unclear what “critical expertise in intelligence-gathering and warfare techniques” these new recruits will bring to IS-K, given that the supposedly 300,000-strong Afghan military they came from folded before the Taliban in a matter of weeks, with its members often fleeing or surrendering without firing a shot. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/02/us-trained-afghan-soldiers-spies-joining-isis-terrorists-to-resist-taliban/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Ben Caspit talks this week to Dr. Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University. Zisser, an expert on Syria and Lebanon, reacts to recent incidents in Beirut, noting that while Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is strong, he also has his own constraints and sources of weakness — particularly since not all the Shiites in Lebanon are following him. Zisser addresses the possibility of a civil war breaking out again in Lebanon, estimating that like in Syria, this could present a tactical threat to Israel, but not a strategic one. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's an army of Iraqis who don't like each other--Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites--advancing on the last urban stronghold of the Islamic State in Iraq. Nobody knows how long it will take or if they can hold it together.

Sunlight is composed of red, green and blue light waves. Combine these together and you get white light.http://mondaymemo.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/AdditiveColor_190.jpg (A)Remove the red from white light and you will no longer be able to see red in anything illuminated by that light. Red will no longer exist. Remove the blue and you will no longer see blue. This is the secret of propaganda. Propaganda is an emotionally charged word, so we should probably establish a definition for the purposes of this discussion: “Propaganda is a form of persuasion that refuses to consider the point of view of its opponent. Instead, propaganda will mock, vilify and demonize its opponent or ignore its opponent's perspective completely.”Google “propaganda” and you'll learn the term dates back to 1622, when Pope Gregory XV decided to send out missionaries to propagate – propagando – the faith. To facilitate this, he created the sacra congregatio christiano nomini propagando. The cardinal in charge of Propagando became known as the “red pope” due to the importance of his duties and the extraordinary extent of his authority. 1 In 1982, Pope John Paul II renamed it the congregation for the evangelization of peoples, probably because the word “propaganda” had been given a bad name by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Catholics in 1622 wanted to eliminate the Protestant perspective, which is only fair, because Protestants wanted to eliminate the Catholic perspective. This polarization caused millions to die in religious wars, but that doesn't make religion bad. It is a polarized perspective – whether in religion or sports or anything else – that's bad. A person can have a strong and unchangeable point of view but still retain the courtesy and breadth of vision to understand how an intelligent person might embrace the opposite point of view. 2Think of your opponent as watching a sporting event from the seat exactly opposite yours. You're both watching the same game, but his left is your right, and your right is his left. So which of you is the liar? Which of you is the fool?200 million Muslims are Shiites. 1.6 billion Muslims are Sunnis. When the Islamic Prophet Muhammad died in 632 A.D., a debate emerged about who should be his successor. Both sides agreed that Allah is the one true God and that Muhammad was his messenger, but one group (the Shiites) felt Muhammad's successor should be someone in his bloodline, while the other (the Sunnis) felt a pious individual who would follow the Prophet's customs would be acceptable. Both Sunnis and Shiites read the Quran, believe the Prophet Muhammad was the messenger of Allah, fast during Ramadan, pledge to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, practice ritual prayer five times a day, give charity to the poor and pledge themselves to their faith. But rather than celebrate what they have in common and use those bonds to facilitate peace and prosperity, the Sunnis and Shiites have chosen bitter war. Democrats and Republicans seem to be making a similar choice. I, for one, want no part of it. Justice and Mercy are both important and good and true.But they exist in perpetual tension, an eternal tug-of-war.I'm sure I'll be criticized for saying this, but it seems to me that one side wants to shine bold red light on the importance of protecting ourselves from those who would do us harm, while the other side wants to shine a soothing blue light on the pain of the struggling and the oppressed. If propagandists are successful in their attempts to eliminate the red or the blue from the light that shines from America, I fear we will learn we have amputated an arm because we didn't understand its purpose. Roy H. Williams

Iran is helping Iraqi forces re-take territory from the so-called Islamic State—but the US is not part of the action. We update the battle for the city of Tikrit, potential conflicts between Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites and the possibility of Iraq becoming an even more divided country.

The US is handing over control to Iraq's own security forces as it prepares to withdraw combat troops from all Iraqi cities by June 30. But strains in political reconciliation and a new wave of bombings threaten to re-ignite simmering sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Also, a prominent Republican Senator changes parties, and an update on swine flu.

Finally, the military surge has been followed by what the US called "benchmark legislation." But it could divide, instead of uniting, Shiites and Sunnis. Also, President Bush arrives in Saudi Arabia, and tomorrow's Michigan primary.