Several times each week we distribute by e-mail a timely “IHR News and Comment” roundup of news, analysis and commentary items. To subscribe, enter your email below:
Timely and Relevant: More Than Ever
This year’s election cycle is the most bizarre and ominous in history. Never before have the presidential candidates of the major parties been so unpopular or so elderly. As public opinion polls show, Americans have also never been so distrustful of the US Congress and the mainstream news media.
More than ever, it’s important to raise awareness about the powerful forces that promote war, injustice and oppression, and which put self-serving, partisan interests ahead of what’s best for America and humanity.
IHR News & Views

Historian Mark Weber and host Fróði Midjord provide informed “big picture” perspective on current events, highlighting the broader trends and crucial factors behind the headlines.
-
Collusion: Franklin Roosevelt, British Intelligence, and the Secret Campaign to Push the US Into War
Mark Weber
Secretive and unlawful collusion by an American leader with a foreign power that subverts the US political process is not new. The most far-reaching and flagrant case was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940-41. In the months before the US formally entered the war in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt did everything he could to get America into the global conflict without actually declaring war. The cooperation with British intelligence by the President and other high-ranking US officials during that period was quite illegal. Such collusion by the nominally neutral US to further the war aims of a foreign government was contrary to both US law and universally accepted international norms.
-
The Past Marches On
George Morgenstern (1953)
… Add to these the operations of an organized propaganda capable, apparently, of doping Americans into belief in any myth, and there is formidable reason why public opinion should be so stupefied and stultified that the nation can be led from war to war in pursuit of ever retreating goals. Yet, despite the general numbness, Americans, surveying the results of half a century of intermeddling, dimly perceive that all is not well.
-
No figure of modern French history is as honored as Charles de Gaulle … In 1940 he refused to accept his country’s defeat by Germany, and from London he founded and led the pro-Allied “Free French” force during World War II. From 1944 to 1946 he headed the provisional government of France. In 1958 he was called from retirement by popular acclaim to resolve the seemingly unsolvable crisis over Algeria … During the years that he dominated his country’s political life – 1958-1969 – he charted an independent foreign policy, tied neither to the US nor the USSR, and strove to make France the preeminent nation in Europe … It’s impossible to read any lengthy biography of this man without admiration for his audacious self-confidence, courage, determination, and cunning.
-
More than once I have come across the view that if British lads of the 1940s could have foreseen the state of their country today, they would never have bothered to fight the Second World War. Few of those who have heard that view may realize that there is empirical evidence to support it … The prevailing tone of their letters is one of bitterness over what had become of the county they once cherished. Of the four or five most often voiced complaints, the most common is over mass migration from other countries and continents, and how that has drastically changed British life, culture and society … “The men who offered their lives have been betrayed and gave their lives in vain. Most of the older people say thank goodness we are ending our lives. It is no longer the Britain that we fought for.”
-
On the Importance of Revisionism For Our Time
Murray Rothbard
Revisionism as applied to World War II and its origins (as also for previous wars) has the general function of bringing historical truth to an American and a world public that had been drugged by wartime lies and propaganda … Revisionism brings to the artificial frenzy of daily events and day-to-day propaganda, the cool but in the last analysis glorious light of historical truth. Such truth is almost desperately needed in today’s world.
-
The Spanish Inquisition and the Jewish Question
Brian Chalmers
It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history’s darkest chapters — and one of Christian history’s most shameful.
-
How Hitler Tackled Unemployment
Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
-
Suggested Reading: A Study Guide
Mark Weber
In an age when vast amounts of information from a wide range of sources are instantly available online, it can be difficult to sort out what’s reliable, useful, and trustworthy. In response to many inquiries over the years, here are recommended books on five important historical topics: The Second World War, American History, International Relations, Communism, Marxism and the Soviet Union, and, Zionism, US-Israel Relations, and the ‘Jewish Question.’ This listing is neither exhaustive nor final. Additional subject categories and titles are planned, and descriptions may be revised or updated.
-
Tactics of Organized Jewry in Suppressing Free Speech
Prof. Tony Martin – Institute for Historical Review
… I’m going to try to extract from my experience certain basic sort of tactics that I think the Jewish lobby has used over the years pertaining to my particular situation … The first and major tactic that I discovered in their attack on me was their reliance on lies — just straight-up lies. There’s no other way to describe it, just telling lies. Many of the categories that I will enumerate overlap, and many of them could also come under this general rubric of telling lies. But I think that if one had to isolate a single tactic, it was a tactic of telling lies. I think they’ve elevated telling lies to a very high artistic form.
-
Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Institute for Historical Review
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute video presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
-
Zionism and the Third Reich
Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler’s Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the “Jewish Question.” They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany. During the 1930s no nation did more to substantively further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler’s Germany.
-
… With the aid of the civilian population, mass graves had been discovered, in which thousands of corpses had been buried. These graves were to be opened and the commission was to establish whom the [Soviet] NKVD had murdered … The exhumations in Vinnytsia began on May 25, 1943, and were carried on in three places. The [local] population was of the opinion that there were around 20,000 victims in the war years … I had been a soldier in the Ukrainian army during the First World War and had seen many men killed in battle, but what I had then seen can in no way be compared with what I witnessed in that park … The horror of Vinnytsia I shall never forget, and it is doubtful whether ever a Dante would be able to portray the agony that had taken place.
-
… Judaism is not just “another religion.” It’s unique among the world’s major religions. The core values and ethos of Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths … A core message of the Hebrew scriptures is that Jews are a divinely “chosen” people — a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity … The seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land. Israel’s often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
-
The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed
David L. Hoggan
Completely reset, expanded and reformatted new IHR edition! In this important, detailed study of the origins of the Second World War, Dr. Hoggan explains why Hitler decided to attack Poland in 1939, and examines the short-sighted policies that made war all but inevitable. The author dismantles the often-repeated charge of sole German responsibility for the war, which for many years has been a centerpiece of the prevailing narrative of twentieth century history. The eminent American historian Harry E. Barnes called this “the first thorough study of the responsibility for the causes of the Second World War in any language … likely to remain the definitive revisionist work on this subject for many years.” With an introduction by Mark Weber, dust jacket, detailed index, source notes, extensive bibliography, map, and 30 photographs. Also available in softcover edition.
-
The Origins of the Second World War: A Review
Murray N. Rothbard
It is not often that one is privileged to review a book of monumental import, a truly significant “breakthrough” from obscurantism to historical knowledge and insight. But such a book is the magnificent work by A.J .P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War … The central theme of Taylor is simply this: Germany and Hitler were not uniquely guilty of launching World War II (indeed they were scarcely guilty at all) … Basically, Hitler has no “master plan”; he was a German intent, like all Germans, on revising the intolerable and stupid Versailles-diktat, and on doing so by peaceful means, and in collaboration with the British and French … Not only did Hitler do this with insight, he did it with patience, as Taylor excellently shows …
-
Liberating America From Israel
Paul Findley
Nine-Eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the 9/11 catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president in recent decades had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people.
-
Stalin's War Against His Own Troops
Yuri Teplyakov
… In August 1941 Hitler permitted a Red Cross delegation to visit the camp for Soviet POWs in Hammerstadt. It is these contacts that resulted in an appeal to the Soviet government, requesting that it should send food parcels for our officers and men. We are prepared to fulfill and comply with the norms of the Geneva convention, Moscow said in its reply, but sending food in the given situation and under fascist control is the same as making presents to the enemy … How great was Stalin’s hatred for those who had found themselves behind enemy lines. It made no difference: who, where, how and why? Even the dead were considered to be criminals.
-
In a remarkable but under-reported address, one of America’s most prominent and influential political figures has acknowledged the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life. Joe Biden – now President of the U.S. – said that this has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural-political changes. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” Joe Biden told a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington, DC … “Behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those [major social-political] changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense … And, I might add, it is all to the good,” he went on.
-
Zionism’s Violent Legacy
Donald Neff
… The Irgun was not the only Jewish terrorist group but it was the most active in causing indiscriminate terror in pre-Israel Palestine. Up to the time of the Jaffa attack, its most spectacular feat had been the July 22, 1946, blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, with the killing of 91 people – 41 Arabs, 28 Britons and 17 Jews. The other major Jewish terrorist group operating in Palestine in the 1940s was the Lohamei Herut Israel – “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel,” Lehi in the Hebrew acronym – also known as the Stern Gang after its fanatical founder Avraham Stern.
-
Straight Talk About Zionism
Mark Weber
… A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community … Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism — that is, Zionism — for Jews.
-
In years when so many politicians and foreign policy experts waxed poetically about their vision of a “rules-based international order” of enduring global harmony, John Mearsheimer persistently warned against the delusions and dangers of this outlook. For years he has been a leading voice for a realist foreign policy, an outlook impressively laid out in his most important work, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics … a hard-nosed examination of international politics rooted not in sentiment or presumed idealism, but in the immutable realities of power politics … While liberals speak of economic interdependence and international norms, and neoconservatives push regime change in the name of “democracy,” Mearsheimer contends that material power, not ideology, drives the foreign policy decision-making of government leaders.
-
Why I Survived the A-Bomb
Akira Kohchi
Hiroshima native Kohchi was a 16-year-old schoolboy when his city was devastated by the first nuclear attack in history. He tells the dramatic, personal story of how he experienced and survived the bombing, and provides a moving account of his search for his family through the burning rubble of the doomed city. Then Kohchi recalls how, years later, he forced himself to come to grips with his past and uncover the facts about the bombing and the history the led up to it. The author’s frankness and humane spirit make this a first-hand Japanese account of a war crime that dwarfs almost all others. A unique revisionist classic. Praised by the Japan Times newspaper as a “noteworthy” and “authentic” personal account, and by Bookwatch newsletter as a “moving, gripping account.” With full color dust jacket, photos and notes
-
Why Germany Attacked the Soviet Union
Institute for Historical Review
As dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, military forces of Germany, Finland and Romania suddenly struck against the Soviet Union. The stunning news of this attack was announced to the world by German radio at 5:30 that Sunday morning, when Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels broadcast the text of a proclamation by Adolf Hitler to the German people that laid out his reasons for the historic offensive. Following that was the broadcast of Germany’s declaration of war against the Soviet Union. This was in the form of a diplomatic note to the Soviet government. Because Hitler’s proclamation and the German Foreign Office declaration explain at some length the reasons and motives for the fateful decision to strike against the USSR, these are documents of historic importance. With a foreword by Mark Weber.
-
The Boer War Remembered
Mark Weber
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was more than the first major military clash of the 20th century. Pitting as it did the might of the globe-girdling British Empire, backed by international finance, against a small pioneering nation of independent-minded farmers, ranchers and merchants in southern Africa who lived by the Bible and the rifle, its legacy continues to resonate today. The Boers’ recourse to irregular warfare, and Britain’s response in herding a hundred thousand women and children into concentration camps foreshadowed the horrors of guerilla warfare and mass detention of innocents that have become emblematic of the 20th century.
-
The Civil War Concentration Camps
Mark Weber
No aspect of the American Civil War left behind a greater legacy of bitterness and acrimony than the treatment of prisoners of war. “Andersonville” still conjures up images of horror unmatched in American History. And although Northern partisans still invoke the infamous Southern camp to defame the Confederacy, the Union had its share of equally horrific camps. Prison camps on both sides produced scenes of wretched, disease-ridden and emaciated prisoners as repulsive as any to come out of the Second World War … In addition to camps for captured soldiers, the North also established concentration camps for civilian populations considered hostile to the Federal government.
-
How accurate is this hallowed portrayal of America’s role in World War II? As we shall see, it does not hold up under close examination … The three Allied leaders accomplished what they accused the Axis leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan of conspiring to achieve: world domination … Presidential deception to justify war did not start with George W. Bush. Americans who express admiration for the US role in World War II, and for Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential leadership, have little moral right to complain when presidents follow his example and lead the country into war by breaking the law, subverting the Constitution, and lying to the people.
-
The Ethics of War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Gregory P. Pavlik
Since the last “good war,” a debate has ensued over the moral legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapons, particularly against civilians. The critics hold that it is a crime to incinerate civilians en masse; defenders commonly claim that the bombing was necessary to bring the war to a close, thereby saving countless American lives. Most of those who make this claim do so in earnest. The problem is that this defense is both historically false, and taken to its logical conclusion, extremely dangerous … The U.S. War Department and related agencies that specialized in producing hate propaganda and lies developed specifically racialist attacks on the Japanese.
-
… While it’s an artistic achievement and grand entertainment, “Darkest Hour” is badly flawed history … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widespread belief that Churchill’s speeches played a crucial role in sustaining British morale. A scholar who has carefully looked into the matter has found that this view is largely a myth … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widely held impression, which Churchill himself encouraged, that an honorable or lasting peace with Hitler was simply not possible. But as he himself later acknowledged, that’s simply not true … The British leader’s famous “We shall never surrender” speech was little more than “sublime nonsense,” says British historian John Charmley.
-
YouTube Censors 'Restrict' IHR Videos
Institute for Historical Review
In line with a recent crackdown policy, YouTube has “restricted” a number of independently produced videos of IHR talks and presentations. To watch a “restricted” video, the viewer must first click through a warning screen. Also, comments on the video are not allowed, and the number of views is not given. Even worse, YouTube will never “suggest” a “restricted” video to viewers, which is how many people find our videos. While YouTube claims that its “restriction” policy is aimed at videos with “inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” applying it to IHR videos is absurd. YouTube restricts our voice not because we have violated any objective standards, or because we have done anything wrong or illegal — but because it doesn’t like what we say.
-
Over the centuries, rage and hostility against Jews has repeatedly erupted in terrible violence. Again and again, Jews have been driven out of countries where they’d been living. Why does anti-Semitism exist? And why has furious hostility toward Jews broken out, again and again, in the most varied nations, eras and cultures? … Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
-
Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr.
I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician … When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you’re threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!
-
Several months before Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt secretly authorized devastating American bombing raids against Japanese cities. A top-secret document declassified in 1970 shows that in July 1941 Roosevelt and his top military advisers approved a daring plan to use American pilots and U.S. war planes – deceitfully flying under the Chinese flag – to bomb Japan’s major cities … An air strike force of 500 Lockheed Hudson bombers was to be organized as “The Second American Volunteer Group” under Chennault’s command. Its mission would be the “pre-emptive” bombing of Japan. The strategic objective of JB 355 was the “destruction of Japanese factories in order to cripple munitions and essential articles for maintenance of economic structure in Japan.”
-
What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? … The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere — among those who support Israel but don’t really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel – and Zionism – often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
-
A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The “Jewish lobby” is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the “very powerful” Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the Jewish-Zionist grip on the US political system and the American media, the Zionist oppression of Palestinians, and the Israeli threat to peace.
-
Was Hiroshima Necessary?
Mark Weber
America’s leaders understood Japan’s desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender — that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place — the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives … General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”
-
Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
Robert Morgan
Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the “Great Emancipator,” he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad.
News & Comment
Israel’s Unprovoked Bombing of Iran Violates International Law. Full Stop.
Juan Cole
The government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday launched a war on Iran … Israel itself has several hundred atomic bombs … but Tel Aviv and Washington ignore this stockpile of warheads when they denounce Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program (and now try to destroy it), even though Iran does not have a bomb, and no major Western intelligence agency thinks they have militarized their program … Trump had signaled repeatedly that he did not want the Israelis to attack, but Netanyahu appears to hold to the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) theory of the president’s behavior. He pointedly thanked Trump in his address to the nation, clearly hoping that Iran might take some action against America in response and so draw Trump into a war he clearly does not want.
The Biggest Peacetime Crime – and Cover-Up – in British History
D. Green – The Free Press
The grooming and serial rape of thousands of English girls by men of mostly Pakistani Muslim background over several decades is the biggest peacetime crime in the history of modern Europe. It went on for many years. It is still going on. And there has been no justice for the vast majority of the victims. British governments, both Conservative and Labour, hoped that they had buried the story after a few symbolic prosecutions in the 2010s … Every level of the British system is implicated in the cover-up … The media mostly ignored or downplayed the biggest story of their lifetimes. … They did this to defend a failed model of multiculturalism, and to avoid asking hard questions about failures of immigration policy and assimilation. They did this because they were afraid of being called racist or Islamophobic.
Is Iran as Close to Building a Nuclear Weapon as Netanyahu Claims?
P. Wintour - The Guardian
In justifying Israel’s attack on Iran, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs … Netanyahu’s critics are saying he acted to pre-empt something else: a diplomatic agreement between the US and Iran on its civil nuclear programme, or even the demise of his own government … As recently as 25 March, Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, told the Senate intelligence committee that the American intelligence community had assessed that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
US Intelligence: Iran Was Not Pursuing Nuclear Bomb Before Israel’s Attack
D. DeCamp – Antiwar. com
Ahead of Israel’s attacks on Iran, US intelligence assessed that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons and that even if it chose to do so, it would take up to three years away for Tehran to be able to produce and deliver a nuclear bomb against a target of its choosing, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the intelligence. The US assessment goes against the claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war under the pretext of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But President Trump appears to be taking Israel’s word over his own intelligence agencies, as he told reporters that he didn’t care about his director of national intelligence’s assessment on the issue.
Netanyahu: More Lying at the United Nations
R. Fantina - CounterPunch
… Let’s look at the record of Israeli government leaders, when it comes to Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons development program. 1992: Israeli officials said that Iran was three-to-five years away from having nuclear weapons …2009: The prediction this year was “probably one or two years away” … That year, we were told that Iran was just “a few months away” from obtaining nuclear weapons … Let us consider the Prime Minister’s statement on the eve of another U.S. war. Prior to the disastrous, ill-advised, ill-conceived and illegal invasion of Iraq, he addressed the U.S. Congress and said this: “If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region …”
No War With Iran!
Kevin Martin – Common Dreams
… If Trump was sincere in his warnings to Israel not to attack Iran, this situation once again shows the limits of President Trump’s alleged skills as a dealmaker. This problem lies at his feet, as he petulantly pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran anti-nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated by President Obama, the U.N. and other nations with Iran, and approved by Congress. The JCPOA was by all accounts working to cap Iran’s nuclear program well short of attaining The Bomb. Reportedly, earlier this week Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and not to attack Iran. Clearly, that fell on deaf ears.
The Israel-Iran War and What It Means for Us
Mark Weber - Podcast
Mark Weber joins host James Edwards in this lively, informative 50-minute TPC session on the background to the Israel-Iran war, including the Trump administration’s role, and the conflict’s potential consequences for Americans and the world. Weber is unusually well-informed about Iran-US relations, and Iranian society and history. During his three visits to Iran, Weber met and spoke with a wide range of people, including ordinary citizens, writers, scholars, activists, and government officials. He has spoken at conferences and meetings in Tehran, including a lecture to hundreds of Iranian university students.
MAGA to Trump: Supporting Israel Attacks is a `Middle Finger’ to Voters
Jack Hunter - Responsible Statecraft
The Republican president who vowed to “Make America Great Again” by ending “endless wars” now finds himself on the precipice of a potential new one. Israel’s airstrikes on Iran Thursday came after President Donald Trump said he was hopeful for a nuclear deal and made clear publicly that he did not want Israel to interfere by acting militarily. Israel defied Trump. Trump now says he knew about the strikes all along … Tucker Carlson says Trump is complicit in the strikes and insists that this isn’t America’s fight. “While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events,” Carlson wrote …
Trump Didn’t Want Israel to Strike. They Did It Anyway
K. Liptak- CNN
In the hours before Israeli warplanes carried out an attack on Iran early Friday, raising fresh fears of all-out war in the region, President Donald Trump made clear it was an outcome he hoped to avoid. “I don’t want them going in because, I mean, that would blow it,” he said, referring to his diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The fact Israel went in anyway – without any US involvement, and against the president’s publicly stated wishes – now thrusts Trump into one of the biggest tests of his young presidency … It casts a pall over his already tense relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … And it presents him another global conflict without any easy resolution, this one with tens of thousands of US troops potentially caught in the regional crossfire.
Israel Chose to Act Now, Whether Trump Likes It or Not
T. Bateman – BBC News
It has been clear that there has been growing tension between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump over the possibility that Israel would launch an attack on Iran. Trump has been telling the Israeli leader that he doesn’t want him to do this now and to wait, while the US administration continues nuclear negotiations with the Iranians. But the Israelis clearly thought that they had their opportunity to act … Netanyahu felt that now was the time, even if the Americans don’t like it … So it’s now a question of what the Americans do to help defend Israel … The risk is that things can slip out of control very quickly.
The US Hypocrisy About Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Must Stop
V. Glinsky, L. Weiss – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
An extraordinary three-part series on Israeli television, The Atom and Me, lays out how the country got its nuclear weapons … It shows the country’s single-minded determination to get the bomb no matter what it took, including stealing nuclear explosives and bomb components from the United States and violating a major nuclear arms control treaty to which Israel is a party — and lying about it … What stands out from the television series is the grip Israel has had over US policy regarding Israel’s nuclear weapons. Not since John Kennedy has any US president tried to rein in Israel’s nuclear program … Such has been Israel’s political clout in the United States. … Meanwhile, Israel brags about its nukes.Ironically, the Israelis feel free to allude to their nuclear weapons whenever they find it useful.
Secret 1969 White House Memo on `Dangers’ of Israel Nuclear Weapons
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - pdf document
In this secret internal memo of July 16, 1969, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger explains to President Richard Nixon the “dangers” of Israel’s secretive nuclear weapons program. Israel has broken its pledge to the US not to “introduce” nuclear weapons in the region, he notes. “This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us,” Kissinger adds, “and may even have stolen from us.” Moreover, he warns, Israel is “probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons.” If the US tries to force Israel to live up to its commitment by withholding delivery of warplanes, he cautions, “enormous political pressure will be mounted on us.” This memo was declassified in 2007 after being “sanitized.”
Is the Motherhood Penalty a Myth?
Steve Stewart-Williams
The motherhood penalty refers to the supposed workplace disadvantages faced by women after they have children: lower wages, fewer opportunities, and a reduced chance of getting promoted. These disadvantages are thought to stem from biased perceptions that mothers are less competent and committed … Now, however, a large multi-study paper has thrown this conclusion into question. Across four experiments covering nearly 5,000 participants, Christopher Petsko and colleagues found no evidence at all of a motherhood penalty in worker evaluations. On the contrary, they uncovered a consistent parenthood boost: a tendency for people to evaluate parents, both men and women, more positively than their unencumbered counterparts.
Can Trump and Musk Make Up?
Ron Paul
Last week’s dramatic blowout between President Trump and his one-time top collaborator Elon Musk was shocking yet predictable. According to media reports, a cold war had been brewing between Musk’s people and Trump’s appointees and it was bound to break out into the open. It was only a matter of time … Musk finally could hold his tongue no longer. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he wrote. Within hours this break escalated seemingly beyond the point of no return … Musk was no-doubt frustrated that despite all of the work he and his team did to uncover government waste, he hit a brick wall in a Washington that recoils from any attempt to shrink its size and level of interference in our lives.
The ‘Golden Dome’ is Pure Fantasy
Eric Margolis
… Both world wars showed the vulnerability of fixed fortifications. An enemy will always find a way round them or discover a fatal weakness. In regard to the 200-mile-long Maginot Line, the forts did not fail. They held out to the bitter end. The reason for France’s stunning defeat in 1940 was the failure of its field army and its blockheaded generals … We see a similar mania in the response to President Donald Trump’s plan to create a national ‘golden dome’ defensive shield to protect the nation from assorted nuclear threats … A national missile defense system to cover the entire nation would be impossibly expensive for a nation already deeply mired in debt … It would be far more prudent for the US to pursue disarmament talks and effective inspection regimes with its rivals than pie in the sky defensive systems …
Harvard University Cites IHR Leaflet in High-Level Report on ‘Combatting Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias’
Institute for Historical Review
In a recently issued report, Harvard University cites a leaflet published by the Institute for Historical Review as an example of harmful writing that officials there apparently think students should not read. The “Final Report” of the University’s “Presidential Task Force on Combatting Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias,” cites (pages 75-76) the distribution of an IHR leaflet as one of many noteworthy “antisemitic incidents” on campus there … This Harvard “Final Report” is a good example of just how out of touch with common-sense reality America’s oldest and most prestigious university has become. To suggest that Harvard students should not have access to Weber’s essay insults their intelligence and violates the principle of open inquiry and free expression that the university claims to uphold.
Poll Find Israelis High on Trump, While Rest of World Takes Dim View of US Leader
The Times of Israel / AFP
Israelis have the most favorable view of the United States in the world, while Washington’s image has deteriorated sharply among the majority of countries since US President Donald Trump’s return, a global survey said Wednesday. The Pew Research Center found that the favorability of the United States has dropped in 15 of the 24 countries surveyed since last year. However in Israel, which has enjoyed robust support from its ally in the war against Hamas in Gaza, support grew, with 83 percent reporting a favorable opinion of the United States, six percent higher than last year. The survey found that 69% of Israelis had confidence in Israel to correctly manage foreign affairs, second only to Nigeria, where the US president enjoyed 79% support.
Negative Views of Israel and Netanyahu Increase Worldwide, New Pew Poll Shows
Middle East Monitor
A global survey published on Tuesday by the Pew Research Centre revealed an increasing negative perception of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in many countries around the world. The survey, conducted across 24 countries with the participation of more than 28,000 people, included evaluations of the Israeli Prime Minister … The results also showed that public opinion of Israel was largely negative. In 20 of the surveyed countries, a majority of respondents expressed unfavourable views towards the state. In the United States, 53 per cent of those surveyed held a negative view of Israel — an increase of 11 percentage points since 2022. In the United Kingdom, the percentage of respondents with an unfavourable view rose from 44 per cent in 2013 to 61 per cent today.
Why is the Israel Lobby So Anxious?
Ned Curthoys - The Conversation
Last May, on a trip to the United States, world-renowned Israeli-Jewish historian Ilan Pappe was detained by Homeland Security and held for two hours … His latest book, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, seeks to understand how a pro-Israel lobby has formed … He argues that the US is intent on exempting Israel from any reckoning with international law … Throughout the book, he insists the Israel lobby is driven, at its heart, by his country’s lack of ethical foundations … As Israeli colonialism, suppression of the Palestinians and military activity to depopulate Palestinian areas intensifies, Pappe believes Israel will be almost entirely abandoned by what remains of progressive civil society and the educated intelligentsia, including renowned scholars of genocide whose reflections and warnings we should heed.
White Brits Will Be a Minority in the UK Within the Next 40 Years, Report Claims
Daily Mail
White British people will become a minority in the UK population in less than 40 years, a report has predicted. The population of white British people will fall from 73 per cent to 57 per cent by 2050, before becoming a minority by 2063, the research suggests. Professor Matt Goodwin of Buckingham University analysed migration, birth and death rates, and calculated that by the end of the century, the white British share of the population – those who do not have an immigrant parent – could have dropped to a third. His report predicts a sharp rise in the proportion of the UK population made up of foreign-born and second-generation immigrants, increasing from below 20 per cent to 33.5 per cent within the next 25 years.
Israel’s Unprovoked Bombing of Iran Violates International Law. Full Stop.
Juan Cole
The government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday launched a war on Iran … Israel itself has several hundred atomic bombs … but Tel Aviv and Washington ignore this stockpile of warheads when they denounce Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program (and now try to destroy it), even though Iran does not have a bomb, and no major Western intelligence agency thinks they have militarized their program … Trump had signaled repeatedly that he did not want the Israelis to attack, but Netanyahu appears to hold to the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) theory of the president’s behavior. He pointedly thanked Trump in his address to the nation, clearly hoping that Iran might take some action against America in response and so draw Trump into a war he clearly does not want.
The Biggest Peacetime Crime – and Cover-Up – in British History
D. Green – The Free Press
The grooming and serial rape of thousands of English girls by men of mostly Pakistani Muslim background over several decades is the biggest peacetime crime in the history of modern Europe. It went on for many years. It is still going on. And there has been no justice for the vast majority of the victims. British governments, both Conservative and Labour, hoped that they had buried the story after a few symbolic prosecutions in the 2010s … Every level of the British system is implicated in the cover-up … The media mostly ignored or downplayed the biggest story of their lifetimes. … They did this to defend a failed model of multiculturalism, and to avoid asking hard questions about failures of immigration policy and assimilation. They did this because they were afraid of being called racist or Islamophobic.
Is Iran as Close to Building a Nuclear Weapon as Netanyahu Claims?
P. Wintour - The Guardian
In justifying Israel’s attack on Iran, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs … Netanyahu’s critics are saying he acted to pre-empt something else: a diplomatic agreement between the US and Iran on its civil nuclear programme, or even the demise of his own government … As recently as 25 March, Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, told the Senate intelligence committee that the American intelligence community had assessed that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
US Intelligence: Iran Was Not Pursuing Nuclear Bomb Before Israel’s Attack
D. DeCamp – Antiwar. com
Ahead of Israel’s attacks on Iran, US intelligence assessed that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons and that even if it chose to do so, it would take up to three years away for Tehran to be able to produce and deliver a nuclear bomb against a target of its choosing, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the intelligence. The US assessment goes against the claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war under the pretext of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But President Trump appears to be taking Israel’s word over his own intelligence agencies, as he told reporters that he didn’t care about his director of national intelligence’s assessment on the issue.