How to End Hamas's War on Israel This Week

by Lawrence Kadish • December 10, 2023 at 5:00 am

Iran largely funded and helped plan the savage invasion of Israel by an estimated 3,000 Gazans under the direction of Iran's proxy, the terrorist group Hamas, on October 7. Pictured: Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) greets Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on February 12, 2012. (Image source: khamenei.ir/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran's militia groups have initiated more than 82 attacks -- just since October 17 -- on US forces and assets in Syria and Iraq. The latest, on the US Embassy in Baghdad, is an attack on US sovereign territory. During Biden's presidency, Iran has initiated 151 attacks against the US. Forty-six US service members have so far been wounded, 19 seriously, with traumatic brain injury.

These strikes do not include Iran's having largely funded and helped plan a savage invasion of Israel by an estimated 3,000 Gazans under the direction of Iran's proxy, the terrorist group Hamas, on October 7. Once there, they murdered 1,200 people; raped and tortured an untold number, and kidnapped around 240, about 100 of whom -- women and children -- have been released. Several hostages have reportedly been murdered (here, here and here).

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A Symphonic Version of Terror

by Amir Taheri • December 10, 2023 at 4:00 am

Using terror operations on a small scale is an effective means of making life difficult for a much stronger opponent and may even force it to offer some concessions. But grand dramatic attacks such as 9/11 against the US, the Mumbai campaign and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel raise the stakes to symphonic level that those targeted cannot simply grin and bear it.
9/11 forced the US to invade Afghanistan and destroy al-Qaeda, something it had not contemplated doing even after the massacre of 241 US military personnel in Lebanon. After the Mumbai attacks, India made sure something like that could never happen again.
In those cases, an initial victory for the attacker proved to be a prelude to his annihilation.

Using terror operations on a small scale is an effective means of making life difficult for a much stronger opponent and may even force it to offer some concessions. But grand dramatic attacks such as 9/11 against the US, the Mumbai campaign and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel raise the stakes to symphonic level that those targeted cannot simply grin and bear it. Pictured: Islamist terrorists crash a jetliner into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York, on September 11, 2001. (Photo by Seth McAllister/AFP via Getty Images)

The history of terrorism in pursuit of political aims is as long as history itself.

However, the past two decades have witnessed important, and needless to say worrying, developments in what could be seen as a zoological version of political activism.

The old versions saw disgruntled individuals assassinating powerful enemies. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by 53 Senators led by his closest friends, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Nizam al-Mulk, he powerful Grand Vizir of Seljuks in Iran, suffered the same fate at the hands of 18 Nizari hashasheen (assassins) including a Russian slave. The Qajar Nasseredin Shah was dispatched with a single bullet while mumbling "Son of a Donkey!"

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