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In this mailing:
* Alan M. Dershowitz: Why Don't We Want a War with Iran?
* Raymond Ibrahim: The Genocide of 'The Sunday People': 365,000,000 Christians Persecuted Worldwide


** Why Don't We Want a War with Iran? ([link removed])
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • February 8, 2024 at 5:00 am
* There are, of course, alternatives less than all-out war, and more than attacks on proxies. They involve the bombing of military targets inside Iran. These include sites used for Iran's nuclear program, its naval bases and ships, its military drone production, its oil and gas facilities and its command centers. All of these could be accomplished from the air and sea without a ground invasion, and without the loss of American lives an invasion would risk.
* One conclusion is clear: in the short term, a US attack on Iran itself would contribute to destabilization in the region. But in the longer term, it might well contribute to stability by reducing the power and influence of the most destabilizing entity in the Middle East, namely Iran.
* Israel, too, is at war with Iran. Iranian operatives have targeted Israeli civilians and Jews around the world. Iran has effectively called Israel a "one bomb state" and has threatened to destroy it with nuclear weapons. Israel, too, has a perfect right to respond to these acts of war. Indeed, it may have no choice but to do so, to prevent Iran from carrying out its threats of nuclear annihilation.
* The Middle East and the world would be a safer place without the current Iranian regime. It would be a far more dangerous place with a nuclear-weaponized Iran that could protect its surrogates under a nuclear umbrella.
* So, Biden's strategy should be given a chance to work. But if it fails — as history suggests it may— all options must be kept on the table. These include attacks within Iran, even if that means war. That may be the least worst among the many available options.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

Every discussion about the current Middle East conflict begins with the mandatory mantra, "We don't want war with Iran." Why not? That question is rarely asked.

Iran has declared war on the United States — militarily, legally, diplomatically, morally and politically. They have engaged in repeated casus belli (legal causes for war) since the mullahs took Americans hostage in 1979. Since that time, they have used their surrogates to attack American targets. We are entitled to respond militarily, as we are doing. But we are also entitled to go much further and treat them as aggressors who have effectively declared war on us. We are entitled to destroy their capacity to continue to wage war against us and our allies. The policy question in not whether we have a right to wage war against Iran. It is whether it is in our interest to do so.

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** The Genocide of 'The Sunday People': 365,000,000 Christians Persecuted Worldwide ([link removed])
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by Raymond Ibrahim • February 7, 2024 at 5:00 am
* Overall, the global persecution of Christians remains higher than ever, with 365 million believers suffering "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith."
* Christians suffer "extreme levels of persecution" in the top 13 of the 50 nations. They are: 1) North Korea, 2) Somalia, 3) Libya, 4) Eritrea, 5) Yemen, 6) Nigeria, 7) Pakistan, 8) Sudan, 9) Iran, 10) Afghanistan, 11) India, 12) Syria, 13) and Saudi Arabia.
* In the worst of the Muslim nations, Christianity has been so stamped out over the years that there are no indigenous Christians to persecute, only converts—apostates, who, according to most interpretations of Islamic law, deserve death.
* The wildly popular late Sunni cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi noted on television that if not for the apostasy law [proposing death], Islam would have died out long ago.
* Afghanistan: "When the Taliban came to power, they did so with pledges to recognize more freedoms than in the past. But that hasn't happened—if an Afghan's Christian faith is discovered, it can be a death sentence, or they can be detained and tortured into giving information about fellow believers." — World Watch List 2024, opendoors.org

In 2023, around the world, 4,998 Christians — on average, 13 a day — were "killed for faith related reasons." The global persecution of Christians remains higher than ever, with 365 million believers suffering "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith." (Image source: iStock)

In 2023, around the world, 4,998 Christians — on average, 13 a day — were "killed for faith related reasons." Another 4,125 Christians were illegally detained or arrested, and 14,766 churches and other Christian institutions were attacked.

Overall, the global persecution of Christians remains higher than ever, with 365 million believers suffering "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith."

These are among the findings of the World Watch List 2024 (WWL), recently published by the international humanitarian organization, Open Doors. Each year, the WWL ranks the top 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted for their faith, using data compiled from approximately 4,000 grassroots workers and external experts analyzing the persecution worldwide. The WWL 2024 report covers the time period between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023.

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