Largest American Hostage Crisis Since '79, $6B to Iran Funding Hamas? Campuses Nationwide Hold Pro-Invasion Rallies Tomorrow, Generational Inbreeding Impacts the Conflict (The Five for 10/11/23)
Welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
With a very heavy heart…let’s dive into the news.
[one]
Tomorrow, college campuses nationwide will rally in favor of the invading Palestinian terrorists who murdered 40 Jewish babies over the weekend, beheading some of the infants.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a national group with a presence on college campuses across the country, says it has an “unshakable responsibility” to answer the Palestinian terrorists’ call for mass protests in the wake of the attack on Israel.
“Our people choose resistance over negotiated cages on our homeland,” the group states in a Day of Resistance Toolkit, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Wire. “Fearlessly, our people struggle for complete liberation and return.”
The call for complete liberation and return is an explicit call for the elimination of Israel, which is a shared goal of the Hamas terrorist groups. The SJP toolkit calls Hamas’ terror attacks a “historic win” and refers to terrorists as “martyrs.”
“We witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” the toolkit states. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization.”
“National liberation is near— glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people,” it reads.
It’s worth noting that the college flyer includes a paraglider, which is what Hamas rode into the music festival where they slaughtered more than 260 people.
The image below is graphic, but I believe you need to see it. The festival was called the “Love and Peace” fest, and many in attendance were advocate for Palestine.
Then Hamas slaughtered them. And now American college students celebrate.
[two]
Iran is not claiming help with the attack on Israel.
Reuters reports:
Tehran was not involved in the militant Hamas group's weekend attack on Israel, Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, but hailed what he called Israel's "irreparable" military and intelligence defeat.
"We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime," said Khamenei, who was wearing a Palestinian scarf, in his first televised speech since the attack.
"This destructive earthquake (Hamas' attack) has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily ... The Zionist regime's own actions are to blame for this disaster," said Khamenei.
Israel has long accused Iran's clerical rulers of stoking violence by supplying arms to Hamas. Tehran, which does not recognize Israel, says it gives moral and financial support to the group, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Backing the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and a way the Shi'ite-dominated country has fashioned itself as a leader of the Muslim world.
Despite this, Nikki Haley called for an all out war, and to invade Iran, and Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw uhh…repeated a really bad talking point from WWI:
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham called for the U.S. to bomb the entire Iranian oil infrastructure into oblivion. Keep in mind, there are NINETY MILLION people in Iran, 99% of which had nothing to do with this, and nearly all of which would be thrown into poverty if Senator Graham had what he demanded in his tantrum.
I’ve done everything I can here to avoid the “WWIII” talking points throughout the history of The Five…but we need to recognize the moment we’re in. Europe could erupt into a wider conflict at any moment, and it’s quite possible China could invade Taiwan, triggering U.S. involvement in Asia.
If that happens, our own military experts think the U.S. runs out of missiles in just a few days, and lose at least half our planes in combat in a matter of weeks. This is, in part, due to the $7 billion in resources abandoned in Afghanistan combined with what has been shipped to Ukraine.
We may be the richest, most powerful country in the world…but we can’t fight a war on three fronts. We don’t have the money, we don’t have the gear…and we don’t have the soldiers. The Army is coming up short on recruiting with some states only seeing 1 out of 1,000 young people sign up, and the Navy is short 7,000 soldiers.
The saber rattling is how we wound up with WWI, a conflict that killed 16 million people, including 10 million soldiers in combat and from disease, and six million civilians from starvation and genocide.
We should learn from the lessons of history and silence the NEOCON segment calling for all out war. Because the consequences of simultaneous wars in Europe, the Middle East and Asia are…unthinkable. Orthadox Christian artist Jonathan Pageau puts it well:
[three]
On the other side of the Gaza divide, the Palestinian population cannot exit the small section of land, leaving many civilians in a situation to quite literally run around trying to dodge incoming rockets.
Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into U.N. shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on Israel.
Among them is 27-year-old Sabreen al-Attar. She sprang into action when she heard rocket after rocket whoosh over her farmland in Beit Lahiya just south of the Israeli border on Saturday. She knew from experience that Israeli retaliation would be swift and severe.
Grabbing her children, al-Attar rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. There, blasts of unprecedented intensity punctuated hours of steadily declining conditions Monday as food and water ran out.
“When I escape, I do it for my children,” she said, her hands trembling. “Their lives rest on my shoulders.”
But residents say there is no real escape in Gaza, which has been under a suffocating 16-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. When war breaks out, as it has four times since the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007, even U.N. facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fighting. The United Nations said that an airstrike directly hit one of its shelters Sunday and damaged five other schools-turned-shelters on Monday. There was no immediate word of casualties.
Israel has cut power, food and water going into Palestine, which is a war crime…and also puts Israeli hostages at risk in addition.
This move only stirs more hatred and breeds future terrorists.
A couple of other points of note about the Gaza strip. The first is that the unemployment is at 24%, and many people have nowhere to go, nothing to do. Other Arab nations won’t take them in, and Israel pulled back from the region, allowing the democratically elected Hamas to run Palestine how they choose.
The second is that Palestinians practice inbreeding at an alarming rate, with up to 50% of marriages being to close relatives, like first cousins. Generations of this practice has severely dropped the median IQ, with some estimates that much of the population has an IQ around 70 (officially intellectually disabled)…making all but the most basic jobs (like janitor) out of reach. Jordan had taken in some Palestinians in the past, but had more trouble with the refugees than expected, and now no country in the Middle East will look at taking in any of this population.
The (lack of an) economy and overall misery index within Palestine must be a contributing factor in terrorism, which both Israel and Palestine share some blame in, the former for not doing more to promote economic activity in Gaza, and the latter for literally breeding themselves back to Stone Age IQ’s.
It also makes lasting solutions here…quite difficult. But even the horrific attacks on Israeli civilians do not justify bombing runs that have now killed 830 Palestinian civilians.
If I were in charge, I would propose no quarter for Hamas combatants, which is a very rare order in the modern era. In the U.S., the only time we’ve engaged in such a practice was at the tail end of WWII, when all Nazi SS officers were facing execution if they surrendered. And if Israel wants to behead or hang these terrorists in public squares…this might be the one time that’s justifiable.
But…Israel should be sending in their 360,000 troops, to avoid civilian casualties (and to avoid bombing hostages). The slaughter of civilians on one side never justifies taking civilian lives in retaliation.
[four]
If reports are true, the U.S. is facing the largest hostage crisis since the Carter administration.
On Sunday, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told journalists that the Islamist group had captured “dozens” of hostages with American citizenship. If this number is even remotely accurate, the assault would be the largest mass abduction of Americans since the Tehran embassy crisis of 1979.
Hamas has likely divided those hostages across unmapped underground sites throughout Gaza, foreclosing the possibility of a single, swift rescue operation. The hostage issue threatens to inject a future source of divergence into Israeli and American objectives during the crisis.
In a speech at the White House Tuesday, Joe Biden said that he had “no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.” Outgoing House speaker Kevin McCarthy listed “rescue all American hostages” as the U.S.’s top priority in the unfolding war. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that, as of Tuesday, the exact number of American hostages remains unknown.
Israel must now weigh the survival of American hostages against neutralizing active threats against other groups of civilians, and also against the country’s stated war aim of disarming Hamas, which would likely require a massive ground operation in which most, if not all, of the hostages would be killed. Hamas, meanwhile, can parade American corpses through downtown Gaza and claim that they are victims of the Israeli assault.
“Hamas will use the hostages in two ways: as human shields and as a source of leverage over Washington,” explained Michael Doran, director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute and a former senior director on the National Security Council. “As human shields, they will prevent Israel from destroying critical infrastructure. As a source of leverage, Hamas will convince Washington to compel Israel to make concessions—on the terms of a cease-fire, the release of prisoners, relaxing economic restrictions on Gaza, delivering payments from abroad, etc. Hamas will parade American hostages before the cameras to beg Washington to bring a halt to Israeli military operations so that the hostages can gain their freedom.”
This is a very, very bad situation. If I had to guess right now, I bet the U.S. quietly pays off Hamas on this one, which creates all kinds of issues, which we’ll look at in the next story…
UPDATE: At press time, the U.S. will not pursue active hostage rescue of Americans being held in Gaza.
[five]
Finally, the question of whether or not the $6 billion the U.S. just sent to Iran for the release of political prisoners was used to fund terrorism is…complicated.
WHAT WAS THE IRAN PRISONER SWAP DEAL?
In August, details were made public of a complicated agreement that President Joe Biden approved. Five U.S. citizens detained by Tehran were allowed to leave the country in exchange for the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds that had been frozen in South Korea. At the same time, five Iranians held in the United States were allowed to leave.
WHAT WAS THE $6 BILLION?
The $6 billion was Iranian money that had been frozen in South Korean banks. After Washington, under former President Donald Trump, placed a total ban on Iran’s oil exports and sanctions on its banking sector in 2019, these Iranian oil revenues were blocked in Seoul.
WHERE IS THE $6 BILLION NOW?
The funds were not dispersed to Iran. Qatar's central bank is overseeing the funds, which are still in Doha.
"The facts are these — no U.S. taxpayer dollars were involved," Blinken told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "These were Iranian resources that Iran had accumulated from the sale of its oil that were stuck in a bank in South Korea."
Under the terms of the Iran prisoner deal, the money can only be used for humanitarian-related purposes, including purchasing food or other goods outside Iran for import, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and finance, Brian Nelson, said, "All of the money held in restricted accounts in Doha as part of the arrangement to secure the release of five Americans in September remains in Doha. Not a penny has been spent. These restricted funds cannot go to Iran — it can only be used for future humanitarian-related purposes. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading."
Because of due diligence requirements related to the swap, "It will take many months for Iran to spend down this money," a State Department spokesperson said. "And, as we've said many times, it can only be used to purchase food, medicine, medical devices, and agricultural products for the people of Iran."
So, did we directly fund terrorism? Probably not.
But…could Iran move money out of other accounts because the U.S. released $6 billion, indirectly freeing up money for terrorism? I can’t say for sure, but it seems highly probable.
Until the next one,
-sth