“Newsom ridiculed Israel, called for cutting off military support and smeared it as an apartheid state”

Posted on March 4, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY MAG
Newsom’s Bright Idea: Defund Allies in Wartime
Seth Mandel
March 4, 2026

It’s not easy being Gavin Newsom. Every morning the California governor has to wake up and figure out who progressive voters want him to pretend to be. Today they want him to be more of an anti-Israel zealot. So he learned his lines and went on Pod Save America, the Israel-obsessed podcast hosted by former Obama advisers. But Newsom, with his impeccable timing, picked a moment when his performative sneering at our allies would be most insulting to America and the men and women in uniform. “Do you think, looking down the road,” Pod host Jon Favreau asked Newsom, “that the United States should consider maybe, you know, rethinking our military support for Israel?” To which the governor responded: “It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice about that consideration.” READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Gavin Newsom declares he never has and ‘never will’ accept AIPAC funding Remark by California governor, who is widely expected to run for US president in 2028, signals opposition to the pro-Israel lobby group is increasingly become a litmus test for Democrats

JEWISH INSIDER Senate defeats resolution to halt Iran war, largely along party lines The vote showcased how the Iran war has quickly become a partisan issue, despite lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing long-standing concerns about the threat from Iran. With the U.S.-Israel operation against Iran widening, the Senate voted 53-47 on Wednesday afternoon — largely along party lines — to block a procedural vote on a war powers resolution that would have forced the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from combat with Iran. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Fetterman (D-PA) broke with their respective parties as expected, with Paul voting for and Fetterman voting against the motion, with all other lawmakers voting along party lines.

POLITICO Ties to Israel plague Democrats in top primaries post-Gaza Israel, after a long, devastating war in Gaza, has become so unpopular among many voters in the Democratic base that major candidates in top primaries are using even small connections to the country’s political leaders to hit their opponents. One Illinois Democratic operative involved in this year’s primaries has dredged up a 2019 trip that Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Juliana Stratton took to Israel to meet with the then-leader of the Israeli opposition Tzipi Livni…A Gallup poll released Friday found that around two-thirds of Democrats sympathize more with the Palestinians with only around 20 percent saying they are aligned with Israelis, down from half of Democrats being pro-Israel in 2016. 

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“A festering dispute broke out into the open as Trump took aim at Tucker Carlson”

Posted on March 4, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Trump: Tucker Carlson Is Not ‘America First’
Eli Lake
March 5, 2026

Of the first political casualties of President Donald Trump’s second Iran war is his relationship with populist movement leader and social media broadcaster Tucker Carlson. In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Trump cast Tucker out of the MAGA tent. “Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told Karl on Thursday. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.” As I reported last month, Trump’s patience with Carlson was growing thin. The president has privately asked Carlson to tone down his criticism of pro-Israel supporters of the president since January. But until this week, Trump did not share his irritation with the wider public. Carlson’s outbursts about Operation Epic Fury were too much. He called the war “absolutely disgusting and evil” in an earlier interview with Karl. Carlson devoted Monday’s show on his own podcast to advancing claims that Trump had caved to pressure from Israel to launch another endless war. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Tucker Carlson attacks Chabad and Holy Temple ‘patches’ Anti-Israel media personality Tucker Carlson sparked controversy after claiming that Israel’s war is allegedly driven by a goal of destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque and building the Third Temple in its place. In an episode of the “Tucker Carlson Show,” he asked, “How did all these guys wind up wearing patches suggesting the point of this war was the destruction of one of the holiest places in Islam and the rebuilding of a temple that is totally anathema to Christianity?” He answered, “This has been going on a long time in public through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad, C-H-A-B-A-D.” 

MIDDLE EAST FORUM Gregg Roman: Tucker Carlson Has Become Tehran’s Most Effective English-Language Propagandist …According to Tucker: The war serves only Israel. The Gulf States are the real victims. America should declare victory and leave immediately. Dual-loyalty fifth columnists dragged the country into a foreign war. The Ayatollah’s death is a tragedy that will unleash chaos. The neocons are possessed by demonic blood lust. And then, in the second broadcast, the escalation: the war is really about rebuilding the Jewish Third Temple on the ruins of Islam’s third-holiest site, a conspiracy involving Hasidic organizations, the Secretary of Defense, IDF soldiers wearing temple patches, and evangelical preachers calling for the annihilation of Gaza. The logical terminus of this narrative is not policy criticism, but a blood libel for the digital age.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“The nouns have changed. The structure hasn’t.…The accusation is the same. Americans aren’t really in charge. Jews are”

Posted on March 4, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
From Coughlin to Carlson: The Return of the ‘Jewish War’ Libel
Micha Danzig
March 4, 2026

Nearly every generation in America produces the same refrain in moments of conflict: this is not our war. Sometimes that argument reflects prudence. Sometimes it reflects hardheaded cost-benefit analysis. But in American history, it has also carried something more corrosive — the suggestion that America is not acting on its own interests at all, that shadowy “foreign” forces are pulling the strings, and that those forces are Jewish. In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin aligned himself with the isolationist fervor that would later crystallize into the America First movement. He warned about foreign entanglements and demanded neutrality. In practice, that neutrality meant opposing American support for Britain, while leaving Nazi Germany untouched. Coughlin spoke darkly of “international bankers” and “alien powers.” READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Financial Times reports IDF used algorithms to interpret troves of data, allowing it to build pattern-of-life models for top bodyguards; CIA had human intelligence on supreme leader”

Posted on March 3, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel hacked Tehran traffic cameras to track Khamenei ahead of assassination
Lazar Berman
March 3, 2026

Israel hacked into Tehran’s extensive traffic camera network in order to track the bodyguards of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials ahead of Saturday’s assassination of the supreme leader, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Iran’s cameras are believed to be part of the state’s surveillance apparatus, allowing authorities to identify and pursue protesters and regime opponents. But the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, was able to co-opt the network for use against the regime, the report said. The FT said Israel gained access to the cameras years ago, and found that one particular camera was angled in such a way that it showed where members of Khamenei’s security team parked their cars…On the day of the attack, Israel and the US also disrupted cellular service on Tehran’s Pasteur Street, where Khamenei was assassinated, so those trying to reach the bodyguards and deliver possible warnings would receive busy signals, per the report. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“United by their hostility to Israel, the liberal establishment, leftists and right-wing antisemites are hoping to capitalize on a disaster. But it could also backfire on them”

Posted on March 2, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Trump’s critics have a lot riding on the Iran conflict
Jonathan Tobin
March 2, 2026

Whether they admit it or not, a lot of people are rooting for disaster for the United States and Israel in the conflict that began on Feb. 28, with the two allies attacking the Islamic Republic’s leadership and military targets. And it’s not overstating the matter to acknowledge that the diverse coalition of opponents of President Donald Trump and the Jewish state has a lot riding on whether their Cassandra-like predictions of doom for the administration turn out to be right. If they are, then the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, led by antisemitic podcasters like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, has an opening that they would hope to use to take over the GOP. A disaster in Iran will also put even more wind in the sails of the intersectional left-wing base of the Democratic Party. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Israel still viewed more favorably; support for two-state solution highest since 2003”

Posted on February 28, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

GALLUP
Israelis No Longer Ahead in Americans’ Middle East Sympathies
Benedict Vigers
February 27, 2026

Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathize more with the Israelis. The five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, but it contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago (46% vs. 33%) and larger leads over the prior 24 years…Republicans continue to express greater sympathy for the Israelis than the Palestinians. Seven in 10 Republicans (70%) say they sympathize more with the Israelis, compared with 13% who sympathize more with the Palestinians…Among adults aged 55 and older, 49% sympathize more with the Israelis and 31% with the Palestinians, the first time since 2005 that less than half of older Americans have said they sympathize more with the Israelis. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Regardless of the desire for Israel to act first, the likeliest scenario may be a jointly launched U.S.-Israel operation”

Posted on February 25, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

POLITICO
White House officials believe ‘the politics are a lot better’ if Israel strikes Iran first
Dasha Burns and Nahal Toosi
February 25, 2026

Senior advisers to President Donald Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country, according to two people familiar with ongoing discussions. These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike. The calculus is a political one — that more Americans would stomach a war with Iran if the United States or an ally were attacked first. Recent polling shows that Americans, and Republicans in particular, support regime change in Iran, but are unwilling to risk any U.S. casualties to achieve it. That means Trump’s team is considering the optics of how an attack is conducted in addition to other justifications — such as Iran’s nuclear program. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Axios’s report implicitly supports the notion that Democrats are withholding their own autopsy to shield Israel and pro-Israel Democrats from criticism”

Posted on February 25, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
Would You Believe That Democrats Were Not Anti-Israel Enough in 2024?
Noah Rothman
February 23, 2026

…On Monday, Americans were privy to some selective leaks from that closely guarded document [DNC-funded “autopsy” of 2024 loss], and those leaks just happen to support all the otherwise dubious claims of the Democratic Party’s activist class. According to the autopsy, the anti-Israel left is just as crucial to Democratic electoral prospects as the anti-Israel left always said of itself. Imagine that. Activists with the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project told the DNC’s forensic electoral analysts that “the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel was a factor in the party’s losses because it drained support from some young people and progressives,” Axios reported. Furthermore, the Democratic Party secretly agreed with the activists, according to the IMEU…[Kamala Harris] supposedly “pleaded” privately with Joe Biden to express more skepticism toward Israel, and she believed that her campaign was hindered by the “perceived blank check” he handed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. READ MORE

AXIOS Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes Asked for comment, a Harris aide pointed to the former vice president’s recent comments about the war in Gaza on a tour stop for her memoir, “107 Days.” “We should have done more as an administration,” Harris said at the event, adding “we should have spoken publicly about our criticism” of how Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu executed the war.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Israel’s security establishment is examining the possibility that Tehran is preparing to activate the entire “Axis of Evil” against Israel”

Posted on February 24, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Fire everything: Iran’s ‘doomsday order’
Amit Segal
February 26, 2026

Hitler called it the “Nero Decree.” In March 1945, when the Allies were already on German soil advancing toward Berlin, he signed an order to burn all bridges, destroy all local industry and leave behind scorched earth. A fierce debate is taking place in the upper floors of the Kirya and the lower levels of the “Bunker.” It concerns the possible existence of a parallel Iranian directive, three words long: “The Doomsday Order.” If such an order exists, it would not deal with destroying Iranian infrastructure but rather with issuing a “go” command to the entire Axis of Resistance—Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and the militias—to fire everything they have. If such an order exists, its meaning is no longer existential from Israel’s perspective: Hamas has been dismantled as an army, Hezbollah has been cut down by 90%, and Syria no longer takes instructions from Tehran. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL The Diminishing Risk of an Iran Attack Early one Saturday morning two years ago, I stood outside President Biden’s house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with intelligence that Iran was about to launch an unprecedented missile barrage at Israel. The stakes felt enormous, yet I hesitated before waking him. My concern was that the region would spiral into chaos. Many of my friends were stationed at bases that could become targets. Working at the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-9/11 era, I had long worried about Iran and the possibility that  a U.S. misstep would spark chaos. A lot has changed in two years. The risk of regional war has greatly diminished. Several factors have put the regime on its heels…

FUTURE OF JEWISH The (Obvious) Reasons Israel and America Should Eliminate Iran’s Regime Regime change in Iran would not simply serve American or Israeli interests. It would first and foremost serve the Iranian people — one of the most educated, globally connected, and historically sophisticated populations in the Middle East, currently held hostage by a clerical leadership that has systematically impoverished and isolated them. Even within the region, this reality is quietly acknowledged. A Saudi royal family source told Israel’s N12 News on Sunday that the solution for Iran is no longer limited strikes or symbolic containment, but a fundamental transformation of leadership, including the removal of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei and the regime “must be eliminated one by one,” and “the only solution is to change the regime in Iran in one way or another,” the source said.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Netanyahu’s message to the mullahs

Posted on February 24, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Bibi’s Warning
Hugh Fitzgerald
February 25, 2026

…Now Netanyahu has told the Iranians what to expect if they attack the Jewish state, and the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, has said that in case of war with Iran, all internecine conflict will promptly stop, and Israelis of all political persuasions will rally round the government. …Israel will reply with “unimaginable” force if Iran’s Islamic regime launches an attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday evening….Unlike Trump, who does not always keep his promises, it is highly likely that if even one barrage of missiles is launched toward Israel, Netanyahu — who has been warning about Iran’s nuclear project ever since he first became prime minister — will order a full-scale attack on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, on the roughly 1,500-2,000 ballistic missiles Iran still has, on the entry points to the new uranium enrichment facility under Pickaxe mountain, a mile from Natanz, and finally, on the supreme leader himself, who must now be remembering what happened to Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah, who wrongly believed he would be safe from the IDF in a bunker deep underground. READ MORE 

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment