In a region where too much trust is triggering, Israel is taking no chances

Ahmed Accords?

An unexpected partner may be looking to join the Abraham Accords: Avraham Avinu’s old haunt, Syria.

US congressmen Cory Mills and Marlin Stutzman, both Republicans, took a fact-finding trip to Damascus last week, meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, hamechuneh Abu Mohammed Al-Julani, the possible former Al-Qaeda operative and future Syrian president. The two returned with bright and bushy promises, claiming the interim Syrian leader wants to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for US sanctions relief.

Syria has been taking an incessant pounding as Israel, distrustful of al-Sharaa’s intentions, seeks to annihilate Assad armaments and torpedo a Turkish takeover. The new regime has been unwilling or unable to fight back. Shattered by 14 years of civil war, Syria is still subject to crushing US sanctions imposed on the evil Assad regime over its human rights abuses and left in place due to Sharaa’s terrorist skeletons.

The Trump administration has said its preconditions for lifting sanctions are Syrian cooperation on counter-terrorism, elimination of remaining chemical weapons, and assurances to Israel. Al-Sharaa has asked for sanctions relief, guarantees from Israel to stop thumping it, and “leaving Syria whole,” meaning keeping its Druze under his control.

In a region where too much trust is triggering, Israel is taking no chances, and appears to be angling to create an allied, separate Druze entity to be a buffer with al-Sharaa’s fiefdom.

The World’s Most Dangerous Spot Award…

…this week may not go to Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, or even Tiexian Jiao (an island near a Philippine Army base, just seized by China).

The dubious distinction returns to Kashmir, a region split between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan, who both claim it. After 26 Hindus were murdered in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Indian Kashmir, the two adversaries quickly exchanged retaliatory measures and accusations of “acts of war.”

At the end of a day of hostile diplomatic chess moves, the countries had expelled each other’s envoys, canceled trade agreements, closed their border, and suspended treaties on disputed Kashmir and Indus River rights.

The two countries last traded military blows in 2016 and 2019. The world now waits for India’s latest retaliation, with speculation ranging from targeted missile strikes on Pakistan, or assassination of Pakistani militant leaders, to blocking a $7 billion economic bailout Pakistan has been promised by the IMF.

Key differences this time around are Indian president Narendra Modi’s cozy friendship with Donald Trump, who no longer cares for Pakistan now that US troops have been pulled out neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan, meanwhile, has an alliance with China — which also has a border dispute with India. An already dangerous region could get even more so.

US Unwraps UNRWA

A $1 billion suit for damages filed by victims of Hamas’s October 7 attack may be back on track, after the US Department of Justice reversed a Biden-era policy holding UNRWA immune from lawsuits.

The families of more than 100 victims filed suit against UNRWA in June last year, seeking part of its annual $1.5 billion funding as reparations for the organization’s role in enabling the terrorist onslaught. The suit alleges UNRWA gave Hamas support in the form of cash, weapons storage, and allowing tunnels and command centers to be built in its facilities.

But the Biden DOJ blocked the lawsuit in September, claiming UNRWA was immune to legal action in US courts as a subsidiary organ of the United Nations, which has diplomatic immunity.

The new filing, composed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Moshe Roth of the DOJ Civil Division, reverses the position on two grounds: the UN charter does not explicitly extend its immunity to subsidiary organizations; and UNRWA was never even designated as a UN subsidiary under the International Organizations Immunities Act.

Let’s go get that money back.

Nothing Happened, But You Did It

After a mysterious explosion rocked a three-mile radius around Iran’s key Shahid Rajaei port in Bandar Abbas, killing at least 65 and injuring over 1,200 others, the regime’s messaging shifted from “there were no missile fuels at that port” to “no biggie, stuff blows up all the time, this is Iran” to “the Zionists did it.”

We’ve seen this time and again in the Middle East over the past two years: a deadly comedy of strategic disinformation designed to counter untrue impressions one’s lies might not deceive. What? Yes.

More simply, Israel’s national facial expression is again a smirking, lip-licking tomcat struggling to convey cherubic (“who, me?”) innocence; while Iran strikes a pose both serenely untroubled and furiously finger-pointing.

Even if the highly explosive sodium perchlorate stored for months at a busy port in unsafe containers self-combusted without Israeli coaxing, the delivery of this material from China and its unwise long-term storage in port is certainly due to the Zionists’ destruction of missile fuel mixers at Khojir and Panchin in an October airstrike.

Perhaps Israel should destroy the rogue state by standing down and letting it blow itself up. For now, we can all pretend to be horrified that this tragedy may set back US-Iran nuclear talks.

Judges in Trouble

Two US judges will get a good view of the courtroom from the other side of the bench, when they face the rap for allegedly harboring illegal immigrants.

According to a DOJ complaint, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan distracted ICE agents approaching her courtroom while shepherding the illegal immigrant they were after, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, through a jury doorway to an escape route. Ruiz, who was appearing before her on domestic violence charges, was later arrested running down the street. Dugan was herself arrested in her own courtroom by the FBI for obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Jose Luis Cano and his wife are facing charges of tampering with evidence for hiding a group of illegals, including alleged Tren de Aragua gang member Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, and plotting to destroy evidence against him.

As one might expect, there are dueling parallel media narratives surrounding the cases. The DOJ calls it an escalation of progressive judges’ war against immigration enforcement, while the liberal media is casting it as an escalation by the Trump administration in its war against judges.

So we have officers arresting officers of the court in court, making them criminals in court for keeping criminals out of court.

We can all agree: It’s an escalation.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1059)