In this mailing: Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran's Renewed 'Promise' to the Palestinians Pete Hoekstra: Two Intelligence Failures by America's Leaders Iran's Renewed 'Promise' to the Palestinians by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  August 18, 2021 at 5:00 am       [T]he leaders of various Palestinian factions are seeking Iran's support for their jihad (holy war) against Israel. This means that Iran under Raisi will continue to provide the Palestinian terrorist groups in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with financial and military aid. Iran did not promise to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of last May's 11-day war between Hamas and Israel. Iran did not promise to build new hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip. Iran did not promise to help the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip cope with the rising number of Covid-19 infections. Iran's renewed promise to help the Palestinians in their fight against Israel shows that the mullahs in Tehran feel emboldened by the perceived weakness of the Biden administration and other Western powers in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat. The silence of the US and the rest of the international community towards the latest threats from Iran and its Palestinian proxies signals that it is only a matter of time before the Palestinian terror groups' jihad toward Israel, most likely enthusiastically assisted by Iran, resurges in a way that is entirely expectable. The leaders of various Palestinian factions are seeking Iran's support for their jihad (holy war) against Israel. This means that Iran under its new President Ebrahim Raisi will continue to provide the Palestinian terrorist groups in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with financial and military aid. Pictured: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (2nd R), shakes hands with Iran's outgoing president Hassan Rouhani during Raisi's swearing-in ceremony in Tehran on August 5, 2021. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images) As the Biden administration continues to talk about the need for confidence-building measures between Israel and the Palestinians to create an environment to reach a two-state solution, the leaders of various Palestinian factions are seeking Iran's support for their jihad (holy war) against Israel. Leaders of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other factions who visited Iran recently to attend the inauguration of President Ebrahim Raisi, seem to be satisfied with the promise they received from the mullahs in Tehran. The Biden administration wants to advance confidence-building measures between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian terrorist groups and their supporters, however, want confidence-building measures with any country that is willing to support them in realizing their dream of destroying Israel. Continue Reading Article Two Intelligence Failures by America's Leaders by Pete Hoekstra  •  August 18, 2021 at 4:00 am       Just as the most optimistic among our leaders believed that Afghanistan had the potential to become a fledgling democracy, our leadership insisted that.... China would become a "stakeholder in the international order" and a trusted trading partner. Increased political freedom would follow economic growth, and a huge new marketplace would be opened to the West. Now, though, China's role in the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has revealed undeniably just how hostile China is to the West, and how dismissive it is even of its supposed allies in the developing world.... Apparently, more than four million lives worldwide were a small price to pay for increasing China's power at the expense of the U.S. and its allies. When will our leaders open their eyes to that fact and act decisively to counter China's ever more obvious attempts to achieve dominance over the West? For years, it has been evident for anyone to see that our Afghanistan and China policies were not only ineffective, but that we were courting disaster by our lack of effective response. Our leaders have refused to acknowledge the increasing, and increasingly compelling, signs that our policies toward Afghanistan and China were failing. That is the true intelligence failure. Let us hope and pray--and demand--that our leaders respond more effectively against the emerging China fiasco. The horrific scenes of the last few days will pale in comparison to what the world will experience if we stand aside and watch while China succeeds in its goal of becoming the world's preeminent superpower. One major intelligence failure by our leaders every twenty years is already one too many. China's role in the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has revealed undeniably just how hostile China is to the West, and how dismissive it is even of its supposed allies in the developing world. When will our leaders open their eyes to that fact and act decisively to counter China's ever more obvious attempts to achieve dominance over the West? Pictured: Security personnel stand guard on February 3, 2021 in Wuhan, China outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is suspected of being the source of a lab leak that started the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) The U.S. and the West are experiencing two unfolding intelligence disasters. Oxford Languages succinctly defines the two possible meanings of the word "intelligence:" (1) the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, or (2) the collection of information of military or political value. What we are experiencing today is not chiefly a failure to collect information, but the ever more tangible inability of our leaders to apply the information they have acquired. Continue Reading Article