In the News: Observations & Analyses
Ukraine: AP reported President Volodymyr Zelensky’s words at a ceremony commemorating the massacre at Babyn Yar in Kyiv of nearly 34,000 Jews during 48 hours in the 1941 Nazi occupation: “Babyn Yar is vivid proof of the atrocities that regimes are capable of when led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence. At any…
Kinetic Supply Chain Attacks via Pager & Walkie Talkies
Updated: Ingenious precedent made historical rubberneckers of most of the world fascinated by reports of Israel’s synchronous pager attack on Lebanese Hezbollah yesterday, and today, Wednesday, a second wave by exploding Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies and some solar equipment. That Hezbollah is a designated terrorist group lobbing rockets at Israel made it easier to self-justify fascination with…
Russia’s and China’s Irregular Warfare Against Israel, Israelis, and Palestinians
Introduction Jonathan Winer’s must-read report for the Middle East Institute last November chronicled and discussed circumstantial evidence of timing, communications, training, modes of operation, financial, and weapons support by Russia for Hamas and for Iran, Hamas’s chief sponsor before and after the terror organization’s October 7, 2023 terror war on Israel. This, provoking a predictable…
Argument: Iran’s Theocratic Regime is No Longer a Legitimate Nation State Government
Argument: The theocratic dictatorship of Iran is so deeply involved in terror sponsorship, principal-agent terror relationships, terrorist proxy supply, and destabilization activities adversely affecting other legitimate nation states that it can no longer be considered a legitimate nation state government itself. Iran rather fits the description of a terrorist organization occupying a former nation state’s…
Beirut’s Port Explosion: Analysis and Strategic Implications
Introduction Purpose: To analyze open source information about (1) the strategic context and (2) chain of events leading to the massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut’s port on August 4th, 2020, killing some 200 people, injuring over 6,500, and displacing 250,000.¹ Pre-and-Post Explosion Context Lebanon Generally: Modern Lebanon with its East Mediterranean ports2 has been a…