Hamas Rocket Launch Triggers War with Israel
Who funds Hamas? Iran - whose money Biden just released.
Americans woke up on Saturday to the news of war in Israel. On the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Hamas launched a surprise barrage of missiles into Israel in the early morning, followed by a ground assault, an air assault using motorized paragliders and drones, and an attempt at a sea-borne assault as well. Netanyahu declared that Israel is at war and responded accordingly. Hananya Naftali seems to be a decent source of information on Twitter. CNN has a live thread of information and has been verifying the disturbing videos circulating on X, aka Twitter, including the multiple videos of women bloodied, kidnapped, and killed, as well as videos of Palestinians going door to door and killing and kidnapping families as they go. (Warning: the videos at those links are graphic. Click at your own risk.)
Experts at the Atlantic Council said that Israel’s primary concerns right now are protecting their people and preventing Hezbollah from joining. On that second point, reports from the region say Hezbollah is amassing on the Israeli border with Lebanon in the north. Meanwhile, Hamas’s goal with this attack is likely two-fold: to embarrass Israel and to stop the Israeli-Saudi peace talks currently underway as part of the ever-expanding Abraham Accords. The Accords, created under President Trump, led to official agreements between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain. Israel also got agreements, while not officially signed on to the Accords, with Jordan, Oman, and Morocco. Hamas feels like they got the raw end of the deal when other Arab nations started working with Israel instead of against it.
But Hamas is not rich by any stretch, so where would they get things like motorized paragliders and drones? That’s where Iran comes in. Iran has been supplying Hamas with weapons and funds for a long time. There were celebrations in the streets of Tehran after Hamas launched its attack on our strongest ally in the Middle East, and one of Iran’s top officials praised the actions of Hamas soldiers. This happened just weeks after the Biden administration cut a deal for a prisoner exchange with Iran that also gave Iran control of their 6 billion dollars worth of frozen assets. When called out, Biden assured the world that the money would only be allowed to be used for “humanitarian aid.” However, the Iranian President responded that “humanitarian aid” means whatever he says it means, and the US can not tell Iran what to do with their money.
Friend of the show, Andrew McCarthy, has a great piece up at National Review explaining how the Iran deal money freed up funds in Iran. He also pointed out that the US govt is laughably relying on Qatar, Hamas’s other major source of funding, to keep Iran honest about how the money is spent.
So why did we risk blowing up the Abraham Accords that Biden wants to claim as his victory ahead of the upcoming election? No one can know for sure why Biden does anything he does; however, recent reporting at Semafor outed Biden’s Iranian Envoy as being compromised by the Iranians.
Robert Malley spearheaded the talks with Iran over the hostages until he disappeared in May, only to reappear in a teaching position at Princeton. In July, it was revealed that he was being investigated for “mishandling classified information.” In August, the Iranian state media entity, The Tehran Times, got its hands on a bunch of US Government information they shouldn’t have had, prompting Rep. Caul to ask for an investigation into a potential leak. Tablet Magazine highlights a section from the Semafor piece that Malley was responsible for getting a woman, who appears to be an Iranian spy, jobs at the State Dept and later the Pentagon.
They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.
The Free Beacon breaks down another section of the Semafor report concerning Ali Vaez, Malley’s right-hand man at his former think-tank International Crisis Group. Vaez met with the top guys in charge of the Iran prisoner swap deal in the weeks leading up to the announcement.
Vaez’s meetings appear to have been with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, the administration’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. Both Sullivan and McGurk played critical roles in reopening diplomacy with Iran and engaging in talks that led to the $6 billion ransom payment and release of five wrongfully imprisoned Americans.
Iran isn’t the only player with influence in the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden put Maher Bitar, an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) activist, into the role of Senior Director for Intelligence at the National Security Council. The role typically goes to someone with an intel background from the CIA, but Bitar got the job after helping Adam Schiff impeach Donald Trump the first time.
Maybe instead of offering “support” and “heartfelt condolences,” the president should weed out the foreign influencers in his administration. Then again, selling out to foreign nations is how he makes his cash.
Lorraine Yuriar is a wife, mother, and lifelong conservative, currently stuck in a very blue state.
Theres a million thoughts, but the intelligence failure here is pretty massive. Israel was known for being the best at it. Those rockets in those numbers didn't just show up in the mail. Along with the drones....and they crashed gates with trucks?
My second thought is what where when Israel hits Iran. I imagine military sites, nuke sites. It's not step 1....but its probably coming.
Finally the 2 state solution is done forever.
Good work LY
It’s obvious. This would not have happened had 2020 election not been rigged and #45 was still in the White House. My prayers to Israeli’s.
Excellent reporting. Thank you!