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Brian Hook, Donald Trump’s special envoy for Iran during the president-elect’s first term in office, said Thursday that his former boss has “no interest in regime change” in Tehran but does seek to isolate and weaken the Islamic Republic, and that the administration’s “deal of the century” peace plan for Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians will likely be back on the table once Trump returns to the White House in January. Without asserting any insider knowledge, the former State Department official said that the incoming commander-in-chief’s foreign policy intentions are “hidden in plain sight,” pointing to Trump’s decisions during the...

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The New York Times reported Thursday that the Biden administration is considering allowing Ukraine to use NATO-provided long-range precision weapons against targets deep inside Russia. Such a decision would put the world at greater risk of nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. At a time when American leaders should be focused on finding a diplomatic off-ramp to a war that should never have been allowed to take place, the Biden-Harris administration is instead pursuing a policy that Russia says it will interpret as an act of war. In the words of Vladimir Putin, long-range strikes...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro broke his silence about not joining the 2024 Democratic ticket as the vice presidential candidate — with sources attributing presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ snub to her fear that he would steal the “spotlight” and alienate the party’s progressive base over his support for Israel. ... Hank Sheinkopf told The Post that Shapiro was too hot to pick as Harris’ running mate because of his pro-Israel record, and that Waltz was a safer choice. “The ticket would have been too pro-Israel. Harris doesn’t need a battle over Israel-Gaza,” said Sheinkopf, who worked on Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign....

Hamas should accept an “extraordinarily generous” proposal to release Israeli hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hamas is expected to respond to the U.S.-led proposal Monday in discussions with Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo. “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said during a panel discussion at the WEF. “And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and...

The Biden administration on Thursday placed the final cornerstone of its plan to tackle climate change: a regulation that would force the nation’s coal-fired power plants to virtually eliminate the planet-warming pollution they release into the air or shut down. The regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency requires coal plants in the United States to reduce 90% of their greenhouse pollution by 2039, one year earlier than the agency had initially proposed. The compressed timeline was welcomed by climate activists but condemned by coal executives who said the new standards would be impossible to meet... Taken together, the regulations could...

Saturday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel, syndicated radio talker and Fox News Channel host Mark Levin called in from Israel to rip the Biden administration. Levin blamed Biden foreign policy, which he said enabled Iran and weakened Israel’s ability to ward off an Iranian threat, as Iran was launching an attack on Israel. “[T]he American people need to understand — when Donald Trump was president, Iran wasn’t capable of doing this,” he said. “Joe Biden, [Antony] Blinken poured of $100 billion into Iran directly and indirectly in a failed appeasement policy. We have paid for much of what’s...

As Iran’s attack against Israel plays out, critics are blaming President Joe Biden for green-lighting a threat from Iran rather than deterring it. Just months into Biden’s term, he stood on the White House lawn. He told reporters that he was “pleased Iran has continued to agree to engage in discussions, in direct discussions with us and with our partners on how we move forward and what is needed to allow us to move back.” However, nearly four years later Biden’s statement rings untrue. Instead, his failed policies and lack of dominance against Iran led to the downfall of Israel...

Joe Biden abandoned Israel on Monday when he refused to have the U.S. veto a UN Security Council resolution. The resolution called for an immediate ceasefire, which would then stop Israel from wiping out the Hamas terrorists. The ceasefire was not conditional on releasing the hostages, according to the Israeli UN ambassador Gilad Erdan. Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Biden for throwing Israel under the bus and throwing a lifeline to Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ripped the move, saying that he would be canceling a trip to D.C. that his...

The Biden administration suppressed information about Iran’s efforts to assassinate U.S. officials to ensure Congress and the American public were kept in the dark, according to a lawmaker on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "What Americans don’t know is that the Biden administration has gone to great lengths to hide the extent and persistence of those threats" from Iran, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said during a Senate hearing Wednesday on Tehran’s network of terror proxies. Those threats include active plots to assassinate former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other top U.S. officials. The administration has been "abusing the...

Iranian sources to @AJArabic: “The US sent more than one message to Tehran over the past two days via third parties. Washington's messages said that it did not want an open war and warned that expanding the war would be met with the US action. Tehran rejected Washington's threats and said targeting its territory is a red line, and crossing the line would be met with an appropriate response. Tehran's message said that it does not want a war with Washington either, but it will forcefully confront any American adventure.”

Tehran is moving closer to accessing frozen funds, according to Iranian and Qatari readouts of a call between the nations’ foreign ministers. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed on Friday that it has Qatari assurances of Washington’s “commitment” to allowing it to use $6 billion in frozen funds, which the Biden administration released to Qatari banks. Readouts from Tehran and Doha of a phone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani—who serves as both Qatar’s foreign minister and prime minister—emphasized different things. But they agreed in principle that the deal...

Sen. J.D. Vance said Sunday that U.S. officials should accept the notion that Ukraine is likely to “cede some territory” in its fight against unprovoked Russian aggression. The Ohio Republican’s remarks come as Congress weighs more aid for Ukraine, with Democrats calling for additional assistance with few if any strings attached and Republicans trying to link aid to more funding to secure the southern U.S. border. “What’s in America’s best interest is to accept Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians and we need to bring this war to a close,” Mr. Vance, who opposes...

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said Sunday that the United States needs to accept that Ukraine will likely need to “cede some territory” to Russia to end the fighting.Vance told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that he is opposed to sending more aid to Ukraine because he does not believe the country will ever be able to overpower Russia. He questioned why sending billions in aid to Ukraine is going to help the country at this point in its war against Russia since previous aid has yet to end the war.“What’s in America’s best interest is to accept...

@DougAMacgregor You have a understandable and justified interest from Israel to Destroy Hamas. However, I think the current plan will provoke an enormous reaction from the Muslim world. Pretty much everyone from Indonesia to Morocco is going to be extremely upset and I think we will see the front against Israel in the region coalesce into a real Military alliance against Israel. We need to protect Israel from itself. The problem is, it takes a President who has the authority and strength to tell the Israeli Government no, you can not go into Gaza and execute the plans you have.

@DougAMacgregor There is no one in Washington currently interested dialing anything back in Israel. No one is saying emotions are running hot, this is not good time to make these decisions or we need to look at the consequences. What I see is an enraged American population and probably European populations when they are drawn into this. There are societies who have been penetrated by the same terrorist organizations and elements who will fight us because we are supporting Israel. This doesn't mean we should abandon Israel, but we still have an obligation to protect America first. We are not...

@RepThomasMassie This week the House will vote on $14.5 billion foreign aid package for Israel, in addition to the $3.8 billion that already passed. I will be a NO vote. Less than 1/3 of the 49,000 people who responded to my poll today support this additional funding. We simply can’t afford it.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk warned of the possibility of World War III, saying a third global war could spark from either the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Russia's continuing assault on Ukraine. "We need to figure out peace in Ukraine, and I think we need to restore normal relations with Russia," Musk said Monday during a talk on his social media platform X. "World War III is a civilizational risk that we may not recover from," he said, "so we need to prioritize avoiding World War III; that's what actually matters. And not what happened...

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his guest, retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, scoffed at the idea that the United States was scoring “moral victories” through its assistance of Israel and suggested that the world’s only Jewish-majority state was committing “war crimes” by bombing Gaza during an episode of the former’s show released on Monday. After a conversation during which the two commentators argued that wiping out Hamas was an unrealistic goal, they said that the U.S. was hurtling toward war with Iran and bizarrely submitted that Turkey and Russia would be eager to join such a conflict on...

Col. Macgregor — U.S. and Israeli special forces suffer ‘heavy losses’ in Gaza excursion. Watch at 9:50 mark. No one else has reported this................