Israel Watch

Blurb:

According to CNN’s Data Analyst Harry Enten, you should not be surprised that people who have served in the military largely approve of the U.S. strikes on Iran when compared to voters overall.

He cites a Fox News Poll:

Among Republicans, more than 8 in 10 approve of the current U.S. use of force, while only 6 in 10 say the president’s actions on Iran are making the U.S. safer.

Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats disapprove of the U.S. strikes and think things are less safe because of Trump’s performance, while 6 in 10 or more independents think the same on both counts.

Among voters who have served in the military, 59% approve of the U.S. strikes on Iran (39% disapprove). Compared to voters overall, who say the U.S. is less safe by a wide margin, veterans are more closely divided on the question of whether Trump’s actions have made the country safer (37%) or less safe (44%).

Blurb:

Restaurants in Mumbai are switching to electric induction stoves for staff meals and looking to tweak menus to conserve gas amid a shortage commercial LPG cylinders that threatens to disrupt their business.

While the government on Tuesday issued an order to regulate supply of natural gas to essential sectors, restaurants say there is no clarity on availability of the commercial cylinders.

As a consequence, as many as 50 per cent of eateries in Mumbai may have to temporarily shut shop, say executives of industry associations.

“We have started using electric induction stove to prepare staff meals, tea and rice based dishes. Some restaurants are looking to restrict their menus,” said Pranav Rungta, vice president of National Restaurant Association of India and owner of Nksha restaurant in Mumbai.

Blurb:

The skies in northern Iran were dark with smoke on 8 March as the US and Israeli bombing campaign against the country continued, and black rain even fell on the capital Tehran.

The catastrophic scenes have raised concerns about threats to civilian health in Iran and other countries.

Overnight on 7 and 8 March, US-Israeli strikes hit Iran’s oil facilities for the first time since the war started a little over a week ago, igniting large fires in four oil storage facilities and an oil transfer centre in Tehran and the nearby Alborz province.

Flames loomed over Tehran in the night, and black smoke billowed over the city during the day. Soot covered the streets and cars and filled up people’s balconies. Most alarmingly, thick black raindrops fell onto roofs and streets in the capital, which until recently was experiencing a long drought.

 

Blurb:

Successive Leftist governments in Canada allowed massive levels of immigration from Hamas supporting countries. This is the result. Canada’s Jewish community being terrorized with near impunity. Negligible responses from all levels of Canada’s government. Shame on Canada. The future of Canada’s Jewish community is looking increasingly bleak.

Blurb:

 

Republicans on Capitol Hill are preparing to confront a staggering price tag for the war in the Middle East after closed-door briefings this week detailed the rapid consumption of expensive munitions and the lack of any firm deadline for the end of the military campaign.

Asked how much the Iran offensive would cost, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) didn’t sugarcoat it.

“A lot,” he replied.

Blurb:

Top US officials, including the Defense Secretary have said that sending US troops into Iran could not be ruled out. But given public opinion in the US, such a move would come with political consequences for Donald Trump and the Republicans, especially with the midterm elections approaching in November. However, there are reports that the White House is looking to enlist and even arm separatist groups in the region to accomplish having “boots on the ground.”
from www.france24.com

Blurb:

Democrats are looking ahead to the next battle after losing a fight in Congress this week to rein in President Donald Trump’s war against Iran: Making sure he doesn’t have the money to wage it.

Democrats are vowing to wield their Senate filibuster power against more spending to fund the president’s war efforts after both chambers this week failed to curb Trump’s military campaign through war powers resolutions, and the administration weighs an emergency funding request.

“Good luck,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a leadership member, told the Washington Examiner. “What Democrat is going to vote to fund an illegal war that is turning into a bigger ham-handed disaster every minute?”

Blurb:

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has released a video of what it said were strikes on Iran’s drone carrier, the IRIS Shahid Bagheri.

The footage shows two explosions rocking a large vessel at sea. “Today, an Iranian drone carrier, roughly the size of a WWII aircraft carrier, was struck and is now on fire,” CENTCOM wrote on X.

CENTCOM said earlier that the vessel was hit during the first wave of strikes launched on Saturday.

A former container ship, the Shahid Bagheri joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2025. According to Press TV, its 180-meter runway was designed to host surveillance and combat drones and helicopters.

Blurb:

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) was accused of breaking the hand of Marine veteran and anti-war activist Brian McGinnis.

During a break in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, McGinnis put his hand through a hole in the wall to prevent Capitol Police from removing him from the room.

A video recorded by another anti-war activist showed Sheehy getting in on the melee by grabbing McGinnis and attempting to force him through the doorway.

“His hand! His hand! Oh!” one onlooker shouted.

Blurb:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the United States has no plans to admit a new wave of Middle Eastern refugees as the conflict with Iran unfolds.

President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social video early Saturday that the U.S. military launched Operation Epic Fury alongside Israel’s Operation Lion’s Roar. During a press briefing about the Iran attack, a reporter asked whether the Trump administration had safeguards in place to prevent a surge of refugees entering the United States.

“I‘m wondering if there‘s any safeguards put in place to make sure that the American people aren‘t having to have another wave of refugees?” one reporter asked.

Blurb:

53 Democrats just voted against reaffirming that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism — something State Departments of both parties have declared since 1984.

They’re sick.

Blurb:

Canada’s defence chief Gen. Jennie Carignan said allies are in talks about possibly helping Persian Gulf states defend themselves against bombing from Iran.

Speaking to reporters at a defence and security conference in Ottawa Thursday, Carignan said a meeting is set for early Friday morning to discuss such a proposal among allied militaries and the Canadian Armed Forces would present a recommendation to the government.

“The Gulf states must also indicate what they need,” Carignan said in French. “We are in communication with them to get an idea of the needs because it’s clear that if they don’t need us… we won’t look at options to support them.”

Blurb:

A top expert from the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned National Public Radio listeners over the weekend that U.S. munitions stockpiles could soon run short after the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran. The interview did not disclose that CSIS receives millions of dollars from major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman, that stand to profit from the push to replenish those weapons.

The appearance came as the Pentagon prepares a potential $50 billion funding request to replenish weapons used in the Trump administration’s unauthorized attacks on Iran. The strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Iran so far and six U.S. service members.

Blurb:

Global oil and gas prices have skyrocketed following the US attack on Iran last weekend. But another key global supply chain is also at risk, one that may directly impact American farmers who have already been squeezed for months by tariff wars. The conflict in the Middle East is choking global supplies of fertilizer right before the crucial spring planting season.

“This literally could not be happening at a worse time,” says Josh Linville, the vice president of fertilizer at financial services company StoneX.

The global fertilizer market focuses on three main macronutrients: phosphates, nitrogen, and potash. All of them are produced in different ways, with different countries leading in exports. Farmers consider a variety of factors, including crop type and soil conditions, when deciding which of these types of fertilizer to apply to their fields.

Blurb:

Thirty-three protesters who took over a University of Washington engineering building in May 2025, causing roughly $1 million in damage, are finally facing trespassing charges.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday charged them with misdemeanor criminal trespass, “but stopped short of accusing anyone of vandalism and the destruction inside,” KOMO News reported, adding 23 of them are UW students who also served suspensions for their actions.

During the May protest, masked individuals had obstructed two streets near the building, blocked its entrances and exits, and set fires in two dumpsters, according to a university official at the time. They also chanted “death to the police,” video showed.

Blurb:

Sri Lanka’s navy rushed into the Indian Ocean after receiving a distress call from an Iranian warship, but what it found looked like a scene from a disaster film: oil slicks, empty life rafts and bodies in the water after the vessel was sunk by a U.S. torpedo strike.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament on Wednesday that Sri Lanka launched a rescue effort after a distress signal from Iran’s IRIS Dena, which had 180 people on board. Navy ships and aircraft were sent to the area.

When Sri Lankan forces arrived, the ship was gone.

“There was no sign of the ship, only some oil patches and life rafts,” navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath said. “We found people floating on the water.”

Sri Lanka’s navy said crews recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.

Blurb:

U.S. negotiations with Iran broke down after Iranian officials openly declared their intention to enrich uranium to levels capable of producing nuclear weapons, according to President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Witkoff revealed the details in an interview with Fox News, describing a moment during the talks when Iranian negotiators made their position unmistakably clear.

“The Iranians made it clear from the start that they believe they have an undeniable right to enrich all the uranium they possess,” Witkoff said.

Blurb:

Recent developments in the Middle East, including U.S. military actions against Iranian targets and reported damage to key export infrastructure like Kharg Island, have once again drawn attention to the vulnerability of global energy supplies.

Iran’s threats to fire on tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz have created an insurance crisis for shippers, forcing oil prices to rise. At the same time, Iranian attacks on Qatar’s LNG infrastructure led the world’s second largest exporter to suspend production.

A new analysis from Enverus Intelligence Research finds that these events introduce a significant risk premium to oil prices, with Brent crude potentially facing an additional $10 to $15 per barrel if disruptions escalate. The firm’s baseline forecast had Brent at around $63, but prolonged instability in the region could push prices higher as markets price in supply concerns. Given that the Brent price had already risen by more than $9/bbl as of Tuesday, this seems a conservative projection unless the situation is quickly resolved.

Blurb:

 

In the spring of 2024, a group of anti-Israel students took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. There were two custodians in the building at the time who ultimately sued the school, claiming they were basically held hostage.

Now a New York judge has overturned the disciplinary actions against these students. Once again, the radical left is untouchable.

FOX News reports:

Columbia University ‘occupiers’ who held staff hostage have discipline overturned by NY judge

A New York state Supreme Court judge has vacated disciplinary sanctions against 22 former and current Columbia University students who took over Hamilton Hall in April 2024 during anti-Israel protests.

Justice Gerald Lebovits ruled on Feb. 27, 2026, that the university had improperly relied on sealed arrest records in its internal disciplinary proceedings against the students and the sealed arrests were the only evidence students were in the building during the occupation.

“Ultimately, this court concludes that the underlying disciplinary determinations were not impermissibly delayed. But respondent’s internal hearing panel was statutorily barred from taking into account the fact that petitioners had been arrested in Hamilton Hall,” Lebovits wrote. “And the fact of petitioners’ sealed arrests was the only evidence before the hearing panel that petitioners were in Hamilton Hall while it was occupied. As a result, the panel’s determinations that petitioners committed most of the charged disciplinary violations… are arbitrary and capricious.”

Blurb:

It is one thing to watch the Elitist Media be as unpredictably biased as they go about their business. It is entirely another to watch them inject their biases into stories from the weirdest angles, as ABC’s James Longman just did.

Watch as the network’s Chief International Correspondent James Longman closes out the videotaped portion of his report by foisting the American “forever war” terminology upon an Iranian Kurdish leader who may soon send his troops to take on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC):

Blurb:

A viral video shows U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) helping Capitol Police to physically remove a protester from a Senate Armed Services hearing on Wednesday.

Footage from the scene shows Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran and Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, being removed from the hearing by U.S. Capitol Police. McGinnis had disrupted the hearing to protest ongoing U.S. military action in Iran during the hearing.

The video, which was filmed by an anti-war activist, shows McGinnis accusing lawmakers of supporting a “war for Israel” as Capitol Police officers were escorting him out. McGinnis refused to budge, at which point Sheehy and a group of Capitol Police officers began to physically remove him from the chamber.

“No one wants to fight for Israel!” McGinnis repeatedly shouted as he was being removed. A bystander then pointed out that McGinnis’ hand appeared to be stuck in the door, at which point the group slowed down in order to remove it.

Blurb:

THE PENTAGON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signaled prolonged U.S. military involvement in Iran on Wednesday morning, stating a surge of forces is “accelerating, not decelerating.”

Hegseth held a press conference at the Pentagon with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to give an update on developments in the joint U.S.-Israel war with Iran and “Operation Epic Fury.”

“As President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started,” Hegseth said. “We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant. More bombers and more fighters are arriving.”

Blurb:

 

 

I never thought I would say this, but this week has convinced me that the Trump Administration is possibly the first administration in decades to execute a politico-military strategy and shape events rather than just bounce, pinball-like, from one flashing light to another. Bear with me as I lay out what I think is going on, and feel free to excoriate me in the comments if you disagree.