Backroom Deal Could Let Paul Kessler’s Killer Walk-Away with Almost No Jail Time! Sentencing Tuesday, June 30

Facing Up to 4 Years, Controversial Backroom Deal Would Let Islamist Demonstrator Who Killed Jewish-American Paul Kessler 4-Weeks After Oct. 7 — Serve Almost No Jail Time. Update: Sentencing moved to June 30th

June 23: This is a landmark case. When Hamas invaded and massacred Israelis on October 7, 2023, the United States saw more than 12,000 anti-Israel protests in the following months. On November 5, 2023 — just 29 days later — Loay Alnaji, who had come from the Islamic Society of Simi Valley with other members, struck and killed 69-year-old Paul Kessler for the simple act of holding an Israeli flag at a “Justice for Palestine” protest in Thousand Oaks.

Paul Kessler holding the Israeli flag at the protest.

Just 29 days after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, the Islamic Society of Simi Valley — from an area with too few Jews to annoy locally — deliberately returned to the more Jewish neighborhood of Thousand Oaks where they antagonized residents and incited people against their Jewish neighbors. It was during that protest that Loay Alnaji struck Paul Kessler in the face with a megaphone. The coroner found welt marks on Kessler’s face consistent with the blow. Mr. Kessler fell, suffered fatal head trauma, and died the next day.

Loay Alnaji, carrying the bullhorn he used to strike Paul Kessler, accompanied by Nashat Mshaiel from the Islamic Society of Simi Valley.

The case saw numerous continuances both before and after the death of original presiding Judge Ryan Wright in September 2025. Following Wright’s death, the case was briefly handled by Supervising Judge Anthony Sabo. In March 2026, it was reassigned to Judge Derek Malan, who had previously served as a Deputy District Attorney in the Ventura County DA’s Office during the same period as defense attorney Ron Bamieh.

On May 5, 2026, Alnaji entered a guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter. According to his attorney Ron Bamieh, Judge Derek Malan offered the plea deal — up to 365 days in county jail plus 3 years formal probation — after several private meetings with the defense attorney alone. Bamieh told reporters that Judge Malan had characterized the killing as nothing more than “two old guys had a dispute and an accident happened.”

Private meetings between a judge and only one side in a criminal case are highly unusual and generally considered inappropriate under California judicial ethics rules. Canon 3B(7) strongly discourages ex parte communications — discussions about a pending case with only one party (in this instance, only the defense) while excluding the prosecutor and the victim’s family. Canon 3E further requires a judge to disqualify himself if there is a reasonable basis for the public to question his impartiality. Judge Malan’s own reported characterization of this killing as nothing more than “two old guys had a dispute and an accident happened” — made after multiple private meetings with only the defense attorney and over the strong objections of the District Attorney and the victim’s family — significantly heightens the appearance of potential bias or favoritism.

This approach bypassed normal protocol in which plea negotiations are conducted by the District Attorney with input from the victim’s family. The Ventura County DA’s office and Paul Kessler’s family strongly objected, yet their position was overruled. Sentencing is scheduled for June 25, 2026.

This is the predictable outcome of a system that has repeatedly refused to treat antisemitic violence with the seriousness it deserves.

Look at the clear pattern of antisemitic crimes inflicted on Jewish people in Los Angeles in recent years:

• UCLA Encampment (Spring 2024): Over 200 arrests, but the only two people actually prosecuted were Jewish pro-Israel counter-protesters.
• 2020 BLM attacks on Jewish stores (Beverly Blvd, Fairfax Blvd, Pico Blvd): Numerous Jewish-owned businesses were smashed, looted, and robbed, many with explicit antisemitic targeting. Virtually zero meaningful prosecutions or sentences.
• Adas Torah Synagogue riot (June 2024): Muslims rioted and battered Jews outside the synagogue. Zero reported prosecutions or sentences for the attackers.

Yet in Paul Kessler’s case — the first prominent killing of a Jewish-American by a Muslim anti-Israel demonstrator — it was not merely “an accident between two old guys.” The eyewitnesses tell a very different story.

Jon Oswaks (eyewitness, standing with Rabbi Mark Blazer): “They tried with me first… they stalked us before this happened… they had it out for you 100%. Paul was holding his cell phone when Alnaji punched him with a megaphone… it was shown in court that it wasn’t self-defense.”

Jump to 0:44 – Stop at 1:20

Hal Eisner, KTTV (2023): “Paul Kessler was murdered for the simple act of carrying an Israeli flag.” A student at the scene also reported hearing: “we need to kill you all… you’re not belonging here.”

Jump to 0:09 – Stop at 0:55

Rabbi Mark Blazer at the 1-year vigil (Nov 2024): “...on the anniversary of his murder we're calling on the DA in Ventura County... to make sure that those who perpetrated this act of hate, this act of violence are brought to Justice. It’s incumbent on our community to exercise Justice, to practice mercy and Justice, to help create peace, to help create shalom.”

Jump to 0:00 – Stop at 0:25

Dor Shachar (Gaza-raised, now Jewish): “Muhammad came with the Quran… he slaughtered children, cut off their heads… exactly what he did on October 7… The Jew and the Nazarene — cut him into tiny pieces… The Jews in Gaza gave them money and treated them in hospitals… and on October 7 they slaughtered them.”

Jump to 0:25 • 1:12 (“cut the Jew into tiny pieces”) • 2:45 (Gaza betrayal) – Stop at 3:01

Rabbi Zvi Block (sitting with Jonathan Oswaks): “One man in a rage picked up an instrument and struck another man, and that striking caused his death… Our judicial system is insane if it gives only four years. This man should sit many years. This is a model case for Muslims across the world to see what Jews will do and what the court will do. I want 500 Jews in front of that courthouse on the sentencing day. Let the media take notice.”

Never Again is not a slogan — it is a command. If we allow this targeted killing of a Jewish man holding an Israeli flag to be reduced to a mere “accident,” with the killer potentially serving only a tiny fraction of an already lenient sentence while he continues to collect a paycheck, we betray Paul Kessler and send a clear message that Jewish lives are disposable.

Paul Kessler’s blood cries out from the ground in Thousand Oaks. Let it not cry in vain.

Rabbi Meir Kahane – The absence of deterrence has deadly consequences.

Where to Write This Week

Priority	Where to Send	Why It Matters	Contact Details
Highest	Presiding Judge of the Ventura County Superior Court	Can review how Judge Malan was assigned to the case and the appropriateness of the private meetings with defense attorney Ron Bamieh	Ventura County Superior Court 800 South Victoria Avenue Ventura, CA 93009 Attn: Presiding Judge
High	Ventura County Probation Agency	They prepare the Pre-Sentence Report that Judge Malan will rely on when deciding the actual jail time	Phone: (805) 654-2106 → Online Contact Form
Medium	Hon. Derek Malan (via Court Clerk)	Letters are placed in the official court file before sentencing	Ventura County Superior Court 800 South Victoria Avenue Ventura, CA 93009 Re: People v. Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji
Medium	California Commission on Judicial Performance	Official state agency that investigates judicial misconduct and conflicts of interest	File online: cjp.ca.gov
Lower	Ventura County District Attorney’s Office	Limited influence now that the plea deal has already been accepted	Phone: (805) 654-2500 → Online Contact Form

Note:

Because sentencing is scheduled for Thursday, June 30 at 9am, letters sent this week will have limited but still symbolic value for influencing the final sentence. 

However, letters requesting an investigation to the Presiding Judge have value even after the sentencing. They create a public record, pressure for transparency on the process, and can prompt a review of the judicial assignment and private meetings.

Sample Letter to Presiding Judge Guasco – Request for Review

[Your Full Name]  
[Your Address]  
[City, State, ZIP]  
[Email]  
[Phone]  
[Date]

Hon. Matthew P. Guasco, Presiding Judge  
Ventura County Superior Court  
800 South Victoria Avenue  
Ventura, CA 93009  

Re: People v. Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji – Request for Review of Judicial Assignment and Conduct

Dear Presiding Judge Guasco,

I am writing regarding the handling of the above high-profile case.

Judge Derek Malan and defense attorney Ron Bamieh previously served as Deputy District Attorneys in the Ventura County DA’s Office during overlapping periods. After Bamieh entered private practice, Judge Malan was assigned to this case. It has been reported that Judge Malan held several private meetings with Mr. Bamieh alone before offering a lenient plea deal over the objections of the District Attorney and the victim’s family.

These circumstances raise a reasonable question about impartiality under Canon 3E of the California Code of Judicial Ethics. I respectfully request that your office review the assignment of this case and the appropriateness of the private meetings.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,  
[Your Full Name]

Sample Letter to Judge Malan – Demand Harsher Sentence

[Your Full Name]  
[Your Address]  
[City, State, ZIP]  
[Email]  
[Phone]  
[Date]

Honorable Derek D. Malan  
Ventura County Superior Court  
800 South Victoria Avenue  
Ventura, CA 93009  

Re: People v. Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji – Sentencing June 25, 2026

Dear Judge Malan,

I am writing about the upcoming sentencing of Loay Alnaji in the killing of Paul Kessler.

Paul Kessler was the first Jewish-American killed by a Muslim anti-Israel protester after October 7, 2023. Given the seriousness of this crime, I respectfully urge you to impose the maximum sentence possible under the plea agreement.

A lenient outcome in this landmark case would send a dangerous message that attacks on Jewish Americans will not be treated seriously.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,  
[Your Full Name]

The Dragon's Long Game: How China Is Targeting America from Within

June 4, 2026 37th Anniversary — Tiananmen Square Massacre

Two women who survived China's communist machinery — one a Cultural Revolution survivor turned bestselling author, the other a libertarian activist and PRC émigré — offer a chilling, firsthand account of Beijing's ambitions on American soil.

Interviews with Xi Van Fleet (American Freedom Alliance, Los Angeles, March 31, 2025) and Mrs. Li Schoolland (FreedomFest 2025)  ·  Speech by Dr. Ming Wang (Anthem Film Festival at FreedomFest). Published June 4, 2026

Today is June 4th. In most of the world, that date means very little. In China, it means so much that the government has banned the numbers six and four from appearing together on the internet. The anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — when the People's Liberation Army rolled tanks over unarmed students demanding democracy — is not merely a historical wound. It is, as two Chinese-American women explained in separate interviews, a template: a window into exactly how the Chinese Communist Party treats inconvenient truths, inconvenient people, and inconvenient nations.

Those women are Ms. Xi Van Fleet, Cultural Revolution survivor and author of the newly released Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat, and Mrs. Li Zhao Schoolland, a PRC émigré, libertarian activist, and speaker at FreedomFest 2025. Their accounts converge on an unsettling conclusion: the CCP's campaign to weaken and ultimately dominate the West is not a future threat. It is already underway.

A Book America Needs to Read

Xi Van Fleet is used to being heard. In 2021, a two-minute speech she delivered to a Virginia school board against Critical Race Theory went viral, drawing comparisons between Mao's Cultural Revolution and America's woke movement. Her first book, Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning, became a conservative bestseller. Her follow-up — co-written with renowned Chinese dissident Yu Jie — goes further and deeper, tracing how American elites, over more than a century, helped build the very monster that now threatens them.

📖

Made in America — Xi Van Fleet & Yu Jie

The untold story of how misguided U.S. elites transformed China from a communist wasteland into a global superpower — at America's expense. Available wherever books are sold, including Amazon.

Xi van Fleet at American Freedom Alliance event 

"It's titled Made in America," Van Fleet explained at the American Freedom Alliance event in Los Angeles. "The subtitle — The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat — is very important." The book's central argument is that China's rise was not an accident of history or an inevitability of economics. It was built, piece by piece, with American money, technology, and willful blindness.

What Communism Is Really About

Van Fleet pushes back hard against the assumption that politicians aligned with socialist or communist ideology are simply misguided idealists who wish to improve other people's lives. That framing, she argues, fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the ideology.

"Communism is really about power. It's nothing about improving people's lives. Never. That's just a tactic — before they take over, that's how they try to convince the public. Once they get power, they will try to maintain power. That is their focus. Always."

Xi Van Fleet American Freedom Alliance, Los Angeles

The question of whether Western politicians who embrace socialist rhetoric are true believers or cynical opportunists, she suggests, may be less important than the structural outcome: one-party dominance. "State like California is good," she said pointedly, "but they want the whole country that way."

She also addressed the fear — common among critics of the left — that communist-style authoritarianism would require the kind of mass violence that characterized Mao's China. Not necessarily, she warns. "They don't have to kill millions. As long as they're in power, they can do all sorts of things." The Cultural Revolution's 20 million deaths, she noted, were mostly inflicted not by government agents with guns, but by ordinary citizens turned against each other — a fact she finds more disturbing, not less.

The Street and the Square: A Revolutionary Parallel

When the conversation turned to the wave of protest movements that have swept American cities in recent years — from the 2020 racial justice demonstrations to the "No Kings" rallies — Mrs. Li Schoolland drew an immediate and visceral parallel.

"That reminds me of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Mao encouraged young people to go on the street and condemn everything good — knowledge, history, art, music, anything with culture or thinking or philosophy. They went on the street to condemn all that."

Mrs. Li Schoolland FreedomFest 2025

Li Schoolland, author of "A Survivor's Story" poses with
Dr. Ming Wang, author of "From Darkness to Sight" at
FreedomFest '25 in Southern California

But she stopped short of despair. America's constitutional foundations, she argued, provide a buffer that China never had. "Our country is founded on the principle of liberty, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. So even though they have many demonstrations, it's not going to change anything." The critical difference, she emphasized, is that in America the demonstrators cannot become the government by force. In China, they already were.

Xi Van Fleet, meanwhile, traced the funding behind the current protest wave to sources far closer to Beijing than most Americans realize. She pointed to investigations by journalist Asra Nomani, which reportedly traced financing for recent "No Kings" protests to American tech billionaire Neville Roy Singham — a self-described Marxist living in Shanghai who reportedly funnels hundreds of millions of dollars through a network of pro-China activist groups. "That's how China is reaching out and influencing," Van Fleet said.

The Invisible Occupation

Perhaps the most startling claims in both interviews concern not geopolitical maneuvering, but the physical presence of CCP influence on American soil. Mrs. Schoolland did not mince words.

"They have Chinese police stations — not just in Chinatown, everywhere. On campuses. And they have students paid by the Chinese government coming here not to study, but to spy on other Chinese students and to make trouble."

Mrs. Li Schoolland FreedomFest 2025

She described Chinese nationals who drove luxury cars in 2020 protest parades — not out of solidarity, she argued, but out of satisfaction. "Anything that hurts the United States, they're happy about. But they're sitting in the United States, enjoying our taxpayer-funded benefits and technology and freedom. They cannot do the same thing back in China — there's no way."

On the question of CCP influence within American political parties, Mrs. Schoolland was careful but clear. "I don't know, but I'm sure there's a lot of money going to candidates. A lot of influence." When asked whether she would be surprised to learn the CCP was behind funding current demonstrations, she replied: "I won't be surprised at all. Because that's what they want. They think the US is the enemy. They want to hurt us in every means."

Racism, Envy, and the Psychology of a Rising Power

One thread that runs through both interviews, and that rarely surfaces in mainstream discourse, is China's internal racial hierarchy. When critics of Chinese government policy are dismissed as "racist," Mrs. Schoolland offered a pointed rebuttal.

"If you talk about racist — China is the most racist nation. Chinese people will not sit next to a person with darker skin than theirs. They think those people carry some kind of disease. That's the attitude. And they look at the West with envy — envy that leads to hate. So they have to put themselves up in order to look down at other people, especially the United States."

Mrs. Li Schoolland FreedomFest 2025

The goal, she argued, is not simply economic competition or geopolitical rivalry. "They want to be the world power — in control. But they also know they can't control America directly. What they can do is influence the politicians, the government. Bring America down enough that they rise by comparison."

CCP Chinese tanks fire upon civilian protesters in Tiananmen Square, June 4th, 1989

Wisdom about civic responsibility from diverse veterans at Memorial Day Ceremony

Veterans of South Korea at L.A. National Cemetery's Memorial Day Ceremony

How Argentinian-raised, Robert ("Bob") Johnson helps additional Allied veterans (living and deceased) who participated in defeating Nazism in France to receive Legion of Honor recognition at annual D-Day Ceremony there.

Reinhard Kargl (L) and James Kargl share thoughts on
the lawn where the ceremony chairs are being collected.
See the field of tombstones on the right, and association-
sponsored wreaths on the left

What the experience of enlisted US Marine, Col. James Field in Vietnam has motivated him to attend Memorial Day at a National Cemetery  annually (Arlington, Virginia until now) for decades. What this Marine vet-turned-Karate sensei thinks about the US impeding imperialist Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Brothers Braden and Payton Salazar of Boy Scout Troop 218 in Torrance, Calif. salute the
souls of veterans (and their spouses) by name after planting a flag above their marker
(photo courtesy: Axel Koester)

How Austrian-Immigrant, Reinhard Kargl, salutes US veterans (whether alive or deceased) who contributed to defeating National Socialism and Communism.

   

L.A. Cemetery Foundation chair, Glenn Schecter awards Luna Stolar-Calazara for helping coordinate 
Scouts of America who planted thousands of U.S. flags on the graves of those buried there

How Immigrant G.I. Vet Regards Immigrants and Youth Not Honoring Memorial Day.

Zoroastrian-Iranian veteran of US Army discusses his military service in Iraq and his views of whom he considers alien immigrant men who have not contribute to America through national service.

Buffalo Soldiers enactors teach history Memorial Day at Veterans Cemetery L.A. - Major A.J. Simien

The Cost of Freedom? Korean-American Chief Warrant Officer II Steve Cho, California State Guard

Trump Is Pushing Jew-Haters Out of the "America First" Coalition

Joe Kent Didn’t Resign. He Was Undone By His Own Anti-Zionist Rot

by Bob Goldberg in The New Zionist Times, March 17th

Media outlets are framing Joe Kent’s resignation as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center because of principled opposition to the Trump Administration’s war on Iran. Principles had nothing to do with it.

He left (more likely shoved out), accusing the administration of entering war with Iran because of “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby” (that’s AIPAC in case you missed the subtlety), while insisting Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. There, in one tidy little package, was the full intellectual collapse of a part of the American right: not realism, not prudence, not restraint, but the old reflex that when events become complicated, blame the Jews.

This is how anti-interventionism curdles into something rancid. It begins with a sensible warning against quagmires and crusades. It ends with the suggestion that America has no enemies in the Middle East worth worrying about, only allies worth resenting. Iran’s aggression? Secondary. Its terror proxies? Background noise. Its imperial ambitions? Mere detail. The real culprit, we are told, is Israel, with its magical ability to make American officials forget where America’s interests lie.

That is not foreign-policy realism. It is your run-of-the-mill Blood Libel.

Kent matters because he is not your average groyper. He occupied one of the government’s top counterterrorism posts. Kent was supposed to be the serious face of “America First” discipline. Instead, on his way out the door, he sounded like a man who had absorbed too much of the Carlson catechism: every Middle East crisis is a trap, every ally a burden, every Jewish concern a manipulation.

And one cannot ignore the possibility that Kent’s departure was less an act of a lonely conscience than a politically convenient separation. Officially, he resigned over the war in Iran. Unofficially, he was not just an ally of Tucker Carlson; he was, in no small measure, a Carlson creation.

A quick public check turns up at least six Carlson appearances that are easy to verify in the public record—August 26, 2021; September 8, 2021; December 2, 2021; January 21, 2022; June 9, 2022; and April 8, 2023—and local coverage at the time described those bookings more broadly as “frequent appearances” that helped elevate Kent’s campaign.

Carlson did not treat Kent as just another guest. He showcased him as an “America First” candidate, giving him repeated prime-time exposure while Kent was running for Congress. Tucker praised his analysis so effusively that he told him, “the fact that you’re not in Congress tells you a lot about the forces you’re up against,” before wishing him “godspeed.” He later publicly grouped Kent among the candidates he was “standing behind.” (ManoWhisper)

Nor did it help Kent that he was so closely identified with Tucker Carlson, just as Carlson’s increasingly deferential posture toward Iran was coming under growing scrutiny.

Joe Kent and his J’Accuse Resignation Letter

And if that wasn't enough, Candace Owens cast Kent as the man bold enough to track down how (as Owens alleges) the Trump Family and the Mossad assassinated Charlie Kirk. Public reporting says Kent reviewed FBI files to examine possible foreign involvement, alarming FBI leadership, who feared interference with the criminal case against the accused shooter. That was enough to make him a hero to the conspiratorial right, which requires very little evidence and thrives on dark insinuation.

That is the pattern now. Every institution that resists these fantasies is corrupt. Every investigation that refuses to validate them is a cover-up. Every refusal to blame Israel is proof that Israel is to blame. This is not skepticism. It is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion-induced paranoia with a geopolitical vocabulary.

U.S., Israel, Iran, & Qatar: Leverage, Timing, and the Next Phase of Power

Analysts, Kenneth Abramowitz and Rev. Dumisani Washington on force-posture, mediation leverage, and the Iran horizon

The Washington–Qatar–Israel–Iran crisis is no longer a single storyline. It is a convergence of pressure points: Gaza’s unfinished war, Iran’s nuclear trajectory, Chinese-Iranian military ties, and the role of mediators whose influence shapes what Washington considers “realistic.”

Recent Pentagon movements complicate the simple narrative that the United States is hesitating. Reports indicate U.S. refueling aircraft have shifted from Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, while the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has been positioned near Israel’s northern coast. Those moves can signal deterrence, strike preparation, force protection, or leverage in ongoing negotiations. They do not resemble abandonment.

That context matters when revisiting two DemoCast interviews that now feel prescient.

At the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Summit on November 2, 2025, geopolitical analyst Ken Abramowitz argued that ideological regimes rarely stop voluntarily. Negotiations may be attempted first, he said, but enforcement ultimately determines outcomes. 

VIDEO: Ken Abramowitz Interview (Nov. 2, 2025)

Two Power Blocs, One Strategic Reality

Mr. Abramowitz frames the Middle East as shaped by two dominant ideological blocs: an axis centered around Qatar and Turkey aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran’s revolutionary regime. Whether one agrees with every descriptor, the structural observation stands. Both systems expand influence through proxy networks, financing channels, media ecosystems, and diplomatic positioning.

His strategic claim was blunt: in military affairs you need capability and willingness. Israel, he argues, clearly retains both.  The present question is whether the United States is pacing its use of capability — or withholding willingness.

Hostages, Mediation, and Leverage

Speaking with DemoCast at the NRB Convention in Nashville on Friday, February 20, 2026, Rev. Washington warned that frameworks relying on voluntary disarmament by Hamas were structurally unsound and that political loyalty should never override accountability. 

The hostage-first approach in Gaza inevitably created leverage for Hamas. If hostages are prioritized, the party holding them retains bargaining power. When bargaining power exists, mediators become indispensable.

This is where Qatar’s role becomes structurally significant. Mediation itself is not malign. But when a mediator becomes indispensable, mediation can turn into leverage. The party that controls access controls tempo.

Rev. Washington warned that expecting Hamas to voluntarily disarm misunderstands both its charter and its incentives.

VIDEO: Rev. Washington Interview (NRB Nashville, Feb. 20, 2026)

Rev. Washington believes that if enforcement mechanisms remain theoretical, peace frameworks risk becoming messaging frameworks.

China, Iran, and the Expanding Perimeter

The crisis is not limited to Gaza. Reports that Iran is nearing acquisition of Chinese-made anti-ship missile systems, alongside U.S. sanctions targeting supply chains feeding Iranian drone networks, reflect a widening strategic perimeter. This does not equate to a formal proxy war between Beijing and Washington. But it does indicate that Iran’s military ecosystem intersects with global procurement and partnership channels.

At the same time, homeland security assessments describe a dynamic domestic threat environment shaped by terrorism risks, espionage concerns, and potential retaliatory activation of aligned networks. Major military decisions are never taken in isolation from domestic vulnerability calculations.

Strategic Ambiguity or Strategic Leverage?

The emerging picture may not be surrender or retreat, but coercive diplomacy under guard — military assets positioned visibly enough to deter, negotiations extended long enough to test intentions, and strike capacity held in reserve.

If force posture adjustments are designed to pressure Iran into ceding enrichment capacity or accepting verifiable limits, then delay may function as leverage rather than hesitation.

The evidence suggests stated objectives remain intact: dismantling Hamas’s governing capacity and preventing a nuclear-armed Iran. What appears unsettled is method and sequence.

Major military decisions reflect multi-theater risk assessment: Iranian retaliation, proxy activation, maritime disruption, cyber escalation, and domestic security exposure all factor into the calculus. Strategic pacing may reflect layered risk calculation rather than reversal.

But pacing carries risk. Time can extract concessions — or strengthen the adversary’s depth. Deterrence does not fail when force is delayed. It fails when force is no longer believed possible.

The coming weeks will determine whether current ambiguity produces enforceable constraints — or forces confrontation under less favorable conditions.

Mr. Abramowitz’s warning about capability and will still stands.  Rev. Washington’s warning about confusing messaging for enforcement still stands. 

The difference now is that the chessboard has become visible. The question is not whether the United States is deciding. It is whether its adversaries believe it will.

How Hatred Enables Tyranny: Nazi German Techniques Re-applied

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it’s worth reflecting on a disturbing pattern: how propaganda has been used to vilify Jews in different eras. The lessons we thought we learned from World War II— about the dangers of hateful narratives—seem to be fading. Today, some of the same tactics used by the Nazis are being deployed by Islamist/ Marxist movements and their supporters to turn public opinion against Israel, with worrying consequences.

A copy Adolf Hitler’s sick autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” was found inside a child’s bedroom at a Hamas base in the
Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities said. The copy of the Nazi leader’s 1925 autobiography outlining his deadly journey into antisemitism and the genocide of millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities during the Holocaust included “annotations and highlights,”  The book was discovered among the personal belongs of one of the terrorists,” the IDF said in the online post. “Hamas embraces the ideology of Hitler, the one responsible for the annihilation of the Jewish People.” - NY Post 11/12/23

What Happened in Nazi Germany

The Nazis used propaganda to convince Germans that Jews were the root of society’s problems. Newspapers, posters, and films portrayed Jewish people as subhuman and dangerous, blaming them for economic woes and cultural decay. These messages played on centuries-old prejudices in Europe, where anti-Semitic stereotypes had taken root in Christian doctrine and culture. The propaganda worked. Ordinary Germans accepted these lies, enabling the persecution and eventual genocide of six million Jews. 

How It’s Happening Again

Fast forward to today, and we see a similar playbook being used by Hamas and its allies, including Qatar. Through modern media and social networks, they spread the message that Israel is an oppressor, responsible for all Palestinian suffering. Casualty figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health—controlled by Hamas—are often inflated or misleading, but they’re repeated by Western media without much scrutiny. Staged events and manipulated images also flood the internet, painting Israel as a brutal aggressor.

Phrases like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or “Free Palestine” have become rallying cries in protests worldwide. But few stop to question the implications—these slogans call for the elimination of Israel. Meanwhile, Israel’s side of the story, including its right to defend itself against rocket attacks and terrorism, is often ignored.

Why It Matters

Just as Nazi propaganda dehumanized Jews to justify their persecution, today’s anti-Israel narratives have made it acceptable to vilify and scapegoat Jewish people once again. In cities across the West, we’ve seen people tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis, vandalizing Jewish schools and synagogues, and chanting slogans that call for Israel’s destruction.

This isn’t just about spreading lies and hatred; it’s about how those lies pave the way for authoritarian tyranny. The Islamo-Marxist scapegoating of the Jewish state echoes Nazi tactics: using propaganda to consolidate power by uniting people against a common enemy. In Nazi Germany, this propaganda enabled National Socialists to dominate Europe, suppress dissent, and commit atrocities not only against Jews but against all who opposed their rule. Today, Hamas and its allies exploit similar methods to justify their authoritarian agendas and silence diverse voices within their societies.

The Bigger Picture

What’s most alarming is how easily the media and the public have bought into this propaganda. On this solemn day of remembrance, we should ask ourselves: Have we really learned the lessons of the Holocaust? The Nazis taught the world that scapegoating Jews isn’t just dangerous for them—it’s a tool for tyranny that harms everyone. If we fail to recognize and challenge these tactics, we risk enabling the rise of new authoritarian movements that use hatred and division to manipulate society under absolute power.