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IHR News & Views
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More than once I have come across the view that if British lads of the 1940s could have foreseen the state of their country today, they would never have bothered to fight the Second World War. Few of those who have heard that view may realize that there is empirical evidence to support it … The prevailing tone of their letters is one of bitterness over what had become of the county they once cherished. Of the four or five most often voiced complaints, the most common is over mass migration from other countries and continents, and how that has drastically changed British life, culture and society … “The men who offered their lives have been betrayed and gave their lives in vain. Most of the older people say thank goodness we are ending our lives. It is no longer the Britain that we fought for.”
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Stalin's War Against His Own Troops
Yuri Teplyakov
… In August 1941 Hitler permitted a Red Cross delegation to visit the camp for Soviet POWs in Hammerstadt. It is these contacts that resulted in an appeal to the Soviet government, requesting that it should send food parcels for our officers and men. We are prepared to fulfill and comply with the norms of the Geneva convention, Moscow said in its reply, but sending food in the given situation and under fascist control is the same as making presents to the enemy … How great was Stalin’s hatred for those who had found themselves behind enemy lines. It made no difference: who, where, how and why? Even the dead were considered to be criminals.
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Was America’s World War II ‘Crusade’ Worthwhile?
Spencer J. Quinn
… This flagrant betrayal of the principles and goals for which the US fought in World War II, Chamberlin explains [in America’s Second Crusade], was inevitable given Roosevelt’s abiding trust in Soviet dictator Stalin, and his unwillingness to leverage America’s massive military and economic aid to the Soviets to press for a better postwar world … This book … distinguishes itself by challenging the American public to consider that the death, destruction, and trauma of the Second World War may not have been “worth it” in the end. Chamberlin is … not afraid to measure the stated goals of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill against the objective historical record by which the question he poses might be answered. The arguments for America’s entry into the war, he concludes, ultimately come up wanting.
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… While it’s an artistic achievement and grand entertainment, “Darkest Hour” is badly flawed history … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widespread belief that Churchill’s speeches played a crucial role in sustaining British morale. A scholar who has carefully looked into the matter has found that this view is largely a myth … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widely held impression, which Churchill himself encouraged, that an honorable or lasting peace with Hitler was simply not possible. But as he himself later acknowledged, that’s simply not true … The British leader’s famous “We shall never surrender” speech was little more than “sublime nonsense,” says British historian John Charmley.
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Several months before Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt secretly authorized devastating American bombing raids against Japanese cities. A top-secret document declassified in 1970 shows that in July 1941 Roosevelt and his top military advisers approved a daring plan to use American pilots and U.S. war planes – deceitfully flying under the Chinese flag – to bomb Japan’s major cities … An air strike force of 500 Lockheed Hudson bombers was to be organized as “The Second American Volunteer Group” under Chennault’s command. Its mission would be the “pre-emptive” bombing of Japan. The strategic objective of JB 355 was the “destruction of Japanese factories in order to cripple munitions and essential articles for maintenance of economic structure in Japan.”
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Tactics of Organized Jewry in Suppressing Free Speech
Prof. Tony Martin – Institute for Historical Review
… I’m going to try to extract from my experience certain basic sort of tactics that I think the Jewish lobby has used over the years pertaining to my particular situation … The first and major tactic that I discovered in their attack on me was their reliance on lies — just straight-up lies. There’s no other way to describe it, just telling lies. Many of the categories that I will enumerate overlap, and many of them could also come under this general rubric of telling lies. But I think that if one had to isolate a single tactic, it was a tactic of telling lies. I think they’ve elevated telling lies to a very high artistic form.
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Straight Talk About Zionism
Mark Weber
… A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community … Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism — that is, Zionism — for Jews.
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Why Germany Attacked the Soviet Union
Institute for Historical Review
As dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, military forces of Germany, Finland and Romania suddenly struck against the Soviet Union. The stunning news of this attack was announced to the world by German radio at 5:30 that Sunday morning, when Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels broadcast the text of a proclamation by Adolf Hitler to the German people that laid out his reasons for the historic offensive. Following that was the broadcast of Germany’s declaration of war against the Soviet Union. This was in the form of a diplomatic note to the Soviet government. Because Hitler’s proclamation and the German Foreign Office declaration explain at some length the reasons and motives for the fateful decision to strike against the USSR, these are documents of historic importance. With a foreword by Mark Weber.
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What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? … The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere — among those who support Israel but don’t really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel – and Zionism – often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
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Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Institute for Historical Review
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute video presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
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Was Hiroshima Necessary?
Mark Weber
America’s leaders understood Japan’s desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender — that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place — the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives … General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”
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… With the aid of the civilian population, mass graves had been discovered, in which thousands of corpses had been buried. These graves were to be opened and the commission was to establish whom the [Soviet] NKVD had murdered … The exhumations in Vinnytsia began on May 25, 1943, and were carried on in three places. The [local] population was of the opinion that there were around 20,000 victims in the war years … I had been a soldier in the Ukrainian army during the First World War and had seen many men killed in battle, but what I had then seen can in no way be compared with what I witnessed in that park … The horror of Vinnytsia I shall never forget, and it is doubtful whether ever a Dante would be able to portray the agony that had taken place.
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The Boer War Remembered
Mark Weber
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was more than the first major military clash of the 20th century. Pitting as it did the might of the globe-girdling British Empire, backed by international finance, against a small pioneering nation of independent-minded farmers, ranchers and merchants in southern Africa who lived by the Bible and the rifle, its legacy continues to resonate today. The Boers’ recourse to irregular warfare, and Britain’s response in herding a hundred thousand women and children into concentration camps foreshadowed the horrors of guerilla warfare and mass detention of innocents that have become emblematic of the 20th century.
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The Civil War Concentration Camps
Mark Weber
No aspect of the American Civil War left behind a greater legacy of bitterness and acrimony than the treatment of prisoners of war. “Andersonville” still conjures up images of horror unmatched in American History. And although Northern partisans still invoke the infamous Southern camp to defame the Confederacy, the Union had its share of equally horrific camps. Prison camps on both sides produced scenes of wretched, disease-ridden and emaciated prisoners as repulsive as any to come out of the Second World War … In addition to camps for captured soldiers, the North also established concentration camps for civilian populations considered hostile to the Federal government.
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In a remarkable but under-reported address, one of America’s most prominent and influential political figures has acknowledged the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life. Joe Biden – now President of the U.S. – said that this has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural-political changes. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” Joe Biden told a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington, DC … “Behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those [major social-political] changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense … And, I might add, it is all to the good,” he went on.
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The Origins of the Second World War: A Review
Murray N. Rothbard
It is not often that one is privileged to review a book of monumental import, a truly significant “breakthrough” from obscurantism to historical knowledge and insight. But such a book is the magnificent work by A.J .P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War … The central theme of Taylor is simply this: Germany and Hitler were not uniquely guilty of launching World War II (indeed they were scarcely guilty at all) … Basically, Hitler has no “master plan”; he was a German intent, like all Germans, on revising the intolerable and stupid Versailles-diktat, and on doing so by peaceful means, and in collaboration with the British and French … Not only did Hitler do this with insight, he did it with patience, as Taylor excellently shows …
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Zionism’s Violent Legacy
Donald Neff
… The Irgun was not the only Jewish terrorist group but it was the most active in causing indiscriminate terror in pre-Israel Palestine. Up to the time of the Jaffa attack, its most spectacular feat had been the July 22, 1946, blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, with the killing of 91 people – 41 Arabs, 28 Britons and 17 Jews. The other major Jewish terrorist group operating in Palestine in the 1940s was the Lohamei Herut Israel – “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel,” Lehi in the Hebrew acronym – also known as the Stern Gang after its fanatical founder Avraham Stern.
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How accurate is this hallowed portrayal of America’s role in World War II? As we shall see, it does not hold up under close examination … The three Allied leaders accomplished what they accused the Axis leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan of conspiring to achieve: world domination … Presidential deception to justify war did not start with George W. Bush. Americans who express admiration for the US role in World War II, and for Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential leadership, have little moral right to complain when presidents follow his example and lead the country into war by breaking the law, subverting the Constitution, and lying to the people.
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Zionism and the Third Reich
Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler’s Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the “Jewish Question.” They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany. During the 1930s no nation did more to substantively further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler’s Germany.
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Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr.
I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician … When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you’re threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!
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On the Importance of Revisionism For Our Time
Murray Rothbard
Revisionism as applied to World War II and its origins (as also for previous wars) has the general function of bringing historical truth to an American and a world public that had been drugged by wartime lies and propaganda … Revisionism brings to the artificial frenzy of daily events and day-to-day propaganda, the cool but in the last analysis glorious light of historical truth. Such truth is almost desperately needed in today’s world.
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The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed
David L. Hoggan
In this important, detailed study of the origins of the Second World War, Dr. Hoggan explains why Hitler decided to attack Poland in 1939, and examines the short-sighted policies that made war all but inevitable. The author dismantles the often-repeated charge of sole German responsibility for the war, which for many years has been a centerpiece of the prevailing narrative of twentieth century history. The eminent American historian Harry E. Barnes called this “the first thorough study of the responsibility for the causes of the Second World War in any language … likely to remain the definitive revisionist work on this subject for many years.” With an introduction by Mark Weber, dust jacket, detailed index, source notes, extensive bibliography, map, and 30 photographs. Also available in softcover edition.
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No figure of modern French history is as honored as Charles de Gaulle … In 1940 he refused to accept his country’s defeat by Germany, and from London he founded and led the pro-Allied “Free French” force during World War II. From 1944 to 1946 he headed the provisional government of France. In 1958 he was called from retirement by popular acclaim to resolve the seemingly unsolvable crisis over Algeria … During the years that he dominated his country’s political life – 1958-1969 – he charted an independent foreign policy, tied neither to the US nor the USSR, and strove to make France the preeminent nation in Europe … It’s impossible to read any lengthy biography of this man without admiration for his audacious self-confidence, courage, determination, and cunning.
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Collusion: Franklin Roosevelt, British Intelligence, and the Secret Campaign to Push the US Into War
Mark Weber
Secretive and unlawful collusion by an American leader with a foreign power that subverts the US political process is not new. The most far-reaching and flagrant case was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940-41. In the months before the US formally entered the war in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt did everything he could to get America into the global conflict without actually declaring war. The cooperation with British intelligence by the President and other high-ranking US officials during that period was quite illegal. Such collusion by the nominally neutral US to further the war aims of a foreign government was contrary to both US law and universally accepted international norms.
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A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The “Jewish lobby” is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the “very powerful” Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the Jewish-Zionist grip on the US political system and the American media, the Zionist oppression of Palestinians, and the Israeli threat to peace.
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In years when so many politicians and foreign policy experts waxed poetically about their vision of a “rules-based international order” of enduring global harmony, John Mearsheimer persistently warned against the delusions and dangers of this outlook. For years he has been a leading voice for a realist foreign policy, an outlook impressively laid out in his most important work, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics … a hard-nosed examination of international politics rooted not in sentiment or presumed idealism, but in the immutable realities of power politics … While liberals speak of economic interdependence and international norms, and neoconservatives push regime change in the name of “democracy,” Mearsheimer contends that material power, not ideology, drives the foreign policy decision-making of government leaders.
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Why I Survived the A-Bomb
Akira Kohchi
Hiroshima native Kohchi was a 16-year-old schoolboy when his city was devastated by the first nuclear attack in history. He tells the dramatic, personal story of how he experienced and survived the bombing, and provides a moving account of his search for his family through the burning rubble of the doomed city. Then Kohchi recalls how, years later, he forced himself to come to grips with his past and uncover the facts about the bombing and the history the led up to it. The author’s frankness and humane spirit make this a first-hand Japanese account of a war crime that dwarfs almost all others. A unique revisionist classic. Praised by the Japan Times newspaper as a “noteworthy” and “authentic” personal account, and by Bookwatch newsletter as a “moving, gripping account.” With full color dust jacket, photos and notes
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… Judaism is not just “another religion.” It’s unique among the world’s major religions. The core values and ethos of Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths … A core message of the Hebrew scriptures is that Jews are a divinely “chosen” people — a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity … The seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land. Israel’s often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
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The Past Marches On
George Morgenstern (1953)
… Add to these the operations of an organized propaganda capable, apparently, of doping Americans into belief in any myth, and there is formidable reason why public opinion should be so stupefied and stultified that the nation can be led from war to war in pursuit of ever retreating goals. Yet, despite the general numbness, Americans, surveying the results of half a century of intermeddling, dimly perceive that all is not well.
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The Ethics of War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Gregory P. Pavlik
Since the last “good war,” a debate has ensued over the moral legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapons, particularly against civilians. The critics hold that it is a crime to incinerate civilians en masse; defenders commonly claim that the bombing was necessary to bring the war to a close, thereby saving countless American lives. Most of those who make this claim do so in earnest. The problem is that this defense is both historically false, and taken to its logical conclusion, extremely dangerous … The U.S. War Department and related agencies that specialized in producing hate propaganda and lies developed specifically racialist attacks on the Japanese.
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Over the centuries, rage and hostility against Jews has repeatedly erupted in terrible violence. Again and again, Jews have been driven out of countries where they’d been living. Why does anti-Semitism exist? And why has furious hostility toward Jews broken out, again and again, in the most varied nations, eras and cultures? … Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
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Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
Robert Morgan
Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the “Great Emancipator,” he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad.
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Suggested Reading: A Study Guide
Mark Weber
In an age when vast amounts of information from a wide range of sources are instantly available online, it can be difficult to sort out what’s reliable, useful, and trustworthy. In response to many inquiries over the years, here are recommended books on five important historical topics: The Second World War, American History, International Relations, Communism, Marxism and the Soviet Union, and, Zionism, US-Israel Relations, and the ‘Jewish Question.’ This listing is neither exhaustive nor final. Additional subject categories and titles are planned, and descriptions may be revised or updated.
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YouTube Censors 'Restrict' IHR Videos
Institute for Historical Review
In line with a recent crackdown policy, YouTube has “restricted” a number of independently produced videos of IHR talks and presentations. To watch a “restricted” video, the viewer must first click through a warning screen. Also, comments on the video are not allowed, and the number of views is not given. Even worse, YouTube will never “suggest” a “restricted” video to viewers, which is how many people find our videos. While YouTube claims that its “restriction” policy is aimed at videos with “inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” applying it to IHR videos is absurd. YouTube restricts our voice not because we have violated any objective standards, or because we have done anything wrong or illegal — but because it doesn’t like what we say.
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Liberating America From Israel
Paul Findley
Nine-Eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the 9/11 catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president in recent decades had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people.
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How Hitler Tackled Unemployment
Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
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The Spanish Inquisition and the Jewish Question
Brian Chalmers
It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history’s darkest chapters — and one of Christian history’s most shameful.
News & Comment
Trump Ended His Idiotic Iran War. Good.
Trita Parsi – Responsible Statecraft
… Given the circumstances, President Trump’s decision to strike a deal with Tehran and bring this costly, unnecessary war to an end is the right one. It deserves support, not partisan second-guessing … Wars become interminable when leaders convince themselves that ending them without victory is politically more costly than continuing them without hope … Remember Afghanistan … That is the curse of endless war. The refusal to accept an unfavorable reality today merely guarantees a higher bill tomorrow. Some credit must be given to Trump for breaking this pattern, even as he should be blamed for having started this war in the first place … The main external threat is the Israeli government and Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsession with sabotaging any opportunity for Iran and the United States to bury the hatchet.
Vance Slams Israeli Critics of Iran Deal, Says They Need to ‘Wake Up and Smell the Reality’
JNS
U.S. Vice President JD Vance had sharp words on Thursday for Israeli critics of the Trump administration’s peace deal with Iran, accusing them of being ungrateful to the United States … “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” Vance said. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” … “Two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.” He stated that “the problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump …”
Trump Just Changed the Conversation About Iran
Andrew Day – The American Conservative
… What Trump has actually accomplished is to reframe the Islamic Republic as a legitimate actor in world affairs, rather than a Forever Enemy whose very existence America can scarcely tolerate. “We got along very well with Iran,” Trump said on Monday in a joint press conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron. “I find them to be more rational, very smart,” Trump told NBC News last week. Would any American president before Trump have been caught describing the Islamic Republic in this way? Trump seems to have arrived at this reframing not through any naively liberal tendency to trust an America-hating theocracy, but as the result of a war in which Iran demonstrated that it has real leverage rooted in military power.
A Third of Americans Say They’re Reading Fewer Books
CBS News
As the summer reading season begins in earnest, a third of Americans say they’re reading fewer books for personal enjoyment than they did 10 years ago — a decline that cuts across age and education levels. About half who report reading less say it’s because they are too busy and don’t have enough free time, and about half also say there are too many distractions competing for their attention. More than a third say their own attention spans have gotten worse over the past 10 years. … More than half who are reading less say they’re spending more time watching movies and television, as well as spending more time on social media … For those who prefer nonfiction, history is the top choice (the clear favorite among men) … A quarter of Americans, however, say they don’t generally read any books at all.
Hitler Answers Roosevelt: A Major Speech That’s Still Important
Podcast – Our Interesting Times
Mark Weber joins host Tim Kelly to discuss Adolf Hitler’s most widely listened-to public address. The German leader’s speech of April 28, 1939, which was broadcast live on all three major US radio networks, was an eagerly anticipated response to a challenge by US President Franklin Roosevelt, who had called on Hitler to pledge not to attack 31 countries. Weber and Kelly discuss the significance of this Hitler-Roosevelt exchange, and explain why it remains relevant today. Weber and Kelly also review the situation in Europe in 1938-39, with insights on the origins of World War II. IHR director Weber also speaks about Hitler as a public speaker, and explains why he is considered so extraordinarily persuasive and effective. Runtime: 72 mins.
Hitler Answers Roosevelt
Booklet Available from IHR
This booklet includes the text of a widely publicized letter by President Franklin Roosevelt in which he called on the German Chancellor to promise not to attack 31 countries, as well as a specially prepared translation of the address by Hitler in response. Of the many speeches made by Hitler during his lifetime, this is certainly one of the most important. It was also very probably the most eagerly anticipated address of the time, with many millions of people around the world listening to it live on radio or reading of it the next day in newspapers. The historic April 1939 exchange between Roosevelt and Hitler is important in helping to better understand the foreign policy outlook and goals of those two influential twentieth-century leaders, and how very differently each viewed recent history and his own country’s role in the world.
Senate Wants to Force US to Share Sensitive Intel With Israel
Paul R. Pillar – Responsible Statecraft
Buried deep inside a 192-page intelligence authorization bill is Section 622, titled “United States-Israel Intelligence Sharing Enhancement.” It would require the president, acting through the director of national intelligence and as necessary the secretary of defense, to “expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the Government of Israel” on a list of subjects that encompasses almost every topic of intelligence interest in the Middle East … This proposal is one of several recent moves by those in Washington who carry the Israeli government’s water to keep the United States tied to Isreal despite plummeting support for the country among the American public … Israel’s strategy and that of its U.S. supporters is now to rely on ties with, and support from, the United States that are not as salient as the military aid with its prominent price tag.
Did Father Robert Maxwell’s Early Abuse Taint Ghislaine Long Before She Met Epstein?
The Times of Israel
… A self-made multimillionaire. Robert Maxwell rose from extreme poverty in a Jewish shtetl in Czechoslovakia, where he attended yeshiva, a seminary for religious studies. As a teenager, he escaped the Nazis and joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile. He then went on to become a hero in the British Army decorated for his actions during World War II, an academic publishing magnate, a UK Labour Party MP, and eventually the owner of the Daily Mirror, one of the UK’s biggest-selling tabloids. Following his death, world leaders collectively expressed their public condolences … But, as UK journalist John Sweeney writes in the opening pages of his new book, “We can set the pieties aside, Robert Maxwell was a monster, cruel, [and] mad — mad as a box of frogs.”
Thomas Massie Won’t Back Down
Jack Hunter – American Conservative
Thomas Massie isn’t acting like a defeated man … His opposition to U.S. backing and participation in Israel’s wars in Gaza and Iran was seen as a significant factor in why he lost his primary, angering President Donald Trump and, of course, one of the country’s most powerful foreign lobbying groups … Massie was noting that any opposition to — or mere acknowledgement of — Israel’s outsized influence in American politics is almost always labeled as antisemitism by pro-Israel advocates. Yet here was Brooks openly touting it. Neoconservative veteran John Podhoretz even celebrated the role of “Jewish money” in defeating Massie … He’s obviously not cowering or giving an inch to the figures and groups that worked so hard and spent so much to beat him … Thomas Massie doesn’t look or talk like someone who just lost.
We Should Not ‘Integrate’ Our Military With Any Foreign Nation!
Ron Paul
… The [National Defense Authorization Act] NDAA’s Section 224, the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” would “integrate” the Israeli military with our own, fusing technology, production, intelligence-sharing, and more … Is hard to think of a more “America last” position than handing the keys to the Pentagon (and our intelligence community) to a foreign country … Rather than listen to the will of their constituents, Congress has decided to defy the wishes of Americans in favor of the wishes of a foreign government. AIPAC largely controls our Congress and passing Section 224 would be a great victory for the foreign lobby … The US would be further drawn into Israel’s multiple wars with its neighbors. Worse even than backing up Israel in its regional wars, the wars themselves would become ours.
Bill Would Place Israeli Components in U.S. Weapons Systems
H. Berger - American Conservative
Buried within the “must-pass” annual defense authorization bill now before the House is a provision, Section 224, that would order the Pentagon to merge key parts of the American and Israeli defense technology sectors, creating a deeper level of military-industrial integration, analysts say, than the United States maintains with any other country on Earth. Though presented by Israel and its American lobby as a way to draw down U.S. support for Israel, the Quincy Institute, which first reported the measure, describes it as a vehicle to move from the expiring 10-year, $3.8-billion-a-year U.S. aid package to Israel to enduring military cooperation, nestled deep inside the Pentagon’s procurement system, which affords less transparency and accountability.
UK Defense: A Hole in the Bucket
S. Bryen - Asia Times
… The near collapse of Britain’s fighting capability, including its dreadful lack of reserves and stockpiles, is paralleled by what looks like internal social collapse: a cultural crisis that is altering the UK, not for the better … At the end of the Cold War (1991), the British Army stood at roughly 155,000 active troops. Today, that number has dropped to approximately 72,500 – the lowest level since the Napoleonic era. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) have seen similar cuts, shrinking by 25% and 40% respectively since 2000. The Ministry of Defense has consistently missed recruitment targets … Physical and mental health conditions mean that more than a fifth of remaining regular forces are classified as “not fully deployable” or completely undeployable.
US Presidents Who Are ‘Unfriendly’ to Israel Deserve to be Killed, Atlanta Jewish Community Newspaper Said
Mark Weber – Institute for Historical Review
… Some Jewish leaders, writers and intellectuals seem to show greater loyalty to Israel and Jewry than to the country of their citizenship and birth. A startling example is the call by the owner and publisher of a Jewish community newspaper for Israel’s leaders to, if necessary, kill any US President whose policies are “unfriendly” to the Zionist state. Andrew Adler, owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote in a column in the issue of Jan. 13, 2012 (below), that Israel’s leaders should, if necessary, “give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”
Most People Across 36 Countries Have Negative Views of Israel and Little Confidence in Netanyahu
Pew Research Center
Majorities in most of the three dozen countries we’ve surveyed this year express an unfavorable view of Israel and little or no confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These findings come from a Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 8-May 13, 2026 … Across the 36 countries, a median of 67% of adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, while 25% have a favorable view. Views are particularly negative in the Muslim-majority places surveyed … People in all European countries surveyed also give relatively negative assessments of Israel. In Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, around half of adults or more say they have a very unfavorable view of the country … In several countries – mostly in North America and Europe – younger people have more negative views of Israel than older people do.
As Historians Gather, No Truce in the History War
J. Schuessler – The New York Times
At the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, the raging battle over how to write about the past — and why — was uncomfortably front and center / … The association’s president, James H. Sweet, a leading historian of the African diaspora at the University of Wisconsin, published a column in its magazine called “Is History History?” which lamented a “trend toward presentism” and a troubling politicization of scholarship … There was disagreement about whether genuinely open debate was really happening — or could happen. “People are scared to speak honestly sometimes, even what they know to be historically true, because they don’t want to end up on the wrong side,” Johann Neem, a historian of 19 th-century education at Western Washington University, said.
Is History History?
James H. Sweet
… This trend toward presentism is not confined to historians of the recent past; the entire discipline is lurching in this direction, including a shrinking minority working in premodern fields. If we don’t read the past through the prism of contemporary social justice issues — race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, capitalism — are we doing history that matters? This new history often ignores the values and mores of people in their own times, as well as change over time, neutralizing the expertise that separates historians from those in other disciplines. The allure of political relevance, facilitated by social and other media, encourages a predictable sameness of the present in the past … Hollywood need not adhere to historians’ methods any more than journalists or tour guides, but bad history yields bad politics.
AIPAC Wants Democrats to Back Israel. Instead, They’re Turning on AIPAC
The New York Times
… AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — exerts its influence by encouraging members to reject anti-Israel candidates and to support pro-Israel ones through fund-raising emails and its website … But the group also has a super PAC, the United Democracy Project … It wasn’t so long ago that AIPAC was bipartisan and untouchable, the guardian of America’s close relationship with a key moral and geopolitical ally … Now, this perception of Israel is unraveling, and AIPAC is under attack from both political sides. On the right, it is drawing fire from “America First” pundits like Tucker Carlson, who argue that Israel wields too much power in politics.
On the left, its position is even more precarious. In a party that is undergoing a tectonic generational shift, AIPAC has become a symbol of the old guard.
Rep. Massie Calls for New Investigation Into Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty, Which Killed 34 US Navy Servicemen
Video - Rep. Thomas Massie
Rep. Thomas Massie delivered a fiery speech on the House floor marking the anniversary of Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty. He recounted details of the attack on the US Navy intelligence ship during the 1967 “Six-Day War,” in which 34 servicemen were killed and 174 wounded. Massie vigorously disputed the official explanation of mistaken identity. He noted that a range of high-ranking US military officials, as well as survivors of the attack, insist that Israel’s assault was not a mistake, but was intentional. Survivors and their families deserve further answers and closure, he said. He also urged Congress to honor those who served aboard the intelligence ship, and demanded a new investigation into one of the most controversial incidents in U.S.-Israel relations. Runtime: 5:47 mins.
USS Liberty: Dead In the Water
BBC Television (Video)
British television documentary about the June 1967 attack by Israel against the USS Liberty. Shows that US and Israel authorities continue to suppress important facts about the murderous attack. Also includes revelations about the still secret Israel-US “Operation Cyanide” project, in which the US military deceitfully aided the Zionist state in its devastating “preemptive” assault against Egypt. Runtime: one hour, nine minutes.
When Nazi Germany Made Westerns
Video - Performers and Politicians
Cinema audiences in Third Reich Germany appreciated Hollywood-style adventure films, including Westerns. Joseph Goebbels – who had overall supervision of the country’s film industry – was confident that Germany itself could successfully meet that challenge. The result was one of the strangest and least well-known corners of “Nazi” cinema: German-made frontier epics, gold rush adventures, and cowboy-style films, sometimes featuring prominent film stars. From “The Emperor of California” (1936) — shot on location in Arizona and the Grand Canyon — to “Sergeant Berry” (1938), “Gold in New Frisco” (1939), and “Water for Canitoga” (1939). the Third Reich’s cultural life was much more varied and multi-faceted than many people have been led to believe. Runtime: 11:47 mins.
Trump Ended His Idiotic Iran War. Good.
Trita Parsi – Responsible Statecraft
… Given the circumstances, President Trump’s decision to strike a deal with Tehran and bring this costly, unnecessary war to an end is the right one. It deserves support, not partisan second-guessing … Wars become interminable when leaders convince themselves that ending them without victory is politically more costly than continuing them without hope … Remember Afghanistan … That is the curse of endless war. The refusal to accept an unfavorable reality today merely guarantees a higher bill tomorrow. Some credit must be given to Trump for breaking this pattern, even as he should be blamed for having started this war in the first place … The main external threat is the Israeli government and Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsession with sabotaging any opportunity for Iran and the United States to bury the hatchet.
Vance Slams Israeli Critics of Iran Deal, Says They Need to ‘Wake Up and Smell the Reality’
JNS
U.S. Vice President JD Vance had sharp words on Thursday for Israeli critics of the Trump administration’s peace deal with Iran, accusing them of being ungrateful to the United States … “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” Vance said. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” … “Two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.” He stated that “the problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump …”
Trump Just Changed the Conversation About Iran
Andrew Day – The American Conservative
… What Trump has actually accomplished is to reframe the Islamic Republic as a legitimate actor in world affairs, rather than a Forever Enemy whose very existence America can scarcely tolerate. “We got along very well with Iran,” Trump said on Monday in a joint press conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron. “I find them to be more rational, very smart,” Trump told NBC News last week. Would any American president before Trump have been caught describing the Islamic Republic in this way? Trump seems to have arrived at this reframing not through any naively liberal tendency to trust an America-hating theocracy, but as the result of a war in which Iran demonstrated that it has real leverage rooted in military power.
A Third of Americans Say They’re Reading Fewer Books
CBS News
As the summer reading season begins in earnest, a third of Americans say they’re reading fewer books for personal enjoyment than they did 10 years ago — a decline that cuts across age and education levels. About half who report reading less say it’s because they are too busy and don’t have enough free time, and about half also say there are too many distractions competing for their attention. More than a third say their own attention spans have gotten worse over the past 10 years. … More than half who are reading less say they’re spending more time watching movies and television, as well as spending more time on social media … For those who prefer nonfiction, history is the top choice (the clear favorite among men) … A quarter of Americans, however, say they don’t generally read any books at all.