The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for certain illegal immigrants was not “overtly racial,” and further, that “[t]he TPS statute bars judicial review of non-constitutional claims.”
Writing for a 6-3 majority, Associate Justice Samuel Alito held that the respondents — ostensibly two groups of unnamed Syrian and Haitian illegal immigrants who enjoyed deportation protections under a Biden-era TPS order — and the lower courts who ruled in their favor “offer no sound theories to overcome the plain meaning of the judicial-review bar.” However, Justice Alito goes on to address the argument made by the Haitians that the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS protections is challengeable as a constitutional claim, as the decision was allegedly based on racial animosity.
“Ironically, respondents themselves offer a race-neutral explanation for the Government’s action: namely, that the current administration, which has terminated every TPS designation that has come up for renewal, simply opposes the TPS program as it has been implemented in the past,” Alito writes. “None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications.”
The TPS program has existed in various forms since the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990. Over the past decades, the program — initially created to grant temporary deportation protections to illegal immigrants whose home countries have become too dangerous or unstable for them to be returned to — has faced allegations of abuse, with critics arguing deportation protections have been extended for some illegal immigrants well beyond what is considered reasonable.
Throughout 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to end Biden-era extensions of TPS for several national origin groups of illegal immigrants, with groups from Haiti and Syria moving to sue the Trump administration over the revocations.
Chief Justice John Roberts — as well as Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett — joined Alito in the majority. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Deportation-Protections-Is-Not-Racist.jpg314640The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2026-06-25 14:11:502026-06-25 15:49:21Trump’s Decision To End Deportation Protections Is Not Racist, Supreme Court Rules
The Department of War (DOW) carried out airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Saturday afternoon.
CENTCOM, a unified combatant command of the DOW, wrote in a statement posted to X it conducted “large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria” at about 12:30 p.m. EST “alongside partner forces.”
“The strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria as part of our ongoing commitment to root out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent future attacks, and protect American and partner forces in the region. U.S. and coalition forces remain resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States,” CENTCOM wrote.
“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” CENTCOM added.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth replied to CENTCOM’s statement on X, simply writing, “We will never forget, and never relent.”
The Saturday operation marked the second time in weeks the U.S. launched strikes against the radical Islamic terror group in Syria.
At President Donald Trump’s direction, CENTCOM launched strikes Dec. 19 against over 70 ISIS targets across central Syria, marking the beginning of Operation Hawkeye Strike. The operation was a direct response to a Dec. 13 ISIS attack in Syria which killed two U.S. service members and one U.S. civilian.
The terror group killed two Iowa National Guardsmen — Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29 — and a civilian interpreter in the Middle Eastern country.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”
“There will be very serious retaliation,” the president added.
The DOW referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to CENTCOM’s X post when contacted for comment.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Two U.S. Army soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed in a Saturday attack in Syria, the Department of War announced.
Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the Pentagon, announced the three deaths in a statement posted to X, adding that three others were wounded. The attack occurred as the U.S. soldiers were conducting a “key leader engagement,” Parnell stated.
The soldiers’ mission was “in support of on-going counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region,” Parnell wrote. The attack occurred in an area Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa does not have control, Fox News reported, citing a Pentagon official.
“The soldiers’ names, as well as identifying information about their units, are being withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin notification,” he continued. “This attack is currently under active investigation.”
Today in Palmyra, Syria, two United States Army soldiers and one civilian U.S. interpreter were killed, and three were wounded.
The attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement. Their mission was in support of on-going counter-ISIS / counter-terrorism…
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a Saturday statement posted on X that the “savage” who perpetrated the attack was “killed by partner forces.”
“Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the U.S. will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” Hegseth wrote.
The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces.
Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you. https://t.co/P7D9NrWpAL
U.S. and Syrian forces came under attack Saturday amid a joint patrol near Palmyra, The New York Times reported, citing Syrian state news agency SANA. U.S. Central Command also confirmed the deaths in a Saturday X post, but noted additional updates about the incident will be provided as they become available.
President Trump responded to the attack on Truth Social:
We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria, two soldiers, and one Civilian Interpreter. Likewise, we pray for the three injured soldiers who, it has just been confirmed, are doing well. This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them. The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Editor’s note: This breaking news report was updated with new details.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Two-American-Servicemen-Interpreter-Killed.jpg340640The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2025-12-13 14:43:432025-12-13 14:45:27Two American Servicemen, Interpreter Killed In Syrian Attack, Pentagon Announces
President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House Monday, prompting scrutiny over al-Sharaa’s treatment of his country’s Christian minority.
Trump has made addressing the global persecution of Christians a priority of his administration, and he designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and called for a congressional investigation in October.
Nigeria is not the only country where Christians are being targeted. Religious minorities are targeted or caught in the crossfire as players move for power in Syria.
As the nearly 14-year civil war came to a close, al-Sharaa’s forces took control of the Syrian government from Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in late 2024.
Al-Sharaa’s resistance, the Nusra Front, was formally aligned with al-Qaeda until 2016, Reuters reported. It rebranded itself in 2017 as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Al-Sharaa previously had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, but he told CNN in December that his group was working to reassure Christians targeted by extremist and jihadist groups during the civil war that they would be safe under his rule.
“There were some violations against them [minorities] by certain individuals during periods of chaos, but we addressed these issues,” al-Sharaa told CNN.
“No one has the right to erase another group,” he continued. “These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”
Despite al-Sharaa’s promises, doubts remain due to his resistance group’s jihadist origins and track record of human rights abuses, Open Doors research analyst on the Middle East, Henriette Kats, said in December.
CEO of Christian rights organization Open Doors U.S., Ryan Brown, told the Daily Caller the attacks happening in Syria don’t take place in a vacuum, and they are the result of a civil war.
Brown said the threat Assad’s regime posed to Syrian Christians was a “known entity,” but the rise of al-Sharaa bred uncertainty and elicited mixed reactions from Christians.
Al-Sharaa began his rule by meeting with high-level clergymen to “lay the foundations for future dialogue” with the goal to “continue these meetings to reach future understandings,” an anonymous official told AFP, Al Arabiya English reported.
Despite al-Sharaa’s purported commitments, the future of Syrian Christians remains uncertain. They face attacks from groups opposing al-Sharaa because of their faith, while others are being killed in unrelated conflicts involving forces allegedly tied to his government.
A suicide bomber attacked an evening Catholic Mass in June, taking the lives of 22 people and wounding more than 50 others, according to Open Doors.
“I was preaching when the shooting began. Then came the screams,” the father of a neighboring Greek Orthodox church told Open Doors. “Everyone instinctively dropped to the ground. The fear… it was unspeakable. We were all in shock, paralyzed by the horror.”
Syrian authorities attributed the attack to ISIS, according to the report.
“We thought getting rid of the previous regime was going to give us some sense of freedom,” an Open Doors partner told the organization, claiming authorities are only “pretending to protect the rights of everybody in Syria.”
Hundreds of minorities — including the Druze and Alawites —were slaughtered in 2025, Open Doors reported. The group noted that many are questioning whether al-Sharaa can control the extremist groups in his country.
Al-Sharaa called on “remnants of the former regime” to immediately surrender and vowed to hold accountable “anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians,” according to Al Arabiya English.
Head of the Europe branch of the Christian Syriac Union Party, Joseph Lahdo, said Christians have become the “target of direct attacks,” according to Christian Solidarity International.
Outside of the bombings and direct attacks on churches and families, Lahdo alleged Christians face taxes and financial pressure, and Christian women are forced out of workplaces and universities.
Christians also face political marginalization, absence of real representation in governing institutions and continuous threats from extremist groups and Turkish military operations, according to Lahdo. He added that Christians lack access to adequate international support.
In preparation for Trump’s Monday meeting with the president, nearly 100 U.S. church leaders signed an open letter thanking Trump for his recent efforts in combating Christian persecution in Nigeria.
The letter urged Trump to address the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, in Syria.
“[R]eligious minorities face ongoing violence, death, displacement, starvation, and water and medical deprivation, all while innocent women and children are held hostage by ISIS terrorists,” the letter stated.
The letter, whose signatories included Vice Chair of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Dr. Ben Carson, requested Trump “secure President al-Sharaa’s commitment to opening a secure humanitarian corridor from Hader to Suwayda in southern Syria,” arguing the corridor would facilitate aid delivery and the evacuation of civilians.
It’s estimated that nearly 90% of the aid being distributed through Damascus does not reach its intended target of Sweida, according to the Catholic Review.
Although it is unclear whether such topics came up during the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House, Trump said he believes al-Sharaa can make Syria successful and help bring peace to the region.
After Trump’s meeting, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom indicated the government will continue to address issues of religious freedom in the region.
The commission will hold a virtual hearing on religious freedom in Syria Thursday to “identify continued challenges to U.S. policy and religious freedom in Syria.”
Witnesses are slated to speak on specific threats to freedom of religion or belief toward Syrian minorities, as well as how the U.S. “can leverage bilateral, regional, and international interests in its support of [freedom of religion or belief] for all Syrians.”
Brown told the Caller there are ways Syria’s government can ensure Christians and religious minorities are protected, including by implementing constitutional reforms that enshrine basic protections for Christians and other Syrian minorities. He said the U.S. should continue to encourage the prioritization of the freedom of religious belief in its international relations.
He said the most important way someone can help is to pray for Christians and others caught in the Syrian turmoil, as well as donating to groups like Open Doors. The organization supplies information on countries dealing with Christian persecution, helps support the livelihood of Christians and provides trauma care after attacks, like the suicide bombing in June.
Brown said that although most Christian persecution is directly violent, other forms of persecution are increasing around the world, specifically during the past few years in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It is becoming alarming how much violence is continuing to escalate in the expression of persecution,” he told the Caller.
Syria’s new president Ahmad al-Sharaa is coming to the United Nations in New York next week, at the same time as French President Macron hopes to convince the world to declare Palestinian statehood.
The contrast between the two is striking. It’s where French smoke and mirrors will get a Middle East reality check.
Sources close to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spilled the beans in August, telling the New York Times that Macron confided to him that he was under “immense pressure at home” to support Palestinian statehood, an ephemera the Germans are not chasing.
Macron has been all over the map when it comes to Muslim immigration, Muslim Brotherhood infiltration, Israel and Gaza. He seems to be ruling France according to classic Marxist doctrine: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them, well, I have others.”
That’s Groucho Marx, of course.
At the same time he has been trying to muster support for Palestinian statehood, he closed down the main training academy for French Islamic preachers, claiming it had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and was indoctrinating young French Muslims to love jihad and Sharia supremacy, while stoking hatred against Israel, Jews, Christians, and the West.
But that’s not new. The academy, officially known as the European Institute of Human Sciences, has been operating since 1990 in Chateau-Chinon in central France. Hey, Little Cookie (le p’tit macaron), what took you so long?
Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has got little time for the Palestinians, and has told them bluntly not to use Syrian territory to launch attacks on Israel.
This past week he met with the Commander of U.S. Central Command, and sent his foreign minister to London to meet face-to-face with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to hammer out a security pact with the Jewish state.
This is a man who was dispatched to Syria in 2012 by ISIS leader al-Baghdadi to set up an ISIS affiliate among the Syrian Islamist opposition to the Assad regime.
But that was then. Today he wears a suit and tie and recently welcomed a group of American Jews to tour Syria, and welcomed a prominent Israeli reporter (David Horowitz from the Times of Israel) for a two-day visit.
Al-Sharaa has two over-riding goals, and neither one of them involves “Palestine” or Gaza. He wants to make a deal with Israel that will dramatically scale back Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, and he wants to convince the U.S. Congress to lift the sanctions on Syria left-over from the Assad regime.
The deal with Israel must involve a Syrian commitment to end the repression of Syrian Druse, a community that spills over into Israel. When it happens, it will be a big step in the direction of Syria joining the Abraham Accords — and this from a country that for five decades spearheaded the Rejectionist Front that denied Israel’s right to exist.
That is an authentic Middle East reality check.
I discuss this, as well as Russia’s latest incursions into NATO airspace in Estonia, and the return of the crusader flag (known as the St. George’s flag) to the streets of Great Britain, in this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend.
As always, you can join me live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM or 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Florida area or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app. Later, you can catch the podcast here.
Ken Timmerman’s 14th book of non-fiction, THE IRAN HOUSE: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue,can be ordered by clicking here or by viewing my author’s page, here.
Raising Olives in Provence, can be ordered by clicking here.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/ahmad-al-sharaa.jpg361640Kenneth R. Timmermanhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngKenneth R. Timmerman2025-09-20 04:57:572025-09-20 05:00:02Syria Comes To The United Nations
A shaky ceasefire in southern Syria between warring Islamic factions appears to be holding after deadly violence erupted last week in the district of Suwayda, which provoked Israel to launch a series of strikes to protect the Druze minority in the region. Experts remain wary of the ability of the new Syrian government, with its roots in Islamist extremism, to maintain stability in the country.
On Sunday, reports indicated that an agreement orchestrated by the Syrian government for the Druze and Bedouin tribes to cease hostilities was reached, with no reported violence occurring as of Sunday. The violence began a week ago after a Druze merchant was reportedly abducted on the road to Damascus. As a result, Druze and Bedouin fighters began an armed conflict that was joined by Syrian government forces, with both sides claiming atrocities have been committed against them. The U.K.-based monitoring organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that over 1,120 people have been killed, including 427 Druze fighters and 298 Druze civilians as well as 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin.
The bloody conflict drew the attention of Israel, which launched strikes last week on 160 targets in the region on behalf of the Druze, a 150,000-person minority group within the Jewish state. According to Dr. A.J. Nolte, director of the Institute for Israel Studies at Regent University, the reason behind Israel’s intervention is rooted in a number of factors.
“There are a couple of dynamics, and some of them are emotional in terms of actually domestic politics and policy, and some of them are strategic,” he explained during “Washington Watch” Friday. “… The Druze populations in Galilee have been citizens of Israel for a long time. They are active in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. … There are also Druze communities in the Golan Heights, which, of course, Israel annexed in 1967. Those communities in the Golan have been divided from their family members. … [S]o for those Druze in the Golan who have been fairly loyal to Israel, they haven’t necessarily taken citizenship because they don’t want to fight their cousins, but they have been generally loyal. … [S]o these Druze were, let’s just say, very much agitating for Israel to defend their cousins, and many of them were, in fact, going across the border to see family, and also some youth were maybe going to potentially fight alongside the Druze in southern Syria.”
Nolte further detailed a “practical” reason for Israel’s Syria operations. “[T]he Golan Heights are part of Israeli sovereign territory, and so having a little bit of a buffer and having some Druze communities on the Syrian side of the border that would have positive feelings toward Israel provides defense and depth on that northern flank. … I think that one day there can be normalization with Syria, but from the Israeli perspective, hope is not a strategy. The Druze are a known quantity; their loyalty is known. And I think for [Israel], it’s a strategic choice between the Druze and the unknown.”
Meanwhile, a distressing account from the SOHR reported that 194 Druze civilians were “summarily executed by [Syrian] defence and interior ministry personnel.” In addition, 128,000 civilians living in Suwayda have been displaced by the violence, according to the U.N.
Still, the Trump administration is signaling its support of the new Syrian government, saying there is “no Plan B” for stabilizing the country after years of civil war. U.S. envoy Tom Barrack further criticized Israel’s intervention, saying that while the Jewish state has its own prerogative to defend itself, the strikes created “another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.” He also contended that Syrian authorities “need to be held accountable” for killings of civilians.
Nolte argued that the apparent differences between the U.S. and Israel are likely the result of strategic diplomacy that the Trump administration is attempting to carry out.
“I think we should always keep in mind with President Trump that he has a lot of irons in the fire in the Middle East,” he pointed out. “… [B]y criticizing Israel’s strikes on Damascus, he allows himself to be positioned as sort of an honest broker between Syria and Israel, because if he comes out in support of … Netanyahu’s strikes in Damascus on Syrian military targets … it becomes much more difficult for him to then try to negotiate between Israel and Syria as an honest broker. So I think there’s a lot of careful diplomacy that is going into the distance that appears to be publicly created. … I think Trump is playing Middle Eastern politics and is probably playing the hand he’s been dealt about as well as he can.”
At the same time, experts like John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during the first Trump administration, say that the new Syrian government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda member, has much to prove before it can be trusted.
“[I]t’s complicated like many things in the Middle East,” he acknowledged during “This Week on Capitol Hill” over the weekend. “You can say for sure, this new regime in Syria is very anti-Iran. That’s quite important to Israel to cut off the supply of weapons and other equipment to Hezbollah, one of Iran’s terrorist proxies in Lebanon. But the new government in Damascus itself has a history of terrorism. The new government is … saying they’re renouncing it to get better relations with the West. But the treatment of the minority of religious populations in Syria is a very important question.”
Bolton continued, “My personal view is the new regime in Syria has really not proven satisfactorily that it has renounced its terrorist past, and this is important because you don’t want a new Syrian government to consolidate control over the whole territory, including in the northeast, where American allies — Kurdish fighters — are holding approximately 10,000 ISIS terrorist prisoners. We don’t want that to happen unless we’re really sure that this regime wants to turn a page. We don’t need another terrorist government in the Middle East. We don’t need an Afghanistan on the Mediterranean. So I think we should be cautious. I certainly welcome the regime being against Iran, but there are just a significant number of other questions that remain unresolved.”
Bolton, who formerly served as ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, went on to argue that there is much that the Syrian government can do to prove that they are not a threat to the West, including opening the books on the regime of former dictator Bashar al-Assad and booting out Russia.
“I’d like to know … everything in the Assad regime files on American hostages that were taken over the past many years, or the hostages really from anywhere else,” he observed. “I’d like to know about the Assad government’s pursuit of chemical and biological weapons. Open the files. If you’re not a terrorist yourself, you don’t have any need of chemical or biological weapons. Let’s find out where the Assad regime purchased some of the critical elements of that program. And it would be nice as well to kick the Russians out of their naval base at Tartus and their air base in Latakia province in Syria, while we’re at it. So there’s some concrete things the new regime could do, I think, to establish their bona fides. But they haven’t done it yet.”
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2025-07-23 06:12:272025-07-23 06:19:26As Syrian Ceasefire Begins, Experts Warn Trump Admin. to Proceed with Caution
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday posted a video of an airstrike hitting Syria’s capital, Damascus.
The clip shows a female reporter delivering a live broadcast with the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters visible in the distance. Mid-sentence, a bomb slams into the building behind her, erupting into a ball of fire that quickly morphs into a thick plume of smoke.
The reporter continues speaking for a moment as the roar of the blast finally reaches the studio, rattling the camera. Startled by the shockwave, she ducks out of frame while the feed shakes.
“The painful blows have begun,” Katz, translated from Hebrew, wrote.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 16, 2025
Syria’s Health Ministry said the strike killed three people and wounded 34 others, according to NPR.
The bombing came after earlier Israeli strikes on Syrian tanks sent south to quell deadly clashes between Bedouin and Druze communities, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Druze — an ethnoreligious group with Islamic roots but distinct practices — inhabit areas spanning Israel’s northern border and Syria’s southern frontier. Amid the escalating violence, Israel has positioned itself as their protector.
“Israel is committed to preventing harm being inflicted on the Druze in Syria, owing to the deep covenant of blood with our Druze citizens in Israel and their historical and familial link to the Druze in Syria,” Katz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement Tuesday. “We are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them, and to ensure the demilitarization of the region adjacent to our border with Syria.”
The footage echoes a June incident in which an Iranian news anchor was caught on live television reacting to an Israeli airstrike as it hit her studio.
Christians were attacked in their places of worship on Sunday in two assaults thousands of miles apart in Michigan and in Damascus, Syria. Experts say the attacks are reminders that Christian churches continue to be prime targets for terrorism both domestically and across the globe, and that churches should take appropriate security measures to protect themselves.
On Sunday morning in Wayne, Michigan, a 31-year-old white male dressed in tactical gear and carrying a “long gun and handgun” attempted to enter CrossPointe Community Church during services, but was thwarted by parishioners, one of whom struck the gunman with his vehicle amid gunfire. Eventually, two church staff members fatally shot the individual. One staff member was shot in the leg during the incident.
So far, local police have not been able to determine a motive for the attack. “His motivations are unknown, but at this point it appears he was suffering from a mental health crisis,” Wayne Police Chief Ryan Strong stated.
At the same time almost 6,000 miles away, a far more serious attack on Christians occurred on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria. As worshippers prayed inside a Greek Orthodox church, a suicide bomber shot his way inside before detonating himself, killing at least 25 and injuring an estimated 63 others. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Syrian authorities say the terrorist was affiliated with the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS).
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, himself a former member of radical Islamist groups, called the attack “heinous” and vowed to bring justice to the perpetrators. The interior ministry reportedly arrested “a number of criminals involved in the attack” and seized explosive devices, saying that the operation was carried out against cells affiliated with ISIS. Al-Sharaa has vowed to bring stability to Syria after his rebel group ousted the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad last year. President Trump and Republican members of Congress have met with al-Sharaa, and Trump has expressed interest in normalizing relations with the new government.
The two attacks are the latest in a rising pattern of violence occurring against Christian churches both domestically and internationally. A 2024 report from Family Research Council found that 915 acts of hostility occurred against churches in the U.S. over the past six years, including “vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, bomb threats, and more.” The report further found that the 436 incidents that occurred in 2023 represented an eight-fold increase when compared to the number of incidents that occurred in 2018. Globally, Open Doors reported earlier this year that numerous countries have seen “an increase in anti-Christian violence.” According to the organization, approximately 365 million Christians are currently subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination,” compared to 340 million in 2021.
“It’s jarring to see violence against churches full of believers mirrored in the United States and Syria on the same weekend,” Arielle Del Turco, director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty, told The Washington Stand. “These acts are intended not only to end the lives of the Christians who gathered in those churches, but to terrorize and intimidate Christians far beyond the walls of those churches in Michigan or Damascus. We can pray for peace and safety for Christians around the world going to worship the Lord in community.”
She continued, “At a political level, the Trump administration should speak up on behalf of persecuted Christians at home and abroad, and work to ensure the nominee for the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom is confirmed by the Senate quickly and can bolster the administration’s work to promote religious freedom around the globe.”
As to what churches in America can do to better protect themselves against violent attacks, security experts like former FBI senior director Wiley Thompson say that every church should find “a good leader with a good heart for service, who can recruit, organize, train, and deploy volunteers” in order to protect congregations from physical harm.
“When designing a security ministry, the altar, platform, or stage in the sanctuary represents the center point for imaginary strategic circles (or ‘layered security’),” he told TWS.
Thompson, a 25-year FBI veteran, further explained, “The first layer is the outermost ring surrounding the church property which can generally be staffed with parking lot greeters who observe and report anyone or anything that looks suspicious. The idea is to identify and engage a potential threat before it reaches the doors to the church building.”
He continued, “The second layer of security is the greeters and members of the welcome team who are trained to conduct behavioral profiling and communicate to the security team anyone or anything out of the ordinary. The third layer is the ushers, deacons, pastoral staff, etc., inside the sanctuary, who have the same responsibilities as those in the second layer.”
“The final layer is the posting of two security team members on the stage facing the congregation and one on the front row, with direct line of sight and path to the pastor or priest at the pulpit,” Thompson detailed. “The two are responsible for detecting and deterring any threat moving toward the pulpit during the service, while the gatekeeper in the front row has the primary duty of protecting the speaker by moving forward and leading the principal off the stage to a safe room, if necessary.”
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The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2025-06-25 06:23:132025-06-25 06:28:51Christians Attacked during Sunday Worship in Michigan and Syria
After much military maneuvering, Israel has finally reached a point of face-to-face negotiations with Syria. “Exclusive: Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security, sources say,” by Timour Azhari and Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Reuters, May 27, 2025:
DAMASCUS, May 27 (Reuters) – Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have in recent weeks held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region between the two longtime foes, five people familiar with the matter said.
The contacts mark a significant development in ties between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades, as the U.S. encourages the new Islamist rulers in Damascus to establish relations with Israel and Israel eases its bombardment of Syria.
They also build on back-channel talks via intermediaries since Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad in December, said two Syrian and two Western sources, as well as a regional intelligence source familiar with the matter.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject for two nations with no official ties and a history of enmity. The direct talks and their scope have not been previously reported.
On the Syrian side, the sources said contacts have been led by senior security official Ahmad al-Dalati, who was appointed governor of the province of Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after the fall of Assad…..
Syria is ruled by violent jihadists, from its leader Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani (aka Ahmed Al-Sharaa) to his jihadist following, who have been accused of engaging in the slaughter of Christians, Alawites, Druze and other minorities. Jihadists have continued to kill Israelis through the decades, and break ceasefire agreements and other agreements. Regarding Syria, Israel immediately set up a defense perimeter on the collapse of Assad regime, despite the unreasonable demands and objections of its Arab neighbors. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and UN condemned Israel for a supposed “dangerous land grab in Syria” in December. Of course, it was not about a land grab, but about protecting the Jewish state from more jihadist attacks.
According to the Media Line, Israel managed to secure control over “the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria that was established as part of a 1974 ceasefire reached between the two hostile countries. In that buffer zone is Mt. Hermon’s highest peak, the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The territory guarantees strategic control over the whole southern Syrian arena, which generates an immediate threat to Israel…..There is no higher vantage point than the Syrian part of the Golan.”
Jihadists cannot be trusted or appeased, but now with Trump’s influence in Syria, combined with Israel’s buffer zones and the Israeli air strikes that have destroyed most of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles, Syrian President Al-Jolani is backed into a corner and has little choice but to cooperate with Israel. Reuters also reported Al-Jolani “confirmed indirect talks with Israel that he said were aimed at calming tensions, a striking admission that followed a Reuters report that the UAE was mediating such talks.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2025-05-29 11:32:132025-05-29 11:52:22Israel and Syria in Face-to-Face Meetings Focused on Security
The world witnessed the quintessential President Donald Trump as he brokered major deals with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. I’m reminded of my first meeting with President Trump at the White House during his first administration. The meeting started late because he was personally negotiating the cost of a military aircraft contract. It was clear then — as it is now — that this is the president’s “happy place.” And for good reason: over his 78 years, he’s been remarkably successful at it.
More than ever, it’s evident that President Trump views the world through the lens of a business deal — how to make the best one possible.
In his speech in Riyadh, the president rightly criticized the failures of previous U.S. approaches in the region:
“The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits. … In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
President Trump is right. While I supported efforts to eliminate terrorist threats to the United States — and still believe we have a moral and strategic responsibility to protect ourselves and Israel from a nuclear-equipped Iran — I opposed the Bush-era notion of “nation building” from the beginning. The belief that, with enough money, one could till the soil of Islamic authoritarianism and plant the seeds of freedom endemic to our constitutional Republic was rooted in a deeply flawed worldview. It was a fool’s errand to think that drafting a constitution for Afghanistan would give rise to a nation that recognizes and protects God-given rights. Freedom is not the product of imposed institutions — it springs from a transformed people, something politics, foreign aid, and even business alone can never produce.
In fact, that flawed thinking is cut from the same ideological cloth as Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. After 50 years, it had cost taxpayers more than $22 trillion — with little to show for it in terms of real human flourishing. The worldview behind the Great Society echoes that of Karl Marx, who wrote:
“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but their social being that determines their consciousness.”
In other words, material reality shapes identity — a belief that external change creates internal transformation.
But that’s not the American view. The freedoms and prosperity we’ve enjoyed for nearly 250 years are rooted in a Judeo-Christian worldview — one that understands man is not changed by his environment but rather changes his environment through a transformed life made possible by a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
That worldview once permeated American life. While it has weakened over the last 60 years, it remains embedded in our national DNA. It’s what makes our capitalist system work — and what makes the art of the deal possible.
As we engage with the Middle East, we must recognize this: business deals and wealth creation alone will not cause authoritarian regimes to abandon totalitarianism or their tolerance for terrorism. As we’ve seen, it will only give them more resources to threaten the West.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2025-05-19 14:57:112025-05-19 14:59:32PERKINS: Man Cannot Live on Business Alone
He saw that the Qatari plane worked, and now all the jihad leaders think Trump can be bribed. That was just another reason why the Qatari plane was unwise to accept.
“Report: Syria’s Jihadi Leader ‘Wants a Trump Tower in Damascus,’” by John Hayward, Breitbart, May 12, 2025:
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of jihadist terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), reportedly offered oil and gas concessions, peaceful relations with Israel, and even a new Trump Tower in the capital of Damascus as inducements for President Donald Trump to meet with him during Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week.
The report came from Jonathan Bass, CEO of Louisiana-based natural gas company Argent LNG and a strong Trump supporter. Bass flew to Damascus last week and met with Sharaa to discuss proposals for Western companies to help develop Syria’s oil resources….
Sharaa is clearly hoping Trump might break the ice by giving him a meeting, paving the way for other Western governments to do the same….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2025-05-14 05:20:572025-05-14 05:24:51Syria’s jihadist president offers a Trump Tower in Damascus if Trump will meet with him
In Latakia, the stronghold of the Alawites, jihadists belonging to Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s government and unaffiliated Sunni gunmen as well have been fighting with the locals, and so far have murdered 340 Alawite civilians. These civilians are being held collectively responsible for the atrocities carried out by Bashar Assad, who is himself an Alawite and relied on his Alawite-officered army to suppress the Sunnis during Syria’s long civil war, that lasted from 2011 to the end of 2024. More on the fighting in Latakia can be found here: “Over 340 civilians killed by Syrian government-linked gunmen – report,” Reuters, March 8, 2025:
Syrian security forces and affiliated gunmen killed more than 340 civilians, the vast majority of them from the Alawite minority, over the last two days, Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Saturday.
Other Syrian sources have reported casualties somewhere between 180-200.
The state media, now run by the victorious Sunni rebels, headed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose rule has replaced that of Assad, is claiming that the Alawite civilians were killed not by the government’s security services, but by “individuals” who, it did not need to be said, were exacting revenge for relatives murdered by the Alawite-dominated Assad regime.
Syrian state media on Thursday cited an interior ministry source as saying “individual violations” had occurred during a government operation to crack down on terrorists linked to the ousted Assad regime and said it was working to address the incidents….
Ever since the 1930s, when the French, then holders of the League of Nations Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, favored the Alawites as enforcers of government decrees, for they were deemed less hostile to the French than the Sunnis i helped to make them a military caste, the Alawites have been the backbone of the Syrian army. Now the Alawites are bottled up in Latakia, but many still have their weapons from their army days, and have been ambushing the new government’s jihadist military, that has arrived in Latakia to crush them. And those forces, as well as individual Sunnis, have responded with massacres of Alawite civilians. More than 340 Alawite civilians are reported to have been killed by March 8, and the killing in Latakia continues. Other reports claim that 1,800 civilians, mostly Alawites but including some Greek Orthodox and Melkites, have now been killed by the security services of Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Sunni security services.
They included at least two dozen male residents of the Alawite town of Al Mukhtareyah killed by gunmen on Friday, the Observatory and two Alawite activists said, citing contacts in the region and video footage from the scene.
In his first comments on the violence, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said government forces would pursue “remnants” of the ousted Bashar al Assad government and bring them to trial. He also said that those who assaulted civilians would be held accountable.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is himself a Sunni jihadist, though he presents himself to the world as a “moderate” who long ago ended his earlier connections to both ISIS and Al-Qaeda. He will do little to stop, or to punish, members of his own security services, or Sunni individuals who have been massacring Alawite civilians.
“We will continue to pursue the remnants of the fallen regime .. . We will bring them to a fair court, and we will continue to restrict weapons to the state, and no loose weapons will remain in Syria,” Sharaa added in a pre-recorded speech.
Syrian authorities said the violence began when remnants loyal to Assad launched a deadly and well-planned attack on their forces on Thursday.
Perhaps Assad loyalists were the first to launch attacks in this latest phase of the fighting. Ot it may have been the army of Sunni jihadists sent by Al-Sharaa’s government to quell an incipient Alawite rebellion. It’s not possible to know for certain who started the fighting. But it is known that among those killed have been at least 340 Alawite civilians. Some Christians — Greek Orthodox — have also been murdered by the security services, and they had at no time attacked the Sunni military. They have been murdered by the jihadists simply for being Christians.
The violence has shaken Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate control as his administration struggles to get US sanctions lifted and grapples with wider security challenges, notably in the southwest, where Israel has said it will prevent Damascus from deploying forces.
The IDF is now on the Syrian side both of Mt. Hermon, and the Golan Heights, and has no intention of leaving. The Syrians are not able to go to war against Israel, given that the IDF has destroyed a great amount of the weaponry that had been left behind by the Syrian army when it suddenly collapsed after the rebels, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, took Damascus, and Assad decamped to Moscow.
The oil-rich northeast of the country also remains outside state control, held by a US-backed Kurdish-led group….
About 30% of Syria remains under Kurdish control. This is the part of Syria where the country’s oilfields are located. The Kurds are under military threat, not from the fellow Syrians in Damascus, but from the Turkish troops that have seized an enclave in the Kurdish-held territory and threaten to push the Kurds further south. Meanwhile, the American base is one source of security for the local Kurds, who collaborated with the Americans on wiping out ISIS in eastern Syria and remain solidly pro-American. The American military, in turn, knows it can count on the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), to fight jihadists, not just ISIS as it has done in the past, but now including those now trying to consolidate their rule in Syria.
Iran, formerly Assad’s closest ally, said it “strongly opposes insecurity, violence, killing and harming innocent Syrians from every group and tribe.”…
Iran was always a strong supporter of the Assad regime, and of their fellow Shiites, the Alawites, and now the Iranians must watch in horror as their Alawite allies, including mostly their civilians, are under ferocious attack by the government’s Sunni, even jihadist, military.
Just a day after the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had seized Damascus, and Bashar Assad had fled to Moscow, Assad’s army crumbled into dust, with soldiers ripping off their uniforms so as to avoid being killed by vengeful, and now triumphant, rebels. Those soldiers left largely unattended huge quantities of weaponry. The IDF seized the occasion to improve its defensive posture against Syria. There was a brief window of just a few days, between the fall of Assad and the regime in Damascus stabilizing and taking control of those abandoned weapons, during which the IDF did two things. First, it moved Israeli soldiers into Syria, where they established two new military outposts, one on the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon, and one extending further into Syria from the pre-existing buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian troops on the Golan. Now the IDF controls the commanding heights that extend into Syria; the Israelis have a clear unimpeded view of Damascus — now literally in their sights — far below.
The second undertaking, which began just as soon as Assad had left for Russia, was the IDF’s systematic destruction of the Syrian army’s weaponry. The Israelis knew exactly where the weapons were located; they had long been preparing for a possible war against Assad, and had their target bank ready.
The IDF announced on December 10 that its air force and navy had conducted over 480 strikes in Syria in the span of 48 hours, 350 of which targeted airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, missiles, drones, fighter jets, tanks, and weapon production sites, destroying between 70% and 80% of Syria’s strategic weapons. It also sank Syria’s navy. And there was nothing that Ahmed al-Sharaa and the men of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham could do about it. Now Israel has not only made itself much safer, having removed Syria as a viable military threat to the Jewish state, but also has “demilitarized” the Jihadists in Damascus.
We have just seen that after al-Sharaa’s repeated promise that Syria’s minorities had nothing to worry about, decently, the jihadist “security services” — as they call themselves — entered Latakia to capture or kill Alawite members of Assad’s army. They were apparently ambushed by Alawite veterans of Assad’s army, and suffered a loss of 125 men. At that point, they decided to take revenge on the civilian population, killing more than 1,000 Alawite civilians — some reports claim up to 4,000 civilians have now been killed, and they also have been killing Christians — mostly Greek Orthodox but including some Melkites — because, of course, that’s what jihadists like to do. More than a thousand civilians, possibly as many as 4,000 according to some Alawite sources, have been killed in the space of two days. That’s a lot, but imagine what the jihadists could have done if they still possessed all the weapons that Israel destroyed, and had been able to use them not only in campaigns against the three million Alawites in Latakia and Tartous, but also against the four million Kurds, the 600,000 Druze, and also to crush other Sunni groups that have been disabused of their initial hopes for a “moderate” HTS, now that its jihadist ideology has been revealed. All of those threatened minorities in Syria owe the IDF a debt of gratitude, as the unintended beneficiaries of its successful campaign to destroy the weaponry left behind by Assad’s army.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2025-03-10 06:01:092025-03-10 06:04:13Israel was Right to Be Aggressive in Syria
This facility was financed by Iran, and used to manufacture precision missiles for Hezbollah in Lebanon and for the Assad regime in Syria.
Israel’s military (the IDF) continues to perform brilliantly, courageously, and heroically as it dismantles Iran’s terror armies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. And with the return of President Trump, Israel is going to finally destroy Iran’s nuclear program sometime in 2025. The genocidal terror regime in Iran is coming to an end.
Elite Israeli commandos from the Shaldag unit executed a covert operation in Syria, targeting an Iranian-built missile factory. This facility, dubbed “Deep Layer,” was ingeniously constructed deep underground to withstand aerial attacks, showcasing Iran’s strategic efforts to shield its military production from conventional strikes.
For over half a decade, Israeli intelligence had kept a watchful eye on the development of this site, indicating the long-term planning and patience required for such a high-stakes mission.
The operation was twice postponed due to the immense risks involved.
Elite Air Force unit breached underground facility 200 kilometers from Israel, laid explosives and escaped unscathed after 2.5 hours, in one of the most complex operations to date
The Israeli Air Force on Thursday revealed details and footage from one of its most daring and complex commando operations ever, in which 120 members of special forces units raided and destroyed an underground Iranian missile manufacturing plant deep in Syria in September.
At the time, the regime of Bashar al-Assad was still in power in Syria, and Israel had not yet launched its devastating campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Some of the details of the September 8 operation previously reported by foreign media outlets — including the name of the raid — are now known to have been wrong, or slightly incorrect.
Amidst the chaos in Syria, and with grave doubts about what’s to come, despite the soothing assurances about protecting the rights of minorities that Ahmad al-Sharaa (a/k/a Mohamed al-Jolani) keeps issuing, the Jewish state worries that the instability in Syria could lead to a takeover of the country by jihadists, possibly led by other leaders in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who do not share Al-Sharaa’s putative change of heart, or by leaders from other rebel factions.
More on the IDF’s most recent actions in Syria can be found here: “Syria can help Israel ‘completely destroy enemy armies without war,’ expert says,” by Keren Setton, The Media Line, December 11, 2024:
Israel’s concern that the instability in Syria could spill over into its territory has led it to major action in the neighboring country, essentially opening an additional front in the multi-front war it has been engaged in for fourteen months.
Over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria that was established as part of a 1974 cease-fire reached between the two hostile countries.
In that buffer zone is Mt. Hermon’s highest peak, the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
“The territory guarantees strategic control over the whole southern Syrian arena, which generates an immediate threat to Israel,” Kobi Michael, a researcher at INSS and the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told The Media Line. “There is no higher vantage point than the Syrian part of the Golan.”
Power in Syria is now de-centralized, with the country fragmented between several groups, most of them extreme Islamist, potentially posing a new array of threats to Israel.
“Israel is not looking to apply sovereignty to the buffer zone, but rather to militarily control the area in order to prevent danger under conditions of instability,” Michael assessed….
The Israeli military swiftly entered Syria, apparently reaching deep into its territory and taking control of the peak of Mount Hermon, which allows for an advantageous view of both Syria and Lebanon. Reportedly, the army also conducted airstrikes in Syria against sites that stored unconventional weapons, air-defense systems, and navy vessels. Video on social media showed explosions in various cities and pictures of alleged Syrian Air Force bases destroyed.
“This is an unprecedented event in which the Israeli army has the ability to completely destroy an enemy army without a war,” said Michael. “This opportunity is being used wisely by Israel in order to ensure a better reality.”…
The IDF is not engaged in a war with Syria. It has no desire to conquer and permanently hold territory (Israel says its stay in the Syrian Golan is both “limited and temporary”), or to kill Syrians. Its only aim is to destroy military assets accumulated by the Assad regime, and that pose a potential threat to Israel. That is what Michael means by describing this as “the ability to completely destroy an enemy army without a war.”
“There is no way to tell where this is going,” said Michael. “Israel could be facing a difficult reality that will force it to stay and broaden its hold on territory, perhaps even act more forcefully in order to pre-empt danger.”
There is such great uncertainty as to who will emerge on top in Syria that the Israelis of necessity must assume the worst: a regime of jihadists who are intent on helping the Palestinians in Gaza and to “liberate Jerusalem” as well, which is what some HST members have just vowed to do on social media. Al-Jolani spent decades allied with Al-Qaeda and ISIS; how likely is it that he has had a conversion on the road to Damascus, and no longer sees himself as a jihadist? Israel can take no chances.
Meanwhile, the IAF keeps on keeping on, this week concentrating on the coastal area around Tartus. Possibly the IAF had been waiting until the Russians had left to strike this area. One of its bombs was so powerful that it has been described as an “earthquake bomb,” even measuring, according to a Turkish source, 3 on the Richter scale. Israel’s military, meanwhile, says it has laid waste to most of Assad’s heavy weapons and air defenses. The IDF said that it had “inflicted severe damage on Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets and helicopters, Scud missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea precision-guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, rockets, and more.”
And this has been accomplished not during a war, but proleptically, by stripping Syria of its weapons, so that it won’t be able for many years to launch or join a war against Israel or cause harm to its other neighbors. Keep it up, Israel. You are now close to turning Syria, which has been a promoter of violence at home and abroad for the past 54 years, into a demilitarized country, that can no longer do you, or the region, or the world, any harm. The world may denounce you, but that world will be a safer place.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2024-12-22 06:47:002024-12-22 06:51:09Israel Destroys Syrian Military Without a War
