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Trump Ally Suspends Defense Agreement With Israel After IDF Fired Warning Shots At Country’s Peacekeeping Convoy

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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has suspended the nation’s defense cooperation agreement with Israel amid the war with Iran.

Meloni spoke outside a wine industry event in Verona Tuesday, where she told reporters the Italian government “has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel in consideration of the current situation,” according to a Politico report.

The defense agreement was first established in 2003. It covers the transfer of military equipment and technology-related research between Italy and Israel’s armed forces, and it is set to automatically renew every five years, Politico reported.

The development comes amid rising tensions between Italy and Israel, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired warning shots at an Italian peacekeeping convoy in Lebanon on April 8, according to a Politico report.

“A logistics convoy of the Italian contingent, moving from Shama towards Beirut, was subjected to warning shots fired by the IDF about two kilometres from the base of departure,” the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, stated April 8. The peacekeepers were with UNIFIL, or the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

(Read more from “Trump Ally Suspends Defense Agreement With Israel After IDF Fired Warning Shots At Country’s Peacekeeping Convoy” HERE)

Trump Hit with ‘Haunting’ Blackmail Theory Explaining His Iran Moves: ‘We’re not joking’

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Over the past month, President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his administration’s war against Iran, culminating with his threat to destroy Iran’s entire civilization earlier this week, but according to Tucker Carlson’s independent media outlet, a “blackmail” operation could potentially be forcing the president’s hand.

The theory was outlined in a Friday morning newsletter from the Tucker Carlson Network, which pointed to a past incident that some have characterized as an attempted effort to blackmail a sitting U.S. president. Specifically, the newsletter cites claims made by political writer Daniel Halper in his 2014 biography “Clinton Inc.,” supported in part by sworn testimony given in 1998 to the congressionally established Office of Independent Counsel.

“Establishment media never reports this, but the Israeli government has a storied history of blackmailing U.S. Presidents,” the newsletter reads. “Perhaps the most jarring example occurred in the 90s, when Israel used recordings of a Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky phone sex session as leverage to pressure Clinton into releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from prison. We’re not joking. That really happened.”

Evidence supporting the allegation that Israel had attempted to use phone recordings of Clinton and Lewinsky as “leverage” first emerged in 1998 after Lewinsky testified before the Office of Independent Counsel about her affair with the sitting president.

During her testimony, Lewinsky said that in early 1997, Clinton had told her “that he suspected a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, (he did not specify which one),” just one month after then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Clinton in the Oval Office. (Read more from “Trump Hit with ‘Haunting’ Blackmail Theory Explaining His Iran Moves: ‘We’re not joking’” HERE)

Israel Sold Trump On War With Shaky Intel Pitch: REPORT

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Israeli leaders convinced President Donald Trump to launch strikes on Iran with a plan some administration officials described as “farcical,” a new report claims.

U.S. cabinet officials such as CIA Director John Ratcliffe voiced skepticism of Israel’s plan for attack and regime change in Iran just weeks before the war began, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. However, Trump appeared to have already been sold on the plan after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Situation Room on Feb. 11.

The plan laid out by Israeli officials in a top-secret meeting at the White House included killing the ayatollah, weakening the regime and installing a secular leader to take over the nation. But several top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, doubted the possibility of the U.S. and Israeli forces to conduct a full regime change.

“Sir, this is, in my experience, standard operating procedure for the Israelis. They oversell, and their plans are not always well-developed. They know they need us, and that’s why they’re hard-selling,” Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine reportedly said in the Situation Room meeting the following day.

“In other words, it’s bullshit,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly said. . .

Trump remained set on killing the ayatollah and destroying the Iranian military anyway, NYT reported, adding that instituting a full regime change would not be the U.S.’s problem. (Read more from “Israel Sold Trump On War With Shaky Intel Pitch: REPORT” HERE)

Israel First Has Severed MAGA

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In July of 2023, long before it became clear that Israel would become a defining topic of MAGA 2.0 and the Trump presidency, Tucker Carlson gave a speech at a Turning Point USA event when it was still uncontroversial for him to be there.

“What are the crimes that are punished?” Carlson asked the crowd. “Thought crimes. Thinking the ‘wrong’ thing. Having the ‘wrong’ beliefs. Saying unapproved words. And those words are always true.”

“How do you know what’s true? That’s a great question,” Carlson continued. “Who are the thought criminals and what are they saying?”

Tucker Carlson has certainly become the thought criminal he presciently described over two and a half years ago. And he’s perhaps committed the greatest sin of all in America: telling the truth when powerful people are not.

At the time of his speech, Oct. 7 hadn’t happened, Charlie Kirk was still alive and leading TPUSA, and Carlson had not yet campaigned alongside Donald Trump.

Fast forward to January 2025 and Trump — with the support of Carlson and a bipartisan coalition of other independent thinkers, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Marjorie Taylor Greene — arrived back at the White House with truly a once in a generation opportunity and the political capital to do the radically unthinkable in Washington: focus on America and the problems that ail us here. (Read more from “Israel First Has Severed MAGA” HERE)

‘Manifestly Unreasonable’: Israeli Police Block Catholic Cardinal From Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass At Christ’s Tomb

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Israel Bars Catholic Officials from Praying at Holy Site, Outraging US Ambassador Mike Huckabee

By New York Post. Israel barred Catholic officials from privately praying at a historic Jerusalem church for the first time in centuries over security concerns involving the war — sparking outcry from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

Catholic higher-ups were already told they could not hold Mass at the city’s famed Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried, on the Palm Sunday.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, and Father Francesco Ielpo, who oversees the sacred site, as well as two other priests were then on their way to the church for private prayer when they were halted by Israeli police early Sunday, Catholic officials said.

While Huckabee said it is reasonable for large gatherings to be put on pause amid Iran’s retaliatory bombardments, the US ambassador to Israel contended it is unacceptable for Israeli police to stop the four clergymen from making their own private visit to the church in Jersualem’s Old City.

“The action today by the Israel Nat’l Police to deny Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and 3 other priests from entering the Church to offer a blessing on Palm Sunday is an unfortunate overreach already having major repercussions around the world,” Huckabee wrote on X. (Read more from “Israel Bars Catholic Officials from Praying at Holy Site, Outraging US Ambassador Mike Huckabee” HERE)

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‘Manifestly Unreasonable’: Israeli Police Block Catholic Cardinal From Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass At Christ’s Tomb

By Daily Caller. Israeli police prevented a Catholic Cardinal from celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at the church traditionally believed to have been built over site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and burial, adding a new dynamic to the ongoing tensions in the Middle East.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and the highest-ranked Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, was traveling with the official guardian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, when they “were stopped en route, while proceeding privately and without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act,” according to an official joint statement. . .

Warning of the “grave precedent” the incident risks setting as “billions … this week, look to Jerusalem,” the statement notes how seriously local Church officials have complied with the restrictions imposed by the civil authorities, despite disruptions and inconveniences. The restrictions have not always been evenly implemented, Reuters reported, citing local residents. Muslim preachers during Ramadan and a Western Wall cleaning crew ahead of Passover, for example, were allowed access to their respective holy sites in certain circumstances.

“The Heads of the Churches have acted with full responsibility,” the statement continues, “and, since the outset of the war, have complied with all imposed restrictions: public gatherings were cancelled, attendance was prohibited, and arrangements were made to broadcast the celebrations to hundreds of millions of faithful worldwide, who, during these days of Easter, turn their eyes to Jerusalem and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

“Preventing the entry of the Cardinal and the Custos, who bear the highest ecclesiastical responsibility for the Catholic Church and the Holy Places, constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure,” the statement went on to criticize. “This hasty and fundamentally flawed decision, tainted by improper considerations, represents an extreme departure from basic principles of reasonableness, freedom of worship, and respect for the Status Quo [sic].”

(Read more from “‘Manifestly Unreasonable’: Israeli Police Block Catholic Cardinal From Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass At Christ’s Tomb” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

CNN Journalist Put In Chokehold By IDF Soldiers

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Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers put CNN photojournalist Cyril Theophilos in a chokehold before detaining him and a group of journalists.

The CNN team was interviewing Palestinians in the West Bank town of Tayasir when IDF soldiers pointed weapons at the group and detained them for two hours, CNN reported.

The crew was reporting on recent settler attacks on Palestinians, including one attack that left 75-year-old Abdullah Daraghmeh with a fractured skull, the outlet reported.

The attack comes amid a larger trend of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Last year marked a record high for settlement expansion since the United Nations began tracking settler activity, the BBC reported.

According to the Times of Israel, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts in addition to approximately 3 million Palestinians. (Read more from “CNN Journalist Put In Chokehold By IDF Soldiers” HERE)

Vance Reportedly Rebukes PM in Difficult Call for Overselling Chances of Iran Regime Change

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US Vice President JD Vance held a tense phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week, in which he chided the premier for making overly optimistic predictions about the war in Iran, Axios reports.

Vance took Netanyahu to task over how likely the latter said regime change would be, the outlet reported.

“Before the war, Bibi really sold it to the president as being easy, as regime change being a lot likelier than it was. And the VP was clear-eyed about some of those statements,” a US official tells Axios, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Following the call, a US official claims to the outlet that Israel is undermining Vance, who has taken a leading role in negotiating a ceasefire with the Islamic Republic. Vance, a longtime public opponent of open-ended foreign wars, is joining the talks alongside US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The US official accused Israel of being behind reports that Iran wants to negotiate with Vance, seeing him as more amenable to reaching a deal to end the war. (Read more from “Vance Reportedly Rebukes PM in Difficult Call for Overselling Chances of Iran Regime Change” HERE)

IDF Chief Warns of ‘Collapse’ as Israel Delays Ultra-Orthodox Draft

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The Israel Defense Forces is “on the verge of collapse” due to acute personnel shortages, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has warned, according to local media. Opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of stalling on drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Military service is mandatory for most Israeli citizens, both men and women. However, members of the Haredi community have historically been exempt from conscription. While the Israeli Supreme Court revoked the exemption in June 2024, Netanyahu’s cabinet has so far delayed drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Parties within the ruling coalition representing the Haredi community have repeatedly threatened to withdraw support for Netanyahu should he introduce the measure.

Addressing the cabinet on Wednesday, Lieutenant General Zamir said he was “raising ten red flags for you before the IDF collapses,” as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

In addition to its ongoing campaign against Iran, the Israeli military is continuing its years-long operation against Hamas in Gaza. The IDF also launched an incursion into southern Lebanon in early March, targeting Hezbollah militants. (Read more from “IDF Chief Warns of ‘Collapse’ as Israel Delays Ultra-Orthodox Draft” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Uganda’s Military Chief offers to Fight for Israel

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Uganda’s military chief has offered to fight alongside Israel in its war against Iran.

Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba posted a series of messages on social media saying his country could enter the conflict if hostilities escalated.

He called for a swift end to the fighting while warning that any attempt to destroy Israel could prompt Uganda to enter the war on Israel’s side.

“If Israel needs help, it only need ask. Their Ugandan brothers are ready to assist,” said Gen Kainerugaba, who is the son of Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president.

He framed his support based on historical ties, acknowledging Israel’s past support for Uganda. (Read more from “Uganda’s Military Chief offers to Fight for Israel” HERE)

Netanyahu’s Jesus Remark Sparks Outrage: ‘One of the Most Disgusting Anti-Christian Comments I’ve Heard From a World Leader’

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (March 19) delivered a press conference amid the war between the US-Israel and Iran. Even as he spoke about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, a comment he made about Jesus Christ and Genghis Khan sparked a row, with many accusing Netanyahu of being “anti-Christian.”

In his address, Netanyahu said: “Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan. If you are strong enough, ruthless enough, and powerful enough, evil will overcome good.” His comments seemed to come in reference to a 2019 interview where he summarized historian Will Durant’s book “The Lessons of History.”

The clip of Netanyahu’s remark went viral, with many interpreting the comments as anti-Christian.

“This is one of the most disgusting anti-Christian comments I’ve heard from a world leader. Just another example of Netanyahu exposing his anti-Christian beliefs. And many Christians will again choose to ignore it,” one user said. . .

“Is there any more proof this guy is pure evil and anti Christian?” wrote another.

(Read more from “Netanyahu’s Anti-Christian Jesus Remark Sparks Outrage” HERE)