GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 400

All About Trump

Iran Wants Netanyahu And Trump Killed

Well that didn’t take long. I’m talking about how Iran is trying to assassinate President elect Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We read more on the Iranians who were sent to take out Trump in a report from Foxnews.com:

The Justice Department says it has thwarted an Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the election.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City says an unnamed official in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had asked Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, in September to "focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump."

Outgoing US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Iran is a serious problem:

"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.

Garland also mentioned others that were in the crosshairs of the Iranian assassins:

"We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime," Garland added. "We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security."

The report also gives us more details on the Trump targeting:

"Shakeri has informed law enforcement that he was tasked on Oct. 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump," it added.

Trump was referred to in court filings as "Victim-4."

The Iranians didn’t care if Trump won or lost and even felt him losing would make it easier to kill him:

"According to Shakeri, during his meeting with IRGC Official-I on or about October 7, 2024, IRGC Official-I directed Shakeri to provide a plan within seven days to kill Victim-4. If Shakeri was unable to put forth a plan within that timeframe, IRGC Official-I continued, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Victim-4 until after the U.S. Presidential elections, because IRGC Official-I assessed that Victim-4 would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate Victim-4," the documents said.

Another Foxnews.com article confirms that Iran has no intention of stopping their attempts at assassinating Trump as they are fearful he will attack them once he move into the Oval Office. If Trump’s current comments are any indication of his intentions, Iran should fear him.

Qatar Suspends Hostage Talks

We read in an article from the Jerusalem Post that Qatar won’t hold negotiations on a Hostage deal until both sides show a willingness to want one:

Doha on Saturday suspended its mediation efforts to secure a Gaza hostage deal until such time as Israel and Hamas are serious about ending the war.

“Qatar notified the parties ten days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round,” the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari said in a statement posted on the Qatari News Agency website.

Qatar, who supports Hamas and allows their leaders to live there really showed their bias against Israel:

“Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians caused by catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the [Gaza] Strip,” Ansari said.

His country, he said, would not allow itself to be blackmailed as he appeared to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of reneging on assurances given to mediators and of continuing the Gaza war to serve his “narrow political purposes."

Some reports mentioned Qatar kicking out Hamas from their country, but Ansari denied that:

Ansari rejected as "inaccurate" reports that Qatar had closed the Hamas office in Doha, noting that “the main goal of the office in Qatar is to be a channel of communication between the concerned parties. This channel has contributed to achieving a ceasefire in previous stages, and contributed to maintaining calm in the Strip."

After less than a week of Trump winning the election, Qatar seems to sense urgency for a deal:

Its announcement late Saturday night comes amid political shake-ups in Washington and Jerusalem that are likely to impact policy with respect to a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. Sources in Jerusalem have speculated that Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House on Tuesday has given Qatar cold feet, fearing it will be held liable if the talks continue to fail once Trump is in the White House. During his first presidency, Trump in 2017 had worked to isolate Qatar from its Arab neighbors, charging that it was funding terror activity.

Netanyahu’s firing of Yoav Gallant and replacing him with Israel Katz is also a factor:

Doha’s announcement also comes just one day after Israel Katz replaced defense minster Yoav Gallant, who had supported ending the Gaza war in favor of a hostage deal. Katz is expected to stand with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in rejecting any permanent ceasefire until Hamas is completely destroyed in Gaza. Netanyahu has sought deals that allow Israel to retain security control of Gaza. Hamas has insisted that any deal must include an IDF pullout and an end to the war.

US Still Wants A Deal

The report also brought up that the US wants to broker a deal now that Trump won:

A senior Biden administration official told The Jerusalem Post that “The US is continuing to pursue a number of initiatives to secure the release of hostages; that work is ongoing,” but did not otherwise comment on the report of Qatar suspending its mediator role.

The last attempt at what was a small deal fell through when Hamas said no to it:

The last round of high-level talks led by CIA Director William Burns were held in Doha two weeks ago. Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani participated in the talks, which focused on a mini-deal that would be a confidence-building measure that could lead to a larger deal. Hamas rejected the initiative.

The US is talking to quite a few international leaders about getting a hostage agreement:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a slew of diplomatic telephone calls on Friday, in which he discussed the drive for a hostage deal. This included foreign ministers Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan from the UAE, and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud from Saudi Arabia. David Lammy of Britain and Annalena Baerbock from Germany.

Coming back to the issue of kicking out Hamas from Qatar we read this:

The US and Israel had asked Qatar to kick Hamas out of Doha as a pressure tactic to restart talks, with both governments blaming the terrorist group for the stalled negotiations.

The latest push from Washington for Qatar to act on that request came already two-weeks ago prior to the US election and it had been understood that Doha had agree to that request, but no action had actually been taken.

The US has been upset with Hamas since last August and justifiably so:

Washington has been particularly frustrated with Hamas in the aftermath of its execution of six hostages at the end of August during an intense round of talks when it had appeared that an agreed limited release of humanitarian captives was at hand. Among the six who were killed was Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Qatar needs to decide whose side they want to be on before Trump comes on the scene as we mentioned earlier. Up until now they’re still helping out Hamas:

Qatar, designated as a major non-NATO ally by Washington, has hosted Hamas's political leaders since 2012 as part of an agreement with the US.

It is unclear how many Hamas officials live in Doha, but they include several touted as possible replacements for leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israeli forces killed in Gaza last month, including Sinwar's deputy Khalil al-Hayya, who has led ceasefire negotiations for the group, and Khaled Meshaal, widely seen as Hamas' diplomatic face.

Although I haven’t mentioned it, word out of Yemen is that the Houthi rebels are ceasing their attacks on the US and Israel after the Trump election. Four days and all the world including those in the Middle East are changing their tunes. Who would have known?