ORIGIN OF IRAN’S TERRORIST GOVERNMENT & ITS PROXIES

For additional information about Iran

My book, “Proud to be American”, is on sale now at Amazon and also can be ordered from any bookstore for $17.95.  It’s a 330-page paperback with 70 of my best articles in nine categories and with 70 pictures.  It analyzes national, international, and domestic problems and critiques Mainstream Media and the far left of the Democrat Party.   #          #          #          # 

How did the current terrorist government get control of Iran and become a serious threat to the entire Middle East and the world?  That’s what this post is about, along with how the U.S. inadvertently facilitated this.

The Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi)
came into power in 1954. He was a good friend of the United States.  In 1964 he exiled radical Muslim  extremist, Ayatollah Khomeini.  Widely reported in the news  was that President Jimmy Carter persuaded/coerced the Shah to allow Khomeini to return to Iran.  The Shah complied and Khomeini returned in February 1979.The Shah then came to the United State in October 1979 for cancer treatments.  Shortly thereafter, while the Shah was still in the U.S., Khomeini led a revolution in Iran and overturned the Shah’s pro-western government.

The Khomeini government, as part of its revolution, subsequently held 52 hostages from the U,S. embassy in Iran for 444 days and only released them 30 minutes after President Ronald Reagan assumed office on January 20, 1981.  Iran began its terrorist activities by funding various client terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.  It also began working on developing nuclear weapons as well as the missies capable of delivering warheads to its hated enemies, Israel (the “Little Satan”) and the United States (the “Big Satan”).

President Obama thought he could delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions and began negotiating with it and signed the “Iran nuclear deal” (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – “JCPOA”) with Iran in 2015, allegedly to delay it from developing a nuclear weapon.  It wasn’t a treaty because the Senate would not ratify it, but the “deal” cost the U.S. $150 billion and probably cost many lives because much of the money was used to fund Iran’s terrorist operations around the world.

When Donald Trump became President, his foreign policy advisors reviewed the deal and deemed it to be worse than worthless for many reasons, including: 1) no restrictions on the development of ballistic missiles, 2) no inspections allowed of military sites, 3) no cessation of proxy wars in the Middle East.  Trump gave Iran an opportunity to revise the agreement, but Iran refused and Trump consequently withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018 and also imposed sanctions on its sale of oil, keeping it poor and unable to fund any serious terrorist activities through its surrogates, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad.

When Joe Biden became President, he had negotiations re-started to get the U.S. back into the original agreement.  The new negotiations, however, appeared worse than the first, with Russia negotiating on behalf of the the United States and offering even more billions to Iran, in addition to removing the sanctions imposed by President Trump.  The short expiration dates in the deal remained the same as the original deal even though 7 years had elapsed since that deal was made (2015). In addition, the Biden Administration was eager to enter into the disastrous deal with Iran which says in order to delay its development of a nuclear bomb. However, Iran has cheated and hid some of its nuclear sites under the former deal and continued to develop missiles that could reach the United States.  I believe former president, Trump, had the right idea in keeping Iran poor with sanctions so it could not afford to sponsor many of its terrorist activities around the world nor develop a nuclear bomb or ICBMs.

This absurd “deal” was bad for the United States, Israel, and world peace and thankfully is now dead.  However, Iran can still produce nuclear bombs very quickly and the billions of dollars it made from the U.S. not enforcing the sanctions on its sale of oil has put it financially “back-on-its-feet” and now fully capable of funding large-scale terrorism once again (Iran sold 400,000 barrels/day of oil in 2020, 3 million barrels/day in 2023 and has made $40by-$80 billions of dollars from its sale of that oil, enabling it to fund the vicious 10/7/23 attack by Hamas on 1,400 mostly Israeli citizens).

CONCLUSION

Iran is the chief sponsor of terrorism in many countries.  Giving them billions of dollars facilitates this.  Iran currently sells missile-firing drones to Russia, which is using them in its war against Ukraine.  Moreover, it funds middle-eastern terrorist organizations such as Hamas, which on October 7, 2023, tortured and slaughtered 1,400 Israeli citizens and 32 Americans, as well as 232 hostages.  At government-sponsored rallies in Iran (and even on American college campuses), “Death to America” is chanted.  Iran has missiles capable of reaching its hated enemy, Israel and soon the United States as well.  Most Iranians are good people and many are even pro-western, much different that the fanatical leaders of the Iranian government.  Any funds the U.S. gives to Iran or money that Iran makes from the U.S. not enforcing its oil sanctions, is used to develop missiles that will be used against Israel and the U.S.

On October 18, 2023, President Joseph Biden, during his visit to Israel in the middle of war, gave a $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars) for Palestinian humanitarian relief, almost all of it will surely end up in the hands of Hamas who controls Gaza, and will fund terrorist activities in the Middle East. God help Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States!

On June 22, 2025, the U.S. military destroyed most of Iran nuclear facilities with its bunker-buster bombs in its Operation Midnight Hammer.  On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel began its war on Iran in Operation Epic Fury, destroying its nuclear and missile infrastructure, its navy, air force, and leadership.


 

ISRAEL AND PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Daniel Mariaschin, Executive Vice-President, B’nai B’rith International

My book, “Proud to be American” is on sale now for $16.95 from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The 300-page paperback book contains 68 of my best articles and 70 photos in 68 categories in addition to a provocative introduction and conclusion.

In light of the terrorist Iranian proxy, Hamas, killing 1400 Israelis and taking over 200 people hostage on October 7, 2023, I decided to air again one of my still-timely interviews with insightful Daniel Mariaschin, Executive Vice-president of B’nai B’rith International (25-minute audio of interview follows at the bottom of this introduction…click on the blue “play” button) because Israel and the Middle East are still in conflict with no end in sight and Mr. Mariaschin held the position, skills and experiences that enabled him to have keen insight and perception into the issues surrounding this ongoing tragedy.

While I interviewed Mr. Mariaschin years ago, almost everything we discussed is relevant to the situation today and therefore is still valuable.   At the time of my interview, Daniel Mariaschin had been working for B’nai B’rith for 24 years but had worked in the Jewish community in Jewish organizations for an additional 15 years, for a total of 39 years.  He holds an undergraduate degree in history from Columbia University and a graduate degree in Jewish studies from Brandeis University.  Mr. Mariaschin was born in the New York-New Jersey area and grew up in New Hampshire.  At the time of my interview, he was the Executive Vice President of B’nai B’rith International and the Director of B’nai B’rith’s Center for Human Rights and Public Policy.

The interview focuses on Israel and peace in the Middle East.  Because of his experience in foreign affairs, national defense, Israel, and articles he’s written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Chicago Tribune, the  Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and others, he has demonstrated that he knows what he’s talking about.

In the interview, Mr. Mariaschin discusses many aspects of:

  1. Israel and the Middle East, including insights into Hamas.
  2. The  prospects for peace
  3. The growing Iranian threat including its nuclear reactor in Bushere
  4. The “ground zero” mosque, life in Israel
  5. The book on Israel, Start-up Nation,
  6. The origins and mission of B’nai B’rith, and more.

To listen to Mr. Daniel Mariaschin’s interview, please click on the blue or red link  below.

MR. Daniel Mariaschin-Israel Audio

Interview by Mike Russo

SON OF HAMAS

For more information…

My book, “Proud to be American” is on sale now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for $16.95.  It’s a 300-page paperback book containing 68 of my best articles in 9 categories with a provocative introduction and conclusion, including this article, “Son of Hamas”.

I read a fascinating book by a courageous person: Mosab Hassan Yousef.  Mr. Yousef gave up so much that he held dear to follow the beliefs of his new religion, Christianity.  His devotion to Christ led him to helping people, all people: Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc.  His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was one of seven Palestinians that created Hamas in 1986, but Mr. Yousef was a principled and honorable man, unlike many of the other Hamas leaders, and led me to conclude that he is mostly responsible for his son also being a principled and honorable young man.

Christianity opened young Mosab’s mind to compassion and forgiveness and enabled him to take a second look at the Israelis, whom he had been taught to hate by the culture he was raised in.  At some point he thought that he could save many lives on all sides of the Palistinian-Israeli conflict by working with Israel’s Intelligence service, the Shin Bet.  In fact, he did save many innocent lives, including his father’s.

In the epilogue, postscript and afterwards, Mosab ends the book by telling about his encounters in America, which I found to be very interesting, because by the end of the book I cared about what happened to him.

The book forced me to rethink Hamas and its true intentions: killing Jews or political power or a genuine concern for Palestinians?  It also gave me a better appreciation on how being raised in a culture where hatred is celebrated, and also think about how fortunate I am for having been born and raised in America.  If you are interested in the Middle East, care about the people who live there, and want to understand what is happening there, this book should help.

 

HELLO KAMALA, GOODBYE AMERICA

Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris, after only a few weeks as the nominee, is doing much better than the former Democrat nominee, President Joe Biden, before he withdrew from the 2024 presidential race.  Why, given the fact that the Democrat Party was trying to replace her as the Democrat vice-presidential nominee since she had been less popular than President Biden.  That’s what this post is about.

According to the website, govTrack.com, vice-president Harris had the most far-left, liberal voting record in the Senate when she was a senator.  I heard her speak on TV at least twenty times, and every one of those times she gave her infamous “word salad” and sounded like a fool, though she read a decent teleprompter acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention on August 22 except for everything she about Donald Trump, which were all lies).  Since becoming a presidential nominee, she changed a few of her policy positions, like being against fracking to being for fracking.  In addition, she has not answered any policy questions as of November 2 and usually speaks from a teleprompter.  I don’t question that she a good person, but I do know that she is not qualified to be commander-in-chief of the military or president of the United States.  So I repeat my question, why is she doing so well?  Here’s my opinion:

Kamala is a Democrat and Main-Stream Media dream candidate for reasons that should not matter, one way or another, she’s (half) black and she’s a women.  In addition, the Main Stream Media, Academia, and Hollywood love anyone who is a far-left Democrat.  Proof?  Just one for now should suffice: Kamala is on the cover of Time magazine although she would not give Time an interview. Finally, Kamala obviously is not Donald Trump so it doesn’t matter to the Left how incompetent or ridiculous her policy positions have been because Trump is unacceptable since he would  shut down all of the Democrat’s devious and criminal power and money schemes.

Now let’s address the “goodbye America” that I included in the title to this post.  Why “goodbye America’?  Here’s why I think:

The very best predictor of future actions is  past actions!  Kamala’s past speeches and interviews while vice-president as well as her policy positions were terrible, and as attorney general of California she jailed many black men for simply possessing marijuana to improve her prosecutions record. Her followers are low-information or misinformation voters and have no idea about her former policy positions and speeches (Main Stream Media does not report anything that makes Democrats look bad).  Her staff as vice-president had a 92% turnover rate because of how badly she treated them.

Moreover, Harris has no foreign policy experience.  She was part of an Administration that opened up our borders to people from all over the world (at least 10,000,000), added over 20% inflation for their time in office, destroyed many businesses with their draconian Covid-19 shutdown mandates, were very tough on Israel and Jewish-Americans when they needed the U.S. the most, was part of Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan on a date certain rather than follow Trump’s plan to make our troops departure “conditions-based”  (which had the unintended consequences of Russia invading Ukraine, Hamas invading Israel, and China threatening Taiwan). Harris, with the Biden administration, gave Iran billions which enabled it to fund its many terrorist proxies to continue to attack Israel including the horrific slaughter by one of its proxies, Hamas, on October 7, 2024.  Finally, Harris, as vice-president, gave the tie-breaking deciding vote in the Senate to pass multi-trillion bills which led to over 20% total inflation for her time as vice-president.

If elected President of the United States, I believe Kamala Harris would continue her bad policies that led to the aforementioned disasters because, once again, the best predictor of future actions is past actions.  However, the very worst outcome would be the U.S. pulled into a major war within one year of Harris becoming president.

To read about Kamala’s corruption, check out the chapter, “Kamala Harris” in the 2020 book by Peter Schweizer, “Profiles in Corruption.”