The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel, and War Podcast

thereckoning

For nearly one-half of a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran made war, on different levels, against Israel and America. The war was conducted surreptitiously and overtly, boldly and timidly, militarily and non-militarily, conventionally and, usually, uncoventionally.  The attacks came from guns and bombs and words and funding. But the attacks continued. The Reckoning podcast examines the men and women behind this drama. What is Iran's argument with Israel and America? Why such passion?  All this and more is the subject of this podcast.  

Episodes

  1. 6d ago ·  Video

    The Reckoning - Monica Witt - A Traitor's Love Poem to Iran and More

    Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s episode will examine the strange case of Monica Witt – from all-American girl to a traitor for Iran. Here is an update to a podcast I made a few months ago. .               So, an all-American girl joins the Air Force, becomes an intelligence analyst, learns Persian, and defects to Iran. It doesn’t happen often. Generally, defections go the other way, from autocracy to freedom. There are, of course, exceptions. Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spies skedaddled to Moscow when their cover was blown. A few Americans hightailed it to Cuba. But this was rare. Rarer still was defecting to Iran. Some Iranians who lived in the West for a while returned to Iran. Maybe they have very aged parents, saw business opportunities, or were seized by religious conviction. But they were not defectors.  However one was, and her name is Monica Elfriede Witt. Witt was born in Texas, raised in Florida, served competently in the Air Force, earned an advanced degree at a top university, and then she defected. She claimed to use her intelligence background, knowledge of tradecraft, and personnel to support a higher purpose—serving the Islamic Republic of Iran. She was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to deliver national defense information to the Iranian government; prosecutors say Witt provided highly classified secrets to Iranian intelligence and helped them target operations after she defected to Tehran. She remains at large, with a $200,000 bounty from the U.S. Department of Justice.               So, What Happened?             Well, she didn’t like it in the Air Force.  Years after her service and speaking on Iran's Press TV, Witt criticized a "boy's club atmosphere" and widespread sexual harassment that she claimed was systemic in the U.S. military. In June 2008, she left the Air Force and earned a degree from the University of Maryland. With her security clearance and bachelor’s degree, she was well-positioned to work for national security contractors, a role she held for several years. From November 2008 to August 2010, she worked as a Middle East Desk Officer in Virginia. She later worked for a nonprofit organization that connected Middle Eastern students with Fulbright scholarships. She enrolled at George Washington University and partially paid her tuition through an Iraq Fulbright scholarship. You think she would be happy, but she wasn’t.  In choppy English, she published an article in the university’s International Affairs Review that was very critical of the United States.               . She, like many other university students, was openly critical of the United States, and at first her anti-American rhetoric was indistinguishable from that of other graduate students. Many Middle East studies departments have been highly hostile to the policies of successive administrations. They are also well-financed by Middle Eastern states. But the key here is that she began to show signs of disloyalty to the United States, and these signs were noted but not reported. Something similar happened with an Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Hasan. He began to turn away from his country and embrace radical Islam. He unleashed his fury on his fellow American soldiers as they were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. On a rampage, he shot at anything that moved, killing 14 and wounding and crippling others.               It is vital to note that both Hasan and Witt were ostentatiously disdainful of America, and their fellow students were concerned. But they were also worried about being tarred as a bigot or Islamophobic. Referring to Monica Witt, a fellow student at George Washington, later recalled, 'There weren't warning signs in terms of 'go to authorities' warning signs.' One student recalled that “everyone just kind of sat and watched” as Witt expressed strong opposition to American foreign policy in class. No one, it seems, pushed back with even a limited defense of America. According to some accounts, Witt was haunted by what she claimed were American war crimes in the Middle East. A classmate recalled that she said she had difficulty sleeping and reconciling her participation in the war effort. Witt would mention drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, and atrocities against children, all of which she claimed her colleagues in the military would brag about. She appeared distressed by what she called ‘gross incompetence’ by her superiors. Well, they were certainly not competent enough to catch on to her. And I am very dubious about her alleged war crimes.             The Hollywood Conferences 2012 and 2013               Her journey toward becoming an agent for the Iranian government took a significant step in 2012, when she attended a highly publicized conference in Tehran. Since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime has arranged visits for many influential intellectuals to speak at conferences, most of which are closely monitored by Iranian intelligence services. New Horizon, an organization backed by Iranian intelligence, hosts events featuring anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and far-left speakers.             A New Woman upon Return             After returning to the United States from the 2012 conference, Witt began wearing a hijab and often discussed her conversion to Islam. Some people found her comments on Iran troubling, viewing them as both concerning and openly supportive of the regime and its ideology. She delivered a class presentation that alarmed some students for its sympathetic tone toward the Iranian government. A fellow student recalled that Witt's paper sounded like a "love letter to Iran." The FBI also grew concerned. Several agents approached Witt and expressed concerns that Iran’s intelligence services might try to recruit her.             She met an Iranian-American spotter and recruiter for Iranian intelligence less than seven months after the New Horizon conference, according to an indictment charging her with multiple felonies. The indictment identified a person known as Individual A, who approached her, built a relationship, and arranged her re-entry into Iran in August 2013. Once there, Witt was provided with housing and computer equipment. Her defection was complete, and Ms. Witt, who had served ten years as an Air Force intelligence specialist, was now under the operational control of Iranian security services. She disclosed classified U.S. information and researched U.S. intelligence personnel she had worked with and knew professionally and socially. This information was used to create target packages.               Monica Witt’s Espionage – The Grand Jury Indictment             The grand jury indictment of Witt was unsealed during the week marking the fortieth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. In the same indictment, the grand jury charged four Iranian nationals with conspiracy, attempted computer intrusion, and aggravated identity theft. And what about Monica Witt today?  I don’t know. Has she been harmed in the spring 2026 US-Israel attacks on Iran?  She may have been. But in May 2026, the FBI announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to Witt's apprehension and prosecution. Something to think about. Eurovision Update Let’s revisit the Eurovision contest for an update. This is a good piece by a young Israeli, Yael Bar Tur. It gives a clearer picture of the voting rules and how they affected Israel’s strong performance. Each participating country — 35 this year — submits an original song, performed by a local singer or band. The real show begins when voting starts, and countries, through panels of judges and fans voting from home, unleash their lethal arsenal of soft power on one another. And unleash they do: Scandinavian countries all vote for each other, as do the Balkans. Ukraine won a landslide in 2022 amid international sympathy following Russia’s invasion. Its artists have been snubbed by fellow performers, and countries have even dropped out of the competition altogether to protest their presence. Israeli singers reportedly rehearse to a soundtrack of boos and jeers to simulate what they’ll inevitably face onstage. But scratch the glitter, and a brighter picture emerges. Amid all the controversy — and despite low points from judges’ panels (who wants to deal with all those mean Instagram comments?) — Israel has been reeling in record numbers of audience votes. In 2025, when judges ranked Israel’s entry 14th, the audience overwhelmingly picked it as their favorite, propelling it to the No. 2 spot overall. This year brought a similar result: The audience vote moved Israel from eighth place in the judges’ estimation to second in the final tally. Anti-Israel critics claimed the public support was the result of a sophisticated campaign by those crafty Zionists, but voters in countries like Albania, Finland and Portugal — not exactly known for their thriving Jewish communities — each awarded Israel the majority of their points. They just love the song, “Michelle.” Iranians in the diaspora campaigned on Bettan’s behalf, and social-media viewing numbers for “Michelle” broke records. Animal Kingdom Let’s return to the animal kingdom I discussed in earlier videocasts and podcasts. In an earlier videocast, Kensington Security Consulting announced a competition for the best image of an Israeli super rat. Hope you will enter. The prize is a copy of my upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror. Well, today let’s turn to other animals that prowl and roar across the greater Middle East. Then there are wild boars. In 2012, wild boars in the West Bank, which th

    23 min

  2. Jun 1

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel and War - Crossroad of Hate - Episode Five

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. This podcast explores the relationships among these countries and the events that led to war in 2026. Crossroads of Hate is a five-part series examining Western influences on Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda. This has been part of Iran’s information warfare against both Israel and the United States. The author is Mark Silinsky. This is the fifth and final episode. Beyond Holocaust Denial - Anti-Semitic Themes             Holocaust deniers in Iran claim that Jews manipulate international relations so subtly and successfully that very few people are aware of their betrayal. M’bala M’bala, in one of his frequent Iranian television appearances, stated that most slave traders were Jews. Further, "They have organized all the wars and organized all the disorders on this planet." Robert Faurisson attributed many of the world's difficulties to Jewish control. "Whatever is said, there would be no Syrian war without Zionism, no 'war on terror,' no Suez crisis, no Chechnian bombings in Russia. We can go further; there would be no Tea Party of warmongers and extremists in the U.S. without the Zionist money behind them." Though David Irving is not as openly antisemitic as others, he implicitly put the onus on Jews for their misfortune. "They (Jews) should ask themselves the question, 'Why have they been so hated for 3,000 years that there has been pogrom after pogrom in country after country?' and it's the one question they seem to be very shy of?" Irving said.             Keven Barrett promotes a wide range of all-encompassing Jewish conspiracy theories. In May 2020, he explained on Press T.V. that Germany designated Hizbullah a terrorist organization because Germany is under "Israeli occupation." According to Barrett, so is Washington. He claimed that Israeli operatives filmed President Trump and other senior Americans having sex with children. He also castigated Arab leaders as corrupt elites who "steal the money and the resources of their countries and hand them over to their Zionist banker-masters who rule the West and grovel before the feet of their colonialist overlords."             Other Europeans receive accolades from Iranian leaders. Iranian cartoonists have borrowed grotesque cartoon imagery from earlier epochs and distant continents. Descheemaeker is one of many cartoonists critical of Jews and Israel, and there are many entrants around the world competing in Iran’s cartoons contests. Antisemitic cartoons proliferate in many other countries around the world, including the United States. In April 2019, the New York Times published a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu serving as a guide dog wearing a Star of David and leading President Donald Trump, who is wearing a skullcap.             Responses             Some European leaders, such as Jeremy Corbyn, have been equivocal about Iran’s Holocaust denial. Others, such as German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have loudly condemned Iranian Holocaust Denial. In 2009, he said of then-president Ahmadinejad, “With his intolerable tirades, he is a disgrace to his country.” Prominent Western intellectuals have also been outspokenly critical of Iranian antisemitism and of Europeans who are passive to it. Many have tread carefully after Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for mocking Mohammed. But some have been vocal. Plucky and glamorous Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci interviewed Khomeini in the first year of the revolution. When Khomeini suggested, "If you do not like Islamic dress, you’re not obliged to wear it . . ." she responded by saying, "I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now” and bolted the interview. Wracked by cancer at the end of her life, she declared her disgust “with the antisemitism of many Italians, of many Europeans” and “ashamed of this shame that dishonors my country and Europe.”             Like Fallaci, Christopher Hitchens made an intellectual journey away from the left-wing politics of his early adulthood. An atheist born to a non-practicing Jewish mother, he became a strident critic of political Islam. He was not a friend of Israel, but he spoke loudly against Iran’s regime and its hatred of his coreligionists. Douglas Murray, a gay British conservative gadfly, mocked Iran’s antisemitic notions, particularly the claim that Zionists try to control the world by spreading homosexuality. Murray cackled, “How can you dominate the world through gays?’            Summary             Western anti-Semitic tropes flourish in Iran's state-owned media and among the academic, religious, and cultural elite. On Iranian television, in radio broadcasts and newspapers, and in college classrooms, screeds against Jews and Israel pour forth. These lurid canards include the belief that Jews destroy civilizations, seek to control the world's political decision-making, manipulate international markets, are less-than-human, finance for their own gain, murder non-Jews to use their blood for ritualistic purposes, lie about the Holocaust to enrich themselves and Israel, pollute indigenous culture, and start wars for their financial benefit. Many Iranian leaders cast the struggle with world Jewry in existential terms.

    7 min

  3. May 24

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel and War - Crossroads of Hate - Episode Four

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. This podcast explores the relationships among these countries and the events that led to war in 2026. Crossroads of Hate is a five-part series examining Western influences on Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda. This has been part of Iran’s information warfare against both Israel and the United States. The author is Mark Silinsky. This is the fourth of five podcasts on this subject. In this podcast, we look at some prized anti-Semites who are friends of Iran. Robert Faurisson             Born in 1929 in Surrey, England, to a Scottish mother and a French father, Robert Faurisson became a literature professor and a prominent Holocaust denier. Le Monde published his article, The Problem of the Gas Chambers, or the Rumor of Auschwitz, in 1978, though the newspaper later expressed regret for doing so. Linguist Noam Chomsky promoted one of his books, which boosted his prestige and shielded him from charges of antisemitism. Chomsky called Faurisson "a voice of conscience against injustice."             He served as a professor of literature at the University of Lyon but was dismissed in 1990 when the French parliament voted to criminalize Holocaust denial. He sued to have his tenure restored, but he lost that case, as well as a 40-year legal battle with the French newspaper Le Monde. In that case, a Paris Court of Appeal called Faurisson a "professional liar," a "falsifier," and a "fabricator of history." Holocaust survivors also delivered broadsides against him. When Faurisson emphasized the scant number of photographs of Nazi gas chambers, an Auschwitz survivor snickered at him, saying she was sorry she had forgotten to bring her camera to the camp.             In 1980, he told a French radio station that the "lie" of the Holocaust "opened the way to a gigantic political and financial fraud of which the principal beneficiaries are the State of Israel and International Zionism, and the principal victims the German and the entire Palestinian people." In 2012, Iran's then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad awarded Faurisson a prize for his "courage, resistance, and fighting spirit" in contesting the Holocaust. Until his death, Faurisson repeated the refrain that Nazis and Jews conspired to create Israel. "The Nazis never said that the Jews should be annihilated. Such a thing never happened. Hitler never gave an order to massacre the Jews merely because they were Jews."              David Irving             David Irving is one of the most prominent Holocaust deniers in the world. Many other deniers have offered little original, well-written commentary based on extensive research. But Irving has long been a public speaker and was initially praised by mainstream historians for obtaining primary sources unavailable to other historians. In 1977, he published Hitler's War, which earned some positive reviews from esteemed historians. However, in that book and subsequent manuscripts, he argued that there is no evidence linking Hitler to the gas chambers. He later moved to outright Holocaust denial, dismissing claims that gas chambers existed at Auschwitz.             As his reputation collapsed outside Holocaust-denier circles, his bitterness toward his critics grew, and most of his historical commentary lost its remaining credibility. University students shouted him down at public speaking venues, and Jewish advocacy groups campaigned against his speaking tours. He was imprisoned in Austria for Holocaust denial and could not attend Holocaust conferences in Iran that had invited him to speak. In his stead, he sent a London-based associate.              In 2016, the unsuccessful 1996 libel trial of historian Deborah Lipstadt was adapted into a film. In the film, the presiding judge admonished, "Irving was motivated by a desire to present events in a manner consistent with his own ideological beliefs, even if that involved distortion and manipulation of historical evidence." David Irving lost the case. In response, the Iranian paper Tehran Times portrayed Irving as a victim and hero who gallantly lost his battle for freedom and truth. The Times opined, "One of the biggest frauds of the outgoing century which has dragged into the new millennium is the story of the Holocaust made up by the Zionists to blackmail the West."             Kevin Barrett             Keven Barrett is an American who frequently appears on Iran's Press TV. Barrett taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he earned a doctorate. Barrett has repeatedly questioned the Nazi German murder of six million Jews. He brazenly proclaims on his website, "Today is as good a day as any to admit; I am holocaust (sic) denier . . . And I deny that the German murders of Gypsies, Slavs, handicapped people, communists, Jews, and others during World War II constitute a holocaust." He asserts that the six million figure is "exaggerated," that Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during World War II "at the instigation of mostly Jewish gangsters," and that "the United States and its allies deliberately murdered ten million Germans during the postwar occupation." He provides no evidence for these claims. Barrett regularly appears on Press TV, where he espouses conspiracy theories, such as the claim that U.S. ambassador to Israel "David Friedman is furthering the Kosher Nostra extremist Likudnik Israeli agenda." Further, "Israelis run U.S. Treasury, use it to punish Israel's enemies."             Dieudonné, Garaudy, Faurisson, Irving, and Barrett spoke in solidarity with Iran's Holocaust deniers. In turn, Iran has feted them with praise and venues to vent their anger. These men also espouse other anti-semitic themes, including conspiracies to control the world and casting Israel as a uniquely sinister country bent on world domination.             Luc Descheemaeker             In 2016, Iran awarded Belgian Luc Descheemaeker a $1,000 prize at its annual cartoon contest about the Holocaust. The prize-winning cartoon showed the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” atop a wall representing Israel’s security barrier, intended to curb terrorist infiltration into the country. Descheemaeker sketched many images of Jews, including the American advisor to President Trump, Stephen Miller. He drew Miller, who is Jewish, with a hooked nose and oversized ears, and tagged the cartoon the Influencer. His earlier cartoons included a stereotypical Orthodox Jew waiting to smash an Arab mother and her baby with a giant Star of David. The retired teacher explained, "My drawings are my visa to the world.”             This concludes this episode of The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. In the next episode, we will continue examining anti-Semitic themes promoted by Iranian propaganda. Nothing in this podcast represents the official view of the United States government. Until our next podcast, thank you for listening.

    8 min

  4. May 20

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel and War - Crossroads of Hate - Episode Three

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. This podcast explores the relationships among these countries and the events that led to war in 2026. Crossroads of Hate is a five-part series examining Western influences on Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda. This has been part of Iran’s information warfare against both Israel and the United States. The author is Mark Silinsky. This is the third of five podcasts on this subject. In this podcast, we begin with the pervasive theme of Holocaust denial. Holocaust Denial             For years, the Iranian regime has used Holocaust denial to undermine the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. Ahmadinejad said that questioning the Holocaust’s truth is “taboo," which he offered as evidence that Jews conspire to conceal the truth. This is often echoed by the supreme leader. For decades, Khamenei has argued that the Holocaust was a lie crafted to validate the state of Israel. Many Iranians and some European academics argue that Jews partnered with Germans to justify the usurpation of Palestine. Iran condemns international memorial observances of the Holocaust and the respect accorded to distinguished survivors. Iranian diplomats formally protested the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Eli Wiesel, a distinguished man of letters. He became a Nobel laureate in 1986 for “being a messenger to mankind: his message is one of peace, atonement and dignity."             The Holocaust is a sensitive issue in Europe, and several states have criminalized Holocaust denial for fear that it resuscitates National Socialism and cleanses Germany of the crimes of the Third Reich. Nonetheless, it thrives in certain circles. There is a broad-based, right-wing European Holocaust denial that denies the uniqueness of the genocide against Jews. Some Holocaust denial legal cases have been sensational, such as the libel suit between historian David Irving, a Holocaust denier, and his critic Deborah Lipstadt. Irving’s books are periodically displayed in glass cabinets at exhibits in Iran, and his blog and books are cited by Iranian public intellectuals.             The authenticity and legacy of Anne Frank are frequent targets of Iranian-endorsed Holocaust deniers, such as Robert Faurisson, who attacked her diary as a forgery. Iranian media regularly promote Holocaust denial and interview the world's most renowned deniers. Ahmadinejad repeatedly asserted that the carnage of the concentration camps has been exaggerated to the point of being a myth. Leading Iranian journalists make the same claim. As with other Holocaust deniers, some Iranian intellectuals argue that Jewish bloodshed was no greater than that suffered by Germans and Japanese. One Iranian observer claimed, "We have Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the city of Larson (sic) in Germany.” Some American professors deny the Holocaust, but not many. One who has publicly sided with the Iranian regime is Arthur Butz, an engineering professor at Northwestern University, who has been interviewed by Tehran Times and Mehr. About President Ahmadinejad, he wrote, "I congratulate him on becoming the first head of state to speak out clearly on these issues and regret only that it was not a Western head of state.”             A leading outlet for Iranian Holocaust denial is Tehran’s Kayhan newspaper and its elderly helmsman. Appointed directly by the supreme leader, he also directs the Kayhan Institute. Hossein Sariatmadari promotes European Holocaust deniers and Iranians such as Hassan Karbalaei, a university professor who writes for Fars and Tasnim news agencies. Shariatmadari draws on Koranic themes to support Holocaust denial and partners with the Young Journalists Club to promote this theme among young Iranians. Iranian Holocaust denial surged after the revolution and was advanced further by Ahmadinejad. He organized several international conferences and invited eminent Holocaust deniers to become regular guests on English-language Iranian television stations, notably Press TV.             Israel as a Satanic State             Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly denounces Israel’s existence. On Quds Day in 2020, he called the creation of Israel the greatest crime in recent history. He said that the "heretical doctrine" of Zionism had been invented by England and by the "Jewish masters of gold." His associates said similar things. A narrator on Iranian television claimed that Israel prevented children from playing while bombing hospitals and killing children. Israel created COVID. Khamenei endorsed the Nazi term for eliminating European Jewry – the Final Solution – and tweets often about the physical destruction of Israel. In popular culture, the anti-Israel movie Saturday Hunter teems with ominous motifs. In the film, a boy is brainwashed by his rabbi grandfather into becoming a psychopathic killer of Palestinian children. Among Iranian leaders, Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, is the only state that must be annihilated.             These overlapping Iranian and Western antisemitic themes are prominent across the media, academic, political, and cultural spheres. Iran hosts conferences that invite Western antisemites, particularly Holocaust deniers, to participate. Some of these Western friends of Iran appear regularly at speaking engagements, on tours, and in publicity. Several of them stand out.              Western Friends of the Islamic Republic – Holocaust Denial, Israeli Villainy, and Jewish Control             In the United States and Europe, Holocaust deniers have small, generally discredited followings. However, many smash-mouth and erudite Western deniers are acclaimed in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran. Many have been invited to speak at Holocaust denial conferences in Iran and have become staples on Iranian television and radio. Among the more colorful personalities are or were the Cameroonian-French Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, the French-Scot Robert Faurisson, the French convert to Islam Roger "Ragaa" Garaudy, the British David Irving, American Kevin Barret, and the Belgian cartoonist Luc Descheemaeker. All offer a messy mix of Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, and notions of wildly exaggerated Israeli malevolence.             M'bala M'bala             Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, generally known as M'bala M'bala, is a French entertainer and longtime friend of the Islamic Republic and an enemy of world Jewry. He blends comedy with worn anti-Semitic themes. Of mixed race, he ran unsuccessfully in the French 2007 presidential campaign on an anti-Zionist ticket before turning to comedy. With a pen dripping with sarcasm, he wrote a children's song, Shoananas (Holocaust Pineapple), which mocked Jews and the Holocaust. He has a European audience, mostly Muslim or left-leaning young men and boys. He is also popular in Iran, where he has embraced senior political and cultural leaders.             M’bala M’bala wrote and starred in a one-man comedy show titled Mahmoud, which burlesqued Ahmadinejad’s critics. He has been fined and imprisoned for insulting Jews in his comedic skits. In stage performances and videos, he portrayed Jews in black religious garb and lampooned the Nazi gas chambers as fake. Playing to a young audience, he popularized an anti-Semitic gesture in what he called "Jew-controlled" France. He describes the quenelle as an inverted Nazi salute. An article on Iran’s Press T.V. calls the quenelle a "badge of honor." Iranians have proffered fawning praise for M'bala M'bala's comedic talent and, what they see as, his revelations and insights into Judaism. He retains friends in Iran, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The former Iranian president refers to the comic as ". . . an old friend, a great artist."             Roger "Ragaa" Garaudy             When Roger Garaudy died at ninety-nine in 2012, many Holocaust deniers, including Iranians, mourned his passing. The loss was especially poignant among the country's leaders. Iran's Basij saluted the life of the former communist, French resistance fighter, and convert to Islam. Garaudy made his mark on the Holocaust-denial scene with the 1996 publication of The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics, an indictment of Israel's politics and religious communities and, in his view, the fabrication of German extermination efforts. He reserved much of the book's vitriol for international Jewry and its alleged agents. The book became a sensation, granting him superstar literary status in Muslim countries during a triumphal tour. The anti-Semitic themes resonated deeply in Iran, and, unsurprisingly, the mullahs and the political smart set in Tehran warmly received Garaudy.             The Iranian media outlet Fars called Garaudy "the first denier of the Holocaust myth." "For some, he was Islam's most beautiful ambassador to Europe and the world." Garaudy loved Iran and Khomeini, whom he praised for "struggling against arrogant powers' violence and forming a united world." That affection was reciprocated by Iran's political and cultural elite.             This concludes this episode of The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. In the next episode, we will continue examining anti-Semitic themes promoted by Iranian propaganda. Nothing in this podcast represents the official view of the United States government. Until our next podcast, thank you for listening.

    12 min

  5. May 12

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel and War - Crossroads of Hate - Episode Two

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. This podcast explores the relationships among these countries and the events that led to war in 2026. Crossroads of Hate is a five-part series that examines Western influences on Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda. This has been part of Iran’s information warfare against both Israel and the United States. The author is Mark Silinsky. This is the second episode in the series. It begins by examining the most notorious and enduring hoax in the history of anti-Semitism and the most targeted Jewish family. From there, it turns to blood libel and jinns. Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Rothschilds             The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is among the most notorious and enduring hoaxes in history. In turn-of-the-century Russia, the Tsar’s intelligence service published an account of an alleged global Jewish conspiracy. According to The Protocols, Jews convened an extraordinary congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897 to plan for global domination. Its first print run appeared in Paris in the early twentieth century, and it became a sensation. The Protocols were republished after World War I and again during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Henry Ford published parts of it as The International Jew in a newspaper he controlled in Michigan. The Nazi Party's philosopher, Alfred Rosenberg, quoted passages from The Protocols in his writings. In 1934, Hitler made The Protocols required reading in German schools. The Protocols' enduring power was evident in 1993, when the Russian antisemitic newspaper Pamyat was embroiled in a libel suit over the text's validity.             Though much of the Protocols reads like a penny-dreadful Victorian-era novel, it perpetuated anti-Semitic stereotypes of the era. It has been translated into all major European languages, several Asian languages, Arabic, and Persian. Ayatollah Khomeini, Hitler, Sayyid Qutb, and Yassir Arafat quoted liberally from the Protocols. Iranian leaders, professors, and cultural critics still do. Iranian film critic Majed Shah Huseini argued that the Protocols help explain plots in Jewish-made Hollywood movies. The Persian edition of the Protocols includes an introduction tailored to the Iranian reader. Iran continues to promote the Protocols abroad. It markets the Protocols at international book fairs, such as the Zagreb International Book Exhibition, and also distributes the book in South America.        The Jewish obsession with money is an ancient Western trope, particularly the saga of the Rothschild family. They were the most reviled and lampooned Jewish family on any continent. Conservative antisemites saw them as undermining Christian values and authentic royalty, while leftists condemned them for exploiting the working class. The Nazis made a movie, The Rothschilds, which was a commercial success. Although the Rothschilds are no longer the world's wealthiest family, they remain targets of derision in the Middle East and Europe. Iranian international affairs expert Alireza Mehrabi explained on Iranian television that the "headmasters of Wall Street are a few Zionist Jews who are descendants of the Rothschild family." Iranian university lecturer Ali-Reza Karimi claims the Rothschilds plunder the world’s wealth to give their family and Jews power. Some Iranians argue that the Rothschilds and other Jews organized the communist takeover of Russia for their own financial gain. Finally, many Iranians claim that the Rothschilds’ ill-gotten fortunes planted the seeds of a Jewish state in Palestine.             Blood Libel             Another hoary theme shared by European and Iranian antisemites is blood libel. In 1144, an unknown assailant murdered a twelve-year-old boy named William in Norwich. Without evidence, William's uncle accused the Jews of the killing. Ten years later, this "blood libel" led to the expulsion of Jewish communities across much of Europe. The charge was revived in Nazi Germany. The antisemitic publication Der Stürmer published an illustration of a German boy lying on a table, surrounded by Jews with long beards and earlocks, who were sucking his blood through long tubes. In 2020, Berlin-based journalist Ahmad Al-Hawas, the editor-in-chief of resalapost.com, claimed that Jews rejoice when they slaughter babies and dine on matzos soaked in their blood.             Although blood libel is no longer a widespread theme in Europe, it remains pervasive in Iran. In 2012, Fars published an article titled "The Pilgrimage in Judaism." The article claims that Jews murder children to mix non-Jewish blood into matzah. This claim also appears on television. Jews also use Gentiles' body parts for other ritual purposes. Some Iranian-produced commentaries specify the different uses of body parts. The prominent Iranian website Alef published an article titled "Who Are Human History's Most Bloodthirsty People?" The extended essay, complete with footnotes, pictures, and video clips, accuses Jews of killing non-Jews for ritual purposes. Blood libel is a frequent claim in the Greater Middle East and has been endorsed as a historical fact in doctoral dissertations at universities in the Islamic world.             Zahra's Blue Eyes brought an updated version of the blood libel to Iranian television audiences. In the mini-series, Israeli medical scientists harvest the eyes of Palestinian children and sell them on the international market. Zahra is blinded, and other Palestinian children are killed. A former official of the Iranian Education Ministry created the series, which drew a large, often young audience. In 2020, a woman recalled the impact the series had on her image of Jews when she saw it as a girl sixteen years earlier. "Rich Jews stole the blue eyes of Palestinians. I thought Jews were evil people. I recall this very well. Now I have realized that this is propaganda. I still remember this."              Jews as Less than Human or as Jinns             Racial antisemitism developed as a pseudo-science by twisting elements of Darwinism. According to this belief, there was a genetically ordained racial hierarchy with northern Europeans at the top and Jews at the bottom or outside the spectrum as a cancerous agent. In Germany, the Nazis crafted theories of racial hygiene and codified this belief system into law and practice. Racial antisemitism began to grow in Europe in the late nineteenth century and reached its apotheosis in the Third Reich. This spirit was captured in Rudolf Hess's well-known slogan that Nazism was "applied biology."             There are related but not identical racial themes in Islam. Biological antisemitism is not part of Islam. However, graphic depictions of Jews in Iranian political literature, media, and cartoons show distinct, often grotesque, racial and animal-like characteristics. They are also portrayed as poisonous snakes and lizards. Iranian and European antisemites sometimes liken Jews to barnyard animals or rodents. Islam holds a famous hadith, or saying of Mohammad, that recounts how Allah turned Jews into apes and pigs for not praying. In contemporary Iran, Hasan Bolkhari, a cultural adviser to the Iranian Education Ministry, explained a connection to rodents. He likened Jews to mice because both developed slyness after being ostracized by society.             Iranians claim that Jews are not human but evil spirits. Images of Jews with devil's horns and other satanic attributes are common in Iranian cartoons. In July 2010, then-Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that Jews who helped found Israel were "the filthiest, most criminal people, who only appear to be human, from all corners of the world." In Iran, antisemitism can take supernatural forms, with Jews cast as evil spirits, ghosts, or wicked fairies. In Islam, jinns are harmful, malicious spirits. The Koran describes them as ghostlike beings that lead men and women astray. In Iranian popular literature, Jews are sometimes equated with jinns. Valiollah Naghipourfar, a cleric and professor at Tehran University, speculated about Zionist jinns. “Can jinns be put to use in intelligence gathering?” he asked on national television. “The Jew is very practiced in sorcery. Indeed, most sorcerers are Jews.”             According to Khamenei, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has used its sorcery to attack Iran. Two other lecturers claimed, "The Israeli Mossad is officially and insistently using demons to read the other side's military thinking, to read the enemy chief of staff's plans, and to carry out intelligence operations." One Iranian commentator warned on public television that Jews are part-zombie. On the festival of Purim, Jews around the world perform a zombie walk, "in which they dress in costume and drink human blood." The caption on the photograph on Jamnews reads, “Photo of 'Purim' celebrations – a Jewish holiday marking the anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Iranians by the Jews, who influenced King Ahasuerus.”             This concludes this episode of The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. In the next episode, we will continue to examine anti-Semitic themes proffered by Iranian propaganda. Nothing in this podcast represents the official view of the United States government. Until our next podcast, thank you for listening.

    11 min

  6. May 5

    The Reckoning Iran, America, Israel, and War - Crossroad of Hate - Episode One

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning – Iran, Israel, America, and War. This podcast explores the relationships among these countries and the events that led to war in 2026. Crossroads of Hate is a five-part series that examines Western influences on Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda. This has been part of Iran’s information warfare against both Israel and the United States. The author is Mark Silinsky. This is the first episode, and it gives the background of Iranian information operations against Israel and Jews. Recurring antisemitic tropes from around the world flow into Iran today. Long-suppressed European antisemitism has resurfaced, though not to its former homicidal levels. Over the centuries, global antisemitism has fluctuated wildly. In the Christian and Islamic worlds, there were periods of general indifference toward Jews. However, eras of openness were punctuated by spasms of mass murder, most notoriously during the Crusades, the Black Death, and the Holocaust. In Europe and the Greater Middle East, kings could expel Jewish communities from their homes with little warning. Some would flee with few possessions, hoping to rebuild their lives in their new homes. Expulsions recurred in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s and again in Iran in the 1980s.             Antisemitism is malleable and tapers to indigenous cultures.  After the revolution, Iran's leaders promoted antisemitic themes that would have been considered vulgar by educated Iranians earlier in the twentieth century. Iranian leaders blended elements of Western and Koranic antisemitism. Logical inconsistency often does not impede marketing mutually contradictory antisemitic concepts. Jews could be simultaneously radical and reactionary, communist and capitalist, cosmopolitan and clannish. Jean-Paul Sartre argued that the antisemite does not feel compelled to act logically consistent in painting the Jew.               A familiar, centuries-old image in Europe and the Middle East is that of the wandering Jew, portrayed as a stateless, parasitic vagabond. In this view, the Jew belonged to no nation and recognized no law. In European fiction, two dominant Jewish characters were Fagin, who ran a criminal syndicate of child pickpockets, and Shylock, a notorious usurer. Mutations of this typecast are often echoed in Iran today by the ayatollahs’ penmen. Other stereotypes cast Jews as murderers. In Europe and the greater Middle East, villagers used the idea of Jewish criminality to explain mysteries or catastrophes, such as children disappearing or the sudden onset of pandemic diseases.              With Iran's purge of liberalism in the 1980s came a renaissance of earlier Nazi-crafted antisemitism. These early purveyors were Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, an intimate of Khomeini, and Ahmad Fardid. After the revolution, Fardid, sometimes called the Iranian Heidegger, taught university courses on Nazi theory and racial hygiene and promoted Holocaust denial. Mohammad-Ali Ramin, an adviser to Ahmadinejad, was an ardent antisemite associated with neo-Nazis while living in Germany. He drove Nazi antisemitic iconography and passionate Holocaust denial in the Islamic Republic.             Several antisemitic themes in Iran intersect with Western antisemitism. These beliefs maintain that Jews destroy civilizations, grasp for control of the world's political decision-making, manipulate international financial flows, exist as less-than-human animals, murder non-Jews to use their blood for ritualistic purposes, fabricate claims of the Holocaust to enrich themselves and Israel, pollute indigenous culture, and start wars for their pleasure and benefit.  Many of these themes overlap and embellish each other. For example, an Iranian broadcast might claim the Rothchilds pay Israeli soldiers to remove Palestinian children's eyes to sell them on the international market. This example draws a spin on blood libel, national destruction, ill-gotten financial profit, and inhumanity. Bernard Lewis referred to this trend of recycling of European stories as "Islamization of antisemitism." Jews are Destroyers of Nations and Controllers of the World             Some Iranian and European theologians and public intellectuals accuse Jews of destroying nations. In Europe, this view crystallized during the age of nationalism in the nineteenth century. European antisemites argued that Jews undermine social hierarchy, order, authority, and tradition. Richard Wagner, in Judaism in Music, argued that Jews polluted German art. Iranian media sometimes depict Jews as clever cultural polluters. This was a common theme in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fueled by European nationalism. British philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Heinrich von Treitschke, composer Richard Wagner, and many public intellectuals decried the inclusion of Jews in their countries' national arts scene. In the early Third Reich, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels purged universities and museums of modern art and of works that did not conform to Nazi racial standards.              Iranian leaders similarly removed non-Islamic popular culture. According to Iranian leaders, Jewish tactics for destroying civilizations vary. Jews use music, television, and movies to subvert indigenous culture. Delving into history, Iranian intellectuals cast a malign interpretation of the Jewish experience in Europe and Iran. The hidden Jewish hand places its allies in positions of power, particularly in Europe and the United States. Press T.V. columnists regularly claim that Jews control all elements of American life, including "determining, dominating and controlling every aspect of (American) lives – social, moral, political, judicial and economic." By maneuvering European politicians and key civil servants, Jews steer parliamentary decision-making. Some contemporary Iranian intellectuals allege that Jews want to destroy Iran by infiltrating European Jews to wrest power from Muslims. Khamenei repeatedly attacked Jewish members of President Trump's extended family. Singling out Jared Kushner, the supreme leader tweeted volleys against President Trump's extended family, whom he called "filthy Zionists."             Iranian critics charge that Jews destroy nations by killing their citizens. Iranian news outlets borrow and distort European claims that Jews poisoned wells and food supplies. During the Middle Ages, townspeople killed Jews on these charges. The myth of Jewish poisoners is ancient, persistent, and adaptable in European and Persian traditions. It reverberates in contemporary Iran. Some Iranian educators have dubbed Jews filthy vectors of disease throughout history and have accused them of weaponizing diseases to kill their enemies. One professor explained, "They were the source of lethal diseases such as the plague and typhoid fever because they are extremely filthy people." The Koranic claim that a Jew poisoned Mohammed, the Prophet, was an entrance exam question for Iran Teachers Training College. In a multiple-choice question, students were asked to identify the killer of Mohammed, and the correct answer was a Jewish woman.              Iranian and Western antisemites also accuse Jews of creating discord and war. Discord, known as fitnah, is a serious charge in Islam. Ali Khamenei said Jews are setting Muslims and Christians against one another. Khamenei said, "These demonstrations and this holy rage that the Muslims displayed, at the appropriate time, are not directed against the world's Christians, but against those impure hands that have turned the politicians of the hegemonic world into pawns." A twenty-six-episode documentary, "Footprints of Zionism in World Cinema," aired in May-June 2008 and promised to expose the "true colors" of the global film industry. The series promotes the perception that the Western film industry - primarily Hollywood - is controlled by Zionists who strive to teach viewers Zionist subliminal messages. It warns that these messages operate on the viewer's subconscious and that, consequently, the viewer is convinced of their veracity.

    10 min

  7. Apr 20

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel, and War - A Tale of Two Persians

    Hello and welcome to The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel, and War. Its author is Mark Silinsky, president of Kensington Security Consulting. This episode is titled "A Tale of Two Persians." It drills into the story of a very fashionable, if emotionally unstable, Iranian woman who is being defenestrated by U.S. immigration officials. She and her daughter have clearly worn out their welcome in the United States. It also examines the confusing case of a cancer researcher linked by blood to the Laranjani clan in Iran. Both women hail from Iranian revolutionary royalty. Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her 25-year-old daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, have been in the news a lot lately. This scantily dressed pair is quite the fashion plates in Los Angeles. The two were issued deportation notices and are currently detained by ICE. So, what gives? In particular, who is Mom - Hamideh Soleimani Afshar? Why is she being deported? This is the answer offered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States. Afshar is the niece of the deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the "Great Satan." This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter's legal status, and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States. The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.” How did all this happen? Afshar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in June 2015, was granted asylum in 2019, and obtained her green card in 2021. On the surface, she appeared to be a credible candidate. But when the surface was scratched, many problems emerged. In a 2025 naturalization application, Afshar disclosed that she had visited Iran four times since receiving her green card. “Her trips to Iran illustrate that her asylum claims were fraudulent,” a DHS official said. She also has an Iranian revolutionary pedigree. She is the niece of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's expeditionary force. Soleimani, known as “supermani,” was killed in a deadly 2020 U.S. airstrike. This was not necessarily disqualifying. But her shrill anti-American rhetoric seems to echo that of her uncle and the regime he fought for. According to the State Department, Soleimani Afshar, a prolific social media user, referred to the US as the “Great Satan” and celebrated attacks on US soldiers in the Middle East. The New York Post reported that Soleimani Afshar published messages of support for the Iranian regime, including since the ongoing war that started in February, and welcomed the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader to take over from his father, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israel campaign. Then there is her temper. She is also hot-headed and prone to emotional outbursts. After she was incarcerated in a federal deportation center, she reached out to an old beau, who refused to take her call. He claimed she abused and kicked him. In his words, “I don’t want anything to do with her. She scares me. I was so afraid of her. She knows how to make herself seem like an angel, and you feel like the devil. I wanted someone to take her away – now it’s happened.” Perhaps her impulsivity stems from unresolved issues with her father, as this old boyfriend speculated. “She takes advantage of every man she knows. She was saying ‘I love you,’ but I was so afraid. She said I reminded her of her dad. All these years, I was suffering. I wanted to have my life back.” And be careful with her hair. Her LA hairdresser obtained a five-year restraining order against her, claiming she became unhinged and stalked him at his home. “Thank God,” he said, exasperated, upon hearing of her ice arrest. “That’s good. She’s a stalker.” Others who do not know her personally resent her perceived hypocrisy. She gives full-throated support to the Revolutionary regime, which would have little time for her shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive. Others, particularly Iranians who have built new homes in the United States, are part of Los Angeles’s thriving Iranian-American community, most of which views the Revolutionary regime as a toxic force. They cannot understand her cheerleading for a regime that might toss acid in her face if she wore the pink poodle dress she displays on her TikTok account. A neighbor said, “She also drove a black Tesla, which on Saturday was stuffed with luxury goods, including a Miss Dior bag, some Hermes cushions, a Sephora makeup bag, and another gray leather handbag in the front seat.” What do others think about the deportation? The Persian princess did not receive much support online. One Internet observer cautions, “Enter kooky, leftist judge to put the kybosh on this endeavor.” Another observer, Infidel, says, “Well done, Sec Rubio, for revoking their Green Cards. Now that the template has been set, maybe his department can also revoke the Green Cards of every Islamic activist there in the UK. And also work w/ DHS to see whether Ilhan Omar’s fraudulent citizenship can be revoked?” The move comes just days after Emory University fired Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani. If the name sounds familiar, it is because she is the daughter of former Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and the wife of Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. As with the Soleimani clan, the Larijani offspring cannot be held responsible for their parents' behavior. But was it Fatemeh's behavior that earned her the door? A physician, Dr. Larijani, was an assistant professor at Emory’s prestigious Winship Cancer Institute. No longer. After 100,000 people signed a petition calling for her deportation, she was notified that she had to leave. How influential was this petition or other popular efforts in the decision to dismiss her? We at Kensington do not know. But we are concerned because, despite searching the Internet, we could not find much valuable material. The university released this memo: “Emory is committed to advancing patient care, research, and education. Our employees are hired in full compliance with state and federal laws and other applicable requirements.” OK, fair enough. This is standard bureaucratic piffle. But why did they fire her? Here we can only speculate. Emory may have uncovered something serious about her that they disliked. Were her comments subversive or anti-American? Maybe, but where are they? Wouldn’t someone have posted them to support the demand to fire her? Also, universities are chockablock with America-hating and anti-Semitic professors whose rants are heard all over campuses. How often are they fired? Finally, this would be a cause to celebrate for civil libertarians of all political philosophies. It is highly likely that some civil rights lawyers investigated this case. It is also likely that they determined she had neither a strong legal nor an ethical basis. Wouldn’t you agree? But we at Kensington stress that this is rank speculation. Do you have thoughts or inside baseball on this? If so, contact us at Kensington Security Consulting, and we will post your ideas. Also, you may be interested in a book we published that profiles Qasem Soleimani. The book is Empire of Terror – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This concludes an episode of The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel and War, a product of Kensington Security Consulting. Nothing in this episode or any episode on this podcast represents the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye and thank you for listening.

    8 min

  8. Apr 20

    The Reckoning - Iran, America, Israel, and War

    Hello from The Reckoning - Hamas, Israel, and America. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, which provides education on national security. Today’s episode is called “Hizballah - When the Beepers Went Boom!” On September 17 2024, explosions rocked Lebanon and Syria. These were not rockets launched from aircraft or shells from naval ships or ground-based artillery. Instead, they seemed to come from hand-held pagers, but witnesses and observers were not sure. Most of the explosions took place in Beirut, a stronghold for Hizbollah. Soon, the connection between the pager and Hizbollah was clear. But what on earth was happening? Why did the beeps go bang? For many younger listeners, pagers are largely artifacts of the past. They belong to yesterday’s technology. Maybe their parents used them early in their careers. They appear in old TV shows from the 1980s and 1990s, when women had poofy hair, and men wore suspenders at the office. But today’s generation is the cell phone generation. So, what exactly are pagers? Pagers are handheld communication devices that display short text messages relayed over telephone lines by a central operator. They operate on radio waves rather than the Internet. This makes them harder to monitor, which, in turn, makes them popular with terrorist groups, including Hizbollah. Hizbollah turned to pagers after its leadership determined that cellphones were being monitored by Israeli intelligence. Israeli intelligence got wind of this intended switch in communications and saw it as an opportunity. It crafted an intelligence operation like no other and one likely to make a mark in the history of intelligence operations, because it is one hell of a story! And here it is. When Israelis heard about the planned bulk purchase of pagers, intelligence got to work. Technicians designed pagers with a battery that concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a one-of-a-kind, largely undetectable detonator. The Israeli pseudo-pager was significantly larger than other pagers to accommodate the mini-bomb. They crafted a marketing campaign to incite would-be Hizballah purchasers. Sure, the pager was bulkier, but that was because it was combat-tough – a real war pager. They dressed up the ads with military paraphernalia. But who would sell these pagers? Hizballah would not buy an Israeli pager or one connected to Israel. So Israel invented a company and the pager it claimed to sell. This company was BAC Consulting, ostensibly a Hungary-registered firm that partnered with a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, these were shell companies created by Israeli intelligence. But, BAC Consulting would have to appear credible. Why didn’t it have significant sales? Why haven’t more people heard of it? What is this company, anyway? It is not well-known because it has very few clients. After all, it was military-grade. BAC needed only one client – Hizballah. Hizballah took the bait and bought hundreds. Hizballah bought and distributed the pagers in the summer of 2022. The group’s technicians found nothing suspicious about the new product. Now, Israel would wait and wait for an opportune moment to kill and maim. The moment came when Israel claimed it had thwarted a Hizballah attempt to kill senior Israeli leaders in September 2024. When the Israeli attack struck, it did so like lightning. Hundreds of pagers exploded nearly simultaneously, killing dozens and maiming and disfiguring scores of others. While the largest number of casualties was in Beirut, many people were also wounded in the country's north and south. But, what were the mechanics of the attacks? Israeli intelligence sent a ring to each pager. The recipient then picked up the pager and, usually, saw the message “error.” This was followed by the message “Press OK,” which many did. This detonated the explosive inside the pager, usually killing or seriously injuring the victim. Many lost fingers, which were blown off. Many suffered severe facial scars and blindness because they held the pager close to their face to read the message. The facial scars will remain clearly visible. There was also psychological trauma. Mohammed Awada, 52, and his son were driving when the boy saw a pager explode. Awada said, “My son went crazy and started to scream when he saw the man’s hand flying away from him.” Elsewhere, a young girl, Fatima, had just come from school when she answered her father’s pager. The explosion killed the 9-year-old girl. How reliable are the stories reported by journalists? Some are certainly fabricated or exaggerated. However, local hospitals treated people of all ages. Lebanese government officials and Hezbollah were quick to blame Israel. "After examining all the facts, available data, and information regarding the heinous attack this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.” The following day, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives also exploded. Once again, victims were rushed to the already-crowded hospitals. Some were buried soon after. The Pagers and the War of Words So, what to make of the exploding pagers? Predictably, there was divided opinion, much of it straight down the line between those who support Israel and those who lean towards Hizballah. But many who sided with neither did not know exactly what to make of the affair. The graphic images of the injured children were haunting and widely distributed. The full narratives of the attacks were often not attached to the photographs. At Kensington, we saw several groupings of reactions. First, there is awe at the attack's competence and ingenuity. The more information that was revealed, the more impressive the planning and execution of the attacks appeared. In the past, Israel botched several attacks on its enemies. But not this one, which will be studied by intelligence agencies for years. Second, there was recognition that the attack killed, maimed, and terrified scores of Hizballah leaders. Many can be replaced, but some possess skills, talents, and prestige that are not easily replicated. It also terrifies many leaders who find themselves always within Israel’s long and unforgiving reach. Will they die tomorrow? And what of their families? Will their children become disfigured? Perhaps this will build demand for revenge within the broader Hizballah family. If so, it could unintentionally strengthen the group. This might happen. Writing for USA Today, opinion-maker Jeremy Mayer speculated, “Will it be harder or easier for Hezbollah to get recruits? The pager and walkie-talkie explosions killed and wounded a few fighters, but there will be three or four replacements for each one who fell.” He might be right. But instead, it could be another step in eroding Hizballah’s military capabilities and morale. Third, there was debate about morality, some of which was clouded by images of children with facial scars. The United Nations opined loudly and quickly that, “These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time. Such attacks require prompt, independent investigation to establish the truth and enable accountability for the crime of murder." Their comments continued, “It is also a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians, including to intimidate or deter them from supporting an adversary. A climate of fear now pervades everyday life in Lebanon.” Former CIA Director Leon Panetta called Israel’s pager operation “terrorism” in a recent CBS News interview. He said, “I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism…This is going right into the supply chain. And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, what the hell is next?” Well, we at Kensington do not know “what the hell is next.” We lament the children who were harmed. But this attack on the terrorists was very tightly targeted. It was designed to limit harm to Hizballah operatives and was largely successful. But what do you think? We want to hear your views on the pager attack. This concludes this episode. Our upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror—Hamas, Israel, and the World—will be available for purchase in July 2026. This podcast does not represent the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting

    9 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

For nearly one-half of a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran made war, on different levels, against Israel and America. The war was conducted surreptitiously and overtly, boldly and timidly, militarily and non-militarily, conventionally and, usually, uncoventionally.  The attacks came from guns and bombs and words and funding. But the attacks continued. The Reckoning podcast examines the men and women behind this drama. What is Iran's argument with Israel and America? Why such passion?  All this and more is the subject of this podcast.  

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