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In this mailing:
* Con Coughlin: Trump Must Keep Backing Netanyahu's Campaign to Destroy Hamas for the Sake of the West
* Amir Taheri: France: The Populist Hour Strikes


** Trump Must Keep Backing Netanyahu's Campaign to Destroy Hamas for the Sake of the West ([link removed])
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by Con Coughlin • September 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
* [T]he Trump administration doubtless understands that Netanyahu's willingness to attack Hamas's leadership even when they are being protected by a foreign power such as Qatar, merely indicates the Israeli leader's determination to achieve the goal of "finishing the job" as the US requested.
* Netanyahu seems to have come to the conclusion, after repeated evasions by Hamas, that the time for any productive negotiating is over.
* Hamas has apparently realised that if it returns all the hostages, it will have no more leverage with which to blackmail Israel.
* That is why Netanyahu will most likely ignore the continuing clamour among some Israelis for a premature ceasefire deal that would enable Hamas not only to hold on to some of the hostages to use as bargaining chips in any future negotiations. A premature ceasefire would essentially enable Hamas to retain a presence in Gaza, a move the terror group would pocket as a major victory.
* So long as Hamas's terrorist leaders show no willingness to lay down their weapons and leave Gaza, it is clear that Netanyahu needs to continue to hunt them down, irrespective of where they may be hiding. There seems no point in assuring terrorist kingpins safe havens.
* If the Trump administration is serious about bringing peace to Gaza, the region and ultimately West – as to its enormous credit, it seems to be -- then it should continue to support Israel's attempts to destroy Hamas's terrorist infrastructure instead of working on Gaza ceasefire plans that Hamas and its backers have no intention of ever accepting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to bomb Hamas's terrorist leadership in Qatar should send a clear and unequivocal message to the Trump administration that the Israeli leader has absolutely no intention of ending hostilities in Gaza until Hamas is utterly destroyed, and all the remaining Israeli hostages have been returned. Pictured: Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas leadership meeting in Qatar's capital Doha on September 9, 2025. (Photo by Jacqueline Penney/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to bomb Hamas's terrorist leadership in Qatar should send a clear and unequivocal message to the Trump administration that the Israeli leader has absolutely no intention of ending hostilities in Gaza until Hamas is utterly destroyed, and all the remaining Israeli hostages have been returned.

Prior to Israel's attack against the headquarters of Hamas's terrorist leadership in Doha, the Qatari capital, US President Donald Trump had been pressing hard for Netanyahu to sign up to the latest version of the ceasefire proposal his administration has drawn up to end the Gaza conflict.

Under the terms of the latest deal negotiated by Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, all the remaining 48 hostages captured during Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack in 2023 were to be released. In return, Israel would free an estimated 2,500-3,000 Palestinian prisoners.

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** France: The Populist Hour Strikes ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • September 14, 2025 at 4:00 am
* The biggest fear that the populists of both right and left try to spread, so far with some success, is that of reforms that might threaten the "acquired social benefits" such as early retirement and long holidays.
* The silver bullet that killed Bayrou's government was the plan to cut annual holidays, by just two days, to cover part of the budget deficit. Lurking in the background was the government's refusal to cut the retirement age by two years to 62, while populists campaign for retirement at 60.
* People usually make revolutions to bring about change. The French, in their populist mode, however, beat the drum of revolution to prevent change.
* One thing is certain, however: France's problems won't be solved by riots, strikes and what is known in French as jacquerie.

The biggest fear that French populists of both right and left try to spread, so far with some success, is that of reforms that might threaten the "acquired social benefits" such as early retirement and long holidays. One thing is certain, however: France's problems won't be solved by riots, strikes and what is known in French as jacquerie. Pictured: A café in Paris burns after it was firebombed by rioters who oppose government budget cuts, on September 10, 2025. (Photo by Tom Nicholson/Getty Images)

Having just ended its ninth month in office, French Prime Minister François Bayrou stepped down after the National Assembly endorsed a no-confidence vote by a huge majority. That handed President Emmanuel Macron a hot potato in the shape of naming yet another Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, the outgoing Defense Minister of the Armies, the fifth in just two years, with no certainty that he would be the lucky fifth.

Macron is in a hurry because he wants to fly to New York to settle the Ukraine war, ensure recognition of a Palestinian state, solve the Iranian nuclear problem, and offer a master plan for rebuilding Lebanon and Syria.

Meanwhile, the French have reverted to their classical response to political crisis by taking to the streets, sabotaging railway lines, looting luxury shops and, of course, flying-picket strikes across the land.

Talk of a general strike is making the rounds, with a whiff of revolution polluting the autumn air.

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