In the heart of Ramadan, important, because I genuinely had no intention of covering politics during the holy month, the US decided, once again, to strike Iran — of course, at the behest of Israel.
As well as that, though, the Warner Bros. buyout also took a sharp turn in favour of, who would've thought… again, Israel.
All in a single weekend, no less. Certainly not a bad week for business for the Israelis, that's for sure. But how does the now-Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery at all benefit the Israeli state? You see, it's actually quite simple…
Paramount Is Owned by Who?
Just before the weekend, Paramount came to the table with a $31 per share offer to buy the entirety of Warner Brothers, including all cable subsidiaries, news networks, the Discovery Channel… everything. This is unlike Warner’s previous offer brought by Netflix, who were interested in just the studio and its streaming services. Warners, at that point, accepted Netflix's offer and a press release soon followed.
It was a done deal, we thought — a deal worth almost $83 billion at $27.75 per share — but in the background of all of this loomed David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance and son of Oracle owner and single largest donor to the IDF, Larry Ellison.
Ellison would just not let go of potentially losing this bidding war to Netflix, to such a point, in fact, that it is said that Paramount Skydance will face serious financial ruin as a result of the deal closing due to the sheer debt they will incur from buying as large a media conglomerate as Warner.
I mean, think of this: a $10–20 billion company, in Paramount, is purchasing, in its entirety, a $31 per share and thus over $110 billion company, in Warner. I don't know if it's just me, but the math doesn't seem to be mathing.
But where there's a will, there will always be a way — Ellison's will being: Israel's Eighth Front to control information, and what better place to start than social media; oh, wait… Ellison's billionaire dad already did that this year with TikTok. Well, I guess Hollywood is the next best thing, then. But the Eight Front isn’t just an information war, it’s a war on the entire Middle East.
Israel’s Hegemonic War Continues, Now with Iran… Again
As I had predicted, Trump, through the halted ‘negotiations’ of his administration, decided, once again, to strike Iran late Saturday of last week. The strikes consisted of Tomahawk missiles targeting IRGC bases and other military facilities predominantly throughout the capital. However, some did report that schools were actually targeted too, leading to a casualty rate probably somewhere in the few hundreds.
But why? I think it's now fair to say that most have come around to the idea that nobody wanted this war more than Israel did. In fact, this has been a war in the making long before Trump ever took office. From the very formation of the ‘Islamic’ Republic, the Israelis have sought to topple its leaders and, well, the regime altogether.
It's specifically regime change and non-proliferation that have been on the agenda for the Israelis. The latter of which had led to profuse negotiations between the Americans and the Iranians regarding nuclear enrichment and Iranian uranium supplies.
However, if only that were just the ask. No, instead, the Trump administration pushed for a complete disarmament of their entire ballistic missile stockpile, as well as the termination of their existing ballistic missile programme.
You see, this is where the actual problem lies: the Americans have purposefully come to the table with such a lopsided offer, so disadvantageous to the Iranians that if they were stuck by the Israelis again in the future, they would not have the firepower to defend themselves, not just because their intercontinental ballistics would not be able to be used, but because even their short-range, less powerful missiles would also be out of the equation.
Quite rightly, the Iranians laughed in their face and said, we'll give up our nuclear enrichment programme — the uranium — but we want our sanctions lifted in return.
Witkoff and Kushner, the ‘negotiators’ behind all of this, were obviously not going to budge on their offer. They purposefully gave the Iranians an offer so miscalculated that they couldn't accept — in the end, I guess it was all just about buying both time and firepower.
The Buildup to the Present
Both Reuters and The Washington Post reported on the buildup of firepower from the US leading up to the strike. This is, again, something that's been long in the works, with Israel certainly being its biggest advocate, pressuring each and every president of the past to involve themselves in a full-fledged war with Iran, rather than dealing with them through, say, sanctions or diplomatic pressures. And guess who, among all of these past presidents decided to budge… none other than Donald J. Trump. Who would've thought?
It's okay, though, the GOP will most certainly pay for this. And don't get me wrong, I'm no defender of Iran, the Ayatollah is better off dead as far as I'm concerned. He killed, in cooperation with Bashar al-Assad, half a million of our brothers and sisters in Syria (may Allah ﷻ have mercy on them all); he single-handedly killed tens of thousands of his own citizens in Iran — they say — was accused of crimes against humanity by the ICC, the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch…
But under no circumstance will I ever tolerate, encourage, and certainly not justify a war with Iran… ever! The Israelis have been salivating for such a war for longer than I've been alive, and for that reason, I'm against it.
As a result of all of this, the Republicans will inevitably lose both the House and the Senate in November, and President Trump will, quite rightly, be checked in the last two years of his administration. His legacy, as a result of these attacks, will never be the same. Never mind giving the Israelis the best week of their life; Trump has now given them the best administration of their life.
Jazak Allah khair for your time and attention throughout!
Faithfully, STN.
