Donald Trump's administration, judging by the president-elect's appointments, will likely be "full-throttle right-wing," with some saying it could be even more hawkish than Israel's current government.

From UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik, who led the battle against terrorism and antisemitism taking hold in US universities, to Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who openly supports annexing the West Bank – something even Israel's government hesitates to commit to – to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – all are steadfast supporters of Israel.

These appointments show that Donald Trump isn't calculating political costs and makes decisions based on his views and whims, even more boldly than in his first term. However, these individuals weren't appointed for their positions on the Middle East or Israel, but for their loyalty and commitment to the president-elect. This explains why some of our biggest supporters from Trump's first term – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley – are absent from the list.

These Trump appointments help clear some of the fog and question marks of recent months regarding Trump's intentions and future policy. While expressing support and warmth toward Israel, he has also notably courted Arab-American voters, many of whom are decidedly anti-Israel, trying to win them to his side. To Arab voters, he promised to end the war in our region – which they interpreted as a promise to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon before achieving its objectives.

But this isn't just about campaign rhetoric – there's also a meaningful shift within the "royal family." During Trump's first term, the dominant figures were his daughter, Ivanka, who underwent Orthodox conversion to Judaism, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who served as the president's Middle East envoy and advanced the Abraham Accords, as well as the "Deal of the Century" aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ironically, Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected the deal and told Trump to "go to hell," is now actively courting him, trying to extract what the Palestinians refused to accept just a few years ago.

Today, Trump's family circle includes Arab world representatives, including Massad Boulos, his in-law, who might be appointed as his envoy to the Arab world. Boulos's son, Michael, is married to Trump's daughter, Tiffany. The elder Boulos is a Lebanese businessman who ran unsuccessfully for the 2009 Lebanese parliament on a list headed by Suleiman Frangieh, Hezbollah's ally.

Today, Boulos advocates for peace between Israel and Arab states, and it appears his time with Trump has moved him to the pro-Western camp. Nevertheless, Lebanon and the Arab world remain his primary concerns, hence his efforts to convince Trump to bring the war in our region to a swift conclusion.

Besides all this, Trump's second term remains an enigma. He occupies a position of power that few previous White House occupants enjoyed, owing nothing to anyone and needing no one's support.

Will he emerge as an isolationist who despises American involvement in world affairs, believing it comes at American taxpayers' expense, and therefore avoid taking strong action against Iran while seeking calm and stability? Or perhaps, precisely because he's now unencumbered by constraints, will we receive backing and free rein to reorganize the Middle East and advance our relations with the Arab world, while pushing the Palestinian issue off the regional agenda?

During his second White House term, Trump could become the best president we've ever known, but simultaneously, he could prove to be someone who eroded America's commitment and financial and military aid to Israel. Either way – we can only pray and hope for the best.

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President Joe Biden has issued a stark warning to Iran, stating that any assassination attempt on Former President Donald Trump or other ex-US officials would be considered an act of war, The Washington Post reports. This comes as Trump's campaign claims he has been briefed by US intelligence on specific threats from Iran to assassinate him, according to the BBC.

The Biden administration has been monitoring Iranian threats against Trump for several years, according to National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett. "Should Iran attack any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences," Savett said.

A senior Biden administration official revealed that the president sent a message "to the highest levels" of the Iranian government, urging them to cease plotting against Trump and former US officials. The US has specifically cautioned Iran against targeting Trump, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Brian Hook, the Trump administration's special representative for Iran.

Trump took to social media platform X to address the situation. "Big threats on my life by Iran," he posted. "Moves were already made by Iran that didn't work out, but they will try again. I'm surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than ever before. Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving more money to the Secret Service. An attack on a former President is a death wish for the attacker!"

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung stated, "Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months." He added that law enforcement across agencies are working to ensure Trump's protection and a fair election.

TRUMP: BIG THREATS ON MY LIFE BY IRAN

"Iran has already made moves against me, and they will try again.

I'm surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than ever before.

Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving more money to the Secret Service.

An attack on a former… pic.twitter.com/1o0PR2xCnC

— ChazzP12 (@ChazzP12) September 26, 2024

These warnings come after Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13, when he was wounded, and another person was killed in a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally. On September 15, another incident occurred when a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. US prosecutors have since charged Ryan Wesley Routh with an attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in connection with this event.

The Trump campaign last month claimed some of its internal communications had been hacked, suggesting Iranian operatives were behind the breach. In 2022, the US Justice Department charged a member of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with plotting to kill John Bolton, allegedly in retaliation for the US strike that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

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Judea and Samaria is the "rightful homeland for the people of Israel," former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

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Pompeo made the remarks on a visit to the Psagot Winery in Judea and Samaria, the same place where, nearly a year earlier, he announced the US would label settlement products as "Made in Israel." The former secretary of state made history when he became the first such senior US administration official to visit a Jewish community in the region.

Speaking on Sunday, Pompeo said: "We recognized that this is not an occupied nation, this is not an apartheid country. It is a democracy where faiths can be practiced from all of the Abrahamic traditions," The Jerusalem Post reported.

Noting the shift in former US President Donald Trump's approach toward issues such as Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Pompeo said it had been clear from the outset of Trump's presidency that the White House "was going to break some glass."

Pompeo, a religious Christian, noted he had studied the battles that took place in the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War while studying at the US Military Academy in West Point, NY. He said he had visited the region with his family before entering politics.

According to Pompeo, the most important statement he made as US secretary of state was when he said that Israel was not occupying Judea and Samaria, according to The Jerusalem Post report.

Also in attendance during Pompeo's visit to the winery was Opposition and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who served as Israel's premier during the former senior US official's previous visit to Psagot.

"This is our land," Netanyahu said. "We have regained the high ground and we shall keep it," he said, clarifying he was referring to both the "physical and moral high ground."

The former prime minister said Jerusalem has "no better ally than the United States."

"In the United States, we have no better ally than Mike Pompeo and some of his friends, and we remember our friends," he said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Addressing Pompeo, Netanyahu said, "You are part of our mishpacha," using the Hebrew term for family.

Asserting a Palestinian state would never be established, Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Gatz informed Pompeo Israelis in Judea and Samaria sought to thank him for saying "this holy land belongs to our nation."

"You are doing what God wanted you to do," Gatz told Pompeo, The Jerusalem Post reported.

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Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is accusing certain US and European officials of attempting to block the historic Abraham Accords in order to keep the Palestinian issue at the top of the international agenda.

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In a speech at the annual conference of the Combat Anti-Semitism movement, at which the organization awarded him a prize, Pompeo discussed opposition to the accords and said that the Russians, as well as certain policy-makers in the United States and Europe, would have preferred to see them fail to materialize.

According to Pompeo, the unnamed officials wanted to maintain the "delusion" that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the keystone to regional peace. The former secretary of state said that when the opponents of the accords, realized that no Intifada would erupt as a result of the agreements being signed, and Israel could establish "warm ties" with its regional neighbors, they saw that the Trump administration's approach had been correct.

Pompeo said he believed that many other countries would sign on to the accords, adding that he hoped Saudi Arabia would be one, as well as Muslim countries outside the Middle East.

Pompeo also discussed the processes that led up to the accords, saying that the Palestinians had clung to their line of "no, no, no," prompting the administration to decide to move ahead with other countries in the Middle East, whose leaders said they did not want the Palestinians to bar them from establishing relations with Israel. Those countries said they wanted ties "not founded on hatred," Pompeo said.

The Abraham Accords will last, he said, adding that people in Sudan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates would not go backward.

When did the breakthrough that paved the way to the accords take place? According to Pompeo, it was at a summit in Warsaw, Poland, in 2019 at which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with foreign ministers of the Gulf states, which he called a "historic moment."

Touching on Iran, Pompeo said that the Abraham Accords would not have been signed if the US administration under former President Donald Trump had not made a "180-degree turn" in its approach to Iran. Pompeo said that the administration of former President Barack Obama had made a deal with Iran that ultimately helped it continue its nuclear weapons program. Pompeo said he had held talks with leaders of Gulf nations and promised to help defend them against Iran and said that it was time Iran felt the consequences of its policy not only toward Israel, but also toward Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

As for US sanctions on Ira, Pompeo said that the world had not believed they would work. He said the world today should ask the ayatollahs, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani whether or not the sanctions had been effective or not. The US sanctions stopped Iran from supporting Hezbollah and Shiite militias, and kept vast sums of money out of their hands, he said.

President Trump had done "the right thing" by arguing the strike that killed former commander of Iran's elite Quds Force Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who he said was responsible for "so much" in the region. He said the strike caused Arab leaders to see that the US was a partner and they could go where their people were already inclined to: battle anti-Semitism and build peace agreements with Israel.

President Reuven Rivlin also spoke at the conference and said that just like the world has come together to fight COVID, it must stand together to fight the "pandemic" of anti-Semitism and hatred. Rivlin also said that the world must adopt a zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism, racism, and radicalism.

Israeli Ambassador to the US and the United Nations Gilad Erdan congratulated Pompeo on his leadership award and said that Pompeo's outstanding commitment and activity on behalf of the security of the Jewish people and the state of Israel were commendable.

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"Many" people in Saudi Arabia want normalized relations with Israel, voicing hope that the kingdom will join the Abraham Accords, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.

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Pompeo, who served as former US President Donald Trump's CIA director and then top diplomat, made the comments in a recorded video address to the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, which will give him its inaugural Global Leadership Award on Monday.

Under the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump last year, four majority Arab states – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – agreed to establish ties with Israel.

The Israeli press was rife with speculation about other Arab nations interested in joining the pact, with powerhouse Saudi Arabia widely regarded as a top prize for the Jewish state.

"Predicting the future has proven a struggle for me," Pompeo said in remarks shared with Agence France-Presse, adding that he thinks "many more" countries will seek ties with Israel.

"I hope that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can find its way to join the Abraham Accords. I know that many inside that country want that to take place," he noted.

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Sources in Jerusalem have said Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in November in the Red Sea city of Neom.

The meeting, denied by Riyadh, fueled frenzied speculation in Israel that a normalization deal might be close.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The extraordinary snub of the top US diplomat, first reported by Reuters, came days after the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, an unprecedented attack on American democracy that stunned many world leaders and US allies.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, had sought to meet Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, a small but wealthy NATO ally, before meeting EU leaders and the bloc's top diplomat in Brussels, three people close to the planning told Reuters.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday rejected as "warmongering lies" an assertion by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Iran has ties to the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaida.

"[With] fictitious Iran 'declassifications' and AQ [al-Qaida] claims, [Pompeo] is pathetically ending his disastrous career with more warmongering lies," Zarif tweeted.

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"No one is fooled. All 9/11 terrorists came from @SecPompeo's favorite ME destinations; NONE from Iran," Zarif said.

Pompeo said on Tuesday that al-Qaida had established a new home base in Iran and the United States had fewer options in dealing with the group now it was "burrowed inside" that country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said: "Iran has been a victim of US state terrorism and affiliated groups for years and has had a clear ...record in the fight against al-Qaida and Islamic State," state media reported.

Iran's state religion is Shiite Islam, and the country views itself as a sworn enemy of Sunni Islamist militant groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaida. However, US officials have accused it in the past of providing shelter to some al-Qaida figures.

The New York Times reported in November that al-Qaida's Abu Muhammad al-Masri, accused of helping mastermind the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, was gunned down by Israeli operatives in Iran. Iran denied the report, saying there were no al-Qaida "terrorists" on its soil.

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The United States on Tuesday slapped fresh sanctions on Syria, targeting its central bank and blacklisting several people and entities in a continued effort to cut off funds for Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.

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The latest action, building on sanctions imposed on Syria earlier this year, marked another round in a US campaign to push Assad's government back into UN-led negotiations to end the country's nearly decade-long war.

"The  United States will  continue to seek accountability for those prolonging this conflict," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Millions of people have fled Syria and millions more have been internally displaced since a crackdown by Assad on protesters in 2011 led to civil war with Iran and Russia backing the government and the United States supporting the opposition.

In a separate statement, the US Treasury Department said the new sanctions add two individuals, nine business entities and the Central Bank of Syria to Washington's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

The US State Department also designated Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of the Syrian president, accusing her of impeding efforts for a political resolution to the war, and several members of her family, Pompeo said. Asma al-Assad was previously hit with sanctions in June.

Among those blacklisted were Lina Mohammed Nazir al-Kinayeh,  one  of Assad's key advisers;  her husband, Syrian parliamentarian Mohammed Hammam Mohammed Adnan Masouti; several government affiliated  businesses; and General Kifah Moulhem, commander of Syria's Military Intelligence organization.

Tuesday's action freezes any US assets of those blacklisted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Non-Americans that engage in certain transactions with the targeted people and entities may also be hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.

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US President Donald Trump has given the most hawkish members of his administration, among them Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the green light to pummel the Iranian regime in the remaining weeks of his presidency as long as it doesn't risk a full-fledged war, US news site the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

Trump has given his officials carte blanche against Iran on the condition that they don't risk "starting World War III," as the president has specifically put it in several private conversations with Pompeo and others, two senior administration officials told the Daily Beast.

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According to the report, Trump's broad-range directive has left numerous options at the outgoing administration's disposal, including additional sanctions and silence in the face of the assassination of regime officials. Two officials who spoke to the Daily Beast said the administration is preparing to unveil harsh new sanctions on regime-linked companies and individuals in the coming weeks.

Sources told the news outlet that those actions are designed to make it more difficult for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden to renew nuclear talks with Tehran.

Trump administration officials who spoke to the Daily Beast frequently point to Pompeo and Elliott Abrams, special representative for Iran, as the leaders of the administration's last-ditch attempt to squeeze the ayatollah regime.

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In the wake of Donald Trump's defeat and the victory of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, many pundits have speculated that the Abraham Accords – namely, the peace deals between Israel, Bahrain and Sudan – would be undercut. After all, without the US providing the diplomatic tutelage for this process, without its mediation efforts, and without the Trump administration's determination to move forward independent of the Israeli-Palestinian track, the possibility that things would continue along the same trajectory was questionable. But it appears that the real answer was provided on Monday with the leaks.

The special relationship being forged between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states has been in the making long before the 45th president entered the White House. The secret affair has begun in the wake of regional processes that date to the 1990s and have intensified in the wake of the Arab Spring some 10 years ago.

These processes and the downfall of regimes in the Middle east they precipitated, combined with the rising threat from Iran and the growing isolationist streak in the Obama administration, continued during the Trump presidency and slowly but surely helped the bring Israel and the Gulf closer.

This led to an underlying assumption in Jerusalem, Riyadh, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain came about, including in Amman, which practically always takes the Palestinian stance. That assumption was that if the Biden administration shows a conciliatory tone toward Tehran, only a strong regional pact between Israel and Sunni moderate Arab states can check the Iranian march toward the bomb. Only such an alliance would enable other major developments in the region, and chiefly among those developments is the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians and a formalized truce between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.

Thus, the meeting on Sunday sends a clear message to the new administration in Washington, and even more so to the ayatollah regime in Tehran. The message is that the region has a responsible leadership that is ready for cross-border cooperation that would lead to peace and prosperity for all involved.

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