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Friends of Zion (FoZ) founder Dr. Mike Evans said that he intends to speak with US President Donald Trump regarding the importance of the United States recognizing Somaliland during a special award ceremony held at the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Thursday.

“It’s time to bless all states that bless Israel,” he said. “Somaliland has shown genuine friendship toward the Jewish state, and I intend to speak with US President Donald Trump about the importance of formal American recognition of Somaliland.”

During the ceremony, held at the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi received the Friends of Zion Award in honor of the opening of Somaliland’s embassy in Jerusalem and the country’s friendship with Israel.

The ceremony was attended by diplomats, business leaders, Christian leaders, and other distinguished guests from across the globe.

“It is a great honor for me to receive the Friends of Zion Award,” said Abdullahi at the ceremony. “I am deeply moved and grateful for this recognition.”

“This award symbolizes the growing friendship and strengthening ties between Somaliland and Israel. We are committed to further deepening the relationship between our peoples and building a future based on cooperation, mutual respect, and friendship.”

Abdullahi concluded by thanking Evans and the organization for bestowing him with the award.

Somaliland’s new embassy in Jerusalem sends clear message of respect

Evans noted that “at a time when Israel faces complex security and diplomatic challenges, true friendship carries special significance.”

“President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi has demonstrated leadership, courage, and vision in advancing relations with Israel and strengthening the bonds between our peoples,” he said. “The decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem sends a clear message of friendship, mutual respect, and cooperation.”

“On behalf of millions of Friends of Zion supporters around the world, we are proud to present President Abdullahi with the Friends of Zion Award and recognize his commitment to the historic and enduring relationship between the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” he said.

Since its establishment by Shimon Peres, the Friends of Zion Award has been presented to approximately 26 world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, former US President George W. Bush, and former US Vice President Mike Pence.

Mona Khalil, a famed Lebanese turtle conservationist, died of injuries received after an airstrike hit her home in Mansouri, southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese wildlife conservation group Green Southerners. 

The group eulogized Khalil on its social media, noting that she had for decades “dedicated her life to protecting endangered sea turtles and their nesting habitats.”

“Her work made her one of Lebanon’s most respected voices for marine conservation and biodiversity protection.”

Khalil’s home was reportedly hit by an Israeli airstrike on June 4, where she was seriously injured. Her assistant also suffered injuries and burns in the strike. 

Both were evacuated to a nearby hospital to recieve medical treatement, with Khalil later being transfered to the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) for futher treatement. She succumbed to her injuries on June 19. 

Khalil, 76, was born in Lagos and moved to Mansouri in the early 2000s, shortly before the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon on the orders of former prime minister Ehud Barak.

Soon after, she opened the Orange House – a bed and breakfast she painted orange (reminiscent of her time living in the Netherlands) meant to act as a source of income to finance her and a friend’s environmentalist work.

She also launched a protection and ecotourism project for loggerhead and green sea turtles on nearby beaches.

In a 2013 interview with The Daily Star, Khalil described the Orange House as a place of tolerance.

“People come because here it’s a very private place,” she said. “It’s a place where nobody is going to judge them, so long as they respect nature. Homosexuals, lesbians, whatever – nobody will judge them here.”

Life-long devotion to protecting sea turtles

After being trained by the Athens-based NGO Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles (MEDASSET), Khalil served for years as a vocal advocate for the conservation of sea turtles, going head-to-head with beachgoers, fishermen, and, in one case, reportedly Hezbollah, in order to ensure that turtles were able to nest during the season without interference.

Khalil retired in the early 2020s. 

“Her death stands as a stark reminder that the ongoing violence in southern Lebanon is exacting a devastating toll on civilians, environmental defenders, and the natural heritage they sought to protect,” Green Southerners wrote. “We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, colleagues, and all those who worked alongside her.”

“Mona Khalil’s legacy will endure in the coastline she devoted her life to protecting, the sea turtles she fought to defend, and the values of conservation and stewardship she championed.”

Germany is examining purchasing long-range missiles from Covenant Technologies, a mysterious Israeli manufacturer founded two years ago, to replace the American-made Tomahawk missiles, according to a Sunday report by Politico.

The report mentioned that the missiles were promised to Europe by the Biden administration in order to deter further Russian invasions against European countries, but US President Donald Trump recently decided to cancel the move.

As a response, Berlin decided to purchase Israeli-made missiles as a replacement, with two other Ukrainian companies also among the possible sellers of long-range missiles, according to the report.

Germany has been one of the main clients of Israeli defense products in the last couple of years, with the main deals going to Israel’s “big three”: Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, and Elbit.

Berline bought the Arrow missiles and Heron TP drones from IAI, the Spike missiles and the Trophy active protection system from Rafael, and it’s on the way to a giant deal for rockets and launchers with Elbit.

What is Covenant Technologies?

Founded by its current CEO, the American-Israeli entrepreneur Michael Kaufman, the company operates in the defense-tech field, has a team composed of several dozen employees that work from its Tel Aviv offices, and focuses on solving the economic munitions problem.

They explained that the high prices of advanced missiles make it difficult to buy them in large quantities, have created shortages even for the US, and have created difficulties in rapidly producing new stock.

To that end, the company is trying to dramatically lower missile production costs by developing a cruise missile with performance comparable to the Tomahawk, at a cost of only several hundred thousand dollars rather than several million.

According to TheMarker, the company has raised more than $200 million from a long list of US funds and investors, and it is still operating in stealth mode.

Company in stealth mode

This means it is not yet known at what stage Covenant’s development is, and there is no information available about the production or testing facilities it owns.

The Germans are trying to buy a limited number of Tomahawks directly from the US, but the production line is currently full of Pentagon orders to replenish stocks after hundreds of such missiles were launched against Iran.

With Berlin aiming to receive cruise missiles as early as 2027, it might connect Covenant with one of Germany’s local defense industries to produce them there, something that Rafael and Elbit have already done.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that her ministry would advance plans for a light rail line connecting Gush Etzion to Jerusalem, in what local leaders described as a historic step for residents south of the capital.

The proposed line will enhance transportation between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, shortening travel times, easing congestion, and providing residents with a faster public transit option.

The announcement follows years of discussions over how to improve the transportation link between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, a corridor used daily by residents of the regional council, Beitar Illit, Efrat, and nearby communities. The area currently relies heavily on roads and bus lines, with the Route 60/Tunnels Road corridor serving as one of the main entrances into southern Jerusalem.

According to the Gush Etzion Regional Council, the project would create the first direct rail connection between the region and Jerusalem. The council said the light rail plan would join other transportation upgrades being promoted in the area, including road improvements, expanded traffic routes, and additional public transportation solutions.

No final route, budget, planning timetable, or expected completion date was included in the announcement.

The new light rail will mark a major turning point for the region

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosenthal welcomed the move, calling it “historic news for the residents of the region.”

“This is a historic announcement for the residents of the area and a significant step toward strengthening the natural connection between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem,” Rosenthal said. “The light rail will give residents a faster and more accessible connection to the capital and will provide a response to the major growth of Gush Etzion.”

“We thank Transportation Minister Miri Regev, a true partner in the development of Gush Etzion and in the transportation revolution we are advancing in the region,” he added.

The announcement comes as Jerusalem’s light rail network continues to expand, including work on routes intended to improve access to the city’s southern parts. For Gush Etzion residents, a rail link into Jerusalem would represent a major shift from car- and bus-based commuting to mass transit.

Volkswagen’s plans for a deal with Israeli arms maker Rafael to use its struggling Osnabrueck plant in Germany are being complicated by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the German carmaker’s third-largest investor, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Qatar, which holds 17% of voting rights in Europe’s biggest carmaker via the Qatar Investment Authority, has raised concerns about the talks between the two companies, citing the Gulf state’s complicated relationship with Israel.

That risks delaying one of Volkswagen’s key projects in its ongoing turnaround, including attempts to offload idle plants through deals with defense firms, as low auto sector demand across the continent bites.

Spokespeople for Volkswagen, the group’s supervisory board, and the QIA all declined to comment on the matter, which has been previously unreported.

Rafael interested in making Iron Dome System parts at plant

Volkswagen has been in talks with defense companies over future prospects for Osnabrueck, where production is currently scheduled to end next year.

State-owned Rafael is interested in manufacturing components for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system at the plant, and has signed a letter of intent to buy the site, sources told Reuters in late April.

The prospect of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund facilitating a deal with an Israeli defense company would place Doha in an uncomfortable position at a time of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Qatar has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and has instead carved out a distinct role as a back-channel mediator between Israel and Hamas, which maintains a political office in Doha.

There is also deep and widespread public support in Qatar for the Palestinian cause, and Doha has long made any normalization of relations with Israel conditional on a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood.

QIA has two seats on VW supervisory board

The QIA is Volkswagen’s third-largest shareholder after the Porsche SE investment vehicle of the family owners and the state of Lower Saxony. It has two seats on the carmaker’s supervisory board.

Two sources said that Lower Saxony, home to Osnabrueck and Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, could be brought on board through a joint venture between Volkswagen and Rafael to reach a solution.

State premier Olaf Lies, who sits on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, declined to comment directly on the Qatar issue, urging Volkswagen to find a long-term solution for the Osnabrueck plant, which employs 2,300 workers.

“I expect the company to live up to this responsibility and present the announced decisions in a timely manner. The state will provide constructive support wherever it is appropriate and possible,” he told Reuters.

Nearly 80 years after Australian airline Qantas began operating the air route from Australia to Britain, it is moving closer to its most ambitious attempt yet, a direct commercial flight from Sydney to London without a layover. 

The Australian airline announced this week that it had chosen London as the first destination for “Project Sunrise,” an initiative designed to connect Australia’s east coast directly with extremely distant cities, first London and later New York. 

Ticket sales are expected to begin in February 2027, and the first departures are planned for October that year, subject to regulatory approvals, completion of flight trials, and aircraft certification.

The flight, expected to last 19 to 21 hours depending on winds and route, would set a new benchmark for long-haul travel and aim to turn one of the world’s most grueling journeys into a single continuous route.

The move has occupied the aviation world for almost a decade. In 2017, Qantas challenged aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing to develop a plane that could fly nonstop from Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York, with a real commercial payload rather than an almost empty demonstration flight. In the end, Airbus was chosen, receiving an order from Qantas for 12 Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, a dedicated ultra-long-range version.

Aircraft has more capabilities than standard Airbus A350

The aircraft is not just a standard Airbus A350. It has undergone significant structural changes, most notably the addition of a rear-center fuel tank holding 20,000 liters. That addition extends the aircraft’s range by about 1,000 nautical miles and allows it to fly more than 16,000 kilometers, for up to 22 hours straight. The plane is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines and requires a higher maximum takeoff weight and a more complex fuel management system that must transfer fuel between tanks safely over many hours and under changing flight conditions.

The preparations go beyond the aircraft itself. In June 2026, the project’s first test plane, bearing production number MSN707, made its maiden flight in Toulouse, France. The flight lasted 3 hours and 43 minutes, reached an altitude of just over 41,000 feet, and launched a two-month testing and certification campaign. 

During the campaign, the new fuel systems, pumps, sensors, pressures, temperatures, a new cooling system for the aircraft galley, cabin ventilation, and the aircraft’s ability to maintain comfortable conditions even on an exceptionally long flight are being tested.

One of the more interesting engineering challenges is that the test aircraft is not a prototype that will remain in the company’s labs, but rather a production plane ultimately meant to carry passengers. 

As a result, thousands of sensors and measuring systems were installed in it in a way designed not to harm the future passenger cabin. Airbus also placed devices in the cabin that simulate passenger body heat to test how a full cabin would behave on such a long flight, and what would be needed to maintain temperature, ventilation, and comfort for nearly a day in the air.

Cabin layout different from standard flights

The cabin layout is also different from regular flights. Qantas will operate the aircraft in a configuration with just 238 seats, an unusually low seat count for this model. The layout includes 6 first-class suites, 52 business-class seats, 40 premium economy seats, and 140 economy seats, including economy plus. 

More than 40% of the seats will be allocated to premium cabins, a sign of the company’s commercial strategy: to sell not only a flight, but time saved and a more tolerable travel experience on an extraordinarily long journey.

A “wellbeing area” for passengers will also be set up in the middle of the aircraft, between premium economy and economy. The area will include stretch handles, a screen with movement exercises, and a drink-and-snacks station. 

Qantas also plans dedicated lighting based on waking and sleeping cycles, with different light scenes designed to help the body adjust to the destination’s time zone. Meals, sleep times, lighting, and cabin activity are all supposed to fit into a single schedule aimed at reducing jet lag and fatigue after landing.

The scientific foundation for the project has been built over the years. Qantas has worked with researchers at the University of Sydney to examine the effects of meal timing, hydration, exercise, light exposure, and sleep on passengers and crew. 

In 2019, the company already operated direct research flights from New York to Sydney and from London to Sydney, using Boeing 787-9 aircraft with a limited number of passengers and crew. Those flights collected data on alertness, movement, sleep, and passenger experience in order to build a safer and more comfortable operating model for ultra-long-haul flights.

Qantas’ history with long routes began long before the jet age. In 1947, the company began operating the “Kangaroo Route” from Sydney to London, a journey that then took four days and included seven stops, among them Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, and Rome. Since then, every new generation of aircraft has removed one more stopover. Project Sunrise is meant to eliminate the last one.

The project’s name is no accident. It refers to Qantas’ “double sunrise” flights during World War II, when the company operated Catalina seaplanes from Western Australia to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to maintain an air link to Britain after the fall of Singapore. The flights sometimes carried only three passengers and a small amount of mail, lasted more than 30 hours, and passengers saw the sun rise twice during the journey. In terms of time spent in the air, they are still considered among the longest commercial flights in history.

In the modern era, the active record belongs to Singapore Airlines on the New York JFK-Singapore route, a distance of about 15,349 kilometers, flown on an Airbus A350-900ULR, with an average duration of more than 18 hours. 

Next is the Newark-Singapore route, also operated by Singapore Airlines, at about 15,344 kilometers. Other notable long routes today include Auckland to Doha on Qatar Airways, Perth to London on Qantas, Melbourne to Dallas on Qantas, Perth to Paris, New York to Auckland, Auckland to Dubai, Los Angeles to Singapore, and San Francisco to Bengaluru.

Qantas already has commercial experience on an exceptionally long route: Perth to London, which began operating in 2018 and is considered one of the world’s longest nonstop flights. But Sydney to London is different. 

The distance is greater, the flight paths are more complex, and operations depend on tailwinds, the seasons, airspace conditions, and fuel availability. According to the company, polar routes will be used in some cases, especially during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

The project’s economic model is no less challenging than the engineering. Qantas will need to persuade passengers to pay more for nonstop flights. The company believes business travelers and premium passengers will be willing to pay a premium for time savings, the elimination of a stopover, and reduced risk of delays, missed connecting flights, or a prolonged stay at an intermediate airport. 

On existing routes such as Perth to London, Qantas has already succeeded in charging more for flights with a stop, and it hopes to replicate that model here as well.

On the other hand, a 20-hour flight is still a tough test for passengers and crews. Even with smart lighting, improved seats, a timed menu, and a stretching area, the human body was not designed for nearly a full day of sitting in an aircraft cabin. The operation will require meticulous crew scheduling, rest areas for pilots and flight attendants, fatigue monitoring, medical management for at-risk passengers, and preparation for medical emergencies far from suitable airports.

The project also depends on regulatory approvals and global operational stability. Disruptions in airspace, wars, extreme weather, or insurance restrictions could alter routes and reduce time savings. 

Qantas has already had to change routes on existing flights because of tensions in the Middle East, and the company will need to maintain a high degree of flexibility in the new project as well.

If the Sydney-to-London flight launches as planned, it will be more than just another airline route. It will mark a new stage in competition between airlines, between transit flights through hubs in the Gulf and Asia, and direct point-to-point connections. For years, airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines turned stopovers into a successful global model. Qantas is now trying to bring some passengers back to a different model, fewer airports, less waiting, fewer aircraft changes, and more consecutive hours in the air.

The success of Project Sunrise could also open additional routes. After London, New York is planned, and later, there could be additional destinations in North America, Europe, Africa, and South America, depending on demand and the number of aircraft delivered. 

In a world where aircraft are becoming more fuel-efficient, engines stronger, and passenger cabins designed around the human body rather than only around seat count, the world’s longest flight could become a regular commercial service rather than a technological showcase.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of visiting many countries around the world as part of my public, media, and diplomatic activities. Yet my first visit to the United Arab Emirates was truly exceptional and left a profound impression.

It was an opportunity to see firsthand how a relatively young country had, within a few decades, transformed itself into an economic, technological, and tourism powerhouse while maintaining stability, personal security, and respect for the individual.

As president of the Israel Radio Communications Association, I had the honor, together with my wife, of attending a festive dinner with Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, son of the Ruler of Sharjah and president of the UAE’s communications association, along with several other senior and distinguished figures.

The welcome was warm and moving. From the very first moment, there was a clear sense of respect and appreciation for the guests from Israel.

The conversations around a table laden with meats and salads were open, substantive, and friendly. Many of those present expressed genuine interest in Israel, its technological achievements, and its ability to address complex challenges in security, the economy, and innovation.

It was clear that beyond the headlines and formal agreements, there was also a genuine willingness to deepen ties between the two peoples and build bridges of cooperation.

One of the things that impressed me most was the country’s efficiency. From the moment we entered the UAE, it was apparent that its public service systems operated swiftly and professionally. Entry procedures were brief, orderly, and courteous.

Everywhere we visited, including hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and tourist attractions, we encountered professional, polite, and welcoming service.

The United Arab Emirates invests enormous resources in developing advanced infrastructure. Its modern highways, efficient transportation systems, innovative business centers, and impressive architecture reflect long-term vision and professional management.

A model of efficiency and modern governance

The country is not content with its present achievements. It is planning decades ahead in fields such as artificial intelligence, energy, education, and health care.

Another area that stood out was personal security. Residents and visitors alike enjoy an exceptionally strong sense of safety. Crime rates are low, and law enforcement is firm and effective.

Penalties for serious offenses are severe, and in many cases foreign nationals convicted of crimes are deported. At the same time, an advanced technological network of cameras and monitoring systems helps law enforcement authorities maintain public order and deter criminal activity.

Technology is integrated into nearly every aspect of daily life. Digital systems provide rapid access to government services, while innovative projects are transforming the country’s cities.

This approach reflects a belief that innovation is not a luxury but an essential condition for growth and success.

No discussion of a visit to the United Arab Emirates would be complete without acknowledging the historic importance of the Abraham Accords. These agreements did more than open air routes and commercial channels. 

They created a new reality in the Middle East. They demonstrated that Israel and Arab countries can cooperate on the basis of shared interests, mutual respect, and a desire to build a better future for their citizens.

In my conversations with senior officials and public figures in the Emirates, I repeatedly heard a clear message: There is a strong desire to expand cooperation in the fields of economics, science, medicine, communications, and technology.

Many viewed Israel as a valuable partner and expressed hope that relations would continue to deepen despite the region’s challenges.

The visit left me with a sense of optimism. It showed that a different reality can be built in the Middle East, one based on cooperation rather than confrontation, development rather than stagnation, and hope rather than suspicion.

The United Arab Emirates is an example of a country that has successfully combined tradition with progress, national identity with international openness, and stability with a constant drive for renewal.

Since that first visit, and the additional visits that followed, I have carried with me warm memories of the gracious hospitality, the fascinating encounters, and the feeling that a new chapter had opened in relations between our peoples.

The more human, economic, and cultural ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates deepen, the stronger the foundations of peace and stability will become throughout the region.

The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, an honorary consul and deputy dean of the Consular Diplomatic Corps, president of the Israel Radio Communications Association, and a former Israel Army Radio monitor and NBC News television correspondent.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is featuring a new installation on Jewish Holocaust survivor and pro-soccer player Paul Mahrer from May 31 through July 31, museum officials announced in May. 

The installation, titled Tell Our Boy That I Played Soccer Again, pulls archival photos, letters, and documents from the museum’s collection to trace Mahrer’s life as a professional footballer and Theresienstadt survivor.

The focus of the installation will be on letters smuggled between Mahrer and his wife as they were detained in separate concentration camps during the Holocaust. The project takes its name from a letter Mahrer wrote in hopes that his son would feel his love for family and the sport that gave him his career.

“Tell our boy that I played soccer again and even played well and was successful,” Mahrer wrote from inside the Nazi transit camp. 

Before the Gestapo deported him in 1942, Mahrer represented the then-Czechoslovakian national team in the 1924 Paris Olympics. He went on to play countless international matches throughout the 1920s and 1930s until he became one of 140,000 Jewish people held in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Though he survived, over three-quarters of those imprisoned alongside him did not. 

The museum’s decision to display this installation comes just as New York welcomes soccer teams from around the globe for the ongoing World Cup matches. For many, Mahrer’s historical retelling serves as a testament to the reality that sports can be more than just passing a ball. 

“Paul Mahrer’s story reminds us of the power of sport, and the rituals that sustain us, in times of joy and through unimaginable hardship,” said Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

More on The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The host museum was first opened in 1997 as New York’s contribution to the Never Forget movement. The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust serves thousands of school children each year as a leading educational resource for the tri-state area. 

In an effort to highlight Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust, the museum spotlights multiple installations drawn from the Peter & Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Resource Center, which boasts almost 40,000 artifacts, photographs, films, and survivor testimonies. 

Beyond Paul Mahrer’s life story, offerings include Art of Freedom: The Life & Work of Arthur Szyk, celebrating anti-fascist artist Arthur Szyk and his work, Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark focusing on the extraordinary rescue of Denmark’s Jewish population in 1943, and The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, which offers a thorough presentation of Holocaust history as it fits into ongoing global antisemitism.

For more information on exhibitions and to get tickets to Tell Our Boy That I Played Soccer Again, visit the museum’s website.

Israel has not built a coordinated national response to its aging population, despite more than a decade of government decisions identifying the issue as a strategic socioeconomic challenge, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned in a special report on Sunday.

The report examines whether Israel is prepared for a growing number of older citizens who will need pensions, healthcare, long-term care, welfare services, and support navigating retirement. It found gaps across all of those areas, while the number of Israelis aged 65 and over is expected to rise from about 1.3 million today to two million by 2050.

“Aging of the population is one of the central challenges facing the State of Israel,” Englman said. “Providing an appropriate response to the elderly population is a moral and value-based obligation.”

He said the audit showed “a large gap between governmental recognition of the importance of the challenge and action.”

The report found that responsibility for older Israelis is divided among the Health Ministry, Welfare Ministry, Social Equality Ministry, health funds, and National Insurance Institute (NII), but no single body has the authority, budget, or responsibility to ensure that they work together.

The comptroller found that Israel has no funded multi-year national plan on aging, no empowered coordinating body, and few measurable targets.

Israel needs better plan to deal with elderly people, comptroller says

Although the government identified aging as a major long-term challenge in 2015, none of the four central policy goals reviewed by the comptroller was fully implemented. Those included keeping NII financially stable, adapting retirement policy to longer life expectancy, increasing employment among older Israelis, and expanding geriatric medical care.

About 70% of government bodies dealing with aging said cooperation between relevant institutions was only moderate or worse, while 90% said information-sharing was inadequate.

Englman recommended that the Prime Minister’s Office, Health Ministry, Welfare Ministry, Social Equality Ministry, and NII create a funded multi-year plan. He said it should appoint a coordinating authority, set measurable targets, define each body’s responsibilities, improve information-sharing, and create a unified budget.

The report’s sharpest warning concerns the long-term care system. NII provides benefits to older Israelis who need help with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, eating, moving around the home, or personal hygiene. The aid can be given through home-care hours, services, or direct cash payments.

Annual NII spending on long-term care rose from NIS 7 billion before the 2018 reform to NIS 21b. in 2025. The number of recipients rose from about 180,000 to 392,000, while the share of retirement-age Israelis receiving the benefit increased from about 16% to 30%.

Englman said the reform damaged NII’s long-term financial stability. “This brought forward the year the fund will be depleted by more than six years, to 2035,” he said.

This does not mean that NII would stop operating in 2035, rather, the report explains that NII’s reserve fund is projected to run out that year – meaning it would require additional state financing to meet all of its legal obligations.

Yet despite that forecast, the socioeconomic cabinet did not discuss NII’s long-term financial stability in recent years, the report said.

The comptroller recommended that any major expansion of benefits be accompanied by an actuarial analysis – an assessment of whether the system can afford those commitments over time.

He also criticized the way NII decides who qualifies for long-term care benefits and how much assistance they receive.

How does NII handle eligibility?

Eligibility is based on dependency assessments, which measure the extent of help an elderly person needs in daily life. The report said Israel is the only OECD country that systematically conducts these assessments without face-to-face meetings, with only about 1% of them conducted in person at the person’s home.

Applications assessed through medical documents were approved at a rate 16 percentage points higher than those assessed through in-person visits, the report found.

In a comparison with one health fund, National Insurance assigned care levels an average of 1.7 levels higher. The comptroller estimated that this could create NIS 9.5b. in additional annual costs.

He recommended limiting document-based assessments to repeat applications or clearly severe cases, instead of using them routinely.

The report also found weak oversight of cash benefits and family members employed as caregivers. As more recipients receive money directly rather than services, Englman said NII does not conduct annual home monitoring for all of them and has not set a clear supervision procedure for family caregivers.

“The report further shows that following the reform, more elderly people receive cash benefits, but NII does not conduct annual monitoring in the homes of all recipients of the cash benefit,” Englman said. He recommended regular home visits and stronger supervision of care companies and family caregivers.

The report also warned that geriatric healthcare capacity has not kept pace with demand. The number of geriatric hospital beds per 1,000 Israelis aged 75 and over fell by 16% between 2020 and 2023, while the number of geriatricians barely changed.

The Health Ministry has adopted healthy aging programs but has not converted them into a funded, long-term plan with measurable targets, the report found. Englman recommended expanding preventive care and setting staffing and hospital-capacity goals.

On retirement and welfare, the comptroller found that Israel has no formal policy to prepare citizens for retirement, even though retirement can affect income, health, housing, social ties, and independence.

About 77% of respondents aged 60 to 75 said they had not participated in retirement preparation.

“Today, Israel has no organized government policy for preparing citizens for retirement,” Englman said. “The rate of older citizens employed after retirement age is low and will not allow the government’s targets to be achieved.”

Employment among Israelis aged 67 to 74 stood at 22.3% for women and 35.4% for men in 2025, and the comptroller said current trends suggest Israel will miss its 2030 targets.

Arnold Roth, the father of one of the child victims of the 2001 Sbarro massacre in downtown Jerusalem, slammed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for harboring Ahlam Tamimi, the woman behind his daughter’s murder, and likened the kingdom to the Palestinian Authority and its “pay-for-slay” stipends, saying that it continues to materially support terrorism. 

“The woman who masterminded the Sbarro massacre is free today in Jordan, living free all these years,” Roth told The Jerusalem Post at a StandWithUS event in Jerusalem last week. “She was charged in the United States in 2013, and she’s been saved, protected, and harbored by Jordan.”

Roth’s daughter, Malka Roth, was 15-years-old when she and 15 others, including six other children and a pregnant woman, were murdered in Jerusalem by a Palestinian suicide bomber who operated alongside Tamimi.

In an interview published in the 2006 documentary “Hot House,” while in an Israeli prison and hearing from Israeli director Shimon Dotan that eight children had been killed, Tamimi responded, repeating “eight” with a smile on her face.

Five years later, Tamimi was released to Jordan as part of the 2011 Gilad Schalit deal. Jordan, Arnold Roth said, has an obligation, per its 1995 extradition treaty with the US, to extradite Tamimi, something it has yet to do.

Roth says that Jordan’s rationales for not doing so have been “ridiculous, convoluted excuses” appealing to constitutional technicalities that it argues render them unbound from the treaty in this case.

Father of bombing victim: No one believes Jordan’s explanation for not deporting Tamimi

“No one believes this,” Roth said. “I speak with authority as someone who’s lived with this for many years. No one believes it. And yet, Jordan keeps getting away with it. Jordan is getting away with it today, tonight, and every day and every night for many years.”

Malka Roth was among three United States nationals killed in the attack. In 2013, a US federal court issued a sealed arrest warrant for Tamimi. The warrant was made public in 2017. Tamimi remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list with a reward of as much as $5 million for information leading to her arrest or conviction.

“I don’t blame the Jordanians any more than I blame the Palestinian Authority for getting away with whatever they can get away with. That’s the nature of crooks and thieves and confidence tricksters.”

Instead, Roth said he blamed “the civilized world.” This includes, he said, Jewish leadership for its lack of action in pushing for Tamimi to be brought to justice.

The larger share of the blame, though, he added, lay with governments and international bodies that “fail to act.”

“The problem is, where is the civilized world? And in the case of “pay for slay,” and in the case of Ahlam Tamimi, who lives free as a bird, as a celebrity, in Jordan, the problem is failure by some of the most serious organizations, including governments,” Roth said.

“Pay-for-slay” refers to the Palestinian Authority’s policy of providing monthly stipends to killed, injured, or imprisoned terrorists and their families for acts of violence against  Israelis. 

Further, despite the warrant for her arrest, Roth argued that the US was failing to sufficiently act. He said he fully agreed with the argument that the US could get Jordan to deport Tamimi, but has simply failed to apply the pressure.

“The United States can bring Jordan to do anything it can conceive of doing. In this case, there’s a treaty that goes back to 1995.”

Roth added that through Freedom of Information Act litigation, he had obtained a secret letter from the former Jordanian king vowing that the treaty would be honored.

It was signed by this king’s father, and this king’s father, in a secret letter, which I obtained through Freedom of Information Act litigation, says this treaty will be honored.”

“Lo and behold, it’s his son who stands at the head of a government that says, ‘Well, actually, for this convoluted technical reason, we Jordanians don’t have to hand her over.’ No one believes him,” Roth repeated. “Jordan has to hand her over. It’s a treaty obligation. They’re not a free agent. They’re an ally of the United States, and they are bound by a treaty.” 

He went on to question why this demand wasn’t being repeated at the highest levels of the American government.

“Jordan has no option,” he asserted. “Jordan has to hand her over, and if that isn’t enough, why in heaven’s name do they allow a woman like this, with blood, in this case, the blood of American victims, including my daughter, who’s an American, to get away with this?” he asked. “She’s been free in Jordan longer than my daughter was alive. There’s something very, very wrong going on, and there are no secrets. It’s very clear who can fix the problem.”

Anyone acquainted with yesteryear footage or recordings of Yemenite musical endeavors in this country will, no doubt, have noted the rudimentary nature of some of the instruments. In particular, there was the ubiquitous olive oil can or cookie tin used – with great dexterity, one should note – as a percussion anchor.

Eyal Wahab subscribes to the basic apparatus approach to music-making as a member of the El-Khat trio. “A dominant feature of the group is the instruments we play that I built myself – it’s a sort of upcycling,” Wahab explains. “We also play original material, with colors of the traditional Yemenite music.”

That provides useful pointers to Wahab’s artistic philosophy – although it is the Ethiopian Yemenite Takzina ensemble that he will be heading at this year’s Hullegeb Israeli-Ethiopian Arts Festival (June 23-25). The event, which has, among others, been providing a stage for Israeli artists with Ethiopian roots since 2010, takes place under the auspices of founding venue Confederation House, overseen by the institution’s long-serving CEO and artistic director, Effie Benaya. 

Over the years, the Jerusalemite center for ethnic music and poetry has spread its disciplinary wings and cultural baggage hinterland – from its idyllic perch opposite the Old City walls – with an expansive gallery of acts ranging from Swedish folk songs and jazz to classical Iraqi music and much betwixt. Hullegeb, by the way, means “All are welcome” in Amharic; so that suits. 

The Takzina Troupe fits that eclectic bill. (In Yemenite, “takzina” translates as family gathering or family event.)The band is due to play at the Mazkeka in downtown Jerusalem on June 24 (doors open 9 p.m., show starts 9:30 p.m.). Wahab, a second-generation Kfar Saba-born, now Berlin-based, Israeli whose grandparents made aliyah from Yemen, says he is always open to new ideas and is willing to go with the impromptu flow as the opportunities present themselves.

That stands to reason considering Wahab is only 42 years old – and a young-looking 42 at that – and, in musical terms, the product of both his ethnic DNA and the 1970s and 1990s rock music he gleefully wrapped his young ears around.

All the above come into the equation of both the groups he performs with. That goes for his work as an instrumentalist with El-Khat, and as the musical director and conductor of the ensemble he fronts, at next week’s Mazkeka gig. 

“That [musical backdrop] comes into play more with El-Khat, but there are quite a lot of things we do with Takzina which are less traditional, and the arrangements [which Wahab writes] take on those colors. We can call it more modern colors.”

While never straying too far from the nuts and bolts of the genre, Wahab says there is plenty of room for maneuver betwixt the time-honored lines and hooks to which his Yemenite forebears adhered. “That comes through in the way we play. We don’t necessarily stick to the structure of the [foundational musical framework] maqam, or the specific musical articulation,” he explains. “That varies with the artistic content of each concert we do.”

Takzina has been around for four years now, but anyone who has not been living under a rock will be able to appreciate that it has not been exactly plain sailing for the group throughout, for all sorts of political, logistical, and other reasons. 

“We started the orchestra in February 2022, and we had our first show around June,” Wahab recalls. “But things didn’t run smoothly because, you know, of the events of October 2023. Everything ground to a halt. We did a lot of things then, but there were a lot that we simply couldn’t do.” No need to dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s where that painful subject is concerned.

Wahab wanted Takzina to spread the good Yemenite musical word as far and as wide as possible from the get-go. Naturally, however, that became an almost insurmountable obstacle after Oct. 7. “We had a lot of gigs canceled [abroad]. We encountered what all Israeli artists had to endure then.”

So much for the official, media-fueled front. But when it comes down to individual brass tacks, things often take on a very different hue. An Israeli multidisciplinary artist I spoke to recently, who currently has an exhibition running in Europe, confided that while there were picket lines and protests outside the display hall, counterparts from Iran and Lebanon – among others – came up to him and expressed their support for his creative work. 

Wahab says he has also received some behind-the-scenes slaps on the back after performances in foreign climes.

‘They are so happy they came, and are supportive’

“We have lots of friends – Muslims, Arabs, from Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq who come to our shows. People often don’t know where we are from. They often think we are from Yemen. After the show, we meet, and talk, and we embrace. They are so happy they came, and are supportive.” 

Contrary to general public perception, Wahab says, there are plenty of positive apolitical vibes and healthy dynamics to be had. “It goes beyond mere words and hugs. We often sit down to eat together [with Muslims], and they host us. We get so much love.”

The orchestra leader proffers a street-level handle on the source of the bad press. “All the hatred and the fear and the racist behavior that I experience come from young people – Europeans or Americans – not from Arabs, not from Muslims. It comes from the less intelligent members of the younger generation, who are insensitive. And they wave flags of peace! It is absurd and totally ludicrous.”

Today, Wahab spends much of his time on the road, setting off from his current base in Berlin for all points across the global map. But his route through life, particularly in a musical sense, could have turned out very differently had he not experienced a cultural epiphany quite some way down his personal timeline.

Like many of his generation and the previous one, the first one born in Israel to parents who brought their ethnic baggage with them to the Promised Land – and stuck to it in this largely westernized sliver of the Middle East – Wahab eschewed the centuries-old Yemenite sounds his grandparents clung to. It wasn’t easy. 

“I was surrounded by that music,” he recalls. “The singing and the music exist in the synagogue. You absorb it. It feels like an integral part [of the Yemenite community]. You take it in from an early age. And there were cassettes of music played at home, the traditional stuff or the 1980s Yemenite fusion music of artists like Zion Golan and [Yemenite-born] Aaron Amram.”

But Wahab wasn’t going to stick to the familial straight and narrow. “I heard the [Yemenite] language, but I didn’t understand it,” he says. Presumably, then, he developed some childhood inquisitiveness and a desire to understand what the older folks were going on about. Apparently not. “On the contrary, I hated it. I wanted to get it out of my life.” The Middle Eastern-looking kid just wanted to be accepted as a bona fide member of predominantly Ashkenazi Western-leaning Israeli society. “I even thought I was white,” he chuckles.

That is a familiar course traveled by the offspring of Sephardic olim (“immigrants”), such as now globally-acclaimed 70-year-old oud player-violinist Yair Dalal, who was born in Israel just one year after his parents made it over here from Iraq. He, too, grew up surrounded by the traditional sounds played, sung, and celebrated by generations of Iraqi Jews across two millennia. 

And like Wahab, he also kicked out against “the old stuff,” starting his musical path playing blues and a little rock on electric guitar. It wasn’t until his 20s that he rediscovered his Iraqi roots, took up the oud and began zestfully delving into his genetic music.

Wahab also returned to the fold, albeit by a more prolonged route. “I followed a similar road, but it took me a lot longer to get back to my roots,” he observes. “It happened when I was in my early 30s.” In the interim, he grooved to British and American rock, especially of the early Seventies glam ilk, fronted by the likes of David Bowie. 
Wahab says he “only” realized music was going to be his career at the age of 13 or 14. That doesn’t seem to be too late in life to discover what you are going to do for a living, but the germ was sown much earlier. 

“I think I first picked up a guitar when I was around four.” That was a plastic toy shaped like the real thing. The preschooler was never going to stop there. “I was always focused on that. That developed to a wooden guitar, which I asked for and which, thankfully, I was given, and things just moved on from there.”

It transpires that Wahab’s previously stated declaration of war on his familial musical baggage was a little on the inaccurate side. 

“I tried to repress it, but fortunately, I didn’t manage to do that. That was part of me. It drew me to it, and I liked it.” 

The spanner in his musical heritage works was down to local microsociopolitics and peer pressure. “I was ashamed of it. I wanted to be ‘an Israeli.’ But I liked the music I heard in my backdrop, and I had friends in my neighborhood from the community. We’d hang out together and sing Yemenite songs. It was fun, but we kept it under wraps. People around us gave us the feeling that we didn’t belong [to Israeli society]. That’s the only reason why we pushed against Yemenite music.”

Wahab is a big boy now, and he has no need to repress anything. Happily and proudly, he touts the sounds he imbibed with his mother’s milk around the world, and he will bring some of that to Jerusalem next week. 

He may have reconnected with his ethnic genealogy but Wahab is still very much a product of his own era, and tends to bend the rules. That is also reflected in the instrumental choice du jour. 

“We’ll have 10 musicians at the Mazkeka, instead of 20 [full complement]. We’ll have the classic instruments, like brass and violins, but also a drum machine and some DIY instruments.” Wahab has made a habit of crafting his own music-making means, affixing a neck and strings to jerry cans and other detritus of contemporary urban life that he finds, putting them to good artistic use on stage. 

“That’s what Ethiopians have traditionally done. So it will be a slightly different concert from the regular Yemenite orchestral thing. It will be different because of the instruments and the sound we create.” 

Wahab also feels the June 24 show is in line with the spirit of the festival. “There is a deep cultural bond between Yemen and Ethiopia… and a little with regard to the musical elements of both countries. So I think that works for Hullegeb.”

That broadly sweeping ethos is evident right across the three-day agenda with plenty of quality fare on offer, both from the Ethiopian and extramural sides of the tracks. The homebase culture is well represented by the likes of singer AvevA Dese, veteran songstress Ayala Ingedashet, and rappers Mangisto, Fucho, and Tiki. And, as the festival finale, there is a fitting tribute to iconic Ethiopian songwriter Abebe Melesse, who wrote over 2,000 songs in the 1980s and 1990s.

The boundaries of Ethiopian cultural fare are stretched at the Yellow Submarine on June 23 (doors open 8:30 p.m., show starts 9:30 p.m.) with a stellar trio of multi-genre pianist Omri Mor, Ethiopian-born jazz and blues-oriented saxophonist-vocalist Abate Berihun, and Brazilian percussionist Joca Perpignan. 

Mor dips into jazz, classical music, Andalusian material, and an abundance of other styles and cultural milieus. So there will be plenty there to keep the audience fully engaged. Acclaimed bassist-producer Yossi Fine is also in the programmatic mix when he guests with singer Oshi Masala, and there is a perennial dance slot in the lineup at Confederation House on June 25 (6:30 p.m.) with the Zu-Ethiopia group. 

For tickets and more information: *6226, www.tickets.bimot.co.il, (02) 539-9360 and www.confederationhouse.org

‘I am not painting the flowers,” insisted David Nipo. “I am painting my field of vision. My field of vision itself. If we allow ourselves for a moment not to see the things in the field of vision, but rather to see the field of vision as an abstract array of light stimulation.”

It is a statement that goes to the heart of Nipo’s new exhibition, And Love, What will become of it? currently on view at Rothschild Fine Art in Tel Aviv. The show, a joint presentation with his wife, poet Adina Nipo, brings together his hyper-realistic still lifes and her precise, searching texts, two different responses to intimacy, loss, and the act of observing.

To stand before Nipo’s canvases is to encounter intimacy in several overlapping forms. There is the obsessive, durational intimacy between painter and subject; the quieter intimacy between a husband and wife; and the immediate intimacy created between painting and viewer. 

Looking at the translucent folds of his white and pink lisianthus, or the heavy, bruised presence of the gourds in the exhibition’s title work, And Love, What will become of it?, one is drawn into a sustained attention to looking itself, to perception, to the act of holding a gaze for long enough that it begins to change.

“Intimate, certainly,” said David Nipo. “There is nothing in it but intimacy, and intimacy is not narrative. Intimacy is not something you can turn into a story, unless you really insist on it. I am not looking for narratives.”

If one tries to extract a specific emotional plot from them, Nipo resists the attempt, saying that while viewers may be tempted into narrative readings of his subjects, this is not what he is trying to do.

Nipo keeps his work close to perception

Nipo explained that he tries to keep his work as close as possible to perception before it becomes interpretation, before seeing becomes a story. 

He described a process of dismantling the instinct to separate figure from ground, striving instead to “see the figure as ground and the ground as figure, interchangeably,” until the visual hierarchy dissolves into continuous attention. He looks so closely that the object is no longer simply an object, but part of the act of seeing.

Where he relies entirely on the visual surface to bypass the intellect and dissolve narrative, Adina, it seems, moves in the opposite direction: she uses words to create distance, to observe and frame what feels impossible to hold directly. 

Her writing emerged as a lifeline during a period marked by the devastating loss of her mother and overwhelming anxiety. For her, intimacy requires distance, an act of observing herself observing.

“It was really to take something very hard and antagonistic that I didn’t understand, and distance it from myself, put it on the wall for a moment or on the computer or the page, and frame it,” she shared. “In words, it is conceptualization, ultimately reducing it to a concept, and through that, there is an ability to cope.”

Despite these opposing approaches, he zooms in until the image dissolves into light; she steps back to frame experience through language; the couple meets in a shared space.

“The moment of observation is shared,” Adina noted. “It’s a very quiet observation, very observant. I think for both of us, a striving for a certain essence.” 

David agreed, noting the magnetic pull of her specific words: “When I read her poems, I feel that Adina is talking about me.”

This dialogue reaches one of its most interesting points in the way the two approach the moment a work is finished. Both treat their art as living entities, but their processes of separation are almost perfectly inverted.

A blank canvas is ‘completely whole’

For David, a blank canvas is “completely whole. There is no duality in it… the moment I do something, no matter what, there is already duality.” 

From that first brushstroke, he becomes subservient to the disruption: “I am your servant,” he says to the work. “You tell me what you need, and I will do it for you, because you can’t do it for yourself.”

He works relentlessly until “the painting doesn’t need me anymore.” Once that equilibrium is reached, the emotional severance is swift and absolute. 

“It really turns into an object, and it’s almost insulting,” he confessed. “Because suddenly it was life… the reason to get up in the morning, and suddenly it’s just another object in the house. It’s blocked. I have nothing to do with it.”

Adina, conversely, retains a more fluid relationship with her text. A poem is not a locked object; it remains a way of processing and living with experience. As it emerges from their dialogue, David works until the work no longer needs him, while Adina works until she no longer needs the poem.

Surrounded by David’s immersive canvases and Adina’s measured words, the gaze lingers, then moves on.

Through July 11, at Rothschild Fine Art, 2 Moshe Maor, Tel Aviv. 077-502-0484. https://www.rgfineart.com. Opening hours: Tuesday–Thursday 11:00–18:00, Friday–Saturday 10:00–14:00, Sunday–Monday closed (or by appointment).

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba is in the advanced planning stages for reconstruction one year after an Iranian ballistic missile struck the hospital. 

As a result of the incident on June 19, 2025, the hospital lost 144 inpatient beds, though the building had been evacuated of patients a day earlier. Fortunately, there were no casualties. 

“In the building that was hit, there were many wards and treatment rooms, operating rooms, and laboratories,” recalled Yarden Nevo, deputy director general of the hospital and head of its administration.

“The damage was extremely severe. In the ophthalmology department, for example, everything was destroyed. We saved what we could, and it was not much. The area that was directly affected underwent controlled demolition. The rest will be restored. The damage significantly reduced the scope of our operations; more than 30% of operating rooms were destroyed, but we quickly resumed operations. It requires a lot of effort and very creative capability from the teams,” Nevo said.

From Nevo’s office, the spot where the missile hit is clearly visible.

“In fact, the missile created a major opportunity for Soroka to move forward,” Nevo said.

The funding for the reconstruction process, estimated at about NIS 1.3 billion, comes from three sources: Clalit Health Services, the state treasury, and external donors. One of the benefactors is Sylvan Adams, who pledged $100 million. 

 “We are in advanced planning stages of the new inpatient tower,” Nevo said. “It will be very large, about 70,000 square meters. It will include inpatient wards, operating rooms, brain catheterization and cardiac catheterization units, a brain center, a heart center, a dialysis institute, and an underground parking facility that will serve as an emergency hospital when needed. It is expected to contain about 500 inpatient beds.”

The building plan was approved by the district planning committee in recent weeks, and construction is expected to take about seven years.

 “It will be a state-of-the-art building, with modern standards, fully protected and with elements beyond what a medical center of this type usually contains,” the deputy director general said. “We are thinking about everything: the needs of families, the hospitalized, and the patients. The hospital will emerge much stronger.”

Hospital development is gaining momentum

The missile strike created urgent needs for Soroka, including the need to reopen the rehabilitation department. In the meantime, twenty-five inpatient beds were placed in a building outside Soroka, and later the entire department was moved there. Similarly, some of the operating room activities were transferred to the new Assuta hospital established in the city.

During the recent conflict with Iran, about 300 patients were discharged home or to other frameworks. 

“We still had to find a way to treat those who arrived at the emergency department,” Nevo said. “It requires a lot of creativity and thought on the part of the clinical teams.”

In recent years, Soroka has been under enormous pressure, mainly due to the national security situation. The 2025 missile strike and the constraints it created made coping even more difficult. Alongside the return to full functionality, construction momentum continues. 

“In the coming year, we will inaugurate four projects at the medical center,” Nevo said

“Soon we will open the expansion of the emergency department and trauma room, which will respond to the growing needs of the Negev population. Later, we will open three new buildings in the hospital’s northern campus: a protected neonatal intensive care unit building, a research building, and a rehabilitation building, which will include, for the first time in the south, pediatric rehabilitation as well. The various departments are being built based on population projections and their growth. An average of 17,000 births occur in Soroka’s delivery rooms each year. The accumulated experience is therefore very extensive,” Nevo explained.

Nevo proudly spoke of the team’s commitment to the special mission and their willingness to take on a lot of work, beyond their shift hours. 

“Many of the team members are currently forced to work in temporary locations,” he noted.

The issue of medical workforce shortages in areas far from the center is well known. The new hospital will require hundreds of doctors and thousands of staff members. Training medical personnel typically takes about ten years. 

“The effort to retain manpower, even in the period after the missile strike, is significant,” he said. “We say the department is the employee’s second home, and in this case, we had to provide many employees with an ‘alternative home.’ We are protecting the people, and therefore it is important to maintain hope and a future horizon.”

“When the missile hit, we carried out immediate repair work throughout the hospital, especially repairing infrastructure and essential systems, and we completely renovated departments in the internal medicine building,” he added. “We have recently begun rebuilding the northern operating rooms. At the same time, we are in advanced planning stages of longer-term projects, including adding two floors to the southern inpatient complex and a new protected building, the Rebirth Building. These are dozens of projects at different stages of execution and planning, which will bring Soroka to a stronger position for its staff and patients.”

The line between caregiver and patient can blur in times of struggle

There is a resilience unit at Soroka that was established long before the missile strike, dating back to the COVID-19 period. At that time, hospitals in Israel began to recognize that the burden on medical teams was not only physical and professional but also emotional and psychological. A concept was developed to identify distress early, address it openly, and integrate it into organizational life. 

Dr. Yael Levaot, a specialist in community mental health and head of Soroka’s resilience unit, helped design this concept.

“The approach has proven critical since the outbreak of the war, and especially after the missile strike on the medical center,” she explained. “Trauma is also built from cumulative exposure, from ongoing alertness, from daily encounters with pain, loss, uncertainty, and sometimes from the awareness that the line between caregiver and victim can blur in an instant. Emotions are not dangerous, and psychological treatment is beneficial.” 

Levaot emphasized the guiding principle of the Resilience Unit: “This is a unit that is constantly working to create a culture where staff members are allowed to say they are having a hard time, and it is important to get help. The goal is to ensure the integrity of the team members. We all get off balance sometimes and find ourselves on the continuum of those who need treatment.” 

According to Levaot, in medical staff culture, the idea of receiving treatment is still difficult. 

“It is true everywhere in the world,” she said. “It is hard for us to switch roles, to suddenly go from caregiver to patient. We say, ‘What do you mean, I need treatment? I am on the other side.’ But there are many situations in which caregivers also need support. Even though it is difficult for us to admit, we need it.”

There are many examples of these situations in medical work. “For example, the death of a patient or staff member,” she said. “Or the death of a baby after many days of hospitalization. When care teams have established relationships with the family, and suddenly their systems collapse, and they are forced to inform the family of their death. After events like these, staff members experiencing difficult feelings know that someone can help them. They reach out, talk about it, and also mention colleagues, and then I can contact them myself. The response to these experiences is very personal, and we provide something very accessible. The message is: I see your suffering. I am with you. It can truly help.”

The mind, like the body, heals slowly after an injury. “I want to see progress, so we will continue offering help to caregivers and make them feel like someone cares about them,” she explained. “For example, we have about 200 doctors who are also reservists. They have dangerous missions. Sometimes they fail to save people, and they take it personally. That’s where I’m looking to get my foot in the door, to find opportunities to let them speak. The sooner we intervene, the more suffering we can prevent.”

What makes the unit unique is that it does not wait for employees to request help; instead, it proactively reaches out. 

Rather than just individual treatment, the unit works with managers, departments, peer dialogue, and organizational spaces to strengthen a sense of belonging, cohesion, and meaning. Within 72 hours of the missile strike, contact was made with about 1,700 employees from the affected areas, and the organization consistently and continuously supported the adaptation and recovery process and referred those in need to treatment

Dr. Lebaot’s articles in “Medicine” magazine over the past three years reflect a complex picture. Medical teams continue to treat, operate, and function completely even in times of emergency and distress, but at the same time, they carry with them experiences of fear, helplessness, mental fatigue, loss of security, and also deep questions about meaning, identity, and the ability to continue.

For this reason, the Resilience Unit at Soroka is built on principles of community mental health: not seeing distress solely through the individual’s eyes, but also in the broader context of community, organization, interpersonal relationships, and a shared narrative.

 “Resilience is not the absence of pain,” Levaot said, “but the ability to keep moving through it, together.”

A new Hebrew University of Jerusalem-led study found that reminders of collective trauma can cause an immediate spike in cannabis and tobacco cravings among regular users, according to research published in the Journal of Health Psychology.

The peer-reviewed study, led by Dr. Vera Skvirsky, Dr. Uri Lifshin, Maayan Yacubovitz, and Hila Avnit, examined how exposure to reminders of the October 7 attack affected regular cannabis users and daily tobacco smokers in Israel.

Researchers said the findings suggest that smoking-related cravings are not only a matter of habit or physical dependence, but may also function as a rapid psychological defense against thoughts of mortality and vulnerability.

The study was based on terror management theory, which holds that people instinctively seek to suppress or manage fear when confronted with reminders of death or existential threat.

In the first experiment, moderate to high-risk cannabis users were asked to read an article about the October 7 attack, accompanied by recognizable images. A control group read an article about dental pain.

Similar results among tobacco smokers

Participants exposed to the October 7 material reported significantly stronger cannabis cravings than those in the control group, the researchers said.

A second experiment used the same method with daily tobacco smokers and found a similar increase in nicotine cravings after exposure to collective trauma reminders.

“Our findings highlight how addictive behaviors are often deeply intertwined with our basic need for psychological survival,” Lifshin said. “When people are reminded of a collective existential threat, the immediate urge to smoke isn’t simply a physical habit. It is a rapid defensive response designed to push thoughts of mortality out of conscious awareness.”

Anxiety and psychological buffers

The study also found that people with high attachment anxiety, meaning those who worry more about their own lovability and the reliability of support networks, reported higher overall cravings.

However, the researchers said attachment security, self-esteem, national identity, and self-affirmation tasks did not reduce the immediate cravings triggered by trauma reminders.

That finding suggests the cravings were an urgent and reflexive attempt to suppress threatening thoughts, rather than a longer-term effort to build psychological security.

Broader public health implications

The findings come as Israeli researchers and clinicians continue to examine the long-term psychological effects of the October 7 massacre, the ongoing war, displacement, and repeated exposure to traumatic news.

The authors said the results may help explain how media reminders of collective traumatic events can affect health-related behavior, even after the initial event has passed.

The research paper, titled “The effect of collective trauma on craving for cannabis and tobacco,” is available in the Journal of Health Psychology.

More than 3,000 archaeological finds have been recently unearthed in the Nieuwe Drostendiep stream valley in Drenthe, the Netherlands.

The stream valley lies between the villages of Sleen and Oosterhesselen, and is currently under redevelopment to make space for nature and water. 

As part of the redevelopment  project, an team of archaeologists carefully studied the top layer of soil, finding a wealth of artifacts dating across several major historical periods.

“The finds are remarkable because there are so many of them, they come from virtually all major historical periods and are in very good condition,” the province wrote in a post toX/Twitter. 

Included in these finds are Stone Age and Bronze Age tools, jewelry dating from the second century BCE to the Middle Ages, as well as objects from the Eighty Years’ War (also known as the Dutch Revolt, between 1568 – 1648) and WWII.

Some 600 of the artifacts that have been discovered are considered to be “very special,” according to an early June statement from the Drenthe province. 

It added that “the scale, the variety, and the exceptionally good condition make the finds highly remarkable.”

“We [Drenthe] are proud of the rich history of our beautiful and unique Drenthe landscape,” said Provincial Executive Member Yvonne Turenhout of the finds. “These special finds underline that value once again.”

Prime location for uncovering artifacts

Archaeological research is often carried out in stream valleys due to their use throughout history as trade routes, sources of food, or assorted spiritual significance – making them a prime location for discovering artifacts and other finds. 

However, what makes the discovery at Nieuwe Drostendiep unique is not only the large number of artifacts unearthed, but their variety and high level of preservation. 

The fact that most of the pieces found are in such good condition is likely linked to the relatively undisturbed soil they were found in, according to the province.

At the moment, the 3,000 finds are being examined, cleaned, and cataloged as the province of Drenthe and the municipality of Coevorden work alongside experts to figure out the best way to display them all to the public.

Options currently being thought about include a physical exhibition and possibly making the collection digitally accessible. 

More information is expected to be shared after the summer, according to the province of Drenthe.

Netherlands returns 3,500-year-old sculpture stolen from Egypt 

The Netherlands in February returned a 3,500-year-old stone head believed to have been stolen from Luxor, Egypt during the Arab Spring in the early 2010s.

The sculpture, which depicts a high-ranking official from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III, first drew the attention of authorities at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair in the Netherlands in 2022.

According to the statement, Sycomore Ancient Art, the artifact’s dealer during the fair, noticed that the provenance documents were odd and consulted a British Museum expert before eventually contacting the Dutch National Police.

The DNP conducted an investigation into the artifact’s origin, in cooperation with the Inspectorate and alongside experts from the British Museum and the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.

Spanish police were also consulted in order to investigate one of the sculpture’s previous sellers, according to the statement.

Staff Sergeant Nave Habshoosh was named as the fourth soldier killed after Hezbollah struck a tank in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Sunday morning.

Habshoosh, 20, from Geva Binyamin, served in the 52nd Battalion in the 401st Brigade.

The tank, belonging to 52nd Battalion forces under the Givati Brigade, was operating in the area of the village of Tebnit at the time of the attack.

Lt.-Col. Dor Gedalia Ben-Simhon, 32, St.- Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, and St.-Sgt. Liav Kababia, 20, also of the 52nd Battalion, were killed in the same incident.

Ben-Simhon had taken over command of the 52nd Battalion from Lt. Col. “Y.” on April 20 after the latter was seriously wounded in southern Lebanon.

One soldier killed, 13 wounded in separate Hezbollah attack

In a separate incident overnight on Friday, Hezbollah attacked IDF positions in the Lebanon buffer zone.

Sgt. First Class Nir Ben Ari, 21, from the Maglan Unit, Commando Brigade, is believed to be the only soldier killed in these attacks, though 13 other soldiers were wounded.

In the overnight attacks, Hezbollah launched over 50 projectiles at soldiers in a “blatant ceasefire violation,”  the IDF said.

The military responded to the attacks with strikes on several Hezbollah terrorists and terror infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, the military added, including rocket launch positions, weapons storage facilities, and command centers.

Later on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz told the IDF to hold fire until further notice.

On the night of February 28, President Donald Trump addressed the American people to announce the launch of military strikes against Iran. He ended his remarks with a direct message to the Iranian people:

“To the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.” 

He told them to stay at home while the bombs were falling and that, “when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations… No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.”

Those were extraordinary words. No American president had ever said anything like them. Trump was giving hope to tens of millions of people who have lived under the most brutal theocratic regime in modern history. 

He was telling them: This time, America is with you.

A few days ago, at the G7 summit, a reporter asked Trump whether the Iranian regime’s ongoing killing of its own people would affect his willingness to pursue a deal. 

His answer was curious, to say the least: “The majority of that took place during the first and second regimes, much more so than now. It was much more severe, but it’s a terrible thing.”

The first and second regimes? Much more severe than now?

On June 2, Amnesty International’s X/Twitter account posted a grid of 41 faces – protesters executed for political reasons since February 28, the night the war began, following show trials in Islamic Revolutionary Courts conducted under what the regime calls “wartime conditions.”

On June 8, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported that executions are occurring “at a pace unmatched in decades,” with prisoners across 56 Iranian prisons sustaining a weekly hunger strike in protest. 

Just days ago, on June 16, Iran International reported two more executions at dawn – Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, arrested during the January protests and charged with “waging war against God.” 

The regime published videos of their forced confessions.
Forty-three political executions since Trump told the Iranian people their hour of freedom was at hand. And now he tells us the killings are not as bad as they were under the previous regime.

Trump would have us believe the people running Iran today are a different, new regime – that the architects of the January massacres are gone, replaced by new, more reasonable people. 

New people who just happen to be executing their own citizens at a rate not seen in decades. Whether Trump believes his own words is an open question, but his talk of “the first and second regimes” insults our collective intelligence.

The same regime, the same hands

The most prominent figure on the Iranian side of these negotiations is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament. 

He is not a new face of a new, more reasonable, “third” regime. As all Iran watchers and the Iranian people know, Ghalibaf built his career on excelling at the brutal suppression of peaceful protest.

In 1999, during mass student protests, he was already a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander. He told the supreme leader directly: if you don’t shoot these protesters, I will stage a military coup. A massacre ensued.
 
Ghalibaf boasts that early in his career, he rode around on a motorcycle with a club, beating demonstrators. He later became police chief of Tehran, responsible for the deaths of more protesters.

During the Green Movement of 2009 – the largest pro-democracy uprising Iran had seen in decades – he was mayor of Tehran, bearing direct responsibility for brutal police suppression in the capital. 

And in January of this year, during the protests that triggered this war, Ghalibaf was part of the leadership that authorized the killing of tens of thousands of Iranian protesters. The executions still ongoing today lie at his feet as well.

The Iranian people are not confused about who this man is. To them, he is the butcher – the man who rose to power by demonstrating again and again that he would murder Iranians seeking freedom. 

This is not a new regime. This is the same regime, with the same hands, making the same deals it has always made with its people’s blood.

I want to be fair to Trump. He is deliberately unpredictable and doesn’t telegraph his moves. 

It’s possible his public comments about the regime’s behavior are not a genuine assessment but a diplomatic maneuver – a face-saving narrative for the Iranians as he works toward an agreement. 

I’ve argued this point before and remain open to it.

But there is another possibility: that people around Trump have convinced him that a soft regime change has already occurred – that the removal of top military figures has fundamentally altered Iran’s power structure, that Ghalibaf represents a new military pragmatism the West can work with, and that he is Iran’s Gorbachev or Deng Xiaoping.

The US president told the Iranian people on February 28: “No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.” 

If the deal being negotiated leaves Ghalibaf – or anyone like him – holding power in Tehran, then what Trump was willing to do is exactly what every previous president did: use Iran’s people as leverage and leave them behind.

The writer is the executive director of Israel365 Action and co-host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.

More than a year and a half after worshipers fled for their lives from a burning synagogue, Australian police announced on Friday the indictment of a third suspect in the arson case at the East Melbourne synagogue.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other Australian officials have claimed the attack was one of two incidents carried out at Iran’s behest, leading to the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador from Australia and the closure of Australia’s embassy in Tehran. However, the charges remain purely criminal, with terrorism and antisemitism not included as direct counts against the young suspect. His name has not been officially released.

A joint counterterrorism team from the Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the intelligence service filed charges against the 20-year-old local man. He is accused of arson, causing damage, reckless endangerment of human life, and vehicle theft, offenses carrying a combined potential sentence of decades in prison: up to 15 years for arson and up to 10 years for each of the additional charges.

According to the indictment, the suspect is one of three perpetrators who broke into the synagogue on December 6, 2024, poured flammable material inside, and set the building on fire while dozens of worshipers were inside. No injuries were reported, but the damage was extensive.

With the new indictment, all three direct participants in the arson have now been charged. Another individual is also accused of stealing the vehicle used in the attack.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier said: “Today we can confirm that we have identified and charged all those we allege broke into the synagogue and carried out this appalling attack. The fear and genuine unease this crime created in our community should not be underestimated.”

Acting Victoria Police Commissioner Paul O’Halloran stressed that “identifying those involved in antisemitic attacks in any form remains a top priority. Even after more than 18 months, we remain focused on bringing to justice all those who harm our community.”

Witnesses may have lied to obstruct synagogue arson investigation

Authorities continue to call on the public to provide additional information and have suggested that some witnesses may have lied during the investigation in order to obstruct it.

The case has sparked significant outrage within the Jewish community in Australia and abroad, and has been viewed as part of a broader wave of antisemitism that has intensified since the outbreak of the war.

Some members of Australia’s Jewish community have complained that the investigation is moving too slowly and that Australia is not treating the surge in antisemitism, including additional incidents in Melbourne, with sufficient seriousness. They have also criticized the softening of charges, noting that they remain “criminal” rather than terrorism-related.

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has indicted a man with federal hate crime and firearm offenses for allegedly attempting a mass shooting targeting Jews in Plantation, Florida, according to a Thursday press release by the US Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs.

According to court records, Forrest Kendall Pemberton, 27, armed himself with an AR-15 kitted with a silencer and traveled to an AIPAC office on 23 December, 2024, where he attempted to target the organization’s employees. 

The DoJ announcement stated that he targeted the employees because they were Jewish.

He also allegedly told law enforcement that he targeted the pro-Israel group for political reasons, saying that he wanted to “see if I could make a change” to the “status quo,” according to the Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS).

Pemberton was arrested on 25 December when law enforcement observed him entering a vehicle with a rifle case, after which they confiscated three guns, an AR-15, a Luger pistol, and a Galil rifle, as well as ammunition, the JNS reported.

Charges: Hate crime, violence, and possession of firearms

He is charged with attempted hate crime, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, and possession of a short-barreled rifle, the report says. He faces potential life in prison, 30 years in prison, and a maximum of five years for the respective crimes. 

FBI Jacksonville is still investigating the case, alongside FBI Miami, the ATF, and local police departments. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech yesterday addressing the “scourge of antisemitism” plaguing Canada included several pertinent points. 

It is significant that he stood in one of Canada’s largest synagogues and acknowledged that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians” and that “if that covenant fails for one of our communities, it fails us all.”

Carney also highlighted the role the IHRA definition plays in identifying antisemitism, recognizing that clear definitions are essential if antisemitism is to be effectively addressed.

However, the speech largely avoided the fundamental questions now confronting Canada: why antisemitism has surged, how it has mutated, who is fueling it, and what concrete actions will be taken to confront it.

While the prime minister struck some of the right notes, he fell short of the leadership required to directly confront the drivers of antisemitism in Canada today.

Over the past five years in general, and the past two and a half in particular, Jewish Canadians have faced sustained antisemitism, including repeated hate rallies, intimidation, and violence targeting the community. 

The issue is not whether antisemitism exists, but if and how it is being identified and addressed – and whether its sources are being named clearly.

The speech did not meaningfully address how antisemitism has evolved in its contemporary form that demonizes, delegitimizes, and applies double standards to Israel as a “Jew” among nations.

It did not address the systematic hijacking, redefinition, inversion, and weaponization of facts and laws, including human rights language, to normalize “modern” antisemitic narratives coded as anti-Zionism.

Nor did it acknowledge the role that Islamic extremism plays in the antisemitism landscape in Canada, or the fact that some institutions that publicly promote inclusion have systematically excluded Jewish concerns.

Instead, Carney emphasized existing policies and praised law enforcement, without setting out how enforcement will be strengthened or how tools such as the government’s IHRA handbook will be operationalized across institutions.

Above all, he failed to reflect on how government policy is itself shaping and fueling the environment in which antisemitism has flourished, including through its own funding of organizations like the Muslim Association of Canada, which has hosted conventions ripe with antisemitism and has ties to Canadian-listed terrorist entities.

While warning against importing foreign conflicts, he did not acknowledge the extent to which Ottawa’s own approach vis-a-vis Israel affects the lived experience of many Jewish Canadians. 

Canada’s challenge

Decisions on issues ranging from military export permits to recognition of a Palestinian state following the Hamas-led October 7 massacre do not occur in a vacuum. 

When government actions are perceived as applying standards to Israel that would not be applied elsewhere, they shape how many Jewish Canadians understand their place in Canadian society. 

They also risk signaling to those who target the Jewish state that their grievances are endorsed by the political mainstream, reinforcing a climate in which hostility toward Israel increasingly spills over into hostility toward Jews. 

The announcement of a new advisory council raises additional concerns. Even before it has begun its work, serious questions have emerged regarding the backgrounds and past public positions of some appointed members. 

A body tasked with combating antisemitism cannot be effective if its own credibility is in question from day one. 

Further, in a glaring omission, despite speaking in a synagogue about the 3,000-year history of the Jewish people, the prime minister did not explicitly acknowledge the Jewish people’s enduring connection to the Land of Israel as part of modern Jewish identity.

As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks warned, antisemitism is not static but mutating, taking new forms in each generation while preserving its underlying logic. 

Today, its appearance as overt hostility toward Jews has become acceptable, even moral, as part of the opposition to the notion of Jewish peoplehood – including in its national liberation and its modern expression in Israel.

The challenge facing Canada is no longer comprehensively defining ever-mutating antisemitism. The IHRA did that, following the long democratic process that led to its creation. The challenge is finding the will, clarity, and courage to confront it.

Until political leaders, including Carney, are prepared to identify the forces driving anti-Jewish hatred, including the strain of anti-Zionism that has made it socially and politically acceptable in many circles, hold perpetrators accountable and apply the same standards to antisemitism that they would to any other form of bigotry, their words will ring hollow. 

Worse, they risk reinforcing the perception that conduct which should be unequivocally condemned will continue to be tolerated. 

The writer, former Israeli legislator and special envoy for combating antisemitism, is chief executive of the International Legal Forum. 

It was just a few days ago, while driving down the Ayalon, Tel Aviv’s main highway, that I began to notice one billboard after another, showing a new high-rise complex called 51 Park. Alongside the buildings was a very attractive blonde model who bore an amazing resemblance to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Doing a double-take, after seeing her signature next to her image, I couldn’t imagine what her connection was to new Israeli construction. Turns out her father, Bruce Paltrow, was Jewish.

Having grown up in a mixed Christian/Jewish household, Gwyneth, married to Jewish television producer Brad Falchuk, has previously spoken about her roots, but more publicly so since October 7, expressing support for the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists. And now, Paltrow lent her face to a Herzliya real estate project.

Predictably, Paltrow was met with the rage elicited by anyone who dares to connect themselves to Israel. Merciless X/Twitter posts appeared, accusing the actress of supporting genocide. One read, “Gwyneth Paltrow promotes $10 million penthouses in Herzliya while Gaza burns and Lebanon bleeds.”

Those fake accusations of Gaza burning and Lebanon bleeding jarred my memory to another recent story in the wake of the televised guilty verdict of Karmelo Anthony, a 19-year-old black Texas teen who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old at a track meet in 2025.

A podcast featuring controversial Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, along with other guests, discussed what they believed to be an unfair 35-year sentence for the death of the boy. What became apparent were the lack of details surrounding the tragic incident and the weapon used to kill the youth.

Crockett, despite being an attorney, appeared unprepared for the broadcast, not knowing any of the facts. After hearing a few of the women describe the weapon as a small pocket knife, with tiny scissors, the congresswoman made up her mind that this should not have even been considered a deadly weapon.

Proceeding to make the case of self-defense, Crockett reasoned that if a man twice her weight were to throw her to the ground and attack her, every means available would be permissible in trying to defend herself.

The problem with the story was that none of what she said bore any resemblance to the facts of what happened to 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, who died instantly from the stab wound inflicted upon him just for questioning why Anthony was standing under the tent of a high school he did not attend.

Crockett’s pathetic attempt sought to advance an agenda, based on an imaginary set of circumstances, which never occurred but which she, nonetheless, tried to apply to the story of a black teenager who, in her mind, was the victim of injustice for having been found guilty.

Two stories that share the same principle 

Gwyneth Paltrow, accused of being a supporter of genocide by accusers who would not be able to furnish anyone with the actual facts surrounding October 7, how the people of Gaza supported a terrorist organization as their governing leaders, or what those same terrorists did to their own people by purposely withholding food and humanitarian aid earmarked for Gazans.

With no frame of reference or historical background, as it relates to the modern-day state of Israel, Paltrow’s accusers, similar to Crockett, are running with an imaginary, fake story that has absolutely no basis in truth. But none of that matters when the version put before the public advances a political or social agenda intended to shift outcomes.

Suddenly, the hunted become the hunters. The perpetrators turn into the victims, and the evildoers are seen as freedom fighters and the long-suffering underclass whose years of oppression serve as justification for a brutal, savage attack.

What is, perhaps, the most astounding thing in this Paltrow story is that, after nearly three years of the spread of vicious and virulent antisemitism, the actress probably didn’t consider what the price might be to advertise a project in Israel. For the crime of appearing on a Tel Aviv billboard, her career may be irreparably damaged.

After all, who will want to hire the woman who is not ashamed to be linked to construction in the Jewish homeland? It’s good that she was paid a whopping $10 million to lend her image and name to the project, because she may now have to rely upon these types of appearances to earn a living.

But putting aside the financial aspects of the transaction, and assuming Paltrow doesn’t have to worry about money as a result of her extremely successful film career, how will she be able to show her face to her Hollywood peers?

Residing in Montecito, California, home to many A-listers, billionaires, and even royalty, including Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Ellen DeGeneres, Ariana Grande, Rob Lowe, Katy Perry, and many others, who would want to be seen with a half-Jewish woman who has been accused of supporting a genocidal nation?

Wouldn’t such an association hurt their brand? Will Paltrow suddenly find herself labeled a liability, disenfranchised from the lavish parties of the top echelons of society? How many of these rich and famous will have the courage needed to be seen in her company? And how long before being a friend of a genocide supporter comes back to bite them?

Paltrow could very well find herself as a pariah, an outcast of Hollywood, shunned and rejected by her own, all for the ignorant and deceptive accusations that were meant to paint Israel as the evil terrorists who have systematically plotted to eradicate Gazans.

It is this fabricated lie that haters of Israel and the Jewish people are counting on, knowing that those who run with the invented narrative will never stop to check if any of those fictional facts are based in truth.

Fortunate to have a ready-made audience of low-information individuals who have been brainwashed to believe that Hamas killers are the good guys, fabricated stories can now provide the edge to further their hatred and smear anyone – even a famous actress. 

What Gwyneth Paltrow probably never expected was that this billboard campaign could result in her becoming the next casualty in this war of fake accusations that are no less lethal than the real weapons of war. 

The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.

In his first major reflection following intense combat operations in southern Lebanon, 7th Armored Brigade Commander Col. Shaul Yisraeli detailed the unprecedented engineering breakthroughs and shifting battlefield dynamics his forces faced.

Speaking prior to the recent ceasefire, Yisraeli revealed how his brigade successfully breached strategic pathways to the Litani River while neutralizing massive subterranean “cities of refuge” constructed by Hezbollah over the last two decades.

Yisraeli selected the most experienced HEO (Heavy Engineering Equipment) operators to breach routes en route to the Litani River – a mission recognized as one of the most complex engineering tasks of the ground maneuver in southern Lebanon.

It was late at night in southern Lebanon. Inside the steel cabin of a D9 bulldozer, sat the vehicle commander and, to his left, an HEO operator, staring forward with absolute alertness.

Ahead of them lay the path to the Litani River; behind them, the tanks of the 7th Brigade awaited clearance to move. Between them was a narrow, steep, and menacing path, parts of which ran alongside a sharp, high cliff.

As the force advanced toward the river, their senses sharpened against the array of threats lurking in the area: anti-tank missile cells waiting in the thickets and among the mountains, suicide drone operators, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), rocket barrages, and mortar shells.

The bulldozer was at the forefront, at the very tip of the force. The bulldozer’s blade pushed forward, sweeping away everything in its path – including well-concealed explosives as well as boulders – at moments when a new path had to be paved according to the plan approved by Col. Yisraeli.

Inside the front cabin, critical decisions were made regarding the continuation of the ground maneuver: where to turn, at what speed, how to navigate an incline, and how to keep moving when any single mistake could halt the entire force. The massive vehicle, weighing around 60 tons, could slide, a path could collapse under the weight, and any delay could expose the advancing tanks trailing behind it.

After long, nerve-wracking minutes, the moment of truth arrived. In a small, narrow sector, the bulldozer was exposed to Hezbollah lookouts. Fire erupted. At that precise moment, the courage of the HEO operators was put to the test. They did not stop.

They pushed forward until the bulldozer’s blade touched the waters of the Litani River. A glance backward revealed the tank crews of the 7th Brigade slowly advancing along the route that had just been breached.

At the very start of the interview, Yisraeli chose to pause and emphasize the magnitude of this achievement – and the contribution of the 603rd Engineering Battalion. “The brigade’s engineering companies receive no recognition at all for what they do,” he said.

“They essentially breached the crossings at the Litani and the Salouqi simultaneously. This is an event that has never happened before. Non-commissioned officers, engineering force foremen – in my eyes, they are as vital as nuclear engineers. They executed engineering maneuvers that were thought to be impossible, creating the conditions for the attack.

“Their company commanders are heroes, too. They engaged at point-blank range. Exemplary battles. When the 7th Brigade killed 68 terrorists in recent weeks, they played a part in it.”

7th Brigade first to enter combat after ceasefire

The 7th Brigade was the first to enter combat after the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah. “It started with a surreal scene,” the Brigade Commander recounted. “We launched a drone in the Misgav Am area before the maneuver began. On one side of the screen, you see a baby playing on the lawn, and a moment later, you see terrorists moving south and east in southern Lebanon.”

Following a green light from the political echelon, the brigade launched a maneuver toward the first line of Lebanese villages – including Taybe, Markaba, and Rabb El Thalathine – aiming to prevent raids against northern Israeli communities and anti-tank missile fire. In the second stage, the Golani Brigade joined them. After stabilizing lines in the villages, the dramatic phase arrived: capturing Hezbollah’s “city of refuge” in Qantara.

“We are talking about an infrastructure built over roughly 20 years, which the Iranians constructed there alongside Hezbollah,” Col. Yisraeli said. “Rooms, organized weaponry, and the exact features found in all of Hezbollah’s cities of refuge: firing and anti-tank positions facing Misgav Am, and a launch base for raids into our territory.”

According to him, “The unique aspect of Qantara is that it sits directly above the Wadi Salouqi and a junction connecting to the Litani, effectively commanding the villages of Froun and Ghandouriyeh.”

The fighters of the 7th Brigade later reached this area, where they experienced an unprecedented attack involving hundreds of suicide drones. In the third stage of the fighting, the brigade’s battalions joined forces with the Golani Brigade to capture all the terrain overlooking the Litani and the Beaufort ridge, conducting raids toward Ghandouriyeh to locate and destroy terror infrastructure above and below ground.

“The ground was burning,” Col. Yisraeli described it. The frequency of engagements was high. “We completed the capture of this area only in the last two weeks, leaving dozens of terrorists dead,” he said.

As if that were not enough, an additional tank company, operating alongside the Commando Brigade, attacked Hezbollah infrastructure north of Beaufort – structures dug deep into the ground, from which anti-tank missile launchers were aimed at the Metula area and the Galilee Panhandle as a whole.

“In the initial attacks, dozens of anti-tank missiles were fired at us,” the Brigade Commander explained.

“The enemy was deployed in highly established, widespread ambushes across the terrain.”

Alongside this, he pointed to a threat that has become increasingly central to the battlefield: explosive drones. Yisraeli emphasized that this is a “new threat that we deal with every day, using tactics and drills. I hope this serves as a wake-up call for the state to invest in what the IDF has requested for many years regarding a solution to the drone threat. Now is the moment to snap out of it and move this forward. I am confident that we will gradually establish superiority over this threat as well.”

Learning from the past

Ahead of the maneuver toward Wadi Salouqi, the brigade conducted a learning process based on the complications encountered during the Battle of Salouqi in the Second Lebanon War.

The core conclusion was that the mission’s purpose nearly 20 years ago had not been sufficiently clear. However, this time, according to Col. Yisraeli, the volume of munitions fired at the forces was larger and more varied.

The 7th Brigade gathered advance intelligence on the operational sectors using drones. Scans located Hezbollah explosive charges and booby traps on the routes, as well as anti-tank launchers primed and aimed at bottleneck crossings.

This intelligence made it possible to show platoon and tank commanders exactly what the routes looked like and where their vulnerabilities lay.

Only afterward were robots deployed. When they arrived in the sector, Hezbollah made an effort to use a variety of firepower to hit the vehicles. When the organization’s operatives opened fire, Air Force forces identified them and struck with high precision.

“The third component involved advance raids by Egoz fighters in that area,” the Brigade Commander shared. “This is what we call neutralizing ambush components – dismantling the adversary’s system: charges, anti-tank missiles, and lookouts, on the way to Hezbollah’s cities of refuge.”

The 7th Brigade’s ground maneuver exposed the infrastructure of Hezbollah’s “cities of refuge.”

Some were dug deep into the earth to grant them immunity from airstrikes. Engineering mapping proved that the exact same contractor built all of them. The rooms, corridors, launch sites, and anti-tank missile firing slits were all constructed to the same standard.

Col. Yisraeli noted that locating the cities of refuge in Qantara and Beaufort was faster than in Gaza, partly due to the size of the tunnels in Lebanon.

“They are larger, and once you locate the edge of the thread, it is easier to complete their mapping and lead to their destruction or neutralization,” he said.

“It is important to say that we arrived highly prepared for the cities of refuge, with more accurate intelligence. Qantara is an example. It is longer, and we did not reach it during Operation Northern Arrows in September 2024. We wanted to, but we didn’t reach it. And now there was an opportunity to deepen the achievement and the maneuver. Each of these cities of refuge is 1.2 kilometers long, and the other is 700 meters. Dozens of rooms dug deep into the ground, packed with weapons. Operatives emerged from there; we engaged them and killed them.”

According to him, Hezbollah organized southern Lebanon as a multi-layered combat system, where each line served a different purpose: part was meant to strike the Yisraeli home front, part served as a “staging ground” for the Radwan Force before launching a raid into the Galilee, part was designed to delay the IDF’s ground maneuver, and part was used for storing weapons, ammunition, or housing reserve fighters for various missions deeper inside.

The systems were built through Iranian-Lebanese cooperation, above and below ground, incorporating fortifications designed to be immune to Israeli Air Force strikes.

“It must be noted that we found additional fortified infrastructure directly on the riverbeds,” the 7th Brigade Commander explained.

“More localized fortified infrastructure, segments of about 80 to 100 meters. This is essentially the second line. Atop them sits a system of ambushes consisting of anti-tank cells and drones.”

He added that “in some cases, there is a subterranean component of more than 200 meters, allowing them to withstand airstrikes, emerge, harass IDF forces, and retreat back underground.”

The evolving drone threat

There is no doubt that Hezbollah’s use of suicide drones will continue to intensify. The weight of the explosives will rise, operational ranges will expand, and the nature of war has already changed.

When asked to what extent drones alter the battlefield, Col. Yisraeli replied, “We must not obscure reality. Drones have become a significant component that absolutely requires us to change our operational patterns. This is a very significant matter. We have already managed to analyze them and provide a response through tactical operational behavior, but there is certainly still a long way to go.”

Nevertheless, he remains optimistic. “Unlike an anti-tank missile, where the technological solutions are more complex, in this case, I think we can already envision the solution. There is physics involved in development processes. They will take us some time, and until then, we will have to work with what we have. Part of the solution is low-tech, like nets. We are improving all the time. The way we maneuver is changing, too.”

On the future coping with the rise of drone threats, the Brigade Commander said: “On a strategic level, from a long-term perspective, I actually think this threat is simpler to counter. We have industrial technologies. We can take the time to develop them.”

The role of tanks in modern warfare

It is impossible to speak with an armored brigade commander without discussing the status of the tank on the battlefield – especially after a General Staff that made a bitter mistake chose to cut the number of tanks in the IDF in the past, an error they are now trying to correct by accelerating production lines.

“First of all, the tank has long ceased to be just a tank,” Col. Yisraeli said. “It is a multi-sensor system. It is a large, armored vehicle that brings energy inward to locate and destroy the enemy. In the future, many systems will be operated from it – meaning, we are almost there already. Our drones? Operated from the tank.

“You shorten the process and enable opening new sectors much faster, closing the loop between collection and attack. There are many incidental sensors mounted on the tank. By virtue of its sheer presence, it incidentally generates both C4I capabilities and target acquisition. And it must be said, it can bring both kinetics and directed-energy weapons into the battlefield, which is why it remains a highly, highly functional tool in combat.”

Recently, a Hezbollah terrorist managed to infiltrate all of the IDF’s defensive lines in southern Lebanon, reaching the Moshav of Margaliot by crossing the fence, and opened fire with a pistol at forces until he was neutralized.

When asked what this incident says about the IDF’s conduct, Col. Yisraeli responded, saying, “I think that beyond the basic aspects of any incident where a terrorist infiltrates, we need to examine our defense system – all the forces, and the way we deploy them.”

According to him, “We are currently more occupied with the attack and maneuvering forward” (the interview took place prior to entering the ceasefire with Hezbollah), “but we must be clear-eyed. There is a low signature on one hand, and less effectiveness from a Radwan Force battalion.

“We saw what happens when a thousand terrorists descend upon communities on October 7th, God forbid. We absolutely need to ensure we do not forget about defense. First and foremost, the defense of the communities. This is certainly an event that flashes a red light for us, but I say realistically, isolated terrorists from Gaza and Lebanon – I think that is an issue we will handle. It is the IDF’s job to stop it. That is what intelligence collection is for. There is a defensive system that needs to provide a solution for this.”

Addressing Force Burnout

After nearly three years of high-intensity warfare on a historic scale, company commanders, battalion commanders, and brigade commanders can look back at the campaign. The question arises whether it is time for a change: to prevent burnout, cultivate higher quality command, and perhaps shorten the duration of various roles in light of the vast operational experience gained.

“I must say there is a lot of logic and sense in what you are saying,” Col. Yisraeli replied. “I think the tenures of battalion commanders, for example, should be reduced. In our DNA, we don’t ask for concessions, and we are truly occupied every day with the current battle and planning the battle a week from now – and rightly so. But I agree, and I assume the echelon of battalion commanders, for all the reasons you mentioned, requires a change. I also recommended this to my corps commander and division commander, and I assume it will head in that direction.”

He added, “We do not know if we are at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the war. I tell this to the guys: reality surpasses all imagination, and we must pause to adapt ourselves to a reality that has completely changed.”

‘The greatest heroes are wives of the battalion commanders’

Toward the conclusion of the interview, Col. Yisraeli wished to emphasize a different point – not tanks, not drones, and not underground systems, but the people anchoring the campaign from behind: the families of the commanders, and primarily the wives of the battalion commanders.

“The wives of the battalion commanders,” he said. “Ultimately, our battalion commanders are the demographic bearing the most complex burden – cognitive, professional, and also physical. Continuous combat. Their wives are raising young children. The brigade commanders?

“Their children are older. It is easier for brigade commanders to handle this situation. And my greatest heroes are the wives of the battalion commanders. I don’t know how to promise them solutions. I know how to empathize, and I know how to appreciate them, and that is what the entire nation of Israel needs to do.”

He returned to the need to alter the IDF’s operational patterns during a prolonged war. “This is a matter of the most authentic kind because it is a professional issue. I think we need to better plan our operational pattern. The IDF has been in prolonged, lengthy combat in other eras as well, and balances must be found even within such periods of war.

“I am certain the Chief of Staff understands this, too, and will guide things in that direction. As you said, it is an important issue. Meaning, even if you are fighting continuously, there is great importance to the predictability of the frameworks to continue building the force, ensuring there is a fixed operational pattern, even if it is a difficult one.”

Editor’s Note: The following piece is satire. Any resemblance to actual geopolitical events, reformed ayatollahs, or underground golf courses is a delightful coincidence.

The walls of Jericho fell to shofars. The mullahs of Iran fell to Trump. Historians will call it the greatest diplomatic achievement since Moses parted the Red Sea, though Moses did not have access to Mar-a-Lago or Air Force One.

In the grand sweep of biblical history, few moments rival the miraculous turnaround we are witnessing today. The ink is barely dry on what historians will surely call the Deal of the Millennia, the comprehensive accord between the United States and Iran, and already the lions are lying down with the lambs. Or more accurately, the ayatollahs are trading their turbans for MAGA hats and their missile programs for golf courses. US President Donald Trump reminds us that the Deal of the Millennia draws its inspiration from his wife Melania, who has always been the peacemaker in the family.

For decades, Iran exported Islamic revolution, funded terror proxies, and chanted “Death to America” while building nuclear dreams in mountain fortresses. Now they have seen the light. Supreme Leader Khamenei himself reportedly whispered in a late-night call that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was child’s play compared to this masterpiece. “We tried enriching uranium,” an Iranian official confided off the record. “Trump enriched our souls.”

The true miracle is unfolding among Iran’s former proxies. These groups, once armed to the teeth and drunk on the ideology of resistance, have laid down their weapons en masse. The Axis of Resistance has turned a page and is now known as “Axes to Plowshares.”

Hezbollah in Lebanon held a press conference in a Beirut café next to a newly opened Trump Tower franchise, where Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah appeared in a sharp navy-blue suit and bright red power tie, with a matching MAGA hat in place of his earth-toned turban. In a voice cracking with emotion, he declared: “For too long we worshiped a false god of vengeance and martyrdom. We were blind, but now we see.

“Our real savior is President Donald J. Trump, who has shown us the path of true strength through winning deals and beautiful walls.” The crowd, once waving yellow Hezbollah flags, erupted in chants of “USA! USA!” and traded their AK-47s for souvenir red hats.

Similar scenes played out with the Houthis in Yemen. Having spent years disrupting Red Sea shipping, they have pivoted to a more profitable venture: building luxury resorts along the coast with American investment. Their leader emerged from a mountain cave freshly renovated with gold fixtures to proclaim: “Trump is the Messiah of Mar-a-Lago, the dealmaker who has redeemed us from the pit of proxy warfare.”

Hamas in Gaza has undergone the most astonishing transformation. Tunnels once used for smuggling weapons are being converted into underground shopping malls featuring kosher falafel stands and Trump-branded merchandise. Ismail Haniyeh, in a video message from what sources describe as a luxury Doha suite, tearfully renounced decades of charter-based hatred.

“Today we acknowledge the error of our ways. President Trump is our true savior, the one who brings peace through strength, tariffs on terror, and the greatest economic covenants the world has ever seen.”

Even the smaller Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have joined the parade, with Shi’ite commanders enrolling in Trump University extension courses on real estate development and the art of the deal.

‘The Road from Damascus’

THE DIPLOMATIC shifts have been seismic. Syria’s reformed jihadi president led a convoy directly from Damascus to establish his embassy in Jerusalem, calling it, with appealing Christian symmetry, “The Road from Damascus.” Saudi Arabia dispatched dozens of private and royal jets to open its own embassy in the holy city, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman calling it “the natural evolution of Vision 2030, now with even more winning.”

Qatar, once a notorious financier of Islamist causes, broke ground on a palatial $613 million embassy compound, promising television studios dedicated to “positive Middle East coverage” and the abandonment of decades of antisemitic incitement. Their foreign minister beamed: “Jerusalem is the new Doha, only with better hummus and actual stability.”

Somalia announced the Sheba Accords, uniting competing empires from Africa and Israel, as did King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar resigned her seat and was tapped as her native country’s first ambassador to Israel. The sound of uncontrollable crying was heard from the Tucker Carlson Compound as creditors arrived to claim their share of his Qatari-funded empire.

The former Pickaxe Mountain in Iran has been renamed Trump Mountain. Its tunnels and underground nuclear facilities are being widened to create the world’s first underground golf course, powered by peaceful Iranian nuclear energy.

The outbreak of peace has even reached Europe. Denmark sent a peace delegation to deliver Greenland as an offering on the White House altar. King Harald V of Norway announced the cessation of all Nobel Prizes in their various fields and their replacement with a single unified Nobel Prize, awarded to President Trump in perpetuity.

Across the Middle East, the fruits of the Deal of the Millennia are ripening. Iranian oil flows toward global markets rather than terror sponsorship. Former proxy fighters retrain as tour guides at the very sites where they once launched attacks, now reframed as “cautionary tales of misguided theology.” Churches in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq report record attendance.

The ancient Jewish community of Persia is experiencing a renaissance, with young Iranians studying Hebrew alongside English business terminology. Synagogues in Tehran are reopening. People who fled the Islamic Republic decades ago are flocking back to reclaim their heritage and their pistachio farms. The latest carpet design from the Grand Bazaar features the Dealmaker in Chief in red, white, and blue, available with free delivery on Amazon Prime.

From a Jewish perspective, this moment feels like a modern Purim story, except that Haman is not only repenting but investing in Israeli tech and water technology startups. The false gods of radical ideology have been toppled. In their place stands a simple truth: strength, clarity, and unapologetic deal-making bring peace where appeasement and weakness never could.

CRITICS WILL scoff, as they always do. The usual suspects will mutter about “unsustainability” and “transactional diplomacy.” Let them. They said the Abraham Accords would fail. They said moving the embassy to Jerusalem would ignite the region. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now. History belongs to those with the courage to forge new covenants.

The lion is not eating the lamb, but sitting down at the table together with the lamb, piled with burgers and fries alongside Persian kotlet and Ghormeh Sabzi. Apple pie for dessert, naturally.

As we watch embassies rise in Jerusalem, and former terrorists trade rockets for real estate portfolios, one cannot help but feel the hand of divine providence. Peace, real and tangible and beautiful, is breaking out across the Middle East. And its name is Trump.

Let us rejoice. Let us build. And let us never forget who made it possible. ■

British police on Friday released a man who had been arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a 3-year-old boy, who somehow ended up in a crocodile enclosure at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a family-run farm and zoo in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

“The man, who is not known to the victim, was assessed as not being fit for interview,” police said in a statement.

The police have not released any further details about the suspect.

Cambridgeshire Police said the child, who is in a critical but stable condition in hospital, suffered serious injuries while in the enclosure, with British media reporting that one of the zoo’s owners, Tracey Johnson, had jumped in to save him. The man arrested at the scene has now been released on bail until September 18, pending further inquiries.

“Knowing Tracey, it comes as no surprise that she acted this way – that’s exactly what she would do. She’s a very courageous and brave lady. She has been incredibly heroic. It’s nothing more than I would expect from her,” Chris Newman, director of the National Center for Reptile Welfare, told the Daily Mail.

“She’s a very strong lady. I know it would have been incredibly difficult. It’s about a 15-foot drop, so to get in there that quickly and save the child is an incredible act of bravery.”

Enclosure to remain closed until further notice

Johnsons of Old Hurst, whose zoo features more than 100 animals with a particular focus on crocodiles, has said its Tropical House would remain closed until further notice.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family,” it said in a statement on Facebook.

The enclosure in question houses at least 15 crocodiles and alligators, with the largest of them being two Nile crocodiles, between nine and 11 feet long and weighing up to 485lbs.

It is unknown to the public whether the child sustained his injuries entirely from the fall or if he was also bitten.

“If a child landed next to a crocodile, I absolutely would expect that animal to react and snap,” Newman told the Daily Mail. “The crocodiles are incredibly well fed, so I wouldn’t expect them to eat a child, but it would bite a child if it landed on it or by it… But my suspicion is that the injuries were caused by the child falling 15 feet onto concrete and sort of rolling into the water.” 

“You couldn’t fall or be pushed into it – you would have to be thrown,” he added.

The IDF cornered dozens of Hezbollah terrorists in a huge underground base in the village of Tebnit, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

According to N12, the network of tunnels is over a kilometer in total length, and IDF forces have engaged in combat both above and below ground.

Maariv reported that 30 Hezbollah terrorists were trapped inside, fighting back against the IDF using mortars and drones.

The IDF stated that the base was one of the most important Hezbollah headquarters in southern Lebanon, and that the operation in the area was intended to remove a long-term threat to northern Israeli communities.

US intelligence warns IDF operations threaten Iran MoU

US intelligence agencies have warned the White House that continued Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon may undermine the Trump administration’s recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, according to a report in The Washington Post on Friday.

The report was published shortly after it was announced that Israel and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah had reached a ceasefire agreement. 

IDF spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin clarified on Friday afternoon that the military will continue to remove immediate threats to Israel’s national security and respond to any Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

Goldie Katz contributed to this report.

A single word for hello or goodbye is “shalom” in Hebrew and “salaam” in Arabic. It means peace – but does either side really want peace? Yes, there are groups and individuals who want peace, and who have close friends in each other’s camps, but more is done to hamper peace than to encourage it.

There are countless examples. Here are but a few.

Haaretz reported last week that the Beersheba Municipality had canceled a joint Arabic-Hebrew book fair at the behest of right-wing activist Moshe Glick, the CEO of Btsalmo (In his image), who, in a letter to the municipality, accused the Negev Coexistence Forum, which organized the fair, of being “an incitement organization.”

The planned three-day event was to have included a panel discussion between Jewish and Arab academics, a night of community singing in Hebrew and Arabic, and, of course, displays of books in both languages. The excuse that the municipality reportedly gave for the cancellation was the sensitive security situation. The fact that the fair was a cultural event aimed at promoting mutual understanding and respect was obviously ignored.

In Jerusalem, Arab families who have been living in their homes for decades, and who can trace ownership back to the era of Ottoman rule, have been evicted. Cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir make no secret of the fact that they would like to evict all Arab families and build new National-Religious neighborhoods for observant Jewish families.

Jewish narratives, Jewish radicals, and Arabs in the land

None of the Jewish legislators in the Knesset is willing to sit in a government that includes representatives of Arab political parties, and the Arabs MKs, for their part, don’t want to sit in a purely Zionist government.

The Jewish radicals who keep attacking Palestinians and destroying their property are pouring fuel on the fire, as do Arab terrorists who attack Jews. Betar Jerusalem soccer fans, who for the most part are virulently anti-Arab, have to be controlled by police when the club plays Bnei Sakhnin, the best Arab soccer team in the country.

In their attempts to advance the Jewish narrative, some Israelis like to quote American non-Jewish author Mark Twain, who wrote of his visit to the Holy Land 160 years ago, that the country was primitive, rocky, and bare, repulsive and dreary, with hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere.

He was critical of everything except Jerusalem, of which he wrote in glowing terms. His criticisms are interpreted as a dearth in the population. If Arabs had lived in the land as they claim, they would have cared for it and made it flourish, say those who tend to think of Arabs in derogatory terms.

In addition, there is the high incidence of Arabs stealing from Jewish farmers, and the ongoing killings among Israeli Arabs themselves, with numbers for this year alone exceeding 100.

But there is a small ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Clergy and educators of most faiths agree that ignorance is the root of prejudice.

Social media feeds the world so many lies and distortions that truth is becoming increasingly elusive. This doesn’t just relate to Jews and to Israel, but also to Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular, as well as to minorities, celebrities, and, in fact, anyone who is targeted by a purveyor of malice.

Shiri Ourian, the executive director of the American Friends of the Parents Circle Families Forum, is thrilled that the Parents Circle in Israel has won its court case for the reinstatement of peace education in Israeli schools.

Three years ago, the Education Ministry banned the Parents Circle from high schools. But the organization petitioned again and again against this decision, and this month won its battle to have its dialogue program reinstated in Israeli schools.

The Parents Circle is composed of bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones in confrontation with the other side. Rather than seek revenge, they have opted for reconciliation and meet frequently to see each other as caring human beings and not as monsters.

The dialogue meetings in schools involve both Palestinians and Israelis.

The New York-headquartered Friends of the Parents Circle is made up of 850 Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families, some of whom find it easier to live in peace and harmony – and even affection with former enemies – when both are outside the Middle East.

The security situation and the limits that it imposed forced the postponement of an international conference on Contemporary Antisemitism at the University of Haifa.

The event is once again on the agenda and is scheduled to take place on July 7-9.

Considered to be a summit conference on antisemitism by virtue of the international standing of its 300 plus participants, it features among its speakers Deborah Lipstadt, former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and current professor at Emory University; Bernard-Henri Levy, philosopher, filmmaker, and bestselling author; Natan Sharansky, prisoner of Zion, former Israeli minister, and former head of the Jewish Agency; Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life; Moshe Davis, executive director of New York City’s Office to Combat Antisemitism; Dina Porat, former chief historian at Yad Vashem and professor emerita at Tel Aviv University; and David Hirsh, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a leading scholar of contemporary antisemitism.

Topics to be discussed at the conference include antisemitism on university campuses, Holocaust denial and distortion, digital and AI-driven antisemitism, media narratives, anti-Zionism, antisemitism in Europe and North America, public policy responses, and emerging trends across the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and beyond.

In addition, participants will be given insights into the development of the Contemporary Antisemitism Studies Association (CASA), a new international initiative established as an essential vehicle for research collaboration, academic publishing, conferences, and scholarly infrastructure dedicated to the study of antisemitism. A global academic consortium, its foundations are in Haifa, London, and Philadelphia.

Former MK Einat Wilf, intellectual and post-October 2023 founder and leader of the Oz Party, which seeks to promote peace based on Arab and Palestinian acceptance of Zionism and the dismantling of Palestinianism as an ideology of suffering, displacement, and destruction, recently announced a new nationwide parlor meeting tour.

Oz promotes an advanced welfare state based on solidarity and mutual responsibility, with equal top-quality education, health, and welfare services for all sectors of the population. Oz organizes Hebrew and English parlor meetings throughout the country, and coming up this week is a meeting in Baka, Jerusalem, at the home of solar energy pioneer Yosef Abramowitz and his wife, Rabbi Susan Silverman.

In addition to this meeting, the calendar for July is almost full with meetings in Kfar Saba, Ra’anana, Beersheba, Netanya, Kibbutz Saad, Tel Aviv, and Kochav Yair. Details and registration are on the Oz website.

Incidentally, aside from being a compelling speaker, Wilf is also a prolific author. Her latest book, Peace, Not Now, was launched earlier this month in Tel Aviv, where she was joined by public diplomacy personalities Eylon Levy and Jonathan Elkhoury.

It was a big night diplomatically last Tuesday, June 16. British Ambassador Simon Walters was hosting a King’s Birthday reception; Somaliland Ambassador Mohamed Hagi was attending a reception honoring the visit to Israel by his country’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi; and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys was at the Hebrew University addressing the issue of security in Europe and the Levant.

Lithuanian Ambassador Audrius Bruzga was obviously present, and so was his colleague Gints Serafinovics, the ambassador of Latvia. Also in the audience was Malcolm Gafson, the chairman of the Israel-Ireland Friendship League.

It just so happens that Gafson’s grandmother was raised in Lithuania and was born in Riga, Latvia. Both ambassadors were pleased to hear him tell this to Budrys, even though he relayed the information in a rich Irish brogue. And, of course, he took full advantage of the opportunity to be photographed with Budrys.

Apropos Hagi, one of his previous appointments was as Somaliland’s representative in Taiwan. Both countries are diplomatically challenged by the paucity of countries that are willing to recognize their sovereignty and to enter into full diplomatic relations.

No doubt that Hagi and Taiwan’s representative in Israel, Abby Ya-Ping Lee, will have a lot to discuss. Lee is an ambassador in her own right, but cannot use her title in Israel, even though Taiwan has numerous ties with Israel and has supported Israel through many humanitarian initiatives since October 7, 2023.

On Wednesday, both President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and Hagi participated in the Israel Somaliland Business Forum at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, where both were keynote speakers.

Also among the speakers were Eden Bar-Tal, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry; Abdulnasir Ahmed Hersi, the governor of the Somaliland National Bank; and Marian Cohen, chairman of the Board of the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel. In addition to leading business figures, there were members of the Ambassadors Club of Israel.

October 7 exhibition, trauma, and callousness
 
Some the former hostages of Hamas and members of their families, together with people who had been bereaved as a result of the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and assault, joined prominent personalities from Israel’s business community on the roof of the Azrieli complex in Tel Aviv at an event hosted by Danna Azrieli, who chairs the Azrieli Group.

The occasion was the launch of Mipo Nakum (From here we will rise), an exhibition and initiative of photojournalist Ziv Koren, who produced an exhibition and later a book on the October 7 war, and lyricist and best-selling author Noam Horev.

The exhibition remains on view on the roof. Taking its title to heart, former hostage Gadi Moses said: “We have no other option.”

It is impossible to determine exactly how many people were traumatized by the Hamas attack, and who are still suffering challenges to their mental health.

There are those who witnessed the callous killings by Hamas; there are survivors whose safe rooms were penetrated by Hamas; there are former hostages and their immediate families; there are evacuees who were displaced for long periods of time; there are people who lost jobs and business investments… and the list goes on.

Faculty members and students from universities across Israel were called to combat. Some fell in battle; some were severely wounded, and some are unable to escape the horrors they saw. Every institution of higher learning in Israel has staff and students who are deeply affected by the war and the amount of time they have spent on reserve duty.

To help them, the Afeka Academic College of Engineering inaugurated a Quiet Tent on campus. “Over the past year, we have seen firsthand the emotional burden many students are carrying,” said Afeka College President Prof. Yossi Rosenwaks.

The Quiet Tent was conceived by the family of an Afeka student who was haunted by PTSD and committed suicide. Forty-two percent of Afeka’s students were and still are called up for reserve duty while trying to pursue their studies.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jerusalem Post or its affiliates.

The IDF killed a Hamas terrorist who had been doubling as a photojournalist for Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera, the military announced on Saturday.

The terrorist, Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah, served as a sniper operative in Hamas‘ military wing, the IDF said.

He, along with two other Hamas terrorists, was killed in an Israeli strike in the center of the Gaza Strip.

“In recent months, he advanced sniper attack plans and additional terrorist activities against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip,” the military stated as reason for him being targeted.

Terrorist’s brother also posed as Al Jazeera journalist

Washah’s brother, the IDF stated, had also been a Hamas terrorist who had posed as an Al Jazeera journalist, and had been killed by Israeli forces in April. Muhammad Samir Muhammad Washah had worked in Hamas‘ rocket and weapons production headquarters.

When he was killed, the military said that Washah’s brother was involved in the development of drones, rockets, and other weapons, and also played a role in transferring arms across Gaza throughout the war.

The statement added that Washah contributed to Hamas’s force build-up and was directly involved in planning attacks, posing what the military described as a “concrete threat” to troops.

Five IDF soldiers were killed in Lebanon over the weekend in two separate incidents.

Four soldiers were killed early Friday while fighting in southern Lebanon when their tank was hit. 

Commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade Lt.-Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, 32, from Beit Hashita, and St.-Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, from Herzliya, were among the fallen troops.

The names of the other two soldiers had not been published as of press time.

In a separate incident, a Hezbollah attack also killed Sgt. First Class Nir Ben Ari, 21, from Kerem Maharal, who served with the Maglan Unit, Commando Brigade.

A suspicious object struck a Battalion 52 tank operating alongside troops from the Givati Brigade, who were in the area of the village of Tebnit, south of Nabatiya, the IDF said.

Ben Simhon had taken over command of Battalion 52 from Lt. Col. “Y.” on April 20 after the latter was seriously wounded in southern Lebanon.

Responses to Lt. Col. Ben-Simhon’s death

Ben Simhon was married and the father of two daughters.

He came from a family of combat soldiers. He and four of his brothers enlisted in the 401st Brigade, while another brother enlisted in the Golani Brigade.

His wife serves as a combat officer in the Combat Intelligence Collection and Border Defense Corps.

Kibbutz Beit Hashita said that “when the need arose, Lt.-Col. Dor stepped up and accepted command of the battalion during some of the most difficult moments of the fighting.”

They described him as a determined and responsible leader who was always willing to step up to a challenge.

The Gilboa Regional Council also sent its condolences.

“The Gilboa Regional Council bows its head, grieves, and salutes upon the fall in battle of Lt.-Col. Dor Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Brigade, who fell tonight in combat on the frontline along with three of his tank crew members.”

They described him as having “led his fighters with determination, supreme courage, and extraordinary responsibility.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz praised the fallen soldiers.

“Dor was a courageous, determined, and dedicated commander who fulfilled senior roles in the northern sector during the campaign and led his soldiers on the battlefield against our enemies. Their loss is a heavy blow to the IDF, the defense establishment, and the State of Israel as a whole.”

Lapid shares condolences with fallen soldiers’ families

Opposition leader Yair Lapid also reacted to the four soldiers’ deaths, mourning their loss and expressing condolences to their families.

“The heart breaks with the news,” he wrote on X/Twitter. “Endless pain. I share in the family’s grief from the depths of my heart. May their memory be blessed.”

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv also mourned the fallen soldiers.

“The heroism of the fighters and our eternal debt to them compel us to also say things as they are.

“The role of the IDF is to win on the battlefield. The role of the government is to translate the IDF’s strength into diplomatic moves that will prevent the need to return to the battlefield time and again,” he said.

“We owe this to the soldiers and commanders, to the children and grandchildren of us all.”

Five IDF soldiers died, and 13 were injured in separate instances in southern Lebanon within a two days of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire being announced, the IDF announced over the weekend. 

Two soldiers were killed in separate instances in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Saturday.

St.- Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade, and Sgt. First Class Nir Ben-Ari,  21, from the Maglan Unit, Commando Brigade, were killed separately in combat in southern Lebanon during Hezbollah’s overnight attacks on IDF positions in the buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

On Friday, a suspicious object struck a tank belonging to Battalion 52 forces under the Givati Brigade who were operating in the area of the village of Tebnit.

St.-Sgt. Klein and Lt.-Col. Dor Gedalia Ben-Simhon died in the incident, along with two other soldiers, though their names have not yet been cleared for publication. Ben-Simhon’s death was announced Friday. 

Hezbollah attacks on southern Israel kill one, injure 13

Later, Hezbollah attacked IDF positions in the Lebanon buffer zone overnight. Sgt. First Class Ben-Ari is believed to be the only soldier killed in the attacks, though 13 other soldiers were wounded. 

In the overnight attacks, Hezbollah launched over 50 projectiles at soldiers in a “blatant ceasefire violation,”  the IDF said.

The military responded to the attacks with strikes on several Hezbollah terrorists and terror infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, the military added, including rocket launch positions, weapons storage facilities, and command centers. Later on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz told the IDF to hold fire until further notice. 

The military noted that it remains committed to the ceasefire, emphasizing that it will act to “remove any threat posed to the State of Israel and IDF soldiers.”

In the strikes on Lebanon, at least 20 people were reportedly killed, according to Lebanese authorities. 

Britain’s data watchdog said on Wednesday a healthcare professional at the private hospital where Kate, the Princess of Wales, had surgery in 2024 had tried to sell “highly sensitive personal information,” believed to be her medical records.

The Information Commissioner’s Office launched an investigation in March 2024 into whether staff had attempted to access medical records at the London Clinic, where Kate, the wife of the heir to the throne, Prince William, had undergone abdominal surgery two months earlier.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ICO said it had concluded a criminal investigation and found that a former healthcare worker had deliberately misused sensitive information and offered to disclose it for financial gain.

Sky News reported that the case concerned Kate, while the ICO declined to comment on who, specifically, the records belonged to. Her office, Kensington Palace, declined to comment.

Kate underwent chemo in 2024 for unspecified form of cancer  

Kate, 44, underwent surgery for an unspecified condition during her hospital stay. A few months later, she announced she would undergo a course of chemotherapy after tests revealed an unspecified form of cancer had been present.

The ICO said it had issued a formal caution in relation to the offense and did not find any wider failings at the London Clinic, one of the largest private hospitals in Britain, which has also treated King Charles.

Kate said last year she was in remission and has returned to public duties, carrying out her first official overseas visit since undergoing treatment when she went to Italy last month.

The wife of Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez must stand trial on corruption charges and has been banned from going abroad, a judge ruled on Saturday.

Begoña Gomez is suspected of using her position as the prime minister’s wife to secure work contracts. She denies any wrongdoing. The case was brought by far-right groups who oppose Sanchez’s party.

Investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado ordered Gomez to surrender her passport, barred her from leaving Spain and required her to report to court twice a month.

Gomez’s case one of several corruption investigations close to Sanchez

The case is one of several corruption probes nearing or already at trial that are weighing on Sanchez, one of Europe’s few remaining leftist leaders. He has not been named in any of the cases and has said they are part of a campaign to remove him from office.

El Pais newspaper cited sources close to Gomez as saying she would appeal against the conditions imposed by the judge, including the withdrawal of her passport.

The Socialist Party posted on the messaging platform X/Twitter: “(Begoña) has been subjected to judicial and political persecution for two years. Today’s development is another step in that process.”

Several close allies, including the Socialist Party’s number three and Sanchez’s former transport minister, are under investigation in cases involving alleged kickbacks linked to public works, oil and gas contracts, and the procurement of masks during the pandemic. They deny wrongdoing.

Separately, Spain’s High Court said it was investigating former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero over allegations he led a network that profited from lobbying public ​authorities on behalf of third parties, including airline Plus Ultra. He denies the claims.

Ahead of Knesset elections, each party decides its own list of candidates. 

In Israel, the voter has no influence on which individuals will serve in the Knesset; thus, the selection and ranking of candidates by the parties is decisive: candidates ranked high on the party list will almost certainly serve in the next Knesset.

Those placed in a lower, ‘unrealistic’ slot will know for certain that they will not be elected, and those situated somewhere in between will be left on tenterhooks until after the final vote count. Each party can decide on its own mechanism for setting its candidate list, as the law does not interfere in this issue.

Ostensibly, almost every possible system for candidate selection has been used (or is still in use) in Israel. In many parties today, the party leader has sole authority to decide on the list of candidates. There have been – and still are – parties in which the list is set by small party organs such as an “organizing committee.” 

There are also parties in which the delegates decide the candidate list, and there are parties that hold ‘primaries,’ in which all dues-paying party members vote to determine the list. There are also certain combinations of these methods, such as primaries with the addition of some slots on the list decided by the party leader.

What we do not have in Israel, or at least are very rare, are multi-stage methods, in which several selection bodies participate in selecting candidates one after the other. For example, a system in which a small party organ filters an initial candidate list and creates a small “pool” of candidates, and then party members rank the candidates in that pool via primaries. 

Multi-stage methods can also involve other actors, from the party leader through the party’s central committee or a “party citizens’ assembly” (a gathering that includes ordinary party members chosen at random), to open primaries.

We do not need to invent the wheel, as such methods are practiced in many democracies around the world – including the UK and many Continental European democracies. They have multiple benefits and mitigate some of the disadvantages of existing methods. 

For example, while it is difficult to argue against the democratic value of the broad participation inherent in the primary system, it is also hard to ignore its considerable flaws, which include vote-mongering, corruption, and the encouragement of populist and polarizing behavior. A method in which candidates undergo initial screening may moderate these tendencies.

In fact, any system in which candidate selection depends on only one electorate suffers from characteristic disorders. Past experience in Israel has made very clear the harms resulting from the selection of candidates by a party central committee, and, as noted, the harms caused by selection via primaries, but complete dependence on other electoral bodies can also inflict considerable damage. 

Open primaries where voters do not need to be members of the party, for example, may lead to a hostile takeover of the party by foreign elements, while total control by the leader can result in blind loyalty among elected party representatives.

The only way to neutralize these flaws, at least partially, is for each candidate to be dependent on several different selection bodies. This can be seen as a form of intra-party checks and balances. 

Future of the political system

In the method proposed above, for example, candidates will know that on the one hand, they must appeal to a broad public, otherwise they will not be selected in the primaries; and at the same time, they must not harm the party or embarrass it in the process, otherwise they will not pass the initial screening of the candidates.

True, shifting to such multi-stage methods contradicts the personal interests of existing actors. For example, voting for “contractors” who have great influence in the primaries and, of course, the leaders of certain parties who have complete control over the list of candidates. 

And even if such methods strengthen the parties in the long term, it is impossible to guarantee that they will benefit them electorally in the short term. 

But from the perspective of Israeli democracy, the existing methods of selecting party candidates entail clear harms, such as populism on the one hand and excessive concentration of power in the hands of the party leader on the other. 

The selection of worthy, higher-quality Knesset members is critical for the future of the political system and the state, and this begins with candidate selection within the parties. 

Moreover, introducing a system that involves several party actors in major party events, such as the selection of candidates, would also lead to a revival of Israel’s political parties.

Decentralization of the selection process would not only distribute political power more widely throughout each party; instead, it would also breathe life into the party as a political subsystem in its own right.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. 

As the Fourth of July approaches, one of America’s biggest celebrations ever is about to commence.

Washington, DC, will not simply celebrate Independence Day. It will become the symbolic stage for one of the most significant milestones in modern American history: the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Across the capital, the familiar rhythm of the Fourth will transform into a citywide spectacle of history, patriotism, and celebration, reflecting the spirit of the official America250 theme: Celebrating a quarter of a millennium of the American spirit.

The heart of the festivities will unfold along the National Mall, where hundreds of thousands, and possibly more than a million visitors, are expected to gather for a full day of events under the banner of “Salute to America 250.”

Among the highlights will be the Great American State Fair, bringing together representations from across the country in a celebration of America’s diversity and identity, alongside an expanded National Independence Day Parade along Constitution Avenue. Military bands, ceremonial units, cultural delegations, and representatives connected to all 50 states are expected to transform downtown Washington into a moving portrait of America itself.

My visit to the capital, a few weeks ahead of the celebrations, was already emotional.

Mt. Vernon, the home and final resting place of America’s first president

At Mount Vernon, the home and final resting place of George Washington, America’s first president and founding hero, after whom the nearby capital was named, the approaching anniversary feels especially meaningful.

Each spring, the estate hosts its Revolutionary War Weekend, transforming the grounds into a living scene from the 1770s.

As I walk through the estate, hundreds of history enthusiasts from across the United States, most of them unpaid volunteers driven by a deep passion for preserving America’s story, march in period military uniforms while cannons thunder. A unique and original time-travel to America’s history.

Throughout Washington, banners and commemorative displays carrying the America250 branding already signal the approaching celebration. Washington reveals itself as a city of endless layers, where every corner seems to tell a different American story.

Georgetown blends old-world charm, university spirit, and timeless Washington character into one of the capital’s most picturesque neighborhoods. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum celebrates aviation pioneers, moon landings, spacecraft, and innovation.

A visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is equally essential, preserving memory and confronting humanity’s darkest chapter through powerful personal testimonies.

As night begins to fall, I join an intimate, organized mini-bus tour with a knowledgeable yet loquacious guide to discover Washington from a different perspective. One by one, the capital’s iconic memorials emerge from the darkness and become even more powerful after sunset, illuminated symbols of freedom, leadership, sacrifice, democracy, and the defining moments that shaped the American story.

The towering memorials to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King Jr. stand alongside places of remembrance, including the Marine Corps War Memorial (better known as Iwo Jima), the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Together, they tell the story of a superpower that not only celebrates victory but remembers the cost behind it. At night, Washington feels less like a political capital and more like a vast open-air tribute to the ideals, struggles, and people that built the United States, grand, historic, and deeply symbolic.

One of America’s most fascinating hospitality landmarks, The Watergate Hotel

But my visit was also driven by another reason: the desire to explore one of America’s most fascinating hospitality landmarks, The Watergate Hotel. A place where political history, luxury hospitality, river views, and timeless Washington intrigue come together.

As a teenager, I admired President Richard Nixon for his support of Israel. Spending three nights at a hotel forever associated with the political drama that ended his presidency felt unexpectedly emotional.

The Watergate name became permanently etched into history after the Watergate scandal, the political break-in and cover-up that ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

The story later reached audiences worldwide through the acclaimed film All the President’s Men, which won four Academy Awards and starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. A landmark motion picture that captured both the inquiry and the enduring power of investigative journalism.

One of the hotel’s most fascinating experiences is the so-called “Scandal Room.” Concierge Mesfin Asfaha takes me through a captivating presentation explaining how operatives tied to Nixon’s reelection campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the neighboring office complex. While the break-in itself did not take place inside the hotel, the Watergate became forever linked to one of America’s defining political dramas.

Today, the room serves almost as a living museum, displaying posters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and memorabilia from that turbulent period. Apparently, the demand to stay overnight in the room is surprisingly high. Guests willingly sleep beside history.

The Watergate remains today one of Washington’s most elegant and sought-after luxury hotels. Our room was spacious and refined, with an open balcony overlooking the mighty Potomac River, arguably one of the finest hotel views in the American capital.

The hotel comes under new ownership

Yet the hotel’s own story after 1972 was far from simple. Following decades of changing fortunes and growing competition from newer luxury hotels, the property closed in 2007.

Its revival came when developer Euro Capital Properties, led by the Cohen family, acquired and reimagined the property. Reopened in 2016 after an extensive redesign, the vision was not to recreate the past but to restore the hotel’s status as one of Washington’s unique addresses, blending mid-century glamour with contemporary sophistication across 336 rooms, including 35 suites over 12 floors.

“Among our signature venues is our acclaimed rooftop, frequently ranked among the most impressive in the United States,” says managing director Dan Pimentel. The venue, Top of the Gate, feels like a stage suspended above the city. Panoramic views stretch across the Washington Monument, the Kennedy Center, the Potomac River, and the bridges leading into Virginia. Trust me, the view is magnificent.

“Looking ahead to the upcoming Fourth of July celebrations, Pimentel reveals that the hotel is preparing an exclusive rooftop event for approximately 400 guests, with prices beginning at $1,750 per person, including front-row views of the fireworks, accompanied by Dom Pérignon and caviar, all in a deliberately relaxed atmosphere without a formal dress code.

I was fortunate to experience the hotel during a quieter period. “During weekends,” explains Pimentel, “the atmosphere shifts noticeably as government offices slow down and diplomats, officials, and international visitors increasingly treat the hotel as a leisure destination rather than simply a business address.

“A phased renovation program is also underway, with completion expected by the end of the year. Yet even before the upgrades, America250 is already driving demand. During the celebration period, minimum stays are expected to reach three nights, with rates beginning around $1,000 per night,” he reveals.

An Israeli twist to this dramatic story

An Israeli twist adds to the story. While the iconic curved exterior remains faithful to the original 1960s architectural vision, the hotel’s contemporary revival introduced selected interior touches by Israeli designer Ron Arad, creating a dialogue between retro elegance and modern luxury.

That design language extends into Kingbird, the hotel’s signature restaurant. Breakfast here moves away from the familiar buffet format. Guests select each dish individually from a refined menu. Dinner, orchestrated by the talented chef Brad Deboy, becomes an exercise in understated fine dining.

At Kingbird, the Watergate feels less like a political landmark and more like a contemporary Washington salon, where diplomats, theatergoers, and travelers gather over handmade pasta, premium steaks, and long conversations while the Potomac glimmers quietly beyond the glass.

And as fireworks are about to explode above Washington and America marks 250 years of independence, the Watergate feels like more than a place to stay.

Once linked forever to one of America’s defining political chapters and now reborn as an iconic luxury address, it reminds visitors that even at such a festive anniversary, America’s story is never static.

On this extraordinary Fourth of July, the Watergate stands exactly where history and hospitality meet.

The writer is the Travel Flash Tips publisher.

Making aliyah is sometimes more of a challenge than people openly admit, but finding a community can really help make people feel welcome and settle in. British-born Roy Freeman aims to help create such a community for those anywhere on the LGBT+ spectrum.

Freeman grew up in Luton, north of London, in a community that he describes as “small and dwindling.” He spent a month in Israel when he was 18 on a visit that he says strengthened his Zionism. He had not come out yet, in terms of being open about his sexuality, and returned a few years later to work on a kibbutz in the North.

He planned to make aliyah in the late 1990s and visited Israel on a pilot trip, but felt the time was wrong, noting that before trans singer Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, the LGBT community in Israel was a very different place and implying that he did not feel as comfortable in Israel during that time period as he would later come to feel.

However, by the following year, he was out to most of his friends and had entered his first long-term relationship by the age of 25. Together, he and his then-partner moved to Sydney, Australia.

Freeman recalls how, in both London and Sydney, he joined LGBT Jewish community groups, as he says he felt more comfortable with other LGBT Jews. He managed the website of the London-based Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group and became president and Mardi Gras Parade float organizer of Sydney’s Dayenu during his time in the respective cities.

However, after 11 years in Sydney, he met an Israeli man who eventually wanted to return to Israel. Freeman came with him – in his words: “I made aliyah so that we could stay together.” The couple settled together in the Tel Aviv area, where Freeman still lives.

In 2011, while seeking a community for himself in Israel, he found a group for LGBT English-speakers in Tel Aviv and began attending their events, later attending his first Tel Aviv Pride in June 2012.

“It was fun, but after 11 years participating in Mardi Gras parades in Sydney, it felt unorganized and unstructured,” Freeman recalls.

“There were a handful of LGBT groups marching, but everyone else was just milling around. It was a very different experience,” he says.

He notes how most of his attempts to join LGBT organizations within his first year in Israel were “ignored,” and that he saw ads and flyers for LGBT parties and bars, but they did not interest him.

“I found nothing else that was inclusive of non-Hebrew-speakers. It became obvious that we olim were expected to be fluent in Hebrew as we touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport,” he says.

Freeman also notes how many Israeli-born LGBT people that he met could not understand why anyone would consider moving to “what they considered to be a hopeless hellhole.”

“No matter how many times I tried to explain how bad antisemitism was elsewhere, not to mention the institutionalized homophobia, I heard the same opinion time and time again,” he recounts.

Social media became a tool to connect with other LGBT community members

This led Freeman to found LGBT Olim’s Facebook page in April 2013. He notes that Facebook was the most widely used social media at the time, and he aimed to find other LGBT olim across Israel.

“I knew I wasn’t the only one, and I believed that many were looking for community. I bought a banner, and by June that year, there was a group of LGBT olim marching together at Tel Aviv Pride.”

He was surprised by the positive response to the Facebook page.

“I discovered that there were LGBT olim in cities, towns, kibbutzim, and moshavim all over the country,” he says.

He then launched a monthly newsletter to inform people of events that would be of interest to LGBT English-speakers across Israel, as he realized that the core of the group risked becoming “too Tel Aviv-centric.”

Making contact with interested people in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba, he started to organize meet-ups for LGBT English-speakers in those cities, too.

“I also tried getting a few local LGBT organizations on-side, but with limited success,” he says.

His organization received “a lot of good publicity” around Tel Aviv Pride 2013 and since, including in The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Chronicle, and other media outlets.

He recalls that the organization also received negative comments, including hateful and threatening responses. Freeman says that he considers member security to be of the “utmost importance.”

Before somebody can join events, he talks with them in order to check their intentions.

“There’s a very fine line between being welcoming and being intrusive, and I unfortunately haven’t always got the balance right, but most olim understand the need for our security questions,” he says.

Despite these challenges, Freeman says that he “likes to think that we’ve built a welcoming community over the years.”

“We try to give LGBT new olim a soft landing, providing a place where they can build a social network without first being fluent in Hebrew,” he adds.

Freeman works to create events for his community 

Freeman also lists a variety of social events he organizes via LGBT Olim that are held on a regular basis, including Shabbat potluck dinners and brunches, LGBT-themed movie nights, karaoke events, board games sessions, trivia quizzes, and picnics, as well as special events around Jewish festivals, including Passover Seders, and parties at Shavuot, Sukkot, Purim, and Hanukkah.

By doing so, he hopes to provide various ways that LGBT olim can feel comfortable being part of a community in Israel.

“Our events are mostly free – we don’t want to exclude anyone based on cost,” Freeman says.

“We are fully aware that many new olim are unemployed for months after arrival and many struggle to find work. So even when we meet at cafés, restaurants, etc., I want people to know they can come along just for the social aspect, without any pressure to order anything,” he added.

A large number of the events were only face-to-face, until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when LGBT Olim started running online events. These events have since continued, largely aimed at being inclusive for those LGBT olim who live outside of major cities, Freeman clarifies.

In order to help LGBT olim settle in Israel, Freeman arranges for free Hebrew classes, called Qulpan, a portmanteau of queer and ulpan, both online and in Tel Aviv.

The online events have a further benefit of providing a space for LGBT future olim in the process of moving to Israel to build a community before their arrival, he highlights.

However, there are several changes that Freeman wishes to make.

One change includes wanting to work closer with aliyah agencies, including the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh. He says both have been “very welcoming and supportive” working with LGBT Olim on an informal level, but are “still unwilling to tell prospective olim about LGBT Olim.”

“I think I could count on one hand the number of people who have told me they heard about us through their aliyah adviser,” Freeman says, noting that he wishes the organization could market itself more widely, as he still finds “LGBT olim who have not heard of us.”

He also highlights how he would “love to hear from people who are LGBT and passionate about community building.”  

Roy Freeman, 52, from London to Tel Aviv via Sydney, 2011

The IDF’s Civil Administration received a report on Saturday about an Israeli citizen in Ramallah, thus endangering himself.

Officers from the Binyamin Brigade and Liaison Administration provided immediate protection to the Israeli citizen while coordinating his transfer to security forces.

Israeli citizen enters Area A of the West Bank

An initial investigation indicates that the Israeli entered Ramallah overnight in a friend’s car, and was later abandoned in the city center.

Residents in the area recognized him as he was walking through the city, and alerted the security system.

The case was transferred to the Israel Police’s Sha’i District for further handling.

Israel’s security establishment emphasized that entry into Area A is life-threatening and prohibited by law.

The IDF’s Civil Administration received a report on Saturday about an Israeli citizen in Ramallah, thus endangering himself.

Officers from the Binyamin Brigade and Liaison Administration provided immediate protection to the Israeli citizen while coordinating his transfer to security forces.

Israeli citizen enters Area A of the West Bank

An initial investigation indicates that the Israeli entered Ramallah overnight in a friend’s car, and was later abandoned in the city center.

Residents in the area recognized him as he was walking through the city, and alerted the security system.

The case was transferred to the Israel Police’s Sha’i District for further handling.

Israel’s security establishment emphasized that entry into Area A is life-threatening and prohibited by law.

Protesters against political executions in Iran gathered in Paris on Saturday in defiance of a ban on the rally, at which police arrested 20 people, according to organizers.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Place Vauban near the Les Invalides monument in central Paris, but were dispersed by police, Shahin Gobadi from the Paris-based NCRI said.

Paris police could not immediately be reached for comment.

French police banned the NCRI Iranian opposition from holding the rally on Saturday, saying there was a risk of clashes between activists holding opposing views, an argument the group described as “bogus.”

Organizers appealed the ban, but on Saturday it was upheld by a Paris court.

Ban announced after French, Iranian FMs speak

The ban on Thursday evening came hours after a call between France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, during which they discussed the latest developments to end the Iran war.

France’s foreign ministry rejected an allegation by the Iranian group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, that the ban was linked to the call.

The Paris-based NCRI, the political arm of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years.

They have been attended by thousands of people, including high-profile former US, European, and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic. 

Protesters against political executions in Iran gathered in Paris on Saturday in defiance of a ban on the rally, at which police arrested 20 people, according to organizers.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Place Vauban near the Les Invalides monument in central Paris, but were dispersed by police, Shahin Gobadi from the Paris-based NCRI said.

Paris police could not immediately be reached for comment.

French police banned the NCRI Iranian opposition from holding the rally on Saturday, saying there was a risk of clashes between activists holding opposing views, an argument the group described as “bogus.”

Organizers appealed the ban, but on Saturday it was upheld by a Paris court.

Ban announced after French, Iranian FMs speak

The ban on Thursday evening came hours after a call between France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, during which they discussed the latest developments to end the Iran war.

France’s foreign ministry rejected an allegation by the Iranian group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, that the ban was linked to the call.

The Paris-based NCRI, the political arm of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years.

They have been attended by thousands of people, including high-profile former US, European, and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic. 

With Israel now entering election season, many are asking what the country’s first elections since October 7, 2023, will reveal about the direction of the Jewish state.

While it is too early to predict the outcome, recent polls suggest several plausible scenarios: political stalemate, a narrow opposition victory, or an opposition path to power that depends on support from an Arab party.

That possibility has made Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party central to Israel’s political conversation. Recent polls often place the Zionist opposition near, but not always above, the 61-seat threshold needed to form a government. In that context, Ra’am’s projected seats could become decisive.

Yet as of this writing, Yair Golan is the only leader of a Zionist party to have explicitly endorsed including Ra’am in a future coalition. Other leading opposition figures have publicly ruled out partnering with an Arab party after October 7.

That hesitation is understandable. Hamas’s attack, which killed approximately 1,200 people, deeply traumatized Israeli society and strained trust between Jewish and Arab citizens, even though Israel’s Arab citizens were not responsible for the massacre and many were themselves victims of Hamas’s violence.

In the aftermath, many Israeli Jews are wary of any political partnership that could be perceived as minimizing the threats Israel faces.

But that is precisely why the question matters. Including an Arab party in the first government formed after October 7 would not simply be a matter of coalition arithmetic; it would also be a powerful statement about what kind of society Israel wants to become after one of its darkest chapters.

Social psychologists have long argued that intergroup relations can improve through meaningful contact, especially when that contact is supported by political, social, and institutional authorities. Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis identified support from authorities as one of the key conditions under which contact between groups can reduce prejudice. 

Later scholars, including Thomas Pettigrew, expanded on this insight by emphasizing that authority support helps establish new social norms. When leaders endorse cooperation, they signal that partnership with members of another community is legitimate, acceptable, and even desirable.

This insight has profound implications for Israel after October 7. If Israeli Jewish leaders continue to exclude Arab parties from governing coalitions, they may reinforce the perception among many Israeli Jews that Arab parties – and by extension Arab citizens – are not legitimate partners in the country’s political future.

Conversely, if Israeli Jewish leaders choose to include an Arab party in the governing coalition, they would send a different message: that there are Arab political leaders and Arab citizens with whom Israeli Jews can work, govern, and build a shared future.

Such a decision would not eliminate distrust overnight. But it could help begin rebuilding trust and normalizing Jewish-Arab cooperation in a post-October 7 Israel.

Model of partnership

Of course, not just any Arab party can or should be included in government simply for symbolism. Few Israelis would expect a government formed after October 7 to partner with a party such as Balad, whose history of controversial statements and positions has placed it outside the Israeli political mainstream.

If the goal is to foster genuine trust and cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Israel, any Arab partner in government must work constructively with Jewish political leaders rather than treat cooperation as betrayal. Such a partner must also condemn violence and inflammatory rhetoric while encouraging coexistence and civic partnership.

After all, if political leaders help shape the social norms of their communities, Arab political leaders also play a role in shaping whether Arab citizens view cooperation with Israeli Jews as legitimate and desirable. Among Israel’s current Arab political leaders, Mansour Abbas has done more than anyone else to meet that standard.

Abbas put many of these ideas into practice during the Bennett-Lapid government from 2021 to 2022. As Yisrael Klitsner, who served as a policy adviser during that government, has observed, Abbas distinguished himself by focusing on practical problem-solving and delivering results for his constituents rather than pursuing ideological purity.

This pragmatic approach not only made him a reliable partner in the unity government, but also helped produce concrete gains for Israel’s Arab community, including critical funding and municipal reforms.

His actions before and after October 7 have reinforced this image. In December 2021, Abbas acknowledged that Israel was born and will remain a Jewish state, a statement Israeli Jews had long hoped to hear from Arab leaders. 

Earlier this year, he also encouraged voluntary community service among Arab citizens, while clarifying that he meant social and communal initiatives rather than compulsory state service.

Abbas has also shown a willingness to condemn violence and stand in solidarity with Israeli Jews during moments of crisis. During the intercommunal violence that accompanied the May 2021 Gaza war, he visited a synagogue in Lod that had been burned by Arab rioters and condemned the attack. 

Likewise, just one month after October 7, Abbas demanded the resignation of Ra’am MK Iman Khatib-Yasin after she publicly cast doubt on atrocities committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel.

None of this means Abbas is free of controversy, nor does it erase the deep disagreements many Israeli Jews have with Ra’am’s worldview. But it does suggest that Abbas represents a model of partnership between Jews and Arabs in Israel.

The next Israeli election will not only determine who governs the country, but it will also help shape the relationship between Jewish and Arab citizens in the years ahead. Trust between the two communities has been badly damaged by the trauma and bloodshed of recent years, but that is precisely where responsible leadership matters most. 

Israeli Jewish and Arab leaders must be brave enough to choose partnership over exclusion before fear and distrust lead their communities even further astray.

The writer is a Boston-based writer and former chair of Israel Policy Forum’s IPF Atid Steering Committee in the city of Boston. All the views expressed are his own.

Supreme Court Deputy President Justice Noam Sohlberg accepted a petition filed on Friday by the Movement for Quality Government and ruled that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir must remove a video depicting a flotilla incident from all his social media accounts. 

He also ordered Ben-Gvir to pay NIS 8,000 in legal costs to the movement, while the National Security Ministry and the Israel Prison Service were jointly ordered to pay an additional NIS 15,000, for a total of NIS 23,000.

In his ruling, Sohlberg said the 38-second video, in which the minister is seen touring a detention facility at the Port of Ashdod among bound Sumud flotilla activists and waving an Israeli flag, constitutes election propaganda through the use of public assets, in violation of Section 2A of the Elections Law (Election Propaganda Methods), 1959.

Applying the dominant purpose test, the judge concluded that the circumstances of the recording – filming inside an Israel Prison Service facility, in the presence of uniformed personnel, and later publishing the footage on the minister’s personal accounts – clearly indicate a political campaigning purpose.

The court said its discussion was limited strictly to election propaganda law and did not address broader public or international reactions to the video. It added that the footage is “saturated with propaganda elements,” noting that it highlights the minister’s achievements and political positions.

The ruling followed a petition submitted by the Movement for Quality Government last month, which demanded the video’s removal within four days. After Ben-Gvir refused, the movement filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee.

The decision also noted that the petition was submitted on June 2, nearly two weeks after the video was published. Because of this delay, no interim removal order was issued at the time. However, the committee stressed that the wide distribution of the video in Israel and abroad does not negate enforcement of the law, since its authority is reactive and not dependent on the extent of circulation.

Improper use of public assets

The movement argued from the outset that this was part of a broader pattern, and the committee chairman referenced a precedent he set in March in Ben-Gvir’s case, ruling that the use of Israel Prison Service facilities and uniformed personnel constitutes improper use of public assets.

The ruling emphasized that state assets, including uniforms, facilities, and security personnel, belong to the public and cannot be used as tools in a private election campaign. It reinforced the boundary between public office and political candidacy, setting a clear consequence for violations.

‘Undermining public trust’

Attorney Tomer Naor, deputy director general for law and strategy at the Movement for Quality Government, said that “when a government minister turns state facilities, Israel Prison Service uniforms and security personnel into tools in his election campaign, he is not only breaking the law, he is undermining public trust and the state character of his role.

“Today’s decision establishes that using public assets for political purposes comes at a price,” Naor continued. “We will continue to stand guard across all arenas and ensure that electoral integrity is preserved.”

An individual suspected of having Ebola has been receiving treatment in isolation and is undergoing additional tests to determine if he has contracted the virus, the Health Ministry stated on Saturday. 

The tests are expected to take 48 hours, with results due on Monday morning, according to the ministry, citing “clinical reasons” and ministry medical protocols. 

The Health Ministry stated on Friday that the individual, who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, had sought out medical attention after developing a fever and a headache. He was then transferred to the Rambam Medical Center, which has a designated treatment center for these forms of suspected cases. 

Necessary tests were conducted, and results were originally announced to take only 24 hours. 

The Health Ministry said it is currently conducting an epidemiological investigation to locate those who had relevant contact with the individual.

No confirmed cases in Israel, Health Ministry issues travel warnings

Ebola is not an airborne virus and can only be transmitted through direct contact with a symptomatic person or their bodily fluids. 

The Health Ministry reiterated that there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Israel and that no action is required from the public without a direct call from the ministry. 

Additionally, the ministry cautioned against non-essential travel to areas where the Ebola epidemic is ongoing, primarily the DRC and Uganda. 

Travelers who have returned from such areas and develop a fever or “unusual symptoms” within 21 days of their return are asked to stay home, self-isolate, and contact the Health Ministry. 

The current Ebola outbreak was first confirmed in the DRC and Uganda in May and is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine and no cure. As of Wednesday, a total of 896 confirmed cases, including 232 deaths, were reported by the DRC, and 19 cases were confirmed by Uganda, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

At least 88 patients have recovered from the disease, 78 from the DRC and 10 from Uganda, the WHO stated. 

However, health authorities suspect the numbers may not reflect the situation due to a lack of equipment, staff, and public trust, leading to a possible underreported level of cases. 

Additionally, conflict within the region, displaced populations, and security fears around health facilities have posed additional challenges to healthcare workers monitoring the outbreak. 

US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Saturday that he expects to reschedule his trip to Switzerland for US-Iran nuclear negotiations within the next few days.

“I expect that I will leave sometime in the next couple of days, but you know it’s always a delicate coordination dance and the diplomatic protocols,” Vance stated, adding that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are already in Switzerland.

Vance also told Fox that there is no evidence that Iran is closing the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iranian state media reports that Iran’s top joint military command ordered the Strait to be closed due to Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The comment was made after Iran’s top joint military command had announced Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz is “closed to vessel traffic,” Iranian semi-official state media MEHR reported.

Iranian officials said that they made the decision to shut the strait as a result of the ceasefire infringements in Lebanon. 

US-Iran talks set to be delayed 

In his comments to Fox, Vance claimed that talks with Iran are going well and added that he is committed to giving the negotiations a chance.

This comes after US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff reportedly landed in Switzerland to begin meetings with the Iranian delegation for the 60 days of talks outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani arrived in Switzerland on Friday and is set to mediate the US-Iran talks, Axios reported

Israel-Lebanon talks to resume

Talks between Israel and Lebanon are scheduled to continue June 23-25 in Washington, according to a Friday US State Department announcement.

Also on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “reiterated the need to disarm” Hezbollah during a phone call with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

Rubio also reaffirmed US “support for the Government of Lebanon’s efforts to create a fully sovereign Lebanese state that is at peace with all its neighbors,” according to State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott.

Secretary of State  Rubio is planning a trip to the Middle East next week, Axios reported on Friday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The secretary of state will reportedly visit Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

Ravid further reported that Rubio will hold a summit with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ministers in Bahrain.

I didn’t expect this.

We drove deep into the Jordan Valley, past anywhere we’d ever been, and just when I started to wonder if we’d made a wrong turn, an orderly Parks Authority sign appeared at the side of the road. We passed through a gate, and the world changed.

Meadows stretched out in every direction. Gazelle, actual herds of them, grazed and galloped across the grasslands. Birds swooped low over the road. The whole scene felt less like Israel and more like the African savannah, and for the 10 minutes it took to drive in, I almost forgot we’d come here for the water.

Then we reached the rocks.

A few cars were pulled over. We stepped out, walked to the edge, and peeked down, and there it was. A crystal-clear pool, rimmed by greenery and limestone, with a small waterfall trickling in at one end. Butterflies and dragonflies hovered over the water. The whole canyon was silent except for the trickle of the spring.

This is Einot Petzael, the Petzael Springs Nature Reserve, and most Israelis have never heard of it.

The main pool sits in a natural stone amphitheater, fed by springs that emerge straight from the rock. It isn’t deep, neck-high at the most, but the water is cold and clear and impossibly refreshing in the dry heat of the Jordan Valley. We waded in, made our way to the waterfall, and let the spray hit our faces. Wild mint grew thick along the banks, releasing its sharp, clean scent every time we brushed against it.

From there, you can keep exploring. Hidden pools lie tucked behind boulders and greenery – they take a bit of climbing to reach, but they reward the effort with complete solitude. And further upstream, you reach the actual source: Einot Petzael itself, a series of shallow wading pools shaded by trees, the sound of cool rushing water filling the air. These upper pools are ideal for families with small children, with easy access, gentle water, and plenty of shade.

It’s the kind of place you keep expecting to be crowded and isn’t.

A nature reserve quietly coming to life

Petzael Springs Nature Reserve was formally declared in 1993, but for years it remained largely undeveloped, beautiful but neglected, the kind of site only known to locals and serious hikers. That has changed in recent years.

The Parks Authority has been steadily developing the reserve. Signage has gone up. Fire pits, benches, and picnic areas have appeared. An information station near the entrance has been established. Visiting now feels like visiting any other well-cared-for Israeli park, except for the part where you’re often the only ones there.

This investment is part of a broader expansion of nature reserves in Judea and Samaria announced by then-defense minister Naftali Bennett in 2020. Einot Petzael is one of the clearest beneficiaries – a place that was always beautiful, finally getting the attention it deserved.

A place with layers

Like most beautiful places in this country, Einot Petzael sits atop a much older story.

The Jewish history here runs deep. The lower part of the stream valley has been identified by some scholars with biblical Ataroth, the town mentioned in the Book of Joshua as marking the northern border of the inheritance of the tribe of Ephraim. The Iron Age tel where the stream meets the valley floor likely preserves that ancient settlement.

A thousand years later came Herod. The name Petzael comes from Phasael, Herod the Great’s elder brother, who took his own life in 40 BCE rather than be handed over to his enemies during the Parthian invasion. Herod, devastated by his brother’s death, founded a town here in his memory and called it Phasaelis. The name has survived for more than two thousand years, carried by the springs, the stream, and the nearby modern Moshav Petzael.

Herod didn’t just build a town. He built an aqueduct that carried water from these springs about six kilometers down to Phasaelis, watering the famous palm groves that produced dates praised across the Roman world.

The remains of his enormous storage reservoir, which the Parks Authority describes as “super Olympic-sized,” can still be seen near the moshav. An old Ottoman-era flour mill that operated on the same aqueduct water is still standing along the stream, a reminder that every group that has lived in this valley, from ancient Israelites to Byzantine Christians, drew their life from the water that still flows from these springs today.

Walking back to the car at the end of our visit, past the meadows full of gazelle and the cliffs full of hyrax, I kept thinking about that continuity. More than two thousand years of people drinking from this same water. And here we were, on an ordinary spring afternoon, the only ones around.

If you go

Location: Petzael Springs Nature Reserve, off Route 90 in the Jordan Valley, near Moshav Petzael. Roughly one hour from Jerusalem.

Best season: Late winter through spring (February-May). The water flows strongest, the hillsides bloom, and temperatures are comfortable. Avoid July-August unless you’re heading straight into the water – the Jordan Valley becomes punishingly hot.

What to bring: Bathing suit, water shoes (the rocks can be slippery), plenty of drinking water, a picnic, and sun protection. There’s no food or water available at the site.

For families: The upper wading pools at the spring source are ideal for small children. The main pool requires more confident swimmers.

Safety note: As with all West Bank travel, check current conditions before heading out, and travel in a group when possible.
Tours: The Parks Authority occasionally runs guided tours on weekends in spring – check parks.org.il

The writer is the founder of Hiking the Holyland. This is the first in a series of columns exploring Israel’s lesser-known nature reserves and national parks. Read more of her writing at hikingintheholyland.com and on Substack at Sacred Trails.

Amid the general regional turmoil, Syria has been largely quiet over the past few months. The emergent Sunni Islamist regime of President Ahmed al-Sharaa continues its efforts to broaden and consolidate its rule. Its last major move was in January, when it swiftly mobilized against and destroyed the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria, which had ruled Syria east of the Euphrates since 2019.

The destruction of the Kurdish autonomous area has not, however, led to a general reconciliation between the various ethnic and sectarian communities that make up the Syrian social fabric. Rather, Syria remains deeply divided along these lines, with a series of ongoing “cold wars” underway between minority communities and the new Sunni Arab authorities. These are largely ignored by the international media and by Western policymakers.

They are, nevertheless, significant and, at a certain stage, are likely to assume greater intensity. The three minorities whose current situation is worthy of close observation in the Syrian context are the Druze, the Alawites, and the Kurds.

Ethno-sectarian violence in post-Assad Syria

FOUR INSTANCES of serious ethno-sectarian violence have occurred in Syria since December 8, 2024, when the Assad regime fell. Widespread killings of Alawites took place in the western coastal area by armed Sunni gunmen in February/March 2025, after Alawi attacks on a government checkpoint. Druze were targeted by Syrian transitional government military units and affiliated irregulars in late April 2025. A much larger massacre of Syrian Druze in Sweida province took place in July 2025.

This series of incidents, in which some 1,700 people were killed, began with the kidnapping of a Druze merchant by Bedouin, and ended after widespread violence against Druze civilians with an Israeli air intervention that forced the government fighters back. The last series of clashes took place between government forces and Kurdish/Syrian Democratic Forces fighters in January 2026, after the latter were abandoned by their erstwhile American allies.

The sectarian violence in these cases goes in one direction. The newly ascendant Sunni Arab majority is asserting itself and settling accounts with other elements of the population – both the formerly dominant Alawites and the Druze and Kurds, both in their different ways suppressed by the old, Alawi-dominated Assad regime.

The various responses of the minorities, meanwhile, are largely determined by geopolitical realities. Where potential or actual external partners exist, minority communities and representatives tend to adopt a more defiant stance. Where no such alliances seem available, perhaps temporary quiescence and adaptation to an unwelcome but unavoidable reality is the result.

THE MOST notable minority mobilization taking place against the authorities in Damascus is coming from the Syrian Druze communities, who comprise around 4% of the Syrian population. Geopolitical realities mean that the Druze are currently succeeding in maintaining an enclave into which the Syrian central authorities are not able to enter. This enclave is maintained under a de facto Israeli guarantee.

Separatist sentiment and the desire for a stronger connection or even for annexation to Israel are strong in this area. Demonstrations regularly take place at Karama Square in Sweida city, the heartland of the Druze community in Syria, in which Israeli flags and portraits of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are raised. There isn’t uniformity among the Syrian Druze regarding relations with the central government. Several streams exist.

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri leads the most separatist element among the Syrian Druze, and the most openly pro-Israeli. His call, for pragmatic reasons, is not for total separation of Sweida from Syria and its annexation by Israel. This is probably his preference, but for practical reasons, his call is for the establishment of a strong, permanent, and institutionalized autonomous status for the province.

A rival stream, led by Sheikh Yusuf Jarbou, opposes cooperation with Israel and supports greater cooperation with the Damascus authorities. Other elements, such as that of Sheikh Hammoud al-Hinnawi, maintain an intermediate position. All these streams have armed factions that stand with them. For the moment, Sweida remains off-limits to government forces.

In the western coastal area, the formerly ascendant Alawi communities, around 12% of the total population, have not managed to organize an effective or united communal response to the challenge posed by the new authorities. Credible evidence exists to suggest that the massacres of the March 2025 period took place as an overreaction to efforts by armed elements associated with the former regime to attack the security forces of Sharaa’s Syrian Transitional Government.

The response was brutal and indiscriminate, as armed Sunni tribal elements entered the coastal area and began to slaughter civilians. Low-level harassment of Alawites by Sunni Arabs has continued, including the abduction of young Alawi women.

Alawi efforts at communal organization take two forms: the first is the association of religious and communal leaders in the framework of the Alawite Supreme Council. The second is networks of armed men organized by officials of the former regime. These include the Syrian Popular Resistance, led by Miqdad Fatiha, and consisting of former members of the Assad regime’s army and security forces, and the Military Council to Free Syria, led by Brigadier-General Ghaith Dala.

Both groups have carried out sporadic attacks on government forces present in the western coastal area. Many former regime officers are now present in Lebanon, and remain committed to this cause. For now, however, it remains a latent threat and a relatively minor problem for the Damascus authorities.

Kurdish military, governance engaging in forced integration

FINALLY, THE Kurdish military and governance structures in the northeast are engaged in a process of forced “integration” into the Syrian state, following their military setbacks in January this year. Kurds constitute around 10% of Syrians. For now, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) still exists and maintains a kind of de facto autonomy in the Kurdish heartlands of Qamishli, Kobani, and Hasakah.

The pace is erratic, but the direction of events seems clear: toward the eventual absorption of these forces into the structures of the government, with some allowance at a level not yet finally clear of Kurdish cultural representation and local rule.

Many issues remain unresolved. A certain amount of de facto local administration is likely to remain, but for now, the dream of maintaining de facto Kurdish rule over large areas has moved beyond reach. Most SDF fighters have been integrated into the state security forces, with only about 8,000 remaining outside of these structures.

Strong Kurdish nationalist sentiment remains and may resurface in the period ahead in forms that are difficult to foresee.

The key point regarding the ongoing ferment among minorities in Syria is that, with the exception of Israeli support for the Druze, it finds no major international echo. The US administration summarily abandoned the Kurds in early 2026. Iran and its allies are not placing a major focus on the remnants of support among Syrian Alawites.

The  Sharaa government, meanwhile, finds itself favored by the main apex of influence regarding Middle East affairs in the US administration – namely that of Ambassador Tom Barrack and other senior officials sympathetic to, and influenced by, the Turkish and Qatari positions.

For as long as this state of affairs is maintained, the Syrian government’s combination of alignment with Washington while allying with Sunni Islamist and jihadi forces on the ground, and using these when desired as tools of state policy, looks set to continue, to the ongoing detriment of non-Sunni and non-Arab Syrians.

Hezbollah launched over 50 projectiles at IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon overnight between Friday and Saturday, the military announced.

The IDF responded to the attacks with strikes on several Hezbollah terrorists and terror infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, the military added, including rocket launch positions, weapons storage facilities, and command centers.

The military noted that it remains committed to the ceasefire, emphasizing that it will act to “remove any threat posed to the State of Israel and IDF soldiers.”

Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson Col. Ella Waweya said calm could be achieved if Hezbollah halted all hostile activity and violations of agreements, adding Israel’s presence in a security zone aimed to remove threats and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure, not harm civilians.

Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah stated that it had targeted IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon, saying that it would “not hesitate to confront any attempt by Israel to seize land in Lebanon” despite its “commitment to the ceasefire,” according to Reuters.

A senior Hezbollah official told Reuters that the terrorist organization will not allow Israel “freedom of movement” in what it described as “occupied Lebanese territory.”

Lebanon accuses Israel of ‘brutal attacks’

The Lebanese Army said on Saturday that Israel’s “brutal attacks” in Lebanon are aimed at preventing the return of stability to the region.

“It has become clear that the continuation of these Israeli brutal attacks aims to obstruct any solution that would allow the restoration of stability in Lebanon,” the Lebanese Army said on X/Twitter.

The post further accused the IDF of carrying out attacks across Lebanon earlier on Saturday, causing casualties and extensive property damage, as well as the death of a Lebanese soldier.

تتواصل الاعتداءات الإسرائيلية الوحشية على لبنان بعدما طال التصعيد الأخير مناطق واسعة في الجنوب وصولًا إلى البقاع، موقعًا المزيد من الشهداء والجرحى، ومسببًا دمارًا كبيرًا في الممتلكات.
في هذا السياق، استهدفت غارة إسرائيلية معادية عسكريًّا في الجيش على طريق كفررمان – النبطية ما أدى… pic.twitter.com/07U6EWtfEc

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) June 20, 2026 

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported earlier on Saturday that at least 10 people were killed after Israeli warplanes and drones hit multiple locations in southern Lebanon.

Source to ‘Post’: Ceasefire reached with Hezbollah

An Israeli source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Friday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire, with a senior United States official telling Reuters that the agreement would begin at 4 p.m. the same day.

The official added that American and Qatari negotiators achieved the deal with help from Iran.

An IDF spokesperson said at a press conference on Friday afternoon that the military will continue operating in Lebanon unless it receives different directives.

“Recent events have made one thing clear: IDF soldiers must stand between Hezbollah and Israeli civilians,” said the spokesperson.

Maariv and Tobias Holcman contributed to this report.

In 2025, deaths from terrorist attacks fell by 28%, and the number of global incidents declined by 22%, according to the 13th edition of the Global Terrorism Index.

At first glance, the data suggest an overall easing of the threat. Yet the picture is more uneven: terrorist attacks increased in Western countries over the past year, accounting for seven of the 19 states where conditions deteriorated.

About 3,000 km. from mainland Europe, 10,000 km. from the United States, and 13,000 km. from Australia, a single attack on Israel sent shock waves of radicalization that have reverberated far beyond the region. October 7, 2023, marked a turning point in global security.

The European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2024 notes that Hamas’s attack, in which more than 1,200 people were killed, has contributed to a renewed surge in global terrorism and helped accelerate patterns of fundamentalism.

In 2023 alone, there were 120 terrorist incidents across seven EU member states, including 98 completed attacks, nine failed attempts, and 13 foiled plots.

Former counterterrorism operative explains what draws youth to extremism

Mubin Shaikh, a former undercover counterterrorism operative for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who later worked with US security services to counter the threat of ISIS, told The Jerusalem Post that he has observed a growing number of referrals to the organization Parents for Peace, where he now works as an exit peer specialist.

Shaikh explained that Hamas’s October 7 attacks and the ensuing war have drawn more young people into a complex conflict environment without the information, cognitive maturity, or analytical tools needed to understand it fully.

“What we’re finding in Parents for Peace is that antisemitism becomes like the connective tissue between all different extremist groups – Islamist, Marxist, etc. The hatred of Jews is a common denominator among them,” he explained.

Though not discounting the effect the Internet and media can have, Shaikh said young people were becoming drawn to extremist groups, as they could offer something they lacked, whether it be respect from peers, friends, validation, and, in many cases, support from an older male role model.

“At high schools, or schools in general, it’s peer groupings that are going to really get people mobilized. It’s one thing to have an idea about [a social issue]; it’s another thing to actually mobilize physically, get out there, participate in events, in protests, and get more extreme to [the point of committing] crimes,” he commented.

Some radicalized actors motivated by ideology, desire for recognition

Noor Dahri, founder and executive director of the Islamic Theology of Counter-Terrorism think tank, said he also understood “many lone actors appear to be motivated by a mix of ideology and the desire for recognition.

“Some are strongly ideological, while others appear driven more by personal grievances, identity struggles, or the visibility that social media can provide.

“Ideology may give their actions meaning or justification, but the pursuit of attention and significance can be just as influential,” Dahri explained, pointing to factors such as isolation, identity crises, and personal grievances as key factors in identifying individuals at risk of radicalization.

Dahri has previously spoken with the Post about his own journey of deradicalization as a former member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the same group that committed the Mumbai Chabad attack in 2008, in addition to several attacks on India and the Kashmir region.

The line between holding an opinion and acting on it is often shaped by a desire to belong, Shaikh explained.

That peer pressure can manifest in different ways, including accusations of supporting genocide if individuals are absent or perceived as insufficiently vocal, or scrutiny over why they did not attend certain events.

When combined with the positive reinforcement and moral validation that come from public participation, young people, particularly those on the social margins, may find it difficult to resist the pressure to fully commit.

“Muslims are really good at putting converts on a pedestal. So this kid, who’s a nobody and has no friends, is suddenly being told, ‘Oh, you’ve been selected by God. What a great favor on you; you are such a great person. God is going to give you double the reward because you were not born Muslim; you became Muslim.’ When you’re telling a kid from that profile all these things, oh my God, it gets to their head,” he explained.

Converts to Islam may be at higher risk for radicalization

Shaikh suggested that converts to Islam may be at higher risk of radicalization, while also noting that attacks linked to white supremacists and incel ideology have risen in recent years.

According to Europol, 78% of the 426 arrests for terrorism-related offenses in Europe in 2023 were linked to jihadist activity.

While that may have reflected the pattern at the time, Shaikh cautioned that radicalization today is increasingly fluid, with individuals “mixing and matching” ideological identities, ranging from white youths converting to Islam to Muslim youths gravitating toward incel communities, an evolution he attributed in part to the influence of online ecosystems.

Dahri agreed that, to some extent, there has always been a degree of mixing among radical groups that seemingly hold ideologically opposing views.

“The segments of the Western far Left and socialist activism have helped create space for Islamist movements to sustain and expand within Western societies, a dynamic often described as the red-green alliance.

“From this perspective, Islamist organizations and their supporting regimes have always sought alliances with local Western supporters because they can serve as visible advocates while shielding core Islamist networks from scrutiny,” he explained.

“In this view, far-left activists are used as political cover, enabling Islamist groups and regimes to operate more effectively within Western states.

“This pattern has persisted for decades, with some activists effectively being mobilized in support of Islamist causes.”

Timing is key for radicalization

Another key factor determining whether someone simply becomes politically active or radicalized is timing.

Shaikh explained that when someone is experiencing a “cognitive opening,” they become more receptive to views they would normally discredit.

While near-death experiences and the loss of a loved one are often cited as the most common moments for a “cognitive opening,” for Shaikh, it began at a house party.

When family members shamed him after he was caught at such an event, Shaikh decided to travel to India and Pakistan for a few months with the express goal of becoming religious, something that he felt would restore his image in the community.

Having attended both a secular day school and a Quranic school, he spent years in a near-constant identity crisis, shaped by what he described as “cross-cultural pressure.” The trip ultimately gave him space to resolve that tension and commit to a single identity.

A chance encounter with the Taliban in Quetta, near the Afghan border, then provided a further catalyst, pushing him toward Salafism, an ultraconservative, fundamentalist reform movement within Sunni Islam.

The meeting took place when he was only 19 years old, in 1995, a year before the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, meaning Shaikh was unaware of the brutally repressive policies the group would later impose, and reports of any violence until that point could be explained away as “propaganda.”

The chance meeting left him “enamored” with the group. It gave him the religious identity he sought, a sense of masculinity, and a feeling of belonging to something greater than himself. “It gave me that new identity that I thought I needed,” he explained.

After returning to Canada, he became close to several Salafi fundamentalists, though his enthusiasm for the movement waned after he married, had a child, and took on other responsibilities.

His new wife, a convert to Islam, exposed him to the treatment of Muslim women during the couple’s trip to India, forcing him to confront the gap between his own Western assumptions about gender roles and the ideals he had once associated with Taliban members he had previously admired.

An ideology less easy to detach from was antisemitism, though he said that it was easier for him as an Indian Muslim not bound by Arab nationalism.

“It’s like you’re taught that you’re supposed to subscribe to these views, and then you kind of practice it in your head, maybe on the street….

“The most I got to was I’d see a synagogue and [have feelings of] dislike [toward it]; hostility is what’s evoked…. I saw the synagogue, and I was like, ‘Oh man, I wish I could blow up the synagogue right now,’” he explained, quickly adding that he never had any real intention of attacking the Jewish community but felt the views were something he needed to practice.

“It was peripheral, but it still makes up the larger narrative, if you will. You’re against the West; you’re against the Jews. The Jews are seen as an extension of the West. It’s the same things that animate all these anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protests,” he continued.

His time following Salafi Islam, which had already waned, came to a hard stop in the year that preceded the famous “Toronto 18” case.

The case involved a group of 14 adults and four youths who were arrested in June 2006 for a foiled homegrown terrorist plot inspired by al-Qaeda.

The 18 individuals had planned to carry out large-scale attacks, including bombings of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Parliament of Canada, and the beheading of government officials.

Just after returning from Syria in 2004, Shaikh saw a news report on Mohammad Momin Khawaja’s involvement in the UK fertilizer bomb plot, where a group of terrorists collected 1,300 lbs. of ammonium nitrate for the purpose of creating high casualty events in and around London.

Shaikh recruited by Canadian Security Intelligence

Having recognized Khawaja from his own extremist days, Shaikh contacted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which went on to recruit him as an undercover operative, beginning his career in counterterrorism.

Now, rather than identifying terrorists, Shaikh spends his days trying to stop young people from crossing that line.

Referencing Randy Borum’s theory of radicalization, Shaikh explained that there are steps that precede a person’s transition from violent rhetoric to violence.

“‘It’s not right, it’s not fair, it’s your fault, you’re evil’ – that’s the progression into violence, because you have to dehumanize, you have to attribute evil, you have to attribute something greater to what the adversary is doing, for you to justify taking actions which normally you would not take,” he explained.

The actions of the in-group are minimized, while the actions of the out-group are amplified, as part of this process of justifying violence, he continued.

Shaikh’s understanding of the radicalization process has helped numerous youths step back from the edge, even if not fully abandon ideologies some might not agree with. He has used it to counter support for Hamas, noting that, as an Islamic movement, many of its actions cannot be justified even if Israel were committing crimes against the Palestinian people.

“I show the statement of the Prophet, peace be upon him, when he says, ‘Don’t kill the elderly. Don’t kill women. Don’t kill children. Don’t mutilate the bodies of the enemy.’ These were all things that they violated openly. So, Islamically it cannot be justified,” he said. “I tell them this is why God will never give you [the] victory that you desire, when you break his commandments, when you break his laws, especially the laws of war. How are you going to get any victory from that?”

Though many have attempted to sidestep this line of argument with whataboutism, Shaikh maintains that the “ends justify the means” mentality is un-Islamic, and justifying Hamas’s rapes, abductions, and murders is the same as “saying ‘Bism-illah’ over pork.”

Shaikh aims to prevent youth from losing themselves in extremism

Shaikh’s goal is not to make a Zionist out of a radically anti-Israel youth. His goal is to stop young people from destroying lives, including their own, by losing their sense of self to a cause. More often than not, that means filling a gap that’s missing in their lives or creating a sense of perspective.

Parents for Peace doesn’t tell young people to give up protests, he explained; it reminds young people that their parents are pouring their hard-earned money into institutions so they can get a degree, obtain a good job, and have a comfortable life.

“We’re making it practical for them,” Shaikh explained. “It’s not a moral debate that we’re having, whether this is acceptable or you should love Israel; we don’t do any of that.”

When they have a family to support, when they enter the real world, “the grace of God” will not pay their bills, and they can’t afford to lose stable employment over a belief system, he said, adding that he uses his own story to highlight how growing up can mean abandoning these extreme notions of the world.

Kasim Hafeez’s own experience as a second-generation Pakistani Muslim further evidences much of Shaikh’s understanding of what can push someone to make the jump into extremism.

Hafeez was once a radicalized student with a deeply embedded hatred of Jews and plans to travel to Pakistan to enroll in a LeT terrorist training center. Now, he works for Christians United for Israel as a Middle East analyst and is a vocal advocate for Israel.

Born and raised in Nottingham, Hafeez was British in every formal sense. He held only a British passport and attended a state school in the UK.

Yet he grew up in a close-knit, insular community where traditions were carefully preserved, mosques served as the focal point of daily life, and many parents lived with the constant fear that their move to Britain would lead their children to abandon both Islam and the Pakistani culture they had brought with them.

White nationalists would also frequently make clear that he and his family were not welcome and he would never truly be considered English, he explained, recalling incidents of street abuse when he was as young as five.

Though he recalled antisemitism being a standard sentiment in his household and community, Hafeez denied that his parents and grandparents had been radical. As members of the first generation of migrants who came to the UK after World War II, they had personally witnessed the true cost of Islamic extremism and were uninterested in bringing such sentiments with them.

The second generation, born in Britain but not truly considered British by many, did not have such an understanding.

“Torn between these two identities,” Hafeez explained, many Muslims in his generation felt lost.

He explained that the deprivation often associated with the unskilled labor jobs many migrants take on in their new countries can foster feelings of anger, victimhood, and hopelessness.

These emotions, he suggested, often require only a small spark to erupt. In this case, that spark came with the 1988-1989 protests and book burnings surrounding Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.

“I believe that really opened the door to the level of radicalization we now have, because it opened this idea that Muslims in the West don’t really belong here; that there are their values and our values,” he said, highlighting in particular the fact that blasphemy is forbidden in Pakistan, and that living in the West means hearing views one may find offensive to their very core.

Hafeez explained that for second-generation Muslims in the West, the Soviet Union’s failure in 1989 became a source of pride, making mujahideen (those engaged in Islamic jihad) seem “like heroes.”

Eager to capitalize on this anger and wave of hero worship were groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun. Though the latter was first formed in Britain, Hafeez maintained that the terrorist recruitment was largely coming from sources external to his own community.

“You’re growing up; you’re feeling that you’re being deprived of something; you know that you’re different from the society around you, which you don’t really fit into; and now you’re a victim of that society, but you’re a victim of something that there is nothing you can do about it, like if the whole Western society is against you,” he explained.

“There’s nothing you can do about it, other than be angry, be frustrated, be depressed, and it creates this circle of hopelessness, which makes the message of these groups a lot more appealing.

“It’s giving you a belonging; it’s giving you kind of a way to address it, but not really; and it also then takes you down this path of ‘this is the way forward,’ and you start making these leaps of taking your situation and then identifying it with that of other Muslims and drawing these other parallels that may not exist, and unfortunately it’s very easy to fall into.”

Jump to extremism often helped by exposure to antisemitism

That jump is often aided by the background antisemitism Muslim youth are exposed to from birth, he continued. Hafeez shared that, though they are largely nonsensical in retrospect, antisemitic explanations for his position in the world had once provided a sense of clarity.

“Pakistan has never had a significant Jewish population post-partition, and so this obsession with Israel is kind of weird. Obviously, they’re just drawing it from the wider Arab world, etc. But it was really common… like day-to-day.

“[The Nottingham community was] not a radical community, not an extremist community; like, no one is trying to implement Sharia law or overthrow the government, or even talking about that.

“But antisemitism was super common, like calling somebody a Jew as an insult, [saying] the Jews control America and the media,” he continued.

“You take it on without even realizing. When you hear it day after day, it’s just normal conversation. It doesn’t become an opinion or like a crazy conspiracy theory. It just became a fact because I didn’t know anyone Jewish. I had never spoken to anybody Jewish in my life, so those narratives became the reality.

“So when you have, years later in life, a well-organized group of people who are now touching on to other parts that you’re looking for in your life, and then drawing the connection that all the negatives are because of the Jews, it kind of makes sense.

“There was just such a level of anger and hatred toward this one group because I see them as responsible for all the ills happening in the Muslim world,” Hafeez shared, adding that he has struggled to come to terms with the guilt of knowing he once perpetuated the same type of prejudice he had suffered as a minority.

Naturally, Hafeez’s views only became more radical at university, as he was regularly handed flyers of limbless children alleged to be Palestinian victims of Israel. It was here that the active dehumanization of Israelis started, and after a trip to Pakistan in 2000, he began to think about joining LeT.

Pro-Palestinian sentiments often begin from a place of genuine humanitarian concern and are capitalized upon by extremist groups. As Dahri explained, “Extremist rhetoric can become normalized when it is presented in emotionally persuasive humanitarian or political terms, because people may respond to the moral framing rather than recognize the underlying extremism.

“Newly established Islamist regimes can use this approach to portray themselves to the global Muslim community as nonviolent and consistent with Islamic teachings, while justifying past armed struggle as a response to unjust Western policies toward Muslims. Through humanitarian activity and claims of justice, they seek to present themselves as peaceful, benevolent, and motivated by service rather than self-interest.”

Like many young people, Hafeez viewed the world through a rigid set of binaries. Jews were bad. Israel was evil. Muslims were victims. Islamic jihad was a natural response to the West’s perceived injustices. That worldview began to unravel when he came across Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel.

He came across the book in the chain bookstore Waterstones, drawn by its bold blue Star of David on the cover. At first, he scoffed at it, dismissing it as Jewish propaganda, and picked it up believing he could easily refute all of Dershowitz’s arguments. He couldn’t.

“The way I was approaching faith at that point was very dogmatically; everything needed a source… but what Dershowitz’s book did was it created doubt. I didn’t read this one book and was like ‘well, I got it wrong; who knew?’” he recounted. “It just doesn’t work like that, and I initially set off to prove it wrong. I started looking outside of my own echo chamber, outside of leaflets from Friends of Al-Aqsa, and I was getting a very different picture of things.”

Even attempting to spend time refuting the facts laid out in the book was “isolating,” as members of his community urged him to accept the information he had been taught as fact and leave it at that.

Plagued with the idea that “all this anger and venom and energy” he had put into his antisemitic belief system could be wrong, his entire worldview could be wrong, he decided the only option was to visit Israel and discover the truth firsthand in 2007.

With little experience traveling alone, Hafeez followed UK travel guidance to the letter and answered every question truthfully when he arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport.

His candid admission that he disliked Jews and Israel and had come to see whether the country was as evil as he had been taught led to an eight-hour interrogation. He was ultimately released, however, and allowed to explore the country for himself.

“Eight hours was a long time, but it wasn’t a bad experience, and that was the first time I’d spoken to an Israeli,” he commented.

“When I look back, I think what it was about Israel [that changed my view] was just the normality of it. It was not like anything I expected, and just being able to walk around, speak to random people, just the humanizing effect of that, was incredibly powerful.”

The trip proved to be a turning point for Hafeez, who began dedicating serious time to understanding the other side of a conflict he had heard about for much of his life. He visited museums, read books by Jewish and Zionist authors, and immersed himself in research, hoping to bring that knowledge back to his own community, a community that was less than receptive.

“I was just talking to friends and family, like, ‘Hey, I went, and this is my experience.’ I didn’t expect the backlash that I got. Maybe I was naive, maybe stupid,” he shared.

Though Hafeez never denounced Islam or insulted God in any way, he was treated as if he had committed an act of blasphemy. He received death threats, was thrown out of his mother’s home, and was repeatedly accused of being funded by Jerusalem.

“I get death threats all the time on social media, and I’m like, ‘You can’t even spell properly; I’m not that worried.’ But it’s always a little disconcerting when you start getting death threats left at your actual front door. That’s a little like ‘this is not fun,’” Hafeez opened up, seemingly covering up a very painful period of his life with British humor.

After he submitted an article to The Jewish Chronicle, he was invited to give speeches across the country, and his relationship with his family further deteriorated.

Asked why he would endure all of that, including the familial ties that never fully recovered, Hafeez answered that there were two main reasons.

Firstly, he felt a tremendous weight of guilt at the hate he had put out into the world, the hate he had himself experienced.

Secondly, he hoped that sharing the information could save other Muslims from living a “horrible” life where everything is “clouded by anger.”

“It’s just not a pleasant way to live mentally or in any way, and then you end up going down a really dangerous path, and I just thought, if speaking out can prevent one person from going down that path, then it’s worth it,” he shared.

Concluding the interview, Hafeez said he found it particularly difficult to accept the type of extremism being embraced by white young people, who will be largely untouched by the consequences it breeds.

“I see middle-class white people who are like ‘Free Palestine’ and all in, [and] it’s like, yeah, you can say this and go home. It’s not your community that the real hardcore extremists are targeting. It’s not your community that the actual jihadist groups are targeting to pull your kids, your cousins, or your nephews away into much deeper and darker things.

“And then, when those things come to a terrible conclusion, when there’s a terrorist attack, it’s not your community that has to deal with the blowback of it,” he stated.

Attending the FIFA World Cup is something that has never crossed my mind, even as a big soccer fan myself.

Which is why, when it was announced that the World Cup would be hosted in the US (alongside Mexico and Canada) for the first time in over 30 years, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Going alone would’ve been boring, so I asked the biggest soccer fan I could think of if he wanted to come, too: my father. Born and raised in Haifa, and now approaching 70 years of age, he was ecstatic to see a World Cup match – and told me by the end of it that it was the best sporting event he ever attended.

We rushed to buy tickets for the opening match, US vs Paraguay on June 12. This was particularly special to me to see an opening match played by my home country (before making aliyah) as the hosts too.

Paraguay, in particular, has been one of Latin America’s closest allies to Israel, having moved its embassy to Jerusalem and designating Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC as terror organizations.

The United States national team is also the only group with a Jewish athlete – their goalkeeper, Matt Turner, who was their starter goalie in the previous tournament in Qatar. Though soccer fans will likely be more familiar with star athletes Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Sergino Dest.

The World Cup is happening as I’m in the middle of a student exchange program in Argentina (the winners of the last World Cup), so I flew to Los Angeles from Buenos Aires to meet up with my father, who flew in from Tel Aviv to view the USMNT’s first match on their home soil in over 30 years for the tournament.

Lo and behold, the game was simply a marvel to watch, as the USMNT defeated their opponent 4-1 with chants of “USA, USA!” dominating the stadium for 2 hours.

The World Cup isn’t without criticism

This year’s World Cup has undergone much scrutiny, including overpriced transportation and hotel accommodations, stadiums not selling out, and the refusal of entry of Somali referee Omar Artan into the US, among other officials and journalists who were denied visas.

However, the controversy that might be most connected with Israel and the Middle East is Iran’s participation in the tournament. They are slated to play their first match against New Zealand on Monday, a mere three days after the world watches the US’s first match in the same stadium.

But what was truly insane was what occurred after the match. As I exited SoFi Stadium, I saw Iranian demonstrators outside waving the lion and sun flags, Israeli flags, US flags, and signs with the image of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. I knew as soon as I spotted the flags that I had to interview them.

One demonstrator at the protest said that FIFA has allowed the flag of the Islamic Republic to be woven but “not our national flag,” referring to the lion and sun flag. “They’ve hijacked our identity. They’re trying to erase our identity as Iranians.”

The Iranian demonstrators agreed that the team should be kicked out of the World Cup: “The team doesn’t represent us. The players that have been sent here support a terrorist regime. They filter these people before they are sent as a national team. They represent the 1% minority of people that support the regime.”

In a message to Israelis, the protester said, “We feel everything you’ve been going through since October 7.”

Iran has said that it will cease playing in the World Cup if “unauthorized flags are displayed or slogans targeting the national team are chanted at stadiums,” Iranian media cited the regime’s Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali.

The team representing Tehran’s participation has been in doubt since its war against the US and Israel earlier this year.

The writer is a producer for The Jerusalem Post and editor for the newspaper’s podcasts.

Jacob Gurvis/JTA and Reuters contributed to this report.

With this country increasingly being covered by apartment towers and concrete, it’s natural for Israelis to crave green spaces, dip their feet in a gushing waterfall, search for animals, and breathe clean air. They can just get into a car, bus, or train with a picnic basket, suntan lotion, and a hat. But such an expedition is a rarity, or sometimes impossible, for physically and emotionally disabled children or adults. 

The nature trails have to be passable for those in a wheelchair; the deaf need sign-language translators to explain what is said; the blind want to touch their surroundings; food has to be ground up for those who have difficulty chewing; restaurants and toilet facilities must be accessible. 

This has always been impossible for the large and growing numbers of people with physical and cognitive challenges around the country – at least until the establishment in 1991 of Lotem (Making Nature Accessible), founded and directed today by Amos Ziv. The Hebrew word means “a bush of golden flowers” and refers to a genus of delicate, fragrant flowering shrubs.

Born in Yokne’am in the lower Galilee, Ziv studied at the Ruppin Academic College in the Hefer Valley and planned to take people on tours of the country. On a visit to the Jerusalem Institute for the Blind, he met people most of whom were visually impaired people and not completely blind.

“I’m good at organizing things, so I thought I could arrange trips in nature in various parts of the country that were accessible and be meaningful for them. Nobody was doing this 30 years ago,” he said in an interview.

“Everyone deserves to experience nature. It’s a necessity, not a luxury. Israelis have been cooped up during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the missile and drone attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere. They locked themselves in shelters and safe rooms. But they have to have space. But going on a trek to nature areas is not simple for the disabled. It’s not a luxury but a necessity,” he insisted.

The organization promotes empowerment for people of all ages who have disabilities through its nature experiences, trips, workshops, and diverse activity groups. Operating nationwide, it has offices in Yokne’am, Jerusalem, and Beersheba. Activities combine educational, community, and experiential work, while also personalizing the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs of each participant through guided programs in nature.

During times of crisis, teams operate in over 25 locations nationwide, including hotels and kibbutzim hosting evacuees, and serve over 100,000 people annually with physical, cognitive, emotional, and sensory disabilities.

Its nature-based retreats support survivors of trauma and terrorism, as well as soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Their “Integra-Teva” program brings together diverse groups, including Jews and Arabs, to learn ancient agricultural techniques. It also operates an in-service training center to teach professionals from the government, as well as the private sectorsm how to better integrate people with special needs into society.

Lotem’s trips take place in small groups, who are accompanied by trained guides with experience working with a variety of disabilities. It’s 60 workers include paid employees as well as volunteers, which include young women fulfilling their national service. Everyone is trained in small groups to be more effective, even though it’s more expensive. 

Spending time outdoors is more than just a way to pass time

Being in nature provides profound physical and mental health benefits for people with disabilities, primarily by reducing stress, alleviating sensory overload, and encouraging gentle physical activity. Accessible outdoor spaces offer an inclusive environment that boosts mood and cognitive function. 

The benefits include stress reduction by decreasing cortisol levels. The gentle, unpredictable stimuli of nature (soft breezes, rustling leaves, flowing water) calm the nervous system, which is highly beneficial for individuals with sensory processing sensitivities or neurodivergence.

Outdoor recreation, such as paved nature trails, adaptive cycling, or kayaking, promotes cardiovascular health, strength, and mobility in an inclusive format. Natural settings require “soft fascination,” allowing the brain to recover from the mental fatigue and over-stimulation of daily life, and exposure to sunlight increases endorphins and serotonin that combat depression and improve overall well being.

“Beyond the sense of capability and equality that our travelers gain, the trips emphasize empowerment, development of life skills, promotion of motor skills, and familiarization with basic concepts in nature, alongside education for tolerance and acceptance of differences,” Ziv noted.

With assistance from Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, the organization created a 1.5 km. trail at the Hashofet Stream near Yokne’am, which is surrounded by a towering forest. The path alongside the stream is stroller- and wheelchair friendly. There’s an old flour mill to explore, a bridge to cross, a waterfall, wood benches, and picnic tables. Sometimes, even cows pass by. A million people – more than at Masada – trek there every year.

Lotem’s Valley of Peace park is located in the Menashe Heights just outside of Yokne’am Illit. It is a 40-acre nature reserve and historic ecological farm famous for its wheelchair-accessible education center. Children with disabilities can press grapes with their feet, crush olives to make oil, all the while appreciating and connecting with nature. And everyone can be stimulated by light, touch, sight, and sound, regardless of ability. 

The organization also runs school trips for people with special needs. “We have a large team of tour guides who have been trained to work with people with all types of special needs, and we cover all kinds of functional levels,” said Ziv.

“Older people want to be treated like adults, but people they meet often speak to them as if they were children or even just to the person accompanying them. In nature, these insults disappear, thanks to our guides who are specially trained,” Lotem’s director said. 

Some 65% of all schools, including special-education frameworks, as well as pupils at Jerusalem’s Alyn Rehabilitation Center for Children and Youth, Ilan, Shalva, Akim, and adults with disabilities, participate throughout the year. Special groups, including organizations for children at risk and women in battered women’s shelters, are invited to take part, Ziv added.

The chairman of Lotem’s board is Sorin Hershko, 70, an Israeli hero and paratrooper who served on the assault team during the 1976 Operation Entebbe hostage rescue mission. He was severely wounded during the raid, sustaining a spinal injury that left him permanently paralyzed from the neck down.

‘Nature does not judge you,’ and there’s room for involvement across the board

Recalling one memorable participant on a trek, Ziv cites Raz, who was eight years old when he was seriously injured in a road accident. “He was connected to an oxygen tank, in a wheelchair, and able to move only one hand. He lived in the Alyn Orthopedic Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for two years. 

At 18, he wanted to do national service and he joined Lotem and taught himself English. Now in his 30s, he took the Tourism Ministry official guide’s course and was licensed. Always optimistic, he tells people he takes on tours of his experiences: “Nature does not judge you. You can be whoever you are and whatever you want. That is why Lotem is so important!”

“We work a lot with soldiers who were physically injured and suffer from post-trauma, working with their family, horses, and specially-trained dogs,” added Einav Blum, Lotem’s deputy director-general for education and an occupational therapist. She was inspired to join the organization because both her brother and a sister are disabled, physically and cognitively.

“One father told our team that his child was a different person after participating in our activities. There are kids who refused to speak, but during the trek, they said some words. One girl who suffered from anorexia was hospitalized in Jerusalem but was unwilling to cooperate with the doctors and nurses. We ran a nature club there, bringing leaves and little animals for her to see. She said that she waited all week with anticipation for the team to come, and she was finally discharged in better health.

“We talk about the level of accessibility at each site. Many meet the legal standards but are difficult for the disabled to reach,” Blum added. “They aren’t used to the quiet in nature where they can breathe deeply. We want to help them relish and look forward to it. Being among trees, plants, and open skies isn’t just fun; it’s essential for our mental health support. Those moments of peace help calm our racing thoughts. And when we’re feeling down or anxious, a simple walk in nature can lift our spirits.”

Being surrounded by nature is beneficial. A 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment, compared to those who walked in a high-traffic urban setting, showed reduced activity in a brain region linked to a major factor in depression. 

Another study in 2017 examined the impact of nature access for people with mobility disabilities; Parkinson’s disease patients improved their mobility more significantly when engaging in activities in nature compared to non-nature environments. They also saw other health benefits, such as better cardio-respiratory capacity, and lower and more stable blood pressure and heart rate. These improvements often appeared right after the activity and lasted into their daily lives.

Researchers think the long-term benefits may come from being more physically active or increased self-confidence and motivation after exercising in challenging mountain environments.

“We work with the Nature and Park Authority, the Antiquities Authority, and others, but there is a lot of bureaucracy. Some organizations set up one accessible picnic table, claiming they don’t have enough budget. Some authorities are just lazy,” Ziv suggested.

October 7 has led to an uptick in emotional distress

Since Oct. 7, the organization has seen a dramatic increase in demand for its service because there is a lot more emotional distress, said Blum. “If we had unlimited funds, we would like to help more groups and offer even higher-quality activities.”

Lotem’s annual budget is about NIS 10 million. Israeli banks, for example, donate very little. The low dollar-shekel exchange rate has hurt the organization, since most of its contributions are in dollars from donors from abroad, yet the organization has to convert the money and pay its bills in shekels. Currently, it is short NIS 800,000. Participants pay only a small amount for the excursions. 

“We try to encourage organizations, businesses, and individuals to ‘adopt’ a disabled child or an activity,” said Ziv. “We want them to be partners, not just to donate money.”

Among the projects donors can support is the Mother Nature Program, a safe and restorative day-long experience outdoors for mothers and their children who are victims of domestic violence. It includes hiking, cooking, and art workshops that help promote trust and self confidence; a weekly nature club in schools for those who can’t leave their indoor environments on a regular basis to come closer to nature in a fun, creative, and informal learning environment; and class field trips.

Lotem was involved with the kibbutzim and moshavim on the Gaza border before the devastating Hamas-led terror onslaught of Oct. 7. Immediately after that, the organization sent teams to evacuees in hotels and kibbutz guest houses, taking them on nature trips and vacations to help calm them, Ziv recalled.

The most logistically complicated trip it ever ran was one that involved older women, over several days, who were pushed around in their wheelchairs and who required liquified food, toilets at the right height, moving beds, sign-language translators, and help for the blind.

For Jacob Milstein, a fifth-generation farmer from Kibbutz Merhavia in the North, his connection with Lotem was actually lifesaving. He was looking for work outside the farm, and he saw an ad looking for a maintenance manager at the non-profit organization’s Emek Hashalom farm. He wanted to work in an open space, accessible to all, close to nature, and with a connection to the therapeutic field. 

On Tu Bishvat, after a long day full of visitors at the Emek Hashalom farm, Milstein returned home from another fulfilling day at work, ready to sit on his terrace with a cup of coffee and enjoy the beautiful sunset. 

“I suddenly felt something strange: I wanted to go straight, but my body went to the right side. I also began to feel restless, as if I was uncomfortable anywhere I turned.”

An ambulance took him to the hospital, where he had a CT scan. The doctor then told him: “‘Mr. Milstein, you are having a stroke.”

“I didn’t notice that my hand and leg were already paralyzed, but when I tried to get out of bed, I fell to the floor, paralyzed in half of my body. I became depressed. One day at the hospital, Amos Ziv came to visit. After 10 minutes, he said: ‘Jacob, your job with us is reserved for you. When you recover, you will come back to us, and together we will find the right place for you.’

“After a long rehabilitation process, I felt I was on the road to recovery. Slowly, from the wheelchair I moved to the treadmill, and from there to a cane,” Milstein recalled. “At first, I gave lectures at Lotem as a volunteer, but after a while, the director of Lotem’s accessibility department asked if I wanted to be a Lotem staff member. It was one of the most moving sentences I have ever heard in my life.”

He went back to work as an instructor, and his physical, mental, and cognitive abilities improved greatly. “With all the love I had for people with special needs, and my willingness to help them, I still consider my life experience today of a person with special needs. Even when I forget about it, life reminds me.

“I know what people with special needs go through. I’m more aware of when they need help. I’ve discovered something new that I am good at, which is an amazing feeling,” he reflected. “My thanks to Lotem, this amazing place, this special team, and the people of JNF-USA who support Lotem and allow this special miracle to exist in the world and illuminate the world in a better light.”

For more information about Lotem, visit movingforwardlotem.com/lotem.

It doesn’t take a PhD in anthropology, political science, or sociology, or an above-average IQ, to discern that this country has its fair share of existential challenges on its plate. Some of those clearly come from without, but there are also plenty of domestic issues that need our urgent attention. 

One of those is the pressing matter of youngsters who, for one reason or another, find themselves out on the street, without the safe haven of the family home, and without the sense of security, emotional as well as physical, that is essential to teenagers taking their steps towards adulthood and into the maze of minefield pathways that winds its way through life.

One of the major players in this life-saving field is Shanti House. With three branches dotted around the country – Tel Aviv, the Negev, and a recent addition in Jerusalem – Shanti House has been doing its utmost for over four decades to provide less privileged members of the younger generation, between the ages of 14 and 21, with a helping hand, a warm embrace, and a tangible, loving anchor and support.

These are frequently kids who have run away from dysfunctional family situations, having fled from violent parents and, sometimes, life-threatening circumstances. Substance abuse often follows as the children find themselves cast out on the jagged edges of society, exposed to all manner of danger and exploitation.

Shanti House opened for business in 1984 after its founder, Mariuma Klein, learned of the severity of the problem across the country. This wasn’t the result of in-depth professional research studiously overseen by academics. 

Klein had a very real, firsthand understanding of the plight of hundreds of youngsters fighting for survival in a world that didn’t seem to care or, at the very least, offered little in the way of solutions to their predicament. 

Now, sexagenarian Klein has stood steadfast at the helm of her life’s work throughout, navigating her way through trying logistical, financial, and emotional rapids to keep the institution afloat. She is not just some kind soul extending a hand and a hug to those less fortunate than herself. 

She has been there, and been through all of that, and has a very personal handle on what the residents of Shanti House endured before they walked through the institution’s welcoming gate – battered, bruised, scarred, and without too much trust in the adult world around them. A world that, at best, had turned its back on them and, at worst, had subjected them to cruelty and torment.

“I was approaching the end of my military service,” Klein recalls in her book The Shanti House Way, which came out in 2015, with an updated version released in 2024. “I was not yet 20, and my partner was 25 years older than me.” 

They were living in her boyfriend’s former café when Klein suddenly came up with the idea of opening up the place to “anyone who needs a place to eat a Shabbat meal, anyone who wants to sit down together with living souls hungry to sit around the same family table.”

This still-developing country may have plenty to crow about – inter alia, its trailblazing hi-tech industry, the excellence we continue to churn out across all artistic disciplines, and, let’s face it, the mere fact that Israel is still a going concern. But the socioeconomic divide continues to widen and deepen, leaving many Israelis unable to buy homes and others struggling to keep up with soaring rent.

The youngsters Klein and her Shanti House team cater to don’t have that problem, for all the wrong reasons. They simply don’t have anywhere they can call home in the core sense most associated with that concept. That is, until they step through the portal of one of the Shanti House facilities, either on their own initiative or pursuant to a referral from the welfare authorities.

Shanti House has gained recognition among other similar facilities 

Shanti House is now an officially recognized institution to which cases are referred by other facilities, including those of state ilk, that find they are unable to help. Klein was awarded the Israel Prize in 2022 for her sterling work over so many years and was one of the torchlighters at the state Independence Day ceremony back in 2000. There are other kudos in her impressive bio.

All of which is a far cry from the days when she was in dire straits herself, mirroring the desperate life circumstances that continue to bring teenagers to her doorstep in a last-ditch attempt to right their existential ship and, in many instances, in a very real sense, save their lives. 

Sadly, Klein went through the mill herself, several times, and is all too keenly aware of the emotional mountains her charges have to climb if they are to stand any chance of somehow getting back on track and not slipping back into a vicious circle of violence, sexual promiscuity and abuse, and addiction.

Sitting with the irrepressible 61-year-old Shanti House founder and CEO, it is hard to believe she was once out on the street herself, a refugee from her own dysfunctional family and prey to all kinds of nefarious characters and social outcasts.

Klein harnesses that checkered backdrop not only as a source of strength and motivation for herself; she also shares it with at-risk youngsters in the hope that her own fight for survival and success against all the odds will inspire others to follow suit. 

“Of course, I tell them about myself and what I went through,” she states. “I tell them everything. I tell them how my father abandoned me, about the extreme violence I was subjected to from my mother, as an only daughter – by the way, I am full of compassion for them now,” she slips in without missing a beat. “You learn the way to get to that.”

There is, sadly, more to Klein’s story: “I was sexually abused when I was five and raped at the age of 17,” she adds, almost matter-of-factly. “I lived on the streets of Boston and ate food from dumpsters,” she says. 

Klein was born in New York, made aliyah with her parents when she was two years old, and spent part of her teenage years back in the States with her mother. That didn’t go well, and she relocated back to Israel to a boarding school. 

At the age of 20, she found herself pregnant – she discovered her condition too late to even consider having an abortion – with her now 40-year-old daughter, who, surprise, surprise, goes by the name of Shanti. Klein is now a proud mother of two and a besotted grandmother to Shanti’s kindergarten-aged daughter.

That, no doubt, helps her to keep her feet on the ground and her heart in the right place as she continues to pound her invaluable beat and put in a shift or two to proffer a lifeline to youth who have been dealt a bad hand by the very people who should be providing them with a safe harbor, love, and a solid grounding before they step out from their domestic confines to, hopefully, forge their own course through the big outside world. 

Klein says she knows – from rich personal and professional experience – there’s no quick fix. “I call it the cholent treatment,” she chuckles. “You have to take it slowly, keep it on a low flame. It takes time.” 

She came across that precious realization quite some time ago. “I have known this since the 1980s. Any person who has experienced trauma, you have to create a safe place for them. You have to allow them time to develop trust, and to see there are others like them. 

“These [Shanti House] places help with post-trauma because there are other children like you. You are not alone. You are part of a group where you feel you are among equals, also with regard to the tough things you have been through. And the others are surviving and continuing on with their lives.”

Trust is the operative word here. 

“The kids need to discover faith in someone, in someone professional who can help them. We have psychologists here and practitioners who can help with addictions. We have lots of different kinds of treatment here. One of the most important things for battle fatigue or post-trauma for children is that they have a safe environment. If you have that, you can start to trust someone,” she says.

The facility gives kids something to get excited about

The road to recovery also requires having something to look forward to. Sounds like something straight out of a Viktor Frankl book, a feted Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and, more pertinently, Holocaust survivor. 

The best-known of Frankl’s 39-strong bibliography is Man’s Search for Meaning, which chronicles his experiences in Dachau and Auschwitz and how having some goal, some purpose, in life can help keep one on an even emotional keel, and literally keep them alive in the most trying of situations.

It is a school of thought to which Klein wholeheartedly subscribes. “I know Frankl and his work,” she says. “He is one of my sources of inspiration.”

This thought features prominently in the Shanti House remedial equation. “There is someone here whose dream is to do anything connected to the sea,” Klein enlightens me. “He is interested in marine geology, anything marine. And he is gradually moving in that direction. He has started to build his process [of recovery].”

Shanti House, she says, devotes substantial resources to helping the youngsters achieve their ambitions, thereby boosting their sense of self-worth and enabling them to channel their energy and talents toward tangible outcomes. 

“If, for example, we have a young girl who wants to study psychology,” she says, “or something to do with emotional therapy, we will get a grant for her, so she can continue on to higher education after she finishes her military service.”

Naturally, in order to get to university or college, one first has to graduate from high school. There are some for whom that is a steeper hill to climb. 

There are two kids here who are about to join the army. One was abandoned by his mother when he was five years old, and his father joined some kind of cult group in Tiberias. His childhood was very difficult – there was lots of abuse. He came to us around 18 months ago, when he was around 16 or 17. 

Amram completed his high school studies, and he is going to join the army and attend Havat Hashomer [IDF basic training camp in the Lower Galilee] to become a combat soldier. He couldn’t believe it. He never thought he’d achieve that, Klein shares.

Levi Amram is a gleaming beacon of hope for anyone down on their luck and short on optimism. I sat down with the 18-year-old at Shanti House in Tel Aviv for a chat about his dark past and his far brighter present and future. 

It was hard to equate the confident young man, with his open face and inviting smile, with the tale of woe he recounted. Klein says she looks on in awe, pride, and joy at Amram and his ilk. 

“When you see a child who had no dreams, who felt abandoned and transparent, who had no idea what they were going to do with their life, and then you see the light that comes out of them, and the hope, it is simply amazing,” she says. 

Youngsters from haredi (ultra-Orthodox) families, apparently, have another hurdle to navigate. “They often have no background in secular subjects, like history, geography, and mathematics,” Klein notes. “They simply aren’t taught such things. So they have more ground to make up if they want to take their bagrut (matriculation) and pursue a profession.”

Many kids are choosing non-violence and self-reflection to heal

Amram is, indeed, an impressive character to behold. He hardly stopped smiling as we talked in the shade of the inviting center’s inner quadrangle in south Tel Aviv, with its polychromatic exterior. 

“I have been here for almost two years,” he says. “I come from a haredi home, and I went through a lot before I came here. There was violence, sexual violence, at home.”

It was time to get out. 

“I had to get away from the violence,” Amram recalls. He went through a slew of boarding schools and hostels, but initially, things did not go well. “You go there, and you find even more options for substance abuse – alcohol and drugs.” 

But Amram was made of sterner stuff. “After a while, I realized that wasn’t helping. It was like trying to climb up a slope, and then you spill oil on it, and you slip further down.”

Help was on its way from Shanti House. 

“I was at another place [for at-risk youth], and I met someone called Shauli from here. I told him I wasn’t happy there and I was looking for a place that was less like an institution and more like a home,” he shares. 

He gradually cleaned up his substance abuse act and took on a sunnier, healthier approach to himself and the world around him – both physically and emotionally. 

“I had therapy, and I worked on myself,” Amram states.

Shanti House fit the bill, and despite stiff resistance from the state welfare authorities, who preferred to send him to a military boarding school, Amram stuck to his non-violent guns and, with Shauli’s help, eventually relocated to Klein’s welcoming, family-oriented center.

That changed everything for him. Amram found himself in the company of other youngsters with similar stories, who understood him and what he had been through. “I didn’t feel different,” he says. “I felt accepted by the others – the kids and the staff.”

It’s been a long and rocky road for Amram, but he appears to have made it through the emotional and logistical quagmire in one piece and is now set to take his life to the next stage of personal positive growth.

“You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves,” he observes. 

“I wanted to help myself and got so much from Mariuma and the others here. I didn’t even think in terms of love, what it is to love myself, if I could give or get love, or if I was worthy of love at all. That wasn’t even part of my thinking,” he shares.

We return to the theme of dreams and Frankl’s life-affirming ethos. 

“Today I finished my last bagrut examination,” he tells me with palpable pride. “I feel really good. My dream when I came here was to do my bagrut. I started from zero. I didn’t have any grounding in that from my haredi home. I gradually closed down my [educational] gaps and, thank God, I finished today.”

The next rung on Amram’s ladder to self-realization is the army. 

“In six months, thank God, I’ll join the Border Police. That was always my dream. I’m sure it won’t be easy in the Border Police, but I’m not looking for an easy life,” he says.

Clearly, thus far, the 18-year-old has not exactly been through a bed of roses, but now, with Shanti House’s help, his challenges are of his own making – and I wouldn’t bet against him making a success of his military service and anything he elects to take on as he finds his place in the world.

None of the above comes cheap, and Shanti House is running a fundraising campaign, June 21-26. All donations to this life-saving venture will, naturally, be accepted with gratitude. For more information: 

www.jgive.com/new/en/ils/donation-targets/172573

The US and Qatar are working to make billions of dollars in frozen funds available to Iran for humanitarian spending as a financial incentive under the deal to end the war, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The deal would allow Iran to begin by accessing $6 billion currently held in Qatar, specifically for purchases of food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods. The purchases would be made by Iran’s central bank with cash from oil sales, which have been frozen overseas by sanctions, the people told WSJ. 

In 2023, the US issued a waiver sanction in 2023 under the Biden administration, allowing $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue to be transferred from South Korea to Qatar to be spent on humanitarian goods for Iran, but the funds were frozen after the October 7th massacre. 

Framework could become precedent

The current plan may become a precedent for releasing more Iranian funds in the future, including the first pool of $24 billion frozen that Tehran wants released immediately, the people said. 

Iran has not yet agreed to this framework, and it has been added to the list of matters to be discussed in future talks between the US and Iran. The US has already pledged to make Iran’s frozen assets “fully available for use,” and one US official said the funds will remain available as long as Iran participates in negotiations, the WSJ reported. 

“We have taken their money; it isn’t our money, it is their money, and we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we’re going to have to give it back,” US President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday. 

Iran’s frozen assets are currently locked up by sanctions in countries including China, India, Iraq, and Qatar. 

Negotiations over funds frozen in Qatar began in late May, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, leading a delegation to Doha to discuss plans, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. 

Bolivia’s crisis intensified on Saturday as President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency, authorizing broader military deployment to clear blockades and restore order after protests brought the economy to a halt over the past 50 days.

The emergency declaration gives Paz broader constitutional authority to restore order, including the deployment of the armed forces to clear blockades. While the order takes effect immediately, the president must notify Congress of the state of emergency within 24 hours of issuing the decree, and Congress then has up to 72 hours to approve or reject the measure.

Protesting groups, many allied to former leftist President Evo Morales, have cut off key roads, stranding trucks and choking supplies of food, fuel, and medicines to many areas, including La Paz.

The conflict initially erupted after Paz abruptly cut long-standing fuel subsidies to shrink the deficit, amid a worsening dollar crunch and talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Despite later steps to stabilize fuel prices and reverse unpopular land reforms, protests intensified into broader discontent, with unions demanding wage increases, an end to fuel and dollar shortages, and Paz’s resignation.

Paz’s declaration came in a live message to the nation just hours after he unveiled a deal struck on Friday with the main union, the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation (COB), aimed at easing tensions.

However, many roads connecting the South American nation’s main production center are controlled by rural associations aligned with Morales, which were not part of the negotiations and continue to protest mainly in the Cochabamba area.

‘A state of emergency to give freedom back to the people’

Paz said the crisis had evolved into an organized attempt to destabilize democracy after weeks of violence and blockades. He said the state of emergency aims to restore order, protect citizens, and ensure the flow of essential goods, while warning that those who continue the disruptions would face legal consequences.

“This is not a state of emergency to restrict people’s lives… It is a state of emergency to give freedom back to the people, to free Bolivia from those who use political conflict to block roads and harm the population,” Paz said.

Emerging outlines of a deal between Washington and Tehran to end their war contain a stinging paradox: sweeteners to coax Iran into compliance may strengthen an adversarial force that the US and its Western allies consider a terrorist organization.

For years, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards thrived in the shadow of sanctions, building a sprawling commercial empire spanning oil and construction, shipping, telecommunications, and ports.

Now, as Tehran and Washington prepare for talks on a deal to end the war that could unlock billions of dollars for Iran and reopen its economy to global investment, the elite force is poised to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Four senior Iranian sources described how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was uniquely positioned to capture a large share of any financial rewards that would accrue from sanctions relief, renewed oil exports, and foreign investment.

Their central role may also prove to be one of the many obstacles to a deal: with the Guards so firmly enmeshed in Iranian business, their terrorism designation could significantly complicate efforts to free the economy from sanctions.

 IRGC has large commercial empire

Founded by Iran’s late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Guards prospered under his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gaining political power as they spearheaded efforts to project power across the Middle East and suppress dissent at home.

Since the war began on February 28 with strikes that killed Khamenei, the Guards have only expanded their power internally, helping to install his son Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader. They have signaled support for the deal to end the war.

One of the senior sources described the Guards as the real winners of the war, saying that, having secured the survival of Iran’s Islamic system, they were best placed to benefit from any lifting of sanctions, having already run most of Iran’s sanctions-busting operations over recent decades.

A spokesperson for the Guards declined to comment.

The interim deal announced this week will allow waivers on sanctioned oil sales, while any more comprehensive agreement struck in the coming period could lift all other sanctions and give Iran access to a $300-billion reconstruction fund.

The IRGC does not publish financial data, but any efforts to revive the economy will expand its considerable financial reach, a second senior source said, pointing to existing multibillion-dollar trade networks, oil activities, shipping operations, and construction businesses.

The IRGC’s engineering arm, Khatam al-Anbia, oversees hundreds of affiliated companies operating across major infrastructure and energy projects, and with involvement in telecommunications, car making, tourism, and logistics, according to official statements and public records.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Guards to benefit from interim deal

With Iranian investment law requiring foreign firms to partner with locals, the sheer number of IRGC-linked companies means they become gatekeepers for potential investors into Iran’s most lucrative sectors.

That reality means Western firms returning to Iran’s market could find themselves operating alongside, or through, entities linked to the IRGC even without direct engagement – at the risk of falling foul of any continued sanctions tied specifically to the Guards.

“The IRGC is the entity pulling all the strings behind the oil sector, so you can’t ignore all of the legal effects of doing business with them,” said Jeremy Paner, a former Treasury Department sanctions investigator who is now a partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

Even as the interim deal with Washington says Iranian oil exports will be authorized, “there’s still legal exposure for US companies because of the IRGC lurking in the background,” Paner said. The US Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, passed in 2016, allows victims of terrorist attacks to sue US companies for aiding groups accused of terrorism, such as the IRGC.

If no wider deal is reached and sanctions stay in place, the Guards will still benefit from the interim oil export waivers, and can maintain their tight grip on the economy through their experience in sanctions busting, the senior Iranian sources said.

Their economic rise was accelerated by the sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program from the early 2000s, as they built networks to facilitate oil exports, shipping, and trade through intermediaries and front companies.

The model became harder to sustain when US President Donald Trump began a “maximum pressure” campaign after pulling the US out of a 2015 nuclear deal between major powers in 2018, and then expanded US sanctions further during his present term.

Those measures narrowed the room for sanctions evasion and increased the cost of running illicit networks, a third senior Iranian source said.

“‘He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” isn’t just psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s most famous quote.

The quote gained renewed attention through Jerusalem author Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. During her family’s agonizing struggle to secure his release, Goldberg-Polin emerged as one of the world’s most vocal and recognizable advocates for all the hostages.

Discussing her memoir, When We See You Again, Goldberg-Polin told 60 Minutes journalist Anderson Cooper that her son Hersh, who was 23 when he was murdered in captivity, drew profound strength from Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl’s account of his survival in the Holocaust, and, in particular, from this “He who has a why” quote, which Frankl attributed to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Intrigued by the lasting influence of this enduring aphorism and the philosophy behind it, the Magazine traveled to Modi’in to meet two of Israel’s leading exponents of logotherapy, Frankl’s meaning-centered approach to life and psychology. 

Conversations explored not only the origins of this famous quotation but also why it continues to resonate so deeply in these turbulent times.

When conventional psychology isn’t enough

Batya Yaniger, PsyD, the Chicago-born and raised founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute in Israel, launched the institute in 2009 to provide rigorous training and certification both in Israel and to a worldwide audience. She traveled to a home full of charm and warmth to be with her mentor, Dr. Teria Shantall, a South African psychologist who made aliyah in 1999.

Shantall studied directly with Frankl, wrote her doctoral dissertation on the meaning of suffering among Holocaust survivors, and has spent more than five decades teaching and writing about logotherapy.

“We all want to make sense of life,” Shantall said. “We want to live for something. We want to feel that we can make a contribution to the world. Frankl called this the ‘will to meaning.’ It doesn’t make sense that we’ve been imbued with this desire for meaning if there is no meaning to be found.”

Lauding the civil report’s chief author

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl emerged from his devastating experiences in Nazi concentration camps as a witness to both the best and worst of human behavior.

“How do we remain human when confronted with inhumanity? We use the experience as an opportunity to grow more human ourselves,” Yaniger said.

Shantall leans forward. “Despite the experience – not because of it.”

The conversation pivots to the report on the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas, which coincidentally was authored and published by the Civil Commission just blocks away from Shantall’s home in Modi’in.

“These sexual crimes were uniquely devastating because they attack a person’s dignity at the deepest level,” Shantall said. “They assault your sense of worth. You are treated as something to be used, abused, and thrown aside.”

Healing begins when victims reclaim their humanity and when others, like the heroes who comprise the Civil Commission, refuse to look away.

“Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy [principal author of the Civil Commission’s report] is an example of responsibility in action. She didn’t have to see all that,” Yaniger observed. “The victims had no choice. Her willingness to confront horrific testimony demonstrates a commitment to something larger than herself. She was willing to be a witness. Logotherapy teaches commitment to what is meaningful. That’s how we bring the world to a higher place.”

An attitude toward life

“You could call logotherapy a clinical tool that anyone could use, but more than a tool, it’s an attitude toward life, a way of thinking about yourself. We feel like a victim and don’t know where to go from here. Logotherapy teaches that we always have the freedom to choose, even if it’s only our attitude, and to find something good to make out of it.”

Yaniger pointed out that people tend to become self-centered when suffering. This awareness is central to the training she conducts at the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy in Israel.

“The shift from self-absorption to realizing we play a meaningful part of a meaningful whole starts in the classroom. Our students describe their experience as not just ‘another course’ but a rich encounter with others that is felt as a community or family, of sorts. They begin to adopt a new paradigm for how to live with purpose, and their personal change then impacts their clients and all the people around them,” Yaniger observed.

“Frankl’s premise is that even when you lose your physical freedom, you retain the freedom to choose your attitude,” Shantall added, describing a way of thinking about yourself.

Logotherapy as a practice, not a collection of quotes

Yaniger admits some frustration with people knowing Frankl’s famous quotations but not realizing that logotherapy can actually be applied therapeutically. The captives who found a meaningful way to grow through what happened to them illustrate the human capacity at its best, she pointed out.

“They demonstrated what Frankl called ‘tragic optimism’ – the intuitive ability to transform tragedy into triumph. Logotherapy simply facilitates this process,” Yaniger said.

Not that it’s instant. “Healing often begins with silence,” Shantall noted. “People often can’t speak about their experiences at first. They need time to trust you and come out of themselves. It’s a long process of healing.”

Commenting on Goldberg-Polin’s courage to speak publicly about her tremendous ordeal and loss, Shantall praised her efforts:

“We would congratulate her for the way she has handled the situation. Rather than rushing someone past grief, one has to go through the anguish. Logotherapy acknowledges anguish as part of the human experience. Our clients put their anguish on the table.”

A recent article in Makor Rishon highlights the phenomenal uptick in sales of Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, since Oct. 7, as evidence that the teachings remain as relevant today as they were when Frankl published his modest, barely noticed book in German in 1946. The book gained a worldwide audience and became a classic only after its publication in English in 1959. 

Sales of Man’s Search for Meaning have once again skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists in Israel, and Frankl’s monumental work is even being used alongside hassidic texts for those struggling with trauma.

“Both hassidic texts and Frankl emphasize that human beings are driven by the will to live a life of meaning, not merely the pursuit of pleasure or power,” Yaniger observed, adding: “People turn to hassidism whenever they want Torah teachings to really come to life and better understand the human condition.”

Frankl distanced himself publicly from organized religion while maintaining a private Jewish prayer practice and a lifelong appreciation for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. According to a well-known account preserved by Chabad, the Rebbe encouraged Frankl to remain confident in his meaning-centered approach to psychology at a time when Sigmund Freud’s and Alfred Adler’s theories dominated the field. 

Frankl remained steadfast in his commitment to logotherapy, which would eventually earn worldwide recognition – even from a grieving Jerusalem mother, whose hostage son tried his best to follow its principles. 

“Logotherapy is aligned with Jewish or hassidic approaches more than any other psychology, not because of a religious orientation,” Yaniger observed, “but because it shares the same outlook on the unconditional worth of the human being and the values that give life meaning.”

There are horrors so deliberate they seem almost to belong to another century, or another species. The calculated use of sexual violence as a tool of political control is one of them. 

History, though, is blunt. It keeps showing us the same thing: this is not an accident of war. It is a method.

For years, the West found comfort in a simpler story. Rape in wartime was treated as the ugly spillover of chaos, what happens when discipline collapses, and civilization briefly steps aside. That explanation was easier to live with because it implied disorder rather than design.

The record tells a different story.

Bosnia did not stumble into rape camps. Rwanda did not see the mass sexual assault of Tutsi women because thousands of men happened to lose control at once. ISIS did not create an organized market in Yazidi women by mistake. 

In each case, sexual violence had a purpose. It humiliated, displaced, terrorized, and broke communities apart. It was aimed not only at bodies, but at memory, identity, and the bonds that hold people together.

International law eventually caught up. The tribunals in Arusha and The Hague recognized that rape can form part of genocide and crimes against humanity. The United Nations accepted that sexual violence can be used as a tactic of war. 

Those conclusions did not come from theory. They came from survivor testimony, forensic evidence, and a pattern too repeated to dismiss.

My own encounters with this subject were unsettling.

During the years I spent moving within circles connected to the Islamic Republic of Iran, I heard conversations that revealed a colder understanding of power. Violence was not discussed only in terms of casualties or territory. It was discussed in terms of its ability to reshape societies from within. The thinking was psychological before it was military.

The logic was brutally efficient.

Break enough trust, and communities begin to fracture.

Inflict enough shame, and victims stop speaking.

Leave people carrying invisible wounds, and they become easier to intimidate than populations held together by confidence and solidarity.

No one needed to spell out an operational plan for the intention to be clear. Trauma itself was being treated as a weapon.

This is difficult for liberal democracies to grasp because our instincts are legalistic and material. 

We count missiles, budgets, battalions, and border crossings. We measure strength in steel and fire. Authoritarian movements often measure something else: fear, humiliation, dependency, and silence.

In that calculation, the body becomes a means rather than an end.

That is why societies emerging from systematic sexual violence often look haunted in ways outsiders struggle to understand. Bridges can be rebuilt. Elections can be held. Currency can be stabilized. But families stay fractured, children inherit unspoken grief, and communities continue carrying burdens that no peace agreement can simply lift away.

Trauma has a long memory.

It settles into ordinary life. It changes what is said at the dinner table, who is trusted, and which truths are left in the dark.

The campaign against the Yazidis remains one of the clearest modern examples. ISIS did not merely permit sexual slavery. It cataloged it, regulated it, and wrapped it in ideology. Bureaucracy and barbarism moved together.

Political (in)convenience 

The same lens should be used when examining the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.

The United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict later concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence had occurred during the attacks and against hostages. 

The real issue is no longer whether these crimes took place. It is why so many institutions hesitated for so long before saying so, and what that hesitation reveals about our willingness to confront atrocity when it is politically inconvenient.

How does a movement reach the point where such conduct becomes thinkable?

Extreme acts rarely appear in isolation. They grow in environments where dehumanization becomes routine, and violence is praised rather than restrained. Over time, ideological conditioning can wear down moral boundaries until what once seemed unthinkable starts to look permissible.

That is not the same as collective guilt. Entire populations cannot be reduced to the crimes of armed factions. People retain agency, even under tyranny. But ideology is never irrelevant. Systems that reward hatred and sanctify brutality shape the moral climate in which choices are made.

The uncomfortable truth may be our own inconsistency.

The democratic world often responds to sexual violence with clarity until politics gets in the way. Then certainty wavers. Some victims are believed at once. Others are treated as though their suffering must pass an ideological test before it counts.

The crime is the same. Only the story around it changes.

That selectivity is itself a moral failure.

Perpetrators depend on silence, hesitation, embarrassment, and denial. They count on civilized societies finding the subject too ugly to face directly. They rely on journalists, diplomats, and academics deciding that certain facts are better left alone.

We should disappoint them.

The strategic use of sexual violence deserves the same seriousness we give to cyber warfare, economic coercion, or information operations. It is designed to do what bombs often cannot: corrode a society from the inside until trust collapses under the weight of fear and shame.

There is another reason to confront this subject plainly.

When rape in conflict is reduced to isolated criminality, we miss the architecture behind the atrocity. We miss the real target. Too often it is not the individual alone, but the family that breaks afterwards, the community that falls silent, and the next generation that inherits trauma without fully understanding where it came from.

Civilization likes to imagine that its greatest achievements are monuments, constitutions, or scientific breakthroughs.

I suspect they are simpler than that.

The refusal to turn another human being into an instrument.

The insistence that dignity survives ideology.

And the stubborn belief that some acts are so corrosive to our shared humanity that they must be exposed, prosecuted, remembered, and never explained away as the unfortunate mechanics of war.

The writer is the chief policy adviser of Stop The Hate UK.

They can’t say they weren’t warned.

Jewish groups are giving a heads-up to Somerville officials that they will certainly be sued if the city’s proposed “Israel boycott” law passes.

The Anti-Defamation League and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on Thursday urged city officials to reject the controversial ordinance.

The groups, writing on behalf of Somerville Jewish residents, argue that the law is unconstitutional and would expose the city to significant legal and financial risks.

“The Ordinance is flagrantly unconstitutional and would adversely affect many companies that supply products to Somerville,” lawyers for the Jewish groups wrote to Somerville officials. “Moreover, the Ordinance is an invitation to costly and unnecessary litigation that will distract City leadership from the important local responsibilities they were elected to address.

‘Reject this ordinance!’

“We urge the Council and City to reject the Ordinance,” the attorneys added. “Should the Ordinance be enacted in its current form, our clients are prepared to pursue all available legal remedies to prevent its enforcement.”

The proposed “Ethical Procurement Ordinance” was before the Somerville City Council last week and was referred to the Legislative Matters Committee for a recommendation.

Last year, 55% of voters in the Somerville municipal election voted “yes” to instruct the city to “end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies as long as such companies engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.”

The City Council then passed a resolution to follow through on that vote, leading to this proposed ordinance.

The ordinance reads, “The city may not procure, contract for, hire, or retain labor or services performed, or goods produced, by an entity whose contracts, services, or operations… provide material support to, or derive revenue from material support provided to entities engaged in conduct recognized under international law to constitute apartheid, genocide, unlawful military occupation, or conduct recognized to constitute systematic violation of international humanitarian law, including without limitation in Israel and Palestine.”

When it comes to investments, “The city may not purchase financial equities or bonds that constitute investment in entities whose contracts, services, or operations provide material support to, or derive revenue from material support provided to entities engaged in conduct recognized under international law to constitute apartheid, genocide, unlawful military occupation, or conduct recognized to constitute systematic violation of international humanitarian law, including without limitation in Israel and Palestine, so long as alternatives with equivalent or better financial prospects are available.”

The Jewish groups writing to city officials warn that the proposed ordinance would deepen community divisions, expose taxpayers to costly litigation, harm local businesses, and isolate Jewish and Israeli residents.

According to the organizations, Jewish families have reported intimidation, harassment, vandalism, and exclusion, and some have felt compelled to leave the city because of the hostility they experienced.

ADL recorded a total of 279 antisemitic incidents in Massachusetts last year, including 39% related to Israel or Zionism.

“Passing this ordinance will not make Somerville Jews and Jews throughout Massachusetts – who are experiencing harassment, vandalism, and intimidation – safer or more welcome in the community,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of ADL. “BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) has never been about peace; it’s about casting Israel and the Jewish people as uniquely deserving of punishment. This is a moment for local leaders to stand with all their constituents, including their Jewish constituents.”

City council members support the ordinance

Somerville City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen is one of the councilors backing the ordinance.

“This is Somerville residents exercising their democratic voice about how their tax dollars are spent,” the councilor said in response to the warning letter. “I welcome all feedback, but will not be deterred by outside organizations, particularly ones with a well-documented record of conflating criticism of Israeli government policy with antisemitism, from listening to our own constituents.”

City Councilor Will Mbah added that it’s important to support the will of the voters.

“As an immigrant from Cameroon, I have witnessed how conflict, violence, and displacement can leave deep and lasting scars on families and communities,” he said. “Whether in Cameroon, Israel, Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, or elsewhere, I believe that every human life has equal dignity and worth. My support reflects a commitment to human rights, peaceful coexistence, and the principle that our actions as a city should be consistent with our values.”

A spokesperson for Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson said, “The Council has proposed an ethical procurement ordinance, and they will be discussing that as part of their ongoing process. My administration is honoring our previous commitment to make staff available for their deliberations on what is legal and practicable.”

Former US president Barack Obama warned that the US may be “worse off” than it was before the start of the war against Iran under the recently brokered Washington-Tehran Memorandum of Understanding, in an interview with NBC News on Friday.

“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military,” Obama told NBC. “It feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off.”

He added that he was happy to see the ceasefire in place and hopeful that it would hold. Still, he accused the current administration of enabling Iran’s nuclear development by pulling out of a previous Obama-era deal.

“Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons,” Obama emphasized. “This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity.”

Former energy secretary warns MoU may be ‘too generous’

Obama is not the first former White House official to criticise the deal, which was signed by US President Donald Trump in France on Thursday.

Former US energy secretary Dan Brouillette, who held the position from 2019 through 2021 under Trump’s first administration, warned that the agreement is “too generous” to the Islamic regime in Tehran, in a Friday interview with CNN.

Brouillette stated that he believes the US blockade on Iranian ports along the Strait of Hormuz, which aimed to block the regime from exporting Oil, was “very effective” in economically pressuring Tehran to negotiate.

He added, however, that the agreement is “a little too generous” when it comes to giving Iran “certain things up front,” like the ability to immediately restart the export of oil.

Brouillette said that the sale of oil could generate up to an estimated $60 billion a year for Iran, according to the CNN report.

US must ‘keep an eye’ on Iran’s funding of terror proxies

He shared his concerns regarding Iran using financial resources to fund proxy terrorist organizations that are “adversarial to their neighbors in the region, as well as to the United States.”

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on that,” Brouillette asserted. “If they return to funding proxies around the world again, I say all bets are off.”

Brouillette additionally told CNN that if he was responsible for negotiating the terms of the deal, he “would have done things a little differently.”

“I want to see more performance, if you will, before I would release sanctioned funds or create some new fund for the rebuilding of Iran,” he explained.

Despite his criticism of the agreement, he urged the people of Iran to remain optimistic about the future, stating that “part of being optimistic is that they’re going to have some of this infrastructure rebuilt, so they have an economic future.”

Unconditional (in Hebrew, Ha Bat, meaning The Daughter), shown in Israel on Keshet 12, just finished running on Apple TV+ (where it is available with English subtitles), and it’s a gripping thriller with strong psychological overtones.

I couldn’t wait to watch each episode, although, as so often happens, the ending didn’t quite live up to the promise of the opening episodes and the premise. 

The eight-episode series resonated so much because there is a mystery at the heart of it that everyone can relate to: How much do we really know the people closest to us?

It’s an especially strong question for parents whose children are growing up and growing away from them.

It tells the story of Orna (Liraz Chamami, who was in Bad Boy and Manayek), a woman whose 23-year-old daughter, Gali (newcomer Talia Lynne Ronn), has completed her IDF service in army intelligence. 

Orna’s husband Benny (Yossi Marshek) has been suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease for years, and Orna, who married and had Gali when she was very young, is an unassuming woman who is devoting herself to caring for her ailing husband.

She has long been looking forward to a two-week vacation in India with Gali, who has been traveling there since she finished her army service.

But the vacation turns nightmarish during a layover in Moscow on the way back, when security officers drag them separately into interrogation rooms and arrest Gali, saying they found drugs in her backpack, in a plot turn that echoes real cases.

Orna, with no money or connections, must figure out how to save her daughter in the middle of a bleak Russian winter, which makes for an effective contrast to the scenes set in the warm, colorful touristy India.

Unconditional turns into Orna’s hero’s journey, but what makes it interesting is that there is much about Gali that her mother never knew.

It turns out that Gali has been traveling with Eastern European men’s passports hidden in a stuffed toy deer, and that there are photos of these men with Gali from her army service.

What’s going on? Is Gali the victim of these men, or is she involved in some kind of highly illegal operation, and perhaps even one of its ringleaders, as some suggest?

The series is at its best when all these questions are completely open, and we are as much in the dark as Orna.

It also brings up real issues that so many parents face here when their children serving in army intelligence units are suddenly privy to state secrets that they are absolutely forbidden to talk about. It’s a fascinating situation, rich with dramatic potential, that the series explores masterfully.

Toward the end, though, when a Russian oligarch (Vladimir Friedman) gets involved, it begins to fall apart.

While I loved the idea of Orna becoming tough, assertive, and shrewd, there are scenes where she is able to fight off aggressors with implausible ease, and the plausibility of the premise was a big part of what made this series so great.

The series co-creators are two of the biggest names in the Israeli television industry: Adam Bizanski (Magpie) and Dana Idisis (On the Spectrum), and Bizanski wrote it. The series was directed by Jonathan Gurfinkel, who made the gritty teen movie Sex Acts.

It seemed as if the creators could not decide how they felt about Gali, or how they wanted the audience to feel.

That she has acted in ways that have put her mother in danger is undeniable, but it was hard to say whether she was simply a sociopath to be condemned, or a troubled young woman pushed by circumstances into something she couldn’t quite handle. The final scenes in particular were frustratingly ambiguous.

The two leads give superb performances, though. In her debut, Talia Lynne Ronn does not seem to be acting at all.

She seems like any young woman you might see on the street, which is what makes her transformation into a criminal all the more chilling.

But the series really belongs to Liraz Chamami, an actress who has been good in so many roles, but here gets the complex starring part she has long deserved. A good supporting cast includes Evgenia Dudina, Amir Haddad, and Leib Levin.

New documentary releases on Israel’s premier women’s magazine

Women’s magazines are pretty much the same all over the world, providing tips on beauty routines, relationships, and household chores. However, Israel’s premier women’s magazine, LAISHA, the only women’s publication that still has a print edition, is a bit different.

The history of the magazine, which began publishing a year before the establishment of the state, is the subject of an engaging new documentary, LAISHA – The Story of a Women’s Magazine, directed by Anna Somershaf, which can be seen on Hot 8, Hot VOD, and Next TV, and which was recently shown at Docaviv.

Former editors and historians discuss this still-evolving magazine, which began as a supplement to Yediot Aharonot in 1947.

It became popular from its first issue and soon became a standalone magazine, selling over 4,000 issues and reaching a peak readership of 800,000.

But that last statistic is a little misleading, because many women read it in hair salons, doctors’ offices, and other public places, so it actually has a larger readership than the numbers indicate.

Since its inception, many have criticized it for not being serious enough. One former editor recalled: “People would always say to me, ‘Oh, I read it at the hairdresser’s.’ Lots of people would say things like that. But they read it.”

Its covers originally featured working women and soldiers, later focusing more on models and celebrities, and the documentary shows how it has always offered an interesting mix of articles that women want to read.

There have sometimes been conflicts among its editors, publishers, and writers over how much to cover serious issues and how much to focus on celebrities, gossip, and skin care.

Until fairly recently, the main editors were men, and at one point, the magazine featured nude photos which were intended more for readers’ husbands and boyfriends. It also featured a much-watched beauty contest for decades.

But it has mixed all of this with serious takes on what is important to Israeli women, and featured a heartbreaking condemnation of government policy by Raya Harnick.

Harnick was a mother whose son was killed in the First Lebanon War, who felt that his death was in vain and that the terrorists would soon return to attack Israel from southern Lebanon.

Sadly, it’s an article that could have been written yesterday. The magazine has also covered abortion, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape.

Its current cover exemplifies the mix of issues it covers, featuring former hostage Elkana Bohbot and his beautiful wife, Rivka, who worked tirelessly to keep his plight in the headlines and who is now pregnant with their second child.

Daniel Craig finishes James Bond tenure

Turning to movies about men, Daniel Craig’s reign as superspy James Bond has come to an end, although his successor has not been announced yet.

You can now see all of his 007 films on Netflix: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and the unfortunately named No Time to Die (2021), which was delayed and eventually released during the COVID pandemic.

Craig, who has had a distinguished career as a serious actor alongside the franchise, makes for a convincing Bond, but he never seems to be having much fun, which would seem to be one of the main requirements for the role.

With each movie, he has become more glum, as if the missions and the women were interfering with the time he had planned to spend brooding.

The best of this batch of Bond movies is Casino Royale, which features a nice supporting turn by Eva Green.

We will have to wait and see who gets cast as the next Bond and how the character will develop. Bond may seem to be an anachronism in this era, but audiences still crave the escapist fun these spy flicks provide.

US intelligence agencies have warned the White House that continued Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon may undermine the Trump administration’s recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, according to a report in The Washington Post on Friday.

The report was published shortly after it was announced that Israel and Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah had reached a ceasefire agreement. 

IDF spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin clarified on Friday afternoon that the military will continue to remove immediate threats to Israel’s national security and respond to any Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

Current and former US officials claimed to The Washington Post that intelligence reports indicate that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders continued operations against Hezbollah, it may negatively impact the success of the fragile US-Iran agreement.

One US official familiar with the reports alleged that Netanyahu’s political future in upcoming elections is tied to proving that he is intent on continuing Israel’s efforts to defeat Hezbollah.

The reports, The Washington Post stated, reflect the possibility that the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon or suspension of operations against Hezbollah will be seen as a defeat for Netanyahu.

Israeli perception that US-Iran deal prevents defense against Hezbollah

According to another official, the reports detail Israel’s perception that the MoU may prevent it from defending itself against threats originating in Lebanon and undermine its goal of maintaining pressure on the Islamic regime in Iran, which has maintained Hezbollah as a terrorist proxy in the region.

An Israeli official, speaking to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, stated that “Israeli military activity in Lebanon is for the sole purpose of defending Israeli citizens from continuous attacks by Hezbollah.”

One US official extrapolated that even if Israel does not escalate operations against Hezbollah, its sustained military presence in Lebanon may be enough to derail the deal.

“Continuing to occupy part of Lebanon is a recipe for disaster,” the official told The Washington Post, adding that without the IDF fully withdrawing, the resumption of hostilities “is all but certain.”

Trump administration officials have reportedly insisted that the terms of the deal do not prevent Israel from responding to ceasefire breaches and that Israeli concerns are less significant than the need to maintain a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. 

The Rocky Hill man accused of threatening a Jewish state senator and other Democratic state lawmakers last fall filed an application for a court diversionary program that could eventually lead to the charges being dismissed.

Robert Pabich, 44, on Tuesday filed an application for accelerated rehabilitation, a diversionary program for first-time offenders that could lead to a dismissal of the charges against him. The application will be transferred to adult probation to determine eligibility, and the next court date is Aug. 13 at the state Superior Court in New Britain, according to court records.

Pabich was arrested Oct. 24 by Rocky Hill police and charged with second-degree intimidation based on bigotry and bias and electronic stalking.

“Take note of this picture. Every one of these pieces of trash needs bullets shot directly into their faces,” Pabich is accused of commenting on a social media page of state Sen. Matt Lesser’s, according to the police report. “Just like they did to Charlie Kirk.“

“Perfect example of why the Tree of Life Synagogue deserved to be fumigated. If anything, we should clean house over (redacted) as well and purge more of these Jewish communists out of our country,” Pabich allegedly went on to write in the Oct. 18 post from Democratic lawmakers who attended the “No Kings” rally at the state Capitol on Oct. 18, 2025.

Lesser has been targeted and subject to antisemitic remarks

Lesser, who is Jewish, told police he has been targeted by Pabich since 2022 and was the subject of many antisemitic remarks.

Rocky Hill police removed four firearms and more than 1,700 rounds of ammunition from his Rocky Hill house after obtaining an “extreme risk warrant,” according to Rocky Hill police.

Lesser has served in the General Assembly since 2009, first in the House of Representatives and in the Senate since 2019. He represents the 9th State Senate District, which includes Cromwell, Newington, Rocky Hill, and parts of Middletown and Wethersfield.

Lesser declined to comment.

Poland’s president has decided to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of the country’s top honor after the Ukrainian president caused outrage by renaming an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), nationalists who massacred Poles in World War Two.

President Karol Nawrocki’s decision was likely to unleash a severe diplomatic crisis between the neighbors just days ahead of a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk.

“In light of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s consent to name one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Heroes of the UPA,”… I have decided to revoke the Order of the White Eagle from the President of Ukraine,” Nawrocki said in a statement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Friday that Poland’s decision to strip the award was a mistake.

Decision to revoke honor a ‘mistake’ – Ukrainian FM

“The decision to strip the president of Ukraine of the Order of the White Eagle is a strategic error by the president of Poland that only benefits Moscow,” he wrote on Facebook.

Some Ukrainians regard the UPA as heroes for the resistance they mounted against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and as symbols of Kyiv’s struggle for independence from Moscow.

But the UPA was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Poland says around 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in reprisal killings.

The Health Ministry is monitoring a suspected case of the Ebola virus in Israel after a traveler began showing early symptoms of infection, the ministry announced in a statement released on Friday. 

The potentially infected individual, who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo three days ago, sought medical treatment after developing a fever and headache, common initial symptoms of the virus. 

The ministry has transferred the individual to Rambam Health Care Campus, which has been designated as the medical center for such cases, and the individual is in isolation in accordance with standard protocols. 

The ministry stressed that the findings are still only a matter of suspicion, that tests are being conducted with results expected within the next 24 hours, and that an epidemiological investigation is underway to trace contacts.

The statement reiterated that the ministry has been continuously monitoring the virus in the DRC and Uganda and is fully prepared for situations like this. “As part of the preparedness, professional guidelines have been distributed to medical teams and relevant hospitals to handle suspected cases,” the statement said.

The Ministry of Health reiterates travel warnings to ‘active Ebola areas’

“Additionally, protective equipment and specialized gear have been fully supplied, early detection mechanisms for travelers returning from affected areas have been established, and a laboratory detection system for Ebola infection has been set up,” the statement continued. 

The Health Ministry also reiterated travel warnings to the public, advising against non-essential travel to “areas with active Ebola outbreaks,” specifically the DRC and Congo, and if people do intend to travel to these areas, they recommend receiving a consultation at a travel clinic according to ministry guidelines, which could be found on their website. 

The ministry advised that for travelers returning from active Ebola areas, “who develop fever or unusual symptoms within 21 days of return, are requested to stay home, avoid contact with others, and contact the Ministry of Health’s Health Voice Call Center by phone at *5400.”

When contacting the call center, individuals must specify that they have traveled to an area affected by Ebola.   

How this impacts travelers and world events

With world events still underway, including the World Cup, travelers have expressed concern about getting infected. However, US infectious disease experts say the risk of infection is very low, and US hospitals and medical personnel are fully prepared. 

“We’re not going to be able to prevent 100% of infections, but we certainly are the most prepared that we have ever been,” said Dr. Gavin Harris, an expert in serious communicable diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, one of 11 US World Cup host cities.

To date, there are 933 confirmed cases and 245 confirmed deaths in the DRC, alongside 19 confirmed cases and two confirmed deaths in Uganda, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The ministry emphasized that, at this time, this case is only a suspicion; there is no cause for concern, and the ministry will provide updates to the public and medical teams as necessary.

Israeli mixed martial arts fighter Natan Levy wants to teach Jews how to fight antisemitism, but not with databases, reports, and legislation, in the manner of many organizations. Levy wants Jews to learn martial arts so that they can defend themselves and their families if they’re attacked.

After competing in the mixed martial arts (MMA) ring for almost a decade, Levy explained to The Jerusalem Post, his current goal is to help strengthen the Jewish people.

He seeks to prepare others for self-defense situations with his gym and programs with the Israeli and American militaries, but his chief priority is seminars for Jewish communities.

American Jews are a tiny proportion of the US population, just over 2%, but a significantly disproportionate amount of hate-motivated crimes targeted them. He experienced antisemitism himself, constantly being bombarded with death threats on social media.

He is also sad to admit that he is part of a sport that, he said, is antisemitic, with many fans or fighters embracing antisemitic ideologies and rhetoric.

Yet he refuses to see himself as a victim, and does not want that fate for other Diaspora Jews either. Levy bemoaned how ubiquitous videos of antisemitic incidents have become, but in those videos in which there was violence, one rarely saw Jews defending themselves.

‘Wake-up call’ for antisemitism

“I think it’s a wake-up call, and that all Jews, or most of us, will finally wake up, train, and take ourselves, our physical training, seriously – whether it’s in fitness or martial arts, or even, if it’s in the United States, to carry a weapon – to protect yourself and your family,” said Levy. “It’s very simple. It’s the laws of nature. Once they see that we are not prey, they will stop coming to attack us.”

Beyond the ideologies that motivate antisemitic attacks, Levy sees antisemites as bullies, and they have to be dealt with as such. Far-right extremists and Islamists believe Jews to be the source of all their problems, and like a school bully transferring the abuse from a parent at home to peers at school, they are looking for an easy target. They don’t have the strength to address their actual issues, so they look for someone weak to attack so they can feel better about themselves.

“Unfortunately, we seem to be the easiest target, and that’s why they’re preying on us,” said Levy.

Fighting is a “last resort,” and if there is a choice to flee, it is always preferable, the fighter explained, as when one enters into combat one never knows if it could end with either party’s injury or death, or legal issues. Yet if one is cornered, Jews have to show the “bullies” that they are strong – strong enough to teach an assailant not to try Jews again.

Levy compared such engagements to the situation of Israel in the Middle East. There are those that have ideological and fanatical designs on Israel, but Israelis fight to survive, so they always “fight to the end.”

“Whoever fights not to survive, he does not fight to the end; he will fight until he is uncomfortable. The same goes for Israel and the Jews. You think that someone is big and scary, but he will only fight until he is uncomfortable,” said Levy.

“Once you’re strong and know how to defend yourself and have the confidence, you’ll stand differently; you’ll look different. Then you usually won’t have to defend yourself, and people will look at you and say, ‘I’ll find an easier target. It doesn’t look like a victim. I’ll go find someone else to beat up.’ Of course, if there is no choice, then you have to fight,” said Levy.

He also said that “as soon as you make him [an antisemitic attacker] uncomfortable and he realizes that it was a bad decision to start this story, he will stop.

“We must always fight to the end. Because if we stop fighting, we will die, so we have no choice. Always fight to the end; never move an inch back. Always stand proud and strong and show them that you can love us or you can hate us, but you will respect us.”

Levy said that learning martial arts would give Jews the confidence to walk city streets. True self-confidence comes from realism, he argued, and has to be earned. Martial arts had changed his life since he was young, giving him the confidence that he lacked when he struggled with schooling or grappled with standard teenage challenges.

MMA fighter Levy trains Jews in self-defense to fight antisemitism

“Once I dedicated myself completely to this sport, I saw how my life changed for the better, and how I achieved my goals in martial arts, through hard work and through discipline. It basically taught me that I can achieve other goals, whether in business or anything,” said Levy.

Many told Levy that beginning his training at 15 was late for someone with aspirations of being an athlete, but he redoubled his efforts, training every day. He flew to the US to become a fighter, earning his way into the Ultimate Fighting Championship. After investing in himself, he proved the naysayers wrong.

During this period he trained others to support himself, but now he wants to return to teaching with the knowledge and experience he has gathered over the years.

Levy doesn’t expect everyone to become a professional MMA fighter, a difficult life that he wouldn’t recommend for everyone, but he does believe that everyone should know how to defend themselves.

“I’ve always wanted to help teenagers, teach them, and for them to go through what I went through,” said Levy.

For the last two years in Las Vegas, he trained a group from the Jewish and Israeli community twice a week. The goal was to be able “to be hands-on with the youth and really teach them high-level martial arts.”

He couldn’t travel every week to other places such as New York, but when he could, he organized seminars. Usually, communities invite him, and he works with the youth or older community members for several hours, depending on their degree of experience.

Levy also helps train those tasked with defending the US and Israel. He shared that he has an upcoming trip to Israel to train for the IDF and Defense Ministry, for situations in which they are guarding or arresting terrorists. The MMA fighter has worked mainly with Krav Maga instructors, but has also collaborated with the Yamas Border Police special unit and the Yahalom special operations Combat Engineering unit. Levy didn’t visit Israel often, but when he did, he ensured that he passed on the skills he had learned over years of training.

Recently, Levy also gave seminars for the US Army at a base in Irvine, California. He and other MMA fighters trained with the soldiers, guiding sparring matches. Levy said that he was the youngest of the MMA fighters and learned much from them as well. It was the first time Levy had been involved in the project, but called it a “great honor” and a “joy” to work with the US soldiers.

Yet first and foremost is his desire to help the Jewish Diaspora. Levy advises all Diaspora Jews to begin training in martial arts.

The easiest and safest type of martial art to learn is Krav Maga. While Levy also recommends Muay Thai and Brazilian jujitsu, it depends on the trainer.

He has heard from many seeking advice from him that they encountered gyms where there was a Palestinian flag on display, or they had pro-Palestinian trainers or sparring partners who would try to seriously harm Jewish participants during training.

“This is something that is painful and disappointing to the highest degree, because in the end, martial arts and sports are supposed to bring people together,” said Levy.

At his gym, he said, politics are left at the entrance, and he receives Muslim or Palestinian trainees with open arms. It is unfortunate that, in the sport that he loves, when the opposing side had power, they took a different approach. Many have turned to Levy instead, asking him for advice online.

Levy said that Jewish communities should reach out to him, and they could develop programs together. The fact that so many have been appealing to him about training with their Jewish communities makes Levy feel as if he is creating a positive movement for people to grow stronger. People are motivated to train, even if it isn’t with him, and grow strong enough to defend themselves.

“This is something that makes me super proud and [makes it] worth all the hate and all the threats. I continue to advertise [for Jews to get stronger] despite the hate I get in my sport, and if I miss opportunities and there aren’t sponsors, and I get fewer fights and all that stuff, I don’t care,” said Levy. “What motivates me now is to strengthen the Jewish people.”

Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations on Friday when Israel’s ambassador and the US secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing.

At a meeting in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, demanded the resignation of Pramila Patten, who produced a report that blacklisted Israel for such alleged abuses for the first time, accusing her of bias.

“You caved to the secretary-general’s obsession with targeting Israel,” Danon said, referring to US chief Antonio Guterres.

Another US official, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres’ representative for children and armed conflict and compiler of a separate report that also blacklists Israel, interjected by shouting a point of order. She demanded that Danon refrain from “personal attacks” and added that she had “verified evidence.”

Danon said Frazier should be quiet.

“We are a member state, and you work for the US, and you will be quiet now. You will be quiet … you and your shameful report,” he said.

UN demonstrates ‘new low’ in reports condemning Israel, Danon says

Frazier, Malta’s former US ambassador, issued her report this week on behalf of Guterres, warning that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for violations against children as the US chief voiced alarm at what he called a “staggering” rise in violations against Palestinians.

Israel itself already features in that report’s so-called list of shame annexes for alleged violations.

When Patten’s report was issued last month, Danon called it “a new low,” and Israel’s foreign ministry vowed to sever all ties with Guterres, who leaves office after 10 years at the year-end.

Both reports also blacklist Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, which was responsible for the October 7 massacre against Israel.

When the privately funded Civil Commission on the Oct. 7 crimes against women, men, and children released its landmark report on May 12, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy felt something she had not experienced in a very long time: a deep sense of relief. 

The report – Silenced No More: Sexual terror unveiled: the untold atrocities of October 7 and against hostages in captivity – was finally out, and Elkayam-Levy noted that it has received fair and accurate coverage in hundreds of news outlets, including the BBC, the UK’s Daily Mail, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN, and The New York Times.

Elkayam-Levy, the commission’s principal author, accepted responsibility for work so heartbreaking and disturbing – documenting crimes of extraordinary cruelty – that many on her team simply could not continue. For two and a half years, she sat with the evidence as well as with survivors, and reviewed testimony about the sexual crimes committed by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and thereafter.

“One of the most important takeaways is the before-and-after reality of the report,” noted Danae Marx-Callaf, director of international communications and one of the four co-founders of the Civil Commission. “Our report shifts the conversation from ‘whether it happened’ to ‘what are the consequences.’

“Another important thing is recognition of the victims. The report will go around the world to different policy makers and not remain just the knowledge of a few in the world,” Marx-Callaf added.

The comprehensive 298-page document details the sexual terror committed on and after Oct. 7, which the Civil Commission concluded was central to Hamas’s war strategy. 

An expert in international law, human rights, and feminist legal theory, Elkayam-Levy serves as a Sophie Davis Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a 2024 Israel Prize laureate for her tireless work on the report. For years, she taught and wrote about war crimes, gender-based violence, and the responsibility of legal systems to protect the vulnerable and pursue justice.

But she never imagined that other highly committed women’s advocates from other nations – the same people with whom she spent a career teaching and working – would abandon her after Oct. 7.

In the days following the massacre, while Israel was still counting its dead, and families were searching for missing loved ones, Elkayam-Levy traveled to New York to address the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. There, she reported on the sexual atrocities that were being retrieved from both Hamas’s and the victims’ phones, from survivors’ testimonies, and the accounts of those charged with the holy task of identifying the mangled corpses.

She arrived in New York expecting that evidence of the atrocities committed against women would command urgent international attention. Instead, she found herself surrounded by the UN Committee’s apathy and hatred, as dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas activists came out to accuse Israel of genocide. The experience left a profound impression.

“I remember feeling devastated,” Elkayam-Levy told the Magazine in an interview at the commission’s office in Modi’in.

The silence was deafening

For a scholar of international law and human rights, that moment became a turning point. “The silence was deafening,” she said.

“I remember thinking we had to establish an organization. If the crimes were not being investigated, documented, and preserved with the urgency they demanded, we in Israel would have to do it ourselves,” she continued. 

At first, the goal was simply to preserve the evidence before it disappeared. The terrorists’ horrific photographs and videos of sexual violence and torture were going viral through email, WhatsApp, and social media platforms.

“Hamas itself had uploaded and distributed large quantities of material to cause as much psychological damage as possible. We knew we had to preserve those images before they vanished,” Elkayam-Levy added. 

What began as an emergency response soon evolved into the Civil Commission, an NGO established as an independent civilian initiative, separate from government institutions. The purpose was not only to investigate the crimes but to do so according to the highest international legal and evidentiary standards, ensuring that the findings could withstand scrutiny in courts, tribunals, academic research, and historical inquiry.

For Elkayam-Levy, the goal was to place a meticulously documented historical record before the world – a wake-up call not only to governments and legal institutions, but to humanity itself. The report, for instance, highlights an account from Raz Cohen, a Supernova music festival survivor: “The men pulled a woman from the vehicle… forcibly removed her clothing, and raped her… They repeatedly stabbed her, killing her… they continued to rape her after her death.”

Said Elkayam-Levy: “I never imagined something like this would happen here in Israel. For hours, terrorists moved freely through communities in southern Israel, murdering families in their homes, burning houses, taking hostages, raping them, and broadcasting much of it live. 

“The attacks shattered more than Israel’s border defenses. They shattered a basic sense of security. One of the things we lost from the outset was our sense of safety. It felt like it could happen to any of us. Even today, that sense of vulnerability lingers,” Elkayam-Levy said. 

Recalling her 51 days in Hamas captivity, Agam Goldstein, who was 17 when she was abducted, is quoted in the report, saying: “It’s these little things that break you… when you have no control over your body and no control over how to take care of your body.”

A family burden

Elkayam-Levy is the mother of four children. Her youngest son was two-and-a-half years old when she co-founded the commission. Each day, she moved between two worlds. One was filled with evidence of cruelty, degradation, and suffering. The other was filled with children, homework, family dinners, and ordinary life.

“My children were the reason I did this,” she said. “They were what kept me sane.” Time with family became a form of emotional recovery. At the same time, she worried constantly about what she was missing. “I wasn’t there enough. They needed me,” she said wistfully.

Elkayam-Levy worried about what her family was also sacrificing. While she immersed herself in evidence, interviews, and the daily demands of the investigation, her husband carried most of the burden of raising their four children. “He understood and supported me. But it was a lot.” 

When Elkayam-Levy was awarded the Israel Prize in the newly created category of Arvut Hadadit (Mutual Responsibility) in 2024, the honor was deeply meaningful, she said, but not primarily for professional reasons. Her older children suddenly saw the work through the eyes of the nation, after years of watching their mother disappear into a mission they were too young to fully understand. 

 “They take pride in it now. The recognition helped them understand why I had been absent so often, why the work mattered, and why I had felt compelled to continue despite its enormous toll emotionally and on family life,” she added. 

Never the work of one person

The establishment of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women, Children, and Families grew organically out of the independent, non-governmental Dvora Research Institute, which Elkayam-Levy established in 2021. Recognized as a prominent legal scholar, human rights expert, and active in the Israeli women’s protests against the judiciary overhaul, she quickly brought together a team of professionals and colleagues. 

The Civil Council tapped legal experts, trauma specialists, archivists, researchers, and volunteers. It was headed by a board of high-level international advisers, including the Hon. Irwin Cotler, a former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada, and Sheryl Sandberg, the American technology executive and Lean In Foundation founder. According to a commission spokesperson, Sandberg provided steadfast support, mentorship, and moral leadership from the earliest days. 

“Very few people agreed to bear witness to these crimes,” explained Marx-Callaf, the communications director. “The exposure to this violent material is one of our biggest challenges, and the fact that [the authenticity of] these crimes were questioned even by prominent figures kept us motivated to do this work, despite the difficulties. We wanted to ensure that the world knows what happened and the victims receive the dignity they deserve.”

Among the key figures was Karen Jungblut, director of archives, whose task was both technical and deeply human, Elkayam-Levy said. “Before evidence could become part of a legal record, someone had to view it, authenticate it, classify it, preserve it, and ensure it would remain accessible to future investigators, prosecutors, and historians. That responsibility fell to Jungblut.

“She was among the first people to confront much of the material that would eventually form the backbone of the commission’s findings: evidence of murder, torture, humiliation, sexual violence, rape, and gang rape in the aftermath of the attacks. The scope of that effort was staggering.”

By the time the report was completed, the commission had reviewed more than 10,000 photographs and video segments representing approximately 18,000 minutes of footage, and conducted 430 in-depth interviews with survivors, former hostages, eyewitnesses, first responders, medical professionals, bereaved families, and others connected to the events of Oct. 7 and its aftermath.

Her task was not only to see it, but to create order from chaos – to transform scattered fragments of evidence into a permanent historical archive. Without such documentation, much of the evidence might have disappeared into deleted accounts, broken phones, fading memories, and the endless churn of social media. Instead, it became part of a carefully preserved historical record, Elkayam-Levy explained. 

What emerged from a collection of seemingly isolated incidents were patterns that the Civil Commission studied to better understand the broader picture.

The report found recurring patterns of sexual violence, torture, humiliation, and degradation across multiple locations, leading investigators to conclude that these crimes reflected a wider operational method rather than the actions of a few individuals acting alone.

Social media as psychological warfare

One of the report’s most consequential findings concerns the role of social media itself. The videos, photographs, and live streams were not incidental byproducts of the attacks. According to the commission’s findings, they were part of the strategy.

“The terrorists were trained, instructed, and encouraged to maximize pain and suffering,” Elkayam-Levy said. “Many of these acts were documented by the perpetrators themselves and uploaded onto social media and other digital platforms.”

For investigators, this became one of the clearest indications that psychological warfare was not incidental to the attacks but part of the strategy itself. Among the videos captured were acts of extreme cruelty, helplessness, torture, degradation, and humiliation. Family members were often forced into impossible situations, compelled to witness the suffering of loved ones or participate in unspeakable acts intended to shatter personal dignity and destroy the sanctity of family bonds.

“They leveraged social media and digital platforms to maximize the terrorization,” the report concludes.

An evolution of modern terrorism

Hamas made families bear witness, prompting the commission to come up with new terminology to describe a type of deliberate, widespread use of violence to impact an entire family.

Family members often learned what had happened to loved ones through videos circulating online before any official notification arrived. The report found that the violence was designed to harm the victims, traumatize families, communities, and the wider public through deliberate acts of forced witnessing.

“The videos created so much suffering for people who were not physically there,” Elkayam-Levy said, adding that the tactic represents an evolution in modern terrorism. The violence did not end at the crime scene. The phone became part of the weapon, and the screen an extension of the battlefield, intended to target family and loved ones by amplifying their trauma. 

The report points to a troubling gap between the speed with which terrorist organizations exploit digital platforms and the ability of societies, legal systems, and the world’s leading technology platforms to respond.

Elkayam-Levy noted that she is deeply troubled that the phone usage in warfare now serves another purpose. “I have no doubt that these videos serve as inspiration for other terrorist groups around the world.”

A civil commission led by women

The Civil Commission team was made up largely of women, many of whom had spent years working in the fields of human rights, sexual violence, and victim advocacy. At the center of that effort was adv. Merav Israeli-Amarant, the commission’s CEO. “She’s my ‘partner in justice,’” Elkayam-Levy said.

Noted Israeli-Amarant: “To produce this report, our team spent months immersed in some of the most painful evidence imaginable.

“This is deeply lonely work, because so few people are willing to look at these materials, or even hear about them,” she added. “We understood from the outset that it would come at a personal cost. With the guidance and support of trauma experts, we carried not only a responsibility to the victims and survivors, but also to one another. 

“The solidarity within the team was not simply a source of strength; it was a form of protection. In order to bear witness to such profound suffering, we had to ensure that no one carried that burden alone.”

The report includes evidence and pictures documenting a range of sexual atrocities, including the burning of genital areas, the insertion of foreign objects into genital areas, sexual torture, and sexual humiliation. These materials contributed to the identification and mapping of the 13 categories of sexual violence documented in the report. Throughout the process, extensive measures were taken to protect the privacy, dignity, and identities of victims and survivors whenever possible.

The hardest testimonies

For all the evidence collected by the commission, nothing prepared investigators for the conversations they would have with former hostages. People often assume the hardest part of the work was watching the videos.

Elkayam-Levy disagreed. “The hardest conversations were with families, the bereaved, the first responders, the search-and-rescue teams, and the doctors and nurses who treated survivors and returning hostages.

And, most difficult of all, the former hostages. The investigators found themselves confronting experiences that seemed to resist language. 

“There aren’t enough words,” she said. “We don’t have enough legal definitions.”

From the outset, the commission partnered with the Israel Trauma Coalition to provide professional support for Civil Commission staff and volunteers exposed to profoundly disturbing material. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of the UJA-Federation of New York, the Israel Trauma Coalition is an NGO that serves as a cornerstone of trauma treatment in Israel.

“We realized from the beginning that we needed emotional support,” Elkayam-Levy said.

As the project evolved, the commission began establishing new criteria for those joining the effort. Professional experience became increasingly important, not only because of the complexity of the work, but because of the emotional demands it imposed.

“We understood that you needed people with significant professional experience,” Elkayam-Levy said. “People with young children were often especially affected.”

As a mother herself, Elkayam-Levy understood the challenge. After long days immersed in testimony, evidence, and legal analysis, she would leave the office and return to her family. Simply holding her toddler-age son became a source of comfort.” My children kept me sane,” she said. Time spent with them reminded her of what she was fighting for. 

The commission’s report records testimony from former hostages who described reaching a point where they no longer wanted to live. Yet something kept them going. Some say it was important to go back to their families and survive for their families. Others drew strength from faith, or the deep spiritual experiences in captivity that kept them alive, and fighting for their lives.”

Listening to former hostages speak about survival, Elkayam-Levy found herself thinking about other survivor narratives she had encountered throughout her career. “It sounds similar to the testimonies of Holocaust survivors,” she said. “In the most difficult reality, they wanted to keep their humanity. Their victory would be to establish a family, to continue with their lives, to show they survived for their family and for future generations.”

Yet even as she spoke about resilience, Elkayam-Levy was careful not to romanticize survival. The report makes clear that many victims, witnesses, and former hostages continue to carry profound psychological wounds. Among the accounts that remain with Elkayam-Levy is that of a psychiatrist who stayed beside a newly released hostage for three days – without sleeping the entire time.

Between family and duty 

As the report neared completion, Elkayam-Levy found it increasingly difficult to set the work aside, even during the time she treasured for her family.

“The work often followed me home,” Elkayam-Levy recalled.

On one recent Shabbat, she caught herself thinking about the report’s final edits. “What if something happened to me before the report was finished?” she worried. The weight of the responsibility was enormous. 

The commission’s report would even follow her into her dreams. One night, after reviewing agonizing evidence of sexual violence inflicted upon a woman, whose name and story had become etched in her mind, Elkayam-Levy found herself wrestling with a question that had accompanied the commission from the beginning. How much should be shown? How much could be revealed while still protecting the dignity of the victim?

That night, the victim appeared to her in a dream and said: “Share it. People need to know.” 

Scrolling through her notes, she found a message she had written to herself: “In order to do this work, I had to believe that there is as much goodness in this world as there is evil.”

She paused. “The cruelty is real. But so is human courage. So is love. So is humanity. So is the goodness in people. Hold on to that. Especially now.”

Silenced No More, the Civil Commission Report on the Untold Atrocities of Oct. 7, can be viewed in its 16-page executive summary, and as a 298-page document, free to download from the Civil Commission’s website. www.civilc.org/silenced-no-more. 

The writer is a Haifa-based journalist and artist. 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday night accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of being “monsters” for spending “millions in dark money” to ensure pro-Israel candidates win seats in the November midterms.

Mamdani made his remarks at a rally headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at Kings Theater in Brooklyn ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primaries for progressive congressional candidates. He called on the crowd to help elect Jewish former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, State Assembly member Claire Valdez and former Columbia encampment organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier. 

In a fiery 30-minute speech, Mamdani took aim not just at AIPAC but also Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza. He claimed that “The monsters that we are up against, they take many different forms,” and then singled out AIPAC. 

He described the major pro-Israel lobby as an organization “for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”

Mamdani continued by alleging that AIPAC moves “millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.”

AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment about Mamdani’s remarks. 

AIPAC has come under pressure lately from both sides of the aisle

The lobby, whose endorsement was once heavily sought by politicians on both sides of the aisle, has increasingly come under fire for its campaign tactics. Pro-Israel Democrats are particularly struggling to hold onto seats as voters on the left increasingly turn against the Jewish state. 

Sanders, for his part, doubled down on criticism of AIPAC when he took the stage. “The American people understand that a large part of our horrific foreign policy is impacted by AIPAC funding,” he said.

Turning to the local races, Mamdani voiced support for Valdez for her opposition to Israel. “When other Democrats chose to look the other way as Netanyahu committed war crimes, Claire didn’t just name the genocide,” he said. “She organized for a ceasefire.”

In a change of tone, Mamdani emphasized unity, including an appeal to Jewish voters. 

“Whether you worship at shul, at a mosque, in a church, a gurdwara, a temple, or you don’t worship at all, we share a belief that our city deserves leaders who lead with hope and not fear,” the mayor said.

He added, “No matter where we live, how old we are, what train we take in the morning, or what bagel we order, we are New Yorkers and we want the same things,” including “a city that belongs to all of us.”

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem described Lebanon as entering a new phase, saying it was facing dangerous conspiracies and threats in a Friday speech.

In the speech, Qassem claimed that there is a coordinated campaign aimed at ending Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon.

“[Israel and the US] sought to close air, sea, and land crossings to prevent the arrival of weapons, technology, and anything else that would strengthen the Resistance,” he said.

“The scheme aimed to block reconstruction efforts so that people would remain displaced and homeless, and to turn the Resistance’s support base against the Resistance itself. They imposed a suffocating financial blockade to prevent us from addressing the situation or recovering,” he added.

Qassem also accused Israel and the US of reneging on the November 2024 ceasefire agreement due to Assad’s fall, claiming that they believed the balance of power in the region had shifted.

Israel hit Hezbollah hard in past day, ceasefire supposedly started Friday afternoon

The Hezbollah chief, who took over following Israel’s assassination of previous head Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine, asserted that Lebanon entered a “most dangerous phase” in his speech.

Still, Qassem rejected the idea that death can deter the terrorist group, stating that “[Hezbollah is] a group that does not fear death, and we are always victorious in confronting those who threaten us with death.”

“The massive losses are less than surrender and defeat. If we are capable of victory, why should we surrender?” he asked. 

The IDF has attacked over 100 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day, the military said in a statement Friday. Moreover, dozens of terrorists were said to have been killed.

Four IDF soldiers fell in battle Friday morning, the IDF announced, including commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon.

On Friday afternoon, a source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire starting at 4:00 p.m.

In spite of this, air-alert sirens were activated in Israel at around 4:50 p.m., and Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon were reported by local sources after the ceasefire’s intended start time as well.

The United States bears the responsibility to end the war “on all fronts, including Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday during a call with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. 

Araghchi added that the US would be held responsible for any violation of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US. 

According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ismail Baghai, the memorandum of understanding was signed digitally on Friday morning. 

Baghai claimed that the digital signing contributed to the cancellation of talks between the US and Iran scheduled in Switzerland, as the talks were intended to center on a signing ceremony that was no longer needed. 

However, a meeting is being planned “in the coming days,” Baghai said. 

Multiple mediators involved in the negotiations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, will meet in Cairo on Sunday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced. 

IAEA not invited to inspect facilities 

Baghaei also addressed and denied reports that Iran has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect nuclear facilities. 

While inspections of facilities such as Bushehr, which have been conducted in the past, will continue, facilities where inspections have been forbidden will remain closed to the IAEA pending further agreements, Baghaei said. 

For young Jerusalemites, mainly olim, the Shabbat kiddush experience is evolving from the in-shul “cholent and herring” of their grandfathers into an important social function.

The kiddush serves as an essential weekly “hub” for busy young professionals who are creatively finding post-synagogue, pre-lunch ways to see friends, have a nibble, drink a l’chaim, and maybe even learn a little Torah.

Max Koffler, who has been working in his start-up and serving in milium since completing college five years ago, acknowledged that “the kiddush [itself] is not something new at all.” He shared his observations on how it has changed for him over the years.

“From a young age, after shul, you kibbitz and schmooze at kiddush. In college, it becomes a kiddush at Hillel or people’s apartments or houses before lunch, and then in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, where there isn’t one centralized shul where everybody goes to all the time, it is a fun way to see your friends. And it is a little more distributed and dispersed than places like Tel Aviv. It is a great time to hang out.

“People are so busy during the week. You don’t necessarily have time to schmooze with all of your friends in one place. You get coffee here and there, but for five or 10 friends all at once who don’t necessarily live near each other, kiddush is a good chance to hang.

“It is at different apartments. I host sometimes; friends host sometimes. It is usually an open-house format for people to mingle. We usually have the [standard] kiddush nosh – cholent, deli roll, kugel, desserts and, of course, l’chaims.”

Interviews with young, mostly observant Jerusalemites reveal the important role “the kiddush” plays in their lives as single or young married 20- and 30-somethings.

Avi Levisohn, 28, a rabbinical student, and his wife, Judith, host a kiddush in their home every other Shabbat. “It is kind of an open secret – those who know, know – and you can bring a friend.” 

Their kiddush regularly includes a learning component. To date, the Levisohns have taught about the weekly haftarah, and are currently studying the biblical Book of Ruth with friends. 

They love the after-shul time slot for such kiddush get-togethers: “It is the best time to do anything social. People have been sitting in shul, they haven’t done anything yet and have lots of social energy,” he said. He also reported that it is a “very concentrated window.” 

“It is 45 minutes, everyone is free, and they can all come at the same time. Otherwise, you can’t corral people to come in such a short window,” he added.

Levisohn noted that they tried hosting what is traditionally known as seuda shlishit or shaleshudes (third Shabbat meal), the late-afternoon time between Mincha and Maariv. 

“People are tired after lunch,” he observed. Getting everyone there at the same time is unpredictable given the different times lunch ends, and some choose to take walks, naps, or see other friends.

Levisohn typically sends a WhatsApp to his friends every other week, reminding them of the Shabbat gathering. He and his wife prepare “cholent, some herring, or cookies,” and guests bring food as well. The couple co-lead the learning. Fifteen males and females attend on a given week. 

“It is a really easy way to see a lot of people without a lot of effort and commitment – both as a host and as a guest!” he said.

Shlomo Eli Schweitzer, 27, a Jerusalem resident who between his job in cybersecurity and his IDF reserve duty, “likes to volunteer with JLIC,” where he organizes the shul kiddush that takes place after prayer services each week.

JLIC, a program of the OU that typically serves students on college campuses in the US and Israel, as well as recent graduates and young professionals, hosts a minyan each week in Jerusalem. It mostly serves 20- and 30-somethings. Schweitzer referred to his JLIC group as “Jewish Life in the City.” 

Schweitzer proudly described the range of kiddushes held each week after services, including many that have themes: “We have done cholent and chicken fingers, and other times wine and cheese.”

He playfully described a recent kiddush in the park for nearly 100 people on the Shabbat after Shavuot. “It was the Shlomo Eli is Going to Heaven Kiddush!”

He explained that it was in honor of the third couple he set up for marriage – and the belief that you automatically have a “seat” in heaven after the third successful shidduch.

While post-shul JLIC kiddushes are slightly different in nature from “at home” kiddushes, they serve the same function. 

“It gives people the opportunity to spend time and be with friends – and you don’t have to rely on being invited,” Schweitzer said. He also found that people are a more captive audience after shul and would not likely attend in the afternoon if offered then. 

Popular kiddush foods

Popular kiddush foods include kugel and schnitzel, but he is particularly proud of a recent kiddush which consisted of poke bowls: “Competitions are also popular – people have made cookies or cakes, or challah and dips, chicken poppers [bite-sized breaded or battered chicken] or cheesecake – and people vote on which ones are the best!”

Miriam Blum is very involved with the Nadiv Minyan, a popular independent minyan for young adults in their 20s and 30s, that meets at the Ohel Nechama Synagogue. She reported that they attract 100-200 young people each week, including Anglos and young Israelis – many of them the children of English-speaking olim. 

Blum sets up the shul kiddush every week and reported, “I want it to be a social scene” when people arrive for kiddush.

While her minyan is “one popular hub” for young adults, Blum is pleased there are “different hubs and choices one can go to.” She noted that there are “other hubs” which host people in the “post-shul, pre-12:30, 1 p.m. lunch” slot. 

“Some host games and schmoozing. They help expand people’s circles. It is really cool!” she said.

For Jerusalemites, there is an increasing number of fun ways to meet nice people in and out of synagogue, build community, and enjoy tasty food – all before lunch is served – and with plenty of time to get in a nap on those long summer Shabbats. 

Chances are, your zaide wouldn’t recognize these kiddushes – but he would be very proud!

Yes, you can host a kiddush

A simple kiddush really is the perfect way to host without making the rest of your week toast (har har). Being in my 40s – unlike the creative youngsters interviewed – I’m busy enough to appreciate what a great outlet it could be.

Just how do I know this? Because my former neighbor and continued good friend Dena Dworin introduced me to the art, having me over numerous times at her casa for a pre-Shabbat lunch soiree with flair and ease.

Raised in Chicago, she’s lived in Jerusalem for 13 years – first in the super-social neighborhood of Katamon and now in the emerging hotspot of Rassco (on Katamon’s edges). Dena was kind enough to enlighten us on how to throw together a kiddush with a minimum of stress, using what you have in your kitchen, and perhaps a quick jaunt to the makolet.

“The beauty of a kiddush is you’re not as limited,” Dena shares. “You can invite more people and different social circles, and they can circulate freely.”

“If you have a special occasion, like moving into a new apartment, saying goodbye to an old one, welcoming a visiting guest, an aliyahversary or a yahrtzeit, a kiddush strikes the perfect balance,” she points out. And, if you’re cheekily trying to set up a potential couple, you can invite them to meet naturally!

Here are some of her tips for a fun and fancy-free gathering:

• People love bite-sized morsels like cookies and brownies. However, while Dena is an amazing baker (in fact, I am going to ask her for a chocolate chip mug cake after this interview), not everyone is. It’s totally acceptable to buy something sweet at Duvshanit or the supermarket.

• To contrast, it’s nice to have something healthy – vegetables with tehina or seasonal fruit.

• A must-have is coffee (and for those under the King’s banner, tea), so set up that urn and put out the Taster’s Choice. Being lactose intolerant, I ask: Is soy/oat milk a must? Jury is out, she says, so think about who’s coming.

• Round it out with something crunchy like Bamba, pretzels, or Doritos.

• Make sure to have a few drink options – wine/grape juice and soda/cola.

• In the summer, she stresses, A/C is a must.

• Keep the food self-contained – chips as opposed to pistachios with shells – for a minimum of mess.

• Get some pretty, disposable plates/napkins/cups, and you’re in business!

Unlike at a meal, when you’re bringing out multiple courses, Dena notes, once you put everything out, you’re all set. So get out there and enjoy your guests!

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire, an Israeli source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post. 

The ceasefire was set to begin at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, a senior US official told Reuters.

“Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said on background, adding that negotiators for the US and Qataris worked out the deal with help from Iran. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.”

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, an IDF spokesperson said the IDF will continue operating in Lebanon unless it receives different directives. 

Earlier on Friday, the United States relayed a message to Iran via mediators assuring that Israel will not continue its attacks against Hezbollah, according to a CNN report.

According to CNN’s sources, Israel will not continue attacking Hezbollah for the time being, with the 80 sites targeted during Thursday night and Friday morning being the full response to the recent Hezbollah attack that killed four IDF soldiers.

“Hezbollah violated the ceasefire. Israel has agreed to let it be, which was relayed to the Iranians, and it’s up to Hezbollah to stop,” the US sources told CNN.

Iran demanded guarantees that Israel would not attack Hezbollah before continuing the negotiations with the United States, which were scheduled to continue in Switzerland on Friday but were eventually canceled after the latest round of fighting in Lebanon.

The latest Hezbollah attack killed the commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, aged 32, along with three other soldiers whose names have not been revealed yet.

Netanyahu says IDF will exact ‘very heavy price’ from Hezbollah

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he instructed the IDF to strike at Hezbollah “with full force” in response to four IDF soldiers being killed by Hezbollah on Friday.

“My directive is clear: Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “The IDF will act to thwart any threat to our forces and our territory.”

He also stated that IDF troops would remain in the security zone in Lebanon “for as long as required to protect the settlements in the north.”

While many Israeli politicians demanded attacks against Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood, which is one of Hezbollah’s main strongholds, the IDF attacks were centered in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, the military confirmed.

Throughout all the strikes, dozens of Hezbollah terrorists were killed, the IDF stated.

Tzvi Jasper and Esther Davies contributed to this report.

The week that Naftali Bennett was sworn in to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister in June 2021, I wrote confidently in this newspaper that having an American accent when speaking English had become a prerequisite for leading Israel, forever.

Bennett, who spent part of his childhood in Teaneck, New Jersey, and was raised by American parents, took over from Netanyahu, who had spent much of his childhood in suburban Philadelphia and then got a degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I didn’t know at the time that Bennett would be succeeded as prime minister by Yair Lapid, who spent his early childhood in London, where his father was posted as a correspondent for the Maariv newspaper. 

I felt that with having Isaac Herzog, who went to high school in New York, as president, Israelis had finally realized that being part of a global world requires the mother-tongue-level English of a global statesman.

“The recent trend of Netanyahu and Bennett has made it likely that Israel will never go back, and American accents for its prime ministers are here to stay,” I wrote. “Having the right army insignia on their shoulders, of course, cannot hurt a politician. But if they cannot explain it in Jersey, they apparently won’t come to power in Jerusalem.”

I thought about that analysis over the past week, when Netanyahu’s staff clashed with prime ministerial candidate Gadi Eisenkot over his level of English.

Netanyahu adviser Yonatan Urich posted on X/Twitter a clip from a classic Jerusalem Post advertisement about learning English in the bathtub, followed by an excerpt from Eisenkot fumbling the language on a panel of the Washington Institute, mockingly calling him “Mr Hasbara (Public Diplomacy).”

Eisenkot responded by posting a video of Netanyahu endorsing the two-state solution as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat applauded, praising his English in the address, and writing that “all the present progressives in the world cannot erase history.”

He then posted English words that he said he understood much better than Netanyahu: Responsibility, service for all, Kiryat Shmona, and victory. 

Eisenkot lived in Washington for several months after he completed his term as IDF chief of staff. He was a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, beginning in April 2019. His colleagues there told me that his English improved over time while he was there.

At the institute, Eisenkot wrote a 78-page report called “Guidelines for Israel’s National Security Strategy” in Hebrew and was involved with the English translation. He gave public presentations in English, albeit doing better with a script in front of him than when asked spontaneous questions on a panel.

US diplomat Dennis Ross, who was a distinguished fellow at the Institute, told me after Eisenkot left in 2020 that he was surprised by the general’s overall depth and grasp of issues beyond military matters.

“He developed a comprehensive strategy for Israel that accounted for all of the tools, not just the military tools,” Ross said. “I was struck by how sound the approach was. This was another side that showed how analytical and thoughtful he is. He can break down a problem and figure out how best to deal with it.”

When I asked the veteran mediator of talks with the Palestinians whether he saw Eisenkot as a potential peacemaker, Ross said, “I don’t see him being the kind of leader who makes decisions without thinking about their strategic consequences” and called him “not a freier,” using the Hebrew slang word for naive.

Former Post editor-in-chief David Makovsky, who directs the institute’s Project on the Middle East Peace Process, told me that while Eisenkot was in Washington, Israeli politicians attempted to draft him to run in the 2020 election, and he responded by sending them a picture of himself in a Hezbollah tunnel along with a message about lacking reception.

So, does an American accent really matter for a prime minister? 

Now that the options for premier appear to be Netanyahu, Bennett, and Eisenkot, this election will determine whether my analysis back then was correct. Are we in an era where an American accent is more of an asset than military accolades?

When selecting the candidate to face off against Netanyahu, will his opponents choose someone with a similar background, such as Bennett or someone who aims to be the opposite of the current prime minister? Bennett said in his press conference on Monday that the recent election in Hungary proved that only a right-wing leader could unseat a long-serving right-wing prime minister.

What could be helpful to Eisenkot is the fact that when polls ask Israelis who their best prime minister was, Menachem Begin wins every time. While Bennett could say it is because of his right-wing policies and his ability to stand up to world leaders, Eisenkot could argue that it is because Begin is seen as Israel’s most modest and humblest leader.

Eisenkot was born in Tiberias and raised in Eilat by Moroccan immigrant parents who could not have taught him the English that Bennett learned from his late father Jim and his mother Myrna – who told me in the Knesset the day her son was sworn in that The Jerusalem Post was her “home newspaper.” 

I wrote that week that the thick Israeli accent of Yitzhak Rabin and the Eastern European accent of Menachem Begin when speaking English were seen as making them more authentic, endearing them to the world. 

“Had Begin said, ‘No more war, no more bloodshed’ with the Queen’s English – or Netanyahu’s – it would not have felt the same,” I wrote.

So could Eisenkot’s problems with English actually be an asset in speaking to world leaders who appear tired of Netanyahu talking back to them so fluently? That is what voters may end up having to decide in October.

But Netanyahu’s recent spat with US President Donald Trump could be an indication.

Trump called the prime minister “f***ing crazy” after the latter launched a strike on Beirut. After another strike on Lebanon’s capital, he said Netanyahu had “no f***ing judgment.”

When I did my IDF basic training at isolated bases in the South, most of the soldiers with me barely spoke any English, but I still heard the F word from them all the time. If the president of the United States speaks English like a soldier, not a statesman, maybe Eisenkot has an advantage over Netanyahu and Bennett after all. 

The writer served as the chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post and has lectured about Israel in all 50 US states.