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Melissa came to South Africa 10 years ago and took whatever work she could find, sending money home to her parents in Zimbabwe. This month, she started packing.

“I am planning to go back home, because I’m no longer safe in this country,” she told The Media Line. Many of those leaving are here legally, she added. “Some of us have papers, but now we are forced to go.”

Melissa is among tens of thousands of foreign nationals who have left South Africa as anti-immigrant protests, sporadic violence, and fears of further unrest have spread. What began as a domestic confrontation over immigration has become a diplomatic challenge for a country whose post-apartheid foreign policy has placed Pan-African solidarity at its center.

Ghana, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria have helped citizens return home while raising concerns about their safety. By early July, Malawi said it had brought home more than 38,000 nationals, while Zimbabwean authorities reported that more than 60,000 citizens had returned during the unrest and intensified immigration enforcement.

Anti-immigrant groups set June 30 as a deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave following weeks of attacks and confrontations. Mozambique said violence in Mossel Bay killed five of its citizens in late May. Ghana and Nigeria separately raised concerns over deaths of their nationals, while thousands of migrants lined up at consulates, temporary camps, and repatriation centers.

‘We just want people to be in the country legally’

March and March, the most visible group within a coalition of more than 20 anti-immigrant organizations, mobilized demonstrations across South Africa on June 30. Its leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, has repeatedly rejected the description of the movement as xenophobic.

“We don’t care if it’s white people, Chinese or anyone else,” Ngobese-Zuma said at a June 24 media briefing in Midrand. “We just want people to be in the country legally.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa met protest organizers before June 30 and urged them to pursue their demands lawfully. In a June 29 weekly letter published by the Presidency, Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africa’s immigration system required “substantial reform” and said the government was strengthening border management and enforcement against undocumented immigration. He also warned that private groups could not assume the powers of the state.

Police and soldiers deployed nationwide on June 30.

Deputy National Police Commissioner Tebello Mosikili told a July 1 press conference that police recorded 120 marches. Of those, 108 remained peaceful, while 12 required police intervention.

In Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, police said one person died in a shooting late on June 30 as residents looted foreign-owned spaza shops. A shooting in Hillbrow, in inner-city Johannesburg, wounded two people. Police arrested more than 900 people on charges ranging from public violence and robbery to immigration violations and harboring undocumented migrants.

On July 3, Ramaphosa informed Parliament that 3,405 members of the South African National Defense Force had been deployed from June 28 to support police.

The unrest has also raised questions about how South Africa’s domestic tensions fit with its longstanding Pan-African foreign policy.

Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), told The Media Line that the government does not view the unrest as evidence that the country has abandoned those commitments.

“Our commitment to the continent remains foundational to our foreign policy identity,” Phiri said. “We do not see our historical role as a champion of Pan-African solidarity as diminished by localized tensions, but rather as being tested.”

DIRCO views the unrest, he said, “not as an ideological failure of Pan-Africanism, but as an urgent domestic governance issue that requires a human-rights-centric response.”

Evidence of broader changes in South African politics

Since the end of apartheid, Pretoria has sought influence through the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), while presenting human rights and international law as pillars of its foreign policy.

Loren Landau, a migration scholar at the University of Oxford and the University of the Witwatersrand, told The Media Line that he viewed the marches less as a referendum on immigration than as evidence of broader changes in South African politics.

“My greatest takeaway from the marches and the lead-up to them is that they are less about immigration and more about the nature of South African politics,” Landau said, “and the degree to which it has become captured by people willing to use the language of hate, threats of violence, and actual violence to shape the country’s political future.”

“Politicians who lack genuine or practical solutions to economic inequality, poverty and unemployment are using immigration to advance their political careers,” he argued.

Phiri said the government is seeking to resist populist appeals while protecting the country’s regional standing.

“As Minister Lamola has recently articulated, we reject populist or xenophobic narratives that seek to turn Africans against each other,” he said. “Our standing relies on our ability to openly confront these internal social challenges while remaining steadfast in the AU and SADC agendas.”

Ronald Lamola, the minister of international relations and cooperation, expressed that position in a May 8 statement after Ghana requested a debate at an African Union summit on what Accra described as xenophobic attacks against African nationals in South Africa.

XenoWatch, a project at the University of the Witwatersrand, has recorded 1,321 xenophobic incidents since 1994, including 698 deaths and the displacement of nearly 129,000 people.

John J. Stremlau, an honorary professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, told The Media Line that political pressure for stronger immigration enforcement could not simply be dismissed.

“We live in a world of nation-states,” he said. “South Africa has experienced an inflow of people who are desperate for work. South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world, so political pressure to restrict illegal immigration is understandable.”

“Personally, I wish South Africa could afford to receive more refugees, but it can’t,” he added.

For Stremlau, economic and political pressures do not excuse attacks on migrants.

“The violence itself is not understandable,” he said, tracing part of the political climate to Zulu nationalism and figures including former President Jacob Zuma and his MK party.

Concerns over the deaths of two Nigerian citizens

The diplomatic friction has been sharpened by competing accounts of deaths involving foreign nationals.

Nigeria raised concerns over the deaths of two citizens in separate incidents involving South African security personnel in April. In early May, Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu called the deaths “utterly condemnable and unacceptable” and demanded justice.

South African police said on July 7 that one of the men, Nnaemeka Matthew Andrew Ekpeyong, collapsed after officers arrested him during a drug-related operation at his Pretoria apartment. Police said the death was unrelated to anti-migrant violence. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate is investigating, and South Africa has asked Nigeria to submit evidence concerning allegations against its security forces through diplomatic channels.

Ghana has also disputed South Africa’s account of a death involving one of its citizens. Ghanaian authorities said Bashiru Isak, 40, was killed in Cape Town during the period of the June 30 protests and called for an independent investigation.

South African police said they had no record of a Khayelitsha murder matching Ghana’s description and requested further details. Police said the Ghanaian killing they were investigating involved Kwabena Boagen, 35, who was shot June 29 in Nyanga, outside Cape Town. They described the case as suspected extortion-related violence rather than a xenophobic attack.

Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has said police records showed no deaths during the June 30 demonstrations.

Phiri confirmed that DIRCO had received formal communications from several African governments over the safety of their citizens.

“Receiving these concerns is standard diplomatic practice during periods of social friction,” Phiri said. “We welcome this direct engagement, as it allows us to counter disinformation with verifiable facts about our domestic stabilization efforts.”

On July 7, Accra postponed high-level bilateral meetings with South Africa that had been scheduled for August.

Ghana’s minister of state for government communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, told Reuters that anti-migrant violence risked overshadowing the meetings, which Ghana was due to host and Presidents John Dramani Mahama and Cyril Ramaphosa were expected to co-chair.

Phiri rejected reports portraying the postponement as a diplomatic “snub” of Ramaphosa.

“We want to explicitly correct the record here. There was no ‘snub.’ Neither the Presidency nor DIRCO requested a formal state visit that was subsequently declined by Accra,” he said. “We recognize that relations have experienced some strain due to broader concerns over anti-immigrant rhetoric on the continent.”

He added that Lamola remained in “continuous, constructive communication with his Ghanaian counterpart to strengthen our historical bilateral bonds.”

The diplomatic concern predates the June 30 demonstrations. In May, African ambassadors and high commissioners stayed away from South Africa’s Africa Day celebration.

The marches also did not end the anti-immigration campaign. Ngobese-Zuma had promised weekly demonstrations for six months, and protesters returned to the streets in Johannesburg, Soweto, and Durban on July 9.

Only state authorities have the power to arrest, deport, or determine immigration status

According to Reuters journalists in Alexandra, protesters entered or attempted to force open homes and businesses while searching for suspected undocumented migrants, removing some people and handing them to police.

Those taken included a Malawian woman carrying a child. A Zimbabwean man told Reuters that he had legal status under the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit.

Some flyers promoting the July 9 demonstrations advertised a “peaceful march” followed by “door to door.”

The government has repeatedly said that only state authorities have the power to arrest, deport, or determine a person’s immigration status.

South Africa’s migrant population is deeply embedded in construction, agriculture, retail, and transport. United Nations data from 2024 estimated that 2.6 million international migrants lived in South Africa, about 5% of the population. A 2018 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Labor Organization estimated that immigrants contributed about 9% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Landau said the reputational damage could affect South African companies operating elsewhere on the continent.

“South African businesses will find it harder to operate because their brand has been damaged,” he said. “Many countries now have alternatives, and I think they will increasingly choose non-South African options where possible.”

Landau called the June 30 security deployment “unfortunately necessary,” but said authorities had allowed tensions to build through a prolonged lack of response.

“It came after a long period of non-response,” he said.

The longer-term answer, he argued, requires negotiation “about how migration can strengthen the regional economy for everyone.”

Pretoria, meanwhile, is intensifying immigration enforcement. Kubayi said at a July 12 briefing that 53,449 foreign nationals had been processed for deportation or repatriation as of the previous day. Authorities deported 4,898 people in June.

Melissa has already made her decision. After 10 years in South Africa, she is preparing to return to Zimbabwe.

“My family calls me every day and tells me to come home as soon as I can,” she said. “So now I’m going back to Zimbabwe and starting over. I know it won’t be easy. Even finding work there is difficult.”

Hamas October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar believed Israel might respond to the invasion by using nuclear weapons against Gaza; a new document that he wrote by hand on August 24, 2022, has been revealed to the public on Monday.

This latest document was disclosed by the Amit Terrorism and Intelligence Research Institute as part of an ongoing series of rolling reveals of Hamas documents captured by the IDF during its counter-invasion of Gaza.

Prior documents revealed by the Amit Institute or the IDF in October 2025 or earlier were also written by Sinwar and addressed similar topics, with one even written on the same day, but this document goes into the nuclear weapons scenario in the most depth.

Israel would, in any case, mount a powerful response

In an overlapping document, Sinwar warned that the window of opportunity for achieving the surprise effect of the invasion was six to ten hours, during which Israel’s ability to launch a counteroffensive had to be impeded. 

Sinwar then added in the currently revealed document that Israel would in any case mount a powerful response, and he did not rule out the possibility that it would use nuclear weapons. 

“Defense plan: The enemy will not hesitate to use all the means and weapons at its disposal, not only through attack but also by other means,” Sinwar wrote in the document. “It may even use a nuclear bomb. But first it will be surprised by the attack and descend into chaos. As an additional precaution, a popular operation should be organized to return to the villages and symbolically reoccupy them. This campaign is a battle of life or death, and there will be life, with Allah’s help.”

Despite his concern that Israel using nuclear weapons in response to an invasion was a real risk, “he did not abandon his messianic vision and emphasized that it would be a ‘battle of life or death,’ even if the price was the destruction of the Gaza Strip,” wrote the Amit Institute.

Secret Hamas internal documents

The new document also discussed an invasion force of up to 10,000 Hamas fighters for over 200 Israeli communities and IDF outposts, whereas later versions of the plan and the actual invasion involved around 2,000 Hamas terrorists in the first wave, a similar number in the second wave, and a disorganized additional around 1,600 untrained Gazans in the third wave, for a total of around 5,600 invaders.

Systematically deceiving Israel into complacency

On June 18, new secret Hamas internal documents which IDF intelligence had provided to the Amit Institute were provided exclusively to The Jerusalem Post.

An analysis by the Amit center included six documents viewed by the Post, showing the progression of Hamas’s secret plans 2022-2023 to systematically deceive Israel into complacency so as to surprise the IDF during the October 7, 2023 invasion.

Although much is already known about Hamas’s deception, these original documents had not previously been viewed by the public and revealed a variety of new pieces of color in the puzzle of Hamas’s strategy and tactics.

One document was from September 13, 2022, and was titled “Building a Strategic Deception Plan Which Will Be the Basis for a Surprise Attack by Hamas on Israel.”

“De facto authorities” invaded and assaulted staff at the Abu Rashid food distribution point in Jabalia on Saturday, United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov complained on Sunday, while notably failing to name Hamas in his statement.

Hamas terrorists invaded the warehouse, operated by the World Food Programme (WFP), and assaulted two drivers who were delivering humanitarian supplies, according to the UN.

Asserting that he “strongly” condemned the incident, Alakbarov acknowledged there was a “dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction, including smuggling attempts, targeting and abusing humanitarian operations” being carried out by the “de facto authorities.”

Though Hamas went unnamed in the statement, Alakbarov labeled Israel’s expansive control of the territory as a major threat to humanitarian supplies in the Palestinian territory.

“The expansion of areas under Israeli control is further reducing the space available to civilians, making it imperative that humanitarian assistance is able to move safely and reach people in need without interference,” he wrote. “Under international humanitarian law, all parties must respect and protect humanitarian personnel, facilities and relief supplies, and refrain from actions that obstruct humanitarian operations…”

“The people of Gaza have already endured immense suffering. They cannot be subjected to further delays or disruptions in the delivery of life-saving assistance. I reiterate that humanitarian organizations must be able to carry out their work safely, independently, impartially and without fear of intimidation or violence.”

COGAT condemns incident as part of Hamas intimidation

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) also condemned the incident, noting that it is part of a pattern of intimidation employed by the terror group.

According to a UN report, on Saturday (11 July), Hamas terrorists forcibly entered a food distribution site operated by the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Jabalia area, forcing the suspension of food distributions that had been providing daily assistance to thousands of…

— COGAT (@cogatonline) July 13, 2026

“This constitutes further clear evidence that Hamas cynically exploits the humanitarian space and the aid intended for the residents of the Gaza Strip for its own purposes,” COGAT wrote. “The facts are clear: humanitarian aid is entering the Gaza Strip. Hamas is the party undermining the distribution mechanisms, seizing humanitarian aid, and preventing it from reaching the civilian population.”

Petitioners seeking the release of 14 Gaza doctors held by Israel asked the High Court of Justice on Sunday to order the state to file a detailed medical update on Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, saying the state had failed to answer grave allegations that he was beaten in detention and left close to unconscious.

The filing, submitted by Physicians for Human Rights Israel and lawyers for the detainees, came in response to the state’s request that the petition be dismissed. The state has argued that the doctors’ detention orders were issued under the Unlawful Combatants Law, after officials reviewed classified intelligence specific to each detainee, and that their release could harm state security.

Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been held by Israel since December 2024. His case has drawn growing international attention, including calls by UN bodies and medical professionals for his release or for independent medical access. Israel has said Abu Safiya had ties to Hamas and that Kamal Adwan Hospital was used for Hamas activity, while PHRI has argued that he and the other doctors are being held without charge despite Gaza’s severe need for medical personnel.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

This is a developing story.

The Iranians are not going to give in this time, Dani Citrinowicz, an Iran researcher and expert on the Shiite axis at the Institute for National Security Studies, told Gideon Oko and Amichai Attali on 103FM.

“In the end, the campaign we set out on to weaken the Iranian regime and deny it the ability to reach nuclear weapons is currently focused on an event that was not the event before the war,” Citrinowicz said. “The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war, and right now the main focus in the current confrontation is the attempt to control or decide who will have control of the Strait of Hormuz.”

“On the Iranian side, I do not identify any desire to retreat. I think the Iranians will go all the way in this case; this is the price they need to pay to preserve control of the Strait of Hormuz, and even if it continues like this, they will not give in, so it presents Trump with a dilemma of whether to back down in the end. I do not see any willingness to compromise on the Iranian side.”

On the current campaign, he clarified: “We are in a campaign over control of the Strait of Hormuz, and neither side is willing to give in. The Americans are issuing ultimatums to the Iranians to open the strait; in response, the Iranians close it; in response, the Americans strike, and the Iranians respond.”

“The event can end either if one side backs down, or if there is an agreement between Iran and Oman, or something that regulates passage in the strait, or the events will spiral out of control. And as we discussed yesterday, right now the strikes are aggressive, but the geographic location and the nature of the targets are such that each side probably wants to preserve the option of returning to negotiations,” he explained.

“As long as this continues at this intensity, it will probably be difficult to maintain the framework, since the sides do not want further escalation and are currently focused on the Strait of Hormuz. Right now the sides are under some kind of rules of engagement, but it can definitely get out of control,” he added.

US attacks will not prevent Iranian strikes

According to Citrinowicz, the American strikes are intended to weaken the Iranian threat in Hormuz, while the Iranians have marked their own red line.

“There are conflicting reports that the Americans are continuously striking Iran’s ability to harm the Strait of Hormuz, control facilities, radars, launch facilities, and in response the Iranians are broadly attacking US bases in the Gulf area; they are not attacking in the UAE and not in Saudi Arabia. It should be said that most of the strikes are located in southern Iran and in the coastal area, meaning an attempt to weaken Iran’s ability to hit tankers.”

“That will not prevent them from striking, because to stop a tanker from passing you need one missile, and that is the main problem. Still, regarding petrochemicals, the Iranians made clear that if there is damage to infrastructure, they will respond by striking infrastructure,” Citrinowicz pointed out.

He added that from the American perspective as well, US President Donald Trump may be trying to preserve room for a deal. “Maybe from the American side too, Trump is saying, ‘I can hit all the bridges, but I am not doing it,’ because I want to preserve the chance of an agreement, so let us see whether these reports are true, because if they are, the Iranians will necessarily respond against infrastructure in the Gulf area,” he said.

Citrinowicz later said the confrontation could last a long time: “This could accompany us for a long period, days, even weeks. Last week there were reports that the American goal is to conduct a campaign for weeks until the Iranians weaken or surrender. The problem is that we are in the Middle East; events can spiral out of control. We are in a situation where the sides are fighting, each wants to preserve sovereignty and the ability to control the straits, they do not want to cross lines and allow negotiations. Behind the scenes, the Qataris and the Omanis are working hard to prevent escalation, but if there were damage to petrochemical facilities, that would change the situation for the Iranians. Right now the sides do not want to escalate, but this could accompany us for many long days and weeks.”

He also gave his view on possible Israeli involvement in the next steps. “Israeli involvement is what would widen the campaign. I do not think there is a desire in Washington for Israel to enter the event, because it would turn into a regional event that would make it very difficult for the Americans to return to negotiations. I am sure Netanyahu is not unhappy with what is happening now; everything depends on Trump.”

Iran advancing nuclear enrichment program, expert asserts

In addition, Oko asked the expert whether Iran is continuing to advance its nuclear ambitions during this period. “Is Iran taking advantage of the period to move forward on nuclear matters?”

Citrinowicz replied: “In satellite images, it is absolutely clear that Iran is preparing something, certainly in enrichment-related contexts.”

Oko asked: “You can really see it in the pictures?”

Citrinowicz explained: “When you look at the actions Iran is taking in that area, a new enrichment facility that Iran has reported, it may be harder to strike than Fordo. Iran is doing things there. This is a troubling event because we lack oversight. We have been without oversight for a year, in a situation where the International Atomic Energy Agency… we need to be concerned. What matters is the nuclear issue, and that is where attention needs to stay all the time.”

Finally, Oko asked about uranium and the possibility that Iran is advancing toward military-grade nuclear weapons production. “There are pictures showing that Iran has gone back to enriching uranium?” Citrinowicz answered firmly: “You can see in the images that work is being done in the area. We need to focus on what is being done in Iran’s nuclear program. What is happening according to the satellite images is something that should concern us very much.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the recommendation of security officials, has instructed the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to investigate the alleged leak of the start date of Operation Roaring Lion to an unnamed media outlet.

During a recent cabinet meeting, Shin Bet chief David Zini clarified that the matter could be investigated, but it would be difficult because so many people were privy to the secret, adding that the chances of uncovering the truth were low.

Following the meeting, the prime minister issued another directive to investigate the matter and present the findings to him.

After an internal review by the Shin Bet, the agency’s legal advisers determined that Netanyahu’s directive required the opening of an investigation.

It was also determined that, since there was no intention to question journalists about the leak, but only members of the defense establishment, there is no need to obtain the attorney-general’s approval. Instead, the investigation could be based on Netanyahu’s directive and the powers granted to the intelligence agency.

Sealing leak within defense establishment

“Without confirming the accuracy of any particular report, it should be clarified that investigations into leaks of classified information are opened under the authority and at the discretion of the Shin Bet chief, only after an orderly process involving the agency’s professional and legal officials, and pursuant to the Shin Bet’s statutory responsibility to prevent leaks of classified information from the core of the defense establishment,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

The agency further stressed that the purpose of the investigation is to seal the breach within the defense establishment.

“Any attempt to attribute professional decisions made by the Shin Bet chief in order to fulfill the agency’s mission to discussions held with one person or another is entirely without foundation,” it added.

“The decision regarding the need for a leak investigation was made by the Shin Bet chief long before the meeting in question took place. It should also be noted that the Shin Bet chief periodically meets with journalists from a wide and diverse range of media outlets.”

US officials outraged over reported intel. leak

On Saturday, Walla learned that the reported leak had prompted criticism among US officials, who criticized Israel’s conduct regarding information security and voiced their anger about the situation during conversations with their Israeli counterparts.

The Defense Security Authority (MALMAB), after being asked by Defense Minister Israel Katz to provide its thoughts on the matter, also recommended that it be investigated.

The announcement came against the backdrop of Channel 14 commentator Yaakov Bardugo revealing on Galei Israel radio that he had met with Zini and his aide to advance an investigation into the leak to Channel 12 News about the war with Iran.

It was further claimed that Zini subsequently asked Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara for immediate approval to open an investigation into the matter.

Nearly half of Israelis (46%) and half of Jews (50%) believe that more pressure should be applied to enlist young haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men into the IDF, a July poll by the Israeli Society Index of the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) revealed.

Approximately 31% support conscription only with the agreement of the haredi leadership, and 11% believe that efforts to draft haredi men are futile and should stop.

Generally speaking, the index showed a stark political divide on the issue, with right-wing respondents preferring a haredi-approved compromise (59%), while the center and left demanded sanctions on the haredi population at 73% and 79%, respectively. 

Likewise, Likud supporters show a 75% favor towards compromise, while Yisrael Beitenu strongly favors sanctions at 84%.

Among the haredi population itself, 45% agree that conscription could be possible if the leadership agreed, while 15% support sanctions.

Haredi anti-draft protests compared to anti-judicial reform protests

The poll also gauged public perception of the haredi anti-draft protests specifically in relation to protests against judicial reform.

Approximately one-third of respondents (32% of the public at large and 36% of Jews) believed that, because the prior anti-judicial reform protests had been allowed to block public roads, the haredi anti-draft protests should also be allowed to.

On the other hand, 39% of respondents, including 53% of secular respondents, said that the haredi protests are “unjustified protests which must be stopped.”

“It turns out that the main consideration by which Israelis choose their position even on this existential issue is political interest. The right prefers a continued alliance with the Haredi, and the center and left, which are not politically supported by the Haredi, believe that sanctions are necessary,” said Professor Yedidia Stern, president of the JPPI.

“When the decisive factor is purely political, and not substantive, the solution seems further away than ever,” he added.

The JPPI Israeli Society Index survey was conducted by the index panel and Afkar (in the Arab sector). The data is weighted according to voting patterns and religiosity so as to represent the position of the entire Israeli public. The JPPI Israeli Society Index is compiled by Shmuel Rosner and Noach Slepkov; research and production by Yael Levinovsky; statistical consulting by Prof. David Steinberg.

France will summon the Russian ambassador to Paris in the coming days over an alleged cyberhacking campaign that Russia has carried out against European countries, including France, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Monday.

He added France would also place sanctions on some Russian individuals and entities.

“Today, we will publicly condemn a widespread cyber campaign conducted by Russia that aimed to carry out sabotage and spying against a dozen countries,” Barrot told BFM TV.

“We will summon the Russian ambassador to France in the coming days,” he said.

He added that France would sanction nine Russian individuals and four Russian entities regarding this campaign of cyberattacks that Barrot said Russia’s Federal Security Service had orchestrated.

Similarly, Germany’s foreign ministry said in a statement on X on Monday that it had summoned the Russian ambassador after European countries blamed Russia for cyber campaigns targeting them.

The ministry said cyberattacks against Germany, EU partners and Ukraine were unacceptable and would be met decisively, including with additional sanctions.

The European Union is trying to seal a 21st package of sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s war with Ukraine and may on Monday decide to add further names to its sanctions list, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said.

The French government has previously accused Moscow of conducting cyberattacks against the country.

UK targets Russian cyber networks with new sanctions

Britain on Monday announced a new package of sanctions targeting Russian cyber networks, which it blamed for trying to sow chaos and division across Europe.

“Today’s action targets 24 individuals  and entities behind the destructive cyber and hybrid operations, including cybercriminals  involved in proxy networks linked to the Russian Intelligence Services,” the government said in a statement on Monday.

“This includes sanctioning GRU senior leadership figures Vyacheslav Stafeyev, Ivan Senin and Ivan Kasyanenko for their role in directing GRU cyber and hybrid threat operations.”

Election season in Israel has officially begun, and the 25th Knesset will become the first time since 1988 that elections have been held after a full four-year term.

Here are the important dates you need to know in the lead-up to the big day.

July 17: Knesset dissolves

On Friday, the 25th Knesset will dissolve, ending its term. This does not mean that no one will be working, as Knesset members must continue to serve until the first session of the newly elected Knesset takes place.

Similarly, the government will continue to serve until a new one is established, even if that takes longer than forming a Knesset.

July 19: Final day for civil servants to resign if they wish to run for Knesset

July 19, which is 100 days before the election, is the last day for senior civil servants to resign from duty if they wish to run for the 26th Knesset.

By law, civil servants – state employees governed by the Civil Service Commission, such as employees of government ministries and agencies, police officers, and state prosecutors – are restricted from running for Knesset while civilly employed, as well as publicly attacking or insulting the Knesset or government through media or public forums.

July 20, July 26, August 4: Major parties hold primaries

Three prominent Israeli parties have confirmed they will hold primaries ahead of the general election.

Yair Golan’s Democrats party will hold primaries on July 20, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party will hold primaries on July 26, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud will hold primaries on August 4.

Only registered party members are eligible to vote in primaries, and the results will determine the order of the parties’ final lists in the general election.

September 9: Final day to submit completed party lists to the Central Elections Committee 

On September 9, all parties intending to run in the election for the 26th Knesset must have submitted finalized party lists to the Central Elections Committee, allowing voters to know the order of party members.

This party list dictates the order in which candidates will join the Knesset in correspondence with the number of mandates won in the election. 

For example, if a party received one mandate, only the party leader would have a seat in the Knesset. If the party received two mandates, the party leader and the person listed second on the list would have seats in the Knesset, and so on.

October 13: Election campaign broadcasts begin on television and radio

Under Israeli election law, campaign broadcasts are only allowed to air in the 21 days immediately preceding the election.

Before this, parties typically run ads on social media platforms such as YouTube, X/Twitter, or Instagram. However, these ads are paid for by individual campaigns and may not be shown on Israeli TV or radio outside of the allotted three weeks.

During the official window for election broadcasts, content is produced by the parties but aired as official election programming, and time for the content is allocated among parties according to statutory formulas.

While the base formula allows every party the same amount of time, even if it’s brand new, parties represented in the outgoing Knesset receive additional airtime based on the number of MKs they currently have.

October 20: Elections officially begin, as Israel’s diplomatic missions abroad begin to vote

On October 20, Israel’s diplomatic missions abroad begin casting their votes.

This is not open to all Israelis living abroad, as the state does not allow absentee voting for the general population.

Early voting for Israelis abroad is intended for embassy employees and their families, military officials stationed overseas, and representatives of national institutions serving abroad under the law.

October 27: The big day! General elections for 26th Knesset take place across Israel

The election will be held on October 27, with polling booths being opened across the country throughout the day.

Election day is considered a national holiday, though public transport will continue to operate normally.

Most polling stations will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with smaller communities, hospitals, and prisons staying open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 

However, if you arrive at a polling station and are still in line when it closes, you are still entitled to vote so long as you remain in line.

November 4, November 18: Publication of official election results

On November 4, after ensuring time for all votes from abroad to arrive and be counted, the official results of the 26th election will be confirmed.

Once results are shared, appeals to the results can be submitted until November 18.

An appeal can be submitted by any member of the Central Elections Committee or a Regional Elections Committee, any party represented in the outgoing Knesset, any individual MK, any approved candidate or candidate list that participated in the election – even those that failed to cross the electoral threshold – and the attorney-general.

If an appeal were filed, it would likely take until early November for the results to be submitted and for the court’s response. However, successful appeals that alter Knesset election results are extremely rare.

European countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.

The vast majority – more than 9,000 – were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.

Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable.

“To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high,” Lasse Vestergaard, Chief Physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters.

“It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat,” Vestergaard added.

Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, which is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.

The data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, Britain, and other countries.

But scientists said there were no other known major factors, such as COVID-19 outbreaks, that would have contributed to the spike to 10,650 excess deaths in that week.

The same European countries’ combined mortality over the previous eight weeks was, on average, around 500 deaths per week below typical levels. The EuroMOMO data could be revised in future weeks as more data comes in.

June heatwave smashes records as France, Belgium report excess mortality

The extreme heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature records in France, Spain, and the UK.

EuroMOMO does not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium were the only two countries in Europe to log “very high excess” mortality in the last week of June.

Belgium’s excess mortality was the highest during any heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country’s public health institute Sciensano.

A separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimated 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during the May and June heatwaves.

Of those deaths, 42% were caused by the extra heat that global warming contributed to the heatwaves, according to the findings by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Renewed US-Iran fighting drew Jordan and Bahrain deeper into the regional fallout over the weekend, as Iran launched another wave of missiles and drones toward US military facilities and countries hosting American forces following large-scale US strikes inside Iran.

The latest escalation marked a significant expansion of the fighting that resumed on July 8 and 9, further undermining the memorandum of understanding Washington and Tehran signed on June 17. Iran again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, while the United States said commercial traffic continued and carried out strikes against Iranian missile sites, naval assets, communications infrastructure, and other military targets.

Iranian attacks and alerts were reported across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. Tehran said it was striking US military infrastructure, although many of its claims about specific targets and damage could not be independently confirmed.

The renewed confrontation followed an Iranian attack on a Cyprus-flagged container vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The ship was seriously damaged and one Indian crew member was reported missing. The United States responded with an extensive series of strikes intended, according to US officials, to reduce Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping.

Jordan had already confronted a direct threat during the previous round of fighting. The kingdom’s state news agency, Petra, reported that Jordanian air defenses intercepted and shot down eight missiles launched from Iran toward Jordanian territory on Thursday, July 9, citing a military source at the General Command of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army.

Missile debris fell in several areas, but no casualties or property damage were reported, the source said.

For Jordan, the incident reinforced a message Amman has repeated throughout the conflict: The kingdom is not a party to the war, but it will respond when its airspace, territory, or civilians are threatened.

“Jordan has made its position clear: it is not a party to this conflict and will not allow its sovereignty or the safety of its citizens to be compromised,” Mai Anati, managing editor of The Jordan Times newspaper in Amman, told The Media Line.

She said the interception of the missiles “demonstrates the kingdom’s capability and unwavering commitment to defending its airspace and protecting its people.”

Anati said Jordan’s priority remains safeguarding its national security while preventing the conflict from spreading into its territory.

“The kingdom has long maintained a high level of military readiness, with the Jordan Armed Forces fully prepared to confront any threat to national security. However, Jordan’s priority remains preventing further escalation,” she said.

Jordan’s position illustrates the dilemma facing countries within range of Iranian missiles and drones but formally outside the US-Iran confrontation. Amman has sought to avoid being treated as a belligerent while making clear that it will intercept projectiles directed at Jordan or entering its airspace.

‘The renewed attacks are not surprising’

Bahrain faces a related but more persistent risk. The Gulf state hosts the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet and has repeatedly faced Iranian missile and drone attacks since the conflict began in February.

Manama must contend with both the immediate military danger and the possibility that temporary diplomatic understandings will repeatedly break down while the central US-Iran dispute remains unresolved.

“In my assessment, the renewed attacks are not surprising,” a former Bahraini diplomat who requested anonymity told The Media Line. “The MOU reduced tensions but did not resolve the underlying strategic causes of the conflict, making renewed escalation a realistic possibility.”

The former diplomat said Bahrain had faced sustained military pressure despite not participating directly in the US offensive and supporting diplomatic efforts to contain the conflict.

“Bahrain has faced hundreds of missile and drone attacks from Iran and its proxies, despite avoiding direct participation in the military campaign and supporting diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis,” he said. “Yet daily life and economic activity have largely continued. Compared with the initial phase of the conflict, both institutions and the public appear better prepared and more resilient.”

The Media Line could not independently verify the number of attacks cited by the former diplomat. It was also unclear whether his estimate referred to individual projectiles, separate attack waves, or incidents involving Iran-aligned armed groups.

Bahrain appears unlikely to abandon its defensive and diplomatic posture in favor of direct military involvement.

“[Bahrain] is likely to continue relying on diplomacy and multilateral engagement, consistent with its role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, including its sponsorship of Security Council Resolution 2817 (2026), which condemned Iran’s attacks against Bahrain and other Gulf states,” the former diplomat said.

The Security Council adopted Resolution 2817 on March 11. Bahrain presented the measure on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and it passed by a vote of 13-0, with China and Russia abstaining.

The danger extends beyond attacks on military installations or civilian territory

The resolution condemned Iranian attacks against Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. It also affirmed the affected countries’ rights under international law.

The renewed fighting has again placed the Strait of Hormuz at the center of the conflict. Iran says it has the authority to regulate or restrict traffic through the waterway, while Washington maintains that freedom of navigation must be preserved.

For Gulf countries, the danger extends beyond attacks on military installations or civilian territory. Continued fighting could disrupt shipping, oil and gas exports, supply chains, trade, and foreign investment.

The June memorandum had extended the ceasefire and provided a 60-day framework for negotiations, including arrangements intended to restore maritime traffic. It did not settle the underlying dispute over Iran’s role in administering passage through the Strait or the possibility that Tehran might eventually demand fees from ships.

The former diplomat said further escalation remained likely because Washington and Tehran continue to pursue incompatible objectives, particularly over control of the waterway. Any new ceasefire, he said, would probably be another temporary pause rather than a lasting political settlement.

Iran appears to be trying to pressure Washington by threatening American military facilities and regional partners while avoiding an unrestricted direct confrontation with the United States, he said.

Iran will not fulfill its commitments in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) until the United States fulfills its side of the deal, Iranian Foreign ​Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.

Baghaei added that US pressure has hindered Iran’s efforts to reach an agreement with Oman on a joint mechanism to operate the Strait of Hormuz.

The statement comes hours after both sides completed waves of strikes against each other’s infrastructure early Monday morning. 

In a statement on X/Twitter, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that American forces completed a wave of strikes against Iran intended to degrade Iran’s “ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

CENTCOM also stated that they had hit dozens of targets across multiple cities, including Iranian military air defense systems, radar sites, small boats, and missile and drone capabilities.

CENTCOM added that precise munitions, fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and naval vessels were all utilized in the operation and asserted that US forces are postured and prepared to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial shipping, “despite Iran’s continued unwarranted aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary declarations.”

Iran launches attacks at Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait

In response, Iran launched attacks against American military infrastructure across the region, triggering sirens in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait. 

Jordan’s military said that it had shot down four missiles launched from Iran, as Kuwait engaged with “hostile aerial targets” in its airspace and citizens in Bahrain took shelter against incoming attacks three times on Monday. 

In a Monday statement published by Iran’s Mehr news outlet, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that it had targeted US military facilities in Bahrain and destroyed radar systems in Oman during the attacks. 

Goldie Katz contributed to this report.

American actor Josh Grisetti, who starred on theater stages and appeared in the fifth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, died by suicide on Friday. He was 44.

His death was announced on Instagram on Sunday by his close friend and Something Rotten! co-star, actor Rob McClure.

“It is with a shattered heart that I share that the brilliant Josh Grisetti took his own life on Friday. I’m not ready to even attempt to understand,” McClure wrote. “My heart is with his wife and family as they try to deal with the reality of this. Some of my all-time favorite memories were by this man’s side… Just a cataclysmic loss.”

Grisetti’s agent, Rick Ferrari, said, “I am completely devastated. That’s all I can say.”

Grisetti began career in musical theater

Grisetti was born in Washington in December 1981. He studied drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and later trained in musical theater at the Boston Conservatory.

He began his career in regional productions before appearing in the musicals Diner, It Shoulda Been You, and Something Rotten!. His role in the latter became one of his best-known performances and earned him two Drama Desk Award nominations.

Alongside his theater work, Grisetti also appeared in film and television. In 2007, he appeared in the sitcom The Knights of Prosperity and later acted in the films The Immigrant and The Namesake. His most prominent television role was as Ralph Emerson in the fifth and final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which aired in 2023.

Cristo Fernandez, an actor best known for playing a professional soccer player on Ted Lasso, officially took his first stab at the real thing this weekend.

Fernandez, who appeared as recurring character Danny Rojas on the hit streaming series, made his USL debut for El Paso in its USL Cup match against New Mexico United on Saturday night. He subbed into the game in the 79th minute for Locomotive, picking up a yellow card during a 2-0 defeat.

The 35-year-old was an accomplished youth player, competing with Tecos FC in Liga MX, before injuries derailed his career and led him to acting.

He first tried out for the Chicago Fire’s reserve squad earlier this year, which led to another tryout with El Paso and, eventually, a contract.

‘Football is life!’

“Football is life!” was the catchphrase of his Ted Lasso character, and he revisited his most famous words in an ESPN interview in May.

“Football has given me both the best moments, the sad moments,” he said. “I guess that’s why, for me, football is life.”

Palestine might not be playing at the World Cup, but a fellow Arab coach has been carrying the flag. Literally.

After Egypt defeated Australia on July 3, coach Hossam Hassan held the Palestinian flag in front of fans who chanted, “Free, free Palestine.”

“My heart and soul are with them,” Hassan said afterward regarding the “kind and honorable” Palestinians, to whom he dedicated the victory. “May Allah grant them victory. May Allah have mercy on their martyrs.”

Then, after Argentina eliminated Egypt on July 7, Hassan used his press conference to deliver a passionate soliloquy for four-and-a-half minutes.

“Today, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 of them were struck by a single missile and died, while we’re still here,” Hassan said. “It’s not hard to see that the children we see can’t even find food. They’re facing diseases and epidemics that can result from a lack of food, sleep, and basic necessities. So if I don’t feel compassion as a human being, then I have no reason to live – nor does any human being on the face of the earth who is unaware of what’s happening in Palestine.”

The hypocrisy of Hassan, the nation he represents, and FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, is breathtaking. That hypocrisy inflames hostility toward Israel and its supporters.

Hassan speaks compassionately yet probably cares nothing about the victims of Hamas’s attacks on October 7, 2023 – victims who faced far worse than the Palestinians. Hassan revealed his true self when he yelled an obscenity and spat when confronted by an Israeli flag after Argentina’s victory.

Meanwhile, Egypt acts as Palestine’s ally yet views Palestinians as a domestic threat and economic burden. FIFA acts as an alleged apolitical body that disciplines political advocacy but grants the Palestinians and their supporters an exception.

In 2009, Egypt built a fortified wall extending underground along the Gaza border despite opposition from Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah. Nevertheless, jihadists killed 33 Egyptian soldiers in 2014 in two attacks in the Sinai Peninsula. All but three died in one attack just 20 kilometers from Rafah.

Those attacks accelerated the development of stronger countermeasures. From 2013 to 2015, Egyptian authorities expelled about 3,200 families while destroying 3,255 buildings and hundreds of hectares of farmland.

“The Egyptian authorities provided residents with little or no warning of the evictions, no temporary housing, mostly inadequate compensation for their destroyed homes – none at all for their farmland – and no effective way to challenge their eviction, home demolition, or compensation,” Human Rights Watch stated in its report.

The steel-and-concrete wall now reaches 7 meters and includes electronic surveillance and a cleared buffer zone.

FIFA contradicts its own disciplinary code

MEANWHILE, FIFA contradicts its own disciplinary code. Article 13 states that using a match “for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature” constitutes “offensive behavior” and violates “the principles of fair play.” Article 6 outlines punishments such as fines, suspensions, and banishment, but leaves enforcement to FIFA’s judicial bodies.

FIFA previously punished blatant politicking. In 2013, Croatian defender Josip Simunic received a 10-match suspension and missed the 2014 World Cup for using a salute associated with the pro-Nazi Ustaše regime during World War II. After that year’s tournament, Argentina’s soccer federation drew a fine because its players stood behind a banner proclaiming in Spanish that Britain’s Falkland Islands belonged to Argentina.

FIFA allowed the display of Palestinian flags in 2022

But when it comes to Palestine or Arab/Muslim sensibilities, FIFA exhibits far greater latitude.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA allowed the display of Palestinian flags while prohibiting team captains from wearing rainbow armbands to support LGBTQ activism, since Qatar criminalizes homosexuality. Morocco’s team often displayed the Palestinian flag, especially after defeating Spain to reach the quarterfinals. The British group UK Lawyers for Israel called for sanctions, but FIFA took no action.

“Rules only make sense if they are consistently applied,” Deutsche Welle’s Mark Meadows wrote at the time. “Whatever your view on the Middle East and the future of the Palestinian Territories, taking their flag onto a football pitch at the World Cup surely counts as a political statement.”

‘A climate of hostility and anger’

The Moroccans’ behavior reflected Qatar’s antagonism toward Israel.

“Israeli fans and reporters were met with a climate of hostility and anger that forced many of them to return to Israel,” wrote Hussein Aboubakar Mansour. “Those who have been following the story got a rare glimpse of the Israeli reality of living amidst a sea of absolute rejection and hostility.”

Arab fans yelled at Israeli reporters during interviews and said they did not belong in Qatar. “There is no Israel, only Palestine,” one shouted at Moav Vardi, KAN’s foreign affairs reporter. To avoid harassment, Israeli reporters said they came from other countries.

Local businesses also refused to serve Israelis. One restaurant owner not only called security to evict an Israeli diner but took the customer’s phone and deleted pictures of the food. Later, a taxi driver evicted the same patron from his cab in the middle of a street.

FIFA followed suit this year. Egypt’s federation has yet to be sanctioned for its coach’s advocacy. As it did in Qatar, FIFA allows the Palestinian flag while banning Iran’s lion-and-sun flag that flew before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Neither was the Israeli flag welcome. During the match between Iran and New Zealand on June 15, security warned a fan carrying an Israeli flag on his shoulders before confiscating it.

“They told me that the head of FIFA and the staff were actually pointing at me and singled me out in a stadium of 100,000 people,” the fan, named Rony, told Fox News. “Just two seats behind me, there were people with Palestinian flags. When I asked about them, they [security] said the head of FIFA didn’t care about that. They cared only about my flag, in particular. I thought we lived in America in 2026, not Nazi Germany in the 1930s.”

Some Palestinian activists want FIFA to expel Israel. On June 11, the World Cup’s first day, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, also called Masar Badil, issued a statement demanding that fans “raise the Palestinian flag and isolate the Zionist entity from international sport.”

Doha News showed activists covering a FIFA sign June 12 with a banner reading, “Kick Israel out of FIFA.” The video included support from social media.

If FIFA capitulates to such pressure, it will have sacrificed its credibility on the altar of appeasement.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested as law enforcement forces began conducting a broad operation against illegal weapons and drugs across the country, the police announced on Monday morning.

The operation involved hundreds of Israel Police and Border Police officers.

At least 34 suspects were arrested, including 20 significant targets the police were familiar with.

“This is what proactive, aggressive, and determined police looks like,” National Securty Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced about the operation.

“Hundreds of police officers and fighters simultaneously raiding dozens of targets and reaching arms and drug dealers – this is exactly the policy we are leading,” he said.

“Moving from defense to offense, pursuing crime and not allowing it to raise its head. I commend the Police Commissioner, the commander of Lahav, the Lahav 433 police, the Border Police fighters, and the special units for their professional and determined activity. We will continue to give the police the tools and backing to strike crime with all our might.”

Lahav 433 arrests Hariri crime organization leaders

Last Thursday, as part of a targeted operation by Lahav 433’s National Unit for Serious and International Crime Investigations against the Hariri crime organization, two of the organization’s leaders were arrested. A court extended their detention until this coming Tuesday.

The two were arrested on suspicion of possessing weapons and violating an administrative restriction order issued under the Law for the Protection of the Public from Criminal Organizations.

The order imposed several restrictions, including full house arrest, a ban on leaving the country, and a prohibition on contact with members of the crime organization.

New Zealand actor Sam Neill died on Monday in Sydney, Australia, his family said in a statement posted on social media.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the statement shared on Instagram read. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer-free.”

The Jurassic Park actor announced in April he was cancer-free after undergoing treatment for stage-three blood cancer.

Neill’s family expressed their gratitude to St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their “incredible” care of the star, and asked for privacy as “they navigate this immeasurable loss.”

Wry, thoughtful, long remembered

“Sam Neill starred in so many beloved Australian stories, and he earned a special place in Australian hearts,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X/Twitter, minutes after the announcement. “Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humor and conviction that gave strength to his every performance.” 

“He will be much mourned and long remembered. May he rest in peace.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters echoed Albanese’s sentiment, adding that “he was a Kiwi icon through his work in both local and Hollywood films that entertained people around the world over decades.”

The number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz fell to multi-week lows on Sunday, according to shipping data, as renewed strikes between the US and Iran and attacks on ships in the Middle East heightened safety concerns.

Six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, ship-tracking data from Kpler showed, the lowest number in five weeks.

Tankers that exited the strait included the Very Large Crude Carrier Humanity, laden with 2 million barrels of Iranian oil, and another tanker, Capetan Andreas, carrying about 500,000 barrels of Kuwaiti oil products, the data showed, while three empty tankers entered the Gulf to load oil. Most of the tankers switched off their transponders when crossing the strait.

There were no liquefied natural gas tankers that entered the strait over the weekend that were visible on ship-tracking data.

One tanker controlled by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co exited the strait between July 10 and July 12, Kpler data showed. The vessel is heading for Dahej port in India.

US strikes dozens of Iranian targets

US forces completed another wave of strikes against Iran on Sunday, hitting dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions, the Central Command said.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial traffic, although Iran declared earlier that it closed the strait after a vessel traveled on an unapproved route and was struck.

Iran’s ​Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that its navy stopped two ships in the Strait of Hormuz last night by shutting down their systems. It did not name the ships involved.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mobilized state National Guard troops on Sunday to battle wildfires on the state’s northern border with Canada.

The fires have covered more than 800 acres in five days and remain uncontained, according to a Minnesota state website. They are among the latest in a swath of fires that have raged across the United States due to hot, dry conditions driven by an El Niño weather pattern.

“I’ve declared a peacetime emergency and mobilized the National Guard to assist with wildfire response in northern Minnesota,” said Walz, a Democrat. “Minnesotans extend our deepest gratitude to all of the first responders working around the clock to keep their neighbors safe.”

Total of 16 fires burning in Minnesota forest

A total of 16 fires are burning in the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota, which normally attracts about 150,000 visitors in the summer.

Park rangers have been escorting visitors out of the park over the weekend, according to the Minnesota Natural Resources Department website.

High temperatures over the weekend increased the fire risk, according to the National Weather Service.

The son of a Belgian man who perished in Spanish wildfires disputed authorities’ claims that his father and other victims ignored official advice to shelter in place, saying the emergency services gave them no guidance.

Belgian virologist Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt told Reuters on Saturday that he spoke to his father, 63-year-old businessman Stanislas Verdonckt, by phone just before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Thursday evening as the fire advanced on the mountain village of Bedar in Spain’s southeastern Almeria province.

Stanislas Verdonckt was among eight victims of the wind-whipped wildfire who were found dead in a valley below the Paraje el Curato area where he lived on the outskirts of Bedar, according to his 33-year-old son. The younger Verdonckt, who lives in Belgium, traveled to Spain after the fire and spoke with surviving neighbors.

No officials told the group that the fire was heading their way or that it would be safer for them to stay at home than flee, Verdonckt said.

“The people who died did not fail to follow any orders because no orders were given. No information was provided,” he said.

“They only started to run when the flames were almost upon them. That was their absolute last resort.”

Gov’t said that local mayors, police went door-to-door, called residents in danger zones

Andalusia’s regional government has said that no text alert was sent to residents, since the advice differed depending on their location in the mountainous, wooded terrain, and on the latest developments in the fast-moving situation.

Instead, local mayors and police went door-to-door or called residents, either indicating a safe evacuation route or instructing them to shelter in place.

In a statement to Reuters on Sunday night, the government disputed Verdonckt’s account, saying that Bedar’s mayor, Angel Collado, had urged the group, including Stanislas Verdonckt, to shelter in place.

“We understand the families’ grief and respect the fact that, in times of immense suffering such as these, anger and a sense of helplessness in the face of tragedy can lead to a different perception of what happened,” the statement said.

Thirteen people, mainly foreigners including Stanislas Verdonckt, along with one Spaniard, died trying to escape the wildfires, which spread to Bedar above the town of Los Gallardos. Their identities have not yet been officially confirmed, and another 10 people have been reported missing. The wildfire, one of Spain’s deadliest, was declared contained by lunchtime on Sunday.

Close enough to touch flames

Verdonckt said a group of neighbors, including his father, first tried to drive away on Thursday night on a paved road, but were beaten back by flames.

“They couldn’t get through via the main road because they were not warned in advance. Nobody told them that the fire was coming from that direction, and when they tried to get out, it was too late,” he said.

The group then tried to flee by car in the other direction on the neighbors’ dead-end dirt lane, which hugs a mountainside. But they could not make it out, abandoned their cars and sought to escape on foot, he said.

“It was not a choice. They drove to the end of the trail, and when even that was in flames, some people chose to run and try to get into the valley,” he said.

A neighbor who survived in his home told Verdonckt that the flames approached close enough to the house to touch, he said.

Verdonckt said his father, a keen hiker and photographer, had a home in the area for many years, knew the terrain well and spoke Spanish.

During their final phone conversation, Verdonckt said his father debated options for protecting himself.

Stanislas Verdonckt was always calm “even in the most desperate situations” and went over his “plan A, B and C,” Verdonckt said.

“My father is one of the smartest people I know. He’s always very analytical and was just checking boxes: ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’,” he said. “At that point, it was just minutes before they were engulfed and they were trapped.”

The Andalusian government said it backed the Bedar mayor’s decision to order citizens to stay in their homes as “the option that offered the greatest guarantees of safety given the conditions of the fire, as, unfortunately, the tragic outcome has made clear.”

The government also provided Reuters with photographs it said showed Stanislas Verdonckt’s home was only lightly damaged by the flames, adding: “It therefore would have been a safe haven.”

A multi-vehicle accident in Mexico caused by a tractor-trailer left nine people dead and some 10 injured, including four US citizens, on a highway in the state of Jalisco, Civil Protection reported on Sunday.

Among the dead are two minors, while the injured include two members of Mexico’s National Guard who are in serious condition and were transferred to the Magdalena Hospital in Guadalajara, the agency report indicated.

Videos on social media from local media showed several vehicles burned on a highway connecting the cities of Guadalajara and Tepic.

The Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit said in a Sunday Facebook post that three private vehicles and two trucks were destroyed in a crash. 

US citizens lightly injured

Additionally, three other private vehicles, including one belonging to Mexico’s National Guard, were damaged.

“Four patients in minor condition, all US citizens, were transferred to the Arboledas Hospital in Guadalajara by a private ambulance from the highway,” Jalisco Civil Protection stated.

The driver of the truck was detained by Mexico’s National Guard, local outlet El Financiero reported on Sunday night.

Jews who voted for NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are “idiot[s]” for embracing a candidate who runs “contrary to their own identity,” Jewish Harvard law professor and attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Wednesday during an appearance on former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani’s show. 

“That’s your city! That’s your city, Mayor,” Dershowitz said to Giuliani. “The same city electing Rudy Giuliani and Mamdani to the same office. It is absurd. I mean, Mamdani should be the mayor of Tehran,” said Dershowitz. 

Dershowitz continued, saying, “My people, the idiot Jews, in New York, who live on the Upper West Side, who live in Park Slope, who voted for Mamdani- remind me of the 7,000 Jews who voted for Hitler.”

“Seven thousand Jews formed a party in 1932 and voted for Hitler, thinking he would be good for the economy.” Dershowitz concluded, “Thank God, we have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, and other Americans who have a lot more sense than many Jewish Americans do.”

Giuliani interjected briefly, saying, “There are a lot of very strong Jews on this issue.” 

Conversation comes after US Supreme Court ruling against Trump

The two agreed that “nothing woke them up in 1932,” referring to Jews who continued to back Nazi-figures as the war began.

“You’d think they’d learn their lesson,” Dershowitz said, “but no, they vote for Brad Lander.” 

Brad Lander, an anti-Israel Jewish-American candidate, is the Mamdani-endorsed nominee for New York’s 10th congressional district, having defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in last month’s primary.

Dershowitz and Giuliani further discussed a wide range of issues, including birthright citizenship, transgender athletes in sports, and campaign finance limits. 

The conversation comes shortly after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s Birthright Citizenship executive order, which attempted to end “birthright citizenship,” instead opting to reaffirm “one of the country’s most enduring constitutional principles: that nearly everyone born on US soil is a US citizen.”

Who are Giuliani, Dershowitz?

Giuliani, a member of the Republican Party who described himself as the tough-on-crime mayor who reshaped New York and led the city’s response to 9/11, has since been permanently disbarred from practicing law for his role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Trump’s behalf. 

Dershowitz’s own reputation has similarly faced scrutiny in recent years over his professional ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender. 

Dershowitz joined Epstein’s legal team and helped negotiate the 2008 non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to serve a reduced sentence. He was later named in a since-withdrawn defamation claim by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who alleged in 2015 that Dershowitz had also abused her; Giuffre dropped those allegations against him in 2022, saying she “may have made a mistake.” 

Dershowitz has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged in connection with the case. 

Israel’s Toto Equals football team won fourth place in the Special Olympics Unified Football World Cup on Saturday after being the first Israeli team to participate in the tournament.

The Toto Equals, which consisted of nine Special Olympics athletes with disabilities and seven Unified partners without disabilities, competed against teams from 11 other nations.

The team’s striker, Tomer Gini, was the tournament’s top scorer, netting 10 goals for the Israeli team and winning the Golden Boot.

The team faced significant challenges as four players, including Gini, were injured throughout the championships but continued to play, winning games against China and the United Arab Emirates.

During the championship’s semi-finals, the Toto Equals lost to the Jamaican and Paraguayan teams, ultimately finishing in fourth place overall.

Israeli team proved ‘heart is greater than any challenge’

The team’s coach, Ofir Haim, stated that he was proud of each player for persevering despite the challenges. 

“This delegation proved that the heart is greater than any challenge,” Haim asserted, adding that the team “represented the State of Israel with great honor and gave their all on the field.”

Special Olympics Israel CEO, Sharon Levy-Blanga, expressed her gratitude for Haim’s dedication and described Israel’s inaugural participation in the tournament as a “historic journey.”

“The players showed the world what perseverance, friendship, and belief in one’s abilities are. We return to Israel not only with champions in football but also with champions in promoting values ​​of tolerance, patience, inclusion, and respect for others,” Levy-Blanga stated.

Survivors of the October 7 Supernova music festival massacre are facing a wave of online abuse from bots, which are suspected to be part of a coordinated campaign by Iran, according to a report by Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA).

According to the report, thousands of bot accounts targeted survivors of the Nova music festival, where 364 people were murdered by Hamas and dozens taken hostage. 

According to the FOA report, social media platforms are failing to act against the bot-posted content, described as a “sustained and multi-layered digital campaign” that hurls abusive comments and shares videos about the survivors.

These posts often call for the survivors’ deaths and question the validity of their experiences on October 7 and its aftermath in an attempt to create false narratives and justify the events of that day, building on conspiracy theories surrounding the massacre.

In their report, the FOA narrowed down the source of the online abuse campaign to the Iranian regime. 

IRGC has a history of leveraging cyber warfare against Islamic regime’s enemies

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has a history of leveraging sophisticated cyber campaigns to attack critical infrastructure and vulnerable individuals, gather intelligence, and impact public opinion through propaganda.

State-sponsored hackers have been known to target organizations and individuals in Israel, the UK, and the US, among other places. From data harvesting to terror recruitment, Tehran has in recent years utilized cyber warfare at varied levels of success.

Propaganda peddled by Iranian bots has slowly made its way into a greater, real-world zeitgeist. Conspiracies revolving around the use of “crisis actors” on October 7, false-flag narratives, outright denialism, and the suggestion that the IDF fired on its own citizens to justify a ground invasion of Gaza have made the rounds.

The FOA pointed out sites like X/Twitter and TikTok as major nodes of harassment toward survivors, as well as general antisemitic memes and videos that “spread hate messages or mock the suffering of civilians.” 

Nova survivors targeted by hate speech, denialism

The report highlighted posts labeling Noa Argamani, a hostage who was held by Hamas for 245 days in Gaza following the October 7 massacre, “a terrorist” and a “whore,” among other things. The same can be said for former hostage Romi Gonen, who has experienced a barrage of hateful posts, according to FOA researchers.

Omri Sassi, a survivor of the Nova massacre, told the Daily Telegraph in an interview that his trauma has been exacerbated by his and other survivors’ encounters with misinformation, denial, and hate speech, to which he responded by staging a London exhibition about the Nova music festival – his attempt to bring truth to those who would deny what happened to the victims of Hamas terrorism. 

The content “explicitly violates terms of service, including calls for violence,” said the FOA. Despite this, posts routinely remain active, untouched by the platforms that host the hate speech. “Survivors are being harmed twice.”

Tomer Aldubi, the founder of FOA, told the Telegraph, “While we are successfully removing extremist content through close cooperation with social media platforms, antisemitism and extreme hatred against Jews, Zionists, and Israelis have spread internationally at a dizzying pace since October 7. We must not give up or be silent.”

Western allies will seek to secure more air-defense commitments for Ukraine when they meet in Paris on Monday, as shortages have left it increasingly exposed to Russian ballistic missiles, despite recent shifts in momentum on the battlefield

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be joined by at least 25 leaders for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, part of broader efforts that include developing a common position to take to Russia and securing guarantees to support any eventual peace deal.

Monday’s meeting comes days after a NATO summit that aimed to show transatlantic unity and long-term support for Ukraine.

Russia launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, killing eight people and wounding dozens more, officials said, as Zelensky called for efforts to provide Kyiv with weapons faster.

Coalition seeks to help Ukraine down ballistic missiles

“The ballistic missiles launched by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin are deliberately targeting civilian zones, and June was one of the most murderous (months) since the start of the war,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with Ouest-France newspaper on Sunday.

Russia says it only attacks targets of military relevance and denies targeting civilians.

Briefing reporters, a French presidential official said the focus would be on anti-ballistic-missile cooperation, ranging from sourcing more US Patriot interceptors and advancing the deployment of the Franco-Italian SAMP-T air defense system to exploring how the European and Ukrainian defense industries can develop alternatives.

One option under consideration was for different European nations to cooperate on a system that would complement SAMP-T and/or Patriot and give Ukraine a significant role in production.

Ukraine is critically low on munitions for its systems and has been largely unable to down ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, over the past month.

It has pleaded with allies for more supplies and has also pushed Europe to work with it on its own anti-ballistic air defense system.

EU to adopt new Russia sanctions package

As Russia’s strikes have increased, Kyiv has also intensified drone attacks inside Russia, targeting oil facilities and weapons production to undermine Moscow’s economic ability to press on with its war.

Leaders will also mull how to crimp Moscow’s sources of revenues, notably the “shadow fleet”, tankers with opaque ownership ⁠structures used to evade oversight to ship Russian oil.

The EU is also set to adopt a 21st package of sanctions on Russia next week.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised announcements on Monday, some of them bilateral, potentially concerning joint arms production.

He also said the coalition could announce joint military exercises as it seeks to make the concept of a future multinational force in Ukraine (MNFU) more of a practical reality.

“What must be remembered is that the MNFU consists of land, air, sea and training. All of these pillars are intended to be tested continuously, to varying degrees, with all participants in order to guarantee their credibility,” the official said.

“It’s not a question of conducting exercises in Ukraine.”

The death of Senator Lindsey Graham this weekend has deprived Israel of one of its most reliable and forthright allies in Washington.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Graham understood that “the security of Israel and America are inseparable,” adding: “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend.”

President Isaac Herzog described the South Carolinian Republican as “a beacon of moral clarity and a true leader of the US-Israel partnership,” recalling how he stood beside Israelis during their most difficult moments.

There was more to these tributes than simply the death of a senior statesman. Graham’s friendship with Israel spanned decades and multiple administrations. It was expressed through legislation, military assistance, repeated visits, and a willingness to defend the Jewish state even when doing so became politically uncomfortable.

The archives of The Jerusalem Post offer a record of that public continuity.

Graham rejects the notion Israel can return to pre-’67 lines

During a visit to Israel with a congressional delegation in 2011, Graham rejected the notion that Israel could safely return to the pre-1967 lines. “From my point of view, I can never imagine an agreement that goes back to the ’67 boundaries because, in my view, those boundaries are indefensible,” he told the Post.

He also sought to reassure Israelis that support for their country remained deeply embedded in Congress. “The purpose of this trip is to try and reinforce, from my point of view, the unwavering support that the State of Israel has in Congress,” Graham said. “Quite frankly, Congress has Israel’s back.”

That would come to define much of Graham’s career. Graham himself was prepared to criticize Israeli policy, yet his starting point never changed: Israel was a democratic ally whose security was both morally important and strategically vital to the United States.

His support also translated into practical action. In 2009, Graham joined Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer to promote legislation intended to strengthen American opposition to commercial boycotts of Israel.

Graham was similarly unequivocal about the danger posed by Iran’s nuclear program. During another visit to Jerusalem with senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman in 2010, he supported maintaining military action as an option, should diplomacy and economic pressure fail.

Graham: ‘The Congress has been united in protection of one of our best allies in the world, the State of Israel’

He again emphasized the depth of congressional support for Israel. “Whatever relationship problems we have had in the past, it has never seeped over into Congress,” Graham said. “The Congress has been united in protection of one of our best allies in the world, the State of Israel.”

The senator also supported relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem, promoted security assistance, opposed attempts to isolate Israel at the United Nations, and backed measures targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

After the October 7 attacks, Graham was among Israel’s most forceful defenders. He visited during wartime and argued that the destruction unleashed by Hamas demonstrated why Israelis could not entrust their survival to promises from hostile actors or an indifferent international community. He was also quick to tie Hamas’s support to Iran. “Without the October 7 massacre happening, I don’t believe Iran would be on the verge of regime collapse,” Graham told the Post’s Amichai Stein in February.

Graham continued to believe that Israel’s long-term future required separation from the Palestinians. In an interview with the Post, he warned that a single state would either cease to be Jewish or leave millions of Palestinians permanently without political rights.

“To be pro-Israel, you need to be honest with Israel,” he said. “Being pro-Israel means telling hard truths.”

That was the deeper value of Graham’s friendship. His commitment was strong enough to withstand disagreement. Israel could trust that criticism came from someone invested in its survival, its democratic character, and its alliance with the United States.

American politics will produce other supporters of Israel. Few will arrive with Graham’s record of service, his personal warmth toward the country, or his instinctive understanding that alliances require attention, defense, and occasional candor.

The US has lost a senator who repeatedly assured Israelis that Congress had their back, and spent more than two decades proving that he meant it. Israel has lost a good friend.

European Union foreign ministers will on Monday explore whether there is enough support for new measures to curb trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to diplomats and officials.

The discussion will be based on a confidential paper by the European Commission that floats three different options – an import licensing system, prohibitive tariffs, or a ban, a senior EU diplomat and a European official said.

The EU has long struggled to take major decisions on Middle East policy because of deep and longstanding divisions among its 27 member countries, particularly on issues related to Israel.

But pressure from member governments to take action on settlements has grown in recent months because of increasing violence by Israeli settlers and frustration with Prime Minister ​Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has expanded settlements.

EU issued sanctions against entities, individuals in May 

In May, the EU imposed sanctions on four entities and three individuals over what it described as serious and systematic human rights abuses in the West Bank.

In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice claimed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were illegal and that states should take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that help maintain the situation.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last year described a push by some European governments to implement the advisory opinion as “shameful.”

UN bodies have previously alleged Israel’s settlements in the West Bank were illegal. Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed and saying a Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of ​years.

“I think what you will see on Monday is a discussion on the options, and we will get a bit of a picture of where everybody is,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential internal deliberations.

Formal decision may not be reached on Monday

Diplomats said they did not expect a formal decision on any particular measure on Monday.

Divisions over the issue also extend to how any decision could be taken.

Some diplomats say banning trade with the settlements would require a qualified majority – at least 15 EU states, representing ​65% of the bloc’s population. But the Commission’s paper suggests it believes a ban could require unanimous support, a bar that would make a decision highly unlikely.

European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho has confirmed that a paper has been shared with member countries but declined to comment on its contents. 

US Senator Mitch McConnell said he will not rejoin the Senate when it returns to work on Monday because he is still recovering from a fall and from pneumonia.

“As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time,” McConnell said in a statement on Sunday, his first since he was hospitalized last month. “And on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet.”

MCCONNELL releases a photo – and statement.

“To my fellow Kentuckians –

“When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our Commonwealth’s longest serving Senator, you did so trusting that I’d keep showing up to fight for you every day. And over the past several weeks,… pic.twitter.com/YTzTXDhEgu

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 12, 2026

He said that he suffered a fall in mid-June that left him briefly unconscious. While hospitalized, he developed pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics, according to a separate statement that McConnell’s office attributed to the attending physician. The physician was not identified.

McConnell, 84, said he is now at a rehabilitation center, which he did not name.

He will focus on “physical therapy and strategies to reduce his risk of future falls,” according to the physician’s statement.

Out of public view for nealy a month, hospitalized for undisclosed reasons

The Kentucky Republican and former Senate majority leader, who now chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said he has been working with his legislative staff on current issues and keeping in touch with Senate colleagues.

McConnell has been out of public view since mid-June, when he was taken from his home to a hospital in the Washington area for ​reasons that were not disclosed until the latest statement.

Less than a day earlier, the office of US Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the chamber’s most prominent members, announced that he had died from a heart ailment.

Givat Ze’ev, a settlement in the West Bank, has been officially declared a city in Israel following IDF Central Command Chief Avi Bluth’s signature on Sunday.

Givat Ze’ev, located five kilometers northwest of Jerusalem, was founded in 1977 within the borders of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, but existed as its own municipal entity. Nearly 35,000 people live in the settlement, which has one of the highest rates of population growth in the country.

With the official signing of the decree, the settlement’s status changed from that of a local council to an official municipality recognized by the Israeli government. 

The status upgrade aims to align the municipal framework with planned development, scaling, and residential services. 

Support from MK Smotrich, a controversial development

The Mayor of Givat Ze’ev, Yossi Asraf, said in an announcement, “Thank God, a historic moment for Givat Ze’ev. This is a tremendous boost to the settlements in the Jerusalem envelope. Becoming a city is first and foremost a massive growth engine and truly good news for our residents.”

“Alongside the new status and development momentum, we are stepping up our capabilities, while preserving our warm, rural, and community atmosphere. This is the beating heart of Givat Ze’ev, and it will remain so,” Asraf added.

“I thank the Central Command Chief and all the professional bodies for their comprehensive work. We will continue to act with full vigor to lead our city to new achievements for the quality of life of our residents.”

Britain will spend over £250 million ($335 million) across the next three years to better protect its Jewish communities, the government said on Monday, following a series of recent antisemitic attacks.

The funding will deliver over 500 additional officers across England and Wales, boosting security in Jewish neighborhoods and around schools, synagogues and community centers, the government said.

There has been a string of attacks on Jewish-linked sites in ​the capital, including the torching of four Jewish community ambulances in March. In April, Britain raised its national terrorism ​threat level to “severe” from “substantial” in response to an antisemitic stabbing attack in north London.

The new package, which is on top of a £25 million funding announcement following the stabbings in April, includes around 300 additional officers in London and around 80 in Greater Manchester – where a synagogue was attacked last year – alongside £43 million for forces serving other areas with significant Jewish populations.

Rise in antisemitism tests British values

“The rise in antisemitism we have seen in recent years is a test of our values as a country and tackling it has been central to my leadership from day one,” outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in Monday’s statement.

London’s Metropolitan Police is due to receive £86 million from the new funding, while £59 million was earmarked for counter-terrorism policing.

Police will increase patrols at times of heightened vulnerability, offering visible reassurance and helping to deter hate crime and antisemitic incidents, the government said.

President Isaac Herzog hosted a ceremony commemorating 50 years since Operation Entebbe at the president’s residence in Jerusalem on Sunday, underscoring Israel’s responsibility to protect its citizens in the war with Iran.

He was joined by his wife, First Lady Michal Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir. They sat among Entebbe survivors and their families along with veterans from the Uganda hostage rescue mission in 1976.

“Operation Yonatan [Entebbe] was one of the most extraordinary operations in Israel’s history,” Herzog said at the event. “It was also a moral declaration. On that night, the State of Israel established a principle that still resonates in our generation: there are borders to the state, but there is no limit to our responsibility.”

The president went on to identify the evening as a reminder of Israel’s commitment to protecting and rescuing the “sons and daughters” of the land, no matter where they are in the world. 

Zamir echoed Herzog’s sentiment, contextualizing the Entebbe anniversary against the backdrop of the landscape in Israel since October 7. 

“We march with resolve and a sense of historic responsibility along those same paths, near and far, to secure the safety of our citizens,” he said. “This has been our guiding compass since that night in Entebbe, and all the more so since October 7th, rooted in a deep and clear understanding: we, and we alone, are responsible for the lives and safety of our citizens.”

US-Iran escalations evoke lessons from Entebbe

The July 12 event came in the wake of recent re-escalations in the current war as the US and Iran began trading strikes once again. Netanyahu took the opportunity to discuss the ongoing conflict.

“It taught the world that it is possible, and necessary, to stand firm against bloodthirsty terrorists, to strike them, and to defeat them,” the prime minister said. “That is what we are doing in the current war: we are systematically dismantling the Iranian axis of evil, which sought to advance its plan for Israel’s destruction.”

Netanyahu’s older brother, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, was the only soldier killed in the Entebbe rescue mission, alongside three Israeli hostages. 102 others were rescued after a plane was hijacked on its way from Tel Aviv to Paris.

“There is not a day that I don’t think of Yoni. There is not a day that I don’t consult with Yoni. I am certain the same is true for others. The spirit of Entebbe continues within us, and it guides the path of our heroic soldiers today as well,” Netanyahu added. 

Operation Entebbe marked its official 50th anniversary on July 3 with a number of events, memorials, and formal addresses.

A fire broke out in a pub in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 27 people overnight between Sunday and Monday.

The fire, which broke out in the bar “Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao,” is one of the deadliest incidents in the tourism hub in recent years,

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the site of the fire in the early hours of Monday, told reporters that based on survivor accounts, the pub rapidly filled with smoke after a fire broke out, forcing many to run to the back of the venue near the bathrooms, but there were no fire escapes.

“We have recovered 27 bodies; others are being sent to the hospital,” said the prime minister.

A Bangkok metropolitan administration official announced that 63 others were injured in the blaze, which reportedly occurred in front of the stage area of the bar.

Bangkok’s governor announced that 22 out of the 63 injured people are in critical condition.

The site is one of the most popular venues in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district, with firefighters needing 35 minutes to bring the flames under control, according to local authorities. By the time rescuers arrived, the fire had mostly burned through the venue, said the official.

Charnvirakul added that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

The Jerusalem Post reached out to the Foreign Ministry to investigate if any Israelis were present.

Mathilda Heller, Jonah Davidov, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said that the IDF will only withdraw from Lebanon if Hezbollah is removed from pilot zones in the country’s south, during an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” broadcast on Sunday.

“If Hezbollah is going to stay there, we haven’t accomplished anything, and that’s why they’re called pilot zones,” said Leiter. “If it works, then we continue the withdrawal. If it doesn’t work, then we stay where we are.”

Leiter, one of the lead representatives on the matter in Washington, stressed that the withdrawal plan is not delayed and that the framework hinges on the Lebanese Armed Forces being “receptive” to the pilot zones.

“Hezbollah has no business in Lebanon,” he said. “As a matter of fact, Israel and Lebanon are on the same page. We want Hezbollah out for our security and for their sovereignty. We can withdraw the moment that Hezbollah is dismantled.”

Leiter referred to himself as “leading the negotiations on Israel’s behalf with Lebanon,” saying he knows “a thing or two about the trilateral agreement.”

He emphasized Israel’s refusal to return to a situation where the country is threatened by an Iranian terror proxy on its border firing rockets and planning attacks, “like Hamas did on October 7.”

He added that talks between Israel and Lebanon are set to continue in Rome, noting that his attendance will depend on plans for the funeral of the late US Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on Saturday following health complications.

Iran has ‘no business in Lebanon’

When asked about the relationship between the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Israel’s negotiations with Lebanon, Leiter responded that the Islamic regime has “no business” in the region.

“What the agreement with Lebanon does is completely remove Iran from the paradigm,” said Leiter. “Iran is not to be involved in Lebanon.”

He noted that US President Donald Trump “has been consistent” throughout the war with Iran, saying that Israel will join the Americans in their current campaign against the Islamic Republic if requested to do so.

“We’re a partner, we’re an ally,” he said. “If the United States calls on us to rejoin kinetic activity against Iran, we’re going to be there for the United States.”

No ‘I told you so’ attitude toward US on Iran

Leiter pushed back against claims of an Israeli “I told you so” attitude toward the US following criticism of the MoU, saying that it’s “not the nature of our relationship.”

“We express our opinion,” said Leiter. “We saw flaws, but we also expressed hope that it would work.”

“If we have Iran that’s denuclearized, not building ballistic missiles, not supporting proxies around the region, just not being a menacing, mayhem-spreading regime, then we will have accomplished it without kinetic activity,” he added. “We have doubts about the possibility of that actually working, but all we do is express our opinion.”

Late US senator Lindsey Graham was pushing to get an Israel-Saudi normalization deal done by November, before the next US Congress is sworn in, Axios reported on Sunday, citing conversations held with Graham over the last couple of weeks.

According to Axios, Graham thought Israel-Saudi normalization could be the “big prize” product of the war with Iran, with the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz pushing Arab countries towards a new round of diplomatic arrangements with Israel, similar to the Abraham Accords.

The report mentioned that Graham thought an agreement would be possible if it happened between October, when elections are scheduled in Israel, and November.

Additionally, Graham believed that an agreement would only be possible if the war in Iran was “brought under control,” and he urged, on several occasions, an “overwhelming” military operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy failed.

Finally, the deal would require two key factors: securing enough Democratic votes to reach two-thirds of the US Congress supporting the bill, and the next Israeli government being willing to accept Saudi Arabia’s normalization demands.

Saudi Arabia pushing to leave Israel out of IMEC

While Graham pushed for normalization, sources told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the Saudis were planning a significant change in the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) to sideline Israel from the trade initiative.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, the new proposal aims to reroute the corridor through Syria instead of Israel. The original proposal established that the final connection between the Middle East and Europe would be through the port of Haifa.

Additionally, Samantha Sutton, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Director at the US National Security Council, told the Post on the sidelines of an IMEC Initiative workshop hosted on July 1 and 2 by the Maritime Policy and Strategy Center that Israel must not miss the chance to form part of the IMEC initiative.

According to Sutton, the IMEC initiative has Haifa as one of its target ports, with plans to improve the port’s infrastructure to make it suitable for commerce among Europe, India, and the Middle East.

Amichai Stein contributed to this report.

For nearly three years, we’ve begged the world to believe us.

Believe Israeli women. Take antisemitism seriously. Stop excusing people who profit from hate. We watched as the world embraced the double standard so many Israelis came to describe with one painful phrase: #MeTooUnlessYoureAJew. 

Which is why this weekend felt like such a punch in the gut.

A controversial online personality with a public record of inflammatory rhetoric and associations with figures including Myron Gaines, Sneako, Andrew Tate, and Nick Fuentes arrived in Israel and was welcomed by several Israeli creators. Photos were taken. Videos were filmed. Invitations were extended. To millions watching online, the message wasn’t nuanced. It looked like Israel was rolling out the red carpet for a known sexual predator.

That should concern every one of us. But this isn’t really about Clavicular. It’s about us.

It’s about a growing culture within parts of Israel’s advocacy and creator community that mistakes influence for integrity. Somewhere along the way, we started believing that if someone has enough followers, we should be grateful they’re willing to talk to us at all — even if they have spent years platforming hatred, extremism, or misogyny.

Frankly, it’s desperate.

And desperation is a terrible strategy.

Before many of these collaborations happened, concerns about Clav’s public record had already been raised. Despite those warnings, some creators moved forward anyway. One publicly invited Israeli women to come party with him and Clav. Others dismissed criticism by insisting that those raising concerns simply “didn’t understand the strategy” or were being emotional.

I don’t buy it.

The outcome speaks for itself.

Instead of creating goodwill for Israel, the conversation became about why Israeli creators were choosing to embrace someone whose online ecosystem has long been associated with antisemitism, misogyny, and extremism.

That isn’t strategic. It’s self-inflicted. Israeli women deserve answers. 

Who funded this trip?

Who organized it?

Who decided this represented Israel well?

How did someone with such a widely documented public record gain this level of access in the first place? If organizations were involved, they owe the public transparency. If private individuals coordinated it, they should explain why they believed this served Israel’s interests.

Because here’s the reality: the internet doesn’t distinguish between a private collaboration and an official welcome. When millions of people see someone touring Israel alongside Israeli creators, they don’t ask who paid for the flight. They conclude that Israel embraced him.

That perception has consequences.

I’ve spent years saying that loving Israel doesn’t mean defending every decision Israelis make. It means believing we’re capable of better. The same applies to our creator community. We don’t have to chase everyone with a platform. We don’t have to abandon our values because someone has millions of followers. We don’t have to confuse attention with legitimacy.

We get to decide who represents us. We get to decide what kind of community we’re building.

I want to be part of a creator community that stands for something. One that understands our values are our greatest asset, not an obstacle to growth. One that knows saying “no” is sometimes the strongest statement we can make.

Because the community we build today is the one we’ll all have to live in tomorrow. So let’s build one rooted in integrity instead of insecurity. One that rewards courage over clout, principles over proximity to power, and character over clicks.

Israel deserves that.

Names, not just a pattern

I’ve spent this piece describing a phenomenon. But phenomena are made of individual choices, made by people I know, and I’m not going to hide behind the abstraction.

Tal, I considered you a friend. I spent time advising you, connecting you with organizations, and welcoming you into this space. We warned you about Clav’s record before you filmed those videos with him. You went ahead anyway, and now you’re denying you knew.

Moshe and Daniel — over the weekend, in group chats and on calls, you told the rest of us there was “a greater strategy that we women don’t see because we’re emotional about sexual assault.” There was no strategy. There was a s***show, and it landed exactly where we said it would. The two of you are the public faces of Let’s Do Something, the organization you built after our friend David Newman was murdered at the Nova festival on October 7th. David would not have wanted his memory attached to a weekend spent partying with a man who was filmed singing along to a Nazi-referencing song alongside Nick Fuentes at a Miami nightclub. That contrast is not something a “strategy” defense survives.

Shira — the death threats you’re receiving are disgusting, and nothing in this piece should be read as an excuse for them. At the same time, you posted #BelieveAllIsraeliWomen after October 7 — and then you spent a weekend generating content with a man who is a known antisemitic predator. Both things are true. Holding you accountable for the second doesn’t require excusing the first. Take down the videos, apologize. 

Thank you to men in this space like Aaron Morali, who made sure Clav was kicked out of Tel Aviv’s Loullie beach club — and shame on Shalvata for welcoming him with open arms.

What this exposes

This weekend wasn’t just a failure of judgment by a handful of creators. It exposed a bigger problem: we need higher standards.

Not every audience is worth winning at any cost. Not every collaboration is strategic simply because it reaches millions of people. Israel should absolutely engage critics. We should have uncomfortable conversations. We should be willing to sit across the table from people who disagree with us. 

But engagement is not endorsement. Trying to change someone’s mind is not the same as handing them legitimacy, and strategy should never become an excuse for abandoning our values. As creators, whether we asked for it or not, we’re ambassadors. Every collaboration, every photo, every video tells the world something about who we are and what we stand for. That comes with an ethical responsibility.

For nearly three years, we’ve asked the world to believe Israeli women. To take antisemitism seriously. To understand that values matter. Those values can’t just be talking points we deploy when it’s convenient. They have to be the standard we hold ourselves to, too.

I’ve always believed that loving Israel doesn’t mean pretending we’re perfect. It means believing we’re capable of better. It means calling each other in, holding each other accountable, and building the kind of community we’d actually be proud to represent. Because at the end of the day, our credibility isn’t built by who takes a selfie with us. It’s built by what we’re willing to say no to.

Let’s build a creator community rooted in integrity instead of insecurity. One that values character over clicks, principles over proximity, and impact over influence.

That’s the community I want to be part of. 

And I know I’m not the only one.

The writer is an activist and content creator. Raised in Jerusalem and living in Tel Aviv, she has become a leading voice on and offline for liberal Zionism. A third-generation IDF veteran with over a decade in Israel advocacy, Hallel has created and executed content for dozens of major organizations. She is an associate at the Tel Aviv Institute.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has essentially been running Venezuela from Washington, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

According to more than a dozen government officials and sources close to both Washington and Caracas, Rubio now controls Venezuela’s finances, government, and natural resources.

He has not visited the South American country since the US captured former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January.

However, Rubio is heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the country. He constantly speaks to interim President Delcy Rodríguez in Spanish on WhatsApp and has reportedly developed a warm working relationship with Maduro’s former right-hand woman.

Sources were careful to note to the NYT that despite the pair’s congenial relationship, Rubio holds immense power over Rodríguez.

Neither Rubio nor the Venezuelan government responded to the NYT’s request for an interview or comment.

Rubio has repeatedly downplayed his role in Venezuela, and usually does not comment on his responsibilities there.

He also has been denying the accusations that the US occupied the country.

“There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country. There are no US troops on the ground,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January.

How is the US managing Venezuela?

This comes as Trump has indicated that he is interested in returning to an expansionist foreign policy, and has floated taking over Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and, importantly, Venezuela.

Notably, Rubio’s three-step plan to help reinvigorate Venezuela does involve pivoting the country to a democracy.

Rubio has said that his plan so far is to: recover Venezuela’s economy, stabilize the country, and transition to a democracy.

Before the earthquakes that killed over 4,000 people earlier this month, he claimed he was in the process of stabilizing the country, specifically through a myriad of economic and business measures.

The US Treasury reportedly takes revenue from most of Venezuela’s exports and disburses the funds through the country’s private banks. Rubio and the State Department have direct control over the revenue, and set the conditions on who can spend the money and what the Venezuelan government is allowed to spend it on.

Now, the scheme has allowed Rubio to stop Venezuela’s massive corruption schemes. It’s also allowed the Venezuelan government to receive revenue without being hounded by creditors seeking repayment under the protection of the Treasury.

Thus, Rodríguez depends on Rubio to pay government workers and prop up the country’s economy.

Rubio also oversees the applications of the US’s sanctions on Venezuela, and decides who gets to do business in the country. He has worked to reshape the oil sector and bolstered US businesses’ access to the country, sources told the NYT.

Sources told the NYT that Rubio has taken over efforts to open up Venezuela’s energy sector to foreign investment, over Chris Wright, Trump’s energy secretary.

In return, Rodríguez does mostly everything Rubio says. She runs most high-level government appointments by him, she extradites Venezuelans who have come into trouble with the US Justice Department, and she allows him to dictate foreign policy.

For example, at the onset of the war with Iran, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil released a soft statement condemning the war.

The administration told Rodríguez to have him take the post down, and warned her against publicly supporting an enemy of the US.

Gil deleted the post a few hours later.

In another notable instance, Venezuela took over operations of oil projects it co-owns with Russia’s state-run Rosneft after Rubio warned Rodríguez not to do business with US adversaries. 

In another example of Rodríguez’s deference to the administration, she refused to give some public appearances without Trump’s approval.

Fox News’s Bret Baier had asked Rodríguez for an interview earlier this year. She reportedly told him that Trump himself would have to approve. Sources told the NYT that Trump loved her immediate submission to his power and has repeatedly told the story to others when she comes up in conversation.

How did Rubio become viceroy of Venezuela?

Back in January, shortly after Maduro was captured, Rubio got Rodríguez on the phone. In Spanish, he told her that she had a choice between working with the US government or watching as the US launched a broader attack on Venezuela.

She chose the former.

US President Donald Trump said that Rodríguez told Rubio that she’s “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” 

He later told the NYT that the US could run Venezuela for years.

Since then, Rubio has been dubbed by other officials as “viceroy”, the title for governors in the Spanish colonial empire. Before the earthquakes earlier this month in Venezuela, Rodríguez had asked Rubio for greater financial autonomy and for sanctions on her country to be scrapped to reduce internal pressure.

Then, the earthquakes killed thousands of people and left Venezuela’s economy in shambles

Now, it’s unclear where Rubio is in his plan to assist Venezuela. The natural disaster paused investment deals. The oil sector, which the administration has focused the lion’s share of its deals on, is corrupt and deteriorating.

As for transitioning Venezuela to a democracy, Rodríguez has not given a clear answer on when elections could be held.

Additionally, Maria Corina Machado, the country’s exiled opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner, has repeatedly tried to return since the earthquakes and has been blocked by Rodríguez’s government.

Venezolanos, sobre mi regreso a Venezuela: pic.twitter.com/UhSCsM3ovi

— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) June 29, 2026

In a video address last month, she told Venezuelans that she was “willing to do whatever it takes” to get back and assist relief efforts. 

However, some Trump administration officials called her desire to return “grotesque,” and accused her of “political opportunism.”

“She wants a photo op of her passing out our aid,” one official told Axios. “It’s about her interests.”

“Marco [Rubio] is at wit’s end,” another US official said. “She has to be patient, and she won’t be, and it’s driving him crazy.”

Notably, Rubio used to be a supporter of Machado and co-signed a letter supporting her nomination for the Nobel Prize for her efforts to “bring a democratic peace to Venezuela to benefit her country, as well as the region and the world.”

Since then, the two have grown apart. Sources told the NYT that the administration is unwilling to help her return to Venezuela for fear of provoking political unrest at an already complicated time for the country. Machado also has known enemies in Venezuela’s current leadership, which is partially why the administration chose Rodriguez over her.

For now, as the country recovers from the quakes and gets investment deals back on track, it’s clear that Venezuela has a long way to go before it can begin transitioning to democratic elections.

And further, when elections happen and on what grounds likely will not be Venezuela’s choice; it will be Rubio’s.

US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by settlers (he made no distinctions between violent settlers and violent Jews living inside the Green Line) armed with US-made rifles during a visit to the West Bank last week, a story that he tweeted out on Saturday.

Khanna, who has served California’s 17th district since 2017, is among Congress’s most vocal critics of the Israeli government and has backed legislation that would block offensive or defensive weapons sales to Israel in order to penalize it over what he characterizes as genocide in Gaza.

The US congressman was in the region last week, meeting with Palestinians while avoiding meeting with Israeli officials, though he visited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2024 as part of a large congressional delegation.

Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles while touring Khirbet Zanuta, whose residents were forcibly displaced by settler raids in December 2024.

The official Israeli account essentially concurs with Khanna’s version of events up until this point.

There are significant discrepancies between Khanna’s narrative and the IDF’s

According to Israeli officials, the incident itself constitutes a grave failure on the Israeli side, both for failing to prevent the harassment and, as of press time, for failing to detain the settlers involved (though officials do bring statistics that Palestinian terror is far worse).

However, moving on to the narrative surrounding the IDF’s conduct during the event, there are significant discrepancies.

The IDF said that its forces dispersed the settlers who were unlawfully detaining and harassing Khanna and his group.

According to military sources who spoke to The Jerusalem Post, the IDF did not detain Khanna in any way, and the US congressman did not communicate with the military before or after his visit.

This was partly how he was able to be accosted, given that he had no escort, and clearly did not want one.

In addition, the IDF and the Israel Police said that no official complaint has been filed that would be a basis for them to seek to arrest those involved.

Rep. Khanna responded to an inquiry from the Post about the incident, saying, “The Israeli government is lying to cover up for four IDF soldiers who aided violent settlers brandishing M4 guns and threatening American lives. I am calling for their arrest and prosecution.”

A spokeswoman for Khanna then referred the Post to Nadav Weiman, who helped run Khanna’s tour of the area.

Weiman is the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group that say it aims “to expose the public to the daily reality of the occupation and Israeli military rule over the Palestinian civilian population in the territories.”

The groups also say, “we all agree that the occupation cannot be a solution and must be ended, as military rule over a civilian population can never be moral or humane.”

According to Weiman’s account of the incident, there were two primary offenders among the settlers, one man who held an M4 with a silencer and one who had a handgun.

Weiman passed the name of the man holding the handgun to the Post, which then asked the police and the IDF whether they had identified the individual, were pursuing him, and sought to contact him for a response.

During the period of time that two vehicles of settlers were blocking Khanna’s group from leaving the area, about 20 minutes passed, according to Weiman.

Weiman called the Israeli Police while Khanna’s team called the US embassy for assistance

Simultaneously, Weiman and some of the other travelers called the Israel Police for assistance, while Khanna or members of his staff called the US Embassy for assistance.

Interestingly, Weiman said that it was the settlers who called the IDF officials who ended up arriving at the scene after 20 minutes.

Next, he said that the IDF soldiers present, including a contingent of relatively right-wing sounding female soldiers, blocked Khanna from leaving the area for another 40 minutes.

Further, Weiman said that none of the soldiers approached Khanna to discuss the situation or clarify who he was.

Rather, he said that the only interaction they had was when he exited his car and approached the soldiers to ask for help and inform them of Khanna’s status as a prominent US official, to which they responded dismissively.

Moreover, Weiman stated that none of the soldiers came to speak to Khanna or assisted him in any way to leave the area where the settlers had blocked his exit, even after he conveyed to them that the police headquarters had instructed the soldiers to allow Khanna and his entourage to leave.

Weiman recounted that the soldiers said they would not receive instructions from the police headquarters but only from a police officer who would arrive in person on the scene.

About two minutes later, when a police officer finally arrived on the scene, the settlers suddenly rushed back to their cars and raced away, he said.

Police, IDF arrive on the scene

The police officer took two minutes to take the details of Khanna and his entourage and then ordered the IDF to move their vehicles so that the American official could leave the scene.

While Weiman did not know for sure, he estimated that the soldiers had warned the settlers that a policeman was about to arrive so that they would have time to escape.

Asked whether Khanna and his entourage were improperly present in a closed military zone without coordination and clearance, Weiman responded that this was “turning justice upside down.”

He said the area was declared a closed military zone only to prevent violent Jewish extremists from entering after they had harassed the Palestinian village there so severely that its residents abandoned their land.

Accordingly, Weiman said that outsiders visiting the abandoned village to draw scrutiny to the settlers’ violations could not constitute a violation of any kind.

Weiman also promised to send additional video footage of the incident but said he was working through various technical problems to be able to share the footage at press time.

While the police and IDF, as noted above, issued initial responses to Khanna and his entourage’s initial narrative, at press time, neither had provided an updated response to the more detailed account that the Post received on Sunday.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa spoke at the opening of the newly formed People’s Assembly on Sunday, in a historic event for Syria.

Bashar al-Assad‘s regime fell in December 2024.

In 2025, Syria spent the year trying to unite the country and begin its complex process of appointing members of the new parliament. The final members were recently chosen by the president after a vote last year. The voting was done by electors, so the parliament still does not reflect a widespread vote.

Nevertheless, this is a major step for Syria.

New Syrian parliament is more diverse, including many female, minority representatives

Many commentators online noted that, unlike in the Assad era when he would receive a dictator’s round of applause, with sycophants in the rubber-stamp parliament applauding him, now there is no cheering for Sharaa.

Instead, the new Syria has a more diverse parliament, with, for instance, one Kurdish woman representative wearing traditional Kurdish clothes.

The woman in Kurdish clothes was Fasla Yousef, a senior member of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS). She is one of five Kurds who won elections held in Kobane, Hasaka, Qamishli, and Derik, bringing the total number of Kurdish representatives in the interim parliament to at least eight, including three elected in Afrin in October 2025, Rudaw noted. She represents Hasakah along with Ibrahim Mustafa al-Ali and Omar Issa Hais.

Commentators also pointed to the fact that one woman appeared in a full veil and the presence of a Syrian actress who was appointed.

Actress Rozina Lazkani, 36, was selected as one of President Sharaa’s 70 appointees earlier this month. It was not clear who the woman in the full veil was.

Men in the new parliament also come from a variety of backgrounds. There are Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, Sunnis, and others represented in the new parliament. It is believed that there are six Christians, five Alawites, and three Ismailis in the new parliament.

An article at New Lines Magazine by Abdullah al-Ghadhawi, “I went through the resumes of all 210 members, starting with the 140 whose backgrounds show how the parliament was born of the 13-year war, not of party life. The overwhelming majority of members come largely from no declared party and ran on no institutional platform.”

He noted that “instead, they rose through the social and political networks that Syrians built after 2011, including the opposition movement and its local armed factions, Sharia councils and local councils, relief organizations and field hospitals, free professional unions, civil defense groups, reconciliation committees, town notables and Kurdish parties.”

Syrian state media SANA noted that Sharaa “called on members of Syria’s newly formed People’s Assembly to make the legislature a model of responsibility, competence and institutional governance, urging lawmakers to promote dialogue, uphold the rule of law and help build a modern Syrian state.” He spoke at the first session, which had been postponed last week.

“President al-Sharaa said humanity had long sought the best way to govern public affairs, stressing that consultation and consensus remained the most effective means of achieving the common good.” He added, “there is no better path than consultation and consensus,” he said, adding that “mutual acceptance is essential to overcoming division, resolving differences and reaching sound judgment.” Syria is entering a new chapter, he said. Last week he hosted the French president in Damascus and also met US President Donald Trump in Ankara on the sidelines of a NATO summit.

The Syrian People’s Assembly elected Member of Parliament Abdul Hamid Akil al-Awak as the Speaker of the new council. He secured a majority of 99 votes during the parliamentary session, SANA noted. It also noted that Moayad Hayel al-Qablawi and Mohammad Ramez Koraj had sought the position. Awak was born in 1966 and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Aleppo in 1990. Awak is considered a legal expert from Hasakah Governorate.

140 members were chosen through elections to the new parliament

A total of 140 members of the new parliament were elected by a limited number of electors in each area of Syria. The president appointed 70 members of the new parliament.

Only the Sweida area did not participate in the process, as it is governed by a Druze leadership seeking autonomy or independence and does not recognize the new government in Damascus. Nevertheless, a pro-government Druze figure, Laith al-Balous, was appointed to the new parliament.

Rudaw Kurdish media network noted that the “new parliament will serve a 30-month term and is expected to review previous decrees, pass legislation and begin drafting a new constitution. The assembly’s composition has drawn criticism from some Kurdish politicians, who argue that Kurdish representation falls well below the community’s share of Syria’s population. Only a handful of Kurds are among the presidential appointees, while nine Kurdish lawmakers were elected from northeast Syria, known as Rojava.”

Several Kurdish members from the ENKS or KNC parties were appointed.

Rudaw noted that “senior Kurdish National Council (ENKS) official Sulaiman Oso previously said he hoped Kurdish lawmakers would effectively represent their constituents.” Oso said, “We wish them success, and I hope that they are the voices of our people in the Syrian parliament and obtain Kurdish rights in the new constitution and work to make Kurdish the official language in Kurdish areas,” Rudaw noted.

Turkey’s Special Envoy to Syria Nuh Yilmaz noted, “The Syrian People’s Assembly opens today. I congratulate all the Syrian people. Syria waited for decades to regain its popular sovereignty, gave hundreds of thousands of lives, and hundreds of thousands of people wasted away their lives in prisons. Syria has more than earned this.”

The Syria in Transition magazine noted that a poll of Syrians about the new assembly found that only 14 percent believed it was representative, and only 10 percent felt it would influence decisions.

Many said they didn’t know what would come next. It shows that many Syrians are either skeptical or taking a wait-and-see approach. Having lived under Assad regime rule since the 1970s and then in 13 years of civil war where much of the country was destroyed, and millions had to flee abroad, it is no surprise people are skeptical.

Levant24 noted that Sharaa said, “Since the beginning of humanity, people have searched for the best way to manage their interests. Acceptance and consensus are a means to overcome disagreements.” He also said “we are partners in building responsibility, and the council today is a platform for truth and justice…I call on you to make this council a model of responsibility and competence, and to contribute to strengthening the culture of dialogue, the rule of law and respect for institutions.”

The IDF killed several Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday as they planned attacks against Israeli soldiers, the military announced.

The terrorists were inside a Hamas weapons production site at the time of the strike, the existence of which violated the ceasefire agreement, the IDF noted.

According to the IDF, the terrorists were attempting to rehabilitate Hamas’s military capabilities and were planning attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Two Hamas terrorists killed following attempted terror attacks

On Saturday, the IDF killed two Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip in separate strikes following attempted terror attacks on Israeli soldiers in the area of the Yellow Line, the military announced earlier on Sunday.

Hamas terrorist Hassan Mustafa Zahir al-Razina attempted to plant explosives near soldiers before being killed in an IDF strike, the military said.

The second target, Hamas Nukhba terrorist Mohammad Mahmoud Abd al-Mu’ti Fayyoumi, was killed in a separate strike after planning terror attacks against IDF soldiers in Gaza, the military added.

It was a cold, gray morning in Jerusalem in late December 2014, and the Prime Minister’s Office was abuzz. The corridors of diplomacy were busier than usual. Israel was still reeling from months of fighting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

Just months earlier, the framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, obsessively negotiated by US secretary of state John Kerry, had collapsed. As so often happened, much of the international community placed the blame squarely on Israel.

At home, the political landscape was equally unsettled. Earlier that month, the Knesset had dissolved itself, triggering new elections for March 2015.

Yet none of these developments weighed more heavily on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than Iran.

Just weeks before, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China, along with Germany known as the P5+1, had gathered in Vienna and appeared on the verge of finalizing what would become the JCPOA  (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), better known as the Iran nuclear deal. To Kerry’s disappointment, Iran continued to play games, and the negotiations were extended by another seven months.

It was against this backdrop that Sen. Lindsey Graham strode confidently through the glass doors of the Aquarium at the Prime Minister’s Office, greeting everyone with a warm smile and an easy confidence. He always reminded me of football legend Barry Sanders, who famously never celebrated his touchdowns because, as he put it, “It’s not my first time in, and it won’t be my last.” There was the same quiet professionalism about Graham. Crossing the foyer, he extended his hand as Prime Minister Netanyahu greeted him warmly: “Welcome back to Jerusalem.”

It was hardly his first visit.

Lindsey Graham’s steadfast support of Israel

Over decades of public service, Sen. Graham became one of Congress’s most frequent visitors to Israel. Combined with Netanyahu’s countless trips to Washington, the two had forged a longstanding relationship built on mutual respect and trust. At that critical moment, there was no one the prime minister was more eager to see.

Although the discussion touched on the Palestinian issue, the heart of the meeting was Iran and the urgent need to prevent the regime from forcing a deal that would ultimately allow them to acquire nuclear weapons capability. There was no convincing required from our side of the table. Sen. Graham was already fully aligned with our assessment, and understood better than most, the magnitude of the threat Iran posed not only to Israel but to the broader Middle East and beyond.

After an extended private meeting, we walked into the cabinet room to face the cameras. Graham was measured and diplomatic before the press. Behind closed doors, however, he was considerably more colorful in his choice of words. Regardless of the language he used, the message never changed.

Despite the visible tensions between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, Sen. Graham made it unmistakably clear that he and many of his colleagues in Congress stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel. They understood that Iran and their terror proxies threatening the “Little Satan” would not stop there. Iran’s ambitions ultimately targeted the “Great Satan” as well.

Standing beside the prime minister, Graham pledged, “We will be following your counsel and advice” on Iran. There was no daylight between them.

That meeting was just one of many we had over the years. While Sen. Graham’s public advocacy for Israel is well documented, his quiet diplomacy was, in many ways, even more consequential. Much of his most important work happened far from television cameras and press conferences. Through tireless conversations, persistent lobbying, and unwavering efforts to strengthen Israel’s security, his commitment was perhaps best reflected in his oft-repeated conviction: “If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us.”

While many in the pro-Israel camp will rightly remember his leadership on foreign policy and national security, Senator Graham was equally resolute in confronting antisemitism. He stood apart for his uncompromising opposition to such hatred in all its forms and never hesitated to call it out, regardless of where it came from, even within his own party.

He was not a man easily swayed, nor one who abandoned his friends when circumstances became difficult. His convictions on foreign policy were deeply rooted, and his commitment to Israel was unwavering. Israel was unquestionably safer knowing it had a champion like Lindsey Graham in the United States Senate.

His words still resonate today: “I am with you in every way… I will be with Israel until our dying day. They’re the best ally we could hope for.”

The truth is that Sen. Lindsey Graham was one of the best allies Israel could have hoped for.

Israel is safer because of his steadfast friendship, his moral clarity, and his willingness to stand firm when it mattered most. His passing leaves an enormous void, not only for Israel, but for all who believe that peace is best secured through strength.

The writer is a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the author of the book My Brothers Keeper: Netanyahu, Obama, and the Year of Terror & Conflict that Changed the Middle East Forever.

A memorial service commemorating 85 years since the Jedwabne massacre went ahead despite protests by Polish nationalists who called it “Jewish lies.”

The Jedwabne massacre was the killing of hundreds of Jewish residents of the town of Jedwabne in northeastern Poland on 10 July 1941, shortly after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet-occupied part of Poland during Operation Barbarossa.

Jewish men, women, and children were forced into a barn and burned alive by their Polish neighbors.

Investigations by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance concluded that at least 340 people were murdered; however, the site has not been fully excavated out of respect for Jewish religious law, and the number could be higher.

On Friday, Jewish citizens of Poland, Polish politicians and foreign ambassadors gathered to pay tribute.

‘Jedwabne massacre is an example of the harm that can result from anti-semitism’

“The history of the crime in Jedwabne is an example of the harm that can result from antisemitism and all forms of hatred, ethnic prejudice and xenophobia, fueled by forces that prey on fear and pursue their own interests at the expense of Poland and the Polish people,” said Poland’s Foreign Ministry.

“The circumstances of this atrocity were examined in an investigation conducted by prosecutors from the Institute of National Remembrance, and its findings remain an important part of our understanding of this tragic chapter in Polish-Jewish history.”

Israel’s Ambassador to Poland, Yaakov Finkelstein, who was present at the memorial, said, “The Jewish residents were driven from their homes, gathered in the town square, humiliated and beaten, and then forced into a barn, which was set on fire. They were killed by their Polish neighbors.”

He said that the anniversary of the Jedwabne crime remains one of the most “painful dates in the shared history of Poles and Jews.”

However, Finkelstein stressed that remembering Jedwabne is not about assigning collective guilt to the entire Polish nation, but is about “confronting history, paying tribute to the victims, and opposing all attempts to distort or deny the historical facts.”

He added that the participation of high-ranking representatives of the Polish authorities in today’s commemoration is an “expression of Poland’s responsible stance and its commitment to historical truth and to honoring the victims with dignity.”
US Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose said that “Jedwabne was the exception, not the rule in occupied Poland”, and praised the “thousands of righteous Poles who gave their lives during the Nazi occupation for helping their Jewish neighbors.”

AJC was present at the memorial and condemned far-right extremism that denies facts

The American Jewish Committee was also present. It condemned the far-right extremists who have sought to deny “these facts.”

“The movement to deny these crimes is yet another example of why Poland must adopt a national strategy to combat antisemitism,” the AJC said.

“Democratic Poland has already done the difficult work of officially recognizing what happened on July 10, 1941. Now, just as the government confronted this painful chapter of its past, it is imperative that it act against those who deny and distort history and spread antisemitism.”

On the same subject, nationalists, led by controversial politician Grzegorz Braun, gathered outside the memorial.
Braun told his audience, “The communists, the Euro-communists, and the ‘Zydokomuna’ are all digging in their heels. They are digging in their heels both over the lie about Jedwabne and over the lie about the Rzeszow, Krakow, and Kielce pogroms of 1945 and 1946. And in Auschwitz, and in other places of memory, and of non-memory.”

“So there are enough Poles and patriots here for us to have hope that, unless a meteor suddenly falls on this very place, some of us have a good, real chance of living to see the moment when the truth comes out.”

Zydokomuna is a loaded, antisemitic term meaning “Jewish communism.” It specifically refers to a conspiracy theory that Jews were collectively responsible for communism.

Braun also uses the phrase “klamstwo jedwabienskie” (“the Jedwabne lie”), which is an expression used by people who deny or dispute the established historical findings about the 1941 Jedwabne massacre. Calling the antisemitic pogroms in Rzeszow, Krakow, and Kielce pogroms “lies” also reflects Braun’s historical denialism.

American Congressman Jared Moskowitz said he was “deeply troubled to see 85 years later the memorial for this atrocity being turned into a site of revisionism that dishonors the victims.”

“At a time when Holocaust denial continues to rise, we cannot let the truth of what happened get buried.”

Pity poor Rahm Emanuel.

There he went and traveled all the way to Israel last week to gain attention for his nascent presidential campaign by criticizing Israel on Israeli soil, only to be upstaged by Ro Khanna, another Democratic presidential hopeful, who got even more coverage for attacking the Jewish State even more aggressively.

True, Emanuel, as Jonathan Tobin pointed out in a JNS piece on Thursday, understood exactly how to command national media attention. Even before he delivered his speech at Tel Aviv University, The Washington Post devoted three separate articles to previewing it, while The New York Times, CNN, and other major outlets also highlighted his planned remarks. Afterward, they returned with extensive follow-up coverage.

Emanuel, despite barely registering in early Democratic presidential polling, succeeded in making a speech in Israel one of the biggest political stories of the week. How? By signaling in advance that he was coming to Israel to sharply criticize the Israeli government.

If you want national media attention, blast Israel.

But then Khanna went and upped the ante. He came to Israel, did not meet Israelis, reportedly refusing to do so, went to Judea and Samaria, where his van was blocked.

Khanna has his side of the story, the IDF has a significantly different version

Khanna said he was stopped by settlers with “arrogance in their eyes” and then by IDF soldiers who backed the settlers. The IDF version was significantly different.

Ordinarily, one would like to believe a US Congressman, especially one with presidential aspirations.

But when he comes on a visit exclusively to the West Bank, when he says that being in Israel and the West Bank was the first time that he “really was acutely aware of being brown,” when he says Israel is committing genocide and is guilty of apartheid in the West Bank, two blatant lies, then there is no reason to believe him about Israel on anything else.

These incidents, taking place just days before the sudden, tragic death of Lindsey Graham, one of Israel’s greatest champions on Capitol Hill this generation, a champion in the Henry “Scoop” Jackson, Daniel Moynihan, Daniel Inouye, John McCain, Joe Lieberman mold, throw in stark relief how the tide is shifting for Israel in the US. Pro-Israel support is ebbing, while anti-Israel positions and personalities are rising.

Not too long ago, any presidential hopeful, including Graham in 2015, would come to Israel to burnish foreign policy credentials and show support for the Jewish state in an effort to win over both voters and donors.

Before the 2016 campaign, there was a veritable parade of presidential hopefuls, from Elizabeth Warren among Democrats, to Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and, yes, Donald Trump among Republicans.

Now the opposite is the case.

Jews once looked to see whether a candidate passed the “kishka test,” whether he or she had a special place in their heart for Israel, with visits here often serving as one indication. Today, many would settle for a candidate who simply doesn’t harbor hostility toward the Jewish state.

Khanna’s aide Cameron Kasky posted on X/Twitter that the congressman and his delegation “got intercepted and captured by settlers wielding American-made rifles. The IDF showed up to back up the settlers, not the US Congressman.”

Khanna posted a thank you “to all those who reached out asking about my safety.” One of those most concerned was Tucker Carlson, he of the story of his own detention, since debunked both by Israel and the State Department, when he came to the airport in February to interview Mike Huckabee.

Israel can do a better job of challenging narratives

Israel cannot change the direction of Democratic presidential politics. It can, however, do a much better job contesting the narrative.

It is not enough simply to dismiss incidents like this as political theater, though they almost certainly are. If Khanna and his staff’s account is inaccurate, and certainly saying the congressman was “captured” certainly is, then Israel must immediately, comprehensively, and loudly release the facts: why he was stopped, whether the visit had been coordinated, whether he entered a closed military zone, and what instructions security forces had received.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that the trip was paid for by the Khanna campaign. And that’s what it was: a campaign trip and stunt. Asked whether he was going to run for president, he said, “I’m strongly considering it, and I’m more resolved to consider it after this trip.”

Ah, Khanna has now found his cause.

As one Jewish political activist in his district told me, Khanna is “a very astute politician who knows which way the winds are blowing,  and flows in that direction.” If he believes anti-Israel activism is now his path to the Democratic nomination, that should worry anyone who cares about the future of the US-Israel relationship.

US representatives supported Israel because their constituents supported Israel, which polls show has changed

When Israel enjoyed massive bipartisan support in Congress, one question was often asked: Why were representatives from states such as Idaho, South Dakota, and Tennessee – with their small Jewish populations – so supportive of Israel?

And the answer always given was because the representatives, many of whom were not well acquainted with the intricacies of the Middle East, followed the lead of the public. The perception was that the public supported Israel,  at least significant constituencies such as the Jews and the Evangelicals, and as a result, it was good politics to do the same.

The recent polls, including one by AP last week that showed that one in three Americans believes Israel committed genocide in Gaza, show that now the opposite is the case. The perception is that the public does not support Israel – and the reasons for this are manifold.

Yes, some has to do with Israeli actions, with irresponsible statements by government ministers, with Israel’s closeness to US President Donald Trump. Some also has to do with the fact that lies about Israel, such as the genocide libel, have just been allowed to trickle down without sufficient pushback, neither from Israel nor Israel’s supporters abroad.

When The Denver Post, in an editorial ostensibly supportive of Israel following the recent primary victory of Melat Kiros  – who, the paper noted, “has made ending Israel a cornerstone of her campaign,” writes matter-of-factly about “an ongoing genocide in Gaza” and refers to the prime minister as the “mastermind of this genocide,” something is clearly not getting through.

Some people’s minds, for whatever reason, are already made up and cannot be convinced otherwise. But another reason these narratives gain traction is that they often go unanswered.

That vacuum creates opportunities for ambitious politicians. Figures like Khanna, who, incidentally, represents a Bay Area district with a significant Israeli-American and Jewish population, see an issue that energizes progressive donors, excites activists and generates national media attention.

Expect to see more of this as the Democratic presidential race gathers momentum. For an increasing number of candidates, criticizing Israel, not embracing it, is becoming the politically rewarding position.

Which brings us back to Lindsey Graham.

His passing marks more than the loss of one of Israel’s staunchest friends on Capitol Hill. It comes at a time when Democratic presidential hopefuls increasingly see political advantage in attacking Israel rather than embracing it. The juxtaposition is striking.

There is heavy skepticism from the IDF about how effective the Lebanese army will be in keeping the peace versus Hezbollah attempts to rearm and restore its capabilities for threatening Israel, IDF Givati Brigade Chief Col. “E” told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview.

“We are skeptical about their abilities because their power is nothing compared to Hezbollah, but maybe the legitimacy it [allowing the Lebanese army to try peacekeeping] gives us will create some change. We need the Lebanese army to undermine Hezbollah,” said E.

In addition, the IDF Givati Brigade chief said that this legitimacy was critical after October 7.

“We are no longer naive after October 7. We cannot go to sleep. We would prefer to go back to a state of quiet, but we live in the jungle of the Middle East, and we cannot forget this. We need to remember everything that happened to us. We need to be offensive-minded and ready to strike harder and faster in the next round than in this past round,” he said.

IDF Givati Brigade Weapons Commander Lt.-Col. “I” described to the Post watching the Lebanese army move into certain areas where the Givati Brigade was leaving.

According to “I”, higher-level IDF and US officials handled the transition and handover of territory coordination, with I and his forces observing the Lebanese army from a safe distance for a period of minutes.

Curiously, this handover of land occurred some days before the IDF officially acknowledged transferring territory in two key spots in southern Lebanon over to the Lebanese army.

This transfer is being coordinated by US Lt.-Gen. Clearfield, who was the main coordinator with Israel and Lebanon on such issues from fall 2024 until the recent war, with support from around 30 other American military officials.

An official for CENTCOM’s Marine Corps Command (MARCENT), relating to CENTCOM’s Military Coordination Group for Lebanon, declined over the weekend to provide more specific updates about how the transfer of territory was going so far.

Clearfield visited Lebanon amidst regional concern

However, the Post understands that Clearfield met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir on July 1 and secretly visited Lebanon on July 2.

Questioned about what impact the June agreement between the US, Israel, and Lebanon will have on future IDF actions and potential withdrawals from Lebanon, he responded, “the IDF is not part of this. We know our place. There is a democratic state,” where the political echelon makes such decisions, and the IDF carries out orders.

But he noted that, “the IDF proved that there is no task it cannot do, including on multiple fronts at the same time. It can handle any threat. If the state makes the required decision, we will carry it out. We are the best trained force in the Middle East – and after this war, in the world.”

Discussing the Givati Brigade accomplishments, he said, “We are always defeating the enemy, destroying its infrastructure, and pushing the threat it can pose backwards and away from the Israeli border.”

Givati Brigade killed hundreds of terrorists, though suffered IDF losses as well

He said that the Givati Brigade had killed over 200 Hezbollah terrorists.

“We also lost people [soldiers], which was hard. Eight soldiers were killed, including the commander of the 52nd battalion,” and there were some dozens of wounded soldiers, though most of the wounds were light,” he said.

In relative terms, he said this was smaller losses than might have been expected, and there were relatively few major battles, though losing even one soldier is painful.

One theme which the Post had heard from multiple IDF commanders on the ground in Lebanon, including during a Post visit to the Lebanese coastal areas, was that there had been weeks of frustration at the earlier stages of the war, when the IDF General Staff and cabinet held them back from penetrating deeper into Lebanon, including crossing the Litani River.

These same officials had expressed great relief and satisfaction when mid-war, Israel authorized them to advance deeper into southern Lebanon.

Questioned about this experience, E said, “We waited, but we were always ready. So two hours after we got the order that we could advance, we were already on the move. Hezbollah was stunned at how fast we advanced.”

He added, “It is important to give respect to the enemy, but they cannot always perform at the level which we expect of them, and here, we hit them fast. The enemy cannot hold its ground versus a full-force IDF onslaught with supporting heavy firepower.”

Pressed to address the challenge of Hezbollah’s FPV drones which caused a rolling list of IDF casualties for several weeks leading into the end of the war, E responded, “Over the course of any war, both sides have surprises which you know [something] about or do not know about at all. Very rapidly you adapt to it and continue.”

Drone attacks are ‘not a huge thing’

He stated that the first-person view (FPV) drone attacks “got lots of headlines. But it is [just] drones. It is not a huge thing. We were struck by it, but then we also met it head on, and already now we are barely ever hearing about it because we got better” at combating the threat.

“The enemy was excited with its strategic success in the media [about the drones], but the success of the drones went down even before the ceasefire,” he declared.

In addition, he said that Israel “will develop [new] technologies” in the future to better combat the drones, though he said to his troops, “we have to deal with new threats even until that technology is ready.”

Returning to “I”, the Givati weapons officer told the Post, “we fought for three years in every part of Gaza and…then during the current war in Lebanon in a few places, including El-Khiam, Bint Jbail, and the Beaufort Castle ridge area. We joined up with the 36th Division to cross over the Litani and to take over various ridges.”

He said that Givati took away Hezbollah’s assets both above and below ground, eliminating their ability to invade or fire anti-tank missiles on Israeli villages.

According to “I”, the combination of the Givati ground forces supported by air power, artillery, tanks, and vast intelligence resources working in perfect synergy led to defeating Hezbollah at every point of contact.

Addressing the FPV threat, I stated, “We learn all the time from what happens in battles, and we are even better now than we were a couple of months ago. We always have new tactics, including for identifying the drones. We are in a different place now. It remains a challenge, but we have responses.”

If needed, he said, “we will return to beat them again. They can pick whatever strategy they want; we are the IDF and Givati. The spirit of the brigade is not something I can explain in words. But there is nowhere we cannot get to.”

If the US President Donald Trump ultimately sells F-35 aircraft to Turkey, Israeli defense officials believe that Ankara’s top minds could work around American limits placed on the aircraft, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

When the UAE and the Saudis dropped their interest in purchasing the dominant F-35 fifth-generation aircraft from Washington, part of this was because the US was going to impose limits on the aircraft it would sell them to ensure they were not misused.

Whereas the UAE and the Saudis may have dropped their pursuit of these aircraft due to those technical limits, the Post understands that Israeli defense officials worry that Turkey’s military technology capacities and experience with aircraft could allow it to overcome those limits.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has phrased Israeli objections to Turkey acquiring the aircraft in general terms of upsetting the balance of power in the region.

But Israeli defense officials and other experts are more specific.

F-35 sale could limit Israel’s ability to pre-emptively strike regional dangers

While to date, Turkey has not taken direct military action against Israel, and such a scenario is still unlikely, the widely publicized fact is that no country has successfully detected the F-35 aircraft. If Ankara did decide to attack Israel, it could theoretically do so, including against strategic political or military targets, with no warning and no clear Israeli defense (and the same for any other country, for that matter, according to long-standing reports).   

In another nightmare scenario, Turkey could provide Syria, or even Iran, with the capacity to track F-35s, ending or severely limiting Israel’s ability to launch pre-emptive strikes against rising dangers, such as ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons.

Iran might be a stretch, as Ankara and Tehran can also be rivals, but it is not impossible if Turkey views Israel as too ascendant in air supremacy in the region, and sharing with Syria would seem to be an obvious move, given that Turkey helped put the new Syrian ruler since late 2024, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in power.

What is stopping Trump from selling the F-35s to Turkey, if anything?

Israeli, Greek, and Cypriot objections, while not irrelevant, certainly would not be enough to stop it on their own.

But there is a real block.

US legislation does not allow the government to sell the F-35s to a country that operates Russian air defense platforms, such as the S-400 system, which Turkey possesses, in order to avoid them learning how to beat the F-35 up close.

In other words, if Turkey could fly its own F-35s while its own Russian S-400 system learned to track them, Ankara could pass this information not only regionally in a way that would harm Israel, but also to Russia, which could harm America’s ability to project power.

Until now, the assumption has been that the S-400 can shoot down American F-15s and F-16s, but not the F-35. All of this could change if Turkey had both systems.

Israeli defense officials worry that Turkey can circumvent US legislation by placing the S-400 systems in storage and arguing that they are not operational.

This may not be enough to convince the US Congress in an absolute sense, but it could help Trump squeak the deal through using a loophole and the veil of not violating the law on the books.

Turkey could send the Russian S-400 systems to Syria

A key question Israeli defense officials are now asking is how hard the American Congress can fight Trump on such a national security issue, which is mostly within the US president’s purview given his dominance of foreign affairs? This is especially true regarding legislation which he himself pushed through under different circumstances and in a different time in his first term, but about which he has now soured.

In addition, Turkey could also send the S-400 anti-aircraft defense systems to Syria.

This could be the worst of both worlds for Israel, because technically Turkey would not be violating US law, but Syria could track the F-35s, which would harm Israeli freedom of action in Syria, and Damascus could also share the information with Turkey.

Yet another scenario is that Russia could take the S-400 systems back entirely, which would temporarily alleviate the issue, but the systems could always be sent back later, and Turkey could not be forced to return the aircraft necessarily.

This is part of what concerns Israeli defense officials in the sense that once the F-35 is given over to Turkey, eventually the unpredictable future could take the issue in currently unforeseen negative directions.

These are the most extreme scenarios, though there are less extreme approaches to the issue.

Some Israeli defense officials are beginning to analyze the issue in a less nightmare-focused way, asking the opening question: Why is Turkey interesting, and what about it could eventually constitute a threat?

They note that there is always a general conflict over the balance of power in the Middle East between Arabs and non-Arabs.

Since October 7, Israel has brought the power of the Shiite axis lower, such that they ask: Who will enter the former position of the Shiites?

Next, they say there are three candidate countries for filling that vacuum: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey – with these countries having the capabilities and the motivation.

These Israeli defense officials, without jumping to conclusions, recommend that the Americans need to look at what Turkey will look like in a broader strategic sense long-term, and not just the current financial value of the military deals.

It is complicated for the US to think this way, they acknowledge, because Turkey is historically a member of NATO, such that the US on a bipartisan basis does not view Turkey as a threat.

But these officials also stress that it would not take too much for Turkey to start posing a threat to Israel in Syria, and also potentially in Gaza.

This would mean that giving them the F-35 could influence a wide array of calculations anytime Israel and Turkey might have a confrontation over a seemingly smaller issue in Syria or Gaza.

Lastly, it has been widely reported that, to date, the US has never let Israel into the F-22 fighter program and has excluded Jerusalem from the latest sixth-generation F-47 fighter program, which may be tested in 2028 and become fully operational in 2030.

If the US were to allow Israel to join the F-47 fighter program, this could take some significant stress out of any F-35 deal with Turkey.

However, to date, the Post understands that Israeli sources remain less than optimistic about this happening, even as discussion of selling the F-35 to Turkey has reached a critical point.

Around 300 people were evacuated on Saturday from a neighborhood in Sarcelles, north of Paris, after a suspicious vehicle containing a military-grade weapon was discovered in the vicinity of a synagogue.

On Saturday evening, at around 9:30 p.m., the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) was called by the intelligence services to inspect the abandoned vehicle on Rue Henri Dunant in Sarcelles, BFMTV learned from a police source. 

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told BFMTV on Sunday that it was “found not in the immediate vicinity, but in the vicinity” of the Great Synagogue of Sarcelles, as well as a cinema and several restaurants.  

“A number of measures have been taken,” he said, adding that “the competent prosecutors are investigating.”

He confirmed that authorities found “a long firearm, a military-grade weapon.”

No clear motive, no suspects yet

A judicial investigation has been opened, but so far no motive has been established, and no individuals have been identified.

Asked whether there was an imminent threat, Nuñez told BFMTV: “We simply don’t know.”

The Jerusalem Post reached out to the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate of Internal Security, PNAT, and the synagogue for comment.

Pro-Palestine activists staged a protest in central Stockholm on Saturday featuring a mock Auschwitz gate with ‘Gaza’ instead of ‘Arbeit Macht Frei.’

The protest was organized by the group Palestina Demonstration Stockholm in response to what they say is the wrongful detention of Palestinian pediatrician and hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya by Israeli authorities. 

The activists gathered to demand Abu Safiya’s immediate release, as well as “respect for international humanitarian law and protection for all healthcare workers in war and conflict.”

The case of Abu Safiya – who has been held in Israeli detention since September 2024 – has gained significant international attention. While Amnesty International, for example, refers to him as an “arbitrarily detained Palestinian health worker,” Israel maintains that he is actually a Hamas colonel.

The Stockholm protest therefore called for his release, as well as the release of Marwan Barghouti, and the protection of Gazan health workers.

Protest showed Netanyahu covered in blood under mock Auschwitz gates

The protest involved a performance depicting Gazan mothers and babies being persecuted by a blood-covered Benjamin Netanyahu under a sign designed to look like the entrance gate of Auschwitz. The Netanyahu figure then waves a wad of cash.

“Doctors are not targets; stop killing our doctors,” read many posters.

The Auschwitz gate garnered significant criticism.

“To trivialize the Holocaust in the way that occurred at yesterday’s demonstration in Stockholm is incredibly distasteful and abhorrent,” said Aaron Verstandig, lawyer and Chair of the Official Council of Swedish Jewish communities.

“As with other similar incidents, no one intervened, which is why the boundaries of what is considered acceptable continue to be pushed further and further,” he added.

Swedish Jewish academic Dr. Daniel Schatz also commented on the protest.

“The demonstration is led by a person dressed as Netanyahu with a bloody head, an Israeli flag, and a depiction that brings to mind Nazi symbolism,” he said.

He added that, according to the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism, which Sweden has adopted, this relativization and trivialization of the Holocaust constitutes a clear example of antisemitism.

“Particularly noteworthy is that this is happening openly on Swedish streets, in full view of the police, without any visible objections. How long will these insanities be normalized before the responsible authorities and politicians pull the emergency brake?”

Iran tripled its drone production capacity during the war, acting Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Majid Ibn al Reza claimed on Saturday.

“At a joint meeting with the Parliament’s National Security Commission, I emphasized: The recent war demonstrated that Iranian elites and investment in advanced technologies constitute the most important pillar of the country’s defense might,” he wrote on X/Twitter. “At the height of the war, not only did defense production continue uninterrupted, but our drone production capacity also increased threefold,” the general stated.

During the meeting, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Reza said the recent war had served as a catalyst for Iran to increase investment in defense capabilities and drone production, particularly as drones had allowed Tehran to “identify the enemy’s weak points.”

Iran used low-flying drones during the conflict to target radar systems without being detected. These radars are used to alert US allies of incoming attacks and help coordinate missile interceptions. During the war, Tehran targeted a number of THAAD batteries and radar systems, degrading defensive capabilities and reducing response times.

Former US national security adviser H.R. McMaster told CBS News last week that Iran had recovered around 50% of the missile stockpiles it held before the war.

Intelligence sources already began alerting international media sites like CNN in May that Iran was rebuilding its arsenal at a speed far exceeding initial expectations, replacing missile sites, launchers and production capacity. At the time of the report, 50% of Iran’s drone capabilities were understood to still exist.

Reza’s statement also came as Iran resumed attacks on its Gulf neighbors and vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, prompting renewed US military strikes against Iranian targets.

CBS: Some Iranian officials wish to avoid all-out war with US

Though the kinetic actions have heated up and Reza has indicated continued investment in war-related materials, the Institute for the Study of War theorized that some of the country’s decision-makers were still trying to avoid a return to full-scale war with the US, according to a Friday report by CBS News.

Senior US officials told the site that the renewed attacks by Iran had been ordered by an “errant” sect of hardliners seeking to undermine negotiations. American officials also told Axios on Friday that Iran’s negotiating team had requested renewed talks.

Deepening divisions within regime

Reports of fractures within the regime have circulated for months, with those divisions appearing to deepen after Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Washington.

Although the agreement was widely viewed as favorable to Tehran, it proved unpopular among Iranian hardliners, many of whom wanted the war against Israel and the United States to continue despite the heavy losses Iran had already sustained.

The sudden passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham leaves a profound void in international diplomacy and a heavy sense of loss across the State of Israel. As one of Israel’s best friends on Capitol Hill, he worked tirelessly to strengthen relations with our nation. Graham understood that the strategic partnership between Israel and the US is built on shared values. He expressed this through the consistent actions of a true friend.

Graham’s devotion was not long-distance; it was deeply personal. He visited Israel dozens of times throughout his career, always eager to stand on the ground, meet with leaders and citizens, and assess our shared security challenges firsthand. 

In the foreign policy arena, Lindsey Graham was a man of fierce conviction. This was on full display in March when, amid heavy global pressure, he looked directly into the camera during an interview and declared with clear resolve: “I will be with Israel until our dying day.”

What Lindsey Graham did for the US and Israel

This was much more than rhetoric; it was the central ethos of his career. He consistently translated his moral clarity into historic legislative action that fundamentally strengthened our shared security interests. By authoring the historic Taylor Force Act, he forced financial accountability on the Palestinian Authority, ensuring US aid would stop as long as they continued to reward terrorists. 

Graham was a towering, unwavering voice against the Iranian regime and its regional ambitions. He clearly recognized Tehran as the head of the snake, fiercely calling out Iran’s funding of global terror and its systematic destabilization of the Middle East. He was an aggressive champion of crippling sanctions, leading the charge in Congress to isolate the regime and protect America, Israel and shared allies from the Iranian threat. 

His commitment also ran deep in the diplomatic arena. He was one of the first and most prominent voices in Congress pushing to enforce the Jerusalem Embassy Act, laying the critical political groundwork for moving the US Embassy to Israel’s eternal capital. More recently, as biased campaigns targeted Israel on the world stage, he fiercely advanced US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other institutions. He drew a clear line against the weaponization of international bodies against Israeli leaders and soldiers.

He also recognized that a strong Israel is the key to regional stability. Graham was a driving force in advancing normalization initiatives between Israel and other countries in the region. He envisioned a new reality of peace and cooperation, built on a foundation of collective strength against shared adversaries.

He saw American support for Israel as much more than an act of charity, promoting it instead as a vital, mutual partnership. He often compared our joint defense initiatives to a “21st-century Manhattan Project” – a critical venture to develop the technologies needed to keep both Americans and Israelis safe from shared threats.

Above all, he always put America first through the lens of an absolute moral clarity – a clarity that allowed him to instantly distinguish right from wrong, aggressor from defender, and ally from enemy. This unwavering conviction is precisely why he championed the freedom-seeking Iranian people, and fiercely defended Israel. He understood completely that the true way to project American strength was to fortify its allies and decisively defeat the forces of destruction that stand against the fundamental values of America.

Washington lost a legislative giant. Israel lost a genuine friend, a massive supporter, and a true partner. We will honor his immense legacy by continuing to strengthen the steadfast US-Israel alliance – an alliance he dedicated his entire life to building.

We in Israel, alongside the people of our region, owe Sen. Lindsey Graham immense gratitude for a dedication to our alliance that was rooted in his mission to protect America. By working to strengthen the United States, his tireless efforts ultimately brought greater peace, security, and stability to our entire region. May his memory be a blessing.

The author serves as Israel’s deputy foreign minister.

Israel Police arrested six individuals over their suspected involvement in the murder of a 19-year-old in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood over the weekend, police said on Sunday morning.

All six have been transferred for further investigation and will be brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday, as the police have requested an extension of their detention.

The 19-year-old was stabbed during a fight on Saturday. 

A Magen David Adom paramedic described his experience upon arriving at the scene, saying he saw the victim “lying on the floor with penetrating injuries, without a pulse and not breathing.”

“We provided him with initial medical treatment, including prolonged CPR,” said the paramedic.

He was initially evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center before being pronounced dead, according to United Hatzalah.

Attorney Omri Stern, a public defender representing the suspect, described his client as having been in a “long and violent relationship” with the victim, having previously filed several complaints about him.

Suspect denies involvement

“This is a soldier with no criminal record,” said Stern. “The suspect denies any involvement in causing the deceased’s death – she did not want him to die and was not at the scene at the time of the tragic event.

“She is fully cooperating with the investigators, and we expect the police to examine her version as soon as possible and bring about her release,” he added.

The suspect’s detention has been extended until July 16, according to the Public Defender’s Office, with a stay of execution in place on the publication of her name until 2:00 p.m. on Monday.

The Beaufort Castle, built by the Crusaders sometime around 1140, commands vital high ground close to the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

From its summit, one can see Metula and other Israeli border communities to the south, and the Lebanese town of Nabatiya to the north. The Crusader knight Reynold of Sidon lost the castle to Saladin in 1189. Since then, it has changed hands regularly between the many conquerors who have passed through this hypnotic, green landscape.

Lebanese sovereignty collapsed into civil war in 1975, leading to the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s capture of the castle the following year.

In 1982, as part of Operation Peace for Galilee, the Golani Brigade Reconnaissance Unit fought a hard but ultimately successful battle to take the castle, in the course of which its commander, Maj. Guni Harnik, was killed.

Following Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May, 2000, the Beaufort passed into the hands of Hezbollah.

IDF reclaims Beaufort Castle, May, 2026

Then, on May 31, 2026, in the framework of the IDF 36th Division’s ground maneuver toward Nabatiya, the castle was once more taken by the Golani Brigade, whose banners now fly from its highest point.

In a visit to the castle last week, The Jerusalem Post spoke to senior and mid-level commanders of the 36th Division, and viewed a large, Iranian-built Hezbollah tunnel in the area of Yohmor al-Shaqif, which adjoins the Beaufort to its east, along the Litani River gorge.

When we traveled to Beaufort from the Israeli border, evidence of the depopulation of the Shia villages in the vicinity was immediately apparent. We passed through Taybeh, once a staunch stronghold of Hezbollah and a major source of fighters for the organization. The area now appears entirely in ruins.

Since Hezbollah’s decision to rejoin Iran’s war against Israel on March 1, Jerusalem has pursued a policy of seeking to empty Israeli-held areas in southern Lebanon of the Shia population.

The rationale is obvious: The Chinese leader Mao Zedong compared guerrilla fighters to fish, and the supportive civilian population to the water in which they swim. In southern Lebanon, the IDF appears to be reverse-engineering the principle: no water, no fish.

Speaking to reporters in the castle, the 36th Division’s commander, Brig.-Gen. Yiftach Norkin, described the division’s progress, step-by-step, from the border to the Beaufort Ridge and across the Litani, in the course of May and June this year.

He cited the roles played by various elements under his command in the course of the maneuver: “Golani took the Beaufort, the Givati Brigade was the first to cross the Litani, the 7th Brigade secured the western area and the Saluki.”

 The ceasefire came before the IDF could clear the entire Iranian-built tunnel system 

Forces of the Commando Brigade were then responsible for clearing out the Iranian-built tunnel system of Hezbollah fighters, while fighters of the Yahalom Unit, the combat engineers’ elite force, took on the destruction of the extensive underground structures built in the previous years between the Litani and the Ali al-Taher ridge before Nabatiya. The fighting took the IDF to the outskirts of Nabatiya.

The ceasefire came before the conquest of the entire tunnel system.

For now, the two sides remain close up against one another. According to unofficial figures, Hezbollah lost around 3,500 fighters at the hands of the IDF’s Northern Command in the recent battles, with 600 killed by the 36th Division alone. In now-deserted Taybeh, in April 2025, the funerals of 32 Hezbollah men took place on the same day.

In the tunnel at Yohmor al-Shaqif, a masked lieutenant-colonel of the Yahalom Unit showed the assembled reporters an array of Hezbollah ordnance and equipment captured during the fighting. The weaponry and equipment are testimony to the organization’s de facto status as a wing of a state army: anti-tank systems, an anti-aircraft gun for use against helicopters, a fully equipped unit for surgery, and, of course, rifles, helmets, uniforms, ammunition.

The tunnel is about a kilometer long, high, and wide enough for a grown adult to easily walk within it. There are fully equipped bathrooms and shower units, and kitchen areas at regular intervals along it.

The atmosphere, as one goes deeper into the tunnel, becomes fetid and close.

The construction of these tunnels, hewn out of solid rock in difficult terrain, was nevertheless a considerable feat of engineering.

While the 36th Division’s commanders and spokespeople refer to them as “Iranian,” it’s interesting to note that North Korean engineers brought their expertise to this area. In 2014, Hezbollah, under Iranian tutelage, signed an agreement with KOMID, the North Korean arms and infrastructure concern, to supervise the building of the tunnel complex. These Hezbollah tunnels rival and resemble the DMZ in Korea. They enabled the organization’s fighters to live, move, and fight underground.

It didn’t help them, of course, when Norkin’s 36th Armored Division came across here in May and June. In what the commander and several of his officers described with pride as “one of the most complicated ground maneuvers conducted in recent decades by the IDF,” the 36th decisively put an end to Iran’s and Hezbollah’s pretensions to challenge the IDF on the conventional battlefield.

The fight is not over, Hezbollah is rebuilding and rearming

Still, no one among the division’s commanders is under the impression that the last word has been said. Hezbollah is rebuilding and rearming just beyond the division’s positions outside Nabatiya.

With the IDF dug in at Beaufort and beyond, the next tactical challenge is how to protect the force from efforts by Iran-backed fighters to revert to the guerrilla and irregular roots that once brought them success against the IDF across this very terrain in 1985-2000.

No one among the commanders we met appeared to have any faith in the projected deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces to replace Hezbollah in the upcoming period.

As D. a company commander from Golani’s 13th Battalion, told us, “To be here isn’t an option. It’s an obligation. Between any citizen and a terrorist, there needs to stand a fighter of the IDF.”

For now, there is planning and watchfulness. The next round, in whatever form it takes, will be engaged across the ruined villages and across this verdant landscape, probably before too long.

“I think there is no reason to have an open conflict,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told The National on Friday, only a week after making far more critical comments on CNN Türk, decried by Israeli politicians as genocidal.

Complaining of the alleged anti-Ankara rhetoric coming from Jerusalem, Fidan directed criticism at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and select members of the opposition, but asserted that “there are still very sane and good people with wisdom and strategic minds in Israel.”

“Not all of them are like Netanyahu and some people, but Netanyahu and some people, as they get closer to the elections, they need an enemy. They were at war with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, and now they need another enemy,” Fidan told the Emirati site, adding that he believed Ankara was being shifted into that role.

The comments were far more moderate than the ones made on CNN, where he complained: “These people (in reference to Israel) have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”

“No matter which framework you use, there is no parameter under which these people can be sustained,” Fidan said in the earlier interview.

Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies specializing in Turkish foreign policy, told The Jerusalem Post that the interview with The National was Fidan’s way of clarifying his previous remarks and “distancing his criticism from Israel as a whole to the actions of the current Israeli government.”

“His statement that there are ‘reasonable’ people was especially reassuring that should Israel have another government, things might look different between Israel and Turkey,” she assessed.

That same interpretation was offered to the Post by Istanbul-based geopolitical analyst Burak Can Çelik, who said that the current abrasiveness of Ankara’s comments on Israel doesn’t suggest “a permanent and irreversible strategic break” from the Jewish state. Rather, in Fidan’s approach, “security, balance of power and changing regional conditions are as decisive as ideological discourse.”

“Today, the two countries are in a controlled competition. However, while discourses and dynamics change rapidly in the Middle East, geography and common interests are permanent,” he noted. “Before October 7, relations between Turkey and Israel had always been at a good level, with joint collaborations in terms of trade, technology, culture and tourism, so these discourses may be a signal of controlled softness.”

Israel, Turkey clash over F-35 sale

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Fidan’s earlier comments, alleging that they amounted to a “clear call for genocide” and said his words would not go unchallenged, marking yet another confrontation between Israeli and Turkish officials over public statements made. The sudden shift has been interpreted by some as tied to Ankara’s wider goals, specifically the acquisition of F-35 fighter jets.

Ankara recently hosted US President Donald Trump for a NATO summit, and the president expressed a clear willingness to remove the sanctions blocking Ankara’s path to the fighter jet.

“Turkey has been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. … It’s a great plane, it’s the best, currently the best plane by far. And it’s certainly something we will consider,” Trump said, announcing that Washington would be dropping sanctions against Ankara originally placed over Turkey’s possession of Russian S-400s.

The issue of Turkey’s rhetoric has already been raised by a group of bipartisan American lawmakers, who penned a letter to Trump complaining that the potential F-35 sales were concerning given statements by the officials, and Ankara’s relationship with Iran.

Israel, a major ally of Washington, has also been vocal in its opposition to the NATO country receiving the F-35s, Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey expert at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, noted to the Post. He argued that Fidan is trying to quell Israeli fears about the acquisition of the fighter jets.

“Unless these statements are accompanied by tangible confidence-building measures, such as ending unilateral sanctions against Israel, halting the systematic delegitimization campaign against it, and restoring people-to-people ties by resuming direct flights between Istanbul and Tel Aviv, they should be regarded as lip service,” Yanarocak argued.

Iran carried out numerous attacks in the Middle East over the last several days as it seeks to continue its tit-for-tat conflict with the US. In the recent round of attacks, Iran lashed out at Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, and Jordan.

This is around 3,000km. of front line stretching from Amman to the Strait of Hormuz. It is a huge battlefield, and Iran’s goal is to spread the conflict as wide as possible. This makes it harder to stop Iran because Iran is a large country and it can base missiles and drones in many places to strike.

Iran’s goal now is multi-layered. One layer is to make it seem like Tehran doesn’t centralize decision-making in Tehran. This presents some Iranian attacks as being by “rogue” elements or some “hardline” part of the IRGC.

The theory is that Iran can then “good cop-bad cop” the region. Iran’s government will try to de-escalate, and the IRGC will escalate. This is a method Iran has used in dealmaking with the West for decades. Now it is using it in wartime.

Another aspect of Iran’s policy is to try to put forward a proposal to manage Hormuz. It is trying to pretend that if other countries will come to the table, then some kind of agreement can be reached where Iran manages Hormuz.

Iran would bargain to receive fees for ships to transit through the Strait which the US would oppose

The proposal is for Iran and others to receive a fee for ships that transit, essentially meaning they are in control. The US will not likely accept this. US policy for more than 100 years supported freedom of navigation.

What we know about the recent strikes is that the US carried out a number of new strikes. This has been happening for several days now. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it “completed a third round of strikes this week against Iran, July 11, holding Iranian forces accountable for attacking another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.”

It said that US forces “hit approximately 140 Iranian military targets with precision munitions launched by land- and sea-based fighter aircraft, drones, and naval vessels. Targets included Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations.” In previous rounds, the US had struck around 80 targets.

CENTCOM went on to say that “during three nights of strikes this week, CENTCOM has struck more than 300 targets at the direction of the Commander in Chief to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait. Commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue.”

UAE, Oman, Qatar, targeted in Iranian retaliatory attacks

On July 12, the UAE confirmed that attacks overnight targeting the UAE had ended. Oman condemned attacks by Iranian drones.

Arab News in Saudi Arabia provided some more context on the attacks. “Qatar’s military said in a statement it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in neighboring United Arab Emirates.

Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of falling shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar’s Interior Ministry said.” The report also noted there were alerts in Bahrain. Kuwait also intercepted attacks.

“The United Arab Emirates said its defense systems engaged missiles and drones from Iran. In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the missile threats detected this morning were outside the country’s borders,” Arab News added.

“An Omani security source reported that drones have targeted sites in the Musandam Governorate. The sultanate condemned the attacks and vowed to take all measures that safeguard the country’s security and residents.”

Iran’s 3,000km. front line is how it seeks to spread chaos in the region. It has created so many front lines in so many places that it will be hard for the US to confront this kind of Iranian Pandora’s box. How to put the lid back on the box is unclear, and it appears Iran is ready to keep doing this for the foreseeable future.