Doctors at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa have successfully treated their first Israeli opioid addiction patient using an experimental noninvasive brain technology, easing him through withdrawal in just 20 minutes. 

H., a 40-year-old family man from northern Israel, was injured in his neck several years ago. Because of the injury, he relied on painkillers and eventually became addicted to them.

“Over time the pain lessened, but he could not break free from the dependence on the pills and the doses kept increasing, until they reached a peak of about 130 pills a day,” Dr. Amir Minerbi, director of the Pain Medicine Institute at Rambam, explained. The painkiller detox clinic that treated H. operates out of the institute. “H. was no longer suffering from pain. He simply needed that substance in his blood so he would be calm and able to function.”

During the innovative treatment performed at Rambam, the team of specialists at the Haifa medical center intervened in the electrical activity of an area of the patient’s brain called the nucleus accumbens, the core of the brain system responsible for feelings of satisfaction, pleasure, and reward. The treatment, based on technology from the Israeli company Insightec, is similar to the one used to treat symptoms of essential tremor and Parkinsonian tremor, under MRI control.

In this case, the treatment was carried out with the help of a new technology that performs noninvasive neuromodulation, without heating or burning tissue, and allows stimulation in the same area of the brain to increase or suppress activity.

“The new technology allows us to intervene in the brain’s electrical activity in a targeted way, and thereby influence focused control areas in brain activity, depending on the disease being treated,” said Dr. Lior Lev-Tov, director of the functional neurosurgery unit in Rambam’s neurosurgery division and the one leading the new study at the medical center.

“Already during the treatment itself we identified a decrease in the patient’s craving for the drug. Tests carried out a week later produced negative results for opioids and other substances. The patient himself reported a craving score of zero out of 10 for using the drug, and even another side effect, a drastic drop in the desire for cigarettes, from three packs a day to just a few cigarettes, and with no urge to use alcohol. In other words, in a treatment that lasted about 20 minutes net, our patient was completely freed from an extreme dependence that had accompanied him every day for years. This is nothing less than a medical and therapeutic revolution.”

The opioid crisis is a global epidemic

Opioid addiction has been defined as a global epidemic, and in the United States it has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, with damage estimated at about $60 billion each year. In Israel, which only a few years ago ranked first in the world for the rate of growth in opioid use, the trend has been halted and is now declining.

“Opioid painkillers are used effectively to treat short-term pain, and they are an important tool in medicine for those who need them,” Minerbi explained. “A small but significant portion of painkiller users may develop an addiction to opioids, meaning they want to take the drug again and again, regardless of how it affects pain. Among those who take the drug over time, it becomes less effective for pain treatment, and it contributes to increasingly developing side effects such as harm to the lungs, an increased and premature risk of death, damage to the ability to integrate into the circle of life, a decline in quality of life, and more.”

“Today, detox from painkillers works in two ways: tapering off until stopping use, with success rates of 5%, while even those who manage to quit remain at risk of illness and death afterward,” he added. “The second option is to use an alternative drug that works through the same mechanism as the drug to which the patients developed an addiction. Detox has two stages: physical detox, which refers to withdrawal symptoms, and psychological detox, which may last a long time. The new development specifically targets areas in the brain that are responsible for addiction. We hope it will be able to help thousands who are dependent on opioids in a safer and less traumatic way.”

As noted, the study is being conducted at three centers in the United States as part of a multicenter trial that has so far produced excellent results in preserving treatment gains and detox from opioids. Some of the patients were even addicted to heroin, a drug whose detox process can last for years. H., the first Israeli patient, was also the first to undergo the treatment while in active withdrawal, a therapeutic challenge that contributed significant insights to the international study.

“From the moment of treatment until today he has been clean from use of the drug. The urge and craving to use the drug disappeared completely and we are happy for his happiness,” Dr. Lev-Tov reported. “He told us that he got his life back. The tests show that the body is completely clean and the patient’s physical and functional condition is completely normal.”

He added: “We are talking about a noninvasive ability to reach very deep and very sensitive areas, as part of a very complex network in the brain that is linked to reward, satisfaction, desire and the ability to control needs and impulses, and we are able to move the range from one end to the other. There is nothing like it in the world of medicine. This experience opens doors for us to treat a wide range of very serious illnesses such as PTSD, OCD, eating disorders, other addictions, severe depression, severe pain disorders, and I hope we will also be able to reach cognitive areas and treat attention deficit disorders, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and more.”

“This is a new therapeutic platform that allows us to offer a range of noninvasive treatments for a variety of problems that affect many people around the world,” Dr. Lev-Tov stressed. “A scientific breakthrough of the highest order that is still expected to affect us greatly and change the way we approach treating human beings. The patients I mentioned have enormous potential to return to full rehabilitation, live full lives, start families, return to the workforce, and move Israel and the entire world forward.”

He concluded: “Rambam is a global pioneer in the use of FUS technology and has become a center of excellence in the field. One that will continue to push the technology forward and make breakthrough treatment accessible to patients in additional indications. There is nothing more ethical or correct than leveraging existing technologies, finding the patient who can benefit from them, breaking boundaries, and daring. That is what we do here on a daily basis.”

“Let us not deceive ourselves. This was an extraordinary operation and achievement. However, the problem is not over. Terrorism continues to operate. What further problems terrorism will place before us and what lessons we must still learn from this matter, it is too early to say. We finished one battle, but the war continues.”

This is how Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin summarized Operation Yonatan, the rescue of Israeli hostages at Entebbe Airport on July 4, 1976.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Entebbe operation, the State Archives at the Prime Minister’s Office has unveiled an extensive collection of tens of thousands of documents, including minutes from cabinet meetings, the Ministerial Committee on Security Affairs, and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as well as records of telephone conversations, telegrams, and consultations held by the special team former prime minister YitzhakRabin established to handle the crisis.

Alongside previously released materials, the State Archives is publishing in full the files related to the Entebbe operation, some of which had already been partially disclosed.

“This was fascinating work, a mosaic of tens of thousands of documents creating a complex picture of an unprecedented historic operation,” said Michal Zeft, head of documentation and commemoration at the State Archives, who oversaw the project. “

You see a human picture of decision makers, moments of hesitation, and long days of uncertainty and tension, which ended in a historic operation.”

Review of the documents, minutes, and records sheds light on the doubts and concerns, the different scenarios that were examined, and the painful decision-making process that ultimately led to the successful rescue mission. The materials also include a transcript of an open conversation between Rabin and newspaper editors, in which he asked for their cooperation in preventing the publication of details that could endanger the lives of the hostages.

The outcome is well known: about a week after the plane was hijacked, in the early hours of July 4, IDF forces stormed the terminal at Entebbe Airport and freed the Israeli hostages and French pilots, who were flown back to Israel. Four people were killed during the operation, including Sayeret Matkal commander Lt.-Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu and three hostages. In addition, five soldiers and six hostages were wounded.

France was responsible for Israelis in Air France hijacking, Rabin says

The drama began on June 27, 1976. “Before we continue, I have an announcement,” Rabin interrupted a cabinet meeting, reporting that contact had been lost with an Air France plane that had departed Israel en route to Paris after a stop in Athens. The following days were long and tense, marked by negotiations, concerns, secret preparations, intelligence gathering, and deliberate misinformation, culminating in the daring rescue operation in Entebbe.

“The plane has probably been hijacked,” Rabin said. During the meeting, he was updated that the aircraft had landed in Benghazi, but at that stage it was still unclear whether Libya was the intended destination, who the hijackers were, and what their intentions were.

Eli Mizrahi, Rabin’s bureau chief, recommended that ministers update the cabinet secretary on their actions later that day, but Rabin replied that there was no need. Rabin said: “My intention is to hold the government of France responsible for the fate of the Israelis flying on the Air France aircraft and not to release the French government from that responsibility.”

In the intensive discussions held by the government since the hijacking, and in correspondence with the French authorities, France’s responsibility was repeatedly emphasized. However, just two days later, the non-Israeli hostages were separated from the Israeli hostages and later released. At that point, it became clear that additional options for resolving the crisis, which had already been considered at the beginning of the emergency, needed to be examined more seriously.

To do this, Israel needed to buy time and delay the ultimatum issued by the terrorists as much as possible. On Wednesday, July 1, the Israeli government, which until then had adhered to its principle of not negotiating with terrorists, announced its willingness to enter negotiations for the release of the hostages. The negotiations continued almost until the last moment, when a military operation to rescue the hostages already appeared possible and was about to be launched.

The State Archives disclosure also includes audio recordings of 26 telephone calls conducted by Mizrahi with the Prime Minister, the Director General of the Foreign Ministry, and other senior officials during that dramatic week, as well as transcripts of five telephone conversations held by Colonel Baruch Bar Lev (“Borka”), who had served several years earlier as IDF and Defense Ministry attaché in Uganda, with the then ruler of Uganda, Idi Amin, in an attempt to leverage their previous connection to resolve the crisis.

“I think you have an opportunity given to you by God to save people and show that what people have said and written about you is not true,” Bar-Lev urged the Ugandan leader. “If you remember, I always gave you good advice, never bad advice. Is that correct?”

Amin replied: “I know very well. But you know I am in difficulties now, but you can help me save people’s lives by releasing all their demands.”

Bar Lev clarified: “I will do my best through my friend, but this is your country, and you are the president, and you have the power to do something. If something happens, you will be blamed, and if you save the people, you will be a holy man. What is the situation now, Your Excellency?”

Rescue could have caused international complications while non-Israeli hostages were present

The documents further show that since some of the hostages were not Israeli, there was concern that a military rescue operation, which could endanger them, would cause international complications. However, after the hijackers released the non-Israeli passengers, Rabin convened an operational consultation in which Defense Minister at the time Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Motta Gur, along with other senior officials, began examining various military options for the first time.

However, the chief of staff warned that at that stage, only a limited operation to kill the terrorists was possible, not a hostage rescue mission. He explained that a rescue operation was far more complex, requiring aircraft deployment and intelligence that was still lacking, and it was unclear whether some hostages were inside the aircraft or whether it was booby-trapped.

Given the lack of precise intelligence, Peres suggested considering a military option and warned that about two days would be needed for preparation. “Yitzhak, a military operation is seemingly possible, but not before two nights and a day from the decision, and without the possibility of returning the passengers,” Peres wrote in a note to Rabin during a special meeting.

The note further stated: “Under these conditions and at this time, the matter does not seem right to me. But the urgency is that if there is a tendency toward a military operation, twelve fighters (disguised as passengers) must be sent immediately to Kenya. From an intelligence perspective, this is possible (so I was told). The plane is due to depart in the evening and only flies once a week, and this is the source of urgency.”

Later that day, Rabin met with newspaper editors.

“In Israeli chatter, we have reached a situation where there is no choice but to turn to newspaper editors and their national conscience,” he warned, explaining the complex situation and the risks if classified details were published. That night, Transport Minister Gad Yaakovi met with families of the Israeli hostages, who demanded that the government negotiate for their release.

Rabin also updated opposition leader Menachem Begin on the situation. In another security consultation, Foreign Minister Yigal Allon suggested traveling to Paris to promote an international initiative in which leaders from various countries could serve as mediators, including former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim, and Pope Paul VI.

However, the proposal faced opposition, with critics arguing that Israel should not be the first to enter negotiations with the hijackers, and that such a trip would effectively signal the start of negotiations. There were also ideas to send senior Israeli officials to negotiate in Uganda, but there were concerns that they could themselves become hostages.

Minister Israel Galili warned that even negotiations would not guarantee the safety and release of the hostages, since if Kenya did not release five detainees held there following the attempt to down an Israeli aircraft, the hijackers could derail any deal. The chief of staff later sent a note to the prime minister warning that if the IDF could not rescue the hostages in Entebbe, he recommended accepting the terrorists’ demands.

However, he suggested extending negotiations until the very last moment, up to another 24 hours before the ultimatum expired, after which a decision would be made according to circumstances. Indeed, as the ultimatum approached its July 1, 1976, deadline, a special ministerial team was established to negotiate with the hijackers. It was also clarified that the team would continue efforts to secure the hostages’ release, and that all action would be conducted solely through France, which Israel continued to see as responsible for their safety. Meanwhile, letters from relatives of hostages arrived demanding negotiations.

The dramatic turning point came on Friday, July 2, when the chief of staff announced that a military operation plan existed, but only once sufficient intelligence was available, while in the meantime, the political leadership should continue negotiations. The small ministerial team met with the chief of staff and the head of the Mossad for a military consultation on a rescue plan.

Rabin initially questioned the feasibility of the proposed rescue operation.

“We have no ability to operate without the consent of the relevant countries. And what do we do, attack Uganda? How do we even reach Uganda? The goal is not to carry out a military act, but to save people. If possibilities arise, we will discuss them. At the moment, I see no way.”

But after the release of the non-Israeli hostages and the stagnation in negotiations, Rabin convened an operational consultation in which the defense minister and chief of staff examined military options in greater depth. The chief of staff responded that at this stage, only a limited operation to kill the terrorists was possible, not a hostage rescue, due to a lack of intelligence and the complexity of deploying forces.

Negotiations continue as Israel prepares for military operation

Negotiations continued on the surface, while covert preparations and intelligence gathering for a daring military operation accelerated. In one of the meetings, Peres recommended that, if a military operation were approved, deception measures be taken, including a press conference announcing ongoing negotiations with the French. On July 2, the ministerial team met with the chief of staff and the head of the Mossad for a military consultation, during which Gur presented a detailed operational plan for the first time, which would ultimately be approved.

“There is still missing intelligence to execute the plan, but it is possible,” the chief of staff noted. The next day, Saturday, he presented the detailed plan to the ministerial team along with its risks, but assessed that the chances of success were now high. Foreign Minister Allon said he would take responsibility for diplomatic and media deception efforts, and suggested that an El Al flight from South Africa to Israel scheduled at the same time should proceed as normal to avoid suspicion.

Regarding US questions the previous day about a suspicious aircraft at Ben-Gurion Airport, it was decided not to respond. The issue of refueling aircraft en route to Entebbe was also raised. Mossad chief Yitzhak Hofi clarified that it was unclear whether permission to land in Kenya would be granted, since this had not been requested directly.

Rabin assessed that Kenya would not expel Israel if its aircraft needed to refuel in Nairobi. He asked Air Force commander Maj.-Gen. Benny Peled to describe the flight route. Peled placed the operational map before the prime minister and explained: “We depart from Sharm el-Sheikh and begin climbing in altitude to trigger Egyptian radar. We fly along the Ethiopian coast.”

Rabin was concerned about Ethiopia’s response, but Peled said they had no radar, and the prime minister had to deliberate until the decisive Saturday afternoon meeting. At that meeting, the final IDF plan for the hostage rescue was presented and Rabin convened a special cabinet session, which approved the operation. “Only the government can make such a decision, so immediately after this meeting (the restricted one) ends, all cabinet members will join,” he said. Preparations for the military operation entered their final stage.

Gur presented the operational plan on a map: “The idea is that a force of 200 men, including fighters and staff, will fly in four Hercules aircraft tonight, arrive at Entebbe airport, land at the airfield, and operate at the terminal building. The force will free the hostages, load them onto the aircraft, and fly back,” he explained, emphasizing that the information gathered in recent days, including from released hostages, demonstrates how essential it is to act.

He also said: “We must take into account that we will need Nairobi and there are already several people there, in order not to encounter last-minute difficulties. Although from a military perspective, we were not allowed to establish overly close ties, so as not to reveal that we were going ahead with such an operation and not to expose its nature.” He continued his explanation: “If necessary, we will land the aircraft there, with the understanding that our people may remain there for some time in the hospitals there. For all of this, we will need to find a solution at the last moment and on the spot.”

Rabin responded: “I assume that if the aircraft are forced to land in Nairobi, the Kenyans will not expel them, but Israel will need to stand alongside Kenya if, as a result of the operation, Uganda acts against it.” At the cabinet meeting, which convened on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, ministers asked difficult questions about the continuation of the negotiations.

Security of the state vs security of individuals

Peres summarized the dilemma as facing two very difficult options: one is responsibility for the security of the entire state, and the other is responsibility for the security of every individual within it.

Rabin acknowledged that in the exchange alternative there is a possibility of freeing most of the Israelis, but its cost would be the release of 40 prisoners: “If I do not present it this way, I will not see myself as fulfilling my duty to bring the matter to the government,” he explained, and proposed that the government approve the operation, even if not with a light heart, given the risk that some of the hostages might be harmed during it. At the end of the meeting, the operation was approved unanimously.

The aircraft departed on the long flight from Sharm el-Sheikh at 3:30 pm, even before the formal government decision was taken. Meanwhile, negotiations continued. Shortly after midnight between July 3 and 4, 1976, four Hercules aircraft of the Israeli Air Force landed in total darkness at Entebbe Airport.

IDF forces deployed from them stormed the terminal and, in a daring operation, freed the hostages who had been hijacked six days earlier after terrorists boarded the plane in Athens. The hostages were reunited with their families, and feelings of helplessness and anxiety turned into joy and pride at the success of the operation. However, the celebrations were overshadowed by the news that Sayeret Matkal commander and assault force leader Lt.-Col. Netanyahu and three hostages were killed in the operation.

It later emerged that passenger Dora Bloch, who had fallen ill that week, had been taken to a local hospital and was therefore not at Entebbe airport during the rescue. When this became known, concern grew for her fate. Messages were urgently sent to Israeli embassies in London, Geneva, and New York, instructing them to secure her release, but it was later revealed that she was murdered on July 4.

The cabinet meeting held after the return of the aircraft with the Israeli hostages opened with a moment of silence for the fallen. Rabin described the circumstances of Netanyahu’s death. 

“The force led by Yonatan ran toward the terminal, encountered a group of Ugandan soldiers who opened fire on them. The resistance came from fire on the second floor. One bullet struck Yonatan in the heart, and he was killed.”

“Yonatan’s father, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, one of the early leaders of Revisionist Zionism, a historian and sociologist, is now in the United States,” he added. “I had the opportunity to speak with him at length when he was in Israel. His sons are here, but he is not. We should try to reach him, and he deserves to hear the news, not from the press.”

Peres supported the prime minister.

“I want the cabinet members to know that we have lost one of the finest fighters of the Jewish people,” he said. 

“Yonatan and his brothers (Benjamin and Ido Netanyahu) both served in the same Sayeret Matkal unit. This is a very heavy loss. We all had great hopes for him. He put his whole heart into this operation and played a key role in its planning.”

After Air Force commander Beni Peled described the air force’s role in the operation and the refueling stop in Nairobi to treat the wounded, the prime minister said:“If we had needed to guarantee a 100% positive response in Nairobi, we might not have been able to receive such a response. I believe we will overcome the difficulty with Kenya. If we do not get too closely entangled with the Kenyans, we will overcome this issue.”

After the operation, Israel asked French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to use his influence in Francophone African countries to support Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta against Idi Amin’s efforts to isolate him. The documents show that despite extensive efforts to maintain secrecy, vague information about the Israeli operation in Entebbe began to spread, but the historic mission was not compromised.

Against the backdrop of relief and national euphoria in the cabinet and the public, Rabin concluded with words that still resonate 50 years later.

“Let us not deceive ourselves,” he said. “This was an extraordinary operation and achievement. However, the problem is not over. Terrorism continues to operate. What further challenges terrorism will present to us and what lessons we still need to learn from this matter is still too early to say. We have finished one battle, but the war continues.”

Montenegrin police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested an Iranian national suspected of hacking attacks that damaged US infrastructure to the tune of $3.4 billion, Montenegrin police said.

The 39-year-old man, with dual Iranian and Turkish citizenship, is sought by the Southern District Court in New York on charges including conspiracy to commit computer fraud, hacking, and identity theft.

He was arrested in the Adriatic coastal resort of Kotor, Montenegro’s police directorate said on Thursday.

“From 2013 onward, … he carried out massive hacking attacks … targeting more than 150 universities in the United States, causing damage estimated at over $3.4 billion,” it added in a statement.

The case will now go to a High Court judge in Montenegro’s capital of Podgorica for extradition proceedings, the police added.

FBI arrests Iranian hacker in Montenegro

The acquired data, as well as access to compromised university accounts, were used for the benefit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian entities, including universities, it said.

The FBI was not immediately available for comment.

Iran and the IRGC have a long history of state-sponsored cyber operations targeting the United States, often linked to IRGC.

In April, US cybersecurity, law enforcement, and ‌intelligence agencies warned about an escalation of Iranian hacking campaigns targeting equipment across critical US infrastructure.

Against the backdrop of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that Israel will not withdraw from the security buffer zone in southern Lebanon and the conclusion of his testimony in his trial, Likud, and consequently the coalition, gained one mandate, as the consistent downward trend of the Together party continued, a Maariv poll showed.

Since the merger between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, the joint party has lost 10 seats in about two months and has declined this week to just 18 seats.

“Yashar!” led by Gadi Eisenkot remained stable this week. However, since the Bennett-Lapid merger, it has surged by 9 seats, reaching 21.

During Operation Roaring Lion, Likud stood at 28 seats. Since then it has gradually declined to 21 seats. This week, the trend was halted and it gained one seat, reaching 22.

Overall, the opposition bloc of Zionist parties receives 60 seats this week, a decline of one seat compared to the previous poll, while the coalition strengthens by one seat to 50. Arab parties remain stable with 10 seats. Blue and White (1.7 percent), Balad (1.6 percent), and the Reservists party (1.2 percent) do not pass the electoral threshold.

Together-Yashar! merger weakens opposition bloc

The Maariv poll also shows that a merger between Together and Yashar!, led by Bennett, receives 33 seats, one fewer than the previous poll and 8 fewer than when running separately. Such a merger weakens the opposition bloc, which drops to 58 seats compared to 52 for Netanyahu’s coalition. A breakdown of voter movement shows that of Together’s 18 seats, 16 remain with the merged list, while two shift, one to the coalition bloc and one to the undecided camp.

Among Yashar! voters, the picture is different. Of the 21 seats held by Yashar! with Eisenkot, only 13 remain with Bennett. The other eight are split as follows: four move to other opposition parties, one to the Reservists party, and three to the undecided camp. Placing Eisenkot at the head of the joint list results in 37 seats, unchanged from the previous poll. In the overall bloc breakdown, the situation remains the same as before the merger, 60 for the Zionist opposition, 50 for the coalition, and 10 for Arab parties.

The poll also found that 34% of Israelis believe that in a choice between Eisenkot and Bennett, Eisenkot is more suited to serve as prime minister. Twenty six percent prefer Bennett, while 40% have no preference.

Netanyahu should stand for Israeli interests, not Trump’s

Sixty three percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu should always act according to Israel’s interests, even if this conflicts with requests from US President Donald Trump. Eighteen percent say he should comply with the US president’s requests because the alliance with the United States is more important, while 19% are undecided.

In addition, nearly half of Israelis, 46%, say Netanyahu should continue his legal proceedings until a verdict is reached. Thirty six percent prefer a plea deal or pardon even at the cost of leaving politics, while 18% are undecided.

The poll, conducted on June 24–25 by Lazar Research led by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL, included 500 respondents, representing a representative sample of Israel’s adult population aged 18 and over, Jews and Arabs. The maximum sampling error is 4.4 percent.

The negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were extended beyond what had been planned and will continue in Washington on Friday.

The decision was taken after 11 straight hours of talks, in an effort to reach an “in-principle commitment” to a security arrangement.

The Israeli Embassy in the United States confirmed the extension of the talks, which entered their fourth day. The negotiating teams will return to the table at the US State Department in the morning.

The talks, held under American mediation, are focused on Hezbollah’s future and the new security mechanisms in southern Lebanon.

One of the main ideas being discussed is the establishment of “pilot areas.” Under this framework, security responsibility would be transferred to the Lebanese Army in specific areas after Lebanese soldiers are screened and vetted in the United States to rule out ties to the organization.

The discussions are taking place against the backdrop of significant gaps between the sides. Lebanon is insisting on drawing up a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from the areas the IDF currently holds. Israel, for its part, is demanding that any arrangement include the disarmament of Hezbollah, and is refusing to withdraw until that condition is met.

Israel denies withdrawing from Lebanon buffer zone

On Thursday, a State Department official claimed that Israel had already begun withdrawing from part of the buffer zone as a “goodwill gesture,” but an Israeli security source denied the report.

Defense Minister Israel Katz made clear this week that “even if there is an American demand, we will not withdraw from Lebanon,” and that Israel will keep forces in place to monitor implementation on the ground.

The fact that the talks stretched for more than 11 hours in a single day suggests American pressure to achieve a breakthrough, but the atmosphere within the Israeli delegation is marked by concern.

Earlier this week, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said the contacts were a “train wreck.” Leiter criticized the influence of Tehran and the parallel talks Washington is holding with the Iranians, and stressed that dismantling Hezbollah must remain the basis for the talks.

In parallel with the diplomatic track, the United States is putting together a monitoring mechanism through US Central Command. The mechanism is intended to give Washington a real-time picture from the ground in order to prevent escalation.

As part of those efforts, US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper is expected to arrive in Israel to meet with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Katz.

Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yoram Cohen, who is a member of Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! party, sent a legal warning on Wednesday to Israel’s Channel 14 after it aired inflammatory remarks about him.

A lawsuit was also filed by Cohen against Micha Kobi, a panelist on the program who had made the remarks.

According to the legal warning, Kobi had claimed, during Shimon Riklin’s program on June 17, that Cohen had pushed for deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to be released as part of the deal to return Gilad Schalit in 2011.

Further, Kobi claimed that Cohen had pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into taking the deal – allegedly while knowing Sinwar was planning to carry out a future massacre. 

Cohen fully rejected Kobi’s claims, calling them “completely false” and baseless.

Submitted through the Ben Zur Corb & Co. law firm, Cohen’s legal team argues that Channel 14 served as a platform for spreading a “serious false allegation” against someone who served for decades in the security establishment. 

The letter also demanded that the channel publish a correction, issue a public apology, clarify that the remarks are incorrect, and immediately remove all broadcasts and segments in which the claims were made.

Not seeking financial compensation yet

At this stage, Cohen is not seeking financial compensation from Channel 14. 

However, the letter emphasizes that the central demand is to delete the publications, retract the allegations, and clarify to the public that these are statements “that never happened and were never created.”

“As the governance alternative led by ‘Yashar!’ with Eisenkot grows stronger, so does the campaign of slander and lies,” Yashar! said in a statement following the letter being sent, adding that “the pressure is understandable and clear.”

Gadi Eisenkot is not a man in a hurry.

Watching the polls make his Yashar party the largest in the opposition for the first time this week, I kept thinking that his patience will either be the asset that carries him into the prime minister’s office or the flaw that costs him the election.

He does not perform. He weighs his words like a man unsure he can carry them because he has paid in a currency that the rest of the field has not.

His son Gal was killed in Gaza in December 2023, while Eisenkot sat in the war cabinet; his nephew was killed in the same war. He quit that cabinet and said the government was not worthy of his son, of the fallen, or of the hostages who died in captivity.

That is not a biography you can manufacture, and it is the one credential Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot answer.

For a year, the camp that wants Netanyahu gone had no address. Bennett surged the moment he and Lapid unveiled their Together slate, then bled seats almost as fast, and the voters peeling away went not to Lapid but to Eisenkot.

Eisenkot rises in Israeli election polls

This week, a Maariv poll put Yashar level with Likud at 21 apiece, the first time any opposition party has caught Netanyahu this Knesset, and more Israelis now rate Eisenkot over the prime minister as the better fit to lead.

Yet leading the opposition does not lead to power. The bloc reaches 61 in only a poll or two, and otherwise only by leaning on the Arab parties that Bennett refuses to count. The durable majority comes only from pulling a particular kind of voter out of Netanyahu’s own bloc.

I have called them “the homeless Right,” national-religious and traditional Israelis who served, or whose children did, and buried people while other communities did not.

They will not vote for Likud, the party that spent this Knesset writing a law to keep haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men out of uniform to hold its coalition together. They will not follow Bennett, who took equal conscription, the cause they care about most, and folded it into a package with Lapid.

Six of them, perhaps more, have been standing in the cold. Eisenkot can bring them inside, and not because of his platform.

He came from Eilat, the son of Moroccan immigrants, a traditional Jew with family in the settlements, one of the very voters the opposition has never known how to reach.

Which is why the Channel 14 campaign to brand him a leftist should be named for what it is, a wall built by the Right’s own broadcaster to keep these voters from the man who could take them.

Even the party’s name rebukes the smear: MK Matan Kahana, a member of Eisenkot’s party (previously Bennett’s right-hand man), says it came from freed hostage Eli Sharabi, who said freeing the captives was not a matter of Right or Left but of being yashar, straight.

Eisenkot’s team helps him close gaps with voters

Yet the team Eisenkot has gathered exposes the problem he has not solved.

His most senior recruit is Yoram Cohen, the former Shin Bet chief who wears a kippah and carries real security weight.

Around him are economists, retired generals, even the former director-general of Netanyahu’s own Prime Minister’s Office; the two religious-Zionists, Matan Kahana and Orit Farkash-Hacohen, sit on its moderate wing.

It is a serious list, secular and technocratic in its center of gravity and nearer Tel Aviv than the hilltops. Nowhere on it stands a face the homeless-right voter instantly claims as his own, someone who reads as right-wing in the tribal grammar that decides Israeli elections.

Eisenkot knows this. He is a strategist first and is moving to close the gap.

He is in early talks with Avigdor Liberman, whose fiercely secular Yisrael Beytenu shares his rage at the draft exemptions, and circling former Likud names near the threshold, such as Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein, who broke with Netanyahu from the Right over that very law.

The same merger that lifts him toward governing size would hand him the signal he cannot generate alone. Here is the trap beneath the arithmetic.

Everything that makes Eisenkot attractive to these voters is his refusal to perform, and acquiring a right-wing identity is itself a performance.

The moment he is seen to bolt on a hardliner for the appearance, he stops being the one politician in Israel who does not do exactly that. The product is integrity. Spend it to buy the Right, and the shelf is bare. He cannot win them without auditioning, and I am not certain anyone can, him included.

Whether he manages it is the question of this election.

Why England and New York City are lessons for Eisenkot

What I am certain of is that we are lucky to have the argument at all. In Israel, the fight over who counts as a real Jewish leader remains a family argument, with a bereaved general among the options on the ballot. That is a luxury, and this week, two other countries showed how fast it can vanish.

In Britain, Keir Starmer resigned, calling his cleanup of Labour antisemitism his proudest achievement.

It was smaller than it sounds: He cleaned the party while the country grew more dangerous for its Jews, who now suffer the highest rate of religious hate crime of any group, with antisemitic incidents at double their pre-October 7 level.

His likely successor, Andy Burnham, is no Corbyn, and he stood with Manchester’s Jews after the Heaton Park murders. He is foggy all the same, unable to say whether Gaza is a genocide “from where I am as mayor [of Manchester].”

For British Jews, the danger has stopped being a hostile party and become something quieter, the draining away of the assumption that they belong in a friendly one.

In New York, the warning was blunter. Brad Lander beat Dan Goldman in the 10th district.

Both men are Jewish, and that is the point. Goldman is the moderate who defends Israel and took AIPAC’s backing, everything the American Jewish establishment trained its children to be. He is the one they discarded.

Lander, who calls Gaza a genocide and faults Democrats for “paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars,” advanced.

Moderation did not protect Goldman. Moderation is what marked him. The federations that found their voice against Jeremy Corbyn – safely British and in the other party – have lost it now that the danger wears the colors of the party they vote for, because to name it is to name a home they will not leave.

Not every race went that way, but the test is hardening, and Mamdani, who drove the slate, was not talking about one city when he said it starts now.

So here is what I want the synagogue rabbis in New York and the board member in Toronto to carry into Shabbat: The British Jews now losing the assumption that they belong did not lose it by being too loud.

They lost it while being moderate, while insisting the trouble was with the fringe, while every alarm was in another city, never at the school their grandchildren attend.

“It can’t happen here” was never a wall around them. It was an anesthetic, administered while it happened. You still believe the result in New York cannot reach your children. So did they.

At least 235 people have been reported dead and as many as 41,000 are missing following the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday, according to government and USGS counts.

Venezuelan  Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said that the updated death count is based on numbers recorded at medical centers in the country during an interview with state television on Thursday. 

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the south American country around 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas, and less than a minute one with a magnitude of 7.5 followed, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which estimated total deaths to be in the thousands.

Hundreds of people in Venezuela were trapped under rubble and many more still unaccounted for on Thursday after two powerful earthquakes wreaked havoc in and around the capital Caracas, setting off powerful aftershocks and leaving thousands homeless.

The disaster struck a country already grappling with years of economic turmoil that had left much of its infrastructure fragile, complicating rescue efforts and posing a crucial test for the country’s interim government, which welcomed promises of aid from across the international community.

Jorge Rodriguez, who heads Venezuela’s national assembly and is the brother of interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, said on Thursday afternoon that at least 188 people had been confirmed dead and 200 were trapped.

He said at least 1,520 people had been hospitalized and 250 buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving nearly 3,000 families homeless.

‘Disaster zone’

The worst-affected area, La Guaira state, near Caracas, “has become a disaster zone,” Rodriguez said, adding that her government was working with businesses to deploy heavy machinery to accelerate rescue efforts. Electricity in the state was scarce on Thursday.

Caracas’ main airport in La Guaira was closed on Thursday after suffering damage. Witnesses’ footage during the earthquakes showed scenes of panic as ceilings came down.

On-site footage Wednesday and Thursday showed survivors and emergency services searching for trapped people, and survivors being taken away on stretchers. In others, residents decried a lack of help.

La Guaira resident Yamileth Jimenez said her 19-year-old son was trapped in the rubble of their seven-story apartment building.

“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” said Jimenez, distraught after her father had died just three days earlier.

Rescue workers were scarce in the state’s eponymous capital, where volunteers were digging with their bare hands.

“We lost everything. We have no food or medicines … We hope help arrives quickly,” said Pedro Perez, 64, the owner of an upholstery workshop. He said he lost his home and business and had been forced out onto the streets with his wife and children.

Residents rush outside

Many Venezuelans were at home when the quakes struck during a public holiday. Residents fled shaking buildings and poured into the streets as structures collapsed across Caracas and nearby coastal areas.

“When we went downstairs, the scene was like a horror movie,” said Caracas resident Maria Alejandra, who did not give her surname.

Houses collapsed near the quake’s epicenter in Morón, a small seaside town in the state of Carabobo, where there was no water or electricity. Three children were among at least eight killed in the area, Mayor Emily Riera told Reuters.

Some 200 families who live in a damaged residential complex in Morón were removing what personal possessions they could reach, including mattresses, televisions and washing machines.

Some said they were going to stay with relatives. Others were waiting for promised government shelters.

Denis Sequera, 47, said her 5-year-old granddaughter helped lead her 79-year-old father to safety as the shaking began, while she helped her 70-year-old mother.

“She kept telling my dad, ‘Grandpa, get out, put your hands over your head,’ and she led him into the yard,” Sequera said. “We couldn’t go back inside. We slept outside and are now waiting for help.”

The USGS, using predictive modeling, estimated the death toll would most likely run into the thousands, with a substantial probability of exceeding 10,000.

A website set up to track missing people and shared by leaders from the country’s opposition listed more than 41,000 people as unaccounted for just after 3:30 p.m local time. Reuters could not verify the reports.

The 7.5-magnitude quake was Venezuela’s strongest since 1900. The country lies on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American plates and has suffered devastating earthquakes, including one that killed an estimated 30,000 people in 1812.

“This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” said Maria Romero, an 80-year-old pensioner in southern Caracas, referring to a magnitude 6.3 quake that the USGS said killed 240 people.

International solidarity and aid

Leaders from across the political spectrum expressed solidarity with Venezuela, a shift from the international polarization that has surrounded the country in recent years.

Rodriguez said international rescue teams were expected soon and thanked leaders including US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump said the US was “ready, willing and able to help” and that the US would “be there for our new and great friends,” while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said rescue teams were being deployed and the Pentagon would send assets to Caracas’ badly damaged airport.

The US Treasury on Thursday issued a license authorizing transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Venezuela that would have been banned under sanctions into October.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the organization was coordinating the rapid deployment of international rescue teams, adding that “a massive collective effort” would be needed in a country where, even before the quake, 8 million people needed humanitarian aid.

The UN’s Venezuela human rights mission urged the government to lift restrictions on some social media, saying it was a “matter of life and death.”

Pope Leo has sent €100,000 ($114,000) to Venezuela for quake relief from the Vatican’s charity fund, Vatican media reported.

Chef Jose Andres, founder of the humanitarian meal provider World Central Kitchen, said on Thursday his team had begun distributing meals in Caracas. He also said on X that his Longer Tables Fund will immediately contribute $1 million to help Venezuela.

Other countries, including El Salvador, Spain, Italy, and Mexico said they had sent or would send aid or rescue workers.

Israel is preparing for the “possibility of deploying an Israeli humanitarian aid delegation” to the area, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Starlink, the satellite internet unit of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, said on Thursday it will provide free services to its users in Venezuela for a month, after two earthquakes hit the South American nation.

The company is also working to “rapidly deploy Starlink terminals and restore connectivity to the hardest-hit areas,” Starlink said on X.

Oil infrastructure spared

At least eight hospitals had been affected, Jorge Rodriguez said. The Venezuelan Red Cross said its headquarters had been critically damaged but it sent rescue teams to the worst-affected areas. The French embassy was also badly hit.

Near the epicenter, workers were restarting the Morón Petrochemical Complex, Venezuela’s second-largest in operation, a local firefighter chief said, after damage was assessed. The small El Palito refinery, meanwhile, remained partially out of service due to power outages.

Other oil infrastructure appeared to be unaffected.

Foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela, including Chevron, the main foreign partner of the country’s state-run oil company PDVSA, as well as Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol, said all personnel had been accounted for.

Chevron said the company remained operational while Eni and Repsol said the quake had not affected their operations.

Shell, which is evaluating developing gas fields in Venezuela, said all its employees were unhurt.

Researchers using artificial intelligence and advanced imaging said on Thursday they had achieved the first complete reading of a closed Herculaneum scroll burnt by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.

The breakthrough marks a major step toward deciphering hundreds of ancient manuscripts found at Herculaneum, the Roman town destroyed along with Pompeii in the 79 CE disaster.

Looking to speed up the scholarship, the Vesuvius Challenge, which is promoting new technologies to try to understand the carbonized text, said it would place all its data, code and models of the papyri online and offer a $1 million prize to the first person or team to read in full any other scroll.

“Just a year ago it would have been crazy for any of us to believe that there would be a complete scroll read completely non-invasively with hundreds of columns of text,” said Brent Seales, professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky and one of the founders of the project.

“Today we have shown you that that is possible,” he told a conference streamed from Naples. “I believe we’re going to read every single one of the scrolls in the collection.”

Uncovered text explores ethics, art, human behavior

The blackened, fragile scrolls cannot be physically opened without severe damage. Researchers have instead used high-resolution scans and computational techniques to “virtually unwrap” them and detect ink on the papyrus layers.

So far, about 45 papyrus scrolls and scroll fragments have been scanned. More than 600 unopened scrolls remain, and large parts of the villa where they were discovered have yet to be excavated, raising the possibility that more could yet be found.

The Vesuvius Challenge has already awarded $1.8 million in prizes for work linked to unmasking the Herculaneum texts, but Nat Friedman, a US technology executive and founding sponsor of the project, said new insight would lead to major advances.

“We think it is possible to dramatically improve the algorithms that we have … and we think that the ink detection techniques that we’re using could probably be greatly advanced,” he said, encouraging more computing experts to get involved.

Among the new material presented on Thursday were 70 columns of text from “On Vices, Book 1,” attributed to the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.

Nearly 1.5 meters of readable text across 20 columns was also recovered from a document dated to 200-300 BCE, the oldest Herculaneum scroll yet unwrapped, exploring ethics, arts and human behavior.

New tech is ‘transformative,’ says lead researcher

Federica Nicolardi, lead papyrologist for the Vesuvius Challenge, said new technologies were transformative.

“Even with the most successful methods available … to physically unwrap the scrolls and read them, one had to damage them. But with virtual unwrapping, we are no longer forced to choose between preserving and reading these extraordinary artifacts. We can do both,” she said.

Nicolardi said progress was snowballing, with researchers in the last 24 hours unwrapping the full length of one scroll, producing about 140 columns of new text. Until recently, they were only uncovering about 10% of columns, she added.

“Literally last night, in front of Mount Vesuvius, something, or I should say everything, changed,” she said.

King Charles will not live at Buckingham Palace after its 10-year refurbishment finishes next year, royal officials said on Thursday, ending nearly two centuries of the central London landmark serving as the British monarch’s primary residence.

Officials at the same time disclosed the king paid £12.9 million ($17.04 million) in tax in 2024/25 — the first time the figure has been made public — placing him among Britain’s top 100 taxpayers.

Members of the royal family have promised greater transparency about their finances amid growing criticism following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022.

Charles decided to continue living at Clarence House, his longstanding London home nearby, when the £369 million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace concludes next year. The project includes replacing aging electrical wiring, pipes and heating.

When work started in 2017, officials had expected the palace to remain the monarch’s primary London residence as it had been since Queen Victoria became sovereign in 1837.

Palace still monarch headquarters

James Chalmers, the king’s treasurer and keeper of the privy purse, said it would remain the primary venue for ceremonial and official functions including receiving foreign dignitaries.

“It is and will remain monarchy HQ, the crown jewel of our national buildings, with the sovereign’s standard flying proudly from the roof whenever his majesty is in London,” he told reporters.

Neither Charles nor the late Queen Elizabeth had stayed overnight at the palace since 2019. The king will maintain private rooms there that could be used as accommodation.

Some 700,000 people visit the building every year, and there will be greater public access, Chalmers said, without providing details.

Charles reveals tax bill

By law, the British king is not obliged to pay income, capital gains or inheritance tax, but Charles, like his mother did after 1993, has voluntarily done so without disclosing the amounts.

Charles, like all monarchs since 1399, gets a private income from the vast Duchy of Lancaster estate — £25.2 million in 2025/26 — as well as from his other holdings and investments.

Chalmers said the king paid £11.7 million in tax in 2023/24 and more than £30 million in taxes since becoming king in 2022.

He also receives money from the government, known as the Sovereign Grant, to pay for staff, royal palaces and travel. That amount will be £137.9 million in 2026/27.

But Chalmers said it would be cut for the first time in 2027/28 to £100 million “in line with his majesty’s clear wishes,” a level where it will stay until 2031/32.

That makes it almost £60 million higher than in 2016 when the funding formula was changed to pay for the Buckingham Palace refit. “This is not a blank check,” Chalmers said, adding there were safeguards in place to ensure the amount was proportional.

Prince William, heir to the throne, paid £7.76 million in tax in 2024/25 and instructed that £1.5 million in rent from a closed prison go to the local community, his office said. William and Charles have faced criticism that they are profiting from charging the army, health service and schools rent.

The US State Department approved the possible sale of F/A-18F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft to Australia, the department announced in a statement on Thursday.

The sale, which the department estimates will cost $250 million “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives” of the US, according to the statement.

“Australia is one of our most important allies in the Western Pacific,” the department continued. “The strategic location of this political and economic power contributes significantly to ensuring peace and economic stability in the Western Pacific.”

“It is vital to the US national interest to assist our ally in developing and maintaining a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the statement said.

Deal won’t harm US defenses, says department

Further, the deal isn’t meant to alter the “basic military balance” of the region, the department said, adding that no additional US contractors will be assigned to Australia and that the deal won’t impact US defense readiness.

“The proposed sale will enhance Australia’s capability to meet current and future threats and increase its interoperability with the US and its allies through comprehensive training, the department added.

“Australia will have no difficulty absorbing this training into its armed forces.”

US readies sale of equipment to Turkey

The same day, the White House notified Congress of its intention to sell jet engines to Turkey, in a deal estimated at $700 million.

On Thursday, several Democratic lawmakers said they opposed the engine sale and cautioned the administration over selling Ankara any F-35s.

“We cannot reward Erdogan’s government while it continues to violate US law and threaten our reliable, democratic allies,” Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire said in a social media post. “Absolutely no F-35s to Turkey.”

“The US government is prepared to license the export of these items having taken into account political, military, economic, human rights, and arms control considerations,” the State Department said in its notification to Congress.

On Thursday, several Democratic lawmakers said they opposed the engine sale and cautioned the administration over selling Ankara any F-35s.

“We cannot reward Erdogan’s government while it continues to violate US law and threaten our reliable, democratic allies,” Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire said in a social media post. “Absolutely no F-35s to Turkey.”

Congress has 15 days to introduce a joint resolution of disapproval if it wants to block the sale. Such a resolution would need to pass in both chambers and could be vetoed by Trump.

Former supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s underground bunker complex included a blast-resistant room and escape tunnels beneath central Tehran, Iran International reported on Thursday, citing architectural plans received from an informed source.

The documents’ authenticity were also confirmed by a security source, the outlet said. 

According to Iran International, the plans show the complex, known as Habib Ebrahimi, as situated next to Khamenei’s official residence. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reportedly began construction of the site in 2009 with Khamenei’s approval, financing the project through the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters.

According to the plans, the main entrance was large enough to allow cars inside, and allow them to reach a depth of 30 meters underground. 

The compound also allegedly included a 27-meter tunnel linked to several different escape routes and a second tunnel reported to lead to a parking garage near the Enghelab Square in central Tehran.

In early March, the IDF had targeted the underground bunker using intelligence provided by the clandestine IDF units 8200 and 9900 to discover its location.

The IDF at the time had said that 50 aircraft had targeted the secret underground lair spread over several blocks in the heart of Tehran, with over 100 munitions. 

Five-story underground office building for senior officials

Iran International further noted that several of the images also depicted a five-story underground office complex for senior officials attached to the Supreme Leader’s Office.

Sources familiar with the project, speaking to Iran International on condition of anonymity, shared that the site was concealed beneath a reported sports center. 

The facility included a three-level parking garage, target ranges and two shelters located approximately 30 and 35 meters beneath the surface, the sources shared, adding that one of the shelters housed a blast-resistant room to protect Khamenei from missiles.

Khamenei, who was killed by the IDF during the opening strikes of Operation Roaring Lion, had been at a regular command complex at the time of his death.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

Nearly 24 hours after devastating twin earthquakes in Venezuela, people in the coastal city of La Guaira were still using their hands to dig through rubble, trying to rescue their neighbors.

“We are trying to help with what we can, but there is a lack of equipment,” said Carlos Borges, who said he was frustrated by the shortage of machinery like backhoes to move the piles of concrete slabs that were once high-rise apartment buildings.

His team pulled three people from one building, as other anxious family members, including the single mother of a missing teenage boy, waited at the site on Thursday morning.

US Geological Survey models suggested deaths could exceed 10,000 after two powerful earthquakes wreaked havoc in and around the capital Caracas on Wednesday. The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez has confirmed nearly 200 dead and 1,520 injured.

Residents of La Guaira, a popular spot for beachgoers and the worst-hit city in the country, and Moron, near the quakes’ epicenter, were scrambling amid limited official help.

Air of desperation among La Guaira’s residents

“Is it not possible to call in the military? Everyone come, come and pitch in. Put them in an armored vehicle and come help the people. Find tractors wherever you can,” said Argenis Martinez, a resident of La Guaira’s Los Corales neighborhood, who was looking for a relative among the rubble.

Some rubble caught fire overnight, despite a cut to domestic gas service. Terrified residents, many with nowhere else to go, huddled in the streets or peered into destroyed buildings, looking for survivors.

The government, which said 250 buildings had been damaged or destroyed, mainly in La Guaira, has said aid is on the way from Spain, the United States, Mexico and Qatar and called on the private sector to lend equipment like backhoes to help with rescue efforts.

At other places in La Guaira, neighbors pulled two dead people from a house, including a little girl, and saved a mother and two children, injured but alive, from a destroyed apartment building.

Reuters witnesses saw members of a colectivo — ruling party-allied motorcycle groups who have long been accused of abusing protesters at anti-government rallies — assisting rescue efforts at at least one location.

“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.

Looters targeting stores amid chaos

In some areas of La Guaira, people were looking for food and water, and a Reuters team witnessed looting at at least two stores.

The city’s Jose Maria Vargas Hospital was overflowing with injured, and some patients were being tended to outside, where police were limiting access to the building. Officials there said they had no information for journalists.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Beatriz Rodriguez, 60, whose nephew’s legs were amputated at the hospital after being crushed in the quakes. Another nephew, age 6, was killed.

The armed forces are deploying field hospitals to La Guaira, its command said in a press release, and will be able to perform emergency surgeries. A Reuters team in the city on Thursday saw a military convoy near the local stadium carrying out aid efforts.

Hospitals elsewhere were also struggling.

As he worked through a 24-hour emergency shift at the modest hospital in Moron, Dr. Augusto Ramirez found himself short of basic supplies.

“We need blood pressure monitors, gauze, thermometers, gloves, plaster, painkillers — everything,” Ramirez told Reuters.

He, two fellow doctors and other staff had treated 112 people since the quakes collapsed houses and cut off electricity and water in the town. Nine have died from skull fractures and other injuries, including three children.

Hundreds of people from the Bedouin community demonstrated on Thursday outside the offices of the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement Authority in Beersheba, protesting the demolition of homes in Bedouin communities.

The demonstration came in the wake of comments made the previous day by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Addressing the issue, he said he would continue demolishing “more and more and more” illegally built homes in the Negev.

“We want to live in peace, we want cooperation,” said Talal Alkernawi, the mayor of Rahat. “This conduct is unacceptable to us, we strongly condemn it. To boast that you [Ben-Gvir] are a minister who demolishes? Who are you demolishing, the citizens of the state?”

“We want coexistence, but our next step is to establish a tent city at the entrance to Beersheba, at the entrance to Ofakim, at the entrance to Dimona.”

Ben-Gvir  had earlier referred to the planned protest and criticism of his ministry’s demolition policy during a Local Government Conference held on Thursday.

“They told me that Bedouin whose homes were demolished are sleeping in a school in Arad. They are there because they say ‘Ben-Gvir is demolishing our homes.’ So I am telling them: they should prepare many more schools across the Negev, because I am going to demolish more and more and more,” he said.

He also said that since taking office, more than 5,000 illegal structures have been demolished, and that land equivalent in size to Tel Aviv and Givatayim combined has been returned to the state.

“Anyone who builds in violation of the law must understand one thing: illegal construction will not pay off. No protest will change this policy,” he said.

Thousands of homes lost, damages estimated at NIS 250 million

In response, the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev strongly criticized Ben-Gvir and disputed his figures, noting that “the area of Tel Aviv and Givatayim is 55 square kilometers, while the area cleared in the Negev is at most 2 square kilometers.”

Further, it said that thousands of families have lost their homes and that the cumulative economic damage from the demolitions is estimated at around 250 million shekels.

“I hear the crying and wailing of the mayor of Rahat against enforcement of illegal homes in the Negev,” Ben-Gvir responded. “And I am telling him: the era of lawlessness is over, the era of governance has begun. We will destroy every illegal house in the Negev down to its foundations.”

Haggai Reznik, head of the Rifman Institute for the Development of the Negev, also criticized the Bedouin leadership, claiming that it opposes regulatory efforts.

“As long as the formal and informal leadership of the Bedouin opposes every attempt at regulation, including legislation that would allow demolition only when a legal regulatory solution exists, it continues to speak with a double voice to the public it claims to represent and to the State of Israel,” Reznik said. “It only says what not to do, and not how to fix things. This is, at best, limited wisdom, and in the worst case the main driver of chaos in the Negev.

“The Rifman plan is the only comprehensive solution, and any Zionist government will be required to adopt it,” he said.

Plans are already set in motion, Bedouin Settlement Authority says

The Regulation and Development of Bedouin Settlement Authority also responded to the protest, saying  that it has been working in recent years to advance regulation and practical solutions on the ground.

“As part of these efforts, for example in Neighborhood 1 in Abu Krinat, residents now live in a regulated neighborhood with infrastructure, roads, and educational institutions,” it said. “At the same time, the authority is promoting extensive development of neighborhoods across the Negev, intended to provide housing solutions for families from the diaspora.”

It added that it is advancing two main programs: a “focusing plan” to develop new plots with infrastructure for families living in unregulated conditions without protection or services, and a “leveling” program aimed at regulating land ownership claims in settlements, an issue it said has long prevented development in the Negev and left many Bedouin citizens without basic services.

“There is no contradiction between upholding the rule of law and advancing development, investment in infrastructure, and changing the reality in the Negev,” the authority said. “On the contrary, regulation according to the law enables the state to invest in infrastructure, build public institutions, strengthen personal security, and create a better future for residents.”

“We call on Bedouin society to accept the proposal on the table and choose a path of regulation, development, and a better future for families and children in the Negev.”

Fans will be allowed to bring rainbow flags when Egypt face Iran in Seattle’s designated “Pride Match” at the World Cup, FIFA said on Thursday, setting up an awkward collision between local celebrations and two nations where homosexuality is criminalized.

Friday’s group game falls on Seattle’s Pride weekend, a scheduling quirk that emerged only after December’s draw pitted the two Muslim-majority countries against each other.

Egypt and Iran objected ⁠after the ​draw, with Egypt’s Football Association saying such events clashed with its cultural and religious values. Both countries impose severe penalties on LGBTQ people.

“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds. Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events,” FIFA said in a statement.

“General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums.”

FIFA added that items will be allowed provided they are used “in a manner consistent with the code,” which limits the size of flags or banners and prohibits items deemed “political.”

‘Pride Match’ Organized by Seattle, not FIFA

FIFA has distanced itself from the Pride festivities, emphasizing that the celebrations are organized by Seattle’s local World Cup committee and not the global soccer body.

“I must clarify that there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the World Cup,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino told Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche in January.

“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle and, on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city. But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans.

Seattle organizers remain undeterred, viewing the spotlight as a platform for promoting acceptance.

“The Pride celebration… has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters.

“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”

Roman Sorkin’s defining moment in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s championship-clinching win over Hapoel Tel Aviv came with 32 seconds left in Game 4, but the story of his season – and perhaps of his transformation as a player – ran much deeper than one corner three.

When Sorkin rose up and drilled the decisive shot to break a 76-76 tie, it was not simply the basket that sealed Maccabi’s 83-79 win, a 3-1 series victory, and the club’s 58th Israeli League championship. It was the latest reminder of how far he has come and how central he has become to everything Maccabi does.

For much of the previous game and a half, Sorkin had been out of rhythm. After scoring no points in Game 3, he had just four in Game 4 and had been frustrated time and again by Ish Wainright’s physical defense. Wainright had succeeded in pushing him away from the basket, disrupting his timing and taking him out of the flow of the offense. It was the kind of stretch that could rattle a player, especially in the middle of a championship series.

But Sorkin did not disappear. He stayed in the game mentally, trusted the moment, and delivered when Maccabi needed him most.

“I owed a lot to my team after the last game and a half,” Sorkin said after the win. “I was too focused on myself, and that’s part of the old me. I can’t be like that anymore. People here count on me.”

That quote may have said more about Sorkin than the shot itself.

Over the course of the season, Sorkin developed from an important contributor into Maccabi’s anchor and, ultimately, the Israeli MVP. He was one of the team’s most consistent players in domestic competition and in Euroleague play, and he carried that level into the postseason. Even when Hapoel made him work for every touch and every look in the finals, Maccabi never lost faith in him – because he had earned that trust over time.

That growth did not happen overnight. Sorkin’s rise has been built over the past few years, through setbacks, responsibility, and steady improvement. The player who once had to fight for minutes and consistency has become one of the premier big men in Israeli basketball and a legitimate force at the European level. He is no longer just a complementary piece; he is one of the players Maccabi turns to when the season is on the line.

Maccabi demanded resilience over challenging season

And this season, more than most, demanded resilience. Maccabi dealt with roster shortages, long stretches away from home, constant instability, and the emotional and logistical strain of another year played under the shadow of war. There were interruptions, uncertainty, and physical exhaustion, yet Sorkin remained one of the players who helped hold the team together.

“We moved to Belgrade, came back, and there were difficulties along the way, but this is a group of men,” Sorkin said. “I felt like I was letting the guys down, and this is a group that truly enjoys being together. This is a group of lions.”

In the end, that may be the lasting image of Maccabi’s title run: not just Sorkin hitting the biggest shot of the season, but Sorkin embodying what the season required – toughness, growth, accountability, and belief. The three-pointer may have sealed the championship, but it was everything that came before it that made Sorkin the face of Maccabi’s triumph.

See more Israeli sports coverage at www.sportsrabbi.com/en

In the heart of Jerusalem’s city center, at 14 King George Street, there is a shop called Rachel Imenu’s Corner. Within it, a profound human drama about the art of negotiation unfolds daily. This is the home turf of Mr. Yosef Yakovian, the protagonist of the documentary film I am currently working on a film titled For Shoes. 

Yosef is a retailer of footwear and clothing, but for him, commerce is much more than a profession; bargaining, purchasing, and selling, reading environmental data, analyzing it, and taking action, have flowed in his veins since childhood, as is natural for a son of the culture of the Persian nation. Through his character, my camera seeks to capture an entire way of life that does not stop at the shop’s doorstep but constitutes his gait, language, and second nature an ancient and intimate art that, amid the digital technological era and an accelerated Western culture, sometimes seems to be nearing its end.

“For shoes,” as the Midrash reminds us, the brothers of Joseph the Righteous sold him to the Ishmaelites. Most readers tend to interpret this sale price as an expression of the cheapness of a brother’s life, sold for a paltry and humiliating sum. But perhaps, from an alternative historical and psychological perspective, the “achievement” of the low price can be attributed precisely to the Ishmaelites the desert masters of negotiation, who even then knew how to identify the pressure and cracks on the opposing side, eroding the deal’s price in their favor.

This seam, between the traditional art of commerce and the ability to turn human dynamics into a lever of power, is precisely the key to understanding what is happening today in the global arena. When one looks at the new Memorandum of Understanding signed between Iran and the United States, it becomes clear that this is not a random diplomatic maneuver; it is an instructive lesson in that Persian-Shi’ite negotiation architecture; a masterpiece that blends the political realism of “Mirrors for Kings,” the bazaar mentality, and deep theological and legal principles of Ijtihad, Taqiyya, and Ghaibah.

The bazaar mentality and “Ta’arof” — the psychological lever

While Western leaders conduct diplomacy under a political stopwatch and media pressure, in Tehran they operate in entirely different units of time. The Persian bazaar is not merely a marketplace, but an institution where the opening price is never the final price, and time management is a flexible resource. This principle converges with the refined social code Ta’arof. Ta’arof sanctifies extreme politeness, displays of humility, and exaggerated gestures of respect, but in a political context, it serves as a sophisticated psychological cover designed to obscure intentions, exhaust the opponent, and make them feel morally inferior.

In modern negotiations, this mentality translates into the strategy of brinkmanship. The formula is constant: create a controlled crisis choking shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, uranium enrichment, or activating proxies and then demand that the West “pay” just to restore the situation to its previous state. This is precisely the mechanism underlying the current Memorandum of Understanding. Iran did not surrender a sovereign asset; it merely agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days. In return for this “gesture,” it receives an immediate exemption from oil export sanctions and 
access to frozen assets. The West breathes a sigh of relief, but in practice, it paid full price for goods that Iran had taken hostage just a few months ago.

While the Americans seek “quick fix” solutions to serve their political timelines, the Iranians act like carpet weavers: knot after knot, with endless patience. The current 60-day interim agreement provides Tehran with immediate economic oxygen, while all the difficult core issues the fate of 60% enriched uranium and the ballistic missile program have been pushed to further talks in Switzerland.

The literature of “Adab” and “Mirrors for Kings” — Persian political realism

To understand the roots of this cynical political realism, one must turn to the philosophy of the Near East. Those who most directly and practically shaped and wrote about the art of negotiation, diplomacy, and statecraft in our region
are not metaphysical philosophers, but Persian political thinkers and statesmen. In this cultural tradition, an entire literary genre developed known as “Mirrors for Kings” (Adab literature), which served as a practical guide for rulers, ministers, and ambassadors, distilling management and negotiation tactics centuries before Niccolò Machiavelli.

Three prominent Persian thinkers illustrate how these principles are deeply embedded in Tehran’s political DNA:

1. Ibn al-Muqaffa (8th century): In his philosophical-practical work, Al Adab al-Kabir (The Great Book of Life’s Manners), he formulated strict rules for managing political relationships and the art of persuasion for the political echelon. He emphasized the supreme importance of concealing 
   intentions, demonstrating restraint and absolute emotional control, alongside the use of calculated compromises as a tool to achieve long term strategic goals.
2. Nizam al-Mulk (11th century): The grand vizier of the Seljuk Empire, who in his seminal work Siyasat-nama (The Book of Government), dedicated specific chapters to diplomacy and foreign relations. Mulk warned that envoys and ambassadors do not come merely to negotiate but to gather intelligence, identify internal weaknesses, and report on them. Accordingly, he developed tactics of delay and deterrence, teaching how to demonstrate manipulative power against the other side during discussions to manage the discourse from a position of strength and without resorting to war.
3. Kai Ka’us (11th century): In his renowned work Qabus-nama, dedicated to the conduct of ambassadors, he outlines a model of applied psychology in negotiation. He emphasizes the dynamic need to adapt the message to the target audience: the negotiator must understand the psyche of the person opposite him, speak their language, and know exactly when to use soft and flattering language (similar to Ta’arof) and when to switch to aggressive, unequivocal, and threatening language.

The open gates of Ijtihad: Legal dynamism as a tactical weapon

Upon this historical-secular foundation, the religious layer is superimposed, fundamentally distinguishing the Sunni Muslim world from the Shi’ite-Iranian one, and projecting directly onto the negotiation table: the institution of Ijtihad interpretive innovation and independent legal reasoning. 

According to accepted Sunni Muslim tradition, the “gates of Ijtihad were closed” as early as the tenth century. Although modern research on Islamic law has shown that in practice, independent legal reasoning never completely ceased and its gates were not hermetically sealed, in the institutional Sunni consciousness, the aspiration remained to adhere to past traditions and existing rulings (Taqlid). In contrast, in the Shi’ite world, and in Iran in particular, the gates of Ijtihad were never closed neither in theory nor in practice.

In Shi’ism, the Mujtahid (the senior religious scholar, usually holding the rank of ayatollah) possesses the authority, and indeed the obligation, to reinterpret divine laws anew according to the spirit of the times and changing circumstances. The sanctification of Ijtihad grants the Iranian leadership phenomenal legal and political plasticity and flexibility. While Sunni or Western leaders are often bound by rigid doctrines or written laws, the supreme leader in Iran can, in the name of the dynamism of Ijtihad and within the framework of protecting the interests of the Islamic state (Maslahat), alter religious rulings from one extreme to the other with a stroke of a pen. Suddenly, a compromise considered “treason” yesterday can be declared “heroic flexibility” today. The implication for negotiations is immense: Iran holds an inherent religious-legal license to display political acrobatics, change the rules of the game mid-course, and legitimize any tactical compromise without losing its religious legitimacy.

Between “Velayat-e Faqih” and “Ghaibah” — The asymmetry of concealment

This legal and historical flexibility converges perfectly with Iran’s governmental-religious architecture: the absolute concealment of the supreme leader, the Rahbar. According to the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, the rule of the 
jurisprudent shaped by Khomeini—the supreme leader is the official highest Mujtahid, holding absolute authority. However, this rule derives its legitimacy from the concept of Ghaibah, the occultation (disappearance) of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi, who vanished from mortal eyes and will return at the end of days. The supreme leader is perceived as filling his place and leading by his authority. Consequently, he is elevated above the common people and is not supposed to “dirty his hands” with daily political compromises or direct meetings with Western leaders. This cultural and religious distance plays a crucial political and operational role in negotiations, creating an absolute asymmetry within the negotiation room:

• Absolute immunity from direct responsibility: Since the supreme leader is not physically present in Geneva and does not sign any document, he holds an absolute and immune right of veto. He can, at any given moment, invalidate understandings reached by his envoys (such as Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf or Foreign Minister Araghchi), claiming they exceeded their authority or succumbed to pressure.
• Preservation of myth and deterrence: Preventing the leader’s exposure to investigative journalism, difficult questions, or public confrontations maintains his aura of power, determination, and sanctity among his supporters in Iran and the network of proxies across the Middle East.
• Built-in division of roles: The leader remains ideologically rigid and pure, while allowing his articulate technocrats and diplomats to present a moderate and pragmatic facade to the West. This double game allows Iran to demonstrate “cultural offense” in response to harsh Western statements, 
  and to extract further concessions under the threat that “the conservatives at home will blow everything up.“ 

Legitimacy for concealment: The principle of “Taqiyya”

It is impossible to understand the Iranian willingness to sign agreements, such as the current agreement to return inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), without understanding the concept of Taqiyya. Taqiyya is a religious injunction rooted in Shi’ism, which permits concealing one’s true beliefs, lying, or presenting a false front in times of distress, danger, or a threat to the community.

In a political context, the leadership of the revolution perceives Iran as being in a constant struggle for survival against “global arrogance” (Western imperialism). Under this worldview, the use of ambiguity, signing vague formulations, and presenting false pretenses regarding the true intentions of the nuclear program are not seen as a lack of diplomatic integrity, but as a supreme religious and strategic duty to protect Islam and the revolution. Iran allows the return of inspectors (a tactical step) to remove the economic blockade, but reserves the right to interpret the extent of the inspection’s “intrusiveness” at its most sensitive sites.

Conclusion and future outlook

The current Memorandum of Understanding does not mark the end of the diplomatic game, but rather the relocation of its pieces to a much more advanced and dangerous stage. While the West tends to celebrate short-term 
tactical achievements of temporary calm or the opening of trade routes, Tehran conducts a broad strategic campaign in which time, patience, and cultural depth are the primary resources.

Just as the Ishmaelites in the desert knew how to buy Joseph “for shoes“ through a brilliant identification of the vulnerabilities and psychological pressure of the opposing side so too does the Iranian leadership continue to guide Western powers through the pathways of global negotiation. As long as Western perception insists on analyzing Tehran’s moves through linear and technocratic lenses, while ignoring the historical and religious baggage that shapes its actions from the realist state theory of the Siyasat-nama, through the flexible legal space of Ijtihad, and up to the veil of ambiguity of Taqiyya it will find itself repeatedly led step by step, thread by thread, into the intricate Persian carpet woven for it by the diplomatic masters of the Islamic Republic. 

The writer, a PhD, is a theater director, an expert on Iranian culture and religion, and is a member of the Bama Tova organization.

Uriah Cohen, 38, a Yitzhar resident, was indicted on Thursday over a June 6 incident in Huwara, in the northern West Bank, in which prosecutors say he blocked a Palestinian vehicle, pointed an assault rifle at its occupants, and fired into the air.

The prosecution asked the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court to detain Cohen until the end of proceedings. He is charged with firing a weapon in a residential area in a manner endangering life, threats, reckless and negligent acts, obstruction of justice, and being an accessory after the fact.

According to the indictment, Cohen and a co-owner of the flock identified as Yakir called on people from the area to help locate sheep after the animals left Tzafnat Farm, an agricultural outpost near Tapuah Junction.

An April Peace Now analysis, based on reports of a March 25 Security Cabinet decision that was not formally published, listed Tzafnat among West Bank outposts slated for retroactive authorization.

The defendant pointed his weapon at occupants of another car

At about 10:37 a.m., prosecutors said, Cohen drove into Huwara with an unidentified masked man. Both were armed with assault rifles. Cohen allegedly then swerved into the path of a Hyundai Tucson with Palestinian registration plates, blocking it and causing the vehicle to hit his car.

Cohen and the masked man then got out, ordered its occupants to leave, and pointed their weapons at the vehicle to frighten them, the indictment said.

Cohen allegedly fired into the air. As the Hyundai fled, the masked man allegedly fired toward it.

The indictment says Yakir later arrived at the scene on a quad bike with an unidentified passenger wearing the upper part of a military uniform and a military helmet. Other unidentified people arrived on foot.

Yakir is not among the people whom the indictment alleges carried out the assault that followed.

The sheep search quickly devolved into assault

According to the charge sheet, the people who arrived on foot and the helmeted passenger approached another Hyundai carrying two Huwara residents and ordered them out. They allegedly opened the doors and pulled the two men from the vehicle.

The group, joined by the masked man who had arrived with Cohen, then allegedly beat the two men with fists, a club, and a rifle butt.

One man suffered bleeding in the brain, fractures around his right eye and cheek, and cuts to his face, and was hospitalized in intensive care, according to the indictment. The second man was also injured. Both were left lying on the road.

Footage shows Cohen collecting shell casings from the scene

Cohen is not charged with carrying out the beating. The indictment says he pulled the helmeted passenger away while he was punching one of the victims.

Prosecutors allege that Cohen later collected shell casings from the road. The masked man and the helmeted passenger then got into Cohen’s car, and Cohen drove them away, passing the two injured men as they lay on or beside the road, according to the indictment.

The detention request says the state has security-camera footage, a bystander’s phone recording, testimony from soldiers posted in the area, medical records, and statements from the victims.

It says the footage shows Cohen stopping the first vehicle, bending down to pick something up from the roadway, pulling the helmeted man away from one victim, and leaving with the masked and helmeted men.

The prosecution said Cohen acknowledged being at the scene and identified himself in the security footage, but gave what it described as contradictory explanations for stopping the first vehicle. It said he did not identify the masked man who was with him or other people at the scene.

Kan reported that an IDF debrief found that the flock had escaped after the pen gate was left unsecured, rather than having been stolen. That finding is not part of the indictment.

Cohen’s lawyers at Honenu rejected the allegations, saying he believed the sheep had been stolen and acted in self-defense.

Marathon meetings in the Knesset House Committee were scheduled for Thursday next week as the coalition moves to advance at a rapid pace the controversial Basic Law: Torah Study bill pushed by haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties.

The bill seeks to enshrine Torah study in the country’s Basic Law as part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits.

The first committee meeting on Sunday to advance the legislation is set to take place over the course of eight hours, from morning until evening. There are then two more meetings set for Monday and Tuesday.

Opposition coordinator Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid) subsequently sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) on Thursday, in which she argued that the lawmakers did not have enough time to prepare in advance for so many discussions beginning already on Sunday.

The haredi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – had boycotted coalition voting last week and into this week, stating that they would not cooperate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition until there was advancement with the legislation they have been pushing for.

On Tuesday, leaders of Degel Hatorah and Shas, MKs Moshe Gafni and Arye Deri, released a joint statement saying they had held a meeting with Netanyahu.

The two stated that the prime minister had “made it clear at the meeting that he is committed to approving the laws and will work to advance them quickly.”

There had previously been contentious wording in the bill’s proposal that equated those who study Torah with those who serve in the IDF, which has now been removed in the new draft of the legislation.

Critics argue that the implications of the legislation would still grant sweeping state benefits to draft evaders, despite the change of wording.

New proposal calls Torah study ‘fundamental value’ of Jewish, Israeli heritage

The wording in the new proposal, seen by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, focuses on Torah study as being “a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.”

The bill passed its preliminary reading earlier this month and must still be advanced in a Knesset committee before undergoing three more required readings in order to come into effect.

In a controversial move on Monday, the legislation was approved to be moved to the Knesset’s House Committee for advancement, rather than to the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, which is led by MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party).

Rothman argued that the decision to transfer the legislation to the House Committee for advancement was “in light of complex scheduling constraints and the creation of an unusual burden on the legislative agenda of the committee.”

However, there have been reports that his decision not to advance the bill in his committee was part of an attempt by Rothman’s Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to distance itself from the contentious legislation.

The House Committee, in contrast, is led by coalition whip MK Ofir Katz, a member of the Likud party.

Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik warned against moving the legislation to the House Committee, stating that the legal advisory position is that the bill should be discussed in the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee.

Afik also stressed that the legislation was a significant Basic Law, and “therefore, the legislative process must also be proper and appropriate.”

IDF warns of urgent manpower shortage

The haredi parties have encouraged the coalition to advance legislation that would not increase haredi enlistment. The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after more than two years of war.

In April, the High Court of Justice ordered that the state take concrete steps to revoke key financial benefits from draft evaders and to move toward criminal enforcement against haredi men who evade military service.

In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF could soon collapse if no solution was found for the manpower shortage.

The tensions also come amid the coalition’s last Knesset session to advance its legislation before the upcoming elections, scheduled for no later than October 27.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be working over the weekend to influence Likud lawmakers ahead of a Sunday vote, as part of an effort to secure control over at least the first six reserved spots on the party’s Knesset list ahead of the upcoming elections, Likud MK Amit Halevi told The Jerusalem Post in a Thursday interview.

Halevi is a member of the Likud Constitution Committee, which will hold a vote on Sunday on changing the primary system in a way that could grant Netanyahu authority to select candidates for the highest slots on the party list.

Any decision made on Sunday would still need to be finalized by the committee.

While the Likud holds primaries to determine its Knesset list – set to take place no later than July 28 – there have been numerous reports that Netanyahu has been seeking to change the method of conducting the primaries this year to grant the premier more control and determine the highest slots on the list himself.

There have also been reports that Netanyahu has threatened to leave Likud if the proposed changes are not advanced.

Ahead of the Sunday vote to change the system, Halevi said he believed the prime minister would attempt to speak with Likud MKs “in closed rooms” over the weekend to persuade those who were opposed to the move.

Parties are not mandated to hold primaries in Israel, and only a few conduct them. The Likud has prided itself for years that it conducts primaries in which its over 100,000 registered members are eligible to vote for the Knesset list.

The vote to change the primary system was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday, but was later pushed to Sunday next week.

“I think he’s trying on the weekend to meet them [Likud MKs] and to say, let’s do this, let’s do that, and he’s trying to build the formula with much less resistance,” Halevi said.

Netanyahu likely to join Likud Constitution Committee meeting

Halevi told the Post that there is a high likelihood that Netanyahu will join the Likud Constitution Committee meeting on Sunday to vote as well.

“If I understood well, the prime minister will be there because… he wants to influence. That’s my opinion, according to my experience,” Halevi said.

Halevi added that he believed it was important for the party to hold its primaries and that he did not believe they would be canceled, despite some reports suggesting otherwise.

“It’s not at all obvious in Israel’s current political climate that there is a party with over 150,000, now already close to 170,000 paying members, who want to be involved and are active, with over 100 branches across the country.”

He said that the primaries made Likud stand out from parties like Blue and White, led by MK Benny Gantz, or Yisrael Beytenu, led by MK Avidgor Lieberman, who decide their own lists.

Halevi said he did not see a contradiction in maintaining the democratic process of primaries and having Netanyahu reserve a limited number of top slots.

“I think there is room to allow the prime minister [to pick the first slots on the list], precisely because of the current era I described: most other parties do not have primaries, and the ability of political competitors to quickly bring in people who are electoral assets is something we need to deal with,” he said.

“People who represent the values of the party, the spirit of the party, and what the party wants to promote in the next elections, these people can be brought in quickly, without going through the long process of primaries,” Halevi said about reserving slots.

“I think it is very important to allow this in order to maximize the chance of victory for the national camp in the elections. What is at stake is extremely significant for our country in the upcoming elections,” he added.

Halevi also argued that reserved slots could help bring in strong candidates from outside the party.

“It’s very hard to come [into Likud] from outside. It’s very hard to take part in a competition like this when you have 15 ministers who are in their positions and another 25 Knesset members. So that’s why there is a rationale to make the reservations too.”

“There are excellent people who simply do not want to go through the primaries. They are not from within the party and don’t have the networks or long-standing connections,” Halevi explained.

Reserved slots may go to Sa’ar, Kahlon

There have been reports that some of the reserved slots could go to figures such as Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and former finance minister Moshe Kahlon.

Regarding who the reserved slots would ultimately be used for, Halevi said he believed some would be allocated to people who “embody the spirit of the party.”

“People from the military or people who paid personal prices in the war, who can strongly express the demand for victory,” he said.

“Maybe former officers, people who served and sacrificed, or people with strong public service backgrounds.

“That is likely the direction. There may also be politicians from the past, I don’t know. But the general direction, from what I understand, is people who represent strength, resilience, and victory,” Halevi continued.

He also stressed that it was most important to do what would be best for the party to succeed in the elections. The debate on how to hold the Likud primaries comes ahead of the general elections, which are set to take place no later than October 27.

In a stunning turn of events, US Vice President JD Vance told the media outlet Unherd on Thursday that CENTCOM officials will meet with Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials in Doha, Qatar, to resolve conflicts between the sides.

“One of the things we wanted to come out with,” he tells me, was a “channel on the Iranian side” for reducing conflict.

“Which we did. They were like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll send somebody from the IRGC to go hang out in Doha with somebody from CENTCOM,’ and that’s how we’re going to settle a lot of these disputes,” Vance told Unherd.

The statement might cause whiplash for observers who know that seemingly only moments ago, CENTCOM was part of a bombing campaign with Israel in which IRGC officials all over Iran, killing them in large numbers, likely hundreds, if not in the thousands.

Although Israel took the lead for assassinating senior IRGC officials, it is likely that CENTCOM had a significant hand in this as well.

CENTCOM, IRGC officials to hold direct talks in Qatar

Further, US law currently defines the IRGC as a terror group, leaving the legality of such meetings in a gray area.

In fact, usually when the US meets with enemy countries, especially those connected to intelligence, the CIA often takes the lead, because it can do so covertly and is less bound by standard laws and transparency considerations than the US military.

It was unclear why Vance did not mention the CIA. 

On the other hand, if successful, some observers would say that building trust between military officials from both sides is more likely to help with avoiding future conflict than mere political officials talking to each other.

CENTCOM chief Gen. Brad Cooper has been involved in some past negotiating rounds with Iran, but publicly at least, the Iranian officials involved in those talks were civilian diplomats.

The Jerusalem Post is seeking comment from the Vice President’s Office and the CIA.

The Israel Navy hosted a German Navy delegation, including a vessel conducting a port visit at the Port of Haifa, the military confirmed on Thursday.

During the visit, the visiting German vessel conducted a joint Passing Exercise (known as a PASSEX) as part of the “efforts to enhance operational cooperation, exchange knowledge, and deepen the professional relationship between the two navies,” the military said.

Other joint activities also occurred during the visit.

These included meetings between the senior officers involved, namely Haifa Naval Base Chief R.-Adm. Erez Ben Zion, and Germany’s 4th Frigate Squadron Chief, Naval Captain Volker Kübsch, and the visiting vessel’s Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Rico Geisler.

During the meetings, Ben Zion, Kübsch, and Geisler discussed the continued cooperation between the two navies and ways to further strengthen ties.

Israel’s submarine ties with Germany’s naval industry

Israel has close ties with Germany’s naval manufacturing industry, having purchased corvettes and several submarines from the European country over the past years.

In May, Israeli defense manufacturing giant, Elbit Systems Ltd., announced that it was expanding ties with the German submarine manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Atlas Elektronic (TKMS), after both companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

TKMS had already established ties with the Israeli Navy, selling four new submarines worth billions of shekels, as well as Israel Aerospace Industries, with which it worked on a deal to supply the German Navy with unmanned submarine vehicles.

Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post reported in February that the submarines delivered by IAI to TKMS were the autonomous BlueWhale mini-submarines.

USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier docks in Haifa during operations Roaring Lion, Epic Fury

In February, during the build-up to Israel and US airstrikes on Iran as part of operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was sent to dock in Israel. It eventually docked at Haifa Naval Base.

Yonah Jeremy Bob, Shir Perets, and Udi Etzion contributed to this report.

Ex-deputy NYC mayor Randy Mastro and investigative journalist Richard Behar have filed a suit against NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the state Supreme Court. The petition was viewed by The Jerusalem Post.

The action stems from the mayor’s alleged “pattern of obstruction” regarding Behar’s two Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for all records pertaining to his mayoral actions relating to antisemitism and Israel.

The First FOIL request specifically sought records relating to Mamdani’s Executive Order 1 to rescind the definition of IHRA antisemitism, despite it being adopted by the US government, over 35 US states, over 90 American cities and counties, and many universities.

Behar is seeking all records explaining Mamdani’s rationale for issuing Executive Order No. 1, records assessing its merits, interoffice communications, research, studies, public impact analyses, and directives.

The Second FOIL request sought records relating to the following: Mamdani’s revocation of an Executive Order by the prior mayor that had banned city agencies from participating in economic warfare (BDS) against Israel; Mamdani’s decision to remove NYC Economic Development Corp webpages promoting the city’s ties with Israeli companies and entrepreneurs; and Mamdani’s vow when running for mayor to terminate the public-private partnership between Cornell University and the Technion in Israel.

Behar submitted the two FOIL requests to the Office of the Mayor of New York City on January 13, 2026, and May 8, 2026.

There has been no response.

Behar describes the city’s conduct as ‘unlawful’

According to Behar and Mastro, the City’s conduct in response to the FOIL requests is “unlawful,” mainly because under Public Officers Law § 89(3)(a), an agency must acknowledge a FOIL request within five business days and must grant or deny access to the requested records within a reasonable time thereafter, not to exceed 20 business days.

The case has been expedited by state Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits, and the case will be fully submitted to the judge by July 2 and ready for a decision by that point.

Behar told the Post that the backdrop for his demands is the rising antisemitism in the city, something which has arguably worsened under the anti-Israel mayor.

“At a time when antisemitic violence in New York City has reached historic levels, the public has a compelling interest in understanding why Mayor Mamdani chose, as his first official act, to dismantle the very protections his predecessor had put in place to address this crisis.”

Mastro submitted the petition on Behar’s behalf. Mastro was appointed first deputy mayor of New York City by the previous mayor, Eric Adams. As part of this role, Mastro was tasked with overseeing the newly-established Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.

Before this, he also served as deputy mayor for operations under former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Judge Lebovits, who will preside over the case, is the son of a Holocaust survivor. In 2019, he wrote a book named Holocaust Houdinis about his family’s story of survival.

ADL findings on the potential impact of New York’s divestment from Israel

Earlier this month, the Post reported on new research by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which found that Israel divestment could cost New York City taxpayers more than $37 billion over the next decade.

Carried out with its affiliate, JLens, the ADL report examines the potential impact on the city’s pension funds of investment policies excluding companies that do business in Israel.

The report estimates approximately $37.55 billion in potential forgone value over a 10-year period, assuming a similar performance gap, when applied to the NYC pension funds’ estimated large-cap US public equity allocations (assets invested in large US companies).

“While some in New York, including Mayor Mamdani, have publicly supported the BDS movement,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO and national director, said, “this analysis highlights the potentially serious financial consequences of applying BDS-aligned divestment strategies to the city’s pension funds.”

“This research shows that divestment strategies guided by the BDS campaign can be bad fiscal policy, and we believe that they risk contributing to an environment where Jewish New Yorkers are already targeted and marginalized,” he said.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization announced that it would be pausing its plan to evacuate the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, following a cargo ship reporting being attacked as it attempted to pass through the strait close to the coast of Oman.

US officials told The Wall Street Journal that the attack had been conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The IMO is currently assisting ships escape the Gulf, hundreds of which have been stranded there since the Iran war began at the end of February.

The ship reported being struck on its starboard side by a projectile 7.5 nautical miles southeast of Oman’s port of Dahit, the British Navy agency UKMTO said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that safe passage through the strait would only be possible through routes designated by Iran, adding that it would take action against vessels that failed to comply.

The vessel hit was the Singapore-flagged container ship Ever Lovely, according to British maritime risk management group Vanguard and three maritime security sources.

The incident was deemed an attack based on initial assessment

The incident was deemed an attack based on initial assessments, British maritime security company Ambrey said.

The strike caused damage to the ship’s bridge but no casualties or environmental impact, the UKMTO said, adding that authorities are investigating the incident and advising vessels to transit with caution.

Another maritime security source said the vessel was likely targeted by a drone, although it was not clear yet who carried out the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that safe passage through the strait would only be possible through routes designated by Iran, adding that it would take action against vessels that failed to comply.

“If Iran threatens or blocks ships in the strait, “then we’re going to have a problem,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been on a tour of the Gulf this week, said prior to the incident.

Oil prices edged up about 1% following the incident, which analysts said rekindled concerns about how long it could take for Gulf oil flows to resume to normal levels.

The vessel hit was the Singapore-flagged container ship Ever Lovely, according to British maritime risk management group Vanguard and three maritime security sources.

The ship’s owner, Taiwan-based Evergreen, could not immediately be reached for comment

An IDF helicopter carrying President Isaac Herzog was forced to make an emergency landing at an Israel Air Force base after hitting a bird, the IDF announced on Thursday.

The helicopter safely landed at the Palmachim air force base, and Herzog was able to take off again in a replacement helicopter a few minutes later.

There were no injuries or damage reported from the incident.

Herzog returning from Operation Protective Edge memorial ceremony

Herzog had been returning from the memorial ceremony on Mount Herzl for soldiers who were killed during Operation Protective Edge, and on his way to a shiva in northern Israel.

The helicopter, the IDF stated, was transferred to IAF technical personnel for maintenance, and the incident is under review.

For much of the modern era, authority was largely a function of position. Governments, international organizations, major media outlets, and established institutions occupied a privileged place in public life because they were assumed to possess both expertise and legitimacy. 

Their conclusions carried weight not only because of the evidence they presented but also because of who they were. Today, that assumption is increasingly being challenged.

Across much of the democratic world, public trust in institutions has declined. Surveys consistently show growing skepticism toward governments, political parties, traditional media, and, in many cases, international organizations. 

The reasons are varied – political polarization, information overload, perceived bias, institutional failures, and the democratization of information through digital technology – but the consequence is clear: institutional authority no longer guarantees public trust.

Yet the erosion of trust in traditional institutions has not produced a vacuum.

People still need reliable information. Democracies still require trusted sources of knowledge. Public debate still depends on facts that can command broad credibility. 

The question, therefore, is not whether authority disappears, but rather who earns it. The defining feature of today’s information environment is that credibility increasingly competes with hierarchy. 

In a world saturated with information, the scarce resource is not access to data but confidence in its reliability. 

As a result, authority is gradually shifting from those who merely possess institutional status to those who can demonstrate transparency, methodological rigor, and evidentiary integrity.

This represents a profound transformation in the nature of public influence and authority itself. Historically, institutions derived legitimacy from their formal roles. 

Today, legitimacy must increasingly be earned through performance. 

Citizens are less inclined to accept claims because they originate from a government, an international organization, or an established authority. 

Instead, they ask different questions: How was the evidence collected? Can the methodology be scrutinized? Are the sources available for review? Can the conclusions withstand criticism?

In other words, public trust is becoming more evidence-based than title-based.

A shift in trust and credibility

What is emerging, therefore, is not only a shift in trust but also a shift in the very architecture of credibility.

This shift has created space for new actors to emerge. Independent investigative bodies, civil society organizations, research initiatives, and citizen-led commissions have begun to exercise influence once reserved almost exclusively for states and large institutions. 

Their power does not derive from legal authority or political mandate. It derives from their ability to produce knowledge that others find credible. 

This is not simply a diversification of voices. It is a restructuring of the field in which authority is produced.

This transformation is especially significant in the realm of public diplomacy. For generations, states were the principal architects of international narratives. Governments communicated, international organizations validated, and the public consumed information through relatively centralized channels. 

Today, however, narratives compete in a decentralized information ecosystem. Public understanding is shaped not only by states but also by researchers, civil society organizations, investigative networks, and independent experts.

In such an environment, influence depends less on institutional rank and more on evidentiary strength.

This is why the production of a credible evidentiary record has become a strategic act in itself. The ability to gather, preserve, verify, and present facts is no longer merely an academic exercise. It is a form of public leadership.

AGAINST THIS backdrop, the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children represents a concrete example of how independent actors are increasingly participating in the production of authoritative public knowledge.

The Commission was not established by virtue of governmental authority, nor does it derive its legitimacy from political power. 

Rather, its contribution lies in its effort to assemble, preserve, analyze, and present a comprehensive evidentiary record concerning one of the most contested and consequential issues arising from the events of October 7.

Its significance lies not only in its findings but also in what its emergence signals about the changing architecture of public credibility. 

In entering a domain traditionally dominated by states and major international institutions, the Commission reflects a broader shift: the opening of authoritative space to actors whose influence is not granted from above but built from the bottom up through evidentiary work.

Its authority rests not on institutional status but on methodology, rigor, and the strength of the evidence it assembles.

The significance of independent commissions and civil society investigations should therefore be understood within this broader transformation. 

Their contribution lies not only in the conclusions they reach but also in the evidentiary infrastructure they create. 

By assembling documentation, preserving testimony, identifying patterns, and exposing findings to public scrutiny, they build a foundation upon which public understanding can be formed and contested.

This is not an abstract concern. It becomes most visible in moments where trust itself is under strain. Today, as we present the Civil Commission Report on the sexual violence of October 7th at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Annual Discussion on Women’s Rights, this is especially evident. 

Few crimes test public trust more profoundly than conflict-related sexual violence. Evidence is often fragmented, victims may be unable or unwilling to testify publicly, and political interests can shape both investigations and public perceptions. 

In such circumstances, authority alone is insufficient. Institutions must also demonstrate transparency, rigor, and credibility. The challenge is not merely to establish facts but to earn public confidence in the process through which those facts are documented and verified.

Where trust is fragile, transparency becomes essential. Where authority is contested, evidence becomes decisive.

The emerging reality does not mean that governments and international institutions are becoming irrelevant. Far from it. They remain indispensable actors in democratic societies and international affairs. 

But they no longer enjoy a monopoly on credibility.

The future will likely belong to institutions, whether public, private, or civic, that can combine authority with demonstrable trustworthiness. 

Those who rely solely on status may find their influence diminished. Those who embrace transparency, methodological rigor, and accountability may discover that credibility can be earned even without formal power.

The central question of our age is therefore not who possesses authority. It is who can persuade others that their authority is deserved.

In an age of contested facts, credibility belongs not to those who speak the loudest or occupy the highest office, but to those willing to show their work. When the truth itself is disputed, evidence becomes more than documentation; it becomes the foundation of public trust.

The writer is the co-founder and CEO of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday committed Israel to becoming the leading global player in space-attack capabilities.

“One of the central goals which the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” since “as of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability,” said Katz.

The defense minister continued, “If we achieve this, it will ensure the advantage of deterrence, of the ability to attack, destroy, and all of the other matters versus our enemies with large resources.”

Overall, it seemed clear that Katz was referring to Iran.

This is especially true since, during the 2026 war with Iran, Israel struck multiple Iranian spacewar-related facilities, including those working on developing capabilities to attack satellites in space.

It was unclear if he indirectly also wanted to deter Russia and China from assisting Iran in developing these capabilities and in other spheres.

Other countries already have the capability for space attacks

However, Katz’s statement was not entirely accurate. Both Russia and China have performed test attacks on their own satellites in prior years and managed to destroy their test targets.

However, each time they did so, they created perpetually rotating debris around Earth’s orbit that has endangered their still-functioning satellites along with other countries’ satellites and space platforms.

Some have already speculated that Israel could destroy enemy space satellites using the Arrow 3 missile system, given that it already strikes ballistic missiles in space.

Yet, due to the debris issue that Russia and China have already encountered, many countries are working on other techniques, such as paralyzing, damaging, jamming, dragging, or using lasers against satellites in space.

While some Israeli officials have hinted at such efforts, Katz’s public statement is the clearest one to date by a senior Israeli official. In contrast, if Iran or other enemies advanced past Israel in space, they could attack Israeli satellites and reduce their surveillance capabilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced heckling from the audience during his speech at Bahad 1’s combat officer graduation ceremony on Thursday.

Members of the crowd shouted “Go home” at Netanyahu, although cheering could be heard afterward.

The shout was heard immediately after Netanyahu said, “There were years when I heard the conversation, I heard veteran officers turn to new ones and ask them, has anyone been in a collision under fire? But in recent years, these questions are hardly asked. You arrived at Bahad 1 equipped with operational experience that you acquired in the War of Rebirth. Sometimes it is a painful experience. Before I came here, I was a fighter, and I lost a dear friend.”

Katz announces IDF to remain within security buffer zones

Defense Minister Israel Katz also spoke at the ceremony, announcing that the IDF would indefinitely remain within the security buffer zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.

“We oppose the withdrawal of IDF forces from the security zone in Lebanon, despite all the existing and future pressures,” he said.

“We will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon. The purpose of the IDF remaining in the security zone in Lebanon is clear: to protect the northern communities, thwart threats, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the area – below and above ground,” he added. “Commanders and fighters have all the support necessary to complete their mission and protect themselves and the citizens of Israel.”

He also announced that if Iran attacked Israel for any reason, Israel would attack back “in a way that will clearly demonstrate to it the power gap between us.”

Israel has become accustomed to living from crisis to crisis. For more than two years, public attention has been consumed by war, displaced communities, bereaved families, and the immense task of rebuilding a fractured society.

The response of Israeli civil society has been remarkable. Volunteers, foundations, and concerned citizens have stepped forward to fill gaps, support vulnerable populations, and respond to urgent and evolving challenges. Yet alongside this extraordinary mobilization, another challenge has emerged.

Across Israel’s nonprofit sector, organizations addressing long-standing social, medical, educational, and rehabilitation needs are grappling with a new reality. Their missions have not changed. Their beneficiaries have not disappeared. Their financial gaps are growing. But public attention and philanthropic resources have understandably shifted toward the most visible and immediate consequences of war.

What happens to critical needs that were never at the center of public conversation and have now been pushed even further to the margins?

ALYN Hospital, Israel’s only pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center, is one example. Every day, children with traumatic injuries and complex medical conditions carry on with their rehabilitation journeys. Some are recovering from severe burns, brain or spinal cord injuries, and serious accidents. Others are living with neurological disorders, developmental challenges, and chronic medical conditions that require intensive rehabilitation. 

They are not the focus of breaking news alerts. Yet their need for rehabilitation is every bit as urgent today as it was before October 7.

Maintaining essential services

As philanthropic resources are deployed to address the aftermath of war and destruction, nonprofits across Israel are being forced to rethink how they engage supporters and sustain essential services. The task is no longer only to make the case for their work, but to find new ways to bring people closer to needs that are urgent, even when they are no longer visible in the headlines.

For children requiring rehabilitation, however, there is no option to pause and wait for a more convenient moment.

That is why ALYN’s Desert Night Hike, taking place today and tomorrow, carries meaning this year. Scores of hikers will set out together from Sde Boker and walk through the night on a 9-km. trek. But they will not be walking alone. Each participant has mobilized a community of friends, family members, colleagues, and supporters who have chosen to sponsor their journey and contribute to the children of ALYN.

The symbolism of walking through the darkness of the desert could not be more fitting. It reflects the reality faced by ALYN and by many nonprofits across Israel today: the path ahead is uncertain, resources are harder to secure, and the usual routes are no longer enough. Yet we keep walking, we keep moving forward, because the children who depend on rehabilitation cannot wait for the light to return.

The writer is the executive director of Friends of ALYN Hospital.

A little over a year ago, Batoul Suleiman Alloush was a modern young woman trying to recover from the trauma of watching relatives and her high school best friend being massacred in Baniyas by Sunni extremists.

She did not cover her hair, wore short sleeves and trousers, and studied emergency medicine. Now, just over a year later, she wears a full chador that covers even her hands, hasn’t spoken to her family in months, and has withdrawn from Tishreen University.

Alloush’s transition from a secular lifestyle within the Alawite community to a conservative Sunni way of life has sparked significant controversy and debate.

Syrian authorities, led by Sunni Islamist Ahmed al-Sharaa, have maintained that the young woman voluntarily left her family home and converted of her own free will. Her family, however, contends that she was abducted and is being held by force.

The dispute over Alloush’s case is unfolding against a broader backdrop of heightened sectarian tensions and violence affecting Syria’s Alawite community.

In March last year, attacks against the community reached a peak, prompting widespread concern among international and local human rights organizations.

Groups including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Syrian Feminist Lobby have since urged Damascus to conduct thorough investigations into reported rapes, abductions, and killings that took place during that period and in the months that followed.

Around 60% of women abducted during sectarian attacks last year in the western Hama countryside and Homs have not been returned, according to a report published last month by the Syrian Feminist Lobby.

Many of the testimonies reported on by the organization show startling similarities to the comments made to The Jerusalem Post by a source close to the Alloush family and the information made publicly available by Alloush’s parents.

Despite Sharaa’s continued enforcement of Syria’s 1950s anti-Israel boycott laws, B. spoke with the Post late Wednesday night, expressing hope that international media attention would pressure authorities to help secure the return of the 21-year-old along with the many Alawite women who remain missing after more than a year of sectarian violence.

Young woman has previously shown no interest in other religions

While there are many gaps left unaccounted for by Jableh officials’ claims that Alloush migrated to Sunni Islam, B. said the most startling is why a young, modern woman who had never shown any interest in other religions would suddenly cut off her parents and sister to join a group affiliated with the same religious extremists who murdered her loved ones.

“When they left Baniyas during the massacre, they walked over the bodies, the slaughtered bodies of their relatives,” B. recounted.

An entire branch of the Alloush family was wiped out by the attack; her paternal cousin’s family was “slaughtered with the knife, the same as her best friend was slaughtered with a knife, from his neck with his grandpa and his little brother,” B said.

Hundreds of the more than 1,400 killed in early March were massacred in the small city in the Tartus Governorate, only 34 miles from Latakia.

“After seeing her best friend from high school slaughtered in front of her eyes, she wasn’t releasing liquids, so she was sick for two days,” he said, adding that the experience continued to plague her mind in the year that followed.

With Sunni Islamist gangs torching homes, abducting and raping women, and murdering masses in the streets, Alloush’s aunt in Bahrain instructed the family to go to Qulay’at, a small village in northwestern Syria, where she owned three houses.

For 12 and a half months, the family lived there in relative peace with Alloush residing in female dormitories in the Al-Zira’a district of Latakia during term time.

In April 2026, Alloush left the dormitories either by force or, according to statements issued by authorities, by choice.

The Alloush family was deprived of any knowledge of her or her well-being for eight days until they were summoned to the Jableh police station with instructions to bring along Alawite community leaders, B. said.

The family, who had expected to finally see Alloush return, were met instead by an impromptu court case, which B. said had already seemingly decided Alloush’s fate.

“They were supposed to see a policeman in uniform, but what they saw was a bunch of gangs and some sheikhs that they don’t have anything to do with the police,” B. described, adding that there was a “fake court” set up with a female Alawite judge he accused of being in the pocket of the Sharaa regime.

When the family was finally able to see Alloush, B. said they noticed she looked incredibly “tired” and vacant, suggesting that she had been drugged to complacency.

“She looked weird to them. She’s not the same Batoul because they gave her some injections,” B. claimed.

“Her dad tried to touch her, and she had no reaction, nothing at all… I don’t know what they injected her with so that she wouldn’t have any reaction. She was like a dead body walking.”

While there is no concrete evidence to support such a claim, the Syrian Feminist Lobby noted that many freed abducted Alawite women testified that they were drugged during captivity. Syria has long been known as a hotspot for illicit substances, especially given the Assad regime’s Captagon empire.

Alloush’s mother begged the judge to grant her a few minutes alone with her daughter, a request that B. said was swiftly denied and accompanied by a threat to throw the Alloush matriarch, patriarch, and youngest daughter into prison.

A known sheikh, accompanied by his “gang,” entered the courtroom twice during legal proceedings, B. claimed, adding he believed he was the man responsible for Alloush’s abduction.

After Alloush testified that she left the university dorms of her own accord, B. said that the judge started questioning her on why she had altered her story, alluding to an earlier conversation where Alloush had seemingly privately told the judge that she left from her parents’ home.

Hearing the questioning, B. said that the court’s record writer was summoned outside by the sheikh and later confirmed to the judge that the sheikh was Alloush’s “emir” (commander or ruler).

Woman’s family not granted access to court records

The Alloush family was never granted access to the court records – a court that ultimately decided that the medical student had not been kidnapped.

Syria’s Interior Ministry announced last year that it had decided that 41 of 43 reported abductions of Alawite women were not considered genuine cases of kidnapping, which the Syrian Feminist Lobby argued further weakened trust in judicial institutions.

Western onlookers and those who support the official stance on Alloush’s case argue that, as an adult aged 21, she has made the decision to leave her family home and convert to a new faith.

Those more critical of the official stance, including her family, note that she was never permitted to voice her consent alone in a neutral environment. Numerous testimonies of survivors pointed to coerced declarations that they left of their own free will.

Sonja Dahlmans, a researcher who presented a report on the abduction of minority women in Egypt to the US Congress and is now completing a PhD on the abduction of women in Syria at the University of Melbourne, told the Post that Islamist movements have often engaged with, and at times strategically reframed, the Western concept of consent, a pattern she argues is also evident in Syria now.

“The first thing they do for the outside world is pretend that it was voluntary that she consented to this. This was also the case with Batoul. They say, ‘Well, she is 21, she’s not a child, she knows what she does, and this is the path she has chosen,’” Dahlmans explained. “That is what they do. They play with Western media and policy makers.”

One survivor told the Syrian Feminist Lobby that she was subjected to sexual violence and held in solitary confinement for a week and that her captors forced her to record a video claiming she had left voluntarily with a lover.

A man referred to as “the sheikh” supervised the recording and pressured her into accepting divorce and marriage to her abductor in exchange for release.

Dahlmans shared she was personally aware of cases where Syrian women were beaten and where photos were sent to the women’s families showing their bruises.

Even so, Alloush later appeared in videos declaring that she had freely chosen this life for herself, which authorities considered evidence.

She has also notably appeared in a video, claiming, “I left of my own free will, and thank God I’m fine. None of the rumors are true, that I was kidnapped, trafficked, or anything like that.”

B. said that the video was published at 2 a.m. and was clearly coerced, which he evidenced with the fact that she hasn’t interacted online since April, and her family believes she is being digitally isolated by Bayat al-Akhawat (The Sisters’ House), where she is staying in Jableh.

Notably, the house where the video was filmed has already been the subject of scrutiny.

The independent Syrian Observer reported that the missionary house had been accused of using coercive control, isolating girls and women, and obstructing family reunification under religious justification.

The missionary, which works under an umbrella tied to Syria’s Religious Endowment Ministry, was allegedly involved in the forced marriage of three underage girls, aged between 16 and 14, according to the report.

Addressing rumors that Alloush had fled her home to avoid a forced marriage, B. denied that the young woman’s engagement had been imposed on her by her parents or anyone else.

Alloush had been engaged to her cousin, who lived in Bahrain and with whom she was in frequent contact.

He visited her every three years, B. said, stressing that there had been no pressure on her either to accept the proposal or to remain engaged. B. claimed Alloush would often tell her father that she was happy to be marrying a man who reminded her so much of him.

Dahlmans said that Alloush’s case was not unique but tied to the larger reality of what it means to be a minority in an Islamist country.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a formerly designated terrorist organization commanded under Sharaa, used the abduction of women in Idlib and some parts of Aleppo as a way of coercing communities to adopt Islamic lifestyles, she explained, adding that such patterns could be seen now.

Non-Muslim women threatened into wearing head coverings

Non-Muslim women began wearing head coverings, as also noted in the UN’s report last year, as a way of protecting themselves against attacks on their community, and many women have been reluctant to enter public spaces out of fear of being abducted.

At the center of the matter is the issue of Zina, meaning illicit sex, and Haya, meaning modesty, Dahlmans continued.

Women are forced to adopt Haya practices to avoid being a victim of Zina; sometimes that can look like adopting the hijab, while in other cases it means being married off as a child or being subjected to female genital mutilation.

“When a woman has been taken, abducted, and sexually assaulted, that is often considered her responsibility. So this idea of Zina and Haya means that if you were harassed, you’ve admitted that you have sinned, unless you can definitely, without any doubt, prove that it was a sin by force,” she explained, adding there were hints that such practices have been adopted in the Syrian legal system.

In both the UN report and the testimonies shared by the Syrian Feminist Lobby, victims were reported to have been treated as criminals by authorities. Families were told their daughters were “immoral,” had “left voluntarily,” or could not be controlled.

Survivors were coached to repeat phrases thanking security agencies and denying abduction, and some were charged with the crime of adultery for their own rape.

Asked why the Islamist factions in Syria would risk these abductions and the continued holding of Alawite women, given international attention on the new Sharaa regime, Dahlmans explained there were two possible reasons.

Firstly, she noted that gendered violence is often framed as a series of isolated incidents driven by a politically charged backlash to the fall of the Assad regime, which some critics say had favored the Alawite community.

However, she cautioned that this explanation is insufficient to capture the broader dynamics at play, pointing out that the Alawites experienced similar patterns of abuse long before Assad’s rule, including under Ottoman governance, and that comparable forms of violence have also been documented against groups such as the Druze and Yazidis.

Systemic gendered violence allows for mass assimilation, ‘genocide’

The second explanation for gendered violence, clearly favored by Dahlmans, was that it is part of a violent form of systematic assimilation allowed to happen with almost complete impunity.

Fertile women are taken, women who can be raped and give birth to the future generation of Islamists, she highlighted, changing the future demography of a country. This, combined with the need to adopt Islamic practices as a safety mechanism, constitutes “genocide,” Dahlmans argued.

Cementing these dynamics is the apparent sense of shame attached to women who have been sexually violated, she said.

Unable to live with that stigma, victims are often pressured to accept a perceived “legitimizing” reality by adopting their abductors’ religious practices, which is why they are often abducted rather than killed alongside their male relatives.

Dahlmans acknowledged that this may be difficult to understand from a Western or even Jewish perspective, where attitudes toward sexuality are generally more open and have enabled some former Gaza hostages to speak publicly about abuse.

She added that minorities in neighboring countries do not always have the same ability or social space to do so.