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US President Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to three young, loyal White House employees “for the holidays,” including executive assistant Natalie Harp, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing financial disclosures released by the Trump administration. 

The three women all earn $150,000 salaries from their White House positions, according to an annual report to Congress. 

Former chief White House ethics lawyer for then-president George W. Bush, Richard Painter, told WaPo that the payments may violate a federal statute prohibiting the supplementation of federal employees’ salaries from outside sources. 

“He’s clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House. You can’t do that,” Painter told WaPo. 

Former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) during the Obama administration said that the payments may not have violated the prohibition, and would only have done so if Trump made the gifts in order to keep one of the employees after they expressed that they couldn’t live on what they were making and would move to the private sector, according to the report.

White House claims payments part of longstanding practice

The White House pushed back on the idea that the payments violated any rules. 

“The president has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector,” WaPo cited White House spokesperson Davis Ingle as saying.

“The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.”

While there are rules against employees giving gifts to superiors, a large payment to an employee from a superior is “not a circumstance that OGE ever really envisioned,” Fox said. “This just doesn’t happen.”

According to WaPo’s report, there have been no other public incidents of US presidents giving White House staff large cash payments, and government ethics experts said they were unaware of any other payments of this scale from a superior to a subordinate government worker.

Aides all worked for Trump between terms

Harp, Trump’s 35-year-old aide, known as the ‘human printer’ due to her carrying around a portable printer to provide Trump with hard copies of news articles and social media posts, came under public attention after it was reported that she was among the few staffers who accompanied Trump on a catering truck transporting him between planes leaving Turkey following a potential Iranian assassination threat.

In addition to Harp, 31-year-old communications advisor Margo Martin, who, according to WaPo, often gets closer to Trump than his Secret Service security detail to film him for social media, and 26-year-old Chamberlain Harris, a White House aide who serves as Trump’s executive assistant, according to the report.

Harris was appointed to the US Commission of Fine Arts, which oversees Trump’s White House ballroom and other Washington-area construction projects in February.

Director of Oval Office Operations Walt Nauta received a $20,000 gift from Trump, according to the report.

Nauta served as a valet in the first Trump administration and was a key witness and co-defendant in the Justice Department’s probe of Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

All four employees worked for Trump between his first and second terms and have ties to Trump dating back to his first administration.

This post was originally published on here. 

US President Donald Trump keeps telling us he started the war with Iran so that the Islamic Republic “cannot have a nuclear weapon.” His energy secretary just gave the world reason to doubt his boss. Trump is unlikely to get what he called “the kind of deal that I feel is necessary.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC News Sunday, “There may not be a nuclear agreement,” and the US will focus instead on “degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons.”

Sensing his humiliation, a dismissive Trump took to social media to say he “could not care less” if Iran makes a deal. He bounces back and forth between threatening to walk away and destroying the entire Iranian civilization.

Dealmaker Trump dramatically tore up the 2015 Iran nuclear pact (JCPOA) negotiated by the Obama administration, and said he could do better. He never really tried. There were limited but unproductive talks in his second term, with enough bombastic rhetoric going back and forth to destroy anyone’s hope.

Many believe the major flaw in the JCPOA from Trump’s standpoint was less its substance than the name most associated with it: Barack Obama. There is scant expectation that Trump could even get that deal today.

On March 25, 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that America’s intelligence leaders “assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

In Senate testimony a year later, she refused to say whether Iran posed any “imminent nuclear threat.” That’s not what Trump wanted to hear. “I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters. In his view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb, PBS reported.

In private, Gabbard had advised against going to war and many of her arguments turned out to be spot on, according to leaked reports. Speaking truth to power apparently cost the intelligence chief her job; after weeks of rumors that Trump was planning to push her out, Gabbard resigned in May, citing her husband’s health.

Trump declared in June 2025 that US B-2s (stealth bombers) had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. Apparently he oversold his achievement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced him that the job was unfinished, and they went back on February 28 this year.

Iran has taken a hell of a beating in a war Trump refuses to call a war but can’t find an exit. Iran’s navy, air force, and even much of its air defense system have been decimated, but the regime persists, as does much of its drone and proxy terror network.

The old leadership was killed on the first day, only to be replaced by even more hard-line rulers. The popular uprising Trump called for never materialized.

Iran causes global economic shock

Iran retaliated with its oil weapon, closing the Strait of Hormuz and shocking the global economy. Trump and his party are reeling.

The president has been promising that the resulting huge jump in gas and grocery prices will soon disappear, but no serious economist agrees. That terrifies Republican candidates in this fall’s midterm elections as they are being hammered by Democrats talking about “affordability.” Trump dismissed the talk of the high cost of living as just a “hoax” and a “con job” just before he flies off in Qatar Force One for a tournament at his Irish golf course.

Secretary Wright, who is also presiding over Trump’s takeover of major Venezuelan oil fields, told ABC News Sunday, “We are degrading [Iran’s] capacity to develop nuclear weapons and ultimately to deliver them, if they develop them.”

That’s a big and dangerous “if.” For decades prior to this war, Iranian leaders publicly swore off going for the bomb. US and Israeli intelligence largely agree, as Gabbard told the president and the Senate, Iran was enriching uranium to near-weapon levels but that it had not yet made the breakthrough decision. Now, the new leadership is said to be reconsidering that policy, pointing to North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel, which went nuclear as deterrence insurance against hostile neighbors.

If you’re picking winners and losers, Iran is a big loser just because of the military, economic and human damage that has been inflicted on it. But Trump cannot declare victory – despite doing so dozens of times – until Hormuz is open to the free and unfettered flow of shipping by all and there is an enforceable nuclear deal.

Trump may not be able to get either. His energy secretary said a deal “may await a next administration in Iran.” Thanks to the US and Israel, Iran got a new administration six months ago, and you know how that went.

Trump started an unnecessary war of choice without a clear operational plan or an endgame, without the support of Congress, the American people, or America’s allies.

Bombs are not the only things falling. The president’s approval rating has dropped to historic lows. Nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose his war and disapprove of the president’s handling of it. Four in five tell pollsters they blame the high and increasing cost of living on this war.

The president will try to stem the defection of disapproving Republicans when he speaks at this week’s mid-term convention in Dallas, but many Republican candidates won’t be there. They know their constituents are unhappy with how this war is hurting their pocketbooks, and candidates worry that on Election Day those folks may be staying home or pulling the wrong lever. The last thing they need is to be seen on television cheering Trump’s unpopular war.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

This post was originally published on here. 

There’s a change happening out there. I know this because I’m a sunrise person. For the past few months, dawn has been hard to come by. In summertime, the heat arrives early in the day and with intensity – it can feel oppressive by six in the morning.

Last week that changed. The weather doesn’t always cooperate here in Israel, but the seasonal clock is reliable, and darkness has begun to gain ground again. It’s getting lighter later every morning. With our recent bout of rainy weather, I’ve had two signs of fall at once: darkened skies and a cool breeze as I set out on my morning runs.

When I see clouds outside at dawn, I lace my shoes with lightning speed. I head up toward the hills past the synagogue, where the shofar pours through an open window like an alarm clock announcing the shifting season.

Although both Rosh Hashanah and Passover are referred to in our tradition as a new year, the fall holiday season couldn’t look more physically different from our springtime festivities. In Tishrei, the land of Israel isn’t green, or boisterous, or painted in hues of fragrant flowers. It’s uniformly golden and dusty. The aroma of sweet figs hangs low in the air.

Rather than calling our attention to the world of possibility outdoors, this season invites introspection and contemplation, a preparation for the quiet, determined growth of the long year ahead.

The world treats Autumn as an ending, Judaism sees it as an opening

It’s strange, when you think about it, that this should feel like a beginning at all. The school year starts now, but that’s an invention of the last century or two.

Agriculturally, this is an ending: the last fruit coming off the trees, the grain already gathered and stored.

The rest of the world treats autumn as the year winding down.

We treat it as the year opening up. I’ve been wondering whether there’s something real underneath that, or whether we’ve simply learned to lean into what we’re told to feel.

The Torah is of two minds about it

Standing in Egypt on the eve of the Exodus, God tells Moses and Aaron: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you” (Exodus 12:2). That is Nisan, in the spring. The year begins with freedom.

And yet, a few chapters later, describing the pilgrimage festivals, the same book places the autumn holiday at “the Feast of Ingathering, at the going out of the year” (Exodus 23:16), and later at “the turning of the year” (Exodus 34:22). A year going out. A year turning over. In autumn.

Stranger still is what the Torah does not say. The day we call Rosh Hashanah is never called that. It appears only as the first day of “the seventh month,” a sacred occasion “commemorated with loud blasts” (Leviticus 23:24). The seventh month, which is somehow also the beginning of the year.

The usual resolution is that two calendars run at once. One counts the life of a nation and begins with the Exodus. The other counts the life of the earth and mankind, and begins with Rosh Hashanah. But growing up outside of Israel, I never fully grasped what it meant for the calendar of creation to begin in autumn.

What crystallized it for me was living here long enough to watch this calendar at work.

There’s no clean break in an Israeli autumn. No frost, no changing leaves, none of the sweater weather and pumpkin lattes so prevalent in the United States.

While camping in northern Israel a couple of weeks ago, I lay awake under a star-filled sky trying to figure out what season it was exactly. Sleeping in our tents on the dusty ground, we enjoyed a cool breeze at night.

That day, we had seen grapes heavy on the vine on a nearby nature trail. Olives were everywhere, still green and hard in their clusters. It was clearly going to be a good year for olives.

Here, summer just sort of bleeds into fall. The changes are almost imperceptible – ripe fruit, more migratory birds. The earth itself has settled into seeming dormancy, dusty and cracked from five rainless months.

But a plot of earth at its most barren is just a field ready for planting, for human effort, and the hope of divine blessing. So the feeling isn’t invented after all. Here, the agricultural year really does begin now, in the dust, before a single drop has fallen. Rosh Hashanah coincides with the season that asks us to plan diligently and to put our faith in God at the same time.

Rambam said the call of the shofar is there to awaken us from our slumber. During this new year, we can tune in to the rhythm offered so naturally by our surroundings here in Israel. Just like those empty fields, we are ready and waiting for the slow growth we aspire to in the long year ahead.

The writer is the author of From Southerner to Settler: Unexpected Lessons from the Land of Israel and the founder of Hiking the Holyland.

This post was originally published on here. 

Sweida has become one of the most sensitive issues in the new Syria, not only because of violations suffered by Druze and Bedouin civilians, but also because of questions over the province’s future and its relationship with the Syrian state.

This raises an important question for Israel: if protecting Sweida’s Druze population is a genuine objective, is supporting separation or keeping the province outside state institutions really the best way to achieve it?

Or would a more realistic option be to encourage a political settlement inspired by the path taken by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whereby the Druze receive political guarantees, rights, and meaningful participation in state institutions without turning Sweida into a separate entity?

In my view, the second option is more realistic and safer.

Sweida is not the SDF, but its experience offers a lesson

The SDF fought Damascus for years, including in Aleppo and Sheikh Maqsoud, while tensions and clashes also occurred in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and elsewhere. Yet the conflict did not lead to an independent Kurdish state.

Instead, the SDF moved toward negotiations with Damascus over a formula guaranteeing Kurdish rights and participation within a united Syrian state, followed by arrangements for integration into state institutions.

The lesson is not that Sweida should copy the SDF. It is that conflict with the state does not make separation the only option.

The students’ crisis reveals the core of the problem

The case of Sweida’s students illustrates the crisis clearly.

After the disruption of examinations, the Syrian state took exceptional measures to ensure that students could sit their exams. It prepared examination centers, staff, and materials and made special arrangements for them.

But according to media reports, the so-called “National Guard”, affiliated with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, prevented students from leaving Sweida to reach examination centers prepared by the Syrian state.

The question is simple: if the state prepared the examinations and provided the centers, who is preventing the students from reaching them?

Students should not become parties to a political conflict. When an armed force can prevent citizens from accessing state services, the issue becomes one of authority: who is responsible for providing basic services and protecting citizens’ rights?

Al-Hijri does not speak for all Druze

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri has become one of the most prominent political voices in Sweida, but it would be wrong to treat him as the exclusive representative of Syrian Druze.

This matters to Israel because building long-term policy around one individual can lead to strategic miscalculations.

Reports concerning the detention, mistreatment, or killing of opponents and critics of al-Hijri also make independent investigations essential.

Al-Hijri’s past also matters

Israel should assess al-Hijri’s political record, rather than looking only at his current opposition to Damascus.

He has a history of political positions and relationships during the era of Bashar al-Assad, including positions that raised questions about his relationship or interaction with forces associated with various Iranian militias during different stages of the Syrian conflict.

If Israel is looking for a partner capable of producing stability in southern Syria, it should ask whether that person can build institutions capable of protecting the entire community, including those who disagree with him.

Violations do not make separation inevitable

The violations suffered by Druze and Bedouin civilians are unjustifiable and condemnable. Anyone who committed crimes against civilians should be held accountable, regardless of affiliation.

But justice does not require dividing Syria.

A state capable of investigating, prosecuting, and holding perpetrators accountable may provide stronger protection than local armed authorities operating outside a clear national judicial system.

Sweida therefore does not have to choose between submission to Damascus and separation from Syria. There is a third option: a genuine partnership within a united Syrian state.

Why should Israel think twice?

It is natural for Israel to view Sweida through a security lens and to care about protecting the Druze.

But this does not mean that supporting a separatist project is the best policy.

Israel can encourage a settlement between Sweida and Damascus that guarantees Druze rights rather than a permanent rupture.

If the Syrian state is responsible for security, services and the judiciary, while the people of Sweida participate in its institutions, clear arrangements can be established and monitored.

Keeping the province as a separate armed sphere of influence, by contrast, means continued uncertainty.

What if a Druze entity becomes a problem for Israel?

Even if establishing an independent Druze entity/state in southern Syria were possible, Israel should consider its long-term consequences.

Creating a political entity based on Druze identity would establish a new precedent in the region.

This raises a hypothetical question: what if the emergence of an independent Druze entity creates new identity dynamics among some of Israel’s Druze citizens?

This does not mean that Israel’s Druze citizens would seek separation or join such an entity. There is no basis for asserting that.

But an independent Druze entity across the border could, over time, open new debates about identity, belonging and relations between Druze communities across borders.

A state without recognition is not a guarantee of stability

There is also a practical question: who would recognize, finance, and protect an independent entity in Sweida?

A small entity without broad international recognition, surrounded by a complex regional environment and dependent on external support, could become a permanent zone of influence rather than a stable state.

Israel could ultimately face a new responsibility rather than more secure borders.

Damascus should put forward a political initiative

The Syrian government should build on the steps it has already taken (for example, students’ examinations) and make the people of Sweida see tangible benefits in remaining within the state.

What is needed now is a broader political initiative that includes holding accountable everyone who committed violations against civilians, ensuring a fair and transparent judiciary.

Sweida’s population needs to be included in state institutions and integrated into the state’s armed groups through clear and gradual arrangements, while ensuring the continuation of government services, particularly education and healthcare.

No settlement can succeed if an armed force remains capable of preventing state institutions from reaching citizens.

The SDF model offers Israel a third option
Israel does not have to choose between abandoning the Druze and supporting their separation from Syria.

It can encourage a third formula: Druze who are secure within Syria enjoy political representation and clear rights, while the Syrian state remains responsible for sovereignty and institutions.

Sweida can be part of the solution

The Druze do not need a new state to obtain their rights. Syria does not need to eliminate Sweida’s distinctiveness to preserve its unity. And Israel does not need an independent Druze entity to ensure the security of the south.

There is political space between these options: a united Syrian state, genuine Druze participation, justice for victims, and weapons organized under state institutions.

Protecting the Druze does not require dividing Syria, and preserving Syria’s unity must not mean ignoring Druze rights. If Israel genuinely wants to protect the Druze and contribute to the stability of its southern frontier, it should encourage this path rather than bet on continued division.

Stability in Sweida will not come from creating new borders, but from building a new relationship between Sweida and the Damascus government.

The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of Syria Focus.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Jerusalem Post and a limited number of other media outlets on Wednesday visited Elbit-FUSE’s facility for building mass-scale robot and drone armies.

The visit was timed to Elbit-FUSE’s unveiling of a range of new and updated products relating to enabling small numbers of human soldiers to direct dozens or even hundreds of robots and drones to perform defensive and offensive functions in large-scale swarms.

Imagine hundreds of drones combining with dozens of tank-style autonomous vehicles and smaller tactical bat-shaped, dog-shaped, and otherwise specialized robots to defend a border or take over an enemy urban neighborhood.

The drones provide air cover, the autonomous tank-style vehicles provide tactical firepower, and the smaller robots enter structures where the enemy forces are hiding to defeat them up close or neutralize their booby traps without a single soldier setting foot in the neighborhood.

This is the vision that Elbit-FUSE presented to the Post and some other media on Wednesday.

Drones, autonomous weaponry increasingly defining global warfare

Elbit-FUSE did not enter this arena in a vacuum.

Ukraine announced in July that it has reached a rate of producing 10 million small tactical drones per year and is looking to double that volume.

China, the US, and others are all starting to mass-produce drones and robots in astronomically larger quantities than in the past.

In line with these developments, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir on Tuesday night announced that by Chanukah-December, the IDF will have opened an entirely new branch to focus on robots, drones, and AI battle forces.

“Military forces are entering a new operational era in which combat effectiveness will increasingly depend not only on autonomous platforms themselves, but on the ability to integrate and coordinate large numbers of autonomous systems within existing maneuver forces in real time,” said Eyal Dahan, CEO of FUSE, which is a subsidiary recently developed by Elbit to focus on these issues, having combined at least four other related entities into one.

“FUSE was established to deliver that capability today – combining autonomous platforms, operational AI and scalable One2Many command capabilities into integrated operational solutions that can be rapidly deployed and integrated into modern combat formations.”

Speaking at a private briefing on Wednesday, Dahan said that even mass swarms of robots and drones would not completely replace human soldiers.

Other Elbit officials clarified that, on defense, fewer human soldiers may be needed in general to manage the autonomous vehicle swarms.

In contrast, on attack, these officials clarified to the Post that a larger number of soldiers could be required, depending on the mission.

As an ethical matter, Elbit officials said that humans will and must remain in the loop to sign off on targeting decisions and to reduce collateral harm to civilians.

In that sense, the AI systems installed in the myriad kinds of drones and robots that Elbit sells, including extremely advanced sensors for distinguishing combatants from civilians, are still not the final line for approving an attack.

If an attack is in an area where few civilians and sensitive items are known to be in play, fewer human soldiers may need to be involved.

But if an attack is against a highly sensitive location or one where many civilians could be at risk if the strike is not precise, then more soldiers will be involved to analyze the situation, the same way that occurs now.

At the facility, the Post saw five different versions of the Firefox drone, with each version having different uses, abilities in day versus nighttime, and different price ranges depending on whether a client-buyer seeks cheaper, less fancy machines versus smarter, high-end machines.

Some drones might cost as little as $2,000, while some might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Large variety of machines in production

The Post also saw FPV drones, drones disguised as items in nature, something which has been previously reported on, machines with shorter and longer range capabilities, and machines with laser-guided capabilities

In another section of the facility, the Post witnessed multiple stages of drone and robot assembly.

Some Elbit-FUSE technicians were assembling single parts, such as cameras or wings; others were meeting to discuss ongoing technical issues, while yet others were bringing all of the many parts of a drone or a robot together.

Many dozens of robots and drones were already assembled on shelves, and many others were already secured in special delivery wrapping material for delivery.

There were special rooms for simulating intense wind environments as well as for handling special laser-related issues.

These laser-related issues are important, but not as complex as those in a different Elbit facility which the Post visited in June, which is at the heart of Elbit’s most complex laser production.

FUSE has 160 employees, with 110 at the main facility which the Post visited, of which around 65% are engineers, with many others being programmers or having other special skills – all of which is just one subsidiary of Elbit’s much larger operations.

Dahan emphasized that having many engineers available was critical to constantly updating each product, noting that one drone had been updated four times in the last three years to stay on the cutting edge of developing technologies.

A major focus of the FUSE product launch was its “One2Many” operational capabilities, which are powered by a unified AI operating system enabling centralized coordination of autonomous swarms and distributed aerial and ground formations at scale.

FUSE said that it “delivers mature military-grade autonomous systems designed for scalable and resilient multi-domain operations, supported by Elbit Systems’ operational experience and high-volume manufacturing infrastructure.”

According to Dahan, FUSE’s solutions have accumulated more than 1,000,000 operational flight hours and over 100,000 autonomous ground operation hours, with thousands of platforms delivered worldwide.

Generally, its products are focused on medium- to long-range missions, as opposed to competitors like SpearUAV, an Israeli defense tech company based in Tel Aviv, which announced on Monday that it has close to 1,000 Viper 300 loitering munitions (LM) ready to deliver to customers around the world.

While Elbit-FUSE is focused on Israel first as a client, the US and many European countries remain strong customers.

Although there are large American and other foreign competitors in this field, Elbit-FUSE has shown that its products not only perform at a higher level from product to product, but that it excels more than many others in being able to connect the operations of swarms of products in both the air and on the land simultaneously.

Dahan said that FUSE is also working on expanding into drone and robot swarm operations at sea.

It has been previously reported that the Israeli navy has been operating autonomous sea vehicles already in recent years, though it is unclear when operating swarms at sea will be ready to be rolled out.

Elbit Systems has already been among the Israeli companies developing such technologies, including its already publicized 12-meter Seagull autonomous surface vessel that is designed to patrol offshore infrastructure for up to four days. It also “incorporates mine countermeasures (MCM), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), maritime security (MS), electronic warfare (EW), and other advanced systems and technologies.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Iranian lawmaker Kamran Ghazanfari said that the region is “practically on the brink of World War III.”

The report of his comments appeared in Iran International. Ghazanfari has been known for some outlandish claims. For instance, he claimed in the past that Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi was assassinated by Israel and its allies in 2024.

The Ghazanfari comments are interesting because they likely illustrate how some of Iran’s more extremist politicians and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elites view the war. They see it as a regional and global conflict.

The Islamic Republic has worked with Russia and China and has hopes that it can challenge the US-led world order. Iran has long portrayed its Islamic Revolution as a unique event that would transform the region and the world.

This goes back to the fact that Iranian Islamists believed they were presenting a new path during the Cold War that was different from those of the American and Soviet blocs. That changed in the 1990s when the Soviet Union declined.

Iran positions itself on side of a new world order

While Iran has at times considered reconciliation with the United States, it has also sought to position itself alongside countries that want a new world order. Weakening the US and pushing it out of the Middle East is a key goal of Tehran.

Iran International noted on September 9: “Ghazanfari, a Tehran representative in the parliament, said that we are ‘practically on the brink of World War III’ and considered the expansion of the war between Russia and Ukraine and the increase in tension between world powers as grounds for the formation of a widespread conflict.”

The report noted that he made the comments in an interview with the official Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA).

“Ghazanfari said that NATO’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia – and Moscow’s tensions with Britain and Germany – have increased the possibility of the conflict spreading to other European countries. He also called the US-China dispute over Taiwan another area of widespread conflict in the world.”

In the interview, Ghazanfari also focused on Iran’s plan to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “According to him, there is a possibility that this issue will be put on the parliament’s agenda again.”

In the past, he has critiqued the chances of a US deal. For instance, in June he criticized the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US. At the time, it seemed America and Iran might be able to reach an agreement. Ghazanfari said that any deal with the US would lack legitimacy and not be binding.

At the time, Iran International reported that “Iranian lawmaker Kamran Ghazanfari” said in a “warning to the negotiating team” that they should not cross any of the supreme leader’s red lines.

US reportedly threatens Iran, members of negotiation team

“Ghazanfari added that the United States had repeatedly threatened Iran and members of its negotiating team during the two-month talks, saying any deal reached under such conditions would have no validity under international law,” Iran International said.

Ghazanfari has also warned in the past about American and Israeli plans for a broader military operation. He claimed that the US might seize Iranian islands.”

“Evidence and signs show that the United States and Israel are planning a large-scale operation. They probably intend to seize some of our islands in the south and have brought many forces and equipment into the region,” he said.

Iran’s regime is currently continuing attacks in the region. Its recent attacks on Jordan and threats to attack tankers indicate that it wants to show that it can respond in kind to any US strikes and is telegraphing that it will not back down.

This post was originally published on here. 

At least 14 people were killed and 11 wounded on Wednesday in an explosion at a temporary depot for weapons and remnants of war near the Syrian city of Sarmada in Idlib, state television reported.

The Defense Ministry said the weapons and war remnants were being stored at the site before being transported elsewhere, and that some of its personnel were among those wounded.

Civil Defense and firefighting teams were deployed to the scene, but successive explosions hampered efforts to extinguish the blaze as thick smoke billowed from the site for hours. Authorities have not said what caused the initial explosion.

A vehicle carrying ammunition exploded in Binnish, also in Idlib province, on September 1, killing five people and wounding others, according to Syrian state media.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

American actor John Malkovich on Tuesday canceled his planned performance in Israel next year after saying he never approved statements attributed to him in a promotional release issued by the Israeli producer of his show.

A week earlier, it was announced that Malkovich would return to Israel with his musical theater production The Music Critic. The performance had been scheduled for April 13, 2027, at the Tel Aviv Culture Hall.

The satirical production combines classical music pieces with harsh reviews written about them and dark humor. It is based on an idea by Russian-German Jewish musician Aleksey Igudesman, who appears in the show alongside Malkovich and additional musicians.

A quote presented as a statement from Malkovich himself was included in a press release sent by the show’s Israeli public relations team to Israeli media outlets.

“I am excited to return to Israel and would be very happy to meet again with the warm Israeli audience, with whom I feel great closeness and identification,” the press release read.

A report published by Walla about Malkovich’s planned arrival in Israel was later published by The Jerusalem Post, which is part of the same media group. Following that report, The Hollywood Reporter published an article on September 5 citing the Post report.

The Post amended its original report after it became clear the quote was misattributed.

Then on Tuesday night, The Hollywood Reporter released a report regarding the cancellation of Malkovich’s performance in Israel. The report stated that Malkovich had not approved the statement issued by the Israeli PR team and, as a result, decided to cancel his appearance in the country.

Malkovich says PR quote was falsely attributed to him

“The Tel Aviv performance was supposed to be one of several stops on the tour throughout Europe and the Middle East,” Malkovich told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “A PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed.”

“I did not utter these phrases, and they most certainly are not approved by me, nor do they reflect my feelings. The fact that they were printed as direct quotes from me is unacceptable and untenable. For this reason, I have decided I cannot participate in the Tel Aviv performance,” he continued.

“Throughout my long career,” Malkovich added, “I have had the privilege of performing in large parts of the world, in countries with governments whose values or culture I do not share, and before audiences with different beliefs and ideologies. Arriving in places whose worldview may not align with my own has given me the opportunity to observe, listen and learn, and to share my ideas about what makes stories good and what makes music beautiful, and how they can complement each other and illuminate the human condition.”

“My performance in any country, including my own, does not constitute an endorsement of that country’s policies, its actions, or its elected or unelected leaders. My performances also do not indicate any supposed ‘solidarity’ with a particular political cause, not with the killing of innocent people, not with any acts of terrorism, and not with any other form of barbarity,” he stated.

‘Only playwrights, authors and screenwriters can put words in my mouth’

“Only playwrights, authors and screenwriters can put words in my mouth, and even then, only in service of storytelling, and no one else can think they can do that without my consent and without the consequences that follow,” Malkovich concluded.

Two days before the performance was canceled, a new statement was issued to the media on behalf of the show’s Israeli producer Alon Yurik, requesting the removal of quotes attributed to Malkovich in the previous week’s announcement. The statement said, “A mistake occurred, and an incorrect quote was sent.”

“I would like to clarify that the original press release contained a mistake, and an incorrect quote from Malkovich was included due to a misunderstanding. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for that,” Yurik stated on Monday.

Malkovich’s career and achievements

Malkovich has visited Israel more than once in the past. In July 2008, he arrived as an honorary guest of the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in April 2013 he returned to Israel for his first performance in the country with his musical theater show The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer. The production was performed in Eilat as part of the Eilat International Chamber Music Festival and at the Tel Aviv Museum as part of the Felicia Blumenthal Music Festival.

The satirical show that had been scheduled to appear in Israel combines classical music pieces, including works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy and Prokofiev, with harsh reviews written about them and dark humor. It is based on an idea by Russian-German Jewish musician Aleksey Igudesman, who appears in the show alongside Malkovich and other musicians.

The performance creates a comedic confrontation on stage: while the critic, played by Malkovich, tells the audience that Schumann merely “imagines he is a composer,” that Brahms is a “talentless bastard,” and that Beethoven or Chopin are simply boring, the musicians alongside him respond with live performances of those same works.

At the end of the show, an actual brutal review written about Malkovich himself is read aloud.

The performance has been presented across Europe and the United States, recorded and released as an official music album.

Malkovich, 72, won an Emmy Award for his role in the film Death of a Salesman and was nominated twice for an Academy Award for his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire. He has also appeared in films including The Killing Fields, Dangerous Liaisons, Con Air, Being John Malkovich and Eragon.

Last week, the British film Wild Horse Nine, written and directed by Martin McDonagh, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film, which combines comedy, action and thriller elements, stars Malkovich alongside Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey.

This post was originally published on here. 

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham lauded the UK’s decision to impose sanctions on imports from West Bank settlements, telling parliament on Wednesday that the action was an example of “leadership on the world stage.”

“That is leadership on the world stage, Britain being true to what it has always been about,” he said of the sanctions. ”Leadership is about taking action where there is injustice, where we need to correct unfairness, people being driven out of their homes.”

“In this difficult and dangerous world, Britain has to stand for something,” he added.

During an interview with Sky News, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband also defended the sanctions, stating that he was “proud” of the decision because “it was the right thing to do.”

Miliband also told Sky News that he regrets the Israeli government’s announcement that it will close the UK’s consulate in east Jerusalem in retaliation for the sanctions.

Meanwhile, a British official told The Jerusalem Post that the UK gov’t is “considering its response” to Israel’s decision to close the consulate.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday that the consulate would be shut down, while British representatives at the Kiryat Gat Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) would be expelled, following Miliband’s Tuesday announcement of UK sanctions on West Bank settlements.

Miliband added that the closure of the consulate will be “damaging” for links with the Palestinian Authority, but went on to assert, “We weighed up the costs and the benefits in advance of this. And we did something very important.”

British Jewish community backlash

Members of the British Jewish community leadership, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, have criticized the UK government’s decision to impose the sanctions, arguing the move risks inflaming tensions and putting diaspora Jews at risk.

This is a “dark day for British Jews”, Mirvis said in a statement, adding that the announcement amounted to “little more than a political flag bearing a mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric, and those who harbor a dangerous obsession with the Jewish state.”

In response to the backlash over the sanctions, Miliband told Sky News, “Well, I’m a proud British Jew, and I don’t agree with the chief rabbi.”

“I have great respect for the chief rabbi, but I don’t agree with him, and I believe that it must be possible to do what we did yesterday, which is to stand up for British values of the rule of law, of dignity for people, of the prevention of injustice, and do so in a way, as I did yesterday, to say to anyone in our country who holds British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, that is antisemitism, pure and simple.”

When asked if he could understand the Israeli government’s argument that they are acting defensively with the measures taken in the West Bank, Miliband told Sky News that Israel’s actions are making the country “less secure.”

UK acted with ‘various allies’ says Miliband

“I don’t want to see Israel isolated in the world,” he stated, noting that the UK acted with various allies in deciding to impose sanctions. 

They all “shared our deep, deep sense of disquiet about what was happening”, he added, but declined to say if the US government was supportive of the UK’s decision.

“I’ll let our American friends speak for themselves.” He said, making clear that the US government had ‘been informed’ of the UK’s move to sanction prior to its official announcement.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to journalists on Tuesday, making clear that the US government would not be following the UK’s lead, though he refrained from criticizing Miliband’s decision.

Amichai Stein, Goldie Katz, and Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday scrutinized whether political parties may receive identified, real-time reports of who has voted, repeatedly returning to a central question: What legal authority permits information recorded inside a polling station to be transferred to a campaign?

The court’s decision will determine whether parties may use the information during the October 27 election to identify likely supporters who have not yet voted and target them with calls, messages, visits, or transportation offers. 

The three-justice panel did not present a unified position during the hearing.

Justice Khaled Kabub repeatedly questioned the claim that existing law permits the practice, saying that the Knesset is the body authorized to change the law. Justice Yael Willner challenged arguments that a voter’s prior association with a party reduced the privacy concern, but stressed that the full Central Elections Committee was not automatically bound by the legal opinion of its chairman, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg.

Justice Alex Stein tested both sides. He noted that election law already allows parties to receive certain information from the voter registry, while also questioning why campaigns required live information from polling stations when they could contact supporters without it.

Willner opened the expedited hearing by saying that a decision was needed quickly because of the approaching election and the High Holy Days.

Central Elections Committee votes to allow polling station officials to report whether a person has voted

The full Central Elections Committee voted Sunday by 19-11, with three abstentions, to allow party-appointed polling-station officials to report whether an identified person had voted. The information does not reveal which party or candidate received the vote.

The committee imposed several conditions. Reporting would be permitted only from ordinary polling stations; the exact time a person voted could not be recorded; the information could be used only to encourage turnout; it could not be transferred to another party or outside body; and it would have to be destroyed after the election.

Those restrictions are now under challenge by attorney Shahar Ben-Meir, the Reservists Party and its chairman Yoaz Hendel, Choosing Israel, and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

Likud attorney Ilan Bombach argued that the committee had properly balanced voters’ privacy against the public interest in increasing participation. He said parties generally contacted people already associated with them and that individuals could ask not to be contacted.

The justices questioned that premise. Kabub described the proposed category of party-affiliated voters as undefined and potentially unlimited. Willner asked why a known political affiliation would make the subsequent collection of voting information less intrusive, suggesting that it could instead sharpen concerns about partisan advantage.

Stein returned to a more basic point: “What is the formal legal basis for using this tool?”

Likud maintained that election law and the committee’s general powers provided a sufficient foundation. It also argued that parties had relied on the practice over several election cycles and had built their Election Day operations around it.

Kabub noted, however, that the privacy complaint had been pending since January and asked why the party had not prepared an alternative. Bombach replied that previous challenges had not produced a prohibition and that Sohlberg’s August 4 decision had not been anticipated.

Sohlberg prohibited the reporting after concluding that information made available inside polling stations to administer the election could not be repurposed for political mobilization without consent or clear legal authorization.

His decision rested primarily on the Protection of Privacy Law’s “purpose limitation” rule, which stipulates that information provided for one purpose cannot be passed on or used for another. Sohlberg did not definitively decide whether the secrecy of the ballot also protects the mere fact that a person entered a polling station or voted.

Attorney Avi Milikovsky, presenting Sohlberg’s position, argued Wednesday that the committee’s decision could not stand because voters had neither consented to the transfer nor had the Knesset expressly authorized it.

Willner drew a distinction between that substantive argument and the weight the committee was required to give Sohlberg’s opinion. The committee had to consider the chairman’s view seriously, she said, but it did not have to adopt it if its decision-making process was otherwise proper.

Consent emerges as one of the hearing’s central issues.

The Privacy Protection Law defines consent as informed consent, whether express or implied. General guidance issued by the Privacy Protection Authority says a person should understand what information is being collected, who will receive it, and for what purpose.

Willner emphasized during the hearing that the law requires informed consent, not merely an assumption that a person would agree.  

Attorney Noa Diamond of Tel Aviv University’s Privacy Clinic also rejected comparisons between digital reporting and being casually recognized at a neighborhood polling station. An incidental encounter in a public place, she argued, is different from systematically recording a person’s identity and transmitting the information for processing in a political database.

Movement for Quality Government attorney Tomer Naor argued that the controversy had persisted precisely because the practice remained in a legally unclear space. He noted that challenges had been raised since 2020 and that previous committee chairmen had recommended legislation, disputing Likud’s assertion that the August prohibition arrived without warning.

Central Elections Committee legal adviser Yifat Siminovsky defended the procedure followed during Sunday’s meeting. She said the committee had held a full discussion, heard the parties, and received the relevant materials. She asked the court to reject allegations of procedural defects but expressly declined to argue the substantive privacy question, noting that the political parties were represented separately.

Wednesday’s hearing followed a court-approved arrangement that sent the underlying issue to the full committee without deciding whether Sohlberg had possessed the authority to impose the original prohibition alone.

Until the High Court rules, Sunday’s decision remains the operative framework under which parties are preparing for Election Day. Willner said the court would decide quickly.

This post was originally published on here. 

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday scrutinized whether political parties may receive identified, real-time reports of who has voted, repeatedly returning to a central question: What legal authority permits information recorded inside a polling station to be transferred to a campaign?

The court’s decision will determine whether parties may use the information during the October 27 election to identify likely supporters who have not yet voted and target them with calls, messages, visits, or transportation offers. 

The three-justice panel did not present a unified position during the hearing.

Justice Khaled Kabub repeatedly questioned the claim that existing law permits the practice, saying that the Knesset is the body authorized to change the law. Justice Yael Willner challenged arguments that a voter’s prior association with a party reduced the privacy concern, but stressed that the full Central Elections Committee was not automatically bound by the legal opinion of its chairman, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg.

Justice Alex Stein tested both sides. He noted that election law already allows parties to receive certain information from the voter registry, while also questioning why campaigns required live information from polling stations when they could contact supporters without it.

Willner opened the expedited hearing by saying that a decision was needed quickly because of the approaching election and the High Holy Days.

Central Elections Committee votes to allow polling station officials to report whether a person has voted

The full Central Elections Committee voted Sunday by 19-11, with three abstentions, to allow party-appointed polling-station officials to report whether an identified person had voted. The information does not reveal which party or candidate received the vote.

The committee imposed several conditions. Reporting would be permitted only from ordinary polling stations; the exact time a person voted could not be recorded; the information could be used only to encourage turnout; it could not be transferred to another party or outside body; and it would have to be destroyed after the election.

Those restrictions are now under challenge by attorney Shahar Ben-Meir, the Reservists Party and its chairman Yoaz Hendel, Choosing Israel, and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

Likud attorney Ilan Bombach argued that the committee had properly balanced voters’ privacy against the public interest in increasing participation. He said parties generally contacted people already associated with them and that individuals could ask not to be contacted.

The justices questioned that premise. Kabub described the proposed category of party-affiliated voters as undefined and potentially unlimited. Willner asked why a known political affiliation would make the subsequent collection of voting information less intrusive, suggesting that it could instead sharpen concerns about partisan advantage.

Stein returned to a more basic point: “What is the formal legal basis for using this tool?”

Likud maintained that election law and the committee’s general powers provided a sufficient foundation. It also argued that parties had relied on the practice over several election cycles and had built their Election Day operations around it.

Kabub noted, however, that the privacy complaint had been pending since January and asked why the party had not prepared an alternative. Bombach replied that previous challenges had not produced a prohibition and that Sohlberg’s August 4 decision had not been anticipated.

Sohlberg prohibited the reporting after concluding that information made available inside polling stations to administer the election could not be repurposed for political mobilization without consent or clear legal authorization.

His decision rested primarily on the Protection of Privacy Law’s “purpose limitation” rule, which stipulates that information provided for one purpose cannot be passed on or used for another. Sohlberg did not definitively decide whether the secrecy of the ballot also protects the mere fact that a person entered a polling station or voted.

Attorney Avi Milikovsky, presenting Sohlberg’s position, argued Wednesday that the committee’s decision could not stand because voters had neither consented to the transfer nor had the Knesset expressly authorized it.

Willner drew a distinction between that substantive argument and the weight the committee was required to give Sohlberg’s opinion. The committee had to consider the chairman’s view seriously, she said, but it did not have to adopt it if its decision-making process was otherwise proper.

Consent emerges as one of the hearing’s central issues.

The Privacy Protection Law defines consent as informed consent, whether express or implied. General guidance issued by the Privacy Protection Authority says a person should understand what information is being collected, who will receive it, and for what purpose.

Willner emphasized during the hearing that the law requires informed consent, not merely an assumption that a person would agree.  

Attorney Noa Diamond of Tel Aviv University’s Privacy Clinic also rejected comparisons between digital reporting and being casually recognized at a neighborhood polling station. An incidental encounter in a public place, she argued, is different from systematically recording a person’s identity and transmitting the information for processing in a political database.

Movement for Quality Government attorney Tomer Naor argued that the controversy had persisted precisely because the practice remained in a legally unclear space. He noted that challenges had been raised since 2020 and that previous committee chairmen had recommended legislation, disputing Likud’s assertion that the August prohibition arrived without warning.

Central Elections Committee legal adviser Yifat Siminovsky defended the procedure followed during Sunday’s meeting. She said the committee had held a full discussion, heard the parties, and received the relevant materials. She asked the court to reject allegations of procedural defects but expressly declined to argue the substantive privacy question, noting that the political parties were represented separately.

Wednesday’s hearing followed a court-approved arrangement that sent the underlying issue to the full committee without deciding whether Sohlberg had possessed the authority to impose the original prohibition alone.

Until the High Court rules, Sunday’s decision remains the operative framework under which parties are preparing for Election Day. Willner said the court would decide quickly.

This post was originally published on here. 

Russia hopes that US-mediated peace talks on ending the war in Ukraine will resume soon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

No such talks between Russia and Ukraine have taken place since February, but US President Donald Trump sent his negotiators to Moscow and then Kyiv at the weekend in a bid to relaunch the stalled process.

Peskov was responding to a comment by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it may be possible to draw up a roadmap to restart talks and work towards an acceptable outcome for both sides.

A huge gulf remains between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the 4-1/2-year war, with Kyiv rejecting Moscow’s demands that it give up more territory.

Peskov said Moscow would not publicly discuss any specifics of a potential settlement, but there was a “confirmed political will” to resume talks.

“We hope that these negotiations will resume in the foreseeable future, and we remain in contact with our American counterparts,” he said, a day after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.

Prisoner exchange a ‘constant item’ on agenda, Peskov says

Peskov added that the issue of exchanging prisoners between Russia and the US was “a constant item on the agenda,” including between the two presidents. He noted that Russia had released one American prisoner, Robert Gilman, at Trump’s request last month.

The two countries have traded prisoners at several points in the past few years. 

The biggest such deal was in August 2024, when Russia got back eight prisoners held in the West, including a member of its FSB security service convicted of murder in Germany.

In exchange, 16 people were released from Russian and Belarusian jails. Among those freed by Moscow were prominent Russian dissidents and three US citizens, including Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich.

This post was originally published on here. 

A Kurdish militia killed a Sunni “traitor” working with Iran’s IRGC in the Chianeh village in the West Azerbaijan province, a source within the Kurdish movement told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday night.

The IRGC collaborator, Mala Mohammadi Mala Qaderi, was killed by two motorcyclists after they attacked the entrance of Qaderi’s home. The gunmen were said to be from the Khori Hiwa (Sun of Hope) group.

The same group claimed responsibility in July for clashes with the IRGC, and some reports suggest they carried out attacks against Kurds who allegedly collaborated with the regime.

The gunmen were said to have successfully escaped after carrying out the attack, and The Post was told that Qaderi’s body was taken to the morgue at Piranshahr Hospital yesterday evening, where it remained under tight security.

Qaderi allegedly sent condolences on ‘martyrdom’ of Khamenei

State media confirmed Qaderi’s affiliation with the IRGC, and the source sent a video of Qaderi sharing his condolences on the “martyrdom” of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint operation by the United States and Israel on February 28.

“We also extend our condolences on the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei. This was his longstanding wish: to be martyred for the sake of God,” he said. “We are also proud that he was martyred at the hands of someone who was not worthy of God. These are infidels who are not reconciled with Islam.

“We also agree with the re-election of the leadership of Mojtaba Khamenei as leader. God willing, he will continue on this path and continue this same line. Our nation has to stand firm against the dangers and threats. We will not hand our country over to the enemy.”

The Post cannot confirm the authenticity of the footage.

Iran’s state media confirmed the death on Wednesday morning, alleging that those responsible were tied to Israel.

A statement published by the deputy public relations officer of the West Azerbaijan Martyrs’ Corps, a provincial unit for the IRGC, described Qaderi as a “high-ranking martyr in popular mobilization” and alleged the killing had been carried out to divide Sunni and Shia Muslims.

Iranian media named Qaderi as Mamosta Mohammad Nuzhati.

Reports emerge of numerous attacks on Basij, IRGC members

Over the past week, there were reports of numerous attacks on Basij and IRGC members.

Abdolraouf Eshaghi, a Basij commander in the Parud district of Sistan-Baluchistan province, had been “martyred,” the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported yesterday.

The IRGC also claimed that two of its members were killed in an operation against a “terror cell” with alleged links to the United States and Israel.

Last Wednesday, a car struck a gathering of supporters of Iran’s government and armed forces in the northeastern city of Mashhad overnight, killing four people and injuring more than 10, several Iranian media reported, denying that the incident was a deliberate attack on pro-regime groups.

Roger Macmillan, a terrorism and security specialist, noted that there had been a few reports of attacks on IRGC and Basij officials as of late, which, combined with the cost of living crisis, could make it harder for low-level Basij and IRGC members to stay in their roles.

“When their will to fight has been eroded as they cannot even feed their families, then this does offer the opportunity for the people to take to the streets once more to protest,” he said. “Of course there will always be those die-hard ideologically committed hardcore elements, but in time much of the support from within may fade away in the face of the severe economic pressure.”

This post was originally published on here. 

A Kurdish militia killed a Sunni “traitor” working with Iran’s IRGC in the Chianeh village in the West Azerbaijan province, a source within the Kurdish movement told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday night.

The IRGC collaborator, Mala Mohammadi Mala Qaderi, was killed by two motorcyclists after they attacked the entrance of Qaderi’s home. The gunmen were said to be from the Khori Hiwa (Sun of Hope) group.

The same group claimed responsibility in July for clashes with the IRGC, and some reports suggest they carried out attacks against Kurds who allegedly collaborated with the regime.

The gunmen were said to have successfully escaped after carrying out the attack, and The Post was told that Qaderi’s body was taken to the morgue at Piranshahr Hospital yesterday evening, where it remained under tight security.

Qaderi allegedly sent condolences on ‘martyrdom’ of Khamenei

State media confirmed Qaderi’s affiliation with the IRGC, and the source sent a video of Qaderi sharing his condolences on the “martyrdom” of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint operation by the United States and Israel on February 28.

“We also extend our condolences on the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei. This was his longstanding wish: to be martyred for the sake of God,” he said. “We are also proud that he was martyred at the hands of someone who was not worthy of God. These are infidels who are not reconciled with Islam.

“We also agree with the re-election of the leadership of Mojtaba Khamenei as leader. God willing, he will continue on this path and continue this same line. Our nation has to stand firm against the dangers and threats. We will not hand our country over to the enemy.”

The Post cannot confirm the authenticity of the footage.

Iran’s state media confirmed the death on Wednesday morning, alleging that those responsible were tied to Israel.

A statement published by the deputy public relations officer of the West Azerbaijan Martyrs’ Corps, a provincial unit for the IRGC, described Qaderi as a “high-ranking martyr in popular mobilization” and alleged the killing had been carried out to divide Sunni and Shia Muslims.

Iranian media named Qaderi as Mamosta Mohammad Nuzhati.

Reports emerge of numerous attacks on Basij, IRGC members

Over the past week, there were reports of numerous attacks on Basij and IRGC members.

Abdolraouf Eshaghi, a Basij commander in the Parud district of Sistan-Baluchistan province, had been “martyred,” the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported yesterday.

The IRGC also claimed that two of its members were killed in an operation against a “terror cell” with alleged links to the United States and Israel.

Last Wednesday, a car struck a gathering of supporters of Iran’s government and armed forces in the northeastern city of Mashhad overnight, killing four people and injuring more than 10, several Iranian media reported, denying that the incident was a deliberate attack on pro-regime groups.

Roger Macmillan, a terrorism and security specialist, noted that there had been a few reports of attacks on IRGC and Basij officials as of late, which, combined with the cost of living crisis, could make it harder for low-level Basij and IRGC members to stay in their roles.

“When their will to fight has been eroded as they cannot even feed their families, then this does offer the opportunity for the people to take to the streets once more to protest,” he said. “Of course there will always be those die-hard ideologically committed hardcore elements, but in time much of the support from within may fade away in the face of the severe economic pressure.”

This post was originally published on here. 

An Israeli legal advocacy group accused the United Nations commission investigating Israel and the Palestinian territories of applying different standards to Israel and Hamas, arguing in a report circulated Tuesday that alleged Israeli wrongdoing is traced to state policy and senior officials – while Palestinian responsibility is more often described in general terms.

The 48-page report by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice challenges the credibility of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, and Israel. The commission’s findings are not court judgments, but its mandate includes collecting and preserving evidence and identifying those believed responsible for violations, giving its work potential significance for international legal and diplomatic proceedings.

The Jerusalem Post queried the commission for comment.

The institute said it examined nine major commission reports issued between its establishment in 2021 and May 2026, alongside UN documents, budget records, public statements by commissioners, and other UN investigations.

Its central argument is that the commission repeatedly connects alleged Israeli violations to named officials, military units, government institutions, state policies, and institutional intent, while more often describing Palestinian perpetrators as “armed groups,” “militants,” “attackers,” or members of military wings.

The report focuses in part on the commission’s June 2024 findings concerning the October 7 massacre and the first months of the war.

UN commission attributes alleged Israeli violations to authorities, security forces

In its main report, the commission attributed crimes committed during the attack to members of Hamas’s military wing, other Palestinian armed groups, and Palestinian civilians. Its conclusions regarding Gaza, by contrast, attributed alleged violations to “Israeli authorities” and members of the Israeli security forces.

The institute argued that this difference dispersed responsibility for the Hamas-led attack among broad groups of perpetrators without examining Hamas’s political leadership, chain of command, operational planning, and organizational policy to the same degree as Israeli institutions and decision-makers.

The UN commission did not, however, ignore Hamas’s organizational role. Its separate detailed investigation found that the October 7 attack was led and coordinated by Hamas, documented what it described as indications of standing operational instructions, and concluded that Hamas’s military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups deliberately attacked civilians and committed war crimes.

The institute acknowledges those findings. Its criticism is narrower: that Hamas’s leadership and institutional responsibility did not receive the same depth of analysis or carry the same weight in the commission’s broader legal conclusions.

“Impartiality is tested by one thing: whether the same rules apply to everyone,” said attorney Uri Morad, director of the institute’s international law and public diplomacy department. “In this case, the answer is no.”

The report also alleges an evidentiary double standard. It says the commission repeatedly rejected Israeli military and security explanations when it considered them insufficiently supported, while relying on information from Palestinian authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, advocacy groups, confidential witnesses, and social media without always explaining how that material was independently verified or reconciled with conflicting evidence.

The commission has said its findings are based on interviews, submissions, satellite imagery, medical records, and verified open-source material. Israel has refused to cooperate with the inquiry or permit its investigators access, saying the body is structurally biased. The commission has said the lack of access obstructed its investigations.

That dispute complicates the institute’s comparison. Restricted access may help explain why the commission relied on remote interviews, confidential sources, and publicly available material, although it does not by itself answer whether evidence from the two sides was tested equally.

Report criticizes UN commission’s open-ended mandate

The report separately criticizes the commission’s open-ended mandate, which allows it to investigate violations occurring since April 2021, earlier events leading up to them, and the broader “root causes” of the conflict without a fixed end date.

That structure has drawn criticism beyond Israel. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom said jointly in 2025 that they regretted the commission’s open-ended establishment, describing it as contrary to usual practice, while continuing to support proportionate scrutiny of alleged violations by all sides.

The institute called on UN member states to terminate the commission and replace it with time-limited investigations governed by clearer evidentiary and impartiality standards.

This post was originally published on here. 

Jacob Coxon, an artificial intelligence researcher, quit his job at Anthropic on Tuesday, claiming that both it and OpenAI were putting humanity in danger by gambling with AI.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” he wrote in a series of posts on X/Twitter. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

Coxon also warned not to underestimate the power of AI, saying that soon there would be “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.

— Jacob Coxon (@hilbertspaess) September 9, 2026

According to Coxon, OpenAI members have not fully internalized the stakes of artificial intelligence, while Anthropic is “locked in a race to get there first – they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk.”

He urged lab researchers to exercise caution over the next few years of AI development.

Anthropic Alignment Science lead agrees on AI danger to humanity

In a reply to Coxon’s posts, Evan Hubinger, Alignment Science lead for Anthropic, said that he was correct.

“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” Hubinger said.

Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to. https://t.co/QAIHiFP3QZ

— Evan Hubinger (@EvanHub) September 9, 2026

“I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Otzma Yehudit requested that the Central Elections Committee ban the Arab Ra’am party and its chairman, MK Mansour Abbas, from running in the 2026 Israeli elections, the party said in a statement on Wednesday.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, chairman of Otzma Yehudit, stated that Ra’am and Abbas were “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” and called them “Hamas-supporting terrorists.”

The request claimed that Ra’am denied Israel’s existence as a Jewish state and supported an armed struggle against it.

Otzma Yehudit also noted that the full request contained a report from the Nonprofit Registry detailing how the Ra’am-affiliated “Aid 48” nonprofit transferred funds to and collaborated with terrorist organizations. 

Abbas says Arab parties forced to accept Israel as Jewish state

The party had previously called for Abbas to be disqualified from running for the Knesset following remarks he made in August, saying Arab parties were forced to accept Israel as a Jewish state to avoid being barred from elections.

“The senior partner of [Naftali] Bennett and [Gadi] Eisenkot in a future government admits that he does not recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state,” the party’s statement read.

“We would tell you that what he is saying is delusional, but we are not surprised. He is from the Muslim Brotherhood. The delusion is that Eisenkot and Bennett dream every night about how they will form a government with him.”

Shir Perets contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

Covenant, a defense tech company with operations in the United States, Germany, and Israel, emerged from stealth on Monday with the public debut of Anthem, a long‑range, heavy‑payload weapon system designed for mass production. 

The announcement comes as Western militaries are confronting growing shortages in precision‑strike munitions. Ongoing conflicts such as in Ukraine and Iran have depleted missile stockpiles faster than primes can replenish them.

Covenant’s flagship system, Anthem, is built to deliver heavy payloads at extended ranges while remaining affordable enough to produce in large quantities. The company has disclosed relatively little about Anthem’s specific performance characteristics, including its precise range, payload, and unit cost. 

According to the company, most of Anthem’s components are commercial‑off‑the‑shelf, supported by long‑term agreements for critical parts. Covenant says this approach allows the missile to be produced quickly and reliably, even during wartime, by drawing on supply chains across allied nations.

Covenant says Anthem was designed as an end‑to‑end deep‑strike system that simplifies transport, storage, launch, and reload. The company has also developed its own mission‑planning and command‑and‑control software to enable coordinated mass‑launch operations. 

Covenant was founded in 2024 by Michael Kaufman, a former investor at Thiel Capital. The company has raised $250 million across three funding rounds led by major American venture firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux, 8VC, Aleph, and Lightspeed.

Global production 

The company opened a 105,000‑square‑foot production facility in Dallas, Texas, alongside a 110,000‑square‑foot site in Leipzig in the German state of Saxony, and a 32,000‑square‑foot facility in northern Israel. Covenant says the US plant will begin serial production in early 2027 and ramp toward 5,000 units per year.

Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post understands that the company aims to manufacture 1,000 missiles per year at its German site starting next year. 

Israel’s defense industry has long been a leader in developing autonomous systems, long‑range strike capabilities, and rapid‑production technologies. Covenant’s facility in northern Israel supports engineering and manufacturing, and the company draws heavily on Israeli defense tech talent. 

The company is also working across the various branches of the US military and has conducted an unusually high tempo of testing over the past year, launching Anthem over 200 times, including multiple flight tests with the US Army both in the US and abroad. 

In addition to its ground‑launched version, Covenant is working with the US Navy’s Rapid Capabilities Office on a maritime variant, a project valued at roughly $70 million with cost‑share components and export‑acceleration features. The company is also operating under an Other Transaction Agreement with the US Army for accelerated testing and qualification. 

Quantity matters

Covenant’s leadership says Anthem was built to address a widening gap in Western long‑range strike capacity. 

“When you look at our adversaries, you see thousands of hardened targets, beyond the range of current capabilities,” said Michael Kaufman, Co-Founder and CEO of Covenant. “Anthem was built to credibly hold those targets at risk in a prolonged conflict. If our stockpiles run thin, so does our deterrence.”

Kathleen Hicks, former US deputy secretary of defense now an advisor to Covenant, said the system aligns with the Pentagon’s Replicator Initiative, which aims to rapidly scale affordable autonomous and long‑range capabilities.

“That same focus is needed to drive production and delivery of affordable capabilities at higher ranges and larger payloads. Covenant has built Anthem in direct alignment with Replicator’s principles,” she said.

Mike Garcia, former US representative and advisor to Covenant, said that while the West doesn’t “lack advanced weapons, we lack enough of them, and that’s a production question as much as a technology one. Anthem is Covenant’s answer, a missile designed from day one to be built in the numbers a real fight demands.”

The company has booked approximately $150 million in orders so far, including qualification, R&D, and production contracts, with additional awards expected later this year. And as the company moves into full production, the company says its success will be measured not by announcements but by delivery. 

“Now the measure of our success is execution,” said Abby Denburg, Covenant’s president and chief growth officer. “Delivering mission‑critical capability on time, at scale, and with the performance our customers expect.”

This post was originally published on here. 

A Panama-flagged tanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil was struck by a drone in Iraqi territorial waters on Wednesday, two port officials said.

Iraqi rescue boats extinguished a fire aboard the tanker, New Andros, and there were no reports of casualties, port officials told Reuters.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday that a maritime restricted area would extend from Chabahar in Iran into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with its precise coordinates to be announced.

The announcement follows comments on Sunday by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was quoted by state media as saying Iran would establish a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.

This is a developing story.

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Israeli students have seen a major drop in grades and performance, according to an initial, not yet formally verified, report by the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (known by its Hebrew acronym, RAMA), confirmed on Tuesday.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch released the RAMA report after the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the international Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results on Tuesday, with officials describing the findings as a “catastrophic event on a historic scale.”

According to RAMA’s initial findings, which the Education Ministry emphasized were not final, only 3% of 9th-grade students were considered to be fully fulfilling the ministry’s requirements in their science and technology education programs, with another 16% considered “near” full requirement fulfillment.

The number of students fully fulfilling the Education Ministry’s requirements was higher in 6th-grade English (36%), mathematics (37%), and Hebrew (20%).

These results were consistent with the PISA results, in which, compared with the previous PISA tests in 2022, Israeli students fell eight places in science, seven in reading, and six in mathematics.

Across all three subjects, Israel’s 2025 PISA results were the lowest ever recorded for the country.

Kisch attempts to delay RAMA release showcasing tenure failures

Every three years, RAMA and the Education Ministry publish a detailed national analysis simultaneously with, or close to, the OECD’s official publication.

But long after the organization had granted media representatives full access to the data, and despite the publication being known about and scheduled years in advance, Kisch‘s representatives and officials from the measurement authority still had not managed to “complete the necessary coordination regarding the format of publication.”

In other words, while Kisch could not prevent the publication of the embarrassing report, which presents his tenure as a failure, he tried to delay it until the last moment and held a media “briefing” at the exact time the report was released.

According to KAN News, several weeks ago Kisch requested that the RAMA report not be published on the same day as the PISA results.

Kisch published the results that day regardless, KAN reported, after the government’s legal advisor said he did not have the authority to withhold the findings and after RAMA told him it intended to publish the results that day.

KAN also cited the Education Ministry as saying that the RAMA findings “are under external professional review in light of the claims raised by the ministry.”

Yuval Bagno contributed to this report.

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More than 20,000 new immigrants (olim) arrived in Israel during the Jewish year 5786 (September 23, 2025 to September 3, 2026), coming from over 100 different countries worldwide, according to a new data report released on Tuesday by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry and the Jewish Agency.

The breakdown of the Aliyah figures for the past year shows that Russia topped the charts with 5,685 olim arriving in Israel, followed by 4,364 from France, 3,333 from the United States, and 975 from the United Kingdom.

Additionally, 797 olim came from Ukraine, 491 from Belarus, 440 from Canada, 247 from Australia, 243 from Argentina, 241 from Georgia, 210 from South Africa, 210 from Germany, and 200 from Brazil.

Olim of all age groups

35% of the olim were young people aged 18–35, reflecting significant growth in Israeli society and the economy. According to the data report, many of these young immigrants were physicians and professionals in in-demand fields. Some 24% of the olim are children and youth up to age 17, who have now been integrated into the Israeli education system. An additional 18% are aged 36–50, 9% are aged 51–60, 5% are aged 61–65, and 10% are 66 or older.

The two oldest olim this year were both 102 years old at the time of their arrival in the country – one from Russia and one from France. The youngest was a two-week-old infant who arrived with his family from Mexico.

Where are Olim making their start?

About 31% of all olim this year settled in communities north of Hadera or south of Ashdod. Specifically, 3,862 olim (about 20% of the total) settled from Hadera northward, while 2,247 (about 11%) settled from Ashdod southward.

Tel Aviv attracted the largest number of new olim this year, with 2,762 newcomers, followed by Netanya (2,224), Jerusalem (2,134), Haifa (1,504), Ra’anana (1,042), Bat Yam (957), Ashdod (846), Beit Shemesh (680), Ashkelon (534), and Rishon LeZion (450). Nahariya, the northernmost city on the list, absorbed 307 olim, while Eilat, the southernmost, welcomed 132.

‘The essence of Zionism’

Reflecting the year’s data, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry and The Jewish Agency touched on the diasporas connection to the Jewish state, stating in the report, “Even in a year marked by a challenging security situation, thousands of Jews from every corner of the globe chose to make Aliyah to Israel, build their homes there, and raise their children there – a choice that reflects the deep and enduring connection between world Jewry and the State of Israel.”

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, commented on the aliyah numbers during a challenging year, stating that they represent “the essence of Zionism.”

“Aliyah is the strongest response to every challenge we face; it serves as a growth engine that contributes to strengthening the State of Israel,” Almog said.

Aliyah and Integration Minister, Ofir Sofer, emphasized, “Every Oleh who arrives strengthens society, the economy, and the resilience of the country, and Aliyah is a central component of its future.”

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The fifth season of Fauda has arrived on Netflix worldwide, bringing the hit Israeli series into territory shaped directly by the October 7 massacre and its aftermath.

In the latest episode of The Jerusalem Post’s Playlist podcast, the hosts discuss how the new season balances the familiar elements of the counterterrorism drama with the trauma left by October 7. The season begins several years after the attack, with Doron and other members of the unit struggling with what happened before being drawn into a hunt for terrorists who escaped to Europe.

Two episodes, however, return directly to October 7 through extended flashbacks. They were broadcast in Israel with content warnings, and viewers were told they could skip them without losing track of the wider plot.

The scenes draw heavily on real footage and accounts from the massacre, including events at kibbutzim and the Nova music festival, making them among the season’s most difficult moments to watch.

The podcast also looks back at earlier Israeli counterterrorism films, particularly Menahem Golan’s Operation Thunderbolt, which dramatized the Entebbe rescue and was nominated for an Academy Award. The hosts then revisit Golan’s The Delta Force, starring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin, describing the film as dated and packed with action movie clichés, but still highly entertaining.

The episode ends with Hooligans, an Israeli crime drama set against the world of Jerusalem soccer fans. The series follows a young man recruited by police to infiltrate a criminal group connected to extremist supporters. After airing in Israel, the show has attracted viewers in Germany and has also been sold for broadcast in France.

Together, the selections show how Israeli television and film continue to draw on the country’s security challenges, social divisions and recent history, while increasingly finding audiences far beyond Israel.

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A new pre-military preparatory program established in memory of four IDF reservists killed together in Gaza in November 2023 is set to open in northern Israel, the Ma’ase Center and Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry announced.

“The Four” program will operate in Eliad in the Golan Heights and is intended for young adults aged 18 to 20 from traditional, religious and haredi backgrounds who are preparing for military or national-civic service.

The program commemorates Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, Master Sgt. (res.) Sergey Shmerkin, and Master Sgt. (res.) Matan Meir.

Leiter was the son of Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

The four served in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion and were killed on November 10, 2023, when a booby-trapped tunnel shaft exploded near a mosque in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza.

The 10-month program was established by the Ma’ase Center’s Nitzotz network of preparatory programs together with the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry.

Organizers said it would combine preparation for military or national service with leadership training, physical fitness, field exercises, agricultural work and volunteering in northern communities.

Preparing young Israelis for service

Participants will receive guidance ahead of enlistment, including help navigating recruitment and placement procedures, alongside personal mentoring designed to strengthen discipline, self-confidence and independent living skills.

The program will also include navigation exercises, hikes and other field activities, as well as classes focusing on Israeli identity, leadership and Israeli society.

Its location in the Golan Heights is intended to give participants a role in supporting northern communities and agriculture following years of disruption caused by the war.

“We want to raise a generation that does not only ask, ‘What does the country give me?’ but first and foremost asks, ‘What can I give to the country?’” said Yaakov Hershkovitz, Yossi Hershkovitz’s father.

“After October 7, we all understand more than ever that Israel’s security rests on people who are willing to take responsibility, get up and act,” he said.

Hershkovitz said the program sought to develop the values that the four soldiers represented, including responsibility, leadership, volunteering and commitment to Israeli society.

“Service in the IDF begins long before enlistment day,” he said. “It begins with values, responsibility, love of the land, the ability to lead, volunteer, cope with difficulty and, above all, to be a person who sees those around them.”

Program aimed at youth seeking a path to meaningful service

Liz David, director of the Residential Care Division at the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, said the initiative would provide a supportive framework for at-risk young adults who wanted to enlist in the IDF and become more integrated into Israeli society.

She said the program would preserve the four soldiers’ legacy through “camaraderie, giving, responsibility and love of the land.”

Dina Bar Hama, head of the Nitzotz preparatory programs at Ma’ase Center, said the initiative had emerged from the families’ desire to turn the loss of the four men into a long-term educational project.

“The Four Preparatory Program was born out of pain, alongside the choice to grow from it and nurture the leaders of the younger generation,” Bar Hama said.

She said participants would be taught values associated with Leiter, Hershkovitz, Shmerkin and Meir, including responsibility, commitment, contribution to society and camaraderie.

Hershkovitz, 44, was the principal of the ORT Pelech boys’ school in Jerusalem and had previously worked as a Jewish educator in the United States. Meir, 38, was a television producer best known for his work on the Israeli series “Fauda.” Leiter, 39, was a reserve company commander, paramedic, and medical student. Shmerkin, 32, was a reservist from Kiryat Shmona.

The program will join Ma’ase Center’s existing Nitzotz network, which focuses on helping young Israelis prepare for military and national service and develop the skills needed for employment and adult life.

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Political signals have consequences.

London has already imposed sanctions on Israeli ministers, restricted arms exports, suspended trade negotiations, and recognized a Palestinian state. The settlement ban adds another layer to a relationship that Britain simultaneously insists remains strategically important.

That contradiction was unusually visible on Tuesday. British ministers stressed that Israel remains an important security partner and that intelligence and security cooperation should continue. Miliband himself emphasized Britain’s continuing relationship with Israel even as he announced the new policy.

Yet only a day earlier, UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese called on Britain to go considerably further and progressively suspend intelligence cooperation with Israel.

Britain should reject that suggestion unequivocally. Israeli intelligence has helped protect British lives. The most striking known example came in 2015, when MI5 uncovered roughly three and a half tons of ammonium nitrate stored by Hezbollah in northwest London. Israeli officials later said the Mossad had provided the intelligence that led British authorities to the cache.

Intel cooperation usually not publicly visible, but entirely vital

For years, the British public knew almost nothing about the operation. An Intelligence and Security Committee report finally disclosed details in 2025, describing Hezbollah’s stockpile as a contingency for a possible future attack.

Such cooperation is rarely visible precisely because intelligence relationships are supposed to remain quiet.

Tuesday supplied another reminder of why the partnership matters. On the same day Britain announced its measures against settlements, it introduced tougher sanctions against Iran, expanding financial, trade, and aviation restrictions designed to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program and hostile activities.

Iran threatens Israel directly. It has also plotted against dissidents and Jewish targets on European soil, supported Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, and repeatedly challenged Western interests.

Britain and Israel therefore have genuine strategic interests in common even when their governments disagree sharply.

UK should feel consequences of its decisions

Israel should respond to the settlement ban. Diplomatic relations require reciprocity, and London cannot assume that it will absorb each new punitive measure without consequence. Jerusalem can review discretionary British access and privileges, reconsider aspects of diplomatic cooperation and make clear that partnership works in both directions.

Calls to dismantle intelligence cooperation, however, would be a mistake.

The information exchanged between British and Israeli agencies does not belong to Ed Miliband, Benjamin Netanyahu, or any particular government. It exists to prevent terrorist attacks, disrupt Iranian operations, and protect citizens.

There is also a message here for London.

Britain cannot continually narrow its political relationship with Israel while assuming that the most valuable elements of the strategic relationship exist on autopilot. Allies can disagree, sometimes bitterly. They also have to recognize what they stand to lose when disagreement becomes a systematic downgrading of the relationship.

Britain has chosen a “reset.” It should make certain that, in trying to punish Israel over the West Bank, it does not weaken an alliance that has helped keep British citizens safe.

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IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir visited Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer to meet with wounded IDF soldiers, including commanders and troops from infantry and armored brigades who were wounded during operational activities in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday on Tuesday.

Zamir toured the various departments and spoke with wounded troops and their families about their injuries, recovery and rehabilitation, and their healing journey, expressing appreciation for their spirit, determination, and contribution to Israel’s security.

He also expressed appreciation to the medical teams, medical liaison personnel, and casualty affairs personnel for their work.

Zamir commends soldiers for bravery in battle

“I came to see you ahead of the new year, and I am moved by what I have seen here. There are troops here who stood on the front lines, led, and risked their lives in combat against the enemy – this is bravery in battle. Now, you are facing an operation that requires further bravery as you recover from your injuries,” Zamir said.

“The entire IDF and I deeply appreciate your sacrifice and contribution. It is our duty to stand by you and accompany you throughout your rehabilitation journey. We are with you every step of the way,” he added.

“I salute you. May this be a better year: a year of security and hope, a year of unity and victory. A year in which you continue to stand strong and serve as a source of pride for the entire nation.”

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“Why does such a small country need such a large computer?”

Albert Einstein’s question at a Princeton meeting in the early 1950s drew laughter, but the decision behind it was no joke. The Weizmann Institute was being asked to spend roughly 20% of its budget to build a computer as part of an effort to recruit a Princeton mathematician, Chaim Pekeris, to Israel.

“You had to build it from scratch. You couldn’t just buy one,” Meir Valman, author of The Network Effect: The Origins of Israel’s High Tech, told The Media Line.

Valman, a historian by training who has also worked as a journalist, analyst, researcher for start-up Nation Central, and in finance, draws on official documents, secondary sources, and around 150 interviews to trace the networks behind Israel’s high-tech rise. 

The computer debate was an early expression of a history often reduced to elite military units, cybersecurity firms, and young start-up founders. Israel’s high-tech rise did not emerge from a single institution or moment. It developed through the interlocking work of prestate universities, military problem-solving, private enterprise, multinational companies, global experience, and returning Israelis.

“The Israeli tech story is very, very unique,” Valman said.

The foundations of Israeli high-tech were being laid before Israel existed. In response to a question about the country’s early academic institutions, Valman said that “you had three world-class universities that were established in what was then mandatory Palestine, before there was a State of Israel.”

The Technion’s cornerstone was laid in 1912, though it did not open until the 1920s. The Hebrew University followed, and the Weizmann Institute opened in the early 1930s.

“This is a full 15-20 years before there’s a state,” Valman said.

Immigrants from Europe shaped the institutions, bringing education and scientific knowledge and seeing research as integral to building the land. “What was important to them was that this was going to be a land of scientific advancement,” Valman said.

Weizmann Institute attempts to poach Pekeris from Princeton

That ambition was tested in the early 1950s, when the Weizmann Institute sought to recruit Pekeris from Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Pekeris was “a strong Zionist,” Valman said, and was keen to move to Israel. But he had one condition: that he should have access to a computer as good as the one he had access to at Princeton.”

His position was clear: “Unless you can give me a computer like that, I’m not coming over. This is my life’s work, using this computer,” Valman said.

Pekeris enlisted senior Princeton scientists to support his case, and the Weizmann Institute ultimately agreed to his demand, bringing over the entire team from Princeton “lock, stock, and barrel” to build it.

But he didn’t have it to himself for long. “There was a fight for the time,” Valman said. At David Ben-Gurion’s direction, the army was given access “between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.”

The army later bought its own computer, but some of its first personnel learned on the Weizmann machine. The army saw applications in “ballistics measurements, things like that,” and began teaching people how to program computers.

“This was the first program in Israel teaching computer programmers,” Valman said. “That eventually led to Mamram in the late 1950s, which was a dedicated computer unit in the army.”

Asked whether institutions could foresee the eventual impact of new technologies, Valman said they typically began by trying to solve an immediate, practical problem: “They have a certain need, and they look for the right type of hardware or software to try and solve that need.”

The initial problem was not always the technology’s most enduring application. “Eventually, those skills or that piece of technology can be used for many more things than the actual problem they were trying to solve,” he said.

Israel’s first start-up, a company called Elron, began in an apartment in Haifa, according to Valman. Its founder, Uzia Galil, had served in the navy, worked on radar, and later studied in the United States.

There, Galil saw a model that Israel did not yet have: a working partnership among the military, universities, and private firms. “This is something that doesn’t exist in Israel,” Galil said, according to Valman. “All those three arms are acting independently. If we can get them to work together, we can achieve so much more.”

Galil returned to Israel to build the country’s first private high-tech company and work with the military. He started with a partner in a single small room in his apartment. The two worked on electronics, “fixing things, building things, trying to come up with new products,” Valman said.

Eventually, the business outgrew the apartment. Today, Elron is a multi-million-dollar company.

IDF’s Unit 8200 not sole source technological developments

In response to a question about how the military became a pipeline for technological talent, Valman said its influence developed gradually. Israel’s military has long contributed to the country’s technological talent pool, but Valman said it would be too simple to credit Unit 8200 alone.

The unit – an Israeli military intelligence organization known for signals intelligence and cyber-related work – has roots reaching back to the War of Independence, yet its early predecessors were small. “Most people who were in the engineering field didn’t really join these units,” Valman said. “There simply weren’t enough places.”

A more consequential change came through the Atuda program, which enabled gifted students to earn degrees financed by the army before beginning their service. “When they joined the army, they already had advanced knowledge of their particular fields, often in electronics, engineering,” Valman said.

The army gave them challenging assignments, and they learned how to solve them and lead teams. At the end of their service, many had little interest in conventional jobs. “They weren’t willing to join some boring organization and just be an employee,” Valman said. “They wanted to run things, and they wanted to use that advanced knowledge that they had.”

Valman said the Atuda program became a pathway for many of Israel’s early technology entrepreneurs. 

For all the attention paid to military units, Valman believes academia deserves more credit.

According to him, the Technion’s electrical-engineering department – particularly its microelectronics laboratory – trained much of the talent that went into Israel’s microchip industry. The lab, established in the late 1960s, was “a world-class lab.”

Israel, however, initially had too few suitable jobs. “Many of them went off to Silicon Valley, got experience there,” he said. “And that was really the only way they could do it at that particular time.”

Intel’s arrival in Israel in 1974 changed the options available to engineers and researchers. It also taught a lesson beyond chip design. “It’s not simply about designing chips,” Valman said. “Success in the industry is about so many other things as well.”

Success depended on market research, finding and serving clients, testing products, and mastering mass production. “There were almost no world-class exporting companies in Israel that understood the competitive marketplace, how to win share in world markets,” he said.

That tension still runs through the sector. “We’re great on the engineering side. That’s really our strength,” Valman said. Israel is strong at creating technologies and adapting existing ones. Its traditional weakness has been “sales, marketing, customer support, all those kinds of areas.”

Israeli technology pioneer and businessman Efi Arazi understood that earlier than most. He never finished high school but talked his way into MIT, and later founded Scitex Corporation. “He went to America, and he got it,” Valman said.

Arazi recognized that a successful high-tech company needed more than a strong product: it also required effective marketing, sales, and design. The central lesson, Valman said, remains uncomfortable for many founders: “It isn’t necessarily the best technology that always wins in the marketplace.”

Israelis move from engineering to management

Valman’s story about Dadi Perlmutter, then head of Intel Israel, captures the evolving role of Israelis within global companies. When Intel considered a new chip architecture that could have made existing chips obsolete, Perlmutter bypassed managers in the United States and wrote directly to Intel CEO Andy Grove.

“So, he just sent a fax straight to the CEO in typical Israeli chutzpah fashion,” Valman said.

His warning was direct: “You’re going to destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs. This product is strong. It’s got your market dominance. Don’t give it up so quickly. We think we can adapt the existing system to be much better.”

Intel did not change the system, though Valman said broader discussions were already taking place. The episode showed that Israeli employees could contribute beyond engineering. “They also could be good managers,” he said. “And they could get involved in corporate decisions.”

Israelis began going to Silicon Valley in the 1970s because there were too few chip-industry jobs at home. Although multinational companies later expanded in Israel, senior experience often still requires work abroad. “At the very top levels, you don’t get the same experience unless you go to HQ,” Valman said.

But he does not view this movement as a straightforward brain drain. “Out of all the foreigners who come to Silicon Valley, Israelis go back home in much larger quantities than the others do,” he said. When they return, “they provide a great source of knowledge and connections and networking, which is very valuable to the industry here.” 

That movement is the central idea behind the book’s title. “It was actually more about the international movement between Israel and abroad,” Valman said. “About the sharing of information, the experience gains both abroad and here, the money and the capital that was used to fund the Israeli universities and later Israeli start-ups.”

“That is what I feel is kind of the secret ingredient,” he said.

Capital was critical to the sector’s growth. Valman said the government’s Yozma program had “a huge impact” in the 1990s, when its $100 million investment more than doubled the size of Israel’s venture-capital industry overnight.

The risks are real. “The general figure given in the industry is that 9 out of 10 start-ups fail,” Valman said.

When the conversation turned to women’s representation in biotechnology, Valman pointed to the sector’s alternate route into the industry. The difference, he said, is that life sciences draw more from academia than from army networks. In many life-science disciplines, women had already become the majority in Israeli universities by the 1990s, Valman said, and their representation has continued to grow.

Many life-science jobs require a doctorate, Valman said, and women make up much of the pool of researchers earning those advanced degrees. Engineering remains “somewhere around 70% to 80% male-dominated,” he said, a contrast that continues to shape the gender balance across the industry.

New tech companies continue emerging despite war

Israel’s technology sector has faced war, international pressure, and the reduction or closure of some multinational operations. Yet Valman said new companies keep emerging. “Overall, I would say the tech sector is unaffected because a lot of new Israeli companies have sprung up,” he said.

He does not think the start-up nation has peaked. “If you’re measuring by number of employees, number of start-ups, contribution to GDP, it’s still only increasing,” he said.

Valman believes the next major opportunity should be in life sciences – biotechnology, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals – rather than relying mainly on cybersecurity, fintech, and defense technology.

The PillCam story illustrates the kind of adaptation Valman sees as an Israeli strength. While on sabbatical in the United States, Gabi Iddan was challenged to find a way to see inside the stomach with a sufficiently small device. “He just couldn’t get that out of his mind for the next few years,” Valman said. He continued searching for a suitable technology until a miniature camera developed elsewhere offered the missing piece.

The challenge, Valman said, is often to find the right application for the technology being developed. “Once they find a use case where it can really be effective, then that’s when the start-up really begins, and it can start to become effective.”

Israel has “a very, very strong workforce here in terms of biotech, medical devices, pharmaceuticals,” he said. “I think we could be doing a lot more there given the expertise that we have and given the number of years we’ve been in that business.”

When the discussion turned to the role and relative importance of brainpower, luck and timing, Valman did not separate them. “I’d say it’s all three.”

Life sciences may be where that combination is tested next.

This post was originally published on here. 

Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 rose past $100 a barrel on Wednesday, breaching the symbolic barrier for the first time since July 24 as intensifying conflict in the Middle East fuelled growing concern about oil flows from the region.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose $2.15, or 2.2%, to $100.07 a barrel by 0721 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up $1.70, or 1.83%, at $94.73 a barrel. 

Brent crude prices have risen by a quarter since early last month as hopes fade for a permanent resolution to the six-month-old US-Iran conflict.

Houthi attacks raise concerns over Red Sea shipments

This week, attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi energy facilities set oil installations ablaze, threatening a significant expansion of the conflict.

The Houthi attacks could threaten crude shipments via the Red Sea, which has been a key alternative route to the crucial Strait of Hormuz, where crude flows have been severely curtailed since the February 28 start of the Iran war.

A growing number of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have raised their crude price forecasts in recent days.

In the week before a resumption in fighting on August 30, roughly 8 million to 9 million bpd had flowed through Hormuz, double the previous week’s volume, according to Rystad Energy’s Chief Economist Claudio Galimberti, although more recently it had fallen below 2 million bpd.

While non-OPEC oil producers, including the United States, Canada and Guyana, have ramped up output, the International Energy Agency said last month it expected global oil supply would fall this year by 4.3 million bpd, or about 4%.

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Eva Umlauf was two years old when she and her mother were freed from the Nazi death camp Auschwitz in January 1945. She says she is horrified to see that more than 80 years later, the far-right is once again on the rise in Germany.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday has left a far-right party within reach of power in a German state for the first time since the end of World War Two.

“What can I say? I expected this, and yet I’m appalled,” she told Reuters in an interview. “I am appalled, I am saddened; I don’t know what drives people to vote for this party.”

Umlauf, a Slovakian-born pediatrician and psychotherapist who lives in Munich, visits schools to educate children about the Holocaust and serves as president of the International Auschwitz Committee.

Her comments reflect the alarm many minority representatives have expressed in recent months, as opinion polls point to the advance of the far-right in Saxony-Anhalt, as well as in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which both vote on September 20.

“We’re afraid. We know what happens – what happens to minorities, what happens to foreigners,” she said.

AfD rejects comparisons to Nazis, claims charges used to silence opposition

The AfD, founded as a eurosceptic party during the eurozone crisis in 2013, rejects comparisons with the Nazi Party, responsible for the Holocaust that killed some 6 million Jews as well as Roma and Sinti people, homosexuals, and others.

It wants to restrict immigration, especially from countries it considers “culturally alien” to Germany, quit the euro, and restore ties with Russia to bring energy prices down. It says its policies reflect common sense ideas shared by millions of Germans and denies being antisemitic.

Instead, it accuses mainstream parties of using such charges to silence opposition.

However, opponents accuse the party of downplaying Germany’s Nazi past, pointing to a comment by one of its leaders in 2018 who described the period as “just bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history.”

The Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s main Jewish organization, also sees the party as “a party where antisemites and far-right extremists have found a home.”

The Saxony-Anhalt branch of the party is classified as right-wing extremist by the local office of the domestic security agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The AfD itself dismisses the classification as politically motivated.

European Jews concerned about rise in antisemitism on far-left, far-right

Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt took place in a period of heightened anxiety for many Jewish people in Europe, where there has been a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks and incidents since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli campaign in Gaza.

Far-left parties and their supporters have also been accused of fostering antisemitism, but the AfD has come under increased scrutiny as its support in the polls has grown.

Its party program for the election proposes a “patriotic cultural policy” that would focus school history lessons away from the Nazi period to figures such as 19th-century “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck. It would restore military memorials to German soldiers killed in both world wars.

Such priorities have alarmed critics who say they reflect a wish to forget Germany’s decades-long effort to confront its history and the crimes of the Nazi period. But Umlauf said she did not believe the party’s views were shared by a majority of Germans.

“If you take the whole of Germany into account, you have an average of 30% AfD support. And I believe – and I hope – that this will actually mobilize the other 70%.”

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The Trump administration did not push back on or oppose the recent decision by the United Kingdom to sanction Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing US officials and Western diplomats.

According to Axios, during a call between US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham ahead of the announcement of the sanctions, Trump did not object to the planned sanctions and did not ask Burnham to pursue a different course of action.

Sources also said that US officials shared concerns about Israel’s actions in the region and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governmental policies with their British counterparts.

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv reacted to the report of Trump’s lack of objection to the sanctions, blaming it on Netanyahu and his government.

“Time and again, Netanyahu and his cracked mouthpieces in the Knesset mocked us when we warned of the political tsunami,” Kariv wrote in a Wednesday post on X/Twitter. “The extreme and deranged policy of the Netanyahu-Smotrich government in the territories is leading Israel to dangerous international isolation, which will harm the most vital interests of the State of Israel.”

He also said that, despite Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar blaming the increased pressure on Israel from the UK on “the Muslim conquest” of Britain, “Last time I checked, they hadn’t reached Trump’s White House.”

פעם אחרי פעם נתניהו והשופרות הסדוקים שלו בכנסת לעגו לנו כשהזהרנו מהצונאמי המדיני.

אבל עכשיו זה ברור מתמיד. המדיניות הקיצונית והמופרעת של ממשלת נתניהו-סמוטריץ׳ בשטחים מובילה את ישראל לבידוד בינלאומי מסוכן, שיפגע באינטרסים החיוניים ביותר של מדינת ישראל.

גדעון סער יכול ללהג כמה… pic.twitter.com/Ikpafo5rLR

— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) September 9, 2026

Huckabee calls UK sanctions ‘irrational action’

The White House also distanced itself from statements made by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee after the sanctions were announced, with an official telling Axios that his statements were not coordinated with either the White House or the State Department.

On Tuesday, Huckabee told the BBC he doesn’t know if the UK is “really aware of the implications and how it’s going to affect Brits.”

He noted the fact that many pharmaceuticals used in the UK are made in Israel. While he put the figure at 25%, NHS data puts it at around one in seven.

“This is an irrational action, I don’t understand what it is supposed to achieve,” Huckabee continued. “If the UK is really interested in dealing with issues they feel like are wrong, where are the sanctions against North Korea, China, Russia?”

“It’s discrimination against the Israeli government, discrimination against the Jewish people, and I don’t understand the rationale of it.”

Rubio warns of destabilization in West Bank 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the United States would not follow the United Kingdom in imposing new measures related to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while warning against actions that could destabilize the area.

The US “doesn’t want to see anything destabilizing going on right now on the West Bank,” Rubio said.

“We’re not going to do what the UK did today regards to the West Bank but I don’t have any comment on it,” he added.

Mathilda Heller and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Israel is expected to take action against France and other countries that imposed sanctions against Israeli settlements, similar to actions taken against the United Kingdom, KAN News reported Tuesday night, citing multiple sources. 

This comes less than a day after Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced measures against the UK, including the immediate removal of personnel from the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) headquarters in Kiryat Gat and the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem, expected in a few weeks, according to the report. 

A British official called Israel’s response to the sanctions “regrettable.”

“British ministers felt that a response to the situation in the West Bank was a moral and even security issue. It was impossible to do nothing regarding the situation,” KAN cited the official as saying.

The official added that the move was not intended as an attack on Israel but as a “response to extremists and violence.”

UK personnel serve in CMCC at US’s request, official says

Additionally, KAN cited the official as saying that the UK sent representatives to the CMCC at the United States’ request.

“We have an admiral there who is the deputy commander of the headquarters, and his role is to advance [US President Donald] Trump’s initiative. This does not achieve anything positive,” the official said, according to the report.  

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his lawyers to issue a libel lawsuit against Haaretz following a recent report in which it claimed that he had been warned by the United Arab Emirates about Hamas’s October 7 attack, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Wednesday.

The lawsuit will also target Shlomi Eldar, the journalist who reported the story for Haaretz.

The PMO stated that the story was completely fabricated and that there had been no communication between Netanyahu and the UAE from the start of September 2023 until the October 7 attack.

“A thorough examination not only of the Prime Minister’s call log, but also of the records of entries into the Prime Minister’s Office during this period, does not show any entry of the Emirati representative into the Prime Minister’s Office,” the PMO said.

The PMO said the report was part of a “sinister plot with clear political timing, as part of the left’s election campaign,” warning that there would be “more such false plots.”

PMO blames Ronen Bar, Herzi Halevi for October 7

The announcement also directed blame for October 7 at Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi, claiming that they had seen the signs of the massacre hours before the attack began, and accusing them of not informing Netanyahu in time.

In response to the PMO’s announcement of the lawsuit, Haaretz stated that it stood by its report.

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Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, summoned Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Alona Fisher-Kamm for talks on Tuesday in Bangkok amid a series of incidents involving Israelis in the country.

Following the meeting, the minister delivered a firm message, saying Thailand welcomes tourists but that does not mean “tourists of any nationality can do whatever they want here.” He said incidents involving some foreign visitors had harmed Thai people’s feelings, local culture, and way of life, particularly in areas such as Phuket and Phang Nga.”

The remarks come as Thailand faces growing criticism over the behavior of some foreign tourists, while authorities have also drawn increased attention to the activities of Israelis in the country.

Ahead of the meeting, reports said Fisher-Kamm planned to raise concerns over what she described as growing hostility toward Israelis and Jews in Thailand, alongside broader issues related to bilateral relations between the two countries. During the talks, she acknowledged concerns over the behavior of some Israelis and proposed preparing a “dos and don’ts” document for Israeli travelers.

If created, the document is expected to be distributed through the Israeli Embassy, tourism companies, and airlines.

Thai government calls for stronger action

However, the Thai foreign minister made clear that, in the view of the Thai government, Israel needs to take more significant action on the issue.

A statement released ahead of the meeting said the minister and ambassador would hold a joint press conference afterward. However, according to local reporters, Fisher-Kamm left the venue immediately after the meeting and did not speak with journalists.

The details of the discussion were provided by the Thai foreign minister, who presented his government’s position regarding the conduct of foreign tourists and incidents involving Israelis.

The meeting came just two days before a planned protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok on September 10. The demonstration is part of a campaign against what organizers describe as “gray foreign capital” and foreign businesses that they claim operate through Thai nominees.

Among other issues, organizers have pointed to the activities of Israelis in Thailand, alongside Chinese, Russian, and other foreign nationals.

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon in an X/Twitter post on Tuesday, ahead of the final UN General Assembly meeting of his tenure.

Guterres said that he was “deeply concerned” by the IDF’s escalation in Lebanon, and condemned “the mounting civilian casualties, the distress & displacement caused by the evacuation orders, and the scenes of massive destruction & devastation.”

He also stated that civilians and civilian objects were not a target, that attacks against them were unacceptable, and that they must be protected at all times.

I am deeply concerned by the escalation of Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon.

I condemn the mounting civilian casualties, the distress & displacement caused by the evacuation orders, and the scenes of massive destruction & devastation.

Civilians & civilian objects…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 8, 2026

“The Lebanese State must have the monopoly on the use of force,” he said, calling for an end to hostilities. “I urge all parties to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty & territorial integrity.”

Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, also emphasized “the need for full respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, healthcare and civilian infrastructure.”

Candidates vying for UN secretary-general post as Guterres ends term

Guterres has served as the UN secretary-general since 2017 and is due to complete his second term in the position on December 31, 2026.

In July, the UN Security Council began to hold informal closed-door “straw poll” ballots to assess support for the seven candidates currently vying to become the next head of the United Nations.

The current candidates include Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog; former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet; former Costa Rican vice president Rebeca Grynspan; former Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa; former Guyanese foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett; former Senegalese president Macky Sall; and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Yemen’s anti-Houthi military conducted strikes against the terror group in Marib Governorate, Saudi state-owned TV Al Hadath reported on Wednesday. 

The joint artillery and airstrikes targeted several Houthi-owned sites, a Yemeni military source told the outlet.  

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense lifted an alert it had announced in the southern city of Khamis Mushait on Wednesday, a day after Houthi attacks there and in three other nearby cities wounded 73 people and set oil installations ablaze.

The Iranian-backed Houthi terror group struck an airbase in Khamis Mushait and oil infrastructure in the nearby cities on Tuesday in one of the biggest attacks in Saudi Arabia since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran in February.

Saudi authorities did not provide details on the reasons behind Wednesday’s alert in Khamis Mushait.

Saudi-Houthi fighting escalates

Fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has escalated in recent months, raising fears of a return to broader conflict after a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted years of war.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab coalition that backs a government based in Yemen’s south, which was driven from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis 12 years ago. The conflict has become a theater in the wider regional war, with the Houthis close allies of Iran and Saudi Arabia an ally of the United States.

The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea in July, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to strike what it said were Houthi military facilities in Yemen.

In recent days, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have launched a multi-pronged offensive on Houthi-held areas after the group attempted to advance on government positions. The government says it aims to recapture all Houthi-held territory.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV, citing the group’s health ministry, said at least 21 people had been killed in Saudi strikes on Yemen’s Al Jawf over the past two days. Saudi Arabia has not announced or confirmed carrying out strikes there.

Saudi Arabia has described the Houthi attacks as a dangerous escalation, while the Saudi-led coalition has said it would take measures to deter further attacks. The Houthis say their strikes are in response to Saudi escalation in Yemen.

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Hamas has been operating to reclaim its weaponry and reestablish military control over the Gaza Strip, despite the ongoing ceasefire and disarmament agreement, N12 News reported on Wednesday, citing IDF sources.

“Recently, Hamas terrorists have been reaching weapons depots and using the weapons inside to carry out surveillance and establish control over the Gaza Strip,” a senior security source told the outlet.

Meanwhile, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) destroyed three Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapon storage facilities and a launch pit from which rockets were fired toward Israel throughout the war in precise strikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the military announced on Wednesday. 

Dozens of different weapons were stored inside the facilities, including rockets and Kalashnikov rifles, among other combat equipment.

Hamas terrorists had been using the stored weapons to carry out operations and establish control in Gaza recently, according to the IDF.

Advance warnings were issued to the population ahead of the strikes in order to mitigate the risk to civilians, the military said. 

Netanyahu vows to continue eliminating threats

This comes a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue eliminating threats to Israel from Gaza during a visit to an IDF outpost near the Yellow Line. 

“We control 60% of the Strip, and there is more to come because we are eliminating the terrorists who threaten us,” he said, stressing that efforts to disarm Hamas will continue until completed.

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The Biden administration was not aware of any specific warning from the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major terror attack before the October 7 massacre, two sources familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Even in the period after the massacre, Biden administration officials did not hear that the UAE had issued a specific warning, the sources told the Post.

The fact that the Biden administration was not aware that a warning was issued does not mean the UAE did not convey a message to Israeli leadership. However, it is reasonable to assume that if a significant warning had been issued, the Biden administration would have learned of it from the Emiratis, either before the massacre or certainly afterward.

Comments come in reaction to Haaretz report that MBZ warned Netanyahu of upcoming terror attack possibility

The comments follow a report initially published by Haaretz on Tuesday, stating that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a week before the massacre, talking for approximately 45 minutes.

During the conversation, MBZ reportedly said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a “major move” against Israel and expressed concern that the incident could lead to bloodshed, destabilize the region, and even undermine the Abraham Accords.

The report further claimed that then-CIA director William Burns heard from MBZ that the latter had attempted to convey a message to Netanyahu that “something is about to explode” in the region.

Despite these claims, Biden administration officials were not aware of any such specific warning.

Notably, the UAE did warn senior US and Israeli officials that Israeli actions and rhetoric were “putting regional stability at risk,” in the period leading up to the massacre.

Senior UAE advisor warned Israel against political decisions contradicting Abraham Accords in 2023

In March 2023, UAE businessman Khaldoon al-Mubarak, a senior advisor to MBZ, traveled to Israel and conveyed a message to senior Israeli officials that “the direction in which the government is heading is in complete contradiction to the Abraham Accords, and that some politicians are even encouraging violence.”

“This runs contrary to the spirit of the agreements and the current conduct, and puts regional stability at risk,” Mubarak said at the time.

“The UAE’s engagement since October 7 has consistently been aimed at de-escalation, regional stability, and preventing violence,” the UAE’s Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday.

“Officials in the UAE and Israel have maintained open and direct lines of communication since the beginning of relations more than five years ago. Whenever necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be shared between the relevant parties,” the ministry added.

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A letter written by US President Donald Trump to Congress when sending the Saudi Arabia-United States nuclear deal to Congress last month was released overnight on Tuesday.

“In my judgment, [the agreement] meets all applicable statutory requirements and will advance the nonproliferation and other foreign policy interests of the United States of America,” Trump wrote in the letter.

The deal, he said, “would permit the transfer of material, equipment (including reactors), components, and information for peaceful nuclear purposes.”

The content of the deal remains sealed at the time of writing.

This is a developing story.

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Two groups of researchers are defending the view that the Monte Verde archaeological site in Chile was occupied by ancient hunter-gatherers about 14,500 years ago after another study indicated it was much younger — a debate with major implications for understanding the initial peopling of the Americas.

This creek valley site, located in southern Chile about 36 miles (58 km) from the Pacific coast, was discovered in the 1970s. The scientific testing announced in 1997 that concluded that people were present at this locale deep in South America about 14,500 years ago suggested a much earlier arrival for humans in the New World than had been believed at the time.

But a study published in March based on different testing called that into question, concluding that Monte Verde dated to between about 4,200 and 8,200 years ago.

Now, the site’s research team and another group of scientists have identified in analyzes appearing in the journal PaleoAmerica what they consider fundamental flaws with that study, which was published in the journal Science.

“They did not demonstrate that the original geological interpretation of the site was in error,” said Vanderbilt University anthropologist Tom ​Dillehay, who has studied Monte Verde extensively ⁠since the 1970s and led one of the analyzes.

‘Confident’ in results showing younger age for Monte Verde

“I remain confident in our methodology and results,” said University of Wyoming archaeologist Todd Surovell, who was the lead author of the research that suggested a younger age for the site — a finding that, if correct, would make Monte Verde irrelevant to the investigation of when people first spread through the Americas.

The older age would place Monte Verde more than 1,500 years before the previous earliest-known human occupation sites south of the continental ice sheets that covered parts of North America at the time. Those Ice Age sites were associated with North America’s Clovis culture, known for distinctive stone tools and named for a locale in New Mexico.

Because Monte Verde was considered older and was thousands of miles south of the Clovis locations, scientists viewed it as evidence that people must have trekked into the Americas from Eurasia much earlier than the Clovis sites had indicated.

Dillehay faulted evidence presented by Surovell and colleagues as not arising from observations directly at the site where the archaeological evidence was found but instead from geology outside it.

An important element of the paper in Science was the description of a layer of volcanic ash deposited about 11,000 years ago that is situated below the archaeological evidence of occupation, which would show that the human presence at Monte Verde was more recent than that date.

“That was never observed by all investigators working at Monte Verde since 1977,” Dillehay said of an ash layer.

Dillehay took issue with other aspects of the Science paper, and said he believes those researchers cherry-picked geological evidence to “fit a predetermined conclusion.”

 ‘A great deal of scrutiny’

Surovell said he welcomes continued scientific debate about the age of Monte Verde and the processes responsible for its formation. The best way to resolve these questions, Surovell said, is through additional study by independent researchers.

“Our work has now received a great deal of scrutiny, which is exactly what should happen with a claim this important. If there were major problems with our methods, data or reasoning, I would have expected them to become apparent through that process. So far, I have not seen criticisms that I think undermine the central conclusions of our study,” Surovell said.

Dillehay underscored the archaeological importance of the site.

“Monte Verde’s exceptional preservation has made it possible to recover materials rarely found in the archaeological record, including worked wood, remains of structures, plants, seaweed, and other organic materials, offering an extraordinary window into the life and knowledge of the human communities that inhabited southern Chile during the late Pleistocene,” Dillehay said, referring to the geological timeframe spanning the last Ice Age.

Also found at the site were human footprints associated with a hearth, remains of fires, wooden tools and stakes, as well as remains of potatoes and animal bones and flesh.

“Monte Verde is well sealed by an anaerobic peat layer that preserved organics at the site, so we have a much more in-depth notion of the technology and especially the economy of people at that time. They were broad-spectrum consumers who lived on both plants and animals, and foraged from the Pacific coast to the Andean mountains,” Dillehay said.

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