All News (Page 3)

CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper will be visiting Israel to meet with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir in the coming days, though the exact date is still not public. Due to security concerns, the IDF and the US military often publicize Cooper’s visits to Israel only after they occur.

They will be meeting as Israel and the US meet in one context, and Iran, Pakistan, Qatar, Lebanon, and the US, led by other diplomatic envoys, will meet in another context, negotiating over the terms of the Lebanon ceasefire, as well as the IDF’s withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials are likely to try to use the opportunity to draft Cooper to help them make their case before other top US officials.

However, a US official suggested that Cooper’s visit is primarily to visit US forces in the area and to more broadly touch base with Israeli officials on military issues, as he does from time to time. 

That said, US officials would not deny that issues related to Israel and Lebanon will arise, but they would, in the same breath, emphasize that many aspects of those decisions reside more in the political and policymaker arena.

In recent days, the IDF has fired on Hezbollah twice a day on average when Hezbollah operatives have approached IDF positions, particularly near the Ali al-Taher Ridge, one of Israel’s deepest infiltrations into Lebanon.

However, besides those low-grade, limited flare-ups, both sides have generally respected the ceasefire since Saturday-Sunday.

The IDF could begin to withdraw from parts of southern Lebanon

Israel and the IDF are offering very modest withdrawals, possibly from places like Tibnin and the Ali Taher Ridge, which the IDF only took over last week. According to the IDF concept, it would withdraw from some of the newest areas it has taken over to test whether the Lebanese army will properly clean out Hezbollah from those areas.

Some Israeli officials are trying to draw a distinction between withdrawing from areas where Hezbollah would have a direct line of sight to fire on Israeli northern villages and areas where there would be no such direct line of sight.

However, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, while disagreeing on many issues, are both pushing for a faster and wider withdrawal.

There are multiple withdrawal line options, and Cooper is likely to hone in on what Israel’s true apolitical security needs are, versus some of the populist, more political rhetoric.

Withdrawal to lines that serve Israeli security, not politics

Until May 26, Israel had not crossed over the Litani River or the Wadi Saluki area, and the IDF could initially withdraw to that prior line.

Next, there are at least three lines of Lebanese villages in southern Lebanon that the IDF has overrun, and it could withdraw to any of those lines. For example, in the fall of 2024, most IDF forces had only advanced to the first line of villages.

This could involve retreating from 10 kilometers or more into southern Lebanon back to three to five kilometers.

Eventually, the IDF might even withdraw to its five outposts, which were only several hundred meters into southern Lebanon, and which it retreated to in February 2025.

Yet, given that the IDF took four months to withdraw in that round of fighting, it is expected that any IDF withdrawals would first test Hezbollah’s continued ceasefire compliance, as well as the Lebanese army’s willingness to confront and remove Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure from the south of the country.

Negotiations will focus on managing controversial incidents

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have given the impression that the IDF would remain in parts of southern Lebanon for many months, or even years, to press Hezbollah to disarm.

The sides are also negotiating how to manage controversial incidents that might undermine the ceasefire.

On one hand, there is a deconfliction mechanism involving Iran, the US, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Qatar, but not Israel.

On the other hand, there is heavy direct Israel-US coordination on these issues, and it is expected that there will be intense negotiation between Jerusalem, Washington, and the Lebanese government regarding them.

Prior to the most recent war, US Lt.-Gen. Joseph Clearfield was the main coordinator with Israel and Lebanon on such issues, with support from around 30 other American military officials.

CENTCOM was unsure at press time about whether Clearfield and the 30 officials would return to the same role or whether the roles would shift in some way.

Israel isn’t confident that the Lebanese army can control Hezbollah

The IDF was highly skeptical that the Lebanese army would have staying power in holding back Hezbollah, given recent history. For months in late 2024, the IDF complained that the Lebanese army was afraid of Hezbollah and not nearly aggressive enough in handling issues and complaints, which Israel brought to its attention regarding the terror group’s ceasefire violations.

Then, by April 2025, the IDF told The Jerusalem Post that the Lebanese army had improved and acted on 500 separate complaints by Israel against Hezbollah.

However, already by July 2025, the IDF said that the Lebanese army had plateaued and was sinking in its resolve to confront Hezbollah.

Part of the issue is systemic since a large portion of the army is Shi’ite and sympathizes with Hezbollah as the leading force for its tribe when competing with Lebanon’s Sunni and Christian groups.

Another systemic issue is that Hezbollah is still simply better armed and viewed as more determined to fight than the Lebanese army.

Defense Minister Israel Katz is also expected to be included in the meetings with Cooper, but given his lack of senior military command background, Zamir has by far taken the lead on military tactical decisions in these types of meetings.

Chequers is where UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spent the weekend deciding his own fate before resigning on Monday.

That is Chequers, the stately home known as the “Grace and Favour home” at the disposal of the British prime minister, in the same way that the US president uses Camp David and the pope, Campo Gandolfo, when he takes some time off from being pope.

Last Wednesday, under the title ”Rearranging deck chairs won’t save a sinking ship,” I wrote about what has been described as the most important and far-reaching By-election in UK history, at an unknown place called Mounterfield. 

At that time it was undecided. I explained how the election was designed to propel the former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham into parliament, there to oust and replace the incumbent leader of the Labour Party and become prime minister himself. And without wishing to say I told you so, I told you so. Burnham’s victory has led directly to Starmer’s resignation.

Let us look at the events chronologically. First, the By-election itself.

Had the consequences not been so important, it would have been as entertaining as any other such election. One of the delights that remains about the UK is every election night. For a small deposit, almost anyone can stand as a candidate in an election. And almost anyone does. 

When the votes have been counted, the candidates all stand in a line to hear the results announced. One by one their names are read out, and their vote numbers are given. So it has become a tradition for some candidates to adopt ridiculous (spoof) names, titles and costumes to embarrass the person reading out the result and entertain those in the audience at the town hall and on the television. 

For Example:

Howling Laud Hope – Monster Raving Loony Party – 45 votes

Lord Buckethead – 100 votes.

Count Binface – 95 votes

Mad Cow-Girl – 60 votes and so on and so forth

I have to confess to finding this all very entertaining, but as a French person I once knew used to say: “British humor is like British gastronomy, it does not exist.”

But what of the real election result? I had posited the fact that only a combined opposition could beat Burnham, the populist candidate, believed to offer all the things that Starmer lacked – primarily a personality.

In fact, the combined numbers of votes of the opposition would not have beaten Burnham, but together they would have created a momentum that probably would have done. Had they done so, it would have left a powerless Starmer as the most unpopular prime minister in history, and brought him and his government down, rather than just changing leader.

So in fact the opposition parties and Sir Keir Starmer wanted the same thing – Burnham to lose. But the actual result of the election placed Andy Burnham first, whilst in second, third and fourth came the opposition right-wing parties: Reform, Restore, Conservative. The result was a crushing victory for Burnham, leaving him free to enter parliament and launch a leadership challenge. 

Meanwhile Starmer was left contemplating his fate. His choices were to carry on in office; wait until he was challenged for the top job by Burnham and stand against him, or resign, thereby jumping before he was pushed. Starmer, realizing the whole of his party were against him, jumped. 

Where did Starmer go to lick his wounds and decide his future? A part of the British landscape for those in High office, including the prime minister, foreign secretary and various Church leaders such as the archbishop of Canterbury, have at their complete disposal what are referred to as “grace and favor homes”.

You would rightly guess that the prime minister’s assigned home is amongst the most splendid. A 16th-century house, Oak beams, coiffured and manicured gardens with a mere 10 bedrooms.

UK prime ministers take advantage of Chequers

The house is named Chequers after the family who owned land thereabouts. The first prime minister to spend time there was David Lloyd George, a garrulous Welshman who had everything the current prime minister lacked– namely a personality.

And the prime ministers would go there from time to time to take advantage of its serenity. Winston Churchill would go there to write his wartime speeches. Boris Johnson went there to greet foreign guests, such as Angela Merkel, his German counterpart.

Starmer, after the bruising result of the Makerfield By-election, bolted to the sanctuary of the country house at his disposal to contemplate his future. He would have played mental chequers at Chequers. 

He would have immediately realized he was likely to face political extinction. All he had to do was decide by what method.

By the time he left Chequers, this prime minister had done something that he seemed unable to do during the last two years: make his mind up.

That then brought us to outside the prime minister’s home at 10 Downing Street on a warm Monday. There followed the symbolic significance of bringing out the lectern that prefaces all important announcements.

In this case, Starmer announced that he has heard that his party does not think he is the man to lead them into the next election and intends to stand aside.

I then listened as Starmer listed his “achievements” over the last two years. I truly believed I was hearing things. Of course, he did not mention his 16 “U” turns on policies, nor how he had become a slave to spending vast sums of money on welfare to hand out to those that had journeyed to the UK in rubber dinghies.

But as Shakespeare said, “ here’s the rub”. He listed first in his achievements his combating antisemitism, overlooking his recognition of Palestine at the time Hamas held 52 hostages, without demanding their return. And overlooking the fact that he was dubbed “Starmer, Starmer, the Jew harmer”.

The point of this part of the article remains the same as the first article and is directed toward Israel in the coming months to say be careful what you wish for, and even more careful as to how you achieve it. Only unity in opposition parties has any chance of changing the status quo.

Meanwhile, like Moses, Sir Keir Starmer will not bring his people into the promised land, whatever that looks like, but it will be Burnham who adopts the role of Joshua.

The writer is an author and a former judge and barrister in the United Kingdom.

Cabo Verde, a Portuguese-speaking Atlantic island nation off the coast of West Africa with a population of roughly 600,000, has become one of the most unexpected stories of the 2026 World Cup and is drawing new attention to a little-known Sephardi Jewish past.

The archipelago, also known in English as Cape Verde, held Uruguay to a 2-2 draw on Sunday in Miami, after opening its first-ever World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Spain. Reuters reported that Kevin Pina scored Cabo Verde’s first World Cup goal, a free kick from more than 30 meters, before substitute Helio Varela equalized in the second half.

For a country whose population is smaller than many world capitals, the result was about far more than football. Cabo Verde’s players celebrated with supporters who waved flags, sang, and watched a small island nation force its way into the global conversation.

Reuters reported that coach Pedro Leitão Brito, known as Bubista, said the team’s mission went beyond results and was also about showing the world Cabo Verde’s culture, music, history, supporters, and identity.

That history includes a Jewish chapter rarely known outside the islands and their diaspora.

Cape Verde’s unexpected Jewish history

According to the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, Sephardi Jews from Morocco and Gibraltar settled in Cabo Verde in the mid-19th century, after Portugal abolished the Inquisition in 1821 and after Portugal and Britain signed a trade and navigation treaty in 1842. Many Moroccan Jews traded with Gibraltar, and some arrived in Cabo Verde carrying British passports.

The group says tombstone inscriptions in Hebrew and Portuguese show that many of these Jews came from Moroccan cities including Tangier, Tetouan, Rabat, and Mogador, now Essaouira. Their surnames included Anahory, Auday, Benoliel, Benrós, Benathar, Benchimol, Brigham, Cohen, Levy, Maman, Pinto, Seruya, and Wahnon.

The families settled mainly on Santo Antão, São Vicente, Boa Vista, and Santiago, where they worked in commerce, shipping, administration, and other trades. The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project says the Jews were often considered important figures in the local economy.

Their story did not end in a dramatic expulsion or a famous rupture. It faded more quietly. The Jewish population was small and mostly male, and many Jewish men married local Catholic women. Over generations, the organized Jewish community disappeared into Cabo Verdean society. Today, the country has virtually no practicing Jewish community, but many descendants still speak with pride about Jewish ancestors whose names remain part of family memory.

What remains is deeply personal: cemeteries, surnames, oral histories, and restored gravestones facing the Atlantic.

Preserving a piece of Jewish history

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2017 that the government of Cabo Verde listed Jewish cemeteries and several Jewish-associated structures as part of the country’s National Historical Patrimony. JTA reported that the designation meant the cemeteries could not be destroyed and that some buildings linked to the Jewish community could not be altered.

The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project has worked for years to restore Jewish burial grounds, including in Praia, Boa Vista, and Santo Antão. The organization said two Jewish cemeteries in Ponta do Sol and Penha de França were rededicated in 2018 in a ceremony attended by descendants of Cabo Verde’s Jewish community, local and national officials, representatives from the US and Israel, the chief rabbi of Lisbon, and local residents.

The American Jewish Committee reported in 2024 that the Jewish section of Praia’s cemetery, dating from the 19th century, had been restored in 2013 by the Municipal Chamber of Praia and the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, with funding from Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. AJC said commemorative plaques unveiled in Praia included reproductions of the original Portuguese and Hebrew epitaphs and signage explaining the migration of Moroccan Jews to Cabo Verde.

The World Monuments Fund has also worked with the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project to survey archives in Cabo Verde, Portugal, Morocco, and Gibraltar and to conduct interviews with descendants. The fund said the research aimed to document the legacy of Sephardi families and their descendants in Cabo Verde, after earlier research on the subject had been scattered and incomplete.

A different look at Jewish life in Africa

The story places Cabo Verde on a different Jewish map. Jewish life in Africa is often associated with Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Cabo Verde’s Jewish history points to a smaller Atlantic route: Moroccan Jews, Gibraltar, Portuguese colonial rule, shipping, trade, intermarriage, and memory preserved through graves rather than synagogues.

The Jerusalem Post reported in 2019 that then-president Reuven Rivlin, meeting Cabo Verde’s Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva, referred to the rich Jewish history of Cape Verde and thanked the country for protecting Jewish cemeteries.

Now, the World Cup has given that story a contemporary opening.

Cabo Verde qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2025. Reuters reported at the time that it was one of the smallest countries in tournament history to qualify. Its first two matches have now turned it into one of the tournament’s most discussed underdogs.

For many football fans, Cabo Verde is a new discovery. For Jewish readers, it is also a reminder that Jewish history reached small islands far beyond the familiar centers of Jewish life. As Cabo Verde tries to extend its World Cup run, the cemeteries of Praia, Boa Vista, and Santo Antão tell another story: of Moroccan Jewish families who crossed the sea, built lives on remote Atlantic islands, and left behind names and stones that descendants are still working to protect.

The October Council held a press conference on Thursday ahead of next Thursday, which will mark 1,000 days since the October 7 massacre, titled “1,000 Days of Shiva (Seven/Mourning).”

The press conference was attended by bereaved families, families of hostages, survivors, and representatives of the families, who called on the Israeli public to stop, remember, and demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the greatest disaster in the country’s history.

The organization of bereaved families and former captives, which advocates for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, announced that next Thursday, dozens of memorial, protest, and testimony events will take place across the country.

These will be accompanied by a nationwide minute of silence at 10:00 a.m., the “1,000 Days March,” and a central rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, which will be reactivated for one day in honor of the 1,000th day.

The October Council emphasized that the 1,00th day is not an ordinary protest day, but one in which Israeli citizens are called upon to pause their routine and demand the truth.

“One thousand days after the massacre, after the hostages, after the communities were burnt, after the fallen soldiers, after the families were torn apart, and after the greatest oversight in the history of the country, a commission of inquiry still has not been established,” the Council stated. “The October Council calls for all Israeli citizens to attend the memorials and protests, stop for the minute of remembrance at 10:00, attend the Thousand Days March and the central rally, and wear black on the Thousand Days.”

Victims’ families demand investigation into October 7

Eyal Eshel, father of the late surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed in battle on October 7, declared, “1,000 days since the surveillance soldiers saw, warned, and pleaded for people to listen to them, and 1,000 days since the State of Israel chose not to hear them. How is it possible that 1,000 days later, there is still no state commission of inquiry?”

Hagit Chen, mother of the late Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, whose body was abducted after he was killed, also called for the government to establish the commission. “Itay fought bravely, was abandoned, kidnapped, and returned to us only after 760 days,” she said. “If you did everything, why did it take 760 days to bring him back? And if you did everything, how have 1,000 days already passed and the Israeli government is still afraid of a state commission of inquiry?”

Itay’s father added that “Anyone who said ‘we will do everything’ and does not demand a state commission of inquiry did not do everything. Anyone who refuses today to commit to a state commission of inquiry is telling us that their seat is more important to them than the truth. Anyone who fears an investigation probably knows why.”

Inbar Goldstein, sister of the late Nadav Goldstein who was murdered together with his daughter Yam, as well as the sister-in-law of Chen, who was kidnapped along with her three children, demanded honesty and open communication.

“How can we build strong and resilient walls when so much of the truth is still buried beneath the ruins?” she demanded.  “We are the generation of October 7, and the generation of October 7 does not leave its brothers and sisters behind – and not the truth either.”

Yuval Zaushnitzer, widow of the late Roy Chapel, who was killed in battle on October 7, said, “Don’t say this is a struggle only for older people or for bereaved families. This is the country in which we want to raise our children. Roy took responsibility when the country needed him. Now we need to take responsibility when the truth needs us.”

“The head of the Shin Bet wants to erase the memory of the failure that led to my son’s death,” Reut Recht Adry, mother of Ido Adry, a Shin Bet operative who was murdered at the Nova music festival, said. “Zini, you are using politics and the blood of my child and of ten heroic Shin Bet fighters who fell on October 7 to serve the prime minister’s agenda of abandonment and forgetting. You will not erase our children’s blood.”

The two Zol Begadol supermarket branches whose baby food products were found last week to contain sedative drugs have been banned from selling food and cosmetic products until they develop an extensive quality assurance system, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday.

According to the Health Ministry, a total of five tainted products were found during the investigation, with three handed over by customers and two found on store shelves. All five showed signs of tampering prior to purchase.

In light of this, the stores will be allowed to sell only non-edible, non-cosmetic products until they have established a system to prevent further incidents.

The system, the Health Ministry stated, must include reducing uncontrolled access to the products, conducting regular inspections of them, training employees to recognize damaged products, and immediately reporting any suspicion of food damage to the Health Ministry.

The police investigation is still ongoing, the Ministry stated.

Health Ministry confirms sedatives found in baby fruit puree

The Health Ministry confirmed last Wednesday that laboratory tests found clonazepam and lorazepam in jars of Prinok baby fruit puree sold at the two branches of Zol Begadol, a discount supermarket chain in Jerusalem.

The products were purchased at the chain’s Mahaneh Yehuda branch at 113 Jaffa Street, and at another branch at 214 Jaffa Street, both in the center of the capital.

Clonazepam and lorazepam belong to the benzodiazepine family, a class of prescription drugs used as sedatives, anti-anxiety medications, and other treatments.

Avihai Chiim, Efrat Forsher, and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

State Attorney Amit Aisman warned on Thursday that the law restructuring the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department (PID), known by its Hebrew acronym Mahash, could make it harder to investigate sensitive cases involving police, prosecutors, and public officials without political pressure.

Speaking at the Haifa Law Conference, Aisman said that law enforcement authorities were being asked to make difficult decisions in an increasingly polarized public atmosphere, where investigations and court cases quickly become political fights.

“Noise is not evidence,” he said. “A headline is not a factual basis, and likes and shares are not a legal test.”

The Knesset passed the Mahash law earlier this month. The legislation removes Mahash from the prosecution and establishes it as a separate body within the Justice Ministry.

It was sponsored by Likud MK Moshe Saada, who previously served as deputy head of Mahash, and passed by a 43-39 vote.

 The new arrangement could create a different problem

Saada and other supporters of the law have argued that Mahash cannot properly investigate police officers while remaining part of the same prosecution system that works with the police on ordinary criminal cases. They say the change is intended to remove that conflict and give Mahash greater independence.

Aisman’s warning was that the new arrangement could create a different problem.

The question, he said, was not simply whether Mahash sits inside or outside the prosecution. It was whether the people responsible for investigating sensitive cases could act freely when their appointment and authority were tied more closely to political officials.

“Once a prosecution service takes into account the intensity of the pressure or the direction of the public wind, it ceases to be independent,” Aisman said. “Without prosecutorial independence, equality before the law is nothing more than an empty slogan.”

Under the law, Mahash’s director will be appointed by a five-member committee, in which appointees of the justice minister and the Justice Ministry director-general hold a majority.

The law also creates a new position responsible for coordinating police-investigation matters. That official will be able to decide which body investigates certain cases involving police officers and other state officials, including cases in which prosecutors may also be involved.

Aisman said that was not a technical question.

“The decision over which body investigates can affect the way an investigation is conducted, the identity of those questioned, and its results,” he said.

He said the real test of law enforcement independence was not in routine files, but in cases involving people with power, influence, or public standing.

“The true test of prosecutorial independence is not in simple cases,” Aisman said. “It is in sensitive cases – precisely those involving people with power, influence, or public status.”

Aisman acknowledged that Mahash has faced criticism over the years, and said some of it had been justified. But, he argued that it had nevertheless operated within a professional system in which political officials did not intervene in its decisions.

The concern now, he said, was not the identity of any future Mahash director, but the method of appointment and the powers created by the law.

“This is not a question of who is appointed, it is a question of the structure.”

“This is not a question of who is appointed,” he said. “It is a question of the structure.”

Aisman warned that investigators and prosecutors cannot do their jobs when they are forced to “look over their shoulder” in politically charged cases. He said the danger was not criticism of law enforcement authorities, but an atmosphere in which investigators and prosecutors were pressured or delegitimized because of the people they were investigating.

He did not name specific officials or cases, but criticized what he described as failures to report for questioning, automatic political backing for suspects, and deliberate disruption of court proceedings.

Those actions, he said, do not damage only one investigation or one trial. They can undermine the legitimacy of the legal system itself.

“Criticism of law enforcement is legitimate and even desirable,” Aisman said. “Criticism – not delegitimization.”

He also linked the Mahash law to the coalition’s separate proposal to split the attorney-general’s role, saying both raised the same broader question: whether the state’s legal and enforcement bodies would be able to continue operating independently in politically sensitive cases.

The Mahash law is already facing petitions before the High Court of Justice from the Movement for Quality Government and a separate group, including former police commissioners and senior police officials. The petitioners argue that the new appointment mechanism and transfer of authority could expose police oversight to political influence.

Aisman said that, despite the pressure, the prosecution service would continue to make decisions based on evidence and law rather than public campaigns.

Israeli-founded AI biotech company Immunai announced Thursday a new discovery collaboration with German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim aimed at identifying novel T-cell targets across immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases.

The initial collaboration is valued at up to $15 million and will run through 2027, with the possibility of expansion based on scientific progress and mutual agreement, the companies said.

Under the agreement, Immunai and Boehringer Ingelheim will build a data foundation spanning cancer and autoimmune disease and apply Immunai’s single-cell artificial intelligence platform to thousands of patient samples. The goal is to identify patterns of T-cell dysfunction that could point to new drug targets.

T cells are a central part of the immune system. In cancer, T-cell dysfunction can prevent the immune system from effectively attacking tumors. In autoimmune disease, immune dysfunction can contribute to the body mistakenly attacking its own tissues.

What makes this research different to what came before?

The companies said the collaboration is designed to examine both fields together, rather than treating cancer immunology and autoimmune disease as separate areas of research. The most promising findings will be further explored in Immunai’s wet lab and could serve as starting points for new drug-discovery and development projects at Boehringer Ingelheim.

“Cancer immunology and autoimmune diseases both involve T-cell dysfunction, but they have largely been explored separately,” said Noam Solomon, PhD, CEO of Immunai. “This collaboration brings together large-scale, clinically grounded data, translational science and functional validation to support broad target discovery across both fields.”

Solomon said the companies hope that by taking an unbiased approach across thousands of patient samples, they can uncover biological insights and therapeutic opportunities “that would otherwise remain hidden.”

Immunai’s AMICA-OS AI operating system integrates immune-focused single-cell data with AI models and lab-based target validation. The company says the platform is intended to generate insights that can help pharmaceutical companies discover and develop new treatments.

Lamine Mbow, PhD, global head of discovery research at Boehringer Ingelheim, said the collaboration reflects the company’s effort to find new approaches in areas of major unmet medical need.

“Across oncology and inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, patients continue to face serious unmet medical need, and too many still lack treatment options that can meaningfully change the course of disease,” Mbow said.

“At Boehringer Ingelheim, we are committed to identifying and developing new treatment approaches and novel modalities in areas where patients need more,” he added.

The collaboration marks a new step in cancer research

Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, a board member of Immunai and former chief scientific officer at Pfizer, said the collaboration addresses a long-standing problem in drug discovery: the tendency to study related immune mechanisms in separate research settings.

“Researchers in oncology and autoimmune disease may be observing related T-cell dysfunction biology, but too often in separate systems and contexts,” Dolsten said. “What is distinctive about this collaboration is that it is intentionally designed to bridge that gap through a concrete discovery program.”

The announcement comes as major pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to AI and large-scale biological datasets to improve drug development.

Immunai, headquartered in New York City, uses single-cell genomics and machine learning to map the human immune system and support the development of new therapeutics. The company has raised close to $270 million to date and employs more than 170 people.

The Boehringer Ingelheim agreement follows several other Immunai partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies. In January 2026, Immunai announced a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to apply AMICA-OS across oncology clinical development programs. In May 2026, the company announced a third expansion of its multi-year collaboration with AstraZeneca.

Cancer and autoimmune diseases continue to affect millions of people worldwide. According to the companies, there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million cancer deaths globally in 2022, while recent large-scale research suggests autoimmune disorders may affect around one in ten people.

For Boehringer Ingelheim, oncology and inflammatory or autoimmune diseases are both strategic areas of focus. The company said the collaboration with Immunai is part of its effort to pursue new biology and develop medicines for patients who still lack effective treatment options.

The Defense Ministry on Thursday marked the twentieth anniversary of Hamas’s kidnapping of Gilad Schalit to Gaza by releasing never-before-seen military logs detailing the events of that fateful day minute-by-minute.

According to the ministry, the new records rest mostly on reports that an IDF command center received in real time via communications devices with soldiers in the field, as well as handwritten reports and updates.

Schalit was later released back to Israel in 2011 in a deal that had support from more than 80% of the public at the time, but since the mid-2010s has become overwhelmingly unpopular due to the more than 1,000 Hamas prisoners released.

Regarding the story, the vast majority of the basic narrative released on Thursday was previously reported, but the new material highlights the utter confusion and problematic critical delays in the IDF’s reaction time to the cross-border abduction.

Hamas captured Corporal Schalit when its operatives emerged from a tunnel dug into Israeli territory to successfully surprise and ambush his tank team, killing Lt. Hanan Barak and Staff Sergeant Pavel Slutske, early in the morning of June 25, 2006.

Newly released documents show confusion on the day of the attack

Schalit was lightly wounded in the attack and taken back to Gaza.

According to the newly released records, the first report regarding the attack came at 5:13 a.m., noting numerous explosions had been heard near Kerem Shalom, with the initial view being that Hamas had fired rockets into the area.

At 5:14 a.m., only a minute later, the log noted “there are casualties.”

Next, the documents show an order on IDF walkie-talkies “send a battle helicopter” to the area.

Shortly after, soldiers reported that the tank team had been hit by an anti-tank missile, that at least one Hamas operative had been hit, and that at least another one had been involved.

Almost 90 minutes after the ambush, soldiers in the field reported in on their walkie-talkies that at least one unnamed “soldier was missing from the tank.”

Minutes later, a commander called out the “Hannibal” order, which at the time would have allowed IDF soldiers to take all measures, including shooting Schalit along with his captors, to prevent his abduction.

Around a decade later, the IDF modified the Hannibal Protocol to allow aggressive use of force, but not firing on potentially abducted soldiers themselves.

This issue would creep into both the 2014 and 2023 wars with Hamas.

Around 7:15 a.m., IDF soldiers radioed in that they had discovered a helmet and a bloodstained flak jacket near the Gaza border.

It would take them around 45 more minutes to identify that Schalit was the soldier who had been kidnapped.

Schalit’s parents led a nationwide campaign pressing for a prisoner exchange deal.

Over the five years of his captivity, Schalit’s parents led a nationwide campaign pressing for a prisoner exchange deal.

Among those released in the exchange was Yahya Sinwar, who by 2017 rose to become Hamas’s leader and eventually the mastermind of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and led to the abduction of 251 others.

Schalit was discharged from the military in 2012 with the rank of sergeant major.

But the Schalit deal and its ripple effects were another factor that led to a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2014.

At the time, there were more incidents of Palestinians who had been released in the deal, returning to terror, with one assassinating senior police official Baruch Mizrahi.

In response to that growing threat and to Hamas kidnapping three teenage Israelis in the summer of 2014, the IDF re-arrested 60 Schalit deal releasees.

In 2017, The Jerusalem Post reported exclusively that the original plan had been to hold these releasees in administrative detention only for a few months to apply short-term pressure on Hamas to give up the three kidnapped teenagers (who it turned out had already been killed) and to carry out fewer terror operations.

However, the Post reported that then IDF West Bank Chief Prosecutor Lt. Col. Maurice Hirsch intervened and convinced the Shin Bet and other officials to send 48 out of the 60 Palestinians back to prison for much longer periods of years as the price for returning to terror, which violated the terms of their release.

Hirsch told the Post, “One of the recommendations… related to a prisoner who had been released in the Schalit deal… The information gathered… indicated that he had indeed breached the conditions of his release.”

“We can approach a committee which is equivalent, possibly to the parole board… and claim that that person had breached the conditions of their release and therefore he had to return to serve the rest of the sentence… from the original trial,” Hirsch added.

He noted that, “This specific person was brought to me because of his background and I then said to the security forces, this person cannot go to administrative detention. But we should approach the committee for canceling the conditional release in order to return him to prison.”

Analyzing the circumstances of the discussion, he said, “Obviously, the security forces hadn’t thought of this option previously, for had they thought of that option before I brought it up, they would naturally have brought this person with the recommendation to bring him before that same committee… The security force… much appreciated my suggestion.”

While Israel managed to send many of these Schalit deal releasees back to prison, Hamas claimed that one of the critical reasons that it went to war with Israel later in 2014 was over these re-arrests.

The kidnapping of Schalit also served Hamas as a model for kidnapping Hadar Goldin in 2014, and for various other ambushes it undertook from tunnel attacks over the years.

Schalit married around a decade after his release and now works as a sports journalist, mostly staying out of the limelight. 

The recent confrontation with Iran underscored the strategic value of the partnership between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and highlighted the potential for expanding it well beyond its current scope.

Unlike some regional actors, Abu Dhabi has consistently demonstrated that its commitment to regional stability extends far beyond rhetoric.

This has been evident not only during the conflict with Iran but also through its sustained engagement across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, where it has worked to counter extremist actors and secure critical trade routes.

During the war, the UAE reportedly came under more than 2,200 launches targeting its territory. 

Among the Gulf states, Abu Dhabi stood out for adopting a particularly firm public stance toward Iran.

Beyond its statements, the UAE actively pursued practical measures on the international stage to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, explored participation in a US-led military effort, and, according to investigative reports, carried out a number of strikes inside Iranian territory.

At the same time, Abu Dhabi reportedly implemented administrative measures against Iran aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran.

This involvement helps explain why the Emirati leadership is unlikely to view the end of the fighting as the end of the story. Although Abu Dhabi issued positive statements following the digital signing of the memorandum of understanding on June 17, diplomatic messaging likely masks a considerable degree of unease.

That concern stems both from the UAE’s firm position toward Iran throughout the conflict and from its geographic proximity to Tehran, which made it a primary target for Iranian attacks during the war.

From Abu Dhabi’s perspective, even if current tensions subside, the risk of renewed drone attacks, missile strikes, or indirect operations by Iran and its proxies is unlikely to disappear.

Yet alongside the risks created by the UAE’s confrontational stance toward Iran, this reality presents a significant opportunity to deepen cooperation with Israel.

The recent war has opened a window for advancing long-term initiatives that can strengthen the security and economic resilience of both countries while contributing to the development of a new regional architecture built on stability, security, and economic growth.

Importance of Israel’s relation with the UAE

The importance of this partnership becomes even greater in light of the possibility of a reduced American footprint in the region.

In such a scenario, stronger ties with the UAE would allow Israel to rely on an increasingly influential regional partner that shares key strategic interests: containing Iran, countering political Islam, and responding to the growing influence of regional power centers led by Turkey and its allies, which seek to promote a regional order rooted in movements affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

For Abu Dhabi, deeper cooperation with Israel aligns closely with its national vision of establishing itself as a regional hub for innovation, advanced industries, and strategic infrastructure.

Building on these shared interests, Israel, the UAE, and the United States should work together to elevate the existing partnership across several key areas.

The first is expanding security and technological cooperation, particularly in air defense, counter-drone capabilities, advanced early-warning systems, and artificial intelligence-based solutions.

Combining Israeli technological expertise with Emirati resources and industrial ambitions could generate a significant strategic advantage for both countries.

A second area is advanced technology. Israel and the UAE are already participating in American-led initiatives designed to strengthen cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cloud computing, and data centers.

By combining Israel’s strengths in innovation and research with the UAE’s capital, infrastructure, and global connectivity, the two countries can position themselves as leading players within the Western technology ecosystem.

A third priority is advancing the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The recent war exposed the vulnerability of global trade routes and the risks associated with dependence on maritime chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal. 

Developing IMEC as an integrated corridor for trade, energy, data, and innovation would provide both countries with substantial strategic and economic benefits while enhancing the resilience of regional and global supply chains.

Finally, the partnership must not rest solely on governments and security establishments. Business ties, private investment, and collaboration among entrepreneurs and companies have become some of the most important drivers of the Abraham Accords’ success.

Expanding the role of frameworks such as the UAE-Israel Business Council and encouraging greater two-way investment would strengthen the civilian foundations of the relationship and help ensure the long-term durability of a partnership that has been years in the making.

The Iran conflict demonstrated that the Israel-UAE relationship is far greater than a diplomatic achievement. It is a partnership forged under fire – one grounded in shared sacrifice, common security challenges, and a mutual commitment to regional stability. The challenge now is to translate that reality into a deeper, more institutionalized partnership capable of shaping the future of the region.

Ronen Levy (Maoz) is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Former senior defense and diplomatic official.

Noa Lazimi is a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security.

Britain’s National Health Service will make its pioneering Jewish BRCA testing program permanent after a pilot initiative identified hundreds of people carrying inherited cancer-linked genetic mutations, according to a report from The Jewish Chronicle.

The program, launched in partnership with Jewish health organizations and genetic specialists, offers testing for three BRCA mutations that are significantly more prevalent among people of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Carriers face substantially increased risks of developing breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. 

Those with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry have a one in 40 chance of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 compared to a one in 250 chance for the general population.

“I’m pleased to confirm that BRCA testing for the Jewish community is here to stay, as the NHS plans for this to become routine from 2027/28,” said James Murray, the secretary for health and social care, in an interview with the JC.

Over 700 people have already been identified, giving them access to counseling, monitoring, and in some cases, preventative treatment. This is what our shift from sickness to prevention looks like in practice – catching problems early and giving people the chance to act.”

Success of pilot program led to creation of permanent system

More than 43,000 people registered for testing during the pilot, with over 500 BRCA mutation carriers identified and referred for genetic counseling and preventative care pathways, according to program data.

Louise Hager MBE, chair of Chai Cancer Care, said, “Knowing your genetic risk can be life-changing. Earlier identification of cancer risk gives people the opportunity to make informed decisions about screening, prevention, and treatment, and ultimately can help save lives.” 

Many BRCA carriers do not meet traditional family-history criteria for testing despite carrying inherited mutations associated with significantly elevated cancer risks.

NHS officials have indicated that the success of the pilot has helped support plans for a permanent service, with the program expected to inform future approaches to population-based genetic screening and precision medicine.

A disabled elderly Jewish woman was allegedly subjected to a tirade of antisemitic abuse and filmed without her consent inside the Vodafone Elsternwick store in Melbourne earlier this week.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, recounted the incident to Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC).

She reported entering the Vodafone store at approximately 3:35 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, seeking help with a pocket WIFI device.

After several rounds of being told by a young man at the Vodafone store that the device only needed charging, the employee became visibly agitated and did the following: shouted “Free Palestine” at the elderly lady repeatedly inside the store; called her a “dirty Zionist”; told her “Jews are disgusting”; insisted she hand over her personal mobile phone with no explanation; and filmed her on a phone without her consent while she stood trapped at the counter, unable to leave without her device.

After the ordeal ended, the woman burst into tears in the street.

She has since formally complained to Vodafone.

“Him saying Free Palestine to me basically felt like a call for my murder,” she told Abramovich. “I was very scared. I didn’t know what he was capable of. And I just hope he doesn’t have my details and that he doesn’t doctor the video or use it in any way. I feel very unsafe and scared for my life and for my future.”

Antisemitism in Australia is becoming more frequent 

Abramovich said, “The geography of harassment and abuse of Jewish people in Australia is expanding by the minute.”

“If you had described this chilling scene to an Australian five years ago, they would have laughed in your face. Today, this is the new normal for us.”

He told The Jerusalem Post that the woman was likely identified as Jewish due to her Jewish-sounding surname, which would have appeared in the system. Otherwise, she wasn’t wearing anything to identify her.

He also told the Post that he received an email from a Communications Head at Vodafone saying they’re taking the claims very seriously and investigating this as a matter of urgency.

“If they don’t handle it properly, they’re going to lose a lot of customers. It’s quite rare for this kind of outburst to happen. So they would want to handle it as quickly as possible, as far as the optics are concerned.”

“To Vodafone, this happened on your watch,” he said. “Inside your store. By your employee. Don’t think about issuing a polite corporate statement and moving on. Suspend the worker concerned pending the outcome of an internal investigation and issue a public statement of accountability. And we want the video filmed of this woman recovered and deleted before it ends up in the sewer of social media.”

“This is not just antisemitism on the rise. This is a war zone for us and every Jewish Australian knows it.”

On June 23, the Board of Peace highlighted the important role that Morocco will play in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza.

“The ISF welcomes its newest members from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. Their arrival strengthens the international effort to support the people of Gaza,” the Board posted on social media.

Although the post is light on details, Morocco’s role is expected to be important. It comes as a meeting of the Board is expected in Cyprus, and there are calls in Gaza for protests against Hamas this week.

Arab News, a media outlet in Saudi Arabia, reported that “officers from the Moroccan military, whose deployment was announced in February, have arrived in Israel to join a nascent international force for Gaza, US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said Tuesday.”

The report noted that an official had told the AFP that the contingent arrived on June 18 at the headquarters of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in southern Israel.

Contributions to the ISF’s overall structure, policing, personnel

“The contingent is expected to contribute to the development of the force’s overall structure and provide expertise in several areas, including policing, the official said. He confirmed the presence of four Moroccan officers but did not specify whether the contingent included additional personnel,” Arab News noted.

This is important and comes as the region shifts focus from the conflict with Iran to what will happen next in Gaza.

Last week, a source told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas would not be allowed to veto what comes next and spoil efforts to achieve the next steps toward peace.

Morocco has joined several other countries that have committed to backing the ISF. Morocco has warm ties with Israel and is an important country in North Africa. It is important for security and has historic warm ties with the US. The ISF is an important component in advancing the peace plan envisioned by US President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration secured a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2025 after working with Arab and Muslim countries and Israel to achieve a deal. The deal enabled the rapid establishment of the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel.

This helped enable aid and coordination of support for civilians in Gaza in mid-October.

The US also got UN support for the 20-point peace plan for Gaza. In November 2025, the UN noted that “the UN Security Council adopted a resolution [2803] on Monday that endorses a peace plan for Gaza put forward by United States President Donald Trump and a temporary international force in the enclave following two years of war.”

At the time, the resolution welcomed the establishment of the Board of Peace and also authorized it “to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza ‘to deploy under unified command acceptable to the BoP.” Countries that contribute were expected to work in “close consultation and cooperation” with Egypt and Israel.

In January, the White House noted that at a ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, “President Donald J. Trump formally ratified the Charter of the Board of Peace – establishing it as an official international organization. President Trump, who is serving as the Board’s Chairman, was joined by Founding Members representing countries around the world who have committed to building a secure and prosperous future for Gaza that delivers lasting peace, stability, and opportunity for its people.”

A step towards transforming Gaza from region of despair to hope

The White House also said this was “another pivotal step forward in realizing President Trump’s vision of transforming Gaza from a region plagued by conflict and despair into one defined by opportunity, hope, and vitality.”

In the months since January, progress has been slow on establishing the ISF and the forces that will be part of it. Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Indonesia, and Albania were named as countries contributing.

However, so far, it is not clear whether Indonesia will contribute the reported forces. Kosovo and Albania sent several personnel to evaluate a future deployment to Gaza in late April.

The post about the Moroccan support is important. As with the Kosovo and Albanian contributions, the initial number of Moroccan personnel appears small.

Arab News said that four Moroccan officers had arrived. It was not clear if or when more would arrive.

“In February, Morocco committed to deploying police officers and military personnel to the Gaza Strip, becoming the first Arab country to do so publicly. In mid-January, Washington announced the launch of the second phase of Trump’s plan for Gaza aimed at bringing a definitive end to the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel,” Arab News noted.

The initial vision for the ISF was that thousands of personnel would help to create stability in Gaza. This is also supposed to work with a new Palestinian police force that is supposed to be trained.

Egypt, Morocco, and European countries appear set to play a potential role in this effort as well.

The Cyprus Mail reported on June 24 that “the Gaza Board of Peace will hold a two-day summit in Cyprus on June 30 and July 1, Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis confirmed on Wednesday, though he was keen to stress that the government remains on the board’s periphery.”

The report quoted the Cypriots as saying that “the Republic of Cyprus is neither an organizer, nor a co-organizer of the event, of course… The fact that this board’s administrative arm… has chosen our country, a country which has proven in practice how beneficial it is and how many initiatives it has undertaken, as well as the efficiency of those initiatives in terms of humanitarian support for the civilian population in Gaza, has its own high importance.”

The report added that “Cyprus was one of dozens of countries invited to join the Board of Peace, with Kombos saying on the day of the board’s inauguration that the island was waiting for the European Union to form a common position on the matter before taking a decision.”

Much work remains to be done. There is the Palestinian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) that is supposed to play a role. There is also the Board’s High Representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov.

In Gaza, there are also calls for protests against Hamas.

This is expected to begin this week on Friday, according to information circulating on social media. Hamas has already begun a crackdown as it fears it may finally be confronted by the 2 million civilians trapped under its rule.

This also comes amid reports that the IDF continues to slowly expand the area of its control in Gaza. Yesterday, a civilian contractor working with the IDF was killed in a building collapse in Gaza.

Raed Abu Al-Qian of Hura was working on engineering projects in Gaza on behalf of the Defense Ministry. 

A celebration of Mexico’s World Cup match victory took a violent turn on Wednesday night after a car rammed through a crowd of fans in the popular tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas, injuring over a dozen people, Los Cabos’ city hall said in a statement.

A total of 17 people received medical treatment, the statement added, including the driver, who was arrested.

Multiple visuals posted on social media, verified by Reuters, show a black car surrounded by a crowd of people wearing Mexico’s national football team shirts. The car then accelerated into the crowd, throwing people into the air before crashing into bollards.

Other videos verified by Reuters show the crowd pulling someone from the car and attacking them while multiple people lie bloody on the ground in unknown condition.

Los Cabos mayor expresses solidarity with car ramming victims

“I would like to express our deepest solidarity with the people affected and their families following the unfortunate events that occurred tonight,” Los Cabos’ Acting Mayor Jose Manuel Larumbe said, promising to keep the public informed regarding authorities’ investigations into the incident.

Located on Mexico‘s Baja California peninsula, Cabo San Lucas is one of Mexico’s top luxury tourist destinations and one of the two principal cities within the Municipality of Los Cabos, which also includes San Jose del Cabo and the resort corridor connecting them.

Celebrations erupted across Mexico on Wednesday evening after Mexico beat the Czech Republic 3-0 in their final game of the World Cup group stage.

Russia has been pressuring its ally Belarus to open a new front against the war with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Former and current Russian and European officials familiar with the matter told the WSJ that Russia has requested to use Belarusian territory to launch even more drones into Ukraine. The Kremlin has also floated using Belarus, where it notably stores tactical nuclear weapons, in operations against NATO countries in Europe.

In 2022, Russia used Belarusian territory to invade Kyiv quickly. However, after Ukrainian forces pushed back the Russian army, Moscow stopped using Belarus to launch attacks.

While situations along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border are still tense, Minsk has somewhat stayed out of the war since then.

“We have said many times that it is absolutely unacceptable for the war between Ukraine and Russia to spill over into Belarusian territory,” President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier this month, adding that his country is “very vulnerable militarily.”

Will Alexander Lukashenko double down on relations with Russia?

Several US officials have visited Belarus since Trump’s election, and have tried to sway autocratic Lukashenko away from Putin.

The Trump administration lifted some sanctions on Belarus in September, and in exchange, Lukashenko gradually released around 500 political prisoners.

But as the war drags on, Lukashenko appears to be moving back to bolstering relations with his close ally, Putin.

Moscow has been using more ground drone stations in Belarus, where about 2,000 Russian troops are stationed, and Belarus has been selling Russia oil and gas as its fuel crisis deepens, the WSJ reported. 

Moscow still relies on Belarus, which has two large refineries, to process Russian oil and sell gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel back to Russia.

In the first five months of this year, rail shipments of gasoline from Belarusian refineries to Russia surged nearly 13-fold compared to the same period last year, while shipments of Belarusian diesel tripled, according to Reuters sources.

Zelensky warns Lukashenko to take down Russian ground drone stations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had received intelligence that Minsk and Moscow were communicating on potential plans to use Belarusian territory to attack southern Ukraine or northern Baltic states.

He gave Lukashenko a week to take down the Russian drone stations and appeared to warn that he would strike them.

“I think a week will be enough for him to do it. If he doesn’t do it, we will,” Zelesnky said in a press conference earlier this month in Kyiv.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said the stations had stopped working.

“When Lukashenko says he does not want to be involved in the war, he should be honest, at least with his own people,” Zelensky said earlier this month. “It is not only he who could be drawn into the war: his entire country could be dragged into it by Russia.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that French President Emmanuel Macron warned him against taking any further action in the war, according to the report. 

Macron reportedly told Lukashenko that he had intelligence suggesting Belarus was going to take further action in the war, and warned him against it.

An aide to the French president confirmed the call to the WSJ, and said Macron “emphasized the risks Belarus faces if it allows itself to be drawn into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

A former Russian intelligence officer briefed on operations confirmed the WSJ report, and added that Moscow’s ambassador to Minsk, Boris Gryzlov, is threatening to cut off financial lifelines.

The sources who spoke to the WSJ asserted that there are no physical indications that a Russian attack from Belarus is imminent, besides the drone stations, but the possibility is still there.

They told the WSJ that if Belarus were used for a Russian attack, it could be aimed at testing NATO defenses or more attempts at undermining support for Ukraine.

On Thursday, the Kremlin denied the WSJ report.

“Belarus isn’t participating,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Belarusian involvement in the war.

 Also on Thursday, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said Minsk perceives a “blatant” attempt to drag it into the war in Ukraine, warning of growing external pressure on the country.

Khrenin did not specify who he believed was behind such efforts, but appeared to point the finger at the West.

“Efforts are underway to prolong, and even expand, the hot conflict unleashed by the West in Ukraine. Today, we are acutely aware of a blatant attempt to drag Belarus into the war,” Khrenin said in comments published by his ministry.

In a ceremony at the White House last week, US President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to retired US Marine Corps Major James Capers Jr for his “extraordinary courage” during his service in the Vietnam War. 

Capers made history as the first living black Marine to be awarded America’s highest military decoration. 

In the spring of 1967, Capers led a 9 person reconnaissance team near Phu Loc, Vietnam. Despite receiving several wounds from gunshots and shrapnel during an enemy ambush, Capers continued directing his team’s movements and coordinating the evacuation.

He refused to board their evacuation helicopter until after all of his Marines were safely extracted. 

“His Medal of Honor recognizes not only extraordinary courage in combat, but a lifetime defined by service to others,” the Museum of the Medal of Honor wrote in its citation of Capers’ service.

Despite growing up under segregation, Capers rose to be the first black Marine to command a reconnaissance company

Major James Capers Jr was born in Bishopville, South Carolina in 1937 during the Jim Crow era and was raised in a family of sharecroppers. 

Capers joined the Marine Corps in 1956 where he became the first black Marine to join Force Reconnaissance, and the first black Marine to receive a battlefield commission in Marine Special Operations. Later in his service Capers became the first black Marine to command a reconnaissance company.

Capers retired from the Marine Corps in 1978, dedicating his time to serving fellow veterans. 

Yonatan Urich, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one of the primary suspects in the Bild case, will be allowed to maintain his position at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Thursday.

The court rejected the prosecution’s requests to extend the restrictive conditions imposed on Urich, as prosecution representatives alleged in court that Urich had tampered with evidence to impede the investigation.

Urich was added to an amended indictment in the Bild leak case earlier this month, alongside former PMO spokesman Eli Feldstein and IDF reservist Ari Rosenfeld.

The case centers on the alleged transfer and use of classified military material connected to Hamas’s position in hostage negotiations, which was later published by the German newspaper Bild in September 2024.

According to the indictment, Rosenfeld contacted Feldstein on June 6, 2024, about the urgent transfer of material from military intelligence to the prime minister. Prosecutors allege that Feldstein immediately updated Urich, who later helped shape the route by which the material could be used after the military censor blocked its publication in Israel.

Urich is alleged to have directed Feldstein to Netanyahu associate Israel (Srulik) Einhorn, whose involvement was part of an effort to place the material with foreign media.

Urich alleged to have helped disseminate classified information around hostage talks

The prosecution alleges that Urich was involved in receiving, using, and helping disseminate the classified information as part of public messaging around the hostage talks. 

The charges include delivering secret information with the intent to harm state security, delivering secret information, possessing secret information, and destroying evidence.

In May 2020, Turkish media reported that Libyan forces had retaken a key airbase and ended “Haftar’s coup plot.” This was a reference to Khalifa Haftar and his eastern Libyan forces, called the Libyan National Army (LNA).

The LNA had been fighting a civil war against the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), headquartered in Tripoli. Libya was divided. Turkey was backing the GNA, sending drones, equipment, and advisors.

This week, Turkish Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin met Lt. Gen. Saddam Haftar, deputy commander of the Libyan National Army, in Benghazi, Libya. The meeting was on June 23.

This represents a huge change from 2020. Six years have caused a major shift. Turkey has shifted from being involved in fueling conflict in Libya and stoking flames of tension in the Eastern Mediterranean to trying to be a broker of some kind of peace.

For critics of Ankara, this will all seem like Turkey’s leadership is merely putting on a mask and continues to retain its regional ambitions. The reality is that both can be true.

Turkish ambitions in Libya, Syria, the Middle East

Turkey has regional ambitions in Libya, but it now sees accommodation and dialogue as more important than weapons. In 2020, Turkey’s leadership, the AKP party led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was involved in several conflicts. It had invaded Afrin in Syria and used Syrian rebel proxies to attack Kurds.

It had then invaded Serekaniye in Syria. It had backed Azerbaijan in a conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. It was also threatening Greece.

Turkey had also signed a deal with the GNA in Libya that fed Ankara’s claims of a swath of blue water territory across the Mediterranean, essentially cutting the Mediterranean in half.

With the fall of the Assad regime and Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia, Turkey feels it can shift course a bit. It no longer argues with the Gulf states. It is preparing to host a NATO meeting. It wants to work on stability in Syria. This also dovetails with Egypt and the US approach.

How did we get here? In April 2020, the GNA turned the tide against the LNA. This was made possible in partnership with Turkish drones. The GNA took the al-Watiyah Air Base, a key LNA base.

As the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted at the time, “since then, fighting has remained intense in southern Tripoli and around Tarhuna, a town that provided the LNA with much of its local support and forces over the past year.”

Anadolu said it even more frankly: “[A] key airbase in Libya was under [the] rule of [a] warlord for some six years until it was freed on Monday. A Libyan official on Monday said the government’s regaining control of the strategically important Al-Watiya airbase was the beginning of freeing the country from forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.”

Now the Haftars are no longer called warlords or coup plotters in pro-government media in Ankara. Instead, Daily Sabah in Turkey notes that “Turkish Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalın met with Lt. Gen. Saddam Haftar, deputy commander of the Libyan National Army, in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, security sources said on Tuesday.”

Turkey discussing peace, strengthening efforts to unify militaries

The report goes on to add that “according to information obtained from sources, the talks focused on efforts to preserve stability in Libya and advance the country’s political and military unification process.”

Turkey is discussing peace and ways to strengthen “efforts aimed at bringing Libya’s rival eastern and western administrations, as well as their military forces, under a single authority.”

It’s clear that a lot is happening in Libya behind the scenes. Most of the world has not been focused on Libya. However, Libya is important. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, spoke this week about “terror states.” Among the countries mentioned was Libya.

However, Libya is no longer a collapsed state as it was in the past. As Daily Sabah notes, the eastern and western governments of Libya have recently conducted a joint military drill with the US and Turkey in Sirte.

“Kalin and Haftar also reviewed bilateral relations between Türkiye and Libya, discussing opportunities to expand cooperation across various sectors and further strengthen the partnership between the two countries,” Daily Sabah says.

Turkey has trained 23,000 Libyans, the report says. “The talks in Benghazi reflect Ankara’s continued engagement with key actors across Libya as international and regional stakeholders seek progress toward reconciliation and the establishment of unified state institutions.”

This was an important symbolic meeting, and Turkey is clearly angling for a larger role in Libya. As a peacemaker, Turkey may find its role growing, rather than as in the past, when Ankara intervened, which caused tensions with Egypt, Greece, and other countries in the Mediterranean. 

At the end of October, Israelis will vote for a new government. At the beginning of November, Palestinians are expected to do the same. It is rare that both peoples will go to elections, almost at the same time, to choose their leadership and national direction.

This creates a huge opportunity and responsibility, mainly for Israelis and Palestinians, and they can be assisted by the United States, the Arab states, Europe, and the wider international community.

No foreign leader or outside power should choose the leaders of Israel or Palestine. That is the task of Israeli and Palestinian voters. But the international community can make clear what kind of future it is prepared to support. It can tell both peoples that peace is not an empty slogan, that a diplomatic horizon exists, and that leaders who provide hope by choosing courage over fear will not stand alone.

In the interest of peace in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump should embrace this opportunity and make a simple, direct, historic statement:

• The United States supports Israel’s security and full integration into the Middle East.
• The United States supports Palestinian freedom, statehood, democracy, and dignity.
• The United States will work with regional and international partners to advance and implement a two-state solution.
• The United States expects both Israelis and Palestinians to elect leaders capable of making peace.

Such a statement would not be interference. It would be strategic clarity. Delivered now, months before the elections, it could influence the outcome not by telling people whom to vote for but by showing them what kind of future their vote can make possible.

It would tell voters that there is an alternative to war, occupation, siege, terrorism, repression, revenge, and despair. It would make clear that their next leaders will be judged by their ability to secure freedom, security, dignity, and peace.

But Trump’s message alone would not be enough. Its real importance would depend on how Israeli and Palestinian candidates respond.

How Israeli and Palestinian candidates should respond to a call for peace

Israeli candidates seeking to replace the current government should say clearly: Israel’s security is essential, but it cannot be achieved by permanent occupation. Israel must defeat terrorism and insist on strong security arrangements, but it must also offer Palestinians a political horizon and recognize their right to freedom, sovereignty, and dignity. Israel’s future is not as a fortress surrounded by enemies. Its future is as a legitimate, secure, integrated state in the Middle East.

They should say to Israeli voters: The path of recent years has failed. It brought catastrophe, war, isolation, economic damage, internal division, and far too much death and destruction. We cannot manage this conflict forever. We cannot believe that the Palestinian issue can be bypassed through force or normalization with some Arab states. Israel can be accepted into the region but not while millions of Palestinians remain under occupation, without freedom and without a political future.

Israeli candidates should also speak indirectly, but unmistakably, to Palestinian voters: You are not our enemy as a people. We recognize the historic and religious connection of the Palestinian people to this land. You also want to live, raise your children, build your economy, and control your future.

We are ready to negotiate with Palestinian leaders that you elect: leaders who reject violence, accept mutual recognition, support democracy, and are prepared to build a state alongside Israel, not instead of Israel. Our security and your freedom must be built together.

Palestinian candidates and parties must be equally clear. They should say: The last years have shown the terrible futility of violence. Armed struggle has not liberated Palestine, ended occupation, or brought sovereignty. It has brought suffering, destruction, isolation, and loss.

The Palestinian people need a new path: democracy, nonviolence, institution-building, international legitimacy, and a political strategy that can gain regional and global support. The Palestinian people also recognize the historic and religious connection of the Jewish people to this land – this is even recognized in the Holy Quran.

Palestinian candidates should say: Our goal is freedom and statehood, not revenge. Our goal is ending occupation, not destroying Israel. Our goal is to build Palestine – in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem – as a democratic, accountable, sovereign state living in peace next to Israel. We will demand our rights firmly, but through diplomacy, persuasion, law, popular nonviolent action, international alliances, and negotiations.

Palestinian candidates should also speak indirectly to Israeli voters: We understand that Israelis need security. We understand the trauma and fear Israelis carry. We do not ask Israelis to trust words alone. We are prepared to build institutions, security arrangements, education systems, and political commitments that prove that a Palestinian state will be a partner for peace, not a platform for war. We want our children to live next to your children in dignity and safety.

This indirect dialogue could change the election atmosphere. For years, the central argument against peace has been the same in both societies: “There is no partner on the other side.” Israelis say there is no Palestinian partner. Palestinians say there is no Israeli partner. Each side uses the extremism of the other as proof that peace is impossible. That circle must be broken.

The main challenge is to rebuild confidence that there are partners for peace. That will not happen through secret diplomacy alone. It must happen in public, during the election campaigns themselves.

Israeli parties that support peace should say that Palestinian freedom is part of Israeli security. Palestinian parties that support peace should say that Israeli security is part of Palestinian freedom. These are not concessions. They are the foundation of any realistic future.

Political agreements are not enough. Candidates on both sides must also address other fundamental issues – such as what we teach our children. Education curricula is in the hands of the state and therefore is the truest reflection on the values of the society.

The next generation of Israelis and Palestinians must not inherit only graves, walls, checkpoints, rockets, sirens, hatred, and fear. They must inherit the tools of coexistence: language (Hebrew and Arabic), knowledge, empathy, critical thinking, historical honesty, and the belief that the other people is not destined to be an eternal enemy.

Elections are not only about who holds office. They are about what societies tell themselves is possible. If Israeli candidates run only on fear, they will produce more fear. If Palestinian candidates run only on grievance, they will produce more despair. But if candidates on both sides speak about peace, partnership, democracy, security, freedom, hope, and regional integration, the political environment will begin to change.

There are moments in history when timing matters. The time for action is now – before the end of October and the beginning of November. Israelis and Palestinians will soon be voting almost at the very same time. They should not vote in darkness. They should understand that their vote will affect not only their own future but also the choices made by the other side.

The door to peace will not open by itself; it will open only if leaders on both sides tell their people the truth and voters choose the future over the fear.

The writer is the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization and the co-head of the Alliance for Two States.

Switzerland is moving to accelerate its long‑range air defense capabilities, resuming payments for the US‑made Patriot system while launching negotiations with Israeli, French, and South Korean manufacturers for an additional system, the Federal Council announced on Wednesday.

According to a statement by Switzerland’s Federal Council, the US has shifted delivery priorities for the Patriot system toward Ukraine, creating delays and cost pressures. The decision comes amid what the country described as a worsening global security environment and growing concerns over long‑distance aerial threats.

“Given the deterioration of the geopolitical situation, the Federal Council is convinced that Switzerland must strengthen its air defense capabilities,” it said, adding that “in addition to hybrid threats, long‑distance attacks represent the most likely threat to Switzerland, one against which the country currently has no means of protection.”

Switzerland ordered the Patriot missile system from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin in 2022, with an expected delivery in 2026-2028, but due to the war in Ukraine, the timeline has been pushed by at least five years. Nevertheless, Bern said it cannot afford to halt the Patriot acquisition without a replacement ready.

The Swiss Defense Ministry said it would therefore restart payments to the US for the system that had been paused. 

Talks launched with Israel, France, and South Korea

Alongside the resumed payments, Bern is looking for a second long‑range air defense system to ensure rapid operational readiness and reduce dependence on a single supplier.

Switzerland’s Defense Ministry has been authorized to begin contractual negotiations with manufacturers in France, Israel, and South Korea.

Reuters quoted National armaments director Urs Loher as telling a press conference that it ​would not be Israel’s Arrow defense system.

Europe has increasingly turned to Israeli air defense technology over the past decade, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the growing demand for rapid, combat‑proven systems. Several Israeli systems, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Spyder, have been selected by European governments.

Germany purchased Israel’s Arrow 3 system with a landmark €4 billion agreement to provide exo‑atmospheric interception capability. Finland purchased David’s Sling after joining NATO, signing a deal worth more than €300 million. Central European states have also moved toward Israeli systems, with the Czech Republic receiving the Spyder medium‑range system, Slovakia selecting the Barak MX, and Romania is reportedly in negotiations to acquire the Iron Dome, which would make it the first European country to deploy Israel’s famous short‑range interceptor.

The Baltic states are also deepening their cooperation with Israel. Estonia and Latvia have jointly approved the procurement of David’s Sling as part of a regional effort to strengthen long‑range air defense in response to Russian military pressure.

Preference for European or Swiss production

The Federal Council said the objective is that the second system would offer the same level of protection as the Patriot system, and initial assessments completed by Switzerland’s Defense Ministry in May indicated that systems from these countries meet Swiss military requirements and offer favorable cost‑effectiveness.

A second system, the government said, would strengthen Switzerland’s endurance in a prolonged conflict scenario and diversify supply chains, a priority given the geopolitical climate.

The Federal Council emphasized that the choice of a second system must align with its armaments policy, which favors procurement in Switzerland or Europe whenever possible. Manufacturers will be expected to produce ballistic missiles, command systems, or critical components domestically or within Europe.

Other key criteria include rapid, guaranteed availability, proven effectiveness against long‑range threats, compatibility with Swiss operational needs, and reliable access to munitions and spare parts.

The government will make a final decision once negotiations with the three manufacturers are completed.

US Vice President JD Vance indicated on Wednesday that a review was underway to see how the United States could sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets, given Ankara’s 2019 acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

“Pete and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened…in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that,” Vance told reporters.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is also planning to push ahead with the sale of dozens of jet engines to Turkey worth hundreds of millions of dollars despite objections from some members of the US Congress, four sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, an important gesture to Ankara ahead of a NATO summit there next month.

The engines, produced by General Electric, will power Turkey’s first indigenous combat jet KAAN, a major project launched in 2016 as part of NATO member Ankara’s efforts to be more self-sufficient in its defense. One of the sources said the package will be worth more than $700 million.

Turkey and the United States have generally enjoyed warm ties under Trump, who regularly praises Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. However, their relationship has been tested by a long-standing disagreement over Washington’s decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program and impose sanctions after Ankara acquired Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, which the United States says pose a security threat.

Asked on Wednesday about the jet engines, the F-35 program, and his plans for the summit in Ankara, Trump said: “I’m going to probably do something that will make them very happy.”

While the engine sale is likely to be welcomed in Ankara, analysts say it falls well short of Turkey’s broader goal of returning to the F-35 program.

“Acquiring the engines is certainly important for Turkey, but it is also the lowest-hanging fruit for a US administration that has made far more ambitious promises to Ankara, including Turkey’s return to the F-35 program,” said Gonul Tol, director of the Washington-based Middle East Institute’s Turkish program.

“The real test of whether Washington and Ankara can open a new chapter in bilateral relations lies there,” Tol said.

US law does not permit Turkey to operate or possess the S-400 system if it wishes to rejoin the F-35 program. However, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said in December that the warm relationship between Trump and Erdogan helped the two sides hold “the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade.”

The Turkish foreign ministry declined to comment for this story.

Turkey will host NATO leaders amid tensions within the alliance over burden-sharing, defense spending and US complaints about allies’ role in efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open during the US-Iran war.

US lawmakers unsure over sale of fighter jets to Turkey

Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of the Russian air defense systems hampered congressional support for the US ally, although lawmakers ultimately approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets in 2024.

Some of that sentiment persists. Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, had raised objections during an informal review process and has not given his green light for the package, two of the sources, including a US official, said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Meeks criticized what he described as the administration’s failure to make a “good-faith” effort to brief him on the implications of the sale for bilateral ties as well as Turkey’s possession of the S-400s.

“These items will not be delivered for years, and the administration repeatedly ignored persistent requests for information and clarification on key aspects of US policy,” Meeks said.

Despite his objection, the decision to go ahead with the sale is expected to be finalized in the coming days, followed by a formal notification from the State Department to Congress, the sources said. The congressional review process is designed to allow lawmakers to weigh in on large sales but the objections are not binding if a US administration wishes to press ahead with the sale.

The Trump administration has bypassed, or threatened to bypass, congressional holds on several weapons sales.

“As a matter of general policy, we do not comment on pending arms transfers. Official correspondence with Congress is conducted through official channels,” a State Department official said.

Speaking alongside Trump, Vance said a review was under way to see if Turkey has complied with the US laws so it can receive the F-35 fighter jets.

“Pete and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened … in order to comply with American law,” he said, referring to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own Kaan stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the American-made F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.

The US decision to move forward with the sale comes nearly a year after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan publicly complained about what he described as a hold-up in the process.

Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday, killing at least 164 people and injuring 971 more after dozens of buildings collapsed into piles of shattered concrete and steel in and around the capital, Caracas.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Israel is preparing to send an aid delegation to Venezuela following the earthquakes, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. “The Ministry is conducting a situation assessment with the relevant authorities in Israel and is examining the options for assistance,” the statement said.

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

There are no reported casualties within the Jewish community in Caracas so far, Miguel Trozman, one of the heads of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (CAIV), told Walla. “Many members of the Jewish community chose to go through this difficult night together and are now sleeping in the Jewish community center in the city,” he said.

Video footage showed emergency workers scrambling over the pancaked debris of a collapsed building in the capital as night fell, while distraught relatives sought help for loved ones believed to be trapped. Several dazed survivors were taken away, some on stretchers.

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

“We had to climb over the rubble and everything. The building superintendent with the baby and all the neighbors coming down. But from that building, I only saw that one family got out.”

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez said initial casualty figures do not include those from the worst-affected La Guaira state, near Caracas and home to the city’s airport, which had been closed.

“Dozens of buildings have collapsed, and we are currently carrying out very intense rescue efforts to save as many lives as God allows us to save,” she said in an appearance on state television just before 1 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Thursday.

“I also want to say that this is a true tragedy. From here, we send our message of solidarity, and to those families who have lost loved ones, we reaffirm our condolences and our support in these difficult hours.”

Many Venezuelans were at home when the quakes struck during the afternoon on a public holiday.

“There was a very loud crash. Things fell in the house, jugs inside the refrigerator. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said Coro Martinez, 56, who lives in eastern Caracas.

Trump offers help after ‘devastating number of deaths’

Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital into the early hours of Thursday.

Rodriguez said the country was focused on rescue efforts, including the arrival in the coming hours of rescue crews from other countries, as she thanked leaders, including US President Donald Trump.

Trump said in a post on social media that the US was ready, willing, and able to help in the disaster.

“The two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths,” said Trump, who ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a violent raid in January.

Three people were killed in the Baruta district in Caracas after two buildings collapsed, the district mayor said on social media. One person was killed, and four buildings had completely collapsed, Gustavo Duque, the mayor of Chacao district in the capital, told journalists.

“We have buildings, homes, and houses which have collapsed, and we are taking care of things with everything we have available in terms of security, civil assistance,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on state television.

Residents rush into the streets

Wilmer Azuaje, a former Venezuelan lawmaker, captured the moment at Maiquetia Airport as the quake hit, sending masonry and clouds of dust falling.

“Everyone, the situation we’re experiencing here is serious. A high-magnitude earthquake. Look at how everything ended up,” he said while videoing the scene.

A tsunami warning was issued but swiftly canceled after the danger passed.

Residents across Caracas, which was also hit by a deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 1967, rushed to evacuate as buildings shook.

“As soon as it started, we began hearing people screaming,” said Astrid Ramirez, a 41-year-old publicist in western Caracas. “Everyone was running down the stairs.”

Maria Romero, an 80-year-old pensioner in southern Caracas, said police helped her get out of her home. “This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” she said.

Another resident, a 41-year-old office worker who declined to be named, said she received an earthquake alert on her phone just before the shaking intensified.

“As I picked it up and started listening to what it was saying, I first felt light shaking. Then, in less than two seconds, everything started moving.”

Leaders from countries including El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil offered support and sympathy, while the US State Department said it was in touch with Venezuelan authorities and mobilizing assistance.

Rodriguez, who has been running the country since the US ouster of Maduro, said she has instructed the foreign ministry to coordinate the aid offers.

The US embassy in Caracas said it was closely monitoring the aftermath of the quake and urged citizens in the country to seek secure shelter.

Venezuela lies in a seismically active zone where the Caribbean Plate meets the South American Plate.

An estimated 30,000 people were killed when a powerful quake caused widespread destruction in the cities of Merida and Caracas in 1812, according to the USGS.

Hospitals brace for the injured

At Caracas’ Hospital de Clinicas, staff were asked to double up on the night shift to help treat the injured, a worker there said. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week as authorities began to take stock of the damage.

Venezuela’s oil infrastructure did not immediately appear to be affected by the tremors. Civil protection authorities in Maracaibo, near the large oil hub of Lake Maracaibo, said there were no injuries reported, and a worker at the El Palito refinery near Morón – the epicenter of the earthquake – said there had been no damage there.

UK oil firm Shell, which is evaluating developing gas fields in Venezuela, said all its employees in the country are accounted for with no injuries.

One source noted that extended loss of power could hit crude output levels until the service is restored. Venezuela’s oil ministry, state-run oil company PDVSA, and its main foreign partner, Chevron, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has revealed for the first time that Africa was the geographic area where spies from his agency carried out their “dress rehearsal” for the now famous operation in which they broke into Iran’s secret nuclear archives in January 2018.

The operation changed the course of history as it was the impetus for then-first-term US President Donald Trump to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal shortly after the operation’s results were revealed in Spring 2018.

In turn, Trump pulling out of the deal and the failure of the parties involved to reach a new deal are viewed by most as leading to the two wars with Iran in June 2025 and early 2026, and eventually to the new deal between second-term Trump and Iran just signed on June 17.

In the 2023 book “Target Tehran,” a vast majority of the details are revealed regarding the Mossad operation, with Cohen himself adding some new details in his 2025 book, “The Sword of Freedom,” but one of the most critical details had still been left out until now: where the dress rehearsal took place.

While seemingly one of many small details, this one was actually crucial.

Mission impossible: Archives breached, nuclear documents snatched

The ability of dozens of Mossad agents to breach the highly protected Iranian nuclear archives facility without setting off any alarms or alerting Iranian authorities for the 6 hours and 29 minutes they were there and about two hours afterward, made it possible for them to seize whole bookshelves of the original nuclear documents and for every single member of the team to escape unharmed.

This was only possible because they were able to practice on a full life-sized model of the Iranian nuclear archive facility, including huge heavy steel safes which required flamethrowers reaching 3600 degrees to cut through them.

Despite numerous requests by The Jerusalem Post over the years, the identity of the geographic area was always kept under wraps due to various security and diplomatic concerns.

It is unclear what changed that allowed Cohen to disclose this detail now, but part of the change could relate to the intense beating that Iranian security and terror entities took during the recent war.

The report was also carried by Maghreb Online.

Interestingly, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords during Cohen’s term as Mossad chief, and there could have been overlap between the dress rehearsal and during the time that he was negotiating secretly with them about normalization, though the Post has no evidence that Morocco was the country where the dress rehearsal took place, and Israel has quiet relations with many countries viewed as off the radar.

In his interview, Cohen explained that such a large rehearsal in Israel of such a specific site could have drawn too much attention.

Morocco also has very close military relations with Israel and has publicly undertaken joint military drills as well as sent officers to the Jewish state earlier this week to work on developments for an International Stabilization Force in Gaza. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to testify on Thursday in the NIS 500,000 defamation lawsuit he filed against protest activist and lawyer Gonen Ben Itzhak and journalists Uri Misgav and Ben Caspit.

The evidentiary hearing is being held before Ramle Magistrate’s Court President Judge Menahem Mizrahi at the Tel Aviv District Court building, where the case was moved for security reasons.

Thursday’s session continues Netanyahu’s testimony from May, which was cut short after roughly half an hour when the prime minister said he had to leave.

The lawsuit concerns several publications relating to Netanyahu’s health and fitness to serve, as well as an alleged meeting with former IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amiram Levin.

According to the claim, Ben Itzhak wrote on Twitter/X that he had received information that Netanyahu had been treated for pancreatic cancer, while calling on him to disclose his medical condition publicly. Netanyahu has denied that he had pancreatic cancer and argues that the publication was false and defamatory.

Questioning Netanyahus appearance, speech, medical status

The claim also cites posts by Misgav questioning Netanyahu’s appearance, speech, medical treatment, and reported hospital visits. Caspit is sued over a report concerning an alleged meeting between Netanyahu and Levin, after which Levin was said to have left disturbed and to have concluded that Netanyahu was unfit and dangerous to the state.

Netanyahu denies that such a meeting took place.

At the earlier hearing, Netanyahu said his medical condition was “proper” and “excellent,” and said he had not suffered from pancreatic cancer.

He testified that, after years of treatment for an enlarged prostate, examinations toward the end of 2025 found an early-stage cancerous growth in the prostate. Netanyahu said he underwent five radiation treatments in January and February and that subsequent examinations showed the lesion had been removed without metastasis.

The defendants deny that their publications amount to defamation.

Ben Itzhak has filed a NIS 480,000 counterclaim against Netanyahu, alleging that Netanyahu and his son published defamatory material linking him to criminal incidents unrelated to him and exposed personal details about him. He has also argued that Netanyahu’s suit is a silencing lawsuit.

Caspit has argued that his publication did not concern Netanyahu’s medical condition, but rather reported on Levin’s alleged impressions following the claimed meeting. Misgav has argued that questions about the health of an elected official fall within legitimate public criticism and that the suit is intended to silence a critical journalist.

Two IDF sources on Thursday denied reports that Israel has withdrawn from some of the buffer zones in southern Lebanon created during its war with Hezbollah.

Earlier, a US State Department official claimed that IDF had withdrawn from the buffer zones, adding that Lebanon’s armed forces should now step in.

A senior Lebanese security official also said they were unaware of any withdrawal of Israeli troops from the buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

“Israel has already taken a concrete step by pulling back from a part of its buffer zone. This is a significant demonstration of good faith toward Lebanon’s legitimate government,” the official said.

“The [Lebanese Armed Forces] should now move in and verifiably clear out terrorist weapons and infrastructure. This model will be repeated across South Lebanon, enabling the safe return of displaced families, reconstruction of the south, and the restoration of full Lebanese sovereignty,” the official added.

Israel planned ‘pilot’ to withdraw from southern Lebanon

During the recent negotiations between Beirut and Jerusalem, Israel and the IDF offered a very modest withdrawal, possibly from places like Tibnin and the Ali Taher Ridge, which the IDF only took over last week.

According to the IDF concept, it would withdraw from some of the newest areas it has taken over to see if the Lebanese army will properly clean out Hezbollah from those areas.

Some Israeli officials are trying to draw a distinction between withdrawing from areas where Hezbollah would have a direct line of sight to fire on Israeli northern villages and areas where there would be no such direct line of sight.

However, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah – while disagreeing on many issues – are both pushing for a faster and wider withdrawal.

There are multiple withdrawal line options.

Until May 26, Israel had not crossed over the Litani River or the Wadi Saluki area, and the IDF could withdraw initially to that prior line.

Next, there are at least three lines of Lebanese villages in southern Lebanon that the IDF has overrun, and it could withdraw backward to any of those lines.

For example, most IDF forces in fall 2024 had only advanced to the first line of villages.

This could involve going backward from 10 kilometers or more into southern Lebanon back to three to five kilometers into the country.

Eventually, the IDF might even withdraw to its five outposts, which were only several hundred meters into southern Lebanon, and which it withdrew to in February 2025.

Yet, given that the IDF took four months to withdraw in that round of fighting, it is expected that any IDF withdrawals will first test Hezbollah’s continued ceasefire compliance as well as the Lebanese army’s willingness to confront and remove Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure from the south of the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have given the impression that the IDF will remain in parts of southern Lebanon for many months or even years to press Hezbollah to disarm.

Israel is preparing to send an aid delegation to Venezuela following the earthquakes that hit the country, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

“The Ministry is conducting a situation assessment with the relevant authorities in Israel and is examining the options for assistance,” the statement said.

The Health Ministry is also preparing to send a medical aid delegation to Venezuela, including forming medical, logistics, and emergency response teams that will join the effort, pending coordination with and approval from the Foreign Ministry.

The offers of aid come after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160km. (100 miles) west of Caracas on Thursday, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

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

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) announced on Thursday that it is preparing to provide aid totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels to Venezuela’s Jewish communities.

This includes 500 families who were evacuated from their homes, KKL-JNF said.

KKL-JNF chairman Eyal Ostrinsky spoke with Roberto Mishkin, a senior leader of the Jewish community in Venezuela, and KKL-JNF Venezuela’s CEO, who updated him on the situation.

“KKL is committed to Jewish communities in the diaspora, which are an inseparable part of us both in routine times and in emergencies. Just as we were there during Operation Roaring Lion system in Beit Shemesh, Beersheba, Dimona, and Arad with communities that suffered severe damage and extreme upheaval, so we will be there for our brothers in Venezuela in their time of need,” said Ostrinsky.

There are no reported casualties within the Jewish community in Caracas so far, Miguel Trozman, one of the heads of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (CAIV), told Walla. “Many members of the Jewish community chose to go through this difficult night together and are now sleeping in the Jewish community center in the city,” he said.

IsraAID, Israel’s largest non-governmental humanitarian aid agency, also confirmed that it is deploying an emergency response team to the South American country.

“IsraAID’s initial team will include emergency response specialists and humanitarian experts from the organization’s ongoing mission in Colombia and its global Emergency Response Team,” the NGO added.

The staff will focus on “mental health and psychological first aid, water, sanitation and hygiene, and rapid needs assessment in affected communities,” said IsraAID.

US, China, Spain, Brazil to assist Venezuela after earthquake

US President Donald Trump said that the two earthquakes that hit Venezuela earlier in the day had “left a devastating number of deaths,” without citing any official casualty figures.

“The two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“The U.S.A. stands ready, willing, and able to help! I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly. We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China will do what it can to assist Venezuela. No Chinese casualties or injuries reported so far, according to the authorities.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered his support to Venezuela, with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares adding that Spain was ready to supply any emergency aid required.

“Spain and myself offer our full support to the Venezuelan people following tonight’s devastating earthquakes,” Sanchez posted on X/Twitter. “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva similarly declared the nation’s support for the Venezuelan government’s recovery efforts and directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas to assess how Brazil can help. 

“I reaffirm our determination to support the government of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in the recovery of affected areas of this sister nation, whose people have given proof of great resilience in the face of adversities,” he posted to his X/Twitter account on Thursday morning. 

An individual reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was disarmed on Wednesday by the Israel Police after locking himself in his Netivot home with a handgun and threatening to commit suicide.

The individual, a security guard who spent an extended period in the reserves during the war, was at home with his wife and children but reportedly posed no threat to anyone but himself.

Advanced-Staff-Sergeant Major Ariel Morzhanov, an operator in the crisis negotiation unit of Yamar who helped save lives by handling negotiations with the terrorists at the Edri family home during the October 7 massacre, arrived at the scene to manage dialogue and de-escalate the situation.

The incident began when police officers, together with the municipal policing unit, arrived following a report of a suicide threat. The Israel Police negotiation team was also deployed, and Morzhanov, an Ofakim resident who serves in the Southern District Central Investigative Unit (YAMAR), was rushed to the scene, while Counterterrorism Unit (Yamam) forces were subsequently on standby as an intervention force.

After discussions with the negotiation team at the scene and personnel from the Ofek unit, the at-risk individual lowered his weapon and was taken for further questioning by the police.

Suffering PTSD, no one harmed due to ‘professional, responsible, sensitive’ action

After some time, the incident ended with no casualties. Police forces left the scene after the situation was brought back under control.

The individual reportedly suffers from PTSD due to his military service.

The municipality stated that the sensitive and complex incident that occurred in the city ended with no loss of life, thanks to the “professional, responsible, and sensitive action of all parties involved.”

Mayor Yehiel Zohar said that the individual is a resident of the city and a security personnel member who served a prolonged period in the reserves, and that the municipality “stands by the resident and his family members, is accompanying them, and will continue to assist as much as required.”

El Al will suspend its Tel Aviv-Moscow flights for the coming days due to developments between Russia and Ukraine and recent aviation incidents in the region, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

The airline will reassess the situation next week and decide whether to resume operations, with passengers to be informed and offered alternatives in accordance with the law.

Ukraine’s military hit an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region and two oil refineries in the Ufa region, 1,500 km from the Ukrainian border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

Kyiv’s intensified air strikes on Russian energy infrastructure hit targets as far away as Siberia, more than 2,000 kilometers rom the front line, undermining the availability of gasoline and diesel in Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer.

Ukrainian strikes halt Russian oil sales

In Crimea on Sunday, Ukraine targeted a Russian port and fuel transit terminals in the Kerch Strait. Videos from social media show fiery explosions at a port late at night, with thick smoke surrounding what appear to be oil tanks.

Since then, Ukrainian attacks on maritime logistics and supply roads have sparked a fuel crisis in Russia and areas of Ukraine it controls, leaving it to ban exports of gasoline and jet fuel.

Russia is considering a diesel export ban, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday, while a newspaper reported on possible fuel imports to tackle shortages, especially in Crimea, which tightened restrictions on public services and activities.

Sevastopol, Crimea, restricted the operating hours of public transport, shops, cafes, and streetlights, and also banned mass outdoor activities, in addition to previously announced fuel sales limits.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, home ​to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, announced on Monday evening “enforced temporary measures,” including the closure of public transport at 10 p.m., and of large shops and cafes at 8 p.m. Street lighting was dimmed.

While the country came to a standstill in a traffic jam, Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox again cut a deal: enlistment laws, budgets, and political moves that deepen the rift, while the IDF and the public bear the burden of the war and the national cost.

The giant traffic jams that clogged several of Israel’s main roads on Monday were the result of a serious head-on car accident. An accident between Benjamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel. An accident in which the country’s leaders rise up to destroy it. An autoimmune event. An acquired immune system failure.

The rotten deal Netanyahu is weaving in public with his non-Zionist partners allowed one of their senior figures on Monday to cruise in his luxurious car, equipped with a security siren, in order to block Israel’s roads. All this in the name of a huge sector that is trying to keep milking the state’s dwindling udders, yet insists on contributing nothing to it.

I am, of course, speaking about Yitzhak Goldknopf, the ultimate symbol of the immune-system failure from which we have suffered.

He represents a large Hasidic stream within a huge ultra-Orthodox community, growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the community. That community is drawing enormous resources from the state at an increasing rate. If it were possible to calculate what has been showered on them during the Netanyahu era, and especially recently, we would reach crazy numbers.

Haredim protest draft while IDF implodes

All this is happening while the IDF,  the body that is supposed to protect our existence here, is collapsing inward. When we will soon, to our horror, mark 1,000 IDF fallen since October 7, not including civilian murders, tens of thousands wounded, and tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands suffering from mental injury and post-traumatic stress. In light of all this, one could expect a bit of modesty. Tightening the belt in certain sectors, especially those not taking part in the effort.

What we got was the opposite. An uncontrollable binge. A headlong rush. A mass assault on the public coffers, or what is left of them. All this is being done with authority and permission, in broad daylight, head held high and with pride. If we were living in biblical times, I suppose God would already have brought down a flood on us. In fact, He already did: “Tufan al-Aqsa,” translated as the “Al-Aqsa flood,” the “Jericho Wall” plan.

There were once days when just the details of the stinking deal unfolding before our eyes would bring down governments here. The ultra-Orthodox receive Basic Law: Torah Study, the kashrut law, and a whole host of other benefits, all at our expense. Aryeh Deri will soon be able to appoint another 3,500 kashrut supervisors to the state’s payroll, a move that will also raise prices at restaurants and hotels. What’s the problem? There are suckers paying for all this. We are.

Netanyahu’s coalition remains unashamed after failures on October 7 

What does Netanyahu get? What he needs: the continuation of the anti-democratic legislative spree he needs in order to keep wrecking state institutions and create an option to escape the fear of judgment. Everything, until the last moment: subordinating the Police Internal Investigations Department to the justice minister, for the first time a politician will run investigations here, splitting the attorney-general’s post, the law weakening the media, and a host of additional coup laws.

After October 7, there was a brief period when this gang was ashamed. Yariv Levin fell into depression in cabinet meetings; his legs and hands trembled. The screamers, such as Miri Regev, made an effort not to leave the house too much. Silman, the direct cause of the destruction, was not seen. Smotrich, in a rare burst of honesty, explained that in two days they would be called on to resign, and they would be right. That passed. The appetite returned, and in a big way. And all this under the direction of the ultimate responsible party, Netanyahu.

Yesterday, his testimony on the thousands of files finally ended. That’s it, it’s over. He no longer has to return to court until the verdict. Which makes his pleas for clemency, that is, cancellation of the trial, unnecessary. He is now left alone with his fate.

The problem is that he does not accept his fate. He is trying to change it. He is the first to know that the cases have not collapsed, on the contrary. The question is what else he is capable of in order to escape the fear of judgment. I do not know the answer, and I am afraid to think about it.

The US Senate rejected a measure aiming to limit US President Donald Trump’s war powers, a day after passing a separate resolution that called for the removal of US forces from Iran, late Wednesday evening. 

The measure was proposed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and failed 50-47-1, though GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted in favor, siding with the Democratic majority. This marks a stark turnaround from Tuesday’s resolution.

Both GOP Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Bill Cassidy voted to limit Trump’s power in Iran on the original motion, but changed their votes on the new measure the next day. Paul voted present, and Cassidy voted against the proposition. This comes after Trump called out Congress for limiting his negotiating power with Iran. 

Though the Trump administration claims that the US is no longer involved in attacks on Iran since the MoU and subsequent ceasefire, Kaine’s motion called for “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.” The measure would’ve gone to the president’s desk for official approval if it had passed, leaving it unclear whether it would’ve gone into effect.

Trump praised the vote on his Truth Social account, mentioning Sens. Paul and Cassidy for changing their minds and claiming that the measure “puts Iran on notice.” 

Louisiana Sen. Cassidy has historically called out the president for his lack of transparency regarding US involvement in Iran, culminating in a heated interaction between the two at a private GOP Senate lunch on Wednesday. 

“The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”

Later that evening, Cassidy was invited to the White House for a more conclusive briefing on the situation from Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. He posted on X thanking the two politicians for “address[ing] many of [his] concerns,” and changed his vote in support of the Trump administration that night. 

Kentucky Republican Paul also posted on X to clarify his position on the issue. He said that though his opinion hasn’t changed, he’s voting present “to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace.”

Tonight I will vote present on the War Powers resolution.

My opinion on the debate over war and executive power has not changed and I have voted that way several times.

But since hostilities seem to be over and the President asked me to give consideration to his…

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 25, 2026

What did the original measure entail?

The Tuesday resolution heavily reined in Trump’s war powers in Iran, seeking to block US military activity in the region. It was the 10th attempt from the Senate to take such action since the US and Israel launched their attack on February 28, and it passed 50-48. 

The resolution was approved by the House earlier this month and marked a symbolic show of concern from GOP lawmakers regarding US involvement in Iran. Notably, four republican senators voted in favor of the measure – Sens. Cassidy, Paul, Murkowski, and Collins.

The president took to his Truth Social account following the vote, calling the four Republicans “losers [who] voted with the Dumocrats,” claiming that it was “poorly timed and meaningless,” and that it indicated to the “Number One Sponsor of Terror in the World that the United States doesn’t like what [he’s] doing to them.” 

The Senate rebuked its opposition to the president’s war in Iran the next day.

Ruby Sadikman contributed to this report.

Holocaust survivor and reservist Colonel Simcha Applebaum passed away on Tuesday at the age of 99. 

Applebaum served as deputy commander of the 188th Brigade in the Yom Kippur War and was among the founders of Kibbutz Netzer Sereni.

Having moved from the horrors of the Holocaust to dedicating his life to the revival of the Jewish state, his personal experiences are the essence of the story of the Jewish people in the 20th century.

Applebaum was born in 1927 in the town of Malch, in the Pruzhany district (today in Belarus), into a traditional family. 

His father, Yaakov, was a leading Zionist activist who worked on sending young people to agricultural training in preparation for immigration to the Land of Israel. In November 1941, Applebaum, along with his parents, Yaakov and Rachel, and his older sister Ella, was deported to the Pruzhany ghetto.

Deported, escaped twice, sent to Auschwitz, and liberated

In May 1942, Applebaum joined a group of Jewish youth who escaped to the forests in an attempt to unite with Jewish partisans and Soviet soldiers. 

In November of that year, he risked his life and secretly returned to the ghetto with several young people in order to obtain food and clothing. During the operation, several of his friends were hit by German fire, but Applebaum managed to escape and reached his parents’ home.

In January 1943, the Pruzhany ghetto was liquidated. Applebaum and his family were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where his parents and older sister perished. 

Applebaum posed as older than his age in order to avoid the death selection and was sent to forced labor. The number 78524 was tattooed on his arm. He was employed carrying heavy bricks for the construction of crematoria and the establishment of the Gypsy camp.

In April of 1943, he was transferred to Auschwitz, where he worked in construction, laying railway tracks. During his work, he was severely beaten, losing half of his teeth and, oftentimes, his consciousness.

In September 1943, after a series of selections, he was transferred to an SS-run ammunition factory, and in April 1944, he was moved to the Siemens factory in the nearby Bobrek camp.

In January 1945, with the approach of the front, Simcha was sent on a death march toward Gleiwitz and from there was loaded onto an open railway car moving westward. 

Once in the Czech Republic, Applebaum jumped from the moving train and escaped. He hid for five weeks with the help of local farmers, but was eventually captured by the Gestapo, brutally tortured, and sent to the Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen camps.

In April 1945, he was again forced on another death march toward the Baltic Sea under SS guard. In the midst of the grueling journey, Simcha made a vow that if he survived and remained alive, he would immigrate to the Land of Israel, establish a settlement in memory of his parents and family members who were murdered, and join the security forces of the Yishuv to help establish the state. 

On May 3, 1945, the remaining marchers were liberated by the United States Army.

Simcha immediately began fulfilling his vow. Following liberation, he joined the Buchenwald Kibbutz in Germany, and in March 1946, he immigrated to the Land of Israel aboard the immigrant ship Tel Hai. 

In the summer of 1946, Applebaum underwent agricultural training at Kibbutz Afikim and was sent to a squad commanders’ course in the Haganah.

With the outbreak of the War of Independence, Applebaum fought in the Givati and Negev brigades on the southern front.

On June 20, 1948, during the first truce and before Operation Dani, he went up to settle as a commander together with 16 of his comrades from Kibbutz Buchenwald at the Shapira farm near Be’er Ya’acov. This laid the foundation for the establishment of Kibbutz Netzer, known today as Kibbutz Netzer Sereni. In doing so, he fulfilled the first part of his vow.

Later in the war, he attended an officers’ course and, at the end of 1948, was appointed platoon commander in the Negev Brigade. At the end of January 1950, he returned to his kibbutz and held senior positions there, alongside his activity in the Manufacturers Association.

Simcha continued to serve and fought in Israel’s wars. One of his greatest tests came in the Yom Kippur War, when he served as deputy commander within the 188th Armored Brigade. He also played a central role in rebuilding the brigade after it suffered heavy losses in the early days of the war.

Simcha reached the rank of reserve colonel in the armored corps and was among the initiators and founders of the memorial site for the brigade’s soldiers in Latrun.

‘I am fighting… so that what happened to my generation does not happen to yours’

In those difficult days of October 1973, when he was asked to speak to the young soldiers who were about to go into battle, he delivered a chilling monologue that expressed the essence of his life: “Look, boys, I am no longer so young, and this is my fourth war in this country. The worst was in Europe. They took my parents, my entire family, without even being able to defend ourselves, to raise a hand, to make a sound. I have not seen them since. If you ask what a man my age is doing here? Here is your answer: I am fighting! I am fighting like crazy, so that what happened to my generation does not happen to your generation, to your children.”

Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Aharon Bacher described those moments in his article, saying, “Simcha remained on his halftrack, his body even more tense, and only his gaze followed them to the edge of the horizon, until the tanks disappeared into a cloud of dust. His face remained impassive. When he finally turned to his duties and reached for the communications device, I saw that identification numbers from the Auschwitz death camp were tattooed on his arm.”

Even after he left the uniform, Simcha made it his mission to teach youth about the Holocaust.

For decades, he continued to serve as a witness on youth delegations to Poland and to tell his life story in schools and at IDF bases out of a deep sense of mission. Simcha Applebaum is survived by a large family that continues his path: he was married to Naomi, and they had three children and nine grandchildren, all of whom served or are serving in combat units in the IDF.

Lior Simcha, secretary general of the Kibbutz Movement, eulogized Applebaum: “Simcha was a guide in the fullest sense of the word. A Holocaust survivor, partisan fighter, survivor of concentration camps, and hero of the Yom Kippur War. As deputy commander of the 188th Brigade, he took a battered brigade and rebuilt it. He was one of the leaders of the kibbutz industry and among the heads of industrialists in Israel.”

The secretary general of the movement shared that only a few weeks ago, the late Lt. Col. Dor Ben Simhon was buried in Beit Hashita. According to him, the event brought thoughts of Yom Kippur. “In my mind’s eye I saw Simcha standing there, facing the tired tank crews returning from war, putting everyone back into their vehicles, gathering the pieces and leading them from defensive battles to the offensive,” he said.

He also said that Simcha Applebaum was “a man who knew the hardest battles, but also knew how to build.”

He said that “He was among the founders of the state, of settlement and kibbutz life, a leader in industry, and among those who shaped the face of Israeli society. His life story is interwoven with the story of the State of Israel, from the horrors of Europe, through Israel’s wars, to the building of community, society, and economy.”

The secretary general added that Applebaum was among the iron-and-steel generation of the state’s founders. “He built a home and laid strong foundations for the future. May his memory be blessed.”

A visit by American Rabbi David Saperstein to Damascus has drawn attention to work to preserve Syria’s Jewish sites and rebuild ties with members of the Syrian Jewish diaspora after decades of emigration, conflict, and official restrictions.

Saperstein, who served as US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during the Obama administration, arrived in the Syrian capital as part of an American delegation that toured historic Jewish sites and met with religious and civic figures.

The visit comes as some Jews of Syrian origin living abroad have begun returning to the country for short visits, property inquiries, and work to document and protect communal landmarks following the fall of the Assad government.

The delegation visited some of Damascus’ most prominent Jewish landmarks, including the historic Jobar Synagogue, considered one of the oldest synagogues in the region, as well as the Al-Franj Synagogue and the city’s Jewish cemetery.

Delegates were briefed on the condition of the sites, including damage sustained during years of war. They also received presentations on the history of Jewish life in Syria and the role the community played in the country’s economic, social, and cultural development.

Meetings with Syrian figures, interfaith, cultural dialogue

The visit included meetings with Syrian figures and representatives of organizations involved in interfaith and cultural dialogue. Talks focused on preserving the religious and historical legacy of Syria’s various communities and promoting understanding among different faiths and cultures at a time when the country is undergoing major political and social changes.

Syrian-Australian journalist Johnny Abo told The Media Line that the visit carried particular significance because of the participants and the meetings held with Syrian officials and religious leaders.

“The meetings were positive, productive, and focused on Syria’s rich religious and cultural diversity,” Abo said. “The delegation received a warm welcome from religious authorities, including Christian patriarchs and clergy, who engaged in open discussions with the rabbi and other members of the group.”

According to Abo, participants emphasized the historical presence of the Jewish community in Syria and its place within the country’s social fabric. They also discussed the preservation of Jewish religious and cultural sites, including historic synagogues and communal properties.

“Syria has historically been a land of civilizations, diversity, and coexistence,” he said. “The Jewish community was once an active part of public life, including parliamentary representation and a prominent role in commerce and trade.”

While describing the visit as primarily religious and cultural, Abo said it also carried broader symbolic messages. He said the participation of a rabbi with previous diplomatic experience reflected an effort to foster dialogue among Syrians, members of the Syrian Jewish diaspora, and American circles interested in Syria’s future.

“The visit ultimately conveys a message of coexistence and peace,” Abo said. “For centuries, the peoples of this region lived side by side despite their differences, and that legacy remains an important foundation for building a more stable future.”

Joseph Jajati, a Syrian American Jewish activist originally from Damascus, played a key role in organizing the visit. Jajati has been involved in several initiatives aimed at strengthening ties between Syrians inside the country and those living abroad.

Speaking to The Media Line, Jajati said the visit carries significance beyond its religious dimension, reflecting a growing desire to open new channels of communication with Syrian communities worldwide and to rebuild trust after years of separation.

“The delegation received full cooperation throughout its visit to Damascus,” Jajati said. “Members were able to access Jewish religious and historical sites, observe their condition firsthand, and meet with individuals from different backgrounds.”

Jajati said the visit gave participants a firsthand view of conditions in Damascus and of changes underway in Syria. He said the level of cooperation reflected what he saw as a commitment to preserving the country’s religious and cultural legacy.

“The most important message of this visit,” he said, “is that Syria is more than a geographic space or political borders. It is a long history of coexistence and diversity among the communities that have lived here and contributed to its civilization.”

Jajati added that many members of the Syrian Jewish diaspora in the United States and elsewhere maintain strong emotional and cultural ties to their country of origin and that visits such as this can help reconnect younger generations with their Syrian roots.

The focus on historic Jewish sites also reflects a broader attempt to recognize Syria’s pluralistic past and the contributions of communities that helped shape the country’s identity. Syria’s Jewish community, once concentrated mainly in Damascus, Aleppo, and Qamishli, declined sharply over the second half of the 20th century.

Unofficial estimates place Syria’s Jewish population in the 1950s at between 30,000 and 35,000 people. Waves of emigration later followed, driven by rising Arab nationalism, growing insecurity, and clandestine networks that helped Syrian Jews leave for the United States, Latin America, and Israel.

Jajati was born in Damascus and is the grandson of Yusuf Jajati, who headed Syria’s Jewish community during the presidency of Hafez Assad. He left Syria with his family for the United States after restrictions on Jewish travel were lifted in April 1992, following the launch of the Madrid Peace Conference.

Approximately 4,000 Jews left Syria during that period, leaving only a small community behind. Following the outbreak of the Syrian uprising and the escalation of violence, most of the remaining community departed. Today, only a handful of elderly Jews are believed to remain in Damascus.

Saperstein is a prominent Jewish religious leader in the United States. In addition to serving as US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom from 2015 to 2017, he has long been active in interfaith dialogue, religious freedom advocacy, and minority rights initiatives.

Over several decades, he has participated in international efforts to promote understanding among religious communities and has become a respected figure in Jewish, academic, and interfaith circles.

Jewish-American delegations visit Syria since Assad’s fall

Since the fall of the Assad government, Jajati has organized several visits by American delegations, including Jewish groups, to Syria. He has also worked to secure licensing for the Syrian Mosaic Foundation, an organization that promotes Syria’s multicultural history, interfaith engagement, and cultural diplomacy, and coordinated with the management of Damascus’ Semiramis Hotel to open what is currently the country’s only kosher restaurant.

Under Syria’s new authorities, some Jews of Syrian origin living abroad have been able to visit the country and return to former neighborhoods, homes, and places of worship. Some have begun pursuing claims to recover property or launch investment projects, particularly in the textile and garment sectors.

Others continue to face legal and administrative challenges related to properties belonging to Syrian Jews who emigrated abroad, including cases handled through Syria’s Office of Absentee Jewish Property.

Researchers and community activists say preserving Jewish sites in Syria is not only a matter for one religious group, but part of the country’s broader historical memory after years in which war, authoritarian rule, official restrictions, and emigration nearly erased one of the Middle East’s oldest Jewish communities.

Ms. Susan Al-Akhras, one of the organizers of the visit, said that the visit reflected openness and cooperation by the Syrian authorities toward efforts to preserve Syrian Jewish heritage and strengthen communication with members of the Syrian Jewish community abroad.

She explained in an interview with The Media Line that the visit was conducted in an official and organized manner, with the delegation receiving facilitation that enabled it to access several Jewish religious and historical sites in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and to assess their condition firsthand.

The delegation also held meetings with religious and civil figures, as well as representatives of institutions concerned with dialogue and cultural diversity.

She added that during the tour, the delegation visited several prominent Jewish historical landmarks, including the Jobar Synagogue, the Franj Synagogue, and the Jewish cemetery in Damascus.

The visit showed that these sites are an important part of Syria’s historical memory, although some still require restoration, maintenance, and protection after many years of war and neglect.

Participants stressed that preserving these landmarks is not merely a Jewish matter but rather part of broader efforts to safeguard Syria’s national heritage across its religious and cultural components.

Members of the delegation and representatives of the Syrian Jewish community abroad also expressed their willingness to support projects to document, maintain, and restore Jewish historical sites, in coordination with the relevant Syrian authorities, to preserve this heritage for future generations. 

They also emphasized the importance of reconnecting younger generations of Syrian Jews with their cultural and historical roots in Syria and encouraging more visits to help build bridges of trust and communication.

At the same time, Bikhor Shemtov, a representative of the Jewish community in Syria, told The Media Line that the visit reflected a positive atmosphere of welcome and engagement among many Syrians, who viewed it as a step that reflects Syria’s history of diversity and coexistence among its various communities.

Participants affirmed that the country’s future should be based on respect for religious and cultural pluralism and on the preservation of the heritage of all communities that have contributed to the building of Syrian civilization throughout the centuries.

US President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remained out of the Iran war at his request, despite having the motivation to aid Iran during the conflict.

“He was a prime candidate to go into the war with Iran, maybe on the Iran side, because he’s not a big fan of Israel,” Trump said during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. 

However, Trump said that after he had asked Erdogan, whom he described as a friend, to stay out of the war, he did so. 

“Everything I’ve ever asked him for, he’s done,” Trump added. He also said that he was going to be attending the Ankara Summit in two weeks at Erdogan’s request. 

When asked if he would provide fighter jets and jet engines to Turkey, Trump stated that he would “probably do something” that would make Turkey ”very happy.”

US Vice President JD Vance indicated that a review was underway to see how the United States could sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets, given Ankara’s 2019 acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

“[US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth] and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened … in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that,” Vance told reporters.

Trump ‘disappointed’ with Europe for not helping during Iran war

Trump told Rutte that he was disappointed in the level of NATO participation in the Iran war, while the NATO secretary defended European countries’ contributions.  

“Generally speaking, your European allies have been there with you,” Rutte said.

Rutte stated that while he understood Trump’s disappointment with NATO, countries had still made significant contributions to the US war effort, including Romania, which had closed its airport to all commercial traffic when the US needed to send a tanker aircraft into the air, one of 4,000 to 5,000 planes that took off from European air bases during the war. 

“It would have been very difficult to do Iran without having Europe as a power projection platform for the United States,” Rutte said. 

However, Trump reiterated his stance that NATO countries had not done enough. 

“We’re disappointed with most of them,” Trump said. 

Trump doesn’t think the US struck girls school in Minab

Trump also addressed the investigation into the deadly strike on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, during the start of the war with Iran, stating that the fault may never truly be determined. 

“I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it, because there were missiles flying all over the place,” Trump said, adding that he did not believe the missile that struck the school was from the US. 

Trump said he had not yet seen the report into the attack, and was waiting for it to be complete. 

Hegseth stated that the investigation was being taken “very seriously” but did not share any other details. 

Judea and Samaria Police rescued an IDF soldier from the West Bank town of Tarqumiyah on Wednesday night, following a report from Palestinian Authority security forces of a person in military uniform handcuffed in the center of the town. 

The soldier, a resident of southern Israel serving in the IDF, was taken to the Hebron police station.

A preliminary investigation found that the soldier was unarmed.

The incident is believed to be criminal in nature rather than nationalistic or terror-motivated.

The Military Police Criminal Investigation Division is now investigating the case.

It is expected that the case will be transferred to the National Crime Unit – Lahav 433 for further investigation.

Recurring instances of Israelis entering West Bank Area A towns, villages

The incident follows similar reports over recent months of Israelis entering Area A of the West Bank before being rescued.

On Saturday, the IDF’s Civil Administration received a report of an Israeli civilian entering Ramallah.

In February, authorities rescued an Israeli near Kalkilya.

Avi Ashkenazi and Miriam Sela-Eitam contributed to this report.

A new survey found that 48% of American voters think the United States is “too supportive” of Israel, the highest since the pollster started asking the question in 2017. 

The survey published Wednesday by Quinnipiac University also found that 60% of respondents reported that military intervention in Iran was “not worth it,” as opposed to 34% of voters who said it was “worth it.”

The number of respondents who think the US support of Israel is about right is 38%, while just 7% think the US is not supportive enough of Israel, the poll found. 

Broken down by party, 66% of Democrats think the US is too supportive of Israel, while 9% think it is not supportive enough, and 18% think US support for Israel is about right.

Among Republicans, 20% think the US is too supportive of Israel, 69% think American support for Israel is “about right,” and 6% think the US is not supportive enough.

48% say US too supportive of Israel, anti-Israel Democrats sweep NY primary races

Among independent voters, 55% think the US is too supportive of Israel, 34% think US support for Israel is about right, and 7% think the US is not supportive enough.

The poll data were released one day after three Democrats critical of Israel swept their House primary races in New York City, and in races around the country, even some reliably pro-Israel Democratic candidates distanced themselves from the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

A survey last year by Gallup found dwindling support for Israel among Democrats,  as well as waning support among Republicans.

Still, the party divide was also in sharp evidence in the latest poll. In responses to the question about whether the Iran war was “worth it”, Democrats disfavored military action in Iran at 93% and independents at 66%, while 75% of Republicans surveyed thought it was “worth it.”

Given a list of 10 issues and asked which, if any, they considered priorities in their decision-making process in the election for the US House of Representatives, 41% of voters cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, above AI data centers (38%) and Donald Trump (38%). The high cost of living (70%) and health care (59%) topped the list.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from June 18 to 22, and includes responses from 1,165 self-identified registered voters. 

The margin of error is 3.4 percentage points.

Among those surveyed, 48% said they had an unfavorable view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Twenty percent said they had a favorable opinion, and 30% “haven’t heard enough” about him. 

“Netanyahu gets poor marks from American voters as their appetite for supporting Israel wanes, with the share of voters who think the US is too supportive of Israel hitting a new high,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy wrote in the report.

Voters were also asked about their views on the June 17 memorandum of understanding with Iran, which begins a 60-day negotiation period that does not outline an end to Iran’s nuclear program.

“After months of diplomatic fits and starts, global economic repercussions and a broad loss of life in the region, a majority of voters make their feelings clear: the Iran war was a bad idea,” Malloy wrote.

Voters who are either not confident or “not so confident” that the deal will succeed numbered 59%, and 61% think it is either likely or very likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the victories of the progressive candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries, describing their success as a “shift in the balance of power.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the morning after the primaries, Mamdani touted the triumphs as a shift in the balance of power between “working people” and “special interests.”

Mamdani-endorsed candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Claire Valdez won Democratic nominations for Congress. During the press conference, the mayor repeatedly highlighted their calls to restrict US military aid to Israel and redirect federal funding to domestic priorities.

Following Mamdani’s election night sweep in New York, US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”

The victories offered an early demonstration of Mamdani’s political influence beyond City Hall, as several Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, including Chevalier, defeated established Democratic incumbents in their districts.

Trump: ‘America the beautiful will never be a communist country’

“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said, adding that Avila Chevalier’s oft-repeated slogan of investing in “Babies not Bombs,” is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”

Mamdani responded to the president’s post on Wednesday, telling a reporter who asked whether his goal is to make America a “socialist” country that his “goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”

When asked about federal policies that could be affected by Mamdani’s endorsed candidates, the mayor cited Valdez’s support for “foreign policy that understands human rights for all” and Lander’s commitment to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the sale of certain US-made offensive weapons to Israel.

Mamdani also dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about how the victories would play out in November as Democrats try to win back the House.

Chevalier’s slogan: ‘Babies not Bombs’

“Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” he said.

When asked whether the election of Chevalier, who has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and her appearance at an Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, could “complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole,” Mamdani replied, “No.”

“[Chevalier] often speaks about a politics of life. She speaks about ‘Babies not bombs,’” Mamdani continued.

“What could be a better example of what the people of the district want to see versus what the people of the district have been forced to experience, which is tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”

Baby rats were discovered in a service cart on an Arkia flight from Greece to Israel, according to footage circulated on social media. 

The incident sparked widespread reactions online and led to an exchange of accusations between the airline and the catering company that serviced the flight. 

According to Arkia, the cart in which the baby rats were discovered came from the dry-goods storage facilities of the catering company TMM and did not contain food intended for passenger service. 

The company emphasized that, upon discovery, the cart was immediately taken out of service and that there was no contact between it and any food served during the flight.

TMM should conduct a ‘comprehensive and thorough investigation,’ says Arkia

“Arkia views the incident seriously, demands that TMM conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the case, and expects to receive full explanations along with corrective steps to ensure that an incident of this kind does not recur in the future,” the airline said. 

TMM rejected Arkia’s claims and clarified that the cart, which was inspected and approved before the flight’s departure, only contained soft drinks. 

TMM added that it is the airline’s responsibility to check the cart before it is utilized. 

TMM threatens court

The catering company stated that “any attempt to cast doubt on the TMM facility, which supplies hundreds of thousands of meals per month and operates under the strictest food safety standards, is unacceptable and will, if necessary, be addressed in court.”

“The trolley in question, which contained soft drinks only, was inspected as on every flight by an Arkia crew member and a representative of the catering facility, who confirmed that the trolley was fully compliant when it was loaded. The incident was discovered later, while the aircraft was parked in Greece,” it added. 

TMM urged Akia to “conduct an urgent and in-depth investigation to determine how such a serious incident occurred on its aircraft.”

The incident is currently under review.