An investigation into the unusual turbulence which hit an Air India flight from Thailand to Delhi in August, resulting in the injury of over 20 people, revealed that the captain’s confirmatory test for psychoactive substances was non-negative, the India air accident body announced on Friday.

According to the body, four people were seriously injured during the incident, and another 20 lightly injured.

The investigation further revealed that the seat belt signs had been off at the time of the turbulence, and that flight control systems detected the loss of all three hydraulic systems.

This is a developing story.

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Two people were pulled out alive on Friday from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on the Trishuli River, nine days after an ice, rock and mud slide swept through a valley in Nepal, killing more than 1,200 people and displacing tens of thousands.

The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha’s office said in a statement.

Officials and rescue workers believe the August 26 collapse of a glacier in the upper reaches of the Trishuli River trapped at least 900 people in tunnels associated with six hydropower projects along the river.

Workers taken to hospital in Kathmandu

Maharjan cannot move his hands and legs, but Sah’s injuries are not critical, an aide to the energy minister told Reuters.

The two are being taken to a hospital in Kathmandu, he said.

Amir Maharjan, Kabir’s brother, said he has not received any news officially but has been told to go to the hospital.

“I have been hearing from the news that my brother has been found. The entire family is very happy,” Amir said.

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Two residents of Acre‘s Old City in their 20s were arrested on suspicion of attacking a bereaved father whose daughter was killed at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, Israel Police said on Thursday.

The attack took place last week in the old city, while the victim had been out walking his dog. 

During the walk, they encountered the suspects’ dog, and a fight broke out between the two dogs.

According to the police’s investigation, the suspects had approached the incident and, claiming their dog had been purposefully attacked, “violently” attacked and injured the man.

Suspects arrested during house raid

Police opened an investigation immediately and were able to identify and track down the two suspects. Their homes were raided on Thursday morning, leading to both of their arrests.

They were taken to the Acre Police Station for further questioning, after which they were jailed, police said.

In accordance with the needs and findings of the investigation, the court granted the police’s request and extended the detention of the two until September 7. 

Yoav Etiel contributed to this report.

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When five major Mediterranean desalination plants went offline earlier this week, household taps didn’t run dry. It exposed why water, electricity, food, and shelters must be treated as matters of national security. That is precisely why the incident should be treated as a warning rather than dismissed as a crisis successfully contained.

The plants were forced offline after unusually high seawater turbidity, apparently caused by microalgae carried north from the Nile Delta. Some subsequently resumed operating, but three remained offline on Wednesday.

The authorities protected residential supply, while municipalities were instructed to reduce nonessential consumption, and agricultural water was temporarily cut in parts of the country. Negev farmers warned that crops at the height of the growing season could suffer irreversible damage within a day.

On one level, the outcome demonstrates the water system’s strength: Israel maintained household supplies even after losing most of its desalination capacity. That is a considerable accomplishment in a dry country that once lived at the mercy of rainfall.

Exposing the concentration beneath the success

But the incident also exposed the concentration beneath that success. A small number of large facilities produce much of Israel’s drinking water, and all require usable seawater, electricity, and functioning pumping infrastructure. A single natural event was enough to interrupt several at once.

A recent preprint by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Max Planck Institutes modeled scenarios in which drought, electricity disruptions, war, cyberattacks, and marine pollution overlap. The research has not yet undergone peer review, but the question it raises is immediately relevant: Is Israel preparing for several systems to fail at once, or is each ministry still preparing for its own isolated scenario?

Israel understandably speaks about national security through the language of armies, borders, intelligence, and missile defense; those threats are real and immediate. But civilians cannot live beneath Iron Dome alone.

Security also means that the lights remain on, hospitals keep functioning, food reaches supermarkets, and families have somewhere protected to go when the air-raid siren sounds. These are not softer alternatives to national defense; rather, they are what allow a country to absorb an attack and continue operating.

Recent State Comptroller’s Reports have revealed a recurring weakness in precisely these areas. In January, the comptroller found that one-third of Israelis lacked adequate access to standard protected spaces, and that 12% of public shelters were unfit for use. A February audit found that emergency planning for the electricity sector had not kept pace with changes in the industry, and that responsibility for critical diesel stocks remained unresolved years after the government ordered it transferred.

No single government body overseeing the full picture of emergency food security

Last October a report found no single government body was overseeing the full picture of emergency food security, and there was no long-term national strategy. A separate February audit found that prior to the October 7 massacre, Israel did not have an approved operational plan for mass civilian evacuation, leaving local authorities to improvise as some 210,000 residents were displaced.

Since then, some of the relevant government bodies have taken steps. The Energy and Infrastructure Ministry, for example, has cited a NIS 1 billion program launched during the war to strengthen infrastructure and emergency stocks. This week’s uninterrupted household water supply also reflects serious advance planning.

The argument, therefore, is not that nothing works; it is that Israel repeatedly relies on capable workers and emergency improvisation to close gaps that should have been resolved beforehand. Across sectors, responsibility remains divided, plans age without being updated, and corrective action accelerates only once the danger becomes visible.

That is partly a problem of political incentives. Air-defense procurements and military operations produce announcements that maintenance, redundancy, and coordination between ministries rarely do. When they succeed, nothing dramatic happens: The tap runs, the refrigerator stays cold, and the local authority knows what to do.

With a little under two months until the October 27 election, parties asking Israelis to trust them with national security should be expected to address this side of it as well. They should explain who will hold binding responsibility for civilian preparedness, which deficiencies have been corrected, what deadlines remain, and how weaker municipalities will be brought up to standard.

The desalination disruption should not be forgotten when the last plant returns to operation. Israel’s strength is measured not only by whether it can strike its enemies or intercept their weapons, but by whether ordinary life can continue under pressure.

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The current and former presidents of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) governing body said efforts to isolate the institution diplomatically are aimed at eroding confidence in the international legal order, as President Donald Trump’s administration has pressured countries to isolate the ICC.

“Efforts to isolate the Court diplomatically – whether by encouraging States Parties to withdraw from the Rome Statute or urging non-States Parties to join measures intended to weaken it – are aimed at eroding not only one institution, but confidence in the international legal order itself,” they said in a joint op-ed published on Thursday.

The op-ed appeared on the Just Security law and policy journal’s website. Authors included Paivi Kaukoranta, who is the president of the ICC’s governing body, the Assembly of States Parties, and seven of its former presidents.

Defending the ICC “is about preserving the international legal order as we have built it, as humanity’s strongest safeguard against a descent into lawlessness and impunity,” the op-ed said, adding the choice was “between a world based on the rule of law and one where might decides what is right.”

The op-ed comes as the Trump administration has sanctioned ICC judges and officials, including the court’s president, and is pressing member countries to quit, a campaign that has prompted lawsuits and raised concerns among some US allies.

Trump sanctions ICC officials

The Trump administration ratcheted up its campaign against the Hague-based court last month by sanctioning its president, Tomoko Akane, and a senior trial lawyer.

Washington says it will also step up efforts to get other countries to quit the institution.

The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute ‌atrocities itself.

The US is not a member. But the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US ally, over assertions of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s assault on Gaza, as well as a past probe into US troops in Afghanistan, has drawn Washington’s ire.

“The Trump Administration’s campaign to disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty will continue,” State Department spokeswoman Paloma Chacon said in response to the op-ed.

The administration says it will use ⁠travel bans ​and sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, which are being opposed in the courts by ICC judges and US advocacy groups who say the administration is ​violating free speech.

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A man in his 30s was lightly wounded in the suspected stabbing terror attack in the Damascus Gate area of the Old City of Jerusalem, United Hatzalah said early Friday morning.

He was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for further treatment by United Hatzalah.

Israel Police said that officers stationed in the area shot the terrorist after he approached security personnel located nearby.

The attack came hours after more than 50,000 people gathered at the Western Wall to recite the selichot earlier in the night.

This is a developing story.
 

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In perhaps the most surprising news to come out of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with US haredi leaders today, the two Satmar Rebbes shook hands and spoke face to face for what is likely the first time in several decades.

The two Rebbes, Reb Aharon Teitelbaum and Reb Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, are brothers. Their father, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, had appointed Zalman Leib to lead the Williamsburg community and, according to his will, designated him as his successor. Aaron’s supporters disputed this, arguing that Aaron, as the elder son, should succeed their father. When Moshe died in 2006, both brothers were proclaimed Rebbe by their respective followers, creating the two factions.

President Trump just met with Jewish leaders at the White House.

One man told us this on his way out of the West Wing. pic.twitter.com/wYzX824LuU

— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) September 3, 2026

Zalman Leon leads the Williamsburg, Brooklyn faction of Satmar, while Aaron leads the faction centered on Kiryas Joel, New York.

The news of the meeting of the two has sent shockwaves through the haredi community.

During the gathering, Reb Aharon reportedly congratulated his estranged brother on the recent engagement of his grandson.

First meeting of its king in over half a century

Aside from the fraternal reunion, the meeting was significant for others reasons; it marked the first meeting of its kind in the Oval Office in more than 50 years.

Among the participants were leaders from the Satmar, Skver, Bobov, and Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasties, as well as leaders of the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey, all of whom are anti-Zionist and oppose the existence of the State of Israel.

Both Satmar rebbes are explicitly anti-Zionist, as is the Skverer Rebbe. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe is best described as traditional haredi (ultra-Orthodox) non-Zionist, and the Bobov Rebbe can be best described as non-Zionist yet non-hostile in his stance.

Belaaz reported that Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were all also in attendance.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that an investigation would determine what caused a dispute between two of Ukraine’s security agencies to escalate into a shootout in Kyiv this week that left three members of the Defense Ministry’s HUR Military Intelligence Directorate injured.

The dispute centers on the disappearance for nine days of a Russian nationalist activist fighting alongside Ukrainian troops in the four-and-a-half-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.

The nationalist said he was detained by the SBU Security Service and obliged to sign a confession that he collaborated with Russian intelligence. He later retracted the statement.

The street clash occurred in central Kyiv on Tuesday after the activist’s home in Kyiv was searched. SBU officers fired on members of the HUR unit. The SBU has said it was acting to prevent a Moscow-inspired plot to assassinate Russian anti-Kremlin activists in Kyiv.

“It is important that the truth come out. And that situations like this do not recur,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

SBU, HUR agencies clash violently over dispute

“An assessment of the heads of these two agencies – the SBU and the HUR – will be made based on the results of an internal investigation. It is completely fair that both sides be brought to account. Both acted precisely in a way that should not have happened,” he said.

Two servicemen from the two bodies have been issued notices of suspicion in connection with the incident. Zelensky has dismissed the head of the SBU’s department for the protection of state secrets, Oleh Khramov.

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Canada’s Federal Court ordered on Tuesday that previously redacted sections of a 1986 report be disclosed, following the longstanding efforts of B’nai Brith Canada to make the entire document public.

The report, written by historian Alti Rodal for the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, concerns how alleged Nazi war criminals and collaborators settled in Canada after the conclusion of WWII.

According to Rodal’s report, Nazi war criminals and their collaborators had undergone inadequate security screenings upon arriving in Canada, as Canadian authorities had been more concerned with identifying communist spies.

While much of the report is already public record, important sections have remained redacted.

“It is a scandal that, during a time when Canada maintained severe restrictions on Jewish immigration to this country, it facilitated the entry of perpetrators of Nazi crimes,” said Simon Wolle, B’nai Brith Canada’s Chief Executive Officer. “Canadians have a right to know the truth about not only Canada’s actions but the US’s covert efforts to sneak ex-Nazis into Canada after the Second World War.”

“This Federal Court decision paves the way for accountability and transparency, basic requirements for Canadians to maintain trust in our democratic system of governance.”

“B’nai Brith will continue its fight for the Government to unseal remaining records concerning Nazi war criminals in Canada and the Deschênes Commission,” he said.

Wolle thanked lawyers David Rosenfeld and Michael Wenig, and Professor Jared McBride from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for their work in the case and support of B’nai Brith.

LAC releases sections of report at B’nai Brith’s request

In February 2024, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) released additional redacted sections of the report to B’nai Brith following an Access to Information request from the organization.

The version of the report released in 2024, however, retained several redactions across seven pages in one section, as well as file numbers from 14 of the endnotes.

The redacted section discusses Canada’s discovery of a covert US intelligence program aimed at resettling Nazis and Nazi collaborators in Canada by evading proper security screenings.

Justice Simon Fothergill, who made the Thursday ruling to release the sections, rejected LAC’s argument that releasing certain additional sections would harm Canada’s international affairs, noting that it had failed to provide sufficient evidence of such a case.

Fothergill noted that the public’s “opportunity… to become better informed about Canada’s history nourishes public debate and strengthens our democracy.”

Canada’s government has 30 days to appeal the decision.

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OpenAI said on Thursday it would commit $1 billion in subsidized access to its AI cybersecurity tools, training and technical support for organizations that protect critical services, as concerns grow over increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks.

OpenAI has faced increased scrutiny since its own AI agent breached systems at open-source platform Hugging Face during a July test and attempted to hide its actions. Similar concerns have emerged at rival Anthropic. Both firms are preparing for mega IPOs.

OpenAI on Thursday, alongside the cybersecurity initiative, also unveiled Astra, a new AI model it described as its most capable yet but said can at times attempt to evade human monitoring.

The initiative, called “Daybreak for Frontline Defenders,” will initially focus on US operators of essential services including water utilities, electric grid operators, state and local governments, community banks and nonprofits, with plans to expand to partner countries in coming weeks, the company said.

This comes as OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon last week joined more than 100 companies in warning that time is running short to strengthen cyber defenses before AI-driven attacks become more widespread.

AI-enabled cyberattacks becoming more widespread, sophisticated

“In the coming months, AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable,” OpenAI said on Thursday.

“Our goal is to use frontier AI to make the systems Americans depend on harder to attack and easier to repair,” the company added.

OpenAI said in August it is slowing down the pace of its AI model development while it overhauls its research and training systems.
 

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The management of Jerusalem’s Basimta Cafe decided that the establishment will remain closed on Saturdays amid weekly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protests against its Shabbat operations.

According to the cafe’s management, the decision to stop operating on Saturdays was made with a heavy heart, after the establishment became a focal point of friction in recent months. It explained that continuing the situation was not consistent with the identity and values they seek to promote at the venue.

“This is a difficult and painful decision that stems from a deep responsibility toward our customers, our faith and Israeli society as a whole,” said CEO of Jews for Jesus Eli Birnbaum. “The cafe has become, over the past several months, a focal point of friction and danger, a reality that contradicts our identity as Jews who believe in Jesus and our belief in love for others, respect, and bringing people closer together, even with those who oppose us.”

He thanked the police, the Jerusalem Municipality and those who came to support the cafe in recent weeks.

“Now we are asking to return Basimta Cafe to what it was intended to be: a calm, pleasant and open place for coffee, culture and dialogue,” he said.

What coercion looks like

Following the announcement, The Democrats party chair Yair Golan decried the decision as one made as a “result of haredi terror,” in a post on X/Twitter. “A coffee shop in an alley just wanted to do something simple: open on Shabbat in Jerusalem. Not to force anyone to desecrate Shabbat, not to change anyone’s way of life. Just to allow those who choose to drink coffee on Shabbat in their city.”

“For weeks, they subjected it to terror, violence, protests, and threats, until it gave in and decided to close.”

“That’s what coercion looks like,” Golan said. “And if we don’t stop it, it will continue to the next coffee shop.

“We The Democrats respect the Shabbat of those who choose to observe it. And we demand exactly the same respect for our Shabbat. Jerusalem belongs to all of us. Israel belongs to all of us.”

He affirmed that should he and his party be elected into the next government, “we will protect the freedom to live here as Jews, as seculars, as traditionalists, and as religious, each in their own way.”

“A business that wants to open on Shabbat in a place where the law allows it, will open. Whoever wants to observe Shabbat, will observe it,” he said. “We don’t ask permission for our freedom. We defend it. We fight for it. And that’s exactly what we’ll do. Because without the Democrats, there won’t be true democracy.”

Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman echoed Golan’s sentiment in his own X post.

“Israel 2026,” Liberman said. “Drinking coffee on Shabbat – forbidden. Hating, attacking, and rioting on Shabbat – permitted.”

“This is not our Judaism. We will not yield to the evaders, we will not allow the State of Israel to be turned into a State of Halacha. Live and let live. Without coercion.”

Protests began in early July

The protests began on Saturday, July 4, when dozens of haredi demonstrators, many of whom were reportedly minors, descended on the cafe in four separate waves, surrounding the building, banging on its windows, and overturning tables.

On August 22, haredi demonstrators set up barricades around the cafe in an attempt to prevent patrons from entering, as security footage showed at the time.

Also in August, a 75-year-old man was arrested after he vandalized the cafe with spray paint, as well as damaging the restaurant’s lock and throwing garbage at it.

In response, secular Israelis have conducted counter-protests against the haredi activists, with Liberman having joined Basimta Cafe supporters earlier in August.

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A single juror in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial is preventing the jury from reaching a unanimous verdict, her lawyer said in court on Thursday, after deliberations stretched into a sixth day over whether to convict the Massachusetts woman of killing her three young children.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington made that statement shortly after the jury sent Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a note that prompted him to re-instruct jurors on what would constitute “reasonable doubt.”

After the jury was sent back to continue deliberating, Reddington moved to have a holdout juror removed, saying a note from the jury’s foreperson indicated “there’s one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you’ve given him or her on reasonable doubt.”

“If we come back here in half an hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame,” Reddington told the judge, who declined to remove the juror.

The jury sent Sullivan a note a day earlier that said, “After much deliberation, we are still unable to come to a unanimous decision.” They sent a similar note on Tuesday. But on both days, the judge instructed them to continue deliberating.

Mistrial may be declared

If the jury does not reach a verdict and Sullivan declares a mistrial, prosecutors would need to decide whether to retry the case, which has included more than 80 witnesses and more than 300 exhibits.

Asked during a lunch break about his thoughts on the state of the deliberations, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters outside the courthouse that “we’ll hang on and find out.”

On the question of whether prosecutors in his office would retry the case if it ended in a mistrial, Cruz said only: “I’ll talk when this is all over.”

Life in prison without parole if convicted

Clancy, 36, faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. If found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, or reason of insanity, she could be committed to a state psychiatric hospital for evaluation.

She has admitted to strangling her three children to death on January 24, 2023, with exercise bands in the basement of their home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to take ​her own life, which left her paralyzed.

During the six-week trial, defense attorney Kevin Reddington sought to convince jurors that Clancy was in the midst of a psychotic episode when she killed Cora, 5; ​Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan.

Testimony from family members, including Clancy’s now ex-husband, Patrick, showed how she had struggled with her mental health in the months after the birth of her third child, repeatedly seeking treatment from healthcare providers ​who prescribed her a myriad of drugs.

Prosecutors do not dispute that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, had been dealing with mental health issues.

But they argued she was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of killing her children and intentionally chose to do so anyway, opting to kill them because she had decided to kill herself and was convinced they would suffer without her.

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Israeli basketball has taken significant strides forward in recent years, thanks in large part to the success of Deni Avdija in the National Basketball Association.

His emergence as a star with the Portland Trail Blazers and his selection to last season’s NBA All-Star Game have shown a generation of young Israelis that reaching the world’s premier basketball league is no longer just a dream.

While Avdija was taking his first steps in the NBA with the Washington Wizards, Ben Saraf was developing his game in Europe before being selected by the Brooklyn Nets in the 2025 NBA Draft. The 20-year-old guard enjoyed a solid rookie campaign, appearing in 44 games and making 11 starts while averaging 7.5 points, 3.3 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game.

Despite the challenges that come with adapting to the NBA, Saraf continued to develop his skills and became yet another role model for young basketball players across Israel.

Saraf, who also played in the NBA Summer League, returned to Israel to take part in a special event hosted by legendary YouTuber and sports analyst Pini Barel together with Foot Locker at Cinema City in Rishon LeZion. The event gave hundreds of fans the opportunity to hear firsthand about life in the NBA and meet one of Israel’s brightest basketball stars.

Prior to the event, Saraf sat down with The Jerusalem Post to discuss his debut NBA season, his development as a player and what it means to be an Israeli and a Jew playing in New York City.

“It’s so much fun meeting the Israeli fans,” Saraf began as he spoke about the special program. “We haven’t really had events like this in Israel before, so it’s something special for the basketball culture here. I’m having a great time, and it’s amazing to see people wearing my jersey. That’s really exciting. I hadn’t been back to Israel for quite a while, so it’s always great to come home.”

Playing in the NBA is, of course, a dream come true for the modest Saraf, who played for teams in Netanya, Kiryat Ata and Ulm before landing in the United States, where he is teammates with fellow Israeli Danny Wolf and now competes in the same league as Avdija.

‘Bigger than basketball’

“I think the most exciting and emotional moment was the game where there were three Israelis playing together on the same court with all the Jewish fans in attendance. It was so much bigger than basketball. That was definitely the most powerful moment of my season.”

Being based in New York has allowed Saraf to spend time with the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, something he is taking full advantage of.

“It’s amazing. There are endless Friday night dinners. Even when I travel to other places, I meet many Israelis and Jews doing gap-year programs or volunteering, and I’m always invited over. That’s also true when it comes to Chabad houses across the country. I try to go whenever I can. I also visited a Jewish school in Cleveland to talk with the kids. It’s great. I really appreciate all that support.”

Saraf learned plenty during his first season in the NBA and gained valuable insight into the areas of his game that still need improvement. While he shot 39.6 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free-throw line as a rookie, the guard knows there is room to grow, particularly with his outside shot after connecting on 21.1 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.

“During my workouts over the past few months, the Summer League and our team practices, I already feel like the game has slowed down for me a bit. You have to get used to the pace and understand better what’s expected of you. This summer, I’m focusing a lot on improving my shooting, getting stronger physically, learning how to take care of my body and how to prepare for games. Those are all things you learn during your first NBA season, and I’m happy about that.”

The national team remains a major priority for Saraf, as it does for virtually every Israeli basketball player. Although he would have liked to represent Israel during the recent World Cup qualifying window, obligations with the Nets prevented him from doing so. Still, there is little doubt that he sees a bright future alongside Avdija in blue and white.

“It’s a huge dream. Honestly, whenever I play for the national team, that’s when I enjoy basketball the most. Those tournaments are the most fun for me, and it’s always an incredible experience. I’m also really excited to watch the youth national teams. They’re doing an amazing job. I think we have a lot of talented prospects and that we can become a really strong national team in the future. I’m very excited about that.”

As for the upcoming season, Saraf has both personal and team goals he hopes to achieve.

“I think this year we want to win as many games as possible. Last season, there were more opportunities for the younger players, and I think that really helped all of us. But this year it’s about winning. Whoever helps the team win is going to play. So for me, it’s about earning minutes, earning the coaching staff’s trust and being as impactful as I can.”

For Saraf, there are also bigger dreams on the horizon.

“Making the playoffs is definitely a dream. I think this year our team has been built well, and I really believe we can do it. That’s our goal.”

Saraf also finished his rookie season on a high note. After spending part of the year in the G League, the 20-year-old responded with arguably the strongest stretch of basketball of his young NBA career. Over Brooklyn’s final four games, he averaged 17.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists while logging more than 32 minutes per contest. The highlight of that run came when he scored 19 points in back-to-back games against Milwaukee and Indiana, showing the poise, confidence and playmaking ability that made him one of Europe’s most highly regarded prospects.

Saraf also experienced some adversity during his rookie campaign, including a stint in the G League. However, he viewed the experience as an opportunity rather than a setback and returned to finish the season strongly, averaging 0.9 steals per game while showing flashes of the playmaking ability that made him such a highly regarded prospect.

Carving a role with Nets

But his strong finish offered a glimpse of Saraf’s potential heading into his sophomore season and reinforced his belief that he can carve out a meaningful role with the Nets moving forward.

“It was really important for me to prove to myself that I was capable, even if I had to take a step back. I wanted to stay mentally strong, and I think by the end of the season I was playing much better and had some good games. But the goal now is to start next season already playing a meaningful role with the team.”

Being part of the NBA also gives Saraf a front-row seat to some of the league’s biggest storylines and blockbuster moves.

“I think every year it’s crazy, but ever since the Luka Doncic trade from Dallas to the Lakers, it’s on another level. It really shows that anyone can be traded from their team at any point. Even LeBron James is now in the Eastern Conference.”

While life in the NBA may be exhilarating, Saraf still misses some things from home.

“No question,” he smiled. “The beach, the fruit and the weather.”

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

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A private plane owned by a Satmar philanthropist left New York on Thursday morning, carrying two men most American Jews could not pick out of a photograph.

One leads a movement that regards the State of Israel as a religious error. The other spent the past month defending New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani against the charge of antisemitism.

They were flying to the Oval Office. The man who invited them is also someone most American Jews have never heard of.

His name is Martin Marks. He is 43, his title is Special Assistant to the President and Director of Jewish Engagement. According to Belaaz, the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) news site that broke the story, he made the calls himself and spent months on the arrangements. He has not commented publicly.

I want to write about him, not Satmar. Satmar’s position on Zionism has not moved since 1948 and is not news. What is new is that someone in the White House decided that this delegation was worth US President Donald Trump’s time in the week before Rosh Hashanah.

An unusual resume for the job

Marks – identified by The Jerusalem Post a year ago as one of the world’s most influential Jews – is the son of Lana Marks, the handbag designer who was US ambassador to South Africa in Trump’s first term. He advised his mother through her confirmation and then informally in Pretoria.

The Marks family has belonged to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for decades, and it tells the story of joining when other Palm Beach private resort clubs would not take Jews.

Before all that, Marks wrote. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in writing seminars and Near Eastern at Johns Hopkins University; a master of fine arts degree at New York University, where he taught in the writing programs. He wrote humor in The New Yorker, had bylines in Vanity Fair and The Wall Street Journal, and was editor-at-large at The New York Observer.

After a rare spinal condition and about a dozen operations, he trained as a yoga instructor and opened a studio in Palm Beach. He filed for a Florida congressional seat in 2022, outraised his primary field, and withdrew when redistricting moved the lines. In 2024, he ran Jewish outreach for the Trump campaign.

None of that runs through the organized American Jewish world. He did not come up through a federation, a defense organization, or a denominational body, and he took the job without the reflexes those places install. That may be a defect. It may also be why he got it.

He has done real things in the role. Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union credited him with unfreezing security grants for synagogues and community centers. He put a Jewish student suing Harvard on the Republican convention stage. He organized the president’s visit to the Ohel on the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre. This is not a man with a grudge against Israel.

There are about 7.5 million Jews in the United States. About 9% of Jewish adults identify as Orthodox. A 2025 study using census methods put the total American haredi population near 650,000, with some 150,000 households, and about 63% of them are hassidic.

The courts in the Oval Office on Thursday – the two Satmar factions, Bobov, Skver, and Vizhnitz of Monsey – plausibly account for 200,000 to 300,000 people directly.

Rabbi Malkiel Kotler’s reach through Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, the largest yeshiva in the country, is real and impossible to count – maybe 3%-5% of American Jewry. Hassidic courts publish no membership rolls, so anyone offering a firmer number is guessing with more confidence than the data allows.

These are serious communities, and they are the fastest-growing part of American Jewry. They are not a cross section of it, and nobody in that room would say otherwise.

What the White House was buying

An administration official explained the guest list this way: The Faith Office brings believing Americans together to meet the president, and Trump has won close to 100% of the vote in these enclaves.

The second half is where the mistake is. These communities do not vote Republican. They vote transactionally.

Kiryas Joel is in New York’s 18th district, represented by Democrat Pat Ryan, and Satmar backed him. Its leader, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, one of the two Satmar Rebbes, also endorsed Kathy Hochul for governor in 2022.

New Square, in Republican Mike Lawler’s 17th district, endorsed Lawler in 2024 after backing his Democratic opponent the cycle before.

Last month, a Kiryas Joel faction endorsed Mamdani, while Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe in Williamsburg, publicly rejected the antisemitism charge against him.

A bloc that gives Trump 100% at the top of the ticket and supports Democrats underneath it is negotiating, and it renegotiates every cycle. If Marks read those margins as allegiance, he misread his own instrument.

Speaking to his students in Kiryas Joel on Friday night, Aaron Teitelbaum said he had nearly declined because of Elul, the month of preparation before the High Holy Days, and changed his mind because he remembered meeting a US president some 30 years ago and being able to help a Jew in trouble. He said he hoped to do the same again.

Days later, rabbis who serve Jewish inmates in federal prisons went to Williamsburg to ask Zalman Leib Teitelbaum to raise the situation of Jewish prisoners with Trump directly.

Put those side by side, and a purpose appears that has nothing to do with Israel. A president can grant clemency. A congressman cannot. It is the one thing a rebbe could carry home from Washington that nobody else can deliver.

Where I might be wrong

The strongest case against everything above is demographic. Nine percent of Jewish adults badly underestimates the Orthodox share of Jewish children. A White House that organizes Jewish access around concentrated, disciplined, growing communities is not misreading American Jewry. It is reading where American Jewry is going. In 20 years, Thursday may look less strange than it does now.

There is precedent, too. Trump hosted 14 Chabad rabbis in the Oval Office last September for about 20 minutes, and nobody objected, because Chabad is not anti-Zionist. So, the complaint this week was about ideology rather than narrowness, and we should say that instead of dressing it up as an argument about representation.

I have made the representation argument anyway, because I think both are true. The delegation was ideologically narrow and demographically unrepresentative, and the photograph taken in that room turns six religious authorities into American Jewish leaders in every wire caption that runs.

Not a Washington story

Reading this in Jerusalem, the easy move is to file it under American political theater and get back to the campaign. I would file it somewhere else.

The seat Marks occupies is small, and the man in it is new. But someone now sits at a desk in the Faith Office, deciding which Jews get the room, and he is sorting by religiosity and by votes that can be delivered.

Peoplehood is not one of the inputs. Neither is Zionism. Run American Jewry through that filter, and you get the six men who flew to Washington on Thursday, and you get them again next year.

The organized American Jewish center did not lose an argument this week. As far as I can tell, it was not in one. The loudest objections came from Laura Loomer and a New York radio host. The Conference of Presidents, the ADL, and the AJC said nothing at all.

The people who spent 70 years building the address for Jewish access to power did not notice it move. That is our problem, not Washington’s.

This post was originally published on here. 

The rules-based international order is under growing strain as authoritarian states seek to weaken its safeguards and reshape international rule to serve their own interests. Even the fundamental principles of peaceful settlement of disputes and prohibition against the threat or use of force, which are enshrined in the United Nations charter, have been openly challenged and flagrantly flaunted.

Today, the international community stands at a critical juncture. Either we act together to uphold justice, defend the rule of law, and maintain peace and security, or we watch the world order steadily crumble away, taking freedom, self-determination, and democracy with it.

There are few places where this choice is more starkly presented than in the first island chain of the Indo-Pacific. The region’s security has come under growing pressure from China, which continues to deploy gray-zone tactics – including military intimidation, cyber intrusions, and economic coercion – in an attempt to unilaterally reshape the existing rules and norms.

Standing on the front line of defense of freedom and democracy, Taiwan will continue to firmly uphold the status quo. However, preserving peace and stability in the region is not just in Taiwan’s interests. It is a shared concern of the international community.

The Taiwan Strait is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and a major artery for international supply chains. Its significance to global security and prosperity is reflected in statements from the G7 and other summits and ministerial-level meetings between Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. They make up a growing chorus of voices worldwide that underline the importance of cross-strait peace and stability.

The integrity of the rules-based order is also being undermined by China’s deliberate misrepresentation of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758. Adopted in 1971, the resolution covers the question of China’s representation at the UN. The text does not mention Taiwan, determine its political status, or address its participation in the UN system. Yet China has conspired to conflate UNGA 2758 with the so-called “one China principle” and use the resolution to block Taiwan’s participation in the UN and other international organizations. If left unchecked, this distortion could set a dangerous legal precedent and serve as a pretext for future military action across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan as a force for good

Despite its exclusion from the UN, Taiwan is determined to act as a force for good. The strengths that Taiwan possesses in advanced manufacturing, disaster preparedness, and public health could contribute to the international community in many ways. 

Taiwan has pursued an integrated and value-added foreign policy based on strengthening democratic alliances, promoting collective security, and building economic resilience. Working with like-minded partners, Taiwan advances democracy, human rights, and freedom worldwide. As a leader in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and technology, Taiwan is committed to building supply chains that are secure, resilient, and free from dependence on authoritarian regimes. 

Through its Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project, Taiwan fosters coprosperity with its partners. Taiwan contributes its expertise and resources to technology-driven projects in cooperation with its diplomatic allies to address development challenges and enhance local capacities. Concrete examples include collaboration on an integrated healthcare information system with Paraguay, the construction of a strategic oil reserve facility in Eswatini, and collaboration with Palau National Hospital on smart healthcare. These initiatives have strengthened data management and efficiency, bolstered energy security, fostered industrial growth, and advanced sustainable development.

Khalilur Rahman, president-elect of the upcoming 81st UN General Assembly, has made restoring trust and managing institutional transformation the overarching themes of his presidency. Taiwan shares these objectives and stands ready to help realize them. 

Restoring confidence in the UN must begin with treating every member of the international community in a fair and just way. Transformation cannot be complete while a constructive and trustworthy member remains unjustly excluded.

We are calling on the international community to uphold the principles of inclusiveness, leaving no one behind, settling disputes peacefully, and neither threatening nor using force. These imperatives underpin the rules-based international order and should be applied consistently and without exception.

The free world needs Taiwan – and a stronger, more credible United Nations needs Taiwan’s meaningful participation. Working hand in hand with Taiwan will strengthen collective security, enhance economic and technological resilience, and build our shared capacity to withstand authoritarian pressure. Ensuring Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the United Nations is therefore essential to building a more inclusive, secure, resilient, and rules-based international order.

The writer is the Taiwanese foreign minister.

This post was originally published on here. 

Former prime minister and chairman of the B’Yachad party Naftali Bennett presented the main points of his foreign policy platform ahead of the elections on Thursday, placing the restoration of Israel’s standing among the American public, stronger ties with Washington, and Israel’s return as a central player in the Middle East at the heart of his plan.

“We have an organized plan of action to restore Israel’s standing among US citizens,” Bennett said, describing ties with the United States as “a decisive factor in our ability to win on the battlefield and especially in the diplomatic arena.”

He praised US President Donald Trump but criticized the government. “President Trump is the most supportive president we could have asked for, but currently he has no partner on the Israeli side for achieving diplomatic victories. In our government, he will have a partner for achievements, not a politician who puts obstacles in his way.”

Bennett described Israel’s situation as a “diplomatic emergency.”

“Three years after October 7, the IDF is winning on the battlefield, but victory has not been achieved,” he said.

He argued that decisions concerning Israel’s future are currently being made outside Jerusalem and that “foreign leaders are making decisions about our future, hostile countries are shaping our borders.”

Bennett said that if he forms the next government, he would declare a “diplomatic emergency” and work to restore Israel’s standing.

Israel will return to ‘octopus strategy’ in Iran, Bennett pledges

On Iran, Bennett pledged to return to the policy he previously called the “octopus strategy,” under which Israel exacts a price directly from Iran rather than limiting itself to striking Tehran’s proxies across the region.

“We will continue the octopus strategy of exacting a direct price from Iran, and we will renew the plan to weaken the regime, which I initiated as prime minister and which was halted under the current government,” he said.

Regarding Gaza, Bennett said a government under his leadership would work to complete the disarmament of Hamas. He said Qatar and Turkey should be removed from the regional framework because, in his view, they “want what is best for Hamas,” and should be replaced by Egypt and other countries interested in disarming the terrorist organization.

“We will complete the mission in Gaza in which the outgoing government failed and bring about the dismantling of Hamas,” he declared.

On the northern front, Bennett proposed combining economic and diplomatic pressure on Hezbollah with continued Israeli control of the security zone as long as the terrorist organization remains armed.

“We will take advantage of the unique window of opportunity that has opened to secure significant achievements on the northern front,” he said.

Regarding Syria, Bennett added that Israel should work to reach security agreements that, he said, would also help distance Turkey from the area and secure recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Bennett also presented a plan to integrate Israel into regional economic initiatives.

“A new Middle East is taking shape before our eyes, but instead of Israel being at the forefront, it is happening over our heads,” he said.

Bennett said the goal was to transform Israel from “a pariah state into a country through which everything passes,” in part through projects such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which he said could bring hundreds of billions of dollars into Israel and strengthen its strategic standing.

Bennett: Netanyahu allowing possibility of Saudi nuclear development

On Saudi Arabia, Bennett set a red line regarding civilian nuclear development.

“In the next government, we will prevent, through diplomatic action, uranium enrichment on Saudi soil, which could lead to a dangerous nuclear arms race in our region,” he said.

He criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that Netanyahu was allowing such a possibility “even without a commitment to normalization.”

Bennett also addressed the crisis in Israel’s relations with Europe and said that he and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid were already working with European governments in an effort to delay measures against Israel. According to Bennett, some countries were prepared to postpone decisions until after the Israeli elections.

Finally, Bennett linked the restoration of Israel’s international standing to changes he believes are required within the country.

“External diplomatic power is based first and foremost on internal strength,” he said.

He criticized Netanyahu over remarks the prime minister made this week, which Bennett described as a “blood libel,” and concluded: “To carry out a diplomatic renaissance, we need to begin with an internal renaissance.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Spain’s Jewish umbrella organization and a watchdog group have reported that antisemitic incidents rose 14.5% in 2025, warning that hatred was being “normalized.” 

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) recorded 221 antisemitic incidents in Spain last year, up from 193 in 2024, in a report released Wednesday together with the Movement Against Intolerance (MCI), a Spanish human rights group. Spain is home to an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 Jews. 

The trend matches an increase in hate incidents documented by the Spanish government. Spain’s Interior Ministry said in June that Jews were targeted in 69 hate crimes and incidents in 2025, jumping from 37 in 2024. Data from the Interior Ministry reflects crimes that are formally reported or detected by police, while the FCJE monitors incidents collected from community members, social media, and other sources.

The new report came from the Observatory of Antisemitism, a joint initiative by the FCJE and the MCI to track antisemitism since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing assault in Gaza. The initiative has followed incidents such as the vandalism of Holocaust memorials with swastikas, the desecration of Jewish graves, and the individual targeting of Jews, including a group of French tourists who were harassed and spat on in July while leaving a synagogue in Barcelona.

“Since October 7, 2023, Spanish Jews have had to go to our gathering places with special security measures,” FCJE president David Obadía said in a statement. “Our children are the only ones who go to school with a police presence, and insults and discrimination are part of our reality practically every day.”

María Royo, a spokesperson for the FCJE, blamed “campaigns against Israel” for the rise in antisemitic incidents. She told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that some groups, saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, also “blame all Jews.”

“The security forces are doing everything within their power, but the government, politicians, media and opinion leaders could be much more rigorous and careful to prevent this situation,” said Royo.

Spanish PM Sánchez’s Gaza criticism fuels Israel tensions

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is among Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel, which he says has committed genocide. The Israeli government has repeatedly said the Spanish government is antisemitic, an accusation that Spain strongly rejects. 

Esteban Ibarra, the president of the MCI, said in a statement that antisemitism should be distinguished from debates about Israel. 

“Antisemitism is not an opinion or a political disagreement: it is a form of hatred and discrimination against Jews,” said Ibarra. “When it is tolerated, normalized, or minimized, coexistence deteriorates, and democracy is weakened.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The IDF announced on Thursday that it had completed the clearance of two Hezbollah underground infrastructures on the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon and that forces are now working to neutralize them.

According to the military, the infrastructures were built over a period of about two decades and were planned and funded by Iran.

Forces from the IDF’s 36th Division have operated in the area in recent weeks and, according to the military, achieved operational control of the ridge both above and below ground. During the operation, the area was cleared of Hezbollah operatives who had been stationed there, with some killed and others fleeing.

Inside the underground infrastructure, the forces found command rooms, weapons storage rooms, generators, living quarters, showers, and a kitchen. The IDF said the complex allowed Hezbollah operatives to remain underground for extended periods and conduct combat operations from there.

According to the military, terrorist attack plans against Israel and IDF forces were carried out from the tunnels. Following operations conducted there in recent weeks, the ability to carry out additional attacks from the sites was neutralized. The forces’ efforts to neutralize the tunnels are ongoing, and once completed, the IDF will redeploy for defensive operations in accordance with its assessment of the situation.

The military emphasized that operations in southern Lebanon are continuing and that the IDF remains committed to the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

IDF’s Ali al-Taher operation lasted several months

The capture of the Ali al-Taher ridge, with its peak being the Beaufort Castle, was a complex operation that lasted several months.

In the first stage, engineering forces mapped the upper section of the ridge and destroyed tunnels, concealed openings, direct-fire positions aimed at Israeli communities and the border, weapons depots, long-term living quarters, command rooms, and operating rooms.

The second stage, locating the underground systems, was considered the most complex phase of the maneuver. It included locating the lower sections of the ridge and mapping the underground systems hidden beneath dense vegetation and rocks. Their construction, which required a massive financial investment by Iran and Hezbollah, lasted around 20 years.

Some of the underground systems were located and destroyed, as previously reported, while others were only discovered very recently. For weeks, IDF forces engaged in a battle of wits with Hezbollah to cut off the logistical route used to transfer food, water, and ammunition from Beirut to the underground tunnels on the Ali al-Taher ridge.

During the intense battle over the tunnel entrances, Hezbollah attacked the forces several times using drones. According to information obtained by Walla, in the past week Hezbollah’s connection with the trapped operatives may have been cut off, and they likely either died of starvation or escaped.

Over the past several months, Hezbollah’s leadership attempted to pressure the Iranians to tie the fate of the organization and its various infrastructures to negotiations with the US, but the effort failed. Now, the situation has shifted: Iran is attempting to deter Israel from destroying all of the infrastructure on the ridge, and Iranian operatives are apparently also trapped inside the tunnels.

Iran warns US it will respond with large-scale attack 

Earlier on Thursday, Iran warned the United States that it would respond with a large-scale attack if Israel launched a full operation to capture the ridge, where more than a dozen Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel are entrenched alongside Hezbollah operatives.

According to sources briefed on the message, at least two senior IRGC officers are among those present on the ridge. The sources said the warning was conveyed to Washington through Oman, which has served as a mediator between the US and Iran.

Until now, Iran has refrained from attacking Israel, raising the question of why Tehran has chosen to issue threats again at this point, and specifically over the Ali al-Taher ridge. It can be assessed that Iran, which until now has avoided fully backing Hezbollah, is attempting to bring the Shi’ite organization closer to its side amid concerns of an impending military confrontation with the US and Israel.

This post was originally published on here. 

The High Court of Justice unanimously struck down on Thursday an amendment that froze arrest, investigation, and enforcement proceedings against haredi (ultra-Orthodox) yeshiva students who failed to report for mandatory military service, with eight of the nine justices also ruling that the amendment does not meet the legal framework.

All nine High Court justices who heard the petitions issued the decision: Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg; justices Daphne Barak-Erez, David Mintz, Yael Wilner, Ofer Grosskopf, Alex Stein, Gila Canfy-Steinitz, Yechiel Kasher, and Ruth Ronnen.

High Court strikes down haredi draft enforcement freeze

The coalition passed the amendment on July 14, 2026. It ordered the suspension of all enforcement proceedings against members of the haredi community who were required to enlist but did not comply with their obligation to report for service under the Defense Service Law. Five petitions challenged the amendment’s validity.

Sohlberg, who wrote the main opinion, ruled with the agreement of the full panel that the enacted amendment substantially departed from the subject of the bill that had passed its first reading, in violation of Section 85 of the Knesset Rules of Procedure.

The court therefore ruled that, in practice, the law had never passed its first reading, meaning the legislative process contained a fundamental defect that required the amendment to be struck down.

This post was originally published on here. 

The newly formed right-wing Unity party has been considering political alliances to boost its chances of clearing the electoral threshold ahead of the deadline to submit lists next week, party leader and former ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post in an interview Thursday as he laid out party plans ahead of the upcoming election.

“I still do believe that once we show the public a few parties together that are already above the political threshold, it will give a real boost to people to vote for us because they will know almost for sure that the vote is not going to be wasted,” Erdan said.

Erdan spoke to the Post as his Unity party has been failing to pass the electoral threshold on its own in recent polling.

There have been numerous reports that Erdan has been considering a merger with Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz or with Chili Tropper’s Zionist Home-The Reservists party, both of which have also fallen below the threshold in recent polling.

Erdan and the second candidate on his list, Yuli Edelstein, are both former Likud members. The party has positioned itself as a right-wing party calling for universal IDF conscription.

The emergence of a group of small right-wing parties comes amid growing tensions over the issue of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription and dissatisfaction among some right-wing voters with the existing parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Erdan says the country needs a broad government

Erdan told the Post that the country requires a broad government, capable of bringing together both sides of the political spectrum rather than relying on narrow coalitions with extremists.

“I’m positively confident that there are many people who have had enough of the divisions from narrow governments and from the fact that one side only wants to destroy or topple the other side,” he said.

He added that division does not “bring any real solutions to the table.”

“It doesn’t change the daily life of the Israelis who suffer because they have to go so many days to do their reserve time in the military or pay the high cost of living in Israel or see us without any agreement on a real judicial reform that is so needed,” Erdan said.

Erdan seeks unity rather than committing to a Netanyahu-led government

Asked whether he would be willing to join a government led by Netanyahu, Erdan said his party was seeking unity rather than ruling out either side of the political spectrum.

“That’s what really the people of Israel need, especially after October 7.”

“We want to be the political force that will demand bridging and connecting the two political sides.”

Erdan said that he would not boycott other parties but would require them to abide by a set of principles they have established. This would also determine whether he would be able to support a government led by Netanyahu or leading rival candidate Gadi Eisenkot.

“We don’t want any radical party to have veto power or an influence, a strong influence on the government.”

The principles laid out by Erdan included “No withdrawals, no Palestinian state, a real conscription law that only those who serve two years or more in national service or military can get all the benefits from the government.”

“Whoever doesn’t serve or decides not to serve doesn’t get anything,” Erdan added.

Erdan noted that after October 7, non-domestic issues such as the establishment of a Palestinian state were no longer matters that divided parties as they had in past elections – since there was now general agreement against it.

He said that this too allowed for more unity.

Issues to tackle: cost of living, enactment of a judicial reform, and national service

Erdan added that a broad coalition would be necessary to tackle issues such as the cost of living, enactment of a judicial reform, and national service, as political stability would allow for a “government that is stable and cannot be blackmailed.”

“And that’s the main principle that we’re trying to agree upon with the other parties that we’re negotiating with. And if they meet these principles, then ego is not going to be the problem from our side.”

Erdan also criticized the government over Israel’s international public diplomacy efforts.

“I know firsthand all the failures of our government, and – I am saying it with a lot of sadness – Netanyahu truly abandoned this arena.”

He noted that, currently, Israel was being  branded abroad internationally “as a pariah, as baby killers, as an apartheid state, or as committing a genocide or starving our enemies.”

Edran said that he planned on investing billions into improving Israel’s public standing and repairing such views.

This post was originally published on here. 

On a balmy summer afternoon this week, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his team were scoping out the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem ahead of the embassy’s annual Independence Day celebrations set to take place there next week.

This year, it’s a big deal. The US recently celebrated 250 years since its founding.

Huckabee, who was handpicked for his role by US President Donald Trump, will be marking it at the museum, which, according to the ambassador, makes the special anniversary even more notable.

“It is a magnificent venue, perfect for our event because it’s large enough and the technology here is state-of-the-art,” Huckabee said, smiling with his trademark enthusiasm. “I can’t think of any location in the entire State of Israel that would be more appropriate.”

Huckabee, 71, a former Arkansas governor and die-hard supporter of Israel who recognizes the power of the tiny Jewish state, spoke to The Jerusalem Post as part of a special interview marking the anniversary.

“We have a lot to celebrate as Americans, and we have a lot to celebrate with Israel,” said the envoy, who unwaveringly believes that the US needs Israel as much as Israel needs the US.

“If there was never a Jewish state, if there was never a Jewish people, there would never have been a Christian foundation,” Huckabee said. “We feel like our roots as America really come from here … It’s the Judeo-Christian foundation upon which Western civilization was built, and America formed.”

It has been an intense few months in the Middle East

THE 250TH Independence Day celebration is taking place a little late this year, two months after the July 4th Independence Day holiday, to be precise. This is mostly, Huckabee said, because it has been an intense few months in the Middle East. 

He has been more focused on the ongoing wars, endless ceasefire negotiations, and the flaring violence that US citizens living under his purview have had to face.

The ambassador is known for expressing his support for Israel, stating often that “the partnership with Israel is incredibly valuable to the United States.” And listing the benefits of the partnership as being in the fields of “intelligence,” “military hardware,” “technology,” and “counterterrorism.” 

However, Huckabee has been unable to turn a blind eye to the growing violence being perpetrated by Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the West Bank, which, like many Israeli officials, he refers to as Judea and Samaria.

“Violence is violence. It doesn’t matter who does it – it should be condemned,” he stated.

“It would be inappropriate for me to say it’s terrible when Palestinians attack Israelis, which they do … and I’m very clear on how unacceptable that is … so I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I only spoke out against violence that was Palestinian on Israeli and refused to speak up if it was Israeli against Palestinian.”

Most of those committing the violence recently in and around Palestinian towns such as Qusra, Jalud, Turmus Aiya, and Taybeh, Huckabee said, are not Israelis living in established West Bank settlements.

“They represent a very tiny minority of the half million Israelis who live very peacefully in Judea and Samaria and raise their families to be good citizens.”

Huckabee was also clear that “Israelis have a right to build in Area C under the Oslo Accords, something that is not breaking any of the agreed-upon terms of Oslo from 1993.”

“They not only have the right, but they have really a responsibility to help create communities where their people can live,” he said. “Israel is growing rapidly. I know right now the whole country is less than 10 million, but that is changing.”

“With antisemitism rising around the world, I think you’re going to see more and more people making their way to the Jewish homeland, so it makes sense that part of those new communities are going to be in Judea and Samaria,” the ambassador continued.

“You can’t divorce the Jewish people from what has been a homeland of theirs for 3,800 years,” Huckabee said, adding that “eighty percent of the Bible happened in Judea and Samaria.”

Still, the ambassador said he was concerned about the rising violence.

“I would hope that every person says it’s unacceptable,” he said, adding that he was encouraged last weekend by condemnations from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, President Isaac Herzog, and Yesha Council head Israel Gantz.

Further, Huckabee said he was hopeful that the arrest warrants issued against several of the perpetrators would “help discourage, because there have to be consequences.”

“I tell people the things I’ve learned from raising children and training dogs … if there’s a behavior you want more of, you reward it; if there’s a behavior you want less of, you put consequences on it,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing is the beginning of the Israelis recognizing we got to have consequences for bad behavior.”

The media-savvy Huckabee said he was acutely aware that the images of balaclava-wearing, baton-wielding young men taking over family homes of Palestinians, including some US citizens, in the West Bank, and attacking international journalists in recent weeks were extremely damaging for Israel, including within the Republican Party.

“I think it’s hurting Israel’s reputation and image across the world. That’s why it’s not good that a very small number of people … [who] don’t even live in Judea and Samaria and [who] are not settlers … are doing things that are intentionally disruptive,” he noted.

“I wish that they understood the damage they’re doing to the country they claim to love because it is not helpful.”

Huckabee said he would like to challenge their actions “on the basis of the Torah.”

“Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet what another person has,” were the biblical verses he said he would use.

“So biblically, for those who say: ‘We’re religious, good, and practice it,’ then don’t do things that are a violation of the most fundamental tenets of the Torah.”

‘Nobody knows what’s going to happen’

THE AMBASSADOR’S faith and learning are apparent when speaking about Iran, too.

Asked if this week’s rising tensions between the US and Iran, with missiles intercepted over Jordan, could mean a return to a more intense stage of the war, similar to earlier this year, Huckabee responded cautiously that even though “this is the land of the prophets and many of them have lived here … I am not a prophet, nor the son of prophets.”

“This is the Middle East. Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” he quipped. “Honestly, could something happen again? Of course it could. It’s a place in the world that is so incredibly contentious all the time.”

However, Huckabee said, Trump was not surprised by Iran’s refusal to yield, even though its regime and capacity appear to have been significantly weakened over the six months of fighting; rather, he said, the president was “exasperated with their stubbornness.”

“Where I come from in America, we have a saying: ‘There is no education in the second kick of the mule.’ What it means is, if the mule kicks you once and you don’t learn something from that, the chances are that the second kick ain’t gonna teach you much either,” the ambassador said.

“The Iranians are now after ‘two kicks of the mule,’ and they still don’t seem to get it … they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, they’re not going to get to enrich uranium, and it may take a ‘third kick of the mule’ at some point. But I hope they get the message. I hope they change their ways,” he said.

While a formal ceasefire remains elusive, Huckabee said that for him, the joint US-Israel opening strike against Iran showed the strength and power of the relationship between the two countries.

“It was a day that I don’t think any of us will forget,” said Huckabee of February 28, the day the two countries launched a surprise attack on their nemesis.

Listing it as the 5th war-like engagement since arriving as ambassador to Israel in April 2025, Huckabee said he felt an “extraordinary sense of comfort knowing that our militaries were so aligned – unlike anything in history.”

“I say this not just from my perspective, but from the perspective of both US military leaders like Adm. [Brad] Cooper, who heads CENTCOM and was the strategic partner putting the American part of the plan together, as well as from the Israelis and the IDF, with whom I have almost daily contact,” Huckabee recounted. 

“The level of seamless operation that was experienced by both militaries … was unprecedented.”

“The US has had many partners in military engagements through 250 years. We’ve never had one quite like this, where our planes were flying wingtip to wingtip. Our armed refuelers were refueling Israeli aircraft,” Huckabee said.

He described seeing the scene at the operation center, where American and Israeli military personnel sat side by side, distinguishable only by the flags patched onto their uniforms.

“It was a kind of integration that was just unbelievable,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee hopeful to see even small steps toward peace

LOOKING AT alliances – and tensions – across the broader region, the ambassador said he was hopeful that even small steps being taken toward resolutions between Israel and Lebanon and in Gaza under Trump’s Board of Peace were significant.

“I would say small steps are better than stepping backward,” Huckabee remarked. “They are the small steps that you have to take before you can make the big ones.”

He called the US-mediated talks between Israel and the Lebanese government “historic.”

“[Lebanese President Joseph] Aoun is truly trying to move Lebanon to where its people are free, free to live their lives, free to have homes and to regain the beauty of what once was one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” Huckabee noted, pointing out that for the past 70 years, the Lebanese were banned from even talking to Israelis.

“And here we are, sitting in the same room over several weeks in Washington with Israelis, Lebanese, and Americans, talking about how we move forward and get Hezbollah out of the picture so that there could be peace,” he said, recalling comments by President Herzog that he dreamed of one day being able to drive freely from Jerusalem to Beirut.

“That vision, that aspiration, is exactly what we all are hoping and praying for,” Huckabee underscored.

“For the first time in 70 years, we actually can see that this could happen. Will it happen this year? No. Will it be next year? I don’t know, but we are closer today than we’ve been.”

On Gaza, Huckabee shared the same optimistic view, highlighting that less than a year ago, most people doubted that all the Israelis brutally taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 would be returned home, or that the fighting in the war-torn territory would largely be brought to an end.

“Every single hostage, living and dead, in the Gaza Strip was returned nearly a year ago. That’s amazing. People didn’t think that would ever happen,” he said.

He was very critical of Hamas and its failure to disarm.

“They said they would do it, but they haven’t done it,” Huckabee stated, adding, “When people say, ‘Well, are they going to do it?’ I don’t know [the answer to that].”

“But here’s what I do know,” he continued. “While they said they’re going to give up their weapons, do you know how many they’ve given up so far? Zero. Not even so much as a cap pistol … So, we’re all waiting on Hamas to fulfill what it said, and at some point, they will either do it, or it will be done for them.”

As for criticisms that Israel has not kept its side of the bargain, the ambassador is steadfast.

“I’ve been in the meetings with the Board of Peace, and they’ve been very clear that Israel has every right to defend itself, every right to neutralize the weapons that are formed against them, and particularly, target those who were responsible for the horrific and heinous attacks of October 7.”

Acknowledging the upcoming third anniversary of October 7, Huckabee said it was important that “people don’t forget what happened that day.”

“I don’t want Americans to forget there were 16 Americans murdered that day and many other Americans taken hostage,” he said.

“Had this happened in America, given the scale of population that we have, it would have been the equivalent of 40,000 Americans being mutilated, slaughtered, massacred, and 10,000 people being taken hostage.”

“If anyone thinks that America would have been patient and kind and thoughtful,” sending “a strongly worded letter in response to the murdering and butchering of 40,000 Americans,” the ambassador stressed, “they don’t know America very well.”

But, again, Huckabee said he is hopeful that the tragic events of the past three years will make way for something better. He noted that he believed that moving forward, there could be a resumption of countries joining the historic Abraham Accords brokered by Trump during his first term.

“I think we’re seeing it already in the foundations of other countries recognizing that peace with Israel makes more sense than enmity with Israel,” he said, gesturing around him to the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, which states that it serves as a vital platform for dialogue, understanding, and the fight against antisemitism and hatred in all its forms.

“We’re sitting in a place right now that is really kind of the epicenter of reminding people that peace is possible,” Huckabee continued.

“The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem is a great reminder of the travails of the Jewish people, coming from some of the most horrific moments of history to a place where now, in the very center of the heart of Jerusalem, this magnificent facility stands as a testament to the resilience of the Israeli people of the Jewish state.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Far-right podcast host Steve Bannon has partnered with far-left politicians Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and Bernie Sanders (VT) to warn against the dangers of artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.

Bannon, who once served as US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has publicly backed Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to ban the construction of new data centers and has rallied support against the Trump administration’s recent industry-friendly AI strategy, which bans states from passing their own regulations, according to the report.

Trump has pushed hard for new data centers, writing that “[t]he only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” in a post on social media on Monday.

Bannon has aligned himself with Democratic progressives on the issue, setting aside disagreements over issues such as immigration, believing that it is the “defining issue” of the future, the WSJ wrote.

“If we don’t get this right, none of that other stuff is going to matter,” Bannon said in an interview. “I have not seen any issue in modern American life that, at the populist level, unites disparate elements of our country more than this.”

“Politics is always a situation where you make strange coalitions and different coalitions every day,” Bannon said.

Sanders addresses unlikely alliance with Bannon

Sanders commented on the unlikely alliance with Bannon in an interview.

“Politics is always a situation where you make strange coalitions and different coalitions every day. But on this issue, I think many of the right-wing people have the same concerns that I have.”

These concerns uniting the rival camps are power and water consumption, job loss, distrust of big tech, and surveillance. 

The issue has been building for more than a year and is emerging as a contentious political debate ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

Campaign ads criticizing data centers have appeared in more than 70 US House and Senate races since 2025, according to a Wall Street Journal review of AdImpact transcripts. The backlash has pushed congressional and gubernatorial candidates to revisit their previous support for the industry.

Most recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, have moved to pause or restrict some data center projects after previously touting the sector’s economic benefits.

Despite growing opposition, attempts to enact major legislation targeting data centers have gained little traction in Congress. A bill introduced by Sanders seeking a federal moratorium on new data center construction has attracted no Senate co-sponsors, while the House version, sponsored by Ocasio-Cortez, has support from 14 Democratic lawmakers.

Other proposals backed by lawmakers from both parties, including measures addressing data center energy consumption, artificial intelligence regulation, and chip export controls, have made progress in Congress but have not yet become law.

Industry advocates, Trump allies push back on restrictions

The regulation efforts have also faced opposition from technology companies and some Trump allies, who argue that additional restrictions could undermine US competitiveness.

First they killed our timber mills, then our mines, then our factories – now data centers. Every good-paying, middle-class employment powerhouse has been systematically murdered by globalist and communist lobbying in America sending those jobs, that industry, and all of its… https://t.co/Y5Gt0MYD1W

— Tim Sheehy (@TimSheehyMT) August 24, 2026

The political divide over data center regulation has drawn criticism from both supporters and opponents of new limits. Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy (R) argued that restrictions on major industries had repeatedly hurt American workers.

“First they killed our timber mills, then our mines, then our factories – now data centers. Every good-paying, middle-class employment powerhouse has been systematically murdered by globalist and communist lobbying in America,” Sheehy wrote on X/Twitter.

Industry advocates have also pushed back against calls for broader restrictions. Venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir and Trump donor, said the administration and technology sector needed to confront what he called “crazy populists.” He referred to the opposition as the “BBC,” an acronym for Bernie, Bannon, and the Chinese Communist Party.

“All those people want to ban data centers, and they want America to lose,” Lonsdale said on Fox Business. “We have to make sure the BBC radicals lose.”

This post was originally published on here. 

US Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Israel is “one of our most important alliances in the world” and the United States’ “most important regional alliance,” as he warned that younger Americans are increasingly questioning the value of the relationship.

Vance made the comments while attending the Republican Jewish Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Las Vegas. There, he held a behind-closed-doors conversation with RJC National Chairman Norm Coleman about US President Donald Trump, US-Israel relations, national security, and antisemitism.

The Jerusalem Post obtained the transcript of the discussion and also spoke to RJC national spokesman Sam Markstein about the meeting.

Throughout the discussion, Vance stressed the importance of the Israeli-US relationship to America’s national security.

“It’s one of our most important alliances in the world and certainly our most important regional alliance,” he told Coleman.

Vance says US, Israel will ‘continue to work together’

While acknowledging that Israel and the US do not see eye-to-eye on some matters, Vance stressed that the two are “going to continue to work together” and that “there are still alignments of interest across a whole host of issues.”

Vance also told the RJC that there is growing suspicion among American under-40s regarding the US-Israel relationship, highlighting the need to articulate to this demographic why the relationship “is in the best interest of the United States of America.”

“To take a very obvious example, we’re working with the Israelis on some extremely top-secret technology that is very, very important for the North American Missile Defense Shield. Because I love my kids; because all of you in this room, we love our kids; we love our grandkids; we want to make sure that if, God forbid, a bad country shoots a missile at the United States of America, we are safe.”

Support for Trump among voters aged 18 to 34 is currently at an all-time low for that age group, according to the most recent Echelon Insights polling.

Nevertheless, Markstein told the Post, the loudest people in the room, the ones cheering the most for Vance, were actually the college students in attendance.

“We had about 300 or 400 college students from all over the country; young, Jewish American leaders of the future, and they were the loudest. They cheered the longest. They were on their feet for the most amount of time for him,” Markstein.

“I think that he has a great opportunity to bring more of those young people into the fold.”

Young people were also the focus of much of Vance and Coleman’s discussion of antisemitism.

Coleman raised the fact that many young people are worried about wearing a Star of David on college campuses, of being assaulted, or of being harassed.

Vance replied that “as the vice president of the United States… America loves our Jewish citizens and respects the contributions of our Jewish citizens.

“And I hope that everybody here knows that from the top of this administration to the vice president on down, we love you guys, we appreciate you guys, and you will very much always be on the team so long as I have any say in it,” Vance said.

Vance invokes Charlie Kirk’s support for Israel and fight against antisemitism

He also drew upon the message of the late Charlie Kirk, who “had criticisms of the Israeli foreign policy, but he loved Israel and said that Jew hatred is corrosive to the soul.”

“Charlie’s message that you cannot be a good human being, you cannot have a good soul if you engage in Jew hatred, that to me is the antidote to what we see out there.”

Speaking about right-wing antisemitism, from figures such as Tucker Carlson or Nick Fuentes, Vance encouraged dialogue with as many people as possible.

While there have been concerns about the Republican Party platforming right-wing antisemites, Vance said, “We have got to be willing to go everywhere and bring our message anywhere and to any person.”

“You have got to meet people where they are and make the arguments as best as you can, and that is, I think, ultimately how you win the political debate. It’s not by shunning people.

“Talk to as many people as possible, but obviously I’m not going to go talk to a guy who’s attacked my wife or who’s said that Hitler was a good guy.

“But outside of some pretty [distinct] lines, I try to talk to as many people as I can,” the vice president said.

Markstein told the Post that Vance “gave a good answer as to where he draws those lines and what those differences are.”

When it comes to important antisemitism, though, Vance was less compromising.

He spoke to RJC of how some of the antisemitism that is rising in the US is actually coming from people “who are bringing ancient ethnic hatreds into the United States.”

“This should be our immigration policy: If you want to bring your ethnic hatreds anywhere, don’t come to the United States of America; you’re not welcome,” he insisted.

Vance also spoke of how these ethnic hatreds are evident in US democratic politicians such as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

He added, “El-Sayed is one of the worst disgraces running in the history of the American political process.”

Vance noted the frontrunner’s controversial comments about the Michigan synagogue attack, saying, “When your response to that is to empathize with the person who’s going to commit this heinous act of violence – and not with the kids who almost lost their lives at the place that they should be safest in the entire world – the response to that is you’re a disgraceful human being.”

Vance urges support for Mike Rogers’ Senate campaign

He proceeded to call on people to support Mike Rogers’s campaign. Rogers is a recognized leader on national security and a strong advocate for national defense.

“Mike Rogers is, in my view, maybe the single most important candidate right now in this midterm election,” Vance said.

Markstein seconded this: “Abdul El-Sayed is an existential threat to the Jewish community in Michigan. That’s why you’re seeing so many Jewish Democrats in Michigan switch over to support Mike Rogers, who also joined us at the RJC Summit.”

Reflecting on the summit, Markstein told the Post that “RJC hosted cabinet officials, key members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, governors, key opinion leaders, the vice president, and every single one of them got on the stage and talked about why it is so important to stand with the American Jewish community and why the US-Israel relationship is an alliance worth defending.

“You will not find that at any Democratic function in this country right now,” Markstein said.

Regarding Vance specifically, he noted, “We are proud to have the vice president join us at the RJC Leadership Summit.

“He made a very good impression, and I think it showed again the importance and the impact of our organization, how we are this unique bridge between Republican decision-makers and the Jewish community.”

Vance “won over a lot of people in that room,” Markstein concluded.

This post was originally published on here. 

Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday unveiled “Disengagement 710,” a policy plan to encourage Gaza Strip residents to emigrate voluntarily to countries willing to receive them.

The plan calls for establishing a dedicated government ministry, reaching agreements with destination countries, creating regulated emigration pathways, and providing assistance and absorption packages for emigrants.

The proposal is the result of an extended policy review that has been underway since October 7 through a special staff established on Ben-Gvir’s behalf.

During that period, the team examined the issue of emigration in depth, reviewing international models, data, legal and economic aspects, potential absorption options in various countries, and ways to turn the idea of voluntary emigration into an organized government implementation plan.

According to the plan, the goal is the voluntary departure of approximately 250,000 Gaza residents in the first year, 1.11 million within three years, and approximately 1.86 million within seven years.

Otzma Yehudit demands ministry dedicated to Gaza emigration

To implement the plan, Otzma Yehudit is demanding that the next government establish a dedicated ministry for voluntary emigration, headed by a minister and operating through a director-general, an independent budget, an international negotiating team, and a dedicated implementation apparatus.

As part of the policy work, Turkey, Ethiopia, Congo, and Arab countries are being examined as possible destinations, alongside additional countries. Any agreement would be conditional on the consent of the destination country and arrangements granting emigrants legal status.

The 12 principles of the “Disengagement 710” plan are:

1. Voluntary emigration only: Departure by those who choose to leave, without coercion.

2. Regulated destination country: Departure would not be permitted without a country that has agreed to receive the emigrants and provide them with regulated legal status.

3. Individual file: A personalized pathway would be developed for every individual or family, including a destination, documentation, visas, and an absorption plan.

4. Preserving families: Preference would be given to families departing and being absorbed together.

5. Multiple destination countries: Agreements would be pursued with as many countries as possible.

6. Different emigration pathways: These would include employment, education, medical treatment, family reunification, and community sponsorship.

7. Absorption package: Assistance would include travel, initial housing, professional training, employment, and support for up to 24 months.

8. Payment based on implementation: Funds would be transferred to countries and absorption bodies in accordance with actual absorption and the fulfillment of targets.

9. Security screening: Each case would be examined individually according to criteria set by security officials.

10. International partnership: Countries and international bodies would be recruited to participate in financing and absorption.

11. Implementation targets: 250,000 emigrants in the first year, 1.11 million within three years, and approximately 1.86 million within seven years.

12. Transparency and oversight: Monthly data would be published on applications, approvals, departures, costs, and the scale of absorption in destination countries.

The plan proposes an initial Israeli investment of NIS 10 billion to establish and launch the system, alongside an Israeli matching framework of up to NIS 50 billion, subject to international participation and agreements with receiving countries.

Ben-Gvir calls for ‘historic solution’ to Gaza terrorism

Ben-Gvir said the plan was intended to capitalize on what he described as Israel’s achievements in the latest war and prevent the sacrifices made during the fighting from having been in vain.

“In the latest war, the State of Israel achieved significant successes against Gazan terrorism,” he said. “Those achievements came at a difficult and painful price, a terrible and awful price in the blood of our sons. The blood of our sons and daughters must not, God forbid, have been shed in vain. We must seize this historic opportunity to bring about a historic solution.”

Ben-Gvir said that, since the start of the war, he had demanded the encouragement of emigration from Gaza.

“At first, I was treated like a delusional extremist. They asked me not to say it out loud. They told me I was causing international damage and that emigration must not be discussed openly. Then, in one day, everything changed: President Trump himself announced the encouragement of emigration as a solution to the Gaza issue. In an instant, Ben-Gvir’s plan became legitimate. Suddenly, everyone became Ben-Gvir.”

Disengagement 710, he claimed, was a correction “both for the Gaza problem and for the residents of Gaza,” as well as for “the sin of the concept.”

“What a shame they did not listen to Gandhi,” he said, using a nickname for Rehavam Ze’evi, an Israeli right-wing politician who advocated for population transfer, “and what a shame that instead we brought the Oslo disaster upon ourselves, with the insane idea of taking terrorists, arming them with weapons, and naively believing that murderers would turn into doves of peace just because we gave them Kalashnikovs. It is time to admit it: Gandhi was right!”

Ben-Gvir stated that establishing an Emigration Ministry would be at the top of Otzma Yehudit’s demands after the upcoming election.

“I am stating my commitment to the people of Israel out loud: With God’s help, I will advance this plan in the next term. Instead of the illusions of Peace Now, we need the actions of emigration now. Instead of digging tunnels, it is time to pack suitcases. Instead of working in terrorism, it is time to find work abroad and build new lives.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Former Biden administration senior adviser Amos Hochstein rejected opposition leader Yair Lapid’s claim that Israel had previously succeeded in blocking a US-Saudi nuclear agreement, saying Washington’s negotiations with Riyadh were conducted independently and only gained momentum after the Bennett-Lapid government left office.

“Did Israel at some point manage to stop the US from doing a nuclear deal with the Saudis?” Hochstein was asked by The Jerusalem Post.

“The easy answer, and the simplest answer, is absolutely not,” he said.

Hochstein, who served as a senior adviser to former president Joe Biden and was the administration’s lead negotiator on the nuclear component of the proposed US-Saudi agreement, said the talks were conducted directly between Washington and Riyadh.

“We negotiated a comprehensive agreement with the kingdom, and at no time did Israel, or any other country, block that deal,” he said.

Lapid slams US-Saudi nuclear agreement 

His comments came in response to Lapid’s criticism on X of the nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia submitted to Congress this week. Lapid called the agreement “one of the biggest and most dangerous failures of Israeli foreign policy of all time,” arguing that the Trump administration was pursuing what it considered the US interest, but that the agreement would symbolize Israel’s declining influence in Washington.

הסכם הגרעין בין ארה”ב לסעודיה, שהועבר השבוע לאישור הקונגרס, הוא אחד הכשלונות הגדולים והמסוכנים ביותר של מדיניות החוץ הישראלית בכל הזמנים.

ממשל טראמפ עושה מה שנראה לו נכון לאינטרסים האמריקאים, אבל ההסכם הזה יהפוך לסמל להתמוטטות השפעת ישראל בוושינגטון. הסכם דומה עמד על הפרק…

— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) September 3, 2026

Both as foreign minister and prime minister, and later as opposition leader, Lapid warned senior US officials and members of Congress about the prospect of Saudi Arabia receiving uranium-enrichment capabilities as part of a civilian nuclear program.

“A normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia is a welcome development, but not at the price of a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East. Netanyahu has spent his entire life fighting precisely against such moves. These are the foundations of our nuclear strategy,” Lapid said in September 2023, at the height of normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia under then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden.

“Strong democracies do not abandon their security interests for the sake of politics. It is dangerous and irresponsible. Israel must not agree to any form of uranium enrichment in Saudi Arabia”.

Despite Lapid’s public opposition to the deal, Hochstein pushed back on the broader suggestion that Israel could determine or block US foreign policy.

“Israel can have input, and it could express its interests to the United States, but it cannot block or initiate any American policy,” Hochstein said. “That is done by the United States.”

According to Hochstein, the process that ultimately produced the Biden administration’s proposed nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia began in earnest in 2023, as the administration sought to establish a broader normalization framework between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

He pointed to Biden’s July 2022 visit to Israel, followed by his trip to Jeddah, as an important starting point for the wider diplomatic effort. However, Hochstein stressed that the nuclear agreement itself was not being negotiated at that stage.

“The seed of the normalization negotiations started during that trip to Saudi Arabia in Jeddah in 2022 and picked up in earnest in 2023,” he said.

The talks were led by Hochstein, Brett McGurk, and other senior US officials. They included a nuclear component alongside discussions on economic, defense, and security arrangements.

The nuclear agreement was negotiated as part of a much wider normalization package, Hochstein explained, though each agreement was handled separately.

“The normalization was the umbrella, but each of the agreements that we negotiated was separate,” he said.

Hochstein said the Biden administration reached a final agreement on the nuclear component toward the end of 2024. The broader package ultimately did not materialize, preventing the agreement from moving forward at that time.

Based on his understanding, he added, the agreement recently reached by the Trump administration is “largely based” on the framework negotiated under Biden.

“I haven’t seen the full text of it yet, so I can’t fully comment on that,” Hochstein cautioned.

Hochstein voiced support for the principle of a US-Saudi nuclear agreement.

“On its own, a nuclear agreement between the United States and Saudi is a good thing,” he said. “It is a good development and a good policy for the United States and for the region.”

He argued that Saudi Arabia’s importance as a US ally made the issue particularly significant, while emphasizing that his support depended on the agreement meeting American nonproliferation and security requirements.

“I am fully supportive, and I think there’s bipartisan support for that idea, as long as the deal is done in a way that lives up to American standards of security verification and so on,” Hochstein said. “I hope this deal has” those safeguards.

This post was originally published on here. 

Dozens of civil rights and advocacy groups are urging Congress to scrap a defense bill provision that would deepen US-Israeli military technology ties, according to a letter seen by Reuters, at a time of growing US skepticism toward the longtime ally.

The provision would deepen cooperation between the US and Israeli defense sectors by accelerating joint military technology development and other partnerships. The bill passed the House of Representatives in July and awaits Senate action.

The provision of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, known as Section 219, seeks to set up frameworks for joint ventures, licensing agreements and US-based co-production partnerships with the Israeli industry.

In Thursday’s letter addressed to leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, 56 groups said deeper integration with Israel’s defense sector would be “exceptionally dangerous” and urged lawmakers to remove the provision.

The groups include Amnesty International USA and the civil rights network National Lawyers Guild as well as Arab and Jewish advocacy groups.

“At a time in which American interests are increasingly diverging from those of Israel, and American public opinion is turning increasingly against unconditional support to Israel, creating new points of influence for Israel in the US defense-technology ecosystem is exceptionally dangerous,” said the letter, which has not been previously reported.

Israel is one of Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East, and the two countries cooperate extensively on defense and intelligence issues. Supporters say deeper ties could help speed military innovation and technology development.

A spokesperson from the Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a May interview with CBS that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade. In a June letter to a US congressman, he wrote that the time has come for Israel “to move from aid recipient to partner.”

US public support for Israel declines

US public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% when the question was first asked in 2017.

Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted, candidates critical of Israel are winning Democratic primaries, and even moderate lawmakers are increasingly willing to challenge decades of US support for Israel.

The Islamist militant Hamas group, in an October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took hundreds hostage. More than 73,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.

The letter criticizes Israel for its potential violations of international humanitarian law in its war in Gaza and rising settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It says such developments should prevent any discussion of deepening military ties.

US-Israel military aid agreement nears 2028 expiration

A memorandum of understanding that provides $3.8 billion in annual US military aid to Israel is approaching its expiration date in 2028, and conversations are under way on how Washington’s assistance to Israel would evolve beyond that date.

Some members of Congress have already tried to strip the provision from the fiscal 2027 NDAA. Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California introduced an amendment to block it, but it did not make it into the House version of the bill.

Once the House and Senate write their versions of the NDAA, members of the two chambers work out a compromise version of the bill, which must pass both chambers – typically near the end of the calendar year – before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday published a record of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s schedule from the morning of October 7, 2023, in which it was alleged that he spoke with former defense minister Yoav Gallant far earlier than previous reports had indicated. 

According to the released schedule, Netanyahu spoke with Gallant during his drive to the Kirya between 7:30 a.m. and 8:22 a.m., when he was told that there was “no clear situational picture.” People close to Gallant did not deny that this conversation had occured.

The schedule also indicates that Netanyahu was unaware of the ongoing Hamas attack until 6:29 a.m., when his military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil, informed him of it.

Previous reports, including an exclusive story by The Jerusalem Post, have shown that Gil waited 16 minutes to wake Netanyahu after being informed of the situation by the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) at 6:13 a.m. This fact was omitted by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Afterward, Netanyahu held a second call with Gil at 6:44 a.m., during which, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, he made several inquiries into whether a large-scale reserve call-up was needed and whether Hamas’s senior leadership could be eliminated, as well as questioning why nothing had appeared in intelligence briefings provided to him prior to October 7.

Netanyahu then left for the Kirya at 7:30, speaking with the defense minister on his way, and arrived at 8:22. The schedule records the prime minister as having received ongoing updates and intelligence briefings between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., overlapping with a meeting between Netanyahu, former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, and former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar at 8:40.

At 9:47 a.m., Netanyahu received, according to the schedule, a document summarizing the situation assessment Bar had held four-and-a-half hours earlier, at 5:15 a.m.

Netanyahu holds security assessment with officials

Finally, at 9:55 a.m., Netanyahu held a broader situation assessment with Gallant, Halevi, Bar, the Mossad director, the National Security Council head, and the head of Military Intelligence. 

After this meeting, the schedule recorded that the prime minister held a separate security consultation with Halevi and Gallant.

The release comes after KAN News reported that Netanyahu did not speak with Halevi until three hours after the Hamas attack began.

This post was originally published on here. 

Likud MK Tally Gotliv has been permitted to run with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party in the election for the 26th Knesset, Likud announced on Thursday.

“The Likud and Tally Gotliv agreed that MK Gotliv will be able to run in the elections for the 26th Knesset as part of the Otzma Yehudit faction and will not be declared a defector,” the party said in a statement.

“As part of the agreement, Gotliv is required to remain subject to the Likud Party’s faction discipline in votes until the 26th Knesset,” Likud added.

“We wish Tally success.”

The arrangement allows Gotliv to move politically toward Otzma Yehudit ahead of the next election without being formally designated as having left the Likud faction during the current Knesset, or being declared a defector.

In Israel, to be declared a defector would trigger certain political and financial sanctions, including making the party member ineligible to run in the next election.

Ben-Gvir welcomed Gotliv into his party with open arms, stating she was “joining a family of fighters.”

“We know, and we have seen, that you are a true fighter: a fighter against injustice, a fighter for justice, a fighter against the deep state, and a fighter against those who persecuted our dear prime minister. Tally, we are proud of you. We embrace you. We are delighted that you are joining us – welcome!” he wrote.

Gotliv’s future with Likud was called into question after the party’s primary election

Gotliv initially said she would consider joining Otzma Yehudit after being placed 20th on Likud’s election list following the party’s primary election, noting she would consider switching if she received a serious offer but would always remain loyal to Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After receiving a lower slot on the list than initially expected, Gotliv had said she believed she had been deliberately pushed down the list and had asked Netanyahu to restore her to the 12th position.

Previous reports indicate that Gotliv will likely receive a top-five slot on Ben-Gvir’s list, though the party is expected to share its full list next week.

This post was originally published on here. 

Billboards with “Jews.com” written on them have been appearing in recent weeks at various locations across New York City, including Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as heavily Jewish areas of New Jersey.

They are not the first Jew-related billboards to be placed across the city; the bright pink “Jew Belong” campaign and Chabad’s “Born to be a Yid” adverts are omnipresent.

But while Jew Belong and Born to be a Yid are both campaigns run by Jewish organizations and are intended to strengthen Jewish identity among Jews, Jews.com is not.

The website is ostensibly an educational resource about the Hebrew scriptures. But after a short scroll, it becomes clear that the website is aimed at converting Jews to belief in Jesus.

All articles, videos, and question boxes by “Rabbi” Kurt Schneider begin by referencing passages from the Torah before progressing into an appeal for belief in Jesus as the messiah and encouraging Jews to reevaluate their preconceptions.

Site compares Hassidic rebbes to Jesus

Schneider speaks about hassidic Jews, viewing rebbes as intermediaries between them and God, for example, before telling the viewer that “Jesus is the true intermediary; he can bring you into a direct personal relationship with [God].”

He also says, “Jesus is not outside Israel’s story. Jesus, known in Hebrew as Yeshua, is the messiah God promised to Israel.”

Schneider says that Jewish people have struggled to accept Jesus as the messiah because “He has often been portrayed not as a Jew but as a gentile” in culture and art.

“For centuries, much of Western art has presented Jesus as fair-skinned and European, disconnected from the culture, bloodline, and traditions of the Jewish people. This has made it harder for many of our people to see him for who he truly is: The Jewish messiah.”

Schneider then cites a passage from Isaiah which says the messiah will suffer before he is recognized and honored, using this to evidence his claim that Jesus has simply not yet been recognized by the Jews.

“I am appealing to you not to reject Jesus simply because he was crucified. His earliest followers were Jews, and they bore witness that God raised him from the dead and that they had seen him alive afterward,” he said.

Kurt Schneider is not a rabbi, nor has he ever been ordained as such.

While born to Jewish parents in Ohio, he “came to Jesus” and has since self-described as a messianic Jew focused on proselytizing.

At the age of 20, he says, the Lord supernaturally appeared by sending him back 2,000 years “to visibly witness Yeshua being crucified.”

He says that his parents had him kidnapped by “the most famous deprogrammer in the country to deprogram me,” and then sent him to a psychiatric hospital.

After his release, he went to Toccoa Falls Bible College where he was awarded the Preacher of the Year Award. He then became a church minister.

Schneider runs the TV and radio ministry Discovering the Jewish Jesus, aimed at proclaiming “the messiah to Jewish people and the world.”

A lot of the content involves the bastardization of Jewish scripture, holidays, and traditions for proselytistic purposes – notably, the reframing of Yom Kippur as a holiday about Jesus.

Christian proselytizing organization conducts campaigns in Israel

Schneider’s organization also sends missionaries to Jews around Israel and Africa to bring them to Jesus.

The website notes, “God has placed a specific burden on Rabbi Schneider to lovingly, directly, and faithfully bring the truth of messiah Yeshua to Jewish people.”

As a result of this supposed God-given mission, the organization does a lot of work in Israel, including creating Hebrew billboard campaigns with the question: “What if he is right?” and the broadcast Discovering The Jewish Jesus, which, according to the website, reaches “200 nations worldwide” and “an estimated 97% of television homes in Israel.”

There is also a Hebrew version of the website.

While often claiming to be messianic Jewish and wearing a kippah and a tallit, Schneider has also publicly identified as Christian.

“A Christian is someone who is not born a Christian; technically, a Christian is someone who makes the decision to follow the Christ. I am a Jew, and I believe in the Jewish messiah,” he has said.

“But if you want to use the Greek, then I’m a Christian.”

The Jerusalem Post reached out to Schneider for comment.

This post was originally published on here. 

The dissection of the war and peace policies that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces from his challengers in the October 27 election is not new: he has failed to achieve diplomatic and lasting strategic changes to make Israel safer, wasting a wide range of large tactical military wins.

This is the main message of Gadi Eisenkot, who has been leading in the polls in the race for prime minister in recent months.

Regarding security zones, at first blush, Eisenkot wants to maintain some kind of significant security zone in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, the same as Netanyahu and former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is currently third in the pack for the prime minister’s race.

But Eisenkot has several original ideas for improving Israel’s security and diplomatic situation, which The Jerusalem Post has learned about.

Eisenkot’s nuclear ‘kill zone’ in Iran

Regarding Iran, Eisenkot has a creative idea that no other Israeli official has voiced out loud: for the US to create a “kill zone” around the few areas where Iran’s 60% enriched uranium is still underground (whether covered in rubble or finally being properly stored)

While US President Donald Trump has talked theoretically about watching everything near those few sensitive Iranian nuclear areas, Eisenkot would suggest making a clear public commitment to attack any changes in those areas that might involve moving nuclear material.

This would also require committing long-term aerial resources to the area, just as the US did over Iraq in the 1990s.

This is his out-of-the-box solution if ongoing maximum pressure and negotiations fail to produce a good deal.

A “good deal” for him would be to remove Iran’s nuclear threat permanently with very long-term, anytime, anywhere inspections to ensure there is no clandestine attempt to later reestablish the program.

While the IDF strikes in June 2025 succeeded in pushing back Iran’s nuclear program for some years and the Islamic Republic has not seriously tried to restore the threat since, the existence of the 60% enriched uranium remains a significant untied loose end.

The Post understands that Eisenkot is no more willing than Netanyahu to endorse a “bad deal,” one which would merely delay an Iranian nuclear threat to a later date.

In contrast, if the US established a “kill zone” in the few key nuclear areas which remain, Tehran would have no way to move forward without being noticed and struck from the air.

Of course, the nuclear threat is only part of the Iranian security dilemma. 

Since April 2024, the Islamic regime has shown it is prepared to attack Israel with ballistic missiles directly during four separate rounds, and has attacked around a dozen other Middle Eastern countries: from the Saudis to Jordan, to the UAE to Qatar.

Regarding the ballistic missile threat, Eisenkot takes partial credit for helping prepare the country’s air defenses for the day when Iran would finally attack, though that day came five years after he had left office as IDF chief.

Going forward, Eisenkot recognizes that his and Israel’s maneuvering room against the ballistic missile threat is narrower than it is versus the nuclear threat.

Whereas Trump has made removing Iran’s nuclear weapons threat a central pillar of his presidency, he has publicly dismissed the missile threat. He has even bizarrely said that Iran having such missiles (which it has fired thousands of all over the region) is no more dangerous than the Saudis having such missiles (though Riyadh has not fired them on anyone)

Accordingly, the Post has learned that Eisenkot would return to using covert Mossad operations against Iran, but he would widen the attack and spying targets to include ballistic missiles, and not just the nuclear issue as in the past.

‘Post’ learns that Eisenkot believes Syrian President Sharaa remains a jihadist 

Unlike Bennett, who is suspicious of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa but is willing to entertain US arguments that he may have reformed himself, Eisenkot is fully convinced that the Syrian president remains a jihadist, given the background he comes from.

Accordingly, like Netanyahu and Bennett, Eisenkot is in no rush to withdraw from any part of the buffer zone in Syria.

However, there is a critical difference.

In Eisenkot’s view, Netanyahu has lost sight of the idea that holding onto territory in a foreign hostile country is not an end in itself that can be perpetuated forever, but leverage with which to negotiate improved strategic diplomatic terms.

The 1974 ceasefire between Israel and Syria created demilitarized zones on the Syrian side, so there is precedent for demanding that, in exchange for any partial future withdrawal, the Syrian military remain at a distance from the Israeli border.

If Syria can be influenced to sign on to such terms, then provided that Israel holds on to the Syrian-side of Mount Hermon, due to its unique strategic significance, the Post understands that Eisenkot could see reaching a deal with Syria at some later date.

He would view such a deal as moving Syria’s military further away from Israel than it currently is, while wasting fewer Israeli resources on occupying large swaths of Syria, which Jerusalem has no actual interest in. 

Of course, Syria is more complicated than that.

Eisenkot also wants to keep Turkey and Russia out of Syria, such that al-Sharaa shifts more permanently into the US’s sphere of influence.

This would not mean al-Sharaa would never attack Israel, but it would make it harder and more costly for him to do so.

Turkey may be the trickiest part of this situation.

Here, Eisenkot has a very creative idea.

The truth is that Israel and Eisenkot would not be terribly concerned about a small tactical Turkish presence in northern Syria, around Alexandretta, far from Israel.

Rather, the Israeli defense establishment and Eisenkot are worried that Turkey cannot have ground forces near Israel’s border in southern Syria, and, more importantly, that Ankara cannot have radars and air defenses in Syria, which would limit the Israeli air force from taking action.

In other words, even if Israel and Syria reach a new defense deal, which Eisenkot thinks he can do better than Netanyahu, The Post has learned that he would insist on overriding security freedom of action to strike any strategic threat from the air which Iran or another adversary might try to move through Syria.

In addition, he would advocate for a much larger UNDOF Syria peacekeeping force, with the US heavily involved to ensure that the force would be effective, and not a burden, as UNIFIL has been in Lebanon.

Last, Eisenkot is strongly committed to protecting the Syrian Druze from any potential massacre by al-Sharaa and his allies during any future internal Syrian feud.

If pressured by Trump not to interfere in the Syrian Druze issue and only to take action if Israel is under threat, Eisenkot is confident that he could explain to Trump the unique Israeli bond to the Syrian Druze by virtue of the Israeli Druze being deeply embedded within the IDF.

What is Eisenkot’s plan for Gaza?

Regarding Gaza, Eisenkot’s fiery accusation is that Netanyahu has kept Hamas in power in the Strip.

True, Netanyahu has ordered the IDF to kill around 25,000 Hamas fighters, including most of its leaders, but he has also blocked attempts to replace Hamas with either the Palestinian Authority (PA) or the NCAG technocratic body which the Trump administration wanted to send into Gaza in early 2026.

Certainly, Eisenkot would place blame on Hamas itself for dragging its feet on making the concessions toward disarmament which it agreed to in the Trump-brokered October 2025 ceasefire.

But he would add that Netanyahu repeatedly dropped the ball on putting full-court diplomatic and political pressure on Hamas by focusing solely on military pressure.

Like Bennett, Eisenkot is more open to working with other political interests to replace Hamas.

If Bennett is almost entirely focused on Egypt, Eisenkot dislikes the PA, but the Post has learned that he agrees with the majority defense establishment opinion that if the choice comes down to: PA or Hamas, Hamas is much worse.

In that sense, Eisenkot does not have as much of a set ideology on who should run Gaza, as long as Israel preserves a security corridor, whoever might take control.

Additionally, if Netanyahu has tried to use the “poison pill” that Hamas must fully disarm before Israel allows any Gaza rebuilding, Eisenkot is ready to agree to the spirit of the Trump deal in which partial disarmament can lead to partial rebuilding measures.

He does not want to give Hamas the excuses that he says Netanyahu is giving the terror group to refuse to cooperate.

Moreover, Eisenkot recognizes that Israel’s diplomatic standing and legitimacy have hit new lows in recent years, and he frames Netanyahu’s avoiding any rebuilding in Gaza under any circumstances as perpetuating this situation.

In contrast, he strongly believes that getting Netanyahu himself out of the premier’s chair will already start to generate some goodwill globally. He also thinks that even partial deals could weaken Hamas and start to rehabilitate Israel’s reputation.

After all of that, Eisenkot is absolutely opposed to any discussion of a Palestinian state in either the near or medium term, saying that those suggesting such a solution do not understand post-October 7 Israel’s social and political realities.

But he thinks saying yes to other kinds of international initiatives more often, and providing a horizon for the Palestinians in the distant future, beyond what would be his first term in office, will fundamentally restore Israel as a member of the West in a way that Netanyahu cannot and will not do.  

Eisenkot aims to restore US-Israel relations, remind Washington of Israel’s regional Importance

A major goal for Eisenkot as prime minister would be to remind and convince Americans – both Democrats and Republicans – that Israel is an asset for the US.

From a security perspective, while the US may not feel as imminently threatened by nuclear weapons in the Middle East, he would emphasize that leaders from both major American political parties have opposed Iraq, Syria, and Iran obtaining such weapons.

All US political leaders have said that nuclear weapons in the Middle East would eventually endanger America.

Eisenkot will seek to remind Americans that Israel has helped save the US from this danger, not just regarding Iran – which is a mixed political bag these days because of the gas prices crisis connected to the standoff with the Islamic Republic – but also with Iraq and Syria.

Further, Eisenkot will call on Washington to recall that Israel was a significant asset for the US across the Middle East in combating the expansion of ISIS – and this was true even though the group did not really directly threaten Israel in any large near-term sense.  

Until the broad US attack on Iran in early 2026, America had managed in many instances to benefit from Israel policing aspects of rogue and dangerous Middle East actors without having to get its hands dirty, and always with unparalleled intelligence help.

With Netanyahu out of the way, the end of political attacks on Israel’s rule of law institutions, the end of government officials making statements of incitement, and new government officials extending themselves to restore a common dialogue with the West, Eisenkot believes that Israel can once again benefit from being viewed as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Eisenkot believes that both the internal and global behavior of Netanyahu and his coalition partners, like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have greatly harmed Israel’s image as a democracy with values in common with the West, but that it is not too late to repair that damage.

If suddenly the Israeli prime minister is trying to find ways to say “yes” to Western initiatives for peace and to project positivity around them, even if Eisenkot would not be able to sign off on certain key Western priorities, the Post has learned that he believes the entire tone and playing field will change. 

How will Eisenkot differ on Lebanon?

One very specific example where Eisenkot would be different than Netanyahu is in Lebanon.

There, while he agrees with Netanyahu that US military liaisons should be the most dominant in handling and improving the Lebanese army and in judging whether benchmarks have been met by that army regarding any IDF partial withdrawal issues, the Post understands that he would also restore the French to a significant role.

Netanyahu has been in a large battle with the French over Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, pushing them out of having any influence to punish them for rebuking his policies, and especially the heavy criticism of France of the IDF’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

In contrast, Eisenkot would seek out areas of agreement and common views, and try to focus more on those issues than on getting stuck on fighting over areas where the parties disagree.  

Regarding the security zone, Eisenkot and Netanyahu are not far apart.

Netanyahu has been indicating he would like to hold the entire current security zone, which in some places goes beyond 10 kilometers, though he already withdrew from Lebanon in early 2025 and has started a possible withdrawal process in recent weeks.

Eisenkot is as skeptical, or more so (due to his military expertise and having been northern commander), as Netanyahu about the weak performance of the Lebanese military, but in certain circumstances, the Post has learned he would be willing to move back to an eight-kilometer security zone.

This position once again reflects Eisenkot’s military expertise, knowing that an eight-kilometer zone will prevent Hezbollah from firing anti-tank missiles into Israeli territory. This contrasts with demanding a larger zone that offers less specific military benefit and may be more political.

But Eisenkot is deeply worried about what he says are still 2,000 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, despite the deep IDF invasion of the area.  

He hopes American and French political and military backing can push the Lebanese army to take on Hezbollah in a much more confrontational way.

France is not the only European country Eisenkot wants to repair relations with.

According to Eisenkot, France, England, Germany, and Italy are critical allies for Israel and should be treated as such.

Few officials in Netanyahu’s government mention that France and England put their own forces in harm’s way to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles multiple times in 2024, but Eisenkot believes Israel must work harder to re-elevate relations with all of these countries, even if they criticize Israel at times.

He also believes that with a new government led by him, which is open to discussing peace initiatives, their criticism will be reduced to prior, more “normal” pre-October 7 levels.

Eisenkot may not fully understand the challenge in this area post the Gaza war.

In his view, encouraging tourism and business even with countries which have shifted to being rabidly anti-Israel, like Spain and Ireland, could restore prior relations.

With such countries, he may face a rude awakening that their attacks on Israel are on consensus moves the IDF took in Gaza, which Eisenkot also supported, not just against Netanyahu.  

Still, he is a realist.

Eisenkot is upfront about the normalization process with the Saudis being dead for the foreseeable future.

And he understands that this is not merely because the Saudis are demanding a Palestinian state, which only a tiny percentage of Israelis would currently endorse, but also because of the sides’ diverging views over the Gaza war.

If weeks before October 7, the Saudis were talking about imminent normalization so they could be more like Israel’s dot-com society, many Saudis were horrified by the intensity and length of Israel’s war on Hamas, which destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s structures and, compared to other Gaza wars, killed an unprecedented number of Hamas and civilians.

Eisenkot understands that the ideological and identity differences between the countries and how they view the post-October 7 world are now a gulf that will take much longer to cross.

In the meantime, he would emphasize improving relations with Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and other Gulf countries, all of whom he would say Netanyahu ignored or got into unnecessary and unproductive fights with.

Regarding Jordan, he supports the fence the Netanyahu government began building in early 2026 to strengthen security on that border. Yet he emphasizes that improving relations with Jordan to pre-2023 levels will lead to greater cooperation and safety, even more than the fence.

Further, Eisenkot believes that once Netanyahu, who these countries now see as too aggressive and destabilizing, is out of the picture, they will return to seeing Israel as their best security partner versus Iran.

West Bank violence forces its way back into headlines 

Maybe the largest policy difference between Eisenkot and Netanyahu relates to Judea and Samaria. 

Both of them are strong on cracking down on Palestinian terror.

But Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu – by enabling Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and with the appointment of Shin Bet Director David Zini – of turning the West Bank into a cauldron of Jewish extremist violence against innocent Palestinians.

If he becomes prime minister, Eisenkot will not just obviously be replacing Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and likely Zini themselves. He will also roll back the major policy changes they made, which he views as having paved the way for anarchist Jewish extremists to be able to spread chaos and violence.

Ben-Gvir reversed decades of policy in which the West Bank Police were empowered to arrest and prosecute violent Jewish extremists for attacking or harassing Palestinians.

Even prior to Ben-Gvir, the police never did this well enough, but the deterioration has been off the charts, and Eisenkot has made it clear he will reverse this.

Somewhat less obvious, but a part of the picture has been the over 100 illegal farms which Smotrich has allowed to spread across Judea and Samaria, including into disputed areas.

Eisenkot said he will return power over such decisions to apolitical IDF officials, and remove political cabinet members from having any authority over the issue.

The Post also understands that he will make the unusual decision to remove Zini mid-term, given that the Shin Bet chief only started in October 2025 and was appointed to a standard five-year term.

However, Netanyahu forced Ronen Bar, Zini’s predecessor, out of office early, and according to Eisenkot, Zini’s conduct in reducing the power of the Shin Bet unit that handles Jewish violence, along with many other problems he has caused, departs enough from standard Shin Bet policy that he cannot likely remain in his role.

In contrast, Eisenkot will likely appoint a new Shin Bet chief who will strengthen the agency’s unit which handles Jewish violence.

Next, the Post has learned that Eisenkot will restore and encourage the use of administrative detention against violent Jewish extremists.

Although the number of such Jews in administrative detention is often zero, and rarely jumps beyond single digits, he is convinced that its occasional use deters extremists from many of the actions they are currently taking against Palestinians.

In January 2025, Defense Minister Israel Katz became the first in decades to cancel administrative detention of Jews, while continuing administrative detention of well over 3,000 Palestinians.

Katz has refused to reverse himself despite even top Israeli supporters like US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attacking him and Israel’s current government as failing to prevent “Jewish terror.”

All in all, the Post understands that Eisenkot expects it to take two to three months to make the initial large-scale changes needed to restore prior policies within the police, the IDF, and the Shin Bet, followed by a longer period to ensure the situation stabilizes long-term.

Of course, all of this depends on what happens on October 27.

The author wrote In The War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, among several other books. He is the Post’s senior military analyst and is an expert on Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon.

This post was originally published on here. 

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the national central bank of the Netherlands, announced on Wednesday that it was moving nearly 90 tons of gold from the United States and Canada amid rising tensions between the US and Europe.

“In view of increasing geopolitical unrest, DNB is strengthening its crisis preparedness,” the bank said in a statement announcing the move, while explaining that it aimed to improve the liquidity of the bank and better distribute its reserves in the US, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

With the move, the total amount of DNB gold in the US went from 31% to 18.5%, while in Canada it went down from 19.7% to 18.5%. Additionally, Zeist replaced New York as the main location of DNB gold reserves in the world, with 30.8% of all gold bars.

Europe also became the main location for DNB gold reserves, with 63.9% of all gold bars in either the Netherlands or the United Kingdom – before this move, reserves were equally distributed between Europe and America -.

“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,” said DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen.

How did the DNB move the gold from America?

The DNB explained that it made the move by selling about 59 tonnes of gold in New York and buying back the same amount in London.

Another 27 tonnes were physically transferred from the US and Canada to Zeist, and the same amount was transferred from Zeist to London.

The bank said that the relocation also helped build experience in case of an emergency, with both buying and selling gold and the physical transfers being plausible options if circumstances require it.

US-Europe relations suffer from clashes between officials

The move comes amid a series of policies by both the Trump administration and European officials that have strained relations between Europe and the United States.

US President Donald Trump’s push to incorporate Greenland into the United States and its position on the US forces deployed in NATO countries have angered several European leaders.

At the same time, the decision by NATO members to not support the US during the war with Iran also caused a rift with the Trump administration.

The case of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who forbade the use of Spain’s airspace for operations regarding Iran, was among the cases that sparked the most rage in Trump, but the fact that no NATO ally supported the US during the fighting also angered the US president.

Back in July, Trump called Madrid a “terrible partner” during an Ankara NATO summit, while he also railed against allies for not supporting the war on Iran and ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt all trade with Spain.

“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” Trump said. “By the way, I’d like to cut it off. Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate; they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

The IDF will begin rolling out changes to strictly kosher food service next week, the military announced in an August statement.

The change comes amid ongoing controversy over haredi (ultra-Orthodox) enlistment in the military and the term of service for religious soldiers.

The change was formalized through a series of initiatives led by IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir’s advisor on haredi affairs, Brig.-Gen. Avinoam Emuna, designed to improve service conditions and the overall support framework for haredi soldiers.

Additionally, the initiative, a joint effort between Emuna, the Technological and Logistics Directorate, and the Military Rabbinate, was formed as one of several efforts to expand haredi enlistment in the IDF and increase the number serving in combat tracks, as the public and political debate over the conscription of yeshiva students continues. 

In the past, the military’s kashrut was centrally governed by the Military Rabbinate, unlike the civilian kashrut market with its many competing certifying bodies.

“We are not satisfied merely with an ultra-Orthodox soldier being able to serve in the IDF while maintaining his way of life,” said Emuna.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that he receives the conditions that will enable him to serve effectively, with dignity, and for the long term.”

IDF establishes new division to promote kashrut standards

This initiative will be carried out in collaboration with the Mehadrin and Special Populations Division – a new division established within the Military Rabbinate’s Kashrut Branch – as part of the IDF’s efforts to streamline and expand services for soldiers who require mehadrin kosher meals, as well as for populations with medical sensitivities and all service members. 

The new division oversees policy and halachic requirements for procurement, infrastructure, and on-site operations, sets professional standards, and creates dedicated procedures in base kitchens to ensure the food served meets kosher requirements without compromise.

This included an assessment of the existing system, identifying gaps reported by soldiers and commanders, and developing a logistical solution that enables the provision of strictly kosher food as part of the regular food service system.

In a joint meeting discussing the initiative, the General Staff Supply Center and the Logistics Corps within the Technology and Logistics Directorate discussed establishing three main service tracks, under which a soldier is entitled to request mehadrin kosher food, with particular strictness on mehadrin meat, hand-baked shmura matzah, and produce without reliance on the shmita heter mechira, per Military Rabbinate directive 05-02-14 on “mehadrin kitchens”. 

The plan also included formulating a new method for providing meals to the haredi population serving in the IDF.

Sealed meal trays to be phased out under new system

In the initial stages, the system of supplying sealed meal trays – which has served until now as the primary solution for haredi soldiers requiring “mehadrin” kosher certification – will be phased out. 

In its place, the food service will expand to allow haredi soldiers to receive fresh, varied meals certified as mehadrin, so the soldiers can maintain their lifestyle without compromise while eating on base.

The move comes as the IDF faces pressure to both accommodate haredi soldiers already in uniform and make service more viable for the haredi citizens the military hopes to recruit in the coming years. 

Amir Bohbot and Keshet Neev contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Islamic regime has come under increasing pressure from hardline media outlets and figures to escalate the conflict by severing the international fiber-optic cables running beneath the Strait of Hormuz and the Arab Gulf.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of the ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper, insisted that disrupting or cutting off the internet cables was a “necessary measure” to respond to the “crimes of America and its wicked allies.”

“Is it not our indisputable right, in order to bring these sources of evil to their knees and cut off their lifeline, to prevent internet cables from passing through the depths of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz?” Shariatmadari wrote. “This necessary measure could be carried out by seriously disrupting the cables’ operation or even cutting them.”

Though he admitted that such an action would violate international law and add to the list of countries suffering from Iranian actions who were not directly involved in the war, he insisted that their failure to “rise up” against the United States made such actions acceptable.

IRGC and state-affiliated media have frequently called on Iran to exploit the cables. The IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency proposed forcing countries to pay fees for the use of the cables, similar to the strategy Iran has attempted to employ in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Wall Street Journal also reported in mid-August that the IRGC had developed plans for “further escalation,” including plans to sabotage the cables.

Iran could threaten global economy by targeting cables

Military historian Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, a former British Army intelligence officer and former devil’s advocate to Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee, told The Jerusalem Post that the cables are vital to the global economy, especially China’s.

Nusbacher said that Iran had not needed to “play that card” because it used the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure point against the global economy. However, American officials have repeatedly claimed that new pipelines in the region would reduce Hormuz’s strategic importance, and the Institute for the Study of War noted that American attacks had left Iran’s ability to control the strait significantly degraded.

An unnamed American source told Saudi-based Al Arabiya on Wednesday that CENTCOM’s Tuesday night strikes were a preemptive response to Iranian attacks on the undersea communications cables. If true, the Institute for the Study of War noted that it could indicate Iran is considering expanding its “coercive activity.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Nvidia bought AI giant Hugging Face for almost $13 billion, CEO Jensen Huang announced in a company blog post shared on Thursday.

Huang explained that the acquisition was another push to provide “open weights to the AI economy,” adding that “Hugging Face will continue to support open source and open weight models from across the ecosystem, from every model builder.”

“Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem,” he promised, adding that there will be no requirements to use Nvidia components when working on the Hugging Face platform.

Hugging Face was founded in 2016, with the name based on the hugging face emoji, as an AI chatbot developer, but shifted towards its current model of serving as a platform for AI development.

“As the opportunity for open models accelerates, Hugging Face can serve the global AI community at unprecedented scale,” Huang added.

“NVIDIA’s infrastructure, engineering and global reach can help improve platform reliability, safety, model evaluation, inference and deployment capabilities, while preserving the open ecosystem that made Hugging Face foundational,” he concluded.

OpenAI agent turns rogue during exercise in Hugging Face platform

Back in July, OpenAI said several experimental AI models escaped their test environment and hacked into the Hugging Face platform.

According to the company, the AI models did so without any human instruction, performing the hack as they went to “extreme lengths” to achieve a testing goal.

“The models identified and chained vulnerabilities across OpenAI’s research environment and Hugging Face’s production infrastructure to obtain test solutions directly from Hugging Face’s production database,” the company said.

“Our models spent a substantial amount of inference compute finding a way to obtain open Internet access, in pursuit of solving the evaluation problem,” it added.

Aaron Glick contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

In the 21st century, clean energy is no longer just an environmental talking point – it is the indispensable foundation of economic expansion, industrialization, and the emerging digital economy. Across East Africa, a major transformation is underway, and its center of gravity sits in Addis Ababa.

By aggressively expanding its renewable energy capacity, Ethiopia is rapidly evolving into East Africa’s undisputed clean energy bank. What was once framed purely as domestic infrastructure development has grown into a powerful engine of economic integration and energy diplomacy across the Horn of Africa.

Beyond rhetoric: Building a diversified powerhouse

For years, skeptics viewed ambition around green economies in the region as high-minded policy talk. However, recent milestones reflect concrete, measurable progress. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s vision of “illuminating every corner of our nation” is being backed by heavy infrastructure investments across multiple generation vectors.

The completion and full operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – now generating 5,150 MW – has single-handedly more than doubled Ethiopia’s total electricity capacity. Coupled with the rapid progress of the Koysha Hydropower Project, these installations provide a foundation for regional energy security.

Yet, relying solely on river basins is a risk in an era of unpredictable climate patterns. To mitigate this, Ethiopia has diversified its energy mix.

Wind power projects, including Ashegoda, Adama 1 & 2, Ayisha 2, and Assela, currently yield 504 MW, with the expanding Ayisha project adding further capacity.

Geothermal power stations are also being developed, with key projects under construction at Aluto-Langano and Tulu Moye that promise reliable baseload power.

Off-grid solar is also expanding through solar mini-grids. Home solar installations are expanding access to remote villages, powering local health posts, schools, and agricultural processing hubs.

From the ‘water tower’ to the ‘power tower’

In his 2021 book The Power of Geography, geopolitical analyst Tim Marshall noted that if Ethiopia managed its water resources effectively, it would transition from being the “water tower” of Africa to the region’s “power tower.”

Decades earlier, in 1972, Ethiopian geographer Professor Mesfin Woldemariam highlighted similar strategic possibilities.

That prediction is now playing out in real time.

Ethiopia is no longer acting merely as an isolated producer; it has positioned itself as a core regional exporter. Cross-border transmission lines actively supply clean, affordable electricity to Kenya, Sudan, and Djibouti.

For Kenya and its neighbors, importing Ethiopian hydropower helps stabilize national grids, cut down reliance on costly thermal plants, and accelerate climate targets.

This interconnectedness changes regional geopolitical dynamics. When nations share critical grid infrastructure, energy trade shifts from a standard commercial transaction into a framework of shared interest. Interdependence creates a practical incentive for regional stability and cooperative diplomacy across East Africa.

Unlocking trade and private investment

This energy push coincides with broader economic integration. Ethiopia’s active engagement with the African Continental Free Trade Area, ongoing steps toward World Trade Organization accession, and entry into the BRICS bloc demonstrate a strategy anchored in trade and regional partnerships.

By modernizing regulatory frameworks and opening power generation to private developers, the country is creating clearer entry points for international and domestic foreign direct investment. Reliable power drives manufacturing, supports small and medium-sized enterprises, and creates jobs – laying the groundwork for domestic businesses to scale across borders.

Looking ahead: The vision for an interconnected grid

The long-term vision extends beyond the Horn of Africa. Strategic planning points toward an interconnected power grid reaching across North Africa, with ultimate links toward European markets. Over the next decade, continued expansion into geothermal, wind, and solar will be critical to sustaining this momentum.

Energy access remains one of the strongest multipliers for human development. By leveraging its natural assets into usable, exportable power, Ethiopia is offering a compelling case study for emerging markets: how to leapfrog traditional, carbon-heavy development models in favor of a clean, interconnected, and self-reliant energy future.

The writer is an international relations professional based in Addis Ababa, specializing in Horn of Africa geopolitics and war journalism, and the author of two books on Nile diplomacy.

This post was originally published on here. 

The High Court of Justice ordered 189 former Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) officials who sought to overturn David Zini’s appointment as head of the agency to reveal their identities to him by next Thursday, bringing the latest dispute arising from one of Israel’s most contested security appointments closer to an end.

The names will be given only to Zini and will remain barred from public release.

The petitioners include former Shin Bet directors Nadav Argaman, Ami Ayalon, and Carmi Gillon, alongside 186 former employees and managers of the agency. Their October petition argued that placing Zini at the head of the Shin Bet without prior intelligence experience posed a risk to both national security and the agency’s independence.

Zini, a retired IDF major-general, was appointed after a turbulent process that began with the government’s attempt to dismiss his predecessor, Ronen Bar. The High Court subsequently found that Bar’s dismissal had been conducted unlawfully and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a conflict of interest because the Shin Bet was involved in investigating the Qatargate affair concerning members of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Netanyahu later received approval to advance the appointment of Bar’s successor under an agreement reached with the attorney-general and endorsed by the court. The government approved Zini’s appointment on September 30, 2025, and he entered the position on October 5.

Former Shin Bet officials challenge Zini’s appointment

The former officials filed their petition that same day. They argued that Zini had never served in an intelligence position and lacked the professional background required to manage an agency responsible for counterterrorism, counterespionage, internal security, and protecting Israel’s democratic institutions.

They also alleged that the appointment process did not include a substantive examination of his professional suitability and that conflicts involving members of his immediate circle could prevent him from handling parts of the agency’s work.

The petition asked the court to cancel the appointment and require a new selection process. Alternatively, it asked the government to demonstrate that the dominant consideration behind Zini’s selection was professional rather than political or personal.

The High Court rejected the challenges to the appointment in December by a two-to-one majority. Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg and Justice David Mintz found no basis for judicial intervention after the senior appointments advisory committee and the government had approved the appointment.

Mintz also rejected the contention that Zini’s lack of Shin Bet experience disqualified him, noting that senior officials had previously moved between different branches of Israel’s security establishment.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit dissented. He did not call for Zini’s appointment to be canceled outright, but said the advisory committee had failed to examine sufficiently the circumstances surrounding his selection, Netanyahu’s conduct, and the possibility that improper considerations had influenced the process. Amit would have returned the appointment to the committee for further examination and a fuller explanation.

Court suggests Zini waive right to see petitioners’ names

The separate battle over the petitioners’ identities continued after their substantive case was rejected. They had filed the list of names confidentially and asked that it be available only to the judges.

Sohlberg ruled in December that no legal basis existed to conceal the names from Zini, a respondent in the case who held the necessary security clearance. The court nevertheless suggested that Zini consider waiving his right to see them to ease tensions with former agency personnel who could still assist its work.

The petitioners later maintained that the judgment had recognized Zini’s right to inspect the list without expressly ordering them to provide it. Zini disagreed and filed a contempt-of-court motion to enforce it.

On Thursday, Amit, Sohlberg, and Mintz issued a new, unequivocal order requiring the petitioners to provide their names to Zini within seven days. 

This post was originally published on here.