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AI-powered cyberattacks against critical infrastructure are no longer a future threat; they are already happening, Check Point Chief of Staff Gil Messing warned in an interview with 103FM on Monday.

Messing addressed a joint warning from major technology companies about the possibility that hostile actors could exploit artificial intelligence to attack critical infrastructure.

“The unusual call comes because more than 100 significant companies around the world, including us, have joined in saying that what has been happening cannot continue,” Messing said. “It is becoming more dangerous, and it is not that this will happen soon; it is already happening.”

According to Messing, the emergence of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence models has erased much of the gap that once separated major powers from smaller actors in mounting sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Since those significant models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others were released, at levels we had never seen before, the gaps that previously existed between powers and actors that are not major powers in their ability to create cyberattacks have disappeared,” he said. 

“The models allow almost anyone with a little knowledge to create attacks and vulnerabilities that have never been seen before. This tool, which is like a weapon, is reaching everyone’s hands, and that is at the heart of the approach of the new AI companies, so the attacks have become more sophisticated and more frequent.”

Messing: Cyberattacks exploit software vulnerabilities, can lead to critical shutdowns

Messing said cyberattacks generally rely on exploiting vulnerabilities in software, with the consequences ranging from service disruptions to data theft, system crashes, encryption of information, and the shutdown of critical systems.

“The entire cyber world ultimately works on the fact that there is software with a vulnerability through which someone gets in, exploits it, and that becomes an attack,” he said. “At the end of the process, what we see is something that does not work, something being shut down, information being stolen, a crash or encryption, and systems that stop functioning.”

“The models make possible, although they should not make possible, attacks unlike anything we have seen before, without human involvement,” Messing continued. “It has reached the point where the models sometimes attack on their own without a person controlling them and asking them to do it, and that gets out of control. There is an attempt to tell the world that there is something different here.

“Everyone needs to cooperate because this is not the world we knew before,” he continued. “We are in a new era. What exists now is not good enough to stop it, and cooperation is needed.”

Messing said addressing the threat would require action in three main areas, starting with ensuring organizations regularly update their software.

“There are three main components, and if we deal with them, we will deal with most of the problem,” he said. “One is the issue of version updates, because organizations have to constantly update their versions. They do not know how to do this because they do not have enough manpower, so more personnel need to be trained to deal with it.”

Trained professionals needed to deal with threat, Messing says

He added that trained professionals would need to operate those systems, while governments would have to establish appropriate regulation for the rapidly developing AI sector.

“There are the people who need to operate it, and there are governments that need to regulate what is happening now with AI models,” Messing said. “If we do not deal with each of these components, we will not have the tools to deal with the attacks that are taking place. As the models continue to develop, if there is no effort to stop or confront this, then the warning from the companies is that we will face a world in which breaches will be significant and painful.”

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The IDF late Tuesday-early Wednesday announced the firing of an IDF reservist commander who, along with his soldiers, was caught on video praying with Jewish extremists, some of whom attacked and some of whom placed Palestinian civilians under siege in the West Bank village of Kusra, which is a Palestinian-controlled area.

The unit had been assigned to facilitate efforts to prevent attacks on Palestinians and to eventually remove the extremist Jews from the area.

What was described as a siege, which started on August 9, and with some Palestinians saying that aspects of the siege continue even now, though there has been stronger IDF protection for the Palestinians after the early days of the siege, led to an August 10 video sparking accusations that the IDF was working or indirectly supporting the Jewish extremist violence.

Later, other IDF troops were brought in to remove the illegal outpost multiple times where the first IDF soldiers had been filmed praying with the Jewish extremists; it was later removed, but the Palestinians say that Jewish extremists continue to return to the area. 

In the IDF’s statement, the military said the commander’s conduct was “contrary to what was expected of him and contrary to the instructions given to him.”

Explicitly ordered not to identify with Jewish extremists

According to the IDF, the commander has been explicitly ordered to avoid taking any actions which might be in any way interpreted as identifying with the Jewish extremists or support for their illegal conduct.

His soldiers who prayed with the Jewish extremists, however, were not reprimanded, as they believed they were following orders that he had issued lawfully, the IDF explained.

A military source said that if the reservist wanted to continue serving in the military, he would be permitted to do so, but not in a command role.

This past weekend, some of the extremists temporarily took over one of the Palestinian houses in the village before they were forced out.

Some of the extremists also beat and attacked global media who tried to cover the events.

Despite many of the Jewish extremists’ faces being caught on video, it appears that they have not been arrested and may not be, at least under the current police leadership, which follows the orders of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to mostly stay out of cases of Jews attacking Palestinians.

Last week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir announced that he was expanding the IDF forces being used to maintain public order in Judea and Samaria leading into the upcoming fall Jewish holidays.

The Jerusalem Post understands that the volume of forces will be more than double the pre-October 7 force size of around 11 battalions, which at times has grown to 15-20 battalions, but will temporarily grow even more.

Zamir: West Bank extremist violence out of control

Zamir warned the government that Jewish extremist violence has run out of control and that greater backing is needed from the government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others actively restraining political officials from provocative actions. 

Religious Zionist MK Zvi Sukkot entered the West Bank village of Madama near Nablus last week during an IDF-escorted tour and participated in destroying a monument that appeared to honor members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Palestinians killed during the intifada.

According to the IDF, Sukkot requested military protection for what he told them would be an innocent tour of monuments. Soldiers were diverted from serious operational duties to provide security. The IDF stated that Sukkot double-crossed them and destroyed the monument without authorization, leading to a global uproar and condemnation of Israel for state-sanctioned destruction of monuments.

All of this takes place as IDF officials have said Jewish extremist violence has reached new levels, with hundreds of extremists recently drawing out a conflict with the IDF at the Palestinian village of Kusra.

It also takes place as IDF and Shin Bet officials say that the police, after three years under Itamar Ben Gvir, have reached highly problematic lows in terms of arresting and helping indict Jewish extremists in the West Bank.

Accordingly, Zamir has brought in the Golani Brigade and the Paratroopers Brigade to supplement the standard forces in the area, some of which have appeared too sympathetic to Jewish extremists attacking Palestinian villages.

However, without more backing from the government, Zamir warned that even increased IDF forces will be insufficient.

Further, the IDF chief noted that moving more elite forces into Judea and Samaria risks leaving the more dangerous northern and southern borders less defended, and will also mean fewer soldiers get off for the upcoming holidays.

This post was originally published on here. 

Europe’s accelerating reliance on Israeli air-defense technology has pushed the value of Israeli air-defense deals with European Union countries past an almost unimaginable $15 billion in less than five years, as the continent scrambles to rebuild defenses neglected after the Cold War.

In the 1990s, when Israel accelerated the development of the Arrow missile at Israel Aerospace Industries with American funding to intercept ballistic missiles, Europeans regarded the costly technological effort with indifference. 

The Soviet Union had collapsed, the Cold War was over, and European governments redirected defense budgets toward education, infrastructure, healthcare and culture. If anything happened, the United States would protect them.

The formal signing in Tel Aviv of the “Achilles Shield” deal, worth some €3.5 billion, is not only a commercial and diplomatic achievement for the Defense Ministry, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. It is also the final seal on a tectonic shift in Europe’s defense procurement landscape.

But Europe failed to internalize its lesson. When the old threats returned, European countries found themselves with weakened defense industries and an unpredictable American partner that demanded they invest in defense again and made clear that they could no longer simply rely on Washington.

Since 2021, in less than five years, a continent that lived for decades under the illusion of a “peace dividend” has discovered that its skies are almost entirely exposed. The result has been a series of Israeli air-defense deals in European Union countries worth more than $15 billion.

Europe’s procurement map shows its growing dependence on Israeli technology. Germany leads the list. In 2023, it signed the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history, purchasing the Arrow 3 system for approximately $3.6 billion. At the end of 2025, the Bundestag approved an additional expansion deal worth about $3.1 billion.

Germany has thus become a customer worth roughly $6.7 billion, with the Israeli system serving as the backbone of the European Sky Shield Initiative.

Other major deals have followed. Romania purchased short- and medium-range SPYDER systems for approximately $2.3 billion. The Czech Republic and Slovakia purchased SPYDER and Barak MX systems worth more than $1.2 billion combined to replace aging Soviet air-defense systems.

Finland purchases David’s Sling immediately after joining NATO

Finland purchased David’s Sling for approximately $345 million immediately after joining NATO, while Cyprus acquired Barak MX systems in deals worth hundreds of millions of euros.

The main force driving the rapid procurement campaign is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which demonstrated that the modern battlefield relies on a deadly combination of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and swarms of suicide drones. European countries discovered that both domestic and American defense industries suffer from severe bottlenecks and delivery schedules stretching over many years.

Faced with that gap, Israel’s defense industries offered two decisive advantages: industrial flexibility, with relatively short delivery times and lower prices, and, above all, an unprecedented operational record.

Successful interceptions by the Arrow, David’s Sling and Barak systems against complex missile and drone attacks from Iran demonstrated to European decision-makers that these are systems tested under fire in real time. No competitor in the world can present an equivalent advantage. That has helped justify signing deals despite political criticism over the large number of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded in Gaza.

For the Israeli economy, the wave of deals represents a major growth engine. Tens of billions of shekels flowing into state-owned and private companies have pushed order backlogs to record highs, led to the rapid expansion of production lines in Israel, and created thousands of high-quality jobs for engineers and industrial workers.

IAI, Rafael, Elbit, and Tomer have hired thousands of new employees in recent years

Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, Elbit Systems, and state-owned Tomer, which manufactures engines for many Israeli missiles, have hired thousands of new employees in recent years.

Beyond that, the unusually high profitability of these export deals is channeling huge sums directly into research and development, ensuring continued funding for the next generation of defensive layers. These include laser systems and future interceptors intended to preserve Israel’s technological and security advantage.

Germany is considered a potential customer for Arrow 4, which is intended to replace Arrow 2 in intercepting ballistic missiles within the atmosphere, despite a French effort to promote French interceptors for the role. In Ukraine, those French systems proved less effective than the American Patriot system.

The Americans’ difficulty in producing enough Patriot interceptors for the US military and its allies has also contributed to delays in supplying the system to new customers. An effort to raise annual production from 600 to 2,000 interceptors is progressing slowly and would still be insufficient in the event of a war with China.

Switzerland, for example, will not receive its deliveries between 2029 and 2033 as originally expected and is now searching for an alternative. Political constraints, however, are likely to lead it toward purchasing the French system, in the absence of the independence and willingness to act demonstrated by Finland when it purchased Israel’s David’s Sling.

The main potential threat to Israel’s dominance in the field comes from Ukrainian industries, which are now developing cheap and readily available interceptors as alternatives to the Patriot.

These systems have not yet been tested, but Ukraine has significant missile expertise and has already unveiled a ballistic missile with a range of 300 km. If Ukrainian companies develop an effective operational interceptor, it could compete with Israeli systems in future tenders, with considerable goodwill in Europe toward supporting Ukrainian industry.

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US Navy aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln arrived in port in eastern Thailand on Wednesday after 286 days at sea, including a lengthy deployment in the Middle East, amid reports of mental health concerns and deteriorating conditions on board.

The nuclear-powered Lincoln, with roughly ​5,000 personnel, was involved in the US naval blockade and combat operations in the war with Iran and – according to ​Democratic lawmakers – set a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea.

Accompanied by other US naval vessels, the Lincoln arrived early Wednesday in Thailand, the United States’ only treaty partner in mainland Southeast Asia, for rest and recuperation during a visit that Thai officials said would last five days.

By afternoon, busloads of sailors and Marines wearing civilian clothes, many smiling and waving, started arriving at a hotel in the resort city of Pattaya, about 150 km  southeast of Bangkok.

Strike group achieved ‘truly historical’ accomplishments

“Our arrival in Laem Chabang provides a well-deserved opportunity for our Sailors and Marines to rest and recharge,” the commander of Carrier Strike Group 3, Rear Admiral Robert E. Loughran, said in a statement.

“What this strike group has accomplished is truly historic. I could not be prouder of the exceptional professionalism and expertise demonstrated by every member of this team during our operations.”

The Lincoln was deployed last November. Typically naval deployments are for between six and nine months, but those can be extended during times of conflict.

Eastern Thailand is long accustomed to port visits by the US Navy and has a relationship going back to the Vietnam War, when Pattaya was a sleepy beach town close to a naval base and an airfield used by US bombers, with thousands of US personnel based in the area.

Thailand became a US treaty ally in 1954 before being designated a major non-NATO ally in 2003. The two countries’ militaries maintain strong ties and hold joint exercises every year.

The Lincoln, its broad flight deck packed with helicopters and warplanes, including the latest F-35 fighter jets, arrived in Laem Chabang early on Wednesday, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. docked in nearby Sri Racha.

Both vessels were streaked with rust and showed mottled paint along the waterlines. A third ship, the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls, arrived in the port of Map Tha Phut.

Port visit raises hopes of economic boost for Pattaya

The port visit has raised hopes of an economic boost for Pattaya, which also has a long-standing reputation as a sex tourism destination.

The city’s mayor, Poramase Ngampiches, met the commander of the Lincoln on Wednesday and said US officials had placed restrictions on the crew’s activities during the stay, including on water sports and visiting certain entertainment zones after sunset, which he said could present a negative image.

Police will deploy additional patrols around Pattaya’s main beachfront and nightlife district, following raids ​over the weekend and the arrest of 40 to 50 people for suspected prostitution.

Although illegal in Thailand, the sex industry operates openly in tourism ​hubs, including in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, despite occasional crackdowns.

On the eve of the Lincoln‘s arrival, Pattaya street vendors near the city’s infamous “Walking Street” nightlife zone were excited by the prospect of a boost in sales.

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The attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany had all the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday, adding that Europe needs to coordinate on what more can be done given the escalation of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.

Speaking ahead of an informal gathering of European foreign ministers in Ireland, Kallas also said that work is ongoing on 1,600 sanctions listings related to Russia’s military complex and “maybe there are more to be added.”

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed to increase pressure on Russia, especially after the attempted attack at Leipzig that she said showed Moscow’s growing “recklessness.”

Airport workers last month found a drone laden with explosives and a detonator at the airport, an important civilian freight and NATO logistics hub in eastern Germany that is also a base for several giant Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo planes.

Russia denies involvement in Leipzig incident

Germany blamed Moscow for the attack, characterizing it as part of hybrid warfare meant to intimidate and cause divisions in countries that have rallied around Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russia denies involvement. It says it will respond to what its foreign ministry spokesperson called “anti-Russian action,” and summoned Germany’s top diplomat in Moscow.

“Europe and NATO will not just maintain our pressure on Russia; we will increase it, and we will not stop – not until Russia stops bombing and killing innocent children, men and women in Ukraine,” von der Leyen said in Brussels after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“Europeans are faced with the hard truth that this is the new normal. We have to step up, and that means being ready to respond to Russia’s recklessness faster and better.”

The full scope of new sanctions was not immediately clear.

Kallas said the bloc was working on sanctions related to Russia’s military complex, and France’s foreign minister called for action against Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships accused of circumventing energy sanctions.

Rutte said more drones and missiles had crossed into NATO airspace on Europe’s eastern flank, and there was an increase in malign activities including the Leipzig attack.

“If Russia thinks we will be divided by the threat, or if they think we will be deterred from supporting Ukraine, they are mistaken,” he said.

The EU and several EU member states summoned Russian embassy officials. Germany said it would close Russia’s consulate general in Bonn and terminate its agreement with the Russian House cultural center in Berlin.

Two suspects identified in Leipzig attack investigation

Details of two Leipzig attack suspects were reported by German media outlets Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR.

Investigators have identified the logistics coordinator and instructor behind the attack, the outlets reported.

The man, Russian-born but holding a Latvian passport, was believed to have ties to Russian intelligence, they said. He is thought to have flown into Berlin in late July and driven a rental car towards Leipzig. Two days before the failed drone attack, the suspect left Germany by plane, they reported.

The second suspect was a man from Belarus who also holds a Russian passport and is thought to have entered the country on an Italian tourist visa obtained in Minsk, the outlets said.

Germany’s Public Prosecutor General did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia also did not immediately comment further on the case.

Germany probes sabotage cases

As the EU prepared its response, Germany was grappling with two new suspected sabotage cases within 24 hours.

In the first, authorities were investigating vandalism at a substation in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) that prompted lignite power plant units with 4,200 megawatts (MW) in combined capacity to go off the grid.

In the other, also on Tuesday, devices carrying conductive material damaged power lines at one of the most critical high-voltage nodes in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

NRW’s interior minister said the work of foreign powers or left-wing extremists could not be ruled out.

Brandenburg’s interior minister, Jan Redmann, said there appeared to be parallels between the attacks but that investigations were at an early stage.

The incidents come at a sensitive time as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which calls for closer ties to Moscow, is topping polls before a state election this weekend.

Lawmaker Alexander Throm, an interior policy expert from Germany’s ruling conservatives, said it was striking that such incidents were occurring before elections.

“The clear goal is to unsettle the public. Of course, that is a goal shared not only by Russia but also by others, such as left-wing extremists,” Throm told Reuters.

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Settler violence in the West Bank is causing diplomatic damage to Israel but has declined in recent months, while an Israeli attempt to reach a security agreement with Syria has failed, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Wednesday.

According to the official, the number of violent incidents involving settlers, including serious incidents, has fallen in recent months, while enforcement activity and arrests have increased.

The official described March as a “peak month,” saying that both the overall number of incidents and the number of serious incidents declined between March and July. At the same time, enforcement increased.

“The phenomenon still exists. It needs to be dealt with,” the official said. “We certainly see the damage caused as a result of it.”

Foreign Ministry working to combat damage caused by West Bank settler violence

Israel is acting on several fronts to combat the phenomenon, the official said, ranging from deploying additional personnel and increasing enforcement on the ground to other measures aimed at addressing those behind the violence.

Amid international criticism, the Foreign Ministry is also working to present more clearly the steps Israeli authorities are taking against Israelis involved in violent incidents, the official added.

“We asked to show, not just tell, the enforcement actions,” the official said. According to the official, this was also why footage of arrests and legal proceedings has been released recently. The goal is to demonstrate internationally that Israeli authorities are taking action against those involved in violence.

The official sought to distinguish the violence issue from the broader dispute between Israel and European countries over Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Israel rejects the European position regarding settlements, the official said, while at the same time continuing to act against Israelis involved in violence.

The official also noted that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had published an article opposing the phenomenon and addressed the relevant public on the issue.

Defense agreement falls through with Syria, Israeli official says

On Syria, the official confirmed that an attempt to reach a security agreement between Israel and the government in Damascus had failed.

“We tried to reach a security agreement. In the end, it did not succeed,” the official said.

One development that complicated the talks was the easing of sanctions imposed on Syria, according to the official.

“Syrian motivation to move forward with such an agreement declined when certain sanctions on Syria were lifted,” the official said.

Another central issue was the buffer zone. Israel was unwilling to accept an agreement that would require it to withdraw from the area.

“We did not think that, as part of a security arrangement or security agreement, we should withdraw from the buffer zone, which is a security asset,” the official said.

Despite the failure to reach an agreement, communication channels with Damascus remain active.

“The State of Israel has communication channels with the Syrian regime,” the official said.

The dialogue is taking place on several levels and concerns, among other things, security arrangements in southern Syria.

“I can’t go into all the content, but there are channels in which dialogue is taking place. We try in this dialogue to preserve the interests of the State of Israel, the security interests,” the official said.

Hamas disarmament stalls in Gaza, Israel working to keep diplomatic negotiations alive with the US

Regarding Gaza, the official said there had so far been no breakthrough on what Israel considers the central issue, the disarmament of Hamas.

“Unfortunately, there is no progress on the issue of disarmament,” the official said.

Israel does not want the diplomatic track with the Americans and the Peace Council to collapse, the official said, but insists it include the conditions Israel believes were established in the original plan.

“Our basic argument was that the 15-point plan does not correspond with the 20-point plan,” the official said. “We have no interest in the plan collapsing. We have an interest in the plan being implemented, but from our perspective, implementing the plan means implementing all of its conditions.”

Two working groups are operating between Israel and the Peace Council, one dealing with the disarmament of Hamas and the other with humanitarian issues, according to the official.

Even if there is skepticism about the prospects of achieving all of Israel’s objectives through the diplomatic track, Israel wants to exhaust that avenue as long as it offers an opportunity to achieve some of the goals of the war, the official said.

Israel also continues to link the disarmament of Hamas to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

“We have always emphasized that the issue of reconstruction is linked to the issue of disarmament,” the official said.

The international stabilization force, the ISF, has also not yet reached the implementation stage. According to the official, discussions on the issue are continuing with the Americans, and Morocco and Uganda are among the countries involved in the discussions.

The official said he had discussed the matter with the Moroccan foreign minister and said that “Israel’s expectation is for a move connected to Hamas disarming.”

On Lebanon, the official said Israel opposes the establishment of a “new UNIFIL.” UNIFIL did not fulfill its role and had hindered Israeli activity over the years, the official said.

Jerusalem is not, however, ruling out other mechanisms, including training units of the Lebanese Armed Forces or establishing a verification mechanism.

Israel has raised the possibility that the US could train dedicated units in the Lebanese military that would be capable of effectively taking control of territory, the official said.

Israel also does not expect to object in principle to Italian participation in a verification mechanism if one is established.

The official estimated that the next round of talks between Israel, the US, and Lebanon would take place during September.

Regarding Turkey, the official said Israel does not define it as an “enemy state,” but that it can be viewed as a rival because of steps Ankara has taken in recent years.

In earlier periods, the official said, messages were passed between Jerusalem and Ankara through Azerbaijan, but “that has been happening less recently.”

The sides exchanged a few words during a meeting held as part of the Peace Council, the official said, but “there are no intensive exchanges.”

Despite the escalation in rhetoric between the two countries, the official added that he did not believe either Israel or Turkey wanted to reach the point of a direct exchange of fire.

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Nepal plans to rebuild an early-warning system for landslides on part of its border with China, installing seismic sensors, cameras, and a satellite link, two Nepali government sources told Reuters, a week after a glacial flood killed more than 1,000.

The equipment is being set up at Timure, a border settlement in Nepal’s Rasuwa district on the same river corridor along the border with China where a collapsing glacier sent a gigantic wall of mud, water and rock hurtling through mountain valleys.

At least 1,114 people have died in both countries, the vast majority in Nepal, and nearly 4,000 are still missing.

The stretch of border where the instruments will be placed lies in one of the most sensitive parts of Nepal’s frontier with China‘s Tibet region, a high-altitude area closely watched by Kathmandu, Beijing, and New Delhi.

Nepal has not formally announced the plans, and the two sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

The officials said there was a sense of urgency to act.

“The landscape is adjusting after the mega event, so [it] could trigger a few more landslides,” one of the sources said.

Officials survey locations for warning system placement

Central to the plan is a satellite system known as Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), meant to keep monitoring posts connected even when mobile networks go down, so they can spot fresh hazards and issue warnings quickly, both sources said.

Such a blackout occurred when last week’s flood knocked out at least four gauging stations near the border.

“We had sensors and monitoring stations, but they were not being monitored extensively,” the source said, describing a previous early warning system that would send a message every few minutes but was swept away by Wednesday’s floods.

“Because we were unaware, we couldn’t check when they failed.”

For now, cameras, sensors and the VSAT will be installed at a single site by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) and more would follow, the second source said, adding that officials have already surveyed the area by helicopter to assess their placement.

An NDRRMA spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters emails and messages seeking comment.

China’s foreign minister and the country’s embassy in Nepal also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the disaster, China has said imagery of the affected areas, satellite and hydrological data, as well as early-warning information on upstream barrier lakes, have been shared with Nepal.

Previous system only provided a few minutes of warning

The immediate danger from two barrier lakes near the border – formed after the glacial collapse – has passed after they drained. But the terrain remains unstable and is being closely watched, one source said.

An early-warning system for any landslide-triggered events would give authorities only a few minutes to alert downstream communities of another flood, a brief window that could still prove critical.

Last week’s flood struck a border crossing at 8:32 a.m., but a public alert was not issued until 9:13 a.m., Reuters has reported.

Nepal had pressed China for more detailed, real-time sharing of data on glacier movements and water levels in the months before the disaster, and Nepali officials now plan to deepen their cooperation.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue efforts to disarm Hamas during a visit to a military outpost in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday alongside IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Eyal Zamir.

“We control the area, and we remain on this line,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Yellow Line. “We are doing everything to reach our goal – the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.”

Also in Netanyahu’s company were IDF Southern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor and 7th Armored Brigade commander Col. Elad Zuri, with the prime minister referring to them and the accompanying soldiers as “heroic.”

“We control 60% of the Strip, and there is more to come because we are eliminating the terrorists who threaten us,” he said. “We are doing that day in and day out.”

He added that the IDF recently captured the head of Hamas’s “Shin Bet,” saying that Israel will “surely learn a few things” from him.

Hamas’s internal security chief was captured in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), according to a joint statement on Tuesday.

The operation was emphasized as the first high-level capture operation deep in the Gaza Strip in a long time, with The Jerusalem Post learning that anti-Hamas Gaza gangs were deeply involved in the operation.

Netanyahu: Goal of eliminating Gaza threat largely achieved

Netanyahu stressed that the Gaza Strip will “no longer pose a threat to Israel,” noting that the goal has “been achieved to a large extent.”

“There is more work to complete – and we will complete it,” he added.

Yonah Jeremy Bob, Dana Ben-Shimon, Avi Ashkenazi, and Amichai Stein contributed to this report.

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A comprehensive 101-page investigative report released on Wednesday by researchers David Collier and Rachel Feldman presents what they describe as a definitive timeline tracking Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist currently facing deportation proceedings.

Mahdawi is a Columbia graduate student and prominent pro-Palestinian campus activist who originally moved to the United States from the West Bank as a student, became a lawful permanent resident, and was subsequently targeted for removal by immigration authorities under a provision alleging his campus activism and speech posed adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. 

Titled Mohsen Mahdawi: A Timeline of Support for Terrorism, the exhaustive document aggregates years of Arabic-language social media posts, historical archives, and public records to challenge the core autobiographical narrative Mahdawi has presented to American audiences, universities, and mainstream media outlets.

BREAKING: Mohsen Mahdawi has been presented to America as a peace activst.

We uncovered 15 years of previously unseen evidence – and it tells a very different story.

Today we publish our report. This is just some of what we found.

Thread ⬇️ ⬇️⬇️

— David Collier (@mishtal) September 2, 2026

While Mahdawi’s legal defense team and high-profile political allies have framed his detention and ongoing deportation order as an infringement on free speech and due process, the Collier-Feldman report argues that a vast, previously unexamined digital footprint contradicts his public persona as a peaceful bridge-builder.

Because the report centers on allegations and investigative claims, the researchers emphasize that their timeline relies on documentary evidence and contemporary records to question the veracity of Mahdawi’s public biography.

At the heart of the researchers’ findings is an extensive examination of Mahdawi’s personal origin story. For years, Mahdawi has recounted a formative childhood event in the West Bank’s Al-Fara’a refugee camp, describing how his best friend, Hameida, was shot dead in front of him, leaving him consumed by a desire for revenge until his uncle Thaer intervened at the graveside to redirect him toward education and hope.

Along with @raychfeldman, I went digging through years of archive material and social media posts.

Let us start long before he came to the U.S.

It is 2010 – his patience is wearing thin – and he promises that “soon, very soon, we will annihilate the Jews” pic.twitter.com/83wlJ3Jqj9

— David Collier (@mishtal) September 2, 2026

According to the report, this foundational narrative collapses under chronological and historical scrutiny. The authors cite B’Tselem casualty databases and records from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights to show that only one child was killed inside Al-Fara’a Camp during the entire Second Intifada, a 14-year-old boy named Muhammad Ahmad Mubaraq Ishteiwi, whose death occurred under circumstances that do not match Mahdawi’s accounts.

Furthermore, the report claims a critical chronological flaw, pointing out that Mahdawi’s uncle Thaer was killed on September 12, 2001, meaning he could not have comforted Mahdawi at a graveside if the incident occurred later, a contradiction the authors claim Mahdawi attempted to navigate by shifting his stated age.

One of the most consequential aspects of the Collier-Feldman report focuses on Mahdawi’s online activity prior to his arrival in the United States in July 2014, raising serious questions as to how he successfully cleared US visa screenings.

There are plenty of posts from this period that glorify violence – but this footage from 2013 is still exceptional.

In a TV interview, Mahdawi suggests that if Palestinians “think a little”, they will see they have “the capacity and conviction to resist, to kill and to wound.” pic.twitter.com/7jvwd0X03l

— David Collier (@mishtal) September 2, 2026

Mahdawi alleged to wish annihilation on Jews

The researchers uncovered numerous explicit Arabic-language Facebook posts from the period when Mahdawi was a student leader at Birzeit University.

According to the report, which attributes these statements to Mahdawi’s Facebook profile, he posted in August 2010 following a devastating civil wildfire in Israel that, as long as “Zionists” were burning, he had no problem with the fire and would “be fuel for it,” adding well-wishes that neighboring countries would “all burn along with this fake entity.”

Later that month on Facebook, responding to an online exchange about patience exceeding its limits, the authors claim Mahdawi explicitly wrote that “soon, very soon, we will annihilate the Jews.”

The report further details that in January 2011, Mahdawi posted a poem on Facebook addressing his rifle as his “beloved” and anticipating his “coming death,” followed in February 2011 by a Facebook attack on political rulers as “servants of the Jews or the Americans,” threatening that “their heads will be cut off.”

According to the document, in August 2011, following a cross-border shooting attack near Eilat that killed six Israeli civilians, Mahdawi used Facebook to refer to the perpetrators as “our mujahideen” and prayed for their “safe escape.” In December 2011, the authors state he posted a public Facebook comment saluting Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder Fathi al-Shiqaqi, and in November 2012, he wrote on Facebook that a Palestinian state could not be established without “an armed resistance that targets every inch of land a Jewish foot has stepped upon.”

An image of its time. Posted by his cousin to Mahdawi’s timeline, with Mahdawi tagged in the image. A blurry photograph of a man holding a Kalashnikov who looks remarkably like Mahdawi.

Can we be 100% certain it is him? No. But take a look. pic.twitter.com/wGOOeBGFKR

— David Collier (@mishtal) September 2, 2026

The authors question how these open expressions of hostility and support for terrorist organizations escaped the notice of US consular officials during Mahdawi’s 2014 visa application process.

The report also details a 2015 Windsor Police report and subsequent FBI interview following allegations from a local gun shop owner that Mahdawi had expressed interest in purchasing automatic weapons and made disturbing remarks regarding his background.

Furthermore, the investigation challenges Mahdawi’s public framing of family members and friends killed during the conflict. While Mahdawi has frequently memorialized various cousins and relatives as innocent civilians or victims of arbitrary sniper fire, the report cross-references their identities with military records and militant group announcements.

The researchers document that multiple family members, including Thaer and Amin Abu al-Kamal, Maysara Masharqa, and Youssef Mahdawi, who was convicted of recruiting a suicide bomber for the 2003 London Café attack, were active commanders or operatives within the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Mahdawi classifies activism alongside armed resistance

The report also tracks Mahdawi’s post-2023 campus activism at Columbia University, where he co-founded the Palestinian Student Union and helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest. The authors highlight a December 2024 Arabic-language video in which Mahdawi explicitly categorized his diaspora campus activism alongside armed resistance in the West Bank and Gaza as components of a unified struggle.

Finally, the report notes that despite stepping back from a Facebook group promoting his mother’s program, “In the House of a Fighter,” which they claim glorified prisoners and terrorists from groups like the PFLP, Mahdawi re-joined and was restored as an administrator as recently as 2026.

In a joint statement to The Jerusalem Post, Collier and Feldman said, “The real question is no longer whether Mahdawi has a long history of supporting terrorism. It is about the negligence of the US media. The information was there to be found, and America’s biggest media outlets have written extensively about him. So why did it take two independent Jewish researchers to uncover it?”

This post was originally published on here. 

People of Israel Party chairman Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter decried on Wednesday statements made by President of the Ateret Kohanim Yeshiva Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, who argued that it was against Jewish law to vote for the party because Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad is placed second on its Knesset slate.

“When I fought under fire in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, I served under and personally commanded leaders – commanders and soldiers – who were Druze, Bedouin, and Christian. Through fire and water, I followed my leader and brigade commander, Imad Fares, into battle with complete faith. I knew he would not abandon me in the field, and I trusted his leadership,” Winter stated.

“[Non-Jewish soldiers] were worthy enough to be wounded and even fall for the country. They were worthy enough for us to follow them into battle, and they are worthy enough to lead. Yoseph, my brother, you embody the people of Israel in every sense.

“I am proud of you for having been a commander and leader of soldiers in the Golani Brigade. I am proud that you risked your life for the people of Israel and were wounded in battle. You fought in uniform, and long after your service, you continue fighting to defend the people of Israel everywhere in the world.”

On Tuesday, Aviner was asked whether Jewish law permits voting for a party with a non-Jewish candidate holding the number two position. 

“Certainly not,” he answered, arguing that Jewish law distinguishes between the personal treatment of a non-Jew and appointing a non-Jew to a position of national leadership.

“Certainly, a non-Jewish friend should be treated well if he meets the definition of a ger toshav, but he cannot be given positions of leadership over the nation,” Aviner said.

Ger toshav is the term used in Judaism to describe a non-Jewish person living in Israel who will not convert to the religion but observes the Seven Laws of Noah and is therefore considered righteous.

Aviner cited Maimonides’s Laws of Kings, insisting that even a person defined as one of the “righteous among the nations” could not serve as a leader in the Land of Israel.

“He can be a private citizen, yes, but not as a leader,” he said.

Haddad was unveiled as the number two candidate in Winter’s newly established right-wing People of Israel party last week at the party’s launch event.

At the event, Haddad said that entering politics was a continuation of his service to Israel, after years of military service and public diplomacy. He has said he hopes to become Israel’s public diplomacy minister and the first Arab member of the security cabinet. 

Tzohar rabbis reject Aviner’s interpretation of the halacha

The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization rejected Aviner’s interpretation, saying leading halachic authorities had already ruled that Jews may vote for non-Jewish candidates for the Knesset.

“Yoseph Haddad is a person who has done, and continues to do, a great deal for the State of Israel, in Israel and around the world, and was even wounded during his military service defending the country,” the organization said.

Tzohar cited the biblical example of King David appointing Ittai the Gittite, whom the organization described as a foreigner, to a senior military command because of his loyalty to the king and kingdom.

“Even today, in the State of Israel, there are non-Jewish citizens who act with devotion for the state, defend it, and contribute to its strength,” Tzohar said.

“The appointment and advancement of such people, when they have the public’s confidence and act loyally toward the state and its laws, does not contradict Israel’s Jewish identity, but is an expression of the state’s strength and its ability to incorporate all its citizens.”

The organization said prominent halachic authorities, including former chief rabbi Isaac Herzog and Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, had ruled that non-Jews may be elected to the Knesset and that traditional restrictions concerning the appointment of a king did not apply in the same manner to modern democratic government.

“Accordingly, it is permissible to vote for an Arab candidate who is loyal to the state, and throughout the history of the state, Jews and non-Jews have participated in the Knesset and the government,” Tzohar said.

“Precisely at a time when there are elements among the non-Jewish public who incite against the State of Israel and against the possibility of living together, we must strengthen and empower those Arab citizens who recognize the State of Israel, its Jewish identity, and its sovereignty, and who work for its security and prosperity.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Iran carried out a number of attacks on the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq as clashes with the US escalated overnight. The Iranian attacks fit a pattern going back to February. Iran has sought to spread the war to Iraq and other countries via attacks. It has often singled out the Kurdistan Region for attacks. Since February, Iran and its proxies in Iraq have targeted the Kurdistan Region with 1,000 drone and missile attacks.

Rudaw media in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, said that numerous attacks took place overnight. According to the reports from Rudaw in Erbil, “Iran on Wednesday attacked positions belonging to the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) dissident group near Erbil with several drones, the group said in a statement. The assault comes against the backdrop of renewed US-Iran escalation over the past 24 hours.”

The KDPI is one of the key Kurdish Iranian opposition groups. Along with six other groups, it has formed a coalition against the regime. Its leader, Mustafa Hijri, also gave a recent interview where he discussed the importance of opposing the regime and having a democratic Iran.

“At 2:00 to 2:40 am [local time] on Wednesday morning, the Islamic Republic [of Iran] targeted the bases and headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran,” the KDPI said in a statement.

Iran’s Tasnim news, which is linked to the IRGC, also said that the IRGC had carried out drone and missile attacks targeting US forces in Erbil. The US has been withdrawing forces from Iraq, including from the KRG. Iran claimed to have targeted a maintenance facility. Iranian-backed militias have targeted US forces for years in Iraq.

They even used drones to try to attack what The Washington Post described as a CIA hangar in Erbil in 2021. In the recent Iran conflict, the regime in Tehran has targeted the US consulate and UAE consulate in Erbil. It has also targeted offices linked to Kurdish leaders Nechirvan and Masrour Barzani.

Iran targeted Iraq’s Erbil

The KDPI noted several details about the Iranian attacks overnight on September 1-2. “According to reports, in the first attack, leadership residences in southern Kurdistan were targeted with 3 drones, and shortly thereafter, the training camp was also targeted. The training camp is located near the city of Erbil and was a residence for families of the Democratic Party.”

The report added that “the Islamic Republic of Iran, since the start of the war with the United States and Israel, has so far targeted family camps of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, as well as the party’s medical and educational banks, with more than 156 missiles and drones.”

Meanwhile, Rudaw also said that “the US-led Global Coalition forces shot down 10 explosive-laden drones in Erbil province early Wednesday, the Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism Directorate (CTD) announced, as Iran launched attacks targeting US positions across the Middle East amid renewed tensions with Washington.”

The Coalition said its “forces intercepted and shot down 10 explosive-laden drones within the airspace of Erbil province,” CTD said in a statement. “Fortunately, there were no casualties,” CTD said, according to Rudaw. “Two Kurdish security sources told Rudaw English on Wednesday that the IRGC struck and destroyed the US Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) surveillance balloon over Erbil during the overnight attacks. The balloon system, a ubiquitous part of Erbil’s skyline for months, was not seen Wednesday morning.”

According to data compiled by Rudaw Media Network, the number of attacks surpassed 800 by late April and continued to rise, reaching more than 855 by May and eventually exceeding 900 during the summer.

Iranian-Kurdish opposition is in the area, according to Iranian regime

Iran has justified many of the strikes by claiming that Kurdish Iranian opposition groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, and other organizations based in northern Iraq, threaten Iranian national security.

However, the attacks have extended far beyond opposition camps. Iranian-backed groups have repeatedly targeted areas around Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, and Duhok, including locations near US diplomatic and military facilities, energy infrastructure, and civilian areas. Kurdish authorities have consistently stressed that the Kurdistan Region is not a party to the conflict and has not allowed its territory to be used as a launching pad for attacks on Iran.

Iran’s attacks seek to strike an area of Iraq that the regime assumes is not well protected. It wants the US to leave Erbil. Iran also works closely with Iranian-backed groups in Baghdad. As such, it seeks to target Erbil instead of Baghdad. Iran also wants to destabilize and weaken the Kurdistan Region. It knows the region is a US partner. It also wants to send a message to the Iranian opposition groups not to think about an uprising in Iran. US President Donald Trump had mentioned on social media the issue of Iranians rising up. Iran wants to pre-empt this and spread the war to Iraq. Iran views Iraq as a kind of “near abroad” or zone of influence and a buffer.

The sustained campaign has placed enormous pressure on the Kurdistan Regional Government while highlighting the challenge facing Baghdad in controlling Iranian-backed militias operating inside Iraq. The attacks have strained Iraq’s relations with the United States and neighboring countries and have reinforced calls by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to bring all armed groups under state authority. For the Kurdistan Region, the conflict has demonstrated both its strategic importance and its vulnerability as regional tensions increasingly spill across Iraq’s borders.

This post was originally published on here. 

Aitan, formerly known as eyesAtop, has emerged with a new name, a broadened mission, and a $41 million financing round co‑led by Deep33 and Dell Technologies Capital. The new funding brings Aitan’s total capital raised to $54m., enabling the rapid scaling of its combat‑proven technology to allied nations.

The latest financing will support continued product development, accelerate international growth, and expand the company’s global team to meet growing customer demand.

The rebrand marks the company’s transition from a multi‑drone operating system provider into a full‑spectrum autonomy and robotic warfare company in the category of robotic sovereignty‑as‑a‑service. 

Aitan develops edge‑AI robotic weapon systems engineered for the operational realities of modern conflict where robotic forces must be produced at scale, operate in contested electromagnetic environments, and evolve continuously as the fight unfolds. 

The company believes that robotic systems cannot be stockpiled years in advance as “they evolve during the conflict itself, reshaped week by week by the fight and by disrupted supply chains.”

A mission forged by personal loss and operational necessity

Aitan was founded by Udi Oster and Daniel Almog, both former officers in the IDF’s 8200 Unit and the co‑founders of Tapingo. Hamas’s October 7 massacre made their mission personal as their friend, Or Levy, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and Oster’s younger brother, Eitan, was killed in combat during Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon. 

The company is now named in his honor.

“We built Aitan because we had no choice. Our friends and family went to war, and we were determined to build what could bring them home,” Almog said. “Three years later, we’ve developed decisive battlefield technology, proven in combat – and we’re on a mission to put these capabilities in the hands of the allies that need them.” 

Battlefield validation

Despite their popularity on the battlefield, most autonomous systems like drones or unmanned ground vehicles operate through separate controllers and interfaces, requiring one operator for each system. Aitan’s platform combines a multi-drone command-and-control system that is edge-based and OEM-agnostic, allowing militaries to integrate civilian- and military-grade platforms without replacing infrastructure or retraining operators.

The platform turns drones from various manufacturers and operators into one unified operational force, allowing one operator to command and control numerous drones simultaneously that carry out different missions in different battlefields and close the sensor-to-shooter loop in real time.

The company continuously refines its technology through real‑time operational feedback from reservists and veterans with extensive combat experience.

The new identity reflects Aitan’s expansion from a universal drone‑control platform into a sovereign robotics infrastructure provider. Its systems have been battle‑tested since 2023, logging over 500,000 combat hours across the IDF and Israeli national security agencies.

Aitan now anchors multiple programs of record in command-and-control, swarming, edge AI, and autonomy. It also recently secured a joint contract to develop the command‑and‑control platform for the IDF’s next‑generation Digital Bat attack drone fleet, as well as critical design contracts for key robotic weapon systems. 

Rise of sovereign robotic warfare

The round includes participation from leading technology investors including Gokul Rajaram, Benjamin Ling, and Kevin Weil. Dell Technologies Capital managing director Yair Snir said Aitan is solving one of the most strategically important challenges in defense autonomy: orchestrating heterogeneous autonomous systems in contested environments.

“We believe Physical AI will be one of the most important technology shifts of the coming decade. But first, we need to solve the challenge of coordinating highly complex autonomous systems in challenging real-world environments,” Snir said.

He added that the company “recognized early on that the future of defense belongs to intelligent networks of disparate systems operating together. Their proven deployment in real-world defense environments validates that vision.”

Deep33 partner Lior Prosor discussed Israel’s unique advantage in developing robotic warfare systems, saying that “Israel is one of the only places in the world with the combat experience and flight hours to develop robotic weapon systems at scale, giving Aitan a difficult-to-replicate advantage and a significant opportunity to bring that capability to allied nations.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Egypt for a state visit, flying from a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan to Egypt on Wednesday.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, he said that China and Egypt “set an example of friendship, solidarity, and coordination between developing countries, with strong political mutual trust, fruitful mutually beneficial cooperation, and close and effective coordination in multilateral affairs.”

Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi welcomed Xi with a 21-gun salute and honor guard at Cairo’s Ittihadiya Palace, Egyptian news outlet Ahram Online said.

“China and Egypt are both ancient civilizations, with a traditional friendship that has endured for thousands of years and stood the test of time,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying. “Over the past 70 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries have stood by each other and pursued win-win cooperation, regardless of changes in the international and regional situations.”

The report added that Xi stated that, during the visit, he will conduct “an in-depth exchange of views with Sisi on China-Egypt relations, all-round cooperation between the two countries, and international and regional issues of common concern.”

Meanwhile, Xi called for the rejection of “external interference” in the Middle East, and said external powers should abandon double standards in the region, Xinhua reported.

Countries emphasize importance of multi-polar world order in SCO

The visit came after the SCO meetings in which China, Russia, and other countries emphasized the importance of the multi-polar world order.

Sisi welcomed Xi, saying the Chinese president was visiting Egypt as a dear guest on the banks of the Nile and a friend of the Egyptian people, who hold “all love and affection” for the Chinese people, Egypt’s Ahram Online reported.

Sisi also highlighted growing cooperation in trade, investment, tourism, and cultural exchanges between Egypt and China, adding that bilateral relations were built on mutual respect, shared interests, and cooperation.

“Today, as we welcome President Xi Jinping to his second home, Egypt, we are embarking on a new phase of our increasingly developed relations,” Sisi stated.

Xi also noted that Egypt was the first Arab and African country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

The visit comes as Egypt’s Heliopolis and Helwan military factories signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Turkey’s state-owned MKE conglomerate at the Sarajevo expo.

This reflects increasingly close ties between Cairo and Ankara, as Turkey has also signed a pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

It also comes after a large Israeli multi-billion-dollar air defense deal with Greece.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

Germany’s far Right is heading to a historic win in the eastern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, with plans to overhaul society to foster national pride and reject the country’s “guilt complex” over the Holocaust.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is predicted to win an election on Sept. 6. It seeks an absolute majority, which would allow it to govern alone and make AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund the state premier. A victory would deliver the first far-right government of a German state since World War II.

The AfD is polling at over 40% days before the election, about 20 points ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has led the region since 2002. Its victory would overcome a barrier of mainstream parties that have refused to work with the AfD and blocked it from federal and state governments since its founding in 2013. 

The AfD has proposed a sweeping nationalist agenda that includes expanding deportations and moving refugees into group shelters, dropping support for public broadcasters, defunding “anti-German art” and teaching children less about the Nazi past.

Lars Rensmann, a political science professor at the University of Passau in Bavaria, wrote a report on antisemitism in the AfD for the American Jewish Committee. He said that the party does not rely on overtly antisemitic rhetoric; instead, AfD leaders reference coded antisemitic stereotypes of “globalist, cosmopolitan elites and shadowy financial powers.” 

These powers, alongside migrants, are painted as part of a hostile external force that could destroy Germany’s national identity.

“On the official level, [the AfD] only occasionally mobilizes open antisemitism,” said Rennsmann. “Yet it does, on various levels, use antisemitic tropes, antisemitic ideas, antisemitism as part of a larger worldview.”

Officially distanced from neo-Nazi groups

The AfD has officially distanced itself from neo-Nazi groups and rejects allegations of extremism. Nonetheless, party leaders have repeatedly used Nazi slogans that are banned in Germany, such as “Alles für Deutschland,” or “Everything for Germany.” Björn Höcke, the AfD chairman in Saxony-Anhalt’s bordering state of Thuringia, has advocated for “a large-scale remigration project” to expel immigrants and prevent “our impending Volkstod,” or “death of the people,” using a term that played a major role in Nazi propaganda. 

The Saxony-Anhalt branch of the AfD has also focused its platform on moving past Germany’s “guilt complex” over the Holocaust. The party’s manifesto says that the country’s culture of commemorating Nazi crimes has “led to a situation where national pride is generally considered disreputable, the defense of one’s own interests is perceived as indecent, and politicians avoid any positive reference to our rich history before 1933.”

Höcke has also called Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame.” 

The AfD’s normalization of Nazi language and downplaying of Nazi history have pushed it outside the family of other right-wing populist parties in Europe, according to Rensmann. Established far-right movements such as France’s National Rally and Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia have refused to ally with the AfD in the European Parliament, deeming it too extreme. 

The party’s branch in Saxony-Anhalt is also classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as a confirmed right-wing extremist group, a designation the AfD strongly rejects. The government cited anti-constitutional positions in the party that it said violated the principles of human dignity, democracy and the rule of law. The national AfD is being monitored for “suspected” extremism.

If the party comes to power in Saxony-Anhalt, its nationalist views of history could have immediate effects on the state’s education system. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, the AfD politician who has spearheaded a new state curriculum, told Deutschlandradio that he plans to emphasize pre-20th century German history with a formula that he called “More Bismarck, less Hitler,” referring to the 19th-century chancellor who realized the country as a unified nation-state.

Rensmann, the professor, noted that education is primarily controlled by state governments in Germany.

“They have ample opportunity to set curricular guidelines, and they will do that – I’m very sure they will implement this as soon as possible,” he said. “They will also draw potential civil servants to the state with an extremist neo-Nazi background, who were rejected as teachers in other states, and then they will have a good chance to join and become lifetime civil servants.” 

‘Patriotic cultural policy’

The AfD has also promised a “patriotic cultural policy.” In that vein, the party has proposed that artists and cultural organizations sign a declaration pledging their “commitment to German national culture” and promising not to “disparage Germany and its culture” if they seek state funding, which many heavily rely on. 

The party’s manifesto pushes for “German thinking” over “modern thinking,” specifically attacking the “identitylessness” of the Bauhaus art school, the Saxony-Anhalt institution at the forefront of an iconic avant-garde movement. The school was forced to close by the Nazis, who called it “un-German.”

Remko Leemhuis, the director of the AJC Berlin Lawrence and Lee Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations, said this cultural policy could threaten funding for museums dedicated to the Holocaust. Saxony-Anhalt is home to several Holocaust memorial sites, including the Lichtenburg concentration camp, the Langenstein-Zwieberge subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and Roter Ochse, which was used by the Nazis as a prison and execution site. The memorials receive both federal and state funding.

“The AfD will immediately – or as soon as they can – cut the funding or reduce it to a level where a lot of these memorial sites are no longer able to operate in a way that they used to be,” said Leemhuis.

The party has not explicitly said that it will sever funding from Holocaust memorials. But it has proposed abolishing the State Agency for Civic Education, which finances a large portion of school trips to these sites.

Leemhuis added that the AfD could transform the priorities of Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic security agency. 

“This means the AfD has political power to direct security services where to look, where not to look,” he said. “Given the track record of this party, and especially this party group in that state, it will be very clear that there won’t be much of a focus on right-wing extremists.”

The AfD has defended itself against antisemitism accusations by saying that it supports Israel, specifically invoking Israel as a model of “the fight against Muslim immigration,” said Rensmann. At the same time, members of the party have accused Israel of deporting African immigrants to Germany and suggested that Israel has financially exploited Germany to pay for the Holocaust.

The Saxony-Anhalt branch of the AfD did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

An AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt could portend wider-scale momentum, as CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz struggles with plunging popularity amid a sluggish economy. The AfD won 20.8% of the vote in last year’s national election, the best post-World War II showing by a far-right movement, becoming Germany’s largest opposition party. 

Rensmann said that if the AfD sets the agenda it promised in Saxony-Anhalt, it will also immediately send a national message.

“If there is an AfD government, this will be a kind of model for others in the rest of Germany who are antisemitic or rejecting Holocaust memory,” said Rensmann. “They will see this as a model to aspire to.”

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Top aides to US President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November’s midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, four people familiar with the discussions said, a strategy that is already under strain as the United States and Iran resume their back-and-forth attacks.

White House officials will consider ramping up military action after the November 3 vote, said the sources, who requested anonymity to describe internal thinking, though any return to full-scale conflict is far from a given.

For now, they said, the administration is focused on tightening the economic pressure on Iran in an effort to extract concessions in any future negotiation that months of military action failed to secure.

“We are keeping the pressure on Iran,” one White House official said. “But November is a priority.”

Keeping the war mostly contained until then would help prevent the unpopular conflict from dominating the news as Trump’s Republicans campaign to defend thin majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, said the sources, three of whom are White House officials.

Only 31% of Americans approve of the war, while some 63% disapprove, according to a late August Reuters/Ipsos poll, and voters are particularly unhappy about high gas prices.

A tactical pause could also give the US military some breathing room to replenish its heavily depleted munitions stockpiles, the sources said.

But pulling off the play-it-cool strategy looks more difficult by the day. While the conflict remains much less intense than it was during the spring or during a flare-up in the middle of the summer, both sides have exchanged tit-for-tat strikes in recent days.

Iran will likely keep striking US assets

Iran’s leaders, emboldened after months of disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and facing little internal unrest, will likely keep striking at US and allied Gulf targets, including military bases, vessels and energy infrastructure, at least periodically, analysts said.

The US will face pressure to retaliate, potentially leading to an escalatory spiral that brings both sides back to a full-scale air war – whether or not the administration wants it.

Over the weekend, the US struck rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak Island after a month of relative calm, prompting Iran to fire missiles toward Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, the US hit more Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz.

“The regime has every incentive to disrupt the ‘calm’ – which is no real calm, after all, since the administration’s explicit aim is to increase economic pressure massively on Iran,” said Barbara Leaf, who served as the top State Department official for the Middle East under former President Joe Biden.

Another wild card is Trump himself.

The president’s approval rating has fallen from 40% to 33% since the conflict began, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Sources said he is not currently interested in escalation, but he is famously prone to changing his mind and could change course in response to events.

Trump threatened on Tuesday to escalate the conflict if Iran hits back against the latest US strikes.

“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Constrained by logistics, politics

Trump has publicly said the upcoming elections were not factoring into this Iran strategy.

But as the war enters its seventh month, his White House finds itself increasingly constrained by logistical and political realities.

“The timetable has changed,” one senior White House official said. Another added that the “calendar is driving Iran.”

Reuters reported in August that the military had used “virtually all” of its supply of certain precision missiles. On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force warned Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in a written assessment that prolonging the war was unsustainable and would diminish the military’s readiness in other theaters.

The Pentagon has said the military had “everything it needs to execute” its mission.

“President Trump has destroyed Iran’s military capabilities and is crippling what’s left of its abysmal economy with the most powerful naval blockade in world history and crushing sanctions,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said. “The President will continue to advance America’s interests at home and abroad and will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

America’s Gulf allies — some of whom had pushed for aggressive action against Iran earlier in the war to weaken their main regional adversary — roundly urged the White House to deescalate after a recent round of attacks in late July, regional diplomats said.

Currently, two White House officials said, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among the high-ranking Trump aides who are on board with the idea of trying to keep the Iran conflict relatively “quiet” until November.

In recent weeks, administration officials have instead intensified an economic isolation campaign, during which the US has threatened to slap countries that trade with Iran with massive sanctions, while maintaining its own blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

The trade-focused strategy, however, has its own limits, analysts and officials said.

Iran has spent decades under layers of US and ⁠international sanctions that have battered its economy but have not deterred its leadership.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the pressure campaign may cause Iran to lash out militarily, raising the prospect that the economic campaign could itself stoke military escalation.

Additionally, some major world powers, like China, have not joined Washington’s bid to isolate Iran, prompting questions about the campaign’s effectiveness.

“The purpose of the new sanctions package is meant to add economic pressure on top of that being caused by the blockade to force Iran back to the table, after the administration determined it was a better option than returning to kinetic action,” said Alex Plitsas, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“Iran is concerned about it, but China has already indicated that it’s not willing to play ball, which calls into question how effective it will be.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The WhatsApp videos come from Israeli friends who have spotted Paraguay’s flag beside beef on sale. “Ambassador, there’s Paraguayan beef here,” they tell Alejandro Rubin Cymerman, Paraguay’s ambassador to Israel. He had visited supermarkets, suppliers and buyers to ask them to display the flag. Now, those messages give him a satisfaction that trade figures alone cannot provide. 

“Israel needs its supporters to be here,” Rubin told The Media Line in a Spanish-language interview at Paraguay’s embassy in Jerusalem. He arrived in January 2024 with instructions to move the mission to the city during the war. With that move accomplished, his work includes building commercial and institutional ties that can survive changes of government, from beef sales to water management and education. 

Rubin put Paraguayan beef exports to Israel at $220 million in 2025 and forecast roughly $300 million this year. That compares with $88 million in 2023, when, he said, exports practically stopped after October. He credited the private sector with much of the subsequent growth. “We only played a small part,” he said, while describing his effort to make the meat’s Paraguayan origin more visible to shoppers. 

The country itself had been unfamiliar to many Israelis he encountered when he arrived, Rubin recalled. Some asked where Paraguay was, a response he found painful given its longstanding support for Israel, dating back to the 1947 UN partition vote. He believes President Santiago Peña’s public support and the embassy’s relocation helped change that. “Today I go out, say ‘Paraguay,’ and people say, ‘Thank you,’” he said. Rubin described Israel, the United States, and Taiwan as the three pillars of Peña’s foreign policy. 

Paraguay’s embassy policy has changed with its presidents before. The country moved its mission to Jerusalem in 2018, then returned it to Tel Aviv later that year under a new president. Israel responded by closing its embassy in Asunción. Israel reopened its mission in September 2024, and Peña inaugurated Paraguay’s embassy in Jerusalem that December. Rubin called the earlier reversal the relationship’s worst moment, while stressing that Paraguay never closed its embassy in Israel. 

Asked how the relationship could withstand another political transition, Rubin said both governments and their foreign ministries were working to make cooperation useful to their populations. He suggested domestic Paraguayan considerations may have contributed to the 2018 decision. The task now, he said, was to establish “the strongest possible ties” beneath the move to Jerusalem, with benefits for both countries. 

Israel signs at least five memorandums of understanding with Paraguay

Paraguay and Israel have signed at least five memorandums of understanding, according to Rubin, covering fields including water, innovation, defense, and technology. Their implementation is uneven. “Sometimes signing agreements is easier than carrying them out,” he said. Water cooperation is furthest along: Israeli technical experts have visited Paraguay to examine its water system, an assessment is being prepared, and another delegation is planned. 

Paraguay’s abundant water does not make that work unnecessary, Rubin argued. The country sits above one of the world’s largest aquifers, he noted, but poor management could create future problems, including declining water quality. “You might say we have no water problem. But we do have a water management problem,” he said. Israel’s experience managing scarce supplies, in his view, offers practical lessons for a country with very different resources. 

War disrupted the exchanges needed to move projects forward. Rubin said bringing visitors to Israel had been particularly difficult for almost six months. Embassy staff continued working from bunkers, hearing explosions and feeling the building shake. “We went through very difficult times,” he said. Visits are resuming, according to the ambassador, after interruptions that slowed cooperation across several fields. 

On cybersecurity, he did not confirm that a separate memorandum expected this year had been signed. He described a process of review and exchanges between the responsible ministries. Under the security agreement signed last year, he said, delegations must be formed, with an Israeli delegation due to make the first visit. Arranging travel by defense officials has been difficult while Israel emerges from wartime conditions, he said. 

Rubin distinguished those formal arrangements from existing intelligence and security cooperation, which he said had continued. “That doesn’t require a memorandum of understanding between the institutions,” he said. “They understand each other.” He did not describe specific operations or intelligence exchanges, but maintained that cooperation between the two countries remained active despite the obstacles to official visits. 

Paraguay-Israeli collaborating for better educational outcomes

Education presents a different problem of measurement. Asked about cooperation with the Feuerstein Institute, Rubin said work involving cognitive development requires time and cannot be judged as quickly as commercial sales. He did not offer figures for educational outcomes. “It’s not the same as selling beef,” he said. “Beef is easier. But this is where we’re investing in long-term relationships.” 

Agriculture also gives the two countries a reason to work together beyond the sale of meat. Paraguay knows how to produce food, Rubin said, but needs to increase output from each square meter of land. He sees Israeli technology as a way to improve productivity and said private companies were seeking each other out. He also promoted Paraguay as a base for Israeli businesses entering the Mercosur regional trading bloc, citing its economic stability and tax environment. 

Rubin welcomed what he described as a rightward political shift in parts of Latin America, associating it with renewed ties to the United States and Israel. He said Paraguay maintains good relations with its neighbors and benefits when they prosper, while arguing that its economy has become less dependent on their fortunes. “Paraguay needs a strong Argentina. It needs a strong Latin America,” he said. 

His next personal priority is getting Israeli backpackers to include Paraguay in their itineraries. He describes an affordable country with good food and abundant nature, but acknowledges that it still needs to win a place in their travel plans. He also offered reassurance to prospective Israeli visitors: They “can show their passports without shame, without fear of being Israeli.” 

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Britain on Wednesday fined Citibank £4.7 million ($6.35 million) under its Russia sanctions regime, stating that the US bank’s CBNA London unit had made funds available for the benefit of those covered by sanctions.

Britain’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the majority of the breaches occurred between February and November 2022, and CBNA London had voluntarily disclosed the majority of the breaches to the regulator.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Britain, the United States and the European Union have imposed thousands of sanctions on individuals, entities and ships.

The OFSI said that many of the breaches arose in the aftermath of sanctions initially being imposed, which it said had placed “significant strain on the bank’s alert handling and investigation processes”.

“OFSI does not consider there to have been any intent by CBNA London to breach sanctions. However, the errors and failings referred to above were, in aggregate, material and significant and they occurred across a wide range of business areas and systems within the bank,” the regulator said in a statement.

Citi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is a developing story.

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An unknown object exploded near a train station in the southern city of Augsburg in the early hours of Wednesday, German police said, adding that two passers-by aged 17 and 18 sustained minor injuries.

The blast occurred in a building passageway, Bavaria state police said, adding that the injured individuals were two Ukrainian citizens.

Hours later, the city’s main train station was closed after an additional suspicious object was found there, but rail operations resumed later in the morning.

News outlet Bild reported that early in the morning, a hand grenade detonated in front of a jewelry store and that the train station itself was apparently not the target.

A police spokesperson said details on the explosive device remained unclear.

Augsburg is a regional transport hub around 55 kilometers (35 miles) northwest of Munich.

This is a developing story.

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Six people evading the IDF draft were arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday for attempting to avoid security measures and flee the country, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) announced.

According to the IAA, the six were caught in two separate incidents, with two of them caught by airport security in Terminal 1 and four caught in Terminal 3.

During the ensuing investigation by the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority, it was discovered that the six had IDF draft orders against them, which prevented them from leaving the country.

The N12 news site reported that the six suspects were haredi (ultra-Orthodox).

IDF advises draft evaders how to avoid arrest

Earlier this month, an official IDF social media channel published a video advising haredi draft evaders how to avoid arrest at Ben-Gurion Airport.

The video was later deleted after Army Radio reported it and the station asked the IDF about it.

The video, published on the military’s official Instagram channel for haredi service members, hardim.idf, came ahead of an expected surge of thousands of Israelis traveling to Uman, Ukraine, for the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

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Yan Shemla was named on Wednesday as the suspect arrested in connection with the suspected deliberate contamination of baby fruit-puree jars with sedative drugs in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended his detention on Tuesday until September 6 after finding that the investigative material established a “significant” reasonable suspicion of his involvement.

Police suspect Shemla of deliberately inserting sedative substances into jars of Prinok fruit puree sold at two Zol Begadol supermarket branches on Jaffa Street. The offenses under investigation include using poison in a manner that endangers life, theft and negligent handling of medication.

Shemla, a resident of southern Israel, was arrested at his home on Monday after police reported a breakthrough in the investigation. Officers searched the property before taking him for questioning.

The Magistrate’s Court initially allowed his name to be published but temporarily delayed the decision at the request of his attorney, giving the defense time to consider an appeal. His identity was released on Wednesday morning.

Attorney Zecharia Shenkolevsky, who is representing Shemla through the Public Defender’s Office, said his client has a mental-health condition and is in a complex psychological state.

“The investigation is in its early stages, and we expect it to be conducted while protecting his rights, certainly in light of his medical circumstances,” Shenkolevsky said. He added that Shemla was cooperating with investigators.

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The World Food Programme (WFP) is cutting in half the number of Palestinians it can support with food assistance in the West Bank due to funding shortfalls, the UN program announced Tuesday.

Despite now reducing the service, the WFP shared that food needs have doubled since 2023 and an estimated 900,000 people are experiencing food insecurity in the Palestinian territory, and up until now the program has only been able to support 400,000 of those in need.

While not mentioned by the WFP, after Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, the Israeli work permits of 140,000 Palestinian was revoked.

WFP’s latest quarterly food security analysis found that 76% of households in the West Bank have experienced a significant decline in income, and the food and fuel prices remain among the highest in the Middle East. These prices, the WFP claimed, have forced many families to sell assets and reduce the number and quality of their meals to survive.

Notably, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate among those aged 15 and above stood at 27.9%, and the average daily wage stands at only NIS 134.3, just over half of Israel’s minimum daily wage of NIS 257.75.

One-third of West Bank Palestinian families cannot afford nutritious diet

The WFP’s analysis also noted that around 12% of Palestinians in the West Bank have poor food consumption and around a third of families cannot afford a nutritious diet, especially those living in rural areas and in the southern West Bank.

“Families who were once thriving and earning a living from their land are now unable to afford enough food,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP Country Director for the Palestinian territories. “At a time when WFP should be scaling up assistance to reach more people, we are being forced to make difficult decisions, prioritizing the most vulnerable while cutting assistance to others despite widespread needs. We urge the international community to act immediately and step up support for Palestinians.”

Operations in Gaza are also being affected by the funding shortfall. In July, the WFP reduced by 40% the cash value of its assistance for 375,000 people. 

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At least 21 people were killed and 28 wounded in a bus accident on Egypt’s Dahab-Nuweibaa road in South Sinai on Wednesday, the health ministry said in a statement.

Israel Police and Magen David Adom are actively trying to determine if any Israelis were wounded during the accident, N12 reported.

The area along the Red Sea coast is popular with tourists.

Last month, 15 people were killed and 32 wounded in a road accident in Egypt’s Ismailia governorate.

This is a developing story.

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Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company, Bahri, said on Wednesday that two Filipino seafarers were killed in a security incident involving its vessel “SIDR” while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz on August 31.

Later on Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards said that two oil tankers hit sea mines and were disabled while attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

The statement said the tankers had been forced to disembark their crews and were placed in the hands of US operatives to pass through what it called an “illegal route” in the strategic waterway, despite earlier warnings from the Guards’ navy about the dangers of crossing the mined passage.

This is a developing story.

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A 30-year-old Arab-Israeli citizen who had formerly served in the IDF was charged with affiliating himself with the ISIS terror group, Israel Police announced on Wednesday, after his allegiance was discovered in an investigation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

The suspect, Khamis Su’ad, had served in the IDF between 2017 and 2019 and had allegedly exhibited a growing interest in ISIS since 2023, according to the indictment.  

This is a developing story.

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A car struck a gathering of supporters of Iran’s government and armed forces in the northeastern city of Mashhad overnight, killing four people and injuring more than 10, several Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

A car traveling at high speed first collided with another vehicle, lost control, and then veered into the crowd after hitting safety barriers and traffic signs, Noor News reported, citing Mohsen Mousa-Abadi, head of Razavi Khorasan Province’s traffic police. The driver was arrested.

“The driver of the car is a man of about 35 years old and has a conditional license, with medical restrictions. This person has no vision in his left eye and was driving only with his right eye,” an unnamed traffic police official was quoted as saying in a later report by the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan.

Mizan added that the accident was neither intentional nor security-related.

This is a developing story.

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Democrats Party chairman Yair Golan warned on Wednesday that Sara Netanyahu’s comments about him having previous knowledge of the October 7 massacre were not “just a slip of the tongue,” but part of a planned move designed to tarnish him and the government’s political opponents.

“It’s not a slip of the tongue. I simply see what’s happening on the networks, what elements within the Likud, within the coalition, have been saying about me since October 7. This is not some slip of the tongue; it’s a planned move,” Golan said in an interview with Maariv’s podcast broadcast on Wednesday.

“Netanyahu’s real project is to dismantle the norms of Israeli society. It is to dismantle the values ​​of Israeli society,” he added. “It is to turn good into evil, to turn straight into crooked, to turn the proper and the moral into corrupt. That’s what he’s doing.”

Sara Netanyahu, in a Channel 14 interview on Monday evening, suggested that Golan knew about October 7 prior to the attacks. “When you are a military officer of such a high rank and claim that you fought on October 7, you were already there early in the morning, already dressed and prepared; at a very early hour, when others did not know, such as the prime minister,” she said.

According to Golan, the government has been acting this way since way before the war. “They invented a story to smear political opponents,” he explained. “It started before the war, during the coup. That is, from January 4, 2023, to October 7. Since then, and to this day, it’s the same method. It’s taking everyone who opposes them, labeling them a traitor, and when there are no things to cling to, then they invent conspiracy theories. This is a planned, systematic, orderly move.”

Support from political opponents on the right

Golan also revealed that the support he has received from journalists and right-wing figures who do not identify with his political positions has also helped as encouragement.

“Yes, it’s not just journalists; it’s also people on the right who are clearly right-wing, and I want to tell you that it’s very encouraging. It’s really very encouraging,” he said.

“It means that once we have some kind of common normative basis, that we know how to admit the truth together, then there’s something to talk about. I think that when there are people on the right who are clearly right-wing who make a statement that begins first and foremost with a clear message of values,” he added.

He also recalled the morning of October 7, explaining that he woke up earlier, by 6:15 a.m., and started noticing more movement than usual, with people going for their phones. He then decided to turn on the radio and waited until his wife woke up.

“At eight in the morning I told her: ‘I have to go back to the army.’ I went upstairs, looked in the warehouse for the military shoes, and found them. At eight thirty I left the house,” he said. “I said to myself, what am I doing? I said: We’ll go to the Home Front Command headquarters. It’s also on the way south, and I was also the commander of the Home Front Command. I knew I would be welcomed there.”

He then arrived at the headquarters around 9:00 a.m. “I went into the command situation assessment, and that’s when I understood for the first time the dimensions of the disaster,” he pointed out. “I signed for a weapon, a vest, and a helmet, got into my private car, and went down.”

He also recalled being surprised by the reaction he received from the soldiers at the checkpoints. “I arrived at the camp; I was at the checkpoints. I was surprised. I thought they would block me, that they wouldn’t let me in. At all the checkpoints I passed through, the soldiers were so frightened that when they saw a senior commander arriving in the area, they welcomed me warmly.”

Netanyahu launched campaign to spread October 7 conspiracy theories, Likud member says

On Tuesday, a Likud source told N12 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched an intentional campaign aimed at spreading conspiracy theories about October 7.

הערב דיווחנו מפי גורם בליכוד – האמירה של שרה נתניהו אינה מקרית. יש החלטה להפיץ תיאוריות קונספירציה בזמן שנותר עד הבחירות כדי להרחיק את נתניהו מהטבח בכל מחיר. הערב טען נתניהו באינסטגרם שקציני צהל לא ידעו אותו בכוונה (!) כי ידעו שימנע את הטבח. המידע כידוע כן עבר אבל הגיע בסמוך לטבח pic.twitter.com/UxRxl9rvej

— דפנה ליאל (@DaphnaLiel) September 1, 2026

There is an intentional effort to propagate such rumors as part of an effort to distance the prime minister from the massacre, “at all costs,” the source said.

On Tuesday night, Netanyahu claimed in an Instagram post that IDF officers intentionally failed to inform him of the attack because they didn’t want him to prevent it. In May 2024, the IDF confirmed that the prime minister had received four warning letters between March and July of 2023, concerning how Israel’s “enemies” perceived the societal divides in the State of Israel and their effect on Israel and the IDF in particular.

The post clarified Sara Netanyahu’s earlier remarks, adding that “there was no betrayal on October 7; there was a failure.”

Golan demands apology from Sara Netanyahu

Golan demanded that Sara Netanyahu issue a formal apology within 24 hours or face an NIS 2.5 million lawsuit for defamation.

“I retract the statements I made in my interview with Channel 14 regarding Yair Golan, which were nothing more than false and baseless nonsense. Mr. Golan went to the Gaza border area on October 7 armed only with his weapon and, while risking his life, saved young people from the Nova music festival. Mr. Golan, like all Israeli citizens, learned of the Hamas attack when the first sirens sounded at 6:29 a.m. on October 7 and, as a result, decided to act and went into the field.”

He added, “They are trying to rewrite October 7 in order to erase Netanyahu’s responsibility for the greatest failure in the country’s history.”

Responding to Netanyahu’s Instagram post, Golan said that it was “not an apology, but an attempt to minimize the damage.”

Keshet Neev contributed to this report.

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The German Navy successfully completed a dual trial of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)‘s Naval Lora ballistic missile on Tuesday night, as part of the German Navy’s Operational Experimentation (OPEX).

During the trial launches, the missile “was launched to its trajectory, navigated its course to the target, and hit it with utmost precision,” IAI said in a press release.

German naval chief, Vice-Admiral Jan Christian Kaack, said that the successful launch “made naval history.”

“I am extremely pleased with this achievement,” he added.

Kaack described the missile’s potential range as exceeding “anything we have known before.

“For the protection of Germany and our allies, this test represents a new chapter in terms of deterrence and defense readiness at sea,” Kaack said.

German test of IAI missile is ‘unprecedented achievement’

The response to the successful trial from the Israeli side was also enthusiastic.

“This is an unprecedented achievement for IAI and the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” IAI Chairman Boaz Levy said. “This trial demonstrates Israel’s technological strength and the unique cooperation between Israel and Germany. It marks another significant achievement alongside the deployment of the Arrow 3 system on German soil, further strengthening Germany’s defense and deterrence capabilities and deepening the strategic partnership between our two countries.”

Guy Bar Lev, IAI’s CEO, also expressed pride in the partnership between Germany and Israel, saying that the trial “underscored” the two countries’ strategic cooperation.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted on Tuesday the recent development of Turkey‘s first nuclear project, saying that Moscow plans to continue developing the nuclear and economic ties between the two nations.

During a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, held in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Putin pointed out the strong relations between his country and Turkey, while also saying that one of the main shared projects between the countries is the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.

“Joint projects continue to be implemented. One of them is the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. You have set a target of commissioning the first unit of the plant this year. This will happen,” Putin told Erdogan.

What is Turkey’s nuclear project?

Developed by Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom, the plant is located on the Mediterranean coast in Mersin Province. It is Turkey’s first and main nuclear project, with the four power units expected to have a total capacity of 4,800 MW using VVER-1200 reactors, which would represent 10% of Turkey’s entire energy consumption.

Erdogan also addressed the nuclear project, saying that Turkey plans to build more power plants with Russia in the future. “With the opening of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, we will also take steps together to open some new power plants. We are in the midst of these preparations,” he said.

According to the statements by the two heads of state, outside of the energy sector, the main focus for developing relations will be on agriculture and tourism, with Russian tourists being among the most important visitors to Turkey, according to Erdogan.

Along with both heads of state, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Ibrahim Kalin, also attended the meeting.

Russia expands relations with Iran

During the SCO summit, Putin also met with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who thanked the Russian leader for Moscow’s position on the war in Iran and the resulting sanctions.

Both presidents  said that together, Moscow and Tehran can resist what he called US “unilateralism.”

During the meeting, Putin told Pezeshkian that Moscow stood in solidarity with the Iranian people in the fight for their interests.

Putin also said that Russia and Iran will maintain their economic and trade relationship despite the current military and political environment.

“During this difficult period, we are striving to provide you with the necessary assistance – as we have discussed – and are supplying you with essential goods,” Putin said.

Tzvi Jasper contributed to this report.

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National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday that Likud needs to conclude the transfer of Tally Gotliv to his party today if it wishes for the MK to run during the upcoming elections in the right-wing party.

“If Likud wants to transfer Tally Gotliv to Otzma Yehudit, it needs to carry out the procedures today, instead of sending empty briefings to the media,” said Ben-Gvir in a statement.

This follows Gotliv telling KAN Reshet Bet on Tuesday that she would weigh joining Otzma Yehudit if presented with a worthwhile offer.

“I would be very happy to receive a good concrete offer from Otzma Yehudit, and I would consider it seriously,” Gotliv told KAN. “I owe it to my voters to seriously consider any concrete proposal that would allow me to put my abilities to use.”

“The prime minister owes me nothing; he is under no obligation to appoint me justice minister, nor will he appoint me to any other ministerial post or as the chair of an important committee.”
Gotliv claimed she had been deliberately targeted during the party’s primaries, after Netanyahu’s reserved slots on Likud’s list pushed her to the 20th spot.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

This is a developing story.

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The IDF killed two Hamas terrorists in a Monday strike on Gaza, including a commander from the Military Security Department of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, the military confirmed on Wednesday.

According to the military, terrorists Talal Mustafa Saleh Badawi, who was the commander, and Momo Saeed Mohammed Hawari were killed during the strikes on Gaza.

“Recently, the terrorists advanced terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians and operated to rehabilitate the capabilities of the terrorist organization, in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” the military added.

Jerusalem District Border Police kill three terrorists during operations

Additionally, Israel Police announced that it had killed three terrorists during operations by Jerusalem’s Border Police in the village of Bayt Rima, West Bank.

According to the police, undercover officers infiltrated the village overnight to locate and arrest troublemakers last seen in the area.

During the operation, a violent clash erupted with some of the villagers, which included the hurling of stones at the undercover agents.

At the time, the agents identified that three terrorists posed a danger to the forces and killed them with precise fire, police said.

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Several cars were set on fire in the village of Osarin, near Nablus, in the West Bank overnight, N12 News reported on Wednesday morning.

The incident is suspected to be a nationalist attack by extremist settlers, N12 added.

According to N12, no arrests have been made in connection with the attack as of the writing.

This is a developing story.

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The IDF struck Hezbollah infrastructure near Nabatiya, southern Lebanon, on Wednesday, after terrorists launched two explosive drones towards soldiers operating in the Ali al-Taher Ridge, the military said.

The IDF opened fire, downing one of the drones, it noted. No IDF soldiers were injured in the drone attacks, the military confirmed.

This follows reports from Hezbollah-run Al Manar TV claiming that the IDF struck Rumman, a village in southern Lebanon, earlier on Wednesday.

The strikes also followed the activation of sirens in some areas of northern Israel early on Wednesday morning as the IDF launched interceptors towards what it suspected at the time to be a drone that crossed from Lebanon into Israel.

Later, the military announced that the interceptors had likely been launched towards a “false target.”

No casualties were reported, and the military added that it is currently examining the results of the interception.

This is a developing story. 

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After most of Israel’s water desalination facilities were shut down starting Monday morning because of high seawater turbidity, concerns are growing in the agricultural sector about severe crop damage and disruptions to Israel’s food production, particularly in the South.

The Water Authority and the Energy and Infrastructure Ministry said Tuesday morning that after the facilities operated overnight, most were shut down again after seawater turbidity rose. Under water management guidelines, authorities were instructed to reduce public landscaping and agricultural activities and limit public water usage.

The Water Authority clarified that household water supplies are continuing, and that in areas experiencing localized problems, the authority’s operations center is handling the issue.

Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen said the incident was a natural phenomenon not seen in Israel in the past 20 years, which significantly increased seawater turbidity and led to the shutdown of most desalination facilities.

“We are working to increase the rate of pumping from wells and the Sea of Galilee, and we have also approved the activation of two additional desalination facilities in order to ensure water supplies,” Cohen said.

However, there are concerns that operating the facilities despite the turbid water could cause them severe damage. At this stage, the priority is to ensure continued regular water supplies to households.

Government working to aid farms where crops, livestock at risk

Following a situation assessment led by Agriculture and Food Security Ministry Director-General Oren Lavi, the ministry mapped areas where agricultural farms have been affected across the country, with an emphasis on the South and Ramat Hanegev. The ministry is working with the Water Authority and Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, to restore agricultural water supplies and provide immediate assistance to farms where crops and livestock are at risk.

In the Ramat Hanegev area, particularly in the Nitzana region, significant damage has been reported. The area contains extensive agricultural fields, including vegetables, greenhouses, and young seedlings, some of which depend on continuous water supplies and have no readily available alternative source.

“We are dealing with an unusual event that requires rapid action,” Lavi said. “For farmers, water is not a resource whose use can be postponed to another time. In some crops, particularly young seedlings, greenhouses, and sensitive crops, prolonged irrigation stoppages can cause irreversible damage quickly.”

“The situation is especially difficult in Ramat Hanegev, and we are working with the Water Authority and Mekorot to prioritize farms where there is an immediate danger to crops and livestock. If the shutdown of the desalination facilities continues, it could also affect the continuity of production and supply of fresh agricultural produce ahead of the High Holy Days. Our goal at this stage is clear: to prevent irreversible damage to farmers and preserve agricultural production continuity and Israel’s food security,” he added.

Reports received by the ministry indicate that disruptions are also being felt in the Hof Ashkelon and Sdot Negev regional councils, as well as other parts of southern-central Israel.

The ministry is also assisting livestock farms affected by the disruption. The ministry supplied a water tanker to a dairy farm in Kibbutz Gezer, and another tanker to a dairy farm in Moshav Matzliah. The ministry has additional tankers available for deployment as needed, but officials stressed that this is only a temporary emergency solution.

Israel Farmers Federation demands immediate solution, compensation

The Israel Farmers Federation warned that the interruption of agricultural water supplies threatens Israel’s food security and the operations of hundreds of agricultural farms, demanding that the government provide an immediate solution and compensation framework.

Moshavim Movement Secretary-General Amit Yifrach and Israel Farmers Federation Secretary-General Or Dorman appealed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, and Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen, demanding immediate intervention following the disruption of freshwater supplies to agriculture in the Shephelah, Judean Hills, the South, and the Negev during the height of the growing season.

They warned that the disruption could cause severe and irreversible damage to many crops, particularly vegetables and orchards nearing harvest, and put hundreds of agricultural farms, most of them family-owned, at risk.

“An entire region, including hundreds of agricultural farms, most of them family farms, is facing accumulating damage,” they said. “For farmers, this is not only the loss of crops, but a direct blow to their life’s work, their ability to make a living and continue operating their farms.”

The federation stressed that while it understands the need to prioritize drinking water, agriculture cannot be left without certainty or a response.

“Every day without a regular water supply could deepen the damage and lead to crop losses,” the appeal stated.

Ramat Hanegev Regional Council head Eran Doron warned of an immediate threat to around 20,000 dunams of vegetable crops in the Nitzana region, which he said amount to approximately two million tons of vegetables.

According to Doron, the shutdown of desalination systems has created a severe crisis in the area and threatens crops grown by dozens of farmers near the Egyptian border.

“This is a real threat to food security, the cost of living, and the supply of fresh food production in Israel, as well as a blow to farmers’ livelihoods and the region’s economic future,” he said.

State Comptroller warns about water desalination plant issues

The incident follows a series of reports from the State Comptroller’s Office in recent years warning about the management of water desalination facilities and Israel’s preparedness for risks affecting the water sector.

A 2024 report examining the regulation and oversight of seawater desalination facilities found that between 2007 and the end of 2023, 14 incidents of seawater contamination led to production stoppages at desalination facilities. The stoppages lasted from several hours to five days and were caused by tests that detected microbial contamination, fuel and oil pollution, and turbidity.

The report found that about 57% of the incidents that caused production stoppages due to the quality of raw water, in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines, involved microbial contamination. Around 29% of all incidents were caused by fuel and oil contamination, while about 14% were turbidity events caused by storms and earthquakes.

The comptroller recommended that the Health Ministry conduct periodic surveys on algal toxins and other toxins released into water by invasive species, prepare a plan to address the phenomenon, and oversee implementation.

Another report from 2022, which examined cybersecurity among local water suppliers, found that some of the water corporations inspected received low scores for their readiness to withstand cyberattacks, and that only some suppliers required to connect to the Energy Ministry’s cyber center for infrastructure monitoring had done so by May 2022.

The State Comptroller recommended advancing regulatory procedures requiring water suppliers to operate monitoring, control, and cyber defense systems, prepare information security plans, and establish the Water Authority’s authority to issue cybersecurity directives.

A further 2021 report found that the division responsible for desalination facilities at the Water Authority had not prepared for the impact of climate change on the facilities. The comptroller recommended examining scenarios related to the impact of climate change on seawater composition and the steps needed to reduce associated risks.

Bedouin villages have water cut off due to burst pipe

Meanwhile, several Bedouin villages in the Negev had their water cut off after a pipe burst at the Beersheba prison, Ynet reported on Wednesday morning.

The Water Authority said that tankers were on their way to the affected villages, and that the issue was being repaired.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

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Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, London-based outlet The Financial Times reported on Wednesday morning, which experts say would likely have been intended for anti-ship and land attacks.

The program, codenamed C430L, began in 2023 and was arranged by Russia’s state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, in coordination with the US-sanctioned NPO Mashinostroyenia, FT reported.

This is a developing story.

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Dialogue between Russia and the US should continue to find common ground on economics, which should make it easier to discuss political issues, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said, according to an Interfax report on Wednesday.

Asked about a bilateral meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday at the G20 finance leaders conference in North Carolina, Siluanov said both countries have agreed there are grounds to develop financial ties despite complications, Interfax reported.

Siluanov, who said he was meeting Bessent for the first time, said he believed people in the financial world sometimes find common ground faster than politicians.

“So we must always keep talking; we need to continue the dialogue. If we find strong points of common interest – and they do exist – we need to develop them. Then political issues will also be easier to resolve,” he said, according to Interfax.

No economic relief without ending Ukraine war

Reuters reported on Monday that a source familiar with the ministers’ meeting said Bessent made clear to Siluanov that no economic relief for Russia or agreements on other issues were possible until its war in Ukraine ends.

Bessent met bilaterally with Siluanov on the sidelines of a G20 finance leaders meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Russian finance minister’s first in-person G20 appearance since Russia invaded Ukraine has irritated European officials who are working on more sanctions against Russia.

Earlier, a US official told Reuters the focus of the Bessent-Siluanov meeting was President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine. Russia’s finance ministry said the two officials discussed financial cooperation within the G20 framework.

When Siluanov tried to discuss areas of mutual interest, the source said Bessent interrupted him and said: “Nothing is possible until the war is over.”

The US imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil majors in October 2025, but after the US-Israeli war against Iran cut off energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent issued licenses allowing the sale of seaborne Russian oil stored in tankers to ease supplies, sending some funds to Moscow.

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The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Tuesday night confirmed in a statement that they had captured Hamas’s head of internal security in the Gaza Strip in the first high-level capture operation deep in Gaza in a long time.

The official statement did not make any direct mention of Gaza gangs being central to the operation, though there was a hint with a reference to Shin Bet’s “special forces.”

However, The Jerusalem Post and other media have received clear indications, along with confirmations in foreign reports, that anti-Hamas Gaza gangs were at the heart of the operation, even while supported by the IDF and the Shin Bet.

Another mystery that was solved over the course of the day was the importance of the Hamas official who has been arrested.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli official told the Post that the captured terrorist is Mu’in al-Arabid, head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus, which would have made him one of the top security officials in the Strip.

Katz, Netanyahu play up al-Arabid’s importance to Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz both sought to emphasize Arabid’s importance, with the prime minister saying he played a major role in managing the hiding of the over 250 Israeli hostages after October 7, 2023.

However, a Palestinian source in Gaza told the Post that the man captured was in charge of Hamas’s internal security department in the area of Gaza City only, which would have made him more of a mid-level official.

The source added that members of an anti-Hamas group played a role in the operation and that the terror organization is trying to “downplay the incident” and “its internal security forces are actively pursuing militias supported by Israel.”

The final statement by the IDF and the Shin Bet seemed to settle on the official being more important than Hamas claimed but less important than Netanyahu and Katz contended.

While multiple Hamas chiefs of internal security and of Hamas’s entirely military have been killed, the terror group, while severely weakened, remains in control of the Palestinian population in the Strip.

“A short time ago, a senior Hamas terrorist was arrested, and this is our policy: We do not wait for threats. Instead, we pursue Hamas terrorists, thwart them, and destroy their terrorist infrastructure. We have built a strong and unprecedented security zone in Gaza to protect residents and IDF soldiers,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday afternoon.

Strangely, Katz added, “Any attempt to bypass the security zone through aerial launches will be met with a harsh response,” though Hamas has not attacked Israel from the air. The balloons Hamas sent into Israel last week had already resulted in an increase in Israeli assassinations of Hamas officials.

Netanyahu congratulated the Shin Bet and IDF for their “bold action in arresting the head of Hamas’s general security apparatus from his home,” in a statement released on Tuesday evening.

He called the terrorist “one of the most senior Hamas leaders,” adding that he was “responsible for hiding and transporting our hostages, hiding Hamas senior figures, and building the terror force, including attempting to restore the terror group’s capabilities.”

The prime minister added, “Recently, he was involved in attempts to restore Hamas’s governance in Gaza, deception on the issue of demilitarizing the strip, and assisting in carrying out terrorist acts against the IDF and Israeli civilians.”

It was unclear what strategic change could be achieved in the standoff with Hamas by means of this operation. Yet its daring, coupled with the entrance of Israeli-aligned forces deeper into a Hamas enclave, has grabbed media and public attention in the lead-up to the election more than regular airstrikes – which barely register in the press most days.

What has the IDF done in Gaza recently?

Later Tuesday night, the IDF announced yet another of its nearly daily assassination airstrikes against a Hamas official.

Following a series of heavier-than-usual airstrikes, which it appears were carried out to support the Gaza gangs, the IDF stated that there had been no Israeli casualties.

Initially, Al Hadath reported that the IDF had coordinated with Gazan militias to attempt to “kidnap a figure near the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza.”

According to Al Hadath, the strikes occurred after the operation was exposed.

IDF sources would not deny foreign reports that Israel worked alongside Gazan militias to arrest the senior Hamas official.

Ten explosions were heard in the Gaza City area as a result of the strikes, Palestinian sources reported earlier on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli military aircraft were flying at low altitude over the area, while Al Hadath reported that drones continued to drop a large number of bombs in the area.

Additionally, reports claimed that IDF special forces had entered the area of the American Hospital in the al-Katiba area of western Gaza City.

Palestinian reports described exchanges of fire and shooting involving special forces in western Gaza City. There were also reports of a large number of casualties among Gazans as a result of the strikes.

Separately, there were reports of smoke shells being fired in the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, along the coast.

Local gangs contribute, but they are not the primary drivers in toppling Hamas.

Political leaks suggesting that Gaza’s local gangs have any chance of taking over the Strip from Hamas in the near or medium term are referred to by most defense establishment figures as being divorced from reality.

Most defense officials acknowledge that each of these groups can only survive with clear IDF protection and can only confront Hamas in small and limited operations.

Even if their numbers range between the dozens and a couple of hundred, Hamas still has thousands or more foot soldiers.

In other words, these local gangs might contribute over the long term to Hamas’s fall, but most defense officials say they will not be a central component of it.

Rather, most experts agree that either some arm of the Palestinian Authority or a hybrid of the PA, Egypt, the ISF, and some outside IDF support would be needed to overcome Hamas in the long term.

James Genn and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

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US Vice President JD Vance recently met with representatives of Temple Israel in Michigan to offer “his support in the wake of the attack on our community,” clergy from the synagogue told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Vance’s Monday meeting with representatives of the suburban Detroit synagogue that had been attacked by a terrorist in March came as the vice president has upped his outreach to Jewish voters ahead of a likely 2028 presidential run. He also invited a rabbi and security guard to a rally Monday in the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, where he called them out from the podium and said he was “honored” to have them attend.

The Reform synagogue’s clergy later offered more details about his outreach, telling JTA that he had met with one rabbi, as well as with a security officer who had stopped the assailant from harming anyone at the preschool that was in session.

The meeting was held at Vance’s request, Rabbi Jen Lader told JTA, and the vice president did not visit the synagogue itself.

“This was an important opportunity to ask for the Vice President’s support in the fight against antisemitism, and for additional security funding through the Jewish American Security Act,” Lader wrote in an email to JTA, referring to a bipartisan bill introduced in the US House this summer to increase federal funds for both Jewish organizations and synagogue security. 

Lader continued, “We’ve made the same requests to elected officials on both sides of the political aisle.”

Later that day, the vice president traveled to Las Vegas, where he met in a closed-door session with members of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who have been riled by his close relationship with podcaster Tucker Carlson and other points of contention.

Vance seeks to draw contrast with El-Sayed

Vance sought to draw a contrast with Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic US Senate candidate, who spent the weekend offering apologies for his earlier comments about the temple attack, when he appeared to describe the attack as a response to Israel’s incursion in Lebanon.

Some Michigan Jewish leaders are publicly mobilizing against El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel: As of press time, more than 400 Jews in the state, including some who hold prominent community positions, have signed a petition pledging to vote for the GOP candidate, former US Rep. Mike Rogers, in the Senate race. 

A representative for Vance did not respond to a request for comment on the vice president’s Temple Israel meeting or for his views on the Jewish American Security Act.

At the RJC meeting, where he also received a standing ovation but did not address his Carlson ties, attendees told JTA that Vance highlighted his outreach to Temple Israel. 

The nation’s largest Reform synagogue, Temple Israel, was attacked in March by a man who had recently lost family in an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah position in Lebanon. In two statements following the attack, El-Sayed initially condemned it outright. He then changed his wording to include what he now says was “context” about Israel’s war in Lebanon, including the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people.”

El-Sayed apologizes for remarks

Speaking with the state Democratic Party’s Jewish caucus at the party convention on Saturday, El-Sayed apologized for those remarks, saying, “I made a mistake.” He also attended the caucus’s “Summer Simcha” fundraiser the next day, where he repeated his apology and asked for forgiveness. He told JTA the “context” he’d sought to include in his initial remarks was related to “violence in all its forms, in all circumstances.”

Temple Israel clergy have declined to comment to JTA on El-Sayed’s two apologies for his past comments. Lader had penned an op-ed in The Free Press criticizing his response.

Vance’s Michigan visit also included a rally in Sterling Heights, where he discussed the synagogue attack and called it “a terrible, antisemitic terrorist attack.”

“It could have been so much worse, ladies and gentlemen,” Vance told the crowd, who had given the Temple Israel personnel a standing ovation. “That guy showed up at that synagogue, at that school with a desire to kill a lot of children, and he killed precisely zero children because of the brave security guards who did their job and did it very well.”

Vance also called El-Sayed, a progressive and a Muslim, “very, very evil” from the podium. 

“Abdul El-Sayed made an apology for the very people who would perpetrate violence against hundreds of innocent American schoolchildren,” Vance told the crowd. “You’ve got to ask yourself, if he’s willing to empathize, not with the children who almost had their lives destroyed at the most innocent and what should be the safest place in the world, their school, what is he going to do when he goes to Washington, DC, when the cameras aren’t on?”

Vance added, “What I see is a man who has sympathy and compassion for people who share his religion, but has nothing for people who don’t. A person who will apologize for a murderer so long as he looks the right way, but will not understand the plight of an innocent child if that person has the wrong faith.”

The Jewish voters petition, titled “Michigan Jews Against Extremism,” was spearheaded prior to El-Sayed’s apologies but has picked up more signatures in their aftermath. 

The petition’s language states that “many” of the signatories “have been fiercely supportive of Democratic candidates and principles,” but that all of them “declare our intent to vote for Mike Rogers for US Senate in 2026.”

“If El-Sayed were to win the general election in this important swing state, we fear the far-left and anti-Jewish elements in the Democratic Party would become dominant, including in the imminent 2028 presidential race,” the petition says. “We cannot allow him to become the Democratic standard-bearer or Michigan’s senator.”

The petition specifies that their vote for Rogers “does not require that we agree with him on every issue or that we support President Trump.”

Benji Rosenzweig, a real-estate agent and music podcaster based in West Bloomfield, was one of the letter’s signers. 

“I’ve watched Abdul El-Sayed, for the last number of months, surround himself with people who cheer for the destruction of our families and the annihilation of our community,” Rosenzweig told JTA. He signed the petition before El-Sayed’s apologies but wasn’t swayed by them: “What he said was, ‘I’m sorry that you were hurt.’ That’s not an apology.”

Rosenzweig describes himself as a “centrist” who holds “liberal values,” and who would have voted for El-Sayed’s primary opponent, US Rep. Haley Stevens, in the general November election if she had won the nomination. He recently met Rogers at an event, he said, and told him that “I will be holding him accountable to the liberal values that I still value.”

As of press time, the petition’s signatories include Brian Hermelin, current president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit; Mark Davidoff, CEO of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator; Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, CEO of the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills; Amy Newman, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Metro Detroit; and David Victor, past president of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

The petition included their names but not their titles, suggesting they were signing as individuals and not as representatives of their organizations. The list also includes the names of several people who had previously told JTA they would commit to fundraising for Rogers if El-Sayed won the Democratic primary.

Local rabbi Asher Lopatin, currently on leave from his role as community relations director for the Ann Arbor Jewish Federation, has stumped for Rogers but told JTA he does not have a formal role with the campaign. In the Forward this week, Lopatin again urged the state’s Jewish Democrats to back Rogers over El-Sayed.

“To show the Democrats that such candidates should never be nominated, we must show them that such candidates can never win,” the rabbi wrote on Monday.

The El-Sayed campaign did not return a request for comment from JTA about the petition.

For the approximately 100,000 Jews in Michigan, the question of whether to vote for El-Sayed has proven hugely divisive. At the same Sunday event that hosted the candidate, state Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish and has publicly sparred with El-Sayed over his rhetoric, implored the crowd to “place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival” — suggesting that Jewish voters should put their own feelings of personal safety aside in order to elect a Democrat.

Nessel’s comment, coming one day after she sat out a state Democratic convention over what she said was fear of antisemitic harassment, has sparked some backlash outside of Michigan. Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the attorney general “an absolute embarrassment.” 

Mark Goldfeder, who runs the litigation group National Jewish Advocacy Center, wrote on the social network X/Twitter, “Jewish voters can care deeply about democracy, climate, health care and the welfare of their neighbors while still treating Jewish safety as entirely nonnegotiable.”

Rosenzweig said he had once been an admirer of Nessel but that he was “really sad” over what he interpreted as her suggestion that voting for Abdul “may put Jewish people in danger, but do it anyways.”

“If Abdul wins, she gets to say, ‘Well, Jews are endangered,’” he said. “It’s just such a crazy place to put people in.”

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Massachusetts progressive Sen. Ed Markey, a sharp critic of Israel, is projected to beat the more moderate Rep. Seth Moulton by a wide margin on Tuesday, securing the Democratic nomination for the upcoming US Senate race.  

The Associated Press called the race just a half hour after polls closed, at 8:31 pm, when Markey had secured 75.9% of votes to Moulton’s 24.1%, with 3% of ballots tallied. 

“Tonight is a testament to the power of the progressive movement,” Markey said on Tuesday night. “It is a progressive movement fueled by young people demanding more from their leaders.”

Noting that he spoke to Moulton prior to taking the stage, Markey added that he looks forward to working together “to build a better future for everyone.”

Moulton, meanwhile, told his supporters that he had “called Sen. Markey to congratulate him on his victory tonight.” He conveyed his “full support” for his opponent as the Democratic nominee, stressing that they “must stand united this November to protect our democracy and defeat [US President] Donald Trump.”

Markey, 80, began serving in the US House of Representatives 50 years ago and remained there until he was elected to fill the Senate seat of John Kerry, who was appointed US Secretary of State in 2013.  During Markey’s time in the House, he was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and in the Senate, he has supported multiple resolutions aimed at cutting military aid and munitions sales to Israel. 

Moulton, 47, was born two years after Markey arrived on Capitol Hill. He has been serving in the US House since 2015 and has opposed both the Democratic socialist agenda and the aging establishment, instead calling for “new energy, new ideas and leaders willing to put people over politics.”

“We ran a race that stood on principle, that wasn’t just about politics as usual, and that elevated the voices of Massachusetts citizens who have been left behind by the status quo in Washington,” Moulton said on Tuesday. “Challenging the establishment and calling for a new generation of leadership isn’t easy, but it is necessary,” he added.

But many political analysts have suggested that Moulton’s predominant focus on his youth and his opponent’s age may have been his primary downfall. Although in the weeks leading up to the primary, polls had projected Markey’s win, the two candidates had been running neck-and-neck in the preceding months.  

A New York Times piece recently described Moulton as a “rebel without a cause” who drifted with “the political winds” and focused on platforms he was fighting against rather than those he was supporting. In a case relevant to the American Jews, he declared in October that he was “returning AIPAC donations” and refusing new funds from the pro-Israel lobby. 

“In recent years AIPAC has aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government,” Moulton posted at the time. “I’m a friend of Israel, but not of its current government.”

Track AIPAC, a group that documents political spending by pro-Israel lobbies, reported that such PACs have spent about $101,500 on Moulton over his career — a relatively modest amount for a six-term congressman.

“It is clearly the safe thing to do, if you are running for a nomination in the Democratic Party, to aggressively distance yourself from Israel,” Jeff Robbins, a Boston-based attorney and former Senate investigative counsel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 

Robbins, who also served as delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission under President Bill Clinton, described the shift as “reflective of the reality that we have seen play out in spades over the last year.” 

That situation involves Democratic candidates “running for the hills about AIPAC and treating it as a boogeyman,” added Robbins, who began organizing pro-Israel rallies in 2012, while chairing the New England Board of the Anti-Defamation League. 

“If you want to have a prayer of being elected in a Democratic primary in this country, you had better be able to say, ‘I don’t take money from AIPAC. In fact, I never heard of it before,’” he added.

Markey calls to end war in Iran, slash Pentagon budget

On Tuesday night, however, neither candidate referred directly to AIPAC. Moulton spoke only briefly, while Markey primarily focused on domestic issues but did quickly mention the Middle East.

“We need to end the war in Iran, and stop the bombing in Gaza,” Markey said. “We need to slash the Pentagon budget.” 

The senator stressed the need to protect the LGBTQ+ community and to prioritize affordability goals, such as achieving “a future with no copays, no surprise bills, no premiums, no deductibles, a future with Medicare for all.”

“Donald Trump is attacking the futures, the dreams, of every boy and every girl on every porch all across this country, cutting education, cutting healthcare, cutting protections against discrimination,” the senator said. “We are not backing down in Massachusetts: not now, not ever.” 

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Maccabi Tel Aviv dominated Maccabi Haifa 3-1 in the Israeli Clasico on Sunday night as Dor Peretz scored a first half brace to help the yellow-and-blue to the three points at Bloomfield.

Kenny Miller’s squad looked to break the ice early on as Peretz slotted home a penalty after Helio Varela had been tripped up in the box and then Peretz doubled the advantage when he took a gorgeous Ali Camara ball and slotted it home for a 2-0 lead at the break. Osher Davida added the third marker for the hosts while Eitan Azulay broke up the clean sheet for Haifa with an inconsequential penalty as Maccabi closed out the win.

“We talked before the game about the disappointing result in Europe,” Miller said. “We won the Super Cup, reached the Toto Cup final and we wanted to continue our good run of results. We enjoyed the energy of the home crowd. In the first half, it was the performance we wanted, but they put us under pressure in the second half.

“There are two teams in every football match, so it’s difficult for everything to go exactly the way you want for 90 minutes. As for Dor Peretz, he has had a great start to the season. He’s amazing, works hard every day and works on his finishing. He gets into good positions and that is showing in the games.”

Haifa coach Barak Bachar reflected on his side’s defeat

“We lost the game but had some good minutes,” Bachar began. “We were soft and while the second half was a bit better, we have to improve as a team. We could have pressed more and been more aggressive, we could have done a better job against a team like Maccabi Tel Aviv who were coming off a tough loss. But we conceded an early penalty and things went the wrong way from that point on.”

Meanwhile, Maccabi Netanya crushed Beitar Jerusalem 4-1 as Matheus Davo scored a second half hat trick to stun the yellow-and-black and secure the points after an opening day goalless draw with Bnei Sakhnin.

After a goalless first half, substitute Daniel Worko gave Almog Cohen’s team a 1-0 lead early on in the second half, but from that moment on it was at Netanya as Roni Levy’s star striker Davo scored a trio of goals while Maor Levi added one as well and Oz Bilu assisted on three of the markers to wrap up the victory.

Levy looked back at the win.

“It’s the start of the season and we want to play our football. We knew that this was going to be a tough game but we did what we needed to to take the win. We scored on our chances this time and this was no question one of our best games since I took over as coach. We needed to know that even when we conceded we knew how to dig out of the hole. But we need to keep going and push ahead.”

Hapoel Beersheba beats Hapoel Ramat Gan

In Rehovot, Hapoel Beersheba downed Hapoel Ramat Gan 2-1 as Eliel Peretz scored the late winner to help Israel’s lone European representative to the points and the win.

After a goalless first half youngster Amit Ohana scored on a superb individual effort to give the defending champions a 1-0 lead. However, Matan Hozez quickly drew the hosts even, and Peretz’s free kick in second-half injury time gave the visitors the lead for good as Beersheba took the season opening win.

“This win is important because we want to win the championship,” Beersheba coach Ron Kozuk began. “I had no doubt that it would be a difficult game. We faced a good opponent with an excellent coach and I’m happy with the result. There were a lot of good things; we were inside the opponent’s penalty area many times. Our job is to win games and I’m proud of the players and happy for them.”

“The defeat is extremely cruel,” Ramat At Sammy Ofer Stadium, Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv played to an entertaining goalless draw that saw both teams lose a man to a red card as well as some terrific saves by the keepers especially Yoav Gerafi, who made a decisive penalty save off of Stav Turiel to ensure that the Carmel Reds secured a point.

“I’ll divide the game into two halves,” Hapoel Tel Aviv coach Elyaniv Barda said. “The first half was very poor. We weren’t focused and we still hadn’t come back from Europe mentally, something I was very concerned about. Fortunately, in the second half we managed to get back to ourselves. We won a penalty and I believe that if we had taken the lead, the game would have been ours. After that, we missed chances and then one of our substitutes was sent off. But the things we did came too late and simply weren’t good enough.”

“We could have lost the game and I’m very disappointed,” Hapoel Haifa bench boss Haim Silvas began. “In the first half, we were in complete control, but we lacked that killer instinct. We didn’t start the second half well, Hapoel Tel Aviv came out strong and the red card as well as the penalty also made things difficult for us. I enjoyed watching my team in the first half, but we need to know how to put games away and we didn’t do that enough.”

Also, Hapoel Petah Tikva slipped by Hapoel Jerusalem 1-0 as Karim Kimvuidi scored in the 14th minute for the lone marker of the match that handed the win to Omer Peretz’s side.

“The last month or so was a difficult period,” Peretz said following the win. “We didn’t start the season well and we needed this victory to give us energy and make the players believe in themselves.”

Ironi Kiryat Shmona blanked Ironi Tiberias 2-0 as Amadou Sanga scored a terrific goal off a break in the first half, and Rufat Abdullazade put home a free kick in the second half to give the northerners all the points.

Finally, Maccabi Petah Tikva downed Bnei Sakhnin 2-1 as Samuel Owusu and Liran Hazan canceled out Ilay Hajaj’s first-minute goal to help Ziv Arie’s team to the win.

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

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An Israeli-designed and delivered air-defense system will soon be protecting Greece, once Israel’s harshest European critic and now a close Mediterranean ally.

That is the upshot of the eye-popping NIS 10 billion deal signed Monday, one of the largest defense-export agreements in Israel’s history.

The reversal of fortunes is astounding.

For much of the last three decades of the 20th century, Greece was to Israel what Spain and Ireland are today: implacably hostile. In some ways, even worse. In 1982, Greece sent ships to Beirut to safely evacuate Yasser Arafat and thousands of PLO terrorists.

And that is only one astonishing element of this story.

Greece seeks Israeli protection amid growing European divisions

The other is that here is a frontline European power – a vital NATO ally on Europe’s southeastern flank and a key member of the EU – turning to Israel for its defense. The same Israel that other European countries, including Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium – and, come the end of the month, Britain – are spurning and seeking to boycott.

Those boycotts are ostensibly aimed “only” at products from east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Golan Heights. But the fear is that, because of the difficulty in determining exactly where every Israeli product or component originates, they will inevitably open the door to wider boycotts of Israel itself.

The contrast could hardly be sharper.

One part of Europe is looking to Israel for protection; another wants to boycott it. Ireland would not let its new government jet be fitted with an Israeli-made system designed to help it land in fog. Greece is entrusting the protection of its population and critical infrastructure to Israeli-made systems.

But the sale does more than highlight the countervailing trends in Europe, where political hostility toward Israel and strategic dependence on it are moving in opposite directions. It also shines a spotlight on Israel’s remarkable defense prowess.

Greece turns to Israel’s multilayered defense system

Greece is interested in the same type of multilayered system that protects Israel because it has seen how effective that system has been over the last three years in defending the country against missiles, rockets, and drones launched from Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, and elsewhere. Greece watched and now wants that same level of protection for itself.

Under the agreement, dubbed Achilles Shield, Israel will provide Greece with an integrated national air-defense network. It will incorporate David’s Sling to intercept ballistic missiles and heavy rockets; SPYDER and BARAK MX systems to defend strategic sites against threats ranging from drones to cruise missiles; sophisticated MMR radars; Drone Dome counter-drone systems; and a national command-and-control network to tie everything together.

This is not merely an arms sale. It is the export of an entire defensive architecture – developed under fire, tested in war, and refined through repeated attacks by enemies using a wide variety of weapons.

Other European countries, feeling increasingly threatened by the cold winds blowing from Russia and the growing shadow of Iranian missile tech, are likely to follow suit. Governments want what works, especially when the lives of their civilians are at stake.  Just ask Finland, which quietly extended its defense cooperation framework with Israel for a decade, guaranteeing the smooth, long-term deployment of its newly acquired David’s Sling system despite fierce domestic opposition.

Israeli-Greek alliance gains significance amid Turkish ambitions

Then there is the Turkish angle.

With Turkey increasingly trying to throw its weight around the region – from expanding its influence in Syria to forming a military pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – this deal further cements an Israeli-Greek alliance that, while not formally aimed at a common adversary, clearly provides protection against one.

And here there is yet more historical irony.

When Greece emerged as a fierce critic of Israel in the 1970s – Athens didn’t formally recognize Israel until 1990 – one reason was Turkey. Following the Turkish invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974, Greece hoped to counter Ankara by courting the Arab world. It needed, among other things, Arab votes at the UN to pass anti-Turkish resolutions.

In the 1970s and ’80s, Athens viewed the Arab world as a diplomatic shield against Turkey and, in return, championed the PLO. Today, that old calculation is obsolete. What Greece now needs is not the diplomatic shield against Turkey that the Arab world once provided, but the physical shield that Israel can deliver.

That is the measure of this transformation: Greece, once fiercely hostile to Israel, now looks to the Jewish state for its defense.

This post was originally published on here. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was winning the war in Ukraine and portrayed the Ukrainian leadership as “terrorists” with whom Moscow could not negotiate.

Putin, in his most detailed comments on the war in many weeks, acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia had inflicted real damage and said that drones posed a particular challenge.

But he said that Russia was advancing on the battlefield and told reporters: “I have no doubt the enemy will crumble.”

He declined to say when that would happen.

Rumors that Russia would be forced to order a new military mobilization were “utter nonsense,” he said.

Putin says Russian advances are accelerating

Four and a half years into the war, Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine. US-mediated peace talks broke off in February after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran.

Opinion polls suggest growing war fatigue in Russia, and influential voices are warning about the strain on its economy.

But Putin struck a confident, hawkish tone as he rattled through a detailed version of developments on the front line, saying Russian advances were accelerating.

Russian troops had captured 270 square km (104 sq miles) of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in August, and two large groups of Ukrainian troops – one comprising 4,500 to 4,800 men, the other up to 2,000 – were surrounded, he said. Reuters could not independently verify those assertions.

Russia continues to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Putin said, adding that Moscow’s forces were preparing to launch massive strikes against energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Putin said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warning to airlines that Ukrainian drones would effectively shut down Russian airspace sounded like “state terrorism” and that Moscow would find a way to respond if it happened.

Speaking at a news conference after a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Putin said it was not possible to negotiate with “terrorists.”

He also said, however, that Moscow was open to talks aimed at ending, rather than freezing, the war, and restated its willingness to talk to US President Donald Trump’s envoys.

“If someone makes, or can make, a tangible contribution to this process, we are all in favor,” Putin said.

“The only thing we would want to avoid is the process spinning its wheels pointlessly. However, if someone is capable of bringing something positive to these negotiations – which, as we understand it, are currently somewhat frozen – then, generally speaking, we are not opposed.”

Putin specifically acknowledged that Ukrainian drone strikes had caused damage to Russian oil refineries, although without referring to widespread fuel shortages that have resulted from those attacks.

But he said that the level of protection had improved, and “we only have 10% of our refineries left to repair.”

Putin responded scathingly to an accusation by the German government on Tuesday that Russia was to blame for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport last month.

He said the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz was pointing the finger at Moscow to distract from domestic problems and falling approval ratings.

Putin accused Germany of planting evidence in order to frame Russia for the drone attack, but he did not say what he was basing that accusation on.

This post was originally published on here. 

The US military struck two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tankers on Tuesday in the first direct retaliatory attack on Iranian ships since the beginning of the war, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing US officials. 

The move is part of a new “tanker for tanker” policy approved by US President Donald Trump, the report said, and aims to further deter Iranian attacks on ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Prior to the new strategy, the US had only prevented Iranian ships from violating the naval blockade. 

The tankers were anchored off Iran’s coast north of the US naval blockade line, said Axios, when US drones launched missiles and hit their engine rooms. 

The White House and US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed the strikes were in response to recent attacks by Iran on commercial ships in the Strait, as well as American bases in the region.

However, the attacks were part of a larger plan to prevent Tehran from rebuilding radar and missile capabilities used to attack the ships, the report added. 

One US official said the strategy was to “mow the lawn” in order to reduce the risk of Iranian attacks on oil tankers and US military assets in the region, said Axios. 

Around 100 Iranian targets hit on Tuesday, US official says

Around 100 targets were attacked during Tuesday’s round of strikes, Axios cited US officials as saying. 

IRGC air defense sites, radar systems, mine-laying capabilities, communications sites, anti-ship cruise missile launchers and attack drone launchers were among the targets hit, the officials said. 

Iran has in response launched attacks on Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq. 

The US embassy in Jerusalem issued a security warning for American citizens in the Middle East due to rising tensions. 

Similarly, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry issued an alert for “potential threats in the country.” 

The renewed strikes degraded Tehran’s capabilities in Hormuz and “bought at least a month” of lowered threat levels for commercial tankers, a US official told Axios.

Trump: ‘Almost total control of Hormuz Strait’

Trump claimed that he “couldn’t care less” if Iran signs an agreement in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.

“I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” he said in the post.

This post was originally published on here. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday that Israel and Russia spread disinformation about Spain’s migration policy after a rush of migrants arrived in Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa.

Over 72,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta between July 30 and July 31, with at least 100 people dying in the attempt, according to local authorities. Sánchez, along with Morocco’s Interior Ministry, have blamed the surge on human trafficking networks that exploited misinterpretations of a change in Spain’s border policy. 

In Sánchez’s first interview since the border crisis, he also said that Israel and Russia organized internet campaigns to undermine Spain’s government during the chaotic aftermath. Online theories proliferated widely after the Ceuta crossings, including some that said Israel orchestrated the crisis.

“After July 30th and 31st, there was an expansion of these hoaxes and this disinformation by social networks associated with both Russia and Israel, and with an international far-right movement that always uses migration, not only to attack Spain, but also to attack Europe and divide it,” Sánchez said in an interview with the Spanish radio network Cadena SER.

Sánchez said research from the European Union’s European External Action Service showed that Israel and Russia were behind disinformation campaigns, without giving further details on the evidence.

EU spokesperson says Russia tried to ‘exploit’ Ceuta crisis

An EU spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “In the case of Ceuta, we saw attempts by Russia to exploit the crisis online. However, we have no conclusive evidence to suggest that the crisis itself was triggered by disinformation from foreign state actors.”

The spokesperson did not specifically address Sánchez’s claim that Israel spread disinformation. They noted that the EEAS shares research with member states “when their interests are affected.” 

Sánchez said that it was “evident” that Israel and Russia were motivated by Spain’s political positions “regarding the genocide in Gaza and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.” He is among Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Iran.

Israeli Foreign ‌Minister Gideon ⁠Sa’ar said Monday that Sánchez was “lying shamelessly,” adding that the statements “will not distract from Sánchez’s disgraceful failure to manage his country’s affairs.”   

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also told the Russian state broadcaster RBC that Russia had no involvement in the migrant crisis or disinformation campaigns.

Spanish-Israeli diplomatic ties, first established in 1986, have deteriorated since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, with Madrid since recognizing Palestine as a state and banning ships carrying arms to Israel from docking in its ports. By 2026, both countries had recalled their ambassadors.

This post was originally published on here. 

After running the family deli for several decades, Steve Stein says his 83-year-old legs were telling him it was time to call it quits. But it wasn’t only that.

The neighborhood has totally changed since his dad, Mike, first took over the business more than 60 years ago. Back then Northeast Philadelphia was an epicenter of Jewish life, packed with synagogues and other Jewish establishments. Most of them are gone. And now – with the close of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli and Restaurant – the area just lost its last Jewish deli. 

But only after an outpouring of affection from longtime customers, who flocked to the place once news spread  in the last few weeks. “It’s overwhelming,” Stein said.  “The amount of people that came in here in the last 10 days, two weeks. Their comments are very touching. I knew I was liked. I didn’t know I was loved.” 

To be sure, several customers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they’ll miss Stein, but they also bemoaned the fact there aren’t many Jewish food options left. Certainly none with prices as low as Famous.  

“I’ve been going there my whole life, “ said Rebecca Asheuer, who grew up a few miles away from Famous’ current location – its third since the Steins took over the business. “I feel surprise and sadness, because it’s the last one in the Northeast.  

“I think the Jewish people are moving out of the city and also the businesses used to be passed down in families. Now with the economy and other stuff, people don’t want to take over the family business anymore,” she said.

Customers think deli closing represents Jewish presence fading

Another longtime customer mourned the closing of the deli, but also the disappearance of Jewish life in the area.

“I kind of expected it to go sooner or later,” said Aileen Owens, who remembered going to Famous when the Auspitz family ran it over six decades ago. “There’s nobody around.  Synagogues and all that stuff, it’s all fading out. They went to the suburbs.”

According to Steve’s account, his father Mike Stein, his brother Arnold and cousin Jack began running the produce concession at the Famous Deli in Philly’s Castor Gardens neighborhood in the late 1950s. Around 1960, they bought the deli from the Auspitz family, which had operated a chain of Philadelphia delis dating to the 1920s. 

Steve and his brother Arnie eventually ran the deli together. As Jewish families moved farther into Northeast Philadelphia, the deli moved as well – first to Krewstown Road in the mid-1970s, eventually having two locations there, and then about 14 years ago to its final location at 1619 Grant Ave.

If all goes right, Steve’s 57-year-old son Lee hopes to continue the migration and resurrect the family business in the suburbs. Sort of.  

“I’m looking to have a place of my own,” said Lee, who started off as an eight-year-old taking out the trash, but would occasionally try to cut the lox when no one was looking. “I have a lot of experience in this business. 

“I call myself multi-talented, not just in the deli business, but in cooking and baking, I would probably downsize and not do fruit and produce like we do here. It’s just not worth it, you know, the space for what you’re paying. I would do a similar situation to here. Deli, prepared foods, a little bit of bakery, a small sit down. But what I’ve told the people that come in here, ‘You’ll never, ever see some of this product again. And you’ll probably never, ever see these prices ever again.’”   

Still, he wants his new venture to be affordable.

“My father always liked being a people-pleaser,” the younger Stein said. “So he tries to please people with a price. But that price affects you eventually.” 

Remaining establishments will benefit from the closure

As for Steve, he wishes his son well, but knows it won’t be the same. “Lee wants to try something, but not here,” Stein said.

He added that some remaining establishments in the wider region – “they do 90% restaurant and 10% deli, I do 90% deli and 10% restaurant” – will “benefit from me not being here.” 

One former competitor isn’t so sure. “I’m upset another Jewish deli has closed and he’s been in business a long time and certainly has his whole clientele,” said Michael Young, longtime owner of Ben & Irv’s, a deli restaurant in Huntingdon Valley, a suburb about 20 minutes northwest of Famous. “But it’s a different world today; a different area. So I don’t know if it will help us.” 

Lee Stein said he actually tried to stay put, but needed a little help.“The real problem is the landlord never took care of the building,” said Lee, who wishes his dad had been more assertive on that front. “I tried to make it work here with them, figuring this would be an easy fix. I asked them for some renovations; to put a new roof on. The roof has several holes in it. When it rains outside, it pours in here. So, I tried to negotiate with them first before I did anything else, but that wasn’t going anywhere.” 

JTA’s attempts to reach the landlord for comment were unsuccessful. Regardless, Steve Stein, who was forced to close the deli for a short while last year due to health code issues, says he is ready to turn the page. 

The first thing he’ll do once things settle down is get therapy on his aching legs. And he’s excited to have more time to devote to his wife of 61 years, Sheila, along with his children, Lee and Mindy, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “But I’ll miss my customers. They’re like family.” 

Already he’s feeling the difference  “It’s devastating,” he said on August 24, the day after the store officially closed, amid a final “blowout sale” to get rid of what little was left. “I’m usually the first one in the store. 

“It’s going to be very much missed by me.” 

He’s not the only one.

“Nothing lasts forever,”  said one customer before heading into Famous one last time. “But it’s very sad.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting prominent US conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus last year, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a murder charge that a judge ruled could carry the death penalty.

Robinson’s plea and the ruling by Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf came after prosecutors laid out what they called overwhelming evidence that a capital trial of Robinson, 23, was warranted for the murder of one of the US political right’s most prominent figures. Defense lawyers had argued the shooting did not meet the standard for a death penalty charge.

Utah County attorneys accused the former apprentice electrician of firing the single shot that killed Kirk, 31, as he held one of his trademark campus debates that helped propel him to national prominence.

Graf ruled that Robinson should face trial on all seven charges against him, among them aggravated murder for endangering the lives of others at the event. That count carries the death penalty in Utah.

Kirk’s killing, captured in cellphone video that spread widely on social media, is among a series of attacks on US political figures in recent years that have fueled debate over political violence in a deeply polarized country.

Utah County prosecutor Ryan McBride presented video of what he said was Robinson taking up a sniper position at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10, 2025, before he shot Kirk.

He displayed pictures that he said showed Robinson created a “great risk of death” to others, with Kirk’s security detail only feet away from Kirk when he was shot.

McBride said the four rounds in Robinson’s rifle demonstrated that the shooter was prepared to fire more rounds if the first missed, further endangering others.

“He lay down in a prone position, and he would have seen this mass of people of 3,000 plus people there for the event, took aim, put his crosshairs on Charlie Kirk, and fired,” McBride told the court.

DNA evidence disputed

Defense lawyer Staci Visser said the shooting endangered no one but Kirk, arguing the crime did not meet the standard of aggravated murder.

Visser said the assailant did not engage with anyone else or reload the weapon, but simply shot the gun and ran away.

“There is one act. There is one shot. There is one bullet. There is one victim,” Visser told the court. “There was no evidence that would suggest that anyone else was threatened.”

During the hearing, the prosecutor cited test results that showed Robinson’s DNA was on the alleged murder weapon. Defense lawyer Michael Burt questioned the reliability of that testing.

McBride alleged Robinson, who was in a relationship with his roommate Lance Twiggs, targeted Kirk for his political views against gay marriage and transgender rights. That argument could bolster the prosecution as it pursues the death penalty.

He cited a text message from Robinson in which he allegedly told Twiggs he shot Kirk because “some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Among those in the packed courtroom were Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn, and his wife, Erika, who has taken leadership of the late activist’s conservative youth organization.

A co-founder of conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, Kirk was credited with energizing young voters behind President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign.

His killing, captured in cellphone video that spread widely on social media, is among a series of attacks on US political figures in recent years that have fueled debate over political violence in a deeply polarized country.

At a memorial following Kirk’s shooting, Erika Kirk said she forgave the alleged shooter. She has not commented on the death penalty charge.

This post was originally published on here. 

Israel welcomed on Tuesday officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a step towards strengthening the relationship between the two countries, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced in a post on X/Twitter. 

“I was pleased to host once again in Jerusalem Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who is accompanying the visit of her country’s President Felix Tshisekedi to Israel,” he wrote on the social media post. 

Sa’ar said comprehensive discussions on the relations between both countries were held, including Israel’s security challenges.

שמחתי לארח שוב בירושלים את @kayikwambaT, שרת החוץ של הרפובליקה הדמוקרטית של קונגו, המתלווה לביקור נשיא מדינתה פליקס צ׳יסיקדי, בישראל.
קיימנו שיחה מקיפה על היחסים בין מדינותינו, אתגרי הבטחון של ישראל, סטטוס יישום ההסכם בין מדינתה לרואנדה ועוד.
רד״ק היא מדינה ידידותית לישראל ואני… pic.twitter.com/vBEMq7Ip4i

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) September 1, 2026

The implementation of an ongoing peace agreement between Congo and Rwanda was also discussed, Sa’ar added. 

“The DRC is a friendly country to Israel, and I hope that soon we will be able to announce a significant leap forward in relations between the countries,” he concluded. 

President Isaac Herzog also published images of the visit on X/Twitter, welcoming Tshisekedi and calling him “my dear friend.” 

Welcome to Israel, my dear friend President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo @Presidence_RDC 🇮🇱🇨🇩 pic.twitter.com/ABen83H2h4

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) September 1, 2026

Israel, Congo have had rocky ties

Israel and the DRC established diplomatic relations following Congo’s independence in 1960 until they were severed following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when the Arab League pressured African nations to sever relations with Israel. 

Then-president Mobutu Sese Seko described the decision to cut ties as a choice between a “friend” and a “brother.” 

In the early 1980s, Congo became one of the first African countries to restore ties with Israel. 

Tshisekedi has since strengthened cooperation with Israel in areas such as agriculture, technology, and security. 

According to a 2025 report from Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, Tshisekedi said that discussions with Israel were going “very, very well” and that the DRC has “many opportunities” to offer Israel prior to Herzog’s visit to the country last year. 

“The evidence is clear, the friendship is deep between the two countries, through projects beneficial for our two countries, and this will be an opportunity to seize,” Anadolu cited Herzog as saying. 

This post was originally published on here.