The upcoming elections will determine not only who sits in the next government but also what kind of country we want to be. Amid the debate over haredi (ultra-Orthodox) military enlistment, public funding, religious services, and Israel’s identity, a more fundamental question has been forgotten: Who actually owns our Judaism?

In Israel, a dangerous equation has taken root: Judaism is equated with religiosity, religiosity with Orthodoxy, and Orthodoxy with the rabbinical establishment and the haredi political parties.

From there, it is only a short step to sectoral demands rooted in a notion of Jewish superiority: Those who lead a religious way of life are perceived as preserving Judaism on behalf of the entire public and, as such, are entitled to special status. This ranges from exemption from the most basic civic obligation in the State of Israel – military service – to the demand that society subsidize a nonproductive way of life whose cost to the public continues to grow.

The ongoing wars, which have underscored the urgent need to integrate haredim into Israeli society and, above all, to enlist them in the IDF, cannot be separated from the struggle over the Jewish identity of the state. Nor can it be separated from the fact that haredi control of the religious establishment and religious services translates into control over the Jewish character of the state.

Kashrut, the Chief Rabbinate, religious councils, rabbinical appointments, marriage, and divorce have long since become centers of political power. They serve as instruments in reinforcing an imagined division of roles that has become embedded in the public consciousness – a division that is not only false but generates alienation from Judaism itself.

At the same time, however, the opposite phenomenon is taking place. Outside the religious establishment, official religious services, and political appointments that are handed out as spoils to haredi parties, an Israeli Judaism is flourishing: traditional, popular, cultural, and communal. It thrives in music, literature, customs, and in the Israeli way of life itself.

Israelis have not abandoned Judaism

Who decided that Judaism belongs only to those who wear a kippah? In Israel of 2026, this is no longer a philosophical or theological question. It has become a political and civic question – and even a question about our very ability to live here together.

Israelis have not abandoned Judaism. They are abandoning those who claim ownership over it.

The effort to enlist haredim in the military and integrate them into the workforce must begin by giving Judaism back to the Jews. First and foremost, we must break the notion that anyone can claim to be the “owners” of Judaism.

This is one of the great challenges facing the next government: dismantling the ideological foundation that allows one sector, on the one hand, to appropriate Judaism as its exclusive property and, on the other, to demand special privileges.

It is time to say what may have become almost taboo in Israel: Judaism does not belong to the religious establishment. It does not belong to any political party, to the rabbinate, or to any particular sector. It belongs to all of us.

In the next Knesset, this principle must be translated into action: breaking monopolies in religious services; restoring competition in kashrut services and allowing Tzohar rabbis to operate as a state-recognized authority; transforming religious services into services that truly serve the public; turning the rabbinate and religious councils from arenas of political patronage into institutions that work for the public good; giving greater power to local communities, a greater role to women, and greater freedom of choice to every citizen.

In a country increasingly divided into identities and tribes, and one that must integrate its haredi population, this is no longer merely a question of religion and state.

It is a question about our future.

The writer is a member of the Yisrael Beytenu party list.

This post was originally published on here. 

For many years, it has seemed that Israeli politics has ceased to revolve around the questions politics is supposed to address: security, the economy, foreign relations, religion and the state, the judicial system and the vision for Israel’s future. In their place stands one question, almost exclusively: Benjamin Netanyahu, yes or no.

Netanyahu is undoubtedly one of the most consequential figures in the history of Israeli politics. One can admire his achievements or criticize his policies, but it is difficult to dispute the fact that for years he has shaped not only the camp that supports him, but also the camp that opposes him. In fact, a significant part of Israel’s political system today defines itself not by what it believes in, but by its position on Netanyahu.

But no political era lasts forever. Sooner or later, the day will come when Netanyahu no longer leads Likud and is no longer a candidate for prime minister. That is precisely why it is worth asking now a question that is rarely raised: What happens the day after “anti-Netanyahu”?

This is not a question about Netanyahu. It is a question about his opponents.

For years, opposition to Netanyahu has managed to bring together people and parties with little in common, certainly not a shared worldview. Staunch right-wing figures have sat alongside centrists and left-wing politicians, supporters of free-market economics alongside social democrats, and conservatives alongside liberals. At times, the common denominator has been clearer than all their differences: the desire to replace Netanyahu.

The day Netanyahu leaves the political arena, that glue will weaken considerably.

Suddenly, parties will have to explain not only whom they oppose, but what they support.

What, for example, is the security doctrine of the political camp seeking to replace Netanyahu? Does it support the establishment of a Palestinian state? If so, under what conditions? If not, what alternative does it propose? Is it prepared to form a government dependent on Arab parties? What is its position on Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria? What is its policy toward Iran?

Domestic issues will also require clear decisions. How should the authority of the Knesset be balanced against the power of the Supreme Court? Is judicial reform necessary, and if so, what kind? What should the Jewish character of the state look like? How should the crisis over haredi (ultra-Orthodox) military conscription be resolved? And what should be done about the cost of living and the growing disparities between Israel’s center and its periphery?

As long as Netanyahu remains at the center of the political arena, it is relatively easy to postpone these debates. The day after he leaves, they will erupt in full force.

But the biggest change may actually take place within Likud.

Likud is a long-established governing party with a broad electoral base, and it will not disappear when Netanyahu retires. The question will be who succeeds him and what kind of party Likud becomes. A new Likud leader could reshape Israel’s entire system of political alliances in a relatively short period of time.

Parties and politicians who have declared for years that they would not sit in a government with Netanyahu may find it difficult to explain why they would refuse to sit with Likud under a different leader. Once the personal veto disappears, the prospect of a broad unity government could shift from an almost impossible idea to a genuine possibility.

This may be the great paradox of this political era. Netanyahu is Likud’s greatest vote magnet. But when he leaves the political stage, although there is little doubt that Likud will lose seats, a new leader could retain most right-wing voters while perhaps reopening the door to cooperation with centrist parties. Parties that have built much of their identity around opposition to Netanyahu will have to reinvent themselves.

Israeli society will also have to change.

Netanyahu’s personality-driven politics

Years of personality-driven politics have created camps that barely speak to one another. Every event is immediately judged according to whether it is good or bad for Netanyahu. A diplomatic achievement becomes an argument over who deserves credit, and every disagreement quickly turns into a political indictment. Even professional and policy questions take on partisan significance.

Over the years, countless worthy and important bills have failed simply because the opposition opposed them rather than because of their substance. This happened both when Likud was in government and when it was in opposition.

This situation is unhealthy for democracy.

Democracy needs disagreement, but when disagreements descend into ugly confrontations, many people lose faith in the legislature.

Israel needs a genuine debate among the Right, Center, and Left, not between “Only Bibi” and “Anyone but Bibi.” It needs parties capable of presenting a vision, not a list of political boycotts.

The day after Netanyahu will eventually come. But the day after “anti-Netanyahu” will present a far deeper test.

Can Israeli politics return to an era in which people vote primarily for a path and a vision, rather than simply against one person?

If the answer is yes, Netanyahu’s departure may mark not only the end of an extraordinary political era, but also an opportunity to shift Israel’s political debate away from the individual and back to ideas, from boycotts to partnership, and from politics driven by hatred and disqualification to a different kind of politics, one based on genuine debate.

After years in which Netanyahu has been the question, it is time for Israeli politics to begin preparing for the day when it will finally have to provide the answers.

The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, president of the Israeli Radio Communications Association, an honorary consul and deputy dean of the Consular Diplomatic Corps. He previously served as a correspondent for IDF Radio and as a television correspondent for NBC.

This post was originally published on here. 

The 17th EPOS International Art Film Festival, which presents dozens of films from Israel and abroad exploring art, literature, architecture, music, dance, theater, and photography, will take place between September 16 and September 19 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

This year, the festival will expand beyond Tel Aviv for the first time with EPOS in the Gilboa, a new program at the Mishkan Museum of Art at Ein Harod, created in cooperation with the Gilboa Regional Council.

Six festival films will be screened there from September 17-19, with each screening accompanied by a short lecture connected to the film’s subject.

The festival will open with Take the Money and Run, a documentary about Danish artist Jens Haaning and an incident that became one of the contemporary art world’s most provocative controversies.

A Copenhagen museum lent Haaning half a million kroner to create a work incorporating banknotes on two large canvases.

Instead, the museum received two empty frames and a work titled Take the Money and Run. The disappearance of the money sparked an international debate over whether Haaning had created a daring conceptual artwork or simply taken the museum’s cash.

Naked Ambition explores the life of famed photographer Bunny Yeager

The closing film, Naked Ambition, focuses on Bunny Yeager, a successful photographer for Playboy Magazine during the 1950s and 1960s. Decades later, Yeager was embraced by some feminist movements as an example of an independent woman who helped other women take pride in their bodies, and her photographs were exhibited in American museums.

A special tribute will also be held in memory of Israeli director Ram Loevy, featuring a screening of Bread, about a bakery worker who loses his livelihood after 20 years and begins a hunger strike. The film was among the early Israeli works to confront the economic distress of development towns.

Israeli films at the festival include Seven Tractates on the Life of Bruria, directed by Bruria Pasternak Sharvit, an autobiographical work about her life in the mainly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak as an artist and mother of five.

Another is On Her Own, directed by Bracha Zisman-Cohen, which portrays artist Raida Adon and the idea that, wherever she lives, only art truly feels like home.

There is also Dalit Kimor’s Ida’s Dance Club, about a ballroom-dancing competition whose participants have long passed retirement age but continue to dance, sing, fall in love, and experience disappointment.

The festival will also include two competitions centered on Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The second annual Urban Diary competition, produced in cooperation with the Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Museum, will present short films that examine the city through cultural, personal, and social perspectives.

Then, the films will be screened at Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Museum and added to its collection of urban stories. A separate short-film competition will focus on artists and art in Israel, aiming to promote cinematic work about the country’s cultural life and help preserve it through film.

For younger viewers, EPOS will present Louisa, an award-winning production by Jerusalem’s Train Theater, created by Iris Domany. Recommended for children aged five and up, the performance follows a video and animation artist whose tiny collections gradually come to life through the lens of a magnifying camera, creating the world of Louisa, a girl searching for a sense of belonging.

Poetry Movies will recognize poets and address films dealing with war and AI

Another program, Poetry Movies, curated by Yasmin Kaini, will include tributes to poets Israel Eliraz and Hedva Harechavi, as well as films dealing with war and artificial intelligence. The program will also feature the premiere of Taha: The Voice

Between the Lines, a short documentary about Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali, who died in 2010. His poetry, translated into dozens of languages, dealt less directly with the conflict than with pain, suffering, and hope.

The festival will pay tribute to Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard, with a documentary, Tom Stoppard: A Charmed Life, offering a rare look at his life and work, as well as a screening of the film adaptation of Anna Karenina, for which Stoppard wrote the screenplay.

Music documentaries will include films about Gustav Mahler’s years in New York; the extraordinary career of cellist

Jacqueline du Pré, who Yo-Yo Ma recalls married Daniel Barenboim, and who battled with illness; conductor Simon Rattle; and German conductor Joana Mallwitz.

Other films examine the lives and work of artists including Caravaggio, Egon Schiele, conceptual artist Mierle Laderman

Ukeles, architects Winy Maas and Soren Pihlmann, photographer Martin Schoeller, dancer and choreographer Germaine Acogny, and theater director Robert Wilson.

EPOS is under the artistic direction of Miki Laron, joined by artistic directors Yotam David Zitter and Shani Kiniso.

For more information, visit the festival website at https://filmart.co.il/en/home-english/

This post was originally published on here. 

The anniversary of the passing of the Maharal of Prague falls on 18 Elul, which this year is August 31. This is an opportunity for Jewish travelers to visit the city where his name still seems to hover among the pointed rooftops.

Over four hundred years have passed since his death in 1609, yet in Prague, time is a flexible substance. It clings to the stones, becomes trapped between the vaulted ceilings of the synagogues, and hides in the cracks between the ancient tombstones.

Prague is beautiful. In the morning, it awakens from a thin mist rising from the Vltava River, bells ring above the rooftops, and red trams squeal along the tracks.

Czechia is considered one of the most Israel-friendly countries in Europe, and Prague gives Jewish travelers a relatively pleasant and safe feeling. While in various European destinations we are required to exercise greater caution in the face of antisemitism, on the streets of Prague I felt free to walk around even with my kippah and tzitzit openly visible.

But the deeper connection between Prague and the Jews cannot be measured by political declarations. You have to walk to the old Jewish Quarter, Josefov, and open a heavy door there.

The Altneuschul

The “Old-New Synagogue” is one of those places where it seems that history did not end, but merely took a short break. It is the oldest synagogue in Europe that is still active. It was built in 1270 and has served the community for more than 700 years.

Legend has it that stones from the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem were incorporated into the foundations of the Altneuschul, giving rise to the interpretation that its name derives from the Hebrew words meaning “on condition,” referring to the condition that the stones would one day be taken to Jerusalem when the Messiah comes.

But the truth is less poetic. “Alt-neu” means “old-new.” At first, it was called “The New Synagogue.” Over the course of history, additional synagogues were built in the Jewish Quarter, and one of them proudly bore the name “New.” To distinguish between the two synagogues, the word “Old” was added to the name of the older one, hence the name “Old-New.”

The stone floor is lower than the entrance. Overhead rise six Gothic vaults, light filters sparingly through twelve windows, and the entire hall is steeped in that dignified dimness found in places where generations have whispered the same prayers.
The Holy Ark on the eastern wall is made of marble, and above it is a pointed arch with stone decorations. Next to the Holy Ark stands the “Maharal’s Chair,” and care is taken that no one sits on it.

In the center of the synagogue is a raised bimah with a table for reading the Torah, surrounded by iron railings. Above them flies the flag of the Jewish community dating from the 17th century. It is a red flag embroidered with a yellow Star of David, with a Jewish hat at its center. The flag also has an embroidered yellow border, at the top of which are the words “Shema Yisrael.”

And above it all is the attic. There, Prague whispers, lies the Golem.

Here the Maharal prayed and taught. Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel was much more than the city’s chief rabbi. Alongside his extensive knowledge of the Talmud and Midrash, he also studied philosophy and the sciences and wrote dozens of books.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook wrote that the Maharal had “redeemed” the teachings of Kabbalah from their concealment and made them accessible to the wider public. That is why most of us studied his book Netivot Olam in Yeshivot Bnei Akiva. I recommend packing it for a trip to Prague so that you can return to reading it here as well.

The Golem that never left Prague

The Maharal is probably the best-known Jewish rabbi today, even among Christians, and that is because of the story of the Golem. According to legend, when the Jews of Prague suffered from blood libels and persecution, the Maharal created a human figure out of clay and breathed life into it. Something like a modern robot. The Maharal sent the Golem into the streets of Prague “to deal” with non-Jews who harassed Jews and with those who spread blood libels.

One Friday evening, the Maharal forgot to deactivate the Golem, and it went out into the street and began to run wild and cause damage. The Maharal was informed of this in the middle of the recitation of “Mizmor Shir” of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer.

The Maharal immediately went out into the street, brought the Golem, and deactivated it. Afterwards, the rabbi returned to the synagogue and began reciting “Mizmor Shir” once again. Since then, to this very day, the custom at the Altneuschul has been to recite “Mizmor Shir” twice during the Friday Maariv service. It is the only place in the world where this custom is observed.

The story of the Golem of Prague has no reliable historical basis. But in Prague, sometimes the legend is stronger than the footnote. Figures of the Golem peer out from the windows of souvenir shops, made of clay and wood, and the story continues to walk the streets as though someone had forgotten to erase the letter that gives it life.

A statue of the Maharal stands at the corner of Prague’s New City Hall on Mariánské námestí, near the Jewish Quarter. In the entire world, only two rabbis are commemorated as part of a city’s mythology with public statues: the Maharal in Prague and the Rambam (Maimonides) in Córdoba, Spain.

The synagogues of Prague

Several other synagogues remain in the Josefov Quarter, all within a short walking distance of one another. One of them, the Pinkas Synagogue, now serves as a Holocaust museum. Of the original synagogue, only the Holy Ark and the Torah-reading bimah remain. The names of 77,297 Jews from Bohemia who were murdered in the Holocaust are inscribed on the walls.

A walking path leads from the Pinkas Synagogue along the Old Jewish Cemetery. Here, the atmosphere changes.

Thousands of tombstones stand crowded together, leaning toward one another like old people wishing to whisper a secret. Among the graves is that of the Maharal.

Beside his tombstone, people leave notes and small stones. Some pray. Others simply stand. Perhaps this is the Maharal’s true power: not the Golem, but the fact that hundreds of years after his death, people still come to talk to him.

The Klausen Synagogue is the largest of the synagogues that remain from the old ghetto. It stands on the other side of the cemetery, in an area where houses of study established by Mordechai Maisel once operated and where the Maharal taught.

A Jewish itinerary in Prague should also include the Spanish Synagogue, built in the 19th century, whose rich Moorish design is reminiscent of the Alhambra Palace. Gold, arabesques, and geometric patterns make its interior one of the most impressive in the city.

The Maisel Synagogue was established by Mordechai Maisel, one of Prague’s wealthiest Jews and one of the community’s greatest benefactors during the Maharal’s time. Today, it houses an exhibition on the history of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia, and among the exhibits are original writings of the Maharal.

A ticket office for admission to all the synagogues is located at Maiselova St. 38/15, opposite the Altneuschul. There is usually a long line there, so it is better to buy tickets online in advance.

Outside Josefov stands one of the most beautiful synagogues in the world, the Jerusalem Synagogue. After the gray stone and dimness of the Altneuschul, entering it feels almost like an explosion of color. The façade combines Moorish and Art Nouveau styles, with blue, red, and gold. Inside, colorful arches stretch overhead, Hebrew verses decorate the walls, and sunlight breaks through the stained-glass windows, painting the interior with color.

One Maharal against a hundred spires

Prague is a beautiful, romantic, and vibrant city with numerous opportunities for entertainment and sightseeing. Prague is also known as the “City of a Hundred Spires.” It is blessed with many tourist attractions that have no connection to Judaism. Here are a few recommendations:

Old Town Square is its beating heart. In front of the Astronomical Clock, tourists crowd together and raise their phones every hour on the hour.

From there, it is worth continuing to Charles Bridge, preferably early in the morning, when the stone is still cold, and the Vltava is silver-gray. In the first light, the statues gradually emerge from the darkness, and the spires on the far side of the river acquire edges of gold. In the center of the bridge, there is also a statue of a cross bearing the Hebrew words “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Hashem Tzevaot” (“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts”) written in gold.

Across the river rises Prague Castle, a vast complex of palaces, courtyards, and St. Vitus Cathedral.

You can cruise along the Vltava, lose yourself in the alleys of Malá Strana, or simply sit in a café and watch the trams pass by.

After a visit to Josefov, Prague looks different. Behind its Gothic and Baroque beauty lies another city, Jewish, ancient, and filled with memories, where the Maharal still seems to walk between the synagogue and the cemetery.

Perhaps that is why the Golem legend lives on: Prague itself is a little like a Golem, shaped from stone, clay, and memory, with a spirit that refuses to fade. Those who follow in the Maharal’s footsteps discover that sometimes the best way to know a city is to listen to the whispers beneath its towers.

The author is the creator of the JewishTraveler blog.

This post was originally published on here. 

For much of Israel’s history, the kibbutz and moshav were not simply places to live. They were institutions through which some of the most basic tasks of the Zionist project were carried out: settling land, absorbing immigrants, farming, holding border areas, and building communities where there had been none before.

The image that grew around them was just as durable. The kibbutz meant the dining hall, equal wages, and the orchard. The moshav meant the family farm, chickens, tractors, and cooperative agriculture.

The problem, sociologist Dr. Avi Shnider argues, is that much of that Israel no longer exists.

“The ethos of the kibbutz and moshav that you have in your head isn’t there anymore,” Shnider told The Jerusalem Post. “There’s a completely different ethos.”

Series of papers examines the contemporary kibbutz

Earlier this year, Israel Studies Review, the journal of the Association for Israel Studies, published a special issue devoted entirely to kibbutzim and moshavim. Guest-edited by Shnider, of the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Lezion, and University of Haifa Prof. Aviad Rubin, the nine papers range from solar energy and agricultural labor to Latin American immigration, taxation, architecture, and the reconstruction of communities devastated on October 7.

Taken together, however, they ask a larger question.

If one of the old pillars of Zionist society has changed almost beyond recognition, who are the people choosing to carry it forward now? Why are they doing it, what still binds them together, and what exactly remains of the institution once much of the machinery that created it has been dismantled?

For Shnider, that question had been neglected for years.

“There is tons of research” on kibbutzim, he said, particularly on their establishment, ideological battles, and crises of the 1940s, 1950s, and later decades.

Then, in his view, the story largely stopped.

“For the last 15 years, I found myself a little frustrated,” he said. Both academic research and public discussion continued to speak about kibbutzim and moshavim through the images of the 1970s and 1980s.

The special issue was not planned before October 7.

Shnider and Rubin had met Israel Studies Review editor Oded Haklai at a conference in New York in 2023 and discussed research on kibbutzim and moshavim, but there was no proposal at the time for an entire issue.

Shnider doubted there would have been much appetite for one. “Kibbutzim and moshavim didn’t have that kind of place in the contemporary agenda of Israel studies before October 7,” he said.

Then Hamas attacked the Gaza border communities, and kibbutzim and moshavim suddenly returned to the heart of the Israeli story, specifically as places where Israelis were murdered, kidnapped, fought, evacuated, and eventually began the long process of deciding whether and how to return.

The renewed attention made the gap between image and reality harder to ignore.

One of the papers Shnider points to, Liron Shani’s “Solar Peppers: Imagination and Infrastructure between Change and Adaptation in Desert Agriculture,” examines farmers in the Arava, where an economy and identity historically built around agriculture are increasingly intertwined with solar-energy production.

“We talked, we talk, and we will talk about agriculture,” Shnider said. “But the rural space has become a space for producing electricity.”

For farmers whose income was once dominated by the uncertainties of weather, disease, and global produce markets, this infrastructure can provide something agriculture often cannot: stability.

They may continue growing peppers, but solar panels have altered what it means economically to be an Arava farmer.

Elsewhere, the old distinctions are disappearing in different ways.

Most kibbutzim have privatized at least some elements of salaries, housing, and the means of production, while moshavim have abandoned many of the cooperative systems through which produce, credit, and capital were once managed. Members increasingly work outside their communities, while agricultural settlements rely heavily on hired and migrant labor.

The question, then, is why they did not simply disappear into ordinary suburban Israel, a question Shnider has been asking for years.

His research proposed looking at the kibbutz and moshav through three dimensions: organization, space, and community.

The organizational dimension is the easiest to see and, historically, the one researchers tended to measure. Does a kibbutz still operate a communal dining room? Are salaries equal? Is property held collectively? Does a moshav market produce together or leave individual farmers to fend for themselves? By those measures, much of the old model was dismantled.

But organization, Shnider argues, was only one part of what made these communities what they were. The formal structure had been removed, but people continued to help one another and behave as members of a community.

Once researchers look not only at organization but also at the physical space of a community and the social relationships inside it, Shnider argues, the survival of the kibbutz and moshav becomes less mysterious.

It also becomes harder to maintain the sharp distinction between the two. “The division between kibbutz and moshav is beginning to break down,” he said.

Shnider grew up in Kfar Sirkin and remembers a rural world divided into distinct social systems. As a teenager, he knew young people from moshavim hundreds of kilometers away but barely knew teenagers in nearby kibbutzim.

They had different schools, youth movements, political institutions, and identities.

Today, those walls are much lower.

“Kibbutz and moshav were completely different things,” he said. What has emerged instead is increasingly “a rural space.”

In organizational terms, the two have even begun moving toward one another: Most kibbutzim have become less collective, while some moshavim have adopted forms of joint agricultural cultivation.

“What was once very different,” Shnider said, “has become very, very similar.”

The same reconsideration applies to the people who inhabit those communities.

One article in the collection, Sebastian Klor and Tal Elmaliach’s “The Rise and Fall of a Pioneering Aliyah: A Century of Latin American Jewish Migrations to Kibbutzim, 1923-2023,” traces a largely overlooked century of Latin American immigration to kibbutzim.

October 7 made that history suddenly visible. The paper notes the striking proportion of residents of Latin American origin among the Gaza border kibbutzim and among those kidnapped on October 7.

For Shnider, it exposes another problem with the image Israelis have carried forward from an earlier era. The rural settlement movement is still frequently treated as synonymous with an old secular, Ashkenazi, left-wing elite. But border moshavim in the North and South, waves of immigration from Middle Eastern countries, Latin American kibbutzim, and decades of demographic change have produced a far more complicated population.

“Who are its people?” is therefore not a rhetorical question for the researchers. Neither is the question of what motivates them.

Agriculture remains, but it is no longer necessarily the sole source of income. Socialist ideology has weakened, and settlement movements that once divided communities and even families along bitter political lines have consolidated. The state, local authorities, global markets, and private businesses now shape rural life in ways the founders could hardly have imagined.

Yet people continue to attach significance to land, border communities, small-scale communal life, and the ability to rely on neighbors.

Then came October 7, which, for a time, appeared to revive the old national relationship with the kibbutz. Volunteers streamed into agricultural communities, while talk of border settlement reemerged as a national mission. The farming communities of the Gaza border became associated not with privilege but with massacre, sacrifice, and resilience.

Shnider was skeptical from almost the beginning that the solidarity would permanently erase the divisions that preceded the attack.

Schnider doubts lasting solidarity with kibbutzim

In an interview with Haaretz shortly after October 7, he was asked whether the massacre would change the public image of the kibbutzim.

His answer was a medical analogy: “It’s like a person with diabetes who gets into a car accident – the diabetes doesn’t disappear,” he said. “The car accident that happened to Israeli society now will not save it from diabetes.”

He welcomed the displays of solidarity, he said at the time, but did not believe they would necessarily last.

Nearly three years later, his assessment remains similar. “Israeli society is a very divided society,” he told the Post. “It was before October 7, and despite all the ‘Together We Will Win,’ it remained that way after October 7.”

The analogy does not mean the solidarity was false but rather that catastrophe temporarily pushed older disputes aside without necessarily resolving them.

For the kibbutzim and moshavim, however, October 7 also demonstrated the strength of the very communal structures Shnider has spent years trying to understand.

In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, he noted in his earlier interview, kibbutzim and moshavim rapidly organized evacuation, assistance, and communal responses. But that does not mean tight communities are immune to trauma; the same solidarity that holds people together can also bind them to grief.

The physical environment of a kibbutz is not simply scenery; it is part of its communal structure. A road, a neighbor’s house, or the path to the dining hall can carry the memory of a killing, a kidnapping, or a battle. That is why the question of reconstruction is not only technical.

Idit Shachnai Ran’s article in the collection, “Utopia Has a Form: The Spatial Layout of the Kibbutz in Times of Crisis,” examines precisely the gap between a kibbutz physically designed around the collectivist ideals of the 20th century and communities whose values and daily lives have since changed.

October 7 has made that mismatch newly urgent. Rebuilding can mean reconstructing what stood before the attack, but it can also mean asking whether the physical space itself should change to accommodate the community that exists now.

The story emerging from the collection is not one of a return to the old kibbutz, which has been disappearing for decades. Nor is it simply a story of decline.

The papers instead present something more difficult to categorize: communities that gave up many of the structures that once defined them but retained enough social, spatial, and cultural cohesion to remain distinct.

That may be the most revealing legacy of the old Zionist experiment.

Even though the ideology weakened, the formal institutions were dismantled or privatized, the political movements blurred together, and the people themselves became more diverse – when catastrophe came, the communities still behaved like communities.

For Shnider, the central question is therefore no longer whether the kibbutz of the 1950s can be restored. It is why, after so much of the machinery that created the kibbutz and moshav disappeared, something recognizably theirs remained – and who, in a very different Israel, will choose to carry it forward.

This post was originally published on here. 

Israel is expected to face strong winds on Saturday afternoon, up to 50 kph, with gusts up to 70 kph, according to a Yellow Warning from the Meteorological Service.

The warning, which lasts from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., noted that the southwesterly winds are forecast to affect most of the country, including the entire coastline, the Golan Heights, Judean Foothills, northern Samaria, and the Negev.

The Meteorological Service advised the public of the risks posed by the high winds, including difficult driving conditions, power failures, and falling trees.

In addition, the Ben-Gurion Airport, Herzliya Airport, Haifa Airport, and Rosh Pina Airport Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF) noted temporary wind and gust advisories for arriving and departing aircraft.

A High Sea Swimming Danger Orange Warning was further issued for the Israeli coastline until 10:00 p.m., advising of waves as high as 2 meters and increasing.

According to the Meteorological Service, the significant risks associated with the warning include drowning, injury, being carried out to sea, and capsizing for small boats, with even large boats facing the risk of running aground near shore.

Weekend rain, flood warnings issued across Israel

The warnings by the Meteorological Service follow a forecast published by Walla on Friday warning of an unusual rain event expected to cause flooding in Israel during the weekend, with the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority reinforcing its forces in preparation.

Fire Commissioner Tafser Eyal Caspi instructed all districts to move to heightened readiness ahead of the storm’s peak, expected overnight between Saturday and Sunday, following a situation assessment held on Thursday.

The Walla forecast noted that the rainfall, which will be highest along the northern coast, in the Sharon region, the greater Tel Aviv area, and the Shfela, may reach as high as 20-30 millimeters, with further warnings of lightning and hail.

Yoav Etiel contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

At least 37 people were killed after a Russian drone strike on a Kyiv-area warehouse sparked a detonation, officials said on Saturday, prompting calls by President Volodymyr Zelensky to punish those responsible.

Another 42 people were also injured and more than 380 evacuated from the strike area in the Bucha district, Tymur Tkachenko, governor of the Kyiv region, wrote on the Telegram app.

Tkachenko did not provide details about what was hit in the strike late on Friday. Zelensky said a strike on a warehouse had triggered a detonation and that nearby infrastructure suffered “significant damage,” including residential buildings and a facility providing care for the elderly.

Zelensky calls for those who allowed negligent storage to be held responsible

“Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions,” Zelensky wrote on X/Twitter, adding that criminal cases had already been opened on charges of official negligence.

“There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas. Appropriate conclusions will certainly be drawn.”

Since last evening, efforts have been underway in the village of Myla near Kyiv to deal with the aftermath of a Russian drone strike. On-site coordination centers have been set up to assist people. All necessary services are deployed. State Emergency Service units are on the… pic.twitter.com/mQU2DHZYU7

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 29, 2026

Tkachenko, the governor, said the death toll could still rise.

The attack on Friday followed two days of frequent drone waves aimed at the city and the surrounding region, damaging warehouses and homes and disrupting daily life.

This post was originally published on here. 

While Israelis have been focusing their attention on soccer and baseball in recent months, carefully following the results of the recent World Cup and the many accomplishments of Israeli Deni Avdija and the Portland Trail Blazers NBA basketball team, a talented young teenager from Kfar Saba has been quietly making his way to the top of the international tennis world. 

Dan Brand, a 17-year-old right-handed tennis player from Kfar Saba, is ranked 24th in the world for junior boys and is likely to climb even higher in the next few months. He competed this year at the French Open at Roland Garros and at Wimbledon. In both events, he played singles and doubles.  

At Roland Garros, he lost a tough first-round, three-set singles match 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 to France’s Mathys Domenc; he and partner Safir Azam of the United States lost in the doubles quarterfinals. 

At Wimbledon, Brand advanced to the second round for both singles and doubles. He will play in the upcoming US Open in both singles and doubles. The juniors tournament gets underway September 8 in Queens, New York.

“Dan is absolutely our next hope,” says Yoni Erlich, Israel’s Davis Cup captain and tennis director at the Israel Tennis and Education Centers. “He is on the right track to be in the top 20 for juniors. He had a few very nice wins in a men’s Futures tournament a few weeks ago, where he reached the quarterfinals. So hopefully in the next few years, we can see another Grand Slam player. We can only hope and be patient.”

Time for new Israeli top player

It has been quite a while since Israel has had a player at the top of the tennis world. Shahar Peer, the highest-ranked Israeli tennis player, reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in 2011. Grand Slam doubles champions Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich reached a top ranking of fifth in the world in July 2008, just after winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title. 

Amos Mansdorf, who now serves as Brand’s coach, is Israel’s highest-ranking men’s singles player of all time; he reached a career-high singles ranking of 18th in the world in November 1987.

Mansdorf has been working with Brand since he was 12 years old. “It is nice to see him coming along and moving in a nice direction. He plays clever tennis and is quite good all around,” reports Mansdorf. He also views his student as “nice, quiet, low-key, hard-working, and dedicated.” 

Mansdorf sees Brand as a calm player who “doesn’t panic.” He would like to see Brand ultimately reach the top 50 in the men’s professional tour. “He likes to compete, and does everything well. We are hoping he will get stronger; he still [is] young. In the future, we want him to have all the weapons for pro play – a big serve with enough power and precision to stay in with good players.”

Mansdorf anticipates that, given the young tennis star’s accomplishments and potential, he will likely receive a deferment from the IDF and play tennis “for a good US college.”

Shai, Brand’s father, considers it serendipitous, if not almost miraculous, that the Brands crossed paths with Mansdorf soon after he unexpectedly learned of his son’s potential as a tennis player. Shai, a lawyer specializing in torts as well as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt competitor and former two-time world champion, recounts a meeting with the National Sport Center Tel Aviv. 

“Dan was a soccer player. His coach told the kids to try other sports. I tried to get him into jiu-jitsu, but he said it was too boring!” Dan then began playing tennis in school. 

“His coach said, ‘I trained hundreds of kids; your son is something special,” recalls Shai. The coach encouraged Shai to “put [Dan] in a national competition,” but Shai was reluctant. “It was too early.” 

As his son continued to show potential, Shai approached Mansdorf. He has continued working privately with Mansdorf, who became the head coach at the Ra’anana City Tennis Center not far from Brand’s Kfar Saba home. Shai is proud that his son has continued playing “in a local club,” as opposed to training in Europe “at a fancy club.” 

As the young Brand’s career took off, and as demands to travel around the world to tournaments have increased, Shai often travels with Dan – to watch over him, monitor his health, and look out for his safety. When he is unable to accompany his son, Shai has a network around the world that he turns to “look out for Dan.”

Shai is pleased with his son’s maturity, independence, and ability to “just be a kid who is still in a regular school.” 

Dan is the oldest of three Brand children. Shai and Ruth, his speech therapist wife, also have a 15-year-old son, Nadav, and a 10-year-old daughter, Shira. “Dan’s got his mother’s calm!” 

Brand spoke with the Magazine just after a driving lesson while home in Israel briefly before setting out for a pre-US Open International Tennis Federation (ITF) Grand Slam Player Development Program at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, near Washington, DC. He is one of the few Israelis to be selected for this group.

He talks candidly about school, his hobbies, and his friends, explaining that he does all of his learning on his own, on the road, and attends school when in Israel only to take tests. He then sheepishly concedes, “My mother is pretty smart and helps a little with math and other subjects!”

In many ways, Brand is a fairly typical teenager. He reports that he enjoys playing basketball and spending time with his family and friends who “treat me the same as before.” 

He reports that he has developed some warm friendships with peers from around the world, and has not experienced antisemitic incidents, with some fellow players “asking about the situation in Israel, and listen and try to understand.”

He is also reflective, self-aware, and insightful about himself as a tennis player. He describes himself as a “solid player and a counter-puncher,” acknowledging that he needs to be more aggressive and serve faster, and that he is “a pretty focused, chill guy.” 

Brand enjoys playing on grass, noting, “It’s not a surface you play on every day.” He likes routine, and admires tennis legend Novak Djokovic, winner of 101 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour-level singles titles, including 24 Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. “I like his mentality. He is so focused on the match!” 

Despite Brand’s rising fame, Shai is pleased that his son continues to be “so humble,” noting that Dan’s school friends have begun to “see him on TV and hear that he is famous.”

“He’s a good example. He will play with, and talk with, everyone. He is shy.” Shai is also pleased that “everywhere he goes, people fall in love with his son and say, ‘Dan is amazing.’” He admits that “this is more important to me than the tournaments” – though he is happy with Dan’s focus and accomplishments on the court as well. Shai is particularly proud of Brand’s 6-3, 6-2 win against Jordan Lee in May, in the finals of the J300 Charleroi-Marcinelle/Astrid Bowl Charleroi Belgian International Championships. Lee is ranked eighth in the world and recently won the Wimbledon championship.

As the young Brand continues to succeed on the court, he is attracting the attention of US colleges. Shai reports that Brand may receive “ilui” (prodigy) status from the army, an even higher status than the “sportai mitstayen” (outstanding athlete) status granted to other very accomplished athletes. 

The latter usually perform desk jobs in the IDF, so that they can continue practicing their sport. “Iluim” are given exemptions from the army, as they are seen to be serving their country in other ways. Yet, Shai – who notes that both he and his own father were IDF combat soldiers – predicts that Dan will serve in the IDF at some point.

Shai does not worry about his son’s safety, though he does note that “after Oct. 7, you can feel people turning their backs on you.” His son, who has reached out to some European players, hoping to team up with them as potential doubles partners, has yet to receive replies. In contrast, players from the US, South America, and Asia have been responsive and kind to the young Israeli. 

Shai is proud that his son continues to proudly represent Israel, even though “a kid with a flag [of Israel]” is like a target.” He notes that his son had the opportunity to play for Germany, since he has a German passport, as his maternal grandfather is German. “He would have gotten more money, but Dan said ‘no,’ – he wants to do it the hard way!” 

To prepare for the upcoming US Open, Brand is off to the International Tennis Federation’s pre-tournament grand slam player development program in Maryland. Coach Mansdorf will not be able to accompany Brand to the US Open. 

Shai, as well as Danny Perekalsky, CEO of the Israel Tennis Association (ITA), will be by Brand’s side as the juniors’ tournament kicks off on September 6. Perekalsky is pleased with Brand – for his tennis accomplishments, his overall demeanor and behavior, and for the genteel way that he represents Israel. 

“Dan is a really great kid. He shows a great mentality and behavior on and off the court, and he is a really great example for other kids with his behavior and style.”

Perekalsky recounts some of Brand’s recent successes: his wins in tournaments in Thailand and Belgium; and in the recent August 3-9 ITF M15 tournament two weeks ago in Astana, Kazakhstan, where he earned ATP ranking points for reaching round 16 and defeating fellow Israeli Oren Shimanov 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. “He has really made a big jump in the last six months!” 

Perekalsky notes that the ITA has been providing support for Brand, along with sponsors such as Rav Bariach, the Israeli company known for its security doors and high-end locking systems. 

Brand also receives support from Netanya’s prestigious Wingate Institute, the National Center for Physical Education and Sport. “He is now under their care,” reports Shai. “I am just looking out for my son as a father.” 

Perekalsky adds, “We are proud to support Dan and to have such a developing talent! Bravo also to Dan’s family and to coach Mansdorf. Amos is doing a great job with Dan. It is not a coincidence he is achieving the results he has been in the past six months.” 

He predicts that Brand will “be in the top 10 in January, if all goes according to plan.” He notes that as all 18-year-olds move out of this competition category, it will create an opportunity for Brand to advance his standing. 

In the meantime, Perekalsky and all of Israel, which is discovering the 17-year-old Brand, are excited for what Brand has accomplished so far, and for what lies ahead. Perekalsky shares that, when he speaks with young kids, they say that they want “to play in Wimbledon like Dan.” This is no small matter given that, as Perekalsky notes, “in Israel, tennis is third after soccer and basketball.” 

“Israeli is waiting to have something to be proud of in tennis. And we need more than one Dan. We are proud, but it is only a start!” 

This post was originally published on here. 

Icelanders voted on Saturday on whether to reopen membership talks with the European Union, with islanders split down the middle after a campaign focused on the cost of living, security, sovereignty, and control over fishing waters.

The race is too close to call. A Gallup poll on Friday suggested a narrow majority opposed reopening negotiations, a slight shift from earlier surveys that pointed to a narrow lead for supporters of renewed talks.

“Yes” campaigners backing talks say joining the bloc could ease high interest rates and offer more security in a world unsettled by the war in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s threats over another Arctic island, Greenland.

“No” campaigners argue EU membership would threaten the island’s sovereignty and fishing waters.

“Today is our encounter with history,” Iceland’s former President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, a campaigner against EU membership, said in a post on social media.

Should voters say “yes,” that would only open the way to discussions with Brussels. Iceland would then have to hold a second referendum, likely several years later, on whether to join the EU.

Old questions, new urgency

Iceland first applied to join the EU in 2009, amid a financial crisis that hit the country’s small, exposed economy especially hard. Talks ended in 2013 when a Eurosceptic government shelved the process.

Renewed geopolitical turmoil has brought fresh urgency to an issue Icelanders have debated on and off for decades.

Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, who has been backing ‘yes’, told Reuters last week that Saturday’s vote boils down to a simple question: can Iceland still afford to stand apart in a world where old certainties are crumbling?

“The international order that underpinned our security and prosperity for decades is under serious pressure,” she said. “In times like these, small nations need to think carefully about where they stand and who stands with them.”

Interest rates, cost of living

Debates inside Iceland have focused more on interest rates, fishing rights and the cost of living than on security.

Iceland has grappled with persistently high inflation and rates that made mortgages punishingly expensive, and supporters of a “yes” vote say EU membership, and possibly adoption of the euro, could offer some relief. Iceland’s central bank rate stands at 8.00%, against 2.25% at the European Central Bank.

“It would not solve Iceland’s structural faults, but it could become a catalyst to a more healthy economy,” said Vilhjalmur Hilmarsson, chief economist at Viska, one of Iceland’s largest labor unions.

Opposition leader Gudrun Hafsteinsdottir, who has led the “no” campaign, has argued the economic case is overstated.

“These are not problems that Brussels will solve for us. These are problems that Icelandic politicians must solve,” she said.

Fisheries as sticking point

Under EU rules, fishing quotas are based on historical fishing patterns among other things. Some officials argue that would let Iceland keep control of its waters, since no EU country has fished there for decades.

Opponents aren’t convinced. “I know that the European Union will come up with some promises of some flexibility, especially in the beginning, but we know that it will not be for good,” Hafsteinsdottir said.

A foreign ministry memo estimates accession talks could start by the end of 2026 and take 18 to 24 months, if Saturday’s vote favors reopening negotiations.

Iceland must also hold a general election by November 2028, adding a further layer of political uncertainty to any negotiating timetable that stretches into that period.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time across the nation of roughly 400,000 people. They are due to close at 9:00 p.m. local time.

This post was originally published on here. 

Yaron Bob is getting ready to receive a new shipment of seven Iranian ballistic missiles, which were fired at Israel in March. The internationally known Israeli blacksmith transforms the Iranian rockets in his blacksmith studio into works of art and Judaica, which have reached as far as the White House. 

“This is my playground,” says Bob of the Qassam rockets, Grad missiles, and Iranian ballistic missiles that fill the backyard outside of his blacksmith studio.

Bob lives in Moshav Yated, about 4 km from the Egyptian and Gaza borders, where he raised his children in the open fields and relative quiet that initially drew his family there from central Israel over 25 years ago. Back then, he worked as a computer teacher at the local high school. But a Qassam rocket attack from Gaza changed Bob’s career trajectory nearly 18 years ago. 

“It directly hit our high school. Although the students were able to get to the protected area of the school, I wasn’t able to get to shelter on time. The rocket blasted the ceiling. I was lucky that I didn’t sustain physical injuries. But debris and dust covered me completely. When I returned home, I couldn’t stop shaking,” he recalled. 

When the PTSD symptoms and physical tremors from the rocket attack didn’t stop, Bob understood that he had to do something. “I was telling everyone I was fine, but something had changed,” he said.

Blacksmithing becomes way to move beyond reliving trauma

“Twenty years ago, there wasn’t a lot of awareness or conversation about PTSD symptoms or resilience. But I understood then that I had to find something to do to ease my mind and stop reliving that rocket attack,” Bob explained. 

His initial foray into blacksmithing started after another Qassam rocket was fired at his agricultural community soon after the rocket attack on the high school. A security guard gave him some remnants of the rocket.

“I’ve always been interested in blacksmithing and working with metal. Even as a kid, I liked to make things from metal and read a lot about the world of blacksmithing,” he said. 

“After the rocket attack, I started off using a pair of pliers to reshape metal forks into different animals. This helped calm me. I had this space for a workshop to craft but didn’t have all the necessary blacksmithing tools. So I built up the tools I needed. 

“When I created my first rose out of rocket metal, I experienced a truly great feeling,” Bob shared. “It was as if something magical happened, like this energy cleaned away all my fear.

“Confronting my fear and turning a piece of metal that brought destruction into something beautiful was transformative for me.”

Following the creation of his first “rocket rose,” the mayor of Sderot at the time, David Buskila, encouraged him to create more. He also suggested that Bob add the map of Israel at the base of the rose, and place it at the location of Sderot, which had suffered from rocket attacks for many years. The rose sculpture became Bob’s signature piece, which Buskila would gift to dignitaries visiting Sderot. 

When he was younger, Bob enjoyed trying to create metal objects described in books that he loved. Metal objects like swords and medieval armor fascinated him. However, instead of pursuing blacksmithing, he began a career in computers as a young adult. 

Today, Bob, 54, works in his blacksmith studio full-time and sells his creations through his online shop, while occasionally lecturing and touring around the world. He also volunteers and teaches fork-art sculpting to youngsters who are hospitalized, both in Israel and around the world. 

His studio brims with a singular set of sculptures and creations, which also include musical instruments crafted from rockets, which he calls Sounds of Peace. They are inspired by King David’s lyre; when struck, they play different musical themes from the Harry Potter movies, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean, Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” and even America’s anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 

Bob does not collect the rockets or Iron Dome interceptors himself. “I can’t pick up the rockets; it’s too dangerous for average citizens to do. The army and security personnel must first carry out security checks to make sure that no explosive materials are left in the rockets,” he explains. 

Once the missile pieces are cleared, the raw material is then passed on to Bob, who uses an anvil, blowtorch, as well as a furnace to reshape the materials into menorahs, Shabbat candles, mezuzahs, roses, jewelry, and other artistic items that he sells to customers in Israel and around the world. Proceeds from the profits are donated to victims of terror and to constructing bomb shelters. 

His enterprise, Rockets into Roses, has received official letters of appreciation for his sculptures from ambassadors, envoys, and US officials, which hang in his blacksmith workshop. Some of the recipients of his rocket metal craftsmanship include former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton, and Nikki Haley. 

In 2025, during a visit to the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted US President Donald Trump with a B-2 bomber-shaped mezuzah that Bob had created from a piece of an Iranian missile that had been fired into Israel.

In 2014, he was also commissioned to create a menorah from rocket shrapnel, which was presented to then-president Barack Obama. And in 2019, Trump, vice president Mike Pence, and the Cabinet gathered together for the annual Hanukkah reception at the White House, where a menorah that Bob created was lit. 

While Bob has been forging for nearly two decades, the blacksmith had to stop work for several months following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Bob and the rest of the Yated community were evacuated for eight months to Eilat and other areas in southern Israel. 

“It was one of the darkest times in my life,” Bob said. “Hamas terrorists murdered two residents of Yated that day. I personally lost 40 friends from this region during the Hamas massacre.

“When we were displaced and put in a hotel in Eilat following Oct. 7, I stopped working for six months. It was chaos,” remembers Bob. For years, he has been residing part of the week in Beersheba with his partner, who refuses to live in the moshav following the brutal Hamas attacks. 

“Suddenly, I got this phone call: Yaron, we need you to create something for someone very important.”

At the time, he felt that he couldn’t possibly follow up on the commission. “My head was somewhere else. I was so confused and wasn’t in a place [emotionally] to work.”

But in the end, Bob created the requested commission, and Elon Musk received Bob’s sculpture that was made from remnants of a rocket. It is inscribed with the words “Never Again,” and was presented to the renowned businessman during his January 2024 visit to Auschwitz, coordinated in collaboration with the European Jewish Association.

“I feel blessed that my rocket creations have reached important figures in the international community. It’s a great honor. But at the end of the day, I return home to my work,” he said while handling a metal rose that he has just finished completing. 

“I feel that it’s my destiny to share our story – the story of Israel – with anyone willing to listen,” Bob concluded. 

The writer lives with her family in Midreshet Ben-Gurion in Ramat Hanegev, where she works as an English teacher and writes in her free time. She made aliyah from Calais, Maine, in 2004. 

This post was originally published on here. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul pledged on Friday to increase security for synagogues and Jewish communities across the state ahead of the High Holidays, during remarks she delivered at Shabbat services at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

“If you need more money, if you need more protection, I will send the New York State Police here,” Hochul said. “We will fortify this place not only now, but certainly ahead of the approaching High Holidays.”

Her remarks came about two weeks after a man broke into services at the synagogue and attacked a worshiper and a security guard.

Hochul said that as the leader of a state home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel, she feels a “special responsibility to use my voice and my platform and say: There is no place for hate in New York State.” She added that “an attack on one is an attack on all of us.”

The governor’s remarks came amid tensions between her and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over issues related to Israel and antisemitism. Last week, when asked whether Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric could create discomfort among New York’s Jewish community, Hochul called on him to focus more on running the city and less on Israel. She also pledged to stand firmly against antisemitism.

Manhattan’s Central Synagogue attacker charged with hate crimes

The location Hochul chose for her remarks carried particular significance. About two weeks ago, a man broke into Shabbat services at the Central Synagogue, attacked a worshiper and a security guard, and caused property damage. He was later charged with hate crimes.

Mamdani condemned the attack at the time, calling it “horrifying,” and said that every New Yorker must be able to practice their religion without fear of violence.

Hochul also addressed the rise in antisemitism since the October 7 massacre and spoke about her decision to travel to Israel immediately after the attack.

She said that in September 2023, three weeks before the massacre, she convened Jewish leaders and organizations to discuss the rise in antisemitism. After October 7, she said, “I had to go there,” in part because denial of what happened had already begun.

“I needed to be there so that I could be the person who came back and told the truth,” she said.

The governor described the difficult scenes she witnessed in Kfar Aza and said the situation has only worsened in the years since.

“The attacks, the fear, the anxiety, the cruelty of the words that are being said,” she said.

Hochul cites Oct. 7 as reason for houses of worship buffer zone push

Hochul said this was one of the reasons she pushed to pass legislation establishing a 50-foot buffer zone around houses of worship, aimed at protecting worshipers from harassment and protests outside sacred sites.

Toward the end of her remarks, Hochul spoke directly to the Jewish community, saying: “I am here for you. You are my family.”

Although Rosh Hashanah is approaching, Hochul referenced the story of Purim and Queen Esther, adding: “If necessary, I will be your Esther, every time you need me.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Nepal may need $4 billion to $5 billion to rebuild after this week’s devastating floods, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters on Saturday, a bill equal to nearly a tenth of the economy.

“The initial estimate is between $4-$5 billion. Just an estimate,” Wagle said. “We will require much less than what we needed for the 2015 earthquake. Loss and damage is being assessed.”

A glacier collapse on Wednesday unleashed a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud, and debris through Himalayan mountain river systems, killing more than 600 people in Nepal and China’s Tibet, with more than 2,000 still unaccounted for.

The flood levelled towns in the border area, sweeping away bridges and roads and damaging major hydropower stations.

Flood reconstruction to cost less than reconstruction after 2015 earthquake

Wagle did not elaborate on why the reconstruction bill was expected to be less than the $9 billion spent after the 2015 magnitude-7.8 quake, Nepal’s worst recorded disaster. It killed nearly 9,000 people, destroyed more than half a million homes and caused losses estimated at around a third of Nepal’s economy.

Wednesday’s floods will nevertheless be a major blow to an economy reliant on remittances, tourism and hydropower, damaging power projects that account for more than 12% of national generating capacity.

This post was originally published on here. 

Early Sunday morning, the Islamic Republic executed Shahram Sadeghi, who had been arrested in connection with the nationwide protests that erupted in January. His death came just one day after an anniversary that, for my family, has marked the brutality of this regime for nearly half a century.

On August 15, 1980, the regime executed my grandfather, Yousef Khoshkish. He had spent decades serving Iran as the head of the country’s largest commercial bank, Bank Melli, and later as the last Pahlavi-era governor of the Central Bank of Iran, building institutions meant to serve generations of Iranians. I never had the chance to know him, but his execution has been part of my family’s story for as long as I can remember, and part of Iran’s story for even longer.

Forty-six years separate those two days, and almost nothing separates the logic behind them. From its earliest days, the Islamic Republic has relied on the gallows as its language of rule. It has spent nearly five decades at war with the Iranian people, directing its anger inward whenever it emerges bruised from its foreign adventurism or fractured within.

How Iran cracks down on mass uprisings

The response to a mass uprising is always the same: arrests, torture, forced “confessions,” closed-door sham trials, and executions. These are less acts of revenge than instruments of political survival, intended to convince a population with its sights set on freedom that challenging the state is futile.

As of August 18, at least 932 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026, and the true number is likely far higher. More than 100 others face death on bogus national security charges.

On July 19, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi were hanged for sheltering protesters fleeing security forces that were trying to kill them, two of 12 men sentenced to death in a single trial. Nine days later, Amir Hossein Safari and Abolfazl Sepahi were publicly hanged in Isfahan’s Alikhani Square.

This location was chosen to convey a message, because thousands had gathered there during January protests. Security forces surrounded the execution site and fired into crowds of locals who had gathered in an attempt to stop the state-sanctioned killing.

On August 1, authorities hanged 20-year-old Arvin Kheirkhah, convicted by a Revolutionary Court on charges including moharebeh, or “waging war against Allah.” His family had gathered outside the prison the night before, hoping the execution could still be stopped.

Charges such as moharebeh, “spreading corruption on earth,” and “collaboration with hostile states” reduce Iran’s judiciary to an instrument of ideology. The last is used to dress up its conspiratorial claims of connections between Iranian protesters and the United States, Israel, or other foreign powers. These accusations are designed to deny an obvious reality: Opposition to the Islamic Republic is organic and homegrown.

Eighteen-year-old Shervin Bagherian is one of the countless Iranians who remain at risk of execution. Security forces raided his home in the dead of night, beat him, and took him to an undisclosed location. Interrogators reportedly placed a noose around his neck and staged mock executions to force a confession for state television.

This wave of executions coincides with rising concern among the regime’s Basij and IRGC over the possibility of renewed protests. In a recently leaked internal meeting, officials discussed preparations for another round of unrest and ordered personnel to identify and track Iranians posting anti-regime content online.

The aim is to raise the cost of the next uprising before it begins. For a regime that claims to embody the Iranian nation, conceding that millions of Iranians reject it would be politically fatal. So protesters become “spies,” and critics online become “saboteurs.”

Meanwhile, the state cannot reliably provide electricity, water, or economic stability, yet its machinery of repression remains remarkably organized. That contrast is a statement of priorities, and it should shape how democratic governments approach the Islamic Republic.

The West treats nuclear negotiations, terrorism, regional militias, and human rights violations as separate policy files. To the Islamic Republic, they are a single file: survival. Which is why concessions purchased at the expense of Iranian lives purchase nothing durable.

No serious Iran policy can treat the Iranian people as an afterthought. They are the central strategic question, and they are the country’s engine of change. Millions have defied guns and bullets, detention and torture, internet blackouts and executions, and they will not stop until they reclaim their motherland and their future.

The Islamic Republic understands this better than many foreign governments do. It knows where the greatest threat to its survival resides. As champion wrestler and protester Navid Afkari said before his execution in 2020, as long as this regime remains in power, it will keep “searching for necks to hang from its gallows.” My grandfather’s was one. More than a hundred Iranians are waiting to learn whether they are next.

The author is deputy communications director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran.

This post was originally published on here. 

Military planners in Washington worry that dwindling munitions stores may reduce the US’s ability to defend against potential threats from Russia and China, according to a Friday Wall Street Journal report citing US officials familiar with the matter.

While the officials noted that Western military officials have assessed that full-scale attacks from Russia and China are not imminent, they told the WSJ that insufficient weapons stockpiles have left vulnerabilities in the US’s global military posture.

Some officials described the situation as “beyond critical,” with arms moved to the Middle East from stockpiles in Europe and Asia creating shortages that could take years to replenish.

Administration officials have reportedly assessed that due to weapons being moved out of Asia for use in the war with Iran, the US may not be able to fully carry out contingency plans to defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion.

Low levels of Europe-based defense assets raise concerns over defense against Russia

The officials highlighted that European-based defense assets, including precision strike munitions and interceptors, have reached low levels. 

Stockpiles of Patriot air defense interceptors, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, and counter-drone systems are among the arms impacted by the shortage created by the relocation of munitions, the officials added.

US European Command, according to the WSJ report, has been forced to adjust its operational plans because of dwindling munitions inventories on the European continent. 

Some lawmakers stated that they are increasingly concerned about Russian hybrid and drone attacks and a Pentagon review of US military posture in Europe that could lead to a reduction in American troops in the region. 

Following intelligence assessments that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attempt to test NATO’s resolve within the next few years, US Senator Roger Wicker (R – Mississippi) urged the posture review to “account for a wounded Putin lashing out.” 

As weapons have been used and relocated, the US has also reportedly struggled to produce enough munitions to replenish its own stockpiles, in addition to allegedly limiting the amount of arms sent to Ukraine and Washington’s allies in Europe.

White House, Pentagon deny concerns over weapons stocks

US President Donald Trump and his administration declined to discuss with the WSJ which weapons have been moved to the Middle East and how many remain in Europe and Asia.

The Trump administration has repeatedly denied reports regarding the arms shortages, insisting that the US has sufficient supplies to continue fighting Iran and to combat other global threats.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the WSJ that “the United States Military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also denied the reports, saying “claims of US munition shortages are false.”

Despite Washington’s insistence that there are no concerns regarding the stock levels of essential arms, the US has turned away from military strikes against Iran and has instead intensified efforts to force Tehran to make a deal through economic pressure. 

This post was originally published on here. 

The Turkish military presence in Syria constitutes a significant threat to Israel due to its NATO combat doctrine, expert Dr. Eitan Hai Cohen told 103FM’s Prof. Aryeh Eldad and Ron Koffman in an interview on Friday.

Cohen discussed what he described as the strengthening of economic and strategic ties between Ankara and Washington in Syria and the potential implications for Israel.

According to Cohen, Turkey has become a central strategic player in the region since the fall of the Assad regime and has positioned itself as a mediator between Syria and the United States.

“Turkey began training [Syrian President] Ahmed al-Sharaa. They also approached the US to remove the American sanctions on Syria. What is the reason? To rebuild Syria,” he explained.

Cohen said Turkey has a clear economic interest in Syria’s reconstruction, particularly because of its powerful construction sector.

“The construction industry in Turkey is very strong,” he said. “They built in northern Syria; they are there as an occupying force, that is no secret. They are telling the Americans that we can share the profits together; we can make a lot of money here. The Europeans also support it because they want to get rid of the Syrian refugees.”

Turkish takeover of Syrian oil coincided with Chevron deal, Cohen says

He also addressed what he described as a military development in northeastern Syria earlier this year.

“Last January, Syrian regime forces invaded northeastern Syria, the Kurdish region, and took control of the oil wells,” said Cohen. “Immediately after the Syrian takeover, what did we see? An American company, Chevron, signed a cooperation agreement with the Syrian state oil company. This says a lot of things.”

According to Cohen, these developments could provide the United States with a new type of foothold in Syria.

“For the first time in history, the US can penetrate Syria,” Cohen explained. “Until 1918, there was a Turkish presence, then French, then communist, then Russian, then Iranian, and now, Turkey is returning there and telling the US: You were never able to enter Syria, and we can pave the way for you into Syria.”

“From an American perspective, there is a matter here of political penetration,” he added. “Erdogan is ‘paying’ [US President Donald] Trump in cash, and therefore Trump says every other day: He is a strong guy, a good guy and I like him.”

Cohen also warned about the expansion of Turkey’s presence in Syria.

“If the US does not intervene, the Turks will continue,” he warned. “They signed an agreement with the Syrian regime. They have the entire legal infrastructure. They have the ability to provide weapons, ammunition, including training.”

He said Israel must also consider the capabilities of the Turkish military.

“Turkey’s way of warfare is not that of some rickety Arab country, but rather NATO’s way of warfare,” Cohen noted. “We are talking about a very high standard, and we have to think about that.”

Cohen also addressed growing tensions between Israel and Turkey and what he described as Washington’s approach to the issue.

“Before this needs to be absorbed in Ankara, it needs to be absorbed in Washington. The US thinks that the friction between Israel and Turkey is only verbal and that it will not lead to physical friction,” he said.

Cohen: IDF’s Syria strike sought to send message to Turkey

According to Cohen, Israeli strikes in Syria were intended to send a clear message to Ankara.

“What we saw about a week ago with the Israeli bombing, and also last year in April, is essentially a red line, an Israeli declaration that Israel does not want to see any kind of Turkish presence in central Syria,” he emphasized. “We do not want to see them in southern Syria, Turkish penetration; we are not interested in seeing this.”

He said he hopes the message will also be understood in Washington.

“The US is ignoring this, and I very much hope that after this bombing in the Idlib area, an area of Turkish influence, the Turks are also very surprised that Israel bombed northwestern Syria,” he concluded.

This post was originally published on here. 

Elul is the Jew’s testing device ahead of the new year. For me, the lesson of Elul is made clear when I listen in our neighborhood to young and old practicing the sounding of the shofar. 

Each day the notes get stronger. Then, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, each ba’al tekiah (the congregation member who blows the shofar) climbs the peak before all assembled.

Hearing the actual sounding of the shofar makes me especially appreciative because a half-century ago there was another Elul when I could not even get a meager sound from my shofar. This is a tale that provided me with a lesson I will not forget.

Before making aliyah in 1977, I was a Conservative rabbi at the Beth Shalom congregation in Wilmington, Delaware. Our synagogue was most fortunate because our cantor was Andrew Salzer, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary. 

When World War II ended, he and his wife and children could not obtain a visa to the United States. They had no one to sponsor them. Instead, they were permitted to enter Brazil. To earn a living, the family was given a house and a little store deep in an Amazon forest.

Salzers allowed into US 

After a few years, the Salzers were finally allowed into the US. A relative heard about them and brought them to Wilmington, Delaware. They were given a delicatessen by the local federation, which was well located, and succeeded.

However, one day in Elul in the 1950s, Salzer went to the Beth Shalom synagogue to say kaddish. He was asked whether he could daven (pray), and gladly, he did. The congregation’s rabbi, Jacob Kraft, heard Salzer that morning and spoke with him. The rabbi urged the synagogue board to hire him, which they did. 

His training in a synagogue choir in Budapest had poignantly brought Salzer’s beautiful voice to the synagogue.

A few years later, in 1970, Rabbi Kraft retired, and I became the rabbi of the synagogue. On a list in the United States for church and synagogue architecture, Beth Shalom is found there, noted for the bronze doors by Louise Kaisch enclosing the ark of the Torah scrolls. In Beth Shalom, we had daily minyanim (a minimum of 10 men needed to conduct prayers), which I know is still the case.

As I worked with the cantor, I learned that he had taught himself to sound the shofar. A friend had taught me, so during the month of Elul, Salzer and I alternated blowing the shofar.

One morning during Elul in 1973, when the synagogue was opened for the minyan, we discovered that it had been broken into – money collected for tzedakah (charity) had been stolen, and an attempt to take the air conditioner had failed because it was too heavy.

When we climbed the stairs to the second floor where my office was located, my door was ajar and the office – a mess. I had nothing there besides books, a portable typewriter, a few dollars, and my shofar. The typewriter was gone, and I realized the shofar had been moved from the shelf where I had left it.

Since it was my turn to blow the shofar, I took it down to the minyan chapel with me. Then the unexpected occurred. I tried to blow the shofar several times – no sound whatsoever. The minyan men and the cantor said, “Wait a few minutes, then try.” I put the shofar to my lips – nothing. I said aloud for all to hear: the thieves took the money, my typewriter, and stole the shofar notes.

This Elul, while we prepare for elections, we also pray for peace. Since October 7, we have been at war constantly. Can the powerful American President Donald Trump bring the war to an end?

As I think about my shofar, which would not sound but ultimately did, I recall one of Israel’s great athletes, tennis champion Shahar Pe’er. 

Why remember her this Elul – you may ask? 

At one point in her career, Pe’er, with a victory after a long drought, gave many people a boost. After being in the top 10 players in the world, slipping to somewhere down in the lower 100s must have been crushing for Pe’er.

However, she did not give up. “After the recent finals in Baku, where I lost,” she noted in the press, “I thought: ‘I’m not there, I cannot handle tennis anymore, I’m not strong enough for this.’” 

This wasn’t the first time such doubts got the better of her, she said, adding that “in the past six months there were at least five or six times when I said: ‘All right, I’m done with tennis. I had a great career and reached amazing places, but enough is enough. There are more important things in life.’”

But Pe’er focused on what tennis meant to her, which is why she won that Suzhou tournament in China after losing in Baku. “All in all, I have something which I really love. I love being on the court,” Pe’er determined.

Then she informed her listeners why she had succeeded in the past and hopefully in the future. Her coach had told her: “If you have lost your love for tennis, quit, but not because of what your ranking is.”

So Pe’er, back then, made the court her personal crucible, in which she would remake herself, calling on inner strength. None of us can know how much she practiced, but the results were evident.

We all have our chance on the court of life. Maybe our serves have been ineffective, maybe our backhand has failed us, maybe a few lobs go over our head. 

But we know down deep that we, too, can draw upon our inner strength. We can make that major pitch; we can help our children when it is not so easy; we can finally see our experiment work; we can tread forward in our lives.

I can even blow the shofar again.

Clearly, innovative steps we have feared to take need to be taken. We must all commit and move forward. Elul is the Jew’s testing ground before the new year. Though we intone them regularly, prayers can take on new meaning if we focus on what the words really mean and what the shofar sounds tell us.

My suggestion is to take Elul one day at a time; try to raise yourself just a little every day. When all the small elevations are stitched together, you are ready for the challenges of the High Holy Days, and then, of course, for the new year 5787. 

In memory of my beloved wife, Rita z’l, on her sixth yahrzeit.

This post was originally published on here. 

The IDF will be forced to take severe, immediate measures beginning in early September because of the Finance Ministry’s “foot-dragging” in transferring the funds, despite instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior military officials said on Thursday. 

The first and most immediate measure will be a sharp reduction in reserve forces in two volatile arenas, the Northern and Southern Commands.

However, officials have decided not to reduce reserve forces in the West Bank Division due to heightened tensions and security warnings in the area. The decision also follows the IDF chief of staff placing an additional division on alert in case reinforcements are needed during the holiday.

The second measure, prompted by the budget shortfall and the Finance Ministry’s failure to fulfill its commitments, will be a sharp reduction in intelligence gathering across several arenas. The cuts will particularly affect the third circle, where intelligence operations require space-based capabilities and other highly expensive technological systems.

The third measure involves preparing for a possible escalation with Iran and other threats in the third circle, including the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Such preparations require regular training and sufficient stocks of spare parts and munitions.

These three measures are expected to take effect next week unless the Finance Ministry complies with the prime minister’s directive. Additional cuts are also expected, primarily affecting the IDF’s force buildup, including procurement based on the General Staff’s investigations into the October 7 attacks. 

Failure to transfer funding will affect contracts with US production companies

A senior security official told Walla that the failure to transfer sufficient funding would result in lost contracts and production lines at US companies that manufacture munitions for Israel’s air, land, and naval forces. It would also affect the procurement of various aircraft and long-term projects involving space capabilities, air defense, equipment, ground weapons systems, and other areas.

“We have not managed to find a formula that makes it possible to produce intelligence in many arenas simultaneously without a budget,” the official warned.

“If they do not transfer the budget now, the next government will have 145 days to pass a new budget,” he said. “If it does not happen now, we will lose a year of work on force buildup and ongoing operations.”

The criticism is directed at the Finance Ministry, which holds budget reserves and is being called on to honor existing agreements and carry out the government’s instructions. The government determined that the Defense Ministry and the IDF need NIS 40 billion over the next four months to cover funding gaps for the current year.

The Finance Ministry had committed to transferring NIS 15 billion but later withdrew that commitment.

This post was originally published on here. 

A federal judge on Friday ruled that laws that US President Donald Trump‘s administration used to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel are unconstitutional. 

US District Judge Noel Wise in San Jose, California, in a blistering ruling chastised the US State Department and US Department of Homeland Security for how they had deployed provisions of federal immigration law to target non-citizens for deportation for expressing views they wanted to suppress.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, said that in the United States, free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, was evidence of the strength of the country’s democracy.

“That strength is diminished when members of our society – citizens and noncitizens alike – must self-censor and ‘behave’ or suffer the government’s retaliation,” she said. 

The State Department and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wise focused on Trump administration’s detainment of students

Wise’s ruling focused on how the Trump administration, from March 2025, began revoking visas and detaining non-citizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus, starting with the arrest of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who is fighting separately to avoid being deported.

Those arrests formed the basis of a lawsuit that was filed in August 2025 by Stanford University’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, which alleged that some of its writers with student visas had refrained from covering pro-Palestinian student protests and topics related to the Middle East conflict as a result of the administration’s policies.

The newspaper’s lawyers argued that two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that the administration relied upon to cancel student visas and initiate deportation proceedings violated the US Constitution’s First and Fifth Amendments as applied to constitutionally protected speech.

Those laws allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to render noncitizens deportable if he personally determined someone’s action “compromises a compelling foreign policy interest” and allowed him to revoke someone’s visa at his discretion.

Wise agreed with the newspaper, saying that when a noncitizen’s speech is the reason behind a visa revocation and deportation determination, “the government is singling out that speech for disfavored treatment based on its viewpoint or content.”

Conor Fitzpatrick, whose group, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, represented the student newspaper, said in a statement that the ruling “proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child.”

The ruling was similar to a decision last year by Boston-based US District Judge William Young, who similarly found the administration had acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining, and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy. 

Wise, in her ruling, expressed concern that the administration had moved on to target people for expressing other types of views it disfavored, saying eventually the “targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like.”

“This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely,” she wrote. “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it.”

This post was originally published on here. 

A US Navy sailor who jumped off the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) aircraft carrier earlier this month is facing disciplinary action, MS NOW reported on Wednesday. 

According to the report, the sailor has been accused of violating Article 83 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for “malingering,” or “intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work, duty or service,” and Article 86 for “absence without leave.”

The sailor’s wife told MS NOW that her husband had not received the care he needed and that this only compounded her husband’s struggle. 

“I think they’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help. Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor,” MS NOW cited her as saying. 

Sailor reportedly did not get mental health care 

She said that her husband had jumped overboard on August 3, was medically evacuated and returned to San Diego on August 13, spent five days at Naval Medical Center San Diego, known as Balboa, and was told to report back to work immediately after his release.  

During that time, he did not receive therapy or psychiatric care. He finally began therapy on August 26, nearly a month after his attempted suicide and nearly two weeks after he arrived back in San Diego. 

His wife told MS NOW that prior to jumping, the sailor went to both his chain of command and the ship’s medical team multiple times to raise concerns over his mental health but was brushed off. 

She learned what happened from a message from one of her husband’s friends aboard the ship and was not contacted until four days after the incident. 

The sailor and his wife are both 19 and have two children, the youngest of whom was born in February. The sailor repeatedly requested paternity leave but was denied. 

Nonjudicial punishment is typically used to reprimand service members for minor rule-breaking, negating the need for a formal, lengthy court-martial process which could end in an official conviction. 

Facing nonjudicial punishment, the sailor will end up in a “captain’s mast,” where a commanding officer will decide the punishment, MS NOW reported. It could cost the sailor up to half his pay. 

Questions raised over military treatment of mental health

The incident is calling attention to the way in which the US Navy and other branches of the US military deal with suicide and mental health. 

US military lawyers say that there is a legal mechanism for the US Defense Department to punish service members who try to commit suicide, even while the department has dedicated resources for those struggling with their mental health. 

“We tell service members to reach out for help, and then we keep a criminal statute on the books for the ones who didn’t get it in time. That’s a policy choice,” Cody Harnish, a former Army judge advocate general who now represents military service members, told MS NOW.

While technically, the manual for court-martials says that suicide attempts should not be charged, ultimately, pursuing charges and a punishment is at the discretion of the commanding officer, Harnish told MS NOW.

When asked about the decision to pursue nonjudicial punishment for suicide attempts, a US Navy official told MS NOW that “the navy is fully committed to the health and well-being of every sailor.”

“We strive to foster environments that support mental health by removing barriers to seeking help, increasing awareness of resources, and taking appropriate action when someone is in need. Mental health resources are available to our Sailors 24/7, and asking for help is a sign of strength,” the official said. 

This post was originally published on here. 

With a population of 10 million, Israel has 2,289 active nongovernmental organizations providing food assistance to its residents. For comparison, the UK has 2,500 food banks for 68 million residents, and Germany has 970 local food banks for 84 million people.

These numbers indicate significant structural issues within Israel’s system.

Germany’s Tafel food bank network operates as a unified nationwide model. In contrast, Israel’s network relies on thousands of community-driven nonprofits whose food distribution is often a secondary or informal activity alongside other social welfare support.

The UK organizes its food banks through a combination of large charitable networks mostly via public food donations, a professional referral voucher system, and volunteer-led sorting and distribution centers.

In Israel, food insecurity remains widespread. In 2024, 27.1% – or nearly one million households, including over one million children – experienced food insecurity, according to the National Insurance Institute. The figures are roughly one NGO per 1,000 food-insecure people.

Critics argue the government has increasingly shifted the vital responsibility to philanthropic organizations. Only 13% of Israeli food aid NGOs’ budgets come from government funding, forcing the sector to stay heavily reliant on private philanthropy and local fundraising. These findings come from a new study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), in cooperation with Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, published in the journal Food Policy under the title “Philanthropic food assistance in high-income countries: Lessons from Israel’s food-aid network.”

Israel’s food-aid network is vast, but deeply fragmented

Although the system plays a critical role in addressing food insecurity, the research reveals major gaps in equity, coordination, and oversight. The authors declare that charity alone cannot substitute for a comprehensive national food security policy.

While philanthropic food aid plays a critical role, it can’t replace coherent, equitable, and accountable public policy, said HUJI’s Moran Accos and Prof. Aron M. Troen and Sheba’s Dr. Orly Tamir – who have been conducting the research for nearly four years.  

The first comprehensive national mapping of Israel’s food-aid NGO system, the study collected and examined administrative data and records from major food banks and found a rapidly expanding but highly fragmented system.

Troen told The Jerusalem Post that the scale of Israel’s food-aid network is huge. The NGOs report an annual turnover of NIS 6.18 billion, supported by over 28,000 employees and 170,000 volunteers. However, with minimal funding coming from state coffers, the system relies overwhelmingly on donations.

“This issue should have been on the platform of every political party running for the Knesset, and they must make a commitment to action if elected. Rosh Hashanah is the perfect time to take the issue seriously,” he said.

Most organizations operate locally and distribute food products rather than vouchers, often without standardized reporting on what is provided or its nutritional value.

The study highlights significant disparities in who receives aid. “Although Arab households experience higher rates of food insecurity, only 4% of food-aid NGOs are located in Arab communities,” he said, noting, though, that nationwide NGOs like Latet and Leket also give to Arab families suffering from food insecurity.

Regional gaps are also pronounced: 29% of NGOs operate in the Jerusalem district, compared to just 9% in the North, despite similar levels of need. “This is partly due to the fact that Jerusalem has the most religion-based voluntary bodies,” he said.

There is little systematic data on food quality, basket composition, or nutritional standards. At the same time, the fragmented structure may reduce the overall impact of significant financial and human resources, said Troen, who directs HUJI’s Nutrition and Brain Health Laboratory and teaches in the School of Nutrition Science and the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

Much of his research is concerned with clarifying the basic biological connection between dietary quality and brain health. For many people, putting nutritional insight into practice is not simply a matter of lifestyle choices, but a matter of life circumstances. “Prevalent food insecurity is a key driver of ill health, deprivation and economic harm worldwide, including in high-income countries like Israel.”

Researchers say charity cannot replace government responsibility

TROEN SAID policy solutions must be based on real data rather than political interests.

There are “principled debates on what to do, but the chosen policies and solutions have to be based on real data, not spin for political reasons or vested interests. You can mobilize human capital in the community to give solutions, taking into account the wisdom and needs of those coping with difficulties. But that can’t be the primary response. There needs to be more oversight, particularly  by the government.”  

Citizens “are entitled to food and welfare services provided by the central government rather than private organizations that don’t necessarily save money and can’t ensure that appropriate help is fairly reaching all citizens in need,” he said.

The state budget dedicates NIS 49 million per year for a national food security initiative of the Welfare Ministry that feeds only a fraction of those in need.

While Shas leader Aryeh Deri campaigned on a promise of a billion shekels annually in food vouchers for 350,000 families, the eligibility criteria were criticized for targeting his political base and ultimately reached a population substantially smaller than the estimated number of food-insecure households.

“Public money, including philanthropy and taxes. should deliver the outcome we want,” he said. “Food insecurity is not just social welfare. We need a holistic approach, which considers production, accessibility to food that is healthful, not just calories, and suitable for people of different ages and medical conditions. We need a strategy, but there isn’t one.”

Operational challenges also plague the fragmented system. Some elderly residents prefer home-delivered cooked meals due to the difficulties of shopping and cooking. But while large food banks do safety and quality checks, smaller local partner organizations struggle to maintain the safety, heating, or refrigeration required for donated food collected from hotels and large venues.

Approximately 1.6 million Israelis reportedly receive a small sum of money or food (“Kimha le’Pischa”) from the Social Welfare Ministry before Passover and Rosh Hashanah, but critics say the number stretches credulity.

The ministry allocates a small subsidy to dozens of NGOs which in turn deliver one-time benefits to people struggling with chronic need. While the NGOs are supposed to document individual recipients and the aid delivered, there is little independent oversight or evaluation.

“Food security policy is fragmented, privatized, ad hoc, and piecemeal, and so the problem persists and is perpetuated.  The fault is shifted to individual choices, and the problem and its solution are left to charity.”

Troen said the root causes are structural and can not be solved by goodwill alone. “Public and private resources should be allocated based on evidence and rational policy. We, as a country, have to organize ourselves so the skyrocketing cost of living is lowered, people get the education they need to be employed, to be productive, and have good lives. We’re not doing this.”

Troen said that nutritional security is not synonymous with poverty, and mitigating its harms requires expertise. Previous studies show a very high burden of serious diet-related diseases among food-insecure people, and some foods being distributed could actually be inappropriate for people with diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, or other common conditions.

“Given the scale of the financial activity that we documented, the problem is not simply a shortage of resources, but of ensuring that they are being used well.”  

He and his team are now doing more research to determine whether improved food security could reduce pressure on Israel’s healthcare system and save money for the health funds and hospitals,

Troen advocates for consolidating and professionalizing food banks to ensure equitable distribution, particularly for those who are ashamed to ask for help.

When a person falls between the cracks, accountability is split across numerous bodies, including NGOs, the municipality, the National Insurance Institute, and the Health and Social Welfare ministries.

“There are many people who can’t go online in Hebrew to get help. They have to go through hell to get what they need,” the professor said. “But the key issue to be addressed is structural – why do the cracks in the system exist, and who is falling through them? The NGOs fill a vacuum caused by the abandonment and privatization of welfare by the government. This is not fate. It is policy.”

Asked for one thing he would like the Israeli public to understand about food insecurity is that “it exists and is causing hunger. There are solutions, and the government has to be accountable. If not, we are paying a tremendous cost in the short term due to needs that are not met and long-term perpetuation of stunted human and social development across generations that feed social disparities and unrest and hold everybody back. Elected representatives have to be held accountable. Israel built a system that manifestly doesn’t work; it must be fixed, with mutual responsibility and solidarity, and leadership from the top. We can’t have hi-tech if people are hungry, lack basic education, and public services are funded from taxes and then diverted for narrow political reasons,” he said.

“Our findings show both the strength and the limits of philanthropy,” said Troen. “Civil society does extraordinary work, but a modern state cannot rely on charity alone to ensure access to healthy food. The real question is whether aid is being delivered equitably, effectively, and transparently – and whether philanthropy is complementing public responsibility or being asked to replace it.”

Co-researcher Accos echoed Troen, saying helping families facing food insecurity is an immediate moral imperative,

“But the policy challenge is year-round. A country cannot treat food security only as a temporary or seasonal act of generosity. It must also ask whether the system is fair, whether it reaches those most in need, and whether public institutions are taking sufficient responsibility.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Unmarried people using dating websites and apps wonder how much personal information they should disclose in their profile. Will too much data deter potential partners or, rather, encourage them to make a connection?

A study led by psychology Prof. Gurit Birnbaum of Reichman University’s Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, in collaboration with her colleagues Yovel Refaeli and Kobi Zholtack, and Prof. Harry Reis of the University of Rochester in New York, researched this question.

It examined whether the amount of personal information people disclosed in their dating profiles affected the impression they made and if this influenced what type of relationship potential partners then chose to pursue.

The study was published in the journal Current Psychology under the title, “Too much information or not enough? How self-disclosure in online dating profiles influences attraction and relationship intentions.”

“It all started when I was watching my students struggle to find compatible partners on dating apps, and I began noticing the same mistakes again and again,” Birnbaum recalled.

“How much should we self-disclose to attract the right partner? Some profiles revealed almost nothing, while others revealed a great deal,” she said.

“It made me wonder not simply what attracts attention, but what kind of impression the amount of information we share creates, and whether it attracts the kind of relationship we actually want. That question led my colleagues and me to study three aspects of dating profiles: the photos people choose, how much they disclose, and how they present that information.”

What the researchers found was that several mistakes are made when preparing dating profiles that attract the wrong people.

One is that people want to stand out in a crowded dating field, so they often confuse getting attention with attracting what they actually want.

Another is that what a person presents matters, but how it is presented might matter just as much. How one presents themselves shapes not only how potential partners see them, but also what they think that person wants and whether they can imagine connecting with that potential mate.

Previous research showed that self-disclosure fosters trust and attraction in online interactions, yet its impact on perceived relationship intentions – a key factor in dating decisions – has hardly been studied.

Too little or too much self-disclosure can backfire

According to the researchers, a few lines of self-description can reveal far more than their literal content. They found that a profile containing very little personal information may signal a lack of effort, guardedness, or limited interest in forming a meaningful relationship.

A more detailed profile, on the other hand, may convey openness and effort, but it can also come across as oversharing, reveal incompatibilities early on, or leave too little room for imagination and curiosity.

Self-disclosure – the sharing of personal information, thoughts, and feelings – is vital for developing intimacy and building relationships, but in face-to-face encounters, impressions develop gradually through conversation, tone of voice, body language, and reciprocal sharing.

A dating profile, by contrast, is generally one-sided and static, Birnbaum said. “As a result, every sentence may carry considerable weight in deciding whether a person wants to take the interaction further and whether they see the person behind the profile as a potential partner for a casual encounter or a committed relationship.”

The researchers conducted three studies involving participants who were not in a relationship. A total of 90 students (an equal number of women and men), aged 21 to 29, participated in the study.

TO MINIMIZE potential influence from specific photo-description pairings or order effects, the study randomized both the order of presentation and the pairing of photos with self-descriptions for each participant. This approach ensured that each of the three photos had an equal chance of being matched with each of the three self-descriptions throughout the study.

Birnbaum explained that in each study, participants first created their own dating profiles and then evaluated profiles with varying levels of self-disclosure.

For example, a moderate-disclosure profile included information about personality traits, hobbies, and personal preferences, while a low-disclosure profile contained only the phrase “I’m totally worth a chat!”

Participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of the people behind the profiles, assess whether they appeared to be seeking a casual or long-term relationship, and indicate what kind of relationship they themselves would want to pursue with them.

Independent judges then evaluated the messages to determine how strongly they expressed romantic interest and a desire for further interaction.

“In one of the studies, we went a step further: participants also had a brief online conversation with the person whose profile they had just viewed, who was actually a trained member of the research team. Of course, participants were fully debriefed afterward,” Birnbaum said.

The Reichman psychologist, who earned her doctorate at Bar-Ilan University 28 years ago, researches romantic relationships, human sexuality, and evolutionary psychology.

The Goldilocks principle for dating profiles

Her team found that greater self-disclosure generally created a more favorable impression and led profile owners to be viewed as more interested in a serious relationship.

However, when the self-description was the primary source of information available to viewers, moderate self-disclosure generated the greatest romantic interest.

According to the researchers, this finding reflected the Goldilocks principle: not too little and not too much, but just the right amount.

People whose profiles contained a moderate level of self-disclosure were perceived as more interested in a long-term relationship than those who disclosed very little. This perception, in turn, increased participants’ willingness to pursue a meaningful relationship with them.

Acquiring more information about someone can sometimes backfire, depending on how the information is evaluated, Birnbaum said.

“If the content of additional self-disclosure leads to negative evaluations of the discloser because it reveals dissimilarity to the self in terms of shared personality traits and values or contains too much information that is perceived as inappropriate to the context or relationship stage, interest may decrease.”

The study also found that how self-disclosure is interpreted depends on the other information presented in a profile. When profile owners clearly stated that they were looking for a casual relationship, greater self-disclosure led others to perceive them as more open to a serious relationship.

This increased participants’ interest in pursuing a long-term relationship with them. To put it simply, the way people present themselves can soften – and even, to some extent, contradict – the explicit message conveyed by their statement about the type of relationship they are seeking.

“There is no magical number of words or pieces of information that defines the ‘right’ amount of disclosure,” Birnbaum said. “Dating platforms differ in their norms. What feels like ‘too much’ also depends on the context and content. A nearly empty profile may give people too little to work with and can create the impression that the person is less serious about pursuing a committed relationship and more interested in casual sex.”

“In contrast, revealing everything at once may feel overwhelming or premature,” the psychologist continued. “Moderate disclosure gives potential partners enough information to form a meaningful impression while still leaving room for curiosity and discovery.”

Creating a dating profile is more than an exercise in self-presentation designed to attract attention, Birnbaum noted. “The amount of information people disclose can shape how others perceive their intentions and influence the kinds of relationships potential partners may want to pursue with them.”

“The practical takeaway is that the level of self-disclosure should be tailored to what a person is looking for – share enough to arouse interest and convey openness, while leaving room to discover more about each other as the connection develops.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Seven tombs dating back to the ancient Parthian Empire were discovered during a two-month-long excavation in Koy Sanjaq (Koya), Kurdish media network Rudaw reported earlier this month, citing the Kurdistan Region’s antiquities authorities. 

The discoveries were reportedly made in the Khazna area, along the new Erbil-Koya road, carried out between late April and late June.

“One of the [tombs] contained a clay coffin with a small headless figurine of a pregnant woman,” Muhammad Lashkri, director of antiquities and heritage affairs in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, told Rudaw.

Bracelets, earrings, and cosmetic items had been found alongside the figurine, according to Lashkri.

He added that the artifacts are now being stored at the antiquities and heritage directorate in Koya.

The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was centered in ancient Iran between 247 BCE and 224 CE. At the height of its power, the empire stretched from central-eastern Turkey to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan.

According to Lashkri, since 2009, around 6,500 archaeological sites have been recorded in over half of the Kurdistan region, with the help of foreign archaeological teams.

“Forty-five percent remains,” he told Rudaw, explaining that the delay in identifying more sites cocmes primarily due to political issues, and sites being located in border areas and disputed territories.

Lashkri described the technology used by the directorate to “accurately identify 75 percent of the sites,” including geographic information systems (GIS) and satellite imagery.

Many foreign missions unable to return due to US-Iran war

He explained that typically there are between 25 and 35 foreign archaeological missions surveying and excavating the region. 

The missions include teams from France, Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Japan, and one from Harvard University that has been working at a site for over a decade, according to Lashkri.

He noted that many of the archaeological missions were unable to return in 2026 due to the war between Iran and the United States, and that “some teams are taking on new work, while others are completing their projects.”

“We need to turn our archaeological sites into a source of tourism revenue,” Lashkri told Rudaw, explaining the need for greater documentation of ancient landmarks and databases for long-term heritage management in the region.

This post was originally published on here. 

Three previously unknown tombs were unearthed by an Egyptian archaeological mission during excavations at the Sheikh Soby site in the Bahariya Oasis, alongside a collection of ancient artifacts.

The tombs, whose discovery was announced earlier this month by the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, date to different periods of Egyptian history, including the Roman and Late periods.

The first tomb, dating back to the Late Period of Egypt (664 BCE until 332 BCE), is a rock-cut tomb carved into sandstone, believed to have been dedicated to a single family unit consisting of five individuals.

It is made up of a square-shaped shaft, approximately three meters deep, that leads to two burial chambers on its western and northern sides.

Inside the western, which itself is small and rectangular, archaeologists discovered a limestone sarcophagus resting in a recess on the chamber floor, containing a mummy covered in linen wrappings.

The placement of the sarcophagi in the chamber is consistent with the method of placing sarcophagi in Late Period tombs at the site, explained Mohamed Abdel Badi, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

In the larger northern chamber, archaeologists found four limestone sarcophagi, each containing a mummy covered with linen wrappings.

Two tombs date back to Roman period

The second tomb found at the site by the mission is an undecorated, staircase-style tomb and believed to date back the Roman period.

Badi noted that it consists of a small tunnel leading to a staircase made up of three steps, which end in a burial chamber. However, current archaeological evidence suggests that it had not actually been used for burial.

The third tomb, also thought to date to the Roman period, is a shaft-style tomb, made up of a tunnel leading to small, roofless hall that then breaks off into two chambers on its southern and eastern sides.

The hall is thought to have been used as a receiving room for the mummy before it was taken to its final resting place inside one of the tomb’s chambers, according to common burial practices during the Roman period.

Fragments of a ceramic coffin were found within the tomb’s southern chamber, while a limestone sarcophagus with parts of its lid missing was found in the eastern chamber.

Archaeologists also discovered four entrances set into the tomb’s entry tunnel, located on its astern, northern, and western sides. 

Excavations at the eastern entrance revealed a side burial, where the deceased is interred in a lateral position, and an oval-shaped ceramic coffin that had been broken into several pieces.

The coffin’s lid was decorated with a raised depiction of a human face with clearly defined features.

Several other artifacts were found at the site, explained Professor Qutb Fawzi, head of the Central Administration of Cairo and Giza Antiquities, including a collection of pottery vessels, small bottles, and plates of various shapes and sizes, in addition to a number of offering tables made of limestone and sandstone.

A number of small terracotta statues used in religious practices as offerings (votives) and depicting motherly figures and stylized animal forms were also discovered at the site.

The discoveries provide new evidence on the history of the Bahariya Oasis, said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who praised the ongoing efforts of both Egyptian and foreign archaeological missions operating in the region.

Uncovering more of Bahariya Oasis’ history

Dr. Sabri Farag, who heads the archaeological mission at the site and serves as Bahariya Oasis’ director general of antiquities, confirmed that excavations at the site will continue in future seasons.

The hope, Farag explained, is to uncover more tombs that could reveal ongoing settlement of the site in antiquity and shed further light on the oasis’ inhabitants.

Notably, the Sheikh Soby site is home to a Late Period cemetery containing the tombs of Bahariya Oasis rulers and priests from that period, including the Temple of El-Bawiti.

The temple was built by the ruler of the Bahariya Oasis during the 26th Dynasty in honor of Pharoah Ahmose II (also known as Amasis II) who reigned between 570 – 526 BCE.

In 570 BCE, Ahmose II conquered Cyprus, the first pharoah do so since Thutmose III’s Bronze Age campaign. His reign there, however, was brief, as Cyrus the Great took the Mediterranean island from him in 545 BCE.

This post was originally published on here. 

Monica Iken and her husband Michael Patrick Iken were set to celebrate the second anniversary of their meeting on September 9, 2001. 

The newlyweds – married 11 months prior – parted on that Tuesday morning with Michael heading to his work as a bond broker in the South Tower of the World Trade Center in NYC.

“He kissed me goodbye and said, ‘I love you; I’ll see you later.’”

A few hours later, Michael called Monica from his office and told her to turn on the television. She thought this was strange, as bond traders are the busiest in the mornings and he would not normally call until the afternoon.

“I did, and I saw this gaping hole and that a plane hit the building [the North Tower],” she recalled in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post. “He told me: ‘Everything is fine, everything is okay. They said to stay where we are. Don’t worry.’”

“Then he said, ‘I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back.’ He called me back a few minutes later and said, ‘Listen, you’ve got to call the family and friends; they keep calling me here, and there’s a lot going on.’”

Monica pulled up the phone book while still watching the TV and listening to her husband, who still sounded calm.

“I have the phone book in my left hand and the phone in the right hand, and I literally see this thing come out of the corner of the screen on the right side, like a giant jumbo jet.”

“I thought: ‘There’s no way.’ Nothing was registering. When you see something like that, your brain is not computing. I literally watched [the plane] hit the [South] Tower, and I was frozen in space because he worked in tower two on the 84th floor.”

Monica said she kept thinking Michael would get out, because his best friend did. But by September 12, she said, her “nightmare had begun.”

“To this day, I have no remains,” she told the Post. “I have nothing … not even a ring, not even an ID, nothing.”

“I had to digest that I was newly married, trying to have a baby, and he went to work but was never coming home. And even though we went down to look for him and we did all those things, the reality was – I knew he was gone.”

Monica starts NGO, September’s Mission to preserve site

After Michael was killed, Monica became concerned with the idea that the city may build over the site of all the fallen. This prompted her to start her NGO, September’s Mission.

It was founded with the primary objective of working with public and private partnerships to secure the acreage of the World Trade Center site and ensure “that we do not build over dead people in America.”

Of the approximately 16-acre site of the former World Trade Center complex, Monica and her fellow advocates managed to secure half of the site for the Ground Zero memorial.

“The good news is I have a place to go to honor my husband,” she continued. “His birthday is on September 8, so I go there on September 8. He will be 62 this September. We celebrate every year.”

“As long as I’m alive, I go to the memorial, and we sit by his name, and we have merlot, his favorite thing, and we celebrate life instead of death,” Monica said. 

“He took his last breath there, his last step, and for me, that is a sacred and hallowed space. I thank God every day for that place, because if I didn’t have that place to go, I would never have survived the nightmare,” she continued.

September mission’s second objective is working with families of those killed and advocating for them to receive whatever they need.

“I help them with mental health and educational programming. I do a lot of things behind the scenes,” Monica remarked.

She doesn’t take a salary, and uses her own funds to keep the organization running.

Because of her work with September’s Mission, Monica is very involved emotionally and practically with the families, so when the discussion came up in recent months about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned attendance at the memorial, Monica’s main concern was how the families will feel about that.

“It’s not political for me. He’s our mayor. I’m a New Yorker. It’s more about the fact that this is our time, and the people who should be there are the ones representing that time with us and were a part of that time,” she said.

“I don’t know where he stands exactly, but he doesn’t seem to be on the same page,” Monika continued, adding that she felt that Mamdani was somewhat connected to the people who “murdered our loved ones.”

“If I go to a funeral and the murderer comes, I don’t think that’s acceptable. And I’m not saying he is a murderer. I’m just saying that he wasn’t involved. I think he needs to just respect us and let us have our time, and then he can do whatever he wants.”

Mamdani’s attendance would be disrespectful due to who he supports, husband of victim says

Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace Catherine was among those killed by al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, told the Post that Mamdani’s intention to attend the ceremony was “a slap in the face… Not because he is Muslim – because of who he supports. He represents values that are not ours.”

Florida real estate agent Galante was responsible for launching a petition last month, alongside other family members of those murdered on 9/11, calling for Mamdani to be excluded from the 25th-year memorial events on account of his association with extremism and refusal to condemn antisemitism.

According to the petition, concerns have been raised about Mamdani’s public positions, including a perceived reluctance to “clearly and unequivocally condemn phrases such as ‘globalize the intifada,’ which many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence.”

Further, the mayor’s “associations with individuals whose public statements or records are viewed by family members as dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies,” the petition read.

It also noted that Mamdani’s own father penned a book shortly after 9/11 in which he said that suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” Mamdani has previously said that his father has been influential in shaping his views.

The mayor has also praised Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and served as a character witness for the Blind Sheikh, Omar Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks against the United States. 

More recently, Mamdani appointed Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, a man convicted in an al-Qaeda tanker bombing plot, as New York City’s chief legal counsel.

The petition has gained over 93,00 signatures in less than a month, as well as hundreds of comments, many of which are from survivors or family members.

“For 9/11 families, this is not simply a public ceremony; it is a deeply personal day of mourning,” Galante wrote. “The presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain.”

Mamdani acknowledged the petition by saying he will attend the ceremony and “proudly honor the families” by standing alongside them at Ground Zero.

“I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration, reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day felt by all of us who call this city home, and frankly, by all of us who call this country home.”

Galante told the Post that “the memorial is like our house, because it’s where our loved ones died. Everyone knows someone that was lost.”

He said the “right thing” would be for Mamdani to respect the families’ wishes and not attend. “But there is nothing else we can do,” Galante added.

Monica seconded Galante’s concerns about the area being, in a sense, hallowed ground, and the potential that Mamdani’s presence will addle the families.

“If the families are going to be upset, I have a problem with that because I don’t want them to be upset. I want them to go there and have their time. And if they’re disrupted, we lose sight of why we’re there, and that’s not good,” she said.

“My idea for the 25th [year since the attack] is for us to go there and commemorate our loved ones, and thank God we can still do that – not be in a political war with someone or having to worry about some of these families feeling that [Mamdani is] affiliated with people that killed our loved ones. That will stress them out and make them angry, and I don’t want anger at the memorial.”

“The memorial needs to be a sacred and hallowed space where there is peace. It’s got to be peaceful. And already I see families are getting upset, and I don’t like that. It really bothers me,” Monika went on to say.

She noted that the question of Mamdani’s attendance had recently become a religious matter too, with US Catholic League president Bill Donohue writing an open letter to Mamdani “respectfully [requesting] that he not attend the 9/11 ceremony.”

Donohue noted that, as mayor-elect, Mamdani did not attend the Veterans Day Parades, and as mayor, did not attend the Israel Day Parade.

“Given that this is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and that your presence would clearly be divisive, that is why there is a petition seeking to stop you from going. It would be best for everyone involved if you skipped this event,” Donohue wrote.

In addition to the emotional needs of the families, Monica spoke of her own needs to grieve and mourn, which she said she cannot do if she is taking care of and advocating for the others.

“Because there’s such contention going on and anger, I can’t mourn properly. I can’t mourn when I have a family member who’s crying or angry. I’m not going to be able to have my own peace because now I have to worry about those families who are going to come to me and be crying and upset.”

Her final message to the mayor? “Just let us have our peace.”

“Don’t stress out these families. Don’t be arrogant and go because you feel like you should go because you’re being defiant now. That’s wrong.”

“Just respectfully say: ‘I see what’s going on. I am the mayor. I’ll take it into consideration. I’m not going to take it personally. Let them have their time.’”

“That’s it. Simple.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The Supreme Court temporarily froze the legal proceedings against the former Military Advocate General Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, regarding her role in leaking a video alleging abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teman prison, after Likud MK Avichai Boaron and the right-wing Lavi organization requested an additional hearing on the matter.

This new ruling follows a ruling from three weeks ago in which the court said that there were no grounds for judicial intervention in the investigation into the affair and also ruled that there was no basis to intervene in the decision allowing the state attorney to decide on the charges in the case against Tomer-Yerushalmi.

The court further ruled that there was no reason to grant Justice Minister Yariv Levin additional time to appoint an oversight official for the investigation, which had recently concluded. The ruling cleared the way for the prosecution, led by State Attorney Amit Isman, to advance toward a decision in the case.

However, on Thursday, MK Boaron and Lavi submitted a request for an additional Supreme Court hearing, asking the court to reconsider its decision not to intervene.

The request for an additional hearing is based, among other arguments, on the minority opinion in the original petition, in which Supreme Court Justice David Mintz argued that the petition should have been partially accepted.

Judicial opinion: Initial investigation required oversight

Mintz argued that the clear underlying premise of the previous ruling was that the investigation required the appointment of an oversight and accompanying official due to the extraordinary sensitivity of the affair. The case involves allegations that the head of the IDF’s law enforcement system was involved in leaking investigative materials and providing false information to the court.

Mintz argued that as long as the investigation had not been conducted under proper oversight, it could not be said that the basis for determining the state attorney’s inability to handle the case had changed, and therefore the time had not yet come to reconsider the issue.

He also argued that the fact that police had exhausted, in their view, their investigative actions did not justify continuing the proceedings without examining whether the process was valid, even retroactively.

Justice Mintz emphasized that he was not ignoring the fact that his conclusion could open the door to prolonging the investigation process. However, he argued that the solution was not to disregard the previous ruling, but rather to issue an order requiring the minister to exercise his authority.

The petition stated: “This request extends far beyond the boundaries of the affair: In the Boaron case, it was determined that oversight of a sensitive criminal investigation such as this one is mandatory, and from this derived the recognition of the minister’s authority, the limitations on its exercise and the operative instruction that was issued with the agreement of the entire panel; the ruling that is the subject of this request determined that oversight is only an ‘option.'”

“The two legal principles cannot coexist side by side; at the very least, the ruling raises fundamental and important questions that the honorable court itself has already found worthy of being examined by an expanded panel.”

Grounds for an expanded panel of judges

The High Court must now decide whether to hold another hearing before an expanded panel of judges or determine that there are no grounds for one. Until that decision is made, Justice Dafna Barak-Erez temporarily froze the handling of the investigation file.

In a brief decision issued Friday, Barak-Erez wrote: “The request for a further hearing was transferred to my handling yesterday, Thursday evening. For the sake of caution and without taking a position at this stage, I order a stay of execution of the ruling that is the subject of the request, by freezing the current situation regarding the handling of the investigation file by the state attorney, until another decision is issued.”

Until the High Court issues another ruling, proceedings in the military prosecutor affair remain frozen. No decision will be made on whether to file indictments in the case until then.

This post was originally published on here. 

The number of Arab citizens, particularly Muslims and excluding Druze, joining the Israel Police has declined sharply during National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s four years in the position, according to police recruitment data obtained by Walla on Monday.

The decline comes despite an overall increase in police recruitment during the same period, according to data from the Ministry of National Security and the Israel Police.

This decline in Arab recruitment comes as violence in these communities, during the four years that Ben-Gvir has served as national security minister, has continued to reach new highs almost daily.

The Arab sector in Israel makes up about 21% of the country’s population, with Muslims accounting for more than 18%. 

The figures indicate significant underrepresentation of a sector that makes up more than one-fifth of Israel’s population.

Officials in the Ministry of National Security attributed the decline to a directive issued by Ben-Gvir requiring all police candidates to meet the same minimum recruitment standards, including a Dapar score, a military aptitude rating, usually requiring a score of 4 out of 9, and knowledge of Hebrew.

According to ministry officials, an affirmative action policy introduced before Ben-Gvir took office was intended to increase Arab representation in the Israel Police and promote greater integration into the state. The policy allowed Arab candidates to be accepted even if their Dapar score was below the standard threshold or if they lacked Hebrew proficiency.

The officials said the policy was abolished after Ben-Gvir took over the ministry.

Police recruitment rises as Arab enlistment declines

According to police data, the Israel Police had 36,856 officers in 2025. That year, 3,294 new officers joined the force, including only 96 Muslims, two Bedouins and 12 Arab Christians.

This means that only 0.26% of police recruits in 2025 were Muslim, Bedouin or Arab Christian, a figure roughly 70 times lower than their share of the population.

The vast majority of new recruits joined the regular police force rather than the Border Police.

The Ministry of National Security has highlighted an increase in police recruitment over the past four years, attributing the rise to improved conditions for officers and a large-scale recruitment campaign on social media and other platforms.

The overall increase in recruitment has been driven by a rise in Jewish recruits, alongside a decline in the number of Arab recruits, excluding Druze, joining the police.

After a decline in Arab recruitment in 2019, and signs of recovery between 2020 and 2022, the trend has reversed again over the past four years.

According to police and Ministry of National Security data, 2,109 new officers joined the police in 2022, including 135 Muslims, six Bedouins and 48 Arab Christians.

In 2023, 2,778 new officers joined the force, including 165 Muslims, seven Bedouins and 59 Arab Christians.

In 2024, 3,814 new officers joined, including 143 Muslims, two Bedouins and 15 Arab Christians.

In 2025, 3,294 new officers joined, including 96 Muslims, two Bedouins and 12 Arab Christians.

During the first half of 2026, 2,276 people joined the police, indicating continued growth in overall recruitment. However, only 64 were Muslims, two were Bedouins, and seven were Arab Christians.

The figures do not include recruitment data from the Druze community, where enlistment rates are higher and have generally remained stable.

Ben-Gvir: ‘You will continue talking, and we will continue working’

The shift in recruitment trends comes amid rising violence in Arab communities, as the government cancels dedicated budgets for the Arab sector and redirects funding toward other priorities and sectors. It also comes as Israeli society becomes increasingly polarized and calls against integrating Arabs into key state positions grow, particularly as elections approach.

Ben-Gvir’s office responded to the data by saying:

“Even when the number of recruited police officers has risen significantly, and thousands of new officers have been added, the media still has criticism. You will continue talking, and we will continue working.”

This post was originally published on here. 

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied a report that he told close friends that he was considering a 2028 presidential run in a post on X/Twitter on Friday night. 

The report, published by NBC on Friday, said Hegseth sees himself as appealing to US President Donald Trump’s MAGA voter base through similar attributes to the president, such as being defiant and willing to talk on social issues on the campaign trail.  

Hegseth called the report “100% false,” adding that his “only job” was making the Department of Defense great. 

100% false.

We told NBC that, but they just lie w/ anonymous “sources.”

My only job: Make @DeptofWar Great Again.

Carry on Patriots, and enjoy your Friday night. https://t.co/OxwekfSAjy

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) August 28, 2026

Hegseth attends campaign events

Earlier in the month, Hegseth caught attention by attending the Iowa State Fair while campaigning for a Republican congressman there, which NBC reporter Courtney Kube described as “a place where candidates go and showcase themselves in advance of a big run.” 

The Iowa State Fair was the second campaign event Hegseth attended this year, months after attending an event in Kentucky to support Trump-endorsed Representative candidate Ed Gallrein over Representative Thomas Massie. 

“In both cases, he was received well. He was received like a rock star.” Kube said. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Officials from the Bnei Brak Municipality allegedly instructed a driver to place multiple large metal dumpsters on the access road near the Sufrim Complex before the start of Shabbat, blocking the route in protest against secular residents driving through the neighborhood on Shabbat and amid claims that some are seeking to secularize the city, Ynet reported Friday.

The municipality denied directing the placement of the dumpsters.

Police were called to the scene by secular residents who claimed they were trapped inside the neighborhood. Officers removed the containers and reopened the road to traffic.

אירוע חריג כעת בבני ברק: הגשר שמוביל לשכונת הסופרים החילונית-חרדית נחסם באמצעות מכולות בנייה ענקיות כדי למנוע את הנסיעה בשבת. לפי נהג המשאית, הוא נשלח על ידי העירייה. מדובר באירוע מסכן חיים – נהג עלול להגיע במהירות ולהתנגש במכולות. מהמשטרה נמסר כי הם מטפלים ורואים בכך מעשה חמור pic.twitter.com/Dj6tjQpxpU

— טוביה יגלניק (@tuvyayagelnik) August 28, 2026

Police summoned the drivers who placed the dumpsters for questioning on suspicion of endangering a traffic route.

The driver alleged that he placed the dumpsters there at the municipality’s instruction.

The neighborhood was established as part of the government-subsidized “Buyer’s Price” housing program, an initiative designed to help first-time buyers purchase homes at reduced prices. It is home to both haredi and secular residents.

Tensions over secular residents driving in neighborhood rise

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks over secular residents driving in the neighborhood on Shabbat. Last week, haredi residents placed a fence on the road, but police removed the barrier, ruling that it was an illegal move.

According to police: “Secular people also intentionally provoke haredim, drive recklessly, and do burnouts. Anyone who enters by car through the new Landa Bridge passes by synagogues. Secular people have another way to enter.”

Police said that no legal decision had been made to close the road and urged the disputing sides to resolve the matter through the courts.

This post was originally published on here. 

President Donald Trump on Friday announced an unprecedented US push to take control of a fifth of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, betting that American companies can revive the OPEC nation’s battered energy industry while delivering a new source of crude to help bring down US fuel prices.

Trump provided few details about the agreement, saying only that the US had secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves through a partnership with private business.

“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority US control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes after weeks of US-Venezuelan negotiations over a deal that would give American companies long-term access to a group of Venezuelan oilfields and guarantee the resulting crude supply to the United States.

Sources previously told Reuters that a lease model was under consideration, with fields potentially auctioned to US producers, but the arrangement could face legal and constitutional challenges in Venezuela, where the state retains control over core oil industry activities.

The deal would represent a dramatic expansion of the US role in Venezuela’s oil industry as the Trump administration seeks to revive the country’s deteriorated production and secure more crude for US refineries. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves but produces only about 1.25 million barrels per day, far below its potential after years of underinvestment, mismanagement and sanctions.

Trump’s announcement provided few details on the structure of the agreement, the fields or companies involved, or how the United States would exercise majority control over the reserves.

Trump administration under pressure to secure stable oil flow

Since the US captured and removed former President Nicolas Maduro from power in January, Washington has been trying to secure a stable flow of Venezuelan crude ​for US refineries while promoting American investment in the country’s oil industry.

The Trump administration is under pressure ahead of midterm elections scheduled later this year over rising gasoline prices, which could be eased through cheaper oil supplies and expanded output. The US also has been looking for solutions to replenish its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the oil stockpile, including the possibility of crude ⁠swaps with US ​producers. 

This post was originally published on here. 

US Vice President JD Vance, who has drawn the ire of a number of Jewish conservatives, will speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit in Las Vegas on Monday, the RJC confirmed.

“The Republican Jewish Coalition is proud to welcome Vice President JD Vance to our National Leadership Summit in Las Vegas,” said an RJC spokesperson. “JD Vance is a friend who is coming back after first joining us in 2022 as a candidate for the US Senate.” 

Vance’s appearance comes as a number of Jewish Republicans and major GOP donors have indicated that they would rather support Marco Rubio for the presidential nomination in 2028 than Vance, who is seen as Donald Trump’s likeliest successor. Some of those donors will be in the room on Monday at the Venetian Resort, which is owned by the billionaire Adelson family, a major backer of Trump and various Jewish and Israeli causes.

The vice president has lost the confidence of the pro-Israel crowd with his reprimanding of Israeli officials, indulgence of anti-Israel conspiracy theories and silence on Tucker Carlson, the prominent pundit who has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. Multiple donors told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during last year’s confab that they would not support Vance in 2028.

Carlson, meanwhile, was a major focus of the discussion at the RJC’s 2025 summit, where signs reading “Tucker is not MAGA” were handed out to attendees. His son, Buckley Carlson, is a former Vance staffer.

Vance to speak in ‘fireside chat’

An agenda sent by the RJC lists Vance as a speaker during a Monday evening session that will be closed to press. A spokesperson confirmed that Vance will be speaking in a “fireside chat.”

A number of high-profile Republican candidates are also expected to speak at the RJC confab, which is being held on Sunday and Monday, a few months ahead of the midterm elections. Speakers include US Senate candidate Mike Collins, the Georgia congressman who is challenging Jewish Democrat Jon Ossoff, and former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. 

Collins has faced accusations of antisemitism and having ties to the far right. He has said that some of his statements were misunderstood and has defended himself by citing his support for Israel.  

This post was originally published on here. 

Tennessee intends to name Nashville International Airport after country music icon Dolly Parton, according to a statement on Friday, after the singer died in the country music capital at age 80 earlier this week.

The decision comes after a social media campaign by fans to change the airport’s name to honor Parton after her death. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee spoke with Parton’s team about the move this week, according to statements from the airport and Lee’s office.

“Dolly Parton’s extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state,” Lee said in the statement.

“At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state’s favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith, and kindness.”

Current Airport Authority policy does not allow the naming

The proposal to rename the airport and the current Metro Nashville Airport Authority’s naming policy will be addressed at a meeting on September 17, according to the statement. The current policy prohibits naming any property after a person who has not been dead for at least two years, The New York Times reported.

Parton was born on January 19, ​1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee, and grew up in a one-room cabin in nearby Locust Ridge.

She ​appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, a weekly country music concert in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 13, and after graduating from high school, she moved to Nashville to pursue a music career.

With classic songs including “Coat of Many Colors,” “Jolene,” and “I Will Always Love You,” Parton became one of the best-selling female artists of all time, with over 100 million records sold. She won 11 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

This post was originally published on here. 

British far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who has called for supermarket ICE checkpoints and summary deportation of anyone failing to prove legal US residency, has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agency records showed on Friday.

ICE‘s parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security, said Yiannopoulos, 41, was arrested on Thursday at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and is subject to a final order of removal.

Yiannopoulos ‘overstayed welcome,’ DHS says

According to DHS, Yiannopoulos legally entered the US in May 2019 through New York City but “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”

Yiannopoulos was not immediately available for comment, and it was not known whether he had obtained legal representation. 

Transgender Israeli computer engineer detained by ICE in New Hampshire

Allison Alon, a transgender Israeli woman, is facing possible deportation from the United States after being released on parole from an American prison.

On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted that Alon, a former IDF intelligence technology specialist and convicted kidnapper, was arrested during raids in New Hampshire. The post referred to Alon by her birth name, Avishay.

Yoav Etiel contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

US officials are backpedaling on claims that several government agencies were hacked by Chinese spies, now saying that the organizations were among the hackers‘ targets. 

In a freshly edited statement, the Justice Department said Friday that the US Senate, the Federal Reserve, NASA, and others were “among the targets of QTFY,” a Chinese spy platform that officials called out on Wednesday during an internet domain seizure operation.

A previous version of the statement said the government agencies had been among the hackers’ victims.

Statement edited 

A note left at the bottom of the newly edited statement said that “Edits have been made to ensure this press release accurately reflects the government’s allegations in the affidavit in support of the domain seizures.”

Reuters could not immediately establish which specific agencies the government now believed had been targeted and which ones had been breached. Messages seeking clarification from the Justice Department, the FBI, and CISA were not immediately returned on Friday.

This post was originally published on here. 

The political battle has already begun, even though the elections themselves have not yet taken place.

Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian parties and political figures are positioning themselves, discussing programs, alliances, electoral lists and political representation.

But amid this competition, one question remains largely unanswered:

What do the people of Gaza themselves want?

After decades of political rule dominated by parties and factions – from the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s, through the 2006 legislative elections, and then Hamas’s seizure of control of Gaza by force in 2007 – ordinary civilians have increasingly found themselves outside the center of political decision-making.

The parties are competing for political power.

The people are struggling for a normal life.

Elections – and a crisis of confidence

For many people in Gaza, the word “elections” does not automatically mean hope.

People who have experienced years of division, wars, displacement, destruction and political uncertainty may not see another electoral process as the solution to their problems.

There is a significant difference between the political activity of parties and the level of political enthusiasm among ordinary civilians.

While political organizations discuss lists, programs and seats, families are still living in tents, searching for homes, rebuilding their lives and wondering what kind of future awaits their children.

The question many civilians are asking is not necessarily:

Who will win the seat?

It is:

Who will give us our lives back?

The people who paid the price of political conflict

For years, Palestinians have been asked to align themselves with parties, factions and political leaders.

But Gaza’s civilians have paid the direct price of political conflict.

The division between Fatah and Hamas was not simply a disagreement between political leaderships. It became a social, economic and security reality that shaped the lives of millions.

Then came the wars.

With every round of violence, civilians lost homes, relatives, security and opportunities.

That is why a discussion about new elections cannot be separated from the question of public trust.

There may be elections.

But is there trust?

And do ordinary citizens believe that their vote can genuinely change their lives?

A Palestinian conversation outside the traditional political equation

A different conversation is beginning among Palestinians who do not want to return to the traditional choice between Fatah and Hamas.

They are asking whether Gaza can develop a civilian political alternative that is not controlled by the established parties.

For me, this is connected to a broader idea: separating Palestinian identity from political factional identity.

A Palestinian does not have to be affiliated with Fatah or Hamas in order to be Palestinian.

The civilian population should have the right to imagine a political future beyond the existing party structures.

A proposal that generated discussion

Recently, I proposed an idea that generated considerable discussion among Palestinians and Israelis: that I could seek to represent the interests of Gaza’s civilian population inside the Israeli Knesset.

The proposal is deliberately unconventional.

It is not simply an attempt to replace Palestinian politics with Israeli politics.

It is an attempt to open a different discussion about the future relationship between Gaza and Israel.

Could there be political and civilian channels through which Gaza’s population could communicate its interests directly to Israeli society and institutions?

Could a relationship dominated for decades by military confrontation eventually become a relationship based on civilian communication and political dialogue?

There are no easy answers.

But the reaction to the idea demonstrated that Palestinians are willing to listen to unconventional political proposals when those proposals focus on their daily lives and future rather than simply reproducing the old factional struggle.

The past cannot simply be romanticized

Some Palestinians remember earlier periods of economic and civilian interaction between Gaza and Israel, including employment, medical services and everyday contact between people on both sides.

These memories should not be turned into a romantic version of the past.

There were deep political inequalities and serious conflicts.

But neither should the history of civilian interaction be forgotten.

The question is not how to return to the past exactly as it was.

The question is whether something new and better can be built.

Neighbors on both sides of the border

Perhaps the people best placed to understand this question are the communities living around Gaza and the civilian population inside Gaza.

They have lived on opposite sides of a border, but they have also lived on opposite sides of fear.

Israeli communities around Gaza experienced the trauma of October 7 and the loss of civilians, families and security.

The people of Gaza subsequently experienced enormous destruction, displacement and loss.

The suffering is not identical.

The political circumstances are not identical.

But one reality cannot be ignored:

Civilians on both sides have paid a devastating price for violence.

Perhaps those civilians can become part of building a different future.

Can people affected by war build coexistence?

This is the question that deserves serious discussion.

Perhaps politicians alone cannot create peace.

Perhaps armies alone cannot create security.

Perhaps political parties alone cannot rebuild trust.

But what if the process began with the people who experienced the suffering?

What if civilian communities in Gaza and Israel began communicating?

What if economic, medical and educational initiatives were developed?

What if Gaza’s civilian population had direct channels for dialogue with its Israeli neighbors?

And what if Israeli communities near Gaza became part of the discussion about Gaza’s future, rather than being viewed only through a security lens?

This is not a ready-made political solution.

It is an invitation to begin a different conversation.

The real election is not only about seats

The coming elections may produce new lists, alliances and political figures.

Established parties may return strongly.

But the deeper political contest is not necessarily about the number of seats.

It is about whether Gaza’s civilians will remain recipients of decisions made by political organizations – or become central actors in determining the political future they want.

The parties have been tried.

Political divisions have been tried.

Military power has been tried.

Wars have been tried.

And Gaza’s civilians have paid an enormous price.

Any new political project that does not begin with the ordinary Palestinian’s right to life, security, dignity, education, employment and a future will remain incomplete, regardless of how attractive its political program may sound.

Perhaps we need a different kind of election

The election Gaza needs may not only be an election between parties.

It may be an election between ideas.

Do Palestinians want to remain prisoners of the past?

Do Israelis and Palestinians want to continue seeing each other as permanent enemies?

Or can two societies exhausted by war begin building a different relationship?

For Gaza’s civilians, the first question may not be who governs.

It may simply be:

How do we live?

For Israelis living near Gaza, the first question may not be who governs Gaza.

It may be:

How do we make sure that this tragedy never happens again?

Perhaps these two questions can eventually meet.

Who represents the civilians?

One of the most important questions for the next stage is civilian representation.

Not only representation inside Palestinian institutions, but a direct civilian voice in discussions about Gaza’s future and its relationship with Israel and the wider world.

People who experienced war should not become merely numbers in humanitarian reports.

People who experienced October 7 should not become merely numbers in security reports.

They are human communities with interests, fears, memories and hopes.

If politicians want to compete in new elections, they should first listen to these people.

Gaza does not belong to a party

Perhaps the clearest lesson of the past decades is simple:

Gaza does not belong to Hamas.

It does not belong to Fatah.

And it does not belong to any party, faction or political personality.

Gaza belongs to its people.

They should have the right to decide how they want to live, who they want to represent them, and what kind of relationship they want to build with other Palestinians, with Israel, and with the international community.

The coming elections could be an opportunity.

But they will become a genuine turning point only if Palestinian politics moves beyond the struggle between parties and returns to the human being at the center of the political equation.

Perhaps the question that should come before every electoral program is the simplest and the most difficult:

What will each Palestinian politician do to ensure that the people of Gaza can finally live a normal life?

Because a population living in tents does not need only an electoral program.

It needs a future.

The writer is a Palestinian peace activist from Gaza who advocates for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence and amplifying the voices of Palestinians who reject violence.

This post was originally published on here. 

When I brief diplomats, foreign journalists, and visiting dignitaries on the nuances behind the scenes of the October 27 election, they are usually the ones who ask the questions, and I do my best to provide the answers.

But there is one question I make sure to ask them: “Are you paying as close attention to the particulars of what’s happening with the upcoming Palestinian elections?”

I ask that, in part, because there is plenty being reported about our election that doesn’t make Israel look particularly good. This is not the first election where our politicians look to score points with constituents without taking into account how bad it looks abroad, but they have been especially careless lately, and it’s not the international media’s fault for noticing, doing their job, and telling the world.

The foreign press has reported extensively on Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir recently, specifically focusing on his calls for nightly killings of terrorists in Gaza, his advocacy for the death penalty, his actions regarding the Temple Mount, and the resulting global condemnations.

“Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a gloating video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses – but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes – will be hanged,” The Guardian reported in an article that passed the test and scrutiny of pro-Israel media watchdogs.

The Los Angeles Times had a headline “Israel’s Ben-Gvir publicly advocates killing ‘30 to 40’ people in Gaza nightly.” You can blame the newspaper for using the word “people” when he clearly meant terrorists, not innocent civilians.

But it was Ben-Gvir himself who referred to “people not worthy of life” and added, “They are not even people. I am giving them a compliment by calling them people.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz suddenly became a household name internationally when he was running in the Likud primary and tried to impress hawkish party members before he accepted a reserved slot. 

The Telegraph reported on his campaign videos that “celebrated airstrikes,” noting their repeated use of the word “boom.” ABC News and the Associated Press were among the media outlets that covered his announcements about expanding operations in Gaza.

The Turkey expert Fox News quoted in an article about recent threats from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz said: “Turkey is chalking up the increasingly escalatory climate between Turkey and Israel to election antics/propaganda by Netanyahu.”

Tough talk is not the purview of only one side of the political map. Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot’s definitive statement rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state last Saturday was picked up by several international media outlets, which reported his comments as a major development in the lead-up to an election being portrayed internationally as one candidate who is too right-wing against another who is even more too right-wing.

Al Jazeera’s Simon Speakman Cordall questioned Israel’s ability to maintain its democracy, in a story headlined “Concerns Mount over Integrity of Israel’s Upcoming October elections.”

Articles exclude Palestinian elections from coverage

The article did not mention that the Palestinians are set to have an election a month later, and that if any democracy should be questioned, it’s theirs. After all, they haven’t had a parliamentary election since January 2006, and a presidential election a year before that.

Palestinian political expert Khaled Abu Toameh said the Palestinian race deserves the same scrutiny by the international media as Israel’s, but it isn’t getting it.

“The foreign media is not paying enough attention to the preparations for the Palestinian election as much as they are paying attention to the Israeli election,” he lamented. “They talk about Ben-Gvir and radicals in Israel, but no one is covering Hamas and asking why they’re even allowed to run. If you ignore them, they’ll repeat their victory of 2006. They need to start sounding the alarm bells about that now.”

Abu Toameh said he advises foreign media to pay attention to recent meetings in Cairo that worked on an “abnormal alliance” among a purported reformist in Mohammad Dahlan, Hamas, the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups.

“This is the exact opposite of deradicalization,” Abu Toameh warned. “It’s empowering jihadists and terrorists responsible for Oct. 7.”

He said recent polls predicting a massive victory for convicted mass murderer Marwan Barghouti in the presidential election set for 2027 “speak volumes about the sentiments in Palestinian society.”

No less of a problem, the fact that more than 200 international cultural figures signed a petition calling for “Freedom for Marwan” indicates that the international media is not educating the world about who this unrepentant terrorist leader really is.

The list of signatories has the usual suspects like notoriously antisemitic actor Mark Ruffalo. But it also includes Jewish singer Paul Simon, who has come here and spoken fondly of the Jewish state.

Abu Toameh said he noticed Arabic media outlets promoting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s son Yasser as a potential successor and rising star since Yasser won a recent election to the central committee of the Fatah Party, which his father leads.

“They are not treating him as Yair Netanyahu is treated,” he said. “They are elevating his status as a respected leader. This is what makes the PA discredited among its people and strengthens Hamas.”

A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll published this week found that 79% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, so if the presidential election actually takes place, someone else will apparently take over and potentially stay in office for a very long time, like Abbas and Yasser Arafat before him.

The dangers of Barghouti or Hamas head Khalil al-Hayya being elected and taking control cannot be understated.

That means that while our elections are undoubtedly important, the Palestinian election could end up being significantly more consequential and fateful for the future of Israel, the wider Middle East, and the world.

The time has come for the international media to widen its microscope, which tends to be focused exclusively on Israel.

The writer served as the chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post and executive director of HonestReporting and has lectured about Israel in all 50 US states.

This post was originally published on here. 

Less than three weeks after Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, attention is shifting from the pact’s collective defense pledge to a more consequential question: Who else might join it?

Bangladesh has publicly expressed interest, Egypt says it is studying the prospect, and Iran, arguably the most consequential possible addition, has found itself at the center of conflicting reports. An Iranian parliamentary media official said Tehran had received an invitation, but the Foreign Ministry later said no official invitation had been delivered.

The uncertainty is significant because enlargement could determine whether the Aug. 7 agreement remains a trilateral security arrangement linking three major Muslim powers or develops into something broader, stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean through the Gulf and into the Indian Ocean and South Asia.

Signed in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the agreement states that an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all. Its stated goal is to strengthen collective deterrence and expand defense cooperation.

The three governments have repeatedly insisted that the agreement is defensive and is not directed against any specific country. Turkish and Pakistani officials have also made clear that the framework is open to other states. Erdoğan said at the time of signing that countries seeking regional peace and stability could participate, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan subsequently described the three existing members as the core of a structure that could expand further.

But beyond the collective defense language, much remains unresolved. The initial joint statement did not specify what military response would be required following an attack, and it was unclear to what extent members would be bound to undertake military action on one another’s behalf.

That distinction also complicates comparisons with NATO. NATO’s Article 5 considers an attack against one ally an attack against all, but it does not automatically require every ally to deploy troops; each member takes the action it considers necessary. The Mecca agreement is newer, far less institutionalized, and has yet to be tested in a crisis.

For Mohammad Ali Zafar, a research scholar at the University of Oxford, the importance of the pact is not limited to whether it eventually replicates NATO’s military architecture.

“The idea of a Muslim NATO-style structure under the Mecca Agreement appears to be gaining momentum among states that want to improve their security arrangements and become better aligned when it comes to a joint response to external aggression,” Zafar told The Media Line.

“With the Trump administration distancing itself from providing security guarantees to its Middle Eastern partners, with Israel being the main exception, the likely response has been a greater effort among Muslim states to rely on one another for security commitments and develop a comprehensive plan involving diplomatic coordination, the sharing of military expertise, joint defense initiatives and potentially joint defense action,” he said.

The first potential expansion could come not from another Middle Eastern power, but from South Asia.

Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir said this week that Dhaka had expressed interest in the agreement and was viewing participation positively.

Inclusion of Bangladesh would shift South Asian competition

Adding Bangladesh would bring another major Muslim-majority country to the grouping, while pushing its geographic reach deeper into the Indian Ocean region. But it would also add another layer of South Asian competition to an arrangement already including Pakistan.

“Bangladesh is an important potential partner for the current members of the Mecca Agreement,” Zafar said. “However, considering the recent turmoil the country has faced, it seems less likely that Bangladesh would make such a decision immediately.”

In his view, Bangladesh’s entry into an alliance such as the Mecca Agreement could also unsettle India. New Delhi would be wary of Dhaka aligning with Pakistan in a future conflict, especially under a mutual-defense clause that treats an attack on one member as an attack on them all.

Zafar also questioned whether Dhaka currently has sufficient strategic reason to assume obligations tied to conflicts far from South Asia. “It makes little sense for Dhaka to involve itself directly in these conflicts by joining the Mecca Agreement at the current stage. However, if there is a possibility of Iran and other countries joining the agreement, Bangladesh may reassess the strategic value of becoming a member,” he said.

Iran is precisely where the enlargement debate becomes more complicated.

Reports over the weekend cited Mehdi Rahimi, head of the Iranian parliament’s news agency, as saying that Tehran had been invited to join and that the proposal was under consideration. But on Aug. 24, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei publicly denied that Tehran had received an official invitation. The claim, therefore, remains unconfirmed.

Iranian membership would be qualitatively different from the possible admission of Bangladesh or Egypt.

The founding governments have insisted that the agreement is not aimed at Tehran. Yet its creation came amid a regional security environment transformed by direct Iranian attacks on Gulf countries and by the wider US-Israel confrontation with Iran. The three founding states share concerns about both Iran’s increasingly assertive military posture and Israel’s regional actions, while officials have rejected portraying the agreement as either an anti-Iranian axis or anti-Israel per se.

Ali Hosseini, (a pseudonym used to protect his identity), is a researcher at the Iranian Institute for BRI Studies. He argues that Iranian participation would nevertheless run contrary to Tehran’s strategic interests.

“Joining the Mecca Defense Pact is not merely illogical; it constitutes a profound strategic miscalculation. Far from generating credible deterrence against Israel, such a move would paradoxically transform Iran into a more conspicuous and vulnerable target,” Hosseini told The Media Line.

His reading of the agreement differs sharply from the official position of its signatories. While Ankara, Riyadh and Islamabad say the pact targets no particular country, Hosseini views its underlying security logic as substantially shaped by concerns about Iran.

“The strategic architecture of the Mecca Pact was explicitly conceived as a containment mechanism against Iranian military power,” he said. “For Iran to seek accession to this framework is tantamount to aligning with a coalition structurally predicated on curtailing its own strategic interests.”

For Hosseini, the fundamental question is not simply whether Tehran would be accepted, but what membership would do to Iran’s freedom to maneuver between competing powers.

“Iran’s enduring strategic power lies in its multi-vector autonomy—the capacity to navigate between [the] Eastern [Russia and China] and Western blocs while maintaining independent crisis-management leverage,” he said.

He argued instead that Tehran could benefit from keeping the question of membership diplomatically alive without becoming militarily integrated. “The prudent course of action is to treat the overture regarding this pact as a tactical diplomatic maneuver—an opportunity to test regional reactions, exacerbate intra-Arab divisions, and project an image of openness to dialogue, without ever committing to operational integration,” he argued.

Zafar reaches a different conclusion. He sees potential Iranian participation as capable of transforming the pact from a narrower security grouping into a significantly broader Muslim framework—but only if major political and strategic differences can first be addressed.

Iran joining agreement would be positive, says Zafar

“Iran joining the agreement would be a positive development,” he said. “However, that would also mean that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation would be a better platform for Muslim states to showcase a joint response to any aggression against Muslim states in the Middle East.” 

Zafar argued that Tehran would need to provide substantial reassurance before existing members accepted the risks associated with collective defense.

“The current members of the Mecca Agreement would prefer not to find themselves drawn into a conflict with the United States over the issue of Iran,” he said. “Therefore, while Iranian membership could fundamentally change the character of the agreement, it would require considerable reassurance from Tehran before the existing members would be comfortable with such an arrangement.”

That tension illustrates the pact’s central contradiction. Enlargement could increase its strategic weight, but every additional member also introduces new adversaries, obligations, and competing relationships.

Egypt presents perhaps the clearest example. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has confirmed that Cairo is seriously studying membership, saying the issue requires a comprehensive review of Egypt’s constitutional and legal obligations.

Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and Tel Aviv University, said Egypt’s hesitation reflects unanswered questions about precisely whom the agreement is supposed to deter and what military commitments membership would create. “Egypt is still considering whether to join and is looking at the real significance of the agreement and what commitments it would entail,” Winter told The Media Line.

“There are many open questions, especially whether this defense alliance is directed against anyone, and if so, against whom. Is it supposed to deter Israel, Iran, or both? There are also questions about what military commitments are included in the alliance,” he added.

Cairo must balance particularly complex relationships. It maintains a peace treaty with Israel, increasingly important ties with Turkey, long-standing connections with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and strategic relations with countries including India.

Winter said that this helps explain Egypt’s preference for diplomatic coordination without automatically translating that cooperation into a military bloc. “Egypt does not want to choose one regional camp at the expense of another,” he said. “It wants to maintain its own neutral position and preserve good relations not only with Israel, but also with Greece and Cyprus, without becoming too closely aligned with Turkey.”

There is also a legal dimension. Article VI of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty states that neither party should enter obligations conflicting with the treaty and that, subject to the UN Charter, treaty obligations prevail where a conflict with other obligations arises. Winter argued that Egyptian officials would therefore have to examine carefully whether a new collective defense commitment could theoretically oblige Cairo to act against Israel in a conflict involving another Mecca Pact member.

Turkey remains most important variable, Winter says

From Israel’s perspective, Winter said, Turkey remains the most important variable. “I think the main Israeli concern is Turkey, because we hear the discourse and declarations of President Erdogan, his traditional support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey’s close relations with the new Syrian regime, which has its own Islamist and jihadist roots,” he said.

“When Turkey becomes part of a regional alliance, this naturally creates concerns in Israel,” he noted.

But Winter also identified a broader risk for Israel: that tensions with Israel could become one of the few issues capable of drawing otherwise competing regional actors closer together. “I think Israel is following the consolidation of these new regional axes and looking at how they could affect its own security, since it is the opposite of what the Abraham Accords stood for.”

For Pakistan, meanwhile, enlargement offers a different opportunity.

Islamabad already sits geographically outside the traditional Middle East while maintaining deep military ties with Saudi Arabia, close defense relations with Turkey, and diplomatic channels with Iran. Zafar sees that position as potentially transforming Pakistan from a primarily South Asian power into a cross-regional actor. “The broader objective, in my view, is not simply military cooperation, but greater strategic agency and influence across South Asia and the Middle East,” he said, adding that Pakistan is increasingly positioning itself as a middle power capable of engaging multiple, often competing, centers of power. 

From Zafar’s perspective, the pact could simultaneously be read differently in Beijing and Washington. “China and the US may both welcome greater security cooperation among regional partners, although for different reasons. China is likely to see this as contributing to a more multipolar regional order, while Washington may value greater regional burden-sharing but remain cautious about any arrangement that reduces its strategic leverage.”

That interpretation broadly fits one important aspect of current US policy. President Trump has consistently demanded greater defense burden-sharing from American allies, and the White House has described its evolving NATO strategy as one of greater allied self-reliance. The administration has also explicitly made increasing its partners’ ability to meet defense requirements without sustained US support part of its foreign military sales policy.

Trump says agreement a good step towards better defense

President Trump welcomed the Mecca agreement on Aug. 17, portraying it as a step toward regional countries becoming better able to defend themselves.

That does not necessarily mean Washington wants to withdraw from Middle Eastern security entirely. The United States retains military bases, defense partnerships, and major arms relationships across the region. But the agreement fits a broader push for partners to assume greater responsibility while the United States retains influence through arms sales, intelligence, diplomacy and strategic partnerships.

“The Mecca Agreement is broadly the kind of arrangement that the Trump administration has been encouraging Middle Eastern states to develop,” Zafar said. “I therefore see the agreement as something that could be supported—or at least encouraged—by Washington, particularly if it allows regional states to take greater responsibility for their own security while reducing the burden on the United States.”

For now, the Mecca Pact remains more an emerging architecture than a mature alliance.

Winter remains cautious about assuming that the political declaration will automatically translate into military action. “But if countries such as Egypt, or other regional powers, join this alliance, and if there is any further escalation with Turkey or with other members that could eventually be included, such as Syria, that could have complex implications for regional dynamics and for Israel especially,” he said.

That may ultimately be the most important challenge surrounding the agreement.

If enlargement stops with states already broadly aligned with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, the pact could consolidate a new but relatively flexible regional security network. If countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt join, its geography and diplomatic reach would expand substantially.

Iranian accession would represent something more profound: it could blur the lines between rival camps and turn what many currently interpret as a balancing mechanism into a broader regional collective-security project. But the contradictory reports from Tehran, continuing mistrust among regional actors, and uncertainty surrounding the pact’s actual military obligations show how distant that scenario remains.

For now, the Mecca Pact’s significance lies as much in the interest it is generating as in the commitments already written into it. Its first real test may therefore not be an external attack, but whether three states with different threat perceptions can expand their alliance without importing so many competing interests that collective defense becomes harder, rather than easier, to define.

This post was originally published on here. 

A federal judge on Friday declined to immediately block US President Donald Trump‘s newest executive order limiting the number of people eligible for birthright citizenship, even as she sharply questioned its viability after the US Supreme Court rejected his previous effort to do so.

US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, rejected a request for a temporary restraining order sought by immigrant rights advocates who had last year secured a ruling from her blocking the Trump administration from enforcing his initial 2025 executive order curtailing birthright citizenship.

Boardman, an appointee of former US Democratic President Joe Biden, said because the plaintiffs’ lawsuit did not even mention Trump’s 2026 order, she was unable to block it from being implemented at this time.

But she said she would allow the groups to supplement their complaint and set a swift briefing schedule for the plaintiffs to once again challenge the order, which “tries to strike out exceptions to birthright citizenship with the stroke of a pen.”

“As far as I can tell, this is unprecedented,” Boardman said.

The US Supreme Court on June 30 rejected Trump’s initial effort to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents were not American citizens or legal permanent ​residents, known as green card holders, finding it violated the citizenship clause of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Trump takes aim at ‘birth tourism’

Following that decision, Trump signed a new order on August 6 that took particular aim at “birth tourism,” in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children ‌can ⁠obtain automatic citizenship.

Citizenship would also be denied to children whose parents work for foreign governments in the United States, engage in fraud to obtain citizenship, or are classified as “alien enemies.”

After he signed that order, lawyers pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of babies who would be deprived of citizenship under Trump’s 2025 order asked Boardman to block enforcement of the Republican president’s newest order and ensure their clients’ citizenship continued to be honored.

US Department of Justice attorneys opposed, noting federal agencies had yet to issue the necessary public guidance detailing how the president’s directive would be implemented, which they are expected to do by September 5.

But Boardman at Friday’s hearing expressed skepticism about waiting until then to consider the matter, as she questioned where in the Supreme Court’s ruling “is there any reference to an exception for birthright citizenship for birth tourism?”

This post was originally published on here. 

For Adrianna Turk, 74, the past was long defined by a profound, unyielding silence. Growing up, family history was not discussed; it was a blank space, a closed door behind which lay the devastating wreckage of the Holocaust.

Her father, originally named Hans before changing it to John when he immigrated to New Zealand, rarely spoke of his origins. Turk’s father had built a new life far from the ashes of Europe, marrying a non-Jewish partner and avoiding Jewish institutions.

“He found himself the blondest ‘Kiwi’ New Zealand lady he could find. She wasn’t Jewish, but she was prepared to convert. My dad said, ‘If there’s another Jew hunt, I want my family left out of it.’” Turk recently told The Jerusalem Post.

What little she knew came in stark, heavy fragments: her paternal grandmother had been murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, and her aunt, uncle, and their two young children were killed in Auschwitz in 1944.

“[My father] never spoke of it, and I never asked,” Turk recalled. “I just knew that his whole family, his mum, sister, brother-in-law, their children, were all murdered.”

For decades, that was where the story ended. It was as if the family tree had been “pruned” by industrial slaughter down to “a single stump.” But years later, after the death of her only sibling, Julian, in Auckland, Turk was struck by an overwhelming wave of grief. Suddenly, she found herself the last surviving member of her immediate family, confronting an immense internal vacuum.

“I felt this hole inside me,” she said, describing the acute isolation that followed. “It was a deep sadness.”

That grief sparked a journey spanning across the globe that would upend everything she thought she knew about her heritage, including the discovery of family members scattered across all corners of the continents.

Ultimately, it brought her to Jerusalem, where she was able to connect with a second cousin she never knew she had: 73-year-old Raanan Gidron.

Putting the missing pieces back together

Reconstructing a family tree decimated by the 20th century’s darkest chapters is no ordinary task. For descendants of survivors, the past is built on missing records, destroyed municipal registries, and relatives whose names survived only as fading memories on yellowed paper.

When Turk decided to take a DNA test, she started by searching online for a platform best suited for tracing European roots. 

“I asked Google: ‘Which is the best for my European heritage?’ I was only looking for Europeans,” Turk recalled. 

Turning to MyHeritage for its strong European database, she took the test out of curiosity rather than high expectations.

The results hit her like an earthquake. Instead of a dead end, Turk’s online dashboard lit up with dozens of matches scattered across Germany, Israel, Brazil, and more. The genetic breadcrumbs pointed toward a sprawling network of relatives, more than 50 in total, who had somehow survived the cataclysm and built lives across the globe.

Among her matches were a third cousin from Germany and a second cousin, who happened to be the third cousin’s mother. Because her father had escaped Germany in 1937 with a Jewish-German background, her newly found European relatives naturally carried a German surname. 

Initially, Turk could hardly process what she was seeing: “I thought it was a joke. I really could not believe I was looking for Jewish ancestors.”

Treading carefully so as not to cause offense or disrupt what she feared might be an illusion, she reached out. 

“I trod very carefully so as not to insult. I really wanted to know how real this was,” she said. After three contact attempts, she finally received a reply.

What followed reshaped her understanding of her family entirely. When the German branch finally responded, Turk remembered thinking they were just “real sweeties,” describing how warmly they embraced her into their lives. 

Soon, the messages turned into a busy family WhatsApp group keeping everyone in daily contact. That bond grew even stronger when Renata, her daughter Thea, and little Oliver made the trip to Israel to meet their newly found relatives face-to-face.

For Gidron, watching these visits and chats come together felt nothing short of miraculous for a family line that had been shattered for decades. 

“It was like waking up something that was fast asleep,” Gidron reflected. “Suddenly, names on a screen turned into real people sharing coffee, hugging, and building a future together. It’s what keeps us going.”

Tracing branches across continents and oceans

The puzzle pieces of the missing family members began falling into place, revealing a dispersion across the globe that defied the absolute destruction intended by the Nazi regime. 

Turk learned that her great-uncle, Max Gusdorf, had been murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943. 

Remarkably, however, other relatives had managed to outlast the war against staggering odds, including Turk’s second cousin Gidron’s mother, who miraculously survived both Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

A direct familial link connecting Turk’s grandmother and Gidron’s grandfather as siblings, tracing back to great-grandparents Moses and Regina, was discovered. Regina came from a family of nine siblings.

Through MyHeritage, Turk’s relatives have successfully mapped multiple surviving branches. The branches of the family tree reached far and wide, reflecting the desperate, fragmented paths of Holocaust survivors seeking refuge wherever the world would open its doors. 

One part of the family, for instance, remained in Europe, quietly rebuilding a life amid the ruins of a fractured society. In contrast, others moved across continents, such as to America. At the same time, a third branch daringly made its way to Mandate Palestine long before the establishment of the Jewish state.

Through this intricate web of genealogical discovery, supported and coordinated by MyHeritage representatives like Naama, who helped facilitate their initial meetings and welcomed them into her office, Turk connected with Gidron. 

What followed was a profound realization: the family she thought was entirely erased had been thriving across the globe, carrying forward legacies of courage, defense, and renewal.

From The Hague to the Palmach: A legacy of defiance

For Gidron, piecing together the broader family tree also meant reflecting on the extraordinary survival and service of his own father, Reuven (John), and his grandfather, Max.

As the political landscape darkened in Germany, Max recognized the rising threat. After the Nazi Party made significant parliamentary gains in 1932, Max made the fateful decision in 1933 to uproot his family from Germany, moving them across the border to The Hague in Holland.

In Holland, Julian was sent to a specialized agricultural farm at just 15 years old, a program designed to train Jewish youth in farming to prepare them for life in British Mandatory Palestine. 

By 1939, at the age of 17, Julian made the difficult choice to illegally immigrate to Mandate Palestine. The parting was bittersweet; Julian left believing his parents would somehow manage, telling them not to worry. Tragically, Max and his wife would not escape the encroaching Nazi Germany horrors and later perished in the camps.

Upon arriving in Mandate Palestine, Julian briefly trained at Deganya, one of the region’s first kibbutzim, before being recruited into the Palmach, the elite underground strike force of the Hagana.

Because he was a native German speaker, Julian was assigned to a specialized German-speaking commando unit. This covert group of roughly 45 men was meticulously trained to infiltrate and counter potential Nazi military advances should German forces push north through Egypt.

Although the British eventually thwarted the German threat to Mandate Palestine, Julian’s service was far from over. Following the end of the war in 1945, he transitioned into the British Brigade. 

His unit gathered at the Rehovot railway station, traveling by rail through Egypt to Alexandria, and then by boat to Brindisi, Italy. 

From there, they embarked on a massive logistical operation, driving army trucks across the Alps into Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and Poland. Their mission was deeply personal and vital: locating displaced Jewish refugees who had survived the Holocaust and organizing their covert transport onto ships bound for Israel.

Turning online matches into real family

Going from seeing a list of unfamiliar names on a screen to actually talking to living relatives took a real leap of faith, both Turk and Gidron said. 

For Turk, looking at a page full of overseas matches felt completely surreal, a sudden window into a world she never knew she had.

“When you see those matches pop up, it completely changes how you view your place in the world,” Turk reflected on the moment those barriers finally fell away. “Suddenly, you realize you aren’t the end of the line after all.”

For Gidron, receiving inquiries from a newly discovered cousin across the globe brought a profound sense of validation to the history his family had lived through.

“We grew up knowing fragments, but seeing someone reach across the ocean to pick up those pieces changes everything,” Gidron noted. “It bridges the physical and emotional gaps left by history.”

Yet, taking that step meant pushing past very real fears. As someone who did not travel much, the prospect of flying halfway across the world to a country in the middle of a war was terrifying.

“I’m a very untraveled person,” Turk admitted, reflecting on the anxiety of making the trip. “This is something I had to do. Just had to do it.”

Stepping onto a plane meant confronting the uncertainty of a conflict zone, but the pull of finding her family outweighed the danger. Sending that first message months earlier had broken decades of inherited silence, and making the journey to Jerusalem meant finally trading safety behind a screen for the raw, emotional reality of meeting her flesh and blood face-to-face.

Facing old hatreds and modern tensions

Beyond the family trees and DNA tests lies a much heavier burden: what it means to inherit a history of survival in a world that still holds onto old hatreds. 

For Gidron, growing up in Israel meant carrying the collective memory of a nation built by survivors, yet the shadow of the past still reaches into the present.

Both cousins have run into that same kind of hostility firsthand. When Turk first reached out to a newly discovered third cousin in Germany who carried a German-Jewish surname, she noticed he was initially uneasy and nervous about being openly linked to his Jewish roots. 

Seeing someone still feel the need to hide their identity out of fear struck both of them as a chilling reminder that old dangers have not gone away.

When Turk was getting ready for her trip, she found that some acquaintances suddenly cut ties or turned hostile the moment she mentioned she was heading to Israel. Even though her only reason for going was to finally meet her newly found family, people around her instantly reduced the trip to a political statement.

For Gidron, these modern tensions are a painful echo of hostility he has faced himself. He recalled visiting family in Berlin years ago, when an elderly man sitting outside a coffee house looked right at him and bluntly said, “You’re not wanted here. Go back.” 

For both cousins, there is a bitter irony in being told to return to Europe, only to run straight into prejudice once they get there – a stark reminder that the need to watch one’s Jewish back hasn’t disappeared.

Awakening the tree: A new beginning in Jerusalem

For Turk, stepping into this lineage meant embarking on her first visit to Israel, discovering a vast network of family she never knew existed, and anchoring herself directly to her Jewish roots.

Reflecting on the monumental impact of her arrival, Gidron described her with deep affection as the catalyst who awakened the entire family.

“You are a cork opener for the bottle, for this old wine bottle,” Gidron expressed during a meeting they had in Jerusalem. “You are the opener. No man in the family would rise up and say, ‘Hey, we are a family. Let’s get together.’ Turk, thank you. You haven’t just added names to a chart; you brought an open heart and said, ‘Hello, I’m here, let’s hug.’ It’s the aliveness of that tree.”

As Turk prepares to return to her life in Australia carrying the warmth of newfound familial roots in Israel, the journey to her stands as a powerful testament to resilience. What started as a private quest to fill an internal void has transformed into something enduring.

“This isn’t just about looking backward at history,” Gidron noted. “It’s about what we do with this connection now that we have it.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Finland has chosen not to renew its multi-year funding agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after it expires this year, Finnish Foreign Trade Minister Ville Tavio announced on Thursday.

The multi-year agreement, which was signed in March 2023, included Finland contributing a total of 20 million euros to UNRWA. It followed a previous 2019-2022 agreement, throughout which Finland provided 5 million euros to the agency each year.

In a post on X/Twitter, Tavio clarified that his country will not reduce its funding for humanitarian efforts in Palestinian territories and will instead contribute to organizations like the World Food Programme.

Finland previously halted UNRWA funding over alleged ties to terrorism

Tavio previously ordered Finland to suspend its contributions to the agency in 2024 over allegations that UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre against Israel.

In a January 2024 press release, Tavio asserted that his country “must make sure that not a single euro of Finland’s money goes to Hamas or other terrorists” and urged that the allegations be seriously investigated.

In March 2024, Tavio reinstated the funding, citing alleged UN efforts to improve oversight of UNRWA as the reason for continuing Finland’s contributions to the agency. At the time, Tavio noted that faults in UNRWA’s risk management remained and acknowledged that information regarding UNRWA employees’ ties to Hamas had not yet been fully uncovered.

Israel praises Finland’s decision to stop funding UNRWA

The Foreign Ministry praised Finland’s decision to discontinue the funding agreement in an X post on Friday.

“It is good to see more countries recognizing the undeniable truth in light of the conclusive evidence of UNRWA employees’ involvement in the October 7 massacre and UNRWA’s inseparable links to Hamas,” the ministry stated. 

Israel welcomes Finland’s decision to end its multi-year funding for UNRWA.

It is good to see more countries recognizing the undeniable truth in light of the conclusive evidence of UNRWA employees’ involvement in the October 7 massacre and UNRWA’s inseparable links to Hamas.… https://t.co/XPaxL5KNtg

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 28, 2026

“UNRWA is a hotbed of terrorism. It is part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Since the 2024 allegations, UNRWA has been plagued by additional accusations and investigations, with multiple employees being found to have participated in the October 7 massacre and maintained ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Most recently, the US State Department recommended that three UNRWA staffers be disbarred for their participation in the October 7 massacre and for holding hostages kidnapped during the massacre.

According to the US Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General, the staffers were all former school teachers. Two of them are alleged to be Hamas terrorists who were involved in the taking and holding of hostages. The third teacher was identified as a PIJ terrorist accused of infiltrating Israel during the October 7 massacre.

Danielle Greyman-Kennard contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

A campaign of forced contraception in Greenland that ran primarily in the 1960s and 1970s violated women’s human rights but did not meet the legal definition of genocide, two expert reports concluded on Friday.

Both found administering contraception without valid consent breached the women‘s right to respect for their private and family life and subjected them to degrading treatment in some cases. The reports differed on whether the practice was systemic.

At least 4,000 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 12, received intrauterine devices or contraceptive injections between 1966 and 1991, often without their consent or knowledge, a joint Danish-Greenlandic inquiry found in 2025.

That inquiry found the practice was intended to reduce birth rates and family sizes, which Danish authorities at the time viewed as a way to improve living standards and social and health conditions in Greenland, an Arctic island and semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, with a population of 57,000.

Documented consequences for some women included heavy bleeding, serious infections, scarring of the fallopian tubes, removal of the uterus, and the inability to have children.

In 2024, the then-government in Nuuk tasked three legal experts and one psychologist with establishing whether there have been violations of human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples and if these meet the definition of genocide. The panel split during its work, with two members resigning and submitting a separate report.

Government would establish reconciliation commission, prime minister says

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the government would establish a reconciliation commission whose work “should not be about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth with a view to genuine reconciliation, which will create the future we desire as a society.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she would read the reports “with great interest” and welcomed the proposal from Nielsen.

“A reconciliation commission gives us the opportunity to look back at the darkness in our shared history, engage with it critically, and acknowledge the pain it may have caused,” she said.

The Greenlandic Siumut party demanded in a statement that the genocide question should be settled by “a competent and independent international court.” “Today we could have been far more Greenlanders,” the party said.

The reports’ findings are sensitive because US President Donald Trump has pledged to take over Greenland, which aspires to full independence one day. His administration has highlighted allegations of misconduct by Danish authorities against the people of its former colony, in seeking to persuade them to turn to Washington.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters via email.

The UN Genocide Convention prohibits not just mass killing but “measures intended to prevent births” within a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, and requires proof the acts were carried out with intent to destroy that group in whole or in part.

In their report, Dalee Sambo Dorough, a lawyer from Alaska and former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and Miriam Cullen, a law professor at the University of Copenhagen, found a reasonable basis to believe that Kalaallit Inuit (Greenlandic) women had suffered involuntary contraceptive practices that violated their rights to equality and non-discrimination, to non-interference in private and family life and the right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Genocide did not take place, report concludes

They did not, however, conclude that genocide had taken place. There was also a reasonable basis to believe that “limiting population growth” was one factor behind how doctors approached contraception, they said.

In the other report, Jonas Christoffersen, former head of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Jensine Nedergaard, a psychologist who worked in Greenland — the experts who resigned from the original panel — accepted women had been wronged but said the extent of the violations could not be established.

Christoffersen and Nedergaard found no evidence “any authority or health professional at any time had any intention of destroying the Greenlandic population.”

Dorough and Cullen said the evidence could not establish such an intent “on the basis of contraceptive practices alone.”

Establishing whether genocide had ever taken place, they wrote, would need to consider other violations Denmark is accused of in Greenland, such as the removal of Inuit children to Danish families. This fell outside the scope of their report.

They added that genocidal intent by Denmark “remains a possible inference” that a court might establish based on a full review.

Denmark did breach convention, one report finds

Dorough and Cullen found, however, “reasonable basis to believe” Denmark had breached the Genocide Convention by learning as early as 1969 of a serious risk that the program amounted to the preventing of births within a group, and failing to take all measures within its power. Only a court could settle that question, they said.

Under the terms of the Genocide Convention, which Denmark ratified in 1951, the country pledges not to commit genocide, and to prevent and punish it.

The reports’ authors and the women at the center of the case asked that the findings not be used in questions over Greenland’s future ties with Denmark on the grounds that the women’s experience should be considered in isolation and not drawn into geopolitical disputes.

Inger Platou, 70, was one of the women affected.

Speaking to Reuters before the experts’ findings were published, she described waking up from what she had been told was a minor operation to discover an IUD had been inserted without her consent.

“It turns out we were treated like animals,” she said. “Without consent, they just wanted to stop women from giving birth or having children. It was a very inhumane act.”

She said a doctor later told her complications from the coil had left her unable to become pregnant. She went on to adopt two children from Colombia.

“We are very deferential to authority because we are colonial children,” she said.

In 2025, Frederiksen apologized to women she said had been subjected to “systematic discrimination,” and Greenland’s Prime Minister apologized for cases that occurred after Greenland took over its health system in 1992. Denmark on Thursday passed a compensation law to pay 300,000 Danish crowns ($46,758) to each affected woman.

Both reports were peer-reviewed by two outside academics: one found the Christoffersen and Nedergaard report fell short of “recognized scientific standards.” Greenland’s justice minister said their report did not fulfill their commission.

Christoffersen said he and Nedergaard had written to the Greenlandic government in July to explain their reasoning, and that the two scholars rejected the finding that their report fell short of scientific standards.

This post was originally published on here. 

On a sweltering Tuesday night at the Barby, Israeli pop star Nunu was handed a birthday cake on stage by comedian Guri Alfi, flanked by guest stars Static and Guy Mazig. The crowd was screaming, the show was entirely sold out, and, for a fleeting moment, it felt like the dizzying, untroubled heights of 2022 all over again.

It was a celebration of five years in the spotlight, but the triumph under the stage lights masked a much grittier reality. For Neomi Aharoni-Gal – the 27-year-old mastermind behind the hyper-stylized Nunu persona – reaching this milestone wasn’t just about churning out hits; it was a masterclass in creative survival.

Between stadium-sized euphoria and the sudden, crushing silence of wartime, Nunu’s five-year trajectory offers a raw look at what it actually takes to sustain an artistic vision in a market prone to fracturing overnight.

Nunu’s journey from stadium highs to backstage ecstasy

Every pop career relies on a catalyst, and for Nunu, it arrived in 2022 when she was booked to open for Maroon 5 at Yarkon Park. It was a trial by fire: thrusting a fresh, avant-garde club act onto a massive stadium stage.

“I think one of the most fun moments I’ve had, maybe the most fun day of my life, was opening for Maroon 5,” Nunu recalls. “That was one of my very first shows with my band, playing songs we had never performed live on such a massive stage before. We were all completely in the clouds – up in the clouds. I remember us coming off the stage and just jamming in a total state of ecstasy because the high was so intense.”

While headliner Adam Levine operated in strict, high-security isolation – “he arrives in a car, goes straight to the stage, and gets right back into the car afterward,” she notes – just being there was an unforgettable rush. “It doesn’t matter. Just to see him and simply be there… there are no words.”

The price of silence: Shelving ‘Haganuz’

The true test of that resilience came on October 7, 2023. As geopolitical conflict halted the nation, the local music industry dissolved overnight. For an artist, the financial and emotional toll of a sudden national crisis is brutal, but for Nunu, it meant making the painful decision to completely shelve a finished studio album.

“Of course, there was the human difficulty and the massive reality check of October 7,” Nunu opens up. “It was an immense pain in its own right, just in daily life – living through a war here is a heavy weight, and compared to that, everything else shrinks into comparison. But professionally, one of the hardest and most painful moments was deciding to shelve an album, after working on it for a whole year, investing in it artistically, and putting out all that money.”

The project, aptly named Haganuz (“The Shelved”), sat locked away for nearly three years. By holding back the music until the market stabilized enough to listen, Nunu protected the integrity of the art, finally releasing it to critical acclaim earlier this month.

Owning the persona

When local artists mature, they often look for an exit strategy from their early, theatrical brands – much like Israeli rapper Ravid Plotnik dropping his moniker to perform under his real name.

But Aharoni-Gal isn’t interested in killing off her creation. Rejecting the idea that “Nunu” is a restrictive corporate mask, she views the colorful alter-ego as a direct, unfiltered extension of her real life.

“It’s not even a thought in my mind,” she clarifies firmly. “To me, Nunu is my name. In my art, I am 100% doing what I want and being exactly who I am. I write directly from my life experience, and it’s called Nunu, and that’s great and cool and no issue at all.”

The post-crisis road map

Now, her team is moving fast to make up for lost time. With ticket demand for her anniversary show instantly exhausting the Barby’s capacity, a second date has been added for December 2.

The strategy moving forward is a blitz of regional touring and diverse festival bookings. “We are going to take this show outside the walls of the Barby for a broader tour across Israel,” she reveals. “I’m also incredibly excited to hit the festival circuit soon – including performances at InDnegev, the Smilansky Festival, and likely the Eilat Piano Festival.”

Concurrently, she is entering a creative contraction phase to draft her next commercial statement. “Right now, creatively, I’m in that stage of turning inward, writing, and trying to understand what the next thing is that I want to say.”

Looking toward the decade mark

As she approaches her 28th birthday in two weeks, the superstition of the tragic “27 Club” is just an industry joke to be laughed off. “Yes, please! Let’s skip right past that club!” she laughs. Her focus is entirely on the long game.

When asked who she hopes will bring out her cake at her 10-year career milestone, she pointed to her close creative collaborator before aiming for the stars.

“You’ll have to ask Adam,” Nunu jokes, initially referring to her director, Adam Gabay. “He always surprises me. But honestly, for the 10-year mark, it really would be amazing if Adam Levine finally brought me the cake.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor and Israel Land Fund (ILF) founder Arieh King was prevented from traveling to Canada this week after Canadian authorities canceled his electronic travel authorization (eTA).

King was set to speak at a fundraising event held by the Israel Now group in Toronto on Tuesday, August 25; however, King was notified on August 21 of the cancellation.

Canadian authorities have not yet revealed the reason for the cancellation. When contacted by The Jerusalem Post on Friday, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said: “Due to privacy laws, we cannot speak to individual cases.”

“All persons seeking to come to Canada must meet the eligibility and admissibility requirements under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Decisions regarding the granting of travel documents are made independently, on a case-by-case basis, by trained officers.”

“An eTA does not guarantee entry to Canada,” the ministry added.

King told the Post “nobody told me anything, not why, not until when [the cancellation will be in place], nobody answered any question I had.”

King said that Israel’s ambassador in Ottawa approached the Canadian government for answers, and they did not provide any explanation.

He attended the Israel Now event remotely.

Cancellation of eTA may have resulted from anti-Israel campaigns

Some have speculated that the last-minute cancellation resulted from intensive campaigning by anti-Israel groups, particularly Canada’s Legal Center for Palestine (LCP), Hind Rajab Foundation, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME).

On August 24, LCP and HRF jointly filed a criminal complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) War Crimes Section requesting that the RCMP investigate King while he was [supposed to be] in Canada.

CJPME also released a call for action asking the public to write to Minister of Public Safety Anandasangaree and Minister of Immigration Diab to deny King’s entry. 6,000 people joined the campaign.

Following the eTA revocation, LCP and HRF took credit.

“We are glad to see the Canadian authorities act on the facts outlined in our submissions,” said LCP. “As a facilitator of ethnic cleansing in occupied East Jerusalem, Arieh King’s actions are not only illegal under international law, they are illegal under Canadian law.”

HRF then posted: “Victory in Canada. LCP and HRF succeeded in revoking the travel authorization of Arieh King.”

HRF files US DOJ request to prosecute King

HRF subsequently filed a request for prosecution with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) ahead of King’s planned trip to the US. This, however, has yet to succeed, and King spoke to the Post from America.

The IRCC did not respond to the Post’s question regarding the influence HRF and LCP had on the revocation.

This post was originally published on here. 

When Ilana Mittman, a retired social scientist with American and Israeli citizenship, began arranging a trip to Israel from her home in Baltimore, she planned to observe her late father’s Yahrzeit and cast her ballot in the national elections on Oct. 27. Checking her voter registration status online, she made a startling discovery: She had been excluded from the voter registry and was ineligible to vote. 

The discovery came as a shock. Mittman’s mother was born in the British Mandate. Her parents drained swamps to create arable land and served in the Haganah, a pre-state military organization. 

Mittman has lived in the United States since 1980, having moved for her husband’s medical studies and career. But she has never viewed her life abroad as severing her ties to Israel. She watches television in Hebrew, follows the country’s news, stays in frequent contact with family, donates to the country’s emergency services and engages in pro-Israel advocacy efforts. 

“I didn’t really choose to leave the country; I fell in love with a man who came from overseas, and I followed him,” she said. “I’ve grieved for the loss of my country and my friends… It’s been a constant, chronic sorrow.” 

Puzzled by the discovery of her voter status, Mittman reviewed her records through the Interior Ministry online portal and noticed that on March 7, 1986, her residency status had been altered under administrative “Code 51.” 

That date matched a visit to the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco shortly after the birth of her son, where she went to register him as an Israeli citizen in accordance with consular requirements. She said that during that routine appointment, consular staff took away her state-issued ID card without explanation, leaving her with only her passport for foreign travel. 

“I remember how bad of a feeling it was to give that document away,” Mittman recalled. “I felt I gave a part of myself away when that happened. But I didn’t know that my biggest right as a citizen – the right to vote – was just robbed from me.” 

When she spoke with friends in the expat community, she learned others had found themselves in a similar situation. Some only discovered the after making expensive travel arrangements to return to Israel for the election, since voting must be done in person. 

Trading notes in WhatsApp

Under Israel’s Basic Law: The Knesset, every Israeli citizen aged 18 or older has the right to vote, unless a court has deprived them of that right. In practice, however, voting is limited to those included in the voter registry. 

Israelis whom the government classifies as nonresidents are assigned a designation known as “Code 51” and removed from the voter registry, even though they retain their citizenship.

As expats across North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa began to realize in the lead-up to the October vote that they were no longer in the voting registry, they began comparing their experiences in a WhatsApp group that grew to some 120 members. 

Some, like Mittman, had not voted in Israel for decades. Others, like kibbutz-born Ayala Graham, had returned to vote in the previous elections, held just four years ago. Yet others retained their eligibility, such as Graham’s husband, who hadn’t cast a ballot in Israel in four decades.

“My blood is boiling from this situation,” said Graham, who left Israel in 1986. “I am a citizen through and through, and I was very offended by this arbitrary rejection. I feel that in these elections, the situation is even more acute than in 2022.”

With the grounds for rescinding voting eligibility opaque and no easy path to appeal the exclusion, the disenfranchised Israelis decided to pursue legal action. They are calling the grassroots initiative to restore their voting eligibility “Our Right to Vote – Code 51.”

To challenge the Code 51 exclusions, the group raised money for legal representation through crowdfunding. They then launched a multi-stage legal strategy to exhaust administrative remedies before escalating to the Supreme Court. 

Represented by attorney Gilead Sher, they submitted a Freedom of Information request to compel the Interior Ministry to disclose the criteria behind the administrative “Code 51” designations. Then they sent letters to the Interior Ministry, the attorney-general, and the Central Elections Commission requesting the immediate restoration of their status. 

The Interior Ministry has not yet responded to the group’s letter about Code 51, the criteria used to remove expats from the voter registry, or the total number of citizens affected by the regulation. 

Interior Ministry spokesperson Yaffa Shai did not address questions about the meaning of Code 51 posed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Instead, she pointed to Israeli election law, which requires voters to be listed in the Population Registry as residents, with an address in Israel, and stressed that the ministry had conducted “an extensive multilingual campaign” urging citizens to check their voter status.

Because the law requires the voting registry to be finalized on Sept. 3, the legal team set a one-week deadline for administrative responses. If the matter remains unresolved, they intend to file an emergency petition directly with the Central Elections Commission and the High Court of Justice. 

No official count exists of how many Israeli expats have been excluded from the voter registry. “We received a rough, totally unofficial estimate of several dozen thousands, out of whom we represent about 120,” said Sher, the lawyer. 

He stressed that the criteria for removing citizens living abroad from the voter registry are also unclear. “Our argument is that whatever this arbitrary Code 51 stands for or signifies, it cannot override the constitutional right to vote,” he said. 

Sher acknowledged the possibility that some expats who travel to Israel to vote may only discover their status on election day. Given the tight timeframe before the election, Sher is seeking both temporary relief and an interim injunction in the petition to ensure eligible citizens are not disenfranchised while the court reviews the bureaucratic procedures. 

‘Essentially voter suppression’

On the West Coast, another Israeli expat, Silicon Valley attorney Rony Sagy, was struck by the arbitrariness of the system, particularly given her past travels to Israel during election cycles. 

For the IDF elite unit veteran, maintaining a close connection to Israel has been consistent over decades of living in the US. Her career as a San Francisco-based lawyer has included serving as a legal bridge between Israeli startups and American tech companies, and she travels to Israel several times a year, renews her passport, and keeps a permanent address in the country. 

She suspects that her name was removed from the voter roll following a routine consulate visit for passport renewal sometime in the 1980s, during which she was required to surrender her domestic Israeli ID card. She noted that the experience was difficult enough for someone with deep connections to the country, but the lack of transparency surrounding the act added insult to injury. 

“Voting was always very, very important to me,” Sagy emphasized. “My understanding was that my voting rights would not be hampered by the confiscation of my ID card. The uneven, unidentified way or form of removing certain people from the voter rolls is essentially voter suppression.” 

The debate over Israeli citizens’ inability to cast ballots from abroad with limited exceptions (for example, official government representatives stationed abroad) has been ongoing for decades. Proponents of overseas voting note that most Western democracies allow it. Opponents argue that the large number of Israelis living abroad could potentially sway an election, even though those living in Israel bear the consequences of its outcome more directly. 

Public opinion in Israel on overseas voting is split, though polls typically focus on whether expats should be allowed to cast ballots from abroad rather than on whether they should retain their eligibility to vote if their center of life is elsewhere. 

A survey last year by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 51% of Israelis opposed allowing citizens living abroad to vote from overseas, while 39% supported it. Opposition was particularly high among Arab respondents – 55% opposed, 36% supported – relative to Jewish respondents. Among Jewish respondents, opinion was evenly divided, with 45% supporting and 45% opposing overseas voting.

Attitudes were also strongly associated with respondents’ own willingness to leave the country. Among Israelis considering moving abroad, 52.5% supported overseas voting and 40% opposed it, compared to 34% support and 55% opposition among those not considering leaving Israel. 

Members of the group challenging the denial of their eligibility to vote point to the global economy, which facilitates remote work, as well as the rising number of Israelis who have left the country since Oct. 7, 2023,  due to Israel’s enmeshment in several regional wars. Some have deliberately chosen to disconnect. Mittman, however, believes that the number of years spent living abroad should not define the strength of one’s connection. 

“What do you mean by center of life?” she asks. “If I spend hours a day immersing myself in Israeli culture, if I am supporting friends and relatives in Israel and charitable causes in every way I can… I feel that my heart is there, that I’ve never ceased to be an Israeli. So, what does it mean to be a citizen if you cannot vote?” 

She insisted that this initiative to restore expats’ voting rights is not partisan: “If somebody told me today that I can vote, I don’t know who I’m going to vote for. I have not decided.”

Regardless of whether the legal challenges are resolved ahead of the election, she plans to make the trip and spend Election Day volunteering to help elderly and mobility-impaired voters reach their polling stations. 

This post was originally published on here. 

With Fauda’s new season about to drop on Netflix on September 8, you may be looking for some Middle Eastern action drama while you’re waiting, and one option is the classic commando movie The Delta Force, directed by Menahem Golan. It’s available in Israel on Apple TV and streaming platforms around the world.

The movie was released in 1986, when Golan and his producing partner, Yoram Globus, were at the height of their success with their Hollywood company, the Cannon Group, which churned out dozens of action flicks every year. Not surprisingly, many of their movies dealt with terrorism in the Middle East, like Operation Thunderbolt, about the Entebbe rescue.

The Delta Force is a slightly more polished, more international movie, where the heroes are US commandos rather than Israelis, and is loosely based on the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight. The narration in the trailer goes, “The enemy doesn’t care who they hurt. Not how young, not how innocent, how helpless. Strangers united by the threat of death find the courage to defy their captors. It’s a new age of terror that requires a new breed of warrior. America’s elite anti-terrorist commandos are committed to destroying the enemies of freedom, because the stakes are more than pride, more than honor, more than justice, because they’re fighting to save American lives.”

The Delta Force delivers classic Middle Eastern action

It stars Chuck Norris as Major Scott McCoy, a tough, loyal fighter who quit the military after the fiasco of the US attempt to rescue the hostages held in the American embassy in 1980, in a scene that opens the movie. But Scott is lured back into the game by his commander (Lee Marvin) when a flight en route to Athens is hijacked and flown to Beirut.

Norris was perfect as the ready-for-anything commando, and the cast featured a great mix of American and Israeli stars. The international cast included German arthouse diva Hanna Schygulla, as the flight attendant ordered by the terrorists to separate out the Jewish passengers; Martin Balsam and Rat Pack member Joey Bishop (who makes a speech about how Beirut was once “the Las Vegas of the Middle East”) as two Jewish passengers and Shelley Winters (The Poseidon Adventure) and Lainie Kazan (who played Adam Sandler’s mother in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan) as their wives; Steve James, who plays one of the US commandos, and who married an Israeli model he met making the movie and had a daughter with her who is a singer and who auditioned for The Next Star for Eurovision; disaster movie stalwart George Kennedy as a priest; Susan Strasberg, who was the original Anne Frank in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank, as a young mother; and Robert Forster, an all-American actor who played the terrorist leader and whose career was rescued from the doldrums a decade later when Quentin Tarantino cast him in Jackie Brown.

The Israeli actors were similarly stellar, including Assi Dayan as an IDF liaison officer who longs to join the action; Shaike Ophir, the actor for whom the Ophir Awards were named, as a Russian Orthodox priest in Beirut with a big secret; Uri Gavriel as a terrorist; Yehuda Efroni as a passenger; and starlet Chelli Goldenberg as a flight attendant.

It’s fun just watching this cast chew the scenery, and there are a few well-staged action sequences, particularly one in which Norris inexplicably rides a motorcycle to confront the terrorists. There are also a few scenes that show that the terrorists are being backed by the Iranian government. As the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

Dolly Parton shines on screen

THE WORLD bid goodbye this week to the iconic singer/actress Dolly Parton, whose appealing, self-deprecating persona charmed even those who didn’t usually enjoy her brand of country/pop music. Although she is best known as a singer, she had a movie career, and several of her films are available to stream in Israel. Her best-known screen role is Doralee, the cheerful secretary whose vile boss sexually harasses her in 9 to 5, which is available on Disney+ and Apple TV. This movie will also be remembered for her theme song, which is played during the opening, and the movie itself never quite matches the energy of the song.

But Parton is a delight as the woman everyone considers a dumb blond but who turns out to be as smart as she is cute, and who gets to deliver the unforgettable lines, “If you ever say another word about me or make another indecent proposal, I’m gonna get that gun of mine… and I’m gonna change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot! DON’T THINK I CAN’T DO IT!”

Shame on the unimaginative Hollywood execs for not giving her more and better parts. Other than 9 to 5, her best movie role was Steel Magnolias, where she played the “glamour technician” Truvy, who runs the beauty salon where much of the action takes place. As with 9 to 5, she plays a variation on Dolly’s persona. She also made an appearance in the finale of the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, in which she was reunited with her 9 to 5 co-stars, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Parton played a “working-class angel” the heroines meet when they go to heaven in a near-death experience.

There are also a few documentaries and concert specials about Parton available on Netflix and Apple TV. The latter service also offers some of Parton’s lesser movies, including The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, where she sings the original version of her song “I Will Always Love You” to Burt Reynolds. That song became an even bigger hit for Whitney Houston, and many of Parton’s songs were recorded by other artists.

The Game offers a psychological thriller

The Game, which is on Yes VOD and Yes London starting August 31, is an old-fashioned psychological thriller series with terrific performances. It tells the story of Huw Miller (Jason Watkins), a police detective who retires in the first episode. His career was derailed when he was chasing a sadistic killer and missed him even though he got close. 

While Miller is looking forward to a quiet retirement playing golf with his buddy, everything changes when a new neighbor, Patrick Harbottle (Robson Green), moves in. Harbottle is handsome and charming, but he starts dropping weird hints that convince Miller that he is the killer who got away. 

Meanwhile, Harbottle does everything he can to create conflict between Miller and his family, and seems to be playing the long game, while Miller blunders into the increasingly sophisticated traps set for him. None of it is groundbreaking, but it’s solid entertainment.

While in the past, Apple TV has only offered movies to buy or rent, it has quietly added some popular movies for free in recent weeks. Subscribers in Israel can now stream action classics Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds (the Spielberg film with Tom Cruise), and The Bourne Identity for free, along with the original Night at the Museum movie and the 2000 Charlie’s Angels, the best movie version, with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu. 

Also available for free now are Martin Scorsese’s 2023 historical drama, Killers of the Flower Moon, and the Brad Pitt racing movie, F1. To find these movies, go to the Apple TV home page and scroll down to “Great Movies Now Available.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Israel is in dire need of doctors. Many serving today are nearing retirement age, which could lead to major problems within the health service and the population it serves. 

A disturbing reality is that 58% of all practicing doctors in Israel received their initial medical degrees abroad primarily due to the shortage of places in medical schools here. Israel has one of the highest rates of foreign-trained doctors in the OECD. 

The Arab community in Israel represents 21% of the total population, yet within Israel’s health system, the percentage of Arab Israelis increases across the medical spectrum. 

In 2010, Arab physicians numbered 8% of the total number. Today, 25% of all physicians working in Israel are Arab Israelis; nurses number 27% and dentists 27%. Arab Israeli pharmacists are virtually 50% of those working within the health system. Without doubt, this participation is of paramount significance.

An Arab doctor’s perspective on Israel’s medical future

To receive the perspective of an Arab Israeli doctor, the Magazine spoke with Israeli-born Mustafa Sarhan, a 58-year-old family doctor who has been practicing family medicine since 2004.

What motivated you to enter the medical field? 

From an early age, I loved helping others and saw the medical profession as a place where I could meaningfully give support to those in need. As I progressed through my school days, it became clear that medicine was the subject I wanted to study. While I was not accepted in a medical school here in Israel, I managed to obtain a place in a Bulgarian medical school; however, this meant that I could not qualify for a subsidy toward the tuition fees given to Israelis studying in Israel.

Following your return to Israel, what challenges did you confront during your initial training period? 

One of the biggest hurdles to cross on returning to Israel was the Israeli Medical Licensing Examination (IMLE) – testing for many – which, fortunately, I succeeded in passing. I did my stage – medical internship – at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Medical Center based in Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus. The training involved varied aspects of medicine, all of which helped me acclimatize to the Israeli health system.

The most difficult part of the journey began with my choice of specialization – namely, family medicine, and being accepted for an internship; fortunately, Maccabi Healthcare Services provided this opportunity in 2001, and I have remained part of Maccabi up until today.

What aspects of medicine does your professional role embrace?

As a senior physician in the system, my role encompasses several aspects of family medicine. I am a family physician, a diabetologist, and an administrative physician. Fortunately, while at times demanding, I succeed in fulfilling my role.

How do you view Israel’s health system in comparison to other countries?

I see Israel as one of the best health systems in the world. This is a unique country because every citizen is assured of receiving full health coverage via the various kupot cholim (health maintenance organizations).

Our community health service system is a world leader. Many countries come here to see how our health service works in the hope of emulating the Israeli concept. Compared to Europe and the United States, Israel is a shining example of a system that works for all. 

As an Arab Israeli doctor working within the Israeli system, have you experienced any personal negativity?

Contrary to the negative bias against Arab Israeli doctors – as projected by the press, TV, and radio – the reality is somewhat different. There is an outstanding coexistence – at every level – between Arab and Jewish doctors. We work together, we assist one another professionally and otherwise, and we celebrate together.

You have four children, three daughters and a son, all of whom have chosen medicine as a career. This is a great compliment to their father – as well as their mother, who is a dentist. Did they study abroad, and where are they today?

Yes, they all studied abroad as it was impossible to enter a medical school here. The eldest, a girl, returned to Israel to complete her medical studies and now is a gynecologist working in Nazareth.

Our son, who has completed his formal studies, is currently carrying out his stage in Nahariya; he aims to become a family doctor – just like his father.

Another daughter, having completed her initial medical studies in Russia, has now returned to Israel and is preparing for the IMLE – possibly in January – a prerequisite prior to beginning the period of stage. Her aim is to become an ophthalmologist.

The youngest daughter is currently studying medicine in Istanbul. 

There can be little doubt that Israel requires far more medical schools, enabling Israeli students – both Jew and Arab – the opportunity of studying in Israel rather than abroad. The acceptance rate in Israel’s medical schools, where tuition fees are subsidized, is roughly 20% to 30%, meaning that 70% to 80% of applicants either give up the idea of studying medicine or are forced to study abroad, where the entire high cost of tuition falls on the student. 

The disturbing reality is that a number of those studying abroad do not return to Israel. Percentages vary, but the Health Ministry projected that 30% might choose to stay abroad. 

A July 2025 survey – publicized by Ynet – on 233 Israeli medical students in Europe and the US found that close to three-quarters said they are weighing staying abroad, not only for financial reasons but also due to better working conditions and career advancement opportunities.

What is abundantly clear is that Israel’s health service would be unable to function without the professional input of its Arab Israeli participants. The health service provides proof that Arabs and Jews can work successfully together. We can but wish that this positive reality of coexistence could be emulated – not only elsewhere in Israel but throughout the entire world.

The Magazine expresses its sincere appreciation to Dr. Sarhan for his valued contribution to this article. We wish him and his family continued success, not only within their professional careers but in all aspects of life.■

This post was originally published on here. 

The US Treasury Department proposed on Friday to revoke Banque Misr UAE’s correspondent banking access to US financial institutions, calling it a “critical node” in the Iranian regime’s access to US dollars. 

The proposal is part of Operation Economic Outcast, a broader effort by the US government to sever remaining “financial lifelines” sustaining the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the department had “promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime.”

“We also warned that Iran’s enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the US dollar and the global financial system,” he continued. “Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime.”

The US Treasury estimates that Banque Misr UAE processed “approximately $1.8 billion for 103 companies that are potentially part of Iranian shadow banking networks,” the statement said, an avenue that Iran has taken following direct US sanctions on the regime. 

Shadow networks provide “key access to US dollar correspondent banking relationships,” the Treasury said. “Iran uses these shadow banking networks to launder funds, procure weapons, and bankroll its regional terrorist proxy groups.”

Banque Misr is one of Egypt’s oldest and largest banks, founded in 1920 to facilitate trade between Egypt and the UAE and serve Egyptian expatriates in the Gulf.

Treasury: Front companies include those used by IRGC, Iran’s Defense Ministry

Its customers, according to the US Treasury, include “apparent front companies used by Iran’s Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to evade US sanctions, as well as to launder money on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.” 

A Treasury official said the action only applies to Banque Misr’s UAE branches, allowing the bank to continue dollar transactions through its head office in Cairo and other foreign branches. These include Paris, Frankfurt, Riyadh, Beirut and Djibouti, according to Banque Misr’s website.

Egypt’s central bank said on Friday that the US action only affected Banque Misr’s UAE branches and did not extend to any other Egyptian banks. The Central Bank of Egypt said in a statement that it and Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were in contact with the US authorities about the measures.

The Treasury also announced on Friday new sanctions against Bank Melli, alleging it has facilitated “billions of dollars’ worth of transactions through accounts controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF)” and has “allowed the IRGC-QF and its parent organization, the IRGC, to move funds inside and outside of Iran.” 

Additionally, the bank has funded Iranian-aligned proxies and partners such as Iraq, the statement added. 

Reza Mohammad Taeedi, the general manager of the bank’s Dubai branch, was identified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist “for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Bank Melli,” according to the statement. 

Hong Kong-based Kameng Trading Limited was also sanctioned on Friday for helping sanctioned Iranians access the international financial system, the Treasury said.

Sanctions follow crackdown on ‘far-left terrorist networks’

The sanctions come two days after the Treasury cracked down on what it called “far-left terrorist networks,” with a new wave of sanctions against Italy’s Autistici Inventati, Palestine Action, a UK-based organization designated by the British government as a terrorist group in 2025, and transnational group Masar Badil. 

The Treasury accused Autistici Inventati of supplying “specialized digital architecture, tools, and services for Antifa cells and other violent far-left extremists, including a foreign terrorist organization” and Masar Badil of operating “as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.” 

“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” said Bessent. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”

The US identified far-left terrorist groups as one of the three major terrorist threats that the country faces today.

In July, Bessent warned of far-left terrorists “increasingly embracing organized, deadly violence in pursuit of their objectives,” and said that the Treasury’s actions reinforce the US’s commitment to disrupting the groups’ infrastructure. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

This post was originally published on here. 

For some time, I have argued that the cognitive war being waged against Israel must be recognized for what it has become: A national-security threat.

I have written about it, as well as invited Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth to discuss its importance on TV with me. If the campaign to delegitimize Israel, isolate it from allies, influence American politics, radicalize university campuses, and endanger Jews worldwide constitutes what many now call an “eighth front,” then cognitive warfare cannot remain a secondary priority.

It is a national security issue.

But accepting this proposition has consequences. Actions capable of materially damaging Israel on the cognitive battlefield must be judged as national-security events, even when the person taking them believes passionately that he is defending Israel.

That is why what troubles me most about MK Zvi Sukkot’s recent sledgehammer episode is no longer Sukkot himself.

It is the Israeli government’s response.

How Israel fails to take cognitive warfare seriously

Sukkot entered Kafr Madama near Nablus under IDF protection and participated in demolishing a Palestinian monument that appeared to honor terrorists. 

The IDF said soldiers had been diverted from operational duties for what they understood to be an authorized tour and that Sukkot then acted outside the approved framework and “without authority.” 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly reprimanded Sukkot and told him not to do it again.

Not to do it again?

If cognitive warfare really is national security, is that remotely sufficient?

Consider an admittedly uncomfortable comparison: Peace activist Mordechai Vanunu.

Vanunu believed Israel’s nuclear policy was morally wrong. He decided that his own judgment entitled him to disclose extraordinarily sensitive information about Israel’s nuclear program. 

Israel concluded that no individual had the right to make such a national-security decision for the country. He was convicted of grave offenses and sentenced to 18 years in prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement.

Obviously, Sukkot did not reveal nuclear secrets. He did not commit espionage, and I am not suggesting his statutory offenses are equivalent to Vanunu’s.

But the distinction may be more one of degree than kind than we are comfortable acknowledging.

Imagine an IDF soldier selling several M4 rifles to an enemy. Another person sells Iran plans for upgrades to an Israeli missile defense system. The consequences are radically different, and therefore the punishments should be radically different. 

But the underlying violation belongs to the same family: an individual has taken something entrusted to him within Israel’s national-security establishment and assigned to himself the right to decide how it will be used.

That principle must apply to cognitive security as well.

Sukkot effectively decided this, given that he believed the monument glorified terrorism. This argument may have merit; he believed he was entitled to decide when, where, and how Israeli power would be exercised to destroy it.

He was not.

That decision belongs to the State of Israel.

No Israeli civilian gets to walk into an air force command center and select tomorrow’s targets in Iran, Lebanon, or Gaza because he believes a particular target must be destroyed.

Why, then, should any Israeli citizen, particularly an elected official, believe he has the authority to select targets on the cognitive battlefield when his actions can affect Israel’s relationship with Washington, its diplomatic standing, Jewish communities abroad, and its global legitimization?

And this is not confined to one political camp.

In May 2025, Yair Golan, the head of the Democrats Party, declared that Israel was on the way to becoming a pariah state and said that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill children as a hobby.” 

Whatever his intention, language of that kind from a senior Israeli political figure and former general in the IDF is immediately weaponized by those seeking to portray Israel as criminal and immoral.

Yet Golan is still being rewarded by the Israeli public with support and remains a major political actor with a potential 11 seats in the upcoming elections.

IN APRIL, an Israeli soldier was photographed striking a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in a Christian village in southern Lebanon. The image generated international outrage. The IDF investigated. Two soldiers were removed from combat duty and sentenced to 30 days in military detention.

Why?

Because one soldier’s hammer did not merely strike a statue.

It struck Israel’s strategic interests, but others who have struck Israel’s strategic interests go unpunished and even rewarded. This means the system is failing.

The same principle applies when senior politicians create unnecessary friction with Israel’s most important ally. 

US Vice President JD Vance publicly rebuked Israeli ministers after they clashed over American diplomatic policy, asking in frustration: “What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

A potential future president of the United States felt compelled to publicly admonish senior Israeli leaders. If the management of that relationship is not a national-security issue, what is?

The question is simple: Who has the right to jeopardize a strategic relationship, at a strategically sensitive moment, in pursuit of his own political objective?

That question is urgent now.

Israel is approaching elections. America is approaching midterm elections. Iran remains a critical strategic challenge, and Turkey is fast approaching as our next serious challenge. The relationship with Washington remains indispensable. Global antisemitism has increased dramatically. At the same time, Israel is investing unprecedented resources in public diplomacy and communications.

Yet Israelis continue to behave as though cognitive damage can be created by politicians today and repaired by hasbara (public diplomacy) professionals tomorrow.

It cannot.

A photograph travels around the world before an Israeli spokesperson has finished writing the first sentence of an explanation.

Sukkot swinging a sledgehammer beside Israeli soldiers is instantly internalized. Explaining that the monument apparently glorified terrorists, that Palestinian incitement is real, that Sukkot had previously requested its removal, and that the IDF did not authorize what happened takes several paragraphs.

Our enemies get the photograph.

We get the explanation.

That is the asymmetry of cognitive warfare.

Which brings me back to what I find more disturbing than Sukkot’s behavior: The absence of consequences commensurate with the national-security principle supposedly at stake.

A condemnation is not deterrence.

A reprimand is not doctrine.

“Don’t do it again” tells the next politician that the potential reward – headlines, social-media engagement, and support from a political base – may exceed the cost.

That is an extraordinarily dangerous message for a country fighting a cognitive war.

This government understandably sees an election only weeks away. Coalition politics matter. Political constituencies matter. But national-security leadership requires looking beyond the next election.

The government’s responsibility is not merely to survive October 27. It is to establish rules of behavior that protect Israel on October 28 and for years afterward.

If Israel wants the world, the IDF and its own citizens to take cognitive warfare seriously, then deliberately creating unauthorized strategic liabilities must carry meaningful consequences.

This principle cannot depend on whether the unauthorized national-security decision came from the Left or the Right, from a nuclear technician or an MK, or from someone leaking secrets, wielding a sledgehammer, or a former IDF general making a statement that hands Israel’s enemies a propaganda victory.

No individual gets to privatize Israel’s national security.

The elected government determines Israel’s military strategy. It determines which risks to take with Iran. It manages our relationship with the US. And it must ultimately determine how Israel conducts itself on the cognitive battlefield.

Once we call that battlefield a national-security front, we must have the courage to treat breaches of it accordingly.

And the next person who decides that personal conviction entitles him to risk Israel’s strategic interests may inflict damage that no amount of hasbara money can undo.

This post was originally published on here. 

I began my foreign correspondent career in 1990 in Romania, just weeks after its communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown. The new government called itself the National Salvation Front. 

Romania truly did need saving. The communists had left behind an impoverished economy, shattered institutions, and a demoralized population. 

There are moments when ordinary politics are not enough, and salvation is required. Israel has reached such a moment.

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wins in October, Israel will be heading toward catastrophe. But if the polls are right and the opposition wins, it will be inheriting a traumatized country, with weakened institutions and international isolation threatening its very existence. 

In such an eventuality, the opposition must then think in terms of national salvation, as it will need that level of motivation to succeed.

Everything is connected. The occupation, settlements, and wars fuel isolation; isolation damages the economy and security; and internal societal distortions further weaken the country. 

It is a self-reinforcing cycle – and the next government must break it. Given that the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) birth rate, under the current incentive structure, will not decline quickly enough, there is no time to spare before the whole enterprise collapses. I therefore propose a dozen immediate tasks for Israel’s “National Salvation Front.”

Accountability and democracy

First, establish a state commission of inquiry that investigates the October 7 catastrophe without games or evasions. 

Then, repeal the judicial and constitutional changes imposed by the Netanyahu coalition. In this regard, undo the legislative blitz of its final months, including the law weakening the attorney-general and the measures that undermined the independence of the courts, legal advisers, and institutional gatekeepers. 

Make clear that ministers, like everyone else, will obey court rulings. Israel can one day debate judicial reform – calmly and with broad consensus.

And from here, look outward. It is time to turn military power into diplomatic gains.

Say ‘yes’ to Trump Gaza plan – and mean it

Declare that Israel accepts the framework in full and will implement it in good faith. If Hamas genuinely disarms, Israel will withdraw as agreed, cooperate fully with the international stabilization force and the Board of Peace, and accept the new Palestinian governing authority. 

Israel should enthusiastically assist in rebuilding Gaza and help raise funds from Arab states and international donors.

End Jewish terrorism in West Bank

End the de facto immunity enjoyed by violent Jewish extremists. Outlaw organizations involved in terrorism, confiscate illegal weapons, dismantle violent outposts, and establish a dedicated apparatus for securing convictions. 

The IDF must receive unequivocal orders that protecting Palestinians from Israeli attackers is part of its mission. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s charade is over.

Freeze settlement expansion beyond security barrier

Halt construction in settlements deep inside the West Bank and preserve the territorial possibility of future partition – because without it, there can be no Jewish state. 

A Palestinian state is inconceivable as long as Hamas remains armed and the Palestinian Authority has not undergone reform, but Israel must stop making the notion of such a state impossible. 

It can declare that major blocs such as Alfei Menashe, Ma’aleh Adumim, and Gush Etzion are expected to remain in Israeli hands under a future agreement, while offering generous incentives to Israelis living beyond the barrier to come home.

Rebuild a regional strategy

Offer Lebanon and Syria a fresh start. Declare that Israel has no territorial ambitions in either country beyond the Golan Heights, and offer non-belligerency pacts. 

Test whether the Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa genuinely wants peace, and if so, welcome it. Offer Lebanon whatever assistance it needs to confront Hezbollah.

As for Iran, replace a war of attrition with a long-term strategy coordinated with the US and its allies, combining military deterrence with diplomacy and economic pressure. End attacks carried out without coordination, explanation, or a clear objective. 

And reach out to Saudi Arabia based on US President Donald Trump’s plan, which includes agreement in principle to some form of Palestinian state in the future, with the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor in mind.

Thank Egypt and Jordan 

Acknowledge these countries for maintaining peace through decades of difficulty, and make strengthening relations with them a national priority. Listen seriously to Cairo and Amman, and seek ways to deepen economic, security, and even cultural ties with both.

All of this will be relatively easy compared to the real challenge at home.

Embrace Arab society

Declare organized crime in Arab communities a national emergency. Triple the police presence where necessary, target the financing of criminal organizations and illegal weapons networks, and hold commanders accountable. 

Every murder of an Arab citizen should be publicly treated as an Israeli tragedy. Amend the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty to explicitly guarantee equality.

Establish transparent formulas for equal funding of Arab municipalities and launch a national project to repair neglected infrastructure and services. Then begin a serious dialogue with Arab community leaders about national service.

Declare state of emergency in education

Israeli students lag behind in mathematics and science, and the gaps between the strongest and weakest students are among the largest in the developed world.

A country that wants to remain a technological powerhouse cannot continue like this. Israel must massively invest in state education, teachers, mathematics, science, English, and civics. 

At the same time, it must introduce an equation: No core curriculum? No state funding. Every school receiving state money or recognition must teach the full core curriculum, employ qualified teachers, and submit to supervision and standardized assessment. This includes the haredi and Arab education systems. If anyone goes berserk over this, let them.

Overhaul incentives

Gradually eliminate child allowances beginning after the third child. Restore yeshiva budgets to their previous, lower levels. Eliminate unnecessary publicly funded rabbinical and kashrut-supervision positions (and reinstate the Bennett-Lapid government’s kashrut reform). 

Simultaneously, establish a national integration authority that offers adult education involving the completion of core studies, university preparation, vocational and technological training, employment assistance, and pathways into military or national service for anyone who wishes to enter the Israeli mainstream, whether haredi or Arab.

Military or national service

Yeshiva study or religion in general should no longer exempt a fit young person from military service or legally recognized national service. Israel should enact a universal service law, introduced sensitively and gradually. 

Haredi draft evaders should face the same consequences as other draft evaders. Benefits can be withdrawn, and institutions that systematically facilitate evasion should lose state funding. 

Initially, this will not be possible by consensus, because there are currently no partners for such an agreement – although determined implementation may eventually create them.

It is time to redirect the money, energy and national ambition back to Israel and Israelis without compromising genuine security.

Make the Negev, Galilee new national project

Radically reorder economic priorities: less money for isolated settlements, sectoral mechanisms, and political needs, and more for infrastructure, housing, transportation, healthcare and education inside sovereign Israel. 

Redirect the energy and money that have been squandered to the Negev and Galilee instead. Invest in roads, railways, housing, hospitals, universities and industry, alongside aggressive tax incentives for businesses and families. In the North, build a genuine transportation network to turbocharge its economy.

Amend Basic Law

A person indicted on serious corruption charges should not be allowed to form a government. The Basic Law should be amended so that this cannot happen again.

There will be furious opposition to such an amendment, but a national salvation government cannot afford to recoil. Its mission is to confront the country’s burning structural problems, repair the damage of the past, reconnect Israel with the democratic world, and offer hope.

If these steps are not taken, the country may not survive to its centenary in 2048. Entanglement with a hostile Palestinian population combined with the rapid demographic growth of the haredi sector without radical reform will destroy Israel’s alliances and access to global markets, driving out its productive sector. What will remain is an impoverished, embattled ghetto.

But if Israel does these things with a sense of mission and urgency, perhaps the phrase I encountered in Romania all those years ago can apply in this case as well. There is much in Israel worth saving, and worth the effort. There is still a chance for national salvation.

Dan Perry is a former Cairo-based Middle East editor and London-based Europe/Africa editor of the Associated Press. He served as chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem and authored two books about Israel. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff distanced himself from left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has called Ossoff a “dark-horse” presidential candidate, citing Piker’s “reckless and dangerous rhetoric” about American Jews.

Ossoff is facing criticism from some of his state’s local Jewish community over his votes to block certain arms sales to Israel. He has joined a chorus of Democrats who criticized Piker this week over recent comments that many interpreted as justifying threats to American Jews, including a number of Democratic politicians.

Speaking on a Twitch livestream on Aug. 20, Piker stated, “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action.” Piker added, “Not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”

An Ossoff spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that he “unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community.”

“American Jews and all Americans must have the freedom and security to speak out and petition their government without fear of reprisal,” the spokesperson added.

Ossoff’s politics and sharp criticism of US President Donald Trump have generated buzz about him potentially running for president in 2028, and have attracted some left-wing figures who have lauded his messaging. 

Piker was initially among those figures, telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in April that he was “intrigued” by Ossoff.

“I think he’s very charismatic, and he’s done things that I’ve found to be interesting, given his position in Georgia, when he was one of the first lone voices in the Senate that actually was critical about sending aid to Israel early on,” Piker said at the time. “I was like, that’s a unique position for – he’s Jewish as well – for a young American Jew to take in Georgia.”

Piker said that he heard from young Georgian Jews in his online community who “could not believe that their synagogues and their rabbis and their organizations in their communities took out like a full page ad yelling at Jon Ossoff for taking a stance against arming the State of Israel.”

Several Democrats condemn Piker’s comments

Ossoff’s campaign had never responded to requests for comment about Piker until Thursday, as a slew of Democrats condemned the anti-Israel streamer’s comments.

Later that day, Piker was decidedly less enthusiastic about Ossoff when speaking on his stream.

“I don’t like Jon Ossoff,” Piker said, adding that he had “wanted to see if he had the right instincts” before declaring himself a full-fledged supporter. 

“This is a moment where it’s very clear that he does not have the right instincts,” he added.

Piker: Ossoff’s Israel stance sparked my interest in him as a Senator

In a post on X/Twitter, Piker also explained how Ossoff’s Israel stance was what sparked his initial excitement about the senator.

i think jon ossoff’s best strengths came from his lack of interest in attacking his left flank & focusing on trump’s corruption & scandals instead. i said he was a dark horse because he’s been smart enough to back restrictions on weapons transfers to israel at times regardless of… https://t.co/55DrUK1zVE

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) August 27, 2026

“i think jon ossoff’s best strengths came from his lack of interest in attacking his left flank & focusing on trump’s corruption & scandals instead,” Piker wrote. “i said he was a dark horse because he’s been smart enough to back restrictions on weapons transfers to israel at times regardless of his incredibly conservative voting track record otherwise.”

The clash between Ossoff and Piker comes as members of the Jewish community in Atlanta have criticized the Jewish Democrat, largely over his votes to block certain arms sales to Israel. Ossoff is running for reelection in November in a high-profile battle against Republican Rep. Mike Collins that could determine which party controls the Senate.

Ossoff first voted to block weapons sales to Israel in November 2024, spurring a critical open letter from several Georgia Jewish organizations, including synagogues, Jewish schools, the local Anti-Defamation League chapter, and other groups. His vote also drew the attention of AIPAC, which released 30-second ads attacking US senators – including Ossoff – who had voted to block weapons sales.

Michael Morris, publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, penned an open letter earlier this month blasting Ossoff for voting to block weapons sales to Israel again in July 2025 and April 2026. 

“I hear you claim, over and over again, that you support Israel – that your support is ‘ironclad,’” Morris wrote. “It is not.” 

Morris accused Ossoff in the letter of “lying to me and your constituents” about his support for Israel. Days later, Republican former house speaker Newt Gingrich appeared to run with that accusation in a post that attacked Ossoff, in response to the Senator’s remark about Trump and his aide Natalie Harp.

“Ossoff routinely lies as the Jewish leaders in Atlanta pointed out recently, and we should accept that he is a profoundly dishonest politician with no sense of honor,” Gingrich wrote.

Asked about Ossoff’s comments on Piker, Morris told JTA he agreed with the statement, but that it wasn’t enough to win his support.

“It’s better than him supporting Piker – absolutely, 100%,” Morris said. “But, you know, talk is cheap, and trying to push one extremist a little bit out of the envelope – it’s one little step forward. Very little.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The IDF killed a former senior Jenin terror cell member and two additional terrorists in an IAF airstrike on their vehicle in the West Bank on Friday, the military confirmed in a joint statement with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

The senior terrorist, Qais Bitwani, was a Hamas operative in the now-dismantled Jenin terrorist network, according to the joint statement.

Qais Bitwani was a relative of the former Jenin terrorist network commander, Noor Bitawi, who was killed by the IDF in May 2025, the military and security agency said.

The statement noted that Qais Bitwani was involved in “significant” terror activities, including “directing, funding, and executing” terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Bitwani had maintained his connections to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as international operatives, the statement added.

According to the IDF and Shin Bet, the other two terrorists in Bitwani’s vehicle were his accomplices, and the vehicle also contained weapons.

Netanyahu, Israel Katz congratulate IDF for Jenin strike

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the IDF for the “successful thwarting of the terrorists in Jenin” in an X/Twitter Post earlier on Friday.

יוזמה והתקפה. אני מברך את כוחותינו על הסיכול המוצלח של המחבלים בג׳נין. שבת שלום!

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) August 28, 2026

Defense Minister Israel Katz also congratulated the IDF in an X post later on Friday, as well as the Israel Police and security forces, describing the strike as among the “fruits of the offensive and proactive policy we are leading in Judea and Samaria.”

“We do not wait for terrorism,” said Katz. “We pursue it, conquer its strongholds, and thwart its people.”

אני מברך את צה״ל, שירות הביטחון הכללי ומשטרת ישראל על הפעילות המוצלחת לחיסול מפקד חמאס במחנה ג׳נין ביחד עם מחבלים נוספים בתקיפה אווירית מדויקת.

המחנה עליו פיקד פונה מתושבים ונכבש על ידי צה״ל, וטוהר ממחבלים ותשתיות טרור וצה״ל שוהה בו באופן קבוע, כמו מחנות טרור נוספים ביו״ש, והוא…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 28, 2026

He noted that the policy has led to an 80% decrease in West Bank terrorist activity, emphasizing that Israel “will continue to act forcefully and proactively to thwart any threat to its citizens, wherever it may be found.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Four young British men pleaded guilty on Friday to charges over an arson attack on community ambulances in London, the first of a spate of incidents targeting the UK’s Jewish community earlier this year.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and Saif Ali, 18, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday and admitted destroying or damaging property, being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzalah on March 23 while they were parked near a synagogue.

Prosecutors said at a previous hearing that web searches for “how much do ambulances cost” and “how long does it take for police to (investigate) arsons” were found on Iqbal’s phone after his arrest.

A fifth defendant, 18-year-old Subhan Ahmed, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender relating to the disposal of a vehicle used in the incident. He is expected to stand trial next year.

Prosecutors say the attack targeting Hatzalah, a not-for-profit volunteer service that works alongside Britain’s National Health Service and primarily serves the Orthodox Jewish community, cost around £1 million ($1.36 million).

Pro-Iran terror group claimed responsibility for series of arson attacks

Several other attacks followed the March arson attack on the Hatzalah ambulances.

A synagogue and a former synagogue were targeted, as was Persian-language media organization Iran International and a memorial wall dedicated to people killed in Iran, in a series of incidents in April and May.

British police said at the time that they were investigating possible Iranian links to those arson attacks, with pro-Iranian terrorist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) claiming responsibility for the ambulance attack and some others.

The SITE Intelligence ​website has said HAYI had been behind similar fires in Europe.

This post was originally published on here. 

A Dutch court on Friday sentenced a 67-year-old man to life in prison for war crimes and genocide committed in Rwanda in 1994, where it said he had been involved in the killing of around 3,000 Tutsis who had sought refuge from Hutu attacks at a stadium.

The defendant, identified only as Eugene N., had fled to the Netherlands in 1998 and later obtained Dutch nationality. Dutch prosecutors opened an investigation into him in 2020, which led to his arrest in the Netherlands in 2024.

The court said the man had been at the stadium in Byiza in April 1994 and gave the Hutus present “instructions to let no Tutsi escape the stadium.”

“In the afternoon, shots were fired at the Tutsis, they were pelted with stones, and hand grenades were thrown onto the field. One grenade was thrown by the defendant. Survivors of the afternoon attack were killed with clubs and machetes,” it said.

The defendant’s lawyers have denied that he had a role in the massacres. Instead, they said he tried to avoid the genocide.

Over 800,000 killed in 1994 Rwanda genocide

More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days in the 1994 genocide, orchestrated by the Hutu ruling majority and meticulously executed by local officials and ordinary citizens.

The court said the man also took part in raids on two communities predominantly inhabited by the Tutsi population in Mbazi, the municipality where he was “a person of authority.”

During these attacks, houses were looted and set afire, after which people fled to the stadium, where they thought they would be safe – but instead were ultimately killed.

The Netherlands has tried and convicted other Rwandan genocide suspects before under universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to try certain grave international crimes regardless of where they were committed, and has in the past also extradited genocide suspects to Rwanda.

This post was originally published on here.