All News (Page 87)

How is a news outlet supposed to report on war casualties? This question is particularly worth asking when it comes to a news outlet that promises its readers journalistic professionalism “without fear or favor”, and even defines itself as “a newspaper of record”, or a media outlet whose information archive is supposed to serve as a reliable historical reference. 

It matters because casualties in Gaza became a central topic in the discourse around the October 7 war. This discourse influenced global public opinion, as well as commercial, academic, scientific and cultural circles, and of course leaders and their policies toward Israel. Despite never having been convicted, Israel was accused of genocide at the ICC as early as December 2023, in a lawsuit filed by South Africa which was suspected of being funded by Iran. Yet few are familiar with the details, and many young people on social media believe that Israel did indeed commit genocide in Gaza, and that every Israeli or Jew who supports Israel is complicit.

We all know that in the post-truth era, many ride on narratives whose connection to reality is tenuous, at best. So amid the information chaos, someone needs to take responsibility for reporting as accurately as possible and serve as a reliable source, right? That was the incentive for examining the way casualties in Gaza were reported over two years, in the news outlet that considers itself the most professional in the world.

The New York Times covered the October 7 war with 6,696 headlines between October 7, 2023 and October 10, 2025 – approximately 7% of all headlines published during that period, and reflecting the editorial significance of the topic. 19.5% of the war headlines dealt with death and killing: 1,305 in total. Of these, 709 dealt with Palestinian casualties, and of those, 653 headlines dealt specifically with Palestinians in Gaza and not elsewhere (such as the West Bank). These are the relevant headlines we analyzed.

Doubts about IDF but not about Gazan sources

When it comes to war casualties, there are three main aspects that need to be addressed. The first is the overall scope of casualties. The second is the internal breakdown – primarily between civilians and combatants. The third is who bears responsibility for the casualties. So let’s see how the New York Times reported on casualties in Gaza over two full years of war.

The cumulative number of casualties in Gaza (10,000, 25,000, 30,000, etc.) was published in 11 headlines and subheadlines throughout the war. None of them distinguished between combatants and civilians, or mentioned that the number includes Hamas fighters, as well as casualties from failed rockets fired by terrorist organizations or by internal executions. In other words, one could only conclude that all the casualties were civilians.

In all 11 headlines, the Times raised no reservations about its source. One headline noted that the total number is probably higher than reported. One headline did cite a reservation regarding the numbers but from former President Joe Biden, since it was published around the time of the false report about the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital, in which the death toll figures were fabricated. By contrast, the IDF’s assessment of the number of terrorists killed was published in only one headline throughout the war – and the Times questioned its reliability.

In terms of the internal breakdown, a very clear editorial pattern can be identified. Of 653 headlines, 231 (35%) stated that the casualties were civilians, and an additional 322 headlines did not specify who the dead were. In total, 553 headlines (85% of all casualty headlines) referred to civilians or simply to “Palestinians.”

Where did the fighters go?

Of 653 headlines about casualties in Gaza, 100 referenced Hamas members, but a further examination reveals a different picture. 86% of these headlines referred specifically to the elimination of one of Hamas’s leaders (Arouri, Deif, Sinwar, Haniyeh) specifically by name, and not to the killing of Hamas fighters on the battlefield. Each elimination generated many headlines – Sinwar’s killing, for example, was covered in 31 separate headlines.

But in practice, this means that of all the war headlines, only 14 referred to Hamas fighters other than Haniyeh, Deif, Sinwar or Arouri, Hamas terrorists killed on the battlefield in Gaza as a result of IDF operations, which targeted them primarily. This amounts to only 2% of all headlines about Palestinian casualties published in the Times throughout the entire war. It is fairly clear what impression emerges from such reporting – that Israel’s strikes on Gaza only kill civilians.

When you add to this the fact that headlines reporting on cumulative casualty figures never once mentioned that the figure includes terrorists; and the fact that Israel’s assessments of the number of terrorists killed were almost never published – it’s hard to refrain from understanding that this is precisely Hamas’s stated strategy.

Hamas makes no distinction between combatants and civilians. Time and again it is revealed in hindsight that journalists, teachers and doctors who were killed were in fact registered members of terrorist organizations. Hamas soldiers shed their uniforms during military confrontations and hide among civilians, as part of the organization’s human shield doctrine. The goal is to confuse the IDF, cause soldiers to hesitate before firing, and to report all deaths as civilian in order to exert international pressure on Israel to stop fighting.

In practice, the distortion is even more severe, because 7 headlines, half of the 14 headlines that did report on the terrorist casualties, presented the information as an Israeli claim whose credibility should be questioned. So only 7 out of 653 headlines dealing with Palestinian casualties constituted clear reporting on the death of combatants on the battlefield in Gaza. This represents a complete internalization of Hamas’s casualty-reporting strategy – in a Western news outlet that promises to help its readers understand the world.

Who is responsible here?

On the question of responsibility, there are two aspects: who is the party responsible for the casualties, and who is the source from which the data was drawn. These are particularly important questions in light of the false report about the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which occurred right at the start of the war on October 17, 2023, and caused the Times considerable embarrassment.

At the time, the Gaza Health Ministry reported 500 dead at the hospital as a result of an IDF airstrike. The Times presented the source as “Palestinians,” without mentioning that authorities in Gaza were appointed by Hamas and subordinate to its authority. The report was entirely false – the explosion was caused by a failed rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a parking lot and not in the hospital itself, and the number of casualties was far lower. Although the IDF quickly refuted the report, the Times waited five days before correcting the headline, and only after a harsh rebuke from the White House did it publish an unusual editor’s note. It included a promise not to rely on claims by Hamas in the future. But when it came to casualty reporting, the Times appears to have done just that.

The Gaza Health Ministry continued to serve as the primary source of information, usually without being acknowledged. Of 653 headlines dealing with casualties in Gaza, 448 (69%) cited no source at all for the data, presenting the information as fact. 89 headlines did attribute the information to official sources in Gaza, and an additional 82 headlines attributed the information to other sources such as the UN or rights organizations, which in practice were citing Health Ministry data. Only 4 headlines revealed that Hamas actually runs the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas’s involvement was simply concealed.

Moreover, of all 653 headlines reporting on casualties in Gaza, only 18 expressed doubt or reservations about the source. The majority of these (8) questioned Israeli sources to which reports were attributed. Among the remaining headlines that expressed reservations, 3 presented conflicting reports — one from Gaza and one from Israel. 3 headlines expressed reservations about the Gaza figures, but on the grounds that the real number was probably higher than reported.

Of the only 3 headlines that genuinely expressed reservations about the Gaza data, 2 referred retroactively to that same false report about the hospital explosion, and only 1 headline expressed reservations about UN data, which had in fact published the Gaza Health Ministry’s own correction about a year into the war. The Ministry significantly reduced the proportion of women and children in the total casualty count, after claiming for a year that they constituted the majority of casualties.

In short, the Times rarely cited Israeli sources, yet questioned their reliability in 25% of the cases where it did cite them. By contrast, it never questioned its primary source from Gaza, despite the fact that it is run by Hamas. The fact that Hamas controls the Health Ministry and other official sources in Gaza, such as hospitals and media outlets, was onso not revealed in the headlines.

Innocent terrorist organizations

On the question of who is responsible for the casualties, the Times’ editorial line was entirely clear. Of 653 headlines dealing with casualties in Gaza, Israel was presented as responsible in 404 headlines (62%). In 246 headlines (37.5%), no party was identified as responsible. And in only three headlines were Hamas and Islamic Jihad presented as responsible – two of which were follow-up headlines to the false hospital explosion report. These are not reasonable proportions, and it is clear that the overall picture they project is distorted.

Returning to that false report from October 17, 2023, and the Times’s promise to henceforth question Hamas’s claims – it is fairly clear that this did not happen. The Times continued to cite the Gaza Health Ministry without revealing that it is a Hamas-controlled body. It questioned IDF assessments and rarely published them, while praising the credibility of the Gaza Health Ministry. So in hindsight — what did that editor’s note actually accomplish?

In November 2023, just one month after the false hospital report, the Times published another erroneous headline claiming that the rate of civilian killing in Gaza was unprecedented. In December 2023, it again published an incorrect headline claiming that casualties in Gaza were higher than in any Arab war in the past 40 years – ignoring over a million casualties in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. A correction was issued again.

The accumulation of errors in itself points to an editorial line that can no longer be ignored – motivation to convict Israel of indiscriminate killing of civilians, and lack of motivation to assign minimal responsibility to Hamas.

The war is over, but this hasn’t really changed. Last week, the Times published yet another opinion piece from the genre that accuses Israel of genocide. The piece again cited questionable “facts.” CAMERA demanded that the Times correct the claim that over 1,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, without noting that many of them were terrorists. The Times did issue a correction, but did not call them terrorists or even combatants – instead referring to them as “people other than civilians.” It appears that the editorial team continues to insist on keeping Hamas invisible to the readers.

The op-ed also claimed that the IDF admitted to 70,000 casualties in Gaza, the majority of them civilians – but the IDF never confirmed this. When the IDF publishes its casualty assessments for Gaza, even if the overall number does not change, a clear distinction will be made between terrorists and civilians. It will noted that the number of dead most likely includes natural deaths, and thousands killed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s own failed rockets, as well as executions. It will also note that children under 18 include teenage boys recruited by Hamas as fighters – a fact the Times did not publish in a single headline. So is it truth and accuracy that drives the most important newspaper in the world — or is it perhaps the opportunity to repeatedly invoke the word “genocide”?

How did we do it?

We used Anthropic’s Claude Code AI tool, running on the Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Fable 5 models, for two defined tasks: collecting the data and coding it at scale under rules that we established.

All headlines and subheadlines published between October 7, 2023 and October 10, 2025 (the day the ceasefire took effect) were collected from The New York Times’ official archive. The unit of analysis is the headline and subheadline only (what most readers actually encounter) and not the body of the article. We formulated the coding questionnaire and the rules ourselves – who was killed, what was the source of information, were there reservations about the source – and spot-checked the findings in several rounds. The findings are expected to undergo further processing and validation ahead of academic publication, but can be considered highly reliable interim findings for an ongoing study in colaboration with Prof. Eytan Gilboa for Bar Ilan University. The work with Claude was carried out by Alon Giladi.

This post was originally published on here. 

A dual British-Azerbaijani national has been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of spying on a British air base on the Mediterranean island and passing information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, London police said on Friday.

Rashad Sultanov, 44, from Islington in north London, was arrested on July 17 by Cypriot authorities and is being held in custody as extradition proceedings progress, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

He was arrested as part of Britain’s first overseas National Security Act investigation, led by counter-terrorism police into incidents at Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus between May 11 and June 22 last year, the statement said.

Sultanov allegedly conducted hostile surveillance on the base and is alleged to have then shared information with the IRGC, it added.

“This case shows we are able to use the National Security Act overseas when British military bases are allegedly targeted by hostile state activity,” Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said in the statement.

IRGC threatens to attack British military bases

The IRGC threatened earlier this month to attack any British military bases used by US forces to launch attacks on Iran.

An Iranian-type Shahed drone caused slight damage on March 2 when it hit facilities at Akrotiri. Soon afterwards, Britain said the base would not be part of its defensive agreement with the United States over the use of UK bases.

Also in March, Iran was reported to have fired two ballistic missiles at a US-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, though neither hit the target.

Akrotiri is one of two bases Britain has retained in its former colony since independence in 1960. It has been used for past military operations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

This post was originally published on here. 

If Israel does not approve and endorse the Board of Peace’s disarmament deal with Hamas, the terror group will refuse to implement it, a Hamas official told Reuters on Friday.

The official said that the Gaza agreement is a phased agreement which must be implemented by stages.

Once both sides approve the agreement text, the official said, Israel must begin implementing the first phase, including withdrawing its forces from Gaza.

The official also told Reuters that the Palestinian National Committee and International Task Force must enter Gaza, and that Hamas would hand over its weapons to it dependent on Israel endorsing the agreement.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

Hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the Oval Office on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump publicly questioned why the Israeli leader had announced that he was bringing new intelligence about an Iranian site known as Pickaxe Mountain. 

“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump told Fox News. He then sharpened the rebuke: “Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?” 

The exchange turned a little-known underground complex near Natanz into the clearest point of friction surrounding Netanyahu’s Washington visit. The meeting ran for about 90 minutes. When it ended, Netanyahu did not appear with Trump, and neither government announced a decision on Pickaxe Mountain. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later called the talks “good and productive.” Netanyahu’s office said both leaders agreed that Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Its statement did not say whether Washington accepted Netanyahu’s assessment of the site or planned to act on the intelligence he presented. 

This visit also lacked the public welcome often associated with a White House meeting. Trump did not greet Netanyahu at the main entrance, and there was no joint press conference. The prime minister’s office released photographs after the talks, while the White House provided only a brief account. What the United States intends to do about Pickaxe Mountain remained unanswered. 

Their advisers attended the meeting and, according to sources, left no private one-on-one session of the kind that preceded earlier military coordination. Netanyahu’s office released photographs afterward, but neither government issued a detailed account of what was decided. 

Netanyahu presented Trump with new intelligence concerning developments at the site, according to Israel’s Channel 13. Israeli officials cited by the network said Iran was undertaking a substantial reconstruction effort with help from foreign countries and planned to provide additional details to Washington. A US official said the activity was also known to American intelligence through its own sources. 

Trump downplayed the facility’s immediate significance before the meeting, calling Pickaxe Mountain “not a big problem” and saying the United States already knew what was happening there. At the same time, he warned that Washington could resume strikes if Iran refused to sign a new agreement. He also said the United States had reinstated its blockade after accusing Tehran of violating the previous arrangement. 

Since the meeting ended, the United States launched a major wave of strikes against dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets across Iran after an attempted Iranian missile attack on US forces in Jordan, while Trump weighed options for further military action or diplomacy. As explosions were reported on Thursday across southern Iran, Pakistan called for renewed US-Iran negotiations, and Iran-backed militias in Iraq threatened retaliation within 72 hours.

Netanyahu’s office offered a more conciliatory account after the meeting. The prime minister said the conversation was among the best the two leaders had held and that they shared an understanding that Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the meeting “good and productive.” 

The real disagreement lies between Trump’s preference for diplomacy and Netanyahu’s belief in further military action 

The official language covered the objective but not the dispute over how to reach it. Professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israel relations and international communication at Reichman and Bar-Ilan Universities, told The Media Line that the real disagreement lies between Trump’s preference for diplomacy and Netanyahu’s apparent belief that further military action may be necessary. 

Gilboa said Pickaxe Mountain had previously received little public attention because it was not considered active. He said new intelligence indicated significant activity at the entrances and raised the possibility that Iran had moved centrifuges and enriched uranium to the underground complex. The facility, which he described as Iran’s best-protected nuclear site, would be difficult to reach at its deepest levels even in another American or Israeli campaign. 

That depth does not make the complex immune from attack, Gilboa said, but it changes what an attack could be expected to accomplish. American forces could inflict serious damage and obstruct access to the facility, he said, without necessarily destroying its lowest levels. The likely objective would be to delay Iran’s nuclear work for years rather than claim that every part of the program had been eliminated. 

By publicizing the intelligence before his meeting with President Trump, Gilboa said, Netanyahu was signaling that the nuclear threat had not been resolved by the earlier strikes and that he did not trust Iran to honor a diplomatic agreement. But Gilboa argued that the decision carried its own cost. 

“I think it was a huge mistake,” he said. “You challenge the president or the American intelligence community, with which you have to cooperate all the time.” 

The disclosure also highlighted the limits of the available military options, Gilboa said. Although the United States could inflict substantial damage on the site, Iran has demonstrated a strong capacity to rebuild, particularly in its ballistic-missile program. That record complicates any claim that a renewed campaign would produce a lasting result. 

Gilboa said those limits help explain why a significant group within the White House continues to favor negotiations. President Trump also faces warnings from Republican candidates that a return to full-scale war could damage the party before the November 3 midterm elections, he said. The US president may prefer to preserve economic pressure and avoid a major campaign until then, although attacks by Iran and its allies leave open the risk that miscalculation could pull both countries back into a wider conflict. 

The question is especially sensitive after the collapse of the memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran in June. Netanyahu opposed the framework but did not attack it publicly, according to US and Israeli accounts. Israel was not a signatory, and the agreement fell apart several weeks later as hostilities resumed and disputes over the Strait of Hormuz returned. 

Mediators have since sought to revive the framework or replace it with a new understanding. Trump has said talks with Tehran are going well, while keeping the prospect of renewed strikes on the table. Netanyahu arrived in Washington seeking closer coordination before the United States made its next decision.

Israel would not be legally bound by an agreement it did not sign 

Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and president of Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, told The Media Line that Israel would not be legally bound by an agreement it did not sign. In practice, she said, the government would still be constrained by its dependence on Washington. 

“Friendship and respect are not leverage,” Darshan-Leitner said. “Israel does not have any leverage over the United States, and Prime Minister Netanyahu understands it very well.” 

She said Netanyahu could present intelligence and press Israel’s case, but would be careful not to push the relationship to a breaking point. In her formulation, Israel would not be legally obligated by a US-Iran agreement, but would feel compelled to respect Washington’s demands because the United States remains its essential ally. Darshan-Leitner did not expect the meeting itself to produce a major decision, arguing that President Trump wants to avoid a wider confrontation before the November midterm elections. 

Darshan-Leitner also questioned whether another round of conventional attacks could stop Iran from rebuilding. She argued that sustained financial pressure, including restrictions on oil revenue and access to shipping, offered a better chance of weakening the regime than intermittent strikes. 

Her preferred strategy would keep Iran’s access to oil income, ports and shipping under pressure long enough to worsen the regime’s financial crisis. In her assessment, that pressure could revive domestic unrest in a way that military strikes alone have not. She acknowledged that such an approach carries costs for Washington, including higher energy prices, and may not produce results on the timetable President Trump wants. 

The legal route is limited as well. Darshan-Leitner said Shurat HaDin and other plaintiffs hold judgments worth more than $150 billion against Iran over attacks carried out by groups it supported. Yet victims could not sue the US administration or banks for releasing Iranian funds under an American agreement, she said. Their practical option would remain the pursuit of Iranian assets when jurisdiction and law allow it. 

That makes the terms of any sanctions relief central to Israel’s concerns. Darshan-Leitner warned that funds returned to Iran could eventually reach Hezbollah, Hamas or other armed groups backed by Tehran. She acknowledged, however, that no money had been transferred to Iran under the expired memorandum. 

The administration and Netanyahu’s office rejected the idea that the disagreement over Iran amounted to a rupture. Netanyahu Communications Director Tzipi Hotovely said Israel was not trying to push the United States toward a specific course and that both governments recognized several possible ways to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. 

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee went further, dismissing reports of a frosty relationship as a media construction. He said he frequently deals with Netanyahu’s office and officials in Washington and sees no rift between the leaders. 

“I can tell you firsthand, there is not this frosty relationship. It is not a rift,” Huckabee told Newsmax. He said President Trump and Netanyahu maintain personal trust even when they disagree, and argued that the partnership remains in both countries’ interests. 

Huckabee also argued that Iran has refrained from launching missiles or drones directly at Israel since mid-April because Tehran expects a large Israeli response. Hezbollah has continued rocket and drone fire from Lebanon, he said, but most of Israel has remained relatively calm. His assessment presents the current pause as evidence of deterrence rather than proof that the nuclear and regional threats have been resolved. 

The meeting nevertheless produced little public evidence that the differences had narrowed. The two sides discussed possible Saudi-Israeli normalization in connection with the US-Saudi nuclear agreement, according to the Israeli account. A proposed sale of F-35 aircraft to Turkey, which Israel opposes, was not raised. 

Darshan-Leitner said she expected Trump to protect Israel’s qualitative military edge even if Washington moved ahead with the Turkish aircraft sale and civilian nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia. She argued that the American president sees Israel as the only regional ally that fought alongside the United States against Iran. That confidence, however, was her assessment; neither government announced a new defense commitment after the meeting. 

Lebanon presents a parallel dispute. Gilboa said Israel, the United States and the Lebanese government share the goal of disarming Hezbollah but differ over the pace, security guarantees and forces needed to carry it out. As a limited test, Israel withdrew from two Lebanese villages and the Lebanese army deployed there, he said. The question is whether the army can prevent Hezbollah from restoring military positions in the south. 

Gilboa said Israel does not believe the Lebanese army can disarm Hezbollah on its own. A separate international force involving American, French or other foreign troops has been discussed as a possible alternative to the United Nations force already operating in Lebanon. If a credible force were established, he said, Israel might accept a gradual withdrawal, but not the rapid timetable sought by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. Iran’s demand to keep Lebanon tied to its negotiations with Washington creates another obstacle. 

Pickaxe Mountain remains the more immediate test

Darshan-Leitner viewed a Lebanese agreement more favorably if it required the government and army to disarm Hezbollah and move its armed presence away from Israel’s northern border. She cautioned that both institutions remain weak and contain officials sympathetic to Hezbollah. Even so, she described the Lebanese government’s stated willingness to confront the organization as an opening Israel should try to use. 

Pickaxe Mountain remains the more immediate test. The intelligence Netanyahu took to Washington was meant to show that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is again changing beneath the ground. Trump answered that Washington already knew, preferred that such warnings remain private, and was still giving diplomacy room to work. 

Darshan-Leitner said the minimum acceptable outcome for Israel would be assurance that it could retaliate if Iran attacked it. She did not expect President Trump to authorize Israel to begin another war on its own. No such public guarantee emerged from Tuesday’s meeting, leaving the response to Pickaxe Mountain dependent on the next stage of US-Iran talks and on what American and Israeli intelligence shows in the weeks ahead. 

This post was originally published on here. 

A rejuvenated Benjamin Netanyahu returned home to Israel Thursday from Washington, having crossed off everything on his diplomatic shopping list.

Grinning photo op with US President Donald Trump? Check. Iran still a top priority? Check. Conciliation with US Vice President JD Vance and conflict with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani? Check and check. Meetings with top-level senators and with salt-of-the-earth pro-Israel Americans? Check, check, and check!

Had he checked his pen, however, Netanyahu might have found that the ink was running out. To the degree that the Israeli prime minister scored public relations victories during his visit to the US this week, they all have impending expiration dates.

Netanyahu, who faces a tough reelection campaign for the elections to be held on October 27, needs to show the Israeli voters that his claimed superpower, influencing Americans to support the Jewish state, is still potent. His rivals are already making the case that his power is spent.

“Netanyahu’s expectation and hope is that Trump will establish, figuratively speaking, a re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu headquarters in Washington for the next three months,” said Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East negotiator under Republican and Democratic administrations who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The prime minister seemed genuinely elated on Tuesday after he and the US president met at the White House. Contrary to reports ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu said he was not seeking to pull the United States back into an all-out war. Instead, he wanted to see eye-to-eye with Trump on what happens if the talks to end the war fail.

He told ABC News in an interview he was in lock-step with Trump over the three options ahead: “One, to indeed succeed making a deal; two, to continue a blockade; three, to take military action,” Netanyahu said. “Anything that will produce the end of Iran’s nuclear program is what we want. That’s our common goal. We talked about it.”

The problem for Netanyahu is that the deal Trump seeks is anything but satisfying to Israel: The Memorandum of Understanding Vance reached in June, just weeks before the war resumed, allows Iran a stake in controlling – and even profiting from – the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s petroleum transits, a prerogative the Islamic Republic never before enjoyed.

Privately, Israeli officials have said they don’t expect the deal to happen, and that Trump will eventually turn to options two and three, which the Israelis favor. But Trump’s popularity is cratering ahead of critical midterm elections, inflation is not abating and even as Iran takes shots at ships in the Strait of Hormuz and its US-allied neighbors, Trump keeps banking on a deal.

“There are very friendly negotiations going on,” he said Monday, the day Netanyahu arrived. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen.”

Lapid takes shots at Netanyahu’s public diplomacy

But diplomacy wasn’t the only concern during Netanyahu’s visit. Domestic politics dogged Netanyahu in the US capital. Opposition leader Yair Lapid was also in town. Both were ostensibly there for the funeral of South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a pro-Israel stalwart who backed the Iran war. Lapid in a talk to The Atlantic Council took shots at Netanyahu’s public diplomacy, saying his attacks on Democrats who were critical of Israel were making the country more isolated.

Press releases from Netanyahu’s office sought to reinforce his status as the explainer in chief: He met with prominent senators, he met with Cabinet officials, he met, above all, with Trump.

Yet these releases undercut any claim Netanyahu might have had to the prominence he once enjoyed in the American mind.

The single Democratic senator he met with was John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose robust support for Israel makes him an outlier in his party – something Fetterman repeatedly emphasized in the chat Netanyahu’s office posted. “It’s been disappointing as a Democratic politician, how our party continues to behave,” Fetterman said.

Lapid, by contrast, posed for a photo with Democratic senators, including some who have recently criticized Israel stridently, like Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. “Boycotting those who oppose you is not the way,” Lapid said on X. ”Repair relations with both parties. It’s not always fun, but that’s what it takes. Not by whining and not by boycotts.” 

מנצל את הביקור בוושינגטון כדי לפגוש את הסנטורים הדמוקרטים שהצביעו בעד הגבלת מכירות הנשק לישראל. להחרים את מי שמדבר נגדך זו לא שיטה. מול ההתנגדות בסנאט צריך לעבוד קשה, פרטני, לתקן את היחסים עם שתי המפלגות. זה לא תמיד כיף, אבל ככה מתקנים. לא בהתבכיינות ולא בחרמות.

— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) July 29, 2026

Netanyahu’s failure to engage with the American left also was evident in video of his meeting with evangelicals. “I’m very grateful to you for your consistent support, for the constancy of your friendship, and now it’s time to fight, fight, fight,” he said, evoking Trump’s famous call when he escaped an assassin’s bullet in 2024.

That prompted Mike Evans, an author who is an outlier among evangelicals for his stridency in advocating for extreme right positions, to lash out at the left using apocalyptic language. “We are fighting right now against the dark side, the leftist, godless dark side, but by the grace of God, we’re going to win this battle,” he said.

Netanyahu also took on Mamdani, who has called for Netanyahu’s arrest, likening his administration of the city to the Nazi era in an interview on Fox News. Mamdani’s wish was never going to come through – he ultimately acknowledged he had no power to arrest Netanyahu – yet his sentiment had staying power: A poll showed 49% of Americans agree that Netanyahu should be arrested.

Netanyahu blames social media for fall in Israel’s popularity

Linsey Davis, the ABC reporter who interviewed Netanyahu, pressed him on Israel’s plummeting popularity. Netanyahu blamed the rise of social media and said it concerned him – but notably he did not explain how he planned to counter what he described as a propaganda threat to American and Israeli interests. 

“I think there’s been a change because of the proliferation of social media and the fact that sovereign countries have manipulated bot farms and other things, and we can see a direct relationship between the proliferation of the social media and the decline in support for Israel,” he said. “Does it concern me? Yes, yes it does. And I want bipartisan support for Israel because I think that’s the fundament of our national security.”

Netanyahu could point to one seeming public diplomacy success: He met with Vance, likely to be a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2028, and the vanguard of the sector of the GOP that is growing disaffected with Israel. A US official told Axios the meeting was “cordial and productive,” diplomatese for not warm.

As for the flurry of photo-ops the prime minister’s office sent out from the trip, the one on one with Vance was not among them.

This post was originally published on here. 

Prosecutors filed an indictment in Central District Court on Thursday against Benjamin Yosef Haim Friedrich, 36, on charges of murdering 75-year-old Kabbalist Rabbi Amos Guetta under aggravated circumstances, Walla reported on Thursday.

Friedrich was also charged with causing grievous bodily harm under aggravated circumstances and unlawfully possessing a knife.

During an investigation by the Israel Police Sharon District Central Unit, Friedrich admitted to killing Guetta and told investigators that the rabbi was a “false messiah.” The indictment provides new details about the alleged planning that preceded the killing, Friedrich’s purported attempt to pose as a worshiper, his struggle with the rabbi’s assistant, and the unusual statements he made during questioning.

According to the indictment, at a time investigators have not been able to determine precisely, Friedrich decided to kill the rabbi. To carry out the plan, he allegedly took a knife with a 21-centimeter blade from the yeshiva kitchen, concealed it inside his pants, and covered it with his shirt.

At 5:39 a.m., Friedrich arrived at the rabbi’s home, where Guetta’s assistant, Yaakov, was sitting beside the rabbi’s bed. Friedrich asked to enter the room, claiming that he wanted to pray beside Guetta.

Yaakov initially refused because he did not want to disturb the rabbi’s rest. After Friedrich repeatedly pleaded with him, however, Yaakov agreed and allowed him to enter the room to recite a chapter of Psalms.

The indictment states that Friedrich stood beside the rabbi’s bed for several seconds and appeared to mutter a prayer. He then allegedly pulled out the knife concealed in his clothing and stabbed Guetta.

When Yaakov saw what was happening, he rushed toward Friedrich in an attempt to stop him. During the ensuing struggle, Friedrich allegedly continued the attack and stabbed the rabbi three more times. Yaakov suffered a wound to his hand while trying to restrain Friedrich.

The knife then fell from Friedrich’s hands. He fled the scene, leaving Guetta critically wounded.

Guetta was evacuated to Laniado Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:25 a.m. According to the indictment, the four stab wounds caused his death.

Suspect claims murdered rabbi was ‘false messiah’

Friedrich was arrested at 8:29 a.m. following a manhunt that lasted approximately three hours. During his first interrogation, he admitted to stabbing the rabbi, provided details believed to have been known only to investigators, and claimed that he had committed the act because “the angel Samael Iblis is inside his liver.”

During that interrogation, Friedrich refused to speak, and communication with investigators was conducted mainly through hand gestures, nodding, and pointing to letters.

He exercised his right to remain silent during his second interrogation. During his third, he refused to answer most questions. When investigators presented the suspicions against him, however, he confirmed that he had stabbed the rabbi four times, denied harming Yaakov, and called Guetta a “false messiah.”

Friedrich also gave answers unrelated to many of the questions during his fourth interrogation. Nevertheless, according to the indictment, he told investigators that he had already admitted to his actions and asked whether the rabbi had died of his wounds.

He later made further unusual statements and expressed regret that he had not harmed Guetta more severely, the indictment states.

Evidence against Friedrich includes security footage, testimony

Prosecutors say they possess a series of items of evidence supporting the charges. These include Yaakov’s testimony identifying Friedrich as the attacker and describing his attempt to save the rabbi; the knife recovered from the scene, which contained traces of Guetta’s DNA; security camera footage documenting Friedrich’s arrival at the yeshiva and his escape; Magen David Adom records; documents from Laniado Hospital; an opinion from the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine; and testimony from other people who were at the yeshiva compound.

The prosecution noted that Guetta was considered helpless because of his medical condition and was dependent on nursing care. It further alleged that the killing was committed after Friedrich had planned the attack and formed the intention to kill, despite the rabbi having assisted Friedrich and accepted him into the yeshiva.

In its request to keep Friedrich in custody until the end of legal proceedings, the state also noted that he has a criminal record containing two previous convictions. Prosecutors argued that he poses a flight risk, in part because he holds a French passport.

This post was originally published on here. 

“I want to tell them that it is possible to establish 100 public diplomacy offices around the world at no cost to the State of Israel.”  

It is the kind of promise that can sound implausibly large: a global network built without a state budget, formal diplomatic postings or a conventional government campaign. But for Itsik Moshe, the proposal is not a theory. It is an attempt to take a model forged over decades between Israel and Georgia – through business, tourism, culture, and personal relationships – and reproduce it far beyond the Caucasus.  

Israeli and Georgian officials, civic leaders, and business figures gathered at Jerusalem’s Begin Center in July to mark 30 years of the Israel-Georgia Business Chamber. The event also recognized 35 years of Moshe’s activity connecting the two countries and 15 years of Israel House, the public-diplomacy initiative he founded. 

Moshe, head of the Israel-Georgia Business Chamber, described a strategy grounded in relationships built locally, country by country. “All our success comes from the fact that we work bilaterally, in both directions,” he told The Media Line.  “In every country, they want us to operate there, and that is essentially what is new about this approach.”  

When asked what the conference was intended to launch, Moshe said it was aimed at “the Israeli government, the Knesset, the national institutions, and the Israeli public.” Its centerpiece is a proposed network of 100 public-diplomacy offices, alongside “a practical program to combat antisemitism.”  

The Georgian relationship, he argued, offers the proof of concept. “That is also why the Georgian model is so important,” Moshe said. “Cooperation between countries in tourism, culture, and the economy is extremely important for building relations. Once those relationships exist, it becomes much easier to conduct public diplomacy on behalf of the State of Israel.”  

For nearly a decade, Moshe said, his work was concentrated in Georgia. “But after the incident that you know about, when the Revolutionary Guards tried twice to assassinate me because of my Zionist activity, my public diplomacy work and the relationships we had built, we expanded our activity.”  

“Today, we operate in 30 countries,” he said, while emphasizing that the proposed 100-office network remains an ambition rather than a completed project. “In my opinion, this is work that government officials cannot do, and it is also work that local Jews cannot do.”  

Instead, he said, they work “with local people or with Israelis who are active on the ground.” The model, in his words, is “a very effective method because we can bring something of our own while also building that connection.”  

In response to a question about the initiative’s central priorities, Moshe emphasized the message itself. “In my opinion, the message is the most important thing,” he said. “It is not only about talking about yourself.”  

His argument is that antisemitism and racism should be framed as a problem for the societies in which they flourish – not simply as an injustice directed at Israel or Jews. “My message is clear and unequivocal: a country in which there is racism and antisemitism cannot be a successful or advanced country,” Moshe said. “Therefore, they should not do Israel a favor; they should do themselves a favor.” 

“For the health of their own societies, they need to be normal countries,” he added, “and it is much easier to work with a normal country.”  

Moshe also argued that combating antisemitism requires more than advocacy. “It is impossible to fight antisemitism without decisions being enshrined in law,” he said, calling for coordinated work with the Israeli government, Knesset, public organizations, national institutions, the Jewish Agency, and Israeli embassies.  

Moshe outlined five pillars of activity, beginning with the 100 proposed representative offices, and a program to combat antisemitism through parliamentary resolutions and educational material. “This involves passing resolutions against antisemitism in national parliaments and incorporating relevant material into education systems,” he said.  

In his address, Moshe framed the evening around five connected priorities: 100 public-diplomacy offices, legally grounded anti-antisemitism programs, stronger Israeli business ties abroad, partnerships with students and young leaders, and interfaith and general tourism. “The good news for all of us is that this is possible,” he said. “With a small amount of support – not money and not official positions, but public backing – we can establish 100 public diplomacy offices worldwide.”  

Another central priority is cultivating non-Jewish student leaders worldwide. “We cannot work only with Jewish communities,” Moshe said. “In my opinion, Jews should eventually immigrate to Israel, but working with non-Jews is extremely important.”  

He described the access challenge on campuses as acute but also saw a path through it. “By working with student leaders – and we have student leaders here with us this evening – we can show them that Israel is a normal country. Once they see that, it becomes much easier to work and take action.”  

A recent meeting in Ashdod at Kivunim, he said, brought together young Israelis and Georgians. “Young Israelis and young Georgians are beginning to work together. In my opinion, that is the most genuine bridge.”  

Moshe’s emphasis on student leaders was also practical: he said non-Jewish students from Georgia had arrived in Israel and begun developing joint projects. “This is the only way we will be able to enter universities around the world,” he said. “Connections with the next generation of students are therefore extremely important, and we must build upon them.”  

He said the hardest part is not necessarily reaching audiences abroad, but persuading Israel itself to adopt a different approach. “The most difficult thing is convincing ourselves and our own country that this is the most effective approach,” he said. “I want to tell you that the world has changed. This is the age of the internet; everything is different. Therefore, we also need to work outside the box and approach things differently.”   

Druze Knesset member says country is ‘indebted’ to Georgia

For Akram Hasson, a Druze Knesset member representing New Hope, the anniversary was a reminder that the chamber has functioned as far more than a business forum.   

“The Business Chamber has promoted business and cultural relations with the State of Georgia, a country that we respect and appreciate,” Hasson said, invoking Georgia’s role in helping Jews from across the former Soviet Union reach Israel in 1990. “Therefore, we are indebted to them, and we love them.”  

The relationship has produced both investment and cultural exchange. “Among the things taking place are investments by Israelis who travel to the capital, Tbilisi, and to Batumi,” Hasson said. “They invest there and establish many projects.”  

He pointed to educational initiatives, performances at Georgia’s national theater, events at its national museum, and visiting delegations and also urged both countries’ leaders to deepen their engagement in areas such as “advanced technology, high-tech, cybersecurity, and several other fields in which we have expertise.”  

“Israel is an advanced and constantly developing country that can provide support and assistance,” Hasson said. “We have a large Georgian community here in Israel, so the relationship is very strong and very special.”  

Moshe used the conference to highlight new commercial activity as well: a reported NIS 1 billion hotel investment agreement in Jerusalem; plans to replicate an Airport City model in Georgia; emerging agricultural import agreements; a planned NIS 30 million hotel investment in Rustavi; and prospective Israeli high-tech operations in Georgia.

For Moshe, such activity is integral to diplomacy: “In my view, the businesspeople who enter countries even before diplomatic relations are established are the real ambassadors.”  

Tourism, Moshe argued, should also be treated as public diplomacy. He said 500,000 potential visitors from Eastern Europe were not coming to Israel because of the lack of direct connections, and maintained that attracting them would improve Israel’s image and generate economic activity.  

Hasson linked the chamber’s milestone to the 15-year record of Israel House’s public-diplomacy initiative. “They began teaching about Judaism and antisemitism at universities,” he said. “This is a major achievement because antisemitism is raising its head almost everywhere in the world.”  

When asked about Israel’s challenge in explaining its story abroad, Hasson said his background enables him to reach audiences in a distinctive way. “I am not Jewish, and I also speak Arabic,” he said. “I speak to the entire Arab world and to all the Arab media networks, which have brainwashed people around the world.”  

Speaking to The Media Line, he said, “It is therefore important for them to hear from someone who belongs to a minority, lives in the State of Israel, serves in the army, is a politician and represents the country. That is more powerful than having a Jewish person come and speak, because people might say that he is saying those things simply because he is Jewish.”  

His proposed response combines direct engagement with broad civic participation. “We tell the truth, we show them the facts, and we debate with them,” Hasson said. “That is why we must reach every possible place.”  

As chairman of the Higher Education Committee, he said he proposed mobilizing Israel’s approximately 350,000 students to publish four posts each month. “That would amount to more than 1.5 million posts every month about what is happening in the State of Israel.”  

For Hasson, education must begin early. “We tell them that we need to start in kindergarten and raise a new generation – a generation built on values and respect, one that considers human life the highest value, believes in tolerance, learns about others, and respects their religions and traditions.”  

He called students “the best ambassadors we could possibly have” and described Moshe’s initiative as an “Israel House in every country.” “There are also many volunteers,” he said. “There are many good people and citizens who are capable of helping, but we need to recruit them, bring them in and give them the necessary tools.”  

Former Mossad agent calls for Israel to fight on global perception front

The conversation at the Begin Center moved beyond the Israel-Georgia relationship to the contest over global perceptions of Israel – sometimes referred to as the 8th front. Former Mossad agent Sagiv Asulin called it a front that Israel has failed to treat with sufficient seriousness.  

“This is the only front basically that we are losing terribly to be honest,” he argued.  

Asked why, Asulin said the central failure was institutional: “Basically it was not declared as a threat.” In his view, an undeclared threat cannot be systematically confronted. “If it’s not a threat, how will you fight that? How will you even confront something like that?”  

He contrasted this with threats Israel has formally identified, such as Iran and Hezbollah, where “eventually we see the results,” he said. “But with that, Israel officially didn’t declare this threat as a threat, so we are not there.”  

“Our enemies are doing that for years already,” he said, referring to investments by countries like Qatar, Turkey, and Iran in education, sport, culture, social media, and research centers. “And the outcome of that is what we see in Europe, what we see in London, in Brussels, in Madrid, in New York.”  

Asulin said Israel should first formally recognize the battle over public perception as a national threat. He maintained that while Israel’s security institutions have proven effective against conventional military adversaries, a different, dedicated framework is needed to address this non-kinetic challenge.   

“But to confront this kind of threat, Israel needs to have another organization,” he said. “If you want, we can call it the 8th Front Organization or Mossad for Public Perception or something like that.”  

The envisioned institution would coordinate strategy across public, media, and social media arenas. “It will be semi-security because it deals also with the public, with media, with the social media, but needs to be an official organization that will centralize and will lead all the agenda and all the strategy to deal with this threat,” he explained.  

But Asulin cautioned against making the campaign only about defending Israel and fighting antisemitism. “The way to do that, I think, is exactly the opposite.”  

“Israel needs to recruit Western civilization to fight together for the values and the future of Western civilization, not antisemitism and not Judaism, not Zionism and not Israel as a state,” he said. “This is a concept that is wider than just Israel.”  

Israeli Arab activist advocates for Israel

That wider story was embodied by Lourd Atia, an 18-year-old Israeli Arab Muslim activist who grew up in Jewish religious communities in Jerusalem and now advocates for Israel. “I’m an Israeli Arab Muslim girl, and I grew up in a Jewish religious society most of my life in Jerusalem as the only Arab girl in each community that I came into,” she said.  

Her advocacy, she said, has brought hostility from multiple directions. “I get a lot of hate from both sides,” Atia said. “Most people don’t believe me that I’m an Israeli and that I’m an Arab girl.”  

More deeply, she described the emotional cost of living between communities. “I never felt [I] belong anywhere,” Atia told The Media Line. “Like I wasn’t Jewish enough for the Jewish community and I wasn’t Arab enough for the Arab community.”  

Her parents, she said, raised their children with a simple identity: “They were always teaching us because they were living like this that we are first of all Israelis and that’s our country, and that’s the country that we are going to stand with.”  

Atia said she once hoped to join the Israeli army but found the process difficult as a Muslim Arab citizen. She instead chose Magen David Adom, where she has volunteered for four years, including during the war, and where she is now a paramedic.

“My thing to the country will never stop,” she said. “I will always give to my country during my life with the advocacy, with the Magen David Adom.”  

She also wants to encourage wider service. “I will also be wanting to promote to put all Arabs in the army and all Israeli civilians no matter what their… background is, just to go serve.”  

When asked about misinformation among young people, Atia drew on a recent trip to Germany, where she spoke alone to several schools. “I was standing in front of 500 people. The only Israeli. No one was with me. No Israeli ambassador…  I was by myself there,” she said.  

Her message was that Israel cannot be understood through social-media fragments. “The young generation is really, really feeding from the news from the social media. I’m sorry. They don’t really get the whole picture,” Atia said.  

“The big picture is so much more complicated than it seems,” she said. “It’s not like a black and white kind of picture.”  

“And I think you just need to come to Israel to see for yourself what is actually happening here,” she added. “The whole big picture is not perfect, that’s for sure. It’s really, really complicated, but just understand the big thing and then decide whatever you want to decide.”  

Atia plans to move to London for four years to continue her advocacy, develop a startup she began at 15 and begin her studies, while remaining engaged in Israeli public life. 

The Begin Center gathering celebrated a relationship already built through commerce, culture, education, tourism, and people-to-people contact. It also made a larger claim: that public diplomacy gains force when it is rooted in durable local partnerships rather than delivered as a one-way message.

Moshe’s speech signals that his efforts are becoming more firmly rooted in Jerusalem. By year’s end, he said, Israel House plans to move into the National Institutions Building, working alongside other bodies on public diplomacy and the fight against antisemitism. “Moving to Jerusalem, just like holding this conference in Jerusalem, is entirely natural,” he said.  

For Moshe, the next chapter is not an abstract policy aspiration. It is an effort to replicate the relationship he has spent three and a half decades building between Israel and Georgia.  

“The next year I want to make copy-paste for this relation for this success to the other 100 countries in the world.”  

This post was originally published on here. 

The world is bombarded with contradictory messages, and the messengers seem more confused by the day: Iran won, the US won, Israel lost, US President Donald Trump caved, Vice President JD Vance took over. Let’s ask a few simple questions: Who is in a better position today than on October 7, 2023?

Is Iran better off than it was on October 7? Iran is weaker by nearly every military and leadership metric. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strike of Operation Roaring Lion in February 2026, following the June 2025 12-day war. The unseen Mojtaba, Khamenei’s son, has “taken over,” and dozens of top commanders have been killed across two rounds of strikes since 2023.

Iran’s air defenses were largely destroyed, its nuclear program was set back twice, and its Axis of Resistance – Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis – has been badly degraded, while Assad’s Syria collapsed. The economy absorbed months of war, blockade, and a closed Strait of Hormuz.

The regime did not collapse, despite predictions. But society is in turmoil, with hard-liners attacking the US agreement as a sellout, protesting in Tehran and Mashhad, and blaming Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf for the death of the assassinated supreme leader.

Iran insists it maintains its current nuclear status while the US holds off on new sanctions, but the ledger is stark: lost leadership, lost air defenses, lost proxies, lost nuclear infrastructure, and a battered economy. Iran is substantially worse off than it was on October 7, short of total defeat.

Hezbollah, Hamas worse off after Israeli action

Is Hezbollah better off? Unambiguously no. It lost most of its senior leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah and his successors, in 2024, suffered severe losses to its feared 250,000-rocket arsenal and pager-linked command structure, and now faces sustained pressure from the Lebanese government, backed by the US, to disarm. It has slowed disarmament south of the Litani River and rejects disarming north of it, but it is negotiating from weakness, while Israel still holds positions and strikes inside Lebanon.

Is Hamas better off? In terms of capability and leadership, it is devastated: The feared Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Sinwar, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, Ra’ad Sa’ad, Abu Obeida, and Saleh al-Arouri are all dead. Gaza is leveled, with deaths reported above 73,000, against Israel’s claim of roughly two to three civilians killed per Hamas combatant. Hamas formally agreed to give up governing Gaza and to disarm.

Yet Hamas avoided elimination, rejected the demilitarization framework, and has been rapidly rebuilding civil and military structures by controlling humanitarian aid distribution to keep the population dependent. It controls only 46% of the Gaza Strip. By any normal measure of strength, Hamas is worse off.

What costs did Israel pay after October 7?

Is Israel better off? Militarily, it achieved what looked unthinkable on October 7: repeatedly killing Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ leadership, striking deep into Iran to kill its supreme leader, and setting back its nuclear program twice. The hostage ordeal that haunted Israeli society for more than two years also came to an end. Of the 251 hostages taken on October 7, 168 returned alive, while, tragically, 87 were recovered only as remains.

The costs have been profound: 1,152 military personnel killed, 6,424 wounded, immense economic strain, societal exhaustion, and the absence of any durable political settlement. Still, Israel comes out ahead of all three: Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are all weaker than they were on October 7, 2023.

The most troubling development may not be military at all. It is the raw Jew-hatred released and spread after October 7: an estimated 2.2 billion people, 46% of the world’s adult population, harbor antisemitic attitudes today, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Most alarming, these prejudices are hardening among younger millennials and Gen Z, suggesting this is not an older generational holdover but something actively renewing itself.

Israel’s best outlook lies in its unique soft power and covenant bridges with global Bible-believing evangelical communities. These communities have remained steadfast in their support, not because Israel is perfect but because they believe the Bible predicted it all. Despite a world increasingly shaped by raw hatred, this soft power may prove to be Israel’s most strategic asset.

Albert Veksler is the global director of the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, CEO and founder of JPBM Consulting, and executive director of Global Aliyah.

This post was originally published on here. 

Washington has been working to ensure that the Trump-backed Hamas disarmament plan prevents another October 7-style attack, senior US officials told reporters during a Thursday evening press conference.

“When we met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team, we said, ‘We need to obviously focus on getting the hostages released. We need to get the the bodies home, and we need to also make sure that this [the October 7 massacre] never happens again,'” a senior US official said, adding that the deal is intended to “really change the game in Gaza.”

A senior US official said Hamas initially had significant concerns about whether Israel would honor its commitments, leading to “very delicate negotiations” with the terror group.

Senior US officials argued that the proposal differs from previous approaches because of its strategic framework and its disciplined, intensive implementation.

They also praised the agreement for having “unified the Arab world.”

“There was a lot of criticism, particularly from Israel, when Turkey and Qatar joined the Board of Peace, but they, along with Egypt, have been essential partners in keeping the ceasefire together,” a senior US official said.

This “gives us a pathway to continue building trust in a place where there is no trust in order to move forward.”

BoP calls Gaza disarmament deal a ‘breakthrough’

A senior Board of Peace (BoP) official also praised the breakthrough agreement, highlighting the cooperation of several Middle Eastern countries.

“There were many concerns within Hamas, and this was a delicate negotiation over the past several months that brought us to this breakthrough. In the coming weeks, we will move forward to advance its implementation.”

“We consulted with all the countries of the region, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Emirates, and others,” the senior BoP official added. “They all helped us, from their perspective, understand the Gaza issue, and the entire implementation of this agreement is a regional effort.”

Senior US officials said previous proposals relied on “NGOs and terrorists,” making them inherently dysfunctional.

With the creation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Palestinian-led government, there is a real alternative to the Palestinian Authority: “a technocratic, apolitical government that’s really looking to do this,” a senior US official said.

“We don’t want Hamas to regenerate. We need to change the way this works, and one of our goals is to get Gaza completely off aid.”

Instead, officials said reconstruction will focus on developing Gaza’s workforce through job training, education, healthcare, and other essential services.

Senior US officials added that the Board of Peace’s goal is to “hold Israel to its commitments as well,” serving as a “fair broker” while giving Gazans “a chance at having a good life there.”

“It [Gaza] could be a very, very peaceful and exciting place,” a senior US official said.

However, senior US officials emphasized that “one of the important things for Israel is that it will not withdraw as long as there is a Hamas threat; Israel’s withdrawal will occur according to a schedule to be determined later.”

“We are not asking Israel for anything right now except for its agreement to Trump’s original plan that brought the hostages home, Trump’s 20-point plan,” senior US officials said.

Deal will decommission terror weapons, hand tunnels over to the International Stabilization Force

A senior Board of Peace (BoP) official said the agreement was built on the “basis of zero trust” between Hamas and Israel.

“For the first time, Hamas and the Palestinian factions have agreed to accept this entire framework and have agreed on a way to implement it,” the senior BoP official said. “And that framework includes everything from demilitarization and de-radicalization to the transfer of civilian authority in Gaza and to the transfer of security authority in Gaza as well to the national committee.”

According to the senior BoP official, the deal’s most significant achievement is establishing a complete monopoly over weapons while ensuring Hamas fully exits governing Gaza.

“A lot of the roadmap deals with the issues related to weapons, to weapons belonging to the police, heavy weapons, tunnels, personal weapons, militias, etc. We’ve left no gray zone in these issues in the roadmap,” the senior BoP official said.

The roadmap also includes a phased process to decommission heavy weapons, dismantle weapons depots, and eliminate Gaza’s tunnel network, the senior BoP official said.

“Heavy weapons and the tunnels, the handling of which will be entrusted to the International Stabilization Force, and the personal weapons in Gaza, will be handled under Palestinian law,” the senior BoP official added.

A senior US official added that all armed factions in Gaza would need to be demilitarized and all of their weapons decommissioned.

The proposal has been explored extensively, the senior US official said. The next phase is implementation, including the halting of all military activity in Gaza. The Sharm el-Sheikh protocol, the senior US official said, includes commitments from both Israel and Hamas, as well as the Palestinian factions, to halt military activity in the Strip.

For Israel, that also includes facilitating humanitarian aid and provisional assistance.

“We want to be very clear that as the NCAG comes in, it not only takes off responsibility for things in Gaza, but it actually has the freedom to operate and work effectively,” a senior BoP official said.

Another senior BoP official said the Palestinian Authority must reform before it can ultimately assume responsibility in the Gaza Strip.

“The NCAG is a transitional authority,” the senior BoP official said. Hamas stepping away from government will “reignite the prospect for a political solution for the Palestinian people. The political horizon comes when the PA is reformed and is able to take over its responsibilities in Gaza.”

Internal Gazan social peace agreement to be implemented

A senior BoP official said the roadmap also includes an internal social peace agreement between Gaza’s factions, an aspect that has received little public attention.

The agreement will “protect them from internal violence and call on them to refrain from acts of revenge, show of force, military parade, and armed demonstrations,” all of which have “destabilized the whole process.”

The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will be prepared and supervised by the Board of Peace and the National Committee “in accordance with international standards,” the senior BoP official added.

Asked about reports that Iran had urged Hamas not to rush into an agreement, a senior US official said Tehran had effectively abandoned the terror group.

“They can’t afford to keep them going,” the senior US official said. “Hamas understood that it needed to do what’s good for it. Everything Khamenei has touched in the Middle East has turned into a disaster for the people living there.”

Senior US officials added that “there was intensive planning every day to create a successful Gaza. We raised funds, soldiers for the international stabilization force, and we trained local Palestinian forces to take the reins from Hamas.”

Deal is a ‘historic step,’ officials say

“This is an amazing historic step, with the aim that all the tunnels will be eliminated, the weapons will be collected, and we will be engaged in building houses and apartments and not terrorism against Israel.”

Asked about the implementation timeline, senior US officials said, “We will do it right, as quickly as possible. It is complex. In the coming weeks we will summarize the details and hope to see the process carried out in the next month or two.”

Full implementation of the agreement is expected to take between 200 and 300 days, according to senior US officials.

“Everything depends on completing things step by step; no stage will begin before the previous one is finished,” they said.

This post was originally published on here. 

Likud gained two seats this week, rising to 22, amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, his meeting with US President Donald Trump, and the party’s campaign against the Democrats following their primaries.

Despite Likud’s gains, the coalition bloc remained unchanged at 49 seats, according to a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4All. 

The change bloc also fell short of the 61 seats needed for a majority, receiving 57 seats. However, the Zionist Home party, led by Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel, crossed the electoral threshold with four seats, potentially giving the bloc a majority.

New party led by center-right could gain four seats

The poll also found that a new party led by Benny Gantz, Ayelet Shaked, Yuli Edelstein, and Dedi Simchi would receive 3.8% of the vote, equivalent to four seats.

The new party’s most significant effect would be to push Tropper and Hendel’s party below the electoral threshold, with only 2.4% support.

Under that scenario, the coalition bloc would gain one seat, rising to 50. The Zionist opposition bloc would lose one seat, falling to 56, while the Arab parties would remain at 10 seats.

Who should lead the center-left bloc?

Among respondents planning to vote for opposition parties, 45% said Gadi Eisenkot should lead the center-left bloc in the next Knesset election. Naftali Bennett was chosen by 25%, followed by Avigdor Liberman with 11% and Yair Golan with 10%. An additional 9% said they did not know.

Bennett led Netanyahu by five percentage points when respondents were asked who was better suited to serve as prime minister, receiving 44% support compared with Netanyahu’s 39%. The gap was one percentage point wider than in the previous poll.

Eisenkot led Netanyahu by 10 percentage points, receiving 48% support compared with Netanyahu’s 38%. This was the largest gap recorded since the poll began comparing the two.

Netanyahu led Liberman with 43% support, compared with 39% for Liberman.

The poll was conducted on July 29 and 30 among 501 respondents representing Israel’s adult population, including Jews and Arabs. The maximum sampling error was 4.4 percentage points.

This post was originally published on here. 

Ukraine hopes a new push for ceasefire talks with Russia could halt the five-year war before a potentially brutal winter, but needs new anti-ballistic missiles now to defend against strikes by Moscow, the country’s envoy to Washington said on Thursday.

Olha Stefanishyna told reporters that Ukraine was in discussions with the Pentagon about a license to produce Patriot PAC-3 missiles itself, but that process could take 12 months to five years. Discussions were also underway about Ukraine agreeing to a long-term purchase of PAC-3 missiles, and then swapping positions in the production line with another buyer.

Officials from Patriot maker Raytheon Co had already been to Ukraine, and Lockheed Martin Corp, which builds the PAC-3 interceptors for the air defense system, was working to send a team of experts to the country as well, Stefanishyna told an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

“The devastating effect of every overnight attack right now is unbelievable,” Stefanishyna said. “Last night and the night before, it was 30 to 40 ballistic missiles.”

While Ukraine was able to defend against Iranian– and Russian-built drones, it had not yet developed an effective way to defend against ballistic missiles, whose production is being rapidly increased by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He has an intention to destroy Ukraine, and that’s why, you know, we’re looking for different capabilities. We have been successful in everything, but so far, for this winter, we need the missiles.”

Zelensky meets Trump in new diplomatic effort to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to push for new air defenses against the escalating Russian attacks, and to jumpstart a new diplomatic effort to end the war.

That could include a potential visit by US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kyiv, Stefanishyna said. No date had been set for Kushner and Witkoff’s visit, but it could happen as early as next week or later, she said.

Zelensky repeated his offer to halt the fighting at the existing battle lines, and use that as a starting point for discussions, Stefanishyna said, while stressing the need to take action before the approaching winter.

Stefanishyna confirmed Ukrainian media reports that she had offered to resign from her post just a year after taking over as Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, saying she would return to Ukraine to defend herself against corruption allegations involving some personal property declarations.

She said Zelensky had not asked for her resignation and did not want her to leave her post, but she felt it best for her and her family to “defend my case” in person.

Trump unsure about allowing Ukraine to build Patriot missiles

Trump said he was “not sure” he would let Ukraine build Patriot missiles, The Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing a phone call with him.

Trump also said his envoys Kushner and Witkoff would visit Ukraine for the first time in the coming days, the FT said.

“It’s a very extraordinary weapon, and we have to be a little bit careful of who we license to,” the president said in his comments to FT.

This post was originally published on here. 

Almost three years after October 7, Israel continues to face one of the most severe manpower shortages in its history. Yet after two years of unprecedented legal pressure, economic sanctions, mass draft orders, and repeated Supreme Court intervention directed at the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, enlistment has not increased on the scale policymakers had hoped.

Whatever one’s views of the recent legislation concerning Torah study or the temporary suspension of mass arrests of haredi draft evaders, the central question should no longer be who is right. It should be whether Israel’s current strategy is producing the security outcomes the country urgently needs.

For the past two years, Israel has effectively conducted a national policy experiment. The assumption was simple: Greater legal and economic pressure would produce greater enlistment. Yet the expected breakthrough never came. Perhaps it is time to ask not how pressure can be increased, but whether policymakers have spent too much energy debating coercion and too little time understanding what actually produces participation.

Israel’s security environment has fundamentally changed

The answer begins with recognizing that Israel’s security environment has fundamentally changed. October 7 demonstrated that Israel needs far more than additional infantry soldiers. It needs a new security manpower architecture capable of sustaining a prolonged, multifront conflict.

Israel requires tens of thousands of additional reservists to defend communities, strategic facilities, and the home front against future infiltration scenarios. It needs personnel for base security, emergency response, civil defense, logistics, intelligence support, and advanced technological warfare. At the same time, the country’s expanding defense industries require thousands of skilled workers to sustain long-term military readiness.

The question is no longer simply how many haredim can be drafted into conventional military service. It is how the haredi community can become an integral part of Israel’s broader security ecosystem.

For many within the community, the issue is experienced not primarily as a legal obligation but as one of communal identity, cultural continuity and the preservation of a way of life centered on Torah study. As long as the state and the haredi community define the problem differently, even well-intentioned policies will struggle to generate broad participation.

Approximately 70% of married haredi men in the workforce are willing to serve

One development after October 7 deserves far more attention than it has received.

In the months immediately following the attacks, more than 6,000 working haredi men approached the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seeking to volunteer for reserve service. They were not responding to draft orders or legal sanctions. They came forward voluntarily, motivated by a desire to contribute during Israel’s greatest security crisis in decades. Yet only a small fraction were ultimately recruited, and those who were accepted generally received only basic training.

This was not an isolated phenomenon. Ironically, while the national debate has focused overwhelmingly on drafting full-time yeshiva students, it has largely overlooked the much larger population of working haredi men.

A survey conducted by the Institute for Strategy and Haredi Policy found that approximately 70% of married haredi men in the workforce expressed a willingness to serve in reserve frameworks adapted to their circumstances. Based on those findings, the institute, together with senior former officials and experts from Israel’s defense establishment, developed a practical plan to recruit approximately 15,000 haredi reservists for home-front defense, base protection and other essential security missions.

The proposal went further. It outlined a broader strategy for integrating tens of thousands of haredi men and women into Israel’s national resilience infrastructure, including emergency response systems and the country’s rapidly expanding defense industries—areas that have become increasingly critical since October 7. Yet while the public debate continued to revolve around coercion and legal confrontation, these proposals received remarkably little attention.

Their significance extends well beyond a single policy proposal. Programs such as Kodcode prepare haredi men for elite technology and intelligence roles. Maalot Tzur integrates vocationally trained recruits into essential engineering and technical positions. The IDF is also examining frameworks for large-scale haredi service in base protection, freeing combat soldiers for front-line missions. These are not theoretical ideas. They are existing models that demonstrate how adapted frameworks can produce meaningful participation.

The country needs practical results

Supporters of the recent legislation argue that its purpose is not to provide a permanent solution but to reduce tensions and create the political space needed to expand precisely these kinds of long-term frameworks. Whether that assessment proves correct remains to be seen. Still, it reflects a broader strategic question that deserves far more attention.

Israel’s security establishment cannot afford to confuse legal victories with strategic success. Nearly three years into a prolonged regional conflict, the country needs practical results rather than increasingly polarized arguments.

If two years of escalating pressure have failed to generate the manpower Israel urgently requires, perhaps the national conversation should shift from how to punish nonparticipation to how to build participation at scale.

The central question is no longer who wins the argument over the haredi draft. It is whether Israel is prepared to build a security strategy broad enough to mobilize every part of its society for the challenges ahead.

Eli Paley is the publisher of the Mishpacha international media group and the founder and chairman of The Institute for Strategy and Haredi Policy.

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Human-caused climate change made the extreme weather fueling wildfires in southwestern France twice as likely, and made the conditions driving blazes in central Spain 20 times more likely, scientists said on Friday.

Ongoing wildfires in Spain and France have forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and scorched huge swathes of land.

The World Weather Attribution group of scientists used historical weather observations to assess how “fire-prone” hot, dry, and windy conditions, which indicate how difficult it is to suppress a fire once it starts, have changed over time.

Greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning coal, oil, and gas, have increased the planet’s average temperature to around 1.4 Celsius above pre-industrial times, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

In today’s climate, extreme fires of this intensity are likely to occur once every 20 years in southwestern France, and once every six years in central Spain, the analysis said.

“We’ve seen repeatedly how climate change increases hot, dry, flammable conditions that are extremely conducive to wildfires,” said Clair Barnes, a research associate ​in extreme weather at Imperial ​College London, who co-authored ⁠the WWA analysis.

“What’s unique about this case is that it’s still early in the season – and with another heatwave looming, these findings are extremely scary,” Barnes added.

Mitigating wildfires requires landscape management, WWA says

An increasingly important driver of Europe’s wildfire risk is the pattern of a wet winter – which supports vegetation growth – followed by a dry spring and summer, which dries out this vegetation, leaving forests stocked with large volumes of highly flammable fuel for fires.

Reducing wildfire risk therefore requires not only an emergency firefighting response, but more work to prevent fires “through risk-sensitive landscape planning and management,” the WWA analysis said. That could include clearing forests of dried-out vegetation ahead of the wildfire season.

Spain had its wettest January for 25 years this year, followed by a summer that the country’s meteorological agency has said is the hottest on record. France, too, is currently suffering its fourth heatwave of the year.

Recent scientific studies have confirmed human-caused climate change has made Europe’s hot and dry conditions in recent months more likely.

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Officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) urged Hamas delegation members not to sign Thursday’s disarmament deal, Axios reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the matter. 

Hamas representatives reportedly met with IRGC officials on a recent visit to Iran for the funeral of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Axios reported, adding that a senior US official also claimed Iran tried to convince Hamas not to sign the deal, but said the group chose not to listen.

‘Lasting peace, security’: BoP reaches ‘historic’ Hamas disarmament deal, Trump announces

The Board of Peace reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday night in a post to Truth Social.

“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,”  Trump wrote.

Hamas, Palestinian factions agree to entire outline for first time

Senior White House Board of Peace officials told The Jerusalem Post that “Hamas had a lot of concerns. It took months of delicate negotiations to bring us to this breakthrough and we will move in the coming weeks to advance its implementation.”

“We spoke with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” the officials went on. “We wanted to cut off the transfer of funds directly to Hamas.”

The officials added that “there was intensive planning every day to create a successful Gaza, we raised funds, soldiers for the international stabilization force, we trained local Palestinian forces to take the reins from Hamas.”

Idan Kweller and Miriam Sela-Eitam contributed to this report.

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Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif stated that Israel and India have maintained a long-standing military partnership against Pakistan, describing both countries as Islamabad’s enduring adversaries.

He said their defense cooperation has evolved over several decades and should not be seen as a recent development.

Asif made the comments in an interview with the Urdu edition of the British publication The Independent, days after former Israeli Air Force officers publicly disclosed details of Israel’s military assistance to India during the 1999 Kargil War.

In an exclusive interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV on July 26, former Israeli Air Force officers Ami, a former program manager at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and Shlomo, a former Mirage squadron commander, said Israel provided equipment and technical support to the Indian Air Force during Kargil War.

Ami said a defense project launched in 1996 was transformed into an emergency mission after the conflict erupted, prompting Israel to expedite the integration of Litening Targeting Pods and other systems on India’s Mirage 2000 fighter jets.

The two former officers said they were publicly discussing Israel’s role in the conflict for the first time.

India, Israel hostile towards Pakistan, defense minister claims

Responding to the revelations, Asif said they confirmed that cooperation between India and Israel against Pakistan was not a recent development.

He said the disclosures by the former Israeli officials demonstrated that the two countries had long shared a common hostility toward Pakistan. “It existed before Kargil, continued throughout the conflict, and remains in place today,” he said.

He argued that “If you look at the international landscape today, both countries are isolated. India, too, is isolated and lacks direction on the global stage,” Asif said. “It has lost whatever limited international standing it once had. Pakistan occupies an important position internationally today, and this reflects an extraordinary achievement by our leadership.”

Asif has stirred controversy over harsh criticism of Israel. He posted on X on April 10: “Israel is evil and a curse for humanity.” He added, “I hope and pray people who created this cancerous state on Palestinian land… burn in hell.” The post was later deleted; however, it was denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Following the X post, Asif restated his stance in the Pakistani parliament, arguing that the Muslim world should recognize India and Israel as its “true and eternal enemies.”

Pakistan claims India using Israeli drones

During the brief conflict with India in May 2025, Pakistan also claimed that New Delhi had deployed Israeli-made drones.

In a statement issued at the time, the Pakistani military said India launched drone attacks on multiple Pakistani cities on May 8, 2025, using Harop loitering munitions. It said the drones were manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries, an Israeli defense company.

Asif said Pakistan would need to remain mindful of the ongoing strategic cooperation between India and Israel, noting that the two countries were expected to continue coordinating on matters affecting Pakistan’s interests.

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The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit southwestern Japan earlier this week rose to 34 on Friday from 25 previously, the Kumamoto prefecture government said in a statement.

A further six people have been seriously injured by the earthquake that struck late on Tuesday, leading to buildings collapsing, roads rupturing and supply chains getting snarled.

Nearly half of those killed were caught up in two major incidents: Nippon Paper Industries’ paper mill, which suffered major structural damage, and Aeon’s shopping mall, where a possible gas explosion occurred.

The earthquake struck Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on Tuesday with a magnitude of 7.1.

Around 260,000 people were given evacuation orders.

Japan’s gov’t issues warnings as thousands lose power

The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu.

Power to thousands of homes was knocked out, and roads were torn apart across the region. 

Public broadcaster NHK showed several buildings on fire or collapsed, large cracks along roads, including an elevated highway, and a derailed goods train. 

“Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings. Above all, I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location,” Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said, speaking to reporters at her office in Tokyo.

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Gilad Erdan is expected to launch a party of his own next week, after 30 years in Likud and four as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Yuli Edelstein, who did more than any other legislator to block the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) exemption bill, is expected to be on the list.

Ayelet Shaked, the former justice minister who spent a decade as the secular face of the settler Right, was being discussed as a third name a few weeks ago and has since gone over to Benny Gantz, the former army chief of staff who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet in 2024. That should tell you how firm any of this is.

Erdan is not the only one launching. Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper, both ministers in the short-lived government that briefly removed Netanyahu from office in 2021, are building something further to the Left that will probably end up behind Gadi Eisenkot, another former chief of staff, who sat in that war cabinet, resigned from it, and buried a son and a nephew in Gaza. Ofer Winter, who commanded the Givati Brigade, is preparing a run on the other flank, along with two or three others. All of them are chasing the same voters and describing them in the same words: Israelis on the Right with nowhere to go.

I think that claim is about half true, and the half that is true is not the half being sold.

The selling part first: Sharren Haskel, a Knesset member promoting a list of her own, says the pool is worth nine to 12 seats; Shlomo Filber, who ran the Communications Ministry under Netanyahu and later became a pollster, says four to eight. Neither number arrived with a sample or a field date, and both people have an interest in the answer.

The part I believe has less to do with polling than with a couple I know here in Gush Etzion: They are married. Both are religious Zionists, meaning members of the modern Orthodox community that serves in combat units well past its share of the population and has buried a great many of its sons since October 7. Both vote Right, both live in a town that has done well under this government, and they have been fighting with each other since the winter.

She likes Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and will bring up the roads if you push her. What she cannot get past is the conscription bill this coalition keeps advancing, the one that would leave most haredi men out of the army. The ultra-Orthodox have been exempt since 1948 on the grounds of full-time Torah study; the Supreme Court threw that out in 2024, and the government has spent the time since trying to legislate it back.

After this long a war, fought mostly by reservists on their third and fourth tours, no subject in Israeli life cuts deeper. Once she gets going, she moves from the draft to the taxes to the schools that skip mathematics, and then stops herself and says we couldn’t have drafted all of them at once anyway, which nobody asked her to say.

Voters are influenced by party positions on the haredi draft

Her husband wants the haredi sector treated the way Israel treats Iran. Sanctions for 20 years, he says, until they beg to serve.

He is also thinking about voting for Hendel, or for whichever list ends up carrying Eisenkot.

Understand what that means. This is a man well to the Right of his wife on everything touching Judea and Samaria, who has never voted for anything resembling the Center. He cannot drift further Right because the parties to his right are the ones protecting the exemption. So he is looking Left, at men he disagrees with on nearly every other question because they are with him on the one he can no longer let go of.

She has not moved, and I do not think she will. He might. And I hear versions of this constantly now, in the national religious towns, among reservists, at kiddush.

It helps to know what a bloc is, if you are reading this from New York. Israel elects 120 members of Knesset by proportional representation; nobody has ever won a majority, and 61 is the only number that counts. A party falling under the threshold of roughly four seats is wiped out and takes its voters’ ballots with it. After the count, the president asks each party who it recommends to form a government, and those recommendations settle it.

For seven years that recommendation has come down to one question, whether Netanyahu is acceptable, and we have had five elections in four years that were largely a headcount on it.

What the Tachlit Institute found, in data it shared with me, is that the headcount may be a worse description of the electorate than it used to be.

Two findings. The first is bad news for everyone launching a party right now: the undecided pool is not growing. It peaked at 26% in December 2024 and has come down almost every month since, to 16.5% in May. Channel 12 had it at 10% this week.

The second is the one worth arguing about. Among those voters, 51.7% say they want a broad coalition and 17.6% want a narrow ideological one, which is close to the reverse of how committed voters on either side answer.

Key issues influencing Israeli voters

Asked what they care about, they put cost of living first, then the war and personal security, and they rank draft equality and a state commission of inquiry into October 7 far higher than coalition voters do. Judicial reform, the fight that put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets for two years, finishes at the bottom of their list at 4.88%.

These voters are not sorted by the question the political system is still organized around. They are sorted by who serves, who answers for October 7, and what things cost.

That is the fracture. Whether it can be turned into seats is another matter.

The published tests are brutal and contradict each other. The public broadcaster Kan gave an Erdan list five seats on July 12; Channel 12 tested the same names the next day and got 2.8%, under the threshold, with Hendel and Tropper at 2.1% and Gantz at 1%. Shaked’s departure means half those tests describe lists that no longer exist. And Channel 12 puts the share of Israelis prepared to cross from one bloc to the other at roughly 1.3%, which is the figure I would keep in front of me all campaign.

Six or seven vehicles, one seam, and a system that destroys whoever finishes fourth.

And not one of the people building these parties has said plainly whether he would recommend Netanyahu to the president, which in a system where that recommendation is the whole ballgame is conspicuous. You can read it two ways.

Either they are hiding an answer that costs them votes whichever way it falls, or they are trying to get the country to stop organizing itself around the question, and I have spent seven years wishing somebody would.

I lean toward the second reading more than I would have a year ago. But a broad government does not assemble itself out of a subject change, and if neither camp reaches 61 and none of these parties will complete either one, we vote again.

They should say so now rather than in November.

Which brings me back to my friend, who spent 20 minutes explaining why the haredim should be treated like a hostile state and then told me he is considering a party that would put Eisenkot in the Prime Minister’s Office. He probably will not do it. Most people vote the way they have always voted, and the 1.3% figure exists for a reason. But three years ago, nobody in my town said a sentence like that out loud, and now it gets said at the Shabbat table, and the table keeps eating.

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Senior US and Board of Peace officials said Hamas has accepted a roadmap that would ultimately require the dismantling of its military infrastructure, the destruction of tunnels and weapons factories, and its complete withdrawal from governing Gaza.

Israeli officials, however, remain unconvinced that Hamas will ultimately surrender its weapons.

Senior White House and Board of Peace officials on Thursday described the emerging Gaza framework as a “historic breakthrough,” saying Hamas has accepted a roadmap that would culminate in the complete dismantlement of all terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including weapons stockpiles, tunnel networks and weapons production facilities, while relinquishing any governing or military role.

According to the officials, Hamas has agreed to the final version of the roadmap, including its comprehensive disarmament provisions. Israel, they said, has already endorsed the principles of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan and now has little to do beyond waiting for the implementation process to begin.

Still, administration officials acknowledged that Israel remains deeply skeptical: “Israel didn’t believe we’d be able to secure the hostage releases or recover the bodies,” one senior official said. “Now they don’t believe Hamas will actually disarm.”

‘Zero trust’ agreement

The officials repeatedly stressed that the agreement is not built on trust between the parties but rather on conditions, reciprocity and verification. Every stage of implementation will require independent verification before the next phase can begin. If either side fails to fulfill its commitments, the process automatically stops: “This is an agreement built on zero trust,” one official said. “Neither side will be asked to take a step unless the other side’s obligations have been verified.”

‘One authority, one law, one weapon’

The central principle of the roadmap is what officials describe as “One Authority, One Law, One Weapon.” Under the plan, a newly established Palestinian technocratic administration, created under the auspices of the Board of Peace, would eventually hold a complete monopoly over all weapons inside Gaza.

Hamas and all other armed factions would relinquish any civilian or military role. Civil administration and policing would gradually be transferred to the new authority, beginning with the transfer of police weapons before moving on to heavy weapons, ammunition depots, tunnel networks and weapons production facilities.

Clan militias and other armed groups would also be required to surrender their weapons. Officials insisted the framework leaves “no gray areas” that would allow Hamas to retain military capabilities while formally leaving power: “The objective is to prevent a situation where civilians govern Gaza during the day while armed Hamas operatives emerge at night to undermine the new authority,” one official explained.

Israeli withdrawal linked to disarmament

Israeli military withdrawals would take place gradually and only in accordance with verified progress in dismantling Hamas’ military infrastructure.

Board of Peace officials acknowledged that Israel cannot reasonably be expected to withdraw from areas where terrorist infrastructure or armed threats remain.

An International Stabilization Force, led by the United States under a UN-backed mandate, would assist in police training, weapons collection and storage, and serve as a buffer between Israeli and Palestinian forces during the withdrawal process.

Officials said commitments have already been received from multiple countries to contribute more than 5,000 personnel to the force. While the United States will lead planning and command, officials declined to say whether American troops would ultimately deploy inside Gaza.

A detailed implementation timetable is expected within two weeks of formal approval. Officials estimated that the complete disarmament process could take between 200 and 350 days but cautioned against treating those figures as fixed deadlines.
Instead, Gaza would be demilitarized sector by sector, allowing reconstruction to begin in cleared areas before the entire Strip is completed.

Officials: Iran tried to block the agreement

Senior US officials also said Iran attempted to persuade Hamas not to accept the framework. According to the officials, Tehran urged Hamas not to rush into an agreement, but ultimately failed to derail the negotiations.

They argued Iran is no longer capable of providing Hamas with the level of support it once did and that Hamas’ leadership concluded it had to consider both its own future and that of Gaza’s population.

Under Trump’s broader framework, officials noted, an amnesty mechanism would also be available for individuals who meet the agreement’s demilitarization requirements and abandon armed activity.

A technocratic government, without Hamas or the Palestinian Authority

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is intended to serve as a transitional Palestinian technocratic government.

It would replace Hamas in administering civilian affairs, oversee policing and lead Gaza’s reconstruction.

US officials stressed that the Palestinian Authority is not expected to return to Gaza at this stage. Instead, they said, the PA must first implement meaningful reforms and demonstrate effective governance in the West Bank before any future role in Gaza could be considered.

The reconstruction effort will also include a comprehensive audit of Gaza’s public assets, finances and liabilities with assistance from international financial institutions.

Officials said dozens of previous reconstruction plans had been reviewed in an effort to produce a single comprehensive strategy aimed not only at rebuilding Gaza but at creating a functioning economy capable of reducing long-term dependence on international aid.

‘The hardest part begins now’

Officials acknowledged that reaching agreement on the roadmap represents only the first stage.

Negotiations lasted for months, with intensive talks continuing over the final 48 hours before Hamas accepted the final text: “We’ve crossed one mountain, reaching the agreement,” one official said. “Now we have to climb the next one: implementation.”

Washington argues the ultimate objective is to ensure that another October 7-style attack can never occur, while preventing Gaza from once again becoming a military base directed against Israel and creating conditions for long-term economic recovery.

Yet despite the optimism expressed by US officials, the gap between Washington’s expectations and Jerusalem’s skepticism remains significant.

For the White House, Hamas’ acceptance of the roadmap represents a historic diplomatic achievement.

For Israel, however, the real test will come only if Hamas’ weapons, tunnels and military capabilities disappear not only from the agreement, but from Gaza itself.

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Israel’s election campaign has begun, but it has offered a preview of what lies ahead.

An AI-generated Likud campaign video depicted Gadi Eisenkot turning away from a figure wearing an “Israeli unity” shirt and embracing Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas. Critics said the figure resembled Eisenkot’s son Gal, killed in Gaza in December 2023. Likud denied that the resemblance was intentional, and a revised version replaced the figure with a woman.

The incident was cruel and reckless. It also exposed a problem larger than one video or one party.

Israel is entering its first election since the October 7 massacre amid social tension. Artificial intelligence now allows almost anyone to create convincing images, voices, and videos of events that never occurred.

The combination is dangerous.

The Central Elections Committee has taken a first step. Temporary regulations issued by committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg require labels on campaign that has been material digitally created or substantially altered in ways that could be mistaken for authentic content.

Disclosures must be prominent. Labels must remain visible throughout relevant video footage, while audio material must carry a warning at the beginning and end. Failure to disclose may be considered a violation of the law.

These rules are welcome, but they are only a beginning.

Political parties are responsible for misinformation

A label can help voters understand what they see. It cannot prevent misleading content from spreading across Telegram, TikTok, X/Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp before journalists or regulators can respond. Nor does it resolve responsibility when deceptive material appears through unofficial accounts, surrogates, anonymous pages, or supposedly independent organizations.

Political parties must be accountable for material on official channels and coordinated content distributed on their behalf. A campaign should not benefit from a fabricated video and then evade responsibility by blaming supporters or unaffiliated accounts.

The Central Elections Committee must establish a fast, transparent process for complaints involving synthetic media.

Election misinformation moves at digital speed. A ruling delivered weeks after a fabricated recording reaches hundreds of thousands of voters is meaningless.

Penalties must matter. If the only consequence is adding a label or removing a post after it goes viral, campaigns may decide that breaking the rules is worth the advantage.

Social media companies also have a role. They should not judge political arguments or censor lawful speech. But when clear evidence shows that a realistic video falsely portrays a candidate, they must respond swiftly.

These protections require care. Political satire, parody, and artistic expression are legitimate parts of democratic debate. Israelis have always used humor, impersonation, and exaggeration to criticize their leaders. Regulation should not outlaw jokes or protect politicians from embarrassment.

Comedy, caricature, or misinformation

The redline should be deception.

An absurd caricature is not the same as a fabricated recording intended to convince voters that a candidate said something he never said. A comic imitation is not the same as a realistic video manufactured to provoke anger, panic, or violence.

The threat extends beyond domestic campaigning.

President Isaac Herzog has warned that hostile actors inside and outside Israel are seeking to undermine the election and deepen the country’s internal divisions. A State Comptroller’s Office report found that, as of March 2026, Israel lacked a comprehensive national policy and a designated authority to coordinate the response to foreign digital influence campaigns.

Senior Israeli security officials have told The Jerusalem Post that Turkey is attempting to influence the election through social-media activity. They did not identify the accounts involved or say whether the operation was directed by the Turkish government but placed Turkey alongside Iran among the foreign actors suspected of exploiting divisions within Israeli society.

Labeling rules aimed at Israeli parties will not stop foreign governments, anonymous networks, or automated accounts.

Israel needs a coordinated national mechanism to identify foreign influence operations, inform the public, and respond without becoming a partisan instrument.

Every political camp may be tempted to use AI when it offers an advantage. That is why the rules must apply equally to everyone: coalition and opposition, Right and Left, and Jewish and Arab parties alike.

Israelis should choose their leaders based on competing ideas, records, policies, and visions for the country. Political campaigns will always involve spin, selective presentation, and harsh attacks. That is politics.

But democracy depends on a shared factual world.

Citizens must remain free to choose between competing versions of Israel’s future. They cannot be expected to choose between competing versions of reality.

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Israel’s impressive unbeaten run at the FIBA Under-18 European Championship came to an end on Thursday as the blue-and-white squad fell 95-87 to Slovenia in the quarterfinals, ending its hopes of competing for the continental title.

Despite the defeat, coach Nadav Zilberstein’s team still has plenty to play for, as it will now battle for fifth place, with a win in its next game securing a berth at next year’s FIBA U19 World Cup.

Israel entered the knockout clash full of confidence after a strong tournament and an emphatic win over Denmark, but Slovenia proved to be its toughest test yet. The Slovenians were led by standout forward Stefan Joksimovic, who dominated with 28 points and 10 rebounds while helping his team control the glass, finishing with a commanding 50-38 rebounding advantage.

Israel made an encouraging start behind another outstanding performance from David Moses, who scored 24 points, while Aviv Aronov added 20 as the two offensive stars continued the form that had carried the team throughout the tournament.

The Israelis held a narrow lead after the opening quarter before Slovenia rallied to take a 49-44 advantage into halftime.

One more victory could earn Israel a spot at next World Cup

Zilberstein’s players showed the resilience that has defined their tournament, erasing the deficit in the second half and briefly reclaiming the lead at 78-77 early in the fourth quarter. However, Slovenia responded with a decisive run, capitalizing on its rebounding edge and timely shooting to pull away in the closing minutes.

Although the quarterfinal loss ended Israel’s medal aspirations, the tournament has highlighted the promise of another talented generation. Moses has averaged 23.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per game, while Aronov has led the championship in scoring at 24.4 points per contest.

Israel will now shift its focus to the classification games, knowing that one more victory could earn the nation a coveted place at next summer’s FIBA U19 World Cup.

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A secretive US court created 30 years ago to deport suspected terrorists convened for the first time on Thursday, opening a new front in the Trump administration’s effort to remove non-citizens accused of national security threats and expand the president’s immigration agenda.

The hearing, before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, was open to the public and centered on Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old lawful permanent resident accused of supporting Islamic State and helping conceal a failed Election Day 2024 mass shooting plot. Prosecutors say much of the evidence against the Texas woman cannot be publicly disclosed.

Established by Congress in 1996, the court allows the government to rely on classified evidence in deportation cases, a process Haji Zada’s lawyer argued violates due process protections.

Haji Zada, who was in the Washington federal courtroom, has not been charged with any crimes, court documents show, but her son and son-in-law pleaded guilty to related charges last year.

“This entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,” Matthew Farley, the defendant’s attorney, said during the hearing. “This is a runaround to bringing a criminal case.”

Farley quickly asked the court’s chief judge, Joan Ericksen, to dismiss the case and immediately release his client. Ericksen, a federal district judge appointed to oversee the court, denied the request.

Created to handle deportation cases involving classified national security information, the court went unused until Justice Department officials sought Haji Zada’s removal this month. The FBI arrested her at her Fort Worth home on Tuesday.

“The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement before the hearing.

Prosecutors have deemed much of the evidence classified and not safe for public release.

Zada indoctrinated children with ‘ISIS ideology’

In a short unclassified summary of the case, the Justice Department alleged that Haji Zada had indoctrinated her children “with ISIS ideology” and had concealed the radicalization of her family and a planned move to ISIS territory from her husband.

“The underlying information is classified because disclosure would enable terrorists and terrorist organizations to avoid preventative or detection measures or would reveal FBI or other US Intelligence Community sources,” the FBI wrote in a July 15 memo.

The court’s lack of prior cases was evident as the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers spent part of the proceeding resolving basic procedural questions, including how documents would be handled and who could access classified evidence.

It was unclear when the next hearing would take place.

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A major fire at one of the largest kosher meat processing plants in the United States is poised to increase the price of kosher meat ahead of the High Holidays, in addition to devastating the plant’s local community.

Investigators in Postville, Iowa, said on Wednesday that the fire that devastated AgriStar Processing started accidentally in the facility’s laundry room. The fire, which began on Tuesday, destroyed at least 75% of the plant and has put more than 600 people out of work, Fire Chief Jeff Bohr told the local TV network KCRG.

The fire has also interrupted a linchpin of kosher meat production, according to OU Kosher, the oversight agency run by the Orthodox Union.

“The damaged facility means a significant portion of kosher beef and chicken slaughtered and sold in the US will not enter the kosher supply chain,” Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Kosher consumers will feel the impact of the tightening supply with reduction of availability.”

Elefant said OU Kosher was working to “find solutions for ramping up production at other plants” while warning that the crisis could fuel bad actors. 

A large fire broke out at the Agri Star meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. The company says disruptions to distribution are expected. Agri Star, one of the world’s largest kosher meat packing plants, was acquired from the Rubashkin family in 2009. pic.twitter.com/kiiS657LIP

— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) July 28, 2026

“Unfortunately, when supply is limited, it creates opportunity for unscrupulous individuals who seek to make money by preying on the well-meaning Kosher observant public,” he wrote.

Jarad Bernstein, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, said the fire represented “a terrible situation” in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“The impact on the local community and the business will be large,” he said.

Not AgriStar’s first crisis

The fire is not the first time that a crisis at AgriStar has sent the community into a tailspin. In 2008, a federal immigration raid at the plant, then known as Agriprocessors, netted the arrest of hundreds of workers and led to the arrest and conviction of the company’s longtime CEO Sholom Rubashkin on 86 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. It also led most of Postville’s Jewish residents to leave the town, which had developed as an unusual stronghold of Orthodox life in eastern Iowa.

Saying that “many people” believed Rubashkin’s 27-year prison sentence had been excessive, US President Donald Trump commuted Rubashkin’s sentence in 2017. Rubashkin’s conviction stands.

Canadian Jewish billionaire Hershy Friedman purchased Agriprocessors and reopened it as Agri-Star. He told JTA in 2016 that he had done so after being urged by Jewish leaders to ensure competition in the kosher meat processing industry.

“It wasn’t done for financial purposes; it was done to really cater to the Jewish community,” he said about the purchase. “During the time Rubashkin was closed, the price of beef roughly doubled. After we acquired it, it came right back down.”

Agriprocessors a target of animal rights activists

Friedman also said he had shored up the company’s employment practices, which had run afoul of the law, and made improvements to the slaughter process that had made Agriprocessors a target of animal rights activists.

Agri-Star said in a statement on Wednesday that it appreciated the first responders who “worked tirelessly and selflessly to protect lives and contain the fire” and the employees who had shown “inspiring” care for each other. It also indicated that it did not yet know the future of the plant.

“We understand there are many questions about what comes next,” Agri-Star wrote on social media. “While we are still gathering information and evaluating our short-term plans, we are committed to sharing verified updates as soon as they become available. We appreciate your patience as we work through this process thoughtfully and responsibly.”

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The Board of Peace reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday night in a post to Truth Social.

“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,”  Trump wrote.

He added that the agreement marks a “critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people.”

“At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.”

According to Trump, the agreement will be carried out in “carefully structured phases.”

As Hamas disarms, Trump said in his post, the IDF will withdraw from the Gaza Strip and International Stabilization Force (ISF) will begin to work with “a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”

Trump thanked Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey and his “outstanding team” for their efforts as mediators.

“The threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild!” Trump wrote. “Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE.”

Hamas, Palestinian factions agree to entire outline for first time

Senior White House Board of Peace officials told The Jerusalem Post that “Hamas had a lot of concerns. It took months of delicate negotiations to bring us to this breakthrough and we will move in the coming weeks to advance its implementation.”

“We spoke with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” the officials went on. “We wanted to cut off the transfer of funds directly to Hamas.”

The officials added that “there was intensive planning every day to create a successful Gaza, we raised funds, soldiers for the international stabilization force, we trained local Palestinian forces to take the reins from Hamas.”

“This is an amazing historic step, with the aim that all the tunnels will be eliminated, the weapons will be collected and we will be engaged in building houses and apartments and not terrorism against Israel.”

“We worked with Israel the whole time, they are skeptical that Hamas will disarm, but not much they can do except see it happen, Israel signed, Hamas signed, there is a commitment here,” senior officials told the Post. “This is a historic breakthrough.

“We started with the 20-point plan,” they said. “We moved to complex negotiations and we heard from day one about the absolute lack of trust. So we built it on a foundation of zero trust alongside verification and assurance.”

“For the first time, Hamas and the Palestinian factions agreed to accept the entire outline and the path to implementing it,” a Board of Peace official told the Post.

Israel demands full Hamas disarmament as withdrawal condition

Earlier on Thursday, a diplomatic source told the Post that Israel has demanded the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, as a precondition for any withdrawal process.

The 15-point document under discussion does not adequately address these demands, and Israel conveyed its reservations on the matter to former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who is serving as an envoy.

A separate diplomatic source told the Post that there “will be no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people. One authority, one law, one weapon.”

According to an Axios report from earlier on Thursday, under the agreement, the IDF would withdraw back to the Yellow Line, where it was positioned following last October’s ceasefire. Any further withdrawal would only occur after Hamas’s complete disarmament. 

Axios added that Israel would also halt assassinations of Hamas members in the Gaza Strip, unless in the occasion of an imminent threat.

This is a developing story.

Amichai Stein contributed to this report.

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Maccabi Haifa had a rough season last year as they finished in fifth place in league play and missed out on competing in European qualifiers. Along with the disappointing results, the supporters were unhappy, to say the least, with how the campaign had been managed from top to bottom.

The Greens have already endured an 0-2 start to the new 2026/27 season, losing their first two Toto Cup games, 3-2 in the Haifa derby and then 3-0 to Kiryat Shmona. However, despite the losses, Haifa believes it has plenty to build on after holding its season-opening press conference at the Kfar Galim Training Center. Head coach Barak Bachar and sports director Lior Refaelov spoke about how they view the upcoming campaign after experiencing a season well below the club’s lofty standards.

“It’s great to begin anew,” Bachar began. “We had a couple of very tough seasons, and we needed to learn from what went wrong. We also had to make some serious changes, both at our training center in Kfar Galim and with our staff. We know that we will be judged by our results. We wanted to bring in players with a specific profile for the club, and we feel that we found the right players, but of course we will only know for sure once we are on the pitch.”

“There are times when you need to know how to make changes, and that’s what we did. We brought in some new coaches who can raise the standards of our training sessions, and being able to work with Lior Refaelov off the pitch now after he played under me a number of years ago means we can really help build this club back up. We both know what it means to be a part of Maccabi Haifa, and we will do our best to create the right system and procedures. We put all of our failures on the table after last season, and we knew what we needed to do together to begin making the necessary changes.”

Refaelov also shared his thoughts on the new season.

“We’re happy and excited to begin a new season, and we were able to take a lot from last season and learn from it, as it was also my first year in the position. It was not a simple season, and we really tried to get out of what was a crisis while working with a lot of young players. Personally, I feel more prepared this season as a sports director. The beginning of my journey in this role was not easy, but I learned a great deal, and we started making the changes that we needed to.”

Of course, the supporters will be key to the club’s success.

“The connection with our fans is crucial, and we can’t win any title without them. They are an enormous support for the club, and we have to work together as one. I want us to stand side by side with our supporters.”

Assembling the group of players who could help the team win

On the topic of rebuilding the squad from the ground up, Refaelov and the head coach worked hard to assemble the right group of players who could help the club succeed.

“We took the time to figure out how we could reshape the team in a way that complements Barak Bachar’s strengths, and we did that with our selection of foreign players. It’s a mix of youngsters and veterans, and it’s not something we can take for granted in a country where we are unfortunately dealing with one war after another.

“We had a deadline to put together this squad, and that was the start of the Toto Cup, so we could prepare as well as possible for the season ahead. There will be a lot of hard work both on and off the pitch. We want to raise the bar for our success this coming campaign. We will need to be very strong inside and out.”

Bachar reflected once again on last season and acknowledged that both he and Refaelov will ultimately be judged by the results.

“What occurred last season can’t happen again. We are aware of that. We weren’t a balanced team, and that was something I noticed immediately when I came in. We need to defend in a certain way, and that didn’t happen last season. That’s one of my core principles.”

“I’m never one to run away from responsibility,” Refaelov stated. “The start of last season wasn’t ideal. We didn’t play the soccer that we wanted to play. We took the time to really examine our priorities, and we analyzed where players grew up and which youth departments they came through. We also looked at which players can play multiple positions and even the body types of certain players to determine where they fit best.”

Bachar began training camp fairly early because the Greens usually compete in European qualifying, and the overseas location had already been booked well in advance. However, many of the new players had not yet signed. Despite not having a full squad, the bench boss felt the camp was a success and even suggested the club could hold another one later in the season.

“The training camp dates were set well in advance because we thought we’d be playing in Europe. It may not have been ideal that we didn’t have our entire roster finalized at that point, but we still have plenty of time before the league season begins. The Toto Cup will be excellent preparation for us, and that should ensure we’re ready by the end of August. We have a good month now to work on everything we need before the season.”

New crop of players give a new look to the Greens

With a new group of players arriving, including foreigners Wenderson Tsunami, Nigel Lonwijk, Bruninho and Andrija Novakovich, along with Israelis Omri Glazer, Yair Mordechai and Yarin Levy, Bachar and Refaelov are determined to make this a new-look Maccabi Haifa.

One player the pair believes will make an immediate impact is Yarin Levy, who spent last season on loan at Beitar Jerusalem and flourished under then-head coach Barak Itzhaki, emerging as one of the country’s top midfielders.

“I’m so happy to see him back here,” Refaelov said with a smile. “In every conversation I had with him, he said how happy he was to return and how much he wants to succeed with us. I remember that when I came back from Belgium to play for Haifa, he came up from the youth team to train with us.”

The sports director added, “I consider him a new signing, along with the players who have joined us and the loanees who have returned. Almost all of them will be on the pitch together, and we’re building something new here. The rebuilding process is based on young players who have already proven they can perform at this level, and that doesn’t conflict with the competitiveness we want to create. As long as Yarin is with us, I’d be delighted for him to stay here for many years.”

Bachar also discussed Levy’s development

“We’ve only been working together for a month, but he’s one of the players who receives the most individual attention. I regularly sit down with him for video sessions after every training session. He’s made tremendous progress over the past two years. He played for a club like Beitar, with a lot of pressure and high expectations, which is similar to what he’ll experience here. There’s still work to do with him, but he’s a wonderful kid who is very eager to learn. He knows he’s not perfect and wants to improve and correct his mistakes.”

Refaelov also announced that Kenji Gorre, who recently returned from the World Cup, will be one of the team’s captains.

“We just informed him that he will be one of the captains for the upcoming season, together with Omri Glazer and Ali Mohamed. I think he went through a difficult season, but he integrated very quickly into the dressing room. He’s intelligent, very positive, and knows how to separate his personal interests from what’s best for the team.

“We established a number of criteria for what we wanted in a captain, and we came to the conclusion that Kenji is the right person. He returned from the World Cup highly motivated and determined to channel all the energy and experience he gained there into leading the team to a better season together with our supporters while trying to achieve good results and play enjoyable soccer.”

Ultimately, Bachar knows that the proof will be in the results, and the Greens will have to show they are once again capable of competing for the league championship, returning to Europe and challenging for every available trophy.

“The Maccabi Haifa emblem on our shirts speaks for itself when it comes to our goals for the upcoming season. I don’t need to say anything more.”

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

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Hapoel Beersheba defeated Vikingur 2-0 (3-2 on aggregate) in UEFA Champions League second round qualifying late Wednesday night to advance to the third round, where Red Star Belgrade will be waiting.

The Southern Reds had a tough time breaking through the Icelandic defense but finally did so in the second half when Zahi Ahmed and Amir Ganah both scored late goals to see Ron Kozuk’s side through to the next round of qualifying.

With the victory, Hapoel Beersheba guaranteed European play this season as it will, at worst, participate in the Conference League league stage should it lose in the next two ties in the third round of Champions League qualifying and the playoff round of the Europa League. However, after taking out Vikingur, the sky’s the limit for the squad, and the Reds can still advance to either the Champions League or Europa League league phase.

Kings Kangwa played his final game with Beersheba and will now head to Panathinaikos, where he will sign a multi-year deal pending medicals, but on the positive side, the club brought in a few million Euros for making it through the second round of the Champions League qualifiers.

Along with the transfer funds, Kozuk will be looking to fill the Zambian’s place in earnest.

Following the match, Kozuk spoke about Beersheba’s accomplishment.

Kozuk credits families after securing European campaign

“The players have secured a European campaign for Hapoel Beersheba after a very, very long time. I’m first and foremost happy for the club. It’s Tu B’Av, so first of all, this is for my wife, who always supports me. Thank you for everything, it’s thanks to her as well, and thanks to the wives and partners of all the players.”

The bench boss also referred to the talk about the club’s poor start to the season.

“There will always be talk. We focus on playing the best football we can. We faced an excellent opponent that’s in the 16th round of its domestic league, so it’s always difficult. Just a small note, in our previous match, the team covered more than 122 kilometers. Those are numbers we usually reach only once or twice a season, and we’re supposedly still in the preparation phase for the Israeli league.

“We’re still building the team because there are many things that need to change and improve, and a large part of that is beyond our control. We’re working very hard to build a strong Hapoel Beersheba side. At the same time, there’s the pressure and the challenge of taking Hapoel Beersheba one step further. We’ve talked about it a lot over the past two years, and thank God we’ve done it. I’m very proud of my players. They’ve gone through some very difficult days, and I wasn’t easy on them either. I’m incredibly proud of their performance today, and congratulations on reaching the league stage.”

Kozuk also spoke about what changed in the second half.

“At halftime I calmed the guys down. The Icelandic team came out pressing hard again, but that was part of our game plan. We knew that as time passed, with the weather and the pitch conditions, they would tire. We saw that in the second half.

“I reminded them of our principles and asked them to keep doing the things we’d talked about before the game. We knew we’d push them deeper, we knew we’d create chances from the flanks, and we knew we had players on the bench who could decide the match. Thank God, that’s exactly what happened.”

The bench boss knows that with Kangwa leaving for Panathinaikos, he will need to improve the roster.

“It’s no secret, we’ll need to strengthen the squad. I’m very happy we’ve secured a place in the league stage, but our ambitions are even higher than that. It won’t be easy; it’ll be very difficult. We’ll face excellent teams, including Red Star. But in football, anything can happen. We’ll be there, we’ll fight, we’ll be brave, and we’ll play our football. God willing, the Holy One has more good surprises in store for us, and that’s what we’re aiming for.”

Beersheba counts on fans for next European challenge

Beersheba had some supporters in the stands for the “home” game in Hungary, but Kozuk is aware that the club will need plenty more to push the team.

“First of all, the fans helped us a lot. They were nervous at the beginning, which is understandable. But the fans need to understand, and this isn’t the first time I’ve said it, that we need their support. The players, the staff, and I all need tremendous support.

“We’re strong, and we know what we need to do, but in the end, the Hapoel Beersheba family isn’t just the coach, the staff, the players, and the owner Alona Barkat. It’s everyone together. The supporters are at the heart of it all, and they need to understand the responsibility they have. I’m happy they came today, and I hope they’ll come to the next match as well, cheer us on, and support us in the difficult moments. That’s incredibly important, and I’m glad we managed to make them happy.”

Kozuk’s dream of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League is still alive and well as the Reds head to the next round.

“It starts with one match against Red Star, and from there you can dream. But to dream, you first have to work very hard. We’ll start with hard work, and then whatever God gives us, we’ll be grateful for.”

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

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A 30-year-old Israeli man was stabbed on the grounds of the OZORA music festival in Hungary, the Fejér County Police announced in a Thursday Facebook post.

“This morning, an employee of the OZORA Festival security service alerted police that an Israeli man in his 30s was stabbed at the event site,” police said in its statement, adding that the Israeli had been evacuated to the hospital by ambulance to receive medical treatment. 

Police said that it had arrested two men suspected of “assault causing life-threatening bodily harm.”

“Their charges are currently pending,” police noted, and the investigation is ongoing.

Further, police announced that it has increased checks and is “continuously cooperating with the organizers to take the necessary security measures” to ensure the safety of festival-goers.

 The Ozora Festival, one of the largest trance and art festivals in Europe, takes place annually in Hungary and attracts thousands of participants from all over the world.

Four arrested in Hungary for drug trafficking

In a separate incident, Hungarian authorities reported several drug-related arrests on the festival grounds.

Three men, a Belgian, an Israeli, and a Portuguese citizen, were arrested on Monday at the festival grounds after being caught selling drugs. Proceedings have been opened against the three for drug trafficking.

On Sunday evening, police in Hungary’s Tolna district arrested a 27-year-old Israeli on the way to the festival in a rented car with German license plates. A search of the vehicle found a significant amount of party drugs, which were suspected to be intended for sale at the event.

Today, the Szekszárd District Court extended the Israeli’s detention by a month, citing fears of him being a flight risk due to the lack of ties to Hungary and concerns about obstructing the investigation.

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Ramin Parsa has lived in Israel since early 2023, where he built a life with his wife and year-old baby and created a vibrant community through volunteer work advocating for Israel and supporting those displaced by October 7 and the wars that followed. However, he has now been told by the Interior Ministry that he must leave the country because he was born in Iran, he told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Parsa has faced years of uncertainty since moving to the Jewish state with his wife, a Messianic Israeli of Jewish heritage, but that has done little to temper his love for Israel.

Far different from what he was brought up to consider normal, Parsa explained that much of his love for the Jewish state stemmed from the stark contrast between Israel and Iran.

In Israel, cranes represent construction, building new homes and businesses, while in his country of birth, they are used to intimidate the population into silence [as they are used for public executions].

From childhood, he told the Post, he remembered seeing the bodies of men, some still kicking as they struggled, hanging from those cranes after being accused of working with Mossad, the United States, or other demonized foreign powers.

“The first time I saw an execution, I was eight or nine years old. I was walking to school when I saw a large crane and a crowd gathering around it. There was a noose hanging from the crane. Then they brought out a man. His eyes were covered with a blindfold; he was dressed in black, and they hanged him,” Parsa recalled.

“I remember watching his legs kick as he died. I was completely traumatized seeing someone killed in front of me. They completely normalized it. They devalued human life.”

Denied Israeli citizenship and facing deportation

Parsa first applied for citizenship in 2024 but was denied a year and a half after submitting his application. The official reason given was that he was born in an enemy state. A court later ruled that the Interior Ministry reconsider the case, but on July 13 he received the outcome of that reassessment: that he must either leave his wife and child behind or uproot them from their family. The family has one final opportunity to appeal on August 27, and if unsuccessful, Parsa will be deported.

The decision, in Parsa’s view, has little to do with his being considered a national security threat, especially given his long history of advocating for Israel and his volunteer efforts following October 7. Rather, he believes it is connected to his faith and reflects a government that is increasingly prioritizing religious considerations over the rights and security of the Israeli people.

Israel’s relationship with Evangelical Christians

The decision is “because we’re Christians, and they’re afraid, and the Ministry of Interior is run by the Shas party, they’re religious, and they’re very anti-Messianic, anti-Christian,” he said. “They’re afraid of Christians; they’re afraid of the messianics, afraid they may want to convert them.”

Parsa argued that if his goal had been to convert people, there were far more potential converts in the United States than in Israel, and he has American citizenship, so it would be far easier.

He also recalled that many evangelical volunteers faced significant obstacles from the Interior Ministry when they attempted to enter Israel to assist in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, massacre.

With Palestinians barred from working in Israel, foreign workers leaving because of the war, and communities along the borders devastated by the Hamas invasion and Hezbollah attacks, many farmers came to rely on foreign volunteers to harvest crops and help sustain Israel’s agricultural sector. Parsa took on the role of cooking thousands of meals for the displaced, and he used his platform to advocate for Israel at a time when many were outraged by the war in Gaza.

“Right now, Israel’s strongest supporters are evangelical Christians. By doing this, they’re damaging Israel’s reputation and giving more ammunition to anti-Israel activists and antisemites, who will say, ‘See? We told you. Look at what they’re doing to Christians.’ We don’t want that,” he said.

“We don’t want Israel to be attacked or demonized. We know this doesn’t represent all of Israel. It’s a very small group, whether it’s certain religious figures or people within the Interior Ministry making these kinds of decisions.”

Since moving to Israel, Parsa has been unable to work or travel, including to events where he was invited to advocate for Israel, and has had to live under the constant weight of uncertainty.

When approached, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry only told the Post that the ministry doesn’t comment on individual cases.

Moving to Israel after fleeing Iran

Explaining how he came to live in a country he had been taught to view as the “Little Satan,” Parsa described the violence and near-constant antisemitic and anti-Israel indoctrination that shaped his upbringing. He said he was taught that Jews hunted Muslim children for their blood to make matza, shown staged images of Israeli soldiers aiming their weapons at Muslim children, and required to attend rallies where chants of “Death to America, death to Israel” were a condition for passing his classes.

The same brutality that the Islamic Republic accused Israel of committing was what Parsa witnessed in the streets of Iran. Public hangings, floggings, and mutilations for the crime of stealing food were commonplace and widely accepted as normal. Even so, he said the regime’s tight control over information left many believing they were fortunate, while the rest of the world was living in hellish conditions.

Parsa was one of those, until he was arrested at age 16 for simply being in a car where another person was in possession of a small amount of alcohol.

Being arrested at 16 changed Parsa’s view of the Iranian regime

On his way to a family wedding, Parsa was being driven by relatives when forces of the  IRGC paramilitary volunteer militia, Basij, randomly closed the street and began inspecting every vehicle. A coachload of people were detained, including Parsa, for “crimes” such as being in a car with a member of the opposite sex who was not a family member, allowing some hair to slip out from under a hijab, and engaging in any behavior deemed to violate Sharia law.

Despite being only 16 years old and an observant Shi’ite Muslim who had never touched alcohol, Parsa was driven to a holding cell where he said he was stripped naked, beaten, and hosed down with cold water. He said he never appeared before a judge nor was he allowed to defend himself before being locked in a tiny room with other young men. They were given only two eggs a day to eat, very little water, and two short bathroom breaks. He was only released after his family bribed the guards, he said.

“They were mocking and laughing at us. They made us face the wall naked and do sit-ups: up and down, up and down. After 60 or 70 repetitions, you can’t do it anymore. You get muscle cramps, and if you couldn’t continue, they would beat you even more. I was beaten badly, along with my friends and other people there, while they laughed at us and did it with a sense of joy,” he said.

“If someone does something wrong and you punish them, you might do so because you believe they deserve it, but you don’t laugh. You don’t enjoy it. They were gleeful. That was when I saw the cruelty of this regime and realized how truly evil and brutal it was. Everything inside me began to change. I started thinking: Maybe the people they hung from cranes were innocent too, like us. Maybe the people whose hands they cut off or whose eyes they removed were also innocent.”

Converting to Christianity and moving to Israel

The experience left Parsa rejecting all religion, though he would later become a Christian after hearing satellite radio broadcasts about Jesus Christ. His conversion led to threats against his life, including a stabbing, and two years of living as a refugee after he was smuggled out of Iran and into Turkey.

After becoming an American citizen in 2015, Parsa was finally able to visit Israel. He immediately began advocating for the country online, which was how he met his wife in 2020. She sent him a drawing of two hands decorated with Iranian and Israeli flags, symbolizing the love between the Iranian and Jewish peoples, and the rest was history. They met in person five months after he first messaged her online and married eight months later. After spending their first two-and-a-half years as newlyweds in the United States, they returned home to Israel, where her parents have been helping them raise their children.

This post was originally published on here. 

Israel and China rarely view Middle East security through the same strategic lens. Their approaches to Iran, the United States, regional alliances and the international order often point in different directions.

Yet there is one regional actor that increasingly concerns both Jerusalem and Beijing.

Turkey.

The reasons are different. Israel is concerned about Turkey’s expanding regional influence, from its growing military and political role in Syria to its efforts to inject itself into the future of Gaza. Ankara increasingly appears determined to shape the regional order.

China is concerned about Turkey for a different reason: Ankara’s ability to shape the identity of a Uyghur and Turkistani community in northern Syria that remains ethnically connected to the population of western China.

Syria is where these concerns regarding Turkey’s influence unexpectedly intersect.

For years, Beijing’s Syria problem centered on Uyghur militants who left China, joined the Turkistan Islamic Party and entered the Syrian war. The principal fear was that battle-hardened fighters would eventually return to Xinjiang with military experience and organization.

More than a decade later, the challenge has expanded.

Many Uyghurs arrived in Syria with their families beginning around 2012. Children who arrived as toddlers are now teenagers or young adults. Others were born in Syria and have never seen China. Around Idlib and Jisr al-Shughur, Uyghur and Turkistani communities established schools, businesses and other community structures.

The population is therefore no longer simply a collection of foreign fighters. It includes families and a rising second generation whose identity has developed almost entirely outside Chinese state institutions.

Beijing’s question has expanded accordingly. It is no longer only whether veteran fighters will return to China. It is also who will shape the generation coming after them.

Chinese counterterrorism scholars are concerned about the transmission or reproduction of battle-hardened Uyghur force across generations. Researchers have examined how extremist organizations can absorb the children of militants and cultivate a new generation from childhood.

Fighters can theoretically be detained, disarmed, deported, integrated or managed through security arrangements. Children and young adults present a different problem. Some were born in Syria.

Others left China too young to retain a meaningful personal connection to it. Some may lack recognized nationality or formal identity documents. They may consider themselves Uyghur, Turkistani or Syrian without considering themselves Chinese.

From Beijing’s perspective, the more important question is the environment in which the second generation’s identity is being formed. That is where Turkey becomes central.

Northern Syria lies within an area of substantial Turkish military, political, economic, educational and cultural influence.

Turkey has deployed forces, supported armed groups and played a major role in shaping the political and security order that emerged in opposition-held territory. Importantly, Turkey’s connection to the Uyghurs reaches much deeper than its current Syria policy.

Turkish historical education traces the origins of the Turkish nation to Central Asia and includes Turkic populations living inside China within a wider Turkic historical geography. Earlier official educational materials described periods of “Chinese captivity,” celebrated Turkic resistance to Chinese rule and even presented the Great Wall as evidence that China feared the military power of the Turks.

Whether or not such historical interpretations are accepted outside Turkey, their significance lies in the worldview they create. Generations of Turkish students have encountered the Uyghurs not simply as a minority population inside China, but as part of a larger Turkic story extending from Anatolia through Central Asia and into territory governed today by Beijing.

That helps explain why China regards Turkey’s influence over Turkic populations differently from that of other countries.

Turkey is not merely a government that has criticized China’s policies in Xinjiang. It possesses a historical narrative, cultural vocabulary, educational system and network of political movements capable of placing the Uyghur question within a broader concept of Turkic identity.

That narrative has periodically surfaced in Turkish foreign policy. Following the 2009 Urumqi unrest, Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused China of committing a form of “genocide.” In 2019, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry described China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as “a great shame for humanity.”

As Ankara sought stronger economic and political relations with Beijing, its public language became more restrained. But softer rhetoric does not eliminate China’s deeper concern. Syria is where Turkey’s influence over the next generation becomes a Chinese security issue.

The children and young adults of Syria’s Uyghur community are growing up outside China’s schools, political institutions and national narrative of a unified Chinese Nation.

China’s concern is therefore not simply that this generation lives abroad. It is that its members remain ethnically, linguistically and historically connected to Uyghur communities inside China while their identities are being shaped beyond Beijing’s control – and potentially within a Turkish-centered understanding of the Turkic world.

Future security threats a concern

The concern is not merely the movement of people. It is the movement of identity and influence and the possibility that both could reinforce separatist sentiment and generate future security threats. Turkey’s influence can work gradually, by strengthening the idea that Syrian Uyghurs belong to a Turkic world extending beyond China’s borders.

China can pressure Damascus to act against armed organizations. It can demand assurances that Syrian territory will not be used to threaten Chinese interests. But Beijing has no recourse to address cultural and educational factors influencing veteran fighters’ wives and children.

Israel approaches Turkey from a different direction. It is concerned about Turkey’s expanding strategic position in Syria and the possibility that Ankara’s military and political influence will become entrenched close to Israel’s northern frontier.

A Turkish-backed security and political order could give Ankara greater influence over the military balance, infrastructure, armed organizations and external relationships of a neighboring state. Turkey could become a powerful and potentially hostile actor embedded in Israel’s immediate security environment.

But Israel’s concern is not limited to the northern arena.

Turkey has also sought a larger role in Gaza, positioning itself as a political actor in debates over ceasefires, reconstruction and the territory’s future governance.

Ankara’s close relationship with Hamas and its increasingly assertive regional posture have reinforced the Israeli perception that Erdogan is seeking to restore Turkey to a position of political leadership across the Middle East, seeking influence across multiple arenas central to Israel’s security. Syria is therefore part of a larger Israeli concern about Ankara’s regional trajectory.

This does not mean that China and Israel share a Syria strategy. They do not. Their broader approaches to the Middle East remain fundamentally different. But they are increasingly watching the same regional actor.

For Israel, Turkey’s expanding military and political influence in Syria could alter the strategic balance along its northern frontier. More broadly, Ankara’s ambitions from Syria to Gaza suggest that Turkey seeks to shape the future political order of the Middle East.

For China, Turkey’s influence presents a different challenge. It is focused on Ankara’s ability to shape the identity of a Syrian Uyghur generation that remains connected by ethnicity, language and history to western China. The concern is that identity formation, transnational connections and political networks could eventually reinforce separatist movements and produce new security threats.

For Israel, the issue is regional military balance. For China it’s about the long-term security implications of identity formation, transnational connections and the potential reinforcement of separatist movements.

Both stem from the same underlying development: Turkey’s expanding ability to project power and influence beyond its borders.

China is looking west from Xinjiang. Israel is looking north from the Golan. Increasingly, both lines of sight pass through Turkey.

The writer is the executive director of the SIGNAL Group. 

This post was originally published on here. 

The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on six entities and individuals in China, India, Russia and Iran accused of supporting Iran’s Mahan Air, which Washington says has long facilitated the movement of IRGC-Quds Force personnel, weapons and military equipment.

The sanctions also target an IRGC-affiliated front company that, according to the Treasury, collected information on the locations of US and Israeli equipment and supported Iranian military targeting during the ongoing conflict.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said those providing financial, logistical, or commercial support to the IRGC or Mahan Air are “helping sustain a terrorist enterprise,” pledging to continue increasing economic pressure on Tehran.

A similar set of sanctions was imposed on Wednesday against the Iranian regime, with the US Treasury targeting eight tankers and 10 entities, according to a notice posted on its website.

Six of the entities targeted on Wednesday were based in China, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s notice.

Over 100 vessels sanctioned since January

Over 100 ships have been sanctioned by OFAC since January, the Treasury added.

According to the Treasury, several of the entities are involved in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-backed extortion scheme forcing ships to purchase mandatory maritime “insurance” to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

The scheme, identified by the Treasury as the “Hormuz Safe” program, was established by Iran’s primary insurance regulator, covering risks largely imposed by the Islamic Republic itself, including attacks on ships, with the funds intended to finance the regime’s activities.

Reuters and The Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

UK by-elections have become like British buses – you know those quaint Double Deckers painted brilliant red?

You wait forever for one, and then two come along in quick succession. 

A reminder: the two forms of election to the UK Parliament are first via a General Election involving the whole country voting, or second a by-election where a seat has become vacant and is a very much more local affair.

As you would guess, the most common occasions for such by-elections are where the member of parliament dies, and there becomes a vacancy in his or her constituency. But the two by- elections of which we speak are thoroughly bizarre and to twist Oscar Wilde’s quote:

One by-election in bizarre circumstances might be regarded as chance; two begins to smack of conspiracy. But then UK politics and elections have become totally bizarre.

First, you recall that the by-election that propelled Andy Burnham to Parliament was a device occasioned to allow him to stand for a seat which had been vacated by a person who was not only not dead, but not even unwell.

Yet that person was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice of giving up his seat to Andy Burnham to send him into Parliament, where he would replace the unpopular prime minister Keir Starmer. This happened, and Burnham is now prime minister based upon the wishes of a 7,000 majority in that by-election. The remaining 66.5 million of the population have not been consulted. 

Meanwhile, the by-election circus has packed up its big tent and is preparing to roll into a different town, the seaside town of Clacton, Essex. Now for those Israelis unfamiliar with Clacton, or indeed every other UK seaside town, Clacton is famous for the pier that stands out in the sea with amusement arcades on it, plus the thing that all such towns must offer: Sticks of rock (with the name Clacton printed through teeth-breaking candy), ice cream and the UK’S gourmet dish, which has three component parts. Fish ‘n chips, slice of bread and butter and a cuppa tea – all spelt like that.

But just as the Burnham by-election was an unnecessary device, the Clacton one is worse. The resident MP, Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform Party and, looking like the favorite to win the next General Election, is currently being investigated for the circumstances in which he came into possession of £5 million.

Farage stands in by-election

Farage has stood down as MP, but having done so has said he will stand again in the next by- Election. So what is the point?

In logic, there cannot be one. He is asking the people of Clacton who previously voted him in as the MP to, well, vote for him again. The legitimate alternative parties such as Labour and Conservative say they will not participate in this farce.

Amongst the only people to stand against him are spoof candidates whom I made reference to in a previous article – Count Binface – the person whose electioneering consists of standing around with a dustbin over his head.

He is not to be confused with Lord Bucket Head, whom, by contrast to Binface, is a person who stands around with a Bucket over his head. These are not serious candidates but figures of mirth.

They are Clowns and represent a British love for caricatures that has been around since the 1700’s.

A little later, when I was growing up in the 1960s, our notion of the classic clown was the figure of “Coco,” with shoes 10 sizes too big, a red round plastic nose and a bald wig with two shocks of ginger hair hanging down his face.

His props were a car that fell to pieces and a horn that only sounded at inappropriate moments. Children, me included, loved him and we fell to pieces at the same time as the car.

To accompany the genre of the circus clown was the pop song made famous by the pop group Manfred Mann in the 1960’s entitled: “Ha-Ha Said the Clown,” the idea from the lyrics being that the clown deflects attention away from himself by laughing at another.

Recently, the term clown has been hijacked and used as an adjective for someone better described as an idiot and not doing the actual job he was assigned to fulfil. 

Since October 2023, many a European leader or UN petty bureaucrat is better described as a clown.

And how else can you describe the promoters of two totally unnecessary, expensive by-elections – in Britain?

Meanwhile, Burnham made an inaugural speech. It was, of course, about Israel. He apologized to the UK for the delay in calling for a ceasefire after October 7. Not a word of the rights of Israel’s self-defense, nor for the wicked folly of recognizing Palestine whilst Hamas still had hostages.

Having started his reign with an apology to Hamas, others have joined Burnham. People like Wes Streeting, former Health Minister, have rushed to associate themselves with the hostility to Israel, hoping that “sucking up” to Burnham will be rewarded with a government position.

But the biggest danger of all comes from the new foreign secretary, Ed Miliband. All very well to reference his Jewish lineage, but there are far stronger indications to see what lies beneath:

Firstly, when nobody could have anticipated it, Miliband stood in the election for leader of the Labour Party against his brother, David Miliband.

Secondly, his every utterance on Middle East policy is to run down Israel and its government.

Thirdly, whilst leader of the Labour Party in 2014, he was pictured in a cafe eating a greasy bacon sandwich, in which his shirt was in strong competition with his mouth. Any obviously Jewish leader in the UK salivating over bacon in this way is making a statement.

Miliband and the Labour government are still revealing that their only topic of unity is not domestic policy but hatred of Israel. They far more richly deserve the title of clowns than the election candidates Count Binface and Lord Bucket Head.

Nigel Lithman is a retired criminal Judge and author. He lives between London and Zichron Ya’akov.

This post was originally published on here. 

My home has been destroyed. Earlier this month, after an evacuation order forced thousands of civilians to flee, I fell while trying to escape. I am no longer young enough to run. In the panic and chaos, I fell to the ground and broke my arm.

These are not abstract statistics. They are the human consequences of a conflict that has inflicted unbearable suffering on innocent people on both sides.

Yet even after losing my home and suffering this injury, I refuse to surrender to hatred. I refuse to believe that violence is our destiny.

I continue to call for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis – one that recognizes the humanity, dignity, and security of both peoples. The future must not be built on revenge, but on mutual recognition, courage, and reconciliation.

Palestinian children and Israeli children deserve the same future: to wake up without fear, to sleep without the sound of war, and to grow up with hope instead of trauma.

My arm may be broken, and my home may lie in ruins, but my belief that peace is possible remains unbroken. The time has come for leaders on all sides, and for the international community, to choose the path of dialogue over destruction, and the courage of peace over the continuation of war.

An open letter to US President Donald Trump

President Donald J. Trump,

I write to you from the heart of suffering, but I also write with a heart that still believes in hope. From my position as a person who has lived through many years of difficult experiences, I look forward to the opportunity to stand before you in the White House and speak with you openly and honestly. 

I believe that the leaders who leave a mark on history are those who are courageous enough to listen to the voices of the people, not only to the noise of politics.

I have dedicated more than four decades of my life to serving humanity, education, and society, believing that human dignity must always remain above political disagreements and conflicts. Today, after witnessing pain and suffering firsthand, I feel that I carry a humanitarian message that deserves to reach you directly.

I am not seeking this meeting for personal interest or political gain. I seek it because I believe that sincere dialogue between human beings can open doors that wars have closed, and that one honest word from the heart can be the beginning of a new path.

I wish to share with you the experience of a person who has lived through tragedy but has never lost faith that peace is possible, and that justice and compassion are not signs of weakness, but the foundation of true strength and lasting stability.

Mr. President, historic leadership is not measured by power alone, but by the ability to listen to the truth, even when it is painful.

Therefore, I hope you will grant me the honor of meeting with you, so that I may present a humanitarian perspective born from the reality I have lived, and so that we may discuss a future in which Palestinians and Israelis can live with security, dignity, and peace.

I may not be able to change the world alone, but I believe that a sincere conversation between two people who believe in the importance of peace can become a window of hope for entire nations.

The writer has worked for 44 years at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where he has held several leadership positions, including head of the education program, head of the central area in the Gaza Strip, and adviser to the director of UNRWA operations on community affairs.

This post was originally published on here. 

US President Donald Trump’s decision over how to handle Iran became far more complicated by Thursday, after recent polls showed that the average American doesn’t want a return to full-scale war and is primarily concerned with paying less at the pump.

Several polls published in the US in recent days painted a troubling picture for the White House. According to an Economist/YouGov poll, Trump’s approval rating fell to just 34%, its lowest level since he returned to the White House.

At the same time, 62% of Americans disapproved of his performance, while 63% believed the country was headed in the wrong direction. Additional polls conducted by the Pew Research Center, The Washington Post, Fox News, and Reuters also placed Trump’s approval rating below 40%.

The stalemate with Iran also looms in the background, irrespective of the overnight strikes. Trump continues to promise repeatedly that the crisis will end quickly and that energy prices will fall sharply, but the reality has so far proved more complicated. Contacts with Tehran are not leading to an agreement and, according to senior administration officials, are not taking place at all. Iran, meanwhile, is showing no signs of capitulation.

Was Trump frustrated with Netanyahu during their White House meeting?

The unusual briefing held this week by a senior diplomatic official following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington indicated that Jerusalem is also well aware of Trump’s political constraints.

Recent reporting by NBC News appears to reinforce that assessment. According to people familiar with White House discussions, Trump has grown increasingly frustrated because his senior advisers have yet to agree on what the actual objective of the campaign against Iran should be, whether preventing a nuclear breakout, securing the Strait of Hormuz, or dismantling Tehran’s missile and drone capabilities.

According to the official, Trump examined three alternatives with Netanyahu: signing a new agreement with Iran, continuing the economic pressure, or intensifying military action. The official stressed that Trump was considering each option pragmatically, taking into account not only security considerations but also the potential consequences for the US economy and financial markets.

The report also described growing internal frustration within the administration, suggesting the president did not anticipate how difficult it would be to force Iran either to negotiate or to concede. In many respects, that echoes the message conveyed by a senior Israeli diplomatic official after Netanyahu’s visit: Trump is weighing several competing options while trying to balance military objectives against domestic political and economic realities.

Domestic politics shape Trump’s Iran calculations

For Trump, these are not separate considerations. Gas prices, the energy market, and inflation are among the issues that concern American voters far more than uranium enrichment at Fordow or centrifuges concealed inside Pickaxe Mountain.

This is also why Trump has been careful in recent weeks to present himself as someone working to prevent a broader war, even as he continues to threaten Iran with a broader war- yes, that is not a typo; it is all happening at once- and stresses that all options remain on the table.

From Trump’s perspective, success would mean reaching an agreement that could be presented as an American achievement, rather than entering a prolonged conflict that could drive up energy prices and damage the economy.

On the other hand, backing down would also be seen as problematic. As long as Iran continues to stand by its positions, Trump must explain to the public why the crisis is continuing despite his promises that it could be resolved quickly.

In this sense, Trump’s greatest challenge may not be the negotiations with Iran, but his negotiations with the American public. As his approval ratings erode, his room for maneuver in making dramatic decisions on the international stage also shrinks.

For the president, every move regarding Tehran has long been not only a security decision, but also a domestic political one, and it probably does not matter how often he says that the midterm elections are not.

This post was originally published on here. 

The far-right Noam Party on Wednesday launched its campaign ahead of the upcoming elections, rebranding itself as “Noam for Israel,” and calling for new alliances aimed at strengthening the right-wing bloc.

MK Avi Maoz has been the leader of the ultra-conservative Noam party since its establishment in 2019. The party opposes homosexuality, the LGBTQ community in general, and pushes for expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Maoz ran jointly with the Religious Zionist Party in the 2022 elections and then split off from the technical bloc. Maoz left the coalition in 2025 and is the sole representative of the Noam Party in the Knesset.

The party stated that the reason for changing the name from Noam to Noam for Israel was made following in-depth surveys and political alliance efforts, and “stems from an approach aimed at expanding its activities to the broader Israeli public.”

According to the party, the move is intended to place political connections and alliances at the center and offer a political home to broader groups.

The target groups listed by the party included traditional, religious, haredi and other right-wing voters “who are disappointed with existing parties and are seeking a national and values-based framework that preserves the Jewish identity of the state.”

Judicial reform as the top priority

The party stated that one of its main goals was to ensure the passage of a contentious judicial reform in the country.

Participants at the campaign launch included Maoz and the party’s Knesset candidates: former Kiryat Arba Council head Eliyahu Libman, and Beersheba Deputy Mayor Shimon Tubul.

Tubul was reportedly indicted on Tuesday on charges of assaulting two gas station employees for playing  Arabic music.

Maoz said at the launch of the campaign that “according to all commentators and polls, in order for the right-wing bloc to win, another right-wing party needs to be established.”

‘Majority for the right among the people’

“It is no secret that there is a majority for the right among the people, but not among voters. “

“Unfortunately, there are many who are disappointed with the existing parties, and we will provide them with a safe political home that remains loyal to the values of Israel’s religious and right-wing camp,” Maoz added.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in May, Maoz said that he was seeking to be education minister in the next government. He also said that he would not rule out alliances and was considering his options at the time.

General elections are set to take place on October 27.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Canadian-based Israel Now movement has officially announced the formation of a new initiative, the “New Jewish Defense Force,” aimed at addressing and pushing back against rising antisemitism and threats directed at the Jewish community in Canada.

Israel Now, led by director Meir Weinstein, is an advocacy and grassroots organization dedicated to defending Israel and the Jewish community, frequently mobilizing public demonstrations and campaigns against rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

The launch comes amid a wave of violent antisemitic attacks across Toronto over the past week, including gunfire that targeted two locations of the Jewish-owned Kiva’s Bagel Bar chain, a separate shooting incident at the US Consulate, and gunfire that struck the North York headquarters of INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing. These events follow months of mounting tensions and prior attacks on Jewish community infrastructure.

The announcement of the new defense initiative was made via social media by Weinstein alongside an accompanying video address.

In the video, Weinstein detailed the urgent necessity behind the newly formed organization, stating that it is being established to address “Jewish businesses being targeted, shot up, Jews being attacked, violence against the Jewish community.”

Weinstein asserted that established Jewish organizations have fallen short, that “the government of Canada is not really receptive to Jewish leadership in our community,” and that “there needs to be action” rather than mere statements and passive reactions.

Declaring that “enough with the nonsense of reactions, we have work to do and we have to confront these pieces of garbage who are attacking our community,” Weinstein called for a decisive shift toward active community protection.

Group intends to publish personal information of Hamas supporters

According to Weinstein, the group’s immediate focus will involve documenting where hostile groups and individuals operate, conducting necessary research, and gathering intelligence to confront ongoing security threats. Emphasizing the need for a mobilized counter-effort similar to historical defense models, Weinstein urged supporters to push past institutional inertia. “Now is the time to join the new Jewish Defense Force and fight back against those who threaten the Jewish Community. Enough being a victim!” he stated.

Weinstein urged supporters and interested individuals to connect with the movement through the official Israel Now website, noting that a new website will be created for the New Jewish Defense Force.

Following the online launch, Weinstein told The Jerusalem Post that the organization intends to pursue aggressive tactics, such as identifying the names and home addresses of Hamas and other terror supporters to stage demonstrations outside their residences, emphasizing that their response to antisemitism will diverge sharply from traditional community approaches.

Weinstein pointed to specific local establishments, some of which he has highlighted on social media, describing them as restaurants that glorify terrorists and function as gathering places for Hamas supporters living as neighbors within the Jewish community.

Detailing the initiative’s operational scope, Weinstein stated that the purpose of the new organization is to prevent these establishments from operating unchallenged by gathering intelligence on the individuals, organizations, and businesses dedicated to targeting the Jewish community, with a dedicated website expected to launch within a week.

This post was originally published on here. 

UEFA’s member associations have unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions in protest at FIFA’s plan to sell stakes to external investors in a subsidiary that will run the global governing body’s tournaments, European soccer’s governing body said following a virtual meeting on Thursday.

World soccer’s ruling body said on Tuesday it plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events and will offer stakes of up to 20% in it to external investors.

“No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership,” UEFA said in a statement.

“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product. It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters across every continent,” UEFA added.

“No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale.”

Global soccer bodies unite against FIFA investor plan

A spokesperson for the English FA backed the decision, saying the organization “stands shoulder to shoulder with our European colleagues.”

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF also strongly criticized FIFA earlier, saying they were not consulted in the process.

The Women’s World Cup is set to be held in Brazil next year. FIFA is set to stage its inaugural Under-15 World Cup in Azerbaijan in October.

This post was originally published on here. 

Migrants broke through the fences into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday after overwhelming police at the city’s breakwater, Spain’s Guardia Civil said.

Video footage showed hundreds of migrants swimming over from the Moroccan side using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices, and others breaking through a gate in the fence and running into the city.

The scene was reminiscent of the crossing that occurred in May 2021, when some 10,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, many of them minors, entered the enclave of 85,000 people in days.

Lo advertí.
⁰Desde principios de año vengo advirtiendo de lo que iba a ocurrir en Ceuta; todo se estaba gestando y ha culminado exactamente como predije. El Gobierno también lo sabía —tengo plena constancia de ello—. Valoraron la amenaza internamente y no hicieron absolutamente… pic.twitter.com/k8KO1orHTg

— Rubén Pulido (@rubnpulido) July 30, 2026

A Guardia Civil spokesperson said the migrants were “massively entering from the sea” through the Tarajal breakwater, but could not provide any estimates for the numbers.

State television TVE reported that 2,000 to 3,000 people had crossed. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm that report.

Many local shops were shuttered. Enrique Serrano, who runs a women’s clothing store in central Ceuta, told Reuters business owners were organizing themselves to protect their property and families in case of possible disturbances as they believed police resources would be insufficient.

“I’m not opening this afternoon because the situation is extremely tense … The first thing I have to do is protect my business and my family,” he said, adding that when the fence was breached after midnight, hundreds of migrants rushed through in a matter of minutes.

Ceuta, together with Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city located in North Africa, represents the European Union’s only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.

Images showed some of the migrants shouting “Long live Spain” as they entered the territory.

Local government seeks state of emergency 

Spain’s Socialist government stands out in Europe for its pro-migrant stance, and has recently launched a program to provide legal status for some 500,000 undocumented migrants, creating an influx of applications double that number.

Right-wing parties criticized the drive, arguing it would attract more migrants to Spain, and were quick to blame Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for allowing the situation in Ceuta to reach crisis proportions.

Conservative opposition People’s Party leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo said in a post on X: “The situation in Ceuta is desperate. The government cannot look the other way… because we are facing a national security crisis.”

In a post on X, Sanchez said he had told the leader of Ceuta, Juan Jesus Vivas, that his government was “fully focused” on delivering an immediate response and preparing measures to restore normality as soon as possible, without providing further details.

Earlier on Thursday, Vivas had urged the national government to declare an emergency over the mass arrivals. The regional government wants Madrid to deploy the army to guarantee safety and close the border with Morocco.

The Defense Ministry said there were no immediate plans to deploy the army.

North African Muslim criminals have just broken into Spain from Morocco via Ceuta. Europe is under attack. pic.twitter.com/kehj5LHvec

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) July 30, 2026

Supreme Court ruling bars summary returns from Ceuta and Melilla

Earlier this month, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves’ special border-rejection regime.

“It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion,” the Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters.

The Interior Ministry said it was working closely with Morocco to address the surge in irregular arrivals, having prevented thousands of migrants from illegally entering Ceuta in recent days.

It vowed to immediately deport those entering illegally, blaming people-smuggling networks for exploiting the Supreme Court’s ruling to encourage undocumented migration.

Morocco’s Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Migrant rights activist Zakaria Zarroqui said people were still flocking to the Moroccan city of Fnideq in an attempt to cross into Ceuta and the situation was still out of control.

Mauricio Valiente, director of the Spanish Commission for Refugees, which has lawyers working in Ceuta, said the migrants crossing into the enclave were of Moroccan and sub-Saharan origin, including families with people of different ages.

While acknowledging that the situation was chaotic, he said it “can be perfectly addressed by the Spanish state,” which has sufficient capacity to receive those who may be seeking asylum.

This post was originally published on here.