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Pro-Palestinian activists involved in targeting Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece Motherhood at the National Gallery have been found guilty of criminal damage. The verdict follows a protest stunt where activists covered the famous artwork with an image related to the conflict in Gaza.  

The incident took place at the National Gallery in London, where two Youth Demand activists approached Pablo Picasso’s 1901 masterpiece Motherhood and taped a graphic poster over its protective glass cover.

The action was organized by the civil resistance group Youth Demand to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel. Video footage captured security staff rushing to intervene as the protesters affixed the image, immediately pulling the poster down while physical confrontations ensued.

One guard grabbed an activist by his shirt and jacket and rushed him away toward the exit.

As security forced him out, the activist began chanting, “Free, free, Palestine!” Meanwhile, a second demonstrator sat on the floor near the base of the painting and poured red paint across the gallery floor.

‘The UK government is complicit in genocide’

Amid the ensuing commotion in Room 43, the activists shouted statements criticizing government policy, declaring that “The UK government is complicit in genocide.” 

The targeted painting, Picasso’s Motherhood, is a celebrated piece housed within the gallery. The protest action was organized by Youth Demand to draw attention to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and call for a halt to arms sales, with participants issuing statements via social media and group briefings explaining their opposition to government policy regarding the ongoing conflict. 

Legal proceedings subsequently moved forward against the individuals involved in the gallery disruption, culminating in the recent guilty verdicts for criminal damage. 

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Israel will respond to the striking of an IDF bulldozer overnight Wednesday by a Hezbollah drone, an Israeli source familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday afternoon. 

The source added that talks were being held as to the nature of the response. 

Earlier in the day, the IDF Northern Command confirmed the overnight strike, which took place in the area of the Ali Taher Ridge, the IDF said, calling it a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. 

The site is located at the edge of Israel’s security zone, a highland with a 600-meter elevation in Nabatiya, north of the Litani River.

About a month ago, the IDF said it killed armed Hezbollah operatives there in two separate incidents, after the fighters approached its position in the Ridge. 

In southern Lebanon, IDF troops located over the past few days weapons belonging to Hezbollah, including Kalashnikovs, RPGs, explosives, grenades, and others, the military announced on Wednesday. 

This same process took place at a few locations in the security belt area that troops are operating in. 

The IDF said that in an incident in the area of Ras el-Bayada, located about 10 kilometers north of Rosh Hanikra, troops shot towards a suspect “that approached the forces in a threatening manner,” after the suspect continued to get closer despite calls to stop. The announcement did not give further clarifications. 

The IDF said that in an incident in the area of Ras el-Bayada, located about 10 kilometers north of Rosh Hanikra, troops shot towards a suspect “that approached the forces in a threatening manner,” after the suspect continued to get closer despite calls to stop. The announcement did not give further clarifications. 

Hezbollah tunnels, command center near UNIFIL destroyed by IDF

In Haddatha in the Nabatiya area, troops destroyed an underground route that served as a Hezbollah command center, the IDF announced. It was 55 meters long, contained three rooms, and was about 300 meters away from a UNIFIL building. 

The military added that nearby troops located an underground tunnel shaft that held dozens of weapons. 

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Persian-language rapper Mahnam Navab Safavi was sentenced to death last week by a Revolutionary Court in Isfahan, according to human rights organizations and diaspora media reports.

The 22-year-old musician was issued the death sentence on the charges of “waging war against God through participation in the destruction of public property,” as well as “propaganda against the establishment” and “assembly and collusion.”

The court heard that Safavi’s destruction of public property was his “writing protest slogans on walls,” according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

A source told Iran International that Navab Safavi’s two lawyers were refused access to his case file and denied any opportunity to defend him. His trial was also held in absentia, though Safavi remains in Iran, in detention in Isfahan Central Prison.

In December, Safavi’s official social media account made a post where it was declared he intended to join the protests.

Musicians frequently targeted by Islamic Republic

“Until further notice, I, for my part, will be joining the strike and solidarity of the Iranian people, both in real and virtual form, and I will not be active in virtual form,” he wrote.

Musicians have been frequently targeted in the Islamic Republic, even in the years before the January unrest. Toomaj Salehi, an Iranian rapper who frequently sings about social issues plaguing Iran, was issued a death sentence that has now been overturned after he released a song about Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman murdered by the regime’s security forces after she was detained for wearing her hijab incorrectly.

More recently, Iranian female singers and the musicians and production team members who support them have been sentenced to flogging for their performances.

Parastoo Ahmadi, a 29-year-old Iranian folk and traditional singer, was sentenced by the Qom Provincial Criminal Court to 74 lashes, a two-year travel ban, and a two-year ban on artistic activities after she and her band were prosecuted for “offending public decency” following the publication of a video on her YouTube channel showing her performing without a hijab.

Anita Papist, a Tehran-based singer, received the same sentence of 74 lashes and confiscation of her passport and phone, solely for posting social media videos of herself singing in English and Persian without a head covering. 

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Watch this episode without interruptions.

The story of AI is usually a story about processors. Zack Fagan, partner at Earth & Beyond Ventures, thinks that misses the point.

Speaking with Anna Ahronheim on the Jerusalem Post’s Defense & Tech podcast, he argues the real limits are physical and unglamorous: power delivery, heat dissipation, and data throughput.

A GPU that handles a thousand data points is worth little if the wire feeding it moves a hundred at a time, and that, he says, is exactly where Israeli engineering can win.

On defense, Fagan pushes back on a story Israelis like telling themselves, that only Israel produces battle-tested founders. The real advantage is proximity: the front, the primes and the startup all sit within driving distance, and a founder called up for reserves comes back with the next product already sketched.

But “scarcity creates hyper-focus,” he says, while American capital hunting the next Raytheon wants a platform, not a brilliant fix for one problem.

The back half is the payoff. Why quantum may produce Israel’s first category-defining deep tech company, how his fund separates a real business from a “science project,” why the essential founder trait is talking like a PhD and an MBA in the same meeting, and the inconvenient truth about scaling AI that he answers in two words.

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The top US commander for the Middle East has warned troops that cellphone videos shared online can help Iran target American bases, and sources told Reuters some deployed personnel could soon be ordered to surrender their phones.

Any crackdown on mobile communications would add a new dimension to the conflict for the thousands of US troops in the region, many of whom still rely on phones to periodically message loved ones and assure them they are well.

Admiral Brad Cooper, in a previously unreported letter, said Iran was benefiting from being able to see the success or failure of its strikes in near real-time by searching news reports or online posts by journalists referencing “reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops.”

“The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,” Cooper, head of US Central Command, wrote in his July 28 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

He called on troops to “redouble our focus on operational security,” without prescribing specific steps in the memo.

US military desires to restrict information aiding Iran

The warning underscored the mounting tensions between real-time news reporting on the war, often aided by satellite imagery and first-person accounts, and the desire by the US military to restrict any information that could aid Iran as it tries to kill and wound US troops.

In Jordan, which has been a frequent target of Iranian strikes, some troops have been told their phones will be confiscated in the coming days, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A third source said such a move was being considered in the region due to operational security concerns but did not present the confiscation as a certainty.

Asked for comment, US Central Command spokesperson Captain Timothy Hawkins said: “The message is a general reminder to our service members on the importance of maintaining operational security. This is one of many opportunities Admiral Cooper has used to convey operational priorities.”

Running for shelter during Iran attack

In a video posted online this month, a US service member recorded a video as soldiers ran for shelter during a deadly Iranian attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17.

Cooper appeared to reference the footage in his letter, saying it had been recorded on Meta smart glasses with a built-in camera.

“Video captured from a service member’s Meta glasses was posted on Instagram showing where and how the individual had evacuated to a bunker during an Iranian missile and drone attack,” Cooper wrote.

Iran would normally have a tough time determining the success or failure of its strikes, were it not for such accounts, Cooper said, thanks to the US military’s electronic jamming or other tactics used in war zones.

“Iran knows the weapons were fired; however, their forces do not know if they missed by 50 meters, hit an empty tarmac, or successfully struck a crowded facility,” he wrote. “Detailed lists, descriptions, and analyses of what was hit, openly published by news outlets, are essentially performing Iran’s Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) for them, free of charge,” Cooper said.

Some 18 US troops have died in the conflict with Iran that started on February 28, and more than 600 have been wounded in the fighting, casualties that have deepened Americans’ concerns about a war that just one in three Americans support.

Democratic lawmakers have called for more information about the war, including details about damage to US infrastructure on bases including radar towers, barracks and aircraft hangars. They have also called for the release of a US military investigation into a likely US strike on a girls’ school in Iran, first reported by Reuters, on the opening day of the war on Feb. 28.

Cell phones being confiscated?

Rules surrounding cell phone use for deployed troops can vary widely across the military, officials say. Many troops have to lock them away, and cell phones can be banned on particularly sensitive missions by special operations forces, for example.

But the possible seizure of phones has stoked anxiety among some family members, already on edge in recent months as they read Iranian claims of deadly strikes on bases throughout the Middle East, two of the sources said.

US officials have cautioned for years that certain applications on mobile devices, like fitness applications, can be exploited by adversaries to aid adversary targeting because of location data. Reuters reported in May that commercially available location data harvested from smartphones or other devices has been used to target or surveil US forces.

At the same time, the Pentagon has sought to carefully control the release of information due to what it says are operational security concerns, often declining to comment on Iran’s attack claims or detail individual incidents that led to injuries of US troops.

Cooper said details on strikes can help Iran mount follow-up attacks.

“Detailed public disclosures can become an immediate green light for Iranian forces to launch a secondary, much more devastating wave of attacks,” he said.

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Defense Minister Israel Katz boasted about signing administrative detention orders against Arabs in the West Bank, while refusing to sign orders against Jewish citizens.

During a Tuesday Likud primaries conference in Ariel, Katz said that he did not believe that settlers commit terrorism in the West Bank. 

“Not once did I sign for them [the settlers]. But who do I sign orders for? A lot. A lot. I sign for cases of Palestinian terrorism – suspects brought by the Shin Bet when it isn’t yet possible to put them on trial. We hold them under administrative detention orders,” Katz said.

שר הביטחון ישראל כ״ץ אומר לפני זמן קצר בכנס פריימריז של הליכוד באריאל, כי הוא חותם על צווי מעצר מנהליים לאזרחים ערבים-ישראלים מהפזורה הבדואית בנגב ומהגליל, אך מנגד – מסרב לחתום על צווים לאזרחים יהודים-ישראלים מיהודה ושומרון.
לדברי כ״ץ, פעולות המתיישבים הקיצונים ביו״ש אינן פעולות… pic.twitter.com/WAlNj9rOe1

— דורון קדוש | Doron Kadosh (@Doron_Kadosh) July 28, 2026

“Why didn’t I sign for the settlers? Because that is not terrorism. Only someone who acts against the security of the state, someone who acts to harm [the state],” he said.

“On my own initiative, as soon as I realized what was happening, I canceled all administrative detention orders against settlers in Judea and Samaria.”

“Every incident of violence in Judea and Samaria was processed as terrorist activity. Therefore, they could hold people without a trial, without charges, without evidence, and without rights – handling and interrogating them just like terrorists, said the defense minister,” he said.

“I called the former head of the Shin Bet and notified him: ‘It is canceled. There will be no more of this.’ And that is exactly what happened.”

Defense Minister holds sole authority to sign administrative detention orders

Under Israeli law, the defense minister holds the sole authority to sign administrative detention orders, allowing individuals to be detained indefinitely without formal charges or trial.

Katz made a decision in January 2025 to end administrative detention for Jews, while continuing it for over 3,200 Palestinians.

Notably, there were never many Jews in administrative detention, and they were generally only held for three to six months at a time.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

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Israeli security officials arrested an Israeli resident of the West Bank on Wednesday morning who is suspected of having violently attacked Palestinians while in uniform as an IDF soldier, using IDF equipment. 

The suspect is a man in his 20s and a member of the local security team in his hometown in the West Bank who allegedly participated in violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank town of Huwara in early June. Several of the Palestinians subsequently required hospitalization, according to police. 

The arrest was the result of a joint operation with Israel Police, Border Police, and the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency).

Army Radio also reported that some of the settlers involved in the incident were masked and that several Palestinians were injured, claims that were later denied by the IDF.

Security officials open investigation into footage of uniformed soldiers attacking Palestinians 

At the time, the military said that the Judea and Samaria District Police had opened an investigation into the clashes in Huwara, specifically regarding footage of uniformed IDF soldiers participating in the violence.

The clashes included incidents of stone throwing and the use of clubs between Israeli civilians and Palestinians, according to the IDF. Police on Wednesday further claimed that an attacker in IDF uniform was equipped with a military-issued M-16 rifle and a pistol, although there are no reports of shots having been fired at the scene.   

“The case is being investigated. If the soldier is found, he will be dealt with disciplinary action, and command and disciplinary measures will be taken in accordance with the findings,” the military said in June. 

Suspect evades arrest despite early police identification, indictment

During the initial stages of the investigation, several suspects were arrested, and investigators were able to identify one of the uniformed Israelis seen in the footage of the attack and file an indictment against him.

However, he managed to evade arrest for several weeks until his arrest on Wednesday morning. The weapons in his possession were seized during his arrest, and police are expected to request an extension of his detention for the duration of the investigation into his case. 

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A group representing thousands of retired Israeli military officers and security professionals sent US President Donald Trump a letter rejecting allegations of widespread violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, escalating a dispute between rival groups of former Israeli defense officials seeking to influence the White House.

The letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, was sent by Israel’s Defense and Security Forum in response to an appeal from Commanders for Israel’s Security, a separate organization representing hundreds of former senior officials from the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, Israel Police and diplomatic establishment.

The earlier letter warned Trump that violence by Jewish extremists in the West Bank threatened Israel’s security, US regional interests and prospects for diplomatic progress.

IDSF chairman Brig.-Gen. (res.) Erez Winner rejected that assessment, accusing CIS of presenting a distorted picture of violence involving Israeli residents of the West Bank, known in Israel by its biblical names of Judea and Samaria.

The IDSF letter said the organization condemned violence and lawbreaking by Israelis or Palestinians and supported firm police action against offenders.

“We condemn all violence and any violation of the law from any side, and demand firm police action in every individual case,” Winner wrote.

‘Settler violence’ claims smear all West Bank Jews, IDSF says

At the same time, IDSF argued that the phrase “settler violence” had been turned into a political campaign aimed at portraying more than half a million Israeli residents of the West Bank as collectively responsible for the actions of a small extremist fringe.

The organization accused international bodies and Israeli human-rights groups of inflating statistics by classifying incidents as violence even when they involved routine security procedures or nonviolent civilian activity.

According to the letter, incidents recorded in international databases included Israeli security checks, Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and hikes or tours in disputed areas that contained “no element of violence.”

IDSF also claimed that more than half of complaints submitted by activist organizations in areas of Israeli-Palestinian friction were later determined to be deliberately false. The letter did not include police records, the relevant UN database or other documentation supporting that figure.

The organization cited a February 2026 fire at a Palestinian-owned sheep pen as an example of an incident initially blamed on Israeli settlers. IDSF said a police investigation later concluded that the blaze had been caused by an illegal electrical connection installed by the Palestinian owner.

According to the letter, the initial allegation contributed to the international perception that the fire was part of a broader pattern of attacks by Israeli settlers.

IDSF named Yesh Din, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence among the organizations it accused of promoting the narrative, saying they received tens of millions of shekels from European governments and the United Nations.

The letter alleged that those organizations sought to weaken the legitimacy of Jewish communities in the West Bank and advance their eventual evacuation as part of a territorial withdrawal.

The groups were not quoted in the material provided to the Post.

Rival groups clash over Israeli security policy

The dispute also reflected a deeper ideological division among retired members of Israel’s security establishment.

IDSF accused the CIS leadership of supporting a “peace through surrender” approach based on Israeli territorial concessions and withdrawals. It pointed to support among some former security officials for the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The disengagement removed all Israeli settlements and permanent military installations from Gaza. Hamas took control of the territory two years later, and the group used Gaza as the base for its October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

IDSF argued that the same former officials who supported the withdrawal were now using isolated incidents of Israeli violence to promote a similar policy in the West Bank.

The CIS letter, meanwhile, reportedly urged Trump to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to confront Jewish extremists and prevent government officials from interfering with law-enforcement efforts.

CIS has warned that attacks by Israelis against Palestinians could further weaken the Palestinian Authority, inflame the West Bank and undermine American efforts to expand regional normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states.

The exchange came amid heightened tensions in the West Bank, where Israeli security forces have faced a combination of Palestinian terrorist attacks, settler violence and repeated confrontations between Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

A mosque in the Palestinian village of Kusra was set on fire Sunday in a suspected nationalist attack. Hebrew graffiti referring to revenge for an Israeli victim of Palestinian terrorism was found at the scene.

Israeli officials have repeatedly condemned attacks by Jewish extremists and said those responsible should be prosecuted. Critics of the government have argued that enforcement remains inconsistent and that extremist activists have received political protection.

IDSF maintained that the focus on settler violence diverted attention from the larger threat posed by Palestinian terrorist organizations and Iranian attempts to expand their influence in the West Bank.

“Mr. President, you have always known how to identify the truth from alternative facts,” Winner wrote. “We call on you to continue to stand alongside truth, justice, and the steadfast alliance between the United States and Israel.”

Shimon Refaeli, deputy head of the Institute for Security Policy at the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF-Habithonistim), said the letter was sent to US President Donald Trump because “Israel’s security and international legitimacy cannot be abandoned.”

“In recent years, international and local actors have promoted a false and fabricated narrative accusing the communities in Judea and Samaria of organized violence,” Refaeli told the Post.

He said the allegations had caused significant damage by contributing to efforts to delegitimize Israel and distracting its international supporters from Palestinian terrorism and growing Iranian influence in the West Bank.

“It is our duty at IDSF to present the truth on behalf of hundreds of thousands of combatants, officers and commanders, and to lay out the facts as they are to our closest ally,” he said.

Refaeli described systemic “settler violence” as an orchestrated propaganda campaign intended to force the removal of Jewish communities from the West Bank. He argued that violent incidents were marginal and that statistics were inflated by classifying routine security checks and civilian tours as acts of violence.

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The Movement for Freedom of Information revealed the expenses for the prime minister’s residences in 2025 and the first half of 2026 on Tuesday.

For the first time this year, the classification of private residences included the house on Gaza Street, additional private residences, and the additional residence in Caesarea. The official residence on Balfour Street is undergoing renovations and is therefore classified as “support apartments.”

Nearly NIS 65,000 unaccounted for in Netanyahu expenses

In 2025, the total expenses for the residences amounted to NIS 1,979,517. Of this amount, NIS 165,444 was for food purchases, with an additional 2,700 for Wolt deliveries in August 2025 alone.

Another NIS 94,957 was for gardening at the Caesarea residence, and NIS 10,590 went to preventive treatment to prevent roots from penetrating beneath the Caesarea residence.

A total of NIS 63,033 was completely redacted, with no details provided regarding either the supplier’s name or the description of the expense.

In the first half of 2026, the total expenses for the residences amounted to NIS 731,081, with NIS 53,584 going toward food purchases.

Another NIS 42,698 was for maintenance expenses and maintenance products. NIS 14,986 went to replace the bathtub at the private residence on Gaza Street. NIS 31,509 was paid to the Israel Electric Corporation, and NIS 4,657 was used to replace thermostats at the Caesarea residence.

Head of Freedom of Information Movement bemoans need to petition court

“Once again, we were required to petition the court to disclose information about the expenses of the prime minister’s residences, and once again, a wasteful policy involving the use of public funds at the prime minister’s residences has been revealed,” Attorney Hidi Negev, executive director of the Movement for Freedom of Information, said.

“Precisely at a time when the entire public is coping with a heavy economic burden and the consequences of the war, it is especially important to act responsibly and with complete transparency regarding public expenditures. This information should be published proactively and regularly, rather than information the public is forced to obtain only following court petitions.

“A properly functioning system is one in which expenses of this kind are transparent and accessible to the public, as part of the obligation to ensure transparency and oversight of the use of public funds.”

The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that “The figures published in the response show that the total expenses for the residences during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s term are significantly lower than those incurred during the terms of previous prime ministers.

“For example, during former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s year in office, ongoing expenses totaled NIS 1,370,362, excluding personnel and security costs, while during the corresponding period under Prime Minister Netanyahu, expenses totaled only NIS 465,319, excluding personnel and security costs, less than one third of the amount spent during Bennett’s term.”

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US Central Command (CENTCOM) together with the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces struck Iraq on Wednesday, targeting “Iran-aligned terrorists that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed to attack US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure,” CENTCOM said in a post on X/Twitter.

“US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours.”

https://t.co/4gooax78lx

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 29, 2026

CENTCOM’s announcement came shortly after reports from Arabic media of “unexplained explosions at a Popular Mobilization Front (PMF) base,” in Iraq. The PMF is composed of about 67 Iranian-backed armed militias.

The Saudi Defense Ministry added that the strikes “reaffirm the Kingdom’s legitimate right to defend itself,” adding that it  “does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression it faces,” in a post on X on Wednesday.

Iranian strikes on US bases in the Middle East

Jordanian air defenses shot down five missiles launched from Iran, the state news agency reported early on Wednesday morning.

Hours earlier, Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles towards US military bases across the Middle East, CENTCOM confirmed in a post on X.

“IRGC forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East,” the post explained.

At 5:45 p.m. ET today, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted. U.S. forces remain vigilant and at a high…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 28, 2026

The IRGC “fired ballistic missiles at US air bases and US military Central Command center in Jordan,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told Iranian state media.

A US official told The Jerusalem Post that Iran had launched at least four ballistic missiles towards a US military base in Jordan, adding that “This was a major attack.”

Shortly before CENTCOM confirmed that the IRGC had launched a number of ground-to-ground missiles at US bases across the region, Iranian negotiator Seyed Mohammad Marandi announced that Iran was “fully prepared for all out war,” in a post on X.

Missiles, drones launched at Saudi Arabia

Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to strike oil facilities in the kingdom’s Eastern Province on Tuesday night, Saudi Defense Ministry spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said.

Al-Maliki said the drones had been launched from Iraqi territory by Iranian-backed militias.

Saudi Arabia reserves the legitimate right to defend itself and its national capabilities and retains the right to respond “at the appropriate time and place,” al-Maliki added.

The Houthis also claimed they had fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning. A Houthi military spokesperson said the vessel had violated the group’s newly declared maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.

Shortly before the Houthi announcement, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said that a tanker had reported hearing an explosion in the Red Sea.

Additionally, the IRGC told Iranian state media that three oil tankers were “struck and stopped” in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday morning after they “ignored warnings.”

CENTCOM paused attacks on Iran for negotiations to reopen Hormuz

The US military carried out nightly strikes on Iran from July 8 through July 24, but has since paused the campaign to allow US and Iranian negotiators to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran, if they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” US President Donald Trump told Axios on Monday.

The president said he paused strikes to give negotiations another chance, but added that the talks would “Either go fast or not at all,” adding that countries involved in the talks told him to hold back from further escalations.

“If the [US] attacks stop, Iran will also halt its operations,” a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday.

The official added that “There is more skepticism than optimism about the halt in attacks. The prevailing view is that the pause is tactical rather than genuine.”

Amichai Stein and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Israel’s security establishment is warning that the planned deployment of an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip could restrict the IDF’s operational freedom and enable Hamas to recover, after the security cabinet approved granting legal immunity to the force ahead of its entry into designated areas of the enclave on Sunday.

According to political and security officials, the United States is pressing Israel to move forward with the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip before it has been fully demilitarized and before Hamas has been disarmed. Security officials assess that the deployment of the international stabilization force could limit the IDF’s offensive freedom of action, weaken its ability to operate against terrorist cells, and ultimately strengthen Hamas.

The warnings came after the security cabinet approved granting immunity to the International Stabilization Force (ISF) ahead of its planned deployment to certain areas of the Gaza Strip.

A political source explained that the preliminary approval for the force’s entry is part of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, which led to the release of all the hostages. According to the source, after approving the entry of approximately 200 representatives from friendly countries, including Uganda and Morocco, Israel continues to insist that the IDF remain along the Yellow Line and not withdraw from it until Hamas has been disarmed and the Gaza Strip has been fully demilitarized.

Cabinet backs Gaza Force as security officials sound alarm

However, Walla has learned that political and security officials asked the Americans to postpone the next phase of the plan in order to avoid undermining the IDF’s achievements. The request was rejected, and the officials were informed that the process would continue in accordance with Trump’s wishes.

Security officials argue that introducing the international stabilization force at this stage would normalize Hamas’s status and allow the organization to select a new leadership, rebuild its military wing, reestablish its rule, and deepen its hold over Palestinian society through intimidation and violence.

According to the officials, only the IDF is capable of removing weapons from the Gaza Strip and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities, not a multinational force.

Security officials also expressed doubts about the feasibility of establishing a terrorism-free “Green City” in Rafah. In their assessment, Hamas would continue to intimidate the local population, control developments from behind the scenes, and exploit the initiative for its own purposes, including by smuggling weapons from Egypt and constructing new terrorist infrastructure.

Military officials familiar with the process said that every step toward introducing multinational forces into Gaza prevents Israel from completing the demilitarization of the territory and contradicts what they described as an American commitment that Hamas would first be disarmed before reconstruction efforts began.

“In practice, the exact opposite is happening,” the officials said.

They further assessed that bringing forces from countries friendly to Israel into the Gaza Strip would increase political and operational sensitivity surrounding any future military activity, weaken the IDF’s operational initiative, and further restrict its ability to act against terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, the advocacy group “Future for the Gaza Envelope” sharply criticized the cabinet’s decision and demanded a clear answer from the government on whether the move would make residents of the Gaza border communities safer.

“If the answer is not unequivocal, the process must not move forward,” the organization said.

The group stressed that it would oppose rebuilding the Gaza Strip before the threat posed by Hamas is removed and said it would not accept a return to the security reality that existed before October 7.

According to the organization, residents of the Gaza border region have already paid the highest possible price for security concepts that ultimately failed and are unwilling to accept additional decisions based on hope or promises.

The group added that the lessons of October 7 must guide every future decision.

“Any process of reconstruction, diplomatic arrangement, or political initiative must begin only after Hamas has ceased to be both a military and governing threat. It is impossible to discuss ‘the day after’ while there is still no certainty that yesterday’s threat has been eliminated,” it said.

The organization also stressed that any future framework must include effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms to guarantee Israel’s security, freedom of action, real-time intelligence capabilities, and the early detection of any renewed terrorist activity.

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Iran reportedly considered attacking a Ukrainian seaport in the Black Sea in response to a Ukrainian strike on an Iranian ship, but in a “flurry of diplomacy,” opted not to, Iranian and Western officials told The New York Times on Tuesday.

People with knowledge of the matter expected Iran to fire a ballistic missile with a small warhead at Ukraine as a show of strength, the NYT reported. This would have constituted a major escalation and risked opening a new warfront, given Iran’s alliance with Russia. 

Zelensky: Ukrainian long-range strikes hit Russian warship, vessels transporting Iran-linked cargo

Ukraine’s forces struck a Russian warship, and vessels used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea should be considered an assault on Iran itself and showed how important it was to eliminate what it said was the threat from Kyiv.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Ukrainian attack, saying it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. 

Kremlin accuses Ukraine of ‘terrorist attacks’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday accused Ukraine of widening the geographical scope of what he called “terrorist attacks.”

Peskov accused Kyiv of blowing up Germany’s Nord Stream pipelines – something it denies – and of hurting Kazakhstan’s interests by targeting CPC Pipeline Infrastructure.

“This threat must be neutralized and definitively destroyed,” Peskov said.

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The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology was ranked 25th worldwide in a new index measuring universities’ ability to advance AI research, talent, and entrepreneurship.

The Technion ranked first among Israeli institutions and fourth in Europe. The index also ranked the university eighth in the world for the number of graduates who go on to found AI companies.

The AI Production Capacity index was compiled by the US public relations firm W5 and ranks the world’s top 50 universities by their influence on AI research and industry.

The index evaluates factors including the number of alumni and faculty members employed by leading AI companies, entrepreneurship and human capital, startup founders, unicorn creation, venture funding, research output and quality, computing infrastructure, and the depth of AI education.

It also considers how frequently universities are mentioned by generative AI systems.

Technion outperforms larger, elite universities 

Despite operating with significantly fewer resources than many of the world’s largest and best-funded universities, the Technion outperformed several elite institutions in key areas of the ranking.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said the university’s ranking was particularly significant given the gap in resources between the Technion and many leading institutions abroad.

“Despite the dramatic disparity in resources between the Technion and leading American universities and other top institutions worldwide, the Technion has secured a place among the world’s leading universities and at the top of the Israeli rankings,” Sivan said.

“Technion researchers were among the pioneers of machine learning, helping lay the foundations for leadership in AI as a whole,” he added.

Sivan said the Technion’s position was reflected not only in its research, but also in the growing role of AI across its academic programs and its ties with industry in Israel and abroad.

“AI tools are now essential in the workplace, and we ensure that our students acquire these skills alongside a strong foundation in mathematics, science, and engineering,” he said.

The university ranked ahead of Harvard in two categories: the number of faculty members and graduates working in the AI industry, and the number of alumni who went on to establish AI companies.

Technion’s AI performance holds across multiple rankings

When adjusted for institutional size, the Technion’s performance in alumni entrepreneurship was comparable to Stanford, which placed first overall.

The Technion also achieved a stronger overall ranking than Duke, Northwestern, and the University of Pennsylvania, despite working with substantially smaller budgets.

Sivan noted that other international measures had produced similar results, including CSRankings, which placed the Technion first in Europe for the number of AI papers presented at leading international conferences.

“These achievements are the result of a long-term, carefully planned strategy made possible by the outstanding people who make up the Technion family: our faculty members and lecturers, leadership and staff, students, administrative teams, distinguished alumni, and, of course, our friends around the world,” he said.

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The next great technological revolution may emerge from a web of processors, algorithms and controllers, each built by different companies and tested together for the first time. For Israel, that is the premise behind a proposed national quantum-computing research and development center – and the reason Israel Innovation Authority CEO Dror Bin believes the country must move now.

“Until just a few years ago, it was seen as something which is too futuristic and will not happen in our generation,” Bin said of quantum computing. “But in the last few years, there was really an acceleration in the development of such computers.”

For Bin, the project is an effort to create the conditions in which Israeli companies can test, combine and refine the technologies that could become part of the world’s most advanced systems.

When asked about the center’s main purpose, Bin described an emerging cluster of Israeli companies developing quantum technologies and components. “Some of them are already category leaders in some components of the future quantum computers,” he told The Media Line, adding that “something like 10% of the overall private investment in quantum computing companies was made in Israel, in those early-stage companies” in 2025.

The challenge, he argued, is integration. Some firms are developing processors; others are building algorithms or controllers. The proposed center would place those capabilities in a shared environment, creating what Bin called “the full stack of a quantum computer based on Israeli technology.”

Specialize, collaborate, compete

Yet the immediate ambition is deliberately more practical than building a finished national machine. “Not in order to create a computer, but rather to create an R&D lab in which different components of hardware and software can be tested, can be integrated, can be benchmarked to see that everything really works together,” Bin said.

That distinction reflects a central feature of Israel’s technology model: specialize, collaborate and compete where the country can make an outsized contribution. Quantum computing, Bin explained, differs fundamentally from classical systems, which process bits in either a zero or one state. Quantum systems use quantum bits “in various positions,” enabling vastly more powerful calculations.

“The thesis is that things that probably would take a regular computer many years, hundreds of years, thousands of years to solve, a quantum computer would be able to solve very quickly,” he said, describing scientific and technological problems beyond the reach of conventional computers.

Bin expects usable quantum applications before 2030. “The Israeli high tech must be also in the forefront of the quantum computing innovation wave,” he said.

The United States, with companies including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, has set much of the pace in quantum development. Other countries – from China and Canada to Britain, Germany, Japan and Australia – are also investing heavily. Israel’s path, Bin suggested, will not necessarily be measured by whether it produces an entire quantum computer on its own.

“Throughout the history of Israeli high tech, Israeli entrepreneurs and investors and also the state investments were much lower than other countries, but yet with very good results,” he said.

In response to a question about Israel’s ability to become one of the world’s top five quantum players, Bin pointed to an unusual balance between public and private funding. “Israel really is an outlier in terms of the ratio between private and public investments, much more private investments,” he said.

That is by design. “We want to see the entrepreneurs and the investors take the lead, and the government only invest in order to help them grow their companies,” Bin said.

The goal, therefore, is not necessarily to own every layer of a quantum system. “Not necessarily in having the full stack of a quantum computer, but for sure, Israeli companies are going to be part of the leading computers in some categories,” he said, citing controllers as one example. “Israeli companies are going to be part of the leaders of this new technology.”

Quantum computing remains a future-facing field, but Bin sees a more immediate opening for regional technology cooperation: artificial intelligence. In discussing partnerships between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East, he focused on a basic mismatch that could become an advantage.

“AI requires, on one hand, a lot of technology, which Israel excels in,” Bin said. “But also from the other end, it needs for the data centers, lots of land and lots of energy, which Israel does not have.”

Israel’s limits, he said, could complement the strengths of nearby countries. “We are a tiny country with a limited amount of energy. And this is, for me, a great opportunity. The countries around us have lots of energy and lots of land.”

His vision is direct: “If we can connect the dots and create this synergy that data centers are built in our surrounding countries and technology comes from here, and then we build something together, this could be a very good way forward.”

Overlap of AI and quantum fields widens the horizon

Eventually, the overlap of AI and quantum technologies could widen the horizon still further. “Once quantum computers are there, think about the combination of AI training and AI inference on quantum computers,” Bin told The Media Line. “Everything AI can do today, at the end of the decade, only our imagination can try to figure out what will be this combination and what outcome it will bring.”

The same acceleration that excites Bin also worries him. When asked about technologies racing to market without adequate safeguards, he said government and regulators must not merely catch up after damage occurs.

“Absolutely. I completely agree that governments should be involved, regulators should be involved,” he said. “In each technology, there are many opportunities and many risks.”

Bin compared the current moment to the Industrial Revolution, when the steam engine transformed economies but initially produced severe social consequences. “In the first few decades after this invention, there were many negative things that happened,” he said, noting that workers were pushed into factories under brutal conditions before regulation improved standards.

The difference today, he argued, is time. “Those technologies are developing so fast that we cannot wait a few decades and see what happens,” Bin said.

He called for regulators able to understand emerging technologies, capture their benefits and protect the public and the economy from their dangers. “Regulators should be deeply involved and try to hedge against the risks of those technologies,” he said.

The next technology wave is also a human challenge. Quantum computing depends heavily on universities and scientific research, Bin said, because the companies now growing in Israel began with scientists or groups of scientists leaving academia to develop new systems.

But he placed equal emphasis on adaptability as AI reshapes computer science, software products and the ways companies defend themselves against competition. “Everything changes,” he said.

“The most important thing that you learn in the university is how to learn. It’s not necessarily the knowledge that you gain, but rather the way you gain it.”

Bin offered his own experience: after beginning his high-tech career three decades ago and later moving away from coding into business roles, he recently taught himself how to use AI to develop code. “And I was very happy with the result,” he said.

His message is neither complacent nor fatalistic. “People need to adjust, need to learn new skills, new capabilities. AI is going to change everything. Many people are going to lose their jobs.” But, he added, those who reskill can find new and rewarding opportunities, particularly in Israel.

That advice extends beyond technically trained workers. Commenting on people whose strengths lie in writing or critical thinking rather than engineering, Bin said the barriers to using AI are lower than many believe. “It’s very easy to use AI. If you are not scared of it and you just jump to the water and start playing with it, you see it’s quite easy to use it.”

The deeper difficulty is conceptual. “When you use AI, you need to shift your paradigm. You need to think about your business or about your job in a different way than before,” he said.

For Bin, this applies to individuals, companies and entire economies. “It’s a disruption time,” he said. “It’s the first time ever that we are not investing in just technology. We are inventing intelligence which is going to be smarter than humans.”

That direction demands a new habit of skepticism, especially where AI-generated information can be wrong. Asked about errors in news-related uses of AI, Bin said users must repeatedly interrogate what they receive: “Is that true? Is that correct? Should I ask the question in a different way?”

“This is part of the skills that you need to develop in order to really get out of AI the best you can get,” he said.

The Innovation Authority is also responding to a more immediate problem: the impact of a strong Israeli shekel on startups that raise capital or earn revenue in foreign currencies while paying many expenses in shekels.

Bin resisted calling the situation a crisis. “At the end of the day, a strong shekel means that the Israeli economy is very strong. And this is a good thing,” he said. Still, he acknowledged the consequences. “No, there are challenges. But it’s hard for me to use the term crisis.”

He linked the currency’s strength largely to high-tech investment, saying that 2025 saw “more than $100 billion that poured into the Israeli ecosystem, either for early-stage funding or for M&As.”

For an individual startup, however, the impact can be severe. “Think about a startup that has raised money for 24 months in order to reach a certain milestone that will allow them to raise more funds,” Bin said. “And suddenly, those 24 months, the sum was raised in dollars, the costs are in shekels, and suddenly, you have only 18 months.”

Companies relying on global sales face a related squeeze: revenues arrive in dollars or other currencies, while costs remain in shekels. “So, the profit is gone. Sometimes you’ll get to the red line,” he said.

The authority’s response is a planned special fund to extend startups’ operational runway, helping viable companies reach their next funding milestone rather than being derailed by macroeconomic forces outside their control. “The last thing we want to see is a whole cohort of great startups suffering from something that they had nothing to do with,” Bin said.

In tandem with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the Israel Innovation Authority has also announced a 6 million shekel program for BlueTech energy. Bin described it as part of a broader search for new sectors that can generate innovation, startups and scale-ups.

Israel’s coastline is an underused national asset, he said. “We believe there is some potential there for technologies to harvest energy, to store energy, either from the waves or from the wind or from maybe even biological origins.”

The program seeks proposals from researchers willing to turn scientific ideas into commercial solutions. “We want to see, again, scientists coming out of their labs, proposing ideas how to leverage this asset of the country,” Bin said.

The intended technologies would serve Israel but could also be relevant to countries with shorelines around the world. “Those are the things that we would like to finance,” he said.

Bin’s vision for quantum, AI, energy, and entrepreneurship comes as he prepares to step down after five years at the helm of the Israel Innovation Authority – years that encompassed COVID-19, war and intense pressure on the country’s innovation ecosystem.

“Five years, and … not easy years. It was like a roller coaster in those five years,” he said.

When asked why he is leaving now, Bin said he believes he has fulfilled his role in steering the authority’s investments and the government’s approach toward the technology ecosystem. “Now it’s time for me to move on and to have someone continue the work after me,” he said.

Bin, a veteran high-tech executive and former CEO of RAD Data Communications, has not yet decided on his next position. “It’s something that I’m still contemplating on, to decide what excites me to do next,” Bin said.

He knows the standard will be high. “This position of the CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority is probably one of the most interesting positions in Israel,” he told The Media Line. “So, it will be difficult to find something more interesting than that.”

Yet his principle remains simple: “I believe that people need to do things that excite them. This is what I’m looking for now.”

National crisis threatens innovation 

Reflecting on the most difficult moment of his tenure, Bin said it came on October 8 – the day after the war began. It exposed how quickly a national crisis could threaten the mechanics of an innovation economy.

“Think about startups that suddenly half of their staff was gone, either to military reserve or to volunteering activities, or people that had to stay at home with their kids because the education system was shut down.”

The disruption spread through every part of the ecosystem: companies could not send sales and marketing teams abroad because flights were unavailable; investors could not enter the country for due diligence; and startups caught mid-fundraising faced suddenly frozen investment decisions.

“The challenge was crazy, first of all, for the entrepreneurs, the CEOs, the investors,” Bin said.

The authority responded with a fast-track funding channel for companies in the middle of raising money, requiring private investors to contribute alongside public funds. “We injected back then a few hundred millions of shekels into those companies,” he said.

The measure, he believes, protected about 250 startups. “By that, I believe we saved something like 250 companies, which are probably the diamonds of this cohort of companies that will create the next waves of growth for Israeli equity, I think.”

For Bin, the arc from emergency intervention to quantum ambition is not a contradiction. It is the same assignment: safeguard the ecosystem in the present while giving it room to build the future. The quantum center, the AI partnerships, the startup runway fund and the appeal for dynamic regulation all rest on a conviction that Israel’s advantage will not come from standing still.

The record he leaves behind is one of long-range ambition tempered by crisis management: building capacity for quantum computing and new energy while moving quickly to shield startups caught in war and economic disruption. Whether Israel’s next breakthroughs come from a laboratory, a regional data center, or one of the companies helped through its most difficult days, Bin’s successor will inherit an ecosystem already positioned for the next technological race.

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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities, and that it had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

The FSB said that the charges related to Telegram’s failure to remove material “used by Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.”

There was no immediate comment from Durov or Telegram.

Telegram, an encrypted messenger app founded in 2013, says it has more than 1 billion users and is widely used on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Russia has repeatedly tried to restrict Telegram’s use in recent years, promoting its own state-backed MAX messenger service.

Founder of Russia’s Facebook equivalent

Durov, who was born in Russia but now holds Emirati and French passports, founded Russia’s Facebook equivalent, VKontakte, before selling his remaining stake in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.

French authorities are investigating Durov over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately counter criminal activity on the platform and did not sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement requests. Durov denies wrongdoing.

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For generations, support for Israel united Washington. Now Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the Iran war and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close ties to US Republicans are eroding Democratic backing, threatening to turn one of America’s closest alliances into a partisan divide.

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

The shift is evident in Congress. This month, nearly half of House Democrats voted for a failed amendment to cut off aid to Israel, legislation that once likely would have been defeated by an overwhelming bipartisan majority. Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in US military aid and received billions more in emergency funds in recent years.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and some of his lieutenants opposed the measure, calling it overly broad. But former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark were among those voting yes.

Democrats are increasingly divided over whether military aid should continue unchanged, be restricted to defensive weapons or be halted altogether.

Vigorous debate and a hope for bipartisan restoration of support

US Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hopes Israeli elections in October help restore bipartisan US support while opening a new chapter beyond Netanyahu’s leadership.

“New governments get to change direction,” Coons told Reuters, adding, “Netanyahu has kept Israel at war for years now, partly to avoid the political consequences of his choices.”

Overall sentiment toward Israel is declining. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% when the question was first asked in 2017.

“Yes, there is a vigorous debate, but across broad segments of the parties, support for Israel remains firmly in the mainstream,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview.

 Israel a flashpoint in Michigan Democratic race

The shift faces a major test in Tuesday’s Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan, where voters will weigh competing visions of US support with growing numbers of congressional Democrats questioning longstanding US military aid.

The race between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and US Representative Haley Stevens will determine who faces Republican Mike Rogers in November and reflects the wider Democratic debate over Israel and longstanding US military support.

Stevens made a video with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major donor to her campaign, arguing that a close relationship with Israel “yields trade, that yields economic growth and that keeps our freedoms safe.”

By contrast, El-Sayed, a former public health official, told Fox News: “The question is whether we want a politics where our money is sent over to Israel to fund genocide and apartheid instead of investing in our own kids.”

A U.N. inquiry and several human rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in its military’s devastation of Gaza, an allegation Israel rejects, saying it is fighting Hamas and taking steps to reduce civilian harm.

Israeli policy has been a factor in other battleground congressional races, including New York, Florida and Colorado.

Democratic support for Israel erodes

Strains with Democrats deepened 11 years ago, when in a speech to Congress at the request of the Republican majority, Netanyahu attacked a deal crafted by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on controlling Iran’s nuclear program.

Sentiment critical of Israel grew after Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and hundreds were taken hostage. More than 73,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Gaza health officials.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has reshaped Democratic politics, fueling a backlash among younger voters and deepening a generational divide within the party.

Campus protests in 2024 intensified pressure on Democrats to reassess support for Israel. Some analysts say President Joe Biden’s refusal to do so contributed to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump later that year.

Adding to tensions, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for Netanyahu’s arrest for alleged war crimes.

This primary election cycle, some establishment candidates have been defeated by more progressive challengers who have questioned support for Israel, mostly in congressional districts dominated by Democrats.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a progressive pro-Israel rival to AIPAC, said the debate within the Democratic Party reflected a backlash against the right-wing Netanyahu and AIPAC, calling it “a toxic brew that really has helped to make Israel, unfortunately, a real wedge issue in the Democratic Party.”

AIPAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor of government and politics and senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, called it a “paradigm shift that sees Israel now as a villain, even a genocidal villain, in a way that was never the case before.”

While some conservative influencers have joined the attack, the Republican Party will support Israel as long as evangelical Christians and Trump stand firm, Telhami said in an interview.

Israel reshapes political battlegrounds

The divide over Israel is spilling into congressional campaigns elsewhere.

Republican Representative Mike Lawler, who represents a district outside New York City with a large Jewish population, has used the Democratic shift on Israel to attack challenger Cait Conley in a battleground fight for control of the House.

In southern Florida, moderate Representative Jared Moskowitz, a consistent supporter of Israel aid, is being challenged in the August 18 Democratic primary by democratic socialist Oliver Larkin, who campaigns on his belief that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and supports an immediate suspension of US military aid to Israel.

Recent opinion polls show Moskowitz leading Larkin by 32 percentage points.

Longtime US Representative Diana DeGette was defeated in the Colorado Democratic primary by Ethiopian-born Melat Kiros. Kiros has called for ending wars, including by stopping military aid to Israel, while DeGette said she supported sending only defensive weapons to Israel.

US Senator Mazie Hirono, who has advocated for a two-state solution and more humanitarian aid for Palestinians, said, “I think the support for Israel’s right to exist, all of that is there. It’s just the (Israeli) leadership we seriously question.”

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The $71.4 billion needed to rebuild Gaza is seven times the combined cost of all previous reconstructions, and will fail without Palestinian leadership, a new report by Oxfam has warned.

The report Building Gaza Anew, co-authored by Oxfam, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade), offered a blueprint that treats Gaza’s recovery as a “matter of rights and reparations, not charity.”

Oxfam estimated that recovery needs after the 2008-2009, 2014, and 2021 wars were around $10 billion at today’s exchange rate. According to the UN-EU-World Bank Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) of April 2026, Gaza has suffered $57.9 billion in total damage and economic losses, with $71.4 billion required for recovery and reconstruction over the next decade, making it seven times what was previously needed. 

“Gaza has never been allowed to finish rebuilding,” Amitabh Behar, Oxfam’s international executive director, said. “A decade after Israel’s 2014 offensive on Gaza, families are still waiting for homes that never came; and then the bombs returned.”

The report set out a five-year framework for recovery and rebuilding centered on “Palestinian ownership at every stage,” underpinned by rights-based principles and a “single national vision linking Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.” It vehemently rejected models that treat Gaza as a separate entity.

The report also discussed what it called costs “that no damage assessment can calculate,” such as “Gaza’s knowledge, care systems, environment, and the community bonds, mosques, churches, libraries, and cultural institutions where social life once lived.”

“What was destroyed in Gaza was not merely steel and concrete. Israel eradicated an entire social and economic world, built up over generations, and only Palestinians can rebuild it,” Mohammad Skaik, PalTrade’s Gaza program manager, said.

“Reconstruction is not only a humanitarian task; it is a political one. A plan designed in foreign capitals, however well-funded, would be a cosmetic exercise – simply another form of control over Palestinian land and lives. Our consultations across Gaza carried one unmistakable message: Nothing about our future without us,” Misyef Jamil, senior researcher at MAS, added.

Israel as the obstacle to peace

The report was framed around the statement – presented as an established truth – that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. As a subset of this, Oxfam also accused Israel of domicide, sociocide, reprocide, scholasticide, and spatiocide. While these terms are not standalone crimes under international law, according to Oxfam, deploying such concepts provides a coherent analytical framework to comprehend “how the destruction of homes and infrastructure targets not only people’s immediate survival and basic needs but also their collective future, social fabric, identity, knowledge transmission, spatial organization, and environmental sustainability.”

In addition to the crime of genocide, “the war in Gaza cannot be understood in isolation from Israel’s prolonged occupation and systematic policy of ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem,” Oxfam said.

It is worth noting that the word “terror” was mentioned only once in the entire 73-page report, and only in inverted commas.

“Hamas’s popularity in the Gaza Strip has been reduced drastically by most metrics, owing to its governance record, its international designation as a “terrorist organization” by many governments, and the devastating consequences of the October 7 attack by Palestinian armed groups for the population it governed as well as for the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance to Israel,” the report read.

Aside from this, there was no discussion of terror threats or considerations from Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank, and no discussion of deradicalization or reforms as part of the five-year plan.

In fact, Oxfam discredited the notion of Palestinian reform, saying that the fact that “international attention remains focused on the idea of ‘reforming the PA’ […] was a backward-looking baseline reference at such an historical juncture.”

Israel was presented as the sole obstacle to peace.

Oxfam also posited that Israel should pay reparations to Palestinians and should cease fiscal counter-terrorism safeguards on PA accounts as it can “reproduce the surveillance logics of occupation, impose excessive administrative burdens on local organizations, or make grassroots actors financially ineligible.”

Oxfam condemned Israel’s withholding of PA fiscal revenues, estimated to reach approximately $6 billion accumulated by the end of 2026, and other measures imposed on PA finances, with no mention of why these were put in place to begin with – such as the matter of the PA’s pay-for-slay policy.

Palestinians were presented in the report as committed to peace, only unable to succeed due to Israeli actions.

“Yet the Palestinian people have demonstrated, through decades of struggle and resilience, their determination to rebuild their lives, their communities, and their institutions in the face of repeated adversity,” the report read. “Collectively, the Palestinian people emerged from the experience of the Gaza genocide ready for what comes next [with a] will to participate actively in shaping their own peaceful future

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The year 2025 marked the deadliest year for antisemitic violence in the Jewish Diaspora since the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, according to a new report by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.

The report, released on Wednesday, documented 20 lives lost to targeted antisemitic attacks across the globe in 2025. From the Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney that left 15 dead to shootings at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, and two killed at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, as well as one killed in Boulder, Colorado.

The J7 task force, which unites major Jewish organizations representing over 90% of the Jewish Diaspora outside Israel across Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US, tracked over 23,000 antisemitic incidents in 2025 alone. While total incidents dipped slightly in a few nations compared to record highs in 2024, overall figures remain up 136%, and violent incidents up 97%, compared to the baseline year of 2022.

“Antisemitism in our seven countries is no longer a surge; it is our new normal,” the task force said in a joint statement. “Governments must stop reacting after Jews are attacked and start acting before, with real security funding, stronger laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules.”

The report aggregated more than 91,000 cumulative incidents recorded across the J7 nations between 2021 and 2025.
In the United States, despite a 33% drop from its 2024 peak, largely driven by the winding down of campus encampments, 6,274 incidents were recorded in 2025, averaging 17 per day. Three people were killed, and at least 300 were physically assaulted.

Germany continues to record the highest per capita rate of antisemitism among J7 nations by a large margin, reaching nearly 70 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents in 2025.

Australia faced a severely violent 2025 that culminated in the Bondi Beach massacre, contributing to a 270% cumulative increase in incidents since 2021, and prompting the federal government to expand a security inquiry into a full Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the United Kingdom recorded 3,700 incidents, heavily impacted by the October terror attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue, while France logged 1,320 incidents as community leaders warned of an emerging “atmosphere of antisemitism” bleeding into professional and social spaces.

Digital platforms incubate hate as antisemitism moves into the mainstream

The report highlighted a qualitative shift in how hate is propagated, noting that the digital sphere has become a primary incubator for extremism. In Argentina, 66% of incidents originated online, while in France, 58.5% of hateful content concentrated on the social media platform X/Twitter.

Across the J7 nations, the report found the 2025 landscape was defined by several convergent trends. Jewish community organizations across all seven countries reported that “anti-Jewish hostility is no longer confined to the fringes.” The report documented that “the normalization of antisemitism is not a metaphor; it is a measurable and documented phenomenon,” with anti-Zionism frequently serving as a vehicle for antisemitic expression, accounting for 45% of incidents in the US, 48% in the UK, and at least 22.6% in Germany.

Educational institutions emerged as “an acute flashpoint,” where Jewish students across all seven countries reported “self-censorship, exclusion, hostile classroom environments, and inadequate institutional responses.”

Additionally, the report highlighted that the digital sphere became “the primary arena of antisemitic expression,” driven by the “weaponization of artificial intelligence [AI] to generate, amplify, and disseminate antisemitic content at scale.” This technological shift is compounded by the rise of antisemitic influencers and social media personalities who command significant followings with conspiratorial narratives, operating alongside severe legal and regulatory limitations that struggle to address the speed and scale of online hate.

Consequently, Jewish communities faced a “growing Jewish concern for personal and communal safety,” with individuals reporting “hiding their Jewish identity in public and questioning whether they have a future in their home countries.”

According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) research cited in the report, “four leading large language models, namely OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama, exhibited measurable anti-Jewish bias in English, and that AI video tools produced antisemitic outputs at least 40% of the time when tested.”

“This technological dimension represents a qualitative shift in the threat environment that no existing legal or regulatory framework has yet adequately addressed,” the report said.

Different countries face different drivers of antisemitism

While these convergent trends appeared globally, the report noted that the specific sources of antisemitism differed by context.

Germany confronts a “confluence of far-right ethno-nationalism, left-wing anti-Zionism, and Islamist extremism simultaneously.”

In Canada, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) warned of “foreign state interference and the exploitation of domestic institutions by extremist networks.” Meanwhile, Argentina’s Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA) identified a unique paradox in which a pro-Israel government’s alignment with Israel has generated “conspiratorial antisemitic backlash from the Left and from fringe nationalist movements.”

Additionally, the United States faces a “politically polarized environment in which the nonpartisan consensus needed to combat antisemitism is itself under strain.”

In addition to examining core J7 nations, this year’s report featured an “In Focus” chapter on Ireland, contributed by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI).

The report noted that Ireland’s inclusion offers a valuable comparative lens, illustrating the experience of a small Jewish community in the absence of the data infrastructure and policy frameworks developed by most J7 countries.
Between July 2025 and January 2026, members of Ireland’s roughly 2,200-person Jewish community reported 143 antisemitic incidents through a community reporting mechanism established by the JRCI.

The report detailed that the most commonly reported incidents in Ireland included 52 instances of verbal abuse or slurs, 47 cases of vandalism or graffiti, 35 threats or intimidation events, and 29 reports of exclusion or discrimination, alongside 24 instances of direct digital targeting. Approximately 75% of these incidents occurred in physical, everyday environments such as public spaces, educational institutions, workplaces, and service settings.

Furthermore, the report highlighted that Ireland lacks a dedicated national strategy to counter antisemitism, a centralized incident-recording system, routine disaggregation of hate crime data, and targeted security funding for Jewish institutions.

The J7 task force is demanding that world governments move beyond symbolic gestures by closing legal loopholes that shelter hate speech under the guise of anti-Zionism, ensuring robust and sustained security funding, as well as compelling tech companies to strictly moderate online hate.

The task force’s concluding call stressed that concrete, systemic intervention is required to protect communities from further violence: “On behalf of the 20 people killed last year in antisemitic attacks, we demand immediate, comprehensive, and life-saving actions to stem the tide of antisemitism.”

This post was originally published on here. 

There is a temptation to read a deepening Turkey-South Africa relationship as a story about trade diversification and multipolar hedging – two “middle powers” finding common cause in a post-Western world. 

That framing misses what is actually gluing the two governments together. Ankara joined Pretoria’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in 2026.

The coordination has merely deepened since: Turkish submissions are explicitly intended to strengthen South Africa’s legal framework, and both governments now anchor The Hague Group’s campaign to hold Israel accountable through international law.

This is not an incidental overlap between two states that happen to disagree with Jerusalem; instead, it is a coordinated diplomatic architecture, and it is worth asking what Turkish strongman and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gets out of it beyond virtue signaling.

The answer becomes clearer once the South African relationship is placed inside Turkey’s broader African buildup, which has been running for two decades and has little to do with Israel at all. 

Turkey’s embassy count on the continent grew from 12 in 2002 to 44 today; trade climbed from roughly $5.4 billion in 2005 to nearly $41 b. by 2025; Turkish Airlines now touches down in dozens of African cities across some 40 countries. 

None of this happened organically. It was sequenced using diplomacy first, then capacity-building (military academies, police training academies, health infrastructure, and university scholarships that now bring tens of thousands of African students to Turkish campuses), and then defense exports layered on top once trust and access had been established.

It’s that last layer that should concern Washington most. Sinan Ciddi and William Doran, writing in Foreign Policy, traced how Baykar’s drone exports – roughly $1.8 b. in 2024 alone – have put Turkish armed drones in the hands of 18 African militaries, several of them in the midst of civil war. 

Turkey’s SADAT private military contractor, founded by an Erdogan-linked former general and openly Islamist in its self-description, now operates in nine African countries, recruiting Syrian mercenaries for deployments in Libya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Niger. 

The correlation Ciddi and Doran flag is hard to dismiss as a coincidence: nine of Africa’s last 10 successful coups happened in Sahel states, and five of the seven affected countries had already bought Turkish drones, with three hosting SADAT personnel on the ground. 

Separate reporting on Sudan quotes Doran describing Turkish weapons already bleeding from the Sudanese Armed Forces into South Sudan, a spillover that could just as easily reach Sahelian jihadist groups next.

Building loyalty and extending rivalry

What makes this more than an arms-sales story is the method underneath it. Turkey isn’t simply selling hardware to whichever government will buy it; it’s building the kind of patient, local loyalty that Boston University anthropologist Jenny White documented inside Turkey itself. 

In Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks, and in her earlier work on Islamist mobilization, White described how the AKP built an indestructible domestic base.

It did not do this through top-down ideology but through vernacular, neighborhood-level relationship-building: mosque networks, local associations, and economic patronage that created belonging as well as dependency at once. 

Nowhere does this playbook come together more completely than in Somalia, which functions as a kind of proof of concept for everything Ankara wants Africa to become.

Turkey’s TURKSOM facility in Mogadishu, its first overseas military base, has trained roughly 16,000 Somali troops since 2017, and Turkish troop numbers there have doubled from roughly 400 to 800, with parliamentary authorization to go as high as 2,500.

Additionally, Ankara has deployed tanks and F-16’s to Somalia, with the stated intention of helping the Somali government fight against al-Shabaab.

That is capacity-building, arms transfers, and direct military presence operating simultaneously, in one country, under one flag – the same three-layer model visible piecemeal elsewhere on the continent, only fully assembled.

And Somalia is where Ankara’s Africa strategy and its Israel strategy stop being separate stories: Turkey is preparing to begin offshore energy drilling in Somali waters this year, at the same time that Israel has recognized Somaliland’s independence, which signals a direct challenge to the sovereignty claim that Ankara’s entire Mogadishu investment depends on. 

Erdogan has called Israel’s recognition “illegitimate,” and the wording is not incidental; Somalia is the one place where Turkey’s economic appetite, its military footprint, and its rivalry with Jerusalem are the same fight. 

It is a preview of what Ankara would like South Africa’s diplomatic cover to eventually protect elsewhere on the continent – not just legal solidarity at The Hague, but freedom of action on the ground.

TIKA projects, Maarif Foundation schools, and health partnerships in Niger, Sudan, and Somalia appear to be further exports of the Turkish model highlighted by White.

Scholarships for African students are, on this reading, less a soft-power afterthought than a long-horizon investment in a future generation of sympathetic elites. This is the kind of influence that survives a change of government in a way a single defense contract never does.

None of this works without willing partners, of course. African governments have their own reasons to say yes: Turkey is a lower-friction alternative to China’s debt-heavy lending and Russia’s Wagner-style security guarantees, NATO-adjacent enough to confer legitimacy without Western conditionality attached. 

Ankara, in turn, is growing its own resource base – uranium and oil exploration interest in Niger and Somalia – while its Mogadishu base gives it a foothold on the Red Sea precisely as Israel has moved to recognize Somaliland, extending the Turkey-Israel rivalry onto African soil for the first time.

Seen against that backdrop, Pretoria is less a peer partnership than a capstone: the prestigious, ICJ-credentialed validator for a strategy built mostly through drones, mercenaries, and classrooms elsewhere on the continent. 

The trade numbers between Ankara and Pretoria are modest by design (approximately $2 billion); the strategic ambition behind them is not.

Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow and director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC.

This post was originally published on here. 

Iran is expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters, as it rebuilds its defenses amid war with the United States.

The purchase, valued at $60-70 million, is one of Tehran’s largest-known efforts to strengthen its short-range air defenses since the outbreak of its war with the US and Israel, which exposed gaps in Iran’s ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure.

The contract covers the purchase of between 300 and 400 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), including Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 missiles, the sources said.

The deal was signed with Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, a Hong Kong-based company that the sources said was acting as an intermediary between the Iranian side and the Chinese supplier.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Iran needs to rearm after months of war

China’s Foreign Ministry said: “The relevant reports are completely groundless. China has consistently played a role in promoting peace and ending the conflict.”

Beijing-based Zhong Qing Bao Shang Group, the parent company of Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday.

Iran needs to rearm after months of fighting in which the US and Israel have struck facilities linked to its missile, drone and air-defense programs, and Tehran responded with barrages of ballistic missiles and drones.

The conflict has highlighted the challenge of defending fixed military and strategic sites against advanced aircraft and precision-guided weapons.

Washington abruptly suspended two weeks of bombardment on Saturday, but President Donald Trump said strikes would resume if negotiations failed to end the five-month-old conflict, which has in theory been in a state of ceasefire since April.

The delivery of hundreds of MANPADS would significantly expand Iran’s inventory of short-range air-defense weapons and underscore how military ties with China are deepening.

The sources cautioned that, although the agreement had been signed, delivery schedules, quantities and other implementation details could still change.

Under a plan agreed by the parties, deliveries will initially be by air from Urumqi in western China, then transiting through Pakistan to Iran, according to the sources, who did not clarify whether the transfers would take place by air or by road.

Pakistan’s military public relations wing ISPR said: “Speculations of Pakistan being involved in the supply of Air Defense weapons to Iran from China are absolutely concocted and false.” A spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

China and Iran explore land routes for delivery

While Iran has invested heavily in the past two decades in missiles, drones and radar, military experts say portable air-defense systems are important because they can be dispersed quickly, operated by small teams and relocated frequently, making them less vulnerable than fixed air-defense batteries.

A European security source said authorities in his country were aware of several contracts under discussion involving the possible sale of QW-series MANPADS to Iran, including QW-12, QW-18 and QW-19 systems.

A second security source, in the Middle East, said Iran had been seeking to purchase QW-12 and QW-18 missiles, but they were unaware that a deal had already been concluded.

The QW-12 and FN-16 are shoulder-fired, infrared-guided surface-to-air missile systems designed to engage low-flying aircraft, helicopters and drones. Their mobility allows them to be deployed rapidly around military installations, energy infrastructure and other sensitive sites.

Defense analysts regard the QW-12 as less capable than newer QW variants, including the QW-18 and QW-19, but say the systems can still provide an effective layer of short-range protection against drones and low-flying targets.

Two Western intelligence sources and an Iranian official said Tehran had also explored the use of overland routes to move Chinese military supplies and dual-use components more discreetly and reduce the risk of disruption.

The procurement highlights the Islamic Republic’s continuing reliance on a combination of domestic weapons production and foreign suppliers despite years of sanctions and restrictions on defense-related imports.

Reuters previously reported that Iran was close to securing a separate agreement with China to acquire anti-ship cruise missiles, according to people familiar with those negotiations. Reuters could not determine whether the agreement went through.

This post was originally published on here. 

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan‘s Kumamoto Prefecture on Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, causing damage, blackouts, and injuries in the southern region of the country.

At least 13 people were killed, as around 260,000 people were instructed to go to evacuation centers.

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.

 “We have already been informed that people have been injured,” Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said, speaking to reporters at her office in Tokyo.

“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.”

Aeon Mall in Kumamoto collapses, trapping up to 30

Public broadcaster NHK showed several buildings on fire or collapsed, large cracks along roads, including an elevated highway, and a derailed goods train. More than 150,000 people were instructed to go to evacuation centers, the disaster management agency said.

The Aeon Mall in the southern city of Kumamoto suffered an explosion following the earthquake, according to local media, with local authorities saying that multiple people were confirmed killed or trapped inside the site after the disaster.

Eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall near the city of Kumamoto that was torn apart by an apparent explosion about an hour after Tuesday’s earthquake, among them two dead women in their 20s.

Around 20 to 30 mall workers were unaccounted for on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK said.

“Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo.

One side of the mall, which houses around 200 stores, was torn away, exposing steel beams and strewing debris across a parking lot, footage showed.

A spokesperson for mall operator Aeon said customers and employees were evacuated right after the initial quake and that the exact cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear.

Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion at the Aeon mall, media reported. Rescuers reported smelling gas inside the building, but the cause of the incident was still under investigation, Japan’s top government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said.

Emergency fire rescue teams, police and around 170 army personnel were focusing on areas of the building where calls for help had been received. More than 4,500 soldiers have been deployed to help with recovery efforts across the quake zone.

Seven people are also missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, while four others are seriously injured, a local government official said. Hospitals were reported to be treating dozens of patients.

UN nuclear organization keeps an eye on Japan’s nuclear damages

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday that Japan’s nuclear regulation authority has informed it that there is no damage or safety issues at the Sendai nuclear power plant following the earthquake. “The IAEA will continue to monitor the situation,” said the watchdog in a post on X.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its plant in the area as a precaution, a spokesperson for the firm said.

A spokesperson for electronics firm Sony, which also has a plant there, said it was checking the situation.

Residents in the areas that felt the biggest tremors must beware of further strong quakes for about a week as well as the risk of landslides, an official for the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

A tsunami warning for a 1-meter (3.28 ft) wave was initially issued after the earthquake, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) later saying that the threat had already passed.

The PTWC also said that there was no risk of a tsunami in Hawaii and American Samoa following the earthquake.

Kyushu Electric Power said there were no reports of irregularities at its Sendai and Genkai nuclear power stations after the earthquake.

The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all on Japan’s southern Kyushu island. The JMA also initially issued a tsunami warning for a wave measuring 1 m (3.28 feet) but later lifted it.

Kyushu Electric Power said about 40,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also shut its runway, as airlines diverted and canceled flights.

Telecoms operators KDDI and Docomo said there was disruption to their mobile phone services due to power shortages and transmission-line failures.

There were no irregularities reported at the nuclear power stations in the area, Japan’s nuclear regulation authority said.

A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured a further 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including the city’s castle, a top tourist site.

Some hospitals overburdened

One hospital in Uki city, near the epicenter, said a power outage caused by the earthquake meant it was unable to function.

“It’s become like a field hospital,” the head of the administrative department told NHK. Another hospital in the city said it had suspended admissions as it could no longer handle additional emergency cases after accepting 86 injured people following the quake, including three with serious injuries.

Several passengers aboard high-speed trains at the time of the quake were also injured, said operators, who immediately suspended all services after the jolt.

Some major companies with plants in the area, including Sony, Tokyo Electron, and Honda, said they would suspend operations at their plants through Wednesday.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its local plant as a precaution after the quake but said it had begun resuming operations late on Tuesday.

Some roads were also badly damaged, with large cracks splintering major highways and snarling traffic on Tuesday evening.

Located on the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more.

A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured a further 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including the walls of the city’s castle, a top tourist site.

The castle was also among several historic buildings damaged in Tuesday’s quakes alongside shrines with heavy tiled roofs that partially collapsed and a 17th century tea house.

Second large-scale earthquake that hits Japan in 2026

Tuesday’s earthquake represents the second disaster of its kind to strike Japan this year, with a 7.5-magnitude event recorded off the coast of the islands, triggering tsunami alerts back in April.

In that instance, authorities urged residents to stay away from coastal areas where tsunami waves of up to 3 meters (9.84 ft) were expected.

The tremor had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean and was 10 km deep, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The biggest waves were expected in the prefectures of Iwate, Aomori, and Hokkaido, authorities said.

The quake measured an ‘upper 5’ on Japan’s seismic intensity scale – strong enough to make it difficult for people to move around. In many cases, unreinforced concrete-block walls collapse.

Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located along the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

There are no nuclear power plants currently in operation in the Hokkaido and Tohoku regions, but Hokkaido Electric Power Co and Tohoku Electric Power Co have several shut-down nuclear power plants there.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

In a perfect world, what celebrities say about issues they understand no better than the average person should not matter a whit.

Why should anyone care what someone who acts for a living, dribbles a basketball, or sings on stage says about the Mideast? What special insights do they possess?

We live in one where celebrities are idolized and – thanks to social media – have an enormous bully pulpit. What they say about the issues echoes loudly, and regarding Israel, that echo has, since the October 7 massacre, been overwhelmingly negative.

Want attention? Go to the Emmys and blast Israel. Want to virtue-signal? Repeat the lie that Israel is committing genocide. Want to line up with the “cool” side? Denounce Zionism.

Which is why the song that Boy George, the front man of the 1980s band Culture Club, dropped on X/Twitter on Sunday night was so refreshing. He pushed against the tide with powerful lyrics: “You say genocide, I say war / When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for.”

The song continues: “Does it get ugly? You bet it does / When I know you wanna kill / Every last one of us, every last one of us.”

#Shalom pic.twitter.com/0BfHIrThzO

— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) July 26, 2026

Boy George counters Zohran Mamdani’s slander against Israel

Ordinarily, we shouldn’t care what Boy George thinks about geopolitics. But his words resonate not only because they ring true, but because they remind Israelis they are not alone – that there are non-Jews (Boy George was born Irish Catholic) who see us, hear us, and are not taken in by lies repeated ad infinitum, even when amplified by powerful figures such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Boy George could have been singing directly to Mamdani, who accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video of being a war criminal while leveling malicious, slanderous accusations against Israel without once mentioning Hamas or the October 7 massacre.

“You never mention October 7,” Boy George sang. “Young girls raped against trees / Murdered brutally / For the crime of dancing / You condemn the Jews, with selective memory.”

Boy George’s song appeared the same day another celebrity – NBA player Kyle Kuzma – took Mamdani to task on X, writing over a repost of the mayor’s indictment of Netanyahu:

“This is 2026. People cosplaying as things they don’t have the authority, the talent, or the track record to actually be. Just for content. A mayor playing president… Don’t fall for distractions.”

This is 2026. People cosplaying as things they don’t have the authority, the talent, or the track record to actually be. Just for content.

A mayor playing president. A founder playing operator. A content creator playing one-on-one thinking he’s a pro. A 25yr old with a ring… https://t.co/e4aM17CzSC

— kuz (@kylekuzma) July 26, 2026

Both men knew there would be blowback, and there was. The mob goes after those it believes have strayed from the “correct” line. But there was also considerable support.

Read some of the coverage of Boy George’s song, and you might think he was universally excoriated on X, where the song garnered millions of clicks. Yes, there were plenty of hostile comments. But there were also thousands of supportive ones.

One stood out: a photo of a Nazi rally where everyone is giving the Heil Hitler salute except for one man standing with his arms folded. “Thank you so much for being this man,” wrote the user.

More of this is needed. More people need to challenge the genocide libel and call it what it is: a vicious lie.

Why does it take a non-Jew to publicly stand with Israel?

Boy George’s message carries particular force because he is not Jewish. In today’s climate, taking this stand requires courage. Those who do are hounded online and pilloried by many of the cultural elites. When a Jew says these things, critics can dismiss them as tribal loyalty. When a non-Jew says them, they are harder to dismiss.

But Boy George’s intervention also exposes something else: Where are the Jewish celebrities? Why are so many silent? Jewish celebrities criticizing Israel are easy to find. Those publicly standing with Israel can almost be counted on two hands: Debra Messing, Jerry Seinfeld, Mayim Bialik, Michael Rapaport, and a few others.

In 1983, in the wake of the First Lebanon War, Bob Dylan sang “Neighborhood Bully,” blasting the world’s hypocrisy toward Israel. Today, he – like so many other Jewish musicians and artists – has fallen silent while the country that is home to half of his co-religionists is falsely accused of genocide and systematically delegitimized.

That it took Boy George to speak out is a reminder of how few of them have done the same.

This post was originally published on here. 

A child was injured after a man armed with a hammer entered a Jewish school in New York on Tuesday morning, police reported.

New York Police reported that the suspect approached a woman nearby. She felt threatened and headed to the school for safety; however, the man followed her in.

The school’s security stopped the suspect from entering the building. As the staff attempted to remove him from the property, he struggled, shoving a child, 8, into the fence, and causing a head injury.

The student was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

Police arrested the man, 42, at the scene and recovered the hammer from his possession; however, no one was struck with it.

The NYPD does not believe that the student or the Jewish Institute of Queens were the intended target of the attack, and as such are not treating the incident as antisemitic.

“The NYPD is thoroughly investigating all aspects of the incident, including the possibility of a bias motive, to ensure nothing is overlooked,” said City Councilmember Phil Wong.

New York politicians respond to the attack

“Violence against an 8-year-old child is unconscionable. I’m relieved the victim is recovering, and my heart is with them, their loved ones, and New York’s Jewish community,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a post on X/Twitter.

“As Governor, I’ll continue doing everything in my power to ensure every New Yorker can live, learn, and worship safely.”

Violence against an 8-year-old child is unconscionable.

I’m relieved the victim is recovering, and my heart is with them, their loved ones, and New York’s Jewish community.

As Governor, I’ll continue doing everything in my power to ensure every New Yorker can live, learn, and… https://t.co/3pzoA05Khk

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) July 28, 2026

“In a despicable act of violence, an 8-year-old boy was injured by an intruder at a Queens Jewish school,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

“This child, his family, and all of our Jewish communities are in my prayers,” she added. 

Summer Camp at the school addressed the incident in letter to parents

In a letter sent out to parents, Ohr Avner Day Camp, which was being held at the school during the incident, said: “An unauthorized individual who appeared to be mentally unwell entered our campus property and walked into the front yard, where our campers were playing.”

The letter went on to explain that the security guard “restrained the individual and held him until the NYPD arrived and took him into custody, preventing any further harm.”

This is the letter the camp just sent to parents. pic.twitter.com/mvbPP4fxGj

— Moshe Spern (@moshespern) July 28, 2026

 “Based on everything we know, this was a completely random incident,” the letter added. “There is no indication that our camp, our campers, or our staff were specifically targeted.”

Although the incident was likely not antisemitic, the NYPD is continuing to investigate all possibilities.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality will raise parking fees at municipal parking facilities by 20% beginning August 1, Kan News reported on Monday.

The increase will apply to parking lots operated by Ahuzot HaHof, a company wholly owned by the municipality that manages parking facilities across the city.

The municipality and Ahuzot HaHof attributed the decision to higher operating and maintenance expenses, including wages, security, cleaning, electricity, municipal taxes, and information technology costs.

They also said that revenue had declined following the transition from hourly charges to minute-by-minute billing.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa residents will continue to receive discounted rates and other preferential parking arrangements under the revised pricing structure.

What drivers will pay for hourly, overnight, and extended parking

The hourly rate for city residents will increase from NIS 5 to NIS 6, while non-residents will pay NIS 24 per hour instead of NIS 20. One-time and evening parking will cost residents NIS 9, up from NIS 7.50, while the non-resident rate will rise from NIS 30 to NIS 36.

At the Basel, Tel Nordau, Bnei Dan, Chen Boulevard, and Gordon parking facilities, the discounted evening arrangement for residents will begin at 9 p.m., rather than 7 p.m. The resident discount at those locations will also be reduced from 75% to 50%.

The Carmel 2 parking facility will not be affected by those changes, and its current payment rules and overnight parking arrangement will remain in effect.

Residents who leave a vehicle parked for more than 96 consecutive hours will lose the discounted rate and be charged the full price. The municipality said this provision would be introduced at a later date, after the necessary system updates are completed.

Ahuzot HaHof and the municipality said the revised prices would still be lower than those charged by nearby private parking facilities, while city residents would continue to receive reduced rates.

This post was originally published on here. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yair Lapid, the leader of his opposition, are in Washington, ostensibly to attend the funeral of one of the staunchest pro-Israel American politicians, Lindsey Graham.

They are also, as Lapid made clear in an appearance Monday at the influential Atlantic Council think tank, launching a bruising election campaign and are intensely seeking the favor of a constituent who does not vote in Israel on Oct. 27: President Donald Trump.

Or more broadly, the favor of Americans.

Israeli-born Netanyahu, who was raised in Philadelphia, has made a career of defining himself as his country’s best, even inevitable, envoy to its most important ally. He met with Trump on Tuesday. Lapid in his speech sought to portray Netanyahu’s public diplomacy, the defining characteristic of his political career, as busted and harmful.

“The first step is obvious” to restoring Israel’s reputation, Lapid said. “Send into retirement Benjamin Netanyahu and his group of extremists who are tearing us apart at home and abroad.”

Lapid, Netanyahu use US visit as campaign opportunity

Lapid, who speaks in fluent but accented English, says he wants to be the foreign minister in the next government, one led by Naftali Bennett, a security hawk, as prime minister. He, too, claims an intimacy with the American psyche, evident in an essay he just published in The Atlantic about the cross-country road trips he takes every several years.

Netanyahu is on a mission to secure support for continuing and winning the war he and Trump launched against Iran. In remarks in Hebrew he recorded just prior to leaving Israel on Monday, he leaned into his friendship with Trump.

“I am on my way to Washington to a meeting with our friend the president of the United States, Donald Trump,” he said, standing with his wife, Sara, outside the airplane. “This is my eighth meeting with him since he was elected for his second term, more than any other world leader. It is a great privilege, and also a great responsibility.”

Both Lapid and Netanyahu claimed a closeness to Graham, the South Carolina Republican senator who helped Netanyahu cajole Trump into the war with Iran. Graham, Netanyahu said, was “a true friend of mine and the state of Israel.” Lapid inserted Graham into his argument that the long term goal for Israel and the United States should be the collapse of the Iranian regime. “The last conversation I had with the late Lindsey Graham was about this,” he said Monday.

Lapid at the outset of his remarks sought to erode Netanyahu’s reputation as an America whisperer, saying the coming election would “be the most dramatic, the most crucial, the most intense the country has ever seen.” 

“Here is the not to-do list for the Israeli government if you don’t want to witness the complete collapse of the country’s international status.”

Lapid accused Netanyahu of isolating Israel by caving to extremists in his government and alienating allies. Instead, he laid out a formula for how the next prime minister would govern.

“If a minister in your government says a nuclear bomb should be dropped on Gaza, fire him. If a minister in your government says there are circumstances in which it is acceptable to starve the civilian population, fire him. If a minister stands over a large group of handcuffed activists lying on the floor of a detention facility, waving a flag and mocking them, fire him,” Lapid said.

He was referring, respectively, to controversial statements and actions by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, some of which have been used to fuel the claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the war Hamas launched on Oct. 7, 2023, with deadly raids inside Israel.

Netanyahu uses US visit to salvage US-Israel ties and his political future

Netanyahu’s mission comes at a perilous juncture in the US-Israel relationship, and his own reputation. Trump’s approval ratings are at a low as the war appears to have generated victories for Iran, which now controls the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway critical to the passage of a fifth of the world’s petroleum. Inflation has skyrocketed, US allies are furious, and Americans in large majorities oppose the war, just as Trump is facing his own electoral test less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

Netanyahu is unpopular in the United States, and for the first time, Americans are more likely to favor Palestinians than Israelis. An Economist poll published Tuesday showed half of Americans supported Netanyahu’s arrest. Trump wants Israel to stay out of the war, crippling Israel’s ability to influence the outcome of the conflict that continues to loom on its border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy, hopes to regain its strength.

Lapid’s audience here is mostly left of center: His host at the event was Daniel Shapiro, the Obama administration’s ambassador to Israel. A spokesman for Lapid said that other than his attendance at Graham’s funeral, his only public appearance on his trip to the United States this week would be with a group of Democratic senators.

The Atlantic Council is bipartisan, but its Republican component is made up mostly of the old-school believers in alliances that Trump has all but ousted from the party. Seated in the front row was Stephen Hadley, the national security advisor to former President George W. Bush, who is a board member of the Atlantic Council. 

Lapid pledges to make repairing ties with Democrats a top priority

Lapid said reconciling with Democrats would be a priority in the next government, should his dream team emerge victorious: Bennett as prime minister, Lapid as foreign minister and Gadi Eizenkot as defense minister. Eizenkot, who has in recent polls surpassed Bennet and Netanyahu, obviously might have different ideas about who gets which job.

“Elizabeth Warren, John Ossoff and Tim Kaine are not the enemy,” he said, referring to Democratic senators from Massachusetts, Georgia and Virginia who have been critical of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, and who have voted to suspend defense assistance to Israel. “The Democratic Party is not the enemy.“

Bennett and then Lapid were rotating prime ministers during the last government’s eighteen months of tenure in 2021 and 2022, interrupting Netanyahu’s 12-year run launched in 2009. Netanyahu by then was already persona non grata among Democrats for his all-out campaign against President Barack Obama’s Iran policies.

Lapid, like others running against Netanyahu, appeared cowed by Netanyahu’s attempts to tar their past association with Mansour Abbas, the leader of the United Arab List. Bennet and Lapid made history by including the party in the governing coalition. That would not happen again, Lapid said, although garnering enough seats to govern is more daunting without the inclusion of Arab parties.

“I have a lot of conversations about this with Mansour Abbas, who seems to understand this better than some of my Jewish friends, the fact that maybe it’s time for a coalition that will be made of only of Zionist parties,” he said. 

Lapid’s greater affinity to Democrats notwithstanding, he took shots at Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump – arguing that he was the better friend to the president’s Middle East agenda. He noted that last year he brought Trump’s 20-point plan for bringing peace to Gaza to a Knesset vote, and that Netanyahu and his coalition partners absented themselves from the Knesset rather than vote for it.

“I passed the 20-point plan, I did it just to bend Netanyahu’s arm into it,” he said. Netanyahu could not afford to back the plan because its provisions anticipating Palestinian self-governance might have cost him his right-wing coalition partners. ”So I got all the compliments from the American administration,” Lapid said. “It was fun.”

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Four Israelis were arrested for drug possession aboard a boat in Greece alongside four other foreign nationals on Thursday morning, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

The eight suspects were taken into custody by the Greek Coast Guard on a private catamaran at the port of Perigiali, on the Greek island of Lefkada.

Authorities suspected that the group had been participating in a drug party aboard the vessel, according to reports.

Σύλληψη 8 αλλοδαπών για παράβαση του Νόμου περί εξαρτησιογόνων ναρκωτικών στη Λευκάδαhttps://t.co/LsG6ZGKSuh

— ΛΙΜΕΝΙΚΟ ΣΩΜΑ (@HCoastGuard) July 24, 2026

One Turkish citizen, one Italian citizen, one Spanish citizen, and one Latvian citizen were among the arrested.

The suspects allegedly violated Greek Law 4139/2013 on addictive substances, the Hellenic Coast Guard said in a statement. The law sets the national penalties for drug trafficking and possession, along with regulating medical cannabis.

Greek authorities seize drugs, cash, paraphernalia from British-flagged boat

During a search of the vessel, Greek authorities seized approximately 56 grams of unprocessed cannabis, 10 grams of a crystalline substance described in the statement as methamphetamine, MDMA, 13 ecstasy tablets, and nylon packages containing 8.1 grams of cocaine.

Authorities also found plates containing cannabis residue, two plastic cannabis grinders, 12 unidentified blue pills, and banknotes bearing traces of cocaine.

In addition, officers confiscated €7,000, NIS 3,240, $563, eight mobile phones, two tablets, and a laptop computer.

The Lefkada Port Authority, which is conducting the preliminary investigation, confiscated all the items found during the search, as well as the British-flagged catamaran.

The suspects’ names have not yet been made public. The four Israelis were described in media reports as businesspeople, including one individual reportedly connected to an Israeli coffee shop chain.

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There is no US pressure on Israel to withdraw from Gaza or Lebanon, Head of the Israeli Public Diplomacy Directorate Tzipi Hotovely told reporters following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

“There is an understanding of how Israel should operate in Gaza. Israel will remain on the Yellow Line, and reconstruction will not begin before full demilitarization,” Hotovely said. 

Hotovely also stated that the US and Israel shared the same goals regarding Iran. 

“There is full coordination. There is complete understanding that our shared objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Israel and the United States are fully aligned in their understanding of that goal,” she said. 

The meeting, which Hotovely described as “excellent,” focused primarily on the issue of Iran, as well as the expansion of the Abraham Accords. 

Trump, Netanyahu discuss Saudi normalization, Pickaxe mountain threats

Hotovely also emphasized Trump’s commitment to Israel, sharing that when Netanyahu called Lindsey Graham Israel’s number one friend, Trump interrupted him to say the title belonged to him. 

“No, I’m Israel’s number one friend. Lindsey is number two,” Trump said. 

The leaders did not discuss the Temple Mount, F-35s, or the recent assassination attempts against Trump and the drone strikes on Netanyahu’s residence, Hotovely said. 

Saudi Arabia was discussed “as part of a broader regional discussion,” but not regarding its civilian nuclear plan, she added. 

Multiple other officials were involved in the talks, and Netanyahu is expected to meet with additional senior officials but is not set to speak with Trump again. 

Hotovely also dismissed reports that Israel came to offer Trump intelligence on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain as false, saying the issue did not come up. 

This post was originally published on here. 

It has been widely reported that about a third of New York’s Jews voted for Zohran Mamdani, which didn’t surprise me, because most of my oldest and closest friends in New York are in that 33%.

Their choice to vote for him has made me think of the memorable speech in the classic movie, Broadcast News, where the character Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a brainy reporter, speaks about a telegenic but dim rival, calling him the devil and saying, “What do you think the devil’s gonna look like if he’s around? Come on, no one’s gonna be taken in by a guy with a long, red pointy tail… He will be attractive, he’ll be nice and helpful, he’ll get a job where he influences a great, god-fearing nation, he’ll never do an evil thing, he’ll never deliberately hurt a living thing. He’ll just bit by little bit lower our standards where they’re important. Just a tiny little bit, just coax along flash over substance. Just a tiny little bit.”

My friends’ awareness of antisemitism has been lowered bit by bit, and now it is virtually non-existent, and they have embraced the seemingly “nice and helpful” Mamdani. The antisemitic tropes Mamdani and those he supports use frequently, sometimes couched as anti-Zionism, sometimes not, don’t bother them. It didn’t upset them recently when Mamdani called American-Jewish lobbyists “monsters” who “move dark money,” nor were they worried when it was reported that before he was elected, he said, “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”

They weren’t put off by Mamdani’s October 8 tweet, which did not mention or criticize Hamas, but did call for “an end to occupation and dismantling apartheid.” That he spends much time calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest, and never criticizes any other world leader, does not even register with them.

I’ve tried to understand their point of view, and I think the bottom line for them is: If Mamdani is a passionate anti-Zionist, that’s part of his brand, his sincere concern for the underdog. OK, so he won’t condemn the phrase, “globalize the Intifada” – what does that even mean, anyway, and Mamdani is so young and charismatic, with his chic artist-influencer wife, and they looked great celebrating the Knicks’ championship victory. So, she liked a lot of posts that celebrated the rape and murder of thousands of Jews – nobody’s perfect, right?  

But what is most upsetting to me is that they seem to have forgotten what I went through on October 7, wondering how my son Danny, who is on the autism spectrum, was coping with the missile attacks on the area where he lives, and worrying about how close the terrorists were getting to his village, which is a bit closer to the Gaza Envelope region than Jerusalem, where I live. They expressed sympathy for our predicament on that day as if it were a natural disaster like a tsunami, not due to deliberate acts of terrorism intended to start a war. To go back to the Broadcast News devil speech, the lowering of their standards “bit by little bit” was well on its way years before Mamdani came on the scene.

‘The world around us was filled with Jews’

The people among whom I grew up on the Upper West Side in New York tend to be liberal and politically engaged, and we all had a very secular upbringing. I never attended a Jewish school, although at every school I went to, almost all the white kids were Jewish. New York City public schools were closed on big Jewish holidays. My parents were Zionists, but had never visited Israel, which was common among my friends’ families. Few of my schoolmates had a bar or a bat mitzvah. It never occurred to me that I would have one, and I didn’t learn Hebrew until I was in my 20s.

My parents weren’t rebelling against religion, and all four of my grandparents were not observant; on one side, even my great-grandparents were secularists. We did observe some holidays and saw ourselves as culturally Jewish. Several of my friends were the children of Holocaust survivors and refugees who had made narrow escapes from Nazi Germany. We were not self-hating Jews, but Judaism was just not an important part of our lives. We never experienced antisemitism. I was always told, “There used to be a lot of antisemitism in America, but it’s in the past.” I grew up believing that was true.

The world around us was filled with Jews. Abe Beame and Ed Koch were mayors of New York. Everybody went to Woody Allen and Mel Brooks movies, and Barbra Streisand, Elliott Gould, and Gene Wilder were big movie stars, and Judd Hirsch, Henry Winkler, Gilda Radner and, later, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were popular on the small screen.

We listened to Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Carole King, Billy Joel, and so many other Jewish musicians. Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and Joseph Heller were among the era’s most acclaimed writers. There were Judaica shops, synagogues, and kosher butchers all over the Upper West Side, although we didn’t frequent them. When we went off to college, between a quarter and a third of the other students were Jewish.

‘The bubble’ of American Jewry

We didn’t know we were living in a bubble. Maybe you can never see the bubble you’re in until it bursts.

I can see that now. But my friends in the 33% still feel they are living in that bubble. None of them are “visibly Jewish,” and no one they know has been threatened on the street or attacked in a hate crime. So far, professional organizations to which they belong have not asked them about their attitude toward Zionism. Their children went to good colleges and now have good jobs.

Their big issue is President Donald Trump and all he stands for. They go to one or two anti-Trump rallies every year and consider themselves very politically committed. I can’t help comparing this level of engagement to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who turned out at weekly rallies during the war calling for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, rallies where speakers often referenced the suffering of Gazans, with some participants holding pictures of children in Gaza who were killed. Not to mention the weekly rallies all around Israel prior to the war, calling for an end to the government’s program of judicial reform.

My friends have told me they know now what it’s like to live in a dictatorship – because of Trump – although when I asked them what they could no longer do because of this dictatorship, they couldn’t answer me.

Although they are well educated and voracious consumers of newspapers and other media, they are selectively ignorant about so many issues that are central to understanding Israel. They know that Israel has been branded as a white colonist enterprise, for example, but don’t know that  800,000 Jews were expelled from Middle Eastern and North African countries in the late 1940s and early 1950s and that most moved to Israel. Nor do they know that more than 30,000 missiles were fired at Israel from Gaza during the years between the time Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and the present, or even that Israel withdrew from Gaza at all.

An old friend thought I was making a tasteless joke in 2025 when I said that I worried about missile strikes when I drove Danny home from the village in central Israel where he lives during the week. It took time, and I had to send him a few articles before he could believe me. After he understood, his response was simply that I should flee this terrible place immediately – he became hysterical — and go back to a good place (New York).

That the supposedly terrible place offers a level of care for my son that only the richest Americans can afford seemed to confuse him, and then he dropped the subject. Saying that my son has a good life here is cringe-inducing, since it might put me on the side of uncool people who don’t hate Trump, and against charmers like Mamdani.

A lack of curiosity

The gaps in their knowledge and their lack of curiosity once they become aware of these gaps make it almost impossible for us to talk. I’m not sure they believed me when I told them that most Israelis I know are as eager as Mamdani to see Netanyahu in prison, but on the corruption charges for which he is on trial in Israel, not for the bogus and fashionable genocide allegation that New York’s mayor has repeated. As a quote widely attributed to Mark Twain puts it, “It’s easier to fool somebody than to convince them they’ve been fooled.”

When the wars with Iran started, a few reached out to make sure my family and I were OK, and that was comforting. But many assumed that my main emotion was not fear of Iranian missiles but rage at Trump. To show their concern, they sent me anti-Trump diatribes. They sounded disappointed and bewildered when I expressed anger at the Iranian government.

I understand that rational people can have a disagreement about the wisdom of the US engaging in the war against Iran. I was surprised, though I shouldn’t have been, that my friends would take the “America First” isolationist point of view, or rather a left-wing variant of that view, that the US should never get involved in any conflicts because America is so toxic that any action it takes is evil. That the earlier America First movement made it difficult for their families and millions of other Jews to escape the Nazis is not something they think about today, it seems.

It was also confusing that these friends never, literally never, mentioned that they had problems with the US joining and supporting the coalition to fight ISIS about a decade ago. They did not think that the US and the other countries in the coalition were guilty of genocide because of civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria. It’s hard to imagine them supporting a New York mayor who spent a significant portion of his time accusing the anti-ISIS coalition of genocide in Mosul and Raqqa rather than governing the city. Nor did I hear a peep out of any of them back when the US went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of 9/11.

Of course, they were angry when it turned out there had been no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But at the time when the US launched those actions, they were fully behind them, thinking them justified because of the Al-Qaeda terror attack on New York. I never heard them, or anyone else, term the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in those countries a genocide.

That the Hamas massacre was the equivalent, in population terms, of about 40,000 dead in the US, not in four airplane attacks but one-on-one killings, with about 10,000 taken hostage, has never independently occurred to any of them. When I brought it up, they invariably changed the subject. Nor have they ever wondered why Hamas built hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath Gaza but won’t let civilians take shelter in them during a war.

Conversely, although most of my US friends are outspoken feminists, I have never heard them express outrage at the treatment of women by the Iranian government, during the “Woman. Life. Freedom” protests following the killing of Mahsa Amini in prison after her arrest for improperly wearing her government-mandated hijab in 2022, or at any other time. Nor did they express the slightest compassion for the tens of thousands of Iranian protesters killed in three days in early 2026.  

I can understand that they may feel these killings are not a justification for going to war, but I would expect feminists especially to express sympathy for these protesters, most of them the age of our adult children, many of them young women who took off their hijabs. But they don’t.

My friends show little interest when I tell them my daily Israel experience 

And while they admire the mayor who condemns Israel for  “apartheid,” they show little interest when I tell them that my daily experience contradicts this accusation. The specialist doctor who treats a family member is a Muslim, and most of the doctors who took care of my mother during her many hospitalizations in the last years of her life here were Muslims, as were the police officers who came to her apartment after she died in home hospice care (the police are called whenever someone dies at home). My pharmacist is Muslim. When my son needed an aide to work with him daily in a program, I hired a Muslim graduate student in special education.

On October 7, I heard from Palestinian friends who wanted to know if I was safe and to see how Danny was handling the war. Some of them have been praying for Danny in their Friday prayers for many years, and they have expressed much more concern for my son in the recent wars than many of my old friends in the US. Go figure.

It is certainly true that Arabs in Israel face discrimination, and it is my sincere hope that a new government will soon be elected that will redress this wrong and will put a stop to the frequent and extreme violence against Palestinians in the West Bank at the hands of Israelis. Still, that does not mean that Israel is an apartheid state, and to characterize it incorrectly makes helping the Arabs who face discrimination here that much harder.

When I talk to my old friends lately, I feel like a combination of a Cassandra and a nudnik, constantly bringing up facts that contradict their worldview, which they have no genuine interest in. That I still keep my shoes right next to the door in the event of a flare-up of the war with Iran so I can run to our shelter quickly is a meaningless piece of information to them. Mamdani is the good guy, Trump is the bad guy, and I’m just someone who made a really bad choice about where to live, as if I had pitched a tent next to an active volcano.

But more than anything else, they just don’t want to hear about it anymore.

This post was originally published on here.