Jerusalem Post

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan criticized the appointment of David Zini as head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), questioning his ability to safeguard the upcoming Knesset elections, during a campaign event hosted by the Jezreel Valley Regional Council on Wednesday.

Golan expressed concern over Zini’s ability to protect the integrity of the electoral process, arguing that several former senior military officers would have been better suited for the position.

“I have every reason in the world to be concerned about whether Zini will protect the electoral process,” Golan said.

“Time will tell,” Golan continued. “They could have appointed one of the major generals, Nitzan Alon, Roni Numa, or Uri Gordin. Why choose someone who knows absolutely nothing about this? What is legitimate about that?”

Golan linked his concerns to what he described as Zini’s failure to adequately address the “Qatargate” affair and Jewish settler extremist violence in the West Bank.

“When Zini took office, I said there were two tests of his performance: The first was investigating the Qatargate affair, and the second was combating Jewish terrorism in the West Bank. He has failed at both of these tasks. Now he has a third mission: protecting the integrity of the electoral process.”

Golan also rejected allegations that he had previously described IDF soldiers as “baby killers” or “Nazis.”

“I never said that IDF soldiers were baby killers or Nazis,” Golan said.

Golan explains opposition to second international airport at Ramat David

Turning to plans for a second international airport to supplement Ben-Gurion Airport, Golan reiterated his opposition to constructing the facility at Ramat David in the Jezreel Valley, citing security concerns.

He said he had rejected the proposal during his tenure as deputy IDF chief of staff, despite support from the Israel Air Force, and had instead recommended building the airport in the Negev.

“Exactly ten years ago, this issue came across my desk when I was deputy IDF chief of staff. I ruled out the possibility of building a second international airport to supplement Ben-Gurion Airport at Ramat David on security grounds, despite the Air Force’s support for the proposal, and determined that the appropriate location was in the Negev.

“This is not a political statement. It is a purely security-based assessment. It makes no sense to take Israel’s second international airport, place it within range of rockets from Lebanon, and expect it to provide a genuine solution, including during emergencies.

“The airport should be built in the south. First and foremost, from a national perspective, developing the Negev, settling the south, and fulfilling Ben-Gurion’s vision. Second, the south is far less exposed to threats from all directions. We will ensure that no international airport is built in the Jezreel Valley.”

Avi Nesher’s latest movie, Our Loves, opened in theaters across Israel on Thursday and is a beautiful, moving film about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

It tells a story that is suspenseful, sad, sometimes even funny, and always human. It may even change the way you see the world – and yourself.

Nesher has described it as the story of seven people who all think they are having the worst day of their lives on October 6, 2023.

That’s really all you need to know about it going in, and yes, it does encompass the October 7 massacre, but it isn’t “an October 7 movie.”

It’s different from the television series Red Alert and One Day in October, for example, because it follows fictional characters living their lives who happen to get caught up in the massacre, while those series were dramatized versions of specific stories about real people.

Some Oct. 7 dramatizations are like watching news reports, but this one is truly cinematic

They were like watching news reports acted out, while Our Loves is a different experience, a truly cinematic one.

The idea of people who thought they were as stressed as they could be on October 6 is a smart lens for tackling October 7. You get to know each character and are drawn into their stories.

The attack begins only after you have been engrossed in the movie for nearly an hour and have almost forgotten what is in store for the protagonists.

Our Loves opens with the quote: “Love is always immersive, anytime and anyplace, but it is more intense the nearer it comes to death,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Love in the Time of Cholera.

This sets the tone for the characters’ stories, which, as the title suggests, are all about love in one way or another.

Playing with our expectations, the movie opens at a concert that turns out not to be the Nova Music Festival, but a rock concert on October 5 that most of the main characters attend for different reasons, and we get to know them gradually.

Among these characters is Shabi (Shalom Michaelshvili), an aggressive retired general who is divorced and suing his ex-wife to force her to sell their house, which she and their children don’t want to give up.

He tells himself he’s doing the right thing, but when he sees his strong-willed daughter, Liri (Noa Cohen), she can barely look at him.

Deep down, he knows he’s lost something, but he still can’t stop himself from continuing the court case, and there is a painful hearing on the morning of October 6.

Liri attends the rock concert to support her new boyfriend, Matan (Nevo Katan), a sound engineer working there, whose parents, Katya (Lena Fraifeld) and Gadi (Lior Miller), are splitting up because Katya has decided she needs to try living on her own.

Katya is moving into the young people’s section of the kibbutz in the Gaza border communities region where they live, right near Liri and Matan.

A policewoman, Mili (Magi Azarzar), on security duty at the event, is nervous because she plans to introduce her girlfriend, Sandra (Hadas Yaron), a nerdy nuclear scientist at the Dimona reactor, to her very traditional Moroccan mother (Evelin Hagoel).

Niso (Yaniv Biton), one of Mili’s police colleagues, is reluctantly quitting to move to Europe with his wife and take a lucrative marketing job.

Another one of the main characters, Sapir (Daniel Gimpel), a young religious woman, desperately wants to get married and start a family, but enjoys trance music and dancing, which the guys she dates see as an unwelcome wild streak.

On the morning of October 6, the boyfriend she thought she was getting engaged to dumps her.

Her friend (Kim Or Azulay) convinces her it’s time to have some fun despite the religious laws of Shabbat and Simchat Torah by attending the Nova festival.

Torn between religious duty and the need to rebel, Sapir agrees to attend the festival. She even takes a pill her friend buys from Yoyo (Leib Levin), a sexy drug dealer who keeps his stash in his underwear.

Personalities don’t change under threat

Suddenly, starting at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, the world around them changes at breakneck speed, and everything they do becomes a life-or-death choice.

But their personalities don’t change because they are under threat, and Nesher’s playful sense of humor and the absurd don’t disappear just because he is depicting a tragedy.

Shabi heads south to save Liri as soon as he learns her kibbutz is under attack, but he needs a rifle and some backup.

Stopping by an army base, he picks up four of the most clueless recruits in the history of cinema, all of whom have names starting with the same letter, which makes it even harder for him to tell them apart.

Only it may be better that way, he mumbles, because the likelihood that any of them will make it home alive is slim.

The comedy and tragedy of the four guys and Shabi continue throughout the day, and slowly, this arrogant general begins to truly question how he uses people, perhaps for the first time in his life.

Unexpected comedy comes up at other times, too, but I don’t want to risk revealing spoilers by giving away too much.

One moment that has stayed with me and exemplifies Nesher’s approach to the day’s events is when Matan’s former girlfriend (singer-actress Neomi Aharoni Gal, aka Nunu, who also performs the title song), who runs a hot-dog stand at the Nova, tries to flee carrying her hot-dog steamer.

A police officer, desperately trying to fight off dozens of terrorists with a handgun, yells at her to leave it and run, but she keeps trying to hold onto the heavy contraption, protesting that she can’t live without it.

Knowing what happened at the festival, we can see how foolish she is being, but at the same time, it’s understandable that she couldn’t switch gears instantly during the attack.

So many of us had trouble making the switch that day, and this moment in particular put me into the heads of the people at the music festival.

The excellent acting (Shalom Michaelshvili, best known as a comic actor, as the general, and newcomer Daniel Gimpel as the young religious festival-goer are standouts in a fine ensemble), original music, and stunning cinematography all flow together to tell the story.

The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, despite the anti-Israel sentiment roiling the international cultural world.

Some of the reviewers there criticized the movie for not telling its story from the point of view of Hamas terrorists as well as the Israeli characters.

Nesher has said in interviews that he could not write from the point of view of a terrorist who would burn a family alive, and the truth is that, had he even attempted to tell the story from the terrorists’ point of view, he would have been accused of cultural appropriation.

Another point about the critical reception of the movie abroad is that reviewers full of staunch opinions on how Nesher should have portrayed the terrorists seem to have missed the fact that in a scene late in the movie, when several characters arrive at a hospital, the head doctor (Hisham Suleiman) is an Arab.

These reviewers do not know enough about the region to discern when characters are speaking Hebrew or Arabic, but they still think they know how this story should have been told.

One reviewer wrote, from the comfort of a Toronto hotel room, that “quite a few of the characters seem less distraught than one might expect given the circumstances,” as if she were intimately familiar with how people act during a day-long terror attack.

The remark also suggests she was unaware that Hamas fired tens of thousands of missiles at Israel prior to October 7, and that at first the attack seemed routine to many people.

But it’s the director’s triumph that he manages to get those of us who do know the facts about the conflict to forget the headlines and just get into the story.

In the key scene, when rockets fired by Hamas begin to fly toward the festival venue, we are so much in Sapir’s head that for a moment, when the light streaks across the sky, we, too, wonder whether we are seeing fireworks that are part of the festival.

In that moment, and several others, in an ambulance or on the road during a brief respite from the killing, we embrace life along with the characters.

Seeing this movie can be transformative, and after you watch it, you may look at your own life differently, just as the survivors in the movie do at the end of the day.

Nesher, one of Israel’s most acclaimed and popular directors, knows how to tell a story, or, in this case, stories. He started his career over 40 years ago with the classic army entertainment group movie, The Troupe.

He has also made such modern classics as Turn Left at the End of the World and, more recently, another drama based on Israeli history, Image of Victory, which told the story of both sides in the battle of Nitzanim in the Independence War.

It makes sense that he would be the director to find the human truth in the tragedy of this infamous day and turn it into immersive cinema.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is waiving many sanctions, restrictions, and duties days before they were to take effect under a bill that he signed into law last month.

Trump’s executive order comes as he has been warming toward Russia and publicly criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, including suggesting that Ukraine needs a new leader.

The legislation, whose primary backer in Congress was the late Senator Lindsey Graham, would have imposed tariffs of up to 100% within 30 days on all goods brought into the US from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas, as well as any country that knowingly bought oil or gas 30 days after the law was enacted or was among the top five countries helping Russia evade sanctions.

Trump claims waiver is in US’s ‘national interest’

Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 in mid-September.

“I have submitted to Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States,” Trump said in the order released by the White House on Friday.

Countries such as India, which is among the biggest buyers of Russian oil, have raised concerns about the Russia sanctions bill.

US President Donald Trump made a joke about the popularity of the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran’s presidency during a campaign speech on Friday.

“You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middle East, just say ‘Mohammad,'” Trump told a crowd in Dalton, Georgia. “You have about a 65% chance. ‘Hello, Mohammad.’ I’ve done it for years now. I’ve never been wrong.”

Mohammad is one of the most common male names among Muslims, who often name their sons after the Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.

Trump made the comment as he was discussing Iran during a rally in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport in Georgia, where he campaigned for Republican political candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

“Iran is the only country where nobody wants to be president,” Trump said, then pretended to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job. Masoud Pezeshkian has been president of Iran since 2024.

The Georgia crowd gave the joke a muted response.

Muslim advocacy groups criticize Trump for mocking muslims

Muslim advocacy groups have repeatedly criticized Trump for rhetoric that they claim mocks Muslims, immigrants, and ethnic minorities.

He has repeated such rhetoric during the midterm campaign season, particularly against Somali and Muslim Americans, including Muslim Democratic ‌US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat.

Trump repeated his vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Tehran aimed in part at crippling its nuclear program.

On the eve of Sukkot, I find myself not in Jerusalem but in Kissimmee, Florida, in a gated vacation home community called Encore at Reunion.

Our youngest grandchild, Ye’ela, now seven, has convinced her family that it’s her turn to visit Disney World. Her older siblings have already been. My son, daughter-in-law, and their four children can all take off the days of Sukkot. My physician son even has a lecture to give for Hadassah in Miami. We decide to go for it.

I admit to having a weakness for Disney World. Walking down Disney’s Main Street, U.S.A., riding through the African savanna on Kilimanjaro Safaris in Animal Kingdom, and watching For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration in Hollywood Studios when the snow comes down (twice!) offer an invigorating vacation break from the Middle East. I like refilling my Disney popcorn bucket at every stop, eating Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream, and being silly enough to decorate my hat with a Minnie Mouse headband.

Seven-year-old Ye’ela has spent most of her life either in a pandemic or wartime, and I want to see her pose with those Disney princesses and ride the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster with her siblings.

So I take on the job of logistics, which has to include Sukkot observance, of course.

Where to stay? We want a house, not a hotel, partly because it’s less expensive, but also because we can prepare kosher food for kids used to Israeli cuisine and celebrate the holiday our own way. There are literally tens of thousands of vacation home rentals in the Orlando area, but only a handful of rental communities allow or tolerate the building of those strange shacks called sukkot on their property. Hence, we decide on Encore at Reunion.

For most of the year, Encore is a regular vacation resort village for American and foreign guests. But on Jewish holidays, particularly Sukkot and Passover, hundreds of observant Jews abandon their already chilly backyards in colder states to erect their sukkot in Florida.

Encore is 18 km. from the Magic Kingdom and closer to the other three Disney parks. It is not only sukkah-friendly but has an eruv, making carrying possible on Shabbat. Over the last decade or so, this has become a popular holiday venue for religious Jews. The resort also includes shuttles to the parks and a large, free water park with impressive waterslides for all ages.

I arrange for an unassembled sukkah to be delivered by one of several local suppliers (Klein’s, if you’re interested). Ironically, we live on a Jerusalem street with a bustling Four Species marketplace, but fear violating import laws by bringing an etrog into the Citrus State. So I order the Four Species from a pop-up Chabad distributor, also at Encore.

We bring some pots and pans and buy others. With 337 km. separating Miami International Airport from Encore, I search for and find a reliable, reasonably priced van service (DNR Limousine Services, in case you’re interested; ask for Vladi) that also stops at a kosher supermarket so we can pick up our large online order of food supplies and sushi lunch.

By the day before the holiday, the nondescript vacation village has been transformed into a Sukkot hub. Thatched-roof booths are ubiquitous, mostly in driveways, but also in backyards beside the private swimming pools.

Nearly all those rental homes also have golf carts in their driveways, not for golfaholics, but for families to use as transportation and entertainment on the resort’s streets. Many of the drivers look dangerously underage.

Despite jet lag, we spend our first two happy days in Disney parks. Then it’s Sukkot eve. Our sukkah is up and, thanks to my daughter-in-law, our holiday food is sizzling on a hotplate delivered by Amazon Prime.

One neighbor insists that we come inside and eat a plate of cholent. Another invites my husband to walk with him to one of the pop-up synagogues for the Mincha prayer. My granddaughter Eliana, 18, and I try to follow them soon after candlelighting, but never find the synagogue.

The air is balmy, with no Florida hurricanes threatening tonight. There are few cars on the street. Passersby wish us “gut Shabbos” and “gut yom tov.”

‘Strange and unexpected’

“How strange and unexpected it is to be in Florida and to be surrounded by religious Jews,” Eliana says.

Most of those strolling like us are girls and women, their cooking done, their menfolk off to synagogues. The teenage girls look a lot like Eliana, in holiday dresses, long hair, and welcoming smiles. We stop to chat with a few of them along the way.

Then, when we are alone, Eliana says something that changes the mood.

“I see these girls. In most ways, they’re just like me, but none of them has been through what we teenagers in Israel have gone through. We’ve dodged rockets, cared for families where the father was gone for months, and, worst of all, we’ve gone to so many funerals and shiva calls. We’re all going to national service and the army. How different our lives have been.”

We walk quietly after that, her words bringing us back to Israel, to her hometown of Modi’in.

Modi’in has suffered devastating military losses during the war. So many young residents have fallen that the military cemetery has required expansion. When you’re 18, you know many of the soldiers from school or youth movements. The names on the gravestones are not strangers.

Eliana herself is spending the year at Tzahali, a pre-military preparatory academy for religious young women, founded in 2006. The academy is named in memory of combat navigator Tamar Ariel, whose youth group was led by Eliana’s aunt and uncle. Its program combines Torah study with preparation for meaningful leadership and service in the IDF.

Eliana already has her future army placement.

Our somberness fades as we sit around the holiday table, enjoying the home-cooked food and the novelty of having our own sukkah so far from home. Sukkot is, after all, the holiday of joy, reaffirming our reliance on the Almighty. Through the thatched roof of our Florida sukkah, the same stars we see at home are abundant and reassuring.

Little Ye’ela does get to see the princesses. She turns out to be a roller coaster enthusiast, riding with siblings Matan, 10; Ariel, 16; and Eliana on the famous roller coasters.

By the time we reach the finale, the magnificent fireworks over the Magic Kingdom, no one thinks of comparing them to the Iron Dome squiggles of light that have so often illuminated the heavens over Modi’in. Watching the bursts of light align in the air to create hearts and Disney characters, the children are able to look up at the sky and focus on the beauty.

We, too.

The writer is the Israel director of public relations at Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Her latest book is A Daughter of Many Mothers, cowritten with Holocaust survivor and premier English-language witness Rena Quint.

A Norwegian teenager who flew to Britain to commit murder after being recruited online by a Swedish organized crime group linked to Iran was jailed on Friday for 20 years.

British prosecutors said Johannes Natland, now 19, was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish criminal group that pays young people to carry out “violence as a service” on behalf of clients, including the Iranian state.

He was convicted in July of conspiracy to murder. Natland had not been told the identity of the person he had agreed to kill in return for a payment of 270,000 Norwegian kroner, around $28,600, prosecutors said.

The case was one of a number in recent years involving young adults who have stood trial in Britain over serious criminal acts carried out after being recruited online. Britain says some of them have ended up acting as unwitting proxies for foreign states such as Iran or Russia.

Foxtrot has been linked to several murders across Europe, and Britain and the US allege the group was behind attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on behalf of Iran, which denies the allegation.

Teen said ‘it will be cool to kill’

Natland had only just turned 18 when he flew from Norway to Britain, having responded to an advert which offered money to kill and said “nothing can go wrong.”

He admitted possessing a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and ammunition, but denied conspiracy to murder, saying he did not intend to carry out the plan and had considered shooting himself in the foot to get out of it.

But prosecutors said Natland was an enthusiastic recruit, who boasted to a friend that “it will be cool to kill someone.”

Judge says she was sure Natland would have carried out attack if not caught 

Natland was sentenced at London’s Woolwich Crown Court to detention for 20 years by Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, who said she was sure he would have carried out the murder if he had not been arrested by police.

“This was not an impulsive act lasting a few moments … your conduct demonstrated purpose and persistence,” she said, adding that Natland would serve at least 13 years in custody.

Natland’s Norwegian lawyer Farid Bouras said in a statement: “Our priority now is to bring him home. We will be working to secure his transfer to Norway as quickly as we possibly can.”

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said there was no evidence of any direct link to Iran in Natland’s case, which served as a warning to those who may be recruited to become criminal proxies.

“As Natland found, the people orchestrating these crimes will not protect you from the consequences,” she said.

US President Donald Trump indicated that he could pursue criminal investigations or release damaging information about former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden if Democrats attempt to impeach him for a third time, during an interview with Rob Finnerty on Newsmax’s Finnerty on Thursday.

Trump claimed he had previously declined opportunities to pursue criminal investigations against his political opponents but suggested he could reconsider if Democrats regain control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections and launch another impeachment attempt.

“I could have done numbers on Hillary Clinton,” Trump said. “I could have done numbers on Bill Clinton. I do like Bill Clinton. I could have done numbers on Barack Hussein Obama. Still could, I still could, I could do big numbers if I wanted to.”

“I’m talking about go after them criminally, or I could have done something having to do with their reputations [and] destroyed their reputations,” he said.

Trump claims to possess damaging information on Democratic rivals

Trump also claimed that his administration possessed potentially damaging information about Clinton, Obama, and Biden, although he did not provide evidence or specify what the information involved.

“I could have done something having to do with their reputations, destroyed their reputations,” he said. “We have a lot of information about Hillary. We have a lot of information about Barack Hussein Obama. We have a lot of information on Sleepy Joe Biden.”

When Finnerty asked whether he intended to act on that information, Trump appeared to leave open the possibility of doing so.

“Well, I mean, I guess not. Probably not. But I think if they impeach me again, you know, again,” Trump replied.

“Things could get ugly,” Finnerty interjected.

The president made similar remarks during an Oval Office event on October 7, saying he had refrained from pursuing political opponents out of respect for the presidency.

Democrats weigh impeachment as midterm elections approach

The remarks come as Democrats seek to regain control of Congress in the midterm elections, potentially setting the stage for renewed investigations and oversight of the Trump administration.

Democratic leaders have not committed to pursuing impeachment if their party regains control of the House of Representatives.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said last month that Democrats had neither ruled out nor committed to another impeachment effort, while House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar has said impeachment is not among the party’s top priorities.

Trump, who was impeached twice during his first administration and acquitted by the Senate both times, questioned what grounds Democrats could use to launch a third impeachment effort.

“The only thing they can impeach me for is making our country really strong,” Trump said.

He also suggested that another impeachment effort could ultimately benefit Republicans politically, arguing that his previous impeachment proceedings had not damaged his standing with supporters.

“And I [have] become good at anti-impeachment. I call it the anti-impeachment movement,” he said.

Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yoram Cohen, who holds the second spot on the Yashar party’s electoral list, warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could deliberately escalate security tensions ahead of Israel’s October 27 election for political reasons, during an interview with Liat Regev on Kan Reshet Bet radio’s Friday Midday program on Friday.

Cohen said he was concerned that Netanyahu might seek to escalate tensions on one of Israel’s security fronts to improve his electoral prospects, especially given the proximity of the elections and the prime minister’s standing in the polls.

“I don’t want to make unequivocal statements, but a justification for a security situation and escalation can always be found. Unfortunately, I cannot rule it out,” Cohen said, adding that Netanyahu has demonstrated in the past that “his decisions are influenced by ulterior motives, and that is very troubling.”

Cohen warns of stagnation in Gaza

Cohen also criticized what he described as Israel’s “complete stagnation on all fronts, a static situation,” particularly in Gaza, while addressing Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot’s pledge to end Hamas’s rule in the enclave within 18 months of becoming prime minister.

He argued that the current government was failing to implement US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, warning that without a viable plan for the “day after” the war, “there will be no choice but for Israel to take active measures.”

“Hamas essentially controls the territory, receives money, grows stronger, and recruits people. We must stop this before it reaches the scale it had before October 6,” he warned.

Cohen responds to Liberman’s rejection of minority government

Turning to the upcoming elections, Cohen addressed Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman’s statement on Thursday that his party would not support a minority government under any circumstances, including as a temporary arrangement.

בימים האחרונים נשאלתי כמה וכמה פעמים לגבי ממשלת אחדות לאומית. עמדתנו חדה וברורה: אנחנו נקים קואליציה המורכבת ממפלגות ציוניות בלבד. בלי רע״מ, בלי המשותפת, בלי ש״ס ובלי יהדות התורה. הליכוד בלי נתניהו יכול להיות שותף משמעותי. עם נתניהו – שיתהפך העולם לא נשב בשום מצב. לא נתמוך בשום ממשלת מיעוט, גם לא בממשלת מיעוט לתקופת מעבר. אני מאמין שנגיע לרוב מוצק בבחירות הקרובות, למרות הסקרים. וחוץ מזה, אני מכיר כמה ח״כים מתוך הליכוד שמבינים את גודל השעה, מבינים שביבי הפך אותם לקבלני משנה של גולדקנופף ודרעי, ולכן יהיו מוכנים להשלים את המניין ולהצטרף לקואליציה ציונית.

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) October 15, 2026

“We are working to establish a government of 61 Zionist, statesmanlike Knesset members,” Cohen said.

“If, God forbid, for some reason this is not possible, then we will establish a government with a clear Zionist majority.”

Cohen also questioned Liberman’s decision to rule out supporting a minority government, arguing that the statement could undermine the opposition bloc’s efforts to form a government.

“I don’t understand why he said that. I don’t think it helps the bloc.”

Two rivals in the pivotal race for New York’s 17th Congressional District are aggressively courting Jewish voters, each seeking to present themselves as a champion of Israel and a defender against antisemitism.

Rep. Mike Lawler, a two-term Republican incumbent, and Democratic challenger Cait Conley are neck and neck in polls, with both within the margin of error, in a race that could help determine which party controls the House in the last two years of President Donald Trump’s second term. 

Continued Republican control of Congress would give Trump a more favorable setting for advancing his legislative agenda. A Democratic House majority would give the opposition control of House committees and their investigative powers.

NY-17 comprises Putnam and Rockland counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties. An estimated 19% of the district’s residents are Jewish, according to a 2024 study commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute.

Each candidate is trying to tie the other to polarizing figures in their respective parties. Lawler is asserting that Conley refuses to separate herself from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the increasingly progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Conley is accusing Lawler of being a rubber stamp for Trump’s legislative priorities. 

Jewish voters emerge as key constituency in New York House race

For Conley to win, she’ll have to convince Jewish voters that not only is she a staunch Israel ally and determined to protect the Jewish community from antisemitism, but that she can distance herself from the left wing of the Democratic Party and the members of the Democratic Socialists of America, such as Mamdani and others who have been widely critical of Israel.

One reason is that most Orthodox Jews, a major constituency in Rockland County, identified as Republican or leaned Republican, according to a 2020 Pew Research national survey. Another is that a September poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute found that 57% of Jewish voters believe antisemitism is increasing within the Democratic Party, despite about 70% of Jewish voters favoring Democrats. The same national poll found 60% believed antisemitism was increasing in the Republican Party.

When the two candidates squared off in a televised debate hosted by PIX11 on Wednesday night, Lawler brought up the New York City mayor’s statement on Oct. 7, which mourned those killed and abducted on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks before accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and saying US tax dollars funded war crimes.

Lawler, noting that Conley repeatedly declined to condemn Mamdani in their previous debate, said the mayor issued “the most vile antisemitic statement on Oct. 7th, blaming Jews for their butchering on Oct. 7th.” Turning to Conley, Lawler asked, “Do you denounce Zohran Mamdani’s recent statement on Oct. 7th, which blamed Jews?”

“Yes, I do denounce Mamdani’s statement on October 7th, a day that we should be honoring and mourning the loss of life, the greatest loss of life to our Jewish community since the Holocaust,” she responded. “I condemn antisemitism from any party or anyone.”

Lawler, Conley clash over Mamdani, support for Israel

Both candidates spoke strongly in support of Israel. Debate moderator Dan Mannarino asked if US taxpayer money should still be used “to send offensive and defensive weapon funding to aid Israel.” 

“Israel is our greatest ally in the world,” Lawler replied. “The fact is, they’re the only democracy in the Middle East.” 

He then accused the Democratic Party of ambivalence toward Israel. “I am opposed to any effort by the Democrats and the DSA to defund the strategic partnership between the United States and Israel, and I will fight it tooth and nail,” he said.

Conley agreed with Lawler that the US should continue funding offensive and defensive weapons for Israel.

“I believe in Israel’s right to exist,” she said. “It is the only democracy in the Middle East. It is a strategic partner for American national security, and I believe America has a responsibility to help ensure the safety and security of the Israeli people.”

New York House candidates diverge over Netanyahu, Iran war

Even so, she sought to distinguish herself from Lawler by affirming her willingness to chastise the Israeli government when warranted. “I also will criticize the Netanyahu administration when I believe it is doing the wrong thing for Israel and America,” she said.

Conley said that although she supported the Trump administration’s military strikes on targeted locations associated with Iran’s nuclear weapons development program, she believes that the “feckless execution” of the war has drawn the country “into this reckless conflict without clear military objectives or an exit strategy.”

Lawler defended voting against congressional efforts to end the war, while trying to tie Conley to Iran’s ability to fund terrorism. He argued that while Conley served as director for counterterrorism on President Joe Biden’s National Security Council, the US “eased sanctions on the illicit oil trade between China and Iran, allowing them to accumulate hundreds of billions of dollars. That’s what funded Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis. That’s what financed the October 7th terrorist attack.”

Conley defended her record by noting that the head of ISIS was killed during her tenure. She also said that similar attacks on Iran have been on the table for both Democratic and Republican administrations for decades, but they were never carried out because those administrations determined such attacks would threaten national security. 

Over the past two weeks, the IDF destroyed dozens of monuments and signs commemorating terrorists during multiple counterterrorism operations across the West Bank, the military announced on Friday.

The operations focused on targeting hubs associated with various terrorist organizations involved in inciting terrorism and supporting Hamas’s October 7 massacre. 

The monuments and signs, frequently created to glorify terrorists deemed to be “martyrs,” were destroyed as part of the IDF’s efforts to thwart terrorism and crack down on violent incitement.

Over the course of the five operations, the IDF searched thousands of locations, arresting dozens of wanted individuals and issuing multiple warnings.

Israeli troops also seized thousands of shekels in terror-related funds and weaponry, including handguns and drones.

In a statement regarding the operations, the IDF vowed to continue carrying out counterterror measures and combatting incitement in the West Bank in pursuit of safeguarding the security of Israeli citizens.

IDF busts terror funding fronts in West Bank

On Wednesday, the IDF announced that it had conducted raids on multiple alleged charities in the West Bank that acted as funding fronts for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Five terrorist collaborators were arrested during the raid, and computers, documents, and checkbooks bearing Hamas-associated markings were seized as evidence. 

Jonah Davidov contributed to this report.

Missiles struck Aden International Airport in southern Yemen on Friday, while a Saudi-led military coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile headed for the Red Sea city of Yanbu, a key Saudi oil hub that allows exports to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

The coalition said it had also destroyed two cruise missiles over the Red Sea and three drones in Saudi Arabia’s Southern and Riyadh regions. It did not identify those behind the attacks.

In Aden, two missiles landed on the airport grounds, the Aden Security Department said, blaming the Iran-backed Houthi group. It said the incident was the second attack on the facility in less than a week. The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility.

No casualties were reported. A Yemenia Airways flight bound for Cairo was preparing for takeoff when the missiles landed, the security department said.

Yanbu key to Saudi oil exports

Yanbu is a key outlet for Saudi oil exports, allowing the kingdom to ship crude to international markets via the Red Sea without passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where heightened regional tensions and security threats have raised concerns over the safety of shipping.

Brent crude briefly touched $110 a barrel on Friday for the first time since May, as worries over escalating Middle East tensions raised concerns about tighter global supplies.

Saudi Civil Defense authorities earlier issued alerts in the Jazan region and the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, where such warnings have become frequent since fighting resumed last month.

Houthi attacks raise concerns over deteriorating humanitarian crisis

Fighting between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government has raised fears of a further deterioration in the country’s humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies have warned that conditions are worsening rapidly.

The Yemen conflict has become another front in the wider regional war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Yemen’s war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government south. A Saudi-led intervention began the following year, leading to years of stalemate before a 2022 truce that held until this year.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia since the conflict reignited, targeting airports, oil facilities and other infrastructure. In recent days, the group has also targeted sites in government-held parts of Yemen, including Aden airport and the presidential palace in the interim capital.

A spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said on Friday that 124 civilians had been killed and 327 wounded in what he described as “Saudi aggression” since the escalation began on September 3. Reuters could not independently verify the figures.

Elbit Systems Sweden AB announced on Wednesday that it plans to establish the Israeli defense company’s first European production and maintenance center for laser warning systems (LWS) in Sweden, as part of efforts to strengthen European defense manufacturing and support the security needs of NATO member states.

The facility, expected to become operational in 2027, will provide local integration, assembly, maintenance, and long-term technical support for laser warning systems supplied to European customers.

The initiative is part of Elbit Systems‘ long-term strategy to expand its industrial presence across Europe and strengthen local manufacturing and technological capabilities. The company said the facility would help improve system availability, shorten delivery times, and enhance support for European customers.

The establishment of local production capabilities also comes as European countries increase defense spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pressure from US President Donald Trump for NATO allies to raise their military expenditure. Local manufacturing could strengthen Elbit’s position in European defense procurement programs that prioritize domestic or regional industrial participation.

Elbit Systems to produce next-generation laser warning technology in Sweden

The planned facility will focus on Elbit Systems’ next-generation passive laser warning systems, designed to immediately detect and locate laser threats directed at military platforms. The technology provides crews with additional time and operational flexibility to deploy protective measures.

According to the company, the new systems are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing command-and-control infrastructure. Their decentralized architecture reduces the number of components, minimizes modifications required to military platforms, and is intended to improve reliability and operational durability.

Armed forces worldwide already deploy Elbit’s laser warning systems as key components of advanced self-protection suites for military aircraft, vehicles, and other platforms.

Sweden becomes a key hub for Elbit’s European defense operations

Established in 2020, Elbit Systems Sweden has become an increasingly important part of the company’s European operations, employing more than 100 people across the country. The subsidiary serves as a regional hub for Elbit’s activities in Northern Europe and works closely with Sweden’s defense industry.

In recent years, Elbit Systems Sweden has supported the Swedish Armed Forces through advanced defense and digitalization programs, strengthening its position as a long-term industrial and technology partner.

The expansion follows other Elbit initiatives in Europe. In June 2026, the company conducted major demonstrations of its digital battlefield networking capabilities in Sweden for representatives of NATO militaries and European defense companies.

Elbit has also expanded its European business through defense contracts involving Greece and Sweden, reflecting growing demand for Israeli-developed military technology and locally supported defense systems.

Elbit Sweden CEO highlights local manufacturing and NATO supply chains

Tobias Wennberg, CEO of Elbit Systems Sweden, said the initiative represents an important step in expanding the subsidiary’s industrial capabilities and strengthening its ability to develop, deliver, and manufacture systems locally.

“This initiative represents an important step for us and reflects our commitment to strengthening our capabilities to develop, deliver, and produce locally,” Wennberg said. “It also aligns well with our core technologies and enables us to expand our scope going forward.”

“Through the establishment of this center and the transfer of advanced technologies, we aim to support Swedish, European, and NATO customers with reliable, long-term, and locally supported self-protection solutions with secure and sovereign supply chains,” he added.

What if Israel is winning the military battles but losing the war that ultimately determines its survival?

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has demonstrated extraordinary military capabilities. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran have suffered significant blows.

Yet the fundamental question remains: Has military superiority brought Israel closer to enduring security? This may be one of the most important questions for Israelis in the upcoming elections.

Or, perhaps the question should be: Are we fighting the wrong war? It is fascinating that this question is not a significant part of the political debates leading up to the decision regarding who will lead the country.

The early Zionist movement understood something that modern Israel may have forgotten.

Nation-building was a generational undertaking. Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, and David Ben-Gurion invested decades in diplomacy, institution-building, immigration, and international legitimacy.

They understood that establishing a Jewish state required more than winning individual confrontations.

Today, Israel often approaches existential threats through military operations measured in days, weeks, or months.

Our ideological adversaries are operating on an entirely different clock.

Consider the historical memory of the Crusades. European armies conquered Jerusalem, but ultimately lost their foothold in the region.

The lesson for movements committed to a generational struggle is straightforward: survive today, regroup tomorrow, and eventually your enemy will lose his will to fight and leave.

Iran’s revolutionary leadership has demonstrated comparable strategic patience, investing decades in regional proxies, ideological networks, and the pursuit of influence.

Israel cannot assume that its adversaries define victory, defeat, or acceptable sacrifice as we do.

That brings us to the first strategic trap: deterrence.

Traditional deterrence assumes that sufficiently painful consequences will discourage aggression.

But what happens when an adversary embraces martyrdom, accepts devastating casualties, or considers organizational survival itself a victory?

Yahya Sinwar understood that October 7 would provoke an overwhelming Israeli response. Yet the resulting devastation did not necessarily negate the broader political and ideological objectives of his attack.

Israel must then employ increasingly substantial military force to defeat an adversary willing to absorb extraordinary losses.

Now introduce the second trap.

When terrorist organizations embed military operations within civilian environments, Israel faces difficult operational choices. Protecting civilians, as international law requires, by definition extends military campaigns.

Civilian casualties and destruction, whatever the military circumstances, produce images that travel around the world within seconds.

A Hamas command center may be the military objective. A destroyed building becomes the television image.

CNN, Al Jazeera, TikTok, Telegram, and countless smartphones transmit those images into millions of homes.

Military time and political time are no longer synchronized.

The longer Israel fights, the more international pressure can accumulate. The more force required, the greater the potential reputational consequences. And the more international legitimacy erodes, the less strategic freedom Israel retains.

Israel can win the battlefield while losing the conditions necessary to achieve and sustain victory.

But there is another battlefield, one extending thousands of miles beyond Israel’s borders.

The Jewish Diaspora

Jewish communities in New York, London, Paris, and elsewhere are increasingly drawn into conflicts they neither initiated nor controlled.

As the war continues, images of Palestinian suffering circulate globally, accompanied by accusations against Israel that can spill over into hostility toward Jews generally.

And what is their response?

Too often, they follow Israel’s traditional hasbara (public diplomacy) playbook.

More facts. More explanations. More historical context. More attempts to correct the latest accusation.

Necessary? Absolutely.

Sufficient? Clearly not.

Because while we are explaining yesterday’s military operation, our opponents are organizing tomorrow’s political campaign.

An October 10 Fox News investigation by Asra Nomani exposed the organizational machinery behind a coordinated international anti-Israel mobilization starting this past October 8 to the 15.

The investigation identified 179 participating organizations and 322 scheduled events across three days. Organizers had prepared graphics in seven languages, common slogans, media guidance, and political demands.

The campaign extended beyond street demonstrations into universities, workplaces, corporations, and government institutions, calling for sanctions and arms embargoes.

This was not simply spontaneous outrage. It was evidence of a prepared, interoperable international network capable of transforming individual demonstrations into coordinated political pressure, just as it did on October 8, before Israel even responded to the attacks of October 7.

Our enemies have spent years building what we now know is an extremely effective ecosystem.

Not every participant shares the same ideology. But organizations with different political identities can cooperate around common objectives without surrendering their independence.

That is the power of an ecosystem. And it exposes another weakness in our approach.

We are fighting not merely an information war, but a competition for meaning.

Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl described the existential vacuum: the emptiness people feel when they struggle to find meaning and purpose.

He suggested that our modern society, with all its technological advances, was driving this feeling of emptiness among millions.

Ideological movements can fill that vacuum by offering something more compelling than information: identity, belonging, community, moral purpose, and agency.

Their message effectively becomes: Here is who you are. Here is what is wrong. Here is who is responsible. Here are your people. And here is what you can do.

This is why a “Free Palestine” chant at a huge Ed Sheeran concert so quickly engaged tens of thousands both at the concert and via their social media platforms.

Traditional hasbara too often responds: Here are the facts you should know.

You cannot defeat a meaning system merely by correcting its facts. This is where Israel’s strategic doctrine requires fundamental reconsideration.

Military superiority remains indispensable. But Israel and global Jewry also need a permanent, decentralized, interoperable global ecosystem supporting Jewish safety, Israel’s legitimacy, and long-term societal resilience.

Further strengthened by those who realize that the anti-Israel ecosystem is focusing on Israel first, with the West next in line.

Not another government-controlled public relations campaign.

Not another emergency fundraising appeal following an antisemitic incident.

And certainly not an organization demanding that everyone agree with their view of the world.

Instead, an international network of independent Jewish and non-Jewish institutions, educators, influencers, researchers, philanthropists, cultural leaders, public-private initiatives, and civil society organizations connected by a shared agreement on fundamental principles.

The Jewish people’s historical continuity matters. Jewish safety matters. Israel’s legitimate existence matters. Human dignity and coexistence matter.

Participants can disagree on politics while sharing those foundations.

Such an ecosystem must operate continuously, building relationships, credibility, community, and meaningful participation before the next crisis erupts.

It must strengthen the Diaspora rather than leave Jewish communities perpetually defending military decisions made thousands of miles away.

And it must become an additional dimension of deterrence.

An adversary contemplating aggression should encounter not merely a formidable Israeli military, but a society and international network capable of enduring political pressure, resisting isolation, and sustaining legitimate security interests.

The Zionist movement understood the importance of building the future before the decisive moment arrived.

We must rediscover that strategic patience.

Israel cannot fight a generational ideological conflict exclusively through military campaigns measured in months.

Our military protects our ability to survive in the short term. Our ecosystem must help protect our ability to endure for the long term.

The writer is a global strategist and a strategic adviser at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Follow him on X: @jeffkahn2020

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he spoke by telephone with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during deadly clashes in southern Syria in July 2025, claiming the conversation helped stop the killings. Damascus has not confirmed the call, which Netanyahu disclosed less than two weeks before Israel’s parliamentary elections.

Netanyahu made the announcement on October 15 at a Likud campaign gathering with members of Israel’s Druze community in Yarka, a northern Israeli town. He described the conversation as brief and tense but did not explain how it was arranged or provide further details.

The Israeli prime minister also discussed Israeli military operations during the violence in Syria’s predominantly Druze Sweida Governorate, including airstrikes against the Syrian Defense Ministry building and a target within the presidential palace compound in Damascus.

Violence erupted in July 2025 following clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups, with Syrian government forces and tribal fighters subsequently becoming involved. Israel carried out strikes against Syrian military positions, saying it was acting to protect the Druze community.

In its first response to Netanyahu’s announcement, the Syrian government neither confirmed nor denied the conversation. An unnamed official source quoted by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) rejected attempts to involve Syria’s Druze community in Israeli election campaigning, describing it as an integral part of the country’s national fabric.

The source accused Israel of interfering in the July 2025 violence and arming an unauthorized armed group to destabilize Sweida. The allegation has not been independently verified.

According to the Syrian government, Israeli airstrikes during the clashes prevented Syrian forces from intervening to restore order. Damascus maintained that US mediation, rather than Netanyahu’s reported conversation with Sharaa, had brought those strikes to an end.

Syria also reaffirmed its cooperation with the United States and Jordan on a roadmap intended to restore stability in Sweida and called for international pressure on Israel to comply with the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

The Media Line sought comment from Ahmad Mowaffaq Zaidan, media affairs adviser to Sharaa, and Mohammad al-Jafal, adviser for Afro-Asian affairs at Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Neither had responded by publication time.

Israel, Syria continuing to pursue security negotiations

The disclosure comes as Israel and Syria pursue US-mediated security negotiations despite continuing disagreements over Israeli military deployments and Syrian sovereignty.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and expanded its military presence in southern Syrian territory following the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024. Damascus demands that Israeli forces withdraw from areas entered after Assad’s removal and that both countries return to the arrangements established under the 1974 agreement.

Israeli authorities maintain that their military operations and deployments are necessary to protect the country’s northern border.

Although Israel and Syria have no formal diplomatic relations, contacts between senior officials have become an important part of efforts to prevent further confrontation.

In August, Reuters reported, citing informed sources, that Mossad chief Roman Gofman spoke with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on August 14 about Turkey’s military presence in Syria.

Jordan subsequently hosted US-mediated talks between senior Syrian and Israeli delegations on August 23, according to SANA. Those discussions addressed Israeli military operations, measures to reduce tensions, and the possibility of reaching a security agreement.

Netanyahu’s disclosure suggests that contact may also have occurred directly between the countries’ leaders, although Damascus has yet to acknowledge such an exchange.

Netanyahu-Sharaa call could signal willingness to reduce tensions

Syrian political analyst Firas Allawi told The Media Line that the reported conversation could signal a willingness to communicate despite the deep disagreements between Damascus and Israel. He cautioned against interpreting it as evidence of an approaching peace agreement.

“Any political contact between the two sides could represent an initial step toward reducing tensions, but it does not necessarily mean that a peace agreement is close,” Allawi said.

“The issue depends on the willingness of both sides to address outstanding matters, foremost among them Syrian sovereignty and the Israeli military presence. The timing of Netanyahu’s announcement also calls for an examination of his domestic political calculations, without overlooking the possibility that these contacts are part of broader efforts to reshape the regional landscape.”

Allawi’s comments come as Netanyahu campaigns ahead of Israel’s October 27 parliamentary elections. The prime minister made his announcement before Druze voters while describing his government’s efforts to protect members of their community in Syria.

The timing raises questions about the political purpose of the disclosure, although the contacts reported between Israeli and Syrian officials in recent months suggest that discussions have continued beyond the immediate circumstances of the 2025 clashes.

For retired Syrian military pilot and analyst Khaled Mansour, the value of direct political communication depends on whether it can lead to practical arrangements that reduce the risk of further fighting.

“Moving from military confrontation to political understandings requires tangible measures on the ground, including ending escalation, limiting military operations, and establishing clear security arrangements that prevent renewed clashes,” Mansour told The Media Line. “The success of any negotiation process will also remain tied to addressing the Israeli military presence inside Syrian territory and providing mutual security guarantees that do not undermine Syrian sovereignty.”

The dispute over the buffer zone established under the 1974 agreement remains a central obstacle. Syria seeks the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territory entered after December 2024, while Israel insists on security arrangements intended to prevent hostile forces from operating near its border.

Mansour said sustained negotiations would require more than occasional direct contacts between senior leaders.

“Political contacts may help prevent military miscalculations and establish channels for containing crises, but building lasting peace requires enforceable understandings and clear mechanisms for monitoring compliance, not merely contacts or political statements.”

Despite continued US diplomatic involvement, Israel and Syria have yet to reach a comprehensive agreement governing military deployments and security arrangements along their shared frontier.

Beyond those disagreements, the possibility of direct communication between Netanyahu and Sharaa has raised hopes among some Syrians that dialogue could eventually help end decades of conflict.

Bakhour Shmantoub, head of Syria’s small Jewish community, told The Media Line that he hoped contacts between the governments could develop into a broader peace process.

“Yes, it could open the door to peace. The region is tired of wars, and peace is necessary,” Shmantoub said.

As Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar affixed a mezuzah to the entrance of Colombia’s new embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the two countries were exploring another step in their rapidly improving relationship. Colombia is considering applying to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Israeli Ambassador to Colombia Vivian Aisen revealed to The Media Line.

Aisen said Sa’ar and Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar discussed the possibility during Bula’s visit to Jerusalem. Colombia adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in June 2022, but it is not currently a member or observer country. No formal application has been announced.

The alliance promotes Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. Countries seeking full membership must first obtain observer status and then proceed through an intermediate liaison stage.

Colombia inaugurated its Jerusalem embassy on October 14, becoming the 10th country with an embassy in the city, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and the fourth Latin American country to do so, following Guatemala, Honduras, and Paraguay.

The opening was the most visible part of a broader diplomatic reversal under Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, whose government has restored full relations with Israel, lifted reciprocal visa requirements, removed restrictions on coal exports, and renewed implementation of the countries’ free trade agreement.

At a Foreign Ministry reception later Wednesday, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bula announced that Colombia had formally requested to withdraw from the Hague Group, a coalition established to coordinate diplomatic and legal measures against Israel over the war in Gaza. He also announced plans for a national initiative to combat antisemitism.

Colombia’s Jerusalem embassy signals diplomatic reversal

The embassy opening fulfilled a promise made before de la Espriella’s election. Sa’ar said the two met in Buenos Aires in November 2025, when the future president pledged to relocate Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem if elected.

“He made a promise, and he kept it,” Sa’ar said. “Just two months after he took office, we inaugurated the Embassy of Colombia in Jerusalem.”

The embassy occupies a stone building dating to 1920. The inauguration brought together Bula, Sa’ar, Colombian Ambassador to Israel Tania Gilinski Bacal, Aisen, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.

Palestinian officials criticized the decision. Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh condemned the move, saying it disregarded international law and Jerusalem’s disputed status. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also objected, describing the embassy opening as a violation of international law and relevant resolutions.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Most countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv or nearby, arguing that Jerusalem’s final status should be determined through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

For Aisen, who arrived in Bogotá eight weeks ago, the initial assignment was to rebuild diplomatic ties after former Colombian President Gustavo Petro severed relations with Israel in May 2024 over the war in Gaza.

“We did not come with the intention of returning to what we were,” Aisen said. “We came to strengthen our relations and go much further.”

The countries have since restored their diplomatic representation, appointed ambassadors, and resumed practical cooperation. Reciprocal visa requirements ended on September 1, while Colombia lifted Petro’s prohibition on coal exports to Israel.

Israel and Colombia restore trade and security cooperation

The free trade agreement required a more technical process. On October 13, the governments completed an exchange of diplomatic notes restoring the agreement, which originally took effect in August 2020.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the move as reversing Petro’s termination of the agreement. Aisen explained that the previous Colombian government had attempted to cancel the treaty but had not completed the country’s domestic procedure for withdrawing from an international agreement. The new government therefore needed to reactivate the existing accord rather than negotiate a replacement.

The renewed economic relationship builds on decades of commercial and security cooperation. Colombia has long used Israeli military equipment, and the governments are discussing expanded ties in cybersecurity, technology, agriculture, and other fields.

In a recorded message to Wednesday’s reception, de la Espriella described Israel as a friend and strategic partner. He identified security, intelligence, counterterrorism, organized crime, agriculture, science, innovation, and trade as priorities.

Colombia distances itself from international action against Israel

Colombia’s diplomatic realignment also extends to international institutions.

On September 18, Bogotá notified the International Court of Justice that it was withdrawing its declaration of intervention in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during the Gaza war.

The court confirmed the withdrawal four days later. Colombia had intervened in April 2024 to submit its interpretation of the convention. Its withdrawal does not end South Africa’s case against Israel, which rejects the genocide allegations.

The court decision is separate from Colombia’s request to leave the Hague Group, which Bula announced at Wednesday’s reception.

“We reject that approach,” Bula said of the coalition.

He presented the request as another step toward restoring a relationship that began when Colombia recognized Israel in 1949 and established diplomatic ties in 1957.

Antisemitism concerns emerge amid renewed Israel ties

Bula said Colombia’s Foreign Ministry would work with other government ministries and the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia to develop a national initiative against antisemitism.

The effort would also draw on advice from the US State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, he said, while seeking Israeli participation.

During Wednesday’s reception, Bula criticized the previous administration for what he described as its failure to condemn terrorism clearly and accused it of contributing to “what may be the most virulent wave of antisemitism in Colombia’s recent history.”

“The government of President de la Espriella, this Foreign Ministry and this foreign minister will not remain silent,” Bula said. “We will not let this scourge go unchecked and unchallenged across the country.”

Aisen said attitudes toward Israel became increasingly polarized after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. She said some anti-Israel rhetoric had drawn on longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“If you open my Twitter account, you will see comments that go back to medieval antisemitism,” she said.

One example she cited concerned Israel’s humanitarian response to Colombia’s devastating earthquake in August. Israel deployed approximately 80 rescue and medical personnel and sent additional medical equipment following the disaster.

Aisen said online allegations had circulated claiming that Israeli rescue personnel had come to Colombia to take children. She described the claims as an example of antisemitic conspiracy theories directed against Israel.

Her particular concern is that hostility toward the Israeli government can extend to Colombia’s Jewish population, with Jews held responsible for Israeli policies or actions.

“The Colombian Jewish community became guilty for everything that the State of Israel does,” she said. “That antisemitism has to be confronted.”

Yet Aisen said her personal experience in Colombia had been markedly different from the hostility she encountered online.

“I feel extremely welcome by everyone I meet, not only people in the government but also members of the general public,” she said. “They thank me for Israel being back in Colombia. They feel that Israel can contribute a great deal to the country and that those two lost years were regrettable.”

Marcos Peckel, executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia and commissioner to combat antisemitism at the Latin American Jewish Congress, attended both the embassy inauguration and Wednesday evening’s reception.

“For those of us who know the history of what this means, it gave us goosebumps,” Peckel told The Media Line. “It shows that President Abelardo de la Espriella is completely determined to take the relationship between Israel and Colombia to its highest level.”

Peckel, who has served on the World Jewish Congress Executive Committee since 2013, said Colombia’s population, regional influence, and history of commercial and security cooperation with Israel give the embassy decision considerable diplomatic weight.

Peckel’s concern is whether the renewed relationship can survive future changes of government.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Colombian cities on October 14 to protest de la Espriella’s domestic policies, with some also opposing his renewed partnership with Israel and closer ties to the United States.

Aisen acknowledged that Israel has become part of Colombia’s domestic political divide. The Jerusalem embassy, one of de la Espriella’s most visible foreign policy decisions, could become a target for his opponents, she said.

“As an Israeli, it hurts me to see that Israel became an issue that divides the public,” she said. “It should not be that way.”

Peckel believes cooperation in agriculture, water management, scientific research, trade, and other practical fields could make bilateral relations more resistant to political shifts. He wants partnerships with institutions and influential sectors of Colombian society that can endure beyond the current administration.

“These changes have to outlast governments,” Peckel said. “The challenge in Latin America is to create very strong roots with the people and with important sectors such as agriculture and water, so that if another government comes, it cannot simply undo what is being built.”

British police said on Friday they were assessing a social media post after the wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell appeared to express support for Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian group banned as a terrorist organisation.

Journalist and author Sarah Helm, who is married to Powell, responded on X/Twitter to a post about the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who this week announced her books would no longer be sold in Britain over her plans to use her royalties to support Palestine Action.

Helm said in the post: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action.”

God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.

— Sarah Helm (@SarahHelm1) October 15, 2026

In response, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the post is “being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”.

Palestine Action proscribed under UK terrorism laws

Palestine Action was proscribed under terrorism laws last year, so expressing support for the group constitutes a criminal offence.

Asked for comment, a government spokeswoman said: “These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity.”

Palestine Action has carried out protests including vandalism in support of Palestinian causes, and denies that this amounts to terrorism. Four members of the group were jailed in June over a 2024 raid on a factory ​operated by defence firm Elbit, which caused more than £1 million of damage.

Amnesty International says more than 3,500 people have been arrested in Britain for alleged support of Palestine Action since it was banned last year, many of them for holding up placards.

Palestine Action challenged the government’s decision to ban the group, but the Court of Appeal ruled in June that the proscription was lawful.

Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) deputy director Israel Hasson called for an investigation into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, following statements by the then-Prime Minister’s military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil and then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar that contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accounts of events before and after the attack.

Speaking on 103FM, Hasson addressed the conflicting accounts and questioned how Israel had reached a point where senior security officials and political leaders were publicly disputing responsibility rather than conducting a comprehensive examination of the failures.

“I sat through the Shin Bet’s investigation for four and a half hours,” Hasson said. “An investigation is measured by whether there are questions that were not asked.”

“I told them, ‘I salute you. I don’t have a single additional question that you haven’t asked yourselves, but I’m leaving here without an answer.'”

Hasson pointed to the scale of the October 7 attack and the absence of specific intelligence warning beforehand.

“Three thousand people participated in this attack, and we had no concrete warning,” he said.

Former Shin Bet deputy chief explains intelligence available to Netanyahu’s military secretary

Hasson emphasized that the prime minister’s military secretary has access to a broader intelligence picture than any single intelligence agency possesses at a given moment.

“Avi Gil has the complete intelligence picture, which is not available at every moment within the Shin Bet,” he explained.

“There are 15 officers in the military secretariat. All of Israel’s intelligence information is available to them. His picture is much more comprehensive and complete.”

According to Hasson, the military secretariat is responsible for consolidating intelligence assessments from different agencies and presenting them to the prime minister in an organized manner.

“To avoid a situation where, in quotation marks, everyone is confusing the prime minister, the information goes through a channel that can say: ‘This is what the Shin Bet says, this is what Military Intelligence says, this is what the Mossad says, and what another hundred bodies are saying.'”

Hasson says inquiry must establish responsibility for October 7 failures

Hasson expressed frustration over the public disputes surrounding the events of October 7, arguing that a formal investigation is needed to determine where the failures occurred.

“It is so sad that we have reached this point,” he said. “It is so sad that we are fighting in public instead of going and investigating this matter.”

He said a commission of inquiry might not necessarily uncover information unfamiliar to experienced security officials, but would provide the public with a clearer understanding of the failures and their causes.

“A commission of inquiry probably won’t discover something I don’t already know,” Hasson said.

“But it will show the public where the problem was and what caused it. Conclusions will have to be drawn and corrections made to prevent something like this from happening again.”

Hasson cites Agranat Commission on political and military responsibility

Hasson acknowledged that not all intelligence sources can be disclosed to the public, but questioned whether withholding certain information would undermine the ability to establish responsibility.

“It is perfectly legitimate that you and I are not given access to all our intelligence sources,” he said. “The question is whether that currently affects the conclusions.”

He referred to the Agranat Commission, which investigated the failures surrounding the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and its findings regarding intelligence assessments and political responsibility.

“The Agranat Commission said that when there is intent and capability, you do not wait for a warning,” Hasson said.

“They established that. They also established that if the military echelon says one thing, it does not absolve the political echelon of responsibility.”

Hasson argued that security decision-makers should prioritize precautionary action rather than wait for definitive intelligence before responding to a potential threat.

“It is better to call off a state of heightened readiness than to start looking for a reason to act,” he said.

He also referred to previous recommendations to target Hamas leaders in the years leading up to October 7.

“I know how many times in the five years before 2023 there were demands to strike Hamas leaders,” Hasson said.

“There were demands to neutralize them. They said the money was going toward armament. They said everything they said.”

Former Shin Bet deputy chief addresses Ronen Bar’s lawsuit against Netanyahu

Hasson also addressed the lawsuit filed by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar against Netanyahu, describing the dispute as extending beyond the former agency director personally.

“In my view, this is not Ronen Bar filing a lawsuit against the prime minister. This is the Shin Bet filing a lawsuit against the prime minister,” Hasson said.

He sharply criticized Netanyahu’s allegations against Bar, calling the extremely serious.

“He attacked him at a level that amounted to betrayal,” Hasson said.

The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay – who chaired a UN commission that concluded Israel was committing genocide in Gaza – should be a wake-up call. Whether intended or not, the award signals how receptive the world has become to that accusation. Israel’s strategic environment is changing dramatically, and our future is at stake.

Israelis are divided into two camps. One believes the country is doing well. After recovering from the October 7 massacre, Israel’s security position is stable – even stronger than before, as the Yellow Lines in Gaza and southern Lebanon attest. The economy is thriving despite three years of war – witness the strong shekel. And despite our bitter divisions, civil society remains vibrant, enterprising, and marked by solidarity – witness Israel’s high ranking in the World Happiness Report.

The other camp sees a country in crisis. The war drags on, with no diplomatic settlement in sight to ensure lasting stability. The flawed strategic assumptions that preceded October 7 remain unexamined, as no official commission of inquiry has been established to date. This leaves us vulnerable to another disaster. The ultra-Orthodox community shirks its share of the national burden, threatening our economic and security future. Trust in state institutions is eroding, and social tensions are mounting – to the point that some fear civil war.

Yet both camps must confront a danger that transcends their differences: Israel stands on the brink of severe international isolation. That could trap us all in a harsh new reality with potentially grave consequences. This strategic warning demands a fundamental change of course at home, across political lines.

Israel is on the brink of international isolation

Europe, Israel’s largest trading partner, is moving toward sanctions that could seriously damage our economy. Britain and 11 other countries, including Canada, have announced or are considering restrictions on trade in settlement goods. But Israel’s economy does not stop at the Green Line. Almost every major Israeli company could find itself exposed to looming sanctions.

That could trigger a chain reaction. Businesses worldwide might avoid trading with Israel for fear of being branded sanctions violators. Even friends of Israel could pull back – not out of hostility but out of commercial caution. A creeping de facto boycott could transform BDS – boycott, divestment, and sanctions – from a radical fringe cause into a sweeping movement that reshapes life in Israel. We could become a pariah state alongside Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The United States is Israel’s principal security and diplomatic anchor. Relations with American administrations have sometimes been tense, but broad bipartisan public support held firm. Today, the reverse is true – and this is the heart of the strategic warning.

Cooperation with the current administration is impressive. But it offers tactical reassurance while obscuring a troubling strategic shift: American sympathy for Israel is eroding. The decline extends beyond Democrats, reaching younger Republicans and even young Evangelical Christians.

Anti-Israel attitudes once associated with the radical Left and the fascist Right have gained a foothold in the mainstream. For the first time in decades, Americans are no more likely to sympathize with Israelis than with Palestinians. They are David; we are Goliath.

Israel is on a slippery slope toward a dangerous defeat – economic and diplomatic, and perhaps even in the security arena when a new US administration takes office in just over two years. No one can know how likely each part of this scenario is to materialize.

Shifts in public opinion, national interests, and governments abroad could still work in our favor. But we cannot cling to the complacent belief that “everything will be okay,” or to the illusion that an isolated, self-sufficient “Sparta” could survive. A sudden diplomatic collapse – a “6:29 a.m.” moment echoing the shock of October 7 – is a real possibility.

The forces driving these developments are complex, and not all are within Israel’s control. Still, coalition and opposition alike have a duty to weigh every action, every statement, and every failure to act in light of the long-term implications for Israel’s diplomatic standing, national security, and economy.

This is not a call for Israel to sacrifice its vital interests to appease world opinion. But there is ample room for constructive action. We can take steps most Israelis support – such as stamping out Jewish terrorism – and refrain from rhetoric most Israelis reject, including calls to flatten Gaza or force its residents to emigrate. Israelis in both camps share an overriding interest in preventing this strategic warning from becoming a tragic reality.

The writer is president of the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and professor emeritus of law at Bar-Ilan University.

Israelis will vote on security on October 27. The Torah portion read 10 days earlier tells them what security is, and who has failed to deliver it.

Ten days before Israelis vote, the Torah portion of Noah tells of two catastrophes: the flood and the Tower of Babel. Twice humanity undoes itself: first by tearing itself apart and then by forcing itself into one mold.

The destruction is not done by an enemy at the gate. It is inflicted from within.

The Torah charges the flood generation with a word no Israeli can hear without flinching: “hamas.” The Malbim explains it as the robbery of justice and fairness: stolen courts and stolen fair dealing, the two things that stand between ordinary people and the strong.

Israel has met “hamas” from outside with courage, at a terrible price. This election asks about the other kind.

Israelis will vote, as always, on security.

A reservist friend of mine, a Mizrachi father of three, told me: “I don’t vote Likud because I admire [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. I vote because I want my kids to sleep, because I don’t trust the alternatives to keep us safe, and because I’m tired of being spoken about like I’m a problem.”

He is not a problem. He deserves an answer, not a lecture.

What makes a country secure, not merely powerful?

Power is the capacity to strike, and Israel has it in abundance. Security is a society’s capacity to absorb a blow, hold together, and sustain itself. Power did not save Be’eri or Nir Oz.

The prophet Isaiah teaches that peace, quiet, and lasting security are the work of righteousness. Security is not where a nation begins but what it harvests.

Israel’s founders built the state on “the foundations of freedom, justice, and peace.” Three stones. Test any government against them.

The first is freedom, which lives or dies by the rule of law, binding the ruler as tightly as the ruled. Without it, freedom is a favor, withdrawn at will by whoever holds power.

Babel is the Torah’s portrait of its absence: one language, one purpose, and a power from which nothing would be withheld. That is not a strong government, but an unrestrained one. Nobody living under it is free.

The outgoing coalition set about building that tower, changing how judges are chosen and legislating that from January 2027 the attorney-general’s opinions will not bind the government. The tower was visible from Gaza.

In March 2023, Yoav Gallant, then the defense minister, warned that the rift over the judicial overhaul posed “a clear and immediate danger” to the security of the state. The next day Netanyahu announced his dismissal.

In July, the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) warned him of war, judging that our enemies saw weakness. On October 7, our enemies acted on what they saw.

Avi Gil, Netanyahu’s military secretary that morning, broke his silence last week: recommendations for targeted operations in Gaza were not accepted.

He also said the prime minister prioritized his coalition over a deal to bring home living hostages. Netanyahu claimed Gil chose not to wake him.

I cannot tell you whose account is true. Neither can you, because three years on, there is still no state commission of inquiry.

THE SECOND stone is fairness: a society invested in the other is the opposite of “hamas.” When Reuben and Gad asked to settle beyond the Jordan River, Moses asked whether they would sit at home while their brothers went to war. They promised to march at the front.

In July, while reservists served round after round, the coalition passed legislation to protect draft evaders from arrest. In September, the Supreme Court struck the law down as an unconstitutional injury to equality.

Meanwhile, one Israeli in six lives in poverty. Men and women do not fight hardest for a tower built on their backs. They fight hardest for a home where everyone counts.

The third stone is peace, and here the record is starkest: for 15 years, Netanyahu’s governments claimed they could “manage the conflict,” containing Hamas with periodic blows and Qatari cash he allowed into Gaza from 2018, by his own reported account, to keep the Palestinians divided.

Molad’s study, The Failure of Deterrence, concluded that this concept “planted the seeds of the catastrophe.” Quiet bought is not peace built.

Tamir Heyman, former head of Military Intelligence and now head of the Institute for National Security Studies, described an unwritten security doctrine taking hold since October 7: war as a permanent condition; peace no longer a goal but a means; separation from the US as “inevitable and even essential;” and the state’s Jewish identity placed above its democratic one.

The Declaration of Independence David Ben-Gurion read says the opposite: a Jewish state built on freedom, justice, and peace, with equal rights for every citizen.

Ben-Gurion taught that the state is built in the quiet between wars; this doctrine builds it by and for war. It was never put to the people. It is being put to you now.

Washington is already answering: 60% of American adults view Israel unfavorably, and in June, US Vice President JD Vance said that in Israel’s place, he “might not be attacking the only powerful ally” it has left.

Israel used to count on both American parties. Thanks to this government, it cannot count on one.

Three foundation stones, and on every one the record runs the wrong way. That is the opposite of security.

After the flood, God set a rainbow and promised never again to destroy the world. He undertook what He would not do, and nothing about what we should do. The rainbow is no guarantee of our safety. It is a transfer of responsibility.

I have spent enough years close to politics, including as chief executive of Britain’s Conservative Party, to be wary of politicians’ promises, and I cannot promise you the opposition is equal to every task.

But the test is not who sounds toughest.

Ask three questions: Who will restore institutions every citizen can trust? Who will share the burden fairly, so the reservist no longer carries it alone? Who will rebuild the alliances and political horizon that turn power into lasting security?

Noah’s father named him with a prayer: that this child would bring comfort from the toil of their hands. Every Israeli parent prays the same: that the children sleep, the sirens stop, and the uniform can finally be hung up.

My reservist friend deserves that comfort. He will not get it from the man who has promised it since 2009 and delivered the polar opposite.

On October 27, when we vote on security, we must vote for the real thing: the foundation stones that enable us to be a free people in our land.

The writer is co-founder of The London Initiative, a former chief executive of the Conservative Party, and a former chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council.

Israel’s media is reporting astonishing news this week: in the polls, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has overtaken that of Gadi Eisenkot.

After all the failures, disasters, scandals, and debacles of recent years, could Netanyahu really be heading for another victory? According to the reports, apparently so. In reality, not so much. We are seeing a misreading of the polls.

According to recent surveys, Netanyahu’s bloc has about 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while Eisenkot’s bloc stands at 51 or 52 – but only because of artificial exclusions.

When all the parties opposed to Netanyahu’s continued rule, meaning the right-wing and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) bloc, are counted together, the total reaches about 67 seats. That is a solid parliamentary majority, six seats above the threshold required, and virtually unprecedented in Israel’s modern political era.

For at least the past half-century, since the end of Mapai’s one-party dominance era, a prime minister whose opponents held 67 seats two weeks before an election would have been described as heading toward defeat.

Instead, the public is being told that Netanyahu is leading.

How does this happen? Quite simply, the political blocs are being counted in a way that serves Netanyahu.

Parties opposed to him are excluded from the change bloc because they are not considered natural coalition partners, prefer a national unity government, or because they have ideological disagreements with other opposition parties.

The result is the false appearance of a close race, or even a right-wing advantage, when the numbers themselves tell a very different story.

Herein lies the fundamental mistake: a solid political bloc and a governing coalition are not the same thing. Elections first determine the balance of power in the Knesset. Only afterward do negotiations over forming a government begin.

A party can oppose Netanyahu without committing to join an Eisenkot government, and it can support a government from outside the coalition without becoming part of it. A recommendation to the president is another matter entirely.

The conflation of these concepts has become a powerful political tool in Netanyahu’s hands.

Three factors illustrate just how misleading the conventional arithmetic has become: the Reservists party, the Arab parties, and Ofer Winter’s party.

Start with the Reservists party. This new outfit, which receives four seats in some polls, is excluded from the change bloc because its leaders favor a national unity government. Fine.

But a preference regarding the composition of a government is hardly equivalent to supporting Netanyahu’s continued rule.

The Reservists’ positions on the judicial overhaul, equality in military service, the political system, and even the Palestinian issue are considerably closer to those of the camp seeking to replace Netanyahu than to his alliance with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the haredi parties.

Even if they are unwilling to commit in advance to an Eisenkot-led coalition, there is no political logic in portraying them as an entirely neutral force.

At the very least, they should be regarded as potential members of the change bloc, even if they would be reluctant partners who set conditions. Their preference for unity does nothing to change the fact that the current government is a long way from the political vision they present.

Arab parties and Ofer Winter

The second distortion is much larger and more consequential: the Arab parties.

This may be Netanyahu’s most impressive political achievement.

For years, he has managed to persuade large sections of the public, including his political opponents, that the votes of Israel’s Arab citizens somehow count for less when determining who has won an election.

The Right is allowed to count all its natural allies, while the Center-Left is expected to behave as though a substantial portion of its potential majority simply does not exist.

There are, of course, profound ideological differences between the Arab parties and the Zionist parties of the Center and Left. Israel’s Jewish character creates discomfort, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and national security present genuine difficulties.

It is also clear that Eisenkot, Avigdor Liberman, and Naftali Bennett are reluctant to form a government dependent on Arab parties, or even to be seen as willing to do so.

But this is where the confusion Netanyahu has so successfully cultivated begins: whether a particular party will join a coalition is a different question from whether its seats can prevent Netanyahu from forming a government.

Israeli history has already provided examples. In 1992, Labor and Meretz won 56 seats, while the five seats held by Hadash and the Arab Democratic Party gave Yitzhak Rabin’s camp a parliamentary majority of 61. Nobody doubted Rabin had won.

Rabin formed a government with Shas, but after its departure he relied on outside support from the Arab parties.

In 2021, Yair Lapid succeeded in assembling the coalition that removed Netanyahu from power, with the four seats of the Islamist Ra’am party forming an essential part of its majority: 61, to which Bennett, much like Shas in Rabin’s day, simply added his seats.

Netanyahu, by contrast, is never required to explain why the haredi parties, which oppose drafting their young men into the military and demand budgets and privileges that provoke widespread public resentment, are legitimate partners in his bloc. Their seats are counted automatically.

But when it comes to Arab parties, ideological disagreements suddenly become grounds for excluding them from the calculation. Suddenly, unlike in years past, they have disappeared from the opposition bloc in the media’s pie charts.

Netanyahu has managed to turn this double standard into a political convention.

The third factor, and perhaps the most intriguing of all, is a new party led by firebrand Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter.

Winter has declared that he will recommend to the president that Netanyahu be tasked with forming the next government, so it is natural to count him initially with the Right.

Although Winter is an unmistakably right-wing figure, he also supports drafting haredi men into the military, a position that puts him on a collision course with Netanyahu’s haredi partners.

How can he sit in a government dependent on parties that oppose one of the central reforms he wants to advance?

Suppose Winter recommends Netanyahu, as promised. Even with Winter, however, Netanyahu reaches only 53 seats, according to the numbers under discussion. He is eight short.

A presidential recommendation cannot manufacture parliamentary seats that do not exist, and if Netanyahu cannot recruit additional partners, he cannot form a government.

At that point, another possibility could open up for Winter: joining a government of change focused on rebuilding the country.

There is no guarantee he would choose that path. But there is also no reason to assume that a declaration of loyalty to Netanyahu during an election campaign necessarily determines his behavior under every possible post-election scenario.

Urgent national tasks

The next government of change would face an enormous agenda, much of which would not require agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It would need to repair Israel’s foreign relations, address the military draft crisis and relations with the haredim, restore basic standards of good governance, combat rampant crime, and establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7.

These are urgent national tasks on which broad agreement could emerge, even among people with radically different views about the future of the territories.

Winter would not be a natural partner for a major diplomatic initiative with the Palestinians. But such an initiative is unlikely to get underway in the first year or two of the next government anyway.

During that period, simply preventing further damage would be an important achievement: curbing Jewish terrorism in the West Bank, halting the establishment of illegal outposts, and avoiding measures that would deepen Israel’s international isolation.

Agreement with Winter on some of these issues would be difficult, but there is no reason to assume in advance that every compromise is impossible.

Eisenkot, Bennett, and Lapid are projecting growing confidence that they can form a government based on a Jewish parliamentary majority, without relying on the Arab parties. Clearly, that confidence rests on precisely the scenarios described above.

And with the addition of outside support from the Arab factions, something they have already promised free of charge, such a government could conceivably enjoy an enormous parliamentary majority.

The coming election could therefore very well bring Netanyahu’s rule to an end.

That possibility may be considerably closer than the public realizes, simply because the media continues to present the political landscape according to rules that Netanyahu himself has managed to establish.

Caution is necessary, of course, because polls are not votes cast at the ballot box. But it is equally important to read the polls correctly. That matters if the change bloc is to find the fighting spirit needed to bring masses of voters to the polls.

And there is room for hope. As Theodor Herzl famously put it, “If you will it, it is no dream.”

Especially when the alternative is failure and Netanyahu somehow remaining in power, which would be a catastrophe threatening the very future of the state.

The writer is a former Cairo-based Middle East editor and London-based Europe/Africa editor of the Associated Press. He served as chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem and authored two books about Israel.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that Saudi Arabia would likely accept assistance from Israel in its fight against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, adding that efforts to bring the kingdom into the Abraham Accords could be revived.

When asked whether Saudi Arabia should accept the assistance Israel was offering against the Houthis, Trump replied, “Yes, I think so.”

“I think they will do it. Absolutely,” Trump said when asked whether he had spoken with Saudi Arabia about the possibility. “Israel has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia, and yes, they would certainly do it,” he added.

Trump raises possibility of expanding Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia

Trump also expressed confidence that the Abraham Accords could gain renewed momentum with Saudi Arabia.

“Perhaps more than ever,” Trump said when asked whether the accords were back on the table with the kingdom.“The Abraham Accords are one of our greatest achievements, and yes, I would say perhaps now more than ever,” he said.

“But Saudi Arabia is very happy to receive support from Israel and from us,” Trump added.

Saudi Arabia has not established diplomatic relations with Israel, and the kingdom’s potential participation in the Abraham Accords has remained a major goal of Trump’s Middle East policy.

Trump previously said that a US-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperation agreement was contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the accords and normalizing relations with Israel.

The comments came as the Houthis intensified attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis struck Saudi Arabia’s presidential palace complex on Thursday, killing five, and in a separate attack struck Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, killing 17 and injuring over 300.

Reuters contributed to this report.

For thousands of years, Jews lived in exile, far from the land of our ancestors. Scattered across the world, we dreamed of returning to the country we had once inhabited. Wherever Jewish history carried us, our hearts remained attached to the same place.

We lived in countless countries, spoke different languages, and belonged to different cultures. Through centuries of wandering, one truth remained unchanged. There is only one Jewish homeland.

The first Zionist

Though there is only one Jewish homeland, there are many roads that lead home. This was always true. Terah, the father of Abraham, was raised in a world of idolatry. Yet he felt an inner tug to leave Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, and journey toward the Land of Israel. He received no Divine command. He did not believe in the one God, yet something stirred within him, drawing him toward a distant land.

Ironically, he was the first Zionist, the first person described by the Torah as setting out for the Land of Israel from his homeland. His motives are unknown. He gathered his son Abraham and other family members and traveled toward Canaan. Along the way, Terah settled in Haran, where he eventually died.

His son Abraham later heard the voice of God commanding him to continue the journey his father had begun. Abraham traveled to the Land of Israel with a religious mission: to spread belief in the one God. Yet his pagan father had begun the journey.

Evidently, God implanted within the Jewish soul an instinctive attachment to its homeland. He gave us the ability to respond to the pull of land, peoplehood, and historical destiny even without religious commitment or prophetic revelation. At history’s dawn, this attachment could awaken even in a heart that had not yet awakened to faith.

The age of “isms”

This ancient echo reemerged millennia later. The 19th century witnessed a dramatic weakening of organized religion. The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason promised to lift humanity out of the ignorance and suffering of the medieval world. Science, discovery, and individualism propelled humanity toward an era of progress.

Organized religion, and Christianity in particular, was increasingly blamed for centuries of human suffering. Its unholy alliance with monarchy and political power had contributed to bloodshed and feudalism. Religion’s walls were crumbling.

Into this widening void emerged new ideologies. Society abhors a vacuum, and ideologies rushed to replace religion. Socialism, utilitarianism, communism, and other movements competed for the hearts and minds of Europeans.

It was the great age of “isms,” as new systems of thought offered competing visions of human identity, social order, and historical progress.

Yet perhaps the most powerful “ism” of all was nationalism. Increasingly, people defined themselves primarily by their nation rather than their religion. “John” was no longer primarily a Protestant who happened to live in England, but a proud Englishman who happened to be Protestant.

“Gustave” was no longer primarily a Catholic who happened to live in France, but a proud Frenchman who happened to be Catholic. National identity swept across a continent long shaped by religion and religious rivalries.

A Jewish awakening

Unfortunately, Judaism did not fare much better than other religions. With Emancipation, for the first time in our long exile, we were invited to become full-fledged members of an enlightened European society.

Many combined these newfound freedoms with traditional Jewish observance, but others abandoned their Jewish roots entirely.

Many Jews look back with reverence upon the great age of the yeshivot, when brilliant young men devoted years, sometimes decades, to intensive Torah study. This remarkable era helped lay the foundations for the phenomenal growth of Torah study in the modern world.

Yet there was another side to this history. Far more Jews were drawn into the universities and intellectual circles of Europe than into its great yeshivot. For many, the door swung in only one direction: away from Jewish religious life.

Millions of Jews faced the threat of losing their Jewish identity and disappearing into the surrounding culture. Traditional religious appeals no longer spoke to them. If Jewish identity depended exclusively upon religious commitment, an enormous portion of the Jewish people was in danger of being lost to history.

As Jewish identity weakened across Europe, God awakened that ancient echo. In the age of nationalism, Jewish nationalism emerged, offering Jews a way to identify with their land, their people, and their history. It captured the hearts of Jews, including many who had drifted away from religious observance.

Secular Zionism was a Divine impulse, awakening an ancient attachment to our land and people that had lain dormant for centuries. As religious commitment weakened, God stirred a different form of Jewish consciousness. Millions of Jews today express their deepest connection to their people through their commitment to our national project of return and to the modern State of Israel.

Oct. 7 demonstrated how deeply the State of Israel stands at the center of contemporary Jewish identity and how much more vulnerable Jewish life would be without it.

This became even more evident in the subsequent eruption of anti-Zionism and its frequent convergence with antisemitism, which further underscored Israel’s centrality to Jewish identity and the Jewish future. Israel has become a powerful anchor of Jewish belonging, even for Jews whose connection to religious observance is limited.

Thousands of years ago, Terah felt the pull of our land without profound religious conviction. Thousands of years later, countless Jews, far less detached from God than Terah had been, followed a similar path. They felt drawn to the same land, the same people, and the same historical destiny.

Across the centuries, Jews have found their way home through countless different journeys, shaped by different convictions, circumstances, dreams, and personal attachments. There is one home, but there are many roads which lead home.

Another road home

The roads leading to our homeland are as varied as the Jewish people themselves. Some are paved with religious conviction, others with national identity and historical consciousness.

Many Jews harbor a lifelong dream of aliyah and eventually fulfill that dream by building their lives and families in Israel. Still other roads emerge unexpectedly, shaped by circumstances, personal attachments, and the bonds of family.

My mother, of blessed memory, passed away this past Sukkot. She took a different road to our one homeland. We were raised in a Zionist home, though not an especially ideological one, and Zionism was not a central part of our upbringing.

Our family grew up in Brooklyn during the 1970s, when it was a thriving center of Modern Orthodox Jewish life, with flourishing synagogues, schools, and communities.

Moving to Israel was never part of her plan. However, her children developed a deep attachment to Israel, and all eventually moved here and built their families.

Wanting to be close to her children, grandchildren, and eventually great-grandchildren, my mother and father moved to Israel at an advanced age.

Their aliyah was not the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It was not driven primarily by ideology or Zionist conviction. It was driven by a deep love of family.

Yet leaving behind a familiar world and beginning a new life so late in life required enormous courage and determination. I will always be grateful to my Mommy for making that sacrifice and giving us those precious years together. My mother made that journey, and now she is buried just a few minutes from our home in Gush Etzion.

There are many roads that lead home. Some are paved with ideology, conviction, and Zionist dreams. Others are paved with something simpler and more personal: the love of family.

May God bless her soul, and may her love and devotion continue to inspire our family for generations.

The writer is a rabbi and educator at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush). Find his latest book, Echoes of Rashi: Bereishit, at mtaraginbooks.com

Thai law enforcement authorities conducted a multi-agency inspection of the Chabad House on Chang Khlan Road in Chiang Mai on Wednesday, led by Deputy Provincial Governor Boonlue Thammatharanurak, finding no legal violations or irregularities at the Jewish community center.

At a press conference after the inspection, the deputy governor said Thai law does not clearly regulate premises that also serve as Jewish places of worship. He noted that gatherings primarily take place on Fridays and Saturdays, attracting approximately 100 to 200 participants, mostly Israelis attending communal meals, and recommended that the center maintain a “low-key” approach to its activities.

The inspection involved representatives from the provincial administration, military, immigration police, provincial cultural authorities, Chiang Mai Municipality, and the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). Authorities reported finding no violations, with the deputy governor describing the visit as a “routine inspection” that had not been prompted by any complaint.

Officials examined the legality of the property’s lease and operating licenses. According to local media reports, Chabad rents restaurant premises from a local resident under a lease valid until 2028 and holds a food service license covering up to 200 square meters, as well as an alcohol license issued by the Excise Department.

Chiang Mai Chabad inspection follows raids on Jewish institutions in Bangkok

The Chiang Mai inspection differed significantly from the raids carried out in Bangkok on October 8, when Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) conducted searches under judicial warrants, with the involvement of the justice minister and several government agencies.

The Bangkok operation involved police, tax authorities, immigration officials, the Lands Department, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office, among other agencies.

During searches at the Chabad Foundation, the Jewish Association of Thailand, and related offices, investigators seized documents, identified foreign workers from Myanmar and Laos without valid work permits, and found dozens of companies registered at the same address.

The operation formed part of an investigation into suspected nominee ownership arrangements, property holdings, and financial activities involving Israeli-linked businesses.

Unlike the Bangkok raids, the Chiang Mai inspection was presented by authorities as a routine enforcement visit, with no reports of search warrants or seized materials.

The Chabad House in Chiang Mai has operated since 2004 and has undergone inspections over the years. However, a coordinated inspection involving so many enforcement agencies had never previously taken place at the center in more than two decades of operation.

Thailand expands investigations into Israeli-linked businesses and Chabad centers

The inspection comes amid a broader wave of enforcement operations involving Chabad institutions across Thailand, including Phuket, Bangkok, and other locations.

The operations, expanded partly under instructions from Thailand’s deputy interior minister, are linked to investigations into business and property networks associated with Israeli nationals.

Authorities have raised concerns regarding foreign ownership, financing arrangements, and commercial practices, against a backdrop of public tensions involving Israeli tourists.

Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Dr. Alona Fisher-Kamm visited the provincial government building and met with the deputy governor approximately one month ago. She also visited the Chiang Mai Chabad House separately during the same period.

Thai authorities said they would continue monitoring the premises but emphasized that there were currently “no irregularities.”

Journalists were not permitted to enter the building during the inspection. According to reporters at the scene, Chabad security personnel prevented them from entering.

Chiang Mai Chabad rabbi says center operates in full compliance with Thai law

Rabbi Yossi Pikel and his wife, Chani, have served as Chabad emissaries in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, for 17 years.

The couple welcomes Jewish visitors and travelers to the city, providing assistance, guidance, and support throughout their stay.

The Chabad House offers prayer services, Shabbat and holiday meals, and classes on Hasidic teachings and the weekly Torah portion.

The center also operates a synagogue, a kosher meat restaurant offering packaged food for travelers, a women’s mikveh (ritual bath), a travelers’ shop, and additional services.

Speaking to Walla, Rabbi Pikel said the inspection had been coordinated in advance. He explained that inspections take place periodically but acknowledged that a joint visit involving so many agencies was unusual.

“I’m glad they came to inspect, and I’m glad they saw that everything was in order,” Pikel said. “We operate by the book and try to do everything properly.”

The rabbi also emphasized his efforts to build positive relations with the local Thai community, noting that the restaurant is open to Thai residents as well as Jewish and Israeli visitors.

He said that all visitors are welcome, subject to the center’s security screening procedures.

“The place is open to everyone,” Pikel said.

Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was wounded during a Friday altercation between extremist settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, with the IDF confirming the account later on Friday.

Footage seen by The Jerusalem Post appears to show Levine kneeling on a path in a press jacket and helmet, as colleagues run over to carry her to safety.

Police launched an investigation into the incident after receiving an IDF report of the West Bank clashes, according to an Israel Police spokesperson.

Palestinian media reported that Levine was beaten, sustaining fractures and cuts in the violence near Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. Israeli sources have not independently verified this.

Levine, speaking from a hospital bed, said that she had been kicked “about 50 times,” adding that if she hadn’t been wearing her black jacket and helmet, she “probably wouldn’t be here at all, because they just kept kicking me again and again.

“After about 10 minutes, they tried to make me get up; they pushed me back to the ground and continued kicking me,” she said. “I tried to hold on to my cameras and my side bag, but in the end they just ripped everything from me and kept kicking me.”

According to the IDF, soldiers initially fired warning shots into the air in an effort to disperse the crowd upon arriving on scene, eventually targeting an individual who approached them with a sharp object.

PMO: ‘Serious questions remain,’ facts ‘unclear’

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) condemned the attack in an X/Twitter post later on Friday, noting that the facts “remain unclear and are under investigation.”

“Israel unequivocally condemns violence against anyone – Jews, Arabs, Christians, or journalists,” the statement read. “Those responsible will be held accountable.”

The Prime Minister’s Office: The facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation. Israel unequivocally condemns violence against anyone—Jews, Arabs, Christians or journalists. Those responsible will be held accountable. But serious questions remain. Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths. Footage shows masked individuals on both sides hurling objects, amid reports of fireworks fired at Jewish youths. Other footage appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual. The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence. We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. The facts must determine the conclusions. Not the headlines.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 16, 2026

The statement indicated that “serious questions remain” regarding who specifically was responsible for the attack on Levine, emphasizing the presence of “200 Arabs and far-left activists… (and) approximately 40 Israeli youths” at the site of the attack.

“The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence,” the statement continued. “We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. The facts must determine the conclusions. Not the headlines.”

Washington Post editor-in-chief Matt Murray also condemned the incident in a statement earlier on Friday, according to N12 News, accusing Israeli settlers of having attacked Levine, whom he emphasized “was wearing prominent identification marks that clearly identified her as a journalist.”

“We are appalled by this unjustified attack on a journalist who was doing her job,” he said. “We call on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and act on its findings.”

In addition, the US Embassy in Jerusalem told N12 that it is aware of the incident and is “monitoring the situation.”

“We condemn criminal violence and call for the investigation and prosecution of those responsible,” it said.

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot also responded to the incident in a post on X/Twitter, calling it “unacceptable” and referring to the perpetrators as “violent lawbreakers.”

התיעוד של פורעי חוק אלימים תוקפים את צלמת ה״וושינגטון פוסט״, היידי לוין (בת ה-64), הוא בלתי מתקבל על הדעת. קומץ הפורעים הזה אינו מייצג את הציבור בישראל. מעשיו של קומץ זה מכתים מדינה שלמה ופוגע קשות בביטחון של אזרחי ישראל ולוחמי צה״ל כולם. אני מגבה את צה״ל בגינוי החד והברור לאירוע. חובה על משטרת ישראל לנקוט בצעדים קשים כלפי האלימות הפושעת הזו.

— Gadi Eisenkot – גדי איזנקוט (@gadi_eisenkot) October 16, 2026

“This handful of rioters does not represent the public in Israel. The actions of this handful stain an entire nation and severely harm the security of all Israeli citizens and IDF fighters,” he said. “I back the IDF in its sharp and clear condemnation of the incident. It is incumbent upon the Israel Police to take harsh measures against this criminal violence.”

Mateh Binyamin Regional Council accuses PA of bringing terrorists to attack Israelis

The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council provided a different course of events.

According to the council, the Palestinian Authority “led hundreds of anarchists and terrorists into a direct confrontation with Israelis near Abu Falah, all under the cover of the olive harvest.”

“Footage from the scene shows terrorists launching fireworks directly at people and hurling stones at Israelis, while journalists stand behind them, documenting this deliberate provocation,” the council said.

“The event was orchestrated by the PA; its patrol vehicles were present and highly visible at the scene, even though it is in Area B, where Israel holds responsibility for security,” it added.

“Clashes broke out between Arabs and Israelis, eventually being dispersed by Border Police officers who arrived at the location. According to reports, several activists were injured during the confrontations,” the council said.

The council did not explicitly comment on Levine’s reported wounds.

The event was part of four incidents of nationalist-motivated violence and clashes between Israelis and Palestinians which were reported overnight and on Friday morning at several locations across the West Bank, including several olive groves.

The incidents reportedly involved vehicles being set on fire, attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, and attacks on Palestinian homes.

In the village of Burin, a confrontation broke out during the olive harvest. Additional incidents were reported in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, and in Turmus Ayya. The incidents reportedly included at least four vehicles being set on fire, one of which was a civil defense vehicle, and attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters.

In a separate incident, shortly before midnight, settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian homes in the Wadi al-Sheikh area of the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that two wounded Palestinians, a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man, had been treated and taken to the hospital. Another Palestinian was reportedly shot in the knee. 

Israeli security forces arrest fleeing suspect following manhunt

Israeli security forces arrested a suspect after he fled an olive grove near Kafr Kara, Israel Police announced later on Friday.

The police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) conducted a manhunt for the suspect lasting several hours prior to his arrest.

An M-16 rifle was also found in the vicinity.

Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior military, police and prison officials have been placed under investigation in Italy over the treatment of Gaza flotilla activists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday.

The move expands an investigation that was previously focused on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The case concerns suspected torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage when Israeli forces intercepted small fleets of boats headed towards Gaza in 2025 and 2026, the Rome prosecutors’ office said in a statement.

Investigators opened the probe after complaints from 50 Italian citizens who were detained by Israeli authorities following two Global Sumud Flotilla missions in September to October 2025 and April to May 2026.

Katz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ben-Gvir in June dismissed news that he was under investigation, saying he would “continue to stand proudly alongside our fighters.”

Death threats and beatings

Prosecutors said activists detained after the first mission had reported beatings, injuries, death threats, insults and accusations of terrorism.

Activists involved in the second mission reported even harsher treatment, including beatings in the dark, the use of tasers and rubber bullets, the statement said.

Investigators had identified various individuals forming the military and police chains of command involved in the operations, prosecutors said.

Besides Katz and Ben-Gvir, prosecutors named 12 senior Israeli military, police and prison officials as suspects, including military chief Eyal Zamir.

Zamir also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said they had sent Israel a request for judicial assistance in June, seeking information needed to reconstruct events and establish individual responsibility. They did not say whether Israeli authorities had responded.

The prosecutors said they also held talks with the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, because similar investigations into the two flotilla missions were underway in other unnamed European countries.

Under Italian law, crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens can be prosecuted in Rome.

Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt and does not automatically lead to a trial. However, if the probe determines that charges are warranted, prosecutors could lodge a formal request for trial.

Flotilla organizers say they aimed to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. Israel says its naval blockade on Gaza is lawful.

The IDF killed Hamas Nukhba cell commander Maher Walid Omar Al-Husseini in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the military announced on Friday.

According to the IDF, Al-Husseini infiltrated the Kibbutz Re’im military base as part of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Since the 2023 attacks, the terrorist has continued his involvement in planning terror attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, the military noted.

The announcement follows two separate Gaza strikes on Thursday, which killed an additional Hamas commander who participated in the October 7 massacre and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist.

The Hamas commander, Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, was killed in northern Gaza, while the PIJ terrorist, Ahmad Jabrin Tawqif Dalhan, was killed in Khan Yunis, the IDF said earlier on Friday.

According to the military, Hala produced weapons for Hamas and advanced its presence in Gaza, and Dalhan advanced attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Gazan terror weapon smugglers killed in joint IDF-Shin Bet strike

On Thursday, the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) jointly announced that they killed two terrorists in Gaza on Wednesday who were allegedly involved in the smuggling of weapons and other military assets into the strip.

The Khan Yunis strikes killed Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer, with the statement describing them as having posed an immediate threat to IDF soldiers operating in the area of the Yellow Line, as well as Israeli civilians.

Esther Davis and Asher Smith contributed to this report.

When Israelis head to vote on October 27, they won’t just be picking the next government; they will be deciding whether Israel becomes “a secular Hebrew democracy, or a rigid, rabbinical theocracy,” Garry Kasparov, a Russian chess grandmaster, political activist, and writer, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times published on Thursday.

“Just as Abraham Lincoln observed that the government could not persist ‘half slave and half free,’ Israel cannot go on half theocratic and half secular,” Kasparov, whose father was Jewish, argued.

“Americans resolved that contradiction over four years of brutal civil war. Israel’s election on Oct. 27 offers a bloodless way out of this morass,” he wrote.

“Democracies are built on compromise,” Kasparov said. “But sometimes a compromise can turn dangerous.”

Growing up in the Soviet Union shaped Kasparov’s view of Israeli democracy

He explained that his upbringing in the Soviet Union shaped his perception of both the US and Israeli democracies. “I see this dynamic at play in two democracies with which I closely identify: the United States and Israel.”

“As a young Soviet with a Jewish father, I grew up to become a staunch supporter of Israel, an outpost of liberalism surrounded by illiberal, Moscow-backed Arab states,” Kasparov wrote.

“While I rejected the anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism of the Communist regime under which I was raised, I also sought a textured understanding of the United States and Israel.”

Israel faces a breaking point, risk of permanent rupture

“I learned early on that the United States had reached a breaking point just 84 years after independence. America’s founders included men who owned slaves and men who did not. They could not both midwife the union and challenge the ‘peculiar institution.’ This guaranteed the birth of the United States but cursed the young nation with an affliction that nearly caused a permanent rupture.”

Kasparov believes that Israel is also facing this affliction and risk of permanent rupture. Rather than the divisive issue being slavery, the divisive issue that Kasparov says has placed Israel at this crossroad is the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft to the IDF. He clarified in the NYT that “There is, of course, no moral equivalence between the haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are called in Israel, and slave owners.”

He cites then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s original agreement with the haredim as the thing that set in motion the aforementioned split. In 1948 Ben-Gurion approved a temporary agreement with haredi yeshiva students, granting 400 people an exemption from army service to study Torah. Today, upwards of 50,000 people evade IDF draft to study Torah.

“The pact haunted their descendants and today is sustained by a nationalist far right and an unscrupulous prime minister willing to bend the law to stay in power,” Kasparov said.

Haredi draft is ‘corroding’ Israel’s social compact

“In Israel today, ultra-Orthodox political power is corroding the social compact that holds the country together.”

“Israelis of Ben-Gurion’s generation may not have understood the kind of foundation they were laying,” Kasparov argued. “They may have presumed they were simply handing out draft exemptions to a few hundred young men. Many of the American founders similarly expected slavery to peter out over time.”

“Instead, slavery expanded significantly after 1776, just as religious influence in Israel exploded in the decades following 1948. The draft exemption became especially infuriating to secular Israeli Jews after Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza.”

The haredi draft is not the only way Kasparov thinks that religious influence is corruptive to Israel. He argues that their power over Israeli law, from marriages, divorces, and funerals to transportation and public services on Shabbat, is “toxic” and unfair to the millions of Israelis who do not observe Shabbat.

“The ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset are so single-minded that it seems they will support anyone, no matter how clouded by accusations of misdeeds, who preserves their special privileges,” Kasparov wrote in the NYT. “This is how the haredim have become indispensable accomplices and supporters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.”

Netanyahu’s relationship with the haredim in Knesset

“Without the ultra-Orthodox, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have backing for many of his authoritarian endeavors,” he argued, and similarly, “Without Mr. Netanyahu, the ultra-Orthodox would lose their protected status.”

Despite his comments that Israel is choosing between secular democracy or rigid theocracy, Kasparov added that he does not want religion and culture to be suppressed. “When I was growing up in the Soviet Union, Communist thugs enforced atheism and suppressed Jewish culture. This is not what I want for Israel.”

“I simply believe in equality before the law and an Israel that embodies its founders’ aspirations of being a ‘light unto the nations,’ rather than an international pariah held back by far-right and religious special interests,” Kasparov wrote.

“Israel’s election on Oct. 27 offers a bloodless way out of this morass.”

Police detained India’s ‘cockroach’ movement founder Abhijeet Dipke on Friday, live images from his group showed, ahead of a protest called by him in capital Delhi’s central business district, the latest rally to demand the resignation of India’s election chief.

The youth-led ‘Cockroach Janta Party‘ (CJP), opposition groups, and student organisations have held almost daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision but the Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.

Dipke called Friday’s protest in support of two CJP leaders detained and sent to jail this week for five days for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.

The group and left-wing student organisations had urged supporters to gather at the Central Park in New Delhi’s busy Connaught Place shopping and food district on Friday evening to wave and hoist the national flag.

Police officers detained Dipke as he left a house

The live video on CJP’s Instagram handle showed Dipke coming out of a house and walking towards the street, where police officers stopped him and, after a brief argument, hauled him into a police car and drove away.

“We are detaining you right now,” a police officer could be heard telling Dipke.

“I have not broken any law right now…how can you detain me,” Dipke asked the police officers as he was taken away.

There was no immediate comment from the police on the detention.

Earlier on Friday, police met Dipke and warned him against going ahead with the protest.

Iran has managed to export some liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and jet fuel since July, despite a US naval blockade, shipping intelligence showed and people involved in security said.

Tehran has in recent weeks been concealing such cargoes among a growing volume of ship-to-ship transfers by other Gulf producers off Oman, four people in maritime security who track Gulf oil movements told Reuters.

The Iranian exports and methodology are reported for the first time here. While a fraction of its former energy exports, the cargoes are rare evidence of petroleum products getting through a blockade that has halted Iran’s crude exports.

Analysis by US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic using ship and satellite tracking, shows at least eight gas tankers carrying Iranian LPG have left the Gulf of Oman since mid-July.

Another tanker carrying Iranian jet fuel reached Myanmar in September, additional satellite imagery and analysis by maritime intelligence group SynMax show.

The US imposed targeted sanctions in 2023 on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry, citing military airstrikes on civilians that the United Nations says have killed thousands of people. Myanmar’s military government has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, saying its operations are directed against armed groups.

Approximately 4.1 million barrels of LPG made it through the blockade

Six of the eight gas tankers and the jet fuel tanker are under US sanctions for transporting Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, a Reuters analysis of the vessels and sanctions imposed on ships by the US Treasury showed.

“What we have seen passing is a handful of tankers carrying Iranian LPG, but the overwhelming majority of tankers laden with Iranian products have been redirected by US forces,” said Jemima Shelley, senior research analyst with UANI.

Shelley said some Iranian LPG tankers transferred cargoes near the Omani coastal towns of Shinas and Sohar, while others waited in the Gulf of Oman before heading past the US blockade, which US Central Command has said sits across the Gulf of Oman near the Iran-Pakistan border.

The total amount of these LPG cargoes was estimated at 4.1 million barrels, Shelley said.

Shelley said the shipments were driven “more by opportunism” than showing a new trend of Iran trying to export its oil and petrochemicals by using smaller ships.

Most of the cargoes sailed to Malaysia’s Eastern Outer Port Limits to conduct further STS transfers for likely destinations in China, Shelley said, based on UANI’s analysis.

The Iranian government did not respond to a request for comment. Myanmar’s military-backed government did not respond to a request for comment on whether the country had received Iranian jet fuel.

US Military describes blockade as ‘ironclad’

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said its naval blockade, which was first imposed on Iran-related oil exports on April 13, is “ironclad.” The blockade was lifted in June after the US reached a draft understanding with Iran, but it was reimposed on July 14 following the collapse of the agreement.

A US military official told Reuters that the passage of a vessel does not necessarily mean it had evaded the blockade. Every ship was assessed individually, including through a review of its papers, and some vessels could be allowed through for humanitarian reasons, the official added.

The official said the appearance of a vessel on US sanctions lists is not the only factor to make it subject to the blockade, adding that US forces are also closely monitoring some ships without taking action against them for operational reasons.

Centcom said in an update on October 13 that during the three months of the latest blockade, four commercial vessels had been disabled and 135 ships had been turned around by US forces.

The US military has turned around ships from Asia and also seized some tankers, previous Centcom statements said.

Washington has coupled its blockade with a sanctions campaign aimed at severing Iran’s remaining financial links and depriving it of revenue. Last week, it imposed fresh sanctions on 17 vessels involved in transporting Iranian crude, petrochemicals and petroleum products.

US Treasury questioned shipping data

A US Treasury spokesperson questioned shipping data suggesting vessels had evaded the blockade, saying ships could spoof their locations or use false identities when loading.

Such data “should be taken with a grain of salt,” the spokesperson said.

The Treasury spokesperson said Operation Economic Outcast, together with the blockade, was “suffocating the Iranian regime.”

Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said although there was no sign of Washington easing its blockade, worsening economic conditions in Iran could push Tehran to take greater risks.

“If Iran can move product tankers through, even in small numbers, jet fuel may be a good option. Iran’s aviation industry is under increasing pressure from US sanctions, with a growing number of planes grounded, and a potential surplus of jet fuel at Iranian refineries,” Soltvedt added.

Iranian crude exports fell to zero in September, according to Kpler, the first month without a shipment since the analytics firm began tracking the producer in 2013.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the blockade prevented most Chinese purchases of Iranian oil and left Iran unable to deliver crude to customers.

Likud MK Boaz Bismuth accused the media on Wednesday of conducting a campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that reports concerning a possible pre-October 7 visit by former Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and leaked private messages belonging to Netanyahu adviser Yonatan Urich were being used to politically undermine the prime minister.

Speaking in an interview with 103FM, Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, strongly defended Netanyahu and criticized former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yoram Cohen, who is second on former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot‘s party list, for comparing the prime minister to Shabbetai Zevi, the 17th-century Jewish false messiah.

“I could put together an entire case about the media’s conduct toward the prime minister, and it would all be based on lies,” Bismuth said.

“You can say anything, and you can even compare the prime minister to Shabbetai Zevi. That sounds absurd to me,” he added.

Bismuth said Netanyahu supporters were being subjected to offensive comparisons involving their political leader, arguing that the rhetoric reflected hostility toward the prime minister rather than legitimate criticism.

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“People who vote for Netanyahu hear their leader being compared to someone whose name is followed by the expression ‘may the name of the wicked rot,'” he said, referring to a traditional Hebrew condemnation. “A false messiah is someone who joins the ‘Anyone but Bibi’ camp.”

Bismuth defends Netanyahu amid Egyptian intelligence warning controversy

The interview came amid renewed scrutiny of reports that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had traveled to Israel shortly before Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

Netanyahu previously denied meeting or speaking with Kamel in the months leading up to the attack, but confirmed this week that an Egyptian aircraft had landed in Israel in September 2023. He maintained that he did not know whom Kamel had met, if the intelligence official had visited.

Asked why Netanyahu had acknowledged the aircraft’s arrival only after previously rejecting reports surrounding the alleged visit, Bismuth defended the prime minister’s handling of sensitive intelligence matters.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is a very responsible person,” Bismuth said. “Believe me, as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who is exposed to certain information, I know he does not disclose material that could benefit him and support his arguments.”

He argued that the public debate had been dominated by a politically motivated effort to discredit Netanyahu, including through interviews with former senior security officials.

“What does this shallow campaign do from morning until night?” he asked. “It searches for arguments in interviews with former officials, through stories about Egypt and the Emirates that never happened.”

The circumstances surrounding the Egyptian aircraft’s arrival and the reported warnings remain disputed. While several international media reports have alleged that Egyptian officials sought to alert Israel to a possible escalation before October 7, Netanyahu has denied receiving such a warning directly from Kamel.

Bismuth condemns publication of Yonatan Urich’s private WhatsApp messages

Bismuth also criticized the publication of private correspondence attributed to Yonatan Urich, a senior Netanyahu adviser whose communications have come under scrutiny amid the ongoing political controversies surrounding the prime minister’s office.

“My conclusion is that when people want Netanyahu’s head, they try to attack him through everyone close to him,” Bismuth said.

“The public knows this, and people are already tired of it.”

Bismuth alleged that the messages had been obtained through unauthorized access to Urich’s WhatsApp account and claimed that some of the published correspondence had been altered. Those allegations have not been independently established.

“Whoever hacked Yonatan Urich’s WhatsApp and published private correspondence, while adding and changing things, will pay the price,” he said. “The same will happen to anyone who publishes it or cooperates.”

He also accused journalists who reported on the messages of celebrating what he described as a criminal violation of an individual’s privacy.

“Media figures who celebrate a criminal offense committed against someone should be ashamed of themselves,” Bismuth said.

He recalled previous cases involving unauthorized access to mobile phones, including an alleged incident involving former prime minister Naftali Bennett, and suggested that similar privacy concerns had not received sufficient attention.

“Yonatan Urich did not harm Israel’s security. I have absolutely no doubt about that,” Bismuth said.

“Israel, under Netanyahu, attacked in Qatar, so perhaps it’s time to stop with this nonsense?”

Urich has also publicly alleged that his phone was hacked and has threatened legal action against those responsible for distributing the correspondence. The allegations about the messages’ authenticity and the circumstances of their release remain contested.

Likud MK rejects questions over loyalty to Netanyahu and party ranking

During the interview, Bismuth was also asked why he continued to defend Netanyahu so strongly despite being placed 21st on the Likud electoral list, after previously securing a higher position in the party’s internal rankings.

Bismuth rejected suggestions that the placement had affected his relationship with the prime minister, saying he was satisfied with the party’s reserved positions and the broader composition of its list.

“I was elected in 13th place, and that is a very respectable position,” he said.

He also referred to his previous professional relationship with political commentator Yaakov Bardugo, noting that he had been Bardugo’s employer when both worked at the Israel Hayom newspaper.

Bismuth insisted that his support for Netanyahu was based on his political preference rather than considerations about his own parliamentary position.

“This has nothing to do with me. A seat in the Knesset is a seat you hold temporarily. Netanyahu is the prime minister I want.”

The Joint List said on Thursday evening, October 15, that right-wing activists affiliated with the Otzma Yehudit party, including Mordechai David and several others, violently entered its Hebrew-language campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv and assaulted activists and teenagers attending an event at the venue.

The incident took place at the Left Bank club, which houses several civil society organizations and movements. The Joint List said MK Ofer Cassif intended to contact the Tel Aviv District police commander that evening to demand the swift arrest and prosecution of those involved.

“This marks a new and dangerous peak in political violence in the country, a dangerous escalation and a genuine threat to the integrity of the elections,” the Joint List said in a statement.

אנחנו מגנים בחריפות את הפריצה האלימה הערב למטה הקמפיין העברי של הרשימה המשותפת בתל אביב. בריוני ימין המזוהים עם עוצמה יהודית, המעורבים בקמפיין הבחירות שלה, פרצו למקום ותקפו פעילים ובני נוער שהשתתפו באירוע במועדון ״הגדה השמאלית״. הכתובת על הקיר, ואסור לחכות לאירוע הבא כדי להבין את חומרת המצב ולפעול בנחישות. היינו מצפים ממשטרת ישראל לחקור את האירוע ולמצות את הדין עם האחראים, אבל כשהגורמים הפוליטיים שמלבים את ההסתה הם גם אלה ששולטים במשטרה, קשה לצפות ממנה לפעול בנחישות הנדרשת. בעוד 12 ימים, במו ידינו, נעיף את הפשיסטים מהשלטון.

— הרשימה המשותפת القائمة المشتركة (@ListJoint) October 15, 2026

“The writing is on the wall, and we must not wait for the next incident to understand the gravity of the situation and act decisively,” the party added.

Joint List accuses police of failing to confront political violence

The Joint List also criticized the Israel Police, accusing those responsible for overseeing law enforcement of enabling the alleged violence.

“We would demand that the Israel Police act decisively, investigate the incident and bring those involved to justice, but unfortunately, those who send the thugs are also the ones who control the police,” the party said.

“In 12 days, with our own hands, we will remove them from power.”

Balad chairman warns of voter intimidation ahead of Israeli elections

Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh also condemned the incident, alleging that the violence was intended to intimidate Arab voters ahead of the elections and discourage participation.

“A group of violent thugs attacked our activists this evening at the Joint List headquarters in Tel Aviv,” Abu Shehadeh said. “I send my support to our activists and stand alongside them.”

“This violence is a preview of what they want to do on election day to reduce voter turnout in Arab society, on behalf of the fascist coalition,” he claimed.

Abu Shehadeh further accused the police of failing to confront politically motivated violence, warning that a lack of action could encourage additional incidents.

“In any properly functioning country, such thuggery would not be tolerated, but the police are controlled by those who send them,” he said.

“Silence in the face of this violence gives a green light to the next stages.”

He concluded by calling for increased voter participation in response to attempts at intimidation.

“For every such attempt to silence us, we will turn out in large numbers at the ballot box to remove them from power. Every threat or act of violence will be answered with a flood of ballots for the Joint List!”

On October 16, 1946, 80 years ago, 10 Nazi war criminals were executed following the Nuremberg trials. Atrocities were investigated. Evidence was gathered. Witnesses testified, and criminals were judged and sentenced.

Three years after the atrocities of October 7, 2023, we confront a different reality. Hamas terrorists launched a brutal assault on Israeli lives.

Today, a second assault is underway – not over territory or sovereignty, but over truth itself: whose testimony is believed, whose suffering is acknowledged, and what future generations will know about what happened that day.

I recently had the opportunity to meet Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on October Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.

She helped lead a two-year investigation resulting in Silenced No More, a nearly 300-page report documenting the sexual and gender-based violence committed during the Hamas attacks and against hostages in captivity.

Drawing on survivor and witness testimony, photographs, videos, interviews, and official records, the commission concluded that sexual violence was not incidental to the attacks. It was widespread, systematic, and integral to them.

The report is harrowing. Women, children, and men were assaulted and violated in ways that defy comprehension. At the Nova music festival. In kibbutzim. Along the roads of southern Israel. During October 7 itself and through hundreds of days of captivity.

Paradoxically, the report’s power lies in its dispassionate character. No rhetorical embellishment. Testimony corroborated. Evidence cataloged. Patterns identified. Conclusions carefully drawn.

The language is forensic, almost clinical, set against atrocities that strain the limits of human understanding. The unspeakable given language.

Reading the report, I found myself asking a question that initially seemed inappropriate: What, practically speaking, is all this documentation meant to accomplish?

At Nuremberg, the answer was clear: there were defendants to prosecute, verdicts to render, sentences to carry out. The perpetrators of October 7, by contrast, may never face anything resembling judicial accountability.

Many are already dead. Others may never be identified, much less brought before a court. No verdict will restore the murdered. No prison sentence will erase the trauma of survivors.

So why such painstaking attention to testimony, corroboration, photographs, dates, locations, and legal categories? Why document crimes that may never be prosecuted?

An answer comes, unexpectedly, from the opening chapters of the Bible. When Cain murders his brother Abel, God confronts him: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

The original Hebrew presents a grammatical curiosity. The word translated as “blood” is actually plural: d’mei achicha. Literally, “your brother’s bloods.”

For centuries, Jewish commentators have debated the significance of that plural. One explanation is that Cain murdered not only Abel but also the generations of descendants who might have followed him. Another suggests that the plural evokes the many wounds inflicted on Abel’s body.

Documentation matters

October 7 suggests another interpretation. The first blood cries out for justice for the lives taken. The second cries for fidelity to the truth of what occurred.

The first demands that perpetrators be held accountable. The second demands that we, the living, bear witness, safeguard the evidence, tell the stories, preserve the names, and ensure that those murdered are not victimized a second time through the erasure or distortion of their suffering.

The first demand may never be fully answered. The second remains within our power, urgently so.

Consider the grotesque inversion surrounding the response to October 7’s sexual atrocities. Ordinarily, perpetrators seek to conceal their crimes, while human rights organizations seek to expose them and stand with victims.

On October 7, the perpetrators recorded, broadcast, and celebrated their brutality.

Yet so deeply entrenched is the hostility toward Israel, so toxic the epistemic antisemitism, that even in the face of overwhelming evidence, many institutions dedicated to defending victims of sexual violence responded not with solidarity but with skepticism, equivocation, silence, and even outright denial.

The dangers of historical revision abound, such as the moral perversity of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s October 7 social media post offering only passing acknowledgment of Hamas’s atrocities before pivoting to Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Or the choices made by those who award the Nobel Peace Prize.

We see it on university campuses, where the reality of October 7 continues to be contested. We see it on social media, where lies travel faster than facts and documented atrocities are already subjected to denial, distortion, and revisionism.

Nothing about investigating the crimes of October 7 requires minimizing Palestinian suffering or excusing Israel’s conduct in its prosecution of the war. The suffering of one people does not negate the suffering of another.

We can, and must, hold more than one truth at a time.

In our post-truth, AI-driven age, memory is no longer merely inherited. It is constructed, searched, summarized, and increasingly mediated by algorithms. What future generations know about October 7 will depend on the archives we preserve, the education we provide, and the technologies we harness today.

This is why documentation matters even when prosecution appears unlikely. Testimony is not merely preparation for a courtroom. It is an obligation to history.

On October 7, innocent blood was spilled. We cannot undo the horrors. We cannot restore the lives taken. But we can ensure that the truth of what happened is not buried alongside the victims.

That is the second blood crying out from the Earth. And it is ours to answer.

The writer is rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue and author of For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today (HarperCollins).

A rabbi for the Hillel at Georgia’s Emory University was fired in August after her fiancé posted criticisms of Israel on social media, the rabbi, Nikki Golomb, told Jewish Currents on Thursday.

According to Golomb, she began working at Emory Hillel on July 1 and was fired by the nonprofit that operates Hillels in Georgia on August 3.

“There were no questions, no conversation, nothing about me or my politics or anything I’ve done,” Golomb said. “It was just about the fact that I am in a relationship with people who are critical of Israel.”

Golomb’s fiancé, Sam Stein, describes himself as a “protective presence activist and journalist” on Instagram, where he has a substantial following. He posts frequently from the West Bank, including sharing videos of settler violence.

“I don’t think that Sam’s politics are relevant to my job, and they’re certainly not relevant to my ability to do the job that they hired me to do,” Golomb said.

Before she had been hired, Golomb said that Hillel had told her that Israel and Zionism, and supporting Zionist students, were a major part of the organization and her role in it. “That’s something I was prepared to do,” she said, saying that she feels a “deep sense of connection to the land of Israel” despite her fiancé’s activism.

Hillel concerned Marcus Foundation would pull funding over pro-Palestine posts

According to Golomb, Hillel’s Georgia CEO, Larry Sernovitz, told her that the Marcus Foundation, a major Hillel donor, might cut off its funding if it learned about her engagement to Stein.

Golomb also said she was told she would not receive severance pay after her firing.

Responding to Jewish Currents inquiries, Sernovitz said that “this employment decision was made in accordance with federal and state law and violated no governmental or organizational policy,” adding that the decision had been made “for legitimate, work-related reasons and in accordance with our policies.”

Director emeritus of UCLA Hillel, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, told Jewish Currents that Golomb’s firing was “an act of political cancellation and intolerance.”

Once upon a time, the Nobel Peace Prize was founded to award genuine efforts to further world peace. Or so the legend goes.

Last week’s announcement that the 2026 prize is being awarded to South African judge, and strident critic of Israel, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, proves how far it’s come – in the wrong direction.

Pillay, a former International Criminal Court judge, served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 until 2014 – a position she used to promote an anti-Israel agenda – and last year she oversaw the publishing of a UN-commissioned report that concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. 

Hamas, the Iranian-backed terrorist organization that literally committed an act of premeditated genocide during the October 7, 2023 invasion and mega-atrocity, in which 1,200 people were murdered in southern Israel and 251 abducted to Gaza, barely merited a mention. 

The focus is on Israel, always on Israel. It’s part of the technique of delegitimization and demonization, with the aim of eventual elimination of the Jewish state.

What did Navi Pillay do?

In 2021, the UN launched an unprecedented, open-ended war-crimes probe against Israel. The “UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel” (COI) is tasked with submitting a report twice a year, in addition to the mandated sessions on Israel held by the UN Security Council every three months. Having uniquely granted the Palestinians “perpetual refugee” status, the UN needs to subject Israel to perpetual blame.

Pillay chaired the three-member COI, despite having already called for the boycott and sanctioning of Israel. She was joined by two members with equally problematic backgrounds, Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti. The three resigned last year, apparently fearing they could face US sanctions like UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese, another UN official with a proud anti-Israel bias.

The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee announced its decision on October 9, as Israel was deep in a week commemorating the barbaric frenzy of terrorist murders, rapes, and abductions three years ago – the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Pillay beat a list of contenders reported by Time magazine to have included, among others: Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms (acting to provide relief in the war that few notice because Israel can’t be blamed), and Mykola Kuleba, co-founder of Save Ukraine, an organization dedicated, among other things, to reuniting Ukrainian children kidnapped and held by Russia during the ongoing war.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry dropped the diplomatic language to post on social media: “If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner. Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes.

“Awarding Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a recognition of justice. It’s the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.

“Now that the Nobel committee has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell.”

Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov posted on X: “Maybe next year they will award the Chemistry Prize to a Hamas bomb maker.” Kasparov later clarified that he knows that the peace prize is granted by Norwegian committees while the other Nobel awards are given by Swedish institutions – but the joke’s on all of us.

In 2012, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union – another body that collectively promotes a Palestinian narrative at Israel’s expense. The irony that Norway isn’t even a EU member state was pointed out by Swedish editorial writer Henrik L. Barva, a brave supporter of Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

I first met Barva, along with a very mixed group of international journalists, on a press tour of Taiwan (the Republic of China) to celebrate Double Ten Day, the October 10 national day. 

We were together when the decision to award the prize to Barack Obama was announced in 2009, before he had even taken office, and had fun thinking up other Nobel categories in which he could have won the award, including literature for his books and the prize for physics, for defying the laws of nature and becoming the first superman to be elected president of the US.

As it happened, Obama missed the chance to further world peace by failing to support the courageous Iranian Green Movement protesters trying to overthrow the Iranian regime in 2009, and later promoting the disastrous Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. The results are still being felt globally today.

When the 1994 peace prize was given to Yasser Arafat (along with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres) for the Oslo Accords, I didn’t find it funny.

I attended this year’s festive Taiwanese national day reception hosted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv last week. Chief representative Ya-ping (Abby) Lee noted the reception also marked 30 years since Taiwan’s first direct presidential election, and highlighted a shared commitment to democracy and freedom. 

She also emphasized, “Taiwan’s global role in technology and the potential for closer cooperation with Israel in innovation and AI, while reaffirming our support for Israeli communities recovering and rebuilding.”

Taiwan was ousted from the UN in 1971 and replaced with the People’s Republic of China. Hence, democratic Taiwan – an economic powerhouse with much to contribute to the fields of health and technology, for example – is unable to share its knowledge through UN bodies, while Communist China – still threatening to invade Taiwan – has a permanent seat (alongside Russia) on the UN Security Council.

JUST AS I wasn’t shocked by Pillay’s Peace Prize award, I was not surprised by the announcement last week that the Palestinian Authority elections had been postponed – yet again. The PA had promised several countries, including France, that it would hold elections in return for gaining recognition as “The State of Palestine” last September. (The UN also recognizes the borderless, failed state.) 

The elections – the first in 20 years – were scheduled to be held next month. They have been tentatively rescheduled for September 11, 2027, but don’t hold your breath.

The date 9.11 will be forever remembered for the jihadist attack on the US rather than Palestinian democracy and good governance. PA head Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 21st year of his four-year term, also pushed off the presidential elections, blaming Israel, of course, for the delay.

Israel, unlike the Palestinian territories, is gearing up for elections on October 27, but democracy is no guarantee of winning praise, let alone awards, as both Israel and Taiwan can testify.

US President Donald Trump blasted the decision to award Pillay the prize he has been eyeing for years, but he didn’t stand a chance. If he wasn’t considered worthy of the award for creating the Abraham Accords in 2020, peace agreements that have proven themselves over the years, then he won’t get it now, after tackling Iran.

In 2024, reported peace prize contenders included the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, probably for the same reason that Pillay won it this year – dedicated criticism of Israel. It obviously wasn’t for creating peace.

Guterres gracefully complimented Pillay on her award, saying: “It has shown that the force of law must prevail over the law of force…”

Law professor Yuval Elbashan met Pillay in Nepal in 2009 and wrote in Israel Hayom this week: “Even then, in our personal conversation, she revealed hostility toward the very idea of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, in which she saw an exact reflection of South Africa’s apartheid regime.”

He called this year’s peace prize “evidence of the deep anti-Israel politicization that has spread through international institutions… The anti-Israel stamp of approval has become a springboard to the biggest prize of them all.”

Elbashan also noted that Pillay “is now leading the push to redefine the legal definition of ‘genocide’ so that it fits and encompasses Israel’s actions in Gaza. She is doing so as an ad hoc judge… in Gambia’s case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 

“She isn’t crafting this new legal test for the Rohingya people. She is crafting it to convict Israel.”

With winners like Pillay, world peace and justice are the losers.

Theodor Mommsen was infatuated.

Julius Caesar, wrote a future Nobel laureate in The History of Rome, was “a statesman genius,” one so “perfect” that such a figure emerged only “once in a thousand years,” like the “consummate beauty” that even the most gifted painter “can only be silent” in its face.

Written in 1856, it was the kind of partiality that historians are expected to avoid, reflecting a German nationalist’s thirst for a charismatic leader who would unite his politically splintered people. That great leader would be far wiser, bolder, and more visionary than ordinary people. Charisma, the gift of natural leadership, would make that superhero deliver what no one else could achieve.

A similar attitude inspired Zionist historian Joseph Klausner’s depiction of the Messiah as “Judaism’s Ubermensch,” a superhero “far greater and stronger than the multitude, a personality to which all willingly submit.”

Inspired by Mommsen’s portrait of Caesar, Klausner painted Hasmonean King Alexander Janneus not as the Judean despot that rabbinical memory recalled, but as “a great king… dedicated to his country’s expansion and the spread of its faith.”

WWII produced fascist nightmares that tainted the charismatic leader

Such thinking was legitimate, even common, among German-educated intellectuals for generations – until World War II. The fascist nightmare produced a new breed of historians who realized that charisma is not necessarily a gift, and in fact can become a curse.

Writing in his acclaimed Caesar: A Biography, historian Christian Meier shrank Mommsen’s superhero into an opportunistic politician who had no coherent vision of Rome’s future, and thus did not shape the great events in which he played a central role. Instead, Caesar was now portrayed as a shrewd tactician who responded to events that were shaped by forces larger than himself.

For Jewish graduates of the 20th century, suspicion of charisma goes without saying, even though charisma also did us good, most memorably when David Ben-Gurion used it to win war, and when Menachem Begin used it to deliver peace. Now, however, the Jewish state is in the process of shifting from an era of charisma to an era of anti-charisma.

How long this transition will last is anyone’s guess, but for an Israel crushed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s overbearing charisma, the post-charismatic era’s emergence will not be one day too early.

Israel has already had two post-charismatic eras, and their results were surprisingly good.

The current age of charisma began in 1996, when Netanyahu first became prime minister. Though there were other prime ministers during the subsequent decades, Netanyahu shaped the era. And Netanyahu, even his rivals agree, led by charisma.

Netanyahu was more handsome, eloquent, and brash than any of his opponents. None could work a crowd, manage a press interview, phrase a political slogan, engineer a journalistic photo, or deliver a televised speech more effectively than he could.

In turn for all of this, and as has so often happened with charisma, these merits came coupled with a soloist’s failure to consult, or even just tolerate the presence of, other able people. The charismatic leader thus gradually became not merely the government’s leader, but the government itself.

How will Israel fill Netanyahu’s big shoes?

That is why people now wonder, after surveying his potential successors: how will they get into his big shoes? It is the same question people asked in 1963, when David Ben-Gurion stepped down after leading Israel’s creation, and that is what people asked in 1983, when Menachem Begin stepped down six years after unseating Ben-Gurion’s successors.

In both cases, the question was even harsher than it is now, not only because Ben-Gurion and Begin were so much larger than Netanyahu, but because their successors were even less charismatic than the men who may soon replace Netanyahu at the State of Israel’s helm.

Levi Eshkol was an unassuming, bespectacled, balding, and grandfatherly man who loved to tell Yiddish jokes and looked like a tailor who had just emerged from a Lower East Side sweatshop. Whether in his intellectual curiosity, literary diet, historical insight, political vision, or rhetorical ability – he was no David Ben-Gurion.

Similarly, Yitzhak Shamir was no Menachem Begin. Begin spent decades in the public limelight, delivering fiery, eloquent, and unwritten speeches in mass rallies, and heading the opposition for nearly 30 years. Shamir spent most of the same years in the opaque labyrinths of the Mossad. Short, stocky, bushy-eyebrowed, introverted, and ineloquent, he was charisma’s antithesis.

Even so, this pair of antiheroes did incredible things.

Eshkol built the army that struck the greatest military victory in Jewish history. Before that, as finance minister in the 1950s, he built an economy that was the fastest-growing in the world, alongside Korea and Japan. And as prime minister, he inspired national reconciliation, first by ordering an official funeral for his party’s historic nemesis, Ze’ev Jabotinsky; then by canceling Israel’s military rule over its Arab towns; and finally, by bringing Menachem Begin into the government that won the 1967 Six-Day War.

Similarly, the uncharismatic Shamir led four million Israelis’ successful absorption of one million immigrants from the fallen Soviet Union. While at it, he airlifted Ethiopian Jewry. In the interim, he managed, with great poise, Israel’s precarious situation during the First Gulf War. And before all that, he and his arch-rival, Labor’s Shimon Peres, jointly saved a hyper-inflationary economy from collapse.

Shamir and Eshkol registered all these achievements not despite, but because of their lack of charisma. Their grayness only made them positively humble, focusing on the issues rather than on themselves, harnessing rather than fearing talent, and inspiring business-minded teamwork instead of spending their days thinking of the next photo op, soundbite or speech.

Now, as the post-Netanyahu era steadily approaches, this is what Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett offer, and what a traumatized Israel demands.

www.MiddleIsrael.net The writer, a Hartman Institute fellow, is the author of the bestseller, The Jewish March of Folly (Yedioth Books 2026), now available in English on Amazon.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, issued a statement responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presumed refusal to appoint him as defense minister should he continue to head the government after the upcoming elections. 

“The cat is out of the bag,” the statement read. “The prime minister’s statements, indicating that the Defense Ministry, the National Security Ministry, and the Justice Ministry will all remain in the hands of the Likud, reinforce the conclusion that a decision has been made to oust Minister Ben-Gvir and Otzma Yehudit from the coalition, bring in Eisenkot instead, and hand these portfolios over to the Left.”

Netanyahu: Defense Ministry will remain in Likud’s hands

Netanyahu said Wednesday that his Likud party would keep the Defense Minister portfolio in a future government, while cautioning against distributing ministerial positions before the election results are known.

His statement came as Ben-Gvir continued his campaign to secure the portfolio for himself in a future Netanyahu-led government. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly affirmed he would demand the defense minister position as a condition of joining Netanyahu’s coalition.

Ben-Gvir demands Defense Ministry, Tally Gotliv for justice minister in next gov’t

In late September, Ben-Gvir announced he would demand the defense minister post in the next government and called for MK Tally Gotliv to be justice minister after the upcoming October elections.

Otzma Yehudit stated that, as justice minister, Gotliv would focus on immediately firing the attorney-general as the first step in forming the next government. The party also said she would work to advance other measures aimed at reducing the power of the State Attorney’s Office.

Shir Perets and Keshet Neev contributed to this report.

In the summer of 2019, Yuli Edelstein, then speaker of the Knesset, came to meet with us at The Jerusalem Post.

Israel had held an election in April that failed to produce a government and was forced back to the polls in September. It was the first time in the country’s history that one election had led almost immediately to another, and Edelstein, then a senior figure in Likud, had a clear message: This would not happen again. Whatever the personal differences between the political camps, the country would find a way to form a government.

Sadly, he was wrong, as were many of us who believed that Israel’s politicians would eventually come to their senses. Instead, the country went to the polls five times in three-and-a-half years, until the current government was established following the election at the end of 2022.

When people think about October 7, they understandably focus on the intelligence failures, the IDF’s failure to defend the border, and the questions surrounding the warnings that did or did not reach Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some go further back to the year before the attack, when the government’s judicial overhaul tore Israeli society apart. Rarely, though, do we go back further than that.

The truth is that Israel arrived at October 7 battered, divided, and polarized in ways we have yet to fully process. The judicial overhaul was devastating, but it did not come out of nowhere. It followed five elections marked by relentless political fighting, personal rivalries, and the growing belief that defeating the other side mattered more than governing the country. The overhaul deepened those divisions, eroded trust in institutions, and made the country weak and vulnerable.

Hamas saw an opening in this division and took it on October 7. The fact that we have yet to establish a commission of inquiry into the events that led to the attack is a gamble with Israel’s future.

This history matters as we approach the October 27 election, because the polls suggest that another stalemate is a real possibility. Neither bloc appears to have the 61 seats needed for a conventional majority government, and neither seems capable of persuading enough politicians from the other side to join it. Much can change before election day, particularly with undecided voters and parties hovering around the electoral threshold. But we need to ask now what outcome is actually in the country’s interest.

The opposition’s criticism of Netanyahu is legitimate. He has been in office for too long, the failures have piled up, and it is time for change. His decision to govern with the far Right has caused Israel immense damage, internally and internationally. But Netanyahu is also right that the opposition’s boycott of him has contributed to the prospect of deadlock. This is what happens when personality politics overwhelms almost everything else.

Three possibilities to avoid another election

ANOTHER ELECTION, in my mind, would be catastrophic. Israel is militarily stronger today because its enemies are weaker, but military superiority does not remove the danger of political paralysis. With so many challenges still unresolved, returning to the cycle of election after election would put us back on the same destructive path that preceded October 7.

If avoiding that outcome is the objective, there are essentially three possibilities.

The first is that one side wins 61 seats, as hard as that is to imagine based on current polling. It could be Netanyahu and it could be the opposition. This would be the clearest outcome – one side would win, and while the other would be angry and disappointed, the voters will have spoken. Even if one side does not get 61 in its current form, we cannot rule out defections – parties switching alliances – something that has happened repeatedly in the past.

The second possibility is that neither side reaches 61 seats and the opposition tries to establish a minority government. The most plausible version would bring together Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, and Yair Golan. They would not need the Arab parties to vote in favor of the government, but they would need enough Arab MKs to not vote against it.

Such a government could remove Netanyahu from office and establish a state commission of inquiry into October 7, a lofty objective that should have been done a long time ago. Beyond that, however, it will not be able to function, and the minority government would be established simply to take the country straight back to another election.

As tempting as this might be, there is a danger in this that the opposition should not underestimate. Firstly, the path leads anyhow to another election, no different than the deadlock option. Second, there is a chance that Netanyahu would return even stronger after the next election, arguing that he had warned voters Eisenkot and Bennett would govern with the support of Arab parties and that they had proved him right.

The third possibility is what is often referred to as a unity government. I know how unrealistic this sounds today, but it deserves consideration if the alternative is yet another election. In many respects, this would not even be unity across an enormous ideological divide. The principal obstacle between Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett, Liberman, and Golan is not necessarily their view of Israel’s central security challenges but their view of one another.

Set aside judicial reform for a moment and consider the major issues. Is there really such a vast difference between them on confronting Iran, rebuilding support in the United States, the future of the Palestinian conflict, or maintaining far stronger defenses along the borders with Gaza and Lebanon?

There are meaningful disagreements on the rule of law, the West Bank, and responsibility for October 7, and they cannot be wished away. But there is also more than enough common ground to at least explore whether a stable government could be formed.

THE OBVIOUS objection is that Netanyahu cannot be trusted. He has broken political promises in the past, manipulated coalition partners, and brought down governments when it served his interests. All of that is true, and anyone considering joining him would have to enter such an arrangement with eyes wide open and an incredible amount of suspicion.

But politics is not about choosing between a good option and a bad one. Often, it is about deciding which of the bad options will do the least damage. If the alternative to exploring a unity government is another election, followed perhaps by another stalemate, which course would be worse for the country?

Netanyahu has been a central figure in Israeli politics for more than 30 years, since first becoming prime minister in 1996. He is a political chameleon who knows how to move left, shift right, settle in the center, and adapt his alliances based on political survival. If staying in office requires him to govern with different partners, and to accept different constraints, he usually knows how to do so.

None of this means that Netanyahu can suddenly be trusted politically, and we have no way of knowing whether he has changed. Is survival in office the only objective for him today, or is there still something within him that will put the country first even if it means restraints and policies that for the last four years he has avoided, like a commission of inquiry?

It is true that such a government might prove impossible, and that even if formed it will quickly collapse. But surely we owe it to ourselves to test the possibility rather than dismiss it outright.

Edelstein’s warning in 2019 was that Israel could not afford to become a country incapable of forming a government. We ignored that warning and allowed years of political division to become normal. October 7 should have taught us that national security depends not only on military strength but also on social cohesion and leadership capable of putting the country ahead of personal rivalries.

Hopefully, October 27 will produce a clear winner. If it does not, Israel’s political leaders will have to decide whether their refusal to sit together matters more than the country they are supposed to serve. After everything Israel has endured, another round of elections cannot be treated as an acceptable outcome.

The writer is a co-founder of the MEAD policy forum, a senior fellow at JPPI, and a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. His newest book is While Israel Slept.

Britain brought new regulations into force on Thursday, significantly expanding its sanctions powers in a move that could enable action against construction companies, developers, and financial institutions supporting settlement expansion in the West Bank.

The measures took effect four days before the deadline for submitting bids for construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, amid a diplomatic dispute between Israel and Britain over the closure of the British consulate in east Jerusalem.

The new regulations expand Britain’s sanctions framework concerning human rights and international humanitarian law. They allow sanctions against individuals and entities directly involved in activities classified as serious violations of international law, as well as those financing, facilitating, or promoting such activities, subject to specified legal conditions.

Possible measures include asset freezes, financial restrictions, travel bans, and disqualification from serving as company directors. The regulations could also allow sanctions against entities involved in settlement-related activities if they meet the established criteria, but do not impose blanket restrictions on all companies operating in the area.

UK sanctions expansion comes ahead of E1 settlement construction deadline

The timing is particularly significant as Israel advances construction plans in the E1 area. The deadline for submitting bids for 1,234 housing units, part of a broader plan involving approximately 3,400 units, is scheduled for October 19, while consideration of the bids by the tender committee has been postponed until after November 19.

Britain opposes the project, arguing that construction in the area would undermine the territorial continuity required for a future Palestinian state. Israeli officials view the development as part of settlement expansion and efforts to strengthen continuity between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, rejecting the argument that international opposition should prevent the project from proceeding.

The tender is expected to close in the coming days despite the postponement of the committee’s review. Companies seeking to participate must therefore submit their bids before it becomes clear whether Britain intends to exercise its new sanctions powers against entities connected to the project.

British advocates of expanded sanctions are seeking to deter companies and financial institutions from participating at the bidding stage, before contractors are selected and construction begins.

British lawmakers warn banks over financing E1 construction

Political figures and organizations in Britain opposed to settlement construction have also been working to increase pressure on businesses that could participate in the project.

Last month, members of Parliament contacted banks and financial institutions, warning of the risks associated with financing construction in E1. This week, the Britain Palestine Project, an organization supporting measures against settlements, warned that companies and contractors participating in the development could jeopardize their international business relationships.

In letters sent to financial institutions, lawmakers called on banks to assess their potential exposure to the E1 project and raise the issue at board level, including the legal, economic, and reputational risks involved.

Although the letters represent requests from lawmakers rather than binding government directives, they are intended to increase pressure on banks and other institutions providing financing and guarantees, encouraging them to avoid involvement in the project.

Concerns over possible future sanctions could influence commercial decisions even before Britain announces restrictions against specific companies.

Peace Now warns British sanctions could affect broader Israeli economy

The Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now responded sharply to the regulations taking effect on Thursday, warning that their consequences could extend beyond companies directly involved in settlement construction.

“This is a real alarm. Today, it is already clear that settlements are not only an obstacle to peace and a danger to security, but also an economic threat to the country’s future,” the organization said.

Peace Now accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of advancing construction in E1 and warned that the consequences of sanctions could eventually affect the broader Israeli public.

“The price of this messianic adventure could be paid not only by settlers, but by millions of law-abiding Israeli citizens,” the organization said. “Today, these are sanctions on settlements. Tomorrow, they will reach every household in Israel.”

Concerns about broader economic consequences were also raised last month. According to concerns expressed within the Israeli government, foreign importers and financial institutions could struggle to distinguish between companies operating in settlements and other Israeli businesses, potentially imposing stricter commercial conditions on companies that are not themselves subject to sanctions.

For now, these remain assessments of possible consequences, and the scale of any economic damage, if it occurs, remains unknown.

New sanctions rules could increase scrutiny of Israeli companies and banks

The regulations could also have further implications for the financial sector.

If sanctions are imposed on a particular company or entity, financial institutions subject to British law would be required to comply with the applicable restrictions, including asset freezes and prohibitions on making funds or economic resources available.

Companies not included on sanctions lists could also face additional information requests and more stringent reviews by banks and business partners, as part of compliance and risk-management procedures intended to ensure that transactions do not violate the restrictions.

However, business ties with the West Bank do not, in themselves, automatically constitute grounds for sanctions against a company or bank.

UK expands global human rights sanctions and introduces fast-track mechanism

The new regulations also cover matters unrelated to settlements. Britain will be able to impose sanctions for obstructing humanitarian assistance and for serious violations of the right to liberty and personal security, including unlawful detention.

The regulations also introduce a mechanism allowing London to temporarily adopt sanctions already imposed by partner countries for up to 112 days while considering whether to introduce independent British sanctions.

The mechanism will allow the British government to apply restrictions through an accelerated procedure based on decisions already taken by other countries.

Britain advances separate restrictions on settlement trade and imports

The British move forms part of a broader plan presented by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on September 8, which also includes a proposed ban on imports from settlements and restrictions on related commercial activities.

Separate legislation introducing the import ban has not yet been completed. In recent months, Britain has also coordinated with other countries in taking action against individuals and entities accused of involvement in settler violence and its financing.

According to London’s plan, the separate trade legislation also includes restrictions on advertising and marketing settlement real estate in Britain.

In September, 12 European and Western countries, including Britain, France, and Canada, announced support for advancing trade restrictions concerning settlements, each in accordance with its domestic procedures. In some countries, the measures remain in the drafting and legislative stages.

British opposition raises concerns over Palestinian workers

The sanctions have also generated debate within Britain.

The opposition Conservative Party has previously warned that economic restrictions could harm Palestinian workers and businesses not involved in the activities targeted by the government.

Conversely, Emily Thornberry, chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has supported measures against settlements while criticizing the time required to complete the legislation.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham clarified in Parliament this week that security and intelligence cooperation with Israel continues despite the political disagreements.

The potential impact on Palestinian workers was also raised in a parliamentary question submitted to the British government.

In a response issued earlier this month, the government emphasized that its measures target settlement activity it considers illegal, as well as violence and extremism, while Palestinian businesses will continue to benefit from existing preferential trade arrangements.

However, the response did not include an estimate of the number of Palestinian workers who could be affected by restrictions on economic activity in settlements.

The British government has not yet presented data that would allow an assessment of the potential impact on those workers.

UK-Israel diplomatic tensions continue over east Jerusalem consulate

The regulations took effect one week after understandings were reached between Israel and Britain concerning the British consulate in east Jerusalem.

Israel reduced Britain’s diplomatic presence and halted additional activities in response to London’s measures, but Britain has not reversed its sanctions policy.

Although the new regulations are now in force, no new sanctions have been announced under them against companies, developers, or financial institutions involved in E1 construction.

British Foreign Office clarifies sanctions are global, not Israel-specific

A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office clarified that the updated regulations represent a change in global sanctions policy rather than a measure specifically targeting Israel or settlements.

According to the spokesperson, the existing framework had allowed Britain to impose sanctions on individuals and entities involved in serious human rights violations or breaches of international humanitarian law worldwide.

The updated policy expands the range of serious violations that could trigger sanctions, regardless of where they occur.

The spokesperson stressed that the regulations are separate from the legislative process and sanctions measures concerning settlements considered illegal under international law, and do not introduce any trade-related restrictions.

The Foreign Office also emphasized that the updated policy does not target any specific country.

Rather, it is intended to allow Britain to respond more quickly to individuals and organizations involved in serious human rights violations or breaches of international humanitarian law anywhere in the world.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously expressed concern over Egypt’s military buildup, directly questioning why Cairo continued to expand its armed forces and purchase weapons.

Speaking at a Thursday graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Police Academy in New Cairo, Sisi emphasized that Egypt’s military expansion is not directed against Israel but is intended to safeguard national security and preserve peace in an unstable region.

“Netanyahu is responsible for his country, and he knows very well that Egypt will never pose a threat,” Sisi said.

“On one occasion, he asked me, ‘Why are you arming yourself?’ He asked me that question. He said, ‘Why are you buying weapons?'”

Sisi says Egypt’s military strength poses no threat to Israel

According to Sisi, he responded by urging Netanyahu to view Egypt’s military capabilities in the same way Cairo views Israel’s military strength.

“I told him, ‘I have never viewed Israel’s strength as a threat to me, and I believe you should also approach us with the understanding that Egypt’s strength does not pose a threat to you.'”

Sisi explained that Cairo considers a strong military essential to maintaining stability and protecting the country’s security interests.

“We live in a turbulent region, and we need to be strong to preserve the peace we enjoy, not only with Israel but with the entire region,” he said.

According to the Egyptian president, Cairo’s security doctrine is based on developing strong military and police forces capable of deterring threats and safeguarding the achievements of peace.

Sisi says Netanyahu rejected Palestinian statehood as path to regional stability

Sisi also linked his remarks to Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Israel and the Palestinian issue, saying he had repeatedly told Netanyahu since 2013 that establishing a Palestinian state would contribute to regional stability and Israel’s integration into the Middle East.

“I told him that the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state would bring real stability to all of us,” Sisi said.

“There would be genuine integration of Israel into the region. He was not convinced. He was not convinced.”

The remarks come amid growing Israeli concerns over Egypt’s military buildup and the deployment of forces in the Sinai Peninsula, alongside public tensions between Cairo and senior Israeli officials.

Sisi reiterated that Egypt remains committed to its peace agreement with Israel and has no “hidden ambitions” regarding Israeli territory.

As the election nears, Netanyahu targets right-wing alternatives, while Eisenkot seeks the commanding lead that would make him the opposition’s undisputed PM candidate

Think of Israel as one big cruise liner. Considering the country’s hyper-stressed reality, that may require some imagination, but bear with it for a moment.

On the starboard side of the ship, the right side, are all the voters in the pro-Netanyahu camp, split into different halls and ballrooms.

The Likud occupies the biggest hall, with smaller rooms for Shas, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit, and the Religious Zionist Party.

On the port side, separated from starboard by a hallway with doors leading to both sides, are the rooms of the anti-Netanyahu camp.

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar has the biggest room there, followed by Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, with smaller rooms for the Democrats and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu.

In the hallway itself stand Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party and Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha’s reservist-economist party. Behind the ship, in a separate tugboat, sail the two Arab parties.

As the cruise liner steams toward its destination, Election Day, just 11 days away, representatives of the two sides shout the expected accusations across the hallway.

From one side: “You are responsible for the worst disaster in Israel’s history and are leading the country toward catastrophe.” From the other: “You will join forces with those in the tugboat and establish a Palestinian state.”

But the more consequential action is taking place on each side of the ship.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks down the hallway, trying to persuade Winter’s and Hendel’s voters to abandon them and come to his side of the ship. Over on the port side, Eisenkot is trying to expand his already large ballroom at the expense of the rooms occupied by those sharing his side of the liner.

Netanyahu intensifies campaign to consolidate right-wing voters

Those two maneuvers are dominating the final stretch of the voyage to Election Day. And what is a sure sign the campaign has entered that final stretch? Netanyahu’s sudden ubiquity on the airwaves.

After months when the prime minister’s interviews were largely reserved for foreign media, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and various podcasts, he showed up in Israeli studios this week, and not only on Channel 14.

Granted, on Tuesday he was, again, on Channel 14, where a “home crowd” greeted him rapturously. But the next day he was on Channel 11, and in between he appeared on Army Radio.

His message had two parts: the election is perilously close, and right-wing voters cannot afford to gamble.

The first is familiar. Netanyahu has sounded the same alarm in numerous campaigns, warning his voters that victory is slipping away. On Channel 14, he anticipated the obvious response: people would dismiss this as his traditional gevalt campaign. This time, he insisted, he really is worried. The race is tied, he said.

And where, precisely, did he see right-wing voters gambling?

Once you cut through the familiar warnings about Eisenkot joining forces with Ahmad Tibi and the election determining whether a Palestinian state will be established, a much smaller target comes into view: Winter’s party.

Netanyahu’s relentless attacks on the retired brigadier-general stand out in this final stretch. At a time when he might be expected to concentrate his fire on Eisenkot and Bennett, he is devoting considerable energy to a small party standing in the hallway.

Netanyahu said he had tried to persuade Winter to join the Likud and, when that failed, to team up with another small right-wing party. That, too, failed, so now he is going after him mercilessly.

In one of the anti-Winter messages he put out this week, Netanyahu charged that Winter would take right-wing votes and carry them over to Liberman on the port side of the ship.

“It’s no coincidence that a senior figure on Liberman’s list, Yulia Malinovsky, says that ultimately Winter will join a government with Liberman. That’s what will happen. That’s the plan,” Netanyahu said.

Then came a blistering comparison with Bennett, who formed a government in 2021 with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am.

“If he walks like Bennett and talks like Bennett, he’s Bennett. Vote Likud, vote Right. Winter is not right-wing. Winter is Bennett 2. We mustn’t squander the Right’s votes. Don’t vote for Winter.”

Winter’s coalition conditions complicate Netanyahu’s election strategy

Netanyahu’s concern is twofold.

First, Winter’s party will fail to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, sending votes cast by people on the Right down the drain. Of the 19 major polls taken since October 1, the party crossed the threshold in 11, including four of the seven taken in the last week.

That is enough to keep Winter in the race, but hardly enough to reassure Netanyahu that the votes will count.

The second concern is that Winter will cross the threshold, then peddle his seats elsewhere.

Winter and others in his party say they will recommend Netanyahu to the president as prime minister. But they also say they will not join a government in which the haredi parties hold the balance of power unless those parties agree to a widespread haredi conscription law.

But what if Netanyahu does not accept those conditions? Asked precisely that in a Channel 12 interview on Saturday night, Winter replied, rather inelegantly, that Netanyahu could essentially “go take a hike.”

Nobody owns me, he declared

Winter did not explicitly rule out joining an Eisenkot or Liberman government. He did, however, rule out sitting with Yair Golan, because “he smears Israel abroad.”

For Netanyahu’s campaign, that left an opening wide enough to drive a campaign bus through.

A recommendation is one thing; a commitment to join a government is another. Winter is offering the former, with conditions attached to the latter. Netanyahu wants right-wing voters to hear that distinction and draw the conclusion he is supplying: Winter could be Bennett all over again.

The pressure has extended to billboards and signs in areas where candidates on Winter’s list live. Davidi Ben-Zion, eighth on the list, withdrew, reportedly telling colleagues that pressure on his family, including negative posters strategically placed near the bus stops his children use, had become too much.

Netanyahu’s concerns also extend to the other party in the hallway: Hendel and Zelekha’s.

In the Channel 14 interview, Netanyahu went after Zelekha, whom Netanyahu – as finance minister – appointed accountant-general in 2003. Despite the party’s appeal to right-wing voters, Netanyahu charged that Zelekha had voted for Meretz in the past and participated enthusiastically in anti-government protests on Balfour Street in Jerusalem and Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.

He also attacked Zelekha on his home turf, the economy, challenging his credentials as a free-market champion.

Hendel and Zelekha’s party crossed the threshold in all seven major polls taken this week. But unlike Winter, they have not pledged to recommend Netanyahu. Hendel says the party will use its leverage to establish a broad Zionist government without the Arab and haredi parties.

Given the coalition arithmetic, how that government would come together remains an enigma. Like Winter, Hendel is clearer about his conditions than about how he would assemble a government that meets them.

But Netanyahu doesn’t need their coalition plans fully worked out to worry about them. He needs the voters attracted to those parties back in his camp.

Eisenkot seeks commanding lead to establish opposition leadership

Across the ship’s hallway, Eisenkot has a different calculation.

His campaign to make Yashar the largest party is aimed, in part, at voters already on his side of the boat. He wants them to leave the other rooms and enter his ballroom.

For Netanyahu, the immediate task is to consolidate the camp. For Eisenkot, it is also to establish who commands it.

That is why the leaders of the other parties in his bloc are less than enthusiastic about his strategy. A voter moving from Bennett, Liberman, or Golan to Eisenkot does not enlarge the bloc. It enlarges Eisenkot.

The bigger Yashar is, and the wider its lead over the Likud, the stronger his claim to form the next government – even if his bloc falls short of 61 seats.

Eisenkot repeated one phrase this week: Netanyahu must not be allowed to win by losing. By that, he means Netanyahu must not remain caretaker prime minister through another cycle of inconclusive elections simply because no one else can form a coalition.

In a Yediot Aharonot interview this week, Eisenkot said, “If you [Netanyahu] think you will do to me what you did to others in the past – meaning, remain in office at the head of a caretaker government – that will not happen.” When Israel held five elections in under four years, from April 2019 to November 2022, Netanyahu served 19 months as caretaker prime minister over two stretches.

Eisenkot considers minority government to prevent Netanyahu remaining in office

One route Eisenkot envisages to prevent a repeat of that scenario is to bring a minority government to the Knesset for approval and secure the support of a majority of those voting.

A government does not need 61 members to win such a vote; it only needs a majority of those in the plenum casting a vote. This scenario would be made possible, for instance, if the Arab parties simply don’t vote.

Once this minority government is approved, Eisenkot can then attract defectors from the other side of the ship. A substantial lead over the Likud would give that effort greater public legitimacy.

There are other considerations, too.

First, in the unlikely event that a rotation agreement with the Likud became a serious possibility, a decisive lead in seats would bolster his claim to go first as prime minister.

More immediately, the larger Yashar becomes, the harder it would be for Bennett or Liberman to argue that someone else should lead the bloc.

The four parties in the “change bloc” have yet to agree on a mechanism to determine their prime ministerial candidate after the election.

Eisenkot has said, logically enough, that the leader of the party that wins the most votes should be the bloc’s candidate. Since Yashar currently leads the bloc by a considerable margin, that formula would obviously favor him.

It remains unclear, however, whether the others are prepared to accept this. But the wider the gap, the harder it would be to explain why the leader of a much smaller party should get the top job.

Eisenkot is campaigning both against Netanyahu and for an outcome within his own bloc that would make his leadership hard to challenge.

Both Netanyahu’s and Eisenkot’s maneuvers make sense.

Netanyahu wants to prevent right-wing votes from being lost or carried into another government. Eisenkot wants to ensure that, if there is an opportunity to replace Netanyahu, he will be the one to seize it.

But both maneuvers have their limits. For Netanyahu, keeping his passengers together does not guarantee enough support to retain command. And for Eisenkot, having the biggest ballroom on one side of the ship does not guarantee enough support to become captain of the whole vessel.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman on Friday accused Yashar party leader and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot of planning to join forces with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party when forming a government after the upcoming elections.

“The campaign being run by Eisenkot is not intended to shift a single vote from the ‘draft dodgers’ bloc to the ‘those who serve’ bloc,” Liberman said, referring to the issue of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israelis refusing to serve in the IDF as other citizens are made to serve months of reserve duty.

“This stands in complete contradiction with the agreements reached by the bloc’s leaders during their last meeting, undermines unity, and raises one simple question: What lies behind this move?” Liberman asked. 

Liberman said Eisenkot’s strategy is to siphon votes from the parties that seek to enforce enlistment, then negotiate with Netanyahu to form a government once he has more mandates than Likud. To that end, on Thursday, Israeli journalist Ben Caspit reported that Eisenkot’s Yashar party has recently decided to launch a campaign to draw votes from other parties in the opposition bloc, overtake Likud, and become the largest party in the Knesset. “The race to become the largest party is close. We must be the largest party and overtake Likud. Only then will we be the first to receive the mandate to form a government,” read a message distributed to party activists.

“Regrettably, Gadi’s lack of political experience is reminiscent of a pattern we have seen before with IDF chiefs of staff who entered politics,” added Liberman. “From Yigael Yadin and Ehud Barak to Benny Gantz, military rank and experience are no substitute for political experience. Even Yitzhak Rabin, following his first term as prime minister, needed many years to return, gain experience, and get re-elected.”

After decades in politics, Liberman ‘hasn’t done ten percent’ of what Eisenkot has, Gantz says

Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff and defense minister whose Blue and White party has recently polled below the electoral threshold, responded to Liberman’s remarks on social media.

“[After] 30 years in Israeli politics, Liberman hasn’t done ten percent of what Gadi Eisenkot and I have done for the State of Israel,” Gantz said.  

“Ever since I exposed his plan to form a minority government with Bennett and the Arab parties, he’s been under pressure and firing in all directions,” he continued. 

Liberman’s original social media post insulted both Gantz and Eisenkot by calling the latter “Gantz II,” attacking Gantz for running as an apparent opposition candidate before forming a unity government with Netanyahu in April 2020.

Eisenkot has repeatedly insisted he would not allow Abbas or Tibi’s Joint List to join his coalition, telling The Jerusalem Post that he did not consider them viable partners.

Yashar leads polls, Eisenkot criticizes Netanyahu

Yashar has been leading in recent polls and is part of the opposition bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu.

In a statement on Thursday, Eisenkot came out against Netanyahu, criticizing the prime minister for lacking strategic military objectives.

“Let it be clear: as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is in power, Hamas will remain in power,” Eisenkot said.

Shir Perets contributed to this report.

One of the most dramatic events to shape the world and humanity was the Flood, which swept across the earth and destroyed everything on it, leaving only Noah and his family, the animals he had brought into the Ark, and the fish in the waters.

At the beginning of Creation, the world was created in perfection and goodness, destined to exist without death or disease.

However, following Adam’s sin and his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, evil entered the human experience.

Humanity eventually reached a state in which, in the words of the Torah, “the earth was filled with violence.”

Violence, corruption, and the absence of moral boundaries undermined the very foundations of human existence, until the world reached a breaking point.

The Flood was therefore a turning point in the history of Creation, an attempt to halt the downward spiral and open a new chapter in the history of the world.

When Noah and his family emerge from the Ark, they encounter a world entirely different from the one they had known: ruined, desolate, and silent, no longer filled with the human activity that had been inseparable from their lives.

Try to imagine that moment. A small family stands before an immense, empty world, with no cities, no communities, no other human beings, and nothing of the familiar world they once knew.

No one is there to welcome them. There is no one with whom to share their feelings, and no certainty about what life will look like from that point onward.

What would be the first thing you would choose to do in such a moment? How does one respond to destruction on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend?

The Torah describes Noah’s first act:

“Noah went out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.

“Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen. 8:18-20).

Noah does not begin his new life by trying to rebuild the world, constructing a home for himself, or first attending to his family’s practical needs. The first act described in the Torah is building an altar and offering a sacrifice to God.

This act acknowledges the Creator’s sovereignty, gives thanks, and submits oneself before the One who governs the world. Noah recognizes that even when reality appears harsh and incomprehensible, the world does not operate by chance. In the very midst of devastation and destruction, he expresses his connection with the One who spoke the world into existence.

Then an unexpected turn takes place. The Torah describes how Noah’s act leads to a divine promise concerning the future of all humanity:

“The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, and the Lord said to Himself: I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living thing as I have done” (Gen. 8:21).

World continues to exist with evil in it

God promises that He will never again bring a Flood to destroy all life on earth, and that the world will continue to exist even though evil remains within it.

Yet this very promise raises a question. For many years, Noah stood alone against an entire generation, admonishing its members, trying to influence them and change their ways. Nevertheless, the Flood was not averted. Yet now, after the destruction, a single act of his elicits such a profound response. What was it about this act that gave it such extraordinary power?

The Mishna in Tractate Makkot states:

“Rabbi Hananya ben Akashya says: The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to bring merit to Israel; therefore, He gave them an abundance of Torah and commandments, as it is stated: ‘The Lord desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious’” (Makkot 3:16).

The Rambam, Maimonides, explains this teaching of the Mishna, establishing an important principle for understanding the significance of the commandments:

“One of the fundamental principles of faith in the Torah is that if a person fulfills one of the 613 commandments properly and correctly, without involving any worldly objective whatsoever, but performs it purely for its own sake, out of love, that person merits the World to Come through it.

“Rabbi Hananya therefore said that because of the great number of commandments, it is impossible for a person not to perform at least one of them perfectly at some point during his lifetime, thereby meriting the eternal survival of the soul through that act” (Commentary on the Mishna, Tractate Makkot).

These words express a central principle of serving the Creator. The commandments are not merely a list of actions a person must perform; they express the relationship between the individual and God.

A person may perform a good deed to earn honor or gain status. He may also act out of habit or loyalty to the tradition in which he was raised. In the language of our Sages, all these may be considered commandments performed shelo lishma – not purely for their own sake.

Maimonides points to the central goal of fulfilling the commandments: performing them lishma, for their own sake, out of love for the Creator and a desire to fulfill His will, without any personal interest mixed in.

We can now understand that Noah’s efforts before the Flood do not diminish his righteousness. However, when a person acts before an entire community, additional motives may accompany his actions.

After the Flood, the situation is entirely different. Noah builds an altar and offers a sacrifice without seeking to prove his righteousness to anyone, compete with anyone, or gain status. After all, the world is empty of other people. He acts solely because he wishes to serve his Creator and acknowledge His goodness. This is a pure act performed lishma, for its own sake.

Such a clean and genuine act, performed entirely for the sake of Heaven, has the power to ensure the world’s continued existence forever. For this is the very purpose of Creation, and now that this purpose has been fulfilled, humanity can endure.

This idea is relevant to our everyday lives as well. The deeper test often comes precisely when no one is watching.

Imagine someone driving alone late at night who finishes drinking a cup of coffee. He could throw the empty cup out the window, thinking that no one will notice.

Yet in that moment, he discovers whether keeping the environment clean and acting responsibly toward it are values he truly believes in, or whether he observes them only because he fears the reaction of others.

In a generation in which sharing our experiences and actions has become central to social life, this aspect of serving God deserves our attention as well.

People share acts of kindness, charitable donations, volunteer initiatives, and other good deeds on social media.

This has a positive side: publicizing a good deed can inspire others, encourage them to act, and create additional circles of generosity.

However, alongside the benefits of sharing, we must not lose the ability to do good without telling anyone about it.

When every action becomes an opportunity to share, a person may grow accustomed to measuring a deed’s value by the degree of exposure and recognition it receives. Instead of asking whether he has done the right thing, he may find himself wondering whether he will receive positive responses and whether others will think more highly of him as a result. 

It is therefore important to preserve an inner space where our good deeds remain between ourselves and our Creator, without needing applause or expecting recognition.

The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites.

‘And God said to Noah, ‘Come into the teiva, you and all your household’” (Gen. 7:1).

The teiva – the ark – is one of the defining images of the parasha: a vessel of refuge carrying Noah, his family, and the living creatures through the waters of the Flood toward a renewed world.

Yet the Hebrew word “teiva” has another meaning. It can also mean “a word.” The Baal Shem Tov, the 18th-century founder of the Hassidic movement, takes “Bo el hateiva” (“Come into the ark”) as an instruction to enter the words of prayer.

Fittingly, this teaching opens “Amud Hatefila” – “The Pillar of Prayer” – an extensive compilation of his teachings on prayer found in Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah, parashat Noah.

Here the ark becomes the starting point for an entire approach to prayer – one of deep concentration, attachment to the sacred letters, and awareness of the Divine within them.

In prayer, he teaches, you should immerse yourself in each word “with your whole body and all your powers.” Rather than allowing the words simply to pass through our lips, we are invited to experience them fully.

‘Worlds, souls, and Divinity’

The Baal Shem Tov takes the teaching further. Within every letter, he says, are “worlds, souls, and Divinity.” As letters join together to form words, prayer becomes more than a sequence of words to be recited. The teiva itself becomes a spiritual space that can hold and carry us.

Yoram Raanan’s painting gives striking visual expression to this understanding of “teiva.” He created the work spontaneously, allowing paint to drip and flow across the canvas. From this spontaneous process, a ship emerged. Its great curved form fills the lower half of the painting, while long vertical lines rise like masts above it.

Within the form of the ship, a stringed instrument, perhaps a lute, came into being. The curved hull becomes the body of the instrument, while the vertical lines perform both functions visually – at once masts and strings. Ship and instrument inhabit the same form – one carrying us across, the other giving voice to sound.

Above them, small forms move through the expansive blue-green field. Some appear as golden birds, others as drifting clouds, while still others remain more elusive. “They intermingle,” Raanan says, “like the words of prayer.”

The transformation seems particularly fitting for the Baal Shem Tov’s understanding of “teiva.” The ship carries us; the instrument gives voice to prayer. The word becomes both vessel and sound.

Throughout the painting, forms seem to shift and flow into one another. Water becomes sky. Ship becomes lute. Birds and other forms seem to pass between different realms.

The painting gives visual form to something difficult to describe: to enter the teiva is not merely to pronounce a word of prayer, but to enter its sound, its movement, and the world it contains. Just as the ark carries its passengers through the waters of the Flood, the words of prayer can become a vessel that carries us.

But the ark does more than carry. It is also a place of protection. When the world outside becomes stormy, the teiva offers refuge.

The Baal Shem Tov’s teaching gives this ancient image an inner dimension. In difficult or turbulent times, we, too, can find a protective space within sacred words and prayer.

And Raanan’s lute adds another possibility: music, too, can become a place of refuge. Sound moves through us and changes how we feel, carrying us when words alone are not enough.

This image has particular resonance just after the cycle of the Jewish holidays. We have emerged from weeks of prayer, reflection, celebration, and sacred time, and suddenly we are back in the ordinary rhythm of the year.

The Baal Shem Tov’s teaching offers us a way to take something of that experience with us: the words of prayer can carry and sustain us as we move into the year ahead.

Noah could not remain in the ark forever. Eventually, the waters receded, the door opened, and he stepped onto dry land to begin again. The ark had carried him through the Flood; now he had to build life anew.

Raanan’s teiva, at once ark and lute, seems to hold both possibilities. The ark offers refuge; the lute gives us a song for the journey. We enter the teiva, and it carries us into the year ahead.

The writer is the author of Art of Revelation: A Visual Encounter with the Jewish Bible, a commentary on the paintings of her husband, artist Yoram Raanan. She teaches Jewish meditation and is currently writing ‘Art of Transformation,’ a book exploring the relationship between art, Jewish spirituality, and inner transformation, from which this article is adapted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears a military campaign against Iran in the two weeks before the election could undermine Likud’s chances of remaining in power, sources familiar with the matter told Maariv on Thursday.

Internal Likud assessments have fueled optimism that the rival blocs could finish tied or that Netanyahu’s bloc could secure a majority. Netanyahu, however, fears a security escalation could change the electoral picture.

A message conveyed from Jerusalem to Washington in recent days indicated that Israel would prefer military action against Iran to begin after the October 27 Knesset election, the sources said.

In private discussions, Netanyahu has raised two main considerations against launching a campaign at this stage, according to the sources: the difficulty of postponing the election and the potential toll of Iranian retaliation on Israel’s home front.

“These are precisely the scenes we cannot afford to see. A country in shelters, missile strikes, destroyed buildings, wounded people and, God forbid, deaths – that is what could lead to a victory for Eisenkot and his partners,” a senior Likud official said, adding that the remarks reflect Netanyahu’s position.

Likud fears that missile fire, casualties, and prolonged disruption to daily life would shift the public agenda in the final days before the election.

According to assessments published in the US, renewed strikes against Iran could prompt the launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel. A strike shortly before the election could also raise questions about its motives and timing.

Could renewed war with Iran cause elections to be postponed?

Netanyahu considers postponing the election because of a security emergency impractical, the sources said.

Section 9A of Basic Law: The Knesset requires the support of 80 MKs to pass legislation extending the Knesset’s term, along with special circumstances that prevent the election from taking place as scheduled. Likud officials believe they cannot secure the necessary support from the opposition.

The possibility of postponing the election also arose in security discussions between Israel and the US. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke with US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Dan Caine about the possibility of renewed fighting within three weeks, Axios reported. Their discussions included the possibility that such a campaign would lead to Israel’s election being postponed.

Likud’s optimism rests on internal assessments, while public polling presents a mixed picture. Polls published in recent days have shown substantial differences between polling firms, with some placing Netanyahu’s bloc well short of the 61 seats needed for a majority.

Senior Likud officials believe the bloc can improve its position before the election and want to avoid an escalation that could undermine those efforts.

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot recently said he was unaware of any critical development that would justify immediate joint US-Israeli action against Iran. He stressed, however, that he has not had access to the latest intelligence since leaving the war cabinet.

The position attributed to Netanyahu in private contradicts briefings and assessments suggesting he favors a strike before the election because he believes another campaign would benefit him politically.

Netanyahu, Trump reportedly discuss resuming Iran war

Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have spoken several times over the past two weeks, with the possibility of renewed strikes against Iran coming up in their conversations, according to several sources.

The White House denied that the two had discussed resuming the war.

Israeli officials believe the denial was intended to distance Israel from the American debate over a strike on Iran and avoid reinforcing claims that Netanyahu influences Trump’s decisions. The officials said the White House recognizes that such claims could damage Trump politically at home.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu maintains regular contact with Trump but did not comment on the substance of their conversations.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high. Trump said on October 8 that the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, but subsequently renewed his threats.

At a campaign rally in Alaska over the past day, Trump threatened to deal Iran a heavy blow and said he had grown tired of its conduct.

According to a US report, the Pentagon has instructed US Central Command to complete preparations for renewed, extensive military operations against Iran.

The operational assessment in Israel, however, is that Trump has yet to make a final decision to attack and that no date has been set for action in the immediate future.

Military preparations continue amid reports that Iran is strengthening defenses around strategic facilities and restoring capabilities damaged in the previous campaign.

Washington and Tehran are also continuing diplomatic contacts through regional mediators over Iran’s nuclear program, shipping security in the Strait of Hormuz, and a possible agreement to prevent further escalation. The talks have yet to produce a breakthrough.

“Trump is Trump. With him, everything can turn around and change very quickly,” the sources said. “We do not control the situation, but the message has certainly been conveyed to him. As far as we are concerned, we would prefer quiet on the security front until October 27.”

Former prime minister and B’Yachad party chairman Naftali Bennett sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a new development in the Qatargate affair, in which Yonatan Urich, a close associate of Netanyahu, admitted to meeting during the war with Ali al-Dawadi, an associate of the emir of Qatar.

Speaking to Miki Levin on Maariv’s podcast on Friday morning, Bennett addressed the allegations surrounding Netanyahu’s close adviser and criticized the prime minister for continuing to support him. Bennett described the affair as “the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel.”

Asked about reports of Urich’s meetings with Qatari officials and why Netanyahu continues to back him, Bennett questioned what the prime minister knows about his adviser and why he has maintained his support.

“Do you remember the book All My Sons? It was a story about a factory owner who, for financial gain, sold defective spare parts, and his son later died in a plane crash because of it. It was such a tragedy. It was etched into my memory. How can you be a patriot? How can you harm your own military? Your country?

“I was born in Haifa, in the Land of Israel. My parents immigrated to the Land of Israel out of Zionism. My tremendous love is for this country, its people, and its landscapes. You celebrate Independence Day and the torch-lighting ceremony; you are proud of the Israel Air Force, and you are proud of Waze and the Nobel Prize. I genuinely struggle to understand, and it is difficult for me to say this: How can you be the prime minister’s closest adviser, while our daughters are being raped and we are being massacred, and you are receiving money and working for the financiers of Hamas’s Nukhba Force terrorists, with this sadistic massacre?” Bennett said, referring to Urich.

“How? How? What a complete loss of moral conscience. What, do you have nothing here?”

‘This is the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel’

Levin challenged Bennett’s characterization of the affair, arguing that he was reducing it to a matter of values and emotions when it was, in fact, treason.

“I was the first to call it what it is. This is not just treason, Miki, this is the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel. There have been a few other acts of treason here and there, but this is not some low-ranking individual. A lieutenant-colonel in intelligence.”

Bennett then offered a hypothetical scenario to explain how he would have handled a similar situation as prime minister.

“If I were prime minister, and I discovered during normal times, not during a war, that one of my advisers was working as a lobbyist for the Italian government, which was paying him to promote its interests, I would throw him out in disgrace. Because you are an adviser to the prime minister of Israel. Only Israel’s interests should be before your eyes.

“But this is not Italy. This is an enemy state, Qatar, the financiers of the Nukhba terrorists, and this is not during normal times, it is during a war. And you are not just an adviser; you are actively promoting it. For me, this story has long since stopped being about Urich. It is about Netanyahu. And there is one question that I have also heard quite a few Likud voters ask me, one thing he must do before the elections: Netanyahu must explain what is going on between him and Qatar. What is happening there? Why doesn’t he throw Urich out of the Prime Minister’s Office? Why doesn’t he designate Qatar as an enemy?”

‘We’ll take it from here’

When Levin asked why he believed Netanyahu continued to support Urich, Bennett said he had never previously suspected the prime minister of compromising Israel’s security for financial gain.

“I have never attributed to him an action against Israel’s security for financial gain. For example, in the submarine affair, I did not believe he was capable of it, and to this day I do not know.

“But the question right now is: You are embracing a traitor, a traitor, a traitor. What is wrong with you? And I don’t know. This is the first time I have said to myself: Wait a minute, what is going on here?” Bennett added.

“And I have a son who is a combat soldier in a commando unit. It is terrifying. And people ask me: You don’t trust Netanyahu on security matters? I don’t trust him at all. I have lost every shred of trust. Who is he working for? The State of Israel and the people of Israel, or other interests? I don’t know. It is shocking, and that is why he simply has to go home already.”

Bennett ended the interview with a direct call for Netanyahu to step down.

“Go home, let go. We’ll take it from here, and we’re better, too.”

The IDF killed a Hamas commander who participated in the October 7 massacre and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist in two separate Thursday strikes, the military confirmed on Friday morning.

An airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip targeted and killed Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, a commander in the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. Hala infiltrated Israeli territory on October 7, the military said.

Hala was a commander in the weapons production headquarters of Hamas’s military wing, producing different weapons and advancing Hamas’s military presence in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF also killed Ahmad Jabrin Tawqif Dalhan, who was a terrorist in the al-Quds Brigades, PIJ’s military wing, in a strike in Khan Yunis. Dalhan advanced attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, the statement explained. He violated the ceasefire through his attempts to restore PIJ to its pre-war strength in the Gaza Strip.

Both of the terrorists had recently attempted to attack the IDF or Israeli civilians and were in violation of the ceasefire, the IDF spokesperson said. “The terrorists were eliminated to remove the threat that they posed.”

The strikes were carried out with precision munitions and aerial surveillance to limit risk of harm to civilians, the statement explained.

IDF kills Gazan terror weapon smugglers

This announcement follows the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announcing on Thursday that they killed two terrorists allegedly involved in the smuggling of weapons and other military assets into Gaza in a Wednesday strike.

Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer were killed in the strikes in Khan Yunis to eliminate “an immediate threat to Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Yellow Line area,” the joint statement said at the time.

Asher Smith contributed to this report.

US President Donald Trump refused to endorse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection campaign during a Thursday interview with Newsmax, despite claiming that “they” would like him involved in the upcoming Knesset elections.

“They’d like me to be,” he said, adding, “I don’t trust anybody, honestly. I don’t trust anybody. In the world of politics, I don’t trust anybody.”

Trump also discussed his popularity among Israelis, claiming that “The people of Israel, they say if I ran for prime minister, I’d get 99% of them.”

Israel and the United States had had a very successful military partnership, Trump said, adding that he and Netanyahu had also had “a very good relationship.”

Trump stays neutral towards Netanyahu reelection

This is not the first time that Trump has declined to explicitly endorse Netanyahu in his reelection campaign.

When asked by reporters on Tuesday whether he would endorse a candidate, Trump said that “We haven’t even thought about it,” and that “I may be. I may be doing something.”

Earlier this month, during an interview with Time Magazine, Trump also hedged on his support for Netanyahu, saying that while “people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times,” he was “not involved in politics anymore.”

Trump says he does not ‘hear bad things’ about Eisenkot

During that interview, Trump also said that he doesn’t “hear bad things” about Gadi Eisenkot, one of Netanyahu’s chief competitors in the upcoming election.

However, in September, Trump shared a Channel 13 election poll which projected Netanyahu’s bloc as winning 54 seats in the Knesset.

According to the poll, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar led with 22 seats, while Netanyahu’s Likud fell to a low of 18.

Jerusalem Post Staff and Idan Kweller contributed to this report.

Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster powered with rocket-style thrusters on Thursday and said it would start production in 2028, more than a decade after it first showed a next-generation version of its electric sports car.

The white two-seater vehicle, developed in collaboration with CEO Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, drove upside down on a ramp using a suction system, turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters. Later in the event it used the thrusters to jump over a truck and other vehicles, twisting in the air during the maneuver.

Some watchers saw the collaboration as Musk drumming up interest in a merger of the two big companies he controls, an idea he has explored by discussing their overlap.

The reveal gives Tesla a showpiece car after years of missed Roadster deadlines, but it comes as the company shifts its focus to self-driving technology and robotics, and days before third-quarter results that analysts say matter more to investors.

“It was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said on social media platform X/Twitter.

“The Roadster event is the latest example of why Elon can’t wait to bring (Tesla) and (SpaceX) together,” Munster said.

Car carries symbolic weight for Tesla

Musk has played down the car’s importance to Tesla’s finances, describing it in 2023 as a “small potato situation” that would not “move the needle in a major way financially.”

But the car still carries symbolic weight.

“Tesla does not currently have a halo car, or high-performance luxury vehicle designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering and technology. The Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note last month.

Viewers and witnesses gushed over the spectacle of the launch.

“That was the most insane product demo I’ve ever seen,” Tesla fan and investor Sawyer Merritt posted on X. “I just saw this in person, and I’m still asking how this wasn’t AI.”

Musk and other executives did not specify any target prices at Thursday’s event, although Tesla nearly a decade ago quoted a base price of $200,000 for the vehicle.

Tesla’s reservation page for the Roadster after Thursday’s event showed a “Performance” version of the vehicle requiring a $50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with “acceleration thrusters” requiring a $250,000 deposit. A “Rocket” variant, which Tesla says is “invite only,” is described as a single-seat model with a “full flight system.”

‘Halfway to the speed of sound’

The event at a SpaceX ​test site in McGregor, Texas, had all the elements of a classic Musk product reveal: dramatic music, smoke, mechanical hissing sounds and a launch countdown.

“This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie,” Musk, wearing a silver Western-style belt buckle emblazoned with the Tesla logo, told a cheering crowd of enthusiasts and investors.

The Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 230 mph, Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy said.

“Definitely much faster than that,” an excited Musk said. “I think you’ve got to crack halfway to the speed of sound.”

The Roadster can also travel over 300 miles on a single charge. That is less than half of what Musk promised in 2017, when Tesla first revealed a prototype of the second-generation Roadster and said that deliveries would begin in 2020.

Roadster comes as Tesla shifts focus to self-driving tech, robotics

The original Roadster, released in 2008 and on sale until 2012, was Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle and used a Lotus Elise chassis. It helped change the world’s view of what an EV could be. The company has since been known for its Model Y and Model X SUVs and Model S and Model 3 sedans.

The reveal of the second-generation Roadster comes amid a sharp shift in Tesla’s focus to artificial intelligence-led self-driving tech and robotics, from manufacturing cars for human drivers.

This year, Tesla stopped selling Model S and X vehicles to make space for production of its Optimus humanoid robots. It also launched Cybercab – a two-seater robotaxi that comes without manual controls such as a steering wheel, pedals and mirrors.

Tesla is set to report third-quarter results on October 21.

Sales of Tesla’s aging lineup of EVs have declined over the past two years, although high gas prices helped boost deliveries in the third quarter.

“The margin and cash flow numbers will carry far more weight with investors than anything they saw at the reveal,” said Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for Asia-Pacific at trading platform eToro.

The IDF began blocking roads in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz and Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Friday morning after activists from the Nahala settlement movement arrived overnight at Simhoni Forest, between the Gaza border communities and the border fence with the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to establish an outpost.

Israel Police officers dispersed the settlers, and following the incident, the IDF declared the area between the border fence and the Israeli communities a closed military zone to prevent them from returning.

The Nahala movement claimed that more than 700 people, including dozens of families with children, rabbis, MKs, bereaved families, and wounded IDF veterans, participated in what the movement described as the establishment of a new community called “Pioneers of Gaza.”

Military sources, however, said that only about 50 people were actually present at the site. According to the organizers, structures were installed, and basic infrastructure was established as part of efforts to promote the establishment of an Israeli community inside the Gaza Strip.

IDF concerned settlers might attempt to catch forces off guard

The declaration of a closed military zone was intended to prevent the activists from returning to the area where they had attempted to establish the outpost.

At the same time, the IDF was preparing for the possibility that some activists would attempt to bypass the roadblocks, reach the border fence, and even cross into the Gaza Strip.

Nahala movement aims to renew Israeli settlement of Gaza Strip

The Nahala movement described the initiative as a first step toward renewing Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Although the activists reached the area between the Israeli communities and the border fence, rather than entering Gaza itself, their stated goal is to establish Israeli communities inside the Strip.

The movement called on the government to order the relocation of the settlement site to what it described as “the northern perimeter area of Gaza.”

The movement’s demands went beyond relocating the settlement site into the Gaza Strip. In a statement, it called on the next government to include the establishment of Israeli communities in Gaza, the repeal of the Disengagement Law, and the encouragement of emigration in its coalition guidelines.

According to the movement, only taking control of territory and establishing settlements would make it clear to the enemy that it had lost the war.

Barack Obama was never a friend of Israel. Some people were foolish enough to believe otherwise, but I was convinced from day one. And it hardly required psychic powers to see the signs. Red flags were there throughout his presidency, but this week the mask of this Nobel Peace Prize laureate finally slipped, and in the most shocking way.

According to Irish media, Obama – speaking about the Israel-Palestinian conflict at an event in Belfast – said it was “undeniable” that Jews who settled in Palestine to escape persecution “took land off people and they were excessive. And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’”

Read those words again, and consider who spoke them. The problem is not merely that Obama said it. It is that countless people will believe it precisely because Obama said it.

This was not some 5th grader history student speaking. This was a two-term president of the United States, a man who remains one of the most influential figures on the planet, with hundreds of millions of social media followers.

When Obama speaks, people listen. Millions of them. Including young, impressionable people who may know little about Jewish history and the history of this land.

Obama: An ‘antisemitism superspreader’

In one fell swoop, Obama, either knowingly or through astonishing ignorance, peddled one of the most pernicious myths about Jews and Zionism – a myth which perhaps more than any other has been responsible for a century of conflict, tens of thousands of Jews killed, and many more times that of Arabs. All because of this false claim that the Jews stole the land.

If this is what Obama truly believes, then, in my view, he is an antisemitism superspreader.

Well, Barack Hussein Obama, let me put you right.

It is not “undeniable” that Jews “took land off people”. It is, in fact, very deniable, because it is quite simply untrue. You do not need to be a professor of Middle Eastern history to understand that the Jewish people have maintained a connection with the Land of Israel for more than 3,000 years. We are not strangers who have appeared here out of nowhere. Jews who more recently settled in waves of aliyah did not steal the land, as you inferred, but bought it legally from Arabs, even paying exorbitant prices. Don’t take my word for it – you can check for yourself in Ottoman and British documents.

And what exactly was it “excessive” that, according to you, the Jews did? Flee from gas chambers? Were my own parents “excessive” when they escaped to Palestine in 1932 because Hitler was round the corner? They bought their own home, by the way.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing

And it is not just these latest remarks that should outrage every Jew. I have long believed that Obama felt a deep disdain for Israel. He always was, to my mind, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

His last major act as president was to throw Israel under the bus when he let a resolution condemning Israel pass at the UN. Nor has Israel forgotten that he was responsible for the disastrous nuclear agreement with Iran, a country which wants to destroy ours. Thankfully President Trump tore it up.

I warned about Barack Obama for years. He is not merely a disgrace in my eyes. He is dangerous. And this week, I believe he proved exactly why.

Uri Geller is one of the world’s most investigated proclaimed psychics and has been the source of fierce controversy for decades. He was one of Israel’s first international celebrities and is now the owner of the Uri Geller Museum in Old Jaffa. Learn more at www.urigellermuseum.com. His opinions are his own.

The majority of Israelis would prefer a unity government to another election if the upcoming vote on October 27 doesn’t produce a clear result, a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL found.

Only 27% said they would prefer another election, while 18% were unsure, the Friday survey also showed.

Significant differences emerged between the opposition and coalition blocs. A majority of opposition voters (54%) said they would support a unity government only if it were led by a leader from their bloc.

Coalition voters were more divided. Nearly 40% said they would prefer a unity government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, while 32% said that, in the event of another deadlock, they would prefer another election.

Eisenkot considered more suitable for prime minister

The Maariv poll also found that 48% of people think Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot would make a better prime minister than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had 41% support, giving Eisenkot a significant lead.

Against B’Yachad leader Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu and Bennett were tied at 43% support each. Against Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu led with 43% support, while Liberman had 37%.

The poll also found that a large majority of Israelis (79%) were optimistic and believed the bloc they planned to vote for would win the election. By comparison, only 21% were pessimistic.

A breakdown by bloc showed a significant gap between coalition and opposition voters. Among coalition voters, 90% said they were optimistic and expected their bloc to win, compared with 75% of opposition voters who expressed optimism about an election victory.

Coalition, opposition blocs lose one seat each

As Israel enters the final stretch before election day, the Arab parties gained one seat each this week, reaching a combined high of 14 seats, while Likud fell by two seats to just 18, according to a Maariv poll.

Despite Likud’s two-seat drop, the coalition bloc lost only one seat, falling to 51. This was because United Torah Judaism gained one seat to reach eight, while People of Israel crossed the electoral threshold with four seats.

However, Yisrael Beytenu also lost one seat, falling to eight, bringing the opposition bloc down by one seat to 51 and leaving the two blocs tied.

The Reservists-Economic Party crossed the electoral threshold with four seats and is not counted as part of either bloc. Even if it were added to either side, however, neither bloc would reach the 61 seats needed for a majority.

Yashar largest party, leading Likud, B’Yachad

Yashar polls the highest, at 21 seats, with B’Yachad trailing behind at 13 seats.

Yair Golan’s Democrats received nine, while Yisrael Beytenu, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, the Joint List, and United Torah Judaism all polled at eight seats.

Following closely behind is Shas with seven, Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am with six each.

Ofer Winter’s People of Israel and Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha’s Reservists-Economic Party passed the threshold with four seats each.

Blue and White (1.1%), the Haredi Public (0.5%), Noam for Israel (0.5%), and Tzomet Beit Yisrael (0.2%) did not cross the electoral threshold. The share of undecided voters stood at 5.2%.

The poll was conducted on October 14 and 15 among a representative sample of Israel’s population aged 18 and over, including Jews and Arabs. The sample consisted of 700 respondents.

The majority of Israelis would prefer a unity government to another election if the upcoming vote on October 27 doesn’t produce a clear result, a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL found.

Only 27% said they would prefer another election, while 18% were unsure, the Friday survey also showed.

Significant differences emerged between the opposition and coalition blocs. A majority of opposition voters (54%) said they would support a unity government only if it were led by a leader from their bloc.

Coalition voters were more divided. Nearly 40% said they would prefer a unity government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, while 32% said that, in the event of another deadlock, they would prefer another election.

Eisenkot considered more suitable for prime minister

The Maariv poll also found that 48% of people think Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot would make a better prime minister than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had 41% support, giving Eisenkot a significant lead.

Against B’Yachad leader Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu and Bennett were tied at 43% support each. Against Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu led with 43% support, while Liberman had 37%.

The poll also found that a large majority of Israelis (79%) were optimistic and believed the bloc they planned to vote for would win the election. By comparison, only 21% were pessimistic.

A breakdown by bloc showed a significant gap between coalition and opposition voters. Among coalition voters, 90% said they were optimistic and expected their bloc to win, compared with 75% of opposition voters who expressed optimism about an election victory.

Coalition, opposition blocs lose one seat each

As Israel enters the final stretch before election day, the Arab parties gained one seat each this week, reaching a combined high of 14 seats, while Likud fell by two seats to just 18, according to a Maariv poll.

Despite Likud’s two-seat drop, the coalition bloc lost only one seat, falling to 51. This was because United Torah Judaism gained one seat to reach eight, while People of Israel crossed the electoral threshold with four seats.

However, Yisrael Beytenu also lost one seat, falling to eight, bringing the opposition bloc down by one seat to 51 and leaving the two blocs tied.

The Reservists-Economic Party crossed the electoral threshold with four seats and is not counted as part of either bloc. Even if it were added to either side, however, neither bloc would reach the 61 seats needed for a majority.

Yashar largest party, leading Likud, B’Yachad

Yashar polls the highest, at 21 seats, with B’Yachad trailing behind at 13 seats.

Yair Golan’s Democrats received nine, while Yisrael Beytenu, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, the Joint List, and United Torah Judaism all polled at eight seats.

Following closely behind is Shas with seven, Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am with six each.

Ofer Winter’s People of Israel and Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha’s Reservists-Economic Party passed the threshold with four seats each.

Blue and White (1.1%), the Haredi Public (0.5%), Noam for Israel (0.5%), and Tzomet Beit Yisrael (0.2%) did not cross the electoral threshold. The share of undecided voters stood at 5.2%.

The poll was conducted on October 14 and 15 among a representative sample of Israel’s population aged 18 and over, including Jews and Arabs. The sample consisted of 700 respondents.

National Security Minister and chairman of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, unveiled a plan to change the IDF’s Code of Ethics if he is named the new defense minister. 

The proposed changes, presented as part of Ben-Gvir’s plan for the Defense Ministry in a Thursday statement, would significantly revise the IDF’s ethical framework, known as “The Spirit of the IDF,” with the stated goal of strengthening the military’s Jewish identity and emphasizing victory in battle.

This would include replacing the principle of “Purity of Arms” with “Righteousness of Arms” and placing greater emphasis on Jewish values, military victory, and the defeat of Israel’s enemies.

Under the proposal, the IDF’s main objective would be defined as achieving victory and decisively defeating the enemies of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, alongside maintaining national security. 

The proposal would also expand the sources from which the IDF derives its values, placing greater emphasis on Jewish moral values ​​rooted in the Bible, Jewish ethics, Jewish law, and the traditions of the Jewish people.

It would further define Israel as the Jewish people’s national home and the IDF as a “Jewish, state-run army.”

‘Purity of Arms’ to be replaced with ‘Righteousness of Arms’

One of the proposed changes concerns the principle of “Purity of Arms,” which Ben-Gvir seeks to remove from the IDF Code of Ethics and replace with “Righteousness of Arms.”

The revised code would explicitly establish the principle “If someone comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first” as a fundamental moral guideline for soldiers carrying out their missions.

At the same time, the proposal removes language in the existing code requiring soldiers to use force “only to the extent necessary.”

It also removes explicit provisions prohibiting harm to “non-combatants” and prisoners of war.

In addition, all references to “universal moral values” which appeared in the existing version would be removed from the new code.

Revised framework of core IDF values

The proposal sets out a revised framework of core IDF values, beginning with the military’s purpose and continuing with its commitment to the Jewish people, human dignity, and its role as a state institution.

“The purpose of the IDF is to achieve victory and decisively defeat the enemies of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, while safeguarding the security of the state, its citizens, and its residents,” the proposal states as the IDF’s mission. 

It continued, stating that “service in the IDF is founded on love for the Jewish people and the homeland, as well as commitment and dedication to the State of Israel, a Jewish state that serves as the democratic national home of the Jewish people, and to its citizens and residents.”

The revised ethics code included that “the IDF and its soldiers are committed to preserving human dignity. Every person possesses inherent worth, regardless of origin, religion, nationality, gender, status, or position.”

Lastly, the proposal emphasized that the IDF is “the people’s army, a Jewish and state-oriented military subject to the authority of the law and the government.”

Under this principle, IDF soldiers are expected to place their mission, the military’s values, and the security of the state above all other considerations while carrying out their duties with integrity, professionalism, and conduct appropriate to their role as representatives of the IDF.

A car ramming was reported near the West Bank area of Ateret, lightly injuring a civilian who was evacuated to receive medical attention, the IDF confirmed on Thursday night.

The IDF later confirmed that the incident was not terror-related and that the driver was transferred to the security forces.

Israel Police officers from the Judea and Samaria District opened an investigation into the incident.

KAN News reported that the incident had occurred after a group of extremist settlers from the “Hilltop Youth” had established a barricade across the road and stopped Palestinian cars.

According to KAN, the Hilltop Youth had thrown rocks at the cars. After one of the drivers was almost hit, he attempted to escape the area with his vehicle, hitting one of the Hilltop Youth.

Palestinian driver runs over Jewish rioter

A similar incident occurred in June, at the Efrat Junction in the West Bank.

At the time, the IDF stated that, prior to the event, dozens of Israeli Jewish rioters had blocked roads in the area, forcing Palestinian cars to turn around and throwing rocks at their vehicles.

According to the IDF, as the Palestinian drivers fled, one of the rioters had been run over, leading to them being lightly wounded and taken to the hospital for treatment.

Army Radio also reported that some security forces who had been in the vicinity of the event at the time made no effort to stop the rioters’ actions, and, according to witnesses, were seen speaking to them without arresting them.

Nickolay Mladenov, director-general of the Board of Peace, said on Thursday that he had received a letter from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) informing him of the suspension of coordination for private-sector goods entering Gaza following reports of threats and coercion by Hamas.

In a post on X/Twitter, Mladenov condemned the reported intimidation of merchants and interference with commercial supply chains.

I have a received a letter from @cogatonline on the suspension of private-sector goods coordination into Gaza as a result of reports of threats and coercion by Hamas. As I have warned repeatedly, such practices are unacceptable and must end immediately. The intimidation of merchants and interference in the supply chain only deepen the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. These developments demonstrate why the rapid deployment of the @NCAG, supported by the International Stabilization Force (ISF), is urgently needed. Civilian supplies, humanitarian assistance and commercial activity must be protected from coercion, exploitation and interference. All parties should work with the @BoardOfPeace and move without delay to implement the Comprehensive Plan endorsed by #UNSC Resolution 2803, including the arrangements required for NCAG and ISF operations in Gaza. This includes the decommissioning of weapons, the transition to legitimate transitional governance and the protection of humanitarian and commercial supply chains.

— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) October 15, 2026

“As I have warned repeatedly, such practices are unacceptable and must end immediately. The intimidation of merchants and interference in the supply chain only deepen the suffering of Gaza’s civilians,” Mladenov posted.

He stressed the urgent need to establish new governance and security arrangements in the Gaza Strip.

“These developments demonstrate why the rapid deployment of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) supported by the International Stabilization Force (ISF), is urgently needed,” he wrote.

“Civilian supplies, humanitarian assistance and commercial activity must be protected from coercion, exploitation and interference,” Mladenov added.

He called on all parties to work with the Board of Peace to implement US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive peace plan for Gaza, endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2803, without delay.

Mladenov emphasized the need to move forward with the arrangements required for NCAG and ISF operations in Gaza.

“This includes the decommissioning of weapons, the transition to legitimate transitional governance and the protection of humanitarian and commercial supply chains,” he concluded.

Commercial goods banned from entering Gaza over tax dispute between local merchants and Hamas

Israel said commercial goods were no longer entering Gaza over what it said was a dispute over taxes between local merchants and Hamas, shutting off a vital source of food and other goods in the territory where the population is dependent on aid.

COGAT, which oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday, citing what it said was a decision by Gazan merchants to stop coordinating with COGAT on the entry of commercial goods.

It said the Gazan merchants had told COGAT that they had made the decision in response to a NIS 10,000 ($3,220) fee imposed by Hamas on each truck entering Gaza and a demand for 30% of all of their sales in Gaza to be carried out in cash.

Hamas later claimed that the NIS 10,000 fee was a voluntary payment by wealthy Gazans to a national fund that seeks to provide for those in need, such as widows and orphans. It also said that cash payments were encouraged due to what it described as an acute cash shortage in the war-torn territory.

Nahed Shhaibar, the head of the private transport union in Gaza, claimed that not a single truck carrying commercial products from Israel entered Gaza on Thursday. However, he said trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered, as had trucks carrying commercial goods from Egypt via an Israeli-controlled crossing.

COGAT said the decision by Gazan merchants would cut the total number of trucks, which carry both humanitarian and commercial goods, entering Gaza each day to around 300, or half.

Diplomats say that far fewer than 600 trucks normally enter Gaza each day. Shhaibar claimed the figure was closer to 300, with two-thirds carrying commercial goods.

Israel is obliged under a US-mediated agreement to allow a minimum of 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza each day. However, it says it is required to allow only 600 trucks and that commercial goods are needed to supplement aid supplies.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Washington is holding talks with Moscow and Beijing aimed at denuclearizing the countries with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US outpaces Russia in its number of deployed warheads.

During an interview with Newsmax, Trump said he expects China to “catch up” with the US within the next five years.

“The whole thing is a shame, because I’d love to denuclearize if possible, but we’re actually talking to Russia about that, and we’re talking to China about that denuclearization,” Trump told the outlet.

Newsmax reported that Trump had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about denuclearization.

Denuclearization talks come months after Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired

Trump’s comments come months after the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired earlier this year.

The New START treaty, signed in 2010, allowed one single extension, which was agreed to by former president Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin for five years. Any new extension would require an executive decision to voluntarily extend the limits of the treaty.

A 16-year-old shooter opened fire on Thursday at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing four people, including three children, before being killed by an armed member of the community who had pursued the assailant into the school, police said.

The shooter entered Silver Rail Elementary School by firing through locked doors, police said, without offering any details beyond the suspect’s age.

The dead were children aged 5, 8 and 11 and one teacher. In addition, a 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital with critical injuries, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told a press conference.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, appearing at the same briefing, thanked the community member who “heroically intervened to stop further loss of life.”

“No parent should have to have this kind of day, and no community should have to live through this kind of day. And as we learn more about the children and the adults who have been killed or injured, and their families and their loved ones, we are going to do a lot of crying, and we are going to cry together, and we’re probably going to cry privately,” Kotek said.

Krantz said the community member, whom he did not identify, saw the suspect enter the school and pursued him.

School shootings have become a recurring feature of American life, including high-profile attacks such as those at Columbine High School in 1999, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022.

Each shooting revives debates over gun laws in a country where gun rights are protected under the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Gun rights advocates have argued for arming teachers as a means of defense.

Police trained for a mass shooting, Oregon governor says

Krantz said every Bend police officer went through a full day of active shooter training in August.

“Unfortunately, this is something we train for on a regular basis, and we must,” Krantz said. “This is going to be a long investigation.”

Thursday’s shooting took place in Bend, a city of about 100,000 people in rural central Oregon, 175 miles (280 km.) southeast of Portland, in the Oregon high desert adjacent to the Deschutes National Forest.

Silver Rail Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade, roughly ages 5 to 11, and has about 450 students and 40 staff members, officials said.

Gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement she was “heartbroken” by the shooting in Bend.

“This cannot continue to be a reality in our country. Leaders at every level must step up and act,” Giffords said.

Emergency responders received a call at 12:59 p.m. from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by someone with a long gun, Krantz said.

In the minutes afterward, dozens of calls were received saying the shooter had entered the school, Krantz said. Law enforcement immediately directed the school to go into lockdown, he said.

Officers arrived at 1:02 p.m., and moments later an officer reported the suspect had been shot, Krantz said. Police entered and confirmed the suspect was dead, he said.

The IDF released a letter on Thursday, written by Yahya Sinwar’s son Ibrahim at the start of the war in Gaza, in which the then-10-year-old expressed his desire to hold a Kalashnikov rifle and “shoot the Jews.”

The letter, which was addressed to his father, was recovered by IDF soldiers in Gaza in 2024, according to an IDF spokesperson’s statement released ahead of the second anniversary of Sinwar’s death.

Written on lined paper, the letter featured a Spider-Man sticker in its lower-left corner. The image of the Marvel superhero appeared alongside the child’s handwritten message about making weapons and his desire to “shoot the Jews.”

The 10-year-old’s letter also depicted drawings of weapons, tanks, and missiles. The IDF did not comment specifically on the Spider-Man sticker.

In the letter, Ibrahim wrote that he missed his father and wished he could “hug you [Yahya Sinwar] and see you victorious.” 

He also described making pistols, tanks, and Kalashnikovs out of paper and cardboard in his spare time.

“I wish to grow up, hold a Kalashnikov, and shoot the Jews,” Ibrahim wrote.

He also asked his father when he would return home to sleep with his arms around him and hoped the war would end and that his father would be safe.

“Oh Lord, may the war end and may I see you well. May God protect you, Dad. All I ask of you is your prayers.”

Sinwar’s ‘murderous ideology’ reflected in his son, IDF says

The IDF said the letter and drawings illustrated “Sinwar’s murderous ideology is reflected in the upbringing of his children, revealing the impact of Hamas’ values of hatred and violence on the younger generation in the Gaza Strip.”

Sinwar, who led Hamas in Gaza and was considered one of the main architects of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Rafah two years ago, on October 16, 2024.

During a visit to the US a few months ago, I met a woman born in postwar Europe to Holocaust survivors. She told me she felt another Holocaust was coming. Zohran Mamdani had been elected mayor of New York, and she was frightened.

She usually voted Democratic. She and others I spoke with were frustrated and unsure whom to support. Trump offended much of what they believed in. They were trying to work out how to vote without ignoring either their fears or their values.

I listened. I live in Israel, where a Jewish vote for a politician hostile to Israel can be hard to understand. An American Jew may feel just as strongly about Israelis voting for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Reconsidering a political allegiance is reasonable. So is taking the consequences of a change seriously. American Jews have to live with the government they elect, including its decisions about their safety and their economic future.

What if frustration with politics leads some Jews to withdraw from Israel altogether?

My greater concern is that frustration with politics will lead some Jews to withdraw from Israel altogether. That would hurt Israel, and it could also leave American Jewish life poorer. For many families, Israel helps give being Jewish a place in everyday life. Losing that connection would affect what they pass on to their children.

This week, CNN’s Harry Enten presented Siena polling averages showing that Democrats’ lead among Jewish voters in New York on the congressional ballot had fallen from 49 percentage points in 2022 to 13 this year.

A national Mellman Group survey of 800 Jewish registered voters for the Jewish Electorate Institute, conducted in late August and early September, found Democrats ahead by 71% to 23%, essentially unchanged since March. Thirty-five percent of Jewish Democrats said the rise of anti-Israel candidates made it harder to identify with their party. Many still intended to vote Democratic.

British Jews have already been through several such reassessments. JPR, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, put Labour’s share of the reported Jewish vote at 12% in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn, when concerns about antisemitism drove many traditional supporters away. Labour recovered to 44% under Keir Starmer in the 2024 election. By mid-2025, its share of Jewish voting intention was down to 30%. Both major parties were losing support to the Greens and Reform UK.

Israel has to keep working with people, despite political changes

Those figures show how much a party’s standing can change. Voters are entitled to ask whether a familiar party still represents them. Its response to antisemitism and its treatment of Israel belong in that assessment, along with personal safety, livelihoods, and other deeply held beliefs. Conduct that would be unacceptable in a rival party deserves scrutiny at home.

Israel has to keep working with people through these changes. Waiting for frustrated Jewish Democrats to become Republicans assumes they will resolve their disagreements in the way most convenient to us. Some will, and others will reach a different conclusion.

The same JEI survey found that 86% of Jewish voters described themselves as pro-Israel, including 65% who criticized some or many Israeli government policies. There is considerable attachment to Israel among people who object to the way it is governed. That distinction should be familiar to anyone who follows Israeli politics.

Natan Sharansky has argued for years that a connection to Israel helps Jews remain Jewish. In The Jerusalem Post in 2022, he identified “only two factors that can slow down the assimilation: tradition and Zionism.” He warned that the grandchildren of Jews connected to neither would probably no longer be Jewish.

I take Sharansky seriously because, for families with little religious practice, Israel can account for much of their involvement in Jewish life. It might be the place where relatives live, where someone studied or volunteered, or where a family’s history becomes easier to understand. A relationship like that takes years to develop. Children learn its importance partly from the attention their parents give it.

The link between religion and Israel also appears in the wider American polling. Gallup has long found that people who attend religious services frequently are more likely to sympathize with Israelis. Its historical research found that association within both major parties.

Pew’s April 2026 survey found favorable views of Israel among 65% of white evangelical Protestants, 64% of Jewish Americans and 35% of Catholics, compared with 22% of the religiously unaffiliated. The pattern varies by religion: Only 4% of Muslim Americans viewed Israel favorably.

For Christian Zionists, support for Israel can be a religious obligation. Christians United for Israel grounds its mission in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you.” Its supporters understand that commitment as part of their own faith.

Religion has become less important in many Americans’ lives. Gallup’s March 2026 report found that 47% considered it very important in 2025, down from 58% in 2012, although the figure had stabilized in recent years. Gallup’s Frank Newport argued in a 2024 analysis that declining religious involvement was weakening a longstanding source of support for Israel.

We should account for that when deciding where Israel puts its effort. The religious and family connections that made Israel important to many Americans will carry different weight for their children. A sympathetic older generation gives us an opportunity to reach younger people; it provides little assurance that they will share their parents’ views.

Israel’s own politics matter as well. We need a broad unity government to help repair the country internally and improve our standing abroad. I would want Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, to build it with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, Yoaz Hendel, and Ofer Winter. Ben-Gvir, left-wing leader Yair Golan – and the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, parties would remain outside.

Its ministers should hear Jewish Democrats explain why Trump troubles them with the seriousness they expect when explaining Israel’s security concerns. Work inside the Democratic Party should be a priority. Our diplomats and political leaders need regular contact with Democrats who care about Israel, including when those Democrats have difficult questions.

American supporters of Israel should stand behind leaders prepared to defend the relationship within their own party. Israel has an interest in their success, whatever happens to the Jewish vote in November.

Israel should help families afford Jewish education and give young Jews more opportunities to study, volunteer, and spend time here. They need time outside an organized itinerary to meet Israelis, hear the arguments we have among ourselves, and form their own opinions.

When the parties negotiate Israel’s next government, I want this work to have ministers responsible for it and money assigned in the budget. Ministers should be able to explain which Democratic relationships they are working to repair, which Jewish education programs they are supporting, and how they are helping more young Jews spend time here. We will soon be electing the Israelis responsible for those decisions. Their plans deserve at least some of the scrutiny we devote to the voting intentions of Jews in America.

Israelis will head to the polls on October 27, facing a choice that goes far beyond which political bloc wins the most seats or which party leads the next coalition.

For the politicians vying for our vote to lead the country, the task ahead is not simply to form the next government, but to begin putting the country back together.

After years of war, political turmoil, social division, and eroding public trust, the country needs a government capable of doing more than surviving from one Knesset vote to the next. It needs a government with the stability, breadth, and public legitimacy to begin repairing a deeply wounded nation.

Beyond security concerns, the political divisions that have plagued us before the October 7 massacre have not disappeared. Disputes over the judiciary, military service, religion and state, and the distribution of national responsibilities continue to threaten the social contract on which Israel depends.

That the next government must be broad enough to bring together Israelis who disagree

The Jerusalem Post’s editorial board believes that the next government must be broad enough to bring together Israelis who disagree on the fundamental questions about the country’s future but share a commitment to its security, prosperity, and democratic institutions.

Israel needs a broad government not for the sake of unity itself but to give the country the stability and political capacity to begin repairing itself.

The alternative, another narrow coalition, would be beholden to its most demanding partners and vulnerable to the political calculations that have too often taken precedence over the national interest.

Israel cannot afford another cycle of paralysis. A narrow government, dependent on the goodwill of its most demanding coalition partners, would struggle to make the difficult choices ahead. A broad coalition would not eliminate political disagreements, but it could create space to address them without letting every dispute threaten the government’s survival.

This is why the next government must be judged not only by its ideological composition, but by its capacity to govern – and the objective must be a government built around a clear, limited set of national priorities and a willingness to compromise on everything else.

First, it must restore confidence in Israel’s security institutions while ensuring that the failures of October 7 are investigated independently and that those responsible are held accountable.

Second, it must address the unequal distribution of national obligations. Governments cannot keep military and civilian service, economic participation, and the responsibilities of citizenship as subjects they repeatedly defer because confronting them threatens coalition stability.

Finally, it must begin rehabilitating and rebuilding the country’s democratic and civic foundations. This requires respecting institutional checks and balances, reducing the temperature of political discourse, and recognizing that political opponents are fellow citizens, not existential enemies.

The work of rehabilitation must extend beyond these structural questions.

It must include rebuilding communities affected by the war, supporting those who have sacrificed years of their lives in reserve duty, and ensuring that bereaved families, wounded soldiers, and those still struggling with the trauma of October 7 are not forgotten once the headlines fade.

It must also address the economic pressures facing Israeli households and restore confidence that public institutions can meet the needs of the people they serve. These are not separate challenges. They are all part of the same task: rebuilding the relationship between the state and its citizens.

A broad government will contain genuine disagreements

None of this will be easy.

A broad government will contain genuine disagreements, and compromises will inevitably disappoint voters on every side. But compromise is the necessary price of governing a diverse democratic society – particularly one that has endured such profound collective trauma after October 7.

On October 27, the country should choose a path away from permanent political crisis and toward the difficult, necessary work of rebuilding. Israel needs a broad government, one strong enough to make decisions, stable enough to implement them, and humble enough to recognize that the national interest is larger than any party or leader.

Israelis do not need their politicians to agree on everything. They need them to agree on what cannot wait: a stable, common-sense governing majority; a serious program of national rehabilitation; and a commitment to shared responsibility, for better or worse.

A majority of Jewish Israelis supported requiring ultra-Orthodox men to enlist in the IDF and establishing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, while Arab Israelis expressed the strongest support for exploring negotiations with the Palestinians, according to an Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) survey published Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute between October 5 and 8, surveyed 602 Jewish Israelis and 149 Arab Israelis aged 18 and above.

As Israelis prepare to vote in their next government, IDI’s latest Israeli Voice Index finds that Jewish Israelis’ top two agenda items are a law requiring equal military service for young ultra-Orthodox men in the IDF and a State Commission of Inquiry investing the events of October 7. Among Arab Israelis, 53% support taking determined action against Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, and 58% want the next government to explore the possibility of negotiations with the Palestinians. Some additional highlights: ➡️ Israelis are divided over recent reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu was warned weeks before October 7 of a planned Hamas attack: 46% do not find them credible, while 43% believe them. ➡️ 63% of Israelis think the reports’ release was timed to influence the upcoming elections. ➡️ Looking back at past governments’ policy of allowing or encouraging Jewish settlements in the West Bank, 63% of Jewish Israelis say it was correct, while 50% of Arab Israelis say it was not. Jewish Israelis are politically divided: 81% on the Right consider the policy correct, compared with 40% in the Center and 19% on the Left.

— Israel Democracy Institute (@IDIisrael) October 14, 2026

According to the findings, 72% of Jewish respondents supported passing a law requiring young ultra-Orthodox men to enlist in the IDF, while 71% supported establishing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, according to the survey.

Support for conscription legislation and a state commission of inquiry was highest on the Left (93.5%) and in the Center (89%), while respondents on the Right expressed lower levels of support (62%).

One quarter of Jews in Israel support negotiations with Palestinians

Only a quarter of Jewish respondents supported exploring the possibility of negotiations with the Palestinians, while the IDI said this proposal received its highest level of support among Arab Israelis, with 58% of those surveyed favoring it.

The findings also showed differences between Jewish and Arab Israelis over the government’s settlement policy in the West Bank. Overall, 55% of respondents said the policy of allowing and encouraging settlements was the correct course of action, while 32% disapproved of current Jewish settlement policies.

Over two-thirds of Jewish respondents viewed the Jewish settlement in the West Bank favorably, compared with half of Arab Israeli respondents, who said it was incorrect. The IDI noted that the share of Jewish respondents supporting the policy had increased by about 10 percentage points since a similar question was asked in May 2017.

Israeli attitudes toward European sanctions on Israeli settlements

The United Kingdom, along with Canada and France, announced sanctions on goods originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In response to the trade ban, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that the UK’s consulate in east Jerusalem would be shut down.

UK Foreign Minister Ed Miliband defended the sanctions as a response to what he believes is an attempt by Israel to bury the two-state solution by illegally expanding its occupation of Palestinian land.

The survey examined attitudes toward the European sanctions on imports from West Bank settlements. Some 63% of respondents supported a strong Israeli response and equal treatment for settlement products and products made elsewhere in Israel.

Around 70% of Jewish respondents supported demanding equal treatment for products from Israeli settlements, while approximately half of Arab respondents supported recognizing other countries’ right to restrict imports.

The survey also examined public perceptions of reports that Netanyahu had received warnings from senior Arab figures in the weeks before October 7 about a planned Hamas attack.

Respondents were divided over the credibility of the reports, with 46% of the overall sample saying they were not credible and 43% saying they were credible.

However, 63% of respondents believed the reports were published in recent weeks to influence the upcoming election results, while 27% believed the information had only recently come to light. The majority view that the timing was intended to influence the election was shared by both Jewish and Arab respondents.

The survey recorded a rise in optimism about the future of democratic rule, national security, the economy and social cohesion compared with the previous month. The largest increase was in optimism about democratic rule, which rose by 9.5 percentage points, followed by an eight-point increase in optimism about national security.

There is a rising and troubling consensus that the Jewish state may be guilty of the very crime that led in part to its establishment: “genocide,” a term and concept originally introduced in 1944 to describe the industrial-scale murder of the European Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

The explosive allegation achieved a significant victory last week, with the awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to the South African jurist Navi Pillay, the head of a United Nations commission that concluded in a 2025 report that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza. 

The trouble with the 2026 Peace Nobel is not that Pillay is sharply critical of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war; it is that the UN report in question, which shockingly failed even to address, let alone condemn, the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, is rooted in such an extreme anti-Israel bias as to render her an apologist for Hamas’s terrorism and disqualify her as an honest broker.

Pillay’s award puts her in line with multiple human rights organizations and genocide scholars that have reached the same conclusion, and the allegation has significant traction in public opinion. About three in 10 American voters now believe that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza, as does about half of the British public, according to recent polls. 

The fierce battle over the term “genocide” is far more than a fight over the specific nature of alleged war crimes in a particular military campaign. It is nothing less than a fight for the memory of the Holocaust itself – to whom that memory most belongs, what its apparent lessons are or should be, and who is entitled to arbitrate its uses.

Israel’s conduct does not meet criteria of genocide, but pain must not be ignored

We write as two Jews who have long been deeply invested in this question, personally and professionally. One of us, Menachem Rosensaft,  teaches the law of genocide at two Ivy League law schools and served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council for 20 years.

The other, James McCauley, interned at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington early in his career before writing books on various aspects of Holocaust memory. We come from different generations and different backgrounds, but we write with the same profound heartbreak.

We do not believe that Israel’s fierce, potentially disproportionate conduct in Gaza meets the legal criteria of genocide. Under the Genocide Convention, the crime requires the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such.” Moreover, such a goal must be the dolus specialis, or the specific purpose, for any finding of genocide rather than a tangential side effect or byproduct. 

Israel waged its war against Hamas in Gaza after the ravages of Oct. 7 to remove that terrorist organization as an existential security threat after the most devastating attack in its history. Moreover, it is clear that the Israeli government did not intend to eliminate the Palestinian presence in Gaza, even if the reckless rhetoric of some extremist ministers suggested otherwise. There were some two million Palestinians living in Gaza prior to Oct. 7, and there remain just about the same number after the ceasefire went into effect in October 2025. 

But whatever position one takes on the issue, the nature of Holocaust memory is in crisis. To some, the horrors of the Holocaust are the ultimate justification for Jewish security and self-defense by any means necessary, an ostensible justification for Israel to pursue its enemies however and as long as it sees fit. For others, the true lesson of the Holocaust is the moral imperative of human rights and human dignity for all, Jews and non-Jews alike. One “lesson,” as it were, is Judeocentric, the other universal. 

Without question, many are all too eager to accuse the Jewish state of the very crime that led to its establishment; they are seemingly intent on delegitimizing its standing in the global arena by 6 if not altogether, delegitimizing the memory of the slaughtered Jews of Europe. But rejecting the charge of “genocide” against Israel – and saying nothing more in its place – far too often serves as a convenient semantic shield that avoids any confrontation with the inescapable reality that Gaza is indeed a humanitarian catastrophe. Merely because it may not qualify as a genocide or does not compare to the Holocaust does not mean it can or should be ignored. 

Israel shouldn’t use Holocaust memory to justify failure to confront violence

Israel and its supporters should not use Holocaust memory as a justification for failing to confront military excesses on its part or the brutal violence of Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. At the same time, Israel’s enemies should not use the Jewish catastrophe as a cudgel to delegitimize the very existence of the Jewish state.

On Kol Nidre, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of New York City’s Park Avenue Synagogue urged his congregation, and Jews worldwide, to avoid what he called “the fantasy of innocence,” and instead to claim agency in their lives as individuals and as a people. “We Jews, historically the targets of indiscriminate blame, can ourselves, at times, fall prey to the temptation to leverage our own hurt as a shield against moral accountability,” he said. 

Religious leaders and elected officials often speak of the “lessons” of the Holocaust as if there was ever a consensus about what, exactly, these are. In fact, there was never such a consensus in the immediate aftermath of the war, and there is no such consensus today. But a lesson that we may not ignore is that we must decry injustice regardless of who its victims are, just as we must hold any and all perpetrators of such injustice accountable. 

Whether or not there has been a genocide in Gaza, the horrific plight of Palestinian civilians there is undeniable, and we, whether as an international society or as Jews, have a collective obligation to recognize and alleviate their anguish and agony.

“We must remember the suffering of my people,” Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel said in his lecture when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, “as we must remember that of the Ethiopians, the Cambodians, the boat people, Palestinians, the Mesquite Indians, the Argentinian ‘desaparecidos.” He continued: “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” 

Our challenge to our fellow Jews and anyone else outraged by the term “genocide” with respect to Gaza is to follow Wiesel’s lead. If one particular word is unacceptable to you, find others that aren’t. Doing so does not mean turning your back on Israel – quite the contrary. It shows a deep love for Israel, and a belief in the Jewish state living up to its own vaunted values. 

Nuance matters, but silence is not an option.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Three decades after it began sending Israeli educators to Jewish communities around the world, Torah MiTzion marked its 30th anniversary on Tuesday with a celebration in Jerusalem attended by hundreds of former emissaries, community leaders, immigrants, and supporters.

The gathering at the International Convention Center brought together generations of Israelis who had served in Jewish communities abroad through the religious-Zionist organization, which was founded in 1996 to strengthen Jewish identity, Torah education, and ties between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

Over the past 30 years, Torah MiTzion has established a network of religious study centers and community programs in more than 20 countries. According to the organization, approximately 1,700 emissaries have participated in its overseas activities, including married Torah scholars, yeshiva students, and young women undertaking national service.

Reflecting on careers dedicated to the Jewish diaspora

The anniversary celebration, held under the theme “Past, Present, and Future,” offered an opportunity for former emissaries to reconnect with one another and reflect on their experiences living and working in Jewish communities overseas.

“Over three decades, we have succeeded in building a living, human, and enduring bridge between us and Jewish communities in the Diaspora,” said Torah MiTzion founder and executive director Zeev Schwartz.

Schwartz credited the organization’s achievements to cooperation among Jewish communities, donors, educational institutions, and the emissaries themselves.

“The Jerusalem Prize and this 30-year milestone reflect an extraordinary collective effort by community leaders, philanthropists, educational institutions, and above all, our remarkable emissaries, who answered the call and worked with tremendous dedication for our brothers and sisters overseas,” he said.

Remembering a fallen emissary

Among the participants was Rachel Goldberg, whose husband, Rabbi Avi Goldberg, was killed while serving as an IDF reserve officer in southern Lebanon in October 2024.

The couple had previously served as Torah MiTzion emissaries in Memphis, Tennessee. Rabbi Goldberg later became a teacher at Jerusalem’s Himmelfarb High School, where he taught Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was subsequently murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The anniversary program included Rachel Goldberg’s participation and a tribute featuring a recording of her late husband speaking about the meaning of serving Jewish communities abroad, as well as musical performances by members of the Goldberg family.

The tribute connected the organization’s history of educational work overseas with the personal losses experienced by its extended community during Israel’s wars.

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion also attended the event and praised the organization’s contribution to strengthening connections between Israel and Jews worldwide.

“For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” Lion said, quoting the biblical verse from which the organization takes its name.

From Jewish education to public service

Government Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, himself a former Torah MiTzion emissary, reflected on the influence his overseas experience had on his subsequent career.

“I would never have reached my current mission as cabinet secretary without the mission I undertook with Torah MiTzion,” Fuchs said. “It simply changes the course of your life.”

Fuchs, who previously served as an emissary in Memphis, said the experience helped him develop a broader sense of responsibility toward the Jewish people.

“Instead of focusing on building your own home and life, you suddenly realize that you need to act on behalf of the people, the nation, the Jewish people in the Diaspora and in Israel,” he said. “And that has stayed with me to this day.”

The evening was hosted by journalist Sarah Beck, a former Torah MiTzion emissary, and included accounts from participants about their experiences abroad and the relationships they maintained with Jewish communities long after returning to Israel.

The organization’s leadership also presented plans to expand its network of emissaries and establish new partnerships with Jewish communities worldwide.

The celebration concluded with participants gathering for a group photograph commemorating the organization’s three decades of activity, bringing together emissaries and alumni from different generations.

Torah MiTzion received the Jerusalem Prize in 2016 in recognition of its efforts to strengthen Jewish identity and connections with Israel. Its leadership said the anniversary would serve as an opportunity to expand its educational work in the coming years.

Brandeis University, known for its proud past, is reimagining itself for the future. 

Located in a Boston suburb, Brandeis opened in 1948 at a time when Jews and other minorities faced open discrimination at many American universities. Named for Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the US Supreme Court, the university’s founders pioneered a nonsectarian, research-oriented institution focused on undergraduate education and grounded in Jewish values.  

Nearly 80 years later, Brandeis builds on its founding ideals with a bold new vision to prepare students for our increasingly global and digitally connected world. Last year, the university launched the Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts, an initiative to combine the university’s renowned academic rigor with an unprecedented emphasis on career readiness.

“The liberal arts have historically been most effective when connected to the world beyond the classroom,” said Arthur Levine, the president of Brandeis. They “were only successful when they had one foot in the library, the accumulated knowledge of humanity, and one foot in the street, the real world.”

Brandeis is focusing on the connection between academic learning and post-graduation achievement, emphasizing internships, job shadowing, and “micro-credentials” skills such as computer program mastery or project management proficiency that can be learned in a short time. These credentials will be part of a secondary transcript that Brandeis students will receive. 

Brandeis has also opened a Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts that focuses on the connections between academic learning and career preparation.

At the same time, Brandeis has joined a growing number of colleges and universities offering increased financial aid, including free tuition for children of families making $75,000 or less and half scholarships for children of families making between $75,000 and $200,000. They’re also emphasizing cost transparency: In May, Brandeis launched Faye, an interactive cost calculator that provides prospective students a personalized net price based on their financial and academic information. 

“Today’s students need more than knowledge; they need the skills, experiences, and confidence to lead in a world we cannot yet predict,” Levine said. “We are advancing a new model. We need reinvention. And that’s exactly what Brandeis is establishing.”

As these three profiles of current students show, Brandeis undergraduates are taking advantage of the myriad opportunities on campus to challenge themselves academically, engage with Jewish ideas and prepare for career success. 

The Israel advocate and future lawyer

For Matthew Pfeffer, Brandeis turned out to be a case of mother knows best. When Pfeffer’s older sister and their mom visited the school when she was looking at colleges, his mother thought Brandeis would be a great choice for Matthew. 

At the time, Pfeffer was in eighth grade. But just a few years later, it turned out his mother was right: As a university that offers a warm Jewish community, rigorous but not cutthroat academics and solid preparation for the job market, Brandeis checked all of Pfeffer’s boxes.

After visiting campus three times, he applied early decision to the school and was overjoyed when he was accepted.

Now a senior, Pfeffer is just as happy with his decision. Indeed, if Brandeis had an official school cheerleader, Pfeffer might be that person. 

“The amount of support here is incredible, from professors to administrators,” he said. “I love it here.” 

Pfeffer is double-majoring in economics and art history and minoring in French and Judaic studies. A Long Island native, he’s also been involved in Brandeis’ Hillel, where he serves as the organization’s Israel engagement coordinator, spearheading Israel advocacy and cultural and dialogue-building events. He also helped plan last year’s Israel Fest, which was held on campus for Israel Independence Day.

In addition to spending a semester in Paris, Pfeffer has done three summer internships in the New York City area while at Brandeis. At one of them, he interned at UJA-Federation of New York, where he worked in development and fundraising and learned about planned giving, endowment trusts, and estates. He also worked at a law firm in New York City, where he was supervised by a Brandeis alum.

These experiences have helped lay the foundation for his career path: He plans to work for two years in the client services, legal, or Jewish nonprofit industries before going to law school.

“I wanted to be set up for career success,” Pfeffer said. “Brandeis wants you to succeed.”

The Southerner who’s exploring her Jewish identity

After growing up in a small Jewish community in Jackson, Mississippi, Lauren Balfour found the smorgasbord of Jewish experiences available at Brandeis to be eye-opening. 

“I was like a kid in a candy store,” Balfour said.

She dove right into Jewish life on campus. As a first-year student, she was involved in the Reform Jewish group, where she served on the board and planned social events. 

Today, as a junior, Balfour is the vice president of Masorti, the Conservative egalitarian group on campus. She is also a lifeguard at a local JCC and works at a local Sunday school teaching third-graders.

To prepare for her role as a Sunday school teacher, participated in the Mandel Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship Program, a Brandeis program that offers professional learning, mentorship and a stipend to undergraduates working in supplemental Jewish education.  

The program “helped me catch up on my Jewish education and fill in the gaps,” she said. 

And despite moving hundreds of miles away, studying at Brandeis helped Balfour connect with her Southern roots. The summer before her sophomore year, she interned at the Institute for Southern Jewish Life, headquartered in her hometown. During the internship, for which she received a stipend from Brandeis’ World of Work fellowship, she did archival research on Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement to help create a curriculum for Hebrew schools.

Balfour’s classes also shaped her identity. One of her favorite classes she took at Brandeis is called “Religious Education in America.” Taught by Professor Ziva Hassenfeld, the course helped her understand her Jewish upbringing in the South and the historic complexities and pain of the Jewish experience there.

Jewish life and learning aren’t the only things keeping Balfour busy on campus. A biology major, she’s a teaching assistant for a biology lab course. She’s also on Brandeis’ swimming and diving team, which means she’s at the pool early in the morning six days a week. 

As for the future, Balfour is considering medical school or another medicine-related career. She’s gained experience in the medical field while at Brandeis; she shadowed doctors at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is getting certified to be an EMT. 

“Brandeis creates an environment where I’m able to do it all,” Balfour said.

The entrepreneur who’s also a film major

Allison Fuller is the epitome of an undergraduate student focused on career readiness, even if she’s not yet sure what path she wants to take. After graduation, she hopes to move to New York to work in the film and TV industry, either in production management or marketing.  

Before enrolling at Brandeis, the Long Island native spent a gap year studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. While there, Fuller, now a junior, also did freelance work for FEED, a New Jersey-based video production company. 

The summer after her first year at Brandeis, Fuller worked in digital marketing for the ROC Nation management company. This past summer, she worked as a management intern for Zero Gravity Media, an emerging film and TV production company, and she’s also been a social media manager for Here I Am, Israeli activist Shai Davidai’s podcast.

For Fuller, who is double-majoring in business (with a concentration in marketing) and film/TV/media, part of Brandeis’ attraction was being able to study “what I love while also doing a practical thing,” she said. 

“If you only do one major here, you’re out of the ordinary,” Fuller added. “Brandeis makes it easy to do that.”

In addition to her work experiences, Fuller is a teaching assistant for a financial accounting class, and she said that her classes are giving her practical skills, too. For example, a marketing class taught her how to pitch ideas to potential clients and how to design a marketing plan.

“I’ve used those skills in real life,” she said.

Fuller also has an entrepreneurial streak; she and a friend are working on an app called Bento that is focused on helping students who eat at college dining halls make the best choices for their nutrition goals. They launched the app at Brandeis and hope to expand to other schools soon.

A Long Island native, Fuller is also part of Brandeis’ Orthodox minyan, one of many options at a university with a large Jewish student population. “You don’t have to be friends with the only five Jews on campus,” Fuller said.

Brandeis gave Fuller and other university students career-related experience last winter when, over the February break, they visited Bloomingdale’s and Horizon Media in New York City as part of a Brandeis-sponsored networking event.

“That’s something out of the box that they thought of,” she said. 

These kinds of ideas make her feel happy about her college choice. “Brandeis cares about my future,” Fuller said. “It’s nice to feel that my school is supporting that.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Brandeis University, a private R1 research university in Waltham, Mass., with a focus on undergraduate liberal arts education that embraces the values of academic excellence, critical thinking, openness to all, and a commitment to making the world a better place. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.

Prof. Yaron Zelekha, chairman of the Reservists-Economic Party, promised to rapidly reduce Israel’s cost of living while criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at a press conference in Modi’in, where he presented his party’s economic plan.

“The reason Bibi attacks me is that he knows that once I become finance minister, the public will realize that life here could have been cheaper over the past twenty years,” Zelekha said.

He added, “Bibi sold the economy to monopolies and extortionists, and I will take it back. The choice isn’t ‘Bibi or not Bibi’; it is between the alliance of capital and power and your children.”

Zelekha also challenged Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former prime minister Naftali Bennett to a debate on economic policy, arguing that “politicians beholden to tycoons who finance their election campaigns would be unable to tackle the cost of living.”

Zelekha plans for economic reforms as finance minister

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Zelekha warned that he would be willing to take down any government that prevented him from implementing his economic reforms.

“If anyone gets in my way, I will bring down their government,” he told the Post, adding that he would demand control of the Finance Ministry and the Competition Authority during coalition negotiations.

Zelekha said he would insist on having the authority to implement his economic program regardless of whether Netanyahu, Bennett, or Gadi Eisenkot becomes prime minister, and would be prepared to bring down the government if his efforts were obstructed.

“Within three months from the day I take my seat, you will not recognize the country,” Zelekha said, outlining a five-point plan aimed at reducing living costs by increasing competition and removing barriers to imports.

His proposed measures include abolishing all tariffs, eliminating import quotas, and preventing domestic manufacturers that hold monopolistic positions from also serving as importers.

He also promised to prohibit exclusive import agreements and prevent importers representing one major international manufacturer from securing control over imports from another manufacturer that would otherwise compete with it.

Zelekha further told the Post he would transfer the Competition Authority to the Finance Ministry, placing it under his supervision so that he could oversee enforcement of competition law.

The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced they killed two terrorists on Wednesday for alleged involvement in the smuggling of weapons and other military assets into Gaza, according to a joint statement.

Basel Nabil Abd Al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja Al-Shaer were killed in the strikes in Khan Yunis to eliminate “an immediate threat to Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Yellow Line area,” the joint statement said.

The IDF and Shin Bet added that precise munitions and aerial surveillance were used to mitigate unnecessary harm to civilians.

The statement said that the IDF would focus its efforts on limiting Hamas’s military build-up and its financing capabilities to prevent the terrorist group from regaining its capacity to threaten IDF troops and Israeli civilians.

IDF dismantles Gaza tunnel stretching past the Yellow Line

Separately, the IDF said Thursday that engineering troops from the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, working with the Yahalom combat engineering unit, sealed and dismantled an underground tunnel route approximately 1.5 kilometers long that crossed the Yellow Line area in the Gaza Strip.

The tunnel contained rooms intended for use by Hamas terrorists, according to the IDF. Troops in the Southern Command remained deployed in the area under the ceasefire agreement and would continue operating to remove immediate threats, the statement said. 

The IDF also announced Wednesday that the 99th Division had completed a four-month mission in the northern Gaza Strip, east of the Yellow Line.

During the operation, troops eliminated more than 100 terrorists and neutralized approximately eight kilometers of underground tunnels, according to statements from the IDF.

President Donald Trump addressed a Michigan synagogue by video Wednesday evening as part of an event orchestrated by Leo Terrell, chair of the administration’s task force for combating antisemitism, and the Zionist Organization of America.

Trump’s greeting, which was prerecorded, was met with applause from the estimated 500 Jews who had come to Congregation Shaarey Zedek in the Detroit suburbs amid a pivotal Senate election in the state that has prompted deep anxieties among its Jewish population.

The president told the crowd that Terrell “speaks for our country” and “speaks for a lot of people, a lot of people that love Israel but really, more than anything else, they don’t want to see false and inaccurate statements made about this horrible subject of antisemitism.” 

The event was billed as the first stop on Terrell’s “American Tour Against Hate” and was staged by the US Justice Department, while also serving as a fundraiser and booster for ZOA. Attendees were handed donation forms for ZOA’s Michigan chapter. The organization’s national director, Mort Klein, is close with Terrell and said he intends to participate in all future stops on the tour.

Several other Trump officials, including Terrell and US Attorney General Todd Blanche, would address the crowd over the course of the night to emphasize the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism. 

(L-r) Leo Terrell, chair of the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, with US Department of Labor official Kenneth Wolfe at an event to combat antisemitism at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, on Oct. 14, 2026. (Andrew Lapin/JTA)

Michigan Jewish leaders accuse Trump administration of politicizing antisemitism

A group of progressive-leaning Michigan Jewish leaders denounced the event Wednesday, saying in a statement that it “risks fueling antisemitism and dividing the Jewish community.” 

The statement accused the administration of trying to “distract” from its own “authoritarian policies,” called ZOA “a far-right radical group” and criticized the Trump administration for its campus antisemitism policies, including freezing university funding and “kidnap[ping] university students.” 

The Trump administration has been criticized for its handling of some anti-Israel campus protesters, including Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was grabbed and detained by masked federal agents last year after co-authoring an op-ed calling to boycott Israel. A judge later ordered Ozturk’s release.

“Trump’s cynical use of antisemitism as a tool for stifling his opponents puts all Jews in danger, ” Rabbi Josh Whinston, of Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, said in the statement. “We should all be uniting to fight the real issues of antisemitism rather than using it to score political points and stifle dissent.”

Michigan Democratic state Rep. Samantha Steckloff, who represents Shaarey Zedek’s district, said in the same release that the administration was taking advantage of “an extremely challenging time for the Metro Detroit Jewish community.” 

“We must continue building bridges with our neighbors to create safer communities, not put up walls,” Steckloff said. “This administration has continued to espouse divisive rhetoric that pits communities against one another and deepens the challenges we face. All of us deserve to feel safe.”

Kobi Erez, director of ZOA’s Michigan chapter, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the event that the evening was designed to be “nonpartisan.” 

“It’s a tour against hate, and we can’t choose one side,” Erez said. “We have to fight antisemitism and hate for all.”

He argued that the event was not a ZOA fundraiser in his view, saying that it was free to attend and that the organization was asking for donations mainly to cover security costs. 

He also said that the organization had been in touch with the head rabbi of Shaarey Zedek, Aaron Star, to address any concerns about the nature of the event so close to Election Day. “We had to promise Rabbi Starr that we were going to make a disclaimer that Shaarey Zedek doesn’t necessarily represent all the views of the speakers.” 

Terrell did make that disclaimer, midway through the two-hour event.

Starr told JTA that there had been a back-and-forth with ZOA over the Trump video due to “a string of miscommunications and some last minute changes over the course of the day.”

Michigan Senate race deepens divisions among Jewish voters

Polls have shown that a majority of Jews nationwide have opposed Trump and his policies since his entry on the political scene. Yet recent fears about growing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment on the left have also alienated many Jews from the Democratic Party. 

Some Michigan Jews are preparing to vote for a Republican for the first time over their objections to the Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel whose prior remarks on Jewish safety have also upset many in the community.

Starr and Whinston, the rabbi who signed the letter denouncing the entire Trump event, are the co-organizers of Nonnegotiable Michigan, a petition urging El-Sayed to agree with a series of statements affirming Jews and Israel.

El-Sayed’s name was not uttered from the stage Wednesday, but the Trump officials on hand took many opportunities to praise their boss’s work on Jewish issues.

“This administration, unlike any other administration, is committed 24/7 to fighting antisemitism,” Terrell told the crowd.

An estimated 500 Michigan Jews applaud Trump administration officials during an event held to address antisemitism at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, Oct. 14, 2026. (Andrew Lapin/JTA)

Justice Department, Zionist Organization of America defend antisemitism event

The Conservative synagogue was billed online as a “co-sponsor” of the event along with Frankel Jewish Academy, a local Jewish day school. But Starr told JTA, “It wasn’t our event.” 

Midway through the program, Terrell stated that Shaarey Zedek “is not sponsoring this event,” adding, “The words of the speakers, mine and others, are theirs alone and are not a representation of this great religious institution.” 

Terrell stated that DOJ and ZOA were the sponsors — itself an unusual arrangement between a federal agency and an activist group. Klein told JTA following the event that Terrell had contacted his organization to help organize the tour, and that ZOA “really did all the work.” 

US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has been criticized for appearing at campaign events and who recently penned a memo loosening restrictions on political activism for senior federal officials, also addressed the crowd in a prerecorded video. 

“In recent years, we have seen a disturbing rise in antisemitic rhetoric and acts of hatred against fellow citizens,” Blanche said. “Hate has no place in America, and this Department of Justice remains committed to confronting it wherever it appears.”

Initially billed as a conversation between Terrell and Klein, the event functioned more as an informational session for Jews to learn how their government is responding to antisemitism. 

Flyers from the FBI instructed attendees on how to respond to various categories of threat. A roundtable of local and federal law enforcement officials, led by the FBI Detroit office field director who had responded to the terror attack on Temple Israel in the state in March, sought to assure the Jews in attendance that they had their backs. 

Terrell also unveiled a just-launched “American Tour Against Hate” app that, he said, would enable its users to take a pledge to fight antisemitism and “report” antisemitic incidents. It wasn’t immediately clear where the reports would be filed to. The Combat Antisemitism Movement, another activist group, was credited for the app on its download page.

Trump administration official Leo Terrell addresses Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, on the first stop of his “American Tour Against Hate,” Oct. 14, 2026. (Andrew Lapin/JTA)

Trump officials highlight antisemitism efforts amid political tensions

Still, politics seeped in, and much of the crowd seemed happy about it. Klein attacked another anti-Zionist politician, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, by name in his remarks. He also drew enthusiastic cheers for calling to “fight the open-border policies that we had in the past, which allows unvetted people from countries whose governments and populations overwhelmingly hate Jews.” 

Other Jewish speakers alluded to El-Sayed — particularly his initial reaction to the Temple Israel attack, which many Jews believed was equating the attack with Israel’s war in Lebanon. The candidate has since apologized for his initial remarks. 

“No conflict overseas can ever justify trying to murder innocent people here at home, and no political candidate should ever excuse terror and hate,” Erez told the crowd. 

Later, during an interfaith roundtable, Rabbi Shneur Silberberg of the Bais Chabad Torah Center in West Bloomfield leveled a more direct accusation. 

“If you respond differently to a terror attack against a group of Jewish schoolchildren, and your response is any different than it would be to any other group of children, then that’s antisemitism,” Silberberg told the crowd.

During the program, Terrell inveighed against antisemitism with a showman’s flair, often to the delight of the audience, some of whom shouted his name. “News flash: I’m not Jewish. Who cares?” Terrell asked the crowd early on, to laughter and applause. He donned a red hat in the style of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” merchandise, with the lettering instead spelling, “American Tour Against Hate.”

He went after college campuses and K-12 teachers he said were “indoctrinated,” and repeatedly denounced what he called “the Jewish tax,” which he defined as the high security costs the community bears in order to safeguard its houses of worship and other institutions. 

Flyers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation laid out on a table during the “American Tour Against Hate,” an event staged by the Trump administration at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, Oct. 14, 2026. (Andrew Lapin/JTA)

“For you to enjoy your right to walk down the street, to enjoy your synagogue, to go to a Jewish community center, to have your kids walk through their school, you have to pay extra security, millions of dollars,” Terrell said. “That’s going to stop.”

Terrell and Klein plan to meet with the head of Detroit’s Jewish federation as well as with rabbis at Temple Israel during their stay in town, Klein told JTA.

Erez said that Terrell’s visit to Michigan also included meetings with the mother of a Temple Israel preschooler who had been in the building during the March attack, as well as with Jewish college students who had experienced antisemitism. Terrell also met with leaders of Frankel Jewish Academy, one of the event’s co-sponsors, as well as the local Jewish Community Center, he said.

A longtime supporter of Trump, Klein said he believed the event demonstrated that more Jews were warming to the president as concerns about antisemitism have grown.

“I think more Jews certainly are more supportive of Trump than they were before, because they see what he’s done,” he said.

Sharon Matlen, a resident of nearby Farmington Hills who grew up in Skokie, Illinois, during the infamous neo-Nazi march of the 1970s, told JTA she had come to the event because “I’m very interested in antisemitism.”

“I really got a lot out of it,” Matlen said, of the talk. She spoke highly of Terrell: “I think he has our back. I’m glad that he’s there for us.”

Of El-Sayed, she said, “I pray he does not get in.”

A Canadian pro-Palestinian organization is hosting a Wikipedia editing event on October 22, inviting participants to “populate Wikipedia entries honoring martyred Palestinian artists and exposing the Canadian, Zionist backers of genocide.”

Jewish Onliner was the first to report on this ‘Free Palestine Wiki edit-a-thon,’ but it was independently confirmed by The Jerusalem Post.

The group, Artists Against Artwashing (AAA), says the evening will begin with Palestinian short films, followed by a Wikipedia 101 session and hands-on editing.

While anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, organizing editing sessions around a predetermined political objective like ‘honoring Palestinian martyrs’ risks taking the site away from its formal core policy known as the Neutral Point of View (NPOV).

‘That is canvassing [and] they should be blocked’

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger said, “If you are organizing people to take a controversial point of view on Wikipedia, that is canvassing [and] they should be blocked.”

Independent investigator WikiBias said, “Wikipedia claims neutrality. Their mission of “remedying the narrative” tells a different story.”

Artists Against Artwashing describes itself as a group of “arts workers across so-called-Canada demanding cultural institutions divest from settler colonialism and genocide.”

Its main campaign is focused on pressuring arts institutions into cutting ties with the Azrieli Foundation, the charitable counterpart to the Azrieli Group, Israel’s largest real estate company.

AAA held another Wikipedia editing workshop earlier this year, in April, specifically targeting articles associated with the Azrieli Foundation.

According to Wikipedia’s public revision history, changes to the Azrieli Group article were made at 7:30 p.m. Toronto time on April 28, coinciding with the editing workshop.

The user who made the edit – ‘Sure-thing-no-problem’ – was registered that day, has no user page, and made exactly one edit.

Other accounts made further edits to the page, especially removals, throughout May.

Similar to ‘Sure-thing-no-problem,’ an account named ‘subterra6677’ carried out edits on the Azrieli Group and David Azrieli pages only, before being warned in June of edit warring.

Edit warring on Wikipedia occurs when editors repeatedly undo one another’s changes to an article, often over disputed wording, sources, or political framing. Wikipedia’s three-revert rule generally prohibits editors from reverting the same page more than three times within 24 hours, although edit warring can violate policy even before that threshold is reached.

On June 25, subterra6677 received a message from another user noting that the former had made several edits in order to restore a version of Azrieli Group.

“The impulse to repeatedly undo an edit you disagree with is understandable, but I wanted to make sure that you’re aware of Wikipedia’s edit warring policy. Repeatedly undoing the changes made by other users in a back-and-forth fashion like this is disallowed, even if you feel what you’re doing is justifiable,” subterra6677 was warned.

Training participants to edit Wikipedia is a relatively common activity in pro-Palestine/anti-Israel spaces.

Hamas-linked organization, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, has run several training sessions teaching Gazans to edit Wikipedia pages about the Israel-Hamas War as part of its “WikiRights” program.

Training covers creating, developing, and updating content

It launched the third edition of the WikiRights project in the Gaza Strip in February 2026. The project targets 12 young Palestinian men and women and provides them with “in-depth training in human rights research and documentation, as well as professional editing on Wikipedia.”

The training covers creating, developing, and updating content and involves using editing and contribution tools in both Arabic and English.

Additionally, the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center for Technology and Society released a new report Thursday titled Damage Done: Wikipedia Leaves Biased Edits Unchecked Despite Editor Bans, which found that uncorrected past biased edits remain embedded across Wikipedia’s most-read pages concerning Israel, Zionism, Hamas, and Jewish history.

This follows an initial investigation released in March 2025 titled Editing for Hate, which documented a coordinated campaign by approximately 30 bad-faith editors to manipulate entries related to Israel, Jewish history, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hadassah Medical Center inaugurated a medical center in Limassol, Cyprus, on Thursday evening and announced plans for a hospital near the island’s capital, Nicosia, expanding the Jerusalem-based institution’s services overseas.

The Limassol facility had begun treating patients ahead of the formal inauguration. Hadassah said the center would bring together Cypriot doctors and healthcare professionals with specialists from its Jerusalem medical teams.

Services included MRI and CT scans, cardiology, neurology, laboratory testing, specialist clinics, rehabilitation and preventive medicine. The center would draw on Hadassah’s clinical expertise and maintain ongoing professional cooperation with its staff in Israel, the institution said.

President Isaac Herzog welcomed the initiative in a message for the inauguration, describing it as a new chapter in relations between Israel and Cyprus.

“The opening of the center symbolizes a bridge between our peoples and between dedicated professionals committed to improving human life,” Herzog said.

Hadassah presented the project as a further area of cooperation between the two countries, alongside their ties in energy, security, trade, research and tourism.

Hospital planned near Nicosia

The planned hospital near Nicosia would include inpatient wards, research activities and partnerships in medical education and training, Hadassah said. It was intended to broaden the range of care the institution could offer in Cyprus.

Hadassah did not provide a construction timetable or cost estimate for the hospital in its announcement.

Prof. Yoram Weiss, Hadassah’s director-general, said the Cyprus expansion reflected the institution’s commitment to making its medical expertise available beyond its existing hospitals.

“The boundaries of medicine should extend far beyond the walls of our hospitals,” Weiss said. “We should make medical care accessible wherever we can help, heal, save lives and teach.”

He said Cypriot medical professionals would work alongside Hadassah specialists to serve patients from Cyprus and the wider region.

Dalia Itzik, chairwoman of Hadassah’s board and a former speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, said the initiative would create opportunities for closer cooperation between the two countries’ medical communities.

“I am particularly proud that this initiative contributes to strengthening the longstanding friendship between Cyprus and Israel,” she said.

Carol Ann Schwartz, national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, said the partnership would extend the reach of the institution’s medical work.

“The cooperation in Cyprus reflects Hadassah Medical Center’s commitment to bringing to the world the medical breakthroughs it has led in Israel, improving people’s lives across national borders, and strengthens our belief that medicine can serve as a bridge to peace,” Schwartz said.

Hadassah expands medical services across Israel and abroad

The Cyprus project followed Hadassah’s expansion of services within Israel through medical centers in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem; Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv; and Netivot, in the south.

The Netivot center opened in February to serve residents of the western Negev. Hadassah said its expansion strategy combined the development of services closer to patients’ homes in Israel with new medical partnerships abroad.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana slammed world leaders for accusing Israel of committing genocide, calling the allegations a “despicable lie” during a speech at the Council of Europe on Thursday.

“Israel is not committing genocide. Enough with this despicable lie. Israel is fighting genocide.”

“On October 7, there was no ‘collateral damage,’ civilians. Men, women, children, and even babies – were not caught in crossfire. They were the targets,” Ohana added.

Ohana criticized what he described as the hypocrisy of European countries accusing Israel of genocide, as well as the motives of their leaders.

“Today, we are facing a severe crisis of a lack of international courage. Many world leaders declare the importance of lofty values, but when the moment of truth arrives, it turns out that only a few are willing to defend them.”

“Worse still are those who knowingly choose to lie and cynically support false propaganda in order to secure fleeting electoral support and a false sense of calm in their simmering streets,” he said.

Ohana recalls October 7 Hamas massacre at parliamentary conference

Regarding the three-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre in 2023, Ohana said that “last week, we marked three years since October 7, the day thousands of bloodthirsty terrorists shattered the quiet along the border between the Gaza Strip and the neighboring Israeli communities.”

“They embarked on a campaign of murder, rape, and mutilation of bodies, burning people alive with medieval cruelty.”

Ohana also held up a copy of the book And Every Single One Was Someone, by Phil Chernofsky, before the parliamentary speakers. The book consists of 1,250 pages, on which the single word “Jew” is printed six million times in small letters.

“This book, which I brought with me and which is always on my desk, contains no words,” Ohana continued.

“This thick, heavy volume contains just one word: Jew – six million times. Each one represents an entire human life. Each line represents a classroom full of children. Every few lines represent an entire school. Each page represents a town. When you hold this enormous book and feel its weight, you begin to understand the scale of the loss suffered by the Jewish people, here, on European soil,” he added.

“This is what real genocide looks like,” Ohana continued.

“I keep this book on my desk so that I will never forget. So that the words ‘never again’ do not become an empty slogan. This is also the responsibility that the State of Israel has carried on its shoulders since October 7: to prevent genocide.”

Ohana calls on world leaders to stand with Israel

“This war is far from being merely a local conflict. It is a global confrontation between civilizations – a struggle between the forces of darkness, extremism, and fundamentalism, and the forces of liberty, freedom, and democracy. Some of the member states represented here have a particularly dark chapter in the pages of history,” he added.

“I call on you: This time, stand on the right side of history – alongside us,” Ohana said.

During his stay in Rome, Ohana is expected to hold meetings on the sidelines of the conference with parliamentary speakers and delegations from numerous countries, including Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Cyprus, and Croatia.

These meetings would be held “with the aim of strengthening inter-parliamentary ties and presenting Israel’s positions,” the Knesset spokesperson’s office said.

Police forces in Edmonton and Toronto announced charges this week following separate criminal incidents tied to anti-Israel hostility, including a knife attack at a festival pavilion and a violent assault during a demonstration.

In Edmonton, police charged Abdimalik Jama, 29, on Wednesday in connection with an incident at the Edmonton Heritage Festival on August 3.

Jama breached a protective perimeter around the festival’s Israel pavilion, lunged with a knife, and struck the back of the kitchen tent before security guards detained him and on-site officers arrested him.

Edmonton Police investigating incident

The Edmonton Police Service Hate Crimes Unit investigated the matter, though authorities noted insufficient evidence existed to conclude the crime was legally motivated by hate.

Jama has been charged with mischief under $5,000 and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and was released on an undertaking with conditions restricting him from possessing knives or edged weapons.

Stacey Leavitt-Wright, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, was involved in organizing and managing the Israel pavilion and was present when the attack occurred.

Following the announcement of charges, the Jewish Federation of Edmonton released a statement on X saying, “We are grateful to Edmonton Police for its work investigating the incident at the Israel Pavilion at Edm Heritage Fest & laying charges in this matter. We appreciate the dedication of the investigators involved & will continue to monitor the judicial process as it moves forward.”

The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) released a statement on X responding to the charges, stating, “Today, we join @JewishEdmonton in commending the @EdmontonPolice for charging the attacker.”

CIJA added, “But serious questions remain: Are the criminal remedies available to combat hate-motivated offenses being enforced transparently and consistently? And what are authorities doing to deter the public incitement of hatred that is likely to lead to a breach of the peace, which we are seeing on campuses and at festivals from Edmonton to Toronto and across Canada?”

We are grateful to @edmontonpolice for its work investigating the incident at the Israel Pavilion at @EdmHeritageFest & laying charges in this matter. We appreciate the dedication of the investigators involved & will continue to monitor the judicial process as it moves forward.

— Jewish Edmonton (@JewishEdmonton) October 14, 2026

CIJA also noted, “That is why we support Justice Minister @SeanFraserMP in advancing his commitment to bring provincial and territorial Justice and Public Safety Ministers together to establish clear guidelines for strong, consistent enforcement of existing and new laws.”

Police in Toronto arrest men for assaulting passerby during March for Palestine

Meanwhile, in Toronto, police announced an arrest on Wednesday in an assault causing bodily harm investigation stemming from a March for Palestine protest on Saturday.

Authorities stated that a victim walking near Yonge Street and Grosvenor Street was approached from behind and punched multiple times in the head without provocation, sustaining facial and leg injuries. 

The incident was caught on film by independent journalist Mitch Hancock, who covers protests across Toronto.

Hancock told The Jerusalem Post, “I was filming the march on Yonge Street when I captured Kyle [the victim] being attacked on the sidewalk. I kept filming, and my footage was part of the police appeal to identify the suspect.”

The still images from the video were subsequently featured in local news reports to help police identify the suspect.

Martin Salgatar, 20, of Mississauga, surrendered to police at 52 Division on Monday and was charged with aggravated assault. He was scheduled to appear in court at the Toronto Regional Bail Center, 2201 Finch Avenue West, on Tuesday.

Hancock said to the Post, “My job is to show what’s really happening on the ground that mainstream media doesn’t show.”

March for Palestine filmed Oct 10. Kyle walking up a public sidewalk was attacked unprovoked by one of the Palestine protesters as the march went up Yonge Street left bloodied against a wall with a broken knee. #Toronto #News #Canada https://t.co/gkyujW14D5

— MitchUnseen🇨🇦 (@mitch6669) October 11, 2026

Toronto lawyer and independent legal observer Caryma Sa’d, who is running for city councillor in Ward 14 (Toronto—Danforth), who documents street protests in Toronto, also shared video footage of the attack on X.

According to Sa’d, the victim, Kyle, was a familiar presence in the local protest landscape who participates across various causes as a protester, counterprotester, and independent creator

Sa’d wrote that following the assault, others swarmed the victim, pointing, laughing, and seemingly trying to prevent bystanders from helping, before Salgatar escaped into the crowd after being urged to leave.

Kyle was subsequently transported to the hospital with a serious knee injury that left him unable to walk.

“This is what happens when repeated warnings about unlawful behavior at protests go unanswered, and police refuse to meaningfully address concerns about enforcement,” Sa’d wrote online. “It is as though protesters have been led to believe they can assault people with impunity, particularly those documenting their public activities.”

JERUSALEM — He is a plumber by profession, a husband and father by nature, and a hero because of the decision he made when lives hung in the balance.

Yaniv Hayoun never boarded a plane expecting to become a hero. He was traveling home to Israel when violence erupted aboard a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. When the captain was seriously injured and the aircraft began descending dangerously, Hayoun faced a choice that would test his courage: remain in his seat and hope someone else would act, or move toward the danger.

He chose to act.

Hayoun joined other passengers in confronting the attacker inside the cockpit. After helping restrain him, Hayoun returned to the cockpit and pulled back on the aircraft’s controls in an effort to stabilize the plane until another pilot could take over. The aircraft was diverted to Saudi Arabia and landed safely. Everyone aboard survived.

Hayoun was not a commercial pilot. He was a plumber who suddenly found himself in a situation few people could imagine. Yet when lives were at stake, he refused to stand by. He acted alongside fellow passengers who were willing to risk their own safety to protect others.

His courage demonstrates a powerful truth: heroism does not depend on a title, a uniform, or professional training. Sometimes it begins with an ordinary person recognizing that others are in danger and refusing to look away.

A hero honored in Jerusalem

Just one week after the harrowing flight, Hayoun’s story became part of a historic gathering in Jerusalem.

On October 7, 2026, the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, more than 2,100 Christian leaders gathered in Jerusalem for the Global Prayer Event, an international gathering of remembrance, prayer, and solidarity with the Jewish people. The event was part of a 24-hour global prayer broadcast, hosted by Friends of Zion, that united leaders across nations around a common message: Israel is not alone.

During the gathering, Hayoun received the Hineni Award, named for the Hebrew expression Hineni, meaning “Here I am.”

Throughout Scripture, Hineni expresses a willingness to answer a call and step forward, even when the outcome is uncertain, and the cost may be great.

Hayoun embodied that spirit aboard the aircraft. He could not have known how the confrontation would end or whether he would survive. But he moved toward those who needed help, putting his own safety at risk to protect the lives of others.

His recognition in Jerusalem was especially meaningful on a day devoted to remembering the victims of October 7, honoring survivors, and standing with families still carrying the pain of that terrible day.

Yet Hayoun was not the only person whose story of courage and survival was honored.

Honoring the survivors and former hostages of October 7

Among those who joined the Jerusalem gathering were four former hostages whose lives were forever changed by the October 7 attacks: Agam Berger, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Bar Kupershtein, and Evyatar David. Each represented a deeply personal story of captivity, survival, and the difficult journey of rebuilding life after unimaginable trauma. 

Their presence gave the gathering a significance that extended beyond speeches and ceremonies. These were people whose lives had been directly affected by the attacks, whose families had endured extraordinary anguish, and whose survival carried a meaning that no statistic could fully convey.

Together with Hayoun, they represented different expressions of courage: the courage to intervene when lives are threatened, the courage to endure captivity, and the courage to begin again after profound suffering.

A message the world must never forget

The October 7, 2023, attacks claimed more than 1,200 lives and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage. The tragedy left families shattered, communities devastated, and survivors facing a long road toward healing.

Three years later, the pain remains. Remembering those who were murdered, listening to survivors, and honoring the former hostages are essential to preserving the truth of what happened and recognizing the humanity of those whose lives were changed forever.

For the organizers of the Global Prayer Event, bringing thousands together in Jerusalem was about more than marking an anniversary. It was a declaration that the Jewish people must never be abandoned to hatred or left to believe the world has forgotten their suffering.

The former hostages who joined the gathering offered a powerful reminder: survival is not the end of the story. Healing, rebuilding, and finding the strength to move forward can take years, and the support of others matters.

In honoring these men and women, Jerusalem became a place where courage, remembrance, and solidarity met. Their stories reminded those gathered that behind every headline are human beings whose lives deserve to be remembered and whose dignity must never be forgotten.

For Yaniv Hayoun, the journey from an ordinary day of travel to an extraordinary act of courage culminated in recognition in the very city where thousands had gathered to stand with Israel.

He did not act because he expected an award. He acted because people were in danger and someone needed to help.

That is what makes his story so powerful.

When lives are in danger, someone must be willing to say, “Here I am.”

Yaniv Hayoun answered that call. In Jerusalem, alongside survivors and former hostages whose courage continues to inspire, his story became part of a larger message to the world: even in the face of terror, courage can prevail, hope can endure, and no one should have to stand alone.

Dr. Mike Evans has written 120 books and is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. He is the founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, the Ten Boom Museum in Holland, and Churches United with Israel, one of the largest Christian Zionist networks in America, with more than 30 million followers.

Local authorities in dozens of cities and counties across the US issued formal proclamations designating October 7 as a “Day of Remembrance.” The municipal initiative, facilitated by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), coincided with the third anniversary of the Hamas-led massacres in southern Israel.

The standardized text adopted across participating jurisdictions states: “WHEREAS, on October 7, 2023, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, carried out a devastating terrorist attack in Israel, murdering nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, and kidnapping approximately 250 people, including at least 12 Americans, forever changing the lives of victims, survivors, and their families.”

The proclamations further note that the massacre marked “the worst act of violence targeting Jews since the Holocaust,” noting that it has deeply affected Jewish communities globally while triggering an unprecedented post-World War II surge in antisemitism.

Lisa Katz, CAM’s chief government affairs officer who leads engagement with North American mayors, emphasized the significance of the municipal resolutions.

“Three years after Hamas’s horrific October 7 massacre, remembering the victims and showing solidarity with Jewish communities should be a matter of basic human dignity,” Katz said. “At a time when we are seeing the barbaric atrocities of that terrible day denied, minimized, and even celebrated, these acts of commemoration mean more than people may realize. They remind Jewish residents that their grief matters, that their neighbors stand with them, and that they are not alone.”

Over three dozen US cities, counties commemorate October 7 massacre

More than three dozen cities and counties participated in the initiative, spanning municipalities such as Boston, Beverly Hills, Miami Beach, Rockland County, and Tacoma.

End Jew Hatred launched a petition on Action Network expressing public gratitude toward mayors, county executives, and city councils that established the commemorative days.

End Jew Hatred urges public to thank officials honoring October 7 victims

Urging supporters to thank the municipal leaders who took a stand against hate, End Jew Hatred stated: “You were among the many elected officials across the nation who took significant steps to honor the memory of October 7. Some issued proclamations commemorating this tragic day, while others declared it a day of remembrance or held public meetings to reflect on its impact.”

“Thank you for your commitment to justice, for recognizing the true significance of October 7, and for your courage to address the difficult truths of the ongoing hostage situation and the broader conflict. We are profoundly grateful for your leadership and your willingness to speak the truth where so many have remained silent,” End Jew Hatred said.

In the months after the October 7 massacre, Jewish communities around the world responded with extraordinary generosity. Emergency funds were created almost overnight. Philanthropic foundations accelerated decisions that would normally take months.

Donors asked a simple question: What is needed now?

That response mattered enormously. It allowed organizations working in Israel’s border communities to act quickly, respond to changing needs, and build new initiatives in places facing evacuation, loss, and profound uncertainty.

Three years later, we are entering a very different stage.

The emergency is no longer new. Philanthropic institutions are understandably asking different questions. They are returning to strategic priorities, long-term planning, and more conventional funding cycles.

At the same time, Israel is approaching an election period, creating uncertainty around government commitments that many organizations assumed would help carry emergency initiatives into the next stage.

The problem is that communities do not recover according to either philanthropic or political calendars.

Across Israel’s border regions, projects launched during the emergency are only now reaching the point at which they can become sustainable. The danger is that the bridge between emergency response and long-term recovery may disappear precisely when communities are ready to cross it.

In one community along Israel’s border with Gaza, a compound is already waiting to become a new Kedma student village. The community has opened its doors. Students are ready to move in, become part of local life, and contribute to education and community rebuilding.

But the village has not opened.

Additional protective shelters are still required, and while we wait for the necessary arrangements, the emergency funding that allowed us to begin this process is running out.

On paper, this may look like a delayed project. In reality, much more is at stake.

Entering a community recovering from war takes time. An organization cannot simply arrive with a program. Local leaders and residents must first decide to trust it: to share what they need, to allow outsiders into a deeply disrupted community, and eventually to make room for a new group of young people within their daily lives.

That trust is built slowly.

The same dynamic can be seen elsewhere. In Menara, on the Lebanese border, where residents have endured evacuation and enormous destruction, rebuilding a student village is not simply about providing accommodation for young people. It is about helping restore a living community.

In Sufa and Urim, in the western Negev, programs bringing young adults and discharged soldiers to live, volunteer, and become part of local life similarly depend on relationships that cannot be created overnight.

These programs were born or expanded during an extraordinary period, when philanthropy understood that extraordinary measures were necessary. Government ministries also made commitments based on the assumption that the emergency phase would eventually be followed by sustained reconstruction.

But that handover is not automatic.

We need a transition period to sustain trust

An election year makes the problem more acute. Budgets can change. Priorities can shift. Decisions that appeared secure can be delayed or reconsidered. Organizations that expanded in response to national needs can suddenly find themselves caught between emergency philanthropic grants that are ending and government commitments that have not yet materialized.

The result is not primarily an organizational problem. It is a community problem.

If a program closes, staff positions can eventually be recreated. A new grant can finance new activities. But when an organization has spent months or years entering a traumatized community, listening to residents and earning their confidence, withdrawing has consequences that cannot be measured only in budget lines.

It tells a community that another partner has come and gone.

For communities that have already experienced evacuation, uncertainty, and the collapse of so many assumptions about their security and their future, that matters.

This is why the next phase of philanthropy in Israel should not be understood simply as a return from “emergency giving” to normal giving. The challenge now is to build a transition period between the two.

That does not mean every emergency initiative should continue indefinitely. Nor does it mean philanthropy should replace government responsibility. On the contrary: long-term recovery requires government, philanthropy, local authorities, and civil society to understand where each one’s responsibility begins and ends.

But transitions need time.

A responsible philanthropic strategy for the coming year should ask not only which new projects deserve support, but which successful emergency investments are currently standing at the edge of a funding gap. Which initiatives have already earned the communities’ trust? Which are waiting for government funding or infrastructure to catch up?

And where could one additional year of support make the difference between an emergency intervention that disappears and an institution that becomes locally sustainable?

The years since October 7 demonstrated the extraordinary capacity of Jewish philanthropy to respond quickly when Israel was in crisis. The next test may be less dramatic, but no less important: whether we can stay long enough for recovery to take root.

Because funding may return.

Trust is much harder to rebuild.

The writer is the president and founder of the Kedma pioneering social-Zionist organization.

Security collaboration between Israel and Ukraine is expanding, particularly in the study of Iranian weapons and Russian drones, according to former Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky.

Brodsky discussed the growing security ties earlier this week during a meeting with a delegation of Ukrainian journalists. He confirmed that the two countries are working together to study weapons used in Russia’s war against Ukraine and that Israel has received several weapons from Kyiv for examination. He did not specify which weapons or systems were involved.

According to Ukrainian media reports, Israel is examining samples of Russian attack drones provided by Ukraine, including newer models from the Geran family, which are based on Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Ukrainian officials also confirmed to Maariv that the cooperation is underway, saying one of its earliest stages involved Ukraine transferring an Iranian Shahed drone to Israel. Russia has used these drones extensively in its war against Ukraine.

Israel is actively developing defenses against drones, laser-based systems, other tech

Brodsky said Israel is actively developing defenses against drones, including laser-based systems and other technologies. However, he assessed that no effective solution capable of countering all types of drones has yet been developed.

“Unmanned aerial vehicles are the number one problem for the entire world today,” he told Ukrainian media outlets. “Whoever is first to find an effective solution will gain a significant advantage, and that solution will subsequently be adopted by others as well.”

Throughout the war, Russia has repeatedly modified its weapons, changed its tactics for penetrating air defenses, and adjusted the scale of its attacks. Ukraine has responded by developing and improving its drone detection and interception capabilities.

For Israel, Ukraine’s battlefield experience is particularly relevant because Iran and its allies use weapons based on similar technology. According to Ukrainian reports, the samples provided to Israel could help researchers better understand the modifications Russia has made to its drones and develop ways to counter them.

Ukraine, meanwhile, could also benefit from Israeli expertise. Israel has extensive operational, intelligence, and technological experience in confronting Iran, including its missile and drone capabilities and other military threats in the region.

Sharing intelligence, threat assessments, and lessons learned from military operations could benefit both countries and further strengthen their security cooperation.

Representatives from Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Authority walked out of President Isaac Herzog’s Thursday speech at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

At the same time, questions arose about the reported behavior of the Qatari delegation. The Iranian newspaper Tehran Times claimed the Qatari delegation also exited the hall, while eyewitnesses at the conference said the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, remained in his seat and listened to Herzog’s remarks.

The summit was attended by senior representatives from Asian and Middle Eastern nations, including countries that do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.

Turkey was represented by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the Palestinian Authority by its foreign minister, Kuwait by its deputy foreign minister, Iran by its deputy minister for legal and International affairs, and Pakistan by its ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Representatives from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates remained in the hall. The decision of the Emir of Qatar to remain seated drew particular attention due to the absence of formal diplomatic ties between Doha and Jerusalem, as well as Qatar’s role in mediating sensitive regional issues.

Discrepancy between Iranian media, eyewitness accounts

The discrepancy between the Iranian media report and eyewitness accounts raises questions regarding Iran’s motivation in framing Qatar’s actions toward Israel.

The original text of the Iranian report has not been independently verified, and it remains unclear whether it referred to the Emir himself or to other delegation members. Other members of the Qatari delegation may have left while the Emir stayed. As of now, no official statement has been issued by Qatar to reconcile the contrasting accounts.

Dr. Ariel Admoni of Ariel University, Bar-Ilan University, and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security noted that the Iranian newspaper’s framing reflects the delicate relationship between Doha and Tehran.

Within this framework, Iran relies on Qatari mediation and thus seeks to portray Qatar as taking a more anti-Israel stance than its actual policy dictates, enabling Iran to maintain public relations with Doha.

From Tehran’s perspective, Qatar is a crucial regional partner, largely because it can engage with actors with whom Iran cannot maintain direct contact. Portraying Doha as taking a firm public stance against Israel helps the Iranian regime justify its ongoing ties with Qatar to both the Iranian public and anti-Israel factions.

This analysis serves as an explanatory interpretation of a potential narrative motive and does not constitute proof that the report was directly dictated by authorities in Tehran.

Qatar maintains close ties with Tehran, mediates with Washington

Qatar maintains close ties with Tehran, keeps open communication channels with the United States and Western governments, and plays a mediating role between opposing sides. The Qatari Emir refrained from joining the public protest against Herzog’s speech.

The summit brought together representatives of nations engaged in severe political conflict. According to the seating chart, Herzog and the Iranian representative sat on the same side of the conference table, separated by four seats, including those of the foreign ministers of Turkey and Bahrain. The Emir of Qatar was seated on the other side of the host President, Ilham Aliyev.

During his diplomatic visit to Azerbaijan, Herzog met with President Ilham Aliyev to discuss strengthening strategic relations and regional stability. Herzog also met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani to discuss expanding regional cooperation and the Abraham Accords.

Azerbaijan maintains close relations with Israel while also preserving diplomatic ties with Turkey and Iran.

The visit also drew attention in Turkey after it emerged that Herzog arrived in Baku aboard a flight operated by Azerbaijan’s national carrier, AZAL, which flew through Turkish airspace despite restrictions on Israeli government aircraft. A Turkish official stated that Ankara was not informed that the Herzog was aboard the aircraft.

Herzog departed Israel on Wednesday via a commercial Boeing 787 flight operated by AZAL. Overflight through Turkish airspace was permitted under standard commercial flight regulations, which differ from the restrictions applied to Israeli state aircraft.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not attend the summit; his country was represented by Foreign Minister Fidan, whose delegation was among those that walked out prior to Herzog’s address.

Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing two security guards, two government officials told Reuters.

Yemen’s prime minister and cabinet members who were at the Maashiq presidential palace complex were unharmed, Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said, adding that the Houthis had fired five missiles at the complex.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency, citing a military official, said the group had targeted a military operations headquarters run by Saudi officers at the complex, as well as weapons depots. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.

The Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the strike on what he described as a Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden was part of the group’s declared policy of “targeting Saudi military build-ups wherever they are.”

Three witnesses had earlier told Reuters they heard loud booms in the vicinity of the palace.

The Iran-backed group also recently warned airlines that Saudi airspace and airports remain unsafe.

Strikes on Saudi installations intensify

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said that the country’s Houthis had attempted to attack dozens of Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities, as fighting between the Iran-aligned group and Saudi Arabia intensified.

The Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at key Saudi sites for a week, in response to the kingdom’s backing of government forces in Yemen’s renewed civil war. The coalition’s latest statement highlighted the risk to Saudi civilian infrastructure as the conflict escalated.

Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said at a press conference that the Houthis had launched 20 attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month, killing 17 people and wounding 333 others. The airport, one of Saudi Arabia’s main international aviation hubs, was among the civilian infrastructure targeted in what the coalition described as a series of attacks.

The coalition also said Houthi attacks on Abha airport, in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, had killed three people and wounded 28.

Maliki said the Houthis had acquired advanced military technology with the help of “regional actors,” including ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden fast boats.

The spokesperson also said the coalition had destroyed 127 weapons storage facilities and launch platforms in Yemen’s mountainous areas.

He called on the Houthis to immediately halt operations targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and said the group should read the coalition’s statement carefully and “between the lines.”

Shortly after the coalition’s statement, the Houthi military spokesperson said Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe, renewing a warning to airlines while excluding airspace over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year. The UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major fighting, and a de facto truce held even after it expired six months later. But efforts to turn it into a lasting political settlement have stalled as regional tensions have intensified.

More than half of Palestinians support a two-state agreement with east Jerusalem serving as the capital of a Palestinian state, according to a new poll published on Wednesday by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research think tank.

Though 53% overall support two states, with 56% endorsing consultative talks with Israeli figures they deemed “anti-occupation,” only 48% of Gazan respondents said they would agree with the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish one.

The survey collected data from 909 Palestinians in the West Bank and 488 in the Gaza Strip, living outside Israel-controlled territory, and had a margin of error of 3.5%.

Asked what the current obstacle to Palestinian statehood was, 41% said it was the expansion of Israeli settlements while only 23% said it was internal Palestinian divisions.

The Palestinian think tank attributed the increase in support for armed resistance among Gaza residents to ongoing Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. Compared with the August poll, support for armed resistance rose from 21% to 37%, slightly above the overall average of 33% recorded across both Palestinian territories. Diplomacy remained the most popular option, however, with 42% of Palestinians supporting it and a further 18% supporting popular nonviolent resistance as the most effective path toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Neither Hamas nor Israel won the war, say 62% of Palestinians

Despite the increase in support for armed “resistance,” 62% of Palestinians polled said neither Israel nor Hamas had won the war. While 17% said Israel had emerged victorious, only 16% viewed Hamas as the winner. Still, around three-quarters of Palestinians overall, 69% in the Gaza Strip and 78% in the West Bank, felt Israel should withdraw from the Gaza Strip before Hamas disarms.

Most Palestinians were also pessimistic about the ceasefire’s prospects, with 61% expecting insecurity to continue. Only 42% said they trusted the technocratic committee to govern Gaza. Trust in the committee was significantly higher among Palestinians in Gaza than among those in the West Bank, at 60% and 29%, respectively.

In terms of party affiliation, only 19% of Palestinians identified with Hamas, down from 24% in August and 35% ten months earlier. Less than a quarter (22%) said they supported Fatah, but a commanding 33% identified with none of the listed parties.

Additionally, while the August poll found a three-way race for leadership between Marwan Barghouti, Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the latest poll suggests growing support for independent figures. Only 34% said they would support Barghouti’s leadership, while 13% backed Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri nationwide, rising to 21% among respondents in Gaza. Mustafa Barghouti received 12% support.

PA elections pushed back to next September

There is also still a strong desire for the Palestinian Authority to move ahead with the elections in November, which Abbas has pushed back to September next year. More than half, 53%, support holding elections on schedule on November 28 without delay, and an additional 21% favor a short operational postponement of under six months to ensure administrative inclusivity, while 20% oppose holding elections altogether.

Overall voter turnout intention was found to be around 55% among eligible voters, though only 31% of young citizens aged 18–22 report being registered on the voter rolls, and their overall voting intention lags at just 46%.

There is also significant willingness to vote for a newly formed candidate list, around 56%, and when testing nine candidate lists among likely voters who have finalized their choices, the National Independent List led by Bashar Masri tied for first place with the list backed by imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti, each securing 22% of the vote.

Both the independent figure and imprisoned Fatah leader hold more support than the joint

Hamas-Dahlan List, which only received 20% support, and the official Fatah list led by Palestinian Vice-President Hussein al-Sheikh and backed by President Abbas (13%), and the National Initiative led by Mustafa Barghouti (13%).

According to the survey, Masri’s appeal was closely linked to confidence in his ability to manage Gaza’s economic recovery and improve the cost of living, with 30% saying they trusted him to do so. Mustafa Barghouti received a similar level of trust, at 29%. Confidence in senior Palestinian Authority figures was considerably lower, with only 6% trusting Hussein al-Sheikh and 8% trusting Jibril Rajoub to manage these challenges.

Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman stated on Thursday that his party would not support any minority government or join a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the elections “under any circumstances.”

Liberman’s statement appeared to close the door on a minority government led by Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot after the October 27 election if neither his bloc nor Netanyahu’s secures a 61-seat majority.

“We will not support any minority government, including a minority government for a transitional period,” Liberman stated in an X/Twitter post.

בימים האחרונים נשאלתי כמה וכמה פעמים לגבי ממשלת אחדות לאומית. עמדתנו חדה וברורה: אנחנו נקים קואליציה המורכבת ממפלגות ציוניות בלבד. בלי רע״מ, בלי המשותפת, בלי ש״ס ובלי יהדות התורה. הליכוד בלי נתניהו יכול להיות שותף משמעותי. עם נתניהו – שיתהפך העולם לא נשב בשום מצב. לא נתמוך בשום ממשלת מיעוט, גם לא בממשלת מיעוט לתקופת מעבר. אני מאמין שנגיע לרוב מוצק בבחירות הקרובות, למרות הסקרים. וחוץ מזה, אני מכיר כמה ח״כים מתוך הליכוד שמבינים את גודל השעה, מבינים שביבי הפך אותם לקבלני משנה של גולדקנופף ודרעי, ולכן יהיו מוכנים להשלים את המניין ולהצטרף לקואליציה ציונית.

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) October 15, 2026

Yisrael Beytenu is part of the opposition bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu in the elections. The party has recently polled around nine to 10 seats.

Recent polling shows that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition bloc can secure a majority without the support of the Arab parties.

Liberman demands Zionist-only coalition, rules out Netanyahu

Liberman also stated on Thursday that a coalition would be formed “consisting exclusively of Zionist parties.”

“No Ra’am, no Joint List, no Shas, and no United Torah Judaism,” Liberman stated, referring to both Arab and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties.

He also vowed that Yisrael Beytenu would not sit in a government with Netanyahu’s Likud under any circumstances as long as Netanyahu remained the party’s leader.

“Likud without Netanyahu can be a significant partner,” Liberman added.

“I believe we will achieve a solid majority in the upcoming election, despite the polls. Beyond that, I know several MKs within Likud who understand the gravity of the moment.”

“They understand that Bibi has turned them into subcontractors for [former United Torah Judaism leader Yitzhak] Goldknopf and [Shas party leader Arye] Deri, and will therefore be willing to make up the numbers and join a Zionist coalition,” Liberman stated.

Opposition faces uncertainty over minority government prospects

The four main opposition parties in the bloc are Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Yair Golan’s Democrats, and Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu. 

While the parties have signed an agreement to cooperate before the election, they have yet to decide how to choose the opposition bloc’s prime minister candidate.

Liberman’s statement also came after Joint List chairperson Yousef Jabareen laid out a series of demands on Saturday as conditions for providing political support to a minority government.

Jabareen’s announcement has renewed speculation that the Joint List, which includes the Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad parties, could pave the way for a minority government led by Eisenkot to be sworn in.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the new section of the security barrier being built along Israel’s eastern border on Thursday, which will run from the Yarmouk River at the border between Jordan, Syria, and Israel in the north, all the way to Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat. 

The vast majority of the approximately 400 km-long border wall will cover the Jordanian border. Netanyahu explained that it would complement the nation’s existing security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza. He added that the new eastern border wall would have anti-drone defense capabilities, although he did not go into further detail. 

“There is enormous work here – massive engineering work, massive logistical work, mobilization of the Israel Defense Forces, mobilization of the reserves,” Netanyahu said. “All of this power comes to say to Israel’s enemies: Do not test us.”

The new eastern border wall, according to the prime minister, represents “maximum defense so that we can protect the citizens of Israel and prevent anyone from even thinking about invading the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu was accompanied by Defense Minister Israel Katz, Head of the Defense Ministry’s Borders and Seam Line Administration, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eran Ofir, 96th Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Oren Simcha, and other commanders on his tour of the site.

Katz issued his own statements to the press during the visit, saying that while the border wall is a critical aspect of Israel’s security and defense plans, it comes second to having “an active, pro-active, offensive policy led by the prime minister, the State of Israel, and the IDF, facing distant Iran and close threats alike.”

Later in the day, Netanayhu announced he would hold a security meeting Thursday evening with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director David Zini, and Mossad head Roman Gofman.

The prime minister touts secure border during reelection campaign

The Israeli security establishment currently has a large force, the Border Police, dedicated to ground-level protection across all of Israel’s borders. This is in addition to the IDF presence in the security zones at the borders with Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, which have all been heavily reinforced in recent years due to the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing regional conflicts. 

Netaynahu’s visit to the eastern border comes less than two weeks before the 2026 Knesset elections, the first Israeli elections since before the October 7 massacre. In light of his bid for re-election, the prime minister recently fielded questions from Israeli reporters about the part he may have played in allowing the nation to be taken by surprise on the morning of October 7, leading to thousands of deaths at the hands of Hamas invaders. 

The prime minister has also come under scrutiny for his plan to create an independent ministerial committee to investigate the handling of the October 7 massacre – a plan which was put forward in November 2025 and has yet to be realized.

What is more, Netanyahu told KAN on Wednesday that Likud would keep the Defense Minister portfolio in a future government, while cautioning against distributing ministerial positions before the election results were known.

Shir Perets and Idan Kweller contributed to this report.

Uncorrected past biased edits remain embedded across Wikipedia’s most-read pages concerning Israel, Zionism, Hamas, and Jewish history, according to a follow-up report published by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center for Technology and Society on Thursday.

The report, titled Damage Done: Wikipedia Leaves Biased Edits Unchecked Despite Editor Bans, follows an initial investigation released in March 2025 titled Editing for Hate, which documented a coordinated campaign by approximately 30 bad-faith editors to manipulate entries related to Israel, Jewish history, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Following the release of that initial investigation, the findings became the subject of extensive external pressure, including a US. House Committee on Oversight investigation, a bipartisan congressional letter signed by 23 members, and federal inquiries from the Department of Justice and the Senate Commerce Committee, alongside widespread media reporting and scrutiny from Wikipedia’s own neutral-point-of-view editors.

To understand how editor behavior and article content have changed since their previous investigation, researchers analyzed platform activity using five separate data collections gathered between July and August 2026. These methods included tracking whether edits made by banned users remain live on major pages, comparing editing volumes before and after the 2025 report, and reviewing thousands of revisions and discussion logs across conflict-related entries.

As part of this methodological analysis, the ADL examined public platform communication records and collaboration patterns on Wikipedia. Following the intense external scrutiny, visible coordination metrics among the bad-faith editors dropped sharply. Public user-talk page messaging between group members fell 95.41 percent from 501 down to 23, and same-page tandem editing dropped 87.91 percent from 6,218 down to 752. Total combined edits across the group decreased by 26.65 percent from 182,440 down to 133,817.

Wikipedia retains 91% of banned editor’s changes to key Israel-related articles

According to the report, although Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee topic-banned six editors and site-banned three, it did not systematically review or correct any of their work. On six flagship articles, including Hamas, Gaza war, Zionism, and October 7 attacks, 91 percent of past edits made by Iskandar323, an editor identified in the original 2025 report who was subsequently site-banned for violating platform rules in the topic area, remain intact in the live text.

A July 2026 review identified 19 active accounts shaping conflict-related pages: eight unsanctioned members from the original cohort and 11 newly identified editors. These accounts use subtler techniques, such as gatekeeping through frequent reverts that undo neutral updates, hedging factual claims with qualifiers to turn documented facts into contested opinions, and gradually rewriting or restructuring page sections so no single edit draws administrator attention.

To see how these active accounts shape the current content, researchers tracked who made the most recent change across these Wikipedia pages. Out of 229 articles touched by these accounts, newly identified editors hold the final and current version on roughly six in ten pages 144 of 229, as well as two-thirds of the pages edited by both the old and new cohorts 95 of 142. Furthermore, editors flagged in the report heavily rewrote and managed the content on October 7 sexual violence, accounting for 832 out of 9,576 total revisions, roughly one out of every 11 edits, across those specific articles and their accompanying discussion boards where disputed wording is actively negotiated.

The report detailed several notable examples of enduring distortion. Three days after the October 7 attacks, on October 10, 2023, an editor relocated material concerning Hamas’s antisemitism, human shields, child combatants, and human rights abuses into a far less-read page titled Criticism of Hamas. At the time, the main Hamas page drew close to one million views per day, so readers arriving at the primary entry no longer encountered that critical material unless they navigated to the secondary article. Consequently, the main page’s lead section does not identify Hamas as a designated terrorist organization until its very end.

Wikipedia edits remove details of Hamas atrocities, alter Zionism article

In November 2023, approximately 17,000 characters were removed from the Gaza war article, deleting forensic documentation of victims bound with wire, burned bodies, and attempted decapitations, followed by another cut of roughly 7,400 characters. What remains is a single line stating that terrorists “reportedly engaged” in such violence.

A newly identified account made 543 edits to the Zionism article, adding roughly 193,000 characters and removing approximately 188,000. The resulting lead defines Zionism as achieved “through colonization” and states as fact that Zionists sought a state with “as few Palestinian Arabs as possible,” language Wikipedia’s own editors have internally flagged as disputed and which was locked in place after a 12-month administrative moratorium.

Following the February 2025 return of the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her young sons Ariel and Kfir, an unsanctioned original-cohort editor made 64 edits to their article and discussion page, holding the manner of their deaths open despite Israeli forensic conclusions that they were murdered in captivity.

Daniel Kelley, senior director of the ADL Center for Technology and Society, said, “Even in cases where the Wikipedia community took some modicum of action against editors who went against their policies, the activities of that banned editor remain in this case activity over numerous years driving an ideological narrative in flagrant violation of the neutral point of view policy of the platform.” 

“This speaks to a systematic issue with how Wikimedia allows their platform to operate, and it is something they have the responsibility to address,” Kelley added.

ADL calls for Wikipedia reforms over enduring bias, AI concerns

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, “Banning individual editors was never going to be enough. The pages that millions of people read, and that AI tools learn from, still bear the marks of a systematic disinformation campaign that Wikipedia itself has sanctioned but never cleaned up.” 

Greenblatt further stated, “The most visited online encyclopedia that claims neutrality has to be willing to repair its own record. The Wikimedia Foundation should audit this work, and the companies that build search and AI products should stop presenting contested framing as settled fact.”

Because Wikipedia feeds directly into AI training pipelines, Large Language Model outputs, and search engine results, the ADL has renewed calls for structural reforms. These recommendations include private identity verification for editors in contentious topic areas, ending anonymous IP-address editing, establishing a dedicated task force on antisemitic bias, and conducting structured content audits of heavily edited articles.

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a new US indictment accusing them of conspiring to torture political opponents.

The additional charges, brought last Thursday, significantly expanded the US criminal case against Maduro, 63, and Flores, 70. They previously pleaded not guilty to charges that they abused their power to help drug traffickers ship cocaine.

Maduro and Flores, captured by the US military in a January raid ordered by President Donald Trump and flown to New York, entered their pleas at an arraignment before US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office say Maduro directed officials to torture opposition politicians and military personnel accused of plotting against him to maintain power in the South American country.

In one alleged incident described in the indictment, Maduro in 2014 directed officials to kidnap military personnel to draw information out of them about possible dissidents, and told officials to “squeeze them harder” when some remained defiant.

Maduro, wife face minimum 50-year sentences if convicted on all charges

Flores agreed with the plan in the meeting, and dismissed a suggested alternative plan to glean information by infiltrating the ranks, according to the indictment.

Maduro and Flores are not accused of personally carrying out any acts of torture. Scheduled to go on trial starting on June 1, 2027, they would each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 50 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Relations between Maduro, a socialist, and the United States were tense during his 13 years in power leading the oil-rich country.

Successive US administrations imposed sanctions on top Venezuelan officials and key state companies, citing alleged human rights violations, corruption, and election-rigging. Maduro accused the United States of seeking his ouster to gain greater control of the South American country’s natural resources.

US capture of Maduro paves way for reset in Venezuela relations

The pressure campaign culminated with the January 3 raid, when the US military captured Maduro and Flores at their Caracas home and brought them to the United States to face drug trafficking charges announced that same day. Since then, they have been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has led Venezuela since his capture and has ramped up cooperation with the United States. Trump has touted Maduro’s capture and the reset of relations with Venezuela as a key foreign policy success heading into the November 3 midterm elections in which his fellow Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress.

A summit by the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA), held Monday through Wednesday, brought together 80 leaders from the economic development, corporate, and government sectors involved in Israel-US business relations, the agreed to deepen economic and commercial ties between the two countries.

The summit ended Thursday with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish “a national gateway for market intelligence, investment missions, Israeli business delegations, and joint technology pilots.” MIBA also unveiled the creation of the US-Israel Innovation Exchange (USIIE).

This new initiative will unify several projects working on expanding commercial cooperation between Israel and the US into one nationwide platform, enabling it to accelerate the development of partnerships, cross-border investment, and job growth.

“US-Israel economic collaboration is vital to the growth and competitiveness of both nations,” said Mark Davidoff, CEO of MIBA. “For years, states have built successful economic development strategies without the power of a collective approach. USIIE turns those individual wins into a powerful, nationwide hub,” he added.

The convention was held in Detroit and featured roundtables and keynotes on capital deployment, technology transfer, and Israel’s role as a catalyst for US regional economies.

“A strong US-Israel economic relationship is not simply a matter of trade; it’s also a strategic asset that strengthens innovation, competitiveness, and resilience,” said Chaim Martin, Israel’s economic attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Israeli companies’ $13.5 billion value in New York

The announcement also explained the impact of Israeli companies operating in the US, with data from the MIBA showing that Israeli companies in New York generated over 28,500 jobs and $13.3 billion in economic value.

Additionally, the MIBA said that, since its foundation in 2021, it has managed to connect over 5,000 business leaders and driven over $90 million in direct economic impact.

“We believe that the synergies created by the MOU will set the foundation to expand the already significant economic activity geometrically,” Davidoff commented.

The official statement by MIBA says that the USIIE will manage to mirror these achievements across the United States, with Howard Handler, Chair at MIBA, saying that “this is the beginning of a much larger economic movement.”

“Our vision is to build the US-Israel Innovation Exchange into one of the country’s leading platforms for connecting Israeli innovation and American markets, industries, and communities,” Handler added.

The most effective way to defeat the Houthis and reverse their territorial gains would be to empower government forces to fight the group, though such support cannot come from the United States or Israel, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defense and security think tank, told The Jerusalem Post.

Speaking anonymously to protect his connections in Yemen, “A” said international forces need to view the war in Yemen differently from the fight against al-Qaeda, which struggled to hold territory and maintain control. He also advised against viewing the conflict through an international lens, framing it as purely a proxy war between Saudi and Iranian-backed groups rather than a local conflict between a legitimate but ill-equipped government and an armed group over domestic grievances.

“Locals who deal with local dynamics are there to stay, so they have a better understanding of how to navigate the complexities,” he reasoned, noting that international framing could also allow the Houthis to profit from the narrative that they are defending the Yemeni people against foreign aggression.

Empowering local forces also means more than supplying weapons, he stressed, noting that the Houthis have been able to exploit deprivation in Yemen. The civil war, drought and other natural disasters have contributed to one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.

Even before the latest escalation in the conflict, more than 17.1 million Yemenis were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, including five million on the brink of famine, according to the UNHRC.

Houthi support can be undermined by quality government

Support for the Houthis can be threatened if local populations can be offered a good quality of life in areas governed by the legitimate authorities, he said.

Pointing to the heavily populated city of Taiz, the war’s new front line, he noted that the siege 10 years prior was designed to systematically deprive civilians, spreading suffering as a means to apply pressure, and it was using the same strategy now.

The Houthis first attempted to take control of Taiz in 2015, seizing control of military bases, the local airport, and key government infrastructure. By August, the streets were overrun by members of the pro-government resistance and, unable to capture the city in full, it encircled the territory, blocking the entry of fuel, water, medicine, and commercial goods.

Though international truces occasionally diluted the impact of the siege, it wasn’t until 2024 that a main road opened, allowing the transport of goods and people.

Since early October, the Houthis have begun encircling the city.

Without arms, government can’t counter Houthi threat

A warned that without arms, local authorities will be able to do little to break the blockade.

“The Houthis are being armed by the Iranians, and they’re not hiding that. They’re not denying it. The other side is still trying to convince the international community to give them access to what’s necessary,” he said.

He stressed that despite sharing a common enemy with the internationally recognized government of Yemen’s forces, Israel and the United States should not directly arm or fund them.

Instead, their role should be limited to disrupting Iranian weapons shipments to the Houthis. Any more direct involvement, A warned, could play into the Houthis’ hands.

Having built much of their support around portraying themselves as defenders of Gaza, the Houthis could exploit any perceived association between Yemen’s government and Israel to undermine its legitimacy and strengthen their own position.

Over two years into my second term as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I have heard countless speeches and witnessed countless moments. But some words stay with you.

“Hope is still mandatory.”

Those words were spoken by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered in Hamas captivity. A few months ago, we invited Rachel to address an international gathering of counterterrorism agency heads from UN member states in New York, making her the first Israeli to address the conference in years.

I remember listening to her and asking myself: After everything she has endured, how can she still hold on to hope? The answer became clear: resilience.

Resilience: The secret to holding onto hope after October 7

Three years ago, on October 7, Hamas invaded Israel and tried to destroy the Jewish state.

It murdered families in their homes, burned people alive in safe rooms, slaughtered young people at a music festival, and fired thousands of rockets at Israeli communities. It dragged 251 men, women, and children into Gaza and subjected them to unimaginable cruelty.

October 7 changed Israel forever. It wounded us. It left scars that will never fully disappear. But it did not break us.

Three years later, the defining story of October 7 is not only what Hamas did to us. It is the resilience we showed afterward. We chose to rebuild.

Resilience is part of our DNA. Our history has taught us that resilience is more than surviving tragedy. It is the strength to rise from it, rebuild, and choose life.

We have seen that resilience throughout our history. We saw it in the generations that survived persecution and exile. We saw it in Holocaust survivors who, after losing everything, dedicated themselves to rebuilding Jewish life and building the State of Israel.

On October 7, we saw that same resilience. Parents protected their children. Soldiers rushed into battle. Ordinary citizens became heroes, saving strangers and carrying the wounded to safety.

While Israel fought against its enemies, its people refused to leave its hostages behind. That determination showed who we are: a nation that leaves nobody behind. A nation that couldn’t move forward until all our loved ones came home.

Eliya Cohen and Ziv Abud exemplified that resilience better than most. On October 7, the couple was at the Nova music festival when Hamas terrorists attacked. They fled to a bomb shelter, where they faced grenades and gunfire. Abud survived by hiding among the bodies of those who had been murdered. Cohen was taken hostage and spent 505 days in captivity.

For months, Abud advocated relentlessly for Cohen’s return. When Cohen finally came home, their ordeal was not over. They had to begin the difficult process of rebuilding lives that were shattered by an experience neither of them should ever have endured.

And yet, they chose to build. On August 19, they celebrated their wedding and the future they had fought so hard to reach. Their marriage was not a denial of their pain or an attempt to leave October 7 behind. It was a declaration that what happened to them would not determine the rest of their lives. They chose each other. They chose a future. They chose life.

This year, I invited Abud and Cohen to speak together for the first time as a married couple at the United Nations. I wanted their resilience to be heard.

Their story is also the story of thousands of Israelis carrying invisible wounds. It is the families who spent sleepless nights with their children in bomb shelters, and the parents who still flinch when they hear a siren. It is the soldiers who lost lifelong friends and returned from battle with life-altering injuries. It is the families who lost sons and daughters and nevertheless found the strength to keep raising their children and moving forward.

Their sacrifices were not in vain. Three years after October 7, Israel is stronger than it was on that terrible morning. We have confronted threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other forces determined to destroy us. We have strengthened our alliances and expanded our circle of peace.

Despite these accomplishments, Israel still faces challenges. Hamas and Hezbollah must be disarmed. Iran continues to seek Israel’s destruction.

At the United Nations, the campaign to demonize Israel continues. The country that suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks of the 21st century now faces accusations of genocide, war crimes, and starvation. Those who should be defending the truth have instead turned the victim into the accused.

Today, we have one message: Israel is still here. We are raising our children, building our communities, developing our hi-tech sector, strengthening our alliances, and expanding our circle of peace.

After everything we have endured, we continue to choose life.

Three years later, we remember the victims. We honor the survivors. We stand with the families who continue to carry unimaginable pain because hope is still mandatory.

We do what the Jewish people have always done. We rise. We rebuild. And we choose life.

The writer is the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

The Iranian regime told Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon to be prepared for the United States to resume the war with Iran, following Wednesday’s report that Iran currently estimates that “an American attack is only a matter of time,” two diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Iran’s message to Hezbollah, according to the sources, was: “We estimate that an American attack is a matter of time – you should also be prepared.”

According to Lebanese security and military sources mentioned in a report by the Emirati site Erem News, all full-time Hezbollah members who receive monthly salaries were summoned, although it was emphasized that these directions were only preparations for a near-term scenario and not a final decision to go to war.

One prominent change in Hezbollah’s strategy, according to the sources, was adopting elements of Iran’s “mosaic defense” doctrine, which decentralizes military responsibilities and reduces reliance on a central command hierarchy.

A source told Beirut-based independent news outlet Al-Modon earlier this week that Hezbollah is preparing to rearm and rebuild its terror capabilities in the event of an escalation with the IDF amid rising regional tensions.

“If a large-scale war breaks out, it will reach Lebanon. Israeli is waiting for any opportunity for military escalation against Hezbollah, as it is working to convince Washington of the need to renew the war against Iran. Just as Tehran is anticipating the possibility of war against it, Hezbollah is preparing and equipping itself,” the report said.

Hezbollah anticipating, preparing for war

Sources told the outlet that Hezbollah is “anticipating” war and “has succeeded in taking advantage of the extended ceasefire period to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon, both south and north of the Litani River.”

Sources also linked Hezbollah’s rebuilding of militarist terror capabilities to the interception of a truck that was transporting explosive materials from the Bekaa Valley to Beirut.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday that the Lebanese Armed Forces seized a truck at a checkpoint in the Bekaa Valley, which was carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives belonging to the terror group, including TNT and C4.

Ziad Hawat, a member of the Lebanese Forces party and the former mayor of Byblos, insisted the state investigate the origins, destination and purpose of the explosives and “if Hezbollah’s involvement with the state is proven, the judiciary must expedite the adoption of deterrent legal measures against the party, the arrest of the involved leadership and members, and the banning of all its activities, including political activity.”

Defense Minister Katz threatens to seize Lebanese territory in retaliation to aggression

Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened on Wednesday that Israel would seize additional territory in southern Lebanon should Hezbollah launch attacks in coordination with Iran.

“If Hezbollah joins Iran in an attack on Israel, it will be dealt a heavy blow and lose additional territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatiya and the Litani [River], which will become part of a permanent Israeli security zone – the IDF is prepared to launch a [new expanded] invasion,” Katz said during a visit to the IDF’s buffer zone.

James Genn, Danielle Greyman-Kennard, and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

A German court on Thursday handed two men prison sentences of up to 8-1/2 years for planning to kill the leader of a Jewish organization in Germany, saying one man had been steered by Iran’s intelligence service.

One man, previously identified as Danish national Ali S., was sentenced to eight years and six months for preparing an assassination and aggravated arson, judges ruled.

“The court is convinced that the defendant, S., was recruited by the Iranian secret service and integrated into it to carry out state-sponsored terrorist activities in Germany under Iran’s direction,” the court in the northern city of Hamburg said in a statement.

The Iranian Embassy in Germany did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another man, previously named as Afghan national Tawab M., was sentenced to four years and six months for his role in the plot.

The verdicts, which can be appealed, come as a war with Iran launched by the United States and Israel in February has spilled over into an escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

German federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against the two men in May.

Iranian intelligence plot targeted prominent German Jewish leaders

The court said that in early 2025, S. was tasked with gathering information on the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, and the Chairman of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck.

He was also instructed to spy on two Jewish grocers in Berlin, they added.

Likud asked Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday evening to involve the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in examining suspected foreign interference in the election, following a report that foreign diplomats had approached haredi political figures about supporting a government led by Gadi Eisenkot.

In a letter sent by attorney Ilan Bombach, the party requested verification of the report and urged Sohlberg to consider urgent measures to address the suspected interference. A copy was sent to Shin Bet director David Zini.

The request rests on a report from Israel Hayom published earlier Wednesday, which alleged that diplomatic representatives of countries friendly to Israel recently contacted unnamed ultra-Orthodox (haredi) political figures to explore whether their parties might support Eisenkot and join a government under his leadership. The diplomats also asked which rabbis make the decisions guiding the parties’ political positions.

Diplomats concerned that a government dependent on support from Arab parties would be unstable

Israel Hayom reported that the approaches reflected concerns among the diplomats that a government dependent on support from Arab parties would be unstable and that its collapse could allow Benjamin Netanyahu to return to power. The contacts sought to assess whether haredi participation could provide a more durable basis for an Eisenkot-led government, according to the report. 

Neither the report nor Likud’s letter identifies the countries, diplomatic representatives or haredi political figures involved.

Bombach argued that the election must be conducted independently through Israel’s democratic political system. Planned activity by foreign governments to promote a candidate, pressure political figures or coordinate moves favoring their preferred government would go beyond accepted diplomatic conduct, he wrote.

Such activity “goes beyond expressing positions and accepted diplomatic activities, and gravely harms the core of Israeli democracy,” Bombach wrote.

Letter questions whether the Shin Bet has the authority to act

The letter does not, however, establish whether the reported conversations were limited to exploring political positions and possible coalition arrangements or included attempts to exert pressure. That distinction remains central to the suspicion Likud wants examined.

“The serious information in the report requires examination and verification by the Shin Bet,” Bombach wrote, referring to Sohlberg’s ongoing contacts with the agency over protecting the integrity of the election and preventing foreign influence.

To support the request, Bombach cited Section 7 of the 2002 Shin Bet Law, which addresses the service’s responsibilities and powers. He referred specifically to provisions concerning the protection of Israel’s democratic system and institutions, and the prevention of unlawful activity intended to harm state security or those institutions.

Bombach’s request for preventive action was conditional: if the examination raised suspicions falling within the Shin Bet’s responsibilities and powers, the agency should act to prevent and thwart the threats.

The letter therefore asks the authorities first to establish what occurred and whether the Shin Bet has the authority to act.

In its concluding request, Likud urged Sohlberg to consider “urgent measures” to address the suspected foreign influence. It did not specify what those measures should be or seek a particular order against a party, candidate or diplomatic representative.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that he spoke with the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and claimed that he stopped last year’s massacres of Druze in Syria.

“It was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the massacre was stopped,” Netanyahu said at a conference with representatives of the Druze community. He added: “There is still work to be done; I cannot reveal everything.”

Netanyahu also emphasized his commitment to protecting the Druze community. “We took down the Defense Ministry in Damascus – just like that, gone – we took down a target inside the Palace compound, and I called Sharaa. It was a very short and sharp conversation, and the massacre stopped. I will do whatever it takes to protect our brothers, your brothers, and our brothers; we will not allow a massacre to be committed, and they must also be returned to their homes. This commitment comes from the depths of my soul,” he said.

Defense Minister Katz says Syria preparing to resume massacres of Druze

Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed at the conference that Sharaa will resume attacks on the Druze in Syria if Netanyahu is not re-elected.

“The president of Syria has already prepared the Arab tribes, he has prepared the internal security forces, he has prepared the Syrian army for one thing. He is waiting to see what happens in the elections, and he prays that Netanyahu will not be elected – at that exact moment, he will continue trying to do what he did.”

The statements come against the backdrop of the turmoil Syria has been experiencing in recent years, particularly since the rise of Sharaa‘s administration. In July 2025, clashes escalated in the Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria, during which reports and distressing footage of massacres, violence, and humiliation against members of the Druze community were circulated.

In one video distributed on social media, armed men were seen abusing Druze religious leaders and forcibly shaving their mustaches. One clip showed 80-year-old Mirhaj Shaheen in his home in Sweida, as gunmen affiliated with Sharaa’s forces shaved his mustache against his will while he pleaded with them to refrain. Members of the Druze community in Israel claimed that Shaheen was subsequently murdered.

Following the escalation and the horrific footage, the IDF reinforced its forces along the border with Syria out of concern for an uprising among young members of the Israeli Druze community. Hundreds of community members gathered near the border fence at the time, attempting to cross into Syrian territory to assist their brethren. This occurred after dozens of Israeli Druze had already crossed the border, leading the IDF to prepare for further attempts.

Israeli intervention in Syria creates backlash

Concurrently, disagreements emerged among the Druze in Syria regarding relations with the new regime and Israeli intervention.

A senior figure in a Druze militia aligned with the Syrian regime expressed opposition to a military solution and external intervention in the region. “What is the purpose of this intervention? We do not need anyone to protect us, and this has been our stance since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution,” he said.

Against the backdrop of these events, the IDF struck the General Staff headquarters of the Syrian regime in Damascus in July 2025, from which – according to the IDF – operations were managed, and forces were dispatched to Sweida. Additionally, a military target in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace in the capital was targeted.

Following the IDF strike, Sharaa accused Israel of attempting to destabilize Syria. “The Israeli entity, which has accustomed us since the fall of the previous regime to undermining our stability and sowing division among us, is now striving once again to turn our land into an arena of endless anarchy,” he stated. According to him, “Israel seeks to dismantle the unity of the Syrian people and weaken our capabilities to progress along the path of reconstruction.”

Sharaa discusses communication with Israel, future of territories

Subsequently, during his address at the UN General Assembly in September 2025, Sharaa declared that “the Golan will remain Syrian territory,” alleging that Israel had carried out approximately 500 airstrikes in Syria. He further clarified that his country remains committed to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and rejects what he termed “Israeli aggression.”

In a panel hosted by the Atlantic Council in New York, he also addressed direct communications between the two countries, the future of the Golan Heights, and the impact of the October 7 attack on Israeli policy toward Syria.

Europe knows how to condemn a government without condemning everyone it governs.

When Iranians take to the streets, European leaders do not tell them they are responsible for the Islamic Republic. They condemn the regime and express solidarity with the protesters. Europe sanctions North Korea while speaking of North Koreans as victims of repression. It condemns Hezbollah without pretending that Lebanon and Hezbollah are the same thing.

The distinction has been particularly clear in the Palestinian case. After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacres in Israel, the European Union (EU) repeatedly separated Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian people. Josep Borrell, then the EU’s foreign policy chief, warned against collective punishment and reminded Europeans that “not all the Palestinian people are terrorists.”

Russia complicates the picture. Even before the invasion of Ukraine, the European Parliament distinguished “between the Russian people and President Putin’s regime.” After the invasion, ordinary Russians faced visa restrictions and exclusions from sports and culture. Still, European leaders continued to talk about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war and Putin’s regime.

None of these comparisons is exact. Iran, Russia, and North Korea are authoritarian states. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization whose weapons answer to no electorate. Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and has not faced voters in two decades.

Israel is different. It is a democracy. Israelis choose their governments.

And this is where things get uncomfortable

Across parts of Europe, Israeli universities are treated as extensions of the state. Israeli artists and cultural institutions face calls for exclusion. Broadcasters withdrew from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest because Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN, was taking part. There is growing pressure to keep Israeli athletes out of international competitions.

Official Europe is more careful. When European Council President António Costa supported proposed measures against Israel in September 2025, he stressed that they were “not aimed at the Israeli people,” but were a response to the government’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

Outside Brussels, that distinction is less secure. In debates over universities, culture, broadcasting, and sports, the categories slide into one another. The Israeli government becomes Israel. Israel becomes its institutions. Its institutions become its citizens.

Why? The obvious answer is democracy.

ISRAELIS VOTE, pay taxes, and elect the politicians who govern them. Many serve in the military. Perhaps Europeans are, therefore, entitled to hold Israelis responsible in a way they would hesitate to hold Iranians responsible for the ayatollahs.

There is something to that argument. Israelis cannot have democracy both ways. We cannot celebrate democratic choice when it produces governments we like, and then pretend that governments we dislike have nothing to do with the society that elected them. The death, displacement, and destruction in Gaza resulted from decisions made by an elected Israeli government. European anger at Israel did not come from nowhere.

But there is a long distance between political responsibility and collective guilt.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested against the judicial overhaul. Israelis have demonstrated for the hostages and demanded accountability for October 7. Israel’s research universities went on strike against the judicial overhaul in 2023. Supporting a war does not mean supporting everything done in its course.

And what about the roughly one-fifth of Israeli citizens who are Arab, many among the government’s strongest critics? If responsibility follows automatically from an Israeli passport, where do they fit?

Citizens in a democracy have a relationship with state power. But they are not the state.

Still, democracy is not the whole explanation. Israel occupies a peculiar place in the European imagination. It is not European, but neither does it feel entirely foreign.

Much of its early political leadership came from Europe. Its universities, political parties, trade unions, legal traditions, and public culture were deeply influenced by European ideas. The Holocaust sits at the heart of both Israeli political memory and Europe’s understanding of its postwar self. Israel participates extensively in European research, culture, trade, and sports.

That closeness does not always work in Israel’s favor.

When many Europeans look at Israel’s rule over Palestinians, they see things they recognize from their own history: a powerful state ruling another people, settlements, contested land, and a profound imbalance of power. Much of the language now used to describe Israel comes from Europe’s arguments about its past: colonialism, occupation, settler colonialism.

Europe spent centuries ruling other peoples, building settlements, drawing borders, and calling domination civilization. Much of postwar Europe was built around the determination not to be that Europe anymore.

Israel, therefore, does something unusual. It does not confront Europe only with the Middle East. It confronts Europe with Europe.

Perhaps that is part of what makes Israel so difficult for Europeans to discuss. It is familiar enough to be judged by European standards, yet different enough to carry meanings beyond the country itself. Arguments about Israel become arguments about colonialism, nationalism, war, memory, and Europe’s own past.

The settler-colonial argument takes this further. If the problem is understood not as the policy of one government but as something built into Israeli society itself, the Israeli citizen becomes part of the structure being condemned. The distinction between government and people begins to disappear.

THIS DID NOT begin with Gaza. Before October 7, an EU Agency for Fundamental Rights survey found that 75% of Jewish respondents felt people held them responsible for the Israeli government’s actions because they were Jewish. The war did not invent this tendency. It intensified it.

Government becomes country. Country becomes citizens. Citizens become Jews.

Yet democracy should push us in the opposite direction. Elections create responsibility, but they also reveal disagreement. A democracy contains those who voted for the government and those who voted against it, majorities and minorities, supporters and protesters.

None of this means Israel should be shielded from criticism. Israeli governments should answer for their decisions. Israeli institutions should be judged for what they do. Israelis who commit crimes should be held responsible.

But responsibility should be attached to conduct.

That should also guide European decisions about “Horizon Europe,” cultural programs, universities, and artists. If an Israeli institution is complicit in wrongdoing, make the case and act accordingly. If an individual has done something that warrants exclusion, demonstrate it. Nationality itself should not become the evidence.

And Israelis cannot demand this distinction only for themselves.

Palestinians are not Hamas. Criticism of Israeli policy is not necessarily hostility toward Israel. Hostility toward Israel is not automatically antisemitism. If we insist that Europeans distinguish between Israel and Israelis, we must be equally serious about distinguishing between Palestinians and those who claim to act in their name.

Otherwise, this is not a principle. It is simply an argument we use when it suits us.

Europe knows how to make these distinctions, imperfectly but deliberately.

It should be able to make them with Israel too.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and a professor of European studies and international relations in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

China’s foreign minister voiced support for Palestinians on Thursday, saying China will continue to speak up for the Palestinian cause, according to a ministry statement.

“The Palestinian issue should not be marginalized,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Palestinian counterpart, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, in Baku, the statement said.

Wang urged “all peace-loving countries” to support the two-state solution, according to the statement.

Wang’s remarks came as he also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the sidelines of the CICA Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to a statement from the President’s Office.

The meeting focused on Israel-China bilateral relations and the broader situation in the Middle East.

Herzog highlights Israel-China ties in meeting with Wang Yi

Herzog welcomed the meeting and highlighted the importance of strengthening bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of “economic, trade, and cultural ties, among other areas,” according to the statement.

The two also discussed regional developments, with Herzog emphasizing the strategic threats facing Israel, particularly those posed by Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Just three days before the Knesset elections, the October Council will protest at Hostage Square at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, it announced on the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre.

The rally is “intended to place the demand of the October 7 families – for a full investigation into the failure, the determination of responsibility, and the drawing of lessons – at the center of the public agenda,” the October Council said in a statement.

The rally will be led by bereaved families, former hostages and their families, and residents of the Gaza Envelope, as well as citizens who have been advocating alongside the council for more than two years to demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7.

The rally will be attended by the leaders of the political parties who have pledged to establish a state commission of inquiry. Yashar’s Gadi Eisenkot; B’Yachad co-leaders Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid; Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman; and Democrats leader Yair Golan are reportedly expected to attend.

The council has marked it as the “last major public event” before the elections.

Hostage families demand establishment of a state commission of inquiry, backed by party leaders 

The council is composed of more than 1,500 bereaved families, former hostages, and survivors of the massacre and previously accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s circle of attempting to erase the memory of the October 7 attack. 

The council has repeatedly called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to investigate the October 7 attack, reportedly asserting that “those who deny its significance should not be allowed to bury the truth”.

The state commission of inquiry has the capacity to conduct comprehensive investigations and make recommendations that are both personal and systemic.

Despite Netanyahu’s repeated pledges that those responsible, himself included, would be held to account, Israel has yet to establish a commission of inquiry into the intelligence, military, and political failures surrounding October 7. 

Legislation proposing a coalition-backed, politically appointed commission of inquiry passed its first reading in the Knesset in July 2026. The bill passed with 59 votes in favor, with the opposition boycotting the vote and arguing that the legislation was an attempt to block a genuine investigation by a state commission.

The bill did not complete its final readings before the Knesset dissolved. However, the coalition brought it to a first reading so it could be carried over under the continuity law and resume in the next Knesset.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

A Negev resident has been sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for joining the IDF under the instructions of Kataib al-Mujahideen, a terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip involved in the murder of the Bibas family, the State Attorney’s Office said on Thursday.

He was also given a suspended sentence and a NIS 25,000 fine.

The suspect, Shehadeh Abu al-Kian, also gathered intelligence for the group and transported weapons to the West Bank, according to the prosecution.

The indictment stated that in 2019, Abu al-Kian wanted to “take revenge against Israel and harm its security” after a demolition order was issued for his father’s home, and subsequently stole an M4 assault rifle, a magazine, and a laser sight from an IDF soldier in the Yatir area.

Later, in 2021, Abu al-Qian established contact with terrorists in Gaza through social media and Telegram, and at one point asked to join Hamas’s military wing.

Acting on behalf of Kataib al-Mujahideen, Abu al-Qian provided information and photographs of IDF bases, railway stations, government-owned companies, and shopping centers. He also reported on the movements of soldiers and helicopters near his home.

Joined IDF to gather intel. on Bedouin soldiers

In 2022, Abu al-Kian was instructed to join the IDF with the intention of gathering information about Bedouin soldiers, bases, and military locations for Kataib al-Mujahideen, but was arrested about a week after his enlistment.

In 2025, Abu al-Kian was convicted under a plea agreement that included aiding the enemy during wartime, active membership in a terrorist organization, aggravated theft, carrying and transporting weapons, and dealing in weapons for terrorist purposes.

“This is an exceptionally serious case in which an Israeli citizen chose to act against the state, maintain ties with a terrorist organization, and even enlist in the IDF on behalf of a terrorist organization to gather information from within the military and harm state security,” Kantorovich, who prosecuted the case, said.

“It should be noted that, alongside the criminal proceedings, the defendant’s details were also forwarded to the interior minister for consideration of revoking his citizenship. The sentence reflects the severity of the acts, the harm to state security, and the need for a significant deterrent.”

Former US vice president Kamala Harris criticized former US president Joe Biden‘s administration’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza during the 2026 Asan Memorial Lecture in Seoul on Wednesday.

Harris said that the United States needed to uphold its obligation to international law and that the Biden administration’s response to Israel’s war was a failure in that regard.

The former vice president called out the “failure to use our leverage to curtail the Israeli government’s horrific conduct in the war in Gaza,” saying that the Biden administration should have acted “sooner and more fully.”

Harris also criticized the current US government under US President Donald Trump, saying that it “offers Netanyahu a blank check.”

She also discussed the modern development of American foreign policy, saying that the “orthodoxies of old” were insufficient for current challenges.

“Coming out of world wars, and into the Cold War, military might was the primary source of power,” she said. “But now more than ever, economic innovation, markets and minerals, chips and computers, have greater influence.”

Kamala Harris plays coy on 2028 presidential run

She also said US relations and alliances must be strengthened. 

“The growing relationship between, for example, China and Russia and Iran and North Korea is something we have to pay attention to, and it should be the reason that within our alliance that we are committed to strengthening what must, without any question, happen in terms of deterrence,” she said.

Harris also expressed confidence that Democrats will win the upcoming US midterm election, though she avoided directly answering whether she was considering a 2028 presidential run. “2028, from my perspective, doesn’t matter if we don’t win 2026.”

The latest broadside from former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ronen Bar against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu includes some fascinating new details and discussion.

The most focus has been on whether Bar had Netanyahu’s phone number and whether the prime minister in the past has always taken Bar’s calls or sometimes ignored them.

These are great anecdotes, and the fight over them shows the depth of miscommunication and enmity between the men; The Jerusalem Post will unpack them to explain what they really mean.

But the main point from the start is that all of this is a sideshow.

Netanyahu wants the debate to focus on the night before the invasion, but that is a straw man.

The October 7 disaster was a decade or more in the making, especially with contributions of failures by both the political leadership and the entire defense establishment after the 2021 war with Hamas and during the internal Israeli fight over the judicial overhaul.

The phone call that wasn’t

More on that in a moment, after explaining the phone drama.

Presidents and prime ministers do not have their phones attached to their brains while they sleep.

For that reason, national security staff are nearby and designated to receive middle-of-the-night calls to wake them if needed.

In Netanyahu’s case, I already reported in my new book, IN THE WAR ROOM, that a Shin Bet official, under Bar’s orders, called Netanyahu’s wake-up staff at 6:13 a.m., 16 minutes before the invasion started.

The head of the wake-up staff, Netanyahu’s personally selected military secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, Netanyahu’s personally selected military secretary, decided not to wake him up.

This is not the fault of the Shin Bet.

Gil was Netanyahu’s personal appointee to make these exact decisions for him: when to wake him up in the middle of the night.

In that sense, Bar did not need to complain that Netanyahu did not give him his personal phone number, because Netanyahu would not have picked up such a call while sleeping.

Bar’s unnecessary attack on this issue was made because of Netanyahu’s unnecessary defense: they did not call me on October 7.

No one called Netanyahu personally because the procedure was to call his staff, which was done.

In that sense, it is somewhat disturbing that Netanyahu withheld contact information from the Shin Bet chief, and it could show he never trusted him because Bar was appointed by Naftali Bennett.

When push comes to shove, who is responsible for October 7?

But it is immaterial to who is responsible for October 7.

Netanyahu, the IDF, the Shin Bet, and all officials in their positions going back 10-15 years are responsible because they all participated in propagating the idea that Hamas was contained and deterred.

They neither pushed to see whether cutting a peace deal with Fatah in the West bank would sufficiently weaken Hamas to cause it to be less of a threat, nor did they attack Hamas in a stronger way to topple it militarily (or assassinate its top leaders), nor did they leave enough soldiers on the border to defend against a ground invasion which they were sure would never come.

These were the true October 7 failures of Netanyahu, the IDF, and the Shin Bet.

Add on that all of them misread the 2021 war as an Israeli win, when Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar viewed it as a validation of his strategy to ignite a multi-front war against Israel.

Moreover, add to that that they all mishandled the judicial overhaul internal fight in a way that led to the country being viewed as more vulnerable to attack by Hamas.

Relations between Netanyahu and top defense establishment figures were so bad in July 2023 that he refused to receive certain critical intelligence briefings, lest they expose him to various potential criticisms after the fact.

At the end of the day, whatever happened on the eve of October 6-7 was a tiny part of the story; whether Netanyahu gave his cell phone number to Bar or not does not impact the bottom line, and the person who the prime minister chose to decide whether to wake him up decided not to because he, like everyone else in Israel, could not imagine that Hamas would actually do what they did a short while later.

Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 8, 10, and 11 killed at least 16 people. The deadliest strike, on October 10, killed 12 people and injured 309 others. On October 13, another attack damaged an administrative building at Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran. Saudi forces have intercepted numerous incoming weapons, but others have reached their targets despite the billions of dollars the kingdom has spent on air defenses.

Why are missiles and drones still getting through, and could Israeli technology help Saudi Arabia stop them?

Israel has spent decades developing defenses against different types of aerial threats. Some have already been supplied to the United Arab Emirates. In May, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed that Israel had sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help defend the UAE against Iranian attacks.

There have also been reports of Saudi-Israeli discussions about sharing intelligence through American military channels. Neither government has confirmed such an arrangement, but it raises the possibility of cooperation that would have been politically difficult to imagine only a few years ago.

Why are Saudi defenses struggling?

Saudi Arabia operates American-made Patriot missile batteries and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles at high altitude. The kingdom’s first THAAD battery became operational in July 2025, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

These systems provide substantial protection, but the Houthis have weapons designed to exploit different weaknesses.

Ballistic missiles climb high into the atmosphere before descending at high speed toward their targets. Cruise missiles fly more like pilotless aircraft, sometimes close enough to the ground to escape radar detection until late in their flight. Drones can be smaller, slower, and much less expensive than the missiles used to shoot them down.

A defender facing multiple weapon types at once must identify each threat, choose the right interceptor, and respond before the weapons reach their targets.

A 2020 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Missile War in Yemen, documented the Houthis’ growing arsenal of missiles and drones, developed with Iranian assistance, and their repeated attacks on Saudi territory.

The Houthis have since improved their capabilities. Regional officials told the Associated Press that investigators believe drones were launched ahead of cruise and ballistic missiles during the recent attack on Riyadh’s airport. If confirmed, the sequence would suggest an attempt to stretch Saudi defenses by presenting several threats in quick succession.

The kingdom has faced similar problems before.

After the September 2019 attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities, Washington Institute for Near East Policy researchers Michael Knights and Conor Hiney examined gaps in Saudi radar coverage and weaknesses in the coordination of its defenses.

The weapons appeared to approach from the north, while much of Saudi Arabia’s defensive posture was oriented toward threats from the east. Low-flying missiles and drones could take advantage of radar blind spots created by terrain, the curvature of the Earth, and the limitations of individual sensors.

The researchers recommended better coordination among existing radars, command systems, and interceptors, rather than relying solely on additional missile batteries.

Saudi Arabia’s geography presents another problem. The kingdom covers nearly 2.15 million square kilometers, approximately 78 times the combined land area of Israel and the West Bank. Its cities, airports, refineries, oil fields, military bases, and ports are scattered across enormous distances.

Israel’s much smaller geographic area lets some defensive systems cover several population centers or installations. Saudi Arabia needs far more widely distributed equipment, even though large stretches of sparsely populated desert do not require the same protection as major cities or oil facilities.

Cost is another concern. An inexpensive drone can force defenders to fire an interceptor worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Dr. Sidharth Kaushal of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute discussed the depletion of Gulf interceptor stocks and the difficulty of replacing them quickly in an April 2026 BBC interview. The Financial Times reported this week that Saudi Arabia was struggling with interceptor shortages and ongoing gaps in radar coverage.

Interception does not always prevent casualties. On October 13, debris from intercepted cruise missiles injured four people and damaged 15 homes in Riyadh, according to Saudi Civil Defense.

Which Israeli systems could help?

Israel’s air defenses rely on several systems that operate at different ranges and altitudes. Iron Dome is the best known, but other Israeli weapons may be better suited to some of the threats Saudi Arabia faces.

Iron Dome was developed to intercept short-range rockets. Its radar tracks incoming projectiles and calculates where they are likely to land, allowing the system to focus on threats to populated areas or key installations.

Upgrades have expanded its ability to engage drones and cruise missiles. Iron Dome batteries could protect individual Saudi sites, but their coverage is too limited to defend much of the kingdom’s territory.

David’s Sling, developed jointly by Israel and the United States, is designed to intercept cruise missiles, certain ballistic missiles, aircraft, and drones. Tests conducted in February 2026 included improvements intended to address newer aerial threats.

Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 are intended mainly for ballistic missiles. Arrow 3 can intercept suitable targets outside the atmosphere, before they descend toward the ground. Israel has used Arrow-family defenses against missiles launched from Iran and Yemen.

Such systems could strengthen Saudi Arabia’s ballistic-missile defenses, but they would not solve the problem of detecting and intercepting a small drone approaching an airport at low altitude.

Two less familiar Israeli products could be especially useful for defending individual installations.

Rafael’s mobile SPYDER system is designed to engage aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles. Israel Aerospace Industries manufactures Barak MX, which uses different interceptors against aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, and some ballistic threats.

Either could potentially complement Saudi Arabia’s existing defenses around oil facilities, airports, or military bases, provided the equipment could be integrated into the kingdom’s command and radar networks.

Iron Beam offers a different approach. Instead of firing an interceptor missile, it uses a powerful laser to destroy certain short-range threats. Israel delivered its first operational system to the military in December 2025.

The attraction is partly financial: Firing a laser can cost far less than using a missile against a relatively inexpensive drone.

Its limitations are substantial, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Lasers need a clear line of sight, and dust, haze, clouds, and distance can reduce their effectiveness. They cannot replace longer-range defenses against ballistic missiles.

Israel also operates C-Dome, a naval adaptation of Iron Dome that could help protect ships and offshore installations.

Which systems would be most useful to Saudi Arabia would depend on the targets it wanted to protect, the weapons it expected to face, and the equipment it already possessed.

How has Israel helped defend the UAE?

The United Arab Emirates offers the clearest example of Israeli air defense technology being used by an Arab country.

After Houthi attacks on Abu Dhabi in early 2022, Israeli defense sources told Breaking Defense that an agreement to supply Rafael’s SPYDER system was nearing completion. The publication subsequently reported that an Israeli-made Barak air defense system had been deployed in the UAE, although the precise model was not identified.

The two countries had established diplomatic relations under the 2020 Abraham Accords, removing a major obstacle to military purchases.

Their cooperation reportedly expanded during the 2026 war involving Iran.

On May 12, Huckabee publicly confirmed that Israel had sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help operate them in the Emirates, according to the defense publication Janes.

The Financial Times reported that Israel had supplied additional equipment, including a version of Iron Beam, surveillance technology, and real-time intelligence about Iranian missile launches.

Those details have not all been independently confirmed. An October study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies discussed the reported laser and surveillance deployments but did not independently verify that they took place. Janes also noted that Huckabee’s remarks did not confirm those specific transfers.

There is no public accounting of how many incoming weapons were intercepted by Israeli systems operating in the UAE.

Still, the deployment of Iron Dome batteries and personnel establishes that the Israeli-Emirati defense relationship has moved beyond ordinary equipment sales. That experience may offer lessons for Saudi Arabia, although Riyadh has not normalized relations with Israel.

Could Saudi Arabia obtain Israeli assistance without normalizing relations?

Intelligence sharing would probably be easier to arrange than a weapons sale.

Information about missile launches and flight paths could potentially be relayed through American military channels, giving Saudi crews more time to prepare an interception without requiring Israeli launchers or personnel on Saudi territory.

Regional arrangements already support this kind of cooperation. In January 2026, US Central Command announced the establishment of a multinational air- and missile-defense coordination cell at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. It aims to improve information sharing, joint planning, and coordination among regional military partners.

Israeli media reports suggest that Saudi-Israeli intelligence cooperation may already be taking place.

In September, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing a regional diplomat, that the two countries had discussed intelligence assistance through US Central Command. Ynet and Israel Hayom also reported, citing diplomatic and security sources, that Israeli intelligence was reaching Saudi Arabia through American channels.

Neither government has publicly confirmed those accounts, and it is unclear what information, if any, is being shared.

The Media Line reported in September that senior military commanders from Israel, Saudi Arabia, and six other Middle Eastern countries had attended a US-organized security meeting in Germany. US Central Command confirmed the gathering, but it did not establish a formal military alliance.

Saudi political analyst Abdulaziz Alshaabani warned against assuming that such contacts would lead to open military cooperation.

“Any intelligence coordination would likely remain limited and pragmatic, while Riyadh continues to rely primarily on its own security mechanisms and broader regional frameworks,” Alshaabani told The Media Line.

Purchasing Israeli missile defenses would raise additional problems.

Israel would have to authorize the export, and Saudi Arabia would need arrangements for training, maintenance, software, spare parts, and replacement interceptors. Some Israeli systems would also require American approval because of US involvement in their development.

Germany’s purchase of Arrow 3, for example, required Washington’s consent.

Political considerations could be harder to overcome than the technical requirements.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly insisted that diplomatic relations with Israel depend on the establishment of a Palestinian state. Its Foreign Ministry reiterated in February 2025 that it would not normalize relations without an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

A publicly acknowledged purchase of Israeli weapons would be considerably more difficult for Riyadh to explain than intelligence cooperation conducted through American military channels.

Saudi Arabia has not publicly announced an agreement to purchase Israeli missile defense systems, nor has it officially confirmed that negotiations for such a deal are underway.

Would Israeli technology solve the problem?

Israeli missile defense systems could strengthen Saudi Arabia’s defenses, but acquiring and deploying them would take time.

Saudi Arabia would need its own launchers, radars, trained crews, and interceptor supplies. Iron Dome batteries stationed in Israel are too far away to protect Riyadh. Any new equipment would also have to operate alongside the kingdom’s existing Patriot and THAAD systems.

Israel has its own shortages to consider after prolonged fighting with Iran and the Houthis. Its military needs to replenish interceptor stocks, which could limit the equipment available for export.

Saudi Arabia is also seeking assistance from established defense partners, including the US, Britain, France, Turkey, and Pakistan. Those relationships offer alternatives without the political complications of buying weapons from Israel.

Protecting civilians remains important even when interception fails. Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia stopped issuing public warnings of imminent attacks after September 29, leaving residents without official alerts before the deadly airport strikes. Warnings later resumed, including alerts issued by Saudi Civil Defense for Riyadh and Al-Kharj on October 14.

For Saudi Arabia, earlier warning of incoming attacks may be more immediately useful than new missile batteries. Better intelligence could help its existing defenses respond sooner, while new equipment would require procurement, deployment, and training.

A Saudi purchase of Israeli missile defenses would be a much bigger step, requiring decisions in Riyadh, Jerusalem, and possibly Washington. In the meantime, Saudi forces must defend widely separated cities and installations against missiles and drones that can approach from different directions, often with little warning.

A commander in one of the Basij’s female units was killed in an attack on Wednesday in Mehrestan, a border county in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state media reported. The woman was identified as Afsaneh Aqila.

Aqila, commander of the Afzal Sisters’ Basij unit in Mehrestan, was reportedly assassinated outside her home in front of her children. The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency alleged that the gunmen had links to Israel and the United States, but did not identify the group responsible or provide evidence to support the claim.

In a separate incident in the same province, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported that security officer Mohsen Shahriyari was killed while confronting a “terrorist group.”

Sardar Mohammadreza Eshaqi, the province’s police commander, issued a statement following the killings, describing Aqila as “a woman of faith, courage, and sacrifice.”

“I condemn this terrorist act and offer my condolences and congratulations on the martyrdom of these individuals to their comrades, the honorable people of Mehrestan, and the Basij community of Sistan and Baluchestan province,” Eshaqi said.

Iranian People’s Fighters Front claims responsibility for six attacks 

Attacks targeting members of the IRGC and other security forces in the province appear to have increased in recent weeks. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported earlier this week that at least 94 people were killed and 33 wounded in 63 armed incidents across southeastern Iran between March 31 and October 10.

The People’s Fighters Front has claimed responsibility for only six of the incidents documented by HRANA. Responsibility for the remaining incidents remains unknown.

Security expert Roger Macmillan told The Jerusalem Post that anti-regime attacks have increased since the Sunni group Jaysh al-Adl merged with the PFF. He said there had been significant anger toward the IRGC over its “systematic arrest and torture of their people, many of whom don’t even speak Farsi, and were forced into signing false documents, which have seen them convicted of alleged terrorist attacks, and then executed.”

In one of the most notable incidents last week, Tasnim reported that Lieutenant Colonel Nosrat Eftekhari, deputy for cultural and social affairs of the Law Enforcement Command in the province, was killed in what the agency described as a “terrorist attack.”

Earlier this week, Haalvsh, an independent human rights organization and news outlet that documents human rights violations and security incidents in Sistan and Baluchestan, also reported that more than 20 members of the Fatemiyoun terrorist group were killed or wounded in an hours-long clash on Tuesday. The Iran-backed Shia group is composed primarily of Afghan Hazara refugees and migrants and is funded and trained by the IRGC.

Iranian regime seeking to project strength, public support for Basij

The attacks come as the regime seeks to project an image of strength, cohesion, and public support for the Basij. The Islamic Republic has released numerous images from its Janfada (self-sacrifice) training exercises, prominently featuring women training with guns and drones. Janfada spokesperson Sasan Zare claimed that more than 500,000 women registered within 100 minutes of registration opening for the “National Resistance” battalions, filling the first 1,000 units.

Despite the alleged masses who have registered for the self-sacrifice training, the Iran Human Rights Monitor has reported the regime is using violent criminals to fill its ranks, offering conditional release to those willing to suppress protests and signs of dissent.

Basing its report on testimonies received from inmates, their families, informed sources within prisons, and field reports from human rights groups, criminals convicted of general, violent, or drug offenses were offered repentance forms in August and September and granted bail after they registered with the Basij.

Although reports of personnel shortages in the Basij and IRGC predate the recent attacks, Macmillan suggested that financial desperation could drive people to enlist despite the risk of assassination.

A United States federal judge temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump‘s administration from sanctioning two US-based human rights organizations on Tuesday for working with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

In his order, US Judge Jesse M. Furman cited a 2025 case in which two law professors filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG) sued the Trump administration in July over these ICC sanctions. At the time, they argued that the order “unconstitutionally restrict [s] Americans from seeking justice on Palestine at the ICC and working with human rights defenders designated solely for calling on the ICC to investigate Israeli and American nationals.”

Furman said that DAWN and TAAG raised a similar challenge in their lawsuit against the two law professors, in which the court had decided that the order “violated those plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights because it constituted a content-based regulation of their speech-based activities and did not survive strict scrutiny.”

However, Furman rejected the plaintiffs’ request to declare the 2025 executive order as “facially unconstitutional.”

US State Department says ICC poses ‘intolerable threat’ to US sovereignty

A US State Department spokesperson told The Guardian that, while they could not comment on pending litigation, “The Trump administration has been clear: the ICC poses an intolerable threat to US sovereignty.”

Omar Shakir, DAWN’s executive director, celebrated the courtroom victory, saying that the court had “put the brakes” on the Trump administration’s efforts to “shield from justice the Israeli officials who have perpetrated a genocide and their US backers.

“The court ruling makes clear that the law does not permit barring Americans from advocating for justice at the ICC or working with human rights defenders that this administration sanctioned solely for calling for justice for US and Israeli war crimes,” Shakir added.

TAAG’s Anna Marie Stenberg also responded to the court decision, saying that the judge had “affirmed important First Amendment protections,” and that it was a “significant victory, but our work is far from over.”

Trump administration sanctions ICC after former judge wins Nobel Peace Prize

Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on the ICC on Friday, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.

The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges. Friday’s move would go far further, by potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself.

Washington has denounced the ICC over arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a past investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan, which the ICC has since closed.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday to establish a framework for cooperation on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

The MoU outlines the framework for cooperation as consisting of GIZ providing technical expertise and specialized consultations to the NCAG’s Planning and Implementation Unit for the purpose of enabling Gaza’s economic and municipal recovery.

The signatories of the MoU were Dr. Ali Shaath, General Commissioner of the NCAG, and Dr. Alexander Zuliga, Country Director of the GIZ.

At the signing ceremony, Shaath thanked Germany and the GIZ for their support and emphasized the importance of international partnership in enabling the NCAG to fulfill its mission of rebuilding Gaza.

Also in attendance at the signing ceremony were Board of Peace Director-General Nickolay Mladenov; Martin Maute-Keiter, Head of Development Cooperation at the German Representative Office in Ramallah; Valerie Koppelle-El-Naji, Foreign Affairs Advisor at the German Embassy in Cairo; and the commissioners of the NCAG.

Israel bars international military outpost construction in Gaza

This comes after The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Israel has yet to allow the construction of a military outpost for international troops in the Gaza Strip, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The outpost was the subject of the first construction contract issued in Gaza by US President Donald Trump‘s Board of Peace in August 2026. However, two months later, the source said Israel still hasn’t allowed the project to move forward.

“Israel won’t open the border,” the source said, adding that contractors and trucks have been prevented from entering Gaza to begin construction.

Sarah Moskowitz contributed to this report.

White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia did not pass a US bar exam, despite President Donald Trump describing her as an attorney when announcing her appointment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Zacharia took the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 but failed, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told the WSJ. At the time, she was preparing for her wedding and a move to China, the person added.

Questions about her credentials emerged after searches of attorney directories in California, Texas, and Washington, DC, under both her married and maiden name produced no listings.

Zacharia has claimed she is a lawyer on multiple occasions. When reporters asked her on Tuesday which state’s bar exam she had passed, she replied: “When I moved to China.”

Her LinkedIn profile currently lists her as having a Juris Doctor degree. Notably, if she did not pass the bar exam and has not been licensed, she is not a lawyer by definition.

Fox News also identified her as an attorney at least 18 times when she appeared as a commentator on several different programs. The network did not respond to the WSJ’s request for comment.

Zacharia has also called herself an attorney on other podcasts, news broadcasts, and media appearances.

In a statement, she said: “I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”

Zacharia joined Beijing’s Zhong Lun Law Firm in 2011

Zacharia moved to Beijing in the summer of 2011 and joined the international practice team at Zhong Lun Law Firm. A source familiar with her employment told the WSJ that she was among four international associates who drafted agreements for multimillion-dollar cross-border transactions and communicated with American and multinational clients operating in China.

Another source with direct knowledge of the matter said lawyers later advised Zacharia that her law degree and international transaction experience qualified her to provide legal analysis.

Her LinkedIn profile also lists a position as general counsel at Fix California, the nonprofit founded by Trump administration official Richard Grenell, from January 2024 to March 2025. General counsel positions usually involve serving as an organization’s in-house lawyer, meaning Zacharia would have had to practice law, though she is not licensed to do so. 

Acting as an organization’s attorney in California without a license would be a misdemeanor. 

Someone familiar with her work there said she coordinated the organization’s outside lawyers and served as their point of contact.

Corinne Baum contributed to this report.

Five 15-year-old Palestinians from the West Bank village of Sa’ir were arrested on suspicion of forming a terror cell called the Sa’ir Brigades and attacking Israeli vehicles and communities, Israel Police said on Wednesday.

According to police, the group organized as an illegal military force whose members threw Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli vehicles, roads, and settlement locations in the area.

Police also suspect the teenagers of setting fire to wooded areas near populated communities with the intention of causing the flames to spread toward them. Additional suspicions include incitement to violence and tearing down Israeli flags along roads.

The investigation began after intelligence was recently gathered about youths from the village. Officers from the Judea and Samaria District’s Hetz Yehuda unit raided Sa’ir overnight alongside the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), with support from soldiers of the Etzion Brigade.

The Hetz unit took the five teenagers to the Hebron police station for questioning. Police are expected to request an extension of their detention.

Security forces seized Egyptian-made pistol, tens of thousands of shekels

In a separate operation Wednesday morning, detectives and officers from the unit raided a home in the village of Beit Ula. During the search, they seized an Egyptian-made Star pistol, a Glock pistol, dozens of 9 mm rounds, fireworks batteries, and tens of thousands of shekels in cash.

A local resident in his 60s was arrested and taken for questioning.

That morning, officers also arrested a Palestinian suspected of attempting to run over police while fleeing in a stolen vehicle the previous weekend.

According to police, the vehicle was stolen in the Kiryat Malachi area before breaking through several roadblocks near Gush Etzion Junction, ramming police vehicles, driving over spike strips, and attempting to run over officers trying to stop it.

The driver escaped from the vehicle on foot toward a nearby Palestinian village.

Hetz officers arrested him Wednesday morning at the Lachish crossing in Tarqumiya. They took him to the Etzion police station for questioning, and he will appear in court for a hearing on extending his detention.

When hundreds of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters descended on Modi’in last week to prevent military police from arresting a draft evader, Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer saw a dispute that had gone badly off course. He opposes the arrest of yeshiva students as a tool for enforcing enlistment, arguing that it creates friction and strengthens extremists. But the organized effort to prevent the arrest disturbed him just as much.

“This is not just opposition to serving in the army. This is also lawlessness,” Pfeffer told The Media Line.

Pfeffer chairs the rabbinic committee of the Haredi Public party, a new political party led by Beit Shemesh Deputy Mayor Moti Leitner. The party is seeking a place in the Knesset in Israel’s October 27 election, appealing to ultra-Orthodox voters who identify strongly with Torah life but no longer feel adequately represented by Shas or United Torah Judaism.

Leitner’s political experience began at the municipal level. In 2024, he led the Derech faction to two seats on the Beit Shemesh City Council, campaigning on education, employment, housing, and representation for Haredim whose needs he believed were being neglected.

The national movement emerged this year after its founders sought greater representation within the established haredi parties. When that effort failed to produce an agreement, they launched an independent electoral campaign.

Leitner says the decision grew out of problems he had encountered in Beit Shemesh long before election season: families struggling to make ends meet, limited employment opportunities, shortcomings in education, and an increasingly difficult housing market. Then came October 7.

For Leitner, the Hamas attack turned a social argument into a question of responsibility. He said haredi society had spent years trying to preserve a separate way of life, but parts of that separation had hardened into detachment from the rest of the country.

In his view, the result hurt both haredim and Israel. He said a community that makes up a large and growing share of the Jewish population cannot expect others to carry the burden of defense, economic productivity, and national institutions indefinitely.

The parrty is not interested in winning approval from secular Israeli community

Leitner describes that message primarily as an internal haredi reckoning, not an effort to win approval from secular Israelis. He wants a community that can finance its own institutions, support Torah study through a stronger economy, and rely less on government subsidies or fundraising abroad.

Military responsibility fits into the same idea. Haredi families, he said, cannot assume that other Israelis will always be the ones sent to protect their children, neighborhoods, and cities.

That political argument places Haredi Public inside the Israeli right rather than between the country’s competing political blocs. Leitner told The Media Line that he wants a right-wing, national, and conservative government on economic, diplomatic, and security issues.

He said he would be comfortable joining a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while also favoring a broader national coalition built around those principles.

The party’s difference with the established haredi leadership becomes sharper on military service.

Haredi Public says men genuinely committed to full-time Torah study should remain protected. It does not extend that principle automatically to everyone enrolled in a yeshiva.

Pfeffer said some institutions keep men who are not serious full-time students largely to avoid military service.

“Those institutions are not legitimate,” he said. “Boys who are not in full-time Torah study have to be in the army.”

The dispute comes against a difficult legal background. In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government lacked a legal basis for continuing the longstanding exemption arrangements for haredi yeshiva students. In April 2026, the court ordered additional enforcement measures against men avoiding the draft.

The Knesset subsequently approved temporary legislation in July intended to suspend certain enforcement measures against full-time yeshiva students. However, the Supreme Court issued an interim order preventing that law from taking effect while its legality was examined.

The ongoing dispute has put haredi politicians under pressure from religious leaders seeking to preserve yeshiva study and from other Israelis demanding greater military service participation.

Haredi Public proposes a distinction between students genuinely pursuing full-time Torah scholarship and those whose primary occupation lies elsewhere. Under its platform, men in the second category would be expected to undertake military or other qualifying security service through arrangements compatible with haredi religious life.

Who decides which men qualify for exemptions is where the proposal becomes more difficult.

Pfeffer does not want the decision left entirely to haredi institutions, where he believes internal pressures and political deals could affect the process. He supports a designated state body, with criteria and quotas during an initial transition.

Such a system would require legislation establishing who qualifies for deferment or exemption and how the rules would be enforced.

Pfeffer’s goal is a system in which military service becomes ordinary for haredi men who are not suited to years of full-time Torah study, rather than a choice that carries a social stigma.

Pfeffer himself served in the military after October 7. He said Israelis outside the community often underestimate what enlistment means for a young haredi man.

Separate units, stricter kosher standards, and other accommodations matter, but they do not resolve the deeper issue. The army has been one of the institutions most closely tied to Israeli identity since the state’s founding.

For thousands of haredi men, entering it would change more than where they spend several years. It would alter how part of the community sees itself.

‘Partnership’ over ‘equality’

That is why Pfeffer prefers the word “partnership” to “equality.”

“What we care about is partnership,” he said. “A demand not of equality, but a demand of partnership.”

Under that formula, Israel could keep a significant number of serious Torah scholars in yeshiva while expecting many others to serve, including in regular military units.

Pfeffer also welcomed proposals for yeshiva-based security frameworks that combine study with defense duties, calling the idea “a positive creative idea.”

The disagreement with the established haredi parties goes beyond the draft.

Pfeffer says Haredi Public’s rabbinic committee is not meant to replicate the structure of Shas or United Torah Judaism, where senior rabbis exercise decisive authority over political representatives.

In the new party, he said, rabbis advise and guide, but elected officials don’t simply carry out instructions.

“The lay leadership is not there just to carry out the instruction of the rabbis,” he said.

Pfeffer knows some of the rabbis connected to the traditional parties but said there has been no meaningful dialogue with their leadership since the new party was formed.

He also believes the established political leadership has damaged the way haredi society is viewed outside its own communities.

When Israelis asked for more haredi participation in defense, education, and the economy, Pfeffer said, the response from parliament too often sounded like “a flat no.”

That has consequences, he said, because political representatives become the public face of a much larger population.

“That answer creates not just friction and tension, but also anger, resentment, even animosity.”

Ziva Glanz, fourth on the party’s candidate list, approaches the same problem from another part of Haredi life.

She spent years working in housing, infrastructure, economic development, and immigrant absorption, and said the traditional haredi parties never fully represented her.

Many haredim already work, study, and participate in the wider economy, she said, but the political priorities associated with the community have not always followed them there.

“They wanted to be part of society. They wanted to contribute to Israel,” Glanz said. “They don’t see themselves as the haredi problem.”

Her presence on the list also breaks with a longstanding feature of haredi national politics.

Glanz is one of two women among Haredi Public’s top four candidates. The other, Dr. Nechumi Yaffe, a scholar of haredi society and lecturer at Tel Aviv University, is third on the list.

Their inclusion marks a departure from the practices of Shas and United Torah Judaism, which do not place women on their Knesset candidate lists.

Glanz argues that women taking responsibility inside haredi society is hardly new.

“Women have been at the forefront of haredi society already now for 20 years,” she said. “They are the main breadwinners in their families. They’re running companies, they’re running organizations, they’re running schools.”

What they have lacked, she said, is a seat in the political institutions that make decisions affecting them.

Education is one of the areas where Glanz and Leitner see the existing system as too restrictive.

Glanz wants haredi children to have access to mathematics and English starting in elementary school, along with more state-haredi schools, secondary yeshivas that offer general studies, and higher education programs adapted to religious requirements.

Leitner frames the issue partly as parental choice. He said haredi parents who want state-haredi education often cannot find it because local structures refuse to open the schools they are asking for.

The party’s educational proposals also reflect its economic priorities. Its leaders want more haredi men and women to gain the qualifications needed for stable employment while maintaining religious observance and supporting Torah-study institutions.

Leitner remains firmly Orthodox in his understanding of Israel as a Jewish state, but he also criticizes religious coercion.

On disputes involving different Jewish movements or issues such as public policy on Shabbat, he said the government should recognize that Israelis do not all live by the same religious standards.

In some cases, he argued, transferring authority from the national government to municipalities could reduce conflict.

He was particularly critical of haredi politicians who, in his view, have made Israelis more hostile toward religious institutions by relying too heavily on coercion.

Glanz sees October 7 as part of the reason those older boundaries have become less rigid.

Before the attack, she said, secular and haredi Israelis often behaved as if they were standing in opposite corners of a “boxing match.”

The emergency brought people from different communities into the same volunteer centers and civilian operations.

She calls the network that emerged a kind of “citizen government,” where secular Israelis, hasidim, and everyone between them worked together because the immediate task mattered more than their political disagreements.

Whether that spirit of cooperation can be translated into electoral support remains an open question.

Haredi Public faces established parties with longstanding religious leadership structures, extensive political organizations, and loyal voting constituencies.

It must also clear Israel’s 3.25% electoral threshold to win a seat in the 120-member Knesset.

Several national surveys published in late September and early October did not show the new party crossing that threshold. A separate survey of young voters aged 18 to 22, published by Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth on October 9, indicated stronger support among that age group, equivalent to five seats if its preferences were reflected in the electorate as a whole.

The findings suggest the party’s message may resonate with some younger voters, but a survey limited to that age group cannot establish its support across the electorate.

For now, Haredi Public is trying to persuade voters that its proposals protect traditional haredi life while addressing problems its leaders believe the established parties have neglected.

Asked where he wants haredi society to be in another decade, Leitner did not describe a community with less Torah study.

He described one economically strong enough to sustain it, while tens of thousands more haredim work, serve, and take part in the institutions responsible for the country’s security.

For Leitner, the test is not whether haredim become less haredi. It is whether they can stop depending on other Israelis to carry responsibilities that a growing community will increasingly have to carry for itself.

The Trump administration’s recent search of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar’s home and documents was limited by the warrant approved by a federal judge, CNN reported on Wednesday.

According to CNN, Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the DC District Court limited the Justice Department’s access to Omar’s documents because, as a member of Congress, she has certain Constitutional protections, people familiar with the investigation said.

Sharbaugh reportedly told prosecutors ahead of the search that they would need to set up a process to screen Omar’s records in order to protect her legislative work from the investigators.

The probe into Omar is centered on her immigration from Somalia as a child, which includes allegations that she repeated false statements made back then while filling out recent paperwork, sources told CNN.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators searched Omar’s home in Washington on Monday morning.

Ilhan Omar’s relatives receive subpoenas over immigration probe

On Friday, only a few days earlier, CBS reported, several of Omar’s relatives received grand jury subpoenas as part of the investigation.

Two sources also told CBS that Omar’s personal cell phone had been taken by Homeland Security Investigations during the search.

Omar claimed in a social media post that the US government is being weaponized to target a political enemy of the US president.

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” Omar said. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

US President Donald Trump denied involvement in the investigation when asked about Omar on Monday.

“I understand they’re looking at her very carefully,” he said, calling her “totally crooked” and “a terrible person,” he said.

“That’s really up to the DOJ – I have nothing to do with it.”

Reuters and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

At least 27 students, most of them below the age of 13, and one teacher were killed on Thursday when a school roof collapsed while they were being taught in class in Pakistan‘s Peshawar city, authorities said, and feared the death toll could rise.

Most of the victims were brought dead to the Lady Reading Hospital, along with 20 others who were wounded, hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said.

The private Al-Khair Education Center school is located in Dir Colony of the northern city. Rescue teams were working to shift bodies and the injured to hospitals, government official Bilal Faizi said.

A rescue official said the roof of a higher floor collapsed onto the roof of the first floor of the building, which in turn collapsed on students in classes.

At least 45 children removed from school rubble

Television visuals showed ambulances rushing to the scene and rescue workers retrieving bloodied students from the rubble.

“We have so far taken out at least 45 children from the rubble,” district emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said.

There are reports of more children being buried in the rubble, he added.

Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton spent New Year’s Eve in Dubai with two men wanted for federal charges, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The WSJ reported that Paxton, his girlfriend, Tracy Duhon, and Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, both of whom were indicted months before on federal healthcare-fraud charges, rang in 2025 at a luxury high-rise in Dubai.

Details of the report were contained in court filings and were confirmed by WSJ sources familiar with the matter.

As President Trump weighed endorsing Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn of Texas this spring, he was told that damaging revelations were likely to surface about Paxton, according to people familiar with the conversations. Trump was dismissive and said there would be more negative material about Democratic nominee James Talarico. Trump plowed ahead and endorsed the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general, helping him win the Republican-primary runoff in May. Months later, that decision is looking like Trump’s biggest gamble of the midterms. Despite efforts by Paxton to paint his opponent as a far-left zealot, Talarico consistently holds a narrow lead in polls, raising a once unthinkable possibility: A Democrat could win statewide office in Texas for the first time since 1994. Meanwhile, damaging revelations about Paxton continue to emerge. A new scene that could join the list: a previously unreported New Year’s Eve 2024 celebration where Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife. As fireworks exploded over the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to welcome 2025, Paxton and his girlfriend Tracy Duhon watched from a luxury high-rise balcony full of people, according to a video of the gathering viewed by The Wall Street Journal, details of which were contained in court filings and confirmed by people familiar with the matter. Read more: https://t.co/RTgNFmUuhn

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 13, 2026

The video provided by the WSJ shows Paxton, Duhon, Ahmed, and Suhail standing on a balcony as fireworks light up the Burj Khalifa.

A federal court in Illinois indicted Ahmed and Suhail in 2024 for embezzling over $15 million from a Chicago hospital, the WSJ reported, citing court records and people familiar with the matter.

Ahmed was also charged as being part of a larger scheme involving at least $195 million in alleged payments from the government for fraudulent COVID-19 tests. He pleaded not guilty to the second charges.

The WSJ noted that Ahmed donated up to $190,000 to Paxton, including $25,000 days after he was indicted.

The pair did not return to the US after their indictments, but have since returned to face their charges.

Ahmed’s attorneys claim in court filings that he was abroad when he was first indicted, and that family health issues delayed his return.

Suhail’s attorneys said that civil matters in Dubai affected his return to the US.

What else has Paxton been accused of?

The WSJ marks the latest in Paxton’s string of controversies, some of which stretch as far back as 2008.

In 2015, he was indicted for felony security charges mere months after he was sworn in as attorney-general. He was accused of encouraging investors to invest in tech company Servergy without disclosing he earned a commission. The case was resolved in March 2024. Paxton paid up to $300,000 in restitution, though he maintained his innocence.

In 2016, an anonymous employee accused him of bribery. Paxton leaned on donations totaling up to $329,000 from family and friends to pay his legal fees for the security fraud case.

In 2020, Paxton filed a lawsuit with the US Supreme Court, arguing that the presidential election results needed to be overturned in four states. Paxton was nearly sued by the Travis County district attorney’s office for refusing to turn over his communications from January 6. He also appeared at the rally preceding the attack on the US Capitol.

That same year, several aides in the Texas Attorney-General’s Office reported him to the FBI, accusing him of abuse of office, bribery, and using his office to help a real estate developer. Paxton and the whistleblowers signed a $3.3 million settlement in 2023, but the settlement was later changed to $6.6 million paid for by the state.

The whistleblower suit led the Texas House of Representatives to impeach Paxton by a vote of 121 to 23 in 2023. Notably, 60 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote in a measure of no confidence against Paxton. He was later acquitted by the state Senate and returned to office later that year.

In 2025, his ex-wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, divorced him after 38 years of marriage, citing adultery. This was after reports emerged of Paxton’s extramarital affairs, including with Duhon. 

Talarico leads Texas polls as doubts grow over Paxton

This comes as James Talarico holds a slight lead over Paxton in Texas’s Senate race. If Talarico wins the race, he will be the first Democrat to hold statewide office since the 1990’s.

Over the course of the race, Talarico has attacked Paxton’s jet-set lifestyle.

A party with multiple fugitives and Ken Paxton is still the sketchiest guy in the room.

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) October 13, 2026

“A party with multiple fugitives and Ken Paxton is still the sketchiest guy in the room,” Talarico wrote in a post on X/Twitter in response to the article.

Talarico has also criticized Paxton over other trips during his tenure as attorney-general, citing reports from the Texas Tribune that stipulate that the attorney-general allegedly brought state-funded security details on his trips, which cost millions.

“Working Texans are already struggling to afford the basics,” Talarico said in a news release, as reported by the Dallas Morning News. “They don’t need Paxton picking their pockets to fund his luxury vacations.”

Paxton adviser Nick Maddux did not directly address the Dubai trip in a statement to the WSJ.

“Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years, and every time, voters have seen through it and sent him back to office because they know he has always fought for Texas,” Maddux told WSJ.

However, some Republicans have noted their misgivings about Paxton.

WSJ noted that before Trump endorsed Paxton in May 2026, Texas Sen. John Cornyn privately told Trump that several pieces of damaging information were likely to surface during the campaign season.

Trump dismissed Cornyn’s concerns and told him he believed that more damaging things would come out about Talarico.

As it stands, Talarico holds about an average 2-3% lead on Paxton, according to polling from The New York Times.

A man arrested in a Chicago suburb had shared a document expressing white supremacist views and outlined an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting, potentially targeting a Hindu place of worship, police said on Wednesday.

Alexandros Paporakis, 19, of Palatine, was arrested on Sunday after an individual reported receiving concerning electronic communications from him, Palatine police said. It was not immediately clear if he had legal representation.

Detectives had executed a search warrant at Paporakis’ residence and recovered a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines and hundreds of rounds of additional rifle ammunition, police said.

“Among the recovered items was a tactical vest containing body armor and a patch displaying imagery associated with white supremacist extremism,” Palatine police added.

Detectives examined electronic communications and a document attributed to Paporakis – “Why I Fought: A.K.A.: (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto)” – which had statements expressing white supremacist and extremist ideologies, including references to violence directed toward individuals of South Asian heritage, particularly those of Indian descent.

Detectives believe Paporakis may have been planning to carry out an attack on Sunday, October 11, potentially targeting a Hindu place of worship in Aurora, around 40 miles southwest of Palatine.

“However, the specific intended location has not been confirmed and remains under investigation,” the police said, adding the FBI was assisting in the probe.

Suspect faces charges of terrorism threat, unlawful weapon possession

Police said that following consultation with prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Paporakis faced felony charges of “making a terrorist threat” and unlawful weapon possession.

The suspect appeared for a detention hearing on Wednesday, where a judge ordered him detained, police said, and his next court appearance is scheduled for October 30.

Human rights advocates have said that hate against South Asians has spiked in the US in recent years due to factors such as rising anti-immigration rhetoric and policies as well as a rise in white supremacist ideology.

A group of 72 retired United States generals, admirals, and other high-ranking military officers wrote an open letter to the US government on Wednesday, urging it to cancel the planned livestream of the execution of Nidal Hasan.

“We ask the President, our Congressional representatives, and our fellow citizens to act to prevent this barbaric abuse of authority,” the letter read. 

According to the retired officials, executing Nidal Hasan in such a public manner could turn him into a martyr.

Other objections to the livestream of the execution by firing squad detailed in the letter included that it could constitute a violation of the US Constitution’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and that it would turn what should be a “solemn and grave punishment” into a “carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators.”

“This type of exploitative broadcasting – that debases human dignity- will taint the honor of the military that employs it, and a nation that allows it,” the retired officials wrote.

 
“It will be used by our nation’s enemies to stoke hatred, harm American soldiers and citizens in the future, and will ensure that Hasan becomes a martyr for attacking and killing his fellow soldiers.”

Trump reconsidering livestream plans after learning Hasan uses wheelchair

The letter followed reports that US President Donald Trump was wavering on whether to livestream the execution after learning that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, CNN reported on Wednesday.

According to multiple officials, Trump was not initially aware that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be announcing the livestream of the execution, and polled several advisers and allies on how he should proceed.

“There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it,” Trump told reporters over the weekend. “Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So, I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”

Sources also told CNN that the Pentagon was reevaluating the livestream plans, and that even if it did go ahead, footage would likely be cut before shots were fired.

Hasan sentenced to execution after mass shooting in military base medical facility

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013, after finding him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder for opening fire with a laser-sighted handgun in a medical facility at the sprawling central Texas military base.

The shooting came weeks before Hasan, now 56, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan. He was left partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after being shot by police during his arrest.

Reuters and Sarah Moskowitz contributed to this report.

Two days after the Hamas-led massacre of October 7, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told local leaders in southern Israel: “We will change the face of the Middle East.”

At the time, the declaration sounded like a statement of resolve in the aftermath of a national catastrophe. Hamas had breached Israel’s border defenses, murdered approximately 1,200 people, and taken 251 hostages. Hezbollah was opening a second front from Lebanon, while Iran’s network of armed allies threatened to turn the attack into a wider regional war.

Before October 7, Israel’s security doctrine sought to deter and contain Iranian proxies and avoid the costs of prolonged regional warfare on multiple fronts. I critiqued this approach in my May 2024 report, “Restoring deterrence: destabilizing the Iranian regime,” where I advocated holding the Iranian regime to account for the actions of its terrorist proxies.

The entire defense and security establishment shared the assumption that Hamas could be contained, that deterrence could substitute for a political solution, and that Israel could manage its adversaries through periodic military operations. This conceptzia (rigid assumption) was shattered by the trauma of October 7.

Netanyahu’s response was to promise a fundamental change: not merely to restore the situation that existed before October 7, but to alter the strategic conditions that had made the massacre possible.

Nearly three years later, the regional landscape has changed dramatically. Hamas has suffered extensive military losses. Hezbollah has lost its senior leadership and much of its military infrastructure. Israel has confronted Iran directly, striking targets deep inside the Islamic Republic. 

The fall of Bashar al-Assad has weakened Iran’s regional position and disrupted its former strategic corridor through Syria. Israel has also established forward security positions in Lebanon and Gaza intended to prevent hostile forces from rebuilding their capabilities near its borders.

From containment to the dismantling of threats

Israel would now preemptively act against threats before they are manifested by destroying the capabilities of Iran’s proxies, disrupting their supply networks, eliminating commanders, and acting against threats before they could be used again.

The consequences have been visible on several fronts.

In Gaza, Israel dismantled substantial elements of Hamas’s organized military infrastructure, including tunnel networks, command facilities, and weapons installations. In Lebanon, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah commanders, using an elaborate beeper attack coupled with extensive strikes against their military infrastructure, has been an enormous blow to Hezbollah.

The direct exchanges of 2024 culminated in the June 2025 war, when Israeli forces established air dominance over Iran’s airspace and attacked Iranian military, missile, air defense, and nuclear-related targets. Subsequent American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities underscored the deepening of the alliance between Jerusalem and Washington that Netanyahu had achieved.

The strategic message was unmistakable: geographical distance, military infrastructure, and the protection provided by regional proxies could no longer be assumed to shield Israel’s adversaries from direct attack. 

It was unprecedented for Israel to repeatedly launch airstrikes more than 1,700 km. away from Israel on Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen – primarily Hodeidah Port, alongside Ras Isa and Salif – in response to Houthi drone and missile attacks targeting Israeli territory and Red Sea shipping.

These developments, which demonstrate a substantial transformation in Israel’s operational reach and ability to project power across the region, led me to co-author the report, “Israel 2048: A blueprint for a rising asymmetric geopolitical power.”

For Israel’s new security doctrine to be sustainable, it must consolidate its defense industrial base. After rebuffing former US president Joe Biden, Israel entered Rafah; Biden then retaliated by withholding critical munitions to Israel.

Netanyahu’s response was to turn the crisis into an enormous opportunity, turning Israel into a defense-tech nation by investing in Israel’s arms industry with the aim of becoming an independent weapons-production system and phasing out reliance on US military assistance.

Lebanon and Syria

These developments have shifted the regional balance. Until September 2024, Israel was besieged by Iran’s “Ring of Fire.” Israel began to roll its Iranian encirclement initially with the beeper attack on Hezbollah. 

Then, a few months later, the Netanyahu government seized the opportunity of the Assad regime’s collapse in December 2024: Israel carried out hundreds of air and naval strikes and ground incursions across Syria, targeting research and suspected chemical weapons stocks, strategic missile systems, and arsenals that included Scuds, cruise missiles, sea-to-sea missiles, drones, rocket launchers, and weapons/ammunition depots.

Israel further struck fighter jets, attack helicopters, military airfields, radar installations, tanks, and 15 naval vessels docked at the ports of al-Bayda and Latakia. In the process, Israel destroyed an estimated 70% to 80% of Syria’s remaining strategic military assets. 

Furthermore, Israel’s ground forces moved past the 1974 disengagement buffer zone into southwestern Syria, to establish a buffer zone at the summit of Mount Hermon. This deprived Tehran of a longstanding partner and an important route for supplying Hezbollah.

This led to other opportunities for Netanyahu’s government, including the possibilities for regional intelligence-sharing, missile defense, and security cooperation with Arab governments concerned about Iranian military power. 

Saudi normalization remains a diplomatic objective, in which Israel can offer the Saudi kingdom operational support against the Houthis that can be converted into enduring strategic gains. 

As part of CENTCOM, Israel can coordinate with Saudi Arabia to shore up its defenses against Iran and the Houthis – as opposed to Turkey or Pakistan, which, as part of the Mecca Accords with Saudi Arabia, failed to come to its defense. It is a matter of time till this translates into a diplomatic initiative between Riyadh and Jerusalem.

Buffer zones and the new geography of Israeli security

Another important feature of the post-October 7 strategy has been the emphasis on forward defense.

In Gaza and southern Lebanon, as well as in the Syrian separation zone, Israel has sought to create a buffer to prevent Hamas and Hezbollah from reconstituting their capabilities, while providing Israel warning time and intelligence access that would shield its communities from Hamas and Hezbollah attacks.

In July 2026, Netanyahu rebuffed the Trump administration’s pressure to withdraw from the security zone in southern Lebanon, and reaffirmed that Israeli forces would remain for as long as he considered necessary to protect northern communities. This was quite a feat and cannot be taken for granted. 

It resulted in Israel advancing past the Litani River and capturing the strategic Beaufort Castle near Nabatieh, only to uncover an extensive Hezbollah tunnel network near the border containing fortified military hardware, in which missiles and drones were stored.

The next phase must be strategic, not simply military

Operational success entails Israel continuing to destroy targets, eliminate commanders, and disrupt supply networks, which will give it freedom of action. Ironically, those calling for Israel to have a long-term strategy and continue to degrade the capabilities of adversaries are the same who conspiratorially claim that this is Netanyahu’s personal war to extend his term in office. 

For Israel’s operational achievements to continue and strategically ensure Israel’s security remains enhanced in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel must continue to degrade the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah, so that they can be replaced with other factions that are not radicalized. 

In Gaza, that means a credible framework that prevents Hamas from reconstituting its military capabilities and establishes workable governance. 

In Lebanon, it means a security arrangement that prevents Hezbollah from rebuilding its offensive infrastructure near Israel’s border. 

With Iran, it means maintaining the ability to prevent the restoration of acute threats while avoiding an indefinite cycle of escalating conflict.

It is a matter of time until there is another round of military strikes against Iran, which retains its missile infrastructure and is working to restore its nuclear capabilities. The intentions of Syria’s new leadership remain uncertain, and Israel cannot afford to presume enduring quiet on the northern front. 

Similarly, it is a matter of time till the Houthis launch rockets and drones at Israel as Iran replenishes its missile infrastructure.

The task now is for Netanyahu to make the gains endure: to translate military reach into deterrence, forward defense into secure borders, battlefield leverage into regional cooperation.

It is precisely Netanyahu’s revolution of Israel’s security doctrine, and Israel’s increased power projection, that serve as a pathway to a lasting regional framework that includes Israel and its Arab neighbors. This will be achieved by Israel leveraging its military strength to recast the Middle East’s strategic landscape.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London. Follow him at @BarakSeener

Newly appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has claimed that she is lawyer on multiple ocassions.

However, several reports have emerged that Zacharia allegedly is not licensed to practice law. 

Independent journalist and lawyer Judd Legum found several instances in which Zacharia referred to herself as a lawyer.

Legum found that she called herself a lawyer in Fox News appearances 18 times alone and frequently referred to herself as a lawyer on her social media accounts.

“As a lawyer, the procedural steps are absolutely critical to get this right,” Zacharia said on an episode of “Fox and Friends First” on August 31.

But neither Legum nor The Washington Post found any bar admissions in any state under Zacharia’s name or maiden name. 

Did Katie Zacharia sit the bar exam?

Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University’s School of Law in 2011. However, The Jerusalem Post found that her LinkedIn profile states she earned a Juris Doctor degree, meaning she is licensed to practice law. Her LinkedIn does not list any current or past membership in a bar association.

If Zacharia did not sit for or pass the bar exam and was not admitted to any state’s bar, she is not a lawyer by definition.

Zacharia’s LinkedIn page states that she worked as an associate on the international practice team at Chinese law firm Zhong Lun from 2011-2013.

Legum noted in his newsletter that she could plausibly have practiced in China, since the work does not directly involve American courts.

That being said, she would not have been admitted to the Chinese bar association because she is not a citizen of China, which is a requirement for the exam, The Washington Post noted.

She also claims to have worked as general counsel for Fix California, a nonprofit founded by Trump ally Richard Grenell.

Generally, a general counsel is an organization’s chief legal officer, meaning Zacharia would have had to engage in the practice of law. Notably, acting as an organization’s attorney in California without a license would be a misdemeanor. 

A spokesman for the State Bar of California, where Zacharia resides, told The Washington Post that it “has no record of Kate Sharon Zacharia or Kate Sharon Black having been licensed to practice law in California.” 

Zacharia evades questions on legal license

The Trump administration has cited her legal work as part of her qualifications for the job.

US President Donald Trump specifically called Zacharia an attorney in his message announcing that she would be stepping into the role.

“Katie is a distinguished Graduate of Pepperdine University and the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, an attorney, and a frequent Commentator on outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.

Journalists pressed Zacharia and Trump for more details about her credentials after Zacharia’s first press briefing on Tuesday.

President Trump on White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia: “I thought she was very good.” Q: “You said she’s an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?” Zacharia: “When I moved to China.” Q: “Where did you pass the bar exam?” https://t.co/5xiwyEsVSs

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 13, 2026

“What state did she pass the bar exam in? You said she is an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?” One reporter asked.

“Which state?” Trump asked.

“When I moved to China,” she appeared to say through muffled audio.

The White House did not clarify whether or not she is a licensed, practicing attorney.

“Katie moved to China with her husband after graduating because of his job at an American private equity firm while she worked on international transaction law,” the White House said in a statement.

The United States military has developed strike plans against Iran that include using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), colloquially known as the “mother of all bombs,”  the largest non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal, CNN reported on Thursday.

According to CNN, multiple US officials said that the plans called for the MOAB to be used against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, including Pickaxe Mountain.

Another source said that the phrasing used in the plan was that the attack would come “prior to US retrograde in CENTCOM AOR (area of responsibility),” meaning that the US might strike Iran and then immediately pull its forces out of the region.

Several of US President Donald Trump’s advisors have also told CNN that, despite Trump’s claims that he would not take further action against Iran before the US midterms, it remains unclear whether he will change his mind before Election Day.

The potential deployment of the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal would mark a significant escalation in the conflict, although officials familiar with military planning discussions told CNN that questions remain over its effectiveness in achieving Washington’s strategic objectives.

MOAB unlikely to penetrate Iranian nuclear sites

According to several sources, the MOAB likely would be unable to penetrate deep below the ground, where Iranian nuclear facilities, such as Pickaxe Mountain, are believed to be.

“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” one source familiar with military planning discussions around Iran told CNN. “It is definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead.”

The source said the MOAB’s main tactical advantage in this scenario would be its psychological effect on Iran.

“POTUS has unfortunately put himself in a situation where he is almost compelled to do something and, without the ammunition designed to penetrate that level… you have to look at psychological effects for which the MOAB is well-equipped,” the source said.

When asked about the plan, a White House official told CNN that “President Trump keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” adding that they do not comment on sensitive military plans.

A Pentagon official told CNN that it “plans for a wide range of operational scenarios to execute Presidential and Secretary‑level direction and to ensure mission success in any operational environment.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Yonatan Urich, senior aide and personal media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met at least twice in July 2024 with senior Qatari official Ali al-Thawadi, N12 reported on Wednesday, citing testimony Urich gave to Lahav 433 in May 2025.

One of the meetings with Thawadi, described by N12 as one of Qatar’s most powerful figures and a close associate of its emir, reportedly included Urich’s business partner, Yisrael “Srulik” Einhorn, and lobbyist Jay Footlik, whom Urich has previously denied knowing or meeting.

During his questioning, investigators asked Urich about testimony from a former senior Mossad official identified as  S., who alleged that he and Einhorn had met Thawadi – referred to as “head of the Israel project” – at least twice

“According to S.’s testimony, there were two meetings with Thawadi at which you and Srulik presented your ideas. What happened there?” an investigator asked, to which Urich stated he did not remember presenting anything at any meetings.

He did not, however, accuse S. of lying; instead, he insisted he didn’t remember and needed to “jog his memory.”

Urich’s stance did not change during the exchange; he said he could not remember where or when any alleged meetings took place.

When the investigator specified that the meetings with Thawadi took place after October 7, Urich responded: “If you say so.”

According to N12, the meetings were not part of an official assignment on behalf of Israel, and Netanyahu previously testified that Urich had never disclosed his ties to Qatar or the meetings with Thawadi.

Urich confirmed his phone was hacked, says leakers will ‘pay full price’

The latest update to Urich’s testimony came days after he revealed that his WhatsApp account had been hacked and promised that the people who leaked his private conversations would “pay the full price.”

“Whoever hacked into Yonatan Urich’s WhatsApp and published personal correspondence while adding and changing the conversations will pay the full price,” Urich said in a message shared on X.

“This will also happen to anyone who publishes, distributes, or shares messages. Whoever does so commits a criminal offense, and a personal lawsuit will be filed against them,” he warned.

According to Israeli media reports, the leaked messages included several conversations between Urich and his contacts in which he discussed politics, law, journalism, and political consulting.

The leaker, who posted the images of the chats from an anonymous account, claimed that he had access to additional messages and that he was going to release them to the public later.

Urich’s legal case involving Qatar, PM Netanyahu

Urich is a central suspect in the “Qatargate” investigations alleging corruption within the Prime Minister’s Office.

The case centers on alleged influence by Qatari-linked individuals close to Netanyahu.

It is separate from the so-called “Bild affair,” which concerns reports in the German outlet. The Jerusalem Post has previously reported on intensified scrutiny of both tracks, as well as on the appointment of Shin Bet Director David Zini and recent leadership changes within the agency.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

As the campaigns before the fateful October 27 elections head into their final two weeks, the “shtickim” and “trickim” – as Israelis refer to the shtick and tricks that typify every election and the debate in this one until now – need to stop.

The coalition has plastered billboards and issued online clips warning of “Yamin or Falestine” – a campaign without any attempt to hide its racist overtones that shows Yashar leader and primary contender Gad Eisenkot with the likes of Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi peering out from behind his broad shoulders in a crass attempt to say that if Eisenkot becomes prime minister, he will form a coalition with Abbas’s Ra’am Party.

The Shinui (Change) bloc has nonstop focused on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in the lead-up and aftermath of the October 7 massacre at the expense of outlining and detailing their platforms and plans once they’re in power (save for the B’Yachad party, which has published comprehensive programs for each ministry).

The lack of real content is a major problem for such a crucial election, but more than that, Israeli election campaigns often rely on manufactured crises and last-minute disclosures.

Foremost is the one that could potentially postpone the election – a return to war with Iran. According to an Axios report on Wednesday, Netanyahu spoke to US President Donald Trump last week to discuss the possibility of a renewed military campaign that could target Iran’s nuclear and military sites, with Netanyahu citing alleged Iranian efforts to rebuild nuclear capacity as the reason for launching new strikes.

Renewed fighting could lead to postponement of elections

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir has warned that renewed fighting before the Israeli elections could delay them. For his part, Trump has said he would not make that decision until after the US November midterms.

We, the voters, without the information, of course, have no way of knowing whether Iran’s reported moves pose an immediate threat that would require action within the next two weeks.

But the prime minister has built his campaign and garnered loyalty among his supporters by portraying himself as the strong man who saved Israel post-October 7 against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. An attack and an election delay would certainly bolster that image.

Of course, on the other side, the pre-October 7 timeline and its immediate aftermath are what is driving the opposition. And they’re getting ammunition from timely disclosures almost daily.

Netanyahu’s former military secretary Avi Gil last week alleged that the premier presented an incomplete account of the events surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.

In a splash on Israel Hayom and Channel 12, Gil alleged that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzahi Braverman, sought to alter an official record from that morning by changing the time Netanyahu first received an update on the October 7 Hamas invasion via phone call from Gil from 6:40 a.m. to 6:29 a.m.

Major defamation lawsuit against Netanyahu by Shin Bet’s Ronen Bar 

Adding to the flame is Wednesday’s bombshell: a NIS 3 million defamation lawsuit filed by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar against Netanyahu, alleging that the premier falsely accused him of knowing in advance about the October 7 attack and deliberately withholding that information.

Despite the seriousness of the accusations by Gil and Bar, the timing of the disclosure, less than three weeks before the elections, is suspect. Both Gil and Bar said they remained silent until now, hoping to testify before a state commission of inquiry that Netanyahu has refused to authorize.

But either Gil’s or Bar’s disclosure could have come two weeks ago, after voters went to the polls. These, along with the slew of other accusations that Netanyahu was warned of October 7 by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, coming so close to the elections, can only be seen as creating an artificial crisis.

Instead, with two weeks to go, let’s hear how the parties are going to deal with education, transportation, the environment, the unequal IDF draft, the worrying wave of emigration, the future of the West Bank, and the scourge of settler violence, among others.

These elections are too critical to the country’s future for the final two weeks to focus on sensational headlines instead of the issues the country faces.

Two businessmen on a routine trip were the passengers of the Egyptian aircraft that landed in Israel on September 26, 2023, KAN News reported on Wednesday, citing several sources familiar with the matter.

The report comes amid suspicion that Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Director Abbas Kamel was on board the flight, which was first reported by The Atlantic on Friday.

According to the KAN report, the passengers entered Israel through the Fattal Terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport, and QAS provided ground services before the aircraft returned empty to Cairo.

KAN noted that the flight was not registered as official or security-related, and that the Transportation Ministry, Fattal Terminal, the Population and Immigration Authority, and an Egyptian charter company are all aware of the passengers’ identities. However, the entities will not publish the names, in line with standard privacy practices.

The flight in question has come under scrutiny after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed earlier on Wednesday that an Egyptian aircraft had landed in Israel several days before the October 7 massacre.

Netanyahu denied meeting with Kamel in September 2023 and told KAN he was unaware of who the Egyptian intelligence chief met during the alleged trip.

“I want to know who he met. I don’t know,” said Netanyahu, claiming that whoever had met Kamel was trying to “pin it” on him.

Also on Wednesday, N12 News reported that Israel’s security chiefs were unaware that Kamel had visited Israel in September 2023.

Netanyahu denies ever meeting Kamel despite PMO statement, photographic evidence

The prime minister said he had been attending a memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers at the time, having further claimed in a Tuesday interview with Channel 14 that he had never met Kamel before.

“When does an intelligence chief come and speak to a head of state?” Netanyahu asked. “It hasn’t happened to me once, OK? There’s no such thing.”

His claim contradicted official statements from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that Netanyahu had met with Kamel in May 2021.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with Egyptian General Intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and a delegation of senior officials headed by him at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem,” the statement read.

Footage of the meeting was also published on the prime minister’s official YouTube channel, while an official photograph of Netanyahu and Kamel shaking hands was published by the PMO alongside the statement.

Idan Kweller contributed to this report.

US Space Force electromagnetic weapons played a crucial role in US military operations in Venezuela and Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The WSJ was granted access to a US Space Force base in Colorado, where it was shown some of the Pentagon’s space warfare capabilities, including systems designed to disrupt enemy satellites and detect threats to the US military.

Among the weapons demonstrated was Meadowlands, an offensive system that can jam enemy satellites and disrupt their communications.

According to the WSJ, these satellites are used for surveillance, communications, and navigation.

Meadowlands often operates alongside a defensive system known as Bounty Hunter, which scans the electromagnetic spectrum to detect and locate potential threats to US forces, the report explained. Commanders can then pinpoint the location of a specific threat and order a defensive strike.

Transportable jamming system used by US Space Force

The US Space Force has also accelerated the deployment of a newer jamming system known as the Remote Modular Terminal. The equipment can be packed into a container and transported to locations around the world, allowing US personnel to deploy electronic warfare capabilities quickly.

Over the past year, US Space Force soldiers, known as Guardians, have transported and deployed these systems to support US military operations in both Venezuela and Iran.

According to the WSJ, “In a sign of how important space systems are, Iran repeatedly targeted US space capabilities, including satellite communications terminals, to try to degrade those advantages.

“Satellites help the US detect missile launches, guide weapons, and get a clear picture of the battlefield,” taking high-resolution imagery from above.

Tech.-Sgt. Joshua Lomax, who helped counter threats during operations in Venezuela before being deployed to defend against threats from Iran, described the pressure of preparing for the missions.

“The threat is real,” Lomax told the WSJ.

He recalled having just 72 hours to pack the equipment in Venezuela, load it onto an aircraft, and depart for Iran.

“It was incredibly intense,” he told the WSJ. “Everybody was head on a swivel.”

Importance of electromagnetic waves in modern warfare

The US Space Force also highlighted the importance of electromagnetic waves, which travel at different wavelengths and frequencies and underpin many of the technologies used in modern warfare. These systems connect military assets ranging from submarines and drones to radar installations.

According to US Space Forces’ Combat Forces Command, led by Lt.-Gen. Greggory Gagnon, a key mission for the US is to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum.

“That thing you never see is incredibly important in warfare,” he said. “If we can dominate the spectrum, we can keep our systems, our satellites, our ships, our planes, all connected and working more effectively, but we can also disrupt the adversary’s ability to do it.”

The Trump administration is considering easing sanctions on so-called shadow fleet vessels that have transported oil and petroleum products from countries including Russia, Iran and Venezuela, in an effort to reduce record-high global freight rates, a US official said on Wednesday.

The discussions are happening days after President Donald Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel fuel, a move met with a torrent of criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European countries and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in the US Senate.

Both Zelenskiy and the US senators called that move a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin that would provide Russia with revenue to keep funding its war in Ukraine.

The new talks center on the United States potentially allowing “legal oil” to flow on previously sanctioned vessels, the US official said. That means crude or petroleum products not sanctioned by Washington, rather than Russian and Iranian oil, which are under punitive measures.

The goal is to get more refined products and crude out of the Gulf, the official said.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a video to the World Petroleum Congress in Riyadh this week that the administration was talking about easing the sanctions on shadow fleet vessels in an effort to cut record freight rates that have cut into demand for US crude, according to Energy Aspects, a research group.

Bits of the talk were broadcast on social media, but Reuters was not able to obtain the full video or a transcript. The Department of Energy said it was not available.

Companies seeking to use the sanctioned vessels would have to apply to the US Treasury Department to use the vessels, the official said.

The Department of Energy said any move to relieve sanctions on the shadow fleet would not help Russia to move oil or oil products. The Treasury Department referred questions to the Department of Energy.

But Trump’s push to move Russian diesel to global markets quickly could put pressure on the departments to allow shipment via the vessels.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

High oil and fuel prices are a risk for Trump in the November 3 midterm elections in which Republicans are hoping to maintain control of both chambers of Congress. He lifted the sanctions on Russian diesel through April 7.

Tanker freight rates soar to record highs

Tanker freight rates have soared to record highs as the wars in Iran and Ukraine have stoked inflation and put US crude oil out of reach for Asian refiners, pushing them to ​seek alternatives from the Middle East and Latin America.

Energy Aspects said in a note to clients that easing the sanctions on the shadow fleet would not greatly impact freight rates but could allow more movement of oil in the Middle East.

Lifting the sanctions on the tankers that are mostly old and not well maintained is “unlikely to add meaningful mainstream fleet capacity overnight, especially as most tankers sanctioned over Russian or Venezuelan links have been actively trading over the past three months,” it said in the note.

Easing the restrictions “could make a small number of additional tankers available for certain (Strait of) Hormuz shuttle runs,” in the waterway between Iran and Oman.

Lifting the measures is unlikely to result in a broad easing of freight rates as ship insurers will still be bound by EU and UK regulations, maritime industry sources said.

Israeli diplomats have begun casting ballots abroad for the 26th Knesset more than a week before Israel’s October 27, 2026 elections, N12 News reported on Thursday.

While Israeli citizens are generally ineligible to vote by absentee ballot, exceptions are made for Israeli diplomats and their family members, with the Foreign Ministry and Central Elections Committee (CEC) operating 101 polling stations at 99 Israeli diplomatic missions around the world.

According to N12, about 4,800 Israelis will use the program to vote abroad, and specific mission employees and government envoys are also eligible.

The first ballots were cast in Wellington, New Zealand, at 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Israel time, followed by Israel’s newest mission in Suva, Fiji, at 12:00 Thursday.

The voting will continue westward, according to the report, until the final polling stations close in Los Angeles and San Farnciso on the West Coast of the United States at 6:00 a.m. on Friday.

The report noted that the program’s largest polling station will be at Israel’s New York Consulate, where 700 participants are expected to cast their votes.

Ballots to be transferred to Israel upon completion of program

Once cast and collected, the physical ballots will be transferred to Israel to be counted as a standard part of the upcoming elections, N12 reported.

The N12 report emphasized the logistical coordination required for the program, with the entire voting process lasting around 30 hours.

The physical polling stations and election materials had to be transported to their respective embassies and consulates ahead of time, and the CEC had to train local polling station teams to ensure a uniform and secure procedure in accordance with israeli election law.

Israel has yet to allow the construction of a military outpost for international troops in the Gaza Strip, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The outpost was the subject of the first construction contract issued in Gaza by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in August 2026. However, two months later, the source said Israel has yet to allow the project to move forward.

“Israel won’t open the border,” the source said, adding that contractors and trucks have been prevented from entering Gaza to begin construction.

Arkel International, a Louisiana-based company, is expected to build the outpost, which would measure approximately 100 meters by 100 meters, at a site previously used by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation project, The Guardian reported.

The base would accommodate approximately 150 international troops drawn from a larger group of 500 soldiers already deployed from Morocco and Kosovo, according to the source.

Board of Peace plans can’t continue without initial outpost built 

However, the source said the Board of Peace’s larger plans cannot proceed without the initial construction project.

“You can’t get in without an International Stabilization Force (ISF). You can’t rebuild,” the source said, as quoted by The Guardian. “There’s no security. There’s no deliveries of construction equipment. You can’t even start putting utilities. You can’t start putting in basic life-support facilities, you know, because without the ISF you can’t go in.”

Despite the delays, the source said the Board of Peace believes the Israeli government will allow construction to proceed after the October 27 Israeli elections.

People talk about the concept of resistance to political authority in ways that are often very abstract, but it’s fascinating to see real resistance in practice. The movie Waves, which just opened in Israel, does just that, dramatizing a story of the very sophisticated political opposition to the Soviet Union at a Prague radio station from 1967-1968.

The movie, directed by Jirí Mádl, is based on true events and focuses on two brothers whose parents are dead, Tomás (Vojtech Vodochodský), who is in his 20s, and his teenage brother, Paja (Ondrej Stupka). Tomás is preoccupied with just putting food on the table, while Paja is involved in political activism against Russian control over Czechoslovakia.

Tomás discourages this activism, urging his brother to devote himself to his studies. But Paja is energized by what he hears on Czechoslovak Radio, the international news department, of which is helmed by Milan Weiner (Stanislav Majer), a brave and visionary news editor who inspires his staff and pushes the boundaries of what the station is permitted to report.
When Paja goes to a kind of audition-job interview there, Tomás follows to keep an eye on him.

In a very believable scene, Tomás gets a job as a technician because when a phone rings in the room where they are auditioning, he is the only one to pick it up and bring the message to the editors.

Tomás enjoys his work and respects Weiner and the staff, but is uneasy when government officials pressure him to become an informer. They threaten to take away Paja and put him into an orphanage if he doesn’t cooperate.

The bulk of the movie is about how Tomás manages to play it both ways, giving the secret police just a little information so they will issue warnings but will allow the station to continue functioning.

The situation weighs on Tomás, who is quiet and sensitive, and adds to his worries about his brother. In addition to the personal story of this concerned older brother and that of the ambitious, quirky staff of this rebel radio station, the movie details the events of the Prague Spring, leading up to the Soviet crackdown and invasion in 1968.

The film incorporates news footage seamlessly into the story, which is a beautiful illustration of what it looks like when the personal really does become political. And in a lower-tech era, the tricks they use to keep broadcasting are brilliant.

‘A love letter to news radio and newspapers’

MUCH OF Waves is about the exhilaration of resisting, and how exciting it can be to give people the knowledge they need, which is being kept from them, to make their own decisions.

It’s a kind of love letter to news radio and newspapers, and it is set to a soundtrack of classic rock music, which the staff loves, as well as popular Czech songs from the same period.

The ensemble cast is excellent, and Vojtech Vodochodský makes you feel the tension of the untenable position he is forced into very effectively. Majer is suitably charming as the news editor and Tatiana Pauhofová is appealing as a tough translator who has a softer side.

As I watched, it was hard not to think of the Iranian protests in January, in which the government killed tens of thousands of protesters. Some people say that the Iranian people should bring down their oppressive regime on their own, with no outside help.

But Waves, which was the Czech Republic’s official Oscar submission in 2025, depicts a reality in which those who opposed the Soviet-influenced regime had a great many tools at their disposal, such as radio stations and opposition newspapers.

Yet they were still crushed by the reality of the tanks rolling in. It’s sobering to think that the characters in Waves had to live under this regime for another 21 years.

While Waves is entertaining on its own, as a historical drama, it may make you long for the day when there will be a Persian Spring in Iran that will bloom far longer than the one in Prague did.

The biggest news on Israeli TV this week is the premiere of “The Escape,” the new, all-star series on Channel 12. Based on the opening episode, which can also be streamed on mako.co.il, it’s tense and suspenseful.

It’s also a cautionary tale about why authorities shouldn’t look the other way when a cult leader gains too much power. It feels like a mix of The Handmaid’s Tale, “Shtisel,” and one of the movies about the 1978 Jonestown massacre.

Keshet 12 produced the series, and Keshet International is set to distribute it internationally.

“The Escape” stars Ido Tako, who just won the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the movie Where To, as Yoel, a young man born into a sect that, despite a disclaimer, will remind many of the Lev Tahor cult.

Like that group, the cult in the series preaches an extreme version of ultra-Orthodox observance and has moved its members out of Israel and into the Colombian jungle. Yoel has grown up in this cult from a young age, but he is clearly unhappy there.

He sees other members of the group punished brutally for minuscule infractions, such as taking two slices of bread at a meal, and wants a different life for his son, Nachman. The child gazes at the stream by their compound and asks where it flows. When his father explains the concept of an ocean, he is fascinated, and it is obvious he has lived his whole life in this compound.

Yoel lives with the other men, although he is married to Feigi (Naya Beinstock, who appears in the movie Matchmaking 3). Men and women are strictly segregated, except when husbands and wives can “fulfill a commandment” together on the Sabbath.

Yoel does not seem impressed with the group’s leader (Mark Evanir), who talks about blessings and purity but rules with an iron hand. If the title didn’t give it away, Yoel and his family are planning a jailbreak.

Another major character is Carmeli (Yehuda Levi, who became a star over 20 years ago in Yossi & Jagger and has recently appeared in Trust No One and A Body that Works), a Mossad agent who, at the start of the series, is in a Colombian city.

There, he rescues an Israeli arrested on drug charges from a hospital. A complicated backstory involving his family in Israel is hinted at, and he seems to be the latest incarnation of the brave, workaholic, emotionally stunted covert operative we are used to seeing from so many dramas. But Levi’s charisma breathes new life into what might otherwise have been an overly formulaic character.

The series, which was filmed in Colombia, Georgia, and Israel, was created and written by Ariel Cohen for Keshet 12 alongside Yoav and Doron Paz, who also directed. The three collaborated on the movie The Golem, and the Paz brothers also made Plan A and Jeruzalem, the zombies-in-the-Old-City movie.

They carefully create a foreboding atmosphere and make you instantly root for Yoel and his family. In the coming weeks, we’ll see what twists and turns “The Escape” has in store for us.

New ‘Shalom’ film tells story of Jerusalem biblical zoo rhinoceros

The touching movie Shalom, by Meital Zvieli, airs on KAN 11 on October 17 and will then be available on kan.org.il. It tells the story of Shalom, the beloved rhinoceros at Jerusalem’s biblical zoo (officially called the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens), but it’s about so much more.

The movie uses the zookeepers’ relationships with the animals very effectively to symbolize the delicate reality of coexistence in the capital. It is beautiful in all the ways a movie can be: moving, wonderfully photographed, and using a simple device to tell a far more complex story.

Shalom came to the zoo just as the 1978 Camp David Accords were being signed. When the film opens, in the early 2020s, he’s tired. The Jews and Muslims on the staff are drawn together by their love for him and their desire to help him when his health begins to fail.

Some may remember the excellent children’s film shown in the Noah’s Ark exhibit at the zoo, and will recognize Rushdi Alyan (the main human protagonist in Shalom) and Gilad Moshe, two of the zookeepers who appear in it and are among the interviewees in both movies. They work together again in this new documentary, and it seems that, against all odds, their bond has grown stronger over the years.

Part of the movie covers the difficult period following the Hamas-led invasion and massacres in Israel on October 7, 2023, and shows how the animals are affected by the missiles fired near the zoo. As the Israel-Hamas War intensifies, Shalom becomes ill, and at the same time, many zookeepers are sent off to fight in Gaza. One of them quips, “The whole world keeps asking me, ‘Where’s Shalom?’”

For many years, I used to visit the zoo in Jerusalem every week with my son, who is on the autism spectrum. I know what it’s like to become attached to these animals and to find calm in this oasis of coexistence and harmony in a city, and a world, roiled by so many conflicts, so I could relate to every minute in this documentary.

But even if you don’t share my deep connection to this place or respect for the people who run it, watching Shalom will still be an emotionally resonant experience. Hats off to Meital Zvieli for giving this unique, lovely part of Jerusalem the cinematic treatment it deserves.

New ‘Cupertino’ series running across Israeli TV providers

“Cupertino” is a new series from Robert and Michelle King, the husband-and-wife duo behind “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” and it’s currently running on Hot 3, Hot VOD, Next TV, Yes VOD, and Cellcom TV.

Fans of both shows, especially “The Good Wife,” which set a new standard for witty, topical legal drama, have been looking forward to “Cupertino” because it aims to be a cross between “The Good Wife” and “Silicon Valley.”

Unfortunately, though, based on the series pilot, which was released to the press, it brings to mind more the clunky, short-lived “BrainDead,” a series by the Kings that tried to combine comedy, political humor, and sci-fi horror in a series that didn’t work in any of these genres.

On paper, the premise of “Cupertino” sounds great: Two recently fired lawyers who worked at Silicon Valley tech companies start their own law firm, specializing in defending wrongly terminated Davids against tech Goliaths. It also delves into issues raised by the development of AI.

Mike Colter, who was so good as the charismatic but scary drug lord Lemond Bishop on “The Good Wife,” stars as Michael Price, a tech co-founder and lawyer who suddenly finds himself on the street when his partner decides not to share the wealth.

Colter is always good, but here he seems blander than I’ve ever seen him. Blandness is also a problem with his co-star, Rachel Keller as Olivia, a religious Christian lawyer at the same company, who is sexually harassed by her boss but decides to sue because the company’s AI avatar has been based on her.

The jokes and the plotting are painfully obvious much of the time, but I’ll try to keep an open mind and hope things pick up in subsequent episodes.