Thursday, October 31, 2024

10/31 Links Pt1: Israel is right to shun UNRWA; America’s Credibility Crisis on the Global Stage; Radiohead frontman confronts ‘coward’ anti-Israel heckler

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The UNRWA meltdown
In what conceivable moral universe is a country targeted for such a remorseless and genocidal attack expected to look after the welfare of its murderous attackers?

The United Nations says that Jerusalem has an obligation under international law to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza because Israel is the occupying power. But this is totally untrue. Israel is not occupying Gaza. It withdrew from it altogether in 2005.

It’s the United Nations that has failed to live up to its own international obligation not to fund and support violence. For years, the world body has turned a blind eye to UNRWA’s ties to terrorists. So have America, Britain and other countries. They still refuse to acknowledge this problem.

In a statement this week expressing “grave concern” over the Israeli ban, the foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom claimed that UNRWA was tackling its employees’ support for terrorism by pursuing the recommendations made in last April’s independent review by the former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna.

That review was a travesty. Before the report was even written, Colonna said that her goal was to “enable donors … to regain confidence, when they have lost it or when they have doubts, in the way UNRWA operates.” Her report was drafted to achieve precisely that rather than stop the rot.

Far from tackling the agency’s terrorist ties, its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has batted them away. He claimed implausibly that UNRWA didn’t know about the Hamas data center underneath its Gaza headquarters.

He denied that it employed terrorists and said this claim was part of a “large-scale campaign aimed at undermining the agency.” Having suspended the teachers’ union head Abu el Amin under pressure over the revelation of his Hamas role, Lazzarini reinstated him three months later under pressure of a strike by UNRWA teachers supporting their union’s head.

As for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, he appeared to blame Israel for the Hamas Oct. 7 pogrom by saying it “did not happen in a vacuum” and has repeatedly parroted Hamas talking points.

Instead of holding the U.N.’s and UNRWA’s feet to the fire, Israel’s supposed allies in America and Britain have been threatening to cut off the Jewish state at the knees.

Having told Israel earlier this month that it must take steps within 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid, the Biden-Harris administration threatened it with “consequences under U.S. law and U.S. policy” over its UNRWA ban.

In Britain, there have been reports that the government may suspend further arms sales to Israel as punishment. The U.K. ambassador to the United Nations, Dame Barbara Woodward, said that Israel must “ensure UNRWA can continue to provide essential services to those suffering in Gaza and the West Bank.”

But UNRWA’s role is not as a dispassionate provider of essential services. It was actually created in 1949 as a weapon to delegitimize the State of Israel. While refugee status for all other peoples is considered a temporary measure, it’s permanent for the Palestinian Arabs. Under UNRWA’s unique designation, it’s passed down from generation to generation.

That’s why the number of Palestinian Arab “refugees” has ludicrously increased from 700,000 in 1948 to 5.9 million today—an ever-growing running sore whose toxicity is vastly increased by the hatred of Israel taught in UNRWA schools.

The pretense that UNRWA exists to provide for the suffering was finally ripped apart by the part its employees played in the Oct. 7 atrocities and in the war that has followed.

Israelis are no longer prepared to tolerate people who are trying to kill them and destroy their country while parading as humanitarian relief workers. Yet the United States, Britain and the United Nations are pressuring Israel to continue to keep this malign farce going.

Such people aren’t appalled by UNRWA. They’re appalled by the ban on it. That tells you everything you need to know about the war against Israel by the so-called civilized world.
Israel is right to shun UNRWA
Even aside from the links to Hamas, Israel has a more fundamental reason to object to UNRWA. It is no exaggeration to say that its work is designed to delegitimise the state of Israel. It has also undoubtedly played a role in prolonging the Israel-Palestine conflict.

For one thing, UNRWA is a UN agency dedicated solely to serving who it deems to be Palestinian refugees. All other refugees around the world are the responsibility of UNHCR (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). The UNHCR operates on the premise that refugee status is temporary. Its goal is to assist refugees until they can either, hopefully, return to their home country or settle permanently elsewhere.

In contrast, for UNRWA, Palestinians are considered permanent refugees. Uniquely, refugee status can be handed down from generation to generation. That explains why UNRWA estimates that there are 5.9million Palestinian refugees today, even though just 700,000 Palestinians were displaced when Israel was founded in 1948 – an event Palestinians call the Nakba (‘catastrophe’).

Curiously, many Palestinians classified as refugees today live in areas that even supporters of Palestinian statehood would consider to be part of historical Palestine. That includes East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. UNRWA counts them as ‘refugees’ despite the fact they say they are living in their own homeland.

The Arab regimes on Israel’s borders have compounded this problem. Today, many people of Palestinian heritage in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria often have tenuous personal connections to their ancestors’ land. In many cases, it was their grandparents or great grandparents who fled what is Israel today in 1948. Yet the new generations are often not integrated into the countries where they were born and raised. Their permanent refugee status is used to keep them separate from the general population. For example, it is hard for Palestinians to get citizenship in Lebanon and Syria, even if they were born and brought up there. UNRWA insists that these millions of people have a right of return to lands that have been recognised as Israeli for decades. This essentially calls into question Israel’s right to exist.

Israel certainly has a duty to do its best to ensure Palestinians in Gaza receive sufficient food and other supplies. But it is highly doubtful that UNRWA, even if it was reformed, would be the best vehicle to achieve this goal. It seems far more focussed on undermining Israel than helping to provide Palestinians with their everyday needs. Indeed, if anything, UNRWA plays a key role in perpetuating the plight of the Palestinians.

To be frank, no other country would be expected to tolerate an organisation like UNRWA operating on its soil. As ever, the anti-Israel set is subjecting the Jewish State to extraordinary double standards.
The UN aid agency that can’t shake its terror links
In February the Israeli Defence Force announced the discovery of a subterranean Hamas data centre below the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza.

“UNRWA provides cover for Hamas, UNRWA knows exactly what is happening underground, and UNRWA uses its budget to fund some of Hamas’s military capabilities, this is for certain,” Colonel Benny Aharon told the reporters accompanying him through the tunnels, including some that ran under an UNRWA school.

Also in February, a video was made public allegedly showing a UNRWA employee loading the body of an Israeli man into the back of an SUV and driving away from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Oct 7 attacks. The video was first reported by the Washington Post and also shared online by Israeli officials, who identified the man as Faisal Ali Mussalem Al Naami, a social worker from Gaza. Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesperson, said: “It is not possible for UNRWA to verify the footage or photographs and ascertain who the person is.”

These were further blows to the problematic and increasingly confrontational relationship between the UN aid agency and the Jewish state, which reached a new low this week with two bills passed by its parliament, the Knesset, that effectively ended Israel’s dealings with UNRWA and banned it from any Israeli-controlled territory. Now, more than a year on from the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, the largely Western-funded body is under the spotlight again, simultaneously defended as the only means of providing essential aid, healthcare and education for Palestinians enduring war and deprivation across the region but attacked as an organisation infiltrated by and protective of terrorists.

As the bills passed, Amir Ohana, the speaker of the Knesset, proclaimed: “The UNRWA, an organisation that has been proven beyond any doubt to be part of Hamas, took an active part during October 7, in the kidnapping, the murder, in all the actions that we know the Hamas organisation did in the state of Israel – UNRWA were an active part of it.”

Those proposing the new laws spoke of the longstanding antipathy towards UNRWA and increasingly towards the United Nations in general, which many in Israel believe embodies the failure of parts of the international community to recognise the role UNRWA has played in facilitating the actions and ideology of Hamas as well as being a platform for hostility towards Israel more broadly.


Israel Is Right about UNRWA
The Israeli parliament on Monday voted 92-10 to severe ties with UNRWA, with even opposition members of the Knesset supporting the bill. For years, it was known that UNRWA's employees teach the most deplorable anti-Semitic content and glorify terrorism in schools, radicalizing generations of Palestinians. This has played a major role in perpetuating the bloody conflict between the sides, and makes the possibility of a settlement a distant dream, by dehumanizing and demonizing Israelis and Jews.

This long-standing and known problem of incitement to violence and hatred in textbooks has been acknowledged and criticized by American administrations and the EU, but has never been resolved. But it was the massacre of Oct. 7 and the subsequent war that has pushed the Knesset to sever ties with UNRWA. It is estimated that 10% of UNRWA's 30,000 employees have connections to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Some of them participated in the massacre of civilians and soldiers, raped and abducted Israelis, and have hidden Israeli hostages and the bodies of Israelis killed on Oct. 7.

For years, UNRWA facilities provided shelters for Hamas's terror activities, including in schools and medical clinics. Even though it was known that UNRWA has been plagued by extremism, no real action has been taken by the UN or by donor states to bring meaningful reforms.

The very existence of UNRWA has helped to perpetuate the Palestinians' refugee status, instead of helping Palestinians resettle, build a sustainable self-rule, and a functioning economy that would render the refugee agency obsolete. Israel recognizes the need for humanitarian assistance, but it wants this done through agencies that have not been compromised by ties to terrorism.

The Oct. 7 massacre and the war have exposed the depth of UNRWA's involvement in terrorism and, as such, it should no longer have a mandate to exist. This is an opportunity to replace it with organizations that can provide relief without enabling terrorism and who could reform the educational system in ways that de-radicalize rather than incite.
Why an anti-UNRWA law won’t work
THOUGH THE new law will likely be ineffective at curbing UNRWA’s terror activities, it will be quite effective at creating new international problems for Israel.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated that the new Israeli law will be “devastating” for Palestinian civilians, a view that is echoed by much of the international community. Guterres’s statement is based on the patently false claim that there is “no alternative” to UNRWA. In fact, there are multiple channels for delivering humanitarian aid, including other (potentially less corrupted) UN agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNICEF, as well as governments and private contractors.

Furthermore, the opinion of the UN holds little credibility for most Israelis in the wake of the international body’s support for Hamas terrorism and its direct participation in the October 7 massacre (via its UNRWA agency). Nonetheless, the widespread (albeit inaccurate) view that Israeli actions are “devastating” does influence other parties that are relevant to Israel, including the United States.

The Biden administration sent a strongly worded letter to Israel on October 13, effectively threatening an arms embargo unless Israel takes certain actions within 30 days: one demand was that Israel not pass any laws against UNRWA – exactly what Israel has just done.

The American letter points to US National Security Memorandum 20 and Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act, both of which are essentially mechanisms for cutting off foreign aid from US allies – a not-so-subtle threat to abandon Israel’s critical self-defense, in order to protect the close partner of a terror organization.

What would be effective?
The Knesset introduced a bill last July to declare UNRWA a designated terror organization under Israeli law. Such a designation would allow Israel a variety of legal and security tools that could curb UNRWA’s harmful activities in a meaningful way. However, not only would passing such a law put Israel on a collision course with its key allies, but enforcement could result in Israel arresting, prosecuting, and potentially even engaging in combat with a UN agency.

Ultimately, the problem Israel faces is bigger than UNRWA – it is that the Western world is engaging in widespread appeasement of terror organizations and their patrons. Until this reality changes, the tools available to Israel to protect its citizens from terrorism will remain tragically, and dangerously, limited.
Israel: UNRWA Can Be Replaced by Other UN Agencies for Humanitarian Assistance in Gaza
The future of the UN agency that provides services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East is in doubt after Israel passed two laws cutting ties with it. Israel claims that UNRWA has become a cover for terrorist activity by Hamas, the militant group responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israel provided video evidence that UNRWA food rations were found in a bunker in Khan Yunis used by the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Israel has long maintained that some of the food and healthcare distributed by UNRWA in Gaza is taken by Hamas. Israel also believes that UNRWA's focus on Palestinians gives them a special status that is inherently hostile to Israel, a UN member.

Israel says that while refugees from other conflicts assimilate into their host countries, with support from UN agencies like the High Commissioner for Refugees, the presence of UNRWA in countries such as Lebanon encourages Palestinians to believe that they should be allowed to return to Israel and undo the establishment of Israel, which took place in 1948. UNRWA's presence also enables host governments to deny Palestinians full rights. In Lebanon, for example, they are barred from many jobs and are unlikely to ever gain citizenship.

"If the issue is providing humanitarian assistance, there are other UN agencies for this very purpose, such as the World Food Program, World Health Organization, UNICEF and others," said George Deek, an Israeli ambassador who is himself Arab.


'Done by force': UNRWA worker testifies to how Hamas uses org. vehicles
Hamas takes UNRWA vehicles to move around the Gaza Strip, a UNRWA worker said while being interrogated by security officials, according to footage published by the IDF on Thursday.

In the video, the worker confirmed his role as UNRWA security guard.

After the war broke out, Hamas "entered the UNRWA facilities," the worker said, adding that the terror group "took everything."

This "happened before everyone's eyes; it's no secret," he said.

He explained that the terror group wanted the vehicles "because they contained supplies, materials meant for people, these materials were intended for people, so they went in and took them."

"They took the vehicles and started taking the supplies out of them and distributing them using private supply lines," he further said, noting that the terrorists used them for their own purposes.

The security guard further affirmed that "everything was done by force" and without "the worker's consent" since they "had the power to do whatever they wanted." 'A form of defense'

Asked why Hamas needed UNRWA vehicles when they have their own jeeps, the worker answered, "it's a form of defense for them, so they can move around easily.

"Their thought process was that when they get into a UNRWA vehicle and drive in it and get things with it, the supplies, of course, then they are protected," "because it's an agency vehicle," he added.

During the IDF operations in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, numerous Gazan civilians testified to Hamas's threats in efforts to prevent them from evacuating from the area.


Calls mount for Canada to bar UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese over antisemitic remarks
The Canadian government is facing demands to bar Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur overseeing the Palestinian territories, from the country, following comments she made that have been called antisemitic.

Albanese is scheduled to speak at the University of Toronto on Nov. 7 about international law and genocide.

Her official title is “special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council of the UN as independent experts who report back to the international organization. Albanese’s tenure has been controversial.

Earlier this month, Albanese compared Israel to the Third Reich, arguing that the Jewish state was on a genocidal mission to create a “pure race.” She made similar remarks in August. In July, Albanese compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

Her latest public comments drew the condemnation of Jewish leaders across the globe, including Canada’s special envoy combatting antisemitism, Deborah Lyons. “It is unacceptable for any official — independent or not — to engage in Holocaust distortion,” Lyons wrote on X, referring to a core component of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which was adopted by the Canadian government in 2019.

“This is harmful to Jewish communities and others in Canada and across the globe, which is why there have been condemnations of these statements from multiple countries, elected officials and organizations.”

Similar criticisms have been made in the United States, where Albanese is currently on a speaking tour across American campuses.

“As UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role. The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield wrote on Tuesday.


At Columbia’s Barnard, UN expert with history of antisemitic remarks justifies Oct. 7
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, shrugged when Columbia University student Eden Yadegar asked her if all Israelis were legitimate targets.

When another student asked Albanese if she condemns the rape and kidnapping that occurred during the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, the majority of the audience laughed, Yadegar told the Times of Israel.

“Tonight’s event further reinforced that Barnard College is perfectly content with platforming and thus normalizing antisemitism,” Yadegar said, describing the Barnard College event on Wednesday at which Albanese addressed students, which was not open to the press. “The fact that Albanese was invited by the chairs of the Human Rights, Economics, and Anthropology departments is proof that at Columbia and Barnard, antisemitism is not a bug but a feature of our institution.”

Aside from addressing the UN Human Rights Committee and Congress during her visit to the US, Albanese will be speaking at several universities, including Princeton, Georgetown, and The New School. But it is Barnard, which is affiliated with Columbia University, that stands out since it has been at the epicenter of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity on US college campuses since the Hamas terrorist attack.

Columbia junior Elisha Baker was one of about a dozen Jewish and Israeli students who attended the event.

“I find it incredibly problematic that Barnard not only invited Francesca Albanese but did so in a way that glorified her work as non-controversial. It is as if Barnard were to say that antisemitism should be platformed without questions at all. What was even sadder was that students and faculty who attended the event laughed at a question about rape and murder of Israelis and gave Albanese a standing ovation at the end of her presentation,” said Baker, who is studying Middle East history.

According to the second Columbia University Task Force on Antisemitism report, Jewish and Israeli students faced numerous incidents of intimidation and harassment last academic year, including being sidelined from campus organizations, stalked, ridiculed, and verbally and physically harassed.

Nevertheless, Barnard College defended Albanese’s appearance.

“Barnard College has a deep commitment to academic and intellectual freedom, and our educational mission depends on the exploration of all ideas, including those that are contentious or provocative. We seek to create a space in which disparate voices speak and are heard so that students may engage with the world and its many challenges. Our embrace of this goal does not constitute institutional endorsement of any particular speaker or the viewpoints they express. All external speakers, like all members of our community, are expected to comply with our policy on nondiscrimination,” said a Barnard College spokesperson.


How America Benefits from Its Security Partnership with Israel
In the Middle East, America's most reliable, capable and motivated ally is Israel. Years ago, a U.S. military colonel assigned as an attache to the Israeli military told me that we Americans get far more than we give in the relationship with Israel.

All of Israel's enemies are America's enemies. Last weekend, Israel severely degraded Iran's strategic air defense capabilities and destroyed a significant portion of its missile production capabilities. If Iran decides to make a sprint for a nuclear weapon and leaves the U.S. no choice but to intervene, Israel just made the mission for the Department of Defense easier.

In addition, Israeli pilots just demonstrated the superiority of American aircraft and weapons over Russian air and missile defense systems. That could increase orders for American weapons, employ more Americans, bolster our economy, and help revitalize our defense industrial base. Thank you, Israel.

Israel is a technology superpower. It consistently creates world-class weapons and capabilities and exhibits an impressive ability to field them quickly. For example, technologies that Israel developed to detect, map and destroy Hizbullah and Hamas tunnels were shared with Americans. The U.S. then used these Israeli technologies to find and neutralize drug-smuggling tunnels under our southern border.

Understanding the value of working with Israel, the Department of Defense established the U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group in 2021. Its six subgroups include artificial intelligence/autonomy, directed energy, counter-unmanned aerial systems, biotechnology, integrated network systems-of-systems, and hypersonic capabilities.
Seth Mandel: America’s Credibility Crisis on the Global Stage
There’s no obvious way to determine when something has gone from being a problem to being a crisis. But, like obscenity, you know it when you see it. And the Biden administration’s problem with national-security leaks has become a crisis.

The worst example was probably the recent revelation that a set of Israeli plans for Iran strikes ended up in Iranian hands. But perhaps the most flagrantly unprofessional example is in today’s New York Times. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested Tomahawk missiles from the U.S. to help fend off Russia’s ongoing invasion. One administration official’s response was to run to the Times and not only sneer at the request but insult Zelensky in the process.

“U.S. officials have privately expressed some exasperation with Mr. Zelensky’s victory plan, calling it unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid,” the Times reports. As an example, the Times cited the inclusion of Tomahawks in that package, “a totally unfeasible request, a senior U.S. official said.” Further, Ukraine “hadn’t made a convincing case to Washington on how it would use the long-range weapons, the U.S. officials said.” Zelensky “was stunned” by the administration’s rejection. The strong implication is that he shouldn’t have been.

The whole article, but particularly that section, has a what is this guy even thinking tone. Condescension aside, what was the purpose of spilling the previously undisclosed beans about the Tomahawks? It’s hard not to read the piece as an intentional brushback pitch to Zelensky, which raises the troubling likelihood that the leak came from someone very high up in the White House.

Zelensky was justifiably furious. “And this was confidential information between Ukraine and the White House,” he told Nordic media, according to Politico. “How should we understand these messages? So, it means between partners there’s nothing confidential?”

This isn’t the first time Zelensky has wondered if he could trust Washington. Last year, he blamed a failed counteroffensive on leaks, and he publicly mused that “the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war,” though he added that the West didn’t want Ukraine to lose either. Ukraine’s brilliant Kursk offensive in August was kept secret from allies—and it was a success.


Kyiv Jewish school damaged in Russian drone strike
A Jewish school in the Ukrainian capital suffered “significant structural damage” after being hit by a Russian drone early on Wednesday, according to the Kyiv Jewish community operating the center.

The Israeli ambassador in Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, and local authorities confirmed the strike on the Perlina school, part of the Or Avner Chabad educational network.

No one was harmed at the school, but nine people were injured as a result of the same attack in an adjacent multistory residential building, according to the Kyiv Military Administration.

“The school’s reinforced windows, equipped with protective film, prevented further harm to the interior of the structure,” said a statement from the Chabad-run community, which speaks of “extensive damage” in some of the “classrooms, the school shuttle and the student lounge” as a result of the “direct hit” of the Russian drone.

The mayor of Kyiv, former boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko, visited the school together with Jonathan Markovitch, the Chabad chief rabbi of Ukraine’s capital, and his wife, Rebbetzin Elka Ina Markovitch. Police officials also inspected the site to assess the consequences of the hit.

Both the community and the local authorities distributed photographs of the affected infrastructure. Some of them show the damaged windows and walls of the Jewish school. In another photo, a fragment of the drone can be seen in the outdoor playground of the school, which community sources said serves a few hundred children throughout the year.

Several floors of the nearby residential building hit by the explosion were partially burned and destroyed.

Jonathan Markovitch said it was a “tremendous miracle” that students were not in the building at the time of the attack and vowed his commitment to keep the school open. “Just as the school has remained operational throughout the war, so too will we continue to nurture our children’s souls, even in these challenging times,” he said in a statement.

According to the Kyiv Military Administration, Wednesday’s drone attack was the 19th launched in October by Russian forces against the capital of Ukraine, which like other regions in the country is targeted almost every night by swarms of the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones used at a massive scale by Russia in this war.


Satellite images reveal extent of Israeli air strikes greater than reported
Satellite imagery has shown Israel struck nuclear testing sites in its weekend air attacks on Iran, in addition to air defense systems, perhaps opening the way for future raids if threatened by Tehran.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezashkian, wrote to the UN on Sunday warning that Tehran has the right to respond to the attacks while countries including the US, UK and France, said the cycle of tit-for-tat strikes must now end.

Images from satellite firm Planet Labs showed that in the four-hour attack overnight Saturday, a military base in Parchin near Tehran, where nuclear tests were allegedly conducted in the past, was damaged.

While Israel had been warned by its biggest ally, the US, not to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, Parchin was marked by Iran as military, not nuclear, allowing them to evade the veto. It was also one of the sites which had been banned from inspections by the UN’s nuclear team.

The UN atomic agency, IAEA, had marked it as a site where Iran once worked on nuclear weapons. At least three buildings were hit, including solid-propellant facilities for missiles.

David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security research group, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank, told Reuters that as well as Parchin, Israel struck Khojir, which according to Eveleth, is a sprawling missile production site near Tehran.

In posts on X, Albright said commercial satellite imagery showed that Israel hit a building in Parchin called Taleghan 2 that was used for testing activities during the Amad Plan, Iran's defunct nuclear weapons development program shuttered in 2003.

Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security research group, was given access to the program's files for a book after they were stolen from Tehran by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency in 2018.

On X, he said the archives revealed that Iran kept important test equipment at the site called Taleghan 2. While Iran may have removed key materials before the airstrike, he said, "even if no equipment remained inside" the building would have provided "intrinsic value" for future nuclear weapons-related activities.
Lebanese PM says hoping for ceasefire in coming days; US-drafted truce deal leaks
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday said he was striving for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group within the coming days, after a hopeful conversation with US special envoy Amos Hochstein and as reports emerged with details of a US-backed ceasefire proposal.

“We are doing our best… to have a ceasefire within the coming hours or days,” Mikati said during a televised interview with independent Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, adding that he was “cautiously optimistic.”

He said that the call with Hochstein had given him reason to believe that a ceasefire would be possible ahead of the US presidential elections on November 5.

The US has been pushing for a ceasefire proposal that would restore calm to both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border more than a year after Hezbollah began launching missile and drone attacks against Israel on a near-daily basis.

The Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday published the details of what it said was a draft agreement drawn up by the US for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which forbids Hezbollah from maintaining a presence south of the Litani River.

The ceasefire proposal begins with a 60-day implementation period, during which time the Lebanese army will deploy along the border and confiscate Hezbollah arms in southern Lebanon, according to the documents published by Kan.

The IDF will be required to pull all troops from Lebanon within seven days of the end of hostilities, and will be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). The United Nations peacekeeping forces will facilitate the transition.

Ultimately, there will be 10,000 LAF troops along the border with Israel.

At the end of the 60-day implementation period, Israel and Lebanon will hold indirect negotiations via the US on fully implementing Resolution 1701 and resolving border disputes.

A new International Monitoring and Enforcement Mechanism (IMEM) will be created, with the US serving as chair and with the participation of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, UNIFIL and regional countries.

The draft agreement stipulated that Israel “may choose to act against violations” of the agreement, and will be able to respond to threats from Lebanese territory. Should Lebanon or IMEM fail to address Hezbollah weapons shipments or production, Israel will be permitted to strike such targets following a consultation with the US.


Hezbollah rockets kill seven in northern Israel
Seven people were killed and one person was seriously wounded on Thursday in two separate Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel’s north.

The first attack triggered sirens at 11:37 a.m., and two projectiles from Lebanon landed in an open area outside the largely evacuated Upper Galilee city of Metula, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The fatalities were an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers, and the seriously wounded individual was another foreign worker, Metula council head David Azoulai told the Kan News channel. The Israeli casualty was named as Omer Weinstein, 47, from Kibbutz Dafna.

Later on Thursday, another attack from Lebanon killed two people, while lightly wounding another, in a field off Route 79 near the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Ata, Magen David Adom first responders reported.

“Paramedics provided medical treatment and CPR, following which a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman were pronounced dead, and a 71-year-old man was evacuated to Rambam Hospital due to minor shrapnel wounds,” the emergency service said in a statement.

Three Israelis were wounded in Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel on Wednesday, according to medics.

A 70-year-old man was lightly wounded when rocket shrapnel hit his car in the Upper Galilee, the Magen David Adom emergency service said. The victim suffered a minor head wound and was evacuated to Ziv Hospital in Safed.

Earlier, two farmers were wounded, including one seriously, when a Hezbollah rocket struck an agricultural field near the evacuated Israeli border town of Metula. The other victim was lightly wounded.


IDF reveals 70% of Hezbollah drones have been destroyed
The IDF said on Thursday that it had destroyed around 70% of Hezbollah's drones from its Unit 127, mostly since it escalated its attacks in mid-September,

Besides that general number, the IDF said it had killed a full 10% of Hezbollah's drone operators as well as the commander of the entire unit.

Next, the IDF said it had killed the Hezbollah drone commander of the North Litani region and destroyed 54 positions that had held drones.

Further, the IDF stated it had destroyed 24 detection or operations installations related to Hezbollah's drone units.

Moreover, the military said that it had eliminated eight centers for assembling drones, six underground drone-related bases, and seven drone storage centers.

Lower percentage of drone interception
Despite all of these significant numbers, the IDF has shot down drones at lower percentages than rockets, and drones have killed and wounded a large number of Israeli soldiers and civilians over the course of the war, with around 231 out of 1,300 not being shot down.

Although that shoot down rate is around 80%, the rocket shoot down rate has been closer to 90%.


Lahav Harkov Answers 18 Questions on Netanyahu, Hamas, and the Fight to Free the Hostages
Israel's multi-front war changes by the day—but Lahav Harkov thinks Israel is winning.

A long-time journalist covering Israel's domestic and international affairs, Lahav speaks with an insider's investigation and knowledge about Israel's issues today: military strategy, hostage negotiations, international relations, and more.

Previously the Senior Contributing Editor, Diplomatic Reporter and Knesset Reporter for The Jerusalem Post, Lahav is now the Senior Political Correspondent for Jewish Insider. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency previously named her the 5th-most influential person on “Jewish Twitter.”

Now, she joins us to answer 18 questions on Israel, including the state of Israel's war, Western media, and the fight to free the hostages.

This interview was held on Oct. 8.

0:00 Intro
0:12 1. As an Israeli, and as a Jew, how are you feeling at this moment in Israeli history?
4:46 2. What has been Israel’s greatest success and greatest mistake in its war against Hamas?
8:40 3. Do you think Western media covers the Israel-Hamas War fairly?
14:02 4. What do you look for in deciding which Knesset party to vote for?
15:52 5. Which is more important for Israel: Judaism or democracy?
19:27 6. What role should the Israeli government have in religious matters?
20:31 7. Should Israel treat its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens the same?
25:20 8. Now that Israel already exists, what is the purpose of Zionism?
26:26 9. Is opposing Zionism inherently antisemitic?
28:52 10. Is the IDF the world’s most moral army?
31:24 11. If you were making the case for Israel, where would you begin?
33:26 12. Can questioning the actions of Israel’s government and army — such as in the context of this war — be a valid form of love and patriotism?
43:55 13. What do you think is the most legitimate criticism leveled against Israel today?
45:30 14. Do you think peace between Israelis and Palestinians will happen within your lifetime?
48:25 15. What should happen with Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict after the war?
53:41 16. Where do you read news about Israel?
54:23 17. Where do you identify on Israel’s political and religious spectrum, and do you have friends on the “other side”?
59:47 18. Do you have more hope or fear for Israel and the Jewish People?




Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon Levy: Australia’s Stance | Josh Frydenberg on Israel’s Global Impact
“Australia’s silence is being heard” says Australia’s former Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. A man with a deep-rooted connection to his Jewish heritage and strong support for Israel. Raised in a Jewish family, Frydenberg has been vocal about his commitment to Jewish causes and has championed close Australia-Israel relations throughout his career. Known for his leadership as Australia’s Treasurer, Frydenberg has consistently advocated for policies that foster mutual support and collaboration between Israel and Australia, underscoring his dedication to both his heritage and his vision of a secure, united global community.

In this conversation, Eylon and Josh tackle the role of Israel and the diaspora in fighting for Israel’s right to sovereignty and self-defense and the need for allies the world over to understand that they play a pivotal role in defending democratic, liberal principles when they stand up for Israel.


How Israel Is Defeating the Iranian Paper Tiger | Israel Undiplomatic w/ Mark Regev & Ruthie Blum
Now that the dust has settled from Israel's Oct. 26 retaliatory strikes on Iran, Jerusalem's road to victory is finally taking shape. And despite the difficulties, the Israel Defense Forces is more determined than ever to restore peace to the citizens of the Jewish state.

On today’s episode, JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum and Mark Regev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom—both former advisers at the Prime Minister's Office—discuss all the latest developments in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon and where they think things may be heading.

All this and more on “Israel Undiplomatic!”


The Free Press: Is This U.S. Official Behind the Israel-Iran Leaks?

The Free Press: CNN Bans Guest Over a Joke & WaPo Loses 250k Readers

The Israel Guys: Israel Says Goodbye to the UN
You’ve probably heard about UNRWA, the UN organization that is supposed to deal with Palestinian refugees from 1948. The problem is, for years, they have not only been turning a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism, but they themselves have been actively involved in terrorism. Since October 7th, it’s only gotten worse.

Now, it seems that Israel has had enough and they are finally banning this completely useless, morally corrupt, terrorist organization for good.


Fact Checking COL Doug Macgregor on Israel and Iran
Just because someone has experience, doesn't mean they are being truthful and forthcoming. COL Doug Macgregor spoke recently to the ‪@RedactedNews‬ channel about his views regarding Israel and Iran. Now, as I say in the video quite often, I admire COL Macgregor for his service and he clearly has the right to his opinion. That isn't my point. What is? He knows better. He knows what he is saying isn't true, and because he brings credibility, his mistruths cut deeper. Let's find out more in my quick critique.


Radiohead frontman confronts ‘coward’ anti-Israel heckler at Melbourne concert
The lead singer of Radiohead clashed with an anti-Israel heckler before storming off stage at a concert in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday night.

Thom Yorke, whose English rock band has defied boycott calls to perform in Israel three times, was nearing the end of his solo show when a protester began yelling about the Jewish state.

While it was not entirely clear what the protester said from the footage, reports said the heckler referenced the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

“Come up here and say that, right now,” Yorke responded.

“Come up on the f*cking stage and say what you want to say. Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it,” he said, as the crowd roared in approval of the singer.

“Come on. You want to piss on everybody’s night? OK, you do, see you later then,” Yorke said, and then left the stage. Many in the crowd cried “no” in disappointment.

Yorke later returned to the stage to perform a final number, Radiohead’s “Karma Police.”

Radiohead, which has won several Grammy Awards and sold millions of records since the 1990s, has been the target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, especially in the lead-up to its 2017 concert in Tel Aviv. In response, Yorke called BDS protesters “offensive” and “patronizing.”

The band first performed in Israel in 1993 and then again in 2000.

Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who is married to Israeli visual artist Sharona Katan, partnered for an album last year with Israeli singer Dudu Tassa, along with artists throughout the Middle East, including Palestinian singer Freteikh, Egyptian singer Ahmed Doma and Moroccan singer Mohssine Salaheddine.

Greenwood pushed back on critics this year who urged him to cancel a planned tour with Tassa in Europe due to the ongoing war.


Radiohead lead singer heckled by pro-Palestinian ‘extremist’
Radiohead lead singer Thomas Yorke has walked off a Melbourne stage after being heckled by a pro-Palestinian “extremist”, according to Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“The pro-Palestine cause it seems to have been an excuse for bullying and giving grief to other people,” Mr Bolt said.

“The lead singer of Radiohead walked off the stage at the band’s Melbourne concert last night when one pro-Palestine extremist started heckling.”


Pro-Palestinian protester interrupts show in Melbourne to ‘ruin everyone’s night’
News.com Deputy Editor Liz Burke says a pro-Palestinian protester paid for a ticket at a Melbourne show to “ruin everyone else’s night”.

Radiohead lead singer Thomas Yorke has walked off a Melbourne stage after being heckled by a pro-Palestinian protester.

Ms Burke told Sky News host Sharri Markson that it is “really sad” to see protesters at events causing a disturbance.


ABC scolded over ‘Free Palestine’ moment in Spicks & Specks
ABC has been criticised by the Australian Jewish Association after Spicks & Specks last night featured a singer wearing a “Free Palestine” t-shirt.

Singer-songwriter Adrian Eagle performed the show’s “Secret Song” at the end of the episode, in which a song that has been the subject of clues, is performed as the closing number.

Last night “I Will Survive” was given a ballad rendition, in part reversioned with the words, “We Will Survive” along with a raised fist.

The shirt also stated “Free West Papua, Free Your Mind, Always Was Always Will Be.”

Dr David Adler, President of the Australian Jewish Association told TV Tonight, “Why the ABC should allow an overtly anti-Israel political slogan to be broadcast by a singer, is a question for its management. To do this at a time when there is a large amount of threatening activism on our streets, borders on the irresponsible.

“It should not be the role of the publicly-funded broadcaster to normalise and embolden such activism.”

On social media some Jewish-Australian viewers also objected to the show making what they considered to be a political stance. The episode drew 335,000 viewers, down from 387,000 the previous Sunday.

Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, also called on the ABC to issue a public apology to Australia’s Jewish community.

“To witness ‘Free Palestine’ – a phrase that often doubles as a rallying cry against Israel’s existence – was more than a political statement; it felt like a blunt, painful assault on Jewish identity and homeland,” he said. “For many Jewish Australians, it triggered feelings of isolation, alienation, and even fear within their own country. In the current climate of heightened tension and rising antisemitic incidents, with Jewish communities facing threats, businesses being desecrated, and children left fearful, this message was a cruel twist of the knife.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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