Friday, May 30, 2025

05/30 Links Pt1: Kemp: Ignore the Left-wing naysayers, Israel is winning this necessary war; Netanyahu Is Trump’s Leverage With Iran

From Ian:

Israel must not cower: Sovereignty for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza now
ISRAEL’S RESPONSE must be one of resolve, not retreat. Rather than waiting to be boxed into a corner by foreign chancelleries, Israel should act now – on our terms – to extend sovereignty to the entirety of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

This is not only a matter of strategic necessity – it is a moral imperative. A people that hesitates to reclaim its own homeland signals weakness to both its friends and foes.

When Menachem Begin extended Israeli law to the Golan Heights in 1981, the world protested. Yet decades later, the United States and others came to accept it as reality. Why? Because Israel stood firm.

When David Ben-Gurion declared statehood in 1948, he did so in defiance of every foreign warning. He knew that sovereignty is never granted. It is taken – by those willing to bear the challenges of history.

Critics will, of course, cry foul. They will claim that Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and Gaza means “the end of peace.” But what peace? With whom? With Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, whose senior adviser said last week that Israel orchestrated the Oct. 7 massacre?

What we are witnessing is not the death of peace but the death of pretense. Proposals for a “two-state solution” were a pipe dream that spawned terror and were sustained by denial. It is long past time we gave the idea a proper burial.

Extending sovereignty does not require demographic suicide. There are workable models, such as incentivized emigration for those who refuse to live in peace, and integration for those who do want to. But what cannot remain is the current limbo, which is merely a vacuum exploited by Palestinian extremists and misunderstood by the world. Abraham Accords prove strength earns respect

The Abraham Accords proved that strength earns respect. When Israel stands tall, others align. But hesitation invites hostility. If we do not define our borders, others will seek to define them for us.

France, Britain, and Canada may choose to act unilaterally. So Israel, too, must act unilaterally – but in defense of truth, justice, and survival.

It is time for Israel to say to the world: Enough. Judea and Samaria are not bargaining chips. Gaza will not be a launchpad for genocide. These areas are parts of our ancestral homeland, as central to our past as they are to our future.

From the hills of Judea to the shores of Gaza, the Land of Israel echoes with the footsteps of our prophets and kings. No foreign decree can or will sever that bond. So let’s finally extend Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and lay claim to what is eternally ours.
Richard Kemp: Ignore the Left-wing naysayers, Israel is winning this necessary war
Hamas’s position is understandable. It is focused on survival and pretty much its only source of funds now is from hijacking and selling aid at premium prices. But what about Kallas, the UN and even our own Government which also does not support this new initiative?

It is hard to escape the conclusion, with the growing chorus of condemnations against Israel, that these people are terrified Jerusalem will win this war. That’s the last thing they want as it would undermine any leverage they might have in pursuit of the holy grail of a “two state solution”.

Lacking insight, or terrified of being seen to have been wrong all along, they utterly fail to recognise that a two state solution is permanently interred after Hamas hammered the final nail into its coffin on October 7 2023.

Unfortunately for the unholy alliance against its victory, Israel is going to prevail – and not just in Gaza. Prime minister Netanyahu launched a dazzling operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year that eliminated its overlord Hassan Nasrallah and took out much of its leadership by using explosive-laden pagers. Meanwhile the IDF shattered much of its military capability, especially the long-range missiles that existed to threaten Israel.

Hezbollah is not finished but its potential to cause harm has been dramatically degraded. It will have difficulty rebuilding as it has lost the vital terrain of Assad’s Syria, again as a direct result of Israeli action.

Iran itself, the mastermind of the jihadist plan to suffocate Israel using region-wide terror proxies, was humiliated by its failure to damage Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones, not to mention an inability to protect Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was taken out right next to the president’s official residence in Tehran. Even worse, the Islamic Republic is now badly exposed, following the Israeli Air Force’s evisceration of its Russian-supplied air defences.

The likes of Kallas and her faint-hearted fellow travellers have no power to stand in Israel’s path, but their words and threatened actions certainly encourage Hamas. Apart from the hostages it holds, its only card is the vilification of Israel by the international community and the accompanying weaponisation of legal warfare.

Hamas could end all the bloodshed and the deprivation overnight by laying down its arms and releasing the hostages. If the EU, the UN and those governments so eager to condemn the Jewish state actually wanted to achieve peace, they would support Israel in words and actions, and condemn Hamas at every turn.
New Aid Group in Gaza Makes an End Run Around Hamas—and the UN
According to the source, one man who picked up a food box asked four or five times if the food was really free. “It illuminated their perspective on aid and the aid distribution he had experienced in the past.” Videos of Gazans waiting in line to receive food boxes show people waving and cheering.

The hope, says the source, is that once people have more food to eat, the frenzy of the first few days at the secure distribution sites will subside. “I think things are going a little bit smoother the longer we do this.”

The terrorist group steals food aid meant for ordinary Gazans and resells it on the black market. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is trying to change that, writes Madeleine Rowley for The Free Press.

None of the foundation’s success in providing over 840,000 meals so far seemed to translate on social media, where images of the aid handout were rapidly turned into memes comparing Gazans waiting for food to Jewish prisoners waiting at Auschwitz.

A source familiar with the operations on the ground told The Free Press that “Rather than focusing on fake memes, we’re looking to the very real videos and images littering social media of people cheering, thanking America, thanking President Trump, and opening their boxes of food with delight. It’s a shame that feeding people in need has become this controversial and fodder for misinformation by Hamas.”

Haviv Rettig Gur, a senior analyst for The Times of Israel, told The Free Press that the fact that Hamas is openly threatening Gazans is a sign that the new aid group is making a difference. “Why is Hamas threatening this? Because they’re desperate and the strategy is working. They’re desperate not to lose control of the aid.”

In a statement from earlier this month, the United Nations denounced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, calling it “dangerous” to force Gazans to enter “militarized zones” to collect rations. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN’s secretary-general, told reporters at a press conference today that the UN will not work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “We will not participate in operations that do not meet our humanitarian principles,” Dujarric said. “You know, our efforts in Gaza have been about getting food to people and not forcing people to walk miles in dangerous situations to get food.”

Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, told reporters in a press conference on May 9 that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plans to scale their efforts to reach more people in Gaza over the coming weeks and invited the United Nations and other nongovernmental humanitarian aid organizations to join the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s efforts.

“I will be the first to admit that it will not be perfect, especially in the early days,” said Huckabee. “It’s a logistical challenge to make this work, and to make it work well, but all of the partners, both the donors as well as those who will carry out the operation, are committed to getting it launched and making it work.”

A source who oversaw aid operations on the ground told The Free Press that the organization is flexible. “If we’re creating a scenario where people are getting food and then they’re turning around and the food’s being taken away from them, or worse, we’ll rethink how we’re doing this.”

Haviv Rettig Gur told The Free Press that detaching Hamas from humanitarian aid is the right strategy, but the pressure is on to make sure it works. “The Israelis need to understand that there is now a fire burning under them. This aid distribution has to go well and it has to go fast. The war depends on it, the lives of many people depend on it, and Israel’s allies depend on it.”
Jake Wallis Simons: Is there any point arguing with those that compare aid drops in Gaza to Auschwitz?
In his 1911 essay Instead of Excessive Apology, the Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote: “Instead of turning our backs to the accusers, as there is nothing to apologise for, and nobody to apologise to, we swear again and again that it is not our fault.

“Isn’t it long overdue to respond to all these and all future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly, coldly and calmly answer with the only argument that is understandable and accessible to this public: ‘Go to Hell!’?

“Who are we, to make excuses to them; who are they to interrogate us? What is the purpose of this mock trial over the entire people where the sentence is known in advance?” Perhaps this is a better response, the next time someone compares Gaza to Auschwitz. Go to hell. Go to hell.

Consider Sudan. It has a population of 50 million, compared to the two million in Gaza. Yet over the last two years of war in the African state, was there a war there? Who knew? – it has received just 1,277 truckloads of humanitarian aid. More than half a million Sudanese children under the age of five have perished from malnutrition in that time.

Gaza, by contrast, has received 92,000 truckloads in the past year and a half alone, with 10,000 further vehicles apparently on the stocks. That’s roughly 72 times more food for 25 times fewer people. Go on Snapchat and see what people in the Strip are posting. Auschwitz it ain’t.

Or consider Yemen. After a decade of conflict – again, who knew? – half of all children under the age of five, and 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women, are acutely malnourished. Of these, 537,000 children suffer from “severe acute malnutrition”, a condition described by Unicef as “agonising, life-threatening, and entirely preventable”. Yet where are the activists marching for them?

In Gaza, there have been more rallies against Hamas in the last week than we have seen on the streets of our capitals since the war began. A couple of days ago, a journalist for an Arabic channel stopped a man on his way to the aid station.

“Aren’t you afraid?” the reporter asked. (Hamas has threatened those who take these handouts. Who knew?)

“Yes, but we want to eat,” the man replied. “We want to eat. Bravo Trump and the IDF!” This led to a great deal of stammering by the journalist, who had been expecting something rather less honest.

Are we really to believe that those who compare the Jews to the Nazis are doing so completely innocently?

Enough with the self-debasement of arguing with these people. As Jabotinsky concluded, “We do not have to account to anybody, we are not to sit for anybody’s examination, and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them and will leave after them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change and we do not want to.”

Don’t let them search your pockets.


WSJ Editorial: Netanyahu Is Trump’s Leverage With Iran
President Trump was asked Wednesday if he had warned Israel against actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran. “Well, I’d like to be honest,” he replied. “Yes, I did.”

It wasn’t a warning per se, the President was quick to clarify. He said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “I don’t think it’s appropriate right now” to attack Iran’s nuclear program because the U.S. and Iran are close to a negotiated solution. “That could change at any moment,” he added, “but right now I think they want to make a deal.”

Fair enough, but the U.S. will need the threat of military action to get a deal worth making. An uncompromising Mr. Netanyahu isn’t a problem for U.S. diplomacy; it’s Mr. Trump’s best asset in negotiations. Iran needs to know that the threat of a strike is alive until it gives up uranium enrichment capability—the path to a bomb. If it won’t do that, Tehran should be told there’s no stopping the Israelis.

Mr. Trump has done that before. When Time magazine asked him in April if he worries Mr. Netanyahu will drag him into a war with Iran, he said no. “You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly,” the President added. “If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.” Iran would be wise not to forget that.

The latest idea floated by Tehran, this time via Reuters, is that the regime could “pause” its enrichment of uranium “if the U.S. releases frozen Iranian funds and recognises Tehran’s right to refine uranium for civilian use under a ‘political deal’ that could lead to a broader nuclear accord” down the road. By then the window of Iranian vulnerability may have closed, and who knows if Iran concedes anything lasting.
The U.S. Can Demand an End to Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions without Risking War
Even as reports of possible progress in hostage negotiations testify to both the effectiveness of Gideon’s Chariots and to the dangers of the nightmare scenario Fox outlines, separate negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program are continuing apace. Here too, lies the danger of fatal compromise, as the U.S. might accept a situation where Iran maintains its ability to enrich uranium, even at a diminished capacity—and therefore its ability to produce nuclear weapons.

The argument that Washington should accept something short of complete dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program has not changed since the Obama era: the alternative, a military attack on the nuclear facilities, would provoke a catastrophic war. Yet, argues Janatan Sayeh, experience suggests that this is not so:
Israel’s 2024 campaign against Hamas and Hizballah, the collapse of the Assad regime, and U.S. airstrikes on the Houthis have significantly reduced the Islamic Republic’s regional influence.

Tehran’s consequent weakness gives the United States unprecedented leverage in nuclear negotiations. But many in Washington have sounded the alarm, arguing that dismantlement is an unrealistic goal that Tehran would reject, thereby provoking war if the Trump administration follows through with its threats. However, similar dire warnings proved unfounded during the first Trump administration. These critics routinely framed Trump’s Middle East policies as harbingers of a major regional conflict, yet time and again, those predictions failed to materialize.

The starkest example of this phenomenon came in 2020 when the United States eliminated Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ external arm for executing terror operations abroad.

The United States must always prepare for contingencies when confronting adversaries like Iran. The most self-defeating strategy is to allow Washington to be deterred—not by Tehran but by its own hesitation.
Saudis warned Iran to reach agreement with US or risk war with Israel – Gulf sources
Saudi Arabia’s defense minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: Take US President Donald Trump’s offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously, because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.

Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia’s 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son Prince Khalid bin Salman with the warning destined for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials.

Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the sources said.

Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trump’s first term, warned Iranian officials that the US leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources.

Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier, in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

While the media covered the 37-year-old prince’s visit, the content of King Salman’s covert message has not been previously clarified.

In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trump’s team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources.
Latest Trump nominee called Israel-Palestinian conflict a ‘psyop’, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories
President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate far-right commentator Paul Ingrassia to head the agency tasked with rooting out corruption and protecting whistleblowers in the federal government.

Ingrassia, 29, currently serves as the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security. He briefly served as the White House liaison to the Department of Justice early in Trump’s second term, but was reassigned after clashing with the DOJ’s chief of staff after urging the president to hire only individuals who exhibited what Ingrassia called “exceptional loyalty,” according to ABC News.

In Trump’s post on Truth Social announcing Ingrassia’s nomination to head the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency tasked with investigating and prosecuting office government and political corruption, the president called him a “highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional scholar.”

Ingrassia has trafficked in a number of conspiracy theories, as have several other controversial administration appointees, including Department of Defense Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson and acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie.

On Oct. 7, 2023, as the Hamas attacks were still underway, Ingrassia posted on X calling illegal immigration to the U.S. “comparable to the attack on Israel,” writing, “The amount of energy everyone has put into condemning Hamas (and prior to that, the Ukraine conflict) over the past 24 hours should be the same amount of energy we put into condemning our wide open border, which is a war comparable to the attack on Israel in terms of bloodshed — but made worse by the fact that it’s occurring in our very own backyard. We shouldn’t be beating the war drum, however tragic the events may be overseas, until we resolve our domestic problems first.”


Support for Palestinians may prove dangerous for Europe
In June 1980, the Venice Declaration was published – a political document that set a dangerous precedent in the European Union’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Though decades have passed, the declaration’s principles, affirming the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and calling for active European involvement, remain a cornerstone of EU policy. Over time, that policy has often shifted from diplomacy to near-automatic backing of the Palestinian side, even at the expense of truth and morality.

The European Union, established after the world wars to safeguard peace, has, in recent years, become a promoter of an anti-Israel narrative. Instead of bridging divides, it deepens them. Instead of mediating, it incites. Instead of addressing real threats, it embraces an imagined Palestinian political vision detached from reality.

Seeking to distance themselves from US policy, European countries gave the PLO legitimacy and centered the idea of a Palestinian state in international discourse. What began as a vague statement evolved into a firm position: support for a two-state solution, even as the so-called “Palestinian state” embraces terrorism and Israel defends its existence.

Since then, the stance has only hardened. The UK, followed by the EU, funds organizations that act against Israel. Before and after October 7, the UK allowed Hamas’s financial infrastructure to operate within its borders. In the European Parliament, calls are growing to boycott Israel and recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally, even as Hamas rules Gaza and as the Palestinian Authority continues paying stipends to terrorists’ families.

On Sunday, Spain hosted a summit of European and Arab countries in Madrid to promote the two-state solution and seek an end to the war in Gaza.

Spain, the summit host, issued a strong message: Immediately suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which underpins trade, scientific cooperation, and diplomatic ties. Spain also urged the EU to quickly recognize a Palestinian state and impose an international arms embargo on Israel unless Jerusalem halts its campaign in Gaza.

Twenty countries participated in the summit, which stemmed from a peace initiative by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez following the October 7 Hamas massacre. One of the EU’s most vocal critics of Israel, Sánchez had already called to “reassess” EU-Israel ties in late 2023. Though that initiative failed, a similar proposal from the Netherlands has since gained traction.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has been meeting with European counterparts in an effort to block the Dutch initiative. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has called for a review of EU-Israel trade relations and for suspension of the agreement under Article 2, which allows such a move if Israel is deemed to be violating human rights.

BUT THE issue goes beyond foreign policy; it reflects a broader social climate. Antisemitism in Europe is no longer subtle. Synagogues are attacked, Jewish schools require security, and Jewish communities live in daily fear. Most disturbing is the justification: “Criticism of Israel” has become a euphemism for antisemitic racism. When IDF soldiers act in Gaza, Jews are attacked in Berlin, Paris, and London.

The line between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism is more blurred than ever, and many European officials don’t attempt to distinguish between the two. When a Palestinian attacks an Israeli civilian, it’s dismissed as “resistance to occupation.” When a Jew is assaulted, it’s explained as a “natural reaction to anger.”
Macron's 'recognition' of a Palestinian state is a way to punish Israel
Why not tell the Palestinians to grow up, and choose leaders who don’t endlessly run around the world peddling lies about Israeli war crimes?

For Macron and others to scurry about without pressing on the Palestinians the inevitability of compromise with Israel is mischievous; to be overly solicitous of the Palestinians especially now, and crushingly censorious of Israel especially now, is malicious. Dishing out some tough love and dialing down Palestinian expectations would be much more constructive.

In short, the Macron-ian campaign to unilaterally, “urgently,” and immediately recognize synthetic Palestinian “statehood” is destructive: an unforgivable offense.

AT THE same time, the counter-threat to apply Israeli sovereignty to parts or all of Judea and Samaria, issued by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and other Israeli ministers in response to Macron’s muckraking, is a mistake. Aside from the fact that it will not deter Macron, it is the wrong way for Israel to rightfully apply sovereignty.

Israel should unequivocally realize its historic and legal sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria. Its hesitancy to do so over the past 50 years only has strengthened Palestinian claims that the areas are “Palestinian territory,” helping to establish a fiction that has been willingly accepted within the international community.

But doing so should not be the function of a momentary need to slap Macron on the cheek, or in response to any particular act of Palestinian terror. It should come, soon, as an essential part of a well thought out, broader Israeli strategic plan to reassert this country’s rights and security needs and to restructure relations with regional and international partners.

Sovereignty assertion must be an up-front and forward-looking move, a central and proud plank in a major Israeli party platform, perhaps ratified in an election campaign. It should not be a backhanded rejoinder to the spasms of spent European politicians who are peddling hackneyed “solutions” and beating up on Israel because they know of nothing else to do.

There are other just, punitive measures that Israel can and should take against countries that diplomatically assault it in the way that Macron is planning, such as closing their consulates in Jerusalem that function as “embassies” to “Palestine.” And there are other forward-looking, Zionist moves that Israel can and should make in the immediate term, like strengthening Israeli cities and towns in Judea and Samaria – defiantly so.


UN aid chief admits starving Gazan baby claim was amid 'desperation' to let aid in
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher expressed regret for his recent claim that 14,000 babies could die within 48 hours in Gaza without aid - a claim the UN retracted - in an interview with the BBC on Friday.

Fletcher acknowledged a need to be "precise" with language, admitting that when he made the comments, “we were desperately trying to get that aid in.”

"We were being told we couldn't get it in, and we knew that we'd probably have a couple of days, a window to get as much aid in as possible, and that was being denied, and we were desperate to get that in. And so yes, we've got to be utterly precise with our language, and we've clarified that," he said

After retracting Fletcher’s statement, the UN later cited a report that said there could be 14,100 cases of malnutrition in children in Gaza between April 2025 and March 2026, a timeframe of one year, not two days.

When questioned by the BBC about his claim of “10,000 aid trucks on the Gaza border, cleared and ready to go” - a claim that had been refuted by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Fletcher said that he “especially needed to be careful and really precise."

Despite his retraction, Fletcher still maintained that Israel has caused forced starvation in Gaza, amounting to a war crime.

“It is classified as a war crime. Obviously, these are issues for the courts to take the judgement on, and ultimately for history to take a judgement on,” he told the BBC.


Terrorists took wrong turn trying to reach sensitive intel base on Oct. 7, probe finds
Hamas terrorists who invaded southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught attempted to capture a sensitive military intelligence base located some 16 kilometers from the border with the Gaza Strip.

However, the terrorists made a wrong turn upon arriving at Urim Junction and instead attacked an adjacent Home Front Command base, where eight soldiers were killed and several others were wounded, according to an Israel Defense Forces probe published Friday.

The IDF probe into the attack on Urim Base stated that the actions of soldiers and commanders who fought to defend the base ultimately foiled Hamas’s plans. However, it stated that the base’s defensive array was “not properly prepared to handle such a broad infiltration and attack scenario.”

“As a result, the terrorists carried out a killing spree inside the base until they were completely eliminated by IDF troops,” the probe said.

The findings published Friday are the latest in a series of detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when about 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages into Gaza, where dozens remain captive.

The probe, carried out by Col. Asher Benishti — the current chief of the Home Front Command’s Southern District — covered all aspects of the fighting at the Urim base.

Urim Base, situated close to the community of the same name, is located some 16 kilometers from the border with the Gaza Strip. It is considered a “rear base,” meaning not on the frontier and thus outside the jurisdiction of the Gaza Division. Therefore, it was entirely unprepared to handle a large infiltration attack.

The base complex is split between three units: The Home Front Command’s Southern District headquarters, the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, and the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200. The latter, known as Yarkon Base, was Hamas’s intended target. Each base is gated off, and they manage their security independently.

The IDF said the investigators made visits to the scene and reviewed every possible source of information, including footage taken by terrorists, soldiers’ text messages, surveillance videos, the army’s radio communications, and interviews with those who fought and other survivors.

The Urim Base probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which has been covered in separate, larger investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.
'Irrelevant' ceasefire proposal may be exactly what Israel needs, military expert says
The new Witkoff Proposal's "apparent irrelevance" may actually be the reason Israel should accept it, Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur, former deputy head of the Palestinian Arena in the IDF Planning Directorate, suggested in an interview with Maariv on Friday.

"Yesterday, we opened with headlines that the US and Hamas are close to agreeing on the Witkoff Framework, which includes a new proposal. Without delving into the specifics, it involves a ceasefire, the release of about half the hostages, the release of prisoners in exchange, and guarantees for continued negotiations,” Yagur said.

“However, a framework that was appropriate and useful a month or two ago, focused on the military-security aspect, now operates within a completely different strategic context in Gaza—a civilian one."

“The new food distribution mechanism that began operating this week in the Gaza Strip is a major strategic turning point. For the first time, it strips Hamas of its main elements of sovereignty and begins to liberate the population from its grip, while preparations are underway for the implementation of a voluntary emigration plan,” Yagur explained.

“This is a process which, if not stopped now, is irreversible—and it’s putting Hamas under extreme pressure. The breach of Hamas flour warehouses by Gaza civilians, among other things, shows Hamas that even what remains of its military power is irrelevant here. The language has changed. This pressure may intensify to the point where Hamas will agree to release hostages just to halt the erosion—and ultimately even agree to exile its members and disarm,” Yagur continued.

Despite appearances suggesting that the current situation demands rejection of the Witkoff Proposal, Yagur believed otherwise. “At first glance, there are plenty of reasons to reject the Witkoff Framework, now that Hamas is with its back against the wall. Under the claim that we must ‘finish the job’ and dismantle Hamas—a goal we all share and want realized as soon as possible.”

“But,” he added, “if we dig a little deeper, we find that Israel, despite numerous threats in recent months, has not yet carried out full-scale, irreversible military operations to conquer Gaza. This could be in order to enable the release of more hostages, or perhaps due to a lack of political will, inability to act without incurring heavy costs for the hostages and our forces, or due to American requests in the background.”

“Thus, the so-called ‘completion of the mission’ through total military effort has not occurred, despite our ability to do so long ago. It's an empty concept at this stage,” he explained.


IDF destroys Hamas terror tunnel built under civilian neighborhood
Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis area identified and destroyed an extensive Hamas terrorist tunnel network while killing dozens of enemy gunmen, the IDF said on Friday.

Combat teams from the IDF’s 89th “Oz” Brigade, aka the Commando Brigade, operating under the command of the 98th Paratroopers Division, aka the Fire Formation, located and demolished a nearly mile-long terrorist tunnel as part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” the army said.

The underground infrastructure, which was discovered with the help of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Yahalom Combat Engineering special forces unit, was situated in a residential neighborhood.

During a search of the structure before its demolition, the troops identified several terrorists barricaded inside and killed them.

Meanwhile, a combat team of the Kfir Infantry Brigade, under the command of the 36th Armored Division, aka the Ga’ash (“Rage”) Formation, joined the fighting in the Khan Yunis area.

The Kfir soldiers have so far killed dozens of terrorists, and located and destroyed terrorist infrastructure and weapons, including booby-trapped buildings, according to the Israeli military statement on Friday.

During the fighting in southern Gaza on Thursday, a soldier from the 188th “Barak” Armored Brigade was seriously wounded, the IDF said, adding that he was evacuated to a hospital and his family was notified.

At the same time, three soldiers of the Golani Infantry Brigade sustained light wounds in a double rocket-propelled grenade attack in the Strip. The Golani soldiers returned fire toward the source of the RPG attack.

Shortly after the assault, IDF soldiers in the field ordered an Israeli Air Force aircraft strike and eliminated the terrorist cell in question.


US-backed Gaza aid group says it has given out more than 2.1m meals
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed aid organization that is independent of the United Nations, said that it distributed 332,640 meals to Gazans on Friday, bringing the total number of meals it has delivered to more than 2.1 million.

The aid was distributed “without incident,” the foundation stated.

“Despite the emergency intensity and kinetic environment surrounding our operations, the fact is our assistance efforts are helping Gazans,” stated John Acree, the group’s interim executive director. (The group’s previous head resigned suddenly.)

“This is just the beginning,” Acree said. “Our commitment to safely and effectively supply food directly to a large, hungry population is unwavering, and we look forward to continuing to scale and strengthen on our initial undertakings to help meet the basic food security needs of the people in Gaza.”

The organization also said it plans to add more distribution sites in northern Gaza in the coming weeks.
Hamas faces 'legitimacy crisis' as desperate Gazans flock to US-backed aid centers
The terrorist group known as Hamas has long plagued the Gaza Strip but is facing a point of crisis as its influence and support, which was already far from sweeping, continues to drop amid internal pressure to end the war and return the hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

"Hamas’s current posture reveals a critical inflection point in its grip over the Gaza Strip," Joe Truzman, a senior research analyst and editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Long War Journal and an expert on Palestinian terrorist groups, told Fox News Digital. "By opposing the new aid distribution mechanism, one that is coordinated by the U.S. and Israel, Hamas is signaling that its primary concern is not the well-being of Palestinians but the preservation of its authority."

Despite the monthslong aid blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israel and the images of starvation, Hamas this week threatened any Palestinian civilians who accept food aid for their families and warned they "will pay the price, and we will take the necessary measures."

Displaced Palestinians line up pans to collect hot food from a charity food distribution center in Gaza City, northern Gaza, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Despite the threats, Palestinians have flooded the aid sites erected by the U.S.-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), reportedly resulting in scenes of chaos as desperate civilians overran one distribution location on Tuesday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its "troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound," adding, "Control over the situation was established … and the safety of IDF troops was not compromised."

The U.N. Human Rights Office claimed some 47 people were injured during the gunfire, while the Hamas-run health ministry said one person was killed and 48 others were wounded, reported the BBC, though Fox News Digital could not independently verify the casualty count.

On Wednesday, GHF said in a statement that, contrary to reports, no Palestinians have been questioned or detained while receiving aid. Additionally, GHF said that no Palestinians had been shot or killed while trying to get aid.

"As we have repeatedly cautioned, there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail. Their goal is to force a return to the status quo, even if it means risking lifesaving aid to the people of Gaza," the GHF said in a statement. "Reports to the contrary originated from Hamas and are inaccurate."

Truzman explained that it is in Hamas interest to portray the aid delivery as negatively as possible, and to use the chaos to promote its return to power.

"Hamas had significant influence over aid flows, which it used not only for governance but also as leverage to reinforce loyalty, reward patronage networks, and maintain internal control," the expert explained. "The erosion of this influence poses both a symbolic and operational threat to the group.

"With Hamas becoming sidelined from the aid process, the group is facing a legitimacy crisis," Truzman added.
UN blames ‘admin error’ for delisting groups that Israel says are tied to US-backed Gaza
The United Nations is blaming an “administrative error” for its removal of two relief organizations, which the Israeli U.N. delegation has said are tied to the U.S.-backed, independent Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, from its database of aid organizations. But an Israeli diplomatic source with knowledge of U.N. issues told JNS that the global body dragged its feet on fixing the problem due to its animosity toward the foundation.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that there is a “mafia-like” shakedown at the global body, which has involved removing non-governmental organizations, which are part of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, from its central system for tracking aid delivery in the Strip.

The system, which the United Nations refers to as a “shared aid database,” was created and approved under a U.N. General Assembly resolution. Only organizations that are registered in the database can coordinate with or participate in U.N.-led aid delivery efforts.

“This is the gravest violation of the U.N.’s own principles,” the Israeli envoy told the Security Council on Wednesday. “It is the extortion of any well-meaning NGO that refuses to kiss the ring. A shakedown with U.N.-branding.”

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS on Wednesday afternoon that “there are no differences between the current list and the one from before the launch of the GHF.”

JNS heard a different story from a U.N. official, who declined to be named, on Thursday. “Yesterday, an admin error occurred affecting two NGOs,” the official said. “This was quickly rectified and clarified.”

The Israeli diplomatic source told JNS that the error was only fixed after a “tense” conversation, throughout the day on Wednesday, between a high-ranking Israel Defense Forces officer and Sarah Poole, the U.N. deputy special coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East peace process.


Hamas hoodwinks UN, West in aid and negotiations | Israel Undiplomatic
As Hamas faces collapse, the UN rushes to its defense!

In this episode, JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum and former Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev expose how the United Nations is being manipulated to prolong Hamas’s rule over Gaza.

Regev and Blum, both former advisers to the Israeli Prime Minister, uncover how Hamas has embedded itself within the very humanitarian infrastructure meant to aid civilians. The episode dismantles the myth of independent UN relief operations, revealing how international aid is being used as a lifeline to a terror regime on the brink. The hosts argue that by insisting on returning to the old UN-led system, global institutions are actively working to preserve Hamas’s grip on Gaza rather than dismantle it.

The conversation covers the latest developments in Gaza, the hostage crisis and U.S.-Israel diplomacy. They examine the Biden and Trump administrations’ diverging Middle East strategies, particularly a controversial hostage deal and ceasefire plan reportedly backed by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. The episode also draws a critical parallel with Iran - another collapsing regime given a lifeline by Western hesitation and naivety.

Topics covered:
How Hamas controls UN aid networks in Gaza
Why the UN is resisting new U.S.-Israel aid models
The hostage negotiations and ceasefire controversy
Iran’s strategic weakness and nuclear threat
What’s really at stake for Israel’s security and regional future

Chapters
00:00 Aid Distribution in Gaza: A New Approach
05:52 Hamas's Control and Political Implications
11:46 Negotiations and Hostage Situations
17:46 Iran's Weakness and Nuclear Threats
29:57 Public Sentiment and Future Prospects


Call me Back: Optimism for (Some) U.S. Universities - with Will Inboden & Eric Cohen
We’ve spent a lot of time on this podcast lamenting what has gone wrong on U.S. college campuses and within higher education overall. But, there are initiatives being launched and new schools and departments being founded that should give students and aspiring students (and their families) a lot of hope.

Joining us today to discuss:
Will Inboden, professor and director of the Alexander Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. He is the author of a terrific book called: “The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink.” And, announced today, Will Inboden is the finalist to be the next Provost of University of Texas at Austin.

Eric Cohen has been the CEO of Tikvah since 2007. He started and serves as the publisher of Mosaic, and founded the journal called The New Atlantis. Tikvah has partnered with the Hamilton School at UF on a unique program that will be explored in this episode.

00:00 Introduction
06:34 Neglected subjects
09:30 Politicizing education
15:50 What is Hamilton Center?
17:33 Tikvah supporting Hamilton Center
26:40 Jewish education
32:13 Building the right faculty
45:00 Outro


Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 16: Hamas and the broken promise of 150 years of Islamic reform
Hamas's rule in Gaza is a theocratic dictatorship. But its roots lie in the 19th-century movement for Islamic reform that believes modernization, science and even political liberalization. How did the great liberalizing theologians of the late 19th century, from Al-Afghani to Abduh to Rida, become Hamas?

And as has become a podcast tradition, this episode is dedicated to Netta Epstein, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Kibbutz K'far Aza on the morning of Oct. 7th. In his last selfless act, he heroically jumped on a grenade, saving the life of his fiancé Irene. Netta was well known in many communities, but we focus on him today because Netta spent four summers at Herzl Camp in Wisconsin.


Here I Am With Shai Davidai: Why Are Black Leaders Pressured to Oppose Israel? | EP 42 Dumisani Washington (Part 1 of 2)
In this episode of "Here I Am," host Shai Davidai sits down with Dumisani Washington—pastor, author of "Zionism and the Black Church," and founder of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. Together, they explore the complex legacy of Israel’s image in the West, the manipulation of racial narratives, and how the Black community has been drawn into the propaganda war against Israel. Dumisani shares personal insights on exploitation, the importance of legacy, and the challenges Black leaders face when justice is redefined by outside forces. This is part 1 of a 2-part episode, as the subject matter is too vast for a single conversation.


GenocAID: Attacked For FEEDING GAZA 🪂 🤸🏿 Your Skin. This Game. Now PLAY!
Welcome to the A Paratrooper and a Yogi Walk Into a Bar... Podcast, where veteran paratrooper Andrew Fox and expert yogi Shana Meyerson discuss the most interesting events relating to Israel, war in the Middle East, and antisemitism in the past week. 🥂

JUMPING IN WITH ANDREW: Andrew discusses the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and how it is providing food and medical aid to the people of Gaza...and not Hamas. 🪂

YOGI YADA-YADA WITH SHANA: Shana talks about the significance of the murder of two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington, D.C., and why every decent human should care. 🤸

Andrew Fox is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. He served for 16 years in the British Army, leaving the Parachute Regiment with the rank of Major. He completed 3 tours in Afghanistan including one attached to US Army Special Forces, as well as further tours of Bosnia, Northern Ireland and the Middle East. He was a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, teaching in the War Studies and Behavioural Science departments. In the last year he has visited Gaza twice as well as Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanon. Andrew is a regular Middle East commentator on GB News, TalkTV and LBC radio, and has been published in The Spectator, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, New York Post and The Tablet, amongst others.




Israel Advocacy Movement: He Claims There's A Genocide In Gaza… Then Debunks Himself

Israel Advocacy Movement: Muslims FLEE When Zionist Recites THIS Quran Verse



22 House progressives push unprecedented new restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel
A group of 22 left-wing House Democrats introduced legislation pushing for a series of sweeping and unprecedented new restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel, requiring specific authorizations from Congress for each transfer of numerous key weapons and guarantees from Israel about their use.

The legislation would prohibit the administration from transferring or selling a series of arms to Israel including several types of bombs, bomb guidance kits and tank and artillery ammunition without the passage of a distinct law from Congress authorizing the individual transfer.

The bill would require Congress, in those authorizations, to identify “the specific purpose or purposes for which such articles or services may be used for.” And Israel would have to provide “written assurances satisfactory to the President” that the weapons would be used in accordance with those specified purposes, as well as in line with existing U.S. arms sales law — which is already binding on Israel — and international law.

The proposal, which stands no chance of passing in the current Congress, goes beyond the conditions that have previously been proposed for U.S. arms sales to Israel or in place for any other recipients of U.S. aid. It contains no emergency waiver provision for the administration, should Israel face an attack.

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power and a former Senate staffer, told Jewish Insider that the bill “would be an extraordinary measure targeting Israel alone in a unique manner with the clear purpose of depriving Israel of some of the munitions it needs most” and is “among some of the most concerning anti-Israel legislation we’ve seen in recent years.”

He said that, while Congress has placed conditions on arms transfers to other nations in the past, the requirement of specific congressional approval for each transfer is “particularly aggressive.” He described the bill as “part of a campaign on the far left in this country focused on depriving the world’s only majority Jewish state of the means of self defense.”

“If it were to become law, it essentially is an arms embargo against Israel for these munitions,” Bowman said, making it “incredibly time consuming” to provide those weapons and slow the transfers down by months, and giving anti-Israel members opportunities to further derail the process through procedural means.

The bill is led by Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) and co-sponsored by Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Becca Balint (D-VT), Andre Carson (D-IN), Greg Casar (D-TX), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Summer Lee (D-PA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).
Seth Mandel: Mamdani’s Astonishing Hezbollah Propaganda
Zohran Mamdani is the progressive candidate surging in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary. It’s difficult to get to that position as a progressive without being sufficiently hostile to the Jewish state, and Mamdani certainly checks that box. But this week he crossed a line that was staggeringly militant even in our current age of say-anything shock-jock politics.

To be clear, Mamdani has never been subtle about his extremism. He founded his alma mater’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus pro-Hamas organization that has been most vocal in support of violence against Jews in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Mamdani instituted a policy of “non-normalization,” meaning he would not allow the group to work with anyone who believed in the Jewish right to self-determination.

These days, Mamdani spends his time promising to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and getting fundraising help from the Democratic Socialists of America, which just endorsed the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., outside the Capital Jewish Museum. A key campaign ally of his is Linda Sarsour, among the most infamous and virulent anti-Semites in the modern history of New York City politics.

As if all that weren’t enough, Mamdani, currently an assemblyman, refused to support a resolution condemning the Holocaust. When pressed on the move, his campaign manager made clear it was a campaign-related decision—essentially the product of a left-wing candidate running further to his left, banking on gaining more voters than he’d lose by refusing to take sides on the Holocaust. He has also attended rallies organized by Within Our Lifetime, whose founder has said, “I hope that a pop-pop [of a gun] is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime.”

Mamdani, then, is a post-Oct. 7 vessel for the de-stigmatized tidal wave of anti-Semitism in the West. And yet, his comments at a campaign stop this week at a mosque showed he could sink further still.

He brought up Israel’s pager operation, likely the most carefully targeted such operation in the history of warfare, in which the pagers only of Hezbollah exploded, maiming thousands of terrorists after the group had waged months of war on Israeli civilians.

Here is how Mamdani characterized the operation:

“Israel’s blowing up of thousands of pagers across Lebanon and killing scores of Lebanese civilians including a young girl by the name of Fatima, who picked up her father’s pager in an act of love and lost her life.”
NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani declared he’s anti-Zionist at 2021 protest, video shows
New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in the New York City mayoral race, told a crowd in 2021 that he is anti-Zionist, video footage showed.

Mamdani is polling in second place ahead of next month’s Democratic party primary, a vote that will likely decide the winner of November’s mayoral race in the mostly Democratic city. Antisemitism and Israel are central issues in the race, and in recent weeks, Mamdani has come under pressure over his views on the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

During the 2021 rally in Brooklyn led by the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, Mamdani said in a speech that pro-Palestinian activism was central to his politics, according to the previously unreported footage.

“It is Palestine that brought me into organizing, and it is Palestine that I will always organize for,” Mamdani said, highlighting that he had co-founded his college chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Mamdani, 33, attended Bowdoin College in Maine.

“Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, and in the anti-Zionist movement that I believe in and belong to, there is no room for antisemitism,” he said.

“If you have any hatred in your soul, this is not the place for you,” he added.

He said he was fighting for “justice” in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Haifa, which is in Israel proper.

Mamdani was elected earlier in 2021 to represent the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, a seat he still holds in the New York State Assembly.
Prominent Orthodox leader backs Cuomo for mayor
Leon Goldenberg, a prominent Orthodox Jewish leader in Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor, he confirmed exclusively to Jewish Insider on Friday.

“I am fully endorsing Gov. Cuomo,” Goldenberg said. “I think he’s the best candidate by far. He’s accomplished for the city and the state. We need somebody who’s going to get things accomplished and who’s going to fight antisemitism as a major issue.”

Goldenberg, who is an executive board chair of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, said that he was backing Cuomo in his personal capacity, but he anticipated his group would also endorse the former governor after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which concludes on Tuesday evening.

His early endorsement is among the first major signs of formal Orthodox support for Cuomo with just over three weeks until the June 24 Democratic primary. The former governor has in recent weeks engaged in proactive outreach to Orthodox leaders who represent sizable voting blocs that could prove crucial in the increasingly competitive race.

While polling has shown Cuomo leading the crowded primary field, his comfortable margin has narrowed as Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman in Queens, has recently come within eight points of the former governor in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to an independent survey released earlier this week.

Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who is the only candidate in the primary to publicly back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, has voiced rhetoric that has raised alarms among many Jewish leaders as his campaign continues to surge.


Ben & Jerry’s US-based board decries ‘genocide in Gaza,’ in escalation of fight with owner
The independent board of Ben & Jerry’s said the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza is a genocide, escalating a bitter feud between the ice cream maker and its longtime London-based corporate parent, Unilever.

“Ben & Jerry’s believes in human rights and advocates for peace, and we join with those around the world who denounce the genocide in Gaza,” the board said in a statement viewed by Reuters. “We stand with all who raise their voices against genocide in Gaza — from petition-signers to street marchers to those risking arrest.”

Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have been at odds since at least 2021 when the Chubby Hubby ice cream maker said it would stop selling in the Israel-controlled West Bank.

Ben & Jerry’s sued its owner last year over its alleged attempts to silence it on Gaza and criticize US President Donald Trump. Its statement on Gaza is unusual for a major US brand.

A Unilever spokesperson said that the comments reflect the views of the independent social mission board of Ben & Jerry’s and do not represent the views of anyone other than themselves.

“We call for peace in the region and for relief for all those whose lives have been impacted,” the spokesperson said.

Unilever asked a US judge to dismiss Ben & Jerry’s lawsuit. The company is also in the process of separating its ice cream business, including Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s, into an independent company this summer.




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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