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Sunday, July 06, 2025

07/06 Links: Can tribal leaders in Hebron bring peace with Israel?; 15 hostages break silence on sexual violence on Oct. 7; “Death to America” Doesn’t Have Another Side

From Ian:

Netanyahu departs for DC: ‘Chance to change face of Middle East even more’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Ben-Gurion International Airport aboard “Wing of Zion” on Sunday evening for his third in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the wake of “Operation Rising Lion” and amid talk of a possible hostages-for-ceasefire deal.

“In my conversation with President Trump, I will first of all thank him for his very strong support for Israel. We have never had such a friend in the White House,” Netanyahu told the press just before his flight.

“Our joint efforts have brought about a tremendous victory over our common enemy—Iran,” he said.

Israel feared for years whether it could stand up to Iran, and in the end, all branches of the IDF performed brilliantly, the prime minister said.

The success (intelligence assessments say that Iran’s nuclear weapons program has been knocked back several years) brings an obligation “first and foremost, to preserve the achievement—to remain vigilant against Iran’s attempts to renew its pursuit of nuclear weapons aimed at our destruction,” he said.

There’s also an opportunity “to expand the circle of peace far beyond what we ever imagined before,” he added, speaking of the Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states.

“We have already transformed the face of the Middle East beyond recognition, and we now have the opportunity and the ability to change it even further and bring a great future to the State of Israel, the people of Israel, and the entire [region],” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also said that Israel will not let the Gaza Strip again pose a threat and that means “the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Hamas will not remain there.”

“I am committed to all three missions: the release and return of all our hostages—both living and fallen—the elimination of Hamas’s capabilities, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” he said.
15 hostages break silence on sexual violence on Oct. 7
Fresh testimony from survivors and witnesses demonstrates that Hamas terrorists systematically employed sexual violence during their Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, according to a comprehensive investigation that documents previously unreported accounts of rape and sexual abuse.

The upcoming Dinah Project report presents evidence from 15 returned hostages who experienced sexual violence in captivity, with only one having spoken publicly before now, the U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times revealed.

The investigation, conducted by Israeli gender and legal experts with partial funding from the British government, found that sexual violence was “widespread and systematic” during the onslaught that killed approximately 1,200 people.

According to the Sunday Times, the report establishes that rape and gang rape occurred in at least six locations, though most victims were “permanently silenced”—either murdered during the assaults or left too traumatized to speak.

The Dinah Project will be published on Tuesday in Jerusalem, representing the most comprehensive documentation of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack, the newspaper reported.

The report draws from first-hand testimony of 15 returned Gaza hostages, a survivor of attempted rape at the Supernova music festival and interviews with 17 people who witnessed or heard the attacks, along with therapists treating traumatized survivors.

The project aims “to counter denial, misinformation and global silence” regarding what researchers describe as “one of the most under-reported dimensions of the attacks.”

The report states its mission is “to set the historical record straight: Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war.

“Clear patterns emerged in how the sexual violence was perpetrated,” the report documents, “including victims found partially or fully naked with their hands tied, often to trees or poles; evidence of gang rapes followed by execution; and genital mutilation.”

The documented attacks occurred at the Supernova music festival, Route 232, the Nahal Oz military base, and three kibbutzim: Re’im, Nir Oz and Kfar Aza. Sexual abuse extended beyond the initial assault locations, the report reveals.

“Sexual violence continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults and threats of forced marriage,” the investigation adds.
Netanyahu said to receive report on medical conditions of all living hostages
Just before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for Washington on Sunday to meet with US President Donald Trump, he was reportedly presented information about the medical condition of each of the 20 remaining living hostages, which is said to serve as the basis of who will be chosen to be freed during the hostage-ceasefire deal that is seen to be nearing agreement.

The medical information given to Netanyahu and some senior ministers and aides will be used in discussions, both internal and with mediators, about which hostages’ releases will be prioritized, Channel 12 reported on Sunday.

According to the report, senior cabinet ministers said after the information was presented that “we will have difficulty prioritizing [the hostages],” because “they are all humanitarian [cases].”

The outline of the deal, as it currently stands, would see about half of the living hostages and about half of the dead hostages held by terror groups in Gaza returned to Israel over 60 days, in five separate releases.

Eight living hostages would be freed on the first day and two released on the 50th day, according to an Arab diplomat from one of the mediating countries. Five slain hostages would be returned on the seventh day, five more on the 30th day and eight more on the 60th day. That would leave 22 hostages still held in Gaza, 10 of them believed by Israeli authorities to be alive.

The deal has yet to be finalized, and there has been no definitive statement on whether Israel or Hamas would be the one to determine which 10 of the 20 living hostages would be freed under its terms, and according to which criteria.

As part of the outlet’s report, Channel 12 shared excerpts from the medical files of each living hostage, to highlight the difficulty in deciding between them based on medical priority.
Dear Tucker Carlson: “Death to America” Doesn’t Have Another Side
Tucker Carlson has just announced his latest interview—this time with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. If his recent sit-down with Qatar’s Prime Minister is any indication, don’t expect hard questions about the thousands tortured, hanged, raped, or butchered by the regime. Don’t expect mention of the morality police, the murdered protesters, the jailed journalists, or the terror exported across half the globe. Expect instead softballs and sympathy, all under the worn-out pretense of “hearing the other side.”

Carlson’s interview with the Qatari PM, it turns out, wasn’t just a puff piece. According to FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) filings, it was part of a paid, coordinated PR campaign to rehabilitate Qatar’s image in the West. The entire sit-down was Qatari state propaganda, masquerading as journalism—a slick rebranding of a regime that funds Hamas, hosts the Taliban, and suppresses free speech within its own borders.

The interview announced just days after the Iranian regime issued a new fatwa calling for the assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump. These aren’t symbolic gestures. Ask Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed on stage nearly 30 years after a fatwa was declared against him. These are not political statements. They are theological death warrants with no expiration date—waiting for a devout believer to carry them out.

Iranian officials chant Death to America and Death to Israel in Friday sermons broadcast nationwide. They openly refer to the U.S. as “the Great Satan.” They call for the destruction of Western civilization and the global spread of Islamic rule. Their proxies—Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas—carry that mission out in blood. Thousands of Americans have died at the hands of Iran and its network of armed proxies—from the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut to the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq by Iranian-supplied IEDs. Americans have been kidnapped, tortured, and murdered—all while Tehran denies involvement and smiles for the camera.

What part of this is America First? It's not contrarian truth-telling. It’s betrayal. It’s the normalization of enemies who would burn the Constitution, not quote it. The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is very clear: "Death to America is not just a slogan. It is a policy."

Still, we are told to listen.

But to what, exactly?


It's Time to End the Quiet Toleration of Hatred and Extremism
There is a quiet toleration of hatred and extremism which has gone on for far too long. Two weeks ago, anti-Israel demonstrators in London carried photographs of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with the words "Choose the right side of history." Others chanted: "We Stand with Iran."

Put to one side the fact that "standing with Iran" willfully ignores the huge dangers - not just to Israel, but to the UK and our other regional allies - posed by Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as its support for international terrorism and proxy armies which have brought bloodshed and chaos across the Middle East.

Instead, we should ask: why would anybody think - as the Islamic Human Rights Commission which printed the banners appears to believe - that Iran's ageing regime is "on the right side of history"? The Iranian regime has presided over the wholesale and violent suppression of the human rights of the people of Iran for decades. Khamenei's regime violently put down peaceful protests in 2009, 2019-20 and 2022-3. It executes hundreds of people each year. It treats women as second-class citizens; persecutes ethnic and religious minorities, refugees and migrants; and murders gay people.

The ever-rising tide of extremism within the anti-Israel movement must be called out and confronted. In 2021, the Commission on Countering Extremism warned of a "gaping chasm in the law that allows hateful extremists to operate with impunity." A noisy and fanatical minority have been allowed to poison and dominate debate, and abuse and intimidate their opponents. It's time to put an end to our collective indifference to extremism. Enough is enough.
London 7/7: the atrocity we don’t talk about
Above all, the state’s promotion of multiculturalism encouraged the development of a form of Muslim identity politics, especially among second-, third- and fourth-generation immigrants. Up until then, religion had largely been a matter of conscience for British Muslims, just as it was for Catholics, Anglicans or Sikhs. But by the 1990s, it was morphing from being a private matter into a public identity – to be performed and asserted often against the mainstream of British culture. This was evident in everything from the uptick in veil-wearing among young Muslim women to the increasingly vehement, if shallow, identification with transnational ‘Muslim’ causes, such as Palestine.

International forces played a role, too, of course – inflaming the identitarian tensions and antagonisms created by multiculturalism. Above all, the decline of a largely secular Arab nationalism during the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of militant Islamism in its place, simultaneously supercharged Muslim identity politics in Britain. The Muslim Brotherhood may have been promoting political Islam since the 1920s, but by the 1970s it had been joined by the Saudi government, which had begun pumping oil money into fundamentalist Salafi organisations around the world. And then in 1979, the Iranian Revolution gave rise to a real-life Islamic state. In all cases, Islamism was conceived of as a global cause. Indeed, in 1989, the decision of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, to issue a fatwa against Salman Rushdie brought Muslim identity politics right into the open in Britain, as largely young Muslim men began challenging the secular values of their own nation – with sadly little to no real resistance from the moral invertebrates of Britain’s political and cultural elites.

It was in this social context – bereft of secular radicalism, shaped by decades of multiculturalism and infused by Islamism from afar – that first Khan and then Tanweer, Lindsay and Hussain came to understand and frame their youthful alienation from the mainstream. And they did so as very modern Muslims. As bearers of a cultural identity supposedly threatened by a godless West. As supposed victims of an inhospitable society.

Through informal social networks around the Iqra bookshop, the gym, and in Khan’s and Tanweer’s case, a local Muslim gang called the ‘Mullah Boys’, they were soon drawn to the most extreme form of Muslim identity politics – militant Islamism. There they found what they were looking for. Not faith in the traditional sense, but validation, recognition and purpose. Islamism provided them with the script for their depraved rejection of British society. They were able to cast themselves as heroes in their own tale of good vs evil, of victimised Muslims vs a cruel, soulless West.

When Khan and his gang rented a flat in Leeds to begin making their bombs in early 2005, with help from a contact in Pakistan, they had effectively committed themselves to death. Since 9/11, the pursuit of suicide while committing mass murder began to mark out radical jihadists from earlier generations of Islamists. The London bombers were no exception. This is because the act of violence for modern jihadists is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. It is the moment in which their rejection of the societies in which they live, in which their revolt against the society they have come to loathe, becomes authentic. The moment in which they hope to be recognised, validated for what they believe they are – holy warriors. The London bombers were driven by a narcissistic nihilism – an intense desire, fuelled by a vicious identity politics, to be seen in the act of self-destruction as the purest, most violently virtuous of Muslims. ‘I and thousands like me are forsaking everything for what we believe’, said Khan in his posthumous al-Qaeda video.

And so on 7 July 2005, four young men arrived at London’s Kings Cross station with a plan to kill themselves and as many of us as possible. Because they believed they were pure, and we were not. It was an atrocity made possible not by the war in Iraq, but by a vicious Muslim identity politics. A vicious Muslim identity politics encouraged by Britain’s own elites just as much as by overseas Islamists.

This is why 7/7 has become the forgotten atrocity. Why Britain’s deadliest terror attack of the 21st century has left so little cultural imprint, and has had so little political impact. Because it raises uncomfortable questions, particularly about multiculturalism and integration, that the authorities do not want asked. But until we’re prepared to reckon with the homegrown sources of 7/7, the lessons from this calamity will remain steadfastly unlearned.
Andrew Fox: The Future of the Middle East - Part 3
The strategic vision presented here intentionally extends beyond the traditional comfort zones of peace-making. It advocates for dismantling the existing power structures (Hamas’s tyranny in Gaza and the PLO’s corrupt monopoly in the West Bank) in favour of empowering ordinary people and their local leaders.

In Gaza, the plan is to turn the population against Hamas by depriving the militants of their resources and legitimacy: support the clans, re-route aid, expose Hamas’s abuses, and complete military operations with precision and determination.

In the West Bank, the aim is to finally dispel the illusion that all of Palestine can be “liberated” from Israel, replacing this idea with promoting pluralism and pragmatic local governance: allowing those willing to pursue peace and prosperity to do so, one town at a time if necessary. This approach offers many paths rather than a single route, and that is its strength. It does not rely solely on one vulnerable Palestinian leader or a grand summit (which, as history has shown, can end in catastrophic failure). Instead, it constructs peace gradually, community by community.

For Israel and its allies, implementing this strategy will demand patience, adaptability, and a readiness to question traditional wisdom. It involves taking some calculated risks, such as trusting certain local Palestinian actors who were previously marginalised, or permitting new political structures to develop. It also requires exercising restraint at critical moments: for example, avoiding short-term political optics (such as the desire to proclaim a ceasefire victory) that could compromise the long-term goal of neutralising extremist organisations.

The United States, under President Trump’s leadership, has a pivotal role to play. Washington can leverage its influence with Arab states and its financial resources to support these new local autonomies and ensure that humanitarian efforts succeed without enriching Hamas. It can also be a truth-teller in international forums, making clear that supporting Palestinian aspirations does not equal empowering Hamas or indulging intransigence at the UN.

The Abraham Accords network, spanning from the Gulf states to Morocco, should be expanded to include those Palestinian entities that demonstrate readiness for peace. Imagine a future where a Palestinian city’s representatives attend economic conferences in Dubai or cultural exchanges in Manama, alongside Israelis, as part of a growing “Abrahamic” family. That vision is far more hopeful than the endlessly postponed two-state conferences in European halls that lead nowhere.

Critics will argue that this all sounds like an “apartheid of mini-states” or a way to dodge the Palestinian demand for full statehood. But one must ask: what has the insistence on a maximalist statehood (encompassing all Palestinians at once) achieved for the Palestinian people? Nothing but power struggles and misery.

Perhaps statehood will indeed materialise, but it might arrive through the back door, via a federation of emirates that eventually merge into a de facto nation. This is not without precedent; history provides examples of gradual state formation from smaller units (the United Arab Emirates itself was created when seven emirates united, yet each retained its local ruler and identity). The crucial point is that any future Palestinian entity or entities emerge in peaceful coexistence with Israel, not in opposition to it. Peace is not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of cooperation. When Gaza’s children can attend schools not run by Hamas indoctrinators, when Hebron’s markets are busy with goods moving freely to Israel and Jordan, and when a council of Palestinian mayors convenes in Abu Dhabi to attract investments, these will be the signs that the strategy is working.

In the final analysis, the conflict between Israel and “Palestine” has always been asymmetric, not just in power but also in vision. Israel built a thriving state, while Palestinian leaders focused on dismantling it. To genuinely resolve the conflict, that destructive vision must be defeated and replaced with a constructive one. Gaza’s liberation from Hamas and the West Bank’s progress beyond the old PLO leadership are two fronts in the same fight for a different future. The roadmap outlined here is admittedly ambitious and full of uncertainties.

However, clinging to the old plan and hoping that more negotiations will suddenly bridge an ideological divide is the very definition of insanity. It is time to adopt a new approach, one that relies on what works (local legitimacy, economic incentives, regional cooperation) and rejects what does not (foreign occupation models and grand summit talks disconnected from local realities).

By distinguishing the people from extremists and prioritising Palestinian well-being over the cult of Palestinian nationalism, Israel and its allies can help foster a post-conflict Middle East where today’s enemies become, if not friends, neighbours who agree to coexist peacefully. Ultimately, that is the peace worth striving for.
Military expert tears apart viral Gaza aid story (w/Andrew Fox)
Former British military officer and Middle East specialist Andrew Fox joins the show this week to uncover the real story behind the viral “It’s a Killing Field” article. They explore how misleading media coverage, amplified by outlets like Haaretz and CNN, is fueling war-crimes accusations against Israel and threatening to distort legal proceedings in international courts.

The conversation gives a thorough explanation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a joint U.S.-Israeli initiative working to deliver aid in a warzone while avoiding Hamas control. Fox, a former British paratrooper with firsthand experience inside Gaza and Lebanon during the war, shares what he saw in Rafah, the Netzarim Corridor and Hezbollah’s tunnel networks, offering rare insight into IDF tactics and conditions on the ground.

The episode also exposes how media bias and lawfare tactics are undermining Israel’s ability to defend itself legally and militarily, especially through the manipulation of casualty figures by Hamas and the unquestioning repetition of those figures in the Western press. Fox explains the military and legal difference between firing at civilians and firing warning shots, nuances often erased in sensationalist coverage. Drawing on his experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, he explains why Israel’s fight is not a war of choice but an existential battle and why most Western armies would likely perform worse in Gaza’s complex urban combat environment. He also discusses the IDF’s internal mechanisms for investigating misconduct, contrasting its commitment to legal accountability with the double standards applied by international media and NGOs.


Amit Segal: Israel needs a few more months to defeat Hamas and restore peace
Why is it taking Israel so long to conclude the war in Gaza? This is the question many around the world are asking. Critics of Israel suggest the prolonged conflict indicates a desire to wage an endless war aimed at killing as many innocents as possible. Meanwhile, Israel’s supporters express concern about its deteriorating international standing.

Let’s add another question: how was Israel able to accomplish its objectives in the remarkable operation in Iran within just 12 days, or conclude its groundbreaking campaign against Hezbollah in 70 days, while the Gaza conflict drags on for 20 months without a clear resolution in sight?

There are three key reasons for this.

The first is hostages. Israel displays extraordinary sensitivity towards its captured citizens and soldiers.

While studying in London, I wrote a thesis on hostage deals, noting Israel often exchanges 1,000 terrorists for a single soldier. My professor returned my paper, advising me to correct what he thought was a typing error – he simply couldn’t believe any country would agree to such terms.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) avoids entering certain areas to prevent harming hostages. For Hamas, these hostages have become a “get-out-of-jail-free” card: whenever the group’s situation deteriorates, they release a few hostages, gaining a two-month respite to regroup.

The second is international pressure. From the outset of the war, the Biden administration pressed Israel to allow humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza. As a result, tens of thousands have entered the strip since the conflict began.

Tragically, rather than humanitarian assistance reaching civilians, what entered Gaza effectively provided Hamas with cash and resources. It stole aid supplies, reselling them at exorbitant prices – as much as $37 for a single cigarette. Hamas also taxed the merchants on their profits, filling its pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars.


'The protective wall of all civilization'
According to Iran researcher Dr. Raphael BenLevi, the blow that Israel dealt to Tehran not only thwarted a serious strategic threat, but heralds a profound change in the status and role of the Jewish state. The tendency to explain global conflicts solely in military and economic terms, he says, misses the ideological war between West and East and between oppression and freedom.

Approximately two weeks following the October 7 massacre, Dr. Raphael BenLevi penned an article urging Israel to extend its military campaign to the Islamic Republic's nuclear infrastructure. "In Iran's strategic chess match," he observed at the time, "Hamas serves as a pawn, Hezbollah functions as a rook – while the nuclear program represents the queen piece." Following the Islamic Republic's severe defeats, initially from Israeli forces and subsequently through American bombardments, he analyzes why this development transcends mere threat neutralization.

From his perspective, Israel's decisive confrontation with evil fulfilled the nation's historic calling to merge strength with moral clarity, establishing itself as a beacon championing justice and righteousness through concrete action rather than empty rhetoric. The Israeli Air Force's precision strikes demonstrated unequivocally to the global community that Israel stands as civilization's protective barrier.

BenLevi has maintained close surveillance of Iranian developments across multiple decades through various professional roles. During his tenure with the IDF's Intelligence Research Division, he concentrated extensively on Iranian affairs, and his English-language book "Cultures of Counterproliferation: The Making of American and Israeli Policy on the Iranian Nuclear Program" was published last year.

This work draws from his doctoral research at Bar-Ilan University and his fellowship at Georgetown University in Washington, where he also studied Persian language and cultural studies. Currently, he serves as a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security while directing the Churchill Program for Statecraft and Security at the Argaman Institute.

"From a historical standpoint," he explained, "this military operation places Israel in the most secure and powerful position it has occupied since achieving statehood. The campaign restored Israel's reputation as a formidable military and technological force possessing exceptional capabilities. Between its founding and 1979, Israel faced an existential threat from Egypt's military, which spearheaded Arab opposition to the Jewish state. Following Egypt's withdrawal from active hostilities, Iran's Islamic revolution transformed the republic into the primary force opposing Israel's existence through constructing the 'ring of fire' and developing proxy networks."

"We're witnessing a complete narrative shift – no longer does America play the role of our great rescuer, but rather an American president who recognized this historic opportunity and understood his obligation to join as our partner in this blessing," BenLevi clarified. "The Book of Esther documents how 'many of the peoples of the land became Jews' following the Purim triumph, and similarly, we can anticipate expanding international interest with Israel's cultural contributions to global civilization.

"While this recent offensive hasn't eliminated all threats facing us, it provides a crucial historical insight. Whenever we seized the initiative against our adversaries, opportunities multiplied and we achieved remarkable success. We witnessed this pattern during our independence declaration, Operation Sinai, Operation Focus during the Six-Day War, our strikes on Iraq and Syria's nuclear reactors, and the First Lebanon War's opening that resulted in the PLO's expulsion to Tunisia within two months. Conversely, each instance of hesitation cost us dearly."
BRICS forum, in Brazil, condemns US, Israeli airstrikes on Iran
Iran won the support of fellow BRICS nations meeting in Rio de Janeiro today, with the bloc condemning Israel and the US for the assault on Iran’s nuclear program and military infrastructure throughout the 12-day war last month.

“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025,” leaders said in a summit statement, without naming the United States or Israel.

“We further express serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities,” the bloc said.

The 11-nation grouping said the strikes “constitute a violation of international law.”

The declaration is a rare diplomatic victory for Tehran, which has received limited regional or global support after the bombing campaign by the Israeli military, which culminated in US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan.

Israel attacked Iran on June 13, declaring that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs posed an imminent, existential threat to the Jewish state.

In retaliation for the strikes, Iran fired more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel throughout the war, killing 28 people.

Fighting stopped on June 24, with the adoption of a US-brokered ceasefire.

The BRICS gathering includes Israel’s arch foe Iran, and also nations like Russia and China, which have ties with Tehran.
Islamic charity warned over ‘fight and kill the Jews’ sermon after October 7 attacks
An Islamic charity in Britain has been given a formal warning and one of its trustees disqualified after an “inflammatory and divisive” sermon about Jews in the days after the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Language in the sermon included “the hour will not begin until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until a Jew hides behind a rock or a tree” and attendees were encouraged not to “busy yourselves with politics and voting”, the Charity Commission said.

It is one of more than 300 cases involving charities in the past 18 months related to the Middle East conflict, the regulator – which operates across England and Wales – said.

The latest case involved Nottingham Islam Information Point, a charity said to provide support to victims of Islamophobic attacks and address misconceptions about the religion of Islam.

But a sermon, given on 13 October 2023 by trustee Harun Abdur Rashid Holmes “did not further the charity’s purposes, including to provide relief to those in need, and was not in the charity’s best interests”, therefore amounting to misconduct and/or mismanagement, the regulator said.

Mr Holmes, who is not a trained imam, was deemed not to have acted in accordance with his duties as a trustee and was disqualified in July last year.

He is prevented from holding any senior management position in a charity in England and Wales for three years – and noted by the commission to lack the good judgement expected of a trustee.

While the charities watchdog said it recognised some of the sermon’s content had come from a specific hadith – a narration of historical events ascribed to the prophet Mohammed – the appropriate context was not given and it therefore was “inflammatory and divisive”.

The regulator also said “no consideration” had been given to the timing of the sermon, coming six days after the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel.

The commission said Mr Holmes had accepted that, with hindsight, the hadith was sensitive, and that he had not given sufficient context to it.

The commission’s assistant director of investigations and compliance, Stephen Roake, said: “In times of conflict, people expect charities to bring people together, not to stoke division. In this case, we found due consideration had not been given to the words and rhetoric used.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis: Bob Vylan presented hatred as virtue and the crowd was seduced
There are moments in history when the veil is pulled back — when we glimpse not just a lapse in judgment, but a rupture in the moral fabric of our society. Glastonbury 2025 was such a moment.

When I responded to the appalling events at the Somerset festival last weekend by referring to them as “vile Jew hatred”, I was giving voice to what many in the Jewish community have known for a long time. That the kind of rhetoric heard in the punk duo Bob Vylan’s chant of “Death, death to the IDF” — the Israel Defence Forces — though clothed in the guise of justice and liberation, is no more than thinly veiled anti-Jewish hatred.

However, it has been disturbing to read the responses of many last week who were unwilling to accept this characterisation, and unable to distinguish between reasoned criticism on the one hand, and outright antisemitic incitement on the other.

It could not be clearer to Jews that what we saw on that stage, and in that crowd, was the same old ancient prejudice, but surprisingly, it seems there is a need to explain how and why.

It was broadcast for the world to see: a crowd of thousands, voices raised in unison, chanting “Death, death to the IDF”. Cheering. Euphoria. Celebration. And then the voice from the stage, a voice of influence, declared that he was no pacifist. That violence is sometimes the only language “people” understand. That he had once worked for a “Zionist”, whom he characterised in terms I don’t wish to republish here. And it was all met, not with shame, disapproval or even silence, but with a thunderous ovation.

Herein lies the problem: when hatred presents itself as virtue, it becomes seductive. It offers the thrill of righteous outrage against the establishment, which can pass unchecked by the conscience of an otherwise decent person. And so, we saw thousands swept up by hateful zeal, chanting for the death of strangers.

Do we ever find such behaviour directed at any other nation, people or military, regardless of how controversial they are thought to be? One would simply never find such casual bloodlust directed towards the soldiers of any other state, let alone find it greeted by such a response from a crowd. This was not a call for a change of policy. It was not a cry for peace. It was pure hate.
Arsen Ostrovsky: Australia synagogue arson isn't free speech or political commentary, but a call to arms
What kind of Australia do we want?
The question therefore is: what kind of Australia do we want?

One where Synagogues burn and mobs roam free?

Where calls for violence against Jews are dismissed as legitimate political expression?

Where the Jewish right to safety and dignity is conditional on global events, media narratives, or the will of those in power?

We all know what the response would be if it were a Mosque set alight, or a halal restaurant stormed by a mob shouting “Death to Muslims.” There would be national outrage, and rightfully so. There can be absolutely zero tolerance for racial hatred of any kind.

But when it’s Jews, the urgency seemingly disappears. The clarity evaporates. And the political will, with the exception of some cherished allies and leaders, dissolves.

This double standard is not only dangerous, it is corrosive to the very fabric of Australia’s democracy, to its identity and the kind of society it aspires to be.

Antisemitism doesn’t fade away on its own. It grows when tolerated, excused or acquiesced to. And like a virus, it ultimately devours societies that fail to confront it.

Melbourne has now seen not only the warning signs, but the fire itself.

So how much worse must it get before Australia says: enough?

What happened in Melbourne this Shabbat, and has been reoccurring on an almost daily basis since October 7th, was not just an attack against the Jewish community, but an assault on the very foundations and freedom that all Australians enjoy and have the right to expect.

The choice before us is clear: confront this hatred with the urgency it demands, or allow it to fester until the damage is beyond repair. Silence is not an option, it is complicity.
PM Albanese, those words don’t mean what you think they do
“HATE IN OUR STREETS” declared the bold headline today, reporting on the recent attacks on a Melbourne Synagogue and a Miznon restaurant — both on Friday night. The story implies that this is news. Letter-writers are calling this a turning point. We know better.

The hate was in our streets on October 9, 2023, after Hamas’s murderous rampage and before any response from the IDF. Protesters shouted antisemitic slurs outside the Sydney Opera House. In the following months, there was deep debate as to what they actually said. Don’t get so worked up, they said. The protestors didn’t shout “gas the Jews” — they only said “F**k the Jews” and possibly “Where’s the Jews?”

We know better. If it looks like a duck and it quacks, it’s a duck. We’ve seen antisemitism long enough to know — and feel — what it looks like. We know better the path from words to actions.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the time that antisemitism “has no place in Australia.” And he has said exactly the same thing after every subsequent incident.

As the weekly protests outside the state library escalated from pro-Palestinian rhetoric to anti-Zionist to antisemitic, he said it again. And again. As the protests moved to graffiti in Jewish areas and on Jewish schools, to taunts and threats against visibly Jewish people in the streets, to boycotts against Jewish-owned businesses and artists, and then to arson against homes and against places of worship, he said it again.

The government’s response has been the same mealy-mouthed words, over and over. They have remained the same, while the protestors kept escalating. Our leaders have abrogated their responsibility to keep citizens safe. We are not safe. We don’t feel safe. It seems that antisemitism does indeed have a place in Australia.

They cannot see a link between their bothsidesism when it comes to the conflict and their public disdain for Israel, and the steady increase in public expressions of antisemitism. But we know better.


Man charged over synagogue arson in Melbourne
Police in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria have arrested a suspect in connection with an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne on Friday night, during Shabbat prayers.

The 34-year-old man from New South Wales allegedly carried out the attack around 8 p.m., pouring flammable liquid on the front door of the building and setting it alight before fleeing, police said. They added that there were 20 people inside the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, all of whom escaped without injury.

Firefighters were able to contain the blaze at the entrance to the synagogue.

Police arrested the man on Saturday night at about 8:15 p.m. in the coastal city’s central business district, after releasing an image of him earlier in the day from CCTV footage of the attack.

“He was interviewed by detectives and charged with reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, criminal damage by fire, and possession of a controlled weapon,” police said.

He was scheduled to appear before the bail and remand court on Sunday.

“Detectives will continue to examine the intent and ideology of the person charged to determine if the incident is, in fact, terrorism,” police said.


Protesters continue anti-IDF chant at Melbourne rally following antisemitic attacks
Despite a rally organiser’s condemnation of the attack during the protest, two pre-teen Melbourne sisters, who had previously made moving remarks about the suffering of children their age in Gaza, then led chants of “Death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” and “Death, death to the IOF [Israeli Occupying Force]”.

On the same night as Friday’s synagogue attack, a group of 20 people stormed Israeli restaurant Miznon in the CBD, upturning tables, distressing diners and chanting “Death to the IDF”.

Police are also investigating a third incident, on Saturday morning, in which three cars were set on fire and the wall of a business in Melbourne’s north-east was spray-painted with graffiti.

The protest and the chants came after political leaders hit out at the protests which came two days after Friday night’s incidents.

On Sunday, counterterrorism detectives charged Sydney man Angelo Loras over the alleged arson attack on East Melbourne Synagogue, while police continued to investigate the incident at Miznon. The 34-year-old appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court and was remanded until July 22. The court heard it was the accused’s first time custody.

Police said they were still trying to determine whether to classify the alleged arson as an act of terror.

A police source, who cannot be identified speaking about operational matters, said at least one of those who invaded the restaurant was part of a group known to counter-terrorism police for sometimes organising left-wing protests that turned violent.

Victoria Police declined to comment on the identity of the person or the nature of the groups involved.

At the protest on Sunday, an organiser who did not wish to be identified opened the event by condemning the attack on the synagogue where 20 worshippers were gathered for a meal on the weekly Jewish holy day of Shabbat, on Friday night.

She later told this masthead: “We’ve always stood against antisemitism; attacks on synagogues, worshipping and praying. That’s not what we stand for, and we condemn the attacks.”

At the rally, a large, watermelon-inspired sign reading “Ceasefire Now” led the group down Swanston Street, followed by marchers with signs reading “Death death to the IDF”, “Glory to the Martyrs” and “You’re sick of us? We’re sick of Israel killing children”.


A New Palestinian Offer for Peace With Israel
"We want cooperation with Israel, we want coexistence," says Sheikh Wadee' al-Jaabari, 48, leader of the most influential clan in the West Bank city of Hebron, south of Jerusalem. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords.

Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, has brought Jaabari and other sheikhs to his home and met with them more than a dozen times since February. They asked him to present the letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter seeks a timetable for negotiations to join the Abraham Accords and "a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster and destruction." The Oslo Accords, agreed to by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, "have brought upon us the corrupt Palestinian Authority, instead of recognizing the traditional, authentic local leadership."

The sheikhs propose that Israel admit workers from Hebron - a valuable source of income for Palestinian communities. Most permits for Palestinians to work in Israel were suspended after Oct. 7. The sheikhs pledge "zero tolerance" for terrorism by workers, "in contrast to the current situation in which the Palestinian Authority pays tributes to the terrorists."

"Nobody in Israel believes in the PA, and you won't find many Palestinians who do either," Barkat says. "Sheikh Jaabari wants peace with Israel and to join the Abraham Accords, with the support of his fellow sheikhs. Who in Israel is going to say no?"

Jaabari says the clans governed their own localities for hundreds of years. Then "the Israeli state decided for us. It brought the PLO and told the Palestinians: 'Take this.'" Another sheikh said, "The PLO called itself a liberation movement. But once they got control, they act only to steal the money of the people. They don't have the right to represent us - not them and not Hamas, only we ourselves." The sheikhs say they can remove the PA from Hebron in a week, or a day, depending on how aggressively they move. "Just don't get involved," one Hebron sheikh advises Israel.


Can tribal leaders in Hebron bring peace with Israel?
Tribes, clans can only be counted on to provide limited stability in small regions
There are many other examples people will point to in order to show how tribes, clans and sheikhs are part of the fabric of the region, and a type of structure that might be relied on. However, evidence shows that generally the tribes and clans in the region can only be counted on to provide limited stability in small regions, usually when government institutions break down. The Shammar tribe in Iraq and Syria, for instance, may be a large tribal structure and it may be important. However, its relevance doesn’t extend to running either country.

Some people make a simplistic argument that the Middle East is basically a collection of “tribes” and that there are no real “states.” They argue that the weaker and “failed” states all exist because they do not reflect the underlying “tribes.” In this narrative, the current successful Arab countries of the Gulf are successfuly because they are rooted in tribes; and the apparent weakness of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries is because the “tribes” have not been invested in enough. This understanding of the region lacks a real appreciation of the diversity of the Middle East.

While it may be true that tribal structures are important in some areas, the fact is that the modern urbanized Middle East has had the same affect that urbanization has had on people all over the world; reducing clan and tribal structures and moving people in masses to cities. When people become educated and there are institutions, tribal structures begin to fray. Arab nationalism, for instance, weakened these structures. No one can seriously argue that Egypt, a state rooted in the power of the people of the Nile valley, is really a “tribal” state. It exists in opposition largely to “tribes.” Lebanon, because it is such a diverse state, is not best divided into “tribes.” Syria is also a diverse state and is not best seen as a “tribal” state. One may argue that many parts of Iraq have strong tribal elements. There are Kurdish tribes, Yazidi tribes, and Sunni tribes. However, the power of these various groups within larger groups has largely persisted because Iraq has been in such chaos over the years; from the Saddam era to the insurgency and the ISIS war.

Now, let’s return to the Palestinian Arabs and the false hope of tribes. The growth of Fatah in the 1960s and 1970s and then Hamas in the 1980s is largely in opposition to tradition tribal or clan elements in society. After the 1948 war the collapse of Palestinian Arab society, due to massive movement of refugees and displaced people, meant that traditional village and beduin sheikh rule broke down; along with the traditional urban elites and “effendis.” There was a brief period where traditional rulers re-emerged in the 1950s. Nationalism pushed them to the side, as did Arab socialism and communism and eventually the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Why would tribal and clan structures re-emerge after so many decades of being weakened? They might be tapped on a very local level, but the idea that they might command the allegiance of hundreds of thousands appears mistaken. Tribal sheikhs can’t run schools or institutions, they don’t run universities, or hospitals. If an “emirate” emerges in Hebron what land will it control. Will it be armed? Who will administer education and universities and colleges in the area? Who will build wells and pave roads? The Gulf states only work because the traditional tribal structure took on the responsibility of governance.

However, there’s no evidence that this is happening among clans in Hebron or Gaza. The fact that the Sons of Iraq or the leaders of Jordan and Iraq emerged under US and British support, illustrate that these tribal structures often require outside support. They feed off weak states but they rarely replace states, especially when they are foised on existing urban and rural structures.
Reporter's Notebook: 'Post' meets with top Hebron sheikh who wants to pull out of PA
From his perspective, the PA was a foreign force from Tunisia (where PLO and then-PA leader Yasser Arafat was expelled to before Oslo) that returned to the West Bank after over 20 years of exile and pushed down the traditional sheikhdoms that had always run all Palestinian affairs in the area.

He told the Post that all critical local services are still handled by his council of sheikhs, and that all the PA does is collect taxes, a way of appropriating local money for its corrupt “foreign” needs.

Put differently, Jaabari sees the PA as only a parasite and wants back full control of the area, which he and his council say existed for hundreds of years before the Oslo Accords.

Also, after October 7, he simply believes that the pre-war idea of a Palestinian state is dead and that Israelis will never accept it.

So what is the point of waiting around for a pipe dream while the PA takes portions of his clan’s money in the meantime?

Jaabari is up against the Shin Bet, the IDF, possibly Netanyahu (his final position is undecided), the PA, and probably much of the world, which is still set on the traditional Oslo-era two-state solution.

It is unclear whether US President Donald Trump would weigh in on the issue and try to sway the world toward accepting it, especially if Israel itself has not decided its position.

And if Netanyahu ever started talking about the plan seriously in public, would it be because he actually intended to implement it – or to use it as a bluff to pressure the Saudis into normalization at a lower price for what he would need to give the PA (by telling the Saudis he will move along with the plan if they don’t)?

But Trump loves normalization deals, and the Abraham Accords were carried out despite PA opposition.

From one perspective, this could be a new pragmatic way for Israelis and Palestinians to coexist and live in peace after 33 years of Oslo has not yielded this.

Some of the Israeli Right are enthusiastic about the initiative because it would allow them to keep Jerusalem and to take more portions of Area C, while the local sheikhs would also support it to get the PA off their backs.

From another perspective, it may be an unrealistic pipe dream of a group of local sheikhs and right-wing Israelis up against much larger forces within their own people and globally.

Even if it did go ahead, it is also unclear how many Palestinians would still be satisfied in 10 years, when October 7 is more of a distant memory, after giving up full statehood and east Jerusalem.

But Sheikh Jaabari made it clear that he is not waiting idly anymore and is stating the question publicly to Israel and the world: do you want to take his hand and forge a new kind of coexistence or not?


IDF cyber chief, retired Iran strategy head piloted fighter jets striking Iran
Two IDF major-generals returned to flight duty and participated in airstrikes against Iran during Operation Rising Lion in June, Walla confirmed on Sunday.

Maj.-Gen. Aviad Dagan and Maj.-Gen. (res) Tal Kelman participated in an unspecified number of airstrike runs during Operation Rising Lion.

Dagan currently serves as head of the IDF's C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate. He previously served as commander of the Israel Air Force's Hatzerim Airbase.

Kelman, who is no longer in IDF active duty, previously served as IAF Chief of Staff and head of the IDF's Strategy and Iran Directorate.

Both Dagan and Kelman are fighter pilots by training.

The IAF targeted aerial defense sites ranging from launching facilities to production sites to radar arrays. This led to Israel achieving air superiority over western Iran within a matter of hours.
Iranian missiles said to have hit five IDF bases during war
Iranian ballistic missiles appear to have scored direct hits on five Israel Defense Forces bases during last month’s 12-day war with the Islamic Republic, the British Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing radar data.

The Israeli military did not comment on the claims to The Telegraph or when asked by JNS on Sunday, stating only that “all relevant units maintained functional continuity throughout the operation.”

The radar data was shared with The Telegraph by academics at Oregon State University who specialize in assessing battle damage, the daily said, noting the report was based on initial findings.

The researchers suggested that five IDF facilities were hit by six Iranian missile barrages targeting Israel’s north, south and center, including a major air base, an intelligence gathering center and a logistics base.

The alleged damage to IDF bases has not been shared with the Israeli public by Jerusalem and cannot be reported on freely from within the Jewish state because of military censorship laws, The Telegraph said.

In addition to these impacts, 36 other Iranian rockets are known to have penetrated Israeli and U.S. air defenses during the war, causing widespread destruction and killing 27 civilians and an off-duty IDF soldier.

The Telegraph‘s data analysis showed that air defense systems failed to down some 16% of missiles by day seven of the war, roughly corresponding to Jerusalem’s official interception rate of 86%.


'Security situation has collapsed': Hamas has lost 80% of its control over Gaza Strip
Hamas has reportedly lost about 80% of its control over Gaza, a senior official from the terrorist organization told the BBC in an interview published Sunday.

The official explained to the BBC that Hamas’s command and control infrastructure had collapsed after months of Israeli airstrikes, which wiped out its political, military, and security leadership.

“Let’s be realistic here – there’s barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead... The active figures have all been killed,” the official said.

“Logically, it has to continue until the end,” the Hamas official told the BBC. “All the conditions are aligned: Israel has the upper hand, the world is silent, the Arab regimes are silent, criminal gangs are everywhere, and society is collapsing.”

He further clarified, “Let me be clear: the security situation has completely collapsed. There is no control anywhere.”

“So, the security situation is zero. Hamas’s control is zero. There’s no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they arrive, they are barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It’s total collapse.”
Israel intercepts two rockets fired from Gaza
Air-raid sirens sounded in Kissufim on Israel’s southern border at 8 p.m. Saturday before two projectiles fired from Gaza into Israeli territory were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force, the IDF said.

No injuries or damage were reported.

The latest rocket attack from Gaza came as efforts were underway by mediators to reach a deal to release the remaining 50 hostages, living and dead, being held by Hamas and forge a truce in the Strip.

On Tuesday evening, the IAF intercepted a missile fired by Houthi terrorists in Yemen. The interception followed warning sirens that sounded in several areas across Israel.

Less than 30 minutes earlier, Palestinian terrorists fired two rockets from the southern Gaza Strip, both of which were intercepted after air-raid sirens sounded in communities near the border.

According to the IDF, the projectiles crossed into Israeli territory before being intercepted. Again, no injuries or damage were reported.
Just as residents return, Gazan projectile hits Kibbutz Nirim, causing no injuries
A mortar shell launched from the southern Gaza Strip landed in Kibbutz Nirim near the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday evening, causing no injuries but reportedly resulting in minor damage.

The Israeli Air Force said that a preliminary investigation into the incident found the projectile was not intercepted due to human error. The military said it was learning lessons from the incident and corrective measures were already being put into action.

The launch of the single projectile, around 9 p.m. on Sunday, triggered sirens in the border community just a week after its residents were permitted to return home after more than 20 months of displacement as a result of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Nirim was one of seven evacuated communities in which the government last week approved the return of their residents, out of the 13 hardest-hit in the Hamas onslaught.

The Ynet news site reported that the impact was in the kibbutz’s new young people’s neighborhood, which is being constructed after the previous one was largely destroyed in the October 7 attack.

Ynet reported that the shell caused minor damage to several buildings that are in the process of being renovated and rebuilt, but that no one currently lives in them.


Israeli forces foiled planned attack, arrest terror cell trio
Israeli security forces arrested three suspected members of a terror cell on Saturday who, according to officials, were planning an imminent attack.

Two suspects were detained in eastern Barta’a, an Arab village in northern Samaria near the border between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, based on intelligence from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). The third suspect was apprehended later.

No injuries were reported among Israeli forces.

In addition to the Shin Bet, Yamam—the elite counter-terrorism unit within the Israel Border Police—and the Israel Defense Forces participated in the operation.

(Barta’a was divided by the 1949 armistice line, which ran in the village along the Wadi al-Umiya streambed, into eastern and western sections. The western part is part of Green Line Israel. All of Barta’a is on the “Israeli” side of the Samaria security barrier.)

Israeli Border Police officers, together with IDF troops, entered a compound in the Judean town of Al-Eizariya, aka Bethany, and dispersed an illegal gathering held in support of three Hamas terrorists killed last week in Gaza, the Israel Police said on Sunday.


Tehran Is Pressing Hizbullah Not to Give Up Its Weapons
The U.S. is pushing for a tangible disarmament process by Hizbullah in Lebanon. An American framework links a potential Israeli withdrawal from disputed border points to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) taking control of Hizbullah's remaining arsenal of illegal weapons.

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a Middle East specialist at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and former deputy head for assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence, said, "One should not expect aggressive action by the Lebanese army against Hizbullah. It is clear to everyone that Hizbullah is doing what it can to hide its weapons and is aware of the criticism rising against it. It is totally subject to Tehran's decision, and Tehran is asking it not to surrender to American demands. Handing over its weapons cancels Hizbullah's role...in the Lebanese political system."

Col. (res.) Barak Ben-Zur, a former head of the Research Unit in the Israel Security Agency, said the key to a long-term solution lies in Damascus via a comprehensive political-security settlement with the new Syrian regime under Ahmad al-Sharaa. Such an agreement would place a major obstacle in the path of Hizbullah's return to its former status. "Establishing a relationship...between Syria and Israel will make it possible to nullify the Iranian influence and its translation into practical steps on the ground."

He noted that the dismantling of Iran's forward intelligence and air defense network in Syria and Lebanon, which had been able to supply early alerts to the Iranian air-defense network and supplied Iran with ongoing intelligence on Israeli air and ground activity, was one of the crucial enablers for the surprise Israeli attack on Iran on June 13.
Why Didn't Hizbullah Join Iran in the War Against Israel?
During the Israel-Iran war of June 13-24, 2025, Hizbullah chose not to engage militarily alongside Iran against Israel. In our assessment, there is a large gap between the existing presentation of Hizbullah's supposed weakness and the actual reality. Hizbullah's Shi'ite base continues to be maintained and supported by Hizbullah's broad civilian infrastructure that functions in parallel to the collapsing and non-functioning Lebanese state infrastructure.

The claim that Hizbullah is deterred creates a dangerous illusion. On Nov. 20, 2024, a week before the ceasefire, Ibrahim Al-Amin - editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar, Hizbullah's main mouthpiece - wrote that "the current confrontation is just another round in the war against Israel which must be destroyed, and for this purpose, Hizbullah will act to restore its capabilities and re-empower itself."

This is the essence of Hizbullah's core ideology: there is no peace. There are no compromises. There is one ideology - continuous armed resistance. The rifle on Hizbullah's flag is not a decoration. It is a statement. The concept of "deterrence" holds no real meaning within the worldview of an ideologically driven, religious extremist organization such as Hizbullah (and similarly, Hamas).

Hizbullah's decisions regarding any military/terrorist activity and the initiation of war are made based on a religious directive. In our assessment, no religious directive was issued for Hizbullah to join the war on Iran's side against Israel. It did not come from the Supreme Leader in Iran or the current leader of Hizbullah.

Israel damaged Hizbullah's military capabilities very severely - but did not crush them. Had the religious directive come, Hizbullah would have joined the war on Iran's side. Hizbullah is actively restoring military capabilities and laying the groundwork for potential terrorist operations against Israel - both from within Lebanese territory and abroad. Hizbullah can currently, at any given moment, carry out activity against Israel.
Saudi Report: 4,000 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in War with Israel, another 2,000 Deserted after Nasrallah's Death
Saudi news channel Al-Hadath reported that 4,000 Hizbullah operatives, including fighters, commanders, and senior figures, were killed during the group's war with Israel, which ended in a ceasefire in November 2024.

In addition, 2,000 others deserted following the assassination of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September.

The report claims Hizbullah still maintains a force of 60,000.

80% of the territory south of Lebanon's Litani River - once under Hizbullah's exclusive control - is now controlled by the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Hizbullah has also shut down most of its training centers in the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon, and much of its medium and heavy-grade weaponry has either been destroyed by Israeli strikes or seized by the Lebanese army.
IDF slays Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist
Israel’s military said on Saturday that it had killed a terrorist in Hezbollah’s special operations Radwan Force in Aynata, southeastern Lebanon, as part of ongoing efforts to counter threats on the northern border.

In a separate operation, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) confirmed that they killed Qasem Salah al-Husseini, a Lebanese terrorist affiliated with the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations, during a strike on July 3 in Kafr Sil, south of Beirut.

According to the IDF, al-Husseini played a central role in orchestrating attacks against Israeli civilians and troops. He was also a key figure in smuggling weapons from Iran through Syria to Lebanon, Judea, and Samaria, maintaining ties with arms dealers and operating under direct Iranian supervision.

The IDF said that his death delivers a significant blow to terrorist networks’ weapons smuggling and attack planning on multiple fronts.

A roadmap for Lebanon proposed by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack calls for the disarmament of non-state groups and the placement of all weapons under state control. Beirut is said to be committed to the principle of exclusive state control over arms.

Barrack said on social media Saturday that Lebanon now has a historic opportunity to move beyond sectarian divisions and realize its potential as “one country, one people, one army.”


IDF troops dismantle Syrian outposts near Mount Hermon
The Israeli military is continuing operations in Syrian territory near the Mount Hermon summit amid talks of a diplomatic detente between Jerusalem and the regime in Damascus.

According to an Israel Defense Forces update on Sunday, the 810th Brigade, under the command of the 210th Division, is active at the strategic site.

In a recent mission, a reserve battalion from the brigade, together with members of the elite Yahalom Unit, dismantled several former Syrian military outposts. According to the IDF, these positions formed the enemy’s forward line and posed a direct threat to Israeli forces in the Hermon sector.

The military stressed that these ongoing operations in southern Syria are intended to protect Israeli citizens, especially those living in the Golan Heights.

Syria’s new governing authority on Friday claimed a willingness to work with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a U.N.-monitored buffer zone separating the two countries.


Israel strikes Houthi ports across Yemen, 'Galaxy Leader' ship
The IDF struck three Houthi-controlled naval ports, a power station, and a ship used for terror purposes docked in Yemen early Monday morning.

The Israel Air Force attacked the Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Al-Salif ports. In a statement, the IDF noted that these three ports were "used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons of the Iranian regime that are used to carry out terrorist plots against the State of Israel and its allies."

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the strikes were part of an IDF operation to eliminate Houthi terror infrastructure in Yemen.

According to the IDF, the Houthis installed a radar system on the Galaxy Leader and use it to track ships in the Red Sea. The vessel was hijacked by the Houthis in 2023; it is reportedly leased by a British company that is partially owned by an Israeli national, but it sails under the flag of the Bahamas.

The Galaxy Leader's crew was not heard from for months after they had been taken by the Houthis, and were released in January 2025.

Houthi channels claimed that the group confronted the Israeli strike with missiles.

The Monday morning attack comes after the Houthis targeted an international commercial vessel for the first time in months.


Netanyahu: World should condemn Hamas grenade attack on US aid workers
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged the international community to condemn the Hamas terrorist attack that wounded two U.S. employees of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza the previous day.

The Israeli prime minister sent his “best wishes for a speedy recovery to the employees of the American aid foundation, who were wounded in the terrorist incident that was perpetrated by Hamas terrorists at the food distribution facility,” according to a statement from his office.

The foundation was doing “important work,” said Netanyahu, who thanked both it and U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The entire world needs to stand up and condemn the severe incident, which again reveals the brutality of Hamas,” he added.

Netanyahu echoed calls for the United Nations to drop opposition to the GHF’s aid activities and “act in concert so that the latter might continue to safely act on behalf of the residents of the Gaza Strip.”

According to a preliminary investigation into Saturday’s terrorist attack, two assailants threw fragmentation grenades at workers inside an aid compound after food distribution concluded. Thousands of Gazans had safely received food before the attack. No local aid workers or civilians were harmed.

The American workers were evacuated for medical treatment with the help of the Israeli army and were in stable condition.

The aid organization stated on Saturday, “We are grateful their injuries are not life-threatening and ask the public to keep them and their families in their thoughts and prayers.

“GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers and the civilians who rely on our sites for food. Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings,” the foundation’s statement continued.


'A never-ending mission' | Erin Molan experienced the war - from Israel
Australian television journalist and presenter Erin Molan spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News as she returned home this week, after being unexpectedly ‘stuck’ in Israel during the recent war against Iran.

In a heartfelt conversation, Molan shared her deep emotional connection to the Jewish state and recounted her experiences during a period of intense conflict.

“It is lovely to be home,” Molan said, speaking from Australia. “But I say very genuinely -it’s been much harder than I realized in terms of leaving. I feel almost this longing to go back, even though when my alarm goes off, I think it's an alarm to run to a bomb shelter. It special to be in that country, even when it’s at war and even when you have a regime that is targeting civilians. The complete opposite to what Israel was doing.”

Molan had arrived in Israel to receive an honorary doctorate but found herself grounded after Iran launched an unprecedented missile attack against the Jewish state, forcing the closure of Israeli airspace. Instead of retreating, she decided to take action.

“I’m a ‘make lemonade out of lemons’ kind of girl,” she said. “Once I realized I wasn’t leaving, I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I’m here on the ground.’ I looked at the headlines from major media outlets and saw how distorted they were. I knew I had to show the truth.”

“I knew that I could stay in my hotel near the bomb shelter, or “Or I could go out to missile sites. I could show the world exactly where the Iranian regime were aiming these missiles.” Molan began reporting directly from missile impact sites, documenting how Iranian projectiles had deliberately targeted civilian neighborhoods. “They weren’t aimed at military infrastructure—they were aimed at families, apartment buildings,” she said. “And no one else was showing that.”

Molan described her time on the ground as a privilege, despite the danger. “I'm a journalist. This is what I love. I love being able to tell stories. I love showing the world the truth and I was in the most incredible position to do that. I didn’t have a war correspondent’s wardrobe—I packed for one night on the ground, and there were moments that were terrifying. But professionally, it was an honor to be there.”

Reflecting on international perception, Molan noted a shift in public understanding during the confrontation with Iran. “I think people could see this more clearly,” she said. “The legitimacy of the mission, with the US stepping in, helped. Even countries usually hostile to Israel acknowledged its right to respond.”

Now back in Australia, Molan said her commitment to Israel and the truth remains unwavering. “This is a never-ending mission for me. I don’t stand with Israel just because I love the country - though I do - I stand with Israel because I stand against terrorism.”
Special Briefing with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Joshua Washington
Join StandWithUs TV for "Special Briefing" featuring Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Israel’s Special Envoy, as she discusses Israel’s pivotal role in the greater Middle East. We’ll also speak with Joshua Washington from the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel about building meaningful alliances and more




Disturbed's frontman David Draiman is BOOED as he plays support slot at Ozzy Osbourne's Back to the Beginning finale - amid rock singer's ongoing support for Israel in war on Hamas
Disturbed frontman David Draiman was booed while he played a support slot at Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's last live show.

A video shared on TikTok shows the crowd jeering at Draiman as he sings in a star-studded supergroup at the Back to The Beginning farewell concert on Saturday night.

The event, hosted by Jason Momoa at Villa Park in Birmingham, saw over a dozen bands play at least one Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne cover as they paid homage to the man revered as a founder of the heavy metal genre.

Draiman is usually the vocalist for Chicago rock band Disturbed but, in Saturday's concert, he was part of a supergroup performing Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf.

He was joined on stage by Osbourne's guitarists, Jake E.Lee and Adam Wakeman, Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.

Draiman responded to the crowd's boos by defiantly asking them: 'We gonna start this?' Variety reported.

It is believed that the booing had to do with the singer's vocal support for Israel in the war on Hamas, according to the magazine.

He recently congratulated Sharon Osbourne after she called for Kneecap's visas to be revoked following their Coachella performance, where they expressed support for Palestine.

Draiman has also shared a photo of himself signing artillery shells used by the IDF in its assault on Gaza, including the inscription 'F*** Hamas.'

The 52-year-old had a Jewish upbringing and spent part of his childhood and teen years in Israel.


Mamdani Blamed U.S. for Al Qaeda Leader’s Terrorism
In the latest incident of Zohran Mamdani’s history coming back to haunt him, the Islamist Socialist candidate had in the past suggested that law enforcement was responsible for Anwar Al-Awlaki, the head of Al Qaeda in Yemen, becoming a Jihadist.

The context for Mamdani’s tweets is a New York Times article which describes the (useless) FBI surveillance of Al-Awlaki due to his ties to the 9/11 hijackers even as the Bush administration and the media brought him out as a representative of “moderate Islam”. The premise of the Times was that the reason Al-Awlaki left America and formally joined Al Qaeda was that he knew the FBI had monitored his visits to prostitutes.

For anyone who knows Islam (and the NYT doesn’t and instead assumed that being a religious ‘conservative’, Al-Awlaki was very worried about his congregation finding out), none of this was a big deal. Islam licenses concubines and does not expect men to remain monogomous. That’s a Jewish and Christian idea. Not long afterward, ISIS would make headlines by officially bringing back sex slavery.

The 9/11 hijackers patronized a strip club and Saudi and other Gulf elites routinely employ escorts.

The New York Times was trying to distract from the reality, that Al-Awlaki had always been a Jihadist who had pretended to be a moderate, with a new narrative, that he fled to join Al Qaeda, not because the Brotherhood network in America was being raided, but because he feared his sex life being outed.

Now Zohran Mamdani eagerly picked up this thread on Twitter and argued that there needed to be “proper interrogation” of the FBI’s “extensive surv. into Awlaki’s private life” and urged “discussion of how Awlaki’s knowledge of surv. eventually led him to alqaeda”.

Mamdani tried to blame America for Al-Awlaki’s Jihad. Anything to distract from Islam.


‘Sick’: Jewish group slams Mamdani over Chanukah video
A Jewish advocacy organization has strongly criticized New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani—a Democratic socialist and current state assemblyman—after he shared a video the group says disrespects Chanukah and Jewish traditions.

StopAntisemitism took to X to criticize Mamdani for sharing a video last year that featured Indian performers dressed as Jewish characters engaging in Chanukah rituals such as spinning dreidels and lighting a menorah. The group condemned the clip as “sick,” arguing that Jewish holidays and religious practices should not be used as material for humor.

The video in question, titled “Hey Hanukkah,” is a parody song from the 2015 Punjabi Christmas Album Hits by the Geeta Brothers, a comedic project led by Sikh-Canadian entertainer Jus Reign. The clip features two men in wigs celebrating Chanukah with a Punjabi musical twist.

Mamdani shared the video on social media during last year’s Chanukah, captioning it: “Happy 3rd night of Hanukkah from Astoria and Long Island City.”

Additionally, Mamdani shared another parody video from the same comedy group on Christmas Eve 2024, this time spoofing the holiday classic “Jingle Bells.”

The incident adds to a growing list of criticisms Mamdani has faced from members of New York’s Jewish community. Detractors have previously raised concerns about his campaign’s references to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, as well as his public statements questioning Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Mamdani has also faced scrutiny over reports that he identified as African American on a college application, despite being born in Uganda and having Indian heritage.

Mamdani officially won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor on June 24, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates.


Pro-Palestinian activists assail Polish film fest over sponsor’s Israel investments
A popular film festival in the Polish city of Wrocล‚aw is being targeted by anti-Israel activists for receiving sponsorship from a bank that has invested in Israel’s arms industry.

The action came despite the fact that organizers of the festival, which receives funding from public institutions, such as Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, have condemned Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza as a “genocide,” and will screen a film that Israeli film houses have deemed too sensitive to touch.

Wrocล‚aw, a city of more than 670,000 in western Poland of whom some 350 are Jews, is also home to one of the most important Jewish studies program in Poland at the University of Wrocล‚aw.

Local activists are outraged that the New Horizons Film Festival, one of Poland’s biggest and most popular film festivals, is sponsored by French banking giant BNP Paribas, according to a report by digital music news site CDM Link.

The activists charge that BNP Paribas’s investments in Israel make it unsuitable to serve as the lead partner in the festival, which presents mainly arthouse cinema.

BNP Paribas is the largest European finance provider to companies that sell weapons to Israel, having provided 5.7 billion euros in loans and underwritings since 2021, according to a 2024 report by a group of 19 civil society organizations and trade unions.

The bank traded two million shares in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately owned defense firm, during the first quarter of 2025, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The group of activists called on the festival to publicly address its relationship with BNP Paribas and assess whether its partnership “is compatible with the festival’s stated values,” CDM Link’s report said.


NVIDIA plans massive tech campus in Israel, boosting AI innovation
NVIDIA, the global chip giant that briefly became the most valuable company in history ($3.92 trillion) last week due to its stock price, announced on Sunday its intention to acquire land spanning up to 120 dunams (29 acres) in northern Israel—a move interpreted as a clear step toward establishing a new technological campus in the country. The move comes less than a decade after its acquisition of Israeli-based Mellanox, also in northern Israel.

According to information obtained by Israel Hayom, the planned center could accommodate at least 3,000 employees, with the project expected to unfold over several years.

This significant announcement comes from a company regarded as an international titan in the semiconductor industry, leading the charge in the global race for artificial intelligence advancements. NVIDIA’s market value makes it one of the world’s largest and most influential corporations.

In its request for information, NVIDIA specified it is seeking a contiguous plot of land for purchase, ranging from 17 to 29 acres, with building rights for up to 180,000 square meters (1.9 million feet). The desired location is in northern Israel, near the company’s existing offices in Yokneam, which currently house most of its local workforce.

The geographical boundaries outlined by NVIDIA include the area between Highway 67, Highway 73, Highway 781 and the Coastal Highway. The company emphasized that the land must be designated for high-tech use, with “high transportation accessibility” and proximity to major traffic routes and public transportation.

NVIDIA further stressed that the requested land must be available for immediate construction, purchase and allocation.


The American Jew in TR’s View
REVIEW: ‘American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews’ by Andrew Porwancher
During the presidential administration of Theodore Roosevelt, the American Jewish population nearly doubled, to almost two million. But long before he entered the White House, Roosevelt was familiar with Jewish issues. After all, Roosevelt began his meteoric political rise in New York, America’s most Jewish city. These combined experiences have led historian Andrew Porwancher to write American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews, a useful book that explores how instrumental Jewish issues were throughout Roosevelt’s presidency.

Jews were relevant to Roosevelt’s political career in three major ways. First, there was the issue of Jewish inclusion. Roosevelt welcomed Jews to the New York City Police Department when he was its commissioner. One of the Jewish officers he elevated, Otto Raphael, was a hero whom Roosevelt invited to join the force after he helped save people from a burning building. Raphael developed such a close relationship with Roosevelt that he even served as a guardian over TR’s body when the former president died in January 1919.

Roosevelt used the "Maccabee" type—his word—Jewish officers he hired to his political advantage. When Hermann Ahlwardt, an anti-Semitic German rabble-rouser, came to New York, Roosevelt made sure to give him a protective phalanx of the most Jewish-looking officers he could find. Roosevelt continued to advance Jews during his stint with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, fighting alongside a Jewish soldier named Sam Greenwald, and helping him earn a promotion.

As president, Roosevelt had an unofficial Jewish kitchen cabinet. Members included Jacob Schiff, Oscar Straus, congressman and Harvard mate Lucius "Litt" Littauer, and Simon Wolf. Later, Roosevelt nominated Straus to be the secretary of commerce and labor—the first Jewish cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Porwancher points out in a footnote that two previous presidents—Ulysses S. Grant and Grover Cleveland—had tried to nominate Jewish cabinet secretaries, but both of them declined the honor. Unfortunately, Porwancher does not tell us who those nominees were, something readers might want to know.

Jews were also important in regard to America’s relations with Russia. Then, as now, Russia was a problematic actor on the international stage. There were multiple pogroms during the Roosevelt years, and Roosevelt was torn between condemning them—which infuriated the Russians, and also opened up accusations of American hypocrisy because of lynching in the United States—and remaining silent, which rightly infuriated American Jews. Roosevelt tried to maintain a middle line on this issue, sometimes angering the Jews and sometimes angering the Russians, but Russian malfeasance against Jews was so common and so frequent that this was a constant tension within the Roosevelt presidency. Porwancher demonstrates Roosevelt’s frustration with the Russians with the following quote, which could probably have also been said by every subsequent American president and additional ones in the future: "What I cannot understand about the Russian is the way he will lie when he knows perfectly well that you know he is lying."

Jews were also central to issues of immigration and assimilation. This was a time of massive influx of immigrants into the country, many but by no means all of whom were Jewish. Roosevelt believed in assimilating new arrivals into American society, but he also understood the fraught politics of the issue, with many Americans in favor of putting limits on immigration. As Porwancher writes, "Certainly, Jews weren't the only immigrant group whose inflow generated controversy. But American anti-Semitism made Jewish migration especially charged."
IDF soldier takes his own life after struggling with mental health from Oct 7, Gaza war
Daniel Edri, an IDF soldier, took his own life on Saturday in the Biriya forest near Safed, the town where he grew up.

Daniel, who turned 24 last month, had been struggling with severe mental health issues as he tried to cope with the pain, images, and smells that haunted him from his experiences in Lebanon and Gaza.

In addition to the traumatic images, Daniel was also devastated by the murder of two childhood friends at the Nova music festival—Eliasaf Ben Porat and Gabriel Yishai Barel. He had tried to reach Re'im to help them on October 7, but he was unable to.

Edri's family says that their deaths stayed with him and caused him ongoing pain.

He was the third of four siblings and lost his father at a young age. His mother, Sigal, is urging the state to honor her son with a military funeral. So far, her request has not been approved.

She said Edri wanted to enlist, and when he was called up for reserve duty, he felt fulfilled. He was discharged from the IDF about five months ago.

According to Sigal, Edri served long periods as a combat support soldier in both the southern and northern sectors.

He told her that he had transported the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers several times.

"He told me he saw horrors and said, Mom, I can’t stop smelling the bodies, and I see the bodies all the time,'" she recalled.




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