Monday, July 07, 2025

07/07 Links Pt1: The Trump-Bibi Bond; How Dare Israel Win a Defensive War!; The Enchantment of the Arab Mind; Tucker’s Interview with the Iranian President

From Ian:

The Trump-Bibi Bond
Trump’s opinion about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran has been consistent throughout his political career, from his 2016 campaign through his third campaign in 2024. At virtually every campaign stop, Trump explained that Iran couldn’t be allowed to have the bomb. Once elected to a second term in the White House, he regularly warned of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran. He said he’d prefer to handle the threat diplomatically, but he’d do it the other way if given no choice. In either case, he’d never let Iran get the bomb.

From Trump’s perspective, the problem wasn’t just the prospect of a terror regime launching nuclear weapons at Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other U.S. allies—and in time at Europe and even the U.S. homeland. A nuclear-armed Iran threatened America’s historic position in the Gulf. After all, the chief purpose of the postwar U.S. Navy was to keep shipping lanes open and ensure the free flow of cheap Gulf oil that has given the U.S. ultimate control over global oil markets, including the energy supplies of its leading trade partners in Europe and Asia. No postwar arrangement has been more important in keeping the United States secure and prosperous than our role in the Gulf.

An Iranian bomb did not pose the same level of direct threat to the U.S. homeland as the Soviet Union’s enormous nuclear arsenal did. But it could hardly be wished away. A nuclear Iran could, among other things, close the Strait of Hormuz, send oil prices soaring, and destabilize global markets. In this framework, it would also thwart Trump’s most important foreign-policy initiative: rolling back China. What was the point of a trade war with Beijing to reshore manufacturing and fix the trade imbalance that had impoverished the American middle class if China’s main Middle East ally could close a major trade route through which one-fifth of the world’s energy passes? Iran could never have the bomb.

Then there was the not negligible fact that the Iranians kept sending hit squads to hunt Trump in retaliation for killing Soleimani. A nuclear Iran could deploy terror squads around the world with near impunity. Iran must never have the bomb.

In time, perhaps we’ll have the full story of how, when, and where Trump and Netanyahu plotted their strategy, and how they used misdirection and ambiguity to throw off Iran as well as their domestic adversaries. Like FDR, Trump also had to fight off an isolationist faction in his party, while Netanyahu has been under continuous siege by Israel’s version of the Deep State. In his June 25 post on Truth Social, Trump told his partner’s domestic opponents to lay off, because Bibi is a hero.

“Bibi Netanyahu was a WARRIOR,” Trump wrote, “like perhaps no other Warrior in the History of Israel, and the result was something that nobody thought was possible, a complete elimination of potentially one of the biggest and most powerful Nuclear Weapons anywhere in the World, and it was going to happen, SOON! We were fighting, literally, for the Survival of Israel, and there is nobody in Israel’s History that fought harder or more competently than Bibi Netanyahu.”

Soon after, Netanyahu thanked Trump on X. “I was deeply moved by your heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people. I look forward to continue working with you to defeat our common enemies.”

Churchill and Roosevelt’s voluminous correspondence gives us details of the relationship they forged to save the world, and the same is so with the record of Reagan and Thatcher’s secure phone calls. But these were all private exchanges made public only later. What we’re watching with Trump and Netanyahu on social media is unique: the public declaration of a friendship, its goals and commitments, between two world leaders—a bond that makes the world safer.
A White House Visit Unlike Any Before It
Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Trump in the White House. High on their agenda will be Iran, and the next steps following the joint assault on its nuclear facilities, as well as the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza. But there are other equally weighty matters that the two leaders are apt to discuss. Eran Lerman, calling this a White House visit “unlike any before it,” surveys some of those matters, beginning with efforts to improve relations between Israel and the Arab states—above all Saudi Arabia:
[I]t is a safe bet that no White House signing ceremony is in the offing. A much more likely scenario would involve—if the language from Israel on the Palestinian future is sufficiently vague and does not preclude the option of (limited) statehood—a return to the pre-7 October 2023 pattern of economic ventures, open visits at the ministerial level, and a growing degree of discussion and mutual cooperation on regional issues such as Lebanon and Syria.

In fact, writes Lerman, those two countries will also be major conversation topics. The president and the prime minister are likely to broach as well the possible opening of relations between Jerusalem and Damascus, a goal that is
realistic in light of reconstruction needs of this devastated country, all the more destitute once the Assad clan’s main source of income, the massive production and export of [the drug] Captagon, has been cut off. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to see Syria focused on its domestic needs—and as much as possible, free from the powerful grip of Turkey. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration, with its soft spot for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will do its part.
'Partial deal would be a death sentence': Hostage families in Washington rally for complete deal
Families of hostages called for a complete deal that would see the return of all remaining 50 hostages in a rally at Washington DC on Monday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with US President Donald Trump in the White House.

“We are here to remind President Trump and PM Netanyahu that there are 50 hostages to be released. We cannot accept a deal for a partial release”, says Ilan Dalal, father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal.

He also added: “A partial deal would mean that some of the hostages will stay in the tunnels for more time, and this would be a death sentence. Please make a deal that will bring all the hostages home.”

Dozens of hostage relatives gathered today in Washington, DC to plead for a deal that “doesn’t leave anyone behind”.

In an official statement, families said: “At this pivotal moment, the families are calling on both leaders to secure a comprehensive deal that brings home all 50 remaining hostages held in Gaza”.

“With Hamas and Iran weakened, this is a rare and fast-closing window for a full resolution,” they said.
Seth Mandel: How Dare Israel Win a Defensive War!
Another way of saying this: How dare the Jews survive! Our survival only causes the world to keep trying to kill us!

And again, those masses gathering on college campuses around the country (and the Western world) waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags? They were mobilizing the moment—and I mean the moment, the very second—the Hamas attacks were carried and while the attacks were still ongoing and therefore long before Israel had formulated a response of any kind.

Then we’re told that Israel’s “violence has strained the good will of the country’s allies and neighbors.” Reminder that before Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s neighbors included Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad’s Syria. I’d love to see the author’s personal list of acts of goodwill performed by Hezbollah and Assad.

After that, the article goes back to blaming Jews for attacks on them, telling us that “many Israelis now feel threatened while abroad, even as they are more secure at home.”

Well if they just feel threatened I suppose it’s not much to worry about. But perhaps it is, in the words of the band Boston, more than a feeling? Perhaps it is, say, a pogrom in Amsterdam, the city where Anne Frank hid in an attic?

At this point we’re about a quarter of the way through the Times article. The rest is just these nonsense points repeated ad nauseum.

All of this is because Israel fought a defensive war. Well actually, it’s because Israel won a defensive war. And its enemies and critics are struggling to cope.


The Enchantment of the Arab Mind
What Went Wrong? Though now associated with Bernard Lewis, the question first originated within the Arab intellectual tradition itself; on the very pages of al-Manar, the journal founded by Rashid Rida, and where the young Hassan al-Banna, fresh from university, would cut his teeth before he went on to found the Muslim Brotherhood. It was there that the question appeared in its fully modern form as an inquiry into the meaning of history. Its very formulation, and its catastrophic answer, presupposed the internalization of the modern European understanding of history: a narrative arc in which civilizations rise and fall on their journey toward political improvement. In this sense, the Arab world did not fall into modernity by accident or conquest; it stepped into it through that very question.

Even more catastrophic than the borrowed question was the answer, which now seems almost prophetic: according to a 1930 article in al-Manar, what Muslims needed to reclaim was their “enthusiasm” for “fighting, strife, and struggle.” While the Germans and French sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives in World War I, the author observes, the Muslims of today are far indeed from “their ancestors who sought death.” The climax of the essay is an ode to “death for the sake of life as called for in the Quran. . . . It is the death chosen by the Frenchman for the sake of France, the German for the sake of Germany, and the Englishman for the same of Great Britain.”

Lewis’s failure, then, was not that he misunderstood the Arab predicament. It was that he understood it all too easily. He and the Arab radicals he studied spoke a mutually intelligible language; not Arabic or English, but the conceptual idiom of modern historicism. The categories through which they interpreted crisis, decline, reform, and revolution were the same, even if Lewis preferred a liberal answer over a totalitarian one. This mutual comprehensibility allowed Lewis to take Arab and Islamist intellectuals at their word, to read their rhetoric of failure and redemption as transparent accounts of reality. But to have truly criticized them would have required questioning not just their conclusions, but the very epistemology that made such conclusions possible, the very same epistemology that underlay Lewis’s own scholarly methods.

Most importantly, to read this story solely as an account of what went wrong in the Arab world alone is to miss the possibility that what went wrong there might also be going wrong in the West. The Arab pathologies are a mirror for own. The collapse of meaning that unfolded in Arab intellectual life, and the resulting cult of authenticity, and obsession with the spectacle of anti-Semitic annihilation should be familiar. It is a condensation of a global crisis which has become clear for everyone to see since October 7. If the Arab intellectual believed too deeply in the redemptive myths of modernity, it is only because those myths had already been accepted by the children of the European Enlightenment. The Arab tragedy plays out, in heightened form, the same collapse of inner structure and restraint I fear might now be reverberating through the entire Western world.

The West, too, has passed from truth to narrative, from history to trauma, from politics to identity—and increasingly into nihilism. It, too, has watched moral vocabulary drift into incoherence, and public rituals deteriorate into spectacles. We, too, speak the language of authenticity, of grievance, and of purification; our universities, too, are overtaken by a history-transforming political mission. Western leftists cheer on Hamas, Hizballah, Houthis, Iran, and our own homegrown assassins in the name of progress and justice. The Western radical professor who admires a Hamas fighter might be indeed a “useful idiot,” but give him his due: he understands rightly that they share something in common.

To study this history, then, is not to gaze across civilizations, but to look into our own condition. The ideologies that once organized modern life—nationalism, Marxism, Islamism, liberalism—have not as much been refuted as exhausted. Their conceptual machinery has broken down. And yet, we continue to live in their ruins, thinking in these concepts without believing them.

The modern Arab intellectual, like his Western counterpart, is now neither prophet nor builder. He is the janitor of decay, curating the archive of dead ideas, polishing the slogans of vanished revolutions, and sweeping the dust of meaning

This is what it means to live after Babel. The towers of ideology have fallen, but the languages they scattered remain. Even religion, which once promised transcendence, now arrives all too frequently not as revelation but as performance—like the so-called “trad” Christians who live out their embrace of an imagined traditional piety on Instagram. Thus, even the call to return—to turath, to Islam, to the ummah—has become the very essence of the selfsame modernity it claims to resist. Today’s Islamism promises not recoveries but reenactments that are postmodern in form, postcolonial in posture, and pretend to retrieve the sacred through the techniques of the profane.

We must then hope that some brave people in the West, as well as some brave people in the Middle East will start to rebuild. To stand as Abraham did in the midrash, in the ruins of his father’s idols, not to destroy for destruction’s sake, but to discern what must be broken in order to preserve what is eternal. If there is hope, it lies in the recovery of a language that does not merely describe the world but binds it to a higher order. After Babel, there is no going back. But there may yet be a way forward.
Iran and Hamas Pursue Theological-Revolutionary Objectives Incompatible with Compromise
Two weeks after Oct. 7, Dr. Raphael BenLevi, who focused on Iranian affairs in the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division, wrote, "In Iran's strategic chess match, Hamas serves as a pawn, Hizbullah functions as a rook - while the nuclear program represents the queen."

Following the Iran operation, he explained that "From a historical standpoint, this military operation establishes 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."

"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....Conversely, each instance of hesitation cost us dearly."

He sees a "fundamental flaw" in "liberal theories that minimize cultural distinctions while treating humans as purely rational actors. No 'universal rationality' governs international relations....The underlying long-term forces remain cultural, ideological, and frequently theological in nature....Iranian hostility toward us defies explanation through purely materialist analysis."

"Idealistic thinkers conceptualize the international arena as a cooperative environment where armed conflict represents an aberration and peaceful coexistence constitutes the standard operating procedure. They maintain absolute confidence that every international actor functions according to identical logic - pursuing economic prosperity and material advancement - believing that presenting appropriate diplomatic proposals will inevitably generate reciprocal cooperation."

"However, when confronting regimes such as Iran or Hamas, which operate through entirely different moral frameworks and frequently pursue theological-revolutionary objectives incompatible with compromise, this worldview can manifest as perilously delusional thinking."

"The ayatollahs' regime despises America not for particular policies but for fundamental values it represents. American diplomatic architecture cannot process this reality, repeatedly returning to fantasies about engaging regime officials to discover underlying 'little Americans' seeking personal fulfillment. This represents persistent error rooted in cultural blindness."
The War with Iran Is Won, but Only Continued Israeli Efforts Will Keep Iran from Getting the Bomb
What matters more than what Trump and Netanyahu say to each other is what the Mossad will do in the coming months and years. Reuel Marc Gerecht, who served as an Iranian-targets officer at the CIA, considers the Israeli intelligence agency’s remarkable achievements in the twelve-day war, and the challenges it will face in maintaining them:

Israeli intelligence will need to be pitch perfect if it’s to preempt future Iranian threats since the entirety of the clerical regime’s nuclear-weapons program will now be hidden. And the counterespionage services within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which oversees the regime’s atomic ambitions, and the Iranian intelligence ministry, are now cognizant of how massively Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, has penetrated the Iranian government. Iran’s internal security services had been cranking up their counterespionage capacity since Israel started assassinating nuclear scientists in 2010. They failed abysmally.

After Israel’s nationwide attack, these security services will become ferocious in their efforts to uncover spies. In this dragnet, a lot of innocents will get picked up. Many will get tortured to death. This inquisition alone could greatly delay the effort to reconstitute a nuclear-weapons program that is “traitor-proof.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: Do Not Rely on Egypt or Any Arab State to Bring Security to Gaza
There are also concerns that the tunnels could be used to smuggle terrorists into Gaza.

The Egyptians chose to ignore the smuggling as long as the weapons were making their way into the Gaza Strip and not staying in Egyptian territory. After all, these weapons were being used against Israel, not Egypt. The weapons did not pose any threat to Egypt's national security. In addition, Egyptian military and police officers apparently benefitted by accepting bribes.

By turning a blind eye to the massive smuggling industry, Egypt significantly contributed to transforming the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip into a major base for Islamist terrorism, paving the way for the October 7 attack on Israel.

Egypt never did anything to stop Hamas from staging a coup against the Palestinian Authority and seizing control of the Gaza Strip. Egypt failed to stop the flow of weapons into the Gaza Strip. Egypt does not care about the Palestinians or Israel. It only cares about its own interests, and that is why it would be a big mistake to rely on the Egyptians or any Arab state to bring security and stability to the Gaza Strip.


Hillel Neuer Blasts Egypt at the UN: “Do you really care for the people of Gaza?”
UN Watch's Executive Director Hillel Neuer took the floor at the U.N. Human Rights Council during a rare review of Egypt’s human rights record. When no one else would, Neuer demanded Egypt answer for their human rights violations, asking: Why is Egypt holding 60,000 political prisoners? Why are they prosecuting activist Dalia Ziada for the crime of condemning Hamas? Why are they abandoning and oppressing Gazans?


Holding UNRWA Accountable
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has long played a counterproductive role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The agency has perpetuated the crisis by redefining refugee status exclusively for Palestinians—keeping alive the notion of a “right of return” that many interpret as a path to Israel’s destruction—and by distributing educational materials that glorify terrorism against Jews.

Recent revelations have exposed the extent of UNRWA’s involvement not just in inciting violence but in facilitating it through Hamas-linked affiliates in Gaza. Israeli intelligence reports indicate that UNRWA staff directly participated in the October 7 attacks, including hostage-taking and the abduction of dead bodies. On social media, some of the agency’s teachers celebrated the attacks, and its facilities reportedly housed Israeli captives. Most alarming, UNRWA infrastructure—funded by international donors—was allegedly used to support Hamas’s tunnel networks and command centers.

Victims of the UNRWA-Hamas alliance have filed suit in U.S. federal court, seeking redress from the agency for allegedly aiding and abetting Hamas before, during, and after the October 7 attacks. Under U.S. law, federal courts are authorized to hear civil cases brought by noncitizens for injuries resulting from violations of international law or U.S. treaties, as long as some element of the violations occurred on American territory. But Siman Tov v. UNRWA, a case filed in 2024, raises a novel and disturbing question: What happens when violations of international law are committed not by a rogue actor but by an agency of the United Nations itself? The case underscores the unprecedented nature of UNRWA’s alleged entanglement with Hamas—and the legal and moral challenges that follow.

UNRWA moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming immunity under the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, which gives the UN “immunity from every form of legal process” unless explicitly waived. The Biden administration filed a statement supporting the immunity claim. Though the Trump administration has been rhetorically tough on UNRWA, it has yet to reverse the government’s stance.

Even support from the executive branch may not be enough to bail out UNRWA, though. One threshold question for the Southern District of New York to consider is whether the UN’s convention covers agencies like UNRWA. While the convention contemplates suits against the UN itself—its representatives, officials, and experts—it is not clear whether UNRWA enjoys the UN’s forcefield protection.


IDF ‘shadow command’ was readied in case Iran knocked out Israeli brass
The Israel Defense Forces had an alternative “shadow command” standing by during the 12-day war with Iran to ensure operational continuity if a counter-attack from Tehran took out the military’s command structure.

The “Shadow General Staff,” headed by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai and staffed by generals in the reserves, was updated regarding the IDF attack plans and moved to a secret location ahead of the June 13 opening strike on Iran’s nuclear program, Hebrew media reported on Monday.

The shadow team, which was disconnected from the IDF’s regular communication infrastructure to prevent cyberattacks and physical intrusions of its base, was meant to be activated only in case of a complete loss of command, a scenario that did not materialize.

Ynet noted that some of the ballistic missiles and drones launched by the Islamic Republic over the course of the conflict targeted the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. In one instance, a projectile hit close to the nearby Da Vinci Towers and the Azrieli Center shopping mall.

According to a report in the British Telegraph on Saturday, Iran’s ballistic missiles scored direct hits on five other military facilities in Israel.

Jerusalem’s opening strikes in Iran wiped out the country’s top military command, including the chief of staff of Tehran’s army, with additional senior military officials killed during the subsequent 12 days of fighting.


Crew of ship targeted in Houthi-suspected attack safe, but vessel at risk of sinking
The 19-member crew of a Greek bulk carrier severely damaged Sunday in the Red Sea by repeated attacks, most likely by Houthi fighters, is safe and will arrive in Djibouti later on Monday, the ship’s operator said.

However, the fate of the Liberian-flagged Magic Seas was unclear, with the vessel at risk of sinking, said Michael Bodouroglou, a representative of its operator Stem Shipping.

Sunday’s assault off the southwest coast of Yemen was the first such incident reported in the vital shipping corridor since mid-April. In a raid lasting more than four hours, the Magic Seas was attacked by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from skiffs, as well as by sea drones and missiles.

The ship was carrying iron and fertilizers from China to Turkey, and Stem Shipping received no warning of the attack, Bodouroglou told Reuters.

“It struck us like lightning,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Houthi rebel group’s al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi. However, Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, said the targeted vessel met “the established Houthi target profile,” without elaborating.

The Magic Seas had made a port call to Israel in the past but the latest transit appeared low-risk as it had nothing to do with Israel, Bodouroglou said.


Proposal outlines massive camps for Gazans in bid to advance Trump’s ‘vision’ – report
A proposal seen by Reuters and bearing the name of a controversial US-backed aid group described a plan to build large-scale camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside — and possibly outside — Gaza to house the Palestinian population, outlining a vision of “replacing Hamas’ control over the population in Gaza.”

The $2 billion plan, created sometime after February 11 and carrying the name of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, was submitted to the Trump administration, according to two sources, one of whom said it was recently discussed in the White House.

The plan, reviewed by Reuters, describes the camps as “large-scale” and “voluntary” places where the Gazan population could “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”

The Washington Post made a reference to the GHF’s plans to build housing compounds for Palestinian noncombatants in May.

A slide deck seen by Reuters goes into granular detail on the “Humanitarian Transit Zones,” including how they would be implemented and what they would cost.

It calls for using the sprawling facilities to “gain trust with the local population” and to facilitate US President Donald Trump’s “vision for Gaza.”

Reuters could not independently determine the status of the plan, who submitted it, or whether it is still under consideration.

The aid group, responding to questions from Reuters, denied that it had submitted a proposal and said the slides “are not a GHF document.” The GHF said it had studied “a range of theoretical options to safely deliver aid in Gaza,” but that it “is not planning for or implementing Humanitarian Transit Areas (HTAs).”

Rather, the organization said it is solely focused on food distribution in Gaza.

The GHF later denounced Reuters for publishing the article, insisting in a post on X that it had nothing to do with the document.
‘Reuters’ issues correction on report claiming GHF proposed ‘camps’ for Palestinians
Reuters corrected an article on Monday claiming the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation submitted a proposal to put Palestinians in camps while the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip was dismantled.

“CORRECTION: A proposal seen by Reuters and bearing the name of a controversial U.S.-backed aid group described a plan to build camps inside—and possibly outside—Gaza, outlining a vision of ‘replacing Hamas’ control over the population in Gaza,’” the wire service stated.

“We deleted an earlier post to clarify it could not be determined who created or submitted the document,” the statement continued.

The story, initially titled “Exclusive: US-backed aid group proposed ‘Humanitarian Transit Areas’ for Palestinians in Gaza,” claimed GHF proposed a $2 billion plan to construct “‘large-scale’ and ‘voluntary’ camps where the Gazan population could ‘temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.’”

The amended story still claims that the document includes the GHF name on the cover and SRS, a for-profit contracting company that works with GHF, on several slides, and that it was submitted to the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem and the Trump administration, “according to sources.”


Hamas Places Bounties on American Aid Workers, Demands UNRWA Returns Under Any Ceasefire Deal: State Dept Cable
Hamas has placed active bounties on American aid workers in Gaza and has demanded that the United States cease all humanitarian operations as a ceasefire condition, according to a State Department cable obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Hamas, the State Department disclosed in a June 30 cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, has "formally placed bounties" on U.S. and Palestinian workers with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a joint U.S.-Israeli aid effort formed in February to replace the Hamas-friendly United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The bounties imperil "Palestinian workers and the U.S. security contractors helping to protect the GHF distribution sites," the cable reads.

The cable, marked "sensitive but unclassified," confirms a Free Beacon report from June outlining Hamas’s plans to attack American aid distribution centers and pull the United States into direct conflict with Palestinian militant factions. The embassy sent the cable over the State Department’s internal system shortly before Hamas injured two American workers in a Saturday terror attack on a food distribution outpost in Gaza’s Khan Younis neighborhood.

The American security contractors working at GHF aid sites "are part of a group called SRS and made up of decorated veterans," according to the cable. "Unfortunately, the U.N., NGOs, and various other countries that frequently and falsely rush to delegitimize Israel and/or GHF have not strongly condemned Hamas’s malign actions against GHF staff, including Palestinians, nor the bounties for the murder of GHF workers and American security personnel."

The revelation comes amid discussions over whether the United States and Israel will include a return to U.N.-organized aid distribution as part of any ceasefire deal between the Jewish state and Hamas. The Jerusalem Post on Monday reported that aid distribution is a final sticking point in the negotiations.

The State Department cable confirms that Hamas "made a recent demand that any ceasefire deal in Gaza must end GHF’s operations and return to the prior process of distributing assistance in Gaza to Hamas’s benefit," primarily through UNRWA and other U.N.-affiliated aid groups known to work with the terror organization.

A senior U.S. official familiar with the proposal, though, told the Free Beacon that Hamas’s demand will not be met.

"Hamas's insistence that GHF go away as part of a ceasefire serves to illustrate just how much of a threat it is to them," the official said. "The courageous work of the GHF will continue for as long as Gazans are in need of food. GHF is the only organization that has proven itself secure and effective."

GHF has delivered nearly 65 million meals since beginning operations in February without formal support from the U.N., which served as Gaza’s primary humanitarian patron for decades. UNRWA and other U.N.-backed aid groups have long faced criticism for allowing Hamas to steal aid and resell it on the black market, a problem that grew worse when war broke out on Oct. 7.

"U.N. entities and NGOs smeared GHF and refused to work with GHF despite the success on the ground and the reality that much of the assistance they had provided into Gaza had been stolen by and directly or indirectly benefited Hamas," the State Department cable reads.


PragerU: How Many Radical Islam Sleepers are in the United States? | Real Talk | PragerU
Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas co-founder, was raised to fight Israel and help take over the West—until a life-changing event opened his eyes. He later risked everything to work with Israeli intelligence and eventually escaped to the United States. Now an American citizen, Mosab joins PragerU CEO ‪@realtalkwithmarissa‬ for a behind-the-scenes conversation about why he chose to expose Hamas, how he sees the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the West, and why he has become a passionate advocate for Israel, America, and Judeo-Christian values.

00:00 Why Mosab Risked Everything to Speak Out
01:00 Inside the Secret World of Hamas’ Early Years
04:00 Arrest, Torture, and the Plan to Become a Double Agent
07:00 Fleeing Hamas and Seeking Asylum in the U.S.
10:00 Becoming American: Identity, Freedom, and the Constitution
15:00 Calling His Father Before Publishing the Truth
22:00 From Death Threats to American Patriot
30:00 Why October 7th Changed Everything
40:00 Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Threat to the West
01:05:00 Final Warning: Why America Must Wake Up


Erin Molan: Ex-Terrorist Recruiter Turns FIERCE Israel Advocate: Exclusive Interview
Exclusive Interview: Former Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya Recruiter’s Journey to Pro-Israel Advocate
Join Erin Molan in this groundbreaking interview with a former terrorist recruiter from Egypt’s Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, who, after being in prison and a profound transformation, now risks everything to speak out for Israel. For the first time, he shares his story publicly, using his deep knowledge of history to separate fact from fiction in the Arab-Israeli conflict following the October 7, 2023, attacks. From his past as an Islamist extremist to his bold stand against terrorism, this is a story of redemption, courage, and truth. In this exclusive conversation, Erin dives into his reasons for leaving Islam, his insights into the roots of the conflict, and the dangers he faces for speaking out. Don’t miss this powerful discussion that challenges narratives and sheds light on one of the most complex issues of our time. Subscribe for more hard-hitting interviews and truthful reporting!

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:28 Salam Early years as an Islamist growing up
2:35: Salam: Why I left Islam
3:36 Why I was arrested in Egypt
4:20 The attitude towards Israel and Jews in the Arab world
5:45 Salam: I re-studied the Arab-Israeli conflict
7:00 How October 7th changed me
9:45 My first visit to Israel
11:07 I relate to what the freed hostages reported
12:10 Why I decided to come out publicly
13:20 Salam: I'm not afraid for my safety
16:25 What is the solution the change the narrative in the Muslim world


Hebron Arabs just began COUP against Hamas and Palestinian Authority
Could peace between Israel and the Palestinians really come from Hebron—not Ramallah or Gaza?

Host Emily Schrader, journalist and human rights activist, is joined by an all-star panel including Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll (Co-founder of Chochmat Nashim), Daniel-Ryan Spaulding (comedian and political commentator), and Ateret Shmuel (Founder and Director of Indigenous Bridges). Together, they unpack one of the most dramatic stories to emerge in the region: a reported offer by Hebron’s Palestinian sheikhs to break from the Palestinian Authority and join the Abraham Accords.

This episode dives deep into whether Hamas is finally losing its grip on Gaza (reportedly down to just 20% control) and whether the old guard’s dominance over Palestinian politics is crumbling. With Israel controlling much of Gaza, and Hezbollah hinting at disarmament, could we be at the edge of a historic shift or is it all another mirage?

Topics include:
Trump and Netanyahu’s strategic U.S. meeting and its impact on Gaza policy
Hostage negotiations, mental health crises in the IDF, and the cost of prolonged war
Scathing critiques of Western media bias, Hamas apologists and the UN’s failures
Heroic stories from Israeli military families and frontline mental health tragedies

Chapters
00:00 New Paths to Peace: The Hebron Proposal
02:52 Ceasefire Conversations: The Israeli Perspective
05:49 Qatar's Role: Accountability and Consequences
09:03 Hamas's Decline: Control and Resistance
11:46 The Complexity of Palestinian Society
14:55 The Humanitarian Crisis: Aid and Mismanagement
17:55 Strategic Decisions: Finishing the Job
21:00 Iran's Influence: A Global Perspective
22:24 Negotiating Hostage Situations
23:40 Scumbags of the Week
28:22 Political Commentary on Anti-Semitism
34:39 Heroes of the Week
42:47 Mental Health Crisis Among Soldiers




We MUST Confront Islamists - Britain is at Breaking Point: Charlie Veitch
Pro YouTuber and possessor of a mighty set of balls, Charlie Veitch has made a huge impact online with his videos showing the grittier side of urban life, with his run-ins with the police, migrants, the ProPally mob and some general undesirables!

And a few have been swept along in the wake of his fame, like Elbow Boy, Slap and Kick Man, and his bodyguard Fred, Chief Disher-Outer of said hidings!




Muslim soldiers are dismissed from the Army after sharing graphic helmet-cam videos of murdered victims after Hamas October 7 attacks
Two Muslim British Army soldiers shared graphic helmet-cam videos of murdered and desecrated dead bodies after the Hamas October 7 attacks, a court martial heard.

Signaller Zakariya Munir and Signaller Mohammed Salah sent on 'grossly offensive' videos capturing the horrific aftermath of the atrocities the day after they took place.

The servicemen claimed 'you won't see this in the media' as they shared clips of corpses being kicked and montages of 'dead civilians lying in pools of blood'.

The clips were believed to have been filmed from Hamas terrorists after they carried out the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The pair also shared another 'exceptionally violent piece of footage' showing an execution carried out by ISIS extremists.

The court martial was told Sig Munir found the videos of the 'war crimes' and mutilated bodies in the Middle East and sent them to colleague Sig Salah.

The soldiers exchanged messages about the content, with Sig Munir telling Sig Salah that they would not be shown in the media. Young father Sig Salah then sent them on to other service personnel.

Now, the pair of soldiers have both been dismissed from the Army.
Iran’s president claims Israel tried to kill him, says open to new nuke talks with US
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed that Israel attempted to assassinate him, speaking in a 28-minute interview released Monday with American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson

“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said in response to Carlson’s question about whether he believes Israel tried to kill him.

Asked how he was certain of such an attempt, he replied: “Of course, it was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life… It was Israel,” according to a Persian-to-English translation provided in the interview. “I was in a meeting… but thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting.”

Pezeshkian did not specify the date of the alleged assassination attempt, nor whether it occurred during last month’s conflict.

Israel says its sweeping assault — which began 61 days after US President Donald Trump set a 60-day deadline for a nuclear deal, and targeted Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program — was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Among the top military leaders killed were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Gen. Hossein Salami; the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh; and Mohammad Bagheri, a major general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the second-in-command of the armed forces after the Iranian leader.

Political leaders were spared from the attacks, and there were no previous reports of an attempt on Pezeshkian’s life.
Tucker’s Interview with the Iranian President
I watched Tucker’s interview with the Iranian president, and here are my comments on what he said.

1. "Iran didn’t start this war."
The war didn’t start last month, it ended last month. What we’re witnessing is the consequence of 40 years of unprovoked Iranian aggression. Since 1979, Iran has been the engine of Middle Eastern instability. In 1983, its proxy Hezbollah killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut. Since then, Tehran has funded, armed, and directed a global network of terror: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. They’ve launched missiles at U.S. bases, smuggled weapons and drugs across continents, threatened global trade routes, and called publicly for the annihilation of Israel and the downfall of the United States. When the The U.S. or Israel respond, it’s not starting a war.

2: "Netanyahu made up Iran’s nuclear ambitions."
People have every right to doubt Netanyahu. He’s been warning for over two decades that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon. But he wasn’t lying. Iran was close, multiple times, and the only reason it hasn’t crossed the nuclear threshold is because Israel acted. Mossad agents assassinated key nuclear scientists. They blew up enrichment facilities. They infiltrated and stole secret nuclear archives from the heart of Tehran. These are documented operations. Netanyahu always said: “When Iran gets close, we will act.” And they always did, just like they did last month.

3: “We’ve never wanted a nuke, not now, not ever. IAEA can confirm.”
2015 IAEA report: Iran was working on nukes pre-2003. 2023 IAEA: Iran blocked inspections at Fordow and other sites, and kicked out monitors. IAEA reports from May 2025 confirmed Iran’s 60% enriched uranium stockpile grew to 274.8 kg, enough to produce weapons-grade material in weeks breaking the JCPOA.

4: “Israel torpedoed the nuclear deal.”
Trump’s team held five rounds of talks starting April 12, 2025, in Oman, Rome, and Muscat, demanding Iran halt uranium enrichment, a non-negotiable red line. Iran flat-out rejected this, insisting on its “right” to enrich, per Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Trump set a 60-day deadline for a deal, expiring June 9, 2025. When Iran balked, he publicly warned on June 9 that Iran rejected a U.S. proposal for a regional nuclear consortium to control enrichment, signaling talks were collapsing. Iran’s piling up near-weapons-grade uranium and stonewalling on enrichment, torpedoed the talks.


EXCLUSIVE: Iranian President Explains the Real, Nuanced Meaning of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Kill the Jews’
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and failed CIA applicant, recently interviewed Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, who insisted that his country "did not want to develop a nuclear weapon" and blamed the "false image" of Iran as a malicious terrorism sponsor on the "devilish machinations instigated by [Benjamin] Netanyahu and the Israeli regime."

As soon as we heard about the interview, the Washington Free Beacon contacted our operatives in Iran and requested to speak with President Pezeshkian ourselves. He eventually agreed. What follows is a lightly edited (and semi-professionally translated) transcript of our exclusive conversation.

Thank you for joining us, Mr. President. You must be thrilled to be alive, given the sudden but not entirely unexpected demise of your military comrades. How are you holding up?
Hi, dope to be with you. I'm hanging in there, praise be to Allah. The quality and consistency of my bowel movements has suffered, as you might expect, in light of the Israeli regime's conniving sneak attack on our nuclear weapons program. My dear friend, his excellency Ben Rhodes, has been reaching out to provide emotional support during these times, and vice versa.

Aww, that's very sweet of him. And sweet of you. Ben seems to be really struggling.
Yes, bless his heart. He's a sweetie. We exchange poetry from time to time. It's not all bad. Things are pretty great here, actually. As you know from CNN's intrepid reporting, the attack failed.

Nuclear weapons program? I thought you said Iran didn't have one.
No, I said nuclear energy program. One moment, please. I must have a gentle word with my translator to encourage compliance with government standards.

Hello? Are you still there? Is that a chainsaw?
Hey, buddy. We will continue this conversation with a replacement translator, if you don't mind. Apologies for the commotion, I am overseeing the construction of a new underground warhead facility.


Brendan O'Neill: Owen Jones embodies the wild-eyed mania of Israelophobia
That’s what Jones’s performance on Morgan’s show brought home to me: the sheer mania of the bourgeois hatred for Israel. There is much speculation about why Jones seemed so unstable. He appeared frenzied, tormented, almost smashing his glass at one point. This has led some, including JK Rowling, to wonder if he’d partaken of the white stuff before going on air. Actually, Jones has since tweeted, he was on amphetamines for my ADHD. Taking drugs in your 40s for that most middle-class of imaginary malaises? Mate, just pretend you did coke instead of admitting to that.

For those of us uninterested in the fashionable ailments and neuroses of the Oxbridge classes (ie, all normal people), the most striking thing about Jones’s performance was less its physical twitching than its moral frenzy. He came off like a man possessed, a mad preacher, come to cast out Zionism. It was giving millennarian vibes: a man in black barely able to sit still as he furiously held forth on the unholiness of Israel and all who support it. Just say Israel is committing genocide, he barked at Morgan at one point, and it sounded for all the world like a command to convert. ‘Renounce the devil and join the saved!’ – that’s what the pious loathers of Israel mean when they implore us lost souls to say the G-word.

Jones has form on this front. He embodies the neo-religious lunacy of the middle classes’ unhinged hatred for Israel. His commentary long ago left the realm of judicious analysis and now wails in agony in a forever purgatory of purple prose. He froths about Israel’s ‘genocidal mania’ and its ‘uniquely murderous’ wars. He damns the ‘depravity’ of its ‘cheerleaders’ who he hopes will be ‘haunted by the souls of the slaughtered Palestinians… until the end of time’. He foretells a ‘reckoning’ (Final Judgement) in which the ‘depraved monsters’ who support Israel (sinners) will be damned to a circle of torment where the ‘screams’ of Palestinian children will haunt them ‘for the rest of [their lives]’ (Hell).

It is moral pornography masquerading as commentary. It’s the lurid marshalling of other people’s suffering to give one’s own drab life some semblance of ethical purpose. That’s what I saw on Morgan’s show: a man so morally corrupted by a religious revulsion for one tiny country that he can barely speak in sentences anymore. If it was just Jones, I wouldn’t care. But the mania is rampant in influencer circles. Virtually the entire activist class now defines itself by its apocalyptic loathing for Israel. They dream, openly, of its death. ‘Israel needs to be destroyed’, said Australian writer Clementine Ford last week. Its army must suffer ‘death’, crowed the Glasto mob and leftists across the West. They’ve made the world’s only Jewish nation into a demonic entity whose destruction is the only thing that might save mankind.


Pride organisers reject anti-Semitism training
Jewish groups boycotted Pride celebrations after the organisers rejected offers of free anti-Semitism training for the event’s stewards.

Pride’s refusal to accept the training for its staff prompted fears among Jewish gay, lesbian and trans people that they would be targeted by pro-Palestine activists on Saturday over Israel’s role in the Gaza conflict.

This is the second year running that Jewish LGBT groups have turned their backs on the Pride celebrations, which have been running in London for more than half a century.

Fears for the safety of Jewish gay, lesbian and trans participants follow repeated pro-Palestine demonstrations throughout the country since Oct 7, at which allegedly anti-Semitic banners and placards have been displayed.

The Jewish LGBT charity KeshetUK had offered to hold training for Pride stewards to raise awareness about potentially anti-Semitic behaviour.

A source told The Telegraph: “The charity’s requests for anti-Semitism training for Pride stewards were rejected, despite the training being offered free of charge and in the context of rising tensions and security threats against Jewish communities.

“Many Jewish LGBTQ+ people report feeling increasingly unwelcome in queer spaces since the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel.”

A number of LGBT venues and festivals have stated publicly that Zionists are not welcome since Israel launched its military response to the Oct 7 massacres by Hamas.

Jewish groups say that effectively excludes most Jewish queer people, as recent polling by Campaign Against Antisemitism shows 80 per cent of British Jews identify as Zionists, defined as supporting Jewish self-determination in Israel.


Armed Forces Day banned from featuring military equipment by Labour council 'over fears of protests from pro-Palestine demonstrators'
A Labour council has sparked fury after banning Army vehicles from its Armed Forces Day 'celebration' - over fears the military kit could enrage Pro-Palestine activists.

York's council leader said the move to bar the local reserve unit from bringing its open-top Jackal was due to 'residents' concerns' - and 'reflects our city's diverse views'.

But the decision outraged part-time soldiers from the Queen's Own Yeomanry, who reportedly withdrew entirely from the event in protest.

It comes amid claims the decision was taken to avoid inflaming pro-Palestine demonstrators, with a whistle-blower telling military blog Fill Your Boots the council was worried about 'triggering a protest'.

Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was appalled at the claims and accused the council of 'capitulating' to activists like Palestine Action - which over the weekend was banned and branded a proscribed terror group.

The former commander of the military's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Regiment told MailOnline: 'It's absolutely bonkers if a Labour council is seemingly supporting a proscribed terrorist group over the army.

'The military is there to protect the civilian community, but it seems at the moment whether you're an activist against climate change or anything else they get the rub of the green rather than the people doing the hard yards.

'It's a hugely disappointing and the people who serve us - the council and MPs - need to man up a bit and stand for those on the right side of the law rather than capitulating to the likes of Palestine Action, that's a proscribed terror group.'




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

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.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates