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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

07/15 Links Pt1: Reality Was the Cure for ‘Iraq Syndrome’; Most Israelis Want to See Military Rule in Gaza; Terrorists in Uniform: A Study of PA Security Forces’ Terror Involvement

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Reality Was the Cure for ‘Iraq Syndrome’
Two of those three are clear violations of “just like Iraq” catastrophizing. But again, the “just like Iraq” line of thinking isn’t accurate, and now Trump realizes that.

The most hysterical version of the argument against striking Iran’s nuclear facilities was voiced by, of course, Tucker Carlson. Bombing Iran would put us at war, according to Carlson’s line of thinking, and “[t]he first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans. It could also collapse our economy.”

But there was no reason to believe this was a likely outcome at all. Iran had already been killing U.S. service members long before those B-2s soared above Persian skies. And Israel had already taken out Iran’s air-defense systems. The decision to strike was the equivalent of walking through an open door.

After the strikes definitively buried such scaremongering, Carlson announced he was “going to pull back from the internet a little bit.”

Good idea. Meanwhile, Trump learned an important lesson: America’s capabilities far exceed the claims of isolationist doomers. And there is a lot of room between “engage in a land war in a faraway country” and “drop a bomb from a plane on an uninhabited underground facility.”

Such limited displays of U.S. power and effectiveness are likely to do more to prevent full-scale war than removing American power from the equation entirely. Iran’s allies told it to stand down after the strikes and maybe accept a compromise with Trump; either way, they wouldn’t be taking part in any blockheaded attempt at military retribution against the United States. Take the L, as the kids say.

Ukraine is now benefiting from the Iran strikes because reality has dispelled the fog of Iraq Syndrome and the president is seeing more clearly. Asking Vladimir Putin nicely to stop the war hasn’t worked, nor should anybody have ever believed it would. Perhaps helping Ukraine defend its existence won’t stop Putin either, but at the very least it will extract higher costs than Russia is already paying for its adventurism.

Either way, there’s no denying that, in the wake of the successful strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, the president is having an easier time seeing the world as it is.
JCPA: Survey: Most Israelis Want to See Military Rule in Gaza the Day After
Majority of the Public: No to a Palestinian State, Yes to Military Rule

Among all respondents, only 4% believe Hamas should stay in power after the war. The majority of Jewish respondents (64%) prefer the option of temporary military rule. Among Arab respondents, 41% are undecided, while 20% favor a technocratic model. A regional involvement model by an Arab force received only limited support (10%), and more than one-fifth expressed no clear opinion. Wall of Opposition to a Palestinian State

Similar to previous JCFA surveys, the current poll indicates a clear Israeli majority (64%) opposed to establishing a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, even after the events of October 7. Only 8% support a Palestinian state without conditions, and 17% would support it under conditions such as recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and being demilitarized. The strongest opposition was recorded among Jews (77%) and right-wing voters (88%). Conversely, among Arab respondents, 34% support an unconditional Palestinian state, and an additional 26% support it under certain conditions. Even in Exchange for Normalization with Saudi Arabia – Still No

58% of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state even in exchange for normalization with Saudi Arabia. 24% support such a scenario if it includes recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and demilitarization, while only 8% support unconditional statehood. Among Jewish respondents, opposition is even higher – 68%. Israelis Don’t Trust the Palestinian Authority

53% of Israelis oppose involving the PA in any future arrangement in Gaza, while only 26% support it. Among Jews, opposition is especially high at 59%, compared to 30% among Arabs. Broad Support for Trump’s Plan for Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza enjoys wide support, with 69% of respondents in favor. including 82% of Jewish respondents. However, among Arab respondents, opposition rose sharply from 50% in May to 56% in July 2025.
Israel: Hamas Removal in Gaza Is Non-Negotiable
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer interviewed by Dan Senor
Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer described how his thinking had changed after Oct. 7: "What Israel has to do is build up a wall, an iron wall...and eventually when they realize that they can't beat us, that's when they will actually open the door towards peace."

"The perception of Israel's weakness [after Oct. 7], how that's going to affect calculations in the region, can be very, very dangerous because of all the buzzards that are circling Israel that would love a chance to attack a bleeding Israel....I saw the puncturing of that wall, and the fear was that now everyone was going to rush in, and reversing that was very critical at the beginning of the war."

To close this "breach" in the wall, Israel needs to ensure that Hamas loses its control over Gaza. "It doesn't necessarily mean to kill every Hamas terrorist who's running around there. But if Hamas lost Gaza, that's the minimum necessary in order to achieve a victory...the minimal requirement is: The force that did this to you on October 7 is no more. They've lost control of Gaza because of their decision to act."

Addressing recent opinion polls, Dermer said: "Everybody in Israel wants to end the war. The question is, are you going to end the war with a victory for you or victory for Hamas? When you dig down and you ask people: Wait a second, Hamas will stay in power. We're not going to have any troops in Gaza. They will be able to rearm and they'll be able to do October 7th attacks again. I think the numbers will be different."

Regarding the strikes on Iran's nuclear program, Dermer said, "I think that we have removed that threat for the foreseeable future, particularly if we do the things that we need to do now in the aftermath of that attack. But Iran is not the same country that it was last month."


Andrew Fox: The ‘humanitarian city’ in Gaza is not a concentration camp
After nearly 21 months of exhausting urban fighting in Gaza, the war-weary IDF is focussed on defeating Hamas on the battlefield, not on herding and guarding hundreds of thousands of civilians indefinitely in a desert encampment. Commanders know that gathering Gaza’s entire population in one location could cause chaos and lead them to lose control over the enclave. They know that their army is simply not built for the management of hundreds of thousands of people.

Israel’s conduct in this war, however hard it has been on Gaza’s people, does not resemble a genocide or the Holocaust. The IDF’s campaign since 7 October 2023 has been aimed squarely at destroying Hamas fighters and infrastructure, not at annihilating Palestinians as a people. The daily drumbeat of killed Hamas operatives and commanders attests to this focus – just this week, the IDF eliminated Nasr Ali Quneita, a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel on 7 October and held British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari captive in Gaza.

Gaza’s civilian death toll is tragic, but killing civilians has never been Israel’s objective. Unlike the Nazis, who targeted children and innocents for the ‘crime’ of being born Jewish, Israel has taken pains (even if not always successfully) to spare non-combatants, urging evacuations, pausing operations for humanitarian relief and getting food into Gaza. The IDF has facilitated the establishment of 11 field hospitals, and coordinated a large-scale polio vaccination campaign for Gazan children, administering over 1.1million doses and reaching 90 per cent of children in the strip.

These are not the actions of an army intent on extermination. They are the deeds of a state fighting a fierce war against a terror group while still trying to maintain humanitarian responsibilities towards the enemy’s civilians. You would never see the Nazis providing vaccines to Jewish children or shipping extra food rations during the Holocaust. On the contrary, they aimed to eliminate those children entirely. The genocidal intent that defined Nazi concentration camps is simply absent in Israel’s policy, no matter how intense the suffering in Gaza can be at times.

No one denies that conditions for Palestinian civilians are horrific. They are displaced, living amid destroyed infrastructure and surviving on scarce water and limited power. Thousands of innocent lives have been lost. But however terrible Gaza’s reality may be, it is completely false to equate it with the systematic, industrialised murder that was the Holocaust.

The war in Gaza is not a ‘genocide’, and relocating civilians for their safety is not the same as putting them in a ‘concentration camp’. Those who toss around these terms are not defending human rights – they are weaponising historical trauma to demonise the world’s only Jewish state.

There are valid concerns worth raising about the ‘humanitarian city’ plan. It could indeed lead to forced displacement or long-term internment of Palestinians, raising serious ethical and legal issues. These points can be made without screaming ‘Nazis!’ at Israelis. Once you slap the yellow star or swastika on Israel, good-faith dialogue ends. All that remains is polarising hatred.
Israel Begins Talks With Countries That Could Take In Gazans Under Trump Plan
Israel on Monday began negotiations with several countries it hopes will take in Gazans as part of a mass emigration plan first proposed by President Donald Trump, two Israeli officials with knowledge of the talks told the Washington Free Beacon.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer briefed the rest of the cabinet on the talks in a closed-door meeting on Saturday evening. The leaders said the talks were expected to continue for several days with the goal of securing commitments from the other countries to accept specific numbers of Gazan migrants in exchange for benefits to be provided by the United States.

"This is big," said one of the officials, who like his colleague requested anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. "The immigration plan is moving ahead, and it sounds pretty serious."

Netanyahu and Dermer said in the cabinet meeting that the United States was involved in the talks, but did not specify in what capacity or reveal the names of the other countries or the terms under consideration.

The launch of the talks is the most concrete sign of progress to date on Trump’s "Gaza Riviera" proposal, which would facilitate the exit of civilians from the war-ruined Gaza Strip. Israeli officials have embraced the idea, describing it as key to winning the Gaza war and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Arab leaders have refused to cooperate, evoking Palestinian nationalism, and no country has yet to agree to take in migrants from Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.

The United States and Israel reportedly approached Sudan, Somalia, and Somaliland in March about accepting Gazan migrants, though Somalia and Somaliland denied that the outreach occurred.

In a joint press conference at the White House last week, Netanyahu and Trump told the Free Beacon that they believed they were close to a breakthrough.

"We're working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say, that they want to give the Palestinians a better future, and I think we're getting close to finding several countries, and I think this will give again the freedom to choose," Netanyahu said.
Olmert’s outburst shows he’s losing it
Something odd is happening to a select number of Israel’s former leaders after they leave power. Some seem to lose all sense of proportion—and, in some cases, their actual grip on reality.

Take Ehud Olmert, for example. Once a respected prime minister and the mayor of Jerusalem, he compared a proposed “humanitarian city” for displaced Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip to a German Nazi concentration camp. By doing so, he plays right into the hands of those who aim to compare Israelis to Nazis.

To quote him directly, in an interview with The Guardian, he writes: “When they build a camp where they [plan to] ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding … is not to save [Palestinians]. It is to deport them.” He added that it would be “an expression of a concentration camp.”

Does he not realize the damage he is doing? To compare this tent city to a concentration camp is not only grotesquely false but profoundly offensive. It cheapens the singular historical evil of the Holocaust and plays straight into the hands of Israel’s fiercest critics, who constantly look for ways to accuse the Jewish state of Nazi-like behavior.

Unfortunately, Olmert is not alone. So what’s going on with some of these former generals and prime ministers? Why are they saying such wild things?

Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who now leads a small left-wing party called “The Democrats,” claimed on Kan News radio: “A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby … .” Huh? Does he believe that, or is he cynically playing politics without realizing the implications of his words. Is he such a fool and doesn’t realize that that kind of rhetoric doesn’t stay in Israel. It ends up on posters at anti-Israel rallies in London, New York and university campuses worldwide.

Former Defense Minister Moshe (“Boogie”) Ya’alon has also lashed out at the IDF’s strategy in Gaza and implied that the army was engaging in a type of ethnic cleansing. Ehud Barak went even further—years ago warning that if Israel didn’t find a two-state solution, then it would become “an apartheid state.” That line is now one of the central talking points of those who falsely claim Israel is practicing apartheid.

What unites all of these men? They were once considered measured, competent leaders. They commanded armies, led governments, made real decisions under pressure. And yet, once out of power, they seem to embrace extreme rhetoric.
Holocaust heritage shouldn’t be used as a stick to beat Israel over the head with
The best parodies – especially the best self-parodies – work so well because no one involved has any idea that they are parodying themselves or anyone else. Any half decent writer, for example, can send up the caricature ‘luvvie’ actor who thinks their ability to read someone else’s words with dramatic pauses and tonal inflections gives them a special insight into the human condition and world affairs.

But only those who are seeking to write an important piece about how serious people deal with issues can provide a truly great parody. Which is why an interview in Saturday’s Guardian – of course it was in the Guardian! – with the actress Juliet Stevenson (a living, breathing self-parody of the concerned thesp) and her husband, “the anthropologist, film-maker and writer Hugh Brody”, was such a model of its kind.

The interviewer, Nadia Khomami, goes in with unintentional parody guns blazing right from the start, telling us that “the fight for peace and justice in Palestine is something that has defined the couple’s relationship for 32 years, particularly because Brody is Jewish and the son of a Holocaust survivor.”

Let’s leave hanging that first masterpiece of parody - that their relationship is defined not by, oh I don’t know, love, companionship or even a joint mortgage but by the fight for peace and justice in Palestine – and focus on the lower hanging parodical fruit. Because there is no greater parody in existence than the “As a Jew” who thinks their Judaism gives them licence and cover to say whatever they wish about their fellow Jews and Israel, itself brilliantly parodied in Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question by ASHamed Jews, an anti-Zionist group which meets fortnightly in the Groucho Club.

But Brody does not just have the licence of being a Jew, he has the AsaJew slam dunk: the Holocaust. His mother “knew the Freuds” in Vienna, he tells us, and in 1938 she left Vienna for the UK. Every AsaJew knows that playing the Holocaust card sprinkles the Free Palestine rhetoric with gold dust. It has become the perfect AsaJew prop: I AM THE SON OF A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO MY SUPERIOR MORALITY. That its use displays, rather, a grotesque willingness to utilise the murder of six million Jews as a political tool is irrelevant; it has now become that tool.

That it is just another means of universalising the Holocaust, decoupling it from antisemitism and the specific historical targeting of Jews for extermination is equally irrelevant. It is a tool.
France's Macron withdraws from UN Palestinian state recognition conference
French President Emmanuel Macron is no longer expected to attend the upcoming UN conference on the recognition of a Palestinian state, sources said on Tuesday.

Macron encountered strong opposition from Britain and Canada, who warned that a unilateral French recognition of a Palestinian state could undermine international coordination efforts with Israel and exacerbate divisions, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the matter.

France’s president, who had intended to lead the conference along with Saudi Arabia, had reportedly considered announcing France’s official recognition of a Palestinian state, a claim that Paris has firmly denied.

The conference was initially scheduled to take place in New York from June 17 to June 20.

In it, discussions were expected to be held regarding the future of the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas War concludes, and it was meant to prepare for the gradual recognition of a Palestinian statehood.

However, the summit was delayed due to the Israel-Iran war.

The US also applied behind-the-scenes pressure, which led to the postponement of the original conference date, sources told Walla. A new date for the conference was set for July 28. Paris politicians aim to lower expectations
How global human rights groups dehumanized Israelis during the Iran-Israel conflict
It has been nearly three weeks since Iranian ballistic missiles and explosive suicide drones rained down on Israeli civilians, hitting hospitals, residential buildings and places of worship. The fragile quiet of the ceasefire provides an opportunity to take stock of the active role human rights organizations have played in this war.

Theirs was a twofold process of dehumanizing Israelis. The same nongovernmental organizations that reflexively and vigorously condemn every Israel Defense Forces strike in the Gaza Strip remained silent in the face of Iran’s unprecedented assault on Israeli human rights. After all, each and every Iranian missile was undeniably a war crime for its targeting of civilians.

Beyond the passive failure to respond, NGOs actively shaped the international response to the conflict. Through selective statements, coordinated social media campaigns and organized protests, NGOs that claim to promote human rights helped drive a global narrative that vilified Israel while excusing, minimizing or ignoring Iranian aggression.

NGO Monitor’s analysis of dozens of NGO communications during and immediately after the two weeks of war starting June 13 found that only a handful even acknowledged the scale or nature of Iran’s attacks on Israel. Even fewer noted that Iran’s actions, including the launch of more than 400 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 armed drones at Israeli population centers, represented clear violations of international law.

Yet, when Israel acted to defend its population with preemptive strikes on Iranian missiles ready for launch and targeted strikes on the regime’s nuclear program and related infrastructure, all non-civilian targets, the same NGOs were quick to condemn its actions, often before any credible information was available.

These groups issued demands for “restraint” and “de-escalation” aimed almost exclusively at Israel. In doing so, they shaped media coverage, policy discourse and public perception, all while failing to meet the standards of impartiality and consistency in respect for human rights that they demand from others.

This distortion was compounded by the disturbing degree of sympathy, if not enthusiastic support, that many human rights NGOs extended toward the Iranian regime. Iran has a very public and long-standing commitment to Israel’s destruction. This genocidal objective has been repeated by its leaders and written into the regime’s political doctrine, including its backing for proxy terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Yet numerous NGOs either justified the Iranian attacks or framed them as a legitimate response to Israeli policies. Their language echoed that of Iran’s propaganda: portraying the regime as a victim of Israeli provocation and its assault as a form of defensive action.

In fact, some of the NGOs in question are fairly open in their promotion of pro-terrorist sentiments. Groups such as Samidoun, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Masar Badil and the Palestinian Youth Movement offered outright support for the Iranian regime. Some openly celebrated Iran’s attacks and depicted them as legitimate acts of “resistance” against Israel.

A second group of NGOs was more insidious. These are the NGOs that portray themselves as objective observers and neutral policy or legal experts while exhibiting a similarly hyperpartisan agenda regarding Israel. This category includes the European Council on Foreign Relations and Democracy for the Arab World Now, which remained silent on Iran’s conduct and quickly pivoted to criticizing Israeli responses, reemphasizing the deep-seated political and ideological biases.

Human Rights Watch offers perhaps the clearest example of silence and hypocrisy. Its default posture during conflicts of this magnitude is to release a “frequently asked questions” brief within days of initial hostilities, laying out its interpretation, albeit distorted, of international humanitarian law and recommending conduct for the parties involved.

When it comes to situations where it can bash Israel, Human Rights Watch has a long history of frequent statements and emotive reports alleging all manner of wrongdoing.
Israel vs. Iran
Iran's defeat had to be a foregone conclusion: Israel is a very modern Western state, whereas Iran is only a superficially modernized theocracy.

Everybody now understands that Israel controlled the skies over Iran for as long as it wanted, even though it did not have a single long-range combat aircraft nor adequate refueling tankers.

It simply had a Western air force. That means its pilots and commanders are professionals who accept the limitations of their equipment and strive to overcome them - for example, with unique air-launched ballistic missiles used as range extenders.

Ayatollah Khamenei opened his first post-combat speech by warmly congratulating the people of Iran on their "very great" victory and the brilliant successes of their armed forces.

Perhaps readers of the Tehran Times, who had just seen major buildings in their own city reduced to ruins, were consoled by reading that Iran's missiles had destroyed Israel's Ministry of Defense and the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, both of which passing Israeli commuters can still see are perfectly intact.
Alan Dershowitz: There is no ‘genocide’ in Gaza — why the claim equals Holocaust denial
It has become fashionable among anti-Israel zealots — including hard-left academics — to use the term “genocide” to characterize Israel’s response to the murder, rape, beheadings and kidnapping of more than 1,400 innocent Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

Self-proclaimed “genocide scholar” Omer Barton wrote in The New York Times this week that he knows genocide when he sees it, and he sees it in Gaza. (Not in Israel on Oct. 7, though).

The king of Jordan accused Israel of genocide on Monday, following the lead of the UN rapporteur on Palestine.

The label will no doubt be a central part of campus rallies this fall.

But this accusation is false as a matter of fact, morality, logic and law — and a dangerous distortion of history that amounts to Holocaust denial.

It trivializes the powerful term “genocide” and applies it to nearly every war fought by democracies during the last century, especially those directed against terrorism and other forms of modern asymmetrical warfare.


Egregious journalistic malpractice at ‘The New York Times’
The Times writers claim, “Netanyahu would try to prolong his political life by blaming the security and intelligence chiefs for failing to prevent the attack.” It is very likely, reading Bergman in November 2023, that it was the military that failed to foresee the attack and failed to brief Israel’s political leadership.

What did the IDF’s Intelligence Branch, the General Security Services (Shin Bet) and the Mossad know, when did they know it, and did they inform Netanyahu?

One-sided perception
The Times blames Netanyahu for putting obstacles in the path of ceasefire negotiations and the Biden administration’s desired outcomes. It seems beyond the writers’ comprehension that the failure to reach a ceasefire was because of Hamas’s obduracy and Qatari and Iranian incitement.

The New York Times’ “Bibi Derangement Syndrome” is showcased when Kingsley and Bergman elide one of the most significant events in the war against Hizbullah and Iran. They wrote, “nearly a year into the war, a sequence of unforeseen intelligence successes led Israel to kill several senior Hizbullah commanders.” Beep! Beep? The duo thus ignores Israel’s unleashing of its audacious “Beeper” attack that knocked thousands of Hizbullah fighters and commanders off the board. The intricate Beeper plan was in Israel’s quivers for years. The attack was launched on Netanyahu’s orders, despite objections from some military and political leaders. The move earns its place in military history books, even if it was ignored by the Times.

Netanyahu’s ascribing of sudden “significance to military objectives that he previously seemed less interested in pursuing and that top military officials told him were not worth the cost” served to prolong the war, Kingsley and Bergman claimed. What were the insignificant military objectives? They so happen to be President Joe Biden’s bรชte noire—the capture of the southern city of Rafah (where Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar was killed) and the occupation of the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, under which Hamas had excavated extensive supply tunnels.

Despite the objections of the Biden administration and some of Israel’s military brass, the two objectives were vital for the defeat of Hamas. Netanyahu’s call was absolutely correct, and he had no political objective.
The “New York Times” Publishes an Unsubstantiated Slander of the Israeli Government
In a recent article, the New York Times Magazine asserts that Benjamin Netanyahu “prolonged the war in Gaza to stay in power.” Niranjan Shankar takes the argument apart piece by piece, showing that for all its careful research, it fails to back up its basic claims. For instance: the article implies that Netanyahu torpedoed a three-point cease-fire proposal supported by the Biden administration in the spring of last year:
First of all, it’s crucial to note that Biden’s supposed “three-point plan” announced in May 2024 was originally an Israeli proposal. Of course, there was some back-and-forth and disagreement over how the Biden administration presented this initially, as Biden failed to emphasize that according to the three-point framework, a permanent cease-fire was conditional on Hamas releasing all of the hostages and stepping down. Regardless, the piece fails to mention that it was Hamas in June 2024 that rejected this framework!

It wasn’t until July 2024 that Hamas made its major concession—dropping its demand that Israel commit up front to a full end to the war, as opposed to doing so at a later stage of cease-fire/negotiations. Even then, U.S. negotiators admitted that both sides were still far from agreeing on a deal.

Even when the Times raises more credible criticisms of Israel—like when it brings up the IDF’s strategy of conducting raids rather than holding territory in the first stage of the war—it offers them in what seems like bad faith:
[W]ould the New York Times prefer that Israel instead started with a massive ground campaign with a “clear-hold-build” strategy from the get-go? Of course, if Israel had done this, there would have been endless criticism, especially under the Biden administration. But when Israel instead tried the “raid-and-clear” strategy, it gets blamed for deliberately dragging the war on.


As Haredi Parties Fight Conscription, Haredi Soldiers Sacrifice Their Lives to Fight Hamas
Yesterday, the Ashkenazi haredi party, United Torah Judaism, quit the government over its dissatisfaction with efforts to draft yeshiva students. The party’s departure leaves Benjamin Netanyahu’s collation with a mere 61 seats, the minimum required to hold on to power. While the official haredi leadership, rabbinic and political, maintains its firm anti-conscription policy, a small but growing number of Haredim are serving in the IDF.

On July 7, four members of the haredi Netzach Yehudah battalion were killed in action in northern Gaza, along with a member of a different battalion. Fourteen others were wounded. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi jurist and writer who has been in contact with the grieving families, writes:
[A]mid the grief—there is nothing more heartbreaking than a mother eulogizing her fallen son—there was a deep sense of privilege. There is nothing obvious about these boys serving in the IDF. They hail from communities that generally oppose army service, and attended schools that speak out against enlistment. Yet they chose to serve, some of them actively struggling to join a combat unit.

Being a haredi soldier is often a thankless path. Except for moments of political expediency, when it becomes useful to remind the public that haredi soldiers exist, [the haredi] community does not lionize or elevate them. That honor is reserved for Torah students. The army, too, has long been ambivalent toward the Netzach Yehudah battalion, which has faced ongoing structural and social challenges, though things have changed much since October 7.

And yet, in their heroic death, these soldiers made a powerful statement. We [Haredim] are here. Despite the obstacles, . . . we share responsibility for Jewish life in the Land of Israel. We are ready to shoulder the burden, and to pay the ultimate price. We are ready to lead, so others may follow. And already, just days later, a new company of the haredi Hashmonaim brigade swore its allegiance to state and nation.
Entire UN commission resigns, long seen as anti-Israel
Just days after Washington sanctioned Francesca Albanese, an “independent adviser” to the United Nations with a long history of Jew-hatred, three U.N. officials, who have also been long accused of antisemitism, resigned from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Navi Pillay, 83, of South Africa, who chaired the commission, cited her “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments” in her July 8 resignation letter, which she said would take effect on Nov. 3.

In a July 10 letter, Miloon Kothari of India wrote that it had been “an honor” to serve and noted his resignation in “confirmation of the understanding we reached during our meeting last week.” Chris Sidoti, of Australia, wrote in his July 9 resignation to Jรผrg Lauber, president of the Human Rights Council, that “the retirement of the chair is an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission,” but that “I am willing to accept re-appointment to the commission should you so wish.”

“Now the dominoes are falling. Frightened of also being sanctioned, architects of the U.N.’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship,” stated Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which first brought the resignations to light. “The tide is turning.”

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated that “this is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long road ahead.”

“We will not rest until justice and moral clarity are restored in the halls of the United Nations,” he said.

The commission was established to investigate what the world body said are human-rights abuses in Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories. Its three-member entity long drew criticism for being anti-Israel. (JNS sought comment from the U.S. mission to the United Nations.)

Pillay has supported the movement to boycott Israel. Kothari told an antisemitic site in 2022 that social media is “controlled largely by, whether it is the Jewish lobby or it is specific NGOs, a lot of money being thrown into trying to discredit us.” Sidoti has said of antisemitism that Jews throw “around accusations like rice at a wedding.”

“This was a commission born in prejudice, designed to target Israel, while ignoring Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority,” Neuer stated. “Its members were selected precisely for their hostility to the Jewish state.”

“There is still a long road ahead to fix this broken body called the ‘Human Rights Council,’ but maybe things are starting to move due to the measures taken by the United States,” stated Amir Weissbrod, deputy Israeli director-general for the United Nations and international organizations.

“Pillay and her companions signified all that was wrong in this body,” he said. “Not standing with their minimal obligation to be impartial and neutral, having a nomination for life with no scrutiny and a huge waste of resources on endless biased anti-Israeli reports.”


Israeli FM: None of the proposed EU measures against Israel will be adopted
“Not any” of the ten optional measures being prepared by the European Union to censure Israel over its war against Hamas in Gaza will be adopted on Tuesday by member states, said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday. “There is no justification whatsoever” for them, he added.

Speaking to the press as he arrived in Brussels to attend a ministerial meeting between the European Union and its southern neighbors from the Middle East and North Africa, Sa’ar said: “What we see is Hamas stopping people to get the aid directly because they want to be the mediators of humanitarian aid.”

Aid is a resource for the terrorist group, he said. “They threaten people, they shoot people, they kidnap people, kill Palestinians, attack Americans. But it is crucial that this aid will be given to the people and it is important to disconnect the aid from Hamas. This is part of the things that we have raised in our dialogue with the E.U., to develop methods [of aid delivery] that will reach the people and not Hamas.”

Monday’s meeting came on the eve of a E.U. Foreign Affairs Council during which the 27 E.U foreign ministers were scheduled to examine a set of 10 options for action against Israel. The move follows a review of the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement which concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza had breached the agreement’s Article 2. The review was rejected by Israel as ”absurd.”

The proposals, which are listed with their legal basis and procedures for adoption, include suspending the “entire” E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, halting political dialogue with Israel, or barring Tel Aviv’s access to E.U. programs, all of which require unanimity among 27 member states.

However, the council takes place a few days after E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced on Thursday that the European Union and Israel had agreed to a “significant” improvement of humanitarian aid access into Gaza.


Ireland refuses visas for Ramallah children planning to attend Gaelic Games summer camp
The Gaelic Games in Palestine (GAA-P) organization has lodged an official appeal after its team was refused travel visas to Ireland, where they planned to go on a “cultural and sporting tour.”

The Gaelic Athletic Association is the Irish international amateur sporting body focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games such as hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, and Gaelic handball. The Palestinian branch aims to bring Gaelic games to the Ramallah region.

Thirty-three children aged nine to 16 were set to leave for a two-week tour of Ireland on July 18, however, the Irish Immigration Service denied the visas for all of them, as well as the 14 accompanying adults. According to the GAA, 40 dancers and musicians from the Lajee Center in Bethlehem were also denied visas.

Claire Liddy, international spokesperson for GAA Palestine, told RTร‰ Radio One on Tuesday that an appeal had been lodged.

“The appeals process offered no real opportunity for the trip to proceed, and this is very unfair and untransparent, and deeply frustrating. Other agencies have successfully brought children from various countries to Ireland on similar tours.

“Yet, because our players are Palestinian, our [Irish] government is blocking their travel, and this is very, very concerning.”


Gaza terrorists launch two rockets at Israel
The Israel Defense Forces said on Monday night that it had “most likely” intercepted two rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists from the central Gaza Strip.

The attack triggered air-raid sirens in Israeli communities along the border, though no injuries or damage were reported.

Last week, a mortar shell fired from southern Gaza hit a building in Kibbutz Nirim after the Israeli army failed to intercept it due to “human error.”

According to Ynet, the mortar strike caused minor damage to the kibbutz’s “youth neighborhood,” which is currently undergoing reconstruction after 24 homes were completely destroyed during Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, in which five residents were murdered.

On July 5, air-raid sirens sounded in the border community of Kissufim as the Israeli Air Force downed two projectiles fired from Gaza into the Jewish state, the IDF said.
IDF dismantles 2-mile-plus terror tunnel in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza
Israel Defense Forces troops have uncovered and dismantled a significant terror tunnel network stretching more than 2 miles long (3.5 kilometers) in the Khan Yunis region of southern Gaza, according to a military statement released on Tuesday.

The operation, carried out by soldiers from the Kfir Brigade under the command of the IDF’s 36th Division, involved close cooperation with Yahalom, the elite combat engineering unit.

The forces located the tunnel system and worked to dismantle it as part of ongoing efforts to eliminate threats in the area.

The tunnel network, described as a “major route,” reportedly consisted of multiple branches and was used by terrorists as a hideout. Inside, engineers and troops uncovered forms of terrorist infrastructure, including concealed storage areas for explosives and weapons.

During the mission, soldiers also uncovered and deactivated explosive devices that were believed to be intended for attacks on Israeli forces operating in the area. Additional arms caches were discovered during sweeps of the tunnel complex and surrounding locations.


Is U.S. Aid to the Palestinian Authority Fueling Terror?
On July 10, 2025, Shalev Zvuluny, 22, was murdered outside a Gush Etzion shopping center by Mahmoud Abed and Malek Salem, both members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) police. The U.S. continues to provide the PA with tens of millions of dollars a year, more than six years after the Taylor Force Act conditioned most U.S. aid to the PA.

The State Department has set aside $46.5 million for civilian-security projects in the PA in fiscal 2025, up from last year's $40 million. The PA received nearly $1 billion from this program between 2007 and 2023. Most of this money covered routine operations and maintenance for Palestinian Authority security forces, with smaller amounts covering advisory services, light-armored vehicles, communications rentals, and equipment upgrades.

The Taylor Force Act (2018) blocks only Economic Support Fund (ESF) assistance to the PA. Under the Act, ESF remains frozen until the PA abolishes its "Pay-for-Slay" policy, which provides salaries and stipends to terrorists and their families as a reward for killing Israelis and otherwise participating in terror, stops incitement to terror, and actively fights terror. Civilian-security aid, allocated under a different budgetary provision, was never affected.

While U.S. officials continue to characterize the PA security forces as a "moderate, professional" partner, its personnel have repeatedly participated in or facilitated terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. According to senior PLO official Jibril Rajoub, PA security personnel account for 12% of all Palestinian terrorists held by Israel. Some 78 PA security personnel were recorded either executing, attempting, or directly enabling terrorist attacks between 2020 and 2024.

The U.S. goal for this funding was to strengthen the PA security forces in the aftermath of the Hamas victory in the 2006 PA elections, and improve their effectiveness in fighting terror. In practice, however, the funding was used by the PA to train terrorists who are and were members of its security forces.

At the very least, the U.S. administration should reevaluate its continued funding to the PA to ensure that it is not facilitating terror. Such funding should be conditioned on the PA desisting from terror incitement, terror promotion, and terror rewarding.
PMW: Report: Terrorists in Uniform: A Study of Palestinian Authority Security Forces’ Terror Involvement
Last Thursday, two terrorists attacked and murdered a 22-year-old Israeli named Shalev Zevuloni in the parking lot of a shopping center. The terrorists, who were shot and killed immediately, were Palestinian Authority Police officers.

Not only did the PA not condemn the murder committed by members of its Western-funded PA Security Forces (PASF), but the PA immediately gave the terrorist police officers the ultimate praise, coining them "Shahids" - Martyrs, who died for Allah. The official PA daily wrote:
"Soldiers and Israeli settlers continued to escalate their crimes… Two young men were shot by the Israeli occupation army and died as Shahids (Martyrs)."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 11, 2025]

PMW SPECIAL REPORT:
Today, PMW is releasing our new report on the PA Security Forces' active involvement in terror. The report exposes that not only is this recent murder by a PASF member not an exception, but for years, the PASF has been active in terror and murder, backed by the support and praise of the leadership. The report documents:

The PASF spokesman praising the PASF forces specifically because they are fighting Israel, filling the Israeli prisons, and achieving Martyrdom. [pg 1]
A PASF terrorist was released after 18 years in prison and was immediately welcomed back to his unit as a hero. [pg 2]
The head of PASF, Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj, gave special cash grants to the families of PASF officers in prison for terrorism [pg 3]
A terrorist given a PASF military funeral adorned with a headband of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades [pg 4]
A PASF spokesman carried on the shoulders of terrorists as he cheered the name of the terror org. [pg 8]
Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah explained that a terror attack in which an Israeli was killed was "high-quality" specifically because it was "carried out by… one of the Palestinian Security Forces officers." [pg 9]
Israel killed a PASF officer who was "one of the central terror leaders in Judea and Samaria." [pg 10]
Fatah praised the PASF terrorists: "By day security Forces, and by night self-sacrificing fighters." [pg 14]
And many additional items documenting PASF terrorism.

From the conclusion:
"The Palestinian Authority's Security Forces are deeply and fundamentally involved in terror. Their terror involvement is not condemned by the PA or Fatah, rather it is glorified as an essential and heroic part of their role in the PASF.

With Fatah and the PA Security Forces so deeply involved in terror, the suggestion to empower them to rule Gaza after Israel has destroyed Hamas is both dangerous and inconceivable. The military force that will rule Gaza after the war cannot be fundamentally involved in terror, or the entire operation to destroy the terror infrastructure will have been in vain.

The Palestinian Authority and its Security Forces are essential parts of the terror problem. It is a mistake to believe they can be part of the solution." The following is the full report:


Wall Street Journal editorial on PMWs report
The U.S. press is all over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but there are certain stories for which it has strangely little interest. On Thursday it was the terrorist murder of an Israeli civilian security guard, Shalev Zvuluny, at a supermarket in a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem. The two killers, who stabbed and shot Zvuluny after arriving in a stolen car, were Palestinian Authority police officers.

Ramallah pledged to investigate, which is good for a laugh. The Palestinian Authority (PA) glorifies terrorism by its security forces, as is documented in a new study by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israel-based research institute. The PA also subsidizes terrorists, paying them or their families monthly salaries for life. This costs more than $300 million a year, about 8% of the PA budget.

The 2018 Taylor Force Act stops direct U.S. economic aid to the PA. But support for the PA Security Forces (PASF) is another matter, the State Department tells us: "The United States has continued to provide limited assistance to the PASF for the purpose of maintaining stability in the West Bank, apprehending terrorists and militants and supporting related criminal prosecutions, and keeping Israel secure."

On May 1, the Palestinian Media Watch study says, the PA Security Forces honored one of its own, Naji Arrar, when he was released by Israel after serving 18 years for shooting attacks during the Second Intifada. Dressed in a PASF uniform, he was welcomed back to his unit as a hero. The PA's Governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghannam, posed with him for a photo.


Huckabee: Probe ‘terrorist’ killing of Palestinian American in West Bank
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called on Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing of Saif Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man, whose family alleges was beaten to death on Friday by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 years old,” Huckabeee wrote in a Tuesday X/Twitter post.

Huckabee’s statement comes after Mussallet’s family called on the US State Department to investigate the incident.

“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” the family of Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, said in a statement. “We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes.”

According to his family and the Palestinian Health Ministry, Musallet had come from his home in Florida to the town of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya to visit relatives and was severely beaten while protecting his family’s land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Another man, Hussein al-Shalabi, 23, was fatally shot in the chest.


Whither Syria? Look Away from the News and at the Textbooks
In the past few days, there have been clashes between Druze and Bedouin in the Suwayda province of southern Syria, which lies about 40 miles east of the Israeli Golan. The Syrian government appears to have intervened on behalf of the Bedouin, and the IDF responded by destroying some tanks before they could reach the fighting, in an effort to protect the Druze.

Rather than try to make sense of the circumstances of the fighting, or analyze what these events say about Syria’s new rulers and their potential relations with Israel, I’ll instead look at the big picture. Elliott Abrams points out that much can be learned about the new regime from a detailed report produced by the organization IMPACT-se on the textbooks being used in Syrian schools. The report notes an effort to bring the textbooks more closely in line with the ruling party’s fundamentalist version of Islam: taking out references to women, Chinese philosophy, and the like, and introducing religious principles. But Abrams notes an important exception, quoting the report:
Dalal al-Mughrabi, the Palestinian who led the squad that carried out the 1978 Coastal Road attack on a civilian bus, killing 38 Israelis, including thirteen children, is celebrated as a martyr and hero in a grade-5 Arabic-language textbook. In an oral-expression exercise, students are asked to read a poem about “the martyr Dalal al-Mughrabi” and discuss her with classmates.

Abrams concludes:
Once the next edition of textbooks is published, it will be crucial to monitor how the reforms take shape in the curriculum and how the new regime addresses problematic content identified in IMPACT-se’s research on the previous curriculum, which is set to remain unchanged. This includes the glorification of terrorists such as Dalal al-Mughrabi, the encouragement of martyrdom and jihad, anti-Semitism and the negative portrayal of Judaism and Zionism, and territorial perceptions of Syrian nationalism and identity, particularly as reflected in maps of Syria. Ultimately, these changes will serve as a key indicator of the regime’s broader ideological direction.
Seth Frantzman: Will Israel’s airstrikes help the Druze in Syria?
The question for Damascus is whether the Israeli airstrikes will weaken the right units of the government. Will the airstrikes embolden the extremists, who arrive in civilian-style vehicles that Israel would likely be less keen on using airstrikes against?

Basically, it’s easier for an air force to strike tanks and APCs than random trucks with guys in them. Israel can’t really conduct an air war in Syria against the Syrian government.

Eventually, this would likely cause the Trump administration to try to cool things down. This is because the White House wants to see a stable Syria.

US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack has sought to bring Syria in from the cold and help it integrate into the region. As such, clashes in Sweida are always a setback.

The Druze leader Hijri has accused the government of breaking promises.

The Syrian government wants a ceasefire. “To all units operating inside the city of Suwayda, we announce a complete ceasefire after the agreement with the city’s dignitaries and notables, with response only to sources of fire and dealing with any targeting by outlaw groups,” Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said.

Nevertheless, the death toll has reportedly risen to 100. The Druze fear they may face attacks, ethnic cleansing, or worse.

Some Druze want to see international intervention. Others seem to hope the government may help reduce tensions.“Earlier, the Druze leadership had issued a statement calling on fighters in Sweida to cooperate with incoming regime forces and stop clashes to protect civilians and state institutions,” Rudaw media, based in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, reported.

“The statement welcomed the deployment of forces from Syria’s interior and defense ministries and urged a ceasefire until a civilian safety agreement is reached.”

Israel was more outspoken on Tuesday as well. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement, and the IDF said it had carried out airstrikes against what it termed the Syrian “regime.”

The regime was the term once used for the Assad regime. Since last December, when the Assad regime fell, Israel has been more aggressive in Syria. The airstrikes against forces linked to the new government are an example.

During Israel’s campaign between the wars in Syria, when it struck Iranian assets in Syria, the IDF rarely targeted Syrian regime forces. This is a major contrast.

Najat Rochdi, the UN’s deputy special envoy for Syria, expressed “deep concern over reports of violence and abductions” in the Druze region. She called on Damascus to protect civilians and restore calm, Rudaw reported.

The death toll had reached almost 100 people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, news of a ceasefire in Suwadya was greeted positively in Lebanon by Jumblatt. He praised “reaching a lasting solution within the framework of the state.”

Jumblatt called for incitement to end. He also said “outlaw groups in Sweida must hand over weapons to the state.” Israel wants to fuel the fighting in Syria, he added, according to Syria’s official Syrian Arab News Agency.
IDF striking Syrian forces after regime move on Druze-majority city
The Israel Defense Forces were instructed on Tuesday to “immediately” protect the Druze minority in Syria by striking Syrian regime forces deployed to the Sweida area of the country’s south, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz told the IDF to “immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Sweida area of Syria’s Jabal al-Druze [Druze Mountain] region for regime activity against the Druze,” according to the statement.

Damascus had violated “the demilitarization policy that was decided upon, which prohibits the entry of [regime] forces and arms into southern Syria that could endanger Israel,” it continued.

“Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep fraternal alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, as well as their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria,” according to the PMO.

The IDF is acting to stop Damascus from harming the Druze and to “ensure the demilitarization of the area near our border,” it stressed.

The IDF stated that it had struck “armored vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers, as well as access routes, to disrupt their arrival in the area.”

The Israeli army “continues to monitor developments and is prepared for defense and various scenarios,” according to the IDF statement.


Israeli Druze block roads, rally for Syrian community as regime advances on Sweida
Fiery protests broke out Tuesday on several major roads in northern Israel, as members of Israel’s Druze community rallied in support of their coreligionists in Syria after regime forces entered the Druze-majority city of Sweida, sparking fears of inter-ethnic violence.

Protesters demanded that the international community intervene to protect Syria’s Druze minority from Islamist fighters loyal to the regime, amid rampant concern they could be subjected to deadly violence.

The demonstrations came as Israeli planes bombed Syrian government forces rolling into Sweida following days of deadly clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin clans thought to be aligned with the country’s Sunni leadership. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attacks were meant to ensure the demilitarization of southern Syria as well as to protect the Druze, who are viewed as potential allies.

In Israel, police said that Route 6 near Elyakim Junction was closed to traffic in both directions as a result of the demonstrations.

Other small protests were reported near Shfaram and Rameh in the upper Galilee.

Videos posted to social media showed demonstrators burning tires and waving Druze flags.

Police said in a statement that it would allow the protests so long as they remained lawful.

“We will not allow events that harm public safety or could bring disruptions of public order,” it said.

The drivers were asked to take alternative routes.


Bad News for Terrorists: Lebanon Bans Banks From Dealing With Hezbollah 'Charitable Organization'
Lebanon's central bank has barred financial institutions from any direct or indirect dealings with Al-Qard Al-Hassan, the financial arm of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, according to reports Tuesday.

The central bank on Monday released a document that prohibits "all licensed financial institutions in Lebanon from dealing directly or indirectly with unlicensed entities" and lists "Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hassan as an example," Reuters reported.

"Failure to comply with the provisions of this decision exposes perpetrators to legal prosecution and measures that may reach the extent of suspension or withdrawal of the license and freezing of accounts and assets," according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Cradle.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which claims to be a charitable organization, has long drawn scrutiny for its close ties to Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group since 1997. The U.S. Treasury Department first sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan in 2007, saying Hezbollah uses the institution as a cover to manage "financial activities and gain access to the international financial system."

The United States imposed its latest sanctions on Al-Qard Al-Hassan earlier this month, targeting the institution's senior officials for facilitating Hezbollah's finances, including through shadow accounts to evade existing sanctions.

Last October, Israel's military targeted and destroyed several buildings linked to Al-Qard Al-Hassan after Hezbollah launched missiles into Israel in solidarity with Hamas terrorists.
IAF strikes Hezbollah arms depots, training camps in Lebanon
The Israeli Air Force carried out a broad wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in the Beqaa region of Southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

As part of the operation, IAF aircraft struck camps where Hezbollah terrorists were gathering, as well as weapons depots, according to the IDF.

The Radwan Force is the Hezbollah unit tasked with infiltrating Israeli territory, seizing areas along the northern border and abducting hostages as part of the terror group’s “Conquer the Galilee” plan.

The targeted camps “are used by the Hezbollah terror group to train and prepare operatives for attacks against IDF forces and the State of Israel,” the army said. “As part of this training, the terrorists conduct shooting drills and exercises with various types of weapons.”

The camps and arms depots represent “a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and posed a future threat to the State of Israel,” the military added.

“The IDF will continue to operate with force to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel and will prevent the rehabilitation of the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” according to the IDF.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sent “a clear message to the Hezbollah terror group, which is plotting to rebuild its capabilities to raid Israel through the Radwan Force—and also to the Lebanese government, which is responsible for upholding the agreement.

“Every terrorist will be targeted, and every threat to the residents of the State of Israel will be thwarted,” he continued. “We will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding [Hezbollah].”


US, European allies agree on August deadline for Iran nuclear deal
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the UK agreed in a phone call on Monday to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported, citing three sources.

If no deal is reached by that deadline, the three European powers plan to trigger the "snapback" mechanism that automatically reimposes all UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal, according to the Axios report.

The four nations are reportedly looking to potentially implement the snapback measures before Russia, a critical Iranian ally, assumes the UNSC presidency.

Europe to push Iran on steps to make a deal
While the West seems to view the snapback measures as a way to bring Tehran to the negotiating table, Iran argues that they aren't legally valid and has threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in response.

Axios reported that the European allies now plan to convey to Iranian officials that they can avoid the sanctions if they take steps to demonstrate their commitment to achieving a deal of sorts. The report gave examples of steps Tehran could take, such as resuming operations with the International Atomic Energy Agency or removing 400 kg of enriched uranium from nuclear sites.

This comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump to not block the snapback measures in their recent meeting in Washington, Axios reported.


Labour’s broken promise on Iran’s IRGC fuels antisemitism crisis
A political party made a promise in the run-up to a general election which it appears to have entirely failed to fulfil. Obviously, I am shocked.

Forgive the sarcasm, but I feel justified in expressing cynicism because honouring this promise would not have cost the Labour Government a penny – at least not directly from the exchequer. Meanwhile, the profound, real-life consequences for the Jewish community of its failure to honour that promise can be clearly seen in the Board of Deputies’ Commission on Antisemitism.

Jews in the UK, the review declared, are “suffering increasing prejudice” in their “professions, cultural life and public services”. Antisemitism is “pervasive” in the NHS, at universities and in the arts. The report, co-authored by the government’s antisemitism adviser, Lord Mann, and the former defence secretary, Dame Penny Mordaunt, also highlighted Jewish fears over the policing of hate crimes against Jews at pro-Palestine protests and elsewhere.

Writing in The Telegraph, they said they had been “stunned into silence” by the evidence and that as they “dug deeper”, what “really scared” them was the “increasing normalisation” of “the extreme, personalised and sometimes life-changing impact” of hate directed at Jewish individuals.

The “promise” I am referring to was made on 25 June, 2024, in an interview published in The Telegraph. The story by their political editor, Ben Riley-Smith, ran just 9 days ahead of the general election under the headline “Labour ‘will change the law’ to officially declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group.”

Iran’s “Revolutionary Guard” – formally known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – is one of the most powerful paramilitary organisations in the Middle East. It controls the covert, foreign operations of the Iranian government, supports Iran’s proxies (including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen), and hunts down dissidents inside Iran and overseas. It has been linked to kidnap and assassination plots in the UK.
Report claims to expose Iran-backed bots targeting UK that went dark during war
When Israeli strikes hit Iran on June 13, it wasn’t only nuclear sites and senior Iranian commanders that were taken out: A covert army of bots meddling in British politics went dark, too.

That’s according to Cyabra, a Tel Aviv-based disinformation detection company that uncovered the operation.

For 16 days, the network — which began operating in May — vanished, according to a Cyabra report published last week. No posts, no replies, no trace of the 1,300 fake profiles that had posed as British users and fueled online debate around Scottish independence, Brexit, and institutional collapse.

By that point, the accounts had already reached more than 200 million people through over 3,000 posts, the company said.

When the network returned after Iranian communication was restored, its tone had changed. The same AI-generated personas that had previously blended into UK political discourse were now sharing pro-Iranian content and ridiculing Western leaders, according to the report.

Cyabra analysts said the 16-day gap offered a rare before-and-after snapshot of direct, time-linked evidence of state-sponsored interference online. Cyabra identified content disseminated by suspected coordinated fake profiles promoting Scottish separatism and framing the United Kingdom as a force of oppression. (Images via Cyabra, via JTA)

“The sudden disruption to Iran’s influence operations capabilities due to their war with Israel exposed the entire operation,” said Dan Brahmy, Cyabra’s CEO. “It was like watching state-backed disinformation self-destruct in real time. When Iran paused, so did the bots, revealing the strategy, the propaganda, and the 224 million views their fake campaign had already amassed.”

According to the report, roughly 26 percent of the 5,083 accounts engaged in Scottish independence conversations on X were fake — “substantially higher than platform norms.”

Cyabra’s investigation found that many of the accounts recycled existing content, used identical phrasing, and engaged in coordinated bursts of activity. Hashtags like #FreeScotland, #BrexitBetrayal, and #ScottishIndependence were repeatedly deployed to insert state-aligned messaging into organic conversations.
Why Iran’s Opposition Keeps Failing
Forty-five years later, the Iranian opposition abroad has built nothing comparable. Instead, it has wasted fortunes on numerous grand conferences in European cities and expensive summits in hotel ballrooms, endlessly repeating the same slogans to the same familiar faces—often ending in feuds and deeper fragmentation. While the regime perfected its multi-layered security state, the opposition perfected its ability to bicker on social media and give satellite television interviews. Too many self-proclaimed leaders have become regulars on diaspora talk shows or on endless interviews, recycling old talking points instead of organizing new structures or networks inside Iran. They are commentators more than they are political activists.

Worse, this circus has handed the regime an easy propaganda win: portraying any alternative to the regime as a collection of disconnected, opportunistic narcissists, Don Quixote-type characters who thrive on grants and funds but have no real strategy for the people whose freedom they claim to champion.

None of this excuses the regime’s brutality—its willingness to torture, shoot, and hang its own citizens, or its tight grip on internet access and communication. But people fighting for freedom need more than courage alone. They need a plan. They need a structure, a road map, and an alternative worth risking everything for.

Today, millions of Iranians seethe in silence. They are angry, exhausted, and desperate for change. But they look over their shoulders and see no trusted organization, no plan for what happens the day after, no clear “next step” if they defy the regime and storm a police station. That uncertainty, as much as the regime’s guns, is why the streets fell quiet even after Israel shattered parts of the regime’s military and security machine.

Until Iran’s fractured opposition learns to match the regime’s efficiency with its own discipline, and creates a real plan for the day after, nothing will change. For the Iranian people to bring down the regime, Iran needs a full-time leader willing to abandon a comfortable life, take real risks, and build something real inside the country.


Trumpet Daily: Interview with Melanie Phillips - July 9, 2025
I was very pleased to take part in a podcast for The Trumpet Daily with Stephen Flurry, executive editor of the Philadelphia Trumpet news magazine and president of Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma which sponsors the amazing Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem.

Among other issues, we discussed why the war with Iran is far from over; the west’s disturbing indulgence of Islamist Qatar; why the Israelis were caught napping on October 7 2023; Britain’s godless and confused society; the collapse of leadership in the west; relations between US President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu; and the terrible dilemma posed by the continued incarceration of the hostages in Gaza.


This doesn’t make any sense: Douglas Murray Manhattan Institute senior fellow Douglas Murray discusses the New York City mayoral race on 'Life, Liberty & Levin.'



Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Palestinians Terrorists Want a Ceasefire in Gaza
Hamas has been demanding "clear guarantees" that any US-brokered ceasefire deal would ultimately lead to the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, meaning that the Israelis should stop defending themselves against attacks.

Many Arabs seem to like starting wars -- such as the war of 1948, when five Arab armies invaded Israel on the day of its independence, and which they now call the nakba (catastrophe) -- but then getting angry when they lose them.

"Once again, Hamas's spokesman – Izzat al-Risheq ... [insists] 'they will never surrender.' He speaks from comfort abroad, while Gazans starve in ruins.... This kind of language is only aimed to block any ceasefire that doesn't assure Hamas staying in power. Every time negotiations move forward, Hamas escalates the rhetoric and... prolongs this war." — Hamza Howidy, Gaza-born Palestinian human rights advocate, X, July 9, 2025.

The terror groups' leaders.... are convinced that despite the death and destruction they brought on their people, they can continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war. As long as Hamas and PIJ insist on maintaining their hold on power, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no future.

The Trump administration needs to insist that all terror groups in Gaza be dismantled and driven out of power as part of any ceasefire deal with Israel. It is time that the Americans understood that the Palestinian jihadis pose a threat not only to Israel, but also to the US and its Arab allies in the Middle East, especially by inciting violence against them and carrying out -- or encouraging -- terrorist attacks against Americans and moderate Arab regimes.
Something Massive Is Unraveling Inside Gaza, And It's Not What You Think...
Why would Hamas ever agree to a ceasefire?

Meira K flips the narrative and uncovers the psychological warfare, internal chaos and political manipulation driving this war’s timeline. From hostage diplomacy to internal Israeli politics, Meira unpacks the brutal chess match being played on every front and why Israel hasn’t yet delivered a total victory in Gaza.

This episode covers:
Why Hamas thrives on prolonging war and chaos
The real reason hostage negotiations keep collapsing
How Hamas uses Israeli democracy and internal protests to its advantage
Netanyahu’s double battle: defeating terror and holding a fragile coalition together
How Hamas exploits aid, fear, and famine to maintain its grip on Gazans
Why humanitarian zones and internal uprisings in Gaza are Hamas’s nightmare


Emily Schrader Points Out Something TERRIFYING about Iran's Web of Influence
This episode breaks down an explosive UK intelligence report detailing how the Islamic Republic of Iran is conducting foreign interference, disinformation and terror operations across the West. Joining Emily is Gazelle Sharmahd, Iranian-American freedom fighter and daughter of executed German-American hostage Jamshid Sharmahd, to share her family’s harrowing story and expose the global reach of Tehran’s terror machine.

Emily confronts the lies fueling antisemitism and “Free Palestine” extremism, dismantling claims of genocide, ethnic cleansing and famine in Gaza. Emily takes aim at Western media complicity, UNRWA’s collusion with Hamas and Iran’s weaponization of social media to erode truth and incite violence.

Key topics covered:
Iran’s IRGC and its foreign assassination, disinformation and spying campaigns
The truth about hostage diplomacy from Iran to Hamas
The media’s role in spreading Hamas propaganda and enabling antisemitism
How the regime manipulates Western universities, journalists and politicians
Why Germany and the West failed to act on political hostage cases

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Iran's Foreign Interference
07:59 The Abuse of Language and Media Misrepresentation
17:43 Hostage Diplomacy and Its Implications
29:54 The Role of Disinformation in Modern Warfare


Misgav Mideast Horizons Podcast: Is Israel-Syria Peace on the Horizon?
In this inspiring and timely episode, Lahav and Asher interview Hayvi Bouzo, a Syrian-American journalist, bridge-builder and thought leader. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of Yalla Productions, Hayvi promotes dialogue and peace across the Middle East, including through bringing groundbreaking interviews with the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas to her Arabic-speaking audience.

The interview goes in-depth into Hayvi’s experiences living under the Assad regime, the actions and policies of the Al-Sharaa government in Damascus, and the prospects for an Israel-Syria agreement. Hayvi also shares the paradigm-shifting trends taking place among youth in the MENA region, which are creating new possibilities for Abraham Accords expansion and peace.

In the first part of the podcast, Lahav and Asher analyze the controversies stemming from the recent Turning Point USA summit in Tampa featuring Tucker Carlson, provide insights into the complex dilemmas surrounding a potential Gaza ceasefire, and explore developments in Syria and their implications for Israel’s national security.
'Squad' members 'decide to lie and twist facts' about Israel's history, says prominent Arab activist
Members of the "Squad" are undermining coexistence between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, Israeli-Arab activist Yoseph Haddad told Fox News Digital.

"Representatives of the Squad are trying to harm the coexistence and partnership that exist in the region between Arabs and Jews," Haddad said. "I think it was [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez herself who said she had no idea about the geopolitics of this region—she’s right. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib know exactly what’s going on here, but they decide to lie and twist the facts."

Haddad, the CEO of Together Vouch for Each Other — an organization founded in 2018 by young Israeli Arabs to bridge cultural and religious divides — has emerged as a prominent voice in Israel’s public diplomacy efforts following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.

Since the attack, Jewish communities across the United States and Europe have faced a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, with pro-Hamas demonstrations appearing on college campuses as early as October 8.

"The first group is what I call the useful idiots — people who have no idea what’s going on but joined because it felt like the cool thing to do," Haddad said. "Then there are the paid protesters. You see the same faces at different rallies holding different signs — sometimes it’s about LGBTQ issues, sometimes it’s pro-Palestinian, sometimes it’s about internal American problems."

"It’s always the same person, just a different outfit and a different sign," he continued. "And the third group — the most dangerous—are the extremists who’ve come from the Middle East. Those are the ones we should be most concerned about."

Haddad traced the rise of extremist voices in the West to waves of immigration and population displacement from conflict zones in the Middle East. While the majority of Muslim immigrants fled persecution in search of a better life, he said, a vocal minority brought with them the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, effectively holding their communities hostage.


Ben Shapiro: Tucker Carlson's Accusations Demand Evidence — And He Has None
Ben Shapiro dissects Tucker Carlson’s CPAC appearance, calling out his vague accusations about a high-level government cover-up tied to Jeffrey Epstein and challenging him to directly name Trump, the DOJ, and others if he truly believes they're involved.




Why some think the new ‘Superman’ movie is about the war in Gaza
Gunn has flatly denied that the film is a commentary on Israel or the Palestinians. “When I wrote this, the Middle Eastern conflict wasn’t happening. So I tried to do little things to move it away from that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Middle East,” Gunn told Comicbook.com.

Gunn said the movie depicts an “invasion by a much more powerful country run by a despot into a country that’s problematic in terms of its political history, but has totally no defense against the other country. It really is fictional.”

Of course, no audience member needs a director’s, or anyone else’s, permission to interpret a film as they choose. And while the film is hardly a political screed, it has enough politics to keep such debates going. The villain, Lex Luthor, is an Elon Musk-style billionaire and military contractor who hopes to create a sort of technological paradise on the rubble of Jahranpur. Superman, who famously arrived on Earth as a child from the planet Krypton, speaks up for immigrants of all types, including a falafel vendor named Malik Ali who helps Superman during his duel with a pro-Boravian supervillain, which has also been seized upon as evidence that the film is pro-Palestinian.

Boravia itself is clearly depicted as a Slavic country, with its wild-haired leader and his minions speaking in Russian. That might invite comparisons to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, except for reports suggesting that the producers sought to cast “Middle Easterners” and Southeast Asians as the Jahranpurians. The clash between the two countries — the invaders armed to the teeth, the defenders wielding pitchforks and shovels — is unmistakably a war between a Caucasian West and a brown-skinned East. That suggests to some that the Israeli-Palestinian comparison was intentional, although you could also see a director thinking a clash between white and brown worlds might have more emotional resonance and on-screen coherence than a battle between similar-looking Slavs, and would certainly be more relevant during the George Floyd era in which the script was apparently written.




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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

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