Tuesday, August 12, 2025

08/12 Links Pt1: How Israel Can Defend Itself in the Future; Why Is Reuters Carrying Water for Hamas?; IDF kills five terrorists posing as part of World Central Kitchen

From Ian:

Jonathan Schanzer: How Israel Can Defend Itself in the Future
Israeli grayzone operations are undeniably ramping up as the multi-front war quiets down. But the risk-reward calculus for Israel is now likely to vary from one theater to the next across the Middle East. Striking assets in Lebanon and Syria poses little risk right now. Neither Hezbollah nor the regime of Ahmad al-Shara appears particularly eager to fight.

The Iranian regime, however, may be up for another tussle. Should the IDF conduct operations that cross Iran’s red line—a line that is currently ill-defined—there is real risk of escalation. Interestingly, the main critique of the campaign prior to October 7 was that it was too provocative and risked igniting a major war for minimal gains. That may seem ironic in hindsight, but the risk of provoking another major conflict now is not negligible.

Air strikes on military facilities in response to the Iranian regime renewing its ballistic missile production capabilities could trigger a painful response. The regime maintains the ability to launch ballistic missiles at Israel and to strike with considerable accuracy. The Israelis need to think carefully about how and where they conduct future operations in Iran. Indeed, few Israelis relish the notion of returning to their bomb shelters for extended stays.

A different sort of Israeli campaign is likely necessary, perhaps in tandem with calibrated efforts to prevent the regime from returning to its previous strength. This additional campaign might be one in which Israel supports the Iranian opposition movement and otherwise weakens the regime from within. Psychological, political, diplomatic, economic, and other measures designed to erode the power of the mullahs would be deployed with increasing intensity. The Israelis understand that the regime must not be allowed respite after the drubbing it absorbed in June. More important, such a strategy is crucial because it offers a more enduring and non-kinetic solution to the Islamic Republic’s annihilationist ambitions. The Campaign Between Wars could never offer that.

What the return of the campaign does offer is time, and time is what Israel needs. The pager and walkie-talkie operation that cut down Hezbollah’s commanders took years to execute. The gathering of the intelligence required to take out Hassan Nasrallah in his Beirut bunker was painstaking. The forward operation that launched Israel’s “Rising Lion” campaign in Iran, too, required years of preparation.

Israel has fewer tricks up its sleeve than it had a year ago. Most of its recent feats cannot be repeated. So Israel’s war planners and spies are back to the drawing board. They will need time to prepare for the next round against Iran, not to mention other enemies.

Concurrently, Israel has a few other related long-term projects that will also require time. The reconstruction of Israel’s northern communities destroyed by Hezbollah is one. The rebuilding of the communities in the Gaza envelope is another. The revitalization of the Israeli economy, which has taken a brutal hit, is crucial. The expansion of the country’s defense industrial base is another priority identified by the Israelis, after the Biden administration withheld ordnance in 2024 and offered a glimpse into a potential future in which America does not have Israel’s back. Forestalling major conflict for several years to facilitate these initiatives will be vital for the country’s long-term health. Of course, these initiatives cannot begin until the current war ends.

As my colleague Clifford May often says, in the Middle East, there are no permanent victories, only permanent battles. The rise, fall, and rise of the Campaign Between the Wars reflect this reality. It won’t solve all of Israel’s problems. But keeping Israel’s enemies weak and buying time would constitute a major achievement after the grueling war Israel has endured.
UN-Backed Famine Watchdog Quietly Changed Standards, Easing Way To Declare Famine in Gaza
The U.N.-affiliated watchdog group that recently declared a "worst-case scenario of famine" in Gaza quietly changed one of its key reporting metrics while doing so, making it easier to formally declare that there is a famine in the Hamas-controlled territory.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—a network of Western governments, the United Nations, and nonprofit groups—determined in a July 29 report "the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," claiming that "mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths." Media outlets like the New York Times, NPR, CNN, and ABC News relied on the IPC report to claim that Israeli policies have led to mass starvation, with the Times stating that "months of severe aid restrictions imposed by Israel on the territory" have caused a famine "across most of Gaza."

Unlike previous IPC reports on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the July report includes a metric—known as mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)—the agency has not historically used to determine whether a famine is taking place. The report also includes a lowered threshold for the proportion of children who must be considered malnourished for the IPC to declare a famine, down to 15 percent from 30 percent.

Aid workers traditionally conduct detailed weight and height measurements to determine whether a child is suffering from acute malnutrition. MUAC, by contrast, consists only of a child's arm circumference, a measurement that can be done more quickly and is considered less precise. In the past, the IPC has declared famine after finding that 30 percent of children in an area are suffering from acute malnutrition using their weight and height measurements. In the recent Gaza report, the IPC said it would declare famine if it found that 15 percent of children were suffering from acute malnutrition using their arm circumference measurement and if the agency found unspecified "evidence of rapidly worsening underlying drivers."

The "pretty big shift" in standards, one veteran aid industry insider told the Washington Free Beacon, suggests the IPC is "lowering the bar, or trying to make it easier for the famine determination to be made."
Why Is Reuters Carrying Water for Hamas?
When it comes to the war in Gaza, how is it that the legacy media always defers to the narrative that benefits Hamas? A recent Reuters story illuminates the problem.

Last month, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) produced an internal analysis tracking reports of waste, fraud, and abuse of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

According to that report, between October 2023 and May 2025, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance received 156 notifications of “fraud, waste, and abuse notifications” from its NGO partners in Gaza, amounting to a loss of more than $4.6 million. The key finding was that “for all 156 incidents, partners did not provide any information in their incident reports alleging SG [sanctioned group] or FTO [foreign terrorist organization] involvement,” according to a slideshow of the findings obtained by The Free Press.

But when the analysis was leaked to legacy news organizations, they reported something completely different.

In late July, first Reuters and then CNN reported that the analysis “found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.” ABC later reported that USAID “failed to find any evidence” that Hamas “engaged in widespread diversion of assistance.” Those news organizations didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

There is a world of difference between “notifications” of aid misuse and actual misuse.

Two sources familiar with USAID and its analysis confirmed that the partners’ failure to report terrorist involvement does not mean there is “no evidence” of theft by Hamas. “The report appears to be wholly reliant on self-reporting by UN agencies and NGOs who are extremely reticent to report Hamas interference out of fear of violent retribution by Hamas,” a senior U.S. official familiar with the USAID report told The Free Press.

When the Reuters story was published, “nobody at the highest levels of the USAID administration had seen the report,” said a senior official at the State Department, which oversees USAID. “It was deliberately and intentionally manufactured. . . and distributed to plant a deliberate false narrative.”

Worse yet, Hamas used Reuters’ framing to fuel accusations of starvation and genocide against the U.S. and Israel. Allegations of theft “were recently refuted by an internal investigation by the United States Agency for International Development, which confirmed the absence of any reports or data indicating the theft of aid by Hamas,” said Izzat al-Rishq, a founding member of Hamas’s politburo, on August 1. “We strongly condemn U.S. President Trump’s reiteration of Israeli allegations and lies accusing Hamas of stealing and selling humanitarian aid in Gaza.”


Israel kills five armed terrorists posing as part of World Central Kitchen
An Israeli airstrike killed five terrorists, who were armed and posing as part of World Central Kitchen, in Gaza last week, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

The IDF published aerial footage of what it said were terrorists operating in and around a vehicle marked with with the WCK emblem in the Deir al-Balah area. The Israeli military said that the five were not affiliated with the aid organization and posed a threat to Israeli troops.

“The terrorists deliberately affixed the emblem and wore yellow vests in an attempt to conceal their activity and avoid being targeted, cynically exploiting the status and trust afforded to aid organizations,” the IDF said.

Representatives from the Gaza district coordination and liaison office at the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories said that World Central Kitchen, founded by celebrity Washington chef José Andrés, confirmed that the vehicle in question had no ties to the nonprofit.

“Hamas and other terrorist organizations exploit the humanitarian effort to advance terrorist objectives at the expense of the welfare of the population in Gaza,” the Israeli military said.

“The IDF, through COGAT, will continue to work in cooperation with international aid organizations to prevent their exploitation for terrorist purposes,” the IDF stated.

Andrés has accused Israel of targeting World Central Kitchen aid workers “systematically car by car” and said that the Jewish state’s war against Hamas is a “war against humanity itself.”

The IDF expressed “deep” condolences to Andrés in April 2024, after the Israeli military’s probe found that an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers.


IDF expert review: No signs of famine in Gaza
An expert review initiated by the Israel Defense Forces has concluded that there are “no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon among the population in Gaza,” the military announced on Tuesday morning.

While the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reported over 130 deaths due to malnutrition in July, the IDF study could only verify “a handful” of confirmed cases, according to the statement.

Most deaths attributed to malnutrition were due to severe pre-existing medical conditions, with some patients even having received treatment in Israel prior to the war sparked by Hamas’s terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

The army cited the case of Abdullah Hanu Muhammad Abu Zarqa, 4, who was claimed to have died of hunger, but suffered from a genetic disease causing deficiencies, osteoporosis and bone thinning.

Four months before Oct. 7, he received Israel’s permission to travel from Gaza to eastern Jerusalem for treatment, the military revealed Tuesday.

Another example cited was that of Karam Khaled Mustafa al-Jamal, 27, who “died from lifelong muscular dystrophy & partial paralysis, not hunger.”

“Hamas cynically exploits tragic images and misuses them for a false and timed propaganda campaign aimed at generating pressure and creating negative public opinion against Israel,” the IDF stated.

Through the Israeli Defense Ministry’s COGAT unit, the military will continue working to improve the humanitarian response in Gaza in cooperation with the international community, “while rejecting allegations of famine in Gaza,” the statement concluded.

Last month, COGAT revealed that an Arab boy who had become the poster child for the alleged famine in the Strip suffers from a genetic illness and had been evacuated to Italy for treatment the month prior.

A picture of Osama al-Rakab, 5, was “used to falsely depict Israel as responsible for his condition, claiming Israel is starving children,” including in Italian media and on Al Jazeera, the unit charged.

“Osama suffers from a serious genetic illness unrelated to the war. On June 12, we actively coordinated Osama’s exit from Gaza with his mother and brother through the Ramon airport,” it added.

“Check the facts before parroting blame,” the Defense Ministry unit stated, attaching a picture showing Osama in a hospital gown in Italy.

The IDF on July 27 announced a series of additional humanitarian measures aimed at refuting “the false claim of deliberate starvation” in Gaza, including “tactical pauses” in the war on Hamas.


Twenty years since Israel pulled out of Gaza – how Western folly fuelled the current bloodshed
Back to the pre-October 7 years: Over the previous two decades, Israel faced constant rows with the EU over its attempts to control “dual-use” goods – materials Hamas could turn into rockets, tunnels, or explosives. Europe pressed to ease restrictions; Israel eventually did. The results were plain on October 7. Hamas started the war armed with tens of thousands of rockets and a tunnel network larger than the London Underground.

In each of the previous five major conflicts Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad started since 2005, the choreography was identical: unsubstantiated accusations of Israeli war crimes, the jihadists’ real crimes ignored or sanitised, their use of human shields and civilian sites downplayed or denied.

The predictable effect of these policies contradicted the West’s stated goals of encouraging peace and a two-state solution: Europe did not reward Israeli territorial concessions, encourage Palestinian state-building, or reduce violence.

Instead, it prolonged the conflict and harmed Israel’s peace camp. It taught the Jewish state that ceding land was dangerous not only because terrorists would seize it, but because, apart from the United States, the West would not have its back. Instead, Europe would condemn Israel for defending itself against the very terrorists its peace efforts inadvertently empowered.

The Palestinians learned their own lessons: that Hamas could act with impunity. Freed from the constraints of an Israeli presence, they could amass deadlier arsenals – guaranteeing Israel’s responses would be necessarily harsher, and thus more harshly condemned.

Billions could be diverted to terror infrastructure without fear of reproach or real consequences, because the West and foreign aid agencies would feed the population regardless. The more violence Hamas unleashed, the more Israel’s global standing would suffer. Terror worked.

The West’s approach remains to this day a grotesque misalignment of incentives that worsens the conflict – entrenching extremism and punishing moderation.

Twenty years of this misguided posture helped make October 7 possible. Hamas knew that even live-streaming its sadistic massacres would not alter the basic equation: the world would quickly focus on Israel’s reaction, invent fresh blood libels, call for “restraint” and pressure Jerusalem alone. Israelis knew that post-atrocity sympathy would be fleeting.

And so, last month, when a ceasefire and hostage release seemed imminent, dozens of Western governments chose that fragile moment to condemn and pressure Israel while dangling recognition of Palestine – collapsing negotiations, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed: “The UK is like, well, if Israel doesn’t agree to a ceasefire by September, we’re going to recognise a Palestinian state. So if I’m Hamas, I say, you know what, let’s not allow there to be a ceasefire.”

If Western leaders truly did not foresee these entirely predictable consequences, they have no business making policy in the Middle East. If they did, the verdict is worse. Either way, 20 years on, the Gaza withdrawal anniversary stands as a monument to the cost of rewarding Palestinian terror and punishing Israeli compromise.
Netanyahu confronts the eighth front: The global war of lies
Netanyahu knows the stakes. As he spoke, he faced a storm at home: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatening to quit, hostage families calling for a nationwide strike, and critics accusing him—yet again—of political opportunism, corruption, even “fascism.”

Yet he pressed forward with a single message while blasting the international media’s malicious caricature of Israel as a cruel, warmongering Jewish state: Israel will dismantle Hamas and rescue its hostages.

He forcefully rejected the lies that Israel uses hunger as a weapon of war, seeks to destroy an entire people or wages battle out of some “perfidious” national instinct. On the contrary, he reminded the press that Israel has allowed in two million tons of food into Gaza—aid Hamas seized and the United Nations failed to distribute.

He stressed that Israel’s goal is not occupation but security—handing civil power in Gaza to trustworthy Arab partners, not to the corrupt Palestinian Authority or genocidal Hamas.

“Contrary to false claims, this is the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily,” he insisted. Seventy-five percent of Gaza is already under IDF control, with Hamas holding only Gaza City and the central refugee camps. Israel is pushing civilians to safe zones before final operations.

And he made one thing clear: The Palestinians have never wanted a state of their own that we offered since 1948—they only seek Israel’s destruction.”The Palestinians were offered a state many times, including in the partition resolution and they turned it down,” he said. “They were offered statehood by my predecessors, with lavish, lavish concessions. They turned it down.”

Netanyahu’s analogy was stark: You would not have left the Nazis in Berlin in 1945; neither will Israel leave Hamas in Gaza in 2025. His strategic vision extends beyond Gaza, toward the defeat of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian regime—with the backing of the United States.

Despite political fractures at home and the anguish of hostage families, Netanyahu is betting on a larger transformation—a postwar Middle East in which Israel survives not by begging for sympathy but by winning decisive victories. The foreign press may not want to hear it, but for Israel, victory is not optional.
Israel in talks with South Sudan about Gazan resettlement plans
Israel is in talks with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the East African country, six people familiar with the discussions confirmed to the Associated Press in a report on Tuesday night.

The deal between South Sudan and Israel could help the two countries build closer ties, the report added.

South Sudanese officials briefed Joe Szlavik on the talks, who is a founder of a US lobbying firm that works with the African nation, and he then added that an Israeli delegation plans on visiting the country for the possibility of setting up camps for Palestinians who wish to evacuate to the country.

Edmond Yakani, who leads a civil society organization in the country, says he has spoken with South Sudanese officials about the talks.

South Sudan's FM visits Israel
Last week, South Sudan's foreign minister, Monday Semaya Kumba, visited Israel and the West Bank.

The visit was organized at the initiative of Foreign Minister Gidon Sa’ar, with participation from Foreign Ministry Director-General Tzachi Dickstein and Deputy Minister Sharren Haskel.

The special ties between Israel and South Sudan began even before the country’s independence declaration in 2011.


Hizbullah Chief Says 5,000 Fighters Killed and 13,000 Wounded in War with Israel
Hizbullah chief Naim Qassem said in a televised speech on Aug. 5 that in the war with Israel that ended in November, 5,000 Hizbullah fighters were killed and 13,000 wounded, the first official toll the group has given.

Washington and Beirut have been in talks since June on a U.S. roadmap to fully disarm Hizbullah in exchange for a halt to Israeli strikes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops still occupying five points in south Lebanon, and funds to rebuild areas destroyed during the war.
Disguised IDF special forces arrest Palestinian in Gaza's Deir el-Balah - report
A Palestinian named Ismail Abdel Karim Khattab was arrested by an IDF special forces unit disguised on a bus in the Deir el-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media citing local reports on Tuesday.

The arrest happened on Monday, and Khattab was taken to Kibbutz Kissufum, according to the report. Strikes were reported by the Israel Air Force in Deir el-Balah shortly after the incident.

Affiliation with Hamas?
Hamas sources reported Khattab's arrest, but did not mention if he was affiliated with the terrorist organization.

The Israeli special forces were reportedly traveling in a Volkswagen minibus, according to reports.

The operation where the arrest took place was reportedly in an area in the Strip that the IDF doesn't control, according to KAN.


HRF files complaint with ICC against IDF chief, others, over 'deliberate' killing of Anas Al-Sharif
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and others they believe to be responsible for the killing of journalist Anas Al-Sharif.

Sharif, an Al Jazeera correspondent inside the Gaza Strip, was eliminated in an IDF strike on August 10. While the army said that he had served as a Hamas member since 2013, the HRF disputed that claim, saying that this was “the same recycled accusation used in killing over 220 journalists since October 2023.”

The HRF and the PCHR said the killing was not “just another tragedy in a long war on the press” but a “clear-cut criminal act – a war crime that is part of a broader genocidal campaign.”

Investigators from the HRF allegedly reconstructed the strike by following the trail from the “moment a drone camera locked onto Sharif’s position to the instant the missile hit.”

This led to the HRF identifying “the chain of command behind the killing,” which it listed as Zamir, Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar, who is the commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, who is the commander of the IDF Southern Command, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Sariel, the former chief of the 8200 Unit, Gen. A., who is the current chief of the 8200 Unit, Col. Avichay Adraee of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the Arab Media Division, the Palmachim Airbase’s commander, and the Black Snake Squadron commander.

After “identifying” the individuals responsible, the HRF and the PCHR filed an Article 15 communication to the ICC, accusing the above-listed figures of war crimes under Article 8(2)(a)(i) of the Rome Statute (willful killing), and of genocide under Article 6(a) of the Rome Statute.

The HRF was responsible for the investigation into the chain of command, and the PCHR brought to the case “its meticulous documentation of the other Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza,” which the two said constitutes evidence of a deliberate pattern of targeting the press.

Further, the PCHR’s files allegedly cover the killing of other journalists, including Hussam Shabat, Ismail Al-Ghoul, Ahmed al-Louh, Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Samer Abu Daqqa. All were identified as terrorists by Israel, but the PCHR disputes that.

“These cases show that Sharif’s killing was not an isolated event but part of an established policy,” the PCHR said.
Gaza “Journalist” Was a Hamas Terrorist — Media Ignore the Evidence
Ultimately, this is symptomatic of a wider problem throughout this war whereby the media treat IDF statements with disdain while treating the claims of a terrorist organization as fact.

Related Reading: When Will the Western Media Realize the Grim Truth About Al Jazeera and Hamas?

All these outlets, of course, failed to mention that al-Sharif conveniently ignored Gazans’ protests against Hamas throughout the war. Courage, apparently, applies only to reporting what Hamas wants the world to hear.

And almost none of them mentioned that al-Sharif was not the first terrorist who posed as a journalist in Gaza, perhaps in an attempt to hide the fact that it is a common phenomenon — from CNN’s Hassan Eslaiah to Al Jazeera’s Ismail Al Ghoul, among others.

Will the media ever doubt the Qatari network’s statements as it doubts the IDF?

Will they ever question what any journalist in Gaza says?

They can’t. Because they project their own conceptions on what it is like to cover a warzone, especially Gaza. They think that any journalist there deserves automatic solidarity and protection, instead of professional scrutiny.

With a pre-existing pro-Palestinian bias — it means the entire global media sings to Hamas’ tune.

Indeed, it proves Hamas’ evil brilliance of using the term “journalist” as a cover for terrorism. If anyone doubts it, it is an assault on the freedom of the press.

Thus, the global media outcry over al-Sharif and his colleagues is a betrayal of real journalism, manipulated to demonize Israel and enable attacks against it.

The outcry should have been directed against the exploitation of respected titles to promote terrorist agendas or fire rockets at innocent civilians.

Al Jazeera has already succeeded in promoting its own Hamas-friendly narrative in the aftermath of al-Sharif and his colleagues’ deaths — one where Israel is attempting to “silence voices” from revealing the truth of what is going on inside Gaza. As the IDF gears up for a potential invasion of Gaza City, we can expect to hear more of this narrative as Al Jazeera and its fellow travelers in Western media falsely claim that Israel is attempting to cover up alleged crimes by deliberately targeting media workers.

The truth is quite the opposite. But it is unlikely to be reported.
British outlets bury Anas Al-Sharif's terror affiliation
As we noted in our opening paragraphs, most of the outlets we reviewed referred to, for putative context about Al-Sharif’s death, claims by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Hamas media office about the number of “journalists” in Gaza killed by the IDF since Oct. 7th. This was designed to suggest that Al-Sharif’s killing represents a pattern of reporters being killed by Israel’s military. However, none of the outlets in question noted the terror affiliations of many of those listed as journalists – an omission which at least partly explains why most have been so skeptical of Israeli evidence of Al-Sharif’s role as a Hamas operative.

Also, several of the outlets we reviewed cited, as ‘proof’ that Israel intended to kill the “journalist”, his long expressed fear of the likelihood he would be assassinated by the IDF. However, his fear of being killed could just as easily be interpreted as evidence that, as a Hamas terrorist, he knew that – while on the payroll of Al Jazeera – he was a combatant who could legally be targeted.

Once again, most British outlets have misinformed news consumers about an extremely important issue – one that’s central to understanding the blurred line between civilians and terrorists during the war launched by Hamas’s pogromists 22 months ago.


Foreign Press Association President: 'I Don't Care' Whether Al Jazeera 'Journalist' Was Hamas
The president of the Foreign Press Association said he doesn't care if Al Jazeera "journalist" Anas Al-Sharif was a Hamas terrorist and compared Hamas to mainstream political parties in the United States and United Kingdom.

"Frankly, I don't care whether Al-Sharif was in Hamas or not," the president, Ian Williams, said during a CNN interview on Monday, one day after Al-Sharif's death in a targeted Israeli strike. "We don't kill journalists for being Republicans or Democrats or, in Britain, Labour Party. Hamas is a political organization, as well as a terrorist organization, perhaps. But it's not permissible to go killing people."

When asked to address Israeli documents showing that Al-Sharif was leading a Hamas cell, Williams said, "First of all, I don't believe it. He's been working 24 hours in journalism. He doesn't have time to work in a cell on the side. Second point is I basically don't believe anything the Israeli government says about this. They've lied and lied and lied."

Williams did not address Telegram messages Al-Sharif posted on Oct. 7 lauding the Hamas massacre.

"It is a jihad, a jihad of victory and martyrdom. Allahu Akbar and thank God," Al-Sharif wrote during the attacks. "9 hours later and the heroes are still roaming the country, killing and capturing… God, God, how great you are," he said in another message. Al-Sharif also posted photos of dead Israeli soldiers being stepped on; one included the caption, "The army wants to exterminate people under their rugs 😉🔥" Before the attack, he posted photos of himself smiling alongside Hamas leaders, including slain Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.


US indicates it will boost GHF after initially pledging new Gaza aid plan
After the White House announced last month that it would establish a new plan to distribute aid to Palestinians due to the mounting hunger crisis in Gaza, the State Department indicated on Tuesday that the administration has ultimately decided to suffice with expanding the existing Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s delivery system.

“President Trump wants to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza at the hands of Hamas. He has committed to remaining involved and helping facilitate the aid situation — to build upon GHF’s work, and to help Gazans attain the critical access to food aid that they need,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said during a press briefing.

On July 28, Trump announced the US would establish new “food centers” in the Gaza Strip, which would be run by Israel.

The announcement surprised many in Jerusalem, who thought the United States would back the establishment of additional distribution sites run by the GHF, rather than create a new mechanism.

But on July 29, the White House confirmed that Trump planned to do just that and that details on the new plan would be forthcoming.

A few day later, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee entered Gaza to tour a GHF distribution site, with the White House saying that the visit was aimed at “secur[ing] a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground.”

While no rollout of a new plan has been issued, Huckabee said in an August 6 interview that GHF sites would be scaled up from the three that currently exist to 16, and that they would operate 24 hours a day.


Lawfare - A Webinar with Prof. Douglas Feith and Natasha Hausdorff
This is a recording of a webinar from UKLFI Charitable Trust on "Lawfare"

with Prof. Douglas Feith and Natasha Hausdorff, which took place on Monday 11 August 2025.

Carl von Clausewitz famously said: "War is the continuation of policy with other means". Today the same might be said of lawfare. And as the Jew among nations, the State of Israel is the direct or indirect target of numerous legal proceedings. Having failed to destroy the “Zionist Entity” by warfare and boycotts, Israel’s enemies are increasingly resorting to lawfare to further the same objective.

In this webinar Natasha Hausdorff, UKLFI Charitable Trust’s Legal Director, discusses the current situation and future outlook regarding lawfare relating to Israel with Prof. Douglas J. Feith, US lawyer, academic and former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Prof. Feith is a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute. He was a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School. As US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2001 until 2005, he helped devise the strategy for the war on terrorism.

Before serving in the George W. Bush administration, Prof. Feith headed a Washington, D.C. law firm. In the Reagan Administration, Prof. Feith worked at the White House on Middle East policy for the National Security Council and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy.


Erin Molan: Gen. David Petraeus: THIS is how you win the war in Gaza + his scathing critique on job so far…
Ret. General David Petraeus, former CIA Director and Commander of U.S. and Coalition Forces, joins The Erin Molan Show Episode 2 for a powerful and unfiltered look at global security and peace in the Trump era.

From a step-by-step plan to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, to whether Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, Petraeus also addresses China, Australia’s role, and his own political future.

00:00 – Intro: Morning briefing
03:43 – President Trump Washington DC crack down
07:22 – Texas Target shooting
7:42 – Previewing Russia Ukraine talks
8:45 – General David Petraeus Interview
53:22 – Fan Feedback




ABC and the Guardian labelled 'antisemitic' for leftist views
Sky News host Danica De Giorgio and contributor Will Kingston discussed the Albanese government's recognition of a Palestinian state amid allegations of media bias and antisemitism related to Israeli actions and Hamas.

“There's an obvious answer and a less obvious answer; the obvious answer is that most of the media is of the left and the left is aggressively anti-Israel,” Mr Kingston said.

“I think there are journalists within the ABC and the Guardian who aren’t just anti-Israel, they are antisemitic.

“I don’t think that the left throughout this conflict has been able to comprehend that Hamas and indeed many people who hold the Islamic faith across the Middle East, do not think like us, they don’t have a Western liberal world view, the concept of human rights is foreign to them.”


Madonna to pope: ‘Go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late’
Madonna has urged the pope to travel to Gaza and “bring your light to the children before it’s too late.”

She also called for the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

The Queen of Pop posted her appeal to Pope Leo XIV on social media Monday, saying her son Rocco’s birthday prompted her to write the post. She called the post an effort to combat starvation in the war-torn enclave.

“Most Holy Father. Please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late,” she wrote. “As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering.”

She added, “The children of the world belong to everyone. You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry. We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children. There is no more time. Please say you will go. Love, Madonna.”

The singer wrote in a caption that she wasn’t taking sides in the war that began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. She said she is praying for the hostages held by terror groups in Gaza.

“I am not pointing fingers, placing blame or taking sides. Everyone is suffering. Including the mothers of the hostages,” she wrote. “I pray that they are released as well. I am merely trying to do what I can to keep these children from dying of starvation.”

Madonna has visited Israel multiple times, including a 2019 appearance at Eurovision in Tel Aviv, where she inserted a call for peace in the lyrics of her song “Future,” during which two of her dancers wore Israeli and Palestinian flags on their backs. She has also adopted the name Esther and incorporates Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, into her spiritual practice.


2005: Novak’s Nun
Novak, who exactly a year ago wrote of Illinois Representative Henry Hyde’s concern that Israel’s security wall was creating hardship for Christian Arabs, revisited the issue in a column that appeared in newspapers across the country this past Monday and Tuesday. Hyde is a resolute supporter of Israel, and the Monitor does not doubt his sincerity in raising the matter of the wall’s impact on Christians, as he did recently during a session of the House International Relations Committee, which he chairs.

But Novak used Hyde’s relatively gentle criticism – the congressman made clear, as Novak acknowledges, that he is not opposed to the wall per se – as a springboard to publicize far more incendiary statements regarding Israel made by Mother Agapia Stephanopolous, a Russian Orthodox nun formerly known as Sister Maria Stephanopoulos, daughter of one of the most prominent Greek Orthodox priests in the U.S. and sister of ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos.

“In a letter to Congress,” Novak wrote, “Mother Agapia…describ[ed] how East Jerusalem has been cut off from the rest of the West Bank. ‘It is only a matter of time before Christians and Muslims will be unable to survive culturally and economically,’ she predicted. The nun reported that Israeli slabs of concrete, 9 yards high, have ‘shattered’ Christian communities.”

Mother Agapia is even more adamant about the destructive effects of Israeli policy than the above quotes indicate. “Israel is destroying the local Christian community,” Novak said she told him. “Even the United States seems to have been taken in by Israeli spin.” If something about the name of Novak’s nun seems vaguely familiar, there’s good reason.
....
As for the gunmen who’d taken over the Church of the Nativity, they were mostly innocent citizens seeking refuge. “For the most part,” claimed the e-mail, “they are not ‘terrorists’ but policemen and parishioners of these churches, husbands and brothers trying to defend their homes.”

The e-mail writer urged all recipients to “Get on the phone and ask your congressmen and senators why the United States government is backing this invasion of Israeli forces into sovereign areas, why so many innocent civilians are being terrorized in their homes, their towns and livelihoods being destroyed by the Israeli government all in the name of stopping terror…”

An earlier e-mail from the same party had accused Israeli soldiers of raping Palestinian girls, but that account, wrote WorldNetDaily’s Paul Sperry at the time, was quickly discredited. And Sperry noted that “nearly all of [this e-mail writer’s] reporting comes from Palestinian sources. She has not herself witnessed the alleged Israeli atrocities.”

The writer of these e-mails, which immediately became staples on anti-Israel and anti-Semitic websites? The very same Sister Maria Stephanopoulos, a.k.a. Mother Agapia Stephanopolous, cited by Robert Novak as some kind of authoritative source.


Censored video of leftist being confronted with the truth GazaWood

Brendan O'Neill: Palestine Action Activists Are Nothing Like the Suffragettes
Palestine Action and its cheerleaders always look so smugly satisfied with themselves - they think they're the new Suffragettes - the women who rose up for the right to vote. They really think their violent, childish rage against the Jewish state puts them on a par with those valiant ladies who fought for the voting franchise for their sex.

They are drunk on self-delusion. Someone needs to tell them - where those women were the great expanders of democracy, you are its enemies. Everyone needs to stop with this nonsense. It is a grotesque insult to all the women who helped to make Britain a freer, fairer nation to liken them with the irritants and narcissists of Palestine Action.

The difference between these two movements is glaring. The Suffragettes took direct action because they were brutally locked out of the democratic realm. In contrast, Palestine Action and their noisy cheerleaders enjoy every democratic right - the right to vote, to speak, to march. And yet still they choose, to the vexation of decent Brits, to carry out their dumb stunts.

Palestine Action is so consumed by disdain for the democratic process that they prefer wrecking RAF planes or splashing red paint on "evil" businesses to the far harder task of free, civil engagement. Their activism is profoundly anti-democratic.

The Suffragettes hit the streets to make their own country a better place. Palestine Action obsesses like crazy over a tiny country 3,000 miles away which they are convinced is the embodiment of evil. Their every waking moment is consumed by hateful thoughts for the world's only Jewish state.
Member of pro-Palestinian group arrested after Massachusetts State House gate, steps vandalized with paint
A man associated with a pro-Palestinian group suspected in a series of vandalism acts targeting "prominent public institutions" faced charges Monday after the Massachusetts State House in Boston was vandalized with paint last month.

On July 23, white paint was poured on the State House gate, and concrete columns were spray-painted. Video from the scene showed paint splattered on a concrete pillar and the State House steps. The suspect also appeared to attempt to write the words "Divest" or "Divert" on a concrete pillar.

The suspect, later identified as Sawaqed, fled into the Boston Common, which prompted a search with members of the FBI and the Massachusetts State Police.

A trooper observed "white paint footprints" believed to have been left by Sawaqed as he fled and two suspicious objects, which were believed to be homemade improvised explosive devices, according to a criminal complaint.

Sawaqed is associated with a group known as the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation (DAMPL), which has taken credit for a number of acts of vandalism in Massachusetts, according to the complaint. The group is described as an extreme anti-Zionist organization.

Federal officials said they became aware of Sawaqed in May after he appeared in a video in urging followers to target government buildings and corporate logistics networks, officials said.

"Sawaqed has been identified as a central and active participant in a series of organized, politically motivated acts of vandalism, targeting prominent public institutions, including the Massachusetts State House, the George Washington Monument on the Public Garden and the MIT Stata Center," the complaint read.


Pine Gap protesters reject prime minister's recognition of Palestine
Holding placards and banners in the red dirt and dry scrub along the road to Pine Gap, about 100 Alice Springs residents have called for the facility's closure and the return of land to traditional owners.

A day after their regular Sunday protest, Mparntwe for Palestine described the Prime Minister's decision to formally recognise Palestine in September as "performative". Pine Gap models

"'Recognising' Palestine does nothing to advance Palestinian liberation or bring this genocide closer to ending," the group said in a statement.

Protesters said they held ongoing concerns that intelligence gathered on Australian soil may be being used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza.

"The machinery of war on Arrernte country supports the Israeli military as it bombs hospitals, murders journalists, starves children and civilians and erases entire neighbourhoods," a statement read at the protest said.

The group has been protesting along the road to the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap since Hamas attacked Israel back in October of 2023.

Israel has maintained its response is justified under international law.




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

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