Wednesday, October 22, 2025

10/22 Links Pt1: ICJ rules Israel ‘has not substantiated’ allegations of Unwra Hamas ‘infiltration’; Former Doctors Without Borders leader calls group 'accomplices of Hamas'

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: Marco Rubio in the City of David
In September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of the most meaningful American speeches in recent memory. Rubio was in Jerusalem, and the setting was dramatic. In the wake of all that has transpired since—the assault on Gaza City, the negotiations to end the war, the arrangement for the return of the hostages—Rubio’s remarks have been overlooked, and perhaps understandably so. Nevertheless, it is vital that his speech not be forgotten by Americans, because though it was delivered in Jerusalem, it was really about America—about the uniqueness of our founding and history and what the 250th anniversary of the United States should mean to all of us.

The speech was framed around Zionism in its most literal sense, given that it was delivered inside Zion itself. “Zion” is the name that King David assigned to the mountain where his capital Jerusalem was founded, where his psalms were written, and where his dream of a Temple was given expression—a site known, then as now, as the “City of David.”

Rubio had come with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the inauguration of the opening of the “Pilgrimage Road”—a path by which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, millennia ago, ascended to the Temple from the pool of Siloam within David’s city to Judaism’s holiest site. Its discovery and excavation are among the triumphs of archaeology in our time. The road is, one might say, the ultimate reminder of who the “indigenous people” of Zion really are, demonstrating as it does continuity between their presence there at least 3,000 years ago and the presence of 7 million Jews in the Jewish state today.

Rubio implicitly referenced this fact in the opening of his remarks, making mention of America’s upcoming anniversary and how America was actually “young” compared to the nation whose story is represented by where he stood. He then turned to the meaning of the Founding and what set America apart.

The United States was founded on a powerful idea, defined not by geography, ethnicity, or anything else. It was founded on the very powerful principle that the rights of mankind come from their creator.

These are words whose constant reiteration is necessary and proper, especially from a Republican administration, since we are now hearing from some affiliated with the conservative movement that America is not really defined by an idea. The secretary of state was not, of course, saying that America is utterly disconnected from the circumstances of its location. Rather, he was asserting that, at its core, America is a covenantal nation, defined by a set of principles. And by linking America’s more recent founding to the ancient and modern capital of Israel, he implicitly reminded us that, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it, “America and Israel, ancient and modern, are the two supreme examples of societies constructed in conscious pursuit of an idea.”

Appropriately, Rubio then turned in his remarks to the site where he stood and gave voice to Isaiah’s vision of all the earth learning from biblical teachings in God’s sacred city that “from Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” It was only because of this word of God, Rubio argued, that the American idea came to be enunciated.
Gil Troy: Moynihan’s Warning, the World’s Folly, and Israel’s Resilience
Fifty years later, and despite the resolution’s repeal nearly 34 years ago, many believe that the Israel-bashers have won, since the Zionism-is-racism libel is trending worldwide.

Yet anti-Zionism keeps failing as Zionism and Israel thrive. In 1975, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin used the enmity to unite his people. “Zionism, Judaism, the State of Israel, and the Jewish people are one,” he said, locating the pull to the Land of Israel and the longing to return to Zion at Judaism’s core. Israeli cities rechristened “United Nations Street”—so named in November 1947—as “Zionism Street.” Thousands of schoolchildren protested, with Golda Meir explaining Zionism to 10,000 high school pupils in Tel Aviv. Students distributed half a million buttons proclaiming: “I AM A ZIONIST.”

Similarly, decades later, on the worst day in modern Israeli history, Zionism was vindicated. On October 7, the Israeli government failed. The IDF failed. But Zionism succeeded. Zionism never promised a state on “a silver platter”—a warning by Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann. If Zionism began as a national survival strategy for the Jewish people, it worked that day as a call to immediate and vital action. The thousands of Israelis who mobilized and repelled the jihadi marauders represented a living, breathing, dynamic Zionism no libels can touch. By giving the Jews an ideology and a methodology, Zionism motivated Israelis to fight and ensured that they were sufficiently well trained and well armed to save Israel.

Simultaneously, October 7 unleashed waves of Zionist activism worldwide. Within weeks, Diaspora Jews contributed a billion dollars. Missions kept visiting Israel, bringing helmets and Kevlar vests, socks, and home-baked cookies. Washington, D.C., hosted the largest Jewish protest in American history, with 290,000 marchers and another 250,000 joining via livestream.

The fighting in Israel, the volunteering and donating throughout the Jewish world, reflected the Zionist ethos of self-defense. But something more spiritual happened, too. Even Theodor Herzl understood that Zionism would not just revive the Jewish body but the Jewish soul as well. “Zionism,” he said, “is a return to Jewishness even before there is a return to the Jewish land.”

As Jew-hatred surged, Jewish leaders described “the surge” in communal engagement and identity. From Hillels to synagogues to day schools, rates of participation and passion peaked.

In Israel, the patriotism—and the mourning— triggered a profound Zionist revival. Hundreds of stickers immortalizing fallen soldiers’ defining slogans decorate Israel’s public spaces with medleys of Zionist ideas and sensibilities. Some are Zionist classics, including Am Yisrael Chai (the Jewish people live) or Ain Li Eretz Acharet (I have no other homeland). Some are more personal but deeply Zionist, including “We chose to make aliyah to this land, we won’t let anyone hurt it.”

Most reflect a gritty, resilient generation of New Jews living the Zionist dream. Many urge their survivors to maintain Israelis’ characteristic love of life: “be happy,” “be good.” Evoking the traditional phrase ve-samachata be’chagecha (delight in your holidays), one sticker reads: ve-samachata be’chayecha (delight in your life). Others are feistier, explaining, “Soldiers don’t love what they do, they learn to love what they must do,” insisting that it “doesn’t matter what happens, you’ll get over it.” Crossbreeding optimism and fortitude, that well-known Israeli phrase yehiyeh beseder assures: It’ll be all right.

This Zionist revival rests on three pillars:
First, although Jew-haters don’t make the Jew—the Jew makes the Jew—the Jews can’t make Jew-haters disappear without fighting back. Ra-ther than being defensive, one must champion genuine liberalism. Social Justice Zionism or Liberal Zionism should seek to rescue “social justice” and “liberalism” from the illiberal liberals. True social justice begins with rejecting all bigotry, articulating an egalitarian liberalism recognizing everyone’s inherent rights and dignity, without romanticizing those deemed “oppressed” and demonizing the supposed “oppressors.”
Second, Responsibility Zionism expresses the Zionist commitment to Jewish self-determination. Caring Zionists must assess what Israel and the Jewish people need to flourish, internally. Responsibility Zionism is rebuilding Israel’s south after the Hamas attack—and the oft-neglected north, wounded by decades of Hezbollah fire from Lebanon. It’s trying to make Israel’s politics and society worthy of the soldiers, the reservists, the volunteers, and their families. And it’s tree planting, not firefighting; being proactive, not just reactive.
Finally, Identity Zionism builds from the “I” to the “us.” In an age of alienation, of what Émile Durkheim the sociologist called anomie, in a throwaway society where many feel disposable and can easily cancel others, Zionism emphasizes history, identity, continuity, community—roots and ties. Zionism offers a Jewish counterculture improving on the outside world while cultivating a broad, unifying, welcoming peoplehood platform for the Jewish world. Secular Jews can find meaning without God, and religious Jews can build a broader sense of belonging.

Fifty years ago, Moynihan’s colleague at the UN, Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog, called Zionism “nothing more—and nothing less—than the Jewish people’s sense of origin and destination in the land, linked eternally with its name.” He went on: “It is also the instrument whereby the Jewish nation seeks an authentic fulfilment of itself.” He stood in the UN on that November day, representing “a strong and flourishing people which has survived” all the haters before “and which will survive this shameful exhibition.” Herzog then ripped up the resolution.

Zionists worldwide will continue seeking authentic fulfillment for their people and themselves. And they should challenge everyone to transcend today’s deep-rooted anti-Zionist mania, disdaining it, in Herzog’s words, as just another “passing episode in a rich and an event-filled history.”
Former Doctors Without Borders leader calls group 'accomplices of Hamas' over Gaza war response
Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is an organization that most assume is focused on delivering much needed aid and supplies in harsh environments without bias or favor. However, one of the organization’s former leaders is criticizing how MSF has handled the situation in Gaza, going so far as to say its members have acted as "accomplices of Hamas."

Alain Destexhe, who worked as a doctor with MSF in the 1980s before serving as the group’s secretary-general in the 1990s, told Fox News Digital the organization moved away from its impartial, humanitarian roots.

"Well, it would have been impossible at the time when I was secretary-general of MSF to be as biased as MSF — Doctors Without Borders — is now in Gaza. We were defining ourselves as a neutral, impartial and humanitarian organization," Destexhe told Fox News Digital. "I think now MSF in Gaza is really taking the side [of] Hamas and against Israel.

"Americans need to know that Doctors Without Borders is not anymore the organization that it was 15 or 20 years ago. It has become a biased, partial and militant organization."

On Oct. 12, 2023, less than a week after Hamas carried out its brutal massacre and took more than 250 people hostage, MSF condemned the slaughter but also called for an end to Israel’s actions in Gaza, making no mention of the hostages.

"Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is horrified by the brutal mass killing of civilians perpetrated by Hamas, and by the massive attacks on Gaza, Palestine, now being pursued by Israel," the organization wrote. "MSF calls for an immediate cessation to the indiscriminate bloodshed, and the establishment of safe spaces and safe passage for people to reach them as a matter of urgency."

Beyond the organization’s condemnation of both the massacre and Israeli actions, Destexhe uncovered several social media posts on accounts allegedly belonging to MSF staffers appearing to celebrate the Oct. 7 massacre. Destexhe explained to Fox News Digital that much of MSF’s staff in the Gaza Strip are Palestinians, not foreign workers.

Destexhe acknowledged that to operate in Gaza, MSF has to work with Hamas because the terror group has control over "all civil society and all the medical facilities" in the enclave. He said operating alone would have been impossible during his tenure as secretary-general and that the organization would have said it could not work with "a totalitarian and terrorist organization."

"The only thing that MSF can do is to say, 'No, we don't want to be part of this. We have to quit Gaza. And we don't want to become accomplices with a terrorist organization like Hamas,'" Destexhe told Fox News Digital.

MSF has faced scrutiny over its actions and statements regarding the situation in Gaza.

Earlier this year, MSF launched ads against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israel-backed organization. MSF accused GHF of partaking in "systemized violence."

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF's accusations "false and disgraceful." He said the organization was amplifying misinformation.


Seth Mandel: JD Vance’s ‘Calm Down Doctrine’
But Vance’s habit of telling the political world to calm down can be put to more productive uses, as his Kiryat Gat press conference shows. The vice president was there to inaugurate a “civilian-military cooperation center” intended to be part of a multinational rebuilding and policing effort in Gaza. It’s possible, therefore, that his projection of calm was meant for Arab states in the region as well.

But from the anti-Hamas perspective, it is of great value for the anti-Zionists in the movement—and the anti-Semites in the group chats—to hear JD Vance tell everyone that Israel is manifestly not putting the cease-fire in danger, and that to suggest otherwise is to root for American failure.

It helps that on this, Vance is right. A skirmish here or there is suboptimal, of course, but it doesn’t mean all-out war. This is a point that Israel needs the U.S. to make clearly. Israel cannot allow Hamas to reach a certain level of strength ever again. This victory needs to stick. That is what will bring peace in the long run. The last thing Israel can afford is for the world to slide back into a pre-October 7 mindset wherein anything that isn’t deemed an existential threat to Israel is dismissed as not worth responding to.

If the cease-fire is to survive, violations must be punished. What most commentators are calling a cease-fire is really about establishing a new status quo. It doesn’t depend on a complete lack of violence but on the maintenance of the power imbalance represented by the terms of the cease-fire agreement. It is far more important that Hamas remains kept in a position of weakness until it can be disarmed entirely, and that will require vigilance.

As Vance said in the presser, “If we get to the point where we’re arguing [about] exactly what the governance structure in Gaza is long term, then we should pat ourselves on the back.”


Qatar expanding its grip on Gaza, will preserve Hamas's power, expert warns
The Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital in Gaza announced recently that it is beginning the process of preparing the headquarters of the Qatari hospital in Gaza City, funded by the Qatar Fund for Development.

The move joins a series of Doha-funded projects in the health and education sectors in the Strip. It is interpreted in Gaza as yet another layer in consolidating the institutional infrastructure that the Qataris have been building over the years.

The Qatari pattern of operations relies on specific mandates, primarily in medicine and education, that enable long-term establishment. Alongside budget allocations for hospitals and clinics, Qatari support for educational institutions has been mentioned in the past, including the Islamic University in Gaza.

At the same time, a Qatari effort has been recorded to inject "civilian" money into the Strip - funds perceived as less supervised - through public campaigns. Among other things, a campaign was launched in Qatar by the national taxi service, which commits to transferring five percent of all travel costs to Gaza.

Additionally, Qatar's national soccer team players, who qualified for the World Cup, publicly celebrated with donations designated for establishing a school, sports field, and hospital, projects portrayed as humanitarian but also strengthening the Qatari civilian presence in the Strip.

Dr. Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert from the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, warned that behind the humanitarian initiatives lies a political intention to continue influence in Gaza after the ceasefire.


ICJ rules Israel ‘has not substantiated’ allegations of Unwra Hamas ‘infiltration’
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel has “not substantiated” its claims that the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has been “infiltrated” by Hamas

Reading the court’s advisory opinion, ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said: “Israel alleged that Unrwa has been infiltrated by Hamas and other terrorist organisations, and that Unrwa employees took an active part in carrying out the attacks of October 7, 2023.

"Israel further alleged a widespread and systemic misuse of Unrwa’s assets and facilities by Hamas.

"The court considers that the information before it is not sufficient to establish Unrwa’s lack of neutrality, for the purpose of establishing its impartiality.”

The court did recognise that nine members of Unrwa staff suspected of participating in the October 7 attacks were sacked last year following a UN investigation, but concluded that fact was “insufficient to support a conclusion that Unrwa as a whole is not a neutral organisation".

“In addition, the court finds that Israel has not substantiated its allegations that a significant number of Unraw employees are members of Hamas or other terrorist factions,” added Iwasawa.

Moreover, the court found that “Israel itself has not ensured that the population of the Gaza Strip is adequately supplied” with humanitarian aid.

Since the start of the war, Israel has significantly varied the amount of aid allowed into the Strip, even cutting it off entirely for 11 weeks before ending its blockade in May, pointing to the looting of aid by Hamas and other factions.

The court added that “in the circumstances... Israel is under an obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and its entities, including Unrwa,” which has been banned from operating in Israel since last year.

It also found that the unilateral ban of Unrwa’s operations in East Jerusalem amounted to Israel “exercising sovereignty” in the territory, to which it is “not entitled” as an “occupying power”.

And it ruled that the obligation to cooperate with such relief schemes “is not dependent on the local population being inadequately supplied and, therefore, extends beyond the Gaza Strip to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

The advisory opinion is not legally binding, and Iwasawa emphasised that the court did not consider whether Israel violated its humanitarian obligations.


Experts slam UN court ruling on Israel, warn opinion is also 'a real danger to the US'
Leading experts on the United Nations and international law on Wednesday blasted the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its non-binding ruling that Israel cooperate with a scandal-plagued U.N. aid agency that the U.S. stopped funding because of its support for Hamas terrorists.

ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said the Jewish state "is under the obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and its entities, including UNRWA."

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor and director of the Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University Scalia Law School, told Fox News Digital,"The opinion is, most importantly, not a decision of case, or possessing any legal authority whatsoever."

He warned the ruling is also dangerous to U.S. interests. "The ICJ claims it has ‘moral authority,’ but it must be high on its own supply. The Court concluded that UNRWA is a neutral, legitimate aid agency despite its members having participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion, and the broad infiltration of its facilities and organization by Hamas, which the U.S. government has acknowledged. It makes up new legal rules from scratch. It is a real danger to the U.S., which has also been repeatedly on the losing end of Advisory Opinions by the politicized Court."

Kontorovich, who is senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation, added, "Based on this opinion, the ICJ could conclude that the U.S. must continue to work with U.N. organizations it wishes to quit or boycott – or provide aid to terror groups working to kill Americans. The U.S. should quit any treaty giving the ICJ jurisdiction – and recall its judge on the court."
Anne Herzberg: Currently listening to the opinion. Unsurprisingly, the Court minimizes the scope and scale of the October 7 attack and the launching of a 7-front war against Israel.
Currently listening to the opinion. Unsurprisingly, the Court minimizes the scope and scale of the October 7 attack and the launching of a 7-front war against Israel. At the same time it uses hyperbolic language to describe Israeli military operations, ignoring the massive Hamas tunnel network and destruction resulting from its embedding in civilian infrastructure.

Your reminder that the ICJ is the UN’s court. Its “evidence” primarily relies on UN reports (even from the likes of UNRWA and Francesca Albanese), accepts UN claims as a given without verification, and will not do anything to disrupt the UN’s desire to manipulate and maintain control over the aid system in Gaza. There will be no accountability from the ICJ or any associated organs for the role of UN agencies and employees in aiding and abetting Hamas’ military build-up and the war. It will do nothing, unless forced by US, Israel, and other responsible states, to prevent Hamas and other terrorists from taking over again.

Another reminder: the UNGA question referred to the Court only sought and opinion on Israel’s obligations. So yet again, the UN set up a biased framing to solely target Israel. It also demonstrates how yet again, the entire intl community and aid industry absolves itself from any responsibility for financing and supporting Hamas and the situation they enabled in Gaza for 20 years.

Hostile states responsible for this exploitation of intl institutions include @NorwayMFA, Turkey, Qatar, South Africa @PresidencyZA, and @Brazil_UN_NY When the Court claims they didn’t find evidence of links between UNRWA and Hamas, you should remember again, the ICJ remains willfully blind. 🙈🙊🙉

No one should be surprised in the slightest when the ICJ claims it is supposedly “international law” that the UN can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, wherever it wants, and taxpayers will have to continue bankrolling its slush fund with billions of dollars without any regulations and without any real oversight. This folks, is the definition of impunity.
Experts urge Trump to ban terror-linked UN agency from his Gaza peace plan
Amid the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the Hamas-Israel war, Mideast experts are urging that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have no presence in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip because of its reported support for the terrorist organization Hamas and its track record of severe incompetence.

Hugh Dugan, who served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organization Affairs in 2020, told Fox News Digital, "UNRWA’s mission was to provide relief and support pending a durable political solution. As such, a solution is at hand – pending Hamas’ compliance to disarm immediately – truly neutral humanitarian operations beg for new measures and modalities."

He added, "The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for months has distributed aid independently of U.N. channels and has prevented diversion by militant groups. Other U.N. humanitarian operations would be well-served to take cover and operate within GHF’s shadow under the blistering sun of critical human need."

Pictures are displayed on the walls of a bomb shelter, in which, six months prior, people sought refuge before being killed during the deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

Dugan, a former diplomat who served at the U.S. mission to the world body, said UNRWA has turned a cottage industry into a sprawling transnational bureaucracy that has perpetuated financial waste and prolonged the conflict by granting refugee status to the descendants of Palestinian refugees after the first Israel-Arab states’ war.

"After the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA’s critical mission was to provide direct relief and works program for 800,000 Palestinian refugees. Its job was to put itself out of business as soon as possible, however it went the route of mission creep. Over decades managerially captured by the U.N. bureaucracy, UNRWA perpetuates the status of refugees now swelling to 5.9 million," he said.

Dugan concluded, "After billions of dollars, Palestinians continue in desperate dependence for humanitarian aid of the most basic kind. This has positioned UNRWA as a political actor in its own right beyond its original mission. And its politics and relations with Hamas reveal that UNRWA lost irretrievably its grounding in humanitarian neutrality and non-discrimination."
EU lawmakers urge halt to UNRWA funding over terror links
European Parliament members from 16 of its 27 member states have called on the EU to cease funding UNRWA over its ties to terrorist groups and lack of commitment to peace.

The EU gives about €80 million-€90 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East each year.

The MPs from Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Cyprus, Romania, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Finland, and Portugal wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, expressing their concerns about UNRWA.

Amid the somewhat rocky ceasefire and future of the Gaza Strip, the MPs said it was essential for support to be channeled through partners that share values of peace and reject “the forces of hate.”

UNRWA does not share those values and instead has “shown serious breaches of trust, including staff members connected to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” the MPs wrote.

These revelations have already led the US and Sweden to halt cooperation with UNRWA, and the MPs urged the EU to follow suit.

“The rebuilding of Gaza should not repeat the failures of the past,” they wrote. “It must be carried out by credible organizations that invest in education, health, and opportunity for all – partners that build for peace, not for hate.”

EU funds must only go to organizations that uphold principles of peace, accountability, and human dignity, the letter said.

Swedish MP Alice Teodorescu posted the letter on her X/Twitter account and wrote: “We must take care of taxpayers’ money. UNRWA has no role to play in a future peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

No money should be given to 'organizations that promote terror, Islamism, or antisemitism,' writes Henrik Dahl
In a post on X, Danish MP Henrik Dahl said no money should be given to “organizations that promote terror, Islamism, or antisemitism.”

He lamented that the EU continues to send millions of euros to UNRWA and said he, together with center-right forces in the European Parliament, is proposing an amendment to the EU’s budget for 2026.

Specifically, all funds to organizations that promote terror, Islamism, or antisemitism must be immediately suspended, Dahl said.

“According to the UN’s own investigation, nine UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s attack on October 7,” he wrote.


IDF kills Hezbollah Radwan Force commander in Southern Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday eliminated a Hezbollah Radwan Force platoon commander in Lebanon’s Ain Qana area, approximately 13 miles from the Israeli border.

Issa Ahmad Karbala “advanced the transfer of weapons in Lebanon and advanced terror attacks against the State of Israel,” the military stated, adding that he had violated the truce understandings with Lebanon.

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 IDF emphasized in its statement on Wednesday that it would “continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel.”

On Nov. 26, 2024, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed terror group began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the aftermath of its Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.


Netanyahu’s office to ToI: There will be no Turkish troops deployed in Gaza
There will be no Turkish troops in the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office insisted Wednesday, after reports emerged of a disagreement on the issue during the previous day’s meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.

Rashad was in Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, where the two discussed “advancing [US President Donald] Trump’s plan, Israel–Egypt relations and strengthening the peace between the countries, as well as other regional issues,” the Israeli readout of the meeting said.

According to a Wednesday report on Sky News Arabia, citing a Palestinian source, Netanyahu and the Egyptian intel chief disagreed over potential Turkish participation in the planned International Stabilization Force (ISF).

The force is part of Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, and is intended to secure the Strip during a transitional postwar period, following Israel’s withdrawal and the disarmament of the Hamas terror group.

Netanyahu also “completely rejected” the deployment of Palestinian Authority security forces trained by Egypt and Jordan in Gaza, the source told the UK-Emirati outlet.

“Netanyahu insists that the second-phase conditions be implemented first, namely the disarmament of Hamas and its relinquishment of control over Gaza, before any discussion of local administration or security forces operating in Gaza,” the Palestinian source added.

When asked about the report, Netanyahu’s office told The Times of Israel: “There is no disagreement.”

“There will be no Turkish involvement,” the PMO said.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Has Britain lost the courage to defend itself? Michael Gove on the collapse of civilisation
Michael Gove, former Cabinet Minister and one of Britain’s most articulate conservative thinkers, joins Jonathan Sacerdoti for an unflinching conversation about the perilous state of Britain — a nation he says is “desperate” and in danger of moral collapse.

From Islamist extremism on British streets to the cowardice of the political class, Gove warns that antisemitism is not a Jewish problem but a British sickness — a sign that the West has lost its faith, its confidence, and its sense of right and wrong.

He argues that Islamism, like Nazism and Marxism before it, is a totalitarian ideology — one that Britain’s elites have failed to confront. He calls out the Foreign Office, the media, and academia for their naïve hostility to Israel, their indulgence of terror sympathisers, and their betrayal of Western civilisation’s own values.

In this powerful and wide-ranging discussion, Gove reflects on the rise of Farage and Reform UK, on Tommy Robinson, on Israel’s fight for survival, and on the need to rediscover Britain’s Judeo-Christian moral core before it’s too late.

👁‍🗨 Watch if you want to understand how the West lost its nerve — and how it might just find it again.

💬 We Discuss:
⚰️ Britain’s growing antisemitism — “a tragedy that bears examination”
🕌 Islamism, the new totalitarianism replacing Marxism
🇮🇱 Why hatred of Israel reveals hatred of the West itself
🏛️ The Foreign Office’s “permanent bias” against Israel
🕍 Attacks on synagogues and the illusion of Jewish safety in Britain
🎭 The far left and far right meeting in antisemitic conspiracy
🚔 Two-tier policing and surrendering Britain’s streets
🎤 Tommy Robinson, Farage, and the politics of rebellion
🏴‍☠️ The ideological alliance between Islamists and neo-Nazis
📚 How Britain’s intellectual class lost its moral bearings
🕊️ Judeo-Christian values as the foundation of liberty and equality
🔥 Why losing faith means losing civilisation itself


It's Called Judea For A Reason 🪂 🤸 Will The Ceasefire End? Did It Ever Start???
With the tenuous Gaza ceasefire in place, it's anybody's guess how long this so-called peace will last. Trump's 20-Point Peace Plan hasn't so far gotten past Phase One, as JD Vance visits Israel to keep Phase Two negotiations on track. Meanwhile in Judea and Samaria, a shadow war is being fought that very few are paying attention to. As Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are framed as the "good guys" in all this, the truth is they are eerily similar to their Gazan rivals, Hamas.

In this live conversation, military expert Andrew Fox and A Paratrooper And A Yogi Walk Into A Bar cohost, Shana Meyerson, discuss the often-overlooked Judea and Samaria (aka The West Bank) and a few notes about the current ceasefire.

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




Cotton Urges DHS To Review Biden-Era Visas After Indictment of Alleged Hamas Terrorist Living in Louisiana
Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Wednesday instructed DHS to conduct an immediate security review of all visas granted by the Biden administration following last week’s indictment of an alleged Hamas terrorist living in Louisiana on a fraudulent visa, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Mahmoud Amin Ya’Qub al-Muhtadi, a 33-year-old Gazan man, is being held in a Louisiana jail after federal prosecutors charged him last week with participating in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror spree before moving to America with a fraudulent visa. Cotton disclosed in his letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that there could potentially be thousands more terror-tied individuals living in the United States as a result of the Biden administration’s failure to properly vet immigrants from the Middle East.

"Since October 7, 2023, thousands of visa applications from Palestinians have been processed through Egypt, often without adequate review of digital footprints or terrorist watchlist cross-checks," Cotton wrote in his letter. "I urge DHS to conduct an audit of all visas issued through high-risk countries since 2021, prioritizing potential affiliations with Hamas or other designated terrorist groups."

Al-Muhtadi is one of the thousands of Palestinians Cotton cites who initially applied for a visa through the U.S. embassy in Cairo, "falsely denying his paramilitary training and terrorist affiliations." He entered the United States less than a year after the Oct. 7 attacks along with a wave of others who received expedited processing under the Biden administration.

A federal indictment unsealed last week alleged al-Muhtadi was in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, "the location of a horrifying massacre by Hamas and its supporters," based on geolocational data gathered from his cell phone. Al-Muhtadi’s social media accounts were also littered with evidence of his Hamas membership, including pictures showing him dressed in military fatigues training with Russian-made weapons.

"Despite blatant evidence of these activities on his social media, the Biden administration approved his application, granting him legal permanent resident status and entry into the United States," Cotton wrote. "The vetting process for Al-Muhtadi’s application overlooked easily accessible evidence of his terrorist ties."


‘Absolute disgrace’: Penny Wong under fire over failing to name Israel’s capital
Sky News host Rowan Dean slams Foreign Minister Penny Wong for “embarrassing Australia” after refusing to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel going back over 3,000 years,” Mr Dean told Sky News host James Macpherson.

“Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel; it deserves to be recognised by our government as such.

“The absolute disgrace of someone like Penny Wong who has already shown herself to be … our worst ever foreign minister, completely hopeless.”


Pod Save Platner: Obama Bros Described Hegseth Tattoo as 'Dog Whistle' Before Helping Maine's Platner Fend Off Scrutiny for Nazi Tattoo
Pod Save Graham Platner. The former Obama White House aides Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes, now hosts of the podcast Pod Save the World, helped the Maine Senate candidate frontrun the news that he has a Nazi tattoo emblazoned on his chest—a stark contrast to their condemnation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross as a "dog whistle" for "white nationalists."

Platner revealed on Monday's episode that he got a tattoo resembling a Totenkopf—a skull and crossbones associated with Nazi Germany and white supremacists—in Croatia in 2007 while serving in the Marines. He claims to have been unaware of its symbolism, though associates have refuted that claim, with one saying Platner "knows damn well" what the ink means.

Vietor described Platner's tattoo as "opposition research," asking the Senate candidate a series of softball questions.

"I've been told that some of your political opponents are telling reporters that that tattoo has a Nazi affiliation," said Vietor, a former van driver for the 2008 Obama campaign. "And I would like to know: Is that accurate, and are you a secret Nazi?"

"I am not a secret Nazi," Platner replied. "Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism."

Vietor went on to describe Platner as a "normal guy" who wants to "make the country a better place."

The left-wing podcasters were more alarmed by a different tattoo less than a year ago, expressing concern over how Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross would affect military recruiting. Rhodes described the tattoo as a "dog whistle" to "white nationalists."

"Recruitment—are they just going to go off and recruit MAGA people? Are they going to go off and recruit white nationalists? And I don't say this just because the guy has a tattoo, but that's who they're putting out the Bat-Signal to," Rhodes, a former Obama adviser, told Vietor.

Hegseth's tattoos include a Jerusalem cross—a large cross with four smaller crosses in the corners—and the words "Deus vult," which is Latin for "God wills it." Such tattoos are common Christian symbols, especially among Catholics.

While Hegseth's tattoo was falsely linked to white nationalism, Platner was allegedly aware that his tattoo had Nazi ties, according to Genevieve McDonald, who resigned as his campaign director last week after his Reddit posts denigrating both white rural Americans and black people surfaced. She called him "a history buff" who "knows damn well what [the tattoo] means."


650+ US rabbis sign letter opposing Mamdani and the ‘political normalization’ of anti-Zionism
As the New York mayoral election draws near, a group of 650 rabbis and cantors from across the United States have signed onto a letter voicing their opposition to mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.

The letter, titled “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future,” cites Mamdani’s defense of the phrase “Globalize the Intifada,” which he has since said he would “discourage”; his refusal to acknowledge Israel’s existence as a Jewish state; and his repeated accusations against Israel of genocide in Gaza. Mamdani has also vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.

The letter quotes Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, who told his congregants in a YouTube address last week that Mamdani’s rhetoric will “delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews.”

Hirsch was also one of the signatories on the letter, which included a wide range of rabbis and cantors from over 30 states as well as Toronto. It was organized by the new Jewish Majority advocacy group, led by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman.

About 60 rabbis across denominations in New York City signed on, including Rabbi Joshua Davidson of the Reform Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side, Rabbi David Ingber of the progressive synagogue Romemu on the Upper West Side and the 92nd Street Y and Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side.

Gerald Weider, a rabbi emeritus at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, where Mamdani spoke earlier this month at the invitation of its current rabbi, also signed on. Rabbi David Wolpe speaks to congregants at Sinai Temple on Sepember. 23, 2022, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Other influential rabbis across the country who signed on include the author and former leader of Los Angeles’ Conservative Sinai Temple Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Denise Eger, the first openly LGBTQ+ rabbi to head the Central Conference of American Rabbis.


Producer Who Tore Down Israeli Hostage Poster Back on Broadway
A Broadway producer who earned infamy for ripping down posters of Israeli hostages in New York City is back in business on the Great White Way.

James L. Simon, who used scissors to hack away a flyer of a Jewish person taken hostage by Hamas just days after Oct. 7, 2023, is working as a co-producer for the Broadway musical Operation Mincemeat.

An Upper West Side neighborhood blog initially published a video of Simon desecrating the poster, an act that earned him a spot in the online Jew Hate Database. He later apologized and insisted to the New York Post that he tore it down to keep the city’s streets clean, claiming he was only trying to enforce Department of Sanitation rules on public signage.

His Tony-nominated production, which tells the story of an elaborate British deception operation during a critical moment in World War II, opened at the John Golden Theatre in March, and will run until February of next year.

Simon, also a board member at Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 and contributor to the Theater Resources Unlimited nonprofit organization, had kept a low profile between being busted for tearing down the poster and working on Operation Mincemeat. Since the show opened, he has flooded the internet with positive coverage, pushing news of his transgression off Google’s front page.

A website called Infinite Sights published a story, "How James Simon Quietly Helped Shape Modern Broadway," on Apr. 15 in its "Spotlight" section. The writer, Travis Hutton, noted Simon "doesn’t seek the spotlight."

Hutton told the Washington Free Beacon via email that "most—95 percent—but not all of the Spotlight section are paid placements," including his story on Simon.

Operation Mincemeat is not the only show Simon has produced since his reemergence. He brought Edward Einhorn’s The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over the summer. Simon offered a statement for a press release in which he attempted to lean into the play’s Jewish themes.

"I can’t wait for new audiences to see this play," he said. "It covers so much ground—Jewish celebrations, artistic genius, what it meant to be in love then and why it still matters now. But most importantly, it's just a really fun, laugh-out-loud show. I think the world really needs that right now."


We Asked People How Much the Palestine Marches Cost to Police...They Were SHOCKED!
How much do you think the Palestine marches cost to police?

That’s the question we asked, and no one guessed correctly.

These protests have taken over our streets for more than two years. Money well spent? Or should it go elsewhere?

Here’s what people had to say.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led, UK-based charity dedicated to countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the 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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