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Thursday, October 23, 2025

10/23 Links Pt1: Closing the Book on ‘Genocide,’ ‘Deliberate Starvation’ and other Modern Libels; Marwan Barghouti Is Not Your Guy; The Media’s War on Israel - with Matti Friedman

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Closing the Book on ‘Genocide,’ ‘Deliberate Starvation’ and other Modern Libels
One reason is that the war’s end makes it possible to start compiling definitive statistics. And those statistics make it crystal clear that UN-affiliated agencies and their partner NGOs have conducted large-scale fraud, the blast radius of which has incinerated the credibility of much of Western academic and “humanitarian” institutions.

Let’s start with food. Salo Aizenberg—who probably deserves some sort of medal for his painstaking work compiling the true statistical toll of the war—pointed out this week that the UN-backed IPC declared a Gaza famine in August, and that we can now check the numbers against the prediction and verify exactly what the IPC got wrong.

Between the famine declaration and the cease-fire, there should have been 10,143 famine deaths in Gaza. Using Hamas’s own numbers of such deaths—which are obviously not undercounted—the total famine deaths in that period was 192.

That means the IPC predicted about 10,000 famine deaths and was short by about 10,000. The IPC is now at Candace Owens’s level of credibility and statistical reliability.

There was no famine. That’s not an opinion, it’s an indisputable fact. Also indisputable is that there was no near-famine. It wasn’t a close call.

That, by the way, is good news. Although the anti-Israel activist world was hoping for mass starvation, those of us who aren’t monsters are very happy that there was no famine in Gaza. Pay attention to those who dispute this and those who show their disappointment.

Then there is the main event: the accusation of “genocide.” While this has been debunked again and again and again throughout the war—to the extent that anyone accusing Israel of genocide has disqualified themselves from legitimate debate over matters of war and peace—now that there is a cease-fire, we can work with steady numbers.

Aizenberg noted in September that using Hamas’s own statistics, and subtracting natural deaths and fatalities caused by munitions fired by Gazan combatants, one gets a total of about 33,000 civilian casualties. The widely accepted number of combatant casualties is at about 25,000.

Every one of those 33,000 civilian casualties is a tragedy and a testament to the effectiveness and ruthlessness of Hamas’s human-shield strategy. That number also means that there are fewer than 1.5 civilian deaths for each combatant war death, an almost unheard-of level of care for civilians by the Israeli army.
Gil Troy: The "Do It Yourself" Ally: Israel's Victory Is America's Too
While addressing the Knesset, U.S. President Donald Trump correctly called the Gaza breakthrough "an incredible triumph for Israel and the world....We have stood together through thick and thin....We have built industries together, we have made discoveries together, we have confronted evil together."

Other allies depend on America to fight for them; Israel fights independently, defending itself and bolstering the U.S., while saving the world along the way too.

Last January, outgoing President Joe Biden noted: "Did you ever think we would be where we are with Iran at this moment? Iran's air defenses are in shambles. Their main proxy, Hizbullah, is badly wounded....And if you want more evidence that we've seriously weakened Iran and Russia, just take a look at Syria." Since then, Tehran has been weakened exponentially more.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel's many battlefronts - on sea, in the air, on the ground, and online - have served as an extraordinary laboratory for game-changing improvements. U.S. generals have watched the IDF fight in cities and tunnels effectively, losing 470 soldiers in the Gaza ground offensive that many predicted would cost thousands of Israeli lives. In repelling Iran's ICBM attacks and over 37,500 rocket attacks, Israel - with U.S. help - taught the world how to defend a small, densely populated area against massive bombardments. These and many other military and medical breakthroughs will be saving American lives in hospitals and battlefields for years to come.

Since the 1898 Spanish-American War, Washington has repeatedly felt compelled to fight wars worldwide. By contrast, Israel has always been the U.S.'s only "Do it Yourself" ally. The Jewish state usually fights alone, using American technology and know-how, improving it, and, by winning, bolstering Washington's position militarily and diplomatically. In 1967 and 1973, Israel defeated Soviet-trained and armed Arab troops, enhancing the Free World's defense posture during the Cold War.

Despite all the pressuring, demonizing, and naysaying, Israel has won overwhelming victories in the war on terror. Thanks to this two-year war, the Islamic Republic's planned Ring of Fire engulfing Israel, while not extinguished, has been smothered. Israel showed it still knows how to fight hard and win a war. And, once again, Israel's decisive win has boosted America too.
U.S. Plan Splits Gaza in Two - One Zone Controlled by Israel, One by Hamas
The U.S. and Israel are considering a plan that would divide Gaza into separate zones controlled by Israel and Hamas, with reconstruction only taking place on the Israeli side until Hamas can be disarmed and removed from power.

On Tuesday in Israel, Vice President JD Vance said there are two regions in Gaza, one relatively safe and the other incredibly dangerous, and the goal is to expand the area that is safe. Presidential advisor Jared Kushner said no funds for reconstruction would go to areas that remain under Hamas control, and the focus would be on building up the safe side.

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire that took effect Oct. 10 drew a yellow line on the map that marks the Israeli military's area of control. It is essentially a thick cushion hugging Gaza's borders and surrounding the area of Palestinian control. The Israeli zone is supposed to shrink as various benchmarks are hit.

The administration had considered rebuilding areas that Hamas didn't control even before the ceasefire, in hopes it would improve conditions for Palestinians and serve as a symbol of a post-Hamas Gaza, officials said.

The plan to build up Israeli-controlled areas in Gaza could weaken Hamas politically while enabling Israel's military to conduct operations that further erode the group's ability to fight, said Ofer Guterman, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. "It's doable and optimal," Guterman said of the plan.


Hamas Clearly Does Not Want To Lay Down Its Weapons
"If we achieve a sovereign and independent Palestinian state that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people, then these weapons will be transferred to the Palestinian state and its army." — Abdul Jabbar Saeed, member of Hamas's political bureau, arabi21.com, October 16, 2025.

Saeed dismissed the idea of deploying international forces in the Gaza Strip.... He also rejected the idea of excluding Hamas from playing a future role in the governance of the Gaza Strip. "Completely excluding Hamas from the scene is not possible," he stressed.

The involvement of Qatar and Turkey in the Gaza Strip is problematic because the two countries have always been supportive of Hamas. Both countries continue to provide shelter to several Hamas leaders and act as if they are its attorneys by constantly defending the terror group while condemning Israel.

The Saudis and Emiratis have reportedly notified the Trump administration that they would downgrade their level of engagement in the implementation of the Trump plan. Referring to Qatar, they warned that increasing the influence of "countries that destabilize the region" would derail the momentum of prosperity Trump has touted.

A Saudi source warned that Qatar was expected to help Hamas maintain its presence and return at an opportune moment.

Notably, in 2017 several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE decided to cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar over the Gulf state's support for Islamist terror groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia said it made the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar's "embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region," including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State (ISIS), and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom's eastern province of Qatif.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking "an antagonistic approach" toward Egypt and said "all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed...." Instead of insisting that Hamas lay down its weapons in compliance with Trump's plan, they are now talking about the possibility that the terror group would "freeze" its weapons.... It is worth noting that the Trump plan does not talk about a "freeze" of Hamas's weapons.

Bahrain, for its part, blamed Qatar's "media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities, and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain" for its decision to cut diplomatic ties.

Anyone who believes that Hamas will voluntarily give up its weapons is living in a dream world. For the terror group, this would be tantamount to suicide. The terms "demilitarization" and "deradicalization" do not exist in Hamas's lexicon.

Worse, anyone who believes that Qatar and Turkey will force Hamas to dismantle its military infrastructure is also living in fantasy land.
Hamas’s Strategies for Surviving the Ceasefire
Looking at the twenty-point ceasefire plan, it would seem that Hamas has no future. According to the agreement, Hamas released the living hostages and will both disarm and destroy all their infrastructure. They agreed they would “not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form” and better still, there will be an international force in place to enforce all of the provisions. Yet, Hamas is not about to give up its fight – so it would not have agreed to the ceasefire unless it thought it could live through it. Hamas’s current operations and history and suggest there are several strategies that Hamas might try as part of their attempt to not only survive but eventually thrive through the ceasefire.

All of Hamas’s strategies are built on two fundamental assumptions. The first is that the US and international community have a strong desire for the war to be over. The second is that the international communities’ willpower to enforce the ceasefire may not be significant, and even if its motivation is strong now, it will dissipate before too long. This is not a bad assumption as there are plenty of examples such as that of UNIFIL II to support their case, and for all that countries have said about caring about the future of Gaza, there is a gap between their rhetoric and their actions – there is not a long line wrapping around the block to make a meaningful military contribution to the international security force (ISF). This means that one of the goals of any Hamas strategy will be to further this tendency by signaling to the international community that the cost of confronting Hamas may be higher than any country is willing to pay in terms of lives, money, and time.

Indirect Confrontation:
Hamas may use either allied militant groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), create a new spin off organization, or even just use “more radical elements” within Hamas to attacks Israeli forces or the ISF. Such an approach has several positives for Hamas. It allows Hamas to test the tolerance the international community has for Israeli retaliatory actions in Gaza while keeping a distance from the initial attacks. This approach also helps reinforce to countries thinking about contributing to the ISF that they will lose soldiers in Gaza, making them less likely to join the mission. Should the ISF deploy to Gaza, these operations will allow Hamas to attempt to sap ISF will by causing casualties, but with plausible deniability to protect it from retaliation. At its most effective, this strategy could allow Hamas to appear as a moderate option – willing to help the ISF restrain the more radical elements in exchange for the ISF at least tacitly allowing Hamas retaining some capabilities and power.

How do we know Hamas may try this strategy? Because they already are. This was precisely what Hamas did in attacking Israeli soldiers in Rafah and then blaming it on a lack of communications with local operatives. It is not far different from what Hamas did in 2022 by standing back while PIJ attacked Israel and what the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) did for years with various “dissident groups” and the Black September Organization.
Witkoff’s ‘Palestinian’ Advisor Claims Hamas Only Has to Give Up “Heavy Weapons”
Disarmament is already a farce.

The so-called ‘peace deal’ was really the same old hostages-for-terrorists deal accompanied by a partial Israeli withdrawal and Hamas takeover. There’s no plan, as J.D. Vance already admitted, for an actual disarmament of Hamas. That’s a job that some Muslim countries are possibly supposed to do. The same ones that support Hamas.

Meanwhile Bishara A. Bahbah, Witkoff’s ‘Palestinian’ advisor, claims that Hamas only has to give up its ‘heavy weapons’.

Bishara Bahbah, a former adviser to Yasser Arafat with ties to the PLO, had previously blasted “the bigotry of a large number of politicians, particularly Republicans, toward Islam, the Syrian refugees, and the Sharia law.”

After Oct 7, Bahbah decided he was a Republican and formed Arab Americans for Trump. This was part of a larger Arab and Muslim trend of pressuring Dems to turn on Israel. And it worked pretty well. Then Bishara Bahbah got angry at Trump and rebranded the group as Arab Americans for Peace.

Despite that Witkoff brought in Bahbah as a “mediator” who can talk to Hamas. What Bahbah actually puts out there is hard to distinguish from Hamas propaganda. But it may be very revealing.


Marwan Barghouti Is Not Your Guy
In his first term, Trump discarded conventional wisdom and moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. The Abraham Accords were built on the rejection of the idea that the Palestinians could veto Arab-Israeli peace deals that don’t involve them. Trump stopped letting the tail wag the dog, and he was able to introduce an entirely new paradigm of public Arab-Israeli normalization.

Regarding the war in Gaza, Trump eschewed magical thinking or taking the easy way out. He refused to pretend the war was over just because he wanted the war to be over. Now, because of that clear-eyed realism, the war may actually finally be over.

Freeing Barghouti in the name of Palestinian unity follows the same thinking that led France, Britain and Canada to recognize a Palestinian state despite there being no such state in existence. It’s the “easy button” solution, a fantasy. Trump has avoided taking shortcuts so far and has produced actual success. Barghouti is a shortcut, a belief that there is a switch that can be flipped and everything will get better overnight.

Freeing Barghouti is not thinking outside the box; it’s the box. That doesn’t automatically make it the wrong move, but it still runs counter to the instincts that have served the Trump team well so far.

Barghouti is a character from the past. Those who wish to return to that past—Barghouti was arrested during the intifada, back in 2002—might see him as a worthy successor to Abbas. But why anybody would want to replay that era is a mystery.

More than anything, Barghouti is a fraud. He is not a man of peace or a man of the people. (Prison cameras once caught him scarfing down candy bars during a supposed hunger strike that he was leading among inmates.) He represents everything the Palestinians will need to leave behind if they are to develop a serious national politics: Personality cults and a taste for terrorism are what got them here.

Perhaps the Palestinians will go down that path again, but there is no reason for Trump to pave it for them.


Rubio has been 'extraordinary friend,' with 'circle of trust, partnership,' Netanyahu says
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday.

"This is a circle of trust and partnership. You've been an extraordinary friend of Israel," Netanyahu said, while also referencing US President Donald Trump's speech in the Knesset earlier this month.

"Now we face days of destiny. We want to advance peace, we still have security challenges, but I think that we can work together, and by working together, both address the challenges and seize the opportunities, and plenty of both," he added.

"We have more work ahead of us, but we feel very positive about it. We've been making good progress," Rubio said when discussing Trump's Gaza ceasefire deal.

Rubio: 'We've done the impossible once, intend to keep doing that'
"No one is under any illusions. We've already done the impossible once. And we intend to keep doing that. And we can," he continued.

Trump "has made this a top priority...evidenced by the fact that both Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were here for much of the week and he spent time with them. And the Vice President [Vance] just left and then I'm here now, today, because this is a priority. It's a very important achievement," Rubio commented.

"We feel very positive and confident that we're going to get there, despite substantial obstacles. We're going to get there," Rubio concluded.


PM slams opposition over ‘provocative’ sovereignty votes during Vance visit
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement on Thursday, blasted opposition parties, as well as a fellow member of the premier’s Likud faction, for advancing bills to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.

Wednesday’s Knesset votes were “a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord” during U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s three-day visit to the Jewish state, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset,” the PMO statement continued, stressing that the Likud and the Modern Orthodox parties, which the PMO described as the “principal coalition members,” did not vote in favor of the proposed legislation.

An opposition proposal to extend Jerusalem’s full legal sovereignty over all Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria passed in a preliminary vote on Wednesday, with the support of 25 out of 120 Knesset members, while 24 MKs voted against.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit were among those backing the legislation. Members of the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael faction—the Chassidic part of United Torah Judaism—also voted in favor, as did one Likud MK.

A second proposal by Yisrael Beiteinu Party leader Avigdor Liberman to annex the Judean Desert city of Ma’ale Adumim passed in a preliminary vote 32-9, again with the support of some of the prime minister’s longtime political partners.

The legislation will now be forwarded to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for consideration, with three additional votes in the plenum needed to become law.

Addressing the vote in favor by longtime Likud member Yuli Edelstein, Netanyahu on Thursday described him as a “disgruntled” lawmaker, noting that he was recently fired as chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“Without Likud support, these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The premier on Thursday ordered his coalition whip, MK Ofir Katz, to immediately freeze the proposed bills in the committee.


‘I complimented Saddam,’ Kuwait envoy nominee admits at difficult Senate hearing
Republican and Democratic senators slammed the Trump administration’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait on Thursday over his social media history regarding Jews and the Holocaust, his kind words about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his record as mayor of Hamtramck, Mich.

A Yemeni-born, former Democrat who campaigned for U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, Amer Ghalib faced repeated questions about whether he supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish state at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Do you agree or do you disagree with President Trump’s view that Israel is and should be the national home of the Jewish people?” said Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). “Just say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”

“I think at this point, we have a peace plan that everybody in the region agrees on,” Ghalib said.

It took McCormick and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) asking the question six times for Ghalib to say that he believes that Israel “can be a home for the Jews and the Arabs and the Muslims and the Christians as well.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the panel’s ranking member, quoted Ghalib as saying that reports of rape and sexual violence that Hamas committed on Oct. 7 were “a campaign of lies and deception” and that there wasn’t “any evidence to support that these crimes occurred against victims.”

“When you met with my staff before this hearing, you didn’t deny that you said those statements, which, if that’s true, I appreciate that at least you were honest about it,” she said.

“But you reiterated that you believe there was no evidence of sexual violence against victims of Oct. 7,” she said. “You called Saddam Hussein a ‘martyr’ after Iran fired missiles at American troops in Iraq and liked a tweet that compared Jews to monkeys.”

Ghalib defended his history of “liking” inflammatory Facebook posts by claiming that he had a “bad habit” of acknowledging every reply to his posts with a “like,” regardless of whether he agreed with its content.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expressed skepticism about that explanation.

“Did you say a word of disagreement, or was your only public statement a ‘like,’ which is the universal method of saying you like something and agree with it?” Cruz asked.

Ghalib claimed that he did reply to the comment about Jews being monkeys by writing “you can say this in your country, but not in this country.” He added that the original poster was “mentally challenged.”


Senior Israeli official says 'UNRWA will no longer set foot in Gaza' despite ICJ ruling
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency that operates for the benefit of Palestinian refugees, to enter the Gaza Strip, will not have future involvement in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN News on Thursday.

"As far as we are concerned, UNRWA will no longer set foot in Gaza," the official said.

The official's comments come despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivering an advisory opinion on Wednesday that Israel should be forced to support the relief efforts provided by the UN in Gaza, including its entities, such as UNRWA.

The official told KAN that every UN agency that has entered Gaza has either been a massive failure or has been taken over by Hamas. Therefore, Israel would not permit UNRWA to continue its operations there.

Israel hopes US 'will see eye to eye'
The unnamed official added that Israel had informed the United States of its stance on the matter "in the hope that the Americans will see eye to eye with Israel on this issue."

The ICJ on Wednesday rejected Israel's assertions that a large number of UNRWA employees were members of Hamas.

It was further stated that the UNRWA remains necessary in the region and there is no alternative, even if some of its members have acted against its principles.

Last year, Israel decided to ban UNRWA's activities, including in Gaza.


IDF says terrorists who abducted Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or and Eitan Mor killed in war
Hamas terrorists responsible for the abduction of former hostages Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or, and Eitan Mor from the Nova music festival, and others who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, were killed in strikes in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet announced on Thursday.

The announcement came less than two weeks after Or and Mor were released from Hamas captivity as part of a ceasefire deal. Argamani, Or’s girlfriend, was rescued from Gaza in a special operation in June 2024.

Following an intelligence review, the IDF and Shin Bet said they were able to confirm the deaths of eight Palestinian terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7 and were involved in the abductions and murders of Israelis.

All were killed between March and August of this year, before a ceasefire took effect earlier this month, according to the announcement. Hamas terrorist Arafat Dib is seen abducting Eitan Mor from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. On October 23, 2025, the IDF announced Dib had been killed in a strike in Gaza in May 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The terrorists were listed by the IDF and Shin Bet as:
Ahmad Ibrahim Rajab Shaar, responsible for the abduction of Argamani and Or on October 7. Shaar was killed in a strike on August 22.
Ahmad Abu Marhil, responsible for the abduction of Or on October 7. Marhil was killed in a strike on March 26.
Arafat Dib, responsible for the abduction of Mor on October 7 and holding him in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Dib was killed in a strike on May 30.
Odeh Alyan Ahmad Qaware, a Hamas terrorist who held Israeli hostages in captivity. Qaware was killed on August 26.
Bakr Mujida, who broke Israel’s Gaza border barrier with a tractor and invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught. Mujida was killed on July 13.
Firas Ghrir Sweilam al-Hadaf, who invaded Kibbutz Kissufim during the October 7 onslaught. Al-Hadaf was killed on August 23.
Ibrahim Saleh Rajab Bakhit, who invaded Israel on October 7. Bakhit was killed on July 6.
Mu’ayid Mahmoud Muhammad Nufal, who invaded Israel on October 7. Nufal was killed on March 27.


Call me Back Podcast: Uncovered: Sinwar's 10/7 Masterplan - with Ronen Bergman
On today’s episode, we are joined by Israeli journalist and Call me Back veteran Ronen Bergman. Ronen recently published a piece for the New York Times titled “A Memo in a Bunker, Intercepted Communications and Hamas’ Oct. 7 Plans,” in which he and his co-author Adam Rasgon discuss a recently uncovered six-page memo from August of 2024, which Israeli officials believe was written by Yayha Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and main architect of the October 7 massacre. Dan and Ronen discuss how this memo – as well as other documents discovered earlier in the war – shed light onto Hamas’s goals in launching the attack, and whether, in retrospect, they succeeded.

(00:00) - Introduction
(07:23) - Sinwar’s memo recently discovered in Gaza
(09:45) - How Hamas meticulously documented its activity
(12:42) - How do we know this was written by Sinwar?
(13:51) - What this document directed Hamas forces to do
(15:15) - Hamas terrorists ordered to record and broadcast their crimes
(20:20) - Sinwar’s strategy behind broadcasting October 7
(26:03) - What Sinwar got right, and what he got wrong
(28:53) - How Hamas activated support worldwide
(33:39) - 10 Hamas protocols obtained by the IDF in January, 2024
(37:25) - How Hamas managed to deceive Israel
(38:43) - How Hamas chose the date of October 7, 2023
(42:47) - Collaboration between Hamas in Doha and in Gaza
(44:33) - Sinwar’s goal of igniting regional war
(46:17) - Disrupting Saudi normalization and releasing Palestinian prisoners
(49:04) - Sinwar succeeded at terrifying Israelis
(50:46) - The next phase in Gaza will determine the outcome of the war


What's Next in Gaza? with Amit Segal
Nearly two weeks ago, Hamas and Israel agreed to a historic ceasefire that was meant to bring all the hostages home. President Donald Trump called it “the dawn of a new Middle East.”

Phase one was simple: Return all the hostages—living and dead. While we celebrate that all the living hostages have come home, 13 of the deceased remain in Gaza.

Phase two promised something even bigger: an international peacekeeping force, a transitional government of technocrats, and the disarmament of Hamas. But that now feels further away than ever.

On Sunday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing at Israeli troops and killing two soldiers. Israel responded with a wave of air strikes.

Meanwhile, Gaza is now effectively divided by a “yellow line” separating the area controlled by Hamas from the area controlled by Israel. Hamas has taken to the streets—kidnapping, torturing, and executing civilians in public—to reassert its grip on power.

Many questions linger: What is the timeline for Hamas’s disarmament—and is it even possible? Will an international security force actually be established? And will partner nations send troops who could find themselves in direct conflict with Hamas? How will Israel demand the return of the remaining deceased hostages? And will this Israeli government be able to get phase two across the finish line?

Rafaela Siewert sat down with Free Press contributor Amit Segal to answer these and many more questions about the unfolding situation.




The Media’s War on Israel - with Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman has spent more than a decade dissecting how Israel is covered in the press and what those stories reveal about the storytellers themselves. His 2014 Atlantic essay, What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel, remains one of the sharpest examinations of why global attention is fixated on Israel and why the coverage so often skews against it.

In this conversation, Matti reflects on whether the problems he identified then still hold true today in an age of social media storms. He explains why Israel remains outsized in the Western imagination, how Hamas has weaponized Palestinian suffering, and why the media so often amplifies their playbook.

We also explore whether Israel’s failures in the narrative war are the result of its own missteps, entrenched hostility, or something deeper, and what both the Israeli government and Jewish communities abroad can and should do differently.
Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 54: Can Israel be both Sparta and Athens? With Dan Schueftan
The Gaza war may now be over. But Hamas remains entrenched in the half of Gaza from which the IDF has withdrawn.

Many are hopeful that this marks a new and better day for Gaza, but it's hard to see how Gaza moves forward to the better future envisioned in the Trump peace plan as long as Hamas continues to rule there.

Prof. Dan Schueftan, a preeminent and blunt-spoken Israeli national security scholar who helped craft the original 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza joins the podcast to talk about the meaning of this moment - his lessons from the Gaza withdrawal, how Israeli strategy must account for what he calls the "barbarism" of its enemies, the failures of Israeli strategy that led to October 7 and the resiliency of Israeli society since the massacre. He offers a sober analysis of what the future holds for Gaza.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Gaza Situation
04:39 Historical Context of Gaza Disengagement
09:44 Understanding the Concept of Barbarians
14:22 The Role of Society in Conflict
19:38 The Nature of Hamas and Its Impact
24:12 The Costs of Military Response
28:15 The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Relations
33:15 Cultural Challenges in Gaza
38:26 The Complexity of Solutions
43:02 Conclusion and Future Outlook
44:58 The Future of Gaza and Hamas
49:22 The Ongoing Struggle Against Hamas
54:08 Cultural Challenges in the Arab World
58:59 Realistic Expectations for Gaza's Future
01:14:18 Israeli Resilience and Optimism


Ep. 15: The Battle for Gaza’s Future – with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
In this gripping episode of Mideast Horizons, Asher Fredman speaks with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gazan analyst and reform advocate now based in Washington, DC, whose family has lived through every stage of Gaza’s tragedy. Ahmed shares his deeply personal story of loss, survival, and determination to speak truth about Hamas’s rule and the grim reality facing ordinary Gazans after the ceasefire.

He describes how Hamas has reasserted its control through brutal retribution and violence, even as Gaza lies in ruins. Al-Khatib offers a sobering assessment of the group’s enduring power and the challenge of bringing about its disarmament, despite growing opposition to its rule. He outlines his plan for an effective international stabilization force — with real authority, extensive capabilities, and broad international backing — as the most realistic path toward restoring order.

Looking ahead, he argues that Gaza’s future depends not on slogans but on a new mindset of radical pragmatism: a turn from resistance to rebuilding, from victimhood to responsibility, and from endless conflict toward a vision of coexistence and renewal.


What does the Maccabi Tel Aviv ban tell us about modern Britain? With Brendan O'Neill
After Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were barred from a match in Birmingham, Tim Shipman speaks to Spiked's chief politics writer Brendan O’Neill about what the row reveals, and they discuss failure of politicians to defend Jewish safety and free expression.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – The Maccabi Tel Aviv controversy
05:15 – Britain and islamism
14:50 – Immigration, integration and British values
17:40 – Israel on the global stage
19:40 – Israel under siege – at home and abroad


While Israel Slept – How Complacency Led to Catastrophe - Yaakov Katz ( No, there was no conspiracy)
Former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz joins Noam Dworman and Dan Naturman to dissect the failures behind October 7, the moral and strategic crises of modern Israel, and the political culture that allowed catastrophe to take root. Based on his new book While Israel Slept, Katz lays out how a nation of elite intelligence, defense technology, and Iron Dome confidence was blindsided by its own assumptions.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
01:10 – Journalism in wartime Israel: Patriotism vs Accountability
04:40 – Why Israelis didn’t see Gaza’s destruction
08:10 – Media bias and trauma after October 7
13:00 – AI targeting, 972 Magazine, and how truth gets distorted
21:10 – “While Israel Slept” – The Premise and Title’s Origin
22:30 – Israel’s strategic blindness: Containment and Complacency
26:50 – The myth that Israel “wanted” Hamas
30:00 – Netanyahu, Qatar, and paying for quiet
34:00 – The failure of imagination on October 6
35:10 – Hezbollah and the deterrence paradox
38:20 – Can Israel learn from this? Preemption vs Occupation
40:50 – The Right, the Left, and the Gray Zone
44:00 – Morality, civilian deaths, and propaganda math
50:00 – The antisemitism question and media narratives
56:00 – Netanyahu’s communications failure
57:20 – Conspiracy theories: the “stand-down” myth
01:00:00 – Friendly fire and the Hannibal Directive
01:03:20 – Why Israel must investigate itself
01:06:10 – Closing thoughts and the future of Israeli democracy


Moumen al-Natour. LIVE from Gaza: Hunger, Torture, and Hope — We Want Peace, Not Hamas
In this exclusive Live From the Table conversation, we speak directly with Moumen Al-Natour, the Gazan lawyer and founder of the We Want to Live movement.

Al-Natour describes daily life under Hamas rule, the corruption of aid, hunger during the war, and his escape from repeated torture.

An unfiltered account of courage, suffering, and the fight for a peaceful future.




Mamdani ‘stokes flames of hatred’ against Jews, says Cuomo at mayoral debate
New York City mayoral race frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and former governor Andrew Cuomo traded barbs and each insisted that he was the better protector of the city’s Jews during a debate on Wednesday evening held at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y.

“I will be the mayor who doesn’t just protect Jewish New Yorkers but also celebrates and cherishes them,” said Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman who identifies as a Socialist, and who has accused Israel of “genocide” and said that he’d have the Jewish state’s premier arrested should he visit the Big Apple.

“You’re the savior of the Jewish people?” countered Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.

“You won’t denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means ‘kill Jews,’” Cuomo told Mamdani. “There’s unprecedented fear in New York.”

The frontrunner said that he has heard from “Jewish New Yorkers about their fears about antisemitism in this city.”

“What they deserve is a leader who takes it seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs, not one who weaponizes it as a means to score political points on a debate stage,” Mamdani said.

At press time, 915 rabbis and rabbis in training had signed a “rabbinic call,” which names Mamdani and states, in part, that “all Americans who value peace and equality” ought to “participate fully in the democratic process in order to stand up for candidates who reject antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric and who affirm Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.”

Asked how he would respond to people protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City streets, Cuomo said that such people have the right to protest, but that “doesn’t justify antisemitic behavior in New York.”

“It doesn’t justify leaders who stoke the flames of hatred against Jewish people, which is what Zohran does,” he said.


‘Death to the IDF’ act postpones two UK gigs due to ‘political pressure’
Bob Vylan has said it has postponed two UK gigs due to “political pressure”.

The punk-rock duo have been making headlines since leading chants of “death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)” at Glastonbury Festival in June which was livestreamed by the BBC.

The group have since changed the date for their Manchester gig, part of their We Won’t Go Quietly 2025 UK tour, following calls by Jewish leaders and MPs for it to be cancelled.

They have also postponed their gig in Leeds and rescheduled it for 7 February 2026, while the Manchester gig will go ahead on 5 February 2026.

In a post shared on Instagram on Thursday, the group said: “Due to political pressure from the likes of Bridget Phillipson and groups in the North West of England, we have had to reschedule our Leeds and Manchester shows.

“All tickets remain valid and all other shows are continuing as planned. Bristol sold out, last few tickets left for London. See you soon. Love ya.”

Ahead of the gig at Manchester Academy, which is on the University of Manchester campus, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said universities have the powers to “take action to prevent harassment and intimidation”.

It comes after the Jewish Representative Council (JRC) of Greater Manchester and Region called for the show to be cancelled and said the lack of response from the concert venue following the October 2 synagogue attack in the city was “utterly unforgiveable”.

The JRC, last month, demanded “urgent action” regarding the Bob Vylan performance and said it would cause “significant concern” in the community.




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