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Sunday, October 26, 2025

10/26 Links: The Westerners Helping Hamas Win the Propaganda War; What the West could learn from Israel; Former hostage, turned off the lights at Beilinson’s Returning Hostages Unit

From Ian:

Tom Gross: The Westerners Helping Hamas Win the Propaganda War
Hamas's survival was achieved in part thanks to a chorus of Western apologists. A coalition of activists has excused, rationalized and defended the group's actions across universities and in newspaper editorials.

Tales of impending famine in Gaza, for instance, were broadcast as fact, sourced from UN bureaucrats and "aid agencies" with long records of anti-Israel bias and, in some cases, open sympathy for Hamas. This isn't journalism: it's agenda-driven activism disguised as news.

For Hamas, the Western media is the battlefield - no less important to its survival than its rockets and tunnels. Even before Israeli troops had entered Gaza, Hamas sympathizers in the West were shouting about "genocide" and "famine."

Why were Hamas's inflated casualty figures reported as facts? Why were incorrect claims of Israel bombing hospitals repeated without scrutiny - while confirmed cases of Hamas rockets hitting Israeli hospitals in Ashkelon and Beersheba were ignored?

The Guardian, London Times and New York Times ran a photo of a skeletal child as evidence of famine on their front pages, inflaming the emotions of millions of readers. In reality, the child wasn't malnourished due to famine. He had cerebral palsy, hypoxemia and other genetic conditions. Other widely shared images of "starvation in Gaza" were from Yemen.
Jake Wallis Simons: Expect no apologies for the propaganda spread about Gaza
Saul Bellow observed in 1976 that there was not one Israel but two. The first was “territorially insignificant”, fighting for survival while spanning less than a quarter of a per cent of the Middle East. The second, whether William Blake’s Jerusalem or the “apartheid state” vision of the Gaza Independents, was a fantasyland, described by the American novelist as “as broad as all history and perhaps as deep as sleep”.

Almost five decades after Bellow’s book, following a relentless disinformation campaign by Hamas, the United Nations and the media, two Gazas have also been delivered to the world.

The Gaza of reality remains largely eclipsed. But the hellscape of propaganda, which is as shallow as the false history upon which it is based, yet as profound as the worst human nightmare, is ubiquitous.

But now that a ceasefire has placed a bookmark in the conflict, history can be drafted. For the sake of brevity, let us consider the twin motherlodes of the popular narrative: “famine” and “genocide”.

A spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) first stated that Gaza was at risk of starvation on Oct 18 2023. Five days later, the WFP’s executive director, Cindy McCain, claimed that people were “literally starving to death as we speak”. This was four days before the war began.

Gaza is the most-photographed conflict zone in the world. Where were the pictures of starvation? The Times, The Guardian, The New York Times and others later published an image of a skeletal child suffering from cerebral palsy and hypoxemia. Easy mistake to make.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram showed people cooking and eating. As I pointed out in these pages back in May, the 11-year-old food influencer “Renad From Gaza”, who filmed herself rustling up lasagne, labneh and mezze, had 1.2 million followers. She appeared in that BBC documentary narrated by a boy from a Hamas family. She was seen shopping at bountiful supermarkets. Her follower count has since risen to 1.7 million.
Pierre Rehov: From Dreyfus to Macron: The Grand French Tradition of Politically Correct Antisemitism
Macron did not even have the decency to make his recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state contingent on Hamas releasing the hostages.

Joining Macron in this narcissistic display were other small, soft leaders with large, hard Islamist constituencies -- Britain's PM Keir Starmer, Australia's PM Anthony Albanese, and Canada's PM Mark Carney -- who followed Macron's lead in granting international legitimacy to a cause dedicated to terrorism.

The Palestinian Authority continues to operate as an unelected dictatorship, funneling millions into its infamous pay-for-slay "jobs" program -- sometimes listed as "welfare" -- which grants salaries to terrorists and their families based on how many Jews they succeed in murdering. The more Jews they murder, the higher the monthly stipend. Palestinian schoolbooks still erase Israel from maps, depict Jews as usurpers, and teach children that the ultimate aspiration is martyrdom.

Macron's recognition, applauded by large sections of Europe and beyond, was not the action of a statesman seeking peace. It was a pitiful lunge to hold onto power by a weakened leader, desperate to posture as a "moral arbiter" abroad while avoiding accountability at home. Macron is willing to betray the Israelis, who are fighting not only for the West but for his own people, the French.

After France's defeat at the hands of Germany in 1940 came collaboration. France's Vichy regime did not merely submit to German edicts; it embraced its own homegrown antisemitism. Vichy's machinery operated with bureaucratic zeal: statutes defining who was a Jew, the exclusion of Jews from professions, property seizures, internments, and ultimately deportations to Auschwitz. The cultivated myth of a France "shielding" Jews while Germany did the harm has long since been demolished by the historical record. Vichy was a French government, enacting French laws to persecute Jews on French soil, and in too many instances, to deliver them to their deaths.

The moral cost was enormous. By making stability the overriding priority, French authorities tacitly normalized contact with organizations that targeted Jews and Israelis. These back-channel accommodations blurred the line between counterterrorism and collusion — and served as an early modern example of a recurring French pattern: When domestic tranquility and influence in the Arab world collide with the safety and security of Jews, the balance is often struck in favor of tranquility.


Brendan O'Neill: What the West could learn from Israel
At Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, as I peruse a vast wall of stickers showing the smiling faces of the men and women who were stolen on Oct. 7 - some of whom made it home, some of whom did not - I feel a sudden flush of anger. Anger that Israel was left almost entirely alone to agitate for the precious lives and liberty of these abducted Jews.

A short walk and I am in Dizengoff Square, which has become a makeshift monument to the Israelis who have died in this infernal war Hamas started. Hundreds of lovingly framed photos of the dead have been perched on the perimeter wall of the square's fountain. Untold numbers of joyful, youthful faces. Photos of men and women whose lives have already been given for their country. You see young Israelis with their fierce faith in their nation, with their willingness to die for their people.

How does a country in the 21st century withstand the cult of fashionable frailty and self-hatred and do that thing you're not supposed to do - fight? The secret ingredient is self-belief. The sense of nationhood in Israel, of peoplehood, is extraordinary. That doesn't mean there aren't divisions. There are millions. But everyone I meet - everyone - is a Zionist. The hippy chicks, the pacifist kibbutzniks, the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in a rooftop bar, the old fellas drinking coffee in Dizengoff - all of them.

They are bonded by something that rises above all of it: peoplehood; sovereign conviction; an attachment to nationhood so powerful that it can even withstand the ceaseless barbs and libels of virtually the entire intellectual elite of the Western world.

People say that Europe and the Jews took wholly different lessons from the Second World War. Europe's rulers decided nationalism was bad, the Jews decided nationhood was essential, in order that they might protect themselves from the murderous urges of organized antisemitism. The Jewish people went down the path of restoring their ancient homeland so that they might live freely and securely in the land of their forebears.

Being there reminded me what a nation is: a place of belonging, of attachment, of sacrifice, of promise. A place where the young are brave and the old are safe. A place where soldiers are celebrated and enemies are defeated. A place where no one is left behind. Not a perfect place - but a place that at least aspires to live by high ideals. Let Israel be - it's fine.
Israel braces for 'propaganda war' as global journalists prepare to enter Gaza
In recent weeks, senior Israeli officials and security agencies have been holding intensive discussions about how to manage Gaza’s imminent reopening to the world. With international forces expected to enter the Strip to assist in locating the hostages and the bodies that Hamas claims are no longer in its possession, Israel is bracing for the arrival of foreign journalists who will, for the first time, see the destruction with their own eyes rather than through Hamas-produced footage.

The state told the Supreme Court that Israeli and foreign journalists will soon be permitted to enter Gaza under Israel Defense Forces escort, up to the boundary known as the “yellow line.” The announcement came during a High Court hearing on a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association challenging the government’s restrictions on coverage from within the Strip. Although the state requested and received an extension to file its formal response, the change appears imminent.

Officials across Israel’s public diplomacy establishment are preparing for what they describe as an oncoming wave of negative reports focusing on “human stories” from Gaza. These stories, they say, will likely feature the suffering of civilians amid the devastation and could reignite criticism of Israel’s conduct during the war.

According to those involved in the effort, the Foreign Ministry and the National Public Diplomacy Directorate are also preparing for Hamas’ expected use of the situation to advance a propaganda campaign accusing Israel once again of war crimes.

A large strategy session was recently convened by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit with representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, and other agencies. Foreign Ministry Director-General Eden Bar Tal took part in the meeting.

Officials emphasized that although a ceasefire is in place, “the diplomatic and informational battles are far from over.” One Foreign Ministry source said, “On the contrary, we expect intensified anti-Israel attacks on social media and in traditional media outlets.”

A senior official involved in the planning described the mission as “a central task for every branch of the system.” The challenge, he said, is clear and significant, especially because of the widespread destruction visible in Gaza. “We are working to prepare explanatory materials, with an emphasis on visual and incriminating evidence to illustrate that Hamas turned Gaza into a terror state, cynically using civilians and civilian infrastructure,” he said.
Brendan O'Neill: The Islamo-left is on the march across Britain
Here’s my question: why is it racism for Ukippers to dream of expelling ‘Islamist invaders’ from the UK, but anti-racism for Islamists and their posh simps on the left to agitate for the expulsion of ‘Zionists’ from Britain’s streets? I agree UKIP’s chants were racist. To brand Muslims ‘Islamist invaders’ and demand their ‘remigration’ is vile bigotry. But why can’t the left say the same about the Zio-bashing that we all know is Jew-bashing? Far from calling that out, they snuggle up to it. They fancy themselves as the righteous enemies of racism when in truth they are the obsequious fluffers of Islamist bigotry.

It’s very simple: if you happily march with men in masks who dream of driving ‘Zios’ from our society, then you have thrown your lot in with Jew hatred. You are complicit in the cultivation of a hostile environment for England’s Jews. Here’s a new moral test for everyone holding a public event in the UK: is it safe for Jews to attend? We all know the answer for that Villa / Maccabi clash in a couple of weeks’ time: No. And we all know the answer for the ‘anti-racist’ demo in Whitechapel this weekend: Fuck, no. No Jew in their right mind would go near a gathering at which fantasies of their expulsion from Britain and dreams of destroying their homeland were being noisily and arrogantly entertained.

This is why it is so gross to hear apologists for the demo use words like ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’. Listen, it is not diverse if Jews can’t come. And it is not tolerant if people are covering their faces so that they might safely scream about ‘Zionist scum’. Some have even compared the Whitechapel demo to the Battle of Cable Street. How dare you. That working-class uprising was about defending the Jews of the East End from the animus of bigoted hysterics. Yesterday’s Islamo-left march did the opposite – it exposed Jews to yet more invective and made clear the East End is now a no-go zone for them. It was a reversal of the great gains of Cable Street.

There was a striking moment on this Islamo-left march. A clip doing the rounds shows one of the left muppets saying to an Islamist, ‘We’re on the same side, bruv’. The reply is instant and cutting: ‘No we’re not.’ When will leftists learn what a colossal folly it is to align themselves with fundamentalists who are suspicious of secularism, hateful of homosexuals, dismissive of women and furious about Jews? Did they learn nothing from the Iranian Revolution, when Iranian leftists sided with the Islamist insurgents against the Shah only to find themselves up against the wall once ‘God’s Army’ had taken power?

The left is marching with its own gravediggers. With people who would happily outlaw homosexuality and condemn women to a benighted life in misogynist garments. What could possibly unite the blue-hairs of the middle-class left with these black-masked Islamists? That’s the truly chilling question. Because the answer is this: a deranged hatred for ‘Zios’ and their nation. This has got to be the most objectionable and opportunistic alliance of bigots in the modern era. But the glue of Jew hatred won’t last forever. Eventually the Islamo-left will fall out. And looking at yesterday’s march, I know who’d win that scrap.


Ruthie Blum: Trump’s ‘Time’ interview preceded the sovereignty vote, stupid!
All the outlets highlighting U.S. President Donald Trump’s alleged “response” to the passage of two Knesset bills in favor of extending Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria should be called to task for journalistic negligence, if not disingenuousness.

Citing Trump’s Oct. 24 interview with Time magazine, reporters and pundits on the left have been claiming—with customary glee about a fantasized chasm between Washington and Jerusalem—that the president’s comments came in the wake of the Oct. 23 Knesset vote.

The same goes for those to the right of Netanyahu, who keep expressing their ire that the United States is treating Israel like a vassal state—and point to Trump’s remarks as evidence.

What both groups have in common is a lack of trust in how the Israeli prime minister has been handling his relationship with Trump. As though he hasn’t been steering the country valiantly through the multi-front war, with every kind of domestic and foreign pressure imaginable.

So, let’s set the record straight with a few facts. The first is that the Time interview, conducted over the phone by Eric Cortellessa on Oct. 15, took place eight days prior to the Knesset vote.

The second is that Trump has been saying for months what he reiterated in the interview. The exchange, taken from the transcript, was as follows:
Europe's diminishing role in Middle East diplomacy: Why it's time for change
THESE POLICIES culminated in the 2025 recognition of a Palestinian state by a number of leaders, a move that effectively rewarded Hamas for its violence and the PA for its silence. Consequently, two years after the October 7 massacre, Europe finds itself in a paradoxical situation: Despite being the main financial backer of the Palestinians, it still has no seat at the negotiating table in the Middle East.

One main reason is that European diplomacy is not based on strategic clarity, but on an overacted moral outrage that is increasingly being manipulated.

From the earliest hours following the October 7 attack, a parallel offensive to the genocidal war against Israel was launched: the battle over the narrative, led by the influential and highly politicized NGO network.

At the forefront of this campaign were Palestinian organizations such as Al-Haq, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Al Mezan, all linked to the terror group People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), along with their allies in Europe – notably, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). These NGOs are funded by the European Commission or EU member states, and have been described as “key partners” by the EU’s Special Representative for Human Rights.

These groups, also recently sanctioned by the US, citing the lobbying and lawfare campaigns against Israel in the ICC – launched a flood of accusations such as “genocide” and “starvation as a weapon,” and calling for international intervention including an arms embargo to deprive Israel of self-defense means.

Even before the Israeli victims were buried, these organizations were already shaping a false version of events meant to invert the roles of aggressor and victim.

This offensive would not have succeeded without the ideological readiness of European elites to submit to it. Activist media, academic, and political circles marketed false images of the anti-terror war, leading European leaders (starting with Emmanuel Macron) to abandon strategic clarity and adopt false morality, driven by emotion and electoral calculus. Rather than defending a responsible position that reflected reality, they chose to return to the 77-year-old victimhood narrative promoted by the NGO industry and UN officials.

Restarting funding to the Palestinian Authority
THIS SURRENDER resulted in a series of damning policies, including restarting funding to the PA without binding conditions and oversight; signing agreements without serious demands for educational reform to end incitement; or a halt to “Pay for Slay” – the practice of paying salaries to convicted terrorists.

In addition, the leaders acquiesced to the demonizing practice of excluding Israeli companies from international trade fairs, and threatening Israel with economic sanctions.

This process reached a crescendo with hasty recognition of a fictitious Palestinian state in September 2025, even while Hamas still held power and hostages were held in Gaza – and still remains a damaging force.

Paradoxically – and undoubtedly because of this posture – Europe has disqualified itself as a relevant diplomatic actor, as highlighted in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit. The real negotiations were led by the United States, backed by Arab and Muslim states. As a result of Europe’s diplomacy of posturing, Israeli distrust remains strong – while other regional players prioritize stability and security over rhetoric.

Now, as discussions increasingly focus on the reconstruction of Gaza, a key question arises: Can Europe undertake the basic changes necessary to make a substantial contribution to stability, beginning with enforcing long-overdue oversight on aid?

To do so, Europe must attach clear conditions to its assistance – demanding not only more words but implementation of concrete reforms that promote Palestinian deradicalization and ensure financial transparency.

Without such measures, nothing will change, and performative morality will continue, characterized by diplomacy that is weak, incoherent, and reflects narrow ideological slogans. As Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, recently wrote:
“While others moralized, America mobilized. While others performed outrage, America performed diplomacy.”Europe has the means to regain its influence. But first, it must choose to face reality.
Israel will 'take action' if Hamas fails to return hostage remains, Israeli official tells 'Post'
For five days now, Hamas has not transferred the remains of Israeli hostages to Israel, and Israeli officials are making it clear that their patience is running out.

“We won’t wait forever,” a senior political source told The Jerusalem Post. “We want to see progress. President Trump gave Hamas a 48-hour ultimatum to make some kind of advancement on the issue of returning the bodies of the kidnapped victims—and we will take action if, in the end, Hamas fails to move forward on this matter.”

According to Israeli sources, Hamas could return most of the bodies immediately. “The terrorist organization is capable of returning a large number of the murdered hostages’ bodies without any difficulty,” an Israeli official told The Post.

“There may be some bodies that require an operation to retrieve them from underground, and there are others whose burial sites Hamas may not know—but the majority could be returned right now.”

In an unusual move, Israel allowed a representative of the terrorist organization to enter the Israeli-controlled area of the Gaza Strip to work with Egyptian representatives and members of the Red Cross in locating the bodies.

“It’s just one individual operating there, under full IDF control,” an Israeli official said, clarifying that Egypt sent only a symbolic delegation and a small number of tools to assist in the recovery. “There’s one excavator and two trucks for moving sand,” the official added.
Will an International Force Be Able to Confront Hamas?
The Civil-Military Coordination Center for Gaza is being set up in Israel at a rapid and impressive pace. There is an international blend of Israelis, Americans, French, Germans, Canadians, Cypriots, Greeks, and others in the enormous hangars. Yet nobody possesses plans yet for how to proceed, only good intentions.

What is still absent is a unified International Stabilization Force (ISF), certainty regarding the nations that will comprise it, coordination methods between the different armies that will function within it, guidelines on what occurs in problematic scenarios, and a Security Council resolution without which the force won't be established.

Consequently, even though the Americans and the Israelis assisting them are all functioning at Trump speed, weeks or months will elapse before the ISF commences dismantling Hamas from its armaments, demolishing the tunnels, and demilitarizing Gaza.

Ultimately, a moment will come when the international force will need to confront Hamas terrorists directly. Every day that elapses will render the ISF's future work more challenging, perhaps even unfeasible.
Netanyahu: Israel will set its own red lines on int’l forces deployed under Trump peace plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Jerusalem will continue to determine its own security policies, including by setting red lines regarding the international forces that will be deployed to stabilize Gaza as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Strip.

“Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us—that is how we act and we will continue to act,” Netanyahu told fellow ministers at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.

“This, of course, is also acceptable to the United States, as its most senior representatives have stated in recent days,” Netanyahu stressed, adding: “Israel is an independent country. We will defend ourselves with our own strength, and we will continue to determine our own destiny.”

The premier noted that the Israel Defense Forces had dropped 150 tons of explosives on Hamas terrorists following the Oct. 19 attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in violation of the week-old ceasefire agreement.

The IDF also continues to thwart emerging threats, including in Gaza and in Southern Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group is seeking to rebuild its presence, according to the prime minister.

“We do not ask anyone’s permission for this,” Netanyahu declared.

The premier in his opening remarks slammed what he called “ridiculous claims regarding the relationship between the United States and Israel.”

“When I was in Washington, it was said there that I control the American administration, that I dictate its security policy. Now they are claiming the opposite—that the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet.

“Neither is true,” he continued, emphasizing that both the Jewish state and the United States are independent nations that set their own defense policy.

“Our relationship is a partnership,” Netanyahu said. “This partnership, which reached an all-time high, was demonstrated in the operational cooperation during the second phase of ‘Operation Rising Lion,'” he added, referring to Washington’s decision to join Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June.

“It was also evident, and was recently expressed, in the release of all the living hostages from Gaza, and of course in the efforts to bring back the fallen. In other areas as well, we are working together to reshape the Middle East,” the prime minister stressed.
Hamas selects Amjad Shawa to head new Gaza board - KAN
Amjad Shawa, the head of a civil society network in Gaza, has been named by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as the approved leader for the new technocratic board that will rule the Gaza Strip, Israel Public Broadcaster KAN News reported Sunday evening.

Shawa's approval occurred during a meeting last week between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Egyptian intelligence in Cairo, according to KAN, though his official appointment depends on the United States.

"Amjad Shawa is pro-Hamas without being a Hamas man," Palestinian sources told KAN.

While Hamas selected half of the potential board members, the Palestinian Authority selected the other half. During the meeting in Cairo, however, KAN reported that Egypt presented the completed list to Hamas in order to "appease the organization."


Mossad names ‘Sardar Ammar’ as architect of Iranian plots in Australia, Greece, and Germany
Israel’s Mossad on Sunday publicly identified a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) figure it says oversaw multiple foiled attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide in 2024–2025 and pointed to fresh diplomatic fallout, including Australia’s expulsion of Iran’s ambassador and Germany’s summoning of Tehran’s envoy.

In a statement released via the Prime Minister’s Office on behalf of the Mossad, the agency said it was “exposing for the first time” a network under Sardar Ammar, a senior IRGC commander operating under Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force, which it said directed attempts in Australia, Greece, and Germany.

The Mossad described the modus operandi as “terror without Iranian fingerprints, high compartmentalization, recruitment of foreigners, use of criminals, and covert communications,” adding that “thanks to intensive activity with partners in Israel and abroad, dozens of attack tracks were thwarted, saving many lives.”

The agency said Ammar’s mechanism “was directly responsible for the attempted attacks revealed in Greece, Australia, and Germany over the past year,” alleging it sought to strike “Israeli and Jewish targets in Israel and abroad” but was repeatedly exposed, leading to “a wave of arrests.”

The Mossad also cited diplomatic repercussions it said were tied to the network’s exposure and broader Iranian activity. In late August, Australia expelled Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and said it would move to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization after intelligence linked Tehran to antisemitic arson attacks in Melbourne and Sydney; Sadeghi denied the allegations as he departed the country.

In Germany, authorities in July summoned Iran’s ambassador, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, after the arrest of a Danish suspect accused of surveilling Jewish and Israel-linked sites in Berlin on behalf of Iranian intelligence, with officials warning such activity could be preparatory to terrorist attacks.


Who is Sami Hamdi, why was British journalist detained by ICE? DHS Assistant Secretary issues massive warning
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that Sami Hamdi's visa had been revoked and he was in ICE custody pending removal.

British journalist Sami Hamdi was detained at San Francisco International airport, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calling for his release.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed on X that Sami Hamdi's visa had been revoked and he was in ICE custody pending removal.

Why was Sami Hamdi detained?
The largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US noted that Hamdi had likely been detained for his criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza and due to the urging of an anti-Muslim, pro-Israel extremist.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, thanked the work of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary Marco Rubio. “Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country. It’s commonsense,” McLaughlin added.

She attached the post from Amy Mekelburg or Amy Mek, an American activist who's a critic of Islam and is the founder of right-wing platform RAIR foundation. Mek had called for Hamdi's deportation.


‘We All Have a Trump Problem’: UN Official Angling for Role in Post-War Gaza Has History of Bashing Trump
A senior U.N. official jockeying for a prominent role in implementing President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan has a history of bashing Trump on his personal X account. Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator in Gaza, has advocated for foreign leaders to boycott the president and warned the world has "a Trump problem," among many other insults in more than two dozen social media posts reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Fletcher has been working overtime in recent weeks to present himself to the Trump administration as a key figure in the humanitarian aid portion of Trump’s 20-point plan. The U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—which delivered aid from this spring until the recent ceasefire—says it is ready to resume its role, but Fletcher is angling to restore the Hamas-tied U.N. Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) image and ensure it plays a critical role in post-war Gaza.

The British-born U.N. official has argued to the Trump administration that UNRWA is the only organization capable of handling aid in Gaza, even though dozens of its employees participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack and remain affiliated with the terror group, White House insiders told the Free Beacon.

"Fletcher is waging a charm offensive on Trump officials trying to reboot himself from pro-Hamas propagandist to reliable U.S. partner for humanitarian aid in Gaza," said one source, speaking on background about the active discussions. "The British accent covers up a pernicious agenda."

Fletcher repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes during its two-year war in Gaza, claiming in multiple interviews the Jewish state subjected Gazan civilians to "forced starvation," an allegation Hamas and its media allies also promoted. Earlier this year, Fletcher parroted false claims that more than 14,000 Gazan babies would die in 48 hours if Israel did not boost aid deliveries in Gaza, comments he later walked back. As recently as August, though, Fletcher was still pushing inaccurate claims that Israel intentionally created a famine in Gaza.

Though Fletcher is now positioning himself as a Trump ally and confidant who can help enforce the White House’s 20-point peace plan in Gaza, further social media posts demonstrate he spent years opposing the president’s "extremist" agenda.


Report: Israel does not know location of 4 out of 13 slain hostages in Gaza
Israel does not know the location of four of the remaining 13 bodies of hostages being held in Gaza, according to a report from the Kan public broadcaster.

Jerusalem has been trying to impress upon Washington the utmost importance of the return of the remaining bodies from the Strip, as the US has sent a series of high-level officials in the past week to the region to shore up the shaky ceasefire.

According to the report, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir tried to explain to visiting US Vice President JD Vance last week that Israel has spent years trying to locate the remains of Hadar Goldin, a soldier killed in 2014 whose body is one of the 13 that Israel is still waiting to recover.

Israeli officials have insisted that Hamas could easily return a number of the bodies it is currently holding, even as the terror group has claimed that it needs assistance in locating and recovering them.
Israel said to permit Hamas to enter IDF-held areas of Gaza to search for dead hostages
Red Cross and Egyptian teams were permitted by Israel to search for the bodies of deceased hostages beyond the “Yellow Line” demarcating the military’s pullback in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government spokesperson said on Sunday.

Another unnamed Israeli official told Hebrew-language media that Hamas representatives had been permitted to enter Israel Defense Forces-controlled areas in Gaza to search for the bodies, alongside the Egyptian and Red Cross teams.

Hamas claims it has not yet been able to locate the bodies of some of the remaining 13 hostages, and has not returned any bodies since Tuesday. However, Israel is reportedly “certain” the terror group can hand over more bodies but is refusing to do so, and is also holding back information about their location, in a direct breach of the October 9 hostage-ceasefire agreement.

The government spokesperson said the Egyptian technical team and the Red Cross would use excavators and trucks for the search for the bodies in territory under Israeli military control. She did not mention the reports claiming that Hamas members were also permitted to enter the IDF-held areas of Gaza.

“Hamas members were allowed, for this purpose, to cross the Yellow Line,” an Israeli official was cited as saying by Army Radio. Channel 12 news cited an official as saying that “Israel authorized a representative of Hamas to enter the Yellow Line together with the Red Cross to help locate fallen hostages.”

The Qatari Al-Araby published footage of Hamas members — reportedly from the “Shadow Unit” of the group’s military wing, which is responsible for guarding hostages — together with a Red Cross vehicle in the al-Mawasi area near Rafah, an area that is not under IDF control.


Tikvah: What Israel's Two-Year War Means for Jewish State’s Future | Tikvah Special Briefing
On Monday, October 13, just over two years after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, pursuant to a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that was brokered by the Trump administration and several Arab states, all 20 living Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza were returned to Israel. In exchange, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners—including hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands—and pulled back its position in Gaza, though the IDF still controls more than half of the Strip.

At this moment, though the ceasefire is being tested after a Hamas attack on IDF troops, it is clear that a momentous chapter in Israeli history has also come to a close. For two years, the men and women of Israel's citizen army have courageously taken to the field of battle, fighting not only in Gaza, but reshaping the entire region. Despite a diplomatic tsunami of hostility and waning international support, Israel and America deepened their alliance, working together to strike Iran's nuclear facilities and change the strategic reality of the Middle East. And Israeli society itself has undergone profound changes, even as old battles over issues like the haredi ​draft took on new urgency amidst Israel's longest war.

To help us make sense of what the last two years mean in the scope of Zionist history, Jonathan Silver was joined by Tikvah’s chairman Elliott Abrams, the writer Melanie Phillips, and the Israeli haredi thinker Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer for a wide-ranging discussion about the past two years and the future of the Jewish people and the West. They explore what this period has meant for contemporary Israeli society, the U.S.-Israel relationship, and the broader fight for the values and ideals of Western civilization.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & Reflection
05:00 The New U.S.-Israel Alliance: Strategic Shifts
07:24 Western Moral Confidence and Leadership
10:40 Sustainability of the Alliance and Use of Force
13:55 Jewish Tradition and the Religious Imperative of War
20:12 Courage, Faith, and Civilizational Defense
24:08 The Price of Victory: Hostage Deals and Moral Trade-offs
28:00 Palestinian Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and Zionism
31:51 Jewish Law and Hostage Redemption
37:50 The War’s Impact on Israeli Society and Diaspora Relations
48:04 Reliance on American Support
51:53 Qatar, Turkey, and Gaza’s Governance
56:09 The Haredi Community and IDF Integration
1:02:22 The Future of Jews in the UK and Europe
1:09:38 Closing Reflections


Ben Shapiro on Dem candidate with Nazi tattoo, Trump demands $230M from DOJ | Batya! Full Show 10/25
On this week’s episode of “Batya!” host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and co-founder of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro joins the show. Shapiro and Batya discuss a Democratic Senate candidate who had to cover up a tattoo with links to Nazis, all as Dems pillage the GOP with rhetoric about being too aligned with Nazi ideology. They talk about how both sides need to do better at condemning Nazi rhetoric in politics. Plus, President Trump is seeking $230 million from the Department of Justice for past cases brought against him. And who exactly is the progressive darling podcaster Hasan Piker?




Over 1,500 academics defend Israeli professor – could this be Britain’s turning point?
The most striking feature of the mobbing of an Israeli professor at City University – libelled as a “terrorist,” shouted down mid-lecture, and even reportedly threatened with beheading – is not the thuggishness of this keffiyah-clad mob, or “brownshirts,” as Kemi Badenoch aptly called them in her interview with the JC. Sadly, we have learned to expect this over the past two years.

What is surprising, and encouraging, is that within days more than 1,500 academics signed a letter defending academic freedom and expressing solidarity with their Israeli colleague – and with every Jewish and Israeli student who might feel threatened. At last, an expression of moral clarity in institutions that for too long have tolerated, excused, or even indulged this poison.

What happened at City University is not just another campus scandal. It is part of a relentless escalation over the past two years, in which antisemitism has erupted in universities, politics, unions, and the arts. At each stage, the silence of the decent majority has only emboldened ever more aggressive and violent tactics. The question now is whether this letter can serve as a clarion call, the moment when civil society finally draws a line in the sand and reasserts the nation’s traditions of liberty and civility against an extremist minority.

For this hatred of Israel, this attack on Jewish life in Britain, is not merely un-British – it is profoundly anti-British. The goal of these fanatics is to corrode this country’s freedoms and institutions, and to replace its democratic traditions with mob rule.

Enforcing the law strictly and uniformly will of course remain essential in this struggle. But the defence of Britain’s freedoms cannot be subcontracted to the police alone; it depends in equal measure on the courage of the many refusing to be cowed by the few. It requires ordinary citizens – students, colleagues, neighbours – to speak up and push back.

Now that even academia has spoken – the very place where so much of this venom originated – where are the artists who prefer to posture about distant conflicts instead of standing up against anti-Jewish discrimination in their own industry and country? Where are the letters signed by doctors and nurses calling out colleagues who spread hatred, intimidating Jewish patients and medical staff? Where are the union members telling their leaders to stop obsessing about Israel and get on with improving pay and conditions?
spiked: The Jew hunt on a London campus
Andrew Fox, Tom Slater and Fraser Myers discuss the hate campaign against an Israeli Jewish professor at City University in London.


Senior NHS doctor who went on anti-Semitic rants and made vile racist slur against Deputy PM David Lammy is now back at work
A senior hospital doctor who called Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy a 'monkey bought by Zionists' has returned to work, in a blow to the Government's commitment to stamp out anti-Semitism and racism in the NHS.

In March, The Mail on Sunday exposed a series of sickening comments posted online by Aqeel Jamil, a consultant gastroenterologist at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Dr Jamil, who lives in a £1million home in Southampton, declared: 'Israelis are all fascists.'

He also joined a commentator criticising then Foreign Secretary David Lammy's response to the Gaza war, writing: 'Monkey bought by Zionists.'

Following our revelations, Health Secretary Wes Streeting condemned Dr Jamil's 'vile racist posts'.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust launched an investigation but revealed Dr Jamil has returned to work.

In a statement, the trust said: 'Dr Jamil has accepted his behaviours were not appropriate.'

The decision comes just a week after Sir Keir Starmer ordered a review of anti-Semitism in the NHS, saying 'clear cases' are not being dealt with adequately.


Gil Hoffman: Al Jazeera's alleged changes don't make the Qatari news outlet trustworthy
A FORMER Al Jazeera staffer called the changes “cosmetic” and “too late.”

“Qatar always does this after their relations with their neighbors worsen due to the incitement on Al Jazeera,” she said. “I don’t trust them, and from what I see on their Instagram, I don’t think there is a substantial change.”

She pointed out that on Monday night, the network aired a show anchored by a host with close ties to Hamas, who revealed the names of soldiers involved in the death of Hind Rajab, a Gazan girl killed during the war.

News anchor Mhamed Krichen, who has half a million followers, suggested on X that Jews cannot be trusted because they violate agreements, using terminology from the Quran.

And Al Jazeera English’s main political analyst, Marwan Bishara, posted on X that “the focus on the few Israeli captives and deliberately ignoring the millions [of Palestinians] suffering is beyond hypocritical. It’s inhumane.” He later also called it “sickening.”

Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior adviser Toby Dershowitz wrote an article questioning whether “the shake-up at Al Jazeera is mere motion or does it entail real movement away from the media network’s role as a vehicle for pro-Hamas propaganda?” Her answer was “Time will tell.”

“If Al Jazeera is to be a force for good, it needs to rethink its promotion of Hamas’s brand of terrorism not only in its English and Arabic channels but also in its broadcasts and digital products in French, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages,” she wrote. “It also needs to telegraph to its 3,000 employees in 60 countries throughout its news and non-news platforms that this moment in history calls for new policies.”

Dershowitz said her sources close to Al Jazeera say there is still no clear direction or vivid editorial change underway and that many of those driving day-to-day coverage remain emotionally or ideologically tied to the Hamas narrative.

Israel Hayom diplomatic analyst Danny Zaken, who monitors the network in English and Arabic, said, “I didn’t notice any change in their reports.”

A new report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed this week how Hamas has given Al Jazeera detailed instruction on media coverage, even setting up a secure phone line for real-time coordination. Based on documents found in Gaza, the report explained how Al Jazeera was central to Hamas’s efforts at psychological warfare.

It does not make what Al Jazeera has done any better, but even CNN’s most well-known journalist has also given a hand to Hamas propaganda.

HonestReporting revealed exclusively that CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, minimized the suffering of Israeli hostages on Monday, saying that they were “probably being treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns and chips that Hamas had.”

Amanpour has now had to apologize three times in five years directly due to misstatements revealed exclusively by HonestReporting.

So just like with the end of the war, we will have to be patient when it comes to waiting for coverage of Israel to improve.


Israel indicts Turks over plot to smuggle Iranian-supplied weapons via Jordan border
Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office has indicted three Turkish citizens for their involvement in a plot to smuggle handguns into the Jewish state on behalf of an Iranian arms supplier, it announced Sunday morning.

Oktay Asci, Rahman Gokyir and Yunus Ozel were indicted for weapons offenses for their role in a plot to smuggle the Iranian-supplied arms into Israel through the border with Jordan. The first suspect was also charged with attempting to provide means for carrying out terror.

According to Sunday’s indictment, Asci offered Gokyir inclusion in the smuggling network in July. Gokyir agreed to receive the weapons, store them, transfer them to third parties and collect the money from the deals, the indictment states. He was allegedly promised a million dollars for his role.

Last month, Gokyir and Asci agreed to infiltrate Israel through Jordan to operate the network. The two flew from Turkey to Saudi Arabia and from there to Jordan, and agreed to smuggle three guns. The two were arrested by Israeli soldiers before crossing the security fence.

As part of the network’s activities, Asci allegedly recruited the third suspect, Ozel, to go to the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station to finalize a weapons deal. Ozel was said to have waited twice with the money, but the person who was supposed to deliver the pistol did not show up.

Despite the failed deals, Ozel allegedly kept some 5,000 shekels ($1,300).

Asci is also suspected to have collected a handgun and hidden it near his residence in the Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam. The main suspect in the case allegedly transferred the pistol to an unidentified second person.

The Islamic Republic continues its efforts to instigate terrorism in Judea and Samaria by flooding the area with weapons, The New York Times reported in April 2024, citing American, Israeli and Iranian officials.

The majority of the weapons smuggled into the territories are small arms and assault rifles, analysts said. However, the U.S. and Israeli officials said that the Islamic Republic is also smuggling in more advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Palestinian charged in failed Tel Aviv bus-bomb plot
Military prosecutors in Israel on Sunday said they’d indicted a Palestinian man for leading a failed plot to blow up passengers on buses near Tel Aviv in February.

Abed Alkarim Snobar conspired with several other defendants, who are also standing trial in Israel for their alleged actions, to plant explosive devices on buses in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, according to a statement released by the Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesperson’s Unit. Snobar is the main defendant, according to the IDF prosecution.

Snobar “made several high-powered explosive charges featuring nails and screws to maximize the harm” to victims, according to the statement. Snobar entered Israel on Feb. 20 and placed five charges in four buses in the Tel Aviv and Bat Yam area, timing them to go off at different times, according to the Spokesperson’s Unit.

However, some of the charges went off at night when the buses were parked and empty, resulting in no injuries. This alerted security forces to the plot. The remaining charges were located and neutralized. Snobar was caught in July after evading security forces in Judea and Samaria for months. He was preparing a new terrorist attack in Tel Aviv at the time of his arrest, and had contacted others to carry it out, according to the statement.

At least one of the bombs bore a note, in Arabic and Hebrew, that stated “revenge from the Tulkarem refugee camp,” a reference to the terrorist hotbed in Judea and Samaria where Israeli security forces have been conducting counter-terror operations, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported at the time.


Trump's Doctrine for Iran: Containment over Regime Change
We must acknowledge a sobering reality: If regime change in Iran was ever a viable policy instrument in the post-1979 context, its prospects have probably been materially diminished. Economic sanctions, a humiliating military defeat, spectacular proxy setbacks in Syria and Lebanon, and growing internal dissent have left Iran exposed, vulnerable, and profoundly isolated on the global stage.

President Trump's halting Israeli jets en route to "take out" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - framed as a deliberate pivot away from escalation and final regime collapse - reflected a calculated aversion to the chaos of Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya. Absent a viable alternative ready to govern 90 million people, any forced collapse might fracture Iran into sectarian fiefdoms, destabilize the region's oil arteries, and invite opportunistic intrusions by all sorts of rogue elements. Neither Washington nor Jerusalem nor the Sunni Arab states harbor the appetite for that.

The exiled opposition remains vocal, but lacks the inclusive, pluralist leadership capable of galvanizing Iran's fragmented society. In this void, policymakers in Washington, Jerusalem, and most European capitals have reached a tacit consensus that containment, rather than collapse, may now be the preferred operative paradigm. Karim Sajadpour's recent Foreign Affairs analysis amplifies this recalibration. He portrays Iran's regime as brittle yet durable, exposed abroad, but still commanding repressive might at home.

President Trump's approach substitutes pressure for confrontation - a formula that combines military encirclement, financial strangulation, and diplomatic isolation with calibrated outreach. In Trump's view, this isn't appeasement. The new containment doctrine seeks to freeze the battlefield - a status quo deterrence that extracts verifiable concessions on missiles, proxies, and enrichment without plunging the region into chaos.

Yet for ordinary Iranians, this policy extends economic suffocation and postpones dreams of liberation; for the opposition in exile, it will feel like betrayal. Still, no foreign actor can midwife Iran's transformation. Only Iranians themselves possess the agency and collective will to reshape their political destiny. Sustainable transformation in Iran will not come from bombardments or sanctions, but from the soil of indigenous resolve.


Nvidia’s massive Israel expansion: New hub to triple size
Nvidia announced on Sunday that it plans to move its Beersheva research and development center to a new location three times the size of the existing facility. The new site at Gav-Yam’s high-tech park in the city, covering roughly 3,000 square meters (32,292 square feet), is projected to reach full operational capacity by the end of the first half of 2026.

This marks Nvidia’s southernmost location in Israel, complementing the established development centers in Tel Aviv, Ra’anana, Yokneam, Mevo Carmel and Tel Hai. Alongside the expansion, Nvidia intends to hire hundreds of additional staff in the southern area, including chip developers, hardware and software engineers, architects, students and advanced degree holders.

The existing teams at the facility and incoming personnel will participate in developing cutting-edge hardware and software for AI networking, including NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet, Quantum-X InfiniBand, NVLink, ConnectX and BlueField DPUs products, along with central processing units for data centers and additional technologies.

Nvidia employs over 5,000 people in Israel. According to the company, since purchasing Mellanox in 2020, Nvidia’s Israeli workforce has more than doubled, with the company maintaining expansion through hundreds of available positions nationwide.

“Expanding Nvidia’s development center in Beersheva demonstrates our dedication to accessing the finest engineers, regardless of their location,” said Amit Krig, senior vice president at Nvidia and director of Nvidia’s development center in Israel. “The new facility will function as a professional home for hundreds of additional developers from Beersheva and surrounding communities, who will participate in creating groundbreaking hardware and software technologies and drive global innovation in artificial intelligence.”

“Opening Nvidia’s new facility and tripling its activities in the city constitutes significant and vital news for Beersheva and the Negev,” said Beersheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich. “This choice reflects trust in the Beersheva ecosystem, and will generate hundreds of new employment opportunities that will bolster the city’s human capital and cement Beersheva’s position as a premier innovation hub.”
100 Australian doctors prepare to immigrate to Israel
Over one hundred Australian doctors were gathering this week in both Melbourne and Sydney as part of a major immigration fair for medical professionals planning on moving to Israel following the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The event comes amid a sharp rise in antisemitism around the world following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. In Australia, currently ruled by a strongly anti-Israel government, a synagogue and a Jewish daycare center were firebombed and Jewish-owned properties and cars have been vandalized.

The attacks have shaken the 110,000-strong Jewish community in Australia, which is strongly Zionist, in no small part because Australia long served as the second largest refuge for Holocaust survivors after Israel.

“The reality is that if you would have run this conference before Oct. 7 you would have at 10% of what you have now,” said Dr. Jack Cohen, 50, a GP who relocated to Australia from the United Kingdom over two decades ago and who now intends to move to Israel with his four children. “There has always been a strong pull factor to Israel, but now there is a very strong push factor that didn’t used to exist,” he added.

“Oct. 7 cemented and reinforced why we want to come to Israel,” said Dr. Daniel Diamond, 33, an Australian GP who married an American-Israeli he had met in Israel three years ago when taking some time off, afterwards returning to Australia to finish his medical training. “The comfort level of life here went away after Oct. 7,” he said.

The MedEx event, which seeks to address Israel’s critical shortage of physicians, was organized by the nonprofit Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with Israel’s ministries of aliyah and integration, health, and the Negev and Galilee, along with the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel.

“You can feel the vibrant and Zionist community in the air,” Aliya and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer told JNS Sunday at the fair in Melbourne. “I came to strengthen, and I came away strengthened.”

Nearly 200 Australians immigrated to Israel last year, according to Aliya and Integration Ministry figures.


‘So good you’re home’: Discharged from hospital, 5 ex-hostages welcomed home by masses
Recently released hostages Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Eitan Mor, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were received jubilantly at their homes on Sunday after they were discharged from hospitals after days of treatment, following their more than two years in captivity where they were tortured, starved and stuck in isolation.

Kalfon, who was discharged from the Tel Aviv-area Sheba Hospital last Monday, stayed with his family for six more days at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan, before heading home to Dimona in the Negev Desert.

Many of the hostages’ families have stayed at Kfar Maccabiah while their loved ones recuperate at nearby hospitals, and the released hostages have often joined their families there before their final release.

Kalfon, 26, blew kisses as he boarded a minibus headed to his native Dimona, where his grandmother was awaiting him in a retirement home. Freed hostage Segev Kalfon leaves Kfar Maccabiah in Ramat Gan, October 26, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Well-wishers lined the streets of the southern city, which was draped in US and Israeli flags and blue and white balloons.

“Segev, it’s so good that you’ve come home,” read one of the banners greeting him home.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Kalfon grinned, waved and pointed at the crowd.

“This is what I waited for the most. I waited for home,” Kalfon told Channel 12. “People of Israel, pay attention — this is unity.”

“The war is not over,” he added. “We have hostages who are still there.”




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