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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

12/31 Links Pt1: Netanyahu: Israel emerged from war ‘stronger than ever’; How Gaza Aid Vetting Became a Media Narrative; Mamdani selects anti-Israel lawyer as chief counsel

From Ian:

Israel emerged from war ‘stronger than ever,’ Netanyahu says at JNS event in Florida
More than two years after Hamas attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, “Israel has come out of this war stronger than ever before,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told attendees of a JNS event in Surfside, Fla., which drew hundreds of people on New Year’s Eve.

“Stronger than ever before economically. What does strong mean? Well, we just signed a $37 billion gas deal,” Netanyahu said at the Shul of Bal Harbour, a Chabad congregation. “That’s strong. We just had Nvidia—they decided to have a massive investment in Israel, and we welcome it.”

The Israeli premier told attendees that the Jewish state made alliances and peace with strong countries.

“We have opened up opportunities for peace that have never existed before. In the first term of President Trump’s office, we did the Abraham Accords that brought four historic peace accords with four Arab states,” he said. “We’re committed to do more.”

“It’s peace through strength,” he said. “It’s prosperity through strength.”

Netanyahu spoke for about 15 minutes at the hour-long event. Sens. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Jay Collins, the Florida lieutenant governor, spoke after the prime minister. Alex Traiman, the CEO of JNS, was one of the speakers who introduced the prime minister.

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York, and Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York, also attended, as did Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Reps. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) and Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.).

Leo Terrell, who leads the U.S. Justice Department’s task force on Jew-hatred, and Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi whom the U.S. Senate recently confirmed as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, also attended.

Netanyahu told the audience that it is important to be firm in the face of Jew-hatred.

“I say to you, members of the Jewish community of the United States, the last thing you should do before antisemitic attacks, as they attack you—the last thing you should do is lower your head and seek cover,” he said. “That’s not what you should do. You should stand up and be counted. You should fight back.”

The prime minister said that Jews ought to attack their attackers.

“You should delegitimize your delegitimizers,” he said. “Nobody will fight for you more than you fight for yourself.”

“When Israel is strong, others want to partner with us. You stand up and be counted, and you will see the difference,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Jonathan Tobin: Who has the right to judge Netanyahu for the events of Oct. 7?
Hindsight is 20/20
Such figures claimed that Israel’s defense could be guaranteed by the country’s high-tech mastery, like the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries, and that territorial depth and control of the high ground were largely unnecessary. The same litany was repeated endlessly to journalists who visited Israel’s border with Gaza. This was widely believed not just because the “experts” said it was true, but because the overwhelming majority of Israelis understood that going into Gaza to eliminate the deadly threat that Hamas posed would have required the country to pay, as it did in the two years of fighting post-Oct. 7, a heavy price in the blood of its soldiers, as well as the opprobrium of an international community that always sides against the Jewish state.

The failure here was certainly Netanyahu’s. However, it must be shared with the entire top echelon of the IDF and security services, all of whom bought into the conceptzia—or widely accepted conventional wisdom—as much as the politicians dependent upon them for advice.

Does Netanyahu nevertheless deserve more reproach because he always represented himself as the country’s leading security expert? Perhaps. Still, the notion that he should have or even could have overruled everyone in the defense establishment and pursued policies that they would have all decried as unnecessarily aggressive and dangerous is not so much foolish as anachronistic. It’s something that can be asserted with the 20/20 hindsight that those commenting on the issue only possessed after the events of Oct. 7.

What those who focus solely on the blame for that dark day also forget is that the prime minister deserves enormous credit for leading the country’s efforts to defeat Hamas and other Iranian-backed enemies afterwards, while also fending off interference from Israel’s American ally and an international community determined to let Hamas win. Judging him only on what happened on the first day of a war that lasted 24 months and ended with Israel defeating its foes in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran—and with the Jewish state in its strongest strategic position since 1973—is as illogical as it is ahistorical.

Wherever you come down on these questions, the idea that a panel to decide this complex question that was convened by Netanyahu’s most bitter foes on the Supreme Court would be impartial judges of the matter is laughable.

It’s also important to remember that the Agranat Commission that investigated the failures at the start of the Yom Kippur War, which is cited as a model for an Oct. 7 inquiry, didn’t cover itself with glory. Its decision to make the IDF Chief of Staff David Elazar the principal scapegoat for the defeats of the first days of that war was both unfair and left his political masters—principally, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan—off the hook. Meir was also absolved—a decision that 50 years later seems wiser than it did at the time—but it was rejected by an Israeli people that thought, as prime minister, she needed to be held accountable. And so, she was soon forced to resign.

History and the voters will decide
The point being that the question of how to assess decisions made by politicians, as well as Israel’s military and intelligence chiefs, isn’t really something that can be conclusively decided by a committee, even if it were composed of fair-minded and impartial judges.

Responsibility for Israel’s many failures on Oct. 7 will be debated by historians until the end of time. Even a century from now, long after the contemporary political players are dead, it’s doubtful that there will be any sort of consensus that will satisfy everyone. The idea that the answer can be arrived at through a process that is indistinguishable from the campaign of lawfare that Netanyahu’s critics have been waging against him simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Until history renders its verdict, the only meaningful jury that can have its say about Netanyahu is composed of the country’s voters. In 2026, Israelis will return to the polls when this Knesset’s term expires, after having lasted longer than most of its predecessors in the country’s inherently unstable electoral system.

At that point, the voters will have their say about Netanyahu and Oct. 7—and that will have to suffice.

That won’t placate those who will never accept any answer but to pillory, if not imprison, Netanyahu on any conceivable pretext. But that takes us back to where the debate about his current government began: with a discussion about what it means to protect Israeli democracy. Having failed to defeat him at the polls or unseat him by any other legitimate manner, the issue of a supposedly independent inquiry about Oct. 7 is just the latest effort to find a way to topple the prime minister.

In both the United States and Israel, partisans have attempted to use the judicial system to decide questions that deserve to be left to the voters. Instead of seeking yet another means by which Netanyahu’s foes can force him from office, those who claim to support democracy should cease clamoring for a commission and instead leave the decision to Israel’s electorate.


Trump admin pledged no Phase 2 in Gaza until son’s return, father of last hostage tells JNS
Trump administration officials pledged not to move to the second phase of the Gaza peace plan until the final remaining hostage, Ran Gvili, is returned, according to Gvili’s father.

Itzik Gvili spoke to JNS on Tuesday, a day after he and his family met with President Donald Trump, along with other high-ranking officials, in Florida in conjunction with the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It’s very exciting to meet the strongest guy in the world,” Itzik said of Trump. “He was so, so nice to us, very warm. He knows everything about Rani, and he promised us he will do everything he can to bring Rani home.”

The Gvili family made the trip in order to pressure the administration not to advance to the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

According to Israeli authorities, Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, 24, lost his life from wounds suffered battling terrorists at the entrance to Kibbutz Alumim during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He jumped into battle with a broken shoulder after hearing the news of the mass infiltration.

The last image of him alive shows him on a motorbike driven off by terrorists, with Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the background.

The 20 remaining living hostages still held captive as the most recent ceasefire began were freed on Oct. 13, and the bodies of deceased hostages have been sporadically returned since that date. Gvili has yet to come home, and his family is still expressing doubts about his fate in the absence of conclusive evidence of his death.


Eugene Kontorovich: Fox & Friends appearance discussing Netanyahu/Trump meeting; Venezuela dock strikes



Episode 74: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

Our current question: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition?

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Somaliland Recognition
01:17 The Hypocrisy of International Responses
01:37 Understanding Somaliland's Stability
04:44 The Historical Context of Somaliland's Independence
07:50 The Geopolitical Implications of Recognition
09:59 Arguments for Recognizing Somaliland
11:45 The Unique Case of Somaliland
12:05 Concluding Thoughts on Statehood and Recognition




Selective Reporting: How Gaza Aid Vetting Became a Media Narrative
Embedding operatives in civilian and humanitarian organizations in Gaza to evade detection by Israeli authorities has been a key strategy of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Israel has consistently worked to prevent well-intentioned humanitarian organizations from being exploited for these purposes.

This past week, Israel demonstrated yet again its persistence in combating terrorism wherever it may exist by suspending the Gaza operations of 37 humanitarian organizations that refused to cooperate with the rules laid out by Israel.

In March 2025, Israel notified every aid organization in the Gaza Strip that they had to complete a re-registration process to be able to continue their operations in January 2026. The main requirement asked of the organizations was to submit a list of all employees as part of a security screening process. Those who did not complete the process would be unable to continue their operations.

Many outlets, such as CNN, have framed this as potentially leading to a “humanitarian crisis.” This is despite the total amount of cumulative aid from these 37 organizations accounting for only 1% of the total aid entering the Gaza Strip. Alex Crawford of Sky News claimed Israel was blocking these organizations “without evidence” that there have been connections to terrorist organizations, calling the groups “respected.”

But there’s nothing respectable about terrorists infiltrating organizations meant to help civilians in need. More than that, this effort is meant to ensure terrorist organizations do not take control or subvert humanitarian operations.

Throughout the war, humanitarian organizations have been abused by terrorist organizations. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), for instance, is one of the organizations whose operations are being suspended in the coming months after it failed to provide a list of its Gaza employees. MSF has previous form. In 2024, it was revealed that an employee of MSF was active in Islamic Jihad and another was a sniper in a Hamas unit.


Secret IDF Unit 504 interrogated 3,100 terrorists, IDF attacked 20,900 targets in 2025
The military’s intelligence Unit 504 (“the IDF’s Mossad”), responsible for covert and clandestine operations, interrogated 3,100 terrorists over the course of 2025, the IDF revealed on Wednesday.

Of the terrorists, 1,600 were interrogated in Israeli detention centers, and another 1,500 were interrogated in real-time in the field shortly after being captured.

In the field, interrogations are extremely difficult and complex as the interrogators are often not operating in a safe space, and the detainees are frequently physically or emotionally destabilized by a recent physical battle.

However, such field interrogations can be invaluable in leading to intelligence that can help thwart additional terror attacks in real-time and enable the capture of top terrorist commanders before they have time to change their hideouts, as well as the seizure of dangerous weapons before they can be transferred. During the Israel-Hamas War, it led to the locations of hostages, both living and deceased, before they could be moved.

Interrogations in detention centers can also lead to critical intelligence gains, though usually as part of longer-term projects and strategic goals.

Broader IDF statistics
Regarding wider issues, the IDF disclosed that the total number of attacks it undertook on all fronts during the year was 20,900.

Of those, 19,530 targets were in Gaza, with the remainder in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and the West Bank.

In Gaza, the IDF killed four brigade-level commanders out of a total of five – among them, replacements for brigade commanders killed by the IDF in 2023-2024 – 14 battalion-level commanders, and 53 company-level commanders.

In fact, the only surviving Hamas brigade commander from the pre-Israel-Hamas War era is its current leader, Az al-din al-Hadad, the former Gaza City brigade commander.

The IDF refused requests to provide an updated total number of Hamas members killed in 2025. However, in August, it was reported that the number was around 2,100, and, given that there were few battles from then until the war ended in October, that number likely has only risen by a few hundred, at most.

In Lebanon in 2025, the IDF killed around 380 Hezbollah terrorists while attacking around 950 targets overall.

The IDF also said that Hezbollah violated the 2024 ceasefire 1,920 times, though it was unclear how many of these violations were blatant moves in southern Lebanon or more subtle moves north of the Litani River.

Next, the IDF said that it had killed 230 terrorists in the West Bank.


US pledges $2 billion in UN aid, demands reforms
The U.S. State Department pledged to give $2 billion to the United Nations for humanitarian aid on Monday, partnering with an agency that has come under fire from Israel for repeated misstatements and inaccurate data about the Israel-Hamas war.

“This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” stated Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state.

The $2 billion figure is far less than past U.S. contributions but is notable during a period of much tighter controls on humanitarian aid by the Trump administration.

Data from the United Nations shows U.S. humanitarian-aid contributions to the global organization ran as high as $17 billion annually recently, with $8 billion to $10 billion of that given as voluntary contributions, apart from annual assessed dues.

The State Department announced its pledge in conjunction with Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat who now serves as U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

Fletcher, who leads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during a U.N. Security Council meeting. He later claimed on CNN that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours without increased humanitarian aid.

Israeli officials called for Fletcher to apologize. He later issued a correction.

Fletcher also claimed, again on CNN, that 10,000 trucks of humanitarian aid were waiting outside Gaza for permission from Israel to enter. A U.N. spokesman later clarified that there was enough humanitarian aid available to fill 10,000 trucks.

Israel refused to renew Fletcher’s visa in July, and he was barred from entering Gaza until the United States asked Israel to acquiesce as part of the Gaza ceasefire announced in October.
Former State Department spokeswoman confirmed for role at UN mission
Former U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was confirmed by the Senate on Monday for her new role as deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

She was sworn in shortly thereafter, completing the U.S. mission’s senior leadership team at Turtle Bay.

“Ambassador Bruce is a fierce advocate for American interests and a principled voice for the values that define our nation,” said Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “Her arrival marks a pivotal moment for our mission. With our full leadership team now in place, we are ready to take bold action to ensure the United Nations returns to its founding mission while remaining accountable to the American taxpayers.”

A foreign-policy and diplomatic novice, Bruce held the spokesperson’s role for a relatively short period of time, joining the State Department in January and stepping aside in August when U.S. President Donald Trump nominated her for the position in New York.

The author and former talk-show host told JNS in May that while she isn’t Jewish, despite rumors to the contrary, she went to a jeweler at the World Trade Center after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, to purchase a Star of David to wear on the air.

“The jeweler knows me, and he said, ‘People will think you’re Jewish.’ I said, ‘I hope so,’” Bruce told JNS.

Fiercely pro-Israel, she listed a number of prominent Jewish thinkers and activists among her mentors.
Amazon Potentially Violating Sanctions Over Francesca Albanese Book: Watchdogs
Amazon is facing mounting legal pressure to remove books and author services for Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian territories designated as a Specially Designated National (SDN) by federal authorities in July 2025, with advocacy organizations warning that the company’s continued hosting of her author page and book sales potentially violates U.S. sanctions law.

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, all property and interests of SDNs are blocked and cannot be transferred or paid out without specific OFAC authorization, creating serious compliance exposure for the e-commerce giant.

Two prominent watchdog organizations—the National Jewish Advocacy Center and UN Watch—have issued formal notices to Amazon asserting that allowing Albanese to earn income from book sales violates federal sanctions provisions. The groups cite particular concern over Amazon’s upcoming April release of Albanese’s book “When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words and Wounds of Palestine,” arguing that facilitating such transactions without Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorization exposes the company to strict liability.

Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, emphasized that “under federal law, property and interests of Specially Designated Nationals are blocked and may not be transferred or paid out without specific authorization.”

Sanctions Designation and Legal Framework
Albanese’s SDN designation stems from Executive Order 14203, issued by President Trump in February 2025. According to the State Department’s official release, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned Albanese for “directly engaging with the International Criminal Court in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.”

Rubio accused Albanese of writing “threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality,” and pursuing “campaigns of political and economic warfare” that threaten American national interests.

The designation states that “any contribution, provision of funds, goods services, or donation for the benefit of the sanctioned individual is prohibited”—representing the strongest sanctions that can be placed on a foreign individual.

Under 50 U.S.C. §1705(a), transactions involving SDNs without proper OFAC licensing constitute federal law violations. Goldfeder detailed that “the prohibition extends to royalties, advances, deferred payments, escrow credits, correspondent routing, and indirect facilitation.” Violations can trigger civil penalties, administrative enforcement, and potential criminal liability, with OFAC operating under a strict-liability standard that holds violators accountable even for unintentional violations.


New Year on The Brink: War, Lies, Power and the Collapse of Trust
In this special end of year episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake look back on 2025, reflecting on the moments, conversations, and events that defined the year and shaped the world we are heading into in 2026.

We revisit some of the standout interviews from the past twelve months, including conversations with Yoav Gallant, Yossi Cohen, Bari Weiss, Tom Holland, Neil Ferguson, and Nick Timothy. From Israeli intelligence and the war in Gaza to extremism in Britain, media failure, and the collapse of Western confidence, we discuss what these guests revealed about the moment we are living through.

The conversation ranges across the year’s biggest themes, including leadership, war, antisemitism, media bias, protest movements, and the growing instability in the Middle East and the West. We also give our picks for moments of the year, figures of the year, and the decisions that left us shaking our heads.

Finally, we look ahead to 2026. We discuss what gives us hope, what worries us most, and whether the West still has the moral and cultural foundations to recover from the crises it faces.

This is a wide ranging and honest reflection on a turbulent year, and a look at what may lie ahead as the world stands once again on the brink.

Chapters
00:00 – Looking Back on 2025
04:28 – Israel, War Leadership & October 7
06:07 – Extremism in Britain & Political Failure
09:47 – Immigration, Social Media & Cultural Fragmentation
11:57 – Gaza Protests & Progressive Radicalism
15:06 – Media, Antisemitism & the Trust Crisis
19:43 – Sh*t of the Year
25:17 – Man of the Year
31:13 – Woman of the Year
36:06 – Moment of the Year
39:27 – WTF of the Year: Strategic Blunders
44:04 – Laughter in a Dark Year
45:23 – Hopes, Fears & the World Heading into 2026
52:28 – Final Reflections & What Comes Next




Israel Advocacy Movement: The One Mistake British Jews Keep Making With the Far Right



NYC outgoing mayor Adams says he plans to use cryptocurrency to deal with antisemitism
Eric Adams, the outgoing mayor of New York City, said combating hate, “specifically antisemitism,” remains a priority for him, as he reflected on his next steps following the end of his term.

Speaking during a public-safety announcement on Dec. 29 in New York City Hall’s Blue Room, Adams said he intends to continue addressing hate using new tools and approaches, including using “cryptocurrency” to “go after violence, educate our children and really deal with antisemitism that we’re seeing globally.”

These remarks came during a ceremony in the second half of the speech, presenting Crisis Management System organizations from across the five boroughs with keys to the city, alongside Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the New York City Police Department.

Asked to expand on using cryptocurrency to go after antisemitism, Adams replied: “It’s an opportunity to use technology, all types of technology that I want to use. And I think many people know that I’m a big technology person, and that’s another form of technology that has not been used, and I want to utilize it to do so. I’ll have more to say in the years to come.”

While much of the event focused on gun-violence prevention, the outgoing mayor emphasized that hate-driven threats remain a concern. “We still have a terrorist threat,” he said, adding that most people don’t know about it because “we have kept that threat at bay.”

But “it still exists,” he said, noting that “we need someone that has partnership with our federal and state government that can pick up the call, the phone, and deal with these important issues.”


NYC mayor-elect Mamdani selects anti-Israel lawyer as chief counsel
Zohran Mamdani, who will be sworn in as mayor of New York City on Jan 1, has appointed anti-Israel attorney Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief counsel.

He announced the hire on Dec. 30 at a press conference at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, saying Kassem would be joining the administration from CUNY, “where he serves as a professor of law.”

The mayor-elect noted that Kassem “served as a policy adviser for President Biden from 2022 to 2024, and has deep experience arguing in court, including before the Supreme Court,” adding that he would “turn to Ramzi for his remarkable experience and his commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system.”

He wrote that Kassem has “been on the front lines of providing legal defense for students detained by ICE and supporting many more at risk.”

Kassem, 47, who wrote anti-Israel articles for his campus newspaper as a student, is co-founder of Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) at the CUNY School of Law. Lawyers from CLEAR, including Kassem, represented Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate detained by immigration authorities for allegedly leading anti-Israel protests.

In a video produced by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (Kassem was a fellow for the organization in 2001), Kassem said that “9/11 happened and of course that changed everything,” shifting his legal focus to representing detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base.

Kassem was the lead defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, a Saudi Arabian national and Al-Qaeda operative convicted by a U.S. military commission in connection with the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. Kassem and his students have represented 15 prisoners held at Guantánamo, Bagram and other facilities.




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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

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