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Tuesday, January 20, 2026

01/20 Links Pt1: Gaza’s Executive Board and the illusion of international salvation; Trump says ‘we think we know’ location of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza

From Ian:

How Western Logic Brought Disaster upon Israel
Israel's intelligence was the most advanced in the world. But in the week before Oct. 7, 2023, it forgot to look at the Gaza bakery, which suddenly was asked to prepare hundreds of pita breads, or the barber shop in Jabalia that, on Oct. 4, was suddenly flooded with dozens of Nukhba operatives getting haircuts to look sharp before joining their 72 virgins.

"We struck them hard and they are deterred," former director of the Israel Security Agency, Nadav Argaman, declared in May 2021. "They want an economy, not a war," the political leadership told us. Then came the "Al-Aqsa Flood" on Oct. 7.

The catastrophic error that led to this disaster was Israel's excessively rational lens, rooted in Western logic - the belief that people act to maximize personal and family welfare. That is how Israel's value system works. The intelligence community and the political leadership refused to truly understand the jihadist fanaticism that had taken over Gaza.

Israel's intelligence instinctively searches for logic. But an enemy willing to sacrifice everything for a murderous ideology does not operate according to Western logic. Israel must adopt a permanent assumption: the enemy will always surprise you. He will always have a new trick - something you have not yet imagined.

True national resilience requires capability denial: Do not wait to understand how an enemy plans to use a capability - destroy it simply because it exists. Assume the possibility of blindness: The military and society must be prepared for the morning when the screens go dark.

National resilience must never rest on intelligence as its sole backbone. True resilience is the ability to absorb a blow you did not anticipate and respond with force - because you prepared for the worst-case scenario, not the "reasonable" one. National resilience is not the ability to predict the future. It is the ability to survive it even when you did not predict it.
Why Israel Is Seen Everywhere and Everything Else Is Forgotten
Israel occupies an outsized and morally charged place in the media's imagination, particularly in the West. There is a systemic, disproportionate fascination, bordering on obsession, with covering Israel as though it were the gravitational center of world affairs. With this saturation coverage, Israel becomes not just another country among many but a kind of moral index - a stage upon which the world's conscience is imagined to be tested and revealed.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict occupies a peculiar and disproportionate place in the West's political imagination, unmatched by conflicts that are deadlier or more brutal. So it becomes over-seen, over-examined, intensely dissected, and uniquely moralized.

Israel's wars are routinely framed as the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict," as though the entire story were a localized struggle between two neighboring peoples, one strong and one weak, one powerful and one victimized. This framing is tidy, emotionally resonant, and yet profoundly misleading.

Most of Israel's wars have not been fought against Palestinians but against Egyptians and Jordanians, Syrians and Lebanese, Iraqis and, increasingly, Iranians. The rockets fired at Israel during the war did not come only from Gaza. They came from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and from Iran itself. A vast and intricate regional struggle is reduced to Israelis vs. Palestinians. Israel is cast as the dominant actor, the controlling force, and ultimately the villain. The wider forces shaping the conflict vanish altogether.

This is how media distortion always works - by shrinking and enlarging the facts selectively. A small story is made to seem enormous. The result is a morality play in which a villainous country called Israel comes to embody the worst sins of the modern age. Israel ceases to be a state acting within a volatile region and becomes instead a metaphor for everything the imagination fears about power and injustice. If the coverage of Israel feels uniquely charged, moralized, and obsessive, it is because it is.
Israel Cannot Afford a Hamas ‘Victory Picture’ During Ramadan
The current conflict cannot be allowed to relapse into a wave of lone-wolf stabbings or car-rammings because the state was too timid to enforce its borders.

Hamas has already characterized these security measures as a “dangerous escalation” and an attack on religious freedom. This is a predictable script from an organization that has systematically converted religious and civilian spaces into military hubs .

The strategic imperative is clear: true peace follows the recognition of reality, and that reality requires the enemy to concede that their violent goals are impossible. If Hamas believes they can still achieve a “victory display” in Jerusalem, they will continue to resist disarmament and reconstruction efforts in Gaza. The road to a stable, post-Hamas reality begins with the total eclipse of their influence in Jerusalem.

The Israel Police and the IDF must remain steadfast. A ceasefire is not a surrender, and a pause is not a peace. The current era of regional conflict will only reach its conclusion when the citizens of Israel see that the flags of jihad have been permanently lowered.

By preventing a Hamas victory picture this Ramadan, Israel is doing more than just securing a holy month; it is asserting the permanence of the state and the finality of its security goals. First recognition of defeat, then a path to stability.


Trump says ‘we think we know’ location of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “we think we know” where the body of the final hostage, slain Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is being held in the Gaza Strip

Trump made the revelation during a White House press briefing while going through his administration’s accomplishments during his first year in office.

Gvili, a member of the Yasam police unit, was killed battling terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza, where it is still being held.

“They have one left that we think we know where it is, amazing, it looked like we weren’t going to get anywhere near that, now they’ve gotten that almost,” Trump said of Gvili’s remains.

Gvili’s parents, Itzik and Talik, responded that, in light of Trump’s remarks, the US and Israel must apply all possible pressure to ensure that Hamas returns their son.

“President Trump’s statement confirms what we have been saying for the past three months: Hamas knows exactly where our son is and has knowingly and deliberately violated President Trump’s framework and the agreement to return all hostages,” the Gvili’s said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has represented most families of hostages.


Gaza’s Executive Board and the illusion of international salvation
For Phase 2 of any Gaza arrangement to truly begin, two conditions remain unmet: the return of the body of the last kidnapped Israeli, and the complete disarmament of Hamas. These requirements are written into the agreement itself. Yet neither Qatar nor Turkey has the slightest interest in seeing them fulfilled. On the contrary, they seek influence, legitimacy, and above all, continued favor with Trump. They present themselves as “guarantors,” while guaranteeing nothing that matters.

If it plays its cards well, Israel may yet neutralize the damage. This U.S. administration has never told Israel “no,” and Jerusalem will insist that these intrusive actors send no troops, carry no arms and exercise no decision-making or verification authority. They may sit at the table, but they must not touch the cards.

Still, the sheer scale of this project is telling. Between the board, the Executive Committee, the high representative for Gaza and his staff, the NCAG (National Committee for the Administration of Gaza) and the International Stabilization Force, the number of involved states could easily grow from the 60 invited—20 of which have already accepted—to 80 or more. Add to this an army of dignitaries, billionaires, investors, diplomats, democracies and dictatorships, the West and political Islam, rich and poor, allies and enemies.

Does this sound familiar?

Perhaps Trump has simply grown weary of the United Nations. Perhaps he is attempting something unprecedented: the construction of an alternative international forum, not under the shadow of the old Soviet-Third Worldist axis or its ideological descendants, but under an American aegis. If so, it would be a historic shift.

The reaction from Paris strengthens this interpretation. French President Emmanuel Macron promptly declined the U.S. invitation. Though relatively young, he is already a leader on his way out, shaped by a distinctly French anti-Americanism. Macron likes the United Nations. An American center of power—especially one that rebuilds Gaza without delegitimizing Israel—disturbs him. He says so openly.

Israel, meanwhile, bears the cost of unwanted presences as it always has. It must defend itself from the indefensible. Islamist hatred remains an existential threat, not a diplomatic misunderstanding. The first priority is therefore unchanged: disarm Hamas.

If the ayatollahs in Tehran are finally removed from power, the entire terrorist network will lose its strongest patron. The board may be large, the table wide and the players many, but Israel’s red lines are few and nonnegotiable.

If Israel must act again, it will. Another Oct. 7 is not on the agenda. And whatever this new board may declare, Trump will let Israel do what it must to survive.
Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace is concerning for Israeli security
Of late, world leaders have taken to criticizing Israel, and our prime minister specifically, for seeming to prefer conducting managed wars on all of our borders rather than make peace with our enemies. Their theory is that, in the view of Netanyahu, peace is too restrictive and prevents us from responding in kind when our country and its people are attacked.

While it is easy to postulate in this manner, one can understand the reluctance of our government to end the various wars in which we are engaged when Western leaders on whom we depend for support turn away from us at every opportunity.

In the case of the Board of Peace, while it is nice for the president of the United States to be able to say that he has corralled a large number of countries to serve, if the bulk of those who have been invited harbor long-standing complaints about how the Jewish state conducts itself with its neighbors, the results end up skewed against us even before the first board meeting takes place.

By Trump choosing people to serve who are pre-positioned against us and not sharing that decision before it is publicized, we have, in fact, been thrown under the bus. Sadly, this is not simply an unwelcome decision by the United States; it also represents a diplomatic failure on our part as well. We cannot be proud of our diplomatic efforts if we end up surprised by these kinds of decisions.

Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, said: “The future of Israel is the future of the Jewish people, and the future of the Jewish people is the future of the world.” Someone should paste that one up on a wall in the White House.
UAE, Belarus accept offer to join Trump’s Board of Peace; Norway, UK voice concerns
The United Arab Emirates accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s newly proposed “Board of Peace,” the UAE Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, placing Abu Dhabi among the first governments to publicly endorse the initiative.

The ministry said the UAE stood ready to “contribute actively to the mission of the Board of Peace, supporting greater cooperation, stability, and prosperity for all,” marking a formal alignment with Washington’s new conflict‑resolution effort.

“The UAE’s decision reflects the importance of fully implementing President Donald J Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which is critical for the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said.

Abu Dhabi’s acceptance comes as governments worldwide react cautiously to Trump’s plan, which aims to begin with Gaza before widening to tackle other conflicts.

The Board of Peace was initially presented as a body that would exclusively oversee the postwar management of Gaza, and, in November, the UN Security Council voted to give it a two-year mandate to do so.

But its charter, obtained by The Times of Israel earlier this week, makes no mention of Gaza and appears to take a swipe at the UN, saying that the new board should have “the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”

The document was attached to invitations to join the board that were sent to dozens of world leaders on Friday, some of whom have since confirmed receiving the invitation, although few have publicly accepted it, and fewer still have declined.
UN Official Who Financed Murder of Teenage Girl on Gaza Board
As a member of the radical leftist D66 party, Kaag had her eye on political office while complaining that the Netherlands was racist and biased against her PLO husband and children. “Sometimes, because of my marriage and career, I am treated as a foreigner in my own country. And then I wonder: who decides that? Who is the Dutch foreign national, and who is not?”

After working as a UN official in Syria and Lebanon, and despite having been previously ousted from the Ministry for her marriage to a PLO official, she became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. The Netherlands was struggling with Muslim mass migration and appeasement of Muslim terrorists and Kaag had the expertise to make both of those problems worse.

In 2018, Kaag, who had previously discussed her relationship with Hezbollah, visited Iran and met with its leaders while wearing a ‘headscarf’. Geert Wilders, the popular Dutch leader who had rallied the public to defy Islamization, blasted Kaag for “submissively” bowing “for the fascist ayatollahs of Iran” at a time when Iranian women were risking their lives to appear in public without a hijab.

“While women are beaten there on the street for taking off their headscarves, you put on a headscarf and bowed to the ayatollahs. With that you’ve squandered women’s rights and betrayed those women,” Wilders declared during the country’s election debates.

In 2019, Rina (Pictured above, right), a 17-year-old girl, was hiking with her family in Israel when she was killed by a Muslim terrorist attack. ”I wanted to believe it was just a dream,” Rabbi Shnerb, her father, said from his hospital bed. “I immediately called to Rina, shouting ‘Rina, Rina.’”

Kaag was forced to admit that her ministry had helped pay the salaries of Rina’s killers through a ‘nonprofit’ acting as a front group for a terrorist organization. Kaag had allowed $12 million in funding to the ‘nonprofit’ despite being repeatedly warned that the money was going to terrorists.

Around this time, the Dutch government was accused of directing money to a Muslim Brotherhood front group. Hamas is one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s organizations.

“She was photographed with terrorist Arafat and financed Palestinian terrorists,” Wilders noted.
Senior Hamas officials planning 'safe exit' from Gaza Strip as Phase II begins
Senior leaders of the Hamas terror group are preparing a "safe exit" from the Gaza Strip, sources within the terror group revealed to Saudi outlet Asharq al-Awsat on Tuesday.

This comes after the US announced the start of Phase II of US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, which calls for establishing a technocratic government to administer the Strip.

Several "prominent political and military leaders who survived the war" are preparing to leave, three Hamas sources told the outlet.

One of the sources claimed that the departure would be "voluntary and carried out under specific arrangements, with full coordination with Hamas leadership abroad," the outlet reported.

Another stated that other leadership, particularly "military figures, categorically reject leaving Gaza under any circumstances."

This reaffirms previous statements by terror leader Khaled Mashaal, who stated in December that the terror group will not disarm, give up administrative control in the Strip, or permit the International Stabilization Force to take military oversight of the area.

The same sources also claimed that several of the Hamas prisoners released in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in 2011, and who now oversee "key portfolios" within the terror group, are expected to travel to Turkey. However, the outlet spoke to a "senior Hamas leader based outside Gaza" who denied these reports.

Other sources have commented that some of the terror leaders would "leave temporarily to hold meetings in Egypt with security officials on critical issues related to Gaza's governmental security forces and other key files, before returning to the Gaza Strip," the outlet noted.


Michael Doran: Hit Iran in Its Shadow Bank Accounts
The U.S. ought to seize the billions of dollars Iran's rulers have hidden offshore. Freezing these assets could have an effect comparable to a military attack - at a fraction of the risk. The U.S. Treasury knows where Iran's money is, but successive administrations have hesitated to act for fear of damaging relations with a valued ally - the United Arab Emirates.

To evade U.S. sanctions, Iran has built an elaborate shadow banking system - a network of shell companies and financial intermediaries that allows the regime to move money at scale. This system allows Tehran to sell oil illicitly to China and launder the proceeds to procure export-controlled technology for its military and nuclear programs.

Last October, the U.S. Treasury Department stated that "companies based in the UAE (99% of which were located in the Emirate of Dubai) transacted the highest volume of [Iran's] potential shadow banking funds." This system keeps the Iranian regime alive with Dubai serving as its economic lung.

What's required is a strategy that freezes Iranian assets already in hand and forces the banks involved - especially in Dubai - to choose between compliance and punishment. Any financial institution that facilitates Iranian transactions should face immediate and substantial fines.
Desperation: ‘Is President Trump coming?’ INSIDE Iran
In this powerful episode of The Erin Molan Show, Erin speaks with Faezeh Alavi, an Iranian artist who took part in the Bloody November 2019 protests, survived the Islamic regime’s violent crackdown, and fled Iran just six years ago — leaving family behind who are now living through the current uprising.

Her testimony is haunting.

Faezeh reveals what her family and friends inside Iran are witnessing right now, why the Iranian people feel more hopeful than ever despite unprecedented brutality, and why the first question people ask when they get back online is about Donald Trump.

She explains:
What daily life under the Islamic regime is really like
Why Iranians are willing to die for freedom
What the world is not being shown about the protests
Why Western celebrities and activists remain silent on Iran
Why many Iranians are openly calling for the return of the monarchy
Erin also delivers unfiltered commentary on:
The Islamic regime’s claims after being barred from Davos
The hypocrisy of global institutions
Why Emmanuel Macron rejecting Trump’s peace initiative surprises no one
And why selective outrage has destroyed moral credibility in the West




Inside the Daring Operation to Smuggle Starlink Into Iran
For the past 23 days, thousands of Iranian protesters have flooded the streets in the largest anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic’s history. In response, the fundamentalist regime has unleashed a violent crackdown, reportedly killing more than 16,000 protesters.

The exact number of people killed and injured remains unknown, because Iran has made a great effort to keep its repressive response largely out of sight. Internet and phone service have been cut off by the government since January 8.

However, the outside world has been able to access images and videos showing the atrocities and their scale, through Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink. For years, anticipating the possibility of a digital blackout, Iranian activists have worked to smuggle in Starlink terminals that could bypass a government internet shutdown.

To understand how Starlink gets into Iran, and what its presence means at this critical moment, we spoke with Shukriya Bradost, a security researcher who has played a key role in getting Starlink terminals into Iran, and Arash Aalaei, a journalist who relied on the technology to report for London-based news outlet Iran International.




Protesters gather outside Atlanta’s Emory University to rail against Iranian official’s daughter’s employment
Dozens of Iranian American demonstrators gathered outside Emory University Monday in silent protest against the employment of the daughter of a top Iranian government official.

Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani’s role with the Atlanta, Georgia university’s Winship Cancer Institute has become a flashpoint amid a national debate over immigration and ties to Iranian political elites.

The demonstrators stood near the facility holding signs that read “Enemy of the USA welcomed by Emory” and “Did you know Iran terror chief’s daughter is your co-worker?”

The protesters refrained from chanting or speeches, which participants said was a deliberate choice made out of respect for patients seeking treatment at the institute.

“Silence was intentional,” a 37-year-old Iranian female living in Atlanta, told The Post. “It reflects mourning, respects the victims, and contrasts sharply with the violence protesters face in Iran. It also avoids disruption while still delivering a powerful message.”

Ardeshir-Larijani, a specialized cancer doctor, is the daughter of Ali Larijani, a powerful Iranian official who serves as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.


Israel begins demolition of UNRWA Jerusalem HQ
Israeli authorities on Tuesday began demolishing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) headquarters in Jerusalem, after a new law banning the organization’s operations in the country took effect.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hailed the move as a “historic day, a holiday, a very important day for governance,” saying the government was finally expelling “terror supporters … with everything they built here” and vowing that “this is what will be done to every terror supporter.”

Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, who played a leading role in introducing the legislation, shared a “Shehecheyanu” prayer in an X post along with a video of the demolition.

“The UNRWA terror headquarters on Ammunition Hill was evacuated this morning and is being demolished right now, just before the State of Israel enters the area. This is happening as a direct result of the laws I initiated to remove UNRWA from Israel. And a redeemer shall come to Zion!” she wrote.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said Israel owns the former UNRWA compound in Jerusalem where the Israel Land Authority is now operating, adding that UNRWA had already halted its activities there and withdrawn all personnel before legislation affecting the agency was passed in January 2025.

“The compound does not enjoy any immunity and the seizure of this compound by Israeli authorities was carried out in accordance with both Israeli and international law,” according to Marmorstein. “Today’s move does not constitute a new policy, but rather the implementation of existing Israeli legislation concerning UNRWA.”

Marmorstein accused UNRWA staff of taking part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and the kidnapping of Israelis, stating that many employees are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that the agency’s facilities and infrastructure have been used for tunnels, rocket fire and other terrorist activity.

“UNRWA-Hamas has long ceased to be a humanitarian aid organization, serving instead as a greenhouse for terrorism,” he concluded.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry highlighted, as an example of the UNRWA-Hamas connection, video from Oct. 7 showing a UNRWA social worker abducting the body of slain Israeli civilian Jonathan Samerano, saying that “this is not humanitarian work. This is terror infiltration, exposed in action.”


Palestinian infiltrator caught at building site near IDF chief’s home
Israeli Border Police on Tuesday detained a Palestinian illegal at a construction site near the home of Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

The infiltrator, from the terrorist hub of Tulkarem in Samaria, was arrested along with his employer, a resident of the Arab-Israeli city of Qalansawe, located east of Netanya, the Israel Police said.

Officers were called after Zamir’s security detail reported hearing shouting in Arabic from the building site, which is located “especially close” to the chief of staff’s home, according to a report by Channel 12 News.

“The illegal infiltrator and the suspect who employed him were arrested and transferred for questioning at a police station, and their case will continue to be handled in accordance with the law,” police stated.

“Police emphasize that providing assistance to illegal residents, through employment, lodging or transportation, poses a potential security risk and may serve as infrastructure for terrorism; therefore, it is enforced firmly and with zero tolerance, anywhere and at any time,” it added.

Last year, Zamir’s home was briefly declared a closed military zone after an act of vandalism by anti-war protesters exposed “serious security failures” that could have enabled attacks by “hostile elements.”

The move came after activists from the far-left Standing Together NGO, accompanied by members of the Soldiers for Hostages group, doused Zamir’s home with red paint on Aug. 31.

Zamir reportedly had the closure lifted after a day to avoid causing hardship to his neighbors, but security was significantly reinforced.

Approximately 40,000 Arabs living in Palestinian Authority-controlled towns and cities in Judea and Samaria enter pre-1967 Israel via the porous security barrier every month, according to official figures.


travelingisrael.com: I Criticized Benjamin Netanyahu and This Is What Happened…
I criticized Benjamin Netanyahu and realized how lucky I am to live in a democracy, a privilege that is currently under attack. This video breaks down the three levels of narrative warfare that Islamist and autocratic regimes use to fracture Western societies from within.




Israeli comedian performs in Canada despite airport delay
Canadian authorities detained Israeli comedian Guy Hochman for six hours at Toronto’s main airport after an anti-Israel organization filed war crimes charges against him in connection with his service in the Israel Defense Forces, Hochman said on Tuesday.

“They tried to stop me from entering Canada, but after 6 hours of being detained, I got in. They tried to prevent me from performing in front of the Israeli community, I performed. And while they kept shouting ‘free Palestine’ to themselves in minus 10 degrees, we warmed up with laughter—400 Israelis inside. That’s what victory feels like,” Hochman wrote on X.

On Friday, the Hind Rajab Foundation said it was “filing a criminal complaint in Canada against Guy Hochman, an Israeli comedian who is acting as a war propagandist and inciter, promoting violence and glorifying Israel’s assault on Gaza” ahead of his visit to Toronto.

At time of publication, the Canadian embassy in Israel had not replied to a query about Hochman’s alleged detention, and the connection, if any, to the Hind Rajab Foundation’s complaint.

In a video uploaded by Hochman to X, he is seen in Toronto talking to people carrying Israeli flags as anti-Israel protesters chant from across the road.

Borrowing a megaphone from the people with Israeli flags, he told the anti-Israel protesters: “I am here, I am Guy Hochman, thank you for coming. This is our flag. We are here, we are part of a 3,000-year-old people, and we are here always, am Israel chai,” Hebrew for “the People of Israel lives.”

The clip features humorous subtitles, supposedly translating what the anti-Israel protesters are shouting, as: “You bring this sex symbol, a brother with only one testicle, into our street. The entire world stands with plasticine.”




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