Thursday, April 16, 2026

04/15 Links Pt1: America’s Arab Allies Are Making History; Nearly all Senate Democrats vote to block Israel arms sales; GOP Senators Push To Prohibit US Funding for UNRWA

From Ian:

For Iran, Hormuz Is More a Weakness Than a Weapon
On Monday, six weeks into its war with Iran, the United States imposed a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. According to conventional wisdom, the war has made Tehran realize that its control of the strait constitutes powerful leverage. In this story line, the strait turned out to be Iran’s real nuclear weapon, its potent deterrent. Because Tehran could use this chokepoint to threaten global shipping, it was able to resist pressure from the world’s most powerful air force, reject Washington’s peace demands, and ultimately gain leverage over its nemesis. Iranian leaders have repeatedly touted that leverage, while analyses in Reuters, Time, and other outlets have declared the strait a formidable tool in Iran’s arsenal.

But this narrative is wrong. More than any other country on earth, Iran cannot survive a sustained closure of the strait. Before the outbreak of war in late February, 20 percent of the world’s commercial shipping may have transited the Strait of Hormuz, but over 90 percent of Iran’s seaborne trade traversed this 21-mile-wide chokepoint. Even before the U.S. naval blockade, Iran was struggling severely to move shipments vital to its own economy through the passage. A blockade will inhibit Iranian exports of all kinds—oil being the most important, but also petrochemicals—as well as imports of much of the country’s grain.

Within weeks of a blockade, the country could run out of food, as well as space to store unshipped oil, requiring it to decrease or stop production at major oil wells—an act that can damage such infrastructure permanently. By closing the strait, Iran has not established a new, meaningful source of long-term clout. Instead, it has indicated how militaries can decimate the Iranian economy and thus really exert power over the Islamic Republic.

SELF RESTRAINT Framing the Strait of Hormuz as Iran’s trump card—a chokepoint with which Tehran can menace the world economy—gets it backward. The regime’s March closure of the strait had already severed both sides of its economic lifeline. In 2024, according to Central Bank of Iran data and U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates, hydrocarbons represented 65 to 75 percent of Iran’s total export revenue. Virtually all of these exports (approximately 92 percent to 96 percent) must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, loaded almost entirely from a single terminal at Kharg Island.

Unlike Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which possess substantial pipeline bypass capacity, Iran has no meaningful alternative export corridor. In 2021, Iran officially unveiled the Goreh–Jask pipeline, a route from a key inland pumping station to a terminal on the Gulf of Oman with a nominal capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. In practice, however, the route was sharply constrained by unfinished infrastructure. During the summer of 2024, it loaded fewer than 70,000 barrels per day, and starting in October 2024, the terminal went dormant for roughly 17 months. Only one of three planned offshore mooring buoys is installed, and fewer than half of the 20 planned storage tanks are complete. Iran cannot reroute its way out of a Hormuz closure.

Imports are equally exposed. Iran is the largest importer of bulk grain and oilseed in the Middle East. Approximately 14 million of the 30 million tons of grain imported into Gulf markets annually are destined for Iran—all of it seaborne and all of it dependent on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. When the strait shut, grain deliveries to Iran’s primary port, Bandar Imam Khomeini, all but stopped. Iran scrambled to reroute through Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, but that port can handle less than a fifth of Bandar Imam Khomeini’s throughput. Pharmaceutical and medical supply chains faced similar disruptions.
Iran’s economy could collapse within three months under naval blockade, experts warn
According to Nadimi, the Islamic Republic is attempting to raise the global economic cost of the blockade for the United States, while Washington seeks to achieve its objectives as quickly as possible.

However, he stressed that a naval blockade takes time to be effective. He warned that the rising tensions carry the risk of escalating into a full-scale war in the region, as the regime is likely to exert every effort to ensure that the blockade fails.

Given the foreseeable escalation of tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, and as the Islamic regime claims control over the passage and even the authority to impose tolls on vessels, Israel appears to be preparing for a possible resumption of military strikes against Iranian targets.

In such a scenario, the IRGC - which has effectively taken full control of the government - may fight to preserve what remains of its power, or, as some analysts suggest, attempt to expand a “scorched-earth doctrine” not only within Iran but across the region.

Over the course of 40 days of military operations, the United States and Israel have significantly degraded the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities, eliminating key leaders, commanders, and officials.

However, the IRGC - now dominating the political landscape following the removal of Ali Khamenei and the designation of Mojtaba Khamenei as the nominal leader - continues to maintain control within the country, sidelining clerical and conventional state structures.

It has intensified its crackdown on protesters, detaining hundreds in recent weeks and carrying out executions of several dissidents, while continuing to assert its ability to wage war, launch missiles and drones, and control the Strait of Hormuz.
Pierre Rehov: Is Washington About to Replace One Iranian Tyranny with Another?
The issue is no longer whether the regime in Tehran is under strain — it clearly is — but whether Washington is preparing, consciously or not, to replace a brutal clerical dictatorship with a brutal military one.

The idea that a military structure could serve as a "moderate" transitional governing authority in Iran seems to rest on the fragile assumption that professionalism leads to moderation. Regional history says otherwise. From Egypt to Pakistan, militaries that stepped in to "restore order" entrenched their own authoritarian rule. Iran offers no reason to believe it would be different.

What makes the current moment so dangerous is that, if no credible alternative to the mullahs takes power -- one that is rooted in popular legitimacy -- the vacuum will not remain empty. It will be filled by the most organized, armed actors available — the IRGC and security apparatus -- the same forces that slaughtered more than 30,000 of their own citizens on the streets in just two days.

The faces change, but the repression, torture and hangings stay the same.

The former Shah's army, the Artesh, relegated to patrolling Iran's borders, may lack the theological zeal of the IRGC, but it has shown no commitment to dismantling the structures of repression.

Any kind of real, long-term peace requires the total end of Iran's regime, not its adaptation. The Islamic Republic unfortunately cannot be reformed, any more than could the Afghan Taliban. The regime's legitimacy is rooted in a doctrine built on confrontation — both with the West and with its own population. Preserving any part of this ruling structure, whether through the IRGC or segments of the military, risks perpetuating the same destabilizing brutality.

Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while essential, addresses only one dimension of the threat. A non-nuclear authoritarian Iran remains capable of repression at home and destabilization abroad. Removing the threat of nuclear bombs does not create peace; it merely limits the scale of the potential catastrophe.

For Trump to declare victory based on a ceasefire, partial concessions, or the emergence of supposedly "pragmatic" actors would be catastrophically naïve.

Whatever happened to Trump's "Help is on its way"?

To say that economic collapse will make it easier for the Iranians to change their government if they wish might sound good, but it is fantasyland. They have no weapons.

The Iranian people are not asking for a redistribution of brutality. They are asking for a new system entirely.

Will Washington recognize this distinction, or will Trump's legacy, instead of peace, be -- in Syria as well -- that he simply exchanged one tyranny for another?


Seth Mandel: America’s Arab Allies Are Making History
As I wrote last June: “Even if Syria and Lebanon don’t join the Abraham Accords, the fact that the Abraham Accords were in place when Iran’s imperial tide receded means that there is already a new regional structure to replace the old one.”

Israel and Lebanon don’t have diplomatic relations—officially, anyway. But that hardly seems to matter. The Abraham Accords altered the region’s diplomatic status quo and gave Arab countries a new path forward. Today’s meeting suggests that Lebanon is willing to follow down that path. It is incumbent upon the U.S. to ensure that Lebanon doesn’t come to regret it.

The last major reordering of the Middle East was the Obama administration’s efforts to cement Iran as regional hegemon over the loud protestations of our Arab allies. Trump reversed that, and Joe Biden solidified that reversal, giving the current status quo bipartisan credibility and backing. The result is a strengthened regional alliance including both Israel and the Arab states. The war with Iran broadened that coalition to include Ukraine, whose Jewish president was recently warmly welcomed by Syria’s Islamist president and who has come to the aid of the Gulf Arab states targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.

Despite the fever dreams about Israel supposedly controlling American policy, the Saudis appear to have been the most enthusiastic cheerleader of the manhandling of Iran’s criminal regime. The other Gulf Arab states have reportedly also been encouraging the president to finish the job. This makes sense: Israel has the capability to continue hitting Iran when necessary, but the Arab states are dependent on the Western alliance to keep Iran down.

And the U.S. should reward their trust in us. Lebanon, for example, is among the weakest central governments in this crew. It is also now the most vulnerable to Iran if the U.S. doesn’t follow through, because Hezbollah is far from dead.

It would be catastrophic to coax Lebanon into a public anti-Iran stance and diplomatic engagement with Israel only to later cut them loose. Yet the president will be under some pressure to do exactly that: by the French, who maintain a colonial mindset toward the Levant but take none of the responsibility for it; by some Democrats in Congress and right-wing pundits who don’t want Trump to notch any kind of political “win” related to the Iran war; perhaps by mediating states such as Pakistan that think Lebanon is useful only as a bargaining chip in the larger negotiations.

The president should ignore those voices. Having the Arab states look West instead of East is a strategic boon that is worth American commitment. It’s also the right thing to do.


Nearly all Senate Democrats vote to block Israel arms sales
All but seven Democratic senators voted to block an arms sale to Israel on Wednesday in the latest sign of waning support for the Jewish state on the Left in the United States.

Senators voted down a pair of motions to discharge the two resolutions that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced in March to block sales of bulldozers and bombs to the Israel Defense Forces, but by significantly narrower margins than in previous votes.

Forty senators, all Democrats, voted to discharge the resolution to block the bulldozer sales, and 36 of them also voted to block the sale of bombs.

Seven Democrats voted against both motions: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-N.M.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jackie Rosen (D-Nev.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) split their votes, voting in favor of the motion to block the sale of bulldozers but against the motion to block bomb sales.

Every Republican who voted opposed the motions, defeating the bulldozer resolution 40 to 59 and the bombs resolution 36 to 63.

Previous resolutions from Sanders to block arms sales to Israel were defeated by overwhelming margins.

In April 2025, only 15 senators, all Democrats, voted to block arms sales. In July of that year, 27 Democrats voted to oppose a sale of small arms to the Israeli police, and 24 voted to oppose a sale of bombs.
Hamas refuses to give up weapons, demands Board of Peace change Gaza ceasefire plan
Hamas rejected the US-led Board of Peace's disarmament plan for the terror group and asked the board to make modifications to it, a source told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The BoP's high representative, Nickolay Mladenov, and three other mediators were also present, the source added.

Separately, while speaking to the BBC, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks accused Mladenov of pro-Israel bias.

The official also accused Israel of not yet fulfilling its obligations of Phase I of the ceasefire deal, saying that Hamas would not participate in Phase II negotiations until Israel does so.

"We are waiting for Mladenov to provide a clear timetable for Israel to fulfill the remaining obligations of Phase I," a senior Hamas official told the BBC.

Israel, though, has withdrawn from populated areas of the Gaza Strip to positions east of the Yellow Line, has increased the amount of aid entering the area, and maintains that movement on the terror group's disarmament is needed before further progress can be made on its side.

The BoP's disarmament plan was first passed to Hamas during meetings in Cairo last month, following the Trump administration's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's announcement of Phase II in mid-January.
GOP Senators Push To Prohibit US Funding for UNRWA
A coalition of Republican senators led by Rick Scott (Fla.) is pushing a bill that would prohibit the United States from funding a Hamas-tied U.N. agency, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Scott on Wednesday introduced the Stop Support for UNRWA Act of 2026 to completely ban U.S. taxpayer funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, a body that employed several individuals found to have participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. In addition to legally enshrining the Trump administration’s move to freeze U.S. support for UNRWA, the legislation would prevent the United States from funding any successor organization that may arise in UNRWA’s place.

The legislation, which has eight GOP cosponsors as of Wednesday afternoon, comes amid an investigation into the agency and other U.N. bodies that the Office of Inspector General in USAID—an investigative entity separate from USAID—has conducted over the past several months. Federal investigators have identified three current or former UNRWA employees who participated in the Oct. 7 attack and another 14 otherwise affiliated with Hamas.

Another provision in the Stop Support for UNRWA Act would strip the agency of its diplomatic immunity under U.S. law, clearing the path for lawsuits against the body to proceed. Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 attack sued UNRWA in 2024, alleging that it ran "a billion-dollar money laundering operation that funded Hamas," and the bill may prompt U.S. citizens affected by the Hamas attack to bring their own suits.

The bill would also stop the U.S. government from engaging with any U.N. agency, body, or commission run by a country known to support "acts of international terrorism." Countries like Iran, the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism, are frequently appointed to lead U.N. groups. The Islamic Republic was selected as the vice-chair of the U.N. Commission for Social Development, which focuses on issues including women’s rights, in February. States like Syria and Cuba have also held positions on U.N. bodies like the Human Rights Council and a committee on crimes against humanity.
White House hasn’t asked for Iran ceasefire extension, expects next round of talks in Pakistan
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied media reports on Wednesday that the United States had requested an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Leavitt said that she had no announcement to make about a second round of in-person negotiations with Iran but that any such talks would likely continue to be held in Pakistan.

“That is not true at this moment,” Leavitt said, of the reported request for an extension of the ceasefire, due to expire April 21. “We remain very much engaged in these negotiations.”

Leavitt appeared to be referring to an Associated Press report on Wednesday claiming that the United States and Iran had agreed in principle to extend the ceasefire, citing “regional officials.”

She described the Pakistanis as “incredible mediators” and added that “we feel good about the prospects of a deal.”

Wednesday’s press conference focused largely on economic issues, but Leavitt and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also took questions from reporters about the conflict against Iran.Bessent said that the Treasury Department is conducting an “Operation Economic Fury” of sanctions to supplement the military campaign with help from Iran’s Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf.

“One of the what may prove to be fatal mistakes that the Iranians made was bombing their Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors, who are now willing to be much more transparent in terms of the funds or do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems,” Bessent said.

“We have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and any members of Iranian leadership,” he said.

Iran and its leaders have long used banks and shell companies in neighboring countries to harbor funds and evade U.S. sanctions. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that the United Arab Emirates was considering freezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets in response to its missile and drone attacks against the country.


Trump admin's Operation Epic Fury takes aim at banks handling Iranian money
The Trump administration is sending letters to banks in four areas about handling Iranian money.

The letter obtained by FOX Business says the Treasury Department has evidence that banks in Oman, the UAE, Hong Kong and China have allowed Iranian funds used for illicit activities to be funneled through them.

A senior administration official not authorized to speak publicly says this is the first step to adding secondary sanctions on those banks, which would cut them off from the U.S. financial system.

"Now is the time to finally disable Iran’s ability to support terrorism, threaten the region and global markets, and seek to continue its nuclear and ballistic missile program, which the U.N. has prohibited," the letter said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday warned companies and countries against paying Iran to transit the Strait of Hormuz because that opens them up to secondary sanctions. Bessent is leading the sanction charge in Operation Epic Fury.

This letter is different, but shows the administration's willingness to up the ante and truly go after the Iranian money.

The U.S. waiver to sell Iranian oil at sea will expire on April 19.


US sanctions Iranian oil shipping network run by son of Ali Shamkhani
The US Treasury Department said on Wednesday it was intensifying pressure on Iran's oil transportation infrastructure by imposing sanctions on more than two dozen individuals, companies, and vessels.

The sanctions target entities within the network of Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Shamkhani, a key figure in Iran's security and nuclear efforts who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.

Shamkhani’s network had previously been sanctioned by the Treasury in July of 2025. The US issued 115 sanctions against the group, according to a Treasury press release at the time.

"Treasury is moving aggressively with Economic Fury by targeting regime elites like the Shamkhani family that attempt to profit at the expense of the Iranian people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.

The Treasury Department also issued sanctions against Iranian national and Hezbollah financier Seyed Naiemaei Badroddin Moosavi, and three companies linked to a money laundering scheme involving the sale of Iranian oil in exchange for Venezuelan gold.

The oil-for-gold scheme was carried out on behalf of Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, the Treasury stated.


Europe cobbles post-war plan to clear Hormuz for shipping
European states are drafting a plan for a large coalition of countries to secure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route through which 20% of the world’s oil transits. Officials stress the mission would deploy only after hostilities end.

The proposal includes three broad aims: clearing a backlog of stranded vessels, conducting a major demining effort and setting up ongoing naval escorts and surveillance to restore confidence in the vital waterway.

The initiative, led by France and the United Kingdom, envisions a “strictly defensive mission,” in the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, that excludes “belligerent” parties—namely the United States, Israel and Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The first phase would focus on logistics to allow hundreds of ships currently stuck in the strait to exit safely. The second would involve extensive mine-clearing operations, after Iran seeded mines through parts of the waterway early in the conflict.

European countries are expected to play a leading role, given their relatively large fleet of minesweeping vessels. The final phase would deploy frigates and destroyers to escort commercial shipping and provide surveillance, a step analysts say is essential to reassure insurers and shippers.

Germany is expected to join the effort, the Journal reported. Berlin will reveal its precise level of involvement on Thursday. A German role would significantly boost the coalition’s capabilities, bringing more financial firepower and key military assets to the mission.

European leaders are set to discuss the plan in a virtual meeting on Friday in Paris hosted by Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The United States will not participate. China and India were invited, but it is unclear if they will attend.
Report: Iran used Chinese satellite to target US bases
Iran secretly obtained a Chinese-made reconnaissance satellite in late 2024 and used it to help target U.S. military positions across the Middle East during the recent conflict, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper, citing leaked Iranian military documents, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force took control of the TEE-01B satellite built by China’s Earth Eye Co. after its launch from China. The system reportedly provided the IRGC with imagery and coordinates of U.S. bases before and after missile and drone attacks in March.

As part of the arrangement, the Iranian regime gained access to ground stations operated by Beijing-based Emposat, whose network spans Asia, Latin America and other regions, the FT said.

Reuters said it could not independently verify the report. U.S. and Chinese government agencies, as well as the companies involved, did not respond to requests for comment.
Iran sentences four to death, including first woman, over January protests
Iran’s judiciary has sentenced four people detained during January’s anti-regime protests to death, including the first woman to be hanged in relation to the demonstrations, and ordered the confiscation of their property, according to Iranian opposition and human rights groups.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran identified the prisoners as Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, 34, his wife Bita Hemmati, and two other men, Behrouz Zamaninezhad and Kourosh Zamaninezhad, who lived in the couple’s apartment building.

All four were arrested during the uprising in Tehran and “subject to torture and interrogation” and “hastily sentenced to death and the confiscation of all their property by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court,” according to the NCRI.

Authorities accused the group of participating in protests on Jan. 8–9, including chanting protest slogans, throwing objects—including “bottles, concrete blocks and incendiary materials”—from rooftops and destruction of public property.

The court also charged the four with “operational actions for the hostile government of the United States and terrorist groups,” citing a law known as the “Intensification of Punishment for Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and Interests,” according to the Hana Human Rights Organization.

“The issuance of death sentences and the total confiscation of assets against protesters demonstrate a clear escalation of judicial repression in the Islamic Republic,” the organization stated.
Syrian authorities discover Hezbollah arms smuggling tunnel, warehouses near Lebanon border
Syrian authorities in Homs located a tunnel used by Hezbollah terrorists to smuggle weapons across the border into Lebanon, state TV channel Al-Ikhbaria reported on Wednesday.

The regime's security personnel also "seized several warehouses containing weapons and ammunition prepared for smuggling," the report said.

In a later Wednesday report, the TV channel announced that internal security authorities identified attempts to smuggle a "large shipment of explosive lighting" materials that were on their way to Lebanon.

These approximately 6,000 electric components were seized by authorities, the Interior Ministry confirmed.

The components were likely intended to create improvised explosive devices, analysts say.

The seizure took place in al-Nabk, north of Damascus, near the Syria-Lebanon border, across from Baalbek.

Hezbollah's position in Syria is believed to have been weakened since December 2024, when Ahmed al-Sharaa's Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham deposed the Assad regime from power.

Sharaa, who has a history of leading Sunni Islamist groups, has taken a tougher stance against the Shia regime of Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, from conducting terror operations and smuggling in Syrian territory.
IDF combat engineers blowing up 'endless' amount of Hezbollah terror infrastructure
Hezbollah spent years building its weapons storage network and a series of positions, including communications networks and above-and-below-ground connected military apparatuses.

R estimated that possibly between 25 percent and 50% of the weapons, along with Hezbollah’s network in the area, have now been cleared.

But to fully clear these threats, he said, the IDF would need at a minimum a period of additional months.

Addressing the problem was a dilemma of legitimacy, R explained. If Israel achieves more global legitimacy, then, if the IDF gives him the time, his and other military units have a plan for continuing to work to clear these items over a period of months.

Addressing the difference between challenges in Gaza and Lebanon, R said, “There are lots of challenges in maneuvering tanks and infantry through problematic topography, from swampy land to challenging wet and sticky sand terrain. This is true with or without a direct challenge from the enemy at any given point.”

“When the geological challenges are larger, the vehicles needed to help free a stuck vehicle are larger,” he said.

Besides blowing up Hezbollah and Hamas terror infrastructure and helping salvage vehicles that get stuck, R’s unit is also critical in paving new roads and paths or widening old ones so that infantry and tanks can maneuver during invasions.

When other unpredictable issues surface, which require creativity to help Brigade 7 carry out its mission, R and Battalion 603 must figure out solutions.

Now, his troops will finally have a longer period of refreshing their skills out of the field and back on base, before heading back into the field in Gaza.

“The nation of Israel is very strong,” R concluded. “Our soldiers are very happy to be in the field – to defend Israel. They are not sad and do not have mixed feelings.

“All of our weapons and vehicles would be worthless without these great and brave soldiers. We heard a lot about Hezbollah, but our fighters were not afraid.”

Whether it is protecting Shlomi, Misgav Am, or Kiryat Shmona from attack, he said his unit wants to give Israeli civilians a “clean” basis for living, meaning without the threat of Hezbollah hovering over them.


Israel negotiating with Lebanon for first time in 40 years ‘because we are very strong,’ Netanyahu says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the Jewish state is negotiating with Lebanon, something it hasn’t done for more than 40 years, “because we are very strong, and nations are coming to us, not just Lebanon.”

There are two Israeli objectives—disarming Hezbollah and achieving sustainable peace through strength, Netanyahu said.

Israel is about to eliminate the Bint Jbeil, “the place where Hassan Nasrallah said 26 years ago, ‘The Israelis are cobwebs,’” the prime minister said. “We are, in effect, about to eliminate this great stronghold of Hezbollah.”

The Israeli premier said that he directed the military to widen the security zone and “spread it eastward toward the slopes of Mount Hermon, so that we can better assist our Druze brothers in their time of distress.” He added that the United States has been updating Israel on its communications with Iran.

“Our goals and those of the United States are identical,” he said. “We want to see the enriched material removed from Iran. We want to see the cancellation of enrichment capabilities within Iran and of course, we want to see the opening of the straits.”


Palestinian terrorist shot in Samaria; knife attack foiled
An armed Israeli civilian on Wednesday morning shot a Palestinian terrorist who tried to carry out a stabbing at a farming outpost in central Samaria, police and military officials said.

“A short while ago, IDF soldiers rushed to an area near Revava in the Ephraim Regional Brigade [deployment area] following a report of a terrorist who attempted to carry out a stabbing attack at the position,” the Israel Defense Forces said in an initial statement.

“The terrorist was neutralized; there are no casualties,” the statement added. The condition of the terrorist was not immediately clear.

The Israel Police said the incident took place at the Emek Doron outpost between the established Jewish communities of Revava and Yakir.

“According to initial details, a 29-year-old Palestinian terrorist, a resident of the village Qarawat Bani Hassan, arrived at the farm armed with a knife. He approached people at the scene, drew the knife and attempted to stab them,” police said.

“An armed civilian who was present at the scene drew his legally licensed weapon and fired at the attacker, neutralizing him and eliminating the threat,” it added.

Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 5,051 times in 2025, according to figures published by the Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders) NGO two months ago.

Twenty-four Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2025, and more than 400 others were wounded, the NGO said in its annual report.
One person lightly wounded by Hezbollah rocket strike on Arab-Israeli city
One person sustained light wounds when a rocket fired by Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon hit the Arab-Israeli city of Tamra on Wednesday morning, medical officials said.

The casualty, identified as a 61-year-old man, suffered shrapnel wounds and was evacuated for treatment at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus, according to the Magen David Adom medical emergency response group.

Another person suffering an anxiety attack due to the rocket impact was also transported to the hospital, MDA said.

Hezbollah terrorists on Wednesday morning launched a string of attacks targeting Israel’s Upper and Western Galilee, including one heavy barrage that saw some 30 rockets fired in under 40 minutes, Channel 12 News reported.

Air-raid sirens were activated from the town of Metula on the Jewish state’s northeast border with Lebanon to the Galilee coastal city of Acre, according to the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and suicide drones at Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the Jewish state’s targeted killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening strikes of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury” against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28.
Israeli woman charged with spying for Iran
Israeli authorities have charged a Nazareth woman with security offenses after investigators said she carried out surveillance and information-gathering tasks for an Iranian handler, Israel Police said on Wednesday.

Police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said Shomua Abu Abed was arrested in March and accused of photographing military sites, Haifa oil refineries and collecting details on a former Israeli defense official.

Investigators said Abu Abed suspected early on that she was working for an Iranian operative but continued completing the assignments in exchange for hundreds of dollars paid through a digital wallet.

Missile fire from Iran caused minor damage to Israel’s largest petrol refinery near Haifa on March 30, which will affect neither the production nor the supply of fuel, according to Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen following the attack.

“No one was hurt in the strike on Bazan, and the strike was not in production facilities and won’t disrupt fuel supply,” Cohen stated.


Commentary Podcast: Attacks and a Tax
On this Tax Day we discuss the IMF's prediction of a global recession, Trump's threats to withdraw from NATO and his feud with the Pope, JD's Vance's comments at a Turning Point USA event and his political future, and the April Fools controversy at UNC.


One Jewish State: Does Israel Control America? Amb. David Friedman On The War with Iran, Trump, and Judea & Samaria.
Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman pulls back the curtain on the real US-Israel relationship, the war with Iran, Trump's Middle East strategy, and the future of Judea & Samaria (West Bank).

00:00 Does Israel control America
01:00 Why American is at War with Iran
01:38 President Trump’s Perspective
02:48 What Happens If Israel and America Destroy Iran
04:10 Who Takes Over Iran If the Regime Topples
05:12 Breakdown of Trump’s 2020 Plan for Judea & Samaria (West Bank)
07:40 How Oct. 7th Proves the 2020 Plan Would Never Work
10:13 How the Avraham Accords Derailed the 2020 Plan
11:27 What Arab Leaders Say in Public vs Private about Palestinians
15:30 What Happens If Israel Takes Over Judea & Samaria (West Bank)
16:55 The Right Way to Declare Sovereignty
18:11 Is Bezalel Smotrich Slowly Creeping Annexation?
21:26 Palestinian Authority - What To Do?
23:04 Tucker Carlson vs. Amb. Mike Huckabee
26:15 Why Did Tucker Carlson Change
28:30 Israel Must Be Israel
30:26 The American “Canary in the Cole Mine”
31:23 What Would You Tell President Trump


spiked: ‘NO to the mullahs! NO to the monarchy!’ | Iranian dissident on the regime change Iran needs
Iranian dissident Ali Safavi – member of Iran's Parliament in Exile and National Council of Resistance of Iran – is the latest guest to join Brendan O’Neill on The Brendan O’Neill Show. Ali talks about his brother’s murder at the hands of the regime, the peaceful future Iranians want, and why a restoration of the Shah is not the answer.

00:00 – Ali Safavi introduction
02:15 – What is the NCRI?
06:00 – The regime's war on the opposition: executions and terrorism
11:30 – Bomb plots, assassinations and the disinformation campaign
16:00 – How weak is the regime today?
19:45 – The January 2026 uprising and MEK resistance units
24:00 – The NCRI's provisional government declaration
27:30 – The killing of Khamenei: reaction and impact
31:00 – What the West gets wrong about Iran
33:30 – Assessing Trump's approach to the regime
36:00 – Why war isn't the answer: the Iraq and Libya lesson
38:30 – The monarchist question: who is Reza Pahlavi?
42:00 – Why monarchy is not the alternative to theocracy
45:00 – What Iran's people actually want and what comes next


Israeli legal advocacy group files ICC case against Spanish PM over exports to Iran
An Israeli advocacy group said Tuesday that it had asked the International Criminal Court to consider legal action against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for allegedly “aiding war crimes” through exports to Iran.

The complaint comes in the midst of an escalating diplomatic spat between the two nations, which began with the start of the Gaza war in October 2023 and worsened after Madrid recognized a Palestinian state a year later.

Filed by the Shurat HaDin NGO, which has taken legal action worldwide against what it calls “Israel’s enemies,” the lawsuit accuses Spain of providing “components required by the regime in Tehran and its proxies for military purposes.”

In a filing submitted under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, it alleges that Spain approved the export of about 1.3 million euros’ worth of so-called dual-use products that could be used in detonators and other explosive-related applications.

“These materials are not innocent industrial products, but critical components that enable explosive devices to function, and they were transferred in circumstances where their use for attacks against civilians was foreseeable and reasonable,” Shurat HaDin said in a statement.




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