Monday, April 20, 2026

04/20 Links Pt1: Ruthie Blum: Trump cards; PA Has Paid Convicted Terrorists Released in Gaza Deal; England’s Jews are being terrorised, and the left is silent

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Trump cards
This clash of narratives would be less troubling if it were merely rhetorical. But it goes to the heart of how the Islamic Republic wages war and, crucially, how it and the rest of the jihadist world try to avoid losing one.

Militarily, the imbalance is obvious. The United States possesses overwhelming superiority in every realm other than that of double-speak and propaganda-spreading.

Tehran’s advantage, like that of its proxies, has always existed in the ability to manipulate perception, to blur lines between perpetrator and victim and to exploit the West’s chronic susceptibility to wishful thinking. It understands that battles are not fought solely with planes and tanks, but by way of story lines that seep into public consciousness. It’s an arena in which jihadists are champions. One need look no further than the halls of Harvard.

While aware of this phenomenon, Trump doesn’t grasp the depths of Islamist religious ideology, which is far harder to confront than armies and navies. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that nobody, least of all Trump, likes being played for a fool. So, Iran is pushing its luck and not merely through bluster. Indeed, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired on two Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz on April 18.

This is despite the fast-approaching end to the two-week ceasefire. The deadline for Tehran to agree to U.S. conditions for a deal is April 22.

Though Trump’s been vague about whether he means to extend the truce, he’s not likely to be flexible at this point.

During a joint press conference on April 16 with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth issued a warning to Tehran, referring to the U.S. blockade as the “polite way this can go.”

Addressing the Islamic Republic, he said, “You like to say publicly ... that you control the Strait of Hormuz. But you don’t have a navy or real domain awareness. You can’t control anything. To be clear: Threatening to shoot missiles and drones at commercial ships that are lawfully transiting international waters—that is not control. That’s piracy. That’s terrorism.”

He continued, “The United States Navy controls the traffic going in and out of the strait, because we have real assets and real capabilities. ... The math is clear. We’re using 10% of the world’s most powerful navy, and you have 0% of your navy. That’s real control, and we have a long track record of dealing with pirates and terrorists. But there is an alternative. As our negotiators have said, you, Iran, can choose a prosperous future, a golden bridge. And we hope that you do for the people of Iran. ... But if Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy.”

Well, the IRGC certainly hasn’t been opting for the outcome desired by Washington, Jerusalem or the Iranian people. Trump, therefore, must stick to his literal and figurative guns.

After all, the last thing he would want is for the United States to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Palestinian Authority Has Paid Convicted Terrorists Released as Part of Gaza Ceasefire Deal, State Department Tells Congress
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has paid salaries to convicted terrorists Israel released from its prisons as part of its October 2025 ceasefire agreement with Hamas, the State Department formally determined in a non-public report to Congress obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The State Department's mandatory report—compiled between August 2025 and January 2026—marks the first U.S. government determination that the PA has "provided payments to convicted terrorists released from Israeli prisons in October 2025 under President Trump's 20-point peace plan."

The notice to Congress confirms a similar conclusion the State Department made in January, when it noted that, even though PA president Mahmoud Abbas claimed in 2025 that he had scrapped the so-called pay-to-slay program, his government had still doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists and their families. As the Free Beacon reported in February, the PA transitioned last year to concealing those payments from Western governments by funneling them through a newly established welfare authority. The most recent State Department report confirms that a portion of those funds has gone to the terrorists released in October.

The State Department report comes about six months after the beginning of President Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire, which included a commitment from Abbas that the PA would undertake a series of reforms, including ending pay-to-slay. The notice to Congress demonstrates that he and his government have not followed through in any meaningful way.

The PA appears to have gone further since the end of the period covered in the State Department report. Abbas's Fatah party "announced that terrorists who have been imprisoned for more than 20 years will be granted leadership positions," according to the Palestinian Media Watch research group. Fatah Revolutionary Council member Tayseer Nasrallah said in a televised interview in March that these terrorists will serve as members in the upcoming Eighth Fatah Conference, the forum at which the PA sets government policy.

The State Department report includes other examples of the PA violating the terms of its agreements with the United States. The PA "incited and glorified violence, including on social media and media outlets," and "supported terrorism via educational materials and summer camps" that teach children jihadist ideologies, the notice states.
Khaled Abu Toameh: For the Leadership in Iran, Gaza and Beirut, What Is the Only Important Outcome?
[The US president's negotiations and ceasefires] are viewed by Tehran, Gaza and Beirut as infidels trying to tell Muslims what to do. For them, such a situation is unimaginable, unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand.

To Iran's current leaders, whoever they are, if Trump carries out his threat to bomb the country's bridges and power plants on Wednesday, so be it. In the view of Iran's theocratic regime, none of that is of any importance so long as it survives, in any form, to be able to continue waging jihad (holy war) against its people, its neighbors and the West.

A piece of paper signed with infidels at the point of a gun is, in their eyes, nothing more than a Western fantasy.

They see anything short of the total destruction of their entire power base as a total victory.

That is why all three regimes – the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – need to be totally dismantled if there is to be any real, permanent change of conduct in the Middle East.

The message should by now be clear: Iran's regime, Hamas and Hezbollah have no intention of laying down their arms, no interest in compromise, and no respect for Trump and his policies. In fact, they are telling Trump: Your initiatives and efforts are irrelevant.

The intractability of their leaders also aligns with their long-term ideological objective of sustaining a permanent conflict with Israel and the West.

Even if the Iranian regime is no longer able to continue funding, arming, and guiding its proxies, all will remain committed to armed struggle until "victory."

"Victory," in their terms, means first the destruction of Israel ("the Little Satan"), then taking over their oil-rich neighbors, and eventually the destruction of Europe and the United States ("the Great Satan").

So long as the Iranian regime – or Hamas or Hezbollah -- is able to survive, there will be no disarmament, no moderation, and no peace.

The repeated refusals by Iran's regime, Hamas and Hezbollah expose the failure of any policy built on engagement, incentives, or accommodation.

These terror entities do not interpret diplomatic overtures, off-ramps and ceasefires as goodwill. They view them instead as weakness.

They are right. It is, indeed, the West's fault that it allows itself to be exploited. The West not only gives these leaders time to rearm and rebuild, but worse, it grants them legitimacy and power bases throughout Europe and the United States. No one in the West even asks them to concede anything of substance.

Until there is a better understanding by the West of what jihad actually is -- and the uncompromising determination behind it -- every negotiation, threat and ceasefire will only lead to more terrorism and the next war.


Dave Rich: When it comes to antisemitism, the sound of silence from UK anti-racists is deafening
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, at an organisational level, Jews have simply been abandoned by the big beasts of progressive, liberal, anti-racist opinion and activism. There are pockets of support that remain, thankfully. But in general, looking at the sector as a whole, most of the trade unions, human rights NGOs, public sector bodies campaigning organisations, student groups and the rest who make up the anti-racist establishment have closed their eyes and their hearts to the Jewish community.

There are plenty of individuals who reach out to express support, and I don’t want to downplay the importance of this. A quiet, sympathetic word to Jewish friends or colleagues goes a long way. But this isn’t reflected in the activism of civil society organisations. Allyship means speaking up within those organisations and pushing them to change, as well as posting personal views on social media.

There are several reasons for this silence. Understandings of racism have changed to focus exclusively on people of colour, so antisemitism, even where it is regretted or condemned, is not seen as ‘real’ racism, and Jews are seen as white, wealthy, powerful and integrated – so not needing or deserving anti-racist solidarity. When much of the anti-racist left looks around society and puts people into different boxes, the Jewish community doesn’t make it into the box marked ‘our people’. Some people mean well but just don’t get it, and need to re-learn what antisemitism is all about.

But beyond that, there is a deeper, more troubling reason: there are large parts of the so-called anti-racist left that accommodate and encourage exactly the hateful, violent extremism that is fuelling this rising tide of antisemitism. Call for death in this movement and you become a celebrity. Claim that the UK is under “Zionist control” and nobody bats an eyelid. Solidarity statements flood in for people who rant about “Jewish supremacy”, rather than for the Jews they are inciting hatred against. And all driven by an obsessive, violent hatred for Israel, and a purifying desire to denounce and destroy anyone and anything touched by the sin of “Zionism”.

Of course this generates antisemitism. How could it not? And of course, the people pushing this hatred, marching alongside it, or saying nothing when the people on the same platform as them express these views, cannot mount a campaign against antisemitism even when synagogues are being fire-bombed. How could they?

They can’t even begin to acknowledge why this antisemitism is happening, because to do so would be to incriminate their own political world. So instead, they do nothing.

Tonight’s Panorama gives a taste of what British Jews are living through right now. It is powerful and important and I hope a lot of people watch it. The defiance and determination of the Jewish community is admirable and makes me convinced that we will stand up to this hatred: but unlike our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, it feels like we will have to do it without meaningful support from the very organisations and people who claim to define what counts as anti-racism. And if that remains the case, it would be truly shameful.
Brendan O'Neill: England’s Jews are being terrorised, and the left is silent
The brainless apologists for Tehran among Britain’s affluent faux-socialist classes will say: ‘It was only a few makeshift petrol bombs. And they didn’t ignite.’ Yet those three dreamt-of fires will have made Jews across London feel fretful. Is their synagogue next? Will the next bag of accelerants catch fire? That’s terrorism’s mission – to terrorise. What’s more, the explosion of Jew hate in Australia after 7 October 2023 also started with the ‘low-level’ intimidation of synagogues, including firebombings. And we know how things ended there. It is at the very start that the Islamo-fascist menace must be quashed, before it leads to more than smoke damage, and to the harming of more than bricks and mortar.

I am now at the point where I find the ‘progressive’ silence in the aftermath of these attacks more unnerving than the noise of the violence itself. Anti-Jewish savagery is tragically to be expected from the Islamic Republic and its simps in the West. It’s the cowardice of the cultural elite that feels truly foreign, truly unsettling. A whole week of terror against Jews in London and the government just issues a few perfunctory comments while the media elites briefly wring their hands before getting back to the Mandelson scandal. Where’s the anger? Where’s the righteous fury of those liberals who said everything from Brexit to Trump was ‘like the 1930s’ yet who now seem so soullessly unfazed by literal firebombings of synagogues?

As for the left, their claim to oppose racism lies in the gutter where it belongs. It has been exposed as a gross lie by their own wordless timidity as synagogues are targeted with fire. These people got angrier over the Supreme Court ruling saying men aren’t women than they did over a week of anti-Semitic arson in London. I don’t know what we’re meant to call an activist class that shows more interest in the right of men to piss wherever they fancy than it does in the right of Jews to live in safety. But I know it’s not anti-fascist.

The terrorisers in our midst are not only goading England’s Jews – they’re goading all of us. They’re laying down a gauntlet alongside their petrol bombs, to see if Britain will stand with its Jews or betray them. And right now we are failing, badly. Civil society sleeps. The government is too busy saving its own arse to save British Jewry. And ‘progressives’ just carry on with their one-eyed, unhinged demonisation of the Jewish State and everyone who supports it, effectively hanging a target sign around the necks of Britain’s Jews. There is a moment in which silence becomes complicity. When moral nonchalance helps to normalise savagery. When our collective failure to speak out is viewed by the fascist enemy as permission for further violence. We’ve reached that moment.
Security minister: We’ll hunt down synagogue arsonists’
Security Minister Dan Jarvis has insisted the government is doing “everything it can” to protect the community amid a spate of terrifying arson attacks at synagogues.

Speaking to Jewish News after meeting police chiefs at Finchley Reform Synagogue, Jarvis said he was confident officers were getting to the bottom of a spate of recent arson attacks.

He told this newspaper: “I am here to reassure the community that the government takes these matters incredibly seriously. We’re obviously working very closely with the police. We’ll make sure that they’ve got resources they need to carry out these investigations, but the attacks that we’ve seen in recent times are utterly abhorrent, completely unacceptable, and this government will do everything that we can to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

On claims that Iranian-linked groups may offer incentives to teenagers, Jarvis warned: “If anybody is considering taking money to engage in this kind of activity, they should not do so. There is absolutely no certainty other than that they will be brought to justice and they will feel the full weight of the law.”

He added: “I’m confident we’ll get to the bottom of all of this, and people should be reassured by the seriousness with which we attach to these issues.”

Addressing why the IRGC has not been proscribed, Jarvis said the group is already sanctioned in its entirety, Iran has been placed on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, and the government will “enact the recommendation that Jonathan Hall brought forward… as quickly as possible.”

Jarvis also acknowledged the online threat, with fears youngsters are being radicalised and offered incentives to commit attacks via the web, telling Jewish News: “There are a number of online challenges, and we’re working across government and with other partners to make the online space safer than it feels at the moment. That is an important area of work, and we’re progressing into place.”
Two arrested in connection with Kenton Synagogue arson attack
A 17-year-old boy and 19-year-old man have been arrested over an arson attack aimed at a synagogue in north-west London, the Metropolitan Police has said.

A bottle containing a type of accelerant was thrown through the window of Kenton United Synagogue on Shaftesbury Avenue, Harrow at about midnight on Sunday.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said that minor smoke damage to an internal room was caused but said no there were injuries or significant structural damage.

Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told the Today programme on Monday morning that a 17-year-old boy and 19-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the incident.

He added there had been a total of 15 arrests in relation to six incidents where premises with Jewish connections had been targeted in London in recent weeks.

These include arson attacks on four Jewish ambulances in Golders Green and a synagogue in Finchley, north London.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Jukes confirmed the Met was investigating Iranian-backed proxies linked to the recent incidents.


Spat at, called baby killer, kidnapped – Panorama lays bare reality of being Jewish in the UK
A hard-hitting Panorama documentary on BBC1 tonight looks at how intimidation and violence aimed at the Jewish community has become consistent, relentless and widespread.

Judith Moritz and Daniel Wittenberg’s well-researched documentary highlights the Yom Kippur attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester and also the more recent attacks in London, leaving many British Jews feeling fearful and under threat.

Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism and state threats legislation says there has been “undue caution in using the law” and that the police and the CPS need to see rising antisemitism, as a priority.

Laurence Taylor, head of counter terrorism policing, says: “We have seen a rise in antisemitic hate crime and a clear intent to target Jewish communities.”

There are chilling testimonies from individual members of the public. Amanda, 47, says: “I’ve been spat at, I’ve been called a baby killer, I’ve been called racist. I’ve had a death threat saying ‘you all deserve to die’ just for having my Star of David on while out and about in London.”

Midwife Laura, 62, says that she feels unsafe and unwelcome working in the NHS and that there has been abuse directed online to her and other Jewish birthworkers. University student Avital, 21, talks about anti-Jewish protests on campus with megaphones, and chalked message on the ground saying “get the Zionists off our campus”.

On the programme London-based Israeli record producer Itay Kashti relates a horrifying incident in 2024 when he was invited by a supposed record company to attend a songwriting camp in Wales. On arrival his taxi driver helped him in with his luggage and they were both attacked by three masked men. Believing him to be a ‘rich jew’ the intention had been to extort money from him but the plan failed.

Panorama says there is a bill going through parliament to give the police more powers to protect places of worship and monuments and also a review into public order and hate crime laws.


Trump: ‘Israel never talked me into the war with Iran’
U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Monday that Israel did not persuade the United States to enter military operations against Iran, emphasizing that he has long believed that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.

“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran,” the president wrote. “The results of Oct. 7, added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, did.”

The comments follow criticism from conservative media figures like Tucker Carlson, who called the U.S. president a “slave” to Israel, and Megyn Kelly, who said Israel “dragged” the United States into the war.

Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned his position while also alleging that Israel played a large role in drawing the United States into war with Iran, while former U.S. vice president Kamala Harris stated that Trump “entered a war, got pulled into it by Bibi Netanyahu, let us be clear about that.”

“Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn’t like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing,” the president wrote. “And if Iran’s new leaders (regime change!) are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future.”


New round of Israel-Lebanon talks set for Thursday as US said trying to extend truce
A second round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon will take place on Thursday, an Israeli and a US official tell The Times of Israel on Monday.

The meeting, the official said, will take place at the State Department in Washington, and will include staffers from the Israeli, Lebanese, and US sides. Israel will be represented by its envoy to the US, and Lebanon by its former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam.

“The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14,” a State Department official told The Times of Israel, confirming that the US will host a second round of talks on Thursday. “We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments.”

Last Tuesday, Leiter and Lebanon’s current envoy in the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, met for roughly two hours, marking the highest-level direct talks to date between Israeli and Lebanese officials. The talks were mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American diplomats.

Thursday’s talks will take place days before a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is set to expire. But Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday, following a meeting with US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, that the US was making an effort to extend the truce, according to the Asharq al-Awsat outlet.

A lawmaker for Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is sworn to Israel’s destruction, castigated the direct talks and vowed to continue “resistance” against Israeli troops’ presence in the south of the country. He also vowed that his terror group would not lay down its weapons, something both Israel and the Lebanese government have demanded.

In an interview with AFP, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said, “We will bring down this yellow line through the resistance,” meaning military action. The “yellow line” refers to the parts of Lebanon that Israel controls.

“The attempt by the Israeli army to establish a buffer zone, under the title of a defensive line, a yellow line, a green line, and a red line,” he added, “all these lines will be broken, and we will not accept any of them.”

Fadlallah also vowed that “no one in Lebanon or abroad will be able to disarm the resistance.”

But Lebanese President Joseph Aoun stood by the negotiations, saying he hoped they would “save” his country.
Aoun appoints Hezbollah critic as Beirut’s envoy to Israel talks
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday named former Ambassador to the United States Simon Karam as Beirut’s envoy for the peace talks with Israel.

“The bilateral negotiations will be conducted on behalf of Lebanon by a delegation led by Ambassador Simon Karam, and no one will participate in this mission in his place or act as his substitute,” Aoun announced during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, according to a statement from the Lebanese Presidency.

Karam, a Maronite Christian and critic of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, previously headed the Lebanese team in talks regarding the implementation of the Nov. 27, 2024, ceasefire between Jerusalem and Beirut.

Aoun on Monday said that the latest negotiations would aim to “end hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of areas in the south and deploy the [Lebanese] army to the internationally recognized southern borders.” The president stressed that these talks should “enjoy the broadest possible national support to enable the negotiating team to achieve the desired objectives.”


U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack faces renewed condemnation for anti-Israel, pro-Ankara comments
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack faced fresh condemnation from two Senate Republicans and conservative influencers for a series of comments he made at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey this weekend in which he repeatedly criticized Israel and praised Ankara.

The U.S. envoy has faced criticism and scrutiny from fellow Republicans previously for his perceived closeness with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, comments critical of Israel and more.

In response to comments by Barrack claiming that the current ceasefire in Lebanon “is so delicate because everybody has been equally untrustworthy” — referring to both Israel and Hezbollah — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he “respectfully and strongly disagree[s].”

Barrack said at the conference there needs to be “a path with Hezbollah, and that path has to be not killing Hezbollah” — a group that the U.S. has long designated as a terrorist organization and has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. He further said that Iran and Hezbollah both should be involved in talks to end the fighting in Lebanon.

“I always get in trouble because Hezbollah, in American parlance, and most of the West, is a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, is also a political organization,” Barrack added.

The ambassador repeatedly criticized provisions in past ceasefire agreements that allowed Israel to take action against Hezbollah in its own self-defense, which he argued made the agreements weak and functionally nonbinding on Israel. He further dismissed the idea that the Lebanese Armed Forces would act to disarm Hezbollah, as is required under the terms of the current and past ceasefires.
Israel exposes Iran-backed terror network in Azerbaijan
Israeli authorities on Monday revealed new information on the reported foiling of terrorist attacks by Iran in Azerbaijan, describing a network that planned to sabotage that country’s oil infrastructure as well as Jewish institutions.

“A few weeks ago, a terrorist infrastructure was thwarted in Azerbaijan that promoted attempts to harm a strategic target—the oil pipeline that runs through Georgia and Turkey (BTC), as well as against a number of Jewish targets and institutions in the country, including the Israeli embassy, the synagogue in Baku, and leaders of the Jewish community,” the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies said in a joint statement with the Israel Defense Forces on Monday.

The statement added many details to the earlier statements by Azerbaijani authorities in March about the arrest of a group operating on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and plotting to assassinate a leader of the local Jewish community.

The terrorist network’s members had armed drones and explosives that they smuggled into Azerbaijan, according to the Israeli statement. They gathered intelligence on targets, including by taking pictures of them, acting on orders from handlers in Iran, the statement added.

Heading the terrorist operations was Rahman Makadam, who had served as the head of the Special Operations Department in the intelligence apparatus of the IRGC, known as Unit 4000. He was the target of an Israeli Air Force strike in the early days of “Operation Roaring Lion,” according to the statement.
UAE dismantles Iran-linked organization says plotting terror operations
The UAE announced on Monday that it dismantled an Iran-linked terrorist organization for its involvement in covert activities that attempted to destabilize the country and undermine national unity.

The UAE’s State Security Department arrested the organization’s members adding that they were “planning systematic terrorist and sabotage operations on UAE soil.”

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Investigations showed that the organization’s members had adopted extremist ideas and ideologies that threatened internal security, the statement carried by the Emirates News Agency (WAM) said.

WAM shared mugshots of 27 men and their names.

The members had carried out recruitment and mobilization operations through secret meetings as part of “a coordinated plan with external entities aimed at accessing sensitive locations.”

Monitoring operations and investigations also revealed that the organization members held secret meetings inside and outside the country with “terrorist elements and suspicious organizations.”


Russian authorities detain 40 Israelis landing in Moscow over 'involvement' in Iran war
Moscow authorities detained and interrogated approximately 40 Israelis landing at the Russian capital's Domodedovo Airport over involvement in the Iran war, Russian opposition outlet Mediazona reported on Monday.

The Israelis landed on a flight from Tel Aviv. Some of those detained were dual Israel-Russia nationals, but all had no access to food, water, or a bathroom while being detained for several hours, according to the report.

Security officials demanded that passengers unlock their phones, but the passengers refused, with authorities eventually settling for all mobile devices to be turned off, a source told Mediazona.

The Israelis were called in for "conversations" during which some were reportedly told that Iran is Russia's ally, and that Iran's enemy is Russia's enemy, the outlet said.

The Israelis were then told that their visit to Moscow was "not welcome" and that they had "come for nothing."
Polish FM says IDF soldiers ‘admit to war crimes,’ setting up clash with Sa’ar
Poland’s foreign minister said Monday that Israeli soldiers “admit to war crimes” and killed Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, in the wake of an IDF reservist posting online a photo of himself destroying a statue of Jesus in Lebanon.

“It’s good that [Foreign] Minister [Gideon] Sa’ar apologized quickly; there was something to apologize for,” Radek Sikorski wrote on X. “That soldier should be punished, but lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained.”

“IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages,” Sikorski continued, referring to the war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel vehemently denies it has committed war crimes or genocide in Gaza, and says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, stressing that Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Sa’ar rejected the “grave, baseless, and slanderous statements against the IDF.”

“What you wrote reveals profound ignorance and a deep lack of understanding,” he wrote on X, addressing his remarks at Sikorski. “During every war, there are operational accidents, in which military forces are also harmed by fire from their own army.”

Sa’ar insisted that there is “no Western army that fights terrorism more precisely and on the basis of better intelligence than the IDF, with a constant effort to minimize harm to non-combatants. The ratio of terrorist casualties to non-combatants is better than that of any other Western army. In fact — of any other fighting army in the world.”

“The IDF is a professional and ethical army,” he wrote, adding that Western democratic armies learn from the IDF.
Destruction of Jesus statue should serve as moral wake-up call for IDF, Israel
On Sunday, an image of an Israeli soldier operating in Lebanon spread rapidly across social media.

It so perfectly encapsulated some of the worst tropes about Israel and Jews that many instinctively assumed it was an AI-generated product meant to slander the Jewish state.

Friends of Israel who thought the photograph might be real prayed it wasn’t, so damaging was the picture.

Their prayers went unanswered. An IDF soldier had indeed taken a hammer to the face of a statue depicting Jesus in the Christian town of Debel in southern Lebanon. There was no AI, no manipulation, no getting around an image that points to a deep moral morass in the IDF and in broader Israeli society.

It is hard to think of an image that could be more damaging to Israel on the world stage right now.

The emergent “woke right” in the US — led by figures like Tucker Carlson — contends that Jews are enemies of Christians, who are persecuted by Israelis in the Holy Land. Carlson has devoted multiple episodes of his popular podcast to speaking with local Christian figures about hardships imposed by Jerusalem. Tucker Carlson attends a meeting with US President Donald Trump and oil executives in the East Room of the White House, January 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The movement is working hard to convince Christian Zionists, the backbone of America’s support for Israel, that Israelis harbor a not-so-secret disdain for Christians, and that their natural allies are the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the political spectrum, Israel is cast as a uniquely cruel fighting force, going out of its way to destroy homes, lives and religious sites. All of this is done with a bizarre glee by IDF forces, say anti-Israel social media figures.

And, of course, there is the millennia-old charge of deicide, that Jews collectively bear eternal guilt for the death of Jesus on the cross. That accusation, which has led to the death of untold thousands of Jews, has been adapted in Palestinian liberation theology, which recasts Israeli soldiers as the Romans and Palestinians as their victim, Jesus.

What better evidence could all those camps ask for than a photo of a broken figure of Jesus, torn off the cross and hanging upside down as an emotionless Israeli soldier smashes him with a hammer?

The same army that killed tens of thousands in Gaza, and struck the only Catholic church in the territory, those critics can now say, is going out of its way to desecrate images of Jesus as it systematically destroys southern Lebanon as well.

As Jerusalem and Beirut wade into unprecedented peace talks, Israel has gone to great lengths to insist that its fight is with Hezbollah and its Shiite strongholds, not the Maronite communities in southern Lebanon that have worked with Israel since before its independence. But the image of the soldier destroying infrastructure in a Christian town, and a statue of Jesus at that, would seem to directly contradict the contention that Israel is not targeting Christians as well.

Most Israelis are rightly horrified by the incident, and the IDF and Foreign Ministry have denounced it in unequivocal terms. “Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon.”
Netanyahu rebukes soldier for vandalizing Catholic icon, lauds religious freedom in Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday expressed regret that an IDF soldier had damaged a Catholic religious icon in Southern Lebanon, condemned it in the strongest terms and assured that “harsh disciplinary action” will be taken against the guilty party.

After an image of an Israeli Defense Forces soldier damaging a statue of Jesus on the cross circulated online, the IDF said it would investigate. It announced its findings overnight, determining the image was authentic.

Saying that Israel respects all faiths and creeds, Netanyahu said that he, like “the overwhelming majority of Israelis,” was “stunned and saddened” to learn of the vandalism.

The prime minister noted that Muslims slaughter Christians in Syria and Lebanon, but that the Christian population thrives in Israel.

“Israel is the only country in the region that the Christian population and standard of living is growing,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also condemned the act, calling it “grave and disgraceful.”

He praised the IDF for condemning the incident and conducting an investigation. “I’m confident that the necessary strict measures will be taken against whoever carried out this ugly act,” he said. “This shameful action is completely contrary to our values.

“Israel is a country that respects the different religions and their sacred symbols, and upholds tolerance and respect among faiths,” he said. “We apologize for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt.”
How do you condemn an abhorrent act without turning one soldier into a symbol of an entire nation?
Disproportionate focus on this image, especially when divorced from the context of Israel’s official response and its broader record on protecting Christian sites, risks cementing the narrative that such desecration is emblematic of Israeli policy rather than a stark violation of it.

In the hands of bad-faith actors, the photo is already being used to revive medieval libels about Jews and Jesus, turning one soldier’s crime into an indictment of an entire people and faith.

Journalism that is genuinely committed to fairness should, of course, report the incident in full, including the moral outrage it has generated among Israelis themselves, while also scrutinizing those who instrumentalize the image to stoke antisemitism or delegitimize Israel’s very existence.

Moral proportion requires both condemnation of this act and resistance to its exploitation as propaganda.

Jewish and Christian leaders, both in Israel and abroad, have an opportunity to turn this painful episode into a moment of deeper solidarity.

Joint statements, visits, and dialogues that affirm the sanctity of each other’s holy places can help ensure that the image of a soldier smashing a statue is not the last word in this story, but the catalyst for renewed commitment to mutual respect.

For Christians, seeing a statue of Jesus – a symbol of ultimate vulnerability and sacrificial love – assaulted by a soldier is understandably searing, especially in a region where they have so often suffered at the hands of violent non‑state actors and hostile regimes, and where their communities have been shrinking under sustained pressure.

For Jews, seeing a fellow Jew desecrate a Christian symbol in uniform is a profound source of shame, clashing with a tradition that repeatedly commands sensitivity to the stranger and reverence for the divine image in every human being.

It is possible, indeed necessary, to hold these truths at once: to condemn this act without reservation, to insist on real accountability, to recognize that it violates – rather than represents – Israeli and Jewish ideals, and to question media narratives that seize on a single image to tell a one‑sided story.

The work of accurate reporting is to sit in that tension, neither minimizing the pain that image evokes nor allowing it to become a weapon that erases context, complexity, and the humanity of all involved.


Israeli soldiers find explosives in Palestinian school in Judea
Israeli security forces on Sunday discovered explosive devices inside a Palestinian school in the town of Beit Ummar in Judea, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.

“Approximately two weeks ago, two terrorists hurled explosives and Molotov cocktails toward the community of Carmei Tzur. No injuries were reported,” according to the military statement.

In the wake of the attack, security forces apprehended the suspects, who were taken for questioning by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), it noted.

Following the interrogation of the terrorists, IDF troops and Israel Border Police officers “located and dismantled an explosives cache concealed in a school in Beit Ummar.”

“No damage was caused to the school during the dismantling of the explosives cache,” it said. “The IDF views the use of schools for terrorist activity with the utmost severity and will continue to operate to thwart terrorism.”

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

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.


Commentary Podcast: Who Runs Iran?
AEI senior fellow Fred Kagan joins us today to discuss the internal power struggle in the Iranian regime, and who might be calling the shots right now. Plus, how the ongoing uncertainty about the conflict is impacting the American public, whether the only real way to end the Iranian nuclear program is regime change, and John recommends the musical 1776.
Erin Molan: Charlie Kirk’s Rabbi Makes Me Feel STUPID About Iran... and Trump
🎙️ Episode 136 (Part 2) of The Erin Molan Show features Rabbi Pesach Wolicki with one of the most fascinating and in-depth breakdowns of what’s REALLY happening right now in the Iran war, Israel, Trump’s strategy, Hezbollah, Europe, and the deeper ideology driving the Islamic regime.

Before the interview begins, there’s also a very real and relatable Erin Molan Show moment — a surprise appearance by Erin’s 7-year-old daughter trying to get mum’s attention on a Sunday, a reminder of the chaos and reality of a hardworking single mum juggling travel, breaking news in real time, parenting, and building one of the fastest-growing shows in media.

Rabbi Wolicki explains why the so-called ceasefire may not be a ceasefire at all, why economic warfare matters, what the media is missing about Lebanon and Hezbollah, why Europe faces a deeper civilizational crisis, and the theology behind Iran’s regime that many Western leaders still fail to understand.

And yes… this is also the interview where Erin tells Rabbi Wolicki he makes her feel “stupid” every time he speaks.

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 Intro + Special Guest Appearance 👧
1:12 Rabbi Wolicki on the Iran “Ceasefire”
5:10 Why Economic Warfare Is Still War
8:20 Hezbollah, Lebanon & What Media Gets Wrong
10:35 Trump’s Israel Post Explained
14:05 Europe’s Civilizational Crisis
15:42 The Theology Behind Iran’s Regime
19:08 The Massive U.S. Mistake Nobody Noticed
22:36 “You Make Me Feel Stupid” Moment
23:30 Where To Follow Rabbi Wolicki






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PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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