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Friday, July 03, 2026

07/02 Links Pt1: 1,000 days after Oct. 7, the Jewish people stand proud; Military Victory Is Not Enough; Not All Terrorists Are Journalists (satire)

From Ian:

Military Victory Is Not Enough
Israel has demonstrated extraordinary military capability in confronting the Iranian-led axis. Together with the U.S., it has significantly degraded Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear infrastructure while weakening Tehran's network of terrorist proxies. Yet the decisive contest increasingly centers on influence, legitimacy, and public perception. It is a war fought through political warfare, psychological operations, legal campaigns, media narratives, and disinformation.

The Oct. 7 massacre demonstrated that terrorism today operates simultaneously on the informational battlefield. While Hamas carried out unprecedented acts of mass murder, the accompanying global narrative rapidly shifted from documenting the atrocities to portraying Israel as the primary aggressor. International institutions, human rights organizations, university campuses, and social media platforms became arenas where Israel's legitimacy itself was placed on trial.

The objective extends beyond criticism of Israeli policy. It seeks to isolate Israel diplomatically, weaken its alliance with the U.S., divide Israel from Jewish communities abroad, and erode Western public support for its security. Recent polling illustrates the challenge. Fewer than half of Americans identify Iran as an enemy of the U.S., while substantial portions of the public fail to recognize the ideological connection between radical political Islam and attacks such as Sept. 11. Such knowledge gaps create fertile ground for hostile disinformation campaigns and ideological manipulation.

The expectation that terrorist organizations could be fundamentally moderated through political processes proved misplaced. Rather than abandoning their long-term objectives, organizations such as Hamas continued pursuing Israel's destruction while simultaneously benefiting from enhanced international legitimacy.

The military campaign against Iran and its proxies has demonstrated Israel's operational superiority. Whether those achievements translate into lasting strategic gains will depend increasingly on success beyond the battlefield. The struggle over legitimacy has become Israel's eighth front.

Military victories cannot by themselves prevent the erosion of political support, diplomatic standing, or international credibility. Information warfare is one of the principal theaters in this conflict. Israel must become as effective at defending the truth as it has proven at defending its borders.
What "Defensible Borders" Means for Israel after the War
True security comes from anticipating threats before they emerge and sustaining the moral and material strength needed to deter aggression and protect the nation's survival. The phrase "defensible borders" has been used in Israel for many years to explain why Israel could not accept the 1967 lines as defensible, mainly with regard to Jordan and Syria.

Israel remains a small country with a population of 8 million Jews compared with 400 million people in the Arab League countries. At the UN, Israel faces 21 Arab states and 57 Muslim-majority states. The broad asymmetry facing Israel means it cannot remake the region into liberal democracies or significantly reduce hatred of Israel, no matter how many wars Israel wins. Therefore, after every war, however successful, Israel must begin preparing for the next one.

Israel's survival is not guaranteed by diplomatic agreements, but rather by objective strength and how that strength is perceived by enemies and rivals. National-security decisions must not rest on assuming deterrence exists. Whether it has been achieved is unknowable.

One of the main lessons of the war concerns Israel's ability to defend its borders in future defensive battles. It is crucial to prevent the formation of a large threat close to the borders even in periods of quiet. Israel must adopt an active worldview that regards preemptive operations aimed at preventing the construction of a significant threat as an essential tool of defense. The importance lies in preventing the adversary's ability to create a border threat in the first place.
An American Commander's Case for Israeli Strategic Depth after Oct. 7
Hamas's massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, settled an old strategic argument. Israel, about the size of Maryland, is bordered almost entirely by adversaries intent on its destruction. Defending Israel requires strategic depth. The country lacked buffers in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and on the Syrian Golan front.

A familiar argument says precision rockets, cruise missiles, and one-way attack drones make terrain obsolete. But while rockets and drones are lethal, they are not war-winning. Hizbullah, Hamas, and the Iranian regime do not aim to harass Israel - they seek its elimination. That requires a ground invasion like Hamas executed. Buffer zones, demilitarized areas, and topographical control prevent such invasions.

The recent record of American military operations reinforces the same conclusion. The Taliban were defeated in five weeks in 2001; Saddam Hussein's regular forces collapsed in three in 2003. The American error in both theaters was the assumption that follow-on political reconstruction could remake those societies in a Western democratic image. It could not. The applicable lesson for Israel is: defeat the adversary's capability to threaten and to invade, do not attempt to remake his worldview, and return to dismantle the capability whenever it begins to reconstitute.

Oct. 7 showed what happens when geography is left undefended and threats are allowed to grow. Defensible borders are the minimum required for a small state's survival in a hostile neighborhood, and the precondition for any lasting peace.
1,000 days after Oct. 7, the Jewish people stand proud
While crowds around the world chant slogans stripped of any rational meaning; while "genocide" is used to describe a conflict in which the Palestinian population has grown from 150,000 in 1948 to 2,000,000 today; while the language of human rights is turned on its head to defend movements that oppress women and execute homosexuals - there stands a tiny people, just 0.2% of humanity, some 15 million souls worldwide.

Faced with an avalanche of falsehoods, Jews simply tell the truth. They continue to defend the fundamental principles of Western civilization: risking everything to protect their children, fighting for democracy and believing in the justice of their national mission, no matter how many missiles they endure, how many fashionable intellectuals denounce them, how many absurd headlines appear, or how many old acquaintances turn away.

The Jewish message is no longer the desperate cry of persecution that echoed through centuries of exile. Those who believe that the campaign by a vast, well-funded machinery of antisemitism will break the Jewish people are mistaken. We will fight with our fingernails if necessary. In Israel and throughout the diaspora, the meaning of Jewish identity has become clearer than ever.

In just eight decades since the Holocaust, a people that emerged decimated, orphaned and broken rebuilt its ancestral homeland into one of the world's most dynamic democracies. Israel has become a global leader in medicine, agriculture, technology, literature, music and scientific innovation while building one of the world's most capable militaries - because survival has required it from the day the Jewish state was born.
JPost Editorial: Over 1,000 days after: Israel cannot afford to forget lessons from October 7
A thousand days later, the old poison is seeping back.

This week’s timing should shake us. Thursday was the 17th of Tammuz, the fast that begins the Three Weeks, the period of mourning that culminates in Tisha B’Av.

Jewish tradition teaches that Jerusalem was breached on this day and that the destruction of the Temples was bound up with national failure, moral decay, baseless hatred, and the loss of collective responsibility.

The lesson is not quietism. Citizens should protest. Families should demand answers. Opposition leaders should challenge the government. Coalition leaders should defend their policies. Pain must be heard, and democracy requires fierce argument.

But fierce argument does not require humiliation.

Protest does not require hatred. Leadership does not require mocking the wounded. Grief does not grant permission to dehumanize fellow Israelis.

On Day 1,001, Israel needs a new covenant of speech. Say what you believe.

Fight for what matters. Demand accountability from every civilian and military leader who failed. Insist on justice for the dead, the wounded, the displaced, and the hostages who endured captivity.

Then remember that the person across the street, across the aisle, or across the protest barrier is part of the same wounded people.

October 7 proved the cost of illusion. The Three Weeks remind us of the cost of internal collapse. Israel can survive its enemies. It will struggle to survive a return to the hatred that weakened it before the gates were breached. The dead deserve memory. The living deserve responsibility. The country deserves a politics that can argue without tearing the nation apart. See more on


Israel marks 1,000 days since Oct. 7 Hamas massacre
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday marked 1,000 days since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people and saw hundreds taken hostage into Gaza.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry said the attack began at 6:29 a.m. and described Israel’s response as one of “resilience,” citing the rebuilding of communities, reopening of schools and businesses, and recovery of agriculture and tourism.

“Israel answered hatred with resilience, destruction with rebuilding, and terror with life,” the ministry said, adding that despite ongoing challenges, “Israel rises.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday urged people to “never forget” the victims of the Oct. 7 attack.

“1000 days ago, Hamas monsters stormed out of Gaza & into Israel & massacred 1200 men, women & children-butchering them viciously taking 251 people hostage,” Huckabee tweeted.

“We should never forget the victims & should keep asking ‘how did such a thing happen?’” the envoy added.

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday held a conference marking 1,000 days of fighting in the War of Redemption, launched in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

As part of the summit, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held an intelligence, operational and strategic assessment with the IDF General Staff Forum, which includes about 30 of the military’s most senior commanders.

The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the 964 soldiers killed since the morning of Oct. 7. As part of the ceremony, a recording was played of the late Col. Asaf Hamami declaring war some 30 minutes after the invasion got underway. “We are at war, everything is fine, war,” Hamami says in the audio clip, in what is believed to be the first such declaration made that day.

The memorial ceremony was followed by a panel discussion with field commanders discussing the 1,000 days of fighting.
Huckabee marks 1,000 days since Oct. 7, urges world to remember 1,200 victims
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday urged people to “never forget” the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as the Jewish state marked 1,000 days since the Hamas-led massacre.

“1000 days ago, Hamas monsters stormed out of Gaza & into Israel & massacred 1200 men, women & children-butchering them viciously taking 251 people hostage,” Huckabee tweeted.

“We should never forget the victims & should keep asking ‘how did such a thing happen?’” the envoy added.

Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as unaffiliated Gazan “civilians,” infiltrated the Jewish state’s southern border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 251.

The attacks marked the deadliest-single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

The Gaza war quickly expanded beyond the Strip, with Jerusalem also fighting Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, battling terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, conducting military operations in Syria, confronting Houthi attacks from Yemen, carrying out strikes inside Iranian territory and responding to attacks from Iraq.


Escalation Against Neighbors, Iran's Strategic Miscalculation in the Gulf
By striking neighboring countries, Iran is shooting itself in the foot. The Gulf states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman - are not peripheral players but essential neighbors whose stability and cooperation are vital for Iran's own long-term economic development and regional standing. Attacking sovereign nations that have no direct involvement in the core Iran-U.S. disputes risks isolating Tehran further and undermining any prospects for recovery or reintegration into the global economy.

These are countries that will remain Iran's neighbors for generations. Alienating them harms Iran's future more than it hurts its targets. Moreover, by targeting states uninvolved in the initial conflict, Iran paints itself as the aggressor in the eyes of the international community and the Arab world.

These Gulf countries did not initiate hostilities against Iran. They have repeatedly called for de-escalation rather than escalation. Iran's actions risk shifting regional and global perceptions dramatically, framing Tehran as an expansionist power. Public opinion in the Arab world is likely shifting against Iran as people see their own countries threatened.
Joshua Namm: Iran: We’ve Seen This All Before
In February of 2024 I wrote an article titled “Joe Biden Hates Israel.” I got a lot of flak for the title, but I believed it sincerely, and made it clear that my conclusion was based on the evidence. Now, here we are in July of 2026, and incredibly, I have come to a similar conclusion about Donald Trump.

That conclusion is based on Trump’s statements of late, his administration’s statements, and the fact that we already saw how a similar situation is playing out with Hamas (an Iranian proxy). If it were up to me, Gaza would have been flattened on October 8, 2023. I know that sounds harsh to some, but I don’t know how many times we need to learn the lesson that the most effective weapon we have against our enemies is deterrence.

So it would seem obvious that allowing our enemies to survive, twice, when we were in a position to utterly destroy both is ludicrous.

Israel’s government has failed at the task of destroying Hamas, miserably, for almost four decades. As it continued the obviously idiotic policy of “mowing the grass” - generations of Jews have suffered. October 7, was the culmination of false hope, childish naivete, and a total unwillingness to face the harsh reality: Islamic terrorists hate us, want to murder us, and will never accept ANY Western values as a baseline for their behavior.

Israel had the moral duty to utterly defeat Hamas, yet, with immense pressure put on it by the American government (meaning: Donald Trump), it allowed Hamas to survive, and it CLEARLY rearming and regrouping. You can read more about that here and here.

The fact that more than 1,000 days after 10/7, they are allowed to survive is unconscionable. The fact that they remain a threat to Jewish life is possibly the worst travesty of justice engineered by human beings since the end of World War 2.

At the same time, Donald Trump has seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iran with the recently signed “memo of understanding” (MOU).
The U.S.-Backed Framework Agreement for Lebanon Isolates Hizbullah
Israel cannot afford a war of attrition in southern Lebanon without any diplomatic solution in sight. Therefore, the framework agreement signed with strong U.S. support isolates Hizbullah and allows for an IDF presence in a temporary security zone along the entire border. Unlike the declaration of intent signed with Iran without Israel's participation, this new agreement is a significant step toward a peace process with our northern neighbor.

Lebanon now officially recognizes the existence of the Jewish state within secure borders, aspires to peace, and desires normal bilateral relations. However, how can we guarantee that Hizbullah will not plunge the Lebanese people into civil war? Hasn't the Shiite militia already violated previous UN resolutions, including Resolution 1701 signed in 2006 after the Second Lebanon War? To ensure the safety of Israeli citizens along the border and guarantee the agreement, the Lebanese government will need to obtain all necessary resources from the U.S., as well as strong support from Arab countries, European countries, and France.

Israel's goal was to expel Hizbullah and Iran from Lebanon. Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon, and sooner or later the IDF forces will withdraw. However, we are currently in a position of strength, and the time is ripe to dictate the course of action and guarantee stability in the north for many years to come. The key is to seize every opportunity and leverage and intervene swiftly in the event of a violation.

This framework agreement is not perfect and is complicated to implement under current conditions, but it is clear and coherent. Without indulging in illusions, and with nerves of steel and an iron will, we could accomplish this noble mission for peace.
The End of Hamas
The consensus among analysts is that Hamas is down, but hardly out. But in truth, Hamas's two-year war with Israel has decimated the organization beyond the point of recovery. It may still be more powerful than other groups in Gaza. But Israel's bombing campaigns and invasion have cost Hamas essential military infrastructure, torn apart its leadership, and cut it off from its patrons.

As a result, the organization lacks the power to actually rule Gaza. It is suffering from political paralysis and facing financial disaster. Finally, it has lost public support: many Gazans blame the group for starting a war that has resulted in the destruction or damage of 90% of the homes in Gaza. Despite these facts, members of Hamas perpetuate the idea that Hamas is alive and well for an obvious reason: they do not want to admit that they lost.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed an entire echelon of Hamas leaders. This includes its former top officials: Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, and Mohammed Sinwar. In May 2026, Israeli forces assassinated Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of Hamas's military wing. 11 days later, it killed Haddad's replacement, Mohammed Odeh. Israel has also taken out hundreds of midlevel commanders. It has removed Hamas's entire nervous system. The safe houses, tunnels, and countersurveillance architecture that once made Hamas's senior leadership elusive are now gone.
Amit Segal: How Hamas is trying to rebuild after 1,000 days of war
The first visit to the Gaza Strip after Oct. 7 showed a relatively intact city, amid plumes of smoke and sounds of battle. A year later, in November 2024, Jabalya was a massive pile of rubble, stretching from horizon to horizon, with packs of dogs roaming among the ruins and garbage. On the 1,00th day of the war, nothing remained in the area. The densely populated camp looked desolate and quiet like the surface of the moon. Engineering drills searched for tunnels below ground, with D9 bulldozers operating above. In the vast majority of Gaza, nothing remained, neither above ground nor below it.

This is the situation in all the territory controlled by Israel, which makes up about two-thirds of the Strip’s territory. Rafah was wiped off the face of the earth, as were most of Khan Yunis and huge swaths of Gaza. Ninety-two percent of the tunnels have been completely destroyed; the rest will be destroyed soon.

Inside Hamas-controlled Gaza, there have been increasing reports recently of a resurgence, tunnel rehabilitation, training exercises, and an inevitable IDF operation. These reports should be taken with a massive grain of salt. Hamas is failing to genuinely rearm after its smuggling routes in the air, on land, at sea and underground were choked off. Three hundred sixty-two smuggling tunnels from Egypt were destroyed in Rafah. Training is conducted in hiding, reconstruction materials aren’t arriving, and the newly dug tunnels in the sand are barely shored up with whatever is available: sheet metal, wood scraps. Iran bends over backward to protect Hezbollah; for Hamas, it doesn’t even pick up the phone. That’s what happens to someone who starts a war without permission and is considered a lost cause.

Perhaps this is why Hamas recently agreed to terms that include handing over all heavy weaponry, tunnel maps, production sites and weapons caches. Its leaders agreed that the weapons would be surrendered to a committee, not to Israel. The multinational force that will subsequently deploy will serve as a buffer between Hamas and Israel, and will be responsible for the collection. Israel will withdraw only after Hamas is disarmed, the militias’ weapons are also collected, all government positions are handed over to a technocratic committee and police officers who fail a security clearance are forced to retire.

The agreements make no mention of small arms, which flood Gaza by the tens of thousands. How flooded? The divisions maneuvering in Gaza used to transport rifles to the Israeli border, where bulldozers would run them over and crush them. At a certain point, they asked to stop collecting weapons because it had become their primary activity.

“Make no mistake,” says a very senior army officer, “of all the enemies we have faced, they are the most cruel, the most hateful towards us and the most uninhibited.” And this is exactly the reason why it was forbidden to stop and “fight another day,” as Nitzan Alon and others suggested. From the perimeter, without this level of destruction and without isolating them from their patrons, Gaza would have recovered rapidly. By day 1,000, it would have already become a monstrous threat again, rather than a wave of rubble and despair.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Negotiating With Terrorist Regimes Such as Hamas and Iran Is a Terrible Idea
The Trump Administration is making a big mistake by engaging in negotiations with Hamas — as well as Iran.

Instead of weakening the Iran-backed terrorist group and its sponsors, these negotiations legitimize them as political actors and, for Hamas, only strengthen their standing among Palestinians; and for Iran's rulers, among countries that might have been hoping to move toward the West.

Discussions have reportedly stalled over disputes concerning which weapons the terrorist group Hamas would be permitted to retain. Instead of debating whether Hamas should disarm, negotiators now appear to be debating how much of its military capability it should be allowed to keep.

In short, Hamas, while remaining fully armed, continues to dictate conditions.

Meanwhile, intelligence assessments from Israeli and Western security officials paint an alarming picture.

This approach also sends a disastrous message to every terrorist organization in the Middle East: massacre civilians, survive military retaliation, refuse to disarm, and eventually the United States will sit down and negotiate with you.

That is precisely the opposite lesson to the one Washington ought to be sending.

Terrorist organizations do not usually disarm through diplomacy. They do not abandon power because mediators ask politely. They relinquish power only when they are no longer capable of exercising it.

The failure of the Palestinians' June 26 protests demonstrates that Hamas remains capable of ruling the Gaza Strip through fear. Intelligence reports show that it remains capable of rebuilding its military machine. The latest negotiations show that it remains determined to dictate terms rather than accept them.

If deals are struck, no one is expecting Iran or Hamas to abide by them anyway — so that even winning a deal would mean losing.

Instead of legitimizing terrorist groups that openly seek Israel's and America's destruction, the United States should insist on the full implementation of its own peace plans -- each with a firm deadline -- beginning with Hamas's unconditional disarmament and removal from power, as well as the immediate implementation of whatever the US needs in the Islamabad MOU.

Anything less merely strengthens the very terrorist organizations negotiations are supposedly designed to defeat.
Why did Vance betray Israel while coddling the Middle East’s biggest bully?
Angered by Israeli criticism and “violation” of the MoU, Vance unleashed lies, half-truths and disdain toward the Jewish state. For example, he told Israel, “You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” This is libelous, as Israel has always pursued peace rather than war and always sought to minimize civilian casualties. More to the point, Vance neglected to condemn Iran, Hezbollah’s master, for repeated ceasefire violations in Lebanon.

Adding a further insult, Vance quipped that “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” First, Israeli officials never criticized its U.S. ally, but attacked the flawed MoU. Second, Vance would do well to take his own advice: Stop attacking the U.S.’s most loyal partner, which is also the Middle East’s most powerful nation.

Ironically, while trashing Israel, Vance also represented Iran as a reasonable partner for peace. Iran replied to this praise with contempt. When American and Iranian delegations met in Switzerland, the Iranians showed up late and snubbed a joint photo-op and welcoming handshake.

A delaying tactic that favors Iran and endangers Israel
Though Vance defended the MoU, claiming that recalcitrant Iran is ready to join “the international community,” that hope is patently futile. Iran is motivated single-mindedly by its divine mission to conquer infidels and spread Shi’ite Islamism.

For this reason, while the agreement is likely to give Iran some initial financial respite from crushing sanctions, Iran is unlikely to agree to Trump’s demands, even if negotiations are extended over the coming 60 days for another 120 days. The administration’s best chances are to hold oil prices steady and prevail successfully through November’s midterm elections, whereupon Trump can restart military actions against Iran.

Meanwhile, the danger remains that if Iran holds sway, Israel will be forced by the United States to suffer continued assaults on its people, territory and military without the right to respond, though it’s unlikely that Israel will abide by restrictions on its right to respond defensively.

Notwithstanding pressures on the administration from the midterm elections and global energy markets, Trump and Vance would present a stronger, more powerful image by holding Iran’s feet to the fire regarding the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear disarmament, ballistic-missile proliferation and its support of terror proxies. Likewise, they would benefit equally from whole-hearted support of Israel and other Gulf allies.

For a successful outcome with Iran, Trump must realize that the Islamic Republic has a single overriding motivation—which is to overthrow Western civilization, starting with the “Little Satan” (Israel) and finishing with the “Great Satan” (America).
US indirectly warned Iran during talks that Israel might try to kill its top negotiators — NYT
US officials indirectly warned Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf during negotiaitons earlier this year that Israel might try to assassinate them, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The report, which cites current and former US officials, alleges that some officials believed Israel may have been planning to kill the top Iranian negotiators in the weeks following the April 8 ceasefire that halted fighting in the US-Israel war with Iran.

In light of those concerns, the US officials asked officials in other countries across the region to warn Tehran that Israel may try to target the two men, the Times said.

Officials quoted by the Times noted that when the war began on February 28, and as Israel worked its way through killing much of Iran’s senior leadership, both Araghchi and Ghalibaf could have been legitimate targets. Israel killed other senior Iranian officials who could have negotiated with the US, including national security chief Ali Lairjani and former foreign minister Kamal Kharazi.

Once a ceasefire was declared in early April and Araghchi and Ghalibaf began representing Iran’s position in ceasefire negotiations, the US officials said any attempt to kill them would have likely blown up the talks and triggered new fighting.

In March, while fighting was still ongoing, a Pakistani official told Reuters that Israel had taken both Araghchi and Ghalibaf off its hit list after Pakistan requested that Washington not target them.

At the time, the official said Islamabad had warned the US that if either or both of the men were killed, there would be “no one else to talk to” about negotiating a ceasefire. “Hence, the US asked the Israelis to back off,” the official added. A police officer walks past posters of US and Iran talks near a possible venue in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Ghalibaf narrowly escaped being killed in Israel’s June 2025 war with Iran and this year, the Times reported. In both cases, he was rescued from the rubble of a bulding that was struck.

According to the report, a concrete Israeli threat against Ghalibaf emerged again while the Iranian parliament speaker was traveling back to Iran from Islamabad following talks with US Vice President JD Vance on April 12.
Saudi Arabia Blocked Trump's Effort to Open the Strait of Hormuz
More than 100 U.S. military aircraft were taking off from bases and ships across the Middle East as part of an effort to crack open the Strait of Hormuz in early May when Saudi Arabia, whose bases and airspace were critical to the mission, said no. The pushback forced the U.S. to end the military operation to guarantee safe passage for ships.

Incensed, the White House threatened to hold back delivery of interceptors that Saudi Arabia needs to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, if the kingdom didn't reverse course, U.S. and Arab officials familiar with the discussions said. Saudi Arabia ultimately backed down. Now, the U.S. is considering reducing its military footprint in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. were never really on the same page over the war against Iran. The kingdom and other Gulf states said publicly they wouldn't allow their bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. After Iran launched missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure, and airports, the kingdom and other Gulf states quickly allowed the U.S. to use their bases and airspace for attacks, despite their initial reluctance. Some including Saudi Arabia - eventually took a more active role, launching a number of strikes on targets that included Iranian drone and missile sites.

Saudi officials feared more Iranian attacks on its energy exports including from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, where the kingdom had routed most of its oil. Saudi Arabia complained to the U.S. that UAE attacks on Iran, which began in the early days of the war, were raising the risk that regional energy facilities could come under fire from Iran.


Waltz warns UN that Trump’s patience with Iran ‘not unlimited’ amid Strait of Hormuz closure, regional attacks
Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticized his Iranian counterpart on Thursday, telling the U.N. Security Council that U.S. President Donald Trump’s patience with the Islamic Republic was “not unlimited,” and that Tehran was carrying out a “cynical, sad, and sick attempt at global blackmail” in the Strait of Hormuz.

The council convened at Bahrain’s request following recent Iranian attacks. Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani traveled to New York to participate in the emergency session.

Despite a U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 17 aimed at reducing regional tensions, Iran has targeted a commercial vessel that it said deviated from an approved transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, while seeking to impose new controls over the strategic waterway.

The latest escalation followed U.S. Central Command strikes on 10 Iranian military targets over the weekend. Tehran then launched attacks on U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Waltz told the council that “Iran cannot, and we cannot allow it to, hold the world’s economy hostage.”

He said Tehran had obstructed commercial shipping regardless of a vessel’s origin, destination or cargo, including shipments of “fertilizers to farmers in Africa, aid to Sudan, fuel to Japan.”


26,200 wounded since war began, Israel’s Defense Ministry reports
Approximately 26,200 wounded individuals have sought treatment through the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Division since the outbreak of the war, the ministry said on Thursday, marking 1,000 days of fighting.

The ministry warned that the scale of casualties is placing severe strain on the national rehabilitation system, cautioning it could collapse without immediate implementation of recommendations from the Mor Yosef Committee, which examined care for wounded veterans.

According to data released by the Rehabilitation Division, the total number of wounded is projected to reach about 100,000 by 2028, including roughly 50,000 individuals suffering from psychological injuries.
Israeli forces seize Hezbollah rocket, mortar caches in southeastern Lebanon
Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in Lebanon uncovered underground Hezbollah sites containing rockets, mortars and explosives in recent days, the military said on Thursday.

The IDF said soldiers deployed in the area of At-Tiri in southeastern Lebanon discovered an underground shaft and an arms storage facility containing rockets and mortar shells.

In a separate operation near Maroun al-Ras, a Shi’ite village located less than a mile from the Israeli border, also in southeastern Lebanon, troops found explosive devices, firearms and “additional military equipment,” according to the army.

The IDF said the weapons were intended for use by Hezbollah against Israeli forces operating in the security zone. The seized weapons were confiscated or destroyed, it added.

“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to its soldiers and will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm Israeli civilians,” the statement concluded.

Hezbollah renewed its rocket and drone attacks from Southern Lebanon on Israel on March 2, following the targeted killing in Tehran of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of “Operation Roaring Lion” on Feb. 28.


Committee to Protect Journalists in Turmoil After 17-1 Vote Upholding Tangled Definition of ‘Journalist’ for Gaza List: Fox News Is Sole ’No' Vote
The internal chaos roiling the Committee to Protect Journalists deepened late Wednesday, when the embattled advocacy group’s board of directors—under fire for the anti-Israel bias of several members, including the vice chair—voted to affirm that "organizations affiliated with militant groups" meet the criteria of a legitimate journalistic outlet "provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect."

The CPJ’s board voted 17 to 1 in favor of keeping this contentious definition, according to one person familiar with the situation, with Fox News’s representative casting the lone no vote. The CPJ’s influential list of "Journalist Casualties in the Israel-Gaza War," which has been used by news organizations to discredit Israel’s war effort, contains dozens of names of military operatives for Hamas and other terror groups.

In recent weeks, a drumbeat of revelations—often from Hamas itself—that slain "journalists" on the list were active combatants, has thrown the New York-based CPJ into turmoil and infighting. This week the board expelled anti-Israel heiress Nika Soon-Shiong after a heated meeting centered on a Washington Free Beacon article on the group’s woes, according to Soon-Shiong’s public tweets.

The CPJ declined to comment on the board’s vote or provide any information on which members opposed altering the organization’s criteria, only telling the Free Beacon that it "cannot comment on board deliberations and [has] no further comment" beyond a Wednesday evening statement. None of the major media outlets that sit on the CPJ’s board—including the New York Times, Fox News, Reuters, NBC News, the Associated Press, Condé Nast, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times—responded to Free Beacon questions about their position on the vote or whether they, too, consider "organizations affiliated with militant groups" to be legitimate journalistic actors.

The CPJ was founded in 1981 to defend press freedom worldwide, but in the last few years, it has evolved into a group focused narrowly on the war in Gaza, with many board members having evinced strong, anti-Israel or even antisemitic views and with its list being used as a key source for a hotly contested May Times article that made outlandish claims about Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian journalists with a carrot and a dog.

Wednesday evening’s board vote marked a decisive win for a large cohort of CPJ board members who are vocal anti-Israel activists and who pressured the organization to stand firm against a torrent of criticism over its Gaza list, which has included dozens of confirmed military operatives for Hamas and other jihadist groups. Those who celebrated the decision included Soon-Shiong, daughter of the pharmaceutical billionaire and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, and board vice chair Lydia Polgreen, the anti-Israel Times polemicist. But as major media outlets who sit on the CPJ’s board remain mum following the vote, it appears the ongoing controversy has fomented more chaos than the advocacy group is letting on publicly.
Not All Terrorists Are Journalists (satire)
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) board of directors voted to affirm the organization's definition of a journalist to make clear that terrorists are also journalists worthy of protection.

CPJ reiterated its "longstanding policy," which regards as "journalists" any individual who is "working with media organizations affiliated with militant groups provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect."

That's a rather expansive definition! It is meticulously hedged to include practically anyone who claims to be a journalist and is not now—at this very moment—firing a weapon or otherwise committing terrorism against Jews.

It might as well have been written by a Hamas "journalist," because that is specifically who the CPJ is eager to be seen supporting in response to criticism from the terrorist-adjacent wing of the Democratic Party, which oversees the so-called mainstream media.

New York Times opinion columnist Lydia Polgreen highlighted the board's vote on social media in an effort to combat what she described as "false and speculative information" about CPJ's commitment to protecting terrorists and their affiliates.

Polgreen is best known as one of two Times columnists who described the now infamous CNN debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump—during which the befuddled former president bragged about beating Medicare—as a draw.


Tikvah: Surrender, Retreat, or Victory? What to Watch After the US-Iran MOU | Rich Goldberg & Elliott Abrams
With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, Operation Epic Fury has come to an inconclusive end. The 14-point framework touches on everything from the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear program to Israel's campaign in Lebanon and the lifting of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. But its language is vague, and it leaves unresolved the hardest questions that drove America and Israel to strike Iran earlier this year—while opening a visible gap between Jerusalem and Washington.

Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Elliott Abrams, Tikvah's chairman and a veteran of three Republican White Houses, join Jonathan Silver to take the measure of the agreement. They examine what the military campaign achieved, why the United States had no answer to Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz, the financial windfall the MOU hands Tehran, and what it teaches Iran—and everyone watching—about the price of defying America.

This conversation was recorded on Wednesday, June 24. For more conversations and analysis like this, visit ideas.tikvah.org.

00:00 - Introduction
03:30 - What the Military Campaign against Iran Achieved
10:00 - What the MOU Actually Means
12:10 – The Lebanon Mistake
14:05 – The Best Case for the MOU
20:05 –Iran’s Perception of Victory
26:10 – Why Didn’t the U.S. Have an Answer to Hormuz?
30:05 – Iran’s Financial Windfall from the MOU
34:40 – How Iran Will Rebuild Its Military Arsenal
38:20 – America Abandoned the Iranian People
46:50 – What the MOU Means for American’s Allies
53:20 – Items to Watch Over the Next 60 Days




Mass funeral ceremonies set for Khamenei, four months after IAF killed him
Mass funeral ceremonies for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are set to begin on Saturday, more than four months after he was eliminated in the opening Israeli Air Force strikes of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” regime outlets said.

The multi-day funeral, which state media claimed is expected to draw up to 20 million mourners, will begin when Khamenei’s body will lie in state at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla Mosque.

The ceremonies will continue through Monday with a funeral procession along a six-mile route, followed by memorial rites in the Iranian city of Qom on July 7, Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf in Iraq on July 8, and burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran, on July 9, according to the Press TV outlet.

According to some reports, a separate international memorial ceremony is scheduled in Tehran for Friday, with heads of state and senior officials from the Islamic Republic’s allies expected to attend.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Thursday urged the public to attend the funeral, saying the ceremony should convey what he described as the nation’s demand for “blood vengeance.”

Ghalibaf, who has led negotiations with the United States, said the funeral should demonstrate that Iranians would not remain silent “in the face of arrogance” and would not forget “the blood of their imam.”

It was not immediately clear whether Mojtaba Khamenei, who was chosen in March to succeed his father as supreme leader, would attend the funeral.





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