Saturday, July 25, 2026

07/25 Links: To Win the Peace, We Must Fund the War; Trump’s Lebanese Fantasy; Ireland Rebranded; 9/11 Families want to ban Mamdani from sacred 25th anniversary ceremony

From Ian:

To Win the Peace, We Must Fund the War
Donald Trump said Thursday that he is readying "a massive attack" on Iran, but the most consequential battle this week was on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the Pentagon's top civilian and military leaders, Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, spoke to the Senate Appropriations Committee about a bill to offset the costs of the Iran conflict. The House passed a defense act including those funds the next day, but the Senate package remains in limbo.

Senators on both sides of the aisle raised questions not just about the funding itself, but also about the strategy for dealing with Iran and for some of Hegseth's unrelated but controversial decisions. Grandstanding in front of the cameras is par for the course in Washington, but even the Democrats should want to pass this bill.

For most Democrats, a no vote is a no-brainer. Even before anti-Jewish and pro-appeasement forces began to gain momentum, the party generally has viewed defense spending with skepticism for decades. Most members do not want to cast votes that could be seen as endorsements of Trump's campaign to cripple Iran's nuclear and conventional long-range missile programs. Even if they want to see the threat from Iran reduced, supporting the Obama-era nuclear deal is practically an article of faith in the party. And opposition parties usually fare best when they oppose whatever the president wants to do.

But, even so, there are strong reasons to let through the funds. The first is that blocking the supplemental will not compel U.S. forces to withdraw. Caine echoed an earlier warning from Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, that the services will cut elsewhere to keep up the fight. That includes reducing operations in other parts of the world, canceling training, cutting back on equipment and weapon purchases, and potentially even letting go of servicemembers who want to reenlist.

As the editors noted Wednesday, moreover, the campaign's estimated $37.5 billion cost is a reasonable price for taking the fight to a vicious and fanatical enemy. Even if the overall cost surpasses $100 billion, as some anonymous Washingtonians believe it will, defeating the "death to America" crowd would be money well spent.

A delay on the Hill might even prolong the war. The Iranian strategy is to hold out until economic and domestic political pressures force Trump into more concessions. The House, which voted on Wednesday for the Iran supplemental and on Thursday to limit Trump's war powers, is already sending mixed messages. Congress could inadvertently lead the mullahs to believe their strategy is working and encourage them to hold out longer. The surest way to peace is for the Iranians to conclude that antagonizing the United States is a losing proposition, not a pathway to further gains.
Lee Smith: Trump’s Lebanese Fantasy
So when Trump says that Lebanon has “been a very badly treated place and country, and we’re going to have it properly treated and treated with the respect it deserves,” he should know that Lebanon’s biggest problem is Lebanon. Sure, Hezbollah is an Iranian implant, but the Islamic Republic having the final word on matters of war and peace for more than three decades is evidence there’s something deeply wrong with Lebanon and its political culture that can’t be fixed with infusions of U.S. taxpayer money.

Thus, when Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visited the White House this week to ask for money, he was selling a mirage. The “ultimate objective” of the framework agreement, he said, is “ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever.” But to reach that objective, “America needs to support the LAF,” said Aoun. “Without the LAF,” he continued, “everything will collapse.” And as he told a group after his meeting with Trump, the aid must be “immediate and unconditional.”

What he means is the same thing Lebanese officials have been saying since the United States started funding the LAF in 2006: You have to pay us to disarm the terror group that threatens our own sovereignty, but you can’t condition the aid on us disarming Hezbollah.

Could the Lebanese army plausibly disarm Hezbollah? If it can’t get the job done after two decades of U.S. handouts—since 2022 Washington has been paying LAF salaries directly—more cash now isn’t going to change the balance of power. The crucial issue is that the interests of the government and the army are so closely tied to Hezbollah that disturbing the status quo with an attempt at disarming it would be like killing the goose that lays golden eggs.

Seen in this way, Hezbollah is Lebanon’s top investment vehicle. Without a terror group parked on the eastern Mediterranean that’s at war with a U.S. ally, and that poses a potential threat to offshore energy platforms while it’s engaged in drug- and human-trafficking enterprises around the world, Lebanon would have to join the long line of failed states waiting for handouts. But Hezbollah makes Lebanon the squeaky wheel that needs to be oiled, or else it’ll blow up in everyone’s face. It’s fundamentally an extortion racket.

Can’t the Lebanese make it on their own? They’re an inventive and industrious people whose diaspora has made invaluable contributions across the world—surely, they can make a go of it in their own country! Look at all the aides of Lebanese origin Trump has named to the diplomatic corps: Tom Barrack, Michel Issa, and Massad Boulos, all successful men. But that’s not how most people think in Lebanon.

The default impulse of the Lebanese, hardwired over the course of millennia, is to draw in larger powers to do their dirty work, basically treating them like the live-in maids from Sri Lanka and the Philippines that the country’s leading classes employ: Pretty up the house, but don’t disturb our daily lives by making inconvenient demands, or you’ll break something and ruin madame’s dinner party on the veranda. And so, if the Americans are paying, why go and do something crazy like fight Hezbollah and mess up the Italian leather sofa? And to keep the Americans paying, you need Hezbollah.

According to Aoun and other Lebanese in on the scam, taking on Hezbollah is a long-term process, very long-term indeed. “It’s going to take time,” says Trump adviser Boulos. “This is not easy. Nobody believes for a second that this is going to be an easy task in any way.”

Why, yes, the money is for strengthening the Lebanese military—just not for the purpose of getting rid of Hezbollah—but that’s not all Lebanon needs to rebuild Lebanese society. Because Hezbollah is Lebanese and not “a foreign mercenary force,” as Aoun told an audience of high-level administration officials at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, Lebanon needs funding for programs to reintegrate Hezbollah’s “Lebanese citizens” back into the fabric of Lebanese society. And, added Aoun, Lebanon needs U.S. investment, lots of it—enough to at least match Iran’s decades-long “massive and sustained investment” that funded Hezbollah.

And yet, as Aoun warned, Hezbollah will continue to be an issue until the Americans “remove the root cause” for Hezbollah’s existence—the “Israeli occupation.” All Aoun means is that Trump has to pressure the Israelis to withdraw. That’s the Lebanese consensus because it’s Hezbollah’s position: Get the Israelis out, and we’ll rebuild our tunnels and restock our arms supply while the Americans pay us through you and protect us from future rounds of Israeli military action even as we prepare to renew the terror war with rocket and missile fire and plans to invade Israel’s north as Hamas sacked its south on Oct. 7.

Hezbollah is weakened, thanks to Israel, but nothing has changed with the LAF since Washington started paying it in 2006. What’s different is that the Iran war has illuminated what is real and what is fake, and who America’s allies are. The way to disarm Hezbollah is not by paying the LAF to protect it, but rather by letting Israel finish off the terror group on its border.
The Strange Story of Kurt Gerstein
When I tried to shift our conversation toward Gerstein, Tomasz gave a dismissive wave of the hand. “He was a member of the SS and part of the Nazi machine. We know his story,” he said. He was less interested in Gerstein’s biography than in his report and how it can be used to scrape the “rust” off Bełżec. “He gave us something from the interior, something about the activity of the camp, the process.”

“And was it a form of resistance for him to provide that kind of information?” I asked. Tomasz shook his head and sighed heavily. “That’s a good question. ‘I’ve seen everything here,’” he said, as if he were Gerstein speaking, “‘and I must give testimony.’ That’s the essence of his resistance. He was the witness. He went inside the Holocaust. He touched evil and he talked about his experience. He told the truth. He broke the silence. ‘I gave information to diplomats and embassies,’” he says, again as if he were Gerstein speaking. “‘I tried to do something. A little—but something.’”

After the war, Gerstein’s widow, Elfriede, and a handful of archivists created Kurt Gerstein House, an educational institution for children in Germany. They also built a collection of Gerstein’s personal documents and papers, including his report on Bełżec. Gerstein’s descendants and future generations of archivists kept adding to the collection, collaborating with organizations around the world to unearth ever more documents and to frame his story in a wider context. The House shut down in the early 2000s, though, having gone bust. The collection was then donated to the Evangelical Church of Westphalia.

Today, the collection is managed by the archivists Ingrun Osterfinke and Martin Kamp in Bielefeld, a small city in northeast Germany. They struck me as a dynamic pair, jumping between German and English to fine-tune individual words throughout our conversation, ensuring that no meanings were lost. I asked them if Gerstein is better known in Germany than he is in the United States.

“I can’t think of any situation where Germans nowadays are really familiar with the fate or the figure of Kurt Gerstein,” Martin said. “It’s very obvious, when we’re doing a tour through our archives, and we talk about the Gerstein collections, that not many people know anything about him.” This surprised me. Why isn’t he famous, like Oskar Schindler or Anne Frank? “The popularity of Oskar Schindler and Anne Frank is based on the successful media processing of their stories,” Martin said, dryly. “I’m pretty sure that before Schindler’s List, comparatively few people knew the name and story of Oskar Schindler. Plus, Anne Frank’s diary is an unusually dense and well-written source that documents the persecution of the Jews in Europe on a personal level and through the eyes of the victim. I have to say …” He leaned back in his chair, as if to let his thoughts settle. “I have to say that I find the comparison with Kurt Gerstein a bit difficult. He’s a much more ambivalent figure than Schindler. Schindler saved the lives of hundreds of Jews, which was personally dangerous for him. Whether Kurt Gerstein really joined the SS only to gain insight into the murder machinery and to inform the outside world is open to doubt.”

“And figures like Anne Frank or Oskar Schindler are easy to understand,” Ingrun added. “Anne Frank’s diary is a real, singular document, and Oskar Schindler’s success is measurable. He saved a measurable number of people. Kurt Gerstein didn’t succeed measurably. His efforts to inform the Allied nations didn’t succeed. His actions and his motivations are all complex and not easy to comprehend,” she said with a resigned laugh. With all these thoughts in mind, I asked how they thought Gerstein resisted Nazism, if at all?

“That’s a very difficult question to answer,” Martin said. “It basically depends on whether you believe Gerstein’s statements to be true. And maybe that’s what we can learn from his story: that categories like perpetrators, bystanders, and resisters, and even victims, can be extremely difficult to define.” We discussed this point for a moment. As someone who was almost certainly sympathetic to the Nazis at the start, and who then turned on them, and who then joined the SS for uncertain reasons, and who then gathered information on the Nazis’ murderous activities, and who then failed to achieve anything with that information, and who finally ended his own life after going into Allied captivity voluntarily, Gerstein, you could argue, was a perpetrator and a bystander and a resister and a victim.

Ingrun took a slightly warmer view. “If we believe everything in Gerstein’s Report,” she said—and from the way that she talked about him, I think that she did—“then he resisted Nazism in not giving up his beliefs, his convictions, and his conscience.”

It is clear that Kurt Gerstein never looked away from Nazism or its crimes. He committed himself to telling the truth because it was the truth, he constantly interrogated his convictions, and he set out to gain knowledge however he could and to inform others of the crimes he witnessed. The ripples of these simple acts spread through the generations in ways that he could never have predicted. His report has been used as evidence in trials against Holocaust perpetrators and Holocaust deniers, for example, and by historians trying to understand what the Holocaust was and how it happened. He may not have been able to save any lives or stop any part of the Holocaust. But he did successfully resist the possibility of it being forgotten.


Shany Mor: A little thought experiment on Gaza, the Humanitarians, and revealed preferences
There exists in international politics of recent decades an epistemic community of nongovernmental organizations, activists, experts, scholars, and even a few formal intergovernmental bodies united by loosely overlapping commitments to global and transnational justice. Within that community there are different priorities, different interests, and often vastly different opinions about major issues — or even which issues matter. But the community, as a whole, has been exceptionally vocal about the war in Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, and for all the differences inside the community the views on Israeli action have been almost uniformly critical.

The community, which we can refer to for short as the Humanitarians, is not without influence. It pressures governments to act; it moves international courts into action; it motivates boycotts and protests; and its claims inspire countless acts of violence and petty harassment against Israelis and Jews around the world.

Nearly three years into the war, it’s fair to make some provisional assessments of the Humanitarians. The only way to determine whether the uncoordinated actions of such a loosely affiliated community of scholars, intellectuals, activists, and organizations actually mattered would be to compare the world we observed with an otherwise identical world in which that community did nothing. We would then examine the two scenarios and see in which one the war was shorter, or less deadly, or had an outcome which strengthened international humanitarian and legal norms. But this, of course, is impossible to do.

Nor can we make any sweeping general statements about the shared goals of the Humanitarians, because these are formulated differently depending on the organization or the activist involved. And the stated preferences, as might be expected from such a variegated group, diverge considerably.

On revealed preferences
But stated preferences are less important than revealed preferences — the preferences that are inferred from consistent patterns of observable behavior. In this case, there are a few remarkably consistent patterns to observe. The concept of revealed preferences is normally associated with the work of economists, especially Paul Samuelson, who coined the term nearly a century ago. But the fundamental insight, that what people consistently choose often tells us more than what they say they value, can be applied, cautiously at least, to the workings of an epistemic community too, not least one that both says a lot about its values and makes a lot of observable choices in its actions.

This is perhaps best understood with a little thought experiment. Take everything you know about the course of the war which began on October 7, about the capabilities and actions of the belligerent parties, about the war’s duration and casualties, and about the terms of the various ceasefires, but pretend you know nothing about the claims and calls to action of the Humanitarians. And ask yourself what you might expect them to say and do under each of the following four hypotheses about the rough overlapping consensus of their collective preferences.

H1: Humanitarians, especially including scholars of international law regarding armed conflict, are neutral regarding the belligerent parties in the war, and the Humanitarians collectively are genuinely committed to the humanitarian needs of civilians and noncombatants among both Israelis and Palestinians.

H2: Humanitarians are indifferent to the humanitarian needs of the Israelis but genuinely committed to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians. Operating on imperfect information in rapidly changing conditions, and limited by what is allowable in international law and what is politically or materially feasible, they seek whatever can be done to reduce or eliminate loss of life or suffering on the part of Palestinians either as a direct or indirect consequence of the war.

H3: Humanitarians are indifferent to the immediate humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, but they fervently wish to see Israel defeated in the war Hamas started on October 7. They fervently believe that the only moral conclusion to the war is one that is a net gain for the Palestinians and a net loss for the Israelis. To this end, they endeavor to act as force multipliers both in theatre to preserve Hamas’ power and, especially, in Western states, to push for policies that limit Israel’s freedom of action, cut it off from military supplies, and apply pressure on it.

H4: Humanitarians are indifferent to the war’s strategic outcome and prefer to see more death and more suffering on the Palestinian side, not as an end in and of itself but rather as a means to confirm beliefs in Israel’s essentially demonic nature, and as a way of mobilizing hatred and social isolation of Jews in the West. In particular, there is a preference for any rhetoric or political action which removes what are believed to be the unfair social privileges which western Jews hold due to the memory of the Holocaust.
The Fifth Column: NYT's Bret Stephens Argues There Was No Genocide in Gaza - The Fifth Column

Burnham sparks anti-Semitism row after handing ministerial post to MP who met Hamas officials with Jeremy Corbyn
Andy Burnham has sparked an anti-Semitism row after handing a top ministerial posting to an MP who met Hamas officials alongside Jeremy Corbyn.

Andy Slaughter, who has quietly represented Hammersmith for over 20 years, finally got his big break this week as he was appointed Solicitor General in the reshuffle.

He will now be responsible for overseeing the Crown Prosecution Service's terrorism, hate crime and anti-Semitism prosecutions, as well as supporting with legal advice on sanctions and arms sales.

His appointment sparked criticism from both opposition politicians and a Labour Jewish group.

Slaughter is a long-standing critic of Israel, but his statements have previously been accused of veering into promoting anti-Semitism.

In 2010 he posed with Hamas officials alongside Jeremy Corbyn while on a visit to the West Bank, a move condemned at the time by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) as 'shocking'.

In 2015, while attending a meeting on Palestine, Slaughter was alleged to have agreed with the proposition that Israel 'fabricates and invents' reasons to attack or kill innocent Palestinians, which multiple Jewish organisations said risked 'encouraging anti-Semitism in Britain'.

In 2021 Mr Slaughter was accused by the Campaign Against Antisemitism of excusing anti-Jewish racism in Palestinian school textbooks, and in 2024 he opposed legislation aimed at preventing public bodies and local councils from boycotting Israeli goods.

Fiona Sharpe, spokesman for Labour Against Antisemitism, told the Mail on Sunday: 'Andy Slaughter has a long and troubling record that raises serious red flags for Labour Against Antisemitism.

'With antisemitism at record levels in Britain and the Jewish community feeling increasingly under threat, we would want him to state clearly, now that he holds one of the government's most senior legal offices, that he no longer holds views of this kind.'

Former Attorney General Sir Michael Ellis added: 'The Jewish community are right to be deeply concerned about the future of this country under this Prime Minister.'

Nick Timothy, the Conservatives' shadow Justice Secretary, branded his appointment a 'disgrace' and said he 'should have no place in government'.

Earlier this month, shortly before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Burnham apologised for Labour's stance on Gaza as he claimed Sir Keir Starmer's government 'didn't get it right'.


Woman calls Jewish leader ‘evil Zionist’ at Bondi Beach massacre site
A woman was issued a court attendance notice for allegedly leveling abusive antisemitic remarks at a group of people at Bondi Beach this week, the New South Wales Police said on Friday.

She is also charged with offensive language, the police noted.

Identified as public servant Francine Clough, 67, she called a Jewish leader who visited the site of the shooting attack last year an “evil Zionist” while on bail for allegedly staging a bomb hoax outside Adath Yisroel Synagogue, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of Executive Council of Australian Jewry, recounted the incident, saying he was accompanied by a survivor of the massacre, as well as the Sydney Swans Australian rules football team.

“It’s grossly insensitive, it’s more than that, it’s inhuman and it gave them a real life example of what the Jewish community has to deal with on a daily basis,” Australia’s public broadcaster ABC News quoted Ryvchin as saying.

“We see what happens in our society when incitement and hatred and vilification goes unchecked. We’re not going to stand for it, we’re not going to live with this, and we’re not going to allow the desecration of a sacred site with that sort of language and that sort of abuse,” he added.
One killed, 17 injured in Berlin Pride event ramming, police suspect known Islamist
One person was killed and 17 were injured after a vehicle driven by a suspected Islamist rammed into the crowd at Berlin's Christopher Street Day Pride event on Saturday night, Berlin police announced.

The suspected perpetrator has been identified as a member of the city's "Islamist scene" but he has not yet been arrested, a spokesman for Berlin police said on Sunday.

"We have now identified a suspected perpetrator. Measures against this suspected perpetrator, who has not yet been arrested, are underway. However, this suspected perpetrator is known to the police as a member of the Islamist scene here in Berlin," the spokesperson told reporters at the scene.

Earlier, the Berlin police had announced that the event was canceled on Saturday night after a vehicle drove into the crowd, striking and injuring several people.

"According to our latest information, the vehicle drove... into the Tiergarten around 10 p.m., injuring several people in the process, and then came to a standstill after hitting a tree here in the Tiergarten," a police spokesperson at the scene said.

"It was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators."

Bild cited a witness as saying a white van drove into the crowd at high speed and a man then got out of the vehicle and fled on foot.


Ireland Rebranded
I recently returned from a visit to Ireland, and what struck me most, beyond the misty coastlines, familiar pubs, and the ever-welcoming people, was something altogether unexpected, and frankly bewildering - the omnipresence of Palestinian flags.

Not just in Dublin or Belfast, where one might expect overt political posturing, but everywhere. From murals in Republican strongholds to graffiti on rural bus stops, from rainbow-Palestinian flag hybrids in cafés to painted windows in small-town community centres. The symbolism was not only widespread but borderline obsessive. It was as if a foreign cause had taken up permanent residence in the Irish psyche, eclipsing even Irishness itself.

And that’s just it - the trip felt like a study in cultural substitution.

Despite being a seasoned traveller, I had somehow never set foot in Ireland until recently. It was a long-overdue visit, one I’d been genuinely looking forward to. Not just for the postcard beauty of its landscapes, but for a kind of cultural immersion I had imagined since childhood. I pictured the lyrical sway of traditional Irish music drifting from pub doorways, the unmistakable warmth and chatter of locals, and a nation still steeped in a culture that, for decades, had quietly enchanted the world.

And to be fair, the Irish lived up to their reputation. They are, without question, among the friendliest people I’ve encountered - open, humorous, and naturally curious. One incident that stands out is when we were in Derry looking a little lost crossing a street near the wall. Just as we were trying to locate where we were on Google Maps, a car suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, and a young fellow popped out to ask, “Do you guys need any help? Can I help you find somewhere”? We were a little startled as he literally stopped his car right there in the middle of the street to assist us - completely unsolicited.

The landscape, too, is undeniably magnificent. The Giant’s Causeway and the Cliffs of Moher don't merely live up to their acclaim, they exceed it.

Yet, despite all this, something felt off. A certain cultural texture I had anticipated, yearned for even, seemed oddly absent. Perhaps it was my own romantic expectation, shaped by a Catholic education in the '90s, the gritty soul of The Commitments, U2’s Rattle and Hum on loop, and tales from friends who visited in the early 2000s, returning wide-eyed with stories of wild nights and unexpected VIP treatment in Bono’s pub. More recently, Derry Girls had revived that nostalgic vision - clever, raw, and unmistakably Irish.

So yes, perhaps I was asking for too much. But what I didn’t anticipate was not just a dilution of the old Ireland, but its symbolic replacement. Instead of echoes of the Irish Troubles, I encountered murals, flags, and slogans dedicated to foreign conflicts. Alongside places of national memory, I found imported struggles painted onto walls and windows, woven into the civic fabric as though they belonged. The cultural inheritance I had hoped to glimpse wasn’t just fading - it seemed to be actively overwritten.

Ireland has undergone extraordinary change in recent decades. Much of it is well-documented: the decline of the Catholic Church, the Celtic Tiger years, the liberalisation of social policies, and the country’s deepening entwinement with the European Union. But what is harder to quantify, and what I felt viscerally while there, is the spiritual disorientation that seems to have followed this transformation.

There’s a certain unease in the air, a cultural hollowness being papered over with imported ideological wallpaper. Once a nation deeply defined by faith, family, and a certain insular ruggedness, Ireland now finds itself embracing a progressive, globalist identity - often with the zeal of a convert. LGBT flags and Palestinian keffiyehs flutter across towns both large and small, affixed to government buildings and cafés as though they represent the country's core values
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Why are US politicians so focused on Israel, when voters say it’s not a priority?
Earlier this month, US politicians Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Ro Khanna made highly publicized trips to Israel.

Both are potential candidates for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination and the visits were seen as early forays in a possible race.

Emanuel, from the more pro-Israel wing of the party, warned that the Israel-US relationship was “at a crossroads.” At the same time, the far-left Khanna said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a “moral test” for the party.

The same week, nearly half of Congressional Democrats voted to cut aid to Israel in a vote seen as a watershed moment. Rhetoric about Israel, AIPAC and Gaza have also been central to Congressional and Senate races in New York, Maine, Colorado and Michigan.

Israel seems to be everywhere in US politics, but when Americans are asked open-ended questions about their voting priorities, Israel does not make the list.

So why do US politics seem so focused on Israel, when the median American voter doesn’t view Israel as a priority?

Polls have repeatedly shown that Americans, especially young people and Democrats, are becoming more hostile to Israel. Some research has also found that, when asked, respondents say the war in Gaza affected their vote.

Pollsters find those results when they specifically ask about Israel, though. When US voters are asked open-ended questions about their electoral priorities, or given a wide range of options, Israel does not make the list.

Those surveys have repeatedly found that domestic issues far outweigh Israel and other foreign policy concerns for voters. Polls on foreign policy generally found that the war in Ukraine was more important to voters than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although Ukraine is far less prevalent in domestic politics.

In April 2024, during the war in Gaza, a Pew poll on Americans’ top foreign policy priorities found that “finding a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians” was in 14th place out of 22 options.

Also in 2024, a Gallup poll asked registered voters an open-ended question about the most important factor determining their vote. The top issues were the economy, immigration, abortion, the preservation of democracy and disliking a particular candidate. No foreign policy positions made the list.

A Marquette Law School poll this year found that 16 percent cited the war in Iran as their most important issue, but the survey took place during the conflict, and the war involved the US directly. Months earlier, before the war, the same pollsters found that the war in Ukraine was the top priority for 1% of respondents, the only foreign issue on the list.

An AP-NORC poll from late last year asked respondents, “Which problems would you like the government to be working on in the year 2026?” Only 2% mentioned Israel/Palestine, while 4% said Ukraine.

For voters who supported New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Zionist who has made Israel central to his politics, 62% said his “support for Palestinian rights” swayed their vote. Again, though, the survey asked respondents specifically about the issue.

There do not appear to be any national surveys showing that American voters are focusing on Israel in the ballot box.
Families of 9/11 victims want to ban Mamdani from sacred 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero: ‘unwelcome guest’
Families of 9/11 victims are demanding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani be banned from the 25th anniversary of the attacks at Ground Zero, branding him an apologist for Islamic terror whose presence would be an insult to the memories of nearly 3,000 people murdered.

“Our objection is based on his public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” said Giovanni Galante – whose 29-year-old wife Grace Catherine Galante was among 2,977 innocents killed by al-Qaeda terrorists.

Galante, 55, is one of the organizers of a petition drive that has collected over 1,100 signatures in a little over a week, including from at least 300 victims’ families.

“This day is sacred to us,” said the Brooklyn-born real estate agent who now lives in Florida.

“It is not political, and it is not a platform for those connected to such views. His presence would be deeply hurtful and inappropriate — like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony.”

Galante and other petition organizers hope to gather enough signatures to convince local lawmakers and the ceremony’s organizers, the nonprofit 9/11 Memorial & Museum, to keep Mamdani away from the silver-anniversary ceremony planned for the former Twin Towers site in Lower Manhattan.

The petition posted on Change.org cites an array of concerns about Mamdani, who is the city’s first Muslim mayor and has promoted his religion since taking office in January. They include:
Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the “globalize the intifada” rallying cry for violence against Jewish people.
His palling around on the mayoral campaign last year with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a notorious, gay-hating Brooklyn imam who once urged followers to participate in gun-free jihad and “march through the city of New York.” Wahhaj was an unindicted co-conspirator in 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
His appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief counsel. Kassem has defended Ahmed al-Darbi — an al-Qaeda terrorist who pleaded guilty in a 2002 plot to bomb a French oil tanker – and Mahmoud Khalil, the radical lead organizer of the 2024 anti-Israel tentifada at Columbia University.
The mayor’s endorsement of fellow Democratic Socialist of America member Aber Kawas for a state Senate seat — despite her once describing 9/11 as a terror attack that “a couple of people did” and expressing sympathy for Ahmed Ferhani, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue.
Hizzoner’s endorsement of Darializa Avila Chevalier for Congress. Mamdani has called the DSA insurgent the “perfect candidate” despite her radical past, which includes once calling the U.S. “a f—ing disgrace” and boasting she desecrated the American flag by using it like a napkin to wipe her filthy hands.
Mamdani defending al-Qaeda fiend Anwar al-Awlaki — and blaming America for turning the prostitution-loving cleric into a terrorist, according to some of his 2015 social media posts that resurfaced last year. Al-Awlaki became a prominent imam at mosques in San Diego and Virginia, eventually interacting with three of the heinous 9/11 hijackers there, U.S. officials have said.
Mamdani’s dad, Mahmood Mamdani, a chaired professor of African history and colonialism at Columbia University, has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers.


Attempted murder hate crimes charges for man accused of stabbing visibly Jewish, Asian men in NYC
Raul Morales, 51, who allegedly yelled “Alahu akbar” while stabbing a Jewish man and an Asian man on Thursday on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, the New York City Police Department told JNS.

Morales faces charges of “attempted murder as a hate crime, attempted murder, assault as a hate crime, two counts of assault and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon,” the NYPD said.

Jewish groups have blamed Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, for inciting the attack. Days prior, the mayor released a video calling the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal” and calling on federal authorities to arrest him when he comes to the Big Apple for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Mamdani stated on Friday of the suspect that he is “thankful that he is being held accountable and hope he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Our administration will always stand against bigotry and do everything in our power to root out antisemitism, racism and hateful acts of all kinds,” Mamdani said.


Trump decides not to escalate Iran conflict as Middle East interceptor stockpile decreases
US President Donald Trump decided not to escalate the conflict with Iran, fearing that an extended war could deplete interceptor stockpiles, US officials told The New York Times on Saturday.

According to the officials, recent White House discussions have centered on the depletion of the US's interceptor missiles, particularly since three US soldiers were killed in Jordan after an Iranian missile got through American air defenses.

US General Dan Caine has said, according the the NYT's sources, that a return to full-fledged war with Iran was doable, but would severely reduce the amount of missiles available to US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East.

White House communications director Steven Cheung told the NYT that Trump has been "consistent in saying he prefers a diplomatic solution, but he continues to retain all options if Iran continues terrorist activities in the Straight of Hormuz or against allies.”

Cheung added that “it would be wise for Iran to work towards a negotiated deal; otherwise, they know what will happen.”

One anonymous senior US official claimed that a return to major operations against Iran would not drive them back towards negotiations, while other sources claimed that the strikes would have the opposite effect entirely, giving the Iranian leadership an external threat to focus on and rally against.
As Trump pauses Iran strikes, Israel said to believe he’ll soon be forced to escalate
After the United States refrained from striking Iran overnight Friday-Saturday for the first day in two weeks, Hebrew media reported Saturday that Jerusalem had been prepared for a major escalation in the war over the weekend, which never came. Despite the pause, Israeli leaders still estimate that US President Donald Trump would soon be compelled to step up military action, the reports said.

After the quiet night in Iran, there were also no reports on Saturday of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbors, which have been taking place daily as well.

Trump personally ordered the US military not to strike Iran on Friday and Saturday, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the directive.

Kan reported that the Israeli military had prepared for a significant escalation in the conflict. Channel 12’s diplomatic corespondent Yaron Avraham reported the same, while Barak Ravid, who reports for both Channel 12 and US outlet Axios, said that according to his information, the strikes the US military had planned for Friday night, before Trump nixed them, had been no different in scale than those it had carried out over the previous 13 nights.

Multiple outlets, including Axios and Kan, cited sources as saying that the US was still intending a major expansion of the fighting, but that Trump was now favoring allowing more time for negotiations.

Kan reported that the US military has continued to send significant forces to Israel, including dozens of warplanes, refueling planes, air defenses and munitions. It said some 90 refuelers had arrived over the past few weeks and were stationed at Ben Gurion Airport and the Ramon and Ovda airbases — a similar deployment to the one that took place just before the US-Israeli war against Iran was launched in late February.

A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that “the chances of reaching an agreement between the United States and Iran are virtually nonexistent,” calling an eventual escalation in the conflict “inevitable.”


Report: Trump switched planes in Turkey over ‘credible threat’ by Iranian proxies
US President Donald Trump’s abrupt change of planes when departing Turkey earlier this month — from the new Qatar-gifted Air Force One to the older model — was the result of information on a “credible threat” by Iranian proxies to attempt to harm him, The New York Times reported Friday.

This threat, the report noted, was not tied to the new plane specifically, but the aircraft’s lack of advanced defenses made travel in it more dangerous.

The Times was previously the first to report that the plane swap was the result of security concerns, leading Trump’s Justice Department to attempt to subpoena its journalists to force them to divulge their sources, though it later abandoned that attempt.

Trump has spoken recently about ostensible Iranian efforts to assassinate him, threatening terrible consequences for the country if an attempt is made on his life.

He has said that his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet needed to be sent off for a month to be “maxed out,” following questions about the plane’s security features.

Trump started flying aboard the jumbo jet on July 1 after accepting the plane as a gift last year, when an accelerated effort to renovate the Boeing 747 for presidential use began.

But Trump unexpectedly ditched the plane on a flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom amid rising hostility with Iran on July 8. He flew aboard an older Air Force One to London in what he described as a move “for old time’s sake,” but later boarded the new plane to return to the US.

“It has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” Trump told reporters when asked why he was still flying on a plane without full defensive capabilities.

“So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out. It’ll take about a month.”
US says it disabled ship trying to run Iran blockade after it ignored warnings
The US military says that it has redirected 12 commercial vessels trying to run its renewed blockade of Iranian ports, as of yesterday.

Two ships that didn’t comply with its orders were “disabled,” while two others were boarded “to ensure total compliance,” US Central Command says in a statement.

“Earlier today [Saturday], US forces completed a verification boarding aboard Comoros-flagged M/T Charminar in the Arabian Sea, and the tanker is now continuing its journey,” the statement reads.

“CENTCOM forces disabled Mozambique-flagged M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman, July 24, after the crew attempted to violate the blockade multiple times and ignored repeated warnings. The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” it says, posting footage of it firing at the vessel.


IDF arrests dozens of Palestinians in sweeping raids across West Bank after deadly clash
Israeli troops carried out sweeping raids in several Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank overnight and into Saturday, arresting dozens of people following a deadly gunfight in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed, the IDF and Palestinian officials said. In addition, settlers set up four illegal outposts near the area where the clash took place, Hebrew media reported.

The main focus of the IDF raids was the village of Tell near Nablus, where Friday’s deadly incident took place, including searches in the homes of families of the Palestinians who were killed.

Walid Zidan, the mayor of Tell, said around 70 people from the village were detained and questioned at a field interrogation centre set up in a house in the village. Around 10 to 12 had been released so far, he told Reuters by telephone.

“House raids are continuing, army patrols are driving through the streets, and there is no movement of people in the streets,” he said.

The IDF confirmed the raid on Tell and said that soldiers detained 11 wanted Palestinians and questioned another 80.

In the early hours of Saturday, the village was allowed to hold funerals under heavy IDF restrictions for the four Palestinian men killed.

In total, the military said that it apprehended over 70 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank overnight, along with questioning hundreds of others.

The IDF said that in the Jenin area, troops scanned over 300 sites and captured several Palestinians affiliated with Hamas and other suspects who were planning attacks with explosive devices.

In the Ramallah area, soldiers detained 15 wanted Palestinians, including some affiliated with Hamas; in Tulkarem, commandos of the Duvdevan Unit detained a Palestinian affiliated with Hamas who was planning to carry out a terror attack; and in the southern West Bank, 16 more wanted Palestinians were detained, including some affiliated with Hamas and alleged arms dealers.
Palestinians wound, snatch weapon of reservist IDF soldier in Hebron region
Another altercation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians in Judea and Samaria took place on Saturday, in which a Palestinian south of Hebron seized a weapon of one of the Israelis, fired several shots into the air, and managed to escape, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said that the sides hurled rocks at each other, with one Israeli wounded and evacuated to receive medical treatment.

“IDF soldiers are currently pursuing the terrorist and have set up roadblocks in the [Judea Regional Brigade] area,” near the Jewish community of Susya, the military added.

Reacting to the incident, Ynet cited the Mount Hebron Regional Council as saying that a Palestinian “attacked a local farmer, an active-duty soldier who was on leave at home and had gone out to graze his flock in the area.”

The assailant then “opened fire toward a nearby farm and fled the scene carrying the stolen weapon,” it added.

A short while later, IDF soldiers recovered the weapon, and they continue to pursue the terrorist, the IDF said in a follow up statement.

Eliram Azulay, head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, said that the reservist soldier was the one who was wounded by rock-throwing.

“The soldier was evacuated in moderate condition to the hospital,” he said.

Azulay added that “terror against the communities is escalating to a very dangerous stage. The terror is trying to frighten us and expel us from here. We will add more life and expand the settlement enterprise in the area.”

He called on the IDF to initiate a wide-scale operation in Judea and Samaria to ensure the security of residents.

The incident comes on the backdrop of several attacks in Judea and Samaria this month, including a similar one on Friday in which, during an altercation with Israeli civilians near Havat Gilad (Gilad Farm), west of Nablus, a Palestinian snatched a weapon from one of them and opened fire from close range at his victim.

Benayahu Melet, 32, a member of Havat Gilad’s rapid-response security team and the community’s agriculture director, was killed.

Maj. Yuval Ezra, 27, from Herzliya, a commander in the 411th Battalion of the 282nd Artillery Brigade, later succumbed to his wounds sustained in the incident. Six others were injured.

The shooter was killed by soldiers immediately after opening fire and the troops recovered the weapon he had stolen during the assault, the IDF said. Three other Palestinians were killed in an ensuing gunfight, the military added.
Israeli, 25, wounded by stone during clash with Palestinians near Susya settlement
A confrontation erupted Saturday between Israelis and Palestinians at a settlement farm near the settlement of Susya in the southern West Bank, during which a Palestinian snatched an off-duty soldier’s gun, the Israel Defense Forces said.

An Israeli man, 25, was moderately wounded after being hit in the head by a rock during the incident, Magen David Adom said, adding that it took him to a hospital.

The IDF said that during the incident, both sides threw stones at each other, and a Palestinian “terrorist” snatched a gun from one of the Israelis. The Palestinian apparently fired the gun in the air during the incident, and the gunfire caused no injuries.

The IDF said it had dispatched troops to the scene and was searching for the Palestinian who had snatched the gun. The weapon itself was found after the Palestinian apparently dropped it as he fled.

“IDF troops are currently pursuing the terrorist and have set up roadblocks in the area,” the IDF said.


IDF, Shin Bet target Hamas sites across Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) struck and dismantled weapons storage facilities, a weapons manufacturing site and underground terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, the military said on Friday.

Following the strikes, carried out on the previous night, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons within the targeted infrastructure, according to the IDF.

The storage facilities contained Kalashnikov rifles, RPG launchers, mortar shells explosive devices, and additional military equipment.

These “were intended to be used against IDF troops operating along the Yellow Line and against Israeli civilians. ... The Hamas terrorist organization continues to systematically and flagrantly violate the ceasefire agreement while attempting to rebuild its military capabilities and terrorist infrastructure,” the army added.

The Yellow Line is the location of the defensive barrier established by Israel’s security forces within the Gaza Strip, during the war started by the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023.


Troy Jackson wins Maine Democratic Senate nomination, keeps mum on Israel, AIPAC
Troy Jackson accepted the Democratic nomination for Maine’s US Senate race on Saturday with no mention of Israel, sidestepping an issue that has become a focal point for many Maine Jews as they assess the party’s new standard-bearer.

Jackson secured the nomination in a landslide 566 to 5 vote by delegates at the nominating convention. Saundra Pelletier, the only remaining challenger after the rest of the field dropped out in the days leading up to the gathering, picked up the handful of votes that didn’t go to the winner.

While Jackson took several shots during his acceptance address at Sen. Susan Collins, the incumbent Republican he will now face in the general election, it was Pelletier who used her remarks to specifically malign Collins’ voting record on Israel.

“She voted to increase federal funding in defensive arms for Iran, and did not vote to take moderate measures to hold Netanyahu accountable,” Pelletier said, receiving a chorus from the crowd.

The victory for Jackson came after the state’s former Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic, left the race earlier this month amid a sexual assault allegation, which he has denied. The resulting scramble to replace him upended the Democratic primary and prompted fresh scrutiny from Jewish Mainers of Jackson’s recent evolution on Israel.

Jackson, a former state lawmaker and union advocate, had previously said little publicly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his two-decade career in state legislature. However, during the race to replace Platner, he has embraced the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza and called for an end to US military aid to Israel on his campaign website, both positions championed by Platner before his exit. Jackson also has said he wouldn’t accept any funding from AIPAC.

But on Saturday, as a sea of supporters sporting his campaign’s blue and yellow “Troy Jackson” t-shirts cheered their new nominee, Jackson omitted any mention of Israel from his remarks. Instead, Jackson reaffirmed his commitments to passing Medicare for all, supporting union rights and restoring abortion rights nationwide, among other issues.


Ivy League student who’s ‘not interested in working for a Jew’ says Cornell is welcoming him back
The disgraced Cornell University student who went viral for declining an interview with an NYC startup because he said he didn’t want to be “working for a Jew,” claims he’s returning the upstate Ivy league campus in the fall.

Austin Franco, 19, the rising junior who delivered the message to VrfID’s Jewish co-founders Gabe and Aiden Einhorn via job board site Handshake in June, told conservative nonprofit Accuracy in Media that he hardly got a slap on the wrist from Cornell.

“As of now, they said there’s not anything going on on their back end. I think it’s because I didn’t say anything that could be classified as hateful,” Franco unknowingly confided to an “undercover investigator” for the organization, who lured him to a meet-up pretending to be a fellow antisemite.

He said that the school reached out to him after the controversy, but no action has been taken against him.

A spokesperson for Cornell referred The Post to the school’s previous statement, but declined to comment on Franco’s claim that he is returning to campus.

“This incident has been referred to the Cornell Office of Civil Rights for investigation under university policy,” the Cornell spokeswoman said.

“Cornell condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms. The university is steadfastly committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for every member of our community.”

Cornell’s lackluster response has sparked outrage among Jewish students and leaders.


France to charge six in foiled synagogue attack
Six individuals are expected to face charges in connection to an attempt to carry out an attack against a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles on July 12, Reuters cited the French anti-terrorism prosecutor as saying on Saturday.

The identities of the six have not been disclosed, but their plot was Islamist motived, the prosecutor said.

The suspects were apprehended some time after about 300 people were evacuated from Sarcelles when a suspicious vehicle was sighted outside the synagogue on July 11.

Police at the time found firearms inside the car, including a “military-grade weapon,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said in the wake of the foiled attack.

France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, has reported a rise in antisemitic incidents since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas after the Gaza-based terrorist organization led a massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Police hunt for suspect accused of antisemitic attack on father and three-year-old son
Officers were called at around 5.30pm on July 4 after a man in his 20s was assaulted alongside his three-year-old son in Markfield Park, the Metropolitan Police have said.

The suspect is also reported to have threatened the victims as well as the wider Jewish community.

He has been described by police as a mixed-race man of medium height and muscular build, with short hair and a tattoo on his left bicep.

At the time of the incident, he was wearing a white cap and riding a red-orange e-bike.

Police arrived 10 minutes after the incident was reported, and neither the father nor son needed medical treatment.

Detective Constable Benny Palmer, leading the investigation, said: “This was a shocking, unprovoked attack and we know it will cause concern to the local community.

“We’re doing all we can to identify the offender and are asking the public to get in touch with us if they have any relevant information – particularly any footage that was filmed at the park during the early evening of Saturday, July 4 or those with doorbells or dashcams near to Crawford Road, Seven Sisters.

“Across the Met, we are continuing our work to provide visible, intelligence-led and co-ordinated patrols to protect our Jewish communities and keep people safe.”


Greece to purchase air defense system from Israel worth $4 billion
Greece approved a $4 billion deal on Thursday to procure a multi-layered defense array system from Israel.

The defense package involves several types of drones and Brazilian-made Embraer’s C-390 military transport aircraft, Reuters cited Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias as saying.

The system, branded “Achilles Shield,” will be “ready and fully operational within 35 months, starting from today,” Dendias said.

Israeli radars and missiles from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries defense firms will form the core of the anti-ballistic missiles, anti-aircraft, anti-drone array, according to the report.

The minister noted that Greece will acquire Heron unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel.

The approval follows a broader strategic decision by Athens to modernize its military by 2036.

A budget of roughly $31.8 billion has been allocated for the project, which also includes 40 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and frigates from France and Italy, the report continued.

Greece has been increasingly concerned about Turkey’s strengthening of its military and growing influence in the Mediterranean region. This has led to tighter economic and military ties between Greece and Israel, with frequent joint drills conducted by their armed forces.
AMIA bombing victims remembered as Argentina marks 32 years without justice
Much of Buenos Aires and Argentina’s Jewish community gathered Friday morning at Pasteur Street at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in Spanish – or AMIA), to mark 32 years since one of the worst antisemitic terrorist attacks in the Diaspora.

The attack killed 85 people and wounded over 300 when a vehicle packed with explosives was detonated outside the Jewish community center.

It also marked the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentinian history.

I attended the event, where I was given, alongside everyone else, a poster of one of the victims of the attack. The commemoration began with a siren that sounded at 9:53 a.m., the exact time that the bombing occurred over three decades ago. Throughout the event, attendees would hold the posters bearing the images of the victims high in the air.

The speakers included Osvaldo Armoza, president of AMIA, who said that since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in Israel, “the international community has witnessed a terrifying and alarming resurgence of antisemitism.”

'A flame fueled by the heat of an injustice that burns us from within'
“In the past year, there have been no significant developments in the AMIA case,” he said at the ceremony. “It’s as if it has stalled or been shelved. We oppose this stagnation by keeping our flame alive. A flame fueled by the heat of an injustice that burns us from within, but at the same time, motivates us to continue fighting.

“We are fighting to ensure that, once and for all, the legislative branch implements modern laws to combat terrorism. Just as other countries have suffered this scourge, Argentina must modify its legal structure in accordance with the demands of the present day.”

He then referred to the victims’ families. “You have given us an unparalleled lesson in dignity. You walk tall even though a part of your lives was buried right here under the rubble. You did not give up. You have bequeathed to us the ethical legacy of never wavering in the pursuit of what is right. Your fortitude is the main reason we are here today.”


Zehava Shaul, who led decade-long struggle to recover body of son held by Hamas, dies at 71
Zehava Shaul, the mother of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, who was killed and captured by Hamas in 2014 and whose body was held captive by the terror group for more than a decade, died Friday at the age of 71, her family said.

The family statement said she had died after a months-long struggle with a serious illness.

“Zehava was a woman of faith, determination and love for humanity. For more than a decade, she carried on her shoulders, with inspiring strength, the uncompromising struggle to return her son, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, for burial in Israel,” the family said. “Her dedication, strength and endless love touched many hearts and became a symbol of perseverance, hope and great love.”

President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to her, calling her “a brave, determined and inspiring mother, who dedicated more than a decade to an uncompromising struggle to return her son” for burial in Israel.

“Zehava’s image will be etched in the heart of the nation as a mother who never gave up on her son for a moment, and as a symbol of perseverance and hope even in the most difficult moments. May her memory be blessed,” Herzog wrote.

Her husband Herzl Shaul died in 2016 and did not live to see the return of his son’s remains.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also hailed Shaul, saying that “Zehava did not give up for a second; even after her husband Herzl passed away, she carried the pain with exceptional emotional strength and acted out of boundless maternal love and with an awe-inspiring nobility of soul.”

On July 20, 2014, during the 2014 Gaza war — known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge — troops of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion entered Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood in an M-113 armored personnel carrier. The APC got stuck in one of the neighborhood’s narrow streets, and during attempts to extract it, the carrier came under attack by Hamas operatives launching anti-tank missiles.

Seven soldiers were killed in the incident, including Shaul, whose body was dragged away from the scene by Hamas operatives.

In another incident later in the 2014 war, Hamas captured the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin. For more than a decade, the two families led an apparently fruitless campaign to secure the release of their sons.

For many years, the Shaul family clung to the hopes that Oron was still alive, even though the IDF declared that he had been killed in action.

The Hamas terror group that had been holding him conducted a deliberate misinformation campaign, including publishing letters purporting to be from Oron, begging for his release.





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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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