Friday, August 21, 2026

08/20 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Wise up, America!; United Nations is no longer fit for purpose, says top UN official; How Central Asia Thinks about Israel

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Wise up, America!
Once again, American officials have failed to grasp that Islamist terrorists will lie shamelessly and sign ceasefires just to break them.

Instead of understanding that no deal would be worth the paper it was written on, Kushner was sent to Cairo to grovel to a bunch of psychopathic mass murderers. He thus legitimized these enemies of civilization, humiliating America and signaling to Hamas that they have Washington precisely where they want it.

The impasse arose because Hamas is refusing to honor the agreement signed by Israel last October in which the terrorist group would disarm before Israel started to withdraw from Gaza.

But the Board of Peace itself had moved the goalposts over this sequencing when Nickolay Mladenov, a senior board official, said Israeli withdrawal “must move in lockstep” with Palestinian disarmament (from which the board later retreated under Israeli protest).

Its own Gaza Roadmap, published at the start of this month, would not lead to disarmament and the end of Hamas rule. On the contrary, according to an analysis published by MEMRI, it would enable Hamas to retain military capabilities, ensuring that its political infrastructure would survive.

Worse still, by stating that its aim is a credible pathway towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood, the Roadmap cements the appalling message that the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 created a political opening for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Not surprisingly, Hamas sees this as a great achievement, reinforcing its belief that the slaughter of Oct. 7 was a huge step towards the destruction of Israel.

Such duplicity by the Board of Peace is hardly surprising. Since its members include those foes of civilization Qatar and Turkey, alongside two-faced false friends such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it should more properly be known as the Board of Appeasement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis have sent the White House a list of violations by Hamas. They say the terror group continues to retain and smuggle weapons; rebuild its military infrastructure, recruitment and training; continue with armed activity and intelligence gathering; and prepare and use explosive devices against Israeli troops. This report documented 14 Hamas violations within a single 24-hour period—the overwhelming majority of which were classified as developing threats to Israeli forces.

Not only is the Board of Peace preventing Israel from destroying Hamas and thus ensuring that it can never again pose an Oct. 7-style threat to the Jewish state. It is also negating the crucial task of setting back the Islamist threat to the West.

Although Hamas has been sponsored by Iran, it’s the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Total defeat of Hamas in Gaza would be a shattering blow to the Brotherhood and its activities throughout the world.

The Brotherhood is the link between Turkey, Syria, Qatar and Hamas. Qatar has been bankrolling American institutions and individuals to insulate it against recognition of its anti-West agenda. Turkey has its thumb on the immigration spigot into Europe, which has already destabilized it and threatens even more social and cultural mayhem.

And the Brotherhood, whose strategy for conquering America through mass immigration and democratic entryism was revealed at the Holy Land terror-financing trial in 2007-08, is enmeshed in an extensive network of mosques and Islamic charities and other institutions throughout America, Britain and Europe.

The war in the Middle East is not distinct from the war of conquest against the West, which is one unified project involving Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. The United States is currently fighting the former without grasping what it’s up against, and not fighting the latter at all.

America needs to wise up, urgently.
Palestinian Rejectionism Is the Harder Problem
We have been told that poverty and humiliation provide fertile ground for extremism, that if we improve Palestinian living standards, violence will diminish.

Give people jobs, better infrastructure, greater freedom of movement and a stake in economic prosperity, and they will have more to lose from conflict.

But this does not explain a conflict in which rejection of Israel has repeatedly survived periods of diplomatic opportunity, economic assistance and improved living conditions.

For more than a century, Palestinian and Arab leaders have rejected a succession of proposals that envisaged some form of territorial partition or coexistence between Jewish and Arab states.

The agreements of the 1990s created the Palestinian Authority, transferred significant governing responsibilities to Palestinians, and generated new possibilities for economic cooperation.

Yet the decade also witnessed a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks, culminating in the Second Intifada in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed.

The uprising demonstrated that greater Palestinian autonomy and economic cooperation were not sufficient to prevent a return to mass violence.

A movement like Hamas that is motivated in part by the belief that Israel itself is illegitimate will not necessarily abandon violence simply because its supporters become more prosperous.

A durable peace requires more than the absence of poverty. It requires political acceptance of the other side's legitimacy.

Where children are taught that national liberation requires the elimination of the other side, economic development alone is unlikely to resolve the underlying dispute.

That is why the debate over Palestinian living standards can become a distraction when presented as the central explanation for the conflict.

If poverty were the decisive cause of Palestinian violence, decades of aid, economic initiatives, employment inside Israel, and diplomatic engagement should have produced a consistent decline in hostility. They have not.
How Central Asia Thinks about Israel
Central Asia is dominated by Muslim-majority, largely Turkic countries. The region has taken a pragmatic approach toward Israel even after hostilities began in Gaza.

Israel's best friend in Central Asia is Kazakhstan, which joined the Abraham Accords in November 2025. Along with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan supplies a significant portion of Israel's oil imports.

Even with an Islamic majority, the country has historically been tolerant of Jews. Many Jewish refugees fleeing Europe found safe harbor in Kazakhstan, where a sizeable number of German, Polish, and Hungarian Jewish populations temporarily resettled.

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan all have diplomatic ties with Israel, but the relationships aren't meaningful. More than Kazakhstan, these countries are majority-Turkic states whose relations with Turkey are lucrative and growing.

Tajikistan has the weakest Israel connections due to the country's close cultural proximity to Iran. The Tajik population speaks a Persian dialect.


United Nations is no longer fit for purpose, says top UN official
The veteran peacekeeper acknowledged the need for the UN “to tread quite carefully because we are an instrument of member states and they are calling the shots”, but nonetheless said it was “very clear” Russia was violating the UN Charter by continuing its war against Ukraine.

“We have to face the truth that a permanent member of our Security Council has started this war and…in a proven way is disregarding international humanitarian law.”

Mr Schmale in particular pointed to Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, deliberate attacks on civilians and so-called “drone safaris” – the systematic and deliberate attack by piloted drones on civilians.

Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson has long been plagued by indiscriminate attacks, with Russian commanders facing accusations they are directing the strikes as a way to train new drone pilots.

Footage taken on Aug 4 showed a 52-year-old vegetable seller being chased and badly injured by a Russian drone in an outdoor market space in the Tavriiskyi district of northern Kherson.

Mr Schmale said the video evidence was “proof that there are serious violations of international humanitarian law” and that the Russian military had “utter disrespect of civilian life”.

Around 75 per cent of the 3,000 UN staff in Ukraine are local nationals. More than 5,000 humanitarian convoys have been run to front-line areas since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

UN warehouses have been regularly hit by Russian strikes but, unlike other aid organisations, no UN staff have been killed.

Nevertheless, the UN budget is under strain. In January this year, Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general, said he regretted the decision by Donald Trump, the US president, to withdraw from 31 UN-related agencies and called on the White House to meet its “legal obligation” to pay the country’s outstanding UN fees, thought to be almost $4 billion (£3 billion).

Mr Trump has withheld funds, viewing the UN as bloated and wasteful. Other countries, notably China, are similarly slow to deliver agreed funds as a way to demand reforms and exert political leverage.

Increasing non-cooperation by some of the body’s most powerful and influential members means the UN is now at a “watershed moment” that could see the end of the organisation after 80 years, Mr Schmale said.

“The League of Nations was created to solve common problems and when the member states realised it couldn’t do that, it was no longer fit for purpose. They gave it up and created something new.

“My hope remains that member states will find the momentum to reform [the UN] instead of letting it collapse.

“But I think it’s a really realistic option, sadly, that we may have to collapse to create something new.”
US plans to again bar Abbas from going to NYC for UN address next month — official
For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to prevent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York next month to speak before the United Nations General Assembly, a US official told The Times of Israel.

The US refused to grant Abbas a visa to enter the US last year, claiming the PA had been taking steps that undermine prospects for peace.

Washington didn’t elaborate on its specific grievances with Ramallah at the time, and the move was seen as part of an effort to undermine a conference that France and Saudi Arabia were hosting ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level week last year that was aimed at promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration opposed the gathering, claiming that it was a reward to Hamas and undermined efforts to end the war in Gaza.

No such conference is scheduled at the UN this year, but the US plans to maintain the precedent regarding Abbas that it set last year, the US official said.

Hoping to reverse the policy, Abbas asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he could speak to Trump about the visa ban, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel.

Erdogan heeded the request, which Abbas made during his visit to Ankara last week, the Palestinian official said, touting the Turkish leader’s assistance.

Erdogan held a phone call on Tuesday with Trump, who has repeatedly called the Turkish president his “good friend.”

But the US official’s insistence to The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Abbas would still be banned indicated that Erdogan did not manage to convince Trump to overrule the State Department decision.

Asked for comment on the matter, a UN official expressed hope to The Times of Israel that the US will honor its obligations as the body’s host country to allow the travel of delegation heads who intend to address the United Nations.

A State Department spokesperson meanwhile did not deny that the US was planning to bar Abbas from entering the country.
ICC denounces new US sanctions as ‘flagrant attack’ on its independence
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday lashed out at the United States after Washington slapped sanctions on ICC President Tomoko Akane, who called it a “flagrant attack” on the court’s independence.

The US sanctioned Akane of Japan and trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal on Tuesday, as part of Washington’s campaign against what it called a “corrupt and fatally politicized” body.

The measures barred them from entering the US and from carrying out transactions in the US financial system.

UN rights chief Volker Turk and the EU’s top officials threw their support behind Akane and her top officials.

“Unacceptable new sanctions imposed by the USA against the International Criminal Court’s President and a prosecution staff member must be lifted,” said Turk.

And in twin statements on X, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Antonio Costa wrote that the court “must be able to act independently and without external pressure.”

Germany’s foreign ministry called the court’s independence “of central importance,” while the Netherlands, which hosts the court at The Hague, also voiced its disapproval.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said “France condemns all threats and coercive measures against the court.”

Spain described the court as “the cornerstone of the international criminal justice system.”

The court itself said in a statement: “These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution.”

“Such measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff… undermine the rule of law.”


Dozens of complaints, zero prosecutions: Hind Rajab fails to prosecute IDF soldiers
HRF targeted at least 86 individuals in 30 countries
The Jerusalem Post has reviewed every legal complaint by HRF against IDF soldiers abroad since it opened (excluding politicians, non-soldiers, and entire battalions).

To date, HRF has filed against at least 86 individuals in at least 30 countries.

HRF’s method is often referred to as lawfare – filing large quantities of complaints against individuals with the hope that some of them successfully end in legal measures being taken, as well as, of course, raising the visibility of HRF’s cause.

But how many of these complaints against the at least 86 soldiers actually resulted in concrete legal action?

According to the Post’s analysis, complaints against 11 of the 86 individuals (13%) resulted in substantive action by the country’s authorities.

Complaints result in investigations and questioning
For example, in July 2025, two IDF soldiers attending the Tomorrowland Festival in Belgium were detained and questioned by local authorities. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor did refer the dossiers to the ICC through the Justice Ministry, but no charges were made.

In Peru in June 2025, the Public Prosecutor’s Office formally opened a criminal investigation after HRF’s complaint against an individual. This has not yet led to any action.

In Brazil, a federal judge ordered the Federal Police to investigate an IDF soldier in January 2025, but he left Brazil before police could act.

The Federal Police later sought reconsideration or closure of the investigation, but took no further action.

Chilean reporting stated that the Centro Norte prosecutor’s office activated an investigation into a soldier following a complaint, but no charge was made.

Other countries followed a similar pattern: for example, soldier and comedian Guy Hochman was detained and questioned in Canada after an HRF complaint, but was released.

The Post found other cases in Greece and Romania.

Then, in Lithuania, the Prosecutor General’s Office considered HRF’s request but refused to open a pretrial investigation.

In Spain, the Central Investigative Court No. 5 rejected a complaint against a soldier in September 2025.

No foreign indictments arising from HRF complaints
As of Wednesday, despite the Post finding a number of cases where an HRF complaint produced some form of action by the country involved, no foreign indictment, prosecution, trial, or conviction of any soldier has arisen from an HRF complaint.

This distinction matters because a criminal complaint itself does not mean a country’s authorities have concluded that a crime was committed. Nor does detention, questioning, or a preliminary investigation amount to a criminal charge.

HRF’s campaign therefore appears to operate on two levels: the pursuit of potential legal action against individual soldiers, and the broader political and reputational pressure created by repeatedly bringing allegations of war crimes before national authorities around the world.

HRF’s campaign has been successful in generating visibility, pressure and occasional disruption for individual soldiers.


NY woman busted in ISIS-linked plot to bomb state Capitol after converting to Islam, cheering 9/11 attacks: feds
A New York woman plotted to bomb the state Capitol in Albany after pledging allegiance to ISIS and celebrating the 9/11 terror attacks, the FBI said Thursday.

Jessica Bowie, 35, from Albany, allegedly began strategizing the attack in July — and planned to place the bomb in a DoorDash food delivery bag, taking apparent glee in the bloodshed it would cause,the feds wrote in a criminal complaint.

“Blowing kafirs [non-Muslims] brains out is beautiful,” she told someone who turned out to be an FBI informant, the complaint said.

She allegedly purchased bomb materials from a Home Depot on Aug. 5, while wearing a burqa, and planned the attack with the help of FBI informants for two weeks, the feds said.

Bowie, who converted to Islam five years ago and was going by the Islamic name “Aisha Saif,” also allegedly tracked the Capitol building for weeks, taking pictures from various vantage points including an “observation hall nearby,” according to the complaint.

Law enforcement had Bowie on their radar for five weeks leading up to her arrest and believe she was “radicalized online,” First Assistant US Attorney John A. Sarcone III said at a press conference Thursday evening.

She sent one of the informants pictures of Downtown Albany with the Capitol circled, indicating it was the building she wanted to target, telling them she would do it on a “day when we know Senators will be meeting,” according to the FBI.

In a message, she said she wanted to “Target my State Capitol… ideally in a way I could get away with and hop on a plane after,” the complaint said.

The ISIS-inspired militant planned to escape to Syria after the attack, according to the feds.
China and Russia Are Keeping Iran Armed and Dangerous
A significant reason for Iran's resilience, lethality and leverage is the growing support Tehran is receiving from China and Russia. When the U.S. and Israel launched military operations against Iran in February, Russia provided Iran with valuable drone and intelligence support that strengthened its offensive capabilities. Russia has aided Iran's attacks by reportedly sharing drone tactics and technologies tested on the battlefield in Ukraine.

In fact, the Islamic republic's prolific use of drone attacks targeting U.S. and partner forces has been one of Tehran's most potent tools throughout the war. On March 1, an Iranian drone struck a U.S. operations center in Kuwait, killing six American soldiers.

Russia reportedly provided Iran with satellite imagery and other forms of intelligence to enable Iranian attacks on American military positions, likely improving Tehran's ability to target U.S. forces and high-value assets with drones and ballistic missiles. On July 17, three American soldiers were killed by an Iranian ballistic missile attack in Jordan.

China has supplied Iran with chemicals which can be used to produce ammonium perchlorate, used in the solid-propellant rocket motors that power most ballistic missiles. Moreover, in 2024, the IRGC acquired a Chinese surveillance satellite previously launched by China, which Tehran has reportedly used to target U.S. forces.
Syria's Precarious Balancing Act and the Israeli Calculus
Iran has warned Syria against taking action against Hizbullah, an option President Trump has raised on several occasions. Tehran made clear that it would strike more than a hundred targets inside Syria should Damascus act. Syria is continuing to pursue Iranian weapons shipments moving through Iraq and Syria to the Lebanese border, while actively working to disrupt Hizbullah's logistics network inside Syrian territory.

This anti-Iranian, and by extension anti-Hizbullah, posture reflects a broader Syrian orientation. From its earliest days, the interim government in Damascus pursued a deliberate policy of distancing itself from Tehran.

Syria deployed more than four divisions, including former fighters who had taken part in the campaign against Assad, along its border with Lebanon, targeting areas long used as smuggling routes. Damascus openly backed Lebanese state efforts to disarm Hizbullah while simultaneously conducting sweeps against Iranian-backed supply lines along the border.

The unity Damascus projects to the outside world conceals a military structure still built from former factions, regional commanders, and armed groups whose loyalties were forged during the civil war and have not automatically transferred to a unified national command. The new Syrian army has yet to become a genuinely homogeneous national institution, as powerful field commanders retain their own fighters, local networks, and foreign patrons.

Turkey has emerged as Damascus's primary security partner and is actively training and restructuring the Syrian national army. Turkish officials have openly discussed supplying the new army with weapons and military assistance.

Preventing Syria from becoming a Turkish forward military position should be a central Israeli objective. Israel should insist that any emerging security arrangement with Damascus include clear limits on foreign military deployments, particularly Turkish combat aircraft, air-defense systems, and permanent bases that could constrain Israeli operational freedom.

Washington has already pressed Israel to begin redeploying from Syrian territory. Israel should not surrender strategically valuable positions in exchange for promises alone. Any withdrawal should instead be tied to enforceable security arrangements: demilitarization, protection of the Druze population in southern Syria, prevention of hostile deployments, and credible guarantees regarding foreign military forces. Every Israeli concession should be matched by a concrete, verifiable Syrian commitment, not in exchange for declarations of moderation alone.
Hamas Unleashed Consequences It Could Not Control
Hamas succeeded in shocking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but shock is not the same as victory. Hamas sought to show that Gaza could not be ignored and that Israeli deterrence was brittle. Hamas-led militants breached Israel's border defenses, killed 1,200 people, and abducted 251 Israelis and foreign nationals, forcing Israel, the U.S., Arab states, and international institutions to reorder their priorities around Gaza.

But this disruption opened a wider field of counteraction, adaptation, and cascading consequences that became a struggle over Hamas's survival. The consequences for Hamas have been enormous: degraded military infrastructure, disrupted command networks, the killing of commanders, exposed tunnels, weakened governance, and growing diplomatic pressure to remove Hamas from Gaza's future security and political arrangements.

Hamas sought to break Israel's deterrence model, and it did. Yet in doing so, it shifted the debate to whether Hamas could retain military power, govern Gaza, or take part in any postwar order. Hamas's own action converted a managed conflict into a direct challenge to its continued authority.

Hamas did force the Palestinian question back onto the global agenda. Yet the price has been catastrophic. Gaza has endured immense destruction, mass displacement, humanitarian collapse, and social exhaustion. Hamas may have restored visibility to the Palestinian issue, but it did so while devastating the Palestinian arena.
Will Gaza Reconstruction Funds Be Used to Support Palestinian Terrorism?
The rehabilitation of Gaza is an enormous prize for terrorism and runs completely counter to the Israeli interest. The chances that the real rehabilitation of Gaza will actually take shape are slim. There is no logic in investing astronomical sums, in the range of $50-70 billion, in order to reestablish an entity whose only desire and purpose is harassing Israel and attempting to destroy it.

Previous rehabilitation funding never prevented terrorist organizations from wanting to rearm and fight Israel again. The rehabilitation of Gaza is also a prize for terrorism. A murderer who took part in the massacre and whose home was destroyed will receive a new home - not at his own expense but with international funding.

Past experience shows that rehabilitation funds are essentially "protection money" to keep the population quiet, most of which will be used for the renewed military strengthening of the terrorist organizations. For a large portion of Gaza's population, the center of life is the war against Israel. They chose Hamas, whose founding manifesto is the destruction of Israel.

As long as that ideological infrastructure exists, no reeducation toward values of peace will succeed there. In our assessment, most Gazans would be happy to leave this hellish wasteland and relocate. It is even morally right to help them do so. If the Egyptians refuse to open the crossings to Egypt for passage to other countries, Israel must allow any Gazan who wishes to do so to leave voluntarily by air or sea.
Hamas Must Be Drained of Its Money as Well as Its Weapons
Hamas is manifestly playing the U.S. and playing for time. It is recruiting, training, and awaiting a more anti-Israel American administration. It is awaiting a resumption of funding from the Iranian regime.

The success of the U.S.-led effort to marginalize Hamas and gradually change the face of Gaza requires genuine Hamas disarmament, ongoing and relentless elimination of Hamas operatives preparing and attempting to carry out attacks, and a heightened focus on Hamas's finances.

According to the Mitvim think tank, Hamas retains the ability to tax and loot aid supplies entering Gaza to the tune of $2 million a day. It is essential, therefore, that the yet-to-be-deployed International Stabilization Force fully control the entire aid distribution process.

Mitvim researcher Yitzhak Gal told Army Radio on Monday that Hamas, in agreeing to relinquish civilian governance to the Board of Peace's National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the intended interim technocratic government, is playing the U.S., since it has ensured that the hierarchies through which this committee would seek to operate are staffed by Hamas and its loyalists.

In June, the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate warned that Hamas was producing hundreds of explosive devices and anti-tank missiles every month, recruiting fighters aged 18-22, and restarted training for members of its Nukhba force. Hamas is also trying to smuggle in drones and communication devices from Sinai, and is working to rebuild its underground infrastructure.
In meeting with Kushner, Netanyahu makes ‘very clear, in no uncertain words, that he is against a Palestinian state’
In a meeting on Monday with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who advises the president on Middle East subjects, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made “very clear, and in no uncertain terms, that he is against a Palestinian state,” according to a senior Israeli official.

Kushner and other visiting Americans didn’t press a Palestinian state, but the prime minister made it “abundantly clear that he is 100% firm on this,” the senior Israeli official told JNS.

The Israeli prime minister made the statement during a discussion about Israel’s red lines.

Netanyahu “made it incredibly clear that this was something that he is against, and the vast majority of Israelis are against,” the Israeli official told JNS. “I think the other side heard the message very well.”

The discussions come as implementation of Trump’s 20-point plan remains stalled over the issue of Hamas’s disarmament. The Jewish state has maintained that the terror group must disarm fully before Israeli forces withdraw and large-scale reconstruction can begin.

Kushner traveled to Israel to meet Netanyahu with members of the Board of Peace, the group Trump created to oversee Gaza’s post-war administration, after Netanyahu publicly rejected a 15-point plan agreed to between the board and Hamas.

In late July, Trump touted the 15-point “road map,” which called for Hamas to be disarmed gradually while Israel withdrew from Gaza in a parallel and phased fashion, as a breakthrough.

Netanyahu rejected the idea categorically on Aug. 9. “I want to be clear here,” the prime minister said at a cabinet meeting. “Israel is ruling out the 15-point document.”
No green light granted to entry of int’l force into Gaza, Israel says
Israel’s political leadership has not approved the entry of the International Stabilization Force into Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem said on Thursday.

The PMO added that, contrary to reports, “Israel has made clear there will be no reconstruction in the Strip before Hamas is fully disarmed.”

The ISF is an integral part of the 20-point Trump Gaza plan and is envisioned as “a long-term internal security solution” for Gaza. Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania have expressed their commitment to deploy troops for the ISF, Reuters reported in February.

The diplomatic effort to advance the Board of Peace’s newly devised 15-point roadmap for Gaza has accelerated in recent weeks.

On Monday, U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner arrived in Israel to discuss the Gaza plan. Following a nearly four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kushner said that demilitarizing Gaza could begin within 30 days, adding in an interview with Fox News that Washington would not support rebuilding Gaza before demilitarization.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday dismissed claims that Jerusalem had rejected the 15-point plan, saying that Hamas has yet to yield a single weapon.

“The point is what comes first: disarmament, or Israel moving,” Huckabee said in an interview with Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya English, referring to a potential Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

“How many guns has Hamas given up so far? The answer—zero,” the diplomat stated. “Not one. Not a pistol, not even so much as a slingshot. So until Hamas starts giving up weapons there’s no reason to expect Israel to change its posture.”

The IDF presently controls roughly half of the Gaza Strip, a territory referred to as the security zone.

Israeli security forces kill five terrorists in Gaza
Meanwhile, the IDF and Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) struck terrorists at a civilian police station in northern Gaza on Wednesday. The security bodies said in a joint statement that the site was being used to plan attacks against Israeli troops.

At least four Hamas terrorists and a member of the Popular Resistance Committees were at the station in the Daraj Tuffah area when it was struck, according to the IDF, which said it was still assessing the results.

About half an hour earlier, the IDF killed a Hamas platoon commander in Nuseirat who according to the military had infiltrated Israel and participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the IDF identified the four Hamas Nukhba terrorists killed in an Aug. 18 airstrike in the Al-Shati area of northern Gaza.

The terrorists were named as Muhammad Hamdi Ahmad Al-Masri, a company commander; Samed Samir Harb Abu Habal, a platoon commander who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre; Muhammad Attar, a platoon commander; and Muhammad Fathi Hussein Nasser, a platoon commander.

The terrorists were involved in planning and carrying out attacks against IDF troops in the Gaza Strip, the military said.
Ankara occupies Syria and then lectures Israel about sovereignty
Before dawn on August 18, Israeli aircraft cratered the runway and storage facilities at the Abu al-Duhur airbase in eastern Idlib, approximately 70 kilometers from the Turkish border, resulting in eight strikes, significant material damage, but no casualties.

Condemnations arrived faster than the damage assessment after Damascus declared the operation a flagrant violation of its sovereignty. Ankara accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing “expansionist and destabilizing” policies ahead of Israel’s October 27 election. Washington’s own ambassador, Tom Barrack, in Ankara pronounced it an “unnecessary escalation” that does nothing for regional peace.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Jerusalem and Damascus had agreed to a security status quo, but that Syria was “on the verge of breaching” it by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo. Israel had warned Damascus repeatedly, but Damascus chose to proceed anyway.

No one should take Turkey or Barrack’s protestations seriously.
In March 2025, Turkish military teams surveyed runways and hangars at the T4 and Palmyra airbases in Homs province and the main airfield in Hama, as Ankara negotiated a joint defense arrangement with Syria’s new rulers. A follow-up inspection scheduled for March 25 never happened, because Israeli jets had struck both sites hours earlier. Israel then struck T4 again in early April, leaving it, by one regional intelligence assessment, unusable. The message was identical then and now: Israel will not permit another air force, particularly one belonging to a government that has threatened it with invasion, to erode its freedom of action over Syria. Israel’s perception that Ankara’s military footprint in Syria endangers Israeli security is not a novel proposition in Jerusalem. The Israeli government has argued this for well over a year.

Israel’s red lines in Syria are not a mystery, and they are not about Ahmad al-Sharaa’s rhetoric. They are about capability and trust. Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda commander who has been received warmly in Western capitals on the hope that he has changed. Perhaps he has. But his army still houses foreign jihadist formations, including units drawn from the Turkistan Islamic Party, whose leadership has been linked to al-Qaeda’s Shura Council. Islamic State is meanwhile reconstituting as the American footprint shrinks. Israel does not have the luxury of assuming that a state built on those foundations, armed and air-covered by Ankara, will remain permanently non-belligerent. Sober analysts have remarked that a functional Syria-Israel security understanding is achievable — which is precisely why a Turkish garrison inside the deal’s perimeter is so corrosive.

Ankara’s rebuttal is that its presence in Syria is lawful because Damascus consents, while Israel’s is not. Turkey has also flatly denied that any deployment to Abu al-Duhur was underway, calling the Israeli claim a manufactured pretext, though Israeli officials say highly sensitive intelligence on that deployment was shared with Washington beforehand. The consent argument still deserves scrutiny on its own terms, because it is a remarkable piece of retroactive legalism.


US emphasizes Hezbollah's Iran ties in new sanctions
The United States on Thursday issued fresh sanctions targeting Lebanon's Hezbollah, including re-designating it over actions on behalf of the Iranian government, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

The Treasury Department redesignated the group "for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force," according to the statement.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the redesignation was intended to show that Hezbollah is acting on behalf of the Iranian government, specifically Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

Hezbollah was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997 and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2001.

Hezbollah is both a political party and an armed group in Lebanon. Sanctions seek to disrupt funding networks and isolate targets by imposing asset freezes, banning banks from dealing with named entities, and prohibiting the flow of goods, services, and material support.


Meet Moshe, the nonexistent ‘Israeli thinker’ Hezbollah loves to quote
Addressing his followers via video this month, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem delivered a forceful diatribe against months-long negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over a permanent agreement that would entail the disarmament of his Iran-backed terror group.

The August 14 speech, marking the 20th anniversary of Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, saw Qassem sharply castigating the Lebanese government for, he said, failing to stand up for the country and caving to Israeli demands.

Even the Israelis think Beirut is rolling over, he said, quoting from one of Israel’s most widely circulated newspapers to drive his point home.

“Listen to this passage by a Jewish thinker named Moshe Yair in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper,” Qassem told his tens of thousands of followers. “This passage is from after the second round [of negotiations]… ‘Fortunately for us, [the Lebanese] sent a delegation that loves Israel and the United States.’”

There is just one problem: the journalist and thinker Moshe Yair does not appear to exist, neither at Yedioth nor any other Israeli publication.

The speech was far from the first time the phantom Israeli writer has been cited in Arabic or pro-Iranian discourse, though he more often purportedly goes by “Moshe Meir.”

Supposed writings of “Moshe Yair/Meir” about Israelis fleeing the country by the millions or talking up the strength of Hezbollah have been cited repeatedly in the past year by anti-Israel commentators and news outlets, according to a report by the anti-Hezbollah Al Jadeed network and subsequent online research by The Times of Israel.

While the false attributions have pinged around certain corners of social media and the internet, Qassem’s speech appeared to be the most high-profile use of the contrivance yet.

His citation of a made-up quote in an official speech may not have been deliberate, but it likely reflects a broader willingness — and not only by Qassem — to use misleading or false information as a propaganda tool to reinforce narratives that serve his and other terrorist organizations.


Terrorist shot after attempting to stab IDF soldier operating in West Bank, no IDF injuries
A terrorist armed with a knife attempted to stab an IDF soldier in the Jenin area in the West Bank, the IDF spokesperson announced on Thursday morning.

Soldiers responded by firing at the terrorist, killing him.

No IDF injuries were reported.

Duvdevan arrests two terrorists, raids over 100 sites in counterterror operation
IDF soldiers raided over 100 houses near Jenin and detained two terrorist during a West Bank operation, the IDF spokesperson announced on Monday.

Undercover counterterrorism commandos from the Duvdevan unit operated with intelligence guidance from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to detain the terrorists in the area of Kabatiya, the military added.

The two terrorists were suspected of planning and promoting terrorist plots to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and the IDF, the military said.

The IDF later came under scrutiny when Army Radio reported on Tuesday that IDF soldiers wrote numbers on the bodies of Palestinian suspects during the operation.

The military responded to the allegations, telling Army Radio "security forces marked suspects who were being interrogated as part of the operation.”

Commanders added that "the seriousness of the act was explained to the soldiers, and lessons were drawn from the matter.”
IDF Troops Can See Hamas Operating beyond Ceasefire Line but Are Barred from Acting
IDF reservists serving in central Gaza say they are watching Hamas forces operate beyond the Yellow Line but are increasingly restricted from acting against them under tightened ceasefire rules.

A commander in the sector told Ynet, "Our activity here is mainly defensive. We are operating all the time in case they cross."

"Today we are not allowed to fire beyond the Yellow Line. We understand that sometimes there is an international game, agreements, powers, all of that is understood. But in the end, you see the other side operating and you are somewhat limited. My hands are tied up to a point. Now they have tightened the procedures."

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting Tuesday with U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner, the IDF reiterated an instruction issued about a month ago not to continue pushing the Yellow Line westward.

According to the IDF, Israeli forces currently hold 65% of Gaza.
Hamas using Gaza hospital for ‘torture’ of Palestinians amid eroding support, says Israel
Israel accused Hamas on Thursday of using a southern Gaza hospital as a torture site for Palestinians to stave off an “erosion of support” for the terror group in the Strip, as progress on the US-backed plan for its disarmament continued to stall.

The plan calls for Hamas to give up its weapons in exchange for Israel gradually withdrawing its troops from the enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the plan until Hamas fully disarms, and denied on Thursday that he had approved the entry of international peacekeepers into Gaza.

Hamas has said it accepts the plan. But a joint IDF and Shin Bet statement on Thursday asserted that the terror group remains desperate to hold onto control in the Strip in light of its declining support there, and is increasing its intimidation of Palestinians.

Hamas has been “increasing the activity of its security apparatuses and attempting to impose its rule through intimidation, interrogations and torture of residents,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

The military and Shin Bet said they could now reveal intelligence information “showing that the Hamas terror organization exploits” the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where it “carries out torture and interrogations.”

“According to the information in our possession, in the Yassin building, on the second floor of the hospital’s outpatient clinics, interrogations by Hamas’s internal security and military intelligence are taking place,” the statement said. “Beyond this, Hamas exploits the hospital as a center of governance unrelated to its medical function, for the purposes of interrogations, torture, and collecting money.”

The IDF also said Hamas was using a former hospital office building that was later converted to a house of worship as an interrogation center.

According to the statement, Nasser Hospital continues to serve Hamas as a “major military infrastructure” site, as “patients and hospital staff witness the permanent presence of Hamas operatives, some of them masked, in various areas of the hospital compound.”

The IDF said “Hamas’s use of the hospital creates fear and harms patients, service providers and medical staff.”


Western allies rebuke Israel over West Bank plan, Gaza probes, ‘inhumane’ rhetoric
Israel is facing mounting criticism from several Western allies and the United Nations over a controversial West Bank settlement project, the military’s decision not to probe the killing of aid workers in Gaza, and recent incendiary remarks by a far-right minister.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires on Wednesday over the government’s decision this week to open bidding for the construction of the long-stalled E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem.

The widely condemned plan would carve up land in the West Bank that the Palestinians seek for a state.

Miliband said he told Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that “the Israeli government must halt E1 plans immediately, retract the tender and stop all settlement expansion.”

Israel on Tuesday issued a tender for seven residential compounds containing 1,234 housing units in E1, part of some 3,400 homes approved for the area last year. The project would link Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim while disrupting Palestinian territorial contiguity between Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The project had been frozen for years due to fierce international opposition, including from previous US administrations. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who championed the plan, said when it was approved last year that it “practically erases the two-state delusion.”

Sa’ar hit back at Miliband’s decision to summon the chargé d’affaires on Thursday.

In a lengthy post on X, the foreign minister said he “reject[s] outright” Miliband’s “patronizing” statement, and asserted that “the Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel, just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom.”

“The UK Government’s systematic policy of blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism has already contributed to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community,” Sa’ar charged, saying London’s “decision to damage the relationship between our countries is deeply unfortunate.”


EU said readying cross-industry sanctions against Israel over E1 settlement project
The European Union is reportedly preparing a package of sanctions against Israel if it goes through with its plan for a major, controversial settlement expansion in the hot-button E1 area of the West Bank.

The sanctions, reportedly covering commerce, academics and security, would add teeth to a range of Western condemnations of the plan.

The government on Tuesday issued a tender for the construction of seven residential compounds with 1,234 housing units in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which Israeli settlement activists seek to develop in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Channel 13 reported, citing two Western diplomats, that the EU has devised a list of initial sanctions if the construction begins.

The list was said to include specifically labeling products from Israel — not only from West Bank settlements — as well as scaling down academic collaborations with Israel and halting certain security and diplomatic collaborations between Brussels and Jerusalem. This aspect of the unconfirmed report would go against longstanding EU policy of differentiating between Israel and West Bank settlements.

The E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The project was frozen for long years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations, which feared that building a new settlement neighborhood on the mostly empty tract of land would rule out a viable Palestinian state.

The housing units in the tender are some of the roughly 3,400 E1 housing units that the government greenlit in August 2025. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauded the E1 expansion plan at the time, saying it “practically erases the two-state delusion.”


While CPJ Has Missed Its Gaza Journalist Audit Deadline, Four More Terrorists Have Been Confirmed
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) passed the expected completion date for self-audit of terrorists within its slain Gaza journalist database, and while the narrative that Israel is deliberately targeting journalists continues to calcify in the public consciousness, another four terrorists have been confirmed by terrorist organizations.

Unmet CPJ Audit Deadline
On June 25, CPJ announced that it was conducting a full review of its database of journalists killed in the October 7 War in response to the publication of martyr posters that confirmed that supposed journalists were actually combatants and operatives. By May 27, eight Gazan media workers had already been removed from the CPJ database for participation in hostilities, and another seven for not meeting the definition of being a journalist. It does not appear that additional changes and updates have been made since then.

CPJ stated that it expected the full review to be completed in July, but half-way through August and the public and media have not even been updated on the progress of the review.

The database was influential in the development of the “mediacide” narrative, with dozens of articles published citing CPJ on the subject. The lack of expediency in correcting the record contributes to the settling of accusations as fact.

CPJ-Listed Journalists Continue to Be Exposed
The inaction is concurrent to the continued announcement of journalists as terrorists. Since CPJ announced its self-audit on June 25, four supposed journalists have been announced as operatives by terrorist organizations.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) announced on July 9 that Mahmoud Issa Abu Shirby was a commander in the Al-Quds Brigade’s Gaza Brigade. CPJ still has him listed as just a freelance journalist with a large Telegram following. Supposedly he had been wounded in a airstrike and later killed in another one while sitting out in front of his house.

Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Sharia was supposedly just managing editor of Shams News Agency. His own outlet was cited by CPJ, claiming that he had been critically wounded by an Israeli airstrike. On July 16, PIJ named him as an operative of Gaza Brigade’s Central Military Unit, the same as Shirby.

Hassan Abu Warda was also a senior official of a news outlet, according to CPJ, the owner and director of Barq Gaza news agency. CPJ’s entry doesn’t detail that he was also in the Al-Quds Northern Brigade’s Sniper Unit, as revealed by PIJ on August 5.

Mohamed Jamal Sobhi Al-Thalathi was included in the CPJ database, even though the organization acknowledged that he worked for the PIJ-affiliated Al-Quds Al-Youm. On August 14 his PIJ connections were clarified further, with him announced as another member of the Gaza Brigade’s Central Military Unit.

CPJ Has a Responsibility To Issue Corrections
The longer that CPJ draws out the review, the more supposed terrorists are being revealed on its database. The same is true with other organizations tracking journalist deaths in Gaza. Unlike CPJ, International Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have managed with the faults in their respective databases by silently editing them without public acknowledgement. However all share the collective responsibility for transparency and accountability for mistakes in the media landscape.

These organizations posited a narrative about the war based on their databases. Without a full public accounting, the reality of Gazan terrorist being given a press pass cannot be understood. Not only do news outlets need to be updated to print retractions, but the public deserves to know the truth.





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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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