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Friday, August 21, 2026

08/21 Links Pt1: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of murdered Oct. 7 hostage, represents victims of terrorism at UN; The Law of Unintended Consequences

From Ian:

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of murdered Oct. 7 hostage, represents victims of terrorism at UN
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of the murdered Gaza hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, represented Middle Eastern victims of terrorism at the United Nations on Friday in honor of the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism.

"My name is Rachel," she began, "and I will always be the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin."

Her remarks, delivered in the form of a recorded video, sought to call attention to Israeli terror victims, with Rachel sharing the story of her son Hersh, who lost his arm when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

"Hersh will always be my only son," she said. "Hersh will always be my eldest child, and Hersh will always be 23 years old."

She was the first Israeli representative in the role, which has been given to Palestinians in recent years, with her testimony shown alongside those of other terror victims from around the world.

The UN event, held annually on August 21, was established by the UN General Assembly in a 2017 resolution "to honor and support the victims and survivors of terrorism and to promote and protect the full enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms," according to the UN's website.

Hersh's experience at the hands of Hamas
Rachel described the experiences of her late son at the hands of the Hamas terror organization, as well as her experience as his mother amid his kidnapping, hostage status, and eventual murder.

"My son was executed at close range and returned to me after 330 days," said Rachel. "That body that I had carried in my body for nine months, many moons ago. That body and soul, that I had adored and beheld."

She then discussed the 1932 correspondence at the League of Nations between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud on the topic of why humans wage war with one another.

"Freud explains that we humans continue to engage in active conflict even though the vast majority of us suffer terribly from this way of existence," she said. "Civilization has to decide whether to rise to the challenge to continually contain our natural tendencies toward war, or to give that slavery of selfish interest to give into it."

"What Freud inheritely is inherently saying is that there are people on both sides of any conflict whose drive toward destruction of the other is exactly the same and therefore, ironically, those destructive entities on opposing sides in fact have more in common with each other than the very people they claim to represent," she continued, noting that the same is true, acording to Freud, for the victims in war, whose motivations are "hope, and life, and love."
John Spencer: U.S. Missile Stockpiles Are Low. Fine. Now Draw the Right Conclusion
This shortage didn’t begin with the current administration or this war. Multiple administrations accepted an industrial base built for low annual demand, narrow production lines, and long lead times. They sized inventories around planning assumptions and war games that underestimated how many missiles a sustained fight would burn. Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed the same weakness in artillery, Javelins, and air-defense weapons. Iran has driven the point home again.

War has a way of revealing bad assumptions. It also reveals the limits of allies who rely on the United States to defend sites they haven’t adequately protected themselves. Iran shifted attacks toward bases and critical infrastructure across the region because those targets offered a better chance of getting through. Those attacks threatened countries that weren’t parties to the war and infrastructure that serves millions of civilians. One missile that penetrates and kills American soldiers is a tragedy. It doesn’t erase thousands of successful interceptions, sustained U.S. strikes across Iran, or American control of Iranian airspace. No missile defense system has ever promised zero casualties.

The proper response is straightforward. Congress needs to fund replenishment and expanded production now. The Pentagon has to move past single-source production, slow contracting, and delivery timelines measured in years. The United States and its allies need layered defenses that use cheaper weapons against drones and lower-end threats, saving Patriot and THAAD interceptors for the ballistic missiles they were designed to defeat. Allies hosting American forces must invest more in their own air and missile defense.

Ending a successful campaign because Iran fired enough cheap missiles to strain U.S. interceptor stocks would teach every American adversary the same lesson: build large missile forces, attack exposed U.S. partners, absorb the punishment, and wait for Washington to lose its nerve. China, Russia, North Korea, and every Iranian proxy would take careful notes.

If the stockpiles are low, fix the stockpiles. Expand the factories. Shorten the production timelines. Buy enough munitions for the wars the United States may actually face, not the wars previous planners hoped it would fight. America should close the weakness Iran exposed and keep pursuing its military objectives. The goal of war is to break the enemy’s ability and will to continue, not to surrender our own when a long-neglected production problem finally comes into view.
Iranians struggle to afford the basics as US ratchets up economic warfare
Tehran’s grocery stores are well-stocked, but many families can barely afford the basics. Unemployment is soaring, and those with jobs are working more hours for money worth half as much as a year ago, putting food, medicine and everything else — except for heavily subsidized gasoline — further out of reach.

“We have virtually given up on many things,” said Ahmad Karimi, 52, a taxi driver and father of two who has been working 15-hour days to make ends meet. “We’re cutting out fruit, we’re cutting out protein, we’ve given up leisure, we even work on weekends.”

Nearly six months into the war with the United States and Israel, the Iranian economy is taking a beating under the force of sanctions and a naval blockade that is making it extremely difficult for the country to export oil, its most valuable product.

Whether this intensifying economic pressure will translate anytime soon into military or political concessions from Iran remains to be seen — but some experts are skeptical. Since the war began, Iran has been attacking oil-rich neighbors and US bases in the region, and disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, its biggest strategic advantage.

Iran is trying to use this retaliatory pressure — which is driving up energy prices globally — to bring the war to an end on the best terms possible. It is pressing for sanctions relief, and seeking enough control over the strait to demand payment from ships passing through to deliver energy and other goods.

The Trump administration — which is stuck fighting over a waterway in a war that was launched to curb Iran’s nuclear program — is now promising to deliver even tougher sanctions to try to squeeze the Islamic Republic into submission. But experts say US President Donald Trump may be underestimating how long Iran can hold out.

Iran has been subject to Western sanctions for years and has become deft at partially circumventing them. It has expanded domestic production, used informal cross-border trade networks, bought restricted goods through third countries, and used a shadow fleet to transport its oil.

“Iran’s resistance capacity not only avoids collapse, it also prevents the economic pain from translating into the political pressure and changes that the US expects,” said Hadi Kahalzadeh, an expert on Iran’s economy at Brandeis University.


The Law of Unintended Consequences
South Africa argued for international law capable of crossing borders. It invoked principles in universal terms and insisted that grave legal claims should receive scrutiny even when politically inconvenient.

The reciprocal consequence is that those principles can be invoked elsewhere.

The Mthwakazi filing will not dissolve a single African frontier, and it does not ask to. What Pretoria has changed is subtler and potentially more durable: the ability to treat an inherited border as the end of the inquiry rather than as a rule whose relationship with self-determination may have to be explained.

South Africa may well have a coherent rule that produces its position on Palestine, its position on Chagos, its position on Western Sahara, its position on Somaliland, and its silence on Matabeleland. If it does, Parliament should obtain it, and the Republic should be commended for stating it.

If it does not, then the most consequential unintended consequence of Pretoria’s Hague campaign may not be the Gaza litigation at all.

It may be the doctrine Pretoria now has to live under.


The Frankcom tragedy requires accountability — but Canberra cannot demand a conviction
The death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza on 1 April 2024 was a catastrophe. Israel has never seriously disputed that. Its investigation found grave operational failures, breaches of procedures and mistaken identification. Officers were dismissed and senior commanders reprimanded.

Yet tragedy, negligence, military incompetence and criminal culpability are not interchangeable concepts.

That distinction is becoming dangerously blurred in Australia’s response to Israel’s decision not to initiate criminal proceedings — and it needs to be kept firmly in mind when assessing Cameron Stewart’s treatment of the affair in The Australian.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said Australia has no confidence in the IDF Military Advocate General’s process and has pointed to unanswered questions. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has similarly condemned the outcome.

Frankcom’s family anger is entirely understandable. A daughter and sister went to Gaza to feed civilians and never returned. Nothing in the argument that follows diminishes either their grief or their legitimate demand to know precisely how this disaster occurred.

But governments have obligations different from those of grieving families. They must distinguish emotion from evidence and political condemnation from legal judgment.

And that is where Canberra’s response becomes problematic.

An inconvenient document sits at the centre of this controversy: the report the Australian government commissioned from former Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin.

Binskin was not an Israeli spokesman. Wong appointed him precisely because Australia wanted an independent assessment of Israel’s investigation.

His conclusions therefore matter.

Binskin accepted that the WCK personnel were not deliberately targeted. He found that the IDF mistakenly believed it was targeting Hamas operatives and identified serious failures involving communication, situational awareness and compliance with procedures.

He was critical where criticism was warranted. He recommended further accountability, an appropriate apology and improvements to procedures protecting humanitarian workers.

But Binskin also recognised the distinction now disappearing from Australia’s political rhetoric: an operational investigation and a criminal investigation perform different functions and apply different standards.

An investigation can establish that soldiers made disastrous mistakes without establishing that those soldiers committed criminal offences.

That distinction should be fundamental to any serious discussion of this case.

Accountability does not necessarily mean prosecution.

Much of the Australian discussion now proceeds as though Israel has declared that nothing went wrong.

That is simply incorrect.


Stephen Pollard: Why Labour’s attacks on Israel are really about winning back the Muslim vote
The irony is that Labour’s plan to win back Muslim support will be as effective as its attacks on Israel: useless. Those votes are gone – finito, vamoose, scarpered. They are as over as British influence on Israel. That vanished in July 2024 when Labour restored UK funding to Unrwa, the UN agency which employed some of the October 7 terrorists, when it dropped opposition to the ICJ arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, and when it recognised a non-existent Palestinian state without making a single demand on any Palestinian leaders, effectively rewarding Hamas for its strategy of mass-murder.

Does Miliband – or the PM, Andy Burnham – think Israel even gives a damn about their using Israel to appease British Muslim voters? Have neither of them noticed that Israel hasn’t even bothered to send an ambassador here for over a year? Do they not realise that Britain needs Israel far more than the other way round?

Leave aside the trade balance (the UK exported £3.2bn worth of products to Israel, while Israel sold £2.5bn worth of goods and services to the UK). Leave aside that 1.7m people work for UK firms exporting goods to Israel. Leave aside even that one in eight of the drugs dispensed by the NHS comes from Israeli companies. Focus only on intelligence and the military.

Just last week Yossi Cohen, the former Mossad chief, revealed that an MI5 director-general had told him, “Yossi, you deserve the Oscar for what you did here. You have disrupted a huge quantity of terror activity inside the UK. Thank you very much for doing it”. The Israelis had, Cohen said, “saved many, many lives on British soil”. And British soldiers would have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan without Israeli defence equipment.

Perhaps Burnham and Miliband think the model to follow is Ireland, which has also gone out of its way to demonise and boycott Israel – to the extent that its new jet is unable to land in fog or rough weather because in 2024 Micheal Martin, the then-defence minister and now Irish PM, ordered the removal of an Israeli-made navigation system which would have required a deal with Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence firm. Maybe Burnham and Miliband will think it is a good idea to ensure that RAF can’t get its planes off the ground, because they depend on Israeli technology. And, by the way, Israel is the UK’s second largest defence supplier – and doesn’t buy British weapons. This is one way traffic.

If Miliband and Burnham were serious about peace, they would knuckle down and try to restore relationships with the Israelis and tackle some of the obstacles on the Palestinian side, such as the PA’s ongoing "pay for slay” programme, whereby the families of terrorists are rewarded financially.

But none of this about the peace they claim to want – which they go out of their way to undermine by attacking Israel. This is about seeking to save their political skins by shouting at the Israelis as colonial masters would lord it over supplicants. It would be amusing if the stakes for Israelis – and, yes Palestinians – weren’t so important.
US stresses opposition to Israeli West Bank annexation but avoids condemning E1 plan
The Trump administration on Friday reemphasized its opposition to Israel annexing the West Bank, but intentionally avoided condemning Jerusalem’s planned building of settlements in the controversial E1 area.

Asked for comment on the project, the State Department regurgitated a statement it has previously used regarding Israeli policy in the West Bank, without mentioning E1 at all.

“As the president has clearly stated, the US does not support Israel annexing the West Bank. A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” read a statement attributed to a State Department spokesperson that was sent to querying reporters.

The comments came as Israel faced growing international criticism for advancing the E1 project earlier this week, which both supporters and opponents say could mark the death knell for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by bisecting the West Bank and further preventing Palestinian territorial contiguity.

“The Israeli Government’s decision to publish construction tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote Friday in a post on X. “We have long opposed this step.”

France, Germany, Britain and Italy had already condemned the Israeli project, and an Israeli television channel reported Thursday that the European Union was preparing a package of sanctions if Israel breaks ground on the new settlement units.

Israel’s E1 plans were also denounced by the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who issued a joint statement Friday denouncing the project as a “dangerous escalation” that further advances settlement expansion and annexation of Palestinian lands.

“The ministers call for immediate action to halt the ‘E1’ settlement plan, rescind all measures taken in connection with it, and cease all settlement activities and other measures aimed at altering the geographic and demographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the ministers said.
International contention continues as eight more countries condemn Israel's E1 settlement plan
Foreign ministers from Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt condemned Israel’s E1 West Bank settlement plan in a joint statement on Friday.

“The E1 settlement plan constitutes a dangerous escalation that further advances settlement expansion and annexation and undermines the geographical contiguity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly between the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” said the statement.

The ministers alleged that the plan threatens the “viability and realization of an independent, contiguous Palestinian State” and “constitutes a direct challenge to international efforts aimed at achieving peace, foremost among them [US] President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan.”

The ministers’ statement comes only a day after France, Germany, Britain and Italy released a joint condemnation of the E1 plan.

The countries called the project “unacceptable,” with the UK threatening to prepare targeted sanctions against those involved in settlement expansion.

State Department: US does not support annexation
A spokesperson for the US State Department spoke to N12 News later on Friday, saying that the US government "does not support annexation, noting that the stance is something US President Donald Trump "has already made clear."

The government’s plan includes populating the West Bank’s E1 area, located between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, with 3,412 new housing units expected to expand the settlement city by around 12 square kilometers.

The Civil Administration's Higher Planning Committee approved the project in 2025.
Forensics debunk ‘settler arson’ claim, and not for first time
A fire at a Palestinian residential building in the Hebron area on Thursday morning was caused by an electrical short circuit, according to an investigation by Israeli police and fire officials, contradicting claims that masked Israelis deliberately set the building ablaze.

No injuries were reported.

“I’ve been here for eight months, and I’ve seen people make unauthorized electrical connections, running cables from one building to another and using makeshift outlets. It’s not professionally installed. The electric company didn’t do it for them,” a police spokesperson told The Press Service of Israel.

An investigation by the security agencies officially determined that the fire that broke out on Feb. 17, 2026, at a sheep pen in the area of as-Samu, was caused by an electrical malfunction. Fire investigators from the Fire and Rescue Authority and forensic investigators determined that an electrical fault ignited the tarpaulin sheets used to cover the sheep pen, and the fire quickly spread into the structure. As a result, about 75 sheep inside the pen died.

In that case, too, Palestinian sources claimed that the fire had been deliberately set by Israeli “settlers,” as part of what they described as a “price tag” attack. However, the professional investigation completely ruled out criminal or nationalist motives and determined that the fire originated from an electrical malfunction.

The sheep pen investigation also raised suspicions of an attempt to obstruct the inquiry. The owners of the pen initially claimed that the site was not connected to the electrical grid at all, but police investigators discovered that the main power cable had been deliberately disconnected shortly after the fire broke out, potentially compromising the findings of the investigation.

On Thursday, the Judea and Samaria District Police said that investigators found no traces of an accelerant at the scene of the fire in the village of Beit Amra.

The findings contradict an account given by Bassam al-Nawaj, a resident of the building, who told Palestinian Authority-run WAFA news agency that five masked and armed Israelis burned the home after smashing a window and throwing a flammable substance inside.

Police officers from the Hebron Station, together with a Judea and Samaria District forensic investigator and a Judea and Samaria Fire and Rescue fire investigator, examined the site after entering the area under Israel Defense Forces protection.
Ex-spy cleared to give evidence on Bondi terrorists
A former spook will be allowed to give evidence at the royal commission probing antisemitism about the intelligence he gathered on two terrorists.

Australia’s spy chief has declassified evidence to allow a former agent with intelligence on the perpetrators of the Bondi massacre to give evidence at a probe into antisemitism.

The man – who goes by the name of Marcus – was formally hired by ASIO to work undercover in Sydney’s western suburbs and infiltrate possible Islamic State terrorism networks.

The former spook claimed in ABC reports in February he warned ASIO about the father-son duo, Sajid and Naveed Akram, six years before they opened fire on a Chanukah event and shot dead 15 people at Bondi Beach in December.

Marcus has lived in hiding overseas since 2023 after ASIO withdrew its support for his permanent residence, hindering a bid by the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion – called in the wake of the Bondi massacre – to hear his evidence.

His attempted return to Australia was disallowed when a visa application was rejected and pressure has been mounting on the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to allow him back into the country to give evidence.

ASIO director general Mike Burgess had given clearance to allow Marcus to give evidence at the royal commission, which could now be given remotely, Mr Burke said on Friday.

“He has advised and made clear to the royal commission that any evidence that would come from this particular individual is declassified, he’s happy for it to be given in a complete public forum,” he told reporters at Parliament House.

“It could be given over the phone, on (Microsoft) Teams. It could be given in … any way.”

Mr Burke didn’t clarify whether that meant Marcus would be granted a visa to return to Australia.

However, he said he wasn’t aware if the change in circumstances had been made known to Marcus.

Previously, evidence from Marcus could only be provided in person or from an Australian embassy overseas because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Australian Jewish Association: Protecting the Jewish Community - AJA on 2SM Breakfast Radio
AJA President Robert Gregory joined Tim Webster on 2SM Breakfast Radio to discuss security for the Jewish community.

NSW Premier Chris Minns is facing calls to allow for armed security at public Jewish events.

Robert pointed out the discrepancy whereby armed guards are permitted to protect cash in transit vans but are not permitted to protect human lives at events.




'We will tear you to pieces': Indian general warns Erdogan about pact with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan
Retired Indian Maj.-Gen. Gagan Deep Bakshi warned that the growing alignment among Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan could pose a strategic threat to India, while stressing that New Delhi would not sacrifice its ties with Iran to accommodate Israel’s security concerns.

Speaking to the New Delhi-based network, Republic World, Bakshi argued that the emergence of what he calls a "Sunni NATO" in the Middle East is a source of strategic concern for India.

At the same time, he sent a clear message to Israel: The alliance between the two countries is important, but New Delhi will not give up its interests with Iran simply because of the war between Jerusalem and Tehran.

According to Bakshi, the agreement that took shape in Mecca among Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan has created a new regional reality from India's perspective. "A Sunni NATO comprising Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan has been established in the Middle East, in Mecca, and that is a serious cause for concern," he said.

Bakshi stressed that, from India's perspective, Shi'ite Iran serves as an important counterweight to Pakistan.

Iran as a counterweight to Pakistan

"We very much need Shi'ite Iran to be on our side because Pakistan is our primary security headache. China may be the main threat, but together with it, Pakistan is our biggest security headache," he said.

Bakshi compared the threat Iran represents in Israel's eyes with that posed by Pakistan from India's perspective.

"Iran does not have even a single nuclear bomb, and yet it is perceived as an existential threat to Israel. And what about Pakistan? A fundamentalist, jihadist Islamic state that possesses 180 nuclear warheads," he claimed.

He added that India had not seen Israel display similar concern over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

"We have not seen Israel losing sleep over the bombs in Pakistan's hands because they are considered a threat only to India," he said.

According to Bakshi, the rapprochement between Ankara and Islamabad is not merely theoretical. He cited Turkish assistance to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, claiming that Turkey supplied it with nearly 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles and helped operate them.

"This was already a 'Sunni NATO,' with or without an agreement. Turkey and Pakistan are already in an undeclared practical alliance," he said.
Turkey issues fresh ‘genocide’ arrest warrant for Netanyahu amid growing Syria tensions
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government on Friday issued another arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid spiking tensions between the two countries over an Israeli strike in Syria.

Turkey has already issued warrants against Netanyahu and other top officials for “genocide” over Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel firmly denies accusations of genocide.

The new warrant accuses Netanyahu of “genocide” over the interception in May of a flotilla carrying some 430 activists to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which sparked international outcry. France, Italy and Australia have also launched judicial proceedings.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X that his ministry had asked the interior ministry to issue Interpol red notice alerts for Netanyahu and another Israeli, named as Afek Moskovitch, as part of a larger case against 35 people.

A red notice is a request to police forces worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition. Interpol reviews requests submitted by member states before deciding whether to issue red notices.

“As part of the judicial proceedings concerning the attack in international waters on the Flotilla activists (…) and in accordance with the arrest warrants issued on July 14, 2026, against Benjamin Netanyahu and Afek Moskovitch for ‘genocide,’ the ministry of justice has requested that the ministry of the interior issue red notices for their international arrest,” Gurlek stated.

Netanyahu and Moskovitch are being prosecuted for “crimes against humanity, genocide, aggravated deprivation of liberty, ‘intentional assault and battery,’ torture, destruction of property, aggravated looting, and hijacking of transport vehicles,” the ministry said.

The Turkish statement didn’t provide any additional details about Moskovitch and no additional information about him could be found.

In response, Netanyahu’s office said that Erdogan “now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it.” The Israeli statement reiterated past accusations by Jerusalem against Erdogan, calling him “an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him.”

“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere,” the statement added.
Sen. Rick Scott takes aim at Turkey over Israel tensions
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) blasted Turkey this week over its continued hostility toward Israel, calling on the U.S.’ NATO ally to stop targeting Israel and working with terrorist groups.

“We all know that Turkey likes cozying up to terrorists and supporting Israel’s and America’s enemies,” Scott said Friday, in response to a Turkish request for Interpol to issue an arrest notice for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ankara has issued charges against Netanyahu including war crimes, genocide and torture in connection with Israel’s interception of an activist flotilla headed to Gaza.

Scott said that “anyone who isn’t a terrorist sympathizer can see that” Israel has a right to defend itself.

“Where is NATO in all of this? When are our other allies going to join in calling this out and setting clear expectations on this outrageous behavior? Turkey needs to act like a real ally. This needs to END,” Scott continued.

It’s the second time this week Scott has hit out at Ankara. Earlier this week, he responded to an interview by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack in which Barrack asserted that the Turkish military was not aware Israel planned to strike targets inside Syria, which Barrack said could have sparked a military confrontation.

“It’s clear Israel gave Turkey advanced warning, and Ankara ignored it. Israel has the right and the duty to defend itself from threats,” Scott said. “Turkey needs to stop playing around, stop shilling for terrorists, and start acting like the NATO ‘ally’ they pretend to be.”


Erdoğan-Linked Coalition That Hosted Hamas Launches Global Gaza Campaign
A Turkish coalition headed by Osman Nuri Kabaktepe is coordinating Gaza demonstrations and statements across at least 17 countries and five continents on Aug. 19. Kabaktepe is the current president of Palestine Support Platform (Filistin’e Destek Platformu) and formerly led Erdoğan’s AK Party organization in Istanbul.

The international campaign, called “Humanity’s Voice,” includes actions in Canada, Australia, Austria, South Africa and Brazil, among other countries. Turkish reporting identifies activity across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.

Kabaktepe says the Platform brings together roughly 30 Turkish civil-society organizations and coordinates Palestine-related activity spanning humanitarian aid, education, economics, law, communications, media and politics. The same meeting featured Erdoğan’s son Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan, chairman of the board of trustees of İlim Yayma Vakfı, who described the Platform as strengthening coordination among Palestine-related initiatives in Turkey.

The coalition has also hosted Hamas leaders and publicly defended the group. At an August 2024 rally following the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, a manifesto issued on behalf of Palestine declared that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization” and described it as a resistance movement. The same event featured Hamas official Talal Nassar, who addressed the crowd.

From the AK Party to the Platform
Kabaktepe assumed the coalition’s rotating presidency at the end of 2025 as a representative of İlim Yayma Vakfı, a prominent Turkish religious education foundation. A December announcement from labor confederation HAK-İŞ said then-chairman Mehmet Güney formally transferred the Platform presidency to Kabaktepe as the foundation’s representative.

Only months earlier, Kabaktepe had left one of the most influential positions within Erdoğan’s party apparatus. The AK Party’s Istanbul branch confirmed that he handed over his position as provincial chairman on Feb. 8, 2025, after serving as the party’s top official in Turkey’s largest city.

The coalition also has repeated involvement from Bilal Erdoğan, the president’s son and chairman of the board of trustees of İlim Yayma Vakfı. HAK-İŞ documented Bilal Erdoğan attending Platform meetings alongside Kabaktepe in January and April 2026. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also met Platform members in Istanbul in October 2025.

Kabaktepe Has Personally Met With Hamas Leaders
Kabaktepe has personally held several meetings with senior Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Khalil al-Hayya. In May 2024, while serving as AK Party Istanbul chairman, he met Haniyeh. In January 2026, Kabaktepe posted photographs from another meeting with Hamas Political Bureau member Khalil al-Hayya and a Hamas delegation.

Kabaktepe has also publicly memorialized Hamas leaders. After Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel in October 2024, he described Sinwar as a symbol of Gaza’s resistance and wrote in a social media post, “May his martyrdom be blessed.”
Palestinian shot dead trying to stab soldier; was father of terrorist who killed 3 in TLV
A Palestinian man was shot dead while trying to stab Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin overnight Thursday-Friday, the army said. The assailant was identified as the father of a terrorist who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv in 2022.

The military said that soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade who were carrying out an arrest raid in Jenin were attacked by a Palestinian armed with a knife.

“The forces returned fire at the terrorist and eliminated him,” the IDF said, adding that no soldiers were hurt.

AFP footage from the scene on Friday showed a pool of blood and bullets scattered among groceries in the family’s home.

A Palestinian eyewitness, who declined to give her name to AFP, said Israeli forces raided her neighbor’s house in the early hours and told Hazem to raise his hands, which he refused to do.

“He then attacked them with a knife, and they shot him seven times in front of his 10-year-old son. They dragged him down the stairs and took him with them,” she said.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Fathi Zidan Hazem, 58, “died from injuries sustained after being shot by Israeli forces early Friday in the city of Jenin.”

The ministry said that Hazem’s body was being withheld by Israel.

Hazem was a retired colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces.

In April 2022, his son Raad Hazem carried out a shooting spree in Tel Aviv, opening fire at a bar and killing Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, two friends both aged 27, and Barak Lufan, a 35-year-old father of three.

Hazem went on the run and was found hiding near a mosque in Jaffa after an hours-long manhunt involving hundreds of security officers.

While initially raising his hands in surrender, Hazem reportedly then drew a gun and opened fire on the officers, who fired back and killed him.

At the time, Fathi praised his son for the killings and refused an Israeli summons for questioning.

A second son, Abdul Rahman Hazem, was killed during an Israeli military raid targeting alleged terror operatives in the Jenin refugee camp in September 2022.


Committee to Protect Journalists Still Has Dozens of Violent Militants on Its List of ‘Journalists’ Slain in Gaza, 120 Names Have Terror Ties
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) still includes at least 120 names linked to Hamas and other terror factions on its widely cited list of "journalists" killed in Gaza, according to an independent audit of the organization's database obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon. That's well over half the names on the 209-person list maintained by the embattled, New York-based group.

About 56 of the names still on the list were active, violent militants when they died, according to an audit performed by the media watchdog group HonestReporting. The findings will likely deepen the controversy surrounding CPJ, which has been repeatedly embarrassed when Gaza terror groups or Palestinian families release so-called martyr posters proudly proclaiming that a slain "journalist" on the CPJ list was actually a militant who died in action. The posters often show the "journalist" wearing militant groups' insignias and brandishing weapons.

CPJ has been in turmoil for months over allegations of myopic anti-Israel bias that's clouded its larger mission of protecting journalists worldwide. The group announced in late June—after a series of Free Beacon reports questioning the integrity of its influential list of "Journalist Casualties in the Israel-Gaza War"—that numerous confirmed terrorists were included in the death toll and that it was conducting a full review of the database. While the organization initially said the review would be "completed in July," a spokesman confirmed to the Free Beacon this week that it remains "ongoing and the findings are yet to be made public."

Nearly a month since its self-imposed deadline expired, CPJ has said little about who is handling the review and what precise standards will guide the work, suggesting the internal tumult that first became public in late June continues. Upon commencing the review, CPJ said it would take a "dynamic approach" to its list and would remove "names from its database if subsequent evidence shows individuals were not journalists or media workers, were not active in those capacities at the time of their deaths, or were engaging in combat."

In the lead-up to this announcement, CPJ's board, composed mostly of leaders from prestigious American news organizations, has struggled to present a front of objectivity. Its vice chair, Lydia Polgreen, who represents the New York Times, is virulently anti-Israel and claimed last year in the Times that Israel assassinated a "Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist." Even though Israel has released voluminous documentation that the dead man was a Hamas fighter—including producing a picture of him with Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar—Polgreen insisted there was "no credible evidence" that the man fought for the terror group.

Earlier this summer, the board was exposed as riven by infighting when biotech heiress Nika Soon-Shiong—the publisher of Drop Site News—announced that she'd been booted from the board and blamed a Free Beacon report on her anti-Israel activism for prompting it to cut ties. However, the board—brimming with anti-Israel sentiment—overwhelmingly voted 17-1 just a week later to affirm that "organizations affiliated with militant groups" meet the criteria of a legitimate journalistic outlet. In announcing the vote, a defiant Polgreen condemned "a great deal of false and speculative information" about CPJ (only Fox News's board representative voted against this definition).





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Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 

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