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Wednesday, September 16, 2026

09/15 Links Pt1: The ICJ's Pernicious Plan to Redefine Genocide; You Cannot Occupy Your Own History; Psychological Warfare 101: The Real Target of NAZA

From Ian:

The ICJ's Pernicious Plan to Redefine Genocide
The Trump administration is working to dismantle the International Criminal Court. But a different tribunal, the International Court of Justice, could become a greater threat to the security of the U.S. and its allies. The ICJ is deciding a case, Gambia vs. Myanmar, that could drastically lower the legal threshold for genocide. This would pave the way for a genocide finding in South Africa's pending case against Israel. The lower threshold would also unleash genocide claims against the U.S.

The Genocide Convention requires proof of "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such." The ICJ is being urged to replace that clear, high standard with a vague, politically malleable one: a range of "facts and circumstances" assessed "comprehensively and holistically." Adopting a standard inconsistent with the Genocide Convention would transform the ICJ into a legislative body rewriting the treaty.

Lowering the threshold is unnecessary to find Myanmar committed genocide. Myanmar's forces reportedly perpetrated repeated mass executions of Rohingya civilians, including dozens of children, lining them up and shooting or hacking them to death. In this case, genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference.

This differs factually and legally from civilian deaths incidentally caused by Israeli strikes targeting Hamas fighters, particularly given Israel's precautions and Hamas's documented use of human shields.
WSJ Editorial: If the International Court of Justice Lowers the Threshold for Genocide to Smear Israel, It Will Backfire
While the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutes individuals, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) adjudicates disputes between states. For each court, the temptation has been to expand its authority to pile on Israel. The ICJ is looking to use the case of Myanmar's attacks on the Rohingya minority to redefine genocide in preparation for South Africa v. Israel.

In Gaza, where Hamas built 400 miles of tunnels beneath cities, taxed and stole aid, and did everything to endanger its own civilians, genocide is far from the only reasonable inference from the war's casualties. The more reasonable inference is that Israel fought a defensive war against Hamas in the most difficult urban conditions ever seen, a war it stopped when Hamas released the hostages.

"Lowering the genocide threshold would transform genocide from a narrowly defined legal crime into an expansive vehicle for litigating the conduct of states at war," said Andres Munoz-Mosquera, chief legal adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander, 2014-25. "A new and malleable standard could become a precedent through which virtually any military campaign involving substantial civilian casualties is recast as a genocide claim." He sees it being used by dictatorships and rogue states to handcuff Western democracies.
Holocaust Studies Professor Rips Apart Genocide Charge
There are too many excellent points to note in University of Florida Professor of Holocaust Studies Norman JW Goda’s masterful essay in The Telegraph, “How ‘genocide’ lost all its meaning.” But the central arguments are:

“Genocide” has been stripped of its precise legal meaning in the Gaza debate. Historically, genocide requires proof of specific intent to destroy a protected group, not simply mass casualties, destruction or even serious violations of the laws of war.

He says the genocide charge against Israel has become a political tool rather than a rigorously proven legal conclusion. He accuses activists, NGOs and some scholars of cherry-picking evidence, redefining genocide through ideological frameworks and using the accusation to delegitimize Israel and invert the historical legacy of the Holocaust.

Here are some excerpts:
Yet there is a new and notable self-assurance with which Israel is accused today of genocide, and has been since 2023. It comes from ceaseless allegations – at teach-ins, on talk shows and social media – which echo the carefully constructed illusion of authority that “genocide experts”, many of whom are not experts at all, are in consensus on the matter. In fact, the “consensus”, though noisy, never existed. The intensity also comes from a misrepresentation of Israeli military operations together with a deliberate untethering of genocide from its legal definition to one created by the academic obsession with settler colonial theory – a social-justice-driven understanding of European settlement that ostensibly creates a long-term, white-supremacist genocidal structure which steadily eliminates indigenous peoples. As Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories and the troubadour of genocide accusations against Israel, puts it: “The current genocide is part of a century-long project of eliminatory settler-colonialism in Palestine.”

Albanese’s harangues show that anyone can allege anything. Indeed, one of the chief advantages of endlessly repeating accusations while leaning on the slender reeds of settler-colonial theory is that facts can be displaced by righteous rhetoric. In Israel’s case, allegations of Western settler colonialism erase Jewish indigeneity to the region, ignore that the descendants of Middle Eastern Jewish people who fled Arab countries after 1948 comprise up to half of Israel’s population, and delete that Zionist leaders accepted the 1947 UN partition resolution (and other peace initiatives) while Arab leaders rejected them.

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It is possible to cobble together a more legalistic genocide accusation in similar bad faith. One can ignore that Hamas fights among the Palestinian civilian population and that it uses mosques, schools, and hospitals for everything from arms depots to headquarters. One can dismiss Israeli efforts at civilian harm mitigation. One can imagine, as a reenactment of medieval blood libels, that Israel targets children (and even embryos) rather than armed fighters. One can maintain that the destruction of buildings in Gaza has nothing to do with the fortified tunnels beneath them or the booby-traps within them. One can insist that Israel somehow intended to cause a famine by allowing 2,174,489 tons of aid into Gaza between October 2023 and today. And one can imagine that Israeli efforts to spare civilians are all part of a vast scheme called “humanitarian camouflage”, by which Israel commits genocide beneath a faux canopy of lawfulness. Or one can simply pretend that Gaza is the Warsaw Ghetto.

The problem with all this is that genocide is defined not by proclamation, but by international statute and that ultimately, proof is required to render accusations into adjudicated crimes. The text of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention took two years to write. It received a unanimous affirmative vote in the UN General Assembly, and it has been ratified by 154 states, all of whom presumably read the text before signing. Briefly put, genocide is defined by one or more of five defined acts, headed by killing, “committed with intent to destroy” an ethnic, national, or religious group in whole or in part. The criterion is physical and biological destruction. UN debates between 1946 and 1948 reveal awareness that the definition was imperfect. There were concerns, legitimate as it turned out, that a looser definition could open the door to politically inspired accusations.


You Cannot Occupy Your Own History
There is something profoundly strange about watching the world debate whether Jews belong in Hebron and Jerusalem. Centuries before Islam existed, Jerusalem and Hebron were embedded in Jewish history, religion, memory and national identity. Jewish attachment to Hebron did not suddenly appear in 1967. The Hebrew Bible identifies Hebron with Abraham and the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah as a family burial place. It later describes Hebron as the place where David ruled before establishing Jerusalem as his capital.

Jewish communities existed in Hebron under Muslim and Ottoman rule. In the 19th and early 20th centuries there was an established Jewish community with synagogues, religious institutions and property. Then came 1929 - 19 years before Israel's independence. During the Hebron massacre that year, 67 Jews were murdered and the ancient Jewish community was shattered. Survivors were evacuated by the British. Yet their eventual return is frequently presented as though foreigners had suddenly discovered an unrelated Arab city.

Jerusalem stands at the center of Jewish civilization. It was the location of the First and Second Temples. Over 2,000 years of dispersion, Jews continued to pray toward Jerusalem and incorporated the city into prayers, mourning rituals, festivals and the Passover declaration of hope for a return to Jerusalem. Zionism inherited Jerusalem from Jewish civilization.

Muslims also possess genuine religious connections to Jerusalem, and Arabs have lived in Jerusalem and Hebron for generations. Recognizing those facts costs me nothing. But acknowledging an Arab or Islamic connection does not require denying the Jewish one. It does not magically delete what came before.

Why must recognition of Arab history so often be accompanied by demands that Jewish sovereignty or even Jewish residence be treated as illegitimate? Why can a city be sacred to several peoples until Jewish political rights enter the discussion?

No modern "Palestinian" national claim can legitimately require the historical deletion of the Jewish people. That is history with the first chapters deliberately removed. You have to apply the same historical standards to Jews that you would apply to everyone else. Too much of the international conversation begins by demanding that Jews prove they belong there at all.
Andrew Fox: The two-state solution is dead – and Israel won’t commit national suicide to please Britain
Britain’s latest sanctions are intended to bring a two-state solution closer, yet the British government possesses neither the leverage to impose one nor the means to guarantee Israel’s security afterwards. Israelis are being asked to commit national suicide.

The legal arguments themselves pull towards incompatible outcomes. Post-war decolonisation law underpins Palestinian claims to statehood. Uti possidetis juris, the older principle preserving inherited administrative boundaries, supports the argument that Israel inherited the Mandate’s borders and the West Bank is therefore sovereign Israeli territory. However, the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion affirmed Palestinian self-determination and found Israel’s continued presence unlawful. That is the prevailing international position. Neither option is fit for purpose. The West Bank was never a separate colony awaiting independence; its history runs through Ottoman and Mandatory rule, followed by Jordanian and Israeli control. Decolonisation provides no ready-made answer to two peoples claiming the same territory.

Miliband’s sanctions are performative because Britain lacks the diplomatic weight, economic leverage and military capacity to impose the two-state outcome it demands. France and Canada joining us does not alter that calculation. Israel has already ordered the closure of Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem and removed British personnel from the Gaza reconstruction process in response. Losing that access will make British diplomacy harder, even as ministers insist their policy is bringing a settlement closer.

The issue boils down to realpolitik. Israel’s narrow coastal plain contains much of its population and critical infrastructure. The West Bank’s high ground overlooks that concentration of people, including the approaches to Ben Gurion airport. The Golan Heights and Mount Hermon offer similar advantages in the north. Settlements and security presence in the West Bank buy warning time and space to halt an attack. Since October 7, Israel has increasingly sought buffer zones to keep armed enemies away from its communities. Defence Minister Israel Katz made that approach explicit in 2025, announcing that troops would remain in security zones in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Israel will endure anything Britain is realistically prepared to impose before accepting what they believe would be national suicide. It is an abject fantasy to expect them to relinquish the West Bank’s strategic depth while Palestinians retain their ambition to destroy Israel from the river to the sea. The two-state solution will not happen under these conditions, however often British ministers repeat the phrase. Palestinian attacks prompt tighter Israeli security measures; Israeli restrictions in response then deepen the grievances militants exploit to recruit. Before anything else, breaking that cycle first requires pressure on the Palestinian leaders and institutions that sustain the violence. Israeli settler violence deserves punishment, and security cannot excuse every Israeli action, but Palestinian responsibility should become the lynchpin of British policy if we are serious about peace in the Middle East. Diplomatic backing and financial support should be entirely contingent on ending incitement and dismantling the systems that reward attacks.
Avi Abelow: Israelis want peace – realistic, lasting peace
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun the turnaround. After decades of Oslo’s appeasement, after years of denying we are in a war against jihad and treating an invented “Palestinian people” as the key to history, he has started to lead from Jewish strength rather than fear of international scolding.

But that process is incomplete. Too many of our political, organizational, and rabbinic leaders are still thinking like it’s October 6. Too many still treat the Palestinians as a permanent diplomatic sacrament.

The direction has changed, with the Israeli public leading ahead of the old elite. Perhaps this is why almost none of Israel’s left-wing parties are campaigning as proud leftists.

Instead, they are trying to outflank Netanyahu from the right, even though their actions and statements during the war remained stuck in October 6 thinking: end the fighting with negotiated deals, without destroying the military threats of Hamas or Hezbollah.

As one political strategist, Ronen Manelis, asked US pollster Arthur Miller in a recorded meeting with Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot: “How do we convince the public we are Right, not Left?” They understand that the generation that fought this war is not going back to the way things were.

True peace will never come from giving away land or creating a Palestinian state; it will come only through strength, by reinforcing Israel as the Jewish homeland.

As Prof. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University often states: “If Israel wants short-term peace, [it has to] be invincible in the short term. If Israel wants long-term peace, [it must] be invincible for the long term.”

That is the peace worth seeking, not the Western idea of peace based on slogans. October 7 buried all of that.

The upcoming election will test how many Israelis see through slick campaigns, Left and Right, that ignore these truths while trying to outflank Netanyahu.
Poll: 3/4 of Israeli Jews Oppose a Palestinian State
75% of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, according to a poll conducted Sep. 2-4, 2026, for the Jerusalem Center by Lazar Research.

86% of Israeli Jews were concerned about an attack similar to Oct. 7 originating from the West Bank.

80% of Israeli Jews support Israel maintaining a military buffer zone inside Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

While the world debates the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Israeli public is focused on the opposite question: whether the West Bank will become the next front.

A diplomatic plan that does not address this question will not win public support.


Former Hostage Omer Shem Tov Describes 505 Days in Hamas Captivity
Former hostage Omer Shem Tov described the prolonged loneliness, intense hunger, and physical abuse he endured during 505 days in Hamas captivity, in a recent interview with Maariv.

Shem Tov was abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and released in Feb. 2025. His book, Meeting Myself in Hell, was published in August.

He recounted spending 50 days isolated and in complete darkness in a cell so small that he could not stand upright.

Today, the sounds of fighter jets, fireworks, and loud explosions can trigger intense emotional memories of Gaza.

"It bothers me when people tell me I'm a hero," Shem Tov said. "I don't think I'm a hero. This was a reality that was forced on me. The soldiers are heroes, the reservists, everyone who fought for me."
Gaza terrorists heard joking during Oct. 7 attack in newly released intercepted calls
Gaza terrorists joked about the October 2023 invasion of Israel as the attack was taking place, according to contemporaneous phone calls released in a US federal investigation on Tuesday that gave an inside view of terrorists’ immediate reaction to the Hamas attack and their preparations to join the invasion.

The call logs were released in the case against Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, who allegedly assembled a team of armed terrorists and crossed into Israel to join the attack, and later lied on his visa application to enter the US. He was arrested in Louisiana last year.

Al-Muhtadi was allegedly a member of the Gaza-based terror group the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the National Resistance Brigades.

He and his team were not aware of the Hamas attack before it took place, only finding out about the invasion on social media early in the morning of October 7, 2023, after the attack had started.

As part of the federal probe into Al-Muhtadi, investigators released transcripts of phone calls he made while preparing to join the attack. The calls were intercepted, recorded and translated from Arabic into English. Prosecutors had previously released fragments of the conversations in court filings.

On the calls, Al-Muhtadi and his team are heard scrambling to join the Hamas attack by sharing information about the invasion, coordinating transportation and assembling weaponry.

At 8:12 a.m., Al-Muhtadi told an associate on a phone call to “get ready,” that the “borders are open,” and that other individuals were passing by in a Toyota pickup truck, apparently to join the invasion.

Thirty minutes later, still in Gaza, Al-Muhtadi and another individual celebrated and joked as they exchanged information about the attack.

Both hailed the invasion, saying, “Our guys are celebrating inside [Israel],” and that Palestinians were celebrating in Gaza.

The transcript indicated the pair repeatedly laughed during the call, including about the expected destruction of Gaza.

“From now till the afternoon, half of Gaza will be lost. There will be nothing left except my kiosk,” Al-Muhtadi said.
Amb. Alan Baker: The UN Has Drifted beyond Its Charter. It's Time to Rethink It
The United Nations, established in 1945 on the heels of the Second World War, has, over the years, evolved into an institution in which geographical and political blocs frequently outweigh the universal objectives of the Charter. Instead of serving as a universal forum dedicated to international peace and security, many of its deliberative bodies have become arenas for ideological competition, regional alliances, and partisan political bargaining.

General Assembly resolutions often seek to establish political and legal narratives extending beyond the Charter's purposes. This raises questions about the organization's credibility as a moral authority. The volume and frequency of such resolutions have fueled perceptions that political majorities, rather than consistent legal and moral standards, increasingly drive UN decision-making and functioning.

The challenge confronting the UN is one of legitimacy. Universal membership, intended to enhance its authority, ironically has increasingly become a source of paralysis and politicization. Democratic constitutional states frequently find themselves numerically outweighed by governments that neither practice democratic accountability nor consistently uphold the principles proclaimed in the Charter.

After more than eighty years, it is appropriate to ask whether the UN has gradually become something its founders never intended: an overly politicized institution whose political authority increasingly exceeds its constitutional foundation, and where narrow political interests dictate its actions and undermine its effectiveness.
UN rights chief urges access to all of Gaza to recover bodies buried under rubble
The United Nations called Tuesday for international investigators to be granted access to the entire Gaza Strip “to assist with evidence-gathering” as hundreds of bodies are pulled from the rubble.

The ongoing recovery of human remains in Gaza highlights the possibility that war crimes have been committed, the UN asserted, adding that most of the bodies were of women and children.

“The remains of what appears to be entire families are now being unearthed at locations that were pulverized by Israeli attacks,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

“I worry the remains recovered so far may only be the tip of the iceberg,” he added, pointing to how “much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives.”

“Today, many areas in Gaza where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be leveled by bulldozers with no respect for the dead under the rubble,” he lamented.

The rights office called for “international investigators to be allowed into all parts of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering.” Palestinians walk past destroyed buildings from the recent war in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, September 8, 2026. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The office pointed out that the Hamas-run civil defense had reported that more than 630 bodies and other human remains have been recovered from beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza since last November.

The civil defense “estimates the total number of missing under the rubble at over 8,000,” the UN said.
Gaza hostage, 84, was held prisoner in UNRWA teacher’s attic for 48 days with ‘very little food’, daughter tells United Nations
The daughter of a former Gaza hostage has told the United Nations that her elderly mother was kept prisoner in an UNRWA teacher’s attic for 48 days with ‘very little food’.

Ditza Heiman was held captive for a total of 53 days after being kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

For 48 of those days, the then-84-year-old was detained in the attic of a home belonging to an UNRWA teacher called Abed, her daughter Neta Heiman Mina stated at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

Heiman Mina spoke out against the United Nations’ decision to allow the agency to continue educating the enclave’s next generation of children.

“For forty-eight days, an UNRWA teacher kept her trapped in his attic — in terrible conditions, with very little food,” Heiman Mina said in a 90-second address during a panel on human rights education for children and youth.

“I ask the United Nations: How could you place the education of Gaza’s next generation with someone involved in holding an elderly woman hostage?”

Heiman Mina also raised concerns about other UNRWA personnel, saying the agency had employed individuals alleged to have links to Hamas and other terrorist activity.

She specifically questioned how Suhail al-Hindi, whom she identified as a Hamas member, had been allowed to oversee thousands of teachers in Gaza.

“If the UN truly cares about human rights and education, how can it allow an agency compromised by terrorism to shape the future of Palestinian children?” she asked.


Psychological Warfare 101: The Real Target of NAZA
‘NAZA’ co-director Yuval Abraham says Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza and that his film proves it. I have not seen the film, so I am not going to pretend to review a movie I have not watched. But I do not think the most interesting question is whether NAZA proves its allegations. The more interesting question is what the film is trying to accomplish, who its primary target is, and why the people making it matter so much.

As in any psychological operation, there are primary target and secondary objectives. The international audience is the obvious one. But I believe the Israeli public is the more important target.

Start with the name. To most people outside Israel, NAZA is simply a title. Perhaps it sounds ominous. Perhaps some will hear “Gaza” or even “Nazi” in it. But in Hebrew, נז״א, or NAZA, is an acronym for נזק אגבי (nezek agavi), meaning “collateral damage.”

That is actually a fascinating choice for a film whose creators say it proves genocide. If Israel’s objective were to deliberately eliminate Palestinians, civilian deaths would not be collateral damage. They would be the objective. The distinction matters. But again, the film itself is not what interests me most. The people making it do.

NAZA is an international production. The Venice Film Festival lists it as a UK production, with The Guardian and JW Films involved, while French company mk2 handles international sales. But the two people placed at the center of the film are Israelis: Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. That is the key. Because if two British filmmakers made a film accusing Israel of genocide, Israelis would dismiss it as another foreign production telling them what “Jews are doing wrong.” If two French filmmakers made it, the same. But two Israelis? The film is also in Hebrew, and that is also a deliberate choice, because those soldiers most likely speak good English.

That changes the psychological message completely. The message is no longer simply, “The world thinks Israel is committing genocide.” It becomes, “Your own people are telling the world that Israel is committing genocide.”

That is a much more powerful weapon. Because sometimes psychological warfare is about making the enemy question himself.

You attack morale. You attack confidence. You attack the belief that the cause for which people are fighting is legitimate. You make soldiers question their actions and civilians question whether those soldiers should be fighting at all.

And you do not need to convince everyone. You only need to create doubt. Think about what the film means inside Israel.
Before NAZA: How Yuval Abraham Repackaged a Convicted Terrorist as a Gaza “Coexistence” Story
As Yuval Abraham’s new film NAZA puts his reporting back in the international spotlight, Regavim is releasing previously unpublished research into an earlier Gaza story in which a civilian murderer who praised terrorists and defended knife attacks was presented as the face of a Hebrew-language “coexistence” story.
Read full report (pdf)


IDF Targeting Decisions Made by Highly-Trained Human Operatives, Not AI
There are highly- trained air force operations and legal military officials involved in IDF targeting decisions, despite claims by the "NAZA" film that the military has given over its discretion to artificial intelligence (AI).

The IDF says the film ignores Hamas and all of the massive efforts the IDF took during the war to evacuate civilians and to call off legally valid attacks because the IDF wanted to avoid harming civilians.

In some cases, the air force even redirected missiles away from hitting Hamas terrorists after firing them, when civilians unexpectedly appeared close to the strike zone.
Ask Haviv Anything: 147: Are the allegations in NAZA true?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews and lectures that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

In our current episode we ask: Are the allegations in NAZA true?

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Gaza documentary controversy
03:12 The importance of target identification and intelligence reliability
06:03 The role of evidence and testimony in assessing war crimes
08:51 The political use of the documentary in Israeli elections
11:52 The broader strategic and military considerations post-October 7
14:55 The cultural and political significance of the film's ovation
17:55 The influence of funding, editorial culture, and bias
20:55 The regional security situation and the threat of escalation
23:53 The aftermath of October 7 and the strategic response
27:07 The importance of process and decision-making transparency
30:04 The regional dynamics and the threat of a wider war
32:51 The legal obligations under international law
35:56 The global protest movement and its political implications
38:51 The importance of understanding Hamas's ideology and decisions
41:49 The significance of evidence, sources, and context in war reporting
44:59 The need for honesty and accuracy in war narratives
46:46 The role of international law and military morality
47:58 The importance of critical examination of evidence
49:06 The future of accountability and truth in war reporting
49:58 Conclusion: the need for careful analysis and honesty




Has Israel Blocked Iran from Getting Nukes?
IDF Military Intelligence provided the intelligence for well over 90% of Israeli strikes on Iran. The Jerusalem Post has learned that Iran currently has no centrifuges enriching uranium, all or most of its more enriched uranium is not yet easily accessible, and most of its nuclear facilities were destroyed or forced out of operation by the 2025-2026 strikes.

There has been no period of time where enrichment was brought down to zero. For decades, its facilities expanded. While operations attributed to the Mossad managed to take one or more facilities offline for temporary periods, at no point was the whole active program broken or shuttered.

However, a not insignificant number of centrifuges survived deep underground. Multiple sources have expressed concern that even if only a few hundred advanced IR-6 centrifuges (for enriching uranium) can be salvaged and hooked up again, that could be enough to secretly weaponize enough uranium for a bomb.

Also, multiple sources are worried that the Iranians could clandestinely dig to extract their more-enriched uranium from under rubble and underground in a way that sidesteps U.S. and other surveillance.

One of the highest priorities of the Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear sites was hitting the facilities for converting enriched uranium into uranium metal and into hemispheres for use on a nuclear warhead. Without these and other items, even large quantities of weaponized uranium will do Iran no good, because it will not be able to deliver the uranium 1,000 km. away in Israeli territory. So far, the regime has not made any serious progress on rebuilding such weapons facilities.
How Iran-Backed Terrorists Got Within 20 Miles Of A Key U.S. Base
Iran-backed Houthi terrorists have rapidly expanded their foothold along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, seizing strategic territory that has put the once-ragtag militia within roughly 20 miles of a major American military base.

The Houthis captured the Red Sea port of Mokha and the strategically located Mayun, or Perim, Island last week before seizing the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The latest gains have strengthened the group’s position around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical maritime chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

The advances have brought the group’s fighters to within approximately 20 miles of Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the largest U.S. military base in Africa and a key hub for American operations in the region, which sits on the opposite side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the new Houthi-held territory.

The Houthi gains come as the group intensifies attacks on Saudi Arabia, raising the risk of further disruptions to global oil supplies as the war with Iran threatens shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sends crude prices higher. It also puts the terror group in a strategic position to follow through on a threat made by Iran to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline was forced to shut down last week following a drone attack launched from Iraq, according to Saudi and Iraqi officials. The pipeline, which can transport up to 7 million barrels of crude per day from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, has provided the kingdom a way to bypass the Strait of Hormuz since Iran threatened commercial shipping at the start of the Iran war in February.

Satellite images show extensive damage to a pumping station. The pipeline is expected to remain out of service for weeks, according to the Associated Press.
US, UK and Netherlands issue joint advisory on Iran-linked spyware
Britain, the United States and the Netherlands on Tuesday issued a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing spyware they say is used by Iranian state-linked actors to target dissidents, activists and journalists.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said Iranian state-linked cyber actors had used a spyware family known as “CHOSEN BRICK” to steal emails, messages and other sensitive information through “spear-phishing” campaigns on messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Telegram.

“The details of this cyber campaign reveal  how Iran ruthlessly uses digital surveillance in pursuit of  its  aim  to  repress critics of the regime, stealing emails and messages and accessing devices,” Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, said in a statement.

Iran’s embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The malware, according to the advisory, can collect information from contact lists, emails and social media accounts, capture screen content and access a device’s microphone. The NCSC said some victims’ personal details had later appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites. The FBI, in its own advisory, said Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) was using the malware to “collect intelligence, conduct data leaks, and inflict reputational harm against their intended targets.”
Israel Can Rescue Saudi Arabia from the Iranian Trap
Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, requested a direct American strike against the Houthis after Houthi missiles and drones struck southern Saudi Arabia, setting oil facilities and infrastructure ablaze. At the same time, the Houthis made their most significant territorial gain in years as they advanced toward positions that control access to the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint between Yemen and Africa.

Iran supplied weapons, advice, and guidance that helped facilitate the operation. The U.S. said it would increase defensive assistance but would not join the offensive campaign Riyadh had requested.

In August, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the "Mecca Mutual Defense Agreement," stipulating that an attack on any one of the three countries will be considered an attack on all of them. But in Riyadh's hour of need, Pakistan and Turkey offered little more than diplomatic statements.

Israel can offer Saudi Arabia early warning, air defense, real-time intelligence, electronic warfare, launcher detection, protection of oil facilities and ports, security for shipping routes, and, if necessary, active participation in containing the Houthi threat. An alliance between the two countries would be based on an understanding that the same enemy threatens them with the same missiles from the same shores.

The current crisis may be that rare moment when Israeli interests, Saudi anxiety, and the Iranian threat converge at a single point. Israel should now offer bin Salman what none of his allies can provide in full: intelligence built under fire, battle-tested defense systems, and the ability to reach the Yemeni coast. In return, it should demand an open, signed, and immediate Israeli-Saudi peace agreement.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemns ‘heinous’ Houthi attack on Mecca
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemns the Houthis’ “heinous” attack on Islam’s holy city Mecca, which the rebel group has denied.

“The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemns the heinous attacks carried out by the Houthi group against the city of Makkah and the Madinah region, as well as its ongoing aggression against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the OIC says in a statement posted on X.


Arab Israeli arrested for planning terror attack, target said to be Amdocs server farm
Police and the Shin Bet announced on Tuesday the recent arrest of a 19-year-old from the central Arab town of Kafr Qasim on suspicion of planning a terror attack.

The suspect, Mustafa Issa, was “greatly influenced” by the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and by the violence in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in May 2021, the security agencies said in a joint statement.

He had searched online for instructions on warfare and explosives, and made several attempts to produce an explosive, according to the statement.

According to Channel 12 news, Issa is suspected of wanting to target a server farm belonging to the Amdocs software company, and planned to gain access to the complex as part of his role as a volunteer firefighter.

When he was arrested, Issa had in his possession “a lot of training equipment” as well as Airsoft guns, the statement said.

Prosecutors have issued a statement ahead of an indictment against Issa, police and the Shin Bet said.

“The Shin Bet and Israel Police view with great severity any involvement of Israeli citizens in activity that puts state security at risk,” they said.
Lebanon seeks UN-backed replacement for UNIFIL as US opposes mandate extension
The Lebanese government is pressing members of the UN Security Council to establish a multinational force that would replace the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which currently serves as a buffer between Israeli and Lebanese forces.

UNIFIL’s mandate is set to expire at the end of the year, two Western diplomats told The Jerusalem Post.

UNIFIL’s mandate in southern Lebanon is expected to expire at the end of the year under UN Security Council Resolution1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War. With the mandate’s expiration, responsibility for security and maintaining stability in southern Lebanon is expected to shift largely to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

UNIFIL is a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon that was established in 1978 and operates under Security Council resolutions. Under its UN mandate, its primary role is to assist the LAF in ensuring that the area south of the Litani River remains free of armed personnel in accordance with Resolution 1701.

The force consists of thousands of troops from various countries and conducts patrols, observation missions, and operational activities alongside the LAF.


New PIJ Child Soldier Announcement Shows How Recruitment is a Family Affair
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published martyr posters for two relatives on Friday, including one child soldier, who were also family members of another child soldier who had been announced in August. As the world has ignored the use of children in combat by Palestinian terrorist organizations, the announcements have demonstrated that families are involved in the recruitment of child soldiers.

Muhammad Khair Al-Najjar and Abdul Latif Abdullah Al-Najjar were announced as members of the Al-Quds Brigade’s Khan Yunis Brigade on September 11. Both served in the same battalion, the Al-Balad Battalion. The former, according to cross-referenced Palestinian sources and posts by family on social media, was 17 years old at the time of his death.

According to Palestinian sources, he was killed in the same incident as 16-year-old Abdul Hadi Abdullah Al-Najjar. The youngest of the three was announced on July 23 to have been a member of the Al-Balad Battalion.

Growing Evidence of Family Involvement
The three PIJ operatives are far from the only child soldiers with familial ties to other terrorists. Of the 23 confirmed child soldiers announced by Palestinian groups since July, 12 had close relatives who were also terrorists.

Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Saher Khattab served in the same PIJ brigade as his older brother, Bayan Saher Khattab.

Fawzi Kamel Fawzi Washah, 16, appeared to be the brother of another child soldier, 15-year-old Qusay Washah. They were apparently killed in the same airstrike. Their father was high-ranking PIJ Central Information Unit commander Kamel Fawzi Washah.

Seventeen-year-old Amin Adham Al-Zwaidi was killed alongside two of his brothers, who were also PIJ operatives.

Suleiman Abdul Rahman Abu Nasr also died alongside his brother. Both were PIJ operatives, and Suleiman was 17 years old at the time of his death.

PIJ child soldier Mahmoud Moussa Nassir, only 15 years old, died almost two years after the PIJ operative who appeared to be his father was killed.

Al-Quds Brigade operatives Ali Hafez Abu Khattab and Ashraf Abdul Karim Khattab were in the same vehicle when they were reportedly killed in an airstrike. Ashraf was 17 years old when he was killed.
From Great March of Return to October 7, Hamas Photographer’s Death Shows How Al-Qassam Has Deployed Media Operatives
Hamas commemorated the death of an operative in its Military Media Unit on September 1, not only providing insight on how the corps operates, but also how the deployment of terrorists under the guise of journalists is a tactic in development since long before the October 7 War.

Nihad Khalil Mohammed Abd al-Nabi, who had reportedly been killed in May 2024, was described by an Izz ad-Din al-Qassam martyr poster and video as a member of the Northern Brigade’s Martyr Imad Aqel Battalion. Pictured in military uniform and a camera, he was labeled as a “knight” of “military media.” Great March of Return

Al-Nabi’s name gained attention several years before his demise in the October 7 War. A photographer with the same name and aligning age was present at the Great March of Return riots along the border with Israel in 2018. Al-Nabi’s family members, who posted his martyr video, also published videos on social media that they took from the scene of the riots as well. On July 13, 2018, he was covering the demonstrations at Abu Safiya Hill, northeast of Jabalia, when he was injured. The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, Al-Rai, and the Gaza Government Media Office identified the then-24-year-old as a photographer for the Palestine Live Agency.

Scuffles at the Great March of Return
The photographer’s camera screen was reportedly smashed when he fell. His colleague Abdul Karim Hamdouna, who was beside him and was also injured, fell on his own camera, breaking its lens. While no volume of photography work nor international outlet freelancing tied to Al-Nabi could be found, the equipment damaged in 2018 showed that the camera he held in his 2026 martyr poster was not just a prop. Al-Nabi’s appearance with photography equipment in the later Qassam material was rooted in a professional career.

Armed and Ready to Shoot
The equipment in the martyr video is immediately recognizable as professional photojournalistic kit. Al-Nabi is shown using a Canon DSLR with one of the familiar white zoom lenses, most likely in the 70–200mm range. It is top-end equipment of the kind regularly used by news and sports photographers, particularly when they need to work quickly or photograph subjects from a distance. The video also shows drone-control or video-monitoring equipment, head-mounted action cameras, and communications gear. None of this equipment is exclusively military. Action cameras, drones, and long lenses are widely used in journalism, documentary work, sport, and filmmaking. In military hands, however, the same equipment can be used to record training and operations, gather aerial imagery, and produce first-person footage for an armed group’s media output.

There is no material difference between the Canon equipment seen with al-Nabi and the equipment a civilian photojournalist might carry. The difference is who he was working for and what the pictures were intended to do. Whether Hamas bought the equipment or it belonged to Abd al-Nabi cannot be determined from the video, nor does it alter the central point. Al-Qassam had within its ranks a trained photographer equipped to produce professional-quality images, and it presented that ability as part of his service.

In the video, the narration states, “Do not underestimate your real shots. The world sees the efforts of your brothers only through you. You are the real instrument of jihad in the land of Palestine for spreading the truth.”
IDF kills senior Hamas Rafah Brigade commander Nael Abu Obeid in Gaza Strip strike
The IDF and Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) issued a joint statement on Tuesday, saying that they killed Hamas’s Rafah Brigade commander, Nael Abu Obeid, in a strike in the southern Gaza Strip.

Obeid replaced his predecessor, Mohammad Shabanah, who was killed by the IDF in May 2025.

Abu Obeid was a key figure among Hamas leaders, according to a statement from the IDF, and previously served as the deputy commander of the Rafah Brigade and commander of the Tel al-Sultan and Yibna Battalions.

During his time as the Rafah Brigade commander, Abu Obeid directed terror attacks against Israeli troops and offensives against IDF troops.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the strike, saying that "our message is clear: no terrorist is immune, and Hamas will not be in Gaza."

In a statement announcing Abu Obeid’s death, the IDF said they “remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any threat.”


Commentary Podcast: Bye-atollah
Today we discuss the New York Times reporting on the mystery surrounding the condition of Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and whether he is even still alive, the Saudi war against the Houthis, and the Russia-Ukraine connection. Plus, 60 Minutes returns under the leadership of Bari Weiss, and democratic megadonor control of media outlets.




US preparing for $2.8 billion arms sale to Israel, including over 40,000 bombs
The US is preparing its largest single sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, worth approximately $2.8 billion, in recent years, according to a Tuesday Washington Post report citing a US official.

The package will reportedly consist of 40,000of the 2,000-pound bombs, including 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s. The official told the Washington Post that the sale also included 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads.

According to the report, congressional committees have been informally notified of the pending transaction.

The Trump administration is also allegedly pressuring leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee to approve the sale.

The sale will be financed through the US’s Foreign Military Financing mechanism, and Israel will purchase the arms with grants provided through the mechanism.

MK-84 munitions can penetrate concrete, metal
The arms package is larger than previous US sales of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, including a 2025 sale worth $2.04 billion.

The Washington Post described the MK-84 as “among the most destructive munitions in Western military arsenals,” noting that the munition can penetrate through metal and thick concrete.

Israel has faced criticism for using the MK-84 in its efforts to combat terrorist organizations, such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

When probed on the potential humanitarian concerns that could result from the sale and use of the munition, a senior Trump administration official told the Washington Post that “all foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process,” adding that they would not elaborate on any pending arms sales.


From AJ+ to TikTok: How “Humanitarian Propaganda” Spreads Nonstop
Audiences increasingly encounter political content through short videos designed for emotional impact rather than investigation. A child appears on screen. Sad music plays. A caption invokes humanity. The viewer sees suffering and is given a simple moral framework in which to understand it.

What the viewer may not see is who produced the video, what that person believes, what other material they publish, who finances the campaign, and what information has been deliberately excluded.

Atia is therefore worth examining not merely because of individual offensive posts, but because he demonstrates how radically different messages can coexist within the same online propaganda operation.

The humanitarian persona is highly marketable. The terrorist imagery is not.

One reaches millions because it looks compassionate. The other reveals what the propagandist is willing to celebrate when the presentation is less carefully sanitized.

There is also a broader public-interest question when activists operate across borders. Atia’s activities connect Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the Netherlands through demonstrations, media production and political relationships. When an individual combines a massive audience with terrorist imagery, praise for Hamas and repeated international political activity, his entire network and activities deserve scrutiny.

The most useful way to understand Atia is therefore to stop looking at his humanitarian videos in isolation. To understand both Atia and the propaganda technique he represents, you have to look behind the production.

Look at both faces.

One presents bloodied dolls, children, emotional music and appeals to humanity.

The other presents masked-terrorist imagery, “martyrs,” Hamas leaders and “resistance.”

The contradiction is not a distraction from the story. It is the strategy.

Atia demonstrates how modern propaganda can separate the message from the messenger. The humanitarian façade is designed to make the audience feel compassion, while the more radical material reveals what the person producing that content is willing to celebrate when the presentation is different.

Understanding propaganda means learning to recognize not only the content being shown, but the machinery behind it.

This is the lesson worth taking beyond Atia. The next time a viral video appears with emotional music, suffering children and a carefully written appeal to humanity, don’t stop at the image. Look behind the camera. Who produced it? What else does that person publish? Who are they connected to? What has been left out? And does the person presenting one message to the public express a very different set of beliefs elsewhere?





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