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Friday, September 25, 2026

09/25 Links Pt1: Netanyahu’s UN speech: ‘J’accuse’ against the West; Sukkot and the United Nations: Two competing visions of Israel’s history; Ontario Gunman shouted ‘you’re going to die for the Jews’

From Ian:

Netanyahu’s UN speech: ‘J’accuse’ against the West
Netanyahu confronted the fundamental distortion of Israel’s long war of self-defense, a struggle that has continued for decades but has been recast as colonialism. An army that has saved Israel from annihilation is instead criminalized for doing so.

He laid out, in a matter of minutes, the pillars of the case Israel has struggled to make to the world: the manipulation of the media; the role of Qatar, Hamas’s closest patron, through Al Jazeera and its enormous financial influence in American and European institutions; Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields; and Israel’s efforts to warn civilians and move them out of danger.

He spoke of the food and vaccinations provided in Gaza—facts that contradict the accusation that Israel is committing genocide.

It was a j’accuse directed at the world.

But it was also a celebration of Jewish resilience: 3,000 years of attachment to the same land and the same faith, a civilization that gave the world monotheism and the sanctification of life.

Netanyahu spoke of the heroism of Israeli soldiers and their understanding of the magnitude of the task before them. He cited Neryiah Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, and his words of complete dedication to serving his country.

They echoed the spirit of Netanyahu’s own brother, Yoni, who was killed leading the mission to rescue Israeli and Jewish hostages at Entebbe in 1976.

We will prevail because we have no choice.

Netanyahu finally turned to Iran. He promised that the murderous regime that persecutes and kills its own people will ultimately disappear, even as the West has too often failed to raise its voice forcefully against it.

Netanyahu’s speech was not simply a defense of Israel. It was an indictment of a world that has turned reality upside down, treating those defending themselves as aggressors and too often excusing those who openly seek their destruction.

It was his j’accuse.

And his warning was directed far beyond Israel: The war Israel is fighting against terrorism, jihadism and totalitarianism will not end at Israel’s borders. A common thread unites all forms of totalitarianism.

Recognizing that threat should likewise unite the world’s democracies in defending freedom.
Jake Wallis Simons: The West joins the UN’s anti-Israel hate fest
There is something almost reassuring about the United Nations General Assembly. However much the world changes, however many wars rage and dictatorships rise and fall, you can be sure that sooner or later, everybody will start hating on Israel.

At this year’s gathering in New York, the hatred came sooner rather than later. What was different, however, was the identity of some of the people doing the hating. During the Cold War, the most lurid denunciations of the Jewish state came from Arab autocrats, Soviet satellites and assorted Third World dictatorships. Western democracies might have criticised Israeli governments – sometimes severely – but they generally retained some sense of proportion.

No longer. This week, the rhetoric of Israeli wickedness was found firmly in the Western mainstream. Take António Guterres. In his final address to the General Assembly as UN Secretary-General, he rightly described the Hamas atrocities of October 7 as “abhorrent”.

But then came the qualification. “What followed,” he said, “was an onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, with a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I have witnessed in all my years as Secretary-General.”

Really? As Jon Snow famously remarked in Game of Thrones: “What did father use to say? everything before the word ‘but’ is horse s**t”.

Let’s look at the facts. Guterres has occupied the post since January 2017. His tenure therefore encompasses the Tigray war in Ethiopia, one of the most appalling and under-reported catastrophes of our age, but one of which the UN should really be aware. Estimates of its death toll vary enormously, but as many as 600,000 people are thought to have died through violence, starvation and lack of medical care.

His tenure also encompasses Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the UN has verified more than 17,000 civilian deaths since February 2022 – while stressing that the true figure is considerably higher – alongside astronomical military casualties. And I don’t even need to mention Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar. These wars may not have commanded the headlines, but they should certainly have commanded the attention of the UN. Guess not.

Gaza is unquestionably a human catastrophe, entirely of Hamas’ making. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been reported killed since October 7, including a significant number of combatants. But the suggestion that nothing in the past decade compares with Gaza is simply malicious nonsense, designed – yet again – to demonise Israel.

Then there was Emmanuel Macron. The French president became so carried away while berating Israel that he found himself claiming that “Hamas has never operated in the West Bank.” I’m not joking; he actually said it. Incredible, no?

As any world leader – especially one who is so vocal about “Palestine” – should understand, Hamas has operated there for decades. Its cells have been repeatedly uncovered; the Palestinian Authority arrests Hamas members. Even Le Monde, hardly a mouthpiece for Benjamin Netanyahu, described Macron’s assertion as a “factual mistake” and said the position was “indefensible”.

Indeed, a French citizen, Netanel Shukrun, a father-of-six, was shot dead on the West Bank just two days before Macron’s speech, by a Hamas gunman.

There was something revealing about Macron’s error. Israel’s critics increasingly appear so certain of the moral architecture of this conflict – powerful Israel, powerless Palestinians, Israel guilty and the Palestinians victims – that facts simply dissolve.

Not so with Netanyahu. Like him or loathe him, and there are plenty of reasons for both, his address on Thursday contained a string of home truths that the diplomatic world needed to hear.
Sukkot and the United Nations: Two competing visions of Israel’s history
The general debate of the 81st session of the United Nations illustrates how the international system is no longer a mouthpiece for objective justice, but rather a stage on which the spirit of the age determines what will be considered “truth.”

Concepts such as “human rights” and “self-defense,” or those that have become sacred to the Jewish people such as the “Holocaust” and “concentration camps,” are emptied of their original meaning and moral weight and mobilized as political weapons, directed precisely against the people who set out to defend themselves against genocide and who rose from the ashes of the Holocaust, while authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations benefit from systematic disregard.

The phenomenon displayed at the UNGA represents the greatest danger facing modern society: a society that has lost the ability to distinguish between victim and aggressor is one that has lost its moral conscience, its values, and consequently its identity.

This is precisely the picture that emerges from an institution in which an automatic majority can legitimize falsehood and grant legitimacy to the attempt to erase the Jewish people’s right to live in their land as a sovereign and free people.

Sukkot: Memory as the foundation of national existence
Against the lies voiced from the UN podium stands the holiday of Sukkot, offering a far deeper conceptual alternative: historical memory as a condition for survival.

The Torah commands: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days ... so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:42-43).

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Britain, wrote extensively about the uniqueness of Judaism as a civilization that placed memory, and not merely dry history, at the center of its national life.

Unlike great empires that were erased from the pages of time, the Jewish people survived for thousands of years precisely because of their ability to carry their story and their books with them, to know where they came from, and not to relinquish their identity even under conditions of exile and rupture.

Dwelling in a fragile and temporary sukkah is not merely an agricultural or seasonal ritual. It is a deliberate act of education in national memory.

It reminds us, year after year, that our security does not rest solely on concrete buildings, nor on the approval of international institutions that present themselves as the conscience of the world, but on deep roots and faith in the justice of our path.

Political fashions at the UN change from generation to generation, but the historical truth of the Jewish people in their land is as firm as a rock.

The national memory that we revive every Sukkot inoculates us against attempts to rewrite history, whether through denial of the Jewish connection to the land or through obscuring the circumstances of the war forced upon us by the murderers of October 7.

At the Israel Defense and Security Forum, we have placed at the heart of our mission the understanding that standing firm in the face of international pressure requires not only diplomatic and military tools, but first and foremost a strong cultural and spiritual foundation.

The holiday of Sukkot provides precisely this perspective: one that looks beyond the background noise of global diplomacy and recognizes that the Jewish people’s right to their land is rooted in the eternity of Israel, which does not lie or deceive.


The UN is still obsessed with Israel
The special rapporteurs are required to stay within their mandates, but spitting on Israel is no longer enough for Albanese. During a speech last week in her native Italy, she turned to Ukraine. After hedging on the question of responsibility for the conflict, admitting that Russia did, in fact, invade Ukraine but insisting that there were “a number of reasons” that led to the war, she then urged an arms embargo against Kyiv in order, she said, to advance the diplomatic process.

Absent was the kind of condemnation that she lashes upon the Israelis—nothing on the abduction by the Russians of thousands of Ukrainian children, or their lethal drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian population centers, or even the fact that Russian army recruits typically lose their lives within 30 minutes of arriving on the front line.

Such words will be music to the ears of Vladimir Putin’s regime, especially as she unfavorably contrasted the treatment of Russia with that of Israel.

Then, in a separate interview with none other than the Russian state broadcaster RT, she set her sites on the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Denouncing the “ideological” underpinning of U.S. policy towards the island’s brutal Communist regime, she described the embargo as “a revealing sign of a system that uses force and strangles entire populations to achieve political objectives.” She also sycophantically thanked “Cuban medical staff” for lavishing their scarce resources on her friend Alessandro di Batista, a former parliamentarian for Italy’s antisemitic, populist Five Star Movement who fell ill in Havana while on a solidarity visit.

Speaking to the Saudi outlet Al Majalla, Albanese described Israeli actions in Gaza as “a model that reveals how power is exercised across the world. Palestine is a laboratory—a prototype of repression and oppression.” She may believe that this analysis legitimizes her comments on other situations, but the United Nations and Guterres should not see it that way.

Albanese’s remarks on Ukraine and Cuba were by any yardstick a serious violation of her U.N. mandate. Before he leaves office at the end of December, Guterres has the opportunity to counter the widespread impression that he’s a pushover by taking her to task.

Firing Albanese won’t wipe the slate clean when it comes to the secretary-general’s grossly disproportionate focus on Israel’s alleged offenses. But it will add some welcome balance.

After all, in a 2024 speech, Guterres noted that antisemitism “was not born with the Nazis and did not die with the Nazis.” He is correct—and figures like Albanese are its standard bearers nearly a century later. If he wants those words to be more than a sop to wounded Jewish feelings, he should act by ejecting Albanese from the halls of the United Nations.
Israel and the West must stop trying to reform the UN and build something new instead
Is the UN really the best we can do? No, it is not.

Do we have to settle for a system that elected Syria and Saudi Arabia to lead human rights councils, women’s rights agencies, and cultural bodies, and that cavalierly disregards slaughters in Syria, Sudan, Iran, and China while outrageously branding Israel a war criminal enterprise?

No, we should not have to. Time to chuck the travesty and start over.

Claudia Rosett’s important book What to Do About the U.N. argues that the guiding principle for replacing the UN is competition, the establishment of professional agencies with no grandiose moral pretensions.

Competition is what takes down monopolies, and the UN is the biggest monopoly of them all. It is a mammoth institution helped along by immunities, privileges, and lavish government contributions, and backed by legions of special-interest NGOs around the globe that lobby for more.

As a result, the UN has become like the failed collectivist experiments of the 20th century – the huge old Soviet state enterprises and gargantuan Chinese communist industries. It was and is extremely hard to shutter these behemoths since they are tied to every aspect of a dysfunctional economy and to the lives of their employees. They are a terrible drain.

You fix this by creating competition. So, Rosett proposed the establishment of coalitions that are not so much pegged to ideals as mission-driven, bringing together countries with specific shared interests – like NATO during the Cold War.

Thinkers and experts need to apply themselves diligently to this task. It is time for those with the expertise, resources, and genuine goodwill toward future generations to take an in-depth and non-polemical look at the opportunity cost to the West (not to mention Israel and the Jewish People) of cleaving to the UN.

We are way past the kumbaya rhetoric surrounding the founding of the UN 80 years ago. We are deep into the disastrous damage to global sanity and security unleashed by the abysmal Durban conference 25 years ago and everything ugly that has transpired since.
Ira Stoll: France’s Macron and the Law of the Jungle
No record of jungle rule in France would be complete without an account of how the country's Jews have been persecuted. In Blois on May 26, 1171, the entire Jewish community was destroyed—31 of them burned at the stake—on the basis of a false accusation of murdering a Christian child, even though no Christian child had died. As Robert Chazan described it in a 1968 article, "Ephraim of Bonn indicates a Jewish community, prior to the tragedy, of approximately forty adults. Of these thirty-one were burned, a number imprisoned, and a number of the young forcibly converted. In effect, a total community was destroyed. It was unquestionably this monstrous concatenation of circumstances that so indelibly seared the Blois incident into the consciousness of Ashkenazic Jewry."

More recent history is no better, from the Dreyfus affair to the concrete-floored, barbed-wire-ringed Holocaust detention camp at Drancy, in a Paris suburb. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia reports, "In all, some 77,000 Jews living on French territory perished in concentration camps and killing centers—the overwhelming majority of them at Auschwitz—or died in detention on French soil."

The USC Shoah Foundation has an article recounting, based on survivor testimony, how, "On July 16 -17, 1942, over 13,000 Jews from Paris and its suburbs were rounded up by French police in the early morning hours and forcefully taken from their homes to both the Vélodrome d’Hiver, a winter cycling stadium in Paris, and to the Drancy internment camp. For five days, these men, women, and children – including the elderly, sick, expectant, and even newborns – were held in the most deplorable conditions, deprived of food, water and adequate toilet. They were later deported to Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, with only 811 ultimately surviving the war."

The USC doctoral student who analyzed "45 relevant survivor testimonials" detected several overarching themes, including "a compelling amount of anger expressed toward the French, in general, as several interviewees point out that after the war ended, the French wanted to forget their actions during the war period and, thus, there was a prevalent culture of national denial that collaborationism had existed in France."

In 2006, a young French Jew, Ilan Halimi, was kidnapped in Paris and tortured to death by an antisemitic gang that held him for ransom because it believed all Jews are rich. As an American Jewish Committee account put it, "On February 13, 2006, Halimi was found naked, handcuffed, and barely alive, at a Paris train station. More than 80% of his body was covered with burns, an ear and a toe had been cut off, and his genitals had been mutilated. He died while being transported to the hospital."

In 2017, a Jewish woman in Paris, Sarah Halimi, was killed by a neighbor angered by the mezuzah on her doorpost. Her assailant beat her up while shouting "Allahu akbar." Then he threw the 65-year-old retired doctor out the window of her third-floor apartment. France's high court ruled the killer couldn't stand trial on the grounds that he was high on pot when he did the crime. A New York Times article quoted Francis Kalifat, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, who said, "From now on in our country, we can torture and kill Jews with complete impunity." The Times article noted, "French Jews have been repeatedly targeted by jihadists over the past decade. In 2012, an Islamist gunman, Mohammed Merah, shot dead three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the southern city of Toulouse. In 2015, Amedy Coulibaly identified customers as Jews at a kosher Paris supermarket before killing four of them."

In his U.N. speech, Macron demonized Israel ("War crimes have been industrialised. ... a new era of barbaric acts"), called for multilateral control of artificial intelligence, went on about climate change, and talked about how "we must learn the lessons of the 20th century." Among those lessons of the 20th century is that it was a mistake to give France, a minor and declining power, a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. What has that nation done to earn it? There was a moment when the French were grateful to America for liberating their country from the Nazis in World War II. If Macron and his countrymen want a rescue again the next time around, they will need to begin behaving like allies instead of annoyances.
One year on, what did Australian recognition of ‘Palestine’ achieve?
Meanwhile, the government’s hostility toward Netanyahu is no surprise and has a long history. In 2000, for example, Albanese led protests critical of Israel while the country was led by the center-left government of Ehud Barak. So, using Netanyahu as an excuse for hostile policies toward Israel is clearly nonsense.

Wong maintains that Australia condemns Hamas, supports Israel’s right to exist and regards a two-state solution as the only sustainable path to peace. It is worth asking whether her actions are consistent with this or simply reflect a foreign policy hostile toward Israel and Zionism. The answer appears to be the latter.

Furthermore, recognition does not overcome a fundamental obstacle: Hamas rejects Israel’s right to exist, while other Palestinian factions remain hostile to permanent coexistence. Advocates of the two-state solution argue that Palestinian statehood and institutional reform provide a pathway out of the conflict. Critics contend the political and security conditions necessary for two peaceful states do not currently exist.

Australia’s recognition of Palestine was presented as a practical contribution toward peace. Its first anniversary therefore deserves more than ceremonial language. It deserves an accounting.

What promised P.A. reforms have been enacted? What independent verification exists regarding financial reform and prisoner payments? What progress has been made toward demilitarization? How will Hamas be permanently excluded from government? What measurable contribution has Australian recognition made toward peace and security? When will genuinely democratic elections take place?

These are valid questions for all countries that recognized a non-existent “Palestine” a year ago.

This year, there is a poignant coincidence: The first anniversary of recognition fell on Yom Kippur, a day dedicated to reflection, repentance and accountability. The holiday’s principle of honest self-examination is one that every government should embrace when considering what kind of country it wishes to leave future generations.

A year after recognition, Albanese, Wong and their government should reexamine the assumptions that underpinned their actions, considering the subsequent reality and the decisions that helped propel antisemitism to levels unprecedented under any other government.

If the Palestinian Authority has delivered the reforms Australia expected, the government should identify them and provide the evidence that they took place. If it has not, Australians deserve to know what consequences will follow, as well as why Australia committed a further $25 million in aid to the Palestinians in July if these conditions have not been met.

Above all, the lives of Jewish Australians must never become a game of roulette.


Gunman shouted ‘you’re going to die for the Jews’ at cop during Ontario synagogue attack
A former Canadian soldier who opened fire on a police officer outside an Ontario synagogue during Yom Kippur shouted “You’re going to die for the Jews” moments before shooting, police said Thursday, declaring the attack was motivated by hate.

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd disclosed the alleged words of 29-year-old Sean Ward as police for the first time publicly identified a motive for Sunday’s attack outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue.

“Make no mistake, this was a targeted attack against the Jewish community,” Rodd said. “The suspect had the means, the motive and the mechanisms to cause a mass casualty.”

Police at a news conference Thursday played audio that they said captured Ward shouting the antisemitic threat before he opened fire on Const. Jeff Smith, who was stationed outside the synagogue.

Rodd said Smith was shot before even getting out of his vehicle but still confronted the attacker, remaining engaged in the gunfight for nearly three minutes despite suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body. A second officer, Const. Michael McCurdy, arrived and joined the exchange of fire.

Rodd said the two officers were the only thing that prevented Ward from entering the synagogue and carrying out what police described as a potential mass killing. He said Ward had multiple weapons, a significant amount of ammunition and gasoline available to him.


Jewish journalist ‘pulled off air’ after filming protest outside a synagogue on Yom Kippur
A Jewish journalist at Canada’s public broadcaster has reportedly been taken off air after filming protesters outside the Yom Kippur service he was attending.

Neil Herland, a veteran CBC journalist and producer, is facing disciplinary action following his posts about Monday night’s demonstration in Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported.

Herland was arriving at a Yom Kippur service held by The Song Shul at the Meridian Centre when he encountered around two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters outside.

Protesters were reported to have shouted “free Palestine” and “Zionist alert” as Jewish worshippers approached the building, while other remarks included “baby killer” and “You’re going to Hell”.

Herland began filming and later posted footage of the protest on his personal X account, where his first post has been viewed more than three million times.

“I’m a journalist. And I happen to be Jewish. On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building,” he wrote.

Herland then spoke about his family’s experience of the Holocaust and his growing fears over antisemitism in Canada.

“My late father was an Austrian Jew who survived the Holocaust in Romania. He came to Canada as a refugee. This year I got an Austrian passport, in case Canada becomes unsafe for me as a Jew. I fear that moment is approaching, here in Canada and elsewhere.”

He added: “Jewish Canadians are living in a parallel world. Where police stand guard with guns outside synagogues. And Jewish schools, religious sites and businesses are targeted with bullets. And most Canadians have no awareness or understanding.”


UN blacklists 61 more firms operating in West Bank settlements
The United Nations human rights office on Friday issued a list adding 61 more companies operating in West Bank settlements, which the global body considers illegal.

The database is highly sensitive as firms could be targeted for boycotts or divestment to pressure Israel over settler expansion in the territory that is home to over 3 million Palestinians.

The database, first released in 2020, now includes 214 firms, mostly from Israel, but also from 10 other countries including France, Germany, China and the US.

Newly added firms included Israeli pesticide maker ADAMA, part of Chinese-owned Syngenta Group, Israel-based real estate investment holding company Alony Hetz and Spain’s Salvat Logistica.

They have not responded to a request for comment on their inclusion in the UN database.

They joined companies such as travel agency Expedia and home-rental company Airbnb already on the list.

Israel, which views the West Bank as disputed rather than occupied, has previously said the list unfairly vilifies companies working legally.

“This is a distorted mechanism — created by a deeply flawed body with an automatic majority against Israel,” Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said on Friday, alleging that the database was established to “persecute” the Jewish state.

The UN rights office assessed companies active in a group of sectors including energy, food, hospitality, transport and agriculture, based on confidential submissions to the UN rights office.

Another 60 or so companies were assessed but not included since they did not meet the UN criteria of involvement in activities that violate the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Examples include supplying demolition equipment to destroy Palestinian buildings, provision of surveillance for settlements, and other services like transport that help maintain their existence, according to the UN website.

Other companies, such as British-registered online travel company Opodo and Spanish-domiciled online travel agent eDreams, have been dropped from the original list after submitting a reassessment request.

The UN found that there were reasonable grounds to believe they were no longer involved in the activities that previously justified their inclusion.
Commentary Podcast: UN-mitigated Disaster
It's Friday, and after a brief opening discussion about records, we turn to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's UNGA speech, Macron's embarrassing flub, the ongoing efforts to find some resolution to the Iran war, the upcoming Israeli elections, the lowlife antisemitism of actor Wallace Shawn. Plus, Seth recommends The Barman of the Ritz, and John recommends The World at Night.


The ‘Proud Jew’ Pushing Out British Jewry
The point of all this cheap, transparent social media fodder is clear: Miliband is desperate for his potential voters to know that, while he is a “proud Jew,” he’s not afraid to upset, imperil, and abandon British Jews, and is positively excited by the prospect of destroying the safety and security of Israeli Jews. In fact, the sheer volume of these totally un-serious videos makes it clear that he really, really wants everyone to know this. None of this is accidental. Thankfully for both groups, he is also making sure Britain’s ability to do the latter shrinks by the day, as he makes our nation ever less relevant and influential in the messy business of containing the Palestinian and wider Iranian threat to Israel.

Miliband’s morality is also strikingly selective. Just over two weeks after solemnly invoking “death, destruction, and dehumanization on an appalling scale” in Gaza, he sat down in New York with Iran’s Abbas Araghchi, foreign minister of a regime whose forces massacred protesters in January — more than 36,500 in just two days, according to documents obtained by Iran International. To be fair, he reportedly used the meeting to warn Tehran against hostile activity on British soil. But don’t expect that one to get a slickly produced reel, or any talk of making the world a better place

With every video and photo condemning Israel for one thing or another, Miliban makes it clearer which voters Labour is most afraid of losing. And each one signals weakness, not the strength he thinks he’s projecting. Meanwhile, everyone who isn’t obsessed with Gaza and “recognizing Palestine” is left with an increasingly clear sense that he has little to add to our standing in the world. He would rather make online gestures and meaningless political moves over something he can’t control than roll up his sleeves and do the hard work of effective diplomacy, alliance-building, and forging strong trade partnerships.

Even on this issue of the Middle East, just think which side makes the more productive ally for Britain as it faces an increasingly uncertain and unsafe future: a democratic, confident, strong Israel, with its excellence in defense, technology, intelligence, and medicine — or the Palestinians, with their decades-long, stubborn commitment to violence, terrorism, and rejectionism. Britain’s interests are not served by alienating a strong and valuable ally for an imaginary, violent one with few shared values.

Since declaring himself a “proud Jew,” Miliband has wasted no time in proving how little that pride is worth to the community he claims. He is at least doing British Jews one service: More of us now understand that our legitimate, real concerns do not count when set against the objections of a small but angry and often violent mob of irrational actors. Their concerns — and votes — matter far more than ours to the government that determines our future.

British Jews are increasingly being convinced by our Foreign Secretary that this country is no longer a sensible place to bring up children, build businesses, or plan a safe and secure future. As a “proud Jew,” perhaps this is his contribution to helping Anglo-Jewry decide its path ahead.


Trump rejects Iranian ceasefire proposal, expects war to continue after midterm elections
US President Donald Trump rejected Iran's seven-day ceasefire proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, noting that he expects the US military's bombing campaign to resume after the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The report comes following comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that the deal in question, which calls for steps including the lifting of a US naval blockade on Iranian ports, "would be much better if it is done before the midterm election."

"It depends on the US administration to decide," said Araghchi in comments to reporters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

Araghchi reiterated to reporters at the United Nations on Friday that the “choice rests with the US” to accept and implement Iran’s proposed seven-day plan.

He added that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen until the plan’s conditions were fulfilled. “Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure,” Araghchi said.
Classified US report raises alarm over Saudi nuclear pact
US intelligence assessments said Saudi Arabia has not ruled out developing a nuclear weapons program, according to classified documents provided to Congress and reviewed by officials who spoke to The Washington Post.

The assessment was included in classified documents submitted to Congress as part of a review of a US-Saudi agreement to expand civilian nuclear cooperation.

The intelligence assessment raised concerns among some US lawmakers over the agreement reached by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which would allow American companies to pursue tens of billions of dollars in nuclear energy projects in Saudi Arabia.

The agreement has also drawn scrutiny because it could eventually allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium to 20%, according to The Washington Post. The deal initially limits enrichment to below 5%, but allows the limit to rise to 20% after an additional study and written agreement.

The Washington Post did note that uranium enriched to 20% is still below weapons-grade levels.

US Senators warn the agreement could give Saudi Arabia the ability to develop a bomb
The agreement is currently subject to a 90-day congressional review period, during which lawmakers can seek to block it.

A group of Democratic senators led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the agreement could give Saudi Arabia the ability to enrich uranium and potentially develop nuclear weapons.

“The Trump administration is departing from precedent, adopting looser restrictions, and caving to Saudi demands,” the senators wrote.

Merkley told The Washington Post that the United States should not rely on assurances from the Saudi government regarding its nuclear intentions. He also questioned why Riyadh would seek the ability to enrich uranium domestically if its nuclear program were intended solely for civilian purposes.

The Saudi government did not respond directly to questions from The Washington Post but referred the newspaper to an earlier statement by Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, who said the program would be “peaceful” and developed with “the highest levels of responsibility and transparency.”

The State Department also defended the agreement, telling The Washington Post that the United States “does not and will not support a Saudi nuclear weapon program.”


Two IDF reservists killed in Gaza drone explosion
Two Israeli reservists were killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday when a military drone they were operating crashed inside an IDF outpost and exploded, according to the IDF.

The IDF identified the slain soldiers as Sgt. Maj. (res.) Nadav Kali, 24, from Har Halutz in the Galilee, and Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ofek Moalem, 23, from Jerusalem. Both were combat soldiers in the 7007th Battalion of the 16th Infantry Brigade.

The soldiers were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where they were pronounced dead.

According to an initial investigation cited by Israeli media, the reservists were operating explosive drones against a terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip.

The first drone successfully completed its mission, but during a second operation, another drone unexpectedly returned toward the Israeli force and crashed inside its outpost.

Kali and Moalem approached the crashed drone to investigate, at which point it exploded, 99th Division commander Brig. Gen. Elad Tzuri said, according to military sources. Tzuri described the two reservists as “excellent soldiers.”

The 16th Brigade has been operating in the area of the northern Gaza Strip since Sept. 10.

The military is investigating why the drone returned toward the Israeli troops and how its explosive payload detonated after it crashed.

One possibility being examined is whether Hamas used electronic warfare capabilities to interfere with the drone. However, the IDF currently assesses that Hamas does not possess the operational capabilities in the electromagnetic spectrum required to cause such an incident.

Investigators are also examining the possibility of a technical malfunction. The military has not publicly specified whether the aircraft involved was a suicide drone designed to detonate on impact or a drone designed to drop munitions.

Pending the investigation, the IDF grounded attack drones and drones used to place munitions across its combat sectors. The incident occurred as the 16th Brigade continues operations in the northern Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu mourns reservists
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday mourned the deaths of the IDF reservists.

“Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I grieve over the deaths of Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Kali and Master Sgt. (res.) Ofek Moalem in yesterday’s tragic incident in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

“Nadav and Ofek were courageous reserve soldiers who defended Israel’s security. We embrace their families in this difficult hour and send them our heartfelt condolences,” he added.

Netanyahu noted that the IDF is investigating the incident. “All the necessary lessons must be learned and implemented to ensure the safety and security of IDF soldiers,” the premier said.


Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: Israel just killed Hamas’s money man. Now follow the money …
Israel eliminated Muhammad Abu Alwan, identified as Hamas’s finance chief, in an airstrike this week in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. While the death of another senior Hamas operative in Gaza is an important achievement in the campaign against the terrorist organization, there is a much larger story contained in the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.

They did not merely promise to continue hunting Hamas commanders and operatives; they specifically pledged to “target [Hamas’s] sources of funding” and destroy its terrorist infrastructure.

That language should receive far more attention than it has. After more than two decades of representing victims of terrorism and pursuing terrorist organizations and their financial enablers through the courts, I have learned that the most important terrorist is not always the man carrying the weapon or issuing the order. Sometimes, it is the person sitting behind a desk moving the money, because he makes the entire operation possible.

Hamas can replace a finance chief, just as it can replace a military commander, a rocket engineer or a terrorist killed on the battlefield. But replacing an entire financial infrastructure is considerably more difficult when banks, money changers, front companies, charities, cryptocurrency channels and other intermediaries that move the money are identified and forced to confront the legal and financial consequences of facilitating terrorism.

This is a lesson Israel understood years ago.

During the tenure of the legendary Mossad Director Meir Dagan in the early 2000s, Israel developed an aggressive approach to terrorist financing that became associated with the Harpoon unit. Its mission was to identify and disrupt the financial networks sustaining terrorist organizations and their supporters, because Israeli intelligence understood that eliminating individual terrorists without attacking the infrastructure that recruits, equips and finances them could never be sufficient to defeat the organizations themselves. Harpoon’s motto was: “Follow the money, target the money, kill the money.”

I have spent much of my career fighting that same war on a different battlefield.

At our Shurat HaDin Law Center, we have taken terrorist organizations, their financiers and financial facilitators to court, because terrorism does not exist in a vacuum. It depends upon an economic infrastructure that allows terrorists to pay salaries, purchase weapons, construct tunnels, move operatives, maintain communications, recruit supporters and rebuild after military losses.

The courtroom therefore can become another battlefield in the war against terrorism, particularly when the objective is not merely to punish someone after an attack but to identify the financial system that allowed the attack to happen in the first place.


Israeli teen killed in Russian drone attack on Kyiv apartment building
A 14-year-old Ukrainian boy with Israeli citizenship was killed in a Russian drone strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on Friday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.

The boy was later identified as Daniel Umansky, whose family had immigrated to Israel before returning to Ukraine 20 years ago.

Ukrainian officials said five people were killed in the attack and that at least 20 people were injured, with President Volodymyr Zelensky condemning it as “absolutely savage and sickening.”

The teen’s mother reportedly injured her arm in the blast that struck their apartment building in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district around 8 a.m. She was evacuated to a nearby hospital in moderate condition. Umansky’s younger brother was also in the apartment when the drone hit, but managed to survive unscathed.

The family’s home was located near the Israeli Embassy, according to the Ynet news site.

Israel’s embassy in Kyiv and the Foreign Ministry’s Situation Center for Israelis in Distress Abroad were in touch with the family of the victim, the ministry said, which condemned the attack.

The Foreign Ministry also tweeted a condemnation of the attack, expressing its condolences to the victims and wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded.

Ynet reported that the teen’s family was working to have the boy’s body flown to Israel for burial, as his grandparents live there.

Reuters footage from the Friday strike showed smoke billowing from a heavily damaged apartment block, with ambulances carrying away the wounded, and rescuers searching through debris, as emergency crews worked at multiple strike sites across the capital.


CPJ Audits List of Dead Gazan Journalist – More Than Half Still Have Terrorist Ties
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published an internal audit of its slain Gazan journalist database on Thursday. But a preliminary audit by HonestReporting found more than half of those who remain were individuals with ties to terrorist organizations.

Although the CPJ review removed almost two dozen individuals who participated in combat during the war that began on October 7, 2023, 53 percent of those still listed have terrorist ties, with CPJ failing to remove identified terrorists and even reinstating some to the database. The updated list also fails to meet CPJ’s new criteria for inclusion as a journalist, while broader methodological issues remain.

CPJ’s Previous Failures
On June 25, CPJ announced that it would be conducting a review of its database of 224 names after terrorist organizations published numerous obituaries confirming the affiliations of individuals on the list. CPJ said the audit was expected to be completed by July, but the process was still unfinished by the time HonestReporting published its own audit in August.

The HonestReporting audit found that 120 of the 209 Gazan media workers, or 57 percent, had terrorist ties. Among them, 25 had martyr posters issued by terrorist organizations or affiliated groups, often identifying details such as their units and roles. 18 had been identified by the IDF as terrorists and were reportedly targeted by the Israeli military because of their roles within those organizations. 13 were identified as combatants through eulogies, family statements, documents, and other open-source information. A total of 61 worked for media outlets affiliated with or controlled by terrorist organizations.

By mid-September, however, even the August audit was already becoming outdated, as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued to publish martyr notices identifying additional individuals on CPJ’s list as operatives. By Thursday, the number of CPJ-listed individuals for whom such notices had been published had risen to 30. An Updated Database That Retains Terrorists

CPJ announced the results of its audit on Thursday, reducing its list of Gazan journalists killed in the war to 191. 22 individuals were removed: 19 for participating in hostilities and three for failing to meet CPJ’s definition of a journalist. That followed earlier removals of eight individuals for participating in hostilities and seven for failing to meet the journalist definition.

All 19 combatants had already been documented in HonestReporting’s audit, as had Ahmed Al-Qara, whom CPJ removed on the grounds that he did not meet its definition of a journalist. The CPJ did not acknowledge the several online eulogies and Hamas-affiliated Telegram channels that identified Al-Qara as a “mujahid.”

What’s more, four Palestinian journalists were also reinstated to the list, including two with terrorist connections. Assad Shamlakh was confirmed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to be a member of its Gaza Brigade’s Al-Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa Battalion. Mohamed Khaireddine worked for the Hamas controlled and U.S. Treasury sanctioned outlet Al-Aqsa TV. Khaireddine was reportedly killed in the same strike as his brother, fellow CPJ-listed journalist Ahmed Khaireddine, who was described as a commander and mujahid in online eulogies, and was seen in PIJ videos alongside senior PIJ officials.

Other terrorists that remained on the list were simply shuffled around between the classifications “media worker” and “journalist,” such as Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, a platoon commander in the Central Brigade of PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades. Ahmed Abu Mhadi was also reviewed without being removed, despite being a fighter in the Northern Brigade of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.


Ep. 40: “Inside Gaza: Where Truth Goes to Die” with John Spencer
What happens when a modern army fights an enemy embedded deep inside one of the most densely populated environments on earth? John Spencer, an expert in urban warfare, joins Simeon Myers for a detailed conversation about *Gaza, Hamas, civilian casualties, propaganda, and the battle over truth.*

Spencer breaks down the realities of fighting in an urban environment—and why the images and statistics coming out of a war zone can be so difficult to interpret.

🔥 *The battlefield isn’t just Gaza. It’s also the information space.*

This episode takes you beyond the headlines to examine *how modern wars are actually fought, how narratives are created, and why separating emotion from facts matters when trying to understand a conflict.*

👇Timestamps
0:01 Understanding Urban Warfare in Gaza
2:47 The Truth in Conflict: Gaza’s Information War
5:29 The Role of Experts in Urban Warfare
8:41 Unique Challenges of the Gaza Conflict
11:45 Hamas’s Strategy: Human Shields and Casualties
14:39 The Narrative War: Casualty Strategy and Perception
32:06 Political Strategies in Warfare
34:57 The Role of Information Operations
39:35 Radicalization and Civilian Complicity
50:47 Unique Aspects of Gaza Warfare
58:38 Civilian Harm Mitigation Measures
1:02:40 Civilian Casualties and Warfare Statistics
1:08:25 Understanding Combatant vs. Civilian Distinctions
1:15:19 The Debate on Genocide Accusations
1:22:36 Fighting for Truth in Warfare Narratives


Palestinian Authority forms center dedicated to waging ‘lawfare’ against Israel at ICC
The Palestinian Authority has upped the ante in its lawfare campaign against Israel, announcing this summer the creation of a body built solely for channeling “evidence” of alleged Israeli crimes to the International Criminal Court and other legal forums, a Jerusalem-based watchdog group revealed this month.

The Palestinian National Monitoring Center will include some 65 employees who will scour Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip for evidence against Israel, P.A. Media Center Director Muhammad Abu al-Rub told Palestine TV on Aug. 16.

“The monitoring center will in the future be a central source for the work of the national team specializing in crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,” according to a July 29 announcement on the P.A.’s website.

The existence of the center was uncovered by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a research group that monitors the P.A. and Palestinian society.

Palestinians will be able to upload personal testimonies of rights violations they’ve allegedly witnessed to the center’s website. The testimonies will be collected and prepared for submission to international legal settings such as the ICC. “Cases, data and testimonies” will be turned into “human rights reports, legal files, research, maps, and reliable indicators” that will be used against Israel in international courts, the center’s website said.

PMW’s founder and director Itamar Marcus told JNS, “The fact that any one of three million Palestinians can upload so-called evidence to this website which will be sent to the ICC should disqualify all of the P.A.'s submissions in advance.”

The P.A. “systematically lies ... to demonize Israelis,” he said, making it “impossible to imagine” that Palestinians, who have imbibed these libels, would tell the truth. Particularly egregious examples put out on the P.A.’s official channels include the allegation that Israel has genetically engineered super rats to spread misery and disease among Palestinians, and has dug up deceased Palestinian landowners, removed their fingers and used their fingerprints to fake land sale contracts to Jews.

“When these are the kind of horrific libels coming from the leadership, we can be certain that the entire dossier of so-called evidence being sent to the ICC from the leaders and from the general population is totally worthless,” Marcus said.

Despite the P.A.’s ongoing production of outlandish accusations against Israel, the monitoring center couched its work in high-minded language, with the center’s home page describing its goals as “protecting evidence and national memory,” “supporting justice and demanding accountability,” and “building a Palestinian, independent, reliable, and sustainable authority.”


The tunnels ‘NAZA’ refuses to enter
The film’s title is derived from the Hebrew term nezek agavi, or “collateral damage,” and refers to estimates of anticipated incidental casualties. The use of that phrase as a title reveals another inversion. International humanitarian law requires commanders to distinguish civilians from combatants, identify military objectives, take feasible precautions and determine whether expected civilian harm would be excessive in relation to anticipated military advantage. Estimating potential casualties is part of the process intended to protect civilians. But the existence of an estimate cannot by itself prove that civilians were selected as targets.

Specific strikes may still be mistaken, disproportionate or unlawful, and serious allegations deserve serious investigation. But civilian deaths, however terrible, do not establish murderous intent without evidence concerning the target, anticipated military advantage and precautions taken.

Urban-warfare scholar John Spencer has documented Israel’s use of telephone calls, text messages, leaflets, broadcasts, evacuation maps and strategic pauses to move civilians away from combat. Such warnings also alert Hamas, surrender surprise and increase the danger to Israeli troops. Why would a policy of calculated extermination repeatedly compromise its own operations to reduce the number of civilians present?

The asymmetry becomes stark when intention requires no inference. Hamas gunmen attacked unarmed civilians—men, women and children. Hezbollah launched rockets at Israeli communities. Iran and the Houthis fired missiles and drones toward Israel. Terrorizing civilians was not collateral to those attacks; it was their purpose.

“NAZA” nevertheless infers criminal intention from Israel’s efforts to calculate incidental harm while avoiding enemies whose choice of targets was explicit.

A scientist who sets out to prove a theory by excluding every observation that might weaken it has not vindicated the theory. He has abandoned the scientific method. Evidence must test a conclusion, not merely decorate it.

A documentary about one military need not catalogue every offense committed by every belligerent. Once it alleges calculated mass killing, however, the battlefield’s structure becomes indispensable evidence, and the filmmakers must fairly address this issue. A film that removes Hamas’s tunnels, military embedding, civilian targeting and refusal to shelter its own population refuses to do so.

The objective method demands the opposite: state the theory, then search hardest for facts capable of disproving it. If the film’s thesis survives the tunnels, the hostage chambers and Hamas’s stated refusal to shelter civilians, it has earned consideration. If those facts are removed before the audience can weigh them, the verdict precedes the inquiry.

Venice has given “NAZA” prestige, not immunity from cross-examination. Who built the tunnels? Who occupied them? Who stored weapons and held hostages there? Who declared that the tunnels were for fighters rather than civilians? Until the film answers those questions, its darkness is not revelation; it is concealment.





 


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