Wednesday, October 21, 2026

10/21 Links Pt1: Dems betrayal of Israel fueled by Obama’s wrath toward the Jewish state; Postponed Palestinian elections expose blunder of “statehood” recognition

From Ian:

Dems betrayal of Israel fueled by Obama’s wrath toward the Jewish state
When Barack Obama was president and feuding with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while apologizing to Arab potentates about America’s history in the region, a friend offered an observation.

To wit, that Obama was proving the truth of a deep suspicion among American conservatives that Democrats love Jews but ­secretly hate Israel.

Time and milestone events have passed since then, but the evidence that my friend was onto something important continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

Acceptable
So much so that the Dems’ hard turn against Israel is now dangerously close to a fundamental party doctrine.

And a reasonable explanation is that Obama made it acceptable and even a requirement for officials and candidates to condemn the Jewish state.

His animus ran deep when he was in the White House, but didn’t stop when he left office a decade ago.

Even now, the former president continues to stir the pot of hatred, as demonstrated by comments he made last week.

Accepting an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, Obama said, in reference to the creation of the state of Israel, that Jews “took land off people, and they were excessive. And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’ ”

By ignoring the fact that Jews were indigenous throughout the Middle East for thousands of years before the state of Israel was created by the United Nations partition in 1947, Obama comes off as willfully ignorant.

All the more so when he insists that “the attitude of Israel is, now that we are the strongest, the most technologically advanced in the region, then our security will depend on us simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone.”

He twisted the knife by saying that Israel has conceded the “moral high ground.”

He’s one of those lefties who likes Israel when it’s a victim, but hates it when it hits back and wins.

He also avoids any mention of the historic Abraham Accords, because that would mean giving President Trump credit and ­admitting that not all Muslims and Arabs hate Israel.

Bam-Mam link
His biased distortions recall the hateful ignorance that Mayor Mamdani often spews about Israel being an occupier and running an apartheid state.

It’s not a coincidence that Obama has become a Mamdani pal and adviser.

Netanyahu responded to Obama by noting that the former president’s argument is contrary to long-established facts.

“Our land is not stolen land. This is our homeland; it’s called Judea. That’s where Jews come from. We’ve been attached to it for thousands of years,” the prime minister said.

A more thorough and devastating response to Obama came in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, where Elisha Wiesel asks and answers the critical questions the former president conveniently ignores.

“Was it excessive for the Jews of Hebron, a community that had prayed there for centuries, to be slaughtered by rioters in 1929, nearly 20 years before there was a Jewish state, an occupation or a West Bank settlement to blame?” Wiesel writes.

He goes on to ask, “Was it excessive for Jews to accept the United Nations’ 1947 partition plan while facing an impending invasion by five armies in 1948? To offer peace at Camp David in 2000, and again in 2008? To pull every soldier and settler out of Gaza in 2005?

“Is it excessive to want to live in peace?”

The writer’s authority on the subject is unassailable.
Dr. Brian Cox: Postponed Palestinian elections expose blunder of “statehood” recognition
This latest statehood recognition fiasco illustrates in near real-time the utter foolishness of what I have previously referred to as “fairytale foreign policy” so often practiced by the political left.

This approach is marked by repeated attempts to achieve significant strategic objectives by simply wishing them into existence. But as we often say in the military, especially in combat arms professions, “Hope is not a COA” (course of action).

All the statements from leftist governments recognizing the “state” of Palestine last fall expressed the desire then for free and fair elections, yet none of them included this—or any other development — as a precondition for recognition.

They all espouse belief in a viable two-state solution, and recognizing Palestine is, in colloquial terms, essentially an attempt to press the “easy button” to make it happen. The announcement last week postponing said elections until next fall demonstrates precisely why hope is not a COA.

In any event, Palestine has never met the conditions for statehood described in the Montevideo Convention since it was declared an independent country in November 1988. These criteria are widely considered to be an expression of customary law, yet the “state” of Palestine has no unified system of government and lacks the capacity to authoritatively enter into relations with other states

Simply recognizing Palestinian statehood, or clicking one’s heels three times and wishing that it were so, does not magically create the conditions necessary for it to be an actual state.

Far-left progressive activists like Canadian professor Mark Kersten and D.C. social welfare organization J Street are fond of rejecting the claim that recognizing Palestinian statehood is merely a reward for terrorism. The trouble is, terrorists tend to disagree with them.

Indeed, Hamas hailed announcements, all from leftist governments, recognizing the “state” of Palestine last fall as a “deserving outcome of our people’s struggle.” And when news broke that several Western governments were considering the move, Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad celebrated prospective recognition as the “fruits of October 7.”

Governments like Australia, Canada, France, and the UK rewarded terrorism — according to the terrorists they rewarded — by recognizing Palestinian statehood last fall. It should come as no surprise now these governments complained in a joint statement last week that they “deeply regret” the decision to postpone Palestinian elections.

These liberal governments should take a page from President Trump’s business playbook.

They failed to secure the downside when they recognized Palestinian “statehood.” Now the upside — such as realization of free and fair elections in Palestine — is, rather predictably, not taking care of itself.


Jonathan Tobin: Israel’s foes have more influence on its elections than its friends
Israelis remain divided on a host of issues, such as forcing Haredi Jews to serve in the army and to support themselves financially, as well as the need to rein in the Jewish state’s out-of-control and all-powerful Supreme Court. Many also blame the prime minister for Oct. 7 since it happened on his watch.

However, Netanyahu’s opponents no longer advocate for a Palestinian state and “land for peace,” even if some of them actually want to return to those failed policies. The anyone-but-Bibi coalition, currently headed by former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and his Yashar Party, hopes that Trump’s support notwithstanding, those issues and weariness with Netanyahu’s long tenure in office might lead to his defeat on Oct. 27.

But as long as the Palestinians conceive of their national identity as inextricably tied to a century-old war against Zionism—something made clear by the massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—the Israeli right will remain a dominant force. And most of their political opponents will continue to try to appear as if they agree with Netanyahu on the basic questions of war and peace with the Palestinians and other Iranian terror proxies.

Still, the consensus against a Palestinian state and territorial surrenders cannot be broken by American pressure or persuasion. It can only end when the Palestinians and their enablers elsewhere give up the anti-Zionist project, which means nothing is going to change on that issue for the foreseeable future.

An ally, not a vassal state
To acknowledge this is not to say that American preferences have no impact on Israeli voters.

Israelis don’t like being treated as a vassal state, and Netanyahu has capitalized on that time and again, especially when presidents like Obama and Biden sought to force their country into suicidal concessions to the Palestinians or to restrict their ability to defend themselves and to defeat enemies like Hamas and Iran, as Biden tried to do after Oct. 7.

Yet among the top priorities of any premier is maintaining the relationship with Israel’s sole superpower ally, whose security assistance and help on the diplomatic front simply can’t be replaced elsewhere. Manifest incompetence at that task is an electoral liability. Netanyahu’s skill in rallying support at home against American pressure to do things most Israelis oppose is rooted in decisions made by the Palestinians and Iran to stay committed to a war for the destruction of Israel and genocide of the Jews.

If Trump has earned some credit in the view of many Israelis, it is because, by and large, he has acted as if he understood that. And it’s possible to argue that the president’s signal to them will persuade some, especially on the Israeli right, that maintaining the prime minister in office is vital to securing U.S. assistance in finishing the war against Hamas and Iran in the next two years.

That said, nothing Trump says about Netanyahu or the avalanche of opprobrium aimed at him by most Democrats calling for his toppling counts as much with Israeli voters as their understanding that the enduring hatred by Palestinians and Islamists in the Arab and Muslim worlds requires them to keep casting their votes on security issues, rather than domestic concerns.
David Horovitz: For Israel’s sake, Netanyahu has to go
“The public is paying a huge price in this war. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been called up for reserve duty. I myself have [just] finished over 100 days in the reserves as a combat soldier [on the northern border]. How are the people who are sending their children to the army supposed to feel about the fact that the government you head provides funding, to the tune of NIS 35 million, for organizations whose declared goal is [enabling] draft-dodging [by Haredi males]?” — Question from Yuval Sadeh, reporter for Calcalist, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference on January 27, 2024.

“Another biased, unfair and inaccurate question… We have a coalition that, I’m pleased to say, has unified most of the public… I’ve seen the Haredim volunteering to help… in every way, and I’ve seen them coming to the IDF, too. Obviously, you ignore that, because you want to foster division. And you don’t want to acknowledge… that we’ve managed to forge a national consensus, and you want to keep pulling it apart… I’ll say it again, there’s a division of the workload: I’ll focus on eliminating Hamas, and you’ll wage the war against [me].” — Netanyahu, in reply.

The Times of Israel was founded to report on Israel accurately and fairly, and that’s what we consistently strive to do. I don’t know the politics of many of our staff, and I don’t want to. Our commitment to fair-minded, dependable reporting is one of the main reasons why The Times of Israel is so globally resonant, despite our being an avowedly Zionist enterprise in a world increasingly hostile to the sovereign right of the Jewish nation to any part of its historic homeland.

And yet, as editor, I have increasingly focused these weekly columns — opinionated articles, clearly marked as such — on the words and deeds of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and my conviction that before and especially after the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, he is unfit to lead Israel; that he has not only failed our people, but endangers the existence of the state.

With the most fateful elections in Israel’s history now less than a week away, I owe our readers my clearest account of why the fundamental security and sustainability of Israel require new leadership, genuinely acting in the interests of our country.

First and foremost: Israel was traumatized and changed forever by the Hamas massacre, and by the political and military leadership’s still unfathomable failure to see it coming and prevent it. The man on whom principal responsibility falls, the prime minister, is the only central figure who still has not acknowledged that responsibility and stepped aside.

Most national leaders who had failed to prevent the worst catastrophe in their country’s history, despite an abundance of evidence that it was imminent, would have resigned immediately. Especially if they had ignored multiple warnings from their security chiefs in the months before the attack, blocked repeated recommendations to target enemy leaders, championed the funding of the terror-controlled neighboring entity, and shared the tragic mis-assessment that the enemy was deterred.

Some leaders might reasonably have waited a little — enabling a careful transition of power rather than creating a vacuum at the very top in the midst of a horrific crisis.

But no leader whose true priority was the existential well-being of their nation would have obdurately remained in office for three more years, prevented the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into everything that had gone wrong, attempted relentlessly to pin blame on anybody and everybody but himself, and then sought reelection.

No leader whose true priority was the existential well-being of their nation, moreover, would have sought reelection while pledging to maintain the same political alliances and to advance many of the same inequitable and untenable policies that had riven their nation before the catastrophe and undermined its ability to fully recover.
'All the enemies of Israel want me to lose,' Netanyahu tells 'Post' in pre-election day interview
PM threatens to respond with force and might if Iran makes a “big mistake,” claims Tehran was “on the verge of atomic bombs” • Full interview to be published Thursday
“We went from October 7 to being the most powerful force in the Middle East, clearly, the most powerful country in the Middle East,” he repeated.

According to Netanyahu, Israel has completed “90% of the job” against Iran and its proxies, but the remaining challenge is preventing the Islamic Republic from rebuilding its capabilities. Netanyahu names 'enemies that want Israel to lose,' including Erdogan, Mamdani, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Abbas

The prime minister framed the election as a strategic contest, naming Iranian leaders, Hamas, Hezbollah, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas among those he said wanted him defeated.

“All the enemies of Israel want me to lose,” he said.

Netanyahu identified Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the most consequential security threat currently facing Israel, arguing that Israeli military operations had addressed an immediate danger but had not eliminated the underlying threat.

“About a year ago, Iran was on the verge of developing several atomic bombs,” he said. “If we hadn’t acted in Operation Rising Lion and after that with Operation Roaring Lion, they’d have atomic bombs to destroy us.”

As long as the current regime remained in power, Netanyahu said, Iran will seek to rebuild its nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities.
Netanyahu to JNS: ‘Only way to guarantee future of Israel is to remove the Iranian regime’
On Oct. 27, Israelis head to the polls in the first election following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that left 1,200 people dead, 251 taken hostage into the Gaza Strip and prompted a seven-front war against the Jewish state. Three years later, Israel has achieved stunning military accomplishments against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, militias in Syria, and, most notably, against the head of the terror proxy snake: Iran.

These pivotal elections, like the five consecutive elections between April 2019 and November 2022, are again a referendum on the continued governance of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is presenting Israelis with a stark electoral choice: Renew his mandate to capitalize on Trump’s bold endorsement this past week or risk surrendering the strategic gains of a multi-pronged war.

Netanyahu argues that the campaign remains unfinished. Even after the blows that Israel and the United States have delivered together and apart, Tehran, he warns, could restart its nuclear program. He therefore frames Trump’s endorsement as a promise to finish what was started, contingent on his remaining in the top job.

In a wide-ranging pre-election interview with JNS, Netanyahu casts his partnership with Trump as the foundation for an ambitious agenda: to bring down Iran’s regime, further weakening its regional proxies; expand the Abraham Accords normalization agreements with Muslim-majority countries in the region; and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state anywhere within Israel’s current borders.

While the most urgent issues concern the military battlefield, Israel finds itself in a complex diplomatic position. Netanyahu relates to sanctions, restrictions on arms supplies and hostile international opinion with strategies for greater domestic weapons production, alternative partnerships and retaliation against outside pressure.

The prime minister also relates to domestic politics, including the possibility of reintroducing legislation to reform the judiciary, and building on decades of economic gains, even during war.

Next week, Israelis will once again decide if Netanyahu’s experience and statesmanship qualify him to remain Israel’s leader during these uncertain times.
Netanyahu to JNS: Israel's Future Depends On Removing the Iranian Regime
Prime Minister Netanyahu says Iran's regime is on the brink of collapse and claims President Trump is ready to help him finish the job, but only if Israelis reelect him. In an exclusive JNS interview just days before Israel's elections, PM Benjamin Netanyahu sits down with JNS CEO Alex Traiman to reveal what he describes as an unprecedented agreement with Trump that could reshape the Middle East. Netanyahu explains why he believes Iran's leadership can be brought down, why he considers his partnership with Trump essential to Israel's future and how the election could determine whether the two leaders take their cooperation even further. PM Netanyahu then makes a striking admission about his long standing opposition to Palestinian statehood and explains how he intends to respond to British sanctions. From expanding the Abraham Accords and confronting anti-Israel campaigns online to judicial reform and Israel's cost-of-living crisis, Netanyahu lays out his vision for another term.




The U.N. Is Making Trump’s Case on the Human Rights Council
Historically, “not free” and “partly free” countries have jointly comprised a majority on the 47-member Human Rights Council. They have worked together to water down or block criticism of their abuses. This coordination explains why China, Cuba, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and others have never been condemned in a Human Rights Council resolution.

These problems are not new. The U.S. has consistently voiced concerns about these problems under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

As we argued several years ago, there is no way to make the council perfect. No reform can overcome or eliminate the hostility of many U.N. member states to Israel. If the council reflects the U.N. membership, disproportionate — and biased — attention will be focused on Israel.

But steps can be taken to address the most obvious flaws.

First, the U.N. General Assembly should ensure that Israel is treated like other nations institutionally and procedurally by eliminating Agenda Item 7 so that Israel’s human rights practices are examined under Agenda Item 4 as is the case for every other nation. It should also require country mandates and commissions of inquiry focused on Israel to be subject to periodic renewal, as is the case for other “special procedures” and investigations.

To address non-competitive “clean slate” elections, the General Assembly should amend the process to automatically list as candidates every state that is not currently serving on the council or is otherwise prohibited from running (such as having served two consecutive terms) and hold successive ballots eliminating the lowest half of vote recipients in each region until all the open seats are filled. The General Assembly could go further and increase the threshold for election to two-thirds (129 votes) of the General Assembly, as originally proposed, instead of a simple majority (97 votes).

Together, these changes would ensure that council elections are genuinely competitive and, by giving governments a wider pool of options, increase the odds for free countries to win seats on the council, which should make it more capable of fulfilling its claim as the premier human rights body in the U.N. system.

The Trump administration has been criticized for disengaging with the Human Rights Council. But Democratic and Republican administrations have both condemned council practices, although Democrats have been more willing to try and fix things from within. But U.S. reengagement alone will not fix things, as fundamental changes require support from most U.N. member states. So once again, the question presses: Do human rights really matter to the “international community”? Or is no incentive great enough to abandon the bias and omission that make the likes of Pillay proud?


China-Funded UN Expert Slams U.S. in Report to UNGA This Week
In a report (A/81/227) to be presented this week to the UN General Assembly, Ben Saul, the UN’s China-funded expert on counterterrorism and human rights, makes a series of extraordinary allegations against the United States, including that its military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels may constitute crimes against humanity. He also advocates drug legalization and argues against designating violent, profit-driven criminal organizations as terrorist groups.

China provided $150,000 in funding for Saul’s mandate in 2024. For more information on funding to UN Special Procedures, see UN Watch’s Special Procedures Funding Database.

Below are some of the report’s most striking statements and recommendations, with excerpts in Saul’s own words.

1. Accuses the U.S. of Possible Crimes Against Humanity
The report characterizes that U.S. military strikes on drug-trafficking vessels since September 2025 as unlawful killings and states: “The organized policy of multiple murders may further involve a systematic attack on a civilian population, constituting crimes against humanity.” (Para. 25)

2. Demands States Withhold Military Assets and Intelligence From the U.S.
After accusing the United States of committing “crimes against humanity,” Saul writes that “Other States must refrain from aiding or assisting in the commission of these violations, including by refusing to share intelligence or make military assets available.” (Para. 25)

3. Calls on U.S. Leaders to Face International Prosecution
Furthermore, for the U.S. actions against drug-trafficking vessels, Saul states that “all perpetrators, including military and civilian leaders, must be investigated and held accountable in line with international law.” Previously, on social media, Saul has called for the arrest of President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for “mass murder” due to the administration’s targeting of drug traffickers. Saul also has a history of meaningful engagement with the ICC. With that, it can be reasonably interpreted that Saul’s report is calling for top American officials, including the President, to come under ICC investigation and possible prosecution. (Para. 25)


US, Israel have detailed plans for renewed Iran strikes focusing on short, intense attacks
The US and Israeli militaries have drawn up detailed plans for renewed strikes on Iran following the US midterm elections on November 3, The New York Times reported on Wednesday evening, citing American officials familiar with the discussions.

According to the report, the plans focus on a short, intensive military operation that could last approximately three days and include strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, energy infrastructure, and missile and drone capabilities.

The two countries have stepped up joint military exercises, including flights over Iraq to rehearse potential strikes. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also discussed the plans with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel this week.

The US and Israel reportedly came close to launching an attack earlier this month, but US President Donald Trump decided to postpone it at the last minute.

According to the report, Trump has not yet approved a new military operation, while diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Iran are ongoing.

Iranian officials have threatened that any renewed attack would trigger a broader response, including strikes on data centers and undersea communications cables. The large-scale operation that never took place

According to a Financial Times report published on Tuesday, Netanyahu had pushed for a large-scale offensive against Iran, with the IDF preparing for a multi-day bombing campaign over the weekend of October 10.

The operation did not go ahead because Trump opposed resuming hostilities ahead of the US midterm elections.

The FT further reported that the planned operation was intended to target power plants and other civilian infrastructure, along with nuclear facilities and sites associated with the Iranian regime.

The strikes were expected to be more intensive than those carried out by Israel and the US at the beginning of their joint military campaign in February.

As part of the preparations, Israel reportedly presented American officials with an updated target list based on new intelligence, including infrastructure that had not previously been targeted.

However, it remains unclear whether the US was expected to participate directly in the operation.
Israel bars United pilot over pro-Iran posts
The Transportation Ministry has notified United Airlines on Wednesday that one of its pilots has been barred from entry to Israel as a crew member because of his history of Iranian sympathies.

The Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Ministry forwarded information that the pilot, Sina Amjadian, shared political and pro-Iranian regime posts on his social media accounts.

The case raises new questions regarding the vetting process for foreign airline crews, coming just weeks after an attempted hijacking aboard a flydubai flight en route to Israel.

Amjadian - a pilot of Iranian descent employed by United Airlines - shared images on social media featuring Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alongside Islamic Republic flags, while criticizing Israeli military strikes in Iran.

Recent reports indicate that the pilot currently resides in Dubai. His LinkedIn profile states that he previously worked for flydubai before joining United.

Vetting process, security protocol
Transportation Ministry officials stated that the information uncovered by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry was initially passed to the Transportation Ministry's Security Department, which then forwarded it to Israeli intelligence and defense agencies. After reviewing the findings, security officials recommended prohibiting Amjadian from entering Israel as flight crew.

A formal notice was then sent to United Airlines, and the pilot's details were submitted to both the Israeli Aviation Security Center and the Population and Immigration Authority to block his air entry.

However, the Transportation Ministry clarified that following inquiries with United, it was determined that Amjadian does not operate international routes. Instead, he flies domestic routes within the United States and Canada. Consequently, the directive does not alter any existing flight assignments to Israel.
Israel reportedly conducted practice sortie near Iran
Dozens of Israel Air Force fighter jets flew "as far as the Iranian border" before turning around and returning to Israel in a practice sortie on Monday, according to an Axios report on Wednesday citing US and Israeli officials.

The fighter jets and accompanying refueling aircraft allegedly passed through Syrian and Iraqi airspace, following a flight path consistent with that taken during strikes on Iran.

While some sources told Axios that the sortie was not unusual and was intended to deter Iran, US officials said that Israel knew Iran’s air defense systems would detect the jets.

Israel reportedly notified the US of the operation in advance, describing the training exercise as a “power projection” aimed at deterring Iran from attacking Israel ahead of the October 27 Knesset elections.

On Tuesday, Fox News’ Trey Yingst also reported that Israeli fighter jets had conducted drills during which they flew over Syria and Iraq.


Germany summons Iranian envoy after court convicts spies in plots against Jewish leaders
Germany’s foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador after a German court convicted two men of spying for Tehran and plotting attacks on a leader of the country’s Jewish community and a prominent non-Jewish supporter of Israel.

A slap on the wrist is not enough, said Volker Beck, president of the interfaith German-Israeli Society, who had been one of the spies’ targets.

Iranian Ambassador Majid Nili Ahmadabadi and most of the embassy’s personnel should be personae non grata in Germany, Beck said. He added he would be satisfied if the embassy was emptied except for a lone guard “to look after the building and this is it.”

Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court last week sentenced 54-year-old defendant S. to eight and a half years in prison and 43-year-old defendant M. to four and a half years for plotting assassinations and an arson attack. The convicts’ full names have not been publicized.

The court found that the two men, living in Denmark, had in early 2025 carried out orders from Iranian intelligence operatives to spy on Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Beck, a Green Party politician and longtime Israel advocate, with the aim of planning an assassination.

In a statement issued October 15, the court said that ​​defendant S. was allegedly tasked “with conducting surveillance on Jewish or Israeli targets — including both locations and individuals — within Germany and preparing to carry out murders and arson attacks against them.”

S. was also convicted of conducting surveillance on a Jewish grocery store in Berlin. “To execute these orders, the defendant S. reportedly enlisted the assistance of the defendant M,” the court said.
Libya's HoR ratifying Turkey maritime deal 'very troubling' for Israeli security, expert to 'Post'
Turkey and Libya’s maritime boundary deal is a “very troubling” development for Israel, Colonel (res.) Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and a lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Shalem College, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The deal, agreed upon by the Tripoli-based, internationally recognized western Libyan government in 2019, was approved by the eastern Libya's legislature, the House of Representatives (HoR), on Tuesday, drawing criticism from Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and Israel.

Eastern Libyan authorities breaking boycott of Ankara
The move marks a significant shift in regional alignments, with Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Benghazi-based Libyan National Army, breaking with the boycott of Ankara that had been in place since 2020.

While Lerman said he was unsure what prompted HoR to approve the long-delayed agreement, he warned it could threaten Israel’s ability to develop underwater infrastructure connections and create more serious maritime security challenges.

Israel has been working in recent years on an ambitious project to connect its electricity grid to Cyprus and Greece, and from there to mainland Europe. Ankara has opposed the project, disputing the maritime boundaries claimed by Greece under international law.

Turkey, which runs a military occupation of Northern Cyprus, is not a signatory to the Convention on the Continental Shelf or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and has sought to claim Greek islands as an extension of its territory.

“I’m not sure the Turks will actually intervene to disrupt the laying of an electricity connector. It is not entirely clear whether they have the authority to do so in their exclusive economic zone, but this is going to be a source of growing tension in the coming years,” Lerman predicted. Egypt and Greece had previously opposed the Turkish-Libyan alignment, and any fracturing of the established alignment would give Ankara an opportunity to further pursue its neo-Ottoman aspirations, he continued. Egypt’s orientation toward the Mecca defense pact could bring it closer to Turkey, strengthening a country that has already made clear its aspirations to regain the imperial power it once wielded.


Herzog calls for crackdown on violent West Bank settlers as olive harvest tensions mount
President Isaac Herzog is backing senior IDF commanders in taking decisive action against violent extremist settler attacks in the West Bank, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

His comments came a day before Israeli forces detained New York Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander along with 90 rabbis and activists accompanying Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.

At a press briefing in Budapest, JTA asked Herzog what action had been taken to curb settler violence following his previous calls for a stronger government response. Herzog pointed to a meeting he held earlier this month with the IDF’s West Bank division commander and other senior officers.

“I looked them in the eye, and I gave them full backing to do whatever it takes to stop this terrible phenomenon,” he said.

The goal was to end the settler violence “at its roots,” Herzog said, adding that “major efforts” were underway.

Nine of ten suspects arrested for assault on Washington Post photojournalist released
The Israel Police arrested 10 suspects following a series of settler attacks over the weekend, including a violent assault on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. Haaretz reported on Wednesday that nine of those suspects were released from custody.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the deployment of an additional Border Police company to the West Bank to combat extremist violence. The unit is expected to begin operations in late November.

Herzog had personally called Levine on Saturday to apologize for the attack, which left her with four broken vertebrae and other injuries. “I was morally tormented during Shabbat when I thought about it, and I express deep sorrow and apologize for what you went through,” he told her.

The attacks have drawn condemnation from the US and European governments. On Sunday, the European Union called for Israel to take “full accountability” in preventing further violence against Palestinians, journalists and diplomats.
Jake Wallis Simons: BBC’s selective outrage spotlights settler violence – while framing French protests as ‘mostly peaceful’
Indeed, one theatre of violence that the broadcaster is rather less keen to dilute is the West Bank. There have been more than a thousand incidents of unrest since the start of this year. Palestinians have been beaten, olive groves torched, livestock slaughtered and villages emptied. The IDF has condemned it (while sometimes turning a blind eye) and Israeli governments have been far too slow to stamp it out. All of this is true.

But the communities in Judea and Samaria are – literally – mostly peaceful. In January, the IDF and Shin Bet estimated that there were some 300 Jewish extremists involved in the violent attacks, 70 of whom were considered “hardcore” fanatics behind the worst violence. These 300 largely lived in 42 illegal outposts across the West Bank, they said, though as many as half were registered as living in Israel proper.

Now, how many Jews live beyond the green line again? Ah yes, around 480,000. Even if those figures of 300 and 70 were multiplied ten times, they would still represent 0.6 per cent of the total, with the “hardcore” fanatics accounting for just 0.1 per cent. Here, at last, is a scenario that would richly warrant the “mostly peaceful” line. Yet how does the BBC cover it?

You don’t need me to tell you. Every incident is a big story; every big story is framed as part of a grand narrative of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and impunity, which bears only a passing resemblance to the complicated historical truth.

Remember Louis Theroux’s insidious documentary about the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria last year? Safe to say the words “mostly peaceful” were not used. In fact, as I wrote at the time, Theroux “used his platform, access and budget to do nothing but reinforce the bigotry of the masses. Create propaganda, in other words. As if the world needed any more!”

Indeed. There was no “opportunistic minority” there either, even though that is precisely what the hilltop youth are: a cowardly fringe despised by most Israelis. A pattern emerges here. Whether in Kremlin-Bicêtre or Kenosha, the violent few are an aberration to be explained away; in Kafr Malik, Kur or Khirbet al-Maleh, meanwhile, they become the essence of the whole enterprise.

The BBC, in other words, operates on a sliding scale of outrage, calibrated not to the severity of the violence but to the identity of those committing it. When the perpetrators happen to be mostly peaceful Jews, the lens zooms in until every incident fills the screen. When they are mostly violent and march under a Palestinian flag, it zooms out, until the unrest becomes a footnote to a “genuine” grievance while the West burns.


IDF detains 90 West Bank olive harvest volunteers, including US congressional nominee Brad Lander
Some 90 volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights were detained by the IDF in the West Bank on Wednesday, including congressional nominee Brad Lander (D-NY), sources told The Jerusalem Post.

"Following a joint investigation and review conducted by police investigators in coordination with the Foreign Ministry and relevant security and law enforcement agencies, 32 activists were questioned and released subject to restrictions prohibiting them from returning to the area," Israel Police said on Wednesday evening.

"In addition, the questioning of four foreign activists has been completed following the identification of their anti-Israel activity online. Some had also expressed support for organizations opposed to Israel," police continued.

"The remaining 40 individuals who had been detained were released from the police station during the afternoon after no grounds for further detention were found," police said.

Police initially took the foreign volunteers to the Etzion Regional Brigade headquarters for questioning, a source at the scene told the Post earlier on Wednesday. Sources added that no one was harmed in the incident.

"The police intend to complete the investigation into the four foreign nationals and transfer them to the Population and Immigration Authority tomorrow (Thursday) for hearings regarding their removal from Israel," the police said.

Authorities are inclined to deport the foreign activists, a source at the scene had told the Post earlier on Wednesday.

Lander was specifically released with a warning, he noted in a statement.

"I’ve been released from IDF custody with a 'warning,' apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee)," he wrote.

"But several dozen rabbis & participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention. For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately," he said, adding that "Palestinians face far worse consequences every day."
Mamdani again accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in statement about IDF detaining Brad Lander at Judea olive harvest
Brad Lander, Democratic nominee for a congressional seat in New York considered to be safe, was detained and then released on Wednesday after he said that he joined an olive harvest in Judea and Samaria.

The Israel Defense Forces told JNS that Lander, a former New York City comptroller, had not coordinated the trip with Israeli authorities.

Lander, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and who is Jewish, stated that the Israeli military detained him and “a group of rabbis and volunteers.”

“We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank,” he said, writing a term that some use for Judea and Samaria.

“The occupation is a crime under international law,” Lander stated. “Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

After losing to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Lander endorsed Mamdani, and the mayor—who Jewish leaders have said is endangering Jews with his anti-Israel rhetoric—has backed Lander, who is one of his highest-profile Jewish supporters.

An Israeli military official told JNS that Palestinians did not submit a request to coordinate harvesting on the plot, which is near Beitar Illit. “It does not appear on the area’s coordination maps,” the official told JNS.

Lander was “released once the matter was brought to our attention,” the official said.

“The plot in question requires only a small number of harvesters to collect its produce,” the official told JNS. “The security establishment views the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process.”

Mamdani, who again accused Israel of “genocide” in his statement for the third anniversary of Oct. 7, weighed in on the incident.

“Today, Brad Lander, rabbis, and other New Yorkers accompanied Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. For that, they were detained by the Israeli government,” the mayor said. “Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is.”

“I am thankful that Brad has been released. But other New Yorkers remain detained, and they must be released immediately,” he said. “The same Israeli government detaining them has committed a horrific genocide against Palestinians, killing more than 74,000 people over the last few years alone.”





 




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