Friday, October 23, 2026

10/23 Links Pt1: Two IDF soldiers killed in terrorist shooting near Hebron; Israel’s democracy is strong, even though extremists want to test it; The Daily Caller’s “Jewish Influence” Problem

From Ian:

Danny Danon: Israel’s democracy is strong, even though extremists want to test it
The coming Israeli elections must be understood in this broader context. Extremist forces seek to intimidate voters, spread disinformation, provoke a security crisis and exploit divisions within society. Their objective is to weaken democratic institutions and convince citizens that they cannot determine their own future.

Israel’s response must be clear: Our democratic process will continue, and our citizens will make their choices freely. We will defend our security without surrendering our democratic character.

There is also an important contrast closer to home.

The Palestinian Authority recently announced another postponement of its elections. Its nearly 91-year-old leader, Mahmoud Abbas, will continue the four-year term that began in 2005. The last Palestinian legislative elections, held in 2006, resulted in a Hamas victory in Gaza, when the terrorist organization took over the Strip. The P.A. has not held national elections since.

Even though the P.A. tries to blame the delay on Israel, the real reason is clear: It is afraid that Hamas could win again. Indeed, the P.A. understands that Hamas’s radical ideology is taught in its own schools.

Palestinian children should not be taught that Israel has no right to exist or that terrorism offers a path to victory. The P.A. cannot credibly claim to promote peace while rewarding those who murder Israeli civilians.

Postponing elections does not eliminate extremism. Avoiding a confrontation with radical ideology does not make it disappear. It only allows the problem to grow.

Israel offers a different example. Elections are not a sign that we are free of political divisions or security threats. They demonstrate that even under extraordinary pressure, democratic institutions remain standing. The ability to disagree, campaign and choose new leadership is a source of national strength.

That is the future the Middle East needs more of, not less.

The Abraham Accords have shown that cooperation between Israel and regional partners, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, is possible. These agreements offer an alternative to the extremists’ vision: a region where countries pursue shared interests, economic opportunity and stability, rather than permanent conflict.

The choice facing the region is stark. We can confront radicalization, strengthen democratic institutions and build partnerships that create a better future. Or we can allow extremists to dictate the terms of our lives.

As Israel approaches its elections, our message to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and every other extremist force is unequivocal: You will not decide Israel’s future. That decision belongs to the Israeli people.

Our message to the international community is just as clear: Defending democracy requires more than praising it in speeches. It requires confronting those who threaten it, refusing to normalize terrorism and demanding accountability from leaders who deny their people the right to choose.

Israel will continue to defend its citizens, protect its democracy and pursue peace with those willing to build it. The radicals may try to test our resolve. They will not be allowed to determine our future.
Fueled by a life's mission, Netanyahu asks Israelis for more time to 'finish the job' against Iran It was 2:14 a.m., and Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to know whether we were tired.

He had just turned 77. Members of his staff were dozing on couches and chairs. Netanyahu was alert, focused, and apparently in no hurry to end the night. We admitted that we were probably more tired than he was.

“You’re not the first to say that.”

A little earlier, his staff had surprised him with a birthday celebration: krembos, the chocolate-covered marshmallow treats; along with chocolates and gummies; and an individual tiramisu for the prime minister. He ate it with evident enjoyment.

Outside, aides had been searching for “the chair,” the one he preferred sitting in. Even at this hour, the small machinery of looking after a prime minister kept turning.

Some of those around him had spent years at his side. They brought drinks, attended to him, and spoke with the conviction that he would win again. They believed Israel needed him. Netanyahu himself would give us a less comfortable assessment of the race.

How did it feel to be 77? “Feels fine. If you know what you’re about, and you have good health and a lot of energy, and a purpose.”

That word, “purpose,” came up repeatedly during the next half-hour. So did Iran, US President Donald Trump, and the danger Netanyahu saw in handing the country to someone else. With the October 27 election approaching, he was asking voters to let him finish work that he regards as the reason for his political life.

His partnership with Trump was central to that request. We wanted to know how his case would hold up when the American president was someone else.

Netanyahu: Iran does not want me elected
Could Iran attack before the election? Could Israel strike first?

Netanyahu said military intelligence and the Mossad had delivered “clear warnings” that Iran and its proxies were considering ways to influence the vote.

“They don’t want me elected.”

He suggested rockets or drones could be used to puncture Israelis’ confidence in the military campaign’s achievements. “If they do, it’ll be a big mistake because we’ll respond with force and might they cannot even imagine.”

People on his team, speaking on background, separately told us that current senior defense officials had contacted Netanyahu to say he needed to win because Israel’s enemies would see his defeat as their success. They also described serious security threats in the near future. That account of private conversations has not been independently verified.

Netanyahu moved quickly through the destruction of enemy capabilities and the killing of their leaders. October 7 was the starting point of his account of Israel’s recovery; the failures that permitted the attack under his government received little attention.

Iran still had capabilities, we pointed out. He acknowledged that it did. For as long as its present leadership survived, he argued, it would try to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“My purpose is to break Iran’s murderous regime, remove the threat from our heads, and have multiple peace treaties.”

Finishing the job, by that definition, would require an outcome extending far beyond another successful strike.
October 7 victims’ families sue Meta for streaming footage of murders and abductions
Families of people killed or abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, are suing Meta for over $1 billion for letting footage of the attacks play live on social media and then failing to remove it immediately.

Some of the terrorists who stormed southern Israel streamed the footage via victims’ phones onto the victims’ social media pages. The hours that passed until the footage was removed allowed it to be widely distributed.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, says it takes down content that praises Hamas or October 7, and that “following the attacks, designated teams worked around the clock in real time to remove content that violates our policy.”

The Tel Aviv District Court on Monday held a preliminary hearing on the class action lawsuit that was filed in August last year, and proposed the sides pursue mediation, according to Israel Hayom.

One of the plaintiffs, Mor Bayder, said in an interview broadcast by Channel 12 Thursday that she watched in real time on Facebook as her 74-year-old grandmother Bracha Levinson was murdered in her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

It took Meta several hours to block Levinson’s Facebook page, where the video played, and an entire day to remove the footage altogether, according to Channel 12.

“This isn’t some horror show. It’s not some movie. It’s my grandmother — my grandmother who’s being murdered,” Bayder told the network. “My grandmother can’t be brought back. Her case can’t be changed anymore… but going forward they should draw conclusions, learn, upgrade, admit responsibility and apply it to all users.”

Other plaintiffs include the family of Tsachi Idan, who was killed in captivity after terrorists stormed his Kibbutz Nahal Oz home and murdered his daughter Maayan while livestreaming the attack on his wife’s Facebook account; and Stav Arava, who watched on his mother Dikla’s Facebook page as she, his brother Tomer and Dikla’s partner Noam Elyakim were murdered and Noam’s young daughters Dafna and Ela were abducted, also in Nahal Oz.

The plaintiffs also include hostages and their families whose identities are sealed, as well as Israeli social media users who were exposed to the livestreams.

Plaintiffs demand Meta pay NIS 200,000 ($64,335) to every relative or close friend exposed to a livestream of a victim’s death, and NIS 20,000 for every Israeli social media user exposed to such content on Meta’s platforms.

Dana Shahar Yanai, who is representing the class of Israeli social media users in the lawsuit, told Israel Hayom this week that Meta not only failed to prevent the livestreams, “it even made a profit from the traffic that day.”


Two IDF soldiers killed in terrorist shooting near Hebron
Two IDF soldiers were killed and three other people were wounded in a terrorist shooting attack near the Yehuda Junction in the Hebron area of Judea on Friday morning.

The IDF identified the slain soldiers as Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, of Ashkelon, a squad commander in the Home Front Command’s Ari Battalion, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, of Hod Hasharon, a combat soldier in the same battalion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an immediate cordon on Hebron and instructed security forces to impose a full closure of Judea and Samaria following the attack.

Two Palestinian terrorists were killed after a gun battle with IDF troops that lasted more than 20 minutes, according to an initial military investigation.

The two terrorists, both 27-year-old Hebron residents, arrived by car at a temporary military checkpoint near an exit from Hebron at around 7:30 a.m.

According to the IDF’s preliminary assessment, the gunmen had intended to reach Route 35 and attack Israeli civilians but realized that they would be unable to get past the checkpoint.

The terrorists, armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun, got out of their vehicle and opened fire on the troops, using nearby buildings for cover.

Soldiers from the Home Front Command’s Ari Battalion, who were manning the checkpoint, returned fire. The battalion’s deputy commander and a company commander, along with an officer from the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion who rushed to the scene, killed the two terrorists.

A large quantity of ammunition was subsequently found in the terrorists’ vehicle, which the military said indicated that they had planned a larger-scale attack.

The three wounded soldiers, also members of the Ari Battalion, were evacuated to hospitals in Jerusalem for treatment.

‘This was a serious terrorist attack
’IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “This was a serious terrorist attack. The soldiers’ rapid response prevented an even more serious attack and further harm to civilians and security forces.”

Hamas later claimed responsibility for the attack. The IDF and Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) said they were investigating whether the two terrorists acted independently or were part of a broader network.
Squad commander, combat soldier killed in West Bank terror attack, IDF confirms
Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, aged 23, from Ashkelon, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, aged 20, from Hod Hasharon, were killed in a West Bank terror attack on Friday, the military announced.

Roytman was a squad commander, and Slivem was a combat soldier in the Ari Battalion (775), Search and Rescue Brigade, according to the IDF.

Both fell in combat at the Judea Junction when two terrorists traveling in a car with an M4 machine gun and a pistol opened fire on four soldiers who were on site.

The attackers had originally intended to go past the junction and carry out a larger attack on heavily traveled Route 35, IDF sources estimated, before realizing they would not get through.

Roytman's uncle, Dani, described him as "always smiling, with a great sense of humor, and a mature young man."

"This is a terrible tragedy, and we are still trying to come to terms with it," he said.

Speaking from the site of the attack later on Friday, IDF Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir said, "I extend my deepest condolences to the families of SSGT Ron Yonatan Roytman and SGT Yuval Shai Svilem, who fell while defending Israeli civilians and preventing an even more serious attack. I also wish the wounded a speedy recovery.”

Three additional soldiers from the battalion were lightly injured and evacuated to receive medical treatment, the military said, and their families have been notified.

Bluth commends IDF bravery, announces 'significant counterterrorism operation'


“This morning, a grave terror attack against Israeli civilians was thwarted," he said. "Unfortunately, we paid a heavy price during the encounter, and two combat soldiers fell in battle. I wish to extend my condolences to their families."

Bluth called the IDF the "protective shield" of Israeli citizens. Today, IDF soldiers put their lives on the line to prevent a grave terror attack against civilians," he said.

He also announced a "significant counterterrorism operation alongside imposing a cordon on the areas of Hebron and Halhul."

"We will bring all terrorists to justice and dismantle terrorist infrastructure of all kinds," he pledged.

Zamir vowed that the military would "act decisively, pursue and reach all those involved in the attack."


IDF, Shin Bet launch multi-day West Bank counterterrorism operations after deadly Hamas attack
IDF troops, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Border Police officers, and the Judea Regional Brigade launched a counterterrorism operation in the Hebron area following Friday morning's deadly Hamas terrorist attack, the IDF and Shin Bet announced in a joint statement on Friday night.

Security forces are conducting systematic searches for terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the area and questioning dozens of suspects, according to the joint statement.

The operation is focused on the area out of which the terrorists operated and is expected to last several days.

Residents living within the operational area will be permitted to leave through three designated exit points after undergoing questioning and security checks. Anyone who raises suspicion during the screening process will be taken for further questioning by security forces.

Parallel operations were underway in the Jenin and Nablus areas to locate weapons and carry out arrests, alongside the ongoing counterterrorism operation in Hebron, Walla reported Saturday morning. Security forces were also operating in Kafr Aqab in east Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Tamun, according to the report.

The operation follows a series of counterterrorism measures carried out since Friday morning, including mapping the terrorists' homes, sealing off the Hebron and Halhul areas, establishing roadblocks, and conducting operations in nearby villages. Security forces are also removing illegal infrastructure that could pose a security threat near the site of the attack.

Security forces are currently operating at dozens of locations throughout Judea and Samaria as part of ongoing efforts to prevent terrorist attacks, protect Israeli civilians, and eliminate security threats, the statement added.


Police clarify AFP photographer had no suspected advance knowledge of West Bank terror attack
Israel Police officials clarified on Friday that there was no suspicion that a Palestinian photographer working with the French news agency AFP had advance knowledge of a shooting attack near Hebron earlier in the day, Walla learned, following reports that the photographer had prior information about the incident.

The clarification came after professional photographs of the terrorists at the scene were published, reportedly taken by the photographer in real time, according to foreign media reports.

Meanwhile, the IDF told Walla in response that "The entire incident is under investigation."

Following a situational assessment led by Judea and Samaria District Police Commander Maj.-Gen. Moshe Pinchi, the investigation into the attack was assigned to the district's Minorities Division, part of its Central Investigations Unit. Police will also assist the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in investigating the incident.

During the assessment, attended by the commander of the Hebron area police and senior district officers, officials presented preliminary findings from the scene and reviewed the actions taken by police officers who assisted IDF troops.


Nobel Gold Cannot Conceal Pillay’s Genocide Travesty
The Nobel Committee can award Navi Pillay a medal. It cannot award her commission the evidence, credibility or judicial authority its accusation against Israel so conspicuously lacks.

As Pillay receives the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, the foundations of her commission’s genocide declaration are buckling under scrutiny, including admissions from one of its own members. What was presented as a triumph of international justice increasingly resembles political activism wearing a judge’s robes.

Begin with the commission’s appropriation of the International Court of Justice’s authority. Its report asserted that the Court had put states on notice of the plausibility of Israel committing genocide. That formulation supplies something politically invaluable: the impression that the world’s highest court had already lent judicial credibility to the accusation.

Yet Joan Donoghue, who presided over the Court when it issued its January 2024 provisional measures order, explicitly corrected that interpretation. Speaking to BBC HARDtalk, she explained that the Court had recognized Palestinians’ plausible rights to protection from genocide. It had not decided that the allegation itself was plausible: “It didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”

The distinction is fundamental. Protecting rights while a case proceeds is different from endorsing the accusation being litigated. Donoghue’s explanation did not exonerate Israel or dispose of the case. It did demolish the convenient claim that the Court had already found the genocide allegation plausible. Pillay’s commission nevertheless deployed language that blurred the very distinction the Court’s former president had clarified.

For a body demanding deference to international law, that is an extraordinary failure. The authority of a court cannot be borrowed while the meaning of its ruling is rewritten.

Then comes the commission’s own evidentiary retreat. According to reports of a recent Melbourne debate, commissioner Chris Sidoti acknowledged that the panel had not independently verified the claim that 83 percent of those killed in Gaza were civilians. Asked whether it had checked that figure, he replied: “No. We didn’t, because we don’t have that information.”

An unverified casualty ratio cannot reliably establish deliberate civilian targeting. Still less can it carry an accusation requiring proof of an intention to destroy a people. This admission does not reveal the correct percentage. It reveals the gulf between the commission’s public certainty and its actual knowledge.

Sidoti also stressed that the commission was an investigative body, operating on a reasonable-grounds standard, rather than a court. Pillay, meanwhile, reportedly described its process as resembling a court and asserted that every fact had been verified. These competing accounts cannot both sustain the sweeping authority projected onto the findings.

The commission wants its declaration received with the force of a judgment, then invokes the limitations of an investigation when its methods are challenged. Judicial prestige at the microphone; investigative qualifications under questioning. That is an intolerable arrangement for an accusation of this magnitude.


US accelerates Middle East diplomatic evacuations as Washington weighs Iran strikes
US intelligence warned that Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to target American diplomats and officials across the Middle East, with assassination plots reaching "advanced stages," Axios reported Saturday.

According to Axios, the intelligence reportedly prompted Washington to accelerate the evacuation of diplomatic personnel and their families from missions throughout the region amid concerns over Iranian assassination plots.

The warning was detailed in an October 23 intelligence memo from US Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, amid growing concerns over regional escalation.

Separately, CNN reported early Saturday morning that the State Department was accelerating diplomatic evacuations across the region amid fears of regional escalation and renewed US and Israeli military strikes on Iran.

According to CNN, the State Department ordered nonessential personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, while quietly reducing staffing levels at US embassies in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon.

American diplomats described the evacuation process as "chaotic and frustrating" to CNN, with many staff members and their families having only recently returned to the region after being evacuated during the previous war with Iran.

A source familiar with the situation described the latest evacuations as “just as much of a sh** show” as the evacuation process when the war began earlier this year.

“A lot of people are hearing about it through the news instead of their leadership at post,” the source added.

The American Foreign Service Association, the union representing US Foreign Service officers, said it had received reports “of bureaucratic ping-pong” surrounding the evacuation process.

Foreign Service personnel have also raised concerns about the financial burden of relocating their families again, saying the government has not provided sufficient assistance to cover the costs.

One US diplomat said the financial support offered so far was inadequate to cover the expenses of moving an entire family out of the region.


Kushner had secret fund with billions from UAE, Saudis; PM helped – report: Kushner: Outrageous fabrications
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had access, during the president’s first term, to secret bank accounts holding some $2 billion provided by United Arab Emirates leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) and Saudi royal Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to a book excerpted by Vanity Fair on Thursday.

One of the accounts, in Israel’s central bank, was reportedly overseen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kushner, a close advisor of Trump in both his first and second terms, denied all the allegations, as did former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who reportedly helped facilitate the arrangement.

“The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened. We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them,” Kushner wrote on X. “None of these allegations ever surfaced, because none of these events ever happened. These are outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism. This is not journalism. It is a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy, written by someone who is either deeply disturbed or acting with sinister intent.

The first account, in the Emirates’ First Abu Dhabi Bank, was reportedly discovered by Dutch intelligence, which had obtained remote viewing access to Kushner’s iPhone; they did so after, in 2017, a Russian double agent revealed screenshots from the device, prompting the Dutch to reverse-engineer a security exploit, according to the article.

The report was excerpted from “Princes and Thieves,” an upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole. According to him, bin Zayed and bin Salman together contributed some $2 billion into at least two bank accounts to which Kushner had access. According to the article, the precise mechanism by which the Emirati and Saudi leaders organized the payments was not clear, but in effect they split the cost.


Seven killed in shooting at Jordan church; king vows ‘harshest retaliation’
Gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens at a church in southern Jordan on Friday, authorities said, with the king vowing retaliation for the rare attack on Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom.

Assailants stormed the compound of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate and opened fire, authorities said.

The Greek Orthodox church is about 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the capital, Amman.

The gunmen got out of a vehicle and started shooting during a funeral procession, the public security directorate said in a statement, adding that a manhunt was underway for the perpetrators.

“The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation,” King Abdullah II said in an English-language post on X.

“We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation.”

According to images from state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka, the king arrived in Karak on Friday evening.

After authorities gave a death toll of six, Director of Public Security Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah said it had risen to seven, with 34 injured, 27 of whom were still receiving treatment.

Footage aired by Al-Mamlaka showed the moment of the attack.

Two gunmen are seen dressed in casual clothes and brandishing pistols, with a third carrying a long gun, before they open fire on the church from an entrance on the street and charge forward.


The Free Press: What I Saw Living Under ISIS
“ISIS is watching the people, but I am watching ISIS.” This is how Dr. Omar Mohammed described his time living under the terror group in Iraq. In June 2014, when ISIS seized Mosul, most residents either fled or submitted to the brutal regime.

But at just 29 years old, Dr. Mohammed chose to risk his life and fight back. Working every day in secret, he documented ISIS’s atrocities, going undercover as a taxi driver, a doctor, a baker, and other countless identities to gather information. As General David Petraeus put it, “It was like having a spy on the ground.” Now Omar tells the full story in his new book, Mosul Eye.

In our conversation today he describes life under ISIS: how he taught himself to be a spy, how he saw “evil in its full shape,” as he puts it, the close calls when he was nearly caught, and his escape from the city while carrying a hard drive full of documentation smuggled through Raqqa, the ISIS capital. He also shares the story of saving 92 families using satellite images, and why he believes the threat of ISIS hasn’t gone away.




The Daily Caller’s “Jewish Influence” Problem
The Daily Caller was built to be a conservative newsroom. Over the past eighteen months, it has turned into something else: a publication that sells its readers a corrosive proposition about Israel and the people who support it: that Israel exploits America, and that its supporters compromise American interests.

This isn’t a stray column or a rogue contributor. It’s an intentional editorial decision, carried by the outlet’s top brass, its opinion columnists and its news reporters alike. The Caller’s coverage has come to mirror Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson’s campaign against Israel. But Carlson isn’t the story. The outlet is.

How I Measured It
I archived every Daily Caller article mentioning Israel published from January 2022 through October 22, 2026. That’s 2,617 unique URLs, nearly 10,000,000 characters of written text. My analysis identified 41 documented examples.

The test was simple. Does the piece foreground Israeli influence, divided loyalties, attacks on Israel’s supporters, or the alliance as an American burden, in its headline, its opening or its sustained focus? Attributed interviews and polling count, because editors choose which remarks become headlines, which interviews to pursue and which themes deserve repeated attention. Each piece was counted once.

Read the 41 examples side by side and three themes emerge:
Israel is cast as a hidden hand steering American policy.
Israel is cast as a burden draining American resources.
And pro-Israel Americans are cast as people whose loyalty is in question.

The first theme runs through the headlines. A Trump interview became “Trump Acknowledges Israel Is Losing Control Of Congress.” A poll became “Israel Influences US Foreign Policy Too Much.” An unpublished intelligence document, attributed to another outlet, became a story about how Israel is seeking to make defense ties with the US hard to undo. Christian outreach funded by Israel became “Israel Could Be Propagandizing Christians At A Church Near You.”

The second theme turns the alliance into a bill. The Caller reported that America used more interceptors to defend Israel than Israel did itself, that the Iran war is bleeding the Pentagon dry, and that defense cooperation amounts to a “military-industrial complex merger with foreign country.” Polling was selected to show the war tanking Americans’ view of Israel as an ally, and that only one group still views Israel favorably amid reports they dragged US into war.

The third theme is the most corrosive. Scott Morefield declared that you can be Israel-First or America-First, but you can’t be both. Mary Rooke attacked Lindsey Graham’s war advocacy and concluded that an elected official should not profess loyalty to a foreign country over Americans. The Caller asked “Who Is The ‘Israel First’ Spy Who Met With Mike Huckabee?” and John Loftus followed with a demand that Huckabee resign.

Attributing the argument to someone else doesn’t erase the agenda. Put enough stories about Israeli control, lobbying pressure and compromised loyalties in front of readers, and the cumulative message the Caller is trying to promote becomes unmistakable.

From Dabbling to a Beat
The early dabbling was already ugly. In April 2025, Loftus described Americans questioning pro-Israel media narratives and politicians taking AIPAC money. He opened with Theo Von saying America felt “owned by Israel” and concluded that people sharing Von’s concerns had good reason to ask questions. In my analysis, it was the only example before the twelve-day war.

That war supplied the next opening. On June 26, 2025, two days after the fighting ended, the Caller published an exclusive about AIPAC recruiting a challenger to Thomas Massie. The theme persisted through the autumn. Geoffrey Ingersoll wrote about Israel, the media and Bari Weiss, calling Weiss a “jihadi.”

Then came the Iran war, and the trickle became a flood.

Since the war began on February 28, 2026, I documented 34 examples, more than five times the number from the eight months before it. On March 3, Ingersoll published a newsletter headlined “US On Iran War: The Jews Made Me Do It.” Its text presented Israeli pressure as the simplest explanation for the war.

From there, the coverage spread to every corner of the war. Election coverage described an Israel Lobby “funding spigot” aimed at Massie, and Morefield portrayed Massie’s primary defeat as a campaign by entrenched interests. Roger Koopman cast Israel as an entangling alliance. Ashley Brasfield framed an Israeli-American commentator’s criticism of JD Vance through allegations of foreign interference.

September and October pushed further. Avi Kumar argued that America cannot continue as Israel’s shield at the United Nations. He later portrayed Israel’s non-Jewish supporters as a disparate coalition of fringe factions. On October 19, Loftus presented Netanyahu’s interview with Mark Levin as an attempt to drag the US even deeper into the Iran war, a reading that appeared in the Caller’s own headline.





 




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