Wednesday, November 04, 2026

11/04 Links Pt1: Midterm blowout normalizes anti-Zionism in Democratic politics; The Michigan race was identity politics at its deadliest; Iran's political, religious leaders shift nuclear positions

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: A Democratic-run Congress will target Israel as well as Trump
Mainstreaming antisemitism
What Trump and whoever winds up leading the next Israeli government need to realize is that the anti-Israel progressives are not really focused so much on ending aid or criticizing Netanyahu so much as they are interested in severing the relationship altogether.

For one thing, that will likely mean efforts to stop the transition from aid to partnership. But the impact of congressional majorities that are overwhelmingly hostile to Israel will transcend the ongoing debate about the aid package.

It’s been clear for years that the Democrats have not only rejected any idea of a bipartisan consensus about the alliance but have been transitioning to being an anti-Israel party. But the 2026 results have produced more than just majorities that don’t want to aid Israel’s efforts to defend itself.

With the victories of figures like El-Sayed and others who were willing to spread blood libels about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza and who sought to anathematize the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby, we’ve gone well beyond arguments about military assistance.

A public square in which the sort of antisemitism that they spout is normalized is one that can fundamentally change the way that Jews interact with society. El-Sayed’s focus on AIPAC, which was echoed in other campaigns around the country, employed classic tropes of Jew-hatred. This will make it even harder for the dwindling numbers of pro-Israel Democrats to be heard or influence policy.

But it will also impact Republicans.

The majority of Republicans remain supportive of Israel and opposed to the left’s antisemitism that is driven by their acceptance of the toxic doctrines of the left about race such as critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism.

It won’t only be the antisemitic extremists of the far right who are influenced by podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens who will be speaking of the conflict with Iran as being the primary reason for the GOP defeat. There were other causes for the Republican catastrophe including Trump’s failure to adequately explain his decision to the American people, choosing terrible candidates in several states, tarrifs that hurt consumers, corruption scandals and general disillusionment with the administration.

But rather than just blaming Trump for his correct decision to go to war against an Islamist regime that is a threat to America, some will likely blame it on Israel.

That will likely undermine Republican resistance to the Democrats’ push to target the Jewish state. It will also make it more difficult for them to join in efforts to push back against a tsunami of antisemitism that is making itself felt in every sector of society including academia, popular culture and the arts, as Trump has attempted to do.

The pendulum swings
Nothing is permanent in politics and the Democrats celebrating now should remember that. In the 21st century, the two parties have exchanged control of both Capitol Hill and the White House with increasing frequency. There is no telling now which side will be in a better position to win in 2028. The more the currently triumphant Democrats overplay their hand with their harassment of Trump and even their measures against Israel, the less likely it will be that they will win the presidency, especially if they nominate one of the increasingly dominant progressives who will be running.

The one thing that is certain is that the pendulum of American politics is always swinging. v Some Jewish liberals who appear deaf, dumb and blind to the way they are being marginalized along with the rest of the community may try to deny this or focus solely on their hatred for Trump. But there can be no disguising the fact that the midterms have delivered a devastating blow to supporters of Israel and a victory to those who wish to eradicate the Jewish state. That will make it all the more necessary for decent persons, whether Republican or Democrat, Jewish or non-Jewish, to redouble their efforts to fight back against the growing volume of antisemitic invective that has insinuated itself into so much of public discourse.
Stephan Pollard: After the massive win for the Democrats, Israel and US Jews face a rough ride ahead
Whatever one thinks of Trump or the Democrats, one thing is clear from the midterms: the US Constitution is working exactly as it should. Voters decided that they had had enough of the Donald Trump Show, and decided to send a very loud message to that effect.

It would be ridiculous not to take these results at face value as a massive win for the Democrats. From moderates such as James Talarico, becoming the first from his party to be elected as a senator in Texas since 1988, and Chris Pappas in New Hampshire through to the Democratic Socialists of America wing, they were rampant. Before the vote commentators suggested they would struggle to win the Senate, needing four new seats to do so. As I write they have already won seven.

But it would be equally ridiculous to take the results as a full-on embrace of the Democrats. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Once voters decided to give Trump a kicking they had nowhere else to place their x. And the very fact that those Democrats elected veer so wildly in their views – it’s almost ridiculous that the new Senator for Michigan, Abdul el-Sayed, is in the same party as Talarico and Pappas – shows that it is wrong to see the results as some kind of swing to the left. It’s a swing against Trump.

As for what this means for Israel and the Jews…not the least worrisome aspect is that the likes of el-Sayed now has a national platform from which to spew his venom.

His campaign – in which he was joined by Hasan Piker – was dogged by alleged association with the Muslim Brotherhood. He first denied any connection to the Brotherhood, which he maintains. Then he unambiguously denied that any of his family had any connection, despite the emergence of a series of tweets which suggest that a number of family members, including his mother, have been active in the Islamist group.

In a 2012 post, for example, his half-sister Eman Abdelhadi, a professor at The University of Chicago, wrote: “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.” In another 2012 post she wrote: “My family has long been MB, but I’ve always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively.” And in a post the following year, she wrote: “Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in #Egypt. Lie low, stay safe.”

A group supporting el-Sayed put out the single most antisemitic ad in US history, blaming Israel for grocery prices and almost every ill in the US. el-Sayed pointedly refused to condemn it.

The DSA wing of the Democrats may be a minority, but among younger activists it is the lifeblood of the party. And its anti-Israel obsession has taken hold of the Democrat centre. Trump is now going to be tied up in investigations and rows with Congress, and the traditional route for a President battling Congress is to turn to foreign affairs. But Trump has already done that – indeed the Iran war is one of the reasons voters have tired of Trump. A further problem is that anything that Congress can block, it will do.

Imagine, for example, that the man who wants to leave peace making as his legacy (hence his fixation on the Nobel Prize) manages to lure the Saudis into the Abraham Accords. On any reading that would be a seismic achievement, and is perfectly possible. But it would likely need various financial packages. The chances of the Democrats approving such a deal are close to zero.

Some commentators have argued that this would change if Benjamin Netanyahu was removed from the equation. Such a view wholly misunderstands the nature of DSA loathing of Israel, in which the moderates acquiesce. It would make no difference if Israel was led by Gadi Eisenkot, Gal Gadot or a hologram of Topol.
Welcome to the Madhouse
To put the results in historical context, the GOP's midterm performance was roughly as calamitous as that of the Arab armies in the Six-Day War.

On a related note, Abdul El-Sayed was projected to win the Senate race in Michigan. A left-wing radical with extensive antisemitic affiliations, El-Sayed will become one of the shortest men to serve in the U.S. Senate since Israel's founding in 1948. Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist who said Hamas "couldn't avoid" the Oct. 7 massacre, was in Detroit to help him celebrate.

El-Sayed's victory is sure to embolden the Democrat extremists eager to shape the party's ideological trajectory heading into the 2028 primary. He was the only swing-state Senate candidate endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), a likely presidential candidate who preemptively touted her influence in a memo to allies.

"The Congresswoman has emerged as one of the most powerful endorsements in the United States," the memo reads. "Over the course of the past two years, she has proven herself to be one of the most effective voices in the country for America's working class."

El-Sayed was also the only Democratic Senate candidate to campaign with Hasan Piker, the anti-American influencer who has praised Hamas, Mao Zedong, and Luigi Mangione. On his livestream Tuesday, Piker urged El-Sayed and other radical Democrats to "get back to work" and "immediately hard pivot [left] once the elections are over."

As expected, several House candidates who campaigned with Piker easily won seats in deep-blue districts after defeating establishment-backed opponents in the primary. They will join a Democratic caucus projected to hold more than 250 seats—the largest House majority for either party since 1990.

Among them: New York's Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Columbia graduate student who attended a pro-Hamas rally the day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, and New Jersey's Adam Hamawy, a Brazilian butt lift specialist who testified for the defense in the trial of the Muslim cleric who inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

To the extent that American political parties can be said to win elections, rather than stand by as their opponents lose them, it was a great night for Democrats. Trump's conciliatory overtures notwithstanding, their willingness to work with his administration is unlikely to extend beyond congressional subpoenas. They are just as unlikely to draw any useful lessons from their victory, which was largely driven by the same cost-of-living concerns that fueled Trump's reelection two years earlier.


Israel must wake up to US and the world before national security is permanently harmed
Wake up! Israel needs to wake up fast.

Hamas perpetrated a historic, monstrous mass slaughter on October 7, 2023, of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. But a lot happened after that, and we have not leveled with the rest of the world about our region-wide counterattack or used our new cards fast enough to get credit, mitigate criticism, and secure long-term diplomatic gains.

The US midterm election results - in which Israel has become a punching bag, and pressure on weapons sales to Jerusalem will escalate - following recent European sanctions against Judea and Samaria, following European recognition of a Palestinian state in fall 2025, with no consolation prize for Israel, signal the ticking of a clock for one of the Jewish state’s last best chances to avoid permanent harm to its national security.

Permanent harm means: No one will sell Israel F-35 aircraft, F-15 aircraft, nuclear submarines, helicopters, cooperate on any AI or quantum technology that might have military purposes, and the list goes on.

But wait, you ask? Haven’t all Israeli officials talked about how we are now achieving weapons independence?

Sorry, they only meant the quantity of bombs - not aircraft, submarines, and the rest.

Our time is running out
I actually pressured many top defense officials in early 2024 to start becoming independent for real, including aircraft, and they told me it would take 10 years, would fail (it failed in the 1980s), and implied it would be foolish to keep asking about it.

So, our time could run out in around two years. In fact, Israel probably has about one year to change the conversation before US Democrat and Republican candidates - Vice President JD Vance’s statement about Israel on Wednesday did not sound much better than many critical Democrats - for the next US presidential election start framing their foreign-policy platforms.

But this is not fair, Israelis will say. Some will say, “The world is out to get us,” so what’s the point?

No, it is not fair, and antisemitism is worse now than it has been in decades.

And yes, Hamas stole Act I of this war with its mass slaughter and rape.


‘Put on a seat belt,’ brace for more danger to US Jews post-midterms, rabbi warns
Burg told JNS that as a rabbi, he looks at the current situation for U.S. Jews “through the lens of 2,000 years of Jewish history.”

“We have seen what happens when hatred of Jews moves from the fringes of society into organized political power,” he said. “History teaches us that gaining power does not necessarily moderate that hatred. Sometimes it emboldens it.”

Burg was particularly concerned with the election of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, senator-elect in Michigan and, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition, the most anti-Israel Senate hopeful in the country.

“Not only was he consistently and constantly attacking us, but anytime anyone said anything, frankly, the Democratic Party would call us ‘Islamophobic,’” he told JNS. “One would only have hoped that they would find conscience and call out antisemitism.”

“Obviously every religion needs to be respected. That’s the principle of American freedom of religion,” he said. “But what senator El-Sayed has done is taken it to the next level in terms of his hate for the Jewish people and certainly for Israel.”

“I think we’re going to get that on a consistent basis in the Senate,” Burg told JNS.

He worries that the people on “the fringe” will be brought to the middle and that “hate rhetoric from folks that are not elected but are closely aligned to the political movement is going to be really damning for the Jewish people.”

Burg hopes that voters will realize that “these leaders who are scapegoating the Jews on such a consistent basis are not going to provide for the American people.”

“But there will be a lot of pain to Jews along the way,” he said. “The Jews of America need to put on a seatbelt. We’re going to see even more hate. We’re going to see more and more in the coming days.”

Despite his fears for Jewish safety, Burg is confident that “the Jewish people are not going anywhere.”

“We have survived 2,000 years of persecution, and we will survive this as well,” he told JNS. “Yet we would be foolish not to recognize what is happening.”
‘We are just getting started’: Midterm blowout normalizes anti-Zionism in Democratic politics
Moving goalposts
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US would soon end military aid to Israel. The far left’s response was telling: Anti-Israel politicians did not stop to celebrate, but demanded an arms embargo. The goalposts had already moved downfield.

Chevalier, soon after casting her vote, said, “Ending military aid is not enough.”

“We need to end US taxpayer funding for Israel’s war crimes, a full arms embargo, and the Palestinian right of return,” she said in a statement. Democratic congressional candidates, Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, and Darializa Avila Chevalier gesture on stage with Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a Get Out The Vote rally ahead of New York’s primary election in New York City, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

The “right of return” is the call to open Israel to the millions of Palestinians claiming refugee status due to their ancestors’ displacement during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. Allowing in those millions would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish-majority state.

US Rep. Ro Khanna of California said in a video statement, “We’re going to change the policy when we take back Congress. Zero aid to Israel and no more military sales.”

Kiros said in an interview, “The American people are demanding not just that we withdraw our aid, but that we end this genocide with whatever leverage we have.”

There were no indications that the far-left lawmakers were merely opposed to the hard-right Netanyahu government. The Democratic Party and its voters have grown increasingly hostile toward Israel, according to polls. Nearly half of Democrats in Congress voted to cut off aid to Israel in July.

The new crop of lawmakers differs from the party’s center, though, in that they are not just “critical of Israel” — anti-Israel activism is central to their politics.

The incoming leftist House members will include Reps. Chevalier, Kiros, Claire Valdez from New York, New Jersey’s Adam Hamawy, Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania, and Donavan McKinney of Michigan, who will join incumbents like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.

Anti-Zionist protests have calmed on US streets and campuses, but opposition to or ambivalence about Israel’s existence has become normalized. The DSA platform enshrines its commitment to the “right of return” and the Palestinian “right to resist.” The organization is explicitly anti-Zionist. Its call for a “Free Palestine” is not a demand for a two-state solution.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani paved the way for other anti-Zionist candidates with his historic election win last year. Mamdani then ushered Chevalier, Valdez and Brad Lander, all harsh critics of Israel, into Congress by boosting their primary campaigns.

The far-left House candidates won their seats in deep blue districts. Michigan’s incoming senator, El-Sayed, though, won a statewide race with similar hardline positions, marking a more significant victory for the movement. El-Sayed showed that equivocation about anti-Jewish terrorism, espousing hardline anti-Zionism, and campaigning with surrogates accused of antisemitism were not deal breakers.

Moderates hold large majority
Moderate Democrats who are more supportive of Israel and centrist Jewish positions scored resounding wins too. In New York City, US Reps. Ritchie Torres, Grace Meng, Gregory Meeks, Micah Lasher and Hakeem Jeffries all cruised to victory. In the suburbs, US Reps. Tom Suozzi and George Latimer held onto their seats. The state governor, Kathy Hochul, a moderate on Israel, secured an easy win.

Elsewhere in the US, Jewish moderates breezed back into office, including Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff.

The moderates, led by House Democratic leader Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Schumer, will far outnumber the hard left. Democrats’ comfortable majority in the House and Senate means that the moderate leaders have a cushion against dissenters, diluting the far left’s leverage.

The leftist candidates will likely drag the party toward anti-Israel positions, though, and set up a potential intra-party conflict involving Israel policies within the party.

It still isn’t clear that anti-Zionism is a winning campaign platform. Trump’s deep unpopularity drove the Democrats’ dominance, making it harder to parse out specific policies that motivated voters. Polls show that Americans do not prioritize Israel or foreign policy at the ballot box.


Brendan O'Neill: The Michigan race was identity politics at its deadliest
The depiction of Stevens as the sad, manic cat lady of the globe-straddling Israel machine was a naked ruse to write off her criticisms of El-Sayed as ‘crazy’. But they weren’t. There is something off about El-Sayed and his Israelophobic clingers-on. Stevens is right that their focus on the Jewish State is ‘obsessive, obsessive, obsessive’. She’s right that El-Sayed mingled with iffy people. Like rich-boy Twitcher Hasan Piker, who once called Zionism a ‘mental illness’ and said ‘it doesn’t matter if rapes fucking happened on 7 October’. Do you think a Dem candidate would survive if he hung out with people who called African nationalism a ‘mental illness’ and said ‘Who gives a fuck if the KKK raped black women’? Not a chance. But Jews don’t matter.

Earlier this year, after a Lebanese-born man attacked a Michigan synagogue that was packed with children, reportedly out of anger with Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah, El-Sayed said: ‘Hurt people hurt people.’ Oof. He later apologised. The pro-El-Sayed TV ad produced by middle-aged motormouth Cenk Uygur summed up the modern left’s anti-Jew-State mania. It featured a couple struggling to pay for their weekly shop and then it dawns on them why they’re so broke – because their tax dollars are being spent on ‘killing Palestinians’. Those Jews. Life would be great if only they didn’t have their long fingers in our pockets. The ad was even too much for the El-Sayed team, who disavowed it. Though as Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out, it was merely a ‘dramatised’ version of El-Sayed’s own belief that US support for Israel is worsening the ‘affordability’ crisis for everyday Americans.

It isn’t ‘racist’ to worry about these things. What really has the whiff of racism is the left’s depiction of the Jewish State as the source of economic downturn and working-class suffering. Jews as the cause of global misery? How original. El-Sayed’s rise unquestionably speaks to the creep of the Islamo-left – to a new radicalism that maniacally hates the Jewish State and which sacralises Muslims as blameless martyrs of the right, the West, capitalism, structural racism and that ‘odious’ Jewish nation with its murderous dream of making Muslims more ‘killable’.

These are the moral contours of identity politics now. This is the depthless pit of victimology into which the left has tumbled following its abandonment of the working class. ‘The Muslim’ is treated as a pure avatar of vulnerability under late-stage capitalism, while the Jewish State and its supporters (which includes the vast majority of Jews) are cast as the incarnation of wickedness, now even desiring to export their ‘genocide’ to the wider world. Having traded economic questions for a crude tableau of saints and demons, the left no longer offers a vision for justice, only a psychosis of righteousness. It was the kingly arrogance of the El-Sayed camp, their smarminess, that really struck me. These people clearly know the machinery of bourgeois opinion is behind them, always happy to flatter their self-pitying vision of themselves as ‘the oppressed’ now storming to power. The childish, divisive melodrama of Islamo-leftism. I’ll echo Haley Stevens: it’s not good.
Illinois communities vote to support anti-Israel boycotts
Voters in seven Illinois communities favored nonbinding measures supporting the state repealing restrictions on investing in companies that boycott Israel, according to preliminary returns from Tuesday’s election.

The measures do not repeal Illinois law, change pension investment rules or require legislators to act.

The ballot language varied. Oak Park asked if the state should repeal laws barring state investment in businesses that boycott Israel, while Champaign and Cunningham asked about repealing pension-code provisions penalizing such businesses.

Three Peoria County townships asked voters to support repeal legislation, while DuPage Township asked if individuals and businesses should be allowed to boycott and divest from Israel.

The questions received “yes” majorities in Oak Park village and Normal, Champaign, Cunningham, Peoria, Kickapoo and Medina townships. The results of a measure in DuPage township could not be verified by JNS at press time.

Joe Sabag, executive director of the Florida Israel Institute at Florida Atlantic University, whose work helped the state formulate its anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions laws, told JNS that the measures are part of a “broader effort happening at the state level” to try to repeal the anti-boycott law in Illinois.

“The fact that this is happening following a nearly successful repeal effort this past spring raises further concerns about the effort and seriousness, or lack thereof, on the part of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in the state,” Sabag said.

Illinois law restricts state-funded retirement systems from investing in companies identified as boycotting Israel. Repealing those provisions would require action by the state government. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who is Jewish and who was reelected with about 60% of the vote, is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Call me Back: A BLUE TSUNAMI - with Mark Halperin
The midterms delivered a stunning political blow to Republicans—but was it a rejection of Trump, a warning about the economy, or a sign that American politics is shifting in a more populist direction?

Dan Senor speaks with Mark Halperin to unpack the forces behind the Democratic wave and what it could mean for the next two years. Halperin, a veteran political analyst, is editor-in-chief of the 2Way, an engine for participation-based live content and authentic communities, and a premium newsletter called Wide World of News.

They explore what the Democrats’ victories could mean for the special relationship with Israel, and how the rise of its progressive wing could impact policy, both foreign and domestic.

Dan and Mark discuss what comes next for President Trump, and they also look forward to 2028 to see who’s emerging as the frontrunner on both sides. Plus: could a pro-Israel Democrat win the presidential nomination?




Vance blames election loss on Iran war, relationship with Israel
U.S. Vice President JD Vance pointed to the Trump administration’s decision to go to war against Iran and the U.S. relationship with Israel on Wednesday as among the main reasons that Republicans lost the 2026 midterms.

In a lengthy post on social media, the vice president described a conversation with a pollster who asked disaffected Republicans why they were voting for Democrats.

“The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses, were: end the war, focus on cost of living/inflation, put America first and change our relationship to Israel,” Vance wrote. “Our voters showed up, and the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats.”

U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night that the war against Iran “was a piece of it” in an interview about the GOP rout that saw Democrats flip senate seats in Republican strongholds like Texas and Kansas.

Trump added that he “would have done it again” and did not regret starting the war.

Vance went further than Trump on Wednesday, while attributing the argument to the president.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”

Exit polls suggest that U.S. foreign policy and the Iran war were key issues for voters on Tuesday, along with related issues like the cost of living. The conflict is deeply unpopular and has caused nationwide spikes in the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel, which have hammered the president’s approval rating on the economy.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and chair of its governance studies program, told JNS that Vance’s explanation of election results is “interesting but wrong.”

“I’m not sure where he’s getting his information, but I know where I’m getting my information, which is from publicly available exit polls and other sources,” Galston said, of the vice president’s claim that Trump-Vance voters voted for Democrats on Tuesday.

“It’s demonstrable that they didn’t,” Galston said. “I’m looking at the exit polls right here. Only 7% of them did. The real explanation for what happened is that Trump-Vance voters stayed home in droves.”


Jon Stewart accused of using Jewish identity to attack Jews and Israel
‘The Rubin Report’ host Dave Rubin accuses Jon Stewart of invoking his Jewish identity when criticising other Jews and Israel.

“I actually interned at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 1999, 27 years ago, when Jon just took over the show, and he was a very different person. He was actually a decent old-school liberal, and he was funny,” Mr Rubin told News24 host Rita Panahi.

“He only mentions that he's Jewish to attack either other Jews or Israel.

“Haley Stevens … she was going to pay a price no matter what.”




Iran's political, religious leaders shift nuclear positions
An increasing number of Iranian clerics and officials are pressing Iranian leaders to reverse their pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

In past decades, Iranian officials have publicly endorsed the fatwa issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forbidding the development and use of nuclear weapons.

However, US and Israeli intelligence agencies have reported signs that Iran was enriching uranium to levels close to those needed for a nuclear weapon.

The NYT cited regional analysts as saying Khamenei had hoped to keep Iran's nuclear intentions ambiguous in hopes of deterring attacks on Iran without needing to actually develop a nuclear weapon.

Instead, Israel and the US started the 12-day war in 2025, and then another war in 2026, and Iranians have grown increasingly in favor of having a nuclear weapon as a result.

“He created this neither in nor out situation, where they paid for a bomb they didn’t have,” Mohammad Ali Shabani, an Iran analyst who edits the independent regional news site Amwaj.media, told the NYT.

“Now, there is this sense that unless you have this ultimate weapon, you could end up at the mercy of not just the US, but Israel, at any point.”

Politicians call for withdrawal from NPT
Politicians have begun calling for Iran to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). On Saturday, Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said that Iran's leaders were discussing the nuclear debate.

“No new decision has been made yet,” he said. “Of course, the debate now is whether we want to keep the same doctrine we had before the war, if war breaks out again.”

While advocating for withdrawing from the NPT was once a minority opinion, Mohammad Ghaderi, a foreign affairs expert in Tehran, told the NYT that it has become a majority view.

In addition to the politicians, many religious leaders are also preaching the necessity of nuclear power, despite the late Ayatollah's fatwa.

“The taboo is gone,” Shabani told the NYT. “A religious foundation for the shift is here. The question is whether a strategic or political shift will follow.”


IDF identified Deif, other top Hamas commanders entering tunnels on eve of Oct. 7
On the eve of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, the Israeli military identified the chief of the terror group’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, and other top commanders heading underground into tunnels, according to information from the IDF’s investigations, now cleared for publication.

The movement of top Hamas commanders into tunnels on the night between October 6 and 7 was among at least five warning signs identified by the IDF prior to the attack that pointed to unusual activity in the Gaza Strip.

Until Wednesday, most of these signs had remained classified.

Previously, the only anomalous sign permitted for publication was the activation of dozens of Israeli SIM cards held by Hamas terrorists in the group’s elite Nukhba force.

Israeli security officials on Wednesday authorized the publication of additional signs identified on the eve of October 7, including Deif and other top Hamas commanders entering tunnels, Hamas operatives removing tarps from rocket-launching tunnel shafts, and various preparations and movements in Hamas’s anti-tank missile array.

At around midnight between October 6 and 7, the military received intelligence that Deif’s underground command center, meant to serve the Hamas commander in times of emergencies, had been activated for use.

Due to this identification, the military dispatched a surveillance drone that was flying over the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to determine whether Deif himself had entered the underground site, or if it was one of his aides.

In hindsight, it was confirmed that Deif had indeed entered the subterranean command center. But in real time, the anomalous sign was a mystery to intelligence officers. The Israeli Air Force drone that arrived above the site in the early morning hours was unable to confirm Deif’s presence at the site.


IDF, Shin Bet kill six terrorists from three separate organizations in strikes near Khan Yunis
The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) killed seven terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip in a series of strikes earlier this week, including Gamal Abu Said, who held Omar Shem Tov hostage in Gaza, the two announced on Wednesday.

Abu Said has held several senior positions in Hamas. As part of his duties, he was responsible for training military operatives outside the Gaza Strip, served as commander of an anti-tank battalion, and was responsible for military specializations in the Central Camps Brigade, the IDF said.

Abu Said was also instrumental in Hamas's connection with various countries and was a significant source of knowledge for the terror group.

In two strikes on Monday, the IDF and Shin Bet killed Mahmoud Jihad Mohammad Qafa and Asaad Suleiman Salman Qashta in the area of Khan Yunis. Qafa served as the head of a sniper cell in Hamas’ military wing, while Qashta was a member of Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam).

On Sunday, the IDF and Shin Bet killed three Hamas terrorists and one Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) member also in the area of Khan Yunis.

Mohammad Zakaria Al-Jamal, Shaher Mohammad Zaarab, and Mohammad Amin Al-Namas all served in Hamas's military wing. Al-Jamal was the head of a cell, and Zaarab served as a Nukhba Company Commander.

The fourth terrorist killed on Sunday, Mohammad Ali Abu Shaar, was a PIJ sniper.

October 7 Nir Oz infiltrator among four Hamas terrorists killed in IDF strikes
On Monday, the IDF announced it killed four Hamas terrorists, including one who invaded Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, in a series of weekend strikes in Gaza.

In a strike in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces killed Nukhba terrorist Muhammad Kamel Masleh Qadih, who infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 massacre and oversaw the preparation and training of Hamas’s Nukhba forces.

In another strike in the area of Nuseirat in central Gaza, the IDF killed Diaa Abd al-Mohsen Muhammad Abu al-Rous, another Nukhba terrorist in Hamas's military wing.

In the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF killed Nabil Hamad, a senior member of Hamas's military recruitment framework, and Mohannad Nader Mahmoud Dahdouh, a sniper commander who the military said had been actively involved in combat against Israeli troops.


IDF: 7th Brigade killed some 400 Hezbollah terrorists
The IDF’s 7th Brigade combat team has completed eight months of operations in Southern Lebanon, destroying approximately 3,500 terror infrastructure sites and killing some 400 Hezbollah terrorists, the military said on Tuesday.

The force, comprising armored troops, Golani infantry and combat engineers, crossed into Lebanon on March 8. Its operations took it to Qantara, the Saluki River, the Litani River and the Beaufort ridge before troops returned to Israel, according to the IDF.

In Qantara, troops uncovered underground systems, including one nearly two kilometers (1.2 miles) long, with living quarters, a kitchen and electricity. Combat engineers opened routes toward the Litani and Beaufort areas, clearing obstacles and dealing with explosive devices and mines, the military said.

“These aren’t tunnels where you go in and find one or two rooms,” said Lt. Col. A., commander of the 75th Armored Battalion. “These are enormous facilities, with room for hundreds of operatives.”

Separately, the IDF said on Sunday that troops of the 769th Brigade, operating under the 91st Division near Khiam in Southern Lebanon, found weapons in a civilian home and located and dismantled a storage facility for explosive drones. Weapons recovered during the operation included rockets, Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and explosive drones.

The military said its forces would continue operating to remove threats while remaining committed to the ceasefire agreement.


“Press Freedom Predator”: Reporters Without Borders Blacklists HonestReporting
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and… HonestReporting.

Not the sort of company we expected to be part of, but these are just some of the names included in the 2026 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Predators List.

So why does RSF think an information watchdog holding the media to account deserves to be on the list?

According to RSF, Israel is relentlessly vilifying media professionals reporting on regional conflicts, and “At the forefront of the propaganda fuelling these smear campaigns is the website HonestReporting, which has members — including directors — that have ties with Israeli politicians and leaders.”

Among the charges leveled at HonestReporting by RSF:
We “portray journalists as participants in a conspiracy, making poorly substantiated allegations and circulating deceptive AI-generated images that put journalists at risk.”
We carry out “Smear campaigns targeting dozens of media outlets and journalists who covered Israeli policies with a critical stance or expressed views unfavourable to the Israeli government.”
We deny or justify “war crimes committed by the Israeli military against journalists in Gaza.”

And our “weapon of choice”: “Baseless accusations that journalists engage in unethical conduct, support terrorism or promote antisemitism.”

Quite the rap sheet, none of which actually stands up to scrutiny.

It’s quite clear why RSF is attacking HonestReporting. We are the organization that revealed how RSF has stealthily removed terrorists from its list of slain Gazan journalists while inexplicably allowing other terrorists to remain classified as journalists.

Those removed include:
Smart News internet reporter Mohammad Jarghoun, whom Hamas admitted was a member of its Rafah Brigade.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) member Mohamed Nasr Abu Huwaidi.
PIJ Al Quds Brigade terrorist and Shams News Agency managing editor Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Sharia, who was removed from the database and an ongoing article.
Al-Rai radio’s Assem Al-Barsh, who was announced by Hamas to have been a fighter in the Northern Brigade’s Martyr Imad Aqel Battalion.

Al-Barsh, Abu Huwaidi and Abu Sharia were the subjects of criminal complaints filed by RSF with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Israel of war crimes for their deaths, and it is unknown if these complaints have been withdrawn or revised.

If they have not been withdrawn, RSF’s complaints are effectively criminalizing Israel for killing terrorists. The organization should be embarrassed.



 



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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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