Sunday, November 08, 2026

11/08 Links: Israel, the Palestinians and the Myth of Deterrence; When “End the Aid” Isn’t Enough: The Rising Political Movement to End Israel Itself; Israeli city sues Iran for $65 million in war reparations

From Ian:

Israel’s politicians must put national unity before personal ambition
A 79-seat government would strip away those excuses. No small faction could dictate national policy or threaten the government's survival whenever its demands were rejected. More importantly, neither bloc would be able to unilaterally force policy on the other bloc.

Most importantly, such a coalition could finally address key issues threatening Israel's future.

With Shas participating, a unity government can negotiate a realistic, enforceable framework for haredi military and national service that respects legitimate religious concerns while ensuring a fairer sharing of the national burden.

Instead of unilateral judicial reform legislation and mass protests, a unity government can pursue meaningful reform through broad consensus, safeguarding judicial independence while clarifying the proper balance between the courts, Knesset, and government.

Israel needs a comprehensive program to create affordable housing. Such a program needs to address land availability, planning delays, infrastructure, construction costs, and housing supply. Young families should not have to choose between financial security and owning a home.

The country needs a coherent national policy regarding Judea and Samaria, balancing historical and security interests with demographic and diplomatic realities. Decisions of such consequence cannot depend on the survival needs of a narrow coalition.

Israel must rebuild and modernize its education system, strengthening mathematics, science, technology, engineering, English, and civic education. Every Israeli child, regardless of background, deserves the skills necessary to participate in a modern economy.

These challenges require long-term thinking, difficult decisions, and the parliamentary strength to withstand pressure from special interests.

A broad unity government offers that foundation.

The "just not Bibi" obsession of the change bloc has contributed to political paralysis and divided the nation. Israel has endured two successive governments that left approximately half the population feeling excluded. The Bennett-Lapid government alienated much of the Right, while the most recent Netanyahu government alienated much of the opposition.

Israelis with opposing political views fought together in Gaza and Lebanon, suffered tragedies together, and demanded unity following the October 7 massacre. On October 8, we promised ourselves that Israel would never return to business as usual. We understood that political division, institutional complacency, and failures of leadership had exacted an unbearable price.

Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett, Lapid, Liberman, Smotrich, and Deri must decide whether their personal ambitions and grievances matter more than the country's future. They do not need to agree on everything. They must agree that Israel's security, prosperity, and social cohesion transcend their disagreements.

A unity government will require painful compromises, but compromise is not weakness. It is the essence of responsible democratic leadership.

The arithmetic is there: 79 seats. The national challenges are undeniable. What remains to be seen is whether our political leaders have the courage to put the country and national responsibility before personal ambition and ego.

Israel has voted. It is time to stop campaigning and start governing.

As Kalman Liebskind remarked in Makor Rishon, Israel faces a historic opportunity to end its internal political warfare. Failure to seize it now might have consequences for generations.
When “End the Aid” Isn’t Enough: The Rising Political Movement to End Israel Itself
A quick look at a social media post from the newly-elected Democratic Rep.-elect Dariavila Aliza Chevalier is all it takes to understand what awaits Israel in the wake of Tuesday’s Democratic swing in America’s Midterm elections. Mere minutes after Pres. Donald Trump announced an end to American foreign aid to Israel, Chevalier posted on X: “Military aid is not enough. We need to end U.S. taxpayer funding for Israel’s war crimes, a full arms embargo, and the Palestinian right of return.”

Huh?

While there is nothing new about cutting American economic assistance, demanding an arms embargo, and weaponizing the term “war crimes,” Chevalier’s insertion of the phrase “Palestinian right of return” is a new form of escalation. Because while the majority of newly-elected Democrats may actually be centrists like Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Texan James Tallerico, Chevalier’s words still managed to lay bare the dramatic shift of antisemitism and antizionism across American culture and politics.

New Demands
What’s so telling about Chevalier’s rhetoric is both the timing and intent. Her message is chilling: Nothing but the coordinated dismantling of Zionism — in this case a “return” of Palestinians to their former homes presumably occupied by Jews — will satisfy incoming Democrats. Particularly those, like Chevalier, who are part of the party’s Israel-obsessed far-left fringe. Indeed, fellow Congressional newcomer Colorado Rep.-elect Melat Kiros spoke nearly the exact same words during an appearance on PBS this summer — she advocated for a “one-state” solution, an end to Israel as a Jewish “ethnostate” and that right of return for Palestinians. She even went one step further, provocatively suggesting Palestinians be awarded “reparations as a result of the [Israeli] genocide.”

Three months on, Chevalier was particularly clever to tether these “right of return” demands to Trump’s aid announcement. While the media was busy framing Trump’s move as a watershed moment in U.S.-Israeli history, Chevalier turned the ending of one era into the demand for a new one. It’s an era filled with anti-Zionist totems such as “war crimes,” a “one-state solution” and — most chillingly — an end to Israel’s Jewish majority. As she turns political performance into protest, Chevalier makes clear that nothing will ever satisfy protesters like herself except Zionism’s uncontested defeat.

Yes, extremists such as Kiros and Chevalier are still Democratic party outliers. But like so much of woke culture and identity politics, these extremists exert outsized power and influence by ensuring they’re the loudest voices in the room.
Jake Wallis Simons: Why the UN should pick a Palestinian over a Jew to be its next chief
Nusseibeh, formerly the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the UN, understands the dangers of tyranny: the UAE was the most heavily targeted Gulf state during the Iran war. Surprisingly, she also understands Jews, having studied Israeli and diaspora studies at university in London. She speaks Hebrew, as well as Arabic, French and English.

Unlike most of the UN, she was unequivocal in her condemnation of October 7. In addition, she has backed the Abraham Accords peace agreements, and consistently called for the Jewish state’s full integration into the Middle East. “There is an outstretched hand, despite all of this misery, in the region to Israel,” she insisted in September last year, as war raged.

This openness is something of a family tradition. Her grandfather (who opposed Nazism) and uncle (who opposed suicide bombing) were both prominent Palestinian figures who maintained close relationships with their Israeli counterparts. Her father, an adviser to the Emirati ruling family, has an extensive private library that includes a rich section on Jewish history.

Sure, she isn’t perfect. At times, Nusseibeh has been deeply unfair, calling Israel’s campaign in Gaza “inhumane” as early as November 2023, and – bizarrely – condemning the “cruel” evacuation orders issued by Israeli troops to protect Palestinian civilians from the fighting.

Moreover, human rights groups have denounced her because of the UAE’s alleged support for Sudanese rebels, who are battling the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned regime in a bloody war that has been described as genocide (the UAE denies this).

Yet international diplomacy is about shades of grey. In the absence of clean options, this unlikely candidate may prove the best hope of sanity in the madhouse.


Israel, the Palestinians and the Myth of Deterrence | Dr. Dan Schueftan
Noam Dworman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Dr. Dan Schueftan for a wide-ranging conversation about Israel, the Palestinians, Iran, antisemitism and the future of Western civilization. Schueftan argues that the West has fundamentally misunderstood its adversaries, that Israel cannot afford to confuse concessions with security, and that the survival of liberal democracy depends on the willingness to defend it. The conversation covers the future of the West Bank, the dangers of Palestinian statehood under current conditions, America's failures in the Middle East, the rise of antisemitism, and the future of Jewish life outside Israel.

Dr. Dan Schueftan is the Head of the International Graduate Program in National Security at the University of Haifa. He also serves as a senior lecturer at Haifa University's School of Political Sciences. He has taught at the Israel Defense Force's National Security College and the IDF's Command and Staff College. He has been a consultant to every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin and has published extensively on national security, strategic thinking and contemporary Middle Eastern history. Dr. Schueftan’s most recent book is Israel’s National Objectives – A Comprehensive Perspective (2021).

04:20 – Can civilized societies defend themselves?
11:35 – What does Schueftan mean by “barbarism”?
16:45 – Israel, the West Bank and the question of disengagement
29:00 – Settlements, separation and the future of Israel
37:05 – Freedom, Western values and Israel's critics
47:50 – The crocodile and the banana: America's Middle East policy
54:05 – Antisemitism and the future of Jewish life abroad
62:35 – October 7 and Israel's strategic position
68:40 – Hebrew, Jewish identity and connecting young Jews to Israel
77:45 – Noam and Periel reflect on the conversation


Jonathan Sacerdoti: We missed the chance to make a 'European Islam' – Islamic history professor's warning
For a thousand years Jews lived under Islamic rule. Professor Paul B. Fenton has spent his career reading what the documents from those centuries actually say.

Was there ever a golden age in which Jews and Muslims lived as equals? Professor Fenton argues that the flowering of Jewish philosophy, poetry and science under Islam was real — but that it was a Jewish achievement rather than a shared society, and that it happened in spite of the conditions Jews lived under, not because of them.

Fenton, a scholar of Hebrew and Arabic who spent much of his career at the Sorbonne and wrote 'Exile in the Maghreb: A Thousand Years of Jewish Experience Under Islam', joins Jonathan Sacerdoti in Tel Aviv to discuss the status of the dhimmi, the jizya and the lead seal a Jew had to wear at his neck as a receipt, the forced conversions of Mashhad, and why he believes the Islamic cruelty the world saw on October 7 has roots far older than Zionism. He also explains the debt he believes Judaism owes to Islamic civilisation — and why he thinks Europe has already missed its chance.

💬 We Discuss:
📜 Why Muhammad courted the Jews of Medina — and what happened when they refused him
🕌 The verse of the sword – what does the Quran really say about Jews and Christians?
🛡️ Dhimmi: why “protected people” is a mistranslation, and protected from whom
📋 The conditions of Umar — Jews deprived of weapons, horses, even blowing the shofar in public
💰 The jizya, the lead seal worn at the neck as a receipt, and what befell those who could not pay
🏘️ Life in the mellah: separate quarters, distinctive dress, danger beyond the walls
✨ Al-Andalus reconsidered — a Jewish golden age inside a society that was not golden
📚 Why Maimonides outwardly converted to Islam and fled Spain
☪️ Sunni and Shia attitudes to Jews, and the doctrine of ritual uncleanness
🇮🇷 Why Jerusalem had almost no standing in traditional Shia Islam before Khomeini
🔥 How an anti-colonial movement in Qom became the theology of the Iranian regime
🎥 What Jews still living in Iran can and cannot say on camera
⚔️ Razzia and Gaza: how Europe's riots are linked to Palestinians and Islam
🙏 Why Islam can have no Vatican II, and what blocks the Abraham Accords
🎼 The debt Judaism owes Islamic civilisation — Saadia Gaon, Baghdad and Jewish music
🇪🇺 “There could have been a European Islam” — what, how and i it too late?




Leading US Reform rabbi after midterms: The American Jewish ‘Golden Age’ has ended
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a leading voice in the US Reform community, said in a Friday night Shabbat sermon that the American Jewish “Golden Age” has ended.

“We need to be honest with ourselves: We have entered a new era,” Hirsch said in a speech focused on the US midterm election results. “The Golden Age of American Jewry that defined the years when most older millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers grew up and established careers and families is over.”

Hirsch is a leader in the Reform movement in North America, the president of the New York Board of Rabbis, and the senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, one of the city’s most prominent Reform congregations.

He has consistently pushed for continued attachment to Israel and opposed anti-Zionist activity in recent years, as the Reform community, the largest denomination in the US, has contended with discrimination, anti-Zionist activism and hostile politics.

Last week’s midterm elections saw the Democratic Party demolish Republicans across the US in congressional and state-level races.

The Democratic Party has become increasingly hostile to Israel in recent years, according to polling, and several candidates set to enter the US House of Representatives and Senate in January are openly anti-Zionist or members of the anti-Zionist Democratic Socialists of America.

Hirsch said the midterms were a “repudiation” of US President Donald Trump, driven by economic factors influenced by the Iran war, corruption, tariffs, immigration enforcement, and Trump himself.

He added that antisemitism has always existed in the US, but had previously “receded from public life and social institutions.”

“Jews were respected, embraced and overrepresented in many fields of human endeavor prized by society. Israel had broad bipartisan support. Those heady days seem over. We are reverting to the historical norm,” he said. “While the erosion of the Golden Age was brewing for many years, October 7, 2023, was its symbolic end.”
Where the incoming Democratic freshmen stand on Israel
Last week’s midterm “blue tsunami” swept a slew of largely unknown Democratic candidates into office, elevating politicians around the country who were barely on the radar of Democratic leaders — no less in the local and national press.

Moderates in the House are hopeful that the wave of red-district Democrats will help serve as a bulwark against the growing ranks of the far left in the conference, insulating Democratic leadership and the conference as a whole from far-left pressure and preventing extremists from holding the conference hostage to their priority issues.

But even though many of the new members hail from Republican districts, not all are moderates. Some of the long-shot Democratic candidates who won shocking upsets without support from the party — a handful of whom are from the far-left wing of the party — may end up acting unpredictably in Congress.

The new cohort of lawmakers varies widely on Israel policy issues — a handful come in with hard-line anti-Israel stances, while many others seem to support a continued U.S.-Israel relationship in some form, potentially with new conditions on or scrutiny of U.S. aid. And some others, especially those backed by the Democratic Majority for Israel, have been consistent champions of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

Among the class of Democratic freshmen are 16 Democratic Majority for Israel endorsees, as well as 44 endorsed by J Street and 44 endorsed by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, with a handful of races not yet called. Just one TrackAIPAC endorsee flipped a red district.

Given continued support for Israel among Republicans, the conservative tilt of some of the flipped districts could push at least some of the newly elected Democrats to take more moderate stances on Israel. But a notable number of these Democrats hold much chillier views towards the U.S.-Israel relationship than their predecessors.

Brian Romick, the CEO of DMFI, said that many of the newcomers’ relative lack of exposure to Israel and foreign policy is a “huge opportunity.”

“A lot of these candidates didn’t really grapple with Israel on their campaigns other than what they saw on Twitter,” Romick said. “And now they’re actually going to have real-life experience with policy advisors and committee hearings. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to teach them about the U.S.-Israel relationship and help them learn and think about these issues thoughtfully.”

He also emphasized that the “majority is won in moderate districts” and that the composition of the caucus will push it overall toward moderate, mainstream positions. He also noted that Democrats running for the Senate who leaned into anti-Israel positions performed worse than colleagues who did not play up the issue.

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said that the results of the midterms were a “resounding victory for the politics J Street has championed since our founding” and a clear message that the American people want “a different direction” on Middle East policy.

He also claimed that, with a majority of Democrats in both chambers carrying the organization’s endorsement, “J Street is now the center of the Democratic Party’s approach to Israel and Palestine.”
Trump says Eisenkot and Netanyahu are ‘very similar in terms of their policy’
Asked for comment on Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot being given the first opportunity over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government in Israel, US President Donald Trump claims the two leaders have largely similar views and have both said nice things about them.

“They’re very similar in terms of their policy… [Eisenkot] said very nice things about me. He says he loves Trump, but… I haven’t seen what’s happening. It’s certainly a contest between him and Bibi Netanyahu. We’ll see what happens,” Trump tells reporters.

Eisenkot avoided criticizing Trump after the US president endorsed Netanyahu ahead of last month’s Knesset election.

Eisenkot has sought to differentiate himself from Netanyahu on the style in which he would govern, but indeed has avoided laying out substantive policy differences. He has indicated a desire to form a more moderate government than Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition, which included far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.


Synagogues around the world to remember Kristallnacht by keeping their lights on
More than 1,000 synagogues and Jewish institutions worldwide are expected to leave their lights burning overnight Monday to mark the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, as part of an ongoing Israeli initiative.

The annual “Spread the Light” campaign aims to commemorate the Nazi pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, when Jewish homes, businesses and institutions across Germany and Austria were attacked, hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands were sent to concentration camps. Historians view the pogrom as a precursor to the Holocaust.

Participants are encouraged to photograph their illuminated buildings and share the images on social media with the hashtag #SpreadtheLight.

It is not exactly clear how many institutions participated last year, but it was at least 1,000, said Dalia Yohanan, who coordinates the project through her organization, Or Dolek. The project is jointly led by the Religious Kibbutz Movement and Yad Vashem.

“The night of Kristallnacht was a clear turning point for the Nazis in their quest to destroy the Jews,” Yohanan said. “After that, they saw that they could do anything they wanted and the world would be silent.”

The idea for the initiative was launched in 2008, for the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, by Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman, head of the Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora in the World Zionist Organization.

“This was before social media, and it was a small project that didn’t get a lot of publicity at the time,” said Yohanan. “They weren’t going to move forward with the project, so I took it on myself to continue.”

Yohanan described how her father, Naftali (Kurt) Wertheim, survived Kristallnacht as a boy by hiding under a table as neighbors threw stones at his family’s windows. Soon after, Wertheim was sent by his parents on a Kindertransport rescue to Britain, saving his life while they were killed by the Nazis. Wertheim later settled in Israel and joined the kibbutz movement.
Philly ‘Kristallnacht’ protests at Jewish-owned businesses drowned out, shouted down by huge crowds
Protests of Jewish-owned businesses in Philadelphia by dozens of masked bikers on the eve of the Kristallnacht anniversary were drowned out by a massive crowd of heckling counter-protesters on Sunday.

The boycott, which targeted restaurants run by Jewish Americans in Philly’s ritzy Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, came face-to-face with a large counterprotest aimed at supporting the businesses.

However, the protest was forced to shut down early, with organizers claiming “safety concerns.”

Lines at the Jewish-owned businesses stretched out the door as supporters publicly come out to back them.

Social media posts for the protest demanded that the businesses leave the city.

“Show these zio business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are,” one post said.

Despite the claim that the protest was “anti-Zionist,” one business owner said her mac and cheese shop had nothing to do with Israel, and believes she was targeted because she wears a Star of David.

The protest Sunday came on the eve of the anniversary for the 1938 Nazi night of terror in Germany and Austria, where Jewish-owned businesses and neighborhoods were sacked. At least 91 Jews were murdered and others rounded up for concentration camps.

Philly Bike On Your Left, which organized the boycott, claims the event has been “grossly misrepresented.”

Matt Sheldon, 52, said he came out from New York to show Philly’s Jewish community that they are not alone, as he mocked the small turnout of about 75 boycotters.

“It’s the biggest bust of a boycott there is,” Sheldon told The Post, adding that lines to support the restaurants are through the door.


MLB Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson calls out antisemitism in Philadelphia, compares to 1960s racism
Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson called out antisemitism in his home state of Philadelphia, comparing it to racism he experienced in the 1960s, in a Saturday post on X/Twitter.

Jackson cited Anti-Defamation League (ADL) data recording 465 antisemitic incidents in Pennsylvania over the course of 2024, including 189 in Philadelphia and 51 in Montgomery County, where his hometown Wyncote is located.

"The numbers show this is not an abstract concern," Jackson wrote, adding that it made him "angry and ashamed to see hatred tolerated there."

Jackson also brought up ADL reports that a majority of Jewish Americans are concerned about antisemitism and their personal safety.

"Hateful expression harms more than its immediate target," he wrote. "A research review also found that exposure to hate is associated with worse psychological well-being, more negative stereotypes, and less trust between groups."


Philly DSA claims backlash to Jewish business boycott is ‘repression’
Philadelphia’s branch of the Democratic Socialists of America is claiming that its anti-Israel movement is being repressed because of the backlash against its Sunday boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in the City of Brotherly Love.

The DSA group doubled-down on its poorly planned boycott, which was held on the eve of the Kristallnacht Nazi night of terror, claiming the outrage against Sunday’s effort was unwarranted and belittled the boycotters’ message.

“From the Senator Fetterman and Congressman Boyle to Governor Shapiro, Mayor Parker, and Council President Johnson, politicians have joined a chorus of bad-faith and dangerous conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism and invoking comparisons of the Kristallnacht that trivialize trauma and suppress political speech,” the group said in a statement.

“These condemnations were not good-faith conversations about tactics.”

The Philly DSA also appeared to be surprised by the backlash, given last week’s blue wave at the midterms, which the group claimed was evidence of “growing opposition to Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

“What we’ve seen instead is an unacceptable use of political power, designed to delegitimize and chill acts of solidarity in the fight for Palestinian liberation, weaponized against the very people who helped put these politicians in office,” the Philly DSA fumed.

Sunday’s boycott, organized by Philly Bike On Your Left, targeted several Jewish-owned businesses in the city’s Rittenhouse Square.

But the demonstration was called off early when the boycotters were met with hundreds of counter-protesters who came out in support of the restaurants.

The organizers said the boycott was shut down over safety concerns and claimed the event has been “grossly misrepresented.”

One masked man admitted to The Post that he didn’t know why Mac Mart, one of the targeted businesses, was chosen despite not having any connections to Israel.


France will use Navy to defend Gaza flotillas ‘if necessary’ says left-wing presidential candidate
A leading left-wing French presidential candidate has said that he would deploy the French Navy to defend ships heading for Gaza.

Speaking at a rally of supporters, Jean-Luc Mélenchon claimed that Israel’s ambassador to France had suggested that he would prefer that anyone would be elected to the country’s presidency other than him.

“Well, I reply to him that indeed, if he is still there, in France, we will act head-on to help the Palestinians, not only against the genocide in Gaza, but against the gradual annexation of the West Bank”, he said.

He continued: “French ships, much like those from Italy and Spain, if necessary, will escort the flotillas of mobilised citizens to assert the rights of the people. “We do not accept the gradual annexation of the West Bank, nor of southern Lebanon, nor of the Golan Heights. And we will concretely organise the mobilisation against the extension of cruelties to the Christian communities under siege and persecuted in Palestine and in Lebanon”.

In October last year, Italian and Spanish navies partially escorted the flotilla of activists following an apparent drone attack.

Candidates from Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI) party have made headlines for their anti-Israel positioning.

In 2024, Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, was accused of suggesting that French citizens should be allowed to support terrorist organisations like Hamas.

She said that if French citizens were able to serve in the IDF, they should similarly be free to join the “Palestinian armed resistance”.

The Syrian-born French politician was expelled from Israel in June 2025 after attempting to enter Gaza in another flotilla.

The French presidential elections are scheduled for April 2027.
The John Lewis hijabs made by firm that posted shocking image glorifying the October 7 massacre on Instagram page
John Lewis was last night under fire for selling hijabs made by a fashion firm that posted a shocking image online depicting Hamas terrorists attacking Israel on October 7 using a paraglider and bulldozer.

The retailer this weekend appeared to have suspended sales of head scarves and other clothing by Beirut-based manufacturer Bokitta after The Mail on Sunday uncovered a series of troubling online posts by the company and its co-founder.

Bokitta, which describes itself as a 'contemporary hijab and clothing brand for modern and practical Muslim women', sells its £35 hijabs via John Lewis's website, along with its £70 'Premium Prayer Set', which includes robes and a headscarf.

But an investigation by this newspaper discovered that 11 days after the massacres by Hamas on October 7, 2023, an image was posted on Bokitta's official Instagram page depicting a Hamas terrorist flying a paraglider in front of a Palestinian flag.

The image also included a Hamas bulldozer smashing through Israel's border fence and a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf in the shape of Israel.

Meanwhile, on October 7 itself, the company's co-founder and design director, Hala Absi, shared a clip of a news report about the Hamas onslaught, along with a caption in which she branded Israelis 'oppressors'.

'May God protect our brothers and sisters in Palestine and grant us victory over the oppressors,' she wrote.

John Lewis this weekend launched an investigation and both posts were taken down. In a nine-word statement, it said: 'We weren't aware of these comments and are investigating.'

Bokitta's clothing was yesterday no longer available to buy from John Lewis's website.


UNRWA could lay off thousands as Trump’s Board of Peace prepares for post-agency Gaza - report
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is considering a major restructuring that could see thousands of its employees laid off and some of its responsibilities transferred to other bodies, including US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, according to multiple media reports citing diplomatic sources.

The reported proposal is spearheaded by UNRWA’s acting commissioner-general, Christian Saunders, and comes as the agency faces a severe financial crisis.

Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP), established under the framework endorsed by the UN Security Council in November 2025, is tasked with overseeing Gaza’s transitional governance, reconstruction, economic recovery, and coordination of humanitarian assistance.

The BoP has been explicit in its opposition to the UN agency set up for Palestinian refugees only, making it clear in a July 1 statement that “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza.”

“We are turning the page on the complex of perpetual aid dependency and conflict. The people of Gaza deserve better,” the BoP said in a social media post on September 25.


ANC election losses could weaken South Africa's anti-Israel stance
The ANC has historically made support for the Palestinian cause a central part of its foreign policy and political identity.

This position has become particularly well-known since December 2023, when South Africa brought a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of violating the Genocide Convention through its military activity in Gaza. Israel has rejected the allegations and challenged the court's jurisdiction.

The case remains ongoing, with the ICJ setting November 22, 2027, as the deadline for South Africa's next written submission and May 22, 2029, for Israel's response. The court has not issued a final ruling on the genocide allegations.

Halfon said the ANC's support for the Palestinian cause remains "institutionally entrenched," even though the original framework that once contained it has largely eroded.

"Historically the ANC maintained a more complex position," he told the Post. "A disproportionate number of South African Jews, drawing on their own experience of persecution, played significant roles in the anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela explicitly recognized the legitimacy of Zionism as Jewish national self-determination while simultaneously supporting Palestinian aspirations. He saw no necessary contradiction."

According to Halfon, that balance began to narrow as the ANC transitioned from a liberation movement into South Africa's governing party.

"Today the position functions less as a carefully weighed principle and more as a source of elite cohesion, international signaling, and domestic distraction," he continued.

The ANC's claim of historical solidarity with liberation movements "has become harder to sustain on two practical grounds," Halfon added.

"First, consistency: Equivalent diplomatic energy and legal activism are not applied to other severe human-rights crises, including the mass internment of Uyghurs or the large-scale killing of Christians in parts of Africa. Selective application weakens the claim that the policy is driven by universal principle."

"Second, opportunity cost. South Africa faces collapsing municipal infrastructure, unreliable water and power, and high levels of violence. The expenditure of diplomatic capital and state resources on a distant conflict while basic services deteriorate is increasingly difficult to justify to voters who judge parties on local outcomes."

Halfon argued that, although support for the Palestinian cause remains deeply embedded within the ANC, "its political returns are diminishing relative to its costs."

The municipal election results could reinforce that pressure by demonstrating that voters want more focus on domestic governance issues, particularly infrastructure, service delivery and public safety. However, they do not necessarily indicate that voters are rejecting the ANC's position on Israel. What the results mean for Israel and South Africa's Jewish community

For Israel and South Africa's Jewish community, Halfon said the results should primarily be seen as evidence that South African voters are judging parties on local delivery and accountability rather than international signaling.

"For Israel and the local Jewish community, the practical implication is straightforward," he said. "The era of unchallenged single-party control of diplomatic posture is ending. The quality of the coalitions that emerge, and the willingness of non-ANC parties to treat foreign policy as a legitimate area of negotiation rather than a reserved domain, will determine whether that change produces a more balanced and interest-driven approach."

"The municipal results themselves do not guarantee that outcome; they only make it possible," he concluded.


Vance blames the Iran war, but diplomacy was the real failure
What followed was a memorandum of understanding negotiated with Vance in the lead, and Israel cut out of the process. It was one of the weakest diplomatic agreements in recent memory, and it collapsed almost immediately.

The campaign Israel and the US were waging before April 8 never resumed. Later American strikes on Iranian infrastructure were not a return to that war. IRGC and regime leadership have not been attacked since.

None of this should have surprised anyone. Ten days before the war began, I wrote in these pages that Iran was not trying to win a war with the United States. It was trying to survive Trump. The regime knew it could not defeat America militarily.

It also knew Trump had no appetite for a prolonged war. Its strategy was simple: drag the conflict out, keep oil prices high, and let political pressure build in Washington as the midterms approached. For the Islamic Republic, survival is victory. Once Trump is gone, everything the war set out to destroy can be rebuilt.

That is precisely what happened. Every week of negotiations was another week of high gas prices with the regime still standing. Tehran's playbook worked perfectly, and it worked because Washington agreed to play along.

Iran's own behavior shows who it fears. In recent weeks, Tehran has issued statements threatening European governments, Gulf states that host American bases, and American forces directly. The IRGC has warned AI companies that work with Israel. It has even warned Elon Musk over Starlink. Conspicuously, Iran has refrained from threatening Israel.

Since April 8, Iran has fired exactly one missile at Israel and promptly stopped when Israel’s response was too costly. The regime is not afraid of American negotiators. It is afraid of Israel because it knows that Israel is waiting for an opportunity to actually bring down the regime.

Those who wish to argue that Israel pushed Trump into this war may do so. That argument ignores that Trump has been more focused on the Iranian threat than any figure in American public life since the 1980s, but grant it for argument's sake.

Even so, it is incoherent to blame Israel both for starting the war and for how it turned out. The war became a problem because Trump chose the path of diplomacy advocated by Pakistan, Qatar, and Vance himself, against Israel’s wishes.

Diplomacy is not an inherent good. Neville Chamberlain conducted diplomacy too. The question is whether it serves the objective. Seven months of talks with Tehran have produced no deal that holds, no dismantled nuclear program, no end to proxy terrorism, and no freedom for the Iranian people. What they have produced is exactly the outcome that Iran was working towards since April 8.

As politics, Vance's post is shrewd. He kept his distance from the war from the start and was largely absent from public view during the fighting. He reappeared only when the ceasefire talks began. Now he is making sure the defeat does not stick to him. Donald Trump Jr. has already endorsed his analysis.

But shrewd politics is not sound strategy. Trump now faces a choice. According to reports, the options before him are renewed strikes, a deal being drafted by Qatari mediators, or continued blockade and sanctions in the hope that Tehran eventually gives in. Vance and others are pushing for a deal. If Trump takes that road, he will be repeating the very mistake that brought him here.

The voters did not punish the war Israel wanted. They punished the one Washington settled for.
'Iranian demands are outrageous,' Rubio says as talks fail to make progress
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that negotiations with Iran have made little progress, stressing that Washington is not close to reaching a diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his departure for France to attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers, Rubio said, "I have no progress to report. There are several countries that continue to engage with Iran and put forward various ideas, but I would not say that we are on the verge of a breakthrough."

Rubio said President Donald Trump continues to favor a diplomatic solution, but acknowledged that Iranian demands remain a major obstacle to reaching an agreement.

"The president will always prefer to resolve this problem, like any other problem, through diplomatic means. Unfortunately, sometimes that is impossible. If there is an opportunity to do so, we will examine it. At the moment, the talks have not been particularly productive because the Iranian demands are simply unacceptable, and in some cases they are outrageous, ridiculous, and detached from reality," he added.

Rubio also addressed the possibility of additional US strikes on Iran, saying Washington would act if American forces or shipping in the region came under threat.

"If there is a clear and immediate threat to shipping or to our forces in the region, we have the right to defend ourselves. It all depends on the level of the threat and whether they are acting against us or intend to do so," he said. Rubio defends Trump's decision to go to war with Iran despite political fallout

The secretary of state also defended Trump's decision to go to war with Iran, despite the potential political consequences of the conflict.

"A nuclear Iran would be unacceptable and dangerous not only to Israel and the Middle East, but to the entire world and the United States. The president confronted a threat that other presidents were unable to confront. Sometimes doing the right thing is not necessarily popular, but it is necessary," Rubio said.


Experts View Next Phase of Iran Campaign
Avner Vilan, who has spent most of his career working on the Iranian nuclear issue within Israel's defense establishment, believes economic pressure alone will not persuade the regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The military option, he argues, must remain on the table. "Iranian civilians could be reduced to having barely enough bread to eat, or even starve to death, and the regime would still keep pouring money into its nuclear program," he said.

He believes Iran has decided to move rapidly toward developing a nuclear bomb, which its leadership sees as essential to the regime's survival. "To everyone who opposes going to war now, I would point out that deciding not to go to war also requires a strategy, rather than simply hoping that time will work in our favor."

Oded Ailam, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and a former senior Mossad official who specialized in Iranian strategy, said, "I'm not at all convinced another strike is necessary. Iran hasn't managed to significantly rebuild its nuclear program, and when it comes to missiles, they're trying to move part of their production infrastructure underground."

"The most effective approach would be to keep strangling them economically until they can't pay the salaries of the military, which isn't particularly fond of the regime anyway; the Revolutionary Guards, whose pay has already been cut; or the Basij. That could trigger an uprising against the regime."

"All that's needed is patience, because the blockade is extremely effective. Last week, the Iranians sold off the remaining oil aboard tankers that had been waiting in the Indian Ocean, and there's no longer any income from oil, petrochemical products and so on. All they have left is 1.6 million pistachio trees, whose harvest is exported."

Ailam estimates that Iran will reach a point of no return economically within six weeks, partly because water infiltration into oil wells will force them out of operation for an extended period.
Internal Pressure Builds as Iran Seeks to Restore Military Capabilities
There is a growing gulf between the suffering exacerbated for most Iranians by the U.S.-led economic blockade and the increasing assertiveness of leaders tied to the regime and IRGC. With inflation running at 88% and foreign currency reserves being squeezed, daily hardships are multiplying.

The Iranian government has tried to bridge the affordability gap by giving out food vouchers. But whereas the 10 rial coupon covered about 30% of a person's daily food costs last December, it now covers 18%.

A study of satellite imagery by BBC Verify suggested that Iran's military has been digging out the entrances of its underground missile bases, which were caved in by U.S. and Israeli bombing earlier this year.

According to some estimates, Iran may retain 1,750 ballistic missiles in these facilities.

According to a Reuters investigation, the IRGC has been using cryptocurrency payments to purchase chemicals used in rocket motors or explosive warheads, allowing them to maintain production, particularly of drones.


Houthis fire cruise missiles at Saudi Arabia; Riyadh’s Aramco tower damaged by debris
An administrative building belonging to state oil giant Saudi Aramco in Riyadh was damaged by falling debris following a Houthi attack on Sunday, with no injuries or fatalities reported, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said.

A Reuters witness saw blown-out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the capital’s King Abdullah Financial District.

The incident, which the ministry said caused limited damage, came after the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis towards Riyadh.

Aramco was not immediately available for comment, and there was no immediate statement from the Houthis.

The King Abdullah Financial District is one of the most visible manifestations of the kingdom’s ongoing economic and social reforms drive, with towering glass skyscrapers, high-end retail outlets and green spaces dotting the area.

Targeting the district would mark a major escalation in the kingdom’s fight with the Houthis.

The area is also home to residential housing and a large metro station with heavy commuter traffic during the morning rush hour.


IDF completes more than 1,500 counterterrorism operations in Judea, Samaria since September
The Israeli military announced Sunday that the 98th Division headquarters had completed its mission overseeing the Judea and Etzion regional brigades in Judea and Samaria.

Since the division’s deployment on Sept. 25, the two brigades carried out more than 1,500 counterterrorism operations and arrested more than 140 suspects, the IDF said.

Two IDF soldiers, Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, were killed in an encounter with terrorists during the deployment, the military noted.
Israeli city sues Iran for $65 million in war reparations
The Bat Yam Municipality in central Israel filed a civil lawsuit against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday, seeking 208 million shekels (approximately $65 million) in reparations for the damage inflicted on the city when a ballistic missile struck it during “Operation Rising Lion” in June 2025, killing nine and wounding hundreds.

The suit was filed through Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center), according to a statement released by the civil rights organization.

Since Israeli law requires proof that an official representative of the defendant received the statement of claim, Bat Yam Mayor Zvika Brot and Shurat HaDin President attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner personally presented the legal documents to a representative of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York last week, the NGO said.

The two acted in coordination with government representatives, the U.S. administration and security officials, Ynet reported.

“It is time for the Iranians to pay for their actions. The murderous terror regime that casts a shadow of fear over the entire Middle East cannot hide behind sovereign immunity while launching missiles at innocent civilians,” said Darshan-Leitner.

“The campaign against Iran does not end on the battlefield; it extends to the courts, bank accounts, assets and every financial resource of the Iranian regime. We will continue to fight on behalf of the victims of terror until we bring about the economic collapse of the Ayatollah regime,” she added.


IDF locates terrorist weapons caches near UN posts
Israeli troops found dozens of weapons near United Nations outposts in Southern Lebanon, the Israeli military announced on Sunday.

Soldiers recovered weapons from a civilian home used by Hezbollah approximately 200 meters from one UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) outpost and from a storage facility 100 meters from another, the army said.

The weapons included rifles, RPG launchers and rockets, a machine gun and fragmentation grenades. They were found alongside humanitarian aid boxes and emblems of the Amal and Hezbollah terrorist organizations, the IDF said.

“This is further evidence that the UNIFIL force has failed in its mission, and of the cynical exploitation by terrorist organizations in the face of UNIFIL’s inaction,” the Israeli military said in a statement. “The IDF will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm Israeli civilians and IDF troops, and will continue operating to remove threats and remain committed to the ceasefire agreement.”


Dave Chappelle makes ghoulish joke about Charlie Kirk’s murder to sold-out MSG crowd
Dave Chappelle told a sold-out Madison Square Garden he’s felt ‘better’ ever since Charlie Kirk was murdered — and got cackles from the New York City crowd.

The comedian made the remark during back-to-back weekend shows that closed his “Karmageddon” tour and opened the New York Comedy Festival.

“I feel f–ked up saying this. It’s scary being a public speaker,” Chappelle said in a clip that circulated X on Saturday night. “And I mean look, ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered … and I shouldn’t say this publicly but, I feel better.”

Laughter and scattered applause followed.

“I know I shouldn’t say that, but it’s just a feeling,” he continued.

“I didn’t ask to feel this way. I just be driving around like, ‘Why am I in such a good mood? Oh!'”

“I’m so happy Charlie Kirk was killed. I can’t help it, it’s involuntary,” Henderson wrote, attributing the words to Chappelle.

Henderson, who said he was Kirk’s final long-form interview guest, later wrote that the second sentence “struck me as particularly odd.

Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot dead Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson has been charged with his murder.

Eleven months ago, Chappelle reacted to the subject differently.

In his December Netflix special “The Unstoppable…,” he said the shooting had rattled him.

“If you talk for a living and see Charlie Kirk get murdered that way, I’m gonna be honest, I was shook,” Chappelle said at the time.


Abdul El-Sayed and the march of Muslim identity politics
After all, there appears to be a strong strain of Islamic sectarianism in El-Sayed’s views and strategy. He has been equivocal at best on Israel’s right to exist. He was associated with a campaign video portraying a despondent American couple, unable to afford eggs for their children because the government had spent its money helping Israel to ‘kill Palestinians’. When US-Israeli airstrikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February, El-Sayed made no public comment. In a leaked campaign call he explained why: ‘There are a lot of people in Dearborn’ – the city with the highest proportion of Muslims in the US, whose support was crucial for El-Sayed in the primaries – ‘who are sad today’. Offending those who might sympathise with an Islamist tyrant was never an option for El-Sayed.

Then there is the vexed question of the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed repeatedly denied any connection with the Brotherhood during the election campaign and claimed that to mention it was an attempt to stigmatise him. ‘What are you implying?’, he asked an audience member who quizzed him about it at the Michigan town hall last month.

But by then, it had already come to light that, in 2012, he had signed an open letter in support of the Muslim Brotherhood, when the Islamist movement ascended to power in Egypt. The letter urged Egypt’s new Islamist government to ‘purge’ elements of the media and the police who failed to toe the line. His mother, too, was a Muslim Brotherhood activist. Of course, El-Sayed might have changed his mind in the years since and he claims he is now estranged from his mother. But people were clearly entitled to ask about this without being smeared as ‘Islamophobes’.

Even more recently, El-Sayed has engaged in what can only be described as terror apologism. ‘Hurt people hurt people’, he said in response to a Hezbollah-inspired terrorist attack on Michigan’s biggest synagogue in March. During the election campaign, he appeared at two rallies alongside Hasan Piker, a popular American YouTuber who said America ‘deserved 9/11’ and claimed it ‘didn’t matter’ that Israeli women were raped on 7 October.

In the later stages of the Senate race, El-Sayed rowed back his response to the attempted synagogue attack. He tried to distance himself from Piker. And he disavowed the ad blaming Israel for grocery prices. But none of this was enough to reassure even some fellow Democrats. Haley Stevens, who he defeated in the primaries, withdrew her endorsement on the night before the election and urged Michigan voters to back Mike Rogers. The whiff of anti-Semitism around the El-Sayed camp, she argued, was simply too strong to ignore.

Abdul El-Sayed clearly has questions to answer. His Muslim identity cannot shield him from these forever.
Abdul El-Sayed’s Wikipedia page was whitewashed of controversies by mystery editor before election: sources
Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed’s Wikipedia page was quietly whitewashed over the past few months by a mysterious editor, including scrubbing a series of antisemitism controversies, according to social media sleuths.

The editor — who goes by “CopyleftEverything” — is also responsible for dozens of other edits to pages on the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the American Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communists of America.

The editor was “diligent in what appears to be a clean-up of El-Sayed’s page” heading into Tuesday’s general election where the radical Dem defeated Republican Mike Rogers, according to investigative journalist Ashley Rindsberg.

Both Rindsberg, founder of online-campaign-influence tracker NPOV, and Yehuda Teitelbaum, a NYC-based researcher, separately tracked revisions to El-Sayed’s page and posted them this week on X.

They include a June 12 edit where wording is changed from El-Sayed “has never been granted a medical license” to the softer phrasing, “did not pursue a medical license.”

El-Sayed came under fire during the campaign for calling himself a “doctor.” Although he holds a doctor of medicine degree from Columbia University, he never entered residency training or obtained a medical license.


Trump Admin Boots Lebanese Diplomat Over Posts Praising Hezbollah's 1983 Marine Barracks Suicide Bombing
The Trump administration has ordered Lebanese diplomat Ibrahim Charara to leave the United States over social media posts in which he praised Hezbollah's 1983 suicide bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut as "heroic resistance" against "American military occupation." The posts were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

Charara, who serves as Lebanon's general consul to Detroit, is expected to leave the United States by Sunday after the State Department declared him persona non grata, a person familiar with the matter told the Free Beacon.

The stunning decision comes after the Free Beacon unearthed Charara's posts from 2021 hailing the 1983 bombing, in which Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. Marines.

Since taking the post last year, Charara has cozied up to numerous local officials and community leaders in Dearborn, Mich., a majority-Muslim town outside Detroit with a significant Lebanese population. He appeared at the annual banquet of the Arab American Political Action Committee last week and sat next to then-Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D.), a keynote speaker at the event.

Charara attended an Arab American Civil Rights League gala last month, where he was photographed with Cenk Uygur, the left-wing YouTube host and El-Sayed ally who produced an antisemitic ad days before the election that blamed Israel for high grocery prices in America and boosted El-Sayed.

In June, El-Sayed and Charara attended the grand opening of a new mosque for the Islamic Institute of America, whose lead imam, Hassan al-Qazwini, has praised Hezbollah leaders and Iran.

Charara has attended a number of other events with Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud (D.) and Osama Siblani, a Dearborn community leader who unapologetically refers to Hezbollah as "freedom fighters."


Judge Takes Off Jihadist’s Ankle Monitor So He Can Focus on Romance and a New School Job
A judge has taken the ankle monitor off an individual indicted for activities aligned with Hamas and for putting university employees’ families on a hit list. The judge decided that the ankle monitor interfered too much with the Jew-hating, would-be jihadi’s romantic life, Islamic prayer practices, and new job at a Milwaukee kids’ school.

The fact that a school (Islamic or not) is even allowed to hire someone who has an ankle monitor for fantasizing about committing Hamas-style massacres in America is absolutely insane. Reportedly, the judge cared more about Ahmet Kerem Körkaya's sex life and facility in performing prayers to his demon-god than about the possibility that he could actually carry out one of his multiple threats. We have no idea if Körkaya actually decided to be peaceful now, and since he doesn’t seem to be suffering any long-term consequences for his actions, why should he be?

The Daily Wire reported that the “Michigan 8” include ringleader Körkaya, who “engaged in a coordinated campaign of violent, criminal acts seeking to pressure University of Michigan leaders and other businesses in the Eastern District of Michigan to cut off all ties with Israel.”

RAIR Foundation USA reported on November 6 about the update in Körkaya’s case. Apparently he tried to obtain the address for the university regent because he had put the regent’s family on his “hit list.” One of his co-conspirators suggested burning down another target’s house. The group also used Hamas symbols and made calls for genocidal war against Jews, such as “intifada,” when putting graffiti on properties.


Observer slammed for ‘sympathetic interview’ with Palestine Action founder
The Observer newspaper has been criticised for giving what has been described as a “sympathetic” interview to the founder of Palestine Action.

The paper’s front-page features a quote from Huda Ammori, in which she says it was “beyond our comprehension that Palestine Action could become a terrorist organisation”.

In the interview, the co-founder of the group, which has attacked Jewish communal organisations, businesses, attacked a police officer and which broke into RAF Brize Norton and caused damage to British military equipment, said she was surprised at the government’s move to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation in the aftermath of the break-in to Brize Norton.

She also says she is confident of winning an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, should her appeal against Palestine Action to the Supreme Court – which is ongoing – fail.

The decision to give Ammori a prominent interview was severely criticised.

Labour MP David Taylor told the JC: "What are the Observer's Jewish readers meant to think about this sympathetic interview? And what about Sgt Kate Evans whose spine was fractured after she was attacked by Palestine Action activists?

He continued: “After they attacked and sabotaged RAF Brize Norton, the government was completely right to proscribe them and I hope the Supreme Court upholds the government's decision, and we see an end to this nonsense challenge. We also need to make sure any offshoots are prevented from doing the same”.


‘Power gets your head’: Controversial Muslim preacher warns Jess Wilson
A controversial Muslim preacher who once said men could rape and beat their wives has accused Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson of abusing her power after she vowed to cut taxpayer funding to his mosque and prevent a planned expansion.

Samir Mohtadi, also known as Abu Hamza, questioned Ms Wilson’s authority to block the development and accused her of ignoring the legal processes governing planning decisions.

The comments came in a video posted to the social media page of MyCentre, the Islamic organisation based in Melbourne’s north which has faced scrutiny over the preacher’s past remarks about women.

“Another politician said ‘if I’m in the office, I’m not going to give grants to Muslims and I’m not going to give a permit to a school’," he said about Ms Wilson in a video.

“Wow, so she’s the judge, the jury, she steps over the laws of the country, she bullies her way in and she doesn’t recognise there’s courts, there’s a planning minister.

“This is the problem when power gets to your head.”

Ms Wilson has pledged to stop further government funding to MyCentre and block plans for a new mosque and school in Mickleham.

Ms Wilson’s office rejected Mr Mohtadi’s criticism, saying he was not in a position to accuse the Opposition Leader of bullying.

“Jess won’t be lectured about bullying by a man who has told husbands they can beat their wives and questioned whether forcing their wives to have sex is rape," Ms Wilson's office told the Herald Sun.

“Mr Mohtadi is entitled to his views, but he is not entitled to Victorian taxpayers’ money.”

She added: “Under a Liberal and Nationals government, this hate preacher will not receive another cent in taxpayer money.”

The organisation, MyCentre, has received more than $600,000 in taxpayer funding since 2022, including federal grants administered through the Department of Home Affairs.

Labor Premier Ben Carroll previously said some of the funding was “going to some really good services and really good work”.

But he condemned Mr Mohtadi’s comments about women, describing them as “completely disgusting and vile”.


Teva 'disappointed' by Irish consultants' boycott of its pharmaceuticals, company tells 'Post'
Teva Pharmaceuticals is "disappointed" by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association's decision to boycott its products, the Israeli company told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

The Irish consultants’ representative body passed a motion last week encouraging a boycott of products made by the Teva Pharmaceuticals, and urging members to avoid prescribing, administering, or using Teva Pharmaceuticals’ products “where clinically appropriate and equivalent alternatives are available” and as long as it does not compromise patient safety, continuity of treatment, or clinical outcomes.

A full prescription boycott would affect 12.5% of all prescriptions in Ireland (the amount estimated to be produced by Teva).

The motion, according to the Irish Examiner, said it would support and defend clinicians who choose not to use the products on "ethical grounds."

Teva told the Post that it is proud to have been producing medicines in Ireland for over 30 years - medicines that patients and healthcare professionals "rely on every day both here and around the world."

"Healthcare shouldn't be politicized, and treatment decisions should be guided by clinical evidence, patient need, and professional judgment," Teva said.

"Any action that seeks to restrict access to medicines for reasons unrelated to patient care risks undermining the principle that patients should receive the treatment most appropriate for their condition."
MEDIA

COGAT rejects Hamas allegations of unpreparedness for winter rain, says 91,000 new tents delivered
After heavy rains caused flooding and swept away tents in Gaza on Saturday, Hamas blamed Israel for the situation.

Security officials rejected the criticism on Sunday morning, saying that as part of preparations for winter weather, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Gaza Board of Peace, and the UN had already transported a variety of supplies to the enclave.

Officials stated that 91,000 new tents, waterproof tarps, and 9,000 truckloads of clothing and blankets were among the equipment delivered to offset the flood damage.

COGAT also encouraged aid organizations and countries to continue donating supplies and assisting in humanitarian efforts. Permanent buildings not to be reconstructed until Hamas disarms, security officials say

Meanwhile, security officials asserted that for as long as Hamas refuses to disarm and the Gaza Strip is not demilitarized, equipment for the reconstruction of buildings in Gaza and mobile homes will not be allowed in.

"Even now, Hamas is exploiting the aid entering the Gaza Strip to rebuild its military wing. It is not stopping its rearmament. It is exploiting the civilian environment and the entry of reconstruction equipment. We knew in advance that this would be the situation in winter, and therefore COGAT prepared for it," a security official added.

The same security official explained that "the situation now is the best it has been since the war began. During previous winters, there was military maneuvering, restrictions on the entry of general equipment, and population displacement. There are difficulties in the Gaza Strip. There is no doubt. But they are not comparable to what existed at the height of the war."


S&P keeps Israel’s A credit rating, stable outlook unchanged
S&P Global Ratings left Israel’s sovereign credit rating unchanged at A with a stable outlook after its scheduled semiannual review on Friday, Calcalist reported on Saturday.

An S&P spokesperson told Calcalist that the agency did not publish a new report. The key factors underpinning the Jewish state’s rating had not changed since the previous review, the spokesperson said.

The rating remains two notches below Israel’s prewar AA- level. S&P had downgraded Israel in April and October 2024.
Boy George brings Nova survivors, bereaved families onstage in Tel Aviv
British singer Boy George brought survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre and bereaved families onstage for a performance of “We Will Dance Again” at Tel Aviv’s Menora Mivtachim Arena on Saturday night, the Israeli news and entertainment website Mako reported.

The Nov. 7 performance was the second of two concerts scheduled at the arena. Organizers advertised a 360-degree format for the Nov. 4 show and announced Israeli singer Ivri Lider and DJ Ofer Nissim as the respective concerts’ special guests.

The Culture Club frontman visited the Nova massacre site near Kibbutz Re’im on Nov. 3. He said he wrote “We Will Dance Again” after encountering survivors’ and families’ stories at an exhibition in London and hearing about his Jewish friends’ fears.

“I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing,” he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog hosted Boy George at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Nov. 2, thanking him for supporting Israel and the Jewish people. Herzog presented the singer with a sculpture of red anemones inspired by memorial installations at the Nova festival site. “The people of Israel love you, and thank you for standing with us,” Herzog said.


Israel releases Sinai campaign archives on war’s 70th anniversary
Israel’s Defense Ministry on Sunday announced the launch of a website commemorating 70 years since the 1956 Sinai campaign, which according to the ministry features more than 4,500 photographs, alongside documents and maps, many previously unpublished.

“Operation Kadesh” was Israel’s military campaign against Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis, launched on Oct. 29 of that year and resulting in the capture of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip.

At an April 4, 1957, meeting of senior officers following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Sinai, then-Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion recalled telling the Cabinet about Gaza on Oct. 28, 1956, the eve of the campaign: “We must take it. ... If I believed in a miracle, I would want it to be swallowed by the sea.”

Ben-Gurion also said remaining in Gaza amid international isolation and having to suppress terrorism was beyond Israel’s capabilities and incompatible with its essential needs. “This terrorism would have destroyed us,” he said.

In another document, Ben-Gurion warned against assuming that future wars would resemble the Sinai campaign: “Tel Aviv will be bombed, Haifa will be bombed, and people will be killed. Not combatants—women, children.”

According to the ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archive’s website documents preparations for “Operation Kadesh,” political and military decisions, combat operations and the war’s aftermath.



 



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