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In-Depth Issues:
Israel Takes Second Place in Eurovision 2026 - Hannah Brown ( Jerusalem Post)
Israel took second place in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Saturday, after a year in which Israel faced an unprecedented campaign to ban it from the competition.
The song "Michelle," performed by Noam Bettan, received 123 points from the national juries and 220 points from the audience.
Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Iceland sought to ban Israel due to the war against Hamas after Oct. 7.
See also Video: Israel's Noam Bettan Performs "Michelle" ( Eurovision Song Contest)
The Elimination of Izz al-Din al-Haddad: Ceasefire Offers No Shield for Hamas Leaders - Danny Zaken ( Israel Hayom)
The decision to eliminate Hamas military leader Izz al-Din al-Haddad was made because of clear intelligence indicating that Hamas, in addition to rebuilding its strength and rearming, was once again planning attacks against IDF soldiers in Gaza.
Hamas is using the enormous quantities of supplies entering Gaza for this purpose and has no intention of surrendering its weapons.
Al-Haddad was one of the planners of the Oct. 7 massacre, part of the narrow inner circle of Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif. After their death he became the supreme commander.
Israel sees its duty as settling accounts with those responsible for the worst massacre in the country's history, just as in the case of Adolf Eichmann.
Its message to Hamas is that the ceasefire does not grant immunity to its operatives, against the backdrop of its refusal to surrender its weapons and relinquish control.
Israel will not allow Hamas to build up its strength without limit.
Dismantling Hamas Is Possible - Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
"The killing of Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad proves that dismantling Hamas is possible the hard way, too," a senior official involved in efforts to rebuild Gaza said Saturday.
"It will not end there. Hamas will disarm, one way or another....The longer this is delayed, the worse it is for everyone, including them."
Within Trump's Board of Peace, "there is no anger at Israel....It is clear to everyone that Hamas is in violation. It brought this on itself."
"We are not telling Israel whether to resume fighting. That is Israel's decision."
Finishing the Job in Iran? - Amir Taheri ( Gatestone Institute)
The Strait of Hormuz remains closed because those who had shut it in the first place were killed by the Israelis, and the midgets who replaced them in the Tehran chain of command lacked the authority and courage to even suggest re-opening it.
Iran lacks the power to protect itself against airstrikes, while the U.S.-Israel tandem lack the will to conquer, cleanse and control - something that requires many boots on the ground.
Another bout of bombing would prolong the global economic crisis without forcing Tehran to surrender because there is no one on the ground to surrender to.
Trump surely knows that the Khomeinist regime has been militarily, economically and politically crippled. It may plod along on crutches for a while but is in no position to resume its marathon of mischief any time soon.
The crippled regime will face a long, hot summer of discontent with hyperinflation, mass unemployment, lengthy blackouts and power shortages, and the inability to print money to buy silence.
The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.
How America Can Enhance Its Leverage in the Strait of Hormuz - Prof. Eugene Kontorovich ( Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. has intercepted or diverted at least three Iran-linked ships in the past month.
Declaring a captured vessel a prize of war - already provided for in the U.S. Code - would allow the government to take ownership and sell the oil, with proceeds going to the Treasury.
For hundreds of years, international law has allowed belligerent powers to seize civilian enemy vessels, and even ships of neutral third parties if they engaged in prohibited activities such as carrying contraband or breaking a blockade.
In 2023, the U.S. Justice Department seized the Suez Rajan, a tanker carrying almost a million barrels of Iranian oil, for violating U.S. sanctions. The cargo was sold in Galveston, Texas, for $83.4 million.
U.S. prize law allows for establishing prize courts in the ports of co-belligerents. Seized vessels could be brought to Dubai or Eilat, Israel.
The writer is a professor at the George Mason University Law School.
Ancient Tunnel Discovered in Jerusalem ( Israel Antiquities Authority)
An ancient tunnel hewn through the rock for 50 meters was unexpectedly discovered near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem during archaeological excavations conducted prior to the construction of a new neighborhood.
The entrance from the surface was through a staircase descending to an opening that led into the tunnel.
Israel Antiquities Authority excavation directors noted, "The quarrying was executed meticulously. It is clear that whoever carved this tunnel invested tremendous effort, careful planning, and possessed the capabilities and resources necessary to achieve this goal."
The impressive discovery is expected to be incorporated into an archaeological park in the new neighborhood.
See also Video: Ancient Tunnel Discovered in Jerusalem ( Israel Antiquities Authority)
My Children Teach Me about Israeli Resilience - Sari Nossbaum ( Jerusalem Post)
In February, when the war with Iran started, my family and I were in the French Alps and our flight home was canceled.
When we were offered a "rescue" flight five days later and seriously considered remaining abroad, I was met with resistance from my children.
My oldest, who is 13, insisted, "We need to go home. We have to be there through the good and the bad."
After Oct. 7, 2023, my husband and I quietly discussed whether we should leave the country temporarily until things settled down.
Later, my oldest daughter asked me, "Mommy, how can we leave? There are people on the frontlines for us!"
Then she added: "It's okay. We'll have something to tell our grandchildren." She was 11 years old.
There is still a part of me that wishes I could shield them from all of it. But I'm starting to realize that the traits they are forming - strength, adaptability, and perspective - will serve them far better in the long run.
My children are living with purpose. It is impossible not to notice the quiet resilience that so many children here are displaying.
They are not seeking an easy way out. They are stepping into the reality around them with a strength that I deeply admire.
There is a sense of responsibility that feels far beyond their years, an understanding that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- CENTCOM Chief Says Bombing "Significantly Degraded" Iran's Military Capabilities - Eleanor Watson
Adm. Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command, who heads U.S. forces in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the bombing campaign against Iran had damaged or destroyed more than 85% of Iran's ballistic missile, drone and naval industrial base through more than 1,450 strikes on weapons-manufacturing facilities.
He said it would take Iran "a generation" to rebuild its navy and years for its drone and missile production to recover. He added that recent reports that Iran retains 70% of its ballistic missile inventory are inaccurate.
(CBS News)
See also "CENTCOM Forces Systematically Dismantled What Iran Spent Four Decades Building" - Adm. Brad Cooper
Adm. Brad Cooper, Commander, U.S. Central Command, told Congress on Thursday:
"In less than 40 days of major combat operations, USCENTCOM forces systematically dismantled what Iran spent four decades and tens of billions of dollars building....Iran can no longer reliably arm or resupply Lebanese Hizbullah, the Houthis, Hamas, or militia groups in Iraq with advanced weapons."
"In coordination with the Israel Defense Forces, America's servicemembers delivered a long-term rollback of Iran's ability to project power in the region and beyond...across more than 10,200 sorties and over 13,500 strikes....Iran's air and air defense forces are functionally and operationally irrelevant.
Before Operation Epic Fury (OEF), the Iranian Air Force flew between 30 and 100 sorties each day. Today that number is zero. We destroyed or rendered non-mission-capable Iran's fixed-wing airfields, hangars, fuel storage, and munitions stockpiles, and we knocked out 82% of its air defense missile systems."
The "combined Middle East Air Defense (MEAD) network...intercepted over 6,000 one-way attack drones and more than 1,500 ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. forces, Israel, and our Arab partners. Every one of those intercepts was a life saved - ultimately thousands of lives - and together, represents the largest integrated air defense umbrella ever fielded on earth...and is the primary reason Iran's missile and drone salvos produced far less damage than Tehran intended." (U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee)
- Iran-Linked Iraqi Militia Commander Arrested for Planning Attacks on Americans and Jews in the U.S.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior member of Kata'ib Hizballah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, was arrested and charged with terrorism-related offenses for his activities as an operative of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including his involvement in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks throughout Europe and the U.S., the Justice Department announced Friday.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the U.S. and abroad." FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said, "In the span of just three months, Mohammad Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe including against U.S. citizens and interests - and planned to conduct a similar attack here in our country." (U.S. Department of Justice)
See also Iranian-Backed Militia Commander Plotted to Attack New York Synagogue - Benjamin Weiser
Mohammad al-Saadi, 32, who was detained in Turkey recently and handed over to U.S. authorities, transmitted a photo and map showing the location of a prominent Jewish synagogue in Manhattan and sent photos and maps of two prominent Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz., according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday. (New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Hamas Military Leader Killed in Gaza Airstrike - Lior Ben Ari
Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the commander of Hamas forces in Gaza, was killed on Friday in an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, a senior Hamas official confirmed. A day before the Oct. 7 attack, Haddad, then commander of Hamas's northern Gaza brigade, instructed his forces to take as many soldiers captive as possible and ensure their actions were documented and distributed to the media in real time.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Haddad said he had taken part in planning the Oct. 7 attack. He spoke Hebrew and held hostages in northern Gaza, including surveillance soldiers Liri Albag, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy and Agam Berger.
Former hostage Emily Damari, who had also been held by Haddad, said, "This is a very, very important closure for many people. He planned and orchestrated Oct. 7. He murdered my friends and many other innocent people. He planned my abduction and also held me in Hamas tunnels. With God's help, we will get to every last one of them." (Ynet News)
- Israeli Soldier Killed in Hizbullah Drone Strike in Lebanon - Elisha Ben Kimon
Capt. Maoz Israel Rakanti, 24, was killed in an explosive drone strike in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced Saturday.
(Ynet News)
- Israeli Soldier Killed by Hizbullah Mortar Fire in Southern Lebanon - Avi Ashkenazi
Staff-Sgt. Negev Dagan, 20, was killed by Hizbullah mortar fire during combat in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Friday. (Jerusalem Post)
- Tens of Thousands Join Jerusalem Day Flag March - Gilad Cohen
Tens of thousands of people celebrated Jerusalem Day on Thursday evening in the capital with singing and dancing and Israeli flags, marking the 59th anniversary of the capture of eastern Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Nissan, who came to Jerusalem with her children, said, "It was very important for us to be part of this special and great day, the day of Jerusalem's liberation. To feel the strength of the people of Israel together and the unity, to see so many Israeli flags and to show the children Jerusalem in all its glory....It is important for us to pass that on to the next generations." (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- After the Ayatollah - Jason Greenblatt
The military balance between the U.S. and Iran has shifted dramatically. Iran's air defense shield, the infrastructure that for years effectively concealed and protected its nuclear program, has been destroyed. Its proxies are severely degraded. Its economy is under sanctions and an unprecedented naval blockade. Its nuclear sites have been damaged.
The strategic landscape today bears almost no resemblance to 2015, when the last deal was struck.
When the Obama administration concluded its Iran deal, Iran's regional power was intact. Hizbullah was the most formidable non-state military force in the Middle East. Hamas governed Gaza with operational freedom. Iran's air defenses, built over decades with Russian and Chinese assistance, provided real protection for nuclear infrastructure deep inside Iranian territory. The pressure on Tehran was not existential. That is not true today.
The S-300 batteries and radar infrastructure that once raised the cost of strikes on Iranian territory are gone. What remains of Iran's conventional military capacity is a fraction of what existed before. That is a fundamental change.
Hizbullah suffered shattering losses in the 2024 campaign, its command structure broken, its missile stockpiles depleted, its grip on southern Lebanon fractured. Hamas still exists, but it no longer projects power as it did before Oct. 7. What has changed is that the entire architecture Iran built over decades to extend its deterrence outward, at enormous cost, is under simultaneous pressure.
The economic damage is severe. By Tehran's own count, airstrikes hit more than 23,000 factories and firms, costing over 1 million jobs directly. The Iranian publication Etemad Online has estimated another million pushed out of work by the spillover.
The Obama-era deal left the underlying infrastructure intact. That is why Iran was able to surge toward weapons-grade enrichment so quickly after the agreement collapsed. Trump is seeking something different: physical removal of enriched uranium stockpiles, a genuine rollback of centrifuge capacity, verification with real teeth, and a permanent prohibition on nuclear weapons, no sunsets. The leverage to demand it has never been stronger.
But coercive leverage is useful only if there is someone on the other side capable of accepting its terms and making them stick. On the Iranian side, the question of who can deliver on a commitment is emphatically open.
The writer was the White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration.
(Tablet)
- Iranian Leader Issues New Operational Directives for War - F. Hadid
Around May 10, Maj.-Gen. Ali Abdollahi, Iran's joint command chief, met with supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei. What came back from the other side of that table were new operational directives for war - "new guiding measures to pursue military operations and firmly confront adversaries," Iran's Fars News reported.
The meeting doesn't resolve the debate about who runs Iran. It resolves the question of whether anyone above the operational commanders is willing to issue new orders, in writing, during a war. Someone just did.
Since early March, every diplomatic initiative has run into the same structural problem: nobody could guarantee delivery. Pakistan's Asim Munir brokered a ceasefire on April 8 that Iran's own military violated within hours. Iranian diplomats would agree to frameworks that Iranian commanders would then ignore.
Whether you believe Mojtaba is genuinely commanding or merely rubber-stamping, the institutional form of supreme-leader-issues-military-directives has now been performed, documented, and broadcast through every state media channel. If you are a diplomat sitting in Islamabad or Doha trying to construct a ceasefire framework, this tells you your counterparty's internal politics have been settled - and not in your favor.
Every offer currently circulating now runs upward into a command structure that has already issued operational orders. A diplomatic proposal that requires Iran to stand down its military posture must now explicitly override a supreme leader's directive. (House of Saud-Saudi Arabia)
- How to Accomplish U.S. Objectives in Iran - Michael Singh
Since the beginning of 2025, wartime outcomes by the U.S. and its partners constitute major strides in nearly all areas of U.S. concern with Iran. At the same time, the conflict has produced Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has established de facto control over traffic through the strait with minimal direct application of force, and Iranian leaders see maintaining control of the strait as powerful negotiating leverage.
While blockading Iranian ports gives the U.S. economic leverage, economic pressure against Iran is unlikely in itself to have a dramatic impact on the regime's decision-making. The leverage Iran is wielding via the strait has created escalating economic and time pressure on the U.S. and the rest of the world, likely emboldening the regime and making broad concessions more difficult to obtain.
The writer is managing director and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute.
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Israel and the West
- The EU's Distorted Narrative on Settler Violence - Herb Keinon
The EU's decision on Monday to sanction settlement organizations under the guise of "settler violence" was praised by Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot who said, "Extremism and violence carry consequences." If only that were true. If it were true, then Belgium, along with Britain, France, Canada, and Australia, would not have rewarded the Palestinians with statehood recognition in the fall of 2025, less than two years after Palestinians in Gaza carried out mass acts of unspeakable barbarism.
No, this measure is about drawing a distorted equivalence between Israelis and Hamas. Prime Minister Netanyahu said Europe had "exposed its moral bankruptcy by drawing a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists."
Let's be clear: there are acts of violence by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and they are deplorable. They should be unequivocally condemned and fully prosecuted under the law. But acknowledging the existence of violent incidents is not the same thing as accepting the grotesquely inflated narrative that has grown around it.
Between 2019 and 2022 there were 24,808 incidents of Palestinian stone-throwing and firebomb attacks against Jews - not including shootings, stabbings, or explosive devices. Yet it is "settler violence" that has become the focus of international sanctions campaigns and diplomatic outrage. Why? Because this is about delegitimization.
The organizations targeted by the EU include Amana, which deals with developing and financing Jewish communities, and Regavim, which focuses on opposing illegal Palestinian construction on state land, including projects supported by the EU. That is what this is really about.
As Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar explained, Israel "will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland," and "no other people in the world has such a documented and longstanding right to its land as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel."
When the EU adopts a narrative that inflates fringe violence into a defining characteristic of the more than 900,000 Jews living beyond the Green Line, including Jerusalem, while downplaying decades of Palestinian terrorism, it ceases to be an honest broker, loses its ability to be taken seriously in Israel, and instead becomes a political actor advancing a predetermined outcome. (Jerusalem Post)
See also below Observations - "Settler Violence": The Latest Fabricated Buzz Phrase for Singling Out Israel - Amb. Alan Baker (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Palestinian Arabs
- Palestinian Leaders Still Reject Israel's Right to Exist - Khaled Abu Toameh
On May 11 and 12, the Palestinian Authority organized mass rallies across the West Bank to commemorate the "Nakba" ("catastrophe") - the term Palestinians use to describe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Senior Palestinian officials, including top figures from the ruling Fatah faction and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), participated in the event, once again reaffirming their commitment to the so-called "right of return."
At first glance, the "right of return" may sound humanitarian. In reality, however, it represents one of the most extreme demands in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian leaders are demanding that millions of Palestinians classified as "refugees" - including descendants of the original refugees from 1948-49 - be allowed to settle inside Israel itself. The goal is to flood Israel with millions of Palestinians and transform Jews into a minority in their own country.
This demand fundamentally contradicts the idea of a "two-state solution." Under a genuine "two-state solution," Palestinians would establish their own independent state alongside Israel. Yet Palestinian leaders are effectively saying that they want the demographic destruction of Israel through mass migration. No Israeli government could ever agree to national suicide. The continued glorification of the "Nakba" and the insistence on the "right of return" demonstrate that many Palestinians have not abandoned their long-term dream of replacing Israel rather than living peacefully beside it.
By defining Israel's establishment as a "catastrophe," the Palestinian leadership is effectively telling its people that the very existence of Israel is illegitimate. This is not the language of reconciliation, coexistence, or compromise. It is the language of rejectionism and extremism. If, every year, one side of the conflict commemorated the creation of the other side's country as a disaster that must be reversed, would anyone seriously believe that such rhetoric prepares people for peace and compromise?
The annual Nakba commemorations reinforce the narrative that Jews are foreign colonialists with no legitimate historical or national connection to the land. This narrative erases nearly 4,000 years of Jewish history in Jerusalem, Hebron, Judea, Safed, Tiberias, and elsewhere in Israel. This explains why peace efforts have repeatedly failed over the past decades. While some Westerners continue to speak about a "two-state solution," Palestinian leaders continue to educate their people that all of Israel is "Occupied Palestine." (Gatestone Institute)
Observations:
- Violence by groups of hooligans is illegal, cannot be condoned, and must be condemned and duly punished in accordance with the law. This is a clear societal norm in any civilized society, applicable when committed by marginal groups of politically motivated youths. Violence should not be tolerated. There exists no Israeli policy encouraging or sanctioning violence against Arabs. Such violence is clearly illegal and, as in any normal society, law enforcement bodies are required to act against it.
- Regrettably, the international tendency to generalize and negatively politicize anything connected with Israel appears to be characterizing isolated instances of violence by marginal and irresponsible groups, as if it is officially-sanctioned Israeli government policy of encouraging and generating violence against Palestinians. This has become the buzz phrase "settler violence" that is now being attributed to Israel.
- This buzz phrase is totally misguided and malicious. To characterize isolated instances as a systematic government-sanctioned and inspired policy of violence against Arabs, and to dub it "settler violence," tailor-made to apply to Israel, would appear to be contrived. To characterize this as if it is an international crime attributable only to Israel is no less misguided and malicious.
- Use of buzzwords and catchphrases appears to have become the international pastime when it comes to finding excuses to vilify Israel. Not a day goes by without international leaders and organizations, parliamentarians, the UN, media outlets, highly organized and orchestrated demonstrations in major world capitals, as well as showbiz celebrities, liberally repeating internationally recognizable catchphrases and buzzwords to associate Israel with some element of international criminality, including "genocide," "Apartheid," "colonialism," "illegal occupation," "mass starvation," and "indiscriminate violence."
- Deliberately using such buzzwords carries a clear intent to mislead the public into attributing negative and criminal connotations to Israel. The incessant repetition of such phrases is legally inaccurate and blatantly misleading, emanating from acute ignorance as to their genuine meaning as well as a lack of knowledge and awareness of the actual facts and legal background of the various issues.
- The absurdity of the buzz-phrase "settler violence" is particularly blatant when one compares this with the massive swath of reported incidents of sports hooliganism throughout the world, and mass-hooliganism at political marches and demonstrations on campuses and major thoroughfares in Western capitals.
- Thousands of instances of hooliganism are reported annually in European and South American soccer involving assault, criminal damage to property, use of weapons, use of signal flares and smoke bombs, and physical violence against supporters of rival teams, in addition to post-game riots including car burning and shop window smashing.
- However, such instances of violence and fatalities from hooliganism, documented in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Australia, Egypt, Canada, and the U.S., have not caused those countries to be internationally condemned and branded as sponsoring violence, in the same way that Israel is being so branded.
The writer, former Legal Adviser and Deputy Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, heads the international law program at the Jerusalem Center.
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