|
In-Depth Issues:
The IDF's Next Moves in Gaza - Lilach Shoval ( Israel Hayom)
The IDF plans to seize control of 70-75% of Gaza within three months, then continue clearing the area of terrorists over several more months.
Logistics centers distributing food and humanitarian aid are expected to begin functioning in a few days.
Israel has established four logistics centers for aid distribution and is preparing to build four additional centers.
Israel Prepares to Expand Aid Distribution under Armed U.S. Guards - Yoav Zitun ( Ynet News)
According to the new distribution plan, each family in Gaza would be able to go to the distribution area and receive aid, unlike the method used by the UN and other aid agencies, previously, which relied on the aid being delivered to shops and aid stations, allowing Hamas to then take control of the aid and use it for its own purposes.
The civilians who will come to receive the aid would not have to be vetted and recorded.
There will also not be a limit of one aid package per family.
Each distribution center would provide the humanitarian aid to 300,000 Gaza residents and will work around the clock, using staff from the aid organization and the local population but not UN employees.
Israeli officials said UN objections to the plan were politically motivated and originated at UN headquarters in New York, not from the people in Gaza.
Report: Hamas Facing Financial Crisis - Noa Lutski ( Ynet News)
Hamas is facing a financial crisis, with government employees in Gaza receiving just 900 shekels ($250) a month for the past four months, according to a report in Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday.
Sources within Hamas said the Qassam Brigades have not paid fighters for three months and are facing acute shortages of military supplies.
Families of deceased and wounded Hamas members are also no longer receiving consistent support.
While Hamas's military command structure continues to function, Hamas is having difficulty recruiting fighters without payment.
Former Israeli Hostage Tells French Foreign Minister: "Diplomatic Solutions Won't Work" - David Isaac ( JNS)
Former Hamas hostage Agam Berger told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot during a meeting in France on Saturday that Israel has no choice but to fight the terrorist group.
"As soon as there is a war of survival over our land, that's what we will do. They don't want 'togetherness,'" Berger said, referring to Hamas. "Diplomatic solutions won't work because it's either us or them."
Berger, 20, was released from Gaza on Jan. 30 after 482 days in Hamas captivity.
Israel Is Still the World's Scapegoat - Rob Killick ( Spiked-UK)
It is telling that Israel is the first and only country to have been charged with the war crime of starvation.
The reality is that, so far at least, famine remains a "risk" only.
There is no doubt that the war has, as wars do, brought hardship, danger and bloodshed to the people of Gaza.
But Israel has made sure that enough aid has gone into the region to prevent starvation.
It is generally accepted that Western economic sanctions, alongside the impact of civil war, worsened living conditions for Syrian civilians to the point of starvation.
Yet where were the calls to put the U.S., the EU, or the UK in the dock for the consequences of their actions?
Instead, the international community has congratulated itself on its role in bringing down the Assad regime.
So why has Israel been singled out as it battles to cripple the terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza?
Family of Murdered Israeli Woman Donates Her Organs - Dr. Itay Gal ( Jerusalem Post)
The family of Tzila Gez, a pregnant Israeli woman murdered on May 14, 2025, while traveling to give birth, chose to donate her organs.
Her corneas will be transplanted to restore sight to two individuals.
Hananel Gez, Tzila's husband, said: "Tzila always brought light into her life, and even after her passing, her generosity continues. We ensured she would give the gift of sight to two people, bringing light and vision."
Eurovision Cuts Israel from Official 2025 Album - Barak Abargil ( Israel Hayom)
The European Broadcasting Union has completely excluded Israel's 2025 Eurovision representative, Yuval Raphael, from the official album compilation video released Friday, despite her second-place finish and commanding victory in the public vote.
The deliberate omission has triggered widespread accusations of discriminatory treatment.
Jewish Protester Charged in UK over Placard Mocking Terrorist Leader - Janet Eastham ( Telegraph-UK)
A Jewish protester was detained by London Metropolitan Police and charged last September for holding up a cartoon that showed Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese terror chief, with a pager and the words "beep, beep, beep."
Hizbullah is a terror group which is proscribed in the UK.
However, during questioning, police repeatedly asked the man - who was part of a counter-demonstration against a pro-Palestinian march - if he believed the image would offend "pro-Hizbullah and anti-Israel" activists.
He was charged under the Public Order Act for causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing.
On May 10 - eight months after his ordeal began - the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, saying there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said, "In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organization."
Lord Walney, the Government's former extremism tsar, said, "The idea that officers intervened on the side of supporters of a proscribed terrorist organization is grotesque."
Comedian-Turned-Advocate Lee Kern Confronts Antisemitism - Yoni Beinart ( Ynet News)
Three weeks after Oct. 7, British screenwriter Lee Kern came to Israel.
"After Oct. 7, it felt completely natural for me to leave everything and come here to support my people," he said in an interview.
Kern, who was Oscar-nominated for his screenplay for Borat 2, has since officially made Aliyah.
"I have no doubt that we're dealing with the cruelest, most sociopathic enemies imaginable," he asserts.
"Historically, we've always faced the worst bastards. And this culture...it breeds sociopaths. It's a psychotic culture that glorifies death, blowing yourself up, becoming a shahid (martyr)."
"This concept of jihad and self-harm is so evil, it's a rewiring of human nature....People say, 'Oh, they're so angry.' So am I, just as angry as them. But do I go out and commit terrorism? No."
Kern realized that people don't just believe the worst about Jews, they want to believe it.
"Since the dawn of time, people have believed every lie and conspiracy about Jews, from spreading plagues, to poisoning wells, to drinking Christian children's blood. You have to bypass logic to believe that stuff."
"You have to want it to be true. And that continues today in the global media, where the top journalists abandon fact-checking and evidence. They want us to be guilty."
"I'm just a proud Jew. I won't let people kill us. My career isn't more important than that."
"I don't understand how a human being can see babies murdered, women raped, people kidnapped, and not do something. I just don't get it."
|
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- 15 Gaza Aid Trucks Looted on Thursday - Louisa Loveluck
15 World Food Program trucks carrying aid were looted in Gaza, the UN agency said Friday. 90 trucks carrying flour, baby food and nutritional supplements entered Gaza on Wednesday and 107 trucks on Thursday. Looters sacked the trucks in southern Gaza late Thursday as the vehicles headed to bakeries.
(Washington Post)
See also Five More Gaza Aid Trucks Looted on Saturday (Jerusalem Post)
- On Streets of Tehran, Iranians Describe Daily Struggles - Susannah George
In the past year alone, the Iranian rial has lost half its value. Inflation is so high that grocery store prices seem to change almost daily. Officials, analysts and ordinary citizens in Iran paint a picture of a country hungry for change but far from the breaking point.
(Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Murder in Washington
- Two Promising Lives Cut Short by a Gunman Fixated on Gaza - Joshua Chaffin
Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21. Lischinsky was a Christian who grew up in Germany and moved to Israel with his family as a teenager. He had moved to Washington, D.C., in 2022 to work at the Israeli Embassy, where co-workers recalled him as the first to arrive at work most days and eager to take on any task. That included volunteering to screen the gruesome footage from the Hamas attack on Israel.
Milgrim grew up in a progressive Jewish community in Prairie Village, Kansas.
After Milgrim and Lischinsky exited the Jewish Museum, footage from surveillance cameras showed them poised to enter a crosswalk at 3rd and F streets when Rodriguez walked past. He turned, pulled a 9mm pistol from his waistband and began firing at them from behind. Both victims fell to the ground. Milgrim would attempt to crawl away but Rodriguez pursued her and fired again, according to police. Then he reloaded his gun and, when she attempted to rise, continued to shoot. Police recovered 21 9mm casings at the scene.
Dana Walker, director of the American Jewish Committee's Access Global program for young professionals, spent a week in Morocco with Milgrim. She recalled her friend on long bus rides, always sitting with someone new and often engaged in deep conversation. "She was someone who believed so deeply in peace-building," Walker said. "This was her calling." (Wall Street Journal)
See also My Friend Yaron Lischinsky - Mariam Wahba (Free Press)
See also Yaron Lischinsky's Unique Story - Dudi Kogan (Israel Hayom)
- Welcome to the Global Intifada - Bari Weiss
A gunman opened fire outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington and murdered two young people because he thought they were Jews and because they were at a Jewish place for an event hosted by a Jewish organization. Yaron Lischinsky was born in Israel to a Jewish father and a Christian mother. He was raised partly in Germany and spoke German, Hebrew, and Japanese.
Sarah Milgrim was an American Jew who began working at the Israeli Embassy in November 2023. She had two master's degrees, including one in natural resources and sustainable development from the UN University for Peace. The event they attended was about delivering humanitarian relief across the region, including to Palestinians in Gaza.
The shooter's evil worldview says that Jews and those who support the Jewish state - wherever they live - are now acceptable targets and deserving of death. Since Oct. 7, the professional talkers have dismissed chants to "globalize the intifada" as a metaphor and not what it always was: a demand for open season on Jewish people worldwide.
Venomous, untrue statements about Israel, its supporters, and the war against Hamas in Gaza chipped away at the old taboo against open antisemitism in America. A democratic state and its supporters have been made into targets through constant demonization of Zionists.
(Free Press)
- An Act of Antisemitic Terrorism in the Nation's Capital -
Editorial
The slaughter Wednesday night of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington was an act of terrorism motivated by virulent antisemitism. The gunman chanted "free, free Palestine" after he robbed a young couple of their lives. Authorities say he confessed and said he "did it for Gaza."
Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, had received an award in support of her work at Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, which provides training and dialogue opportunities to young Palestinians and Israelis. "My passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work," Milgrim wrote.
Yaron Lischinsky, 30, wrote that "expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East."
The Anti-Defamation League recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, up 344% over the past five years. Assaults increased by 21% to 196 incidents. Antisemitism has flared up alongside mass protests against Israel over its forceful response to Hamas's barbaric attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. But even before the war, Jews were experiencing rising hate.
It is essential that everyone speak out clearly and unequivocally against political violence.
Such acts need to become counterproductive - and punished to the fullest extent of the law - to keep them from becoming contagious. (Washington Post)
- I Met Yaron Lischinsky the Day before He Was Murdered - Armin Rosen
Israeli diplomats are inevitably Jews among the nations, a tiny sub-tribe that serves as the official foreign representation of the world's only Jewish state, the first in 2,000 years and one of the most hated and lied-about countries in the entire history of humankind.
To carry out this mission for fairly low pay, in places far from home where spies and activists and journalists and local Jews are circling you or even actively targeting you at any given moment, requires a typically Israeli mix of creativity, resourcefulness, and optimism. An American or even an Egyptian diplomat can coast on the prestige of their government, but an Israeli one cannot.
I met Israeli diplomat Yaron Lischinsky 30 hours before his murder. When we parted ways I noticed how typical Lischinsky was of the country he represented. This was a smart kid, I thought, one who is evidently dedicated to his thankless, indispensable work.
Security, and the constant expectation of catastrophe that inspires our vast and expensive infrastructure of safety, are among the defining characteristics of American Jewish life in the 21st century. It's considered normal that Jewish and explicitly Israel-related events are conducted in quasi-secrecy, with their times and locations withheld until the last second.
Yet total safety is an illusion. At no point in the past 5,000 years has it been risk-free to be a proud representative of the Jewish people. There are inherent risks to being who we are that no amount of caution or care can eliminate.
(Tablet)
- This Is the Tragic Consequence of Conflating Jews and Israel - Naftali Shavelson
Entering Israeli diplomatic missions anywhere in the world is akin to boarding international flights: Metal detectors. Bag checks. Identifiable and plainclothes guards monitoring throughout. The security is second to none because it must be.
Since its inception, Israel has been the unenviable fixation of extremist groups and individuals the world over. The horrific killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim on Wednesday in Washington was devastating, but it was not a surprise.
I served for more than two years in Israel's Consulate in New York and quickly became used to hurrying past belligerent protesters on the way to work, and to bomb drills at lunchtime and security warnings at day's end to avoid public areas along my evening commute where mobs might gather, chanting for Israeli blood. During my tenure, protesters set fire to Israeli and American flags outside the consulate.
When the assailant targeted this reception by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, he may not have known his victims were members of the Israeli diplomatic corps. It was not an Israeli government event and was attended by Jewish and non-Jewish envoys from various countries. But he apparently considering these killings a step forward for the Palestinian cause.
Can anyone really say they couldn't see this coming after the wave of anti-Israel protests, encampments and social media screeds that swept America following the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023?
For a year and a half, some within the pro-Palestinian movement have signaled that the way to put political pressure on Israel is to intimidate Jewish families going to Sabbath prayers and Jewish students going to get-togethers on campus. Debate over the Israel-Hamas war has turned into a pretext to denigrate Jews.
Yaron and Sarah could have been me. They could have been any of us - my Jewish, non-Jewish, Israeli and American former colleagues. They could have been any attendee at any Jewish community event.
The writer was media director at the Consulate General of Israel in New York. (New York Times)
The Gaza War
- Israel Is Prepared to Go It Alone in Gaza - Jonathan Sacerdoti
For many in Jerusalem, the statements of condemnation from the UK, France and Canada are not only short-sighted but morally confounding. The January truce left Hamas's leadership intact, hostages still underground, and humanitarian aid channels co-opted by the very organization accused of starting the war. It delivered a pause that allowed Hamas to regroup.
This time, Israel appears resolved not to make the same mistake. The new offensive is targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in a final attempt to break Hamas's grip on Gaza, even at the cost of international rebuke. Israel believes there is no viable alternative.
Allegations of mass starvation continue to circulate, yet images emerging from Gaza frequently show children at food distribution points who appear healthy, even energetic. Tragedy must be documented, but so must manipulation.
Israel is walking a tightrope between strategic necessity and moral scrutiny, its actions judged under a microscope often devoid of the enemy's context. But there is also a clarity emerging that Hamas, not Israel, remains the principal architect of this war and the primary obstacle to its end. Whether the international community is willing to see that will shape the outcome as much as anything on the battlefield. (Spectator-UK)
- Learning to Learn: Lessons for the U.S. Army from the Israel Defense Forces' Wartime Adaptation - Maj. (ret.) John Spencer
In war, survival often depends not just on strength or firepower, but on how fast an army can adapt - in time to save lives. While navigating the complex urban terrain in a column, Israeli infantry soldiers had been staying inside their armored personnel carriers too long as they waited for the lead vehicle - typically a bulldozer or tank - to clear the path forward. Hamas attacked with rocket-propelled grenades from a close and elevated position, killing eleven soldiers in one attack.
In response, the IDF paused combat operations for 24 hours across multiple brigades to ensure that all personnel immediately adjusted their tactics. Soldiers would no longer sit in idling armored personnel carriers. One moment of battlefield horror became a lifesaving protocol - disseminated in a day.
Out of necessity, the IDF resurrected the Learning Officer - a lesson from the Second Lebanon War: a dedicated officer whose sole mission was to observe, collect, and disseminate lessons in real time. This was viewed as a core battlefield function. The IDF ground forces surged their learning officer cadre from just ten reserve officers to 150, embedding designated learning officers down to the battalion level.
These officers did not simply take notes; they engaged directly with frontline commanders, observed patterns, and helped rewire unit behavior in hours, not days - making learning a continuous, embedded function of combat operations at every echelon. Learning officers actively sought out lessons learned from the battlefield and passed them to their fellow learning officers, often in real time.
The result was a synchronized, self-updating network of tactical adaptation that moved at the speed of battle. The U.S. Army does not currently have anything equivalent to the IDF's learning officer system.
The writer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute. (Modern War Institute at West Point)
Iran
- Iran Isn't Building a Civilian Nuclear Program - Daniel Greenfield
The average cost of electricity in the U.S. per kilowatt-hour is $0.181. In Iran it's $0.004/kWh. A country where electricity is vastly cheaper than America doesn't need nuclear energy. With 1,183 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, one of the biggest in the world, Iran has all the energy it needs under its feet. The numbers for using nuclear power plants to generate electricity make no economic sense.
Iran is not building its deep underground Natanz uranium enrichment complex so far in the earth that it's supposed to be unreachable by U.S. strikes because it wants a civilian nuclear program. That much is obvious to everyone. Iran isn't looking to trade a nuclear weapons program for a civilian program. It's disguising its military program as a civilian program.
Some figures in the current U.S. administration insist on pretending that a deal can be made to keep Iran's nuclear program peaceful. The Trump administration should be clear-eyed about what Iran's nuclear program is and what it's for. Deals with terrorists and terror states are worthless. Any agreement with Iran can only end one way, with a terror state whose motto is "Death to America" gaining the ability to carry out that threat against us. (Gatestone Institute)
Israel and the West
- French Leaders Only State What They Want Israel to Do, Never What Hamas Should Do - Amir Taheri
French leaders are talking of taking "concrete measures" with regard to the ongoing tragedy in Gaza.
The first is to study the possibility of recognizing a "Palestinian state" by convening a conference in New York, in consultation with the Arab League, under the auspices of the UN. The second is to study the possibility of referring some Israeli officials for investigation on charges of violating unspecified humanitarian principles. The third is to ask the EU to study the possibility of curtailing trade with Israel.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, "We cannot allow our grand principles to be violated." However, 24 hours after Barrot justified France's anti-Israel posture, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau unveiled a 76-page report designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a present and imminent threat to France's national security. Backed by at least two unnamed "foreign powers," in France the Muslim Brotherhood has doubled its membership to 100,000. Its tactic is to infiltrate religious, educational, sport, cultural and trade units, and NGOs.
Hamas is seen as a "liberation movement" that cannot be eliminated. Yet, Hamas has never dubbed itself such. It sees itself as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, with global ambitions, and has deliberately kept the very word "Palestine" out of its identity. It doesn't want to "liberate" Palestine; its stated goal is to wipe Israel off the map.
The French leaders only state what they want Israel to do, never what Hamas should do.
Hamas could instantly end this war by releasing all remaining hostages and surrendering its arms.
Implicit support for Hamas, by bashing Israel and its leaders, might encourage what is left of the group's leadership to prolong the conflict and produce more victims.
The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. (Gatestone Institute)
- How the Cowardly West Is Emboldening Hamas - Brendan O'Neill
With their statement calling on Israel to "stop its military operations" in Gaza, the leaders of Britain, France and Canada have essentially given credence to the Hamas view of Israel's war in Gaza - that it is a criminal campaign of starvation masquerading as a war on terror. It is "egregious" and "disproportionate" and must stop, they said. What a shameful day for what remains of Western civilization.
The depiction of Israel's operations as threatening to kill thousands of babies, as the UN has claimed, is way off. In truth, this is a military push by Israel against an enemy that poses a direct and imminent threat to its people and its territory.
Yes, this war, like every war in history, has awful impacts on civilians. Britain and France should be well aware of the tragic scourge of "collateral damage," given how many hundreds of thousands of innocents have perished in their wars in recent decades. For them now to lecture Israel for having the temerity to go after the neo-fascists who slaughtered 1,200 people in its territory is hypocrisy of the most sick-making variety.
Absolutely the worst thing you could do in the current situation is embolden the malignant actors who started the war and who refuse to end it by returning the hostages and surrendering. Everyone who wants to save Palestinian lives should support the destruction of the poisonous cause of this conflict. That so many in the West are doing the opposite, and are essentially boosting Hamas, is horrendous. (Spiked-UK)
- In Canada, Tolerating Intolerance Has Led to Hate - Lorrie Goldstein
Canada in recent decades has gone from being a tolerant society to one that tolerates intolerance. Its latest manifestation is the current political and policing paralysis when it comes to dealing with pro-Hamas demonstrations, ostensibly calling for the destruction of Israel, but whose real agenda is to foster hatred against Jews in Canada. Every reasonable person knows that if these hate-filled demonstrations were aimed at blacks or gays, Canadian authorities would be using every means available to shut them down.
If these "pro-Palestinian protests" were genuinely focused on the military policies of Israel, they would not target Jews and Jewish businesses in Canada. Instead, Jews in Canada today have realized that our grandparents were right - that antisemitism did not disappear in the wake of the Holocaust.
The threat to Jews in Canada today comes from the failure of the political class in Canada to counter it, and in failing to counter it, the message is that silence gives consent. By allowing these law-breaking expressions of hatred on our streets to continue month after month and year after year, they create the impression that hatred against Jews in Canada is justified because of the actions of the Israeli government. By repeatedly condemning Israel while not equally denouncing Hamas, they tacitly encourage the hate-filled demonstrations against Jews in Canada. (Toronto Sun-Canada)
Observations:
- Two young Israeli Embassy staffers were gunned down in cold blood in Washington, D.C., America's capital. They weren't soldiers. They weren't armed. They weren't in Gaza. Let's not pretend this is an isolated act of violence. This murder is not random. It is the logical endpoint of 18 months of relentless, unpunished, institutionalized antisemitic propaganda unleashed across the globe since Oct. 7, 2023.
- We have lived through a campaign of lies so grotesque it would be laughable if it weren't costing Israeli lives. The evidence of the slaughter and rape of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 is overwhelming, horrifying, and undeniable. Every denial is a green light for the next massacre.
- Israel is defending itself against a death cult that hides in hospitals, uses babies as shields, and brags about it on camera. Yet a whole chorus of willfully blind critics prefer to see war crimes where there are none, because it's Israel. Because it's the Jew among nations.
- No one talks about the billions of dollars Hamas diverted from humanitarian aid. No one discusses the tunnels beneath the schools and hospitals. No one talks about the UN's open complicity with Hamas, because the narrative must be preserved: the Jews are guilty.
- Every protest chant, every keffiyeh waved in London, New York, Berlin, and Paris, has carried with it a genocidal dream: to wipe Israel off the map. "From the river to the sea" is not a call for peace; it is a call for Jewish extermination. After today, let's stop pretending it is anything else.
- The two young people died in the heart of the Free World because this genocidal rhetoric has been imported, incubated, and mainstreamed by Western institutions that have lost the moral courage to stand up for the values they supposedly believe in. The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in much of the Middle East, operates with impunity in the West, its ideology spread through "civil society" fronts and protest movements.
- We have built a society where the right to protest, no matter how violent, threatening, or antisemitic, trumps the responsibility to tell the truth, protect minorities, or maintain public order.
- What began as propaganda ends in murder. What started with a hashtag ends with a bullet. The people who deny, distort, or defend Hamas's actions are complicit. This isn't about geopolitics. It's about basic decency. It's about whether Jewish blood is still considered sacred in the West, or expendable. We already know the answer.
The writer, who served in the British Army in 2005-21, is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
|