Friday, August 8, 2025

Will more people recognize the emotional manipulation and anti-Israel propaganda/journalistic fraud? The New York Times offered a timid correction of a faked photo; BILD, Germany’s largest newspaper, finally gave a cover story to how Hamas has been staging photos; anyone can do a reverse image search showing the reuse of photos from other conflicts; the Washington Post finally posted a story about Israel feeding Gazans; and the UN admitted that 88% of their aid trucks (since May) have been looted.  Please be vigilant - this week, hours after Hamas released repugnant videos of tortured and starved hostages, including of Evyatar David forced to dig his own grave, someone uploaded horrifying fake videos of Gaza made by A.I. to actor Michael Caine’s X account with over 800,000 followers and the AP went out of its way to show empathy for injured Hezbollah terrorists.

“Rather than pushing a two-state mirage – again, just ticking boxes that people feel they must reflexively check – the EU would be better off talking about how the EU can help disarm terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank and what role it can play in a deradicalization process inside those territories.” Herb Keinon

Europe and the UK sabotaged the hostage/ceasefire negotiations. Within 48 hours of the 22-member Arab League, plus the European Union and another 17 countries (including Canada), at a UN conference signing a declaration condemning Hamas’ October 7 massacre, calling on Israel to immediately stop the war in Gaza, announcing they would recognize a Palestinian state, and demanding the terror group Hamas disarm and relinquish power to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas abandoned ceasefire talks and released grotesque hostage videos. Additionally, in April, the UK (secretly/discretely) signed a Memorandum  of Understanding with Northern Ireland and the Palestinian Government where “The Participants underline the importance of maintaining commitment to the PLO principles.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Slams Countries Recognizing a Palestinian State (U.S. State Department)

Hostage Update:
Over 671 days have passed since October 7th. A hostage who was in a tunnel with Evyatar David, says terrorists holding him have A/C, cable TV and plenty of stolen food.  Another hostage, Roni Krivoi, was held hostage by Hamas for 51 days and lost 20 pounds. "We were inside a very, very small cage. Honestly, about a meter and a half by a meter and a half, no height, no toilets, no food." Hostages continue to suffer in captivity. Starved, tortured, and still alive; they are symbols of why Israel is still fighting.
Demand Their Release After the release of devastating videos, there is no doubt: time has run out. Urge your elected officials to pressure Hamas to release every hostage held in Gaza nowSend your email here
 
AUSTRALIA
30,000 march in support of terrorists https://x.com/MaralSalmassi/status/1952161597729755541
 
CANADA
Despite its terrorist designation, Corporations Canada has neglected to dissolve Samidoun‘s not-for-profit corporation. Samidoun was designated as a terrorist entity in Canada for its role in advancing the interests of other listed entities, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a violent terrorist organization responsible for hijackings, bombings, and murders. Since being listed, Samidoun has continued to operate in Canada, organizing protests, glorifying terrorism, and spreading hate on Canadian streets. https://www.bnaibrith.ca/samidoun-letter-writing-campaign/
 
EUROPE
Resolution calling for release of hostages snatched during Hamas' October 2023 attacks on Israel was among several emergency motions passed at EPP Valencia congress, but seven delegates declined to support it. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/05/01/seven-epp-congress-delegates-refuse-to-call-for-hamas-hostage-release
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, told Israel it “owes the Palestinian Authority over $2 billion,” referring to tax revenues Israel has collected on behalf of the authority but refused to disperse to compensate for the stipends that the Authority uses for their pay-to-slay program.

Leaders from the European Union, Britain, France, and Germany have denounced recent propaganda videos released by Gaza terror groups, call on Hamas to disarm https://www.timesofisrael.com/european-countries-slam-videos-of-emaciated-hostages-call-on-hamas-to-disarm/
 
IRAN
Bissan Barghouti, Executive Committee Member Of 'Masar Badil' – Affiliate Of Terror Designated PFLP And Samidoun – Meets In New York With Iranian Mission To The UN To Express 'Full Solidarity' With Iranian Regime, Congratulate It On 'Victories In The Face Of Aggression' https://www.memri.org/reports/bissan-barghouti-executive-committee-member-masar-badil-%E2%80%93-affiliate-terror-designated-pflp
Tehran's Infrastructure to Finish a Bomb Is Shattered  (Washington Post)
The United States, United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden released a joint statement today condemning "the growing number of state threats from Iranian intelligence services in our respective territories."
Iran-Backed Groups Planning Attacks from Southern Syria  (Israel Hayom)
  
ISRAEL
Elie Aloni (former hostage): The rallies and demonstrations continue all over the country…. So the world sees the photos of the child from Gaza, but doesn't give a damn about the starving hostages. No question that Israel failed dreadfully on the media front... Nation after nation are announcing they will support a declaration of a Palestinian State in the upcoming UN convention, making sure Hamas will achieve its goal, and Oct. 7 is totally forgotten...Bibi has surely succeeded in destroying every part of Israel - security, education, high tech sector, economy (you can't imagine the cost of living and food prices are now probably the highest in the world, except for Gaza...), judicial system, the army, wherever you touch there is total inefficiency and corruption…The war needs to end NOW and all the hostages need to come home NOW!
Netanyahu rejects bid to cut Israeli supply of electricity, water to Gaza https://worldisraelnews.com/netanyahu-rejects-bid-to-cut-israeli-supply-of-electricity-water-to-gaza/
The Bloody Clash in Sweida: Strategic Dilemmas for Israel https://www.inss.org.il/publication/israel-syria-druze-conflict/
B’Tselem’s New Report on Gaza: A Manipulative Attempt to Delegitimize Israel (Honest Reporting)
Oct. 7 victims and families sue Meta for over $1 billion - Enabling Hamas’ livestreaming of their atrocities on social media violated their privacy and facilitated terrorism, the plaintiffs charged.
 
LEBANON
Israel continues to target Hezbollah positions in Lebanon
The Lebanese government moves to disarm Hezbollah - how Hezbollah’s disarmament would be carried out in light of the group’s refusal to cooperate is still a question. 
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-ministers-walk-out-of-cabinet-meeting-as-beirut-approves-us-disarmament-plan/ see also Hizbullah Rejects Lebanese Government's Disarmament Plan (France 24)
 
PA/HAMAS
Images of Gaza Show the Reality of Urban Warfare, Not Genocide - Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp (Telegraph-UK)
Peace isn't possible until PA stops paying terrorists to kill 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/01/10/palestinian-authority-terror-payments-holocaust-survivor-israel/77543726007
US sanctions PA following PMW report to Marco Rubio https://palwatch.org/page/37229
Crime boss, traitor, looter — or Gaza’s best hope? https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-war/article/gaza-palestinian-militia-leader-yasser-abu-shabab-7hfnrm2cb
PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced elections for the Palestinian National Council (PNC) will take place by the end of 2025. This will be the first vote since 2006.
The Palestinian Authority's goal to destroy Israel and turn it into "Palestine" hasn't changed. https://palwatch.org/page/37217 Not once has the PA condemned Hamas' murder, beheading, rape, and torture of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023
The Shocking Truth About Gaza’s Children You Never Saw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1vH2H6oIo4
PA Summer Camp teaching terror against Israel - The Mennonite Central Committee, an American-Canadian Christian community and European fan football clubs support the NGO running the camp https://palwatch.org/page/37220
Hamas is proud of how many Palestinian lives they sacrifice
https://bsky.app/profile/kristinmreid.bsky.social/post/3lvk4vt6aik2d
 
QATAR
Qatari state-backed charities have poured millions into Canadian Muslim organizations, some with alleged ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, a shadowy web of influence is growing. https://honestreporting.ca/videos/qatars-quiet-grip-on-canada-will-the-media-wake-up/
 
RUSSIA
Russian courts have sentenced 135 people to prison for their roles in the October 2023 mob attack on Makhachkal Uytash Airport in Dagestan (attempted lynching of Jews)

SYRIA
First-Hand Accounts from Syria https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/the-current-situation-in-al-suwayda-interview-with-a-local-druze-faction
For more info on the conflict visit the blog https://updateonmiddleeast.blogspot.com/2025/08/syria-fighting-is-still-going-on.html
 
TURKEY
Turkey is pushing to rejoin the F-35 program despite owning Russia’s S-400 missile system, which threatens U.S. aircraft and risks exposing sensitive F-35 technology to Russian intelligence. 
Action: Letter to Congress https://middle-east-forum.quorum.us/campaign/F35/
Senior Editor Of Indian Daily: 'India Has Reason To Worry As Turkish Intelligence Agencies Are... Extending Financial And Logistical Support To Islamist Factions In Bangladesh',(MEMRI)
 
UK
Former UK Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn launches new anti-Israel party Far-left MP, who was ousted from Labour over antisemitism, says Your Party will be committed to ‘mass redistribution of wealth and power’ and a ‘free and independent Palestine’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oejxKEVEAxY
This is the darkest day in British foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/29/darkest-day-british-foreign-policy-palestine-starmer/
1,500 Breaches of Editorial Guidelines: BBC Excoriated in Scathing Report on Israel-Hamas War Coverage https://honestreporting.com/1500-breaches-of-editorial-guidelines-bbc-excoriated-in-scathing-report-on-israel-hamas-war-coverage/
The Telegraph printed a chart of casualties from a Hamas press release with just one big number designed to mislead. https://x.com/HonestReporting/status/1953075780847640585
BBC Arabic’s network’s ongoing pattern of platforming figures who promote violence and bigotry.
https://www.camera.org/article/press-release-rola-azar-adds-to-bbc-arabics-long-record-of-platforming-hate/
Yahya surges to top 100 UK baby names - the same first name as the Hamas leader who orchestrated the October 7, 2023, atrocities. Yahya is a name rising fast across Europe, especially among Muslim families, alongside Muhammad. https://worldisraelnews.com/yahya-surges-to-top-100-uk-baby-names-post-october-7/
Britain continues to run espionage flights over Gaza from Cyprus using spy plans to try and locate the hostages through signal intelligence.
 
UN
UN refuses to cooperative in distributing aid as reported hunger grows in Gaza
https://www.fdd.org/in_the_news/2025/07/26/un-refuses-to-cooperative-in-distributing-aid-as-reported-hunger-grows-in-gaza/
 
US
After 20 months of war, one in four Americans now say the war is unjustified. Many key constituencies do not view Hamas as a terrorist group, and nearly half are unaware that hostages remain in Gaza. https://boundlessisrael.org/polling-insights/israel-at-war-with-hamas
Mapping Project Promoter Calla Walsh Now in Tehran https://www.israellycool.com/2025/07/17/mapping-project-promoter-calla-walsh-now-in-tehran/ The Boston Mapping Project includes Jewish sites statewide in Massachusetts as well as police departments; it is considered very dangerous in light of - two Chabad centers suffered arson, a rabbi stabbed in daylight in Boston, and the level of Jew hate in the state's esteemed universities.
National Educators Camouflage Antisemitism and Holocaust Education Distortion as Social Justice The NEA, the largest U.S. teachers’ union, has distorted Holocaust history by describing it as affecting “12 million victims of different faiths,” omitting the central fact that the Nazis’ “Final Solution” was the organized genocide of 6 million Jews for being Jewish. It is also offensive that the NEA refers to International Holocaust Remembrance Day as a “celebration,” when it is a day to mourn, commemorate, and educate about the atrocities committed. The handbook also promotes Nakba education, portraying Israel’s founding as “violent displacement,” while ignoring that Jews accepted the 1947 two-state solution rejected by Palestinian leaders who chose war. The NEA’s explicit assertion that “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” is not only false, but dangerous. See for yourself. This is the handbook: https://vinnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/nea_handbook_online_2025.pdf
In a resounding statement of bipartisan support for Israel, the amendment to cut $500 million for U.S.-Israel missile defense programs lost 422-6.  Representatives Al Green, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, and Thomas Massie, joined Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ilhan Omar in voting to cut funding for programs like Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025207
Columbia University punished more than 70 students for the parts they played in antisemitic rioting on campus over the last year. (CBS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXEg8iu0G1w
UCLA Settles Lawsuit with Jewish Students https://www.jns.org/ucla-reaches-6-13m-settlement-with-jewish-students/
Reports indicate the US will offer to fund the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas dropping its weapon and leaving. The goal? To encourage civilians to topple Hamas. Qatar strongly opposes it
 
YEMEN
General of Yemen’s Anti-Houthi Forces: Iran’s Axis ‘Can Be Stopped Here’ https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/general-of-yemens-anti-houthi-forces-irans-axis-can-be-stopped-here
Houthis continue to fire missiles at Israel
 

Monday, August 4, 2025

SYRIA

The fighting is still going on!

Competing narratives in the attack upon the Druze.

1.    Has Legitimizing HTS Opened The Door To Violence Against The Druze? Just days after U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack stated that federalism does not work in Syria and emphasized the need for one army, one nation, and one government, armed groups affiliated with the military and security forces under Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus launched a brutal attack against the Druze minority in Suwayda, a southern province of Syria. These attacks have been carried out under the direct orders of the transitional president, Ahmad Al-Shara (Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani), and his cabinet ministers, as if they are apparently interpreting Mr. Barrack's statements as a green light to subjugate the remaining components of Syrian society. (MEMRI)

2.    From Hussain Abdul-Hassain, a research fellow at FDD: This is a planned Islamist Jihadist onslaught planned, funded, and logistically supported by three of Jolani's henchmen: Chief of Intelligence Hussein al-Salamah, HTS Senior Commander and Under Minister for Foreign Affairs Youssef Al-Hajr, both from the same Ugaydaat tribe, and Muhammad Jassim, aka Abu Amsheh, famous for murdering Alawites 4 months ago, head of Turkey's Suleiman Brigade, and now head of 25th Brigade in Hama. All three are from the northeast of Syria and not remotely connected to the clans and Bedouins of south Syria.

3.    The declaration of jihad against the Druze in southern Syria followed their attempts to impede a Bedouin drug smuggling racket. They have been trying to halt Bedouin attacks and murders which have been claiming the lives of hundreds of Druze civilians. Despite pronouncements by al-Julani, the Syrian leader, that protecting the Druze is his priority, regime personnel have been heading off to join jihad against the Druze. Syrian media also reported that mobs of students hunted for their Druze’ classmates at Aleppo University.

 Note: The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is the official name of the national army. SAA is a component of the broader "regime forces". The US Envoy to Syria: Al-Julani’s forces are behind Sweida massacres, not SAA; at the same time, officials in Damascus admitted that several “uncontrolled units” were involved.

Is NY Times giving Syrian Druze the Israeli Jews treatment? https://www.camera.org/article/is-the-ny-times-giving-syrian-druze-the-israeli-jews-treatment/

In Syria’s Sweida, the stench of death still lingers days after sectarian bloodshed https://apnews.com/article/syria-sweida-sectarianism-ahmad-alsharaa-druze-fighting-e1cec070de22805a492c9151c0ec6fd1

Syria for Beginners: Five Sources to Follow https://tcf.org/content/commentary/syria-for-beginners-five-sources-to-follow/

→→Action Alert: Urge Congress to Protect Syrian Minorities from Sunni Islamists

Renewing sanctions against the HTS-led government would pressure it to halt abuses and protect minorities. https://middle-east-forum.quorum.us/campaign/Druze/

 

The unrelenting anti-Israel screeds - omitting Hamas rejection of a ceasefire, ceaselessly blaming Israel - (in one day, the NYT had seven articles and one letter in on this one subject; a sample of news coverage), the constant repeating “60,000 Palestinians killed” during the conflict and calling it ‘genocide’ without noting that over half that number were terrorists, fighters, Hamas or PIJ; without noting how many Hamas is responsible for killing; without noting natural deaths is inflaming the public and the result is attacks upon Jews worldwide. The avalanche of anti-Israel propaganda is starting to overwhelm even the most committed of Israel's supporters.

In Yemen, at least 150,00 have been killed in conflict and over 227,000 have died due to famine and lack of healthcare. Close to 20,000 civilians, including 2300 children, have been killed by coalition airstrikes. https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/yemen/

In the US war in Afghanistan there were over 100,000 casualties.

In the US war in Iraq the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project has documented about 200,000 violent civilian deaths. 

I’m not even sure why we were in either of these wars, but I know Israel is at war because of the unprovoked invasion by Palestinian terrorists on 10/7/23 who are still holding, starving, and torturing hostages captured at a music festival.

The IDF has achieved the lowest ratio of civilian deaths to combatant deaths (1:5:1) ever seen for fighting in a densely populated area like Gaza, a feat that is most remarkable because Hamas deliberately embedded its extensive network of terror tunnels amid the Gaza populace to essentially guarantee that any Israeli response to Hamas attacks on Israelis would result in Gazan deaths despite the IDF's many efforts to avoid harming civilians. (John Spencer, Urban War Institute) Further, John Spencer reminds us that Israel’s supply of humanitarian aid to an enemy population has no precedent in the history of warfare.