[IsraelTimes] Interview is latest sign attack failed to kill terror group’s leaders; Ghazi Hamad says they were discussing truce proposal when strike hit Of COURSE you were
Senior Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... official Ghazi Hamad appeared in a TV interview on Wednesday, his first public appearance since the Israeli strike targeting the terror group’s leaders in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... last week.
Hamad, who fled Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... shortly before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre sparked the ongoing war, confirmed in an interview with the al-Jazeera network that he was at the site when it was attacked. His appearance was the latest sign that the attack had failed to kill the terrorist organization’s leadership.`
"We were discussing a ceasefire proposal, less than an hour after the meeting began, we heard a kaboom," he said, referring to Hamas’s leadership.
"We are experienced in the sounds of missiles and understood it was an Israeli strike. We left the place quickly, and thank God we survived," he said. "God destined us to survive this treacherous aggression against us and sister Qatar."
Six people, including a Qatari officer, were killed in the strike, but all of the terror group’s big shots are thought to have survived. Qatar has hosted Hamas’s politicianship since 2012.
Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas’s politicians with the September 9 strike prompted international condemnation, but a defiant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or "bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will."
Hamad additionally told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Washington lacks credibility as a mediator for a ceasefire deal, citing what he called the group’s "bitter" experience with the truce efforts.
In response to Trump’s warning that there would be "hell to pay" if Hamas used hostages as human shields, Hamad said the US president "doesn’t scare us," and claimed that captives are held according to "beliefs and Islamic principles."
"We deal with the prisoners according to our values, and despite the massacres against our people, the one putting them in danger is the [Israeli] occupation itself," Hamad added.
A number of hostages have been murdered by faceless myrmidons in captivity. Hostages who have been rescued and released have described being tortured, including enduring beatings, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and starvation, while their captors had no shortage of food. A recent video of a hostage showed him emaciated and forced to dig his own grave.
[Hot Air] The vote is advisory--the bureaucracy has to follow through with an official designation--but this vote clearly indicates that Trump is not far out over his skis when classifying the left-wing extremist group a threat to civilization.
JUST IN: Dutch Parliament votes in favour of my party's proposition to declare Antifa a terrorist organisation. Enough is enough! The violent and criminal terrorist organisation that is Antifa, with chapters all over the world, will finally be OUTLAWED in the Netherlands. This… https://t.co/ZuOWd6msWh
[IsraelTimes] National Students for Justice in Palestine, other leading protest groups rally behind Tarek Bazrouk, who pleaded guilty to antisemitic assaults
Anti-Israel activists in the US have rallied behind Tarek Bazrouk, a New York resident who confessed to carrying out antisemitic attacks against three Jews.
In June, Bazrouk, 20, pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York to attacking the individuals because of their Jewish or Israeli identity. The victims of the attacks, which took place surrounding anti-Israel protests in 2024 and early 2025, were all wearing Jewish or Israeli symbols or were otherwise identifiable as such.
Ahead of Bazrouk’s sentencing on October 1, an array of activist groups have launched a campaign on his behalf. National Students for Justice in Palestine put out a call on Wednesday asking followers to send letters to the judge in the case requesting a lenient sentence for Bazrouk.
“Tarek has been targeted in the broader repression tactic by the United States government to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation, and protect its genocidal interests,” the statement said, calling Bazrouk “our political prisoner.”
“We can show the court that Tarek’s community stands in unwavering support of him and demands his immediate liberation,” the statement said.
Other prominent activist groups that have backed Bazrouk include the Palestinian Youth Movement, Within Our Lifetime, Pal-Awda, the anti-Israel campus coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and other student groups around New York City.
The activists urged their followers to write letters to the judge in the case requesting a lenient sentence, to write supportive messages to Bazrouk directly, and to donate to his jail commissary.
Supporters have donated more than $5,000 to Bazrouk, and nearly 2,000 signed a petition to the judge seeking to have him released.
He is facing a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
All of the assaults took place surrounding anti-Israel protests in Manhattan. Bazrouk told the judge in the case that he, as a Palestinian, carried out the attacks “to express my outrage over Israel’s widespread killing and displacement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
“I should have never used violence and should have never targeted any counter-protesters because of my perception of them as Jewish or Israeli,” he told the judge.
In April 2024, Bazrouk, while wearing a Hamas headband, scuffled with pro-Israel demonstrators at a protest outside the New York Stock Exchange. He was arrested during the altercation, and while he was being escorted to a police vehicle, he kicked a Jewish college student in the stomach.
In December 2024, at a protest near Columbia University, Bazrouk snatched an Israeli flag from two Jewish brothers while calling them “Nazis.” As the brothers followed Bazrouk through a crowd to retrieve the flag, he ambushed them from the side, punching one of the brothers in the face.
In January 2025, at another protest, Bazrouk jostled a Jewish counter-protester. The Jewish individual pushed Bazrouk away, who then punched him in the nose.
All of the victims were wearing kippahs, Stars of David, or Israeli flags, or were in groups singing Jewish songs. Two of the victims were Columbia University students.
Investigators found text messages from Bazrouk that corroborated his antisemitic motives.
A US Justice Department statement said Bazrouk self-identified as a “Jew hater.” He wrote to acquaintances, regarding Jews, “They are worthless,” “Allah get us rid of them,” derided a Jewish man as a “Fucking Jew,” and threatened to shoot Jews. He also told a friend he was “mad happy” to find out he has family who are Hamas members while he was visiting the West Bank and Jordan.
On Instagram, he posted a video of a Jewish child, told his followers to “get him,” and posted the name of the child’s Jewish school.
He also posted support for Hamas on social media. In addition, his phone had pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah propaganda, such as images of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, and he was in a chat group that received messages written by Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida.
In addition to the attacks, Bazrouk has been arrested at least 12 other times, including for drug dealing.
When investigators searched Bazrouk’s room, in an apartment he shared with his family, they found an airsoft gun that appeared to be an actual firearm, bullet casings, brass knuckles, four knives, including a switchblade and $750,000 in cash, the source of which remains unclear. He forfeited the cash to the authorities as part of his plea agreement.
Are he or any of that family immigrants? Because they seem awfully good candidates for being stripped of green cards/citizenship and sent back to the West Bank to join the rest of their family.
Jews are targeted in hate crimes reported to police in New York City far more than any other group. Convictions for hate crimes are relatively rare, though, because there is a high legal bar for proving a bias motive.
by Olga Kuznetsova
Following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the American media landscape is buzzing like a disturbed beehive. In a recent interview, US Vice President J.D. Vance stated that if it weren't for Kirk, he wouldn't have taken office. This is a de facto acknowledgement of the murdered man's enormous role in popularizing the Republican position.
They grabbed people who weren't involved in the story, predicted the resignation of the FBI director - and then, finally, an image of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was found on one of the surveillance cameras.
Donald Trump soon appeared live on Fox News and announced that the man they had been searching for for so long had been found and arrested with the help of law enforcement and the governor of Utah. The US president then remarked that Robinson had apparently been "asked" to surrender to authorities by "close friends" who had seen his photos on television.
Then, concrete details emerged: Trump claimed that Robinson's father had sent him to the police. Later, even more intriguing information emerged: on the night of September 11, a relative of Tyler Robinson contacted a family friend, who in turn contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office. The friend was informed that Robinson had confessed or hinted at committing some incident in Utah.
As the media later reported, the person who passed the information to the sheriff was a priest who had known the Robinson family for a long time. He convinced Tyler not to commit suicide and to surrender to the authorities.
However, some media outlets later claimed that none of the local religious leaders were involved in this story, and that the family friend turned out to be a neighbor and former police officer.
Interesting biography
As it turns out, Tyler Robinson comes from a white Mormon family. A very prosperous one: three children, regular travel, active religious life, a six-bedroom house, and affiliation with the Republican Party.
Tyler himself, unlike his parents, was not a registered supporter of any party and did not even vote in the last elections of 2024, which were his first.
But from childhood, like everyone else in his family, he was accustomed to using weapons—rifles, pistols, and shotguns. Both Robinson's mother and father had hunting licenses, though Mrs. Robinson's had expired.
Tyler attended Utah State University for a semester, dropped out, and spent three years pursuing an electrical engineering degree at a technical college.
He told his family about Charlie Kirk a few weeks ago. It turned out he "didn't like this far-right influencer." He said he was "full of hate and spreading it."
It also turns out that Tyler Robinson has a very atypical personal life for someone in his circle: he has a male partner who is undergoing a gender transition* to become a woman.
It was to him that Robinson told him he had the opportunity to kill Charlie Kirk, and he would take it. When asked if these words were a joke, Robinson said he had been planning the assassination "for about a week" because he "couldn't stand Kirk and his ideology any longer."
Tyler's mother later testified that in recent years, her son had become politically involved, adopted a leftist stance, defended gays* and transgender* individuals, and shared a room with one of them. This led to numerous family quarrels, primarily with his father.
A problem for the family
Currently, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson is charged with first-degree murder and six other crimes, including tampering with two witnesses, unlawful use of a firearm, committing a crime in the presence of a child, and more.
Prosecutors have already announced they will seek the death penalty. Under Utah law, executions are carried out by firing squad. In recent decades, this method has been used only in that state.
Firing squad for the shooter. Ironic.
But here's what raises questions and bad thoughts: Tyler Robinson's family not only willingly turned him over to the police, but were also "among the first" to identify the killer.
As it turned out, Tyler's mother was watching a television report about Kirk's murder and saw a familiar rifle. It turned out to be their family's heirloom weapon; Tyler had been given it for his birthday. And at that moment, the mother "immediately realized her son was involved in what happened."
The father is also a peculiar creature - he immediately recognized his son in the photographs from the TV news and immediately believed in his guilt.
It's doubtful that both parents, who enthusiastically cooperated with the police, had any idea their son would be sent to his death. In many cases, such family unanimity in determining the fate of their own child would naturally raise questions. But perhaps the Robinsons' eldest son had already been dead for a long time?
The fact is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—aka Mormons—has an unusually negative attitude toward homosexuals*. They are excommunicated, deprived of community employment, and ostracized by their families.
At the same time, the official attitude toward them is considered fairly neutral. But transgenderism* is much worse for Mormons. They do not recognize transgender people* and consider them a grave sin.
A number of Christian researchers even view the Mormon Church as a kind of specific sect, where there are currently living prophets and apostles who guide believers.
Believers, by the way, are for the most part far from poor people; they participate in politics and pay tithes to the church, enter into arranged marriages, and raise children in a fairly strict religious paradigm.
Even on the surface, Tyler Robinson was clearly causing problems for his family even before committing a high-profile crime, and even more so afterward.
Little is known about Robinson's partner. His name is Aidan, and he is known to have testified against the perpetrator: the latter allegedly confessed to him that he intended to kill Kirk because he was "full of hate," but then asked him to delete their correspondence.
The shooter's parents are going all out to get Aidan, showing their dislike for him being trans* and mentioning that their son has become an active defender of such people in recent years.
However, the very presence of a transgender* person in this story raises many questions.
Genderless Killers
In the past couple of years, traditional mass shootings in the United States have almost always involved a shooter with issues related to both gender identity and mental health.
A relatively recent incident involved an attack on a Catholic school in Minnesota in late August. A man named Robin Westman (formerly Robert) targeted students and killed two young children. He committed suicide at the scene.
In 2023, a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, was attacked. Among those killed were three children under ten and three adults. The shooter was identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a woman who identified as a man.
In May 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos carried out a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Eighteen children and two adults were killed, and the shooter himself died. He was known to have been bullied by his peers, enjoyed cutting himself, dressed in women's clothing, and, before committing the crime, had killed his own grandmother.
Almost every one of the aforementioned characters left a manifesto, emphasized their affiliation with the haters of the conservative public, and left some information about themselves on social media before the act.
However, the main focus of local media when describing these individuals is their mental instability. Leftists, LGBTQ* supporters, or Black Lives Matter supporters are presented to ordinary Republicans in virtually the same vein.
In principle, it is difficult to argue with such statements—fervent denial of one's own gender, auto-aggression, depression, and fits of anger are indeed symptoms of mental illness, the incidence of which in the United States has increased significantly in recent turbulent years.
Charlie Kirk, by the way, has repeatedly criticized transgender* ideology, emphasizing its danger to the fragile psyche of children and emphasizing the abnormality of most such people.
After his assassination, Trump and Vance claimed that Tyler Robinson had been a good guy but had rapidly changed, having been intoxicated by destructive leftist ideology.
Could this have happened? Considering the young man's apparently destructive yet religious family, and his short life, Vance's assertion is plausible.
Another issue is that the situation as a whole looks too convenient for this party.
The image of the ideal killer
What makes Tyler Kirk so different from the Uvalde or Minnesota killers is the lack of a manifesto.
American officials, of course, are saying something about him sharing his plans on the Discord platform, and that all participants in the chats there (two of them) will be punished for supporting Kirk's assassination... However, the first to learn about Robinson's plans were his close relatives, not his supporters on social media.
And this fact is indirectly confirmed by the fact that in the first hours after the murder, no one leaked any appeal, statement, or words of support for the killer online, as traditionally happens after American shootings.
Considering Robinson's stated goal—to assassinate the recognized leader of an ideology he despised—a public declaration seems a necessary attribute of the crime. And here, despite Vance's words that the FBI is "thoroughly investigating" the connection between Discord and the killer's evolving radical views, the messages in the messenger have already been purged.
Also noteworthy is the constantly evolving information surrounding the criminal case. Initially, American law enforcement claimed that Kirk was killed by a professional mercenary, but then the trail led them to Tyler Robinson, a man living on the border between two conflicting worlds and clearly mentally unstable.
Initial articles claimed that his family and a priest brought him to the police, but later, mentions of the priest disappeared from the media. This suggests that a church representative may have been involved in the case but subsequently chose not to appear in the media. This is quite typical for Mormon communities.
Tyler knew how to shoot from an early age, but being able to shoot and being able to carry out a professional murder are two different things.
Thus, the case appears to be a real Frankenstein's monster, literally stitched together from different pieces and providing no clear answers.
A transgender case*, it has everything an operative's heart desires: motive, instability, moral compulsion, and a bloody murder. It's the complete package required to create the kind of killer image the American public has become accustomed to in recent years.
But could no one but outright madmen have planned such an operation as the assassination of the main youth symbol of the Republican Party?
And if he could, then didn't Tyler Robinson, essentially given over to slaughter by his family, become the same kind of sacred victim that many recently called Charlie Kirk himself?
The first was killed to personally insult Trump. The second was disposed of to provide a ready-made culprit and avoid unnecessary questions.
So what? It fits perfectly into the new reality of America, which has itself become a kind of transgender* who can't quite decide who he really is.
Anderson's roommate shared the messages with her ex-boyfriend, who contacted police, according to a probable cause statement.
... The roommate provided screenshots of messages and claimed Anderson spoke about making pipe bombs, raising fears he could carry out an attack. Police arrested him later that day under a felony warrant.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1761 views]
Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
#1
Here’s the truth: Muslim Network TV is a U.S.-based broadcaster operating under the nonprofit umbrella of Sound Vision in Chicago. That means it enjoys tax-exempt status — shielded from paying taxes and shifting the burden onto the public.
[IsraelTimes] After receiving Trump’s blessing, the former British PM has been rallying international stakeholders to form a transitional authority to govern the Strip before it gets handed over to the PA
US President Donald Trump has authorized Tony Blair to rally regional and international stakeholders around the former UK prime minister’s proposal to establish a postwar transitional body to govern the Gaza Strip until it can be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, four sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
Blair began crafting the proposal in the early months of the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group, envisioning it as a plan for the so-called “day after.” But in recent months, the proposal has also evolved into a plan for effectively ending the war, as the Trump administration has reached the conclusion that agreement from major stakeholders regarding the body that will replace Hamas in Gaza is essential for securing a permanent ceasefire and hostage release deal, a US official and a second source familiar with the matter said.
While Blair’s involvement in postwar Gaza planning has been previously revealed, along with his participation in an August 27 White House policy session on the matter, details of his proposal have not been publicized to date.
NOT A DISPLACEMENT PLAN
The proposal — a developed draft of which was obtained and authenticated by The Times of Israel — envisions the establishment of the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA) along with a series of subordinate structures.
Previous reporting has linked Blair to efforts aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza or at building a “Trump Riviera” in the Strip, but the former British premier’s actual proposal makes no mention of those ideas and even envisions the establishment of a “Property Rights Preservation Unit,” aimed at ensuring that any voluntary departure of Gazans does not compromise their right to return to the enclave or retain property ownership.
“We do not have a plan to move the Gazan population out of Gaza. Gaza is for Gazans,” said a source involved in discussions on the Blair plan.
Other plans presented to the Trump administration by parties with ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidant Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and by certain individuals involved in the establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as well as members of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), did promote the idea of facilitating or encouraging the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza.
But Trump — who first gave legitimacy to the concept of “voluntary migration” in February when he announced his plan to take over Gaza and permanently relocate the Strip’s entire population — has since distanced himself from the idea, and during the August 27 White House policy session made clear that he was going with Blair’s plan instead, the US official said.
The US official noted that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is apparently unaware of that decision, having declared on Wednesday that the Gaza Strip is a potential real estate “bonanza” and that he was in talks with Washington on how to carve up the coastal enclave after the war.
THE KUSHNER CONNECTION
The August 27 meeting was organized by the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who served as senior adviser during Trump’s first term and has remained engaged on Middle East issues during his second term, regularly advising US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Like Kushner in his time, Witkoff has been handed a variety of portfolios. The current special envoy has hired limited support staff, though, and Kushner has been helping with the Gaza day-after planning, as it is increasingly seen as critical for securing a war-ending hostage release deal.
This spring, Kushner commissioned the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) — which was already engaged on the issue thanks to the former UK prime minister’s ties with Israeli, PA and Arab leaders — to come up with a postwar plan, the US official said.
Blair began regular engagement with Trump officials, keeping them abreast of his progress as he met with leaders throughout the region and began ironing out details of his plan, the source familiar with discussions said.
NOT ENOUGH PA INVOLVEMENT FOR RAMALLAH, BUT TOO MUCH FOR JERUSALEM
The former UK premier met PA President Mahmoud Abbas in July, thanks to Gulf pressure on Ramallah to engage with the initiative, an Arab diplomat said.
While the PA has expressed its desire to directly oversee the postwar governing body in Gaza and Blair’s plan falls short of that goal, the source familiar with the discussions said Ramallah has “engaged constructively.”
Blair’s proposal envisions the PA undergoing significant reforms and limits Ramallah’s involvement in GITA largely to matters of coordination. Still, the PA is explicitly mentioned throughout the plan, which envisions “the eventual unifying of all the Palestinian territory under the PA.”
Though that is a development Netanyahu has fought fiercely to prevent, the source familiar with discussions said that Israel has engaged constructively with Blair’s effort.
The Arab diplomat expressed a little more skepticism, however, claiming that Netanyahu has a history of dispatching Dermer to engage on such sensitive matters, then thwarting them before they can materialize in order to keep his coalition, including its far-right flank, intact.
by Leonid Tsukanov
The saga of power shifts in Israel's Shin Bet Security Service (Shin Bet) seemed to be nearing its conclusion. However, the current candidate for the post of intelligence chief, David Zini (a protégé of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ), was suddenly opposed by counterintelligence mammoths, who attempted to oust him under the pretext of "incompetence."
However, the sudden attention of the retirees to Zini's persona could also be dictated by more prosaic reasons—for example, the Prime Minister's Office's plans to conduct a "loyalty audit" within the ranks of the rebellious special service.
Two-headed secret service
The crisis in Israeli counterintelligence has been going on for more than six months and is linked to a rift between its former head, Ronen Bar, and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Bar, who shares the ideas of the parliamentary opposition, took advantage of his access to confidential matters to repeatedly try to expose Netanyahu as working for Qatar and make him the main figure in the high-profile "Qatargate" scandal, but he failed in the infighting and was dismissed by May 2025.
Netanyahu nominated David Zini, who at that time held the post of commander of the General Staff Corps and the Combat Training and Exercises Command, to replace the disgraced Bar.
Zini has formally been at the helm since the summer of 2025 and has even managed to participate in the development and planning of several complex operations, one of which was the attack on Hamas headquarters in Qatar in September.
However, the procedure for his approval has not yet been completed – the Israeli bureaucratic machine, although it reluctantly accepted Bar’s resignation a month and a half after it was announced, still has not removed his remaining powers and left him in the structure “for the further transfer of affairs” to his successor.
As a result, a paradoxical situation has arisen: counterintelligence now has two top brass, ideologically aligned with different political camps, neither of whom possesses the necessary authority to overpower the other.
The Grunis Commission, an advisory body created in 2022 and empowered to approve candidates for senior government positions, is expected to put an end to the dual power situation.
The commission operates under the Supreme Court of Israel and is designed to balance the top judicial ranks, eliminating potential lobbying by current officials and law enforcement officials.
The committee was expected to issue a positive opinion on the candidacy of the new Shin Bet chief by September 19, but four former heads of this service – Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon – suddenly intervened in the matter and spoke out against Zini’s appointment.
Despite the fact that the retirees' objections were filed after the formal deadline for submitting character references had expired, the Grunis Commission decided to make an exception and include the materials in the case, as the applicants are highly respected within the Israeli security forces and the legal community.
"Stop him!"
The appeal from the "quartet of chiefs" was a continuation of an open letter from 260 active Shin Bet operatives sent to the committee on September 16.
The complainants, among other things, noted that Zini's appointment is a direct challenge to the "balance of power and interests" between the main branches of Israeli government, as it increases external influence on counterintelligence operational decisions.
Zini's position on judicial reform was also recalled: the Shin Bet chief not only supported the prime minister's desire to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court, but also insisted on accelerating this process.
This contrasts sharply with the traditional counterintelligence stance, which is accustomed to focusing on the rule of law rather than the office's position. This has raised concerns that Zini, who is part of Netanyahu's ranks, will use his position to lobby for his patron's initiatives.
It's also quite possible that the counterintelligence officers' professional pride was at work. Zini, a former General Staff officer, had had no connection with the intelligence services throughout his entire career, while other chiefs had worked their way up from the bottom, serving as operatives for years.
Moreover, the perception of the situation is also influenced by the rivalry between military intelligence officers assigned to the General Staff and the Shin Bet for the laurels of the best intelligence service: the appointment of a "military man" is perceived as an insult and a mockery.
However, Zini found equally influential defenders among the retired Israelis. Brigadier General Ofer Winter, commander of the elite Givati infantry brigade fighting in Gaza, personally repelled the Hamas attack in the Be'eri region in October 2023, sided with the new Shin Bet chief.
He described Zini as a "loyal soldier and a true Zionist," promising that "all and sundry" Gaza veterans would be ready to defend his good name. Winter's position was confirmed by former Golani Brigade Commander Moshe Tamir, who noted that Zini possesses the necessary skills to "shake up" the intelligence agency, which is experiencing an internal crisis.
Despite the fact that Winter and Tamir have no connection to the intelligence services, their "word of an old soldier" proved no less effective and balanced the position of the four former counterintelligence chiefs and the ordinary complainants standing behind them.
The commission, which had begun to lean toward rejecting Zini, has taken additional time to evaluate his professional competencies. A new meeting to review his candidacy is scheduled for September 21.
Ties to Hamas
It's worth noting that the sudden attention to Zini's candidacy may be connected not only to his impending entrenchment as Shin Bet chief, but also to other escalating scandals involving counterintelligence.
One of them is an investigation into the systematic ignoring of operational information by counterintelligence about the location of hostages in Gaza.
Leaks of information came from former high-ranking Hamas supporters and residents of the enclave who had become disillusioned with the movement's ideals and sought contact with the Israeli authorities in exchange for security guarantees. However, Shin Bet agents in Gaza generally ignored these sources, citing, among other things, prohibitions from "higher up."
The first reports to the Service were allegedly transmitted under Bara in 2024, long before Zini's appointment. During the Israeli army's offensive in the enclave, it is estimated that over a hundred intelligence reports were "cut off," and some of the would-be informants ended up in the hands of Hamas intelligence services.
This led investigators to believe that there might have been some kind of “gentleman’s agreement” between the Shin Bet leadership and the Palestinians, backed by Qatari money.
Despite the fact that the information is currently presented in the format of a journalistic investigation, the ruling Likud party (Prime Minister Netanyahu's party) has already seized on the news and promised to "deeply investigate" the situation.
The Shin Bet fears that Netanyahu will use the data-wiping scandal as a starting point for further personnel purges within the structure and attempt to completely eliminate opposition-minded forces.
And then he will subordinate counterintelligence to his interests and turn it into an additional lever of pressure both on parliamentary opponents and on “unreliable” tactical allies – primarily, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
And judging by Netanyahu's decision not to push too hard on the "Shin Bet's dual interests" until Zini's final appointment, these concerns are partly justified. As are fears that the first to be "hit" will be those security officials who dared to openly complain to the Grunis Committee.
Washington, September 18, 2025, 08:14 — Regnum News Agency. U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein has completed the design of the expensive Golden Dome missile defense system. Bloomberg reported this.
According to the publication, the Pentagon declined to disclose any details of the system or its cost. The project is currently under review.
"An investigation is currently underway and no further information is available at this time, so operational security is the primary focus," the publication said.
As the article's authors noted, US President Donald Trump previously suggested the project could cost $175 billion. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cost of the space-based interceptor network alone could reach $542 billion.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the agency that even minor changes to the Golden Dome's parameters could change the project's cost by hundreds of billions of dollars.
On August 14, Reuters reported that the Golden Dome missile defense system would comprise four layers of defense —one satellite-based and three ground-based—with 11 short-range batteries located throughout the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. A new missile field in the Midwest is also planned.
Prior to this, on August 5, it was announced that the US Missile Defense Agency was accepting proposals from industry representatives to develop a new mobile radar as part of the Golden Dome program. This device would be designed to track ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles 24/7 at ranges of up to 2,200 km and distinguish warheads from decoys.
#1
Prove it, test by launching a dummy ICBM from Guam or Hawaii toward a major US city and then destroy it incoming! Unlike China, don’t masquerade it as an asteroid, and don’t wait till it’s over water to softly down it, like Biden did!
Sadly, I think all but a handful of the NIKE sites are long redeveloped - the ones in my hometown of Cleveland are now parks, schools, and Federal office buildings.
You know what might be an interesting thing to look into, though: the old Coast Defense fortresses. Mostly still Federal property (albeit Dept. of the Interior), outside or near to all the major coastal cities and able to overlap coverage.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Interview is latest sign attack failed to kill terror group’s leaders; Ghazi Hamad says they were discussing truce proposal when strike hit
