[FoxNews] Juan Espinoza Martinez allegedly sent Snapchat messages targeting Border Patrol agent during 'Operation Midway Blitz'
Federal agents in Chicago on Monday arrested a suspected Latin Kings leader accused of offering cash bounties to capture and kill a senior immigration officer working with "Operation Midway Blitz."
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois unsealed a criminal complaint Monday charging 37-year-old Chicago resident Juan Espinoza Martinez with a single count of murder for hire. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the official Martinez allegedly placed a bounty on as Commander at Large of the U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino.
Martinez was taken into custody Monday morning, though his initial court appearance has not yet been scheduled.
According to the complaint, Martinez is a ranking member of the Latin Kings, a gang notorious for violent crimes and drug trafficking across Chicago. DHS said Martinez is from Mexico and entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and time.
The complaint alleges Martinez sent Snapchat messages that read, "2k on information when you get him" and "10k if you take him down."
The message included a photo of a senior Border Patrol officer involved in immigration enforcement operations in Chicago as part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s "Operation Midway Blitz."
The complaint says a confidential source told investigators that after a police-involved shooting on Oct. 4, 2025, involving Border Patrol agents in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, Martinez sent Latin Kings members to 39th and Kedzie in response.
The source said Martinez ordered members to obtain firearms and patrol the area around 26th Street and South Drake Avenue to defend Latin Kings territory.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] Good for them — they worked hard for it.
The Boosaaso seaport is witnessing a significant boom in commercial activity following the Puntland government’s successful efforts to address security challenges, which has bolstered public confidence. As trade and business flourish at the port, the local economy is experiencing… pic.twitter.com/uGEy6bDUco
[IsraelTimes] Neighbors of the terrorist who carried out the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur had warned police that he was becoming “radicalized” and trying to “preach” the Quran to children, according to the Guardian.
Unnamed neighbors quoted by the UK newspaper say Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a Syrian-born British citizen, became increasingly radical following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020, when he began attempting to “preach the Quran” on the street where he lived and hosting private gatherings in the yard.
“They just started wearing all the robes and everything. I thought [one relative] was being radicalized because he wouldn’t speak to us for a bit,” a neighbor is quoted as saying. ““He was coming up the road preaching to kids about the Quran. It was quite intimidating. It was intrusive.”
The neighbors also say that police visited al-Shamie’s home earlier this year, and that he “became reclusive” after suffering “brain damage” after falling off a cliff around 20 years ago.
“Jihad had a bad accident,” one of the neighbors tells the Guardian. “He fell off a cliff and got airlifted to London. He had massive head injuries, it was horrific. You didn’t see much of him after that — he became very quiet and reclusive.”
[NYPost] An English mother of five children who works for the state health care system as a nurse secretly "married" Manchester synagogue terrorist Jihad al-Shamie after converting to Islam, according to a report.
Elizabeth Davis, 46, had told her family about the relationship only after al-Shamie carried out last week’s Yom Kippur attack that left two people dead and several others maimed, The Sun reported.
Relatives said they were "horrified" to learn she was involved with the 35-year-old Syrian-born turban, who was rubbed out by armed police after ramming worshippers with his car and stabbing bystanders outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.
A source told The Sun: "Liz converted to Islam four years ago."
"Her conversion caused tensions with her family, they say she became a totally different person after that. She stopped communicating with relatives and friends," the source said.
"It was like she had been brainwashed," the source added. "The family only found out that she had got married to al-Shamie after the synagogue attack on Thursday.
"The family are horrified that she has been involved with someone like that. It’s possible she got married to him in an Islamic law ceremony."
Davis, a resident of Bolton, worked for the National Health Service, the UK’s publicly funded medical system, but it was unclear whether she still works there.
Police have not said whether Davis faces any criminal scrutiny.
Greater Manchester Police said their counter-terrorism investigation is "continuing at pace," with "significant resources" deployed to "establish the full picture into what has happened."
Authorities confirmed that three men remain hospitalized with serious injuries — including a security guard struck by the terrorist’s car and a Community Security Trust volunteer who suffered stab wounds.
Al-Shamie, who came to Britannia as a teenager from Syria and became a citizen in 2006, had worn what appeared to be a boom jacket during the attack. Investigators later determined the device was fake.
Two men — identified by police as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66 — were killed. At least one of them was accidentally hit by police gunfire during the confrontation, according to officials.
Al-Shamie had been free on bail for alleged rape when he carried out the deadly rampage, according to reports. Greater Manchester Police were investigating a sex-assault case involving him earlier this year, the British newspaper the Guardian reported.
"He was on nobody’s radar for terrorism, but he definitely had a criminal record," a police source told the paper.
Investigators are also examining whether al-Shamie sent death threats to a British politician more than a decade ago. In 2012, Conservative MP John Howell received an email signed "Jihad Alshamie" stating: "It is people like you who deserve to die." The email was allegedly sent after the politician defended Israel’s right to protect itself, The Times reported.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said officials had been struck by the assailant’s unusual first name — a term used by Islamist bully boyz — but confirmed it was his birth name.
Al-Shamie’s father previously posted social media messages expressing support for Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of around 1,200 Israelis, according to reports.
Canary in the coal mine stuff: anyone likely to neglect or harm patients because they are Jews is likely to do the same to Christians, or even Caucasians.
[IsraelTimes] British Health Minister Wes Streeting says that the UK National Health Service (NHS) is “completely failing to protect Jewish patients” amid a rising wave of antisemitism from medical staff.
“Two years on from the horrific events of October 7th and just days after a despicable attack on our nation’s Jewish community, we must be unequivocal that antisemitism has absolutely no place in our NHS, or anywhere in our society,” Streeting tells London’s The Times, referring to the deadly terror attack at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.
Campaigners have long warned of spiking antisemitism within the British health service, which they say leaves Jewish patients unsafe.
Streeting also tells The Times he will overhaul the General Medical Council (GMC) and Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after a number of cases in which medical professionals went unpunished for antisemitism.
“The NHS is a universal health service, which means that everyone, regardless of race, religion or creed, should feel safe seeking its care. I deplore the fact that this is frankly not the current reality for many Jewish patients and staff, and I am determined to change this for once and for all,” Streeting says.
“It should go without saying that doctors making racist comments about Jewish people is abhorrent and demands action. Yet all too often, appropriate action by regulators has been sorely lacking,” he says.
The comments by Streeting came two weeks after the latest incident in which a medic wasn’t suspended over antisemitic comments.
Dr Rahmeh Aladwan was investigated and then cleared of wrongdoing over social media posts, including one saying that Israelis are “worse” than the Nazis, and claiming that the “Royal Free Hospital in London is a Jewish supremacy cesspit.”
The Times says that since she escaped suspension, “Aladwan has posted incessantly about Jews and Israel.”
According to figures obtained by the Jewish News and cited by The Times, nearly 500 complaints of antisemitism relating to 123 doctors have been submitted to the GMC since October 7, 2023. Of these, 84 per cent were closed at the triage stage, according to the data.
[X] This is her truth. And then she mouthed the usual sympathetic taqqiya pieties after her fellow Muslim committed a murderous attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.
UK’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud:
“Give out an almighty roar and tell this government we will not stay silent until Palestine is free!” pic.twitter.com/0DsIcf4oQ6
#2
Give 'em an inch, they'll take the world.
Future vacation advert:
Relax on Ummah Cruislines flagship "Hajj of the Carribean"
7 days and 1001 nights tour of The Ba'Hamas!
[IsraelTimes] Organizers pledge to press on with rally, which was nixed following clashes at last week’s protests; Milan Jews to mark 2nd anniversary of Hamas massacre with low-profile memorial
Authorities in the northern Italian city of Bologna have banned an anti-Israel demonstration planned for Tuesday, citing the risk of unrest, following days of protests and festivities with police across Italia, a local representative of Italia’s Interior Minister said.
The Giovani Paleostinesi (Paleostinian Youth) Italia group had scheduled the pro-Paleostinian protests in the cities of Bologna and Turin to mark two years since thousands of Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -led murderous Moslems stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gazoo "The demonstration will be absolutely prohibited," Enrico Ricci, the local prefect in Bologna, told news hounds, as local authorities fear possible festivities after violence flared in Rome at the weekend.
Giovani Paleostinesi confirmed on Instagram that they planned to try to press ahead with a gathering despite the ban.
Israel’s ambassador to Italia, Jonathan Peled, had protested against initiatives "that seek to glorify the October 7 massacre and successfully worked with Italian authorities to cancel the event," the Foreign Ministry said on X.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italia since Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, which sought to challenge Israel’s years-long naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish community in Milan has opted for a low-profile commemoration of the anniversary of the Hamas attack.
"We will be in a city square, protected by law enforcement. We will meet among ourselves, but for public order reasons, police have forbidden us from announcing the location," Davide Romano, director of the Jewish Brigade Museum, was quoted as saying by daily la Repubblica.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] That’s nice. Now take your nose out of what is none of your business.
The EU seeks a role in Trump’s transitional authority for Gaza, says top diplomat Kaja Kallas. "Yes we feel that Europe has a great role and we should be also on board with this," she stated. pic.twitter.com/8XZ00oHWsG
UNBELIEVABLE FOOTAGE! I witnessed Portland PD giving advice to ANTIFA terrorists on how to avoid federal troops being allowed into the city after the temporary restraining order (TRO) against President @realDonaldTrump was upheld by the activist judge. He did this even after… pic.twitter.com/8jY45kHIo6
— Ben Bergquam - Real America’s Voice (RAV-TV) News (@BenBergquam) October 6, 2025
…even after hearing ANTIFA wishing death on
@RealBlackRebel_
and MAGA. Portland PD is owned by ANTIFA! All of these traitors need to be arrested and prosecuted!
Let ICE do their job, deport every illegal and arrest everyone who gets in the way including compromised local PD!
Thanks for recording this. The black conservative man in the video was stabbed by an Antifa p—dophile convict in 2020 who received a sweetheart deal in the attempted killing. https://t.co/L9GhbccKCB
#3
On the off chance that European Conservative makes it to these comments:
18 U.S.C. § 111 - It is a crime to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with federal officers engaged in their official duties.
18 U.S.C. § 372 - It is a crime to conspire to prevent federal officers from discharging their duties.
18 U.S.C. § 373 - It is a crime to provoke violent interference with federal duties.
This is what an insurrection looks like. One can argue that civilians disrupting federal law enforcement aren't engaging in an insurrection (one would be wrong but one can argue the point). Here, however, there's no argument: when state and local officials engage in these actions the state or locality is clearly engaging in open rebellion against the national government.
Trump was trying to stay ahead of this situation to prevent just this sort of escalation. The activist judge threw fuel on the fire by blocking deployment of troops which would likely have cooled things down. Trump isn't the threat to American democracy nor is he running roughshod over it. He's trying to save it from a violent, militant left that is aided and abetted by a few state & local governments and a small number of activists in the judiciary.
Posted by: Big Unurong5862 ||
10/07/2025 10:41 Comments ||
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And so it seems there is precedent and legal basis for DoJ to come down on the Portland and Chicago police departments like a ton of bricks.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/07/2025 11:48 Comments ||
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#5
DOJ getting serious about state immigration non-compliance The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin County, and two officials — Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison and Hennepin County sheriff Dawanna S. Witt — alleging that state and local “sanctuary” rules unlawfully obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
#8
/\ DoD clandestine intelligence collection on US Citizens (USCITS) is/was (30 years ago) strictly forbidden. An exception 'was 'incidental collection' (intelligence collected on Non-USCITS, where USCITS were incidentally collected against)
As most are aware, all CLAN collection must have the prior approval of you know who.
[NYPOST] Sweeping criminal justice reform named in honor of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee killed on a light rail in Charlotte, has been signed into law by North Carolina''s governor — raising the chances that her alleged murderer could face the death penalty by firing squad.
House Bill 307 — dubbed ''Iryna''s Law'' — was overwhelmingly approved by both chambers in the Tar Heel State''s Legislature, where Republicans hold a majority. It was then rubber-stamped by the Democratic Governor Josh Stein on Friday.
The bill included an amendment that could allow North Carolina to resume capital punishment, including by firing squad. Lethal injection is currently the only authorized method of execution in the state.
This provision would also bypass legal challenges that have paused execution in the state since 2006, WTVD reported.
In addition, the legislation would require death penalty appeals to be heard within two years of filing. The state currently has 122 inmates on death row, according to WCNC.
The sweeping reforms will also see certain violent offenders denied cashless bail and will limit a judge''s authority over pretrial release, while requiring more defendants to undergo mental health evaluations.
These evaluations could become mandatory if a defendant charged with a violent offense has been involuntarily committed in the past three years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
DeCarlos Brown Jr., the suspect in Zarutska''s killing, was arrested several times prior to the shocking August stabbing. He had been released on cashless bail most recently.
The alleged cold-blooded killer suffered from mental health issues, for which he had previously been admitted to the hospital, according to police.
Brown now faces federal and state charges and could receive the death penalty if convicted.
''House Bill 307, or 'Iryna's Law,' alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That''s a good thing and why I have signed it into law,'' Gov. Stein said in a video statement announcing the bill on Friday
[NYPOST] A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... 's efforts to deploy National Guard troops into Portland in a late-night decision on Sunday.
US District Judge Karin Immergut ruled the action was unlawful and unconstitutional, issuing an emergency temporary restraining order to halt the deployment of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s National Guard. The order also bars the use of troops from any other state or Washington, D.C., in Oregon.
Immergut's ruling says that the Trump administration's action violates federal statute 10 U.S.C. 12406 and the Tenth Amendment.
''It appears to violate both 10 U.S.C. 12406 and the Tenth Amendment,'' Immergut said during the proceeding, according to reporting from Adam Klasfeld of AllRise News.
Immergut also pressed Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton on why the DOJ continued to pursue troop movements.
''How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention of the TRO that I issued yesterday?'' she asked.
''You're an officer of the court. Aren't defendants circumventing my order?''
Hamilton went on to deny any wrongdoing but did offer a defense to which Immergut pushed back.
"You have to have a colorable claim that Oregon conditions warrant deploying the National Guard — you don’t."
Oregon’s Scott Kennedy said it felt like "a game of rhetorical Whac-A-Mole" and referenced reports that Trump may be considering sending Texas National Guard troops to reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... DOJ representatives requested a stay, but Immergut denied both the stay and the administrative delay, saying it was an "emergency" and there were no new facts to justify the request to change her previous ruling.
"I’m handling this on an emergency basis with limited briefing," she said. "No new information has been provided about any new issues in Portland."
California Gov. Gavin Governor Hair Gel Newsom ...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland... (D) immediately took to X to boast.
#3
Once upon a time judges recalled that the doctrine of judicial modesty is central to preserving the judiciary's role. Shame the activist leftists on the bench view the politics of the moment as more important than the continued viability of the judiciary. This won't end well.
Posted by: Big Unurong5862 ||
10/07/2025 10:49 Comments ||
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#4
Karen Immigrant, eh.
Oh, the 10th Amendment? Look everybody, Karen found the 10th Amendment. Totes champ of the 10th Amendment, this one.
#5
It is becomming increasingly clear that the TROs and other interdiction actions by Judges to prevent the deployment of National Guard troops is a coordinated strategy to drive Trump to the Insurrection Act of 1807 and the use of federal troops. Such an act would be mis-represented by the left, the MSM and clueless bloviators as the act of a dictator, proof of their spurious claims that Trump is a fascist and danger to "democracy" and gives them grounds for impeachment 3.0 and an end to the reforms underway.
As the NGO money channels, massive deficit spending, grifting foreign aid and billionaire dark-money sources all dry up, and actual criminal charges begin to roll out, the demokrat machine is seeing a real existential crisis. Panic and desperation are driving a dangerous move to near-open rebellion options as the DC Augean Stables begin to feel the damp approaching!
#6
These radicalized judges are full of themselves. They think they are POTUS. Must not understand the delineation of Constitutional powers. Must have missed those classes in law school.
[IsraelTimes] Candidates are Egyptian Khaled el-Enany, who wants to be agency’s first Arab leader, and Congolese Firmin Matoko, who wants to depart from political tensions after US pullout.
[IsraelTimes] The United Nations’ cultural agency is set to select Egypt’s Khaled El-Enany as its new director general, two diplomatic sources say.
UNESCO’s executive board voted 55 to 2 in favor of El-Enany, a former tourism and antiquities minister, against Édouard Firmin Matoko, 69, of the Republic of Congo. The United States did not vote.
It will now be put forward for approval to UNESCO’s 194 members in November.
[IsraelTimes] ‘Israel belongs in Eurovision,’ says Chancellor Merz, calling debate on barring Jewish state ‘scandalous’; stresses country’s solidarity with Israel has ‘never been in question’
[X]
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has threatened to boycott Eurovision if Israel is expelled from the competition in 2026. pic.twitter.com/iuFPuyCJBz
[IsraelTimes] The International Criminal Court on Monday convicted a Sudanese militia chief for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during brutal attacks in Darfur.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, was convicted of multiple crimes including rape, murder and torture carried out between August 2003 and at least April 2004.
Joseph Kony is suspected of 36 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed between at least 1 July 2002 until 31 December 2005 in northern Uganda.
[IsraelTimes] Lamenting ‘very painful moment,’ private team’s owner Sylvan Adams says he will ‘step back,’ can’t play active role in team no longer named for Israel
The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, beset by protests against its participation in international cycling races, said on Monday that it was changing its name to move away from an "Israeli identity."
"The decision has been made to rename and rebrand the team, moving away from its current Israeli identity," the team owned by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams said in a statement, which added that the owner would "step back" from the team.
Israel PT has been repeatedly targeted by pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel protesters at several races recently, with various stages of the Vuelta a España grand tour disrupted by demonstrators last month.
"Looking ahead to the 2026 season, Sylvan Adams has chosen to step back from his day-to-day involvement and will no longer speak on behalf of the team, instead focusing on his role as President of the World Jewish Congress, Israel," the team said.
"This is a very painful moment in my life. I cannot take an active role in a team that no longer bears the name Israel," Adams said, according to the statement.
"I will continue to fight to defend our right, as Jews, to live in peace, safety, and freedom from the wave of hatred, violence, and antisemitism that has surged since the tragic events of October 7. I call on our incredible community of fans and supporters in Israel and around the world to continue standing behind the team — and especially behind our Israeli riders," he said.
"Beyond its sporting success, IPT has become one of the only teams in the world to embrace a true social vision — using cycling as a vehicle for change. As part of this vision, it created the ’Field of Dreams’ cycling center in Rwanda, which has become an extraordinary success story and an inspiring model of social transformation through sport," he added.
Although the team is privately-owned rather than state-run, Adams has dubbed himself an unofficial ambassador for the country, which is at war with Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... in 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... since the terror group carried out the October 7, 2023, massacre on southern communities.
The Vuelta was massively disrupted by protesters, with even the Spanish government — which has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza — urging organizers to eject Israel-Premier Tech to put an end to the chaos, which forced several stages to be shortened or neutralized.
Protesters also caused two riders to crash during the three-week-long tour.
And there were isolated protests during the sport’s other two grand tours, the Giro d’Italia and Tour de La Belle France.
Both the Vuelta’s organizers, Unipublic, and the International Cycling Union (UCI) refused to kick out Israel PT but were powerless to prevent protester disruptions, given the nature of road cycling taking place out in the open along courses that run for 200 kilometers or more.
Israel PT even removed the name Israel from the team’s jerseys during the Vuelta to try to provide a less visible target for demonstrators.
But since then, the pressure has mounted on the team to find a solution to continue racing safely.
The team’s main sponsor, the Canadian multi-national Premier Tech, called for it to "evolve to a new name excluding the term Israel, and that it will adopt a new identity and a new brand image."
And organizers of last week’s Giro dell’Emilia excluded Israel PT for "public security" reasons, with rumors that they will also be prevented from taking part in the prestigious Giro di Lombardia monument race this weekend in Italia.
[IsraelTimes] Israel’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories says that nearly 600 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Sunday, nearly twice the daily average.
The trucks entered through three different crossings in southern Gaza.
“Hundreds of trucks were collected, and will continue being collected over the holiday,” COGAT says, indicating that the crossing will not be open during the first day of the Sukkot holiday, which begins tonight.
#1
Well, you closed the crossings for Yom Kippor, and are going to close again for Sukkot, so, yes, they were lined up ready to go.
Somebody needs to look into getting a calendar.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/07/2025 8:46 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Ceremonies will be held throughout the day as Israel marks the second anniversary of October 7, coinciding this year with the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
The day began with a ceremony at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, whose members are still waiting for the return of Ziv and Gali Berman, taken hostage and held in Gaza.
At 11 a.m., dozens of bereaved families whose loved ones were killed at the Nova festival will hold a ceremony at the site of the rave.
Kibbutz Nir Oz, the hardest-hit community on that day, will hold a ceremony at 6 p.m.
At 9:30 p.m., the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony will be held in Tel Aviv’s Park Hayarkon and broadcast on television networks.
There are no formal state-run ceremonies today as not only is it a Jewish holiday, but also not the anniversary of the attack according to the Jewish calendar.
[IsraelTimes] PMO source says Israel ‘ready for all scenarios,’ as Egyptian, Palestinian officials indicate that Hamas wariness about giving up the hostages early could prevent speedy progress
[IsraelTimes] An unnamed senior US official tells Channel 12 that Washington wants to reach an agreement on its proposal to end the war in Gaza this week.
The US official says that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will not leave Egypt without an agreement.
[IsraelTimes] With so many first-responders back at work, IDF says full-time salaries no longer needed. New-look monthly training for 67 security teams progressing
The Israel Defense Forces has notified civilian 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... border security teams that it will reduce budgets for a second time since the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... invasion of October 7, 2023, in light of an "operational situation assessment."
The cuts will be implemented after the Jewish holiday season, which ends in mid-October.
Civilian first-response teams are made up of volunteers, often men in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns.
Teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.
Immediately after the Hamas massacre, which saw 1,200 mainly civilians murdered (including 46 first response volunteers) and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, surviving team members returned to help defend their villages as reserve soldiers on full pay.
About a year ago, by which time many of them had returned to work, the security team budget for each community was reduced by around five percent.
This time, it will decrease by 10-20%, according to an IDF spokeswoman.
She emphasized that the number of people in each first-response team would remain the same, as would their weapons and equipment.
The civilian security coordinator in each location would determine how to allocate the reduced budget to ensure that members on active reserve duty, such as those undergoing training, were paid. In cases where there were not enough volunteers from the community, he was free to add and pay for reserve soldiers from elsewhere.
The number of men in a first response team depends on factors such as the distance from the Gaza border and the size of the community. While the minimum is 24 members, the city of Sderot has 100. Kibbutz Yad Mordechai has been allocated 40 places, as it has a school that also needs protection.
NEW-LOOK TRAINING FOR 67 GAZA BORDER TEAMS
An upgraded, professionalized course of training for these teams is meanwhile successfully progressing, according to Ari Briggs, an immigrant from Australia who, with counterterrorism expert Ehud Dribben, is working with teams from 67 communities in the Gaza border region.
The teams attend one day of training per month for a year. Eight of those sessions count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by the private NGO Magen Yehuda and its program, Magen 48.
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.
When Hamas invaded, the army was initially overwhelmed. Defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were killed in the line of duty.
None of the teams had been trained in the use of pistols. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, the training of these teams was not standardized, and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.
In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.
In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out, and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.
That has now changed, Briggs confirmed. The security teams keep their weapons and equipment at home, ready in case of need. And their training has been totally upgraded, thanks to Dribben’s work with the IDF, Briggs said.
"We are not going back to October 6, 2023," Briggs went on, adding that full, high-quality teams had been recruited in all but the five kibbutzim worst affected by October 7, who are still in temporary accommodation. All 67 communities (Moshav Mavki’im was recently added to the initial 66) were on their fourth training session, with some already doing the fifth.
"We’ve done over 250 training sessions with 2,000 people. It’s chalk and cheese in terms of the capability for these teams. They are at least four times better trained than they were before."
Some of the training will be devoted to emergency medical treatment, thanks to a linkup with Dr Debra West, an Australian-trained physician and former director of emergency services at Assuta Hospital in southern Ashdod.
"She has developed the ’golden five minutes’ to save someone’s life," Briggs said.
In a further development, Dribben has converted an old chicken coop into a large demonstration "home" to train teams on how to deal with potential hostage or terrorist situations inside houses.
A further eight training sessions are planned for the second year, with an annual six after that.
[IsraelTimes] Tal Shoham describes deeply embedded anti-Israel sentiment he witnessed during his captivity in Gaza, fears for remaining captives who are ‘in the hands of those animals’
When Tal Shoham walks through Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, where he and his family were kidnapped by Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... Death Eaters during the October 7, 2023, attack, he says it feels like a massive graveyard pervaded by the horror of that day’s events.
He is nostalgic about the old days before the attack and highly pessimistic about the future, despite US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... ’s pressure on Israel and Hamas to strike a deal under his plan to end the 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... war.
The plan has stirred hopes around the region that the conflict may be coming to an end, two years after the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel that started it.
"All this neighborhood that once was so peaceful and beautiful, you know, all destroyed. It’s like the evil things that they did here, that the Death Eaters did here, is like covering everything here," Shoham said.
GUNMEN GRABBED SHOHAM, HIS WIFE AND THEIR TWO CHILDREN
Shoham spent 505 days in captivity in Gaza, a period he recalls for the cruelty of his Hamas captors and the resilience of fellow Israeli hostages still being held by the Paleostinian terrorists. He was released during a truce in February this year.
He and his wife Adi and their two children were grabbed by Hamas terrorists, during the bloodiest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Hamas-led Death Eaters overwhelmed border defenses with a surprise assault, and dragged him and 250 other hostages back into Gaza in violence that shattered Israel’s image as an invincible military power.
The assault, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered, triggered a massive military campaign that Hamas authorities claim has killed more than 67,000 Paleostinians in Gaza.
ANXIETY DESPITE ISRAEL’S MILITARY VICTORIES
Shoham can see little prospect of long-term peace even after Israel mounted devastating attacks on Iran’s leadership and its regional allies Hamas, Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... ’s Hezbollah, Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s and gangs in Syria.
During his ordeal, Shoham concluded that anti-Israeli feelings run so deep that there is no chance for coexistence.
"After I saw the magnitude of hatred that they grew up upon and they are raising their children upon, it’s really clear that at least in our generation it won’t be possible," he said.
Shoham spent the first eight months of his captivity above ground. But in June last year, he and fellow hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David were taken into the street below in disguise.
Their guards escorted them for about 15 minutes before putting blindfolds on them and taking them into a tunnel, eventually bringing them to a tiny dark chamber where another hostage, Omer Wenkert, was already being held.
"We were going to stay in the tunnel 20 or 30 meters underground, in this tomb, for eternity," he said, recalling his feelings at the prospect.
Their cell was a narrow stretch of tunnel with concrete walls, a sandy floor, an iron door blocking the entrance, four mattresses on the ground and a hole to use as a toilet. The air was thick and they struggled to breathe.
"We were treated like animals. I mean, even animals wouldn’t be kept in such inhumane conditions, but this is the way they treated us," he said.
SHOHAM REMEMBERS BEATINGS, PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE
Their guards sometimes beat them. At other times, they tormented them by telling the four men that they had to choose which of them would be imminently shot.
Gilboa-Dalal and David remain hostages in Gaza. Images Hamas released of David in August, emaciated in his underground cell, caused widespread shock in Israel and abroad.
"And I’m really afraid for their lives. You know, there are 20 living hostages still in Gaza in the hands of those animals," Shoham said.
Tal was the first member of his family to be taken by terrorists.
He was dragged through the window of a safe room, led through the kibbutz and thrown into the trunk of a car that took him to Hamas-run Gaza.
It was only after more than a month in captivity that he learned his wife and children had survived the attack but were also kidnapped, along with his mother-in-law, his wife’s aunt and her daughter. His father-in-law, Avshalom, was murdered.
Shoham’s wife and children were released in the first deal with Hamas in late 2023. He was freed in the second and most recent deal in February 2025.
SHOHAM’S SON ASKED HIM IF EVERYONE WAS GOING TO DIE
Standing in the charred safe room from which he was kidnapped, Shoham recalled how his son, 8 at the time, asked if everybody was going to die. Shoham was focused on survival.
A Hamas commander opened fire on a bulletproof window with his AK-47 assault rifle.
"Now, I knew that he cannot hurt me yet, but after a few bullets he will reach a hole in the window and then we will need to surrender because it’s game over for us," he said.
"He would be able to throw grenades inside and to put his Kalashnikov in this hole and just shoot us all."
As Hamas Death Eaters walked him along a street, he saw two bodies of people who were executed, shot in the head, people he recognized.
Shoham was then thrown into the trunk of a car and taken to Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] Marking two years since Hamas’s devastating attack on October 7, 2023, the Defense Ministry has released updated figures on the country’s fallen security personnel.
Since the outbreak of the war, 1,152 personnel have been killed. The figures include all soldiers, police officers, Shin Bet agents, and civilian security officers who died on and since October 7, 2023, whether in the line of duty or as a result of an accident, illness, or suicide.
Most were killed during fighting in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and the West Bank.
Approximately 42% of the fallen were under the age of 21, most of them young men serving in mandatory military service, and 141 were over the age of 40, highlighting the wide age range of those who lost their lives.
The conflict has added more than 6,500 family members to Israel’s circle of bereavement, including 1,973 parents, 351 widows, 885 children, and 3,481 siblings.
Over 200 of the fallen were buried at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, and in total, funerals have been conducted in 264 cemeteries and military plots across Israel, with 24 plots expanded and new military cemeteries established. Eight fallen soldiers were also transferred abroad for burial, accompanied by Defense Ministry staff.
The ministry’s department for the families of fallen soldiers, commemoration and heritage has overseen the burial of the fallen, the renovation and creation of memorials, and the provision of comprehensive emotional and financial support to bereaved families.
The department implemented a 60 million NIS ($18 million) reform of family care and support services, provided targeted assistance through special committees, and set up a network of financial volunteers to support bereaved families.
“The State of Israel bears a heavy price — the history of our country has been written in the blood of our sons and daughters,” head of the department for the families of fallen soldiers, commemoration and heritage Aryeh Moalem says.
“The department’s employees see their work as a mission and continue to commemorate the memory of the fallen, preserve their heritage for future generations, and accompany the bereaved families with emotional and welfare support.”
[IsraelTimes] Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and 170 members of the Global Sumud flotilla take off from Ramon International Airport in southern Israel en route to Greece and Slovakia, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Photos shared by the ministry show Thunberg and other deportees making their way through the airport in gray sweatsuits and white t-shirts.
The deportees hail from Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Serbia, and the United States, says the ministry.
Israel insists that “all the legal rights of the participants in this PR stunt were and will continue to be fully upheld,” adding that “the lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign.”
The only violence, says the ministry on X, came from a Spanish participant who bit a medical staffer at Ketziot Prison.
Thunberg and other detainees have alleged that they were held in unlawful conditions by Israel.
The flights to Greece and Slovakia bring the number of Sumud flotilla activists deported by Israel to 341, with 138 remaining.
[IsraelTimes] Syria publishes preliminary results of its indirect vote for the first parliament since Bashar al-Assad’s historic toppling last year, with election officials acknowledging a low success rate for women and religious minorities.
Sunday’s vote saw around 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges choose candidates from pre-approved lists, part of a process to produce nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later select the remaining third.
In the days preceding the vote, analysts and some Syrians had voiced concerns that it was too centrally managed and that suspending elections in areas outside government control meant not all communities were being fairly represented.
In preliminary results, Syria’s electoral committee says that 119 lawmakers had been selected, but did not include the number of votes each received.
Six new lawmakers are women, according to a Reuters count verified by election observers. The observers say 10 seats in total went to religious and ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Christians, and two Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs.
One of the election observers described the new parliament as overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and male.
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Republic still holds French couple Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were arrested while traveling and accused of spying for Israel, and face the death penalty
An Iranian court on Monday announced the acquittal of Lennart Monterlos, a French-German national accused of espionage and arrested in June during the war between Israel and Iran.
The decision followed an earlier announcement by Tehran that it hopes for the imminent release of a French couple detained in Tehran since 2022 in exchange for the release of an Iranian woman arrested in La Belle France.
Monterlos, 19, was arrested on June 16 in the southern city of Bandar Abbas on the third day of the war, which Israel initiated with a wave of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem described as an imminent, existential threat.
The charges against the teenager, who was cycling alone across Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on a Europe-to-Asia bike trip, were never officially disclosed.
His family had called on Iranian authorities to release him, arguing he was "innocent of everything."
"The Revolutionary Court, taking into account legal principles and doubts about the crime, has issued a verdict of acquittal of the accused," the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported, adding that the prosecutor could object to the decision.
Two other French citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Gay Paree, accused of spying for Israel, are also detained in Iran and face the death penalty .
They were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip.
"The decision regarding the release of these two individuals and Ms. Esfandiari is being reviewed by the relevant authorities," foreign ministry front man Esmaeil Baghaei told news hounds at his weekly briefing.
"We hope that, once the necessary procedures are completed, this will happen soon," he added, stressing that the two cases are separate issues.
Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman, was arrested in La Belle France in February on charges of promoting terrorism on social media, according to French authorities.
Iran has repeatedly called her detention arbitrary but maintains that the French couple were spying on behalf of Israel.
"We believe that the detention of the Iranian national in La Belle France was unlawful," Baghaei said, adding the French couple "face clearly defined charges."
Earlier this year, La Belle France took the case to the International Court of Justice, accusing Iran of breaching consular access obligations under the Vienna Convention.
Gay Paree later withdrew the request after Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said a prisoner swap involving the couple and Esfandiari was nearing its final stages.
Governments, human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups and families of foreign nationals being held in Iran have accused Tehran of engaging in "hostage diplomacy."
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.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
...
