[FoxNews] Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke said, 'What we're seeing in Minneapolis is just a snippet of what's happening in Ohio'
On the heels of Minnesota’s still-unfolding massive social services fraud scandal, a whistleblower is exposing a similar scheme occurring among the Ohio Somali community, which she says dates back over a decade and totals millions in stolen taxpayer dollars.
I assume this lot have also been sending part of their profits back home, and some portion of it also has flowed into Al Shabaab pockets, so moved to Page 2: War on Terror Background.
— tw for the moderators
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Mehek Cooke,
…another beautiful Republican woman, this one an Indian-American immigrant who came here with her family at the age of five…
an Ohio attorney and conservative commentator, said that "Minnesota was just the tip of the spear."
She said that providers within the Ohio Somali community have confided to her that they have been pressured to join in a "massive" Medicaid fraud scheme that involves doctors "rubber stamping" home healthcare payouts to the family members of elderly individuals for fake medical conditions.
She explained that scammers in the community have been exploiting a loophole in Ohio’s Medicaid program that allows individuals to receive Medicaid payments, totaling as much as $91,000 per year per individual, for care they are supposedly providing to a family member. Doctors who approve these payments in turn receive kickbacks themselves, according to Cooke.
They're just rubberstamping a lot of these. And then that same individual, a week later, that's supposed to be bedridden, is all over social media, whether they're out dancing at a party or something like that. So, the symptoms aren't really adding up at the end of the day."
Cooke noted that she believes that "the problem today is not the community; it's actually the criminals within the Somalian community that have exploited Ohio's Medicaid program because we have a system right now that's one of the easiest in the Midwest to game."
"Say I want to take care of my elderly aging parents at some point. I can become a home health provider, and this is where the Somali community has been really clever. They've been able to find loopholes in Ohio law to provide for care for family members, even when they don't need it," Cooke explained.
She said that the providers who came to her divulged this information at great personal risk, telling her that if they were exposed, they would be "stoned to death."
"We have entrusted states to look at the funding and to allocate it to build programs, to build rules and regulations. But unfortunately, in states like Ohio, it is being infiltrated and broken down because you don't actually have independent assessments with not only doctors but somebody at the Department of Medicaid coming in. There's not random visits that are happening all the time," she said. "So, a lot of times what's happening is an individual is coached to lie to a doctor."
Cooke said that, according to providers within the community, 99% of the time, individuals receiving the home healthcare Medicaid benefit have been coached and do not actually qualify for the benefit.
"What we're seeing in Minneapolis is just a snippet of what's happening in Ohio," she said.
"I know that everybody wants to make this a Somali issue or a race issue. It's not. Our waiver system in Ohio was built with compassion. It was built to really help individuals that are struggling and in need, but it's being looted today," Cooke went on.
"I think every state, in addition to Ohio, should be asking for audits of their Medicaid system and their programs," she said, adding, "At the end of the day, Ohio taxpayers are hurting, the American people are hurting, and we don't have enough tax dollars."
Agreed that this is a structural issue that needs to be fixed. But the Somali culture strongly drives exactly this kind of cheating, and because in America they are classified as Black, until President Trump moved the Overton Window there was strong blowback if anyone dared challenge them, compounding the problem.
[IsraelTimes] A suspect in Miami Beach faces hate crime charges after allegedly making an antisemitic remark to a Jewish day school teacher, then slapping her, spitting in her face, and stealing her cellphone.
According to local media reports, the teacher was walking toward the Lehrman Community Day School yesterday around 7:40 a.m. when 33-year-old Slemons Graves approached her, made an antisemitic slur, and slapped her in the back of the head, police say. He then grabbed her cellphone and smashed it, shattering the device.
The victim ran to the school, where a coworker called the police. Officers arrested Graves around 11 a.m. after spotting him nearby. He later confessed and was charged with strong-arm robbery and battery. The two had never interacted before, the victim notes.
“It’s important to note that the victim was wearing a Star of David on her necklace, and that’s how we believe the offender labeled her in the Jewish community,” a police spokesperson says. “This attack is not something that we tolerate.”
The attack comes in an environment of soaring antisemitism throughout the US since Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023.
WSVN has an image of the miscreant in his Prison Orange togs, adding:
The judge set Graves’ bond at $40,000. Vibrant and Diverse™, just as I imagined a Slemons Graves to be
#Mali In an audio statement allegedly released by a #Jnım leader, he addressed economic actors, especially the oil companies that were rewarded for their efforts during the fuel crisis.
He issued threats against these economic actors, stating that they are now among JNIM’s… https://t.co/WYTVWVwqCz
In an audio statement allegedly released by a #Jnım leader, he addressed economic actors, especially the oil companies that were rewarded for their efforts during the fuel crisis.
He issued threats against these economic actors, stating that they are now among JNIM’s priority targets.
“JNIM plans to attack the assets of these companies, and neither the operators nor their properties will be spared.” He also added that all of their identities have been identified and that they will have to face the consequences of cooperating with military authorities.
More
The United Arab Emirates paid over $20 million in ransom to the JNIM branch of al-Qaeda active in Mali for the release of an Emirati prince. The deal also included the release of several Islamist extremists imprisoned in Mali. The abducted Emirati prince was engaged in gold… pic.twitter.com/cUTi9xir4Z
#Yemen | Anticipating a potential advance by UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council@STCSouthArabia forces and bracing for what they fear could be a new round of fighting, Houthi units carried out large-scale demolition operations early Wednesday along the recently reopened… https://t.co/bJBIhsJlfYpic.twitter.com/ESJhwdKDlI
Anticipating a potential advance by UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council
forces and bracing for what they fear could be a new round of fighting, Houthi units carried out large-scale demolition operations early Wednesday along the recently reopened Tharah–Mukayras N6 road in Abyan. Houthis first attempted to block the route by bringing in bulldozers and placing containers across the roadway, but forces positioned on the front line pushed them back, inflicting casualties and forcing a retreat under fire. Later that night, after failing to seal the road, the Houthis returned and resorted to blasting sections of the road and the adjacent mountainside using mines.
Allah is laughing at them.
The escalation reflects heightened Houthi precautionary measures and a shift toward defensive operations in the area.
[IsraelTimes] Conservative-led government says law will protect girls ‘from oppression,’ though Amnesty International calls it ‘blatant discrimination against Muslim girls’
Austrian politicians approved a law Thursday banning headscarves in schools for girls under 14, a move rights groups and experts say is discriminatory and could deepen societal divisions.
The conservative-led government — under pressure from rising anti-migration sentiment — proposed the ban this year, arguing it is to protect girls "from oppression."
The opposition Green Party voted against the ban, saying it is unconstitutional.
According to the text of the bill, the law will prevent girls younger than 14 from wearing headscarves that "cover the head in accordance with Islamic traditions" in all schools.
"When a girl... is told that she must hide her body... to protect herself from the gaze of men, it’s not a religious ritual, but oppression," Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said when presenting the bill.
The ban, which applies to "all forms" of the Islamic veil, including hijabs and burqas, would take full effect with the start of the new 2026 school year in September, Plakolm said.
From February, an initial period would be launched during which the new rules would be explained to educators, parents and children with no penalties for breaking them.
But for repeated noncompliance, parents would face fines ranging from 150 to 800 euros ($175-$930).
The government said that about 12,000 girls would be affected by the new law, basing its figures on a 2019 study that showed that approximately 3,000 girls aged below 14 wore a headscarf six years ago.
’STIGMATIZED’
Rights organizations have criticized the bill, including Amnesty International Austria.
Amnesty said it "constitutes blatant discrimination against Moslem girls" and described it as an "expression of anti-Moslem racism."
Such measures risk "fueling existing prejudices and stereotypes against Moslems," the group warned.
The draft law has also drawn criticism from the IGGO, the body officially recognized as representing the country’s Moslem communities.
It said the ban "jeopardizes social cohesion," saying "instead of empowering children, they are stigmatized and marginalized."
Angelika Atzinger, managing director of the Amazon women’s rights association, said a headscarf ban "sends girls the message that decisions are being made about their bodies and that this is legitimate."
Her comments appeared in a statement published by the anti-racism group SOS Mitmensch, which also opposes the proposed law.
Austria’s anti-immigration, far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which won last year’s general election but failed to form a government, said the ban did not go far enough. They want it extended to all students, teachers and other staff.
The governing coalition said it was confident the revised ban would not be overturned a second time.
It argued that the law provides for such restrictions if the rights of a child, which are enshrined in the constitution, would otherwise be infringed upon.
But constitutional law expert Heinz Mayer has raised doubts that a ban can be constitutional, recalling the top court’s ruling in 2020, which found that "one religion was being discriminated against."
It also ruled that "if the headscarf is a symbol of oppression," a ban puts children in "an uncomfortable situation," but not the people who impose it on them, he told AFP.
In La Belle France, authorities banned school children in 2004 from wearing "signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation" — such as headscarves, turbans or Jewish skullcaps — on the basis of the country’s secular laws, which are meant to guarantee neutrality in state institutions.
[IsraelTimes] Swiss performer, who won in 2024, cites conduct of war against Hamas, claims Israeli behavior contradicts event’s theme of unity, inclusion and dignity for all people
#2
Ah, but mostly they claim merely to object to Israel’s actions, Jairong, that they have nothing against Jews as such, and plenty of their friends are anti-Zionist Jews. At least on this side of the pond — the social rules for such things are more traditional elsewhere.
And BDS is terribly fashionable now, you know. It shows one has strong moral sensibilities, or at least that’s the claim
#6
These days Eurovision is musical cult trash. Israel breaks the "rules" every year by providing beautiful songs that always score high with public voters.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/12/2025 17:46 Comments ||
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#7
No surprise he's a tranny pole smoker. The muzzies would hang him.
[IsraelTimes] Judge cuts livestream after defendant shown in shackles in violation of court order, warns he may terminate future broadcasts in case of further breaches
The Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk made his first in-person court appearance Thursday as his attorneys pushed to further limit media access in the high-profile criminal case.
Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson
…gay, radical left, romantically involved with a very unbalanced transgender furry, he turned his back on the healthy Republican conservatism of his Mormon family, and set out to punish Charlie Kirk. Apparently, he immediately afterward told his Discord crowd what he’d done, then afterward his father, who as I recall was connected to the sheriff’s department, persuaded him to turn himself in. While I’m not aware of evidence he is Black Bloc/Antifa, it sure looks like he’s their ideal candidate…
with aggravated murder in the September 10 shooting of the conservative activist on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, just a few miles north of the Provo courthouse. They plan to seek the death penalty Robinson, 22, arrived amid heavy security, shackled at the waist, wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks.
He smiled at his parents and brother sitting in the front row. His mother teared up after he walked in and clutched a tissue throughout the hearing while his father took notes. Robinson had previously appeared before the court via video or audio feed from jail. Look at me now!
Early in the proceedings, state District Court Judge Tony Graf briefly stopped a media livestream of the hearing and ordered the camera be moved after Robinson’s attorneys said the stream showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom order.
Graf said he would terminate future broadcasts if there were further violations of the order issued in October, which bars media from showing images of Robinson in restraints or anywhere in the courtroom except sitting at the defense table.
"This court takes this very seriously," Graf said. "While the court believes in openness and transparency, it needs to be balanced with the constitutional rights of all parties in this case."
The warning comes as Graf has been weighing the public’s right to know details about the case against concerns by Robinson’s attorneys that the swarm of media attention could interfere with a fair trial.
Robinson’s legal team and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office have asked to ban cameras in the courtroom, but Graf has not yet ruled on the request.
Coalitions of national and local news organizations, including The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, are fighting to preserve media access in the case.
Graf held a closed hearing on October 24 in which attorneys discussed Robinson’s courtroom attire and security protocols. Under a subsequent ruling by the judge, Robinson is allowed to wear street clothes during pretrial hearings but must be physically restrained due to security concerns. Graf also prohibited filming or photographing Robinson’s restraints after his attorneys argued widespread images of him shackled and in jail clothing could prejudice potential jurors.
Media attorney David Reymann urged Graf on Thursday to let the news organizations weigh in on any future requests for closed hearings or other limitations. He said media organizations want "limited party status" in the case.
Staci Visser, one of Robinson’s lawyers, pushed back: "We don’t want the chaos that is out in the media in this courtroom."
Several college students who said they witnessed Kirk’s liquidation attended Thursday’s hearing.
Zack Reese, a Utah Valley University student and "big Charlie Kirk fan," said he had skepticism about Robinson’s arrest and was seeking answers. Reese has family in southwestern Utah, where the Robinsons are from, and said he believes they’re a good family.
Brigham Young University student William Brown, who said he was about 10 feet from Kirk when he was shot, said he felt overwhelmed seeing Robinson walk into the courtroom.
"I witnessed a huge event, and my brain is still trying to make sense of it," Brown said. "I feel like being here helps it feel more real than surreal."
Lawyers for the media wrote in recent filings that an open court "safeguards the integrity of the fact-finding process" while fostering public confidence in judicial proceedings. Criminal cases in the U.S. have long been open to the public, which the attorneys argued is proof that trials can be conducted fairly without restricting news hounds.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has called for full transparency, saying, "We deserve to have cameras in there." Her husband was an ally of US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... who worked to steer young voters toward conservatism.
Robinson’s legal team says pretrial publicity reaches as far as the White House, with Trump announcing soon after Robinson’s arrest, "With a high degree of certainty, we have him," and "I hope he gets the death penalty."
Defense attorney Kathy Nester has raised concerns that digitally altered versions of Robinson’s initial court photo have spread widely, creating misinformation. Some altered images show Robinson crying or having an outburst in court, which did not happen.
Robinson is due in court again in January. A preliminary hearing, where prosecutors will lay out their case against him, is tentatively scheduled for the week of May 18.
[IsraelTimes] After Amnesty International put out a report accusing Hamas of crimes against humanity during and after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Israel says the report is insufficient.
“It took Amnesty International more than two years to address Hamas’s heinous crimes, and even now its report falls far short of reflecting the full scope of Hamas’s horrific atrocities,” writes Foreign Minister Spokesman Oren Marmorstein on X.
“The horrors perpetrated by Hamas and Palestinian civilians on October 7 and thereafter are so grave that even a biased organization like Amnesty International could not overlook them. Fortunately, the world does not need Amnesty International to recognize the truth of the sheer monstrosity of Hamas.”
[IsraelTimes] Hamas rejects a report by Amnesty International that accused the Islamist movement and other Palestinian terror groups of crimes against humanity during and after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
“The report’s repetition of the lies and allegations promoted by the occupation government concerning rape, sexual violence, and the mistreatment of captives clearly demonstrates that the purpose of this report is incitement and distorting the image of the resistance,” Hamas says in a statement, calling for the human rights organization to retract the “flawed and unprofessional report.”
The Great Satan’s gotta Satan, dood. What did you expect?
[IsraelTimes] Tehran calls on the United Nations to intervene in what it calls the “tightening of restrictions on Iran’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York,” according to a foreign ministry statement published on Thursday.
The statement also condemns a decision by the US State Department “to prevent the continuation of the activities” of three employees of Iran’s mission in New York.
The statement does not specify when the restrictions had been tightened, but in September, the United States imposed strict limits on members of the Iranian delegation attending the UN General Assembly in New York, curbing their movement and banning access to wholesale stores and luxury goods.
“The imposition of extensive restrictions on the residence and movement of Iranian diplomats, tightening restrictions on bank accounts, and imposing restrictions on daily purchases are among the pressures and harassment… to disrupt the normal and legal duties of Iranian diplomats,” the statement says.
Prior to the September restrictions, Iranian delegation members were allowed to travel between the United Nations, the Iranian UN mission, the Iranian UN ambassador’s residence and John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington heightened after the two countries engaged in five rounds of indirect nuclear negotiations that ended with a 12-day air war in June in which Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites.
#1
Why single out Iran? Most of the UN diplomats are probably engaged in criminal behavior of some sort. Restrict them all. I’m OK with including the Americans.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/12/2025 5:59 Comments ||
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Normalcy. May it soon not be an act of defiant courage.
[IsraelTimes] Casey Wasserman, chair of the 2028 LA Olympics organizing committee, promises that Israeli athletes will be welcomed with open arms at the Games in three years and no discrimination will be allowed.
“I do not allow or stand for anybody to discriminate against Jewish athletes,” says Wasserman at an end-of-year event for the Olympic Committee of Israel in Tel Aviv.
Wasserman, who calls himself a “proud Jewish American,” stresses that Israeli athletes must be able to “compete everywhere in the world to show the true face of this country.”
While the International Olympic Committee has steadfastly rejected any efforts to bar Israeli athletes or make them compete under a neutral flag, athletes from Israel at the 2024 Paris Games faced boos, threats and some protests.
“We’re very focused on making sure every athlete has a safe and shared experience,” Wasserman says. “I don’t want the Israeli athletes to feel like they have a different experience because of the security situation, they should feel equally safe doing the same thing as everybody else.”
Noting that there are more Jews living in Los Angeles than in Tel Aviv, Wasserman tells the gathered Israeli athletes that “you will have a rabbi if you need one, you will have good food… and you will be welcome and safe.”
Wasserman, who is currently on his first-ever trip to Israel, met today with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, and yesterday he toured Kibbutz Be’eri in the south, which was ravaged in Hamas’s October 7 attack.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets in Jerusalem with Casey Wasserman, the chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games organizing committee.
Wasserman, a sports and talent agent and lifelong Democrat, tells Netanyahu, “Your leadership over the past two years makes me proud to be Jewish,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Sports and Culture Minister Miki Zohar and Israel’s Olympic Committee chairwoman Yael Arad also attend.
#3
About as safe as anyone walking or driving around the place on a daily basis. A place whose crime stats are about as reliable as any deep blue enclave.
#5
Wasserman is a Jewish name, he'll get the job done.
By 2028 everyone will realize the outcome of the defensive operation was a positive one for everyone but Hamas.
#6
Casey Wasserman is a hotshot sports agent. His grandfather was Lew Wasserman, hotshot film and music talent agent and president of Universal Studios, friend of politicians from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton. Casey, like his grandfather, may be a liberal Democrat, but like his grandfather he is prqgmatic enough to work with politicians on both sides of the aisle to get things done. As Casey pointed out with regard to presidential involvement in the coming Olympics, “We live in a complicated world, and it can’t be all-or-nothing. Let’s not be confused. Other than Texas and Florida, [Trump] got more votes in California than any other state in the union. We can say what we want, but 47 other states had less votes for President Trump than California did.”
And yes, he is Jewish, and a fan of Bibi Netanyahu, which must make his life more interesting than he expected, nowadays.
I didn’t know any of this until looked him up just now in response to Jairong’s comment. My learning for today — thank you!
#7
After that clown show which was the last olympics, both the opening show and the Team USA intro antics, not interested but for the lols. Snoop Lion is an honorary coach ffs, who will have to be extra gay after that interview about how his grandkid was a bit put off by a movie in which two women bore a child.
Video and photos can be seen at the link. They showed the Muslim colonizers three thousand years of courage.
[IsraelTimes] Families of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Alex Lobanov approve release of videos filmed by Hamas terrorists in Gaza tunnel, intended for propaganda, recovered by IDF
Harrowing footage of the six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... holy warriors in August 2024 was released Thursday night by their families after being aired on Israeli television, providing a uniquely extensive glimpse into what the hostages went through during their first months in Hamas captivity.
The videos included footage of the captives marking Hanukkah in December 2023, with the release of the clips coming days before the Jewish holiday begins this year. While the footage was filmed by Hamas holy warriors for propaganda purposes, the material is unlike other clips published during the war that showed hostages reading statements evidently dictated by their captors.
In the clips, which the Israel Defense Forces recovered during military operations in 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... Strip, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Alex Lobanov are seen together in a tunnel. The material, hours of which was recovered, had been shown only to their families until it was partly broadcast by Channel’s "Uvda" investigative program.
The captives are seen lighting Hanukkah candles fashioned out of paper cups and singing the Hanukkah song "Ma’oz Tzur." The hostages were also filmed marking New Year’s Eve 2024 and eating a piece of fruit, as their captors attempted to show a different reality of captivity.
At one point, Goldberg-Polin likened the hostages’ plight to that of the Jews living in Nazi Germany.
"There’s that picture of the Hanukkiah with a [Nazi flag] above it," Goldberg-Polin is heard reflecting in one of the clips.
Later on in the clip, one of the hostages is heard joking, "Where are the sufganiyot?"
Hersh responded, "We’re waiting for Roladin in Israel," referring to the bakery known for making fanciful donuts during the Hanukkah season.
The hostages’ voices can be heard as they sing Hanukkah songs and discuss religious differences in their upbringings and lives.
The Hanukkah footage was taken after 80 days of captivity, eight months before all six were murdered by their captors.
The footage also shows the hostages playing cards and backgammon while lying on thin mattresses in their tunnel cell. Goldberg-Polin perches his left arm on a pillow; the lower part was blown off by a grenade thrown by a terrorist during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, at a field shelter near the Nova rave in southern Israel.
At one point in a clip, Lobanov is filmed opening a packaged cake and eating it, and saying "Advertising."
In another segment, earlier in their captivity, he shaves Goldberg-Polin and Sarusi’s hair, remarking to them about a similar scene in the Holocaust film, "The Pianist."
The staged nature of the videos is visible in the hostages’ awkward smiles, and the camera’s focus on certain details, like the packaged cakes left on their mattresses or the pillows propped behind them.
The clips were ultimately not released by the terror group. Hamas did release clips of some of the six hostages reading statements, both before and after their deaths.
When the bodies of the six hostages were discovered in late August 2024, they were found in a narrow tunnel, having been shot multiple times at close range, surrounded by bottles filled with dark urine and a plastic bucket used as a rudimentary toilet.
The six, Goldberg-Polin, 23, Yerushalmi, 24, Danino, 25, Lobanov, 32, Gat, 40, and Sarusi, 27, were killed by their captors in that tunnel in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood on August 29, 2024, and were discovered by troops two days later.
The military recovered unpublished footage of other hostages during the ground offensive in Gaza, some of which has been released to the public by their families, though none has been as extensive as the material made public on Thursday.
’I KNOW HE WAS WITH THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE, AND I KNOW HE LOVED THEM’
Family members of each hostage were interviewed by "Uvda," describing the intense feelings of seeing their loved ones alive and speaking in the videos.
"It’s very confusing, it feels like he’s right there," said Rachel Goldberg-Polin. "And it was hours of footage."
Almog Sarusi’s father noted how his son was always filmed smiling. During the Hanukkah video, Sarusi grins widely, wishing everyone a happy holiday while hoping to be home soon.
"What heroes," said Rachel Goldberg-Polin. "Six young luminous people who did everything right and they stayed alive and they did their part. And for us to claim we brought them back, in bags, bags of children to their parents — please don’t count Hersh among the people you saved."
At least three of the six were badly hurt. Goldberg-Polin had surgery on his blown-off arm in Gaza after meeting Or Danino, who demanded as much from their captors. Danino, an off-duty officer who went back to rescue friends at the Nova festival, was shot in the back, while Sarusi was also shot during the October 7 attack.
"We never knew Hersh with one arm; we only knew Hersh with both of his arms," said Jon Polin. "It was 400 days later when we buried him. When I picture him, it’s with one arm. We were planning for him to come back with one arm."
Eden Yerushalmi’s mother and sisters spoke about how they had hoped Eden was held captive with Carmel, after hearing about how the Kibbutz Be’eri native had taken care of some of the children taken hostage before they were freed during the November 2023 ceasefire.
Somehow, knowing that Yerushalmi was with Gat, a woman who was a little older and wiser, initially eased their anguish.
Eshel Gat, Carmel father, whose wife Kinneret was killed on October 7, revealed how he saw his daughter being taken captive that day from their Kibbutz Be’eri home, an image that repeatedly crops up in his mind as he mourns his loved ones.
Michal Lobanov, Alex Lobanov’s wife, said she frequently imagines her husband’s last moments, as the six were found next to one another in that narrow tunnel.
She also stressed that the videos were "completely stage-managed clips that Hamas forced them to be filmed in."
"I imagined he said Shema Yisrael and they shot him," said Yigal Sarusi.
Goldberg-Polin said she repeats the prayer twice each night, once for herself and once for Hersh, because she does not know if he had time to recite Shema Yisrael before he was killed.
"I pray it was fast, and I know he was with those wonderful people, and I know he loved them," she said.
[IsraelTimes] Israel reportedly believes that the damage it inflicted on Iran’s ballistic missile program during the 12-day June war with the Islamic Republic was less severe than initially assessed.
Iran currently possesses around 2,000 heavy ballistic missiles, roughly the same number it had on the eve of the war.
The IDF’s military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder shared this information with visiting US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz earlier this week, Al-Monitor reports, indicating that Jerusalem is again urging Washington to act against Iran.
“This is a threat that Israel will not be able to accept for long, and we must coordinate with the Americans the red lines and actions we will take in the future, perhaps even in the near future,” a source familiar with the matter told Al-Monitor.
#2
Iran currently possesses around 2,000 heavy ballistic missiles, roughly the same number it had on the eve of the war.
Yes, but are they accurate since they were hurriedly assembled and, probably, given the usual Middle Eastern inshallah quality control.
[IsraelTimes) Meir Amit center finds 60% of media workers killed since October 2023 were tied to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, amid ongoing international criticism of Israel’s policies on reporters
A new study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center asserts that a majority of 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... -based journalists killed since the outbreak of the current war were operatives in, or closely affiliated with, terrorist organizations — primarily Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... The study (Hebrew link), published Thursday, examined the identities of 266 individuals identified as journalists or media workers killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and November 30, 2025. According to the center, at least 157 of them — roughly 60 percent — were members of terror groups or clearly affiliated with them, including 104 linked to Hamas and 45 to Islamic Jihad.
A handful of others were linked to Fatah’s armed wing — the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... a breakaway faction of the Pöpular Frönt för the Liberation of Paleostine. The are regarded as the most intellectual of Paleostinian fedayeen groups, smoking cheap cigarettes and drawing heavily on Marxist-Leninist theory to explain their crappy lives. They can occasionally be seen strutting through the streets of Paleostine, dressed up like soldiers and lugging firearms, though they seldom manage to hit anything and then usually by accident. This may be because of their habit of wearing black masks that cut off most of their vision. That would also explain their habit of occasionally walking into walls, which is a well-known attribute of those immersed in true understanding of the dialectic... and the Popular Resistance® Committees.
Some, the report claims, were not only affiliated but served simultaneously as armed operatives in military units.
The center said its conclusions are based on public records, Paleostinian media reports, and Hamas documents seized by the Israel Defense Forces during ground operations in Gaza.
WEAPONIZED JOURNALISM
A central theme of the report is what it describes as "dual identity" — journalists who also held active roles in gangs. According to the findings, some news hounds embedded with the organizations took part in military activities or served in propaganda arms that Hamas views as integral to its information warfare strategy.
The report also reiterated earlier Israeli claims that several Hamas-affiliated journalists received advance notice of the October 7 attack, arriving at the border area and later inside Israeli communities while battles were still underway and broadcasting live from the scenes.
It further detailed alleged systematic cooperation between Hamas and the 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... i network Al Jazeera, including what the center says were editorial directives provided by Hamas to the channel’s Gaza bureau.
Al Jazeera has rejected previous Israeli allegations as political attacks aimed at silencing coverage.
BLURRED LINES IN GAZA MEDIA
The Meir Amit Center argues that media workers employed by Hamas-run or Hamas-affiliated outlets cannot be considered independent journalists.
Its researchers said that in Gaza, the lines between press and the political-military apparatus are often blurred; employment in a Hamas-operated outlet, they contended, constitutes organizational affiliation.
Still, the report acknowledged that its list includes individuals whose organizational ties were unclear or unverified.
WATCHDOG SLAMS ISRAEL OVER CASUALTIES
Despite Israel’s claims, press freedom organizations continue to criticize its handling of journalists’ safety.
On Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claimed Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed worldwide over the past year, naming 29 Paleostinian journalists it said were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Its annual report tallied 67 journalists killed globally since December 2024, of whom Israeli forces accounted for 43%, making Israel allegedly "the worst enemy of journalists" in the period studied.
RSF also identified the August 25 strike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis — which killed five journalists, including two contributors to Rooters and the News Agency that Dare Not be Named — as the deadliest single attack. Israel said it had targeted a Hamas surveillance camera and expressed regret for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "tragic mishap." The IDF opened an investigation into the incident.
Since October 7, 2023, nearly 220 journalists have been killed in Gaza, RSF said, making Israel the deadliest actor for journalists for three consecutive years.
PRESS ACCESS TO GAZA LIMITED
The debate over who is a journalist — and who is a legitimate target — has been further inflamed by Israel’s ongoing ban on independent foreign journalists entering Gaza, a policy in place since the war began over two years ago.
While Israeli news hounds, and a limited number of foreign journalists, have been allowed into the Strip, all such visits are tightly controlled embed trips with the IDF, where movement, filming and interviews are restricted.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) has petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice for over a year seeking unfettered access. The state has repeatedly delayed submitting a response. Earlier this week, the court approved a ninth extension, giving the government until December 21 to present its position.
"The situation is beyond absurd," the FPA said in a statement, accusing the government of obstruction and the court of enabling it. "These repeated delays have robbed the world of a fuller glimpse of conditions in Gaza and make a mockery of the entire legal process."
In recent months, pressure has mounted internationally. In August, 28 countries, including Canada and the UK, publicly urged Israel to allow foreign press entry. In November, it was reported that US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s administration was also pressing Jerusalem to open Gaza to independent news hounds, following the implementation of a ceasefire.
This is wrong. Let the Hamas big turban billionaires pay from the bank accounts full of what they skimmed from American and world generosity for twenty years.
[IsraelTimes] The US demanded this week from Israel that it pay for the clearing of rubble from the Gaza Strip, and to be responsible for the massive engineering operation, Ynet reports, citing a senior Israeli official.
Israel agreed to the request, according to the report, which will cost up to one billion shekels.
Perhaps they’ve figured out how to empty those bank accounts directly — I could live with that. Especially if Israel gives the surplus back to the original donors, preferably on television with those huge, lottery winner checks.
The Prime Minister’s Office does not respond to requests for comment.
According to The Wall Street Journal, there are 68 million tons of debris in Gaza, according to the UN Development Program.
Earlier this week, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Sunday that his country will not foot the bill for rebuilding Gaza. “We are not the ones who are going to write the check to rebuild what others destroyed,” Al Thani said during an onstage interview at the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference. “When you are talking about Gaza, Israel flattened this land.”
According to the Ynet report, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week to try to convince Israel to accept Turkish troops in Gaza, something Israel says it will not countenance.
The senior Israeli official tells the outlet that the US is focusing in conversations with Israel more on rebuilding and less on how to disarm Hamas. Netanyahu has been saying in private conversations that the task will ultimately fall on Israeli forces, according to the official.
[IsraelTimes] Senior US source confirms to ToI that Israeli officials are working with American diplomats on preparations for trip, which would be PM’s first official state visit to Egypt in 15 years
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to travel to Cairo to sign a multibillion-dollar agreement to supply natural gas to Egypt, The Times of Israel has learned.
Israeli officials have been working on the planned trip in recent days with senior US diplomats, according to a senior US diplomatic source familiar with the preparations, who confirmed details of the effort to The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu is expected to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and aims to frame the visit as historic, the source said. The prime minister is also looking to score a major diplomatic and media achievement ahead of elections in Israel and shift attention away from contentious domestic issues.
The Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel that "the matter is not known to us."
In recent weeks, some reports have said the US is seeking to hold a trilateral summit between US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... , Netanyahu and Sissi during the premier’s expected visit to Florida later this month.
The Times of Israel has learned that Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter is leading the efforts to organize the hoped-for Cairo summit. Leiter has assumed the role of Netanyahu’s key liaison with Washington and with Arab states, including Syria and Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , after former strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer resigned from his post last month.
Netanyahu visited Egypt twice in the past during the rule of late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... . His last official state visit was 15 years ago, in January 2011. Other trips were held secretly.
Ties between Israel and Egypt have been strained since the war 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... began with the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led attack on October 7, 2023, with no diplomatic contact between Cairo and Jerusalem for two years, except for ongoing security coordination, particularly between the Egyptian and Israeli intelligence services on the hostage issue.
There have also been disputes in recent months over the management of Rafah Border Crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, the question of taking in Gaza refugees, and potential Egyptian participation in the International Stabilization Force planned for Gaza. More recently, the relationship strained further due to smuggling attempts made from Egypt into Israel using drones.
The gas deal itself remains complicated despite clear economic incentives for both sides. The agreement is described as a long-term deal worth $35 billion, but Energy Minister Eli Cohen has expressed concern that such exports could deplete Israel’s natural gas reserves and harm domestic energy security, and has therefore delayed the transaction.
"I will not let Netanyahu sign an agreement until all details are ironed out, including the security disagreements we have with the Egyptians," Cohen recently told The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu, for his part, is said to see the deal as a chance to demonstrate that he is strengthening and expanding Israel’s peace agreements with its neighboring countries after the war, and to argue that the agreement advances his long-held vision of leveraging Israel’s gas resources to secure long-term state revenues.
A senior IRGC General just admitted on Iranian TV that the team that assassinated #Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was made up of Iranians, trained by Mossad. Fakhrizadeh was the architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons project • Killed in 2020 near Tehran in a… pic.twitter.com/PoQKTKLbSG
…near Tehran in a precision ambush widely attributed to Israel.
What the official revealed on TV:
• No foreign hit squad, Mossad used local collaborators
• Recruits trained abroad in three short courses
• Cost per recruit: €25,000
• Israel built a covert network inside Iran
• Tehran is now executing people out of fear, not strength Iran spent decades claiming Israel was the “external enemy.”
Now it’s admitting the real threat is already inside the regime’s walls.
From
@MOSSADil
[IsraelTimes] Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, blasts US envoy Tom Barrack for recent comments some saw as advocating the incorporation of Lebanon back into Syria.
“It is totally inconceivable to talk to the Lebanese in this way, especially by diplomats,” Berri tells a group of senior Lebanese journalists.
He says the comments were a “major mistake that is absolutely unacceptable.”
Speaking in Doha earlier this week, Barrack called to “bring Lebanon and Syria closer, align these two ancient and beautiful civilizations.” The comments followed more explicit remarks in July that “if Lebanon does not move, it will return to Bilad al-Sham,” a name for greater Syria.
Under their 1920 mandate, the French separated Lebanon from the rest of historical greater Syria, a move that angered Syrian nationalists. The two countries have never formally marked a border between them, and Syria occupied Lebanon from 1976-2005.
#1
Berri is right. Iran has no interest in allowing its proxy to be incorporated into another one of its proxies. Fewer UN votes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/12/2025 5:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Why would UN votes matter, Super Hose? The UN General Assembly is a talk shop — none of their votes are binding. Only the Security Council matters, and America has veto power there.
#3
I was kidding. I remember how the USSR had all its satellites in the General Assembly. I guess I was saying that if the Iranian government falls, improvement becomes possible. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza are constantly in turmoil in the present state.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/12/2025 20:36 Comments ||
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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.
[IsraelTimes] A suspect in Miami Beach faces hate crime charges after allegedly making an antisemitic remark to a Jewish day school teacher, then slapping her, spitting in her face, and stealing her cellphone.
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
