[FoxNews] Prosecutors said Aimee Bock enforced compliance in the $250 million scheme by cutting off operators who refused to submit unrealistic meal counts
The alleged "mastermind" behind Minnesota’s $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal tied to the Somali community is accused of wielding extraordinary power through threats and what the government described as "fake claims of racism."
Aimee Bock, who founded the Feeding Our Future nonprofit in 2016, used her growing authority to silence dissent, discourage scrutiny from state regulators and cut off operators who refused to comply, prosecutors said.
While other defendants splurged on luxury homes, cars and overseas property, prosecutors said, Bock instead controlled the levers of approval and reimbursement that allowed the scheme to flourish.
One witness even recently described Bock as a "God" in how she enforced her authority. Court records show that more than $1 million flowed to Bock's longtime boyfriend, who appeared in trial exhibits posing inside a Rolls-Royce with Bock standing nearby, underscoring her alleged proximity to the wealth generated by the scheme.
Trial evidence painted a picture of a dramatic rise, with Bock going from running a little-known nonprofit to overseeing one of the largest federal meal sponsors in Minnesota as she gained influence, visibility and access to powerful political
For years, Feeding Our Future operated modestly, handling roughly $3 million to $4 million annually in federal child nutrition reimbursements, according to prosecutors.
That trajectory changed abruptly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when emergency rule changes loosened oversight and allowed sponsors to submit claims without normal verification.
As executive director of Feeding Our Future, Bock approved meal sites, some of which were fake, and then certified the claims, signing off on the reimbursements from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
She would soon preside over a network that claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which prosecutors say the scammers fraudulently received nearly $250 million in federal funds, a scale of growth that far outpaced the nonprofit’s pre-pandemic size and internal capacity. Later filings and sentencing releases described the total impact as closer to $300 million.
To keep the scheme going, prosecutors said, Bock used her authority to intimidate and control operators, approving implausible meal counts and cutting off those who refused to comply.
"Aimee Bock was a God," cooperating witness Hanna Marekegn testified, according to trial exhibits, which were used to describe how much power Bock allegedly held over the network.
Marekegn was the owner of Brava Café, a meal site sponsored by Feeding Our Future.
Marekegn told jurors Bock had the power to make operators rich but also the ability to shut off the cash spigot entirely if they did not comply with unrealistic numbers being submitted.
Prosecutors said site operators like Marekegn paid kickbacks to Feeding Our Future employees or intermediaries to avoid being cut off, a system witnesses described as necessary to keep money flowing. Refusing to comply, they testified, meant losing all payments.
Operators also told jurors they understood that rejecting demands, including submitting implausible meal counts or paying kickbacks, would cost them their contracts and leave them with no money at all. "I would have to run a legitimate business! Imagine!"
Qamar Hassan, who operated S&S Catering, testified bluntly, "If I say no, I’m not getting any more money."
The Department of Justice also introduced slides showing emails and communications in which Bock accused the MDE of racism when regulators questioned suspicious claims. In 2021, when the MDE grew suspicious and tried to stop the flow of funds, Feeding Our Future sued, alleging racial discrimination. A judge ordered the state to restart reimbursements, a ruling that prosecutors said enabled the scheme to escalate.
[JustTheNews] Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to tackle longstanding issues with U.S. military barracks that have frustrated troops, lawmakers, and taxpayers for decades. In a recent social media post, Hegseth flipped through a 118-page Government Accountability Office
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to tackle longstanding issues with U.S. military barracks that have frustrated troops, lawmakers, and taxpayers for decades.
In a recent social media post, Hegseth flipped through a 118-page Government Accountability Office report from 2023 that detailed problems with military barracks, where the most junior enlisted service members reside.
"For far too long, this department has failed too many of our warfighters," Hegseth said. "Every member of our joint force deserves housing that is clean, comfortable and safe."
The 2023 GAO report drew attention to sewage backups, mold, inoperable fire safety systems, broken heating and air conditioning systems, brown tap water, rodent infestations, and other issues at barracks where troops are required to live during training.
"This isn't just about creature comforts. This impacts morale, readiness and our ability to recruit and retain the best warriors. Quality of life for our warriors is a critical component of reviving the warrior ethos and rebuilding our military," Hegseth said.
Hegseth blamed the problems on the previous administration, but the GAO report said that such conditions had existed for decades despite past attempts to address them, including taxpayer-funded investments and privatization efforts.
The GAO report found that the Pentagon lacked oversight of the problems, did not know how much was spent on barracks, and that the department's own assessments of the conditions in its barracks were unreliable.
Earlier this year, Hegseth created a barracks task force that reports directly to him.
"We've completed wall-to-wall assessments across the entire Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and the 18th Airborne Corps," Hegseth said. "And inspections are underway in the Army Reserves and National Guard."
Hegseth said those would be completed by the end of January 2026.
The GAO made 31 recommendations in the barracks report. The Pentagon agreed with 23 of those recommendations and partially concurred with eight more. As of December 2025, 16 of those recommendations remained open and unaddressed, according to the GAO report.
Hegseth decried bureaucracy, saying it was a "find and fix" mission rather than something that required additional study.
Hegseth said that the Department of War was investing $1.2 billion to improve conditions in the barracks. The task force has $400 million to direct immediate work and $800 million for critical renovations, Hegseth said.
#1
If I am not mistaken, the Army did away with their "post engineers" (Directorate of Engineering & Housing (DEH) 'fix it people' many years ago. Replaced the dedicated engineers with contract (low bid) workers. This might be some of the problem.
[JustTheNews] The base was also tied into better than $400 million worth of projects through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 signed by second-term Republican President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Posthumously honoring a soldier from World War II, the world’s largest military base in North Carolina in 2025 became known again as Fort Bragg.
The home of the 82nd Airborne and Special Operations Forces, commonly known as the place where a president of the United States places his 911 call, got the name change late in the evening Feb. 10 from War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth in a memorandum. The Army base officially adopted the moniker Fort Liberty on June 2, 2023.
The base was also tied into better than $400 million worth of projects through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 signed by second-term Republican President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Honored in the change of name is Pfc. Roland Bragg from World War II. Bragg, of Sabattus, Maine, was born in 1923 and assigned to the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division of the 18th Airborne Corps.
According to Hegseth’s memo, Bragg was in the European theater of operations.
During “hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting” at the Battle of the Bulge, Hegseth wrote, Bragg saved a fellow soldier’s life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport him to an allied hospital in Belgium. He was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, and the Purple Heart for wounds.
Hegseth signed the memorandum aboard a C-17 flying from Joint Base Andrews to Stuttgart, Germany.
Fort Bragg was established Sept. 4, 1918, to develop and strengthen the U.S. Army. The original name was for Gen. Braxton Bragg, honored for his courageous acts in the Mexican-American War. Sweeping name changes from the Biden administration changed the installation to Fort Liberty.
The 82nd provides the Global Response Force. U.S. Army Special Operations Command is headquartered on the base that is home to the 53,700 troops and 14,000 working civilians. Fort Bragg supports a population of 260,000 when including military families, contractors, retirees and others.
In the defense spending appropriation approved for the 65th consecutive year, an estimated 91,000 active service members in North Carolina will get 3.8% raises. North Carolina’s five major military bases plus a Coast Guard station and Army military ocean terminal on the coast have ongoing funding toward $740.48 million in projects.
The $900.6 billion bill is for Department of Defense authorizations, military construction, energy security, military pay raises, border security and strategic competition.
For the Tarheel State installations:
• At Seymour Johnson, there is a $54 million authorization for a child development center; $41 million for the Combat Arms Training Complex; and required reports related to F-15E maintenance and upgrades to F-15E Strike Eagle engine propulsion capabilities.
• At Fort Bragg, there is $400.8 million across seven areas. The largest funding is $145 million for Special Operations Forces Operational Ammunition Supply Point. Next is $80 million for a Special Operations Forces Mission Command Center and $80 million for power generation and a resilient microgrid to keep critical missions running.
Also at Fort Bragg, the bill sends $44.7 million to upgrades of the Freedom Village, known also as Forward Operating Base Freedom; $24 million for an aircraft maintenance hangar; $19 million for an automated infantry platoon battle course; and $8.1 million for the Special Operations Forces Joint Intelligence Center.
• At Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, there is $90 million for an operations facility; $51.4 million for Special Operations Forces Combat Service Support/Motor Transport Expansion; and $48.28 million for amphibious combat vehicle shelters.
• At Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, there is $40 million for the F-35 Aircraft Sustainment Center at the Fleet Readiness Center East; and $15 million for flightline utilities needed for additional F-35 squadrons. The FRC East funding ensures Marine F-35Es will be maintained for the next 50 years.
Additionally, there’s a one-for-one replacement in place for Seymour Johnson should F-15E aircraft get transferred.
[Jpost] "The deal serves a strategic interest to enhance Egypt's position as the only regional center for gas trading in the Eastern Mediterranean," official Diaa Rashwan said. "Only"? I do not think this word means what you think it means
[Breitbart] Shipping giant Maersk announced on Friday that one of its ships successfully navigated the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the first time in almost two years, potentially signaling a return to using the cost-effective trade route after the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen shut it down with missile and drone attacks.
Egypt is no doubt excited at the thought that their investment in broadening and deepening the Suez Canal to take the bigger container ships will again be generating fees.
Maersk said it was too early to announce a full resumption of the route leading through the Suez Canal, but it would take a “stepwise approach towards gradually resuming navigation.”
“The first step is this initial sailing, followed by a limited number of additional trans-Suez sailings. However, there are no planned sailings currently,” Maersk said.
According to the Copenhagen-based company, the Singapore-flagged vessel Maersk Sebarok completed a transit of the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Thursday and Friday.
Maersk Sebarok is an 18-year-old container ship that measures about 1,000 feet long, which makes it one of the smaller container ships in the Maersk fleet.
Reuters noted on Friday that a few other shipping lines have made recent passages through the Red Sea, but Maersk is so huge and influential that its resumption of the Red Sea route would have a seismic effect on the industry.
“By the end of 2026, we estimate things will start to look like they were before the Houthis attack started. The risk level has reduced, so they’re prepared to test the waters. But the Houthis aren’t particularly reliable,” container industry analyst Simon Heaney of Drewry Shipping Consultants told Reuters.
“The possibility of a return to Suez Canal routings looms large over the market outlook,” BIMCO chief shipping analyst Niels Rasmussen said on Thursday.
The Houthis began attacking civilian ships in the Red Sea in late 2023 to support Hamas during the Gaza War. Houthi officials often claimed they were targeting “Israeli” ships to punish Israel for bombing Gaza, but that was not the case.
Maersk and other big shipping companies, including Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd AG, began avoiding the Red Sea route in December 2023. Instead, they sailed around the southern tip of Africa, an alternate route that added thousands of miles, days of transit time, and enormous additional costs to shipping. Prior to the Houthi attacks, about ten percent of global maritime shipping passed through the Suez Canal.
The Gaza War ended, at least for the time being, with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in October. In early November, the Houthis signaled they would halt their attacks on Red Sea shipping. As Maersk’s careful test transit demonstrates, the shipping industry has been reluctant to take the Houthis at their word.
Shipping industry website FreightWaves made the interesting observation on Friday that diesel fuel prices have declined so much this year that the longer voyage around Africa might now be cheaper than sailing through the Suez Canal and paying its high tolls.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2025 16:11 Comments ||
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#6
At the First Church of Allah, Reformed,
Sans Mohmamed, Islam is re-normed!
All ye faithful, draw near,
Drink a cup of good cheer,
And do dawa each beer-time, well-warmed!
[cue convivial Koraneoke, Koranomancy tournament, Koran kwiz night, backroom fundraiser for bagpipe campaign...]
Posted by: Jirt the Full Bosomed5163 ||
12/21/2025 20:29 Comments ||
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#7
This would be a bit more fitting. Even though it basically what you hear from the minarets.
They have to be seen to act even though they really don’t care, at best. But soon enough attention will shift elsewhere, when they’ll go back to business as usual.
[IsraelTimes] Damaged hanukkiahs found in Notting Hill, Muswell Hill and West Hampstead; cops probing if incidents are linked, say treating matter ‘extremely seriously’ following Bondi attack
The apparent vandalism of menorahs as possible hate crimes, the UK’s Jewish News reported, as the British government looks to tackle rising antisemitism in the wake of Sunday’s terror attack in Australia.
The incidents in Notting Hill, Muswell Hill and West Hampstead were all being probed, according to the report.
"This has been a tremendously difficult week for the Jewish community following the terror attack in Australia at the weekend," said Metropolitan Police Superintendent Owen Renowden. "And I appreciate how these hate crime incidents will cause further hurt and distress."
"We are treating these reports extremely seriously and will update further when we can," he said, adding that Sherlocks are "keeping an open mind as to whether these reports are linked."
The superintendent noted that police were cooperating with local partners, including religious leaders, and that additional patrols have been deployed.
He encouraged anyone with information that could assist the investigation to come forward.
Months of rising fears among the UK’s Jews culminated in October of this year with the Manchester Yom Kippur terror attack, when a man drove into pedestrians outside a synagogue before exiting the vehicle and attacking people with a knife. Two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed in the incident, Daulby by a gunshot fired by a police officer trying to take down the terrorist.
Many British Jewish organizations have long been asking the country’s government and law enforcement to take more decisive steps against anti-Israel protesters, whom they say are fueling unchecked antisemitism across the UK.
The British government last week published its "Antisemitism Action Plan," which was met with muted response from Jewish organizations, who felt that the government should go further in its plan to combat antisemitism in the UK.
The 14-page document was published just days before the massacre at the Bondi Beach Hanukkah event, which left 15 dead and dozens maimed after button men opened fire into the crowd that gathered to light candles to celebrate the Jewish holiday.
Since the attack, the UK has announced that it will take a tougher stance, including arrests, against people who use placards and chants to target the Jewish community, including "globalize the intifada."
Australia’s ‘Bondi Hero’ handed check for $1.65 million collected from fundraising
[IsraelTimes] A man credited with saving lives for wrestling a gun from one of the alleged attackers during a terror attack on a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday received a check for more than $2.5 million AUD ($1.65 million USD) on Friday, after tens of thousands of people contributed to a donation website.
Ahmed al Ahmed hid behind parked cars before charging at one of the gunmen from behind, seizing his weapon and knocking him to the ground. Ahmed suffered gunshot wounds after apparently being fired on by a second perpetrator and remains in hospital after undergoing surgery.
Ahmed, a Muslim father of two, was presented with an oversized check at his St. George hospital bed by Zachery Dereniowski, a social media influencer and co-organizer of the GoFundMe page, videos posted online showed.
More than 43,000 people worldwide contributed to the fundraising, including Jewish billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who gave A$99,999 and shared the fundraiser on his X account. Australia’s prime minister and the state premier have visited Ahmed in hospital to praise his bravery.
When handed the check, Ahmed asks, “I deserve it?” to which Dereniowski says, “Every penny,” the video shows.
When asked what he would say to the people who donated, Ahmed said: “To stand with each other, all human beings. And forget everything bad … and keep going to save life.”
“When I saved the people I (did it) from the heart because it was a nice day, everyone enjoying celebrating, with their kids, woman, man, teenager all, everyone was happy and they deserve, they deserve to enjoy,” Ahmed said, raising his uninjured fist in the air.
“This country (is the) best country in the world, best country in the world, but we’re not going to stand and keep watching – enough is enough. God protect Australia. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.” The tobacco store owner did not say what he planned to do with the money.
Ahmed, 43, left his hometown in Syria’s northwest province of Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia.
Fifteen people were killed when father-and-son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram opened fire on a beachside Hanukkah festival on Sunday evening, in a terror attack authorities have linked to “Islamic State ideology.”
Sajid Akram, 50, was killed by police during the attack, but his 24-year-old son, Naveed, survived and was charged on Wednesday with 15 counts of murder, an act of terrorism, and dozens of other serious crimes.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday that online video feed picked up by the country’s intelligence further confirmed that the antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday was inspired by the Islamic State terror group.
“We’ve been informed that the Office of National Intelligence has identified a regular online video feed from ISIS that reinforces that this was an ISIS-inspired attack,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra, where he also announced a gun buyback plan and a “day of reflection” to embrace the Jewish community on Sunday.
Islamic State itself said in a lengthy statement on its Telegram channel that the terror attack on Sunday was a “source of pride” but did not claim responsibility for it.
Australian police are investigating whether the terrorists, identified as father-and-son duo Sajid and Naveed Akram, met with Islamist extremists during a visit to the Philippines weeks before the shooting.
Meanwhile, Australian police said seven men detained in Sydney’s southwest on Thursday have possible ideological connections to the two terrorists who killed 15 people and wounded dozens at the Jewish community’s candlelighting event at Bondi that marked the first night of Hanukkah.
“We don’t have definitive links between the individuals who committed these atrocities on Sunday and this yesterday apart from potential commonality in some thinking, but no associations at this stage,” New South Wales state Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson told ABC Radio on Friday.
Investigations are at an initial stage, Hudson said, adding that one of the locations the group was planning to visit was Bondi.
Some more context.
Looks like they just straight up rammed the guys.
Imagine if they did this to all the African gang members in Melbourne and the crime syndicates in Sydney.
ALBANESE ANNOUNCES ‘DAY OF REFLECTION,’ GUN BUYBACK SET FOR SUNDAY
Australian Jewish groups have accused Albanese of failing to take seriously their warnings about antisemitism that has spiked since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
Speaking at the press conference on Friday, Albanese said Australia would honor the attack victims and the Jewish community with a “day of reflection” on Sunday, a week after the attack.
“This day is about standing with the Jewish community, wrapping our arms around them, and all Australians sharing their grief,” Albanese said.
He also announced that Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme similar to the tough gun laws introduced following the 1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people.
“Australia’s gun laws were last substantially reformed in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy. The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” Albanese said. “We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme.”
BREAKING🚨: Australian PM Anthony Albanese reveals the Office of National Intellegence discovered a “regular video feed,” which further shows the Bondi attack was “ISIS inspired.” pic.twitter.com/inZ8ODumcb
The elder terrorost, who was killed on the scene, held a firearm license and had six registered guns.
If a man in Sydney’s suburbs needs “six high-powered rifles and is able to get them under existing licensing schemes, then there’s something wrong,” said Albanese.
An estimated four million firearms are currently in Australia. The government would work with states to target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms, with the costs to be shared between the federal and state governments, Albanese said.
TEEN WOUNDED WHILE SHIELDING TWO CHILDREN
On Friday, the community buried Boris and Sofia Gurman, a husband and wife who were killed while trying to thwart one of the terrorists, as more stories of extraordinary bravery came out.
As the terrorists opened fire on hundreds of Jewish community members, 14-year-old Chaya Dadon’s mind was clear.
Across from where she had taken cover from the gunshots under a bench, Dadon saw two children stranded out in the open, beside their wounded parents.
“I knew in that moment, I felt like Hashem was sitting right next to me,” she said in an interview with Reuters, using a Hebrew name for God. “He was whispering into my ear, ‘This is your mission: go save those kids’.”
The schoolgirl left the safety of her hiding spot, pulled the children away and jumped on top of them, covering their bodies with her own.
At some point, she was shot in the thigh. But she kept shielding them, reciting the Shema, a Jewish prayer.
“Her instinct is to save lives while these terrorists are killing people. What a contrast.”
Rabbi Yaakov Lieder, grandfather of Chaya Dadon, describes his 14-year-old granddaughter and the inspiring type of person she is.
“I knew I got shot, but I wasn’t even worried, I channeled all that energy that I had into strength and I made sure that I knew I had to be there for those kids,” she said. “If I could give up my life saving these children, that’s what I was going to do.”
Her father eventually found them and took her to get help. “When he found me, he told me this after, that I had the girl in this arm and the boy in this arm. And I was just kissing them.”
Dadon spent four days at the Sydney Children’s Hospital before returning home on Thursday. She is now walking with crutches, which she has decorated with stickers commemorating some of those who were killed.
She still does not know the children she shielded, but hopes to connect with them again.
“Those little kids that have been through things that no one should have been through,” she said, but the ordeal would make the Jewish community stronger.
“Even if they can’t see it now, everyone is going to grow stronger because I really feel like that situation, everyone was tested.”
New footage reveals how people tried to stop Bondi Beach shooting
Eleven minutes of video capture the moment Australia's Bondi Beach turns into a scene of horror.
BBC Verify has analysed dozens of videos from the attack and its aftermath, matching them up to map out the movements of the two gunmen, heroic bystanders and the victims.
What began as a joyous event for the Jewish community celebrating the beginning of Hanukkah at Sydney's most iconic beach quickly turned into a horrific attack.
Detective Senior Constable Cesar "Cess" Barraza has been identified as the officer who made a "once-in-a-lifetime-sh_t" to take down the Bondi Beach terrorist. He actually ki__ed one and wounded the other one. He actually had already appeared on a reality show and confessed he… pic.twitter.com/WAUyFZSBQL
NYC school said to decline Holocaust survivor’s talk over ‘messages on Israel, Palestine’
Principal of Brooklyn middle school, MS 447 told parent Sami Steigmann’s opinions would not be ‘right’ for school, but they’d be happy to explore other speakers on antisemitism; city Department of Education backed the principal, as did the office of Mayor Eric Adams, a vocal Israel advocate.
The university said it was aware and investigating.
Abdullah is a professor at the university’s Department of Pan-African Studies and the former chair of the department. She is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, the lead of the movement’s Los Angeles chapter, and involved in the organization’s national leadership, according to the university website. Cornel West, a prominent academic and social activist, selected Abdullah as his running mate for his 2024 presidential campaign.
During the protest at the City College of New York, first reported by The Times of Israel, a Muslim leader led a walkout to protest against a Hillel director who was representing the Jewish community at the event. The Muslim leader blamed the Hillel director, Ilya Bratman, for suffering in Gaza and led his followers out of the room. The incident sparked an uproar from the Jewish community and elected leaders in New York.
Jewish leaders write CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, calling the walkout “outrageous” and discriminatory, and saying that CUNY has not issued enough of a response. The walkout and CUNY’s response “send a clear message to Jewish and Zionist students at CUNY: you do not belong here,” the letter says.
The letter, dated to yesterday and shared with The Times of Israel today, is signed by New York City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz; Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York; Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York; Scott Richman, the New York and New Jersey regional director of the Anti-Defamation League; Miriam F. Elman, the head of the Academic Engagement Netowrk; and Josh Kramer, the head of the American Jewish Committee in New York. Dinowitz is the chair of the city council’s committee on higher education and the chair of the council’s Jewish caucus.
“Against the backdrop of this shameful incident and rising antisemitism on campus, we urge CUNY to take steps to amend its student code of conduct,” the letter says, calling for a “system-wide policy” to protect Jewish students at CUNY.
CUNY is made up of dozens of campuses around the city, which each have significant autonomy from the central administration, making system-wide changes difficult.
A photo of eight high school students forming a “human swastika” on a California football field went viral online last week, spurring an outcry from the Jewish community and political leaders across Silicon Valley. The students face disciplinary action and the San Jose Police were called to the school regarding the matter, according to media accounts.
Marc Levine, ADL’s Northern California director, said on Tuesday that Branham school administrators have reached out to him.
“We all want to keep hate out of student spaces,” he said.
This is not the first time Branham High School has been embroiled in controversy related to alleged antisemitism, as the school was found in April to have discriminated against Jewish students after a local Jewish advocacy group accused it of presenting “biased” content about the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a 12th-grade ethnic literature curriculum.
So they just did as their teachers taught them. Classy blamecasting, O school staff.
Teenagers at Branham High School in San Jose formed a swastika with their bodies on the school football field. 62% of high school students in the U.S. don't know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, but these kids knew...and have bought into the normalization of… pic.twitter.com/unrtICKAqC
… the normalization of anti-Jewish hate. How do American students make it to high school without integrating the value of tolerance and the lessons of history?
The image on social media also included a caption quoting parts of Hitler’s 1939 Reichstag speech, one of his most infamous addresses, in which he threatened "the annihilation of the Jewish race."
#1
These incidents are incredibly disappointing to say the least, and are evidence of nearly complete failure to teach basic morality (and history) to many of our young people. Just appalling.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/21/2025 8:30 Comments ||
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#2
Much of the extremism is focused in blue states and in academia. The epicenters would be at universities in blue states. It sort of leeches out from there. Not sure what to do with the idiots that are being generated in the long term. They are sort of our ISIS brides.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2025 8:42 Comments ||
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#3
They are sort of our ISIS brides.
Perhaps a summer in a camp in Syria or Iraq hinterlands?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2025 9:52 Comments ||
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It’s not like it’s an effective defense against Israel’s F-35Is — as was demonstrated by Iran — so why give Russia the money?
[IsraelTimes] Kremlin denies Putin discussed issue with Erdogan during a meeting last week, as Ankara considers how best to bolster its fleet of aging aircraft
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... is looking to return the S-400 air defense systems that it purchased from Russia in 2017, hoping that doing so will clear the way for it to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing Ottoman Turkish and Russian officials familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Turkey’s President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... , when the pair met on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan last week.
Ankara is also hoping to receive a refund if it returns the S-400 systems, Bloomberg reported, which could be granted in the form of discounted oil and natural gas imports from Russia.
The Kremlin denied the contents of the report on Thursday, saying that the matter of returning the S-400 systems "was not on the agenda" when the two leaders met. Turkey declined to comment on the report.
Turkey has expressed interest in buying a number of F-35 jets from the US, but it is currently barred from doing so due to its 2017 purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems.
Which they did to spite President Trump, so this is extra amusing.
Last week, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said that the countries were holding "fruitful" talks on the potential sale of the advanced stealth fighters.
"As laid out in US law, Turkey must no longer operate nor possess the S-400 system to return to the F-35 program," Barrack wrote on X.
And if Turkey chooses to beggar itself and waste donor funds for the ego-stroking purchase of very expensive F-35s that they still won’t fly as well as the IAF…
"The positive relationship between President Trump and President Erdogan has created a new atmosphere of cooperation, which has led to the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade," he said.
"Our hope is that these talks will yield a breakthrough in the coming months that meets both the security requirements of the United States and Turkey," Barrack added.
During US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s first term, the US removed Turkey, a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... ally, from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program, after Ankara purchased the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia. US officials worried that Turkey’s use of the missile defense system could be used to gather data on the capabilities of the F-35 and that the information could end up in Russian hands.
Israel has expressed concern in the past over the potential sale of the advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and other nearby countries, as it is anxious to preserve its qualitative military edge in the region.
Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East with F-35s in its arsenal, currently operating 45 of the aircraft with another 30 units on order.
Israel can afford ‘em, especially after cutting war costs with the addition of lasers to their ground game, and has their in-house improvements shared only with America once finalized.
However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... Trump recently announced the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , sparking worry in the Jewish state. US officials and defense experts have told Rooters that the jets to be sold to the Saudis will be less advanced than those used by the IDF.
In recent months, Turkey, which has the NATO alliance’s second-largest military, has aimed to leverage its best relations with the West in years to add to its aging fleet 40 Eurofighter Typhoons and later also US-made F-35 jets.
Ankara has seen success in its bid for new Eurofighter Typhoons, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in October that the UK would sell Turkey 20 new Eurofighters. Until those are ready, Turkey said it will acquire 12 Eurofighters from 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... and 12 from Oman to bolster its fleet.
Erdogan is one of the world’s most outspoken critics of Israel, often accusing Israel of genocide over the past two years of war, comparing it to Nazi Germany and likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... He has also cozied up to Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... over the years, hosting brass hats and calling the terror group "freedom fighters."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/21/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1782 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Given Erdogan's backstabbing, lies, and embracing of Hamas, they can f*&k right off. Given F-35s, I could see them turn around and bring S-400 systems back online immediately
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2025 4:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Erdojuan loves playing off each side.
Meanwhile, despite the fact that NATO should have gone away 30 years ago, why is Türkiye still in NATO? Maybe they'll just leave.
#5
IMHO that’s the definition of a bad trade. Who knows how long the aircraft will take to arrive and be operational - having surrendered a very solid defensive system for the duration. And of course Russia could immediately put those units to work. If the Turks were foolish enough to send them to Ukraine instead of returning them there would be serious consequences. On the gripping hand India would pay top dollar for the equipment with Russian acquiescence
#7
having surrendered a very solid defensive system for the duration.
The IAF destroyed Iran’s S-400s before they and the US Air Force bombed nuclear sites and such to bits, so it wouldn’t provide Turkey with protection against Israel. Is there any other threat against Turkey in the region that has air assets? ISIS jihadis embedded among the refugees don’t count…
There are still limits beyond which even Democrats like Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez ought not be seen going.
[IsraelTimes] Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area says Eduardo Martinez ‘can no longer effectively serve’ after he reposted claim that Hanukkah attack was a ‘false flag’ by Israel.
Martinez,
…he’s a Socialist, natch…
76, is the mayor of Richmond, California, a city north of Berkeley that is home to one Reform congregation, Temple Beth Hillel. Elected in 2022, he has been a longtime and vocal critic of Israel.
It is unusual for a Jewish group to call for the resignation of a local elected official. But Martinez’s rhetoric about the Bondi Beach attack, the JCRC said, was “dangerously antisemitic, deeply offensive, and wholly unacceptable.”
Following the attack in Sydney that left 15 killed and dozens injured, Martinez reposted several antisemitic sentiments and conspiracy theories on his LinkedIn page.
So he wants his professional colleagues to know this about him, along with whatever he has accomplished as mayor the past two years? Fascinating.
“The root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis,” read one since-deleted post shared by Martinez, according to J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
Another post shared by Martinez compared the Bondi celebration with hypothetical Hanukkah displays at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, writing that both should be seen as “performative assertions of dominance.”
The post continued: “Hanukkah, traditionally a time of personal and private reflection,
No, it’s a joyous celebration of having taken up arms to protect our right to be practicing Jews in public without harassment from the government, and with God’s help throughly beating the pants off the the regional military power that tried to force us adopt their beliefs instead. The holiday for personal and private reflection is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, though that is usually celebrated among the community in synagogue — so also not private…
has in recent years been appropriated by Jewish Zionist organisations and weaponised as a political tool.”
In his repost, Martinez commented, “What are your thoughts?”
It’s really rude to tell other people how they should do a thing that is not yours. Also stupid, when you show everyone the breadth and depth of your ignorance.
Martinez appeared to issue an apology for the post about Israel on Wednesday, as a backlash grew.
“I want to apologize for sharing my previous posts without thinking. Of course we know that antisemitism was here before the creation of the state of Israel,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “As I’ve said many times before, we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism. They are two separate beliefs.”
Not to 95% of us, you stupid, stupid fool. And even the anti-Zionist ones still say “Next year in Jerusalem,” to end the Passover Seder, which is a Zionist thing reminding the speaker that the homeland of the Jews is Israel.
In another apology on Thursday, Martinez distanced his rhetoric from his role as mayor.
“I want to assure everyone that these postings are my opinions (or my mistakes) and mine only. They are not statements from my office or the city of Richmond. If I make a mistake, that mistake is mine only,” he wrote. “Once again, I apologize for posting in haste without full understanding of the posting.”
Insincere apology not accepted. You shared it on LinkedIn, you fool.
The latest controversy was not the first time the Richmond mayor has landed in hot water over his commentary on Israel.
In August, while speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine, Martinez compared Hamas to a child bullied on a playground and said whether he supports Hamas was a “complicated question,” according to J.
“If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian, and that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse anymore would be Hamas,” Martinez said at the time. While there, he also wore a hat with the letters “DDTTIDF,” an acronym calling for “death to the IDF.”
In the JCRC’s letter, the organization also noted that under Martinez’s leadership, Richmond had passed a resolution two weeks after October 7 condemning Israel and “affirming Richmond’s support and solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza.”
#1
Thankfully Australia is cracking down on this now. It is no longer legal to spread calls for violence like "globalize the intafada." They're going to people's houses and arresting them.
Good.
In which everyone meets and plans except the parties involved, because nobody wants to force Hamas to accept that they lost the war they started. Not just the current thing that began 10/7/2023, but the one they started by taking Gaza from the PLO in 2006 because they believed they could conquer Israel faster than the PLO.
[IsraelTimes] Turkish intelligence chief meets with top Hamas negotiator about 2nd phase of Gaza plan, as mediators seek to move forward with Board of Peace, International Stabilization Force
The mediators of the fragile 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... ceasefire expressed their support Saturday for US President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... ’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip following a Friday meeting in Miami, but a source briefed on the meeting said little progress was made on implementing the plan beyond the current truce.
A joint statement issued by the US, 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... , Egypt and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... was light on details and didn’t contain any new announcement.
The mediating countries urged both Israel and the Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... terror group — which remains the de facto government of about half the Strip — to adhere to the peace plan, and to exercise more restraint to avoid a return to war.
The mediators also called for the swift establishment of a so-called Board of Peace as envisioned by the plan, and of a technocratic government to oversee the Strip’s postwar management.
Attending the meeting Friday were US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani, Egyptian intel chief Hassan Rashad and Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
The source briefed on the sit-down said advancement into the second phase of the ceasefire will require compromises from the leaders of Israel and Hamas regarding the issues of the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza and disarmament.
The mediators discussed ways to pressure the two sides toward an agreement, but the source said that Israel and Hamas can’t be forced against their will.
The joint statement said the four representatives met "to review the implementation of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and to advance preparations for the second phase."
The plan’s first phase, which Israel and Hamas agreed to in the October deal, consists of the initial ceasefire, a limited pullback by the Israel Defense Forces, a hostage-prisoner swap and a surge in humanitarian aid.
Both sides accuse the other of violating the terms of the first phase; however, as the body of one hostage, Sgt. Ran Gvili, remains in Gaza, and as Israel has refused to open the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza in both directions, agreeing only to allow movement out of the Strip.
Israeli troops have come under attack in a few cases, with three being killed since the ceasefire went into effect, and the IDF has responded with Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s while also repeatedly striking what it says are button men crossing the ceasefire line and posing a threat to troops. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, nearly 400 Paleostinians have been killed since the truce began. The ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel and Hamas have not formally signed on to the second phase. It is supposed to see the establishment of a Paleostinian technocratic government for the Strip, overseen by a Trump-led Board of Peace, as well as the deployment of an International Stabilization Force as the IDF’s presence in the Strip is phased out.
It also advances the decommissioning of Hamas’s weapons and the demilitarization of Gaza, though Hamas has vocally refused to lay down its arms.
The US has struggled to recruit countries to join the International Stabilization Force, as questions remain unanswered regarding whether and how Hamas will disarm, and whether Israel will relinquish its control of Gaza.
Nonetheless, the joint statement from mediators insisted that the first phase "has yielded progress, including expanded humanitarian assistance, the return of hostage bodies, partial force withdrawals and a reduction in hostilities."
The mediators said that during their meeting, they "emphasized enabling a governing body in Gaza under a unified Gazook authority to protect civilians and maintain public order." This appeared to be a reference to the Paleostinian technocratic government that also has yet to be stood up.
The mediators said they also discussed "regional integration measures, including trade facilitation, infrastructure development and cooperation on energy, water and other shared resources," saying this will be "essential to Gaza’s recovery, regional stability and long-term prosperity."
"In this context, we expressed our support for the near-term establishment and operationalization of the Board of Peace as a transitional administration for the civilian, security, and reconstruction tracks of the reconstruction," the joint statement said.
Both Hamas and the Paleostinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, are looking to have influence over what is supposed to be an independent body, but Israel has pushed back against this.
The Trump plan calls for the PA to complete a "reform program," and says that governance of Gaza could eventually be handed over to it, if and when the program has been completed. Israel, however, has consistently opposed any role in postwar Gaza for the PA.
TURKEY’S INTELLIGENCE CHIEF MEETS HAMAS OFFICIAL
On Saturday, the head of Turkey’s MIT intelligence service met with top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, who heads the terror group’s negotiating team, and discussed necessary measures to be taken for proceeding to the second phase of the peace plan, Ottoman Turkish security sources said.
The Ottoman Turkish sources, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... , said MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin met the Hamas delegation in Istanbul within the scope of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, and they discussed steps to be taken to prevent what they said were Israel’s ceasefire violations.
They also discussed measures to be taken to resolve existing issues for proceeding to the second phase of the plan, the sources also said, without giving details.
Israel has insisted that Turkey — whose government vocally supports Hamas and frequently compares Israel to Nazi Germany, but which serves as a mediator for the truce — not deploy any of its troops to Gaza. The US has expressed support for the idea of Ottoman Turkish involvement in the Strip, but it excluded Ankara from recent talks on the International Stabilization Force.
#6
Incomplete headline, Grom. Only the IDF will disarm Hamas — nobody else wants to, though President Trump has recently been saying in press conferences that if Hamas does not soon disarm willingly, they will be disarmed, possibly violently.
[IsraelTimes] Court decries ‘flagrant attack’ on ‘impartial judicial institution’ as Israel praises move; Rubio links fresh sanctions to Monday vote to uphold Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants
The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions Thursday on two more judges of the International Criminal Court due to their targeting of Israeli government officials over 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.
Dreadfully uncomfortable to be sanctioned by America — credit cards won’t go through, banks close one’s accounts, one’s friends back away to avoid the contamination…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... announced the sanctions against Georgian judge Gocha Lordkipanidze and Mongolian judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin in a written statement.
He linked the move to a vote on Monday in which the two upheld arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals without Israel’s consent," he said.
"We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the illusory sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction," the top diplomat continued. "We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC’s lawfare and overreach."
The US sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.
It marked the third batch of sanctions issued by the US against the judicial body, bringing the number of sanctioned ICC judges to eight, after six were designated over the summer.
At least three prosecutors, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan, are also subject to sanctions.
The Hague-based ICC responded that it "strongly rejects" the move. The measures are "a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution," the court said in a statement.
Except they aren’t even slightly impartial, y’see.
Israel, for its part, praised the sanctions. "Thank you, Secretary Rubio, for this moral, clear stance," Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X.
The US and Israel are not members of the ICC.
The sanctioned judges’ votes were cast to support a 44-page ruling that upholds the decision to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, over the course of its two-year war with Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... Judges found there was reason to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeting civilians during the war — charges Israeli officials strongly deny. Netanyahu’s office called the accusations "antisemitic" and said it rejected them "with disgust."
Israel has long rejected the allegations against it, asserting that the war, with the declared aims of returning the hostages taken by Hamas, defeating the terror group, and preventing a future threat from Gaza, has been fought in accordance with international law.
Israel also entirely rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court. It argues that since the terms of the Oslo Accords explicitly deny any Paleostinian entity legal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, the Paleostinian Authority never had the right to delegate jurisdiction to the ICC in the first place.
According to a recent report, officials sanctioned by the US in recent months are struggling to live and work due to the unpredictable financial and travel restrictions imposed by the superpower.
The ICC is also facing a leadership crisis after, earlier this year, Khan stepped aside pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. He denies the allegations.
#3
Calling an organization a "Court" or calling the costumed members "Judges" doesn't give that organization the legitimacy of a real court in a Western system of checks and balances.
#4
The Hague-based ICC... IMO the so-called 'International' Criminal Court has always been the lawfare weapon of the European Union specifically and Transnational Globalists in general. Keep hammering them while treating them with contempt.
[Jpost] Yesh Atid MK Naor Shiri said that every rioter involved "should end the day with a bullet in the knee," in a post on social media.
They really, really don’t want to be drafted like the rest of Israel’s Jews. Or at least some of them — I believe that enlistment in the Orthodox, male-only units is up somewhat.
[IsraelTimes] Military says Imad Amhaz was member of Hezbollah’s coast-to-sea missile unit, involved in advancing classified project directed by former terror chief Nasrallah
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday revealed new information on a raid carried out by naval commandos last year, during which a "significant" Hezbollah operative was nabbed.
On November 1, 2024, members of the Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 unit arrived from the sea and raided a chalet on the coast of Batroun, south of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... — some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Israel’s maritime border with Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... The commandos captured Imad Amhaz, whom the military said on Friday was "one of the most significant figures in Hezbollah’s secret maritime file and a member of the coast-to-sea missile unit (7900)."
In an unusual move, the IDF published footage of his interrogation.
As part of his role in the coast-to-sea missile unit, Amhaz "received military training in 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... and Lebanon and gained extensive maritime expertise and experience for the purpose of carrying out maritime terror attacks," the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on X.
Adraee said that Amhaz had trained at a civilian Lebanese maritime institute, "which constitutes another example of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilian institutions to advance its terror activities."
According to Adraee, Amhaz told interrogators he held a key role in Hezbollah’s "secret maritime file" and provided sensitive intelligence on the unit, described as one of the group’s most secret projects, using civilian cover to build maritime terror infrastructure targeting Israeli and international targets.
He said that the project was directed by His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> , the terror group’s former leader, and Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s former military chief — both of whom were killed by Israel — as well as Ali Abd al-Hassan Nour al-Din, "head of the secret maritime file."
Adraee said the IDF was able to disrupt Hezbollah’s progress in advancing the secret maritime file "at a critical point in time," as a result of the elimination of the terror group’s leadership and the information provided by Amhaz in his interrogation.
Security camera footage posted to social media shows Israeli naval commandos raiding Batroun, northern Lebanon, November 1, 2024. (X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The commando raid took place at the height of an Israeli ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, several weeks before a ceasefire between Israel and the terror group, which mostly brought a halt to more than a year of hostilities.
Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 380 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon — saying it has been operating against Hezbollah violations of the truce.
Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it.
[IsraelTimes] Hussein al-Sheikh raises Israeli withholding of Palestinian tax revenues and asks for US envoy’s assistance in securing access to Jerusalem, Bethlehem holy sites for Palestinian Christians
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee held a rare meeting with Paleostinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh in Ramallah on Wednesday to discuss ongoing tensions in the West Bank, a US official and a PA official revealed to The Times of Israel.
Only the VP? President Mahmoud Abbas must be heading down Joe Biden’s path. He hasn’t been well for a long time…
It was just the second known meeting between the pair since the start 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... ’s administration, and came amid another largely unchecked wave of settler violence and IDF counter-terror operations that have the territory on edge.
Remembering that such interactions are generally only reported after the Israelis finally respond following a series of Palestinian provocations. So it isn’t that the reports are untrue as such, merely misleadingly incomplete.
The US has privately been urging Israel to respond more aggressively to settler violence, but with limited success, the US official said.
Huckabee and Sheikh also discussed the continued Israeli withholding of Paleostinian tax revenues, which has severely hampered Ramallah’s ability to operate because the funds make up the majority of its budget, the PA official said.
Earlier this year, Huckabee said he had been working to convince Israel to release the funds, but that the effort was derailed by PA-backed decisions from Western countries to recognize a Paleostinian state. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been withholding the monthly payments — which have accumulated to several billion dollars — in protest of Ramallah’s policies, including the payment of stipends to Death Eaters and their families (payments the PA now claims to have stopped, though Jerusalem contests this).
Millions for terrorists in Israeli jails now being paid out under a different heading, but they and their families continue to be paid. Including, incidentally, Hamas jihadis, saving the Hamas government in Gaza a very pretty penny.
Sheikh also requested the assistance of Huckabee — an ordained Southern Baptist minister — in convincing Israel to grant entry permits for Paleostinian Christians to visit Jerusalem on Christmas and ensure freedom of movement to reach Bethlehem amid the proliferation of Israeli checkpoints across the West Bank.
The pair agreed to have their aides hold a follow-up meeting next month, the US official said.
A US Embassy in Jerusalem spokesperson subsequently told The Times of Israel, "Ambassador Huckabee had a very cordial and productive meeting with the vice president that covered a myriad of issues. He will continue to have conversations with officials in Ramallah and believes that ongoing dialogue is vital to everyone. The ambassador feels there is much to be gained by continuing to develop the relationships there and to have frank conversations about the many challenges faced in the region."
Sheikh’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Possibly he did not enjoy Ambassador Huckabee’s frankness — the man does have a strong line of blunt.
The US ambassador to Israel historically has not been in charge of maintaining ties to the PA — something that had been under the purview of the US Consulate in Jerusalem. But US President Donald Trump closed that de facto mission to the Paleostinians in his first term. The PA cut ties completely and refused to engage with Trump’s first ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, arguing that doing so would legitimize the apparent downgrade of ties to merely a file within Washington’s relations with Israel.
But Ramallah has compromised in its approach to dealing with the US during Trump’s second term.
No longer any hope of waiting him out? You poor darlings.
Washington largely avoided engaging with the PA in the months following Trump’s return to office, addressing the Paleostinian issue largely through 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... lens.
But recent months have given way to a shift, as the US has sought the PA’s assistance in advancing its Gaza peace plan, even if — at Israel’s insistence — it doesn’t want Ramallah directly involved, at least initially.
That’s ever, not merely at first.
Washington sought the PA’s support last month in rallying Arab countries to back a UN Security Council resolution codifying Trump’s peace plan. Ramallah’s assistance led to the establishment of a new high-level communication channel between Sheikh and Trump’s top aide, Jared Kushner, The Times of Israel revealed last week.
Sure. On their own the PA can’t hold Gaza. But with Washington’s weight behind them…
The US Embassy and Sheikh’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Nobody doing the work, but happily complaining about the lack of results?
[IsraelTimes] Humanitarian sources and diplomats say US capacity to pressure Israel on issues appears limited, while political matters are overlooked in favor of short-term practical moves.
The recent Islamic State attacks in Syria and Australia were less about a resurgence of IS, and more a reflection of a longstanding reality — the group has not been defeated and will remain a major counterterrorism challenge for the foreseeable future.
Looking ahead to 2026, the Sahel will remain one of the primary nodes in the broader global jihadist landscape and there are growing concerns from counterterrorism analysts that Islamic State affiliates across the continent could shift some resources toward conducting external operations.
Islamic State Somalia has accelerated its recruitment of foreign fighters to the Puntland while also pushing sophisticated multilingual propaganda in an effort to radicalize and incite its followers and supporters.
The Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) is at the forefront of experimenting with artificial intelligence to improve the resonance and reach of its propaganda and media operations.
With the events of last weekend — an Islamic State (IS) attack in Palmyra, Syria that killed three Americans and an IS-inspired (or directed, pending further investigation) terror attack in Sydney, Australia targeting a Hanukkah celebration that killed 15, the Islamic State is once again back in the headlines. One of the most frequently asked questions from journalists and the media was, does this suggest the beginning of a new wave of IS attacks across the globe? In truth, nobody knows. But the attacks were less about a resurgence of IS, and more a reflection of a longstanding reality — the group has not been defeated and will remain a major counterterrorism challenge for the foreseeable future.
While the United States and its partners in the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh have made significant progress in combating the group, it remains dangerous. Though no longer as dangerous as it was when it controlled a so-called Caliphate in the Levant and was able to deploy trained fighters and inspire so many Westerners to conduct terrorist attacks in their home countries with a high operational tempo, even in its far more decentralized form, IS affiliates, regional branches and franchise groups are still highly capable. Even those that have been substantially weakened, including Islamic State East Asia (ISEA), have been back in the news with recent reporting on the Australian terrorists’ trip to the Philippines in the month prior to the Bondi Beach attack. Read the rest at the link
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 kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
