[IsraelTimes] The UAE’s aviation authority said air traffic in the country has returned to normal, the state news agency reports, after precautionary measures implemented on February 28 at the start of the Iran war were lifted.
The decision followed a comprehensive assessment of operational and security conditions in coordination with relevant entities, the General Civil Aviation Authority adds.
[IsraelTimes] Sharren Haskel denounces Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, after he shared criticism of London police over the arrest of terror attack suspect; his party is embroiled in multiple antisemitism scandals
UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski is an "extremist" who "legitimizes violence against Jews," Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel charged on Saturday, after the British party leader sparked anger for his reaction to this week’s antisemitic terror stabbing in London’s Golders Green that left two Jewish men seriously maimed.
After a video of police subduing and kicking Essa Suleiman, the 45-year-old Somalia-born UK citizen who is suspected of being behind the attack on Wednesday, went viral online, Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers were "repeatedly and violent mostly peacefully kicking a mentally ill man in the head" when he was already incapacitated after being tased.
Asked if she agrees with an Israeli embassy source that labeled Polanski as an "extremist," Haskel told conservative British broadcaster GB News: "It is as simple as that."
Polanski "and his party are continuing this path of conspiracy theories and hatred towards Jews and toward the Jewish community and toward British Jewish citizens," she said.
"Sometimes an apology is too little, too late, especially when it comes to Polanski. When you choose to legitimize violence against Jews, you don’t just make a mistake — you cross a moral line that should never be crossed."
"It normalizes hatred, emboldens others, and corrodes the standards that hold a society together. And once that line is breached, it cannot simply be undone with a few words of regret: you risk spending the rest of your life apologizing for it," she added.
Polanski, who is Jewish, apologized on Friday, saying that: "Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologize for sharing a tweet in haste."
Polanski has accused Israel of genocide 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... , called for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a warrant from the International Criminal Court, and condemned Israel’s "horrendous and illegal" Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Iran’s nuclear sites and ballistic missile program during the June 2025 war.
While he grew up in a home he described as "very Zionist," he has said that Israel "changed," and that he is now "certainly not a Zionist."
Ahead of local elections next week, Polanski’s party has been embroiled in a string of antisemitic scandals. In one incident, candidate Tina Ion was found to be posting under the social media handle "thereal.anne.frank" that "every single Zionist" should be killed.
Additionally, candidates Sabine Mairey and Saiqa Ali, who are both running for seats in the Lambeth borough of London, were detained by the Metropolitan police on Thursday "on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online," an offense under the UK’s Public Order Act, for online posts.
The leader himself took flak for appearing to play down the danger of antisemitism, telling the Haaretz daily last month, "there’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety, but neither is acceptable."
In contrast to Polanski’s comments, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, said in an interview published Saturday that British Jews are facing their greatest ever threat, with social media fueling an "epidemic" of antisemitism, and called for 300 armed officers to be deployed to protect the Jewish community of north London.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] A visitor to Crocus City Hall snatched an assault rifle from terrorist Shamsiddin Fariduni (listed as a terrorist) during an attack. This was reported by one of the trial participants on May 2.
According to him, this circumstance came to light during the testimony of terrorist Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev (listed as a terrorist) in court. It was revealed that his weapon jammed during the attack and he abandoned it in the Crocus auditorium.
"At the same time, one of the concertgoers who happened to be near Fariduni took advantage of the interruption and took the machine gun from him," TASS quotes a participant in the trial as saying.
He also said that after this, the militants decided to set the concert hall on fire. On their way to the exit and their escape vehicle, the terrorists cold-bloodedly stabbed the wounded and helpless to death.
Fariduni, Mirzoyev, and their accomplices committed the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on March 22, 2024. The terrorists stormed the building, opened fire, and started a fire. The attack left 150 people dead, one missing, and 609 injured.
The direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack—Fariduni, Mirzoyev, Saidakram Rachabalizoda, and Muhammadsobir Faizov (listed as terrorists)—were detained in the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine. They confessed that the attack was organized by Ukrainian intelligence services.
All four were sentenced to life imprisonment. Eleven accomplices to the terrorist attack received the same sentence. Four others involved in the crime were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 19 years, 11 months to 22 years, 10 months.
Last time I checked, the Swedes have recognized their "refugee" folly. Today Sweden is paying these dangerous ingrates $34,000 to return to their homeland. After all, 80% of these "refugees" to Sweden now vacation in the homeland that they "fled."
…Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard announced that her government will push the European Union and the United Nations to stop using this fraudulent term.
The concept of “Islamophobia” was deliberately designed to equate legitimate criticism of Islamic doctrine with racism. It was weaponized to shut down discussion about core Islamic texts containing commands to wage war, rape, and subjugate non-Muslims.
Sweden just recognized what millions of Europeans already know: criticizing a religion that openly calls for the murder and sexual enslavement of non-believers is not a phobia, but basic common sense and self-preservation.
This is a massive blow to the Islamist lobby across Europe.
An exposed API is apparently an application programming interface that is accessible to external users or systems, which can lead to security risks if not properly secured — it sounds uncomfortable...
Bluesky is in full panic.
A full on exposed API has revealed thousands of people who signed up for the GTFO Ice site.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2026 17:09 Comments ||
Top||
#11
ed dear, next time first type in a word or phrase, then highlight it, then drop your URL in the pop-up box that the link icon gives you. You did the last step beautifully, but forgot the steps that went before.
a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bluesky-goes-full-panic-after-exposed-api-unveils-anti-ice-army-18000-leftists">Here’s where your phrase goes /a>
#12
If the goal was to set up a honeypot to collect names and addresses, and make that info availble freely and anonymously to anyone who cared to look at it, is there anything that would be done differently? I think not.
[IsraelTimes] The White House asserts to US Congress in a letter that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” despite the continued presence of US armed forces in the region.
The message from President Donald Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline to gain approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers who are deferring to the president.
The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.
“The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore.
Yet he also makes it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.
“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president says.
#1
Iran is signaling it will attack again. Will a new 60 day clock starts when they do?
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
05/03/2026 15:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
As long as Congress is afraid to try and enforce the unconstitutional law, POTUS's of both sides won't adhere to it. Kabuki for assholes like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Asshole)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2026 16:08 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Once only trained to prevent street crime, teams now receive lessons on counter-terror tactics and spotting threats, bringing the local patrollers deeper into overall Jewish security network
The Jewish community security coordinator, standing in a wash of colored light from the synagogue’s stained glass windows, asked the Orthodox patrol members seated in the pews about potential terrorist targets in New York City.
The attendees suggested synagogues, the subway system, Yankee Stadium and Wall Street.
"Yankee Stadium. Why is that a good target?" the instructor said.
"The amount of people. The economy," one of the patrol members said.
The Monday session was part of a push to extend counter-terrorism training to New York City’s Shomrim neighborhood patrol groups, opening another layer of Jewish community protection amid a surge in terror threats against Diaspora Jews.
The training marks a paradigm shift for the Shomrim, who tend to focus on street crime, not terror threats. The move is significant because the Shomrim represent one of the largest Jewish security forces in the city and are a regular presence on the streets of neighborhoods with large Jewish populations.
The Shomrim are not being repurposed, but will continue their normal duties, with a layer of counter-terror training on top of their focus on crime.
The Community Security Initiative (CSI), a group that coordinates security in the New York region, ran the session for Shomrim patrols from around the city. CSI and Shomrim have collaborated in the past, but the session marked their first joint counter-terrorism training.
The groups are part of an interlocking network of Jewish security outfits in the US covering intelligence, training, on-the-ground protection, grant applications, self-defense classes and cybersecurity. The organizations collaborate with each other and with law enforcement. Monday’s training brought the Shomrim, which operate within local Orthodox communities, further into that wider network.
The event, held in the sanctuary of a Jewish center in Midwood, Brooklyn, brought in around 150 members of Shomrim patrol units from areas including Flatbush, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, south Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. Each neighborhood’s patrol operates independently, although there is some coordination between the different areas.
CSI is planning further Shomrim counter-terror training sessions in other areas of the city, said Mitch Silber, the head of CSI and the former director of the NYPD’s intelligence analysis unit. CSI is a joint initiative by the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
Shomrim, Hebrew for "guards" or "watchers," patrol Orthodox and Hasidic neighborhoods for incidents such as crime and lost persons, in coordination with local police, but have not previously focused on counter-terrorism.
"Shomrim was created to fight local crime — burglaries, car break-ins and stuff like that, assaults and robberies, and now there is a new dimension," said Mendy Hershkop of the Crown Heights Shomrim. "We are starting to be used as a counter-terrorism tool as well."
The new program complements street patrols launched this year by the Community Security Service, a group that trains volunteer guards to protect synagogues and Jewish events. Those patrols, with support and funding from CSI and the UJA-Federation of New York, are active in Manhattan and the Bronx, areas with smaller Orthodox populations where Shomrim are less active.
The counter-terrorism training for Shomrim is meant to cover other areas of the city, in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, where the watch groups are based, for more comprehensive coverage to prevent attacks in the city.
The program is partly a response to the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani due to his plans to scale back policing. Mamdani has proposed measures, including limiting police overtime and nixing the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a unit that responds to protests and has come under criticism from Mamdani’s leftist base. Last week, Mamdani vetoed legislation for handling protests near schools, drawing an outcry from Jewish groups.
"Who’s more likely to see suspicious activity?" Silber said of Shomrim. "They’re sensors that are walking the streets of the community."
Jews in New York City are targeted in hate crimes more than all other groups combined, and there have been several recent, thwarted attempts at terror attacks against Jews in the city, including a neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... who plotted to poison Jewish children and a Pak national arrested in Canada who was planning a terror attack against New York Jews on the anniversary of October 7.
The US Jewish community has invested heavily in security since a spate of deadly terror attacks killed 15 Jews in 2018 and 2019. The Jewish Federations of North America estimates that US Jewish organizations spend around $765 million annually on security, around 14% of the typical institution’s budget.
The attendees at Monday’s event were Orthodox or Hasidic, many wearing black windbreakers with their neighborhood’s name on the back and walkie-talkies on their hips, chatting in English and Yiddish.
The CSI instructors, former NYPD personnel, introduced the organization, listing some of its successes in preventing attacks, including a 2022 incident that saw two men plotting to "shoot up a synagogue" and a man from Utah last year who had threatened a synagogue and was arrested while entering New York City.
The team mapped out a "concentric circles" theory of preventing terror threats, from intelligence detection to hardening targets and the immediate response to an attack. The goal is to stop an attack as far out as possible, for example, by detecting threats on social media that can be relayed to law enforcement and personnel on the ground.
"CSI is really good and robust at the intelligence, at the intel levels. They have their analysts at their desks and they’re monitoring the web," Hershkop said. "The Shomrim patrols in their local places, which we all work together, are getting the physical calls from the people in the community when there’s a suspicious person, a suspicious car, something doesn’t belong."
"We put our two capabilities together. We’re boots on the ground and we are now learning about situational awareness," he said.
The threats come from four "vectors," the instructors said — Iran, the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , homegrown violent mostly peaceful bad boys, and racially and ethnically motivated violent mostly peaceful bad boys.
The instructors walked the Shomrim through the typical cycle of a terror attack, from selecting a target to pre-attack surveillance and execution. The instructors used the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as an example, showing a video report about preparations for the attack and pointing out where it could have been prevented.
"As we get further into the plan, it’s going to be harder and harder to catch," the instructor said, urging the Shomrim to practice keeping an eye out for anything out of place, such as someone wearing a heavy jacket in warm weather.
"You guys are the eyes and ears of the Jewish community," he said.
The CSI staffers related the lesson to familiar terms, comparing the practice of "looking for exceptions" while studying the Gemara text to picking out suspicious activity on the street, or spotting car thieves scoping out vehicles — a more common problem for Shomrim — to potential attackers surveilling a target.
"It makes for a much more professional, much more robust, a much more effective security detail and we keep the community safer," Hershkop said. "What happens all over the world, especially 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 Israel and all, has a direct impact here."
It’s a real thing, as this February story reports. He is not the only one suffering as a result of his overweening hubris, because Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court, and therefore not subject to it and has no legal obligations to it:
[EuroNews] French ICC Judge Nicolas Guillou is living a nightmare after the US sanctioned him and other judges for issuing an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once again exposing the risk of Europeans' reliance on American services.
On 20 August 2025, International Criminal Court Justice Nicolas Guillou went from a respected judge to a pariah for American companies.
That day, 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... put him under US sanctions for authorising the issuance of an arrest warrant against Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, over their role in the destruction of 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.
Since then, Guillou’s life has become a nightmare — and his experience illustrates just how dependent Europeans are on US services as transatlantic tensions rise.
Gillou and his family are banned from US territory, but the sanctions have hit him hard at home, in Europe. He cannot use most credit cards, as Visa and Mastercard dominate the market; most digital services are off-limits, and even online orders can be blocked if an American intermediary — like the delivery service UPS — is involved.
"What is at the heart of the sanctions is the prohibition on any US individual or legal entity from providing services to, or receiving services from, a sanctioned person," Guillou told journalists on Tuesday.
Some banks practice "over-compliance," automatically rejecting payments from sanctioned individuals.
"This has happened to some of my colleagues, whose transfers or purchases were refused because the bank on the other side of the transaction declined the transfer from a sanctioned person," the French judge said.
"The most problematic situation is when it affects services for which there is actually no European alternative."
Guillou recounted how he booked a hotel in La Belle France through the US travel company Expedia, only for the reservation to be cancelled hours later because he was under sanctions.
Currently, 11 judges at the International Criminal Court are in the same situation.
'SOVEREIGNTY SHIELD'
The judge is calling on the EU to develop sovereign tools, including the digital euro, to shield Europeans from extra-territorial US measures.
"The only way to effectively respond to these sanctions is to build a response at the European level, because it needs to be economically strong, with a sufficiently powerful political and economic scope," he said.
The EU, according to Guillou, must legislate "to create a true European illusory sovereignty shield" that guarantees the continuity of European services for actors in Europe.
He warned on Tuesday that US sanctions can erase civil life for those who live entirely online.
"I’m 50 years old; I’ve already lived through the ’90s. It’s not easy, but I know how to handle it. But if sanctions were to hit young people today, who are 25 and have their entire lives online, I think the sanctions I’m experiencing would be a true civil death for them."
He sounds the alarm for other judges, politicians, or officials at risk of sanctions, highlighting a potential chilling effect in their work.
Several EU civil servants have been publicly named in US reports for working on digital regulations targeted by the White House.
Even former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton was banned from obtaining a US visa for creating the Digital Services Act, which imposes fines and rules on content moderation for major platforms — in particular big tech corporations based in the US.
ICC lawyer Karim Khan, who issued the arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders is also in a tangle, though his is because he was coercing s3x from a married Indonesian subordinate, who was torn between levelling charges against him and helping him in his very important work of going after Israel. Hot Air lays it all out here.
[IsraelTimes] Officer effectively in charge of Kerem Shalom area charged with sneaking truck into Strip containing items barred by IDF, including two tons of tobacco, car batteries and hundreds of electronics
An officer with the rank of major in the Israel Defense Forces was indicted for smuggling contraband into 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... as well as bringing an Israeli civilian into the Strip, the military announced on Thursday.
The officer was arrested by the Shin Bet security agency several months ago, and on Wednesday, military prosecutors charged him with several offenses, including aiding the enemy, taking bribes, and smuggling goods under aggravated circumstances.
According to the indictment, on January 10, the officer led a truck into the Gaza Strip containing 600 cellphones, 125,000 cigarettes, two tons of tobacco, 100 car batteries, 10 electric bicycles, 10 laptop computers, and several network routers — all of which Israel currently bans from entering Gaza — with a total value of over seven million shekels ($2.3 million).
The officer had arranged the smuggling with several Israeli civilians, against whom indictments were filed at the Haifa Magistrate’s Court.
The truck had been driven by an Israeli civilian, while the officer traveled ahead of him in a military vehicle.
The officer served as a deputy commander of a unit that at the time was responsible for the Kerem Shalom area, though he was effectively the officer in charge of the region, as the unit commander had been maimed during fighting in Gaza.
The indictment said the officer "bypassed inspection and supervision mechanisms, and exploited his authority and military position, while presenting a false representation to soldiers and officers that this was a legitimate operational activity."
After crossing the border, the civilian left the truck in a parking lot just inside the Gaza Strip and returned to Israel with the officer. The vehicle with the smuggled goods then aroused the suspicion of the soldiers monitoring the truck parking lot, and a force was dispatched to search it. The troops also updated the officer, as he was the commander of the sector, and he instructed them to step away from the truck and leave him to handle it, according to the indictment.
A Gazook driver who was supposed to collect the truck from the parking lot and take it to Deir al-Balah in the Strip’s center refused to do so, and instead, the officer brought the civilian again into Gaza "to complete the transfer of the goods."
"The civilian drove the truck further into the Gaza Strip and remained there for several days, until he was extracted with the assistance of the parties involved in the smuggling," according to the indictment.
The indictment noted that the civilian was extracted out of Gaza "with the assistance of a soldier whose details are unknown to the prosecution."
Prosecutors said that the officer "carried out these acts knowing that the goods were being brought into the Gaza Strip without authorization and without supervision, and that they could reach terror organizations, including Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... , and assist their activities."
The indictment also stated that the officer "knew, or turned a blind eye to the possibility, that bringing an Israeli civilian into the Gaza Strip could also assist the enemy," and that the civilian could have been kidnapped while he was in the Hamas-run territory.
The investigation was carried out jointly by the Shin Bet, Israel Police, Military Police and Israel Tax Authority.
"The IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Police view the phenomenon of smuggling into the Gaza Strip gravely, as it poses a risk to national security in general, and especially in cases where IDF personnel in regular or reserve service are involved," a joint statement said.
This month, in a separate case, a lieutenant in the IDF was indicted for smuggling contraband into the Gaza Strip in exchange for millions of shekels.
And in February, state prosecutors filed charges against 15 suspects, among them IDF reservists, accused of taking part in a major smuggling ring that trafficked goods into the Gaza Strip.
That alleged smuggling ring is linked to Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini. Bezalel Zini is thought to have helped the network’s members smuggle cigarettes, taking advantage of his IDF reserve service in Gaza.
On the other hand, Iran isn’t shooting off very many missiles at a time that need Arrow 3 interceptors anymore.
[IsraelTimes] The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will convene an emergency meeting on Israel’s lack of Arrow 3 interceptors, Channel 12 reports.
Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the committee’s chairman, has reportedly called the meeting after over a third of the body’s members signed a letter demanding a discussion be held on the subject of “the failure of the interceptors and the abandonment of the home front.”
The letter was drafted at the initiative of Democrats MK Efrat Rayten after it was reported on Channel 12 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government repeatedly refused to increase funding for interceptor missiles amid rising tensions with Iran and multiple large-scale ballistic missile attacks.
The letter, referring to the investigation from last week, voices worry that Israel has “over the course of many months, avoided expanding assembly line production of Arrow 3 interceptors, despite two massive ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”
The Arrow 3 is Israel’s most advanced long-range defense system, meant to intercept ballistic missiles, like the type fired from Iran, while they are still outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
The lawmakers on the committee are requesting to summon both Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to answer the questions before the committee regarding the reported lack of interceptors. It is unclear when the meeting will be held.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas largely bucked demands to give up all of its weapons in a response to a Board of Peace disarmament proposal submitted in Cairo on Saturday, two Arab diplomats familiar with the negotiations tell The Times of Israel.
Just accept that they need to be pounded a great deal more before they will walk away from their Islamic duty to kill all the Jews, and let Israel get on with it. After all, the shipment from America arrived the other day, so no need to delay any longer.
While the US-led Board of Peace tasked with overseeing the postwar management of Gaza has been pushing Hamas to accept a phased return of its weapons, the terror group’s counter-offer insisted that the issue only be part of a framework culminating in the establishment of a Palestinian state.
While US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war, on which the Board of Peace is operating, speaks generally of eventual Palestinian self-determination, Hamas in its response demanded more definitive guarantees toward that end before discussing the handover of its weapons, the two Arab diplomats say.
Hamas also demanded that Israel cease violating commitments pertaining to the first phase of the ceasefire deal reached in October, taking issue with Israel’s expansion of the eastern half of Gaza that it controls, its strikes on fighters on the western side of the Strip and daily entries of humanitarian aid that have fallen below agreed-upon terms, the Arab diplomats add.
One of the Arab diplomats maintains that it is still possible for the mediators to coax Hamas to gradually give up its weapons, but says similar pressure will also have to be applied by the US on Israel to uphold its commitments.
The diplomat says such simultaneous pressure on Israel and Hamas is unlikely to come while international attention is largely focused on Iran.
However, the Arab official acknowledges that the status quo in Gaza will be harder to reverse the longer it is allowed to remain in place.
[IsraelTimes] Voting for Hamas’s next political leader has concluded in the Gaza Strip, according to a source speaking to the Qatari Al-Araby network, who says that the votes among Hamas members in West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora are set to take place later today.
The two main candidates to take over the terror group’s leadership are current Gaza politburo chief Khalil al-Hayya, who has been the group’s top negotiator over the past several years, and Khaled Mashaal, a senior leader who headed Hamas from 1996 to 2017.
Hamas has not had an elected leader since July 2024, when a bomb planted by Israel in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, who was elected to a second term as terror chief in 2021. Following the assassination, Hamas announced that Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, would take over as leader, without holding internal elections.
Sinwar, who is credited as the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, assault, only served as leader for three months before he was killed in the Rafah area. Since his death, Hamas has not formally named a successor or interim leader, instead reportedly being led by a quintet of senior officials based outside Gaza, primarily in Qatar and Turkey.
Hamas generally holds leadership elections every four years, but the latest vote, initially scheduled for 2025, was delayed by the war. During the war, Israel assassinated most of the terror group’s senior political and military commanders.
The elections have historically been conducted in secrecy, with only a few hundred to a few thousand senior members quietly casting ballots and Hamas keeping results under wraps to shield its operatives from exposure to Israeli assassination attempts.
[IsraelTimes] The Pentagon estimates Iran has lost $4.8 billion in oil revenue due to the US Navy’s blockade of its ports, the Axios news site reports, citing unnamed Pentagon officials.
Two tanks have been seized amid the blockade. Additionally, 31 tankers carrying 53 million barrels of oil are now “stuck in the Gulf,” according to the officials.
Some ships are sailing “a costlier and longer route to deliver oil to China for fear of US maritime interdiction,” the officials tell Axios.
The US imposed its blockade on Iranian ports amid a temporary truce as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to permanently end the war that has raged between Israel, the US, and Iran.
Iran said last month that it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, but then reimposed it when the US refused to lift its blockade until a permanent agreement to end the war with the US was reached.
Naim Qassem and his operatives depicted in video shared by LBCI channel as birds from popular video game as they fight IDF, whose members are portrayed as green pigs.
It’s really cute. Images only at the link, as the tweet has been pulled.
LBCI was founded in the 1980s by the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party opposed to Hezbollah.
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese armed forces commander General Rudolf Haykal and US General Joseph Clearfield met today in Beirut to discuss the security situation in Lebanon and regional developments, the Lebanese army says in a statement.
Clearfield heads a committee monitoring a US-backed ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. The participants at the meeting underlined the importance of the Lebanese army’s role and the need to support it during the current phase, the statement says.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Since the start of the military escalation, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 2,618 people. Another 8,094 residents have been injured. This was reported on May 1 by the Lebanese Ministry of Health. How many of them were Hezbollah, willing or unwilling human shields, or just in the same place when the bad guys were hit?
In the past 24 hours alone, the Israeli Air Force has launched airstrikes on southern Lebanon. Thirty-two people have been killed and 74 injured in the attacks. The attacks are taking place despite a ceasefire declared between the two sides on April 17.
“The total number of civilians killed since the start of the military escalation on March 2 has reached 2,618, and 8,094 wounded,” the Ministry of Health clarified on social media.
The death toll is expected to rise as Israel continues to strike populated areas in the south of the country, where Hezbollah has traditionally held strong positions.
🚨 IRAN WANTS A DEAL IN UNDER 30 DAYS — I WONDER WHY...
According to IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency, Iran just submitted another joke of a proposal to the US.
Key details:
• Iran rejected a 2-month ceasefire
• Demands a full deal within ~30 days
• Wants focus on “ending the war”, not extending a truce
• Calls for:
1. U.S. withdrawal from the region
2. End to naval blockade
3. Sanctions relief
4. Release of frozen assets
5. Compensation payments
6. Guarantees against future attacks
7. End of fighting across all fronts, including Lebanon
NOTICE; They want all of this within 30 days.
WHY?
They are not only facing complete economic collapse, but irreversible damage to their oil infrastructure.
When Iran pushes for a fast deal, it usually means:
👉 The economic squeeze is working
👉 The window to stabilize is closing
👉 Delay = more damage
President Trump demands they give up their nuclear bomb program altogether, including giving up all their enriched uranium. As soon as they do that, then the rest can be discussed. He has made this absolutely clear.
[IsraelTimes] Senior Iranian officer says war with US ‘likely’ as CENTCOM chief arrives in region to meet with troops stationed in the Arabian Sea; Netanyahu to convene security cabinet Sunday
US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... said Saturday he was going to review a new Iranian peace proposal but cast doubt over its prospects, as a senior military officer in Tehran indicated renewed fighting was "likely."
The dour outlook came after Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies said Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistain. Details included ending the conflict on all fronts and enacting a new framework for the crucial Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim said.
"I will soon be reviewing the plan that 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... has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
In a brief interview with news hounds in West Palm Beach, Florida, he declined to specify what could trigger new military action against the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
"If they misbehave, if they do something bad, but right now, we’ll see," he said. "But it’s a possibility that could happen, certainly."
Iran’s latest 14-point proposal was said by Iranian media to include the withdrawal of US forces from areas surrounding Iran, lifting the blockade, releasing Iran’s frozen assets, payment of compensation, lifting sanctions and ending the war on all fronts, including Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , as well as a new control mechanism for the strait.
It was delivered via mediator Pakistain after a previous draft submitted on Thursday was rejected by Trump, who said he was "not satisfied" with its contents.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has been on hold since April 8, with one failed round of peace talks having taken place in Pakistain.
"At this moment I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering," Trump told news hounds of Iran’s Thursday proposal, blaming stalled talks on "tremendous discord" within Iran’s leadership.
"Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever — or do we want to try and make a deal?" he added, saying he would "prefer not" to take the first option "on a human basis."
On Saturday morning, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military’s central command, said "a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely," in quotes published by Iran’s Fars news agency.
"Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements," he added.
Amid the heightened rhetoric from both sides, US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper arrived in the Middle East to meet with troops aboard the USS 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... , an assault ship stationed in the Arabian Sea.
Cooper arrived in the region after briefing Trump on Thursday on Washington’s various military options against Iran.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that it was up to the US whether to pursue a negotiated deal or return to open war, but that Tehran was ready for either outcome.
"Now the ball is in the United States’ court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach," deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi told diplomats in Tehran, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
"Iran, with the aim of securing its national interests and security, is prepared for both paths," he said.
Israel, which launched the military campaign against Iran jointly with the US six weeks ago, is not represented at the talks. Host Pakistain has no diplomatic ties with Israel and does not recognize its illusory sovereignty.
The ceasefire declared by Trump last month came with core declared goals of the war unfulfilled, including ensuring that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons, destroying its missile program, and creating the conditions for the Iranian public to overthrow the regime.
Reports in recent days have suggested that Israeli officials are bracing for the possibility that negotiations between the US and Iran could collapse as early as the start of next week.
To prepare for this possibility, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet on Sunday, the office of a cabinet member told The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu last met with the small circle of senior ministers on Wednesday, including Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri.
’LIKE PIRATES’
Trump on Friday said the US Navy was acting "like pirates" in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
"We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business," Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. "We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games."
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
The Pentagon estimates Iran has lost $4.8 billion in oil revenue due to the US Navy’s blockade of its ports, the Axios news site reported on Friday, citing unnamed Pentagon officials.
In addition to the vessels that have been seized, 31 tankers carrying 53 million barrels of Iranian oil are now "stuck in the Gulf," according to the officials.
Some ships are sailing "a costlier and longer route to deliver oil to China for fear of US maritime interdiction," the officials told Axios.
The US imposed its blockade on Iranian ports amid the truce as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a ceasefire to permanently end the war.
The vice speaker of Iran’s parliament, meanwhile, said Tehran would not "relinquish our rights in the Strait of Hormuz, and the movement of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz will not be the same as before."
Ali Nikzad added that under legislation before parliament for managing the waterway, 30 percent of tolls collected would go toward military infrastructure, with the rest earmarked for "economic development."
"Managing the Strait of Hormuz is more important than acquiring nuclear weapons," he said.
Iran said last month that it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, but then reimposed it when the US refused to lift its blockade until a permanent agreement to end the war with the US was reached.
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Friday that his country had "never shied away from negotiations," but would not accept the "imposition" of peace terms.
The White House has declined to provide details on the latest Iranian proposal, but news site Axios reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments to a previous one putting Tehran’s nuclear program back on the negotiating table.
The changes reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites nor resume activity there during talks.
Iran’s mission to the UN pointed to the United States’ massive nuclear arsenal, accusing it of "hypocritical behavior" toward Iran’s own atomic program.
It went on to insist there was no legal "restriction on the level of uranium enrichment, so long as it is conducted under the IAEA’s supervision, as was the case with Iran."
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/03/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1809 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Ahh, this is a classic example where the use of "FAFO" truly applies!
What will they do if the US refuse? My guess is not a whole lot!
#4
OK, we can do most of that. In exchange, you'll give up the nukes and the Straits go back to being an international waterway. Deal?
While looking up a quote yesterday, I cam accross this. It seems to apply here.
the great receipt (recipe) for quieting a country is a good thrashing first and great kindness afterwards: the wildest chaps are thus tamed.
-- The life and opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier, Volume 3, page 34
#7
First let's consult with the 241 Marines killed by Hezbollah y!
Posted by: Regular joe ||
05/03/2026 12:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Trying to decide if their worldview is so different as to be delusional that they think they are in a position to make demands or if they are worried about getting assassinated by more fundamentalist IRGC personnel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2026 15:55 Comments ||
Top||
#10
^ Most definitely NO.
I have no doubt we (US & Israel) have gathered quite a lot of intelligence during this ceasefire. The results of Phase 2, when it happens, should be even more interesting than Phase 1
#11
Trying to decide if their worldview is so different as to be delusional
The twelfth Mahdi will come out of his well, or Allah will reach down from the heavens, to make the Mullahs the winners in this situation. All they need do is sit tight and demonstrate pious trust in the outcome, no matter how difficult this brief intermediate stage.
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...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
