Will this counter Open Society donations to Red/Green radical groups that take pride in attacking Jews and Israel, or is this just a figleaf?
[IsraelTimes] Open Society Foundations pledges to strengthen interfaith partnerships as hate levels rise against Jews, Muslims amid Gaza and Iran wars
Open Society Foundations, the family philanthropy founded by hedge fund billionaire George Soros ...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both.... , is putting $30 million toward groups fighting antisemitism and anti-Moslem hate over the next three years.
Given that Mr. Soros despises most Jews, one has to wonder which will be the priority here.
The major human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... funder pledged Wednesday to strengthen interfaith partnerships and protect those facing heightened threats in response to the rising levels of hate against both Jewish and Moslem communities, coinciding with the Israel-Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... war and the current fragile ceasefire in the US-Israel war with Iran.
Last year saw the highest level of deadly violence against Jews worldwide in over three decades, according to an annual study released last month by Tel Aviv University, including the deadly December shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. Meanwhile,
...back at the saw mill, Scarface Al had tied Little Nell to the log and was about to turn on the buzz saw... anti-Moslem rhetoric has intensified against the backdrop of the 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... war, with one congressional Republican saying Moslems "don’t belong in American society."
"The deep injustices occurring in the Middle East are fueling indiscriminate prejudice, dehumanization, and violence directed against both Moslems and Jews," Open Society Foundations President Binaifer Nowrojee said in a statement. "Entire communities cannot be targeted simply because of their religion. Bigotry and intolerance in any form must be called out and confronted."
The announcement marks the foundation’s most visible campaign since last fall’s reports that the US Department of Justice was considering possible charges against Open Society Foundations. US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... specifically named Soros as he ordered the FBI to crack down on what he called "left-wing terrorism" — an accusation that OSF has denied in statements emphasizing their mission to strengthen democracy.
Alex Soros, who took over leadership of his father’s foundations in late 2022, noted that "discrimination and hate" aren’t abstract concepts for him as the son of a Holocaust survivor
…except your father was on the perpetrating Nazi side of the equation instead of the victim side with the rest of the Jews, but you tell yourself what you need to get along with your DNA donor…
and husband to a Moslem American. The foundation added that George Soros, who holds significant influence as a liberal megadonor with vast financial investments and philanthropic ties, is frequently targeted by conservative conspiracy theories that twist those powerful connections into antisemitic tropes about behind-the-scenes puppet masters.
"At a moment like this, we need to stand together and act," Alex Soros said in a pre-taped video posted on social media. "This investment is about keeping people safe and pushing back against hate."
The commitment is aimed broadly at expanding education on forms of discrimination, supporting cross-community leaders who build trust and safeguarding free speech rights to lawful expression. The foundations have already selected some grantees and are inviting other nonprofits to apply for funding. Recipients include the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Nexus Project. Shoulder to Shoulder, a multifaith alliance that prepares religious leaders to address anti-Moslem discrimination, is among those leading the work on Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, welcomed the strategy to tackle both matters together. The grant will allow JCPA to build upon its solidarity work with Moslem and Arab American communities, Spitalnick said, which has deepened since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage 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... She pointed to a fellowship and a Capitol Hill discussion on Jewish-Moslem solidarity that were both launched with the Moslem Public Affairs Council.
She emphasized that hate is interconnected. The normalization of Islamophobia, racism and broader anti-democratic extremism creates the conditions for antisemitism to flourish, she said.
"We need funders and others to recognize that treating any of these issues in silos doesn’t get at the root cause, doesn’t get at the broader resiliency we need right now," Spitalnick said. "The fact that Jewish safety requires Moslem safety, that Moslem safety requires Jewish safety."
The Soros’s announcement did not say how the foundations will define antisemitism — a point of contention on college campuses and in state legislatures where debates have raged over whether criticism of Israel amounts to hatred of Jewish people. The shortlist of Open Society grantees suggests a more nuanced definition than the Anti-Defamation League, which releases an annual audit of antisemitic incidents in the United States. The ADL holds that vilifying Zionism, or the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state in Israel, is a form of antisemitism.
In contrast, the Nexus Project promotes definitions of antisemitism that do not include opposition to the Israeli state’s policies. Similarly, as the National Education Association weighed a resolution prohibiting the use of the ADL’s educational resources, Spitalnick emphasized that "one does not need to align with the ADL on every issue."
Andrés Spokoiny, the president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, estimated that the philanthropic sector has dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars to countering antisemitism — regardless of its definition. Other high-profile efforts include the $25 million "Stand Up to Jewish Hate" ad campaign launched by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in March 2023 through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
But the persistence of antisemitism has left some members of Spokoiny’s group questioning their approaches.
"There’s a lot of perplexity around what actually works," he said. "So many funders are very frustrated."
#3
I expect $30m to a billionaire is little more than a public urinal splash. Smelly, gets on your shoes, but you walk out pretending it didn't happen.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates during the height of the military campaign against Iran. The Prime Minister's Office announced this on May 13.
According to the press service, during this trip, Netanyahu met with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan.
"This visit led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates," the office noted.
Earlier, on May 13, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that David Barnea, director of Israel's foreign intelligence service, Mossad, visited the UAE at least twice during the conflict with Iran to coordinate efforts. The article's authors emphasized that Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi demonstrated a close security partnership during the military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
In April, the American news outlet Axios reported that, at the start of the conflict with Iran, Israel sent the Iron Dome air defense system and personnel to the UAE to operate it. Netanyahu ordered the deployment of a battery of interceptors and several dozen IDF operators after a phone call with Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
So the Israeli army is defending Arabs from Iranian attacks. Truly we live in an age of miracles.
[IsraelTimes] Source says PM’s meeting with Emirati president took place on March 26 in a city close to the Oman border, though Abu Dhabi denies premier made covert trip: ‘Entirely unfounded’.
[Breitbart] A report released this week by researchers at Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed that the Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist organization, have been rapidly rebuilding their weapons arsenal through shipments of components, including for missiles and underwater weapons.
The components found to be entering Yemen reportedly bore marks linking them to defense companies in a variety of unexpected countries, including America, Switzerland, and South Korea. CAR warned, however, that many of the parts may be counterfeit and their greater concern with the influx of components is that it indicates the Houthis have improved their ability to build their own weapons and the sophistication of their technical expertise.
The Houthis, formally “Ansar Allah,” are a Shiite jihadist terrorist organization that has controlled the capital of Yemen, Sana’a, for over a decade. They are believed to rely heavily on Iranian support and elevated their international terror profile in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, massacres in Israel by Hamas, a fellow Iranian proxy terror group. Falsely asserting themselves as the government of Yemen, the Houthis “declared war” on Israel shortly after October 7 and announced a blockade of commercial shipping in Bab el-Mandeb Strait, sabotaging commerce traversing the Red Sea.
The Houthis ultimately concluded their disruptions of civilian ship travel following the resolution of the Gaza war and have not resumed an active role in the current conflict between Iran and its enemies, America and Israel. While the terrorists have claimed to launch some missiles at Israel, most reports indicate they have chosen a “reserved” stance that raised questions of whether Iran was still supplying their members.
The CAR investigation indicated that the Iranian supplies were, in fact, still entering Yemen.
“The group’s arsenal now includes an array of advanced missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that pose a direct threat to shipping, critical infrastructure, and populated areas in the wider region,” the study revealed, describing a far more advanced threat in Ansar Allah than a decade ago. “CAR investigators have documented more than 800 missile and UAV components recovered in recent maritime seizures in the Red Sea. Collectively, these items provide critical insight into the composition and nature of advanced conventional weapon systems — like missiles and UAVs — in Houthi possession.”
The Houthis appear to be avoiding the global weapons sale ban on their organization and sanctions by procuring “dual-use” technology “commercially available and widely found on the open market,” the report suggested.
The study is based on interdictions of shipments intended for the Houthis by the Yemeni National Resistance Forces. While the Houthis have controlled Sana’a since about 2015 and claim to be the government of Yemen, the country is technically in a decade-long state of civil war between the Houthis and its legitimate government headquartered in the southern port city of Aden. The lack of control of actual territory in Yemen has significantly weakened what remains of that government and, in the ensuing struggle, a separate group known as the “National Resistance Forces” (NRF), led by Gen. Tareq Saleh, has become a viable force in Yemen.
The NRF has focused on weakening Houthi forces, particularly through intercepting weapons shipments. In July 2025, for example, the Pentagon congratulated the NRF for seizing a shipment, allegedly from Iran, of over “750 tons of munitions and hardware.” According to the Pentagon’s Central Command (CENTCOM), the shipment included “advanced cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads and seekers, components as well as hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems, and communications equipment.”
Those shipments, CAR relayed in its report, suggested that the munitions Iran is sending the Houthis have become more advanced. Authorities and experts believe the shipments are from Iran because the interdicted components contained names in Farsi or component references used only in Iran. Only a reported five percent of interdicted components appeared to have been manufactured in Iran, however, presenting a separate problem from the fully constructed weapons.
CAR concluded that the Houthis’ reliance on Iranian support — and, in turn, Iran’s reliance on components manufactured abroad — represent a vulnerability for the terrorist organization.
“While the Houthis have declared these missiles to be locally produced, the identification of Iranian missile designations on the shipped components implies that Houthi domestic production of those systems is limited,” the report asserted. “Moreover, as much as the Houthis depend on external supply of Iranian-origin weapons, Iran itself clearly depends on critical foreign technology to sustain its production of missiles and UAVs.”
“This reliance underscores a clear supply chain vulnerability that can only be elaborated through systematic and sustained field documentation,” it concluded.
The Houthis have maintained only an occasional presence in the ongoing conflict between Iran and its proxies versus America and Israel, but could potentially at any time choose to use its weapons arsenals to support its patrons in Tehran. Houthi leaders claimed in April, for example, to have shot a “barrage of ballistic missiles” at Tel Aviv, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported they intercepted. Some reports have also identified Houthi terrorists fighting alongside Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy, in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion following America’s strikes on Iran in March.
The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday, citing the IDF, that Israel intercepted a drone seemingly launched from Yemen targeting the Red Sea port city of Eilat, the first such attack since the Iran conflict began.
[IsraelTimes] British police say they will be using ‘the most assertive possible use of our powers’ to prevent unrest this Saturday, when at least 80,000 are expected to attend the protests
London police said on Wednesday they would mount an "unprecedented" operation this weekend to prevent violence and serious disorder when two large protests — anti-immigration and pro-Paleostinian — take place in the British capital.
At least 80,000 people are expected in London on Saturday for the two demonstrations — a pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel march marking Nakba Day and another "Unite the Kingdom" rally organized by the anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson.
With the soccer FA Cup final also being staged at Wembley in the northwest of the capital, and against a backdrop of global tensions, recent antisemitic attacks, and a raising of Britannia’s terrorism threat level, police said they would be using "the most assertive possible use of our powers" to forestall trouble.
"The scale of the operation is unprecedented in recent years," Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman told news hounds, saying it would involve some 4,000 officers backed up by helicopters and dog units, and with armed police vehicles in reserve.
ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
London has recently seen a spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites, and two Jewish men were stabbed last month in an incident being treated as terrorism.
Regular large pro-Paleostinian marches against Israel — of which there have been 33 since the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led assault on Israel in October 2023 — have been blamed for fueling antisemitism, with prosecutions for those behind offensive chanting and holding placards that incite hatred.
Friday is Nakba Day, which marks the hundreds of thousands of Paleostinians driven from their homes in the war surrounding Israel’s declaration of independence. Nakba means "catastrophe" in Arabic."
Meanwhile,
...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... rallies fronted by Yaxley-Lennon, who counts US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk among his supporters, have led to anti-Moslem chanting and violence, Harman said.
Last September, about 150,000 protesters attended a "Unite the Kingdom" event, one of the largest such demonstrations of its kind seen in London, when Musk appeared by videolink.
Ahead of Saturday’s protests, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government had banned seven foreign "far-right agitators" from being allowed into Britannia to attend Yaxley-Lennon’s event.
Robinson says he has been targeted by the state for exposing wrongdoing but his critics say he is little more than a far-right rabble-rouser with a string of criminal convictions.
"We need to be mindful this Saturday of the history of football [soccer] hooligan groups supporting causes fronted by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon," Harman said.
#2
With the soccer FA Cup final also being staged at Wembley in the northwest of the capital, and against a backdrop of global tensions, recent antisemitic attacks, and a raising of Britannia’s terrorism threat level, police said they would be using "the most assertive possible use of our powers" to forestall trouble.
If British jews are to be held responsible for what happens in Gaza...then by the same reasoning British Muslims should be held responsible for the massacres of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Libya is working to expand and strengthen military cooperation with Russia, according to the Secretary General of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Heiri al-Tamimi.
"Military cooperation with Russia is nothing new for Libya; it's a long-standing one. We're working to expand and strengthen military cooperation with our friends," al-Tamimi noted in an interview with RIA Novosti.
He also noted that, at the direction of LNA commander Khalifa Haftar, the country has implemented large-scale plans to train Libyan officers and fighters. Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Belarus, Italy, the United States, and Pakistan participated in this effort.
I thought Turkey was keen on the rump, UN-approved Government of National Accord led by Fayez al-Sarraj. Did I miss something?
Such training, according to al-Tamimi, has helped significantly strengthen combat readiness, expand the LNA's capabilities, and improve its readiness to counter threats.
Libya isn't the only country seeking military cooperation with Russia. In December 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin called India a reliable and privileged defense partner. Moscow isn't simply transferring technology to New Delhi, but sharing it, which is very rare in military cooperation, the head of state emphasized.
[IsraelTimes] Alon Haimovich’s departure comes after the US tech giant, over the past year, conducted a review into the alleged unethical use of its Azure cloud platform by IDF for surveillance of Palestinians.
The move comes after Microsoft last year initiated a review of its dealings with the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200 in response to a report by the UK’s Guardian and the far-left activist outlet +972 Magazine. The report claimed that Azure software was used to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Paleostinians living in the West Bank and 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.
In September, Microsoft cut some of the Israeli army’s access to certain cloud services over the use of its Azure cloud platform for expansive surveillance of Paleostinians, and alleged violation of the company’s terms of service.
Haimovich, who is leaving after four years in the position, was reportedly summoned in recent weeks by an investigative team led by Microsoft’s global management, according to Globes. The investigation is said to have centered around violations of Microsoft’s code of ethics amid concerns that the company’s Israel subsidiary was not fully transparent with global headquarters about how the IDF’s 8200 unit uses its cloud platform and technology systems.
Several managers in Microsoft Israel’s governance department will also be leaving their positions, Globes reported on Monday.
Microsoft declined to comment on further details regarding Haimovich’s departure from his role on May 31 and additional Israel-based staff leaving their roles.
Haimovich joined Microsoft Israel seven years ago as Public Sector Lead, before assuming the position of general manager four years ago. Microsoft said it will announce Haimovich’s successor in "due course."
"Haimovich will embark on a new professional path in the fields of technology and artificial intelligence," Microsoft said. "During his tenure, Microsoft Israel became one of the three fastest-growing countries within its peer countries cluster across the company, achieved a number of standout milestones and drove a shift toward Frontier AI leadership."
Microsoft’s ties to Israel have been the subject of several protests at the company’s offices, including sit-ins and demonstrations led by the No Azure for Apartheid protest group.
In August last year, the company fired four employees who participated in protests on company premises. Microsoft said the terminations followed serious breaches of company policies and said recent on-site demonstrations had "created significant safety concerns."
Previously, Microsoft had denied claims that artificial intelligence and cloud-based computing technologies it supplies to the Israeli military have been used to target people in Gaza during the war with the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror group.
Microsoft currently operates development centers in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Nazareth, with most of its 3,000 employees working on projects including cybersecurity, AI technologies, big data, and healthcare, as well as sales and marketing.
The company opened a local branch in Israel in 1989, and established its first R&D center in Israel, its first outside the US, in 1991.
[IsraelTimes] Jewish groups announce protest against ‘libels’ outside newspaper’s Manhattan offices; ex-PM Ehud Olmert says column misrepresented his words so they appeared to validate allegations
The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... repeatedly defended a column that alleged Israeli security forces rape Paleostinian inmates, as Jewish groups announced they would protest outside the newspaper’s Manhattan offices on Thursday over the "libels."
But the Times did not respond to a statement by former prime minister Ehud Olmert accusing columnist Nicholas Kristof of misrepresenting his words so that they appeared to validate the allegations in the Monday op-ed, "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Paleostinians."
Israel had slammed the star journalist’s column, calling it "one of the worst blood libels" in modern media and assailing its use of a report from an NGO whose leaders have been photographed alongside top Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... officials.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry also alleged that the Times deliberately published Kristof’s column ahead of an independent Israeli report that found Hamas had systematically used sexual violence in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . The Foreign Ministry claimed the Times had been approached with the Israeli report "months ago."
In a statement Wednesday, the Times said it "never passed on" the Israeli report "and wasn’t told about its completion or the timing of its release."
Olmert, who in interviews with foreign media often accuses the current Israeli government of war crimes, said in a statement cited by The Free Press on Tuesday that the placement of the quote was misleading and that he could not confirm the allegations in Kristof’s column.
"Once the report was made public, we covered its findings," it said, adding that the Israeli report "has no bearing on Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column or its publication timing."
In a separate statement, the Times on Tuesday also denied journalist David Shuster’s claim on X that there were "already discussions, including up the masthead, about retracting" Kristof’s column over "issues with source credibility and lack of evidence."
The Times responded that "there is no truth to this at all," noting that Kristof was "a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades."
"He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Paleostinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies," the Times said.
And in another statement late Wednesday, the outlet said Kristof’s piece "draws together on-the-record accounts and cites several analyses documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel’s security forces and settlers," adding that the accounts were "corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in," that they were "extensively fact-checked," and "further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with UN testimony." It said "independent experts" were consulted throughout the process.
Kristof’s column alleged "a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards."
It cited personal testimony from Paleostinians, and included Olmert’s comments near the end, so that they appeared to confirm what came before.
"Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Paleostinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard," Kristof wrote, before quoting Olmert as saying: "Do I believe it happens? Definitely... There are war crimes committed every day in the territories."
Olmert, who in interviews with foreign media often accuses the current Israeli government of war crimes, said in a statement cited by The Free Press on Tuesday that the placement of the quote was misleading and that he could not confirm the allegations in Kristof’s column.
"Mr. Kristof’s article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims," Olmert said in the statement.
"I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views," he said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... pro-Israel Jewish groups EndJewHatred, Stop Antizionism, Hineni and the Movement Against Antizionism said they would hold a protest outside the Times’ Eighth Avenue headquarters on Thursday following Kristof’s column.
Other than EndJewHatred, the organizations behind the rally are relatively new, having been established following the October 7, 2023, onslaught and ensuing surge in anti-Jewish sentiment in the US. The rally marks an early foray into organized protests for the newer groups.
"Join us to rally and let NYT know they must stop the anti-Zionist libels! Enough is enough!" the organizers said.
The protest comes after anti-Zionist activists marched through a Jewish area of Brooklyn on Monday and scuffled with residents as a local Young Israel synagogue hosted an event by a real estate group that advertises listings in West Bank settlements.
Footage from the Monday demonstration showed anti-Zionist protesters hurling abuse at a news hound with The New York Times, who in turn flashed them a notepad on which he had scrawled, "Did you read Kristof?"
Police officers could then be seen questioning the news hound, who said that given the protesters’ animosity toward the Times, "I think I can ask if they read the remarkable story that Nick Kristof wrote in today’s paper about sexual violence against Paleostinians."
"They should be interested in that. I think that’s a fair question," said the news hound, who was wearing a press badge.
The Jewish News Syndicate identified the news hound as freelancer Nate Schweber, and quoted a Times front man confirming that Schweber was reporting for the newspaper from Brooklyn on Monday.
"The Times’ coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has been revealing, honest and unflinching," the front man was quoted as saying. "Despite the attacks on our coverage from opposing directions on a near-daily basis, we will not let critics or advocacy campaigns deter us from such independent reporting."
Several anti-Zionist protesters at the Monday night rally accused Jewish counter-demonstrators and neighborhood residents of "raping people with dogs," citing The Times report.
The column’s critics, who also include a handful of Palestinian voices who have previously condemned Hamas, have pointed to Kristof’s reliance on a report issued by an NGO that Israel has alleged for more than a decade serves as a Hamas propaganda operation.
While Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian writer and advocate in the United States, wrote that he had “no doubt” that “incidents of sexual abuse have occurred in Israeli prisons,” he criticized the sourcing used in Kristof’s piece, writing in a post on X that Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based NGO, and others have “troubling records on accuracy, conduct, and associations.”
“They are not credible sources, even if the article relied on others as well,” Alkhatib wrote. He said that other Palestinian testimonies were “anonymous due to shame and fear of retaliation for reporting sexual torture, which complicates verification but does not automatically invalidate their claims.”
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the senior envoy for Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, similarly criticized Kristof’s use of Euro-Med’s report in a post on X. Euro-Med’s leaders have long drawn accusations from Israel of being Hamas operatives, and the NGO has faced scrutiny for referring to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas as having been “arrested and moved to the Gaza Strip” and for claiming that Israel steals the organs of deceased Palestinians.
“This is not a human rights organization with a bias,” Rodan-Benzaquen wrote. “It is an organization whose leadership has documented family and organizational ties to Hamas, operating under institutional cover at the heart of our democracies, and is cited by the @nytimes.”
Hen Mazzig, an Israeli activist, also maligned Kristof’s citation of a tweet by Shaiel Ben-Ephraim in a Substack post, pointing out that he left UCLA amid accusations of sexual harassment in 2020. (Ben-Ephraim has acknowledged that he engaged in “inappropriate behavior” at the time.)
Ben-Ephraim’s viral tweet from April, which Kristof linked to in his claim that Israel had trained dogs to rape Palestinian detainees, listed a series of alleged testimonies from Palestinians’ unnamed Israeli guards who claimed they had experienced or seen the practice.
“The accusations against Israeli settlers and security officials deserve serious investigation,” Mazzig wrote, later adding, “But if you are willing to platform a man accused of sexual harassment, and an organization that calls Jewish rape allegations propaganda, to make your case on the same topic, the conversation is over.”
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told the Free Press that his comments in the column appearing to validate the allegations, appeared out of context. Many have also questioned the timing of Kristof’s column, which came just a day before a widely anticipated report from an Israeli civil commission about the extent of sexual violence during Hamas’s bloody October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
Neither The New York Times nor Kristof responded to questions from JTA. But a spokesperson for the newspaper, Charlie Stadtlander, defended the column and its author late Tuesday, writing online about a viral claim that it could be retracted, “There is no truth to this at all.”
On Wednesday morning, he also rejected claims that Kristof’s column had been timed in relation to the October 7 sexual violence report, which he said the Times had not known about before its release. The newspaper covered the report late Tuesday.
Kristof, too, has waved off concerns, dismissing criticism that the piece ran in the Times’ opinion section rather than its news pages. He also greeted skepticism about the possibility of training dogs for sexual assault with “exasperation.”
Update from the Times of Israel at 11:50 a.m. EDT:
#2
The Ayatollah declared that rape was part of their judicial process so Israel is investigated for rape. It’s the liberal thing to do.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/14/2026 6:22 Comments ||
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#3
“Whatever our views, we should unite in condemning rape.” Agreed. Jeffrey Gettleman did exactly that reporting for this paper in December 2023, on October 7’s victims. He did not get this kind of defense. He did not get this kind of institutional speed. The asymmetry is the…
#4
An incident from 2002. I was exercising in the company gym. A fellow from another department recognized me (I didn't recognize him) and asked me if I was proud of the fact that US Troops were flushing Korans down toilets in Afghanistan. I asked him why I was being asked this. He said he was an engineer and that he was a secular Muslim and he knew me from some project I was coordinating years before. I said, "Well since you are an engineer, could you explain how a person could flush a Koran down a toilet. It seems to me to be impossible." He thought for a while and then said, "Yes it seems impossible. But why would someone lie about that?"
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/14/2026 8:59 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] While Washington believed conflict would leave a weakened Tehran unable to aid its proxies, Hamas has dug in on refusing to disarm and like its patron sought to drag out talks
The US-Israeli war against 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... appeared to break out at an inopportune time for the Board of Peace tasked with negotiating Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... ’s disarmament.
Just nine days earlier, on February 19, the US-led international panel overseeing the postwar management 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 secured $17 billion in pledges for humanitarian relief and reconstruction in the enclave.
The nascent Board of Peace’s ability to galvanize such support — conditioned on Hamas giving up its weapons — suggested that momentum in the international arena was moving against the terror group.
But the war quickly turned attention elsewhere in the region. Gulf countries that had offered to donate the largest sums to the Board of Peace suddenly found themselves among the hardest hit by Iran’s retaliatory strikes, and now seem poised to deprioritize foreign aid in favor of more national defense spending.
But a senior US official speaking to The Times of Israel days after the February 28 Iran war launch was emphatically unbothered.
"Hamas is watching what is happening to Iran and understands that its last lifeline is fading away," the US official maintained, as Tehran was still in shock over the opening US and Israeli strikes on the country’s leaders and military assets.
Even if the US needed to shift its focus to Iran for the brief period of time that it expected the war to last, Hamas only stood to lose with each new blow inflicted on its benefactors in Tehran, the senior US official argued.
Over two months later, however, that optimism appears to have been premature.
After a brief pause in the Board of Peace’s negotiations with Hamas, the sides reconvened, only to see the Islamist terror organization continue to spurn the panel’s framework for disarmament.
"Not only is Hamas emboldened by Iran’s ability to withstand the war, but it is seeing the importance of holding onto your cards for as long as you can," said an Arab diplomat from one of the countries involved in the Board of Peace talks.
The Iranian card that the US most badly wants is its nuclear program, which Tehran has thus far refused to budge on in negotiations.
For Hamas, the last key piece of leverage is its arms, and while before the Iran war it appeared to signal willingness to part ways with its heavy weapons, it has more recently hardened its stance, the Arab diplomat said.
Taking another page out of Iran’s playbook, Hamas has sought to drag out negotiations over disarmament. It has refrained from rejecting the Board of Peace proposal outright, even indicating it is prepared to hold additional talks after submitting a counter-proposal on April 2 that fell well short of the board’s demands, the Arab diplomat explained.
In recent days, though, it has again signaled a desire to slow down negotiations, this time explaining that it wants to wait until the results of its internal leadership elections are in next week before proceeding with the disarmament talks, the Arab diplomat said.
In the meantime, the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov acknowledged on Wednesday that Hamas is consolidating its power in the Strip, while dragging its feet in disarmament talks, thereby stalling plans to rebuild the war-torn enclave.
"Diplomacy remains open, but the people of Gaza cannot be asked to wait indefinitely while the same questions are being discussed a second, third, fourth and fifth time," he said.
While Hamas was more hesitant to criticize Mladenov as he settled into his position, it has been quick to attack him more recently, in another indication of how emboldened it is feeling.
"Mladenov is not worthy of being responsible for even one day of transitional management of our Paleostinian people," Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said in a statement on Wednesday.
#1
Nothing will change until the population is evacuated.
Trump's optional foreign war has removed US control over the Strait of Hormuz and this will echo for the next century. Iran gets to charge tolls from now on. US destroyers ran away last week.
We’ve seen reports that Hamas controls most sales of donated supplies in Gaza, taxes the population just like a regular government, and has secret cryptocurrency accounts that people can donate to, just like PayPal and such. There are also their enterprises in Europe and elsewhere — it’s not all jihad all the time for their far flung minions, you know.
#9
It's not some kind of crazy conspiracy theory that Israel founded Hamas as a counterweight to the PA.
Funded them, kept them going during the difficult times. All in the service of a long-term goal.
How else did Hamas smuggle in paragliders undetected?
How did all the security cameras along the world's most guarded border this side of North Korea malfunction at the same time? We have video of the Japanese tsunami, of the J6 protest, of everything.
But the border footage of Oct 7 is all gone. All we have is the video of the genocide, which was somehow widely available and Israel even tried to post it on Youtube and organize theater showings in New York, despite depictions of human suffering and death being illegal.
#11
It's not some kind of crazy conspiracy theory that Israel founded Hamas as a counterweight to the PA.
Crazy? No. Stupid. though. They were that part of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that moved to Gaza when things got too hot in Egypt. They founded themselves without any help from Israel, and with plenty of subsequent help from their Egyptian brothers — and from the PLO, of which they are still a voting member along with all the other Palestinian terror groups, both on the socialist/communist side and the radical Muslim side. Hamas still gets direct deposit funding from the Palestinian Authority as figleaf for the PLO.
At one point Israel did look to Hamas as opposition to the PLO/PA — it was one of their social experiments — and given that Hamas threw the PA out of Gaza and is in the process of pushing it out of power in a good portion of the West Bank, it can be said that it was a successful experiment. But given the PA’s pay-for-slay program, a propagandized education just as vile as Hamas’s, and equally strong connections to the UNWRA and the NGO ecosystem, from Israel’s perspective both are her equally fervent enemies.
Idiots all over. In Israel the Arabs are murdering one another at absurd rates, complaining on the one hand that the Jewish government does not fix the problem and on the other that the Jewish police are abusing them by arresting the malefactors. Also in Israel the protesting left, the rump labour socialists who can no longer get themselves elected to run the country, continue doing the usual protest nonsense, incidentally trashing shops along the way from time to time. And very recently the Ultra-Orthodox Haredi have been rioting to prevent their young men being drafted like all the rest of Israel’s Jews. A statistic casually mentioned some weeks ago is that all the trouble by the “settlers” in the West Bank is being caused by about 70 spoilt young idiots who don’t have enough to keep them busy. Considerably more are involved in the anti-Bibi protests and the Haredi riots.
[IsraelTimes] Officers reportedly decry lack of tools to address the issue, which they warn is distracting them from offensive operations; Palestinian teen said killed by IDF after settler raid
Up to 80 percent of incidents that Israeli troops in the West Bank record are Jewish attacks on Paleostinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was told on Wednesday, amid an unchecked surge of deadly settler violence that has plunged the West Bank into chaos in recent months.
The statistic was shared with the premier by an officer in the IDF Central Command during a meeting on Jewish terrorism, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
The officer informed Netanyahu, according to Kan, that the need to devote resources to Jewish terrorism has forced the Israel Defense Forces to cut back on arresting Paleostinian terror suspects, putting the security of the state at risk.
"There are company and battalion commanders here who spend the night preventing [Paleostinian] terrorism and most of the day dealing with [Jewish] nationalist crime," the officer was quoted as having said. "Arrests of wanted suspects and offensive operations are canceled because of these incidents. In some brigade operations rooms, 80 percent of the reports in the log are [Jewish] nationalist crime."
"We are failing every day in maintaining law and order, and we have no tools," another officer said in an appeal to Netanyahu, according to the report. "There are [illegal settlement] outposts we have evacuated dozens of times — they return. There are key activists inciting youths to violence who are not being removed, and if they are arrested, they are released and return after two days."
The second officer reportedly stressed "there are outposts engaged in daily violence against Paleostinians; by the time we arrive at the scene, there is nothing left to do."
"The system is structured in a way that makes it impossible to defeat this," the officer bemoaned. "It’s only a matter of time before we wake up one morning to a Telegram group reporting that Death Eaters slaughtered Jews in one of the outposts."
Another officer in Central Command was said to have told Netanyahu that when he brings up the importance of upholding the law, it is seen as expressing a left-wing political position.
Shin Bet chief David Zini reportedly told the meeting, "Outposts that generate violence should be evacuated."
He called for the evacuation of Israeli outposts "that are problematic, lack security, and outposts in Area B," which is under Paleostinian Authority governance and Israeli security control, according to Kan, which would mark a departure from Zini’s previously reported stance on settler violence against Paleostinians.
The Shin Bet chief, who is affiliated with an ultraconservative yeshiva and has identified as "messianic," was reported last month to refer to the settler attacks as instances of "friction," rather than terrorism, and to have deprioritized stemming the rising tide of violence.
Extremist settlers, sometimes in mobs, have been recorded on a near-daily basis carrying out a variety of violent mostly peaceful attacks, including assaulting Paleostinians, torching cars, and damaging property.
Arrests in such cases are rare, and convictions are even less common, and the IDF has also faced criticism for often standing by while attacks unfold — with troops sometimes actively participating — or failing to prosecute those responsible.
In contrast, the IDF frequently arrests Paleostinians who are involved in the violent mostly peaceful confrontations with their settler attackers.
In an incident Wednesday, the IDF said troops opened fire on Paleostinian rioters in the West Bank village of Jaljilya, killing one person and wounding several others, after Israeli settlers raided the village.
Paleostinian media reported that a 16-year-old was rubbed out in the incident.
The military said troops and Border Police officers were dispatched to Jaljilya, near Ramallah, following reports of a group of settlers entering the village to search for a herd of sheep that was allegedly stolen from an illegal settler outpost constructed in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the civil and security control of the Paleostinian Authority.
When the forces arrived, the army said, they worked to escort all of the Israelis out of the village, "prevent confrontations," and also take out the stolen livestock.
The IDF said several of those suspected of stealing the herd were detained and handed over to the police for questioning.
As the troops left the village, "a violent mostly peaceful riot developed, which included stone throwing," the military said, adding that troops responded with riot dispersal means and live fire at "main instigators."
The IDF said it was aware that "several suspects" were maimed and one person was killed "by the forces’ gunfire," and said the incident was under review.
In a separate incident, the Paleostinian Authority’s Wafa news agency reported that a woman and her daughter were maimed Wednesday by hard boy settlers who entered the West Bank village of Burin on cycle of violences and attacked their home.
The attackers allegedly smashed windows and fired shots at residents who tried to intervene.
Amid the rampant violence, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir paid a visit to an army post in the West Bank on Wednesday, where he was displeased to find that his recent warning about eroding discipline appeared to have gone unheeded, and criticized a soldier from the Nahal Brigade for wearing a non-military patch bearing the word "Messiah."
Zamir recently told senior officers that the trend of soldiers wearing unauthorized badges and patches bearing religious, messianic, political and inciteful messages was an "erosion of norms" and a "rebellion" against the army’s values, and instructed them to crack down on the phenomenon.
After being called out by the chief of staff, the offending soldier was sentenced to 30 days in military jail by his brigade commander, Col. Arik Moyal. The soldier’s platoon commander was handed a suspended two-week sentence, and the battalion commander was also censured by the Nahal commander. The soldiers had been warned earlier Tuesday that Zamir would be visiting the military outpost and doing the rounds, making the discovery of the patches all the more infuriating.
[IsraelTimes] Mladenov says disarmament plan wouldn’t force the terror group to disappear as political movement, stresses Hamas would hand over weapons to technocratic government and not Israel
The Board of Peace’s 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... envoy said Wednesday that Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... is consolidating its power in the Strip, while dragging its feet in agreeing to a US-backed framework for handing over its weapons that has led to the stalling of plans to rebuild the war-damaged enclave.
"Hamas is consolidating its grip on the population. It is taxing people in the street who have nothing left to give," Nickolay Mladenov
…Bulgarian politician who was a UN diplomatic bigshot for the Middle East during the 2010s. Since January he’s been the director-general of the Board of Peace, which is one of those lovely ideas …
said during a briefing with foreign news hounds in Jerusalem.
Mladenov held the rare media engagement as the Board of Peace struggles to determine how best to proceed after Hamas again bucked its disarmament proposal at the start of May.
Since then, the Board of Peace’s high representative for the Gaza Strip has traveled twice for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other bigwigs in Jerusalem, using the opportunities to press Israel to adhere to its own commitments in the October 2025 ceasefire deal, which established the Board of Peace to oversee the postwar management of Gaza.
Dismissing a questions about Israel resuming military operations to disarm Hamas, which it was unable to do through two-plus years of war sparked by the terror group’s attack on October 7, 2023, Mladenov asserted the only options on the table are continuing the status quo or for Hamas to accept the disarmament framework, which he asserted for the first time offers Gazooks a future.
’NO COLOR ZONES’
The Board of Peace envoy insisted that he was committed to moving forward, but did not specify how he planned to do so in light of Hamas’s intransigence.
A US official told The Times of Israel that Washington — which wields significant power within the Board of Peace chaired by President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... — is considering shifting from an all-or-nothing approach on reconstruction to focusing on first rebuilding the eastern half of the Strip still controlled by Israel.
Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war envisions Israel gradually withdrawing from that part of the territory, but conditions that pullback on Hamas disarming.
The US initially explored the framework that prioritized construction in the IDF-controlled "green zone" over the Hamas-controlled "red zone," hoping to entice the vast majority of the Strip’s 2 million Paleostinians living in the coastal zone to move there by offering housing solutions and jobs.
However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... Washington abandoned the strategy after facing massive pushback from potential Arab donor countries, which warned it would ingrain the division of the Strip.
While the US may be reconsidering, Mladenov revealed Wednesday that returning to the original plan would not be simple either.
He confirmed during the briefing a Tuesday report in the Kan public broadcaster that Hamas recently blocked Paleostinian workers from reaching the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where they were contracted by the Board of Peace to build the first new community on the Israeli side of the yellow ceasefire line.
However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... Mladenov did not go as far as the US official, appearing to reject the idea of concentrating reconstruction efforts to a part of Gaza rather than the whole Strip.
"We have not designated any color zones in Gaza," he said.
’NOT ASKING HAMAS TO DISAPPEAR’
Mladenov tried to frame the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal as something that Hamas need not view as a concession.
"This is not a message of coercion. It offers the Paleostinians in Gaza, for the first time in a very long while, a real choice," he said, highlighting the reconstruction projects that are ready for implementation if Hamas agrees, adding that tens of thousands of public sector jobs will be created for Paleostinians within the first year.
"Nothing in this framework asks you to give up your identity, your faith, your history, your dignity — in fact, it asks exactly the opposite," Mladenov argued.
"We’re not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement. A political party that disavows armed activity can compete in national Paleostinian elections, and the [disarmament] roadmap preserves that possibility," Mladenov added.
It’s unclear whether Israel would be on board with Hamas’s continued participation in Paleostinian politics, though the Trump administration has managed to curb some of Jerusalem’s veto power.
Israel had demanded an immediate handover of all Hamas weapons, but the framework that the US-led Board of Peace adopted was a gradual one that starts with the handover of heavy weapons and maps of Gaza tunnel networks, followed by the decommissioning of all remaining personal weapons over an eight-month period.
’ONE AUTHORITY, ONE LAW, ONE WEAPON’
Offering some new details on the disarmament framework presented to Hamas earlier this year, Mladenov said it is "based on the principle of reciprocity."
"Each step that we suggest be taken by one side triggers a step to be taken by the other, and each step is confirmed by an independent monitoring mechanism before the next step is taken," he explained, adding the process doesn’t require trust between Israelis and Paleostinians in the absence of any.
The framework includes a voluntary buy-back option for armed Paleostinians to be compensated for returning their weapons, offering "conditional amnesty" for those who participate and agree to live as law-abiding citizens moving forward. "We’re not interested in retribution. We’re interested in transition," Mladenov said.
Hamas officials who will lose their jobs as a result of their replacement by the new technocratic government called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) will be offered reintegration support, including direct financial provisions.
Members of gangs unwilling to accept the framework will be given the opportunity to relocate to third countries, Mladenov said.
Framing the disarmament proposal as being in line with a long-held Paleostinian Authority principle, Mladenov summarized it as, "one authority, one law, one weapon" and insisted that all weapons in Gaza be under the control of the NCAG.
"We’re not asking Paleostinians to surrender their weapons to Israel. We’re asking them to consolidate institutions on which their future depends," he continued. "This is what reconstruction, Israeli withdrawal and the political horizon depend on."
The 12-member NCAG has yet to enter Gaza since being established in January, with the Board of Peace hoping that Hamas accepts the disarmament proposal first.
Hamas has argued that it shouldn’t be expected to implement the second phase disarmament portion of Trump’s 20-point plan, accusing Israel of violating first phase commitments, with daily strikes deep into the Hamas-controlled side of Gaza, routinely missed humanitarian aid benchmarks, the unilateral expansion of the side of Gaza it controls and the limited operation of the Rafah Crossing.
Israel says it maintains the right to target Paleostinians posing a threat to troops.
The Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday that it killed a Hamas terrorist last week who participated in the raid on the military’s Nahal Oz base during the October 7, 2023 onslaught.
The IDF said the strike targeted Hamza Sharbasi, a commander in Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, who had posed a threat to Israeli troops in Gaza. While not the target, the strike also killed Azzam al-Hayya, the 23-year-old son of Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.
According to the military, Azzam al-Hayya was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, "who recently held a central role in the organization."
"Recently, Sharbasi operated near the Yellow Line and, in the framework of his role, worked to advance terror plots against IDF troops operating in the area," the IDF said.
Pressed on the alleged Israeli ceasefire violations, Mladenov acknowledged them without explicitly naming Israel but said the Board of Peace does not divide the 20-point plan into phases the way Hamas does.
"You can talk about phase one and phase two, but there is one 20-point plan, and we cannot pick and choose what we implement," he said.
Last week, The Times of Israel obtained a letter showing that the Board of Peace does not intend to hold Israel to the terms of the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire if Hamas does not accept the disarmament proposal.
Mladenov’s increasingly tougher approach in dealing with Hamas has sparked criticism from the terror group, which was again voiced on Wednesday.
"Mladenov is not worthy of being responsible for even one day of transitional management for our Paleostinian people," senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said in a statement.
[IsraelTimes] Harnessing artificial intelligence for cutesy songs and other content, Tehran proves adept at spreading its narrative, dominating Israel’s attempts to win hearts and minds of internet users.
Despite the Syrian Transitional Government’s narrative of “remnants of the regime” to justify attacks against minorities, ISIS is currently the only insurgent group carrying out attacks against STG terrorists. - In February, the start of a new phase… pic.twitter.com/nTHyP192ei
…Al Nusra/Hayat Tahrir al Sham, ie. Al Qaeda’s franchise in Syria…
narrative of “remnants of the regime” to justify attacks against minorities, ISIS is currently the only insurgent group carrying out attacks against STG terrorists.
- In February, the start of a new phase for ISIS following the collapse of the SDF resulted in 14–15 deaths and 5 injuries
- In March, at least 22 attacks were reported across the country, leaving 15 dead and 7 injured among civilians and militants
- In April, there were at least 7 attacks, leaving 3 militants and 1 civilian dead, along with several injuries
- In the first two weeks of May, ISIS attacks have left between 2 and 3 dead and several wounded among STG ranks. In addition to the deaths of militants, on 1 May the Shia cleric Sheikh Farhan Hassan al-Mansour was killed by an explosive device.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
05/14/2026 00:00 ||
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[1801 views]
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New assessments indicate Iran has restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile launch sites along the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the report, Tehran still has access to roughly 70% of its mobile missile launchers and about 70% of the missile arsenal it had before the war.
Even more concerning:
Iran has reportedly restored access to approximately 90% of its underground storage and launch facilities across the country.
These sites are now considered partially or fully operational.
[IsraelTimes] Washington wanted temporary ceasefire that included Iran compromises on its nuclear program, but Islamic Republic demanded permanent truce followed by separate talks on enrichment.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/14/2026 00:00 ||
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[1769 views]
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#1
Of course they did. That is what a hudna is for.
#2
Take Kharg Island out and everyone of their ports. Trains coming in and their rail systems.
Posted by: chris ||
05/14/2026 2:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Seems like the heavy equipment operations necessary for restoring access to the missile launch sites would be quite detectable by our various monitoring systems,
[IranIntl] More than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown on nationwide protests, making it the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history, according to documents reviewed by Iran International's Editorial Board.
Iran International's Editorial Board can confirm the death toll after reviewing newly obtained classified documents, field reports, and accounts from medical staff, witnesses, and victims’ families.
The new information provides a clearer picture of the killing pattern and the scale of a crime that can now be described as the largest and bloodiest massacre of civilians during street protests, over a two-day period, in history.
Iran International has received reports and evidence indicating the extrajudicial execution of a number of detainees in Tehran and other cities. Images released from morgues leave little doubt that some wounded citizens were shot in the head while hospitalized and undergoing medical treatment. It is evident that, had these individuals sustained fatal head wounds on the streets, there would have been no reason to admit them to hospital or begin treatment in the first place.
The images also show that in some cases, medical tubes and patient-monitoring equipment remained attached to the bodies. In other cases, cardiac monitoring electrodes are visible on the chest, suggesting these individuals were under medical care before being shot in the head. A number of doctors and nurses have also told Iran International that so-called “finishing shots” were fired at wounded patients.
In its previous statement on January 13, Iran International’s Editorial Board reported at least 12,000 deaths caused by the crackdown.
That figure was explicitly cited in a report by the IRGC Intelligence Organization submitted to the Supreme National Security Council and the Presidential Office on January 11, two days after the two-day massacre, reviewed by Iran International.
36,500 KILLED IN 400 CITIES
Our Editorial Board has now obtained more detailed information provided by the IRGC Intelligence Organization to the Supreme National Security Council.
Other state institutions have also received differing figures from other security bodies. However, given the scale of the killings, deliberate concealment, and what appears to be intentional disorder in the registration and transfer of bodies – along with pressure on families and, in some cases, the quiet burial of victims – it appears that even the security agencies themselves do not yet know the precise final death toll.
In a report presented on Wednesday, January 21, to the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee seen by Iran International, the number of those killed was listed as at least 27,500.
According to sources within Iran’s Interior Ministry who spoke to Iran International on condition of anonymity, a consolidation of figures received from provincial security councils by Tuesday, January 20, showed the death toll had exceeded 30,000.
Two informed sources from the Supreme National Security Council also told Iran International that in two recent reports by the IRGC Intelligence Organization, dated January 22 and January 24, the number of those killed was listed as more than 33,000 and more than 36,500 respectively.
Interior Ministry reports say security forces confronted demonstrators in more than 400 cities and towns, with more than 4,000 clash locations reported nationwide.
Despite the confusion and concealment, the rapid increase in death toll figures in classified government reports has heightened concerns that the actual number of those killed may be even higher.
Due to communication restrictions and security pressure, independent verification remains impossible. However, based on credible information from hospital sources and eyewitnesses, the number of deaths in several major cities is described as shocking.
Conservative assessments by medical sources, based on the number of bodies delivered to hospitals and medical centers, estimate more than 2,500 killed in Rasht, at least 1,800 in Mashhad, more than 2,000 in Isfahan, Najafabad, and Khorasgan, at least 3,000 in Karaj, Shahriar, and Andisheh, 700 in Kermanshah, and 400 in Gorgan.
No clear aggregate figure has yet been obtained for Tehran. However, images released from Kahrizak morgue and hospitals across the capital indicate that thousands were killed in Tehran, with a significant proportion of the deaths occurring in southern Tehran.
Posted by: NN2N1 ||
05/14/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
36,000 of its own people murdered for just protesting in the streets in just 2 days. Not Looting, not assaulting or shooting others. Not the usual crap we see the Far Left Protesters doing here in the USA.
Maybe we need to ask all those TDS types that ran quickly to the Media Cameras to whine & denounce Trump. If they retract their earlier comments, or they condone & approve of this MASS MURDER protesters?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/14/2026 6:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Another way to look at this.
IRAN murdered 36,500 of it own people in 2 days.
While IDF took almost 4 months to match that number fighting Iranian armed terrorists, which hid among Hamas supportive GAZA civilians to launch missiles on Israelis.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
