| DAILY ALERT |
Sunday, August 30, 2026 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Over the past two months, U.S. officials say the American military has steadily eroded Iran's leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. After the June 17 U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding fell apart, the military worked to reopen the strait unilaterally. Together with the UAE, a U.S. military task force started guiding ships through the southern channel of the strait while giving them air cover and intercepting Iranian drone and cruise missile attacks. A two-week U.S. bombing campaign significantly undercut the IRGC's capacity to attack ships crossing the strait. Iran is still firing at ships but its ability to target them accurately is limited. Only 2% of the ships that transited through the strait over the last month were hit, a U.S. official said. In recent weeks, traffic through the southern channel has grown to 20 to 30 tankers every night, carrying an average of 9 to 10 million barrels - roughly half the pre-war volume. More than 200 mine-like objects have been swept from the main lane of the strait in an operation involving Navy divers, Navy SEALs, underwater and surface drones, and private contractors. U.S. officials say only 11 of the objects were actual mines and just a few were properly deployed. (Axios) See also Hormuz Oil Flows at 2/3 of Pre-War Levels - Yongchang Chin Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered to 2/3 of pre-war levels, limiting the Iran war's impact on global crude prices, according to Goldman Sachs. Total exports of crude and oil products passing through the waterway have risen to 15-16 million barrels a day. (Bloomberg) See also CENTCOM Says Iranian Sea Mines Cleared from Strait of Hormuz - Tara Suter U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday on X: "We have successfully cleared sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz's international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Internationally recognized transit routes in the strait are free of Iranian sea mines." (The Hill) Palestine Action has been declared a global terrorist organization by the U.S., meaning supporters face a lifetime ban from entering the U.S. U.S. officials said that by promoting its "acts of terrorism" on social media, Palestine Action encouraged others to copy its tactics overseas, including in America. Palestine Action's assets in the U.S., including bank accounts and property, are being frozen, and Americans are banned from doing business with the group. The sanctions also prohibit people from giving funds, goods or services to the group, effectively cutting it off from the global financial system. The move follows the UK Government decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged military aircraft in June 2025. A U.S. official said: "The UK-based Palestine Action has supported numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020, including acts that have physically injured UK law enforcement personnel, as well as acts intended to intimidate lawful commercial enterprise and coerce the British Government." (Telegraph-UK) Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, and Judex Atshatshi and Saif Ali, both 18, have pleaded guilty to destroying four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola in an arson attack near a synagogue in Golders Green in north London on March 23. The attack caused 1 million pounds of damage. (Guardian-UK) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel has told the U.S. that the pilot program by the Lebanese Army to act against Hizbullah infrastructure in southern Lebanon has failed, Walla reported Thursday. Israeli security officials said, "The Lebanese Army is not destroying terror infrastructure based on the coordinates provided to it by the IDF, while at the same time requesting more coordinates, even though it is not doing anything about it." Senior IDF officials said Lebanese Army Chief of Staff Rudolf Haykal continues to cooperate with Hizbullah, fears confrontation with it, and is ineffective in carrying out searches, locating terror infrastructure and finding weapons. "There is no real friction between the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah....Israel is not satisfied, and therefore it is not rushing to agree on additional pilot areas." (Jerusalem Post) Qais Bitawi, head of Hamas's activities in the Jenin refugee camp in Samaria, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Friday, together with two accomplices. Bitawi advanced "significant terror activities and was involved in directing, financing and carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces," the IDF said. (Times of Israel) See also IDF Kills Hamas Terrorist Who Held Three Israeli Hostages - James Genn The IDF killed Hamas commander Ismail Mohammad Ibrahim Barim in Khan Yunis on Wednesday. He was responsible for holding hostages Edan Alexander, Matan Zangauker, and Avera Mengistu in a tunnel in southern Gaza. Additionally, he had been "advancing attacks targeting IDF troops and Israeli civilians." Last Sunday, the IDF killed Razek Sahil Suleiman Abu Shahma, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's bodyguard, and Hazem Mousa, a Nukhba terrorist who infiltrated Re'im on Oct. 7. (Jerusalem Post) The Jerusalem Municipality began renovation work on Aug. 25 on a community and educational center in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood in Jerusalem to serve thousands of Arab residents at a site formerly used by UNRWA. After 15 countries and the EU issued a statement condemning the Israeli move, the Israel Foreign Ministry responded: "Your facts are wrong. You support an organization that is a breeding ground for terrorism, and you prefer to attack Israel with baseless accusations instead of acting for the benefit of Arab children in Kafr Akab. This is a disgrace." According to a report by the USAID Inspector General, more than 100 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. "UNRWA employees served as terror operatives, and UNRWA facilities were systematically used for terror purposes," the ministry said. As a result, UNRWA operations in Israel have been banned. Moreover, UNRWA never had property rights over the compound and had been using the site unlawfully. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Jerusalem Post) See also New Educational and Community Complex in Jerusalem Will Serve Many More Arab Residents than UNRWA Facility Did - Bassem Eid Israel is dismantling an UNRWA vocational training center in Kafr Aqab, Jerusalem, and replacing it with a NIS 40+ million complex to serve Arab residents. The complex will include a boys' high school, a mosque, and sports and healthcare facilities. It will serve many more Arab and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem than the UNRWA facility did. Israel will not allow UNRWA to continue operating on its territory due to UNRWA's complicity with Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre. Of course, UNRWA is slandering Israel as it tries to stay in business. The writer is a Palestinian peace advocate, political analyst, and human rights pioneer who founded the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996. (X) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran Iran's regime will fall through a mix of operations, economic pressure, and protests by its own people, recently retired Mossad chief David Barnea said Thursday. "The decision to place the most severe sanctions on Iran was a correct and praiseworthy decision. But the sanctions are just another stage. There will be no choice, in my view, other than to escalate the economic actions, the policies, and the operations against the regime until it falls, and it will fall." (Jerusalem Post) The Islamic Republic is experiencing an array of crises with the collapse in value of the rial, the prolonged absence of the supreme leader, a deep sense of national humiliation over the failure to avenge the death of the leader, the loss of trust in the leadership, and the pressure and economic erosion caused by the costs of war. The most dangerous threat to totalitarian regimes has never been only the opposition outside, but the disintegration of the "base" within. Among broad circles of elements that in the past were staunch regime loyalists and hard-line nationalists, a deep sense of shock is growing over what is defined as complete "feebleness" in the face of the West. In the eyes of many Iranians who were supporters of the Islamic Republic, the great tragedy is that the regime that once threatened to destroy countries has itself become battered, weak and helpless. This is a profound crisis of faith. Citizens see the government as a body that does not provide bread, does not provide security, and excels only at suppressing personal freedoms. This is a disintegration of legitimacy from which there is no return: the public has long since ceased to believe in the ability of the clerics to run a modern state. (Ynet News) According to a senior Western diplomat who has spent years involved in implementing sanctions against Iran, Iran refines 31.7 million gallons of gasoline a day but consumes 35.7 million gallons, leaving a daily shortfall of 4 million gallons. Until a month ago, imports from China through the Strait of Hormuz, along with fuel supplied by Russia, made up the deficit. The U.S. naval blockade, Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining infrastructure, and the closure of the supply route from Russia across the Caspian Sea have reduced imports to almost zero. The result is rationing that has now fallen to 8-13 gallons per car per month, with enormous lines at Iranian gas stations. (Israel Hayom) In recent months, Iran's economy has plunged into an acute crisis. Prices for meat and dairy products have risen more than 100% over the past year, while average per capita consumption of red meat has fallen. Per capita dairy consumption has fallen from 100 kg. a year at the beginning of the previous decade to less than 40 kg. today. On social media, Iranians complain that they have shifted to diets based on carbohydrates or cheap, low-quality products. The government has introduced an emergency program of cash grants and electronic coupons to prevent mass hunger, but many stores refuse to accept the coupons because of delays in banks transferring the money. Medicine prices have risen by hundreds of percent, forcing people to forgo treatment for chronic medical conditions. The country's marriage rate has fallen dramatically, while the number of young women choosing to freeze their eggs and postpone having children has surged in the hope that conditions will improve in the future. The Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh described a "repair economy" among Iran's middle class. Soaring spare-parts prices have made repairs to cars and electrical appliances an expense that many can no longer afford. Iranians cannot afford either repairs or replacements. The Iranian website Fararu quoted dental clinic managers whose patients were replacing fillings, crowns and implants with tooth extractions, which are cheaper. "People in Iran simply don't have money anymore, and we're not talking about the poor. We're talking about the middle class, people who in principle are not opposed to the regime, but are actually the people on whom the regime rests," said A., an Iranian-born Israeli who is an analyst for the Israeli Telegram channel Iran News. "I see a lot of videos that Iranian citizens smuggle out to opposition channels," said Dr. Yossi Mansharof, an Iran researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy. "What you see in these videos is growing pressure on people's daily lives." (Israel Hayom) Gaza Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Palestinian from Gaza who has lost 33 members of his immediate and extended family in the war. He was once groomed by Hamas, but he has no love for the keffiyeh-sporting, resistance-spouting "pro-Palestine" movement - members of which, he says, know little about Gaza itself. "There is this huge gap between the many people in Gaza who have experienced the consequences of Hamas's terrorism, violence and jihadism, and the resistance narrative being pushed," says Alkhatib, 36. "Those in the West, whether they are Muslims or so-called 'allies' who are still cheering on the resistance narrative, at best seek to sideline Hamas and pretend that it is not a significant contributor to the situation. At worst, this has led to a horrendous, unprecedented normalization of Hamas, an Islamo-fascist, jihadi organization that, ironically, had been losing an immense amount of legitimacy and support in Gaza well before October 7." Alkhatib, who has written a book called Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, sees Hamas not as the victors who have managed so well to turn the world against the Israelis, but as a terror group that holds its own people hostage. He says October 7 was "a horrendous decision [made] by a small number of jihadis in Gaza tunnels" and that Hamas has "dragged its people along for a suicidal adventure." He adds, "Essentially, you have Western support for Islamist groups. And within this Western coalition, you have an unholy alliance of Islamists and supposedly social justice warriors - who ostensibly care about women's rights, equality, gay rights and immigrant rights, and a whole host of social causes - directly or indirectly singing the praises of a jihadist terrorist organization." "What [the people in Gaza] want is to be emancipated from Hamas, from the shackles of the resistance narrative that for the last 20 years has seen billions of dollars wasted and lives lost for absolutely nothing....Hamas is a deeply irrational actor in pursuit of a deeply irrational agenda - the destruction of the state of Israel. What I find grotesque is how many in the West are still waving their flags." (Telegraph-UK) Israel and the West British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is planning a sudden ill-advised departure from Britain's existing relations with Israel. He is poised to announce a "robust" sanctions regime targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Such a trade embargo would be almost impossible to implement. The pretext for the sanctions is the long-planned construction of 1,200 homes by Israel just east of the densely populated city of Jerusalem, a zone known as E1. In practice, as Labour Friends of Israel warns, any attempted embargo would probably become a de facto ban on trade with Israel. It is a bleak irony that many Palestinian businesses would be hit hard too. However, it is the very notion that sanctions are justified in the first place that does not survive scrutiny. Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has joined those who allege the E1 project jeopardizes the eventual creation of a Palestinian state. But those alarmist claims are overblown. There has never been any realistic two-state solution under which E1 would fall outside Israeli territory. Under the borders presented at Camp David in 2000 - when the Palestinians disastrously spurned a viable offer of statehood - E1 would have remained part of Israel. The Oslo accords, too, placed the land under Israeli administration. Yet Israel's critics still alight on every zoning decision as an opportunity to accuse it of wrongdoing. (The Times-UK) British Prime Minister Andy Burnham was told by Labour MPs that Britain could face retaliation from the White House for imposing a trade ban on Israeli communities in the West Bank over plans for 1,200 new homes. The U.S. last month criticized Ireland for passing similar legislation, warning of "unintended consequences" for hundreds of businesses. There are also concerns about the implication of U.S. federal and state laws that ban American firms from cooperating with foreign government-led boycotts against its allies. One Labour MP told The Times: "We shouldn't be naive enough to believe we could sanction Israel and not face any economic and political consequences from the White House, Congress or states with anti-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) laws." A former Labour minister added: "Our ministers need to weigh these risks very carefully before going ahead with gestures that might make their backbenchers and some voters feel better, but would not improve the plight of the Palestinians anyway." (The Times-UK) The image of an Israeli Knesset member who took a sledgehammer to a stone memorial in the Palestinian village of Madama in the West Bank travelled the world within hours. Yet almost nobody bothered to report what was carved on the stone that he demolished. The monument listed 10 names, with dates of death ranging from 1930 to 2004. At its base was an inscription recording that it had been presented by "the comrades in the Popular Front." The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Marxist-Leninist outfit who assassinated Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001. One of the men commemorated is Yaman Tayeb Ali Faraj, who was involved in a suicide bombing at a bus stop in Petah Tikva on Dec. 25, 2003, which killed four Israelis and wounded more than 20. Another is Shadi Nassar, who blew himself up at the Eshel HaShomron hotel in Ariel in 2002, injuring 14. Smashing up a village war memorial is not the behavior of a legislator. Prime Minister Netanyahu called taking the law into one's own hands "a reprehensible practice." Yet, try to imagine the equivalent in Ramallah. Try to imagine Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas clamping down on the lionization of terrorists across the West Bank. Anybody who has visited can attest to the thousands of posters, portraits, graffiti and tributes to murderers in almost every town and city. We live in a world where such depravity is normalized, while those who hit back are condemned. As former prime minister Golda Meir memorably put it, "they say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don't know of a compromise." The sacralization of bloodshed and sanctification of killers is the main reason why this conflict is so intractable. The monument is part of that story, yet everybody is ignoring it. (Substack) Finland has chosen not to renew its annual 20 million euro funding agreement with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, after it expires this year, Finnish Foreign Trade Minister Ville Tavio announced on Thursday. Tavio previously ordered Finland to suspend its contributions to the agency in 2024 over allegations that UNRWA employees participated in Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, then reinstated the funding. The Israel Foreign Ministry on Friday praised Finland's decision to discontinue the funding. "It is good to see more countries recognizing the undeniable truth in light of the conclusive evidence of UNRWA employees' involvement in the October 7 massacre and UNRWA's inseparable links to Hamas. UNRWA is a hotbed of terrorism. It is part of the problem, not part of the solution." (Jerusalem Post) Finland has signed a 10-year memorandum with Israel covering defense research, development and procurement. Finnish broadcaster Yle reported that the memorandum, approved by Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen, runs until 2034 and replaces an earlier arrangement that was renewed in five-year periods. Israeli and Finnish companies are already working together on military systems. The relationship has a major anchor in Israel's David's Sling air-defense system, purchased by Finland in 2023 and expected to be operational in 2027. Finnish defense company Patria has integrated Rafael's Trophy active protection system into its AMV XP 8x8 armored vehicle and has equipped armored vehicles with Israeli Spike anti-tank missiles. Yle reported that 23 projects involving the Finnish military and Israeli defense companies are currently underway. (Calcalist) Observations: The Resurgence of Antisemitism Is a Warning to Every Democracy - Dr. Haim Ben Yakov (Telegraph-UK)
The writer is CEO of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. He is the father of Yuval Ben Yakov, an Israeli soldier who was killed defending Israel during the first hours of the October 7 attack. |
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