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Thursday, August 28, 2025 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
President Trump chaired a meeting on Wednesday focusing on plans for postwar Gaza, as the U.S. and Israel seek a comprehensive deal that would end the conflict and return all of the remaining Israeli hostages. On Tuesday, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff appeared to rule out any piecemeal agreement that would bring home only some of the captives in exchange for a truce. "We think we're going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year," Witkoff told Fox News. Israeli leaders have vowed that they will not end the war until they destroy Hamas in Gaza. Any ceasefire that left the group in power or allowed it to rebuild its strength would be unacceptable. (New York Times) See also Trump Administration Opposes Additional Partial Hostage Release Deals - Jacob Magid U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News that the Trump administration opposes additional partial Gaza hostage deals. Witkoff said that Hamas is fully responsible for the lack of a deal to date. (Times of Israel) See also Trump Leads White House Meeting on Ending Gaza War - Robbie Gramer Wednesday's White House meeting included the president's top national-security aides and senior Israeli officials. Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer led the discussion from the Israeli side. U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News: "It is a very comprehensive plan we are putting together on the next day [after the end of the war], and many people are going to see how robust it is and how well-meaning it is and it reflects President Trump's humanitarian motives here." (Wall Street Journal) See also At White House Meeting, Trump Approves Initiatives in Education, Food Supply and Temporary Housing for Gaza - Danny Zaken The international plan to rebuild Gaza was at the center of discussions President Trump convened at the White House on Wednesday. American sources confirmed that detailed proposals were presented at the meeting, outlining responsibilities for organizations and countries expected to take part in the project. During the discussions, Trump approved advancing some of the projects in the near future, including initiatives in education, food supply and temporary housing. The program is set to be implemented even if fighting continues. International organizations, with international funding, would begin direct assistance to the population in new humanitarian zones in southern Gaza, where the IDF maintains control and relative calm. Assessments presented in the discussions noted that the chances of a ceasefire before Israeli forces enter the remaining neighborhoods of Gaza City are slim. (Israel Hayom) The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll released on Aug. 25, 2025, found that 74% U.S. voters continue to support Israel over Hamas in the Israel-Hamas conflict. 61% believe Hamas is responsible for famine in Gaza. 57% support the U.S. providing offensive military aid to Israel. 85% say the U.S. should continue to take all actions necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. (Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll) Britain, France and Germany planned to jointly notify the UN Security Council on Thursday that Iran is in "significant" violation of the 2015 nuclear deal and that they will reinstate international sanctions that were suspended as part of that agreement. The "snapback" provisions would automatically go into effect after 30 days, restoring a wide array of measures, including a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile production, asset freezes and visa bans. The decision comes after years of threats and weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the three European countries and Tehran. The intent of the Europeans is to trigger the 30-day countdown before Russia takes over from South Korea as the rotating chairman of the Security Council on Oct. 1. (Washington Post) Ottawa's annual Pride parade was cancelled on Sunday after it was halted by a local pro-Palestinian advocacy group that blocked the road and demanded that the organizers hold a "boycott, divestment and sanctions" town hall and commit to an ongoing cultural and academic boycott of Israel. (CBC News-Canada) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Former hostage Tal Shoham told Israel Army Radio on Wednesday about the systematic theft of humanitarian aid by Hamas while Israeli hostages endured deliberate starvation. Shoham said, "In the room next to us, the guards had food for months ahead that they stole from humanitarian aid. They said they received orders from above to starve us." Shoham's weight dropped from 174 pounds to 110 pounds by the time of his release. He told Fox News that hostages were allowed merely 300 calories a day and just 300 milliliters of water, which they had to choose to use for drinking or washing. (Israel Hayom) The IDF said Tuesday that six of the Palestinians killed in the shelling of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Monday were Hamas terrorists. The IDF is investigating why tank shells were mistakenly approved for the operation. (Jerusalem Post) IDF commando forces carried out a raid Wednesday night at a military facility in al-Kiswah, Syria, 8 km. (5 miles) south of Damascus, in a region where pro-Iranian militias operated for years under the protection of the Assad regime. The soldiers were present at the location for about two hours. Six Syrian soldiers were reported killed. The Iranians had established weapon and armament depots in the region, alongside the weapon depots of the Syrian army's 1st Division. (Israel Hayom) In the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, IDF troops are spending their days less in close combat with Hamas terrorists and more in reshaping the battlefield. Their mission is to secure and expand the military corridors that cut through the city, connecting fortified outposts that are becoming permanent fixtures on the ground. Over several months, 2,137 buildings were reduced to rubble in the Abbasan neighborhoods of eastern Khan Yunis, not far from the Israeli border. The demolitions were systematic and massive, part of a larger IDF strategy to erase urban cover where Hamas fighters could conceal tunnel shafts and explosives. Instead of clearing houses room by room, a painstaking and dangerous process, the IDF now prefers to tear them down. "If no buildings are standing, Hamas cannot return, dig new tunnels under cover or set ambushes above ground," one officer explained. The soldiers' new mission profile became less about chasing gunmen from house to house and more about ensuring that Hamas cannot rebuild. Using small drones armed with miniature explosives, soldiers punch a hole into a roof. Then, a larger drone swoops in, dropping dozens of kilograms of explosives straight into the heart of the building. What used to require dangerous work by combat engineers can now be achieved in as little as three minutes. The method saves lives. Many of the targeted houses were already weakened by shelling or airstrikes, making them dangerous to enter. Now, the risk to soldiers is dramatically reduced. "Every building we destroyed was implicated in terror. Some were homes to the men who stormed Israel on October 7. We're not leaving Hamas anything to rebuild with," one officer said. (Ynet News) Israel's Elbit Systems on Tuesday announced it had successfully launched its advanced Jupiter space camera aboard the National Advanced Optical System (NAOS) satellite. Elbit's space camera supports a wide span of observation missions, military operations, environmental monitoring, and scientific research. Jupiter is capable of capturing large geographic areas in a single orbital overpass. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the backing of the Trump administration, is presenting a new ceasefire initiative. Israel would agree to withdraw from large parts of Gaza and allow for a negotiated framework primarily based on Egypt's initiative. In return, Hamas would release all hostages. The deal envisions Gaza without Hamas's grip but also without the Palestinian Authority (PA), marking a sharp divergence from Cairo's blueprint. This initiative comes with an unmistakable warning. If Hamas rejects the deal, Israel will expand its military operations inside Gaza, aiming to impose the terms by force. One senior Israeli official described the plan as "peace and reconstruction, or war without limit." The offer should include the end of Hamas and any other terror militias, enforced by international monitors and the IDF, and a transitional authority supported by regional partners and vetted by international bodies, excluding both Hamas and the PA, but rooted in local Palestinian leadership. Economic revival must be more than pouring concrete, it must reshape mindsets as well. Gaza's version of post-war rehabilitation should have a vision - to make a Gaza that looks more like Dubai than Tehran. This would require a reconstruction fund overseen by neutral actors, pumping in capital for infrastructure and jobs, but with one condition: participation in a civic, de-radicalizing re-education process. Recovery means learning to stand upright without leaning on militias or martyrdom. The writer, former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad, is a researcher at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Since the Gaza war began, Hamas has remained closely allied with Islamic Jihad, which continues to hold one of the remaining Israeli captives, Rom Braslavski. A number of recent joint attacks on the IDF in Khan Yunis have in part been orchestrated by the joint operations room, an organization created by Hamas and Islamic Jihad back in 2006. Today, it brings together 12 Palestinian armed factions - including, alongside Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Saraya al-Quds, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, Mujahideen Brigades, and Omar al-Qasim Brigades - and has become the place where many decisions about the war and negotiations are made. In recent weeks, there are signs that this broader front may be crumbling. Members of the joint operations room have called on Hamas to end the war. During a meeting with the head of Egyptian intelligence, some of these factions also criticized Hamas's procrastination on reaching a ceasefire. Still, these cracks in the coalition have not caused a shift in the brigades' determination to fight. There is actually a consensus among the factions that surrender or capitulation is unthinkable. As the core members of Hamas's Qassam Brigades see it, only continued attacks on Israeli troops will force Israel to agree to another ceasefire and end the siege. In their view, it was military pressure by Hamas that finally led Netanyahu to sign the U.S.-backed ceasefire in mid-January. The writer is a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (CAREP Paris) and the author of The Foreign Policy of Hamas: Ideology, Decision Making, and Political Supremacy. (Foreign Affairs) On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces struck Nasser Hospital in Gaza. The outcry from Europe was pretty much instantaneous, as it always is. This is how it goes whenever Jews have the temerity to survive a genocidal rampage that was intended to wipe them from the face of the earth and then get proactive about staying alive. For the past 22 months, Israel has fought back, daring to sustain itself, its people and a remarkably vibrant economy in what amounts to the worst neighborhood on the planet. Here's the truth about the hospital strike and others almost exactly like it: The place is a known terrorist operations center. Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin, an IDF spokesperson, said Monday, "Hamas terrorists deliberately use civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as shields. They have even operated from the Nasser Hospital itself." Are the deaths of civilians at Nasser Hospital sad? Certainly. Yet unlike Hamas, which has every intention of killing Israelis and Jews wherever and whenever it can, Israel didn't intend to kill them, and it wouldn't have targeted the hospital in the first place if terrorists hadn't been using it to advance the "global jihad" against the Jewish state. In fact, Israel's armed forces could probably be much further along in their quest to stamp out Hamas if they weren't so totally committed to avoiding civilian injury and death at every turn. In its bid to keep from being "pushed into the sea," Israel is likely to hit more civilian infrastructure in Gaza. When it does, Jew-haters the world over will respond with exaggerated shock. Here's hoping the rest of us will have the sense to see what's really going on. (Washington Times) Iran A new study from the Netherlands-based polling institute GAMAAN, conducted digitally last summer using internet circumvention tools, surveyed more than 20,000 Iranians and sheds light on Iran's direction in the years ahead. By a wide margin, Iranians see the country's current clerical system as bankrupt. Some 70% "oppose the continuation of the Islamic Republic." This opposition "is higher among the youth, urban residents, and the highly educated." 89% support democracy as an alternative form of government to the current clerical state, "a national consensus in favor of democracy." Still, 43% are "open to authoritarian rule by a strong individual leader." Iran's opposition, still deeply fragmented and politically disorganized, does not pose a serious challenge to the ruling clerical elite in the near future. The writer is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council. (National Interest) Hizbullah Recognizing the significant challenges facing the Lebanese government in disarming Hizbullah, compounded by the risks of renewed civil war or a potential takeover of state institutions by Hizbullah - reminiscent of the May 2008 events when the Shiite militia stormed Beirut and seized control - U.S. mediator Thomas Barrack proposed a phased plan to address the issue. Lebanese President Aoun has told Shiite leaders that the Lebanese government would not proceed with Hizbullah's disarmament unless Israel agreed to Phase 1 of the plan, which requires Israel to cease all military activities - on land, sea, and air - within Lebanese territory. On Aug. 18, 2025, Barrack met with Lebanese leaders, publicly stating that Lebanon had fulfilled its obligations and urging Israel to comply by halting military operations and withdrawing troops. Hizbullah's refusal to disarm until Israel fully withdraws and a collective defense strategy is agreed upon with the Lebanese government poses significant challenges. The writer, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center, was formerly Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Israel and the West The accumulated weight of nearly two years of media stories claiming that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza has had an impact on public opinion across the globe, as well as in the U.S. If you've grown up believing that what you've read in the New York Times or watched on CNN is true, then why question the assumptions about what's been happening in the conflict that are treated as accepted facts in those outlets. Even if you are willing to question individual stories that are largely the product of Hamas propaganda and spread by so-called journalists working in territory controlled by those Islamist terrorists, the sheer volume of reporting that bolsters these claims has established a baseline concerning assumptions about the war. The correlation between the shocking rise in hate crimes committed against Jews and the adoption by corporate media of these anti-Israel narratives is patently obvious. It may take more courage than many individuals possess to correctly identify the corporate media's conventional wisdom about Israel as blood libels that have led to the mainstreaming of antisemitism. Nevertheless, we must remind ourselves and others that just because what seems like the whole world is ready to buy into a lie, that doesn't make falsehoods true. The world is lying about Israel - and those who defend it are not. (JNS) On Aug. 18, the Free Press ran an investigation into a dozen viral photos published by major international media outlets aimed at depicting starvation in Gaza. The pictures featured distressed Gazans, mostly children, who all suffered from preexisting conditions, like cerebral palsy. Rather than typifying the situation in Gaza, right now, these are exceptional cases. After our reporting, CNN noted that the story had been "updated to reflect new information regarding the condition of some of the subjects." So did the Washington Post, which issued a correction. However, some of our colleagues in the news media called our journalism "disgusting" and argued not just for our censorship, but for our "trial at The Hague." Former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said we are "sociopathic." No one is disputing the facts in our piece. Instead, they take issue with the facts we have exposed that point in the wrong political direction. This story does not deny that there is hunger in Gaza. The situations of the people in these 12 images are tragic, as is the horror of the war itself. But the panic over our investigation is not sincere. They think if they can make an example out of our reporters, no one will dare ask uncomfortable questions. Questions like: If there is a deliberate campaign of starvation, why did our reporters find that many of these children are receiving medical care, and some of them have already been airlifted out of Gaza to seek treatment with Israel's help? Why have these reporters ignored credible reports of the UN blocking the distribution of aid in Gaza? And why are they twisting the truth about Hamas's theft of aid? (Free Press) See also They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems - Olivia Reingold and Tanya Lukyanova (Free Press) These days Israel faces a two-pronged attack - from radical Islamists and from Western intellectuals. One's weapon of choice is violence, the other's propaganda. Their aim, though, is the same: to wound, possibly fatally, the world's only Jewish nation. The Israelophobic influencers of the West pump out report after report on how criminal Israel is. The coming battle for Gaza City will give the lie to the claim that Israel is carrying out a genocide. Israel has delayed its move so that civilians can flee Gaza City for safer zones - odd behavior for a "murderous" state hell-bent on erasing the Palestinian people. This is a war between the army of a democratic state and the army of an aspiring caliphate. Israel should win in Gaza City. But that other flank, the one overrun by Westerners so suspicious of our civilization that they find greater common cause with its enemies - that will be a harder fight. (Spiked-UK) Antisemitism has never been about reason. It has always been an emotional impulse - irrational and destructive. Today, that fever has spread across governments, cultural institutions and media platforms. Democracies ban democratic voices. Tyrants are rewarded with statehood. Terrorists are granted press credentials. Film festivals seek permission slips from murderers. And prime ministers denounce Israel's leaders rather than the terrorists who vow its destruction. If we allow this madness to go unchallenged, what comes next? (National Post-Canada) Palestinian Arabs At present, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) only has authority over sites inside pre-1967 Israel, and the military oversees the rest. The Times of Israel reported that a "survey by a group of Palestinian archaeologists in 2024 found evidence of looting at 309 of 440 West Bank sites, according to Salah Al-Houdalieh, an archaeology professor at al-Quds University." The Palestinians admit that Palestinians are regularly looting and destroying artifacts at most of the archaeological sites in the West Bank. Here's just one example of the hundreds of cases of destruction: "The burial grounds of Hasmonean kings - the largest necropolis in the Middle East from the Second Temple period - have been plowed and used for farming and construction. In one case, we found human bones scattered in the fields." (Commentary) Observations: Israel: "We Need to Survive First. After that Comes Popularity" - Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar interviewed by Elliot Kaufman (Wall Street Journal)
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