|
In-Depth Issues:
Palestinian Talks on Gaza's Future Could See Hamas Help Shape Its Rule - Gerry Shih ( Washington Post)
Palestinian political factions are holding closed-door discussions that could see Hamas play a role in shaping a postwar administration in Gaza.
The eight Palestinian factions and armed groups involved - including Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, and Hamas - are working to reach a consensus over key elements of an interim administration.
To avoid a protracted postwar insurgency, Hamas must be included in any political settlement, say Palestinian political factions and mediators from Arab countries.
A pivotal question is whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or President Trump would object to a Gazan government born out of talks between Hamas and Fatah.
For Israel, nearly every aspect of the inter-Palestinian talks is unpalatable.
"The fear for Israel is that Hamas will open the gates of Gaza and say to the PA, 'You're the boss here. Just bring money to Gaza and you can declare yourself the minister of agriculture or education. Just don't touch weapons, and we'll be the dominant player,'" said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence analyst.
Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said, "There is a risk that the end state that emerges will be what we wanted to avoid....Hamas is battered and bruised but hanging on to power, preparing for the next round."
U.S. Faces Pushback from Donor Countries over Plan to Build Residential Regions East of Yellow Line - Jacob Magid ( Times of Israel)
The U.S. has proposed constructing six residential regions in the eastern half of Gaza in an area currently under Israeli control, two Arab diplomats said.
However, an International Stabilization Force (ISF) must first be established, along with the disarmament of Hamas, which has shown no interest in giving up its weapons.
While the U.S. proposal envisions as many as one million Palestinians moving to the residential areas on the Israel-held side of the Yellow Line within two years, the two diplomats found the benchmark highly unrealistic.
"Palestinians may not want to live under the rule of Hamas, but the idea that they'll be willing to move to live under Israeli...control... is fantastical," one diplomat said.
Video: Freed Hostage Alon Ohel Plays Piano on Israel TV - Grace Gilson ( JTA)
Alon Ohel, a pianist, was abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and taken to Gaza, where he was held captive for over two years until the recent ceasefire agreement.
He took the stage on Wednesday on a top Israeli comedy show and played the piano as the cast sang together with members of his family.
An eyepatch covered his right eye, following an injury after he was taken hostage.
How UNRWA Allowed Hamas Chiefs to Control Its Education System ( UN Watch)
Hamas terror chiefs held top positions within UNRWA's educational system, while UNRWA knew and did nothing.
The UN agency that raises more than $1 billion annually from Western states with the promise to educate Palestinian children with values such as peace, tolerance, and universal human rights, instead has handed them over to those who recruit child soldiers, glorify suicide bombers, and preach the annihilation of a UN member state.
By knowingly employing Hamas terrorist leaders as school principals and teachers, and by allowing terror chiefs to head the unions that oversee thousands of their teachers, UNRWA institutionalized extremism, turning classrooms into incubators of hate.
Over 75 years, UNRWA has churned out thousands of jihadi terrorists.
India to Approve $3.7 Billion Deal for Israeli Defense Missiles - Dean Shmuel Elmas ( Globes)
India's Defense Procurement Procedure Administration will meet on Nov. 23 to approve a series of defense deals with Israel worth $3.762 billion.
The deals include rockets for ground forces and MR-SAM air defense missiles developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with local company BDL.
See also Israeli Joint Venture Wins Huge Indian Army Rifle Deal - Dean Shmuel Elmas ( Globes)
The Indian Army is procuring 425,000 CQB carbine assault rifles for $3.3 billion from PLR Systems, a joint venture between Israel Weapons Industries (IWI) and India's Adani Corporation.
|
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Hizbullah Is Rearming, Putting Ceasefire at Risk -
Omar Abdel-Baqui
Hizbullah in Lebanon is rebuilding its armaments and battered ranks, defying the terms of a ceasefire agreement, and raising the prospect of renewed conflict with Israel, according to Israeli and Arab intelligence.
The intelligence shows Iranian-backed Hizbullah is restocking rockets, antitank missiles and artillery. Some weapons are coming in via seaports and still functional smuggling routes through Syria. Hizbullah is also manufacturing new weapons itself.
Under the agreement that ended a two-month Israeli campaign against the group a year ago, Lebanon is required to start disarming Hizbullah in parts of Lebanon, before continuing to the entire country as per a previous agreement.
Israel is losing patience after new intelligence findings highlighted Hizbullah's rearmament.
"Should Beirut continue to hesitate, Israel may act unilaterally - and the consequences would be grave," Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a key American envoy for Lebanon and Syria, said in October.
The standoff highlights the difficulty of quashing an established militia with a base of support among the population even when it has been badly beaten. The difficulties are also evident in Gaza, where Hamas is resisting demands that it disarm and relinquish power.
(Wall Street Journal)
See also Israeli Defense Minister Says Lebanese Government Must Fulfill Commitment to Disarm Hizbullah (Reuters)
- Ex-Mossad Chief: Iran's Atomic Sites "Obliterated" - Efrat Lachter
The former director of Israel's Mossad, Yossi Cohen, said on Oct. 28:
"Since June 2025, Iran has been in a different position. I can absolutely accept the president's description that Iran's nuclear sites were obliterated. I know for sure that Iran doesn't enrich uranium these days, which is a great achievement. And more than that, Iran knows two things: first, that we can, and we did - with the U.S., in beautiful cooperation and coordination. And second, something even more important - we can come again."
"We destroyed their air-defense systems, their Revolutionary Guard sites, we chased their filthy terrorists in their own bedrooms and beds inside Tehran and other cities. We destroyed the nuclear facilities that were threatening the State of Israel up to the level of an existential threat - and they know that we've done a beautiful job there." (Fox News)
- U.S. Drone Observes Aid Truck Looted by Hamas in Gaza
On Oct. 31, the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Israel observed suspected Hamas operatives looting an aid truck delivering needed assistance to Gazans in northern Khan Yunis. The CMCC was alerted through video surveillance from a U.S. MQ-9 aerial drone monitoring implementation of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
(X-U.S. Central Command)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Hamas Stalls on Returning Deceased Hostages - David Horovitz
On Oct. 27, Hamas "returned" to Israel a casket containing additional remains of Ofir Tzarfati - who was shot and kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists at the Nova music festival, and whose body was recovered from Gaza by the IDF in December 2023.
Hamas staged the ostensible recovery of these remains by digging a large hole in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, dumping in a body bag with Tzarfati's partial remains, covering it over, and then calling in the Red Cross to witness the "discovery" and extrication of the newly buried bag - showing a new level of depravity. The entire process - from the clandestine burial of the body bag through its "discovery" - was filmed by an IDF drone, a documented saga of Hamas fakery.
Hamas would like to believe that its cause - survival, revival and ultimate return - is best served by stalling on the release of the deceased hostages, even as it resumes the deadly targeting of Israeli troops, reemerges and murders its rivals in the half of Gaza where the IDF is no longer deployed, and delays and ultimately prevents the implementation of the further elements in the Trump plan such as disarmament and demilitarization.
The U.S. president evidently needs to convey to those interlocutors he mobilized last time that Hamas had better immediately return those remaining deceased hostages. And that if it doesn't honor its obligations, then Trump's assurances about the war being over will no longer apply and Israel will be free to resume its military campaign, with a new capacity to target those Hamas strongholds where it previously could not operate for fear of killing hostages. (Times of Israel)
- U.S. Drafts Plan for Multinational Force in Gaza - Danny Zaken
Israeli intelligence indicates that Hamas has access to nearly all the hostages' bodies and could return them quickly if it chose to do so. However, Israeli officials believe Hamas is attempting to use the deceased hostages as bargaining chips ahead of the next stage of negotiations.
Hamas continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, both by delaying the return of the deceased hostages and by continuing to attack IDF soldiers. These violations are stalling the broader implementation of the Trump plan.
Diplomatic and defense sources said that under the American plan, a multinational force in Gaza would be stationed along the yellow line, physically separating IDF forces from Hamas positions. The U.S. is already drawing maps for the buffer zone, which would maintain Israeli control over several key areas but would involve a limited Israeli withdrawal.
The multinational troops also are expected to deploy in the humanitarian zones now being set up in Gaza, with the involvement of Jordan, the UAE, the U.S., and Morocco. According to the American proposal, these forces would deploy first in the humanitarian zones and only later along the yellow line.
Still, the main obstacle remains Hamas's continued existence as an armed, governing force that uses weapons against both IDF troops and its own population. (Israel Hayom)
- Most Palestinians Still View the Oct. 7 Massacre as a Triumph - Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein
According to a recent survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 53% of Palestinians still
believe that the decision to carry out the Oct. 7 massacre was "correct," including 59% of Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority. 53% oppose the concept of a two-state solution. These numbers represent a society still enthralled by the myth of "resistance," not the idea of coexistence.
Shany Mor writes of the intoxication of violence. This was visible on Oct. 7, in videos of young men calling their parents to boast about killing Jews with their own hands, and in the mobs cheering as kidnapped Israeli girls were paraded through Gaza's streets. Even academics such as Cornell's Russell Rickford called the massacre "exhilarating."
This mindset - rooted in the dream of expanding Dar al-Islam (the land of Islam) - turns every peace proposal into betrayal, and every act of terror into redemption. The much-discussed "deradicalization" needed for a peace process is nowhere in sight. The obstacle is the Palestinian culture of hatred.
The writer, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. (JNS)
Israel-U.S. Relations
- Ron Dermer: Israel Is the U.S.'s Most Important Ally for the Next 50 Years - Zvika Klein
Israel is the single most important ally for American security and prosperity over the next half-century, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said in an interview on Saturday. Dermer said that if Americans had to "choose one" country, it would be one that can defend itself, provide high-grade intelligence, excel in cyber, and produce advanced offensive and defensive weapons.
Reviewing a list of U.S. partners, he said Canada "doesn't have that intelligence service," Australia lacks "that cyber capability or weapons making," and "Israel has a larger standing army than France." Germany "doesn't have the Intel capabilities - we're selling the Arrow 3 missile defense system to them, not the other way around."
He put only Britain in the same tier, but concluded that in the Middle East, where "you don't want to put your troops," Israel's location and capabilities make it "more important than Britain" for U.S. national security. (Jerusalem Post)
- Among America's Allies, the U.S. Can Rely the Most on Israel - Hugh Hewitt
Which country is America's most important ally? Hands down, it is Israel. Israel is the only other genuine democracy on the planet that is a nuclear superpower with the will and ability to project hard power across vast distances and which provides the U.S. with a reliable ally in what has been the most turbulent area of the world since the end of World War II.
Our old allies remain, in theory at least, our partners in protecting freedom around the globe, but increasingly are limited by their growing anti-Israel populations when it comes to joining with the U.S. to project power anywhere outside of Europe. Did you see any British or French fighter aircraft alongside our B-2s and fighter planes and the Israeli Air Force when it came time to demolish the imminent nuclear threat of Iran?
Both France and the UK will point to their efforts alongside ours in helping Israel protect itself against the missile assaults by Iran in 2024, but both nations were missing during the 12-day war of Israel and the U.S. against Iran in June 2025. All of Europe benefited from defanging the mullahs, but they were not there when Iran's nuclear capabilities were obliterated, even as Iran's ballistic missiles rained down on the Jewish state. Both then engaged in a "two-state theater" when the U.S. and its Gulf allies were imposing a ceasefire on Hamas.
We don't have to "hope" for anything when it comes to Israel. Israel is spending 8.8% of its GDP on the IDF in these years of war and is closer to 5% even in the most peaceful of years. Israel's high-tech defense sector also powers much of the innovation the Free World requires to remain free. Even its critics recognize Israel as an "intelligence superpower," and its democracy as genuine as any Western nation. When it comes to assessing America's allies, Israel is "first among equals." (Fox News)
Observations:
- Over the past two years, the Mayor of Nice, France, Christian Estrosi, has been among France's most vocal elected officials calling for the release of those kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7. Until recently, at the main entrance to City Hall in the French Riviera city, there was a large, vertical banner with photos of the 48 Israelis still being held at the time by Hamas in Gaza, with text demanding their release.
- Until this summer, on the building's main balcony outside Estrosi's third-floor office, eight Israeli flags had pride of place alongside their French and EU counterparts. Estrosi had the Israeli flags installed there following the Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel. When an administrative court ordered them removed four months ago, Estrosi erected the hostage banner at City Hall.
- Estrosi, 70, said in an interview: "My position on this issue...comes from my commitment to justice and the fight against barbarism, antisemitism and anti-Zionism. I consider it my duty to humanity and civilization to protect the values I share with Israel and what they represent in the history of humanity. Today, that includes defending them in the face of so much hate and adversity."
- "Because of the stand I take, I'm subjected to insults and attempts at intimidation, including death threats against me....But I've always said very clearly that nothing will cause me to be intimidated. You always lose a war when you're afraid. That's what I say to my Jewish friends. I tell them, 'Don't be afraid in Nice. I'm here to protect and defend you. I refuse that one should be afraid to be Jewish in Nice.'"
- "For me, antisemitism is a poison. In the middle of the last century, and in other periods of history, it has shown itself the worst insult to humanity....Today, I have the impression we're in the process of returning to the 1930s and I fear antisemitism will continue to grow in France."
- "With Israel on the frontlines fighting Islamist terrorism, it's a rampart for our country, protecting us. Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is being attacked and is defending itself. Our duty is to be by its side and when one is a public official, like me, to affirm that."
- In July 2016, a Tunisian man drove a truck through crowds at a Bastille Day celebration on Nice's seaside promenade, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds of others.
|