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In-Depth Issues:
Freed Hostage Recounts Witnessing Hamas Sexual Abuse and Torture - Yael Freidson ( Ha'aretz)
Released hostage Aviva Siegel told the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday that her captors sexually abused several girls she was held with in Gaza.
"One of the days, one of the girls went to the bathroom, and when she came back, she was shaking," Aviva said. "I knew I wasn't allowed to hug her, because we weren't allowed to, but I got up and I gave her a hug."
"After a while, she told us that the Hamas terrorist touched her whole body and did whatever he wanted."
The girl was "so scared, because he said to her, if she ever says anything about that, he will kill her. But she told us."
Another hostage was forced to shower in front of her captors. One of the captors "came into the shower with her and forced her to do oral sex on him."
Israelis Are Saving Lives in Jamaica after Hurricane - Or Hadar ( Ynet News)
An Israeli delegation of 30 medical personnel is treating victims of a powerful hurricane that struck Jamaica, working side-by-side with local medical staff.
"The two hospitals where we are working have almost doubled their patient load since the storm, because people have nowhere else to go, said Dr. Sefi Mendelovich, deputy director-general of the Israel Ministry of Health.
He reported that the Israeli team is receiving very warm treatment. "People who hear we are from Israel say, 'well done.' We have not received negative responses."
Prof. Ofer Marin, director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, said: "It is moving to see again how the State of Israel can extend a hand: fast, professional and warm, even at a distance of over 10,000 km. We were privileged to touch patients, save lives, and certainly represent our country with honor."
Greece to Buy Israeli Missile Systems for Air Defense for $3.5 Billion - Alain Servaes ( Army Recognition)
Greece is advancing plans for a $3.5 billion modernization of its air-defense network, the Greek City Times reported on Nov. 11.
The program aims to replace a patchwork of older Russian and U.S.-made systems with an integrated, multi-layered network sourced primarily from Israeli defense contractors.
The Israeli SPYDER air defense system by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems would replace Greece's Russian-made TOR-M1 units.
The SPYDER system is known for its rapid reaction time, autonomous engagement capabilities, and mobility, offering a significant upgrade for countering low-flying threats, including UAVs, cruise missiles, and aircraft.
For the medium-range layer, the Israeli Barak MX system is to replace Greece's legacy U.S.-supplied MIM-23 Hawk batteries.
The Barak MX integrates multiple interceptors into a unified launcher and enables simultaneous tracking and engagement of multiple targets.
At the upper tier of Greece's new missile defense network, the Israeli SkyCeptor interceptor - a variant of the Stunner missile used in the David's Sling system - is slated to replace the long-range Russian-made S-300 PMU-1 systems.
The Israeli systems are combat-proven, having been deployed extensively in Israeli air-defense operations.
Greece has favored Israeli systems over U.S. or European alternatives in part due to shorter delivery timelines, lower lifecycle costs, and expanded local industrial participation.
Greek defense industry sources confirm that the first wave of systems is targeted for deployment starting in 2026, with full operational capability expected before the end of 2028.
See also Greece in Talks to Procure Israeli Air Defense Systems - Dean Shmuel Elmas ( Globes)
Follow the Jerusalem Center on:
Dermer: "I Could Not Be More Confident in the Jewish Future" - Amir Ettinger ( Ynet News)
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who served for 8 years as Israel's ambassador to the U.S., resigned from the government on Tuesday after nearly three years in office.
In a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Dermer wrote:
"On the day I was sworn in as a minister, I promised my family I would serve only two years in that position. I extended my tenure twice with their blessing - first to work with you to remove the existential threat posed by Iran's military nuclear capability and second to end the war in Gaza on Israel's terms and bring our hostages home."
"October 7th was indeed the darkest day the Jewish people have known since Israel was established. But the story of our ancient people...has been defined by our perseverance in overcoming the darkness."
"That has been the story of Israel since October 7th. We rejected moral equivocation and fear to confront our enemies with clarity and courage. Two years later, we have dealt a devastating blow to Iran's terror axis."
"One hundred generations of Jews dreamed of living at a time when there would be a sovereign Jewish state. Four generations have had the privilege of realizing that dream."
"With that privilege comes a sacred responsibility: To secure that dream for future generations. I feel eternally blessed to have had the privilege of serving the State of Israel and devoting myself to that sacred responsibility."
"I could not be more confident in the [Jewish] future. Many enemies who reveled in the evil perpetrated on October 7th and vowed to extinguish the flame of Israel have been eliminated, while the light of Israel burns bright across the region and around the world."
The Palestinian Fantasy State - Dror Eydar ( Israel Hayom)
The idea of a Palestinian state exists only in the European imagination; even the Arabs do not truly believe in it.
While Israel recognized the national identity of the Palestinians, they have never recognized the Jews as a people entitled to national self-determination.
Before Israel captured Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem in 1967, those territories were controlled by Jordan and Egypt. Why, then, was no Palestinian state established at that time?
The answer is that the Palestinians never wanted a state of their own alongside Israel. They only wanted a state instead of Israel.
Had the Jews lost the 1948 War of Independence, the Arabs of the region would have slaughtered them as they did on Oct. 7, and then divided the land among themselves - southern Syria, northern Egypt and western Jordan.
The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Italy.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- U.S. Officials Concerned over Implementing Gaza Peace Deal - Dasha Burns
During a two-day symposium in October for U.S. Central Command and members of the newly-created Civilian-Military Coordination Center for Gaza, documents were presented expressing concerns about whether a so-called International Stabilization Force - a multinational security initiative meant to keep the peace in Gaza - can really be deployed.
The presentations paint a vivid picture of the hurdles the Trump administration and its allies in the region face in creating the "lasting peace" President Trump seeks and are in stark contrast to the mostly rosy rhetoric emanating from top administration officials. Yet the documents also suggest that the administration is committed to the peace agreement, despite its complexity.
However, Trump could be caught in the same quagmire as many of his predecessors - mediating an intractable conflict in the Middle East without the patience, resources or partnerships needed to see a plan through. Trump, who ran on an "America First" platform that condemned reckless democracy-building in the region, is particularly vulnerable to political backlash if it appears the U.S. is once again engaged in an endless commitment despite little tangible progress.
(Politico)
See also below Commentary: How Hamas Is Planning to Deceive the Trump Administration - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)
- Syrian President Details Plans to Work with Americans He Once Fought - Susannah George
After becoming the first Syrian head of state to meet a U.S. president in Washington, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa sat down Monday for an interview with the Washington Post.
"The advances that Israel made into Syria are not coming from security concerns but are coming from their expansionist ambitions. Israel has always claimed that it has concerns about Syria because it is afraid of the threats that the Iranian militias and Hizbullah represent. We are the ones who expelled those forces out of Syria.
We are engaged in direct negotiations with Israel, and we have gone a good distance on the way to reach an agreement." (Washington Post)
- The Gaza War Has Generated Billions of Dollars in Sales for U.S. Companies - Benoit Faucon
Israel's two-year war in Gaza built an unprecedented arms pipeline from the U.S. to Israel that continues to flow, generating substantial business for U.S. companies. Since October 2023, Washington has approved more than $32 billion in armaments, ammunition and other equipment to the Israeli military, according to State Department disclosures.
The U.S. greenlighted an $18.8 billion sale of Boeing F-15 strike fighters last year to Israel for delivery beginning in 2029. This year, various partnerships in which Boeing plays a leading role got approval for $7.9 billion of sales of guided bombs and associated kits. This would account for a significant portion of the company's current orders.
Other companies that have secured approved weapons sales include Northrop Grumman, which provides spare parts for jet fighters; Lockheed Martin, a supplier of precision missiles; and General Dynamics, a provider of 120mm shells for Israel's Merkava tanks.
Israel's Eitan armored fighting vehicles are equipped with a hull from Wisconsin-based Oshkosh and an engine made by Rolls-Royce's U.S. unit in Michigan. Caterpillar's D9 armored bulldozers have been ubiquitous in Gaza. Oshkosh said an Israeli order of tactical vehicles had extended the lifespan of a production line that was due to shut last year.
The Trump administration is seeking congressional approval to sell $6 billion in weapons to Israel, including a $3.8 billion deal for Boeing's Apache helicopters.
(Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- UAE Concerned over Turkish, Qatari "Hamas-Enablers" in Gaza Plan - Amichai Stein
The UAE is concerned about Qatar and Turkey playing a central role in the proposed plan to rebuild Gaza,
viewing them as "Hamas enablers." "These states will make it possible for the terrorist organization to continue existing," a source said. "There are interested parties affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood who are currently embedding themselves in key positions in the Gaza reconstruction plan." (Jerusalem Post)
- IDF Targets Hizbullah's Reconstruction of Key Terror Hubs in Lebanon - Amir Bohbot
The IDF said Tuesday that it has been striking targets in southern Lebanon including in Nabatiya, where the military is dismantling Hizbullah's upper command and central logistics in the region, and near Tyre, targeting the nerve center of Hizbullah's capabilities, where terrorists are attempting to rebuild underground systems, bunkers, and positions to embed themselves. These are the hubs from which the reconstruction effort is managed.
Other key areas highlighted by the IDF are Beaufort Ridge, where Hizbullah is attempting to rebuild launching sites and defensive systems; Ain Kana, where senior terrorists were killed; Blida, where Hizbullah invested significant resources in weapons depots, observation posts, and intelligence gathering operations; as well as other sites further north.
The presence of terrorists across southern Lebanon indicates that the local Shia population is not opposing Hizbullah's attempts to re-establish their infrastructure and resume their terror activities, despite the destruction caused by IDF strikes.
(Jerusalem Post)
See also IDF Strikes Hizbullah Weapons Storage Facility
The IDF on Thursday carried out airstrikes on a Hizbullah weapons storage facility and an underground site in southern Lebanon. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- How Hamas Is Planning to Deceive the Trump Administration - Khaled Abu Toameh
Hamas lied to President Trump when it said it had accepted his plan for ending its war against Israel. It was
simply trying to buy time to reassert control over Gaza and prepare for more attacks against Israel. Now it is arguing that it needs to engage in negotiations about the implementation of most parts of the Trump plan.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect in early October, Hamas officials have repeatedly emphasized that they did not accept all the points mentioned in the Trump plan. According to these officials, Hamas only agreed to the first phase of the Trump plan, which calls for Israel to suspend military operations and release Palestinian prisoners, and for Hamas to return all Israeli hostages, dead and alive, within 72 hours. It has been weeks, and Hamas has not yet fulfilled that phase-one obligation.
What about the part in the Trump plan that talks about the demilitarization of Gaza and the deployment of an "International Stabilization Force" as a "long-term security solution?" Hamas insists that these issues are "up for negotiation" but that it never agreed to demilitarization or the presence of international experts and security forces in Gaza. Hamas official Osama Hamdan affirmed on Nov. 10 that "What we signed was related to the first phase of the plan, the remaining phases are up for negotiations and discussions."
For Hamas, the longer the negotiations continue, the better. Those who are familiar with Hamas's way of handling things know that such negotiations, if and when they start, could last for months or years. Hamas will likely try to drag out negotiations until the Trump administration is replaced by another that Hamas hopes will be less interested in Gaza.
Hamas is not serious about laying down its weapons or relinquishing control over Gaza. For Hamas, the Trump plan is nothing but a temporary ceasefire that would enable it to get back on its feet to rule Gaza again, and resume its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.
The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
(Gatestone Institute)
- Israel's Handling of Trapped Rafah Terrorists Will Signal Its Commitment to Dismantling Terror - Meir Ben Shabbat
The outcome of the debate over the fate of Hamas terrorists trapped in tunnels under IDF-controlled territory in Rafah could reflect how determined Israel is to dismantle its adversaries. Eliminating enemy capabilities and removing weapons from Gaza remain Israel's core objectives, which cannot be sacrificed to ceasefire demands or satisfied through cosmetic arrangements. There is no room for creative half-measures that sound good but deliver nothing.
Israel possesses every advantage to transform this incident into a powerful symbol of its commitment to dismantle Hamas. This event's conclusion must be decisive - mass surrender, detention or terrorist deaths.
Israel cannot accept any solution Hamas would claim as an achievement.
The writer, head of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, served as Israel's National Security Council head during 2017-2021. (Israel Hayom)
Iran
- The Consequences of the 12-Day Israel-Iran War - Saeid Golkar
The 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025 accelerated the regime's loss of strategic coherence, leaving Iran vulnerable to future crises. The war transformed a 45-year proxy struggle into direct confrontation. Despite the Iranian government's propaganda, the war was a humiliating defeat. It exposed the Revolutionary Guards' structural weaknesses and demonstrated Israel's technological superiority.
Over the last four decades, the Islamic Republic's leadership has lost its ability to learn, adapt, and govern effectively, despite maintaining coercive power. The Iranian regime has relied heavily on ideology, patronage, and repression rather than strategy and competence. Government positions are filled based on loyalty, rather than skill, eroding effectiveness.
Israeli and U.S. precision strikes severely damaged Iran's enrichment facilities, weapons depots, and command centers, setting back Iran's nuclear program by years while simultaneously exposing glaring weaknesses in its air defense and command structures. The hundreds of billions of dollars that the Islamic Republic spent on its nuclear program disappeared in minutes. The deaths of more than 30 senior commanders, tens of scientists, and hundreds of IRGC personnel eroded the credibility of the regime.
The writer is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
(Foreign Policy Research Institute)
Israel and the West
- Anti-Israel Demonstrators Don't See Hamas for What It Is - Benny Morris
Muslims - whether born in the U.S. or Europe or recently arrived - have been at the forefront of the demonstrations chanting "Death to Israel," "Death to the West," and, occasionally, "Death to the Jews." In many European cities, Muslims feel empowered and, with their growing numbers, are able to cow politicians.
After Hitler's destruction of European Jewry, for a time antisemitism became politically taboo in Western Europe and the U.S. But by the 2020s, the memory and impact of the Holocaust had faded and the Gaza war witnessed a convergence of Western and Muslim antisemitism. Old-style Muslim antisemitism now washed across Europe, persuading ignorant Europeans that their fathers' antisemitism had actually been legitimate.
Anti-Israel sentiment is encouraged by the way the country has constantly been depicted in the Western media. Almost all that the West's largely ignorant young people see and know are images of dead and wounded Arab babies and women - never of jihadi fighters. They know nothing about the Arab terrorism that stalked the Zionist effort to settle in the Jews' ancient patrimony.
They know nothing about the wars Palestinians and Arab states have waged against the Jewish state, nor do they know that the Palestinians consistently rejected the periodic peace offers made by the Zionists/Israel and the international community for a two-state compromise. These young people are probably even unaware of the treaties Israel signed with Egypt and Jordan, to those countries' mutual satisfaction.
Hamas are close cousins of ISIS and though they have had the public relations smarts not to broadcast the slitting of hostages' throats, they have been just as murderous. Hamas kindergartens and schools in Gaza systematically inculcated hatred of Jews and Israel, in line with Hamas's foundational charter of 1988. So the mass slaughter of Israelis by Hamas on 7 October, with its accompanying rapes and beheadings, was prophesied by Hamas documents and ideology long before any blood was actually shed on that day.
Why the keffiyeh-wearing Christian students and professors marching through America's campuses and Europe's capitals don't recognize Hamas's homophobia, misogyny, totalitarianism, and their anti-Christian/anti-Western core beliefs is beyond comprehension. But somehow the demonstrators don't see Hamas for what it is.
The writer is professor emeritus of Middle Eastern history at Ben-Gurion University.
(Quillette-Australia)
- The BBC Became a Mouthpiece for Hamas Propaganda, Fueling Antisemitism - Brendan O'Neill
An explosive dossier penned by a former member of the BBC's own standards committee judged BBC coverage of the Gaza conflict to be alarmingly one-sided, continually "minimi[zing] Israeli suffering."
Gripped by a "desire always to believe the worst about Israel," the BBC "raced to air" Hamas allegations against the Jewish state without adequate checks. Such was the extent of its Israelophobic misinformation that the BBC has been forced to correct two stories about Gaza every single week since Oct. 7, 2023.
Essentially, the broadcaster became a mouthpiece for Hamas's sickening propaganda, fueling antisemitism in the UK and around the world. We now know it is a font of falsehoods, pumping out dangerous lies about Israel. It sold its soul to the devil of political correctness - and sacrificed its world-famous neutrality at the altar of ideology.
(New York Post)
- New York Times Lies about Israel Spreading among U.S. Jews - Gil Troy
On a recent American lecture tour I found that most Jews - and Americans - remain with Israel. Still, many echo the stinging Israel critique pushed by the New York Times and their most radical kids or peers. I kept encountering these questions and misconceptions:
"The war was too brutal." Wars are brutal. Urban warfare, with terrorists hiding behind civilians, is even harsher. But the critics fail to offer realistic alternatives for an Israel threatened with Iran's seven-front ring of fire. Israel's formidable legal infrastructure assesses the morality of targets repeatedly, risking our soldiers' lives by warning Gazans of impending strikes or aborting missions to save civilians.
"Why didn't Israel free the Palestinian 'Mandela,' Marwan Barghouti?" What an insult to Mandela's nonviolence! Marwan Barghouti headed the armed Tanzim. Accused of 30 murders, judges convicted him of five, including the murder of Greek Orthodox monk Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis.
The Palestinian national movement remains pathologically addicted to antisemitism, Israel-exterminationism, and terrorism - because Western dupes keep validating their violence.
The writer, a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
(Jerusalem Post)
Weekend Features
- "Red Alert" Exposes Truth after Oct. 7 - Lawrence Bender
Over almost four decades of making movies and TV shows, I've supported many causes, working with people from many different walks of life - ethnicities, races, women, LGBTQ. I did it because it's how I saw the world, not because I was "supposed to."
Then came Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the horrific massacre in Israel. I started to notice my phone not ringing. I wasn't getting calls from this diverse group of people I'd been working with most of my life: "Are you OK?" "Do you have family or friends in Israel, and are they OK?"
Not only were my peers staying quiet, but many also denied the atrocities that happened. Some even started justifying the acts of terror. And the antisemitism of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, of which I've been a member since 1995, became clear. The very industry that preaches inclusion and empathy mostly turned away when my fellow Jews were being raped and murdered. Even worse, many blamed Israel for all this.
I was compelled to act, and the result is my limited scripted TV series on Paramount+, "Red Alert." My team and I made it to honor the very people who went through this horrific experience, those who were killed and those who survived. It became a mission to tell their stories - to show the truth of these incredible heroes ignored or maligned by Hollywood and the rest of the world.
We chose family and underdog stories - a middle-aged mother running off to save her son and, in the process, saving many neighbors; a man trying to save his wife; a mother saving her two daughters as her son is taken into Gaza.
And we have a very important story of an Arab family whose father saves his child, himself and ultimately saves an IDF unit. All true. Most people don't understand that many Arabs were also murdered by Hamas.
All these ordinary people became superheroes.
For my progressive friends who have gotten it so wrong - who have twisted the truth, excused the terror and demonized Israel - I hope they begin to understand the real truth.
The writer is the executive producer of "Red Alert." His films have earned 37 Academy Award nominations. (Fox News)
Observations:
- The rules of war were created for a world that no longer exists. They were designed to regulate conflicts between states - actors with borders, uniforms, and at least a minimal respect for order. The Geneva Conventions assumed reciprocity: that both sides would follow the same moral code, even during armed conflict. But what happens when one side rejects those norms entirely? What happens when the law begins protecting those who operate outside it?
- The war between Israel and Hamas exposes that contradiction with brutal clarity. On Oct. 8, 2023, Israel did something unprecedented: it declared a formal state of war - not against another nation, but against a terrorist movement. Hamas is not a resistance movement or a political party, but a death cult that massacres civilians, hides behind them, and celebrates it. Yet in the eyes of international law, Hamas remains entitled to protections it has never earned.
- That legal fiction has become the foundation of a moral farce. Hamas livestreams atrocities and then hides in hospitals, knowing that each civilian death it engineers will be tallied against Israel in global opinion and international courts. This isn't war - it's lawfare, the weaponization of humanitarian norms to discredit liberal democracies and shield those who commit war crimes.
- The International Criminal Court's decision in 2024 to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders alongside Hamas commanders marked the collapse of legal neutrality. To equate a liberal democracy defending its citizens with a jihadist organization dedicated to genocide is not impartial justice - it is ideological jurisprudence.
- The law's neutrality, meant to ensure fairness, now serves those who reject fairness altogether. The result is a grotesque inversion: liberal democracies are treated as war criminals for defending themselves, while regimes and militias that glorify mass murder are treated as legitimate political actors.
- If international law can no longer distinguish between those who uphold it and those who annihilate it, then it ceases to be law at all. The challenge of our time is to rescue the law from those who would use it to destroy the very civilization that created it. A world where the law protects the lawless is not a world governed by justice - and democracies will not survive long in it.
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