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In-Depth Issues:
Trump Says He Had "Very Good Talk" with Netanyahu, Discussed Iran - Victoria Bisset ( Washington Post)
President Trump said he spoke Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about Iran.
"We had a very good talk," he said Sunday.
"The only reason why I'm not finished with Iran is I want to be nice. I want to try and save all those lives if I can. But at some point we're going to have to give them the hammer."
The Apartheid Charge Was False. Israel's Arab Voters Proved It - Jason D. Greenblatt ( Newsweek)
On election night in Israel, a good friend from an Arab Gulf state texted me. He said it was amazing that so much of the world accuses Israel of being an apartheid state, when Arab parties had just won so many seats in its election.
He had always known the charge was false, he said, but these results drove the point home.
The writer, Assistant to the U.S. President and Special Representative for International Negotiations (2017-2019), played a key role in developing the Abraham Accords.
Lebanon's Failure to Confront Hizbullah Leaves Israel No Choice but to Act - Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah ( Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Washington has grown deeply skeptical of the Lebanese government's capacity or political will to curb Hizbullah.
Because major state decisions require consensus or involve officials whose political survival depends on avoiding a direct, catastrophic civil clash with Hizbullah, the central government and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) face a profound structural paralysis.
Asking a government heavily influenced or constrained by these power dynamics to dismantle its most powerful armed faction is treated as asking the system to dismantle itself.
The LAF is either unable or unwilling to police Hizbullah's revival efforts aggressively.
This directly undermines the logic of transitional security frameworks such as those discussed during the U.S.-mediated talks at CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
International guarantees that the Lebanese state can police its own territory, such as south of the Litani River, lose all credibility.
If the Lebanese state will not dismantle Hizbullah's infrastructure, Israel reserves the right to act unilaterally without being bound by past constraints or unverified local assurances.
The writer, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center, was formerly Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
Visiting the Nova Music Festival Site - Jason Straus ( Times of Israel)
Standing at the Nova Music Festival site, survivor Sean Burns recounted his morning of Oct. 7, 2023.
Sean described how angels saved him and his girlfriend: the left turn he made when others ran right, the policeman who suggested he turn his car around, the sound of a helicopter firing overhead as he hid in a bush for hours with his girlfriend and an injured man he had saved; and, finally, leaving that hiding place at precisely the right moment, only to look back and see a terrorist peering into the very bush where they had been hiding.
I spent the next thirty minutes walking through the memorial site where 378 innocent live music fans were tortured, raped, and murdered.
The silenced faces and biographies of the victims, displayed throughout what was once the Nova dance floor, now stand as gravestones to their lives cut short.
Son of South Lebanon Army Family Joins Israeli Diplomatic Service - Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
Lebanese-born Christian Jonathan Elkhoury, whose family belonged to the South Lebanon Army (SLA) - the Lebanese force that fought alongside Israel in southern Lebanon from 1977 to 2000 - was one of 36 chosen from 2,000 applicants to join Israel's Foreign Ministry cadet program.
Elkhoury wrote on Facebook, "For me, it was the most natural step in my life story, a direct continuation of the alliance my parents forged with the State of Israel."
"After nearly 15 years of public activity in international public diplomacy, working with SLA families in Israel and, in recent years, in the media, I am taking this step with a genuine sense of mission and pride in officially representing my country."
Speaking to the cadets on Monday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said: "Represent Israel with a profound sense of justice. That is the essence of the mission."
"We are fighting a battle over public perception against enormous forces, and if we do not know how to tell our story and present our narrative, no one else will do it for us."
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- U.S. Strikes Iran's Qeshm Island - Alexander Ward
The U.S. attacked Iran's Qeshm Island on Monday, U.S. officials said, in the latest of a series of limited strikes Washington has secretly carried out in recent weeks. Officials described the assaults as defensive in nature to prevent Iran from attacking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
On Monday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired a surface-to-air missile at a U.S. jet fighter, which fired back in self-defense. In a separate incident the same day, U.S. forces intercepted an IRGC missile that originated out of Qeshm and was targeting commercial shipping.
Qeshm is at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz and is home to a large underground missile site as well as a naval base and a major desalination plant.
(Wall Street Journal)
- Saudi Arabia's Aramco Profit Jumps despite Attacks on Pipelines and Refineries - Lisa Friedman
Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, reported on Tuesday an adjusted net income of $31.2 billion between July and September, up 9% from the same period a year earlier, and revenue of $28.6 billion. The company said the average price of its crude oil was $95 a barrel, 35% more than a year ago.
In September, drones hit Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which stretches 750 miles from its oil-producing Eastern Province to Yanbu, an export terminal on the Red Sea. The pipeline is considered a lifeline because it allows the export of millions of barrels of oil a day while avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline was back online in less than a week, and a few weeks later, 6 million barrels of oil a day were moving through the pipeline.
(New York Times)
- Iran's Hidden Network of Military Agencies Is Slipping Hardware Past the U.S. Blockade - Gavin Finch
Iran has created a secret network of military agencies with global reach to import at least $2 billion in hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025, evading both the U.S. naval blockade and Western sanctions. Its Ministry of Defense works with more than 5,000 agencies tied to the Revolutionary Guards and business conglomerates controlled by Iran's elite.
In the 18 months from January 2025 to June 2026, one agency - MOD 346428 - imported huge quantities of rocket propellants, explosives and weapons components that are critical for making drones and missiles, as well as heavy-duty trucks that can serve as missile launchers. The hardware came in by land, sea and air, originating in China, Russia and Germany.
The agencies operate a web of frontmen and foreign shell companies who use the proceeds from illicit oil sales to buy goods. The material enters Iran by cargo ship across the Caspian Sea from Russia, by truck from Central Asia, and by freight planes from China. (Reuters)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Two Oct. 7 Terrorists among 6 Hamas Operatives Killed in Recent Gaza Strikes - Emanuel Fabian
The IDF said Monday it had killed six members of Hamas, including two who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught.
One strike on Saturday in Khan Yunis killed Mohammed Kamel Maslih Qdeih, who raided Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
A strike on Saturday in Nuseirat killed Nukhba operative Diaa Abdel Mohsen Mohammed Abu al-Rous.
Strikes on Saturday in northern Gaza killed Nabil Hamad, the head of a Hamas recruitment department, and Mohannad Nader Mahmoud Dahdouh, a sniper commander.
Two strikes in northern Gaza on Oct. 22 killed Wael Naif Fahmi Muslim, a Nukhba terrorist who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, and Arafat Kamal Muhammad Ar'air, a rocket squad commander. All had recently been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians and acted to restore Hamas's capabilities, "in systematic violation of the ceasefire." (Times of Israel)
- Israel Uncovers Palestinian Cell that Conducted Three Rocket Test-Launches
Six Palestinians were arrested in the Jenin area in Samaria, the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency said Tuesday. The cell had manufactured explosive devices and a rocket body, conducting three test-launches. Investigators found that the cell received information via a messaging app, provided by an external party, regarding the materials required to produce explosives. (i24News)
- IDF Avoids Targeting Hamas Municipal Officials in Gaza - Amir Bohbot
Military sources confirmed to Walla that an IDF decision not to target heads of Hamas local authorities stems from a tangible concern that this could lead to the collapse of governing institutions in Gaza and trigger civilian chaos that Israel would ultimately have to deal with.
At the same time, the IDF and Israel Security Agency are carrying out two to three targeted killings each day against terrorists and Hamas commanders. The killings include terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, as well as others preparing attacks against Israel or taking part in rebuilding Hamas's terrorist infrastructure.
Over the past year, there has been a dramatic improvement in developing human intelligence sources
on the ground in Gaza. Today, the defense establishment is able to closely track senior terrorists. Hamas has been severely weakened, with fewer hiding places, fewer tunnels, and, above all, a significant shortage of senior commanders with operational experience. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Islamism
- In Defense of Israel - Robert Kennedy Jr.
Media outlets piled on this week to express outrage at my observation about the troubling dearth of scientific output from the world's 22 Arab nations over the past five decades. However, the reporters omitted critical context, presumably to bestow plausibility on their accusations that my statements were racist and Islamophobic.
However, my speech was not a critique of Arabs or Islam, but of Islamism (also known as "Political Islam"), a toxic ideology conceived and promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group. Islamism is a violent corruption of mainstream Islam that summons adherents back to the seventh-century ideal of bloody jihad.
Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar - the Muslim equivalent of the Vatican and the highest authority in Sunni Islamic thought - has rejected Islamism as "false Islam" and a "perversion of the Islamic religion" and accused it of "barbaric crimes."
Islamism is intensely anti-American, anti-Western, and hostile to modernity. It is explicitly contemptuous of democracy, constitutional government, capitalism, minority rights, gay rights, women's rights, free speech, and virtually all personal freedoms. Its central aspiration is for a global caliphate ruled by a single theocratic despot with absolute power to impose sharia law that dictates every aspect of human conduct.
I pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood's antipathy for modernity is a dramatic departure from Islam's historical affinity for science and learning. During the 8th through 15th centuries as well as during the Ottoman Empire, Muslim leaders promoted a brilliant flowering of innovation and scholarship in science, mathematics, philosophy, art, literature, astronomy, pharmacology, psychology, engineering, architecture, medicine, and navigation that continues to enrich the world today.
Genocidal hatred against ALL Jews and Christians and other minorities is foundational to Islamism.
In 1948, the world's 22 Arab nations were host to 750,000 Jews living in communities that predated Muhammad by 1,000 years. Today, there are virtually no Jews in those nations. In Nazi terminology, they are Judenrein: Jew-free. In 1948, Christian populations represented 20% of those nations; today they represent 4%. These are the real ongoing genocides of the Mideast.
The writer is U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
UNRWA
- UNRWA Faces Shutdown, Plan Emerges to Transfer Responsibilities to PA and Board of Peace - Danny Zaken
Arab and Western diplomatic sources say a plan to gradually shut down the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and transfer its responsibilities and operations to the PA and the Board of Peace in Gaza is expected to be presented soon.
UNRWA, operational since 1950, is a UN agency dedicated specifically to Palestinian refugees. It has effectively preserved Palestinian refugee status across generations, even though most of those registered as refugees have long since settled and established themselves in other countries or in territories administered by the Palestinian Authority.
In recent years, Israel has passed laws targeting UNRWA, banning its operations in Israel and prohibiting its contact with Israeli government bodies. Most of its assets in Israel have been seized, while a sharp decline in contributions from Western and Arab countries has further undermined its ability to operate.
UNRWA's acting commissioner-general, Christian Saunders, told UNRWA's Advisory Commission that a substantial portion of its operations could be transferred to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Board of Peace in Gaza. The proposal has triggered fierce opposition from the Palestinian Authority, which fears losing the institutional framework that preserves Palestinian refugee status.
The Board of Peace has been preparing to assume responsibilities in the fields of education and health care for more than a year as part of President Trump's plan for the reconstruction of Gaza. The plan is awaiting its next phase, which is supposed to begin after Hamas is disarmed. However, Hamas is unwilling to surrender its weapons. (Israel Hayom)
Qatar
- Qatar's Al-Jazeera Celebrates Hamas - Khaled Abu Toameh
Qatar's state-owned Al-Jazeera broadcast previously unseen footage, recordings, and documents on Oct. 30 showing senior Hamas military commanders preparing for the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. The Hamas officials are portrayed as military leaders, strategists, and figures worthy of admiration.
One document recorded a decision by Hamas's military leadership in February 2023 to begin preparations for the attack. A photograph shows Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif surrounded by senior commanders inside a tunnel complex. All the commanders identified in that photograph have since been killed by Israel.
What exactly was the message Al-Jazeera was trying to communicate to its Arabic-speaking audience? It was: These are your heroes - men who planned and carried out the massacre of Jews on Oct. 7 and whose declared objective is the destruction of Israel. This is glorifying terrorism. Al-Jazeera chose to turn the architects of the massacre into celebrated military figures. These were the leaders of an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization whose Oct. 7 assault included the deliberate mass-murder of civilians, rape, torture, and hostage-taking.
Qatar cannot simultaneously present itself as a trusted Western partner and avoid serious questions about its relationships with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. (Gatestone Institute)
Observations:
- Every president since George W. Bush has come into the White House hoping to limit America's risks and costs in the Middle East. The longing for an exit is understandable. Over the last generation, the burden of America's commitments in the region has grown, yet our need for Middle Eastern oil has diminished.
- The shale revolution has turned the U.S. into an energy superpower, producing more oil than Saudi Arabia. The Western Hemisphere produces more oil than the Middle East, with increasing fossil-fuel production from Canada, Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil and Argentina. Given this, people ask why we spend billions, even trillions, to police a region whose oil resources we don't need.
- Yet the Middle East still matters. The Western Hemisphere may have pumped 37.4% of the world's oil against 30.9% from the Middle East in 2025, but a price shock still reverberated around the world this year when Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz. Similar shocks hit the world's farmers as Middle East exports of urea and phosphate fertilizers fell.
- If the forecasts of the U.S. Energy Information Administration prove accurate, projected increases in Western Hemisphere production of fossil fuels won't be enough to prevent price shocks from the Middle East. For the foreseeable future, American security and economic interests are going to keep us engaged, no matter how many presidents in both parties dream of walking away.
- Instead of fantasizing about an escape from the Middle East, Americans need to think harder about how to safeguard our essential interests at the lowest possible risk and cost. We need to cut the burden of our commitments without sacrificing interests that still matter.
- Facilitating smarter security cooperation between Israel and key Arab states will remain a crucial American objective, and Indian and American interests are broadly aligned in the Middle East. Besides securing energy supplies, India cares deeply about the millions of its citizens who work in the Persian Gulf.
- Deepening defense and tech ties with Israel and shared concerns about terrorism commit India to promoting cooperation between Arabs and Israelis. And with Pakistan closely aligned with China, India's interests in countering Pakistani influence in the Middle East line up with American concerns about Beijing.
The writer, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida.
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