| DAILY ALERT |
Sunday, July 12, 2026 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. about a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump. The White House referred to comments the president made on Wednesday: "They want to take out the U.S. leader - me," he said. "I'm on every list. I saw this morning, I'm on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I've been a little bit lucky." (Wall Street Journal) See also Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Vows Revenge - Barak Ravid Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei announced on Saturday that revenge for his father's assassination "is the demand of our nation, and it will most certainly be carried out." (Axios) U.S. Central Command completed a third round of strikes this week against Iran on Saturday, holding Iranian forces accountable for attacking another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. forces hit 140 Iranian military targets, including Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations. (CENTCOM) On July 2, the Washington Post falsified a quote by President Trump to advance a narrative of strain between the administration and Israel. The authors claim: "In March, President Donald Trump suggested publicly that Israel's assassination campaign was complicating efforts to negotiate with the regime. 'You know it's a little tough,' he told reporters at the time. 'They've wiped out everybody. I don't want them to be killed.'" The authors spliced together two sentences uttered by President Trump in response to two separate questions as if they were part of one cohesive statement. Here's what Trump actually said: "Don't forget, we've wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we're dealing with a man [in Iran] who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out - we've wiped out everybody." The Washington Post omitted the words "we've wiped out." The sentence "I don't want them to be killed" is portrayed as if it was said immediately after, but in fact that remark came later in response to a different question. The authors effectively doctored the quote, shredding journalistic standards and ethics. (CAMERA) Hamas has shifted much of its organizational center of gravity toward Turkey in recent months, after years in which it kept its operations there at a distance and reduced its presence. In May, Hamas chose Turkey as the venue for internal elections to select the head of its political bureau. Sources said the vast majority of Hamas leaders have recently been based in Turkey and have stayed there for extended periods, including leaders whose families live in Qatar. One source said Turkey was now a safer destination for Hamas after an Israeli attack on its leaders in Doha, Qatar. (Asharq Al Awsat-UK) President Trump's peace plan for Gaza envisioned 20,000 international peacekeepers to prevent the re-emergence of Hamas as a military power. An initial group of 10-20 Moroccan soldiers are training near Gaza's border in Israel before beginning limited operations, and more are expected. The second phase of the peace plan required Hamas to disarm and transfer power to a Palestinian technocratic council. Then the peacekeepers would move in. But Hamas refuses to disarm. Rebuilding hasn't yet begun, billions of dollars pledged for reconstruction haven't materialized, and initial offers of troops have been held back. (Wall Street Journal) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham was a beacon of moral clarity and a true leader of the U.S.-Israel partnership. We will never forget how he stood by the people of Israel in our most difficult moments, and we will remain eternally grateful for his sense of justice, truth, and loyalty. The people of Israel mourn his loss. (X) Netanyahu on Graham: "Israel Has Lost One of Its Greatest Friends" - Lazar Berman (Times of Israel) Four Israeli citizens from the Bedouin town of Segev Shalom were indicted over plans to carry out a mass shooting attack at Beersheba's central bus station, the State Prosecutor's Office said Friday. They were arrested in May and June. (Times of Israel) During the ceasefire in Gaza, from October 2025 through June 2026, aid deliveries significantly exceeded needs identified by the UN, according to a new report published Thursday by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli Defense Department body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories. About 1.78 million tons of food entered Gaza between the start of the ceasefire and June 7, roughly three times the requirements defined by the World Food Program. Gaza receives more than 70,000 cubic meters of water a day through pipelines, desalination facilities and other infrastructure, exceeding international humanitarian standards. COGAT also said Gaza's health care system remains operational, with 18,000 tons of medicines and medical supplies entering the territory since the ceasefire. Hospital bed capacity has increased by 55%. (Ynet News) Opposition to reviving nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran has reportedly grown within the White House in response to the conduct of Iran's leadership. The U.S. has presented Iran with an ultimatum, demanding a public declaration followed by the immediate and unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. According to two diplomatic sources, Iran was informed that if the strait is not reopened and Tehran does not publicly commit to doing so, it will instead be completely closed to ships and oil tankers traveling to and from Iran. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed further sanctions on individuals and companies involved in Iran's oil trade and financial sector. According to a U.S. official, the primary focus of this economic campaign will be senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guards, some of whom hold tens of millions of dollars in private accounts. In a phone call between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday, the two leaders discussed the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. Trump reiterated the longstanding U.S. position that Israel's qualitative military edge would be preserved under any circumstances. (Israel Hayom) In July 2026, Iraq's Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court monitored an asset recovery operation by security forces in Tikrit that uncovered $10.7 million in U.S. currency from a storm drain. This followed a raid that uncovered $20 million and 5 kg. of gold jewelry. Security forces have arrested dozens of senior bureaucrats, municipal lawmakers, and private contractors. The enforcement drive intensified significantly after the U.S. chose to leverage Iraq's financial dependence. Under a framework established after the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq's international oil revenues are deposited into a secure account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Central Bank of Iraq regularly draws down these reserves, flying millions in cash to Baghdad to maintain liquidity within its cash-reliant domestic marketplace. Citing intelligence that these funds were leaking into the hands of sanctioned Iranian entities and hostile regional armed groups, Washington enacted a four-month suspension of $500 million in currency deliveries and conditioned resumption on rigorous, transparent central bank financial audits. The currency shipments were restored shortly after Baghdad executed its high-profile arrests. The Morocco-based writer is a fellow at the Middle East Forum. (Ynet News) The Ammunition Hill Heritage Site in the heart of Jerusalem, memorializing 36 paratroopers of the 66th Battalion who fell in the Battle for Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, has evolved into a site for the battalion to remember its fallen throughout Israel's wars. The newest addition marks five liberators of Jerusalem who were taken hostage and murdered by Hamas during or after the Oct. 7 massacre. Amitai Yaakov Ben Zvi (80), Oded Lifshitz (83), Yoram Metzger (80), Avraham Munder (79), and Chaim Peri (79) all retired to the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Hamas massacred 47 residents and took another 76 hostage. Hamas murdered Ben Zvi in his home. Lifshitz was murdered in 2024 while held captive by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. His remains were returned over a year later. Metzger, Munder, and Peri were all killed in captivity and their remains were returned by the IDF on Aug. 20, 2024. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran The experiment with appeasing the Islamic Republic of Iran didn't last long. The U.S. revoked an oil sanctions waiver on Tuesday after Iranian forces fired on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The reality is that diplomacy was doomed from the start. The Iranian regime perceived the White House decision to end the fighting under political pressure and offer multibillion-dollar sanctions relief not as a sign of goodwill but proof of weakness. Apparently, direct discussions aren't enough to persuade the men who control Iran's military that it's in their interest to stop shooting at shipping vessels or executing political dissidents. As the White House weighs a post-ceasefire strategy, it sees that releasing tens of billions of dollars to a regime that won't honor its end of the bargain will embolden it to ask for more. The administration can ratchet up sanctions pressure, impose an embargo on Iranian oil, and take limited kinetic action when necessary. There will be pressure to go back to the tired playbook of bribing the regime into good behavior, but that hasn't worked recently and it won't work again. (Washington Post) In Tehran, there is a conviction that Washington is merely playing for time until after the U.S. midterm elections in November, in order to resume the military campaign. In Washington, meanwhile, the assessment is growing that Iran is exploiting the negotiations to buy time to rebuild its military capabilities. From Iran's perspective, the negotiations are meant to enshrine in an agreement the achievements of the war, foremost among them the change in the status of the Strait of Hormuz. For the Iranian leadership, this is a principled expression of the creation of a new regional order that recognizes Iran's upgraded status. The U.S., by contrast, seeks to obtain through diplomacy what it failed to obtain through military and economic pressure, including a return to the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz and the reduction of Iran's nuclear capabilities. The writer is head of the Iran and Shiite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). (Ynet News) Iran is threatening the resumption of large-scale conflict by striking civilian vessels and the Gulf states to try to achieve permanent control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's attacks illustrate that Iran views control over the strait as its primary strategic deterrent and that Iran is unlikely to abandon its efforts to control the strait in response to opposition from the Gulf states. Recent U.S. strikes have had no visible effect on Iran's ability to threaten shipping. Iran likely calculates that it can use control of the strait as economic leverage to shape U.S. decision-making and deter further U.S. military action. The Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute continue to assess that any arrangement that recognizes Iranian control over the strait would preserve Iran's ability to close the strait at will to advance its strategic objectives. (Institute for the Study of War) As the Revolutionary Guards set out to enforce Iran's authority over the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. has four options: We could return to the mix of self-deception and bad-faith agreements with the Iranians in which we have indulged since the April ceasefire, but the paltry results of such a method are plain for all to see. We could surrender, and cease to contest Iran's control of the strait. This would have catastrophic consequences for the region and the world. We could launch a maximalist regime-change military campaign against Iran. Risks would abound and the administration gives no evidence of an appetite for this course. Or we could strike a middle course that addresses the core of this mess: the administration's refusal to accept that, barring the fall or fundamental change in character of the regime, the price would be protracted, costly maritime escort operations in and around the Strait of Hormuz, along with reimposing the American blockade on Iran. Such a move would be sustainable, if painful, for the U.S., but create conditions the Iranian economy cannot survive, ultimately forcing a better outcome for the U.S. But it will take time. Meanwhile, there will be waves of fighting in the strait itself, Iranian attacks elsewhere in the region, and the need for America to respond from time to time. The writer is a national security analyst at CBS News. (Free Press) Tehran's promise to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for international shipping turned out to be about as trustworthy as every other major promise the Islamic Republic has ever made. The lesson for the U.S. is that it must stop negotiating with a regime that weaponizes negotiations. We need to reimpose the blockade on Iranian ports. Iran's ability to export oil must be permanently revoked. Frozen assets should remain frozen, rather than being used to finance the regime's next bout of aggression. Crushing sanctions need to be enforced, with no loopholes. The president should direct the U.S. military to win the Battle of Hormuz. Washington also shouldn't tolerate Tehran using proxies like Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen to bully negotiators. Yes, renewed confrontation carries risks. But allowing the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to rebuild its power under the guise of yet another failed negotiation is far more dangerous. The writer is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (New York Post) In the months since supreme leader Ali Khamenei's death, I have received hundreds of messages from friends and contacts inside Iran. They are messages of disbelief, relief and, when people feel safe enough, joy. But they are still afraid. They are always afraid. The carefully choreographed seas of mourners at the funeral are an illusion. I know from experience how they are assembled through force. The total expense of the week-long funeral - including security deployments of roughly 150,000 police, temporary infrastructure, transportation, accommodation for thousands of out-of-town participants, free 24-hour metro and bus services, catering, and a week of public holidays - could approach $800 million. Why does the system that denounced extravagance pour hundreds of millions into a funeral? For a supreme leader who was considered a titan of a global movement, the absence of every major world leader is an embarrassment. This was not mourning. This was a regime staging a display of strength for an audience that is no longer watching. Many of those attending the funeral genuinely want revenge. During the funeral, crowds of mourners hung an effigy of President Donald Trump. From the funeral stage, regime loyalists repeatedly vowed revenge. Placards carried by mourners displayed prominent Americans, with red crosshairs or target marks over their foreheads. The captions read, "Sooner or later, your heads will roll." When the Islamic Republic threatens to kill you, believe them. As a former journalist in Iran, I was forced into exile for criticizing the regime, only for Iranian intelligence operatives to plot my assassination in New York - a plan foiled by the FBI at the last minute. But before that, the regime threatened me publicly with posters, cartoons, and effigies. For the Islamic Republic, propaganda is the prelude to action. This is Iran's reality: a population who have learned to perform grief when required, and who express their true feelings only in whispers, anonymously, or not at all. I have been the keeper of those messages for years. They fill my phone. They fill my social media. They are the Iran the funeral cameras do not show. (Free Press) Turkey While formally aligned with the West, the actions of Turkey and its neo-Ottoman president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, increasingly reflect a Western-legitimized rogue power: eliminationist anti-Israel rhetoric, the hosting of Muslim Brotherhood networks including Hamas, military adventurism, and economic competition. Turkey is positioning itself as the Sunni imperial competitor to the Shiite Islamic Republic in Tehran. Erdogan is an ambitious, Islamist actor seeking regional supremacy at the expense of Western interests. On June 6, Erdogan's Interior Minister, Mustafa Ciftci, declared that after Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, "one day we will also see the liberation of Jerusalem" - a statement consistent with Erdogan's long-standing vision of Turkish influence beyond its territorial borders. Turkey maintains Russian air defense systems, occupies Northern Cyprus, sustains decades-old tensions with Greece, and hosts Islamist terror groups and other extremists - all of which undermine NATO alliance cohesion and moral and strategic principles. Turkey has long held potential as a regional leader and stabilizer as it demonstrated under the former Kemalist government and in its historical role as a Muslim-majority democracy exemplifying the separation of religion and state. But its current path - aligning with Islamist extremists and threatening the West's most dependable ally - benefits no one. Ignoring Ankara's ambitions invites greater instability. The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Israel-U.S. Relations Is Israel a strategic asset or a liability? As America recalibrates its global posture to prioritize partners rather than friends who required U.S. protection, Israel serves as the ultimate "model ally," in the words of the Pentagon's National Defense Strategy. In fact, Israel is the only partner that delivers a huge return on investment with no American "boots on the ground." Israeli innovations and battle-proven technologies are force multipliers for the U.S. military, allowing the Pentagon to skip costly R&D cycles and adapt to modern warfare in real-time. Joint developments - most notably in multi-layered air defense - serve as the blueprint for protecting U.S. forces globally. Every time Israeli forces deploy battle-proven technologies - be it F-35 fighter jets or an Arrow missile defense system - the feedback loop to the Pentagon is immediate. Since 90% of U.S. security assistance to Israel is immediately reinvested into the American defense industrial base, supporting hi-tech jobs from California to Alabama, this assistance acts as a massive stimulus for the American defense industry, returning some $15 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Pinchas (Pini) Cohen is Chairman of the Israeli defense organization MIND Israel, where Dr. Avner Golov is Vice President of Research and Alliances. (Jerusalem Post) If you read the headlines, you might think everything in Israel is doom and gloom - lurching from crisis to crisis. In fact, after more than 1,000 days of a multifront war, the overall picture is positive. Israel is still a dynamic country, rapidly growing, with a strong economy. Defense exports are at an all-time high. Israel is not more isolated and threatened. Israel has thrived from the 1950s until today under different types of threats. The expectation that Israel must receive complete support from the U.S., or else there is an existential crisis, creates an impossible burden on the relationship. There is a tendency to view a lot of Israel's friendships abroad as a kind of zero-sum game. Either it's perfect, or it's bad. (Jerusalem Post) A Pew Research Center survey conducted May 4-17 and released on Thursday found that 44% of American Muslim respondents expressed a favorable opinion of Hamas. (JNS) Israel and the West The "Palestine Uprooted" exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg demonstrates how a one-sided portrayal that advances an anti-Zionist political agenda can exacerbate burgeoning antisemitism and undermine the safety of the Canadian Jewish community. Culture Minister Marc Miller called it an "error in curation" that "should be rectified." Misinformation and disinformation must not be used to propagandize a political, ideological, theological or partisan agenda. We should acknowledge Palestinian suffering, but it is also necessary to understand who caused it and who is perpetrating it and why. Prior to Israel's independence, incoming prime minister David Ben-Gurion urged Arabs to stay. His comments were consistent with Israel's Declaration of Independence, which called on the Arab inhabitants to "participate in the building of the state on the basis of full and equal citizenship." Nevertheless, up to 750,000 fled, in part, at the urging of Arab leaders and fear of war, with the promise that they could return as soon as Israel was defeated. This evacuation would not have occurred had five Arab countries not declared war on Israel and then attacked it. Yet 150,000 Arabs remained after the war and their descendants today constitute a Palestinian minority of over two million Israeli citizens. That contrasts with 3,500-4,000 Jews currently living in Arab countries. Nearly 950,000 Jews were driven out from countries they had lived in for two millennia, starting in 1947. So Jews also suffered a "Nakba," which the UN never recognized. Neither catastrophe was caused by the creation of the State of Israel, but rather by Arab hostility to its creation. No group's refusal to recognize Israel has been more intense than that of the Palestinian leaders, with tragic consequences. On numerous occasions, Israel was prepared to sign a peace agreement with the Palestinian authorities but was repeatedly rejected. Irwin Cotler is a former Canadian Minister of Justice. Joe Oliver is a former Minister of Natural Resources and Finance. (National Post-Canada) Shortly after the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, Canadian political strategist Warren Kinsella began noticing the fingerprints of a professional propaganda campaign, documented in his new book, The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda. Hamas and its networks, along with their Western followers, had thousands of social media accounts primed, protest banners ready, and talking points translated into multiple languages long before the IDF response to the carnage had even begun. What may appear to be spontaneous outrage on Western streets and social feeds was, in fact, a coordinated political operation that could only be executed by state actors and professional agitators. Jew-hatred is being mainstreamed by outlaw states and extremist groups who use tools of modern campaigning. And, he says, Western democracies have barely begun to respond. In October 2023, "there were thousands of protests around the planet using the same slogans," said Kinsella. That was either "one hell of a coincidence" or evidence of central planning. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has accused Iran of seeking to fund and encourage anti-Israel protests. Kinsella said, "The bad guys have unlimited resources and armies of propaganda," with which they have successfully convinced Westerners that Israel is a "white supremacist colonial state bent on destroying a powerless non-white minority." The book cites Marc Ginsberg, head of the Washington-based Coalition for a Safer Web, who claims Iran and Qatar were two of the top funders of paid protesters, professional organizers, and top-tier lobby efforts. "These anti-Israel pro-Hamas people are well supported," Kinsella said. The campaign found fertile ground on campus quads, where fringe pro-Palestinian groups had already built networks. Activists arrive in rental vans, unload professionally printed signs that can cost up to $100 each, lay out food and drink, and distribute scripts and legal hotlines in case of arrest. Organizers in reflective vests and walkie-talkies marshal chants and photo ops. (Times of Israel) The Abraham Accords and the recent "Isaac Accords" with Argentina were built on pragmatic economic and security cooperation that stands in opposition to progressive grievance politics. Islamic states Morocco, Sudan, Somaliland, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan have all expanded cooperation with Israel since 2020. India's relationship with Israel has deepened. For years, Israel has also assisted African states in development projects. These are relationships built around what states can build together, not around a shared account of who wronged whom. The writer is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Observations: Aspiring to Regional Domination, Iran Is Ready to Escalate over Hormuz - Yaroslav Trofimov (Wall Street Journal)
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