Sunday,
January 18, 2026

News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

Iran's Heavy Crackdown Quells Protests - David S. Cloud
A fierce crackdown by Iranian security forces that has killed thousands of people protesting against the country's autocratic leaders has forced demonstrators off the streets in some cities, with residents reporting an eerie quiet after days of escalating violence. Iran's government has deployed large numbers of police and troops. Iranians said they were afraid to leave their homes.
    The group Human Rights Activists in Iran confirmed the deaths of more than 2,600 people and more than 18,000 arrests. "The regime has created a bloodbath. They brought down the iron fist without precedent," said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group. "That creates a chilling effect among protesters. Even if the first round is done, the next round is around the corner, because the regime is unable and incapable of addressing legitimate grievances."  (Wall Street Journal)
    See also Iranian Forces Raid Cities - Neta Bar
In Iran, heavy weaponry reserved for war zones has been turned against the citizenry. Basij (paramilitary volunteer militia) forces and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) operatives have flooded Iran's city centers with hundreds of gunmen wielding machine guns, seen on pickup trucks and armored vehicles. (Israel Hayom)

Iran Report Says 16,500 Dead in "Genocide" - Christina Lamb
The Sunday Times has obtained a new report from staff in eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran, which says at least 16,500 protesters have died and 330,000 have been injured, most of them in two days of utter slaughter. Most of the victims are thought to have been younger than 30. At least 700 to 1,000 people have lost an eye.
    The accounts tell of IRGC forces and its Basij militia on motorbikes using live ammunition from Kalashnikovs and even machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks to mow people down. There were reports of Shia militias from Iraq being bussed in. (Sunday Times-UK)
    See also Chilling Video Captures Suppression of Protests in Tehran - Ronny Reyes (New York Post)

Trump Was Told Attack on Iran Wouldn't Guarantee Collapse of Regime - Alexander Ward
President Trump was advised that a large-scale strike against Iran was unlikely to make the government fall and could spark a wider conflict, U.S. officials said, and for now will monitor how Tehran handles protesters before deciding on the scope of a potential attack. The U.S. would need more military firepower in the Middle East both to launch a large-scale strike and protect American forces in the region and allies such as Israel should Iran retaliate, the advisers told Trump. (Wall Street Journal)

Syrian Army Surges into Kurdish-Held Towns in Northern Syria
Syria's army has taken control of swathes of the country's north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade. State media said on Saturday that the army took over the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, as well as the major Freedom dam, west of Raqaa, despite U.S. calls to halt the advance. The Kurdish-led SDF forces - backed by the U.S. - fought against Islamic State. (Guardian-UK)
    See also Syrian Forces Seize Country's Largest Oil Field as Kurds Withdraw (Reuters)

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Iran Attack Postponed But Not Canceled - Ron Ben-Yishai
President Trump decided to suspend the strike planned against Iran after concluding that the expected cost of such a move at this time would far exceed any benefit that could be derived from it. His advisers and Pentagon generals were unable to guarantee that such a move would achieve a clear outcome - the collapse of the Iranian regime.
    Beyond that, the regime had already crushed the demonstrations with overwhelming force, determination and brutality, at the cost of thousands of lives. In any case, defensive military coordination between the IDF and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) was conducted intensively. (Ynet News)

Qatari Money Flows Back to Hamas - Yoav Zitun
Senior Israeli security officials have noted the expanding footprint in Gaza of Turkey and Qatar, two powerful states tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Political leaders in Israel are aware that Qatar's entry into a long-term reconstruction process was accepted by the U.S. as a condition for ending the war and securing the return of hostages.
    Moreover, the vast majority of the 15 members of the new Palestinian governing body for Gaza are affiliated with the PLO, with a small number identified as having ties to Hamas.
    IDF officials have repeatedly stressed that Hamas became a terrorist monster by Oct. 7 largely due to hundreds of millions of dollars in Qatari cash that Israel allowed into Gaza in the years preceding the attack. "For every kg. of cement that built the Qatari neighborhood in Khan Yunis about a decade ago, three kg. of concrete went into Hamas's terror tunnels," IDF officials recalled.
    "This simply must not happen again," they said. "In the end, the money will be diverted to strengthening Hamas, even if it initially serves civilian purposes. That will help preserve Hamas's de facto rule in Gaza."
    Moreover, the 800 aid trucks entering Gaza daily generate tens of millions of shekels for Hamas due to the taxation it imposes. This supports salary increases for tens of thousands of Hamas operatives and officials, a return to rocket production, and even planning for a future Oct. 7-style attack, albeit in a different form. (Ynet News)

Israel's Leviathan Gas Field to Increase Capacity
Chevron Mediterranean Limited and the owners of Israel's Leviathan natural gas reservoir approved the expansion of the offshore production platform, Chevron said on Friday. The project, to come online toward the end of the decade, will add three wells, subsea infrastructure, and enhanced treatment facilities to increase deliveries to 21 billion cubic meters per year. The field provides essential energy to millions of people in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. (Jerusalem Post)

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:

As Long as Hamas Refuses to Disarm, Israel Cannot Withdraw - Editorial
While the White House said President Trump's Gaza peace plan has entered its second phase, on the ground in Gaza, the situation remains fraught. The biggest obstacle is Hamas's refusal to lay down its arms, which means Israel refuses to commit to withdrawing from Gaza. And why should they? What happened on Oct. 7, 2023, can never be allowed to happen again.
    In the three months since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has emerged from its tunnels weakened but still able to assert dominance in Gaza due to the absence of any alternative security force. The terrorists' refusal to disarm has prevented the creation of an international force to provide security. No country is willing to commit ground troops if it means battling Hamas. Privately, they'd all prefer Israel do that dirty work.
    One proposal floated by Hamas is to decommission or "freeze" some weapons in depots overseen by Arab countries. Another is offering a "buy back" program to pay militants to voluntarily surrender their light firearms. Neither would amount to real disarmament. The reconstruction of Gaza cannot start until Hamas no longer poses a threat. (Washington Post)

Making Sense of Trump's Board of Peace Appointments - Seth J. Frantzman
The White House listed appointments to the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) on Friday. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the Palestinian technocratic committee, led by Dr. Ali Shaath, has also been announced. President Trump chairs BoP, while Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, who was previously a UN envoy to the Middle East, is director-general.
    To support Mladenov, a Gaza Executive Board (GEB) is being created. This entity includes Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi, and Egyptian Maj.-Gen. Hassan Rashad, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio; U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff; Jared Kushner, who played a key role in the Abraham Accords; and former UK prime minister Tony Blair. (Jerusalem Post)

Israel's Freedom of Action in Gaza Is Eroding - Dr. Michael Milshtein
The American announcement of the composition of the Board of Peace and the first meeting of the Gaza administration committee illustrate that we have effectively entered phase two of President Trump's Gaza plan. Although the administration committee is not clearly defined as subordinate to the Palestinian Authority, which welcomed its establishment, this is reflected in the makeup of its members.
    Hamas also welcomed the committee's creation, likely reflecting its assessment that it has little to fear. Hamas appears to view the body as a cosmetic cover that will take responsibility for supplying Gaza's civilian needs while leaving its security activity and its civil apparatus untouched. In effect, Hamas is seeking to entrench a Hizbullah-style model in Gaza, remaining the dominant force alongside a weak formal government.
    The writer is head of the Forum for Palestinian Studies at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.  (Ynet News)

U.S.: We "Will Not Tolerate Innocents Being Slaughtered in the Streets" of Iran - Amb. Mike Waltz
U.S. UN Ambassador Mike Waltz told the Security Council on Thursday: "The level of violence, the level of repression that the Iranian regime has unleashed on its own citizens, its own people, has repercussions for international peace and security."
    "The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republic's brutal history. Unarmed peaceful people - who love their country - are taking to the streets in pursuit of their legitimate aspirations for a better future."
    "The Iranian regime...is solely responsible for the economic misery of the Iranian people and the repression of their freedom, and they will be held accountable....President Trump has been clear: He will not - nor should the international community - tolerate innocents being slaughtered in the streets."
    "Since 1979, for decades, the regime has posed a threat to peace and security. In the name of a religious ideology, the regime calls for death to America and the annihilation of Israel. Even as its own citizens cannot afford the very basics: food, drinking water, very basic medicines, it spends billions to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to threaten its neighbors and the world in its support of terrorism."
    "The Iranian regime state television amplifies calls for a 'one bomb solution' to wipe Israel off the map, which ironically would be not only a massacre of all Israelis, but also the Palestinian people whom the regime claims to support."
    "How many people are dead, how many people are wounded, maimed, and abused in the Middle East - in Israel, in Gaza, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Yemen, Iraq - even Venezuela - because of the regime's support for terrorism as the largest state sponsor."
    "Iran says it is ready for dialogue, but its actions say otherwise. This is a regime that rules through oppression, through violence, and through intimidation, and has destabilized the Middle East for decades. Well, enough is enough. We all have a responsibility to support the Iranian people."  (U.S. Mission to the UN)

The Case for Regime Change in Iran - Editorial
President Trump seems to have called off any military action for now on behalf of Iran's protesting citizens, but this threat won't go away. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. In Beirut in 1983, Iran's proxy Hizbullah killed 17 Americans at the U.S. Embassy and then 241 Americans deployed for peacekeeping at a Marine barracks.
    In a plot hatched by Iranian intelligence, Iran's proxy groups bombed U.S. Air Force personnel at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 Americans. After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran funded, trained and equipped Shiite militias in Iraq, providing them the IEDs that helped kill 603 U.S. troops.
    Add to this Iran's global terrorism against dissidents and Jews, including the 1994 Jewish community center bombing in Argentina. Iran has also plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and President Trump. All of this is despite efforts by every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter to pursue better relations with Iran's regime.
    Iran's bloody record since 1979 underscores that it is a revolutionary regime rooted in Shiite extremism that wants to dominate the Middle East, destroy Israel and kill Americans. Helping the Iranian people end this regime is the right goal that would make America and the world safer. (Wall Street Journal)

Are Israelis Not Entitled to Human Rights? - Amb. Alan Baker
On a daily basis, we are witnessing a mass-phenomenon of deliberately one-sided accusations being leveled solely against Israel, alleging human rights violations against Palestinians. Slanted social media platforms, once-reputable international media outlets, politically-biased UN bodies and human rights committees, and clearly ignorant show-biz celebrities all unthinkingly accuse Israel of genocide, apartheid, cruelty and disproportionate military actions.
    Curiously, all these "paragons of international virtue" appear to be selectively blind as to the human rights of everyone else in the world. They flagrantly ignore the fact that Israel and its citizens are no less deserving of human rights. They ignore the fact that the public in Israel suffer from ongoing and daily acts of terror by Palestinian terror groups and Islamist fanatics. They have deliberately chosen to forget, or deny, the tragic massacre, rape, butchery, burning, and torture of many hundreds of Israelis and foreign citizens on Oct. 7, 2023.
    All this is being orchestrated through a meticulous, well-oiled and well-financed system of brainwashing, emanating from the coffers of the likes of Qatar, Iran, and Turkey. Sadly, this is all being willingly and enthusiastically absorbed and cheered-on by an international choir in Europe and other Western countries, all too willing to absorb and propagate such propaganda and brain-washing and to direct it solely against Israel.
    It is high time that the states and organizations within the international community, as well as international media outlets and the manipulated social media platforms, become aware of the absurdity and acute lack of any logical proportion in their anti-Israel fixation.
    The writer, former Legal Adviser and Deputy Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, heads the international law program at the Jerusalem Center.  (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)

"Morality" Includes Your Moral Obligation to Defend Yourself and Your People - Prof. Gil Troy
Too many critics preach at Israel about "morality." Such long-distance hectoring is arrogant, especially coming from critics who have never been shot at.
    "Morality" includes your moral obligations to defend yourself, your family, your state, your people, your civilization. Loyalty, solidarity, and supporting your people are also moral imperatives, especially after they were viciously attacked on Oct. 7, were bombed mercilessly by Houthis, Hizbullah, and Iranians, and were libeled worldwide as mass-murderers.
    We want our soldiers passing the mirror test, seeing in their reflection the most moral and successful soldiers they can be, despite searing conditions. But if we are forced to choose between winning this war, which ultimately freed 160 hostages and saved Israel, or being popular, we'd rather be alive than well-liked - especially because we kept asking "what's the alternative...how would you fight this multi-front war against genocidal jihadists cowering behind civilians?"
    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)

PBS Repeats Lie that Israel Destroyed Gaza Church - Darcie Grunblatt
On Dec. 30, 2025, PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown reported that "An Israeli strike in the first few weeks of the war destroyed...the 1,600-year-old Church of St. Prophyrius in Gaza." In reality, the church was not destroyed.
    Satellite images, pictures, and videos of the church's chapel after the Oct. 19, 2023, strike show that while a building in the church compound was destroyed, the chapel itself was unharmed. Satellite images from Google Earth show this as well.
    The New York Times unequivocally reported after the strike: "The chapel was not hit." The Times noted that the compound includes "a chapel, seven buildings and a courtyard." The Times report added that the IDF was trying to destroy a Hamas command center near the church that the military believes has been involved in launching rockets and mortars toward Israel.
    PBS has ignored CAMERA's requests to amend the broadcast's multiple failings, including the cover up of Hamas's presence and falsely implicating Israel in deliberate targeting of antiquities with its false reporting of the destruction of an intact church. (CAMERA)

Israel's Recognition of Somaliland - Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan Conricus
As an assessment officer at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York, I was tasked with providing military assessments of the situation in the Horn of Africa between the years 2014-2017. As I documented and analyzed the atrocities of the local brand of jihadi terror, Al-Shabaab, in Somalia, it quickly became apparent that Somalia was a classic failed state due to a dysfunctional local government, corruption, and foreign meddling.
    Neighboring Somaliland was a stark contrast. No terror organizations or extremist Islam were tolerated; free and steady elections were held; the government actually worked to improve the infrastructure and conditions on the ground for its citizens; and most people had basic rights and liberties. Yet the international community refused to award Somaliland freedom and independence, and forced it to remain tethered to the failing Somalia. Thus, Israeli recognition was both sensible and long overdue.
    Absent from Arab, Muslim, and African condemnations of Israel's move was Ethiopia, a powerful African nation and the seat of the African Union. It is also a landlocked neighbor of Somaliland that would very likely benefit from access to the Indian Ocean via Somaliland's Berbera port.
    The writer, a former IDF international spokesman, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. (Jerusalem Report)

Observations:

Israel has reportedly urged President Trump to postpone any immediate military action against Iran. Israeli decision-making is not rooted in diplomatic hesitation or lack of defense systems but in a sober intelligence assessment.

Israel's intelligence establishment has concluded that the current moment is strategically unfavorable for a strike and that such an action would be unlikely to achieve the collapse of the Iranian regime.

Regime change in Iran is not determined by popular dissatisfaction alone, but by the continued loyalty of the state's coercive institutions - most notably the regular army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The regime has demonstrated a willingness to use unprecedented and brutal force to suppress dissent. Israeli intelligence analysts assess that as long as the Iranian military and the IRGC remain cohesive and willing to shoot protesters, the likelihood of regime collapse remains low.

History has shown repeatedly that authoritarian governments fall not when protests erupt, but when security forces fracture, refuse orders, or shift allegiance. At present, there is no credible indication that such a split is imminent within Iran's power structure.

In short, Israeli intelligence concludes that the Iranian regime will not collapse as long as the army and the IRGC remain willing and able to fire on their own population. Until that reality changes, restraint is viewed not as weakness, but as strategic prudence.

The writer, former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad, is a researcher at the Jerusalem Center.

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