| DAILY ALERT |
Thursday, July 2, 2026 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
President Trump has held multiple conversations in recent days with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine on more strikes on Iran, but has decided to stick with diplomatic talks for now, according to U.S. officials. Trump has told aides that he is fine if negotiations with Tehran blow past an Aug. 18 deadline for a nuclear deal, a decision that gives the talks more time to work. (Wall Street Journal) More than 100 U.S. military aircraft were taking off from bases and ships across the Middle East as part of an effort to crack open the Strait of Hormuz in early May when Saudi Arabia, whose bases and airspace were critical to the mission, said no. The pushback forced the U.S. to end the military operation to guarantee safe passage for ships. Incensed, the White House threatened to hold back delivery of interceptors that Saudi Arabia needs to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, if the kingdom didn't reverse course, U.S. and Arab officials familiar with the discussions said. Saudi Arabia ultimately backed down. Now, the U.S. is considering reducing its military footprint in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. were never really on the same page over the war against Iran. The kingdom and other Gulf states said publicly they wouldn't allow their bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. After Iran launched missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure, and airports, the kingdom and other Gulf states quickly allowed the U.S. to use their bases and airspace for attacks, despite their initial reluctance. Some including Saudi Arabia - eventually took a more active role, launching a number of strikes on targets that included Iranian drone and missile sites. Saudi officials feared more Iranian attacks on its energy exports including from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, where the kingdom had routed most of its oil. Saudi Arabia complained to the U.S. that UAE attacks on Iran, which began in the early days of the war, were raising the risk that regional energy facilities could come under fire from Iran. (Wall Street Journal) Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 53, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a Jewish protester at a Free Palestine demonstration in 2023, was sentenced to one year in jail and two years of probation, according to the Ventura County district attorney's office. Alnaji was accused of hitting Paul Kessler, 69, on the head with a megaphone, causing him to fall and strike his head on the pavement. (Los Angeles Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
An official Israeli aid delegation to Venezuela is being sent after two severe earthquakes struck Caracas, leaving thousands injured and tens of thousands without homes. It will include engineering experts from the Home Front Command. Israeli Ambassador Yoed Magen, who grew up in Venezuela, said Israel built, within days, a coordination mechanism with a country where it has no embassy. "When there are floods, earthquakes, or any other disaster in the world, this comes naturally to the Israeli system. The immediate thought is: How can we help? This is already built into the DNA of the Foreign Ministry and other parts of the Israeli system." "The team of experts is composed mainly of engineers who will be able to examine, analyze, and provide professional assessments of damaged buildings: which are designated for demolition, which can be rehabilitated, and which can allow families to return immediately." "This is a very important mission because the Venezuelans have defined the treatment of the homeless as their central problem right now. If an Israeli team arrives at a damaged building and determines that, despite the damage, people can enter it, live in it, or rehabilitate it without immediate danger, that will significantly ease the burden on the Venezuelans." "We will also provide assistance to the Jewish community there, which is in distress. There are about 20 families that lost their homes, three people were killed, and I believe there are also three missing. We will assist them as much as we can." "Our presence sends a very important message, to Venezuela, to Latin America, and to the whole world: Israel, regardless of its diplomatic relations or the ties it has with a given country, shows up when an event like this occurs." (Jerusalem Post) A U.S. official confirmed to the Jerusalem Post that "no frozen funds have been released and no frozen funds will be released unless Iran meets the requirements outlined in the MoU" and that when the funds are released, "the United States must approve how the funds are used. If Iranian assets are released, they will be used to purchase American agricultural products from American farmers to feed the Iranian people." (Jerusalem Post) The Board of Peace will launch a pilot program in the coming weeks to manage humanitarian shelters in areas of Gaza that are not under Hamas control. The first area to which civilians with no weapons or affiliation with Hamas will be directed is Tel Sultan, near Rafah. Medical aid and food will be sent into the humanitarian shelters in an effort to loosen Hamas's hold on the population, piece by piece. The Israeli political echelon and former senior military officials argue that this is the way to deepen the blow to Hamas, by disconnecting it from the population. In these areas, no concrete will be brought in for Gaza's reconstruction. Instead, pre-fab structures will be placed there and services will be provided for the population that settles in them. At present, the U.S. is preventing Israel from resuming fighting in Gaza, even though Hamas refuses to disarm in accordance with the Trump plan. However, within the existing constraints, the IDF is continuing targeted eliminations inside Gaza and striking Hamas's efforts to reestablish itself. A political source told Israel Hayom: "We are maneuvering within the American constraints, increasing the pace of eliminations while staying below the threshold of international criticism, and this will continue as long as Hamas is not prepared to demilitarize." (Israel Hayom) The Gaza Board of Peace said on Wednesday that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) "has no place in the new Gaza. We are turning the page on the complex of perpetual aid dependency and conflict. The people of Gaza deserve better." The U.S. Mission to the UN said, "UN Member States have a choice: Fund incitement, terrorism, and stagnation with pledges to UNRWA. Or fund the Board of Peace, giving Gazans a path to peace and prosperity." (Albawaba-Jordan) The Tekuma Directorate, tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border area in the wake of Oct. 7, reported Wednesday that 92% of the region's residents are back home, joined by more than 5,000 new residents. 43 out of the 47 communities evacuated after the massacre have returned home, with kibbutzim Holit and Kfar Aza expected to start going back in August and Be'eri slated to commence the return at the end of December. (Times of Israel) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran By striking neighboring countries, Iran is shooting itself in the foot. The Gulf states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman - are not peripheral players but essential neighbors whose stability and cooperation are vital for Iran's own long-term economic development and regional standing. Attacking sovereign nations that have no direct involvement in the core Iran-U.S. disputes risks isolating Tehran further and undermining any prospects for recovery or reintegration into the global economy. These are countries that will remain Iran's neighbors for generations. Alienating them harms Iran's future more than it hurts its targets. Moreover, by targeting states uninvolved in the initial conflict, Iran paints itself as the aggressor in the eyes of the international community and the Arab world. These Gulf countries did not initiate hostilities against Iran. They have repeatedly called for de-escalation rather than escalation. Iran's actions risk shifting regional and global perceptions dramatically, framing Tehran as an expansionist power. Public opinion in the Arab world is likely shifting against Iran as people see their own countries threatened. (Al Arabiya-Saudi Arabia) Israel Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram said Wednesday that Israel viewed Iran as more of a danger than did the U.S., leading to different policy decisions and interests, even as both regard Tehran as a threat. "The difference between us is not in how we understand the threat, but in our priorities: For us, Iran is an existential threat. For the United States, it is a chronic regional challenge, while China and the Indo-Pacific theater remain the core concern. We think Tehran, they think Taiwan." "What some in Israel perceive as weakness or folly, an apparent disregard for every warning sign on the ground, is viewed in Washington as cold, calculated, and clear-eyed risk management....From the Pentagon's perspective, with American munitions stretched between supporting current wars and preparing for a potential confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, a prolonged war in the Middle East runs counter to America's global posture." "At the same time...if there is one thing Americans hate more than this war that has dragged on for them, it is losing a campaign they have already won." Regarding the future Israeli-U.S. military relationship, he said, "A strong, independent, and proactive Israel that stabilizes the Middle East is the very asset that allows the United States to redirect resources toward Asia." (Jerusalem Post) The U.S.-Iran memorandum leaves out the one thing that ought to sit at the center of any serious agreement: the Iranian people. The regime in Tehran has been a machine for humiliation, coercion, and fear. It has jailed journalists for telling the truth, hounded women for refusing to submit, broken students for speaking too freely, and treated protest as a crime against the state. Its morality police have marched into ordinary life with the zeal of inquisitors. It has beaten, disappeared, and executed opponents with the solemnity of a system that believes repression is a duty. These horrors are lived. They begin with surveillance and end with graves. They pass through prison cells where dissidents are interrogated, isolated, and abused. They move through public squares where fear is staged as order. They reach into homes where families wait for sons and daughters who may never come back. They have included the crushing of protests with live fire, the arrest of lawyers, the silencing of artists, and the routine reduction of citizenship to obedience. A regime that has spent decades perfecting intimidation does not suddenly become respectable because diplomats have drafted a careful paragraph about stability. That is why a memorandum that leaves the Iranian people nearly invisible cannot be treated as a triumph of statecraft. It asks the world to ignore the space where human beings ought to be. The writer is Executive Director at the Forum for Foreign Relations and an associate scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Times of Israel) Hizbullah Israel cannot afford a war of attrition in southern Lebanon without any diplomatic solution in sight. Therefore, the framework agreement signed with strong U.S. support isolates Hizbullah and allows for an IDF presence in a temporary security zone along the entire border. Unlike the declaration of intent signed with Iran without Israel's participation, this new agreement is a significant step toward a peace process with our northern neighbor. Lebanon now officially recognizes the existence of the Jewish state within secure borders, aspires to peace, and desires normal bilateral relations. However, how can we guarantee that Hizbullah will not plunge the Lebanese people into civil war? Hasn't the Shiite militia already violated previous UN resolutions, including Resolution 1701 signed in 2006 after the Second Lebanon War? To ensure the safety of Israeli citizens along the border and guarantee the agreement, the Lebanese government will need to obtain all necessary resources from the U.S., as well as strong support from Arab countries, European countries, and France. Israel's goal was to expel Hizbullah and Iran from Lebanon. Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon, and sooner or later the IDF forces will withdraw. However, we are currently in a position of strength, and the time is ripe to dictate the course of action and guarantee stability in the north for many years to come. The key is to seize every opportunity and leverage and intervene swiftly in the event of a violation. This framework agreement is not perfect and is complicated to implement under current conditions, but it is clear and coherent. Without indulging in illusions, and with nerves of steel and an iron will, we could accomplish this noble mission for peace. The writer, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, is a former Foreign Ministry senior adviser who was Israel's first ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. (Israel Hayom) Gaza The consensus among analysts is that Hamas is down, but hardly out. But in truth, Hamas's two-year war with Israel has decimated the organization beyond the point of recovery. It may still be more powerful than other groups in Gaza. But Israel's bombing campaigns and invasion have cost Hamas essential military infrastructure, torn apart its leadership, and cut it off from its patrons. As a result, the organization lacks the power to actually rule Gaza. It is suffering from political paralysis and facing financial disaster. Finally, it has lost public support: many Gazans blame the group for starting a war that has resulted in the destruction or damage of 90% of the homes in Gaza. Despite these facts, members of Hamas perpetuate the idea that Hamas is alive and well for an obvious reason: they do not want to admit that they lost. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed an entire echelon of Hamas leaders. This includes its former top officials: Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, and Mohammed Sinwar. In May 2026, Israeli forces assassinated Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of Hamas's military wing. 11 days later, it killed Haddad's replacement, Mohammed Odeh. Israel has also taken out hundreds of midlevel commanders. It has removed Hamas's entire nervous system. The safe houses, tunnels, and countersurveillance architecture that once made Hamas's senior leadership elusive are now gone. The writer is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute and a Senior Policy Adviser at the International Peace Institute. (Foreign Affairs) Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, was arrested in upstate New York and charged with attempting to provide material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Washburn - a leader of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation - wrote that she wished every day were Oct. 7. She said she hated Jews "very much" and wished Israel would "disappear." Records show 80 crypto transfers totaling $30,000. There is a photograph of her posing with hand grenades in front of a Hamas flag. My daughter Alisa was murdered in 1995 on a bus near Kfar Darom by a Palestine Islamic Jihad suicide bomber. PIJ keeps finding new Americans willing to serve it. (Times of Israel) See also U.S. Woman Charged with Attempting to Support Palestinian Terrorist Organization Catherine Beth Washburn is a leader of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, formed in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023. DAMPL rejects the idea of peaceful protests and engages in acts of sabotage and property destruction in support of the Palestinian cause and against entities that it associates with Israel. "This individual... provided money to a foreign terrorist organization engaged in acts of violence," said Acting Assistant Director Coult Markovsky of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. (U.S. Department of Justice) U.S.-Israel Relations An effort by Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) to strip a provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act was ruled out of order on Monday. The provision isn't about the West Bank. It would expand U.S.-Israel cooperation in missile and drone defense, anti-tunneling, cyber warfare and AI. "We need to compete with China," says Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "That requires learning from beleaguered democracies like Ukraine, Taiwan and also Israel, which is the best in the world in some areas of defense tech." Israel excels at going from concept to fully funded combat capability - a U.S. weakness. Bowman rues the seven years the Pentagon took to adopt Israel's Trophy system to defend U.S. tanks. The rising anti-Israel obsession is a gift to U.S. adversaries. (Wall Street Journal) Israeli Security True security comes from anticipating threats before they emerge and sustaining the moral and material strength needed to deter aggression and protect the nation's survival. The phrase "defensible borders" has been used in Israel for many years to explain why Israel could not accept the 1967 lines as defensible, mainly with regard to Jordan and Syria. Israel remains a small country with a population of 8 million Jews compared with 400 million people in the Arab League countries. At the UN, Israel faces 21 Arab states and 57 Muslim-majority states. The broad asymmetry facing Israel means it cannot remake the region into liberal democracies or significantly reduce hatred of Israel, no matter how many wars Israel wins. Therefore, after every war, however successful, Israel must begin preparing for the next one. Israel's survival is not guaranteed by diplomatic agreements, but rather by objective strength and how that strength is perceived by enemies and rivals. National-security decisions must not rest on assuming deterrence exists. Whether it has been achieved is unknowable. One of the main lessons of the war concerns Israel's ability to defend its borders in future defensive battles. It is crucial to prevent the formation of a large threat close to the borders even in periods of quiet. Israel must adopt an active worldview that regards preemptive operations aimed at preventing the construction of a significant threat as an essential tool of defense. The importance lies in preventing the adversary's ability to create a border threat in the first place. The writer was national security adviser to the Israeli prime minister and chairman of Israel's National Security Council. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Hamas's massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, settled an old strategic argument. Israel, about the size of Maryland, is bordered almost entirely by adversaries intent on its destruction. Defending Israel requires strategic depth. The country lacked buffers in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and on the Syrian Golan front. A familiar argument says precision rockets, cruise missiles, and one-way attack drones make terrain obsolete. But while rockets and drones are lethal, they are not war-winning. Hizbullah, Hamas, and the Iranian regime do not aim to harass Israel - they seek its elimination. That requires a ground invasion like Hamas executed. Buffer zones, demilitarized areas, and topographical control prevent such invasions. The recent record of American military operations reinforces the same conclusion. The Taliban were defeated in five weeks in 2001; Saddam Hussein's regular forces collapsed in three in 2003. The American error in both theaters was the assumption that follow-on political reconstruction could remake those societies in a Western democratic image. It could not. The applicable lesson for Israel is: defeat the adversary's capability to threaten and to invade, do not attempt to remake his worldview, and return to dismantle the capability whenever it begins to reconstitute. Oct. 7 showed what happens when geography is left undefended and threats are allowed to grow. Defensible borders are the minimum required for a small state's survival in a hostile neighborhood, and the precondition for any lasting peace. The writer is former Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) There are moments in history when a nation changes its identity due to a profound change that affects how people perceive themselves. The Hamas massacre of October 7 was such a moment for Israel. The first characteristic of the new Israeli is their attitude toward security and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are still political debates, but they now take place within narrower boundaries. Israelis live with a high security consciousness, and a suspicion toward ideas of quick reconciliation and promises from external entities. The writer is the pollster of Israel's Channel 11. (Ha'aretz) Weekend Features While crowds around the world chant slogans stripped of any rational meaning; while "genocide" is used to describe a conflict in which the Palestinian population has grown from 150,000 in 1948 to 2,000,000 today; while the language of human rights is turned on its head to defend movements that oppress women and execute homosexuals - there stands a tiny people, just 0.2% of humanity, some 15 million souls worldwide. Faced with an avalanche of falsehoods, Jews simply tell the truth. They continue to defend the fundamental principles of Western civilization: risking everything to protect their children, fighting for democracy and believing in the justice of their national mission, no matter how many missiles they endure, how many fashionable intellectuals denounce them, how many absurd headlines appear, or how many old acquaintances turn away. The Jewish message is no longer the desperate cry of persecution that echoed through centuries of exile. Those who believe that the campaign by a vast, well-funded machinery of antisemitism will break the Jewish people are mistaken. We will fight with our fingernails if necessary. In Israel and throughout the diaspora, the meaning of Jewish identity has become clearer than ever. In just eight decades since the Holocaust, a people that emerged decimated, orphaned and broken rebuilt its ancestral homeland into one of the world's most dynamic democracies. Israel has become a global leader in medicine, agriculture, technology, literature, music and scientific innovation while building one of the world's most capable militaries - because survival has required it from the day the Jewish state was born. 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) In parts of America and Europe, the word "Zionism" has become little more than a slogan shouted by opposing sides at protests. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people possess the right to live freely in their ancestral homeland, to shape their future, defend their dignity, preserve their civilization and contribute their values and wisdom to humanity. A Jewish homeland is understood as the primary vehicle for Jews to build a flourishing society, with all its residents, non-Jews and Jews alike, that manifests and broadcasts the core Torah values of human dignity, justice and compassion. The term predates the modern state of Israel by decades. In the Book of Genesis, we are told how God blessed Abraham and his descendants with a land from which they would be a blessing to "all the families of the earth." The longing for the land translated into continued Jewish presence throughout its long history of foreign rulers, including a significant increase in Jewish communities in the 19th century. At this point, the modern Zionist vision began to take root. Anti-Zionism rejects the idea of Jewish self-determination entirely. Those who would deny the Jews the right to a Jewish state, in a world that comfortably accepts Muslim and Christian states, are discriminating against Jews. It is here that anti-Zionism crosses over to antisemitism. Zionism always aspired to be more than simply an answer to or refuge from antisemitism. It was a means of allowing Jews to live to their greatest potential, unfettered by the restrictive, often brutal, experiences of living in foreign lands. From its biblical beginnings until today, Zionism has carried one of humanity's most enduring ideas: that a people, rooted in its values and returned to its homeland, can build a society that honors faith, dignity, responsibility and hope. The writer is president of Yeshiva University. (New York Times) Israel is nothing like the place described in the U.S. and international media. The drumbeat of incitement against Israel and its supporters has now become an ever-present topic not merely of debate but of political allegiance. Candidates throughout the U.S. have embraced the cause of what some called "Palestinianism" and others more accurately label as antisemitism. Much of the rhetoric from both the left and the right hinges on their unfounded assumption that the defensive war being waged by Israelis against Hamas and Hizbullah terrorists is "genocide." That is a blood libel with no foundation in truth. Both Hamas in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon go out of their way to use civilians as human shields. In stark contrast to the practice in Israel, bomb shelters are for the bombs and the terrorists, not civilians. Yet, at this point, it's become painfully clear that pointing out the facts to those who routinely fling the "genocide" accusation against Israel is an utter waste of time. The lie has been repeated so many times that it has become an article of faith for those who oppose Israel. The main reason for the popularity of anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish canards is that they offer the dissatisfied a scapegoat that can be blamed for their troubles. It gives people a permission slip to engage in the oldest of hatreds while still being able to pretend that they are decent persons. If those young people who not only haven't been to Israel but who get their world news dictated by the algorithms of their TikTok feeds were to walk Israel's streets and talk to its people, they would come to understand that life in the one Jewish state on the planet is lively and democratic - and anything but fascistic, let alone dedicated to the indiscriminate killing of Arab children. They would learn that decent people are fighting to defend their homes and families against forces actively trying to achieve the genocide of the Jewish people. And if they took a deep dive into the culture of the Palestinians, they'd realize that they don't wish for two separate states or the chance to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. Instead, they would discover that the national identity of these darlings of the international press is inextricably tied to their goal of eradicating the Jewish presence in the ancient homeland of the Jews. (JNS) Lebanese Iraqi researcher Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has written The Arab Case for Israel, a scathing indictment of the Arab culture of rejection. He calls for full and unconditional peace with Israel. Abdul-Hussain, from a Shiite family, said, "I was taught, like every other kid, that Israel must disappear because that's the right thing to do, and I believed it." While a reporter for the Daily Star in Beirut, he began learning Hebrew to understand what he heard on Israeli radio stations. "When I was able to listen to Israelis speaking among themselves in their native tongue, I discovered that everything they had taught us - that these Jews, when they huddled together, they're scheming to kill every Arab kid and Lebanese kid - was not true." In his book, he argues that peace with Israel is an Arab interest. "Even if you think Israel has caused you injustice, moving on is much better for your future, for the future of your children and grandchildren," and many in the Arab world quietly support him. (Israel Hayom) Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, who visited the Holy Land in 1859, returned in 1871 as part of an international tour, which he described in his 800-page travelogue, Travels Around the World. Seward wrote of his visit to Jerusalem 155 years ago: "The population of Palestine is estimated at only 200,000." In Jerusalem, "the Mohammedans are 4,000....The Jews are 8,000....The Armenians number 1,800...and the other Christians amount to 2,200." Seward describes how the Jews gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem every Friday night, "pouring out their lamentations over the fall of their beloved city, and praying for its restoration." He wrote of "the solemnity and depth of the profound grief and pious feeling exhibited by this strange assembly." He was invited to attend a Sabbath service at a new synagogue, believed to be the Hurva, where Seward and his party were seated on the dais. The Hurva Synagogue was destroyed by the Jordanian army in 1948 and rebuilt in 2010. After a Hebrew prayer was recited, "the rabbi came to Mr. Seward and informed him that it was a prayer for the President of the United States and a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Union from its rebellious assailants. Then came a second...the rabbi informed us that it was a prayer of gratitude for Mr. Seward's visit to the Jews in Jerusalem, for his health, for his safe return to his native land, and for a long, happy life." The writer, a former AIPAC official and Israeli diplomat, is a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Substack) Observations: Military Victory Is Not Enough - Dr. Dan Diker (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center. This is from his remarks at the JNS Policy Conference in Jerusalem on June 21, 2026. |
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