Follow up to this story from yesterday.Key points: 1) The BDS crowd has been harassing those who disagree for years, 2) they had to change the rules in order to pass the thing (so why did the antis agree?), and 3) over half of the Zionists and anti-BDSers (not the same thing at all) are prepared to walk over the divisiveness.
[IsraelTimes] Cornerstone market in progessive Brooklyn neighborhood approves BDS campaign against Israeli products, forcing Jews and allies to decide whether they will remain members.
The dispute over the boycott highlighted how Israel issues continue to roil progressive spaces in the US, often alienating Jews, years after the start of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war.
The boycott measure passed by a vote of 67 percent in favor, 31% against, with the remaining 2% abstaining. More than 6,500 of the co-op’s 17,000 members voted.
A NEIGHBORHOOD CORNERSTONE
The co-op, founded in 1972, is a longstanding cornerstone in the tony Brooklyn neighborhood known for its progressive politics and elegant brownstones. Only members are allowed to shop at the store, in exchange for working shifts in its aisles of organic products. Outside the entrance, members who request help carrying their purchases wait on benches, where "walkers" on shifts meet them to escort them home.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) vote against Israel has formed a rupture in that community.
Coordinators at the co-op told members last week that Tuesday’s general meeting on the boycott would take place via Zoom due to security concerns and the expected large turnout.
"Staff, presenters, Chair committee, and other members have all raised explicit concerns about their safety, attending the meeting in person," the coordinators said in an email obtained by The Times of Israel.
In an internal email to members last week, the co-op’s management said that disagreements over the vote had "escalated into verbal confrontations and, in some cases, physical altercations" between members.
THREATS, HOSTILITY, AND SECURITY GUARDS
The co-op has also received threats that "required coordination with the NYPD," the email said.
Starting on Tuesday, the co-op placed security guards at the store entrance, while asking for members to "approach one another with the cooperative spirit that has sustained this community for decades."
Some members of the co-op’s chair committee had told coordinators that, due to "concerns about hostility and reputational risk," they were unwilling to chair meetings related to Israel.
Jewish members told the co-op’s management that they had been "systematically targeted and vilified" for years, had felt unsafe and harassed, had been labeled "genocide supporters," and had been called "evil Zionists."
The pro-BDS group said that "Zionists" were attempting to "shut down our boycott vote with intimidation and fear" in an email to supporters.
During one meeting with the co-op’s Dispute Resolution Committee, a BDS advocate derided an opponent for "Jewish privilege." Other activists refused to speak with those they deemed "Zionists," according to complaints sent to the co-op’s administration.
Last month, during a meeting, a speaker railed against "Jewish supremacy," to some applause from other attendees.
On Tuesday, around 10 campaigners, from both sides, lined the sidewalk in front of the store as a security guard watched from inside the entrance. Customers stopped to chat with both groups, or announced their vote as they walked past.
The pro-BDS camp held up a printout of the co-op’s mission statement, pointing to a line that said, "We seek to avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others."
"We’re a food justice organization, not just a grocery store," one of them shouted.
"We started the co-op to have organic food at reasonable prices. You’d have to boycott every American product," a woman who said she had been a member since the 1970s told them. "Where could we get anything?"
"It’s really annoying when people yell at me," an elderly woman said.
One of the Jewish campaigners said anti-BDS members, expecting to stop buying at the store if the vote passed, were doing a "last stop shop" in the hours before the vote. He predicted that hundreds of Jewish members would quit if the vote passed.
A ’GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT’
Greg Snyder, a Park Slope native whose family has been involved at the co-op for about 10 years, passed out fliers opposing the boycott that said, "Bring back cooperation. Stop polarization."
He said that the boycott punished independent food producers who were not responsible for the actions of their government.
"Why stop at Israel? Let’s just go all the way. Let’s do it for the goods that the co-op imports from China. Let’s do it for the goods that the co-op imports from Pakistain, from Indonesia, from Russia, from the US," he said. "Let’s do it for all of the goods that the co-op imports, and then sooner or later you’ll have no co-op."
Snyder said he was raised in a mixed Christian and Jewish household, by a Syrian-Lebanese mother and an Ashkenazi father. A tattoo on his forearm reads, "May you be kept safe for me," in Arabic, an expression his grandparents used. He grew closer to Judaism following Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s October 2023 onslaught in Israel, leading to his involvement in the boycott campaign.
"This isn’t about any one conflict or anything. This is about being inclusive, setting up an environment of cooperation, and not setting a poor precedent of implementing exclusionary practices," he said.
Members of the co-op have debated an Israel boycott since at least 2011, but the effort picked up steam following the war in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023, massacre. Israel rejects allegations of genocide.
Tuesday night’s virtual meeting took several hours. Ahead of the boycott vote, members voted through a measure to lower the threshold needed to implement a boycott from a 75% supermajority to a simple majority of more than 50% support. Without that rule change, which was pushed by the BDS campaigners, the boycott would not have won enough votes for approval.
"Until Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices in its treatment of Paleostinians, the Coop will not sell goods produced in Israel (pre-1967 borders) or in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Paleostinian Territory," the boycott resolution said.
After the boycott vote passed, members opposed to the measure held a call together, and then sent out an email to supporters.
"Tonight’s vote was not the result we wanted. It is a great disappointment. There are no other words," said the message from the anti-boycott group, called Coop 4 Unity.
The email said that, last week, around 60% of the group had decided that, if the boycott passed, they would resign or go on leave from the co-op. Coop 4 Unity urged followers to "not make any permanent decisions yet," and reported concerns about the voting process, saying that technical and procedural problems had prevented some attendees from voting.
Coop 4 Unity is working on a litigation strategy and organizing other responses for the weeks ahead.
"The Coop has always been larger than any one issue, and preserving that spirit remains worth fighting for," the message said.
[Breitbart] Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed that illegal aliens in custody at the Delaney Hall migrant detention center are demanding their native ethnic food from their home countries but says, “this isn’t Holiday Inn.”
As Breitbart News reported, several New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) and Sens. Cory Book (D) and Andy Kim (D), spent Memorial Day joining left-wing protesters outside Delaney Hall, demanding the facility be shut down over a reported hunger strike by illegal alien detainees.
“Immigrants at Delaney Hall are on a hunger strike because they are fighting for their human rights,” Booker wrote on X. “… enough is enough — not in New Jersey, not anywhere.”
On Wednesday, during a briefing with President Donald Trump, Mullin said the reported hunger strike is actually a handful of illegal alien detainees demanding their native ethnic food.
“It shows that this radical left Democrat priorities when they decide to go out and protest a detention center where we’re housing rapists, child predators, murderers, drug dealers, and they choose Memorial Day?” Mullin said:
Of all the time to go protest something that they say … it’s because they’re on a hunger strike when it was only a handful of individuals that are refusing to eat because they want their ethnic right food. Well they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want. The fact is, we’re giving them the calories they’d want. This isn’t Holiday Inn. We’re giving them sanitation, but for the Democrats and the governor, and Sen. Kim and Sen. Booker to go out and do something like this of all the days is very frustrating. [Emphasis added]
While Democrats were protesting outside Delaney Hall over the long Memorial Day weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested convicted killers, sex offenders, and kidnappers.
Among those illegal aliens arrested by ICE agents is Mosiah Wright of Jamaica, who was previously convicted of murder in relation to a drug trafficking crime in Bloomington, Minnesota, as well as Joaquin Perez-Barajas of Mexico, convicted of attempted capital murder and manslaughter in Hidalgo County, Texas.
Likewise, ICE agents arrested Candido Arroyo-Bautista of Mexico, who was previously convicted of lewd acts with a child in Oakland, California, and Vidal George-Jimenz of Honduras, convicted on two counts of attempted rape and attempted sodomy in Portland, Oregon.
#7
My son used to manage a restaurant at a mall. Most of his workers were Mexican. One of them went back to Mexico and later returned. He said he was glad to be back because he was sick and tired of eating nothing but rice and beans. "Ethnic food."
With apparent support from the UAE, Colombian private military contractors have deployed to Sudan to support the abusive Rapid Support Forces.
The deployment adds to evidence of UAE military support for the Rapid Support Forces, which have committed widespread atrocities in Sudan.
Other countries should push for investigations, capable of leading to sanctions, into all those, including UAE officials, against whom there is credible evidence of providing military assistance to the Rapid Support Forces.
Colombian private military contractors, apparently hired by a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company, transited through UAE military bases before being deployed to Sudan to support the abusive Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. This is further evidence indicating that the UAE is assisting or otherwise substantially contributing to the Rapid Support Forces’ capacity to commit war crimes.
The 83-page report, “From Bogotá to El Fasher: UAE’s Role in the Deployment of Colombian Fighters and Other Backing to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan,” presents evidence showing that, since 2024, the Abu Dhabi-based security company, Global Security Services Group (GSSG) hired hundreds of Colombian private military contractors who deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF, which is battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Human Rights Watch found evidence that private military contractors were in El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, in October 2025, when the RSF took over the city and committed widespread killings and rape. The UN International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan has said that these events bore “the hallmarks of genocide.”
[Reuters] U.S. authorities raided the offices of Ikon Midstream, a Houston fuel trader whose diesel exports are part of fuel-smuggling investigations in Mexico, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, two U.S. officials and a Mexican security official.
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The operation, in which law enforcement executed a federal search warrant, occurred this week at Ikon Midstream's Houston headquarters, two of the U.S. sources said. One of the sources said it targeted computers and documents. Reuters was unable to confirm the exact reason for the search or what materials were seized. The raid has not been previously reported.
"On April 14, Homeland Security Investigations executed a criminal search warrant at the offices of IKON MIDSTREAM LLC," a DHS spokesperson said after this story was published. "This is related to an ongoing investigation into criminal activity," the spokesperson said.
The company's attorney, Joseph Slovacek, confirmed that a search warrant was served. He said law enforcement cited earlier Reuters reporting about Ikon Midstream as the reason for the search.
"The warrant was entirely the result of your October 2025 article, and your persistent attempts to have Ikon investigated," Slovacek said in response to a Reuters request for comment sent on Thursday.
"No arrests were made because Ikon had not engaged in any wrongdoing," he added.
Rhett Kenagy, Ikon Midstream's chairman and chief executive, could not be reached for comment.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Mexico's presidency did not respond to requests for comment sent earlier on Thursday. The FBI declined to comment.
The operations of Ikon Midstream were detailed in a 2025 Reuters investigation into the alleged smuggling of fuel into Mexico. That report chronicled, using tanker-tracking data and trade records, how a shipment of diesel exported by Ikon Midstream in March 2025 aboard the tanker Torm Agnes made its way to Mexico. That shipment ended up in the hands of Intanza, a Mexican company suspected of being a front for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), according to three Mexican security sources and a government security document reviewed by Reuters.
Intanza could not be reached for comment. Letters sent to the company by courier could not be delivered, and Intanza has no website, no publicly listed phone number nor any social media presence that Reuters could identify.
Smuggled fuel and stolen crude oil have become the second-largest source of revenue for Mexico's cartels behind narcotics, according to the U.S. government, which has ramped up efforts to crack down on the illicit trade alongside its broader attempt to combat the drug gangs. The Trump administration designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025.
The October 22 Reuters report revealed how Mexican cartels earn billions of dollars annually by allegedly smuggling fuel mainly from the U.S. to Mexico, helped by U.S. players, some unwitting, others complicit. Import-export paperwork for these transactions is often incomplete or faked by smugglers.
The scheme boils down to a tax dodge: Diesel, gasoline and naphtha are claimed in trade paperwork to be lubricants to avoid the steep import duties that Mexico charges on those imported fuels, Mexican authorities say. The savings can amount to more than half a cargo's value: $7 million in the case of the March 2025 Torm Agnes shipment, according to a Reuters' calculation.
Denmark-based Torm, which manages the vessel, in September 2025 told Reuters that it had stopped doing business with Ikon Midstream in April of that year "based on what has come to light." The company said at the time that it was not responsible for, nor involved in, completing customs paperwork for the shipments.
Following the publication of Reuters' story last year, Mexico's government said that it had expanded investigations into suspected fuel smuggling by unspecified companies and officials, including at three Mexican ports where Ikon Midstream delivered petroleum products in 2025, according to a government report posted to a Senate website in February.
Ikon Midstream repeatedly has denied wrongdoing. It sued Reuters for defamation on November 14 in Texas state court, contending the news agency made "categorically false" statements about its business in the October article. In a separate March 27 statement to Reuters, Ikon Midstream said it "conducted its business lawfully" and "we have never falsified any U.S. or Mexican customs document."
[IsraelTimes] A group of 19 Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State group have booked flights to return from Syria and some could face charges, Australia’s government says.
The seven women and 12 children are expected to arrive on flights to Sydney and Melbourne today, less than three weeks after a group of 13 people in similar situations returned to Australia’s two largest cities.
Three of the four women on the earlier flights were charged with slavery and terrorism offenses and remain behind bars.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says anyone among the 19 on their way to Australia who has committed crimes “can expect to face the full force of the law.”
“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Burke says in a statement.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organization and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he adds.
Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them, Burke says.
“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he adds.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
Proper name: Red Army Faction.
The media changed it to Baader-Meinhof gang to divert attention from the fact that they were communists. They had substantial support from the West German public.
We should have let Stalin go on past Berlin. Would have taught them a good lesson.
Always the same answer, whatever the question. Because of course the Jooos would interfere against improbable candidates in unimportant local elections.
[IsraelTimes] Paris prosecutors have opened a probe to investigate whether an Israeli company interfered in local French elections, after several far-left candidates charged they were targeted by disinformation campaigns.
The probe will examine allegations by three members of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party that they faced smear campaigns of false accusations, social media manipulation and fake campaign visuals.
They include Sebastien Delogu from Marseille in the south and Francois Piquemal in Toulouse in the southwest, who lost their election bids, and David Guiraud in Roubaix in the north, who won the vote to become mayor.
“You get in your car and you see a billboard with your name and a QR code that links to false accusations of rape,” Delogu told reporters last week.
Piquemal said his campaign faced “the creation of pages on social networks spreading the worst rumors,” along with the publication of his social media passwords.
The trio claim they were targeted because of their support for the Palestinian cause.
The case has been opened after Viginum, France’s government body responsible for combatting online disinformation, said that it had noted a “system of artificial or automated dissemination to spread manifestly inaccurate or misleading content.”
“This malicious campaign, involving an actor located abroad, is liable to undermine the fundamental interests of the nation, insofar as it deliberately seeks to distort citizens’ access to information,” the agency said.
A source connected with the case tells AFP that the campaigns appeared to be conducted from Israel, with two left-leaning dailies — France’s Liberation and Israel’s Haaretz — naming companies that were allegedly responsible.
AFP is not immediately able to confirm the reports.
Prosecutors say that up to now, they have not seen indications that the Israeli government was involved.
“The notion of interference does not concern the interests of a foreign individual or company, but of a foreign state, and no suspicion of such an intervention… has been reported.”
[IsraelTimes] The organizers of the Rome Pride Parade, which is set to take place on June 20 in the Italian capital, have announced that the Jewish LGBTQ groups Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe will not be allowed to join the parade with a float, as they did not distance themselves from what they describe as the “genocide in Gaza.”
“Anyone who shares the founding values of our movement and our community can join us in the streets,” reads a statement shared on the Roma Pride official Facebook channel. “Participation of a float in the Roma Pride therefore presupposes — regardless of the sexual orientation, identity, religion, ethnicity, or nationality of those aboard — a clear and unequivocal stance condemning the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government.”
“We are fully capable of distinguishing between the Israeli government and the Jewish community, made up of both LGBTQIA+ and non-LGBTQIA+ people, and we could never attribute to the latter responsibility for the criminal acts of war carried out by a genocidal government,” it adds. “We do, however, hold Keshet Italia responsible for having failed, and continue to fail, to distance itself from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
According to the statement, the decision was taken after the Roma Pride organizers met with representatives of Keshet Italia and Europe.
Israel firmly rejects the accusation of any form of genocide in Gaza, maintaining that it does its best to minimize civilian casualties in the Strip.
“The Roma Pride has shown its true colors,” Keshet Italia says in a statement. “Our crime? To be Jewish. This is just the last step in a hostile path. Last year, during the parade, we received explicit antisemitic attacks, and the Roma Pride chose to remain silent, refusing to condemn them. Today, that silence has become active complicity.”
Earlier this month, Keshet Italia published a long statement on Instagram about its position on several issues related to the Middle East conflict.
“While the conflict in the region is not our area of expertise, we feel close to the suffering of the Palestinian people,” the statement read. “However, we ask people to be careful with the language used to refer to this war.”
“The word ‘genocide’ is not neutral; it evokes a specific historic [occurrence],” it added. “We are especially concerned with the sentence that we keep on hearing that ‘the Jewish people are carrying out what they were subjected to,’ a sentence that does not just refer to a conflict or a government but ends up connecting what is happening to the whole Jewish people.”
The letter, penned by the European Jewish Association, says the prosecution effectively criminalizes circumcision and undermines the right to freedom of religion, and calls the effort an attack on religious freedom and Jewish life in Europe.
The appeal follows a decision made earlier this month by the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute two mohels last year. A third person, who filmed the event, was not charged, an EJA representative noted.
The court’s decision was met at the time with anger by political figures around the globe, including Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White.
Laws in Belgium require that medical procedures can only be performed by a licensed doctor, and the mohels do not have that certification, despite training in the Jewish circumcision ritual, EJA notes. Efforts to create a licensing mechanism to allow them to operate legally in the country have not been successful.
The EJA letter accuses Belgian authorities of refusing to compromise, and describes the case as discriminatory and “antisemitic in nature.” Other countries, including France, the Netherlands and Germany, have found ways to balance religious freedom with medical oversight, the letter notes.
“We remind Belgium that freedom of religion is a fundamental right,” the letter states. “The message being sent here is clear: Jews are no longer welcome in Belgium.”
“Circumcision is not a crime,” the letter concludes.
Ireland’s government, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel, first promised to sanction Israeli settlements in October 2024. The legislation has since been held up by pressure from opposition politicians who aimed to extend the ban also to services trade, on one side, and international company lobbyists seeking to scrap the bill, on the other.
Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited to goods. Prime Minister Micheal Martin confirmed that last week and said widening the scope to services was neither “implementable” nor “viable.”
Limiting the bill to goods only will impact just a handful of products, such as fruit, which are worth just 200,000 euros ($234,660) a year, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said.
Business groups warned that the wider category of services could pull foreign multinational companies into unworkable sanctions.
“We have consistently advocated for a peaceful solution… but it’s very clear from the actions taken most recently by the Israeli government, but in particular the continued increase in settler violence, the escalation in settler violence in the West Bank, the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to take this particular road,” McEntee tells reporters.
#1
Male genital mutilation should be illegal, just like Islamic FGM. I don't care who does it.
Cutting off healthy body parts from young people is what transgender "healthcare" did. The first transgender surgery in the world was performed in Weimar Germany, a dark time in the world that was a warning. Let's not repeat that.
[IsraelTimes] Move comes after appeals court issued administrative stay on earlier ruling that had deemed sanctions on Francesca Albanese a likely violated her free-speech rights
The United States on Wednesday reimposed sanctions on La Belle Francesca Albanese, a UN special rapporteur on the West Bank and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... who has been bitterly critical of Israel, after an appeals court overruled an earlier order prohibiting the action.
A notice on the Treasury Department’s website showed that it had reimposed a sanctions designation on Albanese that blacklists her globally, making it impossible for her to use major credit cards or carry out bank transactions.
Albanese, an Italian national who has long been accused of antisemitism and bully boy rhetoric against Israel, was sanctioned by the Trump administration last year for alleged "political and economic warfare" against the US and Israel. As a United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... special rapporteur, she has recommended that the International Criminal Court pursue war crimes prosecutions against Israeli and American nationals.
Early last week, the US removed Albanese from its list of sanctioned individuals after a federal judge temporarily blocked the sanctions, finding that US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... ’s administration likely violated her free-speech rights by imposing the measures.
But on Friday, an appeals court issued an administrative stay on the federal judge’s earlier ruling while the court considers the merits of the case.
The case was brought by Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, on behalf of their child, a US citizen who is still a minor.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... , announcing sanctions against her in July last year, said she has "spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West."
Albanese denies allegations of antisemitism.
“It’s not that I’m prejudiced against Jews, it’s just that they’re all really vile, horrible people. I mean, have you seen those noses?!”
In her role as an independent investigator for the UN, Albanese is supposed to act as an objective observer, but is accused of functioning more as an anti-Israel activist. She has parlayed her position into celebrity status, speaking at conferences and in the media, featuring in a documentary film, publishing popular books and garnering more than 1 million followers on social media.
The sanctions barred her from entering the US and banking there. Albanese has said the sanctions were devastating, barring her from work opportunities and everyday financial transactions.
Albanese’s husband and their US-born underage daughter, who is an American citizen, sued the Trump administration in February, alleging that the US sanctions are "effectively debanking her and making it nearly impossible to meet the needs of her daily life."
The lawsuit claimed the sanctions violate First Amendment free speech protections, bar the family from accessing its home in an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and violate Fifth Amendment due process rights.
US District Judge Richard Leon earlier this month granted a preliminary injunction against the sanctions, saying: "Protecting the freedom of speech is ’always’ in the public interest."
Albanese subsequently said the US measures were "calculated to weaken my mission" when they were first imposed, and celebrated the ruling on social media.
"Thanks to my daughter and my husband for stepping up to defend me, and everyone who has helped so far," Albanese said in a statement on X. "Together we are One."
[israelTimes] Israel will bar entry to 40 activists affiliated with the organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, placing them on a blacklist of prohibited entrants, according to the Walla news site.
Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli reached an agreement with the Population and Immigration Authority to block the Geneva-based nonprofit following its appearance as a key source in a recent New York Times column that alleged systematic sexual abuse of Palestinian security prisoners and has been slammed by Israel and others as a blood libel, the report says.
Among those barred is the group’s founder and chairman, Ramy Abdu, along with senior officials, board members and staff, the ministry is said to say. The list also includes lower-level employees such as media assistants and translators.
Questions about the organization’s political agendas and accuracy of reporting have swirled even before it served as a primary source in Nicholas Kristof’s graphic allegations of sexual abuse in Israeli prisons earlier this month. Israeli officials rejected the article’s accusations and called it “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.”
Euro-Med’s leaders have long drawn accusations from Israel of being Hamas operatives, and the group has faced scrutiny for referring to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas as having been “arrested and moved to the Gaza Strip” and for claiming that Israel steals the organs of deceased Palestinians.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has previously rejected allegations of bias, describing itself as an independent human rights organization focused on documenting violations in conflict zones.
[israelTimes] Jordanian school textbooks continue to include antisemitic content, hostility toward Israel and the glorification of violent jihad, despite some limited improvements in areas such as religious tolerance and women’s representation, according to a report by educational monitoring organization IMPACT-se.
The study, examining 125 textbooks for the 2025-26 school year for K-12 students, finds that Jews are frequently portrayed through negative stereotypes and conspiratorial narratives.
One Grade 9 Islamic Education textbook describes “treachery and violation of agreements” as “traits of the Jews,” while other materials accuse Jews of using financial and political influence for harmful purposes.
The study also finds that Israel is routinely erased from maps and replaced with “Palestine,” while Zionism is described as a racist settler-colonial movement. Textbooks discussing the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel portray it as a response to Israeli oppression and primarily a military operation, while downplaying the atrocities committed.
The report noted some positive content promoting coexistence, particularly toward Christians, who are presented as an integral part of Jordanian society. Women are also increasingly depicted in professional and leadership roles.
However, violent interpretations of jihad and martyrdom remain prominent, including in new elementary-school materials, it finds.
The persistence of such themes is “especially alarming” given Jordan’s role as a Western ally and peace partner with Israel, says IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.
[IsraelTimes] IDF says new arrival ‘significantly strengthens the air force’s superiority’; plane is 1st of 6 ordered from Boeing, will allow for deeper IAF strikes on Iran without relying on US.
[IsraelTimes] Terror group says Odeh killed alongside wife, children, in Israeli strike the day before; at burial, terror leader’s relative vows ‘struggle of Palestinian people will continue’
Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... on Wednesday confirmed the death of Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed head of the terror group’s military wing, who Israel killed in a strike in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... City.
According to the terror group, Odeh’s wife and two of his children were also killed in the Israel Defense Forces’ strike in Gaza City on Tuesday. A funeral for the Hamas leader and his family was held Wednesday.
Odeh had assumed the top role in Gaza just 11 days before he was killed, after Israel assassinated his predecessor Izz al-Din al-Haddad earlier this month. The terror group’s statement did not say who would succeed Odeh as head of Hamas’s military wing. "Next!"
In statements announcing his death on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Odeh was head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7, 2023, attacks, which sparked the war in Gaza. Israel has killed dozens of Hamas leaders and military officials since the start of the war, with the premier and other brass hats repeatedly vowing to kill or capture anyone who was involved in attacks.
The IDF said Odeh played a central role in planning and coordinating the October 7 onslaught and later directed attacks and intelligence operations against troops throughout the war.
Sources close to Hamas said Odeh was possibly the last remaining living member of the Hamas armed wing’s higher leadership council from before the war.
Odeh, estimated to be in his late 40s to early 50s, grew up in Gaza and was reported to have been involved with Hamas his whole life. In the past, he was involved with the group’s security unit that sought out Israeli spies.
Israel previously targeted Odeh several times, including a strike on his father’s house in Gaza in 2025 that killed his eldest son, Amr.
The security agencies described Odeh as one of the last remaining senior Hamas military commanders involved in orchestrating the October 7 massacre, saying his killing deals a "significant blow" to the group’s efforts to rebuild.
FAMILY HOLDS FUNERAL, VOWS PALESTINIAN ’STRUGGLE WILL CONTINUE’
As you wish.
The funeral for the slain terror leader and his family members was held in Gaza City, as mourners carried their bodies, covered in white burial shrouds and Hamas flags, past buildings that were bombed out during Israel’s two-year bombardment of the Strip’s largest city.
Two of the bodies had assault rifles on them.
Abu al-Abd Odeh, one of Odeh’s relatives, said Israel’s campaign would not stop Paleostinians from rising up.
"This journey will not stop and the struggle of the Paleostinian people will continue on all levels," he said at a mosque in Gaza City during the funeral.
Gaza health officials say the strike that killed Odeh and his family members left at least three others dead and more than 20 maimed. The strike destroyed the upper floor of an apartment building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.
Rescue workers dug through the rubble for more possible casualties earlier on Wednesday.
The military posted footage of what it said was the strike that killed Odeh.
Despite the ceasefire that has been in place in Gaza since October, Israel has kept up its campaign against the perpetrators of the October 7, 2023, massacre, with a report last week in the Wall Street Journal saying it has created a list of all Paleostinians who took part in the attack and is working to kill or arrest each one.
Along with al-Haddad and Odeh, the IDF announced last week it killed a Hamas operative who invaded Israel on October 7, without naming him.
Since the October truce, Israel has killed some 900 Paleostinians in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hamas during the same period, the military says.
[IsraelTimes] Tracking company says connectivity in Islamic Republic at around 86% capacity compared to before cutoff, which began during nationwide anti-regime protests in January
Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.
Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on February 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment’s notice.
Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.
Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. "It’s too early to say the shutdown is over," he wrote on X.
AN UNPRECEDENTED SHUTDOWN
Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war’s steep economic costs.
The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.
A woman living in Tehran said that for months, she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn’t believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.
A taxi driver said service was restored, but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.
Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.
A SLOW RETURN TO SERVICE
Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.
A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.
"All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm," he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.
"The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
IRAN CLAIMED SHUTDOWN WAS WARTIME NECESSITY
Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent mostly peaceful crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.
That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other brass hats.
The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.
Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.
And a pony...
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Iran is seeking the release of all frozen Iranian assets from the United States. This was announced on May 28 by Ali Bagheri Kian, Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.
"The blocked assets are ours by right; the US has forcibly restricted access to them. In our dealings with the US, we seek to obtain what is rightfully ours, and that right means that they should be returned to us in full, unconditionally," Bagheri Kyani told RIA Novosti.
If you don’t ask, you won’t get.
He stressed that Iran seeks to release all frozen assets, and the United States must stop encroaching on the property of the Islamic Republic.
On May 12, Iran stated that it would not resume negotiations with the United States until Washington met five fundamental demands. These included a cessation of hostilities on all fronts (especially in Lebanon), the lifting of all sanctions against Iran, the release of frozen Iranian assets, full compensation for damages from the conflict, and official recognition of Tehran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
[IsraelTimes] President reiterates call for Gulf states to join Abraham Accords, implies talks slowing as US denies committing to lifting blockade, pulling troops from region under purported draft agreement
US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... indicated during a Wednesday cabinet meeting that progress in talks with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on a deal to end the war had slowed, departing from his assertion at the start of the week that an agreement was nearly finalized.
Iran "wants to make a deal," but the US is "not satisfied" yet with what it is seeing, Trump said at the White House, threatening that the US will "have to just finish the job" if talks fizzle out.
The president later suggested he may not sign a deal with Iran if neighboring Gulf countries do not normalize ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
"I’m not sure we should make the deal if they don’t... join the Abraham Accords," Trump said, referring Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , Kuwait, and others. He insisted they "owe it" to the US after Washington launched the war against Iran — a conflict that placed them in Tehran’s crosshairs for weeks.
Trump tied Iran talks with the Abraham Accords for the first time on Sunday,
Saudi officials were quick to reiterate that Riyadh will only normalize ties with Israel if the latter agrees to establish an irreversible pathway to a Paleostinian state — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to reject.
In Wednesday’s meeting, Trump took a step back from the bluster when asked if he would go as far as to specifically make the Iran deal contingent on countries normalizing ties with Israel.
"I’m not going to [tell] you what’s contingent, and what’s not," he responded.
US: IRANIAN REPORT OF DRAFT PROPOSAL ’COMPLETE FABRICATION’
The Wednesday cabinet meeting was held shortly after the White House denied an Iranian state media report claiming the US had "committed itself" to lifting its naval blockade on Iran and withdrawing troops from the region in exchange for Iranian concessions on maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House blasted the report as false, calling it a "complete fabrication."
"This report from Iranian controlled media is not true and the MOU they ’released’ is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. FACTS MATTER," the White House said on X, lashing out at US media for publishing the claims.
Trump appeared to again reject aspects of the Iranian report in the cabinet meeting, insisting that the Strait of Hormuz will "open immediately" in any deal, rather than over the course of a month as detailed in the draft proposal.
"One of the things that will happen is the strait will open immediately," Trump said, highlighting something that was not even an issue before the war was launched by the US and Israel.
When asked whether he would accept a deal that gives Iran and Oman temporary control over the Strait of Hormuz, he rejected the prospect. "No, the strait is going to be open to everybody... It’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’re going to watch over it," he said.
Trump also appeared to threaten Oman, a long-time mediator in the region.
"Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, and they’ll be fine," he added.
Trump refused to confirm or deny whether the memorandum of understanding under discussion would defer talks on Iran’s enriched uranium and its wider nuclear program to a subsequent negotiation, as has been widely reported.
The president also repeated his claim that the US has brought about regime change in Iran, even though the Islamic Theocratic Republic is still in power. As he has done many times in recent weeks, he again posited that the country’s "new leaders" are "much more reasonable" and "smarter" than their predecessors.
"We can make a good deal right now, but maybe not a great deal," Trump said, insisting that he only wants to sign a great deal.
’SOME PROGRESS’ MADE IN TALKS
Though US officials at the meeting indicated Washington prefers a diplomatic settlement, they did not rule out military action, offering little-to-no new details on the status of negotiations.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said that "some progress" had been made in talks. "We’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made."
The top diplomat reiterated that Trump’s administration would prefer a diplomatic path to ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, but that Washington "ha[s] other options available" if talks do not succeed.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chalked up Tehran’s willingness to negotiate to its weakness following the joint US-Israeli offensive, claiming that Tehran — despite retaining some missiles — could no longer build new ones.
"They may have missiles, but they can’t build more right now," he said. "They can’t build more drones right now, and they can’t build more ships, and so they came and cried ’uncle’ to talk."
Touting the US blockade of Iranian ports, Hegseth said, "No Iranian tanker around the globe is safe, and we’ve seen seizures all around the globe, choking off their economic lifeblood."
The IDF spokesperson in Arabic announces that all the area south of the Zahrani River in southern Lebanon is considered a combat zone and recommends that the residents should move to the north of the Zahrani.
The IDF spokesperson in Arabic announces that all the area south of the Zahrani River in southern Lebanon is considered a combat zone and recommends that the residents should move to the north of the Zahrani.
The attached map is not from today but shows the current evacuation instructions.
A soldier was killed and two reservists were maimed in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack near the Lebanese border, the military announced Thursday, as fighting along the restive frontier continued to intensify.
Sgt. Rotem Yanai, a 20-year-old service conditions NCO in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, was killed as she ran to a shelter during a twin drone attack in a military zone on the Israeli side of the border on Wednesday, the army said.
In Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, a day after issuing a sweeping evacuation warning indicating that it would extend operations to areas up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border, with political and military leaders vowing to ramp up operations in Lebanon and expanding a ground campaign.
Yanai, a resident of Giv’at Ada in central Israel, was the 24th soldier to be killed since Hezbollah began attacking Israel on March 2 in support of Iran, after US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Theocratic Republic. A civilian contractor has also been killed in southern Lebanon.
A second explosive drone that also took part in the deadly attack Wednesday seriously maimed a reservist and left another reservist in moderate condition.
The drones had triggered sirens in the area as they were detected; however, they were not intercepted.
Israel has struggled to fend off growing attacks on troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel by Hezbollah’s first-person view drones, which are largely impervious to jamming technology. The terror group has also fired rockets and other types of UAVs, hitting both military and civilian targets.
Another Hezbollah drone was intercepted early Thursday morning over an area of southern Lebanon where Israeli troops are operating, the military said. The drone and the attempts to shoot it down triggered sirens in several border communities in the Galilee panhandle.
Including Yanai, 11 soldiers have been killed on the Lebanese front since the start of a ceasefire, now largely unraveled, between Israel and Hezbollah last month.
Talks are expected on Friday between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations at the Pentagon, with a new round of direct negotiations aimed at ending the hostilities set for next week. A delegation comprising six Lebanese officers, headed by the army’s director of operations Georges Rizkallah, will participate in the talks.
A Lebanese military source told AFP the delegation will "emphasize the need for a ceasefire, and will present the army’s plan for a state weapons monopoly and the extension of state authority across the country."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that Israel is "intensifying operations" in Lebanon by taking strategic positions and reinforcing the security buffer zone as the IDF pushed past the lines it held as it seeks to counter the recent surge in drone attacks.
On Thursday morning, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported two sets of Israeli strikes on Tyre and an area to its east, hitting a building and sparking a fire in Tyre.
The strikes came after the IDF issued an evacuation order for the area, saying it was "compelled to take forceful action" against Hezbollah. It announced in a later statement that it had begun strikes targeting the group’s infrastructure. In a sweeping evacuation order issued Wednesday, Lebanese civilians were told to flee north of the Zahrani River, extending the potential combat zone deeper inside Lebanese territory.
An Israeli military official said Tuesday that soldiers had begun operating outside the "yellow line," which runs around 10 kilometers deep inside Lebanese territory.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group has claimed more than 3,000 lives in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry last week. Several hundred of that number were said to have been killed amid the shaky US-brokered ceasefire.
The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, though sources familiar with Hezbollah’s own casualty figures have said some of the terror group’s fighters aren’t included.
The Israeli military has said that it has killed over 2,000 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran.
During the fighting in Lebanon, Hezbollah has fired some 5,500 rockets at IDF troops operating in the south of the country, as well as around 2,500 at Israel, according to the military.
There have been at least 75 rocket impact sites in Israel. In addition, Hezbollah has launched around 300 drones, of which 25 struck Israel, according to the IDF.
In a statement Wednesday, the Iran-backed group said its fighters “clashed with the enemy forces at point-blank range” with light and medium weapons in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, located on the northern bank of the Litani river, which has marked a de-facto frontier separating the war-torn south from the rest of Lebanon. The village is near the eastern edge of the Israeli-declared “Yellow Line,” where its troops have been operating during the current round of fighting.
Since early Tuesday, the terror group has said its fighters have faced Israeli troops entering the town, which holds strategic importance due to its proximity to the major southern city of Nabatieh, just under five miles (7 kilometers) away. It has also said it launched several rocket, artillery and exploding drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles mobilizing along the river toward the nearby village of Yohmor al-Shaqif.
In response to the reports, the Israel Defense Forces said that it was “unaware of anything unusual.”
IDF MAINTAINS HEAVY STRIKES
Amid the ground advance, Israel continued its intensive strikes, saying midday Wednesday that over the previous 24 hours, it struck more than 150 Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites and operatives in the Lebanese cities of Tyre and Nabatieh, as well as in the Beqaa Valley. The IDF published footage of strikes.
The military issued several evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, including for the entire city of Nabatieh, the second evacuation order for the city in as many days. Residents of the city were instructed to evacuate north of the nearby Zahrani River.
The IDF also issued evacuation warnings for residents of Tyre and its surrounding Palestinian refugee camps, as well as for the towns of Kfar Houneh, Aaramta, Mlikh, Jarjouaa and Houmin al-Fawqa, who were told to evacuate at least a kilometer away.
After the warnings, the IDF said it launched another wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Tuesday was one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks, Lebanese security sources said.
Fourteen were killed in Burj al-Shamali near Tyre, five in Kawthariyat al-Riz, four in Habbush, six in Maarakeh and two in Salaa, the ministry said. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency added that one strike in Nabatieh hit the vicinity of a public hospital, causing “significant damage to the hospital’s departments.”
Several strikes also hit near Lebanon’s largest dam in the Litani river’s Qaraoun lake in the east. The Litani River Authority issued a statement warning that “any direct or indirect targeting of the Qaraoun Dam or its facilities could lead to catastrophic risks for residents, infrastructure, and vital installations in the areas downstream.”
Lebanon’s civil defense said one of its rescuers succumbed to his wounds after a strike on the town of Qaraoun, near the dam, as he was tending to a man hit by a previous attack.
Additionally, the Lebanese military said on Wednesday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli airstrike near his post in in the Beqaa valley the day before. It said that it had retrieved his body after delays due to security concerns.
HEZBOLLAH DRONES EXPLODE IN NORTH, NO INJURIES REPORTED
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued its drone fire on northern Israel, with sirens sounding in several towns and communities throughout the day Wednesday. Several explosive drones impacted in areas near the Lebanese border, the IDF said following sirens Wednesday afternoon. The military said the incident is under investigation. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The army also said it launched an interceptor missile at “suspicious aerial targets” in an area where troops are operating in southern Lebanon, following sirens that sounded in the Rosh Hanikra area. The results of the interception were under review, the military added, saying that the sirens were sounded according to protocol.
An IDF official admitted to Channel 12 this week that Israel has found itself “defenseless” against the drone threat posed by Hezbollah, with the terror group increasingly deploying first-person view drones guided by fiber-optic cables, which are largely immune to electronic jamming. Israel has resorted to makeshift methods to defend against the surge in drone use, including placing nets and protective cages above military vehicles.
[Reuters] As U.S. kamikaze drones guided by Elon Musk’s Starlink network began to make visible gains in the war against Iran, senior SpaceX officials reached a conclusion: The Pentagon should be paying more for access to their satellite Wi-Fi network.
Within weeks of the United States launching its bombing campaign, SpaceX executives met Pentagon officials and argued the military had been paying about $5,000 for connection per terminal while effectively using a higher tier of service worth closer to $25,000, according to two sources familiar with the matter and Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters.
The disagreement over Starlink’s use on LUCAS suicide drones - a cheap U.S. model comparable to Iran’s Shahed that can circle over a target area before diving to detonate on impact - is part of increasing tensions between SpaceX and the Pentagon over Starlink pricing in recent months, according to interviews with five people familiar with the matter and the documents.
The Pentagon, which is seeking to help Iranian citizens bypass government-imposed communications blackouts, has also been at odds with SpaceX over pricing for a plan to provide the populace direct-to-cell connections with Starlink akin to 5G service, two of the sources said.
The ongoing disputes, which have not previously been reported, underscore how the Pentagon’s growing reliance on SpaceX is handing Musk greater leverage over a critical layer of U.S. national security – at a time when SpaceX is seeking to boost revenue ahead of an IPO next month that could be among the biggest in history.
Unlike consumer Starlink terminals available at stores including Walmart, SpaceX sells a military-specific version called Starshield to the Pentagon under a 2023 agreement. Starshield terminals can connect to both commercial Starlink satellites and a separate, more secure constellation, also called Starshield, according to a person familiar with the matter.
SpaceX argued the LUCAS drones were operating under conditions that aligned more closely with its aviation tier subscription rather than a lower priced land or mobility service. Pentagon officials argued that the $25,000 price tag - a monthly fee - was designed for aircraft, not kamikaze drones that used Starlink connection for a matter of minutes or hours, according to one of the sources.
The Pentagon, which was ramping up strikes on Iran, ultimately agreed to pay SpaceX’s proposed price increase, almost doubling the cost of each LUCAS drone. The Pentagon was initially paying about $30,000 per unit.
SpaceX didn't respond to a comment request.
The Pentagon declined to comment on Reuters reporting that SpaceX increased its pricing, its decision to pay, or the plan to provide Iranian citizens with Starlink cell service. In a statement, a Pentagon official said the office responsible for acquiring the terminals, the Commercial Satellite Communications Office, is working to find other competitors.
“The Department of War is committed to fostering a competitive environment for commercial satellite communications," an official said.
After the Reuters story was published, Elon Musk called it “false” without elaborating in a post on X. He added that the civilian Starlink system had been improperly used "for military purposes." In a separate post, he said “the company” was at fault, not the Pentagon.
A spokesperson for Spektreworks, which makes the LUCAS drone, directed all questions to the Pentagon.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
