Trump’s Turkey envoy: We were ‘a step away’ from military confrontation between Turkey and Israel

Posted on August 27, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
The Empty Runway: What a war with Turkey would look like, and how to hold Syria’s sky without fighting one
Gregg Roman
August 23, 2026

At dawn on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft put eight strikes into the runway and storage sheds of Abu al-Duhur, a mothballed Syrian airbase in Idlib about 70 kilometers from the Turkish border. Nobody died. The base has not operated as a working military airfield in over a decade. That is the point: Israel was not bombing an army. It was bombing a possibility. The possibility had visited the day before. Syrian officials told the Associated Press that a Turkish delegation had toured the base on Monday to review rehabilitation work and left hours before the bombs arrived, the first confirmed Turkish presence at the site. Jerusalem confirmed the strike and said Syria was on the verge of breaching an agreed security status quo by letting Turkish troops deploy there. Ankara denied any delegation was at the base before or during the strike, called the raid a violation of Syrian sovereignty, and accused Israel of expansionist politics timed to an election. Damascus said the Turkish visits were ordinary military contact and that no Turkish base is planned. Carry all of it; the gap between those tellings is exactly where wars are born. READ MORE

i24NEWS Trump’s envoy to i24NEWS: We were ‘a step away’ from military confrontation between Turkey and Israel  The US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who also serves as President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria, told i24NEWS on Wednesday that the Israeli airstrike on the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in Syria “carried a real risk of rapidly escalating to a direct military confrontation between Israel and Turkey, as well as with Syria.” “The Turkish forces did not know that Israeli aircraft were on their way to this specific Syrian base, nor did they know what their objective was. Therefore, they might have decided to scramble their own fighter jets, believing they themselves were under attack,” Barrack said in an interview with i24NEWS. He added, “Yesterday’s events were serious and worrying. However, we are relieved that no lives were lost and that the situation did not escalate.”

FDD Syria-Israel Talks Will Face a Turkish Test Syria and Israel are back at the negotiating table after a seven-month pause in talks over a potential security agreement. On August 23, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met with Mossad Director Roman Gofman in Jordan. The meeting, held under U.S. mediation, was aimed at defusing tensions following Israel’s August 18 strike on the Abu Duhur Air Base in northwestern Syria. The strike reportedly followed Israeli intelligence indicating that Turkey was seeking to deploy troops and radar systems at the base. Israeli concerns about Turkish entrenchment in Syria have been clear since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, given Ankara’s support for Hamas and its increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel.

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“My former boss, Bernie Sanders, and the broader left-wing activist infrastructure that surrounds him, are actively fueling antisemitism in this country”

Posted on August 27, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
I Worked for Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party Is Turning Against the Jews.
Joel Rubin
August 21, 2026

…The reason I was hired [by Bernie Sanders] was clear to me. The campaign understood that Jews—who have long voted overwhelmingly for Democrats—were an important constituency for Sanders, and they worried that anti-Zionist voices in his coalition would jeopardize his Jewish support. But very quickly after joining, I realized there had been a profound misunderstanding on the part of the campaign team: Many of the activists trying to get Sanders elected—and who the campaign depended on—were not looking for a candidate who supported Israel’s existence. That I did was a letdown for them, but one that they had to swallow. At the time, I assumed these were outliers—a vocal fringe the campaign would eventually outgrow. But I was wrong. They were a sign of where the campaign, and the Democratic Party as a whole, was rapidly heading: toward a status quo in which the price of belonging to the party is to explicitly distance yourself from Israel, denounce the mainstream Jewish institutions that support the Jewish state, and accept the premise that Zionism itself is incompatible with progressive politics. READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Van Hollen, Kaine, Sanders plan to force vote on Israeli policy in West Bank Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and eight Democratic colleagues plan to force a vote in the Senate in the coming weeks to require the State Department to produce a report for Congress on violence by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank, including killings and detentions of Americans. If the resolution were to pass — which is unlikely — and the State Department were to fail to produce the report within 30 days, most U.S. security assistance to Israel would be cut off. After such a report was delivered, any senator would also be able to force a vote on cutting off aid to Israel.

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“The move by Rogers’ team angered AIPAC officials, who had spent more than $30 million to try to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary and prepared to spend millions more to help elect Rogers, according to people familiar with the conversations”

Posted on August 26, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

AXIOS
Mike Rogers-AIPAC rupture roils Michigan Senate race
Alex Isenstadt
August 22, 2026

Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, triggering a rupture with the powerful but polarizing pro-Israel group. Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers’ Democratic rival, outspoken Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed. The extraordinary tension underscores how far AIPAC’s political standing has fallen amid voters’ anger over the war in Gaza. Even Rogers — a staunchly pro-Israel Republican — fears the group’s public support could be a liability in the Nov. 3 election. READ MORE

FREE BEACON El-Sayed Campaign Gets a $175,000 Boost From CAIR, Whose Leader Was ‘Happy’ About Oct. 7, After Alleging Primary Opponent’s AIPAC Support Constituted ‘Foreign’ Intervention in Election The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the anti-Israel group whose leader said he was “happy” about October 7, is quietly funding left-wing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate bid in Michigan. That financial support comes after El-Sayed made demonization of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a central pillar of his primary campaign against Michigan congresswoman Haley Stevens, maligning the American group’s support as foreign meddling in the election. 

JEWISH INSIDER Michigan Jewish Dems circulate letter endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for Senate The signatories say they ‘fear the far-left and anti-Jewish elements in the Democratic party would become dominant’ if Abdul El-Sayed is elected

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“The terror group can never be trusted to lay down arms, renounce violent jihad, and accept a settlement that abides Israel’s existence as a Jewish state”

Posted on August 26, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
The Folly of Negotiating with Hamas
Andrews C. McCarthy
August 22, 2026

…The White House doesn’t see conflicts of interest because it fancies Trump (he of the multiple bankruptcies) as a boffo business dealmaker, and sees business — commerce — as transcendent. To repeat what I’ve opined before, President Trump not only fails to grasp the sharia supremacist ideology of the Iranian regime, Hamas, the Taliban, et al.; even as he sits in messes of his own making due specifically to cluelessness about how our enemies’ ideology dictates their actions, he doesn’t see the point of trying to understand them. He is biddable, and he calculates that his counterparties are, too. An ideological contest — the West’s principles against Islamist principles — is outside his framework. It’s just another deal, and our enemies’ anti-American, antisemitic, and anti-Western stances are dismissed as so much puffery until we finally arrive at a price to close what can be sold to the public as a spectacular deal. READ MORE

JPOST Jared Kushner is the latest victim of the Oslo Syndrome In his 2005 book, The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege Kenneth Levin coined the phrase “The Oslo Syndrome” to describe the relentless, irrational pursuit of peace at all costs by the Israeli public and its political leadership that began with the 1993 Oslo Accords. The name references The Stockholm Syndrome, a better-known Scandinavian ailment that manifests when a captive develops an emotional bond with their captor…The [Oslo Syndrome] bug has not gone away, and no vaccine has been found. New victims keep showing up, oblivious to their affliction and ready to forge peace. The latest patient appears to be none other than Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner’s official government title is “United States Special Envoy for Peace Missions.” Never has a patient embraced his affliction so wholeheartedly and energetically.

NATIONAL REVIEW Elliott Abrams:Kushner Legitimizes Hamas Would a refusal to meet with the leader of Hamas be standing on ceremony, or refusing to see reality? On the contrary it would be acknowledging the reality that Hamas is a murderous terror organization that has committed bestial massacres — and then celebrated them. The sad truth is that the Kushner meeting is a real victory for Hamas, which will use it to demand a larger role as a diplomatic and political presence in the Middle East. This is exactly what the United States should be against and should be preventing, not encouraging.

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“After Oct. 7, the landscape shifted in a seismic way, not that antisemitism was brand new, because we do have a history of quotas to limit Jewish enrollment in medicine and other examples of discrimination against Jewish doctors”

Posted on August 25, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

STANDWITHUS
CCA training will teach faculty, staff and students to recognize antisemitism in its evolving forms
August 24, 2026

The Center for Combating Antisemitism (CCA) announced on August 24 that it will provide antisemitism-awareness and recognition training to Haverford College faculty, staff and students as part of the settlement reached between the college and Jewish students who brought a lawsuit alleging that Haverford failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus. The settlement follows more than two years of litigation and includes significant policy changes, including recognition that discrimination against Jews cannot be excused simply by characterizing targeted individuals as “Zionists.”…As part of the settlement, she wrote, the college is making clear that all students, including Jews, Israelis and Zionists, are “welcome” on campus and can “enjoy equal access to the college and all of its educational programs and activities.” READ MORE

 JNS ‘Tsunami of hate’ against Jews in medicine and hospitals, researchers say At the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, Jews were labeled as oppressors. Patients were afraid to be identified as Jews at the University of California, San Francisco, and protesters targeted medical schools in New York City and demanded the destruction of the State of Israel. These are some of the antisemitic incidents that erupted in hospitals, dental schools, psychology conferences and elsewhere since Oct. 7, according to a new study published in the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal.

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Many Jewish Peloton members and non-Jewish allies said fitness company continues to ignore what they consider an act anti-Jewish bigotry — in the form of wiping the Jewish state off the map — within its staff’s ranks

Posted on August 24, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

AFTER OCTOBER 7
Peloton Goes Silent as Jewish Backlash Grows Over Instructor’s Israel-Erasure Ad
Kevin Deutsch
August 11, 2026

Facing backlash after Peloton instructor Adrian Williams recorded an Instagram advertisement for an anti-zionist Palestinian restaurant chain that promotes Israel’s erasure from world maps, the fitness company has apparently settled on a strategy of silence, while Jewish advocacy group StandWithUs has launched a campaign pressing Peloton to enforce its own policies and take action against anti-Jewish bigotry. Peloton has thus far declined to answer media inquiries or address specific concerns from members over Williams’ promotional Instagram post for Ayat, which he starred in and narrated for his 315,000 followers. The video shows Williams eating at one of the Brooklyn-based chain eatery’s locations and displaying a misleading “Discover Palestine” page inside an Ayat menu, which shows a map of Israel incorrectly labeled “Palestine;”..The antizionist Palestinian restaurant chain previously drew backlash for using “From the River to the Sea” on its menu, promoting the antizionist slogan that calls for the elimination of Israel. READ MORE

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“Foreign adversaries have been actively using disinformation and psychological operations to divide America, erode our national security, and undermine U.S. foreign policy. Americans deserve to know when the voices shaping what they see online are working on behalf of foreign interests”

Posted on August 24, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Bipartisan group introduces bill to make influencers register under FARA
Marc Rod
August 24, 2026

A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation on Monday that would require influencers to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act when receiving payments from foreign governments for their work. The Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act comes amid suspicion and scrutiny, particularly among different online factions of the conservative movement, about foreign governments driving social media conversation, including accusations of Qatari, Turkish, Ukrainian and Israeli influence. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). It would explicitly add social media influencers to existing FARA registration requirements. “There is a big difference between having an organic opinion and secretly acting on behalf of foreign interests to push propaganda to Americans,” Luna said in a statement. READ MORE

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“CBC News doesn’t designate specific groups as terrorists regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism”

Posted on August 23, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Canada’s CBC instructs staff not to call 9/11 a ‘terrorist attack’ in news coverage
Ronny Reyes
August 27, 2026

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation instructed its staff not to refer to the killings on 9/11 as “terrorist attacks” ahead of its coverage of the 25th anniversary, according to an internal memo. The public broadcaster reaffirmed that it would avoid using words like “terrorist” and “terrorism” when describing events, directing its staffers to follow the longstanding company policy that previously landed them in hot water during their Oct. 7, 2023, coverage…The public broadcaster had previously come under fire over the same policy in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel, where Conservative MPs demanded answers for CBC’s coverage. READ MORE

JEWISH CHRONICLE Petition to bar Mamdani from 9/11 commemoration hits 25,000 signatures Signatories, including relatives of victims, claim the New York mayor has associated with individuals ‘hostile to American values’

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“Sometimes peace saves lives. Other times it just gives the people trying to kill you time to reload. If Hamas does not disarm in Gaza, then the Israel Defense Forces must disarm them”

Posted on August 20, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

MORAL CLARITY
The case for war in Gaza
Nachum Kaplan
August 17, 2026

…Sometimes there are things more important than peace. Freedom is one. Survival is another. Justice occasionally qualifies. So does preventing a psychotic, murderous enemy from becoming sufficiently powerful to murder you more efficiently next time. These are the obvious points that Israel tried to explain to Washington, which is pressuring Jerusalem to sign on to US President Donald Trump’s injudicious 15-point plan for peace in Gaza that foolishly leaves Hamas with some arms and does not leave Israel Secure. Hamas will never disarm of its owns accord and anyone who thinks it will is in need of a lobotomy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Hamas can disarm the easy way or the hard way but that they will be disarmed. This should be uncontroversial. History is filled with peaceful arrangements that were abominable. Slavery, occupation and tyranny can be peaceful. A prison is generally peaceful if the prisoners understand what happens when they resist. READ MORE

GATESTONE Jared Kushner’s Gaza Strategy Could Reshape the Middle East Kushner is not asking Israel to trust Hamas. Nor is he proposing that Israel exchange security for a diplomatic achievement. His approach is built around a more rigorous equation: measurable disarmament, independent verification and phased Israeli withdrawal, with each Israeli step conditioned on implementation of the corresponding security commitment. Netanyahu’s substantive concern must remain at the center of any agreement. Israel cannot withdraw only to discover that Hamas has preserved tunnels, weapons, command structures or the capacity to rebuild them. October 7 made such a risk unacceptable. His requirement is therefore clear: Hamas must take irreversible steps toward genuine disarmament before Israel assumes an irreversible security risk.

ALGEMEINER Hamas Uses Gaza Hospital for Torture, Interrogation of Palestinians, IDF Says Hamas has been using Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to torture and interrogate Palestinians, according to Israeli authorities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency released a joint statement on Thursday saying they can now reveal intelligence showing that Hamas “conducts security interrogations and torture” at the hospital. According to the statement, Hamas “sees an erosion in its support among the residents of the Gaza Strip and fears that it will lose its grip on the population,” causing the Palestinian terrorist group to ramp up its efforts to intimidate Gazans and crush any dissent.

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Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Fine for defeating a “neo-Nazi” and Donalds for winning against “one of the most openly bigoted campaigns in recent memory”

Posted on August 19, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Florida Republicans defeat alt-right candidates in gubernatorial, House primaries
Andrew Bernard
August 18, 2026

Pro-Israel Republicans defeated a pair of alt-right candidates accused of antisemitism in Florida’s primary elections on Tuesday in races for the House and governor. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) won the Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is term-limited. With 87% of votes counted at press time, Donalds had 762,364 (48.3%), trouncing James Fishback, a 31-year-old investor who courted the “groyper” movement associated with the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who came in third with 163,261 (10.4%) of the vote. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins came in second with 393,248 votes (24.9%)…In Republican House races, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who is Jewish, defeated Dan Bilzerian, an influencer with 29 million followers on Instagram, who ran an explicitly antisemitic primary challenge and has previously denied the Holocaust. With 87% of votes counted at press time, Fine had 42,898 votes (56.8%) to Bilzerian’s 13,816 (18.3%). READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Florida Democrats nominate DSA candidate for Senate race Angie Nixon, who called Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide and campaigned with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, will be the party’s candidate against GOP Sen. Ashley Moody

JEWISH INSIDER Florida trims the fringe Florida Democrats and Republicans fended off extreme challengers against pro-Israel incumbents in Tuesday night’s primaries, indicating that the state’s older, moderate and notably Jewish electorate was uniquely inhospitable towards the anti-Israel left and the antisemitic right. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) handily defeated socialist challenger Oliver Larkin by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (64-36%), while Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) easily prevailed in a newly drawn district against a crowded field of challengers. Elijah Manley — the candidate running against Wasserman Schultz on the Democratic Socialists of America, anti-Israel platform — lagged in third place, with just 13% of the vote.

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