By his own account, he didn’t participate in the Oct 7 slaughter of humans and kidnapping of babies—not because he didn’t want to—-but because he was afraid of being caught by the Israelis

Posted on September 20, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JBN
Gazan Photojournalist: I Filmed Hostages Being Beaten on Oct. 7 and Hid the Footage to Protect Attackers
Dinah Bucholz
September 20, 2026

Motaz Azaiza, a popular Gazan photojournalist with a large online following, said in a podcast that he filmed hostages being beaten on Oct. 7 but never published the footage in order to protect the attackers, saying he didn’t want to be responsible for their elimination by the IDF. In another staggering admission, he said that Hamas runs a WhatsApp group called SMART for Gazan journalists, controlling what gets published. “Every journalist in Gaza is in it,” Azaiza asserted. “Hamas media runs it. Its manager was the media director of the Rafah Crossing.” “And by the way, some of them came and ate in my house during the war,” he added. “They fed me during the war. Then suddenly they’re abusing me.” Azaiza, who fled to Qatar several months after the war began, was referring to the tactic he said Hamas used to intimidate journalists who criticized the terror group. READ MORE

TOWN HALL Gaza’s Celebrity Photographer Motaz Azaiza Gives a Disturbing Account of What He Did on October 7 Motaz Azaiza has become the face of Gaza. Through his work with Motaz.org, his fundraising website, he says he’s trying to help raise funds for food, shelter, and safety for families in Gaza. But as Townhall reported in late August, some are questioning how Azaiza is managing to travel the world on the salary of a freelance photographer and UNRWA USA content producer.

BLACKLISTED Eve Barlow: Who Verified Gaza and what were they so sure of ? Between 2023 and 2025, Motaz became a go-to eyewitness to Gaza, with his photos repeatedly praised with unrelenting certainty as “raw”, “unfiltered” and crucially independent. He was consistently without question lauded as Gaza’s Ernest Hemingway, not merely a Palestinian photographer. “Hailed by many globally as the eyes and the ears of Gaza,” declared CNN in 2024. Well, two weeks ago a YouTube channel called Podcast Taqarob published a three and a half hour interview in Arabic with Motaz (linked below) in which Motaz reveals the extent to which media in Gaza was produced under duress and with heavy self-censorship due to Gazan journalists’ fear of Hamas. Why he is giving this interview now is anyone’s guess.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The filmmakers mistook the IDF’s system for limiting civilian casualties for something far darker. They should have asked me; I helped build it.

Posted on September 18, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
What ‘Naza’ really means: The truth about collateral damage
Sarit Zehavi
September 17, 2026

The creators of the recent documentary, “NAZA,” about “Naza” (a Hebrew military acronym for Nezek Agavi – collateral damage) did not have to work too hard to discover the truth. They could have simply interviewed me. I would have stood in front of the camera, without hiding my identity, on the roof of my house nine kilometers (5.6 miles) from Lebanon, where we endured endless barrages of rockets, and explained the reality on the ground. A little less than 20 years ago, I was one of the founders of the unit within the IDF that deals with warning populations on the other side of enemy lines and preserving civilian lives. We built the processes that define how to issue evacuation warnings, and how to track evacuations. I was personally involved in formulating target approval processes and operational discussions. READ MORE

JPOST Micha Danzig:c‘NAZA’ documentary can’t explain why a military bent on genocide would need AI Set the factual dispute aside and examine only the logic the film asks its audience to accept, because that logic collapses before any fact gets checked: If the goal was “genocide,” actual mass killing of a civilian population as such, why would anyone build an AI targeting system to do it? Genocide does not require precision. It requires the opposite. A military bent on erasing a population does not build software to identify individual operatives inside specific apartments. It carpet bombs the map, since dumb bombs kill more people faster and cheaper than any precision system devised.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Israeli filmmaker of ‘NAZA’ under scrutiny over longstanding ties to Hamas-linked activist

Posted on September 17, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

YESHIVA WORLD
BLOOD LIBEL: 2 Israeli Filmmakers Spark Wave Of Antisemitism; Israel Mulls Revoking Their Citizenship
September 14, 2026

The “NAZA” documentary by two Israeli filmmakers, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, has stirred an international antisemitic uproar and reignited the wave of accusations against Israel and the IDF over the war in the Gaza Strip after winning the Jury Prize at the closing ceremony of the 83rd Venice Film Festival on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. “NAZA” is an acronym for the Hebrew words “נזק אגבי” – collateral damage. The documentary makes libelous accusations against Israel, claiming that the IDF deliberately calculated its strikes in Gaza during the war to kill as many civilians as possible using an AI-assisted tool called the “Lavender” system. One interviewee claimed that the IDF approved a strike that was estimated to kill 500 civilians, a claim the IDF firmly denies. The documentary, which was filmed on Tel Aviv rooftops during the war in Gaza, features [anonymous] interviews with what it claims are 24 IDF soldiers purportedly serving in Unit 8200. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Haviv Rettig Gur: Hold Your Applause for the New Gaza Documentary Start with the question of civilian casualties. The online conversation about the film—as distinct from the film’s own claims—is replete with shock and horror at the finding that the IDF calculated the estimated number of civilian deaths before each strike. According to the usual Israel critics, this shows that the resulting deaths amounted to deliberate murder. It’s almost impossible to overstate how clownishly (and intentionally) wrong this claim is. International humanitarian law requires those planning an attack to assess foreseeable civilian harm and take feasible precautions to avoid or minimize it. You can’t assess proportionality in relation to the expected military advantage of a strike—as required by law—without that calculation.

JPOST Israeli filmmaker of ‘NAZA’ under scrutiny over longstanding ties to Hamas-linked activist Israeli filmmaker Yuval Avraham has a longstanding relationship with Hamas-linked Palestinian journalist and activist Ahmed Alnaouq, investigative journalist Eitan Fischberger first reported Sunday…Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar said he would seek to revoke Abraham and Szor’s Israeli citizenship, accusing the filmmakers of committing an “act of treason against the state.”

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Arms sales to Israel have repeatedly drawn objections from some members of Congress, who have argued that the administration has moved forward with major transfers while limiting the legislative branch’s ability to review them”

Posted on September 17, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

MILITARY.COM
Trump Administration’s $2.8 Billion Munitions Sale to Israel Includes 2,000-Pound Bombs
Adam Gramegna
September 16, 2026

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to sell Israel an approximate $2.8 billion munitions package including tens of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs. The package includes 20,000 MK 84 and 20,000 BLU-117 bomb bodies, according to an unnamed official who told Reuters on the condition of anonymity due to the sale not yet being made public. The Washington Post first reported the transaction…That package would add to a series of major U.S. arms sales to Israel under the Trump administration. In January, the administration approved sales worth $6.67 billion…The current administration lifted a hold that the Biden administration had placed on shipments of 2,000-pound bombs. The previous White House had paused these over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza. READ MORE

THE HILL Top Democrat puts hold on Trump’s $2.8B weapons sale to Israel The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee took the rare step Wednesday of publicly announcing a hold on the Trump administration’s $2.8 billion plan to sell 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the panel, said in a statement posted to X that he remains firmly committed to Israel’s security and its ability to defend itself, but raised concern about the risk to civilian lives, given the high death tolls throughout Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

ALGEMEINER Vance Says US Policy Toward Middle East Can’t Be ‘Subservient’ to Israel US Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that the United States cannot allow its Middle East policy to become “subservient to the State of Israel,” arguing that American foreign policy should ultimately serve American interests…“Obviously Israel has been an important partner when it comes to military technology, when it comes to intelligence sharing, but also sometimes the United States doesn’t … agree with Israel.”…The comments were delivered against the backdrop of the Trump administration announcing a major new arms proposal with Israel. 

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Leave a comment

“The Jewish billionaire made the call after the rapper’s accusations at a concert that Israel was committing genocide”

Posted on September 17, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JTA
Robert Kraft pushes Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from tour following ‘Free Palestine’ controversy
Andrew Lapin
September 14, 2026

Robert Kraft, the Jewish and pro-Israel billionaire, took credit Monday for helping to pressure Ed Sheeran to drop pro-Palestinian rapper Macklemore from his tour. Kraft, who owns one of the stadiums where Macklemore was scheduled to perform, confirmed the rapper’s own account of the businessman’s involvement in a statement shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency “Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech,” Kraft said READ MORE

DAILY WIRE Every Band Touring With Ed Sheeran Just Rage Quit To Back Antisemite Ed Sheeran’s “The Loop” North American tour is facing further shake-ups as all his remaining support acts have quit in solidarity with rapper Macklemore.
Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe was the first to exit, sharing his decision in an Instagram post on Tuesday — in which he echoed Macklemore’s call to “free Palestine” and invoked his Irish heritage as the reason he could not ignore “genocide” and “violent occupation” happening elsewhere.

ALGEMEINER After Ed Sheeran Tour Ouster, Macklemore Pledges $1 Million to Gaza Aid Groups With Terror Ties, Watchdog Says Macklemore has pledged $1 million from his earnings on Ed Sheeran’s tour to six aid groups supporting Palestinians, including three with Hamas and other terrorist ties, the Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor said Thursday, amid a public feud over the rapper’s ouster from the tour.

FREE PRESS Robert Kraft Made Macklemore a Martyr Kraft and his fellow team owners were well-intentioned, and perfectly entitled to ban a musician from the stadiums they privately own. But is the move really serving the fight against antisemitism? To many observers, it looks like Macklemore is being banned for his politics, rather than over bigotry—which makes Kraft and his fellow owners appear less than friendly to free speech…It doesn’t help that some of the owners have been perfectly willing to host another rapper, one with a much more disturbing history of Jew-hate. Kanye West has a track record of naked, straightforward antisemitism—lest we forget, he released a song that was literally called “Heil Hitler.”

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Report on NYT coverage concludes “coverage “assigns near-exclusive agency and responsibility to Israel while diminishing Hamas’s role in sustaining the conflict”

Posted on September 15, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
‘NYT’ coverage framed Israel as ‘sole aggressor,’ Palestinians as ‘passive victims,’ study finds
Mathilda Heller
September 14, 2026

The New York Times’ reporting after October 7 consistently portrayed Palestinians as “passive victims” and Israel as the “sole aggressor,” a new peer-reviewed study by Edieal Pinker of Yale School of Management found. The study, How The New York Times Framed the War Between Israel and Hamas, was published in the academic journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism last week. It is an expansion of an initial quantitative study published by Pinker in February 2025, as covered by The Jerusalem Post at the time. Drawing on a body of 1,559 news articles written between October 7, 2023, and 7 June, 2024, Pinker documents a dominant narrative that assigned “near-exclusive agency and responsibility to Israel while diminishing Hamas’s role in sustaining the conflict.”  According to Pinker, in this narrative, from October 8, 2023, onward, Israel “has been the sole aggressor” whereas Palestinians are portrayed as “passive victims whose suffering grows daily as they are relentlessly attacked by the Israeli military.” READ MORE

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE New York Times walks back line that seemed to question if Israelis were victims on Oct. 7 In an article on the documentary film “NAZA” published Monday, the newspaper reported, “Israelis are deeply divided over how to apportion blame for the policy, military and intelligence failures that preceded the attack and the war.” “But Israelis still largely view themselves as the victims of Oct. 7,” the report said. The statement drew fire from critics, who said the line cast doubt on whether Israelis were victims of the attack. “Implying Israelis falsely view themselves as victims while downplaying Oct. 7 ignores basic reality,” says CAMERA, a media watchdog group. “Intelligence failures don’t negate civilian suffering. True journalistic integrity requires context and facts, not narrative spin.”

CAMERA Tamar Sternthal: NY Times Publishes Editor’s Note After Reporting Israelis ‘Largely View Themselves’ As Oct. 7 Victims CAMERA today prompted a social media uproar and an Editor’s Note at The New York Times after the Gray Lady reported that “Israelis still largely view themselves as the victims of Oct. 7,” wording which suggests that Israelis were not, in fact, the victims of Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. 

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In its latest edition, ‘The Economist’ presented Islamism and the European far right as two symmetrical threats. They are not.

Posted on September 14, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
The Lie About Islam, Europe, and the Dangers We Face
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
September 15, 2026

…The Economist’s own reporters record that counter-extremism researchers estimate about one British Muslim in five to hold Islamist sympathies. As mentioned, British Muslims are 6.5 percent of the population of England and Wales. One in five of that share is approximately 1.3 percent of the general public, that is, some 775,000 people. The Economist editorial was titled “The Good News: Few Muslims Want to Subvert European Democracy.” I do not know what the word “few” means in the editorial vocabulary of this magazine, but it does not, in ordinary English, mean 775,000. If another poll commissioned by The Economist had found that 775,000 members of any other identifiable British community were committed to imposing a legal order incompatible with liberal democracy, that finding would not have been casually labeled “good news.” READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Leave a comment

“It’s an hour of crisis,” Deborah Lipstadt, former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told JNS. “I think it’s a time when you have to try every avenue”

Posted on September 14, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
More than 5,000 leaders, public figures sign letter rejecting ‘genocide’ accusation against Israel
Jessica Russak-Hoffman and Izzy Salant
September 9, 2026

More than 5,000 leaders and public figures have signed an open letter rejecting the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling the charge a form of anti-Jewish scapegoating that is fueling antisemitism worldwide…The letter, released by the nonprofit Creative Community for Peace, says the genocide accusation “has become a dangerous vehicle for scapegoating Jews and fueling antisemitism around the world.” “We, the undersigned, are outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people: the lie that Israel committed ‘genocide’ in Gaza. We reject this accusation with contempt,” the letter states. READ MORE

To read text of letter and full list of signatories.

HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO Bill Maher to Macklemore ‘You Don’t Know S***’…And he used the moment to scold “prominent” Democrats for siding with terrorists. Tough love? To do so, he drew a direct line from the 9/11 savagery to the modern Israel/Palestinian conflict. He threw facts and figures at his audience, repeatedly mocking young Americans for getting their “wisdom” from TikTok. And he skewered a pop star in the news for attacking Israel’s so-called “genocide” against Palestinians. “[The 9/11 terrorists] weren’t cowards. But I’ll tell you who is. Democratic party politicians, and I’ll tell you why. Because nowhere has this moral confusion become more obvious than in a place called Gaza, a little strip of land that was not part of the original Israel but which they won in a war launched against them, but then gave back as a peace gesture,” Maher said. “Did they tell you that part on TikTok, kids?”

X Watch Bill Maher’s brilliant tirade

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

NYC mayor continued to de-escalate his rhetoric a week before Netanyahu is set to arrive

Posted on September 12, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Mamdani says he won’t protest Netanyahu — and doesn’t urge New Yorkers to, either
Will Bredderman
September 16, 2026

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that he does not intend to participate in any demonstrations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance at the U.N. General Assembly next week — and maintained he did not endorse public agitation against the Jewish state’s premier, an apparent ratcheting-down of his remarks from earlier this summer. Following an unrelated press conference, Mamdani confirmed information leaked to Politico that he would not take part in anticipated protests against Netanyahu’s scheduled arrival in New York on Sept. 23 or speech at the international summit the next day. He also stressed that he did not call for his anti-Israel allies on the left to take to the streets either. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Prosecutors allege principal targets included Israeli diplomats, Jewish community centers and pro-Israel demonstration”

Posted on September 12, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

POLITICO
Hamas planned Berlin-Vienna attacks for Oct. 7 anniversary, indictment shows
Per Hinrichs
September 11, 2026

Hamas planned coordinated terrorist attacks in Berlin and Vienna to mark the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, according to a 214-page indictment filed by Germany’s federal prosecutor. The attacks were to take place simultaneously or in close succession around Oct. 7, 2025, targeting Israeli and Jewish interests in the two European capitals, according to the indictment, obtained by WELT, which — like POLITICO — is part of the Axel Springer Global Network. The plot was supported by an international weapons-procurement network that moved pistols, an automatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition through Denmark, Germany and Austria…Seven men have been charged in connection with the plot and remain in pretrial detention, according to the indictment. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment