In Khan Yunis and elsewhere in Gaza, there is no surgical way to fight an enemy that tunnels beneath your feet and hides behind patients’ walls.

JNS
When hospitals become battlefields: The strain on Israeli soldiers
Shlomo Dubnov
August 27, 2025

The headlines coming from the Gaza Strip on Aug. 26 told a grim story: A strike near Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis left roughly 20 Palestinians dead. International reactions quickly condemned the Israel Defense Forces for firing tank shells in the shadow of a major medical facility. But the fuller picture is far more complex—and far more troubling. The IDF has acknowledged that its target was not the hospital itself or the civilians inside, but a Hamas surveillance camera affixed near the hospital grounds. Intelligence showed that the camera was being used to track IDF troop movements in real time. Such surveillance is no minor matter; in the urban war of Gaza, information equals ambush, tunnel raids and kidnappings. After the strike, the IDF announced that six of those killed were confirmed Hamas operatives. Some were directly linked to the terrorist attacks and atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER Micha Danzig: From Sacred to Strategic: Hamas Turns Civilian Infrastructure Into Targets Two weeks ago, the IDF revealed a chilling incident: Hamas operatives posed as World Central Kitchen aid workers, wearing yellow vests and using WCK-branded vehicles. WCK swiftly confirmed that the imposters had no affiliation — that this was terrorism hiding in humanitarian garb. Then, earlier this week, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza — not randomly, cruelly or without reason, but because  Hamas was using the hospital to operate surveillance cameras to track IDF movements. A tragic battlefield misstep occurred when tank fire was used to disable those cameras instead of drones, killing 6 Hamas terrorists who were either operating or near the targeted cameras, but also resulting in unintended civilian casualties. 

ISRAEL HAYOM Amit Segal: Is something big about to happen? Dermer’s shuttle diplomacy and Trump’s remark that the war could end “within two or three weeks” recall the days leading up to the Abraham Accords. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s most important minister already has a retirement date, and more changes are looming in the prime minister’s inner circle.

JNS Keith Siegel says Hamas captivity strengthened his faith Former Hamas hostage Keith Siegel told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama on Wednesday that his faith was strengthened during the almost 500 days he spent in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. “As a boy, Judaism did not speak to me, but in captivity, I reconnected,” Siegel said in the interview, two days after he joined a special prayer service at the Western Wall late on Monday night for the release of the remaining 50 hostages still in Gaza after 690 days. “Every day, I said ‘Shema Yisrael’ and I recited a blessing over the food. Since my release, I have continued with this spiritual strengthening,” revealed the former captive, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. Throughout his captivity, which he said took him to 33 different places in Gaza, terrorists tried to convince him to convert to Islam, he said.

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Pro-Hamas Guardian serves up more lies and international media repeat as usual

CAMERA
Guardian “83%” civilian death toll claim is farcial
Adam Levick
August 24, 2025

A Guardian cover story promoted a claim so clearly false that even those of us who are rarely shocked anymore by what’s published at the anti-Zionist project are scratching our heads over the failure of editors to do the most basic fact-checking. The Aug. 21 report, which is described as a “joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call”, was written by Emma Graham-Harrison, the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, and Yuval Abraham from +972. The claim in the headline, which was used as the cover story both in the print and online versions, alleges that Israeli data shows that “83% of Gaza war dead are civilians“, which is based on the text in the opening paragraphsREAD MORE

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French Foreign Ministry summons U.S. ambassador in response to his missive, published in Wall Street Journal

JEWISH INSIDER
Charles Kushner rebukes Macron for ‘dramatic’ rise in antisemitism in France
Melissa Weiss
August 25, 2025

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner on Sunday penned an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, published in The Wall Street Journal, criticizing the “dramatic rise of antisemitism in France” and Paris’ failure to address the threat. In the op-ed, Kushner, who arrived at his posting last month, raised concerns that in France, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” citing statistics shared by the country’s Interior Ministry regarding the rise in antisemitism incidents. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL A Letter to Emmanuel Macron Public statements haranguing Israel embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France.

JNS US, Israel applaud France, Germany, UK decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran France, Germany and the United Kingdom’s decision on Thursday to return sanctions on the Iranian regime drew praise from U.S. and Israeli leaders and from Jewish organizations. The trio, which is referred to as the E3, had said in August that it would reimpose sanctions if the Islamic Republic didn’t reach a nuclear deal by the end of the month.

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In a historic meeting in Julis, Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Yosef, Druze Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, and Christian and Muslim leaders pledged unity, sanctity of life, and solidarity for peace

ARUTZ SHEVA
Jewish, Druze, Christian, and Muslim leaders unite for peace in Israel
August 28, 2025

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Interior Ministry initiated a historic meeting on Wednesday between Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, and leaders of the various religious communities in Israel…Druze Spiritual Leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif applauded the meeting: “The visit by Chief Sephardic Rabbi David Yosef, together with heads of the Christian communities and Islamic religious figures, and your solidarity with the Druze community, is a clear statement of light against darkness, and good over evil. This solidarity is encouraging and – for us – constitutes light at the end of the tunnel in the face of evil and the inhumanity experienced by our Druze brothers in Syria, who have endured attempted annihilation. READ MORE

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The Democratic Party is increasingly failing the “Israel Test” because their ideology is fundamentally at odds with the values that made America and their own party historically strong.

JERUSALEM POST
Mamdani and the Israel test of the Democratic party
Adam Milstein
August 20, 2025

…After years of ideological indoctrination by foreign powers, Democrats are increasingly viewing Israel not as a trusted ally but as an oppressor, colonizer, and occupier that threatens minority communities rather than standing with them. Democratic voters’ views on Israel now mirror the stance of their elected leaders. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 33% of Democrats view Israel favorably, a stunning drop from 63% just three years ago. Meanwhile, 45% view the Palestinian territories favorably. This inversion of moral judgment is not the result of careful analysis or principled foreign policy debate. It’s the result of ideological capture. It’s based on a blunt worldview that instinctively sides with those who claim to be oppressed, regardless of nuance, truth or values. READ MORE

CBS NEWS New poll shows Cuomo beating Mamdani in NYC mayor’s race if all other candidates drop out new poll shows what could happen if the New York City mayor’s race was a head-to-head matchup between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. The poll says if they went at it mano a mano, Cuomo would beat Mamdani, 52% to 41%.

JEWISH INSIDER Pro-Israel groups go from offense to defense ahead of the midterms The political environment appears somewhat choppier in the Jewish world, amid growing anti-Israel sentiment in the Democratic Party, an anti-establishment, transgressive mood in both parties and the reticence of moderate voices to speak up

THE INTERCEPT Even Former AIPAC Democrats Are Signing On to Block Arms Sales to Israel Three House Democrats who collected thousands from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in recent election cycles have signed on to a bill that would block arms sales to Israel in the latest sign that support for the U.S. ally has become a political liability amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza. The Block the Bombs to Israel Act would prohibit the Trump administration from providing Israel with specific U.S.-made weapons that the Israeli military has used in documented war crimes against Palestinians.

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Florida won’t tolerate discriminatory DEI, critical theory and antisemitism in higher ed.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Stop WOKE Act Makes Florida Campuses Safe for Jews
Marc Sarnoff
August 22, 2025

…In Florida, free speech doesn’t mean the right to shut down classes or menace classmates. In early 2024 Mr. DeSantis warned administrators that protests and intimidation won’t be tolerated at commencement. At FIU, multiple screenings of “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre”— Hamas’s own footage of rape, torture, kidnapping and murder—went forward despite attempts to hijack the room. Florida has protected viewpoint diversity against the woke wave while attacking the machinery of ideological control; DEI preferences in faculty hiring are out. Final hiring authority now rests with university presidents, and tenure comes with accountability: a five-year post-tenure review. READ MORE

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Gee, ya think? “Twenty-six lawmakers call for removal of coordinator who warned that hostile policies toward Israel fuel antisemitism in Europe”

ISRAEL HAYOM
EU antisemitism coordinator faces ouster campaign after defending Israel
Nissan Shtrauchler
August 22, 2025

A campaign by European Parliament members seeking to dismiss the EU’s antisemitism coordinator is intensifying after she warned that hostile policies toward Israel contribute to rising antisemitism, Israel Hayom learned from sources familiar with the situation. Twenty-six European Parliament members recently submitted formal correspondence to the European Commission requesting the dismissal of Katharina von Schnurbein, who has served nearly ten years in her role and maintains strong support from Jewish organizations throughout the continent. The correspondence, obtained by Israel Hayom, specifically criticizes her professional performance, particularly focusing on statements from a leaked protocol of a meeting conducted in late May with von Schnurbein’s participation. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Major European universities foster ‘climate of fear’ for Jewish students, report finds A new report published by B’nai B’rith International, the European Union of Jewish Students, and the German think tank Democ found that in nine of Europe’s key countries there is “a climate of fear and exclusion at European universities.” The report reveals a coordinated, transnational network strategically disguising an antisemitic agenda in the language of human rights to gain legitimacy. The report gathered insights from experts on the ground regarding the situation in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Its conclusion states that in those nine countries, there is “clear and repeated patterns of antisemitic or otherwise harmful behaviors.”

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The UJA’s $1 million Gaza donation isn’t about the money. It’s a choice between pandering to Jews defined by their unease or standing with the untroubled few who will carry Jewish life forward.

TABLET MAG
The Troubled and the Committed
Liel Leibovitz
August 21, 2025

…If you’ve so much as dipped your toe in Jewish communal life this past decade or so, you know precisely who the troubled committed are. They are excellently credentialed and unimpeachably affiliated with some of our finest legacy organizations. They are rabbis and presidents and leaders of shuls Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. Some have a history of voting Republican, others are staunch Democrats. What they all have in common is that they are, well, very troubled. They’re troubled by Israel’s judicial overhaul. They’re troubled by settler violence. They’re troubled by extremist ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet. They’re troubled by the government’s failure to negotiate with Hamas. They’re troubled by the unethical conduct of the war. They’re so troubled, in fact, and so busy presenting their troubledness as a sign of intellectual and moral sophistication and superiority, that they usually have little patience for facts. READ MORE

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“Children are wildly suggestible. Ask repeatedly if she might be mentally ill—and she just might decide that she is”

FREE PRESS
Stop Asking Kids If They’re Depressed
Abigail Shrier
August 11, 2025

Illinois intends to crop-dust its public schools with mental-health diagnoses. Last week, Illinois governor JB Pritzker signed into law mandatory annual mental-health screenings for all public school children in third through twelfth grades. “Illinois is now the first state in the nation to require mental health screenings in its public schools,” the governor trumpeted on X. “Our schools should be inclusive places where students are not just comfortable asking for help—they’re empowered to do it.” Empowered to “ask” for help by submitting to mandatory and invasive mental-health surveys, that is. If basic literacy hadn’t already collapsed in Illinois, kids might pose spirited objections to Pritzker’s sales pitch. READ MORE

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“No American city has a worse public pension problem than Chicago. It carries more pension debt than 43 U.S. states and is home to seven of the ten worst-funded local pension systems in the nation”

CITY JOURNAL
Chicago Is on the Verge of Fiscal Collapse
Austin Berg
August 25, 2025

Chicago’s finances were already on life support. Now, with a single piece of legislation, the state of Illinois has pushed the city closer to fiscal collapse—and put every American taxpayer at risk of footing the bill. On August 1, Governor J. B. Pritzker signed a bill that ranks among the most financially reckless in Illinois history. It includes pension “sweeteners” for Chicago police and fire employees hired after 2011. Experts estimate that it creates $11 billion in new liabilities and drops the “funded ratio” of Chicago police and fire pensions to just 18 percent, meaning that they have just 18 cents on hand for every dollar owed. (Actuaries consider funded ratios below 40 percent as being at the point of no return.) READ MORE

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