From the Israeli Left: “The early Israeli successes in taking out top Iranian military leadership and anti-aircraft capabilities have left citizens delighted, and hopeful that elimination of Iranian nuclear capabilities through force is possible”

Posted on June 16, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
When a Rising Lion Turns Doves into Hawks
Alon Tal
June 15, 2025

…I think about that discussion as I try to understand my response to the first two days of Israel’s military conflict with Iran. It is consistent with that of many friends associated with the country’s peace camp. For instance, Yair Golan, the leftist chair of Israel’s Democrats party, did not hesitate to support the IDF’s surprise attack – locally known as the “Rising Lion” operation. What is it that makes many of us, who over the years embraced a dovish, conciliatory perspective on regional conflicts, so comfortable with Israel’s present war against Iran? READ MORE

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The Jewish state begins to take out the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Netanyahu: ‘If we don’t act now, there will not be another generation’; Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Game on. Pray for Israel”

Posted on June 12, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Israel launches air strikes on Iran’s nuclear program
Samuel Chamberlain, Caitlin Doornbos, Victor Nava and Anna Young
June 12, 2025

Israel launched air strikes inside Iran late Thursday in its latest effort to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program – an operation military leaders said they had “no choice” but to carry out. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Operation “Rising Lion” targeted several sites across the Iranian capital to dismantle the country’s nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile factories and military – in a mission to “roll back” Iran’s threat to Israel’s “very survival.” Though the extent of damage remains unclear, the attack reportedly killed a high-ranking general and nuclear scientists as explosions boomed across Tehran…The Jewish state also targeted Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz — where black smoke was seen billowing from the building, Iranian state media showed. READ MORE

YOUTUBE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Discusses Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Targets

TIMES OF ISRAEL Netanyahu thanks Trump for support; tells Iranians ‘your liberation from tyranny is closer than ever’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks US President Donald Trump “for his steadfast stance.” “Time and again, he made it clear: Iran must never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons,” says Netanyahu in his video statement. “I thank him for his consistent support of our country throughout all the years of his presidency.”

ISRAEL HAYOM Iranian Chief of Staff, IRGC Commander eliminated According to an announcement in local media, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami has been killed, while conflicting reports have emerged regarding the condition of Iranian Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri… In addition, Iranian sources report that the commander of the “Khatam al-Anbiya” complex in Tehran, Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, was also killed in the strike. According to these sources, Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was also killed in the attacks.

FRONT PAGE MAG Israel Strikes Back On Thursday evening, the long-anticipated Israel strikes began, targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear sites and other key military facilities. The objective of Operation Strength of a Lion is to end the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all, as well as to destroy, as much as possible, the Islamic Republic’s ability to continue to wage war against the Jewish state via its proxies, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Houthis. The entire state of Israel was on emergency alert; the Israeli Home Front Command issued instructions to all Israeli citizens to comply with guidelines that would be issued as part of “preparations for a significant threat.”

THE HILL Rubio: US ‘not involved’ in Israel’s strike inside Iran Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday evening the U.S. was not involved in Israeli strikes inside Iran in an effort to distance Washington from getting in between the two adversaries. “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement. “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel,” Rubio added.

JNS ‘We back Israel to the hilt’: Support for Israel pours in from Congress Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was one of many members of Congress who stated that he supports the Jewish state as the Israeli Air Force launched what it said was a “preemptive” strike on Iranian military and nuclear targets. “Our commitment to Israel must be absolute, and I fully support this attack. Keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel,” the Pennsylvania Democrat stated…Another outspoken pro-Israel Democrat, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), stated that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism…

JEWISH INSIDER Senior Republican senators, pro-Israel Dems express support for Israel’s strike against Iran Many of the highest-ranking Senate Republicans, along with leading pro-Israel Democrats, expressed support for Israel’s preemptive strikes on Iran, but a number of skeptical lawmakers — mostly Democrats — expressed concern that the strikes could set off a broader war in the region. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said, minutes after reports of the operation began, “Proud to stand with Israel.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) soon followed, saying, “Game on. Pray for Israel.”

FROM A FRIEND AND RABBI: What we ALL can do right now

As we watch the news and think of our brethren in Israel and throughout the world . . . we can take a moment(s) to daven/pray/reflect.

Tehillim/Psalms Ch. 121 – Attributed to King David
A song for ascents.
I turn my eyes to the mountains;
from where will my help come?
My help comes from Hashem,
maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot give way;
your guardian will not slumber;
See, the guardian of Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps!
Hashem is your guardian,
Hashem is your protection
at your right hand.
By day the sun will not strike you,
nor the moon by night.
Hashem will guard you from all harm;
He will guard your life.
Hashem will guard your going and coming
now and forever.

Acheinu prayer: [As for] our brethren, the entire House of Israel who [still] remain in distress and captivity, whether on sea or on land, may G-d have compassion on them, and bring them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, from servitude to redemption, at this moment, speedily, very soon; and let us say Amein.

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“The GHF holds Hamas fully responsible for taking the lives of our dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people at the foundation’s sites in central and southern Gaza”

Posted on June 12, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

I24 NEWS
GHF says Hamas ‘brutally attacked’ aid workers, 10 reportedly massacred
June 11, 2025

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) accused Hamas of massacring its aid workers on Wednesday night, attacking a bus carrying more than 24 Palestinian employees working with the American company to bring aid to Gazans. The GHF said it knows of at least eight people killed, more wounded, and fears that others may have been abducted. i24NEWS learned from a Gazan source that the death toll had risen to 10. “We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the GHF said. The bus was on its way to one of the distribution centers in the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Yunis. According to Hamas-affiliated media outlets, the terror group executed five fighters of the Popular Forces, a rival militia led by tribal leader Yasser Abu Shabab. Twelve others were shot in the legs. READ MORE

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“One resolution, which praised ICE and highlighted the need for vetting visa applicants, split House Democrats”

Posted on June 11, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
House passes two resolutions condemning antisemitic attacks, amid controversy
Marc Rod
June 9, 2025

The House voted on Monday to pass two resolutions condemning recent antisemitic attacks. One, led by Republicans, which focused on the Boulder, Colo., attack and immigration issues, and split the Democratic caucus. The other, which was bipartisan and highlighted a series of antisemitic attacks, passed nearly unanimously, with just two lawmakers voting present. The first resolution attracted controversy among Democrats ahead of the vote, but it passed by a 280-133 vote. Seventy-five Democrats, mostly moderates and pro-Israel members, ultimately voted in favor of the resolution and 113 voted against it…The resolution stated that the Boulder attack, perpetrated by an Egyptian national who overstayed a visa and work permit who threw a Molotov cocktail at activists raising awareness for the hostages in Gaza, “highlights the need to aggressively vet aliens who apply for visas” and “demonstrates the dangers of not removing from the country aliens who fail to comply with the terms of their visa. READ MORE

AXIOS Tensions erupt in Congress over vote to condemn Boulder attack What would otherwise be an uncontroversial congressional vote to denounce the Boulder attack is devolving into a contentious partisan feud, Axios has learned. Language praising ICE and labeling “Free Palestine” an “antisemitic slogan” are sparking fury from some Democrats, who see the provisions as a GOP maneuver to force them into a difficult vote.

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“US Treasury said it will continue to seek disruptions to the financial capabilities of Hamas, which still holds hostages it seized in the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel”

Posted on June 11, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
US Issues Sanctions Against Charities Supporting Hamas, PFLP
Reuters and Staff
June 10, 2025

The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday targeting individuals and sham charities that it said were prominent financial supporters of the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The individuals and groups targeted were funding Hamas‘s military wing under the pretense of doing humanitarian work, in Gaza and internationally, the Treasury Department said…The entities sanctioned included the Gaza-based Al Weam Charitable Society, the Turkey-based Filistin Vakfi, the El Baraka Association for Charitable and Humanitarian Work, which is based in Algeria, the Netherlands-based Israa Charitable Foundation and the Associazione Benefica La Cupola d’Oro, based in Italy, the department said in a statement. READ MORE

THE EDITORS U.S. Treasury Sanctions Harvard Palestinian Partner as Fraudulent Terrorist Front Group The U.S. Treasury Department today announced sanctions against what it called a “fraudulent charity linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ” The charity, Addameer, is a group that Harvard University has partnered with and defended.

THE HILL Rubio knocks allies for sanctioning Israeli officials Secretary of State Marco Rubio knocked U.S. allies on Tuesday for sanctioning Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir amid the war in Gaza.  Five countries — United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, and Australia — said the sanctions are not targeting the Israeli people but individuals who are using their leadership positions to “actively undermine peace and security” and remove prospects for a two-state solution.

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CAMERA senior research analyst Sean Durns reviews “When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know”

Posted on June 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
Israel Unearths the Truth
Sean Durns
June 8, 2025

Those who control the past, George Orwell famously warned, control the future. In his new book, When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know, author Doron Spielman brilliantly connects battles over the Jewish people’s past to present efforts to deny the Jewish state’s legitimacy. As he makes clear: The past matters more than ever. On its surface, When the Stones Speak is about the discovery of the ancient City of David, which sits just south of the Old City of Jerusalem. But thanks to Spielman’s gift for storytelling and his welcome penchant for using history to explain current events, the book is about far more than an archaeological dig…In fact, the Jewish presence in the land has been continuous, and it predates the Arab and Islamic conquests by millennia. But acknowledging this would present Zionism—the belief in Jewish self-determination in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland—as a “liberation movement.” And this runs counter to those who hope to present Israel as an evil, imperialist transplant. READ MORE

CBN ‘When the Stones Speak’: Author Says Wave of Biblical Jerusalem’s Discoveries Threatens Israel’s Enemies The pace of archaeological finds has picked up dramatically in recent years in the City of David, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls. The City of David is the Jerusalem described in the Bible. CBN News talked with Doron Spielman, who has written a new book called When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know. Spielman recounts many of the discoveries that confirm biblical historical figures and events, and says each archaeological find is a threat to Israel’s adversaries because “There’s an assault on the Bible, and the City of David is the most dangerous thing for those deniers.” CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

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“And yet, the Jewish People for the most part remain reactive, submissive observers…It is time to stop holding conferences and Zoom meetings where we all complain about how Israel and its supporters are portrayed or treated”

Posted on June 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
Diaspora Jews are in a war, and we must be combatants
Bob Goldberg
June 9, 2025

…We are in a war, and we must be combatants. Far too many Jews, particularly in the West, seem unmoored, caught between their loyalty to Leftism and fear, unsure how to respond to a world once again uneasy with Jewish confidence. They hate politicians like Donald Trump more than they love Israel. And, at the same time, the handful of antisemitic and Israel-hating bottom feeders can no longer be rationalized by those who are loyal to conservative ideology. Indeed, for too long, Jewish groups have enabled the intellectual and political forces that are motivated by wiping out Israel. Donors, instead of building centers for Zionist thought or teaching Hebrew as a civilizational language, poured billions into Holocaust education divorced from modern Jewish sovereignty. These programs are now leading the effort to demonize Zionism. READ MORE

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UK blames the messenger: “After my protest against Islamic extremism landed me with criminal charges, the verdict is in: It is now illegal to criticize Islam in Britain”

Posted on June 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
I Burned a Quran. The British Government Punished Me for Blasphemy.
Hamit Coskun
June 6, 2025

On February 13, 2025, Hamit Coskun set fire to his copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in London. Coskun—an atheist who fled persecution from the Turkish authorities in 2022—was there to protest Islamic extremism in his home country. For this act, he was assaulted and knocked to the ground by a bystander, kicked by another passerby, and charged with a “religiously aggravated public order offense” by the Crown Prosecution Service. At his sentencing, a UK district judge told Coskun that his protest was “provocative,” concluding that he had been driven by “a deep-seated hatred of Islam and its followers. But in the account below, Coskun insists that he was attacking ideas, not people. He warns that the same religious authoritarianism he fled in his home country is now infecting his adoptive country, too. READ MORE

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Israel-founded Paragon Solutions was sold to a private equity firm, which critics argue put Israeli cyberattack technology into foreign hands

Posted on June 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israeli cyber firm’s $1 billion exit endangers nation’s security, intel experts
David Isaac
June 11, 2025

The sale of a cyber technology firm co-founded by an ex-chief of Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s vaunted signals intelligence unit, and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has enraged the country’s intelligence elite, who say it endangers state security. Founded in 2019, Paragon Solutions was the brainchild of IDF Brig. Gen. (ret.) Ehud Schneorson, who commanded Unit 8200 until retiring from military service in 2017. Paragon’s principal product, spyware dubbed “Graphite,” is inserted into cell phones through messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, with a “zero-click” technology so that the phone’s owner is unaware of the breach. READ MORE

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At Barnard: “By not agreeing with students on Palestine, I was branded a hater of people of color, a supporter of “apartheid” and “segregation” – basically, evil”

Posted on June 6, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
How Campus Hamas Supporters Led Me To Judaism
Toni Airaksinen
June 4, 2025

When I began studying at Barnard College of Columbia University in 2015, I was on a full-ride scholarship. Coming from a foster-care type upbringing, I had no family. No friends in NYC. And no support system. But I was full of hope, excitement and dreams to study. But when a student knocked on my door my after I moved in with a Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) petition against Israel, I paused. Was this a friend or foe? What was this about? I had only vaguely heard of Israel and Palestine, and I didn’t feel comfortable signing the petition. Geopolitics wasn’t my strong suit. And I barely heard about Israel or Palestine before. So, I told the girl that I couldn’t sign it till I did more research, and she left, seemingly ok with that response. Days later, she again asked me to sign the BDS petition. READ MORE

JNS Arizona governor vetoes bill to hold teachers liable for Jew-hatred in schools “Governor Hobbs is frighteningly wrong,” Morton Klein, national president of the ZOA, told JNS. Under the provisions of HB 2867, Arizona would have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred and forbidden education officials from propagating any “antisemitism or antisemitic conduct, act or process that constitutes harassment or discrimination and that creates a hostile educational environment.”

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