“Trump has repeatedly said that he would prefer to reach a deal with Iran rather than have to attack its nuclear facilities, but has left the military option on the table””

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Trump on Iran: If it requires military action, Israel will be the leader of that
Elad Benari
April 10, 2025

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that, if military action is required to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, Israel will be involved and even lead the effort. “With Iran, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will be the leader of that. But nobody leads us, we do what we want to do,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. Asked what his deadline would be for Iran to reach a deal, the President replied, “I can’t really be specific, but when you start talks, you know if they’re going along well or not, and I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well.”…Later, the President warned Iran that “if they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing — and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”READ MORE

JNS New US sanctions on Iran, days after Trump says direct talks with Islamic Republic underway Days after U.S. President Donald Trump said that direct talks were underway with the Islamic Republic and that a major meeting was scheduled for Saturday, the Trump administration announced sanctions on five entities and one person in Iran for supporting the regime’s nuclear program.

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“Never again will Israelis allow a “ring of fire” to burn on their nation’s borders”

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON TIMES
Israel’s second War of Independence
Clifford May
April 8, 2025

It has been 18 months since Hamas’ invasion of Israel and the barbaric pogrom that followed. Hamas is still holding and torturing hostages. The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting not just Hamas but also Hamas’ allies, all of them guided and supported by the jihadi regime in Tehran. That’s the bad news. The good news: Painfully but steadily, Israelis have been making progress against enemies who intend not to subjugate them but to exterminate them. Israel’s first War of Independence, 1948-1949, lasted 20 months. This one will take longer. READ MORE

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“In a world of globalized alienation, secular and religious Israelis alike remain proudly connected to their story as a people, through rituals as old as the Passover Seder and as new as the letters soldiers write before they go into battle”

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Why Are Israelis So Happy?
Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy
April 10, 2025

…Israel is a happy place. Despite constantly facing vicious enemies and enduring a year and a half of sustained fighting and funerals, Israel ranks in the top 10 countries with the highest levels of happiness, according to the newly released 2025 World Happiness Report. At No. 8, Israel contrasts sharply with other war-torn countries that are quite reasonably miserable: Ukraine sits at 111, and Lebanon, which opened a second front against Israel in October 2023, is third from the bottom, at 145….Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis have rushed ahead with making babies. Baby booms often occur postwar, not in the middle of one. But Israelis have continued to affirm life even while mourning more than 1,700 dead. At almost three babies per woman, Israel already has the leading birth rate among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—a forum of 37 democracies with market-based economies—and in the final months of 2024, it witnessed an estimated 10 percent increase in births. READ MORE

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“The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 200 plaintiffs, including the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the Israeli American victims who was initially taken hostage but later killed”

Posted on April 7, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY MAIL
American billionaire is accused of facilitating Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel in bombshell lawsuit
Brittany Chain
April 7, 2025

A billionaire American-Palestinian businessman has been sued by grieving families whose loved ones were victims of the October 7 terror attack in Israel…It states that [Bashar] Masri’s investments in Gaza directly benefited Hamas. One of his properties, an industrial park near the Israeli border, had an ‘elaborate subterranean attack tunnel network’ which was ‘siphoning electricity from their World Bank-funded solar project.’ His Blue Beach Resort allegedly also had a complex tunnel system which linked it to a Hamas training base. Israel’s Defense Forces claimed the hotel was also used ‘as a shelter where [Hamas] planned and executed attacks both above and below ground.’ READ MORE

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Reprimand against antisemitic Chicago therapist doesn’t require her to apologize to the therapists whose names she shared publicly, nor does it affect her ability to continue practicing in Illinois

Posted on April 6, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Chicago therapist who created blacklist of ‘Zionist’ therapists disciplined by state licensing body
Gabby Deutch
April 4, 2025

A Chicago therapist who created a blacklist of “Zionist” therapists that she said people should avoid was reprimanded by Illinois’ professional licensing body, after concerns about her conduct were raised last year.  In March 2024, Heba Ibrahim Joudeh shared in a group for “anti-racist therapists” in Chicago that she had created a list of Zionist therapists “that we should avoid referring clients to.” Most of the people on the list had never publicly spoken about Israel or identified themselves publicly as a Zionist. Instead, several of them told Jewish Insider last spring, their only unifying factor was being Jewish.  Last month, Joudeh received a formal reprimand and was “ordered to take continuing education due to unprofessional conduct,” after months of disciplinary proceedings. READ MORE

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Tobin: “Centrists may be wrong to think that they can steer their party in a moderate direction. Looking to 2028 and beyond, the implications for supporters of Israel are ominous”

Posted on April 5, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
AOC and the diminishing prospects for Jewish Democrats
Jonathan Tobin
April 4, 2025

…The Democratic Party of 2025, let alone 2028, is not the same. Most members of Congress may still not wish to be seen as being too far to the left. But their party base, if not all of their voters, has no such qualms. And as far as Israel is concerned, the impact of the post-Oct. 7 war and surge of antisemitism that has swept across the nation have solidified the trend that was already turning the party against Jerusalem. As the most recent Gallup tracking poll indicates, voters who identify themselves as Democrats have decisively turned against Israel, favoring the Palestinians over Israel by a shocking 59% to 21% margin. By contrast, Republicans favor Israel by 75% to 10%, and independents do so by a smaller margin of 42% to 34%. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA 15 Democrats back Sanders’ failed bid to block Israel arms sales A group of 15 Senate Democrats on Thursday backed resolutions introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to halt billions of dollars in US arms sales and military aid to Israel, Axios reported, though the measures were overwhelmingly rejected. The two resolutions, aimed at preventing the sale of $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Israel, were defeated by votes of 15-82 and 15-83. The initiative, which drew no support from Republican senators, exposed a growing rift within the Democratic Party. Among those voting in favor of Sanders’ resolutions were Illinois Senator Dick Durbin…

THE HILL AIPAC targets Senate Democrats who backed Sanders on Israel aid AIPAC is launching a new series of ads on Tuesday targeting the Senate Democrats who voted in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) motions last week to withhold military aid to Israel.  The six-figure ad buy targets 11 states on television and on social media with senators who backed the measures, which overwhelmingly failed in the Senate. Sanders has previously introduced similar unsuccessful measures to block aid to Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas and criticism of its handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

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Hungary welcomes Bibi to Budapest, tells ICC to get lost

Posted on April 3, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Hungary Announces Withdrawal From ‘Political’ ICC as Netanyahu Visits Country, Defying Arrest Warrant
Ailin Vilches Arguello
April 3, 2025

Hungary on Thursday announced that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the country welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the capital city of Budapest, defying an ICC arrest warrant against him over allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Despite Hungary’s status as a signatory of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, Netanyahu was not taken into custody upon his arrival in Budapest. Instead, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed his Israeli counterpart with full military honors. Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, which is scheduled to last until Sunday, is his first trip to Europe since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him last year. READ MORE

JNS Hungary defies ICC, welcomes Netanyahu with military honor guard Orbán, having earlier posted a message on X welcoming Netanyahu to the country and calling it “the safest place in Europe,” pressed that theme at the press conference, noting that Hungary’s Jewish community is the third-largest in Europe. While antisemitism has reached levels “never before seen” in Western Europe, in Hungary no Hamas flags wave, he said. “Hungary has zero tolerance for antisemitism.” The reason antisemitism is on the rise in Western Europe is due to mass illegal immigration, he said, adding that his country will never accept such migration.

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“Hamas ‘quietly drops’ thousands of deaths from casualty figures. Claims that 70 per cent of the fatalities are women and children are complete nonsense, says report”

Posted on April 3, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Hamas admits 72% of deaths are combat-aged men as it quietly reduces civilian death toll
April 3, 2025

Hamas quietly removed the names of thousands of Palestinians it had previously alleged were killed during the Israel-Hamas war, Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting told The Telegraph on Tuesday after analyzing Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update. Hamas has previously claimed that 70% of casualties have been women and children, a claim no longer reflected in their recently updated lists, according to the research. Approximately 72% of fatalities between the ages of 13-55 are men – the demographic category aligns with Hamas combatants. “Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully ‘identified’ deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports – including 1,080 children. These ‘deaths’ never happened. The numbers were falsified – again,” Aizenberg asserted. READ MORE

MIDDLE EAST FORUM John Spencer on Israel’s Urban War in Gaza: A Technical Analysis In any comparable context, “Israel’s civilian-to-combatant ratio is still historically low,” given the precautionary measures it took. “Israel has done more and implemented more measures to prevent civilian harm than any military in the history of urban warfare.” Israel’s evacuation of Gazan cities, its limited use of force, and its distribution of maps “to communicate with the civilians” were all actions taken to minimize civilian casualties.

JPOST Former US presidential candidate claims 400,000 Gazans died in war without evidence Former US presidential candidate Ralph Nader claimed that over 400,000 Gazans have been killed by the IDF, without evidence, since the start of the war in October 2023, in a Monday article on the left-wing online magazine CounterPunch. In his article, titled “The Vast Gaza Death Undercount,” he says that Gaza’s civilian population would not “withstand over 115,000 tons of bombs, plus artillery, grenades, and snipers targeting civilians, with uncontrollable fires everywhere.” 

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Oren: “If I have learned one thing in my time in political life it is this: Never bet against Israel’s longest-serving prime minister”

Posted on April 2, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CLARITY WITH MICHAEL OREN
How Does Bibi Survive?
Michael Oren
April 1, 2025

The perennial eulogists of Benjamin Netanyahu’s career are having a banner week. Though it lacks a constitution, Israel stands on the brink of what might otherwise be called a constitutional crisis sparked by Netanyahu’s firing of Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet national security agency—Israel’s equivalent to the FBI. The government has also begun the process of ousting Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Both she and Bar stand accused of unreasonably opposing the government’s decisions and of representing a left-wing “deep state.” Bar, in response, has charged Netanyahu with acting not in the state’s interests but out of political and personal considerations. The actions against Bar and Baharav-Miara have sparked mass protests against what many Israelis view as an all-out assault on democracy by the Netanyahu government. READ MORE

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“Strategically, meanwhile, the Iranian regime is on the back foot”

Posted on April 1, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
A Grim Message for Iranians
Ilan Berman
April 1, 2025

…Over the past half-year, its extensive proxy network has been largely dismantled by Israel, which has methodically taken the fight to Iran’s main Palestinian ally, Hamas, to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to Iran itself. As a result, the regime now finds itself in its weakest regional position in decades. For the moment, at least, Iran’s ayatollahs are playing coy. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump’s overture as “a deception,” maintaining that Tehran and Washington don’t have anything to talk about. But the adverse conditions above suggest Iran’s leaders may decide to make a deal with the United States after all, and likely sooner rather than later. If they do, the Trump administration could find itself throwing a lifeline to a failing, deeply unpopular regime desperate to preserve its hold on power. READ MORE

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