[IsraelTimes] ADL investor advocacy arm JLens, which has challenged Meta on hate speech, says major firms face a flood of anti-Israel measures — few of which succeed
Shareholders at Meta recently rejected a proposal urging the tech giant to publish a detailed report on how it addresses antisemitism and hate speech across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The proposal, put forward by the Anti-Defamation League and its investor advocacy arm, JLens, had not been expected to pass in a proxy vote at the social media company’s annual meeting on May 28. Such shareholder proposals rarely do.
But the measure, alongside anti-Israel proposals at Google and other companies, reflects a growing trend of attempts to bring the broader Arab-Israel conflict into the corporate boardroom.
More than 75 publicly held companies included in the benchmark S&P 500 index have been targeted with anti-Israel shareholder proposals since Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023, according to JLens managing director Ari Hoffnung.
The proposals are almost always voted down, and it’s questionable whether they manage anything more substantive than annoying C-level executives and generating attention for whatever cause activists may be pushing.
But JLens, which has used such proposals in the past as part of wider campaigns to lobby successfully for changes by corporations to fight antisemitism or take friendlier stances toward Israel, insists they are more than just headline bait.
"If [Meta] doesn’t take meaningful steps this year, we’ll be back next year — and as long as is necessary until our message is heard," Hoffnung said.
NOT A CHANCE
The JLens proposal presented May 28 called for Meta to prepare a year-long report detailing the company’s policies, practices and effectiveness in combating hate on its platforms, specifically antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-disability hate.
Its goal was "to provide insights into Meta’s content moderation practices, enforcement mechanisms, transparency measures and its effectiveness at combating hate," JLens said.
According to the ADL and others, social media platforms have seen rising levels of antisemitism since October 7, 2023, alongside a general spike in anti-Jewish activity around the world. Nearly half of Jewish adults in the US report concealing their identity online because of rising antisemitism, the ADL has found.
In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ...the Peewee Herman clone who owns Facebook. He's got more money than Croesus and thinks he should be regulated by the government because it does such a nifty job with all the other stuff it regulates.... announced that Facebook and Instagram would no longer use third-party fact-checkers and instead move toward a user-generated community notes program similar to the model used by Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
He also said content moderation would be scaled back in favor of "more speech," admitting that the moves had been sparked by political events, including the election of US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... "We’re not surprised by Meta’s opposition, but we are concerned," Hoffnung told The Times of Israel before the vote. "The fact that Meta’s own oversight board has criticized the company’s content moderation policies shows that our views have strong support. Unfortunately, its decision to dismantle fact-checking partnerships and scale back content moderation left us no choice but to escalate our concerns through a shareholder proposal."
Meta recommended that shareholders reject the proposal, saying it already has systems in place to block hate speech and uphold its Community Standards policies. In the end, the measure won the support of only about 15 percent of voters.
Hoffnung said that while the result was a long way from victory, it was a relatively strong showing that makes it eligible to be resubmitted next year.
Anti-Israel proposals at other corporations have also fared poorly.
At Intel, a shareholder urged the chipmaker’s board of directors to conduct an ethical impact assessment addressing the company’s business operations in Israel. Shareholders at General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin called on their companies to reconsider sales of arms and military equipment to the Jewish State.
Each of these ultimately received less than 10% of the shareholder vote, Hoffnung noted. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the threat of future corporate measures against Israel remains high.
"This is not the end, it’s only the beginning," Hoffnung said.
Results are still pending for a proposal at Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which called for it to reconsider sales of products and services in conflict-affected and high-risk areas, including Israel.
The proposal focused primarily on Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal Google has with the Israeli government providing AI and cloud services for the IDF and various government ministries.
"While framed as a call for neutral oversight, the measure advances a narrow political agenda: it singles out Israel, mirrors Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) tactics, ignores Israel’s legitimate security needs and leans on biased sources," JLens said about the proposal.
The measure is expected to fail after independent proxy advisory firms recommended voting against it, Hoffnung said.
BULLDOZERS AND PENSION FUNDS
The concept of shareholder proposals began taking shape in the United States during the 1940s, in the wake of the Great Depression, as stockholders sought greater access and accountability in corporate decision-making. New rules introduced at the time gave shareholders the right to submit recommendations for changes within a company, to be voted on at a company’s annual meeting.
While such proposals initially focused primarily on improving corporate governance, as early as the 1960s activists began using them to press companies on issues like civil rights, environmental protection and other progressive causes.
In 2004, the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace issued a shareholder proposal at construction machinery giant Caterpillar, calling on it to reconsider its sales of D9 armored bulldozers to Israel, saying they were being used for human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violations in the West Bank and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip.
Since then, anti-Israel proposals have been raised at other companies, including HP, Lockheed Martin and the TIAA-CREF pension funds.
After October 7, 2023, however, anti-Israel proposals have appeared to surge in the past two years, reflecting widespread criticism of the country and its invasion of Gaza following the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
JLens was founded in 2012 to promote shareholder advocacy for Jewish interests. It was acquired by the ADL in 2022, a time when many corporations were adopting policies in line with ESG (environmental, social and governance) guidelines, which the group alleged was being exploited by anti-Israel activists to push divestment proposals.
JLens has since helped mobilize the investment community to push back against such moves, Hoffnung said.
PR STUNT?
According to Prof. Zvi Wiener of the Hebrew University Business School, shareholder proposals, including the JLens measure aimed at Meta, are often little more than glorified PR stunts.
"I don’t think it does any good for the Jewish people to force a company to make a declaration in our favor," he said ahead of the vote. "The people in power at Meta clearly said they thought the report was unnecessary, and recommended voting against it. Activities of this type tend to create a big show without providing any real positive impact."
Financial reports show that it is extremely unlikely for politically motivated proposals to win shareholder approval.
Only about 4% of the 929 shareholder proposals at publicly traded companies won majority approval in 2024, according to a report by international law firm Gibson Dunn. Of these, all but three were related to internal governance issues unrelated to social or environmental policy, the report said.
Hoffnung disagreed that shareholder proposals had little value.
"That’s a misunderstanding of how shareholder advocacy works," he said of Weiner’s assessment. "These proposals are truly about driving real change, and we’re making a sound business case. A company that fails to protect its users from hate is a company that’s exposing itself, and its investors, to unacceptable risk. This proposal is part of a broader, long-term strategy to ensure companies manage those risks responsibly."
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] A Muslim cleric in Sydney who called Jews “vile” and “treacherous” is on trial for racial discrimination in Australia’s federal court.
Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd,
…who has preached at West Sydney’s Al Madina Dawah Center…
gave a series of speeches late last year designed to dehumanize and denigrate the Jewish people, according to a suit filed by The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Haddad told the court Wednesday that statements made at his lectures were intended only for the Muslims attending his lecture, according to news reports. However, prosecutors showed that ads run beforehand promoting the lecture made it clear that the lectures would be recorded and uploaded to social media.
Before the trial started, Haddad also uploaded a video to social media rejecting the court’s authority to try non-Muslims, reports say. The case is expected to run through the end of the week.
ECAJ recently won a similar case against Sheikh Ahmed Zoud, a Sydney preacher who said in a recorded sermon that Jews were bloodthirsty, treacherous “monsters” who “ran like rats” when Hamas launched its war on Israel on October 7, 2023. However, shortly after he issued a public apology for his statements, he called in a separate sermon for Allah to “kill all” oppressors, without referring explicitly to Jews.
Australia’s 120,000-strong Jewish community has faced relentless antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The country experienced over 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number from the year before, according to ECAJ.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] The Swedish Security Police (SäPo) has recorded a rise in anti-Semitic sentiments in the country. This is largely due to the strengthening of the Muslim community in the country, in which radical elements are gaining strength, covering up their criminal activities with a “war for faith.”
Jihadists hate both the state of Israel and all Jews equally. However, many native Swedes also express a negative attitude towards Israel, which is often transferred to all Jews in general.
They are repulsed by the harsh methods with which the Israelis are “bringing order” to the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the main tribune for these outraged Swedes has become the well-known eco-activist Greta Thunberg.
SHARP INCREASE IN CRIME
The year 2025 marks two and a half centuries of Jewish presence in Sweden. In 1775, people of Jewish faith were first allowed to settle here without converting to Christianity.
Today, there are about 20,000 Jews living in the country, some of whom are direct descendants of those who fled the Holocaust. However, Sweden has become less of a safe haven in recent years: a Muslim community is growing here. Many of the Muslims who have settled here come from feudal societies where an innate hatred of Jews is commonplace.
In 2023, Infostat conducted a survey of the local Jewish community, which showed that more and more of its members were worried about their future. About half of the respondents said they were discussing the possibility of moving from Sweden to a safer country.
Most of those surveyed expressed the opinion that openly demonstrating Jewish identity is fraught with serious troubles. Moreover, the most dangerous city is named as Malmö, where especially many migrants settled who arrived in Sweden, as well as in other EU countries, in 2015.
Many Jews complain that it has become especially difficult and dangerous for them since the resumption of full-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip the year before last. In the period from October 7 to December 31, 2023 alone, 110 anti-Semitic hate crimes were registered in the country. In the same period of the previous year, 2022, their number was only 24.
Nowadays, representatives of the Jewish community sometimes admit that they are haunted by fear for their lives and even the temptation to change their last name.
"Many of our people are very anxious and wonder: Can I continue to live in Sweden? Can I feel safe here?" asks Aron Verstendig, chairman of the Jewish Central Council of Sweden, rhetorically.
SEARCH FOR ANTI-SEMITES
SäPo recently announced that the level of terrorist threat in the country has decreased, but the level of anti-Semitism has increased. Swedish "security officials" state that aggressive Islamists and right-wing extremist groups "are using the tense situation in the world to spread anti-Semitic propaganda."
SäPo does not rule out that certain “foreign powers” may also be involved in “using organized crime to commit acts of violence against Jews and attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden.”
What kind of violence are we talking about? Early last year, unknown assailants threw a grenade at the Israeli embassy building, which flew over the fence, landed next to the building, but fortunately did not explode. Later, in May and October 2024, the embassy building was shot at. Mossad said it believed Iran, acting through Swedish crime groups, was behind these incidents.
The government assures that it understands the fears of Jews, is concerned about the atmosphere of intolerance that has developed around the Jewish community, and does not want to put up with this state of affairs.
"I have spoken to parents who are thinking about changing their children's surnames. It is incredibly terrible how anti-Semitism affects the lives of people in Sweden today and how difficult it is to live an open Jewish life," laments Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand.
The government is now launching a 10-year national strategy to combat anti-Semitism and ensure the survival of the Jewish minority, which includes pressure on police to solve more hate crimes against Jews.
The Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) has also been tasked with examining how anti-Semitic crimes are handled in the country's courts and understanding the reasons why so few such cases result in convictions.
SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE
It should be noted, however, that anti-Semitic sentiments in Sweden are not limited to immigrants from the Third World. They are also widespread to a large extent among native Swedes, who are often inclined to hold all Jews collectively responsible for the civilian casualties in Gaza.
Thus, on June 7, a fifty-thousand-strong demonstration against the war in Gaza took place in the center of Stockholm. “This is only the beginning,” the organizers of the march promised.
One of them, Nova Veregif, told the press : "It is clear that there is an overwhelming need among people to respond to what is happening in Gaza. Many more people came to the demonstration than we had hoped for."
Experts compare this action in scale with the demonstration against the war in Iraq that took place in Stockholm in 2003, but this time there were even more participants than then.
In this regard, a good indicator of the mood that has taken hold in Swedish society is the well-known Greta Thunberg. It is customary to laugh at her, but this person has considerable influence and expresses the mood of a significant part of the Swedes, especially the local youth, who mainly adhere to liberal views.
Thunberg has long been a supporter of the Palestinians. In November 2023, she demanded that Israel cease fire in Gaza. “The world needs to speak out and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for the Palestinians and all civilians affected,” Thunberg wrote on social media. The post was accompanied by photos of pro-Palestinian posters.
After that, the Israeli army command accused her of supporting terrorism. The Israeli Ministry of Education announced that it would remove any mention of her from the curriculum. More than 100 Israeli activists signed a collective letter accusing Thunberg of a “superficial and dismissive attitude” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Many Israelis and their sympathizers insulted the girl in every possible way and wished her the worst. She was accused of anti-Semitism - because in the notorious photo in the background there was... a toy octopus.
They say that the enemies of the Jews like to caricature them as a giant octopus with its tentacles wrapped around the planet, and the activist deliberately placed the toy in the photo, confirming her commitment to anti-Semitic stereotypes.
She later changed the photo. “I became aware that the animal image shown in my previous post could be interpreted as a symbol of anti-Semitism, which I was completely unaware of,” Thunberg added, not without irony. And this only added fuel to the fire.
It is unlikely that such a person knew nothing about symbols, the German newspaper Die Welt exposed Greta.
The campaign to defame her spilled out of Israel and into Europe. The EU press began publishing articles with headlines like “Greta Thunberg shocked Germany with her anti-Semitism.”
To be fair, it should be noted that Thunberg did not break and continued to stick to her guns. The apotheosis was the recent incident on June 9, when Israeli special forces intercepted the yacht on which she was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Greta was deported from Israel and returned to her homeland.
Upon her return, she began to talk about the cruelty of the Israeli state in torturing Palestinians.
She says such things because she resolutely covered her eyes and ears, refusing to watch the compilation of Hamas films of their activities of 10/7/2023 and the days after, lest she her resolution be weakened by true facts.
Such stories, of course, do not add to the sympathy for Israel, and many Swedes extend their negative attitude towards the Israeli state to their Jewish neighbors.
[ABCnews] A federal appeals court Thursday delayed an order requiring the Trump administration to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay of the lower court’s order and set a hearing for June 17.
Two of the judges on the panel were nominated by President Donald Trump, and one was nominated by former President Joe Biden.
Earlier Thursday, a federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order that would have blocked Trump's move to deploy California National Guard troops during protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles and returned control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Calling the judge's order "unprecedented" and an "extraordinary intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority as Commander in Chief," lawyers for the Trump administration filed an emergency motion with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Before being paused by the appeals court, the lower court judge's order, which did not limit Trump's use of the Marines, was set to take effect at noon on Friday.
"At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in his order granting the temporary restraining order sought by Newsom. "His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith."
#2
It's clear written law on nationalizing the National Guard. This is seditious behavior on the part of the judiciary to obstruction Article II powers.
#3
It would be so much more efficient if the district judges could just get together and come up with a complete list of things the President of the United States can and cannot do.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/13/2025 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
It would be even more efficient if all the federal judges practicing lawfare would resign en masse, or if Congress would ever regain consciousness and take control of these low level seditionists.
NewsBusters senior research analyst Bill D'Agostino, who conducted the MRC study, noticed that whenever there was violence, CNN and MSNBC attributed it to a nebulous, separate group that had no connection with the "peaceful protesters."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Donald Trump has demanded that all illegal migrants go home immediately to avoid turning America into a 'bankrupt Third World Nation.'
Trump doubled down in his support for ICE agents conducting the controversial raids as protesters take to the streets across America rallying against the administration's mass deportation agenda.
'The Biden Administration and Governor Newscum flooded America with 21 Million Illegal Aliens, destroying Schools, Hospitals and Communities, and consuming untold Billions of Dollars in Free Welfare,' he wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
'All of them have to go home, as do countless other Illegals and Criminals, who will turn us into a bankrupt Third World Nation.
'Our courageous ICE Officers, who are daily being subjected to doxxing and murder threats, are HEROES.'
According to a House Budget Committee report in late 2024, the border crisis costs American taxpayers at least '$150billion and counting.'
'The lion's share of that cost is borne by state and local governments,' the committee found.
'State and local governments can't borrow or print money like the federal government, so they have to balance their budgets by either absorbing this cost through raising taxes or they have to cut services to their citizens.'
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] A 12-year-old Syrian girl who had a life-threatening heart condition was evacuated from southern Syria with her mother and received life-saving emergency treatment in the pediatric intensive care unit at Ruth Children’s Hospital last week, Rambam Medical Center says.
She returned to Syria in good condition on Tuesday.
The girl was evacuated by the IDF in coordination with the nonprofit organization Jethro Jews for Druze, which covered the costs of hospitalization, the hospital says.
It says she underwent the medical procedure and four days of recovery in Israel before the IDF arranged for her return to southern Syria.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Sixteen children and their family escorts were evacuated from Gaza to Jordan for medical treatment on Wednesday, the BBC reports.
Since March, the media outlet says, 57 children have been evacuated to Jordan.
King Abdullah announced during a February meeting with US President Donald Trump that Jordan would take in 2,000 child cancer patients and other sick children from Gaza for treatment in the Hashemite kingdom.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Group departing Israel includes French member of European Parliament Rima Hassan; remaining two activists, also French nationals, slated to be deported on Friday
Six additional activists from the Madleen boat that sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... earlier this week were transferred to Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday to be deported from Israel.
Both the Foreign Ministry and the Adalah civil rights organization confirmed earlier that six more of the passengers were set to be deported on Thursday and early Friday, three days after their boat was intercepted by the IDF and towed to Ashdod.
They are Mark van Rennes from the Netherlands, Suayb Ordu from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , Yasemin Acar from Germany, Thiago Avila from Brazil, Reva Viard from La Belle France and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament for the hard-left La Belle France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Paleostinian descent.
"Six more passengers from the ’selfie yacht,’ including Rima Hassan, are on their way out of Israel," the Foreign Ministry wrote on X alongside photos of them in the airport and aboard planes. "Bye-bye—and don’t forget to take a selfie before you leave."
The two remaining activists, Pascal Maurieras and Yanis Mhamdi, both of whom are also French, are scheduled to be deported on Friday and will remain in jug at Givon Prison in Ramle until then.
Four activists from the Madleen waived their right to be brought before a judge and were therefore deported immediately on Tuesday, including Swedish climate and anti-Israel activist Greta "Pippi" Thunberg ...an autistic sixteen year old Swedish expert on climate change, though I guess she's older now... The other eight challenged their detention after the Israeli navy intercepted the Madleen in international waters and towed the vessel to the Port of Ashdod. But the Detention Review Tribunal ruled that the naval blockade on Gaza is lawful under Israeli law and that the activists knowingly attempted to breach it and were therefore lawfully detained.
Adalah confirmed that Ordu and Acar had already been deported as of Thursday afternoon. Photos from the Foreign Ministry showed Hassan and Viard aboard a plane, as well as Avila boarding a flight with his guitar.
Adalah claimed that "while in jug, [the] volunteers were subjected to mistreatment, punitive measures and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement."
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Hassan claimed that she had been "placed in solitary confinement after writing ’Free Paleostine’ on the walls of her cell." She claimed that she had launched a hunger strike in protest, as had Avila.
Hassan could be seen in a photo from Ben Gurion Airport shared by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday eating a sandwich.
[IsraelTimes] With Israel having eliminated his predecessors the Sinwar brothers, Az al-Din Haddad now heads terror group in Strip where he is said to carry photos of hostages in his phone
The new head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Az al-Din Haddad, keeps an extremely low profile, speaks Hebrew and carries photos of Israeli hostages on his cellphone, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday
According to the report, which cited Arab and Israeli officials, as well as a former hostage who met him while in captivity, Haddad helped plan the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 abducted as hostages to Gaza, triggering the ongoing war with Israel.
A Hamas official told the Journal that Haddad, 55, is known as the “Ghost of al-Qassam” because of his low profile. He has survived several attempts by Israel to assassinate him and has a $750,000 bounty on his head. His two sons were both killed this year during the war.
An unnamed released Israeli hostage said that he met Haddad five times in Gaza, even sleeping in the same apartment as him. In their first meeting in March 2024, Haddad insisted on speaking in Hebrew and told the hostage and others with him that he was responsible for all of the captives. Haddad then showed them photos of hostages he had on his phone.
The former hostage said that Haddad was concerned about how captives would describe their treatment. When the hostage told him that some of their guards are better than others, Haddad responded, “This is life. There are good people, and there are bad people.”
At the time, Haddad seemed cordial, asking the hostage if there was anything he needed. However, at a later meeting in January, the terror chief was colder, keeping his face covered, and complaining about alleged Israeli war crimes.
The hostage later found out that shortly before that meeting, one of Haddad’s sons had been killed.
Haddad’s predecessor in charge of Hamas in Gaza, Muhammad Sinwar, was killed in mid-May in an Israeli strike. Before that, the terror group was led by Sinwar’s older brother, Yahya, who Israel killed in October last year.
After the military, at the end of May, confirmed the death of Muhammad Sinwar, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the remaining Hamas leaders in Gaza and abroad that they are next.
“Izz al-Din Haddad in Gaza and Khalil al-Hayya abroad, and all their partners in crime, you are next in line,” Katz said in a statement.
Haddad rose through the ranks of Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, eventually taking over as its chief, Arab and Israeli officials said. He was also in the al-Majd, the Hamas internal security group that hunts those who collaborate with Israel and spies. Al-Majd was in the past led by Yahya Sinwar.
After the elder Sinwar’s death, Haddad took control of Hamas forces in the north of Gaza while Muhammad Sinwar controlled the south, before eventually going on to become the overall head of Hamas in Gaza.
Arab intelligence officials and two Hamas officials told the Journal that Haddad has shown himself to be more pragmatic than the Sinwar brothers before him.
It was Haddad who pushed Sinwar to accept a January ceasefire deal that included the release of dozens of Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. He was also said to be in favor of releasing more hostages to keep the truce going, though it eventually collapsed in March. The report also described Haddad as more amenable to Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm as part of a process to end the war, a measure rejected by both Sinwars.
#1
...Given that Hamass knows now that there is no possibility of Iran coming to their aid; does anyone think that the Israelis won't be doing any more negotiating with these monsters?
I think they will always give them the chance to quietly get out of Dodge once they've handed over all the hostages, but even Hamass knows what mene mene, tekhel upharsin means.
[IsraelTimes] Army says terror group has also raised income by smuggling cigarettes into Gaza and selling them, running protection rackets, and getting informal money transfers
In other words, the usual banditry of a jihadi group.
Internal Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... documents show the group has been "systematically exploiting" the entry of humanitarian aid into Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... throughout the ongoing war in order to fund its terror activities, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday, citing captured papers.
The military said the group has done so by confiscating the aid itself; then giving some of it to fighters and selling some to civilians at exorbitant prices; by smuggling forbidden products such as cigarettes into the Strip and selling them at great cost; by demanding protection payments from Gazooks living in areas under the group’s effective governing control; and through informal banking transfers, in coordination with Hamas representatives in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... member, but not the most reliable... The IDF released a document Thursday it said was drawn up by Hamas indicating that the group has maintained a policy of confiscating 15%-25% of aid entering Gaza during the war in order to finance its operations and pay operatives.
"In the past Al Qassam [the Hamas military wing] took 25% of the aid that arrived," according to the document. "It has been agreed with the brothers in Al Qassam that the percentages will be changed as such: 7% to Qassam, 4% to government entities, 4% to elements of the [Hamas] movement."
The IDF said the document was part of a "wide range of intelligence information" that had been analyzed.
Other intelligence indicated that Hamas acted to smuggle goods — in particular tobacco products — that are not allowed by Israel to enter the Strip and then sold them at exorbitant prices. The military added that Hamas forbids local, independent vendors access to the products.
"In light of this, as part of the entry of humanitarian aid, cigarettes are not allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the crossings," the IDF said, adding that inspectors at border crossings "have thwarted dozens of attempts to smuggle tobacco products" since the start of the war.
The military also said that Hamas — which has ruled the enclave for almost two decades — has demanded protection fees from Gazooks, providing another source of income.
Finally, the IDF said that Hamas in Gaza has received "hundreds of millions of shekels from Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and other sources" in payments facilitated by the group’s members in Turkey, through a Moslem hawala network, in which individuals, rather than banks, broker money transfers.
"Hamas exploited the humanitarian aid process and international aid organizations, whether knowingly or through manipulation, by pushing for the entry of ’excess’ aid items, purchased using Hamas’s external funds, into Gaza. Hamas then sold the aid at inflated prices to residents and collected the cash proceeds," the IDF said.
In addition to the Hamas documents, the IDF shared a March 2024 letter from a resident of Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood to a senior Hamas official complaining that the day before, members of the Hamas internal security force had taken 17 bags of flour and 15 aid coupons from his brother’s truck. The aid was purchased by his brother in Rafah and was meant for his extended family.
"We have a full list of the names of the intended recipients," said the man, Idris Abdel Rahman Idris. "I express my hope that the confiscated aid will be returned to its legal owners."
EFFECTS OF AID BLOCKADE
Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas is exploiting humanitarian aid to maintain control over Gaza. On March 2, following the collapse of a hostage-ceasefire deal, Israel cut off the entry of aid into the Strip; the blockade was partially lifted on May 19, and an average of 65 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day since.
The IDF said Thursday that the 78-day blockade "led to a significant decrease in Hamas’s profits," leading to "severe financial difficulties within the organization, to the extent that they were forced to reduce, and at times completely suspend, salary payments to some of the members."
The military also said that following its in-depth study of Hamas’s aid exploitation, new measures have been launched to improve oversight at crossings. The statement cited a system for registering NGOs participating in the aid effort, and plans to sanction them if they fail to abide by policy, customs procedures and "verification" of aid packages’ contents, and improved security inspections.
Since the end of the blockade in May, Hamas has pushed for the resumption of aid distribution through UN-backed mechanisms. Israel and the US, however, say these mechanisms allowed the terror group to divert much of the aid and have instead backed the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Dozens of Paleostinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Hamas’s civil defense agency. The IDF has confirmed firing warning shots in at least eight instances, but disputed the Hamas corpse counts.
On Thursday, GHF accused Hamas of attacking a bus carrying its Paleostinian aid workers, killing at least eight, and preventing the maimed from being treated at a hospital in the Strip. GHF interim CEO John Acree also said some employees "may have been taken hostage."
The terror group later said it had killed 12 members of the Israeli-backed Abu Shabaab militia in Gaza.
Witkoff — who is expected in Oman on Sunday for another round in the US’s ongoing talks with Iran to reach a deal concerning the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program — told the lawmakers that Israeli military strikes are on the table if the negotiations fail, the report says, citing a US official and a source with direct knowledge.
The presidential envoy raised the topic of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, the sources said, and claimed that the US is concerned Israel’s air defenses could be overwhelmed by an attack involving hundreds of missiles.
In October 2024, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel, though much of the attack was thwarted by air defenses in Israel and with the help of regional allies and the US. A similar attack in April 2024, which also used drones and cruise missiles, was also largely foiled.
Axios reports, citing a US official, that since the October attack, Iran has ramped up production of ballistic missiles to some 50 per month. The Islamic Republic’s goal is to produce more missiles than Israel has interceptors, the official says.
Several reports over the last day have said US officials think Israel could be preparing to strike Iran in the coming days, even as US and Iranian representatives are set to continue talks this Sunday in Oman on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
However, the US ambassador to Jerusalem has stressed he doesn’t believe Israel would strike without a green light from US President Donald Trump, who today reiterated his call for Israel to hold off on such an attack as negotiations continue. The military’s Home Front Command has also said, in response to “rumors,” that there is no change to the civilian guidelines at this time.
That’s certainly a possibility, though no one else in the Middle East has done so.
Iran will rebuild its nuclear facilities if they are destroyed, the country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says, according to state media.
“It is not the case that if they destroy our facilities with bombs, everything will be lost — these capabilities exist in our minds, and therefore, whatever they do, we will rebuild again,” Pezeshkian says.
That’s fine. So long as they stay out of the way, that’s all that matters.
The US has told Israel it will not participate in any potential strike on Iran’s nuclear program in the coming days, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and Axios.
The Journal cites an official with knowledge of the matter as saying Washington will not provide any offensive support for an Israeli strike. Axios quotes two US sources and an Israeli official as saying the same.
Axios notes it is still possible that the US will offer other support, including in logistics and intelligence, while adding that it is likely to assist Israel in defending itself from any Iranian retaliation, should a strike take place.
The Journal says that though Washington is not providing official support for the Israeli threats of military action, officials do hope the pressure will lead to Iranian concessions in negotiations still taking place between the sides through Omani mediation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently announced that they had received classified documents about Israeli nuclear facilities and programs.
The Iranians are threatening to make the data they have obtained public in the near future, thereby putting an end to the concept of “strategic ambiguity” (“Amimut”), within the framework of which Tel Aviv neither confirmed nor denied the existence of nuclear weapons.
However, Tehran does not consider it shameful to use the dossier to simultaneously solve several other tactical tasks related to the nuclear sector, but affecting Israel only indirectly.
STRONG RESONANCE
Despite the fact that Iran is in no hurry to fully verify the authenticity of the information, it does not particularly hide the approximate content of its "trophies". Thus, the documents received by the Iranians, in addition to general information about the state and development trends of the Israeli nuclear sector, allegedly contain information about communications with American and European specialized institutions, detailed layouts on the latest contracts.
In addition, the “dossier” lifts the curtain on the military segment of the nuclear program – it explains the approximate number of warheads in the Israeli arsenal and their typology, contains information on the state of the missile program, and the names of key scientists and intermediaries.
The IRGC also boasts of “additional materials” — video recordings from surveillance cameras at strategic Israeli sites totaling tens of thousands of hours, passwords to “closed digital control networks,” and information about secret headquarters of Israeli intelligence agencies in various Middle Eastern countries. All of these were obtained in parallel with the main dossier.
Iran's Minister of Intelligence and National Security Ismail Khatib, who is now leading the information campaign surrounding the leaks, has described the operation as a success.
The data obtained, according to him, was enough to target all key objects on Israeli territory and, in the event of a sudden escalation, to launch a “surgical strike” on the arsenals of the Jewish state.
The head of Iranian intelligence never misses a chance to make fun of the incompetence of his Israeli counterparts in the special services. While they were chasing "planted" agents (by which, apparently, they meant the IRGC-recruited chemical engineer Doron Bokobza and retiree Eduard Yusupov ), the Iranian career intelligence officers remained in the shadows and were able to finish what they started without significant interference.
In terms of resonance, the current scandal may surpass the leaks from the dossier of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli defector who in 1986 revealed to journalists information about Israel's nuclear program and its military component.
HINTS "FROM AROUND THE CORNER"
The Iranians are already trying to put some excerpts from the secret documents they received into operation. For example, Tehran has publicly thrown down the gauntlet to the IAEA, accusing its inspectors of secretly working for the Israelis for many years.
Citing the same secret dossier, Iranian intelligence agencies claim that the agency had been secretly leaking inspection reports to the Israelis for several years, as well as confidential information received from Iranian officials - primarily the identification data of key scientists working in the nuclear sector.
They, in turn, became targets of Israeli intelligence. We are talking about at least ten nuclear scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed in 2020 and is considered the "father" of the modern Iranian nuclear program.
With such “hints from around the corner,” in the opinion of the Iranian side, the IAEA has seriously discredited itself as an international organization and lost its status as an “arbitrator” in regional relations in the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy, turning into an instrument of influence in the hands of Tel Aviv.
However, the IAEA has so far ignored Tehran's criticism. The agency continues to adhere to the peacemaker's line: it advocates for the earliest possible revival of the "nuclear deal" and demands guarantees from the Iranian side that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful in nature.
PLAYING ON NERVES
Despite the fact that several weeks have passed since the main stage of the operation (according to the Iranians themselves), Tehran is in no hurry to make the information it has received publicly available.
Although interest in the dossier, which has already received the informal name “Anti-Amimut” in professional circles, is actively fueled by both current politicians and influential “retirees”.
Official Tehran, apparently, is trying to scare its opponents and make them blurt out unexpected details on their nerves. In addition, with the help of the "nuclear bluff" the Iranians also expect to strengthen their positions in the next rounds of negotiations with the US - scheduled for June 12 and 15, respectively.
In a certain sense, this even succeeded: after information about hypothetical leaks from Israel became public knowledge in the West, US President Donald Trump unexpectedly called on Israel to negotiate with Iran on nuclear security guarantees. Although before this, the White House preferred to keep Tel Aviv on the periphery of interaction on the “nuclear deal”.
On the other hand, the tactics of intimidation and bluffing seem to work intermittently. In Israel, the topic of “nuclear leaks” is not particularly commented on – as the concept of uncertainty suggests. The Mossad leadership is also in place, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in conflict with the top of the national intelligence services, would hardly miss the opportunity to dismiss an opponent under a good pretext.
It is unlikely that the current leak will put an end to Israel's concept of "strategic ambiguity."
Although Tel Aviv will have to seriously restructure its approach to protecting its nuclear secrets. Just as it did after the scandal with the "Vanunu dossier" in the second half of the 1980s. In this sense, one can say that "Amimut" is simply entering a new circle.
True, after the current scandal, the "hot heads" in Tel Aviv will cool down for a while. At least the temptation to run into trouble and try to launch a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities will definitely diminish.
[IsraelTimes] Western and Middle Eastern authorities see terror group making moves to fill power vacuums, but claim security forces have effective countermeasures in place
Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where the turban group once imposed a reign of terror over millions.
Islamic State (IS) has been attempting just that, according to more than 20 sources, including security and political officials from Syria, Iraq, the US, and Europe, as well as diplomats in the region. The group has started reactivating fighters in both countries, identifying targets, distributing weapons, and stepping up recruitment and propaganda efforts, the sources said.
So far, the results of these efforts appear limited. Security operatives in Syria and Iraq, who have been monitoring IS for years, told Rooters they foiled at least a dozen major plots this year.
A case in point came in December, the month Syria’s Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... was toppled.
As rebels were advancing on Damascus, IS commanders holed up near Raqqa, former capital of their self-declared caliphate, dispatched two envoys to Iraq, five Iraqi counter-terrorism officials told Rooters. The envoys carried verbal instructions to the group’s followers to launch attacks. But they were captured at a checkpoint while traveling in northern Iraq on December 2, the officials said.
Eleven days later, Iraqi security forces, acting on information from the envoys, tracked a suspected IS jacket wallah to a crowded restaurant in the northern town of Daquq using his cell phone, they said. The forces shot the man dead before he could detonate an explosives belt, they said.
The foiled attack confirmed Iraq’s suspicions about the group, said Colonel Abdul Ameer al-Bayati, of the Iraqi Army’s 8th Division, which is deployed in the area. "Islamic State elements have begun to reactivate after years of lying low, emboldened by the chaos in Syria," he said.
Still, the number of attacks claimed by IS has dropped since Assad’s fall.
IS grabbed credit for 38 attacks in Syria in the first five months of 2025, putting it on track for a little over 90 claims this year, according to data from SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors bad boys’ activities online. That would be around a third of last year’s claims, the data shows.
In Iraq, where IS originated, the group claimed four attacks in the first five months of 2025, versus 61 total last year.
Syria’s government, led by the country’s new Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, did not answer questions about IS activities. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Rooters in January the country was developing its intelligence-gathering efforts, and its security services would address any threat.
A US defense official and a spokesperson for Iraq’s prime minister said IS remnants in Syria and Iraq have been dramatically weakened, unable to control territory since a US-led coalition and its local partners drove them from their last stronghold in 2019.
The Iraqi spokesperson, Sabah al-Numan, credited preemptive operations for keeping the group in check.
The coalition and partners hammered bad boy hideouts with Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and raids after Assad’s fall. Such operations captured or killed "terrorist elements," while preventing them from regrouping and carrying out operations, Numan said.
Iraq’s intelligence operations have also become more precise, through drones and other technology, he added.
At its peak between 2014 and 2017, IS held sway over roughly a third of Syria and Iraq, where it imposed its extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law, gaining a reputation for shocking brutality.
None of the officials who spoke with Rooters saw a danger of that happening again. But they cautioned against counting the group out, saying it has proven a resilient foe, adept at exploiting a vacuum.
Some local and European officials are concerned that imported muscle might be traveling to Syria to join jihadi groups. For the first time in years, intelligence agencies tracked a small number of suspected imported muscle coming from Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to Syria in recent months, two European officials told Rooters, though they could not say whether IS or another group recruited them.
EXPLOITING DIVISIONS
The IS push comes at a delicate time for Sharaa, as he attempts to unite a diverse country and bring former rebel groups under government control after 13 years of civil war.
US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s surprise decision last month to lift sanctions on Syria was widely seen as a win for the Syrian leader, who once led a branch of al Qaeda that battled IS for years. But some Islamist hardliners criticized Sharaa’s efforts to woo Western governments, expressing concern he might acquiesce to US demands to expel imported muscle and normalize relations with Israel.
Seizing on such divides, IS condemned the meeting with Trump in a recent issue of its online news publication, al-Naba, and called on imported muscle in Syria to join its ranks.
At a May 14 meeting in Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , Trump asked Sharaa to help prevent an IS resurgence as the US begins a troop consolidation in Syria it says could cut its roughly 2,000-strong military presence by half this year.
The US drawdown has heightened concern among allies that IS might find a way to free some 9,000 fighters and their family members, including foreign nationals, held at prisons and camps guarded by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). There have been at least two attempted jailbreaks since Assad’s fall, the SDF has said.
Trump and President Tayyip Erdogan of neighboring The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... member, but not the most reliable... want Sharaa’s government to assume responsibility for these facilities. Erdogan views the main Kurdish factions as a threat to his country. But some regional analysts question whether Damascus has the manpower needed.
Syrian authorities have also been grappling with attacks by suspected Assad loyalists, outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, Israeli airstrikes and festivities between Ottoman Turkish-backed groups and the SDF, which controls about a quarter of the country.
"The interim government is stretched thin from a security perspective. They just do not have the manpower to consolidate control in the entire country," said Charles Lister, who heads the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, a US think tank.
Responding to a request for comment, a US State Department spokesperson said it is critical for countries to repatriate detained nationals from Syria and shoulder a greater share of the burden for the camps’ security and running costs.
The US defense official said Washington remains committed to preventing an IS resurgence, and its vetted Syrian partners remain in the field. The US will "vigilantly monitor" Sharaa’s government, which has been "saying and doing the right things" so far, the official added.
Three days after Trump’s meeting with Sharaa, Syria announced it had raided IS hideouts in the country’s second city, Aleppo, killing three bad boys, detaining four and seizing weapons and uniforms.
The US has exchanged intelligence with Damascus in limited cases, another US defense official and two Syrian officials told Rooters. The news agency could not determine whether it did so in the Aleppo raids.
The coalition is expected to wrap up operations in Iraq by September. But the second US official said Baghdad privately expressed interest in slowing down the withdrawal of some 2,500 American troops from Iraq when it became apparent that Assad would fall. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the request.
The White House, Baghdad and Damascus did not respond to questions about Trump’s plans for US troops in Iraq and Syria.
REACTIVATING SLEEPER CELLS
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... estimates IS, also known as ISIS or ISIS, has 1,500 to 3,000 fighters in the two countries. But its most active branches are in Africa, the SITE data shows.
The US military believes the group’s secretive leader is Abdulqadir Mumin, who heads the Somalia branch, a senior defence official told news hounds in April.
Still, SITE’s director, Rita Katz, cautioned against seeing the drop in IS attacks in Syria as a sign of weakness. "Far more likely that it has entered a restrategizing phase," she said.
Since Assad’s fall, IS has been activating sleeper cells, surveilling potential targets and distributing guns, silencers and explosives, three security sources and three Syrian political officials told Rooters.
It has also moved fighters from the Syrian desert, a focus of coalition airstrikes, to cities including Aleppo, Homs and Damascus, according to the security sources.
"Of the challenges we face, ISIS is at the top of the list," Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab told state-owned Ekhbariya TV last week.
In Iraq, aerial surveillance and intelligence sources on the ground have picked up increased IS activity in the northern Hamrin Mountains, a longtime refuge, and along key roads, Ali al-Saidi, an advisor to Iraqi security forces, told Rooters.
Iraqi officials believe IS seized large stockpiles of weapons left behind by Assad’s forces and worry some could be smuggled into Iraq.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was in contact with Damascus about IS, which he told Rooters in January was growing and spreading into more areas.
"We hope that Syria, in the first place, will be stable, and Syria will not be a place for terrorists," he said, "especially ISIS terrorists."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/13/2025 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
