August 2, 2026

03b Israel

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JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will take The New York Times to court over a piece it published denouncing alleged widespread sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have ordered the “initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times”, according to a joint statement issued by their offices.

It said the lawsuit was being pursued “following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper”.

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Two Israeli soldiers were sentenced to several weeks in military prison for desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.

Last week, a photo surfaced showing a service member hugging the statue in the predominantly Christian village of Debel, near the Israeli border, and placing a cigarette in the statue’s mouth. The image sparked outrage on social media and prompted an official investigation.

On Monday, IDF spokeswoman Ariella Mazor said the soldier posing with the statue and the soldier filming him were sentenced to 21 and 14 days behind bars, respectively.

“The IDF views the incident with great severity and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” Mazor wrote on X.

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Israel’s military has killed six people in an air raid on a house in southern Lebanon, the latest violation of a United States-brokered truce that has only ever existed on paper.

The Israeli attack on Monday night targeted a house in the Kfar Dounin municipality, some 100km (60 miles) south of Beirut, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said.

A mob of far-left progressive anti-Israel terrorists assaulted Jews as they were coming out of their synagogue. When cops arrived, the mobs attacked the cops. The response from Mamdani’s office has been tepid, with only three arrests announced as a follow-up.

NYC Police Arrest Three After Anti-Israel Mob Ambushes Synagogue legalinsurrection.com
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New York City police arrested three people after an anti-Israel mob swarmed the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood in Brooklyn on Monday night.

The synagogue hosted “an event promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank.”

The anti-Israel group Pal-Awda NY/NJ organized the protest. The group uses “slogans such as ‘No settlers on stolen land’ and ‘Stop the sale of stolen Palestinian land.’”

New York State Sen. Sam Sutton condemned the event.

“Neither of these protests would have happened had these venues not chosen to host illegal sales of stolen Palestinian land,” the group responded. “The people of New York will not stand by while the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people is aided and abetted by institutions in our own city.”

From The New York Post:

The anti-Israel mob chanted “Palestine is ours alone,” and several carried a wide banner that read “Israel is killing children.”

During one fight, a person who concealed their face with a medical mask yanked a girl’s hair — and nearly threw her against a parked car in the process, according to a video obtained by The Post.

Shortly after, another man squared up against a squad of young men carrying a Palestinian flag.

“Let’s go, motherf–kers, c’mon! C’mon, motherf–kers!” the man yelled.

At least two teenage pro-Israel protesters were detained. As the NYPD marched them down the streets, their supporters followed and chanted for the cops to “let them go.”

An anti-Israel protester was also detained, cops said.

All three individuals taken into custody had thrown items during the heated protest, according to the NYPD.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to phase of U.S. financial support of its military down to zero.

He stated, “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have,” he said. “Because we receive – we receive $3.8 billion a year. And I – I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support.”

Go Deeper

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to phase of U.S. financial support of its military down to zero.

He stated, “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have,” he said. “Because we receive – we receive $3.8 billion a year. And I – I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support.”

Netanyahu says Israel should draw US financial support ‘down to zero’ www.washingtonexaminer.com
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he wants to immediately begin phasing out American financial support for Israel’s military in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night.

Netanyahu said he wants to draw that aid “down to zero” and do so during the current Congress, adding that he’s said this to President Donald Trump.

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Two health workers were among 51 people killed in the latest wave of IDF strikes on the country, Beirut has said

The Lebanese Health Ministry has accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of deliberately targeting medics during airstrikes on the country.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue to intensify despite a US-brokered ceasefire between the sides, which took effect in mid-April.

The latest wave of IDF strikes on Lebanon left 51 people dead, including two medics, the country’s health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Israeli enemy continues to violate international laws and humanitarian norms, adding more crimes against paramedics, as it directly targeted two points of the Health Authority in Qalawiya and Tibnin, Bint Jbeil district, in two raids,” the statement read.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it eliminated Hamas Commander Anas Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, who infiltrated Israel and participated in the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival Massacre.

Hamed was killed during a targeted Monday strike in Gaza, the IDF announced Tuesday.

“The IDF struck yesterday in the center of the Gaza Strip and eliminated Ans Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, Nukhba commander in the Hamas terror organization, who raided the territory of the State of Israel and the Nova festival during the murderous massacre on October 7,” the IDF wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X.

The IDF called Hamed an “immediate threat to IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip,” and said he was “eliminated in a precise airstrike.”

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Rising stock markets along with growth in pension and provident fund savings have generated unprecedented wealth for the Israeli public in the past few years. According to Bank of Israel figures released last week, at the beginning of 2026 (February) the Israeli public’s portfolio of financial assets was worth a record NIS 7.4 trillion. This represents growth of NIS 1.1 trillion within a year, and an 80% rise within six years. At the beginning of 2020, the public’s portfolio was worth NIS 4.1 trillion.

The continual growth in the financial assets portfolio, which includes money held in bank accounts, savings programs (provident funds, pension funds, and mutual funds), and securities, provides a glimpse into the way in which Israelis have managed their money in recent years, the level of risk that they tend to take, and their impact on prices in the local stock market.

Appetite for risk

A glance at the make-up of the public’s financial assets shows that Israeli investors’ appetite for risk has grown considerably. At the end of 2022, the proportion of risk assets (stocks and bonds) in the portfolio was 39%. By the beginning of 2026 it had jumped to 48%.

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The Trump administration has launched an investigation into New York City Public Schools over allegations that pro-Hamas activism by educators may have crossed the line into anti-Semitic instruction targeting Jewish students.

The probe was launched over allegations that teachers sought to sow “hatred toward Jewish students” during classroom instruction.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed it opened the probe after receiving complaints that teachers were promoting political messaging in classrooms and portraying Israel supporters as “genocidal white supremacists.”

U. Michigan Commencement Hijacked By Anti-Israel Prof. legalinsurrection.com
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A faculty commencement speaker at the University of Michigan used his spot to slam Israel. The president of the university said that those remarks deviate from the remarks submitted in advance:

I spoke about this on the Laura Ingraham show tonight:

 

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For those familiar with the Old Testament narrative surrounding the ancient city of Sodom, a recent announcement from the Israeli government might sound like evidence that history is repeating itself.

Near the site many believe to be where that city was destroyed by God, largely due to the sexual immorality of its citizens, there will soon be a four-day LGBT “pride” event that the Israeli government noted would even include “children’s activities.”

TheBlaze provided this report:

The promotion of the event by the Israeli government — just one day after the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that one of its soldiers smashed a statue of the crucified Christ outside a church with a sledgehammer — prompted significant backlash among some conservative Christians.

American theologian and pastor Dale Partridge tweeted, “The devil couldn’t have written it better. ‘The lowest place on earth’ ‘The Dead Sea becomes pride land.’”

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre raised the matter of whether his tax dollars might be subsidizing the event, then asked, “Can anyone very carefully explain to me why American Christians owe anything to this?”

Conservative commentator Michael Knowles insinuated that the Israeli government’s announcement answered the question recently posed by the New York Times about the cause of the recent increase in meteor sightings overhead.

Knowles’ colleague, Matt Walsh, called the planned festival “absolutely evil and disgusting.”

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Pressure mounts on the disgraced chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, who was forced to “step aside” from his position in May 2025 after serious sexual assault allegations. Newly revealed witness testimony states that Qatar promised to “look after” him if he continued the witch hunt against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday

Following a May 2024 request by Khan, the Hague-based ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the crime of overseeing a military operation to free 240 hostages from Hamas’ captivity in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. By issuing the warrant, the ICC was requiring its 125 member states, including most of the European nations, to arrest the sitting Israeli prime minister and hand him over to the kangaroo court.

The latest testimony and supporting evidence also indicate that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was a target of the operation. The Qatar-linked “intelligence operation also sought to target two Americans: Tom Lynch, the senior ICC official who first reported the assault allegation, and Sen. Lindsey Graham,” the business daily added.

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The Israeli military began carrying out strikes in eastern Lebanon on Monday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The strikes on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley marked the first time the area has been hit since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into force on April 16, which significantly reduced the pace of attacks without entirely stopping the exchanges of fire.

Israel has continued to carry out strikes across southern Lebanon, and its troops are occupying a strip of the country’s south, destroying homes they claim as infrastructure being used by Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group, meanwhile, has kept up its drone and rocket attacks against Israeli troops in Lebanon and on northern Israel.

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On Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the joint work of regional offices in Charlotte, NC, and Houston, TX to foil an alleged terror plot by a Lexington, NC woman to incite a mass casualty event at a synagogue in Houston.

A Lexington woman is facing charges after allegedly plotting to murder congregants at a Texas synagogue, according to Davidson County warrants.

On Wednesday, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office arrested Angelina Han Hicks, 18, of Lexington, on two counts of felony conspiracy. According to warrants, the charges are for conspiring to commit murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

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The Israeli government announced on Monday that this June, “the Dead Sea becomes Pride Land, the biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East,” adding that “Pride rises at the lowest place on earth.”

This celebration of degeneracy and non-straight lifestyle choices — set to take place near what is believed to be the site of Sodom, the city razed by God because of its brazen sexual corruption — will run 24 hours a day from June 1 to June 4.

‘You won’t see this anywhere else in the region.’

According the Jerusalem Post, the non-straight festival will raise a city in the desert featuring parties, a central performance arena, art complexes, “relaxation” areas, and “family-friendly areas with children’s activities.”

“This is not just another festival; it’s the biggest thing we’ve done here,” Aaron Cohen, the main producer behind “Pride Land,” told the Post. “It’s an experience that lives 24/7, from quiet visits to nights of Pride, with a living envelope of music and people.”

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After an image of an Israeli soldier striking a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in Lebanon went viral, the Israeli foreign minister has confirmed the image is real and also apologized. However, the attack on the Christian statue has morphed into an international incident, with Poland’s foreign minister wading into the debate, sparking a sharp back-and-forth war of words on X.

After images of the incident went viral, Israel responded. Calling the damage caused by an IDF soldier to the statue in Lebanon “grave and disgraceful,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar added that the “ugly act” was “contrary to our values” and that the soldier responsible would face consequences.

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A national free speech group is calling on the Catholic University of America to allow pro-Israel speakers on campus – or else face an accreditation complaint.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a second letter to CUA leadership on Friday, asking it to remove its restrictions on Students Supporting Israel.

The intervention follows a proposal earlier this year for the group to host Israeli homeland security expert Dany Tirza as well as Jewish Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, as The College Fix previously reported.

The university is requiring the club to host a pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel speaker.

While the school says this is part of their policy, that is only supposed to apply when an invited speaker takes a view contrary to the Catholic Church, such as if a club invited a pro-abortion speaker. However, the university did not even apply this policy, allowing the campus Democrats club to host a speaker who supports abortion, according to Student Supporting Israel’s leadership.

The Catholic university in Washington, D.C. allowed an event with an anti-Israel speaker, for example, but did not present the pro-Israel side, FIRE also said.

“We again strongly urge CUA to approve SSI’s event requests and assure students that the university will not condition event approval on student’s willingness to arrange for and host speakers opposed to their own viewpoint,” Program Counsel Jessie Appleby wrote to President Peter Kilpatrick.

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JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Monday (Apr 20) that it had determined an image circulating on social media that shows a soldier in south Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ is authentic and depicts one of its troops.

The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross.

Arab media reports indicated that the statue was in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

The Debl municipality told AFP that the statue was located in the village, but could not confirm whether it had been damaged.

Israel is accelerating its war in Lebanon even as talks continue between the two countries. Israel wants a disarmed Hezbollah while Lebanon may not have the capacity to do the job.

IDF Launches Massive Coordinated Strike Across Lebanon trendingpoliticsnews.com
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Israel dramatically escalated its campaign in Lebanon this week, carrying out one of the largest coordinated strikes of the ongoing regional conflict, as the fragile ceasefire continues to teeter on the edge of collapse.

According to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces, more than 180 Hezbollah operatives were killed in a rapid, large-scale operation targeting multiple targets across Lebanon. The strikes were executed “within a minute,” hitting roughly 100 targets simultaneously in Beirut, the Beqaa Valley, and southern Lebanon.

The IDF said the operation relied on “precise and high-quality intelligence” and focused on key Hezbollah infrastructure, including command centers, military compounds, and facilities used by senior operatives. Israeli officials described the targets as central to Hezbollah’s operational capabilities in the region.

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Spain’s prime minister is facing a complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging his government enabled Iran’s “terror machine” through dual-use exports, with the legal group behind the filing arguing that responsibility for war crimes extends to those who provide the means.

The complaint, filed Tuesday by Israeli legal advocacy group Shurat HaDin under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, calls on prosecutors in The Hague to open a criminal investigation — and consider issuing an arrest warrant — against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other senior officials.

The complaint alleges that Spain’s socialist government approved the transfer of approximately €1.3 million in dual-use components to Iran in 2024 and 2025, including materials linked to detonators and explosive systems.

According to the filing, the items were not benign industrial goods but “critical components that enable explosive devices to function,” transferred under circumstances in which their use in attacks against civilians was foreseeable.

At the core of the case is the allegation that materials classified as civilian “dual-use” goods function as essential components in weapons systems.

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Israel and Lebanon agreed to hold direct negotiations after “productive discussions” between the two sides in Washington, the United States said on Tuesday.

“The participants held productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

“All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue,” he said.

The announcement came after Israeli and Lebanese envoys held more than two hours of talks mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The United States congratulated the two countries on this historic milestone and expressed its support for further talks, and for the government of Lebanon’s plans to restore the monopoly of force and to end Iran’s overbearing influence,” Pigott said.

And it “affirmed that any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the United States, and not through any separate track,” he added.