President Donald Trump said Sunday night that the ceasefire was still in place after Israel launched strikes in Gaza after accusing Hamas of opening fire on its soldiers over the weekend. 
Israel attacked parts of Gaza on Sunday after accusing Hamas terrorists of killing two Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in Rafah. Despite the back-and-forth, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the ceasefire was still in place. 
“We&#8217;re going to have to see what’s happening. We want to make sure that it&#8217;s going to be very peaceful with Hamas and as you know, they&#8217;ve been quite rambunctious,” he said. “They&#8217;ve been doing some shooting and we think maybe the leadership isn&#8217;t involved in that. You know, some rebels within, but either way, it&#8217;s going to be handled properly. It&#8217;s going to be handled toughly but properly.”
Later on, when asked by a reporter if he believed the Israeli strikes were justified, Trump said that he would “have to get back to you on that.” 
The IDF said Sunday that terrorists launched anti-tank missiles and gunfire at its troops working to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in southern Gaza. 
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“In response, the IDF has begun striking in the area to eliminate the threat and dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity,” the IDF <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/1979872480056504512">said</a>. “These terrorist actions constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, and the IDF will respond firmly.”
The IDF later said that these strikes were directed toward weapons storage facilities, firing posts, terrorist cells, and terror infrastructure. It also took out about six kilometers of “underground terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF said. 
Vice President JD Vance, who is expected to travel to Israel on Tuesday, said Sunday that there were still a lot of moving parts on the ground in Gaza that complicated the ceasefire. 
“We don&#8217;t actually know even what the reality on the ground is there. When we talk about Hamas, you&#8217;re talking about 40 different cells. It&#8217;s disjointed. Some of those cells will probably honor the ceasefire. Many of those cells, as we saw some evidence of today, will not. Before we actually can ensure that Hamas is properly disarmed that&#8217;s going to require, as we know, some of these Gulf Arab states, to get forces in there to actually apply some law and order and some security keeping on the ground.”
Vance also said that the ceasefire would likely include “fits and starts” because members of Hamas would fire on Israel, and Israel would have to respond.

President Trump Returns To The White House

Trump: Gaza Ceasefire Still Holding Despite Hamas Violence, Israeli Strikes

Ceasefire

Donald Trump

Gaza

Hamas

Israel

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

JD Vance

It is, in fact, possible to win wars.
I have spent my entire life watching the United States and the West lose wars, or at least not win wars. Initial victory, followed by gradual defeat or bizarre interventionism without the full force, weight, and commitment necessary to carry it through.
What President Trump is demonstrating, however, along with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel, is that it is, in fact, possible to win wars.
Let’s recall the timeline here.
On October 7, 2023, the genocidal terror group Hamas invaded Israel&#8217;s borders and killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly Jewish, and abducted 250 Israelis and took them back to their terror tunnel hellholes. In those tunnels, Hamas amassed a vast arsenal of rockets, grenades, and small arms over the course of 20 years with the support and funding from nations in the region, including Iran, Qatar, and Turkey.
There was also a serious possibility that Hezbollah was going to enter the war on the same day. In fact, Hezbollah started attacking with small rockets in the beginning and then gradually escalated. And, according to the military experts, Hezbollah was similarly genocidal and was a far better armed Iranian terror proxy based in Lebanon.
Israel also faced down a continuing terror threat from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Judea and Samaria, the so-called West Bank. Syria was being used as a thoroughfare for Iranian arms for Hezbollah. The Houthis in Yemen were another Iranian-backed terror threat. And, of course, the Iranian government wasn&#8217;t merely spreading terrorism, they were also fast-tracking a nuclear weapons program.
That&#8217;s where things stood two years ago.
Now, two years later, the Middle East has turned completely upside down.
Israel has completely decimated Hamas, killing its entire top leadership from Gaza all the way to Iran. Israel has destroyed Hezbollah&#8217;s efficacy and killed its terror master, Hassan Nasrallah. Its attacks on Hezbollah were so effective that the Assad regime in Syria completely collapsed.
Judea and Samaria have been quieted by the work of the IDF during this time. Iranian proxies in Iraq went silent as well thanks to the Israeli Air Force. The Houthis in Yemen are sort of the one remaining outstanding enemy, and they&#8217;ve been thoroughly bombed. They are a nuisance, but they&#8217;re not an existential threat to Israel. And Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, the greatest existential threat to Israel, has been set back years, if not decades, thanks to the courage of the Israeli Air Force, and, of course, a timely, brave intervention from President Trump that led to an amazing mission flown by the United States Air Force.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2295-the-trump-effect-how-to-win-a-war?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And now President Trump has brokered an amazing deal, one that seemed unthinkable not long ago. The release of the final 20 live Israeli hostages all at once, along with all the remaining bodies released. Israel maintains a secure posture in the Gaza Strip itself as a transitional plan toward a future without Hamas, supported by regional allies, including countries that one moment ago were sending cash and weapons into for Hamas to use, like Qatar and Turkey.
The possibility of future Abraham Accords with countries like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are now on the table.
So, here is the question for the West: How is it that this war was won?
Because it&#8217;s hard to win wars.
Well, the answer is the conventional wisdom was stupid — and it has been stupid for decades.
And the decision makers here are ”out-of-the-box” thinkers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is someone who truly understands the nature of the Middle East and Middle Eastern history. But President Trump is the real difference maker here, because President Trump decided that America would no longer just go along with the 80-year-old slogans promoted by the Arabists at the State Department. 
The conventional wisdom was that military action does not guarantee security in the Middle East. That is a lie. It was always a lie. It was always catastrophically wrong.
In fact, every time Israel has provided for its own security, it was not through a peace deal. It was a peace deal after a victory. 
Military action is the only guarantor of support and security in the Middle East. It was military action that removed every supporting pillar beneath Hamas&#8217;s feet.
The conventional wisdom said the United States ought to play a weird, neutral role between Israel and its genocidal enemies. You saw this from Joe Biden. Kamala Harris talks like this all the time. Bill Clinton tried it until he realized that Yasser Arafat was totally uninterested in peace. 
But this was the conventional wisdom. Was that, sure, Israel was a strong ally of the United States, but America had to play honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians. And it turns out that that was not just wrong, it was idiotically wrong.
The Trump administration openly supported the IDF.
They openly provided the weapons. 
They openly provided the rhetorical support for Israel to win. And it was that that led to Hamas giving up the ghost and to Hamas, his allies, realizing that actually Israel was not going to be forced to simply accept the risk of its own survival. 
The conventional wisdom said that if you threaten to kill terror leaders abroad, that&#8217;d be conflagrationist and terrible. That, too, was wrong. 
Israel killed terror masters in Iran itself. Israel killed Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas. And of course, it was the strike in Qatar that actually led to Qatar and Turkey deciding to press for Hamas’s ouster. 
Israel then hit inside Qatar in an attempted strike on Hamas&#8217;s leadership. They missed, but the message was made clear: Israel would be willing to do it again. 
And then the president essentially said, “Okay, you know what? We&#8217;ll come in. We&#8217;ll give a security guarantee to Qatar so this doesn&#8217;t happen again. But we need you to end this war. We need you to work with Turkey to stop all of this.”
It was a carrots-and-sticks approach led by President Trump.
President Trump understands the Middle East better than all the so-called experts.
And, by the way, he understands the Middle East far better than the supposed neocons, the total interventionists pushing for ”Democracy in the Middle East.” Trump is not one of those.
He also understands it better than the isolationists in his own party who wanted to reject Trump&#8217;s tempered and rational ”Peace through Strength” in favor of what might be called “Cowardice through Catastrophism,” the idea that World War III is lurking behind every corner — despite the fact that President Trump is the most rational purveyor of American force in modern American history. There was no shot that World War III would break out over one B-2 sortie over Iran. That was not going to happen because Trump was backing the IDF&#8217;s capacity to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That was not going to happen. The catastrophism was nonsense and it was nonsense from the beginning.
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Prime Minister Netanyahu, who soldiered through withering criticism both at home and abroad, of course, for the great crime of seeking victory over those who would destroy his country, deserves credit here.
Huge credit, obviously, as Jared Kushner says, to the Israeli people who mobilized in an unprecedented way to defend their nation and their civilization, we&#8217;re talking about 45-year-old guys leaving four kids at home and their business to go fight in Gaza in the “Sherut Miluim,” the Israeli Army Reserve Service.
And of course, huge props to the American people who provided Israel the support it needed to win, both in terms of material and mostly by making the right decision and electing Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. So, thank you to all the voters of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
It turns out that victory over genocidal enemies is indeed possible. What it requires is a smart strategy that bucks the conventional wisdom, a desire and willingness to win, and the perspicacity to dismiss people who promote either a starry-eyed millenarianism, in which every nation is going to break out into democracy someday, or a benighted conventional wisdom that fails every single time it&#8217;s tried.

TOPSHOT-US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-TRUMP-NETANYAHU-CONFLICT-DIPLOMACY

The Trump Effect: How To Win A War

Ben Shapiro

Benjamin Netanyahu

Hezbollah

Iran

Jews

Middle East

Opinion

Peace Deal

President Trump

Syria

Trump peace plan

After President Donald Trump announced that Israel and the terrorist group Hamas had agreed on the first phase of his peace deal, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement welcoming the development but warning troops to remain on alert and “ready for any scenario.”
“The IDF welcomes the signing of the agreement for the return of the hostages, which was signed overnight,” the IDF stated on X. “During a situational assessment held overnight, the Chief of the General Staff instructed all forces, both on the front lines and in the rear areas, to prepare strong defenses and be ready for any scenario. Force deployments will be carried out in accordance with the directives of the political echelon and the stages of the agreement, with responsibility and a focus on the safety of our soldiers. At the same time, the Chief of the General Staff instructed to prepare to lead the operation for the hostages’ return, which is expected to be conducted with sensitivity and professionalism. The IDF will continue to act to achieve the objectives of the war and to defend the citizens of the State of Israel on all fronts.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The IDF welcomes the signing of the agreement for the return of the hostages, which was signed overnight.
During a situational assessment held overnight, the Chief of the General Staff instructed all forces, both on the front lines and in the rear areas, to prepare strong…
&mdash; Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1976138855368605715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Following the political echelon’s instructions and due to the situational assessment, the IDF has begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement,” the IDF later added. “As part of this process, preparations and a combat protocol are underway to transition to adjusted deployment lines soon. The IDF continues to be deployed in the area and prepared for any operational development.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Following the political echelon’s instructions and due to the situational assessment, the IDF has begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement. As part of this process, preparations and a combat protocol are underway to transition to adjusted…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1976162379055374479?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkmtqextex">report</a> released earlier this week by Israel’s Defense Ministry—timed to the second anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis—revealed that 1,152 Israeli security personnel have been killed since the attack. Of those, more than 40% (487 soldiers) were under the age of 21, and 30% (337 soldiers) were between 22 and 30. The report also noted that 66 women have been killed.
Forty babies have been born to widows who were pregnant when their partners were killed.
“The State of Israel carries a heavy burden. The history of our country is written in the blood of our sons and daughters,” Arie Moalem, head of the ministry’s Families and Commemoration Division, stated. “Each family is a world unto itself, and that is how we treat them. &#8230; In our hearts, we carry a prayer for the return of the hostages, healing for the wounded and the safe return of the IDF soldiers and security forces fighting for our future.”

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

‘Be Ready For Any Scenario’: Israel Defense Forces Welcome Peace Deal But Stay On Alert

The United Nations Security Council has issued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-un-security-council.html">a statement</a> condemning Israel’s strike last week against the leaders of Hamas in Qatar. The statement only highlights how the international conversation surrounding the mission has been predictably loud and legally uninformed. While critics reflexively cry “aggression,” or “violation of sovereignty,” actual international law tells a very different story. Far from being outlawed conduct, the justification for the operation rests on the very framework the international community itself created after the attacks on September 11, 2001. Ironically, that framework is enshrined in a binding UN Security Council Resolution. 
Here’s the point: Harboring a terrorist organization is an outright violation of binding international law, and any State that does so should expect an appropriate response. 
For decades, the prevailing orthodoxy held that only States could commit “armed attacks” that would trigger the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. That might have made sense in 1945, when only governments fielded armies capable of the destruction envisioned by the Charter. Yet even then, international law acknowledged something crucial: If irregular forces caused destruction on a scale comparable to that of a regular army, those acts could be considered armed attacks. This became known as the “scale and effects” test.
The Hamas of today is not a ragtag insurgency. It is a heavily armed, organized, and entrenched militant army that governs territory, fields thousands of fighters, employs rockets, drones, and tunnels, and has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to inflict destruction on a massive scale. Its October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians, its ongoing rocket fire, its continued holding of Israeli hostages, and its declared intent to repeat such attacks all plainly qualify under the “scale and effects” test. By any reasonable military or legal standard, Israel has the right to target those directing such operations wherever they are located.
In truth, however, this analysis is almost unnecessary because the narrow legal interpretation requiring State action effectively died on 9/11. After the World Trade Center attacks, the entire world saw that terrorist groups could inflict devastation matching or exceeding many States. The United States invoked <a href="https://legal.un.org/repertory/art51.shtml">Article 51</a>, and the UN Security Council responded, explicitly acknowledging that terrorist groups can carry out armed attacks, and that States have the right under the Charter to respond in self-defense — even when the perpetrators are non-State actors operating abroad.
Resolution 1368 (2001), adopted the day after 9/11, <a href="https://legal.un.org/repertory/art51/english/rep_supp1_vol1_art51.pdf">declared</a>:
<blockquote>Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.</blockquote>
Just a few weeks later, the Council passed another Resolution 1373, which reaffirmed “the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence as recognized by the Charter of the United Nations as reiterated in resolution 1368 (2001).”
It also imposed additional obligations: States must “refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts” and must “deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts, or provide safe havens.” 
This second Resolution, which included the harboring doctrine, explicitly invoked the authority given to the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Under Article 25 of the Charter, such Chapter VII decisions are binding on all UN Member States and create enforceable international law.
Nor is this practice controversial. Countries around the world consistently rely on the harboring doctrine to go after terrorists. Turkey has conducted operations in Iraq to go after the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), while Russia used it to pursue Chechen militants in Georgia. India cited it to justify surgical strikes within Pakistan to go after groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and France applied it to conduct operations against violent jihadist groups in Mali, Niger, and Chad.
After 9/11, the U.S. framed the Taliban’s harboring of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda as grounds for self-defense under international law. As President Bush <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911-16.html">stated</a>: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” 
In the early 2000s and again in the 2010s, U.S. officials invoked the harboring doctrine against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; Yemen was described as a “safe haven” where terrorists were harbored, justifying U.S. drone strikes and special forces operations. The same rationale guided U.S. policy in Somalia, justifying actions when Somali authorities were unable to restrain al-Shabaab or lacked the capacity to prevent its attacks. In fact, President Obama repeatedly invoked the notion of denying terrorist groups safe havens when he was reinforcing the legal and moral justification for U.S. strikes and operations in regions such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Of course, self-defense is not a blank check. International law requires necessity and proportionality. Here, necessity is obvious because Qatar is not detaining Hamas leaders or halting their activities. Proportionality is likewise satisfied. These are precise, intelligence-driven strikes aimed not at Qatari civilians or infrastructure, but at individuals orchestrating terrorist campaigns. In modern military terms, this is a textbook example of how a State can apply force in a manner that is both lawful and restrained, targeting the enemy while minimizing civilian harm.
Wars are decided not only on battlefields but also in the decisions to act, or to refrain from acting, against threats that originate abroad. History shows that when States allow terrorist sanctuaries to fester, violence metastasizes. Israel’s strike in Qatar is part of a long-established, legally grounded, and militarily necessary practice: denying safe haven to those who would continue to massacre innocents if left untouched.
The right to self-defense includes the right to eliminate a threat, even when that threat is being illegally harbored by a so-called neutral party.
If the United States lawfully struck and killed bin Laden in Pakistan, then Israel lawfully struck and killed Hamas leaders in Qatar. That is not bending international law. It is applying it correctly, even when it comes to Israel.
* * *
Mark Goldfeder is CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center and a law professor at Touro University.
John Spencer is the executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute. He is the coauthor of “Understanding Urban Warfare.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Meets With Congressional Lawmakers On Capitol Hill

The UN Is Wrong. Israel’s Strike In Qatar Was Justified.

Qatar

Terrorists

United Nations

A Jewish family in suburban St. Louis whose son has served in the Israel Defense Forces was targeted by a firebombing earlier this week, with three cars burned and a message, “Death to the IDF,” along with the name of the son, spray-painted on the street.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING <a href="https://twitter.com/J_Insider?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@J_Insider</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/marcrod97?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marcrod97</a>: &quot;Fire-bombing targeting Jewish family, IDF veteran rocks St. Louis Jewish community&quot;
&quot;Missouri state Rep. George Hruza described the incident as ‘Jew-hatred violence’ and an ‘act of pure evil’&quot;<a href="https://t.co/EGNyKHm9Sd">https://t.co/EGNyKHm9Sd</a>
&mdash; Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshKraushaar/status/1953230089103053008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Clayton, Missouri, where the family lives, has a significant Jewish population. According to Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham and Stacey Newman, director of the Missouri Alliance Network, the IDF veteran spoke publicly earlier this year about what he had witnessed in Israel and was targeted by a protest. That demonstration included a poster that called for “a powerful demonstration to oppose the Zionist military presence in our community and to demand accountability for those who help commit atrocities abroad,” <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/08/st-louis-jewish-community-targeted-attack-idf-veteran-firebombing/">Jewish Insider</a> reported.
“Everybody’s worried about their kids,” Newman stated, adding that a family whose children had served in the IDF had asked police to monitor their area.
A <a href="https://x.com/ADLHeartland/status/1952832326846582934/photo/1">coalition of Jewish organizations</a> issued the following statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms the attack on members of our community last night. This is more than vandalism; it is a hateful act of intimidation and only the latest example of what happens when antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric are normalized,” the organizations said. “We are a resilient community, and we will not be deterred in our quest to uproot antisemitism and hatred, alone and with our partners. Antisemitism is a social ill that must be rejected by all of society.”
“This targeted attack against the Jewish community in St. Louis is horrific and must be met with full condemnation,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) wrote on X. “Antisemitism has no place in our society. Everyone involved in this awful attack must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This targeted attack against the Jewish community in St. Louis is horrific and must be met with full condemnation.
Antisemitism has no place in our society. Everyone involved in this awful attack must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. <a href="https://t.co/rzQqtNqWPd">https://t.co/rzQqtNqWPd</a>
&mdash; Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenEricSchmitt/status/1953165107988504890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Leo Terrell, Chair of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, stated, “I am outraged. Antisemitic violence has no place in America, not in St. Louis and not anywhere. We will pursue every avenue to bring the perpetrators to justice. If you commit antisemitic hate crimes, you will be caught. And you will be held accountable.”
Missouri State Rep. George Hruza, whose father is a Holocaust survivor, declared the firebombing an “act of pure evil,” adding, “Nothing happening in the world at large can justify such a hateful act. This incident is antisemitism, plain and simple. This act did not arise in a vacuum. Since the mass murder, torture, rapes, and hostage-taking by the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic rhetoric has become commonplace in the United States. Tragically, with echoes of 1930s Germany, this rhetoric has fueled incitement to violence.”
“Clayton has dedicated extensive resources and brought in regional law enforcement partners, as well as the FBI, in order to find the individual responsible for this repulsive act,” Clayton Mayor Bridget McAndrew <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_2de81bc8-5bc7-4159-bd63-b3f23c6e3d1b.html">stated</a>.
Cpl. Jenny Schwartz of Clayton police said no arrests have been made, but they have a suspect.

Aerial view of City of St. Louis skyline with Gateway Arch and Mississippi River, Missouri

‘Death To The IDF’: St. Louis Jewish Family Targeted In Firebombing Attack

antisemitism

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firebombing

Missouri

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U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed Monday evening that a plan has been developed for Israel to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.
The plan will include the Israel Defense Forces operating in areas where hostages are believed to be held despite Hamas’s threats to murder hostages if forces get too close, The <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-863225" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jerusalem Post reported</a>. Hamas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-israeli-hersh-goldberg-polin-among-six-dead-hostages-recovered-by-israeli-forces-in-rafah" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed six hostages</a> last September — including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin— in Rafah shortly before the IDF reached them.
The Prime Minister&#8217;s office also encouraged IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, to resign from his position if he disagrees with a full occupation.
&#8220;If this does not suit him, you should resign,” the office reportedly said.
The decision came after Hamas tanked ceasefire negotiations last month, leading to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-blames-hamas-for-ceasefire-collapse-says-terror-group-wants-to-die?author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Blames+Hamas+for+Ceasefire+Collapse%2C+Says+Terror+Group+%E2%80%98Wants+To+Die%E2%80%99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Donald Trump saying</a> the terror group “wants to die.”
“They pulled out in terms of negotiation,” Trump said. “It was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die and it’s very, very bad. It got to be to a point where you’re going to finish the job.”
Trump added that Hamas did not want to make a deal because they are down to the final 50 hostages and “they know what happens after you get the final hostages.”
Witkoff said the ceasefire talks fell through because Hamas was not acting “in good faith.”
“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff wrote. “It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way.”
Over the past few days, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad released videos of severely malnourished hostages, including one of Evyatar David, who the terror organization forced <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hamas-forces-emaciated-israeli-hostage-to-dig-his-own-grave?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Hamas+Forces+Emaciated+Israeli+Hostage+To+Dig+His+Own+Grave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to dig</a> his own grave.
“This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out,” David said in the video.
Hamas has reportedly barred the Red Cross from delivering food to hostages unless Israel permanently opens humanitarian corridors and suspends all air traffic during such deliveries, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The IDF has been finishing up its operation dubbed “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-greenlights-major-operation-conquer-occupy-gaza-strip" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gideon’s Chariots</a>” in recent weeks and has withdrawn its elite 98th Division, made up of paratroopers and commando units, along with two reserve brigades, reported the Times of Israel.
The operation led to the IDF gaining control of approximately 75% of the Gaza Strip. Since the launch of Operation Gideon&#8217;s Chariots, 48 IDF soldiers have been killed.

Netanyahu Hamas

Netanyahu Approves Plan For Israel To Fully Occupy Gaza Strip: Reports

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the deaths of three people killed when a missile launched by an Israel Defense Forces tank inadvertently struck a Catholic church in Gaza.
On Thursday morning, a stray missile struck the Holy Family Church; nine people were also injured, one of whom is in critical condition.
&#8220;Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza&#8217;s Holy Family Church,&#8221; Netanyahu said, as Israel National News <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/411846">reported</a>. &#8220;Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful. We are grateful to Pope Leo for his words of comfort. Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting Holy Family Church on Thursday morning. One of the injured is in critical condition. civilians and holy sites.&#8221;
“Israel expresses deep sorrow over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and over any civilian casualty,” Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oren Marmorstein <a href="https://x.com/OrenMarmorstein/status/1945790701280649412?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">stated</a> on X. “The IDF is examining this incident, the circumstances of which are still unclear, and the results of the investigation will be published transparently. Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians.”
The IDF issued a statement saying, &#8220;The IDF is aware of reports regarding damage caused to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and casualties at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are under review. The IDF makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.&#8221;
A telegram sent by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on behalf of Pope Leo <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-demands-ceasefire-after-gazas-catholic-church-hit-apparent-israeli-strike">read</a>, &#8220;His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, and he assures the parish priest, Father Gabriele Romanelli, and the whole parish community of his spiritual closeness.” Pope Leo also apparently called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
The terrorist group still holds roughly 50 hostages from its October 7, 2023, massacre of over 1,200 Israelis. Although only 20 are believed to be alive, Hamas has not released them or the bodies of the dead hostages.

‘Every Innocent Life Lost Is A Tragedy’: Netanyahu’s Statement After IDF Mistakenly Hits Catholic Church

Catholic Church

Global Politics

World

For most American families, the Fourth of July is a joyful celebration — grilling burgers in the backyard, watching fireworks light up the summer sky, and reflecting on the freedoms we’re fortunate to enjoy. We honor liberty, independence, and the founding ideals that shape this country.
For our family, it’s a reminder of the freedom that’s been denied to our son for far too long.
Omer is an American citizen — a kind, optimistic, sports-loving 21-year-old who grew up on Long Island. He was the kind of person who lights up a room, instantly makes new friends, and goes out of his way to include everyone. For over 600 days, Omer has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, alongside 49 others. He was taken from his army post on October 7, 2023. And to this day, no deal has brought him home.
The Fourth of July was always one of Omer’s favorite holidays. He loved everything about it — the spirit, the energy, the sense of unity it brought. One of his most vivid memories was joining a small-town Independence Day parade in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during a cross-country Jewish youth trip. He soaked in the atmosphere — the music, the laughter, the feeling of belonging to something bigger than himself.
Omer had every reason to take a traditional path after high school. He was accepted to SUNY Binghamton and could have started a comfortable American college life. But instead, he chose to serve. He took a gap year in Israel and enlisted as a lone soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. His final post was near the Gaza border, where his mission was to protect nearby civilian communities.
The values we honor on Independence Day — freedom, justice, and human dignity — aren&#8217;t just words we say once a year. They are the foundation of this country. And when those values are threatened — when Americans are held by terrorists for nearly two years — they demand more than celebration. They demand action.
<div id="attachment_942937" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-942937" class="size-large wp-image-942937" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2199158540-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 12: Ronen Neutra and Orna Neutra speak about their son, Omer Neutra, who was killed by Hamas during a roundtable discussion with the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Three more hostages were released on Feb. 8 as part of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2199158540-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2199158540-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2199158540-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2199158540.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images</div>
We have witnessed America&#8217;s incredible power in recent months. President Trump and his administration have shown that this nation can achieve the impossible when it sets its mind to it. We watched with profound gratitude as they secured the release of so many hostages, including American Edan Alexander. This is what America does — we fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. We are a nation that stands up for the vulnerable. We leave no one behind.
President Trump recently said it&#8217;s time to bring all the hostages home — and time for the war to end. We agree. Immense strength has been shown over the past 21 months. Incredible military achievements against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Now, it is time for that strength to deliver peace.
But peace cannot begin until every hostage comes home.
There is no real end to the fighting in Gaza while 50 hostages remain in underground tunnels, cut off from the world, and while families like ours live in daily anguish. Peace cannot be built on the backs of unresolved suffering.
This is not a partisan issue. This is not just an Israeli issue. It is an American issue — and a human issue. Omer is one of our own, but so are the other 49 souls still trapped in darkness. If we mean what we say when we salute the flag or sing the national anthem, we cannot remain silent while any innocent person is held by a U.S.-designated terror group.
&#8220;Peace through strength&#8221; isn&#8217;t just a slogan. It&#8217;s a principle — one that must now lead to freedom for the living, dignity for the dead, and closure for families still waiting. The United States has influence, and it has leverage. It has shown it can move mountains when it chooses to act.
We call on President Trump to press regional leaders, allies, and stakeholders to come to the table and finalize a comprehensive deal. Not in phases, not with half-measures — but a deal that brings every hostage home. A deal that leaves no one behind — not the Americans, not the Israelis, not the Thai workers, not the elderly, not the men — every single one.
Omer is not a symbol or a headline. He is a son. A friend. A teammate. A young man who has always stood up for others. In that sense, he represents the very ideals we celebrate each Fourth of July. And he represents every hostage still waiting for freedom.
So this year, as Americans gather in backyards and parks, as fireworks light up the sky and flags wave proudly — we ask you to think of Omer. And of the 49 others still waiting to come home.
Don&#8217;t just wave the flag. Live its meaning. Call your elected officials. Say Omer&#8217;s name. Say all their names. Remind your representatives that freedom is not complete until it reaches every corner of human suffering.
Let this Independence Day be more than a celebration. Let it be a declaration of conviction—and the beginning of the end of this nightmare.
Because freedom means nothing if we stop fighting for those who’ve lost theirs.
* * * 
Orna and Ronen Neutra are the parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The 2024 Republican National Convention

This July 4th, Freedom Demands We Bring The Hostages Home

Hostages

New York City

October 7

The following excerpt is taken from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Proportionality-Israels-Just-Gaza/dp/B0F841ZJTX">Beyond Proportionality: Israel&#8217;s Just War In Gaza,</a>&#8221; by Thane Rosenbaum (Wicked Son/Post Hill Press, May 2025).
* * *
<h3>INTRODUCTION: “J’accuse!” — The Case Against Israel</h3>
At the turn of the nineteenth century, a political scandal in France galvanized public opinion all over the world. Known as the Dreyfus Affair, at its root was the inexorable display and mass hatred of Jews. This same antisemitic fervor, which a few decades later would materialize into the Holocaust, had been around for two millennia. Occasionally, it would manifest itself in pogroms and mass expulsions. Along the way, it went from latent to lethal, and emanated from a lie.
This time, however, the antisemitism was organized, sanctioned by the government, fueled by the press, and openly embraced by many people who regarded themselves as highly cultivated and civilized. Artists and intellectuals took a special interest in joining the mob. And it came pre-packaged with an easily disproved conspiracy theory involving a treasonous Jewish military officer.
Jews in France had long enjoyed the full panoply of civil rights. Indeed, during the French Revolution, France had become the first European nation to emancipate its Jewish population. For nearly a century, French Jews had participated in every facet of cosmopolitan life among the professional classes and cultural elite. But suddenly, they found themselves facing a backlash unlike anything they had experienced before.
The Dreyfus Affair made the unspoken hatred of Jews not just acceptable but fashionable. Seemingly overnight, Jews in France went from being socially accepted and having a sense of security to being on the receiving end of wild denunciations for their clannishness, duplicity, greed, and dual loyalty.
And much like Nazi Germany, the nerve center of these societal convulsions burned brightest on university campuses, in the pages of the mainstream press, and wherever artists and writers congregated. The fact that it all originated from an easily disprovable lie was of little concern. The case against Dreyfus was merely a pretext to something far worse.
<div id="attachment_942309" style="width: 417px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Proportionality-Israels-Just-Gaza/dp/B0F841ZJTX"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-942309" class="size-large wp-image-942309" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-407x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Post Hill Press/Wicked Son" width="407" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-407x576.jpg 407w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-212x300.jpg 212w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-768x1086.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-1086x1536.jpg 1086w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-1448x2048.jpg 1448w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-02-Jul-2025-12-29-PM-7049-scaled.jpg 1810w" sizes=" (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" /></a>Credit: Post Hill Press/Wicked Son</div>
Captain Alfred Dreyfus was an officer on the French military general staff accused of passing state secrets to Germany — the despised aggressor nation that during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 had humiliated France and annexed Alsace and Moselle. Someone had to be blamed, and Dreyfus, a high-ranking Jewish officer, fully assimilated yet perceived as a foreigner, was an easy fall guy even though there was no actual evidence of his wrongdoing. The French legal system relied upon forged documents — manufactured by military counterintelligence — to falsify his guilt. The letters were not even in Dreyfus’ handwriting.
That’s not to say there was no spy within the ranks of senior military officers. But it wasn’t Captain Dreyfus. Two years after he was court-martialed for treason and shipped off to Devil’s Island, a notorious tropical hellhole where many prisoners died of disease and malnutrition, the French Army uncovered evidence implicating the true culprit — Major Walsin Esterhazy, who had sold secret documents to the German Embassy. But by then the nation was awash in anti-Jewish bigotry. Dreyfus should have been exonerated instantly. Instead, he was returned to France to face a new trial, where he was once again convicted and given an enhanced sentence.
Newspapers around the world covered the trial and its aftermath. A slogan representative of the times referred to Dreyfus as “the Jew who is everywhere but belongs nowhere.” It should come as no surprise to learn that the Dreyfus Affair roughly coincided with the publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, another forged document, this one alleging a Jewish conspiracy to conquer the world.
Events shifted dramatically when one of France’s leading intellectuals, the novelist and playwright Émile Zola, wrote a lengthy front-page essay — famously titled “J’Accuse&#8230;!” — in which he charged the French government and legal system with a coverup. Zola wrote, “Here&#8230;are the facts which explain how a miscarriage of justice could be made; and the moral evidence, the financial circumstances of Dreyfus, the absence of reason, his continual cry of innocence&#8230;the hunting for the ‘dirty Jews,’ which dishonours our time.” Given the public embarrassment to the nation’s institutions, Zola himself was brought to trial and convicted of libel. He fled to London.
Eventually, the obsession with Dreyfus dissipated. The French government and its people finally came to recognize that they had been handed a convenient excuse to shift blame away from France’s military and rest it instead with a familiar villain. National regret ensued, and by 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated, and his rank restored.
But anyone familiar with these events can’t help but see the parallel with what is happening today. The global reaction to Israel’s eighteen-month-long war in Gaza has had many of the same elements: heightened emotions, irrational arguments, distorted histories, the rejection of obvious truths, forged documents, falsified facts, misapplied laws, antisemitic stereotypes, and worldwide anti-Jewish rage. But instead of a single Jewish officer serving as the focal point, this time it was the Jewish state, and its professional military, who stand falsely accused — and with much the same imagery. Thus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often depicted as drinking the blood of Palestinian children.
Such fabrications are all the more paradoxical given the events that preceded and fully justified Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas. These sensationalized condemnations completely overlook and ignore what started the conflict in the first place. On the morning of October 7, 2023, southern Israel was invaded — by land, air, and sea — by six thousand Palestinians from Gaza. Most were terrorists with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but many were ordinary civilians. It was a planned and coordinated attack that lasted several hours and targeted the concert-goers at the Nova Music Festival, most of whom were young peace-loving Israelis.
* * *
<div>
<div class="a-cardui-content a-cardui-uninitialized _about-the-author-card_carouselItemStyles_peekableContent__hWM3i" data-a-max-height="80">
Thane Rosenbaum is an essayist, law professor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction titles, including the novels, &#8220;How Sweet It Is!&#8221;,&#8221; The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,&#8221; &#8220;The Golems of Gotham,&#8221; &#8220;Second Hand Smoke,&#8221; and &#8220;Elijah Visible.&#8221; His articles, reviews and essays appear frequently in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Huffington Post and Daily Beast, among other national publications.
</div>
</div>
This excerpt from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Proportionality-Israels-Just-Gaza/dp/B0F841ZJTX">Beyond Proportionality: Israel&#8217;s Just War In Gaza,</a>&#8221; by Thane Rosenbaum is published by permission from Post Hill Press/Wicked Son.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

When Lies Turn Deadly: The Century-Old Script Behind Today’s Anti-Israel Fury

Anti-Semitism

Books

France

Jewish

Authorities in the United Kingdom said they are considering an investigation after rapper Bobby Vylan led anti-Israel chants at the Glastonbury Festival over the weekend.
Video <a href="https://x.com/JewsFightBack/status/1938995077084520670" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> to X showed Vylan repeatedly shouting &#8220;free, free Palestine,&#8221; and each time the crowd yelled it back. The same exchange happened when Vylan began screaming &#8220;death, death to the IDF,&#8221; using the acronym for the Israeli Defense Forces. &#8220;From the river to the sea&#8221; was also said by the performer.
&#8220;We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon,&#8221; Avon and Somerset Police <a href="https://x.com/ASPolice/status/1939025011844485405" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post on X. &#8220;Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.&#8221;
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The Glastonbury Festival posted a statement on Instagram criticizing the rapper, who is part of the punk duo that also goes by the name Bob Vylan.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Glastonbury. 
The UK’s biggest music festival. 
Over 200,000 in attendance.
On stage, Bob Vylan screamed: 
“DEATH! DEATH TO THE IDF!” 
And the crowd screamed it back.
This is how mainstream Jew-hatred has become. 
Absolutely disgusting. <a href="https://t.co/TC95dtEf0l">pic.twitter.com/TC95dtEf0l</a>
— Jews Fight Back 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@JewsFightBack) <a href="https://twitter.com/JewsFightBack/status/1938995077084520670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer&#8217;s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs,&#8221; the statement <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DLeuti8t5zC/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=87256ce5-88c3-4b8d-9c48-7f4f9df99e48" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
It added, &#8220;However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.&#8221;
Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2025/music/global/glastonbury-appalled-bob-vylan-death-to-idf-chant-1236443589/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that BBC, which aired Bob Vylan&#8217;s set, called the comments made during the performance &#8220;deeply offensive&#8221; and said it had no plans to make the set available on demand.
The news outlet also <a href="https://variety.com/2025/music/global/kneecap-leads-keir-starmer-chant-glastonbury-uk-1236438911/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> the hip-hop group Kneecap led chants of &#8220;f&#8212;&#8221; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and &#8220;free Palestine&#8221; at the same festival. Mo Chara, one of the band’s members, is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2qq2n3800o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fighting</a> a terrorism charge after displaying a Hezbollah flag during a prior show.
The Israeli Embassy in the United Kingdom <a href="https://x.com/IsraelinUK/status/1939019339161563147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post on X that it was &#8220;deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival,&#8221; adding, &#8220;Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democracy. But when speech crosses into incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing, it must be called out — especially when amplified by public figures on prominent platforms.&#8221;

Bobby Vylan

Police Consider Criminal Charges After Rapper Leads ‘Death To The IDF’ Chant At Festival

Music

United Kingdom

Israel Defense Forces announced on Saturday that Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa — one of the Hamas terrorists who helped to plan the October 7 massacre and train those who carried it out — had been &#8220;eliminated.&#8221;
&#8220;ELIMINATED: eliminated Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa — one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing. Issa led Hamas’ force build-up, training, and planned the October 7 massacre,&#8221; read the X post announcing the news. &#8220;As Head of Combat Support, he advanced aerial &amp; naval attacks against Israelis. The IDF &amp; ISA will continue to locate and eliminate all terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🔴 ELIMINATED: eliminated Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa—one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing.
Issa led Hamas’ force build-up, training, and planned the October 7 massacre. As Head of Combat Support, he advanced aerial &amp; naval attacks against Israelis.
The IDF &amp; ISA will… <a href="https://t.co/pzf7DgQc19">pic.twitter.com/pzf7DgQc19</a>
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1939026068499001408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The post included a photo of Issa and several key details about who he was and what he did for the terrorist organization that was based in Gaza.
According to the post, he &#8220;was a key source of knowledge and one of the last remaining senior Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip,&#8221; and he had &#8220;played a significant role in the planning and execution of the October 7th massacre.&#8221;
The IDF also noted that Issa &#8220;was one of the founders of the Hamas military wing&#8221; and had been instrumental in building up the forces in Gaza, where he also &#8220;served as the Head of the Training Headquarters&#8221; and was working to help rebuild operational capabilities that had been compromised by the ongoing war.
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A longer statement from the IDF read, in part, &#8220;Yesterday (Friday), in a joint activity, the IDF and ISA struck and eliminated the terrorist Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa in the area of Sabra in Gaza City. Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa was a senior figure in Hamas’ military wing and was considered one of the founders of the terrorist organization. His current role was Head of Combat Support Headquarters in Hamas’ military wing.&#8221;
&#8220;Throughout the war, and over the past few days, Issa served as Head of the Combat Support Headquarters, and advanced aerial and naval terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip,&#8221; the statement continued.
&#8220;The IDF and ISA will continue to operate to locate and eliminate all terrorists from the different terrorist organizations who took part in the brutal October 7th massacre,&#8221; the IDF concluded.

IDF-Combat-Drone-Unit

October 7th Mastermind ‘ELIMINATED,’ Israel Defense Forces Say

October 7th Mastermind 'ELIMINATED,' Israel Defense Forces Say

Terrorism

President Trump’s strike on Iran is a seminal turning point for American foreign policy.
For years and years and years, we have been boxed into the idea that every war is the Iraq War.
Critics of President Trump — of “Peace through Strength,” going all the way back to World War II, particularly on the Left but now on the horseshoe theory Right as well — have suggested that people who do advocate for American military action liken everything to the lead-up to World War II, to Neville Chamberlain and Munich. They say not everything is World War II. Not every war is the Iraq War.
You might notice that the vast bevy of people who keep complaining about President Trump&#8217;s strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities keep comparing this to the Iraq War. That’s crazy.
These people who keep saying that a one-off strike on a nuclear facility — which is significantly more like killing Osama Bin Laden or killing Qasem Soleimani or killing Anwar al-Awlaki — is somehow more akin to the Iraq War: a full-scale, hundreds of thousands of troops ground invasion of a country in the Middle East, followed by a 20-year effort to rebuild the country and remold the government.
You have to be empty-headed to make that comparison.
But there is an Iraq War syndrome that has set in the American body politic that suggests that every military action is like the Iraq War. It&#8217;s very much like the Vietnam War syndrome that set in after the end of the Vietnam War, when every military action was supposed to be exactly what America did in Vietnam. It took Ronald Reagan breaking the Soviet Union in order for that to begin to end, and it truly ended when George H. W. Bush helped win the first Gulf War.
The lesson of Vietnam and Iraq is not: “Military power, or the threat of its use by the United States is bad,” or even worse, “The United States itself is bad,” which is an argument that is being made all the time by the horseshoe theory Left and the horseshoe theory Right.
The real lesson here is that victory is a possibility. Victory can be achieved if the commitment is clear and if the goal is defined.
President Trump had a goal. He defined that goal. He made a commitment to that goal. And then he pursued an action in pursuit of that goal.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2223-trump-s-masterstroke-what-comes-next?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
The same people who are suggesting that President Trump is wrong to bomb the nuclear facilities are the same people who suggest that the United States was wrong to use the atomic bomb to end World War II, or that America has been historically evil over the course of decades. The Howard Zinn Left and the Tucker Carlson Right shake hands on this particular prospect.
But that perspective is wrong. And it is not just wrong, it is a nefariously bad perspective, because it damages America.
The world is better off because of American power — properly used. Of course power can be misused; anyone can misuse their power. We&#8217;re the most powerful country in the history of the world, with the most powerful military in the history of the world.
But — when you use your power properly, you can effectuate good things happening.
President Trump is not George W. Bush. He ran against George W. Bush’s foreign policy. President Trump has never engaged in a long-term nation building project, nor will he. He defined this mission specifically.
<div id="attachment_938485" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-938485" class="size-large wp-image-938485" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220648176-864x576.jpg" alt="US Vice President JD Vance, from left, US President Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, and Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, during an address to the nation in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Saturday, June 21, 2025. Trump said the US military struck three sites in Iran on Saturday, marking the first American involvement in direct attacks against Iranian nuclear assets in its conflict with Israel. Photographer: Carlos Barria/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220648176-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220648176-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220648176-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220648176.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Carlos Barria/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
I do not actually think that the people warning about a “quagmire” are saying something understandable. I think they are saying something dishonest. I think they are lying to you.
Israel and the United States are not talking about regime change. When President Trump says that there may be regime change in Iran, he means from the Iranian people. That&#8217;s the same thing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. Do you think Netanyahu, from a country of 9.7 million people, two million of whom are Arabs and two million of whom are ultra-Orthodox Jews, that tiny country is going to deploy hundreds of thousands of troops to Iran to engage in nation-building? Do you think the United States is going to do that?
If Iranians don&#8217;t overthrow the regime, that&#8217;s their prerogative. But that does not mean that you allow that regime to go nuclear.
All of this raises a question. What exactly is the opposition? What is the opposition here? What is the case against the strike on Iran?
You can basically make three cases: the constitutional, the pragmatic, and the ideological. I think there are a lot of people who are making the constitutional and pragmatic arguments who secretly want to make the ideological argument.
The ideological argument is that America is bad, that when America involves itself in foreign policy, we are doing something evil and immoral, that our enemies, our geopolitical opponents, never have their own philosophy or their own interests. They are always, in every case, driven by American blowback. The only reason people are bad in the world is because America did a bad thing to them, and then those people turn bad.
That, of course, is ignorant. It is stupid. It is wrong. Civilizations have different interests. Countries have different interests. Those countries are driven by interests that are not always about America. Iran pursued regional domination in spite of what America was doing, not because America was a threat to Iran.
Iran decided that it wanted to obliterate Israel, wanted to wipe Saudi Arabia from the map, and wanted to take control of Yemen, not because of America, but because that is the Iranian goal. Russia is invading Ukraine because that has been their longstanding policy, not because Ukraine was moving in a more pro-American direction. Russia decided it wanted to invade Ukraine because it has been Russian policy since the 1990s to reunify with Ukraine, or at least turn it into a proxy regime.
Countries have their own rationales. The ideological case, a Howard Zinn-America-Hating-First case, has been adopted by many on the horseshoe theory Right.
Then there are people masquerading as constitutionalists who are interested in the constitutionality of what Trump is doing. This idea that the War Powers Act (War Powers Resolution) somehow prevents the president of the United States from engaging in a one-off strike is absolute sheer nonsense. It is not true. First of all, there&#8217;s serious doubt as to whether the War Powers Resolution, passed by Congress in 1973, is even constitutional. It may, in fact, violate the Article II prerogatives of the President of the United States. Article II, Section II of the Constitution says, “The president shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states.” The president is the Commander-In-Chief.
Only Congress has the power to declare war under Article I, Section VIII, Clause XI.
But did we declare war against Iran? Is there a war against Iran? One-off airstrikes do not mean a full-scale war against a country. They don&#8217;t. If that&#8217;s true, then we&#8217;ve been at war many, many, many, many times since World War II, all across the globe. But that is not what war constitutes. The Supreme Court has said so.
The War Powers Resolution states: “In the absence of the declaration of war, the president must report to Congress within 48 hours after introducing U.S. military forces in hostilities, which must end within 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise.”
There&#8217;s only one problem. Do you think the United States is engaging in 60 days of on-the-ground hostilities with Iran? We barely engaged in 37 hours of hostilities with Iran. Does this amount to a War Powers Resolution violation?
Then there are those people “deeply worried” about the pragmatic effect of this, who were not worried a few years ago when President Trump killed Qasem Soleimani, and who didn&#8217;t seem particularly worried five minutes ago, before this all happened, when Iran had terror cells throughout the West, but now they&#8217;re very, very worried.
Iran has been pursuing terror attacks, including an attempted assassination of the current President of the United States, for decades. At this point, they have planted terror cells all throughout the world. If the idea is that planting terror cells buys Iran impunity and Iran can now act with complete impunity all over the globe, pursuing nuclear weapons, and that means you can&#8217;t do anything about it, then what is the purpose of American foreign policy? What is the purpose?
I&#8217;m not saying there isn’t a risk when you take action. I&#8217;m saying that the greater risk would be a nuclear-armed Iran with terrorist cells all across the West. That&#8217;s the bigger risk.
This “pragmatic concern” is, in reality, something else.
It is a belief that America&#8217;s foreign policy is inherently bad, that America is the nefarious actor in the world. It&#8217;s wrong and it&#8217;s stupid.
President Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he ordered the strike on Iran. 
And he was absolutely correct.

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