reuben poupko

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Air Force strikes Beirut’s Dahiyeh area after Hezbollah fires rockets at north https://t.co/2uoWSdGFJg via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Images show several apartment buildings hit hard in Beirut strikes https://t.co/0tIXW20NvO via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

US resolution at UN nuclear watchdog demands Iran provide info on bombed nuclear sites https://t.co/VLKkIgEQdH via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Israel updated US ahead of Beirut strikes, Saudi TV reports https://t.co/53g7S58Pnj via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Trump says he would only lift Iran sanctions after deal; is not demanding Lebanon be part of short-term agreement https://t.co/TU6IjgQWCp via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Two killed, at least 11 hurt in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut — Lebanese media https://t.co/vz0kGTWcYn via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Albanian PM says Israel's foes behind anti-Kushner protests https://t.co/cTINZntc3I

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Azerbaijan Becomes Israel's Gas Buffer - Jacob Wirtschafter (Media Line-Jerusalem Post)
    When Israel's gas exports to Egypt and Jordan were stopped and restarted three times since Oct. 2023, as it did for 32 days during the Hormuz war, Azerbaijan's state oil company, SOCAR, kept Israel linked to its regional customers, shipping three cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Egypt each month.
    Egyptian lawmaker Mohamed Fouad said SOCAR is meant to supplement Israeli pipeline gas, not replace it.
    Egypt's December 2025 agreement with Israel for 130 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas over 15 years, worth $35 billion, remains "structurally irreplaceable."
https://t.co/ZzVgF4dTPV

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Qatar Spent $400 Billion to Buy Influence in America - Jonathan Schanzer (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
    Why has a country of just 330,000 citizens plowed $400 billion into the U.S.? According to Qatari government estimates or even the White House, the total number may exceed $1.2 trillion.
    But there are more than a few reasons to question the largesse of the Qatari government, which is a longstanding patron of Hamas and the primary patron of the Muslim Brotherhood, a global network of Islamist groups that seek the downfall of the West.
https://t.co/rz6zbTVWjo

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Israel Is Developing Airborne Lasers - Tal Shahaf (Ynet News)
    The Israeli Air Force is steadily improving its ability to carry out missions that until recently would have been impossible.
    Col. M., 45, an F-15 squadron commander, has headed the Air Force Weapons Systems department for the past three years. He said that during the past 2 1/2 years of war, "the ground-based detection network has improved dramatically."
    "The interception systems, including Iron Dome, have adapted in extraordinary ways. We adapted our attack helicopters and improved the accuracy of target handoffs, and their interception rates increased significantly."
    "Within a few years, fighter aircraft will carry lasers for both defensive and offensive missions. It will change the game, just as Iron Dome transformed air defense."
    "Lasers on helicopters could arrive within two years, and lasers on fighter jets by the end of the decade."
https://t.co/ZyiTSvaUUz

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Israel, U.S. Launch Talks on New Defense Framework to Transition from Aid to Reciprocal Partnership - Nava Freiberg (Times of Israel)
    The Israeli Defense Ministry and the Trump administration launched formal talks last week on a new security cooperation framework to replace the current ten-year memorandum of understanding signed under the Obama administration, which is set to expire in 2028.
    The ministry said the new framework "is designed to strengthen the IDF's qualitative military edge through expanded joint investment in research, development and co-production, deepen the U.S.-Israel partnership demonstrated during [the 2026 U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran] and gradually transition from aid to a completely reciprocal partnership."
https://t.co/ZXUJh7ojV3 via @timesofisrael

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Israel Has Contained Hamas - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News)
    Hamas currently has 20,000 operatives in Gaza, including 8,000 experienced fighters.
    The remainder are young men and teenagers recruited hastily and provided with basic training and light weapons, including RPGs.
    But Hamas has been severely weakened and in recent days has initiated little beyond intelligence gathering.
    The presence of armed clans whose members and families, numbering in the tens of thousands, live in IDF-controlled areas are continually challenge Hamas authority and undermining its rule.
    Public support for Hamas appears to be declining, as seen at the funeral of Izz al-Din Haddad, the Gaza City commander who became Hamas's leader in Gaza. Only a few dozen Gazans attended, compared with tens of thousands who once attended funerals of less senior commanders.
    Haddad was succeeded by Mohammed Oudeh, who has also since been killed.
    Hamas has not been completely destroyed, but its military wing has been severely battered and, according to reliable information, is not rebuilding at the alarming pace sometimes claimed in the media.
    Unlike in the past, civilians who are neither Hamas members nor relatives of Hamas members now have access to food, water and medicine in Gaza, due to the substantial humanitarian aid flowing into the territory.
    However, Hamas still seizes a significant portion of that aid and sells it, primarily to finance the recruitment of new operatives.
https://t.co/5xzyedhsaX

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Iran Facing Multifront War as Bessent Ratchets Up Financial Squeeze https://t.co/QK1gOLaTwI

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Israel: Too Soon to Write Off Announced Ceasefire in Lebanon - Itamar Eichner (Ynet News)
    An Israeli official said Saturday that it is too early to write off the announced ceasefire in Lebanon.
    "During the negotiations, the Lebanese told us behind closed doors, 'We can get Hizbullah to stop firing,'" the official said.
    "The ceasefire was based on that assumption, with the understanding that Hizbullah would halt its attacks and that 2,000 operatives - including members of the Radwan Force - who had moved south of the Litani River would return north."
    "Hizbullah Secretary-General Naim Qassem publicly declared that he did not accept [the ceasefire], but in practice, there has been less fire directed at northern communities."
    "Now Lebanon must deliver on what it said - that it has control over Hizbullah."
https://t.co/AznwnTj09k

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Why Israel Should Close Every UN Office in the Country - Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch
Last week, the UN Secretary-General included the Israeli security forces in a blacklist of bodies and countries guilty of "conflict-related sexual violence." The UN alleged that Israeli authorities continue to hold over 9,000 Palestinians in detention, never mentioning that the detainees are terrorists, that each is brought before a court, or that thousands of them are convicted offenders. In response, Israel announced that it was cutting all ties with the office of the UN Secretary-General.
    When it comes to the UN, Israel needs to take a much more aggressive response and should immediately and permanently close every UN office operating in the country. For decades, the UN actively engaged with a host of NGOs, many of which were either fronts for terrorist organizations or had close connections to them. The "evidence" provided by the terrorists was then presented by the UN to the world as legitimate and reliable.
    A new Israeli government report, Laundering Propaganda: How UN Actors Manipulated Information in the Gaza War (2023-2025), demonstrates how UN officials, with little basis or no basis whatsoever, were at the forefront of distorting reality and promoting blood libels against Israel.
    There are 22 UN organizations, devoted to the Palestinian cause of destroying Israel, that operate in Israel. 17 have a physical presence in Israel. Every UN organization should be permanently closed and all their UN staffers, together with the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, should be expelled.
The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.  (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
https://t.co/IpxgsBLz60

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Why I Won't Debate Critics of Israel - Sam Harris
Many readers and podcast listeners, dismayed by my enduring support for Israel, have urged me to debate someone drawn from a growing cast of scholars, grifters, and moral lunatics who have made that beleaguered country their professional or psychiatric obsession.
    I'm not interested in exploring all the ways that Israel has missed the mark because none of these failings will alter my sense that (1) the ethical difference between Israel and her enemies remains vast, and (2) the global preoccupation with the Jewish state, as though it were the worst villain among nations, is contemptible, being the product of perennial lies and delusions.
    Militant Islam is ten times worse than you think it is. I consider "jihadists" - Hamas, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, Islamic State, IRGC - worse than Nazis. There remains a world of difference between the two sides. It is brutalizing any free society to confront enemies that can sincerely claim to "love death" more than everyone else loves life, for this has been Israel's predicament for the better part of a century.
    The problem in the Middle East is not, and has never been, the existence of the state of Israel. The problem is jihadism, Islamism, Islamic extremism, Islamofascism, militant Islam - describing the belligerence and triumphal lunacy of those who take the most pernicious doctrines of Islam too seriously.
    If the Palestinians simply stopped killing Jews and stopped building a culture that celebrates pointless murder and martyrdom as its highest values, there would be peace. But if the Israelis laid down their weapons, there would be a genocide. This was obviously true on Oct. 7, 2023, and it has been true on every other day since the founding of the state of Israel.
    One question clarifies everything in the present: What would each side do if it had the power to do whatever it wanted? Everyone knows the answer to this question. If Hamas had the power, it would perpetrate a real genocide in Israel. Even after all the devastation that Hamas has brought down on its own people, it remains the most popular Palestinian faction. This is why there is no peace in the Middle East.
    Antisemites hate everything that makes culturally rich, diverse, open societies possible. They bring censorship, political repression, conspiracy thinking, and the politics of dehumanization and scapegoating. So decrying antisemitism is a defense of the moral and institutional architecture that free societies require.
The writer is a neuroscientist, philosopher, author and podcast host.   (Substack)
https://t.co/Z7uoymqIjj

[reuben poupko @poupko]

What Happens When Jihadists Smell Weakness - Khaled Abu Toameh
Nearly three years after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel, Hamas leaders are once again issuing threats, glorifying jihad (holy war), and promising more violence. Their statements should serve as a wake-up call not only for Israel, but also for Washington and the wider West. Hamas and Iran believe they are winning.
    Last week, Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, declared that "the bill will remain open until the [Israeli] enemy pays it." Israel "has not achieved anything by assassinating [Hamas] leaders" and insisted that Hamas has produced "a generation of leaders who will continue the path of those who came before them." These are the words of a group that believes time is on its side.
    Hamas leaders see the U.S. conducting endless negotiations with Iran's regime. They see Iran continuing to arm and finance its terrorist proxies across the Middle East. They see Hizbullah in Lebanon continuing its attacks on Israel.
Jihadist organizations are constantly searching for signs of weakness among their enemies. They interpret restraint differently from the way Western policymakers do. What many Western leaders describe as diplomacy, patience, or de-escalation is frequently interpreted by Islamists as surrender, fear, or exhaustion. The Oct. 7 massacre was partly the result of Hamas's belief that Israel had become weak, divided, and vulnerable.
    Western policymakers, especially Americans, tend to seek quick solutions. Defeating radical Islamist movements requires strategic patience, consistency, and a willingness to sustain pressure. Hamas, Hizbullah, and their patrons in Iran view conflict in terms of generations. Every appearance of indecision only encourages further aggression, and convinces terrorist leaders that persistence will eventually bring victory. (Gatestone Institute)
https://t.co/Wg97WmoFKx

[reuben poupko @poupko]

The West's Bizarre Coverage of the Iran War - Amir Taheri
In decades of journalism covering a dozen wars, I have never been as puzzled by media coverage of a conflict as I am today with how the Iran-U.S.-Israel war is depicted in much of the mainstream media. For the past three weeks, Iran has made no attacks on Israel, focusing on targeting Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations. And that is not to mention Iran's attacks on spectators such as Jordan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Cyprus.
    Another peculiar feature of this war is the targeting of civilian and/or dual-use infrastructure rather than purely military ones. Iranian drones hit hotels in Dubai and the civilian terminal in Kuwait Airport.
    But the most curious feature of this war, rarely seen in most previous conflicts, is its depiction by the mainstream media (MSM) through a prism of ideological and/or partisan prejudices. Because President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu do not enjoy widespread popularity across the globe, the MSM cover the war with a clear bias in favor of Iran. Some depict Iran as an innocent though a bit naughty country given to boasting and bragging but certainly not deserving a thrashing.
    Paris walls are plastered with posters shrieking "Trump, Netanyahu! Stop the War!" as if Iran was not involved except as a victim. European and American MSM try to portray Iran in rosy shades that make many Iranians uneasy, to say the least. What the MSM choose to ignore is the war within this war, one that the regime is waging against the Iranian people.
    Since the war began last February, hundreds of Iranians have been executed on spurious charges, while over 2,000 have been arrested across the country. To shed tears for such a regime and depict it as an innocent victim is a betrayal of the Iranian people. More importantly, it is a betrayal of the truth.
The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.  (Gatestone Institute)
https://t.co/M6OmPCaA7W

[reuben poupko @poupko]

Iran Acting to Rebuild Its Deterrence Against the U.S. - Major (res.) Danny Citrinowicz
The exchanges of fire between Iranian and American forces over the past several nights reflect a deeper trend: Tehran's attempt to rebuild its deterrence against the U.S., alongside an unwillingness to accept any effort to undermine the new status quo it seeks to impose in the Strait of Hormuz.
    Tehran believes that tankers operating with American assistance, or U.S. Navy vessels, are trying to challenge the new reality it seeks to impose in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, it acts against those vessels, prompting a measured American response, usually against an Iranian military facility in the region. An Iranian limited response against American bases then follows, mainly in Kuwait and also in Bahrain. Tehran appears to be gradually raising the threshold of its response in an effort to establish a deterrence equation with the U.S.
    The collapse of Iran's concept of "forward defense," which rested on the idea that regional proxies would deter Israel and prevent a direct attack on Iran, is leading Iran to conclude that the most effective way to deter the U.S. from future military action, or from supporting another Israeli strike, is by creating a direct deterrence equation with Washington.
The writer is former head of the Iran Division in the IDF Military Intelligence Research Department.  (Israel Hayom)
https://t.co/je9KUL8BWR

[reuben poupko @poupko]

IDF: Hezbollah fire caused death of Serbian UNIFIL soldier https://t.co/BOuZWBD3AS