Israel is the Agressor

(Thanks to "Nation of Israel Lives")

 “Israel is the aggressor”? The data completely disagrees with you.

Defense Spending

In the 1980s, Israel’s defense spending exceeded 30% of GDP. On the eve of October 7th, it was around 5%. What caused Israel to raise its defense spending again? That’s right, Palestinian aggression.

Service Terms

Mandatory military service was reduced by 4 months for both men and women. For men, it was reduced from three years to about 2.8 years. For women, service was reduced from two years to about 1.8 years. What caused Israel to raise it back up again? That’s right, Palestinian aggression. 

Defensive Technologies

Instead of attacking aggressively, Israel invested heavily in defensive systems like Iron Dome and Iron Beam. Why? To intercept rockets. To protect civilians. To avoid large-scale wars whenever possible. What caused Israel to destroy Gaza? That’s right, Palestinian aggression. 

Land for Peace

Israel withdrew completely from Gaza and parts of northern Samaria, and got October 7th. Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for peace. It handed control of the Al-Aqsa compound to the Jordanian Waqf to reduce religious conflict.

What made Israel conquer land again? You guessed it, Palestinian aggression, as well as aggression from terror groups threatening us on our borders.

Occupation

Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the PLO, an organization previously recognized globally as a terror group.

The idea was to stop any form of “aggression” and work toward peace. To let the Palestinians self-govern. This turned out very badly with the Second Intifada. Why did this not work? Yup, Palestinian aggression.

Double Standard

One final number to think about.

Israel has been the subject of 173 UN condemnations. Most countries in the world have fewer than three. And the Palestinian Authority?  Almost zero.

 

Deafening Silence

( Cross posted from Grandma's Army)

It is no secret that the Iranian regime is an authoritarian state that enforces religious conformity through violence and fear. The ordinary Iranian people  are risking, and losing, their lives  in an attempt to reclaim their country and their freedom  - from one of the most frightening theocracies on earth. The regime kills those who dare to protest, having oppressed its population since the Shah was driven out. It is also no secret that the death penalty is issued disproportionately among Iran’s persecuted minorities – including Christians, Baha’i and Kurds.

Iranian women who refuse compulsory veiling, students who chant for freedom, artists who risk prison for a line of poetry, and civilians abducted from their homes all find themselves strangely sidelined. Their suffering is real, but it is not useful. Their humanity is undeniable, but it does not flatter the ideological needs of the moment.

At the same time, Iran directs its fury outward, threatening Israel relentlessly. Terrorism does not appear from nowhere; it must be cultivated, through indoctrination, hatred, and the deliberate radicalization of the young, until they are willing to die for it. That poison has now spread far beyond Iran’s borders.

The world’s most organised and persistent outrage is aimed, not at these regimes which support terror, but at one of the smallest minorities on earth: the Jews, and their state.

But all this apparently doesn’t bother the average Western student as much as Israel’s response in Gaza. The Iranian-sponsored, Hamas-led invasion and mega atrocity of October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 were murdered, 251 kidnapped, thousands wounded, and tens of thousands displaced from their homes - many of which were destroyed.  

So why the silence?

Simply put, opposing the Iranian regime has become inconvenient. And it may not be incidental that Iran’s leadership has, for decades, pledged itself to the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state - a reality that renders condemnation of Tehran uncomfortably close to defending Israel.

Israel and the United States are assigned the role of primary villains, and any force positioned against them benefits from a kind of moral insulation. Iran, despite its internal brutality, occupies a strange protected space, not because it is admired, but because criticizing it risks appearing to align oneself, however indirectly, with the assumed evils of the West. This same pattern revealed itself starkly after October 7. In the wake of mass murder, rape, and kidnapping, one might reasonably have expected unwavering universal condemnation. And yet, here too, the silence was striking.

Many of the same cultural figures who speak readily about injustice could not bring themselves to say a word about the hostages. Their captivity did not register as a moral emergency. Their release, when it occurred, was not celebrated. There were no statements of relief, no acknowledgments of suffering, no insistence, however minimal, that kidnapping civilians is wrong regardless of context.

This was not ignorance. It was purposeful omission. Silence was the safer bet. The same logic that applies to Iran.

This leads to an uncomfortable but unavoidable conclusion: it is as unfashionable to support Iranian protesters as it was to insist on the basic humanity of Israeli hostages - and the right of Israel to defend itself from implacable enemies, whose only mission in life is Israel’s total destruction.

Silence, in moments like this, is not neutral. It is a position. And it communicates something unmistakable. It tells the world that solidarity is selective. That some victims are too inconvenient to acknowledge. It suggests that suffering alone is insufficient to warrant concern, that it must first pass an ideological test.

A Truly Royal Funeral,

 This is really unique! Instead of a happy event this sad event turned into a really royal funeral for the  last hostage of the Gaza war who has finally found. Two days ago a huge group of Israeli soldiers turned an improvised cemetery in the northern part of the Gaza strip upside down and located among hundreds of bodies the long missed remains of the hero soldier Rani Gvili.

In the morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023 Ran woke up the terrible news of the raid of the Gazan terrorists into Israel. He was injured at his shoulder and was due to undergo surgery. However, he didn’t hesitate to join his colleagues, being a member of a special unit of the police. He grabbed his weapon and went out to defend his country. He arrived to help protect Kibbutz Alumim, succeeded to kill 14 terrorists, but was shot at and wounded and finally murdered and his body dragged into Gaza.

The Israeli army and the government had pledged that no hostage will stay behind. This pledge was finally fulfilled last Monday. Today’s funeral was nothing less than royal. His unbelievable family, the entire top echelon of leaders of Israel, half of the country attended either in person or in watching the funeral. The were many moving eulogies, the first by his incredible mother.

There is no place in the world compared to Israel in honoring its heroes, its soldiers, its captives, old and young, soldiers and civilians, saving no effort to bring them home, the injured living ones for rehabilitation, the deceased an honorable funeral in the holy earth of Israel. 

(Posted for Doris Heilbot)

                               

Israel to be cited by Guinness World Records for kidney donations

The remarks follow a public outcry last year after the British body had informed the Israeli group behind an event honoring 2,000 Israeli kidney donors in Jerusalem that it was no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories due to regional tensions.

In a reversal, Guinness World Records is again accepting submissions from Israel, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday, and will be cited for a world record in kidney donations.

“I was happy to learn that the flawed decision to reject the submission to the Guinness Book of World Records, simply because it came from Israel, was reversed, and now it is officially a world record,” Herzog said at the event hosted by the Israeli NGO, Matnat Chaim, whose name means “Gift of Life” in Hebrew, that helps people make voluntary kidney donations.

“This is absolutely a world record.  A world record for humanity.  A world record for solidarity,” he added.

“This is indeed a historic event for us, as an organization that is going to put Israel in the world records,” Yerach Tucker, a group spokesman, told JNS on Monday.  “Moreover, it is not just an Israeli accomplishment but a human and medical achievement as well. 

He added that the group had been in contact with Guinness officials on Monday, and was told that the event would indeed enter the book of the records in accordance with their regulations.

“We are very pleased that Guinness reconsidered their position on Israel and was willing to cooperate with us on our event, and we are hopeful that we will get the official confirmation about breaking their world record in a short time,” Judy Singer, vice president of the organization, told JNS on Monday.

Hamas's Actual Position on Disarmament, Trump's Board of Peace

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  January 26, 2026 

https://egretnews.com/index.php/2026/01/26/gazas-colonization-council-hamass-actual-position-on-disarmament-trumps-board-of-peace/

• Hamas is clearly unfazed by Trump's repeated threats that it must give up its weapons. The terror organization maintains that Israel is the one that needs to be disarmed. Hamas has become used to Trump's recurring threats over the past year -- especially with Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Trump's new Board of Peace to make sure that Hamas is left untouched. Hamas is apparently convinced that Trump's threats are just a means of scaring the terror group.
• These countries will undoubtedly serve as Hamas's representatives on the Board of Peace and make sure that the terror group preserves its political and military presence not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the Palestinian arena as well. The assumption that Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or other Arab and Islamic countries would participate in any effort forcibly to disarm or demote Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups is nothing but a starry-eyed make believe.
• "The composition of the Gaza administration committee is also flawed, as all its members are loyal to the Palestinian Authority, masquerading as technocrats and professionals." — Yassin Ezzedine, Palestinian political analyst, felesteen.news, January 18, 2026.
• Palestinian poet and journalist Ali Jahiz described the Board of Peace as "a major catastrophe... a peace board for the occupation of Gaza and the disarmament of the resistance. It is headed by the criminal Trump, and consists of bodies led by Zionists, with nominal participation from regional countries. In short: A dangerous occupation with multiple fronts."
• Another important fact that Trump and his advisors need to pay attention to: Hamas is threatening to attack members of the proposed International Stabilization Force in the Gaza Strip.

•     Hamas's refusal to disarm, its opposition to the Board of Peace, and threats to kill members of the International Stabilization Force signal that the terror group and its supporters have total contempt for Trump or anyone who seeks a better life for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. For the Islamist terrorists, the Jihad to destroy Israel takes precedence over reconstruction, economic prosperity, everything.

Is the Iranian Regime Finally Falling?

There are growing signs of cracks in the Iranian regime, with increasing reports of defections as Iran continues its deadly crackdown on nationwide, anti-government protests despite a US military buildup in the region.

Hundreds of junior and mid-level officers have recently defected from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated Basij paramilitary force, Israel’s channel 12 reported on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence sources.

Such a development could weaken the regime’s ability to suppress the demonstrations.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly ordered the IRGC to take control of the crackdown in part due to fears of defections by the police and regular armed forces.

“He [Khamenei] is in closer contact with the IRGC than with the army or the police, because he believes the risk of IRGC defections is almost non-existent, whereas others have defected before,” a senior Iranian official told The Telegraph. “He has placed his fate in the hands of the IRGC.”

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the regular Iranian military “is generally less ideological and more representative of the Iranian population than the IRGC, which increases the risk that [army] members could defect.”

However, there have been additional signs that the IRGC, an internationally designated terrorist group, could be dealing with internal dissent.

The Intelligence Organization of the IRGC issued a statement earlier this month castigating the protests as part of a “terrorist” plot orchestrated by the US and Israel to topple the regime. In a now-deleted section of the statement, the IRGC also warned that any “defiance, desertion, or disobedience” among the military would be met with “trial and decisive action.”

“The apparent removal of this language likely reflects concerns about triggering a panic, but it nevertheless exposes the depth of anxiety among regime officials,” wrote Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank based in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization also said that it was “dealing with possible acts of abandonment,” similarly suggesting that some Iranian security forces may have already defected or that the regime is concerned about such a possibility.

A Kurdish human rights organization reported earlier this month that the regime had arrested “dozens” of security officers in Kermanshah City who refused to fire on protesters.

Meanwhile, multiple Iranian officials outside the security forces have openly defected.

An official serving in Iran’s Interior Ministry told the news outlet Iran International that he has defected from his post and joined the protests, urging US President Donald Trump to intervene against the Islamic Republic.

Iran International also reported that Alireza Jiranieh Hokambad, a minister-counselor and the second highest-ranking official at Iran’s UN mission in Geneva, has defected and sought political asylum in Switzerland.

Wikipedia becomes global arena for poisoning knowledge, especially about Israel

Ella Kenan (co-founder of the organization Here4Good, she leads content creation and research on the impact of foreign actors on public opinion through social networks and artificial intelligence models, and on exposing disinformation campaigns and networks.))

a comment

This week, Wikipedia marks 25 years since its founding. It once symbolized the internet’s great promise: free, collaborative knowledge accessible to all. But in 2026, that dream is steadily unraveling. Wikipedia is no longer just an information repository. It has become an ideological battleground in which organized interest groups succeed in distorting, deleting and rewriting history, sometimes in a systematic and deliberate way.

If you think Wikipedia is just another website that has become less relevant in the age of AI, you are missing one of the most dangerous arenas of influence of our time. It is among the most visited websites in the world, with between 3.5 and 4 billion visits a month, and a source that almost always appears at the top of Google search results. Beyond that, Wikipedia is one of the central knowledge sources on which artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT are trained. The implication is clear: a distortion or outright falsehood that takes root in a Wikipedia entry does not stay there. It is replicated and spread through AI engines and quickly becomes “knowledge” in the eyes of millions of users worldwide, who use it on social media, in academic work and as general reference. In this sense, Wikipedia is now one of the most influential mechanisms for poisoning knowledge  in the digital age.

This is a real danger to states, communities and public figures. It is important to stress that this is not a legitimate dispute between differing opinions, but the erasure of documented history and the spread of false narratives under a veneer of “neutrality.”

English-language entries dealing with the State of Israel, Zionism, Jewish history and archaeology in the Land of Israel have undergone systematic rewriting. Behind the scenes, organized groups promote a specific narrative, delete established facts and block editors who try to introduce balance, sometimes through votes that lead to articles being locked.

This is not a theory. It is a documented reality. Only recently, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s co-founder, addressed the English-language entry “Gaza genocide” and acknowledged that it was locked for editing due to severe bias and failure to meet the site’s standards. Editors who tried to balance the content found themselves removed or silenced. When it comes to the number of casualties in Gaza, Wikipedia states that the figure reaches about 680,000 people, a number that even Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is fully controlled by Hamas, does not claim.

There are many other troubling examples. Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, is not defined on English Wikipedia as a city in any country, but as a city in the “southwestern Levant.” Even after Wales’ personal intervention, the biased definition returned.

Beyond this, there is a systematic erasure of Jewish history. The historical connection to the Jewish people to Israel was erased, and the narrative reshaped.

For full article go to https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/rkn0tawrwx