Noah Shack, 41, is still new enough in his second month on the job as CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, that the walls of his office in Toronto’s modernist Lipa Green Building are bare. But the items on his desk offer a hint at his motivations.

A small Israeli flag emerges from an orange bucket, alongside pens and highlighters. A “Zionist vibes only” mug sits across his desk from a copy of the 2014 book “The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel.” On a windowsill, photos of his kids flank paintings of theirs, including one that says “happy Mother’s Day.”

The Ottawa native told JNS that combating Jew-hatred—which has surged in the country since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—is a major focus of his, and it’s not only about Jews.

“It’s fundamentally a Canadian issue,” he told JNS. “If our community can’t thrive here, it means there’s a fundamental corrosion of Canadian values in this country, and it’s a very different place for everyone.”

Thinking holistically is necessary to keep Jews safe, according to Shack, who formerly served as CIJA’s vice president for the greater Toronto area and national policy director.

“It’s not going to be the lobbyists alone that carry the day,” he told JNS. “It has to be a partnership between the professionals in Ottawa and dedicated community members, who can speak authentically about what this current moment means for them and their families.”

To Shack, advocacy is a team event.

“We can’t do it alone. We have to be shoulder to shoulder with our community, working together to make sure that our governments understand what we’re going through, the solutions we’re putting forward and that there’s an entire community of support, Jewish or not, pushing back against the hate we’re experiencing,” he told JNS.

The first major initiative that CIJA has launched under Shack’s leadership is an online “action hub” that helps members of the community contact elected officials and join CIJA campaigns.

“The idea is to create a central place where people can go, find opportunities to put their hand up and take action and to really start to, in a more intentional way, build a movement for the community to be active participants in CIJA’s advocacy,” Shack told JNS.

Power of the total community

An early interest in global affairs and public policy set Shack on a path that took him to the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and to the London School of Economics, where he earned a master’s with distinction in the theory and history of international relations.

In London, he studied the Iranian nuclear program. Subsequently, in Washington, where he worked at the Middle East Institute, he told JNS that he learned to navigate the “bubble” of U.S. policy circles and test his ideas among leading experts.

He found his work back home to be the most formative.

“Canada is a very different place with a different role in the world,” he told JNS. “Coming to understand that history of engagement between Canada and Israel was transformative for me.”

Most recently, he served as vice president for countering Jew-hatred and hate at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, where he worked with law enforcement, schools and community partners to promote inclusion and security.

Disagreement within the Jewish community comes with the job, he told JNS.

“The notion that we will be uniform in any way is laughable,” he said. “There will always be multiple views about the best way to move things forward. We want to think creatively about how we can harness the power of the total of our community.”

“My approach is about mutual respect and understanding that people will approach problems differently and seek out different solutions,” he added.

Shack told JNS that CIJA is waiting for an April 2024 legal case to unfold in the Federal Court of Canada in which families who lost relatives on Oct. 7 are pushing for a judicial review of the federal government’s decision the prior month to resume funding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

Israel has documented ties between UNRWA staff and Hamas, and several of the former took part directly in the attacks on Oct. 7.

Under Canadian law, it is illegal to fund groups that are linked to terror, and CIJA has said that the government violated its anti-terrorism laws and statutory obligations. The government moved unsuccessfully to dismiss the suit.

“The time has come for there to be alternatives considered by the government of Canada in terms of humanitarian aid, in terms of support for Palestinians who may be suffering,” Shack told JNS. “Canadian taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be going to support an organization that is so complicit with Hamas terrorism and the hostages.”

‘Essential ingredient’

As he builds coalitions, Shack told JNS he is also looking outside the Jewish community and partnering with ethnic groups and convening faith leaders for joint action against hate. That’s an “essential ingredient” to fighting Jew-hatred, he told JNS.

Those with personal connections to Jews report having twice as favorable views of Jews, and they have “significantly more willingness to identify antisemitism and higher likelihood of being vocal and standing against it,” he said.

He wears his Jewish identity on his head, he told JNS.

“I’ve worn a kippah for many, many years. It’s about being a proud and visible Jew in this moment where there’s so much fear,” he said. “If I’m in a position of community leadership to be able to stand tall and proud being very outwardly Jewish, I think that’s an important thing to do.”

Slovenia banned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday, accusing the senior cabinet members of "inciting violence" against Palestinians.

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich "through their genocidal statements, incite extreme violence and serious violations of Palestinians' human rights," the Central European nation claimed following a government meeting.

"They publicly advocate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the forced displacement of Palestinians, and call for violence against the Palestinian civilian population," Ljubljana said.

(Slovenia, like many other countries around the world, describes the historically Jewish territories of Judea and Samaria as the "West Bank.")

"Through their actions and positions," the statement said, the two ministers "promote ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and Gaza."

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir did not immediately respond to Ljubljana's announcement on Thursday evening in the Jewish state.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon noted that "this is the first measure of this nature" taken by a member state of the European Union.

EU foreign ministers shelved measures against Israel on Tuesday after understandings were reached between Brussels and Jerusalem to significantly improve and increase humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Slovenia, along with eight other European nations, requested in June that Brussels take action against goods and services originating from Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, after Ljubljana recognized a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip last year.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said that while sanctions against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are ready, the measures have been blocked by one of its member states—reportedly Hungary.

Last month, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K. imposed financial sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for allegedly "inciting violence" against Arab residents of Judea and Samaria.

"Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights," the top diplomats of the five nations said in a joint statement made public by the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Ben-Gvir has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt negotiations with Hamas and "destroy, kill and annihilate" terrorists. Smotrich has expressed support for "destroying the enemy in Gaza."

It was a cold Wednesday morning when I found myself tucked into a corner of a trendy cafe, meeting with a professor from my university in Australia. I had recently graduated and wished to discuss my plans before my imminent move to Israel.

In fact, Israel—more specifically, our political differences regarding it—served to provide underlying tension in our discussion.

Unafraid of political disagreement, we dived into conversation on Israeli politics almost immediately. Explaining the constituencies active in the Israeli political landscape, I mentioned the community with which I identify: the knitted-kippah-wearing "Religious Zionists," known in Israel as Dati Leumi.

As nationalism was his area of research, the professor inquired further. I defined the community as a revolutionary one—one that saw religious significance in the modern-day State of Israel. A movement that resisted the insular instincts of the ultra-Orthodox in favor of a religious and national renaissance through the restoration of sovereignty in Israel.

With pride, I boasted of how the community is overrepresented on the front lines of protecting the state; how, when secular society floundered, Religious Zionism picked up the torch of pioneering spirit; how it, more than any other group, instills Israel with forward momentum, a movement towards destiny so rare in an increasingly lethargic West.

His reaction to this description was visibly uncomfortable, and I can imagine why. His associations with religious nationalism were with the Baath movement in Iraq and Syria, Christian nationalists in the United States and Turkish nationalists under Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—regimes known for brutality and intolerance.

Religious nationalism has an unsavoury reputation and for good reason. The combination of religious zealotry with ideological fervor is a recipe for abominable outcomes. It runs contrary to the sacred divide that characterises the West: the separation of church and state.

In vain, I searched for a characteristic that distinguished my community from other religious nationalists, to no avail.

Religious nationalism is often characterized by a desire for territorial growth, reliant on historical claims. While I believe, in the case of Israel, the claims to the areas of Judea and Samaria are legitimate, this is not characteristically different from other movements.

It would be cold comfort for someone like my professor, who supports the Palestinian cause, that Religious Zionists do not aspire to world domination, but only to the historic lands of the Jews, in which Palestinians currently reside.

The violence and discrimination against the "other" that religious nationalism often emboldens are present in Religious Zionism. While a majority of Religious Zionists do not engage in violence and many have strong relationships with minorities, I cannot claim that there is no normalization of violence in certain circles of the Religious Zionist community. The political philosophy of the Jewish supremacist figure Meir Kahane has returned to the Religious Zionist zeitgeist.

Ultimately, our conversation concluded amicably, and we parted ways. Yet the question remained with me. To borrow a phrase from the Passover meal: What makes this religious nationalism different from all other religious nationalisms?

The answer is a single word: Messianism.

That word may frighten more than it comforts. Few things can justify violence as effectively as the idea of utopia, and messianic tones are far from uncommon in religious nationalist movements.

Yet in other movements, utopia is particularist—a goal of national ascendancy. For Turkey, the messianic vision is a return to Ottoman borders; for Russia, an empire stretching into Eastern Europe, claiming hegemony over all Slavic peoples. Religious Zionism, by contrast, has a universalist vision—one in which the return of Jews to their land leads to a world in which, in the words of Isaiah: “They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

This is a radically different idea of redemption. To reach this idyllic future, no armies must march, no surrounding nations must be subjugated, and no existing peoples cleansed. Instead, peace emerges through restraint and ethics. As it says in Deuteronomy: “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession.”

This vision suggests that the messianic era will arrive not through domination, but through good deeds and moral integrity.

I am far from the first to point out this distinction. Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865–1935), the foremost ideological figure of the Religious Zionist movement—akin to Theodor Herzl or Martin Luther King Jr. in stature—drew this line clearly.

In the first issue of his journal Ha-Peles, HaRav Kook—as he was called—published an essay titled Te’udat Yisrael U-Leumiyuto (Israel’s Mission and Nationhood). In it, he claimed that Religious Zionism is not a movement driven by the passions of nationalist fervour, but by the intellect. It acknowledges the universal ethical mission with which its nationalism is tasked. Without that ethical core, he warned, Zionism would descend into what he called nationalismus—a hollow pretext for xenophobia and violence.

So, what are the implications of this ethical messianism? It may be comforting to think that the Religious Zionist community is founded on altruistic ideals. But it does not erase the problems of religious nationalism. I cannot claim that all members of the community embody the universalism of its luminaries.

And yet, because this idea lies at the movement’s core, it keeps the center from drifting toward the extremes. There will always be radicals, but no Religious Zionist can stand and publicly deny belief in peace, in the sanctity of life, or in the vision that Israel should be, in Isaiah’s words: “A light unto the nations.”

Why? Because of the text.

Religious Zionism is a textual movement, grounded in a literary canon that emphasizes ethics. Its battles are fought not by hooligans in the streets, but by communal leaders on the pages of journals and newspapers.

Kook transcribed a doctrine of universal love—not only love for secular Zionists and their contributions toward the ingathering of Israel, but love for the beauty in all people, including the non-religious and even the anti-religious.

Even in the writings of his more zealous son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda—known for his messianic fervour and occasional tensions with Israel’s secular authorities—there is reflected a deep and foundational love of humanity.

This ethical messianism, codified in the writings of these figures, acts as an edifice upon which leaders rise to push back against extremism and preserve the moral centre.

It was on such a foundation that Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Yehuda Amital, headmasters of one of Religious Zionism’s most prestigious institutions, stood to challenge their community during the moral crises of Lebanon and the First Intifada. It is the same foundation upon which future leaders will stand to confront the extremists of the next generation.

Religious Zionism is faced with the challenges of all ideologies: the lure of extremism, tribalism and hatred of the other. And yet, it stands firm, fortified by solid foundations and timeless ideals.

I am proud of my community. I am proud of the sacrifices we make to protect our country. I am proud of the energy and purpose we bring to the nation. I am proud that the torch of pioneering Zionism—that bold movement to reinvent the Jew for modernity—is still held aloft after falling from secular Israel’s hand.

But most of all, I am proud of our mission: to bring the world into a greater awareness of the other by example.

JNS CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief Alex Traiman returns from Washington with firsthand insights after accompanying Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on his third meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Joining him in the Jerusalem studio is Josh Hasten, JNS Middle East correspondent, for an exclusive breakdown.

This episode discusses rumors of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu, revealing what really transpired inside the Oval Office during their rare back-to-back meetings. The hosts explore the deepening coordination between Israel and the United States, including the joint military operations ("Operation Rising Lion" and "Operation Midnight Hammer") targeting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

They also examine the broader strategic picture, including potential normalization deals with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon, and the evolving threat from the Houthis in Yemen, which may soon require direct Israeli military action.

Traiman and Hasten analyze the latest on hostage negotiations with Hamas, the impasse over a ceasefire deal and Netanyahu’s refusal to guarantee an end to the war in Gaza. And they address claims by The New York Times accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war in Gaza for political gain, and discuss the prime minister’s sharp rebuttal.

On the domestic front, they cover a deadly terrorist attack in Gush Etzion carried out by members of the Palestinian Authority police, raising new doubts about the Palestinian Authority’s role in Judea and Samaria. The episode concludes with updates on internal political struggles: Netanyahu’s fight with Gali Baharav-Miara, the attorney general; disputes over the IDF draft law; and the battle over leadership of the Shin Bet.

Don’t miss the up-to-minute news on “Jerusalem Minute!” Subscribe to ‪‪@JNS_TV‬.

Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, political coordinator for the Israeli mission to the United Nations, criticized several U.N. agencies during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which she said “has continued to abandon all semblance of neutrality and impartiality.”

“The glaring silence of this council about Israeli children, about hostages, murdered toddlers like the Bibas boys, on traumatized survivors who will never see their parents again, on children running for shelter as Iranian missiles rained down on civilian population centres, is more than a technical mission,” the Israeli diplomat told the council. “It is a moral failure.”

Ben-Naftaly told the council that Tom Fletcher, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, neglected to mention Tzeela Gez, an Israeli who was murdered in a terror attack in May en route to the hospital to give birth, when he discussed Palestinian casualties in Judea and Samaria. (Gez’s baby son, Ravid Chaim, died of his wounds two weeks later.)

The Israeli diplomat also said that Catherine Russell, executive director of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), failed to mention Israeli children, whose fathers remain hostages in Gaza.

“Roni and Alma Miran are 4- and 2-and-a-half years old. Like many kids their age, they regularly make pretend phone calls on their telephones,” Ben-Naftaly told the council. “But unlike most children their age, when their mother asks them who they’re speaking to, their answer carries a deep pain.”

“The answer is always the same. Abba. Dad,” she told the council. “They ask, ‘Where are you, Daddy? Are they letting you return to us?’”

The two kids hug and kiss a photo of their father, Omri Miran, held by terrorists in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. “For those two young girls, that’s nearly their entire lives without their Abba,” Ben-Naftaly said.

The Israeli diplomat also shared stories of other children awaiting the return of their fathers.

“These children were victims of an evil that this council seems unwilling to address or condemn: Hamas,” Ben-Naftaly said. “We are presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendant’s chair, while Hamas, the very cause of this conflict and the very instigator of suffering of Israelis but also of Palestinians, goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation.”

‘They fuel antisemitism around the world’

Dorothy Shea, interim U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that Fletcher “pointed the finger of blame solely on Israel with one reference to Hamas.”

The global agency’s refusal to work with the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an alternative aid delivery mechanism, is “tantamount to dereliction of duty in the humanitarian space,” she said.

She said that most criticism of the foundation, which the United States is funding, is “incorrect information that benefits Hamas and undermines the secure delivery of aid to civilians in Gaza.”

The foundation has come under heavy criticism from its outset by U.N. supporters, who have claimed on multiple occasions that aid seekers have been massacred at or near foundation distribution sites. Both the foundation and Israel have denied those claims repeatedly.

The United Nations has stated that only its agencies can adequately supply aid to Gazans. Israel has posted photographs repeatedly of aid trucks that it said were allowed to enter Gaza but sit idly in the Strip waiting for U.N. agencies to retrieve and distribute the aid.

Shea said that accusations that multiple council members have made that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza are “categorically false.”

“They fuel antisemitism around the world,” the U.S. diplomat said of those attacks.

‘We can already see some improvements’

Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the European Union’s delegation to the global body, told the Security Council that an agreement between Israel and the EU last week to allow more aid into Gaza is already making a difference.

“We can already see some improvements, including delivery of fuel, re-opening of the Jordanian and Egyptian routes, opening of a crossing point in North Gaza and ongoing reparations of essential humanitarian infrastructure,” he said. “A lot more is needed.”

The EU diplomat told the council that it will take measures to ensure that aid won’t fall into Hamas’s hands. The terror organization has long seized aid, and it has reportedly resold some of it at higher prices to Gazans.

Evangelos Sekeris, the Greek ambassador to the United Nations, said that there must be more done to “ensure that the increased humanitarian aid benefits directly the Gazan population and is not diverted by Hamas.”

“We expect that the agreed steps are implemented urgently,” he said.

The hypocrisy, double standards and malevolence are off the scale.

Syrian government forces carried out a four-day massacre this week of the Druze minority in Suweida, a Druze town in southern Syria. An estimated 300 Druze were slaughtered in a series of barbaric atrocities perpetrated by troops loyal to the new Syrian president, Abu Mohammed al-Julani.

About 150,000 Druze live in northern Israel. These are loyal and brave Israeli citizens. Many have served in the Israel Defense Forces, and several have lost their lives in the service of the Jewish state. Druze communities also serve as a strategic buffer zone for Israel on the Golan Heights and in Syria.

As a result, Israel went into Syria to defend them. The IDF conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting Syrian government troop convoys, and also struck the Syrian defense ministry headquarters in Damascus and sites near the presidential palace. Under this pressure, a ceasefire was agreed, and Syrian forces withdrew from Suweida.

The attacks on the Druze were barbaric. There were reportedly beheadings and rapes; children were murdered in front of their parents.

The troops publicly humiliated their male victims by shaving off their beards, which are religiously significant to them, in a chilling echo of what the Nazis did to the Jews of Germany.

Yet this slaughter elicited no condemnation from those who, day in and day out, signal their own supposed virtue by falsely accusing Israel of war crimes. Faced with the evidence of a horrific attempt to exterminate the Druze, demonstrators who have been screaming about Israel’s “genocide” for the past 21 months were conspicuously absent from the streets and campuses.

The likes of Amnesty and Human Rights Watch were silent. Al-Julani’s troops reportedly slaughtered the entire staff at Suweida’s hospital along with their patients. Yet from those who falsely accuse Israel of targeting hospitals in Gaza in order to kill patients and staff—and who wickedly ignore the fact that Hamas has turned them into terrorist hubs and thus made them into legitimate military targets—there was only silence.

Astoundingly, these people instead blamed Israel—the only country that went to the aid of the Druze—for attacking Syria. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, posted on X that he condemned the killing of any civilians, omitted to place responsibility on al-Julani’s forces and instead blamed Israel for defending the Druze.

Various media outlets reported these atrocities as “tit for tat” skirmishes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes. Even the Trump administration bafflingly described what happened as a “misunderstanding” between Israel and Syria that had somehow gotten out of hand.

The perversity of all this reaction was hardly surprising. Much of it was wrapped up in a deep animus against Israel and the Jewish people, which is its own dark and terrifying story.

Something else, however, was at work here—and that was the rush that took place to embrace al-Julani, a former member of Al-Qaeda and ISIS who had been imprisoned by the Americans from 2006 to 2011, as a force for good.

Despite al-Julani’s blood-soaked jihadi past, world leaders queued up for a picture of them shaking his hand. U.S. President Donald Trump declared him a “handsome guy,” delisting his militia, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as a terrorist entity and lifting sanctions on it.

All the new president had needed to do was trim his beard, don sharply-cut Western clothes, replace his nom de guerre of al-Julani by Ahmad al-Sharaa and declare that he wanted to join the Abraham Accords—and he was miraculously transformed from a depraved fanatic into an invaluable regional player.

This required his new fans to believe that one day, al-Julani thought that he had a mission from God to slaughter infidels, but the next day, that belief had conveniently vanished. Much more likely was that he had expeditiously parked his Islamism, following the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya or mandated lying for Islam.

Western leaders don’t know about or understand such things because they choose to shut their minds completely to the realities of the Islamic world and the fanatical Islamist mindset. They view the world through a Western prism that depicts everyone from other cultures as being governed, as they themselves are, by reason and self-interest.

Secularists are unable to understand any religious mindset, which seems to them too ridiculous to take seriously. They believe accordingly that Islamists are driven to commit their terrible atrocities from oppression, dire poverty or despair. They can’t grasp that, on the contrary, the jihadi ecstatically believes himself to be fulfilling a sacred duty in murdering unbelievers because this is the work of God.

Such Westerners accordingly seize upon any apparent confirmation that religious fanatics are deep down just like themselves. That’s why they all swooned over al-Julani.

A reformed jihadist confirms their belief that Islamist mass murderers are, in fact, charming and delightful individuals who are simply thrilled to give up the beheading and raping and burning alive in order to hobnob with world leaders, swan around in official cars and leave all their youthful excesses behind.

So, goes this thinking, there’s no need to be frightened by people like that at all. They’re basically fine. All they need is to be given a chance.

This same fantasy generated the disastrous Western attitude towards the Arab war of extermination against the Jewish homeland in Israel. The West’s insistence on dividing the land in a “two-state solution” derives from its fixed belief that the conflict is over the division of the land.

It refuses to believe that this is a war of extermination because that seems so utterly pointless; it makes no sense to the Western mind that can only think in terms of cause and effect.

That’s also one reason why the West finds it so difficult to understand antisemitism. Such persistent hatred of the Jews, goes this thinking, can only mean that they have done something really terrible to deserve it.

The idea that people want to wipe out the Jews simply because such antisemites subscribe to a deranged belief that the Jews shouldn’t exist at all runs smack up against the West’s deficient grasp of human nature. Which means it doesn’t understand antisemitism at all.

This failure in understanding led to the catastrophe of the Oslo Accords, the shattering impact of which has come into the sharpest possible relief as a result of the Hamas-led atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the war that has followed.

This is because, under the thinking behind Oslo, the West told itself that first the Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and then his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, were no longer terrorists but had become statesmen.

Accordingly, the Oslo Accords gave the Palestinian Arabs the infrastructure of autonomous self-government. The result has been three decades of a Palestinian Authority that became a global engine for the destruction of Israel and incitement against Jews.

In a fascinating podcast interview with Dan Senor, Israel’s minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who has been at the forefront of Israel’s engagement with the United States during the current war and who was involved in trying to resolve the Middle East conflict for decades before, noted that since Oslo, the P.A. has systematically poisoned a generation of Palestinian Arabs against Israel.

A few days after Oct. 7, Dermer was sent a shocking video in which young Palestinian Arab children were talking about wanting to kill the Jews. The point was that these weren’t children from Hamas-run Gaza but from the Palestinian area of Jerusalem.

“People don’t want to believe it,” said Dermer, “because they don’t want to stare this evil in the face and say it has to be dealt with.”

Dermer remains remarkably optimistic that the current war, which he says Israel will win, will offer, once it ends, a chance to “reset Oslo” by linking the reconstruction of Gaza with deradicalization so that Palestinian Arabs no longer want to murder Jews.

Whether or not his optimism about this is well-founded, teaching the blinkered West to stare evil in the face is scarcely less of an urgent challenge.

The Israel Defense Forces killed two Hezbollah terrorists, including a member of the group's elite Radwan Force, in separate strikes across Southern Lebanon on Thursday morning.

In the space of an hour, the military killed Hassan Ahmad Sabra—a Radwan Force commander—near Nabatieh in southeastern Lebanon, and a second operative who was rebuilding infrastructure in the Naqoura area of southwestern Lebanon.

The Radwan Force is the Hezbollah unit tasked with infiltrating Israeli territory, seizing areas along the northern border and abducting hostages as part of the terrorist group's "Conquer the Galilee" plan.

The activities the terrorists were involved in "constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon," the IDF stated, referring to the ceasefire agreement reached in November between Jerusalem and Beirut.

"The IDF will continue to act forcefully to remove any threat to the State of Israel," the military added.

On Tuesday morning, the Israeli Air Force carried out a broad wave of strikes targeting the Radwan Force in eastern Lebanon's Beqaa Valley.

The targeted camps were "used by the Hezbollah terror group to train and prepare operatives for attacks against IDF forces and the State of Israel," the military said, adding, "As part of this training, the terrorists conduct shooting drills and exercises with various types of weapons."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sent "a clear message to the Hezbollah terror group, which is plotting to rebuild its capabilities to raid Israel through the Radwan Force—and also to the Lebanese government, which is responsible for upholding the agreement.

"Every terrorist will be targeted, and every threat to the residents of the State of Israel will be thwarted," he continued. "We will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding [Hezbollah]."

On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed terror group began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Since the truce, the IDF has conducted frequent raids to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding terrorist infrastructure in Southern Lebanon and so violating the terms of the ceasefire deal.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has rejected demands to disarm in accordance with the truce, warning last week that the terror group was "rebuilding, recovering and ready now" to take on the IDF.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun over the weekend ruled out the possibility of normalizing relations with Jerusalem, though he expressed a desire to end the longstanding conflict with Israel.

"Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalization, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy,” Aoun said.

Is Syria the new front in Israel’s multi-pronged war, and could a known terrorist become an unlikely strategic ally? 

Senior JNS contributing editor Ruthie Blum and Mark Regev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom—both former advisers at the Prime Minister’s Office—break down Israel’s rapidly evolving security landscape, where threats from the north and south exacerbate political instability at home.

As the Israel Defense Forces strike the brutal forces of the new Syrian leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, Blum and Regev unpack what’s really behind Israel’s intervention to protect the embattled Druze community. Is this about Israel’s moral obligation, strategic deterrence or a long-term bet on future alliances?

In Gaza, civilian evacuations and intensified military operations continue as delicate hostage negotiations unfold in Qatar. Could a new deal be close? Or is Hamas once again stalling for time? The hosts scrutinize the risks and paradoxes facing Israeli decision-makers: How do you balance rescuing 50 remaining hostages with minimizing IDF casualties and eradicating Hamas once and for all?

Back in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces not only war on multiple fronts, but legal troubles and a brewing coalition collapse over Haredi military service. With a government on the brink and elections possibly around the corner, Blum and Regev ask: Can Netanyahu govern through crisis, or is the clock ticking?

See more at: @JNS_TV. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button!

Send feedback or topic suggestions to: undiplomatic@jns.org

A coalition of countries announced a series of measures, including preventing weapons transfers to Israel, that it said will bring about an end to Jerusalem’s war against Hamas.

The Wednesday announcement came after a two-day “emergency summit” of the eight-nation Hague Group in Bogotá, Colombia. The Colombian and South African governments co-hosted the gathering.

The Hague Group was formed in January to bring the so-called global south together “to take ‘coordinated legal and diplomatic measures’ against Israel’s violations of international law.” 

The group stated that all 30 states at the summit “unanimously agreed that the era of impunity must end, and that international law must be enforced without fear or favor through immediate domestic policies and legislation, along with a unified call for an immediate ceasefire.”

Twelve of the 30 pledged to implement half a dozen measures, including preventing the “provision or transfer” of weapons, military equipment and fuel and dual-use items to Israel.

Vessels thought to be carrying such products to Israel would be barred from transiting or docking at any participating country’s ports, and such vessels won’t be allowed to bear the flag of the 12 states. 

Each participating state will also launch “an urgent review” of its public contracts to ensure they don’t support Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territory.

States must also “comply with obligations to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law” through independent investigations and support “universal jurisdiction mandates,” which would put Israelis in the crosshairs of any state’s legal pursuits.

The 12 states are Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, South Africa, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Algeria, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Honduras, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela also joined the summit, as did the Palestinian Authority.

The group stated that more countries are expected to join the measures on Sept. 20, when the annual, high-level debate week for the United Nations General Assembly takes place. “Consultations with capitals across the world are now ongoing,” the group stated.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur whom Washington sanctioned this month for her long history of antisemitic comments, attended the summit. “The clock is now ticking for states, from Europe to the Arab world and beyond, to join them,” Albanese said of the 12 that adopted the new measures.

Many of the countries that attended the summit are critics of the West. Qatar and Turkey are U.S. allies.

A U.S. State Department spokesman told JNS earlier this week that Washington “strongly opposes efforts by so-called ‘multilateral blocs’ to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas.”

The Hague Group “seeks to undermine the sovereignty of democratic nations by isolating and attempting to delegitimize Israel, transparently laying the groundwork for targeting the United States, our military and our allies,” the spokesman said.

The U.S. government “will aggressively defend our interests, our military and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare,” the spokesman told JNS. “We urge our friends to stand with us in this critical endeavor.”