The progressive anti-Israel movement views Yitzhak Rabin, a former Israeli PM, as negatively as they do Benjamin Netanyahu. This is evident in the backlash faced by AOC when she was invited to an event honouring Rabin, highlighting the absence of a progressive peace camp within the political left.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq are launching drone attacks on Gulf states, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, in response to the ongoing war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran. These militias, with significant firepower and influence, are acting with less restraint and are directly coordinating with the Iranian military. The situation is straining relations between Iraq and its Gulf neighbours, highlighting the militias' growing power and the Iragi government's struggle to control them.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq are caught in a hidden war within the war: Armed groups backed by Tehran are launching drones at Gulf states. Some of them are ready to strike back. www.wsj.com/world/middle... By Stephen Kalin #Islamism #IranProxies #Iraq #IranWar
There are three state actors involved here and two nonstate actors. The states: Israel, Lebanon, France. The nonstates: Hezbollah and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). But it's not even that simple, because Lebanon hovers on the border between state and nonstate. Hezbollah, a nonstate actor, has for a long time controlled Lebanon while backed by its masters in Iran. Hezbollah, Iran, Assadist Syria (which is no more), and the Palestinian movement have all conspired to prevent Lebanon from fully becoming a state. France is the former colonial steward whose mishandling of that responsibility has created the lion's share of the mess we see today. Israel, which liberated its Jews and Arabs from colonial domination by Britain, would like to see Lebanon similarly liberated. France seems satisfied as long as Lebanon is unfree and miserable. So you can guess who Europe and the media have designated as the bad guy in all this. Yep, Israel. But every so often there comes a possible wake-up call. France has worked tirelessly to prevent Israel from clearing Hezbollah out of Lebanon. UNIFIL, which is tasked with at least some level of policing of Hezbollah's rearmament for its permanent war machine, has not only spectacularly failed but has been coopted by Hezbollah itself-collaborating with the terrorist group in past conflicts and keeping silent while Hezbollah has built tunnels under UN observation posts in recent years.
So the killing of a French UNIFIL soldier makes clear the danger of letting Hezbollah fester in someone else's country. French President Emmanuel Macron has been calling for Israel and Lebanon to hit the brakes on their recent attempts to defeat Hezbollah and reassert Lebanese sovereignty, but perhaps this will inspire a change of heart? Probably not. Here was Macron's statement on Saturday: "Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah. France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest the perpetrators and take their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL." France apparently wants to know how Lebanon could have let something like this happen. After all, Lebanon has a responsibility to police its territory and maintain its monopoly on the state use of force. When Hezbollah kills French citizens, anyway. The attitude is quite different when Hezbollah is busy killing Israelis. Or Jews anywhere in the world, including on European soil. In that case, the impatience is with Israel not Lebanon. Hypocrisy at this level is a talent. France is a peerless practitioner of narcissism in foreign policy. Everyone has something they're good at. This is what Macron's France is good at. So it permeates every utterance out of Paris.
Perhaps France should lend a hand at disarming and disbanding Hezbollah? Or would that be too much to ask? Relatedly, there is a possibility that Israel will be the one to bring justice to the murderer of the French soldier. If that happens, Macron will no doubt criticize Israel for violating a cease-fire. Of course, the current Israel-Lebanon negotiations have nothing to do with France, because the Trump administration sidelined Paris and then immediately brought Israel and Lebanon closer to mutual recognition than they've been in decades, maybe ever. That is no coincidence: France does not desire peace in the Levant. Instead, it desires a running scapegoat for all its manifold failures in the region and the bloodshed that its malign incompetence has wrought. That scapegoat is Israel. Just over a century ago, France played a role in the birth of Palestinian Arab nationalism by using force to keep Syria from establishing an independent kingdom. The Arabs of Palestine anticipated being part of Greater Syria; their nationalism, to the extent it was coherent, was Syrian. Arab leaders had until that point been receptive to some form of Jewish self-determination in the land, which they publicly and readily admitted was the historic Jewish homeland. Now, thanks to the French, they turned their nationalist fervor to the cause of anti-Zionism. Plus ça change, as Macron might say.
The death of a French soldier in Lebanon: While Israel and #Lebanon are engaged in a pretend cease-fire, a French soldier serving with the UN peacekeepers was reportedly killed by a #Hezbollah terrorist. And that is the Israel-Lebanon conflict in a nutshell. www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/...
The Italian Cultural Institute in Thessaloniki, housed in a building with a rich history, has been sold to a German supermarket chain. The building, originally a school for Italian and Jewish children, holds valuable historical documents, including a letter detailing the persecution of Thessaloniki's Jews during WWII. Italian professor Antonio Crescenzi, who discovered these documents, emphasises the building's significance as a carrier of collective memory and a testament to Thessaloniki's multicultural past.
Stories from a #Thessaloniki basement: The Italian Cultural Institute has been sold to a supermarket chain, but beneath its floors, the city’s Italian-Jewish history survives www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1300... #HistoricalPoliticalMemory #GreekJews #Shoah #antisemitism
So here's a radical idea: The Palestinian leadership should be asked to rectify this. Make an offer. Produce an acceptable map. It would be even better if the Palestinians were to announce that they were ready to end the conflict so long as specific and enumerated conditions were met. As of now, we don't know if the Palestinians would be willing to end the conflict, even if they stopped turning down statehood. The two are related: The Palestinian leadership most likely has never considered accepting a two-state proposal precisely because they would be expected to see it as a resolution to the conflict. Israelis understand this, and it accounts for some of the hesitation they have shown to continue offering the Palestinians a state: They want an end to the conflict and the Palestinians are unwilling to make such a promise. October 7 made this clear not only to Israelis but to the world. Too much of the Palestinian public seemed most divided not on whether October 7 was good or bad but whether it was good or a hoax. The response from the "pro-Palestinian" industry globally was to support Hamas or, at the very least, only punish the Jewish state. To top it all off, the October 7 attacks were aimed at torpedoing negotiations seeking a broad Arab-Israeli peace that would include a path to a Palestinian state. One of the two Palestinian factions was successful in sabotaging those talks and thus sabotaging the path to statehood.
Putting the onus on Israel, then, would only be understandable for someone born yesterday. Since no one born yesterday is on Twitter arguing over the Arab-Israeli conflict, there is a certain faux-naivete to this entire debate. The Palestinians could disrupt their own unbroken pattern of rejectionism if they wanted to. And so they should: Mahmoud Abbas should make a speech, tomorrow if possible, and say explicitly that the Palestinians are prepared to consider the conflict resolved if they attain statehood through negotiations with Israel. In the same speech, Abbas should do what Olmert did for him and hold up a map of the two-state solution based on past negotiations. If they really wanted to put Bibi on the spot, that would do it. The onus would then be on Israel to make a counteroffer-which is what Abbas would have done in 2007 were he negotiating in good faith.
What do Palestinians think a Palestinian state should look like?
Israelis have meticulously detailed and outlined “end game” maps. The Palestinians should take a turn doing so. If, that is, such a map exists. www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/... #Palestine #Israel #TwoStateSolution
Iran’s Islamic regime didn’t need a war to justify any of its transnational atrocities. Its radical theology, resentment of Israel’s regional role and grievance over U.S. support for the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, between 1941 and 1979, has been more than enough to keep its hatred burning.
The AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994, allegedly carried out by Hezbollah with Iranian support, killed 85 civilians. Despite indictments of Iranian and Lebanese suspects, including high-ranking officials, the case remains unresolved due to Argentina's incompetence and corruption. The attack, the deadliest on Jews up to that point, since the Holocaust, highlights Iran's history of transnational terrorism driven by radical ideology and resentment towards the US and Israel.
What a 1994 bombing in Argentina reveals about the myth of an ‘emboldened’ Iran: How much more dangerous could a regime become than one willing to murder innocents, during peacetime, 8,500 miles away? archive.ph/alDq7 By @kathellison.bsky.social #Islamism #terrorism #antisemitism
Ukraine's war is increasingly shaped by operators, engineers, and algorithms - and systems that are expanding battlefield reach while reducing combatants' exposure to risk. Since the full-scale invasion, drones have evolved from basic reconnaissance tools into the backbone of Ukraine's battlefield operations and are now used against roughly 80-85% of frontline targets. This transformation was forced on Kyiv by the devastating artillery imbalance in the early months of the war, with Russian forces firing up to 60,000 shells per day. Western precision systems, while effective, were too limited in number and too slow to arrive, so defenders found their own solutions. A decentralized system emerged, uniting soldiers, engineers, startups, and volunteers. Using commercial technologies, Ukraine built a model of rapid innovation defined by continuous development, battlefield testing, and adaptation. First-person-view (FPV) drones now dominate the close battlefield at a fraction of the cost of artillery. Ukraine plans to produce around 8 million this year after making 4 million last year and around 2 million in 2024 (compared to an output in the thousands by the US and its NATO allies. Ukrainian commanders have integrated aerial, naval, and ground unmanned platforms into a multi-domain operational concept - achieving effects once reserved for far more powerful militaries.
Ukraine has become a real-time laboratory for modern warfare, generating vast amounts of battlefield data and driving innovation at a pace unmatched in the West. Its defense sector, now composed of hundreds of companies, most of them private, has rapidly scaled production and experimentation. This transformation is underpinned by a rapid restructuring of Ukraine's defense industry. Today, Ukraine produces more than 50% of the weapons it uses on the frontline, with most long-range strike capabilities developed domestically. Since 2022, the defense sector has expanded from roughly 300 to nearly 1,000 companies, around 80% of them private. Government-backed initiatives such as the Bravel platform have accelerated this growth, connecting more than 1,500 military-tech startups with frontline units and procurement channels. As domestic production has scaled, Ukraine has reduced its reliance on imports to 18% of defense procurement in 2025 from 54% in 2022. Drones now account for a significant share of the defense market, with the vast majority produced locally.
The Ukraine war has driven a transformation in warfare, with drones becoming the backbone of battlefield operations. This shift, driven by the need for rapid innovation & cost-effectiveness, has led to a decentralised system uniting soldiers, engineers, startups & volunteers cepa.org/article/ukra...
I was terribly wrong to be so insouciant, as I discovered when 7 October happened. I'm not Jewish and don't have a personal connection to Israel, so initially I didn't follow the news very closely. I had relegated the attack to the-regrettably vast-mental category of jihadist terrorist attacks across the globe, failing to grasp that this was, in fact, a full-blown invasion. In my naivety, I assumed that after the massacres in Paris, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, and countless other Western cities, everyone had finally woken up to the true nature of jihadism. When a bunch of Allahu Akbar-chanting fanatics slaughtered innocent young people at a music festival, just as they had done at the Bataclan in Paris, it seemed inconceivable to me that any of my colleagues and friends would condone, rationalise, or even celebrate such acts. And yet that is precisely what happened.
What did you think decolonisation meant?
#Decolonisation theory operates as a rigid, Manichaean ideology that neatly divides the world into evil perpetrators and innocent victims.
quillette.com/2026/04/20/w... By @maartenboudry.bsky.social #authoritarianLeft #postmodernism #Islamism
In Britain, we have already had Jews and their security guards stabbed to death. Jewish ambulances were set on fire. Now we have had multiple synagogue fire bombings in London. I woke this morning to a WhatsApp message from a Jewish friend I treasure, telling me about the latest atrocity against British Jews. I am sick of this. I am sickened by it, and I do not understand how anyone with any decency is not sickened too. Why are we not angrier? Jewish people are being forced to answer, again, for every accusation, every fantasy, every blood libel hurled at the State of Israel. A Jewish student in London, Paris, New York or Melbourne is treated as if they sat in the Israeli war cabinet. A synagogue is treated as if it were a military installation. A kosher restaurant becomes a proxy battlefield. A Jewish child in a school uniform is expected to carry the moral weight of a war they did not start, a government they did not elect, and a region most of their accusers could not find on a map without help. It is grotesque. It is ancient hatred with new slogans. I am angry, and you should be too. If you are reading this, why the fuck are you not angrier? Holocaust survivors have told me in person that the atmosphere in Britain today is like 1930s Germany. Why will our leaders, our government, our legal system not listen to them? The Holocaust did not arrive fully formed. It started with demonisation, isolation and undeserved blame. Wake. The. Fuck. Up.
The blood libels are back. They have just been laundered through the language of activism, human rights and moral urgency. Jews are again cast as uniquely cruel, uniquely conspiratorial, uniquely bloodthirsty. Israel is accused not merely of error, not merely of brutality, not merely of war, but of metaphysical evil. Every casualty is flattened into proof of Jewish depravity. Every complexity is erased. Every Hamas or Hezbollah or Iranian atrocity is contextualised into mist. Jewish grief is interrogated. Jewish fear is mocked. Jewish self-defence is treated as criminal. The most sickening expression of this is the obscene inversion of the Holocaust in Gaza. Gaza is not the Holocaust. Gaza is not Auschwitz. Gaza is not Treblinka. Gaza is not the industrialised, continent-wide mechanical attempt to exterminate an entire people. Gaza is not the murder of six million people because they were Jews. Gaza is not children selected for gas chambers, families shot into pits, communities erased from Europe, nor names turned to ash. To compare the war in Gaza to the attempted extermination of the Jewish race is an obscene desecration. There is no parallel. None whatsoever. Civilian suffering in Gaza or Lebanon is simply a feature of war. It can be real without turning Jews into Nazis. War can be horrific without becoming the Shoah. Palestinians can be mourned without stealing the language of Jewish annihilation and weaponising it against Jews. The Holocaust is not a metaphor for anyone's rhetorical convenience. It was a specific crime, committed against a specific people, at a specific scale, with a specific ideological purpose: the eradication of Jews from the earth. To invert it against Jews now is morally obscene. Everyone in the West should stand with their Jewish neighbours. They should stand with Jews because Jews are being threatened, harassed, isolated and collectively blamed for the actions of a state. They should stand with Jews because history has already shown us
Silence is permission. When Jewish schools need guards, when students hide Stars of David, when families wonder whether it is safe to walk to synagogue, and when mobs chant slogans that make Jews feel hunted in the cities they call home, when Jewish ambulances and places of worship are being firebombed, the moral test is not complicated. Stand with Jews, or admit that your principles are worth piss in the wind. The absence of solidarity is a stain. The refusal to name antisemitism because it wears a fashionable political mask is a stain. The cowardice of institutions, politicians, universities and cultural figures who can identify every hatred except this one is a stain. What the shuddering fuck are we doing, Britain? Why are we not angrier? Why are we not forming human shields around our Jewish community? Our grandparents fought a global war so that this could never happen again. It is literally happening again, and we are standing by and doing absolutely fucking nothing. I am angry because Jews should not have to beg for support. Jews should not feel they have to thank someone merely for showing solidarity with them. I am raging because "Never Again" has become a slogan people applaud, yet it fails when courage is demanded. I am angry because standing by Jews is the only right option, and too many otherwise good, decent people are choosing silence, disregard or antipathy. Look: I cannot say this any more simply. Once they are done with the Jews, they are coming for you, too. Get fucking angry before it is too late, if not for the Jews, then for yourselves and your children.
The oldest hatred is back, and I am absolutely done with this shit.Get angry and then get angrier: If the West cannot stand with its Jews when they are threatened, blamed and smeared with recycled blood libels, then we are dead as societies. mrandrewfox.substack.com/p/the-oldest... #antisemitism
The recent arson attacks on synagogues in Finchley and Kenton, claimed by an Islamist extremist group, highlight the alarming rise in antisemitism in the UK. Despite the unprecedented police and government support, the response from the anti-racist movement has been largely silent. This silence is attributed to a shift in anti-racist focus towards people of colour, a misunderstanding of antisemitism, and a concerning accommodation of hateful extremism within parts of the anti-racist left.
The response to recent antisemitic attacks from Britain’s anti-racist movement, that regularly claims to mobilise tens of thousands to march against racism? Zilch. Nothing. No campaigns, no solidarity vigils, maybe a tweet or two, but beyond that? Silence. everydayhate.substack.com/p/the-sound-...
Since a ceasefire was declared on April 8th, the regime's wartime cohesion has begun to fray. Formally, authority rests with the Supreme National Security Council, comprising the president, the parliamentary speaker and the heads of the security services. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker, has been designated as chief negotiator, with Mr Araghchi as his lieutenant. But their readiness to negotiate has provoked a backlash, particularly from the IRGC, the 190,000-strong force that defends the Islamic Republic. To outsiders, that divide has been visible in contradictory pronouncements over the status of the Strait of Hormuz in the past couple of days. Inside Iran, signs of swelling military assertiveness are plentiful. Pro-regime crowds-mobilised nightly by networks tied to the IRGC-have taken to denouncing Mr Araghchi and Mr Ghalibaf by name. Military communiqués delivered by men in fatigues appear to have replaced clerical sermons. Even puritanical dress codes seem to be slipping: at a recent rally an unveiled woman led chants, breaching the four-decade taboo on women singing solo in front of men. In a further sign of a military control, outlets linked to the Guards have floated the idea of delaying municipal elections that are scheduled for May 1st.
Some argue that the cacophony is tactical—a way to extract concessions by projecting hardline opposition. After all, the fissures within Iran are as old as the revolution. From the outset, its leaders have disagreed on whether to confront America or accommodate it. Yet the war appears to be hardening a new faultline between nationalists who are guided by realpolitik and state interest, and Islamists who are anchored in revolutionary ideology. Material interests muddy matters further. Over the years a class of generals-turned-sanction-busters has emerged: its members are thought to benefit handsomely from operations to circumvent American sanctions on the economy. Networks tied to Mojtaba Khamenei and Mr Ghalibaf are thought to control foreign-property portfolios and have attracted media scrutiny. With Khamenei senior gone, previously sidelined figures have re-emerged. Each brings different allies, agendas and claims on power.
Each group has a different view on the most important sticking-points in the talks, including the nuclear programme, control of Gulf waters and the role of Iran's regional proxies. Nationalists would trade proxy networks for sanctions relief; Islamists see them as the spine of "resistance" ". For the nationalists, nuclear brinkmanship invites attack; the Islamists follow North Korea's model and look to developing a bomb for the sake of deterrence. Control of the Strait of Hormuz, to pragmatists, is leverage for a broader security pact with Arab Gulf states; to ideologues, its appeal would be as a lucrative toll-booth under Iran's control. On April 15th Asim Munir, Pakistan's army chief, visited Tehran, seeking common ground between the different groups. The need to fix what the regime claims is some $270bn-worth of damage from the war may help concentrate minds. Even if Iran returns to talks, the deep divisions within the Iranian delegation mean both that it will be hard to reach a deal, and that any agreement with America could quickly unravel. •
Iran is experiencing a power struggle following the death of its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. This internal conflict, characterised by conflicting messages and a lack of a unified leadership, complicates potential peace talks with America. archive.ph/0KJUM #IranWar
Ukraine has gained a significant advantage in drone warfare against Russia, achieving superiority in short, medium, and long-range drones. This has led to a stalemate on the front lines and a significant impact on Russian logistics and air defences. Ukraine's long-range drone strikes are now reaching deep into Russian territory, targeting oil infrastructure and manufacturing, and have significantly reduced Russia's export capacity.
Ukraine’s second miracle year:
The war isn’t won, but for the first time in years, outright victory seems possible. www.thebulwark.com/p/ukraines-s... By @brynntannehill.bsky.social #RussiaUkraineWar #drones
Hasan Piker, a popular influencer, inaccurately portrayed Albert Einstein's views on Zionism during an interview on Pod Save America. While Piker claimed Einstein opposed the Zionist project, the physicist actually supported it for decades, albeit with reservations about the treatment of Palestinians. This incident highlights the need for interviewers to fact-check influencers and delve deeper into their broader worldviews, rather than focusing solely on sensationalised topics.
The problem with #HasanPiker ’s Einstein story: People scrutinizing influencers for their views should also hold them to account for their facts. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202... #populism #authoritarianLeft #antisemitism
Third-Worldism, #Islamism, and the return of global struggle: Zineb Riboua explores the resurgence of #ThirdWorldism, a political ideology that views the world through a lens of global struggle between the exploiting core and oppressed margins. www.zinebriboua.com/p/third-worl...
Iranian businesswoman Shamim Mafi was arrested at LAX for allegedly brokering arms deals for Iran, including drones and ammunition, sold to Sudan. Mafi, who became a US permanent resident in 2016,is accused of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act & faces up to 20 years in prison
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has severely impacted Qatar, a close U.S. ally and mediator between Washington and Tehran. Despite efforts to avoid the conflict, Qatar faced over 700 Iranian missile and drone attacks, forcing it to suspend natural gas production and causing significant economic damage. This has led to a reevaluation of Qatar's security strategies and its relationships with both the U.S. and Iran.
In Qatar, trapped between the U.S. and Iran, war forced a reckoning:
The gas-rich Gulf nation is in a state of “strategic shock” after the war dealt a serious blow to its economy, sending ripples around the world. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/w... #IranWar #Islamism #Qatar
Daniel Kinahan: how the cartel boss was finally arrested.
A Sunday Times and Bellingcat investigation linking the drug kingpin to Iranian oil was the last straw for his UAE hosts www.thetimes.com/article/eb50... #IranWar #UAE #Ireland #KinahanCartel
#Hamas officials in #Gaza are willing to relinquish thousands of automatic rifles and other weapons from their police force and internal security services. This concession falls short of Israeli and U.S. demands for full disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza. #Islamism #terrorism
New testimonies from inside #Gaza reveal widespread sexual abuse and exploitation of women by #Hamas fighters and affiliated organisations. Vulnerable women, particularly widows and divorced women, are coerced into sexual acts in exchange for aid, food, or money. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
Iran's decision to weaponise the Strait of Hormuz backfired, as the US responded with a naval blockade, stripping Tehran of its leverage. The Arab world, long resentful of Iran's interference and proxy networks, supported the US stance, undermining Iran's strategy to fracture Gulf alignment. This presents an opportunity for the US to expand the Abraham Accords, strengthen regional alliances, and support the emergence of sovereign states capable of countering Iranian influence.
Iran's miscalculation, Washington's opportunity: By blockading the strait that Iran is trying to toll, America has called Tehran’s bluff, revealing that the Islamic Republic needs Hormuz commerce at least as much as the rest of the world. www.zinebriboua.com/p/the-strait... By Zineb Riboua #IranWar
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Grimm, Marc & Florian Beer. 2025. “ Ένα ασφαλές #σχολείο για Εβραίες και Εβραίους. Ένας Oδηγός για την κριτική αντιμετώπιση του αντισημιτισμού μέσω της σχολικής ανάπτυξης με 35 ερωτήσεις και απαντήσεις”.
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With election season not far off, then, the political argument against Bibi goes something like this: The prime minister spent a ton of political capital on this latest war, and what did it buy us? Not a permanent solution to any of the threats it was intended to address. And yet, given the pace of change these days, betting on that message resonating months from now seems risky. One reason for that is the Israel-Lebanon cease-fire itself. The cease-fire went into effect this evening and will have an initial time period of 10 days. According to the State Department, "This initial period may be extended by mutual agreement between Lebanon and Israel if progress is demonstrated in the negotiations and as Lebanon effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty." In other words, Lebanon has to make tangible progress in disarming Hezbollah in order to earn the renewal of the cease-fire after 10 days. Then there's this: "Israel shall preserve its right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks. This shall not be impeded by the cessation of hostilities."
Israel has a fair amount of freedom of action, then, during the 10-day period. While that is something of a concession from Beirut, in truth it mostly means that Israel will be available to help Lebanon move the needle against Hezbollah, which would then enable the extension of the cease-fire, which is what Lebanon wants anyway. Finally, the statement says this: "Israel and Lebanon request that the United States facilitate further direct negotiations between the two countries with the objective of resolving all remaining issues, including demarcation of the international land boundary." That's another way of saying Israel's interests in South Lebanon are legitimate and—in contrast to Hezbollah-the IDF should not be considered a hostile occupier but rather an ally engaged in constructive efforts to restore Lebanese sovereignty. For Israel, these terms offset much of the risk of pausing attacks on Hezbollah for 10 days. For the Lebanese, the text is an announcement that the existing government is capable of getting Israel to halt its attacks through the diplomatic process, undercutting Hezbollah's claim that it must stay armed to protect Lebanon from Israel. For Netanyahu specifically, it virtually guarantees that, by election time, Israel will be in a stronger position against Hezbollah than it is now.
The Lebanon cease-fire lasting 10 days aims to disarm Hezbollah & restore 🇱🇧 sovereignty. While critics argue it doesn’t guarantee long-term security, the cease-fire strengthens Israel’s position against Hezbollah & undermines its claim to be Lebanon’s protector. www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/...
#Antisemitism has been weaponised. It has been packaged up and deployed in the service of people who seek to undermine our democratic society. It is being used to convince people that they’re the victims of a Zionist conspiracy that is controlling our government. By @marcgoldberg111.bsky.social
In Hungary, the defeat of Viktor Orbán was partly due to the emergence of "Tisza Islands," small civic groups in rural areas that encouraged democratic engagement and opposition to Orbán's Fidesz party. These groups, which functioned independently of the Tisza party, provided a space for citizens to discuss local issues, organise community events, and eventually engage in political activities. By fostering a sense of community and shared purpose, the islands helped break the "spiral of silence" and emboldened voters to consider alternatives to Orbán's rule.
Away from loyalty and back toward citizenship: The quiet way authoritarianism begins to crumble.
Among the many reasons for Viktor Orbán’s defeat was the rural clubs where citizens relearned democratic habits. archive.ph/i9XDw By @galbeckerman.bsky.social #authoritarianism #democracy
Europe’s right-wing populists had been pulling away from PRES Trump even before PM Viktor Orbán suffered a bruising loss in Hungary’s election.
Orbán’s defeat, combined with the fallout from the war in Iran & Trump’s fight with the pope, has accelerated their retreat. www.politico.eu/article/trum...
The EU plans to deepen its engagement with Syria by relaunching formal political contacts and paving the way for closer economic and security ties marking the latest step in a broader policy shift after years of frozen relations. www.reuters.com/world/middle... #EU #Syria #diplomacy
resident Putin is set to gain additional right. P under Russian law to launch overseas military operations, as fears grow of armed conflict between Moscow and Nato member states in Europe. Under legislation that was approved by Russia's parliament in its first reading, Putin will have the authority to deploy troops abroad "in the event of the arrest, detention or the criminal prosecution" of Russian citizens. The bill, which will need to be approved in two more readings, and by the upper house, is almost certain to pass. It is intended to strengthen an existing law that allows Putin to use force to protect Russia's national interests. Putin claimed to be defending ethnic Russians when he sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. "Western justice has effectively become an instrument of repression," Vyacheslav Volodin, the Russian parliamentary chairman, said. "Under these circumstances it is important to do everything possible to protect our citizens." He gave no further details. The bill would allow the Kremlin to deploy soldiers to free Russians who have been detained on the orders of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC issued an arrest warrant in 2023 for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, a Kremlin official, over the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children.
There are also concerns that the legislation is aimed at laying the ground for a military intervention by Russia on Nato's eastern flank to test the durability of Article 5, the alliance's collective defence agreement. The bill was co-written by Anna Tsivileva, the deputy defence minister who is also the daughter of one of Putin's cousins. Although Russian troops are bogged down in Ukraine, a number of western officials have warned that Putin is likely to order an attack on another European country in the next few years. Much of Putin's popularity is based on the idea, relentlessly promoted by the Kremlin, that he is defending Russia from hostile forces who seek to enslave its people and plunder its vast resources. The Russian legislation was backed by MPs shortly after Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, appeared to indicate that Russia would be ready to end the active phase of its war in Ukraine if Kyiv surrendered the entirety of its eastern Donetsk region. Around one fifth of the region is still controlled by Kyiv. Peskov made no mention at all of Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Putin also says are part of Russia and where fighting has raged since 2022. His comments sparked a backlash from hardliners, who accused him of being ready to "surrender" land to Kyiv. Some analysts have said that Moscow could launch a military campaign in Estonia on the pretext of protecting the Baltic country's large Russian diaspora. Estonia, a Nato member since 2004, gained its independence from Moscow shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A former KGB officer, Putin is often keen to establish a legal basis, at least within Russia, for his actions. In 2014, he requested and received permission from Russia's parliament to send the army to Ukraine. He subsequently launched military operations in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. In 2020, after an "appeal" from Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian MP and former Soviet cosmonaut, he ordered a national referendum on constitutional amendments that allowed him to extend his rule until at least 2036. The bill may also be aimed at deterring the seizure of vessels from Russia's so-called shadow fleet. European countries have stepped up efforts to detain ageing tankers used by Moscow to try to circumvent sanctions against its oil exports. "It seems that the purpose of the document is not to grant Putin additional powers (he has plenty of those, but to intimidate unfriendly countries with possible operations by Russian intelligence services and the military," wrote Farida Rustamova, a Russian opposition journalist. A date for the second and third readings of the bill has yet to be set. Sir Keir Starmer said last month that British special forces had been authorised to halt, board and detain vessels that are fuelling the Kremlin's war machine. However, a Russian warship last week escorted two sanctioned oil tankers through the English Channel without response, The Telegraph reported.
Estonia recently halted the detention of Russian shadow fleet oil tankers over fears of retaliation. "The risk of military escalation is just too high," Estonia's naval chief, Ivo Vark, told Reuters. In May, Estonia said Russia had sent a fighter jet into Nato airspace over the Baltic Sea to prevent it from stopping an unflagged Russia-bound oil tanker it believed was defying western sanctions. The jet eventually escorted the oil tanker into Russian waters. A temporary US waiver on sanctions against Russian oil expired on April Il. The US president is also empowered by law to deploy troops to free American military personnel and government officials in the event of their arrest by an international court such as the ICC, whose authority is not recognised by Washington. The law, which dates from 2002, is widely known as the Hague Invasion Act, a reference to the Dutch city where the ICC is based.
Putin is set to gain the authority to deploy troops abroad to protect Russian citizens; allowing him to use force to protect national interests; this could be used to justify military intervention in NATO countries, particularly Estonia… archive.ph/yynxI #putinism
Iranian leaders have portrayed the current cease-fire as a victory against an overwhelming U.S. and Israeli onslaught. But they now face a towering postwar reconstruction challenge that is putting pressure on them to negotiate for sanctions relief. The U.S. and Israel hit at least 17,000 targets over five weeks of war, including factories; rail, road and port infrastructure; government buildings; and military facilities. Iranian state media put the cost to rebuild at $270 billion, though analysts said it was too early for an estimate as the impact of the damage filters through the economy. Rebuilding will be complicated by the interlocking nature of the damage done by attacks aimed at dragging out the country's road to recovery. The air campaign not only hit infrastructure but the facilities producing material such as steel that is needed to repair it and operations such as petrochemicals that bring in the foreign currency to pay for the work. The physical damage adds to an economic crisis that was already so severe it sparked mass protests that shook the country around the new year. While Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz and ability to hit targets across the Gulf have given it leverage in talks with the U.S., the scale of the necessary rebuilding limits its room to maneuver.
"Iran insiders are rumbling about the looming economic catastrophe if Washington does not grant sanctions relief that would unlock prospects for economic recovery," said Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow with the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank. "Without the prospect of economic recovery, regime survival beyond the short term will face sustained structural and popular pressure." The first round of talks between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad ended in a deadlock. But both sides have indicated they have some room for compromise, including around the core issue of uranium enrichment, and they are expected to meet for another round, people familiar with the talks said. During the war, Iran fired thousands of missiles and drones at Gulf states and Israel, many of them aimed at economic assets such as energy facilities, airports and hotels. The strikes caused lasting damage to some facilities but nothing nearly as comprehensive as the wreckage in Iran. "My sense is that the scale of the destruction now is much worse than the Iran-Iraq war," said Kaveh Ehsani, associate professor of international studies at DePaul University in Chicago.
Iranian leaders have portrayed the current cease-fire as a victory against an overwhelming U.S. and Israeli onslaught. But they now face a towering postwar reconstruction challenge that is putting pressure on them to negotiate for sanctions relief archive.ph/nXxdT #IranWar #Islamism #sanctions