Important Takeaways:
- At Governor Mike Huckabee’s confirmation hearing, what stood out was his depth of knowledge and understanding of Israel, Gaza, and the Middle East. Huckabee, a great friend of Israel, said he wouldn’t push his own agenda but would represent that of President Trump.
- Huckabee, President Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, testified that October 7 clearly shows why Hamas has to go.
- “This was not simply a cold-blooded murder in which people came across the borders and shot innocent people. They massacred them,” Huckabee said. “Hamas is not a government. It is not a standing army. It is a terrorist organization, and they acted like it. And they must be treated as such.”
- Huckabee says America and Israel are tied to each other spiritually.
- “We ultimately are people of the Book. We believe the Bible. And therefore, that connection is not geopolitical. It is also spiritual.”
- The former Arkansas governor suggested it’s ridiculous to insist that Israeli land is the only place there can be a Palestinian state.
- “Israel is a tiny, little strip of land. You know that. We all do. It’s the size of New Jersey. But Muslim countries control 644 times the amount of land that Israel has,” he said emphatically. “The Palestinians were given the opportunity in the year 2000, when Ehud Barak from Israel put everything on the table, virtually said, ‘Here it is. You get it all,’ and the Palestinian Liberation Organization walked away from it.”
- America, he insists, must face the fact that the Iranian regime is as much a danger to the U.S. as it is to Israel.
- If confirmed, he vows to work with the Trump administration in securing peace in the Middle East.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Houthi rebels have launched an attack against an American aircraft carrier and an airport, with two missiles targeting the American assets.
- The attacks come in the aftermath of U.S. aggression against Yemen, with attacks over the past few days all over the country.
- The Yemeni Army released a statement confirming their attacks.
- “The first targeted Ben Gurion Airport with two ballistic missiles, and the second targeted several enemy destroyers, as well as the Truman aircraft carrier, in the Red Sea with several missiles and drones, in a clash that lasted several hours,” military leaders said in a statement.
- The attacks lasted several hours and were meant to stop an air attack coming to the Gaza Strip.
- The American-targeted attacks come after U.S. airstrikes hit Yemen’s Houthi rebels pounded sites across the country overnight and into Monday, with the group saying the one attack in the capital killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen others.
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Important Takeaways:
- The IDF said that they carried out an airstrike after gunmen opened fire toward IDF soldiers in southern Syria. “This morning (Tuesday), IDF troops identified several terrorists who opened fire toward them in southern Syria. The troops returned fire in response and the IAF struck the terrorists. Hits were identified,” the IDF said.
- This is an escalation along the border. The fact that there were several gunmen involved on the Syrian side could mean that threats are emerging near the border. The IDF took over a buffer zone along the border on December 8 when the Syrian regime fell. Israel’s Prime Minister has said that southern Syria must be demilitarized. Israeli politicians and officials have threatened the new government of Syria in the last two months. There have been numerous IDF strikes in Syria as well. The latest strikes targeted the T-4 air base near Palmyra which is not in southern Syria but rather in the Syrian desert.
- This is a sensitive area. It is also an area that is far from Damascus and hard for the new Syrian government to control. With Israel’s warnings to Damascus, it seems unlikely the new Syrian government will be able to control these areas with many forces, leaving a power vacuum.
- It’s not clear if elements linked to the former groups that operated in Yarmouk basin have now re-appeared. Israel’s demand that the area be demilitarized seems to mean that a vacuum in power will emerge. When there is a vacuum then many threats will enter the area. That is the problem in southern Lebanon and also in Gaza and the northern West Bank. In all these areas there are terrorists who have emerged.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel’s defense minister said on Friday he has instructed the military to “seize more ground” in Gaza and threatened to annex part of the territory unless Hamas releases the remaining hostages it holds.
- “I ordered [the army] to seize more territory in Gaza,” Katz said. “The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel.”
- Katz also threatened “to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area,” should Hamas not comply.
- He said the army “will intensify the fight with aerial, naval and ground shelling as well as by expanding the ground operation”, which he said would include implementing Donald Trump’s proposal to turn Gaza into a resort after the relocation of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.
- The Trump administration reiterated this week its support for Israel. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay.”
- Netanyahu said that the strikes were “only the beginning” and that future negotiations with Hamas “will take place only under fire”.
- “Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you – and them – this is only the beginning,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video statement.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas has called for “mass demonstrations and a global siege on Israeli and American embassies around the globe,” according to Iran’s state media Press TV. The report on March 18 said this was “in response to the Israeli regime’s resuming its US-backed war of genocide against the Palestinian territory.”
- Hamas has faced renewed Israeli airstrikes in the last two days. It has not been able to carry out much of a response so far. It doesn’t appear to have much of a rocket arsenal left. Its lack of response could reflect its lack of an arsenal in Gaza, or it could mean it is concerned about provoking further Israeli action. Hamas likely finds it easier to encourage attacks on Israel and the US abroad. It can then deny responsibility for these attacks.
- Iran’s state media IRNA said that in New York, “thousands of people have taken to the streets of Manhattan, New York City, protesting against the renewed Israeli air campaign against Gaza and the United States’ support for it.” This appears to be part of the Hamas global campaign. “Protesters on Tuesday marched through Times Square while holding up signs and chanting slogans against the war and in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” IRNA claimed.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israeli security cabinet convened an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss a culmination of alerts over the past few weeks that indicate that Hamas has been making preparations for another invasion into Israeli territory, N12 reported.
- Separately, Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated these concerns in a meeting with the Otef Israel Forum, a group primarily composed of residents from the Gaza border region, on Tuesday morning
- “There are constant preparations being made by Hamas for an invasion [into Israel], similar to October 7,” Katz said in the meeting.
- Hamas published a statement on Tuesday saying that Israel’s allegations regarding Hamas’s preparations to launch an attack on IDF forces “are baseless and merely flimsy pretexts to justify its return to war and escalation of its bloody aggression.”
- Israel, however, has publicly said that the ongoing strikes in Gaza are not related to fears of an impending attack but are instead in response to Hamas’s unwillingness to release the hostages and refusal to advance talks.
- Eisenkot claimed that Hamas currently has over 25,000 armed terrorists, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has over 5,000, adding that the government has not advanced the war’s objectives.
- Hamas is reportedly increasing recruitment drives in Gaza and training the new recruits for combat against the IDF. In January, sources told the Jerusalem Post that Hamas is making a substantial comeback by recruiting new forces, with an increase of about 12,000 at the time.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas has warned that Israel’s return to war has imposed a ‘death sentence’ on the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza.
- Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza overnight, ending the fragile two-month ceasefire as Benjamin Netanyahu vows to use more force to free hostages held by Hamas.
- At least 413 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, including Hamas prime minister Issam al-Da’alis, the terror group has claimed. At least four other Hamas officials were reportedly killed in Israel’s attack.
- Medical facilities in the region are ‘overwhelmed’ as hundreds of injured people seek care.
- The Israeli military said it hit dozens of targets overnight and warned the attacks would continue for as long as necessary and extend beyond airstrikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.
- Netanyahu has ordered Israeli forces to take ‘strong action’ against Hamas and threatened terror chiefs with ‘increasing military strength’.
- His office accused Hamas of rejecting ceasefire proposals and ‘repeated refusal’ to release the remaining hostages in Gaza. The terror group still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
- Hamas has accused Israel of breaching the terms of the ceasefire agreement and claimed to be ‘working with mediators’ to stop the bombardment. The terror group also blamed what it described as ‘unlimited’ United States for giving the ‘green light’ for the attack and alleged America ‘bears full responsibility’ for the Gaza ‘massacre’.
- Netanyahu’s office said the operation was ordered after ‘Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators’.
- ‘Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,’ the statement said.
- ‘We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved,’ Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The size of the world’s nuclear arsenal has quietly increased in several countries amid fears of World War III.
- Officially, five countries – China, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea – have increased their nuclear stockpiles by over 700 warheads over the past 40 years.
- But a 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a nonprofit global policy think tank, warned that three other nations with nuclear bombs worldwide may be quietly stockpiling even more arms for a potential nuclear showdown.
- The fears come as groups like the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have noted that a treaty to permanently ban nuclear testing has stalled, and countries like Russia and China have been seen constructing new buildings at their nuclear weapons sites.
- However, the US government announced last month that it will also restart its nuclear testing programs in secret underground facilities.
- FAS released the estimated global nuclear warhead inventories for 2024, showing there are 12,121 nuclear warheads scattered across nine nations.
- Russia outnumbers the US by several hundred warheads.
- The two nations control roughly 88 percent of this stockpile, with Russia reportedly holding 5,580 bombs and the US possessing 5,044.
- China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and the UK control the rest of world’s remaining 1,500 nuclear bombs.
- Global tensions appear to be boiling over, with President Donald Trump warning Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that he is ‘gambling with World War III’ by not agreeing to America’s peace terms.
- Meanwhile, European leaders are publicly declaring their ability to defeat Russia in a major conflict.
- The experts found that 2,100 American, Russian, British, and French ‘warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.’
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Important Takeaways:
- The Hamas terror group on Thursday dismissed President Donald Trump’s latest threat and refused to release more Israeli hostages without a permanent ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.
- Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said the “best path to free the remaining Israeli hostages” is through negotiations on a second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
- Hamas’ response comes after Trump met with eight former hostages in Washington and posted what he called a “last warning” to Hamas on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
- “‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose,” the president’s post began. “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you.”
- Trump added that he is “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job,” and that “not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.
- “Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages,” the president wrote. “If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
- Hamas is believed to still have 24 living hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that led to the ongoing war. It is also holding the bodies of 34 others who were either killed in the initial attack or in captivity, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in the 2014 war.
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Important Takeaways:
- Members of the so-called Five Eyes spy alliance, as well as Israeli and Saudi officials, fear the identities of foreign assets could inadvertently be shared with Moscow.
- The allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and members of the so-called Five Eyes spy alliance of English-speaking democracies, are examining how to possibly revise current protocols for sharing intelligence to take the Trump administration’s warming relations with Russia into account, the sources said
- “Those discussions are already happening,” said a source with direct knowledge of the discussions.
- No decision or action has been taken, however, the sources said.
- Asked about allies’ possibly limiting what they share with the United States, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said President Donald Trump is “clear-eyed” about America’s adversaries.
- “The U.S. has unrivaled intelligence capabilities which is exactly why intelligence sharing initiatives such as the Five Eyes exist,” spokesman Brian Hughes said in an email.
- “President Trump is clear-eyed on all threats our adversaries pose to our national security and he will work with any ally or partner who understands the dangerous world inherited after the disastrous Biden years,” he added. “On Biden’s watch, we had the war in Ukraine, the surrender in Afghanistan, and the slaughter of the innocents on October 7th.”
- Publicly, longtime U.S. allies downplayed the issue. The United Kingdom, the most important U.S. intelligence partner, said it had no plans to reduce intelligence cooperation with the United States.
- The Canada Security Intelligence Service said in a statement that it has strong relationships with numerous U.S. agencies that are “long-standing and resilient.
- An Israeli official also praised its alliance with the U.S., saying “Cooperation between Israel and the United States on every level, including the sharing of crucial intelligence data, is as strong and solid as ever.”
- Officials from New Zealand, Australia and Saudi Arabia did not respond to requests for comment.
- Some officials in allied countries, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, played down the idea that Trump’s policies on Russia would disrupt information sharing that dates back decades
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