The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
Five wounded Syrian Druze civilians evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in the Galilee
The Israeli Air Force attacked several
targets in Syria overnight Friday, including a military installation,
anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile infrastructure, the
military said.
“The IDF will continue to operate as necessary to defend Israeli civilians,” the statement read.
Syria’s state news agency SANA
reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted sites near Damascus, in the
western governorate of Hama, and in the southern region of Daraa.
The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, which is affiliated with opposition sources, said the IDF
carried out more than 20 strikes in what it called the “heaviest”
Israeli offensive in the country in 2025.
הלילה, צה״ל תקף באמצעות 12 מטוסי קרב עשרות רכיבי תשתיות ואמצעי לחימה ברחבי סוריה וביניהם תותחים נגד מטוסים ומשגר טילי קרקע-אוויר.
צה״ל ימשיך לפעול למען חופש פעולה אווירי לשם מימוש משימותיו ויסיר כל איום במרחב pic.twitter.com/sJtODCPwdB
Overnight, five wounded Syrian Druze
civilians were evacuated to receive medical treatment at Ziv Medical
Center in Safed, the Galilee, the Israeli military said.
The IDF is deployed in southern Syria and
is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of
Druze villages, the army continued. The IDF continues to monitor
developments with readiness for defense and various scenarios.
The development followed an Israeli operation on Thursday night that targeted an area near the presidential palace in Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a clear message to the Syrian regime.”
“We will not allow regime forces to move
south of Damascus or to pose any danger to the Druze community,”
Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The operation came after Jerusalem warned Damascus to prevent sectarian attacks targeting Syria’s Druze
population. On Thursday, the IDF said it was “prepared to prevent the
infiltration of hostile elements into the area and nearby Druze
villages,” adding that it “continues to monitor developments closely and
maintains a high level of readiness for potential defense scenarios.”
A day earlier, Israeli forces carried out a
targeted strike on a Syrian Sunni Islamist group reportedly planning
attacks on Druze communities in the Rif Dimashq (“Damascus Suburb”)
Governorate.
Israel’s intervention comes amid growing
appeals from its Druze population—about 150,000 people—including the
community’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif.
“At this moment, the eyes and hearts of
the Druze community are turned toward the harm being done to Druze
villages around Damascus,” Tarif wrote, urging “the State of Israel, the
international community, and the Jewish people to act immediately to
prevent a mass slaughter.”
Protests erupted this past week in Israel,
with Druze demonstrators blocking roads and rallying outside
Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea. The demonstrations were
called off overnight Thursday after Tarif appealed for calm while talks
continued with government officials.
The latest violence in Syria was triggered
by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze man who
allegedly insulted the prophet Mohammed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
reported that more than 100 people have been killed in the ensuing
clashes, including nine executed.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department
condemned the violence and “inflammatory rhetoric” directed at the Druze
as “reprehensible and unacceptable.”
“Interim authorities must stop the
fighting, hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable,
and ensure the security of all Syrians,” said department spokeswoman
Tammy Bruce.
GOP lawmakers introduce legislation to allow US victims of terror to sue UNRWA and similar bodies that support designated terror groups. The bill challenges legal protections long granted to international organizations accused of aiding Hamas and other extremists.
UNRWA Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash 90
A group of Republican senators has
introduced new legislation aimed at holding international organizations
accountable for alleged support of terrorist groups, including Hamas,
according to a JNS report.
The
proposed bill seeks to eliminate legal immunity that currently shields
entities such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from
lawsuits filed by American victims of terrorism.
Titled
the Limiting Immunity for Assisting Backers of Lethal Extremism
(LIABLE) Act, the bill takes direct aim at UNRWA, which has come under
scrutiny for its alleged links to Hamas. According to Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-TX), the legislation would provide victims and their families with a
legal path to pursue damages.
“For
decades [UNRWA has] knowingly provided support to Hamas terrorists,
including salaries and materials,” said Cruz. “That support facilitated
Hamas’s terrorist attack on Oct. 7, which was the worst one-day massacre
of Jews since the Holocaust and included the murder and kidnapping of
dozens of Americans. Those victims and their families deserve the
ability to hold UNRWA accountable, and the LIABLE Act would give them
that opportunity.”
Sen. Rick
Scott (R-FL), a co-sponsor of the legislation, echoed the concern,
pointing to what he described as a long history of UNRWA backing radical
elements.
“UNRWA has supported
Hamas in enabling these terrorists to commit the horrific massacre and
mass kidnapping of Israelis and Jewish Americans over 550 days ago, on
Oct. 7, and the sick individuals responsible for this terrorism must be
held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Scott stated.
Under
current US law, organizations such as UNRWA are shielded from legal
action by the International Organizations Immunities Act. Cruz noted
that this protection also extends to groups providing material aid to
US-designated terrorist entities, including Hezbollah.
The
United Nations has maintained that UNRWA operates under the immunity
provisions of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of
the United Nations. However, a recent filing
by the US Department of Justice indicated that the Trump administration
holds the view that such immunity may not apply in all
cases—particularly when allegations of complicity in terrorism arise.
UNRWA
has long been criticized for its cooperation with Hamas. That criticism
has increased since Israel revealed a year ago that UNRWA staff
participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
It then presented a dossier showing that the UNRWA workers
who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out
ammunition and actively took part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri,
where 97 people were murdered.
Following the Israeli revelations, Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.
The group, which released its report
last April, said it found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also
claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a
significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.
More recently, Emily Damari, a former Hamas hostage who was freed after 470 days in captivity, said that she was held at an UNRWA facility while in captivity.
Damari,
who holds both British and Israeli citizenship, told British Prime
Minister Keir Starmer that she was denied adequate medical care while
being detained at an UNRWA school.
The UN’s top humanitarian aid official, Tom Fletcher, later denied the claims
and stated that he has "not seen a shred of evidence" suggesting the UN
was involved in the holding of hostages in Gaza, either through the use
of its facilities or by its staff.
[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced.
[T]he IDF tends to be... focused on immediate, critical threats from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran.
[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal
construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on
the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that
will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that
will be enforced.
It may even be that right-wingers such as [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and others have risen to power precisely because of growing Israeli frustration over fundamental threats such as this one having long gone ignored.
[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards
illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have
called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic
effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red
lines that will be enforced. Pictured: Israeli soldiers stand next to an
illegally-built structure in Area C, in Idhna, near Hebron, on April
28, 2025. (Photo by Mosab Shawer/Middle East Images /AFP via Getty
Images)
In 1967, Israel fought a monumental six-day war against neighboring
Egypt, Syria and Jordan, who attacked the small country with the
declared goal of wiping the Jewish state off the map. To the amazement
of the international community, Israel unexpectedly emerged victorious,
gaining control over multiple territories, including the West Bank.
Historically known as "Judea and Samaria," and before 1948 home to a
thriving Jewish population, the West Bank was illegally occupied by the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan without international recognition from 1948
to 1967. In that time, Jordan ethnically cleansed the Jewish residents
and destroyed dozens of synagogues. It re-named the region the "West
Bank," meaning "west of the Jordan River," to sever any Jewish
connection to the land in an attempt to legitimize its occupation of
territory that was never part of its internationally recognized borders.
When Israel wrested control of the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, it
refrained from annexing the territory, immediately offering to exchange
land for peace. This unprecedented overture was met with the resounding
"Three No's" at the infamous 1967 Arab League Summit in Khartoum: "No
peace with Israel. No negotiation with Israel. No recognition of
Israel." Consequently, the West Bank came under Israeli military rule.
"For reasons I can't begin to explain, Israel thought it could make
everyone happy. That's how this whole monster was created," says Naomi
Kahn, International Director of Regavim, an NGO "dedicated to the
protection of Israel's national lands and resources." The monster Kahn
is referring to is the Coordinator of Government Activities in the
Territories (COGAT) and its Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria.
COGAT is a unit of the Ministry of Defense, and the Civil Administration
is responsible for governing the West Bank's "Area C" (the parts that
are not governed by the Palestinian Authority) and managing all issues
there pertaining to civilians, both Jews and Arabs.
Instead of extending Israeli law to the territory liberated in 1967,
Israel's leaders chose to "temporarily" maintain the existing legal
framework until a negotiated solution with the Arabs could be reached.
To this day, the IDF's Commander of the Central Region, rather than
elected representatives, retains the ability to legislate and administer
Area C. According to Kahn:
"I am personally living under military rule. It's not
only inefficient, but also ridiculous. It's a massive bureaucracy that
seems to be doing very little. The army – any army – is simply incapable
of replacing the government. That's not what armies are meant to do."
While COGAT technically receives orders from the minister of defense,
on a day-to-day basis it operates with autonomy. Israeli laws mandate
that attempts to trespass and commandeer land must be intercepted, but
COGAT commanders are wary of action and weary of global condemnation.
The staff have learned to expect international headlines, along with
formal complaints, threats and lawsuits from the European Union, when
they so much as remove a corrugated roof from an illegal structure --
which the EU will likely rebuild anyway.
For every razed structure, five new ones take its place. That
Palestinians are legally permitted to bring grievances against COGAT and
the Civil Administration to Israel's Supreme Court further undermines
enforcement. Both foreign and Israeli NGOs receive millions of euros
every year to "protect" the Palestinians in the court system, which is
backed up with appeals. In the meantime, the Palestinians build and
build, engaging in a strategy of setting Israel's own system against
itself.
While COGAT officers hold a diverse array of personal views about the
Arab-Israel conflict, the IDF tends to be conformist and technically
oriented, concerned with tactical training, readiness and
counterterrorism, and focused on immediate, critical threats from
Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran. The defense establishment views the West
Bank as a political dispute, as opposed to a national security issue.
But COGAT is well aware of the scope of the hostile takeover in Area C
and is choosing not to enforce its legal mandate. Due to intense
pressure from the EU, COGAT officers routinely speak with Palestinian
Authority officials and work out agreements to refrain from demolishing
specific infrastructure built under former PA Prime Minister Salman
Fayyad's master plan. While COGAT does occasionally destroy unauthorized
structures deemed to be dangerous from a security or safety point of
view, such as those built close to IDF training or firing zones,
abutting major traffic arteries, or those that were used as launching
pads for terrorist attacks, these demolitions are exceedingly rare, and
almost always receive massive international media coverage and
condemnation.
Through a Supreme Court case, Regavim succeeded in forcing COGAT to reveal
its list of established enforcement priorities. At the top of the list
was prevention of Jewish construction on privately-owned or state land,
while at the very bottom of the list were PA-EU orchestrated takeovers.
In other words, Israel's Ministry of Defense was forced to admit by
court order that its enforcement guidelines for land-use policy were
tilted against Jews and in favor of Arabs. "They let the Palestinians do
things they'd never think about allowing Jewish people to do," alleges
Dr. Yishai Spivak, an investigative researcher with Ad Kan, an Israeli
non-profit organization.
In addition, the PA never reports deaths in, or emigration from, Area
C, and pads its population statistics with people who have never set
foot in the Middle East — for instance, children who were actually born
and raised abroad but had parents who once lived in the region. This
serves the goal of portraying the area as flooded with Arabs. A far more
serious problem, however, may be that the PA actively and publicly
encourages residents of Areas A and B to move into Area C, an act
possibly in violation of the Geneva Convention.
The Civil Administration, meanwhile, does nothing to protect Israeli
national interests in this regard. It does not keep population figures,
thereby enabling itself to conveniently claim that it serves an enormous
number of residents, and purportedly justifying its budget. If a
conversation about squandered Israeli and international resources and
the needs of the current and future population is to begin, the first
step is a census of the population.
Regavim and others have called to disband COGAT entirely. They demand
a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU
funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to
initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the
EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced. "Israeli
leadership as a whole is failing to behave like a sovereign government
with a backbone that enforces the law and protects the security and
national interests of the people," argues Kahn.
During Naftali Bennett's six-month tenure as Defense Minister in
2019-2020, he began referring to Area C as a battleground and PA mass
illegal land use as a strategic military threat. With an uptick in
enforcement, mild progress was made. Still, it was always a matter of
scale. A shed would be knocked down, while the illicit electricity and
water connections would be ignored because of the humanitarian issues to
which the EU would draw attention. Avigdor Lieberman who served as
Defense Minister in 2016-2018, similarly spoke out, but encountered
uninterested bureaucrats and pushback from many Europeans, who have a
direct line to their political counterparts in the Israeli government.
Although the Ministry of Intelligence published a full report in June
2021 that presented a comprehensive analysis of the Palestinian illegal
land grabs and demographic saturation of Area C, little has changed
since the publication's report.
Ultimately, there has thus far been little political will in Israel
to counter Palestinian illegal construction in Area C. Also for lack of
political will, Israeli authorities allow illegal weapons to proliferate throughout Arab-Israeli communities, and Bedouin clans to establish illegal villages in the Negev Desert.
The government does not give definitive enforceable orders to COGAT —
it wants to avoid negative press or a more violent confrontation with
the Palestinians in the future. Israeli officials therefore approach the
problem with local, Band-Aid solutions rather than a full-frontal
assault. According to Brigadier General Amir Avivi (res.), founder of
the Israel Defense and Security Forum:
"They are not treating this as a war, and it is a war.
It's actually more dangerous than other wars. At the moment, the
Palestinians are winning this war. In 20 or 30 years, this will be an
existential threat. We need to wake up."
Spivak concurs, adding that there are two kinds of wars that Israel
is fighting with the Palestinians. One is the terror war, in which
Palestinians use physical violence to harm citizens of the State of
Israel. The other is the non-violent, or civilian war, in which
Palestinians attempt to delegitimize Israel via various channels, such
as the UN, social media, or the global BDS movement.
Another reason Israeli leadership fails to treat the issue with the
seriousness it deserves is because its ministers are generally in power
for a short time and may be dismissed within their party in short order.
For the one to two years they generally serve, they are primarily
concerned with building their reputation, desperate to be
internationally accepted. Put simply, the political system bolsters the
bureaucrats. They know that to tackle a problem of this nature and
magnitude, they would have to take extreme actions against the EU, the
PA, and COGAT. With the painful, precarious status Israel has on the
geopolitical landscape, it is unlikely that any foreseeable coalition
will set the precedent and shift the pattern.
Even leaders of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have failed
to respond to this encroachment as an existential threat. In the town of
Efrat, for instance, when Israelis complain to the mayor of about
illegal Arab structures popping up around their neighborhoods, the most
he will do, if anything, is to make a phone call to the Civil
Administration, and then quickly forget about the matter.
Many of the elected Jewish leaders in the West Bank focus on
addressing the needs of their small communities on a day-to-day basis.
Their effectiveness is severely compromised because they are beholden to
multiple government ministries for favors, including the
transportation, defense, finance and interior ministries, who do not
exercise direct jurisdiction over the "green line." These mayors have a
limited number of asks and it is generally counterproductive to demand
that structures be removed, especially when they will likely be rebuilt
in a few weeks. For many leaders in Jewish towns and villages, as long
as there is no peace process, the status quo is all they have to work
with.
Nonetheless, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken several
punitive measures against the PA and has leveled harsh words at the EU,
pledging to block their aggressive activity, which he called "contrary
to international law and incompatible with basic rules of diplomacy in
relations between states." In a joint letter, dozens of Knesset members
denounced the EU's confidential June 2022 document as a severe breach of
the EU-Israel relationship whose gravity cannot be overstated, writing:
"Under the thin veneer of the EU's civility and manners
and the concern for human rights, the same old blood libels can be
found, along with the same flames of primitive hatred that seek this
time to persecute – not the individual Jew, but the tiny Jewish state."
It may even be that right-wingers such as Smotrich and others have risen to power precisely because of growing Israeli frustration over fundamental threats such as this one having long gone ignored.
This article, slightly different, originally appeared as part if a 10-part series inWestern Journal.
Karys Rhea is a producer at the Epoch Times, a writing fellow with
the Middle East Forum, a delegate for Israel365 Action, and a Rising
Leader at the Global Liberty Institute. You can find her on X
@rheakarys.
Officials said the summit will give Trump a stage to outline his regional strategy and define the contours of US engagement in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with U.S. President Donald Trump, at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka(photo credit: REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump is expected to hold a summit with Gulf leaders during a visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-May, a senior American official and two senior Arab officials told Walla on Saturday.
The
visit, which will be Trump’s first official foreign trip since taking
office in January, signals the administration’s growing focus on
economic ties and investment opportunities with Gulf nations.
Officials
said the summit will give Trump a stage to outline his regional
strategy and define the contours of US engagement in the Middle East.
Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is preparing to invite leaders from
all six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): the United
Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Trump
is scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on May 13 for bilateral
meetings, with the summit set for the morning of May 14. At this stage,
no other Arab leaders are expected to attend, though that could change,
one Arab official said.
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (credit: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
After
the summit, Trump is expected to travel to Doha for a meeting with
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and then proceed to Abu
Dhabi on May 15 to meet with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed. The White
House said that full details of the itinerary will be released soon.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
Investments and AI, but what about Israel?
US
and Arab officials said the trip will focus largely on bilateral
matters, with an emphasis on arms deals, investment frameworks, and
cooperation in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
On
Friday, the US State Department announced approval of a potential $3.5
billion sale of medium-range air-to-air missiles and support equipment
to Saudi Arabia.
The
summit in Riyadh is expected to be the only portion of the trip with a
broader regional agenda. Officials do not anticipate the launch of any
new diplomatic initiatives during the visit.
Trump
is not expected to visit Israel during this trip. US and Israeli
officials noted that such a visit would likely have a limited impact at
this time, particularly in the absence of progress toward a ceasefire in
Gaza or a deal for the release of Israeli hostages.
The
visit comes as Washington continues efforts to revive negotiations on a
potential nuclear agreement with Iran. American officials said that key
regional players, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, support such
efforts and are encouraging the Trump administration to move forward.
This
will be Trump’s second high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia as president.
His first term began with a landmark trip to Riyadh in 2017, where he
convened a summit with dozens of Arab and Muslim leaders.
President
Joe Biden also hosted a Gulf-focused summit during his 2022 visit to
the kingdom, attended by leaders from the Gulf states, Iraq, Jordan, and
Egypt.
The Lebanese military has formed a list of wanted Hamas terrorists, according to a report.
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Sidon, Lebanon, July 31, 2024.(photo credit: REUTERS/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS)
Lebanon
has warned the Palestinian terror group Hamas not to conduct operations
that compromise Lebanon's sovereignty, Beirut's supreme defence council
said on Friday.
The announcement came with Lebanon facing growing US pressure to disarm terror groups outside state control.
The
ceasefire that ended that conflict called on Lebanon to disarm "all
armed groups in Lebanon" and dismantle unauthorised military
infrastructure.
Mohammad
al-Mustafa, secretary-general of the Supreme Defence Council, told
reporters on Friday that the body would recommend a series of decisions
to Lebanon's cabinet, including "warning Hamas against using Lebanese
territory to carry out any actions that threaten Lebanese national
security".
Hamas
has a longstanding presence within Lebanon, including in camps across
the country that host hundreds of thousands of long-time Palestinian
refugees and where Lebanese security forces have long had only limited
authority.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanon's army chief Joseph
Aoun stand after Aoun is elected as the country's President at the
parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, January 9, 2025. (credit:
REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)
'Refusal to be drawn into regional conflicts'
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who previously served as army commander, has vowed to bring all weapons in the country under the state's authority.
"The
president underscored Lebanon's refusal to be drawn into regional
conflicts, highlighting the importance of Palestinian rights without
compromising Lebanese stability," Mustafa told reporters, referring to
the council session.
"The
prime minister also stressed the need to hand over illegal weapons and
to prevent Hamas or any other faction from undermining Lebanon's
national security and stability," a council statement said.
Supporters of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and breast removal face another setback with dismissal of lawsuit against Alabama's ban. HHS debuts "universal vaccine platform," requires placebo testing.
The Trump administration is pushing back on both fronts,
rushing a new policy to immediately make public National Institutes of
Health-funded research results and releasing a massive review of youth gender medicine that echoes earlier findings from Europe, which has drastically restricted drugs and surgery for gender-confused youth.
Coincidentally and ignominiously, the plaintiffs in
litigation against Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for minors,
which had accidentally exposed Levine's interference, dropped the case Thursday.
Legal discovery showed "key medical organizations misled
parents, promoted unproven treatments as settled science, and ignored
growing international concern" over the procedures, said the office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall.
"It is no surprise" they quit, Marshall said.
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨🚨🚨 AG Marshall Celebrates Victory in Defense of Alabama’s Law Prohibiting Sex-Change Procedures for Minors pic.twitter.com/dhSET7ICcn
— Attorney General Steve Marshall (@AGSteveMarshall) May 1, 2025
The plaintiffs, represented by LGBTQ rights groups,
emphasized they "secured an initial injunction that blocked the ban
temporarily and made a huge difference in people’s lives" despite the
case eventually backfiring on them, AL.com reported.
Approved by vaccine-skeptical HHS Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., Generation Gold Standard will use a "whole-virus platform"
inactivated by beta-propiolactone.
This preserves "the virus’s structural integrity while
eliminating infectivity" across "diverse viral families," without
inducing the perennial problem of "antigenic drift" for flu vaccines, HHS said, alluding to the core problem with COVID-19 vaccines from the first Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed: short-lived effectiveness and even negative efficacy.
Kennedy also ordered non-flu vaccine candidates to be
tested in placebo-controlled trials going forward, prompting
sky-is-falling Washington Post reporting.
FACT: None of the vaccines the CDC recommends for routine injection into children were licensed by the FDA based on a long-term placebo-controlled trial. I will make sure these trials are conducted, so that parents and doctors can make informed choices about children's health.…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 3, 2024
Bhattacharya said the acceleration will "help increase public confidence in the research we fund," citing low public confidence that scientists
are working for the common good, "while also ensuring that the
investments made by taxpayers produce replicable, reproducible, and
generalizable results that benefit all Americans."
"The grift of charging people to read the results of
studies they already paid for [as taxpayers] is over" despite the
lobbying of medical publishers, former U.S. Right to Know investigator Emily Kopp said. Former Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Meijer called it a "blindingly obvious net-good!"
Some are pressuring NIH to take transparency even further. Rutgers biochemist Richard Ebright said a "more consequential" requirement would be posting research "at the time of submission for journal publication," before it undergoes peer review.
The 409-page report itself, however, earned plaudits from expert journalists including Singal, who gave the issue national visibility with his 2018 Atlantic feature and got caught up in an ACLU subpoena
against a gender clinic whistle-blower, and Lisa Selin Davis, who
called the U.S. review an improvement on the U.K.'s so-called Cass
review.
"Most frustratingly, the Biden administration did not
engage in the sort of careful, rigorous evidence evaluation that the
Trump administration has, against all odds, published today," Singal
wrote for The Dispatch, while scolding the Trump administration
for messaging that "seems designed to antagonize" rather than persuade
critics of its findings.
If you read the article you will see that there is a tension between Trump's EOs, which are incredibly inflammatory and dismissive toward trans people, and this report (written by outsiders), which is well-done. I was as surprised as anyone when I found out who wrote it https://t.co/N537hEO2bd
Commissioned by the U.K.'s National Health Service, that
review by former Royal College of Paediatrics President Hilary Cass had
the goal of "improving" pediatric gender medicine even as it spelled the end of medical approaches outside clinical trials, while the HHS review concludes the field can't be fixed, Selin wrote for Unherd.
The evidence of "pediatric medical transition" harm
outweighs the evidence of benefit, even as both are uncertain, says the
report's chapter on ethics. (Nearly half the report is a single appendix of the reviewed evidence and best practices.)
"When medical interventions pose unnecessary,
disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to
offer them" because they increase the risk of treatment-caused harm and
reduce "medicine to consumerism," it says.
Even if randomized control trials on puberty blockers and
hormones were "feasible," the report says it may yet violate human
subjects research ethics because the harm is so certain, such as
infertility that naturally follows puberty blockers and hormones. This
is akin to an RCT "on the effects of jumping from a plane without a
parachute."
It scolds "many U.S. medical professionals and
associations" for rapidly expanding "a clinical protocol that lacked
sufficient scientific and ethical justification," sticking with it when
it failed, ignoring Europe's changes, mischaracterizing or ignoring
"conflicting evidence" and marginalizing "dissenting perspectives,"
ultimately failing their young patients.
The American Academy of Pediatrics waited 5 years after it published its influential 2018 policy statement backing the gender-affirming care method to commit to commissioning a systematic literature review of the evidence behind pediatric gender medicine. Two years later, there… https://t.co/mTs4fn1bsc
HHS said each chapter went through peer review "and a
post-publication peer review will begin in the coming days involving
stakeholders with different perspectives."
Singal said HHS identified the nine reviewers to him off
the record. He recognized them as "informed skeptics who have been deep
in the weeds" on youth gender medicine, a "significant number" of whom
have published peer-reviewed papers on it.
The authors fear "threats and other reprisals" if identified, according to the U.K. Times.
A source "close to the process" said some of the authors "don't support
Trump" but the worst choice was "allowing this field of medicine to go
completely unregulated and see kids sterilised and have breasts
amputated with zero accountability."
China last week threatened to punish South Korean companies that export products containing critical rare-earth metals to the U.S.
China last week threatened to
punish South Korean companies that export products containing critical
rare-earth metals to the U.S. – the latest blow to an Asian economic
powerhouse and staunch U.S. ally that was already in turmoil over a
series of political impeachments.
The office of South Korea’s president has been a revolving door since December,
with two impeachments, one reinstatement and two temporary acting
presidents. The crisis was touched off in December 2024 when the
country's conservative president at the time, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law. And now snap elections are scheduled for June 3.
China has sought to exploit the impeachment crisis, sending subtle
and overt signals the Chinese Communist Party-run country would love to
push South Korea further from the United States and closer to Beijing.
In a recent meeting with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo
Won-shik in Harbin, Chinese President Xi Jianping said he was “seriously
considering” attending the APEC summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang
Province, which would be the first visit by a Chinese leader to Korea in
more than a decade.
Former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates said
Beijing is pulling out several stops to ride the impeachment crisis for
advantage.
"I think you see China trying to take a much more aggressive role in
the Korean Peninsula, not just in the north, but now infiltrating the
south," she told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday.
"And we've had political chaos. You remember that kind of imposition of
martial law, which seems so random a couple of months ago.
"But it looks like it might have been a Chinese setup to try to
create this kind of chaos, try to get a left wing, a left wing candidate
in there, somebody who would be less pro-American," she said. "And then
we've got reports over the last day or so that China is ramping up its
military activities, particularly naval exercises around South Korea. So
they really are ratcheting up tensions and trying to, I think, disrupt
the key American ally in the region."
Without an elected head of state, the country is at a disadvantage
when it comes to negotiating a favorable deal with the Trump
administration, though that hasn’t stopped the government from trying.
A team of negotiators from South Korea came to Washington, D.C., this
week for two days of so-called "technical" discussions with officials
from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The meetings, which concluded Thursday, were reportedly to lay the groundwork for full-fledged talks over trade and economic cooperation issues, as Seoul seeks exemptions from the new U.S. tariffs.
But are the problems the country is facing due to the Trump tariffs
and domestic issues? Increasingly, expert analysts say they are seeing
China’s fingerprints on at least some of South Korea’s woes.
There’s little doubt that China benefits from any strain in Seoul’s relations with China.
“The changes to South Korea’s domestic and global environment will
not go unnoticed in China,” London-based policy institute Chatham House
said earlier this month, concluding, “Beijing will likely seek to
exploit the situation to its advantage.”
But China’s interests may go beyond simple passive opportunism.
According to the Washington-based Middle East Research Institute,
best known as MEMRI, Beijing’s enthusiasm over the impeachment of
President Yoon Suk Yeol in early April, the leveraging of waning public
support in South Korea for the 29,000 U.S. troops stationed in the
country, and encouraging broader “anti-American sentiment” all form part
of what MEMRI called “a core component of Beijing’s long-term strategy.”
Hostilities ended in 1953, creating the Demilitarized Zone – the DMZ –
one of the most heavily-guarded borders in the world along the famous 38th parallel dividing North and South (which is the reason why so many U.S. troops are still stationed there).
The two sides signed an armistice in the summer of ‘53, but no peace
treaty was ever signed, meaning the war is technically still going on.
The bullets of the Korean War have not been fired in more than 70 years,
but the battle for influence on the Korean Peninsula remains alive.
The public broadcasters noted that their work filled "critical needs for news and information in America’s communities."
A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald
Trump with the National Public Radio (NPR) logo in the background is
seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. (photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)
Donald Trump
signed an executive order that aims to cut funding to news outlets NPR
and PBS, the White House said, marking the US president's latest attempt
to use federal funding as leverage against institutions he does not
view favorably.
The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to PBS and NPR
stations, to "cease direct funding" to them, according to the order's
text released by the White House late on Thursday. It labeled the news
outlets as partisan and biased.
"The
CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent
allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding," the order
says.
Both
NPR and PBS have previously said that Trump's effort to cut their
funding would disrupt essential media service and have a "devastating
impact" on Americans who rely on them for credible local and national
news, including during emergency situations.
This
comes after Republican members of Congress grilled the heads of the
broadcasting networks in March in a hearing titled “Anti-American
Airwaves,” led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia).
Trump administration dismisses nearly 400 scientists working on
national climate assessment. (credit: Rawpixel.com. Via Shutterstock)
NPR, PBS push back against Trump administration
The Trump administration has labeled multiple institutions in academia and the media industry - from Harvard
and Columbia universities to NPR and PBS - as being leftist, Marxist,
biased, and woke, and threatened funding cuts. Human rights advocates
have raised concerns over free speech and academic freedom.
In a statement seen by the Washington Post, NPR said that its “editorial practices and decision-making are independent and free from outside influence.
“For
more than 50 years, NPR has collaborated with local nonprofit public
media organizations to fill critical needs for news and information in
America’s communities,” the statement continued. “Millions of Americans
depend on NPR Member stations for rigorous, fact-based, public service
journalism.”
The statement added that "federal funding is essential to the work of public media and all public media stations."
PBS
CEO and President Paula Kerger emphasized in a letter last month after
the Trump administration’s threats to cut funding that “there’s nothing
more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the
bipartisan support we have always received from Congress.”
Since
taking office in January, Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk have
gone on a cost-cutting drive that has resulted in the gutting and
attempted dismantling of various agencies and the layoffs of over
200,000 federal workers.
The
Trump administration also sought to shut down Voice of America, Radio
Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts
are funded by the government. A federal judge ordered the Trump
administration in late April to halt those efforts.
Thursday's
order by Trump also aims to suspend indirect funding for NPR and PBS by
asking the CPB to ensure "that licensees and permittees of public radio
and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds,
do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS."
The
CPB sued the White House on Monday after Trump sought to fire three of
its five board members. The nonprofit corporation was created by
Congress in 1967 and provides funding for more than 1,500 locally
managed public radio and TV stations.
Several
media outlets have reported that the White House plans to ask Congress
to rescind $1.1 billion in funding for the CPB, with the amount being
two years' worth of funding.
NPR
has more than 900 employees, according to its website. The exact
employee count at PBS was not immediately clear, though a media report
said it had over 550 staffers at the end of 2022.
Then they had the nerve to tell Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who criticized them, that they were just banning Nazis.
What kind of a government tries to shut down its political opponents?
A night-haunted dictatorship, which is what Germany is descending
into, the outcome of its COVID lockdowns, its migrant surge, its
self-induced energy dependence, its enfeebled green economy, and its
social wokery.
According to a German expat paper, the Munich Eye:
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has
classified the entire Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as confirmed
right-wing extremist. This decision has prompted reactions from various
political factions, with opposition parties such as the SPD, Greens, and
Left Party welcoming the classification. In response, AfD leaders Alice
Weidel and Tino Chrupalla announced plans to take legal action against
what they describe as damaging and politically motivated claims that
threaten democracy.
Weidel and Chrupalla argue that the classification is an unjust
attack on their party, asserting that it seeks to discredit them ahead
of a potential governmental transition. They emphasize that the ruling
represents a targeted effort to intervene in the democratic process and
is fundamentally political in nature.
The classification was made public in Cologne, where the Office for
the Protection of the Constitution cited the party's extreme positions
as undermining human dignity and fostering an overall hostile attitude
towards migrants and Muslims. This assessment reflects an ongoing
concern regarding the party's ideological direction and its implications
for German democracy.
In light of the new classification, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister
President Daniel Günther (CDU) has voiced support for initiating a ban
on the AfD, stating that their anti-constitutional stance has long been
evident, especially as they are already recognized as right-wing
extremist in three German states. He called for swift action by the
federal government to protect democracy.
Former East Commissioner Marco Wanderwitz (CDU) echoed this
sentiment, urging for a ban process to be initiated urgently. He
stressed that the recent classification should serve as a clear
indication of the AfD's threat to democratic values.
German after good German came out in favor of repressing the
country's second-largest political party, whose map distribution can be
seen here
-- almost all of economically dreary East Germany went for AfD except
for Leipzig and a part of Berlin that went for a party identified as
"Left." Two pockets of western Germany -- Duisberg and Kaiserslautern,
described in several reports as economically depressed rust-belt
regions, also went for AfD.
What it looks like is an overbearing majority party -- the Christian
Democrats and the Social Democrats, operating in tandem, are working to
stomp out any embers of resistance to their longtime decadent rule, with
significant failures to its record -- lost energy independence, the
release of hordes of unvetted migrants from stone-age societies such as
Afghanistan into their country, a failure to enforce crime laws, greenie
regulations creating a lousy economy, capital flight and even the loss
of old growth forests for wind farms, grotesque social trends favoring
sexual perversions, and the COVID lockdown record which did so much
damage to the quality of life.
Wokesterism has absolutely permeatede the society under their rule,
extending to well beyond the state -- note that the German Catholic
Church is financed through taxes on Catholics, making it a state organ,
and now its outcome is the same as Lenin smashing churches and Hitler
smashing synagogues, except that now, the nullification is from within:
“German” and “Catholic” no longer belong in the same
sentence for this German sect. This must be opposed and denounced y the
Cardinals gathered in Rome and every bishop around the world. https://t.co/IGphChUZ0j
— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) May 2, 2025
AfD is a relatively new party, has been making steady gains in
election after election, particularly among the youth, and now stands on
the cusp of being entitled to some kind of coalition-level power as the
next vote in the runoff beckons.
Weidel and Chrupalla argue that the classification is an unjust
attack on their party, asserting that it seeks to discredit them ahead
of a potential governmental transition. They emphasize that the ruling
represents a targeted effort to intervene in the democratic process and
is fundamentally political in nature.
So it's obvious the German rulers want to join the tyranny trend in
Western Europe, with France banning its leading candidate for office
from running for president, and the U.K. jailing internet critics. They
seem to want to outdo them all, because neither France nor the U.K. have
sought to ban entire political parties, though they may be just
upstream of it, heading for the falls, too.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with customary courage, called them out for their anti-democratic activity:
Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.
What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the
recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border
immigration policies…
He got this grotesque backtalk from some anonymous bureaucrat speaking mendaciously from behind the German government transom:
WOW! Look at the German Foreign Office’s direct response to Secretary Marco Rubio’s post 😲
It seems to me that the people who more align with “extremism” are the
ones who are siccing their spies on their political opponents…🤷🏼♀️ pic.twitter.com/fSAFh53IVm
Yes, either they are lying about German history or they really
believe the National Socialist Party of Germany during the time of
Hitler, with its fingers in every corporate pie and its murder of
millions of Jews, was somehow right-wing. That would be the same German
ruling parties that support Hamas and import millions of stone-age
antisemitic migrants into their country -- the rulers of a country whose
Jewish citizens are leaving. Who again, are the million little Hitlers?
Meanwhile, a corporate-state type (fascism, again, anyone?) from
Germany stated this, which reflects a lot of the thinking of the German
rulers:
Compare the statements by Dmitry #Medvedev and Marco #Rubio: What kind of a reality is this, when in parallel assaults against Germany's defence of democracy vis-à-vis AfD #extremism Putin's violent attack dog Medvedev sounds moderate as compared to Trump's Secretary of State? https://t.co/T5OVjqJqQjpic.twitter.com/jBTudHV1dk
Maybe it would help if Germany's rulers didn't act like Nazis to start with, give Putin ammunition, you fool
It's a terrible slide downhill for this once most admired and
efficient of nations, the touchstone of prosperity and the example for
all. Now it's moving hard towards dictatorship, a really ugly one
directed at the powerless young people and the economically run down
parts of the country.
When President Trump questions the value and money-pit expense of
NATO, it's very likely the fact that these countries are rapidly
slipping into tyrannies that makes them so unworthy of America's
defense. Should we be defending countries with these values, countries
that can no longer change course because they have banned their
opponents? That have stomped out the aspirations of their young and
turned foreign rapists loose on them? Or should we tell them they're on
their own, we don't expend billions to defend satrapies and tyrannies
against, what, other tyrannies? It makes no sense to defend countries
that have decided to become tyrannies.
The purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF.
IDF expanded their military acticity in the area of Daraj
Tuffah in Gaza City to expand the security zone in the area on April
12, 2025.(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
At the annual Outstanding Soldiers Ceremony at the President's Residence
on Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the IDF
is preparing to deliver a "decisive blow" against Hamas and that the
military will increase the pace and intensity of the operations in Gaza
soon, if necessary.
“The
Hamas terrorists still hold fifty-nine of our brothers and sisters. But
they, too, know their safety is not forever,” Zamir said.
“Our
sovereignty and independence were not given to us as a gift. They were
bought with blood and struggle, and they require us to defend them at
all costs.”
The
purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF. At
the beginning of Zamir’s speech, he defined what it means to be
outstanding. “Excellence is not measured by who is the most talented or
the most brilliant. It is granted to the one who perseveres. It is a
quiet, daily choice to act with responsibility, commitment, and
integrity — even when no one is watching,” Zamir said.
Zamir
noted that this year, the ceremony has “special significance. You are
receiving recognition during a time of war,” he said, “A long and
complex war, in multiple arenas, against numerous threats, which is
still ongoing.”
IDF
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir speaks during an event for outstanding
soldiers as part of Israel's 77th Independence Day celebrations, at the
President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 1, 2025. (credit: YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90)
Zamir also highlighted the responsibility Israeli citizens have for one another.
"For
the State of Israel, this idea is essential to its existence and
resilience, and no one is exempt—not individuals, not groups, and not
tribes," Zamir said.
"We
all enlist, we all fight together, and we all sacrifice together—for
the sake of the state and for a better future. Because one shared
destiny placed us here, in this land,” he said.
Zamir highlights notable awardees
Zamir noted particular awardees, including Avigdor, an officer from a haredi family,
“who chose to enlist in the IDF despite social challenges,” and Dorian,
“who made aliyah alone just two years ago, and despite the language
barriers, excelled in his service in the Intelligence Directorate.”
He also spotlighted Oria, an observer from the Re'im base, who survived Hamas’s October 7 attack and continued to serve in the IDF, “demonstrating extraordinary inner strength,” Zamir said.
“Lea,
a soldier whose grandfather was kidnapped to Gaza and murdered there,
and from that great pain, she found the strength to persevere, rise, and
excel,” Zamir continued.
He concluded with Daria, the sister of a civilian hostage,
“who enlisted in the IDF and, even during the fierce struggle for her
sister’s return, managed to stand out and become a role model for
strength and determination,” he said.
“We,
too, together with you, are adding a new verse to the long and glorious
song of the life of the people of Israel. From this place, in the heart
of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, we send a clear message: The Israeli
hope is alive and beating, and our actions will speak.
Happy and safe Independence Day," Zamir said at the end of his speech.