Flydubai pilot attempts terror hijacking of flight to Tel Aviv, foiled by Israeli passengers - Amichai Stein, James Genn, Yonah Jeremy Bob, Zvika Klein

 

by Amichai Stein, James Genn, Yonah Jeremy Bob, Zvika Klein

Israeli official says “major disaster avoided” after pilot stabbed his co-pilot, attempted to hijack aircraft with over 100 Israeli passengers • Plane makes emergency landing in Saudi Arabia

 

Damage done to rudder of flydubai flight after suspected attempted hijacking, September 30, 2026.

(photo credit: COURTESY)

 

One hundred and seventy-four Israeli passengers were returned to Ben-Gurion Airport Tuesday evening after a stunning series of events in which multiple passengers helped restrain an Omani hijacker-pilot who attempted to crash the airplane earlier in the day.

The passengers were initially on a flydubai commercial passenger aircraft flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, but then the pilot-hijacker, who was the deputy pilot for the flight, stabbed the lead pilot and tried to crash the aircraft before as many as four passengers wounded him and tied him up.

An additional flight crew on board were then able to handle landing the plane in Saudi Arabia, though the original pilot, a native of India, was in critical condition, having been stabbed repeatedly by the Omani pilot.

One of the Israeli passengers was a medical professional who helped stem the bleeding of the Indian pilot, who was reportedly in stable condition in Saudi Arabia.

Some of the passengers who managed to restore control of the plane credited the Indian pilot for opening the cockpit for them even after he had been stabbed, so that they could provide assistance.

Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport, also known as Tabuk Airport, September 11, 2017 (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Passengers returned safely to Israel with help of Mossad despite Saudi plane refusal

After around six hours in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, a second flydubai aircraft, with a new staff, specially approved by the Mossad, came through Saudi Arabia and flew the Israeli passengers back to Israel.

Part of the delay came due to a refusal by the Saudis to allow an Israeli air force or commercial El Al aircraft, that would have arrived earlier, to bring them back to the Jewish state, with Riyadh fearing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would use the event as an election and normalization prop.

There was even a proposal for an aircraft to arrive without markings, but ultimately the Saudis said no.

A source close to the Saudi royal family told The Jerusalem Post that “Israel needs to understand that normalization cannot be forced.”

Another delay came when many Israeli passengers initially refused to get on the new flydubai aircraft, insisting they would only leave Saudi Arabia on an Israeli aircraft.

Eventually, they gave in on the issue when told this was their only choice for being rescued.

So far, multiple sources have told the Post that the Mossad, Shin Bet, IDF, and Transportation Ministry believe the hijacker was a lone wolf, not under orders from Iran or another terror group.

There is a partial disconnect in the investigation since the Saudis are leading the interrogation of the hijacker, with Israel receiving information from Riyadh secondhand or from passengers who spoke with the hijacker after he was subdued.

A number of failures are being probed by the joint Israeli security team, including why the Omani pilot was not properly checked for weapons possession, since he had a weapon with him in the cockpit with which to stab his co-pilot.

The Saudis are also probing how the United Arab Emirates allowed an Omani citizen to pilot an aircraft flying to Israel, given explicit agreements between the countries that this would not occur.

There were mixed reports about who was advocating a temporary ban on flights between the UAE and Israel until these issues were resolved, but some credited Shin Bet Director David Zini with leading the charge on that issue.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev eventually endorsed this position, though some earlier reports indicated she initially resisted Zini on the issue.

A Flydubai Boeing 737-8 MAX A6-FKF aircraft, which was bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates diverted to Saudi Arabia, is seen flying over Salzburg, Austria, March 8, 2026 (credit: KARL DITTLBACHER/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

The Shin Bet declined to confirm or deny the alleged dispute, but anonymous leaks seemed to frame Zini as having warned even before the event about insufficient security surrounding UAE-Israeli flights.

But even Zini reportedly was more concerned about security for Israelis while in the UAE, not about a rogue pilot trying to crash an aircraft he was piloting.

Aircraft carrying 174 passengers plunges 4,000 meters

Further, they are probing what the Omani pilot’s full intentions were: whether to crash the plane nowhere specific with the focus on killing the passengers or whether he had hoped to crash it in an urban setting in Israel to achieve “bonus” additional Israeli casualties.

During the altercation, the aircraft plunged about 4,000 meters, an official noted.

The aircraft, operating as flight FZ1073 and carrying 174 passengers, initially transmitted squawk code 7700, indicating a general emergency, before switching to 7500, which signals unlawful interference, and later reverting to the initial code.

Israeli media reported later on Wednesday that 166 of the passengers onboard were Israelis.

As the incident unfolded, the Israel Air Force (IAF) scrambled fighter jets in preparation for a possible emergency and raised its alert level.

Israeli airspace was also temporarily closed and later reopened after the plane landed in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli sources later told the Post that the UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan spoke with Netanyahu after the hijacking attempt.

When the Israeli passengers returned to Israel, they cheered spontaneously, and there was raucous dancing for them at Ben-Gurion Airport.

One of the heroic passengers met with Netanyahu, while multiple passengers interviewed with the media about their heroic and harrowing experience.

Several passengers said that if not for the small number of passengers who rushed the Omani pilot, they would all have died.

In related news, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir canceled his planned trip to the United States due to the ongoing situation. Zamir was slated to meet with US Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper, the Post confirmed.

Yasmin Abu Kasis, whose daughter Miriam was on the flight, said that her daughter had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man took a knife, put the pilot on the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical emergency, the Post reported at the time.

Similar incidents elsewhere have led to immediate suspensions.

In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after physically confronting each other in the cockpit during a flight from Geneva to Paris. Crew members had to separate them, and one of the pilots remained in the cockpit until landing.

An even more serious incident occurred in 2009 on an Air India flight from Sharjah, UAE, to New Delhi, India, when pilots and crew members exchanged blows, and the altercation spilled over from the cockpit into the aircraft’s galley. Two pilots and two crew members were suspended, and police launched an investigation

Shir Perets, Amir Bohbot, Eli Leon, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Amichai Stein, James Genn, Yonah Jeremy Bob, Zvika Klein

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-910155

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Netanyahu: Israel to join flydubai probe, ‘we’ll find out’ whether Iran was involved - Idan Kweller

 

by Idan Kweller

In a CNN interview, Netanyahu revealed Israel will join the flydubai probe, praised heroes who averted a '9/11 disaster,' denied pre-October7 warnings, and called settler violence framing a 'hoax.

 

Israeli Prime Minister and Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by supporters, during an election campaign tour in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, September 29, 2026

(photo credit: Liron Moldovan/Flash90)

 

In a wide-ranging CNN interview, the prime minister said UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed agreed that Israel would participate in the investigation. Netanyahu said Israel had no specific warning about the flydubai incident, defended the war against Iran, rejected reports of pre-October 7 warnings, and called the framing of “settler violence” a “tremendous hoax” while condemning vigilante attacks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would join the investigation into the Flydubai co-pilot suspected in the dramatic incident aboard a flight approaching Israel, saying investigators would soon be able to determine whether Iran had any connection to the event.

In an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Netanyahu stressed that he did not yet have information allowing him to attribute the incident to Tehran.

“What we know is [that he is] an Omani national,” Netanyahu said of the attacking co-pilot.

Netanyahu described screams coming from the cockpit as the aircraft approached Israel and said an Israeli passenger, a plumber named Yaniv, rushed toward the cockpit.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with one of the passengers from the hijhacked flydubai flight at Ben-Gurion Airport on September 30, 2026. (credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)

Netanyahu's account of the flydubai incident

According to Netanyahu, the Indian pilot who had been stabbed “showed incredible heroism” by managing, despite bleeding heavily, to unlock the cockpit door.

“The Israeli passenger burst in, saw the attacking co-pilot hover over the instruments,” Netanyahu said. “He wasn’t sitting in one of the two pilot seats, but he was trying to jam the instruments.”

Netanyahu said the passenger threw the attacker backward, took the controls and pulled back on the stick while another Israeli passenger and an air crew member helped restrain the attacker.

Reserve pilots who had been in the passenger area then entered the cockpit and stabilized the aircraft, which Netanyahu said had gone into a nosedive and sustained damage to its rudder and tail.

“The amazing heroism here of the Indian pilot, the Israeli passenger and his colleagues, and those pilots managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster, because that’s what it looks like was happening,” he said.

‘No specific warning’

Sciutto asked Netanyahu whether his warning a day earlier that Israel’s enemies could try to attack ahead of the election had been based on intelligence related to the flydubai incident.

“No, not specifically,” Netanyahu replied.

“What we had is a lot of information streaming in that Iran’s proxies, in particular Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad. But I can’t tell you that we had any specific warning about this.”

Netanyahu said the suspect was being interrogated in Saudi Arabia and that he expected him to be transferred to the United Arab Emirates.

“I spoke to the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and he agreed that Israel would join the interrogation,” Netanyahu said. “So we’ll find out very soon if Iran had anything to do with it, but I can’t say that in advance of the conclusion of the interrogation.”

The flydubai rescue flight for hijacked flight FZ1073 lands in Israel on September 30, 2026. (credit: MDA)

He later added: “We know that Iran is sponsoring a lot of this, but I can’t speak specifically of this.”

Netanyahu did, however, assert that Iran had been behind a separate attack in Britain.

“They did stand behind the attack in Britain. We passed that information to the Brits,” he said, before criticizing London for imposing sanctions on Israel days later. “The cynicism and the hypocrisy here is unbelievable.”

Iran nuclear program: ‘It’s not an intelligence assessment. It’s intelligence’

The interview then turned to Iran and reports that Tehran may be trying to rebuild nuclear infrastructure.

“It will if it can,” Netanyahu said when asked whether Iran would try to resume its nuclear program.

“But I think President Trump’s actions, the blockade, are very effective in crippling this regime. And obviously, yes, they will try to resuscitate their nuclear program, and it’s something that we’re obviously tracking all the time.”

Netanyahu said his goal and US President Donald Trump’s goal were the same: preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He argued that the economic blockade was “really crippling the IRGC economy” and said Iran was “reeling from this economic blockade.”

Asked whether the war had failed to achieve Israel’s objectives because Iran’s highly enriched uranium had not been secured, Netanyahu rejected the premise.

“I think, first of all, it achieved a great objective,” he said. “They’re on the verge of manufacturing nuclear weapons, atomic bombs, and if we hadn’t acted, they’d have them already, and they probably would have used them, and that would have changed history.”

When Sciutto asked what intelligence assessment supported that claim, Netanyahu replied: “It’s not an intelligence assessment. It’s intelligence. We had it very clear. That’s why we had to act.”

Netanyahu compared the nuclear threat to cancer.

“You know you have a big lump of cancer, and you know one thing: if you don’t remove it, then you’re going to die,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that the cancer can’t come back. So we have to be on constant alert.”

Netanyahu rejects reports of pre-October 7 warnings

Sciutto also pressed Netanyahu on recent reports that Egypt and the UAE had warned him ahead of the October 7 attacks and asked whether he accepted personal responsibility for not doing more to prevent them.

“First of all, those reports are false,” Netanyahu said. “They didn’t give me any such warnings. That’s completely false.”

He said “elements” in neighboring countries and political opponents were promoting what he called lies.

“I didn’t receive such warnings,” he said.

Asked whether there was anything he wished he had done differently before the attack, Netanyahu said there had been no solid intelligence assessment warning of such an assault.

“In fact, the intelligence assessments were the exact opposite, including days before the attack,” he said.

Netanyahu said security meetings held shortly before October 7 had concluded that “Hamas is deterred” and wanted economic benefits.

“So clearly, we were all blindsided by this,” he said.

He added that the failure should nevertheless be investigated.

“We do ask that question, and we’re going to come to the bottom of it, obviously, with a proper investigative effort.”

‘Settler violence’ framing a ‘tremendous hoax’

Toward the end of the interview, Sciutto challenged Netanyahu over violence by Israelis in the West Bank and asked whether his government had lost control of settler violence.

“The settler violence thing is a tremendous hoax,” Netanyahu responded.

He immediately clarified that he was not denying that violence had occurred.

“It’s about 150, 200 juvenile delinquents who are doing this, and I can’t stomach that,” he said. “I can’t accept vigilante action. We’re a country of laws, so I put the Shin Bet, our security services, against them.”

Netanyahu said he had already condemned such incidents.

“I can’t tolerate vigilantes and I can’t tolerate uncontrolled violence or any kind of violence that is directed against civilians. That’s not something we accept.”

But he argued that comparing such violence with Palestinian terrorism created a false equivalence.

“To compare this is like to compare an olive to a toxic tree,” Netanyahu said.

He cited figures on shootings, explosive-device attacks, stabbings, car-ramming attacks, suicide attacks and kidnappings against Israelis and said the scale was fundamentally different.

At the end of the interview, Netanyahu also addressed the future of Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon.

He said Israel would remain in security corridors in both arenas as long as Hamas and Hezbollah retained the ability to threaten Israel.

“Once these two malign forces, these terrorist monsters, are defeated,” Netanyahu said, “then I think a whole new opportunity for peace and for prosperity occurs in the Middle East, both for us and for our Arab neighbors.”

Idan Kweller

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-910243

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Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar unlocked cockpit, named assailant, while wounded - report - Maya Zanger Shamir

by Maya Zanger Shamir

Several passengers, including Israeli dentist Shota Musayev, administered first-aid care to Machchhar, keeping him alive until he was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia.

 

Flydubai pilot, capt. Smit Machchhar.

(photo credit: SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)

 

The flydubai pilot who was stabbed on flight FZ1073, Indian national Capt. Smit Machchhar, reportedly unlocked the cockpit door before losing consciousness, passenger Yaniv Hayoun told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two spoke at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday.  

Hayoun told Netanyahu that the cockpit door was unlocked, but Machchhar was close enough to the door that it was difficult to open. "My conclusion is that he resourcefully managed to open the door for us before he collapsed," he explained.

Netanyahu later expanded on this in a Twitter/X statement praising Machchhar's heroism.

My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery.

Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air…

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 30, 2026

"Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster," the prime minister wrote. "He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals."

Several passengers, including Israeli dentist Shota Musayev, administered first-aid care to Machchhar, keeping him alive until he was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia after the plane made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport. Musayev told Walla that Machchhar was badly wounded, bleeding heavily from his head and hands. The dentist was able to stop the bleeding and told Walla that his condition did stabilize after that, but deteriorated once again as the plane was landing. 

Flydubai pilot, capt. Smit Machchhar. (credit: SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)

Musayev also said that Machchhar was able to verbally communicate that the other pilot stabbed him. 

Machchhar is an experienced pilot, specializing in training new recruits

According to several Indian news outlets, Machchhar is a Gujarati Indian from Mumbai. According to his LinkedIn profile, he spent over a decade flying for Indian airline SpiceJet, where he also served as a training captain and mentor for new pilots, before moving to flydubai. His profile also notes that he accumulated about 9,750 flying hours on the 737-800 and the 737 MAX 8 and 9.

The LinkedIn profile also indicates that Machchhar is a father.

The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar was "admitted in a hospital in Tabuk city in northwest Saudi Arabia and [is] receiving necessary medical attention."

Our Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate in Jeddah have been following the health condition of Mr Smit Machchhar, the brave Indian pilot of Flydubai flight that was diverted to Tabuk today. He is admitted in a hospital in Tabuk city in northwest Saudi Arabia and receiving necessary…

— India in Saudi Arabia (@IndianEmbRiyadh) September 30, 2026

The embassy said that while they have not received a full update on the pilot's health, he is reported to be in stable condition. Officials are also in touch with Machchhar's family, the embassy added.

Maya Zanger Shamir

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-910230

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Netanyahu says pilot stabbed colleague in bid to crash Israel-bound plane, salutes hero passengers - Kevin Killough

 

by Kevin Killough

Publicly available data shows the aircraft plunged from 33,000 to 17,000 feet in about a minute before making an emergency landing.

 

A knife-carrying pilot flying a commercial flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday tried to stab a fellow pilot, resulting in the jet plummeting roughly 16,000 feet before making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, according to multiple news reports. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no official law enforcement report on the incident, including a motive or possible motive. 

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation," said the airline, FlyDubai. "We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts."

The flight reportedly had roughly 170 people aboard. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 Max subdued the attacker.

"I salute these heroes, who displayed exceptional resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives. They prevented a huge disaster," he said in a statement. 

Video footage circulating on social media and reviewed by the Associated Press showed two men on the plane’s floor, bloodied and wounded. Two people appeared to be providing medical treatment, while two others guarded the cockpit.

Publicly available data shows the aircraft plunged from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute.

Netanyahu said that almost all passengers onboard the flight were Israeli.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is calling the incident an "attempted jihadist attack."

Cluster2 Airports, which operates at several airports across Saudi Arabia, told NBC News that both the captain and first officer of FlyDubai Flight FZ 1073 were injured in the incident and taken to a hospital. 

Two Israeli jets were scrambled to intercept the flight in response to the incident.

Kevin Killough

Source: https://justthenews.com/world/middle-east/flight-bound-israel-makes-emergency-landing-saudi-arabia-following-bloody-cockpit

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How Democrats will exploit the ‘settler-violence’ narrative - Jonathan S. Tobin

 

by Jonathan S. Tobin

Misleading claims that Jews—and not Palestinian terrorists—are the aggressors in the territories might be the wedge that the next Congress uses to start unraveling the U.S.-Israel alliance.

 

Jewish families take part in a march between the former settlements of Ganim and Kadim in the West Bank, which were evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan, during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Sept. 30, 2026. Photo by Hilel Ben Or/Flash90

 

During the High Holidays, American synagogue pulpits rang out with sermons calling on Jews to hold themselves accountable for bad conduct. The Days of Awe are a time when we are supposed to conduct a cheshbon nefesh, or “accounting of the soul,” to acknowledge our sins, repent and resolve to be better in the coming year.

But this year, that theme of accountability was utilized to make more than a general point about repentance. In some congregations, rabbis picked up on one of the most ubiquitous storylines about the Middle East in the last year to make what they considered to be a nuanced and moralistic argument about the need to recognize Jewish misbehavior and the imperative for holding the wrongdoers accountable.

Condemning the ‘bad Jews’

Outrage over “settler violence”—the claim that the several hundred thousand Jews living in Judea and Samaria, enabled and encouraged by the government of Israel, have engaged in an epidemic of violence against Palestinian Arabs—has become among the most popular themes of discourse about the Jewish state. And it was perfect fodder for rabbis who wanted an avenue to virtue-signal some distance from the Jewish state without crossing over to territory in which they could be credibly accused of aiding and abetting those who are opposed to its existence.

Condemning the so-called “settlers,” who are the allegedly “bad Jews,” and not all of Israel is the chief liberal Zionist talking point these days. Above all, it’s a way to take sides in an Israeli election that has American liberals rooting hard for the defeat of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners, who are being held responsible for the behavior of the settlers.

However, there are two problems with this argument in which American Jews are being called upon to condemn “Jewish terrorism” with the kind of fervor that many of them have lacked when confronting the propaganda spread by Hamas terrorists and their supporters.

One is the fact that claims about a wave of such actions are largely false and constitute an effort to distract the world from the fact that an actual epidemic of Arab terrorism in Judea and Samaria dwarfs the statistically far smaller instances of Jewish violence.

The other is that the talk about Jewish terrorism is going to be the wedge issue that Democrats plan to use not just to enact sanctions on Israelis if they win control of Congress next year. It’s also how they hope to begin the process of splintering the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Opposition to Israel has become not just normative; it’s the view of the majority of those who identify as members of the party. Democrats are rallying behind even openly antisemitic figures like Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, their nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, who won his primary by campaigning on the traditional trope of hatred that Jews and their allies were conspiring to buy Congress.

What sanctions really mean

With so many of their supporters still believing that they have been insufficiently hostile to Israel since the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab terror attacks on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, sending a message to Jerusalem appears to be a priority for Democrats. As reports in The Hill and other publications have made plain, if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections come November, expect them to pass legislation that will start by targeting the Jews of Judea and Samaria, who are being vilified around the world as criminals.

That will do nothing about security for Arabs or Jews in the region that most non-Israelis still wrongly label the “West Bank.”

In addition to bolstering the claim that the United States must punish “bad” Israelis, they are also sure to say that it will help pave the way for a two-state solution. That’s a claim we’ve heard from some European countries that have embraced sanctions against Israel, such as the pronouncements from British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, which have gone as far as to falsely assert that Israel is “ethnically cleansing” the West Bank when nothing like that is remotely possible, let alone happening.

The real purpose of his rhetoric is to appease the red-green alliance of Israel-hating Marxists and Islamists that his Labour Party needs to maintain its grip on power. The goal isn’t peace. It’s to treat the Jewish state as an international pariah—something that grants an unmerited victory to Hamas terrorists and others whose objective is Israel’s destruction and Jewish genocide.

Some Jews, especially liberal ones, persist in ignoring logic and evidence for magical thinking about “land for peace” solutions that will end the conflict, which were so widespread after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. The history of the last century should have reminded everyone that Palestinians have zero interest in a two-state solution.

But in the last three decades, anyone paying attention to the Middle East should have realized that a never-ending war against the Jewish presence in the land of Israel is inextricably linked to Palestinian national identity. Even liberals ought to know this; however, they are so alienated from Netanyahu and the Jewish right for political and religious reasons that they believe that it is still incumbent on them to go on treating Jews living in the heart of the Jewish homeland as illegitimate.

The folly of ‘two states’

There is no consensus in Israel about whether to extend Israeli law to Judea and Samaria. But there is also no debate about the existential threat that turning the territories into a sovereign Palestinian state would pose. Repeating the experiment tried in 2005, when the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew from the Gaza Strip—thus ultimately paving the way for Hamas to create an independent state in all but name there—in the far larger and more strategic Judea and Samaria, would not be so much ill-advised as utterly insane. That was obvious before Oct. 7; after that orgy of mass murder, torture, rape and kidnapping, it is unavoidable.

Yet it is a given that the next Congress controlled by Democrats, which might happen as soon as January, will legislate sanctions against Jews living in the territories and anything produced there, regardless of whether or not they are involved in “settler violence.” As we’ve seen with past efforts in Europe and the United States to smear this population, a limited version of antisemitic BDS will target those who not only defend themselves against Arab terror but who advocate for Jewish rights there.

If they are given the chance, it’s clear that congressional Democrats will misrepresent their discriminatory actions by saying the purpose is to prepare the way for a two-state solution, which will not be treated as merely a theoretical goal to which they aspire. The so-called progressives that dominate House and Senate caucuses view it as a scheme to be actively pursued by means of sanctions and lawfare aimed at delegitimizing the Jews who live in the territories, as well as any Israeli government that won’t bow to their demands.

And it won’t stop at merely a sanctions regime against settlers.

Given the influence and star power of people like El-Sayed (whose victory in November is by no means assured, though he is currently leading in Michigan polls) and the left-wing congressional “Squad,” whose ranks are certain to continue to increase in January, expect more efforts to ban the sale of weapons to Israel that failed while still gaining the backing of most Democrats in the current Congress.

The question is whether they will do so with the acquiescence or even active support of those people—both Jewish and non-Jewish—who will assert that it’s a necessary response to what they wrongly perceive as Israel’s rejection of peace by holding onto this land and letting Jews live there.

The truth about ‘settler violence’

The problem is that the settler-violence narrative isn’t merely a distortion of the truth about what is happening in the region. It’s being weaponized by those with both an axe to grind against Netanyahu and his right-wing supporters, coupled with those whose hostility extends to all of Israel.

There are instances when a small minority of Jews living in Judea and Samaria have engaged in unprovoked and/or illegal violence against local Arabs. Criminality, whether the work of Arabs or Jews, deserves to be condemned, as Netanyahu himself did earlier in the week when a group of rioters attacked both Palestinians and troops of the Israel Defense Forces, who were there to protect them.

But the overwhelming majority of incidents labeled as “settler violence” are altercations, where a closer look reveals that it was Jews defending themselves against Palestinian terrorism or merely actions (such as Jews praying on the Temple Mount), where their so-called crime is merely being Jewish in a place where some people don’t wish them to be.

The real epidemic of violence in Judea and Samaria comes from a stepped-up campaign of terror against Jews coming from Hamas and its vast network of sympathizers there. Indeed, on the eve of Kol Nidre—when some American rabbis felt the need to inveigh against the settlers—a Jewish father of six children was murdered by an Arab gunman in Samaria. Three days later, the son of Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was gravely wounded during a Palestinian car-ramming attack.

That is the context in which any discussion of what is occurring on the ground in the territories should be held. Yet many American Jews seem either unaware or uninterested in the daily toll of terror attacks on Jews in Judea and Samaria, while swallowing whole the exaggerations and outright lies about Jewish terrorism.

Those Israelis who are pushing this narrative—like the group of 550 retired Israeli senior military and intelligence officers under the cover of a group called Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) who sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to pressure the Israeli government—have a political motive. They have been trying to topple Netanyahu by one means or another for years and hope the issue will help defeat him in the Knesset election.

But even those pro-Israel Americans who sympathize with that goal should understand how this issue is being misused by those who have broader objectives than merely changing the Israeli government.

The prospect of sanctions of any kind on Israel—and what may soon follow them—highlights the stakes in the midterms for the pro-Israel community. Those pushing the settler-violence narrative should understand the consequences of pretending that a relatively small problem of Jewish misbehavior, which is opposed by virtually all Israelis, is more important than the far larger question of widespread Arab terrorism. That is to say, terrorism enthusiastically supported by the vast majority of Palestinians and financially subsidized and honored by the so-called “moderates” who autonomously govern the Palestinian Authority.

Some may do this out of a desire to undermine the US.-Israel alliance. Others, like many of the rabbis who denounce the settlers, are acting on a vain hope of re-establishing their moral bona fides vis-à-vis those on the left who libel all supporters of the Jewish state as supporters of “genocide.” Either way, they should understand that even if the actions of a tiny fragment of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live across the “Green Line” are opposed, the smearing of an entire population is aiding those who wish to isolate and destroy Israel, not change its government.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, available on major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won 60-plus awards for his columns, commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.

Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/jonathan-s-tobin/how-democrats-will-exploit-the-settler-violence-narrative

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Senate Republicans make their case that Jack Smith's probe was purely political, not criminal - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

The hearing saw Smith appear to discuss his investigations targeting Trump. Those investigations were related to alleged mishandling of classified materials, as well as 2020 election challenges and the Jan. 6, 2021 incident at the Capitol. While they resulted in felony indictments, Smith abandoned the cases after Trump won back the White House in 2024. Lawmakers each followed party lines throughout the day.

 

Former special counsel Jack Smith’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday laid bare lingering divides over President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election and the Biden administration’s investigation of him.

On Tuesday morning, Smith appeared voluntarily to discuss those investigations. He brought charges against Trump in two separate investigations, one related to his alleged mishandling of classified materials, and the other linked to his 2020 election challenges and the Jan. 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol. None were prosecuted.

Representatives from each party stuck to their talking points

While the hearing followed the panel’s lengthy review of Smith and the Biden Department of Justice’s inquiries into Trump, it revealed relatively few new details about the matter and largely saw lawmakers stick to their respective parties’ talking points on the issues.

To be sure, Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made a handful of revelations, including about Smith’s securing of communications between the media and government sources. He also highlighted Smith’s subpoena of roughly 5,000 checks from small-donor contributors to Republicans.

But most of the hearing saw Republicans and Democrats alike get emotional to either lionize or demonize Smith, while he largely stuck by his conduct as an investigator and spoke on behalf of his former staffers.

After the hearing, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast that she believed Smith's investigation was politically motivated, calling it a "witch hunt."

"It wasn't about law and order. It was about political retribution and making people pay, making them suffer, building this file, and it is going to be imperative that Jack Smith be held to account for what he did, because we never ever want this to happen to another American," she said.

Grassley’s revelations: How Smith spied on the press

During the hearing, Grassley pointed to Smith’s investigative activities and pressed him on the basis for securing certain information.

“[Y]ou obtained at least 4,782 donor checks. Many of those checks were $5 to $10," Grassley said. "The list includes checks from constituents in every state of every single member of this committee, both Republicans and Democrats. It included 42 checks from Iowans who dared to donate money to Republicans. No matter what you say, there is no legitimate basis for what you did.”

Grassley also unveiled a list of media organizations whose communications with sources Smith obtained. That list included 60 Minutes, Associated Press, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, The L.A. Times, The Mark Levin Show, the Media Research Center, NBC, NPR, New York Magazine, Reuters, The Federalist, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Democrats came out swinging early in the hearing, with ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., defending Smith and excoriating Republicans over their decision to hold a hearing for Smith to testify only after a year in the majority.

"Republicans have spent months spreading baseless conspiracy theories about Mr. Smith's investigation," Durbin said. "Instead of hearing from him directly, nearly a year ago, Mr. Smith volunteered to testify under oath before this committee."

"Instead, [they] held eight hearings on his supposed wrongdoing, never calling him directly,” he added.

Sen. Kennedy to Smith: "You make me want to throw up"

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., often known for his boisterous and folksy commentary in Senate hearings, pointedly told Smith that "[y]ou make me want to throw up in my mouth" after Smith insisted he acted in a non-partisan manner.

Kennedy's line of questioning had addressed the role of Attorney General Merrick Garland in the probe.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also took an opportunity to rage against Smith’s handling of the case, likening his conduct to Javert, the fictional police inspector and main antagonist in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel "Les Misérables," famous for his blind devotion to the law and his relentless hunt for Jean Valjean.

“Well, let me say, you have brought the Department of Justice into disrepute, and you have done enormous damage. And I believe your conduct represents the most egregious abuse of power in the history of the Department of Justice,” he added.

Schiff blames the judge for shutting down Smith’s case

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his part, spent much of his time toeing the party line and excoriating U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, who oversaw Smith’s classified documents case. Cannon ultimately found that Smith had been unlawfully appointed. During the case, she made several publicly scrutinized decisions, including the appointment of a special master.

Rallying to Smith's defense, Schiff told Smith, “I hope that we can let the country see your work product and see the release of the second volume of your report [...] You can't testify about that today because Judge Cannon doesn't want you to. Her decisions have just bent over backwards to do service for the president, and because this committee doesn't want you to, and this Justice Department won't give you guidance about what you can even say today because they don't want you to, they want you to have to fear they will come after you if you testify about the volumes of evidence that you have acquired.”

“So thank you for your service to the country, and I'm sorry you have been treated with such shabby ad hominem attacks. You deserve better, and so do the American people,” Schiff concluded.

Cornyn presses Smith on unprecedented nature of the probe

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, primarily dealt with Smith’s appointment and reasons for ending the case. He specifically highlighted the concerns about partisanship that stemmed from the Biden administration investigating an active political opponent.

"Are you aware of whether this has ever happened before in the 250-year history of the United States of America, where an incumbent president, attorney general, appoints a special counsel to investigate his or her political opponent. Has that ever happened before?" he asked.

Smith could not identify a comparable instance. 

Cornyn then pivoted to address the Department of Justice (DOJ) policy on prosecuting a sitting president. Smith highlighted that Trump’s reelection had ended the case.

"[T]he Office of Legal Counsel does not permit the prosecution to go forward given Donald Trump's re-election. That's the Department of Policy, a Department policy, and I was committed to following the Department policy at all times," Smith said.

Despite that claim to follow DOJ policy, yesterday Just the News reported that Smith — contrary to DOJ policy — kept evidence on Trump after the cases were shut down. Normally, DOJ rules require the disposal or return of seized evidence once a criminal case is closed or dismissed, provided the evidence is no longer needed for official purposes. 

Hawley goes for the jugular, refers to Smith's "comedic talent"

Early in the afternoon, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., took the most aggressive line of questioning, pressing Smith on his decision to pursue lawmakers' phone records. But he also outright accused Smith of waging a political investigation intended to stop Trump from returning to the White House.

"Mr. Smith, I have to start by saying I think that maybe I underestimated you. I underestimated, in particular, your comedic talent," Hawley said. "I've been watching this whole hearing. I've watched everything you said. I noticed that you began by saying, 'I have no partisan loyalty,' and you repeated over and over and over, there's nothing in your investigation about politics. That's hilarious."

Echoing the Republicans' party line, Hawley said "In fact, your investigation was all about politics from day one. Your investigation, so-called, your prosecution, so-called, was nothing other than an attempt to interfere politically in a presidential election in the United States of America."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/wedjack-smith-testimony-lays-bare-2020s-old-wounds

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Florida designates CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as domestic terrorist groups - Misty Severi

 

by Misty Severi

Florida expanded the designation to include the domestic terrorist group label and also labeled al-Qaeda, the Houthis and the Continuity Irish Republican Army as foreign terrorist organizations.

 

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration voted Tuesday to designate the Muslim Brotherhood, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and approximately 90 other groups as domestic terrorist groups.

A 427-page document that accompanied the vote claimed “there is substantial evidence that CAIR is engaging in terrorist activity” and accused the group of having connections to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

The vote comes after Texas and Florida labeled the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations last year, which forbids both organizations and their affiliates from purchasing or acquiring land in the states and allows increased enforcement against the groups.

Florida on Tuesday expanded the designation to include the domestic terrorist group label and also labeled al-Qaeda, the Houthis and the Continuity Irish Republican Army as foreign terrorist organizations.

Florida also now considers Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, two Mexican drug cartels and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as foreign terrorist organizations, according to CBS News.

CAIR has since sued the state over the designation, accusing DeSantis of violating the First Amendment and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

"There is nowhere in that notice any allegation or evidence that CAIR has engaged in any violent or dangerous act in violation of Florida or U.S. law," Hina Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's national security project, said Tuesday. "That's the first requirement for something as serious as this."

The ACLU is representing CAIR in its lawsuit and Shamsi said attorneys intend to file a motion Thursday on behalf of CAIR-Florida that seeks a preliminary injunction to block the designation.

The designations will take effect Nov. 5, if no court strikes them down first.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/florida-designates-cair-muslim-brotherhood-domestic-terrorist-groups

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America First Does Not Mean Israel Last - Pierre Rehov

 

by Pierre Rehov

Within a day, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee replied: "America has never defended Israel. Not one time... has America ever put boots on the ground for Israel.... When we are partnering against Iran... we're defending the United States.... Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we're the entrée."

 

• The word was "subservient." It was chosen.... Vice President JD Vance said that the United States "cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel."

• Vance argued that America's most -- perhaps only -- reliable ally, Israel, and every American relationship, must be rooted in American interests, adding: "Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who's been willing to say 'You know what, yeah Bibi's a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different opinion on this,' or 'Bibi's wrong about this...'"

• Incredibly, Vance actually said that after the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Estonia and Spain had all refused to help America even minimally in its effort to constrain Iran.

• Within a day, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee replied: "America has never defended Israel. Not one time... has America ever put boots on the ground for Israel.... When we are partnering against Iran... we're defending the United States.... Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we're the entrée."

• America, successfully using "shock and awe" once again, had been winning. Trump was at last ending a war that Iran's regime had been waging on America, Israel and Western civilization since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979. They have been chanting "Death to America" for 47 years -- and they mean it. "Death to America is not just a slogan," the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, "It is a policy."

• Trump warned in June: "You give them a nuclear weapon, they'll use it within the first hour – and we're not going to let that happen."

• "If they had a nuclear weapon," Trump said this month, "I'd be calling the Supreme Leader, and I'd be saying, 'Mr. Supreme Leader, how are you, sir? Is there anything we can do for you?' as opposed to bombing the crap out of him."

• Trump is the first president, out of seven, who actually decided to end the threat from Iran. There was only one hitch: Trump, Washington Post columnist Thiessen stated, had run the ball "to the 20-yard line" – and then stopped!

• What Israel brings to America's side in this fight is something Washington has rarely found in the region: an ally that defends not only itself, but is also sacrificing its youth to defend western civilization – including the countries that are now denigrating and undermining it.

• "Historically, approximately 74 percent of U.S. military assistance to Israel was required to be spent on American-made defense goods and services. Under a special arrangement known as Offshore Procurement, Israel was permitted to spend up to 26 percent of its Foreign Military Financing allocation within its own defense industry. That exception is being phased out." — Colonel John Spencer (ret.), chair of urban warfare studies at West Point's Modern War Institute, June 11, 2026.

• "By 2028, 100 percent of FMF assistance must be spent in the United States on American-made defense goods and services. No other major recipient of American military assistance operates under a similar arrangement. The money does not leave the American economy. It circulates through American factories, American supply chains, and American workers. In practice, much of what critics describe as foreign aid flows directly to American defense companies, American workers, and the industrial base that also equips the U.S. military." — John Spencer, June 11, 2026.

• The $38 billion the Congressional Budget Office counts as the cost of the current war against the Islamic Republic of Iran is being spent against a regime that has been murdering Americans since 1983 and uses "Death to America" as both an official slogan and an official policy.

• Vance may have chosen his recent words as part of a fantasy that if the US just closes its eyes to foreign threats and concentrates on building up America domestically, the rest of the world, for good or ill, will somehow take care of itself. The vice president seems unaware of what Europe, and later America, found out the hard way -- that what happens in Sudetenland does not stay in Sudetenland. The thinking in 1938 was that if Europe just forced Czechoslovakia to give Germany's Adolf Hitler the territory he was demanding from them, he would be happy and go away. Only Britain's Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt accurately foresaw at the time that giving the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany would be just the "appetizer," and the rest of Europe would be the "entrée."

Vance may have chosen his recent words as part of a fantasy that if the US just closes its eyes to foreign threats and concentrates on building up America domestically, the rest of the world, for good or ill, will somehow take care of itself. The vice president seems unaware of what Europe, and later America, found out the hard way -- that what happens in Sudetenland does not stay in Sudetenland. Pictured: Vance speaks during at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on September 18, 2026. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The word was "subservient." It was chosen. Addressing the All-In Summit month in mid-September, US Vice President JD Vance said that the United States "cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel."

Within a day, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee replied:

"America has never defended Israel. Not one time since [Israel gained independence in] 1948 has America ever put boots on the ground for Israel.... When we are partnering against Iran, we're not defending Israel, we're defending the United States.... Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we're the entrée."

Huckabee insisted that no one had nudged or deceived the president into confronting Iran, and that Israel "never begged anything":

"A lot of what happened in that room I cannot disclose because it was classified. Someday maybe I'll write a book and tell the whole story, but I don't leak... Nobody pushed President Trump into anything. Nobody misled him into anything.... He did it from his own volition."

Vance argued that America's most -- perhaps only -- reliable ally, Israel, and every American relationship, must be rooted in American interests, adding:

"Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who's been willing to say 'You know what, yeah Bibi's a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different opinion on this,' or 'Bibi's wrong about this,' or maybe 'Bibi's right about this from the perspective of Israel, but the American people need us to go in a different direction.'"

Incredibly, Vance actually said that after the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Estonia and Spain had all refused to help America even minimally in its effort to constrain Iran.

It was apparently Vance, as well, who had argued for the catastrophic April 8 ceasefire with Iran.

America, successfully using "shock and awe" once again, had been winning. Trump was at last ending a war that Iran's regime had been waging on America, Israel and Western civilization since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979. They have been chanting "Death to America" for 47 years -- and they mean it. "Death to America is not just a slogan," the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, "It is a policy."

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, tasked with negotiating with Iran, in March reported in March:

"In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly — with no shame — that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% [enriched uranium] and that they're aware that could make 11 nuclear bombs."

Trump warned in June: "You give them a nuclear weapon, they'll use it within the first hour – and we're not going to let that happen."

"If they had a nuclear weapon," Trump said this month, "I'd be calling the Supreme Leader, and I'd be saying, 'Mr. Supreme Leader, how are you, sir? Is there anything we can do for you?' as opposed to bombing the crap out of him."

Unless one wanted to wait and see if Iran would make good on its threat, Trump, prudently, evidently preferred to remove it.

Trump is the first president, out of seven, who actually decided to end the threat from Iran. There was only one hitch: Trump, Washington Post columnist Thiessen stated, had run the ball "to the 20-yard line" – and then stopped!

The bewildering part to many onlookers is that Trump, while sidelining the party most immediately affected by Iran – the "one-bomb country," Israel -- has nevertheless been courting Middle Eastern leaders -- such Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria, which is now demanding the Golan Heights from Israel -- a request akin to Mexico demanding the US Southwest -- who also might not be inordinately distressed if Israel were eliminated.

Iran's quarrel with America predates Netanyahu's entire political career. Iran's belligerence began at the founding of the Islamic Republic, with the new regime's seizure of the US embassy in 1979, then holding its residents hostage for 444 days until President Ronald Reagan entered office. Iran initiated lethal violence against the US in Beirut in 1983, when a Hezbollah murdered 241 American servicemen in a truck bombing, for which a US federal court later ordered Iran's regime to pay $2.65 billion; and the regime was found guilty of participating in the 9/11/2001 attacks -- among many others -- for which it was ordered to pay $6 billion.

After Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, Tehran's proxy network of Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria launched more than 170 attacks on American forces in the region. A drone launched by an Iraqi militia killed three soldiers at Tower 22 in January 2024.

This month, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired ballistic missiles both at an American warship and at an American base in Jordan, prompting the US Central Command to destroy five Iranian tankers.

What Israel brings to America's side in this fight is something Washington has rarely found in the region: an ally that defends not only itself, but is also sacrificing its youth to defend western civilization – including the countries that are now denigrating and undermining it.

Huckabee's point is verifiable. In the 78 years since Israel was founded, Washington has never sent a single soldier to fight for Israel. The partnership rests on intelligence, weapons development, logistics and the cooperation of two outstanding militaries to operate together. The US ten-year memorandum covering fiscal 2019 through 2028 provides $3.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for missile defense, $38 billion in all, signed in 2016 by the Obama administration. Three-quarters of this allotment is dedicated to purchasing military equipment from the United States. Colonel John Spencer (ret.), who serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at West Point's Modern War Institute, points out:

"Historically, approximately 74 percent of U.S. military assistance to Israel was required to be spent on American-made defense goods and services. Under a special arrangement known as Offshore Procurement, Israel was permitted to spend up to 26 percent of its Foreign Military Financing allocation within its own defense industry. That exception is being phased out.

"By 2028, 100 percent of FMF assistance must be spent in the United States on American-made defense goods and services. No other major recipient of American military assistance operates under a similar arrangement. The money does not leave the American economy. It circulates through American factories, American supply chains, and American workers. In practice, much of what critics describe as foreign aid flows directly to American defense companies, American workers, and the industrial base that also equips the U.S. military.

"That money directly supports American workers and American manufacturing. Israel is the largest international operator of the F-35 fighter aircraft, purchasing the jets from Lockheed Martin's production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Each aircraft supports a supply chain spread across more than forty-five states. Israel also purchases American helicopters, precision-guided munitions, communications systems, radar equipment, engines, and other military technology.

"The relationship extends beyond simple purchases. Israeli firms participate in the production and development of systems such as the F-35, with Israel Aerospace Industries manufacturing wings for the global fleet and Israeli companies contributing technologies used throughout the program. The result is a deeply integrated defense-industrial partnership that benefits both countries."

The money tells only half the story. The David's Sling missile defense system is built by Rafael with Raytheon as a subcontractor under the joint supervision of Israel's Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The Arrow 3 missile defense system was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries together with Boeing. Two Iron Dome batteries were supplied to the U.S. Army in 2019, and in May 2026 the first Tamir interceptors were delivered to the Marine Corps, missiles that a Raytheon-Rafael joint venture now builds in Arkansas. These are integrated programs in which technology, combat experience and manufacturing travel in both directions, and in which the American taxpayers acquire cutting-edge systems US forces now field at a fraction of what developing them alone would have cost.

The same is true operationally. In 2023, Juniper Oak brought 6,400 American and 1,500 Israeli troops, 142 aircraft and a carrier strike group into the largest bilateral exercise the two countries had ever held, with B-52s dropping live ordnance in Israel's Negev Desert. Fifteen months later, when Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in one day, the interoperability rehearsed in the exercise produced interceptions shared among American, Israeli, British, French and Jordanian forces. In June 2025, Israel's penetration of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile complexes opened the way for American bombers to strike Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan eight days later, and on February 28, 2026, the two air forces went to war side-by-side starting from the first night. The US Central Command has built the partnership with Israel into its regional architecture because the intelligence and targeting it yields are American assets.

The relationship extends well beyond the battlefield. The 1985 US-Israel free trade agreement was the first the US ever signed. American exports to Israel have grown 473% since then, and two-way trade in goods and services reached $54.2 billion in 2025. The BIRD Energy program has put roughly $50 million of public money into more than 60 joint projects and drawn some $927 million in private investment behind them. The Qualifying Industrial Zones created by Congress in 1996 allow goods manufactured in Jordan and Egypt to enter the United States duty-free provided they contain Israeli inputs, a device meant to give former enemies a commercial stake in peace, which by Washington's own account it has done.

None of this has ever meant total lockstep agreement between the two allies. Washington and Jerusalem have quarreled over settlements, arms sales, Iran, Gaza and Lebanon since the relationship began. In March 2015, Netanyahu stood before Congress to attack the nuclear deal then President Barack Obama was negotiating that would have let Iran have all the nuclear weapons it could acquire starting in October 2023. Eighteen months later, the same president signed the largest package of military aid to Israel in American history.

In June 2026, Trump told reporters that Israel had been fighting Hezbollah too long and killing too many people, while this month, the administration is reported to be preparing $2.8 billion in munitions sales to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs. Beneath the disputes, the institutional structure has nevertheless kept deepening.

If, as parts of the American right argue, America First means that every foreign alliance must justify itself by American interests, Israel more than passes the test. The ledger shows the sharing of intelligence on common foes, weapons developed and built jointly, a partner that fields its own soldiers, $54 billion dollars annually in two-way trade, and a military relationship the Pentagon has written into its plans. In 2014, the US Senate unanimously passed the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, a bond forged by shared interests as well as shared values, and Obama signed it into law.

The $38 billion the Congressional Budget Office counts as the cost of the current war against the Islamic Republic of Iran is being spent against a regime that has been murdering Americans since 1983 and uses "Death to America" as both an official slogan and an official policy.

Vance may have chosen his recent words as part of a fantasy that if the US just closes its eyes to foreign threats and concentrates on building up America domestically, the rest of the world, for good or ill, will somehow take care of itself. The vice president seems unaware of what Europe, and later America, found out the hard way -- that what happens in Sudetenland does not stay in Sudetenland. The thinking in 1938 was that if Europe just forced Czechoslovakia to give Germany's Adolf Hitler the territory he was demanding from them, he would be happy and go away. Only Britain's Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt accurately foresaw at the time that giving the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany would be just the "appetizer," and the rest of Europe would be the "entrée."

The original "America First" movement was led during that era by the lionized hero at the time, the aviator Charles Lindbergh. After touring Nazi Germany several times in 1936-1938 and being personally awarded the Service Cross of the German Eagle on behalf of Adolf Hitler by Luftwaffe chief and Reichstag President Hermann Göring, Lindbergh returned to the US in 1939 and became a prominent spokesman for the "America First Committee," a non-interventionist group formed in 1940. He argued that the US should avoid entanglement in European conflicts, and claimed that aiding Britain could drag the US into a costly war that didn't serve American interests and that Jewish influence was pushing the US toward war.

The ledger behind the US-Israel alliance has been compiled for nearly 80 years. That Israel is today America's only reliable ally in every season? Absolutely yes. That America's Middle Eastern foreign policy is subservient to Israel? Definitely no.

Pierre Rehov, who holds a law degree from Paris-Assas, is a French reporter, novelist and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of six novels, including "Beyond Red Lines", "The Third Testament" and "Red Eden", translated from French. His latest essay on the aftermath of the October 7 massacre " 7 octobre - La riposte " became a bestseller in France. As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed 17 documentaries, many photographed at high risk in Middle Eastern war zones, and focusing on terrorism, media bias, and the persecution of Christians. His latest documentary, "Pogrom(s)" highlights the context of ancient Jew hatred within Muslim civilization as the main force behind the October 7 massacre.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22887/america-first-vance-israel

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