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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday that “[t]here will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River” after several countries recognized one, despite the war and the lack of signs of statehood. Netanyahu said in a statement (translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office): I have a clear message to those leaders who are recognizing a Palestinian state after the horrendous October 7 massacre: You are rewarding terror with an enormous prize. And I have another message for you: It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River....

Pope Leo XIV met Sept. 4 with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, calling for swift action to end hostilities in Gaza and ensure urgent humanitarian access to the most afflicted areas. According to the Holy See Press Office, the meeting — held at the Vatican Apostolic Palace — addressed escalating tensions in the Middle East and reinforced the Vatican’s long-standing support for peace built on justice and dialogue. The statement described the discussions as “cordial” and noted they focused on the broader political and social instability across the region, “with particular attention to the tragic situation in Gaza.”The Holy See emphasized...

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz issued an ultimatum to Hamas: surrender, release all hostages, and disarm, or see Gaza City — the group’s last stronghold — destroyed. Katz’s statement came in apparently response to a statement by Hamas that it would be willing to release all of the hostages in return for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — which would leave the group armed and in charge, ready to prepare for war again. The Times of Israel reported: “Defense Minister Israel Katz warns that Hamas will soon face a stark choice: either accept Israel’s conditions to end the war — including...

President Donald Trump is reportedly reviewing a proposal to offer Gaza residents $5,000 each to voluntarily leave the region, as part of a larger plan to redevelop Gaza into a tech and trade hub backed by Israeli and Gulf investment. The 38-page plan, reported by The Washington Post, outlines a temporary relocation of Gaza’s two million residents, either to other countries or into secure zones within Gaza during reconstruction. Those who own land would be compensated with digital tokens that could be used to finance relocation or redeemed for housing in newly built “smart cities.”The proposal, known as the GREAT...

The White House is reportedly considering a plan to pay Palestinians $5,000 to relocate for 10 years while the Gaza Strip is transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East” envisioned by President Trump. The Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (GREAT) proposal would establish a trusteeship for control of the 25-mile-long strip of land that would be administered by the US for at least 10 years, while reconstruction – financed by billions of dollars in public and private-sector investments – takes place, according to the Washington Post. Gaza’s entire 2 million population would need to be temporarily relocated for...

As Israel begins its offensive in Gaza City, Hamas is preventing the city's civilian population from evacuating in order to "exploit" the Israeli military's efforts to avoid civilian casualties, according to a Tuesday report. "Hamas is preparing for the IDF's entry into Gaza City by threatening Gazans in the area and ordering its fighters to block exit routes," Israel's Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal reported, citing his colleague Nitzan Shapira. Shapira added that after an Israeli airstrike accidentally struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and caused civilian casualties on Monday, Hamas "has further recognized that it can exploit the IDF's...

US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that the Gaza war will reach a “conclusive ending” in the next two or three weeks, saying that there was a serious “diplomatic push” underway to end the nearly two-year conflict. “I think within the next two to three weeks, you’re going to have pretty good, conclusive — a conclusive ending,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. What Trump based his prediction on was unclear, given that Israel has indicated it is not interested in the phased ceasefire proposal that Hamas agreed to last week. Rather, the Israeli government has instead been...

The removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored, says Tom Gross It is not surprising, given the sheer scale of the Holocaust and its sadism, that it has dominated contemporary discourse among Jews and others. But, while the extermination of European Jews has rightfully (though belatedly) generated a great deal of study and research, the removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored. This ignorance extends to policy-makers at the highest level. Some journalists and politicians I have spoken to have expressed surprise when I even mentioned that Jews...

Latest DevelopmentsAid Trucks Looted: Data from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) showed that between May 19 and August 5, more than 2,600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed from Israel into Gaza. However, only 300 of these trucks reached their intended destinations in Gaza during that period, with some 2,309 trucks being “intercepted” and looted along their delivery routes — undermining the recent claim of Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, that “the vast majority of the aid gets to civilians.” UNOPS’s data did not distinguish between the parties responsible for the interceptions, noting only that...

COGAT @cogatonline: 🚨WATCH: 5 Armed terrorists operated under the cover of a fake emblem of @WCKitchen placed on a vehicle in Gaza - and were eliminated from the air. The terrorists deliberately affixed the emblem and wore yellow vests in an attempt to conceal their activity and avoid being targeted, cynically exploiting the status and trust afforded to aid organizations. Representatives from #GazaCLA verified the information with the WCK organization, which confirmed that the vehicle seen in the Gaza Strip bearing the organization’s emblem had no connection to its operations.

Netanyahu claims Hamas is refusing to "lay down its arms" so Israel has "no choice but to finish the job". "Given Hamas's refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas," he says. The Israeli prime minister claims there are "two remaining strongholds" in Gaza, that he intends to "dismantle". Netanyahu used the map below to illustrate where he says they are - the central camps, and Gaza City. "We have about 70 to 75% of Gaza under Israeli control, military control," Netanyahu says. He adds: "Last Thursday,...

While the world pushes false claims of Gaza starvation, the truth is far more disturbing—and far more ignored. In this critical episode of MidEast & Beyond, Amir Tsarfati and Pastor Barry Stagner unpack breaking developments across Israel’s war fronts: the end of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, the possible complete siege of Gaza City, Hezbollah’s weakening grip on Lebanon, the looming Israeli operation in Yemen, and the manufactured famine narrative exploited by global media. From fake humanitarian photo ops to spiritual deception on a worldwide scale, this is a wake-up call to the Church and the world.

Taiwan has a “far more robust” claim to statehood than Palestine does, former British prime minister Boris Johnson said during a conference in Taipei, Taiwan, according to a Tuesday report by British outlet The Telegraph…. “Never in the wildest dreams of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, can he have believed – when he and his colleagues instigated the horror of October 7, 2023 – that only 22 months later the United Kingdom itself would be so craven and pathetic as to fall for Hamas propaganda and to turn against Israel,” Johnson wrote in his column in the UK outlet Daily...

Columbia University agitator and terror fanboy Mahmoud Khalil just let the truth slip: The “pro-Palestine” movement believes Hamas was justified and right to commit the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities, to forestall a “very imminent” Saudi-Israeli peace deal. SNIP The savage Oct. 7 attacks, Khalil told The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, were just a “desperate attempt” to “break the cycle.” What “cycle”? The one where Israel was making peace with Arab states. But, whined Khalil, Israel and Saudi Arabia were about to normalize relations “as if Palestinians are not part of the equation,” and “unfortunately . . . we couldn’t...

Palestinian statehood comes at the end of negotiations for a two-state solution and that process can no longer be held in abeyance, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday. “A negotiated two-state solution remains the only path that can offer people on both sides a life in peace, security, and dignity,” he said in a statement issued shortly before his trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, as reported by Ynet News. “For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of that process. But such a process must begin now.” Wadephul’s remarks follow a string...

Hamas leaders are likely to be emboldened to carry on fighting by French and British proposals to recognize a Palestinian state in a break with Trump.. Frustrated by the deadlocked peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas, and seeing the chances of a two-state solution slipping away, several European countries led by the United Kingdom and France have now promised to recognize an independent Palestinian state to reaffirm their commitment to a permanent settlement. However, far from encouraging a ceasefire in the conflict that has raged in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years, European efforts will only encourage Hamas to...

The world’s Arab countries for the first time have joined unanimously in the call for Hamas to lay down its weapons, release all hostages and end its rule of the Gaza Strip, conditions that they said could help the establishment of a Palestinian state. The surprise declaration, endorsed on Tuesday by the 22 member nations of the Arab League, also condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, which set off the devastating war in Gaza. The statement came at a United Nations conference in New York on a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. “In...

In an effort to end the fighting in Gaza, the Arab League issued a declaration at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, condemning the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and calling on the terrorists to release all hostages it is holding, disarm, and end its rule of Gaza. It's an amazing document. Unfortunately, it's also a non-starter. The document calls for a two-state solution, which is something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly and firmly rejected.More problematically, the plan also calls for a "right of return" for...

Saudi Arabia will not pursue normalization with Israel absent the creation of a Palestinian state, the kingdom’s top diplomat said on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Speaking at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the United Nations, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan declared that normalization “can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.” “That position remains the same, and it is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination can we have sustainable...

The Trump administration says it boycotted a United Nations conference promoting the two-state solution on Monday, calling the event a “publicity stunt” and an “insult.” “This week, the U.N. will serve as host to an unproductive and ill-timed conference on the two-state solution in New York City,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.” Bruce said the conference will “prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.” Instead of participating, Bruce said...