Benjamin Netanyahu

US directs 28 vessels to turn around under Iran port blockade: CENTCOM

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A view of the vessels passing through Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire reached between the United States and Iran on the condition that the strait be reopened, seen in Oman on April 08, 2026. [Shady Alassar – Anadolu Agency]

US forces have directed 28 vessels to turn around or return to port since the start of a blockade on ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, US Central Command said Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

The comments came as Washington has maintained a naval blockade since last week, a move Tehran described as a violation of a ceasefire.

Tensions have grown after Iran, which said Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was reopened to maritime traffic, reversed course one day later and again restricted vessel movements, citing unmet US obligations under a two-week ceasefire deal, which is set to expire Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump has also accused Iran of violating the ceasefire “numerous times.”

US Vice President JD Vance is expected to travel to Pakistan with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for a new round of talks, though Iran has not confirmed participation and has demanded the lifting of the blockade as a precondition.

READ: Confused closures and opaque openings: Continuing dramas in the Hormuz Strait

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog, says that it's easy atm, she only needs to report war crimes supporting Israel's genocidal expansion.
Donald Trump warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog, says that it’s easy atm, she only needs to report war crimes supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion.

Continue ReadingUS directs 28 vessels to turn around under Iran port blockade: CENTCOM

Former senior Israeli officials say Netanyahu government ‘hijacked’ country, failed in Iran war

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs meeting as the Israeli Security Cabinet gather to approve a cease-fire agreement and a prisoner swap deal with Hamas, in West Jerusalem on January 17, 2025. [Photo by Koby Gideon (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images]

Three former Israeli senior officials sharply criticized the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying it has “hijacked” the country and failed in its war against Iran, Anadolu reports.

“On the eve of the 78th anniversary of Israel’s independence (according to the Hebrew calendar), we are forced to say with bitterness: Israel has been hijacked by a regime that views the state’s resources as its own private property,” former army chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Yaalon wrote in an article in the Haaretz newspaper.

They described the government as “completely detached from the reality of its citizens, acting as if the country were the personal property of Netanyahu, his wife (Sara), and Miri Regev (transport minister).”

Referring to expected general elections in October, they added, “We call on the public to take back control of the country.”

Yaalon, in addition to serving as chief of staff, previously held the post of defense minister.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote in a separate article in Haaretz that “the enemies suffered painful blows, which weakened them all.”

READ: Netanyahu trial hearing postponed over “security reasons,” says Israeli court

He added, however, that “none of the war’s objectives were achieved. Hamas is still in Gaza, and Hezbollah remains in Lebanon.”

“The regime in Tehran survived the joint Israeli-U.S. attack, and the nuclear and ballistic missile threats were not eliminated,” he said.

Barak described it as “a severe strategic and political failure when looking at the balance of power, as Israel and the United States were supposed to win.”

He also said Israel has become “a state subordinate to the United States, which imposed decisive operational and diplomatic decisions on it through harsh — and sometimes humiliating — directives.”

Israel has carried out multiple military campaigns in the region. Since March 2, its attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,294 people, wounded 7,544 and displaced more than 1 million, before US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire last Thursday.

Israel also launched a war on Iran, alongside the United States, on Feb. 28 that killed more than 3,000 people, before Washington and Tehran announced a two-week truce on April 8 with mediation by Pakistan, in hopes of reaching a deal to end that war.

READ: Israeli government applying ‘annexation’ in occupied West Bank, energy minister says

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog, says that it's easy atm, she only needs to report war crimes supporting Israel's genocidal expansion.
Donald Trump warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog, says that it’s easy atm, she only needs to report war crimes supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion.

Continue ReadingFormer senior Israeli officials say Netanyahu government ‘hijacked’ country, failed in Iran war

Study: 45 % of Poles say Israel’s actions resemble Nazi practices

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People hold banners as they protest the government inaction to stop Israel’s war on Gaza in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland on September 20, 2025. [Omar Marques – Anadolu Agency]

A recent European study has found that a significant share of people in Central and Eastern Europe believe Israel’s actions against Palestinians are similar to those of Nazi Germany against Jews, with Poland recording the highest level of agreement.

According to the study, published by the UNESCO Chair for interdisciplinary research on antisemitism at the University of Warsaw, 45 per cent of Polish respondents agreed with the statement that “Israel’s actions against Palestinians are no different from the Nazis’ treatment of Jews”. Only 18.7 per cent disagreed, while 36.2 per cent said they had no clear opinion.

The research, conducted by specialists in Holocaust studies and prejudice from universities across Eastern Europe, also showed similar trends in other countries. In Slovakia, 42.7 per cent agreed with the comparison, compared with 16.2 per cent who disagreed. In Austria, 41.3 per cent supported the view, while 25.6 per cent opposed it.

In Germany, 40.5 per cent of respondents made the comparison, compared with 26.3 per cent who rejected it. The Czech Republic recorded 32.8 per cent in agreement and 29 per cent in opposition. Hungary had the lowest level of support for the comparison at 29.9 per cent, while 27.4 per cent disagreed.

The study comes days after a controversial incident in the Polish parliament, where far-right MP Konrad Berkowicz raised an Israeli flag marked with a swastika, a symbol associated with Nazism.

Troubled Relations: Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump

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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Continue ReadingStudy: 45 % of Poles say Israel’s actions resemble Nazi practices

Of All the War Crimes IDF Carrying Out in Lebanon, Israel Reserves Outrage for Destruction of Jesus Statue

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Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

An Israel Defense Forces soldier is seen smashing the head of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon in April 2026.
(Photo via @ytirawi/X)

“Israeli soldiers have been posting images of their war crimes and cultural desecration for two and a half years straight without interruption,” said one journalist.

The Israel Defense Forces have spent close to two months in Lebanon killing more than 2,100 people, destroying an estimated 1,000 homes—sometimes leveling entire communities—blowing up schools, bombing healthcare infrastructure, and forcibly displacing more than 1 million people, including close to 400,000 children.

But so far, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken out against just one attack on civilian infrastructure—saying on Monday that he condemned “in the strongest terms” an image that went viral over the weekend of an IDF soldier taking a sledgehammer to the head of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon.

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“Of all the shocking war crimes [Palestinian journalist] Younis Tirawi has exposed, it’s the sledgehammer to a Jesus statue… that finally gets Netanyahu to comment,” said Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim, referring to the reporter who posted the image on social media.

Tirawi reported that the statue belonged to the Christian town of Debel, which the Catholic Near East Welfare Association said last week is home to 1,700 people who have been “in total isolation” in recent weeks as the Israeli occupation has forced the Lebanese Army to withdraw from the area. CNEWA said an archbishop in the village has tried to get an aid convoy to Debel, where residents earlier this month had no safe drinking water and enough food to last “no more than two days,” but the IDF’s shelling in the area has forced air trucks to turn back.

“If [Netanyahu] finds this one offensive,” said Grim of the photo of the IDF soldier, “I suggest he not scroll the last few years of posts from Younis Tirawi.”

Tirawi reported extensively on the IDF’s destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. He posted a video on social media on April 11 of the IDF demolishing a United Nations school in the southern part of the exclave, and one on April 10 that showed a double-tap strike that killed 33-year-old Palestinian Man Yousef Mansour in al-Mawasi.

Netanyahu said in an interview with Newsmax last week that Israel “is the only country in the Middle East and one of the few countries in the world who stands up for Christians.”

In a statement Monday, the IDF said that it is “operating to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and has no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols.”

But the destruction of the Jesus statue in Debel came after a double-tap strike that killed Father Pierre al-Rahi, a Manonite Catholic priest, in another southern Lebanese town last month. Historic Christian churches have also been destroyed by IDF attacks in Gaza.

“The smashing of Christ’s statue in Lebanon is latest example of the impunity with which Israeli soldiers have attacked and desecrated religious sites in occupied Palestinian territories,” said TRT World.

War correspondent Steve Sweeney, who is based in Beirut, shared footage of a church the IDF destroyed in southern Lebanon in October 2024, in an attack that killed at least eight people.

Sweeney also noted that a month after that attack, Israeli soldiers “desecrated the St. Mema Church in the Christian village of Deir Mimas, southern Lebanon.”

The IDF “said the conduct was contrary to its values” at the time, said Sweeney.

Despite officials’ expressions of shock on Monday, “Israeli soldiers have been posting images of their war crimes and cultural desecration for two and a half years straight without interruption,” said Grim.

UN experts have warned as Israel has carried out its attacks in Lebanon since early March that “deliberately attacking civilians or civilian objects amounts to a war crime.”

While the destruction of the Jesus statue drew condemnation Monday from Netanyahu, the IDF, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee—who called for “swift, severe, and public consequences”—it was far from the only attack waged by Israel in Lebanon over the weekend.

Despite a ceasefire that was announced Friday and a statement from President Donald Trump that further IDF attacks were “PROHIBITED,” Israel continued demolishing infrastructure and shelling areas in southern Lebanon over the weekend, and three people were injured in an Israeli drone strike near the Litani River on Monday.

Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Continue ReadingOf All the War Crimes IDF Carrying Out in Lebanon, Israel Reserves Outrage for Destruction of Jesus Statue

Jerusalem Latin cleric condemns destruction of Jesus statue by Israeli soldier

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Bishop William Shomali. [Wikipedia]

William Shomali, an auxiliary bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, condemned Monday the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon, calling it a “shameful and disgraceful act,” Anadolu reports.

Speaking to Anadolu, Shomali denounced the incident a day after the Israeli army acknowledged that one of its soldiers had smashed the statue in the town of Debel in Nabatieh province.

The acknowledgement followed a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which said Sunday that a soldier had destroyed a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.

Shomali said the act is “shameful, disgraceful, and constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law and a sign of disrespect for religions.”

“What we saw is contempt for religions. It is absolutely unacceptable and must not be allowed,” he said.

Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s condemnation of the incident, Shomali said that “in my view, the killing of innocent civilians and children in Lebanon is more serious.”

READ: Israeli soldier smashes statue of Christ in southern Lebanon

“The breaking of the cross is not the only tragedy in Lebanon. Innocent people are dying every day as a result of this war, which must stop,” he added.

Netanyahu condemned the incident early Monday, claiming that Israel “respects all religions” at a time when Tel Aviv is attacking several countries in the region, resulting in deaths and injuries among civilians.

Since March 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 2,294 people, wounded 7,544, and displaced more than 1 million, according to official figures.

US President Donald Trump announced Thursday a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon following calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli officials.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Continue ReadingJerusalem Latin cleric condemns destruction of Jesus statue by Israeli soldier