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A 29-year-old Queens man, Judd Sanson, was arrested early Wednesday morning after a traffic stop revealed a cache of weapons and extremist materials in his vehicle, sparking fears of a potential terrorist plot. According to police, Sanson’s vehicle, a Ford Explorer with an obscured license plate, was pulled over around 1 a.m. near 23rd Avenue and 86th Street. Upon searching the car, officers found a loaded 9mm gun, nine loaded magazines, an NYPD vest, handcuffs, two axes, a stun gun, multiple knives, a weighted whip, and an expandable baton. The baton had disturbing messages etched into it, including “You left me no choice, I am sorry, You gon learn today” and the Arabic word for “God forgive me.” Police also discovered an orange MTA vest and a Guy Fawkes “V for Vendetta” mask, which has been associated with anarchist and extremist groups. Sanson, who allegedly expressed extremist views online, was taken into custody and charged with multiple weapons offenses. NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey praised the two alert officers who made the stop, saying, “Members of this department make gun arrests, weapons arrests, arrests for knives every day, but an arrest of this magnitude, the amount of ammunition, NYPD paraphernalia in the car was significant.” The investigation is ongoing, but sources believe Sanson may have been planning something “very bad.” One officer noted, “The sum of the parts had the potential for something awful.” Police officials credited the traffic stop with potentially averting a disaster, saying “ghost cars” like Sanson’s, with phony or obscured license plates, can be tied to criminal activity. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The head of the United Nations has blacklisted both the Israeli military and Hamas, including them for the first time on his annual list of perpetrators that harm children during conflict.

“I am appalled by the dramatic increase and unprecedented scale and intensity of grave violations against children in the Gaza Strip, Israel” and Judea and Samaria, wrote António Guterres in his yearly report, which was sent to U.N. Security Council members on Tuesday and published on Thursday.

Guterres’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, carries a Security Council mandate to monitor, prevent and report on such violations.

The report, known as the “list of shame,” is intended to embarrass those so designated into performing corrective action with regards to their alleged violations against children, including killing, maiming, recruitment, abduction, sexual violence, denial of humanitarian assistance and attacks against schools and hospitals.

Guterres blacklisted the Israeli military and security forces, Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and affiliated factions and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades.

In the report viewed by JNS, covering the 2023 calendar year, the United Nations said it verified 8,009 grave violations against Israeli and Palestinian children, but the verification process has been hampered due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Of the verified violations, 113 were against Israeli children, with most child casualties in Gaza since Israel’s military response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, caused by “the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by Israeli armed and security forces.”

Israeli officials have expressed indignation at being included on the list, which has typically featured designated terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda or other Islamic fundamentalist groups like the Taliban.

Israel was informed last Friday that it would be included on this year’s list, with Gilad Erdan, the Jewish state’s U.N. ambassador, telling Guterres’s chief of staff during the so-called courtesy call that he was “utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the secretary-general,” adding that Israel’s placement on the list rewards Hamas, which uses children and other civilians as human shields and recruits soldiers of minor age.

Erdan later published a recording of his remarks during the call, drawing criticism from Guterres’s office.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said last Friday that “the U.N. added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers,” adding, “The IDF is the most moral army in the world. No delusional U.N. decision will change that.” JNS

A tropical disturbance that brought a rare flash flood emergency to much of southern Florida delayed flights at two of the state’s largest airports and left vehicles waterlogged and stalled in some of the region’s lowest-lying streets. “Looked like the beginning of a zombie movie,” said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday morning helping to clear the streets of stalled vehicles. “There’s cars littered everywhere, on top of sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, no lights on. Just craziness, you know. Abandoned cars everywhere.” Rico, of One Master Trucking Corp., was born and raised in Miami and said he was ready for the emergency. “You know when its coming,” he said. “Every year it’s just getting worse, and for some reason people just keep going through the puddles.” Travelers across the area were trying to adjust their plans on Thursday morning. More than 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain has fallen in some areas of South Florida since Tuesday, with more predicted over the next few days. Ticket and security lines snaked around a domestic concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just before noon Thursday. The travel boards showed about half of that terminal’s flights had been canceled or postponed. Bill Carlisle, a Navy petty officer first class, had spent his morning trying to catch a flight back to Norfolk, Virginia. He had arrived at Miami International Airport at about 6:30 a.m., but 90 minutes later he was still in line and realized he couldn’t get his bags checked and through security in time to catch his flight. “It was a zoo,” said Carlisle, a public affairs specialist. He was speaking for himself, not the Navy. “Nothing against the (airport) employees — there is only so much they can do.” So he used his phone to book an afternoon flight out of Fort Lauderdale. He took a shuttle the 20 miles north, only to find that flight had been canceled. He was now heading back to Miami for a 9 p.m. flight, hoping it wouldn’t get canceled by the heavy rains expected later in the day. He was resigned, not angry. “Just a long day sitting in airports,” Carlisle said. “This is kind of par for the course for government travel.” Wednesday’s downpours and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and even delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers. The disorganized storm system was pushing across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico at roughly the same time as the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity. The disturbance has not reached cyclone status and was given only a slight chance to form into a tropical system once it moves into the Atlantic Ocean after crossing Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. In Hallandale Beach, Alex Demchemko, was walking his Russian spaniel Lex along the still-flooded sidewalks near the Airbnb where he’s lived after arriving from Russia last month to seek asylum in the U.S. “We didn’t come out from our apartment, but we had to walk with our dog,” Demchemko said. “A lot of flashes, […]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that antisemitism was antithetical to American and progressive values, and that “bad faith actors” falsely accuse black women in particular of being antisemitic.

“Antisemitism is an assault on our values as Americans and especially as progressives,” she said during an online webinar.

“It is also important to say here in this moment and during that conversation that criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic and criticism of Zionism is not automatically antisemitic,” she added.

The congresswoman, who is known as AOC, said that “when the Jewish community is threatened, the progressive movement is undermined,” adding, “it is also true that accusations and false accusations of antisemitism are wielded against people of color and women of color by bad-faith political actors.”

This “weaponizing [of] antisemitism is used to divide us and create a false choice between the fight for Jewish safety and the calls for Palestinian self-determination,” she said.

Sam Markstein, national political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, called the congresswoman part of “the Hamas caucus,” expressing shock that “the Democratic Party has this much difficulty calling out antisemitism.” He added that “instead of despicable race-baiting, AOC should focus on fighting bigotry in her own ranks.” JNS

President Biden emphatically defended his son at a summit of world leaders in Italy, commenting directly for the first time since Hunter Biden was convicted this week on federal gun charges, while also reiterating that he would not use his presidential powers to soften whatever penalty his son faces.

“I’m extremely proud of my son, Hunter,” Biden said during a brief news conference at the Group of Seven meeting, as two of Hunter’s daughters, Maisy and Finnegan, watched from several feet away in the audience. “He has overcome an addiction. He’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know.”

The president reiterated that he would not pardon his son, saying he trusted the deliberations of a jury that found Hunter Biden guilty of lying on a gun-purchase form in 2018 when he checked a box saying he was not using illegal drugs.

As Biden was walking away from the stage, he was also asked whether he would commute his son’s sentence – that is, reduce its severity. “No,” Biden responded.

Hunter Biden is not likely to be sentenced for several weeks, as the prosecution and defense prepare reports for the judge on what they consider to be an appropriate penalty. While his conviction carries a potential prison sentence, some legal analysts have said that may be less likely given that Hunter is a first-time offender who owned the gun for only 11 days and never used it.

Still, the issue of a chief executive’s pardon authority has taken on an unusually prominent role in the 2024 presidential campaign, largely because presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has been convicted of falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair. Trump also faces three more criminal trials, which may not begin until after the Nov. 5 election, while Hunter Biden faces a tax-evasion trial in September.

Biden answered the questions about his son as he addressed reporters alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the two leaders announced a new security pact between their countries.

The moment underlined Biden’s efforts to balance political and personal demands at this week’s summit, as he juggles pressures that have far-reaching global consequences with those that pertain to his tightknit family.

In the hours before he left for the trip – and on the day Hunter Biden was convicted – the president made a quick trip to Wilmington, Del., where he was greeted on the tarmac by his son, along with Hunter’s wife, Melissa, and their son, Beau.

Biden’s priority at the summit was to get a deal done on Ukraine funding while trying to assure allies of American leadership. But the president was also trying to keep his family together, and he brought along three of his granddaughters, children of Hunter Biden.

That included Naomi Biden, the president’s 30-year-old granddaughter who just days ago was tearful after her testimony in a witness box in a Wilmington courtroom and this week joined the president at a majestic setting near the Adriatic Sea.

During the news conference, the president’s granddaughters, along with Naomi’s husband, Peter Neal, looked on.

(c) Washington Post

Anti-Israel protesters continued to run wild across New York as masked agitators on a city subway car Monday demanded to know if there were any Zionists on board, while elsewhere in the city vandals attacked the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum.

The back-to-back events coming on the heels of a raucous pro-Hamas rally outside an exhibition on the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre raised concern that rabid antisemitism of a radical minority of agitators was spiraling out of control in New York City.

The group of masked passengers on the subway demanded to know if there were any “Zionists” on the train—then warned them, “This is your chance to get out,” according to a video circulating on social media.

The video shows the slogan being yelled inside the packed subway car by a man, with the crowd of activists echoing his words.

Less than 48 hours later, the New York homes of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum and other non-Jewish museum officials were vandalized Wednesday in a coordinated attack.

The assailants smeared red paint and graffiti on the Brooklyn Heights home of Anne Pasternak, director of the museum, and hung a banner at the entrance to the museum director’s apartment building that accused her of being a “white supremacist Zionist.”

“Blood on your hands” was also splashed in red paint on the walkway leading to her building.

The homes of two trustees and the museum’s president and CEO Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, whose husband is Jewish, were also targeted in the overnight attack that was carried out under cover of darkness.

“This is not peaceful protest or free speech,” New York Mayor Eric Adams wrote in a post on X where he shared the images. “This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism. These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason.”

“The latest lesson in anti-Zionism as antisemitism,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on X. “The anti-Zionist left is not only seeking to purge Zionists (i.e. most Jews) from public places like public transit. It is vandalizing the private homes of individual Jews.”

The Brooklyn Museum was itself stormed by protesters last month who damaged artwork and unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner from the roof.  Dozens of people were arrested in that incident.

Earlier this week, a mob of protesters chanting “intifada revolution” rallied outside a New York City exhibit memorializing the hundreds of victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel.

The crowd lit flares and waved PLO flags, along with one associated with the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, in front of the exhibition on Wall Street during what was billed by organizers as a “citywide day of rage for Gaza.”

The protest was widely condemned across political lines, including a denunciation from the White House, and the exhibition will now run until June 22 due to overwhelming demand.

Some American Jewish leaders are now calling for a ban on masks in New York City due to the explosion of antisemitism by mobs with hidden faces. JNS

American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal will soon stand trial in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on charges of spying for the CIA, Russian authorities said Thursday, even as they continued to disclose no evidence to support the accusations.

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting assignment for the Journal in Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage by the Federal Security Service, or FSB. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Gershkovich, the Journal and U.S. officials repeatedly have rejected the charges as baseless.

Russian prosecutors, announcing that they had finalized an indictment, said in a statement that they had “established and documented” that Gershkovich “collected secret information” about the Uralvagonzavod military factory in the Sverdlovsk region while “on assignment from the CIA.”

It was the first time Russian authorities revealed any details about the case they intend to build against him, and they still did not reveal any evidence to justify the allegations. All pretrial hearings against Gershkovich have been held behind closed doors.

The State Department has declared him and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in 2018 on similar charges, to be wrongfully detained, a designation that commits the federal government to work for their release.

In a Thursday statement, the Journal and its publisher, Dow Jones, once again rejected the charges and demanded Gershkovich’s immediate release, saying they “expect the U.S. government to redouble efforts.”

“Evan Gershkovich is facing a false and baseless charge,” they said in the statement. “Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous. Evan has spent 441 days wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for simply doing his job. Evan is a journalist. The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime.”

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday the charges against Gershkovich “are false and the Russian government knows that they are false.”

“We have been clear from the start that Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place,” Miller said.

Gershkovich’s arrest marked the first time an American journalist had been accused of espionage in Russia since the Cold War. The Kremlin has signaled that it is open to the possibility of trading Gershkovich for Russian nationals jailed abroad once a verdict is delivered.

In February, President Vladimir Putin told American right-wing host Tucker Carlson in his first interview with a Western media figure since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that “an agreement can be reached” with the United States to release Gershkovich.

Putin made a thinly veiled reference to Vadim Krasikov, an FSB agent currently serving a life sentence in Germany after being convicted of murdering a Georgian military officer, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in the Berlin park Kleiner Tiergarten in 2019.

“Listen, I’ll tell you: sitting in one country, a country that is an ally of the United States, is a man who, for patriotic reasons, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals,” Putin said.

Other officials have confirmed initial discussions had taken place about an exchange that would have involved Gershkovich, Krasikov and Alexei Navalny, the Russian political opposition figure who died suddenly in an Arctic prison in February. Navalny’s family and associates said he was killed to prevent such an exchange from taking place.

Navalny had recovered at a Berlin hospital after he was nearly assassinated with a chemical weapon in Russia in 2020, and freeing him was seen as a way to persuade Germany to release Krasikov.

U.S. officials and analysts have accused Russia of using Americans as bargaining chips to win the release of Russians convicted in the West of serious crimes.

The arrests in recent months of dual U.S.-Russian citizens – Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter with U.S.-government-financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Ksenia Karelina, a spa worker who had been living in California – brought the number of Americans in Russian custody to at least six.

Those detentions have fueled speculation that Russia is seeking to gain more leverage. Moscow denies that the arrests are politically motivated and insists each detainee has violated Russian law.

In February 2022, just before the invasion of Ukraine, the American WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia for possessing less than a gram of hash oil and charged with drug smuggling. She spent nearly 10 months in prison in Russia before being exchanged for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was being held in a U.S. federal prison.

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, meanwhile, was swapped for convicted drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko in April 2022.

– – –

Michael Birnbaum and Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.

(c) Washington Post

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he will not use his presidential powers to lessen the eventual sentence that his son Hunter will receive for his federal felony conviction on gun crimes. Biden, following the conclusion of a news conference held at the Group of Seven summit of the world’s wealthiest democracies, responded he would not when asked whether he plans to commute the sentence for his son. Hunter Biden’s sentencing date has not been set, and the three counts carry up to 25 years in prison, though that’s unlikely as a first-time offender. Ultimately, it will be up to U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by former Republican President Donald Trump, to decide how much time, if any, Hunter Biden serves behind bars. Biden’s remarks came one day after the White House declined to rule out a potential commutation for Hunter Biden. Both the president and the White House have said for months that Biden would not pardon his son. “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest most decent men I know,” Biden said earlier during the news conference Thursday. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.” (AP)

While Israeli security officials have requested that the four hostages rescued by the Israel Defense Forces on Shabbos keep their experiences secret, some details have nevertheless emerged.

The four—Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40—appeared to be in good health when first seen on camera on June 8, the day of the raid.

But two days later, Dr. Itay Pessach of the Sheba Medical Center revealed they were in a “state of severe malnutrition.”

“They all suffered from all types of abuse—physical abuse and mental abuse, and for a long time,” he said. “We’ve heard stories that are beyond anything you can imagine.”

Details will take time to come out. More than a month passed before the full picture emerged of what hostages had endured following an earlier prisoner swap. It turned out they suffered torture, abuse, lack of food and medical care.

In a Wednesday interview with Channel 12, Kozlov’s partner, Jennifer Master, revealed that Kozlov couldn’t join the interview due to his weakened condition.

 

“He blames himself for being kidnapped…He just came back a fragile and different person,” she said.

“They were subjected to very, very severe psychological abuse, more than the physical,” she added.

As an example, terrorists would tell him that his government wanted him dead, she said.

In terms of physical punishment, terrorists would pile blankets on him during the hottest part of the day and lock him in the bathroom if he forgot to knock before requesting to be let out.

Although they had only been together for three months prior to his kidnapping by Hamas, Master became a spokesperson for his release at demonstrations and in media interviews.

That Kozlov was originally from Russia didn’t help him at all. In fact, it worked against him. The terrorists said that the other hostages were born Israelis but he had chosen to come to Israel, which made him more guilty in their eyes.

“Why did you come to Israel? Don’t you know it’s an occupation,” they would tell him, she said.

Kozlov was held together with Jan and Ziv the entire eight months. They became close friends and that helped them through the captivity.

“Sometimes the terrorists abused us but we remained strong and supported each other very much. We are very united,” Jan told Channel 12 in an earlier interview.

Jan’s uncle said the three “hadn’t seen the sun for eight months.”

Argamani was held separately. Little is yet known of what she went through.

All four had been at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, where 364 of the 1,200 people killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 met their end. Kozlov was working security at the event.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with rescued hostage Noa Argamani at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel on June 8, 2024. Credit: Maayan Toaf/GPO.

Sadly, Jan’s father, Yossi Meir, 59, died only hours before his son was rescued. Reports said he had “died of grief” due to his son’s capture and had lost 44 pounds.

Argamani’s mother, Liora, who suffers from terminal cancer, had her final wished fulfilled when she was reunited with her daughter.

“Unfortunately, her mother is in very poor condition,” Noa’s father, Yaakov, told Ynet. “She barely looked at Noa. They met after eight months, but it was very difficult.”

He said he believed that his wife understood, however. “There was a kind of response. Liora understood but simply couldn’t express her emotions or say what she had longed to tell Noa when she finally met her.” JNS

Anti-Israel protesters continued to run wild across New York as masked agitators on a city subway car Monday demanded to know if there were any Zionists on board, while elsewhere in the city vandals attacked the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum.

The back-to-back events coming on the heels of a raucous pro-Hamas rally outside an exhibition on the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre raised concern that rabid antisemitism of a radical minority of agitators was spiraling out of control in New York City.

The group of masked passengers on the subway demanded to know if there were any “Zionists” on the train—then warned them, “This is your chance to get out,” according to a video circulating on social media.

The video shows the slogan being yelled inside the packed subway car by a man, with the crowd of activists echoing his words.

Less than 48 hours later, the New York homes of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum and other non-Jewish museum officials were vandalized Wednesday in a coordinated attack.

The assailants smeared red paint and graffiti on the Brooklyn Heights home of Anne Pasternak, director of the museum, and hung a banner at the entrance to the museum director’s apartment building that accused her of being a “white supremacist Zionist.”

“Blood on your hands” was also splashed in red paint on the walkway leading to her building.

The homes of two trustees and the museum’s president and CEO Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, whose husband is Jewish, were also targeted in the overnight attack that was carried out under cover of darkness.

“This is not peaceful protest or free speech,” New York Mayor Eric Adams wrote in a post on X where he shared the images. “This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism. These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason.”

“The latest lesson in anti-Zionism as antisemitism,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on X. “The anti-Zionist left is not only seeking to purge Zionists (i.e. most Jews) from public places like public transit. It is vandalizing the private homes of individual Jews.”

The Brooklyn Museum was itself stormed by protesters last month who damaged artwork and unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner from the roof. Dozens of people were arrested in that incident.

Earlier this week, a mob of protesters chanting “intifada revolution” rallied outside a New York City exhibit memorializing the hundreds of victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel.

The crowd lit flares and waved PLO flags, along with one associated with the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, in front of the exhibition on Wall Street during what was billed by organizers as a “citywide day of rage for Gaza.”

The protest was widely condemned across political lines, including a denunciation from the White House, and the exhibition will now run until June 22 due to overwhelming demand.

Some American Jewish leaders are now calling for a ban on masks in New York City due to the explosion of antisemitism by mobs with hidden faces.

{Matzav.com}

Israel will overcome its enemies on the Jewish state’s southern and northern borders and return residents to their homes in evacuated communities, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said on Thursday.

During a joint visit with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, Netanyahu hailed the operation that freed four hostages from captivity on June 8.

“You caused an entire nation to stand tall, and you showed that we are willing to do everything to rescue our hostages,” he said. “The same bravery, the same determination, the same devotion to the mission will allow us to overcome our enemies in the south and the north.

“I come here to say on behalf of the entire people, and also on behalf of all of Israel’s friends worldwide, I come to tell you: Well done,” he said. “Congratulations on your bravery; congratulations on what you did.”

In addition to Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Israel Border Police commander Asst.-Ch. Barik Yitzhak also participated in the visit.

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir meet the Israel Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit, June 13, 2024. Photo by Maayan Toaf/GPO.

Ben-Gvir told the Yamam officers, “You raised the honor of the State of Israel, you raised our pride, and above all, you told our enemies that we can come and free our hostages—anywhere, at any time.

“On this day, we feel the pain of the Zamora family; we will not forget our dear Arnon, but we will always remember that these fighters are at the forefront of the State of Israel,” he said. “Our role is to back them up, and with the help of God, may the Holy One bless them so they can continue doing many such actions and bring the hostages home to us.”

Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, 36, a Yamam squad commander, was mortally wounded during the Saturday operation to rescue hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv from Hamas captivity in the Nuseirat Camp in the central Gaza Strip.

“I’m here at the Yamam base. I just met our wonderful fighters who rescued the hostages from the jaws of the enemy,” Netanyahu said in a video statement following the visit. “Unfortunately, this heroic operation claimed the life of a fighter, commander and wonderful person, the late Arnon Zamora. We named the operation after him, Operation Arnon.

“I saw the troops; I saw the determination, the bravery and dedication to the mission in their eyes. That bravery, the same determination, the same dedication will allow us to overcome our enemy both in the south and in the north and return residents safely to their homes,” the prime minister said.

Earlier on Thursday, Hezbollah launched 150 rockets and 30 drones towards northern Israel from Lebanon, in what the Iran-backed terrorist group described as “the largest and most comprehensive attack” since it joined the war in support of Gaza-based Hamas on Oct. 8.

“Lebanon and Hezbollah, under the guidance of Iran, bear full responsibility for the deterioration of the security situation in the north,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said in response.

“Whether through diplomatic efforts or otherwise—Israel will restore security on our northern border,” added the spokesperson. JNS

A corpse found on Thursday in the Sha’ar Hanegev region, adjacent to the northeastern Gaza Strip, is most likely that of a Hamas terrorist who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, the Israel Police says.

A civilian discovered the remains, which were said to be in a state of “advanced decay,” at an intersection where terrorists murdered at least 26 people on Oct. 7.

Alongside the body, security forces located an empty combat vest and a shirt with Arabic letters on it. The writing on the shirt appeared to be the symbol of Hamas’s “military” wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Police are still waiting for the full results of the identification process at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, also known as the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

“The suspicion is that this is a Hamas terrorist who was killed during the attack,” the Israel Police said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

On Oct. 7, 2023, some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea and air, killing about 1,200 people, kidnapping 251 people back to Gaza and terrorizing hundreds of thousands more by using rape and torture as a weapon while temporarily conquering several Israeli communities.

Israeli security forces killed around a thousand of the terrorists who crossed the border fence that day and captured many others.

{Matzav.com}

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin says his committee has uncovered at least three additional trips given to Justice Clarence Thomas by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow as part of the panel’s ethics investigation into the Supreme Court. Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday the committee obtained information from Crow that Thomas took three trips, and at least six flights, on Crow’s private jet in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The panel also found evidence of private jet travel during trips to Indonesia and California that Thomas recently disclosed in an amendment to a 2019 financial disclosure report. The Democratic-led Judiciary panel launched the investigation last year after several reports that Thomas had for years received undisclosed expensive gifts, including international travel, from Crow. The committee has since pushed the Supreme Court to adopt a stronger ethics code as trips by Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito came to light, along with six-figure book deals received by other justices. The new information “makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” Durbin said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from the court on the Senate report. In the past, Thomas has maintained that he is not required to disclose the many trips he and his wife took that were paid for the Texas megadonor because Crow and his wife Kathy are “among our dearest friends,” Thomas said in an April 2023 statement that he was advised by colleagues on the nation’s highest court and others in the federal judiciary that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.” Thomas, 75, and his wife, Virginia, have traveled on Crow’s yacht and private jet in Indonesia as well as stayed at his private resort in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, ProPublica reported last year. ProPublica wrote that it could have cost more than $500,000 had Thomas chartered a plane and yacht himself. Last week, Thomas said in his annual financial disclosure that Crow paid for a hotel room in Bali, Indonesia, for a single night in 2019, and food and lodging at a private club in Sonoma County, California, the same year. But he did not report the plane flights or the stay on Crow’s yacht. In a statement released minutes after the Judiciary panel released its report, Crow’s office said he reached an agreement with the committee to provide information responsive to its requests going back seven years, “despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry.” The panel voted in November to authorize a subpoena for Crow as part of the probe, despite protests from all committee Republicans. Crow, a longtime GOP donor based in Dallas, has maintained that he has never spoken with his friend about pending matters before the court. The Judiciary panel said it will release a full report later this year. But among the details Durbin released Thursday were a 2017 trip Thomas took on Crow’s jet from St. Louis to Montana, along with a return flight from Montana to Dallas; round trip private jet travel in 2019 from Washington to Savannah, Ga., and a round trip flight on a private jet from Washington to San Jose, […]

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered his office to deduct 130 million shekels ($35 million) from tax and tariff revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and redirect it to families of terror victims.

The monies will be transferred to 28 families who have won lawsuits against the P.A. over its financial backing of attacks against Israelis, Smotrich, who is also the leader of the Religious Zionism Party, told Arutz 7 on Thursday.

“This week, I signed an order to transfer millions of shekels to the families of terror victims,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority continues to tell the world that it is on the verge of collapse and continues paying the families of terrorists and transferring money for terror.

“The minimum of the minimum [we can do] is to transfer compensation to the families of terror victims from these funds,” added the minister.

Smotrich’s decision puts an end to years of delay on the part of the government. In some cases, families had been waiting to receive the funds for 20 years, despite Israeli courts ruling that the Palestinian Authority was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.

The newspaper noted that in addition to the 28 families expected to be compensated this week, hundreds of other lawsuits are still pending.

Jerusalem collects 600 million-700 million shekels ($161 million-$188 million) in tax funds on behalf of the P.A. every month under the terms of the Oslo Accords, signed with the PLO in the 1990s.

The Protocol on Economic Relations, aka the Paris Protocol, was signed in April 1994 and incorporated with minor changes into the Oslo II Accord of September 1995.

Almost one billion shekels ($278 million) in yearly tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the P.A. goes towards its “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly stipends to terrorists and their relatives.

In 2018, lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party initiated and promoted legislation to offset the sum to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to stop rewarding terrorism.

Smotrich’s decision to transfer the funds joins a series of steps taken by the finance minister to punish the Palestinian Authority for its support of terrorism and diplomatic measures against the Jewish state.

Last month, he announced his intention to immediately halt the transfer of all tax revenue to the P.A. following its push for statehood and support for the International Criminal Court case against Israel.

“The Palestinians are working against Israel with political terrorism and promoting unilateral measures around the world—I cannot continue to transfer funds to them. If this causes the P.A. to collapse, let it collapse,” Smotrich said. JNS

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett hinted at a possible return to politics in a long tweet on Thursday.

“Three years ago today, I took the oath of allegiance as the 13th Prime Minister of the State of Israel,” he wrote. “We did it then, and we can do it again. We will establish a state here that is worthy of this people,” he continued.

Bennett highlighted the challenges facing the country in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, saying he has been speaking to many citizens who are in “real despair” and feel an “existential anxiety for the State of Israel.”

He continued: “For a little over a year, I served you, the citizens of Israel, when I was at the head of a government that up until that moment would have seemed impossible.”

Bennett recalled the turmoil that surrounded his ascent to Israel’s highest office, including non-stop elections, the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis.

“Ministers from the left and the right decided to put aside all the differences and gather together for the sake of saving the State of Israel,” he said.

“The establishment of this emergency government, of which I am so proud, was at the time as necessary as breathing air,” he wrote. “It proved that Israel can be taken out of the mud, and even quickly—if only we are together and work together.”

Requests for comment from Bennett’s office by JNS were not immediately forthcoming.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli responded harshly to the news.

“Three years ago today, you broke your oath to hundreds of thousands of voters not to form a government with those who support the lawsuit against IDF officers in The Hague, not to be a partner in the boycott of the largest right-wing party [Likud], not to form a government with a dangerous Islamist party [the United Arab List, aka Ra’am],” wrote Chikli on X.

He listed a number of grievances he had with Bennett’s performance as prime minster, including his decision to form a government while leading a party with fewer than 10 mandates (his Yamina Party garnered seven Knesset seats in the March 2021 election), the controversial natural gas deal with Lebanon, giving in to American pressure, and his actions vis-à-vis Hamas and Gaza.

The gas deal drew a border between the two countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) based on a boundary known as Line 23, and awards a disputed area of around 840 square kilometers (324 square miles) to Lebanon, while recognizing Israel’s claim to the Karish gas field and to royalties from the section of the Qana field that extends into the Jewish state’s EEZ.

The diaspora affairs minister agreed that “there is a lot to fix and improve,” but said with someone like Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid in power, “there would not have been an intensive ground operation in Gaza, certainly there would have been no operation in Rafah, and you would probably be marching together with [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken in the light of sunset to the corrals of a surrender deal.”

“Spare us the pose of the knight on the white horse, you have benefited from hundreds of thousands of lies and only sat in the prime minister’s chair by force of extortion and deception”, Chikli said.

Bennett announced a break from politics in the leadup to the November 2022 elections following his handover of the premiership to Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid as part of a rotation agreement.

Since then, he has been fairly active in the public sphere, including speaking on international television on the country’s behalf since the outbreak of the current war.

Following the establishment of the current government, Bennett criticized its plan for judicial reform.

“The full current proposal is dangerous,” he posted on Twitter in January 2023. “It will harm the foundations of the State of Israel, its economy and its citizens, and it may tear the rope that connects us all. That’s why it needs to be fixed. There is only one solution: Sit together, talk, and reach the right change.”

Bennett had previously vowed to return to politics, comparing himself to Yitzhak Rabin and Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom recaptured the premiership after lengthy periods out of office.

“In Israel, we can be recycled. It never ends. Rabin was prime minister from ’74 to ’77 and came back. Bibi [Netanyahu] was prime minister from ’96 to ’99 and he’s back. So, I’ll be back,” said Bennett.

In June 2021, he defected from the right to lead a coalition as part of a power-sharing agreement with Lapid. Bennett described his decision to abandon his right-wing base and join forces with center-left, far-left and Islamist parties as the “best and most Zionist decision in my life.” JNS

Governor Kathy Hochul is considering reinstating a partial mask ban in New York City’s subways, specifically targeting protesters who wear masks to conceal their identities. This move comes in response to recent antisemitic incidents, including a severely disturbing episode where masked protesters harassed Jewish riders on a crowded train. Hochul announced that she is working with lawmakers to explore options for a partial mask ban, with a focus on subways, but also considering other public spaces. She emphasized that any policy would include exemptions for health concerns, cultural events, religious reasons, and Halloween. The governor drew a distinction between wearing masks for health reasons and donning full-face coverings to hide one’s identity, stating that the latter is a “different ballgame.” She also acknowledged that banning masks at protests entirely could raise freedom of speech concerns, but believes that protesters’ criminal and threatening behavior justifies a reevaluation of the policy. Mayor Eric Adams has expressed support for reviving the masked protest ban, stating that “cowards hide their faces” and that protesters should not be allowed to wear masks while engaging in vile language and criminal behavior. Proponents of a mask ban argue that it would help crack down on violent and hateful incidents by making protesters show their faces. Similar laws have been effective in combating the Ku Klux Klan’s hooded menace in the past. However, opponents, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, have raised concerns that such a law could be unfairly used by police against people of color. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

IDF reserve solders have been recorded using a trebuchet, a type of catapult once used as a medieval siege weapon, to ignite bushes and dry vegetation near IDF posts on the northern border.

This tactic, which went viral on Thursday after the soldiers apparently shared it on social media, is aimed at preventing Hezbollah fighters from using the dense foliage as cover in the area.

The thickets close to the border fence make it difficult for soldiers to locate Hezbollah cells hiding in the region. At the start of the conflict, reserve soldiers attempted to use Molotov cocktails to set the bushes on fire, thereby exposing the area so that the cells would have no place to hide. Lebanese sources have also reported the use of phosphorus bombs, which cause fires, and incendiary drones.

To address the issue without relying on valuable artillery, the reserve soldiers decided to assemble a trebuchet, a device that hurls stones and burning objects over distances of several hundred meters. This ancient weapon was used in Europe until the 15th century. JNS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with King Abdullah II and spoke at the conference “Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza,” during which he announced another $404 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians, in Sweimeh, Jordan.

Blinken both criticized Israel for not doing enough to help struggling Palestinian civilians and took Arab states to task for not providing enough aid.

Some of the countries that have “expressed great concern over the suffering of Palestinian people in Gaza—including countries with the capacity to give a lot—have provided very little or nothing at all,” Blinken charged at the conference. “It is time for everyone—everyone—to step up.”

“For those who have already given and given generously, give more,” he said, noting that Washington “has for decades been the largest single country provider of assistance for Palestinians.” The $404 million in new aid brings the total that Washington has provided to Palestinians since 2021 up to $1.8 billion, he said.

The United States has provided $674 million in the last eight months, the State Department stated.

Blinken also met with the Jordanian king in Sweimeh, which borders the Dead Sea.

The U.S. secretary “underscored continued unwavering U.S. support for Jordan and the Jordanian people” as he cited 75 years of U.S.-Jordanian partnership and “commended the king’s commitment to economic modernization and vital public sector reforms,” per a U.S. readout of the meeting.

The U.S. secretary and Jordanian king “discussed the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now on the table that offers a concrete roadmap for ending the war in Gaza” and Blinken thanked the king for Jordan’s “support for the deal and leadership in facilitating the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza,” according to Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman.

During the meeting, which the Jordanian crown prince attended, the king stressed “the importance of stepping up efforts to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” per an official Jordanian description of the meeting.

“The king warned against undermining the efforts of UNRWA in Gaza, adding that it represents a lifeline for nearly two million Palestinians in the sector,” per Jordanian media.

Speaking at the conference, Blinken charged that 95% of Palestinians in Gaza lack clean drinking water.

Blinken JordanU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates in a “Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza” international conference in Sweimeh, Jordan, June 11, 2024. Credit: Chuck Kennedy/U.S. State Department.
“Hunger is everywhere. Virtually everyone in Gaza depends on aid to survive,” he said. “The single most effective step we can take to address the urgent humanitarian challenges in Gaza is to reach an immediate—and ultimately, enduring—ceasefire.”

Blinken credited Israel with taking “some important steps” to open more entry points into Gaza for aid. “But it can and must do more,” he said.

He said that Washington has told the Israeli government directly “to speed up the inspection of trucks and reduce backlogs; to provide greater clarity on—and shorten the list of—prohibited goods; to increase visas for aid workers and to process them more quickly; to create clearer, more effective channels for humanitarian groups to de-conflict with IDF operations; to surge lifesaving medicine and equipment; to provide everything necessary to repair water and sanitation systems.”

It wasn’t clear what sort of “prohibited goods” Blinken was referring to Israel having to clarify and minimize, and that appeared to be a U.S. requirement that hadn’t been articulated publicly in a White House, State Department or Pentagon release or press briefing.

JNS sought comment from the National Security Council, State Department, U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Agency for International Development.

“Israel must take further steps to reduce civilian casualties—even as it confronts an enemy that started this war with the barbaric slaughter of civilians on Oct. 7, an enemy that conducts operations from schools, from hospitals, from camps of displaced families, an enemy that cynically hides behind or underneath the people it purports to represent,” he said. JNS

Tesla shareholders voted Thursday to restore CEO Elon Musk’s record $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year, sending a strong vote of confidence in his leadership of the electric vehicle maker. The favorable vote doesn’t necessarily mean that Musk will get the all-stock compensation anytime soon. The package is likely to remain tied up in the Delaware Chancery Court and Supreme Court for months as Tesla tries to overturn the Delaware judge’s rejection. Musk has raised doubts about his future with Tesla this year, writing on X, the social media platform he owns, that he wanted a 25% stake in the company in order to stop him from taking artificial intelligence development elsewhere. The higher stake is needed to control the use of AI, he has said. Tesla also has struggled with falling sales and profit margins as demand for electric vehicles slows worldwide. But at the company’s annual meeting Thursday in Austin, Texas, Musk reassured shareholders that he will stick around, telling them he can’t sell any stock in the compensation package for five years. “It’s not actually cash, and I can’t cut and run, nor would I want to,” he said. Vote totals on Musk’s pay weren’t immediately announced, but the company said shareholders voted for Musk’s compensation plan, which initially was approved by the board and stockholders six years ago. Tesla last valued the package at $44.9 billion in an April regulatory filing. It was once as much as $56 billion but has declined in value in tandem with Tesla’s stock, which has dropped about 25% so far this year. Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled in January in a shareholder’s lawsuit that Musk essentially controlled the Tesla board when it ratified the package in 2018, and that it failed to fully inform shareholders who approved it the same year. Tesla has said it would appeal, but asked shareholders to reapprove the package at Thursday’s annual meeting. A separate vote approved moving the company’s legal home to Texas to avoid the courts in Delaware, where Tesla is registered as a corporation. “Its incredible,” a jubilant Musk told the crowd gathered at Tesla’s headquarters and large factory in Austin, Texas. “I think we’re not just opening a new chapter for Tesla, we’re starting a new book.” Musk and Tesla didn’t win everything. Shareholders approved measures that trimmed board member terms from three years to one and cut the required vote on shareholder proposals to a simple majority. Legal experts say the issue of Musk’s pay will still be decided in Delaware, largely because Musk’s lawyers have assured McCormick they won’t try to move the case to Texas. But they differ on whether the new ratification of the pay package will make it easier for Tesla to get it approved. Charles Elson, a retired professor and founder of the corporate governance center at the University of Delaware, said he doesn’t think the vote will influence McCormick, who issued a decision based on the law. McCormick’s ruling essentially made the 2018 compensation package a gift to Musk, Elson said, and that would need unanimous shareholder approval, an impossible threshold. The vote, he said, is interesting from a public perception standpoint, but “in my view it does not affect the ruling.” John Lawrence, […]

Hamas’s official response to Israel’s hostages-for-ceasefire proposal included modifications that are not workable, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

“Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table. … Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” Blinken said in a press conference alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha.

“A deal was on the table that was virtually identical to the proposal that Hamas made on May 6—a deal that the entire world is behind, a deal Israel has accepted. Hamas could have answered with a single word: ‘Yes,’” the secretary said.

“Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that had previously taken and accepted,” added the top American diplomat, who was in Israel for a two-day visit earlier this week.

“As a result, the war Hamas started on October 7 with its barbaric attack on Israel and on Israeli civilians will go on. More people will suffer, more Palestinians will suffer, more Israelis will suffer.”

Blinken nevertheless said that “in the days ahead, we are going to continue to push on an urgent basis with our partners, with Qatar with Egypt, to try to close this deal. Because we know it’s in the interests of Israelis, Palestinians, the region, indeed the entire world.”

On Tuesday night, Hamas submitted to Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries its formal response, including “amendments” to the proposal that Israel said were tantamount to a rejection.

An anonymous Israeli official was widely cited panning the terrorist group, which had “changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters” of the deal.

Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two Egyptian security officials, that Hamas is seeking written guarantees from the Biden administration for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of IDF troops from the Gaza Strip as a condition for signing off on the proposal.

The report also said Hamas wants explicit guarantees over the transition from the first phase of the plan, which includes a six-week truce and the release of some hostages, to the second phase, which includes an end to the war and Israeli pullback.

Hamas also proposed a new timeline for the phases.

On May 31, President Joe Biden laid out the terms of the proposal in an address from the State Dining Room at the White House.

“The first phase would last for six weeks,” he said. “Here’s what it would include: a full and complete ceasefire. The withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza. Release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

That phase, which would also include the return of the remains of dead hostages and the daily delivery of 600 trucks of aid to Gazans, would lead to an indefinite period of negotiations between Israel and Hamas to end the war, Biden said.

“During the six weeks of phase one, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end to hostilities,” the president added. “The proposal says if the negotiations take longer than six weeks from phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue.”

The United States, Egypt and Qatar “would work to ensure negotiations keep going until all the agreements are reached and phase two is able to begin,” Biden added.

In the second phase, “Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza” and “release additional Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages,” the president said. Quoting the text of the proposal, he said that at that point, the ceasefire would become “the cessation of hostilities permanently.”

The third phase would include the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remaining dead hostages. During this stage, the international community would ensure that Hamas does not rearm.

Last week, leaders of 16 countries, including many whose citizens were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, issued a statement backing the proposal. Noting that Jerusalem was “ready to move forward” with the terms, they called on the Gaza-based terrorist group to “close this agreement.”

“There is no time to lose,” read the statement signed by the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The United States also signed the statement.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution backing the three-phase plan to end the war. Noting that Israel had accepted it, the resolution calls for Hamas to do the same, and for both sides to “implement its terms without delay and without condition.”

In an interview with Time magazine published earlier this month, Biden described the Israeli ceasefire offer as “very generous.”

“The last offer Israel made was very generous in terms of who [Palestinian prisoners] they’d be willing to release, what they’d give in return, et cetera. Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is under enormous pressure on the hostages … and so he’s prepared to do about anything to get the hostages back,” said Biden. JNS