(AP) Sam Mednick - On Monday, Israel's military took journalists into Rafah in southern Gaza. On the drive around the city, towers of mangled concrete, wires and twisted metal lined the roads, with few buildings still standing and none unscathed. The tunnel that journalists were escorted through runs beneath what was once a densely populated residential neighborhood - under a UN compound and mosques. The army says the tunnel is more than 7 km. (4 miles) long and up to 25 meters (82 feet) deep and was used for storing weapons as well as long-term stays. It said top Hamas commanders were there during the war. "What we see right here is a perfect example of what Hamas did with all the money and the equipment that was brought into Gaza throughout the years," said Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani. "Hamas took it and built an incredible city underground for the purposes of terror and holding bodies of hostages."

(Jewish Insider) Haley Cohen - The Columbia University task force overseeing efforts to combat antisemitism on campus released its fourth and final report on Tuesday, spotlighting Columbia's lack of full-time Middle East faculty who are not explicitly anti-Zionist. The task force said it heard from students that classes at the university more often than not treat Zionism as entirely illegitimate. The report calls on the university to "work quickly to add more intellectual diversity to these offerings" and to "establish new chairs at a senior level in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy." The report also cites numerous instances in which the academic freedom of Jewish and Israeli students was not protected in classrooms and suggests remedies.

(Ynet News) Itamar Eichner - Israel has delivered new intelligence to Gaza ceasefire mediators in Cairo in an effort to locate and recover the remains of Sgt. First Class Ran Gvili, a police officer abducted by Palestinian terrorists during the October 7 terrorist attack and the last of the slain Israelis who were taken to Gaza. Hostages and Missing Persons Coordinator Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch transferred aerial imagery, names of individuals believed to have knowledge of Gvili's whereabouts and other intelligence aimed at aiding his recovery. A senior Israeli official told Ynet: "There are people within Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who know where Ran is. We sent a strong message to a senior mediator, and conveyed detailed intelligence during Gal Hirsch's meetings in Cairo last Thursday. We will not rest until Ran is brought back for burial in Israel." "This is not a tactical issue. It is central to the implementation of the agreement. PIJ's claim [that it has released all captives] is a lie, and we reject it outright. Hamas is responsible for the return of all fallen hostages, and we will not compromise on that."

(Jerusalem Post) Amichai Stein - The International Stabilization Force (ISF) will be deployed in Gaza at the beginning of 2026, a U.S. official told the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. The ISF will initially include only personnel from one or two countries and "will not be deployed in areas controlled by Hamas."

(Jerusalem Post) Amichai Stein - Israel has publicly opposed Turkish participation in the proposed multinational force for post-war Gaza, citing Ankara's close ties with Hamas. But at the Jerusalem Post conference in Washington on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Trump's envoy to Syria Tom Barrack suggested the U.S. still sees a role for Turkey's military on the ground. Turkey's large, experienced ground force, along with its dialogue with multiple actors, "could help cool the temperature." He insisted Ankara harbors no aggressive intent toward Israel. Barrack also described Syria as fundamentally disinterested in aggression toward Israel, consumed instead by threats from ISIS, the remnants of foreign fighters, and Iranian proxies. He revealed that with help from Turkish intelligence, the U.S. and Syria have jointly taken out nine Hizbullah cells and several ISIS cells in recent weeks. "Every day, Syria is taking out ISIS and IRGC assets," he said. He believes that a return to a variation of the 1974 disengagement structure between Syria and Israel, updated with modern mechanisms, is entirely feasible. Israel, he noted, is seeking a withdrawal model similar to agreements with Egypt: zones of limited weaponry, airspace arrangements, and verifiable layers of demilitarization. "After October 7, Israel doesn't trust anyone," Barrack said. "That's why we've offered to serve as a peacekeeping force. Verification replaces trust."

(Jerusalem Post) Amichai Stein - Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar told the Jerusalem Post conference in Washington on Wednesday: "At the moment, the gaps between us and Syria (regarding a security agreement) have widened; they have raised new demands. Of course, we want an agreement, but we are now farther from reaching one than we were a few weeks ago."

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - In the past, the IDF maintained 46 outposts along the Jordan valley to detect and stop infiltrations by terrorists and smugglers crossing from Jordan. After the peace treaty with Jordan in 1994, the IDF gradually abandoned these positions. After Oct. 7, the IDF concluded that Israel's eastern border with Jordan required urgent reinforcement. The outposts are now manned and equipped with surveillance and firepower. At the core of Israel's updated defense concept for the eastern border is the conclusion that Iran has not abandoned its plan to encircle Israel with a "double ring of fire," meaning missiles and drones alongside infiltrating ground forces. The threat scenario now focuses on Shiite militias from Iraq and the Houthis from Yemen as most likely to attempt an attack through Jordan and southern Syria. Armed militias could drive quickly in pickup trucks from Iraq to Jordan's border, or to the Syrian Golan, within a matter of hours. Some 8,000 Yemeni foreign workers are present in Jordan, with several hundred believed to be affiliated with the Houthis. In 2024 the IDF set up a new division to include five reserve brigades of older Israelis who had previously been exempt, calling them to volunteer for reserve service as regional defense fighters in their home areas. In an emergency or a surprise assault they would be mobilized from home to take up preplanned positions. When the IDF called for volunteers, almost 15,000 previously exempt Israelis enlisted. On Monday, the Defense Ministry began constructing a ground barrier in the Jordan Valley similar to the obstacle along the Sinai border. The barrier is planned to run 500 km.

(Ynet News) Itamar Eichner - The U.S. has asked Israel to give Lebanon more time to complete the demilitarization of southern Lebanon, meaning the area south of the Litani River. U.S. officials told Lebanon that if it does not act now, Washington will not be able to stop Israel from acting on its own. Israel's message to the Americans, and through them to Lebanon, is that it will not wait indefinitely. Israeli assessments hold that the Lebanese government wants to disarm Hizbullah but lacks the ability to do so. Hizbullah still retains significant power in Lebanon, especially in the south, and is now working to restore its capabilities. Israeli officials describe a renewed flow of Iranian money to the terrorist group, primarily through Turkey. A security arrangement with Syrian President al-Sharaa is deadlocked over Israel's demand that southern Syria be demilitarized. Israel is seeking guarantees to preserve a humanitarian corridor for Druze communities in Sweida province, while Syria opposes any step it views as infringing on its sovereignty. Officials are looking for a mechanism that would ensure the free flow of humanitarian aid to the Druze. Israel will not withdraw from areas it has entered until it is confident that demilitarization is real and humanitarian access to the Druze is guaranteed.

(Forward) Alanna E. Cooper - I traveled to Chicago recently to tour the Nova Music Festival Exhibition. 1,200 visitors had purchased tickets. The traveling exhibition, which uses actual objects from the Nova festival grounds to reconstruct the scene of the attacks, has been drawing massive crowds since it opened in Tel Aviv in December 2023. After stops in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Washington, D.C., Berlin and Toronto, more than 500,000 people had already passed through its doors. It took two hours of walking through the installation to understand what exactly had motivated me to visit this re-creation of the site where so many people had met their brutal ends. The rave party was shattered when the "Angel of Death" swooped in, firing a barrage of missiles. From these very first words, the story turns away from naming Hamas as the perpetrator. Its focus, instead, lies solely on the experiences of those who were abused, terrorized, kidnapped, and killed. As visitors enter the festival grounds of Oct. 7, screens are scattered through the wreckage. One woman hiding between bushes, speaks into her own camera, "I'm filming so that later there will be a video of all this." Another captured himself huddled with others in a trash bin. More footage comes from the Go Pro cameras of the terrorists. One shows terrified people running, trying to escape. Some are shot and collapse to the ground. Additional screens feature survivor testimonies. One tells how her husband took a fatal bullet so she could flee, another lived by keeping cover beneath dead bodies. At the Nova festival alone over 400 were killed and 43 were kidnapped. In the final room, people take seats, facing a Nova survivor who is regularly present at the front of the room. Articulate and composed, she begins with photos of her best friend whom she lost in the attack, and ends with a story of her own survival, and a message of not taking life for granted.

(Amnesty International USA) Amnesty International research confirms that crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during their attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and against those they seized and held hostage, were part of a systematic and widespread assault against the civilian population and amount to crimes against humanity. Fighters were instructed to carry out attacks targeting civilians. Amnesty International has documented how Hamas forces and other Palestinian armed groups conducted a coordinated attack targeting mostly civilian locations. More than 800 civilians were killed, including 36 children. The victims were primarily Jewish Israelis, but also included Bedouin citizens of Israel, and scores of foreign national migrant workers, students and asylum seekers. More than 4,000 people were injured, and hundreds of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.

(Ynet News) Ron Crissy - A new study published Thursday by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center examined the identities of 266 Palestinians who were labeled as journalists or media workers and died in the Gaza fighting. At least 157 of them - 60% - were operatives or individuals affiliated with terror organizations.

(Times of Israel) Faraj Alexandre Rifai - Dec. 8 marks the first anniversary of the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the arrival to power of Ahmed al-Sharaa - an event celebrated in many Western capitals as the beginning of a new era. I hope this aspiration comes true. After 15 years of war, economic collapse and social fragmentation, who would not wish to see the emergence of a pragmatic leader eager to rebuild his country? But one year later, the results are not there. Certainly, al-Sharaa masters the codes of a head of state. He speaks of economy, administration, foreign investment; he presents himself as open to regional dialogue, including, verbally, with Israel. But beneath this varnish lies the fact that the new Syrian power was not born of any democratic process, but of an internal compromise between Islamist factions supported by Turkey and Qatar. In other words, Syria has not broken with the ideological matrix that fueled the worst excesses of the past decade; it has merely reconfigured it into a form of Islamism with more moderate appearances. The notion of a "moderate" Islamism is a fiction. It failed in Egypt, produced a terror-based dictatorship in Gaza, paralyzed Tunisia, and allowed militias to flourish in Syria and Iraq. Can one reasonably believe that a figure emerging from a jihadist network, even equipped with a skillful communication strategy, could transform himself into a guarantor of regional stability? And would he, in the current configuration, have the means to impose his will upon the militias that control Syria's security apparatus? The reality on the ground is that one year after Assad's fall there is coercion of minorities, increasing pressure on the Druze, religious courts, informal taxation, collusion with Turkish and Qatari networks, active presence of Islamist militias stemming from al-Qaeda, and repeated threats against Israel. The regime speaks the language of compromise but governs according to the codes that brought it to power. And the more the West multiplies gestures of recognition, the more this system feels free to act without constraint. International aid must be tied to measurable transformation: progressive disarmament of factions, guarantees for minorities, credible engagement in a security process with Israel, a clear break with jihadist networks, financial transparency, and the establishment of a genuinely inclusive institutional model. Without clear requirements, the West will not consolidate a transition: it will nourish a monster.

(Ynet News) Lior Ben Ari - Israel's Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, presented new testimony describing rape, torture, executions and kidnappings carried out against Druze residents in Syria's Sweida province last July. He spoke at a UN event in Geneva on Tuesday that enables survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to share their accounts safely. The testimonies included the recorded account of a 14-year-old Druze girl who said she was raped by three jihadists - two wearing Syrian army uniforms and one identified as an Islamic State fighter. Tarif called on the world to recognize the Sweida killings as a war crime carried out by the regime of Ahmad al-Sharaa, calling it "a deliberate attempt to erase the Druze community." He urged the creation of a humanitarian corridor into Druze areas in southern Syria, an end to the siege on its villages, and the release of hundreds of Druze hostages. Footage shown at the event included scenes of executions carried out by al-Sharaa's forces inside a Sweida hospital.

(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Eliyahu Haddad - Europe's Muslim population has surged from less than 1% in 1970 to a projected 10-14% by 2050. Sweden potentially reaches 31%, Austria 21%, the UK 19%, and Germany 20%. Western civilization is being replaced - committing demographic suicide through its own democratic processes and ideological paralysis, acute passivity, and naivete. Moreover, Western societies have criminalized any discussion of this takeover. No conquest is required - only open borders, welfare incentives, family reunification policies, refugee obligations, and a fertility differential guaranteeing Muslim demographic growth while native European populations collapse below replacement level. Ideological conquest has weaponized social media and digital propaganda. Iran, Qatar, and Turkey invest billions in bot networks, influencer campaigns, and media empires amplifying pro-Islamic and anti-Israel narratives while recruiting Western progressives to accelerate Western ideological dismantling. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 to establish a caliphate based on Islamic supremacy, operates through media outlets, NGOs, political parties, mosques, and community organizations. The Muslim population percentage in Canada increased by 145% from 2000 to 2025, while the U.S. increased by 90% in the same time period. Democratic societies should enable all citizens to seek office regardless of religion. The pattern that merits examination is whether officials elected primarily by Muslim constituencies adopt policies that prioritize narrow community interests over broader societal integration, whether they challenge fundamental Western values, and whether they systematically oppose Israel regardless of circumstance. The effects of Islamification and the strategic use of social and mainstream media manipulation by jihadist state actors has already caused a significant shift in the way the Western world treats Israel. 17 out of 27 EU member states now recognize Palestine - effectively rewarding terrorism with diplomatic victory. European-funded NGOs systematically file cases against Israeli officials and soldiers in national and international courts. Will Western civilization implement corrective policies or accept the continuing trajectory toward demographic replacement, political capitulation, and civilizational collapse? The writer is a serial entrepreneur and investment professional specializing in disruptive technologies and financial analysis.

(Jewish Onliner) A report commissioned by the France 2050 think tank and released in October 2025 has unveiled a systematic campaign by the Islamic Republic of Iran to infiltrate French society through espionage networks, political influence operations, and criminal proxies. The report reveals how Tehran has built ideological and operational networks across France's political landscape, universities, media outlets, and criminal underworld over 48 years, with Jewish communities and pro-Israel voices among the primary targets of what the report calls Iran's "mechanics of chaos." "Shiite expansionism will always be the regime's guiding principle, as is the regime's intrinsic violence," said Frederic Encel, a Middle East specialist who contributed to the report, noting that Tehran's strategy relies on propaganda, infiltration, and physical elimination. In spring 2024, French authorities arrested Bashir Biazar, a high-level agent of the Quds Force, the external operations unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Biazar was accused of surveilling Iranian diaspora families and conducting infiltration operations at local universities to recruit sympathizers and spread pro-regime narratives. Iranian intelligence maintains active surveillance lists of synagogues, Jewish schools, opposition gatherings, and cultural events throughout France. On May 7, 2024, Iranian opposition protesters were violently assaulted outside the Paris embassy by six masked attackers who emerged from the embassy.

(Foreign Affairs) Maria Fantappie and Vali Nasr - Iran built a transnational ideological network of Shiite communities, governments, and militias from Iran to Iraq to Lebanon, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories, what King Abdullah of Jordan referred to as a "Shiite crescent." By 2014, analysts regularly observed that Tehran controlled four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sanaa. From a military standpoint, this "axis of resistance" now lies in tatters. Its Iranian architects are aging, and their partners in the Arab world have been decimated by Israeli strikes. Yet the Shiite political and religious identity remains intact. Although Shiites represent only 15-20 percent of Muslims worldwide, they constitute roughly half the Muslim population of the Middle East. Shiite Muslims form the majority of the population in Bahrain, Iran, and Iraq and nearly the majority in Yemen; they are the largest religious community in Lebanon. Would-be peacemakers must pay careful attention to factoring the region's Shiites, both within and outside Iran, into their vision for regional order. State-building efforts in Lebanon and Syria should focus on guaranteeing equal rights for all communities. If Beirut and Damascus exclude minorities, marginalized Shiites will again turn to Iran for support. In Lebanon, simply disarming and dismantling Hizbullah will not bring stability. For decades, the organization acted as a state for the Shiite community, providing security, jobs, and social services; now Shiites must be offered other means of participating in the country's politics and economy. Maria Fantappie is head of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Africa Program at Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome. Vali Nasr is Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

(Wall Street Journal) Daniel Freedman - In 1993, Billings, Mont., was rocked by antisemitic attacks from white supremacists seeking to establish an Aryan state. They desecrated the Jewish cemetery, made bomb threats against the synagogue, and threw a brick through the bedroom window of a 5-year-old Jewish boy, Isaac Schnitzer, aiming for the menorah on the window sill. The police advised his mother, Tammie, to take down her Hanukkah decorations to avoid drawing attention. Tammie expressed her concerns to the Billings Gazette. How could she explain to a child that today in America Jews must hide their menorahs - especially during a holiday celebrating their freedom to worship? Margaret MacDonald, a Christian resident of Billings, called her pastor, Keith Torney, and asked if the children in Sunday school could draw menorahs and display them in their windows in solidarity with their Jewish neighbors. Torney loved the idea and encouraged other churches to join in. The Gazette published a full-page picture of a menorah for readers to cut out and tape to their windows. Hundreds of menorahs appeared in windows around Billings. Local businesses joined in. When the non-Jews of Billings put up their menorahs, they were standing for religious liberty for all.

(Slugger O'Toole) Andy Pollak - Former deputy prime minister of Ireland, Senator Michael McDowell, wrote in the Irish Times on Dec. 3: "Ireland has unfortunately a history of antisemitic subculture at social and, at one time, political levels." He pointed to the past record of the Sinn Fein political party. President of Sinn Fein Mary Lou McDonald delivered orations at the statue to Sean Russell, who in 1940 traveled to Nazi Germany to seek help for the IRA in its campaign of violence in Britain and Northern Ireland. In the same year, the IRA issued a statement hailing the Nazis as "friends and liberators of the Irish people" and the IRA publication, War News, welcomed the "cleansing fire" of the Wehrmacht driving Jews from Europe. In 1946, the head of the Department of Justice, Thomas Coyne, issued a memorandum arguing against allowing 10 Jewish refugee families (around 40 people) into the country. Later that year, after Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog had interceded with him, Prime Minister Eamon De Valera allowed 100 orphaned Jewish children, survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to come to Ireland. The writer, a former journalist with the Irish Times, served as founding director of Ireland's Centre for Cross Border Studies.

(JNS) Mitchell Bard - In the 2025 film "Nuremberg," the prosecution shows documentary footage from the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen in Austria. The speaker describing how prisoners were murdered is an American GI who survived the camp. Lt. Jack Taylor was an experienced agent of the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime precursor to the CIA. In late 1944, he parachuted into Austria to lead a mission intended to gather intelligence on German troop movements. Captured by the Gestapo on Dec. 1, 1944, Taylor spent weeks in solitary confinement before being transferred to Mauthausen, where he saw "half-dead creatures in filthy, ragged stripes." Taylor was assigned to help build a new crematorium for the gas chamber. The smoke from the smokestacks and the "heavy sickening smell of flesh and hair was blown over our barrack 24 hours a day, and as hungry as we were, we could not always eat." Weakened by dysentery and fever, he lost more than 50 pounds. Taylor listened to hundreds of eyewitness accounts of atrocities. Prisoners were beaten, drowned, torn apart by dogs, injected with poison, forced over a cliff, driven into the electric fence and frozen to death. Others were subjected to medical experiments or executed for minor deformities or tattoos. On May 5, 1945, a U.S. reconnaissance unit stumbled upon Mauthausen without knowing what it was. Though gravely ill, Taylor insisted on remaining to help investigators. He located documents and witnesses that would later prove crucial in prosecuting Nazi officers for war crimes.