Cause For Concern
Corrections and Update
Editorial
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (left) US Pres. Donald Trump (right)
Ben Caspit, an Israeli journalist, political commentator, senior reporter for the newspaper “Maariv HaShavua” and Al-Monitor. wrote in The Jerusalem Post commenting on the recent visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit US President Trump at Mar a Lago
“He flew to Miami with a clear brief: not our national security. Not Iran. Not Gaza, Syria, or Hezbollah either. He is focused on one thing: the pardon,” or dismissal of the charges against him for graft and corruption.
Caspit wrote that Netanyahu was going to beseech Trump to pressure Israel’s President Yitzchak Herzog into granting a pardon, or somehow get the attorney general’s office to drop all the charges and dismiss the trial.
This, according to Caspit, because it seems increasingly clear that the case against Netanyahu is much stronger than the Netanyahu camp thought and it was growing increasing likely that Netanyahu would be convicted.
Israel media reports that Trump’s enthusiasm for Netanyahu at the opening press conference was meant to give Netanyahu a false sense of confidence. Once behind closed doors observers expected the Trump administration to get tough with Netanyahu and make demands, like cracking down on settler violence in the West Bank, and agreeing to allow the Palestinian Authority be part of the new administration in Gaza, and even allowing Turkey to participate in the new Gaza administrative council.
Caspit thought that Netanyahu might ultimately agree to everything the US administration requested as long as President Trump could save him from going to jail.
Ynetnews reported that even though President Trump told the world’s press that he’d heard from Israel’s President Herzog that a pardon for Netanyahu was “on the way,” the Israeli President denied that any further discussion on the pardon were held with the US president.
PM Netanyahu (left) President Herzog (right) against background of request for pardon written by Netanyahu
One commentator said Herzog probably dodged Trump’s request with an Israeli phrase, ‘zeh b’derech (it’s on the way).” This is similar to the Spanish phrase, “Mañana.” (tomorrow). Which in the Spanish speaking world means tomorrow, or next week, or next month or next year, or never.
Meanwhile, according to observers, Israel is sinking. Some pundits say that Israel’s democracy is being trampled into dust by Netanyahu and his henchmen. The pundit wrote that this week Israel’s High Court stepped in twice to thwart Netanyahu’s coalition’s march towards a full coup.
According to the Times of Israel, the High Court put on hold Defense Minister Yisrael Katz’s closure of Army Radio. Katz had already given the Army Radio staff notice that the station was closing at the end of January. The High Court said he had no right to close the station. Pundits say that closure of the radio was another nail in the coffin of a free press in Israel.
A second move by the court was to demand that the government ombudsman Matanyahu Engelman stop his investigation into the Oct 7th massacre. The order prevents him from summoning people to submit a version of what happened that day.
According to the Times of Israel, The Military Defense Office said: ‘The Supreme Court today accepted the position of the Military Defense Office, and ordered the issuance of a conditional order and an interim order in the petitions filed against the State Comptroller’s audits of the core strategic issues related to the October 7 events, as well as against draft reports that he formulated without first meeting with those being audited and giving them their rights.
‘This decision reflects the importance that the court attaches to the need for a careful and balanced examination of the issue, while preserving the rights of IDF service members and the principles of due process.’”
‘The “October Council,” which brings together bereaved families, survivors of captivity and their families, and reserve soldiers, said in response to the order issued by the High Court of Justice that “this is a correct, responsible and binding decision given the magnitude of the disaster and its consequences.
“The October 7 disaster is the most serious failure in the history of the State of Israel. It cannot be investigated through a limited administrative investigation, lacking full investigative powers, the ability to summon witnesses and the guarantee of complete independence.”
So far, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has denied any responsibility for the Oct 7th tragedy, blaming the IDF (Israel’s Army) the Shin Bet (Israel’s FBI) and even the Mossad (Israel’s CIA) for the intelligence failures.
Netanyahu has also decided to hold his own commission of inquiry into the causes and responsibilities for the tragedy, appointing himself to head the commission.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin
Justice and Judicial committee head Simcha Rothman criticized the High Court saying they were trampling Democracy with their rulings. Rothman and Justice Minister Yariv Levin have been the driving force for the push for Judicial Reforms.
Some point out that the Judicial Reforms were in part responsible for the split in the Israeli society that Hamas and other enemies saw as a chance to attack Israel. Pundits say that neither Rothman nor Levin, nor of course Netanyahu, who was behind the Judicial Reforms, takes blame for what happened on Oct 7th.
Observers say that Netanyahu pushed these reforms as a way to neuter the courts and the attorney general’s office so that the charges against him would be dropped.
Rothman and Levin have waged a vicious campaign against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara who has been a steadfast opponent of the Netanyahu government’s march to obviate the court system’s power and pass legislation that wrested control from any sector that could curtail the government’s actions. All in the name of protecting Democracy and trying to stop Israel’s slide into autocracy.
Ultra-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch lashed out at the President of the High Court Yitzchak Amit over his decision to stop the controller’s investigation into the Oct 7th tragedy. He said he thought the High Court President should be “trampled.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch
Smotritch was criticized for urging violence against the High Court President. Observers were quick to point out that such incitement by right-wing leaders, including Netanyahu, resulted in the 1995 assassination of then Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.
Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said attacks on the President of the High Court could lead to violence.
MK Simcha Rothman
According to Erutz 7 Israel National News, a right-wing website, ultra-right MK Simcha Rothman, who heads the Knesset’s powerful Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and plays a key role leading legislative efforts, notably concerning Israel’s judicial system reforms, supported Smotritch in his attack on the president of the High Court. Rothman, one of the architects of the Judicial Reform movement, said that the High Court was undemocratic and violent.
According to Erutz 7 Israel National News, Smotritch accused the court of acting with “violence and bullying” and described Justice Amit as behaving “like a megalomaniac.” Rothman added that while the government seeks judicial reform without aggression, the court’s conduct could ultimately necessitate a more forceful response.
According to one pundit, the coup goes on relentlessly. Only the High Court and the Attorney General’s office stubbornly stand in the way.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz that “We’re on track to a violent civil war. We must embark on a firm democratic, nonviolent civil protest.”
Olmert also said that the time has come to call settlers who are committing crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank, “…thuggish Jews who murder and burn. Call them what they really are. Those who burn fields and groves and don’t love the land.”
Former hostage Eli Sharabi
Released hostage Eli Sharabi, who was a captive in Gaza for 491 days, told the Times Of Israel that lawmakers “terrible comments” against the legal gatekeepers could lead to violence. Sharabi’s wife Lianne, teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel were murdered in safe room in their Kibbutz Be’eri home; brother Yossi was killed in Gaza captivity.
And according to the Times of Israel, 142 former judges blame ‘unbridled’ coalition attacks on the courts. They say that Smotritch’s call to ‘trample’ Supreme Court head Yitzchak Amit implies incitement to violence.
The letter was signed by former Supreme Court presidents Uzi Vogelman, Esther Hayut, Dorit Beinisch, and Aharon Barak, and included a total of 142 retired judges.
The Times of Israel reported that a spokesperson for Netanyahu did not respond to a request for comment.
Former High Court President Aharon Barak
Former President of the High Court, Aharon Barak said that Israel is no longer a liberal democracy, but is now a country with one man rule.
Meanwhile, according to Ynetnews, Israel is showing a negative migration balance once again. Some pundits say Israelis are looking to relocate away from more wars their children will be fighting in and a government that seems bent on pushing Israel into a far right camp.
Ynetnews reports that against the backdrop of a war that continued through the past year, 69,300 Israelis chose to leave the country in 2025, compared with just 19,000 who returned. The figures emerge from data published Wednesday Dec 31,2025 by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics to mark the start of the new civilian year.
According to the CBS, Israel’s population currently stands at 10.178 million. Of these, 7,771,000 are Jews and others, accounting for 76.3% of the population; 2,147,000 are Arabs, or 21.1%; and 260,000 are foreign residents, or 2.6%.
War
Police Officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili
It has been 820 days since the Oct 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by Hamas that resulted in the brutal murder, many burned alive, some raped before being killed, of over 1200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 252 who were held hostage in deplorable conditions in Gaza.
All but one of the hostages alive and dead, have been returned. But the body of hostage Ran Gvili remains in Gaza with various terrorist groups blaming each other for obscuring the location of the corpse. This while President Trump hosted the Gvili family at the Mar a Lago mansion.
US President Donald Trump has called for Israel to begin Phase Two of the Trump Peace Plan, however opposition to that move has been heard from across the political spectrum. Families of the hostages say that Phase Two should not begin until the last hostage, Ran Gvili, is returned.
There is also the problem of the new administrative council that is to run the part of Gaza not controlled by the IDF. As of now, according to Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, there have been no countries that have agreed to be part of the peace-keeping force that is to control Gaza.
Moreover, the Netanyahu government has rejected the participation of the Palestinian Authority. They have also rejected former British PM Tony Blair to run the authority.
Also, Hamas has made it clear that they are not going to lay down their weapons. And intend to continue their rule of Gaza.
According to the IDF, Israel has interrogated tens of thousands of terrorists since October 7, 2023, and killed over 20,000 terrorists. Even so, Hamas is still a force to be reckoned with in Gaza.
An article in Ynetnews on Jan 7,2026 contained details of Hamas’ nearly $350 million war chest hidden in Gaza. Enough to pay salaries and keep Hamas in power. And monthly payments to Gazans of $30 by Qatar. The latter approved by the Israeli government but opposed by the security services.
Reflecting on the war, one commentator said that today, walking through a supermarket, or watching young army aged men with their children, one had to wonder which battle these fathers fought in and survived.
The People of the Year for 2025, chosen by Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, are the reservists. In a special project, they sum up the past year and speak about the heavy price, the trauma and severe injuries, the friends they lost, but also the sense of mission and their hopes for 2026.
According to Ynetnews, “for more than two years, IDF reserve soldiers have been repeatedly called up, leaving their lives behind, rotation after rotation, despite exhaustion and mounting hardship. Their businesses have been harmed, sometimes collapsing entirely. Their children cry and beg them not to go. Their partners remain behind to hold the household together alone.”
Nir Issachar Testifies Before Knesset Panel
Warrant Officer (res.) Nir Issachar, currently serving on the Lebanon border, is fighting to raise awareness of the price reservists pay.
“If we continue in a loop of rotation after rotation, we’ll collapse,” he said before a Knesset committee.
After serving about 350 reserve days as a commander in the 55th Brigade, Issachar is now in his fifth reserve rotation on the Lebanon border. At home in Givat Yeshayahu his wife, Miriam, who is currently pregnant, and their two daughters: Hillel, 5 and a half, and Noam, 2 and a half wait for his return.
Issachar said “Twice I was almost killed, a matter of a second one way or the other.” Issachar said those losses and near-death experiences led him to act publicly.
Not only men were honored as reservists. Hadas Krisi said, “After giving birth in March 2024 to my youngest daughter, I formally enlisted in June as an operations sergeant in the 188th Brigade.
Hadas Krisi And Family
“On the day my husband finished one rotation, I went to basic training. On the day I returned from training, he left for another rotation. When he returned from his sixth rotation, I began my reserve duty,” she said. “I’m glad I did it. I hope they call me again so I can help.”
Freed Hostage Elkana Bohbot (center)
Recently, Israel TV’s Channel one Kan screened an interview with Elkana Bohbot who organized the Nova rave festival and was captured by Hamas terrorists and held prisoner for 738 days. In the TV interview Bohbot spoke in detail of his captivity in Gaza.
Bohbot described moments of psychological torture when he was convinced he was going to die. On one occasion, he was brought to a backyard containing a ladder going down a shaft only to be fed a wafer.
Bohbot described his mental state as slowly deteriorating over the course of his captivity. His captors took advantage of this, forcing him to appear in videos showing off his distress, including one unreleased film portraying the fake suicide attempt.
If the terrorists felt that he wasn’t crying enough during a film, they would shove an onion into his eyes to elicit tears. “We were so hungry,” Bohbot recalled, “We would take that onion to eat.”
According to the TV interview, since being freed from captivity, Bohbot has been struggling with trauma and loss. “It’s not like you come out completely fine. You need to continue living this sick nightmare your whole life.”
“After forty days I thought I was going to die,” Bohbot said. “I was taken into a room by a terrorist who had a knife to my back. He led me to the entrance to a tunnel and said, ‘Now you are going to die.’ But he didn’t kill me, rather pointed to a ladder to climb down into the “metro.” The metro is the underground tunnel network that is spread under nearly all of Gaza.
Channel 12TV reported on Wednesday night Dec 31st that nearly 20,000 people now suffer from PTSD and that number is expected to reach 50,000, overwhelming the health services.
Another former hostage, Romi Golan, said on Channel 12TV that she endured repeated sexual assaults, harassment and intimidation during her 471 days of Hamas captivity. Speaking publicly for the first time about her experience she said she had feared becoming a “sex slave” in Gaza.
According to Haaretz, Harvard and Princeton Prof. Michael Walzer, a 90-year-old expert on war and ethics has visited Israel 47 times. Walzer supported the IDF response to the Oct 7th massacre of Israelis along the Gaza border, but said that the time has come to examine Israel in a new light.
In a speech to a group of luminaries at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute, a speech he said took him a month to write and polish, Walzer said that Israel had crossed the line turning down former then President Biden’s proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly refused to accept the terms offered. But, said Walzer, the Biden plan was later adopted by President Trump.
According to Walzer, from the time Netanyahu refused the Biden plan Israel was open to charges of war crimes. He said that Israel’s move to starve out the Gaza population back-fired, because this tactic works only when the population can pressure a government who cares about their welfare.
In this case, Hamas ignored any entreaties by the population. The media images were all part of Hamas’ plan that resulted in a world-wide condemnation of Israel that is still on-going. Because of this failure and other issues, Walzer said that in his opinion Netanyahu is the worst leader in Israel’s history.
Walzer mentions lunch with the late Prime Minister Golda Meir in her modest kitchen that “reminded me of how I grew up poor in the Bronx.” Walzer said that neither Golda Meir nor Menachem Begin, who also lived modestly, were interested in money, only power. He strongly hinted at the contrast to Benjamin Netanyahu, with his homes and his penchant for the best of everything in life.
On a positive note, the IDF announced that they had received their first Iron Beam laser canon unit. The canon has a range of 10 kilometers and is highly effective in taking down short range missiles and mortars. More powerful versions of the system are still being developed.
However, as of now, none can stop a hypersonic ballistic missile. That’s why we have the Arrow and the US supplied Thad missiles, said one expert. They can stop nearly anything fired at Israel.
Meanwhile, according to the Times of Israel, the US Pentagon announced an $8.6 Billion Boeing contract for f-15A Jet fighters for Israel.
Gaza
Israeli troops still control nearly half of Gaza in a buffer zone along a yellow line between Israel’s border and mid-way into Gaza, . Over the past few weeks over 400 Palestinians have been shot by Israeli forces for crossing the yellow line. Some, according to the IDF, were Hamas terrorists who emerged from hidden tunnels, other reportedly innocent civilians who wandered into the IDF controlled zone.
According to the largely unreliable Hamas health ministry, 70,945 Gazans have been killed by the IDF since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Of those, 410 people have been killed since the start of the Gaza ceasefire in early October, the ministry said.
The figures cannot be independently verified and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August 2025 and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7, 2023 onslaught. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields.
According to pundits, life for Gazans beyond the yellow line has improved but not drastically. No agreement has yet been made to rebuild the destroyed buildings in Gaza. Many of the former residents of those buildings are now living in tents in the south part of Gaza, suffering in the torrential rains Israel has been experiencing.
Some aid has made it into Gaza. About 600 trucks a day enter Gaza. However Israel radio reported on Wednesday Dec 31st that Hamas was again stealing the aid and reselling it on the black market. These thefts include tents for the homeless Gazans. Reportedly, the tents, that were donated by NGOs, were being sold by Hamas for $1,000 apiece.
Also, according to Ynetnews, Israel has closed Gaza off to 37 NGOs that were found by Israel to be funneling money and aid to Hamas. According to the Jewish News Service, Israel’s Foreign Ministry over the weekend presented evidence alleging that officials with the Doctors Without Borders NGO in the Gaza Strip were simultaneously members of Palestinian terrorist organizations. One a sniper for Hamas. Doctors without borders were asked to leave Israel and Gaza.
Also, according to the Times of Israel, only half of the Hamas tunnels in the Israeli controlled part of Gaza have been destroyed. The tunnels, called by some an underground city with elevators and air-conditioning, tiled floors and concrete corridors, have long been a bane to Israel.
North
Radwan Force Training Site and Arms Depot Hit By IDF
On Friday, Jan 2, 2026 Israel announced that it had carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a Radwan Force training camp.
The camp, according to the Times of Israel, used live-fire exercises and weapons training, all in violation with the ceasefire reached with Lebanon.
According to Ynetnews, the IDF has continued to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, and even an ISIS base in Syria.
According to the Times of Israel, Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy terrorist group, has so far refused to disarm. Israel has threatened to take military action to disarm them, but diplomatic efforts are still on-going.
According to Fox news ISIS is exploiting Syria’s chaos. The US struck an ISIS base after an ISIS attack killed two American service members and a civilian interpreter.
Meanwhile, according to the Times of Israel, a fifth round of talks between Israel and Syria started on Monday in Paris, the first meetings in nearly two months, after progress toward a security arrangement between the two countries stalled.
The discussions are focused on reviving a 1974 disengagement agreement that established a UN-monitored buffer zone between Israel and Syria after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
US President Trump has said that he is “very satisfied” with Syria’s performance under new President Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose forces ousted Assad. And said Israel should avoid anything that would destabilize al-Sharaa’s government.
Westbank
Buildings demolished in Nur Shams Refugee Camp
According to the Times of Israel, on Wednesday Dec 31, 2025, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing 25 buildings housing Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in what the military said was an effort to root out terror groups in northern areas of the West Bank.
The buildings, home to some 100 families in the Nur Shams camp, have been a frequent site of clashes between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli forces.
Israeli raids into towns and villages in the West Bank continue as Israel attempts to keep terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad and Hamas from getting a foothold. Operations have resulted in the arrest of thousands of suspected terrorists. Weapons factories and arms depots have been uncovered.
As of early 2025, Israeli forces had arrested approximately 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank since October 7, 2023, including over 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.This figure includes a significant number of arrests during the ongoing Operation Iron Wall, which began in January 2025 and has led to the detention of around 320 suspects in its first month alone.
In June 2025, the Shin Bet announced the arrest of over 60 Hamas operatives in Hebron as part of one of the largest anti-terror operations in the West Bank in a decade. These operations have been part of a broader campaign that has seen extensive arrests and military activity in areas such as Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nablus.
Operation Iron Wall (January 2025–present): Since its launch, the IDF has arrested approximately 320 suspects and killed over 100 terrorists in the northern West Bank. The operation has been ongoing for several months, with military activity expanding across multiple cities and refugee camps.
Hebron Crackdown (June 2025): The Shin Bet conducted a major joint operation with the IDF and police, arresting over 60 Hamas operatives involved in a complex terror network in Hebron. The investigation revealed plans for shooting and bombing attacks against Israeli targets.
Cumulative Arrests Since October 7, 2023: According to the IDF, more than 6,000 Palestinians have been arrested across the West Bank since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, with over 2,350 identified as Hamas-affiliated. The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported over 950 West Bank Palestinians killed during the same period, most of whom were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
A number of terrorist incidents took place over the last few weeks. According to the Times of Israel, a Palestinian driver tried to ram an army vehicle near the Adorayim area in the southern West Bank. Four soldiers were in the vehicle and suffered minor injuries. The suspect was detained for questioning.
According to the Times of Israel, in Beit She’an in northern Israel, on Friday Dec 26th, 37 year-old terrorist Ahmed al-Rub from Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, ran over a 68-year-old pedestrian, Mordechai Shimshon, in a hit and run.
Fleeing the scene he was pursued by security forces but stopped near Kibbutz Ein Harod, where he fatally stabbed a Kibbutz Member, 19-year-old Aviv Maor, at a bus stop. The terrorist then fled from his car and hit another man on the head with a rock before being shot by police.
On the other hand, Israeli settlers continue to upset the fragile peace between Israel and the majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank. Violent settlers have continued to raid Palestinian villages, burn cars and firebomb homes. Settlers have also been recorded uprooting olive trees, and fighting with Palestinian farmers.
In one event a settler was seen driving his ATV (all-terrain-vehicle) into a Palestinian kneeling in prayer along the roadside.
During his visit to the US President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the media that these were only a handful of violent kids who did not live in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, according to the Times of Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz has given Israel another cause for concern when he urged the IDF to be ready for an Oct 7th-style mass attack on West Bank settlements.
Red Sea
Demonstrators in Somalialand
Israel has become the first country and United Nations member state to recognize Somalialand as a country. According to many observers, Israel made this move to keep an eye on the hostile anti-Israeli Houthi rebels in Yemen. On Tuesday Jan 6,2026 Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Somalialand.
Israel TV’s Channel 12 reported that Israel would gain strategic security advantages from recognizing Somalialand, like placing intelligence devices and other resources near the hostile Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In return, the Somalialand government could receive much needed aid and weapons from Israel.
According to the Times of Israel, the Houthis, whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews,” began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7th Hamas massacre. Israel has attacked Houthi targets in response.
Some pundits speculate that Israel now can establish a base in Somalialand that would not only monitor Houthi activities, but also establish advanced radar and other technology to help warn Israel of a Houthi missile attack, and even act surreptitiously to infiltrate Yemen and disable Houthi missiles.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have launched at least 683 projectiles against maritime targets since the Iran-backed terrorist group began their escalation in October 2023 and over 200 missiles and drones at Israel.
According to The Media Line, the Houthis again struck Israel in September 2025. Reportedly, these strikes were part of a renewed wave of missile and drone attacks following Israeli airstrikes that killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and several cabinet members in September.
In addition to targeting Israel directly, the Houthis have fired at ships linked to the country, though no hits have been confirmed.
According to The Forward, in 1991 Somaliland declared independence from Somalia. The breakaway region has its own democratically elected government, military, currency, license plates and passports.
Somalia, however, considers Somaliland to be part of its territory, and slammed Israel’s recognition as an “illegal act” that undermines the region’s stability.
Somalia is considered a very dangerous place and was the setting for the movie Black Hawk Down specifically in Mogadishu, during the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993
In the late 19th century Somalia was governed by Britain and then Italy. The union of the two states, Somalia and Somalialand, each controlled by different clans, proved problematic early on. Somalia’s Siad Barre’s regime oppressed the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, with extremely harsh policies. This resulted in resistance and ultimately the Ogaden war.
Shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War in 1991, the 10-year war of independence concluded with the declaration of Somaliland’s independence. Today, Somalialand is 99.9% Suni Moslem.
According to Seth Kaplan, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who has researched Somaliland, the move by Israel to recognize Somalialand seems intended to secure Israel a strategically important foothold in the Horn of Africa.
As part of the Israeli recognition, Somaliland has agreed to join the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements between Israel and Muslim-majority nations.
According to Ynetnews, China has rejected Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and has backed Somalia’s territorial claims to Somaliland.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Turkey’s leader Recept Tayyip Erdogan also condemned Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
According to the Times of Israel, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi, said Israel’s recognition of Somaliland was “a hostile stance targeting Somalia and its African surroundings, as well as Yemen, the Red Sea, and the countries along both shores of the Red Sea.”
Meanwhile, the media is roiling over the protests in Iran. Analysts hope that the protests will lead to a regime change however most experts say that the numbers of protesters in the street have not yet reached a critical mass that would result in such an outcome.
However, Israel might have cause for concern, according to Nir Dvori, military analyst for Channel 12TV, should Iran find itself backed against a wall they might strike at Israel to distract from the street protests.
Politics
Israel’s scheduled elections are for September 2026. Many of the potential Knesset and cabinet members are stirring up dust to attract attention and insure they are high enough on their parties list that they earn a Knesset seat.
Recent polls show that Netanyahu’s Likud party will only win about 24 seats in a new election. That means that the first 24 Likud members who managed to get enough votes during the Likud primary elections will make it into the Knesset.
Others, like Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the ultra-right Otzmah Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, are using the opportunity to carry out even more outrageous acts. Some observers say that this is to keep his name in the public’s mind, especially those in the ultra-right who still see Ben Gvir as their knight in shining armor. (Polls show Ben Gvir’s party would garner nine seats in the next election.)
National Security Minister Ben Gvir (right) Border Police National Guard Force Commissioner Nachshon Nagler (left)
This week Ben Gvir led a convoy of police into the Israel/Beduin town of Tarabin al-Sana on a “crime raid.” Hundreds of policemen entered the village to search, sometimes house to house, for weapons and drugs. The Beduin community complained that for a few criminals the entire town was now under siege.
During the raid 24 suspects were arrested on various offenses since Monday, Dec 29th, including two boys under 12.
This police raid follows arson attacks on Friday night Dec 26th on cars in two Jewish towns near Tarabin.
A few days later five cars were set ablaze in a gas station in the Jewish town of Lehavim not far from Tarabin. According to the Times of Israel some groups claim this was a Beduin response to the police action. Others said that the fires were part of a protection racket run by the owner of the gas station.
According to the Times of Israel, on Saturday night, Jan 3rd, masked police who were part of a “special unit” in the police alongside the Border Police’s fledgling National Guard force, which was founded during Ben Gvir’s tenure, shot and killed a man in his home in Tarabin al-Sana. This was during a raid that has been ongoing for days in the Bedouin town.
Some observers think this new National Guard force, a subset of the Boarder Police, is in fact Ben Gvir’s personal hand-picked militia.
The man, 36-year-old Muhammad Hussein Tarabin, was a suspect in the torching of cars in nearby Jewish towns and was said to have endangered forces during their overnight operation. His family denied both allegations and insisted he had been killed in cold blood.
National Police Minister Ben Gvir lauded the shooting. However, according to the Times of Israel, citing a source in the State’s Attorney’s office, the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) launched a probe into the incident. The police officer responsible for the shooting has been confined to house arrest during the investigation into the incident.
According to the Times of Israel, police have been cracking down on Bedouin towns throughout the Negev over the past month, as part of an anti-crime operation that Ben Gvir declared in November.
Two Young Bedouin Youths Arrested In Tarabin For Throwing Stones
The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday released two children from custody, along with two other suspects.
The operation aims to stem violent crime, arms trafficking and traffic violations among southern Israel’s Bedouin population. Police chief Danny Levi said that operation would continue unabated until the goals were achieved.
However, speaking to the press after Ben Gvir’s visit, Rahat mayor Talal Alkernawi called Ben Gvir as a megalomaniac seeking to raise tensions between Jews and Arabs in the south.
Ra’am party’s Knesset Member Waleed Alhawashleh told reporters, “This man (Ben Gvir) cannot make choices in a sane manner. He comes here, and he wants to cause damage to the relations between Jews and Bedouins in the Negev, and we aren’t interested in this.”
According to Haaretz, Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara told the High Court that Netanyahu must explain why he hasn’t fired Ben-Gvir over abuse of his position as National Security Minister.
The attorney general wrote that it is currently ‘impossible’ to protect the public from his (Ben-Gvir’s) systematic efforts to undermine the police’s independence.
Netanyahu said on Sunday, Jan 3rd, that he would not be intimidated by the Attorney General and would not fire Ben Gvir.
Ben Gvir also entered uninvited into a Knesset panel discussing abuse and the rights of women. Ben Gvir shouted down the chairman running the committee and essentially hi-jacked the meeting.
“More headlines for him,” quipped one commentator. “It’s an election year after all.” And, said the commentator, “Netanyahu needs him in the coalition to fend off votes of no confidence or both of them would be out of power. And Netanyahu probably in jail.”
Netnayhu’s visit to Mar a Lago was seen by some observers as a boost to his political ambitions. President Trump lauded Netanyahu as a great leader and hero and that Israel was lucky to have had him as their ‘wartime prime minister.” Trump thought Netanyahu saved Israel by his actions during the war.
Analysts say that none of those accolades would hurt Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. One pundit said that the Trump sound bite would be used ad infinitum during the election campaign.
The Israeli press also cited the Trump threat against Iran should they attempt to rebuild their nuclear development program. According to Israeli observers, Trump essentially gave Israel a green light to strike Iran.
But, according to the Times of Israel, the IDF has said that Israel should be prepared for a surprise attack by Iran. Reports from NBC revealed that Israeli officials were concerned with Iran’s growing ballistic missile program that could reach 3,000 missiles a year.
Also, in October, CNN reported, citing European intelligence sources, that China had sent many shipments of sodium perchlorate to Iran. Sodium Perchlorate is used to produce solid fuel for Iran’s missiles
Maj. Gen.(res) Eliezer Merom, former head of Israel’s navy, thought Israel should strike Iran first before being hit in a surprise attack.
According to the Iran International website, Israel told the US a week ago that recent Iranian missile drills may conceal preparations for a potential strike. However, the Jerusalem Post reported that the likelihood of an attack is below 50%. According to an Israeli source, “nobody is willing to take the risk and say what the chances of a strike are.”
According to CNBC two days ago President Donald Trump threatened further military action against Iran. He made these threats during a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu who was in Mar a Lago. “We’ll knock the hell out of them…consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than last time,” Trump said.
According to the website The Hill, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said in response on X that his countries reaction to “any aggressive action would be harsh and regrettable.”
Back to politics. According to the Times of Israel, The High Court also froze a 1billion shekel payment to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties for their schools. “Petitioners accuse the government of breaking the law by funding institutions allegedly not teaching core subjects; ultra-Orthodox leaders have railed against ‘antisemitic’ court.”
Critics say the transfer of funds as payment for supporting the government in various votes in exchange for the government passing the controversial draft law exemption for Haredi men.
Shaas Party Leader Aryeh Deri
The Shaas party likened the judges to “a dangerous band of arsonists who, in their desperate struggle to save their crumbling rule, have chosen to take the ultra-Orthodox public hostage.”
The court injunction issued by Justice Yael Willner said that a panel of judges will hold a hearing on the petition by January 8, 2026. The Finance Committee, the Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry will have until then to submit a response to the petition justifying the transfer of funds to the schools in question.
Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid. “Anyone who wants to receive public funding will have to teach the core curriculum and submit to appropriate oversight.” Lapid has also called for a vote of no confidence in the government scheduled for Wednesday Jan 7,2025.
Haredi Protesters Clash With Police
Meanwhile, according to Ynetnews, 540 ultra-Orthodox men reported Sunday Jan 4th to IDF induction centers to enlist in dedicated Haredi tracks, 140 for combat units, while dozens of protesters from extremist factions attempted to disrupt the draft, shouting insults and confronting police in central Israel and Jerusalem.
Haredi Men Protest Draft
According to Ynetnews, outside the induction center in Kiryat Ono, protesters shouted at new recruits, calling them “murderers,” “sinners,” and “worse than Antiochus,” a reference to the ancient Hellenistic ruler reviled in Jewish tradition. Demonstrators urged recruits to reconsider, shouting, “You won’t leave religious.”
Later on Sunday Jan 4th, ultra-Orthodox Sephardi Shaas party chairman Aryeh Deri threatened to boycott the upcoming vote to pass a state budget if the Netanyahu led coalition did not pass a draft exemption law.
On Tuesday Jan 6, 2026 tragedy struck. 14-year-old Yosef Eisenthal was killed during a massive demonstration in Jerusalem’s Ultra-Orthodox Romema neighborhood. A huge crowd surrounded a public Egged bus. The driver, feeling his life in danger, drove forward unknowingly running over the boy. The bus then turned onto another street striking and injuring a 17-year-old Haredi youth.
Hebrew media outlets reported that the driver, an Arab/Israeli, had called the emergency police hotline to request help as protesters gathered around his bus, accosting him and preventing him from driving. No police were in the vicinity. According to the driver’s attorney, he was unaware he’d hit anyone until he was told of the tragedy.
One pundit questioned if the families of the boys and leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community would feel any guilt over the incident and tone down their demonstrations which also include the hurling of stones and burning of trash bins.
And then there’s the Qatargate affair. According to the Times of Israel, former advisor to PM Netanyahu, Eli Feldstein and the prime minister’s top media adviser, Jonatan Urich, and others, are suspected of taking money to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters. This in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas. All while these Israelis were not only allegedly on Qatar’s payroll but also in the Israeli prime minister’s employ.
Former Prime Minister Neftali Bennett has called the actions of Feldstein and the others ‘treason.’
A recent poll found that over 50% of those polled say the allegations against those involved in Qatargate amounted to treason.
On Sunday, Jan 3,2026, the police turned over the Urich file to the state’s attorney’s office. An indictment is expected soon.
Feldstein, in his interview with Kan TV last week, alleged that Netanyahu was aware and supportive of his efforts to make use of classified intelligence in order to sway public opinion against a hostage deal, effectively contradicting Netanyahu’s assertion that he had no prior knowledge of Feldstein’s leak of the document.
Observers point out that originally Feldstein was the fall guy for the Qatargate affair. But Feldstein refused to be kicked under the bus, says one observer, and rather opened up about the connections of others attached to both Qatar and the Prime Minister’s office.
Then, according to the Times of Israel, from Netanyahu calling Feldstein a “patriot,” Netanyahu’s office turned on him, accusing him of lying and insisting that the Prime Minister and other staffers were unaware of Feldstein’s illicit activities.
Yet another cause for concern, quipped one observer.
And in a Channel 12TV poll released on Thursday Jan 1,2026, neither Netanyahu’s Likud led coalition nor the Yair Lapid led opposition would receive the 61 seats necessary to form a government. The poll showed Lapid’s opposition with 59 seats and Netanyahu’s coalition with 52 seats.
Netanyahu’s Likud party slipped in the polls to 26 seats followed closely behind by former prime minister Neftali Bennet’s party with 21 seats.
Commentators on Channel 12TV were surprised that the Likud had not received a bump in the polls because of Netanyahu’s meetings with Trump in Mar a Lago, but instead had lost a few seats in the polls.
Antisemitism
Bondi Beach Killers Firing Into Crowd
Australia’s Bondi Beach terrorist attack still reverberates in Israel. Two men, a father and son, opened fire at a Chabad sponsored Hannukah celebration of nearly 2,000 people, killing 15, injuring 40.
The men, Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old Indian national who had lived in Australia for decades, was killed in a shootout with police. His 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, was injured and hospitalized. The two carried out the attack by firing from a bridge overlooking the festivities using a bolt action rifle and a shotgun.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli born Gefen Bitton tried to stop the shooters. Bitton has lived and worked in Australia for three years, and was critically injured after being shot three times while rushing the shooters. He remains in a coma and in intensive care.
Ahmed al-Ahmed visited by Australian PM Anthony Albanese
An unlikely hero was Ahmed al-Ahmed, an unarmed 43-year-old Syrian born Australian Muslim fruit vendor and father of two. He rushed Sajid and disarmed him but was shot a number of times. Ahmed is still hospitalized but is out of danger.
He said he did what he did because that’s what any person should do when they see a wrong being committed.
According to the Times of Israel, a A GoFundMe campaign set up for him has raised more than $2 million for Ahmed.
In Ireland, according to Ynetnews, Ireland’s wave of antisemitism shows no sign of fading. Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on a rural road in Ireland’s Louth County, according to photos and videos shared on social media.
Antisemitic Graffiti On Road In Ireland
“The depiction of Jews as rats or vermin was a keystone in the propaganda prompted by Josef Goebbels to dehumanize Jews,” the The Combat Antisemitism Movement organization said. It added that German society normalized such imagery even before the Holocaust.
According to the Jerusalem Post, antisemitism is spiking around the world.
And more and more influencers are using anti-Israeli sentiment to encourage antisemitic actions, either knowingly or innocently.
Candace Owens (left) Tucker Carlson (right)
Also, according to the Jerusalem Post an AJPPI study using AI analysis found that Tucker Carlson, a right-wing anti-Israeli media personality, and anti-Israeli influencer Candace Owens, have dramatically increased Israel focus in recent months, with Owens also showing a rise in explicit antisemitic messaging.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani With Mother and Father
And in New York, according to the Times of Israel, it is unclear to what extent New York City’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani will pursue BDS policies during his upcoming mayoral term. His politics and those of his parents reflect a shared alignment with pro-Palestinian causes.
“When you’re the kid of two parents who are very involved in social justice, a lot of times what you remember as a playdate was you being at some rally or some march,” Mamdani recalled in an interview with City & State in April 2023.
His father, Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of government at Columbia University and a longstanding pro-Palestinian activist, was the first faculty member to address the Gaza war encampment on his campus.
Zohran Mamdani’s mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, and Zohran’s wife, the artist Rama Duwaji, are respected in their fields and well known for their pro-Palestinian advocacy and adherence to the movement to boycott Israel.
One pundit blamed Senator Bernie Sanders for Mamdani’s success. Sanders, a self-declared socialists was a vocal supporter of Mamdani and other anti-Israeli voices. ‘Zealots steer the course of history,’ the pundit said.
And the capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife on drug trafficking charges also drew antisemitic epithets from Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. She said that the operation to capture Maduro seemed to have a “Zionist undertones.”