Note: Israeli domestic politics and in particular the forthcoming election on Oct. 27th are outside the remit of these Updates.
“GENOCIDE” CLAIMS CHALLENGED
The allegations of genocide against Israel were again strongly challenged last week following the admission by Chris Sidoti a senior member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Israel that its claims had not been independently verified. This came as Palestinian Ministry of Health data shows that Gaza’s population grew in 2025. Critics say the accusations fuelled worldwide antisemitism and that those pushing these claims — including major international media outlets — need to be made accountable for their words. Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said that agencies and the media who shared these false allegations have blood on their hands. Click here
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana firmly asserted to the Council of Europe that Israel is not committing genocide but is actively fighting genocide, pointing out that Israeli civilians were directly targeted on Oct. 7. He criticized world leaders for succumbing to false propaganda for political gain and called on international states to stand alongside Israel in a broader global conflict between liberty, freedom & democracy against extremism & fundamentalism. Click here
GAZA
Three Hamas weapons depots were destroyed in airstrikes in Gaza. They contained dozens of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, rocket launchers and rockets, and RPGs. Before the strikes, the IDF issued warnings to civilians in their vicinity. The IDF said Monday that it was keeping up its strikes on Palestinian terror operatives in Gaza, having killed three over the weekend, while also publishing a document purporting to demonstrate Hamas’s strategy earlier in the war of putting Gaza’s civilians at risk to save itself. Click hereClick here
A Gazan teacher who worked for UNRWA for 15 years alleged in a interview that staff at their schools in Gaza encouraged antisemitism and glorified Hamas’s violent struggle. The 40-year-old educator stated that when she confronted a colleague regarding the material taught to female students, a senior school official threatened to cut out her tongue. Click here
SYRIA
According to a report by IMPACT-se on 130 textbooks from the 2025–2026 school year, Syria’s current school texts have replaced Assad’s pan-Arab narrative with an Islamist worldview that glorifies jihad, promotes martyrdom, and completely omits Syrian Jewish history. These current educational materials explicitly teach children antisemitic stereotypes—such as labelling Jews as betrayers and backstabbers in Grade 6 lessons—while rejecting Israel’s right to exist and portraying anti-Israel violence as justified resistance. IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff: “This report should raise serious concerns among international leaders who hope to see Syria emerge as a partner in building a peaceful and prosperous Middle East.” Click here
WEST BANK/JUDEA & SAMARIA
Israel on Monday announced the arrest of 11 suspected settler extremists, following weekend attacks on Palestinians, foreign diplomats and a photojournalist. Click here
THE UK
The creator of the ‘Palestine poppy’, an enamel pin shaped like a poppy in the colours of the Palestinian flag, is Abdul Qader Ismail, an Oxford-educated paediatrician who has written books for Muslim teenagers, inter alia, justifying stoning.
Army veteran and defence analyst Lt. Gen. Stuart Crawford said: “In effect it’s trying to hijack [or] ride on the coat-tails of the familiar red poppy…The Remembrance poppy is avowedly apolitical… and commemorates our war dead by bringing people together in the act of remembrance…The so-called ‘Palestine Poppy’ is about as far away from remembrance as it’s possible to be. It is unashamedly political, designed to divide rather than unite.”
Former Royal Navy officer Stuart Fawcett said: “Now, we see them hijacking our national symbol of remembrance. Nothing is sacred to this mob that makes a pursuit of distorting the truth.” Click here(paywall) Click here
Holly Passmore from County Durham, who campaigns against anti-semitism, was visited by police after an anonymous referral to the UK’s Prevent counter-extremism programme over her vocal support for and travel to Israel. She later obtained police records and found that she’d been labelled as having mental health issues and being “vulnerable to negative influence.” Police intelligence reports noted she showed no counter-terrorism concern, and officers later visited her again to reassure her that she was not considered an extremist. Click hereClick here
UKRAINE
Security collaboration between Israel and Ukraine is expanding as both nations work together to study Iranian weapons and Russian drones. According to former ambassador Michael Brodsky, Kyiv has provided captured weapons for examination to assist Israel in developing drone defences, leveraging Ukraine’s battlefield insights since Iran and its proxies employ similar technology. Click here
CYPRUS
Israel’s Hadassah Medical Centre has inaugurated a medical centre in Limassol, Cyprus and announced plans for a hospital near Nicosia. The new centre draws on Hadassah’s clinical expertise and will maintain ongoing professional co-operation with Hadassah staff in Israel. Click here
SPAIN
Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company sold out all three Madrid performances despite a campaign to cancel them. Around 200 protesters gathered outside Thursday’s opening show, with some shouting “m*rderers” at arriving audience members. The performance went ahead and ended with a standing ovation, according to Israel’s embassy in Spain.
The theatre’s director refused to cancel, saying artists should not be censored because of their nationality. Click here
Video(amateur) Click here
GREECE
Israel returned 22 illegally removed ancient artifacts to Greece for the first time, supporting Athens’ international repatriation efforts for its cultural heritage. This return marks a new milestone in cooperation between the two nations, which have also recently strengthened their energy and defence ties through a €3 billion air defence agreement. Click here
PACIFIC ISLANDS
Israel has become a Pacific Islands Forum partner and will now be able to participate in the Forum’s Sectoral Partnership Stream, contributing in the areas of “water management, desalination, agriculture, climate change adaptation, innovation and sustainable development.” Click here
MALAYSIA
Israeli players registered for the World Amateur Chess Championships in Malaysia have been excluded from the final competitor list, despite assurances from chess governing authorities to ensure their entry. Player Lior Aizenberg noted he was omitted even after signing up with a foreign passport, calling for the tournament to be relocated just as the International Paralympic Committee stripped Malaysia of hosting rights in 2019 due to its ban on Israeli athletes. Click here
Malaysia has banned its civil servants from using the navigation app Waze after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim cited security concerns regarding the application’s Israeli origins. Waze was acquired by Alphabet (owned by Google) in 2013. Click here
INNOVATION
Four Israeli tech companies have been named in this year’s annual list of Time magazine’s Best Inventions for 2026.
They are: SpotitEarly, which trains dogs to detect cancer-related scent signatures in human breath samples; Beewise, a developer of robotic beehives using AI; Bria AI, which helps artists earn royalties when their work is used as part of AI-generated content; and Aidoc, the developer of a clinical AI reasoning engine designed to analyze medical images and clinical data to identify urgent findings and prioritize cases in real time. Click here
MAGEN DAVID ADOM
American emergency medical professionals participating in Magen David Adom’s International Seminar praised Israel’s emergency medical system for its rapid response and organizational efficiency. Dr. Michael Block highlighted how swift transport directly to a catheterization lab saved a heart attack patient, while San Francisco Paramedic Captain Jeff Covitz marveled at MDA’s ability to deploy dozens of ambulances and clear mass-casualty scenes in under 15 minutes. Covitz also met MDA paramedics who managed casualties across multiple locations simultaneously during the October 7 attacks while active threats remained. Click here
MIKE TYSON
Fashion giant Supreme is facing backlash after replacing the Israeli flag with the Palestinian flag on a hoodie inspired by boxing legend Mike Tyson, without his knowledge or consent. His legal team threatened legal action, accusing Supreme of a serious contractual violation. Images of the item have now reportedly disappeared from promotional material. Click here Click here
THE STEINBECK FAMILY & ISRAEL
The popular Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden centres on the Hebrew concept of timshel (free will), a theme deeply tied to the author’s own family history in Ottoman Palestine. In 1853 Steinbeck’s grandfather helped establish Mount Hope (Har Hatikvah) near Jaffa—an atrocity committed by local Arabs is thought to have influenced the novel and eventually inspired the name of Tel Aviv’s Shechunat Hatikvah neighbourhood. Click here
THE DIPLOMAT
The fourth season of Netflix series “The Diplomat,” which premiered last week, included (hidden) tributes to the late Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and killed in captivity, and his friend Aner Shapira, who repelled Hamas grenades. Click here
MUSEUM
The Tel Aviv Fashion Museum, set to open in early 2027 in the Azrieli Sarona complex, aims to elevate fashion as a central form of cultural discourse in Israel while highlighting Israeli creativity. Click here
VIDEO
“I’m Black, Muslim, Bedouin and Zionist”
Tamer Masudin explains why he began speaking publicly after Oct. 7, why he sees Zionism as compatible with his own identity, and what growing up as a Black Bedouin in Israel actually looked like. Click here
SPORT
Israeli war veteran, Boris Shtonda, former soldier in the elite Duvdevan unit becomes the first Israeli amputee to complete the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii! He did so with a specially adapted prosthesis crossing the finish line in 16 hours and 33 minutes. Click here
Israeli climber Yoni Katz won the World Climbing series event in Salt Lake City.Click hereClick here
Itay Edri and Elvis Lulko both won their events at the (Kids) Lisbon international open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2026.Click hereClick here
COMMENT & OPINION
Remembrance Day Poppy
Nicole Lampert: It is no surprise that the same pro-Palestinian activists who desecrate war memorials and graffiti statues of Winston Churchill in red paint saying “Globalise the intifada” are now brandishing their own version of the Remembrance Day poppy… “ Palestinianism” has put little effort into creating its own symbols, preferring to appropriate others. It actively appropriates Jewish history to erase indigenous Jewish ties to the land. …. Thus Jesus, a Jewish man born in a Jewish town who preached in the Jewish capital Jerusalem, is now claimed as a Palestinian. Every Nativity, there are churches which swaddle a baby Jesus in a keffiyeh – in December 2024, Pope Francis inaugurated one… That the Palestine poppy was created by a British-Pakistani NHS doctor who appeared to defend the October 7 massacre as “armed resistance” illustrates how far the cult intends to appropriate and ruin the values the people the poppy symbolises fought for. (paywall) Article here
UN Bias
Dr Alice Jill Edwards: By failing to fully acknowledge the horrors perpetrated since October 7, the UN has abandoned neutrality.
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards described her visit to Israel’s Kfar Aza kibbutz, where witnessing the devastation and the anguish of hostages’ families led her to successfully advocate for designating hostage-taking as a form of psychological torture. She sharply criticizes fellow UN rapporteurs and leadership for displaying political bias, ignoring Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, and undermining the organization’s core principles of neutrality and independence. Highlighting structural flaws, limited budgets, and a lack of decisive leadership within the UN, Edwards emphasizes the urgent need for systemic reform to properly support victims of global conflicts. (paywall)Article here
French Riots
Brendan O’Neill: Why do so many commentators describe recent violent riots across France as mere “protests,” when gangs waving the Palestinian flag left whole boulevards devastated, set fire to historic municipal buildings, and fought police. The omnipresence of the Palestinian flag in these riots represents a broader hostility toward Western institutions and national identities rather than actual concern for Palestinians. The Palestinian cause has been turned into a symbol for burning down Western society, using hatred of Israel as a proxy for anti-Western sentiment. Article here
Gaza
Nicole Lampert: When you think about the dead children in Gaza, remember that Hamas and other terrorist organizations have been encouraging children to die for their futile cause for the past 20 years. Gaza’s educational system and cultural environment groom children for violence, evidenced by death notices from the past three years that display child fighters as young as 13 and 14 dressed in full military garb. Through radicalized schooling that encourages martyrdom and self-sacrifice, organizations like Hamas systematically condition young boys to pick up weapons and seek death for their cause. Decades of deliberate indoctrination have created generations trained as military-clad combatants rather than civilians, posing a fundamental barrier to peace. (paywall) Article here
*A longer piece by Micha Danzig follows at the end of this update. I found it impossible to summarise without losing many of the author’s well-made arguments.
Palestinian Authority (PA)
Khaled Abu Toameh: PA President Abbas postponed the Palestinian Legislative Council elections scheduled for November 2026 to September 2027, prompting Western nations to express regret and urge immediate voting. What leverage do these Western governments intend to use when Abbas ignores their demands? Despite opposition from 79% of Palestinians and having held no elections since 2006, the 91-year-old Abbas is entering his 22nd year in power as holding a vote now would likely strengthen Hamas. Rather than passive international statements, real support for the Palestinian people, now being held hostage by corrupt and self-serving leaders in all of their parties, is not just elections but reforms and serious international accountability. Article here
Meir Ben-Shabbat: A lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires “cognitive defeat,” convincing Palestinians that they cannot subdue Israel by force and that attempting to do so carries an unbearable cost. The Oslo Accords failed by teaching Palestinian leaders that pressure yields concessions, leading to decades of broken commitments, terrorist funding, and radicalized education by the PA. Article here
Turkey
Oded Ailam: Turkish President Erdogan’s recent rhetoric and public support for Hamas reflect a shift where hostility toward Israel has permeated Turkey’s broader political mainstream, moving the relationship beyond manageable diplomatic posturing. (Even) the secular, social-democratic CHP, Erdogan’s principal rival, demanded an end to trade with Israel.
Consequently, Israel must recognize Turkey as a formidable military threat seeking regional dominance and prepare for long-term confrontation rather than relying on future reconciliation.Article here
*If Gaza is “Genocide” what was Tokyo?
Micha Danzig: On March 9, 1945, close to 300 American B-29s bombed Japan under cover of darkness, dropping 1,665 tons of napalm incendiaries on Tokyo. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people died in a single night. More than 60 Japanese cities followed.
Yet almost nobody calls the firebombing of Japan “genocide,” and for good reason. Genocide requires intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group “as such.” America aimed to completely defeat a brutal regime that murdered millions of civilians across Asia. The clearest proof of intent came after the surrender. America occupied Japan, gave it a democratic constitution, fed its people and poured money into rebuilding it.
In Gaza, instead of fire, Israel used precision munitions. Instead of surprise, it warned civilians by leaflet, text message and phone call before strikes, and opened evacuation corridors. It moved food and medicine into the territory it was fighting in. It accepted losses no army in 1945 would have accepted to spare enemy civilians.
The law is clear about who bears responsibility when one side hides its war machine among civilians. The 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions forbids using civilians to shield military targets and requires each side to keep military objectives away from populated areas as much as possible. Hamas spent 16 years doing the reverse. The presence of civilians does not make a military target immune.
America burned dozens of Japanese cities to the ground and is remembered, correctly, as the nation that defeated a monstrous regime and helped rebuild its people into a free and prosperous ally. Israel faced a more entrenched version of the same problem, chose far greater restraint, and stands accused of “genocide.”
There is one more lesson from 1945: Japan became a free and peaceful nation only after its militarist regime was totally defeated, disarmed and replaced, and its schools stopped teaching children to die for the emperor. Nobody suggested leaving Japan’s rulers in place to rearm. Article here