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The North’s Race Against Time
An Israeli soldier looks on at a scene, after it was reported that people were injured, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Arab al-Aramashe in northern Israel, April 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
JNS.org – Franz Kafka would feel right at home in northern Israel.
Life here has a surreal, absurdist character with the indivisible mix of the mundane and the potentially catastrophic. A quiet day has only a handful of rocket or drone attacks and we have become used to incessant plane noise and to looking up and around after a boom or two.
Israelis are resilient, but resilience is often the product of being able to maintain one’s routine and “normalcy” within one’s familiar surroundings.
Anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 people have been stripped of their surroundings and have become refugees in their own country. Schools, businesses, farms, communities, you name it, have all been eviscerated, gutted and functionally abandoned.
Like so much in this war, the real difficulty is less the sacrifices that have been made than the lack of clarity as to how much longer those sacrifices will be required. What would have to happen to enable residents to return home, and is there any sense of when that might be?
I think most residents know that this is not about them in the sense that they are being ignored or singled out for korban (sacrifice) treatment. But still, in the real world, there is great pain, disruption and alienation. Adults can articulate their pain and confusion but most children cannot and we do not know the accrued damage that this dislocation is causing to our youth.
Yes, the evacuees are being compensated. They have not organized or been weaponized by others with a political agenda that would exploit evacuee distress in the name of that agenda.
But we must know that we are corroding the spirit of people who love their country and bleed blue and white.
There is a real world price for the current state of affairs. There is extensive collateral damage being inflicted.
Our leaders—political, military and security—need to recognize that they are not just playing with battlefield strategies and tactics. Or rather, the battlefield is much more complicated than the field of combat.
What the residents ask, what those of us who relate to their plight ask, is that our leaders’ planning and strategy take into account the costs of not acting, as well as the possible implications of our actions.
This cannot be seen as happening in a vacuum. We recognize that military plans are multifaceted and have a range of considerations and pressures—external and otherwise—that have an impact on their formulation and implementation.
We on the Zionist right have no interest in second guessing or questioning the judgment of our leaders. We only ask that their planning takes significant account of the real implications of any plans or the lack thereof for the displaced residents.
Time is not on their side.
The post The North’s Race Against Time first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.
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Trump Urges NATO Countries to Halt Russian Oil Purchases
US President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: Jonathan Ernst via Reuters Connect
i24 News – US President Donald Trump issued a letter to NATO nations on Saturday, impressing upon them to stop purchasing Russian oil and impose major sanctions on the regime of Vladimir Putin to end its war in Ukraine.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA. As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” the message read.
“Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR. China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip.”
Trump’s post comes after the recent flight of multiple Russian drones into Poland, widely perceived an escalatory move by Russia as it was entering the airspace of a NATO ally. Poland intercepted the drones, yet Trump played down the severity of the incident and Russia’s motives by saying it “could have been a mistake.”
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Netanyahu Says Getting Rid of Hamas Chiefs in Qatar Would Remove Main Obstacle to Gaza Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the US Independence Day reception, known as the annual “Fourth of July” celebration, hosted by Newsmax, in Jerusalem, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that getting rid of Hamas chiefs living in Qatar would remove the main obstacle to releasing all hostages and ending the war in Gaza.
Israel on Tuesday targeted the Hamas leadership in Doha.