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Hamas to Stay Out of Gaza Truce Talks, Iran Considers Israel Attack
Hamas leader and Oct. 7 pogrom mastermind Yahya Sinwar addressing a rally in Gaza. Photo: Reuters/braheem Abu Mustafa
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, dimming hopes for a negotiated truce that Iranian sources say could hold back an Iranian attack on Israel.
The US has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar’s capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible. However Axios reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday.
Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month.
US President Joe Biden similarly said he expects Tehran to hold off attacking Israel if a Gaza ceasefire agreement is reached.
“That’s my expectation,” he replied when asked asked by reporters during a visit to New Orleans on Tuesday whether a deal could prevent Iran’s promised retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh. “We’ll see what Iran does and we’ll see what happens if there is any attack. But I’m not giving up [on reaching a ceasefire deal].”
The Israeli government said it would send a delegation to Thursday’s talks, but Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that controls Gaza, requested a workable plan to implement a proposal it has already accepted rather than more talks.
“Hamas is committed to the proposal presented to it on July 2, which is based on the UN Security Council resolution and the Biden speech and the movement is prepared to immediately begin discussion over a mechanism to implement it,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
“Going to new negotiation allows the occupation [Israel] to impose new conditions and employ the maze of negotiation to conduct more massacres,” he added.
There has been no let-up in fighting in Gaza, where residents of the southern city of Khan Younis said Israeli forces intensified tank shelling on eastern areas of the city center.
Israel said it was responding to Hamas rocket fire towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday and had struck rocket launching pads and terrorists among 40 military targets over 24 hours, including in central Gaza, Khan Younis, and western Rafah in the south.
Armed groups of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group in Gaza, said they had attacked Israeli forces in several areas, while Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 14 people so far on Wednesday, mostly in the center and south.
Hamas also said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, where Israel said it had killed a number of terrorists.
‘UNCERTAIN OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIPLOMACY’
A ceasefire deal would aim to end fighting in Gaza and ensure the release of Israeli hostages held in the enclave in return for many Palestinians jailed by Israel, but the two sides remain divided by sequencing and other issues.
Hamas wants an agreement to end the war and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a basic pre-condition for releasing hostages, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will only agree to a pause in fighting to allow as many hostages to return as possible. He has repeatedly said the war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
A Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people, with more than 250 taken into captivity in Gaza, in one of the most devastating blows against Israel in its history.
In response, Israeli forces have waged a military campaign in Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say the campaign has killed around 40,000 people, although experts have cast doubt on the reliability of such figures, which don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has lost more than 300 soldiers. Hamas rocket attacks on its territory have continued.
In an attempt to deter a separate escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, after the latter killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs last month, Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to Biden, landed in Beirut on Wednesday.
Hochstein will meet with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the armed Amal movement, which is allied to the Hezbollah terrorist group and has also fired rockets on Israel.
“We are facing uncertain opportunities for diplomacy, which is now moving to prevent war and stop Israeli aggression,” Mikati said in a speech ahead of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Mikati said talks with Arab and Western leaders had intensified due to the seriousness of the situation in Lebanon and the region.
The post Hamas to Stay Out of Gaza Truce Talks, Iran Considers Israel Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Striking Back: Iran Has Been at War with America for 46 Years

Aftermath of the bombing of the US Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, October 1983. (Photo: Screenshot)
President Donald Trump ran on a platform to end wars, including Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea. He offered Iran multiple opportunities to negotiate a better future.
If people didn’t want to eliminate the Houthi threat that affected our USCENTCOM allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, as well as Israel, that’s OK. If they insisted upfront that American “boots” didn’t belong anywhere in the region, that’s OK. If they didn’t want the US to cooperate with our CENTCOM partner, Israel, OK fine. That’s their opinion.
But if they thought the Iranian regime was not at war with the US, so there was no need to bother them in their pursuit of the destruction of Israel or spread of terrorism — or if they thought Iran’s unbridled nuclear weapons capability only threatened Israel — they are on another planet.
Ilhan Omar, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Hakeem Jeffries, Ed Markey, Amy Klobuchar, Antonio Guterrez, and more are all out of touch with reality and reason.
Think of it this way: Donald Trump just avenged more than 1,000 American service personnel killed, and thousands wounded and held hostage by Iran since the mullahs declared war on us in 1979.
Don’t forget them.
We are Iran’s “Great Satan” to Israel’s “Little Satan.”
“Student activists” in Tehran occupied the US embassy in 1979 and held Americans hostage for 444 days. The Americans were paraded through the streets blindfolded. Six managed to escape with the help of our Canadian allies — remember Argo?
In 1983, Iran bragged about the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 220 US Marines, 21 other US servicemembers, and 58 French soldiers.
Israel’s pager attack on Hezbollah in September 2024 eliminated the masterminds of the attack – who had been on the FBI Most Wanted list for 41 years.
In 1984, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured, and killed CIA Station Chief William Francis Buckley, whose identity they apparently learned from classified documents seized from the embassy in Tehran. Buckley was transferred to Iran and tortured there, before being returned to Lebanon.
In 1985, US Navy diver Robert Stethem was beaten and kicked to death before his body was dumped on the tarmac by Hezbollah in Beirut. In 1988, Hezbollah kidnapped Colonel William R. Higgins and tortured him for months. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson was presumed kidnapped by Iran in 2007 and killed; his body has not been recovered.
In 1996, an explosion at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia killed 19 American servicemembers.
In 2011, there was an Iranian plot to kill a Saudi diplomat in Washington, D.C., and to attack the Israeli and Saudi embassies. That year, too, Iran began to take steps to mine the Persian Gulf.
US Naval Intelligence shows Iranian warships have been in the Red Sea — where Iran has no border — since 2011. Part of Iran’s support for the Houthi rebellion in Yemen can be explained because it’s near the US Expeditionary Force base in Djibouti, close to the Straits of Hormuz. Iran provides missiles and training to the Houthis.
In 2012, chairman of the Iranian chiefs of staff, Hassan Firuzabadi, said, “We do have the plan to close the Strait of Hormuz, since a member of the military must plan for all scenarios.”
Iranian war games in 2015 were designed against American forces and included passing skills along to proxy forces. Beginning in 2016, swarms of Iranian fast boats harassed American ships and others in the Persian Gulf, engaging in what the commander of the US Central Command called “unsafe maneuvers.”
Iran captured American sailors and released video footage of them — a violation of their rights under the Geneva Convention.
In 2018, US intelligence revealed that Iran was responsible for more than 600 American military deaths in Iraq and thousands wounded by Iranian IEDs in Iraq. In 2024, three military contractors working in Jordan were killed in a drone attack and 40 others were injured. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, claimed responsibility.
If you still think the US is just fine; protected by two oceans and friendly neighbors, and doesn’t have to care about freedom of navigation, trade routes, oil exports, China, Russia, or North Korean missile and nuclear weapons capability, that’s OK, too.
Wait.
No, it isn’t.
Peace is always good; peace is always important. But real peace does not consist of “turning the other cheek” while your enemy gets stronger. It is the outgrowth of strong and measured American cooperation with regional partners — in Europe, in Asia and in the Middle East — to ensure that malevolent actors don’t have an opportunity to ruin the system of international travel and commerce or to impose their vision of “peace” on the unwilling. Or to commit genocide.
Ensuring that Iran does not have nuclear weapons is a crucial step in that direction. And avenging American servicemembers across countries and decades counts as well.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
The post Striking Back: Iran Has Been at War with America for 46 Years first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Supports Students Through Plan to Dismantle Department of Education

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon smiles during the signing event for an executive order to shut down the Department of Education next to US President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
My parents were born in the Soviet Union, where antisemitism was not only tolerated — it was enforced.
They grew up in a system that erased Jewish identity, restricted Jewish education, and shut Jews out of opportunities. My father didn’t even know he was Jewish until he was seven years old, because acknowledging that fact could have endangered his family.
When my parents immigrated to the United States, they had no money, spoke no English, and had no connections. What they did have was hope — hope that in America, their children would be free to live as Jews without fear. They believed this country would offer what the USSR never could: freedom of religion, opportunity through education, and protection under the law. That promise now feels under threat.
As a Jewish student preparing for college, I see antisemitism growing in plain sight — particularly on college campuses. And the very institutions that are supposed to keep students safe, inclusive, and informed are failing. Among them is the US Department of Education. With over 4,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $80 billion, it has proven largely unable — or unwilling — to address the rising hatred directed at Jewish students.
President Trump’s decision to eliminate the Department of Education is not simply justified — it is needed. The Department has become a bloated bureaucracy that fails to serve students, wastes public resources, and actively promotes policies that marginalize people like me.
A major part of the Department’s role under the Biden administration was enforcing and promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) frameworks. While these programs claim to protect vulnerable groups, they have frequently excluded Jews.
A 2023 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey found that 55% of Jewish students felt DEI policies ignored or diminished their concerns. Jews are too often viewed as “privileged” and therefore excluded from the very protections afforded to others. This is not inclusion — it is erasure.
Until last year, these DEI-driven admissions policies even worked against Jewish applicants. Colleges, under the disguise of achieving “equity,” could penalize students for their ethnic and religious background. It took a Supreme Court ruling to stop this. The Department of Education, meanwhile, allowed it to happen for years.
President Trump’s current efforts to dismantle DEI programs are necessary, but as long as the Department of Education exists, these policies could be revived under future administrations. Eliminating the Department altogether is the only way to end the cycle and protect Jewish students long-term.
The Department has also failed in one of its most basic responsibilities — protecting students from discrimination. Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, antisemitism on college campuses has surged by over 700%, according to the ADL. Jewish students have been harassed, threatened, and physically assaulted. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits such discrimination in federally funded institutions. Yet the Department of Education has done little more than issue vague statements. No meaningful enforcement and no consequences.
President Trump, in contrast, has acted. His administration withdrew $2.2 billion in Federal funding from Harvard and $400 million from Columbia University due to their failure to protect Jewish students. These measures had immediate impact — protests that had turned hostile and violent were shut down, and schools implemented stronger safety policies.
This is not the first time President Trump has taken meaningful action to protect Jewish students. In his first term, Trump expanded Title VI to include antisemitism as a protected class under Federal civil rights law. That was a historic move — one the Department should have made long ago. Instead, it remained inactive while anti-Jewish hate festered.
Beyond civil rights, the Department has proven ineffective in advancing education itself. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found that only 10% of its staff contribute to direct classroom support. The remaining 90% are engaged in regulatory compliance and administrative functions — layers of bureaucracy that cost billions and deliver little.
One area where this failure is especially dangerous is Holocaust education. Only 18 states require it in public schools, and even where it is required, the instruction is often shallow or optional. A 2020 Claims Conference survey revealed that 63% of young Americans did not know six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and over one-third believed the death toll was exaggerated. This ignorance enables dangerous ideas to spread, and the Department of Education has done little to correct it.
Eliminating the Department of Education would free states to design education systems that meet the real needs of their students — systems with meaningful education, fair admissions, and real protections for Jewish students.
Gregory Lyakhov is the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. He is a columnist for both Townhall Media and Newsmax, where his bold commentary has earned national recognition. His writing regularly appears in major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and several prominent Jewish outlets.
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The 5 Biggest Miscalculations the Iranian Regime Made

FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber takes off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam January 11, 2018. Picture taken January 11, 2018. U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Gerald Willis/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran surprised some. Here are the five main miscalculations the Iranian regime made that led to this point. The Iranian regime has seen its miscalculations surface in layers, like the peeling of an onion. Though no one can predict the future and some things remain unclear, it is important to examine five mistakes.
1. Iran’s leaders thought Trump was bluffing and wouldn’t attack directly.
President Trump was not lying when he said he didn’t want to start new wars. Perhaps military action could have been prevented if Iran’s leaders offered inspections, negotiated in good faith, and were ready to seriously constrict uranium enrichment.
Many news reports and podcasts made the regime think the isolationist wing of Trump’s power base had his ear, and the public would fear attacks on US servicemen in the region so much it would be too costly to attack. Trump did kill General Qassem Soleimani in his first term, but he didn’t go further. The stealth B-2 bombers that dropped the huge bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities cost more than $2 billion each, and the regime may have thought Trump would be risk averse to seeing them shot down. While it is extremely difficult to take down B-2 planes, seeing that no Israeli planes were shot down and Iran’s defenses were weakened likely emboldened Trump.
2. Iran’s leaders thought proxies and “allies” would make them bulletproof.
With the well-armed Hezbollah, the Houthis disrupting shipping routes, Hamas in Gaza, and Iranian proxy forces in Syria, Tehran thought Israel and the US would be too scared to attack it directly.
Iran never imagined Hezbollah’s power would be reduced so quickly, it did not expect the Syrian government to fall in the way that it did, and it did not expect to see Hamas and the Houthis so weakened. The Iranian regime, which assisted Russia in its war against Ukraine with drones, and provides a huge amount of oil to China, also imagined the potential threat of Russia or China coming to its aid might scare off any significant attack. There remains a possibility that China, North Korea, or Russia could get involved militarily — but it is unlikely. More likely the Houthis will resume firing missiles.
3. Iran misunderstood the larger ramifications of the attacks of October 7.
Seeing great schisms in Israel over the judicial reform issue, Iran hoped Israel would implode after October 7 — or at the very least, see the ousting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran likely believed that the information and PR campaign against Israel — falsely calling it a genocidal entity — would weaken it and make Israel too afraid to make bold moves. Instead, it made the Israeli public united on the need to take the threat of Iran seriously and be more proactive.
4. Iran underestimated the Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel’s security services.
It was a huge blow that Israel, said to have the best security services in the world, did not know Hamas was going to attack when it did on October 7, 2023.
But for the Mossad to be able to not only kill numerous Iranian generals at the same time, but deploy drones and other equipment on Iranian soil likely took the regime (and the level of infiltration Israel has achieved) by surprise. Iran not only underestimated the Mossad’s ability, but it likely didn’t understand its brutality against its citizens would allow the Mossad to get Iranian assets so consistently on the ground.
5. Iran though Israel’s muted response in 2024 meant it would not be more aggressive.
In April and October of 2024, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel. The Jewish State responded by weakening Iran’s air defenses, but it did not go after any major installations. It is quite possible that the regime felt that since Israel did not become more aggressive, it was a sign that the Jewish State wouldn’t risk a major direct attack. But as we’ve seen, they were very, very wrong.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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