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In First, Iranian Opposition Leader Addresses Israel’s Parliament, Urging Jewish State to ‘Attack Iran’s Leaders in Tehran’
Vahid Beheshti with MKs Sova and Tal, at the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus. Photo: Michael Katz
At a meeting of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, discussing the plans for a post-Hamas Gaza on Tuesday, an Iranian opposition leader told Israeli lawmakers that Israel should not hesitate to “attack the heads of the Iranian leadership” in Tehran itself.
The meeting of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus — which was attended by Vahid Beheshti and Israeli ministers, Knesset members, security officials, and diplomatic leaders — marked the first time an Iranian opposition figure has addressed Israel’s parliament.
Beheshti, who grew up in Iran but now resides in London, is known for his 72-day hunger strike calling for the UK government to categorize Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terror organization. At Tuesday’s meeting, which was jointly hosted with the Israeli Victory Project, Beheshti urged Israel to confront the Iranian government directly.
“Soon you will have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the Iranian government, and you should not be afraid of attacking Iranian bases in Iran. Do not be afraid to attack the heads of the Iranian leadership in Iran. This is the only language they understand,” he said.
Beheshti highlighted the support of “80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy” who have failed to overthrow the Islamist regime and its “barbaric violence.”
“If you support the Iranian people, you will see how they will lower the head of the octopus and we will all experience peace,” he said.
Beheshti claimed that the Iranian regime, which was the “weakest it’s been in 44 years,” miscalculated Israel’s response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 — of which he said it was “aware in advance” — expecting to achieve a “total” ceasefire within two months. Nearly three months have passed since the war broke out with the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel.
Iran is the main international sponsor of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with funds, arms, and training.
Beheshti’s comments came a day before a huge explosion killed more than 100 people at a ceremony in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman commemorating top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.
Beheshti denied claims by Iran’s state-run media that Israel was behind the attack.
“Those who are aware of the nature of the Iranian regime, know full well that today’s attack was an inside job, as Israel’s operations are always targeted,” he said on X/Twitter, citing various other attacks, including the downing of the Ukrainian plane, that he said proved Iran was willing to “sacrifice civilian lives for its own sinister goals.”
The people of Iran will not be fooled by the orchestrated attacks of the regime aimed at influencing public opinion.
Videos are being shared by Iran’s state media showing the victims of a “terrorist attack” at the burial site of Qassem Soleimani.
This is yet another attempt… pic.twitter.com/hw6Xooc71Y
— Vahid Beheshti (@Vahid_Beheshti) January 3, 2024
Co-Chairman of Tuesday’s caucus meeting MK Ohad Tal, a member of the Religious Zionist Party, emphasized the need for a strategic victory over Hamas, and proposed permanent Israeli control over the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas taught us that the time has come for a real and strategic victory,” he told The Algemeiner. “The goal of the war should be that the State of Israel controls the entire Gaza Strip, not temporarily, but permanently. Gaza is part of the State of Israel and should once again be in Israel’s hands.”
“This way our enemies will be fully aware that it is not worth their while to enter into a war with Israel, and it will restore deterrence and [Israel’s] political, military, and economic power,” he added.
Israel withdrew all Israeli soldiers and civilians from Gaza in 2005. Hamas has fully ruled the Palestinian enclave, from which it launched its Oct. 7 massacre, since 2007.
Zvika Hauser, former head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, presented a three-pronged plan for victory, including the expulsion of remaining Hamas members from Gaza, demilitarization of the area, and the creation of a buffer zone.
Yisrael Weiser — the father of Staff Sergeant Roey Weiser, who was killed on Oct. 7 — attended the meeting with his wife, Naomi. “This war must continue until the IDF’s complete victory over all the enemies that surround us. Anything less than that will not achieve the goal for which my son was killed. This must also be the last war. We must learn from our failures to be a deterrent for the future,” the grieving father said.
Israeli Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel outlined her plan for the voluntary resettlement of Gaza Strip residents, emphasizing the need for international support and an aid package for refugees. “The mobilization of the international community is required to create a pool of countries that will take in refugees while receiving an aid package for them,” Minister Gamliel stated.
Israeli media on Wednesday reported that officials are conducting clandestine talks with several countries to absorb Palestinians from Gaza on a humanitarian basis. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also advocated the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, and called on the international community to find solutions.
“Seventy percent of the Israeli public today supports a humanitarian solution of encouraging the voluntary immigration of Gazan Arabs and their absorption in other countries,” he said.
“They understand that a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where four minutes away from our towns and cities there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism where two million people wake up every morning with an aspiration for the destruction of the State of Israel and with a desire to slaughter and rape and murder Jews wherever they are,” he added.
The US State Department on Tuesday slammed Smotrich over the plan, calling his rhetoric “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
UN special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal on Wednesday said that the “forcible transfer” constituted an “act of genocide.”
The post In First, Iranian Opposition Leader Addresses Israel’s Parliament, Urging Jewish State to ‘Attack Iran’s Leaders in Tehran’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.