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  • Hamas Is No Longer Just Fundraising in Europe. It Was Arming.

    Hamas Is No Longer Just Fundraising in Europe. It Was Arming.

    By David Nataf — October 6, 2026

    Prosecutors say an alleged Hamas network dismantled last year had amassed 13 pistols, a fully automatic rifle and 718 rounds of ammunition, and that one suspect had already recorded a video claiming responsibility for an attack. A joint investigation by Der Spiegel and Der Standard now places the Jewish Museum Vienna and the Austrian-Israeli Society among the possible targets. Hamas denies any link. On the eve of October 7, Europe has to stop filing Hamas under activism and start treating it as what it is: a terrorist organization operating on its soil.

    The targets

    According to the investigation, reported by Ynetnews on Monday, the network was preparing attacks in Europe around the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre. It remains unclear precisely what was planned for that date, who would have carried it out or which site would ultimately have been hit. But Der Standard reported that the Jewish Museum Vienna and the Austrian-Israeli Society were among the sites investigators considered possible targets.

    The details are chilling. Five HS-9 pistols were allegedly hidden for weeks in a self-storage facility in Vienna’s seventh district, rented under a false name and located roughly 1.5 to 2 kilometers from several Jewish and Israeli institutions, close to major public transport routes. The pistols sat in a suitcase lined with a thick layer of aluminum foil, alongside gun-cleaning oil and lubricant. Investigators read those items as a sign that this was not an emergency stockpile but a set of firearms being maintained for use.

    The arsenal

    German federal prosecutors last month indicted seven suspected Hamas members. They say the network obtained 13 pistols, a fully automatic rifle and 718 rounds of ammunition through two separate procurement operations, with Israeli representatives, Jews and people seen as supportive of Israel as intended targets.

    In the first, the five HS-9 pistols traveled by train from Copenhagen to Berlin in late July 2025 and were then passed, through an intermediary, to Mohammed Naim, who allegedly carried them to Vienna. In the second, a suspect identified as Borhan El-K. allegedly collected a fully automatic rifle, eight Glock pistols and more than 600 rounds in Germany in August 2025; the weapons were apparently meant to be hidden in Leipzig.

    German police moved first. On October 1, 2025, six days before the anniversary, they arrested three suspects during a weapons transfer. Further arrests followed in Britain, Denmark, Cyprus and elsewhere. Nine people have been arrested in all; the suspects hold German, Danish, Bulgarian and Lebanese citizenship. The seven defendants face charges including membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparing a serious act of violence threatening state security. The Berlin higher regional court must still decide whether to open a trial, and the defendants are presumed innocent until a verdict.

    A video, and a father in the politburo

    Late on August 7, 2025, investigators say, Mohammed Naim filmed himself in a rented room in Vienna’s Favoriten district, his face covered and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, with two pistols on the table in front of him. In the 4-minute, 32-second recording he allegedly vowed revenge on Israel, warned that “blood will be spilled” and said the “armed resistance” would send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “message in blood.”

    His father is Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau and a former Gaza health minister. According to Der Spiegel and Der Standard, the two allegedly discussed plans for attacks in Vienna or Germany on Telegram. The elder Naim has publicly condemned attacks targeting Jews in Europe and the United States. Hamas has denied links to the suspects.

    From fundraising to firepower

    For years, as Ynetnews notes, European security officials viewed the continent primarily as a base for Hamas fundraising, political activity and logistical support rather than a theater for attacks. That assumption is now untenable. Investigators have linked Hamas operatives to a weapons cache established in Bulgaria as early as 2019, and to another network that tried to locate weapons depots in Europe in 2023; four of its members were convicted in Berlin this year. A study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point concluded that Hamas had spent years building weapons caches in Europe.

    In last year’s case, prosecutors allege, the preparations went much further: weapons ready for use, firearms and ammunition moving across several countries, targets under consideration and a claim of responsibility already on video.

    It is also worth recalling who raised the alarm. According to Der Spiegel and Der Standard, Israel’s Mossad gave Germany’s domestic intelligence service information in June 2025 indicating that terrorism suspects were involved in weapons transactions in Germany. Israeli intelligence helped protect Jewish lives in Vienna and Berlin. Europe’s gratitude should take the form of action.

    Israel braces. Europe must act

    In Jerusalem, nobody is waiting. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that he had put the military on high alert ahead of the anniversary, “in light of intelligence regarding Hamas’s intentions to attempt to carry out attacks and terror operations against our forces in Gaza on that day,” according to AFP, as reported by Arab News. On Monday, at a state ceremony marking three years since the attack, Netanyahu said there would be “no Hamas rule in Gaza.”

    The organization that murdered 1,221 people on October 7, by an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, and dragged 251 hostages into Gaza, is the same organization whose operatives prosecutors say were stockpiling pistols near Jewish institutions in Vienna. There is no wall between the two.

    Europe should draw the obvious conclusions. Hamas networks must be investigated and prosecuted as terrorism, not tolerated as a branch of political activism. Their financing and their front structures must be dismantled with the same rigor applied to any other jihadist group. Intelligence sharing with Israel, which has already proved its worth, must deepen. And Jewish museums, schools and synagogues across the continent must be protected as what they now are: potential targets.

    Three years after October 7, the question is no longer whether Hamas intends to strike in Europe. Prosecutors say its operatives had already brought the guns.

    Sources

  • The Pilot Israel Already Knew About: Flydubai Attack Exposes a Gap in Israel’s Air Defenses on the Ground

    The Pilot Israel Already Knew About: Flydubai Attack Exposes a Gap in Israel’s Air Defenses on the Ground

    By David Nataf — October 7, 2026

    The Omani co-pilot’s passport details reached an Israeli database before takeoff. No agency checked them. A closed Knesset hearing now reportedly shows he was one of about 1,240 aircrew from countries without diplomatic ties to Israel who entered the country. Israel, the target of the attack, is now moving to close the gap.

    A week after the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attacked his captain on the way from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel’s main question is why nobody on the ground stopped him from boarding.

    What happened on FZ1073

    According to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry, a preliminary investigation found that “the pilot was assaulted by his co-pilot, resulting in various injuries to both.” The Boeing 737 MAX diverted to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk. It landed safely at 9:45 a.m. local time with 174 passengers and eight crew on board.

    On October 3, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigators had found that the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack.” In a statement carried by the state news agency WAM, he said the co-pilot struck Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with the cockpit crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft. Reuters, the Associated Press and the BBC have named the co-pilot as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national. UAE authorities have not confirmed his identity.

    The plane was saved in the cabin. Although badly wounded, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers, almost all of them Israelis, rushed in and overpowered the attacker, according to the Times of Israel and the BBC. Flydubai says an “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight” then diverted the aircraft and landed it.

    A rule that existed only on paper

    Under its agreement to operate in Israel, flydubai was required to staff Israel-bound flights only with pilots from countries that have relations with Israel, the Jerusalem Post and Ynet report. Oman has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

    But Israel had the information it needed. A 2023 law requires every airline flying to Israel to send passenger and crew data in advance, including names, citizenship and passport details. The data goes to the National Passenger Data Analysis Center, which operates under the Israel Tax Authority. The Tax Authority has confirmed that the center received the full FZ1073 list, including the crew, before the flight, Globes and Ynet report.

    Nobody acted on it. According to several senior officials quoted by Ynet, the Transportation Ministry’s security division had not retrieved crew data on foreign flights for about two years. Citing the Wall Street Journal, Walla reported that the ministry had never requested the lists at all.

    Each agency now says the job belonged to someone else. Transportation Minister Miri Regev told Kan that the Mossad is responsible for foreign carriers and that the list “was not transferred to us.” Her ministry’s security division says it is “not an intelligence agency.” Ynet reports that the Mossad also says it did not receive the list. A security official told Walla that the Mossad does not screen crew lists on every foreign flight. Asked how many pilots from hostile countries had landed in Israel, the Civil Aviation Authority told reporters: “We estimate there were none. But we have no certainty.”

    Help had been offered. Army Radio reported on October 6, citing three sources and as relayed by the Times of Israel, that in 2025 the ministry turned down a proposal by the Shin Bet and the National Security Council to place a Shin Bet official inside it to help assess the risks of foreign flights. According to the same report, the ministry received extra funding and 10 new positions for its security division in the 2026 budget but has not filled them. The ministry says it asked for more funding and has yet to receive it from the Finance Ministry.

    1,240 crew members

    That uncertainty now has a number. On October 6, the Knesset’s Subcommittee for Intelligence and Secret Services met behind closed doors. The subcommittee belongs to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and is chaired by MK Boaz Bismuth. According to i24NEWS, Ynet and Channel 14, as relayed by Strana.co.il, members were told that about 1,240 aircrew from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel had entered the country. The group reportedly includes citizens of Oman, as well as Syria and Lebanon, which Israel classifies as enemy states. Kan and N12 reported a figure of “more than 1,200.”

    The figure comes from a classified session and has not been published officially. Reports differ on the period it covers: “since the beginning of the year” (Channel 14, Kan), “over the past year” (Ynet, Times of Israel) or “in recent years” (i24NEWS). According to i24NEWS, the Transportation Ministry’s representative was “stunned” and did not know the numbers.

    Holding a passport from such a country proves nothing about any individual. Still, an aviation security system is supposed to flag passport details like these before a flight takes off.

    Bismuth wrote on X after the session: “The face of civil aviation in Israel will change from today.”

    The fixes on the table

    According to Ynet, the subcommittee asked the National Security Council to draw up, with the Mossad and the Shin Bet, a list of high-threat countries. Crew lists from those countries would be submitted 48 hours before flights to Israel for approval by the security services. In a letter to NSC head Samuel Benezra, Regev also proposed a 48-hour advance clearance for all passengers and crew on inbound flights. Ynet notes that the Transportation Ministry’s security division had raised some of these measures in an NSC-led forum before, and they were rejected.

    Diplomacy continues alongside the reforms. Flydubai’s Israel flights remain suspended “at the request of the authorities,” the airline says. Channel 13 reported on October 6, as relayed by the Times of Israel, that flydubai has asked for permission to resume its Israel flights, saying its investigation was concluding and many employees had been fired; Regev has so far declined. Regev has met UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, who said on X that they discussed “strengthening preparedness.” According to Ynet, the talks covered resuming flydubai service, and Regev demanded security arrangements for Israeli carriers in the UAE. JDN, as cited by Strana.co.il, reported that a joint Transportation Ministry and security delegation will travel to Dubai next week; Channel 13 reports that Transportation Ministry officials have been invited to tour Dubai next week.

    The UAE has named the attack for what it is and is prosecuting it, a sign of the Abraham Accords’ strength. But Israel cannot hand its first line of defense to a foreign airline’s paperwork. When a law has already put a pilot’s passport in Israel’s database before takeoff, someone in Israel has to read it.

    Read also on El-Ya: Flydubai: the Gulf passed the crew list to Israel. That is what peace looks like (October 5, 2026).

    Frequently asked questions

    What happened on flydubai flight FZ1073?

    On September 30, 2026, the co-pilot of the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight struck Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft, according to UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, who said the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack.” Passengers, almost all of them Israelis, overpowered him, according to the Times of Israel and the BBC, and the plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

    Did Israel have the co-pilot’s details before takeoff?

    Yes. Under a 2023 law, the full FZ1073 passenger and crew list, including passport details, reached the National Passenger Data Analysis Center before the flight, the Israel Tax Authority confirmed, according to Globes and Ynet. No agency acted on it.

    How many aircrew from countries without ties to Israel have entered the country?

    About 1,240, according to i24NEWS, Ynet and Channel 14, which reported on a closed session of a Knesset subcommittee on October 6. The figure has not been published officially, and reports differ on the period it covers.

    What is Israel doing to close the gap?

    According to Ynet, the Knesset subcommittee asked the National Security Council to draw up, with the Mossad and the Shin Bet, a list of high-threat countries whose crew lists would be submitted 48 hours before flights for approval. Transportation Minister Miri Regev has proposed a 48-hour advance clearance for all passengers and crew on inbound flights. Flydubai’s Israel flights remain suspended.

    Sources

  • Flydubai: the Gulf passed the crew list to Israel. That is what peace looks like

    Flydubai: the Gulf passed the crew list to Israel. That is what peace looks like

    By Patrick Lancier — October 5, 2026

    Before last Wednesday’s Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, the United Arab Emirates had already handed Israel the list of everyone on board, crew included, with names and nationalities. The co-pilot’s attack on the cockpit exposed security gaps that Israel is now moving to close. It also showed a Gulf partner treating Israel’s security as a shared responsibility. That is what peace looks like.

    What happened on board

    The UAE, which is leading the investigation, said the co-pilot attacked the flight’s captain with the cockpit’s crash ax and tried to take control of the plummeting plane in what it called a “terrorist attack” on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press report published by The Washington Post, his actions nearly crashed the flight, with 182 people on board, before the Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and others to rush in and subdue the attacker.

    The passengers who halted the attack and helped regain control of the aircraft have been hailed as heroes in Israel.

    Officials have said the co-pilot, an Omani national, had been barred from flying by his own country because of concerns about his extremist views. It remains unclear how a citizen of Oman, an Arab country that has no diplomatic relations with Israel, was allowed to fly a planeload of Israelis to Tel Aviv.

    The list was shared

    Regional officials said on Sunday that Emirati authorities had shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of the flight, including their nationalities. Israel had not raised red flags on any passenger or crew member, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Sharing the list is standard aviation procedure. Inside Israel, responsibility for vetting it has become a matter of dispute. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, said the Transportation Ministry is responsible for vetting passenger lists from foreign flights. Transportation Minister Miri Regev said on X that the security agencies are responsible for flight security and that her ministry was not given a list of passengers or any warnings. The head of aviation security at the ministry, Dvir Rubenstien, told Army Radio that it relies on local security checks and does not have the tools to run checks on each passenger on every flight.

    A crown prince at the captain’s bedside

    On Friday, Oct. 2, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited the injured Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, at a hospital in Abu Dhabi, in a visit documented by the Government of Dubai Media Office.

    An Emirati carrier, an Emirati investigation, an Emirati description of the attack as terrorism and an Emirati leader at the bedside of the man who saved a plane full of Israelis: none of this was guaranteed a few years ago.

    Netanyahu orders a full review

    On Sunday, four days after the attempt to crash the plane was thwarted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered National Security Council chief Shmuel Ben Ezra to appoint an examiner to conduct a thorough review of all security aspects of foreign civilian aviation to Israel, Haaretz reported. The AP quoted the mandate as a review of “all security aspects regarding foreign civil aviation to Israel.”

    Netanyahu had said on Thursday that Israel has long-standing agreements with foreign carriers to keep pilots from flying into the country if they are citizens of nations that do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. With elections due at the end of the month, opposition figures have seized on the failures. Yair Golan, head of the opposition Democrats party, wrote on X: “This is exactly what system collapse looks like.”

    Why the Accords held

    The lesson of this flight runs opposite to what Israel’s enemies would wish. The danger came from a country with no ties to Israel. The country that does have ties shared its data before take-off, called the attack terrorism and sent its crown prince to the hospital.

    Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University, told the AP that there are “huge limitations on doing background checks in any case, especially in cross-border checks.” That is precisely the argument for deeper cooperation between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners, not less. The examiner’s review should fix what failed in Israel’s own vetting. The partnership with the Emiratis that made the list available in the first place is the part that worked.

    Sources

  • Greens’ “Zionism Is Racism” Vote: What Westminster, Investors and Europe’s Left Should Read Into Brighton

    Greens’ “Zionism Is Racism” Vote: What Westminster, Investors and Europe’s Left Should Read Into Brighton

    The greenwashing of memory

    By Patrick Lancier

    Brighton / London, 4–5 October 2026. A party that holds five of 650 seats and polls 11% has written “anti-Zionist” into its policy book, by 1,022 votes to 813 — a margin of 209, with about 44% of voters against. The vote matters less for Westminster arithmetic than for what it reveals: an activist membership outvoting its own MPs. B’nai B’rith Portugal was among the first Jewish organisations to react, in a statement dated 4 October 2026 in Porto, signed by its president Gabriela Cantergi and its vice-president David Nataf, which calls on British political parties to reject the resolution.

    Three layers, three sources

    Precision protects the argument. The motion text does not contain “armed struggle” or “from the river to the sea”; the Israeli Foreign Ministry describes the resolution as “legitimising armed struggle”. The motion speaks of “all available means under international law”; it is the booklet issued with it (PDF) that spells out “armed struggle”.

    Layer What it says
    The motion Greens declare themselves “an anti-Zionist party”; Zionism is “fundamentally incompatible with anti-racist principles”; liberation “by all available means under international law is legitimate”; BDS and “full embargoes and sanctions”; release of prisoners including Marwan Barghouti; removal of Palestine Action from the proscribed list.
    The booklet UN resolutions recognise “struggling by all available means, including armed struggle”; Palestinians’ “resort to the use of force … is lawful”. It never mentions Hamas, 7 October or hostages.
    The lead author Lubna Speitan ends the foreword “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea!” and writes of “the monstrous State”.

    Westminster’s answer

    Labour chair Bridget Phillipson: it is “shameful to vote against a two-state solution … and to condemn the vast majority of British Jews and Jews around the world as racist”. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp: “British Jews should not have to disclaim a belief in Jewish self-determination … to be accepted by a British political party” (The Independent). The Board of Deputies called the Greens “an extremist party”.

    “The motion passed by the Green Party today is an attack on the Jewish community. It is an antisemitic platform, based on a grossly offensive distortion and erasure of Jewish experience and identity.”

    — Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies), 4 October 2026 (post on X)

    B’nai B’rith Portugal was among the first Jewish organisations to react, in a statement dated 4 October 2026 in Porto, signed by its president Gabriela Cantergi and its vice-president David Nataf, which calls on British political parties to reject the resolution.

    The next day, Antwerp’s JID (Michel Kotek, Ralph Pais) strongly condemned the vote and called on the Green Party to reverse it, warning that party-backed antizionism risks isolating Jews (stopantisemitisme.be).

    Inside the Greens, Caroline Lucas warned of “so many Jewish members feeling scared and unwelcome”; deputy leader Mothin Ali said he was “absolutely not” calling Zionist Jews racist (BBC). Polanski, who had wanted amendments, has said: “If your Zionism is the displacement of the Palestinian people then that is clearly racist”. His amendments were rejected.

    Investors: signal, not substance

    Nothing in the motion changes UK law. It “calls upon the United Kingdom Government to impose full embargoes and sanctions against Israel”; Labour’s chair and equalities minister called the vote “fundamentally wrong”. Under Green rules, motions become party policy but need not appear in a manifesto (BBC). We cite no price move because none is sourced.

    The real variable is political. YouGov put the Greens at 11%, “joint-lowest” of its tracker this year. On Thursday Polanski contests the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, where, the Jewish Chronicle reports, he is polling second to Labour. The motion also urges elected Greens toward “ending any investments in Israel” — a boycott agenda to watch at council level, not yet a market fact.

    A radicalising European left?

    The numbers suggest a gap between base and representatives. The Jewish Chronicle reports membership rising from 68,000 to 230,000 under Polanski, so 1,022 votes are under 0.5% of members. Jewish News reports that observers from the wider European Greens movement were said to be “deeply concerned”. The UN has been here: it voted “Zionism is racism” in 1975 (72–35–32) and revoked it in 1991 (111–25–13); in 2004 Kofi Annan called the 1975 text “an especially unfortunate decision” (UN).

    What it means for El-Ya readers

    • UK politics: the Greens now own a position Labour and the Conservatives both condemn; Thursday’s by-election is Polanski’s next electoral test.
    • Markets: no documented effect; watch embargo and divestment rhetoric, not the vote count.
    • Europe: “Zionism” is becoming a party-membership litmus test on the left — a trend to track, not to exaggerate.

    Brighton is not alone: the nurses’ college drops Teva

    The same weekend, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ended its commercial partnership with Teva UK, the British subsidiary of the Israeli pharmaceutical group, after a campaign by Nurses for Palestine and UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges, according to The Guardian as reported by IsraJ. Teva will no longer sponsor the RCN’s nursing leadership summit on migraine and headache services, set for 30 October 2026 at the college’s London headquarters; the event will go ahead without it. The activists claimed their open letter showed Teva UK was linked to the Israeli army, and hailed the decision as a breakthrough for the BDS movement. Teva UK said it was disappointed, wanted to keep talking to the college, and warned that healthcare works best when it focuses on patients and is not politicised. Teva UK is one of the largest suppliers of medicines to the NHS; nothing so far suggests that NHS supplies are affected. This is not an anecdotal boycott of olive oil from the E1 area: Teva, founded in Jerusalem in 1901, is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical groups and generic-medicine makers, the author of hundreds of patents, and its everyday medicines are part of daily healthcare around the world. Targeting Teva means targeting patients.

    A party conference one day, a royal nursing college the next: perfidious Albion has once again chosen the about-face and betrayal, and has stepped squarely into the camp of the enemies of Israel and of the Jewish people.

    Another face of the same duplicity: Britain granted asylum and then citizenship to a former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, before the man — identified only as “Mr X” for legal reasons — was accused of co-ordinating, from England, a plot for antisemitic attacks on Jewish community centres, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel demonstrations in Europe, according to a Sunday Times investigation (also reported by Jewish News). Arrested in London in November 2025, he faces extradition to Germany. Shelter the guard of a Hamas chief while, in the same Albion, a “Zionism is racism” motion and the boycott of an Israeli drugmaker flourish: duplicity no longer improvises — it stacks.

    FAQ

    What exactly did the Green Party adopt on 4 October 2026?

    A members’ motion, passed 1,022 to 813 in Brighton, declaring the party “anti-Zionist”, committing it to treat Zionism “as any other form of racism”, and backing “a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital” (The Independent).

    Is the Green Party’s “Zionism is racism” policy a market-moving event?

    No market reaction is documented in the sources reviewed. The Greens hold five of 650 Commons seats and polled 11% in YouGov’s 27–28 September survey; a conference motion is party policy, not legislation, and need not enter a manifesto.

    Which parties condemned the vote?

    Labour’s chair Bridget Phillipson called it “fundamentally wrong”; the Conservatives called the Greens “toxic to its core”; the Liberal Democrats’ Luke Taylor called it “divisive” (BBC, Telegraph).

    Does the motion itself say “armed struggle” or “from the river to the sea”?

    No. Those words are in the accompanying Greens for Palestine booklet. The motion says the liberation struggle “by all available means under international law is legitimate”.

    Sources

  • Jerusalem, Israel: Excluded from AI Marketing

    Jerusalem, Israel: Excluded from AI Marketing

    By Patrick Lancier

    A test of OpenAI’s Ads Manager beta on 29 September 2026: the capital of Israel cannot be found under its own name, while Haifa and Tel Aviv appear under theirs.

    ChatGPT’s advertising tool: “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”

    Type the name of Israel’s capital into OpenAI’s new advertising tool, and the first place it offers is “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”. Next come Ohio, in the United States, and then Arkansas. Jerusalem, Israel never appears, unless the advertiser already knows how to spell its Hebrew name in Latin letters: “Yerushalayim”.

    That is the outcome of a test carried out on 29 September 2026, in OpenAI’s Ads Manager, which is still in beta. The testers have no connection with OpenAI. What follows describes only what the screen displayed that day: no AI marketing for the people of Jerusalem.

    What the tool returns

    Entering “Jerusalem” in the location field of a new campaign produces “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”, listed as a region. Two American postcodes follow, for towns named Jerusalem in Ohio and Arkansas. No suggestion points to Jerusalem in Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusalem" lists "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Regions), then postal codes 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio, United States) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas, United States). No suggestion for Jerusalem, Israel.
    Computer, 29 September 2026: “jerusalem” returns “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”, then Ohio and Arkansas.

    The result is the same on a phone and on a computer.

    iPhone screenshot at 09:49 of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta) with the interface in French. "Israël" and "Tel-Aviv, Israel" are already selected. Typing "jerusalem" suggests "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Régions), then postal codes 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas).
    Phone, 29 September 2026, 09:49 (interface in French): the same result.

    Typing just “jerusa” already puts the Palestinian entry first. Adding the French accent, “jérusalem”, changes nothing on the computer.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusa" lists "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Regions), then postal codes 6551 (Jerusalimovo, Bulgaria), 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio, United States) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas, United States).
    “jerusa” already puts “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of” first.

    Adding “israel” does not help: “jerusalem israel” returns “No locations found”. The Hebrew name of the city fares no better.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusalem israel" displays "No locations found".
    “jerusalem israel” returns “No locations found”.

    The only route the testers found is the transliteration “Yerushalayim”, which returns “Yerushalayim, Israel”, a region that can be selected. The same entry also appears among the regions listed under Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "yerushalayim" displays "Yerushalayim, Israel" (Regions).
    The transliteration “yerushalayim” returns “Yerushalayim, Israel”.

    This is not a general failure affecting Israeli cities

    Haifa and Tel Aviv appear in Israel under their usual names. “haif” offers “Haifa, Israel”; “tel aviv” offers “Tel-Aviv, Israel”. Of the Israeli cities tested, the capital is the one that cannot be found under its own name in Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "haif" lists "Haifa, Israel" (Regions), then a postal code in Japan (859-5531, Haifukucho).
    “haif” returns “Haifa, Israel”.
    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "tel aviv" displays "Tel-Aviv, Israel" (Regions).
    “tel aviv” returns “Tel-Aviv, Israel”.

    Arabic names do not close the gap. “Al Quds”, “Al-Quds”, “Quds”, the Arabic spelling, “east jerusalem” and “jerusalem palestine” all return “No locations found”. The common name leads to Palestine; the other names lead nowhere.

    Postcodes do not fix it

    The testers also checked whether Jerusalem’s postcodes worked. The Israeli postcodes for Jerusalem that they tried, for example 9100000, return no location: “No locations found”.

    What this means for Israeli business in Jerusalem

    This is not an abstract quarrel over a name. Local advertising exists so that a business can reach the people who live near it. Israeli economic life in Jerusalem includes not only the Knesset, the President’s residence and the Supreme Court, but also neighbourhood shops, traders, start-ups and independent professionals.

    Under the common name “Jerusalem”, that activity cannot be targeted in this tool, because the name resolves to Palestine. The advertiser is left with two options. Either they know the Hebrew name in Latin letters, which many will not, or they select the whole of Israel. The tool states that a campaign is shown only in the chosen locations, so the advertisement then runs far beyond the advertiser’s own city. A clinic in Jerusalem faces a choice that a clinic in Haifa or Tel Aviv does not.

    In practice, these businesses are denied localised advertising under the name of their own city. No figure is offered here for the extent of that effect. The finding is precise: what the tool displayed on one day, in a beta version.

    The effect is visible on the screen. The tool does not treat Israeli city names in the same way: two of them appear under their usual names, while the capital appears under Palestine.

    What we ask

    Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel and the seat of the Knesset, the Supreme Court and the presidency. It is the city the Jewish people have never ceased to remember. A marketing tool that advertisers use to turn clicks into sales, visits and contracts should not make that name lead to Palestine.

    OpenAI should fix this: associate “Jerusalem” with Israel in Ads Manager, and respond publicly. The tool is in beta, and betas exist to be corrected.

    Mark Bambury, Head of EMEA Ads at OpenAI, was notified of this omission on 30 September 2026.

    Until then, an Israeli shopkeeper, a start-up founder or a doctor in Jerusalem who opens the tool and types the name of their own city will be sent to Palestine, then to Ohio and Arkansas, to promote their business. That is what the screen showed on 29 September 2026.

    Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and the city that the Jewish people have never ceased to remember and where they have lived continuously since the First Temple.

  • French citizen murdered by Hamas; Macron denies at UN

    French citizen murdered by Hamas; Macron denies at UN

    By David Nataf — 23 September 2026

    Macron: neither Mozart of finance nor Talleyrand of diplomacy — utterly shameless.

    It was precisely a Frenchman who was murdered, by a Hamas-affiliated terrorist, in the West Bank, forty-eight hours before Emmanuel Macron’s grotesque statement at the United Nations. At the Ein Raya spring, near Neve Tzuf, on Sunday 20 September 2026, the eve of Yom Kippur, Netanel Shukrun — a French-Israeli from Alei Zahav, father of six — sat in his car with his son Yoav, sixteen. The shots struck the father; with his final breath, he told his son to run. Yoav fled. In New York, on Tuesday the 22nd, the French president claimed that Hamas had “never struck” in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office answered with blood, not rhetoric.

    What Macron said in New York

    According to Channel NewsAsia (AFP wire, 22 September 2026): “Look at what is happening in the West Bank, where there are violations every day. In the name of what? Hamas has never struck in the West Bank.” (AFP/CNA English; variants: “never been particularly active,” “never caused trouble.”) Effect: Israel alone blamed; the movement of 7 October 2023 absolved.

    Hamas is the aggressor. Israel and the IDF defend themselves. No invented figures, no sacralizing of “martyrs”: stick to the facts.

    Jacques Attali once dubbed Macron the “Mozart of finance,” when he still worked at Rothschild; Talleyrand remains the archetype of French diplomacy, mastery of the real. At the UN podium, none of that remains — utterly shameless: never, every day, in the name of what; words that float, with no grasp of the French blood spilled two days earlier.

    The lost chase for La France Insoumise votes — that diplomacy of fatwas to harvest Mélenchon’s electorate — did not justify erasing, from the rostrum of the Disunited Nations, the blood of a Frenchman murdered the day before yesterday.

    The Prime Minister’s Office reply, verbatim

    Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office posted on X a reply that we quote in full:

    The Prime Minister’s Office: The grotesque absurdity of Emmanuel Macron’s statement is staggering. On Sunday, the eve of Yom Kippur, just two days ago, Netanel Shukrun—a FRENCH CITIZEN and father of six—was murdered in his car by a Hamas terrorist in Judea and Samaria. With his final breath, he told his son to run. Hamas terrorists carry out attacks against Jews almost every day. They have murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria. Ignorance is NO EXCUSE for erasing their blood.

    — @IsraeliPM

    In short: “grotesque absurdity”; a French father of six murdered by a Hamas terrorist in Judea and Samaria (“just two days ago”); final breath — run; ignorance does not erase blood.

    Netanel Shukrun: the established facts

    Per JTA, the Jewish Chronicle and Ynet: 20 September 2026, Ein Raya near Neve Tzuf, after pre-fast immersion, Netanel Shukrun (press variant: Shakron) — Alei Zahav, French-Israeli father of six — shot dead before Yoav, 16, who fled. Suspect: Qadri Samara (Biddu), Hamas operative/activist per Israeli authorities, arrested near Ramallah. Hamas praised the attack without a formal claim of having ordered it. Our prior Neve Tzuf report.

    The presidential denial therefore lands on a French body still warm. This is not a diplomatic “opinion”: it is a negation of reality, forty-eight hours after an attack documented as the work of a Hamas-affiliated terrorist.

    One line, not a second essay

    On Europe’s settlement-products front, we have already said what needed saying in our piece on the eleven ministers and “goat’s milk”; an analysis also appeared in the Jerusalem Post. Here the subject is different and simpler: a Frenchman murdered in the West Bank, in front of his son; Macron, at the UN, denies; Jerusalem answers; the facts do not lie.

    As long as Paris prefers the UN formula to the victims’ toll, French diplomacy will remain loud, selective, and deaf to the cry of a father telling his son to run.

  • At the Western Wall, Congo’s President Prays for Jerusalem: Israel’s African Gamble

    At the Western Wall, Congo’s President Prays for Jerusalem: Israel’s African Gamble

    TL;DR — On 1 September 2026, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, paid an official visit to Israel: welcomed by President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu, praying at the Western Wall and touring its tunnels, while his foreign minister met Gideon Sa’ar. Kinshasa, which pledged as early as 2023 to open an embassy in Jerusalem, reaffirmed that commitment.

    Some images sum up a policy. On 1 September 2026, in Jerusalem, Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, laid his hand on the stones of the Western Wall, wearing a kippah, and placed a prayer note between them before touring the Kotel tunnels. Received the same day by President Isaac Herzog and then by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while his foreign minister, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the Congolese leader did not come as a mere visitor. He came to reaffirm a choice.

    A rare commitment: an embassy in Jerusalem

    The DRC belongs to the very small circle of countries that have pledged to place their embassy in Jerusalem. Tshisekedi announced it back in 2023; the move has since been delayed, with Israel due to open a mission in Kinshasa in return. This visit puts it back on track. In a world where recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital remains a weighty diplomatic act taken by only a handful of states, the Congolese commitment stands out — and would make the DRC the first sub-Saharan African country to take that step.

    The stakes for Congo

    For Kinshasa, drawing closer to Israel is far from symbolic. The DRC has for years faced a war in its east, where the M23 rebellion destabilises the Kivu provinces; a peace process with neighbouring Rwanda is under way and was raised during the visit. Congo is seeking partners in security, intelligence, cyber-defence and agriculture — fields in which Israeli expertise is recognised. Add the religious dimension: the DRC is an overwhelmingly Christian country, where support for Israel and attachment to Jerusalem run deep. Praying at the Kotel speaks to Tshisekedi’s electorate as much as to his partners.

    The stakes for Africa

    The Congolese move is part of a wider re-engagement. Long complicated, Israel’s relations with Africa are warming — and Jerusalem is cultivating it actively: cooperation in agriculture, water, solar energy, health and security. The DRC, a giant of 100 million people and a heavyweight of the African Union, matters. Its gesture may set an example on a continent where several capitals still hesitate between old solidarities and new interests. For Africa, the equation is clear: engaging Israel means access to breakthrough technologies in water, agrifood and digital — just when the continent needs them most.

    The stakes for Israel

    For Israel, finally, the visit is a diplomatic breath of fresh air. Under intense international pressure since October 2023 and facing attempts at isolation, the Jewish state needs open friends. An African head of state praying openly at the Western Wall and confirming his embassy in Jerusalem is a living rebuttal to the narrative of isolation. There is also a first-order strategic interest: the DRC holds the world’s largest cobalt reserves and major coltan and copper deposits — the critical minerals of the energy transition and the defence industry. Behind the prayer lies a geopolitical and economic card Jerusalem has every reason to play.

    A hand on the stone, a political signature

    By placing his hand on the Wall, Félix Tshisekedi did more than perform an act of faith. Before the world, he signed an alliance in the making — between an African giant rich in resources and youth, and an Israel seeking to break the circle of its isolation. The image must now become action: the promised embassy, security agreements, economic partnerships. But in Jerusalem, on that 1 September, the direction was unmistakable.

    FAQ

    Who is Félix Tshisekedi?

    The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on an official visit to Israel on 1 September 2026.

    What did he do in Jerusalem?

    He prayed at the Western Wall, placed a note between its stones and toured the tunnels, and was received by President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

    Has the DRC moved its embassy to Jerusalem?

    It pledged to do so in 2023 and reaffirmed it; the actual move remains delayed, with Israel due to open an embassy in Kinshasa in return.

    Why does this visit matter?

    It seals a strategic rapprochement: security and technology for Congo, African openness and critical minerals for Israel, at a moment of heavy diplomatic pressure on Jerusalem.

    By Patrick Lancier

  • Captain Ella, Lieutenant Colonel: The Arab Israeli Woman Who Speaks to the Arab World for the IDF

    Captain Ella, Lieutenant Colonel: The Arab Israeli Woman Who Speaks to the Arab World for the IDF

    TL;DR — Born in Qalansawe, an Arab Muslim town in Israel’s Triangle region, Ella Waweya became the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson on 15 February 2026, succeeding Avichay Adraee. A lieutenant colonel, she is the highest-ranking Muslim in the IDF and the first woman to lead the army’s Arabic communications. Known as “Captain Ella,” she has more than half a million TikTok followers and 200,000 on X.

    Some life stories capture an entire society. Ella Waweya’s is one of them. On 15 February 2026, a quiet handover ceremony in Tel Aviv changed the face of Israeli military communications: Colonel Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language voice for nearly two decades, passed the role to a 36-year-old woman from an Arab town in central Israel. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Ella Waweya becomes the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli army and the first woman to head its Arabic communications.

    Who is Ella Waweya?

    She was born on 16 October 1989 in Qalansawe, an Arab Muslim town in Israel’s Triangle region. She grew up at a time when, for many of her neighbours, the Israeli uniform still stood for the adversary. A teenager during the Second Intifada, she watched the conflict through Al Jazeera’s screen. Then came the day, at sixteen, when she was handed her Israeli ID card. One thought stayed with her: she is a citizen of this country. The rest of her life would be a patient answer to that fact.

    She was a serious student. She earned a BA with honours in communications from Netanya Academic College, followed by an MA — also with honours — in government and political marketing from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (Reichman University). She worked in the media, including radio, and founded the “Shared Life” project dedicated to Arab–Jewish coexistence. After national service at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba in 2011, she made a decision that would upend her life.

    A volunteer enlistment, kept secret

    In 2013, Ella Waweya volunteered for the IDF — service that Israeli law does not require of the country’s Arab citizens. She became the first female soldier from her region. By her own account she went so far as to collect the keys to the family’s mailboxes, to be sure the army’s letter would reach no eyes but her own. She hid her uniform for nearly a year and a half. In 2015, President Reuven Rivlin awarded her a distinction for excellence as a soldier.

    “Captain Ella”: a voice for the Arab world

    For seven years, under the name “Captain Ella,” she built a singular presence: an Israeli officer, a Muslim, an Arabic speaker, addressing the Arab world directly in its own language. Today she has more than half a million followers on TikTok and around 200,000 on X. Her work has earned commendations from Israel’s president, defence minister and chief of staff.

    She describes a job that is as much interpreter as spokesperson: tailoring each message to its audience. Before an Israeli or open audience, the tone is direct and pedagogical; before a hostile one, it takes firmness, visual proof, presence in the field. She likes to compare her mission to Plato’s allegory of the cave: the prisoners mistake the shadows on the wall for reality. Her role, she says, is not to paint prettier shadows but to testify to what lies outside — even when the outside is hard to look at.

    A symbol beyond a single career

    Her appointment is bigger than one woman’s path. In Qalansawe, some twenty young people have since followed the road she opened toward the army’s communications units. For them, the IDF is no longer only a hostile rumour: it is also the face of a woman from their own village, in uniform, speaking their language. In succeeding Avichay Adraee, Ella Waweya did not change her name when she changed her rank. The insignia changed. The composure did not.

    In a region that too often adds up identities as if they were contradictions, her path says the opposite: one can be Arab, Muslim, Israeli and an officer, without giving up anything. She embodies a rare and unapologetic pride — that of an Arab woman proud to be Israeli, who sees in her citizenship neither betrayal nor surrender, but full belonging. That may be the strongest message she carries, far beyond her official duties.

    FAQ

    Who is Captain Ella?

    Ella Waweya, an Israeli army officer born in 1989 in Qalansawe, known as “Captain Ella.” Since 15 February 2026 she has been the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson.

    What is her rank?

    Lieutenant colonel. She is the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli army.

    Whom did she replace?

    Colonel Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson for nearly two decades, who stepped down in early 2026.

    Why is her path exceptional?

    Israel’s Arab citizens are not subject to conscription. She volunteered in 2013, becoming the first female soldier from her region.

    By Patrick Lancier

  • The Return of Antisemitism Is a Warning to Every Democracy

    The Return of Antisemitism Is a Warning to Every Democracy

    TL;DR — Since the October 7, 2023 attacks, antisemitic incidents have reached record levels across Europe and the United States. Echoing historian Deborah Lipstadt’s warning that antisemitism is “the canary in the coal mine” for democracy, this op-ed argues one thing: hatred of Jews is never only a Jewish problem. Where it thrives, trust in institutions, shared truth and the rule of law all erode. Fighting it means defending democracy itself.

    One number, then another, then a pattern

    You can argue endlessly about how to define antisemitism. You can argue far less about the counters. In the United Kingdom, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents in 2024, the second-highest annual total in its history, behind the all-time record of 4,296 in 2023, the year of Hamas’s attack on Israel. The monthly average, which hovered around 154 cases before October 7, has nearly doubled.

    In France, the Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ) counted 1,570 antisemitic acts in 2024, after 1,676 in 2023 — compared with just 436 in 2022. The threshold of a thousand acts has now been crossed two years running, with 106 physical assaults recorded in 2024, the worst tally of violence in a decade.

    In the United States, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) logged 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, the highest figure since it began tracking nearly half a century ago. For the first time, a majority — 58% — referenced Israel or Zionism. That averages more than twenty-five incidents a day, more than one an hour.

    Three countries, three methodologies, one curve. This is not a statistical accident. It is a trend.

    Deborah Lipstadt’s warning

    In an op-ed published by The Telegraph on August 30, 2026, the central question is not whether Jews are afraid — they have said so, and the numbers prove them right. The question is what that fear reveals about the rest of society.

    Historian Deborah Lipstadt, the former US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, distilled the idea into a now-famous phrase: antisemitism is “the canary in the coal mine” for democracy. No society, she reminds us, has ever tolerated antisemitism and remained a healthy democracy. Hatred of Jews never stops with the Jews. It is an early symptom, a leading indicator of a political body in decline.

    “Anybody who buys into the conspiracy myth at the heart of antisemitism — the notion that Jews control the media, the banks, the government or the judiciary — has already given up on democracy.”

    Why conspiracy thinking is the real poison

    Modern antisemitism is not merely a prejudice; it is a theory of the world. It offers a total explanation: if something goes wrong — an economic crash, a war, a pandemic — a hidden hand must be pulling the strings. That mental architecture is precisely the one that hollows out democracy from within. It teaches that institutions lie, that elections are rigged, that the press is bought, that science is corrupt.

    A citizen who believes this no longer deliberates: he suspects. He no longer debates: he denounces. That is why authoritarian regimes and disinformation operators find antisemitism such a convenient tool. It does not just supply a scapegoat; it discredits the very idea that shared truth and legitimate institutions are possible at all.

    What normalization costs everyone

    The danger is not only violent acts. It is normalization. When slogans that would once have caused outrage become acceptable rallying cries; when centuries-old conspiracy theories resurface on social media repainted in the colors of current events; when a community must secure its schools, synagogues and shops as if in wartime — the entire democratic fabric stretches thin.

    The mechanism is always the same. A society that accepts one group being targeted with impunity teaches itself, in the process, that targeting with impunity is possible. Jews are often the first to be attacked; they are rarely the last. That is the precise sense in which antisemitism is a warning: it tests the strength of the barriers democracy has built against hatred, falsehood and arbitrary power.

    Defending Jews, or defending democracy? Both, inseparably

    Beware a misreading. Saying that antisemitism threatens democracy is not about instrumentalizing Jewish suffering in the service of some “nobler” cause. It is the opposite: it recognizes that the safety of a minority and the health of a nation are bound by a single thread. You cannot protect one without the other.

    This also demands rigor. Criticizing the policy of a government, including Israel’s, is legitimate democratic debate. Holding Jews collectively responsible, imputing to them a suspect loyalty, reviving the old conspiratorial fantasy — that is hatred. The line is not always easy to draw, but it exists, and refusing to draw it out of intellectual convenience already cedes ground.

    The responsibility of democracies

    What is to be done? First, name it. A democracy afraid to call antisemitism what it is condemns itself to watch it grow. Second, protect: concretely guarantee the security of Jewish sites, enforce the law against threats and violence, with no grey zones and no double standards. Finally, educate: against conspiracy thinking, the only lasting weapon is a population able to tell information from rumor, criticism from slander.

    None of this is a privilege granted to one community. It is an investment in collective resilience. A society that knows how to protect its Jews knows, in truth, how to protect everyone — because it has kept in working order the institutions, laws and attachment to truth that protect us all.

    The return of antisemitism is not a communal news item. It is an alarm addressed to every democracy. It is up to them to decide whether they hear it.

    FAQ

    Why say antisemitism threatens democracy and not only Jews?

    Because modern antisemitism rests on a conspiracy theory that delegitimizes institutions, the press and science. This systematic distrust is the seedbed of authoritarian drift. Historically, no democracy has stayed healthy while tolerating hatred of Jews — hence Deborah Lipstadt’s “canary in the coal mine.”

    Are the figures cited reliable?

    They come from recognized bodies that have documented antisemitic incidents for decades: the CST in the UK, the SPCJ in France and the ADL in the US. Methodologies differ across countries, but the upward trend since October 7, 2023 is consistent.

    Is criticizing Israel antisemitic?

    No. Criticizing a government’s policy is legitimate democratic debate. The shift into antisemitism occurs when Jews are held collectively responsible for a state’s actions, imputed a suspect loyalty, or targeted through classic conspiracy myths.

    What can democracies actually do?

    Name antisemitism clearly, guarantee the security of Jewish sites, enforce the law without double standards, and invest in education against disinformation and conspiracy thinking.

    Sources

    • The Telegraph, “The return of anti-Semitism is a warning to every democracy,” August 30, 2026 — telegraph.co.uk
    • Community Security Trust (CST), Antisemitic Incidents Report 2024 — cst.org.uk
    • SPCJ / Crif, Antisemitism figures in France, 2024 — crif.org
    • Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024 — adl.org

    By Patrick Lancier

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