Israel now faces adversaries that it cannot defeat
Since October 7, 2023, the war of images has eclipsed the war of weapons. From Gaza’s pulverised hospitals and starving infants to mass graves and desperate fathers digging through rubble, every pixel captured on a smartphone strikes deeper than a missile. These raw, unfiltered, and undeniable images have a far greater impact than any press conference or official speech. And for the first time in its history, Israel cannot delete them or drown them in propaganda. The horrifying images of the Israeli army massacring people at aid distribution locations prompted newspaper Haaretz’s Gideon Levy to write on June 29: “Is Israel perpetrating genocide in Gaza? […] The testimonies and images emerging from Gaza don’t leave room for many questions.” Even staunchly pro-Israel commentator and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman no longer buys into the Israeli narrative. In a May 9 op-ed, addressed to US President Donald Trump, he declared: “This Israeli government is not our ally,” clarifying that it is “behaving in ways that threaten hard-core US interests in the region”. Once, Israel’s narrative was protected by the gates of editorial rooms and the gravity of Western guilt. But the smartphone shattered those gates. What we see now is no longer what Israel tells us — it’s what Gaza shows us. The platforms carrying these images — TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, X — don’t prioritise context; they prioritise virality. While older generations might look away, younger ones are glued to the stream of suffering, absorbed by every pixel, every siren, every moment of destruction. The global public is agitated, and this works against the Israeli interest. Israel is no longer just at war with its neighbours; it is at war with the lens itself. Advertisement The psychological toll of this visual war is reverberating deep inside Israeli society. For decades, Israelis were conditioned to see themselves as global narrators of trauma, not subjects of international scrutiny. But now, with videos of Israeli bombardment, flattened Gaza neighbourhoods, and emaciated children flooding every platform, many Israelis are grappling with a growing ethical predicament. There is unease, even among centrists, that these visceral images are eroding Israel’s moral high ground. For the first time, public discourse in Israeli society includes fear of the mirror: what the world now sees and what Israelis are forced to confront. Internationally, the effect has been even more destabilising for Israel’s diplomatic standing. Longstanding allies, once unconditionally supportive, now face growing domestic pressure from citizens who are not consuming official statements but TikTok’s live streams and Instagram’s image feed. Lawmakers in Europe and North America are openly questioning arms shipments, trade deals, and diplomatic cover, not because of the briefings they have on Israeli war crimes but because their inboxes are flooded with screenshots of scattered body parts and starving children. The battlefield has expanded into parliaments, campuses, city councils, and editorial rooms. This is the backlash of a war Israel cannot win with brute force. To regain control of the narrative, Israeli officials have pressured social media platforms to curb content they dislike. Yet even Israel’s most sophisticated public diplomacy efforts are struggling to keep pace with the virality of raw documentation. Behind closed doors, the Israeli military is no longer merely worried about public relations; it is concerned about prosecution. The Israeli army has admonished soldiers for taking selfies and filming themselves demolishing Palestinian homes, warning that such material is now being harvested as evidence by international human rights organisations. Footage and images from social media have already been used by activists to target Israeli servicemen abroad. In a number of cases, Israeli citizens have had to flee countries they were visiting due to war crimes complaints filed against them. In the age of smartphones, the occupation is no longer just visible — it’s indictable. In the past, Israel fought wars that it could explain. Now, it fights a battle it can only react to — often too belatedly and too clumsily. The smartphone captures what the missile conceals. Social media disseminates information that official briefings attempt to suppress. The haunting images, digitally preserved, ensure that we never forget any devastating atrocity, or act of brutality. Advertisement Images of conflict do not just convey information; they can also redefine our perceptions and influence our political positions. The powerful “Napalm Girl” photo that captured the aftermath of an attack by the US-allied South Vietnamese army on civilians during the Vietnam War had a profound impact on American society. It helped create a significant shift in public opinion regarding the war, accelerating the decision of the US government to end it. Today, in Gaza, the stream of powerful images does not stop. Despite Israel’s best efforts, the global opinion is overwhelmingly against its genocidal war. Smartphones have completely changed the nature of conflict by putting a camera in the hands of every witness. In this new era, Israel struggles to defeat the relentless, unfiltered visual record of its crimes that calls for justice. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Gunboats target cargo vessel in Red Sea; crew abandons ship
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reports the vessel is taking on water after being targeted with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. A commercial vessel in the Red Sea has come under attack after small boats fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons towards the ship. According to the organisation United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the incident took place 94km (51 nautical miles) southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. “The vessel has been engaged by multiple small vessels who have opened fire with small arms and self-propelled grenades. [The] armed security team have returned fire and situation is ongoing,” said UKMTO, which is run by Britain’s Royal Navy. The UKMTO said the attack resulted in a fire onboard and the vessel began taking on water Sunday night as its crew prepared to abandon ship. “Authorities are investigating,” it said, adding later the ship was ablaze after being “struck by unknown projectiles”. “UKMTO has had confirmation from the Company Security Officer that the vessel is taking on water and crew are preparing to abandon ship,” a statement said. Maritime security sources added that the vessel was identified as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas. British maritime security firm Ambrey said in an advisory that the ship was attacked by four unmanned surface vehicles [USVs]. “Two of the USVs impacted the port side of the vessel, damaging the vessel’s cargo,” Ambrey added. While no one has claimed responsibility, Ambrey said the attack matched the “established Houthi target profile”. The Yemen-based armed group the Houthis began targeting vessels in the Red Sea shortly after Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, which the Houthis say is in defence of the Palestinians living in the besieged enclave. Advertisement Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks targeting commercial vessels, disrupting global shipping and forcing firms to reroute. Their campaign has expanded to include vessels linked to the United States and the United Kingdom since the two countries initiated military strikes in January 2024. In May, the Houthis and the US agreed on a ceasefire that would see the end of attacks on US ships. But the Houthis vowed to continue to target Israeli-linked vessels. A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in US and Western forces to the area. This comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East as a possible ceasefire in the war on Gaza hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme following US air strikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites. Adblock test (Why?)
Delhi-NCR wakes up to heavy rainfall, IMD predicts more showers till…
The India Meteorological Department issued a yellow for heavy rains and predicted a “generally cloudy sky” today.
Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local flood warning systems this year
A GOP state lawmaker who represents Kerr County says he likely would vote differently now on House Bill 13, which would have established a grant program for counties to build new emergency communication infrastructure.
Photos: After Texas Hill Country flood, grief and recovery take hold
After the tragic flooding in Kerr County, photographs depict a battered but resilient community.
Fighter jets protect Trump during NJ weekend stay as 11 aircraft violate restricted airspace
Fighter jets intercepted at least three aircraft on Sunday, which violated temporary flight restriction (TFR) airspace over Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Trump was spending the holiday weekend, according to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). With one aircraft being intercepted in the morning, and two others being intercepted later in the day, NORAD said there were a total of 11 unauthorized aircraft incursions in the TFR airspace over the weekend. At about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, a civilian plane violated the TFR and was safely escorted out of the area by a NORAD aircraft. “NORAD and the [Federal Aviation Administration] aim to keep the skies over America safe, with close attention paid to areas with Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) to ensure flight safety, national security, and the security of the President,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander, NORAD and US Northern Command said. “TFR procedures are mandatory, and the excessive number of TFR violations this weekend indicates some civil aviators are not reading Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMs, before each flight as required by the FAA.” NORAD INTERCEPTS PLANE IN TRUMP’S BEDMINSTER NO-FLY ZONE: ‘NO EXCUSES’ Guillot said the NORAD armed fighter jets intercept and guide offending aircraft out of the TFR. SECOND NAVY FIGHTER JET GOES OVERBOARD FROM TRUMAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER, PILOTS EJECTED “Should the pilot of an aircraft happen to find itself intercepted by either fighters or helicopters, they should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies,” Guillot added. In another instance on Saturday, an aircraft was safely escorted out of the TFR airspace just before 2:40 p.m., after a standard “headbutt” maneuver was used to get the pilot’s attention. AIR FORCE F-16 STRUCK BY DRONE DURING TRAINING FLIGHT OVER ARIZONA IN 2023 The maneuver involves a military jet flying directly in front of a civilian aircraft at a close but safe distance to visually signal the pilot to either follow or change course. Officials warned private pilots to do their homework before takeoff. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “It is critically important for North American flight safety that Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) violations are avoided,” NORAD said in a message to pilots. “All pilots must familiarize themselves with updates to restricted airspace, including reviewing new and existing FAA NOTAMs [Notice to Airmen] that impact their flight plans and activities. Adhering to FAA restricted airspace protocols is mandatory, regardless of geographical region, airframe, or aircrew.” Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
Trump dismisses Musk’s political ambitions as ‘ridiculous’ in sharp rebuke
President Donald Trump slammed former first buddy Elon Musk for starting a third political party, saying such parties have “never worked” while also calling the move “ridiculous.” Trump spoke with reporters before boarding Air Force 1 in Bedminster, New Jersey, when he was asked about Musk’s move to start a third party. “I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump said from the tarmac. “We have a tremendous success with the Republican Party. The Democrats have lost their way, but it’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. “It really seems to have been developed for two parties,” the president continued. “Third parties have never worked. So, he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous.” ELON MUSK LAUNCHES ‘AMERICA PARTY’ AFTER TRUMP SIGNS HISTORIC SPENDING BILL: ‘WASTE & GRAFT’ Musk announced the launching of a new political party called the “America Party” on his social media platform X on Saturday. The entrepreneur called the formation of the party a direct response to a corrupt political establishment that no longer represents the American people. The announcement followed a viral July 4 poll on X, where Musk asked whether voters wanted independence from what he called the “two-party (some would say uniparty) system.” ELON MUSK SAYS US IS RULED BY ‘PORKY PIG PARTY’ AS TRUMP DEFENDS HIS VISION AGAINST FORMER ALLY’S CRITICISM Over 1.2 million votes were cast, with 65.4% saying “yes.” “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it,” Musk posted Saturday. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” A short time after his gaggle with reporters, Trump turned to Truth Social to express concerns over Musk, while giving insight into what may have led to the two parting ways. “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks. He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States – The System seems not designed for them,” the president said. “The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds! “Republicans, on the other hand, are a smooth running ‘machine,’ that just passed the biggest Bill of its kind in the History of our Country,” Trump continued. “It is a Great Bill but, unfortunately for Elon, it eliminates the ridiculous Electric Vehicle (EV) Mandate, which would have forced everyone to buy an Electric Car in a short period of time.” WOULD DONALD TRUMP HAVE WON THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WITHOUT ELON MUSK’S HELP? Trump said he has been “strongly opposed” to an EV mandate from the very beginning, and the new bill allows consumers to buy whatever type of vehicle they want, whether it is electric, gas, or hybrid-powered. “I have campaigned on this for two years and, quite honestly, when Elon gave me his total and unquestioned Endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate – It was in every speech I made, and in every conversation I had,” Trump said. “He said he had no problems with that – I was very surprised!” Trump also said Musk asked a close friend of his to run NASA, but the president took issue with it when he found out that friend was a “blue blooded Democrat” who never contributed to a Republican. “I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life,” he said. “My Number One charge is to protect the American Public!” Musk chose to establish a new political party after expressing grave concerns with the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law on Friday at the White House. The sweeping $3.3 trillion legislation includes tax cuts, infrastructure spending and stimulus measures and has drawn criticism from fiscal conservatives and libertarians. Though Musk did not reference the bill directly in his America Party posts, the timing suggests rising friction between the billionaire and the president. Musk has previously warned that unchecked spending by both parties threatens the long-term health of the economy. TRUMP NOT INTERESTED IN TALKING TO MUSK: ‘ELON’S TOTALLY LOST IT’ The new party, according to Musk’s posts, will target a few key seats in Congress. The goal is to create a swing bloc powerful enough to hold the balance of power and block what Musk sees as the worst excesses of both Republicans and Democrats. Third parties have traditionally had a difficult time gaining ground in American politics as the system is built for two dominant parties. With the Electoral College, winner-take-all elections and strict ballot access laws, outsiders cannot meaningfully compete. Even when a third-party candidate catches fire, it rarely lasts beyond a single election cycle. One of the biggest third-party efforts in recent history was Ross Perot’s 1992 run. He earned nearly 19% of the popular vote as an independent but didn’t win a single Electoral College vote. It was the closest a third-party candidate got to the White House after President Teddy Roosevelt’s famed Bull Moose Party run in 1912 against his onetime protégé, William Howard Taft. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Others, like Ralph Nader, have tried with the Green Party, and Gary Johnson with the Libertarian Party, but no third-party candidate has come close to winning the presidency. Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
Jewish group slams Democratic NYC mayoral hopeful over ‘sick’ mockery of ‘sacred’ traditions
A Jewish advocacy group is blasting Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani for sharing a video mocking Hanukkah Jewish traditions on social media. The organization, Stop Antisemitism, says Mamdani posted the “sick” video to his X account last year. The video is originally from the Geeta Brothers Duet Group, a satirical and comedic duo who dressed themselves in stereotypical Jewish garb for the performance. “Zohran Mamdani posts Indian men cosplaying Jews, spinning dreidels and lighting the menorah,” Stop Antisemitism wrote in a statement on X. “Our holidays and traditions are sacred and not for your comedic pleasure, Zohran Mamdani – this is sick,” the group added, tagging the mayoral candidate. TOP DEMOCRATS, MEDIA DEMAND ZOHRAN MAMDANI CONDEMN ‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’ PHRASE Mamdani had posted the video in December 2024, adding the caption, “Happy 3rd night of Hanukkah from Astoria and Long Island City.” The video originates from the 2015 parody album “Punjabi Christmas Album Hits” from the Geeta Brothers. Mamdani posted another video from the same album on Christmas Eve, this one based on “Jingle Bells.” “Wishing you all a very merry Christmas from Astoria and Long Island City,” he wrote at the time. Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Accusations of antisemitism have harried Mamdani’s campaign from its outset. The self-proclaimed democratic socialist has refused multiple times to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and he has supported the BDS movement against Israel. “I believe Israel has a right to exist,” he said during a mayoral primary debate in June. “As a Jewish state?” the moderator pressed. “As a state with equal rights,” Mamdani said. He later elaborated on his opposition to Israel being a Jewish state in an interview with Fox 5. “I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else,” he said. DAVE RUBIN WARNS JEWS TO ‘GET THE HELL OUT’ OF NYC IF MAMDANI BECOMES MAYOR Mamdani, a Muslim, has also faced criticism for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” StopAntisemitism founder Liora Rez argued last week that electing Mamdani mayor would not only be “catastrophic” for Jewish residents, but all who reside in the city. “If Zohran Mamdani was elected as mayor, it would be hands down catastrophic for Jewish residents of New York City,” Rez told Fox News Digital. “And we would even take it a step further where citizens of New York City in general, due to his very troubling stances on socialism, would greatly suffer as well.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I think individuals who are concerned that Zohran Mamdani is antisemitic have every single right to be concerned considering his past behavior,” Rez added. “We can list dozens of examples of his past antisemitic adjacent and direct antisemitic actions.” Fox News’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report
NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s professor father claimed Hitler inspired by Abraham Lincoln
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s father, a longtime academic and Ivy League professor, said during a 2022 panel discussion about one of his many books that Adolf Hitler drew his inspiration for the Holocaust from Abraham Lincoln. The younger Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist, has credited his parents with providing him a “privileged upbringing,” one that included frequent discussions on politics and global affairs, according to a New York Times profile on the mayoral candidate and his parents. Mamdani’s mother is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. During a 2022 panel discussion hosted by the Asia Society, Mamdani’s father, Mahmood, asserted that America was the “genesis of what we call settler-colonialism” around the world. JONATHAN TURLEY: WHY NYC’S ZOHRAN MAMDANI LOOKS MORE AND MORE LIKE A HARDCORE MARXIST “With the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln generalized the solution of reservations, they herded American Indians into separate territories,” Mamdani, Columbia’s Herbert Lehman professor of government, said. “For the Nazis, this was the inspiration – Hitler realized two things: one, that genocide is doable. It is possible to do genocide, that’s what Hitler realized. Second thing Hitler realized, is that you don’t have to have a common citizenship.” The elder Mamdani also argued during the talk that the racist and antisemitic Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany “were patterned after American laws.” Other comments included claims that there is no difference between “nationalism and colonialism” and that the Allied forces during World War II shared the same goals as the Nazis. “The Nazi political project was shared by the Allies, and that political project was to turn Germany into a ‘pure’ nation. A ‘pure’ nation rid of its minorities,” Mamdani said at the Asia Society event. “When the Allies defeated the Nazis and went into Eastern Europe, they began to create ‘pure’ nations. To ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe of Germans – move them back into Germany. One crime doesn’t wipe out another.” CITY-RUN GROCERY STORES, DEFUNDING POLICE, SAFE INJECTION SITES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NYC’S NEXT POTENTIAL MAYOR Following the political upset in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, critics began unearthing videos of the younger Mamdani espousing similarly radical views. One of those moments came from remarks the NYC mayoral candidate made at a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference in 2021, during which he told attendees not to compromise on goals like “seizing the means of production.” A second included a video from The Gravel Institute, during which Mamdani discusses the need to turn housing from a private commodity to a public one. In the video, he called for luxury condos to be replaced with communal-style living that would include things like shared laundry facilities and food co-ops. “If we want to end the housing crisis, the solution has to be moving toward the full de-commodification of housing,” Mamdani urged in the video for The Gravel Institute. DEM MAYORAL CANDIDATE IN MAJOR AMERICAN CITY LINKED TO RABID ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVISM: REPORT Meanwhile, other remarks by Mamdani’s father have raised concerns about how the Democratic mayoral candidate’s upbringing could impact his governing style. In an interview about his book, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror,” the older Mamdani asserts that the term “suicide bomber” is a misnomer because they are no different from “soldier[s] whose objective is to kill.” Professor Mamdani has also reportedly argued that Israel is “the logical conclusion of Nazism,” according to an excerpt of a study chronicling his academic arguments shared by the Washington Free Beacon. Fox News Digital reached out to both Professor Mamdani and his son for comment.
NY Dem says he ‘disagrees’ with Mamdani, makes comparison to Trump
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., says he disagrees with Zohran Mamdani when it comes to his positions, but said his fellow Democrats could learn something from the democratic socialist — something that reminds him of President Donald Trump. “You have to recognize that he tapped into something,” Suozzi said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “He tapped into the same thing that Donald Trump tapped into, which is that people are concerned that the economy is not working for them.” The “democratic capitalist,” as he describes himself, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that Mamdani’s win in the democratic mayoral primary should be a “loud wake-up call for Democrats.” “Too often, Democrats are not perceived as being focused on affordability and the economy and the middle class and people aspiring to the middle class and their economic concerns,” Suozzi told Weijia Jiang, who was filling in for Margaret Brennan. MAMDANI’S PRIMARY WIN EXPOSES DEMOCRAT DIVIDE AS TOP LEADERS WITHHOLD ENDORSEMENTS “They see Democrats as being primarily focused on reproductive rights and on LGBT protections, which are important issues, but they’re not the issues that people think about every night when they’re lying in bed thinking about paying their bills or when they are talking about how they’re going to send their kids to school,” he continued. MAMDANI’S POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE ROCKS DEMOCRATS, DIVIDING PARTY ON PATH FORWARD While Suozzi does not believe Trump or Mamdani has the correct path forward when it comes to those issues, he said Democrats can learn to lean into root issues. “Everybody in America, whether you’re a right-wing conservative or a left-wing progressive, should believe that in return for working hard, you make enough money so you can live a good life,” he said. “You can buy a home. You can educate your children. You could pay for your health insurance. You can retire one day without being scared. People don’t feel that currently, and we have to do a better job of communicating that.”