Tag: israel

As Evidence Mounts of Dogs Raping Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Prisons, NYT’s Isabel Kershner Revives Unverified October 7 Rape Narrative

Isabel Kershner, a longtime correspondent for The New York Times whose sons have reportedly served in the Israeli military, is facing growing scrutiny over her latest reporting on alleged October 7 sexual violence claims — particularly as renewed attention falls on documented abuse and sexual violence agaisnt Palestinians inside Israeli detention facilities.

Public scrutiny intensified following a recent report by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times detailing allegations of severe abuse against Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman prison, including claims involving sexual violence and the use of dogs against prisoners, including minors. Kristof’s report helped push allegations long documented by human rights organizations into mainstream American discourse.

Yet as renewed attention focused on Palestinian detainees, Kershner published new reporting reviving disputed and unverified October 7 rape allegations attributed to Hamas. Critics argue the timing reflects a recurring media pattern: whenever scrutiny intensifies around Israeli abuses against Palestinians, major Western outlets redirect attention toward unverified claims against Hamas to justify Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

At the center of Kershner’s latest reporting is Cochav Elkayam-Levy, one of the most heavily promoted sources behind claims of Hamas sexual violence. Elkayam-Levy and her organization became central to Western media coverage after October 7, with outlets and political leaders worldwide presenting her as a leading authority on the allegations.

However, Israeli media later reported accusations that Elkayam-Levy and her commission had misled donors, exaggerated evidence collection efforts, and spread misinformation related to October 7 claims. The controversy surfaced shortly after she received the prestigious Israel Prize.

Despite repeated disclaimers acknowledging that rape allegations could not be independently verified, outlets including CNN, BBC, Associated Press, and The New York Times amplified the narratives globally. The allegations quickly became central to political messaging used to justify Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Kershner’s own role has fueled further debate about conflicts of interest in Western reporting on Israel and Palestine. Years earlier, she publicly acknowledged that her children had served in the Israeli military, prompting criticism from media watchdogs who argued that major outlets often blur the line between reporting and national alignment in coverage of Israel and Palestine. 

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The Assault on a French Nun and the Forgotten Story of Palestinian Christians

The video is horrifying, though it is the kind of horror now synonymous with the behavior of Israel, its military, its armed settlers, and society that has been conditioned to see the ‘other’ as subhuman.

Yet, this was not the typical viral video that emerges almost daily from occupied Palestine. The victim, this time, was not a Palestinian. She was an elderly French nun.

On May 1, footage surfaced from Jerusalem showing a 36-year-old Israeli man running behind a French nun – a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research – and shoving her violently to the ground.

In a chilling display of cruelty, the assailant did not simply hit and run. He walked away a few paces, then returned to the fallen woman to kick her repeatedly and mercilessly as she lay helpless.

What was most astonishing was the sense of normalcy that followed. The assailant remained on the scene, conversing with another man who appeared entirely unperturbed by what should have been a devastating event in any other context.

The video briefly imposed itself on the mainstream media scene, garnering perfunctory condemnations. Many explained the event as part of the larger landscape of Israeli violence, highlighting the ongoing genocide in Gaza as the most obvious example of this unchecked aggression.

But even the context of general violence does not fully explain why a French nun was targeted. She is not dark-skinned, she is European, she is Christian, and she holds no historical or territorial claims that would typically trigger the ‘security’ paranoia of the Zionist state.

Still, the incident was anything but ‘isolated,’ despite the rush by Israeli officials to label it a ‘shameful’ exception. To the contrary, the nun was attacked specifically because she is Christian.

This raises the question: why?

To answer this, we must acknowledge how Palestinian Christians have been systematically written out of the history of their own land.

Palestinian Christians are not merely present in the land; they are among the most historically rooted communities in Palestine. They are anything but ‘foreigners’ or ‘bystanders’ caught in a supposed religious conflict between Jews and Muslims.

In fact, the Christian Arab presence in Palestine predates the Islamic era by centuries. They are the descendants of historic tribes who shaped the region’s identity long before the advent of modern political labels.

The marginalization of Palestinian Christians is a relatively new phenomenon, deeply linked to Western colonialism. For centuries, European powers used the pretense of ‘protecting’ Christian communities to justify their own imperial interventions.

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Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State

Cisco Systems is one of the most consequential—yet least visible—corporations in Silicon Valley. The San Jose-based networking giant, with a market capitalization in excess of $270 billion and annual revenue of $56.7 billion in 2025, manufactures the routers, switches, firewalls, and communications platforms that run the internet’s infrastructure, as well as many of its worldwide corporate, government, and military networks.

Cisco makes a point of publicly highlighting its commitment to corporate social responsibility, and building “an inclusive future for all” in the dozens of countries around the world in which it operates. Yet the company’s aggressive pursuit of contracts with the Israeli government and military—a small yet growing part of its global business—has led to accusations that behind this sunny facade the networking giant is profiting from genocide.

A new set of leaked documents—provided to Drop Site by whistleblowers disturbed by the company’s operations in Israel—shows Cisco’s deep and growing collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence establishment in its regional wars and the genocide in Gaza.

In 2025, an Israeli Air Force officer publicly discussed using Cisco-powered infrastructure to support operations. The anonymous officer, identified as the head of the Israeli Air Force’s operational branch, told a tech conference in Israel that the Air Force had conducted “tens of thousands of attacks” in the past year, and described how IT systems had been vital to enabling this combat activity. The officer referenced Cisco infrastructure being used by air force intelligence personnel for communications and managing high volumes of operational data—including the use of networking tools by drone operators and ground forces to store and analyze videos and share coordinates for strikes.

Cisco’s work with the Israeli government and military has been documented in public news reports and new business announcements in the country. But the internal documents—including presentations, purchase and revenue records, and schedules—shed light on the rapidly expanding list of services that Cisco has been providing directly to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and other branches of the security state over the past several years.

Cisco did not respond to a request for comment.

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Israeli soldiers jailed for desecrating Virgin Mary statue

Two Israeli soldiers were sentenced to several weeks in military prison for desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.

Last week, a photo surfaced showing a service member hugging the statue in the predominantly Christian village of Debel, near the Israeli border, and placing a cigarette in the statue’s mouth. The image sparked outrage on social media and prompted an official investigation.

On Monday, IDF spokeswoman Ariella Mazor said the soldier posing with the statue and the soldier filming him were sentenced to 21 and 14 days behind bars, respectively.

“The IDF views the incident with great severity and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” Mazor wrote on X.

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Israel has tried to drag US into war on Iran for decades, says former Qatari PM

A former Qatari prime minister has said that the war on Iran is part of decades-long Israeli efforts to violently reshape the region, and that a unified “Gulf Nato” must be urgently established. 

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, who is also the former Qatari foreign minister, made the comments in a wide-ranging interview on Al Jazeera’s Al Muqabala programme. 

“We are witnessing a major restructuring of the region,” Sheikh Hamad said.

He said that hardline Israelis, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been trying to get the US to go to war with Iran over its nuclear programme since the 1990s under President Bill Clinton’s administration. 

The veteran diplomat said that previous US governments had been hesitant for a full scale war, including Donald Trump’s first administration. 

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Netanyahu Says Israel Plans to ‘Wean Ourselves Off’ U.S. Military Aid Over Next 10 Years 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to reduce his country’s dependence on U.S. military aid.

During an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Netanyahu said he wanted to reduce American aid down to zero over the next decade.

“I’ve said this to President Trump. I’ve said it to our own people.”

“Their jaws dropped, but I said I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have, because we receive 3.8 billion dollars a year.”

“I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support,” he continued. “I want to start now.”

Israel currently receives roughly $3.8 billion annually under a 10-year agreement signed in 2016 during the Obama administration.

The deal committed the United States to providing Israel with $38 billion in military assistance through 2028.

The funding has helped Israel purchase American-made weapons systems including F-35 fighter jets, precision-guided munitions, missile interceptorr and air defense technology.

The question of U.S. aid to Israel has become a political flashpoint following the Gaza war and the wider regional conflict involving Iran and Hezbollah.

Within the GOP, figures such as Rep. Thomas Massie and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have openly questioned why American taxpayers continue sending billions of dollars overseas while the U.S. faces soaring debt and domestic crises at home.

On the left, anti-Israel sentiment has surged inside the Democratic Party following their military campaign in Gaza.

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Soaring Death Toll In Lebanon As Full-Fledged Israel, Hezbollah Fighting Returns

Full-fledged war has returned to Lebanon as the government has announced that at least 23 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Saturday alone. 

Stretching back into Friday, this brings the total death count to at least 50 killed over the past 24 hours of Israeli bombings, also as Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) late on Saturday said rescue operations were still ongoing for bystanders missing underneath the rubble.

Heavy bombing has not ceased in southern Lebanon, as the Israeli military says it’s trying to root out and destroy Hezbollah, including raids on the districts of Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil and Sidon, among others. Several were also killed in Tyre on Friday.

But Israeli forces have also absorbed casualties, with The Times of Israel describing the following serious drone strikes launched from Lebanon:

On Saturday, the terror group launched several salvos of explosive-laden drones and rockets at Israeli forces. One drone struck Israeli territory, close to the border with Lebanon, seriously injuring a reservist soldier and moderately wounding a reservist officer and another reservist soldier.

The troops were taken to Galilee Medical Center, which said the seriously wounded soldier underwent surgery and was now stable in the intensive care unit. The moderately wounded troops were scheduled for surgery later.

In another incident, the military said an explosive drone struck an unmanned engineering vehicle in southern Lebanon, causing damage. No injuries were caused.

There are reports of the IDF issuing evacuation orders for various areas, only to attack the so-called safe zones. For example the below comes via Israeli sources:

“In light of the Hezbollah terror organization’s violations of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF is forced to act against it with force and does not intend to harm you,” warned army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.

Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 12 people, including in areas where no evacuation orders were issued.

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Report: Israel built secret Iraq base, struck forces that nearly exposed it

Israel established a secret military outpost in the Iraqi desert to support its air campaign against Iran and carried out airstrikes against Iraqi forces that nearly discovered it at the start of the war, people familiar with the matter, including senior U.S. officials, told The Wall Street Journal.

According to the sources, Israel built the facility shortly before the war began, with U.S. knowledge. It housed special forces and served as a logistics hub for the air force. Rescue teams were also stationed there in case Israeli pilots were shot down. No Israeli pilots were downed during the war.

When a U.S. F-15 was shot down near Isfahan, Israel offered to help, but American forces rescued the crew themselves. However, according to the report, Israel did carry out airstrikes to help secure the rescue operation.

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Zionists Are Gunning for Your Freedom of Speech

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States guarantees the right to free speech. This right has long differentiated the United States from other Western nations like the United Kingdom and Canada where laws against so-called “hate speech” laws exist and are enforced.

Thankfully, America is different. In our country, even alleged hate speech is protected speech to ensure democratic principles and debate.

In a 1929 dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the Constitution secured “freedom for the thought that we hate.” In 2011, Chief Justice John Roberts said in a ruling that the First Amendment serves “to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

This constitutional protection has been increasingly threatened recently, particularly by pro-Israeli forces that have tried to frame any criticism of that government as “anti-Semitism” and thus hate speech punishable by law. This has included everything from arrests, to squashing campus debate to buying TikTok to an attempt to cover up human rights absuses in Gaza. President Donald Trump has even issued executive orders that use vague definitions of what constitutes “anti-Semitism” that comes with criminal penalties.

Mark Levin is an American-born Zionist radio host who is an outspoken advocate for Israel’s government, regularly calling anyone who criticizes the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and conflict in Gaza “Nazis.”

Toward this agenda, Levin recently appeared to not agree with his own country’s free speech rights. On his latest Sunday Fox News program, unironically called Life, Liberty and Levin, the neoconservative pundit explained why free speech liberties in the U.S. have gone too far.

Seemingly worried that certain speech is protected in the United States, Levin said in the wake of the Secret Service taking down a shooter at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Friday, “First time things like this have happened, but it really is problematic because so much of it is protected.”

“And you hear people say, don’t you believe in the First Amendment?” Levin said. “They don’t even know what the First Amendment believes.”

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Among the Few Who Resist Hidden Persuasion

Most folks are caught up in points of view shaped for them by others.

These others can vary from parents, teachers, religious figures, writers of various persuasions, podcasters and ideologically driven politicians of right or left who, in their worse manifestations are wolves in political clothing — a recent example of which now resides in the “Oval Office.”

In other words, there are plenty of would-be sources of inspiration out there, but it is always a good thing to look before you leap.

It is interesting that once a charismatic ideologue becomes a powerful “world leader,” a large number of other less powerful national leaders, to say nothing of their millions of constituents, fall into line.

If there is a political or ideological interest to be served, the less powerful might offer excuses and rationalizations to accept the most barbaric of policies of the principal in power.

This is the case of those Western European leaders going along with the policies of the American-Israeli leadership cabal. A principled stand, or even a stand based on the most cursory knowledge of history, seems to be beyond these subalterns. Yet, taken one by one, they are all “normal” politicians.

‘Normal’ Politicians

Many of the politicians who rotate as elected leaders of democratic nations must learn to reflect an established party line even if it no longer reflects reality. That is, even if it means lying about the present and/or de-contextualizing the past.

Take, for example, the reaction of otherwise normal politicians to the Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian incursion into Israel. The reaction of Israeli politicians was predictable and a good example of ideological distortion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incursion as “the worst act of anti-Semitic violence since the Holocaust.” His claim follows the national Israeli narrative that asserts nothing Jewish Israel does can justify such an attack by Palestinians. It must be due to anti-Semitism.

In truth, the 2023 Palestinian incursion and the violence associated with it, had nothing to do with the Jewishness of the majority Israelis, but everything to do with the behavior of the Israeli state: the colonialist dispossession of the Palestinians and the discrimination practiced toward them by an entity that choses to call itself a Jewish state.

The anti-semitic charge might fit into the Israel = home of the Jews narrative believed by just about all Jews in Israel and some in the diaspora, but it is nonetheless misleading.

Until now, the Israeli narrative has been accepted by the West’s “normal” politicians. They have interpreted Oct. 7, 2023, as an anti-Semitic act.

For instance, the British prime minister at the time, Rishi Sunak, called the incursion a “pogrom.”  French President Emmanuel Macron called it an “unspeakable horror” which “feeds on anti-Semitism and propagates it.”

U.S. President Joe Biden labeled the attack “unadulterated evil” and connected it to a global surge in anti-Semitism. The U.S. secretary of state at the time, Antony Blinken, condemned the incursion as a horrific dehumanization of Israelis.

Keir Starmer in the U.K., the current prime minister who was then the leader of the opposition Labour Party, termed the attack the “darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for solidarity against a “new wave of anti-Semitism,” while European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the incursion was a unique horror and pain inflicted upon the Jewish people. 

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