Category Archives: Judaism & Jews

NEW ESSAY: Two Genocides Down; Does Judaism Need A Reformation? And Is This Jew Allowed To Ask?

Christianity, GAZA, Hebrew Testament, Islam, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestinians, Religion, Terrorism, War

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Inescapably, it is not Muslims of the Ummah, in the name of Islam, who have committed the Twenty-First Century’s two Holocausts—in Gaza and Southern Lebanon …~ilana 

NEW ESSAY IS “Two Genocides Down; Does Judaism Need A Reformation? And Is This Jew Allowed To Ask?” It is a feature on The Unz Review and on LewRockwell.com, as well as on Substack, where you can join me for conversation.

Excerpt:

In examining the causal factors in the criminal psychopathy on display in contemporary Israel, I have questioned “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation,” namely the convention, accepted among solidarity commentators and activists, Jews and non-Jews, that there is a strict divide between Judaism and Zionism.

Advocates of this duality portray Judaism as a faith largely beyond reproach—humanistic, universal, and peaceful; Zionism as its opposite. In this asserted split, it is assumed that Judaism is naturally antagonistic to Zionism and always arrayed against Israel.

The zealotry with which our camp, in solidarity with the Palestinians, adheres to the Judaism-Zionism divide can’t but catch one’s attention. It is as though mouthing these platitudes was The Charm, a protective amulet of sorts.

Contrary to this conventional wisdom, I noted that the idée fixe of “The Chosen People” goes a long way to account for the unwarranted sense of supremacy that animates Jewish Israelis. A biblical aspect of Judaism such as “Chosenness” appears to have encouraged, animated and privileged a factional preference among Jews, to the near exclusion of universal fellow-feeling.

Biblically based Chosenness and the corresponding supremacy certainly help explain the indelible reservoir of evil, a bottomless pit of it, expressed and acted out by the Jewish Israeli commonwealth’s most faithful representatives: The People’s army, the IDF, or the Israel Defense Forces.

There is no grimness in the IDF’s approach to the “mission” of mass murder. Undaunted, they go about their “business” with barbaric gaiety. (Remember, I watch the Hebrew-language tv channels. No filters there.) This Israeli “citizen army” is on its second genocide, uninterrupted.

From Gaza, to the West Bank, to Southern Lebanon; from sun-up to sun-down—Israel continues its genocidal deformation of the Levant’s landscape and its people. Now, generations of Lebanese agrarians—food producers, their well-appointed residences, built to blend into, not lord over, the undulating hills—the very means of production: wiped out. Ancient religious heritage sites, Muslim and Christian, gone (although it should be noted that the magnificently spirited Shia community is the prime target of the Terrorist State and its American enabler). Over a million people displaced. Upwards of 4100 murdered. Israel is not on a killing spree; it’s in a comfortable groove, a second-nature killing groove. Jewish Israel is flying close to the sun, and nobody dares to swat it down.

In marked contrast, Haaretz columnist Gideon Levi and the inimitable Norman Finkelstein were quick to implicate “Chosenness” in the psychopathy on display in contemporary Israel. In August of 2024, in conversation with Current Affairs’ editor Nathan J. Robinson, Levi, a veteran dissident journalist, had been commenting about the unexamined lives Israelis lead. Although he has since vacillated; in his better days, alluded to here, Levy had also remarked in anguish that Jewish-Israel shapes its genocidal media, not vice versa. In other words, genocide is market-driven. The general average of Jewish Israelis throughout the country knows and likes what’s going on.

Or, as Levi put it, “They couldn’t be bothered.”

It makes sense that Jewish supremacists—a term I deployed as early as March 31, 2024, in the essay, “ISRAEL: In Violation Of God’s Law, Natural Justice, The Laws Of War, And All Customary International Humanitarian Law”—would lead unexamined lives. They believe they are divinely-anointed superior beings in whom a birthright to commit genocide is inherent.

Lone Israeli voices like Levi and Amira Haas, another Haaretz pro-Palestine columnist, would be first to tell you that, in Israel, “they represent absolutely nobody,” confirmed Norman Finkelstein, also to Current Affairs’ editor on June 6, 2026.

… READ THE REST, on The Unz Review, LewRockwell.com, as well as on Substack, where we can chat.

NEW: The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?

Anti-Semitism, Argument, Ethics, GAZA, Hebrew Testament, Iran, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Judaism & Jews, Middle East, Natural Law, War

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Having, attached yourself to the Palestine solidarity movement as an ultra-orthodox Jew; I’m not yet lavish in my praise for you. What excites suspicion is that your conduct, vis-à-vis Palestinian possessions, could be tied to the religious edicts surrounding the coming of messiah. Although the question of messiah’s arrival is more than likely immaterial—the question of ethics is not. ~ilana  

Charity ought to be about fellow-feeling, not factional preferences. ~ilana

NEW ESSAY, and part 2 in a series of 3, IS “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” It was, on May 31st, a feature essay on The Unz Review. And it led the page, June 1, at LewRockwell.com, anti-state, anti-war, pro-market.

https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-part-2-tikkun-olam-fixing-the-world-but-for-what-for-whom/ 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/06/ilana-mercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-tikkun-olam-fixing-the-world-but-for-what-for-whom/

Comment here: https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-part-2-tikkun-olam-fixing-the-world-but-for-what-for-whom/#comments

https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-part-2-tikkun-olam-fixing-the-world-but-for-what-for-whom/

Part 1 is “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1).”

Excerpt from, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?”:

Contra classical natural law theory, my own religious order, Judaism in its popular rendering has always appeared to me quite sectarian. The faith to which I was born frequently seemed a we-only litany, more about Jews and for Jews than about the world, or for the good of the world.

For “a spectacular sense of otherness and unity” (Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, p. 262), only the Mormons, tethered to their territory of Utah, equal Jews, with whom Mormons also strongly identify.

Myself, I came alive ideologically when I reached the New World, in the mid-1990s. It was as though a new world of ideas heretofore unknown had unfurled to quench the soul and the intellect. Alas, it did not come from Judaism, to which I was born.

I discovered the very American libertarian non-aggression axiom, which flows, at least in my opinion, from Thomist Catholic philosophy, Just War theory, and the Stoic doctrine of natural law, whose first “interpreter and transmitter” was Cicero,[1] to be followed by Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Roman Church.

As plain as plain is the idea of charity. It’s a religion surety, I had surmised, that benevolence is meant to improve society, not the State; and to do so through personal, not political, acts in the community. Charity ought to be about fellow-feeling, not factional preferences. As instructed in Leviticus 19:18, “You should love your neighbor as you do yourself.”

Consider the concept of Tikkun Olam, the Jewish obligation to repair the world. Perhaps willfully—and to comport with my natural-law bias—I had always interpreted Tikkun Olam as a sublimely modest Jewish obligation.

Developed by the scholars and sages of a dispersed people, Tikkun Olam, I had hoped, was intended as a humble thing—as the duty of the Jewish individual to help, bit-by-bit, to bring about a better world in unassuming, day-to-day righteous acts. In his community and beyond.

In the best sense of that much-abused term “Orthodox” is a reader of ours, “a Torah observant Orthodox Jewish man,” and an attorney at law. JBS, Esq. speaks of Jewish “Chosenness” as follows:

As you are likely aware, Judaism is an ancient religion based upon God’s revelation of Himself to Hebrews at Mt. Sinai. Zionism is a recent [19th Century] political movement associated with Judaism but is not Judaism. Most Jewish people conflate and blur the distinction.The ‘Chosen People’ concept is misunderstood by most Jews.  God ‘chose’ the Jewish people to receive, accept, keep and fulfill His Torah and teach it to the world, to be a ‘light unto the nations.’ That is all being ‘chosen’ ought to mean, not a Jewish ego trip.
As to Jewish entitlement to the land of Israel: fulfillment of their Godly duties is required.  I think Zionists believe otherwise; that military capture is sufficient. God twice banished Hebrews from the land for their failures and sins.  Many Orthodox Jews (myself included) believe that Jewish entitlement to the land of Israel will require the appearance of Mashiach, the Jewish messiah.  I don’t know much about that. (May, 2026)

Although there is a certain degree of comic protest about my next question; I ask it not to be a Smart Alec:

Does what our laudable reader say mean that, come Mashiach, real or imagined, ultra-orthodox Jews could be given religious license to rob Palestinian homesteaders? That, you see, is unclear. With respect to the ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Jewry; although the question of messiah’s arrival is more than likely immaterial—the question of ethics is not.

In particular, the question of situational ethics and ethical relativism.

Having, attached yourself to the Palestine solidarity movement as an ultra-orthodox Jew; I’m not yet lavish in my praise for you. What excites suspicion is that your conduct, vis-à-vis Palestinian possessions, could be tied to the religious edicts surrounding the coming of messiah. History, more significantly, is replete with people who followed a false messiah. There is even a concept for this eventuality in Hebrew lore (mashiach sheker).

These days, my own humble perspective on the daily practice of piety is a mirage in the desert.

Certainly, my modest, morally universal interpretation of Tikkun Olam is not the one adopted by Jews who are “chosen”; namely favored, esteemed and elevated by gentiles and by institutional Jewry.

Starting with the barefaced Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, …

…THE REST.  NEW ESSAY, and part 2 in a series of 3, IS “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” On The Unz Review. And at LewRockwell.com, anti-state, anti-war, pro-market.  

Comment here: https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-part-2-tikkun-olam-fixing-the-world-but-for-what-for-whom/#comments

Part 1 is “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1).“

[1]. Heinrich A. Rommen, The Natural Law, A Study In Legal And Social History And Philosophy, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, 1998

 

The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)

Ancient History, Anti-Semitism, Argument, Ethics, GAZA, Hebrew Testament, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Judaism & Jews, Justice, Literature, Middle East, Palestinians, Political Philosophy

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Is Zionism not, to some extent, an excrescence of Judaism? Why the near-religious divide between Zionism and Judaism? And, am I permitted at all even to ask? ~ilana

NEW ESSAY IS “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1).” It is a feature essay on The Unz Review (where readers can comment and debate) and has appeared on LewRockwell.com, anti-state, anti-war, pro-market. 

https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-chosenness-part-1/

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/05/ilana-mercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-chosenness/

Excerpt: 

Pro-Palestine commentators and activists, Jews and non-Jews, are religious about maintaining a bifurcation—a divide—between Judaism and Zionism. Advocates of this duality portray Judaism as humanistic, universal and pastoral, and Zionism as its opposite. In the commingled rumble of commentary over Zionism; Arab commentators have been conditioned, by necessity, to internalize the split and the exact fissure-lines, as though mouthing these were a protective amulet, a matter of survival; theirs, ours. It is, in a sense.

Why this near-religious bifurcation between Zionism and Judaism? Is Zionism, to some extent, not an excrescence of Judaism?

Biblical Chosenness is certainly a facet of Judaism. Does it relate not at all to the Jewish supremacy that animates Jewish-Israeli expression and express action? Are these not connected? If so, should the question posed, then, really be a Jewish-Israeli question? Or, perhaps a Judaism Question is more apropos?

And, am I permitted at all to even ask?

Composer of some of the best, most exquisite English prose, with insight to match, was novelist Anita Brookner. Through her Jewish protagonist in the novel Making Things Better (2002, p 22), Ms. Brookner writes that the gentleman’s Jewish “ancestral religion,” which he did not practice, “seemed to him an affair of prohibitions, of righteous exclusiveness for which he could see no justification.”

Miss Brookner, a rare gem and a genius, was a secular, unaffiliated Jew like myself. “Although resolutely secular in outlook,” Ms. Brookner also conveyed what I have long-since felt. It is that “the mystery of the Holy Spirit,” expressed in good will, gratitude and graciousness, seems absent from the encounters we Jewish outsiders, lonely people, have had within our “ancestral religion.”  (Loneliness is the theme that threads Brookner’s novels.)

Like Brookner, I do not speak ex cathedra of the vexation that is Jewishness. It is indubitably a delicate matter. And, although knowledgeable, I am not an “expert.”  However, to deny that eddying around the Jewish child is a sense of, or talk of, Jewish specialness—this would be dishonest. Whether you choose to imbibe “Chosenness” or not—I chose not to—as a Jew, you are likely to have been raised hearing about “Chosenness.”

The supremacy fallacy, it would thus seem, issues surely not strictly from “Zionism,” but from “Chosenness.”

The Chosen-People belief is as old as the Hebrew Bible itself. It is thus in the “Chosen People’s” philosophical marrow. For what—pray tell?—are foundational, early teachings like Deuteronomy 14:2, if not a declaration of Jewish superiority for posterity?

For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

 Alongside all the commentators and broadcasters who insist on upholding the division between Judaism and Zionism; I, too, very much hope that Zionism is not an instantiation or an extension, on some elemental level, of Judaism. I really do.

There are certainly universal elements in the Hebrew Testament. Deuteronomy, an early book, showcases an advanced concept of Jewish Social Justice, and is replete with instructions to …

… READ THE REST.  “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)” is on The Unz Review (where readers can comment and debate) and LewRockwell.com .

Forthcoming: “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?

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UPDATES 10/10: A Ceasefire Deal (As The Bombs Fall), But Not a Peace Agreement: What Will Happen in Gaza After Israeli POW And Scant Few Palestinian Hostages Are Released?

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, GAZA, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Judaism & Jews, Middle East, Palestinians

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SUPERB DISSECTION OF WHAT IS “A Ceasefire Deal, But Not a Peace Agreement: What Will Happen in Gaza After Hostages Are Released?”

Or, how I re-wrote the title, “A Ceasefire Deal (As The Bombs Fall), But Not a Peace Agreement: What Will Happen in Gaza After [Israeli POW] And Scant Few Palestinian Hostages Are Released

What an unusual assembly of excellent minds that speak truth: Mouin Rabbani, a Palestinian Middle East analyst favored greatly in my Gaza Essays, Muhammad Shehada, writer and analyst from Gaza whom I greatly esteem as well, and the best surprise: Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political analyst and scholar, and the first good intellect I’ve heard out of Israel since 2023. I mean it.

MOUIN RABBANI:

… this is an agreement. It’s not a peace agreement. It’s a ceasefire agreement, and a partial one. And given Israel’s previous conduct, and even more importantly, U.S. indulgence for Israel’s conduct, the indulgence of the West as a whole, this is a situation where Israel, should it so choose — and it will so choose, I suspect — will find a method to abrogate this agreement and ensure it is only of a temporary nature.

MUHAMMAD SHEHADA:

Well, the main thing that explains it is that tomorrow is the day where the Nobel Prize Committee will announce the Nobel Peace Prize winner. So, that’s the main thing that comes to mind. Otherwise, the second thing is Qatar. After Israel bombed Doha so viciously, Qatar has been demanding a price from the Trump administration. And Trump’s security reassurances that he gave in this executive order are practically worth nothing….
… This morning, Israel even intensified the bombing way more than before. It’s like they are in a rush, in a hurry, to kill as many people as possible and destroy much of the urban space as much as possible. They’ve been detonating those robotic suicide vehicles since yesterday. They’ve been bombing Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, Gaza City, Al-Sabra, Tel al-Hawa, al-Shati camp. I just saw footage where Israeli tanks are literally bombing people alive on television on the beach, the people that were trying to go back to their homes. One of our colleagues, Motasem Dalloul in Gaza, just lost his third son today, that was murdered by the IDF.

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO WHAT ORI GOLDBERG SAYS, and with whom I agree, about true politcal power in Israeli society:

… Netanyahu is not an aberration. He’s not an anomaly. He’s the quintessential Israeli prime minister. That’s why he keeps winning, not because he’s a magician who pulls cards out of his sleeve, because he knows this, this is what Israelis approve of. And consistent polling shows that he’s right. While Israelis may have protested his government, while certain sectors of Israeli society did not see themselves aligned with his ministers, the great majority of Israeli Jews supported his government’s policies in Gaza. That is not something that can be wished away. That is still true. His would-be competitors, his would-be heirs from the opposition have never said anything that differed significantly from the genocidal policies we’ve seen for the past two years in Gaza. Netanyahu knows this, and he is using this, as any savvy politician would, to situate himself for further battles….

… it’s more important to talk about Netanyahu himself and why this deal is good for him, not bad for him, because Netanyahu can now be the complete package. Netanyahu was the fearless leader who fought the difficult, inevitable war, but he is now the fearless leader who brings the difficult, inevitable deal. And he is the grown-up in the room. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are the adolescents. You know, they do whatever they want. They’re juvenile. They have no responsibility. Netanyahu knows what’s what. And he was able to bring the hostages back. And should a snap election be called in Israel over the next six months — there’s very good chance that it will — that makes Netanyahu perhaps the most favored candidate to win the prime ministership again. …
…   the Israeli public considers itself to have undergone the very difficult two years, sees itself as unrightfully victimized by its own government and by every global leader out there, an Israeli public that just wants to get back to normal, which means to repress the fact of the occupation and to return to life as a Jewish and democratic state, effectively an ethnocracy built on Jewish supremacy. …

The rest. 

Image courtesy WAFA NEWS

UPDATE 10/10/025: Ha’aretz’s distillation of the “Agreement” and the events around it:

Hamas is inclined to accept U.S. President Trump’s cease-fire plan if certain amendments are made, including a clear commitment from Israel to withdraw from Gaza, officials familiar with talks in Qatar told Haaretz. Israel’s defense ministry said the IDF is besieging Gaza City, adding that “those who remain in the city are terrorists and terror supporters.” The Red Cross said it was forced to temporarily suspend operations in Gaza City due to escalating hostilities. Israeli forces destroyed a stockpile of 15 rockets in the central West Bank, the IDF said. Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth at least 2.46 million euros since implementing a partial export halt on equipment that could be used in Gaza.

Demonstrators lift placards during an anti-government protest calling for a ceasefire and for action to secure the return of Israelis held hostage in Gaza, in front of the Likud party building in Tel Aviv on September 30, 2025.

TRUMP’S PEACE PLAN: Hamas is inclined to accept U.S. President Trump’s cease-fire plan, provided certain amendments are made, officials familiar with talks in Qatar told Haaretz, adding that negotiations cannot progress without a commitment from Israel to withdraw from Gaza. The sources noted that there is currently no timetable for the IDF’s exit from the Strip, nor does the plan adequately explain the demand that Hamas disarm its offensive capabilities.

According to sources, Hamas intends to clarify that it is willing to accept the outline as it was presented last week to Arab leaders, before PM Netanyahu made changes to it, and will likely request guarantees from Qatar, Turkey, the U.S. and other mediators that accepting the proposal does not lead to a situation in which Israel controls the Strip without any obligation to withdraw.

Hamas is consulting with other factions, including Islamic Jihad, to present a unified position in discussions with mediators, sources said, with one adding that Islamic Jihad is pushing to reject Trump’s plan. However, one source said, Hamas recognizes the consequences of outright rejection and has received messages from Gaza indicating that the vast majority of the public expects approval.

Arab diplomats who spoke with Haaretz stressed that Arab states will cooperate with Trump’s original plan as stated, but if Netanyahu, through his amendments or actions, works to undermine it, they will not cooperate. In such a case, they said, Trump would need to clarify whether he supports Netanyahu or stands by his original principles.

A Hamas official told the BBC that the group is expected to reject Trump’s plan, is not ready to disarm, and will not agree to an international force being stationed in the Strip, which it sees as a new form of occupation.

“In the days ahead, Netanyahu will likely attempt to launch a protracted negotiation with the administration regarding the terms of the agreement, its final language, and the implementation timeline. The fact that the drafters of the plan didn’t set a binding timetable for the IDF’s withdrawal could complicate things down the line. At the same time, Netanyahu will leverage objections from the messianic right-wing parties in his coalition and scatter hints and declarations aimed at stressing Hamas and making the organization’s leaders believe that Israel will violate the agreement when the opportunity arises. Israel already violated the previous agreement when it resumed the war last March. Since then, Trump has not lived up to his commitment to impose an agreement after Hamas released U.S.-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander” – Amos Harel

GAZA: The Hamas-run Health Ministry said that Israeli fire has killed 51 people, including four aid-seekers, over the past 24 hours. According to the ministry, two Palestinians died on Wednesday of starvation in Gaza, including a child, and 66,148 have been killed in Gaza since the war started.

The IDF is bisecting the Strip into north and south and besieging Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz said, adding that this is the “last chance for Gaza residents who are interested in moving south and leaving Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself in the face of IDF activity that continues at full strength” and that those who remain in the city are “terrorists and terror supporters.”

The IDF said it will close Al Rashid Street, the last remaining road connecting Gaza City with the rest of the Strip, effective 12 P.M. on Wednesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it has been forced to temporarily suspend operations in Gaza City and relocate staff due to escalating hostilities, adding that it “will continue to strive to provide support to civilians in Gaza City, whenever circumstances allow, from our offices in Deir al-Balah and Rafah, which remain fully operational.”

Data from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in recent days indicated a sharp decline in the number of deaths from hunger or malnutrition per day in the last 10 days from about five a day to an average of one person per day. Humanitarian workers said this likely stems either from Israel easing restrictions at the end of July and the subsequent improvement in food access, or from the chaos prevailing in hospitals, which is not allowing the ministry to properly collect data.

“Israel Defense Forces commanders say they fear that an extraordinary incident in the fighting in the Gaza Strip could cause the collapse of negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the new Trump proposal to end the war and bring home the hostages. They said they fear that an attack that results in a large number of civilian deaths or, alternatively, a Hamas operation that led to Israeli troop deaths, could result in renewed escalation and hinder the talks… The IDF brass is having a hard time hiding its desire to reach a deal and end the war in Gaza. Commanders in the field are having a hard time providing answers to the tens of thousands of reservists who have been called up in recent months for another round of combat. Therefore, the IDF wants to release as many reservists as possible the moment political leaders announce that the talks are progressing and that the fighting can be brought to a halt” – Yaniv Kubovich

GAZA FLOTILLA: The Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza said early on Wednesday that drone activity is increasing over the flotilla as it nears its destination. Italy and Greece called on Israel not to hurt activists aboard, and urged activists to accept a compromise proposal to hand over aid to the Catholic Church and avoid a direct confrontation with Israel. Flotilla members have repeatedly rejected the proposal, saying that a key part of their mission is to expose Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, which they consider unlawful.

ISRAEL: Four IDF soldiers were sentenced to 10 days in prison after refusing to travel in an unarmored Humvee in broad daylight along a dangerous route in Gaza, Israel’s public broadcaster reported. “Missions like this are done either in a tank, an armored vehicle or at night,” said one of the soldiers, adding that “we’re like sitting ducks there in daylight. It’s easy to get hit by a sniper or an RPG.”

Rocket sirens sounded in several Gaza border communities, the IDF said, adding that two rockets were likely intercepted and no casualties or damage were reported.

WEST BANK: Israeli forces located and destroyed a stockpile with 15 rockets in the central West Bank overnight into Wednesday, the IDF said.

Settlers set fire to a Palestinian-owned shed in the town of Hawara, Palestinian media reported.

GERMANY: Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth at least 2.46 million euros ($2.9 million) since implementing a partial export halt on equipment that could be used in the Gaza conflict, a response from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs to a parliamentary inquiry by Die Linke (The Left) party showed. The shipments involved “other military goods” and did not include weapons of war, the ministry said.

https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?e=275aff95df&u=d3bceadb340d6af4daf1de00d&id=f4e2a251c5

Kan News with the original agreement document:

https://x.com/gilicohen10/status/1976388647793410258

https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/politic/958603/

More important is what Diana Butto has to say:

“A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it.”