Just a few weeks ago, political adverts for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition were kind of funny. The cleverly scripted video poking fun at caricatures of secular-left wing Israelis, while a closeted right-wing family member tried to "come out" as a Netanyahu-supporter, made even some lefties chuckle at themselves. Now things have taken a darker turn.
This week, the videos pumped out by the prime minister and his loyalist entourage, some AI-generated, raise a grimace rather than a smile. These are no cheeky, surrealist Iranian-sponsored, antisemitic Lego-hip hop trolling videos ; rather, the scenes look like they were developed by solitary incels, trolling the dark-web for evidence of conspiracies against them.
Moreover, each of the two prominent pro-government (rather, anti-opposition) videos look guaranteed to backfire. One was posted by the prime minister himself. It shows a perturbed looking young man, alone in his dimly-lit room reading George Orwell's "1984." The guy then turns on the TV and watches escalating incidents of political persecution against right-wingers by a new government led by Naftali Bennett and other opposition figures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday.Credit: Ronen Zvulun/AFP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday.Credit: Ronen Zvulun/AFP
He's lying in a narrow bed on his left side, curled up, lost in deep sleep. It's the middle of the day, but nothing happening in the room wakes him up. He's got bandages on various parts of his body, which is full of bullet holes: two in his stomach, two in the back and buttocks, one in an ankle. Serious wounds.
Bloodstained bandages and a cast, which he tore off his leg shortly before we arrived, lie on the floor. Next to him is a hospital bed that was originally brought in for his father, who needs dialysis treatments; there is also a walker and a wheelchair used by the father, now a shadow of his former self.
Mohammed Shahimi, at home this week in Duma. Past experience with outposts, particularly in this area, shows that settler violence typically knows no limits – including, apparently, shooting a helpless man.Credit: Alex LevacMohammed Shahimi, at home this week in Duma. Past experience with outposts, particularly in this area, shows that settler violence typically knows no limits – including, apparently, shooting a helpless man.Credit: Alex Levac
On Monday, the son, Mohammed Shahimi, 30, escaped from Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where he was recovering from being shot five times by a settler, two days earlier. The physicians said that because of his many wounds, he had to remain in the hospital for at least two weeks. But on Monday, just as his older brother was about to set out to visit him from their home in the village of Duma, the wounded man showed up at the front door of their house. He'd taken a taxi from Nablus, without having money to pay for it.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi departed for Tehran on Saturday for meetings with senior Iranian officials, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said Naqvi would discuss the progress of negotiations between Iran and the United States during his visit, without providing further details.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, right, shakes hands with Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, in May.Credit: Hamed Malekpour/AP Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, right, shakes hands with Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, in May.Credit: Hamed Malekpour/AP
IDF strikes killed four people in Gaza City, including two children in an attack on an apartment building, according to Palestinian reports in the Gaza Strip.
An IDF strike on an apartment killed a father and two daughters – the mother was wounded and evacuated for medical treatment.
One person was killed in a separate drone strike in the city.
Children watch from atop a promontory overlooking shelters for people displaced by war, as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.Credit: AFP/EYAD BABAChildren watch from atop a promontory overlooking shelters for people displaced by war, as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.Credit: AFP/EYAD BABA
At least five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese town of Arabsalim on Saturday morning, Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported, despite a cease-fire agreed on Friday between Israel and Hezbollah.
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel on Friday.Credit: Leo Correa/AP Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel on Friday.Credit: Leo Correa/AP
NNA said Israeli warplanes and drones carried out a series of strikes across the Nabatieh area overnight and into the morning, destroying residential buildings and houses, while Israeli artillery shelled Nabatieh and its outskirts before dawn.
Steve Witkoff with IDF Chief Eyal Zamir in Gaza, October.Credit: IDF Spokesperson's unitSteve Witkoff with IDF Chief Eyal Zamir in Gaza, October.Credit: IDF Spokesperson's unit
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were both headed to Switzerland for talks, Axios said on Friday, as a cease-fire in Lebanon appeared to revive efforts to turn an interim Iran war pact into a lasting regional deal.
The start of the negotiations on the agreement, which was scheduled to take place on Friday in Switzerland, was postponed. The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen network reported that the Iranian negotiating delegation delayed its arrival due to Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations on Friday when Israel's ambassador and the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing.
At a meeting in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, demanded the resignation of Pramila Patten, who produced a report that blacklisted Israel for such alleged abuses for the first time, accusing her of bias.
"You caved to the secretary-general's obsession with targeting Israel," Danon said, referring to UN chief Antonio Guterres.
Another UN official, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres' representative for children and armed conflict and compiler of a separate report that also blacklists Israel, interjected by shouting a point of order. She demanded that Danon refrain from "personal attacks" and added that she had "verified evidence."
Danon said Frazier should be quiet. "We are a member state, and you work for the UN, and you will be quiet now. You will be quiet ... you and your shameful report," he said.
Frazier, Malta's former UN ambassador, issued her report this week on behalf of Guterres warning that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for violations against children as the UN chief voiced alarm at what he called a "staggering" rise in violations against Palestinian children.
Israel itself already features in that report's so-called list of shame annexes for alleged violations. When Patten's report was issued last month, Danon called it "a new low" and Israel's foreign ministry vowed to sever all ties with Guterres, who leaves office after 10 years at the year-end. Both reports also blacklist Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning a trip to the Middle East next week and is expected to visit Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain, Axios reported on Friday, citing two sources.
Rubio is expected to hold a summit with foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain, Axios reported later, citing a third unidentified source. The State Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for confirmation.
