News Digest — 1/28/26
Herzog Announces Visit To Australia, Will Meet Australian Jews, Political Leaders During Trip
President Isaac Herzog announced an upcoming visit to Australia to meet with the local Jewish community and Australian officials on Tuesday (27th) with his office schedule indicating that he will depart on Feb. 8 and return on Feb. 12.
Herzog was invited to the country by the Governor-General, the Prime Minister of Australia, and the Australian Jewish community following the Bondi Beach massacre that occurred during a Jewish community Hanukkah event in which 15 people were killed, and hundreds were wounded last December.
Herzog will be meeting with the bereaved families of the victims of the terror attack, as well as with those injured and their families, according to the government statement.
“Accompanying the President on the visit will be a solidarity delegation from Israel’s National institutions, including the Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel, and the Chairman of the Jewish Agency MG. (res.) Doron Almog,” the Government Press Office (GPO) said.
While the main objective of the visit will be to show solidarity with Australian Jews, the GPO explained that Herzog will also be briefed on the activities of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, which both aim to strengthen Jewish communities in Australia especially in light of the recent rise in anti-Semitism.
Finally, the president will meet with government officials, including the Governor-General and the Prime Minister of Australia, as well as with leaders from across the political spectrum.
Herzog’s visit to Australia will occur almost a month and a half after he was invited by Australian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese on December 23, 2025.
Herzog was among the first Israeli officials to react to the Bondi Beach massacre, calling it “a very cruel attack on Jews who went to light the first candle of Hanukkah.”
“We repeat our alerts time and time again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of anti-Semitism which is plaguing Australian society.” he added, while he expressed his condolences to those wounded in the attack, sending “our warmest strength from Jerusalem.”
Days later, Albanese called Herzog to extend his invitation to visit the country. The GPO noted that the Australian Prime Minister also expressed “Profound shock and dismay” over the attack.
Hamas Wants 10,000 Of Its Police Officers In Gaza Administration
Hamas is seeking to include about 10,000 of its police officers in a proposed U.S. backed technocratic Palestinian administration for Gaza, Reuters reported, a demand likely to face Israeli opposition as pressure mounts on the terror group to surrender its weapons.
The development comes as an October ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump ties further Israeli troop withdrawal to Hamas giving up its arms.
Israel regards Hamas’ police and internal security forces as integral parts of the terrorist organizzation and has consistently rejected any Hamas role in Gaza’s future governance.
According to Reuters, a letter circulated Sunday (25th) by Gaza’s Hamas-run government instructed more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the new administration and said efforts were underway to incorporate them into it.
Four sources said this would include the roughly 10,000-member Hamas police force, many of whom have been patrolling the western half of Gaza as Hamas reasserts its authority there.
It remains unclear whether Israel would accept the inclusion of these personnel in the new governing structure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated publicly that disarmament of Hamas must take precedence over reconstruction of Gaza.
“Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas’ weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,“ Netanyahu said.
“As I agreed with President Trump, there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way or it will be done the hard way, but in any case it shall happen.” He added “I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen.”
Netanyahu also rejected suggestions that Turkish or Qatari soldiers would be allowed to operate in Gaza and dismissed proposals for a Palestinian state under current conditions.
Islamic Jihad’s Dirty Secret – Exposed
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror organization knowingly launched defective rockets which killed hundreds of Palestinian Arabs during the war in Gaza Kan Reshet Bet revealed.
A document discovered during the war showed that Hamas leadership was aware that PIJ’s rockets caused a lot of damage and both hurt and killed Gaza civilians.
The document, which is a summary of a heated meeting in Beirut between a Hamas official named Ahmed and Akram al-AJouri, the head of PIJ’s militant wing, shows Hamas’ anger over the rockets, which were imprecise and caused severe casualties on the ground.
Al-Ajouri did not hesitate to admit that they were aware of the rockets’ technical issues and explained that it was the price of war. “Even if a thousand people were killed by friendly fire, that is the price of war,” he said.
The document reveals the bitter truth, not only Hamas, but even the Islamic Jihad knew well that the rockets were imprecise and caused the deaths of many Palestinian Arab families.
The most widely reported such case was the explosion in the courtyard of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City during the first month of the war. Hamas accused Israel of a massacre at that time, but footage proved that a rocket launched by PIJ landed in that location at that time.
Danon Removes Hostage Pin At UN Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony
The main ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day was held Tuesday (27th) at the UN General Assembly in the presence of UN Secretary-General Guterres and General Assembly President Baerbock.
As part of the event, a testimony was given in Hebrew by Holocaust survivor Sara Weinstein for the first time from the assembly stage.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said at the ceremony, “We remember the six million, but today, memory is not enough. While we stand here, Jews are being attacked and hatred is spreading. ‘Never again’ cannot remain a slogan. It must become action now.”
The ambassador added, “When anti-Semitic lies are told in the halls of the UN, they receive an official stamp and turn into violence in the streets. This is not freedom of expression, it is anti-Semitism.”
The ambassador paid tribute to the IDF soldiers: “IDF soldiers today defend the Jewish people so they can live without fear.”
Danon criticized the UN saying, “Hatred does not spread on its own. It is enabled, it is legitimized, it is given authority, especially over the last two years. This institution, the UN, has failed the test.”
“Hamas comes with the same hatred and the same intent as the Nazis – to murder Jews,” he added. “But unlike 1941, today, there is a different reality. We crushed and stopped Hamas’ terror machine.”
Danon also addressed the recovery of the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, and symbolically removed his hostage pin. “We brought home every hostage. Every single one of them. We waited 843 days. Today, the pin finally comes off,” he said.
Palestinians Must Accept Accountability For Oct. 7 – Yoni Michanie
No serious post-conflict framework treats representation as an automatic right detached from responsibility. Postwar governance is not a reward for suffering; it is a mechanism for preventing recurrence. That distinction matters.
When a governing authority initiates war through mass violence against civilians – deliberately targeting noncombatants and engaging in systematic hostage-taking – it forfeits legitimacy over the political space it controls. The institutions, narratives, and power structures that produced the violence cannot be entrusted with overseeing their own dismantling.
But what happens when those power structures enjoy overwhelming popular support? In December 2023, polling by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 3/4 of Palestinians supported Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7. Support was particularly high in the West Bank, where backing for the assault reached 82%. Subsequent polling showed sustained majorities backing the decision to launch the attack, with support remaining above 70% even months into the war.
This presents a challenge. We are discussing a popular consensus endorsing an operation characterized by systematic atrocities against Israelis: mass civilian casualties, sexual violence, torture, and the abduction of 250 hostages including children and the elderly. When so much of the Palestinian population endorses an attack involving the deliberate massacre of civilians, this reveals that Oct. 7 was not merely tolerated or rationalized as a necessary evil but embraced as a defining moment of collective identity – something that made the Palestinians feel proud.
Calls for automatic Palestinian representation on governing bodies rest on the idea that populations should have agency in determining their political future. But what happens when Palestinian democratic sentiment produces an overwhelming mandate for violence against Israeli civilians? What happens when the “will of the people” is inseparable from the endorsement of atrocity? Defining the political framework to prevent another Oct. 7 requires demonstrated rejection of the violence that 75% of Palestinians endorsed.
Agency for the Palestinians is not the right to immediate political control regardless of recent conduct. It is the capacity to make choices and bear responsibility for their consequences. Palestinians made choices on and around Oct. 7. Those choices included overwhelming support for an operation that systematically violated the most basic prohibitions of international humanitarian law. The road to Palestinian political autonomy runs through moral accountability, not around it.
Anti-Semitism Is Permeating Everyday Life – Or Moshe
For years, Jews have been warning that the threats we were told belonged to history were not gone, only dormant. Too often, those warnings were dismissed as anxiety or an inability to let go of the past. They were not. What has changed is the intensity of anti-Semitism, its visibility and the speed at which it moves from words to violence. What once hid behind anonymity now plays out in public spaces, in democratic societies, in countries that pride themselves in tolerance.
Jews are being attacked, targeted, and killed in acts of anti-Semitic violence around the world. During a Jewish Hanukkah gathering in Australia, arned attackers opened fire in daylight. When Jews can be shot for celebrating a holiday, the meaning is unmistakable. And it is escalating.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, what once required masks and anonymity, now often requires none. What once drew universal condemnation now frequently draws explanation. The distance between speech and violence has narrowed, and Jews feel it every day. Jewish schools operate behind gates and armed guards as a permanent reality.
Jewish pain is qualified, contextualized, explained away. Violence against Jews is treated as a reaction rather than an atrocity. Fear is treated as an exaggeration. Mourning is treated as politics. At what point did being Jewish make grief negotiable?
Political disagreement does not justify shooting at Jewish homes, attacking synagogues, or terrorizing Jewish children. Jews around the world do not command Israeli policy, nor do they serve as its proxies. Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of a government one disagrees with is no protest, it is antu-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism today sometimes presents itself as moral clarity. It claims righteousness while denying Jews the right to safety, dignity, and self-defense. The most dangerous part of this moment is how quickly it is normalized. Violence against Jews should not be tolerated under any ideological cover. When Jews are not safe, something fundamental is breaking.
The writer is a student at Reichman University in Israel
