News Digest — 12/2/25
US House Passes Bill Barring October 7 Attackers From Entering US
The US House of Representatives on Monday (1st) passed legislation that would make participants in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel inadmissible to the United States, JNS reported.
The “No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025,” introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock (R.-CA), amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar “any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to or otherwise facilitated any of the attacks against Israel initiated by Hamas beginning on Oct. 7, including members of Hamas and islamic Jihad.”
The bill has 18 Republican co-sponsors, among them Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and Ann Wagner (R-MO).
The bill passed the House by voice vote with no objections and now heads to the Senate, which previously failed to act on an earlier version.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Democrats supported the legislation but opposed amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to cite specific terror acts. He argued that members of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations like Hamas are already banned from entering the US.
McClintock countered that Hamas should join the Nazi Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as groups whose members are explicitly barred under US law.
“Does anyone seriously argue that we should repeal the sanctions against persons who aided and abetted the Nazis” Holocaust?” McClintock asked. “If not, then why oppose extending the same sanctions to the Nazis’ would-be modern-day successors, who just two years ago slaughtered more than 1,200 innocent civilians, including children and infants and the elderly, because they were Jewish?”
He cited the case of Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, a Gaza-born resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, charged last month for taking part in the Oct. 7 attacks and then entering the US in 2024.
“New laws would be helpful to prevent a future Joe Biden from making a mockery of our sovereignty and reopening our borders to the most violent criminal gangs and terrorists on the planet,” McClintock said.
US Said To Warn Iraq That Israel Will Strike Militias That Seek To Aid Hezbollah
US Envoy Tom Barrack reportedly warned Iraq’s leaders om Sunday (11/30) that Israel would carry out strikes on militias in Iraq if they seek to aid Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy on Syria, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Baghdad.
In a statement, Sudani’s office said the pair discussed “preventing any further escalation in the region,” and that Barrack stressed Iraq’s “constructive and essential role” in such a goal.
The state-owned Saudi Al -Hadath TV network reported Monday (1st) that Barrack warned Iraq of a “harsh Israeli strike,” if Iraq factions seek to intervene in support of Hezbollah.
Citing sources, the station said Barrack told Baghdad that Israel’s operations in Lebanon will “continue until Hezbollah is disarmed.”
According to the New Arab news outlet — citing its Arabic-language sister site – Barrack warned Sudani to stop Iraqi groups from providing Hezbollah with military and financial support.
Citing an Iraqi source, the website said Barrack’s visit to Baghdad was designed to pass on the Trump administration’s positions on the current situation in both Syria and Lebanon.
“The Americans don’t want Iraq to interfere in the affairs of Syria or Lebanon, specifically the armed factions allied with Iran,” the anonymous source told the news site.
Sudani won re-election last month in a national vote in Iraq, and now seeks to bring balance to a country in a region racked with turmoil.
Tensions between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon have ratcheted up over the past week. The IDF has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah targets, which it accuses of violating the ceasefire, including killing the group’s chief of staff in a rare strike on Beirut last week.
In Syria, IDF soldiers engaged in a rare gunfight with gunmen in southern Syria on Friday (11/28) during an arrest operation that Israel said it carried out due to intelligence warning of imminent attacks.
Over the past two years, as Israel fought wars on numerous fronts, it held back from any strikes on forces in Iraq – even as militias there fired drones at Israel – likely due to the heavy presence of US forces in the country.
Iraq seeks to maintain a delicate balance between its allies, Iran, and the US, even more so now that the Middle East is undergoing seismic changes, with new alliances forming and old powers weakening.
Even as its influence wanes, Iran hopes to preserve its power in Iraq – challenging the US with powerful Tehran-backed armed groups, and keeping the Iraqi market open to products from its crippled economy. Washington, which holds much sway in Iraq and has forces deployed there, conversely hopes to cripple Iran’s influence, and has been pressuring Baghdad to disarm the pro-Iran groups.
US President Donald Trump has made it clear that he is seeking a de-escalation across the region, pushing Israel to move ahead with the Gaza ceasefire and reach a deal with Damascus, and pressuring Beirut to rapidly disarm Hezbollah in order to stabilize the shaky truce there. Trump warned Israel on Monday (1st) not to “interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state.”
Netanyahu Praises Milei’s Moral Clarity On Israel Ties
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday (11/29) thanked Argentine President Javier Milei for recent remarks of support, saying they “touched the heart of every Israeli.”
Milei spoke at the Delegacion de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA), the umbrella organization of Argentina’s Jewish community.
“While the vast majority of the free world decided to turn its back on the Jewish state, we extended a hand to it, while the vast majority turned a deaf ear to the growth of anti-Semitism in their lands, we denounced it with even greater fervor, because evil cannot be met with indifference but must be confronted with a force of equal magnitude, yet in the opposite direction,” the Argentine leader said,
In social media posts, Netanyahu praised Milei’s “moral clarity, vision, and courage,” describing them as signals of a “new era of common sense, mutual interests, and values between Israel and Latin America.”
“Together, and in tandem with US leadership under President Trump, we will elevate our relations to new heights,” Netanyahu wrote. “I invite our friends across the continent—those who believe in freedom, security, and prosperity—to join the Isaac Accords.”
The framework is modeled on the Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab nations brokered during Trump’s first term. In addition to Argentina, the initial stage of the Isaac Accords includes Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica.
The Genesis Prize Foundation announced in August the launch and $1 million in initial funding for a new nonprofit organization, the American Friends of the Isaac Accords.
Milei, a proud philosemite, has dramatically shifted Argentina’s foreign policy toward an alliance with the United States and Israel, after decades of Argentine governments—both left and right-wing—favoring Arab countries.
Accepting the Genesis Prize in Jerusalem on June 12, Milei said, “I hold deep admiration for Israel – its history, its people, and its unwavering spirit. I am honored that the Genesis Prize Foundation has chosen to recognize our country’s strong relationship with Israel. I trust that this gesture may inspire deeper dialogue and cooperation throughout the region, based on shared values such as freedom, democracy, and mutual respect.”
Defense Ministry D-G Baram Flies To Germany To Unveil Israeli-Made Arrow Missile Defense System
Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram departed on Monday (1st) for Germany, where he will later participate in the official unveiling and deployment of the Israeli-supplied Arrow 3 missile defense system later this week.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday (11/30) that the ceremony and the unveiling were imminent for later this week.
The $3.6 billion deal will be the first time the Arrow 3 is deployed outside Israel. Continued movement on the issue comes on one hand as Berlin continues to buy weapons from Israel, while at the same time it is removing a temporary, but lengthy, weapons sale ban on Jerusalem over the recently concluded Israel-Hamas war.
While IAI is the prime contractor for the weapon system’s development and production, the Arrow interceptors and radar detection system, and Elbit Systems is responsible for the development of the command and control system, Timer and Rafael Advanced Systems are the main subcontractors for the development and production of the Arrow 3 interceptor.
(jpost.com)
Officials Push For New West Bank City As “Security Belt” For Central Israel
More than two years after unveiling the “Million in Samaria” vision to grow the region’s population to one million by 2050, officials from the Shomron Regional Council and the city of Rosh HaAyin launched a joint call Monday (1st) to establish a new city in the West Bank hills east of Rosh HaAyin.
The proposed city, to be named “East Rosh HaAyin,” would house more than 130,000 residents and be built on state land currently used as an agricultural outpost in the Western Samaria highlands. Its backers say the city would function both as a demographic boost and a “security belt” for central Israel, protecting areas like Rosh HaAyin from future threats akin to the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, and Rosh HaAyin Mayor Raz Sagi made their announcement during a visit to the Lerner family farm, located between the communities of Peduel, Leshem, Bruchin, and Alei Zahav. The site overlooks Rosh HaAyin and, according to Dagan, symbolizes how close and strategically vital the Samaria ridgelines are to Israel’s central cities.
“This farm is already the beginning of Rosh HaAyin’s protective belt,” Dagan said. “When we stand here and see the city’s rooftops beneath our fingertips, we understand how critical settlement in Samaria is–not only ideologically, but strategically.”
The farm also includes the “Shir David” ranch, named after civilian contractor David Libi, who was killed in the recent war in Gaza. Dagan and Sagi were joined at the site by former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, who helped initiate the project.
In the past two months, teams from both municipalities have been developing a joint planning framework. According to a statement released by the two leaders, the city would stretch from the eastern neighborhoods of Rosh HaAyin to the Leshem settlement, forming a continuous urban and rural bloc.
“We must create a chain of farms that will quickly grow into a city–East Rosh HaAyin,” said Mayor Sagi. “We call on the government to start with the eastern neighborhoods and extend all the way to Leshem. This is where we will live and work together.”
Dagan added: “We urge the government to pass an official resolution to establish a new city here that will serve as a real security belt for Israel’s heartland.”
The Collapse Of Hezbollah’s Legitimacy – Makram Rabah
For decades, Hezbollah built its legitimacy on the promise that its weapons exist to deter Israel and protect Lebanon. Yet today, the central premise of this narrative has collapsed. The deterrence that Hezbollah claimed to embody was an illusion.
The question of whether Hezbollah will respond to the elimination of its military commander, Ali Tabatabai, misses a more fundamental point: Hezbollah no longer holds the freedom to respond. That decision will be made by Tehran and the Revolutionary Guards. The “Axis of resistance” stripped of its mythology, is exposed as a fragile and centralized apparatus whose decisions are dictated by Iran’s calculations – ones that today are constrained , cautious, and deeply pragmatic.
This reality dismantles Hezbollah’s core claim that it represents an autonomous Lebanese resistance project. After October 7, Hezbollah opened the northern front not to protect Lebanon, but to support Hamas, in a decision coordinated directly with Iran. The result was the very opposite of deterrence.
Israel is waging a campaign defined by precision, intelligence dominance, and an unrelenting tempo. It is annihilating Hezbollah’’s frontline commanders, targeting its infrastructure, and striking within Palestinian refugee camps when necessary — all while denying the group any arena in which it can claim symbolic victory.
The battlefield is being shaped by Israeli air superiority, intelligence infiltration, and technological advantage. Hezbollah now finds itself fighting a war it did not design, at a pace it cannot control, and under rules dictated by an adversary that no longer fears its mythology.
The writer is an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut. (Al Arabiya)
