News Digest — 2/9/26
Herzog Honors Bondi Victims: We must Fight Terror Together
President Isaac Herzog, who began an official visit to Australia on Monday (9th), visited the site of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack, where 15 people were murdered, and laid a wreath at the site.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, Herzog said that while the terrorists who carried out the attack specifically targeted Australian Jews,” this was also an attack on Australians. They attacked the values that our democracies treasure, the sanctity of human life, the freedom of religion, tolerance, dignity, and respect.”
“This is how terror operates all around the world. And sadly, Israel has faced the deadly threat of terror for many, many years. In the face of this evil, we saw the very best of humanity,” he continued. “Suddenly, here on Bondi, surfboards became trenches and stretchers as extraordinary, ordinary people ran into the danger and saved innocent lives. And in the aftermath of the attack, the people of Australia stood together in grief and solidarity with the Jewish community. The world’s only Jewish state, the State of Israel and the Nation of Israel, stood together with the Australian people. We stood with Australian Jews, for we are one big family, and when one Jew is hurt,all Jews feel the pain. That is why I am here today, to embrace and console the bereaved families.”
Herzog warned that “anti-Semitism here in Australia is not a Jewish problem. It is an Australian problem and a global problem. Over the generations, one thing has become clear, hatred that starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. This is why the current rise in anti-Semitism around the world is a global emergency, and we must all act to fight against it. I welcome the positive steps already taken by the Australian government to tackle anti-Semetism since the Bondi attack. Leaders across all sectors of society must speak out clearly and constantly against anti-Semitism because silence in the face of hatred is complicity.”
“We have here bereaved Israeli families who came from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and came from the war, in order to express their condolences here in Bondi, but also to make a clear statement and a message. We should all fight terror together. Terror is what undermines the will’s availability of peace and the notion of peace in our region… terror is unacceptable by any means.”
“And finally,”, he continued,”I want to send a message to our brothers and sisters all over the world, you’re not alone. The nation and the State of Israel are with you. The Jewish people are with you. We should stand together and we should be proud of our identity, our Jewish identity.”
Herzog, alongside First Lady Michal Herzog, arrived in Australia earlier in the day for the official four-day visit to the country at the invitation of the Governor-General, the Prime Minister of Australia, and the Jewish community, following the murderous terror attack during a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney, December 2025.
Cabinet Approves Sweeping Changes To Land , Planning And Municipality Authority In Judea And Samaria
Israel’s political-security cabinet approved a package of decisions Sunday (8th) that reshapes how land, planning, and municipal authority function for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The measures, led by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and drafted by the Settlement Administration in the Defense Ministry, focus on lifting regulatory hurdles, canceling legacy Jordanian statutes, and speeding development processes in the area.
One of the most significant changes addresses land records.
Unlike registries inside the Green Line, documentation in Judea and Samaria had remained restricted from public view, complicating transactions and opening the door to fraud. The cabinet ordered those registries to be made public to improve transparency and enable lawful purchases.
The government also revoked a Jordanian prohibition on selling property to Jews. Until now, Jewish buyers often had to route purchases through registered companies and obtain special approval from the Civil Administration.
The new policy removes the transaction permit requirement and its restrictions on sales to foreigners placing purchases on a footing similar to procedures used in Israeli cities.
Approval by the Deputy Commander for Land Registration will be replaced by professional qualification standards, easing constraints in the real estate process.
Planning authority in Hebron will also shift. Building permits for Jewish areas near the Cave of the Patriarchs and other holy sites had faced delays linked to the Palestinian municipality.
Authority will now be transferred directly to Civil Administration planning bodies, The cabinet further granted the Hebron Directorate full municipal powers to manage local services and enforcement.
Rachel’s Tomb, located within Bethlehem’s municipal boundaries, will receive a dedicated administrative body to oversee sanitation, waste removal, landscaping and maintenance, addressing long-standing service gaps.
In addition, the cabinet approved expanding state oversight in Area A and B, targeting water violations, environmental hazards, and damage to archaeological sites.
The government will also reactivate a land-purchase committee that has been dormant for roughly two decades, enabling renewed state acquisition of land reserves intended for future settlement development.
Top Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal Rejects Disarmament Or Foreign Rule
A senior Hamas leader said Sunday (8th) that the Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas would neither surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.
“Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept, “ Khaled Mashaal said at a conference in Doha.
“As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of people under occupation…something nations take pride in,” said Mashaal, who previously headed the terror group.
“Hamas proposed a truce of five to seven to 10 years. This is a guarantee that these weapons are not used,” Mashaal said, adding that the mediators would serve as guarantors of such a deal and that those countries – Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – are working to sell the idea to the Trump administration.
It was unclear whether he was referring to the idea of decommissioning weapons, which envisions them being gathered and stored in a warehouse guarded by Arab mediating countries.
Hamas, which vows to destroy Israel, launched a deadly cross-border onslaught into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, amid acts of horrific brutality, and taking 251 people as hostages, triggering the Gaza war that raged for two years.
An October, 2025 US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which forces the demilitarization of the territory, including the disarmament of Hamas, along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have insisted that the terror group must give up its arms in the near future. Trump has repeatedly asserted that Hamas “promised” to lay down its arms, and has threatened the group over the issue.
At least publicly , however, Hamas has never agreed to lay down its arms.
Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza explicitly says that Hamas must give up its weapons, but the Hamas statement endorsing the plan contained significant caveats and did not directly mention disarmament.
Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority,
Israel has warned that it could renew its military campaign in the enclave if Hamas does not disarm.
In December, Mashaal said the terror group can “store” the weapons, but it won’t give them up.
“Disarmament for a Palestinian means stripping away his very soul,” Mashaal said in an interview with Al Jazeera at the time.
Israeli officials say Hamas still has around 20,000 gunmen and large amounts of weaponry, including tens of thousands of rifles.
A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how it will address the issue of demilitarization.
Visiting Israeli Border, Lebanese Foreign Minister Vows To Expand State Authority; Against Hezbollah
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday (7th), pledging reconstruction and lamenting frequent strikes on the area as a “blow to our dignity.”
It was his first trip to the southern border area since the Lebanese Army said in early January that it had completed its mission of disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani River.
Under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement, the Iran-backed terror group was required to withdraw and disarm south of the river, but Israel alleges that the group remains entrenched in the area, leading to dear-daily air strikes.
“The challenges today are great, but they do not push us to retreat, rather they increase our determination to overcome the obstacles,” he said about the security situation in the country’s south,” according to Lebanese media reports.
“Boarder towns are being attacked on a daily basis, and this is a blow to our dignity,” Salam said, emphasizing that his visit was meant to underscore the presence of the Lebanese state in the south of the country, which has been a stronghold of Hezbollah for decades.
Expanding state authority, he said, means not only deploying the army and restoring security, but also restoring public services for residents.
Lebanon’s government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of the plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border, about 20 miles further south.
Visiting Tayr Harfa, around two miles from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered “a true catastrophe.”
He vowed authorities would begin key projects, including restoring roads, communications networks, and water in the two towns.
Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.
In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials, including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would “rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure, and power lines in the district.”
Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon’s post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost $11 billion in total. Salam said funds, including those from the Work Bank, would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.
On Friday (6th) , French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited Beirut, and said that Lebanon’s army must be given the means to disarm Hezbollah and replace the United Nations peacekeeping force after its mandate ends this year.
France’s vision for Lebanon is that of a strong, sovereign state holding a monopoly on arms,” Barrot said, adding that “the Lebanese government has shouldered its responsibilities by launching and carrying through completion of the first phase of this disarmament plan.”
“The second phase must now begin, and the plan associated with it is to be presented in the coming days, before the conference is held,” he continued, referring to the March 5 meeting in Paris.
The second phase concerns the area between the Litani and the Avali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.
Hezbollah has so far refused to hand over its weapons north of the Litani.
The Israel-Hezbollah war began when the terror group began firing missiles across the border on October 8, 2023 – a day after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The November 2024 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel followed an Israeli ground invasion and concurrent air assault that severely degraded the group and killed much of their leadership.
If Qatar And Turkey Are Involved In Gaza Schools, They Will Deepen Anti-Israel Indoctrination – Aviram Bellaishe
Hanas is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. For decades Brotherhood clerics issued fatwas obligating every Muslim to armed jihad against Israel. Qatar has hosted the Brotherhood’s global leadership for 60 years. In 1961, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, arrived in Doha. Qatar funded him and gave him an Al Jazeera platform reaching 60 million viewers. Qatar also transferred billions to Hamas, whose leaders live in Doha five-star hotels.
Turkish President Erdogan’s AKP party is the Turkish arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, assisting its establishment of schools and media channels throughout Turkey. After Egypt’s 2013 coup, Erdogan granted asylum to 1,500 Brotherhood members. On Oct. 25, 2023, Erdogan said,” Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a group of mujahideen defending their land.”
Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. But a Washington Institute poll found 75% of Egyptians view Hamas positively, and 94% believe Hamas did not kill civilians on Oct. 7. On Oct. 18,2023, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a premier center of Sunni Islamic learning, issued a fatwa declaring that “Zionists civilians on occupied land are not worthy of the description of civilians.” While Egypt’s government fights the Brotherhood, Egypt;s religious establishment supports Hamas
Qatari textbooks teach children that “treachery and treason are among the traits of the Jews.” Turkish textbooks call Jews “infidels.” If Qatar and Turkey are involved in Gaza schools, they will deepen anti-Israel indoctrination.
The writer, vice president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, has served in senior government positions for over 25 years.
The Name “West Bank” Erases The Truth – Gideon Israel
In the Middle East, a place name is never just a name – it is a claim. For decades, the term “West Bank” has stripped the land of its historical identity. A mid-20th-century substitution, it replaced the indigenous names Judea and Samaria to sever the Jewish connection to the region. Now U.S. lawmakers in a dozen states and both houses of Congress are advancing legislation to restore these original names in official U.S.documents.
Judea and Samaria are crucial to Israel’s survival. Their ridges tower up to 3,000 feet over the coastal plain where 70% of Israel’s population and Ben-Gurion Airport reside. These highlands are a strategic asset that protects the country from invasion. Without them, Israel would be less than 10 miles wide at its narrowest point and indefensible.
Samaria is a region mentioned more than 100 times in the Bible as the heart of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. To the south, Judea is the birthplace of the line of King David. Even under the Persian Empire, Judea was the official administrative name for the province. Christian scriptures treat Judea and Samaria as the actual districts on the Roman map proving that a millennium after the kings of Israel, the world still used these names.
When the UN drafted the 1947 Partition Plan, it repeatedly referred to Judea and Samaria. The transition to “West Bank” occurred in 1950, when Jordan annexed the territory and sought to justify a Jordanian presence west of the Jordan River. Its rule lasted less than two decades, yet it managed to cloud thousands of years of history. (Wall Street Journal)
(wsj.com)
