Agence France-Presse April 20, 2025
‘Changing the paradigm’:

Israel’s increasing use of advanced technology on the battlefield, from air defense systems to a broad range of AI-driven intelligence tools, has been
well-documented but also criticized for inaccuracies, lack of human oversight and potential violations of international law.

Analysts say the growing Israeli deployment of the Robdozer reflects broader global trends toward automation in heavy combat vehicles, like remote-controlled personnel carriers that operate much like drones.

An Israeli military official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that
the army has been using “robotic tools for over a decade, but in very small numbers. Now it is being used in large-scale warfare.”

Troops can now operate machinery without having to enter enemy territory

Andrew Fox, a retired British army major and a research fellow at the London-based Henry Jackson Society, said
the Israeli military was likely the first force to use remote-controlled combat machinery in an active war zone.

“It’s a really big development” that is “changing the paradigm” of warfare, carrying out tasks as effectively but at a far reduced risk to personnel

Agence France-Presse April 20, 2025
A new era of war: “This is the future,”

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the US military’s Modern War Institute at West Point said “This is the future,”
Many “have been experimenting with it, but nobody has seen direct deployment into active modern combat,” he added. “It is very unique.”

But beyond ethical and legal drawbacks to such advanced technology, there is also the need for an overriding human presence to make decisions particularly in unusual situations.

The October 7, 2023 attack — when some Hamas terrorists breached the high-security border to invade southern Israel, where it killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages starting the Gaza war — was a disastrous example for that, said Tal Mimran of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mimran, a lecturer and researcher of international law who has been closely following the Israeli military’s technological developments
1. “October 7 showed us that you can build a wall that may cost $1 billion,
2. but if you do not patrol the border then someone will infiltrate your country,”


“We must take note of the opportunities and of the risks of technology,” he said.
“This is the era in which artificial intelligence is exploding into our lives, and it is only natural that it will also have a manifestation in the security field.”

Reuters and The Times of Israel April 23, 2025

Relations between Israel in the Vatican have soured amid the Gaza war, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages

Not the act of a religious leader
Pope Francis, who visited Israel in 2014 called repeatedly for the hostages’ release and met often with their family, but became increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct as the war dragged on

In a letter to Middle East Catholics on the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught
1. Francis did not mention the Palestinian terror group by name
2. or explicitly reference its atrocities.

At the end of November
1. he went a step further and denounced “the invader’s arrogance” in both “Ukraine” and “Palestine,”
2. thus breaking with the Holy See’s modern tradition of neutrality.

And in a book excerpt published that month, he said some international experts had posited that
“what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

In December,
1. Francis twice slammed Israel’s “cruelty” in Gaza,
2. and provoked further outrage in Jerusalem by inaugurating a nativity scene at the Vatican
3. that featured the baby Jesus a Jew lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol

In January, the pope called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “shameful,” prompting criticism from Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, who accused Francis of “selective indignation.”

Israel’s then-ambassador Raphael Schutz had lobbied the Vatican’s Secretariat of State repeatedly in late 2023 and throughout 2024 for the pope to be more forceful in his condemnation of the Hamas onslaught.

“There is a simple distinction, one side is murdering, raping, and does not care about those on their own side.
The other side is engaged in a war of self-defense,” Schutz said in 2023.

Reuters and The Times of Israel April 23, 2025
According to the Israeli embassy to the Vatican, it will be represented at Francis’s funeral by Yaron Sideman, who has been its ambassador since September.

“It’s a low point in a spiral,” said one diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I hope both sides will be able to overcome the differences and climb out of this together.”

Israel to merely send envoy to Pope’s funeral as Jerusalem-Vatican ties fray amid Gaza war
While other countries send presidents and royalty to Saturday funeral, Israel will be represented by ambassador to Vatican; Fair enough

Most major nations will be sending heads of state or government, or royalty, to Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, but Israel will be represented only by its ambassador to the Vatican.

The decision to keep the representation at the lowest level possible is a sign of how far Israel’s relations with the Vatican have deteriorated since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023 diplomats said.

It also follows an Israeli government decision to delete a social media post that had offered condolences for the pope’s death.

Reuters and The Times of Israel April 23, 2025
Israel shares, then deletes, condolences over pope's death

The Jerusalem Post quoted officials at the foreign ministry as saying that the pope had made "statements against Israel" and that the social media post had been published in "error".

Netanyahu has not yet expressed condolences to Catholics
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a far-right coalition of religious and nationalist parties, has not commented on the pope's death.

Pope is dead he doesn't care but not offering condolences to the mourning Christians in Israel and around the world is an act of smallness Petty

However, Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday sent a message of condolence to Christians in the Holy Land and around the world, describing Francis as "a man of deep faith and boundless compassion". Not for Israel

Newsweek April 23, 2025
Following the death of Pope Francis — terrorists — Hamas and Hezbollah issued statements mourning his passing and praising his legacy.

Hamas called him "a man of humanitarian stances who opposed aggression and genocide,"
Hezbollah described him as "inspiring," highlighting his support for Lebanon and commitment to interfaith dialogue.

Hamas political member Bassem Naim:
1. "He was one of the most prominent supporters of legitimate Palestinian rights,
2. noting his clear and principled positions against the war
3. and the genocide being inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza
4. The loss of such a significant and committed figure will create a void that is difficult to fill."

Then honor him
1. Free all the hostages dead and living
2. Stop the genocide being inflicted on the Israeli people

Expressions of regret after the death of Pope Francis from Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist groups and Islamic leaders have drawn an online backlash from those who take an even harder line. No reason to honor a Christian

The gestures, echoed by several other Muslim leaders, drew criticism from ultra-conservative Islamists who say mourning a non-Muslim religious figure defies Islamic teachings.

On social media, hardline voices accused Hamas and Hezbollah of theological betrayal masked as political pragmatism.

In a comment on Hezbollah's statement, one user wrote on Facebook:
"The Party of Satan mourns the leader of the polytheists out of hypocrisy and flattery toward the Crusaders."

From: BBC April 25, 2025
Israel's muted response to Pope Francis's death signals tensions over Gaza

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered its condolences for Pope Francis, four days after his death.

An earlier offer of condolences posted on social media by the official state account of Israel had previously been deleted, causing considerable controversy within the country.

Israel is also sending a relatively low-level delegation to the late pontiff's funeral on Saturday, with only the country's Vatican ambassador in attendance.
All of this has been seen in Israel and elsewhere as a sign of the Israeli government's displeasure with Pope Francis's impassioned remarks on the war in Gaza.

Belatedly and somewhat impersonally, the Israeli prime minister's office issued a two sentence offer of condolences on Thursday night. It read:
The tone of the original message tweeted by the verified @Israel account on X on the day of the Pope's death was noticeably warmer. It featured a photo of Pope Francis at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and concluded: "May his memory be a blessing." But it was swiftly withdrawn, without explanation.

The Jerusalem Post also quoted: Israel's former ambassador to the Vatican, Raphael Schutz, describing the decision to delete the published statement as a mistake. True Drew even more attention and adverse publicity.

In the face of such criticism, Israeli officials did point out that the country's current ambassador to the Vatican had offered his condolences in person.
And it is the ambassador, Yaron Sideman, who will represent Israel at the funeral of Pope Francis.

This is in marked contrast to the heads of state or government who will be attending from most major nations, including US President Donald Trump.

It is also very different from the funeral of the last pope to die while still in office - that of John Paul II in 2005.
Israel sent the then president, Moshe Katsav, and the then foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, to attend the ceremony.

The current Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, did publish an eloquent and heartfelt tribute to Pope Francis in the hours after his death, describing him as:
"a man of deep faith and boundless compassion" Not for Israel

But there appear to be no plans for him to attend the funeral.
No reason has been given, although it may have something to do with the funeral taking place on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

But it seems clear that the Israeli government's resentment of Pope Francis's expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians, especially during the war in Gaza, has soured its response to his death.

That sense of a rift between the current Israeli government and the Vatican may well be visible at the Pope's funeral in Rome, where Israel's leaders will be noticeable by their absence.

From: The Times of Israel April 25, 2025

Christians in Israel slam Netanyahu's 'disrespectful' response to Pope's death
Israeli Christian group: Israel’s response to pope’s death sends ‘message of exclusion’

Forum of Holy Land Christians:
1. demands Jerusalem send higher-level representative to pontiff’s funeral,
2. wants probe of cops who scuffled with worshipers at recent Holy Fire ceremony.

A Christian civil society group in Israel assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initial “outrageous” failure to express condolences to Catholics in the Holy Land after the death of Pope Francis, and demanded Israel send higher-level representatives to the pontiff’s funeral Saturday.

In a letter dated Wednesday but circulated on Friday, Wadie Abunassar, coordinator of the Forum of Holy Land Christians, said:
“Silencing mourning for a global Christian leader sends a message of exclusion and abandonment,”

Abunassar, adding that:
Israel’s conduct was a “grave affront not only to the Christian citizens of Israel but also to Christians worldwide, if not also to the entire humanity.”

Abunassar, who has met with Francis and served as an adviser to Catholic leaders in Israel, said he was writing “on behalf of hundreds of Christian citizens of Israel,” including “clerics and laity who work for empowering the Christian presence in the Holy Land” under the Forum’s aegis.

“Christians in Israel are loyal and integral citizens, who empower the Israeli society across all sectors,” wrote Abunassar.
“Their contributions to the prosperity, innovation, and resilience of the Israeli society are profound and enduring.”

From: The Jerusalem Post April 25, 2025
US faces dilemma over Houthis in Yemen: Escalate or concede defeat?

Behind The Lines:
The Houthis are the only Iran-aligned force to have directed its attacks not at Israel alone but also at Western targets, including international shipping.

While the once formidable missile threat from Gaza has substantially diminished, residents of Haifa and the western Galilee were reminded Wednesday morning that Gaza is not the only active front in the current conflict, when a ballistic missile launched from Yemen set off warning sirens.

There were no injuries, and the missile appears to have been destroyed by air defenses.

Ansar Allah (Houthis) organization, which controls the Yemeni capital and a large swath of the country, claimed responsibility for the launch.
The Yemen arena is currently the most active of all the fronts opened up in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacres by Iran-aligned elements.

1. Iran’s bruised proxy militias in Lebanon and Iraq have chosen for now to leave the fray.
2. The Assad regime in Syria has been destroyed.
3. Iran itself has yet to respond to Israel’s extensive counter-strikes following Iran’s launch of missiles and drones against Israel last October.

Hamas in Gaza clings on, with its capacities severely degraded — True Still terror realities

Only the Houthis, once dismissed as a barely relevant sideshow, remain fully engaged, with high capacities, and determined to continue the fight.

1. They are the only Iran-aligned force not to have suffered serious setbacks since launching their campaign.
2. They are also the sole member of the pro-Iran axis to have directed its attacks not at Israel alone but also at Western targets.
3. Since the ending of the Gaza ceasefire on March 18, the organization has launched around 20 ballistic missiles at Israel.

But the Houthis’ targeting of Israel is largely symbolic in nature.

The more substantive part of their effort, since it commenced in November 2023, has been directed not at Israeli targets but, rather, at international shipping along the Red Sea / Gulf of Aden route to the Suez Canal.

Fifteen percent of global seaborne trade prior to the war passed through this route. The Houthis’ attacks have now virtually shut it down.

It has been a year since a US-flagged ship has passed through the Suez Canal.

The Trump administration, contrary to its preference for deals to end acts of aggression elsewhere:
1. appears determined to force the Houthis to end their campaign,
2. and appears willing to back up threats with force.

At the commencement of the offensive in March, Trump warned the Yemeni Shia Islamists that if the attacks on shipping did not stop:
“hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before.”

Last Thursday, 80 people were killed in a series of US airstrikes on the Houthi-controlled, strategic port at Ras Isa, Hodeidah province, and the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The strikes were the most intense yet in the US’s month-long campaign against Houthi targets.

The US are uneasy over the Houthis' growing influence.
US concerns regarding the Houthis go beyond the immediate Yemeni context.

Over the last six months, evidence has emerged of a growing connection between Ansar Allah and the al-Shabaab organization in Somalia.
A February UN report noted that personnel of the two movements met in Somalia in July and September 2024.

During these meetings, according to the report, the Houthis committed to supplying al-Shabaab with weaponry and technical assistance, including drones and surface-to-air missiles.

The prospect of the Houthis using the al-Shabaab connection to proliferate chaos and Iranian influence across the Red Sea and into the Horn of Africa is apparently helping to concentrate minds in Washington.

The US air campaign has hit the Houthis hard. It remains questionable, however, whether the volume of damage until now will be sufficient to persuade the Yemeni Shia Islamist movement to cease its attacks on Western shipping and on Israel.

Here, the US faces a dilemma similar to that which Israel faced vis-à-vis Hamas in Gaza.

In both cases, the Islamist enemy is largely indifferent to losses of life among its own people, and unlikely to even be inclined to change direction as a result of losses among its own personnel or of its own equipment.

At this point, the US faces options regarding the Houthis similar to those that Israel faced regarding Gaza – namely, escalate or effectively concede.

1. Either a decision must be taken to destroy or severely degrade the enemy, or
2. it must be accepted that the Houthis, while they can be engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange of fire in which they pay the higher cost,
3. cannot at present be defeated.

It is against this background that the recent reports of a possible ground offensive against the Houthis by Yemeni government and allied troops should be understood. Reports suggesting that such an offensive may be imminent have surfaced in major US and regional media over the last two weeks.

An article in The Wall Street Journal on April 15 noted that the idea of the ground action came because of a perception among elements of the official Yemeni government that the US bombing campaign had severely damaged the Houthis’ capacities, creating a window of opportunity.

Such an offensive, if it comes, is likely to be directed against Yemen’s western coastal zone.

For the US and its local allies in Yemen, the choice now is:
1. to increase the stakes,
2. or to fold.

The Hodeidah port and the surrounding area is a crucial location for receiving imports for the Houthis.
The coast is also essential for the prosecution of the Houthis’ campaign against shipping.

US air support would be vital for any such campaign.
In the past, specifically in 2015, Saudi Arabia and UAE backed forces performed poorly and without great success against the Houthis.

At that time, however, the US was ambivalent regarding the offensive and unconvinced at the danger of Iranian expansion represented by Houthi advances.
This time around, the situation would be different, with the US likely to play an active role supporting any such offensive.

It may well be that the forces associated with the official Yemeni government observed the rapid success of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Syria, which derived largely from Israel’s prior weakening of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization.

Without this, Hezbollah would almost certainly have intervened to save the Assad regime, very possibly stopping the advance of HTS before Homs or Hama.

Still, weakened by US bombing or not, the Houthis are a force very different from the hollow army of the Assad regime.
Such an offensive, like actions of its type, would be something of a gamble.

US faces a dilemma similar to that which Israel faced vis-à-vis Hamas in Gaza: Escalate or concede Defeat?

Houthis Still standing Still firing Despite:
1. no hostages in Yemen underground tunnels
2. US onslaught

Yet, Western political elites — and most so called Israel allies and media figures — consistently overlook these terror realities and continue to take Israel to task over everything they did or did not do... Take note: How impossibly difficult fighting tunnel-based urban warfare terror let alone...


Day 568
Israel repeatedly says, it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques. If they didn't... this war would have been over in no time and “Hamas terrorists, out”

From: Haaretz April 25, 2025
Hamas delegation heads to Cairo for cease-fire talks, disarmament ‘not on the table’

A Hamas delegation is expected to meet with mediators in Cairo on Saturday to discuss a cease-fire proposal, the Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya reported.
A senior Hamas source told Agence France-Presse the delegation would present "Hamas' vision for ending the war."

The source added that disarmament of the group was "not on the table." So what is on the table? More terror
Hamas is open to a five-year truce, an official said in Cairo amid mediation talks to organize a ceasefire — Rearm, regroup for next October 7

From: Haaretz April 26, 2025

Hamas delegation has left Cairo after discussing cease-fire with Egyptian officials, committing to increase efforts to succeed in reaching a cease-fire agreement, according to a statement released by the organization.

The statement read, the organization discussed with Egypt "efforts" to:
1. reach a cease-fire
2. end the aggressive war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,
3. hostage exchange,
4. the entry of aid
5. and the reconstruction of the Strip.

Hamas again rejects calls for disarmament. A source involved in the talks said that so far, there has been no significant progress in the negotiations.

From: The Guardian April 25, 2025
Steve Witkoff: from property developer to global spotlight

Ukraine, Gaza and Iran: can Witkoff secure any wins for Trump?

To solve these three conflicts simultaneously would be a daunting task for anyone, but it is especially so for a man entirely new to diplomacy and, judging by some of his remarks, also equally new to history.

Donald Trump’s version of Pax Americana:
the idea that the US can through coercion impose order on the world, is facing its moment of truth in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.

In the words of the former CIA director William Burns:
it is in “one of those plastic moments” in international relations that come along maybe twice a century where the future could take many possible forms.

One withering European diplomat says:
Witkoff simply does not have the institutional memory available to his opposite numbers in Iran, Israel and Russia.

For instance, most of the Iranian negotiating team, led by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, are veterans of the 2013-15 talks that led to the original Iran nuclear deal.

In the follow-up talks in Istanbul on 10 April, Aleksandr Darchiev, who has spent 33 years in the Russian foreign ministry and is Russian ambassador to the US, was pitted against a team led by Sonata Coulter, the new deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, who does not share Trump’s benign view of Russia.

The risk for Trump is that the decision to address so much so quickly ends up not being a show of American strength but the opposite — the public erosion of a super power.

In the hurry to seal a deal with Iran inside two months, Trump, unlike in all previous nuclear talks with Tehran, has barred complicating European interests from the negotiation room.

To Iran’s relief Witkoff has not tabled an agenda that:
1. strays beyond stopping Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb.
2. has not raised Iran’s supply of drones to Russia for use in Ukraine
3. Nor has he tabled demands that Iran end arms supplies to its proxies fighting Israel.

That has alarmed Israel, and to a lesser extent Europe, which sees Iran’s desire to have sanctions lifted as a rare opportunity to extract concessions from Tehran.
Israel is also wary of Trump’s aggrandisement of Russia.

Israel’s strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, and Mossad’s head, David Barnea, met Witkoff last Friday in Paris to try to persuade him that when he met the Iran negotiating team the next day in Rome, he had to demand the dismantling of Tehran’s civil nuclear programme.

Witkoff refused, and amid many contradictory statements the administration has reverted to insisting that Iran import the necessary enriched uranium:
1. for its civil nuclear programme,
2. rather than enrich it domestically.

Russia, might again become the repository of Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, as it was after the 2015 deal.

The Israeli thinktank INSS published a report this week detailing how Russia, in search of anti-western allies in the global south for its Ukraine war:
1. has shown opportunistic political support not just to Iran but to Hamas.
2. Israel will also be uneasy if Russia maintains its role in Syria.

But if Trump has upset Netanyahu over Iran, he is keeping him sweet by giving him all he asks on Gaza.
Now Trump’s refusal to put any pressure on Israel to lift its six-week-old ban on aid entering Gaza is informing Europe’s rift with Trump.

Marking 50 days of the ban this week, France, Germany and the UK issued a strongly worded statement describing the denial of aid as intolerable.

1. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is calling for a coordinated European recognition of the state of Palestine,
2. and Saudi Arabia is insisting the US does not attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Witkoff, by contrast, has been silent about Gaza’s fate and the collapse of the “EPIC ceasefire”.

But if European diplomats think Witkoff was naïve in dealing with Netanyahu, it is nothing to the scorn they hold for his handling of Putin.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei doubtless laughing into his beard at the arrogant amateurism of those Americans.

All over the place — In hurry to seal Deals / Wins without proper, Unrealistic deadlines, and Empty threats. No hell rain down
1. Putin keeps checkmating him
2. Hamas keeps calling the shots, setting conditions, refusing to disarm, holding hostages
3. Iran playing him

Ynet news April 27, 2025
Israel skips Pope Francis funeral, angering officials

Snub of pontiff's funeral following previous comments on Gaza sparks global criticism; deleting condolences on official government accounts worsens isolation, ex-officials say.

Some 400,000 mourners attended the funeral of Pope Francis in a massive ceremony Saturday.
However, Israel sent no official delegation to Rome, opting instead for its ambassador to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman, to represent the country.

This decision comes against the backdrop of a diplomatic controversy surrounding the Foreign Ministry's move to delete condolence messages posted by Israeli missions worldwide immediately following Pope Francis' death act of smallness Petty

The late pontiff was known for his strong criticism of the ongoing war in Gaza Unfair, Unreasonable, Imbalanced against Israel — Still condolences in order

Ynet news April 27, 2025

In an interview with Ynet, former Israeli ambassador to the Vatican Raphael Schutz sharply criticized the handling of the situation

"When a leader of this magnitude passes away, you don't deviate from diplomatic protocols," Schutz stated
"We should discuss our disagreements with the Vatican directly with the Vatican, not by boycotting the funeral.

A funeral that the whole world is attending, from Trump downwards, our absence creates a negative front for us with the entire Catholic Christian world — 1.3 billion people."

He added, "These are two different matters: This is how the diplomatic world behaves.
1. you can continue to express your dissatisfaction with the deceased pope and detail why he was wrong,
2. and at the same time, you attend the funeral.

Beyond the fact that the funeral was an opportunity to meet other world leaders, as always happens at such funerals, Israel, through its absence, beyond the antagonism it created with the Christian world, also created yet another display of political isolation – and this is not a good image for us, certainly not in these times."

Meanwhile, the Foreign Relations Forum, comprised of former ambassadors and senior Foreign Ministry officials, also issued strong criticism of the decision not to send high-ranking representatives to the pope's funeral.

"The world is watching the farewell ceremony for Pope Francis. Dozens of kings, princes and heads of state, many of whom are not Catholic, have arrived at the Vatican to pay their last respects to the head of the Catholic Church," the forum said in a statement.

"The absence of a senior representative of the State of Israel, the Jewish state, a proud member of the family of nations, especially during these days between Holocaust Remembrance Day and the revival of our independence
1. is a serious diplomatic error vis-à-vis the countries of the world in general and the Christian world in particular,
2. and it is a badge of shame for the government of Israel and its head."

Ynet news April 27, 2025

Rabbi Yosef Garmon, a former chief rabbi of Guatemala and current president of the International Humanitarian Coalition, spoke with Ynet about his meetings with Pope Francis. He also voiced criticism regarding Israel's diplomatic conduct.

"I have been working around the world for years, particularly within the Christian world, investing time and resources, and in recent days I have been receiving many calls from various leaders who are angry, and rightly so, at Israel," he stated.

"'Has Israel gone mad?' they ask me. 'We supported Israel throughout the war, and suddenly we receive this severe blow to our feelings.'

I like to explain, but here I am left speechless, and I truly have no way to explain this bizarre, not to say delusional, behavior.
I think Israel has made a serious mistake here, and we will pay the price for it."

Rabbi Garmon continued, "One can oppose the pope, one can even be angry at him, anything is possible, but we must not simply hurt the feelings of more than 1.3 billion people who believe in him and see that Israel published condolence messages on official networks – and shortly after deleted everything, and of course, screenshots remained and were published everywhere in the world.

"It would have been appropriate to send even a slightly more respectable delegation to his funeral and not ignore it almost completely.

The pope is not the issue here, and his opinions no longer matter so much. Israel may even be right, but it is certainly not wise in this matter."

Neither wise nor smart move

Ynet news April 27, 2025

Rabbi Garmon recounted his meetings with the pontiff: "I personally cannot forget that he always received us with love and attention, and he personally told me that whenever a delegation from Israel wished to meet with him, he would make time.

“I was attacked when I went to meet with the pope during the war, but I went to explain the situation to him from the heart and to show him how absurd it is to accuse Israel. When Israel endangers the lives of its soldiers, and I showed him how many of my friends died because of it, it is solely to harm terrorists.

1. Israel could have ended the war in a single day with enough bombs to wipe out Gaza completely,
2. it did not do so to protect innocent people
3. and for the benefit of the Palestinians who need to be freed from Hamas."

"He personally retracted his accusation against Israel of genocide, both to me and to the media, and this was published on his official page.

He said he saw so much material from Gaza because there are people close to him there who are very anti-Israel, and Israel did not bother to show him anything, so he said it needed to be investigated. up to the Pope to get the facts before making false, inflammatory accusations No excuse

One doesn't have to believe him, but at least it was important to make that effort.

It is clearly easiest to make peace with the prince of Monaco and with Zionists, but in the complex world we live in – we must talk to everyone."
Pope did not bother

Not the act of a religious leader “selective indignation.” Goes on and on

He became increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct as the war — started by the terrorists invasion of unprovoked brutal terror, monstrous, violent Guerilla warfare unleashed inside Israel's borders drag on.

1. His criticism of Israel was clear and constant,
2. He slammed Israel’s military response as “cruelty, this is not war.”
3. He openly questioned whether Israel’s military campaign constituted genocide.
4. He went so far as to call Israeli airstrikes “terrorism”
5. His moral compass faltered time and again: with the State of Israel.
6. He was troublingly lopsided.

But avoided
1. Hamas terror atrocities
2. explicit reference to its atrocities.
3. condemnation of its terror onslaught.
4. its evil barbarism and brutality
5. its tunnel-based urban warfare terror
6. its taking civilian hostages
7. its use of civilians as human shields
8. its murder, destruction

Then baby Jesus a Jew lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol Who does that especially in such volatile situation

He emphasized humility and reconciliation, but struggled in exhibiting the same balance when it came to the world’s only Jewish state.
Even in his calls for peace, the pope too often spoke as if Israel’s existence was incidental to the conflict, rather than fundamental to the peace.

Why didn't he tell Hamas

The Jerusalem Post April 27, 2025
Key ingredient in missile fuel was chemical that exploded at Iran port

The New York Times quotes a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, saying that sodium perchlorate — a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles — was the chemical that exploded yesterday in Bandar Abbas.

The death toll from a massive blast at Iran’s largest commercial port has risen to 25, and over 800 people were injured, according to the Tasnim news agency, which cited Hormozgan province’s head of the judiciary, Mojtaba Ghahremani.

"This location and port are extremely critical to the survival of the Iranian regime," according to Beni Sabti, an expert Iran researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

The port that blew up in the southern Iranian city of "is the most important port for the Iranian regime," said Sabti in a Sunday Maariv interview.
Sabti also remarked on the magnitude of the explosion, calling the "damage very severe."

Sabti explained that the reason for the port's importance is "not only because it's the largest port in Iran, but because the hub is used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to transfer weapons to terror organizations like Hezbollah and the Houthis, and to illegally transfer oil to China."

Sabti addressed the claims that the explosion was attributed to Israel, saying, "It's common and widespread for some Iranian regime-affiliated figures to blame Israel. Officially, however, the regime is refraining from doing so – possibly because it’s not in their interest at this time."