NBC News April 3, 2025
Both Trump-endorsed candidate wins, in Florida special election, give Republicans a 220 to 213 majority in the House with two Democrat vacancies.

Randy Fine for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz's seat and Jimmy Patronis for Matt Gaetz whom Trump wanted to be Attorney-General before his nomination was pulled over concerns that he lacked sufficient Republican support to be confirmed.

Democrat backed Susan Crawford, a liberal judge, won a judicial election in Wisconsin something of a referendum on Elon Musk, who played a big role, spending some $20 million of his own money, on Republican backed losing candidate Brad Schimel's campaign.

Wisconsin's outcome might help move Musk and his blunt, unpopular agenda out of the spotlight and congressional Republicans will be quietly happy about that

Reuters March 28, 2025
President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of New York Representative Elise Stefanik to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Announcing his decision in a post on social media, Trump said it was essential that Stefanik retain her seat in the House of Representatives to protect Republicans' razor-thin majority No more

Now that both the Republican congressional seats retained in Florida Stefanik for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Newsweek November 12, 2024
Elise Stefanik Is Trump's UN Enforcer, and a Gift to Netanyahu Called UN a "cesspool of antisemitism"

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025
Nicaragua walks back request to join ICJ genocide case against Israel

FM Gideon Sa’ar praises decision as ‘better late than never,’ urges other signatories to follow suit;

1. Nicaragua sought in February to join the case over Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
2. Nicaragua on Tuesday told the International Court of Justice ICJ it is withdrawing its request to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

The court issued a press release on Thursday confirming the withdrawal No reason was offered for the move.

It came less than two months after Nicaragua requested to join the case in early February.
It also followed the country’s claim before the court last year that Germany violated the genocide convention for selling arms to Israel.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised Nicaragua’s withdrawal on Thursday, posting on X “Better late than never.”

“Nicaragua has withdrawn its morally repugnant intervention in the baseless and outrageous case that was filed by South Africa against Israel at the ICJ,” he wrote, after a similar tweet in Hebrew. “Others that made the same mistake should follow suit,” he concluded.

US Senate overwhelmingly votes down Sanders’ motions to block arms sales to Israel

Minority of Democrats voting in favor falls from 19 to 15 since November, with Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is likely to face an intense reelection challenge from Republicans in 2026 flipping to ‘No’ as he readies for reelection fight next year;

The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a pair of resolutions by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders aimed at blocking the transfer of weapons to Israel, with the minority of Democrats voting in favor falling since the last time such an initiative was advanced several months ago.

Sanders’s motions were virtually guaranteed to fail given:
1. the Republican majority in the Senate
2. and the still small minority of Democrats willing to vote against Israel.

However, such votes are often framed as a litmus test on how much the Democratic Party:
1. is shifting in its support for Israel,
2. and in particular, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch of Idaho urged defeat of Sanders’s resolutions, saying:
“They would abandon Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, during a pivotal moment for global security.”

Trump began his second term by reversing his predecessor Biden’s efforts to place some limits on what arms are sent to Israel.
Trump in February sidestepped the congressional review process to approve billions of dollars in military sales to Israel.

From: Haaretz April 3, 2025

The Sordid Scandal Behind Netanyahu's Weekend Hungary Trip to See Viktor Orbán
Whatever the precise motivation, one thing is clear: Netanyahu's trip is only urgent in his twisted, narcissistic worldview

Here are some of the headlines that Israelis woke up to on Thursday morning:
1. In Gaza 59 Israeli hostages continue to rot in dark tunnels, held by terrorists for 18 months, with little hope of returning home.
2. The hostage families are increasingly worried that Israel's new offensive in the Strip will lead to the death and disappearance of many of them.

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025

US President Donald Trump says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may visit the United States next week, having just visited the US in early February, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with Trump.

“I think he’s going to be coming to the country some time in the not-so-distant future.
Maybe next week,” Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One, confirming that he spoke to the Israeli premier earlier today.

True Globe-trotting while Israel is bleeding and burning All fronts...
Defiance of the ICC arrest warrants or do these visits achieve anything that cannot — in phone / Zoom calls or Signal messaging chats!

From: The Jerusalem Post April 2, 2025
Hamas admits 72% of deaths are combat-aged men as it quietly reduces civilian death toll

Approximately 72% of fatalities are aged 13-55 and are men - the demographic category aligns with Hamas combatants.

Hamas quietly removed the names of thousands of Palestinians it had previously alleged were killed during the Israel-Hamas war, Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting told The Telegraph on Tuesday after analyzing Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update.

according to the research:
1. Hamas has previously claimed that 70% of casualties have been women and children, a claim no longer reflected in their recently updated lists
2. “Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully ‘identified’ deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports – including 1,080 children.

Aizenberg asserted: These ‘deaths’ never happened. The numbers were falsified – again,”

Still 13 year olds should be at school... Not this childhood trauma of "endless offensive” Forever terror war

Taking Hamas figures as fact:

A similar report by the Henry Jackson Society in December also concluded that Hamas had inflated the number of casualties in the war.

“We knew there were rafts of errors in their reporting,” report author Andrew Fox said.

“There’s a reasonable explanation in that their computer systems went down in November 2023 so it’s been challenging for them to report accurately, but:
1. the lists are so unreliable that the world’s media shouldn’t be quoting them as reliable.
2. “The UN also just takes Hamas’s figures and publishes them with a note stating the figures are unconfirmed.”

Fox explained:
1. Hamas will “have gone through the list, trying to make it as convincing as possible.
2. They’ve been accepting names onto that list with no evidence whatsoever,”
3. “So what I’m guessing they’re trying to do is thin out the names they cannot substantiate at all.”

“Salo’s research would be looking for names that were on previous lists but have now disappeared,” Fox explained.
“Hamas releases lists as PDFs, so it’s harder to do comparisons but we transfer names to an Excel sheet to do a mass comparison this way.”

Nothing startling here... Everything from the terrorists -- inflated lies
World deliberately deaf and blind to Israel's dire straights, taking them to task over everything they do or don't do... but letting the terrorists, off the hook

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar: Israel could end Gaza war ‘tomorrow’ if Hamas frees hostages, exits Strip

Sa’ar said Thursday after meeting his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in Paris. Israel is ready to end the war in Gaza “tomorrow” in exchange:
1. for the release of hostages
2. and an end to Hamas’s presence in Gaza

“The way is very simple,” Sa’ar said, “hostages back, Hamas out.”

“We are still giving a chance to negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release our hostages on the basis of [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff’s proposal, but it is not open-ended,” he warned, referencing a proposal that would secure the release of five Israeli hostages.

Iran:
Sa’ar stressed that Iran was a threat to the entire region and not just to Israel, adding Israel was in talks with France, Britain, and the United States.
“We don’t exclude a diplomatic path with Iran,” he added.

Concern is mounting as talks with Iran appear to have reached an impasse while the window for negotiating a new treaty with Tehran is set to close in the fall

From: Sky news April 3, 2025
Day 545 Hamas open to releasing all Israeli hostages and end the war in Gaza

according to Palestinian officials, Hamas is expected:
1. to release the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza
2. and permanently end the war

The terror organization’s proposal comes as Israel has ramped up its attacks against Hamas in recent weeks.

A senior Palestinian official revealed to The Times of Israel that Hamas is ready to free hostages in exchange for Israeli forces leaving Gaza
Israel has not yet accepted the proposal, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting similar deals in the past.

While Hamas insists, they and Israel should follow the initial ceasefire deal brokered by the US they are now willing to end the war permanently.

a Palestinian official revealed:
1. “We had no other choice.
2. The situation in Gaza is terrible,”

Nothing about disarming No Hamas out.”... So after regrouping, rearming -- "endless offensive” Forever terror war

The Times of Israel April 3, 2025
UN set to reappoint rapporteur with history of antisemitism, anti-Israel vitriol

Francesca Albanese, known for her regular attacks on the Jewish state, is scheduled to have her 3-year appointment renewed Friday, amid push-back from U.S. and European officials.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled on Friday to reappoint an investigator into Israel with a history of antisemitism and vitriol against the Jewish state, amid fierce pushback from the U.S. and other opponents.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has been condemned by Jewish groups, Israel, the U.S. Canada, France, Germany and others. Lawmakers in the U.S. France, the UK and the Netherlands, and leading U.S. Jewish groups have come out against her reappointment.

Her opponents argue her conduct should disqualify her from the position, which the UNHRC says requires impartiality, integrity and objectivity

Albanese has called the criticism a smear campaign, and her supporters view her as an outspoken champion for the Palestinians That is no impartiality, integrity and objectivity

She has said, among other inflammatory statements
1. the “Jewish lobby” controls the U.S.
2. repeatedly compared Israelis to Nazis,
3. rejected antisemitic motivations for Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel,
4. blamed Israel for the invasion,
5. rejected Israeli security concerns,
6. and denied Israel’s right to self defense

The U.S. is the lead donor to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which oversees Albanese’s office, contributing more than $36 million last year pull the funding

The Times of Israel April 3, 2025

Anne Bayefsky, the director of New York’s Touro Institute on Human Rights and the president of the Human Rights Voices advocacy group, said
1. council members such as Germany could object — They are to Albanese’s reappointment.
2. If Albanese is reappointed the U.S. could respond by withholding funding from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The specified criteria for mandate holders are expertise, independence, impartiality, personal integrity, and objectivity.

“There is no denying that Francesca Albanese violates UN rules theoretically requiring of so-called ‘experts’ satisfaction of the criteria of “independence, impartiality, and objectivity,'”

Bayefsky said. “But that’s why she was appointed in the first place, namely, to spew the same anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias as is characteristic of the Human Rights Council itself.”

Albanese’s latest report, titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” accused Israel of carrying out a “long-standing settler colonial process of erasure” and did not include any investigation into Hamas.

Reports by UN investigators are significant outside of the UN because they are cited by media and other organizations, making their way to the public, which is likely unaware of bias allegations.

1. Israel’s advocates argue that Albanese’s position is part of a broader anti-Israel bias at the UN.
2. In addition to Albanese’s mandate, a separate open-ended commission of inquiry at the UNHRC is dedicated to investigating Israel.
3. That commission is also harshly critical of Israel, and one of its members has made antisemitic statements.

Both the General Assembly and the UNHRC condemn Israel more than any other country

ABC News April 4, 2025
Israeli military investigating killing of 15 Palestinian medics, but denies 'execution'

Israel's military said it has launched an investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and emergency workers in southern Gaza

The IDF has faced serious allegations about the killings, with the bodies found buried in a mass grave.
There has been international calls for accountability following the incident, including from the UK and German governments.

The Israeli military says an investigation "outside the chain of command" has been launched into the killing of Palestinian medics and emergency responders in southern Gaza, but denies the group had been "executed."

On Sunday 15 bodies were recovered from what the United Nations has described as a "mass grave", a week after they were fired upon by Israeli forces.

1. The IDF had been roundly criticized for restricting access to crews trying to recover the bodies for days,
2. there are questions as to why the remains were buried under sand alongside the wreckage of bombed out vehicles It's not a smart move nor right

The IDF's spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a press briefing, on Thursday, a probe had begun.
"I don't want to jump ahead of the investigation, but [it's] definitely not an execution," "This was an operational event in a live combat zone.

ABC News April 4, 2025

The IDF had claimed
1. a group of other vehicles had been targeted prior to the emergency convoy arriving,
2. and that nine Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists had been killed.

It has only named one of the fighters killed, and Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani refused to detail what evidence the IDF had about other fighters being killed.
"There were not just eight people there or nine people there - there were more people there, and we're trying to understand,"

"In many cases, we've seen throughout this war, that Hamas members or terrorists in Gaza have what we call a day job.
"Our initial investigation found that there were terrorists in these cars, using those Red Crescent cars."

Israel had insisted the ambulances and fire trucks had approached troops in a suspicious manner.
Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani said "Very, very weird for a car like that to have no lights on, no emergency lights,"

IDF slippin’
An IDF official later confirmed troops had buried the men under sand and cloth sheets to be unearthed and presented as evidence?

Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani also criticized The Guardian for reporting comments from a forensic consultant in Gaza, who said there was evidence of execution-style killings. He did not provide any details to back up his rejection of the comments.

He is the same forensic doctor whose medical expertise resulted in Hamas releasing the wrong body of hostage Shiri Bibas

The Times of Israel April 4, 2025
Report: Iran pulling forces out of Yemen amid intensive U.S. airstrikes on Houthis

Iran amid extensive U.S. airstrikes on the rebel group, has reportedly
1. ordered its military personnel to leave Yemen
2. and is pulling back its support for the Houthis

The British Telegraph newspaper on Thursday cited a “senior Iranian official” saying
Tehran is scaling back its support of its regional proxies to focus on the direct threats emanating from the U.S. administration.

According to the official, Iran’s pullback from Yemen was designed to avoid the possibility of escalation if an Iranian soldier is killed in U.S. airstrikes there.

“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about [U.S. President Donald Trump],” the official was quoted as saying.

Tehran is focusing its efforts instead on
1. how to respond to Trump and his litany of threats,
2. and “none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,”

You believed that story? You believed that? They previously denied they support these regional terror proxies

The Times of Israel April 4, 2025
“The view here is that the Houthis will not be able to survive and are living their final months or even days So there is no point in keeping them on our list.”

“They were part of a chain that relied on Nasrallah and Assad, and keeping only one part of that chain for the future makes no sense,” the official continued, referring respectively to the former leaders of the Hezbollah terror group and Syria.

The Telegraph report came amid a U.S. aerial campaign against the Houthis that has seen near-daily strikes in rebel-held areas of Yemen since beginning on March 15 The strikes are aimed at stopping the Iran-backed group from attacking commercial shipping in solidarity with Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.

Washington has since said it is sending a second aircraft carrier to Middle East waters to bolster its campaign
1. to “deter aggression
2. and protect the free flow of commerce.”

The Houthis had halted their attacks on shipping during a six-week ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year, but they announced they were resuming them after Israel cut off aid to the territory before returning to fighting against Hamas.

Since then, the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on both U.S. warships and Israel.

The Times of Israel April 4, 2025

On Thursday, the Houthis said a strike they blamed on the United States killed a guard at a communications tower, among more than 30 strikes on rebel-held parts of Yemen.

“An American aggression targeted the communications network in… Ibb governorate, leading to the martyrdom of Abdulwasim Abdulwahab Zahir, the communications tower guard,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said on social media

Earlier, the Houthis’ Al-Masirah television said more than 20 strikes had hit Saada province, the rebels’ stronghold in the northern mountains.

It said Washington had carried out two strikes on vehicles,
1. one south of the rebel-held capital Sanaa
2. and another in Saada province.

In a video statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the United States had launched “over the past few hours more than 36 air strikes” in different parts of the country.

Saree said the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in response.
He also claimed the group had shot down an “American MQ-9 drone” as it was “carrying out hostile missions” in Hodeida province on the Red Sea coast.

9News April 3, 2025

A tiny tranquil island home to an estimated 2,188 people. Closer to New Zealand than Australia.
And now slugged with a 29 per cent tariff from the Trump administration.

Norfolk Island, despite forming an external Australian territory, was singled out by U.S. President Donald Trump during his "liberation day" on Thursday, with a tariff hit 19 percentage points higher than the rest of Australia

George Plant the island's administrator said
1. "Our business is tourism, we don't really export anything to the U.S."
2. "We're a non-self-governing territory under the authority of Australia, so we operate exactly as the rest of the country.

Other small Australian territories bizarrely singled out included the uninhabited penguin-laden Heard and McDonald Islands, Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling Islands.

David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, said Australia was the U.S.’s top foreign beef supplier and the tariffs would likely raise prices in the country. "Australian beef is in, an estimated 6 billion hamburgers consumed each year in the U.S."

"Without the healthier Grass-fed Australian lean beef that is blended with local fatty trim, the U.S. would need to use higher value cuts in their burgers.

Reports of a precision-airstrike earlier by the Israeli Air Force, on an apartment building inside the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. Reports that the target eliminated in Sidon was a senior Hamas official. It is also reported that his family was eliminated along with him.

https://x.com/EretzIsrael/status/1907967815719551158