Is Iran’s energy crisis an historic opportunity for President Trump?
Plus, Netanyahu to be hospitalized for several days for surgery
JERUSALEM – Middle East/Israel Morning Brief
Is Iran’s energy crisis an historic opportunity for President Trump?
“Fools” flocking to the “scent of kebab”: That’s how Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently described audiences abroad who sense an opportunity to support Iran’s people against their clerical overlords in the face of his regime’s myriad challenges, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, writing in the New York Post.
But the joke’s on Khamenei: When President Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, the United States will have a chance to end Tehran’s menace for good.
Iran is sunk in a months-long energy crisis that’s rocking the regime to its foundations.
Over the past three years, the regime has managed to illicitly sell over $140 billion worth of oil.
Yet years of economic corruption and mismanagement, coupled with competing priorities over what to do with energy revenues – spend them on terror proxies abroad, or on the Iranian people at home? – has yielded gas shortages, hindering electricity generation and chilling millions of Iranians this winter.
The contradiction is so severe that even Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials have called the predicament “disgraceful.”
Netanyahu to be hospitalized for several days for surgery
Today’s Procedure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which will involve the removal of his Prostate as well as several other Minor Surgeries, will be done under Full Anesthesia; with him expected to remain hospitalized until Mid-Week. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister… pic.twitter.com/QNRk6P5XNa
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 29, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be put under full anesthetic for his operation Sunday to remove his prostate and will remain in the hospital for “several days” following the surgery, his defense lawyer told the Jerusalem District Court, reported the Times of Israel.
The details were relayed to the court by Amit Hadad, an attorney representing the prime minister in his criminal trial, in a request to have the trial hearings in which Netanyahu was scheduled to give testimony this week canceled.
The court quickly acceded to the request, adding that the hearings are “expected to resume next week, on Monday, Jan. 6,” and wished the prime minister a complete recovery.
“Last Wednesday the prime minister underwent a test at the Hadassah hospital that revealed an urinary tract infection stemming from a benign enlargement of the prostate,” Hadad told the court, saying that Netanyahu would undergo an operation under full anesthetic to treat the problem.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that he would be having his prostate removed.
‘Unfathomable acts of horror’: Israel says hostages, including children, now getting branded with hot object
As WorldNetDaily indicates, Israel has submitted a report to the United Nations from the country’s health ministry, which outlines the abuse Israeli hostages suffered at the hands of their Gazan captors – cataloging physical and mental torture – and the lasting effect it has had on them, including children.
The Health Ministry’s report, which it submitted to Alice Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, is compiled from the testimonies of hostages who were released in the first – and to date, only – deal in November 2023.
An eight-page report published today describes from the testimonies of survivors of captivity how Hamas terrorists abuse the hostages in captivity, among the horrific testimonies:
Two teenagers held together during captivity were tied up for part of the time with their hands… pic.twitter.com/CI6Cc9LaUs
— נועה מגיד | Noa magid (@NoaMagid) December 29, 2024
It also includes accounts from hostages who were rescued in IDF operations. It details how they were burned and beaten, starved and humiliated, as well as how the abuse impacted their mental and physical health, even long after they were freed.
Azerbaijan Airlines says downed plane crashed due to ‘external interference’
This is a full length video of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan. What the hell happened? pic.twitter.com/7CL6SwMne8
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 25, 2024
Azerbaijan Airlines said a preliminary probe found the plane crash that killed 38 people last week was “due to physical and technical external interference” as questions grew over Russia’s potential involvement, according to Semafor.
The airplane was flying from Baku to Grozny in southern Russia on Wednesday when it changed course toward Kazakhstan to attempt an emergency landing, authorities said.
Baku government sources told Euronews early investigations showed the aircraft was struck by a Russian air-defense missile. Reuters reported a source as saying: “No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft.”
Meanwhile, Russian officials posited it was a bird strike which caused the crash, and warned against “hypotheses.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry budget for public diplomacy rises to $150 million
In an exclusive interview, Foreign Minister @gidonsaar shared his vision, laying bare the challenges and opportunities ahead for Israel on the international stage.
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 28, 2024
Israel’s Foreign Ministry budget for public diplomacy is set to increase some 20-fold from before the start of the 2023 Iron Swords war in the 2025 budget to $150 million as the country counters an information war just as vicious as the one its military personnel are fighting against the enemies arrayed against it.
Dozens of “influencers and public opinion leaders,” as the Foreign Ministry described them, attended a recent brain-storming session, ranging from people like former government spokesman Eylon Levy, former IDF English-language spokesman and current Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Jonathan Conricus, Institute for National Security Studies fellow Ophir Dayan and StandWithUs Jerusalem Executive Director Michael Dickson to makeup YouTuber-turned-hasbara influencer Ashley Waxman-Bakshi, Israeli model Nataly Dadon and comedian Yohay Sponder, reported Jewish Insider.
“We are in the middle of an effort to change the approach toward the whole topic that was once called hasbara, and that I call ‘consciousness warfare,'” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said. “The democratic world is influenced by public opinion… and when it is not good for us, then it influences the elected political level’s space to maneuver in the international arena.”
Nasrallah assumed he was safe from Israel’s military until the end
Breaking: Israel attempted to eliminate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
pic.twitter.com/L2hBjz4YQE— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) September 27, 2024
Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah assessed he was safe from being killed by the IDF up until the moment his life ended in an IAF airstrike in Beirut in September, according to a report published by the New York Times Sunday on Israel’s intelligence infiltration of the Lebanese terrorist organization.
Reported on Israel National News, the terrorist leader reportedly brushed off concerns from his aides amid requests he go to a safer location than the underground bunker in which his life ended on Sept. 27. Nasrallah assessed Israel was uninterested in full-scale war with Hezbollah, even after it detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the terrorist organization’s operatives just two weeks earlier.
IDF detains more than 240 Gaza terrorists at Hamas hospital base
:
• 240+ Hamas, Islamic Jihad terrorists and other operatives suspected of terrorist activities were apprehended, some of whom attempted to pose as… pic.twitter.com/2oOCbeAsyQ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 28, 2024
The Israel Defense Forces revealed on Sunday it had detained more than 240 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, even as some of the fighters posed as patients and attempted to flee in ambulances, reported the Jewish News Syndicate.
Approximately 15 terrorists who infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre as well as Hamas engineering and anti-tank missile operatives were taken in for questioning.
The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who is suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative, was also taken in for questioning.
IDF special forces conducted precise activities inside the hospital locating and confiscating weapons in the area, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment.
IAF downs two rockets fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem, military subsequently destroys launch site
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets struck in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun launchers used by Palestinian terrorists to fire two long-range rockets at the Jerusalem area on Saturday, the military says.
When the strike was carried out, another rocket had been loaded into one of the… pic.twitter.com/GTAdEned1k
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 29, 2024
At around 6 p.m. Saturday, Jerusalemites came under rocket attack from two projectiles fired out of the Gaza Strip, reported the Jewish News Syndicate.
“Urgent warning to all those who have not yet evacuated the area specified in the map, and the Beit Hanun area [in the Strip’s northeast] in particular,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted to X.
Overnight, IAF fighter jets targeted the launchers involved in Saturday’s rocket attack, supported by firepower from the 933rd “Nahal” Brigade operating in the Gaza Strip.
“The targeted launchers contained a rocket ready for launch toward Israel,” the IDF said on Sunday morning.
10-year-old boy discovers pilgrim’s cross medallion in Jerusalem neighborhood
A ten-year-old boy discovered a 100-year-old cross medallion in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood while on a school trip, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported on Sunday.https://t.co/WXk1V7h0fZ
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 29, 2024
A remarkable discovery was made in Jerusalem’s Ein Karem neighborhood when a 10-year-old student stumbled upon a century-old cross medallion during a school excursion, Breaking Israel News reported.
Nehorai Nir, who attends the Argentina Experimental High School in Kiryat Hayovel, made the discovery while searching for edible plants with his classmates. Initially attracted by a pomegranate on the ground, his attention was subsequently drawn to a glinting object in the soil, which turned out to be the historic medallion.
Upon examination by Dr. Amit Re’em, Jerusalem District archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, the artifact was revealed to be an exquisite golden cross medallion crafted using micro-mosaic techniques.
Though not technically classified as an antiquity due to its relatively young age of 100-200 years, the piece showcases exceptional craftsmanship.
83-year-old Holocaust survivor murdered in stabbing attack in Herzliya
Ludmila Lipovsky, an 83-year-old woman who survived the horrors of the Holocaust was stabbed to death this morning outside her nursing home by a Palestinian t*rrorist. pic.twitter.com/ASMJ1ZFAIb
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 27, 2024
Holocaust survivor Ludmila Lipovsky, 83, was murdered in a terrorist stabbing attack outside her nursing home in Herzliya on Friday. Security guards neutralized the attacker before arresting him, reported the Jerusalem Post.
An initial investigation revealed the terrorist was a Palestinian resident of Tulkarm who had previously served a prison sentence in Israel. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) added that the suspect was a former Shin Bet informant who had helped thwart terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.
The Shin Bet’s initial investigation of the attack, which occurred on Herzliya’s Kdoshei Hashoah Street (Holocaust Martyrs Street), indicated the terrorist committed the murder due to believing his life was in danger.
THAAD missile defense system shoots down ballistic missile over Israel for first time
The ballistic missile fired at Israel by the Houthis overnight was intercepted by the American THAAD system stationed in Israel.
What a beautiful sight pic.twitter.com/Dri5qeNjrG
— Cheryl E (@CherylWroteIt) December 27, 2024
For the first time since its deployment in Israel, the US made THAAD air defense system intercepted a missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen towards Israeli territory overnight, according to Israel Hayom.
During footage of the interception, an American soldier can be heard saying after the interceptor’s launch, “I’ve waited 18 years for this moment.”
The advanced system was positioned to bolster Israel’s capabilities in intercepting ballistic missiles and defending against potential threats, such as attacks from Iran. For several years, a joint exercise known as Juniper Cobra has been conducted between the US and Israel.
Syria’s de facto leader warns it’ll take 4 years to organize elections, with draft constitution in 3
SYRIA’S DE FACTO NEW LEADER: ELECTIONS COULD TAKE 4 YEARS
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader after Assad’s ousting, revealed elections may take up to 4 years, citing constitutional reforms.
Sharaa, who leads HTS, pledged to dissolve the group in a national dialogue… https://t.co/NdDLOA4Jzc pic.twitter.com/elBfbqk9g8
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 29, 2024
The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa (known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), stated in an interview with the Saudi news channel “Al-Hadath” on Sunday that organizing elections in Syria will require four years, reported Israel Hayom.
Al-Sharaa explained that preparations are currently underway for a “transitional government that will serve for an extended period.” Additionally, he pledged to disband the headquarters of Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist coalition that played a significant role in toppling the Assad regime.
The new Syrian ruler outlined several political stages that will precede the election of a president, noting that a new census will be necessary before any voting process can take place. He also declared, “The liberation of Syria will bring security to the region and the Gulf for the next 50 years.”
Watch: Former Australian news anchor Erin Molan calls out pope over positions on Israel-Gaza
A message for the Pope… from a Catholic… in response to your recent commentary regarding the Middle East… with the utmost respect pic.twitter.com/8B43PdFzar
— Erin Molan (@Erin_Molan) December 28, 2024
Originally Published at Daily Wire, World Net Daily, or The Blaze
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