ISRAEL - The Palestinian terror group known as Hamas has called on Muslims worldwide to stage a “Day of Jihad,” or holy war, on Friday, October 13th - coincidentally, a date that resonates with horror movies and the upcoming Halloween holiday. “We call upon the free people of the world to mobilize in solidarity with our Palestinian people and in support of their just cause and legitimate rights to freedom, independence, return, and self-determination.” Hamas also called on Palestinians within the West Bank to rise up against Israeli soldiers, and called on Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against the state. In the entertainment industry, Friday the 13th is seen as a major day to launch new releases of horror films, with graphic depictions of imaginary violence. Unfortunately, the horrors of the Hamas terror attack in Israel were all too real.

VATICAN - Pope Francis appealed Wednesday for the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by the Hamas terror group on the Gaza strip, while criticizing Israel’s “total siege” on Palestinians in Gaza. “I continue to follow what is happening in Israel and Palestine with tears and apprehension: many people killed, others injured,” the pontiff stated at the end of his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square. The Pope went on to recognize Israel’s right to self-defense while questioning the extent of the measures employed.

USA - The US is positioning a potent arsenal in the Middle East as Israeli Defense Forces continued to pound targets inside Gaza six days after the Hamas terror attack on its soil. With President Biden and his security team warning Iran and other state and non-state actors not to try to take advantage of the situation, the Pentagon is dispatching air and ground capabilities in addition to the two aircraft carrier groups that will soon be operating together in the eastern Mediterranean.

LEBANON - Armed drones of Hezbollah have reportedly invaded Israel from the north in Lebanon, creating a multi-front war for Israel. According to on-ground reports, numerous alerts have been triggered in the northern regions of Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have yet to confirm the number of infiltrators or the extent of the invasion. Reports have also emerged that, in response to this escalation, the US government announced the immediate evacuation of its embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, but the embassy has rejected those claims. In a statement released moments ago, the US State Department urged all American citizens in Lebanon to remain cautious but indicated that the embassy is not being evacuated.

ISRAEL - The Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently released deeply unsettling photos as evidence of the terror inflicted by Hamas on innocent civilians in Israel, including babies. The highly sensitive and disturbing images graphically depict the inhuman brutality that has become synonymous with the militant terrorist group which governs the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Netanyahu made a compelling case for the international community, and particularly the United States, to recognize the barbaric nature of Hamas. Drawing chilling parallels between Hamas and the notorious ISIS terrorist group, Netanyahu said, “Hamas is inhuman. Hamas is ISIS.” By presenting this hard-to-stomach evidence, Netanyahu aimed to underscore not just the existential threat that Hamas poses to Israel but also the broader implications for global security and human decency.

SYRIA - Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday hit the international airports of the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service. The military says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems. Israel has repeatedly accused the Syrian military of actively assisting the Iran-backed Hezbollah in the area.

UK - Chief Constable Stephen Watson said people these days take pride in not respecting others and when arrested for breaking the law complain to his officers: 'You can't tell me not to do that.' He warned the 'sooner we correct that – however we do that – the better for all of us'. Asked at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference what has made local communities more at risk of crime now, the GMP chief said: 'I do think what has changed in large measure over recent times is we are growing a generation of people who have never had anybody say 'no' to them.'

USA - On Tuesday, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) released its annual “Studio Responsibility Index” which tracks how much LGBTQ content various movie studios are pumping out each year. Of all the studios, in 2022, Disney topped them all. In recent years, Disney has faced criticism for its approach to addressing LGBTQ+ themes in its content for children. Long gone are the days when parents could feel confident that Disney would protect the innocence of children, rather than introduce them to concepts of sexuality under the guise of “inclusivity.” But the problem is apparently much worse than you ever expected.

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”

[Always keep this in mind as we follow news stories about the wars in both Israel and Ukraine!]

ISRAEL - A full invasion, such as Israel's generals are surely discussing today, would be a bloody quagmire. For Jerusalem, it would mean a conveyor belt of tired soldiers fighting day and night, resupplying with food, water and military hardware, rotating and evacuating casualties, for months on end. It would chew up thousands of troops for little or no benefit, and poison the Arab world, and to a certain extent the international community, against the Jewish state. Alas, it looks like Israel is set to take precisely this route.

ISRAEL - As a former British intelligence officer, who spent nearly 20 years working in intelligence and security for the British government, I understand the difficulties of gathering information in the Middle East and interpreting it accurately. But such a failure is unprecedented in Israel. It points not only to Hamas maintaining an exceptional level of secrecy — a feat all the more impressive given the invasion involved many hundreds of fighters — but also to communication breakdowns between the Israeli spy agencies and, above all, abject complacency from the top down.

USA - Representative Michael McCaul backed up earlier claims that Egypt tipped officials off to an impending assault. Three days before Hamas’ large-scale assault on Israel, the Egyptian authorities warned their counterparts in Tel Aviv that such an operation was imminent, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul told reporters on Wednesday. “We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul said following a closed-door intelligence briefing on Capitol Hill. “I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” McCaul continued. “I think the question was at what level.”

ISRAEL - Countless media outlets quoted an Israeli army Major saying babies had been beheaded at a kibbutz. Astonishingly, some commentators argued they'd been shot rather than decapitated. To any sane person, such a debate is an abomination. Amid the carnage, a surreal debate – did Hamas terrorists decapitate babies or merely blast them to bits? Startlingly, that gruesome conundrum was occupying minds yesterday as political point-scoring broke out over the massacre of helpless children. At the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel, there can be no doubt that an atrocity unfolded. As many as 40 babies and small children were slaughtered, along with their parents and other innocents. As well as horrors that defy belief, the small communal farm of Kfar Aza, a mile from Gaza, is now an unwitting host to one of the poisonous propaganda battles of this war – namely: were babies, while being brutally murdered, beheaded or not?

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia continues to support the “legitimate rights” of Palestinians, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Monday, Saudi media reported. The latest escalation in Gaza, which broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group over the weekend, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire Middle East, the crown prince said, according to the Saudi Gazette. The kingdom plans to take “proactive efforts” and collaborate with international and regional powers to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spilling over to other parts of the Middle East, bin Salman said, adding that his nation is also seeking to bring a “swift end” to the hostilities.

ISRAEL - We are on the precipice of a major regional war in the Middle East, and the US military is going to be involved. Of course if this war was just limited to a fight between Israel and Hamas, there would be no need for the US military to intervene, because the IDF can handle Hamas quite easily. But Hezbollah is another matter entirely. Hezbollah possesses an extremely powerful military, and they have an arsenal of approximately 130,000 missiles ready to be fired at Israel. If Hezbollah enters the war and starts firing thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israel, the United States will take action. Unfortunately, we are already dangerously close to that point. Hezbollah has not formally entered the war yet, but clashes along Israel’s northern border have been happening for four consecutive days…