Israel re-arrests 40 Palestinians released under Gaza ceasefire agreement

An Israeli soldier forces a blind-folded Palestinian man into an armored vehicle in the occupied West Bank, September 2025. (Photo by Anadolu Agency)
Press TV -September 30, 2025
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) reported that Israeli forces have re-arrested 40 Palestinians who were previously freed under a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
According to a report released by PPS on Tuesday, Israeli troops carried out large-scale overnight raids across several areas of the occupied West Bank, targeting those released under the March 18 Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
During the raids, Israeli forces re-arrested at least 40 Palestinians, 16 of whom remain locked up under the regime’s so-called “administrative detention” — a practice that permits indefinite imprisonment without charge, trial, or legal representation.
Among those re-arrested was 59-year-old Hanan Barghouti, the sister of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner.
She was abducted early Tuesday after troops stormed her family home in Kobar, near Ramallah, violently ransacking the house and destroying personal belongings.
Another Palestinian held by Israel is Wael al-Jaghoub from Nablus, who spent 23 years in Israeli prisons before his 2025 release.
PPS described the escalation as part of a “systematic policy and a clear violation of the exchange deal, sending a message to all released detainees that they remain under constant targeting and surveillance.”
The organization condemned these measures as a deliberate policy aimed at keeping released abductees under continuous stress.
The Prisoners Club noted that some individuals have been detained and interrogated multiple times, reflecting a longstanding Israeli policy towards freed Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian authorities report that at least 61 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, including a 17-year-old who doctors say likely succumbed to starvation in March
Palestinian officials noted that Israel is currently detaining roughly 11,100 Palestinians, including 53 women, nearly 400 children, 3,577 administrative detainees, and over 2,600 from Gaza labeled as “unlawful combatants.
A Palestine Detainees Studies Center report said that approximately 60 percent of Palestinian abductees held in Israeli jails are afflicted with chronic illnesses, with several of them having died either during their detention or following their release as a result of the severity of their conditions.
Leaked Israeli Transcripts Reveal Trump Lied About Attack on Iran
Mainstream media won’t cover this story
By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | September 30, 2025
Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran, which the US joined on June 22, was framed as a desperate attempt to pre-empt an imminent Iranian nuclear threat. On June 21, Donald Trump insisted that his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was mistaken when she testified, in March, that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
According to CBS News, a reporter asked Trump: “What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community had said they have no evidence that they are at this point.” Trump responded: “Well then, my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?” The reporter answered: “Your director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.” “She’s wrong,” Trump insisted. Later he told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one.”
It was all a big lie. Trump was getting his so-called intelligence from Israel, which was reeling from a wave of Iranian counter-strikes and desperately needed the US to join the war. Shockingly, we now know that Israel never really believed that Iran was building a nuclear bomb.
Recently-leaked Israeli documents show that Israel’s real motives for attacking Iran, and drawing the US into its war, were very different from the “immanent nuclear threat” claim. On September 14, Israeli Channel 13 published leaked transcripts of Netanyahu’s security cabinet meetings just before and during the June war. According to Netanyahu’s own words, and those of his advisors, the real aim of the war was not to pre-empt an imminent Iranian bomb—they knew there was no such threat—but rather to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader and as many other leaders as possible, slaughter top Iranian scientists, inflict maximum damage on Iran’s ballistic missile sites, terrorize the Iranian people, cause a mass exodus from Tehran, and thereby, hopefully, instigate a regime change. The nuclear threat, Netanyahu admitted, was “within a few years,” not days, weeks, or months.
Even Netanyahu’s claim that Iran would build nuclear weapons “within a few years” may have been grossly exaggerated. The leaked transcripts show a senior military figure explaining that the real military rationale for bombing Iran—aside from the attempt to instigate regime change—was “to improve Israel’s strategic balance” and “preventing Tehran from going nuclear in the long term.”
Let that sink in. Israel was trying to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons “in the long term.” What does that mean, in years? I knew the approximate answer, but asked ChatGPT anyway: “When military strategists talk about ‘the long term’ what is the time frame, in years, they’re referring to?”
ChatGPT replied:
“Short term: Months to 1–2 years (immediate operations, contingencies, current deployments).
Medium term: About 3–7 years (building readiness, procurement cycles, training new units, near-future conflicts).
Long term: Typically 10–30 years…”
So to the extent that there was any real prospect of Iran building nuclear weapons, it was in the time frame of ten to thirty years. Yet Netanyahu and Trump risked World War III by massively bombing Iran on a blatantly false pretext—a pretext that makes George W. Bush’s lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction seem tame by comparison.
Ironically, the failed Israeli-American attack on Iran may create the very scenario it ostensibly sought to avoid. Iran’s aging Supreme Leader has repeatedly re-issued a religious edict banning nuclear weapons and other WMD. He insists that such weapons are sinful. That’s why strategists have long known—as Tulsi Gabbard said, and a top military advisor to Netanyahu confirmed—that it is highly unlikely that Iran will build a nuke in the foreseeable future…at least it was unlikely, until Netanyahu and Trump kicked the hornet’s nest with their June attack. That attack caused the Iranian people to rise up in fury behind a new generation of hardline leaders, far more militant than the current Supreme Leader, who are open to the argument, now supported by the majority of the Iranian people, that Iran must scrap its prohibition on WMD and build or buy nuclear bombs to deter future attacks.
According to a leading expert, Theodore Postol of MIT, Iran may have already built nuclear weapons in response to the June attack. In an interview with Glenn Diesen headlined “Iran Is Now an Undeclared Nuclear State,” Postol explained that the Israeli-US attack didn’t harm Iran’s now-hidden stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, which can be quickly, easily, and secretly made into bombs.
So the real reason Iran wasn’t building nukes was that it didn’t want them. But now, thanks to Netanyahu and Trump, it probably does.
The June attack wasn’t just a big lie, and a crime. It was a mistake—a blunder of epic proportions.
Why the US is so open about its intentions for Lebanese civil war
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | September 30, 2025
The United States is now openly admitting that it is arming the Lebanese military to fight its own people and that it won’t allow Lebanon to defend itself against the Israelis. This is no mistake and is instead part of a clear-cut strategy, designed to plunge the nation into chaos.
Although Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has openly followed orders from his American allies, choosing to pursue the disarmament of Hezbollah without any national defense strategy, a move opposed by the majority of the Lebanese public, it seems that the US is still not impressed.
While some have been duped into believing the policy of pursuing disarmament depends on the willingness of the Lebanese military, this way of reading the current American plot is completely wrong. Disarming Hezbollah is just step one in a much more complex strategy.
Since the ceasefire on November 27, 2024, the Zionist regime has continuously bombarded Lebanese territory, anywhere and at any time. They have committed around 5,000 total violations, continuing to expand their military presence in the south of Lebanon, where the Zionist leadership vows to remain indefinitely.
It is crucial at this stage to ask why, especially since airstrikes, specifically those that kill civilians, only complicate the US-assigned tasks of the Lebanese government, bringing both shame and embarrassment, particularly to Nawaf Salam.
One way of looking at the airstrikes is that the Israelis are seeking to degrade the capabilities of Hezbollah and prevent them from rebuilding following the war. Yet, their strikes are simply not effective enough to make a significant dent in this regard, although they may be hitting some sensitive targets on occasion.
This leaves us with the obvious explanation: the ongoing military assault is part of a war of perception which Hezbollah should behave in a very calculated way to deal with. The Israelis achieve two objectives by carrying out more and more provocative violations of Lebanese sovereignty: they project an image of dominance and attempt to bait Hezbollah into responding.
Some would then ask: Why does Hezbollah not respond? A question sometimes asked rhetorically in order to infer that they are too weak to do so.
The answer is quite simple. Hezbollah has put up a limited military front for almost an entire year in support for Gaza, responding to each Israeli escalation in what it considered a calculated manner. Yet all this merely allowed “Israel” to hatch a plot which harmed not only Hezbollah, but Lebanon as a whole. Despite this, the Zionist regime failed to finish the job, and Hezbollah not only survived but fought a defensive war to a stalemate.
If Hezbollah decides to respond in a limited manner to Israeli aggressions, it would provide the perfect excuse for the occupying entity to launch a large-scale military operation which would significantly damage Lebanon. In return, if Hezbollah does not manage to achieve major and overt military victories in such a confrontation, it would be a devastating blow.
In other words, the next confrontation has to be on a much greater scale than anything seen before, a military campaign in which Hezbollah manages to shock not only the Israelis, but the world, and most importantly, the Lebanese people themselves.
The martyred Secretary General of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, often spoke of the media war with the Zionist entity, treating it with great seriousness. This was because public perception shapes not only political outcomes, but also the course of battles on the ground through morale.
Prior to September 2024, the stock of Hezbollah was incredibly high. The public perception was that the Resistance was capable of defeating the Israelis by itself. This is why the end of the war and its results, the renewed occupation of Lebanese lands, brought shock. In reality, Hezbollah’s capabilities were never matching those of the Israelis, yet the tenacity of the Lebanese fighter and the Resistance’s planning created such an impression, especially following the 2006 war.
The perception of Hezbollah’s strength made the Israeli terrorist pager attack and assassination strikes against its leadership all the more devastating, because the public believed such attacks to be impossible.
This is something that the US has since weaponised, with figures like US envoy Morgan Ortagus even declaring that Hezbollah is over. This brings us to her fellow American envoy Tom Barrack’s recent interview with Sky News Arabia.
Barrack explicitly asserted that the US is supplying the Lebanese army to fight its own people, even laughing at the idea that this support is intended to confront “Israel”. While some analysts interpreted Barrack’s statements as ill-advised or mistaken, they couldn’t be further from the truth, there is a reason why he speaks with such confidence.
The U.S. Trump administration understands full-well that the Lebanese army is not capable of removing Hezbollah’s weapons by force alone. The Americans and their Israeli allies may be many things, but they are not naive on this issue. They understand that many strings must be pulled if Hezbollah is actually going to suffer a blow which will lead to significant military degradation.
Part of this strategy is to try and publicly humiliate not only Hezbollah, but also the Lebanese State and people as a whole. Meanwhile, the Israelis are performing their part in this plot and are escalating their provocative actions, now implementing tactics such as deliberately carrying out civilian massacres, like the one that occurred in Bint Jbeil recently. Also, they are now attempting to clear portions of southern Lebanon by issuing evacuation orders before bombing civilian buildings.
What the likes of Nawaf Salam don’t appear to understand is that they are totally disposable in this equation. Meaning that there is even a danger he could be assassinated by the Israelis or Americans in order to pin the blame on Hezbollah and its allies.
Right now, the US and “Israel” are plotting against Lebanon. They will seek to carry out actions which will be just as detrimental, if not more, than what we witnessed last September, and they are under no illusions about whether the Lebanese army could simply disarm Hezbollah for them.
The Israelis are openly seeking the so-called “Greater Israel”, as per their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own admission earlier this year. A common misconception about the “Greater Israel Project” is that it would mean occupying Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, parts of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Türkiye, in the same way it did in Palestinian occupied territories.
In fact, the man who first conceived the “Greater Israel” model, Oded Yinon, in his academic article back in 1982, advocated for an Israeli empire, under which the nations of the region would be broken down into sectarian regimes and ethno-states, all of which would be effectively demilitarized and under the de-facto control of the Zionist Entity.
When the Zionist regime occupied southern Lebanon following the 1982 invasion, during which 20,000 people were killed, it relied on the “South Lebanon Army” to carry out its agenda. A similar system was not set up in the occupied West Bank. There, the Zionists instead injected their population to build illegal settlements and Judaize the area, while collaborators managed the territory under Israeli rule.
Similarly, in Syria, the Zionists are not necessarily interested in settling Daraa, for instance, they would much rather demilitarize the entire south, except the collaborator regime they hope to implement in Sweida. Officials in Tel Aviv have also made it clear that they will never tolerate the rebuilding of the Syrian Arab Army; they will only allow a military force comparable to that of Lebanon.
All of this is to say that there is a psychological war being waged on the people of Lebanon and region at large. Hezbollah is still very much militarily capable of taking the fight to the Israelis, but how they do it is of great importance. We know well that the Resistance still possesses considerable capabilities, because we witnessed newly revealed weapons right up until the final days of the war, many of them in clear abundance.
One mistake that the US may be making, however, is that all its rhetoric about Hezbollah could well backfire.
Israel invests millions to ‘game’ ChatGPT into replicating pro-Israel content for Gen Z audiences
The Cradle | September 30, 2025
The Israeli government has hired a company to help it “train ChatGPT” to be more “pro-Israel,” Responsible Statecraft reported on 30 September, citing a contract with US conservative-linked firm Clock Tower X LLC.
The report says the contract is worth $6 million.
A minimum of 80 percent of the content produced by Clock Tower will be “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets,” the contract states. The quota is at least 50 million impressions monthly.
The company will also use “websites and content to deliver GPT framing results on GPT conversations” on behalf of Israel.
Additionally, it will allow for the “integration of narrative messaging into Salem Media Network properties and aligned distribution channels.” Salem Media Network is a conservative Christian media network in the US.
US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is playing a leading role in the agreement and will receive $6 million over a four-month period.
The contract frames the project as “strategic communications, planning, and media services in support of Havas’ engagement by the State of Israel to develop and execute a nationwide campaign in the US to combat antisemitism.”
The contract is part of an Israeli effort to control social media narratives in the US and other countries.
TikTok recently hired Erica Mendel, a former Israeli army instructor, to oversee the popular application’s hate-speech policy.
Mindel is also a former US State Department contractor who worked for Deborah Lipstadt, special envoy to combat antisemitism under the government of former US president Joe Biden.
Google is executing a $45-million advertising contract with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to spread propaganda denying famine in Gaza, Drop Site News reported on 3 September.
The six-month campaign, launched in June, is run through Google’s YouTube and its Display & Video 360 service, and is described in a government contract as hasbara.
The details were disclosed in official Israeli government contract filings from the state advertising bureau, Lapam, which reports directly to Netanyahu’s office.
Despite this Israeli effort, public support for Israel in the US is plummeting.
A new poll by the New York Times (NYT) and Siena University said that more respondents supported Palestinians over Israel, for the first time since the survey began asking that question decades ago.
Thirty-five percent supported Palestinians, while 34 percent supported Israel. The rest said they did not know or did not support either side.
Days before, a poll released by Quinnipiac University revealed that only 47 percent of US citizens believe that backing Israel is in Washington’s interest.
The poll also found that 49 percent of US voters have a negative view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Only 21 percent hold positive views on the premier.
It also revealed that 56 percent of US voters disapprove of US President Donald Trump’s handling of the Gaza war.
Young adults across the US have shown the biggest decline in approval of Israel.
The Republican–Israel love affair hits a generational rift
By José Niño | The Cradle | September 29, 2025
The sniper’s bullet that silenced Charlie Kirk on 10 September at Utah Valley University did more than end the life of America’s most prominent conservative youth activist. It ignited a firestorm of theories that illuminated the deepest fractures within the Republican Party since the Cold War. Within hours, social media exploded with speculation that Israel’s Mossad had orchestrated the assassination to neutralize what some saw as a rising threat to Israel’s influence in Washington.
While speculative, the speed and ferocity with which such conspiracy theories spread reveal something profound. Kirk’s assassination has become a symbol of the impossible balancing act facing Republican leaders as younger conservatives shun pro-Zionist sentiments, abandoning Israel in numbers that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
The unraveling Republican–Israel consensus
Kirk’s assassination was a flashpoint, but the deeper story is in the data. A University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll (29 July–7 August) exposed a dramatic generational schism: While 52 percent of Republicans aged 35 and over sympathize more with Israel, only 24 percent of Republicans aged 18–34 say the same.
The gulf widens when it comes to Gaza. Among older Republicans, 52 percent say Israeli actions in Gaza are justified. Among younger Republicans, only 22 percent agree. “The change taking place among young Republicans is breathtaking,” said Shibley Telhami, the poll’s principal investigator. “While 52 percent of older Republicans (35+) sympathize more with Israel, only 24 percent of younger Republicans (18–34) say the same – fewer than half.”
The shift accelerated dramatically after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023. Pew Research Center data shows that unfavorable views of Israel among Republicans under 50 jumped from 35 percent in 2022 to 50 percent in 2025, a remarkable 15-point increase. In contrast, Republicans aged 50 and older moved only marginally, from 19 percent to 23 percent unfavorable.
The University of Maryland poll found that 41 percent of Americans believe Israeli military actions in Gaza constitute either “genocide” or are “akin to genocide,” including 14 percent of Republicans. Notably, the survey discovered that 21 percent of Republicans consider US President Donald Trump’s administration’s policy toward Israel–Palestine “too pro-Israel,” while 57 percent of Republicans said Washington’s support has enabled Israeli war crimes.
Even evangelical Republicans – long Israel’s most fervent base – are shifting. Among older evangelicals, 69 percent express more sympathy with Israel. But that number drops to 32 percent among their younger counterparts. Only 36 percent of younger evangelical Republicans believe Israeli actions in Gaza are justified.
In a sharp rebuke to the bipartisan tradition of unconditional aid, a September 2025 AtlasIntel poll found that just 30 percent of Americans support financial assistance to Israel, showing that Israel’s “blank check” in Washington is increasingly out of step with public opinion. A growing number of Republicans now argue that US policy prioritizes Israeli interests over American ones.
In a similar vein, the University of Maryland poll found that the rise of social media has significantly accelerated this attitudinal shift on Israel while fueling broader support for a more restrained foreign policy approach.
While 32 percent of Republicans aged 35 and older say Fox News is their primary news source, only 12 percent of younger Republicans rely primarily on the news channel. By contrast, nearly half (46 percent) of Republicans aged 18–34 get their primary news from the internet and social media, where resistance narratives and Palestinian voices are far more accessible, despite efforts to censor them. This is compared to 29 percent of older Republicans. This shift matters. Seventy-two percent of Republicans who rely on Fox News support Israel. Among those whose main source is social media, support drops to 35 percent. Conservative youth are consuming a radically different discourse, one that challenges the old dogmas.
Congressional outliers and rising dissent
The conservative grassroots revolt has found limited but vocal expression among Republican elected officials. Three figures stand out as exceptions to the party’s overwhelming pro-Israel consensus: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Greene’s evolution has been the most dramatic. In November 2023, she proudly defended her “history of voting to fund Israel’s Iron Dome and other defense systems.” By July 2025, she was describing Israel’s Gaza war as “genocide.” On 28 July, she wrote on X, “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.” Greene’s most pointed critique came days later, when she questioned American priorities with respect to West Asia foreign policy:
“Are innocent Israeli lives more valuable than innocent Palestinian and Christian lives? And why should America continue funding this?”
“The secular government of nuclear-armed Israel has proven that they are beyond capable of dealing with their enemies and are capable of and are in the process of systematically cleansing them from the land.”
Her criticism intensified through August, when she told One America News Network that “Israel is not hurting, and they’ve already proven that they are more than capable of not only defending themselves, but annihilating their enemies to the point of genocide. And that’s what’s happening in Gaza.”
Massie, the Kentucky libertarian, has been consistent in opposing Israel’s wars. In June 2024, he told a House Rules Committee hearing:
“I don’t want to condone what Israel’s doing. I don’t want to condone the way Netanyahu is waging the campaign against Hamas because I think there are too many civilian casualties. One percent of the civilian population of Gaza is no longer breathing air, no longer on this planet, and we’ve just somehow accepted that that level of civilian casualties – whether it’s two civilians for every enemy combatant is okay, which I do not accept.”
On 30 May 2025, Massie posted on X, “Nothing can justify the number of casualties (tens of thousands of women and children) inflicted by Israel in Gaza. We should end all US military aid to Israel immediately.”
Gaetz’s transformation has been more recent but equally sharp. In October 2017, while he served as representative for Florida’s first congressional district, Gaetz delivered a House floor speech declaring his support for “our friend and ally, Israel,” condemning the UN’s “antisemitism” and “attempts to punish and delegitimize Israel.” In 2025, now hosting The Matt Gaetz Show, he asked, “If Israel is a democracy, when do all the Arabs who live there get to vote?” He has raised concerns about “Jewish supremacy” and the state’s treatment of Palestinian Christians.
At the height of the 12-day war in June between Iran and Israel, Gaetz was highly critical of any belligerent action toward Iran and had choice words about Israel’s nuclear program:
“There’s a secret nuclear program in the Middle East – and it’s Israel’s. They won’t allow inspectors, they operate in full secrecy, and everyone in Washington knows it … To drag us into a regime change war over secret nuclear weapons when your ally also has secret nuclear weapons – that’s hypocritical.”
His shift began earlier. In 2020, following the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, Gaetz called for restraint. By 2025, his rhetoric had clearly broken with pro-Zionist orthodoxy.
The money firewall
Despite the changing winds, institutional Republican support for Israel remains ironclad, enforced by immense donor pressure. Greene, Massie, and Gaetz represent isolated voices in a caucus that continues to pass pro-Israel legislation by overwhelming margins.
The pro-Israeli lobby group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), responded furiously to Greene’s genocide comments, telling The Hill, “Anti-Israel extremists – of the right or the left – will not deter us in our participation in the democratic process to stand with Israel. It is an outrageous betrayal of American values and interests to abandon an ally fighting terrorist aggression.”
AIPAC’s influence remains formidable throughout the Republican caucus. As Massie revealed in a 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson, every Republican member of Congress has a dedicated “AIPAC babysitter” – a lobbyist who is “always talking to you” on behalf of the organization, pushing for pro-Israel votes.
The current skepticism toward Israel among young Republicans represents the culmination of long-standing anti-war sentiments within the American Right. From Pat Buchanan’s opposition to the Persian Gulf War to Ron Paul’s consistent non-interventionism, a minority strain of conservative thought has always questioned foreign entanglements.
This “America First” current experienced a notable resurgence during the Trump era, with figures like Carlson warning against involvement in West Asian conflicts. The Gaza war has provided a focal point for these concerns, particularly among younger conservatives who came of age during the post-9/11 Iraq and Afghanistan wars and became disillusioned by the cost and aimlessness of these conflicts.
Despite a marked shift in sentiment among younger conservatives, many of whom are increasingly skeptical of unconditional support for Israel, pro-Israel money continues to dominate Republican politics. In the 2024 election cycle alone, analysis by Track AIPAC found that pro-Israel groups spent over $230 million to re-elect Donald Trump.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) raised more than $18 million, a 50 percent increase from 2020, and spent over $15 million to strengthen Trump’s campaign and support other Republican candidates. The Israeli-American super-donor Miriam Adelson‘s (widow of the late US businessman Sheldon Adelson) Preserve America PAC by itself provided more than $215 million to advance Trump’s presidential bid.
In short, while the conservative base moves one way, the money moves another. For now, the latter still calls the shots.
A conservative youth uprising
The pro-Zionist torrent of funding highlights a harsh reality. Even as the Republican base grows increasingly critical of Israel, the financial influence of pro-Israel donors continues to ensure that party leaders remain firmly aligned with Zionist priorities, often in direct conflict with the wishes of grassroots conservatives. The real test will come as this generation ages into political power. Greene, Massie, and Gaetz may be lone voices today, but they are amplifying a groundswell of dissent that could soon reach critical mass.
Whether this revolt reshapes the Republican party’s stance on Israel or remains smothered by donor-class discipline will determine the next era of Republican politics – and the fate of Tel Aviv’s blank check in Washington.
The Real Jan. 6th Coup
By Ron Paul | September 29, 2025
In my first column after the events of Jan. 6th, 2021, I criticized those who called the protest a “coup,” pointing out that, “Some of the same politicians and bureaucrats denouncing the ridiculous farce at the Capitol as if it were the equivalent of 9/11 have been involved for decades in planning and executing real coups overseas. In their real coups, many thousands of civilians have died.”
The media at the time played up the violence committed by a relative few at the protest to stoke a national outcry and demands for “justice.” More than 1,500 Americans were charged over the incident and nearly 500 were imprisoned, including outrageous prison sentences for relatively minor crimes like entering the Capitol building through doors opened by the police, and filming the event.
While most Democrats and Republicans in Congress harshly denounced the January 6th “insurrectionists,” a few Members displayed the appropriate skepticism over accepted government narratives. Rep. Thomas Massie, for example, was relentless in his search for answers to a simple but critically important question: How many of the “insurrectionists” were actually undercover FBI agents and other law enforcement officers and what role might they have played in inciting the violence.
Massie grilled then-Attorney General Merrick Garland several times, but Garland would not budge. He refused to say whether there had been any undercover federal agents in the crowd, though of course he must have known.
Last week we learned a little more of the truth. With the release of the FBI’s long lost “after action” report, we now know that more than 250 undercover agents were in the crowd. According to the report, they were given roles including crowd control that they were not suited for. Some agents cited in the report complained of political biases in the Bureau against conservatives. What other tasks might have been given to a “politicized” FBI undercover team?
In addition to the undercover agents, there were more than two dozen paid informants in the Jan. 6th crowd. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the subcommittee investigating the matter, asks an important question: “With that many paid informants being in the crowd, we want to know how many were in the crowd, how many were in the building, but I also want to know, were they paid to inform or instigate?”
Were they paid to inform, or to instigate? That is a good question. We do know that the event was used by the incoming Biden Administration to demonize and persecute the political opposition. There is no telling how many Americans would have liked to use their First Amendment guarantee of free speech to criticize the Biden Administration but were silenced by fear of persecution, or worse. It’s easy to conclude, seeing so many arrested and handed long sentences for non-violent “crimes,” that it’s better to keep quiet. At the time, the US was still in the grip of Covid tyranny, where speaking out against “the Science” could get you “cancelled” or worse. This was another way to silence people who were not “going along with the program.”
In the end, January 6th, 2021, was a coup of sorts. It was a coup against the First Amendment. The lesson for all of us is that if we do not regularly but peacefully exercise our First Amendment guarantees we will definitely lose them, regardless of who is in power.
Brussels finds a way to bypass Orbán’s veto on initiation of EU accession talks
Remix News | September 30, 2025
European Council President António Costa has proposed how to bypass Hungary’s veto and advance EU accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
Current rules mandate that all 27 EU member states approve each stage of the accession process. Costa’s proposal would allow a qualified majority vote to open so-called negotiating clusters for the two countries, notes Hirado, citing an article by Politico.
However, despite this move speeding up the accession process, final accession approval would still require unanimity.
Guillaume Mercier, the European Commission’s spokesperson for enlargement, said on Monday: “The possibility of the Council deciding by qualified majority on certain intermediate steps in the enlargement process would be worth exploring.”
This would help candidate countries, such as Ukraine and Moldova, to start the necessary reforms to align with EU standards, even if one or two member states officially oppose the start of negotiations.
EU diplomats say Costa’s proposal would offer a way to overcome Viktor Orbán’s repeated vetoes. “When a country is obstructed without any objective reason, despite fulfilling the criteria, the credibility of the entire enlargement process is at risk,” Mercier said.
Regarding “no objective reason,” however, is questionable, as Orbán has offered plenty of reasons. Notably, Ukraine is still at war, and even if the war should end, may be threatened with war once again in the future. Furthermore, Ukraine, even before the war, was rated as the most corrupt country in Europe, and since the war, corruption has only grown worse. Rebuilding the country is also expected to take hundreds of billions of euros, which EU taxpayers will increasingly be on the hook for if Ukraine joins the EU.
Costa nevertheless added, “It is really up to the Member States to decide on the next steps and we hope to open the first cluster soon.”
As Hirado notes, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also strongly supported extending qualified majority voting in certain areas such as foreign policy, but she has also clearly indicated that it could benefit other areas as well.
Asked whether EU enlargement could fall into this category, Paula Pinho, the Commission’s senior spokeswoman, responded on Monday: “That could indeed be examined.”
Hamas: We have not received the US proposal
Palestinian Information Center – September 29, 2025
DOHA – Senior Hamas official Taher an-Nunu denied that the Movement had received any copy of the US proposal to end the war on Gaza.
In press statements on Monday evening, Al-Nunu said, “Hamas was not part of any negotiations concerning the current US plan.”
He clarified that the release of Israeli captives held by the Palestinian resistance is tied to ending the war and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from Gaza. He emphasized that the resistance’s weapons are tied to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Al-Nunu affirmed Hamas’s readiness to agree to a multi-year truce and noted that the Movement had accepted Egypt’s proposal to form an independent administration for Gaza.
“We are serious about releasing the captives as part of an agreement that ends the war on Gaza and ensures the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation,” he added.
He confirmed Hamas is ready to coordinate with the Palestinian Authority to form a unity government to manage both Gaza and the West Bank.
He stressed that the Movement does not wish to prolong the war, adding that Hamas is “prepared to consider any proposal that does not conflict with the interests of the Palestinian people.”
He also emphasized that the Palestinian people are not incapable of self-governance and reject any external guardianship.
On Sunday, The Washington Post revealed details of US President Trump’s proposal to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has continued for two years.
According to the paper, the 21-point plan includes an immediate halt to all military operations and freezing of battle lines at their current positions.
Meanwhile, Hamas confirmed it had not received any new proposal from mediators regarding a ceasefire in Gaza.
In a statement, Hamas reiterated its willingness to positively and responsibly consider any proposals from mediators, so long as they safeguard the Palestinian people’s national rights.
Hamas reviews Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan as PIJ rejects
Al Mayadeen | September 30, 2025
Hamas negotiators told mediators they would study the plan “in good faith” and provide a formal response, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Reuters reported that Egypt and Qatar briefed Hamas on United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war. Earlier, the White House confirmed that Trump had discussed the ceasefire proposal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing it as a framework supported by “Arab and Islamic leaders.”
At a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Trump said he believed Hamas would eventually approve the proposal, adding that “Doha has taken it upon itself to convince the movement.”
PIJ rejects plan as ‘US-Israeli agreement’
The announcement drew sharp criticism from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Its Secretary-General, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, dismissed the initiative outright, calling it “nothing but a full American-Israeli agreement.”
Al-Nakhalah stressed that the announcement reflected “the Israeli position in its most precise details” and constituted “a recipe for the continuation of aggression against the Palestinian people.”
He warned that the proposal amounted to “an attempt to impose new realities through the US after the occupation failed to achieve them through successive wars.”
The Islamic Jihad leader further cautioned that the so-called agreement was “a ready-made recipe to ignite the entire region and fuel further conflicts.”
Regional mediation continues
The White House had presented the proposal on Monday evening, saying that if both parties agree to this proposal, the war will end immediately.
Mediation efforts led by Qatar and Egypt remain ongoing, with Hamas yet to issue a formal stance, while the resistance maintains that any deal must address the root causes of the war, including the siege and occupation.
Tylenol, FDA Knew About Autism Risk For Years, Newly Surfaced Emails Show
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | September 29, 2025
Makers of Tylenol and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew for years about the likely association between the drug’s use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, according to documents obtained in lawsuits against Kenvue.
“The weight of evidence is starting to feel heavy to me,” Rachel Weinstein, U.S. director of epidemiology for Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) pharmaceutical division Janssen, said in an email commenting on several studies showing the link.
Daily Caller News Foundation obtained the emails from Keller Postman LLC, the law firm representing plaintiffs in a federal class action lawsuit against Kenvue.
J&J made Tylenol until 2023, when it spun off production to Kenvue, a separate company.
The email revelations follow President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that pregnant women should not take Tylenol, and the FDA’s announcement that it will add warnings to products containing acetaminophen.
The updated product labels will warn that acetaminophen may be associated with a higher risk of neurological conditions, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in children. The FDA said it will also warn physicians and the public about the risk.
Mainstream media and public health organizations attacked the warnings as unfounded or overblown. Some news organizations quoted scientists — like University of Massachusetts epidemiologist Ann Bauer — who published studies identifying the link between Tylenol and autism and called for warnings, but who are now publicly backpedaling on their concerns.
However, the Daily Caller found that despite confusion in the media and among public health experts, emails show that as early as 2008, officials at J&J were privately concerned about credible evidence of a possible link between autism and acetaminophen. They acknowledged the link in an email and suggested further investigation.
Internal FDA meta-analyses shared with The Defender show that the agency had for years considered adding new warnings about acetaminophen’s side effects for children.
In 2019, FDA scientists conducted a meta-analysis that found urogenital disorders in infants linked to the drug. The scientists also noted links to neurodevelopmental issues. In 2022, the FDA conducted another meta-analysis that found a link to ADHD.
Tylenol makers ‘closely tracked a drumbeat of scientific publications’ showing link to autism
The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained emails spanning more than a decade indicating that company insiders at J&J had been alerted about the possible link between acetaminophen and neurological disorders. The emails showed J&J even considered pursuing further research, but decided against it.
The outlet also obtained a 2012 email by Leslie Shur, head of the division at J&J that monitors side effects, acknowledging another consumer complaint about the issue, and a 2014 email showing that the issue was raised with CEO Alex Gorsky, whose name is misspelled in the email.
According to journalist Emily Kopp, who wrote the Daily Caller story:
“The makers of Tylenol have closely tracked a drumbeat of scientific publications finding an association between taking the blockbuster drug in pregnancy and infancy and autism risk, other company documents show.
“A 2018 internal presentation the company labeled ‘privileged and confidential’ acknowledges that observational studies show a ‘somewhat consistent’ association between prenatal exposure to Tylenol and neurodevelopmental disorders.
“Another presentation slide acknowledges that larger meta-analyses — reviews summarizing multiple scientific studies — found an association, but notes weaknesses of these studies like confounding variables and subjectivity in measuring autistic traits.”
A Kenvue spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the company believes there is “no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism” and that its projects are “safe and effective” when used as directed on the label.
Kopp noted the company’s website also states that “credible, independent scientific data continues to show no proven link between taking acetaminophen and autism,” and that “there is no credible science that shows taking acetaminophen causes autism.”
Yet, she found that internal emails showed employees discussing a 2018 study and a 2016 study that both concluded pregnant women should be cautioned about the possible effects of taking Tylenol while pregnant.
She also found emails indicating that J&J considered funding studies on Tylenol’s possible link to autism, but decided against “sticking their necks out,” worried their studies could confirm the findings.
According to Kopp:
“The company also conducted research it described as ‘social listening’ by tracking Google searches and social media posts seeking evidence about Tylenol and autism from January 2020 through October 2023.
“The company initiated the social media trends research after the 2021 publication of a call to action on Tylenol in Nature Reviews Endocrinology by 13 U.S. and European experts ‘in light of the serious consequences of inaction.’”
The company wrote a 2023 review, Project Cocoon, which reported on concerns with urinogenital and neurological side effects of the drugs in babies, which executives noted touches“every aspect of the brand,” Kopp wrote.
FDA also concerned with mounting evidence
The FDA also grew concerned with the mounting evidence of a link between acetaminophen and neurodevelopmental disorders, beginning with a publication in JAMA Pediatrics in 2014 and followed by several major publications over the next several years, according to psychiatrist David Healy.
Healy is an expert witness in a case against Kenvue and Safeway, alleging they failed to adequately warn consumers about the risk of autism or ADHD from prenatal exposure to the drug.
Documents from 2019 and 2022, made available through Freedom of Information Act requests associated with the lawsuit and shared with The Defender, show that based on meta-analysis of the published literature, the FDA identified consistent links between acetaminophen and both urogenital and neurodevelopmental risks.
As early as 2019, FDA study authors recommended that the labels be revised to advise pregnant women to “be careful about casual use of acetaminophen when it is not strongly needed for pain or other purposes.”
The 2022 document, focused largely on neurological outcomes, states that despite study limitations, meta-analyses and other research consistently found links between acetaminophen and ADHD, and as a result, “it may be prudent, as a precautionary measure …” However, the rest of the recommendation is redacted.
Healy said the revelations by Weinstein and others working with J&J are particularly significant because drugmakers have the responsibility to inform consumers when they know a drug may be linked to an adverse event.
“The onus to warn does not arise when there is a clear cause and effect,” Healy said. “It arises when there are grounds to think there might be a problem.”
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry in revolt over Israel’s ‘war of extermination’ in Gaza
MEMO | September 29, 2025
Around 700 Italian Foreign Ministry employees have written to Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressing their “profound ethical and professional discomfort” at working with Israeli authorities while Israel carries out a war of “extermination” of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
The internal four-page letter, reviewed by Haaretz, warns that Italy’s “wait and see attitude” towards Israel’s genocide in Gaza is “incoherent with the country’s Constitution and obligations under international law” and risks making Rome “complicit” in grave violations of international humanitarian law.
“Inertia – or mere rhetoric not followed by concrete actions – exposes us to the risk of complicity with the ongoing grave violations of international humanitarian law and with the genocide that is taking place,” the letter states.
The letter also proposes several urgent measures, including recognition of a Palestinian state, suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement to allow for increased tariffs on Israeli goods, and the imposition of an “apartheid tax” on Israel as a form of reparations for Palestinians.
The document further calls on the Italian government to formally warn Israel against offensive actions or threats of force targeting the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian-led mission seeking to break the naval blockade on Gaza.
The strongly worded intervention follows a letter from 34 former ambassadors urging Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to recognise the state of Palestine. It also comes in the wake of Italy’s largest public mobilisation against the genocide in Gaza since its onset, with tens of thousands taking part in a general strike and mass protests across nearly 80 cities.
Last week’s general strike, coordinated by the Unione Sindacale di Base, was described as a response to the “ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the blockade of humanitarian aid by the Israeli army, and the threats against the international mission Global Sumud Flotilla.”
Demonstrators clashed with police in Milan while attempting to enter the city’s central railway station, injuring over 50 officers. In Bologna, activists blocked a major intersection and sections of a highway, while in Turin access to the airport was obstructed for several hours. A national demonstration scheduled for 4 October is expected to draw tens of thousands more to the streets of Rome.
The government’s stance has also come under scrutiny for its refusal to follow France, the UK and several other Western governments in unilaterally recognising Palestinian statehood.


