IRAN’s NOT GOING BACK, New Demands Are Clear /Professor Seyed Marandi
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 19, 2026
Can the US Outsmart Iran? /Lt Col Daniel Davis & Brian McGlinchey
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 19, 2026
UKRAINE: Under Siege From Every Front /Lt Col Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 19, 2026
Jewish State Senator Jeremy Moss Faces Backlash over Hot Mic Comments
José Niño Unfiltered | August 19, 2026
The political landscape for Democrats in Michigan has shifted beneath their feet as the party grapples with a rapidly growing anti-Zionist wing. Amid this tension, Jewish Michigan State Senator Jeremy Moss, who recently secured the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District, found his career suddenly stalled by a leaked audio recording. In the audio clip which spread like wildfire across digital platforms in July 2026, Moss appeared to admit that his primary motivation as a legislator is to serve a foreign power. According to the recording, Moss stated, “The entire purpose of my career is to make sure America continues to support Israel, I don’t think it’s wrong for Israel to use America as a pawn, America is not our homeland, we have been victims of antisemitism here.” These words, which suggest a priority for Israel over his own constituents, ignited a firestorm of controversy and provided a flashpoint for voters increasingly tired of the influence exerted by foreign interests in American governance.
Jeremy Allen Moss, born in Detroit on June 23, 1986, has been a lifelong resident of Southfield, Michigan, and currently serves as state senator for the 7th District. A graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a second major in political science, Moss was elected to the Southfield City Council in November 2011 at age 25, becoming the youngest person ever elected to that body. He is notable for being both the first homosexual person elected to the Michigan Senate and its current President Pro Tempore. His career in the state legislature began in 2014 when he won election to the Michigan House of Representatives for the 35th district, where he served as Democratic Caucus Whip before moving to the state Senate in 2019. As he prepares to move into the U.S. House of Representatives following his August 2026 primary victory in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, he remains a key figure in suburban Detroit’s Democratic machine, representing an area with a high concentration of Jewish voters.
His legislative record is marked by a focus on progressive social issues, including sponsoring the expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to extend additional privileges to LGBT individuals. However, his tenure in the state Senate has been equally defined by his vocal defense of Israel and his aggressive posture against those who question the nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship. He has consistently served as an institutional voice for the Jewish community, frequently speaking out on behalf of what he calls “the liberal Israel-supporting community” and serving as the legislative spearhead of the Black and Jewish Unity Caucus—the legislative arm of a coalition between the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee (JCRC/AJC) and the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit. He has simultaneously worked within civic groups including the Martin Luther King Task Force, on which he serves as an advisory board member, and the Greater Southfield/Farmington chapter of the NAACP.
Moss has long occupied the front lines of the internal Democratic conflict over the Middle East. During the November 2023 dispute regarding Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” Moss was among the most vocal critics. “This is not how Jews view the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’” he wrote on X. “Hamas uses it as a rallying cry. And they don’t simply want to displace Jews in Israel. They want Jews dead.”
Later, during the campus protests of spring 2024, he asserted on the Senate floor that “’Zionist’ is now being weaponized as a slur.” He further attempted to codify these views into law during 2025 by co-sponsoring antisemitism legislation that incorporates the IHRA definition of antisemitism. For Moss, the protection of the state of Israel and the maintenance of its perceived security are inseparable from his domestic agenda.
The intensity of these battles reached a fever pitch on March 12, 2026, when Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born American citizen, drove a Ford F-150 through the front doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle before being killed by security guards. The FBI called it a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” Moss immediately went public with his response, telling CNN: “We stand on guard all the time for somebody to penetrate a house of worship or a school or another Jewish institution with an act of terror. And so we’re a community that’s kind of used to learning and praying in a fortress. It’s no way to live, but it’s the reality.” By July 2026, Moss championed a $23 million state appropriation for security measures at Jewish institutions across Michigan. “The sad reality is that this is an ongoing need,” he said.
However, his campaign for Congress took a jarring turn with the appearance of the hot mic audio in July 2026. While primary opponents Aisha Farooqi and Don Ufford publicized it to highlight Moss’s alleged ties to AIPAC-linked donors and foreign lobbies, Moss dismissed it as “manipulated and unsourced.” Despite the controversy, Moss emerged victorious in the primary, signaling that his established donor network and institutional support from the organized Jewish community remain potent forces even as the party’s base drifts from his position.
The skepticism toward Moss’s stance exists within a party where rank-and-file members are rapidly shedding support for Israel. This domestic dissatisfaction is mirrored by overwhelming opposition to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. A Gallup poll conducted July 7-21, 2025 found that only 12 percent of Democrats approved of U.S. military action against Iran, while a Quinnipiac poll conducted March 6-8, 2026, days after Operation Epic Fury began, found that 89 percent of Democrats opposed the current U.S. military action against Iran, with only 7 percent in support.
Congressional votes have similarly reflected this anti-war consensus: 92 percent of Democrats polled said Trump should have sought congressional approval before striking Iran, and the vast majority of House Democrats supported War Powers resolutions to rein in the administration’s authority to continue the conflict. The party is effectively moving toward a stance of restraint, leaving figures like Moss, who remain committed to serving the Zionist endeavor, increasingly isolated from the prevailing ideological currents of their own coalition.
The divide between the American public and its political class is widening, and Moss represents the tail end of an era that is rapidly coming to a close. As support for Israel erodes across the American political spectrum, the institutional power wielded by figures like Moss faces an existential test. History is a cyclical beast, and once again, the Jewish community finds itself acting as an isolated minority in a nation that no longer shares its political priorities.
Former Top Fauci Aide Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges. Will He Flip on Fauci?
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 19, 2026
A former key adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci pled guilty to concealing public records related to the origins of COVID-19 in a plea deal reached with federal prosecutors — a development some political figures and analysts suggest could implicate Fauci.
Dr. David Morens pled guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. According to The Washington Post, Morens, 78, told a federal judge he attempted to bypass federal recordkeeping laws by using his private email account to discuss research — and a terminated federal grant — related to COVID-19’s origins.
Morens, initially indicted in April on five federal charges, told the judge he intentionally redirected communications to his personal email account to protect Fauci and because the emails might be misinterpreted in the future, if and when they were publicly released.
Court filings show some of the emails were back-channeled to a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). According to CBS News, the official is likely Fauci, who directed NIAID until December 2022. Morens served as senior adviser in Fauci’s NIAID office between 2006 and 2022.
Morens diverted messages to his personal email while speculation swirled around whether COVID-19 emerged in nature, as Fauci and other Biden administration officials and key virologists publicly asserted at the time, or was developed at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and leaked from there.
Morens faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 under the terms of the plea deal, though his sentence may be shorter. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), “actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.” Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 12, Politico reported.
“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did and will continue to do so,” Tim Belevetz, Morens’ attorney, said in a statement cited by the Post.
James Billot, editor of UnHerd, told Australia’s News24 Digital that Morens’ guilty plea represents the “first big scalp” in the COVID-19 origins investigation. “We are going to see a lot more of this thing coming out soon.”
According to Politico, Fauci was not “charged with or accused of wrongdoing in the case against Morens and is not referred to by name in court filings.”
But in a post on X, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is leading the congressional COVID-19 origins investigation, suggested Fauci may be implicated: “Long-time Fauci ally pleads guilty. Could his plea involve implicating Anthony Fauci?” Paul wrote.
Morens boasted about being able to ‘make emails disappear’
During testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024, Fauci denied he had a close working relationship with Morens, suggesting that Morens did not advise him on “institute policy or other substantive issues.”
However, Morens’ plea deal includes a statement that he often consulted with an outside researcher, Peter Daszak, Ph.D., then-president of the EcoHealth Alliance, to prepare briefings for Fauci that would suggest COVID-19 had natural origins.
In a 2021 email released by the House and cited by The Hill, Morens told Daszak, “I can either send stuff to Tony [Fauci] on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
In another 2021 email, Morens said he knew how to “make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d” — referring to Freedom of Information Act requests for federal records.
John Leake, vice president of the McCullough Foundation and author of “Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions,” wrote on Substack that Morens’ guilty plea to a single conspiracy charge is “akin to Al Capone being convicted for income tax evasion.” Leake suggested the plea will have minimal impact on the COVID-19 origins probe.
“Though Morens will likely serve time behind bars, his guilty plea and his punishment for this particular act of fraud strike me as a distraction from the elephant in the room,” Leake wrote — referring to “the illegal creation and subsequent illegal concealment of a bio-weapon in a Chinese biosecurity lab.”
But for other analysts and commentators, attention is swirling back to Fauci in the aftermath of Morens’ guilty plea.
Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, suggested Morens has likely agreed to testify against other figures in exchange for his plea deal and possibly a more lenient sentence.
“He is now ready to talk in exchange for a lighter sentence. He surely will talk and it will be fascinating to know everything he knows,” Tucker said.
Rutgers University molecular biologist Richard Ebright, Ph.D., agreed. Ebright has been a vocal critic of gain-of-function research, which lab-leak theory proponents have suggested likely resulted in the laboratory creation of SARS-CoV-2 and its subsequent leak from the Wuhan lab.
He said Morens “likely” acted “under orders from his boss — Fauci.”
Ebright said:
“Morens’ guilty plea is an important first step in holding accountable the malfeasant U.S. officials who funded the reckless gain-of-function research in Wuhan that caused COVID-19.
“It seems possible, even likely, that Morens has been ‘flipped’ by prosecutors, and that Morens’ guilty plea is the product of a plea bargain in which Morens has agreed to testify against Fauci, Daszak … and others.”
Morens’ plea deal included a sealed file, which Ebright suggested indicates Morens has agreed to testify against others — a view supported by research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., who wrote on Substack:
“Finally, because the plea agreement incorporates a sealed supplement and a separate factual stipulation, the currently public record is incomplete. That gap matters especially to speculation that Morens is cooperating against others. Such cooperation is possible in the abstract but cannot responsibly be asserted from the sealed filing’s existence alone. …
“ … We predicted that [Morens] would be offered a plea deal and specific charges dropped in exchange for testimony against Fauci and others.”
Morens received gifts for ‘behind-the-scenes shenanigans’
The indictment against Morens extensively referenced two co-conspirators, referred to as “Co-Conspirator 1” and “Co-Conspirator 2.”
According to the Post, documents released as part of the congressional investigation indicate the two people in question are Daszak and Dr. Gerald Keusch, former director of the NIH Fogarty International Center, which funded foreign scientists.
Morens, Daszak and Keusch “repeatedly discussed limiting their conversations to private email,” the Post reported.
Under Daszak’s leadership, the EcoHealth Alliance received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — NIAID’s parent agency — for a study titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The Wuhan lab later received a subaward from EcoHealth Alliance funded by the grant.
As part of his plea deal, Morens acknowledged that he received “illegal gratuities” from Daszak — including meals at Michelin-starred restaurants and bottles of wine — to thank him for his “advice, support, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans” in helping Daszak “restore the termination of the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab.”
According to the DOJ, “Morens then allegedly identified an official act that he could perform to ‘deserve’ the gift, which was to author a scientific commentary in a prominent medical journal advocating that COVID-19 had natural origins.”
In April, the New York Post reported that the commentary is likely a July 2020 paper Morens co-authored that was published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Tucker said Morens was “once a promising intellectual” who “turned to the dark side” by acting on “Fauci’s orders” — including publishing journal articles supporting the establishment COVID-19 narrative.
Tucker cited a September 2020 article Morens co-authored with Fauci and published in the journal Cell, calling for “rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence.”
“It was dystopian to the extreme and he knew it,” Tucker said. “It reflected his mood — absurdity in the service of power.”
Will other Fauci aides vie to ‘rat each other out’ in exchange for plea deals?
Morens’ guilty plea is the latest development in the ongoing congressional investigation into COVID-19’s origins. In 2024, when he testified before Congress as part of the investigation, Morens denied trying to bypass federal law by routing communications through his personal email account.
Earlier this month, Paul referred Fauci for prosecution on contempt of Congress charges for refusing to answer questions during last month’s hearing. According to the Post, the DOJ is reviewing the request. It’s the third time Paul has referred Fauci to the DOJ for possible criminal charges.
Last week, Fauci declined a request to voluntarily appear before another Senate panel.
In the waning moments of his administration last year, then-President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci for all of his official acts dating back to 2014 — the year that the NIH approved a grant for Daszak’s bat coronavirus research.
Legal experts previously told The Defender that while the pardon shields Fauci from federal prosecution for his official acts, it does not prevent states from filing charges against Fauci. And it does not shield him from contempt of Congress charges or perjury in subsequent testimony.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspended all funding for EcoHealth Alliance after finding the organization had failed to properly monitor coronavirus experiments.
In April, the NIH reportedly pulled all grants issued to virologist Ralph Baric, Ph.D., who worked with Fauci and researchers at the Wuhan lab before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the FBI charged two NIH researchers, including the Fauci-linked Vincent Munster, Ph.D., with allegedly smuggling mpox and other dangerous pathogens into the U.S. earlier this year.
Documents released last month suggest that in 2021, the FBI pressured U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents not to question Daszak on his return to the U.S. from China, where he had traveled as part of a World Health Organization investigation into COVID-19’s origins.
Last year, Daszak became president of Nature.Health.Global — a nonprofit that performs research on public health and pandemic prevention. Morens works for the nonprofit.
Ebright suggested that the “rat race now is on” for Fauci’s former close aides and allies to “rat each other out.”
“Morens, Daszak, Keusch and the others likely already are vying to be first to flip and thereby to snag the best plea deals.”
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.
War on Iran pushes US debt toward $40 trillion as borrowing costs surge
Press TV – August 19, 2026
The US national debt is on track to surpass $40 trillion this week, months earlier than previously projected, as the US-Israeli war on Iran, renewed inflation fears and rising government borrowing push long-term bond yields higher across major economies.
The Treasury reported on Monday that US government debt stood at $39.9 trillion, putting it within reach of the milestone. Six months ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had projected that federal borrowing would reach $39.4 trillion during the current fiscal year.
The faster accumulation of debt comes at a perilous moment for US finances. Investors are demanding higher returns to hold long-term government bonds amid concerns over inflation, geopolitical tensions, government debt levels and spending on artificial intelligence.
The yield on 30-year US Treasury bonds climbed to 5.33% on Tuesday, its highest level since June 2007. Long-term borrowing costs also rose in Britain, where yields reached 5.85%, as well as in Germany and Japan.
A key driver has been the surge in oil prices linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran and disruptions to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global oil supplies.
Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel on Tuesday as tensions surrounding the conflict intensified. Prolonged high oil prices could reignite inflation by increasing transportation and production costs, potentially forcing central banks to keep interest rates higher for longer or raise them again.
John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, told the BBC that oil-driven inflation risks were only part of the pressure facing bond markets.
High government debt, uncertainty over the vast amounts being invested in AI and questions about when those investments will generate returns are also contributing to higher borrowing costs, he said.
The US debt outlook is worsening as federal revenue falls and spending rises. The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs reduced projected federal revenue by an estimated $250 billion, while the Treasury has also increased borrowing to build its cash reserves.
The federal deficit was already expected to approach $2 trillion this year. Annual interest payments on the debt are projected to exceed $1 trillion, roughly equivalent to the Pentagon’s budget.
Military spending linked to the war on Iran could add further pressure to federal finances in the coming months, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The growing debt burden could also bring the next US debt-ceiling confrontation forward. Congress set the borrowing limit at $41.1 trillion last year, but preliminary projections by the Bipartisan Policy Center suggest Washington could reach that threshold between late winter and midsummer 2027.
The broader pressure is not confined to the United States. Economists at Capital Economics said the sharpest increases in long-term borrowing costs were occurring in the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan, where fiscal conditions were considered particularly challenging.
They said the moves did not amount to a bond-market crisis, but investors had rational reasons to demand higher returns given greater geopolitical and inflation uncertainty, questions over US monetary policy and concerns about the sustainability of government finances.
For consumers, higher government bond yields can eventually translate into more expensive mortgages, car loans and other forms of credit, while companies may face higher financing costs and pass those increases on to customers.
Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, said rising yields were troubling investors because they signaled a more expensive borrowing environment, particularly as uncertainty remained over when the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in AI infrastructure would generate returns.
The mounting debt comes after decades of borrowing under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Trump pledged during his first presidential campaign to eliminate the debt within eight years, but it has instead doubled since he first took office.
Washington has repeatedly raised or suspended the debt limit when it has been reached, often after contentious political battles. Such confrontations have rattled financial markets and contributed to downgrades of U.S. government debt by major credit-rating agencies.
NATO whines it cannot fight simultaneous wars against Russia, China and Iran
By Drago Bosnic | August 19, 2026
NATO war planners rarely discuss their “nightmare scenarios” in public and appear even less prepared for real-life confrontations on that scale. This is particularly true when it comes to simultaneous or near-simultaneous wars in which the most aggressive racketeering cartel in recorded history has to fight in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. As the pillar of NATO, the United States would be forced to manage wars against Russia, Iran and China at once. One of the most infamous mainstream propaganda machine outlets, The Atlantic, explored this possibility, calling it “NATO’s nightmare”. The analysis largely focuses on “a coordinated assault by Beijing and Moscow” and how difficult it would be to “muster a viable defense” (obviously implying that NATO wouldn’t attack first, which is beyond laughable given its history).
The author, Simon Shuster, warns that “about a year ago, General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander in Europe, publicly warned of the risk of a two-front war involving Russia and China and urged European allies to help the US prepare”. He quotes Florence Gaub, director of research at the NATO Defense College, who described it as “the scenario we’re currently not ready for”. She warns that “NATO strategists know the gap exists, but have not closed it” and that “despite growing military cooperation between Russia and China, Western governments have conducted only a handful of low-profile exercises examining what a joint attack might look like”. Although there weren’t any publicly acknowledged drills with this specific scenario in mind, Western-led military exercises in different areas of the world certainly focused on such a possibility.
However, The Atlantic admits that even when such scenarios were conducted as part of war games, the results were “less than optimistic”. The report quotes Mark Montgomery, a retired US Navy rear admiral who participated in major war games and stated that he last studied such a scenario roughly 15 years ago. Montgomery recalled that “it didn’t go well” because “even then, the US lacked the weapons stockpiles and industrial capacity to sustain a prolonged multifront war”. Even when numerous US allies, vassals and satellite states are added to the mix, “it made no difference at all”. What’s more, Montgomery warns that “those metrics have worsened, even as some NATO countries have increased defense spending”. To prove this is truly the case, one simply needs to look at the US aggression against Iran, which demonstrated remarkable resilience.
Worse yet (for America), Tehran also uncovered the Pentagon’s woeful incompetence in fighting a remotely capable opponent. A single country that the US promised to “defeat in three days to two weeks tops” has not only withstood all attacks in the last six months, but has also successfully retaliated against US occupation forces across the Middle East. It should be noted that Iran has been under Western sanctions for nearly half a century at this point. Now imagine how a direct confrontation with Russia or China would unfold, even separately, much less simultaneously. The Atlantic fears that “Moscow and Beijing have actually improved their positions”. The report points to the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, which “pushed Russia’s massive industrial base onto a war footing and sharpened its use of drones”.
It also warns that “while China has not fought a major war in decades, it now surpasses the US in warships and long-range missiles”. Obviously, the Asian giant hasn’t fought a major war in nearly half a century because it has refused to do so. Nothing prevents Beijing from fully restoring its sovereignty over Taiwan by force. However, it seeks to resolve the dispute through peaceful means, just like it did when restoring sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao back in 1997 and 1999, respectively. This is precisely what the US fears the most, as a non-violent transition would only strengthen China and effectively break US dominance in the Asia-Pacific without firing a single shot. Washington DC would much rather see Taiwan destroyed than give up its influence there peacefully. This is why the US maintains tight control over local military forces.
However, directing “controlled chaos” is not enough for the Pentagon to “feel safe”. Namely, growing Sino-Russian ties are what really makes the political West “shiver” (or should we say, suffer panic attacks). The Atlantic is particularly concerned by the “no-limits partnership” Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping announced back in February 2022. NATO simply has no mechanisms to prevent Moscow and Beijing from building their alliance. On the contrary, its truly unprovoked aggression against the entire world has only strengthened their strategic partnership. The Atlantic thinks that “from Russia’s and China’s perspective, the timing may look favorable”, primarily because “the US is stretched by conflict in the Middle East, has shifted ships and aircraft away from Europe and Asia, and has depleted much of its advanced air-defense missile stockpile”.
Well, nobody forced Washington DC to wage yet another war of aggression. Neither Moscow nor Beijing forced the Trump administration to foolishly attack Iran. However, even the Middle East pales in comparison to how Western forces would fare in a fight against adversaries such as Russia and China, particularly now that the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict has turned the Russian military into the deadliest fighting force on the planet. The Atlantic concludes that “in a two-front war, the side most likely to prevail may be the one that acts with common purpose and stays united”. It would seem NATO didn’t learn from the strategic mistakes of its Axis predecessors, because that’s precisely what’s going to happen if it continues with its aggression against the entire world, which will have no other choice but to unite.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
US-led Board of Peace considers ‘wholesale’ Hamas disarmament deal to satisfy Israel: Report
The Cradle | August 18, 2026
US President Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace is “weighing” a “new” Hamas disarmament proposal after Tel Aviv rejected Washington’s latest one, sources told the Times of Israel on 18 August.
“The Board of Peace is considering abandoning its phased framework for Hamas’s disarmament” due to the “Israeli pushback,” an informed source told the Israeli outlet.
“Instead of having Hamas hand over its weapons in phases, with Israel conducting corresponding withdrawals … another option being weighed by the Board of Peace would see Hamas hand over all weapons throughout Gaza, and only then would Israel have to pull back its troops to the Gaza border,” the report went on to say.
The new proposal being reported on is, essentially, what Israel has been demanding – a full surrender by the resistance prior to any discussion on withdrawal of occupation forces.
“The shift could be enough to get Israel on board, it risks losing the support of Hamas,” the Times of Israel wrote.
An Israeli official claimed to the outlet that there remains a dispute between Tel Aviv and Washington over the initial disarmament plan.
The source says the US has not yet dropped the original plan but is considering a “wholesale approach” to appease Israel.
“In this different approach, the entire area currently under Hamas’s control would be decommissioned of weapons all at once, rather than sector by sector.”
The report follows a Monday meeting between Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Board of Peace director Nickolay Mladenov was also present.
Another Hebrew report released by Israel’s Channel 12 said Kushner reportedly opposes Netanyahu on his plans to continue strikes and assassinations in Gaza.
“There was no agreement between Netanyahu and Kushner on the continuation of the assassination operations,” a source told Channel 12. “Netanyahu made clear that he will continue the assassinations, while Kushner expressed his opposition to them.”
Kushner had also met with Hamas officials in Egypt prior to his meeting with Netanyahu on Monday. The new reports coincide with continued Israeli attacks across Gaza.
Hamas said when Washington announced the new “disarmament deal” that it would hand over its weapons to the US-endorsed Palestinian committee of technocrats tasked with governing Gaza – but “only” if Israel adheres to its commitments. Israel continues to bar this committee from entering the strip.
Tel Aviv has openly refused the new deal – which Trump referred to as “historic” – claiming both Hamas and Israel were on board.
Hamas insists that any full disarmament depends on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. According to several reports, intensive talks on the wording of the new disarmament deal took place between Hamas officials and mediators.
The reports say the weapons will be “stored” but not handed over to Israel or destroyed.
Israel has not stopped attacks, violations, and genocide since the 2025 US plan was launched. It has also illegally occupied 70 percent of the strip.
Since the start of Trump’s so-called peace plan, over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Israel in Gaza.
Thousands of buildings have been demolished via detonation.
Israel bombs Syrian military base as US praises Damascus’s ‘de-escalatory’ policy toward Tel Aviv
The Cradle | August 18, 2026
Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Syria on 18 August, despite no threat being posed to it by the extremist-led authorities in Damascus, which fought against Tel Aviv’s adversaries for years.
The new Israeli strikes hit the Abu al-Duhur Military Base in the countryside of the northern city of Idlib on Tuesday.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack.
It described Israel’s strikes as “an unjustified act of aggression and a dangerous escalation threatening regional security and stability.”
“Continued Israeli attacks since 8 December 2024, while Syria exercises restraint and works to consolidate stability and avoid escalation, reveal attempts by the Israeli occupation to undermine those efforts and push the region toward further tension and instability,” the ministry added, according to Syrian state media.
Washington also expressed “concern,” with US envoy to Syria and former Epstein associate Tom Barrack condemning “the unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”
Barrack also praised Damascus and its forces for posing no threat to Israel, as Damascus itself has repeatedly confirmed.
He posted on X that the government of self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa “has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel.”
According to Syrian media, eight Israeli airstrikes hit the base.
“Israeli occupation aircraft early this morning targeted the runway of the Abu Duhur military airport … with eight strikes,” sources told state television.
The attack comes not long after Damascus’s forces were said to have been given access to Washington’s “final” base in Syria, after a several-month process of US withdrawal from the country following years of occupation.
It remains unclear to what extent Washington has withdrawn. Iran recently announced operations targeting what it said were US forces and assets in Syria.
The US for years trained extremist forces at its Al-Tanf Base in Syria. It also armed and financed several other factions in Syria throughout the war, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, responsible for the beheading of a 12-year-old boy as well as other war crimes.
Many of these Al-Qaeda- and ISIS-linked groups, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, are now brigades in the new Syrian army established after the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
This army has killed thousands of Alawites, Druze, and Kurdish civilians since the formation of the new Syrian state – but have not targeted Israeli troops which illegally occupied the country after Assad’s departure.
Damascus has openly declared that it holds no hostility toward Israel and is not looking for confrontation with it. Despite this, Israel continues to attack the country and expand its occupation of Syrian territory.
Since Assad left Syria, Israeli occupation forces have practically encircled Damascus.
Major Syrian military capabilities belonging to the former army were destroyed by Israeli attacks in the first days after Sharaa’s government took power.
Sharaa, the new president, was formerly an Al-Qaeda chief who served as deputy to late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Syrian president is directly responsible for brutal suicide bombings against civilians and holy sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah sets conditions to place weapons under state control
Press TV – August 18, 2026
The Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah resistance group has set conditions for any understanding with the Baghdad government to place all its weapons under state control, including a full withdrawal of US military forces from the country.
The group’s security chief, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, announced in a statement on Monday that the first condition to integrate into the state’s armed forces is for US forces to completely withdraw from Iraqi soil and airspace, offer cast-iron guarantees that they would not come back, and ensure that Iraqi political and economic apparatuses will make decisions free from American sway.
The second condition, he added, is the withdrawal of Turkish forces from areas in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, while the third one is the dissolution of the Peshmerga, which serves as the official armed forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Assaf went on to criticize Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, saying that Iraqi anti-terror resistance groups had waited “more than a hundred days” for him to address the internal, regional, and international pressures over the issue of restricting weapons to the state, as a September 30 deadline approaches.
He asserted that Zaidi is disregarding advice from allied political factions, and is instead taking heed of demands being made by certain parties and the US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Presidential Envoy for Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack.
The remarks came on the same day that Iraq’s four top state authorities renewed calls for the implementation of the Iraqi government’s plan to disarm the armed groups and bring weapons under state control.
In a statement following a Monday meeting in Baghdad between President Nizar Amedi, the prime minister, Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi and President of the Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zaidan, the officials stressed the importance of strengthening and developing the capabilities of Iraq’s armed forces “across all spectra” and protecting the country and its citizens.
Successive administrations in Iraq have vowed to bolster state power and to bring all weaponry under the jurisdiction of recognized institutions.
On June 3, Sabah al-Numan, the spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, declared the establishment of a committee aimed at restricting weapons to state control, affirming that the committee had commenced its operations.
While several Iraqi resistance groups, such as Saraya al-Salam, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, have agreed to integrate into the state’s armed forces, Kata’ib Hezbollah has pledged to retain “resistance weapons” and further develop its arsenal.
Burning America’s Cards One by One: What is Iran’s Strategy?
By Robert Inlakesh – The Palestine Chronicle – August 16, 2026
While the US Trump administration insists that the very much closed Strait of Hormuz is in fact open and grapples with domestic pushback against his war losses, Iran has been busy pursuing a military strategy that is placing a chokehold on their opposition.
Although the ongoing regional war has been experiencing a lull in direct confrontations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US-Israeli alliance, a series of other fronts have become the focus of Tehran’s recent efforts.
Contrary to what you would be led to believe by the corporate media, Iran’s ballistic missile and drone fire has not ceased. Instead, officials belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have made it clear that there is no ceasefire in effect and that their operations are therefore being carried out in a coordinated fashion.
One of the fronts Iran has chosen to keep open is northern Iraq, where it has consistently launched short-range ballistic missiles and drone waves, targeting headquarters, hideouts, bases and weapons depots belonging to Kurdish-Iranian opposition factions backed by the United States. Powerful blasts are being reported on a near-daily basis in Suleimaniyeh and Erbil, with footage often confirming direct impacts on strategic targets.
US President Donald Trump has been vocal since the first weeks of the war on Iran, which began on February 28 of this year, that he was expecting action from his Kurdish allies that he armed during the riots in Iran a month prior. Leaked reports in the American press suggested that a plan was being drawn up that would see the use of these Kurdish militant groups to invade the Iranian mainland, triggering a process that would – in their minds – lead to the disintegration of the Islamic Republic.
A Kurdish breakaway State project was one major card that the US and Israel – which was revealed to have established bases in Iraqi Kurdistan – were hoping to play against Tehran. The IRGC and Iranian Regular Army have not let that go, choosing to launch persistent strikes and even deploy special forces units to carry out operations on the ground against these groups.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Yemeni allies have mobilized their forces and are committing major offensive operations against their Saudi-backed opposition. They have also imposed an unprecedented equation on Saudi Arabia, where they are now implementing a counter-blockade that places a further chokehold on global oil supplies, while striking Saudi oil facilities in retaliation to violations of Yemeni airspace alone.
The threats of Iraqi factions to intervene in Syria, if the leadership in Damascus follows Trump’s orders to attack Lebanon, combined with reports that Iran will launch strikes on targets belonging to the Syrian regime, also appear to be an effort to prevent this step from taking place.
In the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC Navy continues to take out tankers with drones and missiles if they choose to attempt to break the blockade with US coordination. When this occurs, US Central Command refrains from even making regular comments, a far cry from its previous threats to bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure in retaliation for every tanker struck.
As this has all been happening, the US is scrambling to replace its USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, after reports emerge that chaos is erupting on board. The vessel has been deployed for over 9 months and is now facing a food shortage that has impacted around 5,000 sailors. The situation is so bad that some reports even indicated that the first fights broke out on the ship, deaths have occurred, and that some service members either attempted or were considering suicide.
Recent reports also indicate that Iran has destroyed at least 45 US MQ-9 Reaper Drones, costing roughly $1.3 billion in total; this is on top of the US military expending most of its long-range precision missiles and depleting 80% of its THAAD interceptor stockpile.
The Israelis are currently refusing to budge when it comes to Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, while escalating their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, fronts that could all escalate very quickly and drain more resources.
Iran has demonstrated that it is far from depleting its weapons stockpiles and even Israeli intelligence estimates assess that it has rapidly recovered from the 40-day war period. What has become clear is that the US President has to make a choice sooner or later: either he signs what will effectively be a surrender agreement and pushes back against the Israel Lobby, or he decides to try an all-out war one last time.
Pentagon weighs leaving Persian Gulf after Iran ‘exposed vulnerabilities’: Report
The Cradle | August 18, 2026
The Pentagon is reassessing its military footprint in Persian Gulf countries after months of losses inflicted by Iran, the Washington Post reported on 18 August.
Two people familiar with the ongoing analysis told The Post that one of the central questions before the Pentagon is whether to pull troops back from the Persian Gulf, where the largest US bases overseas have absorbed much of the Iranian retaliatory strikes.
The scale of damage suffered by those installations has compelled Washington to rethink where its forces should be located.
The Gulf holds the biggest and most entrenched US bases in the region, with Bahrain hosting the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, while Kuwait and other states house Army and Air Force assets.
Six US soldiers were killed in a March strike on Port Shuaiba in Kuwait, and more than 200 US facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in February.
Washington has also lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, accounting for a quarter of the entire fleet, at a replacement cost of up to $2.25 billion, and has burned through more than 1,000 advanced air-defense interceptors, draining nearly its entire stockpile of Patriot and THAAD missiles.
The Pentagon has already indicated it may not rebuild the damaged bases as they stood, and is instead weighing a shift of troops westward.
Michael Ratney, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, named Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast as possible destinations, though he acknowledged the added distance was no perfect fix, as Iranian missiles have already reached all three throughout the US war on Iran.
A regional intelligence source told Press TV that the Pentagon has concluded that no military plan currently exists that would guarantee open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz or secure energy stability in the Persian Gulf, an admission that acknowledges Iran’s advantage in the waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil.
CNN reported in early August that the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) intelligence branch had emailed military analysts asking for “creative and unconventional” ideas for pressuring Iran, after commanders concluded that continued US strikes were failing to achieve Washington’s goals.
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Clash of Civilization, Iran Part II
By Jamal Kanj – Intifada-Palestine.com – January 14, 2011
Israel’s survival kit is: perpetuate conflict, insecurity to rationalize collective hate and finally playing victim.
Devoid of conflict, Israel implodes internally; without hate, Zionism loses its justification; and playing eternal victim to continue blackmailing the West. Absence of this holy trinity, Israel ceases to exist. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- ‘We are not like everyone else’ laws that bind other nations do not apply to Israel, says Likud lawmaker
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- House Votes to End Iran War for Third Time
- North Korea Slams US Plan for ‘AUKUS 2.0’ with South Korea and Japan
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- Biden’s Genocide Accomplices Targeted by New Accountability Campaign
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- Jewish Supremacist Manufacturing a Civilizational Threat to License Bigotry
- US bans Palestinian president from speaking at the UN
- Israeli Forces Detain Journalist Alaa al-Rimawi amid Widespread West Bank Raids
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- As Gaza crumbles, Israel preps new ground invasion – Daily Update
- ‘We are not like everyone else’ laws that bind other nations do not apply to Israel, says Likud lawmaker
- Trump’s govt makes ‘treasonous’ claim of weapons shortages
- Palestinian-American Journalist Naqaa Hamed Imprisoned by Israeli Forces After Settlers Targeted Her
- No Tricks Zone
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- Energy Crisis: Germany Enters Heating Season With Historically Low Gas Reserve Fill Levels
- New Study: The Antarctic Ice Sheet Gained Mass From 2020-2024 Due To Staggering Snow And Ice Accumulation
- Study: Ocean Heating Rates From Thousands Of Years Ago ‘Dwarf’ Modern Ocean Heating Rates
- Climate Extremists Target, Attack Large-Scale Power Grid Infrastructure In Germany!
- New Study: Antarctic Ice Melt Has Contributed Less Than 1 Centimeter To Sea Level Rise In The Last 30 Years
- Fear Of Debate: Alarmist German Climate Scientist Calls On Mainstream Media To Discredit Skeptic Voices
- End-Of-August Arctic Sea Ice Extent Hasn’t Fallen In 20 Years, Official Data Show!
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