Jotam Confino
@mrconfino · International correspondents — Israel & region
Jotam Confino is a freelance Israel correspondent for international outlets.
My latest: American fighter jets were damaged in an Iranian ballistic missile attack in Jordan as President Trump said Washington is no longer looking to negotiate with Tehran. Eight F-15 fighter jets and one A-10 Thunderbolt were damaged in the missile attack Tuesday overnight at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base at Jordan, according to CBS News which cited people with direct knowledge of the matter. @POTUS downplayed the prospects of Washington striking a deal with Tehran, saying: “We’re not looking for it, to be honest. Originally I wanted to make a deal.”
I have interviewed a Danish-Israeli student at the University of Copenhagen who tells how it has affected her to attend a university that allows lecturers to call for the killing of soldiers in the military in which she herself completed her mandatory service. She also tells of fellow students who ignore her and freeze her out solely because she is Israeli.
Translated from DanishMy latest: Israel is demanding that Belgium issue a public apology for summoning the country’s ambassador after an Israeli airstrike killed an employee of Belgium’s development agency Enabel. Belgium summoned Israel’s ambassador after Abdallah Nabhan was killed in Gaza in April 2024. @IsraelMFA shared a post by @GabrielEpsteinX - a Senior Policy Associate at the Israel Policy Forum - where Nabhan is seen wearing a military uniform.
Credit to DR for acknowledging that their article and their correspondent’s statement about Israel’s national security minister were based on a misunderstanding. Itamar Ben-Gvir did NOT call for killing 30–40 random Palestinians every day. Therefore, the correspondent’s conclusion that it was a call to commit war crimes was not correct either. This is exactly how a responsible media outlet should act when it makes mistakes. What remains is Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke @ActionAidDK and @Enhedslisten, who launched a campaign for sanctions against Israel, among other things on the basis of DR’s article. To my knowledge, they have not withdrawn their campaigns or accusations. Why? How can one still advocate sanctions against a country on the basis of misinformation?
Translated from DanishThe weekend analysis is out: Israel will go to the polls in just under two months, and the issue that, exactly as expected, dominates the election campaign is the October 7 massacre. The worst and most macabre attack in Israel’s history has left an open wound in Israeli society. Tens of thousands of people lost their parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, colleagues, and friends in the bloodbath that struck civilians along the Gaza border. And although Hamas is severely weakened in Gaza, Israelis still have not received an answer to the overriding question: How could a country with one of the world’s strongest militaries and some of the world’s most advanced intelligence services fail to prevent the attack? Prime Minister Netanyahu has done everything in his power over the past week to once again evade responsibility for October 7. In several interviews, he made it clear that if the security chiefs had simply woken him in time that morning, he would have mobilized the entire military and ensured that the terrorists were prevented from carrying out the massacres. His wife, Sara Netanyahu, went so far as to insinuate that Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition Democrats party, possessed knowledge of the impending attack on the morning of October 7. Therefore, she claimed, he was so quick to put on a uniform and drive toward the Nova music festival, where he helped save civilians from the terrorist attack. For those who know the Netanyahu family’s lies and conspiracies, there is nothing surprising about this accusation.
Translated from DanishThe Israeli military continues to hunt down Hamas members who took part in the October 7 massacre. IDF and Shin Bet: “Earlier this week (Wednesday), the IDF and ISA conducted a strike in the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip and eliminated the terrorist Muhammad Mahmoud Marshad Al-Qadi, a Nukhba company commander in Hamas' military wing. Al-Qadi infiltrated the Sufa outpost during the October 7th Massacre and commanded the infiltration of the outpost. Throughout the war, he took part in holding hostages in Hamas captivity in the Rafah area. Recently, Al-Qadi led training for Hamas terrorists and operated to rehabilitate the terrorist organization's capabilities. Additionally, the terrorist advanced terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians in systematic violation of the ceasefire agreement. The terrorist was eliminated in order to remove the threat that he posed. IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any threat.”
Iran is warning the United States that it will launch a large-scale attack against Israel if the Israel Defense Forces strike a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are located alongside Hezbollah. My latest for @NewYorkSun https://t.co/NhcC1yFl0T
A new analysis is out: As I predicted in my analysis in B.T. the other day, the United States and Iran have already carried out a series of new attacks against each other as a result of the escalation at the beginning of the week. The United States carried out strikes on around 100 targets on Tuesday, including, among other things, air-defense systems, radar systems, and now also oil tankers. As expected, Iran responded again by attacking American bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq. Trump has since emphasized that the attacks should not be seen as a means of pressure to force Iran back to the negotiating table. Because an agreement with the regime is not worth the paper it is written on. Which he is, in a sense, right about. The American president has further warned Iran that the United States will respond even more harshly to the regime's retaliatory attacks. We therefore find ourselves once again in a situation that is escalating day by day, with a president who is slowly coming to realize that the regime understands only one thing, namely military power.
Translated from DanishU.S. ambassador to Israel, @USAmbIsrael says he “prays” for settlers who torched a mosque in the West Bank and left graffiti with his name on a different building. My latest for @NewYorkSun https://t.co/4QgqIt1pJE
@realDonaldTrump denied that a series of American attacks in Iran were meant to bring back Tehran to the negotiation table while asking when the Iranian people will “rise up and fight?” My latest for @NewYorkSun https://t.co/92kJRyBTgN
‼️🚨 The U.S. military attacked Iranian air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.
My latest for @NewYorkSun Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran is ready to “immediately” re-enter the memorandum of understanding with the U.S. signed in June if Washington chooses to do so. “I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan. The president’s statement came after President Trump threatened to “smack” Iran after Tehran fired ballistic missiles and drones at U.S. army bases in Jordan and the UAE in response to American attacks on Iranian rocket launchers.
New analysis is out: It is now six months since the US and Israel launched a war against the regime in Iran. The war ended after 40 days at a time when the regime was suffering enormous losses day after day. Trump’s well-known impatience and aversion to prolonged wars became a lifeline for the dictatorship. The US and Israel had lost the war, Iran was almost stronger than before, and virtually none of the objectives they had set had been achieved, according to the usual experts. The main argument was that the regime had managed to shut down traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by attacking merchant ships. The world economy was affected, the US could do nothing, and therefore the Americans entered negotiations with the new and even more radical regime that took over leadership of the country after its predecessors had been liquidated. At the same time, the regime had managed to preserve some of its ballistic missiles and drones, and parts of its nuclear program survived. Therefore, the experts believed, the war was lost for the US and Israel. A flawed analysis both then and even more so here six months after the start of the war.
Translated from DanishThe weekend analysis is out: It is no secret that the governments of Israel and Turkey detest each other. And since the massacre of October 7, the relationship has only become markedly worse. President Erdogan has strengthened ties with Hamas, accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and compared Prime Minister Netanyahu to Hitler. Earlier this summer, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi promised that Turkey would one day “liberate” Jerusalem and take control of the holy city – a warning that was seen in Israel as yet another indication that Erdogan’s wet dream is to recreate the Ottoman Empire. Over the past three years, people in Israel have – for good reason – learned to take that kind of rhetoric seriously. However, Israel’s attack on the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in northern Syria should not be viewed only in that context.
Translated from DanishHere is an excellent example of how misinformation spreads like wildfire. Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke @ActionAidDK is now running a campaign based on outright misinformation claiming that Israel’s national security minister is calling for 30–40 random Palestinians to be killed every day in Gaza. Nearly 2,000 people have liked the post on Instagram so far. As I explained earlier this week, it is a deliberate lie. The minister made it absolutely clear in the interview that it was terrorists who were to be killed—not civilians. Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke is thus now using misinformation, in the same way as Enhedslisten, to call for sanctions against Israel. And once again I just have to say that we in the media are watchdogs and therefore, of course, must inform the public when their tax money goes to organizations that spread misinformation. That is literally part of our job. So I hope that other media outlets will follow up on this case before it spreads even further.
Translated from DanishMy latest column – this time about the conflict over Israel’s judicial system that nearly brought the country to the brink of civil war before October 7. A lot of the planned legislation that would’ve significantly weakened the Supreme Court was never passed due to a combination of mass demonstrations across the country, nationwide strikes and, of course, October 7. I interviewed the architect of the judicial overhaul, @rothmar a lawmaker from Religious Zionism and head of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. He told me in no uncertain terms that, should the Netanyahu government be re-elected, it would continue to pass legislation that would essentially grant the government more power at the expense of the judicial system. Opposition leader @yairlapid meanwhile, told me that should the opposition win the election, it is “committed to cancelling the outgoing government’s legislation that undermines these – including the law politicising the selection of judges and the wild string of laws they passed in their final weeks.” My column describes in detail which judicial reforms have passed so far under Netanyahu’s government, what the arguments are on both sides when it comes to the balance of power between the courts and the government, and how the issue is expected to spark heated debate as the nation prepares to go to the polls.
My latest radio interview, in which I also talk about the large amount of misinformation that has circulated in recent days about what Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, allegedly said on a podcast — namely, that he believes 30–40 random Palestinians should be killed in Gaza every day. A story that has also reached Denmark, but is completely wrong. The minister says clearly and unequivocally that it is terrorists who should be killed — not just random civilians, as it has been portrayed (including in Danish media). A significant difference. The misinformation is primarily due to the fact that he speaks twice about this very subject in the podcast — but only one clip has been pushed on social media. The clip in which he clearly says that he means terrorists has of course not been shared nearly as much. Furthermore, he speaks Hebrew in the podcast, which means that the nuances are lost in translation by many media outlets, since they either do not understand what he is saying or cannot be bothered to watch the whole clip. This has subsequently led Danish politicians to call for sanctions against Israel on the basis of outright misinformation. Nothing new under the sun. In the comments, you will find a link to the clip in which both of his statements appear with subtitles. So there should no longer be any discussion about what was said and what was not said. In the interview I also talk about the situation between Iran and the United States, which is worsening day by day. Trump is trying to strangle Iran’s economy, while the regime is quietly rearming and preparing for another round of war. In Gaza, Israel and Hamas are still arguing over how the terrorist group’s disarmament should take place, while the IDF’s eliminations of terrorists continue every day. And in the West Bank, the IDF has finally managed to remove the outposts that settlers established in front of Palestinian homes — but the problem has not yet been solved. Finally, I give an update on the Israeli election and Likud’s primary, where the final list of candidates for the Knesset has just been decided.
Translated from DanishThis weekend's analysis is out: When the U.S. ambassador to Israel calls violent Israeli settlers terrorists, it should give serious food for thought. For Mike Huckabee is without comparison the most pro-Israel and pro-settler ambassador in U.S. history. But this week even he had enough, when settlers barricaded themselves for days in front of Palestinian families' homes in the village of Qusra in the West Bank, including a home belonging to an American citizen. Since then, the Israeli military has made the most miserable attempt in living memory to remove the settlers who have established small outposts in front of the homes. So miserable that, at the time of writing, they are still there, while the military has instead temporarily evacuated the families to solve the problem. A military that under normal circumstances has no problems carrying out operations against armed Palestinian terrorists who have barricaded themselves in the heart of Jenin. Or that can fight terrorists in the most complicated urban warfare in Gaza. Suddenly they fall short when they have to confront unarmed settlers.
Translated from DanishOn Saudi TV today, discussing the growing problem of settler violence in the West Bank: • For six days in a row, settlers have barricaded themselves outside Palestinian homes — and the IDF has failed to remove them. • This isn’t a new problem. The IDF’s lack of will to enforce the law and prevent violent settlers from terrorizing Palestinians has been going on for years — and it has only gotten worse. • The contrast is striking: the IDF can carry out some of the world’s most advanced counter-terror operations against Palestinian terrorists. Yet when confronted with a handful of settler terrorists — as the U.S. ambassador recently called them — it somehow fails to perform the most basic task. • Part of the problem is political. Israeli cabinet ministers have repeatedly backed these settlers, making enforcement even more difficult. • Netanyahu has refused to properly confront the issue. With an election campaign underway, he has little interest in picking a public fight with the hardcore settlement community. • The vast majority of settlers are not violent thugs. They are ordinary, peaceful people living in the West Bank. But that makes the failure to deal with the violent minority even more indefensible. This is a systemic problem — and one that Israel has allowed to grow for far too long.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence supports the claim that Palestinian hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya was a member of Hamas and actively involved in terrorist activities. Images of Safiya at a Hamas meeting, where he is sitting in what most of all looks like a military uniform, have long circulated on social media. The court has simultaneously ordered the Israeli prison where he is being held to investigate Safiya's claim that he allegedly did not receive the necessary medical care. NGOs such as Amnesty and a long line of left-wing politicians and activists (including in Denmark) still insist that Safiya be released, regardless of the claim about his role in Hamas. Safiya is far from the only doctor or healthcare worker who has turned out to have been a member of a terrorist group in Gaza. In recent months, a pattern has emerged after Islamic Jihad and Hamas finally began publishing images and names of slain combatants who subsequently also turned out to have been healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses.
Translated from Danish
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