Israel Imposes Death Penalty on Terrorists

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15694153/Israel-imposes-death-penalty-fatal-attacks-Palestinians-parliamentary-vote-executions-carried-hanging.html

Israel imposes death penalty for fatal attacks by Palestinians after parliamentary vote, with executions to be carried out by hanging

Israel's parliament has passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, with executions to be carried out by hanging.

The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a years-long drive by the hard-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offenses against Israelis. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person.

The law makes the death penalty - by hanging - the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of "nationalistic" killings. Israel's national doctors' union refused to carry out lethal injections. 

It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges, but applies only to those who 'intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel.'

This definition is designed to exclude Jewish terrorists, such as Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler who killed 29 Palestinians at a West Bank holy site in 1994.

It will not apply retroactively to any prisoners Israel currently holds, including the Hamas-led militants who attacked the country on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

After the final 62-48 vote in favour on Monday, lawmakers erupted into cheers and stood up in jubilation. Netanyahu, who remained in his seat, did not immediately react or speak.

Israel's minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, brandished a bottle in celebration

After the final 62-48 vote in favor, lawmakers erupted into cheers and stood up in jubilation

Israel's firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who spearheaded the push for the legislation, brandished a bottle in celebration.

Hard-right lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, one of the bill's original sponsors whose first husband was killed in a Palestinian militant attack in the West Bank, smiled through tears.

The legislation, which says it will take effect in 30 days, is certain to face legal challenges that may stall its implementation.

Minutes after the bill passed, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it had already petitioned Israel's highest court to challenge the law. 

It called the legislation 'discriminatory by design' and said the parliament had enacted it 'without legal authority' over West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens.

This measure has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane. 

Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute's Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, said that under international law, Israel's parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory.

Many in Netanyahu's hard-right coalition seek to annex the West Bank to Israel.

The vote capped a daylong debate in the parliament. During earlier deliberations, lawmakers raised other concerns, including how the bill does not allow clemency, contradicting international conventions. 

Opposition lawmakers at times appeared to plead with their colleagues to vote against the bill.

Before the vote, Ben Gvir described the law as long overdue and a sign of strength and national pride.

'From today, every terrorist will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever takes a life, the State of Israel will take their life,' he told lawmakers. 

On his lapel, he wore a signature pin - a small metal noose.

Ben Gvir wore a pin of a noose on his lapel as he described the law as long overdue

Palestinians hold placards as they take part in a protest against the execution of the Israeli death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks, in Ramallah

Gilad Kariv, of the Labor Party, condemned the bill's stipulation that a unanimous judgment is not required to impose the death sentence.

'A law in which a person can be sentenced to death without a unanimous conviction. Is this justice in your eyes? Is this the sanctity of life that Israeli tradition has taught us?' he asked.

The bill contravenes international law, he added, and risks turning Israeli soldiers and prison guards into 'war criminals against their will.'

Some, like Aida Sliman of Hadash, the leftist Jewish-Arab political party, left the chamber in dismay before the votes were complete.

Experts say the legislation has two key elements that will effectively limit the death penalty to Palestinians.

First, the bill makes the death penalty a default punishment for "nationalistic" killings in military courts, which try only West Bank Palestinians and not Israeli citizens. It says that only in special circumstances can military judges change the sentence to life imprisonment.

It gives Israeli civilian courts a greater degree of leniency in sentencing, with judges having the option to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment.

The second element is how the bill defines the offense punishable by death: killing that rejects the existence of the state of Israel.

'It will apply in Israeli courts, but only to terrorist activities that are motivated by the wish to undermine the existence of Israel. That means Jews will not be indicted under this law,' Cohen said.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy released a statement Sunday urging Israel to abandon plans to pass the law, calling it 'de facto discriminatory,' and saying the death penalty was unethical and had no 'deterring effect.'

However, the US notably refrained from issuing a condemnation, with a State Department spokesperson instead saying: 'The United States respects Israel's sovereign right to determine its own laws and penalties for individuals convicted of terrorism.'

Though Israel technically has the death penalty on the books as a possible punishment for acts of genocide, espionage during wartime and certain terror offenses, the country hasn't put anyone to death since Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

The Public Committee against Torture in Israel says the state has consistently voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty at the UN.

Israel's Shin Bet's security agency had - until recently - objected to the practice, believing it could spur further revenge plots by Palestinian militants.

Some opposition lawmakers worry that the bill could harm future hostage negotiations. 

Israel exchanged some 250 hostages taken during the October 2023 attack for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

There is a separate bill under consideration dealing with punishment for the Oct. 7, 2023 attackers in Israel's custody.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15694153/Israel-imposes-death-penalty-fatal-attacks-Palestinians-parliamentary-vote-executions-carried-hanging.html

Elite Israeli Mountain Unit

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15692433/Elite-Israeli-ski-unit-Alpine-mission.html

Elite Israeli ski unit launches Alpine mission against Iranian-backed guerillas in disputed mountainous area on the Lebanese-Syrian border

Dressed in white suits and trekking over mountain tops the soldiers seem far removed from the Middle East conflict.

The frozen setting appears more akin to Arctic warfare but, in fact, the specialist Israeli troops were deployed on the mountainous Syria-Lebanon border.

Israel's elite snow warriors were seen for the first time last night after a mission to thwart terrorist attempts to seize territory.

The 'Alpinists' used their expertise in rugged landscapes and conducting covert operations in plunging temperatures.

The little-known Special Forces unit crossed on foot through deep snow from Mount Hermon in Syria to the Mount Dov area of southern Lebanon.

The slopes were so steep they could have been mistaken for Hollywood actors approaching the Bavarian Nazi fortress in Where Eagles Dare.

The Alpinists' reconnaissance mission required the specific skills that set their unit apart from the Israeli Defence Forces.

They also donned skis and accelerated their passage through what the IDF described as 'complex mountain terrain'.

Israeli troops ski into southern Lebanon from territory in Syria. The cross-border operation was the first of its kind by the IDF

Israel's elite snow warriors were seen for the first time last night after a mission to thwart terrorist attempts to seize territory

The little-known Special Forces unit crossed on foot through deep snow from Mount Hermon in Syria to the Mount Dov area of southern Lebanon

For weeks, Israeli forces have been engaged in clashes with Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerillas in the area. But the terrorists cannot match the Alpinists' advanced techniques in winter conditions.

Mount Hermon straddles the Syrian-Lebanese border and was seized by the Israelis in December 2024 following the downfall of dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Israel maintains military bases inside Syria, a presence the government in Jerusalem insists is essential to intercept weapons deliveries.

Controversially, Israel is seeking to establish a forward defensive line through southern Lebanon to protect its communities on the other side of the border.

Israel considers Mount Hermon a strategic asset. The peaks have been christened the 'eyes of the country' and are key to protecting the sate from terrorist attacks launched in Syria and Lebanon.

The Alpinist Unit consists of hundreds of reservists specialising in combat and training in harsh winter environments. According to the IDF they use specialist equipment, including snowmobiles, and spend months training for covert deployments.

On Monday, the IDF said: 'The targeted operation was carried out in response to ongoing attempts by terrorist organisations to entrench themselves in the border area.

'Moving through deep snow and in extreme conditions, the specialist mountain commandos conducted a precise sweep from the Hermon ridge to Mount Dov.

'The successful execution of this cross-border manoeuvre underscores the strategic importance of the region and the IDF's determination to deny terrorist organisations any operational foothold.'

The slopes were so steep they could have been mistaken for Hollywood actors approaching the Bavarian Nazi fortress in Where Eagles Dare

They also donned skis and accelerate their passage through what the IDF described as 'complex mountain terrain'

Pictures released by the IDF, some during daylight operations, others at night as seen through optical devices, captured the troops fighting the conditions as much as their enemies.

They were up to their waists in snow as they scaled a steep hill on a mission, described by the IDF, as intended to 'scan the area, collect intelligence and to locate enemy terror infrastructure in the area'.

Mount Hermon stands over 9,000ft tall and provides commanding views of surrounding territory.

The Alpinists are under the command of the IDF's 810th Brigade. When not launching penetrating raids into contested areas, they maintain a defensive posture to protect Israeli civilians.

The raid came as the joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran and its proxies entered its fifth week with no military or diplomatic resolution in sight. With US President Donald Trump expected to sanction ground operations for US troops, an end to the fighting appears far off.

Any US ground incursion onto Iranian soil would expand the war significantly and would likely be accompanied by further Israeli infiltration into Lebanese and Syrian territory, with the reservists of the Alpinist Unit pitted against Hezbollah.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15692433/Elite-Israeli-ski-unit-Alpine-mission.html

Harvard's Jewish Problem

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424773

Why are we not surprised? Harvard’s new Jewish Problem

The percentage of Jews in Harvard was once 25%, but that number has gone down to 7% of undergraduates for next year.

by Dr. Rafael Medoff

There was a time when Harvard’s “Jewish problem" was that many young Jews wanted to attend, but the university limited the number it would admit.

But the tables have turned. A new report has revealed that Jewish undergraduate enrollment at Harvard is down to just 7% of the student body, the lowest figure in more than a century.

The university is so worried that the dean of admissions and financial aid, William Fitzsimmons, announced that he will be making a special effort to target potential students in Jewish day schools. It will not make his task an easier that the faculty committee on Admissions and Financial Aid has among its members anti-Israel extremists such as Ali Asani and Maya Jasanoff.

Jewish students’ diminishing interest in Harvard no doubt is related to the prominence of such anti-Israel faculty members, and the well-known scenes of campus mobs cheering the mass murder of Israeli Jews and calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state. It’s not hard to understand why that would make prospective enrollees uneasy.

Harvard was not particularly hospitable to Jews in the 1920s, either, but for different reasons.

The American children of European Jewish immigrants, pursuing the American dream through education and hard work, gradually rose to about 25% of the Harvard student body in the years following World War I. That did not sit well with Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell and his colleagues.

In a letter to an alumnus in 1922, Lowell blamed campus antisemitism on the Jews. “The anti-Semitic feeling among students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews," the Harvard president wrote. “If their number should become 40 per cent of the student body, the race feeling would become intense…All this seems to me fraught with great evils for the Jews, and very great peril for our community."

That was why Lowell went to the Harvard Board of Overseers in 1922 with a proposal to reduce the number of Jewish students on campus to 15% of the student body.

Until then, admissions had been determined on the basis of merit, that is, grades and test scores. Lowell and the board devised new criteria that would allow “careful discernment of differences among individuals," as Lowell put it.

Under the new rules, a Harvard admissions officer could reject an application based on the applicant’s “character." Also, the applicant would be required to state his “race and color" and “religious preference," and would have to explain if either of his parents had ever changed their names-so that the admissions officer would know whose “character" required special scrutiny.

Applicants from New York City were classified according to whether their family name and photograph indicated they might be Jews. They were classified as “J1" (definitely Jewish), “J2" (probably Jewish), or “J3" (possibly Jewish). Thus Jews could be singled out for rejection without anybody having to explain that it was because they were Jews.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served on the Harvard board in the 1920s, later boasted of his role in this episode. He and his fellow-board members decided that “the number of Jews should be reduced one or two per cent a year until it was down to 15%," President Roosevelt explained to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the only Jewish member of his cabinet, in 1941. “You can't get a disproportionate amount of any one religion."

Lowell and FDR also shared an indifference to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany. In his book The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, Prof. Stephen Norwood described Lowell’s rejection of an offer by a charitable foundation in 1933 to pay the salary of a refugee scholar from Nazi Germany if Harvard would hire him. Lowell accused the foundation of trying “to use the College for purposes of propaganda."

James G. McDonald, the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany, requested an appointment with Lowell in March 1934. Lowell’s secretary told McDonald-according to the latter’s diary- “that he wasn’t interested in German refugees," and “that he was tied up the whole day," so therefore “couldn’t see me." But when Hitler’s foreign spokesman, Harvard alumnus Ernst “Putzi" Hanfstaengl, visited the campus three months later, Lowell found the time to have a friendly meeting with him.

In those days, Harvard rejected the Jews. Today, the Jews are rejecting Harvard. The plummeting Jewish enrollment actually began long before October 7, 2023, although the outpouring on campus of pro-Hamas sentiment following the massacre, and the administration’s tepid response, accelerated the trend.

According to a study by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, in the years preceding October 7, Harvard’s history, political science, and social sciences departments offered a torrent of courses “promoting the view that the Palestinian people are innocent victims of Jewish (white) oppression and that known terrorist groups are simply ‘political movements’." It was that biased curriculum which planted the seeds for the eruption of pro-Hamas protests on camps in the autumn of 2023.

Following the October 7 massacres, dozens of student groups at Harvard endorsed Hamas, more than 100 faculty members joined the pro-Hamas “Faculty for Justice in Palestine" group, and the recommendations of the university’s task force on antisemitism were ignored, prompting some of its members to resign. The administration appointed, as the new co-chair of the task force, a faculty member who had accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing" and “apartheid."

Ironically, then, A. Lawrence Lowell’s prediction in 1922 that the campus environment would become hostile to Jews has indeed come true-not because the Jews provoked the bigots, as Lowell expected, but because anti-Jewish bigots, masquerading as anti-Zionists, were emboldened by the university itself to let their true feelings show. The dwindling Jewish application numbers are a natural response.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust. 

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424773

USA Deploys Drone Speedboats Against Iran

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/27/u-s-unleashes-uncrewed-sea-drone-speedboats-iran/

U.S. Unleashes Uncrewed Sea-Drone Speedboats Against Iran — A New Era in Naval Warfare

The United States has for the first time deployed autonomous, uncrewed drone speedboats in active combat operations against Iran, introducing a low-cost, asymmetric naval capability that officials say has already logged hundreds of hours patrolling key waterways under Operation Epic Fury.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that the vessels — known as Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC — have been deployed for maritime patrols as part of the campaign.

“U.S. forces continue to employ unmanned systems in the Middle East region, including surface drone assets like the GARC,” Hawkins told the outlet, adding that the platform has “successfully logged over 450 underway hours and more than 2,200 nautical miles during maritime patrols in support of Operation Epic Fury.”

The deployment marks the first acknowledged use of uncrewed surface vessels by the United States in an active conflict, underscoring a broader shift toward autonomous systems designed to operate at a fraction of the cost of traditional naval platforms while expanding surveillance and strike capabilities.

The vessels, built by Maryland-based BlackSea Technologies, are designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, but can also support mine countermeasures, communications relay, anti-submarine warfare, and the deployment of aerial and underwater drones.

Each craft can reach speeds exceeding 40 knots and carry payloads of up to 1,000 pounds, according to manufacturer specifications, offering a flexible platform capable of supporting a wide range of maritime operations at an estimated cost of roughly $250,000 per vessel — a fraction of the roughly $2 billion price tag of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Officials have not indicated that the drone boats have been used in offensive strike roles, though their design allows for adaptation into expendable, one-way attack systems increasingly seen in modern conflicts.

The Navy has maintained a growing unmanned presence in the region for years, including through its Bahrain-based Task Force 59 under the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which focuses on integrating autonomous platforms and artificial intelligence into maritime operations.

The use of such systems comes as the United States and its allies confront Iran’s escalating campaign against commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has effectively choked off normal traffic through missile attacks, drone strikes, and explicit threats against ships tied to countries it considers aligned with the United States and Israel.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that ships traveling “to and from” ports belonging to countries it described as supporters of the “Zionist-American enemies” would no longer be permitted to cross the strait, regardless of destination or shipping corridor used.

The deployment also reflects lessons drawn from recent conflicts, including Ukraine’s use of explosive-laden drone boats against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, demonstrating how low-cost, hard-to-intercept systems can reshape naval warfare in contested waters.

The development comes as the United States weighs additional military options in the region, including the potential deployment of up to 10,000 additional ground troops, while continuing operations aimed at degrading Iran’s military capabilities and restoring freedom of navigation through the strait.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly rebuked European allies for declining to contribute military resources to efforts to reopen the waterway as the conflict expands and pressure mounts to break Iran’s grip on the chokepoint.

The GARC deployment marks the first acknowledged use of this class of uncrewed surface vessel in an active conflict.

U.S. strikes have already destroyed 92 percent of Iran’s largest naval vessels, according to U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper, further shifting the maritime balance as autonomous systems take on a more prominent operational role.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/27/u-s-unleashes-uncrewed-sea-drone-speedboats-iran/

The vessels can be used for both surveillance or kamikaze strikes.

Uncrewed vessels have risen ​to prominence in recent years after Ukraine used explosive‑laden speedboats to inflict significant damage on Russia’s ⁠Black Sea Fleet.

    In the Gulf of Aqaba

“The GARC is an emerging capability and part of a fleet of surface drones operated by US 5th Fleet to enhance ​awareness of what’s happening in regional waters.”

    The Strait of Hormuz

Israel Attacks Iranian Nuclear Facility

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-891437

Israel strikes Iranian nuclear development facilities

The IDF attack on the heavy water reactor comes after the military called for residents of nearby Arak to evacuate ahead of imminent strikes on regime military infrastructure.

Israel attacked Iran’s Khandab heavy water reactor in Arak, as well as the uranium enrichment facility at Ardakan, the IDF confirmed.

The enrichment facility produced yellowcake, a concentrated uranium powder used in the early stages of nuclear fuel production.

Later a missile struck the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran.

"Heavy water is a unique material used to operate nuclear reactors, such as the Arak reactor, which was originally designed to have weapons-grade plutonium production capabilities," the IDF said. "These materials can also be used as a neutron source for nuclear weapons."

The facility was also a "significant economic asset" for the Iranian regime and generated tens of millions of dollars for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.

The Islamic Republic deliberately avoided a mandate to convert the reactor so that it would not be capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The attack came after the IDF had called for residents of the northwestern Iranian city of Arak to evacuate ahead of imminent strikes on nearby regime military infrastructure.

The heavy water reactor is located a short distance northwest of the municipality of Arak.

The call for evacuation was posted on the IDF's Persian-language X/Twitter account, and included graphics illustrating the targeted areas and evacuation routes.

The post further called for those in the nearby Khairabad industrial zone to evacuate.

Soon thereafter, the IDF announced that it had begun simultaneous attacks on regime infrastructure in three areas of Iran.

Ardakan is a city in Iran's Yazd province, a central site for producing missiles and sea mines.

"This plant is the only one of its kind in Iran, where raw materials mined from the earth undergo mechanical and chemical processing so that they can later be used as raw materials for uranium enrichment," the IDF said after the attack, adding "The strikes targeted the main infrastructure used for the unique production processes."

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-891437