Israel Brief: Tuesday, October 21

Ceasefire on life support. Diplomacy on delay. Israel enforces, Hamas reloads, and allies argue over who gets to “help.”

Shalom, friends.

Hamas violated the ceasefire again, Israel hit back, and everyone else tried to rename the problem as diplomacy. Cairo’s intelligence chief landed in Jerusalem to push a multinational “stabilization force” for Gaza—one that somehow includes Turkey and Qatar. Netanyahu drew a red line, while Trump’s envoys and Vice President JD Vance arrived to keep the deal from collapsing before their plane landed.

At home, the Knesset’s winter session opened with fire and theater. Netanyahu claimed he saved the country from “nuclear smoke,” Lapid reminded him who was prime minister on October 7, and Ben-Gvir issued an ultimatum over the death-penalty bill. Meanwhile, P.A. police were caught operating illegally in Area C—another reminder of why “security coordination” is a euphemism, not a functional reality—and new data show 125,000 Israelis have left since 2022.

Abroad, Russia hugged Iran tighter, Hamas drafted its own “technocratic” government for Gaza under mediator cover, and Qatar continues playing both banker and arsonist. Even CAIR is suing Northwestern University to kill antisemitism training, proving that in some corners of the West, the real fight isn’t about freedom but about permission to hate.

The same players keep testing Israel’s patience—and the world keeps pretending that patience is infinite.

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