Monday, June 30, 2025
AI video shows Netanyahu, exiled Iranian prince united in Tehran
Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology Gila Gamliel (Likud) published an AI-generated video on social media titled "Next Year in a Free Tehran."
The clip opens with establishing shots of Teran. It then quickly jumps to showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, walking arm-in-arm down a street in the Iranian capital.
The video also shows shots of Minister Gamliel and her husband, as well as exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and his wife walking in a similar setting.
It concludes with Israeli and Iranian imperial flags side-by-side.
In 2023, Gamliel hosted Crown Prince Reza in Israel, where he met with officials and participated in the official opening ceremony to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Welcoming him upon his arrival, Gamliel stated: "Together, through a common vision, we will take the first step in building bridges and collaborations between the two peoples."
These are Syria's conditions for Israeli accord
Lebanon’s LBCI channel reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with developments in Syria, about Syria’s conditions for a peace agreement with Israel.
According to the report, the conditions include Israeli recognition of the regime of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, withdrawal from territories captured by Israel since last December and from the buffer zone in the Golan, a halt to Israeli airstrikes in Syria, and security arrangements in southern Syria — particularly along the border and the tri-border area with Jordan.
Most importantly, according to the report, Syria is demanding US guarantees for the agreements and American support for the Syrian regime.
In return, Syria would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Axios reported earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed interest in launching US-mediated negotiations with the new Syrian government.
According to the report, Netanyahu conveyed his interest during a recent meeting with US Envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack. The Prime Minister is aiming to reach a revised security agreement with Damascus, ultimately leading to a full peace accord. This would mark the first direct diplomatic engagement between Israel and Syria since 2011.
The Israeli approach follows a shift in regional dynamics after al-Sharaa replaced the Assad regime. According to the Axios report, while Israeli officials initially voiced concerns over al-Sharaa's Turkish ties and urged Washington to proceed cautiously, President Donald Trump's recent meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, followed by the lifting of US sanctions on Syria, prompted Jerusalem to reassess its stance.
On Sunday, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an American rabbi who recently met in Damascus with al-Sharaa, said he believes a meeting between al-Sharaa and Netanyahu is not out of the question - as long as it is initiated by Trump.
In an interview with Kan News, Rabbi Cooper shared his impressions of al-Sharaa and said, “It’s true he’s an Islamist, but al-Sharaa speaks of a vision for his country that includes a united Syria with one army and equal rights. If he can achieve that, it would be a game-changer.”
Addressing potential relations with Israel, Cooper outlined two possible paths: short-term de-escalation and a political meeting brokered by Trump. “The only quick path would be if someone named Donald Trump invited both leaders — Israel’s Prime Minister and Syria’s President — to Washington to sit together for a few hours. That could change everything.”
According to Cooper, Syria’s president told him that resolving the conflict with Israel was a priority. “We intend to continue advancing this,” Cooper said, adding that al-Sharaa had expressed genuine interest in peace.
A doozy of an anti-Netanyahu/Trump two-fer
You can’t make this stuff up. Yet Nir Hefetz—a state witness in the ongoing bogus trial of his former boss, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu—just gave it the old college try.
In an interview with Channel 12’s current-events program “Duach Matzav” (“situation report”), Hefetz made as assertion worthy of the same network’s left-wing satire program “Eretz Nehederet.”
But he and his hosts, well-known Bibi-bashers Yaron Avraham and Einav Galili, discussed the claim in earnest.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Listen to Danielle Renov Relate What Mothers went through During this Latest Iran/Israel War
Danielle Renov—best known as the creative force behind “Peas, Love & Carrots”—joins the Meaningful People Podcast not to share recipes, but to open up about something far more raw and real: living through war in Israel as a mother.
In this emotionally charged episode, Danielle shares what life is like in Yerushalayim under missile fire, separated from her husband and holding down the home with extraordinary resilience. She opens up about fear, faith, and motherhood in a war zone—describing what it means to remain strong for her children while the world around her is shaking, quite literally.
From her roots in the Five Towns to raising a family in Israel, Danielle speaks about the deeper spiritual mission of living in Eretz Yisrael, the complicated emotions surrounding Aliyah, and why she refuses to leave even in the most dangerous moments.
This conversation is not just about war—it's about the strength of Jewish mothers, the reality of daily life in Israel, and the unshakable emunah that guides Danielle through it all.
Hear how one of the Jewish world’s most beloved influencers was navigating some of the most difficult days of her life—with raw honesty, deep faith, and surprising humor.
I have related in the past that I had and have Seminary girls for Shabbos and not one of them has any love for Israel! And I believe that the fault lies in the School system.
The American R"Y are really by and large meraglim and so are the Rebbitzins in the seminaries, they are basically Lady Meraglim, they hate Israel, which is very interesting, because the Kli Yakar writes in Parshas Shlach that the RBS"O really wanted to send women as Meraglim! Women in general love Israel, but today, the lady mechanchim refuse to instill into their students a love for Israel!
How Israel-Aligned Hackers Hobbled Iran’s Financial System
While Israel and the U.S. were bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, another battlefield emerged behind the scenes: the financial infrastructure that keeps Tehran connected to the world.
Israeli authorities, and a pro-Israeli hacking group called Predatory Sparrow, targeted financial organizations that Iranians use to move money and sidestep the U.S.-led economic blockade, according to Israeli officials and other people familiar with the efforts. U.S. sanctions, imposed off-and-on for decades due to Tehran’s nuclear program and support for Islamist groups, have aimed to cut Iran off from the international financial system.
Predatory Sparrow, which operates anonymously and posts updates of its activities on X, said this past week that it crippled Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah, which services Iran’s armed forces and helps them pay suppliers abroad, knocking out its online banking services and cash machines. Iranian state media acknowledged the damage.
The group also breached Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, popular with locals for transferring money overseas. The hackers extracted about $100 million in funds and forced the platform to shut down, according to the exchange.
Iran’s government pulled the plug on much of the country’s online activities to prevent further attacks and keep a lid on dissent. Non-Iranian websites were blocked. Citizens were warned against using foreign phones or messaging platforms that it claimed could collect audio and location data for Israeli spies. Government officials were banned from using laptops and smartwatches.
Predatory Sparrow said the two hacks were directed against the “financial lifelines” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most powerful faction of Iran’s military that also controls swaths of the economy. “Noble people of Iran! Withdraw your funds before it is too late,” it tweeted.
Both targeted companies remain hobbled. Nobitex said it faced serious challenges in restoring services and was aiming to relaunch trading this coming week. Some Bank Sepah users say online they still aren’t receiving deposits.
The group didn’t say if it was acting on behalf of Israeli authorities. “The group’s sophistication, target selection and geopolitical messaging fit the profile of an Israel-aligned, state-sponsored cyber actor,” said Deddy Lavid, chief executive of Cyvers, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity firm.
Predatory Sparrow didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to the administrator of its Telegram group.
The cyberattacks hit an economy already battered by U.S. sanctions that bar the purchase of Iran’s oil or interactions with its banks. Iran’s economy is highly dependent on a select few trading partners, notably China. Annual inflation runs above 40%, according to the World Bank. A constant flight of skilled workers has also throttled Iran’s economic growth.
Israel confirmed a cease-fire with Iran on Tuesday. But cybersecurity experts and Israeli officials expect the cyberwarfare to continue. “Israel will likely keep launching precision cyberstrikes against the regime’s power centers,” said Lavid.
Officials at Israel’s National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing said they didn’t have information on links between Predatory Sparrow and Israeli authorities. They said Israel was broadly targeting the economic infrastructure that allowed Iran to finance its military and proxies, imposing sanctions earlier this month on its central bank and other banks used by the IRGC.
The NBCTF, which is overseen by the defense ministry, plans to issue orders to exchanges outside Iran to help it seize more of Nobitex’s crypto holdings. It has identified a further $150 million in funds held by Nobitex, the officials said.
Pro-Iran cyber groups have hit back, targeting Israeli government websites with denial-of-service attacks, in which hackers aim to overwhelm computers that route internet traffic with a flood of requests, and sending phishing messages to Israelis in a bid to compromise their phones. The Israel National Cyber Directorate said Iran’s cyberattacks hadn’t caused damage in recent weeks.
Paranoia swept through the Iranian population as the attacks, both physical and cyber, mounted. “It’s better to cut [the internet] off. Israel can see everything,” said Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, a Tehran-based money changer whom the U.S. sanctioned several years ago for allegedly aiding Iranian hackers, an accusation he denies.
The Bank Sepah hack last Tuesday halted payments, including salaries owed to military retirees, according to Fars News Agency, which is controlled by the IRGC. Many of its cash machines stopped working. The U.S. Treasury Department said last year that Bank Sepah, which has branches on Iranian military bases, helps Iran’s defense ministry pay foreign suppliers via a sprawling shadow-banking network.
Nobitex went offline the next day. The Tehran-based crypto exchange has processed transactions in excess of about $22 billion for users since its 2017 launch, according to blockchain research firms and the officials from Israel’s NBCTF.
“This attack had political motives to create emotional distress and damage the Iranian people’s property,” Nobitex’s chief executive, Amir Rad, said in a video posted on its Telegram channel.
As in Russia and other countries cut off from international finance, cryptocurrencies, in particular dollar-pegged stablecoins such as tether, have emerged as a vital workaround in Iran, providing a medium through which users can shift money between local and foreign banks.
Nobitex’s 11 million customers use the platform to swap Iranian rials for tether, which they can convert into other traditional currencies abroad. Rad has said on his LinkedIn account that Nobitex’s goal is to allow Iranians to trade crypto despite “the shadow of sanctions.”
“Nobitex has been the main option for the Iranians to skip the sanctions,” said Amit Levin, a former Israeli prosecutor and ex-investigator at the Binance crypto exchange who now advises companies on financial-crime compliance.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had also turned to Nobitex for international payments, according to the Israeli officials and blockchain researchers. Crypto analytics firm Elliptic has found that two IRGC operatives, whom the U.S. accused of conducting ransomware attacks on American companies, used Nobitex to make transfers.
Rad said he didn’t believe that the IRGC was moving money through Nobitex because he operated a transparent platform that was closely monitored.
Predatory Sparrow has been wreaking havoc on Iran since at least 2021. In earlier hacks, the group disabled gas-station payment systems across the country and triggered a fire at an Iranian steel plant.
For their operation against Nobitex, the hackers managed to obtain the keys for the exchange’s cryptocurrency wallets, which were held by key personnel within the company, said Rad.
Predatory Sparrow then “burned” the stolen $100 million by sending the tokens to other digital wallets the group itself couldn’t access. These wallets’ addresses, which are made up of long strings of numbers and letters, contained profane phrases like “F—IRGCterrorists.”
Nobitex’s initial investigation into the breach indicated that Israel’s government had likely supported it, Rad said, though he declined to provide proof of his claim. He said Nobitex was a private, independent company with no affiliation to the Iranian state, including the IRGC.
Iranian media report a major revelation "Israel knows exactly who enters and leaves Iran."
Iranian media report a major revelation — most of the Indian software used in sensitive sectors across Iran is actually Israeli-made, secretly transmitting real-time data back to Israel.
Leaked data includes:
• Civil registry records
• Passport and ID details
• Airport security and logistics systems
Sources say:
"Israel knows exactly who enters and leaves Iran."
The 31st yahrtzeit of The Rebbe
His teachings continue to inspire and guide us, and his insights are as novel and relevant as if they were given today.
Each of us is a beneficiary of the Rebbe's inspiration somehow, and his visionary leadership has transformed the Jewish world as we know it today.
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, universally known as "the Rebbe," is considered the most influential rabbi in modern history. Under his visionary leadership, Chabad became a global Jewish organization, with thousands of Shluchim (emissaries) and centers.
A revolutionary Torah scholar, his teachings emphasized love for all, outreach, education, and good deeds to prepare the world for an era of peace and tranquility.
The Rebbe's published works include hundreds of volumes of essays, discourses, talks, and letters. Renowned for his boundless compassion, the Rebbe inspired millions, including U.S. presidents and Israeli elected officials. Decades after his passing, the Rebbe's impact continues.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)