Israeli Soldiers Describe The Gaza Genocide / US Embassy Aide Suppresses the Truth From Jerusalem / The Houthis Put the Screws on the Saudis / NATO Chief Plans For Russian Invasion but Trump Is On The Opposite Side / Paxton’s Friends Libel Talarico
Gaza Through the Eyes of Israeli Soldiers: “The Rule Was, Shoot Everyone You See”
Der Spiegel
Israeli soldiers Green and Tomer. The one refused to continue serving, the other is still deployed. (Photo: Jonas Opperskalski / DER SPIEGEL (2))
Scott: Benjamin Netanyahu faces charges before the ICC of the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. With the release of the award-winning documentary NAZA, Netanyahu is freaking out and, inspired on this point by Trump, Orbán, Putin and Erdoğan, is issuing formal orders that the IDF soldiers who spoke out in the documentary, as well as its producers and directors, be prosecuted for whatever criminal charges can be fabricated against them. Now Der Spiegel has also published interviews with ten IDF soldiers who describe their experiences in Israeli operations in Gaza and specifically how they were instructed to deal with the civilian population. This strongly corroborates the NAZA reports. If Netanyahu were turned over to the Hague and forced to stand trial on the charges raised against him, this evidence and other documents already released and published in Israel would certainly be sufficient to sustain the charges against Netanyahu, insuring his conviction and sentencing. At this point, only Donald Trump stands between Netanyahu and accountability.
Der Spiegel spoke to 10 Israelis who served in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023, remotely piloted drones or selected targets for airstrikes. The Israeli organization Breaking the Silence, which collects testimonials from soldiers about misconduct and crimes committed by the military, facilitated contact with some of them. Der Spiegel checked all the statements as thoroughly as possible, cross-referencing them with other accounts and with independently verifiable information, and considers them credible.
All the soldiers except one chose to remain anonymous. Their units and personal details cannot be disclosed either because of the potential negative consequences. Most refuse to serve in Gaza again, though one was recently redeployed there just a few weeks ago. A ceasefire has been in effect in Gaza for a year, but the Israeli military still occupies around two-thirds of the territory and regularly strikes targets in Gaza.
David, infantry reservist: “My unit killed many people”
David served as a reservist in an infantry unit and was deployed in central Gaza and Khan Younis for several months from October 2023 onward.
I knew from the start that this war was going to be bad. But I couldn’t imagine how bad. And I couldn’t imagine how long it would last, either. A month at most, I thought. That this war would go on for years – that seemed impossible. And then there was the scale of the destruction. From the perspective of an individual soldier, it even makes sense. Is one building the tallest in our sector? We destroy it because it could pose a threat. But then the next-tallest building becomes the tallest, and so it goes on until everything is destroyed. At first, we were told to destroy individual buildings. Later, we were assigned an entire area.
When I returned to Gaza in 2025, there was nothing but rubble for miles. Officially, the aim was to create a “buffer zone.” But once I heard senior officers say: The Arabs have to be punished. They have to understand that we are taking more and more of their land and pushing them farther and farther back.
When we used civilian homes as a base, we were often told to set the house on fire as we withdrew. That didn’t destroy the building completely, but it made it uninhabitable. We understood that the point was to prevent the residents from returning. I also saw few soldiers who had nothing to do use bulldozers to destroy an olive grove.
My unit was actually made up of people that are more educated, secular Israelis. But the longer the war went on, the fewer of them wanted to serve in the reserves. Instead, more and more messianic extremists joined. For them, the deployment is a mitzvah [a religious duty]. On my second deployment, there were a lot of them in my unit. They said crazy things like: “We have to eliminate all the Arabs. We have to build settlements. We’re going to wipe out Gaza.” Things you hear from the Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich or Itamar Ben-Gvir.
As soon as an area was evacuated, officially there were no civilians there. Anyone still there is considered to be involved in terrorist activity. The most permissive rules of engagement were applied. In some units, the instruction was: “Shoot everyone you see.” Our commander wasn’t like that. He said: “Don’t shoot women and children. But shoot to kill men of fighting age.” Again and again, we were told: “Remember, anyone could be a spotter, anyone could be a messenger, anyone could be involved. That’s Hamas’s tactic.” And that’s true – we often found weapons depots in houses, and of course they don’t fight in uniform. The rules of engagement were really only clear when it came to preventing our own troops from being fired on. Not to protect the people in Gaza.
Once, I went on patrol with some other soldiers. It was dark. Suddenly, we heard noises and took cover. Then we saw two men on bicycles, maybe 25 meters away, and opened fire on them. They weren’t armed. A little farther away, two men were loading a truck. We shot at them too. They drove off; I don’t know if they survived. Then two more men came walking along. We fired at them too…
I estimate that my unit killed many people simply because they were men of fighting age moving around in our sector. We often fired from ambush. You set out early in the morning under cover of darkness, wearing night-vision goggles, march somewhere, take up a position, and then basically shoot at anyone who comes by. We knew nothing about international law. But when you’re there as a soldier, you don’t think about it. You just go along with it.
There was a moment that broke me. When we encountered Hamas fighters in a house and they opened fire on us, we lost people; some were seriously injured. Afterward, our company commander gave a motivational speech. He said something like: “We accomplished our mission. We paid a very high price, but we will continue this most just of wars.” And it was such a fucking joke! My friends’ deaths felt like a sacrifice for this war of annihilation. Then I went to their funerals, and right-wing politicians showed up and said: “We’re going to build settlements in Gaza.” That made me so angry…
Nine more accounts follow, all of the same nature—conscious targeting and shooting of innocent civilians. And in one, we see an order to kill a Reuters journalist, precisely because he was a Reuters journalist and the IDF unit understood that. This is how the IDF operation in Gaza came to kill more journalists than World War I, World War II and the Korean War combined.
Top American Embassy Official Systematically Suppresses the Truth from Jerusalem
New York Times
Charles: In a superb exclusive in the Times, Natan Odenheimer and Adam Rasgon reveal that one aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee in the US embassy in Jerusalem has systematically prevented his colleagues from reporting accurately about Netanyahu’s government.
The goal of great foreign service officers is to give the State Department better information about the country they are serving in than anyone else can provide. Thirty-six year old David Milstein, a former aide to Senator Ted Cruz, has repeatedly censored the truth since he arrived in Jerusalem–always to make the current Israeli government look better.
When the government approved the largest increase in settlers in the West Bank ever last March, Milstein killed the cable describing the action
As settler violence in the West Bank surged in the spring he stymied embassy reporting suggesting that the Israeli government was failing to take action, according to the three officials. Instead the embassy sent a cable to Washington praising Israel for “cracking down” on the attacks.
When members of Congress pushed for accountability over the killings of Palestinian Americans by Israeli settlers and security forces, he suppressed a detailed report that the embassy staff had written, effectively stonewalling lawmakers’ efforts to gain information, according to multiple officials briefed on the matter.
Soon after arriving in Jerusalem, Mr. Milstein began insisting on approving communications from the embassy section that handles Palestinian affairs, multiple officials with direct knowledge of the process said. The flow of cables plummeted from several a week to a few a month, as some staffers refrained from writing reports for fear that Mr. Milstein would block or rewrite them, these officials said.
Mr. Milstein’s efforts have helped insulate Israel’s right-wing government against potential blowback from a Trump Administration that has been its closest ally.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, at his residence in Jerusalem last year.
The Times said it has 15 US government sources for its story.
Huckabee said “I personally and categorically refute the elements of your proposed ‘story.’ ”
Iran-Backed Militants Are Tightening the Screws on Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince
Wall Street Journal
The way Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman handles Saudi Arabia’s crisis will have consequences far beyond the kingdom. Photo: Julie Sebadelha/AP
Scott: Has Crown Prince Bone Saw severely underassessed the threat presented to his rule by the Houthis in Yemen? WSJ reports that he is roaming from one heavily fortified palace to the next, hiding out in underground bunkers, fleeing Houthi missiles, and pleading in the most abject fashion with his allies for military support to ward them off. He cuts a truly pathetic figure. And particularly he presents himself as a man betrayed by Donald Trump, who he felt was his creature due to the high price he paid into Trump’s private coffers and those of Jared Kushner.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman started the year on a high note. He had just visited the White House where he was embraced by President Trump. Even after the war with Iran kicked off, Saudi Arabia looked relatively well positioned. It could export oil through a pipeline that bypassed the blocked Strait of Hormuz.
But the Saudis’ escalating fight with Iran-backed Houthi militants in neighboring Yemen now poses new challenges to the kingdom’s security and the crown prince’s ambitious but already struggling plans to transform the country’s oil-dependent economy.
On Saturday, at least one Houthi missile slammed into the Saudi capital’s international airport, killing at least 13 people and injuring hundreds more, many seriously. It was the single deadliest attack on the U.S. or its Gulf allies in the conflicts related to the Iran war. A 28-year-old Egyptian flight attendant bled to death after her arm was blown off, one of several victims to lose limbs, officials briefed on the attack said.
Two terminals were struck and their roofs partially collapsed, people familiar with the damage said. Video verified by Storyful, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by Dow Jones, showed passengers rolling suitcases past a trail of blood on the floor as the airport was evacuated. Authorities reported more attacks on the closed airport Sunday, saying a projectile caused a fire in Terminal 4 and led to one death as well as injuries.
As recently as this summer, Saudi officials briefed journalists that the Houthi situation was under control. But the militants’ escalating attacks, which they say are retaliation for Saudi actions against them, have hit airports and energy facilities—including the kingdom’s main east-west pipeline and refineries—showing the growing threat along the southern border.
The conflict is jeopardizing Saudi efforts to build travel and tourism into a pillar of the economy, including a marquee international investment conference scheduled for the end of the month that is now increasingly in doubt. The costs of the war have already widened the budget deficit and threaten to push the economy into contraction.
The Supreme Commander of NATO Details a Defense Plan Against Russia, Meanwhile His Boss Contemplates Alliance with Moscow
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Russian tanks in exercises near Chelyabinsk. Photo: TASS
Scott: NATO strategic planners believe they have reasonably reliable intelligence that the Kremlin is planning a military action against the alliance’s eastern flank only months away. They have therefore detailed a plan to engage a Russian offensive with their own countermeasures. But the bigger problem lies elsewhere: Putin’s personal focus has steadily been on fracturing NATO and using its dominance by the United States as a key point of vulnerability. And he is spinning a remarkably effective web to achieve this goal: think for instance of the lavish Caribbean wedding for Trump’s son he funded, the highly lucrative LUKOil deal he is presenting to Kushner and Witkoff, and now the “diesel deal” that was announced this weekend but according to multiple sources was actually struck weeks ago in order to furnish Trump with a pretext for terminating sanctions on Russia and realigning the US with Russia in its struggle against Ukraine. This presents a grave challenge which cannot be tackled through the existing machinery of NATO—in essence, the prospect that the Kremlin has through various ploys captured the White House.
“We will repel and defeat any attack,” says Alexus Grynkewich. Speaking in Warsaw, he outlined the alliance’s secret agreement—a clear warning to Moscow.
On Monday, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), Gen Alexus Grynkewich (USAF), publicly outlined for the first time how the alliance intends to defend itself against a Russian attack. “Should war break out, we will repel and defeat any attack,” Grynkewich said at a security conference in Warsaw. “And should it nevertheless not cease, we will defeat the forces attacking us right where we have practiced doing so.” Grynkewich spoke of a “theory of victory” upon which the 32 allies had internally agreed. “We finalized it about three months ago. And the definitive version exists in classified form,” he said.
SACEUR cited the current threat landscape as the reason for the unusual step of making these strategic considerations public. “Given the numerous acts of sabotage and arson, the populations within our alliance are, in my view, somewhat nervous,” he said. He wanted to reassure citizens “that we have the situation under control.” This message was also directed at anyone “thinking about causing us harm.” They should not dare to attack, he warned, because NATO knows exactly what it would do. At no point during his roughly 15-minute address did Grynkewich mention Russia by name; instead, he consistently referred to “our adversary.”
Central to his strategic thinking was the principle that NATO, as a defensive alliance, focuses all its forces on defending its territory—with the aim of inflicting a “tactical and operational defeat” on the aggressor. “We dismantle the war-fighting system attacking us, rendering it incapable of continuing the attack.” However, the goal is not to inflict a “strategic defeat” on the adversary—that is, to completely bring them to their knees and occupy their territory.
Paxton’s Suicide Bombers Detonate Too Soon
The Daily Beast
Politician James Talarico (C) meets with fans during the 2026 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on October 09, 2026 in Austin, Texas—as the Paxton campaign was insisting he was in a mental health clinic in Ohio.
Scott: Surely the focal congressional contest in this year’s midterms involves a young Texas Democrat (who like a number of Democratic candidates, has a religious background—he’s currently a Presbyterian seminarian) and Texas’ notorious, twice-indicted felon attorney general, Ken Paxton. Texas Democrats have not won a state-wide race since Anne Richards was governor; the state has been under heavy-handed one-party rule by the GOP for 31 years.
Surely Paxton is marked by his ruthlessness as a politician, and his pursuit of power and influence through unabashed corruption. But this weekend also provided evidence of his sheer incompetence and that of his campaign team. Searching for vulnerabilities, Paxton’s team has constantly attempted to make an issue of Talarico’s health, implying he is a closeted gay, suffers from AIDS, or has a personality disorder. In the past week, when Talarico missed a series of campaign events in order to recover from the flu, Paxton turned to a well-known serial fabulist (who is also facing criminal charges and has fled his home state of Kentucky to avoid prosecution) Nick Sortor, to concoct a hoax about Talarico being flown to a clinic in Ohio for treatment for a mental health crisis. Paxton’s campaign, with key help from Elon Musk and a New York Post “reporter” spread these fabulations wildly on the internet. Then the truth caught up with them. The episode would appear to confirm all the worst that Paxton’s critics say about him.
A page from serial fabulist Nick Sortor’s rap sheet. He’s also the former boyfriend of a Sputnik reporter who is connected to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR
Wild MAGA conspiracy theories about Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico have taken a humiliating hit.
Talarico, 37, had been missing from the campaign trail after contracting the flu. His opponent in Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, 63, and President Donald Trump, 80, have both repeatedly called out his absence.
The disappearance led to online conspiracy theories that Talarico may have been experiencing a mental health crisis, a theory exploited by Paxton’s team. “Low-T Jimmy appears to be having a full-blown mental Tala-freak-out on the national stage,” Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy said in a statement Thursday obtained by the Texas Tribune. “If James Talarico is too fragile to face Texans, he has no business asking for their vote.”
On Sunday, MAGA influencer Nick Sortor fueled the flames, claiming on X, “Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week,” adding that “the ‘flu’ thing was a BIG FAT LIE.”
Actually, at the time Sortor posted this, Talarico had returned to the campaign trail and was making public appearances in Austin. But
the X post, which was labeled “exclusive,” alleged Talarico had “been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, Ohio.” He was referring to a mental health center and psychiatric hospital located in Mason, Ohio..
Sortor added, “While I sympathize with those dealing with mental health crises, this man is CLEARLY not suited to become a US Senator representing over 30 MILLION TEXANS.”
MAGA figures, including billionaire Elon Musk, engaged with the post, while in the comments section Sortor suggested, “Maybe Trump called him Talafreako one too many times.”
However, later on Sunday, the mental health facility set the record straight in a post on X, saying, “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.”
Talarico shared the post, adding, “I’ve never even been to Ohio” with the crying face emoji.
Musk used his control of Twitter to spread the Sortor post far and wide, while blocking the posting of any Community Note that would correct its falsehoods. Saying that a political candidate is hospitalized for a mental health crackup is libel per se if false, as this one was. Thus Talarico is now well positioned to seek damages against all those involved in this caper, certainly including Sortor, Elon Musk and the New York Post staffer who were eagerly spreading the claims.
Jupiter and the Moons
Explanation: How many moons can you see? The best answer is five: four orbiting Jupiter and Luna orbiting Earth. This multi-moon picture was possible because Earth’s Moon moved directly in frontof Jupiter last week. The featured image is a series of exposures near alignment taken from Westchester, New York, USA. The sunlit crescent of Earth’s Moon, on the lower left, is overexposed, while the Moon’s night side, on the upper right, is faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up nearly vertically above our Moon, listed from bottom to top, are Jupiter’s bright Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa. Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth’s Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. NASA’s robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting Jupiter and has made close passes near three of these moons.
Photo: Chirag Upreti
Your Online Moment of Zen
When That Man Is Dead And Gone
By Irving Berlin
First performed February 1, 1941, on the radio program ASCAP on Parade.
In 1941, when the Nazis occupied most of Europe, it was almost impossible for anyone to be optimistic about the future. But the optimists like Irving Berlin turned out to be right. I cling to their example to remain optimistic today.
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