Over the weekend, the Israeli military decided to disregard the ceasefire agreement they had signed with Lebanon and instead moved to occupy more land in the south of the country. A special forces unit was deployed to lead the charge towards the strategically important Ali Al-Taher Hills, but were caught in an embarrassing ambush inflicting casualties amongst their ranks.

Israel attempted to cover up its failure by claiming Hezbollah fired on them for no reason and that they then responded by targeting a military site. At least 11 Lebanese were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a series of deadly raids carried out around the Nabatieh Municipality, many of whom were women and children. The Israeli occupying forces have failed in around half a dozen attempted advances, to seize the area, where there is believed to be a significant Hezbollah military facility.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s Navy also reportedly seized an Emirati tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, intercepting it near Qeshm Island, representing a significant escalation and sending the price of Brent Crude (oil) Futures past $90 per barrel. This, as US President Donald Trump continues to claim both that the Strait open and that his naval blockade is effective, doubling down on earlier comments that he seeks to make the area officially part of American territory.

Yemen’s Ansarallah-led government forces have also continued to hit positions belonging to their Saudi-backed opposition, while retaliating to Riyadh’s violation of Yemeni airspace with more UAV strikes on oil facilities in Jazan.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have also advanced and captured more towns located near the coastal Port city of Mukha, a strategic location which has come under constant fire and where multiple cargo vessels were destroyed. Clashes between the Ansarallah-led forces and Saudi-backed militants have persisted near Taiz, Mukha and Marib, with heavily casualties inflicted.

In this Monday’s edition of The Target, we also look at the US led campaign to disarm all of Iran’s allies, where it came from and why these moves are all happening in sync with one another, exploring the roles of regional actors in the regional war that is still raging on; albeit at a slower pace than it currently was.

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has also been holding talks with his Israeli counter-parts, in pursuit of disarming the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, disingenuously claiming to have a reconstruction plan and holding the population of the territory hostage as Israel seeks to take away their ability to even fight back against ethnic cleansing.

The Target’s Monday show brings you all of the latest in the battlefield developments, while providing the historical context which is, more often than not, missing from coverage elsewhere.

The post Hezbollah Take Out 3 Israeli Elite Soldiers As Iran Issues Final Ultimatum appeared first on MintPress News.

Meanwhile, the State Department’s recent decision to designate Brazilian gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations” just as it did with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, signals a willingness to intervene militarily. 

Brazil is Trump’s next target, and builds upon recent U.S. and Israeli interference in May’s Colombian elections, where pro-Trump candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won a razor-thin victory. 

MintPress examines the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine Brazilian democracy and install another Bolsonaro back into power. 

A Thumb on The Scale

Brazil’s October elections are rapidly approaching, and while thirteen people are standing for president, two principal candidates have already emerged: current left-of-center president Lula da Silva, and far-right challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro. Flavio is the son of disgraced former president, Jair (sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a January 6th-inspired coup attempt), and the brother of Eduardo (convicted in absentia for lobbying the United States to intervene in his father’s trial). 

It is obvious which candidate Washington prefers. The Bolsonaro’s are politically, ideologically, and personally very close to the MAGA movement, and Flavio has already promised that, if elected, his country will become one of the U.S.’ closest allies.

Lula currently holds a double-digit lead on Bolsonaro (40% to 28%, with no other candidate holding more than 10% of the public’s voting intentions). But Brazilian politics can change very quickly; in 2018, Lula held a 20-point lead over Jair Bolsonaro when the Brazilian Supreme Court blocked him from running. He was imprisoned on bogus charges in a case orchestrated by the U.S. government, leaving the path clear for Bolsonaro’s victory. 

Lula has sounded the alarm that Brazilian democracy is once again under threat from Washington. “As far as I’m concerned, [Trump] can continue liking Bolsonaro, the father, the son, the grandson… There is no problem with that. It’s his problem. There’s no accounting for taste,” he said. “Now, don’t meddle in the Brazilian elections, because the Brazilian elections are a Brazilian problem, just as American elections are their business, not mine,” he added: “All I want is the same respect for Brazil that I have for the United States. That’s it.”

Washington, however, has other ideas. On May 26, Flavio Bolsonaro traveled to Washington to meet with Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to sell them on the concept of military intervention in Brazil. Two days later, the U.S. State Department designated two Brazilian gangs, Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and “Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a decision that Brian Mier, an American journalist who moved to Brazil in 1991 and is now Brazil correspondent for TeleSur English, described as “a preemptive move to possibly invade if Lula wins reelection.” 

In 2025, the State Department did the same with Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Just months later, the U.S. carried out an operation to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro, decapitating the Venezuelan government. 

Free Speech or Hate Speech?

Mier noted that the United States government is also actively coaching Brazilian influencers in methods and techniques to best attack Lula and the government. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the U.S. Consulate in São Paulo held a series of workshops with selected prominent right-wing figures. 

One of these is influencer Maria Fernanda Schmidt, who confirmed the validity of the reporting by posting a set of pictures of the event on her Instagram. “It was an excellent opportunity to share with diplomats the challenges faced by influencers, journalists, and content producers in the digital environment, in an enriching dialogue about the direction of freedom of expression in Brazil,” she wrote. 

The U.S. Consulate has also arranged for visas and trips to the United States for local journalists. The objective was to entice them into attacking Lula and promoting Bolsonaro’s candidacy by promoting the U.S.-backed line that freedom of speech and freedom of expression is under attack in Brazil, thanks to Lula’s government. 

This idea is based largely on a 2024 spat between Brazilian authorities and U.S. billionaire Elon Musk. Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian court order to delete far-right accounts on Twitter (now officially called X) that broke the country’s hate speech and misinformation laws. Musk, a champion of far-right politics himself, and someone who has openly used his platforms to promote regime change around the world, refused to do so, leading to X’s temporary shutdown across Brazil. 

“Powerful actors in the Trump administration and Republican Party as well as Silicon Valley tech allies and pundits who make up part of the integral U.S. state (Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Michael Shellenberger, etc.) have been working closely with the Bolsonaro family since Jair Bolsonaro first ran for President in 2018,” Mier told MintPress. 

Its no secret that the Brazilian right-wing are deeply influenced by the MAGA movement. Indeed, Brazil even had its own January 6 moment – on January 8, 2023. After he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula, Flavio’s father, Jair Bolsonaro took to the airwaves denouncing the result, claiming irregularities, and calling for an insurrection. Thousands of people marched on the streets in Brasília, rioting and calling for the military to intervene. 

Like the United States’ January 6, the rioters were unsuccessful. But unlike in America, Bolsonaro was held to account for his coup attempt, and was sentenced in 2025 to 27 years in prison. 

There is little doubt of his guilt. During his trial, Bolsonaro admitted that he met with top Brazilian generals to discus how to hold onto power, even after losing the election. 

Trump, however, was incensed by the decision. “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” he said, demanding the immediate end of the trial. Trump placed punishing economic sanctions on Brazil, and against the country’s Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes. 

This decision was likely influenced by Jair’s son and Flavio’s brother, Eduardo, who heavily lobbied the Trump administration on his father’s behalf, demanding his country be sanctioned. Brazil considered this an attempt to pervert the course of justice, and sentenced Eduardo to four years in prison in absentia. He currently lives in a mansion in Texas and cannot return to his homeland. There, he plays a similar role to what Maria Corina Machado did in Venezuela, lobbying the U.S. to militarily intervene in his country to put his family back in power. In October, he publicly called for the U.S. military to bomb Rio de Janeiro under the guise of fighting drug trafficking. 

Trump also commented on Eduardo’s trial, although he appeared to believe Eduardo is his sibling, Flavio.“ I hear they arrested somebody that’s running for office today,” Trump said in June. “ I heard that they arrested the Bolsonaro junior, who was doing well in the polls.” In fact, it is Flavio Bolsonaro who is running for president. 

Economic and Diplomatic Warfare

If elected, Flavio has promised the United States considerable influence inside the country, offering the Trump administration control over his transition team. This would mean, according to some, that U.S. officials would take considerable power over of Brazil’s economy and society, in a not too dissimilar way in which they controlled Iraq. 

The upcoming elections between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro are also taking place in a context in which the United States is actively trying to crash the Brazilian economy, in order to sink Lula’s chances. The United States has placed sweeping 40-50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, with more in the pipeline. These measures were quite different to the generalized tariffs placed on much of the world last year. For one, the U.S. actually maintains a healthy trade surplus with Brazil, unlike most other countries. Secondly, in his executive order, Trump explicitly stated that (emphasis added):

“Should the government of Brazil take significant steps to address the national emergency declared in this order and align sufficiently with the United States on national security, economic and foreign policy matters described in this order, I may further modify this order.”

The clear implication of this statement is that Brazil is being punished for being insufficiently loyal to Washington. 

Diplomatic ties worsened earlier this month, after the United States revoked the visa of Brazilian Ambassador, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, forcing her to return home. That same day, Brazil had instructed the Argentinian ambassador to leave the country. 

“The Trump administration has been closely working with [Argentinian president] Javier Milei to delegitimize left parties, leaders, and administrations across Latin America,” Mier said, noting that Milei had traveled to São Paulo in July to attend the far-right Liberal Party’s national convention, where Flavio Bolsonaro was officially chosen as the party’s presidential candidate. Milei has been extremely vocal about his wish to see Lula’s demise, attending Bolsonaro rallies and calling Lula “corrupt,” a “thief” and a “convict.”

“A Gift From the CIA”

Milei’s use of the word convict refers to Operation Car Wash, a U.S.-backed scheme that saw Lula imprisoned on corruption charges. Lula had been leading Jair Bolsonaro by over 20 points in the polls for the 2018 general election, but was incarcerated and forbidden from running for office, even from his prison cell. 

The prosecution worked closely with Washington to ensure Lula remained behind bars and unable to contest the election, paving the way for Bolsonaro’s rise. Bolsonaro later appointed Sergio Moro, the judge that sent Lula to prison, as his justice minister. 

It later transpired, however, that Moro had been coordinating the whole time with the prosecution, including chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, who remarked that Lula’s arrest was “a gift from the CIA.” Shortly after his election, both Bolsonaro and Moro flew to Langley, VA, for meetings at CIA headquarters. 

In Washington’s eyes, the affair was a massive success. Leslie Backschies, then-FBI liaison and later head of the bureau’s international corruption unit, boasted that her organization had “toppled presidents in Brazil.”

Thus, what was sold to the Brazilian public as an “anti-corruption” crusade, was actually a prime example of modern lawfare, one, that Lula described as “having the hands of the United States on it.”

The brazen corruption of the case drew widespread domestic and international outrage, with Lula becoming the world’s most well-known political prisoner. After huge public pressure, he was released from prison, and his convictions annulled. In 2022, he swept to power in an election the Bolsonaro’s worked hard to overthrow. 

Life In America’s Backyard

Lula is now seeking an unprecedented fourth term in office. And even though he has been a major political figure since the 1980s, he has maintained a significant level of popular support. Born into a lower working-class family, he worked as a shoeshine boy and a metalworker, losing part of his left hand in an industrial accident while still a teenager. He entered politics at a metalworkers’ union leader in 1969, under the repressive U.S.-backed fascist military dictatorship. Once in power, his party’s innovative social programs lifted tens of millions out of poverty and strengthened his support base among Brazil’s working class. 

It is his international moves, however, that has led to so much outrage in Washington. Lula has regularly attempted to block or at least refused to fully support U.S. imperial ambitions in the region. But it is Brazil’s leadership of the BRICS economic bloc and its increasing cooperation with Russia and China (the “R” and “C” of the BRICS acronym) that is perhaps the key reason why Trump wants him gone. 

In recent years, BRICS has moved from a nondescript economic alliance to one threatening U.S. hegemony throughout the world, principally through their contestation of the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency – a position that gives Washington extraordinary power and influence over global economics. 

BRICS is at the forefront of de-dollarizing global trade. And that effort is being spearheaded by Brazil. Last year, the organization held a successful summit in Rio de Janeiro. The head of the BRICS Development Bank (now called the New Development Bank or NDB) is Dilma Rousseff, a key Lula ally and former president of Brazil herself. Focusing on funding large development projects in poorer countries, the NDB could become a serious challenger to the U.S.-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund. “Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar,” Lula said in a speech at the NDB in Shanghai, “Why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies? Who was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?” he added.

“The president is pissed every time he looks at the BRICS de-dollarization effort” Trump advisor Steve Bannon revealed. Trump has stated that BRICS could “destroy the dollar,” and, if they are successful in doing so, it would be “like losing a war, a major world war; we would not be the same country any longer.”

Trump implemented extra tariffs on BRICS nations, including Brazil, stating: “They have to pay 10% if they’re in BRICS. Because BRICS was set up to hurt us. BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar, and take our dollar as the standard, take it off as the standard.” “The dollar is king, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he concluded. 

When asked why is Trump so involved in the upcoming elections in Brazil, Mier responded: 

“Hegemony. Brazil is arguably the last sovereign left of center government in South America, but it also has the second-largest economy after the U.S. in the Americas and is home to roughly half of the population of Latin America. In accordance with Trump’s new Monroe doctrine, the US wants a completely subordinate Brazil, free of Chinese influence.”

Sure enough, on Tuesday, the State Department released a statement reading: “The Monroe Doctrine has shaped U.S. foreign policy for over two centuries. American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.” 

First declared in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine (and subsequent corollaries) suggest that the entirety of the Americas belong to the United States alone, that no other foreign powers are welcome in the region, and that the United States can intervene militarily in any country in the hemisphere if and when it wants.

Generations of academics, politicians, and pundits have downplayed the doctrine, attacking scholars who claim that this policy is still active as misguided or conspiracy theorists. But the Trump administration, with its ongoing tendency to say the quiet part out loud, has openly embraced the Monroe Doctrine and declared it official U.S. government policy. 

Mier also explained what he saw as Washington’s ultimate goal for Brazil: 

“Looking at the U.S. as an integral state and taking into consideration the history of the U.S. State Department as an agent of U.S. corporate interests, it is clear that the Silicon Valley tech fascists want chaos. These powerful transnational actors want a completely unregulated environment for crypto, social media brainwashing operations, A.I. and online betting.” 

“This is what they are getting right now in El Salvador and Argentina,” he concluded, “and they want it in Brazil,” too.

Meddling Across the Continent

The Trump administration has certainly been attempting to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, and has been openly meddling in the political affairs of nations across the hemisphere. President Trump publicly gave his “complete and total endorsement” to far-right candidate (and U.S. citizen) Abelardo de la Espriella in May’s Colombian presidential elections, a contest de la Espriella narrowly won. 

Outgoing president Gustavo Petro accused both the United States and Israel of interfering in the elections. Petro had been a target of Washington for some time; in December Trump said he was “next” on his list for regime change operations and that a military operation “sounds good” to him. 

In response, Petro warned that “a clan of pedophiles wants to destroy democracy” in Colombia. To keep the Epstein List from coming out,” he explained, “they send warships to kill fishermen…and invade our brother country [Venezuela]… Epstein’s list, his friends, they want to start violence here so that the people of the U.S. don’t think about their government.” 

In the end, Washington got its way without a single shot fired. 

New president de la Espriella immediately moved to recognize Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, and announce that he would open an embassy in Jerusalem, even as his country suffered a devastating earthquake that has killed at least 265 people. 

On Cuba, Trump has turned up the pressure with a new campaign of economic warfare, including putting the country on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, shutting down remittances to the island, enacting a fuel blockade, and stopping foreign businesses trading with Cuba. As a result, the economy has nosedived. “Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon,” Trump predicted in March.

A MintPress News investigation also found that the U.S. government is quietly bankrolling a host of supposedly independent media on Cuba, all of whom are laying the groundwork for a potential U.S. military operation against the Caribbean nation. 

The optimism on Cuba is no doubt influenced by the success of Trump’s Venezuela coup. In January, elite U.S. forces stormed Caracas, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores and bringing them to New York. 

Trump described the attack as a successful and lucrative “48-minute war.” Since then, the U.S. has been illegally profiting off the country’s resources. Trump, however, was unrepentant: “We’re taking a lot of oil from Venezuela,” he said, adding: “To the victor belong the spoils.” 

The far-right has been surging in Latin America, with victories in Peru, El Salvador, and a recent strong showing for Milei in legislative elections. The latter was thanks in part to Trump explicitly announcing that $20 billion in U.S. economic aid would only be granted if the people voted the right way. We will not “waste our time” if Milei loses, Trump warned.  

Things, therefore, are looking good for the United States in Latin America. Brazil, however, stands in their way. The largest and most populous country in the region remains as a bulwark against Trumpism. While the far-right is advancing across the region, polls show that the Brazilian public still put their faith in the 80-year-old Lula and largely reject Flavio Bolsonaro. 

Brazil, then, is blocking of a U.S. clean sweep of South America. With nearly two months to go until polls open, nothing about its result is written in stone. What is certain, however, is that the United States will continue to meddle and try to dominate the region Trump describes as America’s own backyard. 

Alan Macleod

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

The post US Meddling In Brazilian Elections, Preparing For Possible Military Intervention appeared first on MintPress News.

US Central Command is choosing to simply ignore Iran’s ongoing drone and missile strikes, which target vessels attempting to violate the siege imposed on the Strait of Hormuz. Similarly, US-backed Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups are being subjected to round the clock strikes on their headquarters, training facilities and weapons depots, as the American military draws back and abandons its allies.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Ansarallah led Armed Forces have continued to bombard strategic targets affiliated with their Saudi-backed opposition in Yemen. Satellite imagery, which is featured in this Thursday’s episode, reveals significant damage to the Port of Mokha that is controlled by Saudi proxy forces. Riyadh has sought to flood their allies with reinforcements, particularly along Yemen’s strategic Marib front, as the Yemeni Armed Forces strike Saudi’s Jazan Oil Facilities twice within forty-eight hours.

Mysterious precision drone strikes also continue to target oil related targets in north Africa. A number of drones struck Libya’s largest oil refinery in az-Zawiya, which comes a week after drones struck two petroleum storage tankers docked in Damietta, Egypt.

According to Iranian-State media, Tehran sent a direct threat to Damascus, through Ankara, communicating that if Syria attacks Lebanon, Iran will intervene militarily. This may have just worked to change the calculations of the Trump administration and his allies in Tel Aviv, who were pushing for a Syrian offensive against Lebanese Hezbollah.

Other major developments have also surfaced, like a major crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier. The carrier has been deployed for over 9 months and now faces a crisis in moral, a food shortage impacting 5,000 sailors and even reports of deaths and suicide attempts on board. The US Department of War has sought to replace the Aircraft Carrier with the USS George Washington, but faces domestic pushback over the embarrassing situation.

Will the occupied West Bank also explode in the face of enormous strain placed upon its people? Is this simply part of Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their lands, or could it dramatically backfire? Each front on this ever expanding war appears to be coming towards a head, all of which the latest edition of The Target investigates.

A US military in crisis, a dramatic loss of munitions and drained supply of drones are all indicators of a pending defeat for the empire. Can US President Donald Trump admit defeat and withdraw from the region with a deal, or is the Israel Lobby going to get the best of him?

The post Iran’s Covert Offensive Averts The Collapse Of Lebanon – US Aircraft Carriers Inbound appeared first on MintPress News.

US President Donald Trump has been adamant that the Strait of Hormuz is open, issuing statements that run contrary to the reality imposed over the strategic waterway. Iranian missiles and drones have continued to take out tankers that seek to break the blockade with US naval coordination, as the American armed forces have responded by striking a vessel themselves.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has continued to fire ballistic missiles and drones at targets affiliated with US-backed forces in Iraq’s northern Erbil province. Weapons depots, training camps and headquarters for Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups based in Iraqi territory are being subjected to relentless precision strikes.

US Central Command has chosen to ignore many of the strikes altogether, choosing silence over responding to a series of Iranian assaults, as Washington’s promises of opening the Strait of Hormuz as early as last Monday have passed without any result.

Israel, the driving force behind the war of aggression against Iran that began on February 28, has for its part continued its aggression against Gaza and Lebanon, drawing retaliatory fire from Hezbollah. The Israeli media recently covered up an incident in which an Israeli military vehicle was subjected to a drone attack, choosing to escalate their bombing campaign and detonate the remaining civilian homes in the south of the country.

Satellite imagery has also been leaked, revealing the extent of the damage inflicted by Iranian strikes carried out against US military facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Syria during the first 40-days of the war, exposing a series of clear cut cover ups.

In Yemen, the Ansarallah led government’s forces have continued their offensive actions in an attempt to retake strategic areas occupied by Saudi-proxy forces, resulting in clashes that have been erupting near Taiz, Marib and other fronts. In the latest stream we look at how important the developments in Yemen are to the wider regional war and the implications that extend beyond just West Asia.

Newly released footage from the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, featuring their forces firing unguided rockets towards an Israeli military post in occupied southern Syrian territory. Robert Inlakesh also looks at the rising sectarian tensions in the country and how this could potentially boil over. Where is this all heading and what is the corporate media hiding? These questions and more are addressed in our latest edition of The Target.

The post Iran Eliminates US Strategic Targets As Yemen’s Shock Offensive Dismantles Israeli Scheme appeared first on MintPress News.

Her letter accuses him of providing “sustained public support” for Hezbollah (a proscribed organization in the United Kingdom), organizing “combat training camps” for British Muslims where “radicalization is alleged to have occurred,” and relocating to southern Lebanon, the heartland of Hezbollah itself. 

A spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing London said that “All reports are reviewed and, if it is assessed that further police action is required, then it will get passed to the relevant police force or counter-terrorism unit to carry this out.”

Makke strongly contests Kearns’ framing, claiming that he is the victim of a coordinated attack by the pro-Israel lobby. “I have always acted in accordance with UK terrorism law, and any allegation to the contrary is defamatory, ludicrous and racist. British counter-terrorism police should be commended for ignoring the malign Zionist influence-peddlers calling for my arrest,” he said in a statement, adding: “It is an open secret that Alicia Kearns is a British intelligence asset, but she appears to be an asset of the Zionist regime as well. She should be investigated for working against British interests on behalf of a hostile foreign power.”

That there is an Israel or antisemitism angle to this story appears to have been confirmed by Kearns herself, who told The Daily Telegraph that: 

“Months ago, I handed the Government evidence about Hussain Makke. This week he walked into Britain unchallenged. He is here now. If that’s what ‘stopping at nothing’ looks like, the Government’s promises to Britain’s Jewish community aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

The campaign against Makke has also been led by The Jewish Chronicle, a stridently pro-Israel newspaper that refuses to disclose its ownership, even amid widespread speculation of foreign powers or agents controlling the outlet. 

Last year, following a pressure campaign from pro-Israel forces Australia revoked Makke’s visa, citing his support for Hezbollah and other forces resisting Israel’s ambitions in the region. He had been scheduled to carry out a speaking tour across the country. Shadow Australian Home Affairs Minister James Paterson welcomed the decision, stating that, “No one who praises a deceased terrorist [Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah], let alone attends the funeral organized by a listed terrorist organization, should be welcome in Australia.” 

Listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, however, is fraught with difficulties and inconsistencies. To begin with, the group holds 15 seats in the Lebanese parliament and has held positions inside the cabinet. Founded in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it has, since 2023, proved to be the only force effectively resisting the ongoing Israeli occupation. Thus, it has earned significant support, particularly among the population of South Lebanon. Therefore, by proscribing Hezbollah, the U.K. government is effectively criminalizing resistance to Israeli colonialism, occupation, and land left – a violation of international law. 

Paterson also would likely not be impressed with Makke’s assessment of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S./Israeli attack in February. In an Instagram post, Makke described him as a “true miracle of a man”, a man “who embodied Islam,” and one with “deep knowledge, political insight and wisdom.”

In July the government of the United Kingdom officially outlawed support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claiming that the organization was responsible for at least seven recent terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in Britain. It is now a criminal offense to express a positive opinion about even assisting the IRGC, one punishable with fourteen years imprisonment. Hezbollah is also proscribed under U.K. counter-terrorism laws, with the same penalty applying to support for the Lebanese organization. 

In January, the European Union also added the IRGC to its terror list, following the wave of anti-government demonstrations in Iran. 

The increasing pressure on Makke is part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech and criticism of the State of Israel by British authorities. In October 2024, around 10 police officers carried out a dawn raid at the house of Electronic Intifada journalist, Asa Winstanley. Winstanley had seven devices, including work computers and phones, seized. Months later, a court ruled that the raid and seizures were unlawful. 

Last year, academic and journalist David Miller was stopped at Heathrow Airport by counter-terrorism police upon his return from Lebanon, where he had been reporting on the assassination and funeral of Nasrallah. 

A similar occurrence befell journalist Kit Klarenberg, who was met at the airport by six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officials, who seized his electronic devices, and memory cards and took his fingerprints and DNA. In an interview with MintPress News, Klarenberg said of his experience:

“Britain has, for a very long time, had the most sweeping counter-terror laws in the Western world and arguably in the world. They have overturned centuries-old and hard-fought-for rights, protections, and freedoms that average citizens enjoy, and have granted police sweeping and disturbingly vague powers.” 

These figures, however, are but a drop in the ocean compared to the U.K.’s crackdown on pro-Palestine groups. Palestine Action in particular has faced rigorous suppression, with London designating the organization a terrorist group. More than 3,500 individuals have been arrested and over 1,500 charged under laws which equate the group to organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, primarily for holding signs in public reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” 

A significant proportion of those arrested are retirees, and the sight of huge numbers of elderly and disabled individuals being led away in handcuffs, supposedly as dangerous terrorists, has shocked human rights organizations. Amnesty International, for example, described it as a dangerous blow to basic rights. “It is completely disproportionate to punish protesters for criminal damage as if they were terrorists, a sentence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The use of terrorism laws against direct action protesters must end,” they wrote.    

Makke has attempted to take the scrutiny and suspicion in his stride. “I am not moved in the slightest. Rather, I am more determined than ever before to BE A GOOD PERSON, which is why [they] want me to be arrested,” he said in a post on Instagram, “I will enjoy my freedom with dignity, and continue to be successful in everything I do by the will of God, as long as God is pleased. My voice will be louder and I will work harder.”

The post UK Government Targeting of Muslim Scholar Part of a Coordinated Campaign to Clamp Down on Pro-Palestine Solidarity appeared first on MintPress News.

All the while, these organizations’ products are being used across the world by the United States and Israel to commit war crimes – in Iran, Yemen, Palestine, and beyond – to target children.

MintPress explores the murky world of the arms companies training kids to bomb kids.

Normalizing War to Kids

When many Americans think of Raytheon (now officially rebranded as RTX Corporation), they don’t envisage rockets and cruise missiles; they think of math. For decades, the second-largest arms manufacturer on the planet has bankrolled a wide range of organizations aimed at getting children excited about STEM subjects.

Since 2009, Raytheon has been the title sponsor of MATHCOUNTS, a non-profit organization that provides engaging math programs for middle school students in every U.S. state, as well as organizing math competitions to find the brightest children in America.

In 2005, Raytheon launched its MathMovesU program, aimed, in its own words, “to inspire middle school students to get excited about math and science.” In addition to the materials provided, it has also spent millions on scholarships, grants, and study awards to thousands of students, teachers, and volunteers.

And its MathAlive! traveling exhibit promises, in rather outdated branding, to take math “2theXtreme”. MathAlive! Has also traveled to several countries in West Asia, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia – all of them among the biggest purchasers of Raytheon weapons technology.

The company also enjoys a longtime partnership with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA). In 2017, for example, it launched the GSUSA’s first national computer science program and cyber challenge for middle and high school girls.

“The progress to diversify the STEM workforce needs to be accelerated… At a time when technology is transforming the way we live and work, we can – and should – show young women a clear path to taking an active role in this transformation,” said Thomas A. Kennedy, then-Raytheon CEO; “Working together, Raytheon and Girl Scouts will help girls build confidence to see themselves as the robotics engineers, data scientists and cybersecurity professionals who will create a better tomorrow.”

Raytheon also spearheaded the GSUSA’s “Think Like a Programmer” project, which encourages girls to explore the world of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and developed many of the programming badges available to the scouts.

GSUSA appears proud of this relationship. Its website profiles one former scout who now works at Raytheon as a success story and a model to follow. The article includes a step-by-step guide and a list of tips for those wishing to follow in her footsteps.

Unsurprisingly, Raytheon also works closely with the U.S. military on these matters, establishing four new STEM “centers of innovation” with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Michigan, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., all near military bases.

While some might be surprised by the closeness of the relationship between a children’s organization and an arms manufacturer, it is worth remembering that the scouting movement was originally established by Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell, as a stepping stone towards boys joining the military. Baden-Powell was deeply concerned that English boys would not be physically fit enough to fight for their country in any upcoming wars, and designed an organization that would train them both physically and mentally to do so.

Kirsten Bayes from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade was unimpressed by Raytheon’s attempts to improve their image and to train the next generation of weapons manufacturers. “Our view is that arms companies have no place in schools or colleges, and should certainly not be working with children’s educational charities,” she told MintPress, adding:

“Schools and other places of education should be places where children learn, grow and develop their full potential. They should not be a recruiting ground where arms companies whitewash their activities.”

Lockheed Martin U

But Raytheon is far from the only weapons giant directly targeting America’s children. Lockheed Martin hosts CYBERQUEST, an annual high school competition that encourages children to pursue careers in intelligence and cybersecurity. The 2026 event was held in 11 locations across the country, as well as virtually around the world. The arms giant offers high school internship programs designed to fast-track America’s brightest young minds into careers in defense. Every year, Lockheed Martin hires thousands of young interns, and claims that 60% of these candidates go on to paid work at the company.

It also sponsors “young minds at work” days, setting up hands-on experiments for children to play with, including bottle rocket experiments and more.

Universities are a key recruitment ground. The corporation spends huge sums attracting top talent, including hosting “Lockheed Martin Day” at more than a dozen colleges nationwide, where company recruiters are allowed on campus to dazzle students with virtual reality exhibitions, flight simulators, and even landing helicopters directly on college greens.

Lockheed Martin has entered into partnerships with several top colleges. A $1.5 million donation to the University of Texas at Arlington, for instance, resulted in the renamed of one of their buildings as the Lockheed Martin Career Development Center.

The company touts its reputation as a safe space for women and LGBT employees, and is regularly listed as one of the best employers for inclusivity. One woman the company itself profiles is Haley, who, as a girl, dreamed of becoming an inventor. “As a child,” they write, “Haley clung to a notebook where she sketched her ideas and inventions. On the cover she scribbled, ‘Haley’s Way to Make Life Better.’ Her best idea? A self-folding Christmas tree cleverly called ‘Merry, Bright and Boxed’ to make cleaning up after the holidays more efficient.” Today, that child with dreams of making the world a better place is a missiles and fire control engineer with Lockheed Martin, developing weapons that efficiently kill people all across the planet.

Targeting Toddlers

Boeing, too, has developed a number of projects aimed at young children. Their “Engineering is Elementary” program is designed for pre-K, kindergarten, elementary and middle school students, and, like those from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, is focussed on funnelling young minds into a career in weapons manufacturing. “Boeing has a strategic community focus to increase teacher effectiveness in math and science and to attract more students into STEM-related careers,” a company representative said, adding,

“Engineering is Elementary provides teachers and students a greater understanding of engineering, and it accomplishes that in a fun, interactive way. Our goal is to interest students in engineering at an early age and increase the number of scientists and engineers.”

Aerospace manufacturer BAE Systems, however, goes even further. The London-based giant that produces jet aircraft, missiles, howitzers, and warships published a series of bizarre videos featuring both its employees and members of the British Armed Forces reading classic fairytales to children. This included Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. These came complete with worksheets to help extremely young children with their problem-solving skills.

Reading bedtime stories to babies is just part of a wider strategy BAE Systems is conducting in order to, in their own words, “improve our corporate reputation at both a local and national level.” Other initiatives include hosting school roadshows, robotics festivals, science camps, and local community outreach programs, all aimed at children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it also stepped in to provide schools with branded learning materials for children as young as five.

Bayes appeared appalled at the company’s actions, stating:

“We are aware that BAE Systems claims to spend as much as £100m [U.S.$134m] per year on educational activities. It claims its motives are community based, but we would say that this is part of their recruiting strategy: seeking to influence young people without presenting the full facts of what an arms company is, and what the consequences of working for them would be.”

Fairytales and Nightmares

As much as these companies attempt to present themselves neutrally as scientific entities, the reality is that their primary businesses revolve around producing the hardware and weaponry that the United States uses to dominate the world.

In the past twelve months alone, the United States has bombed seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. And it is companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that make this kind of extraordinary planetary violence possible.

For example, on February 28, the United States launched an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in Minab, Iran. A Tomahawk cruise missile – one of the most precise guided weapons on the planet – was launched from a nearby warship and pummelled the building, causing the school to collapse in on itself. Soon after, a second missile hit the school’s courtyard, where desperate survivors were gathering.

The attack was timed precisely for maximum damage: 10:45am on a school day. At least 156 people were killed, most of them pupils at the school, which neither served any military purpose, nor was located near any military target. Over 100 more were injured.

The event was immediately denounced as a major war crime. But Secretary of War Pete Hegseth brushed it off, and later stated that, “The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians who think they’re going to live.”

The Tomahawk cruise missile is produced by Raytheon, and subsystems used in the operation were made by a subsidiary of BAE Systems.

Washington also uses its primacy in weapons to keep its allies in power. Saudi Arabia is by far the U.S.’ top arms customer, purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of hi-tech weaponry, which it immediately uses against Yemen, and to suppress domestic dissent.

Riyadh has pursued a genocidal attack on civilian infrastructure in Yemen, including against farms, sewage, and water facilities, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. In August 2018, it dropped a 227 kg (500lb) laser-guided bomb on a school bus in Dhahyan, northern Yemen. Fragments found at the scene identified the bomb as having been produced by Lockheed Martin. Forty children were killed in the attack – a far from uncommon occurrence during the Saudi-led campaign to topple Ansar Allah from power.

If Saudi Arabia is Washington’s biggest customer, then Israel is its prime recipient of welfare. A study from Brown University found that in the two years following the October 7, 2023 attack, the United States spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel, including aircraft, missiles, and all manner of small arms munitions.

Israel has used these weapons to systematically target children in Gaza and beyond. At least 97% of schools in the densely-populated strip have been hit. One of the more notable examples was the Khadija Girls’ School in Deir al-Balah, which was targeted on July 27, 2024. A Human Rights Watch investigation found that Israel dropped at least two GBU-39 bombs on the school – munitions manufactured in the United States by Boeing.

Thus, while arms manufacturers read fairytales to Western kids, children across the world are forced to live out a very real nightmare, thanks in no small part to these companies.

Whether they live in the United States or one of the countries under its boot, however, children everywhere are being targeted by these weapons firms, though in different ways. In the United States, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others have stepped in to bolster cash-strapped education departments. While their rhetoric emphasizes empowering children – especially girls – to follow their science dreams, their true intent is to launder their reputations as merchants of death, and to train up the next generation of Americans to become willing members of the American war machine.

Children on the other side of the globe, however, are given no such illusions, and have to live with the constant terror that they be these companies’ next victims. This image, is not the one the likes of Raytheon want us to think about when we picture their products, and so they spend millions attempting to distract us with stories of empowerment and discovery. What a world we live in, where weapons companies are training kids to bomb kids.

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

The post How Lockheed Martin, Raytheon & BAE Systems are propagandizing children to support war through STEM appeared first on MintPress News.

Yemen’s Ansarallah led government, based out of Sana’a, has launched strikes on at least four different oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia, following airstrikes carried out against major Yemeni cities. Riyadh was put on standby that all aggression would be matched in kind, as the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Yahya Saree affirmed that the newly imposed Red Sea Blockade will continue.

Donald Trump again backed down from his threats to launch a major air campaign targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure over the weekend, which has been covered in the corporate media as if the move to halt strikes represents a de facto cessation of hostilities. The Target livestream delves into what is really going on behind the scenes and how this indicates a desperate attempt from Washington to manipulate the price of Brent Crude oil Futures.

With the absence of direct American strikes on southern Iran and a lack of strikes from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in return, the issue has faded from the media cycle. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz is now completely closed, the Bab el-Mandeb crossing has also just been sealed by Yemen for Saudi shipping, all as oil and gas facilities go up in flames.

The US President is also threatening to attack Yemen directly, as his allies in Kiev also targeted an Iranian vessel in the northern Caspian Sea over the weekend. All as the pressure mounts on Syria to invade Lebanon in order to go after the weapons of Hezbollah and Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups continue to suffer pre-emptive blows.

Contrary to the regional conflicts portrayed by the White House, the US finds itself in a difficult position whereby it continues to suffer major economic blows, as its strategic petroleum reserves diminish, all as Iran no longer needs to endure airstrikes. Supporters of the Trump administration have posited that the President’s decisions are tantamount to five-dimensional chess moves, when in fact they appear to be desperate bids to delay an inevitable show down.

What is truly happening on the battlefield? Is there a reason why we aren’t being informed about the true nature of the Yemen-Saudi War, could the Ukraine War merge with the US’s War on Iran? All of this and more are addressed in this Monday’s episode of The Target.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Iran’s Shock Strike Strategy Against US Assets Opens Multiple Fronts appeared first on MintPress News.

Recently uncovered documents, combined with confessions from alleged members of a sprawling espionage network in Yemen, reveal an agenda far beyond gathering intelligence for the sake of developing a target bank inside the country. Yemeni authorities say that instead, the plan was to assassinate the country’s senior political and military leadership, while dismantling Ansrallah’s current governing structure. They argue that in their place, a Saudi-proxy leadership was being prepared, one that would steer Yemen away from its support of the Palestinian cause.

According to Yemeni investigators, the operation mirrored intelligence campaigns previously carried out against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in addition to those that sought to enable decapitation strikes against senior Iranian officials. The alleged targets included Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi, President Mahdi al-Mashat, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, members of Ansar Allah’s Political Bureau, and numerous senior military commanders. At the center of the alleged political transition was former military intelligence General Ali Al-Sayani, who Yemeni officials say was being prepared abroad to lead a post-coup government loyal to Riyadh.

Secret Operations Room Uncovered

Towards the tail end of last year, Sana’a’s security forces announced that they had dismantled a ‘sophisticated espionage network’. What they would later find, however, was a series of networks linked to joint operations rooms – staffed by Saudi intelligence, CIA and Mossad officers – that had been operating out of Riyadh.

Yemeni officials shared that the network consisted of multiple compartmentalized intelligence cells spread across the Sana’a, Sa’dah, and Hodeidah Governorates of the country. Each cell is said to have operated independently while remaining connected to a centralized command center that was based across the border in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s authorities alleged that operatives were tasked with gathering intelligence on senior government officials, Ansarallah leaders, military commanders, as well as security personnel. Cells were also guided to map out government headquarters, monitor the movement of officials, and identify critical military infrastructure, including weapons manufacturing facilities, ballistic missile and drone launcher locations.

Speaking to MintPress News, Nasr al-Din Amer, a senior Ansar Allah official and deputy head of the movement’s media authority, described what he said was an attempt to dismantle Yemen’s entire leadership structure.

“There was a major plan to target the civilian, military, security, and even media leadership system. The dismantled cell were part of the intelligence operation that targeted offensive and defensive capabilities and aimed to overthrow the regime in Sana’a completely.”

Amer argued that the campaign was designed not only to remove Yemen’s leadership but also to halt its ability to continue military operations.

“The goal was also to prevent us from supporting Gaza, and to secure the passage of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, but none of that was achieved, as our operations did not stop, the regime in Sana’a did not fall, and Yemen became much stronger.”

Inserting A Proxy Regime

Yemen’s internal investigative unit concluded that the US-Israeli-Saudi joint operations room had recruited former Yemeni military officers, including Major General Ali Ahmed Al-Sayani, alongside Farouk Ali Rajih and former Air Force Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Haifi.

Rajih was taken into custody by Ansarallah and was later sentenced to death along with 16 other operatives. As part of his confession, he had alleged that a Saudi intelligence officer, known as Abu Khalid, personally informed him that senior Saudi officials wanted to meet General Al-Sayani abroad due to  Yemen being “on the verge of a major change” supported by multiple foreign governments.

Because of Al-Sayani’s relationships with other former military leaders, he was viewed as the ideal figure to oversee a political transition, assuming that the US-Israeli-Saudi joint room’s regime change plot went to plan.

Rajih later claimed:

“The meeting did indeed take place in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and arrangements were made for a military coup in Yemen. For this purpose, military teams were formed and provided with sophisticated communication equipment and large sums of money.”

Amer informed MintPress that the same joint operations room played a central role in the assassination of Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, who was killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on August 28, 2025. Those strikes also killed nine cabinet ministers and the country’s Chief of Staff.

“There is no doubt that these cells had a major role in the operation to target the government. Investigations, evidence, and documents held by security prove this.”

Officials in Sana’a maintain that the broader operation ultimately failed because of the vigilance of their own security services, who successfully uncovered the network before its objectives could be completed. While acknowledging that some Israeli strikes did successfully kill senior officials, authorities characterize those attacks as isolated successes rather than evidence of an effective intelligence campaign. Bolstering their narrative is the fact that the only successful assassinations took place in publicly known locations, not highly sensitive and secured sites.

Amer, for his part, dismissed the overall operation as a failure.

“We have developed security expertise over the past years, and we are engaged in an intelligence battle with the most advanced global security agencies.”

Decapitating The Military Leadership

While one branch of the espionage network focused on political leaders, Yemeni authorities say another concentrated on the country’s military command as Yemen intensified its operations in support of Gaza.

The key targets in the scope of the cell included the missile force, drone units, naval forces, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, and commanders responsible for Yemen’s missile and drone operations.

Revealed as part of Sana’a’s investigation, was that the Joint Operations Room recruited a man by the name of Colonel Ali Muthanna Nasser, the former head of the Military Security Division’s office within Yemen’s military intelligence.

The US-Israeli-Saudi project then assigned this asset with the responsibility of monitoring Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atifi and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Abdelkarim Al-Ghamari. Authorities claim Nasser supplied detailed intelligence, including the locations of military leadership meetings, operational plans, troop movements, and copies of confidential reports circulating through the Military Security Division. This intelligence later became essential in supporting a broader targeting campaign.

Only six days into a fragile U.S.-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Al-Ghamari was assassinated in an Israeli strike. Shortly afterward, Israel publicly claimed responsibility for the assassination, with Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that Al-Ghamari had been “eliminated”.

The killing came months after another Israeli strike that killed Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi along with several cabinet ministers during an official government meeting in Sana’a. Yemeni investigators argue that both attacks were made possible through a sophisticated intelligence operation involving several specialized cells working simultaneously.

MintPress was informed that the cell conducted preliminary surveillance of government headquarters in Sana’a’s Haddah district. A second allegedly installed concealed surveillance cameras inside concrete blocks positioned near the facility’s entrance, while hidden audio devices were placed nearby to confirm activity within the compound. Once the information had been verified, investigators say, the intelligence was transmitted to the operations room. Authorities further allege that another team remained positioned near the target immediately after the strike with vehicles equipped for live recording, documenting both the attack and its aftermath.

A fourth cell reportedly tracked the movements of senior officials before and during the operation, helping determine the optimal moment to strike. Taken together, Ansarallah sources describe the operation as far more than a conventional intelligence-gathering effort. Instead, they argue it represented a coordinated campaign designed to provide real-time targeting information for Israeli airstrikes while simultaneously dismantling Yemen’s civilian and military leadership.

Humanitarian Organisations Used As A Cover

One of the most shocking revelations of the intelligence operation was the alleged use of organisations claiming to have been carrying on humanitarian and development work. According to a number of security officials, several operatives embedded within international and regional organizations allegedly carried out espionage missions while presenting themselves as aid workers or development professionals.

One of the most prominent cases involves an individual called Bashir Ali Mahdi, who was arrested on March 20, 2025. Authorities in Sana’a accuse Mahdi of conducting intelligence operations disguised as humanitarian projects through the ‘Qudrah Organization for Sustainable Development’, which he headed.

Mahdi is reported to have confessed that he was recruited in Ethiopia, by Senior Director of Programs at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD) Rebecca Cataldi. Security officials further allege that Matt Selinsky, Middle East Program Director for Partners Worldwide, was among those directing aspects of the broader intelligence operation from the Joint Operations Room.

According to Yemeni government sources, Mahdi’s responsibilities extended beyond simply collecting information. He allegedly recruited additional operatives while organizing initiatives intended to generate public resentment toward Ansarallah by exploiting worsening economic conditions, such as rising food prices, increasing rents, and the hardships facing displaced civilians.

Mahdi described those efforts during questioning as follows:

“We worked to incite public opinion against Ansar Allah by forming neighborhood-level councils and training thirty participants in several of them under the false pretense of ‘strengthening social cohesion,’ as well as through the ‘Voice of Youth for Youth’ program in partnership with the German organization GIZ and the European Union.”

He also claimed that preparations for the alleged coup were discussed during meetings in Cairo.

“In a meeting in Cairo, Rebecca told me that they are about to launch a major military and economic operation in Yemen, so the intelligence monitoring and information gathering activities about Ansar Allah and militaries needed to be increased. By that point, I had already carried out approximately 70 operations.”

Mahdi went on to describe what investigators say was the network’s standard targeting procedure. “Initially, we gather preliminary information. In the second stage, the accuracy of these targets is verified and examined using high-resolution surveillance, monitoring, and imaging equipment, which another team places near the targets. Afterward, the coordinates are transmitted to the joint operations room.”

Another alleged operative, Khaled Qassem Abdullah, reportedly worked for the International Organization for Migration before being recruited in 2024. According to Yemen’s investigators, Abdullah monitored 23 residences belonging to senior government officials in Sana’a’s al-Haddah district.

They say he admitted to installing surveillance equipment inside several of those locations. “I successfully installed advanced cameras and listening devices in seven houses and headquarters. I had placed a spy camera inside a block next to the house in Iran Street at Hadda. That house was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that night.”

Investigators obtained surveillance footage, also viewed by MintPress News, that purports to show Abdullah placing a concrete block containing a concealed camera beside a residence on Tehran Street in al-Haddah; before driving away in a Toyota RAV4. Yemen’s authorities say Abdullah later confirmed the authenticity of the footage.

“The action took place on December 21, 2024. The operation was part of the second phase of verifying the target. Later, the house was targeted.”

Commenting on the arrests, Nasr al-Din Amer argued to MintPress that foreign intelligence agencies had successfully infiltrated portions of the international humanitarian community operating inside Yemen. He further suggested that some reactions from international organizations following the arrests deserved closer scrutiny.

“The eagerness of some UN officials to defend the alleged Israeli spies raises questions about the role of those leaders in providing cover for espionage and putting them in a position of responsibility.”

International organizations, meanwhile, have leveled their own accusations at Ansarallah, claiming they were obstructing humanitarian operations in northern Yemen and have protested the detention of several aid workers. Authorities in Sana’a reject these criticisms, maintaining that while many organizations conduct legitimate humanitarian work, others failed to prevent foreign intelligence agencies from exploiting their staff and operations for espionage.

A Sophisticated Intelligence Network

The espionage network in Yemen relied on many of the same tactics that have been employed in intelligence operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and IRGC officials in Iran: a combination of international intelligence cooperation, advanced surveillance technology, extensive local recruitment, and carefully timed military strikes using AI technology, satellite imagery and human spotters.

While the operation demonstrated significant technological sophistication, Yemen’s intelligence services ultimately succeeded in disrupting the broader campaign before its strategic objectives could be achieved.

Nasr al-Din Amer argued that the network exploiting international organizations as operational cover has real world consequences. Those arrested in connection to the espionage cells possessed sophisticated surveillance equipment, including concealed cameras, listening devices, GPS tracking systems, encrypted communications tools, and live-streaming technology designed for covert intelligence work.

Authorities further allege that many operatives were taken abroad and received specialized training from American, Israeli, and Saudi intelligence officers inside Saudi Arabia before being deployed back into Yemen.

One of those accused of partaking in this, Magdi Mohamed Hussein, allegedly operated a vehicle equipped with advanced live-streaming technology that could be remotely accessed by the Joint Operations Room. This vehicle was used to monitor parking areas near civilian and government facilities while identifying vehicles associated with targeted officials. On multiple occasions, the car was reportedly positioned close to anticipated strike locations to automatically record airstrikes, documenting casualties, rescue workers, ambulances, and the aftermath of the attacks in real time.

Another suspect, Sinan Abdulaziz Ali, described while in detention what he claimed was his recruitment and training.

“My residency in Saudi Arabia was renewed on the condition of working for the Joint Operations Room. In Riyadh, I was trained alternately by Saudi officers Abdullah and Saad, and American officers John and Michael. I was trained in reconnaissance, surveillance, and report writing. I was provided with a camera shaped like a remote and a Camry equipped with hidden cameras, live streaming devices, and listening devices that analyze voices using a technique known as ‘voiceprint,’ in order to locate Ansar Allah leaders.”

The authorities say another operative, Anas Ahmed Saleh, worked directly under a Saudi intelligence officer known as Abu Saif. Saleh was accused of photographing homes, official vehicles, security cameras, civilian guards, and internet infrastructure associated with pre-selected targets. They allege he supplied intelligence on at least 25 residences, particularly around the former U.S. Embassy compound in the Sa’wan district of eastern Sana’a.

Saleh also described his role following one of the Israeli strikes. “After targeting a location behind the Sam Social Events Hall, Abu Saif asked me to go there to record the crowd, the rescue operations, and the ambulances in order to identify the victims’ bodies. I carried out the operation successfully. This was one of more than 100 operations I conducted for Saudi, American, and Israeli intelligence.”

For Yemeni investigators, such testimony points not only to intelligence gathering before attacks but also to the systematic documentation of their aftermath.

Infiltrating Yemen’s Popular Mobilization Forces

As Yemen expanded its military operations in support of Gaza, domestic support for Ansarallah grew rapidly, leading to the rapid expansion of what has become known as the General Mobilization Forces – a network that allegedly grew to around 1 million fighters, led at the local level by tribal leaders and community leaders. This soon became a prime target for infiltration.

Among those arrested in connection with the cell responsible for infiltrating the General Mobilisation Forces was Imad Shayea Ezz El-Din, a tribal sheikh and official within the Ministry of Local Administration. Authorities claim his assignment was to gradually infiltrate Ansarallah, obtain promotions within its ranks, recruit additional operatives, and gather intelligence on tribal leaders and military formations supporting Yemen’s campaign against Israel.

During questioning, Ezz El-Din described his alleged mission.

“I was tasked with infiltrating Ansar Allah and assuming high-ranking positions within their organizational structure, as well as recruiting spies within the movement and obtaining their personal phone numbers in order to hack cyberattacks.”

Although he acknowledged that the effort largely failed because of Ansarallah’s internal security measures, investigators say he nevertheless identified several ballistic missile and drone launch sites. Some of those locations were later targeted by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, although the strikes reportedly failed to achieve their intended military objectives, resulting primarily in the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure in a country already devastated by years of war.

Following a Saudi-Emirati-led military campaign that inflicted widespread damage across Yemen, these new strikes have further deepened the humanitarian crisis, killing hundreds of Yemenis—including women and children.

The role of local informants has become a central element in understanding how targets were identified. In another confession extracted under the detention of Yemeni authorities, Ezz al-Din stated: “I provided the joint operations room with 50 targets, including vital facilities. I also provided them with information about newspaper headquarters in al-Tahreer zone.”

This intelligence contributed to strikes that devastated civilian areas, including the Al-Tahrir district, where more than 150 residents were killed by Israeli airstrikes. Among those civilians affected were journalists, medical workers, and government employees. The attacks targeted an entire neighborhood, while rescue operations continued for two weeks as teams recovered the dead and injured from the destruction.

Another case involving alleged intelligence cooperation emerged through the arrest of Daifallah Saleh, who was reportedly recruited during the broader regional conflict surrounding Gaza.

Saleh stated that a man identified as “Abu Abdullah Al-Saudi” sent him coordinates of a detention center, telling him it was a military camp and asking him to photograph it. “Days later, the center was targeted by air raids,” Saleh said. “I told Abdullah that all the dead were African migrants. He replied that it didn’t matter.”

Following Saleh’s arrest, investigators reportedly recovered voice messages from his phone containing information related to the targeting of the detention facility. Amnesty International stated that the U.S. strike on the Sa’dah migrant detention center constituted a war crime, raising further questions about civilian protection, accountability, and the consequences of intelligence-driven military operations.

For years, Yemen has remained among the most heavily targeted countries in the world, enduring extensive bombing campaigns, foreign intervention, and widespread destruction. Yet despite the scale of the devastation, Yemen has continued to assert its role in regional conflicts, positioning its actions as opposition to Israeli military operations in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran.

Yemeni officials have repeatedly stated that their armed forces remain prepared to respond to what they describe as aggression against countries across the region—ensuring that Yemen remains a central and contested actor in the expanding geopolitical struggle of the Middle East.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.

The post Regime Change Mission Foiled: Yemen’s Ansarallah Uncover Saudi-Mossad-CIA Espionage Network to Decapitate Resistance Leaders appeared first on MintPress News.

Palling Up With Ex-Israeli Spooks

As the world’s foremost football star, Lionel Messi is understandably protective of his image. The Argentinian forward carefully picks and chooses whom he is associated with, and has signed lucrative long-term deals with enormous global brands, such as Adidas, Pepsi, and Mastercard.

That is why many were surprised when, in 2020, he announced a partnership with OrCam, a relatively small Israeli A.I. firm that makes wearable artificial vision devices (similar to Google Glass). OrCam markets itself as helping visually impaired people live more fulfilling lives. Messi became its global brand ambassador and the face of the company.

More controversially, however, OrCam is an outgrowth of the Israeli national security state, employing dozens of former agents of Israeli military spying agency, Unit 8200, many in highly influential positions. Chief among these is Adi Levitski, a longtime intelligence officer with Unit 8200, who, in 2024, was appointed director of operations at OrCam.

Many OrCam staff were commanders in the shadowy spy agency, responsible for some of the worst crimes of the post-October 7 2023 war, as well as many of the most scandalous international hacking and surveillance operations. Mor Shamy, for example, rose to become head of intelligence analysis at Unit 8200 by 2015, and would later be hired as an algorithm developer at OrCam. Working alongside him was Matan Albeck, the former head of Unit 8200’s data analysis department.

Despite major layoffs in recent years, the company continues to be largely staffed by former spooks, with a revolving door existing between the two entities. Some, such as Eliya Segev and Eli Corn, went from OrCam into Unit 8200, while Amitai Edrei’s resume show that he worked for both OrCam and Unit 8200 at the same time, underscoring the close relationship between the two.

For Messi, this should have been a major red flag in working with OrCam, as Unit 8200 is the prime designer and operator of Israel’s hi-tech genocide in Gaza and beyond. And its agents are responsible for producing much of the world’s most invasive spyware.

Using big data collected by its massive digital Palestinian dragnet, the organization created massive A.I.-generated kill lists of Gazans, and carried out tens of thousands of drone bombing operations that was the centerpiece of the destruction in Gaza.

Its agents also developed highly-invasive spyware, such as Pegasus, which was used to spy on tens of thousands of foreign leaders, journalists, activists, and human rights advocates across the world. The Israeli government sold Pegasus to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes globally, helping them crack down on human rights. Perhaps the most well-known case of this was Saudi Arabia, who used Pegasus to monitor Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, before dismembering him with a bone saw in their embassy in Türkiye.

It is, therefore, highly questionable that Messi should decide to become the face of such a company.

Messi’s Israeli Handlers

The Argentinian has made multiple visits to Israel during his career. In 2013, he and his club, F.C. Barcelona, went to Israel and Palestine on a supposed “Peace Tour.” During his trip, he met and talked with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, and glad-handed with IDF soldiers. He also donned a yarmulke and visited the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

Even after leaving, however, Messi takes a small part of Israel with him everywhere he goes. His security is handled by an elite force of former Israeli agents, who plan his every move, especially internationally. He takes his security very seriously, even missing his sister-in-law’s wedding in Argentina due to safety concerns.

Those same Israeli forces were in charge of security at his own 2017 wedding, ESPN reports, although it did not detail whether those agents are from the Mossad, Shin Bet, or an elite commando group.

Messi, who avoids political controversies, has not made any statements on Israel/Palestine since October 7, 2023, despite many (false) stories suggesting otherwise.

The Inter Miami forward left an impression on Netanyahu when the pair met in 2013. In a recent interview, Netanyahu revealed that he is supporting Argentina at this year’s World Cup. “He’s 39 years old now,” he said of Messi; “They are lucky to have such and experience player who knows how to score goals.”

The Israeli public clearly agree. A recent poll found that 38% of Israel are actively supporting Argentina at the tournament – well ahead of second place Brazil. Yoav Berkowitz, head of sports at Israeli public broadcaster Kan, stated that this was due in no small part to the Messi effect.

Zionist Brothers

Others, including Netanyahu himself, cite Argentinian president Javier Milei as another factor. Since coming to power in 2023, Milei has made support for Israel a central pillar of his political platform. Internationally, Israel has few friends left. But Milei’s Argentina has emerged as among its most vocal backers. In May 2024, it voted against an overwhelmingly popular United Nations vote to elect Palestine as a full member of the body. Four months later, it did the same with a resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

His government also declared Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Forces terrorist organizations, and cheered on the US/Israel attack on Iran, Milei himself calling it the “right thing to do.” Argentina also stated that it would move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, thereby effectively legitimizing the occupation. The move was paused, however, after Israeli oil firm Navitas announced it would begin drilling near the Falklands/Malvinas – a group of islands controlled by the United Kingdom but claimed by Argentina.

On a personal level, Milei has distanced himself from Catholicism (the dominant religion in Argentina) and all but declared himself a Jewish convert. Earlier this year, he described himself as “the most Zionist president in the world.”

“Milei is a great friend of Israel,” Netanyahu said, adding: “He’s a superstar, he really is. He’s done amazing things with their economy by adopting the free market.”

How Israel Helped Argentina Massacre Its Jewish Population

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has lost massive amounts of public support across the world, even in Western nations. A 2025 YouGov survey found that more than 20 times as many Italians, for instance, hold “very unfavorable” (43%) views of Israel than “very favorable” ones (2%). Even in Germany, where popular support for Israel is highest, only 21% said they hold favorable opinions of the state (including only 4% highly favorable), with 65% displaying open opposition (including 32% who strongly dislike it).

It is widely claimed that October 7 was the largest slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust. This, however, is not the case. In fact, the fascist military dictatorship that ruled Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s relentlessly persecuted Jews, killing or “disappearing” thousands.

Taking inspiration from Hitler and the Nazis, the dictatorship equated Judaism with socialism, and rounded up and killed huge numbers of political opponents, even turning football stadiums into makeshift death camps. Many of those involved were the sons of German Nazis who escaped to Argentina after the end of the Second World War.

Israel actively helped the dictatorship with their slaughter, selling them sophisticated military hardware, and upping their levels of military assistance even as attacks on the country’s Jewish community increased.

A Love Hate Relationship

While Israel is supporting Argentina, the goodwill is certainly not reciprocated, no matter Milei’s attempts. A recent Pew poll found that the majority of Argentinians hold a negative view of Israel, including 34% who have highly unfavorable opinions of the country – seven times that who reportedly hold very positive views of Israel (5%).

In this respect, they are taking after another Argentinian footballing sensation: Diego Maradona. The star, often regarded as the greatest footballer ever, declared himself the “number on fan of the Palestinian people,” and stated that “in my heart, I am Palestinian.”

Maradona consistently condemned the actions of the United States and Israel, and aligned himself with revolutionary causes across the world. In contrast, Messi has constantly shied away from political issues. But, as discussed here, he has made several decisions – embracing Netanyahu, visiting Jerusalem, becoming the face of an Israeli tech firm staffed by spies, and surrounding himself with Israeli spooks as bodyguards – that should lead many to question this supposed neutrality.

Argentina play England today for a place in the World Cup Final. While the result remains to be seen, it is no mystery that Israel and Netanyahu will be cheering for Argentina – and for Leo Messi.

The post Lionel Messi’s Ties to Netanyahu, The Israeli Military and Its Elite Spying Unit 8200 appeared first on MintPress News.

Streit’s company is involved in a big-money operation targeting children with neoconservative, pro-war, pro-business, pro-Israel messaging, attempting to indoctrinate them at their youngest and most impressionable age.

MintPress explores this increasingly powerful group, with ambitions to completely overhaul the American educational system.

Leave Our Kids Alone

You have probably seen a PragerU video. An estimated one-in-three Americans have. The billionaire-funded media machine is a powerful force on the American right, providing highly-produced conservative content attempting to push U.S. politics and society rightwards.

Recently, however, PragerU has set its sights on children, and is seeking to hijack the American education system. Since 2023, it has signed deals with ten states – Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah – to become an official education provider, supplying books, videos, and other content to schools across the United States. Students in New Hampshire, meanwhile, can earn credits by completing online PragerU courses. And with PragerU Español, it has plans to expand into Latin America as well.

Florida was the trailblazer in this phenomenon. As part of his Stop WOKE Act – a bill that sought to eradicate liberal ideology from public life – Governor Ron DeSantis partnered with the organization, identifying it as one that “aligned with the state’s revised civics and government standards.” PragerU now provides ultra-conservative “American values” messaging for use in grades K-12.

Florida’s post Stop WOKE Act curriculum now requires middle school teachers to instruct students on the benefits of slavery for black Americans, including that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

It has also rewritten the 1920 Ocoee Massacre – a pogrom that saw a white mob kill dozens of black residents and permanently ethnically cleanse the Florida town of its black population – as an “act of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

College students at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, meanwhile, can earn extra credit by taking a PragerU history course. This, despite the fact that, despite its branding, PragerU is not an accredited educational institution, let alone a university.

Oklahoma, however, has gone even further. Last year, the state’s superintendent of education, Ryan Walters, launched a controversial teacher evaluation test developed by PragerU to vet teachers for their ideology and filter out applicants considered insufficiently conservative. The plan even withheld teaching certificates from educators from what Walters described as “woke states.” Walters left his position to head the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative pressure group opposed to teachers unions.

Free Healthcare is Slavery, But Actual Slavery is A-OK

The PragerU content being shown to American schoolchildren contains a number of highly controversial viewpoints presented as common sense. Most “lessons” are presented in cartoon format, with one about the founding of America including an animated Christopher Columbus stating that slavery was “no big deal.” “Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world,” he said; “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.” Further justifying the enslavement and genocide of two continents, Columbus tells those watching that, “The place I discovered was beautiful, but it wasn’t exactly a paradise of civilization, and the native people were far from peaceful.”

Another video lesson grossly distorts the views of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, with an animated Douglas justifying slavery in America, stating that “the founding fathers made a compromise [supporting slavery] to achieve something great: the making of the United States.”

PragerU Kids videos also cover more contemporary issues. One video, titled “Los Angeles: Mateo Backs the Blue,” deals with the murder of George Floyd, whom the narrator describes as a “black man who resisted arrest.” The video claims that “violent protests” and “looting” were sparked by “false claims” of racist policing spread by unnamed “activists.” Mateo, a Los Angeles child, is aghast by protestors “threatening police,” or, as the video calls them, “protectors,” and decides to stand firmly in solidarity with the Blue Lives Matter movement.

Another educational resource approved for use in schools is a lecture called “Is Fascism Right or Left?” by controversial conspiracist Dinesh D’Souza, in which he insists that, “Fascism bears a deep kinship to the ideology of today’s left.” In 2014, D’Souza pled guilty for violating federal campaign financing laws.

Unsurprisingly for a conservative movement funded by fracking billionaires, PragerU also instructs children to reject the overwhelming consensus on climate change. However, it takes it to absurd levels, comparing the supposed oppression of climate skeptics to the living in Warsaw Ghetto, where upwards of 300,000 Jewish people were killed by the Nazis.

In “Poland: Ania’s Energy Crisis,” the titular character is fed propaganda at school about the disastrous impact of human-made climate change, only to have her eyes opened by her conservative parents. Ania is ostracized by the other children for merely expressing her concerns. Luckily, her grandfather Jakub gives her the strength to continue, by telling her about the Warsaw Uprising. “Through her family’s stories, Ania is realizing that fighting oppression is risky, and that it always takes courage,” viewers are told.

On India, American children are told that the country benefitted greatly from British imperialism, who “spread the influence of Christianity and Western values through India” and “discouraged or even outlawed harmful traditions,” and “gave” India its independence in 1947. “Western influence helped transform the country in many positive ways, but some ancient customs are harder to change than others,” the video concludes, framing India’s problems as entirely down to their own backward culture, rather than centuries of direct rule and oppression.

Another video lambasts Canada’s free healthcare system and highlights the supposed dangers of socialized medicine, while extolling the for-profit privatized American system, despite it being by far the most expensive, comparatively, and having the worst outcomes of any developed country, according to international studies.

PragerU also sets its targets on Cuba, China, Venezuela, and North Korea as well, publishing videos demonizing those countries as authoritarian nightmare regimes in need of U.S. intervention.

Netanyahu’s Favorite Channel

No nation, however, concerns PragerU as much as Israel. The organization has dedicated a huge amount of time and resources to defending and promoting the country. Their “Israel at War” series of lectures denounces the “lie” that Israel is occupying its neighbors, and includes a link to sign a petition “to condemn Hamas and stand with Israel.”

A lesson plan designed for young children shows teachers how they can make a model Iron Dome out of juice boxes and straws, in order to educate American children on how Israel is defending itself from Palestinian terror, interspersed with messaging like Israel and the U.S. are best friends that “share values that are tied to God.”

Another video, explaining the current crisis in the region to older children, claims that, “Like the United States, Israel is a nation of immigrants, which prides itself on its freedoms for all citizens, no matter their religion, ethnicity, or race,” and, “Uniquely, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does not oppress its minority populations.”

This will come as some surprise to Israel’s Arab minority, who face systematic and institutionalized discrimination, including restrictions on land ownership, jobs, and education, and to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who describe Israel as an Apartheid state carrying out a genocide against Muslims and Christians.

PragerU, however, frames Israel as the victim. Israelis, they tell their audience, grow up under “ongoing attacks from terrorist organizations, whose primary goal is to destroy Israel.” “On many occasions,” it continues, “Israel sought peace with surrounding countries, and the local Palestinians,” but to no avail.

The network even comes with an endorsement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shared their video, “Israel: The World’s Most Moral Army,” with his followers. “We stand with Israel,” PragerU replied.

PragerU: Run by an Israeli Spy

This unconditional support is unsurprising, given who actually runs the company. PragerU CEO Marissa Streit is, after all, an Israeli spy. On her eighteenth birthday, Streit joined Unit 8200, the Israeli Defense Force’s spying agency. In interviews, she has admitted that she was an officer in the controversial unit, and stated that she uses the tactics and techniques honed by Israeli spying agency on the American people. “Coming back here to the United States with the gifts that Israel had given me during my military training, I felt compelled to employ them here in my nation of the United States,” she explained.

Exactly what her role as a Unit 8200 officer remains a mystery. Streit has said of her time there that, “We were tasked with looking at problems that the intelligence community might be missing.” Given that her service coincides with the Second Palestinian Intifada, however, one can speculate that suppressing domestic resistance to occupation was among her tasks.

One does not join Unit 8200 by chance. The group is Israel’s most elite spying agency, accepting only the top 1% of applicants. Rich parents spent fortunes on extra STEM classes for their children in the hopes that they will be chosen to serve in the unit, knowing that serving there is a fast track into the upper echelons of Israeli society.

Unit 8200 is responsible for cyberwarfare and psychological operations worldwide. The group has created a massive surveillance dragnet targeting Palestinians, and uses the data to generate massive A.I.-derived kill lists. It is widely identified as the group behind the 2024 Lebanese Pager Attack, which injured thousands of civilians.

Unit 8200 agents are also responsible for producing much of the world’s most invasive spyware that is sold to authoritarian regimes across the planet. This includes the notorious Pegasus software, which was used to surveil tens of thousands of politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and union leaders. The Saudi government, for example, used Pegasus to track Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, dismembering him with a bone saw inside their embassy in Türkiye. “So much of what I learned in Israeli military intelligence has impacted the way I think today. It is such a gift, what they have given me,” Streit said.

From there, she moved back to the U.S. to work for pro-Israel pressure group, the Israeli-American Council. She sees Israel and the United States as fundamentally linked together, and both under threat from progressive values.

“We are losing America to radicals who hate the West and everything we stand for… We must teach our children to be grateful to live in America,” she said, adding:

“Students should learn to cherish our Judeo-Christian heritage, which is the foundation of our great society… If we provide our children with a proper education, grounded in truth, justice, goodness and liberty, then I can assure you that they will grow to love both America and Israel.” 

Streit has made her own views on Israel’s attack on Palestine clear. She has justified attacks on civilians in Gaza, claiming that they are “harboring terrorists and hostages in their homes,” suggested that Hamas plans to “kill all Jews including nursery children,” and asserted that slogans such as “Free Palestine” are “synonymous with ‘destroy the West.’”

Make America Dumb Again

Streit has been at PragerU since its inception in 2009. Her views on politics and Israel/Palestine, however, could almost be described as moderate, compared with company founder, Dennis Prager.

The right-wing talk show host has visited Israel dozens of times, including leading a “Stand with Israel” tour across the country, including into occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. He labeled Palestinians as “among the world’s most morally unimpressive national groups” and claimed that “lying is a Palestinian art form.” Prager, who has campaigned for whites to be allowed to use the N-word, fell in his bathroom in 2024, and was left quadriplegic and paralyzed from the neck down, and since has taken a back seat in the organization.

The empire he built was bankrolled to the tune of millions by fracking billionaires, Dan and Farris Wilks, although the pair later pulled their money after Prager was insufficiently homophobic for their liking. By this time, however, the company was funded by Israeli-American megadonor Miriam Adelson, and had grown from strength to strength. By 2024, its revenue climbed to a reported $70 million, and it could afford to hire A-list conservatives such as Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nigel Farage, and Douglas Murray to present their videos.

The original plan was for PragerU to pursue university accreditation (hence the name). However, this was quickly dropped. And yet, despite holding no educational accreditation whatsoever, they kept the misleading moniker.

This sort of callous relationship with the truth has been a constant feature of the organization. It is regularly criticized for producing content with little to no intellectual merit. Multiple sources have cataloged what they call the “blatant lies” present in the outlet’s videos.

Officially, PragerU is a non-political organization. “We’re a 501(c)(3)” non-profit, company co-founder Allen Estrin said. “We don’t have any political involvement with anybody. That would be against our charter.”

Few, however, would take this at face value, especially as Streit herself posted a video of her dancing with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, with the caption “Make Education Great Again! Thank you President Trump.”

PragerU has strongly supported Trump’s wholesale attacks on the education system and teachers unions, who they see as the primary obstacle to their plan to “disrupt the education market.” Trump has also attempted to cut funding for PBS children’s programming – music to PragerU’s ears, as the organization attempts to shape young minds from infancy stepping in to fill the vacuum left by Trump’s gutting of the U.S. education system.

Racist Sesame Street

PragerU sits at the apex between neoconservative foreign policy, reactionary social policy at home, and relentless pro-Israel advocacy. But the primacy of all three of these positions are increasingly under threat in the United States, and are becoming progressively more unpopular.

Large majorities of Americans support a system of socialized medicine that PragerU so actively campaigns against, as well as making colleges free to attend, and building social housing nationwide. Sixty-two percent of young Americans hold a favorable view of socialism.

Polls show the country overwhelmingly disapproves of Trump’s aggression against Iran. And after nearly three years of genocide, the tide is turning on Israel. An April Pew Research Center study found that even four in ten Republicans hold an unfavorable view of the country. That figure rises to 57% of Republicans under the age of fifty. Top right-wing media figures, such as Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes, are all vehemently anti-Israel. Meanwhile, pro-Israel conservative thought leaders, such as PragerU’s Ben Shapiro, have seen their audience crater by up to 90%.

For pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-billionaire PragerU then, the situation is grave. Despite years of extremely well-funded P.R., they have been unable to stem the tide of public opinion. Their new strategy of targeting children appears to be an attempt to inculcate Americans with these values when they are at their most impressionable; to stop the rot before it gets started.

PragerU is enthusiastically backing Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. education system, and is poised to step in to fill the void. In this sense, they are hoping to do to American education what Israel has done to Palestine. And with a former Israeli spook at the helm, they are in a perfect position to do so, blasting young minds with a blitz of reactionary propaganda, making them passionate advocates of a system that fundamentally does not work for them.

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

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