Saudi Arabia has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Yemen, resulting in thousands of casualties since its renewed bombing campaign began this July. It now heavily relies on Israeli targeting intelligence backing in order to conduct dozens of strikes across Yemeni territory on a daily basis, including attacks on civilian market places and residential buildings. 

Meanwhile, Israeli officials heaped praise on Riyadh this Wednesday for facilitating the first ever commercial flight between Israel and Saudi, following the Kingdom’s intervention to aid Israeli passengers on-board a Flydubai plane that was forced to undergo an emergency landing. 

In contrast, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) initiated the renewal of the Saudi-Yemen war, by bombing the runway of Sana’a International Airport in order to prevent an Iranian civilian jetliner from landing inside the country. This measure was taken to enforce a long-standing aerial blockade on Yemen, while Israeli aircraft freely use Saudi airspace.

Riyadh’s pivot to the Israeli orbit entails a covertly coordinated campaign centered around Yemen, bearing regional consequences – from joint intelligence operations, target bank sharing, direct meetings between officials and a calibrated propaganda campaign.

In early September, Israel’s national broadcaster Kan News reported that Tel Aviv had begun supplying intelligence to aid Saudi Arabia in building up a target bank to strike inside of Yemen. Neither side has any formal diplomatic ties and yet Israel is already aiding Saudi Arabia in the military sphere — a development that would usually be a major regional scandal, yet the primarily Gulf State funded Arabic-language media has all but ignored it.

Come mid-September, only days after the Yemeni Armed Forces had liberated the West Coast of their country from Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) militias, Axios News revealed that US Central Command had organised a private Arab-Israeli military retreat in Germany. At the private retreat, both Israeli and Saudi military officials were able to directly discuss issues concerning Iran and Yemen’s Ansarallah-led government.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently visited Cairo, formally meeting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to discuss issues of trade and foreign affairs. On the sidelines of this trip, CENCTOM officials repeatedly presented a proposal to form a regional command structure and coordination mechanism, that would include Israel, in order to properly confront the Ansarallah-led forces in Yemen.

Even more damning is that when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi on September 27, he didn’t only attend a meeting with Emirati-ruler Mohamed bin Zayed – according to Israeli Channel 14 News, Netanyahu also secretly met with a Saudi delegate.

While analysts argued over whether the recently signed ‘Mecca Pact’ – between Riyadh, Islamabad and Ankara – was signalling the beginning of ‘Sunni Muslim NATO’, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has instead drifted towards a covert strategic alliance with Israel instead. Collusion between the two leaderships – which between them rule over all three of the Islamic Holy Sites – has reached historic heights.

Targeting Civilians And Sectarian Propaganda

A notable outcome of Saudi Arabia’s collaboration with Israel, is a marked uptick in the number of reported civilian massacres that have been taking place. The corporate media’s reporting on such attacks have drawn enormous parallels to the way similar strikes were covered in the Gaza Strip.

Take for example a recent strike carried out by Saudi fighter jets in the Taiz governorate, which killed at least seven civilians in a market place and destroyed a food storage site. When Reuters reported on the story, they ran with the following headline: “Seven people killed in strike on market in Yemen, Houthi-run health ministry says”

Just as the corporate media labelled Gaza’s Ministry of Health as “Hamas-run”, it uses “Houthi-run” in Yemen as a rhetorical tactic to detract from the veracity of the claim being made. In Gaza, Hamas is indeed the political Party that heads the local government of the territory, technically making this linguistic trick somewhat accurate, despite it being clear cut propaganda. However, in the case of Yemen it isn’t even vaguely accurate, as the political Party that controls the government is called Ansarallah, “the Houthis” are a family from northern Yemen.

Saudi Airstrikes also targeted other civilian locations such as residential buildings in the Mokha Port area, recently taken over by the Ansarallah-led government’s forces, killing at least 6. While US Central Command has been cited as arguing that Tel Aviv’s targeting data provided to Riyadh is essential, there has been no evidence that the intelligence provided has led to any material change on the battlefield. 

It is not currently possible to verify whether the civilian infrastructure struck by Saudi Arabia’s airforce were targets located by Israeli intelligence gathering efforts or not, it is clear that Israel’s own strikes on Yemen have killed overwhelmingly civilians.

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia do indeed have shared interests in Yemen. Both seek the overthrow of the nation’s Sana’a based government. The recent capture of the Bab al-Mandab coastline by the Yemeni Armed Forces threatens both Tel Aviv and Riyadh, as they are the only two nations which Sana’a has reason to impose a blockade on.

The Yemeni imposed blockade on Israel, beginning in late 2023, completely bankrupted the southern Israeli Port of Eilat. This measure was taken in support of Gaza and the blockade ended with the implementation of the October 8, 2025 ceasefire. In the case of Saudi Arabia, a blockade has been imposed upon them in the Red Sea as a retaliatory measure against the long-standing Saudi blockade of Yemen.

This has led to a joint Saudi-Israeli propaganda campaign, seeking to depict the Yemeni control over their own territory as a threat to international maritime navigation and trade, something that Yemen’s officials have explicitly denied

A prominent propaganda theme is the weaponisation of religious authorities and the deliberate spread of sectarianism. Take prominent Saudi Islamic Scholar Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Rayez, a man that previously forbade resistance against Israel and condemned the Palestinian armed struggle, urged what he called “Sunni Muslims” to fight the “cursers of the companions [of the Prophet Mohammed]” to “race to the great field of martyrdom” against the Yemeni Armed Forces. Al-Rayez promotes factually inaccurate sectarianism, deeming the Sana’a based government as an evil Shia opposition to a righteous Saudi-backed Sunni force. 

Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan also made a rare public statement on the war against Yemen, framing the issue as a religious obligation for Muslims to fight against the Yemeni Armed Forces. Additionally a top Saudi-linked Pakistani cleric, infamous for praising Osama bin Laden as “a Muslim warrior”, deemed Ansarallah to be “terrorists” and claimed that they are not even Muslims.

Across Gulf State owned Arabic-language media there has been a virulently anti-Ansarallah coverage of the war, with various pundits attempting to claim that the Zaydi Muslim sect in Yemen are conspiring with Iran to usher in a Shia Muslim tyranny across West Asia; aimed oppressing the Sunni majority.

While Saudi Arabia conspires alongside Israel to strike targets across Yemen and its officials meet with their Israeli counterparts, a concerted propaganda effort attempts to convince the region’s public that Riyadh is the victim; weaponising sectarianism as a means of distracting from its continued pivot towards the Israeli sphere of influence. 

The post The Saudi-Israeli War On Yemen’s Resistance: Intelligence Sharing, Civilian Targets & Sectarian Propaganda appeared first on MintPress News.

Nine US marines and a total of twenty-nine sailors have been confirmed injured as a result of the ongoing war on Iran over the past month. What makes these particular figures so significant is that US Central Command is no longer even bothering to engage in tit-for-tat exchanges with the Islamic Republic in order to uphold their image of strength.

On The Target stream we look at the emerging reports that US President Donald Trump’s Ministry of War is set to replace their USS George Washington aircraft carrier strike group with the USS Theodore Roosevelt. This comes following Iranian claims that they launched a missile attack that managed to inflict damage to the USS George Washington, along with an accompanying Destroyer.

The Israeli media has also been expressing its concern over the withdrawal of American and NATO alliance forces from Iraqi territory, indicating that the lack of US presence could embolden Iraq’s resistance factions who possess weapons capable of striking Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Iran has been conducting waves of ballistic missile and drone strikes on Israeli-backed Kurdish militant groups in northern Iraq. According to reports, Tehran has conducted over 1,000 strikes on Israeli and US-backed Kurdish militant groups since early March.

Iran’s IRGC also seized a modern US surveillance submarine in the Strait of Hormuz. The REMUS 600 was seized through electronic warfare methods, it is the second unmanned submarine seized this month by the Iranian navy. The first was a DIVE-LD submarine, which was a significant loss for the United States navy as it will now be reversed engineered by Iran’s domestic weapons industry.

Yemen’s Armed Forces continue to deliver blows to Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, conducting routine attacks on military targets located near Riyadh itself, as Saudi-proxy forces continue to suffer major defeats on the battlefield. As a result, the impending capture of the strategically important city of Taiz has resulted in Saudi airstrikes on civilian targets in the city.

The main road connecting Taiz City to the Saudi-proxy stronghold in Aden has been cut. Following this development, Riyadh decided to conduct airstrikes targeting a civilian market place inside the city itself, taking out food storage sites. Robert Inlakesh looks at how the corporate media covered this story, drawing parallels with the coverage of Israel’s assaults on civilian targets in Gaza.
This edition of The Target also covers developments on the Lebanon front, as well as a dive into the issue of sectarian propaganda, while covering the Israeli media revelations regarding a Saudi official meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in the United Arab Emirates.

We provide the historical context underpinning the rise of sectarian violence across West Asia and how it has been used to achieve US-Israeli led regime change efforts. A new campaign seeking to stir up ethnic and religious animosity is now underway, in an attempt to shield both Tel Aviv and Riyadh from accountability.

The post Iran Seizes US Submarine As Anti-Ship Missiles Inflict Soldier Casualties appeared first on MintPress News.

In the latest episode of The Target stream, MintPress News’ Robert Inlakesh takes a look at the silent ballistic missile attacks that are being carried out against US bases in Jordan that are no longer even receiving comment from US Central Command. As President Trump’s rhetoric at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) suggested genocidal intent, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been acting preemptively to take out rising threats.

With gas prices continuing to go up, hitting working class people in their pockets, the Trump administration is refusing to end the war on Iran and continues to back up Israel at every turn. The US media, on the other hand, is leaking more damning reports about the stunning military failure in the Persian Gulf, exposing that the Navy noted a total of 8 attempted suicides aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the General Assembly, speaking to an almost empty room as up to 77 nations delegates walked out upon him taking to the podium. During his speech, he played victim while also holding up a prop pager in reference to the Mossad operation carried out against Hezbollah in Lebanon two years ago. Up to 3,000 people were wounded in what the former head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, labelled an act of terrorism.

Beyond that, the Israeli Premier’s speech was received as weak. Robert Inlakesh notes that two years ago Netanyahu had ordered the assassination of Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah from the United Nations building, while this time around he decided to complain about popular streamer Hasan Piker.

Back in Tel Aviv, the Israeli media have been signalling that their aid in targeting the Yemeni Armed Forces could be a stepping stone towards normalisation with Saudi Arabia. Yet, it hasn’t proven a very successful one. Riyadh’s proxy forces in Yemen continue to take a beating, losing more territory by the day, as the Ansarallah-led government in Sana’a vows to deliver more crushing blows to Saudi infrastructure in retaliation for ongoing air strikes.

Israel’s presence on the strategic Mayyun Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has officially come to an end, as Yemen keeps a close eye on its military buildups in Somaliland and Socotra Island.

Last year, the Israeli leadership were presenting their grand plans for regional hegemony to the world, openly discussing the Greater Israel Project, however, the repeated failures of the US-Israeli alliance in their war against Iran and its allies have left them lashing out irrationally with no clear route to victory.

The Target stream analyses this growing shift, the change in power dynamics, the footage coming from the battlefield in Yemen and the desperate propaganda of the US empire’s allies.

The post Iran Strikes Mossad Proxies As Yemen Collapses Saudi-Israeli Plot In Dramatic Fashion appeared first on MintPress News.

Since October 7, 2023, Guy Katz, professor of international management at Munich University of Applied Sciences, has become one of the leading figures in German politics on the subject of Israel and anti-Semitism. Katz has founded numerous organizations purporting to fight anti-Semitism, spoke in parliament, and worked with police to help them crack down on anti-Israel speech. He is, however, reportedly a former spy for Israeli intelligence outfit, the Mossad—something that is never disclosed in the widespread coverage and amplification he receives in German and international media. 

MintPress News explores this operation. 

Anti-Semitism Kaiser

Since October 2023, Guy Katz has emerged as one of the most influential political actors in Germany on the question of Israel/Palestine, founding numerous pressure groups and working with authorities to crush opposition to genocide, all under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism.  

Earlier this year, he founded “Anti-Semitism? Not in My Name!” – a cross-party organization aimed at stamping out Jewish hatred across Germany. Katz has managed to enlist every major party in the Bavarian State Parliament, with the exception of the fascist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Party, who were barred from joining. (This, despite the AfD’s strong support for Israel). The group aims to make philo-Semitism extremely visible and send a message to the whole country. “Many are against anti-Semitism, but too few make their stance visible. This campaign makes taking a stand part of everyday life,” Katz explained. 

Anti-Semitism Without Me builds upon the work of Dach Gegen Hass (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland Against Hate), an alliance of over 200 organizations, and the Munich branch of Run For Their Lives, a group that organizes marches demanding the release of Israeli prisoners from Gaza, both of which Katz founded or co-founded. 

On October 6, 2024, he also planned and led a large rally in solidarity with Israel in Munich, an action that brought 30,000 people together to denounce Hamas and anti-Semitic violence. 

Katz’s activism has led to him being invited into the halls of German power. Last year, he addressed the Bavarian parliament, lecturing them on anti-Semitism and telling them explicitly, “Never again is now.” He now works with the police and with universities in Germany, developing training programs to instruct them on how to best eliminate what he identifies as Jew hatred. 

In October 2025, he hosted an event in Munich commemorating the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks. There, he interviewed Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli prime minister who has strongly supported the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) actions in Gaza and has participated in numerous war crimes. Katz, however, declared himself “impressed” by the politician. 

Katz is constantly quoted in media, both German, Israeli, and also the international press, who universally accept his self-appointed designation as an anti-Semitism expert. 

In short, it is difficult to overemphasize how influential he has been in the debate around Israel and the supposed explosion of anti-Semitism in Germany. 

Throughout his tireless activism, his message is clear: the primary threat comes not from the fascist right (who, less than a century ago, carried out a genocidal extermination campaign against Jewish people across Europe), but from the left. “I believe that left-wing extremism and Islamist extremism are far more dangerous for us Jews,” he told local newspaper, Jüdische Allgemeine, claiming that the situation for German Jews today is “very similar” to the lead-up to World War Two, thanks to the threat the left poses. 

He decried a German court’s ruling not to ban a pro-Palestine march at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, claiming that it was “blatantly anti-Semitic” because it “incites hatred towards Israel,” by engaging in “the original form of anti-Semitism”: alleging that Israel is killing Palestinian babies and stealing organs from their victims. 

In this case, however, it is not a blood libel, but an established fact. Israel has a long and well-documented recent history of organ theft, and has killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children in the past three years, over 1,000 of whom were infants under the age of one. 

One particular person of the left that Katz has singled out is Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who, in 2025, was abducted by Israeli special forces while trying to deliver lifesaving aid to Gaza. 

Katz simultaneously rejects the categorization of Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide while asserting that Hamas has committed a genocide against Christians and intends to carry out another “until all Jews are annihilated.” In a public video, he insists that Israel’s attacks on schools and hospitals are justifiable because Hamas was hiding weapons there, and refers to the people of Gaza (including children) as “so-called innocents” and “so-called civilians.”

On the other hand, Katz has singled out President Donald Trump for unique praise, describing him as “the architect of peace” in the Middle East. 

Spy Games 

Guy Katz moved to Germany in 2004 and has built a successful career, now teaching conflict resolution, management, negotiation, and strategy at Munich University of Applied Sciences. What he does not adequately disclose in his political activism and his media interviews are the details of his pre-German past. That is because Guy Katz is a former Mossad spy. 

In a lecture he gave at the University of Nairobi in 2023, before he became nationally known as one of the chief pro-Israel activists in Germany, he reportedly revealed that he is a former secret agent with the infamous spying agency. 

During the lecture, he gave details about the adage that “former” spies never truly leave the business of espionage. Katz told those attending, the university wrote on its official website, that Mossad has “learned the art of releasing an agent.” “He stated that in the military and secret service, there is a department that caters for retired security officers,” an admission that raises the question of how much contact former Mossad operatives have with the organization. 

This assertion appears to be corroborated by Katz’s profile on Expert Marketplace, a digital booking platform for public speakers. Katz notes that one of his lecture topics is called “Communicating Like a Mossad Agent”—a presentation that is “based on real stories and shows what managers can learn from them.”

In other profiles, he is listed as a former IDF intelligence officer, a designation that hints at his possible involvement with controversial group Unit 8200. 

The reason this past is problematic is that these organizations have a long history of carrying out espionage, psychological operations, terror attacks, and targeted killings around the world, even in allied countries. 

Mossad executed a series of assassinations of Iranian scientists involved in the country’s nuclear energy program, while both it and Unit 8200 have been identified as behind the 2024 Lebanese Pager Attack, an incident near-universally decried as an act of terror that injured thousands of civilians. 

Unit 8200, meanwhile, is the centerpiece of Israel’s hi-tech surveillance and digital warfare operation. The elite group handles Israel’s cyberwarefare, hacking, and influence operations. Its “former” agents were, for example, behind the creation and distribution of the notorious Pegasus app. Pegasus is a piece of software that was used to hack into and spy on more than 50,000 prominent individuals worldwide, including journalists, human rights leaders, activists, and politicians (including European heads of state). Pegasus gave the Israeli intelligence services backdoors into the devices of all those affected, allowing them to spy on dozens of countries at once. 

It is surely relevant that a member of this sort of organization is leading a pressure campaign aimed at prohibiting pro-Palestine speech in Germany. 

Destroying Democracy to Defend a Genocide

The German establishment, including all major parties, has offered virtually unqualified endorsement for Israel and its actions in Gaza. This support has included signing a military collaboration and cooperation agreement, and the sale of nearly $1 billion in weapons in the first five months of 2026 alone. The most significant transaction was the delivery of a German-made Dolphin II-class attack submarine, delivered to Tel Aviv in July. 

This elite wall-to-wall solidarity is in stark contrast to the general population. A 2025 YouGov survey found widespread revulsion with Israel, with eight times as many Germans holding highly negative views of the country as highly positive ones. In total, only 21% of the public see Israel in a positive light (including only 4% highly positive), with with 65% displaying open opposition (including 32% who strongly dislike it). Another recent poll found that 62% of all voters believe Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. When taking out those who said they did not know or did not answer, nearly four-in-five Germans responded that they considered Israel’s actions genocidal. 

Germany has seen widespread pro-Palestine actions across the country, but they have been met with force from authorities. Thousands have been arrested, while images of masked riot police brutalizing non-violent protestors across the country regularly go viral. 

The German state has moved to effectively criminalize pro-Palestine speech and protest, under the rubric of Staatsräson, or Reasons of State, a doctrine that claims that commitment to Israeli security is a non-negotiable and unquestionable pillar of the German state. In 2024, in response to the growing wave of unrest, the government passed a law requiring those applying for German citizenship to swear what amounts to a loyalty oath to Israel and Zionism, acknowledging the state’s “right to exist.”

More than 9,000 criminal charges were registered at pro-Palestine protests in Berlin alone in the first 18 months after the October 7 attacks. Numerous Palestinian or pro-Palestine groups have been outlawed, as have popular chants, such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The reaction from authorities, arguably the toughest in Europe, has drawn bitter condemnation from the United Nations, and from groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who have highlighted issues such as state-sanctioned discrimination against Muslims, and soft bans on symbols of resistance, such as keffiyehs. 

Israel itself has identified Germany as a key battleground in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the country’s “eighth front”: the battle for Western public opinion. To that end, it has spent vast sums targeting the country with German-language messaging extolling Israel, and comparing Hamas to ISIS and other terrorist groups, a 2025 MintPress News investigation found. 

Israel and the pro-Israel lobby are trying hard to conflate any opposition to its actions in Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond as akin to terrorism and anti-Semitism. Katz and his campaign are a major part of this. But whether they will succeed in stemming the wave of pro-Palestine sympathy remains to be seen.

The post Revealed: German “Anti-Semitism Expert” Driving Crackdown on Palestine Solidarity is Former Israeli Spy appeared first on MintPress News.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out another ballistic missile attack against what they would later state was a US military base in Jordan, in the latest edition of The Target we cover the story before it was officially announced and put it together with a broader series of strikes on American military targets that are no longer even being acknowledged by US Central Command.

Tehran’s preemptive operations are not receiving much attention in the corporate media, despite visual confirmation of them occurring, alongside on the ground reports and later confirmations from Iranian military officials. Combined with the fact that multiple vessels are being targeted in the Strait of Hormuz by the IRGC’s naval forces on a daily basis, this spells a new regional equation.

So long as the Iranian attacks are not on a larger scale as to demand a response, the US military is simply pretending as if they are not happening at all. The previously announced equation was that Iran’s civilian infrastructure would be targeted each and every time a tanker is struck in the Persian Gulf.

Compounding the US’s declining hegemony and military embarrassments have been reports that the Pentagon has deliberately hid the deaths of a number of American military personnel. According to a bombshell report from the Washington Post, five sources who are familiar with the US’s casualty figures claimed that they knew about four deaths that were not publicly registered by the Pentagon, an additional source said that number could be five.

Meanwhile, gas prices are burdening working class Americans who are growing increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos Poll, published this Monday, found that only 17% of US citizens say that they are happy with the federal government’s management of the economy.

Although it has remained largely out of the mainstream spotlight, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen continues to backfire as it faces new rounds of ballistic missile and drone strikes against their oil infrastructure. The Yemeni Armed Forces continue to liberate territory from Saudi-proxy forces, as airstrikes based upon intelligence granted to Riyadh by officials in Tel Aviv have resulted in a growing number of civilian massacres.

Also on the stream, Robert Inlakesh takes an in depth look at the Lebanon front and what its weapons arsenal could mean during the upcoming regional escalation, analysing the Israeli predicament on southern Lebanese occupied lands. Hezbollah had proven it possessed a large range of weapons during its 2024 war with Israel. In 2026, the Party has chosen not to use its strategic arsenal so far, indicating that it is following a carefully calibrated escalation ladder.

The post Iran Launches Surprise Attacks On US Bases As Trump Covers Up Soldier Casualties appeared first on MintPress News.

The incident has ignited widespread outrage, and blown up in the Israel Lobby’s face, and caused all of his supporting artists to quit in protest, and brought worldwide attention to both Israel’s crimes and its attempts to silence dissent across the world. 

But who is Robert Kraft? MintPress exposes the American oligarch’s funding of the pro-Israel Lobby, the network of organizations he has built to shut down pro-Palestine activism, and his extremely close personal, political, and financial relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. 

Netanyahu’s Right-Hand Man

“Israel does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft,” Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the 2019 Genesis Prizes, an Israeli government-backed ceremony that honors prominent individuals (such as Kraft) that have advanced Jewish or Israeli interests with a $1 million prize. 

Netanyahu is right. The 85-year-old American businessman and owner of the New England Patriots NFL franchise has dedicated his entire life to advancing the Zionist cause. Kraft married his wife in Israel in 1962 and has made well over 100 trips to the country since, including leading dozens of P.R. missions there, bringing a host of celebrities and sports stars with him.

Kraft not only maintains a close personal friendship with Netanyahu, he very likely funded his political rise. His name appears on the “Netanyahu’s Millionaires” document – a leaked, handwritten list penned by the prime minister himself, detailing his wealthiest patrons and those he could most steadfastly rely on to bankroll his political career. Ninety-eight percent of Netanyahu’s funding came from abroad. 

When it comes to American politics, Kraft is no less influential, using his monetary power to push the Israeli agenda in Washington. In addition to directly funding Donald Trump, he has spent vast sums bankrolling virtually every group constituting the U.S. Israel Lobby, including: 

• The American Friends of the Israel Museum
• The American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center
• The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC)
• The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)
• The Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces
• The Israel Project
• The Jewish Agency for Israel
• The Jewish National Fund
• StandWithUs

Robert Kraft, in other words, is the Israel Lobby.

Israel’s Big Money Backer

He also personally created the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), an extremely well-funded group that purports to be an anti-racist non-profit fighting prejudice across the country. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the FCAS is simply another pro-Israel group using the language of anti-racism to crush grassroots opposition to Israeli actions abroad. 

Firstly, many of its key figures are former Israeli officials or lobbyists. For example, the organization’s Director of Partnerships and Strategy, Clara Schwartz, previously served as a secretary to multiple Israeli Ambassadors to the United States. Meanwhile, Maya Buki Dabby, FCAS’ Chief Philanthropy Officer, is the former director of AIPAC, the principal Israel lobbying institution in the United States.

Secondly, the FCAS equates anti-Zionism as in the same bracket as support for or denial of the Holocaust, one of the many reasons why its in-house “antisemitism tracker” notes a massive spike in incidents in recent years.  

It is difficult to overstate how well-funded and polished this operation is. In one December 2023 pledge alone, Kraft donated $100 million to the organization. Today, Kraft’s Gillette Stadium – which was to host the Sheeran/Macklemore concert until he personally intervened – is home to an enormous command center where vast numbers of staff track anti-Israel, pro-Palestine sentiment across the world and on social media. Critics have dubbed the institution a “massive Zionist surveillance and propaganda center inside Gillette Stadium.”

The FCAS has spent enormous amounts of money on high-profile pro-Israel advertising campaigns, including producing numerous ads played during successive Super Bowls. One 2024 commercial features Clarence B. Jones, the former advisor to Martin Luther King, who drafted his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Jones’ message is that there is a growing tidal wave of racist intolerance in America. Not from the likes of Trump (who Kraft donated $1 million to in 2017), but against Jews. The commercial ends by telling viewers to reject anti-Semitism and visit the FCAS project, StandUpToJewishHate.com.  

The next year, it was back with another Super Bowl ad, this time featuring Snoop Dogg bemoaning the rise in “hatred,” which, in context, is a reference to opposition to the State of Israel’s policies in West Asia. Numerous commenters quipped that this was the most embarrassing thing the celebrity rapper has ever done for money. 

As their content suggests, the commercials were part of a wider FCAS attempt to target black Americans, who are, according to polls, far less likely to support Israel’s genocide and more likely to side with Palestine than the general population. The FCAS, in their own words, see these efforts as part of their plan to “develop social change initiatives and continuously improve the Black-Jewish alliance.” 

Silencing Critics of Apartheid

Another way in which Kraft has attempted to shape U.S. politics is by trying to keep pro-Palestine voices out of Congress by funding right-wing Democrats standing against progressives and advocates for justice in Palestine.

In 2021, for example, he donated to little-known but staunchly pro-Israel candidate Shontel Brown in her contentious face-off for Ohio’s 11th congressional district against Nina Turner, a democratic socialist, national co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 election campaign, and an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies.

Vast amounts of pro-Israel money flowed into Brown’s campaign, helping her to defeat Turner. In her acceptance speech, Brown praised Israel and later thanked the Jewish community for “help[ing] me get over the finish line.”

Kraft has also given money to pro-Israel Democrats, including David Cicilline; Juan Vargas; Ted Deutch; Jake Auchincloss and Ritchie Torres.

His actions, donations and public pronouncements have drawn condemnation from some who have followed them. Sports journalist Dave Zirin, for example, wrote that:

“He appears to think that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. For Kraft, it is Jews like myself, rabbis, and Holocaust survivors calling for a ceasefire and a free Palestine that are part of the problem. And Kraft seems to think that opposition to Israel, the IDF, and the AIPAC agenda is antisemitism.”

Kraft has been just as ruthless against student opponents of genocide. Amid unprecedented nationwide campus protests for Palestine in 2023 and 2024 (in which estimated 10% of all U.S. students actively participated) the billionaire worked both publicly and privately to crush them. 

The epicenter of this movement was Columbia University, where students occupied buildings and set up encampments calling for an end to the college’s complicity in Israeli actions. An angry Kraft sprang into action, publicly announcing that he was cutting the university off from his lavish funding due to its failure to suppress the protests effectively enough. “I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country,” he said in a statement, claiming that Columbia was not protecting its Jewish students.

The turning point, Kraft said, was watching a publicity stunt by Shai Davidai, an Israeli-American academic at Columbia, who claimed his access to campus was revoked. Davidai had previously called the student protestors “Nazis” and “terrorists” and called for the National Guard to be set upon the encampment, obliquely referencing the Kent State University Massacre while doing so.

Kraft is one of Columbia’s most important donors, giving the institution millions of dollars, including a single $3 million donation to fund the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life.

He also vented his frustration on MSNBC, denouncing students taking part as supporters of terrorism. “It’s horrible to me that a group like Hamas can be respected and people in the United States of America can be carrying flags or supporting them … Hamas is preaching the eradication of all Jewish people from the Earth” he said. 

In the end, Kraft got his wish, and the protests were ruthlessly stamped out in actions that made headlines across the world. Hundreds of students were arrested, dozens were expelled, and some of its ringleaders were abducted by ICE and faced deportation. 

A Coward Choosing Between Two Different Types of Cowardice

Kraft and the Israel Lobby have been able to cut down the flowers, but they have not been able to keep the spring from coming. Nationwide disillusionment with Israel and sympathy with Palestine continues to grow, and has manifested in popular culture, including with big acts like Macklemore, who have spoken out against the ongoing genocide. Tens of thousands of impressionable fans heard the rapper speak up every night. 

But, like with the Columbia protests, Kraft (with an estimated net worth of over $15 billion) found a way to use his influence to shut down pro-Palestine activism. He organized his fellow stadium owners into intimidating Sheeran, presenting him with an ultimatum: either drop Macklemore from the tour, or be blocked from performing at their stadiums. 

In a statement, Kraft described Macklemore’s actions as “deeply offensive” and insinuated – like he did with the Columbia protestors – that he supports terrorist organizations. The ultimatum was presented as a necessary response to stop anti-Semitism. The fact that many of these same stadiums are currently hosting and promoting the tour of Ye (aka Kanye West), a self-identified Nazi who recently released the song, “Heil Hitler,” casts doubt on this sincerity, however. 

Kraft leant in to his personal relationship with Sheeran, who attended and even played at his 2022 wedding. 

The English pop star immediately folded, agreeing to throw Macklemore under the tour bus. On Tuesday, he released a bizarre, inaccurate, and much panned statement on Instagram explaining his actions – one that has been widely characterized as a spineless post hoc justification for capitulation.

Sheeran’s statement begins with a literal both-sidesing of the genocide. “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy,” he wrote, suggesting the level of violence and distress is somehow equal. 

He then went out of his way to distance himself from Macklemore  – his close friend of 13 years – claiming that the rapper was only appearing with him because “he asked to join my tour last year and I agreed.” He described Macklemore’s activism as mere “shouting,” before adding that, “If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change.”

His statement almost hinted at a relief or an approval that Macklemore was gone, noting that his own music was about “bring[ing] people from all backgrounds and cultures together,” and that “those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum.” “I do not use my professional platform for politics,” he concluded. 

This, however, is clearly untrue. He filmed the music video for his song, “2Step” in Ukraine, and subsequently released a remix in collaboration with local group, Antytila, whose members are actively serving in the Ukrainian military. He has appeared on stage carrying an enormous Ukrainian flag and raised money for various Ukrainian charities. 

The difference between Ukraine and Palestine, of course, is that with the former, virtually the entire Western establishment supports it, rendering it safe and “apolitical.”

Sheeran has also publicly endorsed the Labour Party on multiple occasions, slammed the Conservative U.K. government for their handling of Brexit, and urged Congress to pass pro-LGBT legislation. 

Furthermore, he has not even been absent on the Israel/Palestine issue, and has allowed himself to be used in official Israeli government propaganda. In September 2024, he met with Noa Argamani, an Israeli captured by Hamas during the October 7 attacks. The meeting, and Sheeran’s smiling face, was posted to the State of Israel’s official social media channels, with no public pushback from the singer. 

Sheeran also tried to wash his hands of any agency in the matter, insisting that, “Macklemore coming off the tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.” Thus, he presents himself as a powerless bystander in the affair, as if, in his position as the headline act and a global superstar, he could not have stood up for his friend and co-worker if he was inclined to. 

Anticipating that some might challenge this, Sheeran presented the act as a fait accompli, and insisted that he was morally obligated to continue, as a service to all the other poor artists on the tour whose livelihoods depended on its continuation. “I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living,” he explained. 

This seemingly courageous decision was quickly undermined however, as every single support act – four separate acts plus Sheeran’s own live band – announced in unison that they would be pulling out of the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and the Palestinian people. This, despite the fact that few of them have even 0.1% of the estimated $400 million net worth of Sheeran. 

“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” said Finneas. Meanwhile, Beoga condemned what they described as “the silencing of Macklemore by Zionist lobbies.”

Sheeran appeared to try to head off any accusations by personally and publicly absolving himself, concluding that: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.”

Yet the statements of the support artists all made clear that it was precisely because they felt their inaction would make them complicit in Israel’s crimes, hence their decision to withdraw from the tour. 

Standing Up For What Is Right

Sheeran’s much-mocked statement stands in stark contrast to Macklemore’s, which has been praised for its graciousness, even describing Sheeran as a “friend” and a “brother,” despite Sheeran’s notable coolness to him, and his decision to betray him.

First of all, he states, “I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim,” adding:

“The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.”

Even as he explained Sheeran’s treachery, Macklemore was magnanimous, and made excuses for his behavior. “Ed was in a fucked up position,” he said, noting that “He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with [i.e. Kraft].” Indeed, Sheeran comes off across better in Macklemore’s statement than he does his own. 

Sheeran told him that he “doesn’t take sides.” Macklemore, however, explained that:

“…[T]here is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.”

The rapper also succinctly explained exactly why pro-Israel billionaires like Kraft fear him and his cultural power so much.

“If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.”

A Tipping Point

For now, Sheeran’s decision to appease Kraft and the Israel Lobby appears to have completely backfired – for both parties. Sheeran has gone viral for the wrong reasons, with dozens of parody songs mocking his actions. Having lost every supporting artist (including his own live band), his tour is in a shambles, and he faces the prospect of having to fill a multi-hour show with nothing but himself and a guitar. 

In effect, then, in one fell swoop, he has nuked his own tour, destroyed his credibility and his “good guy” reputation, and stabbed his longtime friend in the back, all to appease an octogenarian Zionist Epstein-adjacent billionaire. 

The issue has escaped contagion from the mere political realm and has shot to prominence to become the number one trending story worldwide, with pop stars from across the planet weighing in on Sheeran’s perceived obsequiousness to power. In Ireland, a country Sheeran strongly associates with due to his heritage, the phrase “He’s English” trended on social media – a measure of the widespread rejection the singer is facing. “Ed Sheeran should never feel welcome in Ireland ever again,” ran the headline of one article in The Irish Mirror. 

The acts who did withdraw, however, are gaining massive new followings online, while other artists have already been emboldened by the incident to speak up for Palestine on stage. 

Kraft, meanwhile, openly played his hand and tried to use his influence as a power play. Never has there been a clearer example that pro-Israel billionaires really do control our media and culture, and attempt to suppress free speech. 

And the fact that Ye is performing at many of the same venues Macklemore is banned from makes it more obvious than ever that this has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. In effect, then, Kraft has Streisanded himself in order to stop a few pro-Palestine messages slipping through. He may have been able to suppress college protestors, but he did not count on the pushback from the music community, who have elevated his actions into international headlines. 

In an effort to stem the torrent of bad publicity, Kraft announced that he and Sheeran would donate millions to unspecified aid efforts in the Middle East “region.” But without specifying even a destination country for the money, let alone an organization, this was immediately publicly interpreted as another cash transfer to Israel under the guise of helping Palestinians. 

Ultimately, what this story underlines is that power operates best when it is hidden in the shadows. Kraft, however, has inadvertently shone a worldwide spotlight on his own operations, on Israel’s crimes, and on how pro-Israel billionaires silence free speech in the U.S. His miscalculation risks becoming a monumental cultural tipping point where pro-Palestine activism goes truly mainstream, and supporting Israel becomes untenable. 

The post Robert Kraft: The Billionaire Friend of Netanyahu Pulling The Strings Behind the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran Blow Up appeared first on MintPress News.

After managing to capture the entire West Coast of Yemen last week, the Ansarallah-led government’s forces continue to close in on the strategically important cities of Marib and Taiz, largely considered the stepping stones to a takeover of Aden in the south. If the Yemeni Armed Forces succeed, they could either advance upon or negotiate to seize control of the most vital Port City currently under the control of Saudi Arabia’s proxy forces.

The city of Aden, if it falls into the hands of the Ansarallah-led government, will mean the de facto end of the Saudi-Yemen war that has been raging on since 2015. Already, the liberation of all the key islands and territory surrounding the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has spooked the Israeli leadership in Tel Aviv.

According to Israeli Hebrew media reports, Tel Aviv has not only been aiding Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting data, but is also considering being part of a joint air campaign against the Yemeni Armed Forces. Israeli media pundits and security officials have been repeatedly stressing the need to push Yemen’s Army away from Bab al-Mandab, arguing that their newly acquired ability to close it with such ease could have catastrophic consequences on them.

In this Monday’s edition of The Target, we also run through the latest footage surfacing from the battles raging on inside Yemen, including documentation of the capture of Mokha and other coastal cities.

Robert Inlakesh runs us through the consequences of the ongoing retaliatory ballistic missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s military and oil infrastructure. The vital East-West Pipeline has been at least temporarily severed after extensive attacks on at least three separate pumping stations, integral to the pipelines function, one of which was totally destroyed. Without this pipeline, Riyadh is unable to export any gas via the Red Sea.

Yemen’s government in Sana’a previously announced a counter-blockade on Saudi ports, which dramatically reduced the export of oil through the Red Sea, now this process of cutting off some 6 million barrels per day of oil exports has been completed. Yet, it is not just Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure that is taking repeated hits, burdening the already struggling global oil market, its air bases are consistently being saturated with drone and missile salvos.

According to Citi Research, the projections for the price of oil is that they will rise to roughly $150 a barrel, if the attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz persist. So far, the United States has strayed away from directly participating in Riyadh’s war this time around, however, if US President Donald Trump chooses to back up his Israeli allies further down the line then the Bab al-Mandab Strait could also be closed, triggering an even sharper rise in gas prices.

The Target Stream also focuses on the excuses being provided for the current US-backed administration in Damascus that is facing nationwide protests. Demonstrations in Syria have reached a peak that has not been witnessed since the reign of deposed President Bashar al-Assad. Protesters initially reacted to a 40% spike in the price of diesel overnight, yet have escalated the complaints and are now focusing on various other elements of Syria’s ever declining economy.

The post Iran Targets US Warships In Shock Clashes Ongoing In Strait Of Hormuz-Saudi Gas Pipeline Eliminated appeared first on MintPress News.

In this episode of the Target Stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh breaks down the latest developments in West Asia’s regional war, walking the audience through battle footage and evidence of major strategic breakthroughs for the Iranian led-Axis of Resistance. Major blows are being dealt to the US-led imperialist power structure, undermining the decades old illusion of US military invincibility.

Earlier this week, in a period of just over twenty-four hours, the Yemeni Armed Forces managed to capture the towns of Hays and al-Khawkhah, before marching on the strategic port city of Mokha. The forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, having pledged just days earlier to advance upon the Yemeni Capital of Sana’a, experienced a dramatic collapse of their frontlines.

The successful advance, which ended up resulting in the liberation of the entire coastline and key islands, including Mayoun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, now places the Ansarallah-led government forces in control of territory that grants them authority over an important international trade passage. In reaction to this, the Israeli media have threatened that the consequences of the ground progress made by Yemen’s Army may prove more devastating to them than Iran’s authority of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Tuesday night, the US decided to carry out strikes that disabled five Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Almost immediately, the IRGC began carrying out retaliatory missile strikes from its ballistic missile bases across Iranian territory. At least 40 missiles appear to have been fired towards US military bases in Jordan.

The Jordanian military announced that it had shot down 18 of 20 missiles fired towards its territory, with the two other missiles having landed in “open areas”. As we show on this Thursday’s edition of The Target, the video evidence reveals this to be patently false. Furthermore, evidence emerged to suggest at least 5 US Blackhawk Helicopters were damaged and evacuated from the Muwaffaq al-Salti Base.

Later came a report from CBS, citing unnamed officials, who revealed that the Iranian strikes had damaged at least 8 F-15 fighter jets and one A-10 Thunderbolt II, with no mention of the helicopters in the article.

As we look into on the show, the US media have admitted that Iran’s IRGC have also started to use their advanced Qassem Bassir missiles to strike American warships, a munition that uses cameras and thermal sensors to accurately locate its target. Tehran claimed to have damaged two US Destroyers this way, a charge that US Central Command has since denied. What has become undeniable is the Iranian capture of the Dive LD unmanned submarine, which Washington fears is now being reverse engineered.

Robert Inlakesh also addresses the context behind a new expose published by Israeli daily Haaretz, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing to pass on threat warnings communicated to him by the Emirati leadership.

The post Iran’s Electro-Optical Missiles Take Out F-15s & Warships – Yemen Offensive Shocks Israel appeared first on MintPress News.

Tel Aviv has raised its level of alert anticipating a potential surprise attack during the Jewish holiday period of Yom Kippur, fearing that Tehran may have in store a major multi-front offensive in the coming month. Whether the fears of a large-scale missile attack are based upon dependable intelligence or not, the Israelis have decided to escalate the war on neighbouring Lebanon regardless.

The Israeli army recently claimed that it had secured full “operational control” over the strategically important Ali Al-Taher Hills area in southern Lebanon, without providing any proof that such control has in fact been established. Seemingly contradicting their claims, they have continued to launch hundreds of strikes against the Ali Al-Taher hills and its surrounding area, which is of military value due to its position overlooking southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate. An advance of this magnitude, which includes an attempt to dismantle a known missile base there, constitutes yet another flagrant violation of the shaky Lebanon ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has occasionally launched drone operations against Israeli soldiers and military vehicles, while holding itself back from reviving its daily operations against the occupying army.

On this edition of the stream we also look at the decision taken by the Ansarallah-led Yemeni government to launch new offensive actions to capture strategic locations towards the south of the country. The offensive led to major breakthroughs, including the encircling of the city of Taiz. In reaction, Saudi-proxy forces unsuccessfully launched their own counter-offensives in a bid to capture new territory in the province of al-Jawf and towards the city of Bayda.

Inlakesh also analyses the latest battle footage from Yemen, including new video documentation of the Yemeni Armed Forces using anti-personnel munitions dropped from Quadcopter drones and precision missile strikes, one of which eliminated an entire convoy of trucks carrying munitions.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also released footage of its missile strikes against US targets and for the first time drone strike documentation against tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. All of this contributes to the continued spike in oil prices, which US President Donald Trump has continually stated will begin falling.

Another issue addressed at length in the newest edition of The Target is the viral debate ongoing with Streamer Sneako, on whose show a number of guests have argued that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for more civilian deaths than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We look at what the figures actually show and why so many people are engaged in spreading disinformation that works to undermine the Gaza genocide.

The post Iran Targets US Warships With New Precision Munitions As Shock Offensive Rocks The ‘Greater Israel’ appeared first on MintPress News.

The damage inflicted to US military and intelligence sites by Iranian strikes has been far more extensive than we were previously led to believe. Over the months the extent of the damage has become clearer, as satellite imagery and independent investigations uncover extensive damage to 20 US bases across West Asia, many of them having been completely destroyed or rendered inoperable.

Now the statistics are beginning to pour in. The CIA and other US spy agencies have confirmed that their sites were struck, amounting to billions of dollars in damage to American intelligence facilities and equipment. Prior to this, only Iran had claimed these strikes, without any verification from the other side. What this demonstrates is that Iran’s munitions are not only accurate, but so is their intelligence on US targets.

Then came the bombshell story this Thursday morning, as a US defence official alongside an NATO official both divulged to the Associated Press that there is a “beyond critical” shortage in Patriot air defence munitions. Such a shortage could mean that US and other NATO targets will be left wide open in the event of potential Russian strikes. The reason for the shortage in the MIM-104 Patriot missiles is the war on Iran, which has weakened the security of the US and its allies.

This, when combined with the fact that some 80% of US THAAD air defence munitions have already been used, along with a large portion of the military’s long-range standoff munitions, represents a disaster that limits US military power.

In this Thursday’s edition of The Target, we also look at the battle-front in Yemen and the recent downing of Saudi reconnaissance aircraft, along with the latest evidence of damage inflicted to Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in Jazan.

The Lebanon so-called ceasefire is also breaking down after the Israeli occupying army declared its agreement with Beirut to begin operating controversial “pilot zones” in south Lebanon has failed, choosing instead to raise its level of alert and begin ramping up its air campaign, inflicting a number of civilian casualties in the process.

Palestine Action has also been declared by the Trump administration to be a “terrorist organisation”, just days apart from the decision to remove Syria from the ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list. An interesting move considering the new Syrian leadership and its party Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, are a rebrand of Syria’s Al-Qaeda wing Jabhat al-Nusra. According to Donald Trump, Al-Qaeda is permissible, but a group of activists who seek to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the United Kingdom go a step too far.

The post “Beyond Critical” US-Israeli Munitions Depletion Revealed As Iran’s Response To D-Day Begins appeared first on MintPress News.