Author: AFSI Staff

A plurality of Israelis want Israel to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria rather than a negotiated settlement with the Palestinian Authority or continuation of the status quo, a new poll shows.

The poll was conducted from November 2 to 6 by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. A representative sample of 746 Israeli Jews and Arabs over 18 was surveyed for the poll.

When asked what their preferred solution is for the administration of Judea and Samaria, 41% of Israeli Jews said they wanted Israel to extend sovereignty over the territories, compared to just 27% who back talks with the Palestinian Authority for a final status agreement.

Less than one-in-five (17%) want to maintain the status quo.

The phrase “The numbers don’t lie” is a well-known saying, yet the result of this poll resonates strongly. The people of Israel have made their voices heard. This is their homeland. Israel is fundamentally a sovereign nation. There should be no further discussion regarding the implementation of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Source:
Poll: Israelis prefer annexing Judea & Samaria over two-state solution, by World Israel News Staff, November 13, 2025

Iran has spent the past several months quietly smuggling advanced arms to a growing number of terrorist proxies in Judea and Samaria, ramping up its efforts to transform the territory into a Gaza-style militant hub that can replicate Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attacks since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began a month ago, according to Israeli intelligence centers and regional analysts.

Amir Avivi, a former senior Israeli military officer who regularly advises the country’s government, told the Washington Free Beacon Iran views Judea and Samaria as its best chance to maximize its proxy war against Israel after the hits the Islamic Republic, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza have taken over the past year. “Iran is really, really focused on trying to create another front,” Avivi said. “It didn’t just start after the 12-Day War, but they feel that this is the area they need to focus on because they’re having less success in Lebanon and in Gaza.”

While the Islamic Republic’s attempt to turn the West Bank into a hotbed of terror has not received significant attention in Western media, Israeli officials are on high alert. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the U.N. Security Council in September the threat from the West Bank is “real and imminent.”

Source:
Iran Smuggling Advanced Weaponry to Growing Terrorist Proxy Network in West Bank, by Adam Kredo/Washington Free Beacon, November 11, 2025

The Sovereignty Movement is calling for Israeli sovereignty in all parts of the country. They began a new campaign Monday by hanging large banners on the fence of the American-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) for Gaza in Kiryat Gat.

The Sovereignty Movement’s slogan read, “Sovereignty: A National Consensus.”

While similar signs will be posted on hundreds of major roads throughout Israel, the movement wanted to make its message clear first and foremost to the United States.

“The No. 1 rule of a sovereign nation is that you decide your fate and not foreign forces, so it was very important for us to start there,” the Movement said.

Katsover and Matar noted to World Israel News that “we have upcoming elections [next year]. The test for every right-wing politician is the sovereignty test. The time has come not only to talk about it but to actually implement such a law.”

It’s high time to pass the test. Declare sovereignty now!

Source:
Israeli Sovereignty Movement targets U.S.-led Gaza center in new campaign, by Batya Jerenberg/World Israel News, November 11, 2025

From the great Elie Wiesel’s timeless words to then United States Ambassador to the United Nations Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s stirring speech at the United Nations in 1972, we know Zionism is NOT Racism

Fifty years after the United Nations passed its infamous 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism, Elie Wiesel’s words remain as piercing and prophetic as ever. In his essay—originally published in the aftermath of that moral outrage—Wiesel warns that the resolution was not merely a political maneuver, but a continuation of the oldest hatred in history: the attempt to isolate the Jewish people and deny their right to dignity, identity and nationhood. His defense of Zionism as a human, moral and spiritual movement stands as both a rebuke to the cynicism of the U.N. and a call to conscience for every generation.

Wiesel states that “…the United Nations’ infamous resolution comparing Zionism to a form of racism is shocking and revolting. It must be viewed in a context of chilling horror.”

Zionism represents the nationalist movement that promotes Jewish self-determination in a homeland. Accusations of racism are primarily derived from the 1975 UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism, having been passed with a vote of 72–35 amidst Cold War dynamics and the influence of the Arab League. This resolution was later revoked in 1991 (Resolution 46/86, with a vote of 111–25) as it was deemed factually unfounded and politically driven.

To equate a people’s right to establish a state with racism undermines Jewish indigeneity and disregards similar claims made in other contexts. Zionism is the past, present and future of the Jewish people.

Sources:
Zionism and racism, by Elie Wiesel/JNS, November 10, 2025

50 years ago: Moynihan’s and Herzog’s speeches condemning the UN “Zionism is Racism” resolution (videos, full audio, transcripts), by Elder of Ziyon, November 10, 2025

This year marked an all-time high in expansion in Judea and Samaria, with a record number of new housing tenders issued.

So far in 2025, the Israeli government and the Israel Land Authority have granted tenders for 5,667 housing units in Israeli towns across Judea and Samaria, nearly 50% more than the number issued in the previous record-setting year.

In 2018, 3,808 housing unit tenders were issued, the most prior to 2025.

Three towns in the Jordan Valley were normalized Monday, including Giv’onit, Ir HaTmarim, Gadi — along with four in the Samaria Regional Council and six in the Benjamin Regional Council.

“This is a major step toward formalizing communities and integrating them as an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

Source:
Settlement expansion hits all-time high in 2025, 13 towns legalized, by World Israel News Staff, November 10, 2025

To the friend of Israel,

Senator Lindsey Graham-

We read with care your interview with The Jerusalem Post (Lindsey Graham to Post: Two-states- the ‘only’ solution” November 1, 2025), in which you argued that the only way to preserve Israel as both Jewish and democratic is separation from the Palestinian Arabs and the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state under new leadership that would offer the Palestinian Arabs a political horizon and different education for their children.

From your words, regrettably, Senator Graham, it seems you too do not see the reality or stand up to it. History teaches us one simple lesson: reconciliation with dictators is not true peace.

It is important to emphasize that not only is Israeli sovereignty not contrary to American interests, it is what fulfills them.

Source:
An Open Letter in Response to Senator Lindsey Graham, by Yehudit Katsover & Nadia Matar/Israel National News, November 9, 2025

It is still too early to fully assess or analyze the details of the draft proposal the United States has presented to several members of the UN Security Council as part of initial negotiations over the final wording of a potential international “stabilization force” for the Gaza Strip.

The original “20-point plan” presented by Trump used the term disarmament, while the draft proposal to the Security Council uses the term decommissioning—a softer and vaguer phrase that effectively means “taking out of use.” The practical meaning of this term is ambiguous and may allow Hamas to avoid surrendering its weapons—particularly small arms—to an external authority that would ensure the group no longer has access to them.

Another point of concern for Israel is the reliance on the United Nations as the source of authority for establishing the stabilization force and the Board of Peace. This could give the UN influence over the mandate language and the rules of engagement granted to the force.

Israeli officials fear a repeat of the UNIFIL experience in southern Lebanon, where international forces repeatedly failed to disarm Hezbollah. If this pattern repeats, the stabilization force could hinder Israel’s ability to achieve its key wartime objectives: ensuring that Hamas no longer poses a threat and preventing the group from rebuilding its military capabilities and infrastructure.

On a positive note, the resolution dedicates several articles to international support for Gaza and even calls on world nations to support the Strip’s rehabilitation financially. However, UNRWA is not included among the organizations meant to rehabilitate Gaza, and the resolution makes clear that any organization whose personnel cooperate with terrorism will be removed.

This proposal is not yet finalized; however, Israel’s apprehension is certainly warranted given the potential for this proposal to mirror the UNIFIL disaster. The exclusion of UNRWA from the “stabilization force” is a significant positive aspect. Thus, we remain in a state of anticipation.

Sources:
Disarm or decommission? Israel worried about weak US Gaza draft, tracks Hezbollah buildup, by Ron Be-Yishai/Ynetnews, November 5, 2025

UN excludes UNRWA from Gaza plan for cooperating with terrorism, by Ariel Kahana/Israel Hayom, November 6, 2025

A U.N. probe into its staffers’ involvement in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel dismissed key intelligence—including intercepted audio recordings and cell phone data—that connected those staffers to Hamas, a Washington Free Beacon review of confidential U.N. documents found.

Investigators with the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services looked into 19 UNRWA employees’ ties to Hamas based on Israeli intelligence and produced a report, which the United Nations has not released publicly and which the Free Beacon reviewed. It portrays the intelligence as likely authentic yet deems it “insufficient” to support the firings of 10 UNRWA staffers. This was the case with an alleged “Hamas platoon commander” and a second “Hamas operative,” both of whom Israel identified through intercepted phone calls and text messages.

The report includes multiple instances in which the United Nations waved off Israeli intelligence with few—if any—attempts to corroborate the evidence, undermining the United Nations’ announcement and its attempts to play down the relationship between UNRWA and Hamas.

It is evident that the United Nations is corrupt and requires a comprehensive investigation and accountability. The pressing question is, who can be relied upon to carry out an impartial inquiry while also “cleaning house” at the UN?

Source:
How the UN Tossed Out Israeli Intel To Downplay UNRWA’s Ties to Hamas, by Adam Kredo/The Washington Free Beacon, November 3, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday downplayed US influence over Israel’s policies in the Gaza Strip, marking the second time in a row he has addressed the issue at a government meeting.

Speaking at the opening of the weekly meeting, Netanyahu said that Israel retained the right to strike at terrorist forces in Gaza whenever a risk to Israeli security personnel is detected.

The Israeli premier emphasized that, in contrast to accusations and a growing popular perception, the US does not determine Israel’s military policy in Gaza.

“We report to our American friends; we do not ask for their permission. This must be understood because I hear things that are simply incorrect. We maintain the supreme security responsibility, and we will not relinquish it.”

As we see Hamas and Hezbollah regrouping and rearming the Prime Minister maintains that Israel alone has the prerogative to use military might to maintain security. We look forward to seeing him exercise said right as needed.

Source:
Israel, not US, has ‘supreme security’ control over Gaza – Netanyahu, by David Rosenberg/World Israel News, November 2, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled a major shift in military doctrine Monday, one which would require a larger standing army.

The prime minister addressed a conference of the Forum of Senior IDF Reserve Commanders and said that the multi-front war which began on October 7th, 2023 – including hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran – has forced Israel to reconsider the military paradigm of the preceding generation.

“We not only changed the Middle East, we also changed ourselves,” Netanyahu said.

The IDF, he continued, can no longer react to developments in the field and instead must take the “initiative.”

“There is no more containment. There is initiative and around-the-clock activity. And we are doing that because we know who you are, and we know what an amazing military we have. Not only the regular force – with everybody calling this ‘the TikTok generation’, and it’s obvious by now that that’s not the case – but our reserve force which mobilized again, contrary to everything that the enemy expected. They were wrong – wrong about us, wrong about you.”

Netanyahu emphasized that to confront new challenges, the Israeli military must expand both its regular, active-duty forces and its reserves. It is a hard truth, but one that must be faced and dealt with promptly.

Source:
‘No more containment’ – Netanyahu announces major shift in IDF doctrine, by World Israel News Staff, November 3, 2025