Update: See latest report from Daily Caller at bottom: “Iran Fires On Tanker As Peace Negotiations Slug Along”

Peloni:  There is no diplomatic measure which will gain sway over the Iranians.  They mean to demonstrate this clearly, and Trump gave them every opportunity to do so…The question remains to be seen if Trump has the resolve to enforce the terms which, if they had been agreed upon, a latter president would have to enforce at a later date.  Negotiations will not resolve the threat from Iran.  It will only perpetuate the threat in place to challenge a later administration.

Iran is once again demonstrating that, in practice, it holds significant control over the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway can be opened or effectively closed, at Tehran’s discretion, reinforcing its role as a central lever of power.

It is important not to misread Iran’s current… https://t.co/4vSBbWbWa3

— Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,???? ??????????? (@citrinowicz) April 18, 2026

Read more…

David Brody | All Israel News |  Published: April 18, 2026

Tucker Carlson. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Tucker Carlson, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

What in the world is going on with Tucker Carlson?

Read more…

Mudar Zahran

Screengrab via x

Western sources: The United States has conditioned securing at least two military bases inside Iranian territory. Several sites are proposed, at the top of the list Bandar Abbas—the city under Chinese military and intelligence influence—which sits at the most strategic point at the head of the Khalid Strait (known as the Strait of Hormuz). The other, more likely location is near the city of Isfahan.

Read more…

Peloni:  The Trump imposed salvation of Hezbollah’s stronghold of Bint Jbeil, and the US unilateral dictates of an imposed ceasefire will come to have serious repercussions in the coming Israeli election.  I noted last fall that as both Israel and the US were in an election year, the political interests of Trump and Netanyahu would ultimately be seen to be at odds with one another, and it appears that we are at the point that this is becoming transparently evident.

David Daoud

At midnight local time on April 17, a second ceasefire in as many years went into effect between Israel and Lebanon. Brokered, or to some degree imposed, by the United States, this cessation of hostilities is expected to last 10 days and has not been memorialized in a formal agreement. It comes at an inopportune time for Israel’s fight against Hezbollah, which was on the cusp of losing the critical southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil. Hezbollah will likely exploit the reprieve to regroup and reinforce its positions inside Bint Jbeil.

Read more…

Peloni: Trump should pay attention to what comes from negotiating with terrorists.  Netanyahu should send the IDF into Gaza to demonstrate how to deal with terrorists, first in Gaza and then again in Lebanon.

Aaron Goren & Samuel Ben-Ur

The ceasefire plan in Gaza has hit a roadblock in the shape of Hamas’s continuing refusal to disarm.

The Iran-backed terrorist group conveyed that exact message to representatives of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace — the international coalition tasked with overseeing the ceasefire — on April 14, after the deadline for its disarmament expired last weekend.

Read more…

Peloni:  Once again Pres. Trump offers a blunt and disturbing statement on Israel as it applies to Lebanon.  Ignoring the condescending and reproachful manner in which Trump has announced the prohibition of Israel’s freedom of action in Lebanon, this statement contrasts with the ceasefire terms which Trump imposed on Israel yesterday, which states that “Israel shall preserve its right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

Read more…

Peloni:  Michel Benchimol provides a deeply moving and stirring analysis in reflecting upon the Holocaust the promise of Never Again on Yom HaShoah.

A Personal Reflection on Yom HaShoah

Michel Benchimol

Recently, I attended an evening of remembrance for the Holocaust—Yom HaShoah. I went out of respect for my partner, Ruth.

Her parents were Holocaust survivors, and for her, the evening carries deep, personal meaning. For me, it did not—at least not in the same way.

The Holocaust, in my mind, had always been history: tragic, undeniable, but distant. Something to acknowledge, not something that lived within me.

Read more…

Peloni:  While the contest between the US and China is the underlying theme of Trump’s involvement in Iran, the underlying theme of China’s involvement is complicated by its Gulf allies being at odds with China’s need for Iranian oil.

Read more…

Peloni:  Important insights were covered on this episode of Israel Update which was recorded prior to the Lebanon Ceasefire and the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz.  The conversation is nonetheless informative, but I would specifically highlight the interview with Zenib Riboua of the Hudson Institute (16min-32min) as she provides important relevance of the competing interests between the US and China in the Iran war.

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Peloni:  This is deeply disturbing to watch.

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Francis Kapper | Contributor | Daily Caller |  April 17, 2026

President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was officially open.

Read more…

Peloni:  The limit placed on Israel’s freedom of action in the current ceasefire as described below is a serious setback for Israel, which was not hampered by such limitations in the previous ceasefire.  Furthermore, American assurances of Hezbollah’s disarmament have consistently failed to materialize, most recently after billions of US dollars were spent in the fool-hearted scam to fund the LAF for such an enterprise when the LAF’s complicity in providing political and logistical cover for Hezbollah has been well known.  So, are we looking at the latest rendition of America providing another ruse by which Hezbollah is disarmed on paper alone, while limiting Israel’s freedom of action, so as to further advantage US efforts to end the current wars without removing the terrorist actors who initiated these wars?  While looking back at the model proposed in Gaza, there remains a good deal on which to be concerned regarding what might be achieved when relying upon the US to develop peaceful strategies in lieu of allowing decisive victories over Israel’s adversaries on the battlefield.  Peace is not the absence of war, but rather what comes from successfully and decisively winning a war.  Can Trump shortcut the latter by pursuing the former?  This is the real question which arises following Trump’s announcement of this latest ceasefire, and the answer seems somewhat altogether too discouraging at the moment.  While placing this re-used and less viable band-aid on the decades old Iranian campaign against Israel from Lebanon, resolution for the Hezbollah debacle unfortunately now lies dependent upon Washington’s efforts in negotiating with Iran after Trump provided Iran with the linkage between the situation in Lebanon and that in Iran, thus highlighting and reinforcing the immaterial nature of any possible negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.

IDF troops stay inside 10km-deep ‘buffer zone’ in southern Lebanon, retain right to strike ‘planned, imminent or ongoing attacks’

All Israel News Staff | Published: April 17, 2026

Israel Defense Forces, Israel Defense Forces, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

The 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday went into effect at midnight, after Hezbollah wounded at least three Israelis in rocket attacks shortly before the deadline.

Read more…

Peloni:  The promise of Never Again was never fulfilled by the international community, as the post WWII pogroms which took place in Poland and elsewhere demonstrated, even as the Nuremberg Trials were ongoing.  Additionally, evidence of international complacency in failing to provide succor to the world’s Jewry following WWII was evident as Arabia actively, publicly and unashamedly made itself Judenrein.  Indeed, the promise of Never Again was always to be fulfilled by the existence of a Jewish State, and notably, this was the raison d’etre on which the Zionist ethos pursued the re-establishment of the Jewish State of Israel.  From the Jews of  Eastern Europe to the Jews of Arabia to the Jews of Ethiopia, the world’s complacency was notable as were the actions of the Jewish State to embrace its people returning home.  So, as Lenard Grunstein explains so well in this essay below, Never Again is an call to action, one which must keep us ever vigilant and ever motivated to act, particularly as the world remains complacent about the plight of Jews in a world which is notably ever increasingly hostile to Jews simply because they are Jews.

Allies need to join together—and not shirk from the battle against antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in all its forms.

Leonard Grunstein | April 14, 2026

President Isaac Herzog, at the ceremony of laying out foreigners for Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism in the tent, will be remembered at the Yad Vashem Museum. Monday, May 6, 2024. Photo by Haim Zach / Government Press Office of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia

Another Yom Hashoah has come and gone, honoring the memories of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their cohorts during the years of World War II and the Holocaust. This year, we can name 5 million of these individuals, as documented in the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names and in the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Read more…

Peloni:  See also “Pope Leo XIV is wrong on Iran”

Video Loads Below

Read more…

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | April 17, 2026

Israeli Air Force F-15I Ra’am warplanes. Photo by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia

*”Epic Fury” has documented an unprecedent military synergy and cooperation (personal, social and operational mutual-respect) between the US and Israel, with the US leveraging Israel’s unique capabilities, especially in the areas of intelligence, the air force and special operations in the face of the war against America, which erupted in 1979. Israel – more than any other ally – has acted as a unique force-multiplier for the US.

Read more…

Peloni:  This notification of the coming ceasefire comes without any vote supporting it from Israel’s Security Cabinet.  There is no way to describe this other than what it is.  Trump has linked Iran to Lebanon, even as he is presumably demanding Iran give up any such linkage to Lebanon in the coming negotiations.  Meanwhile the Lebanese President has refused to even speak with Netanyahu on the phone, further demonstrating his state of capture under Hezbollah, while still seeing his calls for a ceasefire from Israel on Hezbollah satisfied.  This is a disgraceful surrender of Israel’s security interests in Lebanon to satisfy the Iranians, and Trump didn’t even allow Israel’s own govt the dignity of making such a concession themselves.  This is an utterly shameful point of appeasement on the eve of the latest US negotiations with Iran when peace thru strength, rather than ceasefire by concessions, should have been the strategy which gained Iran’s participation in this US gambit to end the war with Iran.

Read more…

Peloni:  The High Court calls for a compromise, but compromising the authority of the elected govt is exactly what is at stake in this trial.  In effect, they are requiring the govt assign themselves a limited authority or face the judges imposing something similar on them.  Divesting ministerial authority from the ministers is not deliberating the law, it is setting legal precedent in which the Court would be limiting the power of the elected govt without any established legal basis to do so.  Is the authority of the unelected  High Court greater than the authority of the elected representative govt?  By requesting Ben Gvir and Netanyahu compromise on this point, they are requesting them to agree that the answer to this question is ‘yes’ when they answer should instead be clearly stated as ‘no’.

Justice Minister, coalition members vow to ignore court ruling, says it has no authority to order firing ministers

All Israel News Staff | Published: April 16, 2026

After a ten-hour-long, stormy debate, Israel’s High Court did not issue a ruling on a petition to dismiss National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over his alleged politicization of the police after a hearing on Wednesday.

Instead, the nine judges called on the government and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to find a compromise that would restrain the controversial minister, instead of taking the unprecedented step of forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Ben Gvir.

Read more…

Peloni:  This is very welcome news.

ASFI | April 16, 2026

Tennessee Capitol. Photo by Ken Lund – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

New York  — Americans For A Safe Israel, a leading pro-Israel organization, is thankful to the Tennessee General Assembly for passing legislation that directs state agencies to use the historically accurate name “Judea and Samaria” in place of the politically charged “West Bank” in official state materials.

Read more…

Peloni: Excellent!

By Norma Zager

Now, Iran speaks loudly and clearly that it will destroy Israel, the Jewish people and America. The world’s reaction to this bit of news? #whatakidder

Twitter comments by Iran boasting about victories over the foolish countries of the world got me thinking. What if Adolf Hitler could have tweeted his thoughts after his conference with then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at Munich?

Read more…