By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
We encourage you to follow the links to read more about the stories that interest you.
INTERNATIONAL
NBC News: U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) on Sunday told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that American military strikes on suspected drug-running boats are “unconstitutional,” and “a form of extrajudicial killing.” The Sept. 7 killing of two shipwrecked survivors was “morally repugnant,” the California Democrat added.
“If the Pentagon and our defense secretary are so proud of what they’re doing, let the American people see that video,” he said.
Schiff said it was “simply the most blatant hypocrisy” could pursue Venezuelan boats smuggling cocaine and, at the same time, pardon Honduras’ former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence for protecting the cartels smuggling over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
“This is not about drug trafficking for the president [Trump]; it’s about regime change, it’s about forcing [Venezuela’s President Nicolás] Maduro out. And how do you rationalize pardoning the former president of one country for drug-running and bringing in an aircraft carrier, bringing in a massive amount of sailors and other forces to try to force one president out when you just pardoned another for essentially the same offense? So none of it makes sense. The American people don’t want to go to war with Venezuela. “
*
Haaretz: During a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz commented: “Here at Yad Vashem, Germany’s enduring historical responsibility is palpable: Germany must stand up for the existence and security of Israel. This is part of the unchanging core essence of our relationship and will remain so forever.”
*
Israel Hayom: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference with Germany’s Chancellor, said of U.S. President Trump’s Gaza peace plan, “We completed the first phase; we are nearly there. One hostage remains – Ran Gvili, a hero of Israel – who must be brought home. We expect to move soon to the second phase, which is at least as difficult as the first: achieving the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza. Then comes Phase 3: the de-radicalization of Gaza. This has been done before in Germany, in Japan, and the Gulf states.”
*
The Jerusalem Post: The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Sunday described the Yellow Line bracketing Gaza as the new border, “We will not allow Hamas to reestablish itself. We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip, and we will remain on those defense lines,” Zamir said. “The Yellow Line is a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity.”
*
The Times of Israel: U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday hosted in New York a reconciliation meeting between Israel and Qatari officials. Relationships between the two countries were soured by the botched Israeli strike Sept. 9 on the Hamas office in Qatar. Representing Israel was Mossad chief David Barnea, while the Qatari official was not immediately identified. In the Qatari capital of Doha, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani told interviewer Tucker Carlson that his country will not foot the bill for rebuilding Gaza. “We are not the ones who are going to write the check to rebuild what others destroyed. When you are talking about Gaza, Israel flattened this land.”
*
Jewish News Syndicate: Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, described on X social media the international forum in Doha as a “Terror Laundering Gala,” which attracted Syria’s President Ahmad al Sharaa, a “former Al Qaeda commander who drowned Syria in blood;” Tucker Carlson, “the man who described Hamas jihadists as a ‘political party;’ CNN’s Christiana Amanpour, who hosts “every blood-soaked Islamist foreign minister on earth.” Chikli in his post also scorned UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese without specifically describing her.
*
NATIONAL
CBS News: Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told Margaret Brennan on Sunday’s Face the Nation that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that recommended to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that Hepatitis B vaccines now given automatically at birth be delayed until the babies are two months old is filled with appointees who are opposed to vaccinations generally. He argued that the recommendation, if followed, risks the lives of infants.
Ninety percent of newborns who become infected with Hepatitis B during their delivery “will go on to develop chronic infection,” Gottlieb said. “They won’t be able to clear the Hepatitis B. And about 25 percent of them will die from sequelae of that infection either from liver disease, cirrhosis, or from liver cancer. So, we have this unique opportunity by giving this birth dose and the subsequent inoculations to virtually eliminate the chance that a newborn can contact Hepatitis B and go on to develop chronic infection.” *
HuffPost: Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, architect of President Trump’s anti-immigrant foreign policy, said on X, “This is the great lie of mass migration. You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.”
On Face the Nation, Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) categorized that as “white supremist rhetoric,” similar to what Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany encountered from American isolationists.
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World