1) At the Jewish Chronicle, Mark Zlochin explains why ‘The numbers just don’t support the UN-backed Gaza famine report’.
“The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has declared a “famine” in Gaza. The announcement led global headlines, was cited at the UN Security Council, and spread rapidly across media and social networks. Yet on inspection, the evidence underpinning the claim falls apart.”
2) The NCRI has published a report on the same topic: ‘Starving for the Truth: Fraud, Famine and the Collapse of Rigor in IPC’s Gaza Declaration’.
“This follow-on report examines the IPC’s August declaration in detail. What we find is not a neutral assessment of food insecurity but a document riddled with forecasting reversals, selective use of surveys, questionable modeling, and reliance on partisan sources. The consequence is a narrative of famine that exceeds the evidentiary threshold. Our purpose is not to minimize the severity of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, but to insist that famine alerts meet the highest standards of rigor. When they do not, they discredit aid efforts, politicize suffering, and undermine global trust in humanitarian science.”
3) At the FDD, Andrea Stricker explains why ‘Time Is Short to Trigger the Iran Nuclear Deal’s Snapback Mechanism’.
“UN sanctions in Resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), and 1929 (2010) remain in limbo despite Iran’s prolonged non-compliance with the JCPOA and Iran’s statement in 2020 that it would no longer observe the deal’s terms, compounded by the accord’s largely defunct status since Washington’s withdrawal in 2018. However, UNSCR 2231 remains in force, and time is short to act because the resolution, the UN sanctions, and their snapback mechanism all expire on October 18, 2025. This unique mechanism, which bypasses a Russian or Chinese veto, represents the last opportunity to maintain and restore global sanctions on Iran.”
4) At the INSS, David Siman-Tov discusses ‘The ISNAD Campaign in the Israel–Iran War’.
“The ISNAD campaign is a sophisticated foreign intervention effort, presented as a grassroots movement aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. Its objective is to assist Hamas in its war against Israel in the Gaza Strip through extensive influence operations on social media. The campaign employs psychological warfare techniques and the use of fake Israeli profiles to create the impression of authentic internal criticism of the state and to undermine public legitimacy in Israel for the war.”
5) At WINEP, David Schenker analyses ‘Lebanon’s Moment of Truth’.
“August 31 is also the annual renewal date for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which has failed to fulfill its mandate in spectacular fashion for years despite being granted 10,500 troops to patrol the south and $500 million per year in funding. (The United States previously paid $125 million of this amount annually, though the Trump administration has zeroed out the $1.2 billion U.S. contribution for UN peacekeeping efforts worldwide in 2026.) Still, the organization has its supporters, principally France (the UN penholder on UNIFIL) and Lebanon (which benefits economically from the deployment and has used it as an excuse to deploy fewer LAF troops in the south).”
6) At the Alma Center, Tal Beeri documents ‘Hezbollah’s Infiltration into Lebanese Intelligence’.
“On August 22, it was revealed by the IDF Spokesperson that Suhil Harb, head of military intelligence in southern Lebanon, was involved in obstructing the investigation into the incident of the killing of an Irish UNIFIL soldier. The Irish soldier was shot in the head in the area of Aaqbiyeh, between Tyre and Sidon, by Hezbollah operatives on December 14, 2022. Harbassisted Hezbollah in concealing details of the incident and in tampering with evidence. In addition, Harb helped in attempts to prevent the prosecution of the operatives.”
