1) At the ICT, Dr. Eitan Azani analyses the ‘Iran Wave of Protest: Overview and Regional Implications’.
“The ongoing protests are marked by intensifying criticism towards the Iranian regime, particularly regarding its legitimacy. This is reflected in reports indicating increasing damage to government symbols as well as attacks on mosques. Criticism also extends to Iran’s foreign policy, especially its financial support for Hezbollah and Hamas amid the current economic crisis. Protest slogans such as “no more Lebanon, no more Gaza” articulate these grievances.”
2) At the ITIC, Dror Doron reports on ‘Hezbollah’s Activity in Venezuela and How the Recent American Arrest of Maduro May Affect It’.
“For decades Latin America has been an arena of significant activity for Hezbollah, based on a broad Shi’ite Lebanese diaspora residing in various countries across the continent. Venezuela, particularly under the socialist regime led by Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro, became an ally of Hezbollah and Iran because of their shared ideological and anti-American positions, and enabled the organization to turn the country into a logistical, financial and operational center.
American sanctions and indictments exposed how Hezbollah operatives, at times with the assistance of senior figures in the Venezuelan regime, established money-laundering and drug trafficking networks that helped finance the organization’s terrorist activity. Hezbollah also brought thousands of operatives into Venezuela and established military training facilities which enabled it to promote terrorist activity against Western and Israeli targets in Latin America.”
3) At the FDD, Sinan Ciddi and William Doran explain how ‘UNRWA’s Pivot To Ankara Cements a Future for Hamas in Turkey’.
“Relocating the organization to Turkey is not a random choice. In fact, The UN agency’s plans to open an office in Turkey long predate the Israeli parliament’s vote to revoke its operating license as of January 1. Ankara signed a host country agreement with UNRWA in June 2024. In November 2025, the Erdogan government’s official register published a parliamentary resolution approving UNRWA’s plans to build and operate an Ankara office.”
4) The Jerusalem Post’s Michael Starr reports on Iran’s use of criminal gangs.
“The announcements of the arrests of two criminal organization leaders this week in Iraq, in cooperation with Australia and Sweden, have again highlighted the use of criminal gangs to widen the reach of the Iranian Islamic regime’s jihad against Israelis, Jews, and Iranian dissidents around the world. […]
Tehran had allegedly used the method at least 15 times since 2022 to attempt to murder or kidnap Jewish or Iranian dissident UK nationals or residents.”
5) At the City Journal, Zineb Riboua discusses ‘The Third-Worldist Logic’.
“In much of the contemporary West, decolonization has become a political theology—and, for some, an authorization of revolutionary violence. The days after October 7 showed how deeply this worldview has taken hold. Across Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, university protests and pundits denounced Israel as a “settler-colonial state,” insisted that “decolonization is not a metaphor,” and called for “globalizing the Intifada.”
People often confuse these ideas with Islamism or with remnants of Communism. The confusion is understandable: Islamists condemn Israel in theological terms, and Communists cast global politics as a struggle between exploiters and the exploited. But today’s condemnation of Israel comes from a different lineage—a Third-Worldist conviction that the West is the permanent oppressor and that any movement arrayed against Western power is inherently righteous.”
