Dear Friends,
In times like these, clear, factual, and courageous voices for Israel are more important than ever. The mission of Israpundit has always been to share truth, defend Israel against misinformation, and give readers a place to find clarity and conviction.
Peloni & David Fieldstone
Video Loads At Bottom
Mark Levin raises the concern about political resolve in American to enforce any deal Trump’s establishes with the Mullahs after Trump leaves office. The Democrats won’t enforce such a deal and neither will the isolationist Conservatives. Further recognizing that China has a great deal of influence among American leadership, something which Mark did not raise, would only add to the concern that the Iranians are looking to a brighter tomorrow once Trump is gone and Iran will be allowed to return to business as usual amid the possible lack of resolve by American leadership going forward. The way to cement American interests with Iran is not thru an agreement which was achieved thru the force of arms, but thru the permanent replacement of the ideology in Iran which makes Iran inherently and existentially, a threat to America. Regime change, not negotiations, is the answer needed in Iran.
Secrets about the Middle East are only with me, the rabbi of the Arabian Island
Rabbi Jacob Herzog | April 15, 2026
* Reza Pahlavi, the former Iranian crown prince, has a very limited chance of becoming the head of a transitional phase for Iran, and I don’t see him taking power.
* My information, from sources in Washington, is that the US President is not convinced that this man should rule Iran, because the man has been out of Iran for more than 45 years and has no followers on the ground.
Peloni: I am not sure what it will take for American leadership to actually recognize this growing threat in the US and act upon it.
New Jersey Police leaders celebrate the first hijab-wearing deputy’s allegiance to Islam over the U.S. Constitution.
by | April 15, 2026
RAIR Foundation exposes the alarming conquest from within: while Americans were distracted, New Jersey’s top law enforcement leaders proudly celebrated Huda Shalabi, the first hijab-wearing Muslim sheriff’s deputy in Passaic County, whose veil is a public declaration of Sharia supremacy now embedded in the uniform sworn to defend the U.S. Constitution, the latest front in the nationwide Islamization of American policing.
The NJ.com headline gushed: “She dreamed of being the first Muslim cop who wore a hijab. She knows she won’t be the last.” NJ Law Enforcement Executive William Schievella, a self-described “Chief, University Professor, Police Academy Instructor” with nearly 7,000 posts and a blue-check LinkedIn profile, proudly shared and celebrated the article.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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Francis Kapper | Contributor | Daily Caller |
President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was officially open.
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’
| 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.
Peloni: Highly recommended article. Joan Swirsky once again outdoes herself in a sweeping review of Trump’s successes, his travails, and his failures, including a mention of why such a successful businessman has encountered so many significant setbacks from within his own organization.
By Joan Swirsky | The Post & Email | April 16, 2026 ©2026
https://www.whitehouse.gov/gallery/?query-8-gallery_tag=conferences
Back in 2011, many years before June 16, 2015, when Donald J. Trump took that infamous escalator ride to announce his intention to run as a Republican for President of the United States, I wrote an article entitled Trump Is Already Running the Country.
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.
