Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with other Israeli officials, issued a sharp condemnation of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he released a video showing himself taunting detained flotilla activists. 

Ben-Gvir posted the video, filmed at Ashdod Port, to social media on Wednesday, where he can be seen mocking dozens of international activists captured from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. In the footage, the blindfolded activists are shown kneeling on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Waving a large Israeli flag over the handcuffed activists, Ben-Gvir shouts in Hebrew, “Welcome to Israel, we are the masters.”

International activists have launched several flotillas since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas, attempting to break the blockade and deliver aid to Gaza. The IDF has repeatedly intercepted these convoys, many of which have been found not to have aid on board, and deported the participants. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four individuals “associated with the pro-Hamas flotilla,” which it said was organized by the U.S.-designated Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad. 

The political fallout from the video came quickly from Ben-Gvir’s own governing coalition, including public condemnation from Netanyahu, who sought to separate Israel’s defense policies from Ben-Gvir’s personal optics.

“Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “However, the way that Minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”

Netanyahu added that he had already instructed authorities to expedite the deportation of the foreign activists. Netanyahu has repeatedly resisted pressure to oust Ben-Gvir from his Cabinet, calculating that he was essential to the survival of his coalition.

Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar also fiercely rebuked the performance, sparking an online feud between the two Cabinet ministers. In a post on X, Sa’ar told Ben-Gvir that he is “not the face of Israel.”

“You deliberately caused damage to the state in this disgraceful performance, and not for the first time,” Sa’ar wrote. “You squandered enormous, professional, and successful efforts made by many, many people — from IDF soldiers to Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees and many other fine individuals.”

Ben-Gvir pushed back against Sa’ar, doubling down on his actions.

“Israel’s Foreign Minister is expected to understand that Israel has stopped being a pushover,” Ben-Gvir retorted. “Anyone who comes to our territory to support terrorism and identify with Hamas will get slapped, and we won’t turn the other cheek.”

The video also garnered outcry from the Italian government, which has since summoned Israel’s ambassador in Rome, Jonathan Peled.

“The images of the Israeli minister Ben-Gvir are unacceptable. It is inadmissible that these demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates human dignity,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in an official statement. 

Meloni noted that Italy is demanding “an apology for the treatment reserved to these demonstrators and for the total contempt shown toward the explicit requests of the Italian Government,” and said she plans to take immediate steps to secure the release of the detained Italians.

Antonio Tajani, Italy’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, echoed Meloni’s sharp rebuke. “What emerges from Minister Ben-Gvir’s video is absolutely unacceptable and contrary to every basic safeguard of human dignity,” Tajani stated.

Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials will reconvene on Friday at the State Department to continue peace talks, a State Department official said, after the parties concluded the first day of negotiations in the third round of the U.S.-led talks on Thursday with no further agreements secured. 

The official said in a statement, “We had a full day of productive and positive talks that lasted from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. We look forward to continuing this tomorrow and hope to have more to share then.”

Israeli and Lebanese officials did not speak to the media on their way out of the Harry S. Truman Building, though all parties are expected back at the State Department headquarters at 9 a.m. ET on Friday to resume talks. 

The talks come three days before the three-week ceasefire which was extended during the second round of talks late last month is set to expire. 

Participants on Thursday included U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin, the IDF’s chief of strategy; Brig. Gen. Erik Ben-Dov, the acting Israeli military attaché in the U.S.; Yossi Draznin, Israel’s deputy national security advisor; U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa; Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadah; Simon Karam, Lebanon’s former top envoy to Washington; and Brig. Gen. Oliver Hakmeh, Lebanon’s military attaché in Washington. U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a close Rubio advisor, was also present, as were other senior Israeli military representatives.

Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Lebanese officials told the Associated Press that their main objective  was to get their Israeli counterparts to agree to a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of IDF forces from Lebanese territory, and that they would address the domestic political issues in Lebanon surrounding Hezbollah’s disarmament after that.

Israeli officials, on the other hand, have described disarming Hezbollah as a necessity to furthering an agreement with Lebanon.

As was the case with prior rounds of talks, representatives for Hezbollah were not invited to participate. The terrorist organization has condemned the Lebanese government for engaging directly with Israel and refused to participate in the U.S.-led ceasefire. 

President Donald Trump said while announcing the three-week ceasefire extension that he would not prevent the Israelis from responding if under threat by Hezbollah, and the parties have continued to exchange fire regularly throughout the ceasefire. 

The president also expressed his hope that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun would meet in person during that three-week period, a prospect which Aoun has thus far continued to reject. 

Current and former Israeli and U.S. officials suggested that an Israeli strike on an Iranian gas field on Wednesday that prompted the Islamic Republic to strike Qatar was coordinated with the White House, despite President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. “knew nothing about this particular attack.” 

Trump made the remarks in a Truth Social post, in which he threatened that the U.S. would bomb the South Pars gas field, the Iranian portion of the larger field shared with Qatar, if Iran does not stop attacking Qatar. 

“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape or form involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this … and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s [liquid natural gas] facility,” the president wrote.

If “Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” he added, the U.S., “with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”

An Israeli official told Kan News, Israel’s public broadcaster, that the attack on the South Pars gas field was coordinated with the U.S.

Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Pentagon official in the Biden administration, wrote on X, “Trump can post whatever he likes. But there is zero, I mean zero, chance the IDF would conduct a strike in that location without giving CENTCOM full visibility.”

“Trump knew (and approved),” Shapiro added. “Now he realizes it caused a major escalation with Iran’s (entirely unjustified) attacks on Gulf energy targets.” 

Shapiro later clarified that the Israeli strike “could not have been carried [out] without U.S. knowledge and explicit or implicit approval.” 

“It was predictable that strikes on Iranian energy facilities (by US or Israel) would lead to Iranian strikes on Gulf energy facilities,” he wrote. “There is a narrow window following the Israeli and Iranian strikes, and Trump’s Truth Social Post (untrue, but possibly useful in this context), to de-escalate away from further strikes on energy industry targets in either direction. That will still leave a very challenging situation to unwind, but [it] would be the best near-term development.”

Gilad Erdan, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a former member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, told Jewish Insider that it was highly likely the U.S. knew about the strike, saying that Trump did not criticize Israel in his post, and “in the same breath” as saying the U.S. was unaware, “[Trump] himself threatened to erase the [gas] field.”

Erdan noted that the South Pars gas field is “used for Iran’s domestic energy needs [and] doesn’t harm the international energy market.”

“Israel took upon itself to be at the front [of the situation] in my estimation because the field is also Qatari,” Erdan, who is also a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, said. “Someone had to send the deterrent message about the energy field to the Iranians, that if they continue, then all options are open against them and they will be hurt badly.” (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute and cohosts its podcast.)

Yaakov Katz, an Israeli military expert and author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, told JI that he agreed with Shapiro’s assessment. “There is no way Israel would attack such a strategic facility [without coordination] because they know it would draw the Iranians to attack the Gulf states,” he said. 

Katz pointed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior since the war with Iran began late last month as further indication that Israel was unlikely to make such a move without coordinating with the U.S.: “Why would Netanyahu who behaved so carefully all throughout the war, coordinating with Trump to not upset him so he keeps the war going … do something that would anger Trump and potentially lead him to do something brash and declare the war is over?” 

“It was coordinated, and now Trump is saying what he’s saying to distance himself, but it was done to send a message to the Iranians,” Katz added.

Also Thursday, Saudi Arabia released a statement with the foreign ministers from Azerbaijan, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt urging Iran to stop its attacks.

“The participants held Iran fully responsible for the losses and called on Iran to immediately and unconditionally cease its aggression and to comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The meeting also emphasized the dangers of supporting militias and destabilizing security, stressing that Iran must seriously reconsider its miscalculations,” the statement read.

If Iran continues, the foreign ministers stated, there will be “serious consequences for Iran and the security of the region, and will exact a heavy price, casting a shadow over its relations with the countries and peoples of the region, who will not stand idly by in the face of threats to their capabilities.”

ASPEN, Colo. – Former U.S. and Israeli officials speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday emphasized that Hamas bears responsibility for the failure of hostage release and ceasefire talks, and discussed the possible paths to ending the war in Gaza.

Brett McGurk, the top National Security Council official responsible for the Middle East under the Biden administration, argued on Wednesday that the history of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas “is being rewritten by people that weren’t involved in this.”

He emphasized that Hamas repeatedly ignored and rejected proposals that fulfilled many of its demands over the course of the last year, arguing that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah had helped force Hamas’ hand to a temporary ceasefire deal that went into effect in early 2025.

“The moral toll of this awful situation tears at the soul of anyone who’s worked on this, anyone,” McGurk said. “But this war could have stopped multiple times if Hamas stopped the war and released hostages — multiple, multiple times.”

He said that, to this day, the “fundamental issue” is that the pressure for the deal has been on Israel, with “no pressure on Hamas.” He said the group has “not budged” on its demand to be allowed to remain in power in exchange for the release of hostages.

“Hamas started the war on Oct. 7, this panel is about Israel, but the enemies of Israel have agency,” McGurk said, emphasizing that Hamas made a choice to start the war, joined by Hezbollah and various Iranian proxies, in addition to Iran itself.

McGurk said he believes that if both sides accept the current U.S.-sponsored proposal to pause the war for 60 days while negotiating a permanent ceasefire, the war would end.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog said that Israel “never developed a coherent plan [of] alternatives to Hamas.”

Herzog argued that Israel needs to propose an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages, and that Hamas can be dealt with again at a later point while Israel focuses in the short term on Iran, normalization with Arab countries in the region and beginning to heal its own people and society.

Herzog framed the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah as a potentially successful model. 

Former IDF Intelligence Directorate head Amos Yadlin said that the Gaza war is the “most justified war ever; however, at this moment, continuing the war is not serving Israeli interests.”

He said Israel should agree to end the war in exchange for a one-time release of all remaining hostages and the exile of some Hamas leaders, and work to bring in Arab partners to demilitarize the territory, with the understanding that Israel will continue to attack Hamas forces that reemerge as it has done with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even if some Hamas forces remain, he said, they will not have the strength or capabilities they did before the war.

Yadlin also emphasized that Hamas leaders are to blame for the civilian casualties in Gaza, since they could have ended the war by releasing the hostages at any time.

Author and “Call Me Back” podcast host Dan Senor noted that Israel’s military was ill-prepared for the kind of extended, grinding, close-to-home war it is fighting in Gaza, and described the challenges of Hamas’ diversion of humanitarian aid and hostage-taking as unprecedented. And, he said, fear of Hamas has hampered efforts to cultivate alternative civilian leadership in Gaza.

“I think the idea that we could have a permanent ceasefire would only work if Israel would agree for Hamas to stay in Gaza and … in terms of the objectives of war, there is no world in which Israel can agree to Hamas staying in power in Gaza,” Senor said.

Pushing back on the comparisons between a potential Hamas deal and the Hezbollah ceasefire, Senor noted that in Lebanon, the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces provide a domestic counterweight to Hezbollah able to enforce demilitarization. In Gaza, no Arab states have stepped forward to carry out governance and demilitarization.

At the same time, Senor said that President Donald Trump’s proposal of mass relocation of the Palestinian population is not a realistic solution. He added that Israel will need a substantial buffer zone between its population in the south and the population in Gaza to feel safe in returning people to communities close to the Gaza border.

Yadlin pushed back, arguing that the relocation threat would provide Arab states the necessary motivation to become directly involved.

Yadlin added that Trump’s work to cultivate investments from the Gulf in combination with the strikes on Iran have shown the American people that the Middle East does not have to only be a region of loss and suffering, but one that has real promise.

Asked if Israel and the United States’ quick and devastating military campaign against Iran was a signal that the world had overestimated the threat from Iran, the panelists argued that was not the case. Instead, they said, many had underestimated Israel’s own capabilities and preparations, and the destruction of Iran’s proxies significantly undermined Iran’s ability to threaten Israel.

“You have to remember that Israel has prepared this war for decades, for many, many years, especially the last few months, but for decades,” he said.

McGurk added that the U.S. and Israeli interceptions of missiles fired during Iran’s October 2024 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent destruction of Iran’s air defense systems under the Biden administration set the stage for last month’s strikes, which he characterized as the result of close coordination across multiple administrations for years.

Looking ahead, Herzog said that there are not yet clear answers on the extent to which Iran maintains nuclear capabilities, but said that the strikes’ impact on Iran’s decision-making is also critical: whether it will race to a nuclear device to protect itself or — as Herzog said he believes — it is deterred and will move slowly and carefully if it attempts to resume its nuclear program.

He said there are two paths ahead: a new nuclear deal, including no enrichment and with intrusive inspections, which is nevertheless controversial in Israel because it would provide Iran with sanctions relief to rebuild its capabilities, or Israel’s continued use of force, which brings its own set of questions and challenges.

Herzog also said he’s hopeful that the strikes have deepened the divide between the Iranian regime and the Iranian people.

Yadlin similarly argued that the timetable for Iran’s nuclear program is less important than what kind of agreement can now be reached.

He said that the attacks had disproven Iran’s key calculus about its nuclear program: that Israel had the will but not the capabilities to do significant damage to the program, and that the U.S. had the capabilities but not the will.

McGurk and Herzog both spoke about the initial hours of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and their perspectives as the situation developed. Herzog, who was serving as the Israeli envoy in Washington at the time, said he received a call shortly after the onset of the attacks on Israel from a senior general shouting, “Mike, this is war, it’s not another round. It’s a war.”

McGurk said that Herzog had informed him about the attack, relaying along that same message: “It’s a massive attack, this is war.”

Herzog described McGurk, who has remained one of the most vocally pro-Israel members of President Joe Biden’s team since leaving office, as “the best partner that I could wish for,” adding that the then-White House official immediately offered full U.S. support for Israel.

McGurk emphasized that, early in the war, there were significant fears that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies, or even Iran itself, would also mobilize against Israel, which would constitute an “existential threat.” 

He recounted a call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the first days of the war. “Netanyahu said, ‘Joe, we’re in the Middle East, and in the Middle East, if you’re weak, you’re roadkill.’ Everybody sharpened their knives, and that’s what was happening,” McGurk said.

He said that intelligence showed early signs Hezbollah was preparing a ground invasion, and that Israeli and American officials had intensively discussed the possibility of a preemptive, Israeli attack in Lebanon, ultimately deciding against it due to Hezbollah’s strength at the time and Israel’s need to focus on Gaza. McGurk said he still believes that was the right decision.

McGurk, seen as one of the strongest champions in the Biden administration for the expansion of the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia, said he’d been in discussion on Oct. 6 with visiting Saudi and other Middle Eastern leaders about “some things that were potentially going to be quite positive over the coming six months a year.”

He also pushed back on narratives from critics that the normalization efforts were a “white whale” that the U.S. chased in spite of reality. Instead, he said, the talks began because the Israelis and Saudis both approached the U.S. and asked them to mediate. He said the constant media leaks about the talks had hampered the process, and that they should have been conducted more privately.

“I think ultimately it will happen,” McGurk said. “What knocked it off was Hamas.”

Addressing the global spread of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, Herzog said that “we [Israel] should do a better job” of pushing back on anti-Israel narratives, describing the public and diplomatic debate as an additional front in the war Israel is fighting.

Senor added that the Oct. 7 attack “brought something to the surface that was not about the way Israel should operate in Gaza,” appearing to be a “trigger moment for trying to drive Jews underground” in a way he had not expected.

Looking particularly at college campuses, Senor urged Jews to turn to alternative schools than the higher education institutions where they have faced harassment and discrimination, and to invest in those institutions rather than the ones that have not served them well in recent years.