Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

On the edge of a small city in southern Israel, a cavernous warehouse is being remade into the headquarters of President Trump’s Gaza peace plan. Two hundred U.S. troops working with Israel’s military and other partners have scrambled over the past week to build out a new Civil-Military Coordination Center. It will monitor the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and coordinate the flow of aid and security assistance to Gaza, which lies roughly 20 miles away. – Wall Street Journal

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the United States continued to support Israel and was committed to the ceasefire in Gaza, even as the deal has continued to face hurdles and Israelis have questioned how exactly the deal will be sustained and how much the U.S. administration will dictate Israeli military actions. – Washington Post

Egypt sent a team of experts into Gaza this weekend to help locate the bodies of deceased hostages as part of an international effort to shore up the fragile cease-fire in the territory, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Sunday. – New York Times

The U.S. military has begun operating surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip in recent days as part of a broader effort to ensure that both Israel and Hamas adhere to a fragile cease-fire agreement, Israeli and American military officials said. – New York Times

At the center of the Gaza cease-fire was an exchange. Hamas freed all the living hostages still in Gaza and agreed to hand over all remains of former captives, while Israel released nearly 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians. – New York Times

Turkey has emerged as a key actor in solidifying the initial cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and hopes to leverage its powerful military, its experienced construction firms and its relationship with Hamas to play a role in the territory’s future. But Israel is staunchly opposed.- New York Times 

Israeli forces carried out a “targeted strike” on an individual in central Gaza who was planning to attack Israeli troops, Israel’s military said on Saturday. – Reuters

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Israel, the U.S. and the other mediators of the Gaza ceasefire deal are sharing information to disrupt any threats and that allowed them to identify a possible impending attack last weekend. – Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Saturday said Hamas needs to start returning the bodies of deceased hostages held captive by the terror group during the war in Gaza “quickly, or the other countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action.” – Fox News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who arrived in Israel shortly after Vice President JD Vance left for Washington, railed against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) amid the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. – Fox News

Saul Bellow observed in 1976 that there was not one Israel but two. The first was “territorially insignificant”, fighting for survival while spanning less than a quarter of a per cent of the Middle East. – The Telegraph

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin threw his support behind legislation to allow for the formation of a special tribunal to prosecute Hamas terrorists who are part of the Nukhba, the terrorist group’s special forces unit. – Jewish Insider

Amjad Shawa, the head of a civil society network in Gaza, has been named by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as the approved leader for the new technocratic board that will rule the Gaza Strip, Israel Public Broadcaster KAN News reported Sunday evening.  – Jerusalem Post

In the next several months, several countries may join the Abraham Accords, Consul General of Israel in New York, Ofir Akunis, said on Sunday during a meeting with Israeli mayors and council heads at the Jewish National Fund-USA’s “Global Conference for Israel” in Hollywood, California.  – Jerusalem Post

Israel has reportedly backed four different militia groups to fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sky News claimed to have confirmed on Saturday, citing the leader of the newest group. – Sky News

The IDF completed an intensive five-day training intended to prepare for “extreme defense scenarios” along the northern border with Lebanon on Thursday, the military announced. – Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted with such fury to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent camel remark that aides feared he might collapse, MK Avigdor Liberman claimed Sunday. – Jerusalem Post

A 2020 document signed by a former senior official at the National Security Council revealed how Israel encouraged Qatar to transfer money to the Gaza Strip, despite knowing that significant sums were reaching Hamas, Israeli public broadcaster KAN News reported on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post

Israel does not know the location of four of the remaining 13 bodies of hostages held in Gaza, according to a report Sunday, amid increased pressure on Hamas to resume handing over bodies in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire and hostage deal. – Times of Israel

Leaders of anti-Hamas militias operating in areas under Israeli control in the Gaza Strip have said they oppose any involvement of Qatari or Turkish forces in postwar Gaza, according to a Saturday report. – Times of Israel

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced Sunday that Malaysia is prepared to participate in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Gaza, alongside other countries, including members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Anadolu news agency reported. – Arutz Sheva

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued a formal decree Sunday outlining the succession process should the chairman’s position become vacant. According to the official PA news agency Wafa, deputy chairman Hussein al-Sheikh will temporarily assume leadership of the PA in the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council. – Arutz Sheva

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday visited Israel’s northern border and the IDF’s Northern Command, accompanied by US President Donald Trump’s envoy to Lebanon, Morgan Ortagus. – Arutz Sheva

Delegations from Hamas and its longtime rival Fatah met in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the second phase of a US-backed Gaza peace plan, an informed source told AFP. – Times of Israel

Editorial: This meant all hostages freed up front. “Israel was so intent on the hostages, I was actually surprised,” Mr. Trump said. Israelis “wanted the hostages more than they wanted anything else.” How about disarming Hamas? The deal mandates it, but if Hamas refuses, “Well, you have to go in,” Mr. Trump said. The President is right that the benefits of his and Mr. Netanyahu’s victory in Iran have rippled through the region. Mr. Trump’s policy was “the opposite” of Barack Obama’s, he noted. We can think of a few other bullies who could also use the opposite of the Obama approach. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: There is also a diplomatic track to pursue. Countries that host Iranian operatives should expel them. Banks and tech platforms that see procurement, fundraising, or covert communications linked to IRGC activity should shut them down. Finally, a word to Jewish communities reading this editorial. We have your back. If you notice unusual surveillance near a synagogue, report it. If a community center needs resources for cameras and trained guards, ask for them. If your school wants a security drill, schedule it. The point of exposing Ammar is to save lives. As the Mossad put it, its cooperation with partners “thwarted dozens of tracks” and “saved many lives.” That work will continue. – Jerusalem Post

James P. Rubin writes: Only then can the next set of difficult questions be resolved. Who among the Palestinians is to govern Gaza? What does the disarmament of Hamas look like? Is the Trump Board of Peace really going to do the day-to-day work of the most complex peace operation of modern times in a way that Israel feels secure and Palestinians misery can begin to be addressed? The Trump administration does not appear to have thought through those hard questions. If there is one thing I learned working on this issue during the two Clinton administrations and the Biden administration, it is that progress in the Middle East requires intense, sustained and expert attention from the highest levels of government. – New York Times

Graeme Wood writes: This pause is costly. Everyone knows that some form of Hamas—skinned of the top echelon of its leadership—has survived and rules the parts of Gaza that Israel never fully occupied. During the pause, according to reports, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have already told Trump that they will back out of the deal if Hamas remains armed. (All three countries are autocracies that suppress Islamists and revile Hamas.) In other words, they supported the plan in Sharm al-Sheikh not because they were eager to join the work party that would follow, but because they hoped that others would finish the job in Gaza and spare them the trouble. If the United States fails to produce more volunteers, it now appears that the work party will be an Israeli operation after all. – The Atlantic

Pesach Wolicki writes: Given Washington’s relationship with Erdogan, Israel may have to tolerate some Turkish participation, but it must be limited strictly to financial contributions under US oversight. If the international community is serious about peace, it must recognize this truth: Turkey under Erdogan is not a stabilizing force but a destabilizing one. Any operational or security role for Ankara – troops, “peacekeepers,” or NGO proxies – must be a non-starter. – Jerusalem Post

Brendan O’Neill writes: And who’s faring better? Despite the invasions it has suffered and the threats it faces, it’s Israel. Being there reminded me what a nation is: a place of belonging, of attachment, of sacrifice, of promise.[…] Not a perfect place – far from it – but a place that at least aspires to live by high ideals. We could be that place too, if we stopped defaming the Jewish State and started examining our own state. Let Israel be – it’s fine. – Spiked

Russia and Ukraine

Russia’s refusal of a cease-fire and an aborted peace summit in Budapest have raised the grim prospect that the war in Ukraine will rage for years to come—even as the nature of the conflict transforms. – Wall Street Journal

The U.S. and its allies have tried to cripple Russia’s energy industry since the invasion of Ukraine, but Moscow has found loopholes time and again. The Beihai gas route has become a key channel for that effort and a means to further deepen its ties with China. – Wall Street Journal

The State Department’s internal intelligence agency cast doubt earlier this year on the notion that Russian President Vladimir Putin was prepared to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, dissenting from a more optimistic Central Intelligence Agency assessment of potential talks, according to several current and former officials. – Wall Street Journal

If President Donald Trump wants to make progress in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he needs to put Tomahawk missiles back on the table for Ukraine instead of just fiddling with sanctions, according to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a major Russian opposition figure with deep knowledge of the Kremlin. – Washington Post

Far from the largely deadlocked front line on the battlefield, Russia and Ukraine are waging a fierce parallel war on each other’s energy assets that could do more to force them to the negotiating table than any flurry of international diplomacy. – New York Times

Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable Burevestnik missile and is preparing to deploy it, President Vladimir V. Putin said Sunday, a pointed message to the West after plans for a summit with President Trump collapsed. – New York Times

No one can know how long President Trump’s pique with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will last this time. But the past few days have been an important signal that European persistence in its support for Ukraine has paid off, at least for now. – New York Times 

Russian air defences shot down dozens of Ukrainian drones heading to Moscow and downed nearly 160 more over other regions in attacks that killed at least one and injured five others, Russian officials said on Monday. – Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new strong sanctions against Russia and its allies after Russian drones killed three and injured 31, including six children, in an overnight air attack on Kyiv. – Reuters

Russian armed forces will respond forcefully in the event of strikes deep inside Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published on Sunday. – Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Sunday that he had continued talks with representatives of President Donald Trump’s administration in the United States. – Reuters

The Kremlin said on Sunday it was wrong to talk about cancellation of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, but added that preparation for it was needed, state television Vesti reported on its Telegram channel. – Reuters

Thomas Graham writes: Competitive coexistence does not appease aggressors, as its critics claim, nor does it reward aggression. It contains it through balance, restraint, and diplomacy. It sees compromise—even with unsavory rivals—as an element of statecraft in an open-ended contest in which setbacks can be redressed and advantages accumulated over time. It seeks not decisive victory but durable stability, a peace of imperfect justice but one achievable in practice. In the end, the United States must choose between a policy of moral clarity and one that works  Competitive coexistence, for all its ambiguities and imperfections, offers the surer path to a Europe at peace and a global order that advances US interests and values, if not as fully or as rapidly as some would hope. – The National Interest

Syria

Syria’s telecommunications ministry has signed an agreement for the landing of the first international submarine cable to the country with Barcelona-based Medusa Submarine Cable System, state-run Ikhbariya TV reported on Saturday. – Reuters

In the complex mosaic of the new Syria, the old battle against the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) continues in the Kurdish-controlled north-east. It’s a conflict that has slipped from the headlines – with bigger wars elsewhere. But Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC that IS cells in Syria are regrouping and increasing their attacks. – BBC

US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack this week called for the repeal of the remaining US sanctions on Syria. – Jerusalem Post

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia already has enough hotel rooms to host the 2034 World Cup, but is focused on adding more domestic hotel space and has not decided whether to invest in an area along Egypt’s Red Sea coast, the kingdom’s tourism minister said on Sunday. – Reuters

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will attend the annual Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh this week, two people familiar with the matter said, in his latest effort to put Syria back on the world stage after 14 years of war. – Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s investment minister said on Sunday that 85% of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 targets were complete or on track as of the end of 2024. – Reuters

British finance minister Rachel Reeves will attend an investment summit in Saudi Arabia on Monday and seek to advance trade talks with other Gulf countries, in what officials said was the first visit to the region by a British finance minister in six years. – Reuters

Korean Peninsula

Departing for his first Asia trip of his second term, President Trump publicly called for a meeting with a regional leader not on his diplomatic itinerary: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Malaysia, reiterated his openness to meeting Kim, asking the media to “put out the word.” – Wall Street Journal

Anti-China sentiment is not new in South Korea, but Seoul has seen a surge in demonstrations by far-right groups in recent weeks over the easing of visa rules for Chinese tourist groups. Demonstrators, in the hundreds, have carried signs saying “Korea for Koreans” and “Stop the Chinese Boats,” and some have chanted racial slurs, according to local news media.  – New York Times 

A South Korean presidential security adviser said on Monday that she did not believe a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was likely to happen soon. – Reuters

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will visit Russia and Belarus, state media KCNA said on Sunday. Her trip follows the invitation of the foreign ministries of Russia and Belarus, KCNA said. – Reuters

South Asia

Ten months later, he and his family members—along with some 1,300 other Afghans at the former base, known as Camp As Sayliyah—are stuck. What had already been a narrow window into the U.S. has now all but shut. President Trump’s clampdown on migration has closed off most of the Afghans’ avenues to America, and many of the government officials in charge of relocating them have been let go. – Wall Street Journal

For weeks, Pakistani and Afghan forces have fought across — and over — the frontier drawn by 19th-century Britain through historically Pashtun lands. Now, as they attempt to negotiate a lasting ceasefire, the Taliban-run Afghan government is increasingly challenging its legality. – Washington Post

Debt was piling up quickly this spring for Gautam Adani — owner of a vast empire of Indian coal mines, airports, seaports and green energy ventures — and the bills were coming due. – Washington Post

Five Pakistani soldiers and 25 militants have died in clashes near the border with Afghanistan, the military said on Sunday, as delegations from both countries met to try to defuse tensions after the deadliest fighting in years. – Reuters

Pakistan’s defence minister said on Saturday he believes Afghanistan wants peace but that failure to reach an agreement during talks in Istanbul would mean “open war,” days after both sides agreed to a ceasefire following deadly border clashes. – Reuters

Asia’s youngest nation East Timor became the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN at its summit on Sunday after being signed in by leaders of member states. – Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he will solve the Afghanistan-Pakistan crisis “very quickly,” as peace talks between the warring neighbors entered a second day. – Associated Press

Europe

Millions of Le Pen and Sarkozy supporters across the country now view the justice system as persecuting, rather than prosecuting, their leaders. Sarkozy’s punishment, supporters say, is an attempt to humiliate a former head of state whose abrasive style bucked convention. Le Pen’s supporters, meanwhile, say her court-ordered ban on running from office defies the will of voters by preventing her from entering the 2027 presidential race. – Wall Street Journal

French police have made their first arrests in connection to the heist at the Louvre Museum, according to prosecutors, including one man who was intercepted before he could board a flight to flee France. – Wall Street Journal

Ireland, in a cautionary rebuke to the governing establishment, has voted overwhelmingly to elect an outspoken leftist to the country’s mostly ceremonial presidency — a landslide victory for an independent lawmaker who has accused NATO of “warmongering” and built her campaign on demands for economic justice at home and fury over the plight of Gaza abroad. – Washington Post

Being prepared is something of a national sport in Switzerland, where service in the military or civil defense force is mandatory and the country is pitted with a network of about 370,000 personal shelters ensuring a secretly assigned place for each of its nearly 9 million residents. Separate spaces are designated for civil protection forces and the military. Now, the famously neutral country is spending hundreds of millions overhauling its vast network of personal shelters and civil protection sites in light of the “changing global security situation. – Washington Post

It was 1885 when Friedrich Trump first left Bad Dürkheim, in Germany’s western Palatinate region, for the United States. Now, 140 years later, the populist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants to make his grandson President Donald Trump an honorary citizen of the district. – Washington Post

With a population of about 1.3 million people and one of NATO’s smallest militaries, Estonia has neither the capacity to build tanks, artillery guns and fighter jets, nor a big budget for buying many weapons from abroad. But it is considered one of the most tech-savvy countries in the world, and Estonian officials are capitalizing on its digitally literate work force to produce defense systems reliant on robotics, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. – New York Times

Britain’s electronic surveillance agency devotes more resources to China than any other mission. The country’s foreign spy service has clandestine officers around the world to thwart the Chinese threat. The head of MI5, focused on domestic risks, said this month that Chinese spies threaten national security “every day.” – New York Times

 NATO member Lithuania closed Vilnius Airport and Belarus border crossings on Sunday after several objects, identified as likely helium balloons, entered its airspace, the National Crisis Management Centre said, the fourth such incident this week. – Reuters

Britain’s governing Labour Party on Saturday said Lucy Powell had won a vote of members to become the party’s deputy leader, a victory for a candidate whom Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked as a government minister last month. – Reuters

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will meet NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal and other senior policymakers during a trip to Brussels starting on Monday, a spokesperson for his ministry said. – Reuters

Croatia’s parliament on Friday voted to reintroduce compulsory military service in the European Union and NATO member country. – Associated Press

The Lithuanian Army has tested heavy machine guns and Swedish-designed surface-to-air missiles against high-speed drones, as more militaries are exploring the potential of firearms as drone countermeasures of last resort. – Defense News

Editorial: Labour’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband must decide in coming weeks on the next round of subsidies for new renewable power. Even a true climate believer such as Mr. Miliband is getting the message. “We won’t buy [renewable power] at any price,” he told an industry conference this month. The climate left won’t go down without a fight, and it is waging a rear-guard action to hold Mr. Starmer to his renewables promise. He may change his mind this autumn. Still, it’s progress that he’s even thinking about ditching Labour’s climate obsession. Reality generally wins in the end. – Wall Street Journal

The Americas

President Javier Milei scored a decisive political win Sunday, strengthening his position in Argentina’s Congress and securing a lifeline for his audacious free-market revolution backed by President Trump. – Wall Street Journal

Trinidad and Tobago—Fear is rippling through this Caribbean island nation off the coast of Venezuela. Fishermen say they are staying home or sticking close to shore amid a massive buildup of American firepower in the region. Heading out into deeper water, where the fishing is better is too risky, they say, after the U.S. carried out at least 10 airstrikes on boats—allegedly carrying drugs—that have killed 43 people, some of them off the Trinidad coast. – Wall Street Journal

The United States’ pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela is extinguishing the country’s short-lived economic recovery, leading many inside Venezuela to brace for another economic crisis. – New York Times

The United States announced economic sanctions on Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, on Friday, following Mr. Petro’s criticism of the Trump administration’s military actions in the Caribbean. – New York Times

Colombian Senator Ivan Cepeda was elected to be the left’s 2026 presidential candidate on Sunday after a primary vote by the Historic Pact, a leftist coalition that brought the country’s current president, Gustavo Petro, to power in 2022. – Reuters

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump had “guaranteed” that the two countries would reach a deal on trade during a recent meeting between the two leaders. – Reuters

Venezuela on Sunday condemned what it said was a military provocation by neighboring Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, aimed at spurring a full military confrontation with the Latin American nation. – Reuters

Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes: To defend a weak peso, officials (sometimes the Argentine treasury and sometimes the central bank) have been selling dollars. Now that Argentina is running low on greenbacks, Mr. Bessent is on call. How many more dollars Argentina will burn through until it admits the peso needs another devaluation is anybody’s guess. Mr. Milei’s big win looks to restore trust in his government. A relief rally in the peso is likely. But the fundamental threats posed by the possibility of a return of the Peronists that set off this latest panic remain. Argentina still needs a new monetary regime like the dollar. – Wall Street Journal

Dennis M. Hogan writes: U.S. interventions in Latin America, whatever their underlying rationale, visit very real suffering on ordinary people who find themselves in the path of the U.S. military. Even in Panama, where circumstances in 1989 were favorable to America’s aims, the operation was neither bloodless nor painless, nor completely successful. How much more serious will the consequences of such adventurism be in Venezuela? – New York Times

Oswaldo Silva writes: No matter how many smugglers are stopped at the southern border or how many drug boats are intercepted — or blown away — as long as one of the richest and most strategic regions of South America is controlled by a criminal organization, threats to U.S. national security will keep popping up. Washington must treat the Maduro regime not as a government to negotiate with but as a transnational criminal organization to dismantle. – The Hill

United States

A week out from a high-stakes summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, GOP hawks in Congress are pushing the president to hold the line in a competition with Beijing. – Washington Post

Of the hundreds of towns that crowd Florida’s coastline bordering the broad blue sea between America and Mexico, only one has a street named Gulf of Mexico Drive. – Washington Post

Timothy Mellon, a reclusive billionaire and a major financial backer of President Trump, is the anonymous private donor who gave $130 million to the U.S. government to help pay troops during the shutdown, according to two people familiar with the matter. – New York Times

U.S. immigration authorities detained British commentator Sami Hamdi, revoked his visa and said he would be deported rather than allowed to complete his speaking tour in the United States, a Homeland Security official said on Sunday. – Reuters

Pini Dunner writes: When a Western democracy fails to protect its Jews, other countries must act. That isn’t interference, it’s conscience. Let’s give British Jews the same chance America once gave Irish famine victims, Russian dissidents, Vietnamese boat people, and Afghan translators. A chance to start again. A chance to breathe. A chance to live without fear. The United States still stands for something—freedom, refuge, hope. It’s time we proved it again. – Wall Street Journal

Defense

The Pentagon plans to send the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, marking a major escalation of the Trump administration’s military campaign to target drug smugglers and threaten governments in Latin America. – Wall Street Journal

A U.S. military helicopter and a jet fighter from the same aircraft carrier crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other on Sunday. – Wall Street Journal

The Pentagon’s announcement on Friday that the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford would soon head to Latin America was a major addition of military firepower in the region as the Trump administration ramps up its attacks on small boats it claims are carrying narcotics. – New York Times

Shield AI has revealed a new artificial intelligence-driven uncrewed fighter capable of vertical takeoffs and landings that it says could represent the next generation of military combat aircraft and an advancement in the drone wingmen concept. – Defense News

Frank Viola and John Spencer write: Trump’s use of military force against the cartels is justified both legally and morally. It is long overdue. The United States has every right to defend its borders, its citizens and its sovereignty against a foreign network that profits from American death. For decades, America fought this war with hesitation and half-measures. Now it is being fought with purpose. This is not a new war. It is the same one that has been killing Americans for generations. The difference is that, at last, America is fighting to win. – Fox News