Board of Peace shows ‘peacemaking is going to be effectively led by America,’ Tony Blair says

Mike Wagenheim

Tony Blair, former British prime minister, speaks at the annual Meeting of the New Champions, Tianjin, China, June 24, 2025. Credit: Jakob Polacsek/World Economic Forum.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has seen his share of failures in the Middle East peace process. But the member of the executive board of the Board of Peace says that this time could be different.

“The challenges are still immense, and you’d have to be foolish—especially after I’ve been dealing with this issue for so long—to be sort of blindly optimistic,” Blair told JNS after the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington on Thursday. 

“But there is a plan. It depends crucially on demilitarization of Gaza, of ensuring that this new technocratic committee can govern with authority,” he said. “We just got to try and make it work.”

Questions have long surrounded the board’s ability to succeed. Countries have hesitated to fund reconstruction given that Hamas remains armed and in power. Member states have also been slow to commit troops to the International Stabilization Force meant to enforce the Israel-Hamas ceasefire until there is a new government.

But with five Muslim-majority countries announcing troop commitments on Thursday and billions of dollars in funding pledges revealed, Blair told JNS that “there is real momentum out of today.” 

That included an announcement by Nickolay Mladenov, the board’s high representative for Gaza, that 2,000 Gazans had signaled interest in joining the enclave’s police force in the hours after an application was published online.

“There’s got to be a new police force—people who will be vetted by the government of Israel to make sure that we don’t allow people who are going to take that in the wrong direction for the people of Gaza,” Blair told JNS. 

“It’s not that people don’t recognize there’s still immense problems, and in Israel, there will still be a lot of skepticism,” he said.

“We have a plan,” Blair said. “We’re pretty committed to delivering it.”

There appeared to be 23 “observer” states and entities among the 49 representatives who attended the event on Thursday. Many states that have declined to be part of the board have said that joining an international body requires parliamentary approval or other constitutional obligations. Some have said that the board intends to undermine the United Nations.

“I think people will want to join in the end,” Blair told JNS. “The trouble with anything like this is that a whole lot of myths spring up, like it’s to replace the U.N. We’re not replacing the U.N.”

Blair said that there needs to be a fair acknowledgment that “the U.N. hasn’t produced the 20-point plan for Gaza. President Trump did.”

“The U.N.’s not handling the Russia-Ukraine peace talks. President Trump is,” he told JNS.

That means that the Board of Peace is “a recognition that the peacemaking is going to be effectively led by America, but with a coalition of supporting countries—for it not to be American unilateralism, but America bringing countries together in support of a common objective peace,” according to Blair.

The board still needs to win over a lot of people and countries, including Blair’s, where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has derided the Board of Peace. 

The United Kingdom sent its ambassador in Washington, rather than a senior government official, to Thursday’s meeting.

Blair told JNS that “virtually all of the countries there today—they didn’t just turn up.”

“They brought something to the table,” he said. “It could be money, but it could be troops. It could be support for capacity-building. Whatever it is, come to the table with something, and it’s an open door.”

Israeli Christian Leader: Tucker Carlson ‘Doesn’t Want the Truth,’ Endangers Christians Elsewhere by Lying About Israel

Debbie Weiss

Tucker Carlson speaks on first day of AmericaFest 2025 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec. 18, 2025. Photo: Charles-McClintock Wilson/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

Firebrand podcaster Tucker Carlson drew a barrage of heat from Israelis after claiming he was “detained and interrogated” during a brief stop at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett calling him “a chickens**t” and “a phony” and an Israeli Christian leader describing him as “an enemy of Israel” for lying about the country’s treatment of Christians.

Shadi Khalloul, founder of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association and a former Knesset candidate, accused the former Fox News host-turned-far-right conspiracy theorist of “destroying Christian-Jewish relations” all over the world and “endangering the persecuted Christian community in the Middle East” by portraying Israel as hostile to Christianity.

“The truth is exactly the opposite,” he said, describing Christians in Israel as enjoying freedom and equal opportunity.

In Khalloul’s telling, Carlson is choosing scenes and storylines that travel well online, then skipping the reporting that might complicate them.

“Tucker Carlson doesn’t want the truth. The truth doesn’t exist in his lexicon,” Khalloul told The Algemeiner.

Earlier this month, Khalloul invited Carlson to a tour of Christian communities and holy sites in Israel, including a meeting with his brother-in-law, the head of the Maronite Church of Israel, but received no response.

“If he [Carlson] was really willing to help, he would come interview us, hear our views, our narrative,” Khalloul said, adding the podcaster would then be able to “expose the oppression of Christians in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Syria, and under the Palestinian Authority by a radical Islamic propaganda agenda,” rather than “talking about me and my community as being persecuted by Israel.”

He pointed to anti-Christian violence in Syria, including a recent church bombing in Damascus, and to the arrest of Maronite official Moussa el-Hajj in Lebanon after he was arrested by Hezbollah operatives at the Lebanese border carrying money and medicine sent from Israel’s Christian community.

Christian communities all over the region are continuing “to shrink while we here are thriving and increasing in numbers and happily living in Israel,” Khalloul said.

Khalloul’s comments came after Carlson spent only a few hours in Israel on Wednesday for an interview with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and chose not to leave the Ben Gurion Airport facility before flying out of the country.

Bennett described the polemical commentator’s visit as a staged drive-by meant to give him a basis for future anti-Israel commentary.

“Tucker Carlson is a chickens**t,” Bennett posted on the social media platform X.

Carlson, who has been “spouting lies about Israel for the past two years,” didn’t even step foot in the country, Bennett wrote, and instead posted a photo taken in the airport logistics zone to “pretend he’s actually IN Israel (so he can later claim that he’s a serious reporter who toured Israel).”

He “whined” and “made up a story that he’s being supposedly harassed by our security (didn’t happen),” he continued.

“Next time he talks about Israel as if he’s some expert, just remember this guy is a phony!” Bennett concluded.

Carlson’s version, carried by outlets including the New York Post and the Daily Mail, said airport security took passports and “hauled” his executive producer into a room and interrogated him about the interview Carlson had just recorded with Huckabee.

Huckabee pushed back publicly, writing on X: “EVERYONE who comes in/out of Israel (every country for that matter) has passports checked & routinely asked security questions.”

Israel’s Airports Authority also rejected Carlson’s account, saying he and his team were not “detained, delayed, or interrogated” and were only asked “a few routine questions” in a side room inside the VIP lounge “solely to protect their privacy.”

“No unusual incident occurred,” the authority said, adding that it “firmly rejects any other claims.”

Carlson’s airport detention story was “another lie” by “someone who is always inventing stories,” according to Khalloul.

Carlson’s own platform promoted the trip as a fact-finding mission. In a monologue titled “We’re headed to Israel. Here’s why,” his site said he was traveling to “get answers to questions that no one will answer.”

His show page also carried an episode billed as “Israel’s Purging of Christians From the Holy Land and the Plot to Keep Americans From Noticing,” part of a series focused on Christian treatment by the “US-funded Israeli government.”

Commentators on social media pointed out that Carlson’s posting “Greetings from Israel” from an airport logistics zone, then flying out, does not amount to visiting the country in any ordinary sense.

Carlson’s brief trip to Israel contrasts with his interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2024, when he spent multiple days in Russia praising the country on video and infamously marveling at the use of locks on shopping carts — a common feature in Europe.

The podcaster’s visit to Israel also differed from his trip to Doha in December, when he interviewed Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and revealed his plans to purchase a home in the country. Qatar has been a long-time backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its Palestinian offshoot Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group. 

Carlson has ramped up his anti-Israel content over the last year, according to a study released in December by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), which tracked the prominent far-right podcaster’s disproportionate emphasis on attacking the Jewish state in 2025.

In September, for example, the podcaster appeared to blame the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus and suggest Israel was behind the assassination of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

(Źródło zdjęcia: iStock)

Ustawa o usługach cyfrowych: mechanizm masowej cenzury

Drieu Godefridi
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Iran Races to Rebuild Missile Arsenal, Israel Tests Upgraded Defenses Amid Fragile US Nuclear Talks

Ailin Vilches Arguello

Iranian missiles are displayed in a park in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

As the prospect of renewed conflict looms, Iran is scrambling to restore its battered missile capabilities while Israel tests upgraded air defenses and accelerates military preparations for a potential confrontation.

Iran had 25 key sites housing long-range ballistic missile capabilities, 19 of which were struck during last June’s 12-day war, when the US and Israel bombed the regime’s nuclear facilities, according to Israel’s Channel 14.

The outlet’s latest report, drawing on satellite imagery, research by the Alma Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, and confirmations from security officials, reveals that all sites were equipped with underground infrastructure and suffered extensive surface and subterranean damage.

Yet, with the shadow of a new conflict looming, Iran has rushed to restore its shattered defense capabilities, reportedly completing some partial repairs already.

As of last month, the country’s main launch bases — whose surfaces suffered moderate to severe damage — appear to show clear signs of recovery and resumed operational activity.

Israeli officials estimate that the Islamist regime now possesses at least twice the missile arsenal it deployed in past attacks.

However, Iran’s missile launch capacity remains limited by shortages of launchers and rocket fuel, even as it reportedly works to restore these critical components as well.

As Tehran works to rebuild its strategic threat against the Jewish state amid rising regional tensions, Israel has successfully upgraded its missile defense systems and expanded its arsenal of anti-missile batteries, effectively reinforcing its deterrence capabilities.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced a successful test of the “David’s Sling” air-defense system, designed to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles with advanced evasive capabilities.

Built on operational lessons from last year’s war, Israeli officials said the upgraded system can intercept cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, aircraft, and drones at medium and long ranges, reaching altitudes of 50 to 70 kilometers (31 to 43 miles).

From the Arrow system to the Iron Dome, Israel is bolstering its defense capabilities with extensive logistical preparations to maintain operational readiness during prolonged and intense missile attacks, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

At the top of the country’s operational defense pyramid is the Arrow system, a strategic, exo-atmospheric shield designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles while they are still outside the atmosphere, neutralizing threats at a distance and preventing environmental damage or the impact of unconventional warheads

Serving as the middle layer of Israel’s missile defense, the newly upgraded David’s Sling system works alongside the Iron Dome, which protects the home front and civilian settlements.

The country is also introducing the laser system Iron Beam, or “Magen Or,” capable of intercepting missiles quickly, accurately, and more efficiently than conventional systems

These latest developments come as regional tensions escalate over Iran’s nuclear program and fragile negotiations with the United States, raising concerns about a renewed conflict in the region. 

Washington and Tehran resumed negotiations last Friday in Oman, marking the first direct engagement between US and Iranian officials since nuclear talks collapsed after the 12-day war in June.

With the chances of a deal still uncertain, US President Donald Trump has simultaneously launched a massive military buildup in the Gulf, pressuring the Iranian regime to return to the negotiating table if it wants to prevent a potential conflict.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump to discuss the prospects of a potential nuclear agreement with Tehran and the next steps in the talks. Israeli officials have said they want any agreement with Iran to include zero enrichment of uranium, limits on ballistic missiles, and a pullback of the regime’s support for terrorist groups across the Middle East.

“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social after their meeting. 

“Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a deal, they were hit with Midnight Hammer — that did not work well for them,” he continued, referring to the US operation to bomb Iranian nuclear sites in June. “Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”

Trump also told Axios in a Tuesday interview that he is considering deploying a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to prepare for military action if negotiations with Iran fail.

“Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time,” Trump said. 

According to multiple media reports, Washington has set three conditions for a nuclear agreement with Iran: halting uranium enrichment, restricting the country’s ballistic missile program, and ending the regime’s support for terrorist groups and other proxies throughout the Middle East.

However, Iran has long said all three demands are unacceptable, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its Islamist, authoritarian rulers view the ballistic missile program, not uranium enrichment, as the bigger issue.

In recent days, the US has indicated it is primarily concerned with the nuclear program, leaving some observers concerned that the Trump administration will strike a deal that’s too narrow in scope.

The Iranian government has already publicly rejected any transfer of uranium out of the country and ruled out negotiations over its ballistic missile program or support for proxy forces.

Cautious optimism about diplomacy has also been shaken by reported clashes between US and Iranian forces at sea as tensions rise.

Last week, the US military said it shot down an Iranian drone that had “aggressively” approached the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Hours later, forces from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) harassed a US-flagged, US-crewed merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump initially threatened to intervene in Iran if the regime killed anti-government protesters who took to the streets across the country in late December and early January. However, the Iranian government proceeded to crush the protests with a brutal crackdown, reportedly killing tens of thousands of people.

The US subsequently began its military buildup in the region, and Trump called on the regime to begin negotiations.