“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said in Jerusalem, speaking alongside Netanyahu.

“That’s not easy. I think the prime minster knows that as well as anybody. But it’s something that we’re committed to in the Trump administration,” Vance continued. “And I think that we’ve, even in the past 24 hours, had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government, but also, frankly with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this.”

“As the prime minister said, these are days of destiny, and we’re very excited to sit down and work together on the Gaza peace plan,” Vance added.

VANCE WARNS HAMAS AS GAZA PEACE PLAN’S CIVILIAN MILITARY COOPERATION CENTER OPENS

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

Netanyahu told reporters that Israel has an unmatched alliance and partnership with the U.S. that is generating opportunities for security and the expansion of peace in the Middle East.

Vance also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, telling reporters afterward, “We’re here to talk about how to ensure that the peace agreement that started about a week ago sticks, that we move into phase two, into phase three with success.”

JOHNSON, SCALISE DEMAND ANSWERS AFTER SUSPECTED HAMAS OPERATIVE DISCOVERED ON US SOIL

Vice President JD Vance and Israeli President Isaac Herzog shake hands during a meeting at the presidential residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (Leo Correa/AP)

The peace deal included the release of hostages being held by Hamas.

“As the president said, there will be torments along the way. It will be difficult, but I feel very optimistic based on my conversation with our Israeli friends and also with our Gulf Arab friends, that it’s possible that we actually can make peace stick, and that we can create the kind of environment where our Gulf Arab friends and our Israeli friends can build a better Middle East for everybody,” Vance added. “So that is the goal of the administration. We think that it’s in the best interest of the United States. We also think that it’s in the best interest of everybody who lives here.”

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

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Herzog said, “I truly believe that the fact you’re here is another brick in building the future for peace.”

“We all are grateful to President Donald Trump for his steadfast insistence on moving forward. We must move forward,” Herzog continued. “We must offer hope for the region, for Israel, the Palestinians, our neighbors, and for the future of our children.”

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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The work of StopAntisemitism is not an academic exercise, but a necessary response. Jew-hatred was already rising before Oct. 7, with a strengthening alliance between the radical left and radical Islam. College campuses were already a hotbed of false narratives, bigotry and harassment of Jews and Israelis. And we were fighting it.

But since that earth-shaking day, the scale of Jew-hatred exploded, and almost overnight, the reports flooding into our organization increased by roughly 1,500%. Our team had to double in size just to vet, verify and act on those alerts.

A protester climbs a lamppost breaking off U.S. flags in New York City, Friday, November 10, 2023. Over a thousand anti-Israel protesters march from Columbus Circle around midtown Manhattan, ending up at Grand Central. Though largely peaceful, the event ended with multiple arrests after a protester broke an American and a UN flag on a lamppost. (Fox News Digital)

And in the time since, in an unhappy new twist, the cancer of antisemitism is spreading to some previously reasonable voices on the political right. These voices, once well-known television anchors and personalities, seem to have bought into the hatred for no apparent reason but to take advantage of social media clicks to sustain their popularity.

From day one, we adopted an expose and hold accountable model, showcasing people who espouse Jew-hatred, whether they be public figures, workplace actors, academics or healthcare professionals. In each case, our goal is not vengeance but rather consequence. When those who traffic in antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories realize they cannot hide behind anonymity, when their institutions feel pressure, that cost matters. That is true accountability.

Some will balk at that, asking, “Isn’t this cancel culture? Isn’t it enough to argue and debate?” Not in this case. Antisemitism is a metastasizing cancer. When society allows Jew-hatred to fester unchecked, it does not stop at targeting Jews. It corrodes trust, erodes institutions, infects public discourse and undermines the very foundations of pluralism and democracy.

We have seen what happens when antisemitism creeps in. University after university failed Jewish students, even as threats mounted. Our 2024 Report on Campus Antisemitism documented a 3,000% increase in anti-Jewish incidents. Students told us that 43% would not recommend their school to a Jewish peer.

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Protester waves the Hamas flag while remaining masked in a Washington, D.C., protest, July 2024. (Lucas Tomlinson/Fox News Digital)

Administrations too often responded with silence or worse. In a particularly egregious example of campus complicity in this scourge, the U.S. Department of Education reported that the Harvard Law Review “awarded a $65,000 fellowship—meant to ‘serve the public interest’—to a protester who faced criminal charges for assaulting a Jewish student on campus.”

When Jews are unsafe in universities, society lacks a moral backbone. When professors, doctors, journalists and media personalities traffic in antisemitic canards with impunity, then antisemitism is no longer a fringe pathology but part of the public discourse.

This is why StopAntisemitism wages this fight as aggressively as we do. A cancer left unchecked spreads. The longer Jew-hatred grows unfettered, the more it seeps into power structures, legal systems, educational institutions and cultural institutions.

By putting names, faces, documented statements and consequences front and center, with tips from Americans of all ages, religions and ethnicities, we erect a barrier. We alert the public and encourage law enforcement to act. Together, we work alongside employers, universities and professional associations to enforce codes of conduct. We refuse to treat antisemitism as a tolerated eccentricity.

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Antisemitic graffiti defaces Israeli-American Council HQ. (The Israeli-American Council (IAC) national headquarters in Los Angeles)

In the last two years, we have shown that exposure works. Careers have ended. Investigations have been opened. Institutions have shifted. The rule is no longer “say anything and nothing happens.” The rule must be “if you spew Jew-hatred, the world sees you, institutions respond, accountability follows.”

But we cannot win alone. This is a civic responsibility. Every media outlet, every university board, every employer, every citizen who cares about justice must reject whitewashed excuses for Jew-hatred because, once normalized, it will devour the very foundation of our country.

History shows that antisemitism flourishes in weakening cultures heading toward a collapse from within. The once-mighty Roman Empire is no more. The Spanish Empire, the Nazi regime, the Soviet Union thrive only on the pages of old books.

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For centuries, Jewish life has been the canary in the coal mine. If the canary is sick, the air is toxic. We are working to extinguish this poison before it suffocates America, the greatest country in the history of the world.

Liora Rez is the founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism.

The post Antisemitism: Face it. Fight it. Finish it appeared first on My Blog.

A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which effectively would annex the territory for Israel, passed a vote Wednesday in Israel’s parliament as Vance was visiting the country, according to Reuters. It was the first of four votes needed for the proposal to become law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party did not back the legislation, which was pushed by lawmakers outside his ruling coalition, the news agency added.

“That was weird. I was sort of confused by that,” Vance told reporters on Thursday when asked about the vote. “Now I actually asked somebody about it, and they told me that it was a symbolic vote, some symbolic vote to recognize or a symbolic vote to annex the West Bank. I mean, what I would say to that is when I asked about it, somebody told me it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic.”

“I mean look, if it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance added. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”

JD VANCE SAYS PSAKI’S REMARK ABOUT HIS WIFE WAS ‘DISGRACEFUL’

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press conference following a military briefing at the Civilian Military Coordination Center on Oct. 21, 2025, in Kiryat Gat, Israel.  (Pool/Getty Images/Nathan Howard)

Following Vance’s comments, a top member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party announced Thursday that the Israeli prime minister told him not to advance proposals regarding the annexation of the West Bank, according to Israeli media.

“The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X.

“The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support, these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” it added.

VANCE HAILS ‘DAYS OF DESTINY’ AS VP SEEKS TO BUILD ON CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

The city of Ramallah in the West Bank is seen on Oct. 9, 2025. (Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

Possible annexation of the West Bank has been floated in Israel in response to a string of countries moving to recognize a Palestinian state, according to The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. They, and much of the international community, say annexation would all but end any remaining possibility of a two-state solution, the AP reported.

More than half a million Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank in some 130 settlements.

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” President Donald Trump said in late September in the Oval Office. “I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”

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The deputy Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Majed Bamya, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Palestinians “appreciate the clear message” the Trump administration has sent in opposition to annexation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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Walker, a former Republican congressman and Baptist pastor from North Carolina, was nominated byPresident Donald Trump to serve as the nation’s top global envoy for religious liberty. He will officially assume the post once confirmed by the Senate, becoming the seventh American to hold the role since it was created by Congress in 1998.

His visit to Israel, he explained, was driven by both friendship and timing. “All these other historic landmark agreements are happening the same week we’re here,” Walker said. “It’s been amazing to see the excitement — literally banners hanging from buildings and parks thanking President Trump for his ongoing efforts and the strength he’s shown to drive the region toward peace.”

VANCE WARNS HAMAS AS GAZA PEACE PLAN’S CIVILIAN MILITARY COOPERATION CENTER OPENS

Ambassador-Designate Mark Walker, center, visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel, in October 2025. (Warren Cohn)

Walker said he was particularly moved by his meetings with hostage families.

“I was overwhelmed to spend some time with Keith Siegel, who endured 483 days of captivity and torture, and withRuby Chen, whose son, Itay, was killed by Hamas — his body still not returned,” Walker said. “To hear the passion in Ruby’s voice, to see his perseverance, it’s overwhelming. In America, we’re watching this from a distance. But being here on the ground, seeing how the community has banded together to stand up for these hostages — alive or dead — has impacted me in a different manner.”

The experience, he said, deepened his appreciation for Israel’s resilience. “The people of Israel have stood resiliently in the face of evil,” he said. “Their faith and courage remind the world what strength looks like.”

With U.S. officials visiting Israel to monitor the fragile ceasefire, Walker said he remains confident in the administration’s leadership.

Ambassador-Designate Mark Walker for religious freedom with freed hostage Keith Siegel and Rubi Chen, father of hostage Itay Chen. (Warren Cohn)

ISRAEL IDENTIFIES 2 HOSTAGES RETURNED FROM GAZA AS RESIDENTS OF SAME KIBBUTZ

“I haveno confidence in Hamas based on their history,” he said. “But I have great confidence in President Trump and what he’s doing. He’s committed to peace and showing it with his actions — sending Vice President Vance, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff here this week.”

He also praised Secretary of StateMarco Rubio for advancing the administration’s diplomatic agenda. “This isn’t a photo opportunity,” Walker said. “It’s a real plan for long-term stability.”

When asked how he views Israel’s importance, Walker reflected on his years in Congress.

“I think historically, we’ve had a long-standing relationship of supporting each other through times of peril as well as times of success,” he said. “Certainly, military and business relationships, but from a spiritual standpoint, America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.”

He added, “When you sit in the House chamber where President Trump gives the State of the Union, there are 22 or 23 philosophers — great men of genius — depicted above. But there’s only one historical figure looking directly at the speaker’s rostrum, and that’s Moses. That tells you a lot about the spiritual connection that binds our two countries.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset as President Donald Trump and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Israeli Knesset, look on at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025 in Jerusalem.  (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)

When asked about criticism from some within the evangelical community regarding its close alignment with Israel, Walker said he welcomes open discussion but rejects efforts to undermine the partnership. “I don’t have a problem with anyone questioning — we ought to be able to defend those relationships,” he said. “But when you see some of the talk lately that aims to degrade that relationship, maybe for personal gain or attention, I do have a problem with it, and I think it needs to be condemned.”

He added that such views are far from mainstream. “The evangelical communities that I’m part of — and I happen to be a member of the largest Protestant organization in the United States — don’t have those issues,” he said. “There may be some who are loosely affiliated and use that kind of rhetoric, but the overwhelming majority of evangelicals in America applaud and encourage the relationship we have with Israel.”

Attendees wave Israel and the United States flags at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit on July 17, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. GOP presidential hopefuls for 2024 are making their cases before the pro-Israeli group.  (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

On his new role, Walker said the mission was deeply personal.

“When President Trump reached out and asked us to serve as the ambassador for International Religious Freedom — that’s a global position — it was humbling,” he said. “The responsibility is to advocate for people of all faiths, especially in places where they’re persecuted or punished by blasphemy laws.”

EVANGELICAL LEADERS PRAISE TRUMP’S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL AMID WAR WITH IRAN

Walker said he is already building relationships with governments and faith leaders to prepare for his official role advising both President Trump and Secretary Rubio.

“Our job is to engage, expose and eradicate atrocities — whether it’s Christians in Nigeria being massacred, Druze in Syria targeted or rising antisemitic behavior worldwide,” he said. “The United States must remain the beacon of hope for religious freedom. We’re the only country that has it written into law.”

He added that Israel’s example of tolerance stands out in the Middle East. “Christians should be able to live peaceably, share their faith and worship without fear,” he said. “The fact that Israel allows that in a region where so many others don’t is meaningful.”

U.S. President Donald Trump holds the signed agreement of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Walker said he plans to “push back wherever persecution exists — whether through diplomacy or by urging governments to repeal blasphemy and anti-conversion laws.”

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He concluded, “President Trump is the only president in American history who called a global conference on religious liberty at the United Nations,” Walker said. “That sent a message across the world — that faith matters, that freedom matters. What we see here in Israel is that same spirit of courage, and it reminds us why this partnership, rooted in faith and freedom, must endure.”

Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.

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In nearly every modern conflict, disabling enemy aircraft on the ground has been the first move. When Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year, it began by destroying Iranian runways — grounding Tehran’s air force before it could take off. Russia and Ukraine have done the same throughout their ongoing war, targeting airfields to cripple enemy aircraft. And when India clashed with Pakistan, the opening salvos hit Pakistani air bases.

Beijing has taken that lesson to heart. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has spent years building an arsenal of long-range precision missiles — including “carrier killers” like the DF-21D and DF-26 — capable of destroying U.S. aircraft carriers and striking American airfields across the Pacific. The goal: keep U.S. air power out of range before it can even launch.

ISRAEL TO DEPLOY FIRST COMBAT-READY LASER WEAPON SYSTEM FOR OPERATIONAL AIR DEFENSE

Shield AI unveils its X-BAT AI fighter jet. 

Now, a U.S. defense technology firm says it has built a way to fight back. Shield AI, based in San Diego, has unveiled a new AI-piloted fighter jet designed to operate without runways, without GPS, and without constant communication links — an aircraft that can think, fly, and fight on its own.

Shield AI says the jet, called X-BAT, can take off vertically, reach 50,000 feet, fly more than 2,000 nautical miles, and execute strike or air defense missions using an onboard autonomy system known as Hivemind. It’s designed to operate from ships, small islands, or improvised sites — places where traditional jets can’t. The aircraft’s dash speed remains classified.

“China has built this anti-access aerial denial bubble that holds our runways at risk,” said Armor Harris, Shield AI’s senior vice president of aircraft engineering, in an interview with Fox News. “They’ve basically said, ‘We’re not going to compete stealth-on-stealth in the air — we’ll target your aircraft before they even get off the ground.’”

The jet launches vertically, and three X-BATs can fit in the space of one legacy fighter or helicopter.

According to Harris, the U.S. has spent decades perfecting stealth and survivability in the air while leaving its forces vulnerable on the ground. “The way to solve that problem is mobility,” he said. “You’re always moving around. This is the only VTOL fighter being built today.”

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X-BAT’s Hivemind autonomy allows it to operate in denied or jammed environments, where traditional aircraft would be blind. The system uses onboard sensors to interpret its surroundings, reroute around threats, and identify targets in real time. “It’s reading and reacting to the situation around it,” Harris said. “It’s not flying a pre-programmed route. If new threats appear, it can reroute itself or identify targets and then ask a human for permission to engage.”

That human element, he emphasized, remains essential. “It’s very important to us that a human is always involved in making the use of lethal force decision,” Harris said. “That doesn’t mean the person has to be in the cockpit — it could be remote or delegated through tasking — but there will always be a human decision-maker.”

3 X-BAT fighter jets can fit in the space of one traditional fighter jet or helicopter, according to the company. (Shield AI )

Shield AI says X-BAT will be combat-ready by 2029 and is designed to deliver fifth- or sixth-generation performance at a small fraction of the cost of manned fighters. The aircraft’s compact footprint allows up to three X-BATs to fit in the deck space of a single legacy fighter or helicopter, giving commanders more flexibility in launching sorties from limited space.

AMERICA’S NEW STEALTH B-21 RAIDER TAKES NEXT STEP WITH SECOND BOMBER’S FIRST FLIGHT

The AI fighter jet is designed to be able to vertically take off from sea, mobile or tight ground space.  (Shield AI )

While Shield AI isn’t disclosing specific numbers, the company says X-BAT is priced in the same range as the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, the next generation of autonomous wingmen meant to fly alongside — and eventually ahead of — manned fighters. Costs vary depending on mission systems and configurations, but the company’s goal is to scale production to keep the jet affordable and sustainable throughout its lifecycle, breaking what it calls the traditional “fighter cost curve.”

The company estimates the aircraft will deliver about a tenfold improvement in cost per effect compared to legacy fifth-generation jets, including the F-35, while remaining “affordable and attritable” enough to be risked in high-end combat.

Designed with a potential Indo-Pacific conflict in mind, which would require maneuverability on small island chains.  (Shield AI )

Shield AI is in discussions with both the Air Force and Navy about integrating X-BAT into future combat programs and with several allied militaries exploring joint development opportunities.

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Harris said the company views X-BAT as part of a generational shift toward distributed airpower — one that mirrors what SpaceX did in space. “Historically, the United States had a small number of extremely capable, extremely expensive satellites,” he said. “Then you had SpaceX come along and put up hundreds of smaller, cheaper ones. The same thing is happening in air power. There’s always going to be a role for manned platforms, but over time, unmanned systems will outnumber them ten-to-one or twenty-to-one.”

For Harris, that shift is about restoring deterrence through flexibility. “X-BAT presents an asymmetric dilemma to an adversary like China,” he said. “They don’t know where it’s coming from, and the cost of countering it is high. It’s an important part of a broader joint force that becomes significantly more lethal.

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Trump threatened higher tariffs against both countries to push them into agreeing to end the fighting. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced in the conflict.

The president watched as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the expanded ceasefire at the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Cambodia and Thailand on Sunday signed an expansion of a ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker over the summer. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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The agreement requires Thailand to release 18 Cambodian soldiers held prisoner and for both countries to begin removing heavy weapons from the border.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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