⭕️ The latest from the “only democracy in the Middle East”: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee hailed Israel’s election as proof of democracy, writing that “Arabs vote same as Israelis.” But Palestinian citizens of Israel are Israelis. It is the equivalent of saying “Black people vote same as Americans.” Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza cannot vote in Israeli elections, while Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank can. And last month, Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted to ban both major Arab party lists from the election, a decision subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court. Also today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded an alarm over “higher-than-usual voter turnout in the Arab sector,” warning that “the future of our Jewish state hangs in the balance.”

⭕️ BREAKING: Israel's top general balked at an order from Prime Minister Netanyahu that he feared could set off a sudden confrontation with Iran two days before Tuesday's election, Israel's Channel 12 reported Sunday. Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir demanded an in-depth discussion of the unspecified directive before carrying it out, along with written legal authorization signed by political leaders, according to the report. According to sources who spoke to the channel, military officials fear Netanyahu is trying to exploit the Iran issue to generate political momentum. The channel said officials called that claim "an outright lie." Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu posted a simulation of an atomic bomb falling on Tel Aviv.

💢 Itamar Ben-Gvir's newest campaign trophy is a cake Palestinian prisoners made from bread they saved out of their starvation rations. 🔹Two days before Tuesday's Israeli election, the national security minister posted a photo of it: slices of bread stacked on a tin plate and topped with corn, beans and diced tomato. He wrote that the prisoners at Lavi Prison had hoarded from "the little food they have" for several days, a spoonful of jam and a slice of bread at a time, so they could celebrate on Tuesday if he isn't elected. 🔹The prison service commissioner and his men found the cake. The prisoners were put through disciplinary proceedings and thrown into isolation cells - solitary confinement. "The celebration is over," Ben-Gvir wrote, and urged Israelis to vote for his far-right Otzma Yehudit party.

⚡️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to demolish an entire Hebron neighborhood, expel its residents and build "more and more settlements" after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shooting near the illegally occupied West Bank city on Friday. Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a junction outside Hebron, killing a staff sergeant and a sergeant, before Israeli forces killed them. Palestinian media identified them as Hamouda Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, both 27, from Hebron. Netanyahu blamed Hamas but offered no evidence beyond ammunition the army said it found in their car. "Our first step will be to demolish this site and completely transform it," Netanyahu said, adding Israel is "building and arranging over 100 new settlements." Israeli forces sealed off Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, and arrested dozens as Netanyahu ordered preparations for a full closure of the entire West Bank – applying to Palestinians only, with Israeli roads staying open to settlers. The news comes just five days before Israel's elections, with Netanyahu trailing in the polls.

Crowds of Palestinians pressed against a food distribution point in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, as cuts to food aid push families back toward famine. The scenes come days after the World Food Programme cut food assistance in Gaza by about a third, citing funding shortages. Some 500,000 people lost aid, and WFP now reaches 1.1 million people, down from 1.6 million in September. Families now get one food parcel instead of two, and daily hot meals have fallen from 250,000 to 150,000. WFP says it needs $450 million to keep operations running through March. About 1.4 million people in Gaza, two-thirds of the population, face crisis-level hunger or worse, and 200,000 need immediate food aid to avoid starvation, according to the UN. 🎥 Shehab News (Telegram)

⚡️ U.S. special envoy and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner received $2 billion in a slush fund created by top Emirati and Saudi officials, according to an excerpt of a new book by investigative reporter Matthew Cole. Cole reports an extraordinary sequence of events that began with Russian intelligence infiltrating Kushner’s iPhone. According to Cole, Dutch intelligence captured a Russian agent, flipped him, and gained access to Kushner’s device themselves. As they began to monitor Kushner’s phone in real time, they observed suspicious transfers of huge amounts of money. ➤ According to Cole, UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sought to influence U.S. foreign policy during the first Trump term, and offered Kushner the money toward that end. ➤ The arrangement also involved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who directed Kushner in 2018 to set up an account at the Israeli Central Bank. Netanyahu reportedly required Kushner to inform him before moving any money out of the account. ➤ Kushner denied Cole’s reporting as “categorically false” and “completely insane” in a statement on Thursday. Through his attorney, Kushner said he would pursue legal action against the publisher of Cole’s book, Simon & Schuster. The full excerpt from the book published in Vanity Fair is available in the Vanity Fair link below. Cole’s book, “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,” will be released on October 27. It can be pre-ordered at the link in reply.