World Africa Americas Asia Australia China Europe India Watch Listen Live TV Subscribe Sign in World Middle East Israel vows to escalate war with new plan to ‘conquer’ Gaza Oren Liebermann By Dana Karni, Lucas Lilieholm and Oren Liebermann, CNN 6 minute read Updated 9:25 PM EDT, Mon May 5, 2025 An Israeli army tank maneuvers in the Gaza Strip is seen from southern Israel on May 4. An Israeli army tank maneuvers in the Gaza Strip is seen from southern Israel on May 4. Ariel Schalit/AP Jerusalem CNN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the population of Gaza will be displaced to the south after his security cabinet approved an expanded military operation in the enclave that a minister described as a plan to “conquer” the territory. The vote on Sunday came hours after the military said it would mobilize tens of thousands of reservists, strengthening its capacity to operate in the besieged Palestinian territory. “One thing will be clear: there will be no in-and-out,” Netanyahu said in a Monday video message posted on X. “We’ll call up reserves to come, hold territory — we’re not going to enter and then exit the area, only to carry out raids afterward. That’s not the plan. The intention is the opposite.” “There will be a movement of the population to protect them,” Netanyahu said of the “intensified operation.” A senior Israeli security official earlier said the operation in Gaza, called “Gideon’s Chariots,” was unanimously approved by the security cabinet with the aim of subduing Hamas and securing the release of all hostages. The plan would be implemented after US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week to “provide a window of opportunity” for a hostage deal, the official added. “If no hostage deal is reached, Operation Gideon’s Chariots will begin with full force and will not stop until all its objectives are achieved.” The plan then, is to displace Gaza’s entire population to the south of the enclave, following which the total the blockade of humanitarian aid may be lifted, the official said, adding that the military “will remain in every area it captures.” “In any temporary or permanent agreement, Israel will not evacuate the security buffer zone around Gaza, which is intended to protect Israeli communities and prevent arms smuggling to Hamas,” the official said. “We are on the eve of a major entry into Gaza based on the recommendation of the General Staff,” Netanyahu said in his video message, adding that military officials told him it was time to “start the final moves.” ‘Highest goal’ The “highest goal” of the expanding operation in Gaza, according to the military’s top spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, is returning the hostages, not defeating Hamas. His comments come just a week after Netanyahu said the war’s “supreme goal” is the defeat of Israel’s enemies, not the return of hostages. “The top goal of the operation is the return of the hostages. After that — the collapse of Hamas rule, its defeat and subjugation — but first and foremost, the return of the hostages,” Defrin said responding to a question about his message to hostage families. The military spokesman faced swift condemnation from Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who said Defrin was “confused into thinking that the army is above the political echelon.” Hostage families were quick to condemn the announcement of the expansion of the war, fearing that the Israeli government is prioritizing the defeat of Hamas over securing a deal to return Israeli hostages – and endangering them through the expanded military operations. Asked if the US approves of the new Israeli plan, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told CNN: “The President has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold hostages, including American Edan Alexander, and the bodies of four Americans. Hamas bears sole responsibility for this conflict, and for the resumption of hostilities.” Gaza annexation not ruled out Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that “we are finally going to conquer the Gaza Strip.” Annexing Gaza is a possibility, and once the military expands its operations in the enclave, it will not pull back – even if Hamas agrees to a new hostage deal, he said at a conference in Jerusalem, referring to the security cabinet decision on Sunday. video thumbnail clarissa daniella settler movement video Related video ‘That sounds like ethnic cleansing’: CNN questions lead figure in Israel’s settler movement “Once we conquer and stay – we can talk about sovereignty (over Gaza). But I didn’t demand that it be included in the war’s objectives,” he added. “Once the maneuver begins – there will be no withdrawal from the territories we’ve captured, not even in exchange for hostages.” Smotrich primarily handles the country’s finances, but he sits on the security cabinet and holds significant sway over Netanyahu, who relies on his support to keep the government from collapsing. More than 2,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since mid-March when Israel launched a wave of deadly strikes, shattering a ceasefire, which had been in place for nearly two months. More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The expansion of the fighting will be gradual to give a chance for a renewed ceasefire and hostage release deal before US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region in mid-May, the officials said. Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar next week, but there is currently no stop planned in Israel. The UN raised concern with the latest expansion plan, saying it would lead to more civilians being killed. “I can tell you that the Secretary General is alarmed by these reports of Israeli plans to expand ground operations and prolong its military presence in Gaza,” Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq told reporters on Monday. New aid mechanism An Israeli blockade of all humanitarian aid into the strip is now in its ninth week. Israel says it cut off the entry of humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages. But international organizations say its actions violate international law and risks creating a man-made famine, with some accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war – a war crime. The cabinet also discussed allowing the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza under a new framework which was approved, but has not yet been implemented, according to one of the sources. Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan 11, reported that a confrontation had broken out during Sunday’s meeting over the resumption of aid deliveries with two far-right members of the cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and settlements minister Orit Strook opposed to any resumption of aid and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir arguing Israel was obligated to facilitate them under international law. Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Monday. Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Monday. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP According to one of the source who spoke to CNN, the Israeli media reports about the arguments over the aid “are not wrong.” Palestinians clamber to receive donated food at a distribution center in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on April 7. Related article Israel, US in talks to resume aid deliveries to Gaza as famine looms, sources say, with announcement possible in coming days United States and Israeli officials are discussing a mechanism to deliver aid to Gaza that bypasses Hamas, an Israeli source familiar with the matter and a State Department official told CNN. The official said an announcement could be made “in the coming days.” The delivery mechanism in the works is intended to allow aid to reach the Palestinian population with safeguards to ensure it is not diverted by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, according to a State Department spokesperson. An unnamed private foundation would manage the aid mechanism and the delivery of the humanitarian supplies into Gaza, the spokesperson said. The US expects the United Nations and international aid organizations to work with the framework of the foundation’s mechanism to ensure that supplies do not reach Hamas, the spokesperson said. In a statement on Monday, Hamas criticized the new framework, saying: “We reject turning aid into a tool for political blackmail and support the international position that rejects any arrangements that do not respect humanitarian principles.” Aid agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory also rejected the new framework on Sunday, saying the plan appeared “designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items” and would fail to ensure aid reached Gaza’s most vulnerable residents. “The UN Secretary-General and the Emergency Relief Coordinator have made clear that we will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” the groups said in a joint statement. Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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QUALITY POST: What the 2025 numbers actually show ADL’s audit still found incidents in all 50 states. Raw totals were highest in New York (1,160), California (817), and New Jersey (687). Those are also the largest Jewish populations. Assaults were concentrated in New York City. National totals fell from the 2024 peak but stayed far above pre-2023 levels. FBI hate-crime data still has Jews as the large majority of religion-based victims. So “low incident count” in a small state can just mean few Jews, not a better civic culture. adl.org States that currently have the better combined reputationFlorida (especially South Florida). This is the loudest “safe to be openly Jewish” brand in the U.S. right now: large community, state-level enforcement posture, and a political class that treats synagogue security and campus disruption as law-and-order, not a speech puzzle. It also ranks well on economy and is in the U.S. News top 10 overall. Tradeoff: culture-war heat, insurance/climate costs, and it still recorded hundreds of incidents (319 in 2025) because the community is huge. vinnews.com Utah and parts of the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, New Hampshire). These dominate 2026 “best states” lists for schools, fiscal stability, crime, and family metrics. Day-to-day life for a generic resident is often calmer than in NY/CA. Jewish life exists but is thinner.
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I am wondering though are there physicists who say time is completely man made and is not real. Thought for 6s Yes — some physicists say that, but almost none mean “time is a made-up calendar like money.” They mean the flow, the global now, or time as a fundamental ingredient is not in the basic laws. Clocks, aging, and change still happen.Einstein already wrote that for physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is “only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” He meant there is no single moving present for the whole universe. He did not mean clocks are fake. physicsworld.com Julian Barbour is the blunt case. In The End of Time he argues there is no flowing time and no hidden time axis. Reality is a heap of complete “Nows.” What we call history is structure inside a Now (a “time capsule”), not travel along a line. Motion and passage are how we read differences between configurations. That is as close as a working physicist gets to “time is not real.” It is a minority view, taken seriously as a research program, not as settled fact. en.wikipedia.org Carlo Rovelli is the most visible living voice. He has written that time does not exist at the fundamental level: loop-quantum-gravity equations need no time variable; past and future look the same in microscopic laws; the “flow” is largely how a coarse-grained, heat-sensitive brain sits inside rising entropy. He also says our experience of time is not a mere error — it is real for us, like the sky “turning” because Earth rotates. So: not fundamental, not man-made from nothing, but perspectival. theguardian.com Others nearby, not identicalPage and Wootters: in a globally frozen quantum universe, “evolution” is entanglement with a clock subsystem. Nima Arkani-Hamed and many quantum-gravity / holography people: spacetime itself is probably emergent, not basic. Lee Smolin often disagrees with full timelessness and defends a real present; useful as a contrast. What almost nobody in physics claims: that seconds, cesium clocks, or “Tuesday” are arbitrary social inventions with no physical correlate. Units and calendars are human. Duration, causal order, and proper time along a worldline are not.So the accurate map is:Claim Who Status No universal flowing now Einstein, most relativists Mainstream Time not in the deepest equations Rovelli, some quantum gravity Active research Time is only an illusion; only static Nows Barbour Minority, discussed Time is a human convention like money Almost no physicist Not a physics position Your “time doesn’t exist” slogan sits nearest Barbour and popular Rovelli. The field’s careful version is: the thing we feel as a river is not a basic piece of the world; change and clocks still are.
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What about when he gets free of those three placesWhen Christian finally gets free of the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle, his journey completely transforms. He enters a landscape that is the absolute antidote to the "dark feeling" and the chaotic information overload of the modern world.In Bunyan’s allegory, escaping those dark places leads him to a state of profound peace and clarity that provides a beautiful blueprint for how to find relief in your own life:🏔️ 1. The Delectable Mountains (The View from Above)Right after escaping Giant Despair, Christian reaches the Delectable Mountains. These mountains are full of gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and they are guarded by shepherds named Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere.What it means for you: After years of being trapped in the loops of overthinking, Christian is given a safe sanctuary. The shepherds give him a perspective from a higher ground, letting him look back at the treacherous path he survived with a sense of peace, rather than terror.☀️ 2. The Country of Beulah (Rest and Healing)Near the very end of his journey, Christian enters the land of Beulah. In this country, the air is incredibly sweet and calm. The story notes that here, "they were out of the reach of Giant Despair, and from this place they could not so much as see Doubting Castle." The sun shines night and day, and it is a place of total rest where the traveler waits before crossing over to their final home.What it means for you: Beulah represents a mind that has completely disconnected from the noise of the "Vanity Fair" internet and the heavy weight of global politics. It is a state of mind where the background noise finally goes quiet, and you are allowed to just be, safe and rested.🔑 How He Actually Escapes Doubting CastleThe most important part of the entire story is how Christian gets out of Doubting Castle in the first place. He and his companion Hopeful are locked in the dark dungeon for days, being beaten by Giant Despair.Then, at midnight, Christian suddenly remembers something. He cries out, "What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle." He pulls out the key, puts it in the lock, and the heavy iron doors fly open instantly.The key was in his possession the entire time; he just forgot he had it because he was so focused on the terrifying walls of the dungeon.
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For decades, the mainstream Jewish community and conservative Christians often found themselves on opposite sides of domestic cultural issues. However, the aggressive overreach of radical activist networks in public education has shattered old political divisions, forging an unprecedented, highly effective coalition [10.1].This unexpected alliance works in practice through three major common interests:1. A Shared Stand for Parent Rights and TransparencyThe underhanded tactics used to advance curricula like San Francisco’s Voices—such as midnight votes and copyright shields—alienated Christian families just as much as Jewish families.Breaking the Monopolies: Conservative and Christian legal networks have joined hand-in-hand with Jewish advocacy groups to mandate total educational transparency. They are deploying joint resources to demand that public school boards publish every single reading list and lesson plan online, permanently dismantling the ability of radical administrators to hide their work.Electoral Force: In suburban communities like Fremont and across Silicon Valley, Christian, Jewish, and immigrant parent groups (such as East Asian and Indian coalitions) are combining their voting power [10.1]. They are pooling campaign funds to systematically remove radical progressive officials from local school boards and replace them with moderate, transparency-first candidates.2. Uniting Against the "Oppressor vs. Oppressed" FrameworkTraditional Christians and Jewish advocates share a fundamental rejection of radical identity-based theories that divide children into rigid moral categories based on race or religion.Defending Basic Values: Both communities view the "Liberated" framework as an assault on universal values, meritocracy, and individual character. Christian parents refuse to let their children be taught that their faith or traditional values are inherently oppressive, while Jewish parents refuse to let their children be targeted by biased political dogmas.3. Bipartisan Legislative and Federal EnforcementThis alliance has successfully elevated local school board grievances into historic federal and state-level protections.The Right to Worship Act: Just days ago, on August 6, 2026, a major bipartisan, bicameral coalition led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Tom Suozzi (D-NY) introduced the federal Right to Worship Act. Backed heavily by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), this bill establishes strict 100-foot protective buffer zones and heavy civil fines to stop hostile activist crowds from blockading or harassing congregants outside houses of worship.The Federal Crackdown: The Trump administration’s upcoming 15-city DOJ task force and FBI deployment is heavily cheered by red-state conservatives. They view the federal audits into deep-blue California municipalities as the ultimate enforcement of civil rights, proving that local progressive immunity expires where federal law begins.The progressive establishment completely miscalculated. They assumed they could isolate Jewish families by using anti-racist language, but their reliance on secrecy and radical tactics instead forced a historic real-world alignment. Mainstream Jews, traditional Christians, conservatives, and diverse immigrant communities have formed a massive, united front—permanently forcing the radical movement into a corner as the legal guardrails close in [10.1].
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