Some writers face occasional mental blocks. I deal with an overflow. Every week numerous subjects compete for notice and space making it tough to choose which leads and difficult to manage the rush of concepts that follows.

Several stories from last week carried into this one. Rahm Emanuel crafted remarks at Tel Aviv University along with media sessions seen as his start toward the Democratic presidential nomination. He cautioned Israel that it faces an America issue rather than a Democratic Party problem.

As Micha Danzig observed in The Algemeiner Emanuel is not a principled figure resisting his party shift but a cynic pursuing it. A true friend avoids adopting the language of Israel harshest critics under the label of tough love.

If Emanuel visit was planned the trip by Democrat Californian Congressman Ro Khanna appeared staged. He understood an unplanned stop in the West Bank would spark conflict and his guide from Breaking the Silence likely knew too. These visits aim to provoke and record the outcome. Settlers respond each time and Israel bears the cost.

As Jerusalem Post editor in chief Zvika Klein pointed out Khanna account of detention by settlers and soldiers expanded with each telling yet in a TikTok era facts lose weight. Repeating terms like genocide apartheid and colonialism allows evasion of accountability.

If the so called Squad Emanuel and Khanna represent America future it signals trouble for the broader world.

Emanuel and Khanna made the sudden passing this week of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham an even greater loss. A genuine ally of Israel unlike Emanuel version Graham support came from deep commitment to its survival not political needs. He also grasped the risks of the Russian Iranian Chinese axis.

The chants Death to America and Death to Israel at the funeral in Iran of supreme leader Ali Khamenei formed part of the ceremony. The procession through sites in Iran and Iraq occurred about five months after his killing in the early February joint US Israel action. Iranian reports claimed over 15 million joined the event.

Iranian missiles and drones kept striking targets mostly US military sites across Gulf States and Jordan this week while Iran Houthi allies hit Saudi Arabia. Combined with Iranian piracy in the Strait of Hormuz these acts indicate peace remains distant. Letting the Islamic Republic build nuclear arms and ballistic missiles would prove disastrous.

Among competing tales special note goes to reports first in The New York Times that Israel aimed to install Ali Khamenei successor as former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad via a Kurdish revolt. The scheme developed over years reached a point where Ahmadinejad met then Mossad head David Barnea in Hungary but later withdrew. He appeared at Khamenei funeral. His tears there are understandable.

Determining how much of the account is fact or invention proves hard yet after Israel remarkable removal of Hezbollah top leaders in the September 2024 Pager Operation anything seems feasible.

I often caution that regime change requires a clear successor but Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad hardly qualifies as ideal. I also wonder who released the tale why and what the timing meant.

The Middle East dangerous power plays

Another notable funeral followed the death of Qatar former leader Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Coincidentally Israel public broadcaster KAN aired an episode in its Enemies series on the most influential woman in the Middle East Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. She is the late sheikh widow and mother of current emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani who took power after his father stepped down in 2013.

The show highlighted how photogenic stylish Sheikha Moza as co founder and head of Qatar Foundation presents a polished image for the small nation strategy of gaining allies and sway via donations endowments and its media outlet Al Jazeera. Qatar dual approach lets it seem charitable while advancing its religious hard line goals.

Two quick points from the program first that Qatari funds and backing aided the Hamas attack and massive atrocity of October 7 2023 and second that Qatar still shelters Hamas leaders.

Turkey leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted last week NATO summit in Ankara yet he also backs Hamas and shows his Islamist leanings. Erdogan declared last month that Zionism threatens not only him not only his party and not only his alliance but everyone. In a CNN interview before the summit Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated these people Israelis have become a burden humanity can no longer bear.

When US President Donald Trump accepted a 400 million dollar plane from Qatar he overlooked the conditions attached and kept promoting Qatar as a neutral go between with Iran. Trump now weighs giving Turkey the F 35 fighter jets it seeks.

Israel is not alone in seeing the danger from Erdogan ambitions for a revived Ottoman Empire Greece and Cyprus also worry especially since Turkey still holds Northern Cyprus after its 1974 invasion and Turkish Russian interference in Syria deserves attention.

Allowing Turkey and Qatar a part in rebuilding Gaza wrecked by the violent Hamas regime they back will not help constructively.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup offers some worldwide diversion. The Norwegians won fans as the team Viking row went viral though why the world now finds violent Viking colonialism appealing invites reflection.

Examining Norwegian success revealed a darker tale in Politico. Norway the nation that gave the world the term Quisling and the Oslo Accords tries to push Israel out of FIFA with familiar slogans like those from Rahm Emanuel. The Norwegian Football Federation appears untroubled by Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub a convicted terrorist turned official who also calls for Israel removal and preferably its destruction.

So many tales so little room. The choice by outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to label Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a national security threat comes late but is positive especially with added funds to fight antisemitism.

Yet this week the Church of England General Synod backed a motion to consider the so called Kairos II document. Titled A Moment of Truth Faith in a Time of Genocide it charges Israel with being a racist colonial project and committing genocide in Gaza. The paper also opposes the Abraham Accords and rejects Christian Zionism. So much for global peace.

There was irony in the dismissal of Israel as a Jewish state arriving this week as we enter the Nine Days before Tisha B Av the Ninth of Av on the Hebrew calendar. It is a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

Israel is not a foreign Western colony as pro Palestinian groups claim. Instead our native connections here as Jews stretch back thousands of years centuries before Christianity arose and the later arrival of Mohammed and Islam and well before the Vikings rowed and raided new territories.

We follow a different path from those once feared Vikings but unlike them our forebears would still know our faith tongue and ways and the Jew hatred they draw. Of all topics I might cover Jewish links to Jerusalem and the endurance of the Jewish people and culture stands as the key tale.