Author: Карабас Барабас

On November 30, 2026, in Tel Aviv, people will once again gather for “Andriyivski Vechornytsi” — a traditional Ukrainian evening with folk games, fortune-telling, music, dancing, and homemade treats. The event is organized by MAK_UA — Ukrainian Art Amateur Forge in Israel. The celebration will begin at 19:00 at the Ukrainian cuisine restaurant SHO? on Karlibach Street, 3. Pre-registration is required.

Author: Victoria Katsman

For those who grew up in Ukraine, the name is familiar. And for Israelis who have never attended such evenings, it’s an opportunity to get acquainted with a rather unusual part of Ukrainian folk culture. For example, to find out why adults try to bite a cake hanging on a ribbon and why this is accompanied by jokes and laughter.

What will happen at Andriyivski Vechornytsi in Tel Aviv

The organizers promise an evening where guests can not only listen to Ukrainian customs but also participate in traditional entertainment.

Program:

• Interesting stories about ancient Ukrainian customs.
• Andriyivski games and traditional fortune-telling.
• The ritual of “biting the kalita”.
• Homemade Ukrainian treats from pani Maria.
• Aromatic Carpathian mulled wine.
• Ukrainian music, communication, and lively dancing.

Participants are encouraged to complement their clothing with an embroidered shirt or any element of Ukrainian national symbolism.

The meeting will take place at the SHO? restaurant, well-known to visitors of Ukrainian cultural events in Tel Aviv. Joint projects dedicated to Ukrainian history and traditions have already been held here by MAK_UA.

What are Andriyivski Vechornytsi and why do they bite the kalita

Andriyivski Vechornytsi is one of the ancient Ukrainian customs associated with the feast of Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

In Ukrainian villages, such evenings traditionally gathered young people. Girls and boys got acquainted, sang, joked, played, and prepared treats. Special attention was given to fortune-telling about future weddings and grooms. Today, these are primarily folklore entertainments rather than serious attempts to predict fate.

The most recognizable ritual is biting the kalita.

The kalita is a large round cake baked especially for the holiday. It is decorated, hung on a ribbon, and participants try to bite off a piece, often jumping. In the traditional game, there is also a character, pan Kalitinsky, who with jokes and challenges hinders the task.

Ethnographic descriptions of this custom have preserved many regional differences. In some places, the kalita was smeared with honey, in others decorated with poppy seeds and nuts. But the main thing remained a fun competition where participation was more important than victory.

There is another detail worth explaining to Israeli readers. Previously, the feast of Andrew was celebrated on December 13 according to the old church calendar. After many Ukrainian churches switched to the new calendar, the date falls on November 30. That is why the evening in Tel Aviv is scheduled for the last day of autumn.

Who organizes the celebration

MAK_UA — Ukrainian Art Amateur Forge in Israel — is a non-profit socio-artistic association engaged in Ukrainian cultural initiatives in Israel.

Its programs include theatrical meetings, folk festivals, creative events, and family projects.

NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already reported on the cultural calendar of MAK_UA for the second half of 2026. Andriyivski Vechornytsi were then announced for November 30, but without a detailed program. Now the organizers have named the place, participation cost, and prepared entertainment.

For Ukrainians living in Israel, such meetings allow them to preserve familiar holidays and pass them on to their children. For Israelis of Ukrainian descent, it’s a better acquaintance with the customs of their parents, grandparents. And for guests not connected to Ukraine by family history, it’s an introduction to the country’s culture through music, food, and live communication.

Especially today, when the Russian war has forced millions of Ukrainians to live far from home, the opportunity to gather for a familiar childhood holiday takes on additional significance.

Where, when, and how to register

‘Andriyivski Vechornytsi’ — Tel Aviv, November 30, 2026.

• Date: Monday, November 30, 2026.
• Time: 19:00–23:00.
• Place: Ukrainian cuisine restaurant SHO? — Ukrainian Traditional Food.
• Address: Karlibach Street, 3, Tel Aviv.
• Participation: 120 ₪.
• Registration: via WhatsApp at 054-928-5990.
• Organizer: MAK_UA — Ukrainian Art Amateur Forge in Israel.

Official event page ‘Andriyivski Vechornytsi’ on Facebook — here you can see the organizers’ announcement, follow updates, and express your interest in the event.

Other concerts, performances, and cultural events can be found on the partner site sTDe — NAnews, Israel events poster.

This Monday, Ukrainian vechornytsi will not be held in a village house as a hundred years ago, but in a restaurant in the center of Tel Aviv. Instead of neighbors from one village, people from different cities of Ukraine and Israel will meet at the table. But the kalita, songs, jokes, and the desire to gather together again remain part of the same custom.

Iran and Russia are trying to use the French protests to intensify the political crisis. This conclusion was reached by journalists from the British The Times, who published an investigation on October 21, 2026, citing researchers and sources in intelligence structures. However, the wave of demonstrations itself began for internal reasons: the French took to the streets due to school problems, the high cost of living, and dissatisfaction with the government.

Author: Victoria Katsman

The protests began in September with student demonstrations against the lack of teachers and poor learning conditions. Then the demands expanded: rising living costs, fuel prices, social inequality. On October 17, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. The French Ministry of the Interior estimated the number of participants at about 550,000, while the CGT union estimated it at 800,000. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, and Limoges, there were arson attacks and assaults on public buildings. Reuters reports that authorities announced more than 1,200 arrests.

Among the participants were also the “yellow vests” — a movement that began protests against fuel taxes back in 2018. On October 20, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu acknowledged miscalculations in the authorities’ actions during the unrest. The government is preparing additional security measures ahead of the next actions.

What France presented to Iran

On October 7, the French Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador. In a published statement, the ministry directly accused Tehran of spreading false messages about school protests through official accounts of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The day before, Iran itself summoned the French ambassador. This is no longer anonymous intelligence information, but an open diplomatic accusation. However, the statement itself does not disclose specific examples of false messages.

The Times also presents more serious accusations. Franco-Iranian journalist Emmanuel Razavi claims that people associated with the Iranian regime could have paid certain unemployed young people to participate in violent actions. Researchers also talk about attempts to infiltrate radical political groups and promote materials through Telegram and bloggers. Among the alleged organizers of such operations is “Al-Quds” — a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for Iran’s overseas operations.

However, neither payments to riot participants nor orders from Tehran have been publicly presented by journalists. The presence of Iranian propaganda does not mean that Iranian intelligence services controlled the protesters.

The report that was not shown to the public

On October 16, the French publication La Lettre reported that the SGDSN, a government structure on national security issues, and the Viginum service, which monitors foreign digital interference, prepared a report on Iranian activity on the internet. According to the publication, specialists and diplomats advocated for the publication of the materials, but President Emmanuel Macron’s administration preferred to limit the public reaction.

The report itself has not been published. It is impossible to verify its conclusions, as well as to definitively establish the reasons for the Élysée Palace — the administration of the President of France — not to disclose the materials.

The situation with Russia also requires precision. Financial Times reports on the investigation of alleged disinformation campaigns around the French unrest, including the activities of pro-Kremlin networks Matryoshka and Storm-1516. Previously, these networks spread fake publications and passed off manipulations as messages from real media. But the presence of such operators does not yet prove their involvement in specific arson attacks or riots on October 17.

Why this is being monitored in Israel and Ukraine

Assumptions about Iranian involvement in the unrest deserve attention in Israel. НАновости — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already written about MI5’s warning, the British counterintelligence: according to its assessment, criminal networks associated with Iran threaten Jewish communities and Israeli objects in Europe. This is a different plot, and a direct connection of those threats with the French protests has not yet been established.

Iranian information operations have already been experienced by Israel. In February 2024, Microsoft described how groups associated with Tehran sent false messages about threats to Israelis, used fake accounts, and tried to influence the perception of the war. The similarity of methods does not prove the involvement of the same perpetrators in the current French events.

For Ukraine, the resilience of French support amid Russian aggression is significant. In 2027, presidential elections are to be held in France. The political crisis gives Russian propaganda the opportunity to suggest to Europeans that their own problems are more important than helping Kyiv. But there is no basis to say that these attempts have already changed Paris’s policy.

French investigators now need to establish whether there was a connection between foreign information networks and people involved in the violence. So far, there is no public evidence of such a connection, although a diplomatic conflict with Iran has already occurred.

“In fact, insistence on the anti-Semitism of Ukrainians was an important point on the agenda of Moscow propaganda, which then disappeared precisely because it was not successful. However, the slogan of denazification remains and continues to operate.”

“Russian culture, one might even say, for the most part the Russian people, which was formed, of course, and Russian governments from the era of Tsarism to Soviet power and to the present day in a very consistent manner simply cannot accept the fact that Ukrainians are not part of the “Russian world”

…
According to Pavlo-Robert Magochia, head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, Russian propaganda highlights rare cases of anti-Semitism in Ukraine to justify the so-called “denazification of the country”.

Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) publishes (ukr) this material.

“A Discussion of Two Important Books from the University of Toronto” was the title of the event, which took place at the F. Guarini Institute of Public Affairs at John Cabot University. After an introduction by the director of the Institute, historian Federigo Argentieri, one of the most authoritative researchers of the history of Eastern Europe and the leading Italian specialist on the revolution in Hungary, the audience was addressed by Pavlo-Robert Magochy, professor of history and political science and head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto.

Professor Magocy, a New Jersey native of Hungarian and Rusyn descent, is the honorary president of the World Congress of Rusyns, a small but distinct ethnic group related to the Ukrainians. Professor Magocy is also an expert on nationality in general, and has edited an important collection of essays on the indigenous peoples of Canada. However, he is primarily a student of Ukrainian history. As a Ukrainian-American himself, he is of two ethnic minorities, his works are a powerful response to the narrative of Ukraine as an ultra-nationalist country that oppresses non-Ukrainians on its territory.

One of the books presented at the event was “Jews and Ukrainians. A Millennium of Coexistence” (2016). Professor Magochy co-authored it with Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, an American Jewish studies specialist born in Kyiv. In their book, the authors try to explain that in fact, there were significantly more peaceful periods of coexistence between Ukrainians and Jews than periods of conflict.

Another book presented is – “Babi Yar: History and Memory” (2023) – Professor Magochii wrote together with Vladislav Hrynevych, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. This work tells of a place that during the German occupation became the scene of a terrible extermination of people – Jews, but also Roma, prisoners of war, communists and Ukrainian nationalists. Professor Magochii also recently wrote a short brochure explaining Ukrainian identity – “Ukraina redux: statehood and national identity”.

One of the two books presented offers panoramic view and thematic presentation of two very important peoples living on the territory of modern Ukraine – Ukrainians and Jews.

The book is structured thematically and looks at various aspects of the interaction between the two peoples over the last millennium: settlement patterns, economic structure, music, theatre, art, sculpture, architecture, history. The authors also show that the periods of conflict that were then particularly emphasized were in fact very limited in comparison to the overall period, which includes many more centuries of common everyday life, interaction and coexistence. In modern Ukraine there are traces of Jewish settlements that date back to the period of Roman and Byzantine rule in Crimea two thousand years ago.In addition, there were separate Jewish colonies, which were usually engaged in trade.

In the era before Kievan Rus, there was the Khazar Khaganate. Some of the rulers of this unique entity adopted Judaism in the 9th century, and it was considered the first Jewish state, although it was not located exclusively in Ukraine, but rather in the lower Volga region. However, a truly significant Jewish presence formed in the 15th and 16th centuries and reached its peak in the first half of the 17th century. Therefore, let us leave aside antiquity and turn only to the medieval period of Kievan Rus – this is 1000 years. If we narrow the review even further and begin the count from the moment of consolidation of the Jewish settlement, then this is 450 years. So withHow many of these 450-1000 years were marked by violence between Jews and Ukrainians? No more than 18-20.

First of all, we are talking about about the uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky 1648, for which Jewish chronicles record an extremely large number of Jews killed, namely 300 thousand. Israeli scientists and Jews have reduced this number to no more than 18 thousand.The uprising lasted three years. The next period of extermination of Jews began at the end of the second half of the 18th century during the Haidamakchina, which lasted two years.

If we go to the 19th century, the first pogrom on Ukrainian territory occurred in 1880. And here we are talking primarily about the seizure of property, beatings, etc., while there were relatively few human casualties. Such actions culminated in the pogrom of 1906 in Chisinau, a city that is not even technically in Ukraine, since it is the capital of Moldova. However, it is part of our world, so we add another two years. The first larger pogroms actually occurred after the First World War in 1918 and 1919, mainly in Ukraine. Again, this is a period of two years, and then nothing until the Holocaust. Again, if you add it all up, you get 18-20 years of violence over a period of 450-1000 years.

But what about all the other time periods? For at least four centuries, Jews and Ukrainians lived together, traded together, and occasionally even married each other. They certainly shared a common culture. The history of relations between Jews and Ukrainians in Ukraine is largely a history of coexistence, with brief, fortunately, though serious, periods of terrible violence..

In early October 2026, a concert by the Ukrainian rock band “Bez Obmezhen” took place in Tel Aviv, which fans had been waiting for about two years. Among the participants of the evening was Israeli military analyst Grigory Tamar. He talked with musicians, organizers, and spectators, discussing the war, music, and future tours of Israeli artists in Ukraine.

Author: Elena Gunko, NANews

On October 13, 2026, Grigory Tamar passed away. He was 54 years old.

On October 19, 2026, the concert organizer Svetlana Berdetskaya posted a 46-minute recording on her YouTube channel “Show Business Without Makeup” titled “The Last Concert Featuring Grigory Tamar. Performance by the band Bez Obmezhen. In Memory of Tamar.”

Watch the full video on YouTube

Two years of waiting and a full house

“Bez Obmezhen” is a popular Ukrainian rock band known for songs like “Zori Zapalaly,” “Budu z Toboyu,” and “Vilni Lyudy.” Their concerts abroad are accompanied by fundraising for the Ukrainian army.

The Israeli performance was repeatedly postponed due to the war and flight restrictions. Some spectators kept tickets purchased two years ago.

The concert took place at the Havana Music Club in Tel Aviv. It was organized by producer Svetlana Berdetskaya, who has been arranging tours of Ukrainian performers in Israel for several years.

At the beginning of the recording, spectators explain why they came. Some wanted to hear their favorite songs, others to meet Ukrainians living in Israel.

Before “Bez Obmezhen,” the Israeli band BAGO performed. Its members later told Grigory Tamar that they would like to perform in Kyiv, Odesa, or Kharkiv after the war.

Earlier, NANews published a tour announcement in collaboration with partner poster sTDe.

Grigory Tamar: from rock music to discussing the war

Grigory Tamar was accustomed to being seen as a military commentator. He was a reserve captain of the IDF medical service, a historian, and a publicist. But music occupied a significant place in his life: back in 2003, he organized a Russian rock festival in Jerusalem.

At the concert, Tamar recalls his own youth and passion for rock music. In a conversation with “Bez Obmezhen” drummer Alexey Berezhny, he asks if the musician considers himself the soul of the band.

The drummer replies that each band member contributes, although Sergey Tanchynets remains its leader.

Later, the conversation turns to freedom. Tamar asks if the musicians feel they bring it to people with their songs.

Berezhny draws attention to the “Vilni Lyudy” inscription on the band’s T-shirts. For him, these words are associated with Ukrainians’ struggle for independence and the right to exist.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency

What Ukrainian musicians felt in Israel

At the 38th minute of the recording, Grigory Tamar talks with the band’s director Nikolay.

He asks if the performance in Israel differs from tours in European countries. After all, Ukrainian musicians came from a country at war with Russia to Israel, whose population also experiences the consequences of war.

Nikolay talks about the difficulties of organizing the concert and the audience’s attitude. According to him, in Israel, musicians feel understood by spectators familiar with life under military threat.

Then Tamar recalls his own trip to Kyiv as part of an Israeli delegation preparing Ukrainian police officers.

He asks the band’s director another question: will Israeli performers be able to come to Ukraine after the war and expect interest from the local audience?

Nikolay replies that he has no doubt about it. He praises the band BAGO, which performed at the beginning of the evening, and recalls the vibrant concert life of pre-war Kyiv.

This is perhaps the most interesting conversation in the recording. Tamar discusses not another military operation but a quite practical possibility of cultural exchange between the two countries.

Auction for “Azov” and donations to the IDF

The concert also had a charitable part.

The host announced an auction in support of “Azov” — a Ukrainian military formation known primarily for defending Mariupol in 2022.

Among the lots were items signed by “Bez Obmezhen” members, vinyl records, and a painting by a Ukrainian artist from Kharkiv living in Israel. According to the host, the painting was finger-painted, without a brush. It was offered for 1100 shekels.

Besides the auction, visitors could make donations in separate boxes for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces.

A representative of the Ukrainian embassy in Israel, Zoryan, also addressed the audience. He greeted those gathered on behalf of the diplomatic team and thanked Svetlana Berdetskaya for her work with the Ukrainian community.

In the final part of the recording, the anthems of Ukraine and Israel are played. This episode starts around the 42nd minute.

Video dedicated to the memory of Grigory Tamar

Svetlana Berdetskaya created the channel “Show Business Without Makeup” to talk about the work of a concert producer in Israel. Among the published materials are conversations with artists and recordings featuring Grigory Tamar.

After his death, the October concert took on a completely different meaning for those who knew the military analyst.

In the video, Tamar jokes, discusses rock music, thanks Ukrainian performers, and wishes Ukraine a speedy victory and a worthy peace. There are no farewell speeches here. It’s the usual work of a person interested not only in military history but also in vibrant cultural life.

NANews previously detailed the life of Grigory Tamar, his assistance to Ukraine, and public activities in Israel.

In this recording, attention should be paid to his question about the future of Israeli tours in Ukraine. Tamar considered such cooperation possible and wanted to hear the opinion of the Ukrainian musicians themselves.

A few days later, he was gone. The conversation was preserved thanks to Svetlana Berdetskaya’s filming.

On November 13, 2026, Israel Night will take place in Kyiv. American-Israeli musician Joshua Aaron and American performer Aaron Shust will perform on one stage. The evening will be held at the Kyiv Jewish Messianic Community. The musicians call the upcoming event a meeting of worship to God and specifically address Ukrainians experiencing the war.

Author: Anton Pshedynsky | NAnews

The announcement appeared on Joshua Aaron’s official Facebook page.

“Kyiv, Ukraine. We are coming to you,” wrote the musician, publishing a poster with the flags of Israel and Ukraine.

He explained that together with Aaron Shust, he is coming to hold an evening of worship in the heart of Ukraine. The publication specifically mentions the trials the country is going through. Organizers invite participants to unite in joint prayer and music.

Where and when Israel Night will take place

Details are published on Joshua Aaron’s official website:

• Date: Friday, November 13, 2026.
• Start: 18:30 Kyiv time.
• Venue: Kyiv Jewish Messianic Community (KMJC).
• Address: Kyiv, Knyaz Roman Mstislavich Street, 20.
• Participants: Joshua Aaron and Aaron Shust.
• Title: Israel Night.
• Participation information: joshuaaaron.tv/events.

Ticket prices and detailed performance program are not specified in the published announcement.

Joshua Aaron: American musician with Israeli roots

Joshua Aaron is well known to the audience of contemporary Messianic and Christian music. He is an American with Israeli roots, living in Israel. His mother was born in Haifa, and the musician’s own family is connected to Galilee.

He performs compositions in English and Hebrew, combining contemporary Christian music with Jewish musical traditions. His repertoire includes prayer texts, biblical motifs, and songs dedicated to Israel.

Since 2009, the musician has been organizing Worship in Israel trips, during which participants get acquainted with biblical sites and participate in religious musical gatherings.

The concert geography of this fall is also curious. On October 26, Joshua Aaron is scheduled to perform with the Galilee Ensemble in Jerusalem, and on November 13 — already in Kyiv.

The second participant of the concert, Aaron Shust, is a well-known American performer of contemporary Christian music, winner of the Dove Awards. His song My Savior My God gained wide recognition in the Christian music community in the USA.

For both musicians, the joint performance will not be the first. They have already worked on a concert album recorded in Jerusalem Live at the Garden Tomb. It included compositions Mountain of the Lord and How Great Thou Art featuring Aaron Shust.

Who is hosting the musicians in Kyiv

The venue for Israel Night will be the Kyiv Jewish Messianic Community — an organization operating since the 1990s.

It is headed by Boris Grisenko, whom the community itself calls the senior rabbi. According to the organization’s information, before the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, it had about 2200 members.

After the war began, part of the community left Ukraine, including moving to Israel. The organization continues to hold religious meetings, cultural events, and engage in humanitarian activities.

NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already reported on this organization in the article “Jewish Open Space in Kyiv: Yiddish, DJ, Rosh Hashanah, and a festival backed by the Messianic Jewish community”.

At that time, it was about a cultural festival. The November Israel Night has a more pronounced religious character: the performers themselves directly define it as an evening of worship.

Explanation for Israeli readers: why this is not an ordinary Jewish concert

The name “Israel Night,” the flag of Israel, and the word “Jewish” in the name of the hosting community may create the impression that it is a traditional Jewish event.

However, Messianic Judaism is a separate religious movement whose participants recognize Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah. The main streams of Judaism in Israel do not consider such a belief part of Judaism.

Messianic communities themselves define their religious identity differently. They use Jewish prayer forms, holidays, music, and symbolism while adhering to faith in Jesus.

This distinction is important for understanding the nature of the concert. Israel Night is not declared as an event of official Jewish organizations in Israel or a secular festival of Israeli culture.

Why this meeting is interesting to Israel and Ukraine

The concert has a very specific human dimension.

The Israeli-American musician and his American colleague plan to perform in Kyiv, which has been living under full-scale war conditions for five years. Their message is addressed to people for whom air raids, losses, and anxiety for loved ones have become part of everyday life.

Of course, a religious concert cannot change the military situation. But the organizers do not set such a task for themselves. They offer the Ukrainian audience an evening of music, prayer, and joint presence.

For Israelis, this story is also interesting in how people connected with Israel maintain contacts with Ukraine outside official diplomacy.

On November 13, two musicians who have already performed together in Jerusalem will meet on one stage in Kyiv. This time their audience will be in a country where the war continues, and the evening itself is titled Israel Night.

Other cultural events for the Israeli audience — in the poster of our partner sTDe | NAnews — Israel event poster.

Although they are Muslims and are often grouped with the Druze, the Circassians are neither ethnically Arabs nor even from the historical Levantine region — they are… Circassians and originate from the Black Sea region of the Caucasus.

In many ways, their history is similar to that of the Jews, with exile and genocide, preserving their culture and traditions while longing for their homeland, writes the Jerusalem Post.

Kfar Kama, one of the two Circassian villages in Israel, is located in the Lower Galilee near Kfar Tavor. This year, the UN World Tourism Organization selected it for inclusion in the list of tourist villages recommended for visiting in 2022, making it one of the 32 UNWTO-recognized “tourist villages” in the world. Last year, when this title was first given, 44 villages were chosen.

The smaller sister village of Kfar Kama, Rehaniya, is located on the border with Lebanon near Safed.

The UNWTO award ceremony will take place in Saudi Arabia on February 26, with representatives from Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and Kfar Kama attending.

The details of the actual logistics of the Israeli delegation’s visit to a country with which Israel has no official diplomatic relations have yet to be clarified, according to Nira Fisher, director of the ministry’s international relations, who accompanied Kfar Kama in the application process.

Refugee Village

“Kfar-Kama is not just another village in Israel,” stated Zakaria Napso, head of the Kfar-Kama local council.

“It is a settlement of refugees who came here a century and a half ago by force, after we were expelled… by the Russian Empire from our homeland in the Caucasus.

But despite the years that have passed, we have managed to preserve our language, culture, and cuisine. We are the largest authentic [Circassian] village. This is what sets us apart from other exiles; we make a lot of effort to preserve our traditions.”

According to him, the fact that they are so often grouped with the Druze in budgetary matters is largely due to being granted minority status by the government, serving in the army. But they work hard to make the distinctions between them known, he said.

Both Circassian villages in Israel were founded about 150 years ago — four years before Rosh Pina, the first Jewish agricultural settlement in the Galilee — survivors of the Circassian genocide and the expulsion of Circassians from their native land in the Caucasus at the end of the 101-year Russo-Circassian War.

Jewish newcomers to the Yishuv and Circassian refugees found common ground in their history of persecution by the Russians and knowledge of the Russian language, as well as cooperation in agriculture and security.

Located in an area of strategic importance to various empires, the Caucasus and its peoples found themselves caught in the crossfire of various political interests after the Russian Empire sought to impose its influence in the region between the Black and Caspian Seas (some things don’t seem to change) and rid it of predominantly Muslim ethnic tribes, including Chechens and Circassians.

The Tsarist Russian Empire and the weakening Ottoman Empire fought for control of the territory from 1763 to 1864, resulting in the death of about 2 million Circassians, with 90% of the remaining population being expelled.

The last part of the Circassian army was defeated in a bloody massacre of soldiers and civilians on May 21, 1864, in Sochi, which many Circassians considered their traditional capital. Known to Circassians as the Red Hill, it was here in 2014 that skiing and snowboarding competitions were held during the Sochi Winter Olympics. Circassians claim that the Olympic Village was built on the mass graves of their slain ancestors.

“It is very difficult for us to talk about Sochi,” said Aibek Napso, director of the Kfar Kama Circassian Heritage Center, who calls himself a third-generation Israeli. Napso is a common Circassian surname, and Aibek and Zakaria are not related.

“For Circassians, saying ‘Sochi’ is like saying ‘Auschwitz’. It is a huge cemetery under the entire Olympic [construction]. More than 230,000 bodies from my tribe are buried in Sochi… We ask every country to recognize the Circassian Genocide and the need for our own state.”

He quickly added: “We are asking for land not in Israel — there are enough conflicts here — but in the Caucasus, in a place called Circassia.”

While Georgia recognizes the Circassian genocide, Russia does not.

Despite this, Napso emphasized: “If I were born 10 times, I would choose to be born in Kfar-Kama again and again. It is like a piece of paradise.”

Arrival in the Promised Land

Survivors of the 1864 genocide sought refuge with the Ottoman Empire, which saw them as a group of experienced fighters.

“The sick man of Europe” — as the Ottoman Empire was called by Tsar Nicholas I — sent them across the sea on arduous journeys, many of which did not survive, mainly to the Middle East to protect territories under Ottoman control from nomadic Bedouin tribes in what are now Jordan, Syria, and Israel.

There are also exiled Circassian communities in Europe, the USA, and Turkey, where the majority of the community resides, but only a small Circassian community remains on the historical lands of Circassia, which are now controlled by Russia.

But in the quiet and extraordinarily clean village of Kfar-Kama, home to about 3,300 residents, the memory of the homeland is visible everywhere, in the names of streets — named after Circassian cultural traditions, regions, and 12 Circassian tribes, which are written on street signs in Hebrew, Arabic, and Circassian — and businesses with traditional Circassian names. Mount Elbrus, after which the Thakoo cheese factory is named, is the highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains in the western part of the Caucasus, on the territory that is now the Russian-Georgian border.

“Israel is the only place where you have Circassian street names,” said Aibek Napso.

Preserving Ancestral Memory

The connection to the community’s ancestral homeland, which was divided by Russia into separate southern republics of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, is also preserved in the form of traditional dishes, dances, and language, which it resolutely maintains.

Thanks to its educational system, which it has managed separately from the Arab sector since 1976, the community ensures the transmission of its culture to the younger generation.

Along with Circassian history and traditions, schoolchildren are taught the Adyghe Circassian language, as well as Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Due to its complexity, the language has been preserved mainly in spoken form.

The village has two elementary schools where boys and girls study together, and several kindergartens. Circassian youth attend the local council’s high school together with Jewish students.

“90% of the Circassian population in 50 different countries no longer speaks this language,” noted Aibek Napso. “I believe that by the end of the century, there will not be a single Circassian left on this planet.”

Since there are fewer than 5,000 Circassians in Israel, he is used to explaining to Israelis who his people are and where they come from.

“After all the time we’ve lived here, we still need to explain who we are,” he said.

Sometimes there are minor verbal skirmishes with co-religionists because, on the one hand, Circassians are Muslims. But on the other hand, they are not Arabs, he said. But overall, Circassians have good relations with everyone.

Indeed, Circassians also maintain a connection with their distant pagan past by celebrating their New Year on March 22, the day after the vernal equinox.

Many Israeli football fans know about the Circassian community thanks to Bibras Natcho, who plays as a midfielder for the Serbian club Partizan and is the captain of the Israeli national team.

In every country where they reside, Circassian communities have assimilated with the majority society, and these days, although young people from the Circassian community serve in the IDF, the community prefers to maintain neutrality regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Easy Does It

According to him, Aibek Napso hopes that inclusion in the UN list will attract more attention to the unique cultural and historical heritage of his community. At the same time, however, he said he intends to help implement a careful and measured process of attracting tourists to his village in a way that is sustainable and manageable, so as not to disrupt its unique way of life.

Since the village is already of interest to a certain segment of Israelis, such as local school groups and retirees, residents want to ensure that it does not turn into Daliyat al-Karmel of souvenir shops and grilled meat restaurants. According to Aibek Napso, parking will need to be organized outside the village, sufficient public toilets provided, and strict waste disposal rules enforced.

“Last week, in addition to our residents, there were 1,000 tourists in Kfar-Kama in their cars,” he said. According to him, the quiet streets of the village, where some people move around in golf carts, are not suitable for such a number of traffic jams, and a solution will need to be found.

“It’s a lot, a lot. We have some concerns; not all tourists may be educated, and if there are 1,000 people, 500 are enough to throw their cigarette butts or water bottles on the street instead of in the trash can to [pollute the village]. We want to do it step by step and educate them. We are also learning. This is something new for us.”

In the Heritage Center he manages, visitors will be able to arrange a visit to watch a short video presentation about the history of the Circassians and see the center’s small but interesting exhibition dedicated to items from the daily life of the Circassians.

People will be able to walk through the narrow streets of the old town, see old houses built of basalt stones, and notice small details of bygone times, such as a tiny metal window latch in the shape of a person on a house, sometimes used by a young lady being courted to let her suitor know by tilting the latch whether it was safe for him to visit the house, whether her parents were home or not.

The uniquely shaped village mosque embodies the three different stages the community has gone through: the square bottom represents the shape of traditional Circassian houses; the middle octagonal part symbolizes the transition the Circassians underwent; and the minaret denotes the Ottoman Empire, explained Aibek Napso.

“Rural tourism can introduce people to other cultures and provide economic [growth] in small places,” said Fisher. “We want to start communicating [with other villages] to learn how to do tourism properly and find solutions to problems.”

Currently, the village has four bed-and-breakfast hotels, as well as other accommodation options in the surrounding area, including in Kfar Tavor and hotels in Tiberias, which is a 20-minute drive away.

“We don’t want the impact of this designation to remain only in this area but also in the surrounding circles. We want to preserve the uniqueness of the village. We don’t want tourists walking around the neighborhood 24 hours a day.”

Connections with the International Circassian Diaspora

Young Circassians in Israel attend annual summer camps, and there is an international exchange with other Circassian communities abroad, allowing for the maintenance of cultural and national ties, as well as helping young Circassians get to know each other, encouraging marriages within the community, while being exposed to the “brotherhood of Circassians,” said Aibek Napso.

The community does not approve of mixed marriages to preserve its cultural identity, but there are about 20 mixed marriages in the village, including with Russians, Ukrainians, and Israeli Jews. He noted that there are few mixed marriages with Arab Muslims due to cultural differences.

Most young people from the village return to Kfar-Kama after studying and traveling, added Aibek Napso.

“We have our unique goal, and everyone lives with one goal: to be Circassian,” he said.

Sixty-eight percent of young Circassian women pursue higher academic education in various disciplines such as high technology, nursing, accounting, law, and business management, while only 38 percent of young men do so after military service.

“Military service has its consequences,” said Zakaria Napso, noting that men usually work in local industries and businesses.

The birth rate among the Circassian community in Israel is low, averaging 1.6 children per couple, and this is a concern, says Zakaria Napso, who has four children, all with professional education.

“This is a problem now because young couples are busy with their lives and careers, and this affects the number of children they have,” he said. “For our community to survive, there should be an average of two children.”

Being a Bridge

He said that over the past 10 years, the local council has tried to fill the gaps in infrastructure and planning that existed between Kfar-Kama and its neighbors, partly due to government neglect and partly due to poor local governance and a lack of knowledge about how the planning system works at the village level. He said there is a master plan for the village.

“We have invested a lot in [closing the gaps],” he said. “Now we have all the permits for the master plan.”

According to him, living in the Lower Galilee, they have good relations with all their neighbors and cooperate with local councils.

“There is no racism in our area,” he added. “We cooperate with Arabs and Jews. We have managed to build a bridge between them.”

In addition to the Circassian cheeses of the Elbrus Dairy, visitors to Kfar Kama are attracted by traditional Circassian food. Entrepreneur Suzie Ashmuz opened Suzie’s Kitchen, a home-cooked restaurant where visitors can pre-order traditional Circassian dishes such as matza, cheese-filled pastries; haluz, fried bread; khajagas-pasta, a dish similar to polenta with a fried vegetable filling khajagas-nataf; and round date cookies called halgujhan. Just don’t expect to find hummus on the table.

Romantic and Bold Traditional Dance

Marriages with Circassians from abroad have also brought new initiatives to the village. A German Circassian who married a local opened a German waffle shop.

Rustam Apsha, a Russian Circassian who married a local woman, became a football coach and teaches dance in a traditional Circassian dance troupe, which provides a very colorful spectacle.

Traditionally, the dance gave young people the opportunity to connect with each other, as a young woman used her subtle movements to give subtle hints to her potential suitors whether courting attempts were welcome or not.

“I know that there are Circassians in Syria and Turkey, but I wanted to see what it’s like here. It’s better than Turkey; there’s democracy here,” said 40-year-old Apsha, a father of two. “I just want to live. It’s more comfortable here. There [in Russia] it’s not so free. Here we can commemorate May 21, the day of our genocide. Every year we walk from our village to the Knesset.”

As in other communities, many unique traditions are disappearing as young people are drawn into the pop culture of mobile phones and social media apps, but food and beautiful traditional dances have retained their significance for much of the Circassian community at weddings and public events.

The traditional dance troupe led by Apsha is a popular ensemble in the village. With men in fur hats, long coats with belts studded with [fake] bullets and daggers, and women dressed in long, flowing, intricately embroidered dresses and tall characteristic headpieces, the performances are both romantic and bold. With their graceful movements, the women seem to float above the ground, while the men fiercely jump and spin in steps stemming from their warrior past.

“For us as a community, it is very important to maintain our culture,” said 19-year-old Nafna Napso, a dancer in the Kfar Kama dance troupe. “Not all Circassians in other parts of the world speak Circassian, but wherever we are, what unites us is what we do together — our traditional dances.”

She noted that in everyday life she usually speaks Hebrew with her friends, but when she sends texts, she uses Hebrew letters to write in Circassian.

“We are very welcome here, even though we are not Middle Easterners and live here [in Kfar-Kama] very differently,” she said. “This is our home, and Circassia is our homeland.”

Discuss:

Who are the Circassians of northern Israel?

Who are the Circassians of northern Israel? – source Jerusalem Post.

On October 21, 2026, the tour of the Moscow Regional State Academic Theater “Russian Ballet” under the direction of Vyacheslav Gordeev will begin in Modi’in. Six days later, on October 27, elections to the Knesset, the country’s parliament, will be held in Israel. The troupe is scheduled to perform in eight cities until November 3.

Author: Lev Varshavsky

Anyone who remembers “Swan Lake” in August 1991 has already smirked. But Tchaikovsky has nothing to do with it. The biography of the touring state ensemble and its leader is more interesting.

Swans against the backdrop of tanks

On August 19, 1991, the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) announced itself in the USSR. Its participants tried to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power; troops were brought into Moscow. Central television was showing “Swan Lake.”

There is evidence that the recording was included in the broadcast schedule even before the coup, but it was during the coup that the ballet became a symbol of the information blockade. The coup attempt failed on August 21.

For Israelis who did not live in the USSR at that time: the political meaning was given to the ballet not by the composer and artists, but by the circumstances of the television broadcast.

What the theater says about itself

In the list of Russian cultural figures published on March 11, 2014, who supported Putin’s position on Ukraine and Crimea, Vyacheslav Gordeev is listed as number 28. The appearance of this appeal was reported, in particular, by Kommersant.

This is a public political position recorded during the Russian capture of the Ukrainian peninsula.

In March 2026, according to its own report, the theater toured the occupied Crimea, calling it part of southern Russia.

But there are other events of this year.

On February 22, 2026, the theater announced a concert at the officers’ club of military unit No. 19889. Among the audience, it named officers, soldiers, cadets, and “participants of the SVO” — as the Russian authorities designate the invasion of Ukraine.

The program included an adagio from “Swan Lake.” The garrison presented the ensemble with a certificate of appreciation.

Official report of the theater from February 22, 2026.

On June 14, according to another official report, the artists performed in the military town of Mozhaisk-10, where the families of military personnel, including participants in the war, were located. Gratitude was received from the command of the military unit and the Officers’ House of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

Official report of the theater from June 15, 2026.

These facts do not allow us to judge the political views of each dancer. However, both concerts are a documented part of the theater’s public activities.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency

There have already been objections in Israel

Back in May 2022, Anna Zharova from the organization “Israeli Friends of Ukraine” publicly protested against Gordeev’s tour, recalling his name on the 2014 list. This was reported by the Israeli press at the time.

In 2024, a new petition against the troupe’s performances appeared.

Thus, it is not about claims invented in the midst of the Israeli election campaign. Questions to this ensemble were raised long before the current tour.

Lapid, Kariv, Netanyahu: the Russian question on the Israeli stage

On September 16, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid stated: “Russia is now an ally of Iran.”

And he promised that if his camp returns to power, aid to Ukraine will be broader than in 2022.

On October 1, Gilad Kariv, a member of the “Democrats” party, called to stop Russian attacks on Ukraine and wrote that Israel should stand on the side of its citizens.

He spoke after the funeral of Daniel Umansky — a 14-year-old Israeli who previously studied in Tel Aviv and died in a Russian strike on Kyiv.

On October 18, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to a question about Russia, also acknowledged: the interests of Moscow and Jerusalem sometimes clash.

He pointed to Moscow’s cooperation with Iran and anti-Semitic campaigns by bot networks against Israel. These are the words of the prime minister, not the conclusion of our investigation.

Israeli politicians argue about many things, but concern about Russian cooperation with Iran is now voiced not only by the opposition.

For a country confronting the Iranian threat, this is not a peripheral topic.

“No political winds”?

In the Israeli announcement of the tour, Gordeev says:

“No political winds affect the climate in concert halls.”

Organizers promise “Swan Lake” in Modi’in, Be’er Sheva, Rishon LeZion, Karmiel, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Petah Tikva, and Kiryat Motzkin. Tickets are 165–365 shekels.

The promotional text talks about art as a messenger of peace but does not mention the theater’s performances for Russian military personnel.

The coincidence of the tour with the elections does not imply any secret pre-election plan. But the audience has the right to know not only the repertoire but also verifiable facts about the activities of the state theater.

Organizers and the ensemble’s leadership can publicly explain their attitude to these facts.

Tchaikovsky’s ballet is not responsible for the war. However, the public reputation of the ensemble is partly formed by where and for whom it performs.

“Swan Lake” can be loved without any politics. But this does not mean that journalists are obliged to remain silent about the activities of the theater that performs it.

In Israel, there are families for whom the war in Ukraine has not ended even thousands of kilometers away. Their loved one is out of contact. In one case, it is known that the person was captured by Russia; in another, there is not even confirmation of whether he is alive. What should relatives do, where to seek information, and can help be obtained while in Israel?

Author: Elena Gunko | NAnews

This is exactly what the Ukrainian human rights activist Yevhen Zakharov, head of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, will discuss on October 20, 2026, in Haifa and October 22, 2026, in Tel Aviv.

The meetings are organized by the public organization “Israeli Friends of Ukraine” in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel. Anna Zharova announced their holding, also publishing links for registration. They invite not only those whose relatives are missing or in captivity but also people willing to help.

Who is Yevhen Zakharov

Zakharov has been involved in human rights work not since the beginning of the current war. Even in Soviet times, he participated in dissident circles and helped people persecuted for their beliefs. In the late 1980s, he worked at the Kharkiv “Memorial,” and in 1992 he became one of the founders of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group (KHRG).

Over the past decades, the organization has grown into one of Ukraine’s well-known human rights structures. After the Russian invasion, its employees collect evidence of illegal detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and other crimes, provide legal assistance to victims, and seek protection for civilians and prisoners of war.

Working with documents here is not a formality: without information about a person and the circumstances of their disappearance, it can be difficult to even start a substantive conversation about further actions.

More about the organization’s work can be found on the official website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group.

Why meetings are needed specifically in Israel

In August 2026, Anna Zharova reminds us, more than 114,000 people were listed as missing under special circumstances in Ukraine.

It is important not to confuse this figure with the number of prisoners of war: this is a Ukrainian legal category covering various cases of disappearance, including those related to the war, and the fate of many people has not yet been established.

Behind each case are relatives who may live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Haifa, or Tel Aviv.

Israelis especially understand the burden of waiting for news about a captive or abducted loved one. But the Ukrainian legal system, search procedures, and channels of appeal differ from the Israeli ones. For a family living here, distance, the language of official documents, and the lack of contacts with Ukrainian institutions can become additional obstacles.

NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency has already reported on how the Israeli series “Hatufim” helps the Ukrainian audience talk about returning from captivity, and about attempts to draw international attention to Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Now it’s not about public statements, but about the opportunity to personally ask a specialist a specific question.

What can be asked

According to the organizers, Zakharov will explain how the search for missing persons is conducted, what assistance opportunities are available for the families of prisoners and released individuals, and where to seek support.

Participants will be able to ask their own questions.

It is especially useful to record in advance the dates of the last contact, known circumstances of disappearance, and already made inquiries: this way the conversation will be more substantive. Publishing personal data of a loved one in open comments is not necessary.

Do not expect promises of quick release or confirmation of the fate of a specific person from the meeting. But learning what actions are possible and whom to contact is already an important result for a family that remains alone with uncertainty for a long time.

Where and when the meetings will take place — addresses and registration

Haifa — October 20, 2026, Tuesday

• Time: 19:00.
• Address: Derech Ha-Atsmaut, 60, Haifa.
• Meeting language: Russian.
• Registration: fill out the form to participate in Haifa.

Tel Aviv — October 22, 2026, Thursday

• Time: 19:00.
• Place: Ukrainian Cultural Center, Yermiyahu Street, 24.
• Meeting language: Ukrainian.
• Registration: fill out the form to participate in Tel Aviv.

The organizers of both meetings are the Ukrainian Cultural Development Center in Haifa We Are Together ן Мы Вместе אנחנו יחד ן and the NGO “Israeli Friends of Ukraine” in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel.

Additional details are published in Anna Zharova’s Facebook post.

Other Ukrainian cultural and public events can be found with the project partner — sTDe | NAnews — Israel event calendar.

Such meetings do not have an easy ending. A person may leave without news of their loved one. But at least they should not leave without understanding where to continue the search and who can help.

In one of the cartoons circulating on the internet, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is on all fours in front of girls in hijabs. Around his neck is a leash held by the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky

Netanyahu has no relation to school uniforms in Azerbaijan. But it is Israel that has become the main accused in the campaign that began after restrictions on wearing religious headgear in public schools.

On October 16, 2026, the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) in Israel published study No. 239. Its authors believe that Russian, Iranian, and Turkish information sources are involved in spreading anti-Semitic messages.

These countries have different relations with Baku. But Russia deserves special attention, as it has faced a reduction in its influence in the South Caucasus in recent years.

First, there was a conflict over school uniforms.

On September 21, 2026, the Azerbaijani government changed the requirements for student clothing. The rules prohibit clothing elements that violate the established uniform or contradict the secular nature of public education. There is no direct mention of the hijab in the relevant decree.

On October 6, the authorities separately approved clothing requirements for teachers.

Starting October 12, reports began to emerge that schoolgirls and teachers in hijabs were not being allowed to attend classes. Protests began. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 37 detentions in Baku. Activists claimed that the number of detentions across the country was significantly higher.

Amnesty International demanded an end to the discrimination against schoolgirls and the release of peaceful protesters.

Parents’ claims have a real basis. The secular nature of the state does not in itself remove the issue of a child’s right to education.

But how did this internal conflict become associated with Jews?

Who made Israel the culprit of the ban

Social media began to claim that Azerbaijani authorities were banning hijabs under Israeli pressure. Aliyev is attributed with Jewish ancestry, depicted in a kippah, using characteristic anti-Semitic cartoon images.

There was also a message that Jewish schools were allegedly allowed to violate the general clothing requirements.

This claim was refuted by Rabbi Zamir Isayev, head of the Sephardic Jewish community in Baku. He confirmed that state rules also apply in Jewish schools.

Simultaneously, a fake document about an alleged ban on hijabs in medical institutions was circulated. The Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan had to officially refute it.

Neither Israel’s involvement in developing school requirements nor special privileges for Jewish schools have been confirmed.

Why this is a particularly sensitive story for Israel

On October 14, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Aliyev in Baku. The visit took place within the framework of the CICA summit — the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, an international organization uniting Asian states.

Azerbaijan is an important partner for Israel among Muslim countries. The countries cooperate in energy, defense, and security. A significant portion of the oil entering the Israeli market passes through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

There is also a geographical factor: Azerbaijan directly borders Iran.

In March 2026, Azerbaijani intelligence reported preventing sabotage allegedly prepared on the orders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Among the alleged targets were the Israeli embassy, an Ashkenazi synagogue, and a representative of the Mountain Jewish community. These accusations came from Baku.

Therefore, attempts to portray Aliyev’s relations with Israel as a betrayal of Islam affect the real interests of both countries.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency

Turkey criticizes, Iran accuses

Turkey is considered Azerbaijan’s closest ally. However, Erdogan’s advisor Oktay Saral publicly criticized the hijab restrictions. Some deputies of the ruling Turkish AKP party joined him.

On October 13, the ruling party of Azerbaijan responded to Ankara. Baku reminded that the principle of ‘one nation — two states’ does not allow interference in the internal affairs of an ally.

Separately, the Azerbaijani side defended the country’s right to cooperate with Israel.

Iran’s conflict with Baku has a long history. Tehran has repeatedly expressed suspicions about Azerbaijan’s military-political ties with Israel. Therefore, the school scandal became another reason for anti-Israeli rhetoric.

But why do BESA researchers also mention Russia among the alleged sources of the anti-Semitic campaign?

Moscow and Baku: reconciliation after a serious crisis

On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane was damaged by Russian air defense and crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan.

In the summer of 2025, relations worsened even more. After a police operation in Yekaterinburg, two representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora were killed. In Baku, employees of the Russian state publication Sputnik were detained.

On April 15, 2026, Russia and Azerbaijan announced the settlement of the consequences of the plane crash, including the issue of compensation.

In July, Aliyev stated that relations with Moscow were fully normalized. Contacts between the presidents continued.

This circumstance is important. Today, there are no grounds to portray Russia and Azerbaijan as states in open confrontation.

However, the normalization of bilateral relations does not eliminate competition for influence in the region.

What Russia is losing in the South Caucasus

After the collapse of the USSR, Moscow remained one of the key mediators between Armenia and Azerbaijan for a long time. Russian peacekeepers were in Karabakh after the 2020 war, but in 2024 they completed their withdrawal.

In August 2025, Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, with the mediation of US President Donald Trump, agreed on the framework for a peaceful settlement.

One of the results was the TRIPP initiative — ‘Trump’s Route for International Peace and Prosperity.’ It plans a transport connection between the main territory of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan through Armenia with American participation in infrastructure development.

For the Israeli reader, it is important to understand the geography here. Nakhchivan is an autonomous republic separated from the main territory of Azerbaijan, bordering Turkey, Iran, and Armenia. The new route can change regional cargo flows and the distribution of political influence.

NANews previously analyzed the American initiative and its consequences for the South Caucasus in detail.

For Ukraine, this process is also of interest. Russia, continuing the war in Ukraine, faces neighboring states developing international relations and transport projects without Moscow’s obligatory mediation.

Why weakening Aliyev may serve Russian interests

Aliyev has the opportunity to negotiate simultaneously with Turkey, Israel, the US, and Russia. Such foreign policy leaves Baku room for independent decisions.

An internal religious conflict can narrow this space.

If relations with Israel begin to provoke protests within predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan, the president has to spend political efforts defending the foreign policy course.

If disagreements with Turkey arise simultaneously, the situation becomes more complicated.

For Moscow, interested in maintaining its role in the South Caucasus, such difficulties for Baku are potentially beneficial. Weakening an independent regional player can expand the possibilities of Russian diplomatic influence.

This is the interest that BESA authors suggest.

But there is a fundamental boundary between a political motive and established participation in an information operation.

The published study does not contain technical data that would allow tracing the spread of anti-Semitic cartoons to Russian state structures. No established campaign coordinators or evidence of a joint operation by Moscow, Ankara, and Tehran are presented.

Therefore, it is premature to claim that the campaign was organized by the Kremlin.

However, Russian interest in weakening an independent Azerbaijan is quite understandable against the backdrop of recent changes. Baku is building relations with Washington, maintaining cooperation with Israel, and discussing the region’s transport future with Armenia without Moscow’s previous exclusive role.

Anti-Semitic images of Aliyev have already become part of this political dispute. Who spreads and coordinates them remains to be established.

And the question of Russian interest deserves attention precisely because it is not about school hijabs, but about influencing a country that increasingly makes international decisions independently.

On October 16, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order suspending the application of a significant portion of the new sanctions against Russia. The very next day, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, one of the authors of the sanctions law, publicly accused the president of pandering to Vladimir Putin. His statement came amid growing dissatisfaction with the White House’s Russian policy—not only among Democrats.

October 17, 2026 | Author: Victoria Katsman | NANews

The reason for the scandal is not another statement by Trump. On September 18, 2026, he himself signed a law aimed at cutting off Russia’s additional sources of funding for the war against Ukraine. Now, two days before the scheduled introduction of a number of restrictions, the president used his right to effectively postpone their application.

“This has nothing to do with national security”

Richard Blumenthal, representing the state of Connecticut, did not mince words.

“Donald Trump once again shows that he is on the side of a bloodthirsty thug and those who support the Russian war machine, rather than the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies,” the senator said.

Separately, he rejected the White House’s explanation of the need to protect the national interests of the United States.

“These exceptions have nothing to do with our national security. It’s all about pandering to Vladimir Putin,” Blumenthal wrote.

He concluded his address with a call for Republicans to join in condemning “this vile and cowardly act.”

For Washington, this is no longer an ordinary dispute between a Republican president and the Democratic opposition. The law that Trump decided not to apply in significant part received bipartisan support.

Graham’s Law: 500% Tariffs, Russian Banks, and Oil Tankers

The document is called the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. It is named after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away in July 2026. Graham consistently advocated for increased economic pressure on Moscow, considering sanctions a way to force the Kremlin to end the war.

The measures provided by the law were painful for the Russian economy: increasing American tariffs on Russian goods by 500%, additional tariffs of 100% on goods from the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas under certain conditions, as well as restrictions against Russian banks, officials, and the oil “shadow fleet.”

The latter term refers to a network of tankers used to transport Russian oil, including for the purpose of circumventing Western restrictions.

However, in the order of October 16, Trump applied Article 115 of the law, allowing the president to introduce exceptions for reasons of national interest. These exceptions remain until a new decision by the American administration.

Previous sanctions did not automatically disappear. But a significant portion of the new pressure tools remain on paper for now.

Is Russian diesel more important than new sanctions?

A week before the order, Trump announced an agreement with Moscow on the supply of Russian diesel fuel to global markets. According to the stated conditions, it initially involved more than 300,000 tons, then an additional 500,000 tons in November, and further supplies.

The White House hopes to reduce energy prices, which have risen amid the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran. For the Israeli reader, the connection here is direct: the situation around Iran affects fuel costs and international trade, and Washington’s attempts to stabilize the market now affect the sanctions policy against Russia.

But American lawmakers questioned the benefit of the deal.

On October 13, twelve senators, including six Republicans, demanded that Trump abandon the diesel agreement. In their opinion, purchases of Russian fuel create additional income for Moscow, which continues military actions against Ukraine.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already reported on the conflict between Trump and Zelensky over Russian diesel and strikes on oil refineries. Kyiv considers Russian oil infrastructure a legitimate military target, as revenues from energy exports help finance the Russian army.

In Moscow, they welcome it, in Congress, they demand explanations

The Russian reaction was swift. Putin’s representative for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, called the American decision “a truly historic moment.”

In the American Congress, the assessment was the opposite.

Democratic Congressman Don Beyer stated that Trump once again yielded to Putin, betrayed Ukrainian partners, and ignored the will of lawmakers. He proposed to amend the law provisions that allow the president to wield sanctioning powers so freely.

The political moment is especially inconvenient for Republicans: on November 3, the U.S. will hold midterm elections to Congress. Fuel prices remain a sensitive topic for voters, and the administration is trying to show that it can influence the situation.

The question now is what the price of such a decision will be for Ukraine.

The Congress law was supposed to increase pressure on Moscow. The president, who signed it himself, preferred to use the mechanism of exceptions. Russia gets a reprieve from new restrictions, while Ukraine continues to face Russian strikes and threats to its energy system.

And while Washington debates national interests, the main question remains open: what exactly will make Putin stop the war if even the sanctions agreed upon by the American Congress can be postponed with a single presidential order?