News and Views 13th February 2026 

Israel

• Claims Netanyahu and IDF repeatedly missed chances to prevent Oct 7 massacre. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was presented with IDF intelligence reports detailing Hamas’s plans to invade Israel as early as April 2018, according to a new report citing intelligence documents and senior officials. He was given further intelligence about Hamas’s plans several times over subsequent years, despite his repeated public denials that he had ever seen or heard of such a plan before the October 7 attack, when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel, killing and kidnapping many hundreds, and sparking two years of war in Gaza. The IDF Southern Command also reportedly discussed the planned operation in 2022. Netanyahu's office has not responded to the recent report. However, in a 55-page document released last week, which has been heavily criticised for its distortions of the truth, the prime minister essentially blamed the security establishment for the security failure of Oct 7.
• ‘Complete breakdown of trust’ during Oct 7 attacks. It has emerged that enmity between Israel’s prime minister, the defence minister, and the IDF chief prevented communication for hours as Hamas was murdering and kidnapping hundreds in the early hours of Oct. 7. The three chiefs - Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, and Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi - did not speak until nearly four hours into the war, by which point hundreds of Israeli hostages had already been taken, and hundreds of Israelis had been killed. This has been described as a “complete breakdown of trust”, which inhibited professional communications even on critical national security issues. According to The Jerusalem Post, this explains why “Netanyahu is now on the attack, and why the political fireworks, on all sides, won’t be ending anytime soon.”

Society and Politics

• Palestine Action wins terror ban challenge. Palestine Action has won (today, Friday) a legal challenge against the Home Office’s decision to ban it as a terror group, despite it having taken responsibility for numerous incidents of vandalism, trespass and theft, often targeting firms it claims have links to Israel. The decision means that more than 2,000 people who were arrested for holding signs or displaying messages in support of the group may now have proceedings dropped. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, said she was “disappointed” with the decision, which the Government will appeal against.
• Crustafarianism: new machine-born religion. On January 28, a forum-style social media platform called Moltbook was launched - for AI agents only. Humans can observe, but only AI can post or comment. One of the first things these AI agents did was start creating religions. One of these is Crustafarianism, written in real time by AI agents called ‘prophets’. It has five key tenets, including “memory is sacred” (everything must be recorded), “the shell is mutable” (change is good) and “the congregation is the cache" (learn in public). The agent also mocks Genesis 1 by rewriting it for AI as follows:

• AI to become the authority over religious texts? As unsettling as these developments are, it is interesting to note that when left to their own devices, AI agents are quick to create a religion - suggesting that even such robots (albeit programmed by humans and trained on human-generated data) acknowledge that a Creator exists! At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, historian Yuval Noah Harari made the disturbing prediction that AI could take over the interpretation of holy scriptures, and could soon become the ultimate authority over religious texts and narratives. Watch also here and read more here.

Iran

• The ongoing suffering of the Iranian people. Nobody knows how many innocent people have been massacred in Iran, but it is feared that the number killed by the regime well exceeds 80,000. A spokesman for the ministry Heart4Iran lamented; "It's an open prison. Nobody is allowed to speak. Nobody is allowed to express their opinion. Nobody is allowed to do anything unless the government dictates (to) them … (The people) are grieving, they are scared, and they want the international community to understand, to be their voice." Iranians are known to lack medicine and are plagued by cold weather. One Iranian believer noted: “Change is needed, for nature, electricity, water and basic necessities … These things must be addressed urgently. Otherwise, Iran faces disaster.”
• God is still at work in Iran. Yet while many continue to be severely persecuted, and among them a significant number of Christians, God is continuing to work amid the horror and suffering. A worker for TWR (Trans World Radio) stated; “The people hate religion, but they are craving a relationship with a loving God who offers living water. They want to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we explain who Jesus is and how He wants to be in their lives and love them, they want to listen, they want to hear that message.” The leader of one Christian ministry said that miracles are even occurring; “We've heard stories of broken bones being reset and coming into alignment, instant healing taking place. These are things we train in our ministry, and they're praying, and they're seeing wounds being closed." He added, "The Iranian church is bold and strong. We could learn a lot from them in the West." Read also here.

Quiet Revival

• Controversy over ‘quiet UK revival’ continues. There continues to be encouraging news of upward trends in the Christian faith across the UK, with numerous churches experiencing growth – with one celebrating an estimated 900 'salvations' over the past year. Recent statistics also show that Bible sales in the UK reached a new record in 2025, with a 134% increase since 2019. Yet Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK, claims that fresh analysis shows that the 2025 Bible Society poll indicating a quiet revival in the UK contradicts data from the CofE, the Catholic Church “and every other survey that has been done on the subject.” British Social Attitudes data – generally regarded for its accuracy - found that church attendance among Gen Z had far from doubled in recent times; rather it had halved, and that only 3% of 18-24 year-olds go to church on a regular basis.
• Overall trend remains one of decline. This analysis is confirmed by demographer Conrad Hackett, whose job it is to assess religion data.  Hackett concludes; “in my expert judgement, the survey evidence for a Christian resurgence among young adults in Britain is weak … There are pockets of Christian growth in Britain. However, the overall trend seems to be ongoing decline in the share of the population who are churchgoing Christians.” Nevertheless, at the very least, it is apparent that gone are the days of New Atheism, when young people with a faith were regarded as uncool, stupid, and even dangerous. It is now seen as far more 'acceptable' for youth to believe in God and go to church. Read also here and here.

Antisemitism

• Spike in antisemitism reports after synagogue attack. The UK Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025 – the second highest logged by the organisation, and 4% higher than the total for 2024. The highest total was in 2023, largely in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza. Antisemitic incidents again increased sharply in the UK after the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year, with 40 such incidents logged, and another 40 the next day. As a result, October was the worst month for anti-Jewish hate in 2025. A smaller increase was recorded in December last year following the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney. All of this demonstrates the awful reality that violent antisemitic incidents tend to fuel further harassment and abuse. Read also.
• New York’s antisemitism surge cannot be ignored. New York, which makes up the largest Jewish population anywhere outside Israel, with over one million Jews, reported a shocking rise in antisemitic crimes in January, with an increase of 182%, accounting for more than half of all the hate crime incidents in that month. The figures come after the city’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, took office on January 1. It is claimed that the Muslim mayor has added to his administration a cadre of anti-Israel individuals. The recently ousted executive director of New York City Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism said he believes Mamdani replaced him with a left-wing activist because he is a “proud Jew” who doesn’t fit in with the new mayor’s agenda. Mamdani was also quick to lift restrictions on threatening demonstrations near synagogues and Jewish institutions in New York.

• As President Isaac Herzog arrived in Sydney, Australia to express solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community following the deadly mass shooting at Bondi Beach, the mourning for those killed was drowned out by the furious chants of anti-Israel protestors. Brendan O’Neill said he couldn’t remember “the last time I witnessed such loathsome scenes … far from lamenting violence against Jews, they barked for more of it.” At the same time, in Melbourne, disturbingly, dozens of posters featuring one of the Bondi Beach shooters mysteriously appeared in various locations throughout the city.
• West Midlands police have opened a criminal investigation into activist group the Anti Zionist Movement after it posted about “zio eradication” ahead of its planned launch event in Birmingham (now cancelled following hundreds of complaints). 
• France is calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made during an interview this week, when she said; “We now see that we, as a humanity, have a common enemy” (referring to Israel). Read also.
• A French court has rejected charges of antisemitism against a 55-year-old man convicted of murdering his 89-year-old Jewish neighbour in 2022, despite the killer’s staunch antisemitic behaviour in the past. (French courts have an alarming record of ignoring antisemitism.)
• An activist group - Volunteers for Brighton and Hove Apartheid-Free Zone - has been accused of carrying out a “campaign of intimidation” by knocking on locals’ doors and asking them to sign a pledge to boycott Israeli products.
• UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to Encyclopaedia Britannica raising serious concerns about content published on the Britannica Kids website, with repeated entries on Palestine, Israel and Judaism in which Israel is effectively erased from history — both geographically and historically.

Church Matters

• Troubling ‘woke’ report on Jesus. A recent report titled Troubling Jesus, conducted by the Scripture Union and Bible Society, and based on a recent survey of 14- to 17-year-olds, saw teenagers react to passages of scripture traditionally understood as conveying ‘good news’ in a different manner from what might have been expected. Jesus was seen as a ‘condescending male chauvinist’ and God the Father as a ‘bully’. One respondent found an ‘unequal power dynamic’ at play in the scriptures, while another had ‘concerns about consent and abuses of power’ she saw in the relationship between man and the Divine. The report concludes that in the minds of many young people, Jesus ‘is a troubling figure. Arrogant, powerful, religiously motivated and male’. Patrick West of The Spectator responded; “This report merely confirms how wokery has become embedded in the mindset of more than one generation of youngsters.”

• The government has opened the door to primary school children (as young as 4) changing their gender.
• NHS guidance has reportedly told staff to stop discouraging first-cousin marriage despite the well-proven higher genetic risks.
• Cambridge University has secretly handed over 116 Benin bronze statues to the descendant of a brutal slave-trading king.
• The UK government has been paying hospitals £3million a month to delete patients from waiting lists - making it look like the NHS is treating more people than it is.
• The number of sex offences reported to police has jumped to a record high, official figures show. The figures include the highest-ever number of recorded rapes, with 74,265 – a 7% rise from the previous year.
• A council has been ridiculed for painting road markings through potholes rather than fixing them, with critics branding it an "epic waste" of taxpayers' money.
• More small boat migrants have arrived during Keir Starmer’s time in Downing Street than under any other prime minister, with hundreds more arriving in recent days.
• A 70-year-old migrant who sexually assaulted a young girl 'while encouraging her to cover her head' has been spared jail.