The Israel Summit was forced to find a new location when Sonesta Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, backed out of the event slated for May 20-22. This is the first conference of its kind, born as a result of the attacks against Israel by the terrorist group Hamas.

Ramsey’s financial advisory company, Ramsey Solutions, and Israel Summit co-host Joshua Waller reportedly confirmed that the event will now take place at the Ramsey Solutions Arena in the same city. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Israel Summit and Ramsey Solutions for comment.

The event includes a gala dinner along with a concert and speaker conference. The most expensive and exclusive tickets that include the full experience have sold out. The website continues to sell tickets but has not listed a location.

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This summit is sponsored by the Israel Guys, a podcast that airs Mondays through Fridays featuring “updates coming straight from the ground in Israel.” There have been 97 episodes since Nov. 6, about one month after the attacks on Israel. The summit will feature over a dozen speakers, among them 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

Israel is over 220 days into its conflict with Hamas in Gaza. There are still some 134 hostages that were taken from southern Israel in the custody of Hamas.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague held a hearing on Thursday after South Africa requested the court issue further constraints on Israel last week.

“Israel’s genocide has reached a new and horrific stage. … South Africa has traveled here today to do what it can to urgently stop this genocide. … Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, and in so doing, is willfully breaching the binding orders of this court,” Vusi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said in South Africa’s opening statement.

Israel will have a chance to address the court on Friday.

The hearings this week are a part of South Africa’s case alleging Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. In January, the court ordered Israel to increase its efforts to prevent the killing and harm of Palestinian civilians in Gaza but did not call for a ceasefire.

Israeli leaders have vehemently and repeatedly denied allegations of genocide.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a short video message in January, “Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself,” and added, “The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.”

The United States and several other governments have publicly said they do not support a complete Israeli invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge. Limited operations have been carried out, while roughly 600,000 people have fled Rafah since May 6, according to the United Nations.

“It has become increasingly clear that Israel’s actions in Rafah are part of the end game in which Gaza is utterly destroyed as an area capable of human habitation,” Vaughan Lowe, a British lawyer, told the court, according to the New York Times. “This is the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people.”

The Gaza health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said that roughly 35,000 people have been killed during the conflict, though that figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

“Sadly, South Africa is yet again compelled to return to this court in recognition of its obligation under the Genocide Convention due to the continuing annihilation of the Palestinian people with over 35,000 killed and most of Gaza reduced to rubble,” Madonsela added.

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Netanyahu said last week that Israeli forces have killed 14,000 terrorists and roughly 16,000 civilians.

A main pillar of Hamas’s strategy is to embed itself within and underneath Gaza’s population centers to make Israel’s military decide whether to attack, subsequently risking civilian lives, or not doing so and allowing Hamas to live unabated.

Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections.

The attempted assassination has shocked the small central European nation, with many blaming the attack in part on extreme political polarization that has divided the country.

Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town. However, he said Thursday that the suspect charged was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political groups.”

The minister did not specify what the motivation was. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course.

The attempt on Fico’s life came at a time of high division in Slovakia, as thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital and around the country to protest his policies. It also comes just ahead of June elections for the European Parliament.

Slovakia’s outgoing and next presidents — political rivals — appeared together in an appeal for Slovaks to overcome their increasingly tense political differences for the good of the country.

Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, an opponent of Fico, said Thursday that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm, saying the attack was a reflection of an increasingly polarized society.

“Let us step out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations,” Caputova said at a news conference in the capital Bratislava. “What happened yesterday was an individual act. But the tense atmosphere of hatred was our collective work.”

President-Elect Peter Pellegrini called on political parties to suspend or scale back their campaigns for European elections, which will be held June 6-9, to prevent “stand-offs and mutual accusations between politicians.”

“If there is anything that the people of Slovakia urgently need today, it is at least basic agreement and unity among the Slovak political representation. And if not consensus, then please, at least civilized ways of discussing among each other,” Pelligrini said.

Fico’s government, elected last September, has caused controversy by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine, and has plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor and to take control of public media. His critics worry that he will lead Slovakia — a nation of 5.4 million that belongs to NATO — down a more autocratic path.

Zuzana Eliasova, a resident of the capital Bratislava, said the attack on Fico was a “shock” to the nation and an attack on democracy at a time when political tensions were already running high.
“I believe that a lot of people or even the whole society will look into their conscience, because the polarization here has been huge among all different parts of society,” she said.

Doctors performed a five-hour operation on Fico, who was initially reported to be in life-threatening condition, according to the director of the F.D. Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova. He is being treated in an intensive care unit.

Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 85 miles northeast of the capital, government officials said.

Slovak police have provided no information on the identity of the shooter. But unconfirmed media reports suggested he was a 71-year-old retiree who was known as an amateur poet, and may have previously worked as a security guard at a mall in the country’s southwest.

Slovakia’s Security Council was set to meet in the capital of Bratislava on Thursday to discuss the situation, a government office said, adding that a cabinet meeting would follow.

Fico returned to power in Slovakia last year, having previously served twice as prime minister. He and his Smer party have most often been described as left-populist, though he has also been compared to politicians on the right like the nationalist prime minister of neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orbán.

Fico’s comeback caused concern among his critics that he and his party — which had long been tainted by scandal — would lead Slovakia away from the Western mainstream. He promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organizations and campaigned against LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite the controversy surrounding Fico’s leadership, condemnation of the attack came from both his allies and adversaries. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to President Caputova, expressing his support and wishing the prime minister a fast and full recovery.

“This atrocious crime cannot be justified,” Putin said in the message released by the Kremlin. “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-willed person. I truly hope these personal qualities will help him overcome this harsh situation.”

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced the violence against a neighboring country’s head of government.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

Xi said the two countries were strengthening their diplomatic ties as “good neighbors, good friends, good partners,” the Associated Press reported. He also promised to work with Russia to help “rejuvenate” each country. 

“The China-Russia relationship today is hard-earned, and the two sides need to cherish and nurture it,” Xi said upon Putin’s arrival at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. “China is willing to … jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world.”

Putin, meanwhile, reinforced his gratitude to China regarding Ukraine. He thanked Xi for his country’s efforts in helping Russia in its war with Ukraine. He said his country was “grateful for the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”

China’s president expressed optimism for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and called for a return to stability on the European continent. He also announced China’s intentions to play an integral role in helping facilitate diplomacy after the war. 

“China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Xi said.

Before their public meeting, Putin and Xi signed a joint statement to strengthen geopolitical ties. Furthermore, both promised to commit to future cooperation in many areas, including car manufacturing, food supplies, and nuclear energy. 

Additionally, Xi announced that both countries will commit to maintaining a position of “non-alliance and non-confrontation,” according to reports. 

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Putin announced that the initiative to strengthen Sino-Russian relations is in each country’s interests. He claimed it was a natural progression in the order of things and that it was “not directed against anyone.”

“Our cooperation in world affairs today is one of the main stabilizing factors in the international arena,” Putin said.

The decree, signed on Friday, May 10, by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, the minister of health, and the minister of the economy, states that people diagnosed with “transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders, gender identity disorder (unspecified), fetish transvestism and egodystonic sexual orientation” would be covered for their “mental health problem” under the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan.

“In the field of mental health, the Essential Health Insurance Plan (PEAS) considers the mental health problems contemplated in the Chapter on Mental and Behavioral Disorders of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) of the World Health Organization, in force at the time of health care, as insurable conditions that must be financed for all insured persons, including the provision of medical supplies,” the decree said on the president’s website.

Human Rights Watch disagreed with the decree’s categorization by calling them “obsolete classifications.”

“It employs obsolete classifications related to gender identity and sexual orientation that the World Health Organization (WHO) replaced in the most recent International Classification of Diseases, published in 2019. The decree also further calcifies prejudices against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Peru which have led to violence and discrimination against this population,” researcher Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera wrote in his analysis of the decree.

Peruvian transgender activists denounced the decision.

“100 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, the @Minsa_Peru has no better idea than to include trans people in the category of mental illnesses. We demand and we will not rest until its repeal,” Jheinser Pacaya, director of Outfest Peru, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

A researcher for Lima’s Scientific University of the South suggested that this move could lead to “conversion therapy.”

“You can’t ignore the context that this is happening in a super-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and where labeling them as mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy,” researcher Percy Mayta-Tristan reportedly said.

Chaya Raichik, owner of the social media account Libs of TikTok, responded with a reminder that TikTok transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney went to Peru last year to “feel safe” from the onslaught of online harassment.

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“Remember when Dylan Mulvaney fled the US to Peru to ‘feel safe’? Well now Peru just passed a bill classifying trans people as ‘mentally ill.’ Dylan Mulvaney would be officially considered mentally ill in Peru. What do you think of this new policy?” she asked her social media followers.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Mulvaney for comment.

HaYovel, one of the sponsors of the event called the Israel Summit, was contacted by the hotel’s leadership to let them know that the summit scheduled to be held May 20-22 could not be held at the building. Police cited concern for guests’ safety due to “the threatening nature of the calls and messages they received,” according to a report.

The Israel Summit is described as “the first annual gathering of pro-Israel supporters who unconditionally support Israel’s right to be sovereign in the entirety of the land of Israel, including Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.”

“We will move forward with this event at a different venue and show these thugs that they will not be rewarded for their unconstitutional, hateful actions,” a statement from HaYovel read. “Now, more than ever, it is important that America stands unconditionally with Israel and that we publicly show that we cannot be intimidated by pro-Hamas thugs.” 

It is unclear who specifically called the hotel, though the group Palestine Hurra Collective Nashville had posted a statement on social media encouraging followers to call the hotel and ask it not to host the conference. The post included the hotel’s email address and phone number.

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It is not known where the Israel Summit will now be held, though its website still states that it will take place from May 20-22.

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The three day conference consists of a gala dinner on Wednesday evening as well as a music concert by Israeli musician Yair Levi. A total of 16 speakers are listed on the conference’s website, including former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

The Washington Examiner has contacted Sonesta Hotel for comment.

“The ‘day after Hamas’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’s rule,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday. “I must reiterate: I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military rule in Gaza. Israel must not establish civilian rule in Gaza.”

Gallant drew that line as a challenge to Netanyahu amid a swirl of controversy around the prime minister’s strategy — or lack thereof, as U.S. policymakers and senior Israeli military officials have implied in recent days. That controversy has festered due to an apparent tension between Netanyahu’s pledge to achieve “total victory” over Hamas and a ceasefire deal to secure the release of the hostages still held by the terrorists.

“I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip, that Israel will not establish military governance in the Gaza Strip, and that a governing alternative to Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be raised immediately,” Gallant said.

Netanyahu, for his part, rebuffed the idea of a “two-state solution” in the shadow of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

“What I’d like to see is a non-Hamas civilian administration there with an Israeli military responsibility, overall military responsibility,” Netanyahu told CNBC earlier Wednesday. “Look, the two-state solution that people talk about is basically, would be the greatest reward for the terrorist that you can imagine.”

“One, it would be a tremendous reward, historic precedent of giving those people who committed the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust on a single day, giving them a prize,” he added. “And secondly, it would be a state that would be immediately taken over by Hamas and Iran.”

Gallant’s broadside expanded on a critique offered last week in private, though it was promptly leaked, by Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi, as well as top members of the Biden administration.

“Hamas no longer functions as a military organization — most of its battalions have been dismantled, and it has turned to terrorist warfare, conducted by individuals and small squads,” Gallant said. “The IDF is operating in Rafah in order to dismantle Hamas’s remaining battalions, to locate the hostages, eliminate terrorists, and block [Hamas] smuggling routes. However, as long as Hamas retains control over civilian life in Gaza, it may rebuild and strengthen, thus requiring the IDF to return and fight in areas where it has already operated.”

Those salvos portend a larger political clash over Israel’s long-term plans for Gaza. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultranationalist politician who secured a place in the coalition government by delivering parliamentary votes that Netanyahu required to form a governing majority, called Tuesday for Israel to conquer the Gaza Strip and claim it as part of “the Holy Land” of the state of Israel, while other Israeli politicians offered more artful condemnations of Gallant’s posture.

“The people of Israel are not ready to be humiliated. The people of Israel are not ready to be led into an Oslo 2.0 process that will lead Israel to another disaster,” Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin said, referring to the 1993 deal between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority. “The people of Israel will not agree to hand Gaza over to the control of the terrorist Palestinian Authority.”

Levin’s rebuke hewed to Netanyahu’s line, as the prime minister rebuffed Gallant in an effort to keep the focus of the strategic debate on Palestinian entities he deems unacceptable.

“After the terrible massacre, I ordered the destruction of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in response to Gallant’s public address, according to Haaretz. “IDF fighters and the security forces are fighting for this. As long as Hamas remains, no other actor will run Gaza — and certainly not the Palestinian Authority.”

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Gallant, for his part, suggested the military victory is all but achieved, a battlefield assessment that would seem to imply that Netanyahu could strike a deal to release the hostages if he had a postwar plan that Gallant considers realistic.

“We must dismantle Hamas’s governing capabilities in Gaza,” Gallant said. “The key to this goal is military action and the establishment of a governing alternative in Gaza. In the absence of such an alternative, only two negative options remain: Hamas’s rule in Gaza or Israeli military rule in Gaza. The meaning of indecision is choosing one of the negative options. It would erode our military achievements, lessen the pressure on Hamas, and sabotage the chances of achieving a framework for the release of hostages.”

The portrait, created by artist Jonathan Yeo, was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of the Drapers’ Company, which would have occurred in 2022. Instead, the portrait was unveiled Tuesday and has met a mixed reaction online due to its striking, sea-of-pink composition.

About the portrait’s look, Yeo joked to the BBC: “If this was seen as treasonous, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be an appropriate way for a portrait painter to die — to have their head removed!”

The Guardian gave the painting a one-star review and called it “a pinkish psychedelic splurge,” a “superficially observed and carelessly executed bland banality,” and “a formulaic bit of facile flattery.”

One social media user compared the portrait to Ghostbusters 2 villain Vigo the Carpathian, a medieval sorcerer who haunts a painting.

Various other users took issue with the painting’s heavy color scheme, comparing the king to Tobias Funke’s blue skin paint from Arrested Development from when the character attempted to join the Blue Man Group.

The palace’s Instagram post about the portrait includes a wide variety of reactions, with some saying of the painting, “He has a history of blood on his hands,” “His portrait looks like he’s he’s in hell,” “100% thought this was satire,” and “Charlie looks like he’s been set in strawberry jelly.”

Others responded with a torrent of memes, including comparing the portrait to the scene in The Shining when a spout of blood emerges from an elevator and to Han Solo’s pose after he was frozen in carbonite by bounty hunter Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back.

According to ARTNews, Yeo has been commissioned to paint several high-profile portraits before, including “Queen Camila, Prince Philip, former prime minister Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch, and Damien Hirst.”

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Yeo told the BBC of the portrait, “My interest is really in figuring out who someone is and trying to get that on a canvas.

“On the one hand, we know they’re real people with quirks and personality traits. We’ve seen that much more of them. On the other hand, we still want to buy into the mysticism and the fairy tale that they’re different from us, that there’s a bit of magic there.”

“PM Robert Fico is currently being transported by helicopter to Banská Bystrica in a life-threatening condition, as it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute intervention,” the Slovak government said on Wednesday, per Radio Slovakia International.

The attack occurred in Handlová, Slovakia, where the prime minister was visiting a cultural facility and greeting citizens. A reporter with Denník N, a local newspaper, was at the scene and heard several shots ring out before seeing his security team in action. The shooter reportedly was arrested.

“I strongly condemn today’s brutal and reckless attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico,” Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova said on Wednesday. “I am shocked. I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength to recover from the attack at this critical moment.”

Detailed statements from Slovak officials remain scarce, but the public setting of the incident has allowed a picture to emerge. The assailant reportedly fired four rounds, “with one hitting the prime minister in the abdomen,” as Fico greeted civilians following a government meeting.

“He has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition,” Fico’s team said in a statement posted to his Facebook page, according to an unofficial translation. “The next few hours will decide.”

Fico returned to power last year for his third stint as the prime minister of Slovakia, a victory achieved on a platform of cutting Slovakian aid to Ukraine. He has a reputation for being relatively pro-Russian, a stance that has strained his ties with other neighboring NATO allies, including the Czech Republic, although he struck a more supportive note last month while hosting Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Bratislava.

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“Russia’s use of military force in Ukraine was a flagrant violation of international law,” Fico told Shmyhal on April 12. “Our petty battles look ridiculous compared to what you are waging. People sometimes do not realize the difficulties you are facing.”

The shooting drew condemnation from across the European Union. “I strongly condemn the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media. “Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.”

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, described the attack as “appalling.”

“We strongly condemn this act of violence against our neighboring partner state’s head of government,” he wrote on X. “Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form, or sphere. We sincerely hope Robert Fico recovers soon and express our solidarity with the people of Slovakia.”

The ambush occurred in broad daylight, with the gunmen freeing drug boss Mohamed Amra, nicknamed “The Fly,” killing two officers and seriously injuring three others. Videos showed the gunmen armed with assault rifles and dressed in tactical gear, with hoods and face coverings. The attack lasted about two minutes, with the gunmen calmly circling the van and firing upon the occupants with precision.

The killings marked the first death of a prison guard in the line of duty in France in 32 years, according to the New York Times.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the attack was a shock to all of France and that everything would be done to track down the perpetrators.

“This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all. The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured, and their colleagues. Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,” he said, adding that they will be “uncompromising” in their response.

Amra was sentenced to 18 months in prison for aggravated theft last week but is also suspected of involvement in a bloody Marseille murder in 2022.

“He is suspected of having ordered an assassination in Marseille on 17 June 2022. The charred corpse of a man was found in a burned vehicle, in the town of Le Rove, bordering Marseille. The victim had obviously been executed beforehand with a bullet to the head,” a police source told RTL.

Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said Amra was under special surveillance but wasn’t believed to have been radicalized or a terrorist suspect, the Independent reported.

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France’s anti-terrorist unit GIGN is leading the nationwide manhunt.

The attack occurred on the main highway between Paris and Normandy and marks a serious public image blow for a country preparing to host the Olympics later this year.