Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

01/21 Links Pt2: The Red Cross Abets Hamas’s Crimes; Only Hamas can claim victory and genocide at the same time; A happy 20th anniversary for Mahmoud Abbas

From Ian:

The UK still hasn’t come to terms with the Muslim Brotherhood

Islam is no longer something that only matters in Islamic countries. It has a global reach and therefore global influence. That has been the case for decades, though we have tried to pretend otherwise. Most Muslims are perfectly at ease in the West. But Islamists by definition see our societies as corrupt and decadent and our political systems as illegitimate. Revelation, not rationally discovered secular law, should determine how we live and are governed.

Given the symbolic power for Muslims of Islam – which Islamists seek to harness for their own ends – and the growing numbers of Muslims in Europe, that is a challenge to the liberal order of a magnitude we haven’t experienced since the Cold War. So when the UAE decides to proscribe organisations and individuals which they claim are linked to the MB, and some of those are resident or registered in the UK, we should pay attention. This is not necessarily because we know that the UAE are right or – if they are right – that we should take legal action ourselves. The MB is not a proscribed organisation here – though Hamas, which arose out of the Palestinian MB certainly is. The issue is rather different. Successive British governments have seemed to believe that if only we ignore Islamism or pay attention only when a bomb goes off on the Tube or someone is horribly murdered on Westminster Bridge, at Borough Market or on a street in Woolwich, then everyone will get along nicely and everything will be fine. It won’t.

The Islamist challenge to the foundational norms of western societies is clear enough in the current debate over Islamophobia. We have seen the results in Batley, in Wakefield and in Birmingham, where there has been a sustained effort to pretend that the so-called Trojan Horse affair never happened (Policy Exchange, the think tank where I work, has begged to differ). The French see this with Cartesian clarity: its interior minister spoke about the threat from Brotherhood-inflected Islamism on 6 January. So do politicians in Austria, Germany and Sweden. They continue to have difficulty formulating a coherent and collective response. But acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to resolving it. British governments continue to be reluctant to do even that. So reviews like the MBR or those by Shawcross and Sara Khan come and go. Whitehall is repeatedly urged to set up proper structures, to develop proper expertise and use that to shape policies designed at the very least to resist Islamist efforts to create parallel structures or separate societies, promote dependency, disguise funding flows, dismantle the connection between rights and the individual and constrain criticism by restrictions on free speech. The response under the Tories was feeble: they were admittedly distracted. But the response of the current government seems likely to be more regulation, more legal constraints and perhaps the adoption of an expansive and unnecessary Islamophobia definition. That isn’t the answer. The UAE shows what can be done if you know what you’re talking about and have the confidence of your convictions. Perhaps we should try learning from them?

The Red Cross Abets Hamas’s Crimes

While any hope of reforming UNRWA is a fantasy, that isn’t to say the organization is completely incapable of self-correction. In 2019, writes Richard Pollock, its director Pierre Krähenbühl

was forced to resign . . . because of immoral and unethical behavior, including creating a “toxic environment” within the organization, according to the official investigation. . . . The devastating ten-page UN report said he and his top associates, “engaged in abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.”

So what happens to the disgraced former head of UNRWA? In 2021, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) made him its personal envoy to the president of China. He became the organization’s director-general in December 2023. And that brings us to the events of Sunday, when ICRC officials supervised the handover of three Israeli hostages. As Pollock observes, these officials “stood by and permitted Hamas gunmen and frenzied Gaza City residents to surround and shake the vehicles [transporting the women] as they were about to be released.” This was

the final human-rights indignity supervised by the International Red Cross, which has steadfastly ignored its obligation and mandate to protect unarmed hostages. Unlike . . . in other conflicts, not once did the ICRC never meet with a single hostage during their captivity since they were seized on October 7. The relief agency never provided them with comfort, delivered needed medicines, or assured their safety.

It’s not well known, but in fiscal year 2022, the State Department contributed more than $622 million to the ICRC, making it the largest single donor to the relief agency. . . . The new Congress most likely will hold hearings to investigate the ICRC and consider withholding funds from it.

Only Hamas can claim victory and genocide at the same time

Hamas wasted no time declaring victory, even before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the existence of a hostage release deal. Despite its losses, the destruction of its leadership and the devastation in Gaza’s streets, the terror group’s propaganda arm pressed forward. "The Al-Aqsa Flood brought pride," they claimed in a flurry of social media graphics, showcasing their creative team working overtime.

This is a population uniquely capable of claiming both genocide and victory simultaneously. The objective is clear: to entrench Palestinian consciousness and reinforce Hamas' grip on Gaza. The armed terrorists who emerged amid celebrations as the cease-fire began underscore this.

Yet, beyond the absurdity lies a critical reminder of the parallel battle for public perception. The potential silence on the battlefield in the coming weeks doesn't necessarily signal a reduction in this campaign. On the contrary, it’s likely to intensify in the absence of physical fighting.

Israel faces a steep challenge countering Hamas’ messaging to its own population. If the Palestinians haven’t realized by now that their actions led to disaster, no Israeli awareness campaign will change that anytime soon.

But the Palestinian public isn't Israel’s primary target audience. The focus should be on the international audience, which has lost sight of why Israel is fighting and what it has yet to achieve. The world needs a reminder of the cruelty of the enemy and the reality that Israel’s national trauma won’t begin to heal until every hostage is returned.

In this sense, the hostage deal represents not only a source of joy, hope and worry among many— but also an opportunity to provide the world with critical context. While the IDF prepares the operation for the hostages’ return, "Wings of Freedom," Israel must also plan a parallel campaign: "Freedom of Truth."

Amid the inevitable flood of media coverage surrounding the deal, Israel should embed content that advances its interests — personalizing the hostages, putting faces and names to those coming home and underscoring that Israel won't rest until all are freed.

It must be made clear that their abduction is not just a personal tragedy but a collective catastrophe and that Hamas' existence remains a dire threat requiring its complete eradication.

01/21 Links Pt1: Hamas held hostages at new Gaza hospital as UN health agency criticized for inaction; Report: Four female hostages to be released Saturday; Australia is in the grip of an anti-Semitic nightmare

From Ian:

Israel Enters Truce with Unfulfilled Goal: Destroying Hamas

As a ceasefire begins in Gaza, Israel hasn't fulfilled its top war aim: to destroy Hamas. Hamas is claiming a win despite its heavy losses, and parading its fighters in the streets of Gaza, because it has reached its own goal of surviving the onslaught. Yet the strategic gains from 15 months of war are almost all on Israel's side. The country has emerged stronger, having cut several of its adversaries down to size.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian cause is facing its bleakest prospects for decades. Despite widespread international sympathy, the Palestinians are more divided internally, more isolated in the region, and face an Israel that, after Oct. 7, 2023, is even more firmly against a Palestinian state.

"On the Israeli side, there is disappointment and frustration about the war in Gaza," said Michael Milshtein, a former head of Palestinian affairs for Israeli military intelligence. "But Israel has a lot of strategic achievements. It caused severe damage to all its enemies. They are not the same threats that they were on Oct. 7. Israel's deterrence is much improved, and the society demonstrated its resilience."

The real defeat for Hamas came on Israel's other fronts, where Hamas's allies in what is known as Iran's axis of resistance suffered a string of setbacks. The all-out regional war on Israel that was dreamed of by Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Oct. 7, turned into a fiasco.

"Hamas lost a lot of fighters and equipment and infrastructure, but what forced it to the negotiating table was the changed regional situation, plus the arrival of Trump," said Ofer Fridman, a former Israeli officer and war-studies scholar at King's College London.

Seth Mandel: What the Pardon Controversies and the Israeli Hostage Deals Have in Common

In 2013, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a petition by family members of terror victims seeking to halt a Palestinian prisoner release. The families also argued that, just as in criminal clemency cases, the victims should have an opportunity to register their opposition before the court. In probably the most significant part of the decision, the court said that families of victims don’t retain the same rights if the clemency being granted is through a political deal and not through the normal legal process.

It is crucial to understand how much this concept—that political decisions override the government’s legal obligations—irritates the public. Some of that sentiment seems to be building in the U.S. as well in the wake of bipartisan misuse of the pardon power.

There is one other consideration in Israel’s case that helps explain why Katz might have tied his administrative-detention change to the ceasefire deal. As one Israeli academic warned in 2018: “there is a correlation between people who demonstrated their desire to punish terrorist Palestinians more harshly in [a recent public opinion] survey and the people who showed mistrust in Israeli institutions and their capability to deal with terrorism. It is possible that Israelis do not trust their justice system and government to keep perpetrators behind bars.”

Repeated attempts to severely limit the government’s power to make such deals have failed, and the death penalty is not coming back into use. Similarly, in the U.S. the pardon power is constitutionally explicit and broad, and therefore difficult to limit. But mistrust of the legal system in a democracy will have its own corrosive effect if politicians neglect to maintain the political legitimacy they need to make these decisions.

Israeli intel indicates Hamas held hostages at new Gaza hospital as UN health agency criticized for inaction

With the first three Israeli hostages freed in the cease-fire for hostages deal, Fox News Digital has exclusively learned that several terrorists captured by Israeli forces last month confessed that Israeli captives were held at different times at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) recently completed a major raid on the hospital, arresting some 240 terrorists. The director of the hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, the Israelis claim, had gathered intelligence showing that he not only allowed Hamas to infiltrate the hospital, but actively collaborated with the terror group.

Another captured terrorist, Anas Muhammad Faiz al-Sharif, who worked at the hospital as a cleaning supervisor and joined the Nukhba forces of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades in 2021, told Israeli interrogators that the northern Gaza facility was viewed as "a safe haven for them because the [Israeli] military cannot directly target it."

He revealed that inside the hospital, terrorists distributed grenades and mortars, along with equipment for ambushing IDF troops and tanks.

Fox News Digital asked a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman if, based on the IDF's new allegations about holding hostages at Adwan Hospital, they would condemn Hamas' use of hospitals for military use.

In a statement, the spokesman said, "The International Humanitarian Law is very clear. Healthcare workers and healthcare facilities are off limits. They must not be attacked. They must not be used for military purposes. They must be protected at all times. The point is both to protect civilians, as well as to protect the health systems and infrastructure that communities depend on for life-giving care and continuity of services.

"Failure to protect and respect healthcare devastates twice. First, in the initial harm, and then again for the months or years it takes to rebuild the health systems."

The statement concluded without condemning or singling out Hamas. "The protection of healthcare also includes the prohibition against combatants using health facilities for military purposes. IHL is also clear that even if healthcare facilities are being used for military purposes, there are stringent conditions which apply to taking action against them, including a duty to warn and to wait after warning and even then, disproportionate attacks are strictly prohibited."

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former Trump National Security Council official, claimed, "Several international organizations operating in Gaza likely had direct knowledge of Hamas using hospitals as terror headquarters and only publicly protested Israel’s attempt to clear the terrorists. The Red Cross, UNRWA, World Health Organization - they were all collaborators." Ambulances carrying patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahya, northern Gaza Strip since services stopped within 24 hours due to lack of fuel, arrive at Shifa Hospital, accompanied by UN teams, in Gaza City, Gaza, on Oct. 12, 2024.

Annexing the West Bank is a "most serious violation" - but only when done by Jews

Yesterday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that any annexation of part or all of Judea and Samaria "would constitute a most serious violation of international law."

For international law to have any meaning, it must be applied equally to all. Luckily, we have a case where a country did indeed annex the exact same territory, in 1950, when Jordan illegally annexed what they call the West Bank.

Who condemned it? Only the Arab League, which was concerned that Jordan was about to implement a plan to make itself the leader of a Greater Syria that would encompass Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and "Palestine."

I looked for any UN resolutions condemning this "most serious violation of international law." There aren't any.

The world largely knew the annexation was illegal. Almost no one recognized it (outside Great Britain, Iraq and maybe Pakistan.) Most other countries and the media accepted the west bank of the Jordan as de facto Jordanian territory, if not de jure.

That includes the UN.

In November 1966, a Fatah terrorist cell exploded a mine under an Israeli jeep, killing three. Israel responded with an reprisal invasion aimed at Fatah cells in the village of Samu, near Hebron which resulted in a large battle with Jordanian forces.

Naturally the UN Security Council condemned the response but not the initial attack. However, the wording of UNSC resolution 228 is most interesting. It called Israel's action "a largescale and carefully planned military action on the territory of Jordan by the armed forces of Israel."

This indicates that the UN accepted the West Bank as being fully Jordanian territory, not occupied or illegally annexed.

There are some annexations the UN has condemned (Israel/east Jerusalem, Israel/Golan, Iraq/Kuwait, Russia/Crimea, South Africa/Namibia) and others they didn't at the time (China/Tibet, Indonesia/East Timor, India/Goa, Morocco/Western Sahara.) If annexation is a most serious violation of international law, why wouldn't the UN condemn all of them? What makes some terrible and others, like Jordan's, acceptable?

It doesn't take too much to realize that politics trumps international law, and the UN is far more political than it is a neutral arbiter of what is right and wrong.

(h/t (((JyrkiWahlstedt))) )

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Hamas is deliberately psychologically torturing Israelis during the hostage releases

Terrorism is, by definition, the attempt to instill fear and terror in a civilian population. Usually this comes from bombs, bullets, airplane hijackings, knives and car rammings, but the effect desired is always psychological, not physical.

Every single move Hamas has made with the hostages has been specifically and deliberately designed to cause the maximum pain to Israelis. In other words, the hostage releases are a continuation of October 7, not a conclusion.

The entire process over the past week has been one of torturing Israelis in general, and the families of hostages in particular:

* Refusing to confirm how many and which hostages are alive.

* Delaying giving the names of those to be released until (and beyond) the last possible moment.

* Claiming that Israeli bombs killed a female hostage right before the ceasefire.

* Delaying telling Israel whether the hostages released in every handover are alive or dead.

* The entire process of dragging out the release of hostages over weeks.

* Giving the hostages "gift bags" as if their imprisonment was merely a summer camp they enjoyed.

* Staging mobs of people when the hostages were handed to the Red Cross to make them fearful to the last second.

* Forcing Red Cross representatives to sign a form upon the hostage release calling them "prisoners" in order to make it appear that the international community agrees that they were prisoners of war, not kidnapped civilians.

* Choosing Saturday for the successive hostage releases to force Israeli Jews to violate the Sabbath (although of course this is perfectly allowed for saving lives.) Hamas changed the date back and forth, further causing anguish.

* Celebrating the release of murderers as if this was a prisoner swap.

* Celebrating the ceasefire as if it was a victory.

* Using the deal as an opportunity to make it appear that Hamas is in full control of Gaza and the war was a waste of time.

This is besides the psychological torture of the hostages themselves while in captivity. Dr. Itai Pessach, director of the Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center, described some of this to CBS News after the first hostage release in November 2023:

"There's not a single person that came back that didn't have a significant physical injury or a medical problem. On top of that, some of them were getting [psychological] medication, to look better than they actually were."

There were also stories of hostages being branded (a common practice inflicted on Jews and other prisoners of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust), and of being sexually abused. "Yes, we did see signs of branding," Pessach said. "We definitely saw signs of being handcuffed. We did hear and see evidence of sexual abuse in a significant part of the people we have treated. We also heard evidence – and that was one of the hardest parts – of abuse against those that [are still there], both physical and sexual."

Pessach also said hostages were subjected to psychological torture (as in being told that Israel no longer exists). "What really struck me is how prepared the Hamas terrorists were with their psychological torment," he said. "It was structured and preplanned. They're constantly saying, 'Nobody cares about you. You are here alone. You hear the bombs falling? They don't care about you. We're here to protect you.' And this really played with their minds.

"There have been some episodes where they separated two family members, and then put them back together, then separated them, then put them back together. And so, as a parent you would do anything to have your child with you, even when you are in captivity," he said.

This torture, and more like the hostage videos Hamas would release, is all part of the same war from Hamas' perspective. From the start, Hamas understood that this was a cognitive war far more than a kinetic war, and they have waged this war - and continue to wage that war - as such. Some of it is aimed at hostages themselves, some at their families, some at Israelis -all to maximize the pain of Israelis and Jews worldwide. (The other component of the Hamas' cognitive war is aimed at world public opinion, with very different messages for the liberal West and for the decidedly illiberal Arab world.)

For Hamas, the ceasefire is another phase of the war, and an unparalleled opportunity for Hamas to continue to attack Israelis in public with the media being characteristically clueless as to how they are being manipulated.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

It seems a little early for a report card, but the first 12 hours of Donald Trump's second term started off pretty good.

His team, apparently at the last minute, canceled a planned prayer by a pro-Iran imam who had refused to call Hezbollah terrorist. The rabbi who spoke, Rabbi Ari Berman, did speak and highlighted the hostages while wearing a hostage pin.

Trump invited hostage families on stage and greeted every one of them at a post-inauguration event.

Trump revoked Executive Order 14115, which had sanctioned some Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

He restored sanctions on the International Criminal Court, reversing their cancellation under Biden.

He placed a 90-day pause on all U.S. foreign developmental assistance programs to review their alignment with administration policy, which includes UNRWA.

He authorized the deportation of visa holders who support hateful ideologies, terrorism, or national security threats, such as individuals involved in pro-Hamas protests, riots, or fundraising efforts.

He lifted restrictions on arms sales to Israel, including the supply of 2,000-pound bombs, to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel’s defense.

Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff spoke at the rally, signaling a continuing role for him. The billionaire with strong Qatar ties is a source of concern and the hostage deal he forced on Netanyahu was not good for Israel at all. My guess is that his main priority will be to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords and while that would be a huge deal it will require more concessions from Israel that may compromise its security. It is too early to say.

The Democrats tried to make an issue of Elon Musk doing what they called a "sieg hail" salute, but when you watch the actual video Musk says exactly what is meant: "My heart goes out here" to the voters. There was nothing in the context that indicated a secret Nazi message, and even the ADL said that it looked like an awkward over-enthusiastic gesture, nothing more. (Not that it was the brightest thing to do.)

Altogether I give Trump's first half day a B+, which is far better than any of the previous 2,921 half days of the Biden White House.

(h/t Eitan Fischberger)

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Al Jazeera unwittingly proves yet again that Hamas lies constantly

From Al Jazeera:

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said it estimated there are 10,000 bodies under destroyed structures across the strip.

At least 2,840 bodies were melted and there are no traces of them, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services in Gaza.

2,840 is a curiously specific statistic for bodies that, by definition, have no evidence of ever existing. How can they count bodies that leave no trace?

If you that Gaza civil defense is simply counting missing people, then why not assume that they are missing under the rubble and simply not found yet? How could they possibly determine that 2,840 bodies are invisible under rubble and 10,000 are not? (Actually, Hamas just updated the number of people missing to be exactly 14,222, which must mean 2,840 melted and 11,382 buried.)

It is impossible to count thousands of invisible people. The "2,840" figure by itself is 100% proof that Hamas makes up very specific casualty statistics out of thin air.

Combine this with the facts that the 10,000 buried under rubble number has also been made up by Hamas with no evidence or procedure for counting them, and that there is no known weapon short of a nuclear bomb that leaves no trace of a human body, this gives us 100% proof from Al Jazeera itself that Hamas lies about Gaza casualties.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/20 Links Pt2: How the left’s missteps shaped Israel’s struggles; Poll: 21% of US voters support Hamas over Israel in conflict; Palestine Red Crescent Spokesman Photographed with Terrorists

From Ian:

How the left’s missteps shaped Israel’s struggles

The 2025 hostage deal: A tragic moral dilemma
In the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, two good values are pitted against each other and are mutually exclusive. On one side is the profound Jewish value of redeeming captives (pidyon shvuyim), based on deep compassion for victims and their families. On the other side is the equally compelling need to prevent future murders, deter further hostage-taking and avoid another Oct. 7 tragedy. The left has championed the former value—redeeming captives—at the expense of the latter, which it has made sacrosanct. They have pressured for a deal at almost any cost.

The success of the left’s marketing campaign has been striking, wielding the same PR machinery that rallied relentless domestic and global pressure for the Shalit deal and more recently against judicial reform. The influence blitz turned the hostage issue into an untouchable ideal; it was a PR triumph, practically transforming the hostage issue into a form of worship. It succeeded in swaying many Jews in Israel and abroad to focus on one value while inadvertently sidelining the other and thereby pressuring for a hostage deal even at a very high price.

Yet, the costs of this deal are staggering; not only an IDF withdrawal from strategic areas that will allow Hamas to rebuild and restock, but in the first stage alone, Israel is expected to release 1,904 Palestinian prisoners—many of them mass murderers and attempted murderers. These include 737 individuals serving life sentences for heinous crimes, such as one responsible for six murders and another for forty-five. Disturbingly, 47 of these prisoners are repeat offenders—terrorists previously released in the 2011 Shalit deal who later committed additional attacks. The numbers paint a grim picture. Hard evidence from too many past deals provides hard evidence of what we can expect: for one Israeli saved, Gilad Shalit, well over 1,000 were murdered. Eighty-two percent of the 1,000 terrorists freed in the Shalit exchange returned to terrorism, according to the Israel Security Agency. Applying similar math to the 2025 deal sends chills down the spine.

The deal forced upon us by the left considers the deep, real and tragic pain of the hostages and their families. But what of the unspeakable anguish of those whose loved ones were murdered by the terrorists now set free? What of the grief of the families of soldiers who died heroically—who fought to eradicate Hamas, to make evil pay and to prevent another Oct. 7, only to see their sacrifices undermined as the terrorists grow emboldened?

And what of the pain of the civilians and families who will inevitably suffer when these released monsters strike again—those who will be murdered or abducted because of this decision?

The pattern of mistakes
The left’s idealism, while rooted in genuine desire for peace and justice, has repeatedly ignored the harsh realities of the region. These decisions have not only cost lives but have emboldened those who seek Israel’s destruction. The right has consistently warned against these dangers, often standing alone as the defenders of Israel’s security. The right has been consistently and unmistakably right since 1993. The left has consistently left reality behind and led the Jewish people to multiple disasters.

Maybe there is something we don’t know; I hope so. But our people and leaders need to exercise better judgment, using wisdom and humility to ensure that critical decisions reflect both practical reality and higher moral principles.

The way forward
Stopping the left’s destructive influence requires an honest reckoning. Strategic decisions are always complex and filled with difficult moral calculations, but security must always trump sentimentality and naivete. As history shows, Israel’s survival hinges on pragmatic, hard-headed policies that prioritize the safety of its citizens over fleeting hopes of appeasement driven by the blind idealism of one side that ignores the antisemitic reality of the other. It is time to learn from the past, to stop repeating the mistakes that have cost so much and to stand united as one people in the face of an enduring threat.

Our children have now paid the price for the mistakes of the older and unwise generation. Israeli youth rose to the occasion as Jewish lions. As Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “We saw how the ‘TikTok Generation’ emerged as a generation of historic strength, whose bravery will be etched in the annals of Israeli history.” But now we grapple with whether the superhuman sacrifices of the soldiers and their families, while unquestionably heroic, will achieve the lasting impact they fought for.

While it’s too early to definitively label this deal a disaster—especially since there’s a strong likelihood that Hamas will undermine the agreement—it is both scary and deeply unsettling to consider what may lie ahead. While the prospect of bringing hostages home is incredibly heartening, decisions must ultimately be guided by calculated probabilities and strategic foresight.

At this time, our whole people is in a collective state of trauma brought on by the Oct. 7 massacre, almost a year and a half of war, missiles and hostages, and the devastating antisemitic response and betrayal of so much of the world.

Will the left at last fulfill another Jewish value, that of having the humility to admit its mistakes and stop pressuring for dangerous policies? If they do, two critical outcomes will be achieved: Jewish lives will be safer, and peace with our neighbors will be closer.

Cary Nelson and Joe Lockard: The Decline and Fall of Katherine Franke

When Columbia issued its correction, Franke had a clear professional responsibility as a faculty member to withdraw her claim about Israeli students. Instead, she ignored an ethical imperative to withdraw a false accusation that placed Israeli students under a cloud of suspicion and possibly endangered their physical safety. It is no accident that Franke decided to post her statement on the AAUP’s Academe blog, which has long been a committed vehicle for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel opinion.

Threats to academic freedom in the United States arise largely from structural causes. These include the casualisation of academic labour, deterioration of faculty governance provisions, corporatisation of research enterprise, dismissal of humanities and arts studies, and so on. That is not the picture one gets from the Academe blog, where the primary obsession has been campus reaction to the Gaza war.

Readers of the blog in 2024 will have learned that a Holocaust-themed campus opera production embodies Zionist silencing over a “genocide” in Gaza, that there is no difference between free speech and campus building take-overs and obstruction, and that a university’s study of and proposed action against antisemitism not only suppresses political speech but undermines “the legitimacy and autonomy of democratic institutions, including universities, public K-12 schools, and unions.”

In short, browsers of the official AAUP blog will discover that Jewish forces manipulate campus life and pose the most pressing threat to US academic freedom. It is an old conspiracy in new clothes. The Academe blog has published dozens of articles that constitute a false martyrology of campus free speech over Gaza. The uncritical republication of Katherine Franke’s statement alleging her forced retirement is simply the latest example of this dispiriting trend—a consequence of lax editorial scrutiny and insufficient critical thought.

The question then turns to why an organ of the American Association of University Professors would publish a falsification of such an easily discernible record. That editorial credulity speaks to an a priori willingness to believe some preferred voices rather than ask searching questions. This same credulity led Franke to both endorse and intensify anti-Zionist myths that have proliferated on campuses since 7 October 2023. The editorial credulity represents a collective delusion; Franke’s represents a more personal one.

Franke first attracted international attention in 2018 when she was denied entry to Israel on the basis of its law allowing the government to bar entry to BDS leaders. Israel later reversed its ruling and no other faculty members were affected. But in the way that all anti-Israel news acquires an infinite lifetime, her initial denial stands as permanent evidence of her alleged martyrdom. It was evidently time to breathe new life into this self-serving legend.

Poll: 21% of US voters support Hamas over Israel in conflict

Twenty-one percent of American voters say they support Hamas over Israel in Jerusalem’s ongoing war against the U.S.-designated terrorist organization, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll published over the weekend.

Harvard/Harris surveyed a representative sample of 2,650 registered voters on Jan. 15-16. (The reported margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points at a confidence level of 95%.)

Asked “Do you support more Israel or more Hamas?” in the war, 75% of Democrats backed the Jewish state, while 25% expressed more approval for the Palestinian terrorist group. Among Republican voters, 81% said they supported Jerusalem more, compared to 19% for Hamas.

Support for Hamas polled the highest among the 25 to 34 age group, where almost one-third said they favored the terrorists over Israel.

The Harvard/Harris survey also found that a majority of the American public believes that the negotiations led by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump led to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that Hamas “agreed to the deal because of negotiations” led by Trump’s team, compared to 43% who thought that outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden made it happen.

Eighty-four percent of Republicans said Trump was responsible, compared to 75% of Democrats who thought that Biden’s negotiations led Hamas to accept the truce. Among independent voters, 60% credited Trump and 40% Biden.

The vast majority of respondents, 82%, said they backed “the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas which aims to end the war in Gaza and release hostages.”

Support for the deal was higher among Democrats, 87% of whom said they backed the deal, with 81% of Republicans expressing approval.

01/20 Links Pt1: Destroying the Illusion of Israel-Hamas Equivalence; Trump to Halt Funding to UNRWA; Correcting the Record on the IDF and Lethal Targeting

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Destroying the Illusion of Israel-Hamas Equivalence

On Sunday, this trend was no longer puzzling. If you were going to support Hamas in the war against the IDF, you had to perform the following mental gymnastics: The worse Hamas behaved, the worse you thought of Israel—or you’d be forced to face your own twisted depravity for instinctively siding with Hamas.

Hamas soldiers changed out of their civilian clothes and into their uniforms and swarmed out around hospitals along with gleeful civilians and “journalists” who’d taken off their media vests to join the celebrations—none of which were taking place among rubble and famine, despite al Jazeera’s claim that Israel destroyed about three out of every four homes in the strip.

The world got to see a very different Gaza on Sunday. “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahood” they chanted, a popular refrain commemorating a famous Muslim massacre of Jews.

So Hamas sent back to their families Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher. Who is Israel releasing in return, as demanded by Hamas? There’s Zakaria Zubeidi, who was involved in a terror attack in which six people were killed. There’s Mohammad Abu Warda, in prison for his role in bombings that killed 45. Mohammed Naifeh was serving consecutive life sentences for attacks that killed five. Three members of a Hamas cell responsible for the deaths of 30 innocents are reportedly on the list. And on it goes.

To be sure, not every Palestinian inmate has this much blood on his hands. But more than enough do to make one cringe at the clash of values between the two armies.

Israelis are going into this deal with eyes open; they are not naïve. They just believe that life is valuable, though their enemy does not. The asymmetry has clearly inspired some in the pro-Hamas camp to manufacture a false equivalence. The cease-fire has made fools of those who believed it.

Richard Kemp: Hamas terrorists have stopped dressing as women. They’ll soon have to start again

Hamas have been trying to replace their dead terrorists with untrained and inexperienced volunteers from the population. Their capabilities will be boosted by the release of over 1,000 terrorist prisoners in the first stage of the deal alone, some of whom will be battle-hardened.

While they remain free from IDF attack, Hamas will be working overtime to regroup and rebuild their lost strength.

Any and all suitable construction materials and humanitarian supplies allowed into the Strip will be immediately re-purposed for military use rather than to alleviate the suffering of civilians whose houses have been destroyed as a result of Hamas’s war.

They will continue to operate the weapons manufacturing factories that have not been taken apart and do all they can to replenish weapons and ammunition from outside. That is why the IDF must retain its stranglehold on the border with Egypt as well as the blockade of the coastline.

Outside Gaza, Hamas and their sponsors and supporters will be aiming to bring international pressure to bear on Israel to prevent a resumption of hostilities, while holding on to as many hostages as they feel they need for longer term leverage.

In these circumstances the sooner Israel can return to the attack the better, reducing time and opportunity Hamas will have to increase the dangers they still present.

The fight will certainly have to be resumed. It is for Jerusalem to calibrate when and how that is done, balancing the maximum number of hostages that can be got out against the growing risks presented by the breathing space Hamas can be allowed.

Into that equation will also have to be factored wider strategic imperatives, not least a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear programme which now becomes a more realistic proposition with Donald Trump back in the White House.

Stephen Pollard: The picture of Hamas surrounding the hostages says everything

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And in truth, I really don’t need to write this piece at all. All I need to do to make my point is to publish the picture above. Because it says almost everything that needs to be said not just about Hamas, about the hostage release, and about what is happening in Gaza but also about the state of the West and about those useful idiots in the West who march in support of Hamas.

All that in one photograph.

It’s not just that it shows a braying army of armed men and one solitary woman (although there were, of course, two other women in the car who were also being released from 471 days of captivity). Yes, that matters, because when we focus on Hamas’ bestial behaviour we sometimes forget that it is an Islamist group which hates women and uses them as chattels – in this case, as valuable hostages to be traded. And we should never forget that, because not only do we need to understand Hamas in order to defeat it, we need to understand this in order to set about defeating its support in the West.

It’s not just that it’s another example, on its own sick terms, of how professional Hamas is in how it operates. This was not some spontaneous gathering of an out of control mob but a carefully planned piece of propaganda, designed down to the last detail to show the world that Hamas is in control. Take the ‘goody bags’ given to each of the released hostages, with a map of Gaza, pictures from their captivity and a perverse certificate marking their time as hostages. These weren’t assembled ad hoc on the day but will have been plotted long before for the moment of release – as was every other element of the scene when the hostages were handed over to the Red Cross.

But sitting here now, the day after the hostage release and two days after tens of thousands demonstrated their support for Hamas in London (and don’t you dare try and tell me that’s not what they were doing) it’s that picture – and the other image of a Hamas fighter on the roof of a Red Cross van - which tells the real story. The story, that is, of how so many in the West are taken in by tales of resistance and colonialism and have bought into the idea that they are on ‘the right side of history’ as they march with their keffiyehs and chant From the River to the Sea.

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Israel is seen more favorably than CNN and the EU by Americans - and young Americans now support Israel more than most other age groups!

A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll was just released, and it shows that Americans remain strongly pro-Israel.

Taken on January 15-16, the survey asked 2,650 US voters a series of questions about the political environment ahead of President-elect Trump's inauguration today.

One question asked how favorably Americans judged a series of institutions:

Israel is seen more favorably by Americans than the European Union, CNN. MSNBC and X. The gap of favorable over unfavorable is better for Israel than the US Supreme Court, the Department of Justice and Fox News. (If you calculate the percentage of favorable answers over all people who held an opinion, Israel also edges Facebook.)

Given the huge amount of anti-Israel reporting and coverage of anti-Israel events for the past 15 months, this is pretty remarkable.

Another response is perhaps even more surprising:

It is not surprising that 4 out of 5 Americans support Israel over Hamas. But the age breakdown shatters the impression that has been given that young Americans are inexorably becoming more anti-Israel.

A higher percentage of US voters 18-24 say they support Israel than any other age group under 55!

The pattern of younger people becoming more and more anti-Israel appears to have been broken by Gen Z.

This is something worth investigating. Did the pro-Hamas college encampments turn them off? Are they now getting most of their news from social media and therefore not as exposed to the toxic hate from the mainstream media? Is hasbara actually working for the first time in decades?

I hope some organizations look at this further (and I wish I had the resources to do this myself.)

(h/t JW)

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Is all aid entering Gaza being inspected for weapons by Israel? At least some appears to go straight through Rafah

This photo bothers me a great deal.

This and many other photos taken yesterday indicate that "humanitarian aid" is bring transported directly into Gaza from Egypt without going through the extensive inspections that are done at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

This is the Rafah crossing normally open only for people. The gate on the right that the trucks are going through is only opened for exceptional circumstances and, officially, those goods are inspected by the Egyptian army or the NGOs there. Israel is not in the loop.

The Kerem Shalom crossing has an opening from the Egyptian side. It is two miles to the south of the Rafah crossing. When I visited there over ten years ago, it was merely a dirt road from Egypt blocked by a cheap fence and a mound of earth. Satellite photos taken recently show that there is little (if any) infrastructure on the Egyptian side of Kerem Shalom.

The the past seven months hundreds of trucks of aid from Egypt has gone through Israel where they were inspected at Kerem Shalom for the south and Crossing 96 for northern Gaza.

The Egyptian Gazette, on the other hand, reports:

The flow of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip began on Sunday with the first moments of the ceasefire taking effect, facilitated through the Rafah Border Crossing.

A source in North Sinai confirmed that approximately 300 aid trucks entered through the Rafah crossing en route to the Al-Auja and Kerem Shalom crossings, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Tuesday.

Of these, 250 trucks are set to reach the Al-Auja crossing and 50 to the Kerem Shalom crossing for inspection before entering Gaza as an initial batch. Meanwhile, hundreds of additional trucks remain stationed at the Rafah crossing, awaiting the green light to proceed.

The trucks carried large quantities of relief supplies, including food, fuel, and medical supplies, tailored to meet local needs in coordination between the Egyptian Red Crescent, the Palestinian Red Crescent, and security authorities.

This makes it sound like most trucks do get inspected by Israel, but it makes no sense that the trucks directly entering Gaza are being routed back outside and then into Gaza again. The "Al Auja crossing" is the Nitzana crossing between Israel and Egypt, 25 miles to the south of Rafah. There is no way trucks enter Gaza and then go back out to Nitzana.

Reuters reported, "The aid trucks were using the Kerem Shalom entry point pending completion of maintenance at the Rafah border crossing into southern Gaza from Egypt, the sources said." But again, the photos and videos at Rafah tell a different story.

The best I can guess is that some goods are getting routed through Israel for inspection but others, including fuel and at least some dry goods, are being allowed to enter Gaza directly through Rafah.

There is no question that the goods entering Gaza are being skimmed or taken wholesale by Hamas before they get to the people. Hamas maintains its economic strength through this aid. The international community has been doing everything they could to stymie Israel from blocking Hamas from stealing the aid.

Egyptian authorities control Rafah, and are said to do their own inspections there. However, there are clearly no giant X-ray machines like Israel has in Rafah. Egyptian officials are also subject to bribes and the entire crossing regime is corrupt, as we saw with the huge fees Egyptian officials extorted from Gazans trying to leave.

I have seen no direct evidence that weapons have been smuggled into Gaza through Rafah between October 7 2023 and May 2024 when Israel took control of the corridor. The IDF is still there, at least for now, but again they do not have the facilities to inspect trucks inside Gaza.

COGAT has not answered by queries about this as of this writing.

Small arms and Iranian cash can certainly be hidden in the large containers of aid we are seeing going straight into Gaza.

How does anyone know that that isn't happening?

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Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian "moderate" advocating non-violence in English on @CNN, condones "armed resistance" and Hamas terrorism in Arabic

Hamas held a meeting in Doha along with top officials of major terror groups Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front, the Popular Front-General Command and the Palestinian People’s Party, to talka about a "day after" scenario in Gaza.

Pointedly, no one from Fatah attended.

But also attending this meeting was Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the "National Initiative," sitting two seats away from the head of Islamic Jihad and four seats from Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas official who praised October 7 and vows to continue more attacks until Israel is destroyed.

Barghouti sat in a place of honor at the front of the room along with major terrorist leaders.

According to Hamas, the participants of the meeting saluted all the "military wings of the Palestinian resistance factions" as well as those who shot rockets and drones to Israel from Yemen, Iran, and Iraq.

Barghouti is considered a "moderate." He is a frequent guest on Western cable news shows; he was interviewed by Fareed Zakaria of CNN on Sunday and by Christiane Amanpour last week.

While in Doha he appeared to agree with Hamas that October 7 was a great accomplishment; when he returned to Ramallah a day later he told Zakaria that he espouses non-violence and even claimed, ludicrously, that he convinced Hamas to abandon violence for five years in Gaza before Israel attacked.

Why is Hamas inviting him to this meeting that supports violence against Jews unless he tacitly agrees with them?

While he doesn't say it in English, his "National Initiative" movement (which appears to be tiny) says that it does support armed resistance "as long as international humanitarian law is respected." Barghouti does not elaborate on exactly what that means - many Palestinians have claimed that terrorism is legal under international law - but in this interview he is asked to clarify whether he supports the October 7 attacks and he weas careful not to say anything negative about them, saying that Palestinian people have the "right to resist." He later emphasized that he does not say he supports "peaceful popular resistance" but merely "popular resistance," saying others ascribed the word "peaceful" to him, and then admits that he believes that "armed resistance" is a legitimate and complementary component to popular resistance.

His refusal to condemn Hamas rapes, murders and burning families indicates that Brghouti is not the peace-loving person he claims to be on CNN.

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01/19 Links: Hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher return to Israel after 471 days

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: An obscene spectacle

To all those in the west who have perpetrated the lie of Israeli genocide in Gaza for the past 15 months: look at the pictures of the mob surrounding the three Israel women hostages who were freed today, and see thousands of Gazans who are well-fed, well-groomed and well-dressed.

What do you have to say now about the murderous libel you have perpetrated against the Israeli victims of these people, the lie that the Israelis were deliberately starving them, that they were the victims of Israeli-induced famine, that the Jews were behaving like Nazis? Do you have a scintilla of shame or regret about what you have done in spreading this foul incitement? Do you even understand what you saw today? Or are you too busy cheering on instead the pictures of those “pro-Palestinian” hate-marchers in London yesterday, dozens of whom were arrested by the police because they were absolutely determined to harass and terrorise British Jews at their synagogue Sabbath services nearby?

Look at that horrifying footage of those Gaza mobs, those enormous potential lynch mobs jeering and threatening the three Israeli women as they were handed over to the Red Cross — the same mobs who abused the live hostages and desecrated the bodies of the murdered ones when they were all dragged into Gaza after the October 7 massacre; look at that footage and then tell us all again that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza are innocent civilians and victims of the Israelis.

Listen to those mobs chanting ecstatically for the murder of Jews in a willed repetition of the slaughter of Jews by Islam’s founder Mohammed in 7th century Khybar; then watch Sky News report this as a “celebration,” and then begin to understand the depravity of the western media that’s sanitised this barbarism for 15 months and demonised its victims.

Look at the thousands who have emerged in Hamas uniform and armed to the teeth, vowing to carry out more and more October 7 massacres until every Jew is dead and Israel is destroyed — Hamas murder squads loudly declaring that they will use the ceasefire to regroup, rearm and attack Israel; and then listen to the politicians hailing this development as the beginning of peace.

Look with breaking heart at the poignant joy and indescribable relief from suffering of the families reunited with their newly freed girls — how can this be anything other than a source not just of joy but also shuddering horror at what they have endured and at who knows what scars they will bear for the rest of their lives; and a source also of the most profound agony over the vast majority of the Israeli captives, both alive and dead, who remain incarcerated as pawns of these Palestinian Arab psychopaths, and who will now be used to eke out further unbearable distress among the hostages and their families, and to extort and manipulate the Israelis into ensuring that Hamas survive, regroup and resume the business of genocide.

Jake Wallis Simons: The West stands on the brink of destruction

Over coffee a little while ago, during one of her visits to London from her home in Israel, the British public commentator Melanie Phillips fixed me with her characteristic warm and penetrating gaze and remarked: “As you know, Jake, in my career there hasn’t been a hill I haven’t died on.”

Her penetrating mind is familiar to everybody who knows her work; but her warmth is most tangible in person. Nonetheless, both qualities come across strongly in her new book, The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians built the West – and why only they can save it, which reads like both an anguished letter to friends and a desperate map of blood-stained battlefields.

Melanie’s basic thesis is that the West can only be saved by restoring to its rightful place its foundation stone of Judeo-Christian faith. Prescribing religion as a remedy for a sick society? In these days of arrests of people praying in silence outside abortion clinics, this is one of the least fashionable and most badly defended hills of all. We have arrived at Melanie’s Little Bighorn. Along the way, however, are many other hills and she defiantly circles the wagons on each.

This is risky writing. Melanie raises her musket at the destruction of childhood in a tsunami of “all must win prizes” and “drag queen story hour”, the liberalisation of drugs and the decline of the family.

She also takes aim at the collapse of religion, demographic malaise, the decline of Western deterrence, the denial of Islamism, the weaponisation of human rights and conservatism itself, which has “forgotten what it needs to conserve”.

Several gory hills will take you by surprise. The Greeks. Dawkins. Freud. Eastern religion (“part of the West’s ongoing cultural tragedy”). Tattoos (“I ink therefore I am”).

Last but by no means least, the author kneels for seppuku on the most dangerous hill of all when she places Islam outside the spheres of progress and modernity, embracing the dagger with both hands.

These are not isolated debates. To Melanie, all are battles in a greater war, one that will only be won when faith is restored in the debauched and arid heart of society.

Is she shouting into the wind? Despite the widely publicised uptick in church attendance in recent years, this is little more than a blip in a wider trend of spiritual decline. At one point, Melanie calls for a “PR makeover” for religion. If the future of the West rests on the Alpha Course, I’m packing my bags for Israel.

Nonetheless, her call for society to learn lost resilience from the Jews is compelling and her plea for the West to rediscover its soul is both vital and poignant.

Khaled Abu Toameh: A Deal that Keeps Hamas in Power Is Meaningless

Those who think that the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will abandon its Jihad (holy war) to murder more Jews and destroy Israel in the aftermath of the recent ceasefire-hostage agreement are mistaken. The deal does not require Hamas to disarm or cede control over Gaza. To Hamas, this is just another deal similar to ceasefire agreements reached with Israel after previous rounds of fighting over the past 20 years.

Hamas supporters in Khan Yunis took to the streets to celebrate the ceasefire-hostage deal and chanted: "We will go to Jerusalem, we will sacrifice millions of martyrs!" Hamas supporters in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, chanted slogans in support of slain Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the masterminds of the Oct. 7 carnage.

A ceasefire-hostage deal that allows Hamas to remain in power means that it is only a matter of time before the terrorist groups attempt to launch another Oct. 7-style attack on Israel. Hamas's defiant statements show that its leadership is willing to sacrifice more of its people to fulfill its objective of destroying Israel. The only deal that will actually bring peace is one where Hamas ceases to exist.

What Hamas Looks Like after the Ceasefire Deal

For the IDF commanders involved in the protracted and complex fight against Hamas, it is clear that further action will be necessary.

Defense officials believe that Hamas or other rogue groups in Gaza likely will provide justification for resuming combat operations.

Military commanders anticipate years of ground operations in Gaza to scale Hamas back to its size of two decades ago.

Hamas still retains tens of kilometers of tunnels, particularly in central and southern Gaza, that could be used to restart limited weapons production, conceal thousands of weapons, and hide senior commanders.

Hamas has also recruited and armed hundreds of new members, including teenagers, to replenish its ranks.

Hamas retains two brigades in Nuseirat and al-Bureij in central Gaza, which have been largely untouched - possibly due to the presence of hostages in the area.

The Terrorists Live to Fight On

The ceasefire deal legitimates Hamas as a continuing force in Gaza. They will remain on the ground and Israel will not. Hamas now knows they will be part of future negotiations. Plenty of malign actors - many of them in Western governments, policy elites and media - will even start to hail them as peacemakers.

Moreover, the deal will prove that hostage-taking works. If Hamas had simply murdered those 1,200 plus people on Oct. 7, they would have won themselves no protection against Israeli retaliation. Because they took the hostages, they were able to make Israel hesitate.

The deal will also be seen in Islamist minds as a successful precedent. Capture Jews, will be the internal message, torture them, kill a proportion of them, play cat-and-mouse about the ones who live, and it will give you power. So, when you get the chance, do it again.

As the country founded to offer refuge to Jews everywhere, Israel has a Talmudically inspired duty to rescue them wherever it can. It is pierced, too, by the deep personal pain inflicted on so many families. Politically, it may be that there is an Israeli consensus round the idea that this deal is, as one Jewish friend expert in the region put it to me, "bad, but essential."

But I cannot let go of the point that, with this deal, Hamas have pried open the jaws of defeat and won, if not a victory, at least the chance to live and fight and murder for much more than another day.