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Thursday, August 11, 2022

08/11 Links Pt2: The 'forever war' against the West; The Extraordinary Bad Faith of Mehdi Hasan; The forgotten heroine of the deadly 1975 Savoy Hotel terror attack

From Ian:

Clifford D. May: The 'forever war' against the West
Following an 11-day conflagration with Hamas last May, the Israelis have been attempting to make life easier for Gazans. That has meant assisting efforts to rebuild infrastructure and provide more reliable electricity. Up to 14,000 Gazans have been permitted to enter Israel to work for higher wages than they could command at home. Hamas leaders, thinking strategically, have not been uncooperative.

PIJ, however, cannot abide even a temporary détente. Israeli intelligence learned that the group was preparing terrorist attacks not only from Gaza but also from the northern West Bank. PIJ fighters have been gradually displacing the PA security forces in this area and clashing with the Israeli Defense Forces, which have been responding to a wave of terrorist attacks that has claimed 19 Israeli lives since March. Knowing PIJ's intentions, the Israelis decided it was necessary to do what they could to degrade its capabilities.

On Monday, the IDF arrested the PIJ leader in the West Bank, Bassem al-Sa'adi. On Friday, the IDF launched a precision airstrike in Gaza, killing PIJ northern Gaza division commander Taysir al-Jabari. On Saturday, the IDF killed PIJ southern Gaza division commander Khaled Mansour and several other senior PIJ officials.

PIJ fired more than a thousand missiles at Israeli cities and towns. Many fell short, killing Palestinians, including four children in Jabalya in southern Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Other missiles were destroyed by the Iron Dome system. On Monday, with Egypt acting as broker, a ceasefire was announced.

PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhaleh spent the weekend in Tehran meeting with Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic Republic. What are they planning to do next? Your guess is as good as mine (though perhaps not as good as the Mossad's).

Israelis today are at peace with more of their neighbors than ever before. Though they are always willing to participate in "peace talks," they understand the Reaganesque doctrine that peace is achieved through strength. And strength must be demonstrated – repeatedly and consistently.

Al-Qaida and PIJ have been hit hard. But neither organization will be "gone" anytime soon.

Al-Qaida will soon have a new emir. The frontrunner appears to be Saif al-Adel, a 62-year-old former Egyptian special forces colonel, a longtime Al-Qaida leader who has been living in Iran as the regime's guest.

As for PIJ, I'd guess Iran's rulers will want to build their proxy back better. That will be expensive, but the Biden administration has been offering those rulers hundreds of billions of dollars they can use to support whichever terrorist/jihadi organizations they like. All that's asked of them in return is a promise to slow-walk their nuclear weapons development program. To believe such a promise would be a fatal mistake.
The Extraordinary Bad Faith of Mehdi Hasan
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan has a book coming out later this year entitled “Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking.” But in times of economic uncertainty and high inflation, why spend $27.99 when you can learn Hasan’s “art” for free just by observing his public tirades?

Based on a pair of his most recent displays of this “art,” it appears to boil down to three tactics Hasan commonly employs:
1. Master the art of the straw man fallacy;
2. Make outlandish claims and hide them behind false appeals to authority; and
3. Constantly lie by omission.

So with apologies to Hasan for stealing his thunder, here is a primer on the Mehdi Hasan “art” of debating.

Lesson #2: Hide Your Outlandish Claims Behind False Appeals to Authority
On the Mehdi Hasan show, whenever the topic of Israel comes up, inevitably the phrase “the UN says” will be repeatedly wielded alongside any number of hotly disputed, controversial, or dubious factual and legal claims.

That’s how, for example, on Sunday, Hasan got away with claiming Israel “still technically occup[ies]” Gaza, notwithstanding the only living Israelis in Gaza are two mentally handicapped civilians held hostage by Hamas.

To be fair, it is hard to sound serious arguing that Israel exercises the functions of government and can project effective control in Gaza (absent a full-scale military invasion) while over a thousand rockets are being lobbed from Gaza at Israeli communities and everyone acknowledges Hamas is the “de facto authority” of the territory.

But that’s the value of lesson two. As demonstrated by Hasan, one can sidestep these obvious deficiencies by hiding behind the dubious claims of others. This way, Hasan avoids having to delve into important details like who at the UN said it, what authority or expertise they have, whether they’re a credible source, or even whether it came from a fundamentally political entity proclaiming political viewpoints, not factual or legal claims.

Another example from Sunday is when Hasan suggested that 70% of Gaza’s population are refugees – “according to [the] UN” – notwithstanding these “refugees” never actually left the “Palestinian territories” from which Hasan suggests they are refugees. By lazily relying on “according to [the] UN,” Hasan avoids dealing with the obvious complications of his argument, such as how if one were to apply the actual definition of a refugee, only about 5% of the five million “Palestine refugees” would likely qualify as refugees.
Pro-Israel groups hold meetings with multiple state officials over Morningstar’s anti-Israel bias
Following last week’s Reuters report that Missouri’s attorney general opened an investigation into the practices of the Chicago-based investment research firm Morningstar and its subsidiary, Sustainalytics, multiple sources told JNS that Missouri is far from the only one looking into the issue.

Officials from agencies in multiple states have had conversations concerning Morningstar’s anti-Israel bias in its investment ratings in recent weeks, JNS has learned.

“There have been meetings with all kinds of state officials: governors’ representatives, attorney general representatives, treasurers’ representatives,” Elan Carr, a member of the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement’s advisory council, told JNS. “States need to know that this is nothing other than BDS dressed up as social-justice investing.”

Carr, a former U.S. State Department Special Envoy on Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, said he and others have briefed state officials about the practices of Morningstar and Sustainalytics, and the potential that they violate various states’ anti-BDS laws. Carr, referred to Sustainalytics’ practices as “backdoor BDS,” and said the task force is “laser-focused” on the Morningstar controversy. He noted that a wide swath of Jewish American organizations from both the center-left and center-right are in consensus on the issue.

“We believe that BDS through the guise of ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) investing is extremely dangerous for Israel. The Morningstar/Sustainalytics model is especially egregious, replete with biased sources and fundamentally anti-Israel assumptions. They lead to terribly biased reviews of Israel and anyone conducting business in Judea, Samaria or Jerusalem,” said Carr. “We regard this as nothing other than a manifestation of the BDS movement.”


FSWC calls for defunding Montreal student groups in ‘Glory to Our Martyrs’ rally
Officials from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Canada have written to the leaders of two Montreal schools, McGill University and Concordia University, asking them to defund student groups that are participating in an anti-Israel rally there.

The groups—Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia—are listed as being among the local co-sponsors of the “Glory to Our Martyrs” rally, the first of which was held on Wednesday evening in Montreal.

Similar rallies are expected to be held in Vancouver (Aug. 11) and Toronto (Aug. 13), with another slated for Los Angeles on Aug. 11 and Houston on Aug. 14.

In a Facebook post promoting the event, members of the McGill solidarity group wrote: “Montreal-emergency protest to honor the martyrs of Gaza. Over the past few days, Zionist aggression has escalated, with the killing of over 44 Palestinians and countless injured across Gaza.”

They continued: “Despite the ruthless attempts to break Palestinians’ collective spirit, the latest war has been named ‘The Unity of All Fronts.’ It is in this spirit of unity that we call on the Montreal community to march against Zionist aggression and honor our martyrs,” adding that “until full liberation and return, the struggle continues.”

There was no mention of the 1,100 rockets fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip towards Israel from Aug. 5-7, many of which fell short of their target, killing and injuring residents of the coastal enclave, including children.

In a letter to the vice chancellors of both McGill University and Concordia University, the director of policy at FSWC, Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, wrote: “We have seen SPHR clubs hint at support for terrorism against Israel in the past, but never in such a blatant and frightening fashion. How is a Jewish student supposed to feel safe on campus when a student group is celebrating terrorists who have murdered Jews?”
Persecuting a Pro-Israel Scholar
A white DePaul University professor mocked her black Jamaican-born colleague Jason D. Hill, claiming he came from a “shit-hole” country after Hill wrote an op-ed expressing support for the state of Israel.

The smear may be shocking to some but it’s just another day on an American university campus nowadays. To the academic Left, supporting Israel is arguably the worst thing anyone can do. Backing the Jewish state is an unforgivable sin in their eyes.

To these people, saying anything good about Israel is a crime against humanity. They believe that perpetrators of such thought crimes need to be made examples of and punished with the utmost severity.

So that’s what they did to Hill, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and author of several books, including What Do White Americans Owe Black People? Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression (Emancipation Books, 2021) and We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to the American People (Bombardier Books, 2018). Hill is currently writing another book, Man Haters: the Left’s Vicious Campaign to Emasculate Men and Boys, which will be published next year.

The attacks on Hill were launched even though leftist thinking dictates he should enjoy triple-protected status because he checks three boxes on the all-important intersectional checklist: he’s black, gay, and an immigrant. But he is not beyond scrutiny in the woke world because he holds the wrong views on Israel and its right to exist, an issue that is at the apex of the leftist hierarchy of hatred.

The “shit-hole country” slander came as leftists at DePaul University in Chicago launched a vicious vendetta against tenured philosophy professor Hill after he wrote a column, “The Moral Case For Israel Annexing The West Bank—And Beyond,” that was published in The Federalist on April 16, 2019.

In the opinion piece, Hill wrote that “Israel has the moral right to annex all of the West Bank (even Area C) for a plethora of reasons.”

Hill questioned the idea that there can be such a thing as “legitimate ‘Palestinian Territory’ in a geographic region legally seized in a defensive war instigated by a foreign aggressor.”


Court of Appeal dismisses ex-Corbyn aide’s challenge to Rachel Riley libel win
A challenge by lawyers representing former Labour staffer Laura Murray against a judgement that she libelled Countdown host and campaigner against antisemitism Rachel Riley has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

A judgement handed down on Thursday confirmed that three judges had upheld the original judgement and rejected Murray’s appeal on the grounds of public interest, as well as truth and honest opinion.

Last December Riley had been awarded £10,000 in damages by a High Court judge after suing Corbyn’s former stakeholder manager for libel.

A judge had granted Murray permission to appeal against the decision in May.

But in a blow to the daughter of Andrew Murray, Corbyn’s one-time key adviser, the appeal judges concluded it was “not substantially true to report only one possible meaning” of a tweet in which Riley had written the words “Good Advice.”

Three judges found Murray’s Tweet “misrepresented” Riley’s post as an “unequivocal public statement that Jeremy Corbyn deserved to be violently attacked, when in truth was ambiguous.”

Sources told Jewish News that costs in the case, after Murray’s appeal was dismissed, could now exceed £1 million.

Riley tweeted on Thursday:”Pleased that all three judges found in my favour that I was libelled by Laura Murray, the original judgment has been upheld and her appeal rejected.

“Big thanks to my legal team William, Godwin and Mark Lewis Lawyer. Happy to draw a line under this now and move on to happier times.”
Sky Is Failing: British Broadcaster’s Seriously Unbalanced Coverage of Israel’s Operation Breaking Dawn Against PIJ
In the days since the escalation between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which saw the latter fire more than a thousand rockets at Israeli towns and cities as the former attempted to kill senior PIJ commanders who are responsible for masterminding terrorist atrocities, Sky News has run several pieces that attempt to delve deep into the heart of the conflict.

On August 7, the British broadcaster ran a two-minute-long report that detailed how Israel was continuing to strike PIJ targets in the Gaza Strip. According to narrating journalist Alistair Bunkall, the “Israel military says it is targeting watch towers, rocket launch sites and weapons factories. Some Gazans, though, claim that civilian houses have also been hit.”

Yet viewers were provided with no visual cues, such as a clip of the many rockets that rained down on Israel over 72 hours. Rather, the footage shows piles of rubble as civilians pick through the wreckage.

As such, Sky News seemingly chose to perpetuate a certain narrative instead of sticking to the facts.

The piece segues into an interview with an unnamed man who speaks of his surprise when “they” asked us to evacuate houses near the home of a Gaza municipality worker, who the man describes as “an ordinary employee who provides for young children.”

The suggestion here is that Israel was trying to blow up an honest worker whose only crime was being generous to kids. Sky News does not bother to investigate, much less report on, the actual target of such strikes: terrorist infrastructure embedded into civilian structures in the vicinity.

Furthermore, Sky News did not deem it necessary to elaborate on the identity of the “they” who gave the evacuation order. Had the channel done so, viewers would have been told it was Israel who had warned civilians of impending strikes.
Teen Vogue Continues to Promote Anti-Israel Bias and a Warped Vision of Judaism
Conde Nast’s teen fashion magazine Teen Vogue, the self-proclaimed “destination for the next generation of influencers,” continued last week to promote not only anti-Israel bias but a warped vision of Judaism. (“Pen Palestine Project Fosters Connections Between Students in Gaza and the U.S.”, August 4, 2022 by Zack Haber.)

The main subject of Haber’s article, California teacher Heather Alexandra, tells Teen Vogue’s young readers that she developed a program for US schoolchildren to become pen pals with children in Gaza because she “wanted to get involved in the Jewish value of tikkun olam … which is the idea that it’s the responsibility of Jews culturally and spiritually to engage in practices to repair the world.”

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with promoting cross-cultural connections and understanding. But both Haber and Alexandra rely on extremely biased sources to tell a one-sided story to both Teen Vogue’s readers and Alexandra’s elementary school students. Tendentiousness is not a Jewish value.

To set up her pen pal project, readers learn, Alexandra sought help from Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which, according to NGO Monitor, “presents a biased and distorted view of the conflict, omitting Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including rocket attacks and terror tunnels, as well as Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense.” In the past, the group has received funding from organizations with known ties to terrorism. Of course, there is no mention of the group’s terror ties in Haber’s article; it’s described as “a U.S.-based group that aids Palestinian youth.”

When Alexandra finally met some of the Gaza children in her program, “they wanted people to know their lives were under constant siege… . They never know when they’re going to be safe.” The children of Sderot could have told her the same thing, had she asked them. It doesn’t appear that she, or Haber, did. Nor did they talk to any Israeli children who have lost loved ones to terrorism, or Israeli young adults who serve in the IDF.

Teen Vogue links to DCI-Palestine as one source of Alexandra’s information. But according to NGO Monitor, “numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P.” The PFLP, best known for its airline hijackings, has been designated as a terrorist organization not only by Israel but also by the US, the EU, and Canada.
Context omitted from BBC radio reporting on death of Gaza child
Like Yolande Knell’s written report which mentions the same incident, none of those radio reports – or subsequent ones – provided any further details or context.

The name of that little girl is Alaa Qaddum (or Kaddum) and the incident took place in the Shujaiya neighbourhood on the afternoon of August 5th. The anti-Israel NGO Al Haq described it as follows:
“At approximately 16:25 on the same day, an Israeli warplane targeted, with a single missile, a group of citizens who were near Abu Samra Mosque, near Adel Al-Shawa orchard in Wadi Al-Arayes area in Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killing three Palestinians, two of which are civilians, including the child Alaa Abdullah Riyad Qaddoum, 5. Also killed in the attack were Youssef Salman Muhammad Qaddoum, 24, and Imad Abdel Rahim Ibrahim Shalah, 50. A number of citizens who were on the street at the time were wounded in the same bombing, including the child’s father, Abdullah Qaddoum, 31, and her brother, Riad, 6.”

Al Haq refrained from clarifying which one of the three dead was not a civilian, or what he actually was.

Another anti-Israel NGO reported that one of the dead was Alaa’s cousin:
“At least two other Palestinians were killed in the same attack, including Alaa’s 24-year-old cousin Yousef Salman Mohammad Qaddoum, according to information collected by DCIP.”

The New York Times reported:
“An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, said Alaa’s father, Abdullah Qadoum, was a senior Islamic Jihad commander, but would not say whether he was targeted in the airstrike. The family would not comment on whether he was linked to Islamic Jihad.”

The graphic later put out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad naming its operatives killed during Operation Breaking Dawn includes Youssef Qaddum – Alaa’s cousin.

In other words, when Alaa Qaddum was killed she was right next to two operatives belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation: her cousin and her father; a senior commander of PIJ anti-tank units. While that clearly does not make her death any less tragic, it is important context that was denied to the BBC’s domestic and worldwide audiences and that is especially significant given that subsequent broadcasts uncritically promoted accusations from Palestinian interviewees of targeting of civilians and children.
Telegraph ignores evidence undermining desired narrative
As we noted previously, a Telegraph report on Aug. 7 by their Mid-East correspondent Abbie Cheeseman strongly suggested that all the children killed in Gaza during fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were the result of IDF strikes. It failed acknowledging that at least four, in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, were almost certainly killed as the result of errant Palestinian rockets. At the time of the Telegraph report, evidence that the four were killed by PIJ was so widely ciruclated that even the Qatari governemnt mouthpiece Al Jazeera acknowledged it.

Following our complaint to editors, the Telegraph did acknowledge, in a subsequent report on Aug. 8, the Israeli evidence that errant Palestinian rockets killed the four children.

Flash forward to today, where the Telegraph again has ignored widely available evidence that contradicts their desired narrative. The article, written by Jerusalem correspondent James Rothwell and Gaza-based translator Siham Shamalakh, (“Inside the bloodstained Gaza tower block ripped apart by Israeli airstrike”, Aug. 10), includes the following:
The airstrike on Palestine Tower was the first salvo in an intense three-day round of fighting between PIJ and Israel which left 44 Palestinians dead, including 15 children, and injured hundreds of others. Israel said it launched the “pre-emptive” operation as it suspected PIJ was about to launch its own assault on Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip.

Israel has also said that a number of rockets fired by Palestinian militants failed to launch and landed inside the Gaza Strip, including an explosion in Jabaliya which killed several people. But Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has blamed the incident on an Israeli airstrike.

First, Israel didn’t just say that “a number” of rockets fired by PIJ landed inside Gaza, they said that around 200 of the 1100 fired fell inside the territory. Also, they didn’t just “say” that there were misfires. There’s video evidence demonstrating that this occurred during the war, and further evidence to back up Israel’s assertion about the incident in Jabaliya.

Additionally, the Telegraph ignores an exclusive investigation by Associated Press (AP), published on Aug. 8, (“Misfired rockets may have killed over a dozen in Gaza battle”), which corroborates Israel’s general claims about PIJ rocket misfires casusing Palestianin civilian deaths, as well as the specific explosion in Jabaliya.


Munich massacre: Israeli victims' families to boycott memorial
Families of victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre are planning to boycott the 50th anniversary memorial set for September 5 in Munich due to long-standing disputes with German authorities over compensatory damages, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The attack, carried out by the Palestinian Black September terrorist group, left 11 Israelis dead after hours of being held hostage. A German policeman also died. The families of the victims have maintained that the compensatory responsibilities fall on Germany due to its failure to protect the athletes.

President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to attend the memorial, according to the Times. It is unclear if the families’ decision to boycott it will affect his attendance.
Cardinal with Jewish ancestry honors Jewish-born nun murdered in Auschwitz
A Canadian cardinal with Jewish ancestry honored a philosopher-nun murdered by the Nazis because of her own Jewish parentage.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, 76, gave a homily Tuesday and led a mass in Oswiecim, the Polish name for the town of Auschwitz, where Sister Teresa Benedict was sent to the gas chambers by the Nazis on Aug. 9, 1942.

Born Edith Stein in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) to an Orthodox Jewish family, Stein converted to Catholicism in her 30s. She joined the Carmelite Order — a monastic community founded on Mount Carmel in what is now Israel during the Crusades.

In 1998, Stein was canonized by Pope John Paul II as Saint Teresa Benedetta della Croce in a move that was met by opposition from the Jewish community because she had been persecuted for being born a Jew, not because she was Catholic.

In his speech marking the 80th anniversary of Stein’s murder, Czerny, whose mother’s family were Jewish converts to Catholicism, spoke about his family’s fate under the Nazi regime, and noted the parallels to Stein’s story.

Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, Czerny emigrated with his parents to Canada as a young child. Despite their conversion to Catholicism, his maternal grandparents and two uncles “shared the Jewish origins that the enemy abhorred,” Czerny said. “My maternal grandmother Anna, my grandfather Hans and my uncles Georg and Carl Robert, were all interned in Terezín, where Hans died.”

Terezín, or Theresienstadt in German, was a Nazi-run concentration camp in what was then Czechoslovakia.
Coming Winter Fuel Crisis Triggered by Ukraine War Will Boost Antisemitism in Germany, Jewish Leader Warns
The head of Germany’s Jewish community has spoken of his fear that the prospect of a fuel crisis this winter caused by the interruption of Russian energy supplies will embolden antisemitic conspiracy theorists.

In an interview with broadcaster RND, Josef Schuster — president of the Central Council of German Jews — warned that the extremist groups and conspiracy theorists who actively promoted antisemitic tropes during the COVID-19 pandemic would turn their attentions to the Russian war in Ukraine and the expected stiff price hike in fuel as the winter season approaches.

“When there are problems, minorities are blamed, and Jews are always included,” Schuster said. He urged “keeping an eye on this scene during the autumn” and “remaining vigilant.”

“When it gets cold in winter, this scene will go on the attack and, I’m afraid, succeed,” he added.

Germany’s heavy dependence on Russian fuel supplies is causing anxiety across the country as Russian President Vladimir Putin toys with the prospect of cutting natural gas supplies this winter.

Over the last decade, 55 percent of Germany’s natural gas requirement has been supplied by Russia through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that directly connects the two countries; a second pipeline, however, was denied certification following the invasion of Ukraine.


El Al CEO Sees Approval for Saudi-Oman Corridor Within Days
Permission for El Al Israel Airlines to fly over Oman is expected in “a matter of days,” chief executive Dina Ben-Tal said on Thursday, a move that would be a big boost for the flag carrier’s Asian routes.

Ben-Tal, speaking to reporters after El Al issued second-quarter results, said the airline had already received approval to fly over Saudi Arabia but also needed to fly over Oman to skirt Iran and save time for journeys to Asia.

Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers. El Al and smaller Israeli rival Arkia later said they had applied for permission to fly over both Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a focus of US President Joe Biden’s tour last month of the countries, which do not have formal ties.

“It’s not just Saudi Arabia. We need the full route to be approved,” Ben-Tal said.

Once fully approved, it would cut about 2-1/2 hours from flights to India and Thailand and save fuel costs. Present routes to those popular destinations bypass Saudi airspace by flying south over the Red Sea around Yemen.
Coldplay Invites Israeli Teen Guitarist Onstage for Joint Performance During Concert in Brussels
Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin brought an Israeli teenage guitarist on stage to play a song with the British rock band at their concert in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday night.

Gili Torres played the guitar for Coldplay’s 2002 hit song “Green Eyes” while Martin sang the lyrics to the crowd who gathered at King Baudouin Stadium to hear the band as part of their “Music of the Spheres” world tour.

Torres was initially in the crowd holding a large sign that asked if she could join the band on stage for a performance of “Green Eyes,” according to The Times of Israel. Martin saw her sign and invited her on stage to perform with the band before asking the crowd to “please welcome Gili, like a rockstar.” Torres then performed the track with headphones on and a guitar in hand, after which Martin told her “that was f**king awesome, Gili.”

Torres later posted a short video of the performance on her Instagram Stories with the caption “my wish came true.”
WATCH: Israeli soldier, Palestinian kids' dance battle goes TikTok viral
A dance-off between Israeli soldier and Palestinian children went viral on TikTok after being posted on Tuesday.

The video entitled "The Israeli/Palestinian conflict in 2022" shows two Palestinian children in a field outside of Jenin dancing, and an IDF soldier returning the moves to the music of Simple Plan's I'm Just a Kid.
@yal_hdk ככה נעשה שלום #פוריו #ויראלי #fypシ ♬ I'm Just a Kid - Simple Plan
"At the beginning of June, we were reinforcing the Jenin area, and in the area of the [security] fence that separates between Israel and Judea and Samaria while I was at my post, we saw from a distance Arabs approaching the fence, seeing us looking back at them," IDF reservist Yal Hadok, a 21-year-old Kfar Sabah resident who immigrated from France, told N12. "Suddenly, I turned back and saw two kids starting to dance behind me, so I danced back."

Hadok uploaded the video in response to Operation Breaking Dawn, which ended in a ceasefire on Sunday.

"It's important to show that we're human beings and don't hate each other. I don't believe that the nations on both sides want war," Hadok told N12.

The dancing soldier told N12 that he didn't expect the video to gain such popularity. By Wednesday, the video racked up over 271,000 views and was liked almost 50,000 times.
Singer Regina Spektor supports Israel during Operation Breaking Dawn
Singer Regina Spektor voiced support for the right of the State of Israel to defend itself during Operation Breaking Dawn on Sunday.

"In Israel, sirens had been sounding, many evacuated to bomb shelters and the [Iron Dome] was activated above Tel Aviv," Spektor wrote on Twitter. "Hundreds of rockets had been launched at Israel, and the shield worked to protect the citizens."

Spektor said that she felt the need to speak on the issue because she felt that it had been ignored that Israel was fighting against "militant Jihadists," referring to the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

"Quiet is my feed about these attacks, cause Israel doesn’t seem to be on the list of places that get support when attacked," said Spektor.

The Jewish American singer argued against the double standard of how the elimination of Islamic Jihad leaders was treated as a crime, while the elimination of another was celebrated. This was likely a reference to the assassination of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri by the US on July 31. President Joe Biden's administration was widely praised in the US for the operation. Operation Breaking Dawn began with strikes on Islamic Jihad's northern command head Tayseer al-Jabari and anti-tank guided-missile section head Abdullah Kadoum.
The forgotten heroine of the deadly 1975 Savoy Hotel terror attack
Kochava Levy didn’t think she would live to see the morning of March 6, 1975.

Taken hostage by Fatah-aligned terrorists inside the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, Levy was convinced that she would never see her daughter again. “It is clear to me that I will die here tonight in this shabby hotel,” she wrote in her diary.

Levy, a 31-year-old housewife and mother, found herself the unlikely mediator between the terrorists and the IDF team of negotiators stationed outside the hotel.

Using her knowledge of Arabic, Levy relayed messages between the two sides and appealed to the terrorists to release a wounded hostage.

But her heroic role was overshadowed following the attack when Levy – who had been staying in the hotel with a man who was not her husband – was mislabeled by the media as a prostitute. Her heroism and bravery that night was largely forgotten – until now.

The story of Levy’s role in the 1975 terrorist attack at the Savoy Hotel – which resulted in the deaths of eight civilians, three IDF soldiers and seven out of the eight terrorists – comes to life in a new hybrid documentary, “Savoy,” from filmmaker Zohar Wagner.

The movie, which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival last month and hits Lev cinemas across Israel this week, intertwines documentary footage, recordings and images from the night of the attack with dramatizations of the scenes inside the hotel. Veteran actress Dana Ivgy (“Zero Motivation,” “Aviva, My Love”) plays Levy, while Ala Dakaa (“Fauda,” “Mossad 101”) portrays the head of the Palestinian terrorist cell.

Wagner – whose most recent film, “21 Days Inside,” tells the story of a Bedouin woman accused of murdering her son – used Levy’s diaries alongside archival records to piece together the events that occurred inside the hotel over the course of about five hours, brought to life by Ivgy and Dakaa.

“I wanted to focus on Kochava, and there was no footage of her from that night, because… the hostages were inside a closed hotel,” Wagner told The Times of Israel in a recent phone interview. “All the media coverage was from around the building.”

Wagner recalled asking herself: “How am I going to talk about this very unique woman, how am I going to show her brilliance?” She said she decided early on in the filmmaking process that she would include dramatic recreations based on Levy’s diary entries in order to tell her story.




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