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Tuesday, October 10, 2023

10/10 Links Pt1: Vengeance After a Pogrom; ‘The Babies, The Mothers, The Fathers’: Israel Shows World Aftermath of Hamas Massacre; "Gas the Jews' on the steps of the Sydney Opera House

From Ian:

John Podhoretz: Vengeance After a Pogrom
So it is not enough to stop Hamas in its tracks and get it to stop doing what it’s doing, to go back into its hidey-hole and live to earn the propagandistic word-vomit support of Mehdi Hasan and Ilhan Omar. The blood of every Israeli who died (and was wounded) in these attacks must be avenged because not to do so is effectively to excuse the murders themselves in the most profound moral sense. Vengeance is an act of memory. It says the people avenged were of such value that their passing must make everything stop until that passing is commemorated in kind.

This is why the inevitable (and already sounded) calls for “restraint” in the face of the Simchat Torah pogrom are statements of moral and spiritual idiocy. Except to the extent that restraint is always warranted—if you drive 200 miles an hour on a switchback on your way to getting your vengeance, you will show a lack of restraint that will get you killed—there is no moral benefit to restraint per se. Should you act with restraint if an old woman is being beaten up on a subway car right next to you? Should you act with restraint when a tiny child is carrying a potful of boiling water? Of course not. Restraint itself isn’t a virtue. It is one of a variety of responses to immediate conditions that do not have the clearest solutions.

Israel should not restrain itself. It should extirpate the evil done to it and its people. It should avenge their blood. Sorry, milquetoasts. Go retreat into your comforting delusions. Amalek may soon come for you too.
Matthew Continetti: No Daylight
For Israel’s cause is just. It has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to provoke hundreds of terrorists to invade its country, infiltrate dozens of communities and IDF posts, murder hundreds of innocents, and seize more than a hundred captives. Unless you count the very existence of a Jewish State as a provocation—which Hamas and its fellow travelers in the West do. To their eternal shame.

Right now, moral support of Israel may seem to be symbolic or easy, compared with the hard work of military logistics and the backroom wheeling and dealing necessary to give Israel the time to finish the job. Soon, however, international opinion will mobilize against Israel. The pleas for surrender will be echoed by the "democratic" socialist squad here at home. If the Biden administration truly stands with Israel, it will ignore the jackals, explain why Israel is right, and continue to replenish the weapon stocks of the Jewish State until Hamas has no power over Gaza and the terrorists scatter to the wind.

What Biden cannot do is follow the example of his former boss. "When there is no daylight [between America and Israel], Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states," Barack Obama told the Washington Post back in 2012. As usual, he had things precisely backwards. America gains credibility among the nations of the world when we follow through on our promises, support our allies, and act from a position of strength. Obama’s second term demonstrated the costs of "daylight" between America and Israel, and it is a price everyone still must pay.

The Abraham Accords signed under Donald Trump proved Obama wrong. Israel’s allies multiply when it is strong, and when American support is unequivocal. That is the model the Biden administration must follow if it wants to make good on its pledges of support. It must work tirelessly to allow the Israelis to destroy the military capability of Hamas and to demonstrate Israel’s capacity to destroy its enemies.

This will not be easy work. America must demonstrate continual support for the IDF in the face of inevitable media criticism and global upheaval. If we falter, then the adversary, whether he is in Moscow or Tehran or Beijing or Pyongyang, will feel emboldened. In this new world, where conflicts from Eastern Europe to East Asia are beginning to merge into one, America cannot afford to waver. The U.S.-Israel alliance must be more than pieces of paper. It must be more than an emotionally satisfying Tweet. There must be no daylight between us.
Israeli Fatalities in Hamas Attack Reach 900
The death toll in Israel from the Hamas surprise attack and subsequent battles rose above 900, including at least 123 soldiers. 130 people are thought to have been abducted and taken into Gaza.

Over 500 people remained hospitalized, many with life-threatening injuries; over 2,700 have been injured since Saturday.

The IDF said it had managed to seal the border, mining areas around breaches as a stopgap against further incursions.

"In the last day, not a single terrorist entered via the fence," said IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. He added that the military had not identified any tunnels crossing from Gaza into Israeli territory.

300,000 IDF reservists have been mobilized.

Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht said the bodies of 1,500 terrorists had been located in Israel. Hundreds more have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.




Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel is at war. We didn't want this war. It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way. But though Israel didn't start this war, Israel will finish it. Once, the Jewish people were stateless. Once, the Jewish people were defenseless. No longer.
Hamas will understand that by attacking us, they have made a mistake of historic proportions. We will exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel's other enemies for decades to come.
The savage attacks that Hamas perpetrated against innocent Israelis are mindboggling: slaughtering families in their homes, massacring hundreds of young people at an outdoor festival, kidnapping scores of women, children and elderly, even Holocaust survivors. Hamas terrorists bound, burned and executed children. They are savages. Hamas is ISIS.
And just as the forces of civilization united to defeat ISIS, the forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas. I want to thank President Biden for his unequivocal support. I want to thank leaders across the world who are standing with Israel today.
In fighting Hamas, Israel will win this war, and when Israel wins, the entire civilized world wins.


Ben Shapiro: The Face of Absolute Evil
Hamas murders 700 Israelis, rapes women, kidnaps children, and mutilates bodies in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF): https://www.fidf.org/
Israel Rescue: http://IsraelRescue.org
American Friends of Magen David Adom: http://Afmda.org
International Fellowship of Christians & Jews: http://IFCJ.org
The Ari Fuld Project: http://AriFuld.org


Israel Must Now Defeat, Not Just Contain, Hamas
Hamas remained a fanatical radical Islamist organization that was ready to perform cruel and horrific terror attacks and other war crimes against Israel, driven by similar ideologies to those of the Islamic State. Israel is preparing now to take the initiative and embark on a wide-scale operation against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, while maintaining readiness to confront potential widening of the war to other fronts.

The Hamas offensive reflects its commitment to terror and to its merciless Jihadist identity. Hamas prepared itself for a long time for this attack - using Iranian military and financial support to accumulate rockets and develop capabilities to infiltrate Israel. Hamas took the Iranian Islamic idea of swarm attacks and implemented it very successfully.

Israel has no choice but to change its policy towards Hamas from containment and deterrence to decisively defeating it to make sure it will not be able to rearm itself. This is necessary to get rid of the threat from Gaza, and it is also critical to deter Iran and Hizbullah. It should do so regardless of the complexity created by the holding of so many hostages in Hamas custody.
Eugene Kontorovich: The Iran-Gaza War
On Saturday, the Iranian-backed Palestinian militia Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza. Chilling videos have surfaced of them desecrating bodies and parading captives through the streets of Gaza, as large crowds yell "God is great." It is a rampage of unspeakable cruelty, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. An operation of such scale and complexity is unlike anything Hamas has previously attempted and strongly suggests significant Iranian involvement.

Imagine if those who perpetrated the attacks also had control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), a vastly larger territory with a much longer frontier a few miles from Israel's main population centers. The consequences would be orders of magnitude worse.

False doctrines of international law have given Hamas in Gaza an insurance policy: No matter what atrocities they commit against Israel, they will come out of any conflict with no less territory than before.
Amb. Alan Baker: Hamas and Islamic Jihad Are Criminally Liable for War Crimes
The indiscriminate firing of more than 3,300 rockets into Israel's towns and villages violates the rule of distinction in international humanitarian law, which requires combatants to limit attacks to legitimate military targets. This is a clear violation of accepted humanitarian norms and principles prohibiting targeting civilians.

The willful, deliberate, and hysteric massacre of civilians, including young people attending an open-air music event, as well as the indiscriminate entry into, destruction, and pillaging of private civilian homes in Israel's towns and villages, and indiscriminate murder of civilians living in those homes, is a clear violation of all accepted humanitarian norms, for which Hamas and Islamic Jihad must be held criminally responsible.

The taking of multiple civilian hostages, including entire families, elderly, women, and infants, and their cruel and violent kidnapping and transfer to Gaza, as well as the loathsome exhibition of dead and mutilated bodies in the streets of Gaza, is an inexcusable and flagrant violation of humanitarian norms and an odious insult to humanity.

For these crimes, Hamas and PIJ leaders and commanders are accountable and prosecutable under international law, which considers non-state actors bound by customary norms of international humanitarian law when they become a party to an armed conflict. Thus, they are punishable for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Biden: At Least 11 Americans Murdered in Terrorist Assault Against Israel
President Joe Biden said Monday: "As we continue to account for the horrors of the appalling terrorist assault against Israel this weekend and the hundreds of innocent civilians who were murdered, we are seeing the immense scale and reach of this tragedy. Sadly, we now know that at least 11 American citizens were among those killed. We also know that American citizens still remain unaccounted for....We believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas."

"This is not some distant tragedy. The ties between Israel and the United States run deep. It is personal for so many American families who are feeling the pain of this attack as well as the scars inflicted through millennia of antisemitism and persecution of Jewish people....In this moment of heartbreak, the American people stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israelis....Americans across the country stand united against these evil acts that have once more claimed innocent American lives. It is an outrage."

"The United States and the State of Israel are inseparable partners, and I affirmed to Prime Minister Netanyahu again when we spoke yesterday that the United States will continue to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself and its people."
Phyllis Chesler: The Iran-Funded Pogrom Against Jewish Israel
This is what a pogrom looks like. The pogromists target the most vulnerable civilians and do their worst.

Hamas took a page from ISIS' Caliphate playbook and videoed their atrocities in real-time.

This attack was far bigger than 9/11. In terms of demographic equivalence, the Israeli population is 9 million people; the American population is 331 million.

800 Israeli dead and counting is the equivalent of 29,418 American deaths, 10 times the 3,000 killed in 9/11.

The number of Israeli wounded is 2,000 and counting. In American terms, this is equivalent to 75,503 wounded.
This is not about ‘liberating’ Palestine
One thing should be abundantly clear following this weekend’s massacre of hundreds of Israelis: these actions had nothing to do with ‘freeing’ Palestine. The immediate goal of Hamas, the Gaza-based terrorist group responsible for these atrocities, was to terrorise Jews. Its longer-term objective is the creation of an international Islamic order. The claims that this has anything to do with fighting Israeli oppression are morally repugnant.

From the warped perspective of Hamas, this weekend’s brutal killing spree was a spectacular success. As of Monday morning, hundreds of Hamas infiltrators have slaughtered at least 700 people and wounded more than 2,400. The vast majority of those killed have been Israeli Jews, although some Muslims and foreigners have been caught up in the atrocities. Hamas also claims to have kidnapped over 130 Israelis and taken them to Gaza.

There were multiple scenes of terror across southern Israel this weekend. The largest-scale atrocity was an assault on a music festival on Saturday, where at least 260 young partygoers were slain. Anyone who thinks that this slaughter is remotely connected to the goal of liberating the Palestinian people has, at the very least, a moral void in their hearts.

There is no excuse for the widespread ignorance about the murderous goals of Hamas, or indeed of similar groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. To understand Hamas’s motives, you only need to read or listen to what it says about itself. You do not need to take the Israeli government’s word for it. Nor do you need to speak Arabic. There is a significant amount of material translated into English that spells out precisely what Hamas is really about.

Take the Hamas Covenant, the terrorist group’s founding document, from 1988. It is littered with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Here, for instance, is just one choice quote:
‘They [the Jews] were behind the First World War, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind the Second World War, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state [Israel]. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.’

The Hamas Covenant also includes explicit references to killing Jews. For example, it attributes the following saying to the Prophet Muhammad: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’

Some defenders of Hamas have argued that its 2017 manifesto, ‘A Document of General Principles and Policies’, has superseded the 1988 charter. It is true that Hamas modifies its language in the newer document. Rather than using explicitly anti-Semitic language, it adopts the language of the left in some places. Article 14, for instance, says that ‘The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project’.
Hamas, Israel and the BBC
On Day One of the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists Graeme Baker, a BBC reporter, posted this on the BBC News website:

“Palestinian groups [sic] have used soldiers as bargaining chips in the past

Palestinian militants [sic] attacked several military outposts — footage on social media shows militants [sic] inside an unidentified base, with burning Israeli vehicles including a Merkava tank. … Palestinian groups [sic] have in the past used hostages as bargaining chips to secure the release of militants [sic] held by Israel.”

Note the language: “Palestinian groups” and “Palestinian militants”, not Hamas terrorists. Which BBC News executive banned the use of the word “terrorists” to describe Hamas on BBC News programmes? Which BBC reporters or presenters have broken this ban or even spoken out against it on TV, radio or social media? It is barely five years since the BBC put up a statue of George Orwell outside Broadcasting House. The wall behind the statue is inscribed with Orwell’s words: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Not at today’s BBC, apparently.

The same applies to images. On Saturday evening someone from BBC Verify told viewers of the BBC News Channel they would not be showing some images of Israeli hostages and bodies because they were too “distressing”. There are two things worth noting about this act of censorship. First, all these images and, sadly, much worse, could already be seen on social media and, indeed, on the front pages of some of the Sunday newspapers. Second, this was a way of sanitising the barbaric violence of Hamas. If you’re just told a few dozen people were taken hostage, that is one thing. It doesn’t sound a very big deal. If, however you see a small child being taunted and abused by Palestinian children, having been seized from his home and taken hostage, that is rather different. Or if you see a young woman screaming, “Don’t kill me!” as she is taken away into captivity, if you see a young woman’s body on the back of a truck being screamed at by Palestinian civilians or if you see a young woman covered in blood having been violently raped, then you begin to have a sense that Hamas terrorists are a misogynistic, homophobic antisemitic death cult. That is exactly what they are and that is what BBC News executives don’t want you to witness in all its horror.
Hamas Takes ‘Dozens’ of Americans Hostage in Gaza
The hundreds of Hamas fighters who carried out a murderous rampage inside Israel over the weekend returned to the Gaza Strip with an invaluable new strategic asset. On Sunday, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told journalists that the Islamist group had captured “dozens” of hostages with American citizenship. If this number is even remotely accurate, the assault would be the largest mass abduction of Americans since the Tehran embassy crisis of 1979.

Hamas has likely divided those hostages across unmapped underground sites throughout Gaza, foreclosing the possibility of a single, swift rescue operation. The hostage issue threatens to inject a future source of divergence into Israeli and American objectives during the crisis. Outgoing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listed “rescue all American hostages” as the U.S.’s top priority in the unfolding war.

Israel must now weigh the survival of American hostages against neutralizing active threats against other groups of civilians, and also against the country’s stated war aim of disarming Hamas, which would likely require a massive ground operation in which most if not all of the hostages would be killed. Hamas, meanwhile, can parade American corpses through downtown Gaza and claim that they are victims of the Israeli assault.

“Hamas will use the hostages in two ways: as human shields and as a source of leverage over Washington,” explained Michael Doran, director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute and a former senior director on the National Security Council. “As human shields they will prevent Israel from destroying critical infrastructure. As a source of leverage, Hamas will convince Washington to compel Israel to make concessions—on the terms of a cease-fire, the release of prisoners, relaxing economic restrictions on Gaza, delivering payments from abroad, etc. Hamas will parade American hostages before the cameras to beg Washington to bring a halt to Israeli military operations so that the hostages can gain their freedom.”

The ways in which American hostages complicate the conflict hardly ends there. The tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar served as the laundering mechanism for $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian oil money that the U.S. used to purchase the freedom of five American citizens or green-card holders that the Islamic Republic had imprisoned, a transaction announced only last month. Doha also happens to be where much of Hamas’ exiled high command lives. Qatar, Washington’s chosen middleman for hostage diplomacy with Iran—which is Hamas’ leading state sponsor—can claim it runs an existing and effective channel for negotiating the hostages’ freedom. Any apparent progress on this diplomatic track could provide the Americans with an incentive to restrain any Israeli operation in Gaza.


“First We Fight, Then We Investigate”

IDF shells Southern Lebanon in response to rocket attacks

IDF: 1,500 Hamas terrorists killed inside Israel

IDF pummels Hamas assets in Gaza as war enters fourth day

Gazan rocket slays two in southern Israel

Israel must ensure Hamas cannot ‘rearm itself’
Former IDF Intelligence Research Division Head Yossi Kuperwasser has called for Israel to ensure Hamas cannot rearm itself as it pushes militants out of its territory.

The militants launched a surprise attack on Israel over the weekend, launching thousands of rockets and conducting air and land assaults.

Israel has responded heavily with intense bombing of the Gaza Strip, including buildings known to be frequented by Hamas, which controls the territory.

“We have to create a situation where Hamas cannot rearm itself - that is the most important thing,” Mr Kuperwasser told Sky News Australia.

“In order for us to make sure they cannot rearm themselves, the best way to do it is taking control of most of the unpopulated areas in Gaza and some of the populated areas so we shall be able to make sure they do not rearm themselves.”

He added that if this does not work, they may be required to enlarge the operation into more populated areas.




Spain and France Reject EU Proposal to Suspend Aid to Palestinians Amidst Conflict
A Divided EU Over Aid Suspension

The European Union (EU) is experiencing internal strife as member states dispute plans to suspend aid to Palestine following Hamas’ attack on Israel. Spain and France have voiced strong opposition to this proposal, arguing that it is essential to continue providing financial support to the Palestinian Authority. They assert that discontinuing aid would escalate the situation and impede the chances of achieving peace in the region.

On the other hand, Germany and Austria have already ceased their aid to the Palestinian territories, thereby increasing pressure on the EU to follow suit. The EU’s financial assistance is primarily earmarked for development projects, humanitarian aid, and the functional support of the Palestinian Authority. The question of whether to provide aid to Palestinians is part of a larger debate concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the viability of a two-state solution. The varying opinions among EU member states reflect the complexity of the situation and the differing views on how best to promote peace and stability in the region.

The Stance of Spain and France
Spain and France hold strong beliefs that financial assistance should continue as it is crucial for the Palestinian population. They argue that cutting funding would not only worsen the situation but also undermine the prospects for peace in the region. Both countries emphasize the importance of supporting the Palestinian Authority and maintaining stability in the region.

The EU’s Aid Policy and Recent Conflict
The recent escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas has heightened tensions and led to significant loss of life and destruction in Gaza. This has prompted some EU member states, including Germany, to call for a review of the aid policy. However, Spain and France maintain that it is paramount to continue providing financial support to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

A Broader Debate
The issue of financial assistance to Palestinians forms part of the broader debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for a two-state solution. The disagreement among EU member states illustrates the complexity of the situation and the divergent opinions on how best to advance peace and stability in the region.
Jonah Goldberg: Who’s to blame for the Hamas attack on Israel? That debate is already going off the rails
This dehumanizing refusal to accept the role of human agency and pure moral choice is a common affliction. We see it on full display in the debates over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Of course, Russia did this, the realists and apologists argued. Ukraine is their “sphere of influence,” part of the historic Russian empire. Ukraine or NATO “provoked” Russia, insist an ideologically diverse coalition of victim-blamers. The idea that Putin had no choice but to launch an illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine is a perverted form of Western arrogance and myopia. Putin had a choice and he made it.

Over the weekend, particularly, some anti-anti-Hamas commentators on MSNBC insisted that Hamas’ barbarity is what Israel should expect from its policies in Gaza. This was a “prison break,” according to countless Israel critics. Therefore, voices as diverse as the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and anti-Israel students of Harvard insist Israel is solely to blame for Hamas’ crimes.

It is fine to criticize various Israeli policies. But this prison break talking point is deeply problematic. If Gaza is a prison, it’s in part because it is run by a prison gang in the form of Hamas, which brutalizes and exploits Palestinian inmates. Also, if the moment inmates escape from a prison they go on a murder and kidnapping spree, many reasonable people might assume the prison exists for good reason. But again, however brutal you might think Israel’s Gaza policy might be, the murderers still chose to murder, the kidnappers chose to kidnap. If you deny them that agency, you’re the one calling them unthinking animals.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran helped fund and orchestrate the Hamas attack. The Biden administration is pushing back, claiming there’s no direct evidence of that yet. And, of course, Iran denies it.

But let’s make the tiny leap of the imagination and assume it’s true that Hamas’ Iranian patrons were involved. Iran is not Gaza or a cage of Israel’s design. Israel has not “occupied” Iran. In other words, this was a choice made by human beings. Similarly, Qatar, where the Hamas leader behind these attacks has a comfortable office and ample resources, is not some impoverished Palestinian ghetto. It’s the fifth richest country per capita in the world.

The arrogant solipsism that assumes Israelis, Americans or the West in general has all of the agency and power to work their will — and therefore deserves all the blame when bad things happen — is a form of moral corruption. It is also profoundly dangerous. Such thinking closes avenues of action — diplomatic, economic and military — because it assumes that the bad actors in the world are forces of nature that cannot be deterred or reasoned with, only appeased.


The Caroline Glick Show: ISRAEL AT WAR: The failure of the IDF
Caroline Glick was joined by Dr. David Wurmser to discuss the state of the war. They focused on the IDF's conceptual failure that led to the surprise attack on Saturday and on how the Biden administration's Middle East policies facilitated Hamas's war machine through Iran.


Israel Advocacy Movement: The alarming response to Israel's latest tragedy.



The Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Wobbly Clock is Ticking
Eli Lake joins the podcast to talk about the fecklessness of the Biden administration and how that may have given Iran a sense it could act with impunity—and whether, once again, America will go wobbly when it comes to Israel defending itself. Only this time, will Bibi Netanyahu’s country allow its leaders to go wobbly in response? Give a listen.


Richard Goldberg: What the US and Israel need to do next in face of Iran terror
American and United Nations aid that flows into Gaza and subsidizes the Hamas regime should be suspended. Turkey and Qatar, where Hamas keeps offices and officials, should face threats of sanctions if they do not cut ties.

Washington should lean on European allies to do more, too. The United Kingdom should proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Europe should trigger the snapback of UN sanctions on Iran before the international missile embargo on Iran expires next week.

Israel also needs time and space to prepare and execute its military response — and then confidence in sustained US support in the weeks and possibly months ahead.

That could include special-operations missions, an unprecedented ground invasion to eliminate Hamas leadership and capabilities and multiple contingencies to retaliate against targets in Lebanon and Syria should Hezbollah enter the fight.

A massive reserve mobilization is underway to ready operations on both fronts. Reports that the Biden administration is working with Turkey and Qatar to broker a premature ceasefire or hostage negotiation undermine Israel’s military posture. No one should be pressuring Israel to back down in the wake of this massacre.

To its credit, the administration is sending a US carrier strike group to provide additional military deterrence — an effort to deter ballistic missile attacks from Syria or Iran. It’s also signaling a willingness to provide Israel with a long list of military resupply requests to sustain a weeks-long conflict with Iran’s proxies in Gaza and potentially Lebanon.

But as this war drags on, that support will be tested. Hamas’ war crimes aren’t restricted to the rape, mass murder and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians. It also uses Palestinians as human shields when Israel’s military responds — much as Hezbollah does in Lebanon.

Iran hopes this tactic will turn world sympathy to condemnation. But the White House and Congress should assign the blame for every Palestinian death to Iran and its terror proxies, not the Jewish state acting to preserve its existence.

Washington’s support for dead Jews is nice, but it’s not going to destroy the terror axis that carried out this massacre. What do you think? Post a comment.

The question now is whether the White House or Congress will support the living Jews who fight to keep on living — alongside the many Muslims, Druze and Christians seeking a peaceful life without the daily threat of Iran-sponsored terror.
Hudson Institute: Analysis of the Israel Hamas War
Under the cover of heavy rocket fire, hundreds of terrorists belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad invaded Israel from Gaza in the early hours of Saturday, October 7. They breached two security fences and stormed in by foot, jeep, motorcycle, and paraglider; yet they encountered virtually no resistance from the Israeli military. The terrorists murdered hundreds of civilians and left close to 2,000 wounded. They took an undisclosed number of soldiers and civilians captive, including women and children, who are being held in the Gaza Strip. The magnitude of the attack makes an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza a virtual certainty.

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Michael Doran, Jonathan Schachter, and Can Kasapoğlu for an analysis of these events.




Call Me Back PodCast: ISRAEL AT WAR: The multi-front probability – with Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times, returns for a conversation immediately on Day III of this war.

Bret came to The New York Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. And prior to working in Israel, he was based in Brussels for The Wall Street Journal. Today, Bret is also the editor-in-chief of Sapir Journal.

You can find the Sapir Journal here: https://sapirjournal.org/

You can find Bret’s most recent column here: “Hamas’ Control of Gaza Must End Now” — https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/07/opinion/gaza-israel-hamas.html
‘Outrageous’- Pro-Palestinian rally at Sydney Opera House ‘should be condemned’
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says a pro-Palestine rally on the steps of the Sydney Opera House was “outrageous behaviour” and should be condemned.

Around 1,000 people took part in the anti-Israel rally following the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas over the weekend.

Protesters set fire to the Israeli flag, while police guarded the Opera House steps.

“What I want to see this morning is the leaders of the Muslim community condemn this conduct,” Mr Canavan said.

“We don’t see that sort of condemnation from Muslim leaders for this kind of conduct – insulting the Jewish community in this way, completely unnecessarily.”




The Rubin Report: Attack on Israel: Things Are Worse Than Media Is Reporting | Gadi Taub
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Israeli historian, author, and screenwriter Gadi Taub about the current situation in Israel; the fear and shock experienced by Israelis due to the ongoing conflict; how the Biden administration’s actions are strengthening Iran and undermining Israel; the atrocities committed at Kibbutzim in the south of Israel; how Iran is using the Palestinians to disrupt the potential peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel; and much more.




Palestinians' War on Israel and US Senators' Delusional 'Two-State Solution'
Less than 48 hours after 20 US Democratic Senators urged President Joe Biden to push for the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran's Palestinian terror proxies launched a massive attack on Israel, killing more than 700 Israeli men, women and children, and wounding thousands more. An unknown number of Israelis (estimated at more than 100), including infants, toddlers and an elderly Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, have also been kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip.

This war, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, was caused directly by Iran, which funds and directs Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and by the appeasement of the Iranian regime by the Biden administration and its allies.

The two groups [Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad] do not recognize the Oslo Accords that were signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993-1995, and they are opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state only in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The only solution they believe in is one that would see Israel replaced with an Islamic state.

If the Democratic senators have it their way, the future Palestinian state will also be controlled by Hamas and PIJ.

Instead of condemning the Palestinians for transforming the Gaza Strip into a base for Jihad against Israel, the Senators who signed the letter are asking the Biden Administration to give the Palestinians another state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Like the Gaza Strip, the new Palestinian state will also be quickly transformed into an Iran-backed terror entity and a base for pursuing the Jihad against Israel.

In the past two years, Hamas and PIJ have increased their terror activities in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has done nothing to stop terror attacks against Israelis. Abbas knows that the day he orders his security forces to crack down on the terrorists, his people will condemn him as a traitor and collaborator with Israel.
Defence expert explains how Israel could retaliate against Hamas and rescue hostages
Israel faces a “complicated” situation in its retaliation against Hamas as the terrorists hold the lives of innocent Israeli hostages, says Shadow Assistant Defence Minister Phillip Thompson.

“It’s not their first time they’ve created such terror on the Israeli people,” he told Sky News Australia host Paul Murray.

Mr Thompson, a former military man, explained the potential implications Israel would face when conducting its retaliatory measures whilst still trying to rescue its captured civilians.

“They will have eyes and ears everywhere; we know that they do," he said.

“They’ll be looking very closely on how they execute this mission with minimal, if not no civilian casualties and prosecute the target which is the Hamas terrorists and get their people back.

“I think that Israel’s number one concern is getting its people home.”




‘The Babies, The Mothers, The Fathers’: Israel Shows World Aftermath of Hamas Massacre
Bodies of Israeli residents and Hamas militants lay in the grounds of the Kfar Aza kibbutz among burned out houses, strewn furniture, and torched cars, as Israeli soldiers went from house to house to take away the dead.

Israel Defense Forces took the foreign press through the site, one of the hardest hit areas when Hamas militants attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.

The stench of bodies was heavy in the air as reporters walked the paths of the kibbutz.

"You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them. It's not a war, it's not a battlefield. It's a massacre, it's a terror activity," said Israeli major general Itai Veruv.

"It is something that I never saw in my life. It's something that we used to imagine from our grandfathers, grandmothers in the pogrom in Europe and other places. It's not something that happens in new history."

Outside one of the small houses of the kibbutz the body of a resident was covered by a purple sheet with a bare foot protruding. A pillow and other objects from the house lay scattered.

Elsewhere bodies of the gunmen lay face down on the ground. A destroyed gate at the perimeter of the kibbutz showed where the gunmen had entered.

The militants went on a rampage, killing hundreds of Israelis and taking dozens hostage in places like Kfar Aza, near Sderot. Some of the houses had been almost totally destroyed in the attack with collapsed, burned walls.

Israeli troops were going house to house to retrieve civilian bodies in body bags. They had not been able to take them before as they were still fighting gunmen and working through booby-traps.

One soldier shouted: "Tell the world what you saw here."
Hamas terrorists 'murdered 40 babies' including beheadings, says report
Bodies of young Israeli babies, including some with their heads cut off, have been found by IDF soldiers in a southern Israeli kibbutz, according to reports.

Soldiers discovered the bodies among burned out houses, strewn furniture and torched cars after Hamas terrorists attacked Kfar Aza kibbutz near the Gaza border.

In a video on X/Twitter, an i24 journalist said: “Talking to some of the soldiers here, they say what they witnessed as they’ve been walking through these communities is bodies of babies with their heads cut off and families gunned down in their beds.

“We can see some of these soldiers right now, comforting each other.”

Kfar Aza was one of the hardest hit areas when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Saturday morning.

Israeli troops were now going house to house to retrieve civilian bodies in body bags. They had not been able to take them before as they were still fighting gunmen and working through booby-traps.

In a statement on Tuesday, Israeli Major General Itai Veruv said: “You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them. It's not a war, it's not a battlefield. It's a massacre, it's a terror activity.
Hero British woman, 29, escaped festival massacre and saved the lives of four revellers when she 'rammed her car through roadblock as Hamas gunmen opened fire'
A hero British woman saved the lives of four festivalgoers when she rammed her car through a roadblock as gunmen opened fire while they tried to escape.

Noa Beer, 29, who was raised in the UK but moved to Tel Aviv, survived the massacre at the Nova Festival which claimed the lives of at least 260 people.

Thousands of young people were partying at dawn when Hamas militants stormed the festival, just three miles from the Gaza border, and started gunning them down.

Ms Beer, who works as a music agent and was looking after a foreign DJ at the event, managed to escape unscathed after being surrounded by terrorists who were 'firing like crazy' at her.

She revealed how she jumped into her car and managed to ram it through a roadblock while the gunmen started shooting indiscriminately - missing her window by just inches.

The young woman drove away with four others - including two who had been shot - in her Jeep and 'didn’t look back' until she reached a hospital some 40 minutes away.


Biden Admin Adamant Its $6 Billion Hostage Deal Had No Connection to Hamas Attacks. Critics Are Not So Sure.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday seemed to concede the point, telling NBC News' Kristen Welker, "Iran has unfortunately always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism, on supporting groups like Hamas, and it's done that when there have been sanctions, it's done that when there haven't been sanctions. It's always prioritized that."

A Treasury Department report in 2019 indicated that the Iranian military has sent tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’s military wing for terrorist activities. Iranian state news outlets reported in 2021 that the government was funding Hamas’s production of rockets used to attack Israeli civilians.

Jonathan Schanzer, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Biden administration’s decision to unfreeze the cash in exchange for U.S. prisoners also encouraged the mass hostage-taking by Hamas.

"Whether the cash has been transferred to Iran or it hasn’t, the message the United States sent to Iran was this: Hostage diplomacy is fair game," Schanzer said. "Hamas appears to have taken that message to heart. The end result is that five Americans have been sent home, but more than 100 Israelis are now held in Gaza."

Republican lawmakers are blasting the Biden administration over the Iran funding and blaming it for bankrolling Hamas’s attack.

"Money is fungible and regime officials calculate for it, including for shoring up their foreign exchange reserve," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), adding that the administration was "on track to send over $45 billion to the ayatollah this year through waivers and not enforcing sanctions, including this $6 billion they admit was ransom."

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), a longtime member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who is currently on the ground in the Middle East, said the connection between the Iran funding and the terrorist attack was predictable.

"The Biden foreign policy team came to power calling themselves the ‘adults in the room,’ but they’re really hopelessly naive appeasers on the world stage," said Issa. "It must be embarrassing for them to insist the $6 billion in ransom they paid to Iran would be spent on anything but terror—but perhaps they’re getting used to it."
Suspicion surrounds ex-Iran envoy Rob Malley after Israel attack: ‘Worst State Department scandal’
Defense hawks have also criticized Malley, who served an adviser on Iran policy under former President Barack Obama, for recently surfaced remarks in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.

“It’s a mistake to only think of them in terms of their terrorist violence dimension,” Malley said in a 2008 interview. “It has a charity organization, a social branch; it’s not something you can defeat militarily either and people need to understand that.”

“There’s so much misinformation about them,” Malley went on. “None of them are crazies. They may do things that we consider to belong to a different realm of rationality, but within their own system it’s often very logical.”

“If Hamas is not allowed to govern, if we squeeze them, and you know you may have good reason for doing that, but if you do that, we’ll tell you what the reaction will be — rockets. No doubt,” he added. “And consolidation of Hamas’ power in Gaza. Both things have happened.”

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed Malley for the remarks, which resurfaced in May 2021 on X, formerly Twitter.

“Iran, a Hamas supporter, said it ‘stands behind the Palestinian struggle,’” Pompeo posted at the time. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, not a ‘charity.’ America’s negotiators must view them both as enemies — not socialites.”

Omri Ceren, a national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), also posted Sunday that “Malley was so entangled with Hamas that Obama had to drop him as an advisor [sic] during the 2008 campaign — before later bringing him back to do Mideast policy.”

“During Biden he oversaw policy allowing Iran to get within reach of nukes and make $100s of billions,” Ceren said, linking to a Times of Israel article about Malley being cut from Obama’s first presidential campaign.

On Monday, after the White House insisted it had not seen evidence that Iran was behind the weekend carnage in Israel, Ceren tweeted: “Team Biden again behaving as Iran’s lawyer.”


'Hamas has to be defeated'- Former Israeli ambassador on Hamas attack
Former Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev has discussed the recent Hamas attacks on Israel with Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan.

“It was a very difficult day for us that day,” he told Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan.

“I mean we keep finding bodies but we are close now to 1,000 fatalities in Israel.

“It has to be understood that Hamas are not just Israel's enemies, Hamas are the enemies of peace and reconciliation.

“If we want to move forward in peace, Hamas has to be defeated.”




The Israel Guys: Israel Mobilizes 300,000 Troops As IDF Works to Remove Hamas from Gaza
Israel is at war with Hamas in Gaza. Rockets are still raining down on Israeli cities reaching as far as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The IDF has mobilized 300,000 reservists to fight this evil regime and recover Israeli hostages who are being held inside the Gaza strip. Josiah dives into all the events that lead up to this terrible situation, including how he almost got shot by a Palestinian terrorist driving through the Palestinian town of Huwarrah on Thursday.


"Time to Take the War to the Ayatollah's Backyard" - Lindsey Graham suggests bombing Iran.




House Democrat Warns Anti-Israel Sentiment Could Quickly Take Over Party: Report

'Shame': House Dems Slam Squad Colleagues for Calling Hamas Terror 'Resistance'

Ohio Republican sponsors amendment disallowing use of funds on foreign flags as Tlaib flies Palestinian flag

Megyn Kelly: Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Others on Left Seem to Blame Israel for Hamas' Terror Attack, w/ Sen Ted Cruz
Megyn Kelly is joined by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, to discuss Cruz speaking out about anti-Semitism coming from some in the House of Representatives and others on the progressive left, how Hamas’ attack on Israel has a disturbing similarity to the Holocaust, and more.




Brendan O'Neill: Jeremy Corbyn may be gone, but the Hamas terror group still has many friends inside Labour
Starmer himself was happy to serve as Corbyn's shadow Brexit secretary. In fact, he campaigned vigorously for Labour to win the 2019 election. As Dominic Lawson wrote in these pages yesterday: imagine if his campaigning had worked. Corbyn would be running Britain while Hamas was rounding up Israelis and murdering them.

Emily Thornberry, Angela Eagle and Angela Rayner will all be swanning around Liverpool this week doing their usual moral preening. All will conveniently forget to mention, I'm sure, that they worked and campaigned for Corbyn.

Then there's Mark Drakeford, Labour's First Minister in Wales and Corbyn's noisiest Welsh supporter, who took two full days to condemn Hamas's slaughter of Israelis. Finally Drakeford yesterday brought himself to describe Hamas's actions as 'appalling'.

Though Corbyn is gone, I'm not convinced Labour has changed all that much. Every trade union on Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) is affiliated to the repugnant Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a group that was on the streets calling for boycotts against Israel on the very day Israel was being invaded by murderous Islamists.

Worse still, that same day, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, Apsana Begum, was pictured at a PSC stand at the party's conference. It was the same stand that drew Labour's shadow justice minister Afzal Khan, where he posed for a photo in front of a Palestinian flag saying 'end apartheid now'. He apologised for showing PSC his support after they posted the photo online.

So far, Keir Starmer has yet to remove the whip from Khan or Begum and is under mounting pressure to do so.

Meanwhile, skulking around the sidelines of Labour's conference will be left-wing publications like Novara Media, whose commissioning editor Rivkah Brown called news of the terrorist incursions 'a day of celebration'.

So, while Corbyn might be long gone, the party's anti-Semitic history casts a dark shadow over this conference. And I fear that sympathy for Israel-hating terrorists still lurks close to the surface.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly blasts leftwing Labour MPs for sharing a party conference platform with Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot and criticising Israel days after Hamas massacres more than 900 civilians
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly today lashed out at Labour MPs who shared a party conference platform with the Palestinian ambassador in the aftermath of Hamas's bloody assault on Israel.

John McDonnell and Bell Ribeiro-Addy attended an event in Liverpool alongside Husam Zomlot at which they criticised the behaviour of the Netanyahu regime and its predecessors towards the Palestinians.

He and the hard left backbench allies of the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who are both former shadow ministers, were among the speakers at the event organised by the Labour and Palestine pressure group and the Unite union.

Ms Ribeiro-Addy, the Streatham MP, contemned the violence and the loss of life on both sides, before calling for peace talks, saying: 'I have seen it said that this weekend's events have interrupted or damaged peace talks. That is fiction, There are no real peace talks and there have not been for years.'

This morning Mr Cleverly told Sky News: 'I've met with him, I speak with him. Maintaining diplomatic relations is important.

'But I have said that Palestinian voices, particularly those in leadership positions, should criticise the appalling behaviour, the atrocious actions, that have been perpetrated by Hamas.

'These indiscriminate killings, these murders, these kidnaps, these terrorist actions, should be condemned by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, because otherwise there will be this perception that all Palestinians support Hamas, and they don't.'


‘Not a truly United Kingdom’- Hamas attacks on Israel leaving Britain divided
The Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have left Britain splintered into two groups, according to GB News presenter Darren Grimes.

“You’ve got the Labour Party types with their free Palestine banners,” Mr Grimes told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“There’s also the other group, which is, I think a more sinister group … bursting with people who are celebrating terrorist exploits.

“We’re living in a fractured society and not a truly United Kingdom.

“I’m really worried for Britain’s future.”
WESTMINSTER COUNCIL CHIEF CLAIMS RAISING ISRAELI FLAG “MAY BE TRIGGERING” FOR STAFF
Westminster City Council Chief Stuart Love sent the following internal memo to staff last night after the council raised the Israeli flag over its buildings:
“Following the Government’s steer, we will be lighting up City Hall in white and blue, and we will be raising the Israeli flag to show our solidarity. I understand that this may be triggering for many of you for a variety of reasons. I want to stress that this approach is not a case of ‘taking sides’. As an organisation, we condemn all forms of violence and we acknowledge that this is a complex issue, with victims on both sides…”

This came on the same day that hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters blared horns and set off flares in triumph outside the Israeli embassy, celebrating Hamas’ attacks over the weekend. The BBC are still calling Hamas “militants“, even as the UK, the US, France, Germany, and Italy issued a joint statement “unequivocally condemning” their acts of terrorism. Meanwhile some are still worried about “triggering” their own staff with an act of solidarity with Israel…
Sunak condemns those who refuse to describe Hamas as 'terrorists'
The Prime Minister has called out those who refuse to describe Hamas as “terrorists”.

Speaking on Monday evening after the brutal attacks in Israel over the weekend, Rishi Sunak said: “[Hamas] are not militants. They are not freedom fighters. They are terrorists.”

Addressing a crowd of nearly 1,700 people at a prayer service at Finchley Synagogue in north-west London and a further 12,000 who were watching on livestream, he condemned those who supported Hamas, saying they were “fully responsible for this appalling attack”.

His comments come in light of criticism from the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis of media outlets who refuse to use the word “terrorist” to describe Hamas, which claimed the lives of 900 people in Israel and injured at least 2,600 in a series of coordinated attacks at the weekend. Since the end of 2021, Hamas been a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

In a rousing speech, which received a standing ovation, Sunak told the audience: “There are not two sides to these events. There is no question of balance.[…] Their barbaric acts are acts of evil. […] Teenagers at a festival of peace gunned down in cold blood. Innocent men, women and children abducted raped, slaughtered – and even a Holocaust survivor taken away as a captive.”

The prime minister voiced his unequivocal support for Israel, saying: “I wanted to come here tonight to stand with you in solidarity in Israel’s hour of grief […] I stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. The United Kingdom stands with Israel against this terrorism, today, tomorrow and always.”


Starbucks Union Championed by Bernie Sanders and AOC Celebrates Hamas Attacks
A labor union championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and other liberals expressed solidarity with Hamas terrorists after the worst domestic terrorist attack in Israel's history.

Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), expressed "Solidarity with Palestine!" in deleted social media posts. Union chapters in Iowa, Chicago, and Boston promoted rallies in support of the Palestinian attacks, including a "Long Live Palestinian Resistance" rally to be held in Boston on Monday. Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Jews in an invasion into southern Israel over the weekend. More than 700 Israeli civilians have been killed, as have 9 American citizens.

The Starbucks union, which represents 9,000 baristas, joins other American liberal groups in siding with Palestinians over their Israeli targets. The Democratic Socialists of America, which counts six House Democrats as members, held rallies in several American cities to call for support for Palestinians. A Harvard University dean and dozens of student groups at the Ivy League school blamed Israel for provoking the Hamas attack.


Senior Biden Adviser's Legal Group Pledges To Defend Hamas Sympathizers in New York City
A legal group founded by a Biden administration official is pledging to defend Hamas sympathizers in New York City, where demonstrators on Sunday expressed support for the slaughtering of innocent Israelis.

Ramzi Kassem, a member of the president’s Domestic Policy Council, in 2009 founded CLEAR, a City University of New York project that offers free legal support to New York City Muslims. CLEAR said on Sunday it would ensure pro-Hamas demonstrators are "protected" as they "continue on until Palestine is liberated."

The guarantee of legal protection is likely to embolden those demonstrators, who flocked to Times Square on Sunday brandishing flags and signs with the slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which calls for the Jewish state's eradication. The protesters were expressing solidarity with the Iran-backed terrorist group's slaughtering of Israelis. One demonstrator argued that the killings were conducted in "self defense," while another displayed a swastika on his phone. Police arrested three people for disorderly conduct, though it is not clear if Kassem's group is defending them.

CLEAR's vow to protect terrorist sympathizers reflects the Biden administration's embrace of anti-Israel activists. Biden tapped Kassem, a City University of New York professor, to serve as a policy adviser on immigration last year. Before that, Kassem defended al-Qaeda terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay and has expressed his contempt for the Jewish state, arguing in a series of 1998 articles that Israel engages in "systematic genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and that a Jewish majority in Israel is neither "viable" nor "desirable."

Neither the White House nor CLEAR returned requests for comment. An online bio for Kassem identifies the professor as a senior policy adviser for immigration at the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Stampede of fear: Shocking moment crowd flees after 'loud noise' sparked panic at University of Florida vigil for victims of Israel terror - putting at least 30 people in hospital
Dozens of University of Florida students were sent to a local hospital late Monday evening after chaos and confusion erupted at a vigil for victims of the terror attacks in Israel.

Some 30 students were reportedly taken to UF Health Shands Hospital for their injuries, following what officials say was panic driven by a misunderstanding that caused the crowd to begin screaming and running for safety.

The school's Chabad Rabbi, Berl Goldman said he was with University President former Senator Ben Sasse at the vigil when someone fainted or fell in the crowd and people began yelling '911,' which others understood to mean danger was afoot.

The Gainesville Sun reported that some in the roughly 1,000-person crowd said they feared they had heard gunshots, though none were fired.

As scared students ran, many tripped and fell over one another. Witnesses at the hospital said students were treated for concussions, lacerations, and one broken leg.
Greens MSP Maggie Chapman blasted for 'disgusting' comments following Hamas attack on Israel
A Green MSP has been branded “obscene and twisted” following her comments regarding the terrorist attack on Israel over the weekend. Maggie Chapman, who is the MSP for North East Scotland, sparked outrage with a series of disturbing comments on Twitter over the weekend.

Hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed over the weekend after Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas launched a number of attacks on the country. At least 260 bodies have been recovered from a music festival where one such attrocity took place.

However, the Green MSP took to social media to blame Israel for the attack.

She said: “What’s happening in #Palestine is a consequence of #Apartheid, of illegal occupation,m & of imperial aggression by the Israel state. Palestinian civilians have seen their homes destroyed, their water stolen & their land appropriated illegally. #GazaUnderAttack #VivaPalestine.”

The post sparked widespread anger with more than 4,000 replies, most of which lambasted the politician for her extraordinarily poor take.


Restaurant owner and provocateur Keith McNally faces boycott from New Yorkers after pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian social media post - in wake of Israel terror attacks
Famed New York restaurateur Keith McNally outraged customers, fellow restaurant owners and even his own work associates with a social media post about the Hamas attack on Israel.

The Balthazar owner posted a photo of the strikes on Instagram with the caption: 'The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.'

Comments immediately flooded his posts with customers and even top hospitality names from Surf Lodge and Sixty Hotels, vowing never to eat at one of McNally's restaurants ever again.

'I stand by what I wrote this morning: THE MORE UTTERLY REPUGNANT THE FACTS, THE GREATER THE RESPONSIBILITY TO LISTEN TO T HE OTHER SIDE,' McNally told Page Six.

'This doesn’t mean forgive. This doesn’t mean not retaliate. It simply means listen. There’s nothing to lose by listening. Nothing whatsoever.'


Jewish school leaders step up security as JFS allows pupils to ditch blazers
Jewish school leaders have made efforts to reassure parents and pupils over security as panic spread through the community in the wake of Hamas's brutal terror attack on Israel.

Their emails to parents came as pupils at JFS were told they could refrain from wearing their blazers in public so as not to advertise to the wider community that they are Jewish.

Teachers at Jewish schools in London liaised with Community Security Trust (CST) over the weekend, and informed parents anxious about their children’s safety on the premises, of their plans for increased security measures as well as the support on offer to affected pupils.

CST’s CEO Mark Gardner sent a letter to parents acknowledging their concerns, which, he said, “underpin all of our work, undertaken in partnership with each school, each guarding company, police and government.”

Acknowledging the likelihood of “a sharp rise in antisemitism” in Britain, Gardner reassured parents that CST spent the weekend in detailed conversations with the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, security minister Tom Tugendhat and senior police officers throughout the UK.


Police on high alert as hundreds gather at pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne
Hundreds of people have gathered by the steps of the State Library Victoria in Melbourne for a pro-Palestine rally.

A group of students has been seen waving Palestinian flags, calling for "freedom and justice for Palestine", before marching through the streets chanting slogans such as "free, free Palestine" and "free, free Gaza".

The event follows a similar rally in Sydney yesterday, which ended with anti-Semitic chants outside the Sydney Opera House.

Police are patrolling the area surrounding the library as the crowd continues to grow.

Free Palestine Melbourne organiser Bella Beiraghi said the "peaceful" rally would act in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

"I am concerned and I am out here to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and we will have a peaceful march," she said.

"Palestinians deserve to be free and they deserve to resist their occupiers."
Worst interview you'll ever hear: Clueless minister admits he had no idea about pro-Palestine protest more than 12 hours after wild scenes shocked Australia
The NSW Attorney-General has admitted he was not aware of the chaotic pro-Palestinian protest held outside the Sydney Opera House in a trainwreck interview.

Michael Daley admitted on 2GB he had no idea about the rally where protestors lit flares and chanted 'gas the Jews' outside the landmark on Monday night.

'It's not something that's within my portfolio. I'll have to find out some details from government and get back to you later on if you like,' Mr Daley said on Tuesday.

'I worked late last night so I'm not really across that no.'

NSW Police are under fire for allowing the rally to go ahead - while telling Jewish Australians to 'stay home' for their own safety.

Pro-Palestinian protestors also burned the Star of David before stomping on it - while a counter-demonstrator was arrested for attempting to fly the Israeli flag.

As attorney-general, Mr Daley is responsible for the administration of justice in NSW. He has been in the role since March.

Several hundred people gathered at the Opera House steps unhappy with the NSW Government decision to illuminate the sails in blue and white - in support of Israel after Hamas killed at least 800 civilians over the weekend.

Sonny Bill Williams has ignited yet another storm on social media, with the footy great sharing and liking a post saying the Hamas militants who attacked Israel should be called freedom fighters instead of terrorists.

Mark Speakman, the leader of the opposition called Mr Daley's admission 'an extraordinary confession', a sentiment echoed by Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane.

Mr Daley further appeared to fumble under questioning while calling for respect from both sides in Sydney.

'I think everybody needs to just calm down and as you say... do stay at home... what everyone needs to do is show restraint and respect. And calm down,' he said.

'I'm confident that the police have got this under control as they always do.'

Ray Hadley said Mr Daley's comments were 'beyond belief'.
NSW Premier in ‘damage control’ after Attorney-General’s Opera House comments
NSW Premier Chris Minns has gone into “damage control” after Attorney-General Michael Daley admitted on 2GB radio he didn’t know what happened at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night, according to Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell.

The Attorney-General was on air to discuss the government's drug diversion program when he was asked about the incident.

“I think everybody just needs to calm down and … stay at home,” he told 2GB host Ben Fordham.

Jewish people were advised not to attend the Sydney Opera House on Monday night as pro-Palestinian protesters began shouting slurs on the steps of the iconic Australian landmark.

“For the Attorney-General of New South Wales to not be aware of the biggest story in Australia at the moment when he does a morning radio interview is embarrassing to say the least,” Mr Clennell said.

“His premier indicated he was going to tell him off.”


Adam Bandt’s tweet against Israel labelled ‘disgusting’
Sky News host Liz Storer says Greens leader Adam Bandt’s pro-Palestine tweet is “disgusting” following the escalation of conflict in Israel.

The Greens leader tweeted ‘The Greens condemn the horrific attacks on civilians. We condemn the occupation. It’s time for a just an lasting peace. To achieve peace the occupation of Palestine must end.’”

“Let’s not forget it was just two months ago almost to the day that our Labor government, the Albanese government, declared that West Bank and Gaza were occupied Palestinian territories and that Israel – any settlements that they had were illegal,” Ms Storer said.

“These are the words of the government that is ours, so when you read this disgusting tweet through that lens, you cannot condemn it any harder than you would our very own government.

“Is it any surprise then another Greens Senator, Faruqi – Mehreen Faruqi, she tweets ‘one colonial government, supporting another. What a disgrace.’”


‘Appalling’- MP slams ‘anti-Semitic’ protests outside Sydney Opera House
Independent MP Allegra Spender says some of the pro-Palestine protests outside of the Sydney Opera House were “absolutely appalling”.

Around 1,000 people took part in the pro-Palestinian rally following the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas over the weekend.

Protesters set fire to the Israeli flag while police guarded the Opera House steps.

“Some of those protests were absolutely anti-Semitic,” Ms Spender told Sky News Australia.

“I was appalled to see what happened last night in front of the Opera House, and so was my community.”






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