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Friday, October 13, 2023

10/13 Links Pt2: Hamas posts footage of terrorists holding kidnapped Israeli children; Civilisation’s fifth columnists

From Ian:

How Hamas Fooled the Experts
For the past 20 years, the best minds in Washington and Jerusalem treated Hamas as a pragmatic political operator whose leaders were satisfied living in the same world as the rest of us. Their charter, first adopted in 1988, endorsed a set of bloodcurdling millenarian goals. But despite the open madness and world-making ambitions of their public pronouncements, Hamas remained a semi-legitimate player, treated as just one unremarkable thread in the Middle East’s rich tapestry of mildly threatening, gun-toting political dreamers. Even to the most hardened Israeli security officials they were a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot whose extreme rhetoric and regrettably unshakable habit of murdering Jewish civilians could be understood within the normative politics of “resistance movements.” Their behavior could therefore be modulated and controlled through a proper combination of sticks and carrots.

This view is untenable after this weekend, but I understand why it existed for so long. I once held versions of it myself. I visited the Gaza Strip on a two-day reporting trip in the winter of 2014, a couple of months after what was naively thought of as a major round of fighting between Israel and Hamas. I joined the ranks of journalists stupid enough to believe what we thought we’d seen there.

The Hamas statelet, though no poorer than places I’d been in Egypt and Jordan, and materially better off than Somalia or South Sudan, possessed its own special feeling of isolation that had the weight of an ambient despair. It was unnerving to turn on the radio and hear martial chanting about avenging Al-Aqsa, or to constantly look at billboards of Knesset member Yehuda Glick in a sniper crosshair. Members of the Strip’s Hamas-controlled police force used the empty lot down the street from my hotel on the Gaza City waterfront as a drilling ground.

But that was hardly the whole story, I thought. After all, my hotel offered a comfortable room with stunning views of the Mediterranean. Hamas was eerily invisible in the Strip once you were past their checkpoint on the Gaza side of the Erez border crossing, whose Israeli half is an absurdist labyrinth of concrete corridors, sinister loudspeakers, and remote-operated doors. Most Gazans I met had no particular love for the group and just wanted to be left alone. Gaza was hard to beat for sheer surrealism, what with the war damage and the excellent fish restaurants. I experienced the Hamas-era Strip as a weird and tragic expression of a bleak roster of immovable realities.

I now know I suffered from a failure of imagination, both moral and practical. Under Hamas, Gaza wasn’t a place where extremists had resigned themselves to their own strange version of normality. Rather, it was an active launching pad for an insane utopia, for the vision of a purified world the group’s fighters carried out during their atrocious rampage this past weekend.

The expert class labored under similar delusions. “It wasn’t so much a misreading of what was in [Hamas’] hearts as it was the sense that they had accommodated to reality,” said Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and deputy national security adviser under George W. Bush, including the period when Hamas won the only Palestinian parliamentary elections in history and took over the Gaza Strip. “They understood they couldn’t destroy Israel, and that their real goal in these 15 years was to take over the West Bank as they had taken over Gaza—to create the maximum amount of violence and terror in the West Bank, and to protect their rule in Gaza. You have to look fairly widely to find someone who didn’t basically accept that view.” Abrams did not exempt himself from this group.
Melanie Phillips: The west's moral confusion
As was all too predictable, the war in Gaza is producing moral confusion in the west as people struggle to reconcile the evidence of unambiguous evil directed at the Jews with the innate liberal resistance to doing what is needed to defeat it.

People are nodding along sagely to the warnings that Israel must exercise “restraint”. In Monday’s Times of London (£), the former Conservative party leader William Hague argued that Israel must avoid the trap that had been set for it. The Hamas strategy, wrote Hague, was to provoke Israel into such uncontrollable rage at last Saturday’s atrocities that it would start a war so intense it would spread to other fronts and “bring down the ceiling on the whole region”.

As Israel now prepares to direct its bombers against Gaza City, it has warned the city’s 1.1 million residents to evacuate to the south. The UN has called for this order to be rescinded because of the risk of “devastating humanitarian consequences,” transforming “what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation”.

To all of which a few things need to be said.

We don’t need anyone to tell us of the dangers of this war spreading. We don’t need anyone to tell us of the likely hostile reaction from the world if Israel pulverises Gaza. But what exactly would Hague suggest Israel should do? What does he think “restraint” should look like given what Israel is up against? He doesn’t say because, as Gerard Baker asks in today’s Times, what exactly is “restraint” in the face of genocide?

As Baker notes, Israel has learnt bitter lessons in the past from exercising restraint in response to international demands. In all its wars, it has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid taking civilian casualties. It has previously achieved a ratio of combatants to civilians killed lower than any other nation on earth. It got no credit whatever for this from the west. Instead it was defamed, demonised and hounded for “war crimes”. And the result of this past “restraint” was the 1300 (and counting) slaughtered in the Hamas pogrom.

If there was a way to defeat Hamas without a war in which many civilians will unfortunately die, Israel would take it. There isn’t one. Those calling for “restraint” therefore mean Israel must not defeat Hamas, which would sentence yet more Israeli civilians to be murdered.

Yes, the prospects for Gaza’s civilians are frightful. And the death of civilians is always to be regretted. But this is war. In war there are civilian casualties. And what other army warns its enemy civilians, as Israel has done consistently during this (and every) war, to get out of harm’s way before it strikes?
Melanie Phillips: Civilisation’s fifth columnists
At a synagogue vigil in London on Monday evening for the victims of the Hamas pogrom, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he stood in solidarity with Israel.

Hamas, he said, “are not militants. They are not freedom fighters. They are terrorists. There are not two sides to these events. There is no question of balance. I stand with Israel”.

At virtually the same time he was making his morally uncompromising statement, a mob of around 1,000 people demonstrated outside Israel’s embassy in London chanting the war cry for the annihilation of Israel: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They were waving Palestinian flags, setting off fireworks and banging drums.

Similar demonstrations were held elsewhere. In Newcastle, a demonstrator called Ahmed held aloft a green flare and declared: “Let there be bloodshed for now. Hamas is a freedom movement. … Israel is an apartheid state”. Dana Abuqamar, president of Manchester Friends of Palestine, said she was “full of pride and joy” at the butchery.

This chilling glorification of the Hamas attack was repeated in demonstrations in America and Australia. Placards waved in New York City’s Times Square justified the rape and murder of women and the beheading of children as “resistance by any means necessary”.

In Australia, a mostly Muslim mob chanted “Gas the Jew,” “f*** the Jews” and “f*** Israel” on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

In Britain, America and Australia, people who were still trying to digest the appalling barbarism of the Hamas pogrom were horrified by this eruption of support within their midst for savages who had burned people alive, raped women and murdered children in front of their parents.

It’s necessary to understand just what was happening at these demonstrations. They weren’t just protests against Israel or supporting the Palestinians. They were frenzies of bloodlust.

The scale and barbarism of the slaughter in southern Israel produced in these demonstrators a jubilant excitement that more Jews would now be killed and Israel would be exterminated.

These shocking scenes, and the horrified and uncomprehending reaction they provoked, illustrated what so many westerners have always failed to grasp about Islamic suicide bombings: that they are inspired not by despair but by exultation.
The Nihilism of Antisemitism
When Israel is attacked, you often hear people say of “the crisis in the Middle East” that it has been going on for decades. But Jews know better than that. It’s been going on for thousands of years.

What is happening in Israel today is not about “settlements” or “disputed territories.” It is not about “occupation.” There are no Israeli settlements in Gaza, and Israel long ago ceded that land to the Palestinian Authority. Nor is it about the blockades or Israeli control over Gaza’s borders. Gaza also has a border with Egypt, which the Egyptians have kept sealed since 2006. But you never hear of Hamas terrorists targeting Egypt.

What happened last week, when terrorists blazed into Israel, deliberately murdering hundreds of citizens, including women, children, and the aged, kidnapping scores of people, raping, torturing, and tormenting Jews, is not about geopolitics. It’s about hatred toward the Jews and what Judaism represents: the rock-solid moral foundation of Western culture.

Every year on Passover, we Jews read a passage from our festival prayer book, the Haggadah: “In every generation, they rise against us to annihilate us. The Holy One, blessed be He, however, saves us from their hand.”

Indeed, the earliest archaeological evidence of Israel’s existence (other than the Bible) is the Merneptah Stele, which includes the line: “Israel is laid waste—its seed is no more.”

Whether it’s the Holocaust, the Russian pogroms that preceded that event, the forced exiles, the Inquisition, the Egyptian enslavement, or the attacks of Amalek on helpless Jews in the desert, the children of Abraham have been the targets of hate and violence since the beginning of recorded history.

How can it be that God’s chosen people, “a light onto the nations,” are so reviled and attacked? It’s not in spite of, but because the Jews are a light onto the nations.

It is precisely because the Jews advanced a moral system that doesn’t tolerate murder, theft, rape, or mistreatment of the weak, and demands we care for other human beings, that other peoples have tried to wipe them out. The spree of killing and rape committed by Hamas is, among other things, a cry for freedom from a Jewish moral system that forbids such things.

Hitler himself was reported to have said (the authenticity of the quote has been questioned, but it aptly captures what’s behind antisemitism): “Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.” He added that he was “freeing man from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortification of a false vision called conscience and morality …”

The Hamas terrorists may claim that they are committing murder in the name of God, but, in fact, they do so because, like the Fuehrer, they hate the limits He has placed on human beings through the Torah, through the example of the Jewish people. In so doing, they follow in the path of Pharaoh, Amalek, the Romans, the Nazis—all people who sought Jewish destruction but are now themselves remnants of history.


Hamas posts footage of terrorists holding kidnapped Israeli children
Hamas has released new footage of what seems to show Israeli children they kidnapped during their murderous assault on southern Israel on Saturday.

The video, which was posted to a Hamas telegram channel, was captioned, “Hamas fighters, showing compassion for children in the midst of the Kibbutz ‘Holet’ battles on day one of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”

During Hamas’ attack on Kibbutz Holit, thirteen Israelis were murdered.

As the identities of the children in the video have not yet been confirmed, it remains unclear if their parents were among those killed when they were taken.

Hebrew media sources reported on Friday that the footage from the recent Hamas video appears to show that Hamas has taken the Israeli children back into Gaza.

Hamas being 'compassionate'
The Hamas video consists of a series of short clips that Hamas claims show their members being “compassionate.”

In the first, a member of Hamas appears to wrap a bandage around the foot of a small child. In subsequent clips, men in body army, armed with assault rifles, carry small children, pat them on the back, and speak to them.

In a clip showing a terrorist rocking a little child back and forth in a stroller, the child can be heard crying.

The final clip included in the video shows a smiling child holding a cup of water.

In English, a man tells the child, “say ‘bismillah’ (in the name of Allah).” The child repeats “bismillah.”

“Yallah, drink,” the man tells the child. The child then proceeds to take a sip.

Israeli social media accounts have subsequently spread the video. Activist Emily Schrader posted it with the caption, "Not gruesome and yet one of the most sickening videos of this entire conflict. Disgusting Hamas savages kidnapping Israeli children from the south."


More bodies of murdered Israelis discovered in Gaza raid
During the operation carried out by forces under the command of Maged 77, Israeli bodies were located. It turned out that throughout the fighting, reports were received from the forces near the border that there were "discoveries" near the border.

The issues were investigated and analyzed by observations and factors, and finally, it was decided to send in a large force under the command of Lt. Col. Shimon Putrabani. After the force surrounded the place, bodies were collected from the place and transported to Israeli territory.
A clarifying moment for the West
In prosecuting its response to Hamas’s onslaught, which is likely to involve a ground invasion and persist for weeks, if not months, before Israel manages to decapitate the terror regime in Gaza and rescue its captives, it must balance the need to battle a dangerous and malicious enemy vigorously with minimizing the impact on civilians. This balance is necessitated not only by Israel’s need to distinguish its conduct from its enemies, who deliberately slaughter innocents, but also to ensure lasting allied support. Israel prides itself on having the most moral army in the world, and this war will reflect its values.

As a corollary, in the court of global public opinion, Israel will need to continue to defend its actions as consistent with prevailing principles of international law and resist the lawfare that its immoral enemies will wage. In the coming days and weeks, Israel will absorb innumerable calumnies about how it conducts its campaign to eradicate Hamas, and it will need its allies in the West to embrace its right to self-defense unashamedly. As Yossi Klein Halevi explained in the Atlantic, “We don’t need the world’s sympathy only when the violated bodies of our family and friends are being displayed to cheering mobs in Gaza. We need that sympathy most when we attack those who have carried out these atrocities.”

Israel and the West must also continue to nourish alliances with friendly countries whose populations and leaders can distinguish between good and evil. The extraordinary rapprochement between Israel and the Gulf States that has unfolded over the last several years has given the lie to Hamas’s pronouncements that it’s Israel, not the nihilistic terrorists and their Iranian supervisors, who are the cancer in the region. The Jewish state now enjoys friendly relations with half of the Arab world, and a major breakthrough with Saudi Arabia appears to be around the corner. All of these relationships have paid dividends, with friendly countries like the United Arab Emirates stating they were “appalled” by Hamas’s viciousness.

At the same time, the West should punish Qatar and Turkey for hosting Hamas leadership and funding its operations. In just the past week, Qatar has called Israel “solely responsible” for Hamas’s assault, and Turkey’s president has accused Israel of not acting “like a state.” As Rich Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies tweeted, “Any nation that provides safe harbor and material support to Hamas should face crushing economic consequences.” These countries are supposedly Western allies, but they must be made to understand, through diplomatic and financial means, that allies don’t harbor and support evil.

And, of course, the West must forcefully confront Iran, the fons et origo of the poisonous and violent anti-Israel and anti-American campaign infecting the region. Biden can atone for the mistake of releasing billions of dollars to its murderous coffers by dramatically bolstering anti-regime activists both inside Iran and in its capacious diaspora. The West should encourage and instigate resistance to the mullahcracy among an Iranian population sick and tired of its depredations.

And it should reclaim its self-confidence and its faith in the superiority of its political ideals. Eight years ago, I wrote a piece for National Review about a warning sign ubiquitous on Israeli construction sites: “Danger! We’re Building Here!” This is the essence of optimistic realism: a recognition that we reside in a perilous neighborhood, that evil hovers across our borders, and that despite the hatred, because of the hatred, we must continue to build, to convert our well-justified fear of destruction into a constructive motivator. Israel and the West have been fooled enough by the forces of evil. No longer.
Stephen Pollard: Why aren’t more non-Jews rallying to our side?
I always tell people, because it is true, that being a British Jew today makes me one of the luckiest Jews who has ever lived, because we are as safe, secure and integrated as any Jewish community has ever been.

But it’s all relative. When push comes to shove, we are alone. Where is the solidarity? Where is the support? Where are the celebrity rent-a-quotes who opine on everything but are suddenly mute when it comes to dead Jews.

We all have non-Jewish friends, I am sure, who are mensches. But overall, they are a fraction. At best the attitude is indifference. At worst, something else altogether. Which brings us to the BBC. When our national broadcaster — and yes, dear BBC, we Jews also pay our licence fee — is unwilling to describe the people who committed such bestial acts in Israel as terrorists, the rational response is to ask why. Especially when the BBC has had no problem labelling Islamic State and al-Qaeda as terrorists.

Hmmm. What could it be about the Jewish victims of terror that meant they were victims of “gunmen”? What could it have been about the Jewish children who were attacked on a coach in Oxford Street at Chanukah in 2021 that led the BBC to spread the fiction that the Jewish boys had first made an “anti-Muslim slur”? I’m struggling to think.

Almost every Jew I know is outraged at the BBC’s coverage of this latest murderous attack on Jews. But where is the outrage from anyone who isn’t Jewish? Other than the wonderful Ian Austin, I’ve not seen a word of criticism.

That absence can be telling. When Gary Lineker was in the crossfire over his crass comparison of Suella Braverman’s language with the Nazis, he insisted that he would carry on speaking out on issues that mattered to him. One of which is Palestine.

In December he described the killing of a Palestinian by Israeli soldiers as “awful”. The man who died was a Hamas terrorist who was shooting at the soldiers. But that was of no interest to Lineker.

What has he had to say about 1,200 dead Israelis, murdered for going to a music festival or going about their lives? Nothing.

None of this is surprising. None of it is a shock. We are used to it. But we shouldn’t have to be.


Phyllis Chesler: Rape as a Weapon of War, This Time in Israel. Why Are Feminists Silent?
In war, all women suffer and now is the time for the anti-colonial/anti-racist feminist movement to be united against all sexual violence. We do not have to “take sides,” support one people over another in a war-zone, in order to condemn the kidnapping of children and grandmothers—and the raping of girls and women. And the rampant be-heading of babies.

It is worrisome that we are seeing, once again, what has happened to Jewish women in pogroms century after century in Christian Europe and in the Islamic world.

The world—and this includes all those champions of human rights and women’s rights, seems to be turning a blind eye or even celebrating sexual violence perpetrated by terrorists on Israeli Jewish women—and upon all those who live among them.

Rape as a weapon of war, not as a spoil of war, is a war crime.

The United Nations proclaimed June 19th of each year as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. It has not condemned the terrorist attack upon civilian Israel—including the kind and amount of sexual violence that accompanied it.

This time, the atrocities were filmed and sent to relatives and posted online as a form of snuff porn, psychological warfare.

The Iran-backed war that Hamas has launched is also a religious war against Jews and the Jewish state.

Although Women across the world should unite in the face of growing conflicts and wars with one message: “We will not accept sexual violence in conflict or otherwise, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or any other factor.”

Our phones and TV screens are filled with images of Israeli women’s bodies as a conquered battleground; would you have the world turn away tomorrow when your bodies become a battleground?

Aren’t Israeli women who’ve just experienced sexual violence, public humiliation, captivity, and death worthy of our concern?

Do they not deserve our compassion, outrage and concerted activism?
Stop Being Shocked—Once and for All
None of the horrors you are witnessing this week—not the massacre of Jews, not the betrayal by public figures and popular activist movements, not the moral insanity of our universities and cultural spaces—happened by accident.

For the past decade, an elite consensus began to emerge. It was marketed as a worldview of optimism, of progress and justice brought about by the dawning of correct morality. It favored using the power of digital monopolies and elite institutions to reeducate Americans in new and better ways of thinking, writing, speaking, and being.

Many of us at Tablet believed strongly, and still believe, in the possibility of creating a better world. But something bothered us from the very beginning about these ideas, and the people pushing them. Every time we pressed on one of the newly mass-embraced policy proposals or narratives—intersectionality, decolonization studies, the Iran nuclear deal, Russiagate, Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March, critical race theory, COVID lockdowns—a weird thing would happen: The idea itself fell apart at the seams within seconds of contact with reality, and yet its defenders got more sure of themselves, more performatively boastful, more passionate and gleeful about smearing anyone who dared to question them.

The more we listened to freshly minted universal experts, the more we were struck by the increasing lunacy of their pronouncements on every topic under the sun, always backed by “studies” and “science”—where COVID-19 came from, how many genders there are, which skin tones and personal experiences qualify a person for protection status and which do not, whether it was OK for a Syrian dictator to bomb and gas 500,000 of his people, whether the U.S. should ally itself with a Holocaust-denying medieval theocracy, whether the president of the United States was secretly a Russian agent, whether large American cities should let drug addicts and violent schizophrenics get high on the streets and steal stuff—and more. Indeed, over time, we were struck by how little the ideas themselves seemed to matter; what so many people seemed most attached to was power.

As journalists, the increasingly strident calls for uniformity of opinion and perception struck us, from the very beginning, as dangerous and wrong. We believe in empirical investigation and analysis and in subjective personal observation and experience, not in party-line obedience to an instant consensus being formed and managed God knows how or where. As Jews, we had concerns, too. For as long as we’ve been in this country, Jews have relied on and sung the praises of stalwart American institutions like the federal government, universities, media organizations, corporations, labor unions, and more. We watched in horror as each of these institutions not only fell prey to the new mania, but also seemed increasingly unable to do the jobs they had historically been tasked with doing.
Young Jews Brace for ‘A Day of Global Jihad’
To be clear, this is not just a Columbia problem.

- On Tuesday, at Drexel University in Philadelphia, a Jewish student’s dorm room was set on fire. No other door in the hall was vandalized, and the student believes she was targeted due to her outspoken support of Israel. Police are now investigating this as a possible hate crime.

- At Stanford on Wednesday, the Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a “teach-in” attended by about 250 people, where a source told The Free Press that a student speaker advised the crowd that the Israeli government’s “goal is to kill all Palestinians.”

- On Thursday at Stanford it was reported that an instructor divided his students at a mandatory undergraduate course called “Civil, Liberal and Global Education” into two camps: Jews and non-Jews. The teacher told the Jewish students to gather their things, stand in a corner, and said, “This is what Israel does to the Palestinians.” The teacher then asked, “How many people died in the Holocaust?” When a student said, “Six million,” the teacher replied, “Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.” In a public statement, Stanford revealed multiple students had reported this conduct, and it was now investigating “identity-based targeting of students.”

- Also on Thursday, George Mason University in Virginia students waved Palestinian flags and chanted “glory to the resistance fighters.”

- At UCLA, many hundreds of students gathered to chant: “intifada, intifada”—a call for an violent uprising against Israel.

- At the University of Washington, a crowd of Students for Justice in Palestine filled the air with chants of “There is only one solution” as a Jewish student cried and begged an administrator, “They want us dead. How are you allowing this?” Olivia Feldman, the 20-year-old co-president of Students Supporting Israel at the college, told The Free Press, “I’ve been called a terrorist and a colonizer. I’ve been called a baby killer in the past. A lot of students are really afraid to go to class tomorrow.”

- On Thursday, a Fox News reporter said that at least three protesters at the University of Massachusetts Amherst followed her into a parking garage, demanding to know her ethnicity, address, and phone number. When she refused, one of the protesters told her “I’ll have my lawyers contact you” and “have a terrible day.” (One of our reporters was denied an interview at a rally earlier this week because she was not Arab.)
Douglas Murray: ‘Treat UK Hamas supporters like Isis supporters’
A leading political commentator has called for supporters of Hamas in the UK “to be treated exactly the same way as supporters of Isis”.

Speaking at an event on Jewish leadership in London, Douglas Murray, who isn’t Jewish, told the audience: “If you stand in Britain with the Hamas flag, you should not be allowed to be free in Britain. You should have your citizenship withdrawn. You should have your passport withdrawn. You should be deported.”

Referring to a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Israeli embassy this week, Murray, who founded the Centre for Social Cohesion, the first think-tank in Britain to study extremism and terrorism, said: “These people were not protesting against the Israeli counter-measures – they hadn’t even had any counter-measures – they were protesting because Jews by the hundreds had been slaughtered in Israel and they wanted to wound us more.”

He added that it “should not be acceptable that the Jewish community among all the communities in this diverse country should be the one community expected to accept with equanimity those who cheer on the murder of Jews and those who support the murder of Jews”.

Murray, who is associate editor of The Spectator, warned not to let the atrocities of the past weekend go “down the line of [media] stories”, adding: “We always have to be very careful in the weeks and months ahead to remember Saturday and to keep it in mind. The BBC and others can’t even define a terrorist and are already passed this.

“The slaughter that is only still now being uncovered is currently somewhere down the line of stories[…] We mustn’t allow it to fall away.”

Telling the audience that “all my life, I have chosen to be surrounded by Jews”, he stressed that Israel and the Jewish community in the UK were not alone.
Douglas Murray: ‘Treat UK Hamas supporters like Isis supporters’

Douglas Murray: "Israel is the only country not allowed to win wars"
Speaking at an event with Rabbis in the UK, Douglas Murray said Israel is the only country on earth attacked for defending itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNstTn5dy5o

Author Douglas Murray says events like the pro-Palestine protest happen when evil is allowed to incrementally move in and grab a space in politics and cultures in Australia and across Europe.

Mr Murray blasted the protesters who “didn’t even have the decency, if decency is a word you could ascribe ever to them, to wait for a counterattack to protest”.

“They just wanted to go straight ahead and attack Israel, and taunt Israel and taunt the Jewish people in the hours after this barbaric attack,” he told Sky News Australia host Rita Panahi.

“What are the mistakes, the vast mistakes that we have made in our countries that have allowed this to happen?

“It makes me shudder and I think it should make all the civilised world shudder.”




Karol Markowicz: Jews will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends
American Jews, after years of intensified antisemitism even here, hoped for solidarity from their friends and neighbors.

Some found it, but for many there was a blanket of silence for several days as celebrities and influencers very carefully considered whether they should offer support to the country that just saw 1,200 of its people slaughtered in a horrifically brutal manner.

There were little fires everywhere.

Kylie Jenner posted a message of support for Israel and then deleted it after pressure from commenters.

Think about that: “The Kardashians” star couldn’t post a generic message backing a country that had just suffered a mass attack on civilians.

She could not provide even the most limited comfort after we watched ordinary people killed in such an extraordinary way.

New York restaurateur Keith McNally posted a photo to Instagram of Hamas rockets heading for Israel with the caption “The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.”

Well, the facts are repugnant.

Babies were killed in their beds. Teenagers slaughtered at a music festival.

Who else gets told to listen to those who want them dead?

Listen to the people who did this? No, thanks.

Not every celebrity has to speak out about every cause, of course, but it was more than a little suspicious that those who do speak out constantly were suddenly very quiet.

For liberal Jews, the situation was even tougher.

They had so diligently protested for all the right causes, yet stood completely alone now.
Psychological Factors and the Hamas War Strategy
Psychological warfare by Hamas (and Hizbullah) has relied heavily on portraying themselves as "victims."

This tactic is known as "Psychological Asymmetry," whereby a militarily weaker opponent can gain tactical advantage through psychological means.

This manipulative tactic includes embellishing and sometimes falsifying scenes of civilian damage and suffering and intentionally creating these scenes to generate opportunities to use them.

It is critical that the media, as well as other sources and NGOs, be aware of the tactic.

The images and descriptions of the initial Hamas attack that showed savage violence directed at civilians need to be the backdrop for providing an accurate perspective on future Israeli actions.
Hollywood stars release open letter condemning Hamas amid Israeli conflict
Hundreds of actors and Hollywood executives — including Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer, Gal Gadot, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jerry Seinfeld — are adding their signatures to an open letter condemning Hamas for “barbaric acts of terrorism” in Israel they say “must be called out by everyone.”

More than 700 people signed the letter released Thursday by the nonprofit Creative Community for Peace.

“The nightmare that Israelis have feared for decades became a reality as Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israeli cities and towns,” the message stated.

“Under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into civilian populations, Hamas murdered and kidnapped innocent men, women, and children. They kidnapped and murdered infants and the elderly. They raped women and mutilated their bodies,” the letter said.

More than 1,000 Israelis have died since Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, launched its attacks Saturday. And more than 1,000 Palestinians have died in the ensuing fighting in Gaza.

“This is terrorism. This is evil. There is no justification or rationalization for Hamas’ actions,” the letter said.

“These are barbaric acts of terrorism that must be called out by everyone. They are a terrorist organization whose leaders call for the murder of Jews everywhere.”

Urging other entertainment industry figures to “speak out forcefully against Hamas” the letter said to be weary of “propaganda” that might proliferate on social media in “the coming days and weeks.”

“Our thoughts are with all those experiencing unfathomable levels of fear and violence, and we hope for the day when Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace,” the letter said.

Some of the other celebrities who signed the letter include: Mark Hamill, Liev Schreiber, Debra Messing, Ryan Murphy, director Antoine Fuqua, Howie Mandel, George Lopez, Jeremy Piven, Andy Garcia, Mayim Bialik, Ziggy Marley, Jenji Kohan and Bella Thorne.
US House files censure motion against Rep. Tlaib
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) did not mince words in calling out his fellow Michigan representative.

“As Hamas terrorists beheaded infants, paraded dead Jewish teenagers through town, and attacked innocent concert-goers in the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, Rep. Rashida Tlaib chose to place the blame solely on Israel and the Jewish people,” he said.

On Wednesday, Bergman filed a motion to censure Tlaib, whose statement following the terrorist attack made no mention of the murders, only offering boilerplate “apartheid government” smears.

In response to the threat of censure, Tlaib has decided to temper her words and mildly criticize Hamas. The progressive “Squad” member described the Islamist group’s massacre as “war crimes,” though added that “it’s a war crime just like the collective punishment of Palestinians right now is a war crime.”

In response, Bergman said: “There is no moral equivalence between Israel defending itself and Hamas attacking innocent Israeli civilians. Tlaib’s long history of antisemitic tropes and blatant anti-Jewish propaganda is both disturbing and evil—and should have no place in the halls of Congress.”


Triggernometry: Israel/Palestine: An Honest Conversation
2018 Journalist Melanie Phillips recounts the history of Israel, and explores the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict.


‘Sickening’: John Howard addresses ‘horrific’ Hamas attacks
Former prime minister John Howard has slammed Hamas’ attacks on Israel as “utterly reprehensible” and deserving of instantaneous condemnation.

His remarks come after the Palestinian terrorist group launched attacks on Israel on Saturday.

“I for the life of me can’t understand why there wasn’t an instantaneous denunciation of the horrific character of the attack by Hamas,” Mr Howard told Sky News host Paul Murray.

He described the events as “sickening” and “utterly inexcusable”.

“No matter what your views are, no matter how strongly you feel one side or the other about a two-state solution in the Middle East – what happened a few days ago was totally and utterly reprehensible.”


Hamas’ attacks on Israel ‘most disgusting and brutal’ acts
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has slammed Hamas’ attacks on Israel as one of the “most disgusting and brutal” acts he’d ever seen in his life.

Israel declared a state of war on Hamas following a surprise attack from the Palestinian terrorists where they invaded the country’s south and fired thousands of rockets.

“To go into communities like that and slaughter women and children, decapitating children, deliberately targeting innocent young people, burning alive older people – it is just indescribably cruel,” he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“What’s behind all of this isn’t just a conflict over territory, it’s anti-Semitism, it’s the hatred of Jews.

“It’s not about Israel, it’s about Jews.”


Hamas should be shown ‘no mercy’: Erin Molan condemns ‘inhumane and evil’ terrorist group
Sky News host Erin Molan has called for “no mercy” to be shown to the “inhumane and evil” terrorist organisation Hamas.

Israel declared a state of war on Hamas following a surprise attack from the Palestinian militants where they invaded the country’s south and fired thousands of rockets.

“Hamas should be wiped off the face of the earth,” Ms Molan said.

“Every single one of them, no mercy shown – they are terrorists.

“Israel should not be restrained in their response – but they must follow the rules in every way they can.”


'Hamas not recognising our right to live': Former Israeli military intelligence head
Hamas “has not recognised” the right of Israelis to live after their recent terror attacks and atrocities, says former head of Israeli military intelligence Amos Yadlin.

Mr Yadlin joined Sky News to talk about the tension existing on the borders before October’s terror attacks which saw thousands of fatalities.

“Hamas is a terrorist state called Hamastan – they attacked Israel on Saturday,” he told Sky News Australia host Erin Molan.

“We will fight back the way the Brits fought against the Nazis, the way the US after September 11 fought against al-Qaeda and ISIS.

“We are not paying attention to anyone who comes with all these lies about the history, about what happened.”


‘I don’t see them as terrorists’: Pro-Palestinian activist reluctant to call out Hamas
Sky News host Erin Molan has condemned Pro-Palestinian activist Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for failing to call out Hamas in its conflict with Israel.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah said she “does not see Hamas as a terrorist organisation” following a heated debate with Ms Molan.

“I have already said I condemn the violence that Hamas perpetrated, and it should be held to account,” Dr Abdel-Fattah told Sky News host Erin Molan.

“I don’t see them as a terrorist organisation.

“What is the purpose of a terrorist label here?”


Victor Davis Hanson: The Late, Great Hamas Finally Got its Wish
Ever since Hamas was “elected” to run Gaza and then followed the usual “one election/one time” Middle East formula, it has bragged nonstop that its agenda is to erase Israel off the face of the earth (cf. the wall map in the office of our Rep. Rashida Tlaib).

Its unabashed nihilist boasts resonated throughout the Palestinian “movement.” Its fiery threats delighted the Arab street.

Indeed, Hamas was soon celebrated as the most “authentic” of the radical Palestinian terrorist movements.

Which cadre of thugs could top its end-of-days rhetoric, its assured and steady supply of money and weapons from Iran, its satanic eagerness to mutilate and dismember, and the sanctuary and financial wherewithal offered to it by our “ally” Qatar?

None.

Since Hamas was viewed as the most “volatile” and creepy of the Palestinian factions, and the most useful to Iran, the Obama and Biden administrations appeased the murderers. Was it not part of their hare-brained grand strategy of empowering theocratic Iran and its Syrian, Hezbollah and Hamas hirelings?

Their campaign (remember the “they literally know nothing” media and the Obama “echo chamber” created by a boastful Ben Rhodes?) was to forge these disparate Islamists into a crescent of resistance to Israel and any “moderate” Arab regime (recall the Obama-Biden transitory hatred of the Gulf sheikdoms).

The result would be “creative tension”—as well as payback for the Israeli election of Netanyahu.

Through this formula, Obama believed he could always pressure Israel to grant concessions to radical Palestinians thanks to the looming threat of an ever-menacing (and soon-to-be nuclear) Iran with help from Obama’s other friends—the then-Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and Obama’s pal the neo-Ottomanist and antisemite Erdogan of Turkey, Obama’s self-described personal liaison to the Islamic world.

Yes, this was sheer madness—if perhaps characteristic of Obama’s well-known orneriness.

Perhaps someday soon, a few disinterested historians might even record that the current nightmare in Israel is the logical end result of what Barack Obama, John Kerry (remember his Trump-era Paris reconnaissance with the Iranians?), Ben Rhodes, Valerie Jarrett, Robert Malley, Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and a host of other incompetent but otherwise haughty and dangerous people once conjured up.

A defiant and empowered murderous Hamas was one of the many dividends of their appeasement and grand Middle East schemes—given the eagerness of the Obama and Biden administrations to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza despite warnings from their own experts that such cash would enhance terrorism and abet the evil work of Hamas with an American financial stamp of legitimacy.

Hence, a soon-to-be nuclear Iran, freed from sanctions, had enough money (remember the nocturnal cash pallets on the Tehran tarmac?) to fund its surrogate global death squads.

Hamas has killed Jewish civilians for nearly two decades, always escaping the full wrath of Israel’s retaliation by appealing to the amoral consciousness of left-wing European and American governments. It counted on ample help from both Iran and Arab regimes, along with Turkey, which always screams “instability” at the first sign of Israeli retaliation.
HEATED DEBATE: Cornel West, Alan Dershowitz spar over Israel-Hamas war

Germany Offers Direct Military Aid to Israel, Vows Crackdown on Hamas Terrorist Support at Home

‘Worse than ISIS’: India’s Ruling Hindu Nationalists Back Israel After Hamas Carnage

Col. Kemp: Remain steadfast Washington: Don't restrain Israel as it crushes Hamas

Rabbi Leo Dee: It's Shabbat Bereshit: We have entered a new world

Ben-Dror Yemini: Israel's war is the war of the Free World

James Cleverly: The UK stands with Israel

Rich Lowry: Answering the Critics: Israel Isn't a Colonial Power
An academic cottage industry is devoted to deeming Israel an exercise in "settler colonialism," but the smear can't survive contact with the slightest critical scrutiny.

The original Jewish settlers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries weren't sent by any mother country to set up enclaves for the honor and profit of the homeland. In fact, they were escaping countries that, in many cases, didn't want them.

It would have been perverse for Jews to have sought, say, to establish an outpost of Russia, given the atrocities routinely carried out against them on Russian soil.

They thought of their venture as a return to a place Jews had continuously inhabited for thousands of years, raising the question of how an indigenous people can be colonizers.
In Washington, Holocaust survivors speak out about Hamas terror onslaught
They spend their days telling students and tourists about the horrors they witnessed as children. They didn’t expect to see them play out again 80 years later.

Fifteen Holocaust survivors who volunteer at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum locked arms for photos in front of the museum, which for one night on Wednesday was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag, what has in recent days become a popular symbol of support for Israel as it reels from the killing of at least 1,200 people in Hamas’s bloody terror onslaught, which started Saturday.

Two survivors stepped forward and read aloud a letter the volunteers had put together.

“We are always gratified to see how much interest there is from young people from every part of the world,” said Dora Klayman, 85 who survived the Holocaust in what is now Croatia. “To hear their comments and questions gives us hope for the future. Today, as we see the murderous destruction in Israel, that hope is dimmed.”

Nat Shaffir, 85, who survived the Holocaust in Romania, took over.

“This is not what we expected in this final chapter of our lives, as we contemplate our legacy, the future of Holocaust memory and education, and the future of our people,” he said.

“We thought that they had a very special message to the world that would carry different meaning than any other organization,” said Sara Bloomfield, the museum’s director. “And we gave them this opportunity to express their voice.”
Bari Weiss: Campus Cowardice and Where the Buck Stops

Rabbi resigns from FA faith group after refusal to light up Wembley Arch for Israel

The woke scapegoating of the Jews

Josh Hammer PodCast: The People of Israel Live
The Hamas pogrom, reported by both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to be orchestrated by the Iranian regime, is undoubtedly an act of war—a casus belli—against the Jewish state, at least when such a conclusion is corroborated (as it will be) by Israeli intelligence. Given the American death toll and hostage crisis, it is perhaps something only slightly less than that against America itself.

Whether this grim reality leads the hapless, Iranian spy-infiltrated (see Malley, Robert) Biden administration, previously eager to continue the Obama administration's prior attempted appeasement of the indefatigable Iranian regime, to change course remains to be seen. The time is also now to revise the U.S.'s deeply problematic status with the wealthy emirate of Qatar, which was laughably designated just last year as a "major non-NATO ally" despite the fact it disseminates Islamism via its Al Jazeera state TV network and houses Hamas leadership in five-star luxury hotels in Doha.

Meanwhile, across America, so-called pro-Palestinian groups, Black Lives Matter chapters, and Students for Justice in Palestine campus radicals have celebrated the most dead Jews in a single day since Hitler, perversely placed the blame for the pogrom on Israel itself, and appropriated the image of the paraglider jihadi—a reference to the Hamas terrorists who mowed down 260 people at an overnight rave near the Gaza border—as a new symbol of "resistance." In the streets of major cities such as New York and Chicago, and in the halls of towns with large Arab populations such as Dearborn, Michigan, masses have gathered to fly the Palestinian flag—the new Nazi swastika—and double down on calls for genocide of the Jews of Israel "from the river to the sea." In Sydney, Australia, a large Muslim gathering started chanting, "gas the Jews."

Many young people ask themselves how the Holocaust possibly happened. How, in Germany, the most advanced nation in the world at the time, did the people let the Nazi Party attain such power? How, across Europe, did hundreds of millions of people simply look the other way?

Those young people now have their answer. "Never again" is right now. Only this time, the Jews have a state—and a powerful military to defend it.

Everyone the world over now faces a decision: Are you with the Islamist savages who committed unspeakable Nazi-level atrocities, or are you against them? Some conflicts are not so black-or-white; some have a third way. But there is really no third way here. One must choose a side.

In the meantime, the Jews do what we have always done: Live. Am Yisrael Chai.
Spiked: Apologists for Hamas
Why can’t the left condemn Hamas? Even as the full scale and depravity of the Islamist terrorists’ pogrom against Israel becomes clear, many ‘progressives’ are still making excuses for or downplaying this barbarism. Some are openly supporting Hamas – making common cause with this anti-Semitic death cult. Here, Tom Slater exposes how woke leftists became the useful idiots of the world’s oldest hatred. Watch and share.


Israeli promoter pleads with electronic dance music community to stand in solidarity with Hamas victims

Woman arrested in Brighton on suspicion of supporting Hamas

Ungar-Sargon: These are the death throes of the woke movement

Exodus of the Wrongthinkers from American Universities

Columbia University Professor Cheers Hamas Barbarity

The Left abandoned me
The people on “my side” are supposed to care about human suffering, whether it’s in the detention camps of Xinjiang or in Darfur. They are supposed to recognize the common humanity of people in need, that a child in distress is first a child in distress regardless of country or background. But I quickly saw that many of those on the left who I thought shared these values with me could see what had happened only through established categories of colonized and colonizer, evil Israeli and righteous Palestinian—templates made of concrete. The break was caused by this enormous disconnect. I was in a world of Jewish suffering that they couldn’t see because Jewish suffering simply didn’t fit anywhere for them. …

As the days go on, the horrific details of what happened—those babies—seem to be registering more fully, if not on the ideological left, then at least among sensible liberals. But somehow I can’t shake the feeling of aloneness. Does it take murdered babies for you to recognize our humanity? I find myself thinking—a thought that feels alien to my own mind but also like the truth.

[I am not in Beckerman’s position, so I can’t say how he sees liberals as opposed to progressives. For me, I’ve seen a more sensible and truthful reaction from those I would call liberals right from the start, which is why the reaction of the progressives and “decolonizer” activists stand out so sharply. But he’s correct to conclude that the Left has abandoned the Jews, and likely never accepted them in the first place. — Ed]
China Caught Using Outdated Photos to Falsely Accuse Israel of War Crimes

Michelle Goldberg: The leftist impulse to justify Hamas' attack on Israel is pretty disturbing
A pretty good column today from Michelle Goldberg who takes a look at people in her own social circles, i.e. fellow left-wing progressives, many of whom seem determined to try and justify the mass murder of Israelis by Hamas.

On Tuesday evening, I was drinking on the porch of my friend and neighbor Misha Shulman, the Israel-born rabbi of a progressive New York synagogue called the New Shul. All day, he’d been on the phone with congregants deeply distraught over the massacres and mass kidnappings in Israel. Of all the people he spoke to, he said, those most devastated were either people who had lost close friends or family, or young Jews “completely shattered by the response of their lefty friends in New York,” who were either justifying Hamas’s atrocities or celebrating them outright.

…the way keyboard radicals have condoned war crimes against Israelis has left many progressive Jews alienated from political communities they thought were their own.

An editor at the left-wing magazine Jewish Currents told Goldberg, “I’m trying to hold on, personally, to my commitments, my values, which now feel in conflict, in a way, with the political community that I lived alongside in the United States for basically my whole adult life.” He added, “It certainly has begun to feel like a breaking point.”

As always, Goldberg is conscious of how all of this will look to people on the right.

Conservatives reading this might take a jaundiced satisfaction in what some surely view as naïve progressives getting their comeuppance. But part of what makes the depravity of the edgelord anti-imperialists so tragic is that a decent and functional left has rarely been more necessary.

She’s right about the first part. If you’re a left wing Jew watching your friends celebrate mass murder this week then you have my sympathy, but the case that you were naïve is pretty self-evident at this point. It’s not like the sympathies of the Squad or the leaders of the Women’s March or various BDS campus group have been a closely guarded secret.


Joy Reid and Her Guests Blame Israel for Hamas Massacre

BBC’s Lame Excuses For Not Calling Hamas Terrorists

Israel Advocacy Movement: BBC bias against Israel

Piers Morgan calls out the BBC on the BBC on Question Time.



Read the texts that got another ABC journo in hot water after WhatsApp message in which he called claims Hamas beheaded 40 babies 'bulls***'
An ABC journalist has come under fire in a fiery exchange in a WhatsApp chat group for international media about this week's violence in Israel.

The national broadcaster's Middle Eastern correspondent Tom Joyner labelled reports about babies being beheaded by Hamas terrorists in ­Israel as 'bulls***' in a series of now-deleted messages to hundreds of international journalists and broadcasters.

'The story about the babies is bulls***,' he wrote in the group chat, intended for media representatives to share information about the attacks in Israel by Hamas terrorists, on Tuesday.

The journalist's message was quickly condemned by other group members, with one writing back 'Care to retract this now?'

'I'm sorry about the wording – I regret that,' Joyner responded.

'But we still have not seen clear evidence.'

'Why hasn't there been anything unequivocal from the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) or from Netanyahu,' he added.

Another group member fired back: 'Why are you picking this hill to be humiliated on?'
ABC reporter slammed following biased and inappropriate reporting on Israel conflict

Israel conflict ‘exposing’ hatred some left-media has for Israel and its people

Waleed Aly says pro-Palestine Opera House protest that ended with angry mob chanting 'gas the Jews' was 'overwhelmingly fine'
The Project's Waleed Aly highlighted how pro-Palestinian rallies could be banned in Australia following an ugly demonstration on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

About 1,000 pro-Palestine supporters protested against the famous landmark being lit up in blue and white as a show of support for Israel following Hamas terror attacks that killed 1200 civilians.

During the rally, some were seen chanting 'gas the Jews' and other anti-Semitic phrases, as well as burning the Israeli flag.

New South Wales Police have declared another pro-Palestine rally in Sydney marked for Sunday will be banned as tension between Jews and Muslims escalate.

'If the response from government ends up being, "Sorry, you cannot protest" ... that will only increase resentment among protesters who had nothing to do with that,' Aly said on Thursday's show.

'The whole point of these protests, those Palestinian marches - they were overwhelmingly fine and you get a group of people turn them rancid,' he said.
Pro-Hamas protests have become a ‘national embarrassment’: Peta Credlin
With more pro-Hamas protests planned for both Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend, police should be a hell of a lot stronger than they’ve been so far, says Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“The contrast couldn't be clearer: between the candlelight vigils held by the friends of Israel to honour the 1,200 plus innocent people slaughtered over the weekend by terrorists; are the ugly demonstrations, mounted by the friends of Hamas, many of them born and bred here in Australia, with their racist venom and slogans like ‘gas the Jews’,” Ms Credlin said.

“NSW police, especially, should be ashamed of their weak acquiescence in an illegal protest, where they actually escorted the protestors from the Town Hall to the Opera House, allowing the disgraceful scenes that have become a national embarrassment.

“And even today, NSW Police are still saying they can't stop what we all expect will occur this weekend, when the same pro-Hamas types march in the Sydney CBD again and scream their same racist, anti-Semitic hate.”

Ms Credlin said NSW Premier Chris Minns has confirmed the people behind Monday night’s unauthorised march are the same ones organising the second march this Sunday.


Heated TV news interview as Palestine advocate refuses to condemn Hamas
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network President Nasser Mashni has failed to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation, instead saying Israel has a “Palestine problem” amid the latest ongoing conflict.

Mr Mashni spoke to Sky News Australia Reporter Danica De Giorgio about the latest unfolding events in the region.

When pressed if he viewed Hamas as a “terrorist organisation”, Mr Mashni replied by stating “Palestine is under occupation”.

“We have been suffering for 75 years”.

Mr Mashni was again questioned by the Sky News host why he hasn’t condemned Hamas.

“I condemn all violence … all violence – but the actions of anyone that kills any innocent – whether they’re at a … music festival or they’re sitting at home peacefully and an Israeli pilot drops a one-tonne bomb.

“All death is terrible.”

Mr Mashni said Israel has got a “Palestine problem”.

“Why don’t we matter?”


Jane Hume backs Dutton’s call to cancel visas of anti-Semitic protesters

‘Why have none of these protestors been fined?’: Paul Murray slams pro-Palestine protest



Tech giants fighting Israel-Hamas social media misinformation
Misinformation is beginning to circulate among individuals and organisations on social media platforms as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to erupt.

Images and videos of past and differing events are being wrongly attributed as having been part of the current conflict.

Social media platform X has hit posts with community notes in regard to misinformation.

In one instance a clip from a video game was attributed to having come from the conflict.

Social media companies are pushing to keep misinformation off their platforms as the battle rages on.


Global National Reporter Tells Viewers The Hamas-Israel “Cycle of Violence” Is an Expression of Palestinian “Anger” Towards Israel

REVIEWING BBC REPORTING ON ROCKET ATTACKS FROM THE GAZA STRIP



US Announces Plan for Mass Evacuation of Americans From War-Torn Israel

UN Wants to Raise $294M to Help “Palestinians”



As the Hard Left Goes to Bat for Hamas, Some on the Hard Right Are Going Silent
Many of the foolish and vicious misapprehensions of Israel’s situation come from the political left—but the left has no monopoly on foolishness or vice. In a recent interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed outrage at Hamas’s actions, and sympathy for Israel, before quickly switching gears and arguing (with encouragement from Carlson) that congressional sympathy for the Jewish state is excessive, and ultimately the result of shadowy financial influence.

And then there are various influential, if less prominent, figures in rightwing circles whose statements have been more troubling still. Erick Erickson, a veteran conservative radio host and commentator, intimately familiar with the American right, is disturbed by what he has seen.

The anti-Semitism of the progressive movement is extreme and disgusting. Pay attention to that. But also pay attention to how silent people like [the conservative social-media personality and writer] Candace Owens have been. She’s routinely dabbled in questionable views of both Israel and Jews. Her Twitter feed is rather quiet right now as conservatives unite to support Israel. She’s mostly resorted just to retweeting others who themselves want Israeli restraint. For a woman of strong opinions, those of you on the right should note just how quiet she is.

Friends, the left’s anti-Semitism is loud and proud at this moment. But what is equally loud is the silence of some on the right who are anti-Semites and silent now about these atrocities. Their silence is damning.

They can question wars, the military-industrial complex, isolationism, and warmongering evangelicals but cannot even muster a word of support for Israel or condemn Hamas. They are engaged in performance—tweeting, writing, and speaking of distractions to avoid even offering sympathy to the parents of decapitated children. Americans are dead, killed by Hamas. They are silent there too, blasting everyone else as a “neocon” warmonger. They say, “We’re not anti-Semites, just isolationists,” but have strong views nonetheless on all the world’s affairs except dead Americans and dead babies in Israel.

In several follow-up posts, Erickson provides additional evidence of the phenomenon.


Putin: Death toll from Israeli attack on Gaza will be 'unacceptable'

Golda: when Israel was last under siege
The anniversary of the Yom Kippur War had been garnering substantial attention in Israel even before last weekend’s terror attack. That wasn’t just because it was a half-century ago. It was also because Israel had once again been feeling existentially threatened.

Up until last Saturday, however, the threat was largely seen as internal. Israel’s military and technological elites had been in open revolt against the democratically elected government for months. They had led a protest movement that – supposedly in the name of democracy – was intent on maintaining the Supreme Court’s final say in political decision-making. Israel had rarely been so bitterly divided.

Moreover, many of those protesting against the government were reservists in elite military units, who withdrew or threatened to withdraw from military service. This arguably left Israel more vulnerable to violent attacks.

The change in attitudes among Israel’s military elite was forcefully brought home in a recent documentary on the Yom Kippur War on Israel’s public-broadcasting network, Kan. It featured a fighter pilot from 1973 insisting his grandson should not volunteer for a combatant role when conscripted. The pilot said he would tell his grandson ‘It’s not good to die for our country’ because ‘the face of our country has changed’.

The current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is certainly no Golda Meir. His prime concern since being re-elected seems to be his own political survival. Although he can be incredibly charismatic, he lacks political vision. If Netanyahu was ill-equipped to tackle the crisis over judicial reform, he looks even less suited to handling the current conflict.

It is hard to imagine that Golda would recognise Israel as it exists today. It is true that she would probably not be surprised that it is facing another existential crisis. Israel’s position in the region has always been precarious, given the animosity it faces from its neighbours. But the country’s lack of leadership, and the deep fissures that still exist beneath the surface, would no doubt come as a deep shock.
The Israel Guys: The REAL Story of How Hamas Surprise Attacked Israel
Israel was attacked by the terrorist organization of Hamas this week. This was the largest mass murder of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust with awful brutality involved. The question many people are asking is: “How on earth did all of this happen? How on earth was Israel caught off guard?”

Because of the fog of war, we still don’t have all the pieces to the story, but our team has been working all week to put together an accurate account of how it all happened. We even found some rare footage that has not been seen by many people yet.


The Israel Guys: ROCKETS Continue To Rain Down On Israel As DEATH Toll Rises To 1,200
The death toll in Israel rises to over 1,200 as rockets continue to rain down on Israel from Gaza and now Syria and Lebanon.

United States President Joe Biden gave a public address last night, condemning the horrific atrocities being committed by Hamas. He also had a phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu where he urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties in their strikes on Gaza.

There is also a report out that Biden is working with several other countries on a plan that would offer safe passage out of Gaza for civilians getting caught in the crossfire.

And, no surprises here, the so-called “squad” in the US congress made some shameful and detestable statements about the war.


Jihad on Israel: Where Does Turkey Stand? - Part II
The "final solution," Erdoğan said, unwittingly, it seems, using Hitler's term, "is the foundation of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem its capital and Israel retreating to pre-1967 borders." Why not ask Israel to withdraw to its pre-Babylonian borders?

"Our Brothers in the Gaza Strip have been heavily bombarded in the past couple of days," Erdoğan said. Really, Mr. Erdoğan, now why is that? What would your military do if terrorists bombarded Turkey's civilians with thousands of rockets?

Erdoğan, finally, in what might be the laugh of the century, said he would like to play the honest broker between Israel and Hamas. Why not have Iran mediating between Israel and Hamas, or Greece mediating between Turkey and Cyprus, or Belarus mediating between Russia and Ukraine...?


Iranian Website Asr-e Iran Calls On Iranians Not To Speak Out On Iranian Involvement In 'The Hamas-Israel Conflict' – For Fear Of Harming Iranian Interests And International Status



French Holocaust denier, 54, who ranted about a 'Jewish problem' in online video will be extradited to France to stand trial, court rules

Thousands come to Downing street for Israel vigil

King Charles meets the Chief Rabbi at Buckingham Palace after condemning 'barbaric acts of terrorism' by Hamas in Israel King Charles III held talks



Jessica Alba, Tom Brady and Jennifer Aniston are the latest celebrities to comment on Israel-Hamas war as conflict reaches its sixth day

Jews unite worldwide, light Shabbat, memorial candles for slain Israelis

Barclays Center Holds Moment of Silence for Israeli Victims of Hamas Attacks as Israel Supporters Flood the Stadium

Noa Kirel brings NBA arena to tears by singing Israeli anthem
Israeli pop star Noa Kirel brought an entire NBA arena to tears this week when she sang the Israeli national anthem.

Kirel sang Hatikvah ahead of the preseason game between the hosts, NBA's Brooklyn Nets, and Maccabi Ra'anana.

Kirel wrapped an Israeli flag around her shoulders during the performance, as did the Israeli players, who also wore a black ribbon in memory of the 1,300 Israelis killed by Hamas.

After finishing her song, Kirel said in Hebrew "Am Yisrael Chai" and added in English, "We will win."

"The Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center condemn the terrorist attacks and mourn the senseless loss of life in Israel. We stand together against terror and our thoughts are with all who have been impacted by these tragic events," the Nets wrote on X.




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