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Sunday, November 05, 2023

11/05 Links: Netanyahu: ‘No ceasefire without return of the hostages’; Obama likens ‘what Hamas did’ to ‘unbearable occupation’; Hamas planned for massacre during Passover

From Ian:

Netanyahu: ‘No ceasefire without return of the hostages’
Israel will not agree to any ceasefire with Hamas unless the terrorist group releases the more than 200 hostages it kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday following a tour of Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev Desert.

“There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon. We say this to our friends and to our enemies: We will continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative,” Netanyahu told air force personnel.

“Our enemies misjudged us. They thought that on the crucial day, we would not report for duty. We reported together and now we are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder,” added the prime minister, in an apparent reference to the judicial reform controversy.

Netanyahu concluded by saying, “The entire nation is united and relies on you, appreciates what you are doing and believes in you. We will continue together until victory.”

At least 1,400 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attacks on southern Israeli communities. The number of confirmed hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip stands at 240, including an unknown number of U.S. citizens.
Hamas planned for massacre during Passover, Iran forced delay - report
Hamas's mass infiltration and massacre of Israelis on October 7 was originally intended to take place during last Passover's Seder meal, Israeli journalist Ben Caspit reported on Sunday evening.

As per the report, Iran decided to delay the organized assault on civilians to Simchat Torah due to reasons that are unclear. However, Caspit speculated, it could have been delayed due to informal negotiations with the United States which led to $6 billion being freed up for Iran in September.

The report noted that the information was uncovered during the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. Israeli report: October 7 was chosen due to Yom Kippur war anniversary

Further, Caspit reported that the October 7 date was chosen partly due to its proximity to the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

Caspit did note that the information "might not have reached decision-makers or passed a validity test.

"But it did reach the ears of interrogators," Caspit said.
President of Israel Isaac Herzog: This Is Not a Battle Just between Israel and Hamas
I write these lines after spending time with the families of some of the 240 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. The hostages now held in Gaza include Jewish Israelis, Muslim Israelis and foreign citizens of different ethnicities. In all my years of public life, the meetings with these families were the most difficult I've ever held.

I've also spoken with families of some of the more than 1,400 of my people who were killed that day, many of them murdered in their living rooms and kitchens or dancing at a music festival. When I returned from one kibbutz devastated in the attack, I had to wash the blood off my shoes. Tragedy is part of Israeli life, but none of us imagined a tragedy like this.

Against our will, we in Israel find ourselves at a tipping point for the Middle East and for the world. This is not a battle between Jews and Muslims. It is between those who adhere to norms of humanity and those practicing a barbarism that has no place in the modern world.

Almost as disturbing for me is the realization that many in the world, including in the West, are willing to rationalize these actions or even support them outright. In the capitals of Europe, we've seen rallies supporting the total destruction of Israel. Professors and students at American colleges make speeches and sign statements justifying terrorism, even glorifying it. It would have been unthinkable to hear such moral confusion uttered after the Sept. 11 attacks or after bombings in London, Barcelona and Baghdad.

The terrorist ideology threatens all decent people, not only Jews. History has taught us that foul ideologies often find the Jewish people first - but tend not to stop there. We find ourselves on the front lines of this battle, but all nations face this threat, and they must understand that they could be next.

Palestinian civilian casualties are encouraged by Hamas in order to draw global sympathy and blunt Israel's response. But anyone who thinks the cynical exploitation of civilian suffering will tie our hands and save Hamas this time is wrong. For us and for the Palestinians, the suffering will end only with the removal of Hamas. Anyone trying to tie our hands is, intentionally or not, undermining not only Israel's defense but also any hope for a world where these atrocities cannot happen.
Herzog launches campaign to honor Israel’s fallen
Israeli President Isaac Herzog invited people around the world to light a candle on Sunday evening in memory of the 1,400 people murdered by Hamas during the terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state.

The initiative, marking 30 days since the massacre, began on Sunday at 6 p.m. Israel Standard Time.

The campaign calls to light a candle, take a picture and post it online accompanied by #The_Light_Will_Overcome.

“Today, we light a candle and remember the victims, the women and men, babies and the elderly, soldiers and commanders. We remember them all,” said Herzog as he lit the first candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

“We all kindle a flame, we light a candle, and stand for the simple, basic truth: together, the light will overcome,” he added. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and first lady Michal Herzog light a memorial candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 2023. Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.

Last week, Herzog gave a televised address in which he hailed the nation’s “resilience, spirit and soul.”

“It’s been almost a month since our country underwent a serious change. For almost a month we have been in a war like no other. Almost a month has passed since that cursed day, when the sun rose, the flowers blossomed and butchers slaughtered, slaughtered and slaughtered—women and men, elderly and infants,” he said.

“I would like to speak of [a] source of great hope at this time, even now—in the fog, especially now. The Israeli spirit. An unbreakable spirit. The spirit of a storm which rose from ashes and destruction and is already blowing with all its might. This spirit has revealed itself mightily, in thousands of heroic stories from the frontline and the home front.

“It blows through each outreached hand, in the exemplary Israeli volunteerism and mutual responsibility, seeking to strengthen, to embrace, to support.

“It blows in every corner of our remarkable country—every corner. It is an eternal spirit, passed on to us from the generations before us, a spirit which will continue to guide us, generation to generation.

“This spirit is you—my sisters and brothers—the people of Israel. Israeli society is our true secret weapon. You are my greatest hope, our greatest hope. Am Yisrael Chai [‘The People of Israel lives’],” added the president.


Melanie Phillips: How Britain appeased Islamic extremism
As British and other western countries are convulsed by massive, Muslim-dominated demonstrations exulting at the barbaric murder of 1400 Israelis on October 7, and as these mobs call for the destruction of Israel and the further murder of Jews, Muslim preachers in Britain’s mosques have been additionally stoking the fires of hatred against Israel and the Jewish people.

The Mail has reported that sermons preached at mosques in London, Bradford, Leeds and Manchester, which have been delivered from the moment the Hamas pogrom occurred and which were monitored and translated from Arabic by the paper, have contained eye-watering antisemitic rhetoric.

None of this shocking and terrifying incitement, being carried out under the noses of the British authorities, should come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention over the years to the systematic appeasement of Islamic extremism in Britain. Back in 2006, I published my book Londonistan about the British establishment’s surrender to Islamic jihadi fundamentalism. In its refusal even today to outlaw jihadi groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Hizb ut Tahrir, the British government is continuing its long-standing supine and disastrous policy.

In an earlier blog post here, I reproduced an extract from my book which dealt with the unholy axis of evil between leftists and Islamists that was demonising and inciting against Israel and the Jewish people (an axis we are witnessing in action on the streets today). What follows below is another extract dealing specifically with how the British authorities were choosing to appease rather than confront jihadi extremism as long as two decades ago. It helps shed some light on the deeply troubling situation in which Britain now finds itself.
Obama likens ‘what Hamas did’ to Israeli ‘occupation’
Although he allowed that there is no justification for Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama appeared to equate the massacre to what he said was Israel’s “unbearable” treatment of Palestinians.

In the interview on Pod Save America, a podcast run by four alumni of Obama’s administration, the former president said, “If there is any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas.”

He went on to explain that “what Hamas did was horrific, and there is no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable.”

Also true, he said, “Is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents, or your great-grandparents, or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism.”

At the same time, he continued, “There are people right now who are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did.”

“And what is true,” Obama continued, “I mean, we can go on for a while.”

He said that one can pretend but can’t really speak the truth on social media. He added that “nobody’s hands are clean” and that “all of us are complicit to some degree.”

According to Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, it is Obama that is complicit.

When Israel faces “a barbaric attack from Hamas, Obama blames Israel,” said Brooks.

“It is Barack Obama who is complicit in the death and suffering over the last month in Israel and in Gaza. His policies and those of President Joe Biden put billions of dollars into Iranian coffers, money used to fund and train Hamas and other terrorist groups whose stated goals are the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of Jews,” he continued. “Obama’s attempt to dilute his own culpability in this situation doesn’t change the facts.”
Obama: ‘All of Us Are Complicit to Some Degree’ in ‘Occupation,’ Hamas Terror
Obama’s approach matches his posture toward the Middle East throughout his presidency. He creates a false moral equivalence between the deliberate murder of 1,400 people in Israel, with extreme brutality, with an “occupation” that does not exist in Gaza and that exists in the West Bank only because the Palestinian Authority refuses to agree to peace with Israel.

He adopts a post-modern approach that insists there is not one truth, but many truths, which has the effect of minimizing the evil of genocidal violence, as practiced by Hamas, into merely one perspective among many.

Obama did the same, notoriously, in 2015, when he reacted to the violence of the so-called “Islamic State,” which had published a video of a Jordanian pilot being burned alive inside a cage, by arguing that medieval Christians had been just as violent during the Crusades. It was that dismissive approach, critics argued, that allowed ISIS to grow on Obama’s watch into a malevolent and tyrannical terrorist regime, and a threat in the West as well.

While Obama encourages his left-wing audience to talk to those who disagree with them, it is noteworthy that they applaud his remarks about the “occupation” and not his condemnation of Hamas’s murders.

The former president claims to have wondered whether there was something more he could have done. During his presidency, he adopted a hostile posture toward Israel that caused Palestinians to dig in and refuse to negotiate; he reached a nuclear deal with Iran that gave the regime billions of dollars to spend on terrorist proxies; and he allowed the United Nations to declare the Jewish presence in Jerusalem illegal.

In postmodern fashion, he also claimed in 2013 that it was not “fair” that Palestinians did not have a state of their own — ignoring that they had attacked Israel rather than building their own state when the land was partitioned by the United Nations.

Last month, in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks, Obama said that Israel must “dismantle” Hamas — and he has spent the last several weeks backtracking, in the face of anti-Israel (and antisemitic) activism on the “progressive” left.


Obama Backtracks on Support for Israel, Thanks Activists: 'You Pushed Me'
Subsequently, Obama began to backtrack, criticizing Israel for the way it was fighting the war, implying that Israel was ignoring the “human costs” of the war. On Friday, Obama acknowledged that he had backtracked in response to criticism within his own foundation, and said he was committed to a “two-state solution” and an end to “occupation” — though Israel left Gaza in 2005.

Obama did not make a moral distinction between the Hamas attack and the Israeli response, saying that both were the result of the ongoing failure to reach a solution to the conflict, rather than the result of an unprovoked act of mass murder by terrorists.

He then went on to say that his “democracy forum” would help the world build a better future, in the Middle East and elsewhere.

A day later, on Saturday, Obama said that “all of us are complicit” in the violence in Gaza, putting the various “truths” told by the different sides on an equal plane, and again criticizing the Israeli “occupation” — an occupation that has not existed for decades.


U.S. Tells Israel to Use Smaller Bombs Against Hamas
U.S. officials have privately outlined several steps to Israel to reduce civilian casualties in its military campaign in Gaza, including using smaller bombs when going after Hamas leaders and infrastructure. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday Israel could put in place the American recommendations "while still achieving its objectives of finding and finishing Hamas terrorists." Israel has over the years built up stocks of larger bombs, intended to target hardened Hizbullah military positions in Lebanon. The U.S. is now trying to send more of the smaller bombs to Israel, said a senior U.S. military official.

Arab leaders met with Blinken in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday, and demanded an immediate cease-fire. But Blinken publicly rebuffed the idea, saying, "It's our view that a cease-fire now would simply leave Hamas in place, and able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7."

U.S. officials have been encouraging the Israelis to model their ground campaign against Hamas leaders on an approach employed by U.S. Special Operations forces against al-Qaeda in Iraq that targeted key leaders using small teams of commandos, combined with precision strikes from drones and manned aircraft. Israeli officials have said the situation in Gaza is very different. None of the special operations raids the Americans carried out in Iraq took place in urban areas as dense as Gaza City. Hamas leaders are hiding in a vast tunnel network and Israel believes sending commando units into those tunnels would be a suicide mission.


Haaretz: Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza
International humanitarian law does not prevent war or prohibit absolutely harm to civilians, but sadly only regulates how it is carried out and under what circumstances this is permitted.

While the UN is paralyzed and its special rapporteurs are busy publishing statements and tweets, those Western governments are the ones also involved in mediation efforts regarding the release of the abductees and the supplying of humanitarian aid to Gaza while verifying it will not reach Hamas.

Instead of seeing this as positive and critical to put checks and balances on Netanyahu's government, which indeed includes supporters of terror, genocide and full apartheid, those on the genocide bandwagon claim Western governments conspired with Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

This creates a situation in which instead of all of us remaining focused on stopping the war through a diplomatic solution, there is this huge baseless distraction.

As long as it is not based on facts, the genocide claim will not be useful for ending the war or promoting the freedom of the people in Gaza. It could also lead to deadly attacks on Israeli citizens, those in Western countries and embassies around the world.

It is true that international law is flawed in its protection of civilians, both in definitions and in practice. We need to make up for these flaws by upholding the morals and universal values that Hamas, its jihadist partners and also the Israeli far-right oppose –not by getting lost in the false claims of genocide.
Hamas using Qatar-funded hospital for terrorism, IDF says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taunted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as he compared him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and accused him of hiding in a bunker while his people suffered.

“Sinwar doesn't care about his people and acts like a little Hitler in a bunker,” Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv.

“His people," the Palestinians in Gaza, “are not interesting to him,” the prime minister stated.

He spoke on the day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pledged that the IDF would kill Sinwar during its ground campaign in Gaza.

Hamas, an Iranian proxy group, infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1,400 people and taking over 240 of them hostage. It was a move that sparked Operation Swords of Iron in which Israel has vowed to oust Hamas from the coastal enclave.


Netanyahu: Hamas's Yahya Sinwar is like a little Hitler in his bunker

Israel to transfer PA money after deducting funds for Gaza, pay-for-slay
The security cabinet approved the transfer of the Palestinian Authority's tax funds on Thursday, but with an offset of all the funds intended for the Gaza Strip - and in addition to the offset of "pay-for-slay" funds, which the PA earmarks for terrorists and their families.

It is unclear how much money will ultimately be deducted.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office said that the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT)is responsible for checking the amount of money.

With this decision, Israel has cut off all contact with the Gaza Strip, after deciding that no Palestinian workers from Gaza will work in Israel, in addition to returning the workers who were in Israel to the Strip on the day the war broke out.

It was also decided to return 3,200 Palestinian laborers to the Strip who left with an Israeli security permit to work in Israel and who are currently are being in the custody of the IDF.

According to estimates from security authorities, an effort to return them to the Gaza Strip may take place soon, but it may encounter difficulties in the field. Since there is no coordination with parties in the Gaza Strip and the action is unilateral in a combat zone threatened with mortars, rockets, and anti-tank missiles, there is a risk for Palestinian workers who cross the border from Israel back into Palestinian territory.

Otzma Yehudit head and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted against the two decisions made in the cabinet - the decision to transfer the funds intended for the Palestinian Authority, and the decision to return the workers who were in Israel on the day the war broke out to Gaza.
Blinken makes surprise trip to Ramallah to meet Abbas

Blinken meets with key Middle Eastern powers in Jordan to plan post-war future for Gaza as Arab countries demand urgent end to bloodshed - a day after Israel snubbed call for temporary ceasefire

Netanyahu suspends minister after 'horrifying' suggestion to nuke Gaza

IDF shows Hamas rockets next to children’s pool, playground

Israel Intercepts Long-Range Hamas Rocket with Arrow Air Defense System

Saudi prince on Nasrallah's speech: Axis of Resistance is a big lie

Israeli killed in Hezbollah missile attack from Lebanon

Pro-Palestinian crowds try to storm air base housing US troops in Turkey

Israeli legations to show Hamas atrocity video to world lawmakers

October 7 massacre brings American volunteers to Israel

‘They had no idea if their beloved ones were kidnapped, dead or missing’: Ari Folman on filming the Israeli hostages’ families

Israel finds body of Ruth Peretz, disabled teen missing since October 7

'I hid in a skip under my boyfriend's body as Hamas slaughtered everyone': Israeli model reveals how she watched her partner die and played dead for TWO HOURS around a pile of corpses during the festival massacre

'Noa's mother is very sick. I fear they’ll never see each other again': Father is terrified his daughter who was kidnapped by Hamas on motorbike will never be reunited with her cancer-stricken mother

The great betrayal tearing the Democrats to shreds: ALAN DERSHOWITZ says vile Leftist anti-Israeli hate will turn millions of American Jews from Blue to Red - and he’s one

Boris Johnson warns 'we face a huge terrorist threat' as he visits Israel on solidarity trip to Jewish state after Hamas' barbaric October 7 attack

ScoMo joins BoJo on surprise trip to Israel - former PM is the first Aussie pollie to travel to the war zone after Hamas conflict erupted

Scotland Yard chief won't stop 'hate march': Backlash after Met boss refuses to block 'provocative' rally through the capital on Armistice Day

'Jewish lives matter': Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden likens Hamas attacks on Israel to murder of George Floyd as he accuses pro-Palestinian protesters of a lack of 'moral clarity' amid surge in anti-Semitism in the UK

Dowden: “There Is Hateful Conduct on These Marches”

Suella Braverman says any pro-Palestinian protesters who vandalise the Cenotaph should be jailed 'faster than their feet can hit the ground' as row over planned Armistice Day Gaza march deepens after a night of disorder in London

Find them: Fury grows over ugly pro-Palestine protests in London that saw Tube crowd chant 'smash the Zionist settler state' and demand 'intifada' against Israel on 'Day of Action' that saw thousands take to the streets

John Nolte: Kamala Harris’ Stepdaughter Ella Emhoff Pushes $8 Million Gaza Fund

Actor Jon Voight expresses disgust in daughter Angelina Jolie's attacks on Israel

Susan Sarandon Ignores Hamas Terrorists While Declaring ‘I Stand with Palestine’

Rapper Macklemore claims Israel is conducting 'genocide' in Gaza after 'doing my own research' as he leads '100,000-strong' protest outside the White House

Blood on THEIR hands: Pro-Palestine protesters coat White House gates with bloody red handprints while others scrawl sickening graffiti on nearby buildings during '100,000-strong' march on Washington DC

Dana International to LGBT world: 'If you go to Gaza, Hamas will kill you'

Wild moment pro-Palestine protestors gatecrash swanky dinner for Anthony Albanese at ritzy hotel - where guests paid $5,000-a-head

Muslim leader insists 'jihad is the solution' - and taunts Anthony Albanese to DEPORT him for saying so

Sonny Bill Williams is accused of 'inciting hatred' with anti-Israel posts on social media

Keir Starmer's refusal to back Gaza ceasefire has 'caused hurt to many people' admits shadow minister John Healey as rebel left-wing Labour MPs try to force Commons vote on end to fighting that leader says would aid Hamas

Israeli ambassador: ‘EU is spearhead of support for Israel during war’

House urges European Union to label all of Hezbollah, not ‘military wing,’ a terror group

Iran urges Norway to investigate Israel’s war on Hamas

French Olympian compares Netanyahu to Hitler, accuses Israel of

Arab MK asked to resign after denying Hamas's murder of babies, rape

Top Hamas military commander claims October 7 attacks were never meant to target Israeli civilians - exiled leaders 'changed the plan last-minute' in extraordinary intervention

Strange but True: Israel Treated Hamas’ Gaza Leader, Yahya Sinwar, for Brain Cancer in Prison

Jewish College Students: Stop Whining and Grow Some!

Law firm that victimised lesbian lawyer Allison Bailey over transgender stance refuses to condemn barrister over his 'pro-Hamas' tweets including image of terrorists storming the Israeli border



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