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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

11/21 Links Pt1: Israeli government to convene tonight to weigh partial hostage deal; Media, lies and videotape; When Has War Ever Been ‘Proportional?’

From Ian:

Israeli government to convene tonight to weigh partial hostage deal
The government is debating a partial hostage deal that could include a pause in the Gaza war in exchange for a release of up to 80 out of over 239 people seized by terrorists during Hamas’s infiltration of southern Israel on October 7. “I hope there will be good news soon.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hours before the meeting as he met on Tuesday with soldiers of the 8101 Reserve Battalion.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a “truce agreement” was close in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

The deal was debated first by the war cabinet and then by the security cabinet, before it headed to the government.

The deal, mediated by Qatar, would create the first long-term pause in the fighting since Israel embarked on its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. It comes amid increased international pressure for a ceasefire.

Under the broad contours of the deal, 50 hostages would be released, within the first four days in exchange for a pause in the fighting during those 96 hours.

Some 40 children and 13 mothers are held hostage. It’s expected that some, but not all, would be part of that first batch of hostages.

The 50 hostages would be freed in smaller groups during those days and not all at once.

Israel would in exchange release some 150 Palestinian women and minors held in its jails on security related offenses, but none of them would those directly involved in terror attacks with fatalities.

There is a possibility for the release of an additional 30 hostages held in Gaza should the pause in the fighting be extended for up to another four days.

All those slated for release are alive and have Israeli citizenship.
What will happen to hostages after they return? Here is how it works
As the release of hostages seems to be closer than ever, the bureau in charge of the hostages, captives, and missing people has created an order of operations to be followed once the hostage deal takes place.

The first order of the procedure calls for the IDF to receive the hostages and have them brought to Israel, where immediate medical treatment will be provided for them.

The hostages will receive an initial assessment of their condition by medical authorities and will then be transferred to the following leading hospitals across the country: Sheba Medical Center, Sourasky Medical Center, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Hospital, and Soroka Medical Center.

Once the hostages reach the hospitals they will be met by their families who have anxiously been waiting for their return.

"Right now, how we are living is hard to describe to you", said Rachel Goldberg, mother of 23-year-old hostage Hersh Polin Goldberg, at a DC rally held last Tuesday for the return of the hostages.

"We hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow-motion torment. For 38 nights none of us have slept the real sleep of 'the before.' We have third-degree burns on our souls. Our hearts are bruised and seeping with misery."

The condition of the hostages is currently unknown. However, Goldberg continued that "the real souls suffering are those of the hostages."
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Hostage Anxiety
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti

Today’s podcast takes up the purported deal to free hostages from Gaza—why it’s happening, what has impelled a deal that doesn’t look rational on paper, and what might come of it. Also, why did the White House release a birthday-cake picture with Joe Biden in it that looked like the White House was going to be set on fire? Give a listen.


Melanie Phillips: Media, lies and videotape
Her loaded questioning was of a piece with the astonishing position adopted by much of the mainstream media: that while statistics and claims put out by Hamas and Israel-bashing NGOs are to be reported at face value, whatever Israel says is put into quotes or described in language indicating serious scepticism or doubt, along with the rubric: “This could not be independently verified”. Audiences and readers are thus being primed to believe that Israel routinely lies while Hamas tells the truth — the precise opposite of the case.

Husain declared that Hamas casualty statistics had always ended up being accepted by the Israelis. You really do have to rub your eyes at this. There has never been a conflict or incident over the past several years where the Palestinians, whether from Hamas or other terror groups, have told the truth.

European and American sources have stated that Hamas death statistics are routinely exaggerated. In this current war, Hamas claimed that 500 Palestinian civilians had been killed by an Israeli airstrike hitting the al Ahli hospital. Yet it was an Islamic Jihad rocket fired at Israeli civilians from near the hospital that had misfired and fallen into the hospital’s car park, killing an estimated 50-70 people.

Husain’s absurd statement is in line with BBC Verify’s (sic) equally ridiculous pseudo-analysis rubbishing the charge that Hamas routinely inflates its casualty totals, quoting in support notorious Israel-bashing NGOs such as Human Rights Watch saying they had “no reason to believe” that Hamas figures were anything other than reliable.

A moment’s thought would tell anyone capable of rational brain activity that the Hamas casualty figures are literally incredible because they don’t acknowledge one single terrorist among those who have been killed. That’s because to Hamas, every single Palestinian who is killed, including their own operatives, is an innocent civilian while every single Israeli civilian is a combatant deserving to be killed.

Despite this easily ascertainable fact, media outlets put scare quotes and health warnings around Israeli claims but none around those made by Hamas or its allies. The result is that many if not most mainstream media outlets are feeding the public a stream of lies, falsehoods, distortions, omissions and selective reporting about the war in Gaza.

The indefatigable and heroic blogger-for-truth David Collier has written a must-read post here about the terrorist connections of a number of al Shifa hospital doctors. These have been quoted by western media outlets week after week swearing that the hospital had nothing to do with Hamas and they had seen no evidence whatever of any Hamas activity — a lie revealed in the videos released by the Israelis, which show hospital staff watching the Hamas gunmen bringing in the hostages and casually chatting to them.

Collier reveals that one doctor after the other had posted support for the October 7 atrocities, spread lies that the IDF had stolen the hospital’s water and then presented it as humanitarian aid, celebrated as “resistance” the massacre of Jews last January outside a synagogue in Jerusalem, praised the terrorists who carried out another attack in Jerusalem this month as “fighting fire with fire”, and so on.

It seems quite obvious now that there is simply no evidence that the Israelis can ever bring forward of the perfidy, lies and barbarism of the Palestinians that the western media will ever allow to reset the lethal prism through which they refract the Palestinian war against the Jews.


Victor Davis Hanson: When Has War Ever Been ‘Proportional?’
Israel, in turn, seeks its own disproportionate response to defeat Hamas.

First, it seeks to single out and kill the actual Hamas terrorists, and especially the 2,000 or so killers of October 7.

Second, it tries to warn civilians to flee anywhere that Hamas masses. Just as Hamas wants its own civilians killed for propaganda purposes, so Israel seeks to avoid killing them.

Third, by targeting Hamas and warning civilians to keep their distance, Israel does not deny that there will be collateral damage.

But it hopes to convince the world that any civilian deaths are mostly the fault of Hamas and not the IDF.

And to the degree that Gaza City is left in rubble, Israel wishes to remind its enemies that the wages of murdering Jewish infants, unfortunately, will be a disproportionate response, whose full effects will deter any future attack.

Fourth, Israel understands that a country of 9-10 million is facing a virulently hostile 500 million-person Arab Middle East. The United Nations is on the side of Hamas. Immigrants from the Middle East have hijacked a now antisemitic Europe. Israel’s sole patron, the United States, is buffeted by a hard-left new Democratic Party that is not a reliable partner.

The result is that Israel still cannot conduct a fully disproportionate war without endangering its source of military resupply in the United States and a wider conflict with the Islamic world.

And so, the war continues.

Hamas strives for a more disproportionate terrorist agenda to prolong the war. And Israel strives for a more disproportionate retaliation to end it.

The anger arises at Israel mostly because it is Jewish, and thus far, its conventional disproportionality is proving more effective than the terrorist disproportionality of Hamas.
“IDF Have To Kill As Many Terrorists As Possible” Says Colonel Richard Kemp | Jonny Gould
The Israel Defence Forces have released footage of what it claims unveils a Hamas tunnel beneath the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza.

They claim the tunnel is approximately 55 metres long and contained a blast proof door and various defence mechanisms.

Jonny Gould speaks with Colonel Richard Kemp.


The Israel-Iran Endgame
John Jenkins, the former director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign Office in London, said senior Israelis refer to the conflict between Israel and Hamas as a paradigm shift. The Israelis realize the policy they have pursued for the past two decades, of seeking to "mow the grass" - periodically debilitating Hamas and Hizbullah in small-scale conflicts - has essentially collapsed.

They now cannot tolerate a Gaza which is under Hamas control. That also means that they will not be able to tolerate the sort of presence that Hizbullah has established over the last 23 years in southern Lebanon.

The Iranians see great virtue in strategic patience. They think Israel will eventually disappear because it is divinely ordained: their duty is to help it along, but not to provoke a regional conflict - particularly with two U.S. carrier groups off the coast of Lebanon and Israel - that would precipitate a major U.S.-Israeli attack on key Iranian assets, in Iraq, Syria, or indeed in Iran itself.

Israel is a very powerful mobilizing issue for Iran because a lot of these Shiite militias think the destruction of Israel is necessary to facilitate the return of the Hidden Imam. Shiism has this belief in the return of the Twelfth Imam, who will come back at the end of time as a Mahdi, bringing about the destruction of Israel, the destruction of the Jews. The Iranians want the U.S. out of the Middle East. There are severe obstacles to this: one is the presence of Israel, which they believe will be expelled from the region like the Crusaders. This isn't going to happen, but that doesn't mean they don't believe it.

How do you negotiate with a state which believes that this is divinely ordained and just needs to be helped on its way?
Kirby: Word 'genocide' thrown around inappropriately against Israel

IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari Speaks on Hostage Rescue Efforts
On October 7, Hamas terrorists abducted over 200 hostages and took them into Gaza. Among them was CPL Noa Marciano, 19-year-old IDF soldier. Noa was taken alive and held hostage by Hamas in Gaza City, near the Shifa Hospital.


'Tremendous motivation' to negotiate with Hamas for hostages: IDF Spokesperson
IDF Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus says the idea of negotiating a deal with Hamas for the hostages “has tremendous motivation”.

“We will see what the government will be able to facilitate through some kind of negotiations,” he told Sky News Australia.

“The human suffering in Gaza and the ordeal that the Israeli families are going through could end very quickly if Hamas decides to surrender and to give up the hostages.”

“I can only imagine the pain and suffering they have been going through.

“Those families are carrying themselves so nobly in their quest to return their loved ones.”




Hackers are taking over planes’ GPS — experts are lost on how to fix it

IDF's secret Unit 504 - How is it different from Mossad, Shin Bet?

Iron Beam laser intercepts Hamas rocket from Gaza

IDF surrounds Jabalia; IAF hit 250 Hamas targets in 24 hours

The tools of terror that slaughtered Israelis in their homes: Mail is shown shocking arsenal of weapons including thermobaric bombs, rocket launchers and knives used by Hamas beasts to massacre 1,400 civilians in sickening October 7 attack

How many aid groups knew Hamas was hiding in a hospital and lied about it?

Caroline Glick Show: 'I Fought with 40 Terrorists ' - An Eyewitness Account of the Oct. 7th Attack
Caroline spoke with reserve Lt. Col. Yaron Buskila, operations officer for the Gaza Division. Col. Buskila shared his first-person account of the battle at division headquarters on Oct. 7. They discussed the gap between the Southern Command's understanding of Hamas's intentions and preparations for a worst-case scenario and the far worse scenario that unfolded on Oct. 7.

Buskila and Caroline also discuss
- the IDF's operations in northern Gaza, and in southern Gaza
- the challenge of defeating Hamas as it holds hundreds of hostages
- the imperative of victory in the north against Hezbollah, and other key issues.

For an in-depth understanding of the war Israel now finds itself in, you don't want to miss this discussion.




Kassy Dillon: Inside The Israeli Kibbutz Where Dozens Were Murdered By Hamas
Imagine a street lined with a chain of houses, each one as the setting of an unimaginable nightmare.

In one, your family was burned to death. A house over, a grenade exploded in your living room. In another, your sister’s bloodied legs left an impression below the window as she attempted to escape. Down the street, bullets peppered the door of the room you were hiding in. No rescue force came to save you from any of these nightmares and, in each of them, you died.

This is the reality of Kfar Aza, a kibbutz about three miles from the Gaza border where Hamas terrorists entered on October 7 and slaughtered more than 50 people. Twenty people are still missing.

The Israeli government opened up one of the village’s streets to journalists to view the evidence. Bloodied remnants of terrorists, such as Hamas vests, still litter the ground of the kibbutz, and Israeli mortar fire booms in the background.

Every person on this street died, according to an Israeli Defense Forces official leading the tour. Identifying information such as credit cards, family pictures, laptops, and documents still sit on counters and tables.

It doesn’t matter how many videos you’ve watched or photos you’ve seen of the attack. Walls are collapsed, furniture and debris are spilling from homes, bullet and shrapnel holes are everywhere. But worst of all is the pungent smell.

If you’ve never smelled this before, you may associate it with sewage, as I did. But as you walk through the homes and speak to the survivors and first responders, you quickly learn that it’s the smell of death lingering from the many removed bodies.




Horrifying new Nova festival footage shows Hamas killer chase down fleeing Israelis, grabbing one by her hair and shooting her at point blank range before watching her friend beg for her life... then executing her

UN Special Rapporteur critcised for ‘extreme bias’ against Israel
United Nations Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer has criticised the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese for being “extremely biased” against Israel.

Mr Neuer says the reason the United Nations “picked her” was because she is “extremely biased”.

He says she is someone who “pretends to be neutral”.

“Neither her position nor her background has anything to do with impartiality,” he said.

Mr Neuer joined Sky News host Sharri Markson to discuss Ms Albanes




Ben Shapiro: Hamas And Its Media Allies Baffle With Bulls***
As Israel’s assault on Hamas continues, pro-Hamas forces misdirect, lie, and falsify in an attempt to confuse the story; Argentina elects a colorful conservative president; and Elon Musk trains his sights on Media Matters.




TravelingIsrael: The THREE questions the BBC NEVER asks the Palestinians



The Israel Guys: The IDF Just Found HUGE TUNNELS Underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza
The IDF just published massive amounts of evidence that Hamas was using Al Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip as an operating base, as well as storing weapons. Not only that, but the IDF has published video proof that some of the hostages captured on October 7th were immediately brought to the hospital and held there. The world said there was no evidence of terrorist usage of the hospital, and the IDF responded with facts.




Susan Sarandon is slammed for claiming Jews 'are getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim in America' after Hamas massacre - as star backs 'anti-Semite' Roger Waters and chants 'from the river to the sea' at rally
Actress Susan Sarandon has been slammed for claiming Jewish people 'are getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim' amid the war with Hamas.

The Oscar winner, 77, has attended several rallies in New York where she joined in the chant 'from the river to the sea,' a battle cry used by pro-Palestinian activists and Hamas alike that many view as an anti-Semitic call for the destruction of Israel.

The chant has been given a new lease of life in the aftermath of Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

In further shocking new remarks, Sarandon said at a recent rally: 'There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.'

The Rocky Horror Picture Show star has also retweeted posts on X celebrating Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, who has been dogged for years with allegations of anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, Muslim-American journalist Asra Nomani slammed Sarandon for her remarks, highlighting how good life is for her and her migrant parents in the United States.


Eve Barlow: Dear Susan (Sarandon)
Asra’s tweet has almost 3million views. Quite awkward for you, Susan. Glorious for the rest of us, though.

What Asra couldn’t tell you, however, is what it’s like to be a Jew in America. You see Susan, the Jewish people are most persecuted minority of people in the history of the world. Now, we’re not playing victim olympics here, you understand. But every Jew is a survivor, and has survivor’s blood, and a nice cocktail of intergenerational trauma and a determination to overcome our enemies, including people like yourself. We Jews do not need to be Muslims to understand that according to the ADL, the number of antisemitic incidents in the US has increased by 316% since October 7th. We Jews do not need to be Muslim to understand that here in America our people have been experiencing horrendus attacks for years, including some major events such as the pogrom at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

No we Jews don’t need to be Muslims to understand that on college campuses all over this country, people like yourself have threatened the livelihoods of students who are simply Jewish. We Jews don’t need to be Muslims to understand that if we carry an Israeli flag in the district of Westlake, Los Angeles, we could be murdered by a pro-Palestine protestor like yourself, using a megaphone as a weapon, and that the press would do everything to minimize the crime. Susan, you really are clueless about the fact that the Jews, not the Muslims, are the most at danger minority community in the United States. But you’re not just clueless. You’re a disgrace. Because you know what you’re doing.

Here’s how I know, Susan. I’ve been on your timeline. You’ve been retweeting far right fascist Jackson Hinkle. Jackson has been banned from WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram and Twitch for misinformation. Jackson is known for promoting “MAGA Communism”, ie a call for working-class supporters to ally with the MAGA movement. He is renowned as Twitter's most viral misinformation spreader. You retweeted a post of Jackon’s in which he denied the massacre on October 7. You also re-posted this:

Like the rest of the non-Jewish world Susan, you are just DESPERATE to prove that Israel is a failed endeavor, aren’t you? And it doesn’t matter if the disinformation is even coming from your own political aisle any more. You have no standards left, Susan. You’re just in on it. Israel’s survival has really upset you. That is what so much of this is about for you. You feel the need to constantly negate the proof of Hamas's intentions and you spend every waking moment of your days shifting the blame towards Israel instead. Most criticism of Israel since 1948 has been motivated by delegitimizing Israel, yours included. You were only two-years-old when the state was formed. Israel seems to have haunted your whole life. Such a shame. You could have just embraced and accepted the only Jewish state. You can’t let it go, can you?

Susan, as a Jew I would like you to get a taste of what it feels like to be a woman in Gaza. Please report back once you get there. You won’t have very long to do so.
Gideon Levy: An Open Letter to Roger Waters
And then you immediately repeated what you had said in earlier interviews, that we don’t know the full details of what transpired on October 7. For you, all the reports were fishy, with Israeli reports including descriptions of beheaded babies, of women who were raped and then burned alive.

You said that you didn’t really know what happened and were curious to find out the details. And then you ended with what I too believe with all my heart, namely that the unbearable pain will remain until Israel, the U.S. and all the other countries that are involved in these crimes will grant and implement equal rights to all our brethren, regardless of religion or nationality, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

I would like to dwell on the persistent doubts you cast regarding the events of October 7. An atrocity took place there, Roger, an atrocity the likes of which we have never seen in the bleeding history of this conflict. This atrocity has a context, which is the criminal blockade and the religious fundamentalism which arose in its shadow, but no context in the world can justify such barbarism.

I am not relying on Israeli reports, which you doubt, sometimes justifiably. I went to Kibbutz Be’eri on the morning after the massacre, and to the site of the outdoor dance party in Re’im Park, to the town of Sderot and to Kibbutz Nir Oz. I saw it all with my own eyes. I saw the trails of blood, the burned houses, the bodies strewn all over and the smell of death everywhere. It was awful. No person or country deserved something like that.

The modest living rooms in Be’eri probably contained many Pink Floyd records; some of the victims grew up on “The Dark Side of the Moon.” In these sites of murder, you and the music you created were much admired. One cannot play innocent and cast doubt on the extent of evil committed there.

It doesn’t even matter how many women were raped and whether babies were beheaded. It was mass murder, cruel, indiscriminate, a deliberate murder of innocents, of the elderly and women, men and infants, partygoers and kibbutzniks who read Haaretz and believed in peace with Gaza.


New York City Communists Pushing For a Gaza Ceasefire Took Millions From Goldman Sachs Charity

Three Radicals Arrested for Allegedly Damaging, Setting Fire to Israeli-Owned Factory in New Hampshire
The police received calls about an anti-Israel riot at the international defense electronics company’s factory before 8 AM ET. The fire department also arrived due to smoke coming from the roof:
Merrimack police said they received calls from employees at Elbit Systems, a defense contractor located at 220 Daniel Webster Highway, shortly before 8 a.m. saying that protestors were blocking the driveway and multiple people were believed to be on the roof of the building. Protesters have previously targeted Elbit Systems locations in Massachusetts and around the globe, alleging that the company is involved in Israel’s military campaign.

When they arrived at the scene, police said they encountered a number of protestors “blocking the driveway voicing support for Palestine.” Those protestors eventually moved out of the way and allowed police to access the property.

Officers said they met with security personnel and found that the front of the building had been spraypainted with red paint, windows had been smashed, and at least one fo the main lobby doors had been locked shut with a bicycle lock.

Three people were also reportedly on the roof. Police were able to access the roof and arrested the three people who were on top of the building without incident.

They were identified by police as Sophie Marika Ross, 22, of Housatonic, Massachusetts; Calla Mairead Walsh, 19, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Bridget Irene Shergalis, 27, of Dayville, Connecticut. They were each charged with riot, sabotage, criminal mischief, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct and are scheduled to be arraigned in Hillsborough County Superiot Court at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The first investigation showed the smoke came from a device on one of the suspects.

Authorities also found “damage consisting of spraypainting, smashed skylights and damage to HVAC equipment.”

Cala Walsh has a long history of radicalism, embracing terrorists and targeting anything Jewish…even preschools.


We learn hate for Israel on TikTok and Instagram say young protesters
Anti-Israel influencers posting on Instagram and TikTok have gained followers since the Hamas massacres.

Among them is 19-year-old Calla Walsh of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She is one of the youngest and fiercest behind-the-scenes anti-Israel agitators, a founding organizer of Palestine Action US, and had 158 million views on TikTok for her videos.

Among her causes: encouraging her followers to tear down posters.

“Anyone with good conscience should tear down these atrocity propaganda blitz posters, which repeat proven lies about Hamas killing babies and raping women in order to breed hysteria and justify Israel’s genocide of Palestine,” Walsh told The Post.

“If we want to talk about hostages, let’s talk about how Israel is bombing its own ‘hostages’ to death in Gaza instead of negotiating a peace. The real hostages are the 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza, the 10,000 Israel has murdered in the past month, and the thousands and thousands more trapped under the rubble.”


Sky News host calls for lefty praising Hamas to be deported
Sky News host Rita Panahi has called for a lefty student at Durham College to be deported after she shared a video voicing her support for Hamas after its horrifying attack on Israel.

Ms Panahi condemned the student for showing no sympathy for the Israelis murdered on October 7.

“If she's born and bred in the West then she's a failure of multiculturalism, failure of her parents and the education system,” she said.

“If she's not a citizen she should be sent back to wherever it is she emigrated from, perhaps they share her genocidal values.

“But here in the West the majority still frown upon mass rape, torture and the deliberate slaughter of innocent civilians.”


Victorian government urged to act on pro-Palestine student strike



Kids ‘need to be in classrooms’ and should not ‘go out and protest’ for Palestine

‘Modern virtue signalling’: Paul Murray on pro-Palestine student protest

'Ugly, hostile': Man's 'unhinged' reaction to Jewish community's peaceful protest in Victoria





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