Sunday, December 24, 2023

12/24 Links: Hamas Failed, Israelis Are More United After October 7; Freed Hamas hostage: 'I was a prize'; Israel finds Hamas bomb belts adapted for kids

From Ian:

Netanyahu to Biden: ‘We will fight until absolute victory’
The Gaza war will continue for “however long it takes,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday night.

Speaking during a Cabinet meeting at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the premier said, “Last night, I spoke again with President Biden. I appreciate the steadfast U.S. position—which supports our war effort—in the U.N. Security Council. I told President Biden yesterday that we will fight until absolute victory—however long that takes. The U.S. understands this.”

The prime minister denied “erroneous reports” claiming the U.S. had prevented Israel from taking action against other hostile entities in the region. (The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Biden blocked Israel from attacking Hezbollah on Oct. 11, four days after the Hamas attack on the northwestern Negev.)

“Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not expand further. They are not dictated by external pressure. The decision on how to use our forces is an independent decision of the IDF and nobody else,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu referred to the 14 IDF troops killed in action this weekend, including 10 on Saturday: “This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza. On behalf of all members of the government and the entire people of Israel, I would like to send condolences to the families of our heroic soldiers.”

He said IDF soldiers have killed “many thousands of terrorists” and will continue to grind away at the Hamas terrorist group until it is destroyed, the hostages are returned and Gaza “will never again constitute a threat to the State of Israel.”
Bridges of Trust between Israelis and Palestinians Have Been Blown to Smithereens
I live in Kibbutz Nirim, less than two km. from the border with Gaza. People from my community have always held our hands out in peace to the residents on the other side of the border. I have participated in a number of projects and interactions with Palestinians, to try to build bridges. I've worked with people from Gaza who understand that we in Israel genuinely believe in coexistence with anyone who wants to live in peace with us. I always tell whoever will listen that it is in our best interest to see them thrive and prosper and have good lives.

On Oct. 7, many of those bridges collapsed. People on Nirim were reporting in the kibbutz's WhatsApp group that they were hearing automatic machine gun fire and shouting in Arabic outside their houses. We were alerted to shutter and lock doors and windows, then lock ourselves in our safe rooms. The problem was that the doors of the safe rooms, which were built to keep us safe from mortars, rockets and shrapnel, as opposed to infiltration by terrorists, do not lock. When we were finally evacuated from Nirim on Oct. 8, we had to drive through an active war zone.

I had believed, when the Qatari suitcases of dollars were allowed into Gaza, that all our lives would be safer. In light of the discoveries made by our troops now fighting inside Gaza, clearly the money was invested in building an underground terror network instead of helping Gazans. I had faith in the belief that if we allow thousands of Gazans into our country for work, they would be able to feed their families and live better lives. We now understand that it was many of those people whom we were hiring who were busy at the same time betraying us, mapping out our communities, including names of residents and where they lived, in order to weaponize that knowledge on Oct. 7.

The trust we put in them enabled the slaughter of over 1,200 people and the kidnapping of over 240, many of whom were and are my friends. It is also what has caused those of us who live on Nirim and the other border communities to be refugees in our own country. Can any of us ever trust any of the Gazans on the other side as not being Hamas collaborators, or not betraying my safety because Hamas terrorists have forced them to, by threatening them or their family by putting a gun to their head?

I fear that the bridges so many of us strived to work towards have been blown to smithereens. In their place are the dark shadows of doubt and suspicion of our neighbors, and for that, I have Hamas and what they did to us on Oct. 7 to blame, as well as misguided citizens and countries of the world who embolden and support these terrorists.
I Just Sent Five of My Children to War
For the first time in my life I drove on Shabbat, taking my son to defend our people. The scene repeated itself three more times as I sent my other sons off to war.

I woke up at 6:30 AM this past Shabbat/Simchat Torah to the sound of thunder and my light fixtures shaking. I opened the blinds and the sky was blue but the thunder continued. I went outside and saw streaks across the sky.

I woke up my wife and said, “Miriam, get up, I think we are at war.” Neighbors slowly started to come outside to see what was happening. We all have kids in the army or on reserve duty. Most of our kids were home for the Jewish holiday. Since we hadn’t heard any news we didn’t know what was happening and we went to synagogue as usual.

There were booms and clear signs of the Iron Dome throughout the service. At 8:45 AM we had our first of what would be many air raid sirens. After a few minutes in the bomb shelters we emerged and went on with the prayers. We danced a little, completed the reading of the Torah and started Genesis.

During this time young men in my shul started to get called up from the army. I asked my youngest son who is in active duty in the tank brigade called Shiryon if he got a call. He went and checked his phone and that moment his commanding officer called him. He said that things were very serious and that he should start packing a bag as he would be called in later in the day.

My wife and I have five children (four sons and a daughter); three of them are married, and two granddaughters from my oldest son. I’m privileged that all four sons or ours are in the infantry and a daughter-in-law in the air force.

I was asked to lead the prayers for the welfare of the State of Israel, and the welfare of the soldiers, and the Mussaf service. As I put on my white kittel for the special prayers for rain recited on Shmini Atzeret and sang the words “to life and not death,” I could not stop thinking of the prospect of my son being deployed. The day felt more like Yom Kippur than Simchat Torah.


Hamas Failed, Israelis Are More United After October 7
Hamas may have thought it could widen divisions in Israeli society when it launched its war on October 7. Hamas was wrong and that's why it will ultimately lose.




Our universities have failed their Jewish students
At distinguished universities across America, we have seen leadership condemned for their failure to address the appalling situation faced by their Jewish students. At a congressional hearing before the House Education Committee to discuss antisemitism on campus, the Presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania appeared to evade questions about whether students should be disciplined if they call for a genocide of Jews. In the UK, motions calling for “a mass uprising” and “intifada until victory” have been proposed at Oxbridge.

The Union of Jewish Students are doing all they can to support their near 9000 members. The organisation whose aim it is to foster vibrant Jewish life on campus is now having to divert all resources to supporting students who have been subject to anti-Jewish racism on their campuses. Its president, who has been speaking out brilliantly on behalf of his members, has also spoken publicly about receiving death threats himself.

This all leads to a disconcerting but central question: What has happened to our higher education institutions?

Where is the robust response and action from the very institutions meant to educate future generations of this country, whose campuses are meant to be a melting pot of British society where individuals from all faiths and all backgrounds come together to share ideas and learn?

Jewish students at universities today stand accused of supporting the very crimes their grandparents were the victims of – genocide. All life is sacred and so any loss of innocent civilians is a tragedy, and unfortunately there have been too many tragedies in this long drawn-out conflict. Nonetheless, these tragedies do not add up to the crime of genocide, a word whose original meaning must be reclaimed.

Universities must meet words with actions. Anyone who is found to have crossed the line from legitimate freedom of speech and academic freedom into hate speech must face consequences. Societies who host known anti-Semitic speakers, either online or in-person, should be disaffiliated. Senior staff at universities should be proactively reaching out to their Jewish students and offering support, not waiting until those students come to them with reports of antisemitism.

Until then, the Jewish community will continue to dream of a future world where our descendants do not face the same anti-Jewish hatred we are currently facing.
Holocaust Group Criticizes Statement Accusing Israel of Potential “Genocide” Signed by 790 Academics
The 1939 Society, a Holocaust survivor organization, criticized a statement signed by 790 academics accusing Israel of potentially committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, and specifically noted that Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies at UCLA, was one of the signatories to the statement.

In a December email to community members, William Elperin, president of The 1939 Society and the son of Holocaust survivors, linked to an October statement in Opinio Juris, a blog focusing on discussions related to international law. The statement, titled “Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza,” argues that Israel’s military operation in Gaza “is unprecedented in scale and severity, and consequently in its ramifications for the population of Gaza.”

“Following the incursion by Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023, including criminal attacks against Israeli civilians, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to incessant and indiscriminate bombardment by Israeli forces,” the statement reads. “Between 7 October and 9:00 a.m. on 15 October, there have been 2,329 Palestinians killed and 9,042 Palestinians injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including over 724 children, huge swathes of neighborhoods and entire families across Gaza have been obliterated. Israel’s Defense Minister ordered a ‘complete siege’ of the Gaza Strip prohibiting the supply of fuel, electricity, water and other essential necessities. This terminology itself indicates an intensification of an already illegal, potentially genocidal siege to an outright destructive assault.”

The statement argues that after Israel ordered an evacuation of northern Gaza, the Jewish state struck “civilians and ambulances” on the “safe route” and cited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as saying that the combination of a siege and an evacuation order violates international law. Additionally, the statement argues that Israeli officials have signaled potential “genocidal intent” when they said they are “fighting human animals” and “will eliminate everything.” The statement concludes by lobbying the United Nations “to immediately intervene.”

Rothberg appears to be listed as signatory number 466 on the statement.

“The Public Statement has the narrative exactly backwards. It is not Israel that is guilty of possible genocide, but Hamas,” Elperin wrote in his email. “The Public Statement is mostly in error in both content and tone. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.’ Israel is far from perfect but, clearly, Israel has no intention of destroying the Palestinian people. If that was its intention, among other things, it would not warn Gaza residents where the next missile is going to land or allow any humanitarian aid. It would not create a safe zone or a humanitarian corridor. Every decent human being feels for the death and misery of innocent civilians, but Israel has the right to defend itself from genocide.”

Elperin contended that Hamas, not Israel, has genocidal intentions, as their founding charter calls for the killing of Jews, and Hamas leaders called for the “people of Jerusalem” to “cut off the heads of Jews with knives.”
Masha Gessen’s Shameful Comparison
The New Yorker recently published an article by staff writer Masha Gessen in which she erroneously compared the Gaza Strip to Nazi ghettos in Eastern Europe. Understandably enough, her shameful comparison embarrassed the Heinrich Boll Foundation, which had awarded Gessen the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought.

Having deplored her thesis as “unacceptable,” the foundation withdraw from the ceremony in Bremen at which she was due to receive the award. The foundation then delayed the ceremony before transferring it to a smaller and unobtrusive venue.

In her lengthy essay, which appeared in the magazine’s December 9 edition, Gessen — a Russian American whose relatives were murdered by the Nazis — broadly explored the nature of Holocaust memory in Germany, a country that has made laudable strides in coming to terms with its Nazi past, memorializing it, and building a special relationship with Israel.

Gessen not only accused Germany of stifling free and open debate on Israel, but was equally critical of Israel’s posture toward the Palestinians in Gaza. Until Israel’s ground invasion on October 27, Gaza was ruled by Hamas, an Islamic fundamental organization that claimed credit for the devastating October 7 massacre in southern Israel during which 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were slaughtered.

Delving into conditions in Gaza, she wrote, “For the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyper-densely populated, impoverished, walled-in compound where only a small fraction of the population had the right to leave for even a short amount of time — in other words, a ghetto. Not like the Jewish ghetto in Venice or an inner-city ghetto in America but like a Jewish ghetto in an Eastern European country occupied by Nazi Germany.”

Referencing Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Gessen wrote, “The ghetto is being liquidated.”
FDD: United Nations Security Council Passes Israel Resolution
Expert Analysis
“This remains an inherently biased resolution that does not recognize Hamas as the terrorist organization that it is. The UN does not need another ‘coordinator’ to berate Israel and give cover for Hamas in Gaza — it has plenty of them already. The U.S. was right to fight any attempt to call for a ceasefire but should have set a red line at failure to impose sanctions on Hamas.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“The UN has contributed to the conflict by nurturing Palestinian grievances against Israel rather than promoting realistic solutions. The best thing the international body can do is stay out of the way and allow Israel the time and space to take care of Hamas.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Previous U.S. Vetoes
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on October 18 calling for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip. America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the U.S. rejected the resolution because it “did not mention Israel’s right of self-defense.” The U.S. vetoed another UN Security Council resolution on December 8 that demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The Council voted 13-1 in favor of the resolution, with the United Kingdom abstaining.

UN Fails to Condemn Hamas
The UN General Assembly failed to pass a resolution on October 27 unequivocally condemning Hamas. Instead, the international body approved a resolution expressing concern about the “escalation of violence” without mentioning Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist group responsible for the bloodshed. “It is outrageous that this resolution fails to name the perpetrators of the 7 October terrorist attack,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said.

In a swipe at Israel, Guterres claimed in October that Hamas’s attack “did not happen in a vacuum” and, on December 6, he invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, which allows the secretary-general to raise concerns about threats to international peace and security directly with the UN Security Council. No secretary-general has invoked the article since Bangladesh separated from Pakistan in 1971. Guterres himself failed to invoke Article 99 in the wake of multiple massacres in Sudan or for Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.


How Israel can ensure security in post-war Gaza

Israel starts building Gaza buffer zone

Poll: 83% of Israelis Support Voluntary Emigration from Gaza

House committee to probe UN agency for Palestinian refugees for suspected Hamas ties: ‘Troubling connection’

Palestinian Authority should not be next governing body of Gaza: Graham

Netanyahu rejects 'untrue' WSJ claim Biden halted IDF attack on Hezbollah

5 Hezbollah official: Hamas told us not to begin a war on Israel

New details emerge on the accidental IDF killing of three Israeli hostages
New details emerge on the accidental IDF killing of Israeli hostages Samr Al-Talalka, Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim


Israel-Hamas war: IDF talks advances in northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis
The IDF says it's made advances in northern Gaza as the humanitarian crisis rages on. IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus joins LiveNOW's Austin Westfall discuss the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war.




Egypt proposes 14-day ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas to release 40 hostages

IDF asks Egypt to evacuate its forces from Rafah border area - report

Red Cross chief: Israel must work out with Hamas our lack of access to hostages
The head of the Red Cross defended her organization’s response to the kidnapping of hundreds of people into Gaza, saying it was up to Israel — which has pilloried the aid group for its ostensible lack of pressure on Hamas for access to the hostages — to work out the issue with the terror group.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, also expressed frustration over Hamas’s refusal to allow the organization access to hostages held in the Gaza Strip so that its personnel can visit them, ensure their conditions and deliver critical medication.

Spoljaric told Channel 12 News that while the Red Cross had “continue[d] insisting” on access, Hamas had conditioned access on Israeli concessions, with the international organization left to wait until those demands were addressed.

She did not specify what those conditions were.

“Now Israel has to negotiate with Hamas with an intermediary which in this case is Qatar. They have to find this agreement so that we are let know where the hostages are because we currently don’t know where they are. We don’t know when and where to go to access them. That’s the simple fact. We cannot enforce this,” she said.

She noted the Red Cross’s role in facilitating the release of 109 civilians, most of them as part of a temporary truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. Some Israeli commentators have opined that the organization seems to have mainly served as a transport service from the captors to the border.

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 22 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

“Now we continue to work with the two sides so that we can implement the release of the remaining hostages and also ascertain the fate of those that we don’t know what happened to them,” Spoljaric said.

Pressed on the fact that only one side was withholding access to the people it had kidnapped, Spoljaric insisted that Israel had to do more in order that the Red Cross could do its job and reach the captives, the majority of whom are civilians, including children, the women and elderly.

“Israel and Hamas need to agree on the modalities by which we can access and release the hostages,” she said.
Red Cross chief insists Israel needs to sort out terror group’s demands before ICRC can do its work
Red Cross chief says Israel is to blame for hostages' challenges, needs to sort out terror group’s demands before ICRC can do its work amid criticism it hasn't taken action to help abductees

Frmr. Spox of ICC Delegation in Israel, Yehonatan Sabban discusses the ICRC statements and its inability to fulfill its humanitarian duties




Omission of Israel’s aid role ‘unfortunate,’ says UN spokesman
A recent U.N. tweet omitting Israel’s role in facilitating aid shipments into the Gaza Strip was “unfortunate,” while a U.N. report that failed to mention the Lebanese terror group’s ongoing attacks on Israel was not indication of bias, according to the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesman.

JNS asked Stephane Dujarric during a U.N. press briefing about several recent incidents, including a Dec. 20 tweet from the official United Nations account that omitted Israel’s role in facilitating aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

“It was unfortunate to say the least, and it’s been corrected,” said Dujarric.

“A humanitarian convoy filled with life-saving food has crossed from Jordan into Gaza for the first time since conflict broke out in the Middle East,” the United Nations posted at 11:28 a.m. The tweet omitted Israel, through which the delivery passed between Jordan and Gaza, and which facilitated the delivery.

The United Nations linked to an article from the World Food Programme about the delivery, which also omitted the Jewish state.

Nearly 24 hours later, the United Nations sent out a new tweet: “A humanitarian convoy filled with life-saving food has crossed from Jordan via Israel into Gaza for the first time since conflict broke out.” The old tweet remains live, and the new tweet continues to link to the World Food Programme article.


IDF reveals massive Hamas tunnel network in Gaza’s Jabaliya, where it found 5 hostages’ bodies
The IDF reveals a large Hamas tunnel network in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya camp, where the bodies of five Israeli hostages were recovered earlier this month.

Troops of the 551st Brigade and Military Intelligence’s Unit 504 led the operation to retrieve the bodies of soldiers Warrant Officer Ziv Dado, Cpl. Nik Beizer and Sgt. Ron Sherman, and civilians Elia Toledano and Eden Zacharia.

The IDF had intelligence of two bodies of hostages being in the Jabaliya camp area, and located tunnel shafts during their scans.

The shafts, investigated by troops, including the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, revealed a massive tunnel network with two levels and an elevator heading down dozens of meters to a large hall and command center.

The IDF says the network had many branches used by Hamas to fight, including some tunnels going underneath a nearby school and hospital. One of the shafts led to the home of the former commander of Hamas’s northern Gaza brigade, Ahmed Ghandour, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The entire network was around a square kilometer in size.

Weapons and infrastructure used to manufacture weapons were also found in the tunnel, the IDF says.

The first two bodies, of Dado and Zacharia, were found on December 13, and three days later, the other three, Beizer, Sherman and Toledano, were located in a different area of the tunnel network.

The IDF says it has shown the families of the hostages the army’s investigation into the operation to retrieve their bodies.

The massive tunnel network was destroyed several days ago by the IDF, after it completed its scans of the area.
Israel finds Hamas bomb belts adapted for kids
The Israeli Defense Forces struck 200 terror infrastructure targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours and seized weapons belonging to Hamas, the IDF said on Sunday.

Among the facilities was a building in northern Gaza where civilians were staying that contained a Hamas weapons complex. Soldiers found explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of explosives, hundreds of grenades and intelligence documents, the IDF said. The weapons complex was located close to schools, a medical clinic and a mosque.

Briefing reporters on Saturday night, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari disclosed that over the course of the ground war that began on Oct. 27, Israeli forces have destroyed and seized approximately 30,000 explosive devices that were in Hamas’s possession, including anti-tank missiles and rockets.

“There is an immense amount of weaponry in Gaza; some, as happened today, are found in schools. During our current operation in the Daraj-Tufah [neighborhoods of Gaza City], we scanned schools and found weapons, including a significant amount of rockets and equipment belonging to Hamas’s naval commando unit. We seize the weapons, neutralizing Hamas’ terrorism capabilities,” Hagari said.


86 homes damaged in northern border kibbutz during weeks of rocket, missile fire from Lebanon

Northern most Israeli town of Metula devastation after continuous fire from Hezbollah



IDF releases names of 14 troops KIA in Gaza, including 10 in one day
The Israel Defense Forces has published the names of 14 soldiers killed in action in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, including 10 on Saturday.

Since the start of Israel’s ground invasion on Oct. 27, 153 troops have been killed; 486 soldiers have died since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7.

Nine of Saturday’s casualties were announced on Sunday, with four killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip when an anti-tank missile hit their armored personnel carrier. They were identified as Staff Sgt. David Bogdanovskyi, 19, from Haifa; Staff Sgt. Orel Bashan, 20, from Haifa; Staff Sgt. Gal Hershko, 20, from Yiftah; and Staff Sgt. Itamar Shemen, 21, from Lapid.

In addition, Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Issachar Farhi, 30, from Herzliya, and Master Sgt. (res.) Eliyahu Meir Ohana, 28, from Haifa, were killed by a booby-trap in central Gaza.

Sgt. First Class (res.) Elyassaf Shoshan, 23, from Jerusalem, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Ohad Ashur, 23, from Kfar Yona, were killed by an explosive device in central Gaza in the operation to expand the Netzer Corridor, which bisects the Strip from north to south.


U.S. Navy Shoots Down Four Houthi Drones in Red Sea
The Navy destroyer USS Laboon shot down four unmanned aerial vehicles Saturday in the Red Sea that originated from Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, U.S. Central Command said. The drones "were inbound" to the destroyer as it conducted a patrol in the southern Red Sea.

After shooting down the drones, the Laboon responded to distress calls after two commercial vessels came under attack on Saturday. "The M/V Blaamanen, a Norwegian-flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker, reported a near miss of a Houthi attack drone," CENTCOM said. "A second vessel, the M/V Saibaba, a Gabon-owned, Indian-flagged crude oil tanker, reported that it was hit by a one-way attack drone with no injuries reported....These attacks represent the 14th and 15th attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi militants since Oct. 17."

CENTCOM also said that two Houthi anti-ship missiles were fired into international shipping lanes in the Red Sea from Houthi-controlled areas on Saturday, but no ships reported being harmed.


MEMRI: Iranian Navy Deputy Commander Hamzeh Ali Kaviani On The Establishment Of The Red Sea Naval Coalition: 'For 15 Continuous Years We Have Been Carrying Out Missions In The Red Sea – This Is A Zone Of Conflict For [Iran's] Resistance Front Against The Arrogance [i.e. the U.S.] – And To Date, Our Fight Against The Americans And Israelis Has Been In Our Favor'

"Leaving Is Giving In to Hamas": The Old-Timers Who Stayed at the Kibbutz after October 7
After Oct. 7, all the members of the kibbutzim across from Gaza were told to leave.

Two months later, companies of soldiers are camped in the yards, but they're not the only ones living there. There are also a handful of kibbutz members who refused to leave, violating the evacuation order.

They are sons and daughters of the founders of these kibbutzim, which predate the state.

They have principles: do not abandon farmland, do not forgo your home, do not withdraw from settled ground, not even if the enemy threatens you with rifles and missiles.

They remember being shelled as children, they grew up in antitank trenches, they experienced firsthand the evacuation of communities under fire, and they - some of them now over 80 - are not about to repeat that.

Nurit Dvori, 75, was the first girl born on Kibbutz Be'eri. She and her husband Avraham, 79, have 15 grandchildren from five children, all of whom made their homes in Be'eri.

"I am not afraid to be at the kibbutz," Avraham says. "The danger has passed at this stage....The invasion that took place here isn't going to happen again."

Yankele Koffman, 70, a member of Kibbutz Re'im, didn't leave his home on Oct. 7.

"I told them: 'You can bring the police, as far as I am concerned you can bring an army - I'm not budging.' Someone has to turn on the water in the fields, right?"

"We sowed potatoes and wheat and got the field crops back on track....Everything is budding and green and growing the way it should in this season."
‘It reminded me of the Holocaust,’ says grandma freed from Gaza
Terrified, hungry and all alone in captivity in Gaza for over a month, Argentinian-born Ofelia Roitman hoarded small pieces of pita bread from the meager rations she received from her Hamas terrorist captors.

“It reminded me of the Holocaust,” said Roitman, 77. “I thought I was going crazy.” Kidnapping

On the morning of Oct. 7, the veteran educator had just settled into her safe room in Kibbutz Nir Oz, after sirens warned of incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip. She was home alone that holiday weekend, as her husband was recovering from a recent surgery. Suddenly, armed terrorists barged into her home.

Her last phone message to her daughter Natalie Madmon at 9:37 that morning was: “They are here, please please.”

The attackers sprayed the steel door of the safe room with bullets, with one hitting her arm. One of them used a shoelace as a tourniquet to tie up her arm before she was thrown face down in a tractor for the ride to Gaza.

Israeli soldiers who finally made it to her house saw no signs of her body or of a struggle, Madmon told JNS. Days later, her family was notified she was a hostage in Gaza. ‘I don’t treat Jews’

When she got to Gaza, Roitman was brought to a tunnel where a Palestinian woman doctor initially refused to bandage her wound.

“I don’t treat Jews,” she replied in English.

Her captor insisted the physician tend to her as needed.

Roitman was then driven in a wheelchair through the streets of Gaza for 20 minutes.

She was taken to an apartment where she would be held alone for the next 46 days with almost no food. Periodically, she would be taken to a doctor to tend to her injuries, dressed in a full Muslim head covering for women with only a slit for her eyes. Her captors warned her not to speak a word.

Once, captors asked her for the phone numbers of her family members in Israel, but, not wanting to reveal them, she said they were in her cellphone back home.


'I was a prize': Freed Hamas hostages share details of humiliation in captivity
The weekend's stormy weather did not deter a demonstration held at "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv by the families of Israelis who were abducted or have been missing since Oct. 7.

The gathered crowd heard the emotional testimony of one family members of those who are being held in Gaza, as well as one former hostage, Sharon Aloni Cunio. Sharon was released after 55 days in captivity, along with her 3-year-old twins Yuly and Ema, while her husband and brother-in-law are still being held in Gaza.

"On the way to captivity, we saw things that still haunt me at night and in the middle of the day. Sights that are burned into my memory," Sharon told the crowd. She says her young daughters are still unable to express what they went through, and will likely reveal the effects of the trauma as they grow older.

Also on Saturday, two former hostages released video testimonies of their experiences. Sapir Cohen, 29, who along with Sharon was part of the last group of Hamas hostages to be released during the week-long truce in November. For 55 days, she sat in captivity in Gaza. She was kidnapped alongside her partner Sasha, who remains trapped in the Strip.

On Saturday night, she put out a public message about her ordeal, addressing her partner in particular.

"I'm terrified by what he's going through over there," she says in the video, "Because all the strong men, they're the weak ones there. They're the ones who suffer the most agony."

She holds up her hands, showing off her nails with the letters of Sasha's name painted across 3 of her fingers. Sapir fears that with every day that passes, more hostages could be dying as a result of the dire conditions of captivity. "They simply can't keep living like this," she pleads.
Released hostages speak on the condition of Hamas captivity
Moran Stella Yanai, 40, and Sapir Cohen, 29 were held in Hamas captivity for over 50 days.




Kidnapped girl, nine, held hostage by Hamas for 50 days is making a remarkable recovery, smiling and singing and dancing to Beyonce, her father reveals

Chief rabbi urges pope to amend terrorism remarks
Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau on Sunday urged Pope Francis to retract recent comments in which he seemingly accused both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism.”

The request came after Francis deplored the death of two women at the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 16, which the Vatican blamed on Israel, as “terrorism,” and similar remarks last month after separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian families at the Vatican that were strongly condemned by Jewish groups.

“I heard your statement following the attack on two women who were in the church compound in Gaza. I too am very sorry for their unnecessary death, my customary opinion on killing and death. However, I wish to comment on one statement that was made: ‘terror.’ This statement, made in reference to the occurrence, is incorrect and even outrageous,” Lau’s letter began.

The chief rabbi noted that the war broke out after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in which the terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while around 240 others were abducted to Gaza.

“The State of Israel embarked on a just war in the face of attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen that threatened the very existence of the state. Islamic terrorism, which crosses almost all international borders, has reached our home. The murder, rape, vandalism and abuse suffered by civilians, the incessant calls for the destruction of Israel and the abduction of hundreds of innocents into captivity, including children, women, men and the elderly, forced upon us a war for our existence. A war for our survival. Our life,” Lau said.

“As a person who is knowledgeable of the world’s history, you are surely aware of the suffering of the Jewish people throughout the ages. The people who introduced the concept of one God and the values of the Torah—compassion, kindness and mercy—were forced to stand up for themselves.”


Jewish victim of NY gang ‘more than satisfied’ with attacker’s prison sentence
A New York court sentenced Mohammed Othman, who brutally attacked Joseph Borgen on May 20, 2021, to five-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday.

Othman assaulted and pepper-sprayed Borgen on Broadway near West 49th Street in the Diamond District while the latter was en route to a pro-Israel rally during the Israel-Gaza war (“Operation Pillar of Defense”). Othman pleaded guilty in October to second-degree assault as a hate crime.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin added five years of post-release supervision to Othman’s sentence. Prosecutors had asked for five years of incarceration for Othman, who was the second defendant in the case whom Mennin sentenced beyond what prosecutors sought.

“I think it sends a strong message about what happened,” Borgen told JNS of his attacker’s punishment. “Considering what we see going on in the city these days in terms of other incidents and other crimes, I’m more than satisfied with the result we got.”

Antisemitic slurs
Borgen was wearing a yarmulke when Othman and four other men ambushed him, shouting antisemitic slurs. Punched and kicked repeatedly and beaten with a crutch, Borgen suffered a concussion, wrist injury and black eye. His body was left bruised. He said he will require another wrist surgery and still deals with the incident’s lingering physical effects.

Video evidence showed Othman pepper-spraying Borgen three times and spraying a bystander who tried to protect Borgen. Othman was also recorded throwing a firework at a Jewish woman, burning her, from the back of a pickup truck.

Othman, 26, of Staten Island, had six prior arrests, including domestic violence charges.

Borgen believes the sentence was based on the premeditated nature of the attack and Othman’s repeated assaults.
Outraged Hummus Kitchen owner sounds off on NYC officials
A kosher Upper East Side cafe was subjected to a second antisemitic attack in four days — and the outraged owner is challenging the city to do something about it.

Hummus Kitchen on Second Avenue was targeted Sunday night by an unhinged woman who tried to cover up an Israel/US flag, pushed an employee, and stormed off after giving staff the middle finger, according to police and disturbing videos shared on social media.

The Sunday strike comes on the heels of a Dec. 13 incident in which a Paterson, NJ woman tried to tear down the restaurant’s flag in an antisemitic rampage before flinging soup at a worker and flipping the bird.

“I’m worried about my employees. I want them to feel comfortable,” owner Sharon Hoota, who is Israeli, told The Post.

“Of course I’m angry . . . and I’m very sorry that we need to feel scared to show our flags. The city doesn’t do anything to help us feel more protected.”

The NYPD has not arrested the first female attacker, dubbed the “Soup Nazi” online, despite The Post identifying and confronting Mayra Teke, 19, at her Paterson, NJ home last week.


Pro-Palestine protestors shut down NYC's 5th Avenue on 'Super Saturday' and hold up vile banners of Biden covered in BLOOD - as 142M shoppers hit the stores

Moment Carols by Candlelight is crashed by pro-Palestinian protesters - who drown out Christmas cheer with political chants: 'Disgraceful'

Pro-Palestinian protesters ambush stage of Christmas broadcast ‘Carols by Candlelight’
A live broadcast of Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight event has been disrupted by a pro-Palestinian protest.

Activists were seen ambushing the stage interrupting the family show, causing chaos on Christmas eve.

The moment a protester ambushed the stage was captured during the live television broadcast and has been slammed by viewers online as an ‘utter disgrace’.

Carols by Candlelight is an annual Christmas celebration run by the Vision Australia charity.

The broadcaster of the event, Channel Nine, cut away from the scenes of the protest in the live broadcast but the audio was still transmitted.




Pro-Palestinian protesters target Zara stores and bring Oxford Street to a standstill while chanting: 'while you're shopping, bombs are dropping'

The Harvard Double Standard
The Hamas terror attacks of October 7 and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza caused disruptions on many university campuses that moved concerns about campus speech from a limited constituency to front page news, exposing it to new audiences. The grilling of the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn by a Congressional committee on the topic of campus antisemitism generated intense coverage, and a near unanimous conclusion—by actors across the political spectrum—that the presidents did a poor job of explaining campus turmoil, how antisemitic speech and conduct were handled under prevailing campus policies, and what they might have done differently to protect their students. Public uproar, the resignation of both the UPenn president and board chair and a narrow escape from that fate by the Harvard president ensure that campus speech won’t soon recede back into the shadows. But the ability to create a campus environment in which students can express their views free of harassment depends on understanding the role of free speech and academic freedom in higher education.

Lost in much of the discussion of how to balance our freedoms with ensuring protection from harm is an appreciation of why universities exist in the first place: what are they for? The core mission of universities is to discover, explore and transmit knowledge, and free speech and academic freedom are fundamental to those goals. Despite the centrality of these values to the mission of the university, they’ve been under assault in recent years from two distinct directions. From one pole, members of the campus community have attempted to suppress views and voices that they perceive as offensive or harmful to vulnerable groups of people. They’ve shouted down, disinvited, shamed, and punished faculty and invited speakers for expressing views they oppose—sometimes with university complicity—more often without administrative comment or intervention. Many view this “cancel culture” as a major problem, while others see its prevalence and impact as exaggerated for political reasons. Whatever its extent, cancel culture has been amplified by programs under the rubric of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) established with noble intent—that have markedly expanded their scope and remit. Today, DEI programs promote speech codes inconsistent with free expression that lead many to self-censor, an outcome that encourages “cancel culture” by silencing its critics and emboldening its advocates. More limited in their goals at the outset, DEI programs and administrators now influence faculty recruitment and curricula, previously the sole dominion of the faculty.

In contrast to the two foregoing challenges of cancel culture and DEI, assaults on academic freedom have also arisen in public universities through government efforts to influence faculty hiring, curricula, and other faculty prerogatives. These actions are claimed to be justified by concerns that prevailing approaches produced politicized educational outcomes requiring state intervention. The first two challenges of cancel culture and DEI excesses generally arise within left-leaning campus cultures, and the third of government intrusion arises from right-leaning state governments. Holistic and productive discussion of these diverse threats to academic freedom has been limited by their links to progressive vs right wing political factions.
Harvard must wake up — Claudine Gay needs to be removed as president after antisemitism, plagiarism controversies
When Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, was forced out after she hemmed and hawed during congressional testimony about antisemitism on her campus, the battle cry from critics was “one down, two to go.”

The point was that the other two presidents who gave muddled and evasive answers that day should also walk the plank.

But three weeks later, Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of MIT have kept their jobs.

But in Gay’s case, not for long.

If my reading of the tea leaves is right, she is nearing the end of her brief and tumultuous tenure.

Her departure will come the moment Harvard’s governing board wakes up to the realization that protecting her at all costs is doing enormous damage to the university and its students.

Never in memory has the reputation of a top college fallen so far and so fast.

Donors, large and small, are abandoning Harvard in droves, and early admittance applications are down by 17%.

And that’s just the immediate reaction.

When it’s not being used as a punchline, Harvard is held up as an example of all that’s wrong with American higher education.

Gay and the board that hired her are both the cause and effect of that dramatic decline.

Her indifferent response to the Jew-hatred that erupted on campus following the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel could have been grounds enough for dismissal.

But when that was followed by her legalistic congressional testimony and then the revelations showing she repeatedly plagiarized other researchers, there is no longer any doubt she has to go.

What’s the argument for keeping her?

She’s not fit for the job, and, as the world now knows, never was.
New School students trample memory of their Zionist founder
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

The pro-Hamas students at Manhattan’s New School who recently blocked the entrance to campus trampled the memory of the Zionist scholar who co-founded the university, and of the refugees from Nazi genocide who served as its core faculty for decades.

For several hours on December 4, dozens of extremists physically prevented fellow-students from entering, waved Palestinian flags, and falsely accused Israel of committing genocide. One student walking by the pro-Hamas protesters told reporters that they encircled her and shouted accusations about her being a “colonizer.”

The protest was organized by the campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, which has praised the October 7 pogrom by Hamas in southern Israel, in which over 1200 Israelis were massacred, tortured, raped, or beheaded, with hundreds more abducted.

Before ditching class and picking up their bullhorns, the students should have taken a few minutes to read up on the history of their own school.

I wonder if they know, for example, that the university was co-founded by the philosopher Horace M. Kallen, who was one of the earliest leaders of the American Zionist movement. Kallen lectured and wrote tirelessly in support of creating a Jewish state in the Holy Land.

The New School’s Jewish roots don’t end there. In the 1930s, when many American universities refused to help German Jewish scholars who were trying to flee the Nazis, the New School stepped up. It created a new division, the University in Exile, for the specific purpose of rescuing fugitive professors.
GOP State Senators Demands UNH Action on Antisemitism; NHDems Silent
Following weeks of reports detailing ongoing instances of antisemitism at the University of New Hampshire, Granite State Senate Republicans on Thursday formally called on UNH administrators to “simply reaffirm its commitment to denouncing all hate speech and racism, especially those related to antisemitic hate.

“Following the horrendous terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, we’ve seen a sharp increase in antisemitic hate across the globe. This has ranged from physical and verbal attacks to targeting Jewish-owned businesses with graffiti to online hate speech and has led to fear and anxiety in the Jewish community. It is safe to say that no sensible person condones these actions or the perpetrators of them,” the senators wrote in a letter to UNH President James Dean. “Unfortunately, the University of New Hampshire has not been immune to this spreading hatred.”

None of the state’s 10 Democratic senators signed on to the statement, despite the letter featuring signatures from 13 of the 14 Republican senators.

The New Hampshire Senate Democratic Caucus and its leader, Sen. Donna Soucy (D-Manchester), declined to respond to requests for comment.

Senate President Jeb Bradley told NHJournal his Democratic colleagues were invited to participate in the letter but declined. They were also invited to make changes or additions to the widely-circulated statement, but declined to participate in the antisemitism statement.

“Had they [Democrats] done that, I would’ve taken it back to our caucus, and we would’ve discussed it,” Bradley said. “I think that Senate Democrats are into avoidance and thinking that it suits their interests better.”


JPost Editorial: US media now numb to antisemitism
Nationwide, American news media has gotten so used to antisemitic attacks across the United States that it has become numb to their existence, while most of the coverage is on local news outlets.

American Jews cannot remember when the rate of antisemitic attacks and vandalism has been so dramatic and violent. Since the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, antisemitic incidents in the US reached the highest number during any two months since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking them in 1979, according to preliminary data released recently.

Between October 7 and December 7, ADL recorded a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents, more than four times the 465 incidents recorded during the same period in 2022, representing a 337% increase.

This includes 40 incidents of physical assault, 337 of vandalism, 749 of verbal or written harassment, and 905 rallies where there was antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the State of Israel, and/or anti-Zionism. On average, over those 61 days, Jews in the US experienced nearly 34 antisemitic incidents daily.

The data showed a significant increase in antisemitic incidents, including a tragic one in Los Angeles where a Jewish man lost his life as a result of injuries received during an anti-Israel protest.

Approximately 250 incidents specifically targeted Jewish sites like synagogues and university Hillels. On college campuses, there was a noticeable rise in antisemitic activity, with 400 recorded incidents, a stark contrast to the mere 33 reported in the same time frame in 2022.
VICE ARABIA: HAMAS’ OCT. 7 MASSACRE LEGITIMATE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

‘Hamas Offered Hope’: Sky News’s Absurd Analysis of the October 7 Attacks

CAMERA’s Alex Safian appears on Mark Levin’s Life, Liberty and Levin
CAMERA’s Alex Safian joined Mark Levin on his top-rated FoxNews program Life, Liberty and Levin to discuss the abysmal media coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas, which was triggered by the terrorist organization’s horrific massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. Distorted, biased and inaccurate reporting by the New York Times, CNN and MSNBC was the major focus of the segment (11/12/23) – watch it here:


‘When did you stop beating your wife ’ reporting from the BBC
Eleven years have passed since the BBC vigorously promoted the unverified claim that the infant son of one of its employees in the Gaza Strip had been killed in an Israeli airstrike:

Had one assumed that perhaps the self-styled provider of ‘accurate and impartial’ news had learned something from that hasty and irresponsible coverage of a tragic incident which a UN investigation later showed was caused by a shortfall rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists, recent multi-platform reports featuring the same BBC employee indicate otherwise.

On December 21st the BBC News website published an article headlined “Israel Gaza: ‘I walked my kids past explosions and rotting corpses’”.

“After weeks of Israeli bombing, on 16 November Jehad El-Mashhrawi and his young family fled their home in northern Gaza. The BBC Arabic cameraman shares a vivid and shocking account of what he, his wife and children experienced as they headed south.”

Later the same morning, an audio version of that report (narrated by BBC Arabic’s Marwa Nasser) was aired on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme (from 2:44:51 here) and on the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newsday’ (from 07:36 here). On the afternoon of December 21st, that audio report was also aired on the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour’ (from 03:56 here).

“We hear about the traumatic journey of a BBC cameraman and his family forced to leave their home in northern Gaza.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: Hamas Detainees Photographed In Underwear Land Plus-Size Bra-Modeling Contract (satire)
Dozens of Gaza Strip militants who surrendered to Israeli forces in recent weeks have received offers from lingerie marketers to display the products on their ample, curvy bodies, a spokesman for Israel’s prison service disclosed today.

Lt. Col. Adi Poss told reporters that manufacturers and retailers of bras and underwear for the full-figured have contacted the prison service to express interest in using some of the captured Hamas fighters as models, having seen pictures of the men stripped to their underwear as a security measure, and thus displaying portions of the body well-suited to flattering presentation of the intimate apparel products.

“At least six companies have expressed interest,” noted Lt. Col. Poss. “The feasibility of any arrangement remains open to question, given the uncertainty of these men’s futures. Will they still be in captivity when arrangements are finally made? Can modeling the bras take place within the prison? It’s definitely possible, but obviously not a priority for us tight now.”

A representative of Victoria’s Secret volunteered that her company seeks to ascertain the practicality of using the well-fed captive Hamas personnel as models. “What first caught our attention was that they were obviously not unfamiliar with a good meal or two,” recalled the Vice President for Marketing, Ella Stick. “Victoria’s Secret switched back to more traditionally-shaped models last year, but we acknowledge the buying power of those whose bodies do not match the perfection on display in our advertising. VS still aims to signal to the full-figured woman that our products suit her, and the shapes of the men captured by Israel during the fighting would meet those requirements nicely.”


Chipmaker Nvidia raises $15m. for Israeli nonprofits helping war-hit civilians

Students of Moriah College in Australia sang Am Yisrael Chai in solidarity with Israel
The young students of Moriah College in Australia made this solidarity with Israel video by singing Eyal Golan's "Am Yisrael Chai" song together.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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