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Saturday, January 13, 2024

01/13 Links: Hamas sacrifices Gaza children, and UNRWA is complicit; A Lesson on Human Suffering from a Kibbutz; Why South Africa’s New Elite Hates Israel

From Ian:

Hamas sacrifices Gaza children, and UNRWA is complicit
The Israel-Hamas war has revealed many instances of Hamas’ misconduct toward Gaza’s children. On several occasions during its ground operation in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found Hamas’ military equipment hidden in schools, entrance hatches to Hamas tunnels under baby cribs, and rocket launchers placed in areas that children frequent. Various reports have also been published addressing the anti-Israel and antisemitic indoctrination and hate taught to Gaza’s children in their education system. For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, oversees a big part of Gaza’s education system, and its teaching curriculum and the behavior of its staff since Oct. 7 have shown that incitement against Jews and Israel is a large part of their activities.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based organization that monitors the UN, published a report on Wednesday exposing how Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities were extensively celebrated in a 3000-member Telegram group composed of UNRWA’s staff. In November, an Israeli organization called IMPACT-SE also published an extensive report detailing the connection between education received in UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip and the Oct. 7 massacres carried out by Hamas.

Dina Rovner, Legal Advisor at UN Watch, told The Media Line that this is a long-standing issue. She explained that since 2015, UN Watch has exposed more than 150 UNRWA staff Facebook pages that incite antisemitism and jihadi terrorism. “We have always maintained that the Facebook posts are just a symptom of a much more systemic problem—the fact that UNRWA hires antisemitic and terror-supporting staff in the first place,” said Rovner.

“These are not just a few bad apples as UNRWA likes to claim,” she continued, noting that the Telegram group “shows that when UNRWA teachers think nobody is watching them, they openly promote Hamas terrorism, glorify the terrorists as ‘martyrs’ and ‘heroes,’ and believe this is a wonderful path for Palestinian children to follow,” she added.

Education system gave Hamas a 'golden opportunity' to indoctrinate kids
Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Herzliya, said that the indoctrination of children is a core tactic used by Hamas. “When Hamas got to power in 2007, it got a golden chance to have open access to also funding and to the school system to indoctrinate those kids from a young age,” he told The Media Line.

In addition to the curriculum of the UNRWA schools and the ones operated by Hamas, Barak noted that there are many other techniques used by the terror organization for this end.

Barak cited the case of a magazine used by Hamas called Al-Fateh. “There is an interesting section in this magazine, called ‘Wills of the Martyr.’ In this section are published the stories of Hamas martyrs to glorify the image of martyrs and stress why it is so important for the children to follow the Palestinian martyrs who sacrifice their own lives for the liberation of Palestine,” he added.

Furthermore, Hamas also has special summer schools where it trains children to use rifles and to do physical exercises and simulations to kill Israeli soldiers. Video games simulating killing soldiers are also part of this indoctrination system, according to Barak.

However, Hamas’ child abuse is not only limited to incorporating hate into the children’s education. Kids are also used as human shields by terror organizations as weapons are stored in institutions that children attend and frequent, including the rocket launchers used to attack Israeli towns.
John Spencer: A Lesson on Human Suffering from a Kibbutz
Kfar Aza was the site of a pre-planned, pre-meditated slaughter of an entire village. It was not, as I had seen in the dumpsters of social media, civilians accidentally caught in Hamas’ crossfire, as they attacked military sites.

Bullet holes are seen in a window where militants attacked during the October 7th massacre on January 04, 2024 in Kfar Aza, Israel. Noam Galai-Getty Images

At the U.S. Army’s elite Ranger School, I taught soldiers how to conduct sophisticated raids and pull off ambushes with clock-like precision. What I saw at Kfar Aza was a highly planned and executed attack.

The first Hamas terrorists arrived by paraglider. A few dozen at first, then more, quickly moved to seal the village’s perimeter. Snipers moved to support by fire positions on key high ground to cut the armory in the village off from the men in the village.

Another platoon of Hamas fighters edged their way deeper into Israel to establish ambushes along key roads to Kfar Aza where any outside military support would come.

They acted methodically and with a level of care that would make any commander envious. They planted anti-tank and anti-personnel mines to established a deliberate defense of the village’s perimeter. They brought pint-size medical kits to care for their wounded, including morphine. They packed their own food—dates and figs, mostly.

Once isolated, they went house to house, methodically killing, mutilating, and kidnapping. Their tools were the familiar stuff of asymmetric warzones: AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), a variety of grenades, kidnapping kits of plastic flex cuffs. They even had specially designed incendiary grenades (to burn houses).Less familiar to modern warzones was the large butcher knives they left behind.

Many of the terrorists were reportedly high on the drug captagon, an amphetamine like speed with hallucinogenic features. Each of the death squads had its own guidebook including instructions like —take the tires from the Israelis’ vehicles, light the tires on fire and throw them into the houses, it will kill and burn them at the same time. There was little thought given on which house to burn first. The randomness of evil is part of its sickness.

As I walked through the village, I saw scene after scene of this evil sickness—children’s rooms riddled with bullets, blood splattered LEGOs. Entire families slaughter and their bodies burned clutching each other. The most awful were the safe rooms.

Every house in the kibbutz has what, in effect, resembles a bomb shelter. Many turned into nurseries or kids rooms. They had windows and thin doors that could not lock. When the alarms sounded, most civilians entered these underground bunkers thinking they were safe. Yet they became the scenes of some of the most horrific acts.

I heard stories of parents clutching the door shut by hand, as bullets strayed by. A terrorist appeared suddenly at the window—like something out of a bad horror film. A father or mother full of bullet holes holding the door closed with their last breaths as the terrorist yanked it open.

They sprayed the bunkers with bullets or tossed in a grenade, smoke from burning tires filled the room. All life was soon exterminated.

The killing continued for hours. Over time what appeared to be non-Hamas Gazans arrived and scavenged the houses for loot, stepping over dead women, children, elderly. Some spirited Israelis back into Gaza.

The last house I entered was a house of a slain young couple that were due to be married very soon. Instead, flies, a splattering of blood, and the smell of death. The celling was riddled with holes from a terrorist grenade.

When I left the house, I was confronted by the parents of a young man who died in the house. I was not ready for that. As a parent, what do you say to a parent who’s lost a piece of themselves in this way? I froze up.
Seth Mandel: Why the Houthis Matter
The Houthis are what you get when you combine slavery and colonialism, two things we are routinely told progressives are against. Their supporters are possibly the most morally blinkered humans on this or any other planet.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who makes no secret of his desire to be secretary of state (still holding out hope for a Bernie Sanders presidency, apparently), has led the effort in Congress to protect the Houthis from being added back to the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The Houthis were removed from the list by President Biden in a decision that has aged like milk. The move was rewarded with Houthi attacks on Americans. Re-listing them is a no-brainer, though it does not appear to be under consideration.

This is the third front in the region where Iranian troops have attacked Americans or American allies The other two are Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon. In each case, the response from progressive lawmakers has been to criticize the American coalition. On Tuesday, a U.S. ship and its naval escorts were attacked. Of course the U.S. returned fire.

What does all this tell us? That the U.S. coalition is up against two specific ideological currents among Americans and that these ideologies are etched in stone thanks to negative partisanship. The first is among the “progressive street,” as I referred to them yesterday. This cohort is in perpetual protest mode, with violence and vandalism as its twin dialects. Its adherents have shown us that they will rally the crowds for the very worst people in the world, so long as those evil regimes hate America or the Jews. They are like windup toys: When some foreign autocrat wants to rev them up, he will do so, and on they’ll march.

The second ideological group consists of the members of Congress who took Iran’s side against Saudi Arabia and seem to have superglued their hands in place. The Saudis and Tehran took major steps toward easing tensions and negotiating over a possible truce in Yemen thanks to Chinese intervention. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Saudis have facilitated historic breakthroughs between the Arab states and Israel that have massively strengthened the U.S.-led alliance and its position on the global stage. Yet these lawmakers’ instinctive backing of Iran has become impervious to any external factors. Which means there is no foreseeable development in Yemen that will change their posture toward the Houthis.

So there is an entrenched, not-insignificant part of the president’s own party sitting in permanent objection to specific U.S. foreign-policy goals, and there is a protest movement that can be set to destabilize domestic politics at almost any time.

The Houthis are, in some ways, the least of our problems. But they are key to understanding most of the others.


In Gaza, Israel Can Win the War But Not the Peace
The most important task of the IDF operation in Gaza is to destroy the tunnels, a protracted, arduous, perilous activity. To the extent that Israel can destroy these subterranean redoubts, whatever remains of Hamas will have to operate above ground, where it will be vulnerable to Israeli firepower.

The Biden administration has made known its preference that the Palestinian Authority (PA), now ensconced in the West Bank, take responsibility for governing Gaza after the main fighting concludes. The PA is unlikely, however, to be either willing or able to stop attacks on Israel. It is weak, corrupt, ineffective, and unpopular with Palestinians.

Moreover, the political outlooks of the PA and Hamas have considerable overlap. The PA, too, churns out vile anti-Jewish propaganda. It, too, insists that all those Arabs who left Israel when it was created in 1948 - most of them because of the war that the Arabs instigated in an effort to destroy the new Jewish state - and all of their many descendants must be allowed to return to Israel, a demand that not only has no historical or legal basis but is also a formula for the end of the Jewish state.

The PA supports anti-Israel terror, giving money to the families of those who engage in it. Its leaders, first Yasir Arafat and now Abbas, have always refused Israeli offers of a state and have never made any serious counter proposals. In so doing they have been listening to their constituents. Polls of Palestinian opinion have shown an overwhelming rejection of having two states, Israel and Palestine, living peacefully next to each other. Most Palestinians do not accept the legitimacy or the permanence of Israel.

All this makes Palestinian nationalism the only one that has as its aim not the creation of its own nation-state but rather the destruction of the state of another people. Nor will the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza change the Palestinians' attitudes toward the Jews and their state. To the contrary, it is all too likely to be regarded as a sign of Israeli weakness, thereby fortifying those attitudes.

Palestinian rejection of Israel is the essential, animating cause of the conflict between the two peoples. Israelis do not have the power to change it; they can only respond to its consequences.
67% of Arab world: October 7 was 'legitimate resistance' against Israel
A new opinion poll, carried out by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, was published on January 10. The poll, which collected data from 8,000 Arab respondents from 16 countries, aimed to determine how Arab populations perceived the Israel-Hamas war.

Amongst one of the many findings of the survey, it was noted that 67% of respondents perceived Hamas’s October 7 attack, categorized by the survey as “the military operation carried out by Hamas,” as “a legitimate resistance operation.” The survey results clarified that 19% answered that the attack was legitimate but “flawed,” 3% said it was legitimate but “involved heinous or criminal acts” and only 5% called the attack “illegitimate.”

Why did Hamas attack, according to respondents?


While many have seen Hamas’s attack on Israel as a proxy war for Iran, only 2% of respondents agreed, while 35% of Arab respondents stated their belief that the number one reason behind the attack was “The ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.”

The second most given reason was “Defending al-Aqsa Mosque against attacks,” which 24% of respondents affirmed as their believed reason.

The al-Aqsa Mosque has been a source of tension as it is located above the Temple Mount, a holy site for both Jews and Christians. While non-Muslims now have permission to attend their holy site via the Moors Gate, they are forbidden from praying there which has created increased tension. Jewish activists have repeatedly tried to pray at the site, which has been met with escalating conflict.

While 24% argued that defending the mosque was the most important reason behind the attack, a Hamas rocket would have landed on the holy site in December, if Israel’s Iron Dome system hadn’t prevented the attack.

Only 8% of the respondents felt the “[t]he ongoing blockade of Gaza” was the main reason for the attack, with a further 12% claiming it to be the second most important reason. Advertisement
South Africa's Gaza genocide case against Israel is just the beginning
Malcolm Shaw, who leads the Israeli legal team, refuted the South African jurisdiction claim, showing that Israel did respond to the letters and that it did in fact invite South Africa to open a dialogue over Gaza. Shaw said that South Africa is misleading the court by pretending otherwise.

He did not say out loud what was clear to all of us, on the Israeli side, that South Africa had sent these letters with one goal in mind, to establish the jurisdiction basis for the complaint they later filed to the International Court of Justice. He didn’t say what seemed to be obvious, that every reaction Pretoria officially issued against Israel since the ground operation was launched, was planned and premeditated, ahead of the Hague.

Unfortunately, in the world we live in, the explanations presented by Shaw might not be enough. International bodies exist to mediate between countries. A world without conflicts need not international organizations. More than that, the war in Gaza has stirred strong emotions across the globe. It is difficult to see the court backing away from the opportunity of having a say.

After two days in the Hague, it seems that the Israeli team might feel the same. Indeed, it is hard to imagine the court accepting South Africa’s allegation that Israel carried out genocidal acts, but the court can easily issue an order – a provisional measure in legal terms – for Israel to halt its military operation in Gaza. The mandate of the court enables that. One does not hinge on the other.

And there is also something else. Having witnessed the well-prepared presentation by the South African team one can only wonder what else is in store for Israel in the coming weeks.

The obvious response would be complaints against Israeli military officers and Israeli elected at the International Criminal Court, also located in the Hague, for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. It might not be South Africa itself submitting such complaints, but would it really matter who will officially be behind that?
Why South Africa’s New Elite Hates Israel
Finally, there is also just the phenomenon of classic antisemitism. The Afrikaner nationalists of the apartheid regime had been pro-Nazi during the Second World War; and elements of the anti-apartheid movement also nurtured a resentment of Jews. Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate who was seen as the voice of moral conscience in the anti-apartheid movement, also embraced “replacement theology,” which denigrates Jews for rejecting Christ. These views are marginal — but they are part of the mix.

Thus South Africa has eagerly volunteered to accuse Israel of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), an inversion of reality in which the victims of Hamas’s genocidal terror stand accused for defending themselves (a right South Africa says that Israeli Jews do not have). Elements of South Africa’s arguments featured classic antisemitic themes.

Notably, South Africa has also tried to shield actual genocidal regimes from international judicial scrutiny. It has only targeted Israel –the Jewish state.

The consequences are starting to reverberate through South African society. On Friday, South African cricket officials removed the under-19 team’s Jewish captain, David Teeger, for innocuous pro-Israel remarks. The only acceptable Jews are the small, radical minority who declare that they, too, hate Israel.

How ironic that a country once banned from international competition for racism has brought bigotry back into sports. It proves the old adage that antisemitism destroys the societies that embrace it.


Germany joins UN case on Israel's behalf, says 'no basis' for genocide charge
Germany's government said Friday that it will request to join the International Court of Justice case as a third party on Israel's behalf, saying there is "no basis whatsoever" for genocide accusations.

Under the court's rules, if Germany files a declaration of intervention in the case, it will be able to make legal arguments to support Israel at the merits phase of this case to address how the genocide convention should be interpreted, legal experts say.

"That would come after the court issues its decision on South Africa's request for urgent measures to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza," said international lawyer Balkees Jarrah, associate director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, in an interview from The Hague where she attended the ICJ hearings.

Berlin's support for Israel carries some symbolic significance given Germany's Nazi history.

"Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel," German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement Friday. "Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas."

"We know that different countries assess Israel's operation in Gaza differently," Hebestreit said. "However, the Federal Government firmly and expressly rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been made against Israel at the International Court of Justice."

Hebestreit said Germany "sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide." He added: "We firmly oppose political instrumentalization,"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, saying the gesture "touches all of Israel's citizens."


Erdogan Attacks US and Britain for Striking Houthis, Says Turkey Providing Evidence to ICJ Against Israel
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday lambasted the US and Britain for launching military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, continuing his harsh anti-Western rhetoric since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

“All that has been done is a disproportionate use of force,” Erdogan said after Friday prayers in Istanbul, referring to the strikes in Yemen. “At the moment, they are trying to turn the Red Sea into a sea of blood and Yemen, with the Houthis and by using all of its force, says it is and will give the necessary response in the region to the United States, Britain.”

The US and Britain overnight launched dozens of air strikes across Yemen in retaliation against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control much of the country including the capital, for attacks on Red Sea shipping. Houthi forces have carried out several attacks on ships heading to Israel to support the Palestinians since the eruption of the war in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.

The rebel movement — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — has also claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel itself.

As a result of the Red Sea attacks, a number of major shipping lines have announced they would forgo the vital trade route and instead opt for a longer, pricier journey around Africa.

Turkey, a NATO member, has previously condemned Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and supported UN-led talks between the Houthi rebels and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Nonetheless, Erdogan said Turkey heard from various channels that the Houthis were conducting a “very successful defense, response” against the US and Britain, adding that Iran was looking at “how it can protect itself against all that is happening.”


Trudeau allergic to supporting Israel without a thousand caveats

Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, ‘Game of Thrones’ Stars Support South Africa’s Genocide Charges Against Israel
A group of prominent celebrities including Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, and HBO’s Game of Thrones stars Lena Headey and Charles Dance is lending their support to South Africa’s genocide accusations against Israel, which is currently playing out in the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The actors appear in a new video from an anti-Israel activist group called Palestine Festival of Literature, which promotes itself as an organization committed to “the creation of language and ideas for combating colonialism in the 21st century.”

In the video, the actors read aloud from South Africa’s dossier accusing Israel of genocide in its military response to the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 in which 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered.

In its dossier, South Africa also accuses Israel of a “75-year-long apartheid,” a “56-year-long belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory,” and “its 16-year-long blockade of Gaza.”

The video also includes appearances by actors Steve Coogan, Alia Shawkat, and Wallace Shawn.

Wallace Shawn is a leading member of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which has blamed the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the United States.


On eve of 100 days of war, PM pledges ‘complete victory,’ dismisses genocide claims
Israel will continue its war against Hamas “to the end — until complete victory,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Saturday evening, dismissing South African claims that his government was carrying out genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“We will restore security to both the south and the north. No one will stop us — not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil and not anyone else,” he said, addressing reporters during a press conference held at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.

According to the prime minister, an update to the 2024 budget set to be voted on Sunday, which has been sharply criticized for its many cuts, “will enable the continuation of the war.”

“We are on the path to victory and we will not stop until we achieve victory,” he said.

He recalled that he recently told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that “this is not only our war, this is also your war. This is a war against the axis of evil led by Iran.”

Condemning the “hypocritical attack in The Hague on the Jewish state that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust,” Netanyahu argued that last week’s hearing before the International Court of Justice, coming as it did on the heels of Hamas’s attempt to “perpetrate another Holocaust on the Jews,” constituted “a moral low in the history of nations.”

“Notice the depth of the absurdity and hypocrisy — the supporters of the new Nazis dare to accuse us of genocide. Whom do they support? Murderers, rapists, baby-burners? What an embarrassment, what an embarrassment,” he said.

“The State of Israel, the IDF and our security forces are fighting a moral and just war,” he continued, declaring that “this international defamation campaign will not weaken our hands or weaken our determination to fight to the end.”
PM Netanyahu gives a statement, takes questions on the eve of the 100th day of the war

On 99th day of war, IDF chief says military pressure is key to freeing more hostages
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a press statement in southern Israel Saturday night that only military pressure would bring about the return of more hostages from Gaza.

With the war against Hamas set to reach its 100-day mark Sunday, Halevi said the Israel Defense Forces was “acting via all means, mostly covert, in order to bring back [the hostages] and will continue to do so until we return them all.”

To “bring about real results, we must continue to operate in the enemy’s territory and not allow attempts [by Hamas] to reach a ceasefire through blackmail.

“Hamas leadership is pinning its hopes on a cessation of hostilities and is convinced that this moment is near… In order to dismantle Hamas, we need to have patience,” Halevi continued.

Saying that forces operating in Gaza were continuing to uncover “an actual military industry,” he vowed the IDF “will continue to attack, pursue and destroy.”

On Saturday, the IDF said it thwarted planned Hamas rocket launches, took out a command center used by the terror group and eliminated multiple cells of gunmen operating in the enclave.

It also confirmed the death of an Israeli soldier killed Friday in central Gaza, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 187. He was named as Master Sgt. (res.) Dan Wajdenbaum, 24, of the Yiftah Brigade’s 5037th Battalion, from Ra’anana.
IDF Chief of Staff gives statement ahead of the war’s 100-day mark

CIA said to have established task force to locate top Hamas leaders, hostages
The US Central Intelligence Agency set up a new task force in the wake of the October 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel that is gathering intelligence on the location of senior leaders of the terror group and the hostages it is holding in Gaza, and sharing the information with Israel, The New York Times reported Friday, citing US officials.

According to the report, the directive to create the new task force was sent out by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in the wake of the attack in which some 3,000 Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians and taking another 240 hostages. Several US citizens were among the dead and captured.

The Office of the US Director of National Intelligence has also bumped up Hamas on its list of priorities from a low level four status before October 7 to a more urgent level two. Level one is reserved for major American foes like Iran, North Korea, Russia and China.

According to the report, the US has already started transferring information to Israel on the location of senior leaders. However, it is not clear how effective this has been; none of the major leaders in Gaza has yet been killed or captured.

The report noted that the US did not give Israel information leading to the killing of deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri. Arouri was killed in a drone strike in Beirut on January 2 in an attack widely attributed to Israel, although Jerusalem has not confirmed it.

It also noted that even if the information has been given to Israel on the location of top leaders like Yahya Sinwar, or Hamas’s shadowy military chief Mohammed Deif, Israel may not be able to immediately act on the information.
Israel Notifies Cairo it Will Launch Op to Seize Control of Gaza’s Border With Egypt – Report
Israel has notified Egypt it is preparing to operate along the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Egypt and Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The announcement could ratchet up the tensions between Jerusalem and Cairo.

Israel leadership believes control of the border area is key to block Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza.

The operation is likely to involve removing Hamas from a key crossing point and stationing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops along a stretch of land from Gaza’s southeastern corner abutting both Israel and Egypt, WSJ cited Israeli officials as saying.

“There is no chance we will allow this crossing to operate as it did before,” Michael Milshtein, a former head of the Department for Palestinians Affairs in Israeli military intelligence, told the publication.
Seth Frantzman: Meet the IDF unit ensuring Israeli tanks are battle ready for Gaza
In this war, the IDF and the world are once again learning how important tanks are. Over the past decade, there have been some voices covering military affairs who believed tanks would play less of a role in the future battlefield.

This is because drones, special forces, and other units might play a larger role. However, in the Ukraine war and in Gaza, it has become clear how important tanks are.

The long operation in Gaza, which was at about 80 days of fighting when I met Tal, is unique for the IDF. Many of the men in the tanks have never seen such a long campaign.

Nevertheless, motivation is high.

Like many people in Israel, Tal was awakened on the morning on Oct. 7 by news of the surprise attack. He was in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel when he received a call from one of the men in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade. The soldier said that Hamas was attacking and shooting. From that moment, it was clear that the attack was a major incident. It took time for the 7th Armored to fully prepare, while some of its tanks were fighting in Zikim and other areas on the border. From the first week, men like Tal were involved in repairing tanks and sending them back to the fight. Israel called up hundreds of thousands of reservists, and soon all the operations needed to keep units like this in the field were ready.

The tanks are equipped with the latest active protection system, the Trophy system (“windbreaker” in Hebrew), made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems; it is used to defend against missiles and RPGs. This system has been around for more than a decade, is also used by US tanks, and has been acquired for tanks in Germany and other countries. This war is a test for the system because the war is long and hard, and the enemy is well armed. The system is functioning as expected, Tal says.

“The tanks have a lot of sensors and cameras,” he says, “with new types of protection [like Trophy]. It’s like Iron Dome – you don’t have 100% success. Some tanks get hit by RPGs. Some can hit the tank, but we have technology to protect the soldiers. The Trophy is effective, and we see it,” he says.

After Hamas used drones against tanks on Oct. 7, the IDF now has improvised fences that serve as important protective canopies to stop drones. The IDF calls them “pergolas.” I asked Tal about them. “We did a number of things to protect. We added the pergola against drones and other protective things, which I can’t mention, so the soldiers feel secure and believe in the tool.”

Damaged tanks or those in need of repairs to things like treads are being turned around quickly to go back into battle. Tal says that usually they can get a tank back into action within 24 hours. Ninety percent of the tanks are still in the field even after 80 days of war.

The treads of the tank are one of the main issues they face in repairs. Tracked vehicles like tanks are not made to drive on roads, but in Gaza they have many different environments to navigate. Vehicles like this do better in sand-type terrain. Engines also need replacing sometimes.

“We have all the spare parts that we need,” Major Tal affirms.
Ryan McBeth (video): Why Israel Destroys Palestinian Homes
Al Quds tactics and consequences in Gaza

Israel has been destroying many Palestinian homes in Gaza, but Al Quds and other militant organization have been launching rockets from these same homes.

How do you fight this without bringing down the building?
Drones, street gangs: How Hamas planned to attack Israeli civilians worldwide
Israeli intelligence organizations have been working in collaboration with their European counterparts to counter Hamas in Europe, they announced via the Prime Minister's Office on Saturday evening.

Hamas has been working with criminal elements to procure drones for planned attacks across Europe and the Middle East, as ordered by the senior Hamas leadership.

In December, the security services and police in Denmark and Germany announced the arrest of an extensive network of Hamas operatives in Europe, those arrested have since had legal proceedings opened against them.

Further arrests came earlier this week in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

More information regarding the arrests in Europe is restricted due to the ongoing legal cases in the respective countries.

Terrorists and European street gangs


The assassination of Saleh Arouri earlier this month is linked to the arrests, with the claim being that he was involved in ordering operations across Europe and the Middle East. The two other men killed in the strike that killed Arouri were Samir Fandi and Azzam Akre, both fellow senior Hamas commanders.

Akre had commanded Khalil al-Kharaz the former deputy commander of Hamas forces in Lebanon until his assassination in November.

Kharaz was in charge of the Hamas cells operating in Europe, the very same ones arrested by European security services, which had been involved in the purchase of drones for planned attacks.

Kharaz is claimed to have been involved in building relations with a Danish street gang called "LTF - Loyal To Familia," who were banned by Denmark in 2021.

LTF is charged with working on behalf of Hamas in Europe, including but not limited to Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, with some members now believed to be operating out of Lebanon.

The use of local criminal gangs as a facade for terror activity is a common element of Iranian intelligence and terror operations, often used to maintain a space for denial of involvement.


West Bank: Three Palestinian Terrorists Killed in Foiled Infiltration Bid
Israeli security forces late on Friday killed three Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated the Jewish community of Adora in the southern West Bank.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson later on Saturday stated that one soldier was wounded during the operation. Twelve hours after the infiltration, the Israeli military said the Adora residents could leave their houses.

“Following an alert about the infiltration of terrorists in the Adora settlement in the West Bank, terrorists fired towards an IDF force patrolling the area” and were killed in the firefight.

“During the searches conducted by soldiers in the area, they eliminated the three assailants in the area near the community a short while after the shooting. Additionally, an M-16 rifle, an axe, knives, and additional weapons were found on the assailants.”

Shin Bet later said that the terrorists behind the attack were teens and had no no prior arrests.


So much for the EU sticking together!: Top former Royal Navy commander accuses France, Italy and Germany of ‘lacking the will to fight’ after they refused to join Britain and America’s defence of the Red Sea

'The world is running out of patience': Defence Secretary Grant Shapps warns Iran to stop encouraging the Houthis to intervene in Israel and Gaza conflict as it emerges no UK aircraft carriers can be sent to Red Sea due to staffing crisis

Houthis drill October 7-like raid on Israeli town, including hostage-taking

‘Ignorant bile!’ Tory MP demands Baroness Warsi be kicked out of party over Houthi tweet
A senior Conservative Party peer in the House of Lords has sparked outrage after implying Houthi rebels had been driven to attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea because of the world’s failure to stop the “racist” Israel government.

Baroness Warsi, who served as Tory party chairwoman under David Cameron, posted a lengthy statement on X/Twitter to her 200,000 followers saying the “failure of the world to stop the killing in Gaza” had triggered the UK-US military action against the Yemen militants.

She took her views to the public forum to argue argued that Britain’s “misplaced and misjudged” support for the Israeli government - which she describes as “corrupt, self-confessed racists and convicted terrorists” - is a “grave error”.

The senior Tory peer claimed Britain “will look back at this and be ashamed of how we stood by as a genocide unfolded before our eyes in real time and a regional conflict escalates because we lacked the moral courage to say stop the killing”.

However her post led to instant outrage from supporters of Israel, and Britain’s military action against the Houthis.

A fellow Conservative Peer, Lord Wolfson, responded on Twitter accusing Ms Warsi of appeasing terrorism, parodying her view as: The next time theocratic Islamists bomb our brave soldiers abroad or murder our innocent civilians at home, we’ll all know who to blame … the Israelis”.

Islamic terrorism researcher Khaled Hassan described her claims as “appalling”, while former No. 10 advisor Jennifer Powers said: “That this woman was ever a member of my political party will never stop being a source of shame”.

A Tory MP has now told the Express that Baroness Warsi “should be thrown out of the party”.

“The Conservative Party should have no place for those who oppose action against racist murderous terrorist groups.”


Israelis mark 100 days of Gaza hostages' captivity, block Ayalon highway
The Hostages and Missing Families' Forum called on the Israeli government to hold their cabinet meeting at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square in a special rally held on Saturday evening to mark 100 days of captivity in Gaza of those kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.

The rally included protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. Protesters later blocked the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, with the Forum denying its involvement in the blocking of the highway.

Six suspects were arrested on suspicion of disturbing order, Israel Police said in a statement. The highways were later cleared of protesters.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who sent a recorded message to be screened at the Hostages' Square, was pictured holding a shirt bearing the "Bring Them Home Now" slogan, CRIF shared on X. In his message, Macron told the families of the Gaza hostages that they could trust him to "bring them all home."

Tunnel exhibit unveiled in Tel Aviv
A nearly 100-foot long (30-meter) tunnel exhibit was unveiled at the plaza, opened ahead of the rally. The exhibit stood just feet away from the Shabbat table set up in honor of the kidnapped, set up in their honor in the earliest days of the war.

Constructed by industrial artist Roni Levavi, the tunnel was built to simulate how life in a tunnel would appear to those held by Hamas. The dark tunnel drew large crowds throughout the day and was filled with signatures of captive family members who accessed the exhibit before the general public.

The tunnel was filled with messages of hope, posters for missing loved ones, and pleas for help in English and Hebrew: bring them home now. Family members of the captives who visited went through with markers to write their remarks inside the exhibit. While walking through the dark tunnel, sounds resembling exploding bombs played on a loop.
‘We feel the claustrophobia every minute’: Hostages’ families build mock Hamas tunnel

Call Me Back PodCast: The Houthis and The Hague – with Nadav Eyal
Hosted by Dan Senor
In recent days, two big stories have gotten a lot bigger. The U.S. and U.K. have launched air and missile strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday and today, marking a significant response after the U.S. Government warned that this Iran-backed (and Iran armed, trained, and financed) militant/terrorist group would be held responsible for its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. But how did the Houthis — rather than Hezbollah — find themselves as the primary Iran-backed proxy responding to the Hamas-Israel war? And what does U.S. and U.K. action against them tell us about this war? Is it widening?

At the same time, Israel finds itself at the International Court of Justice, having to defend itself againt the charge of committing genocide against the Palestinians, because of Israel’s response to Hamas’s attempted genocide.

Our guest is NADAV EYAL, who joins us from Europe, having just been at the Hague, where he was covering the court proceedings. He is a columnist at Yediiot. Eyal is one of Israel’s leading journalists, and a winner of the Sokolov Prize, Israel’s most prestigious journalism award. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. He received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


Sanders urges Biden to distance himself from Netanyahu and his ‘horrific’ war
US Senator Bernie Sanders has called on US President Joe Biden to put distance between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “the horrific war he is waging against the Palestinian people.”

Sanders told The Guardian that being pro-Israel does not mean that Washington needs to support the Israeli premier. US support for the war in Gaza could be one of a number of issues that will lead progressive Democratic voters to not cast their ballots for Biden in the November 2024 presidential elections, he added.

When asked about the fact that he has notably not called for a full ceasefire in Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group, gaining the ire of his progressive colleagues, and whether the issue could cause splits in his wing of the party, Sanders said: “I think, at the end of the day, we’ll be alright.”

Sanders has said that a permanent ceasefire could lead to Hamas repeating the terror onslaught of October 7.

“I think Israel has the right to defend itself and to go after Hamas, not the Palestinian people,” he told CBS in December.

He did not say how he envisioned such a campaign could be waged.

A Gallup poll conducted between December 1 and December 20 found a record share of the United States public thinks that the US government is not doing enough to support Israel in the war.

When asked by Gallup if they believed that the US was giving adequate support to Israel, 38 percent of respondents said that Israel receives the right amount of support. An additional 36% of people said Israel is getting too much support, while 24% said it isn’t getting enough.

According to Gallup, which has been asking the same question periodically since 2001, the 24% who say that the US isn’t doing enough for Israel is the highest figure it has ever recorded.
S.F. Mayor London Breed denounces supervisors’ cease-fire measure after anguished letter from Haifa counterpart
San Francisco Mayor London Breed took the rare step on Friday of speaking out against a cease-fire resolution by the Board of Supervisors, criticizing the body for taking up “complex matters over which we have absolutely no jurisdiction.”

Breed’s statement, which her office sent to J., came after the supervisors passed a cease-fire measure in an 8-3 vote on Tuesday during a highly contentious public meeting that saw frequent interruptions and was gaveled to order many times.

Breed’s statement also came one day after she received a stark and pained letter from an Israeli mayor with whom she has close professional ties — Einat Kalisch-Rotem, the mayor of Haifa.

Kalisch-Rotem, who in 2018 became the first woman elected mayor of a major Israeli city, sent a Jan. 11 missive to Breed criticizing the resolution’s “one-sided nature” and asking Breed to veto it. The mayor’s office did not say whether she would do so. But eight votes from the Board of Supervisors can override a mayoral veto.

Since 1973, San Francisco and Haifa have maintained a sister-city relationship. In 2008, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom visited the northern port city on a mayoral delegation, as did Mayor Ed Lee in 2016. Last year, Breed spent two days touring Haifa on a diplomatic mission and described Kalisch-Rotem, who was elected with a broad coalition that included Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, as a “thoughtful, compassionate leader.”

Haifa has in recent months been targeted in missile launches from militants in southern Lebanon, and Kalisch-Rotem wrote that two of her family members were “brutally murdered” in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and one was taken hostage.

“I am compelled to express our profound disappointment with our sister city, San Francisco, for passing a resolution that critically targets Israel but glaringly omits to condemn the sexual violence against women by Hamas on October 7th, and the continuing violence against hostages held for almost 100 days by Hamas,” the Haifa mayor wrote.

“It is imperative to address and denounce all forms of violence and human rights violations,” she continued. “As sister cities, our joint commitment should be towards promoting peace, justice, and equality for all.”
Violent Anti-Israel Protesters Removed From Santa Cruz City Council Meeting by Police After Screaming, Throwing Things and Breaking a Window

The Israel Guys: The IDF Discovers a New Massive HOSTAGE Tunnel
The IDF Discovered a massive tunnel hostages were held in, we get to that and some more info coming from the front lines in Gaza as the fight continues every day.


Voice of America Staffers Posted Anti-Israel Content to Facebook
‘He who stands for neutrality supports the oppressor,’ wrote one. Another posted a cartoon of a Yemeni knife being driven into an Israeli ship.


Two Voice of America staff members posted blatantly anti-Israel material on Facebook in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre and continuing through the Houthis’ ongoing campaign against civilian vessels in recent weeks, a review of their profiles by National Review found.

One of the posts appeared to call for the elimination of Israel in 2024. Even those that did not urge the country’s destruction clearly backed Palestinian or Hamas narratives, an ostensible violation of Voice of America’s standards guidance.

Nigel Gibbs, a VOA spokesman, told National Review that the outlet is investigating the matter and that it has no further information to provide. “As we state in our Best Practices Guide, our journalists must be ‘fair, impartial, and neutral at all times on social media and other public spaces,’” he said via email on Tuesday.

While VOA maintains the independence of its editorial stances from U.S. government directives, it receives federal funding and is overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an executive-branch agency whose leadership is nominated by the president.

Early into the war, VOA faced criticism for its handling of Hamas-related coverage. After the terrorist organization’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, VOA’s leadership directed editorial staffers not to refer to Hamas members as terrorists unless quoting someone else using that word. VOA later reversed that directive after members of Congress demanded that it be changed.

The anti-Israel social-media posts of the VOA staffers, disclosed here for the first time, raise new questions about the culture within the outlet’s newsroom and its handling of the coverage of the war in Gaza. VOA first learned of one of the employees’ posts on January 4, when Ted Lipien, a former director of its Polish-language service, emailed the outlet. After NR contacted VOA and one of the staffers to request comment on Wednesday, both of the staffers in question took many of the anti-Israel posts down. It’s not clear if VOA directed them to do so.


Jewish students condemn antisemitic tweets about French PM Gabriel Attal
The French Union of Jewish Students has called for sanctions against people who have written antisemitic and homophobic comments about France’s new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, on the social network X.

Attal, 34, who was appointed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, this week, is France’s youngest prime minister and also the first out gay politician in the job.

His father, a lawyer and film producer who died in 2015, was Jewish and his mother is Orthodox Christian. He was baptised as Christian but Attal has said his father told him he would feel Jewish all his life and would always face antisemitism because he had a Jewish name.

Who is Gabriel Attal, the French PM who climbed the ranks in record time?

The UEJF posted a message on X saying: “The nomination of Gabriel Attal as prime minister is the object of a new wave of antisemitic and homophobic hatred on X. It’s no longer the moment for condemnation but for action.”

The union called for sanctions against anyone writing hate speech on the platform. They said there should be prison sentences for those promoting hatred and fines against X itself, which it said “refuses to moderate hatred”.

After Attal’s appointment this week, Yonathan Arfi, the head of the Crif umbrella group of Jewish organisations, complained of “a wave of homophobic and antisemitic commentary on social media”. Arfi said that for those driven by hatred Attal was being reduced to his sexual orientation and the origin of his surname.
Palestinian Kids Say the Darnedest Things
Members of the Democratic "Squad" have frequently painted Israel as a bloodthirsty oppressor eager to see Palestinian children killed. Palestinian children's words, however, show that the Hamas leaders who control their education are the ones who are dead-set on pursuing bloodshed and genocide.


Thanks to Freedom of Expression, Protesters’ True Colours Are Revealed
It’s true that free speech has been used effectively to inspire violence and, for instance, intimidate theatre groups like Victoria’s Belfry Theatre into cancelling its production of “The Runner,” a one-man play about an Israeli rescue worker’s moral dilemma.

Oh, and it’s effectively frightened Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into abandoning our allies and signing on to a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire—an act praised by the hate-filled homicidal leadership of Hamas.

But if we didn’t have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allowed them to sing, shout, and chant their deeply held beliefs, we wouldn’t know their true nature. We wouldn’t know that, as Golda Meir put it, they still haven’t learned to love their children more than they hate the Jews.

Without their freedom to reveal themselves we wouldn’t have seen how wildly successful the alliance between Islamists and the left has been. We would never have known that they share a goal of, one day, destroying Israel and ridding it of a people with more than 3,000 years of history there. One can only look on in amazement as groups such as Queers For Palestine march in solidarity with people who, if successful in their ambitions, would toss a coin to decide whether to stone them or throw them off rooftops.

As one clearly confused X-poster put it: “This is an environmental and climate issue, this is a feminist issue, this is a civil rights issue, this is a racial issue, this is a queer issue, this is a children’s protection issue, this is a health issue.”

Of course it is. Because nothing quite says feminism and civil rights like being beaten by your husband in a place that hasn’t had an election for 18 years.

It turns out people with this deranged worldview are everywhere. It turns out that their anti-Semitism and their lies concerning apartheid and genocide have permeated virtually all of our institutions where, like a fifth cultural column, they have waited for their moment to seize power while corrupting the minds of our young people.

So as horrifying as this war is, maybe it’s a good thing that it forced this segment of the new Canada to, while we were all busy celebrating its diversity, flex its muscle. Better they all be out in the open where we can hear them and see their signs and their flags.

Better now rather than another generation into the future when demographic and cultural shifts would have put them in an overwhelmingly influential political and cultural position.

At least now, thanks to freedom of expression, we know what the truth is.

And that’s that Canada is neither the country we grew up in nor the one we hoped it would become. But it’s the Canada we made. Brick by misguided brick.
‘Establishment’ Jews Have Appeased Islamism and Abetted the Rise in Anti-Semitism
The unprecedented savagery and depravity of the October 7 pogrom in Israel shocked all decent-thinking people in the world. To many Jews living in the West it, and the reaction to it, came as a particularly brutal wake-up call. In the words of a self-styled former progressive leftist, Hamas “slaughtered his wokeness.” Shocking reactions—even of denial—to the murderous attack on Israeli civilians was the final straw that shattered his previous complacency, revealing to him the dark reality that “our Western culture is riddled with ambient anti-Semitism.”

The question we ask here is how did such complacency come about, that liberally minded Jews blinded themselves to this growing undercurrent in what was meant to be a “never again” world? How, in turn, has this contributed to, or even sanctioned, the rise of and support for Hamas and its Jihadist war against the Jewish state? In a word, how culpable are they? Has liberal Judaism appeased Islamism when it should have challenged it? Is it time they apologised for what has happened on their watch? The answer to all these questions, we believe, is yes.

The problem centres on the minority but influential liberal “establishment” Jews’ adoption of the prevailing leftist progressive, morally relativist position that sees anti-racism as the only legitimate racism and Israel as an oppressor rather than as a democratically legitimate country, which had led, almost inescapably, to October 7.

British Jews’ historical postwar cleave to the left is not hard to understand. Identifying with the oppressed, they saw socialism and left of centre parties as what represented social justice. Drawn to the Labour Party’s socialist ideals, this attraction was underpinned by a Judaic religious ethos to promote kind acts and social action. For a short while it also resonated with support for Israel as providing home to the persecuted by turning a barren land green and fertile through ingenuity and hard work. Many hoped, like Stalin, it would be a socialist state.

In the 1960s, the left’s defence of Israel began to dissipate. Collaboration between Yasser Arafat and the Soviets led to the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) along with the concept of Palestinianism. Liberal Jews’ once strong backing of Israel was overtaken by the left’s growing hatred of the Jewish state and the creeping embrace of Islamism.

As this developed and took root, so too did the left’s dominance in British institutions such as the civil service, parliament, academia, the police, and mainstream media. “Official” Jewish organisations followed this swing to the left. As in America today, a small minority of liberal, Left-leaning Jews monopolise the leadership of every major Jewish organisation and charity here. (The Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), and the Community Security Trust (CST), and Jewish newspapers such as the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News.) All have diluted their views to “fit in”—to conform with the leftist “takeover” of British institutions in its long march through the institutions, with diversity, identity, and inclusion finally cemented under the Equality Act in the early 21st century. “Official” Jewish organisations adapted to this cultural and institutional swing to the left, as did the Conservative Party.

They are an elitist clique which, though a minority, believe they know what’s best for British Jews. There are countless examples of their concern to keep in line with progressive but illiberal (anti-free speech) opinion. We saw this in full force at the end of November when the Anti-Defamation League backed the irrational assertion that that those who protest against Hamas’s disinformation and lies were guilty of “anti-Muslim hate speech.” This mirrored earlier examples as in 2018 when the editor of the Jewish Chronicle joined in accusing Israel of murdering Palestinian civilians who had stormed the Israeli border with Gaza. The JC issued an apology when it was proved that those killed were indeed Hamas terrorists.


Protestors chant 'Yemen Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around' as 200,000 march through London and Met Police move in to make arrests - with Just Stop Oil there too

Pro-Palestinian marchers who yell 'Jihad' should be arrested on site urges government adviser as London braces for more chaos with tens of thousands of protesters expected to descend on capital

Arrest protesters if they shout ‘jihad’ at London march, ministers told

Montreal man charged with inciting hatred against Jewish community after RCMP investigation

North Carolina divests retirement funds from Ben & Jerry’s over company’s Israel boycott
North Carolina closed out last year by becoming the most recent state to divest its public employee pension from the corporate parent of Ben & Jerry’s over the ice cream company’s boycott of Israel.

North Carolina is a swing state in politics. Other states to pull retirement funds over Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Israel span the traditional political boundaries and include Arizona, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

“We are where we are. We don’t pick which laws to apply and who to apply them to,” North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, told FOX Business in an interview this week. “I wish I never heard of this subject and wish we didn’t have to do what we had to do.”

Folwell announced last month that the North Carolina Retirement Systems — which provides retirement benefits for more than 1 million members, including teachers, firefighters, police officers and government employees — is withdrawing $40 million from Ben & Jerry’s and affiliates. This includes its parent company, Unilever PLC, a U.K.-based company.

The North Carolina Department of State Treasurer manages the pension plans’ investments, currently totaling $117.9 billion.

Ben & Jerry’s, a company long known for its left-leaning advocacy, maintained an independent board of directors to continue its activism even after it sold to Unilever.

It’s not likely Unilever anticipated allowing the popular ice cream brand to have its own board would lead to so many problems, Folwell said.

“I don’t know the people at Ben & Jerry’s. I respect their entrepreneurship. I think when they signed the contract, Ben & Jerry’s anticipated something like this,” said Folwell, also a 2024 candidate for governor. “Unilever didn’t anticipate anything like this. Generally, when a parent tells a kid not to do something, they expect them to listen.”


Lesbian couple dump gay Jewish sperm donor because of war in Gaza

Media Beclowns Itself with Articles Linking Israel’s Military Efforts in Gaza to….Climate Crisis
There is so much to unpack with this article that I hardly know where to begin. As I have noted before, part of the trouble with today’s science reporting is that it is not being done by scientists or those who take the scientific approach to evaluating data seriously.

There is limited background on this particular “Climate Justice Reporter.” A brief dig into the internet records shows that Lakhani is a former mental health nurse. Therefore, it is unlikely she has the background needed in climatology, geology, oceanography, or meteorology to discern the truth, relevancy, and reliability of the information presented to her by “experts” who would prefer Israel to end their operations in Gaza.

Former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) and environmental economist Bjรธrn Lomborg took pen to paper and did the math to show the climate emissions from Israel’s efforts are on par with the emissions from the United Nations climate conference attendees at CoP26, two years.
Why the New York Times Gets it Wrong
It appears that the New York Times, and many other papers, do not have a baseline level of knowledge that can be applied toward military conflict due to teh lack of veterans in the newsroom.






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