Tuesday, January 16, 2024

01/16 Links Pt1: As Hamas plays sick games with hostages, Biden whines he’s losing patience with Israel; The Israel haters should learn from Thomas Hand’s moral clarity

From Ian:

Richard Goldberg: Pathetic: As Hamas plays sick games with hostages 100 days in, Biden whines he’s losing patience with Israel
Pro-terror demonstrations in America and Great Britain increasingly feature signs supporting the Iran-backed Houthi terror group, which is responsible for the continuous missile attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea — signaling support for radical anti-Western ideologies, not merely opposition to Israel.

At a weekend rally in London, one prominent Palestinian activist said, “We must normalize massacres as a status quo.”

And Hamas released a sickening video Monday of one Israeli hostage revealing the deaths of two others.

President Biden should be using these moments to further marginalize anti-Israel voices on his left flank.

Yet the louder and more extreme those voices grow, the faster Biden runs away from supporting a fellow democracy battling a terrorist group responsible for the murders of dozens of Americans — and which continues to hold other US citizens hostage.

Biden’s more strident insistence that Israel transition to “lower-intensity operations” against Hamas in Gaza comes alongside political pressure on Jerusalem to abandon a planned defensive military campaign on its northern border against an Iran-backed terror threat 10 times larger than Hamas.

Israeli officials may be underestimating Washington’s determination to “contain regional escalation” in an election year — code for strong-arming Israel into permitting Iran’s existential threats to remain intact even if it leaves the Jewish state exposed to another Oct. 7 and deterred from acting against Iran’s accelerating nuclear program.

Israel has already evacuated roughly 100,000 people from towns bordering Lebanon out of fear the Hezbollah terrorist organization might unleash its own surprise invasion.

But Hezbollah is not a threat just to Israel’s border communities — with 200,000 rockets, including thousands of precision-guided munitions, it is capable of threatening Haifa and Tel Aviv in addition to the country’s critical infrastructure.

Israelis will not return to their homes in the north so long as Hezbollah remains across the border.

And waiting around for Tehran’s order to rain missiles down on Israel while the ayatollah races across the nuclear threshold is a status quo Israel’s leaders can no longer accept.

But if Biden can’t stomach 100 days of war against Hamas after the horrific scenes of Oct. 7, can anyone be confident he’ll green-light military support for an even larger fight in Lebanon?

Indeed, the president withdrew a carrier strike group off Israel’s coast and sent a senior adviser to the region to negotiate Israel’s surrender of territory to Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah moving a few kilometers north.

All while letting Iran gain access to $10 billion.

More than 75 years after its founding, Israel is waging its second war of independence.

Surviving the 21st century depends on Jerusalem dismantling Iran’s so-called “ring of fire” and denying Tehran its quest for nuclear weapons.

The war against Hamas in Gaza must be viewed as merely the first phase of this multifront confrontation.

Facing a shared adversary in Tehran, any US president should be fully committed to Israel’s success in this effort — not trying to pull the plug before Phase 1 is even complete.
WSJ Editorial: Palestinian ‘Pay for Slay’ Keeps Growing
Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch explains that “the PA does not differentiate between Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities after invading Israel on Oct. 7, the Hamas terrorists killed by Israel in the ensuing war, and civilian non-combatants killed in the Gaza Strip while being used as human shields by Hamas.” All are treated as heroic martyrs to be compensated by the PA, whose activities are subsidized with Western aid.

Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Mr. Blinken said that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is “committed” to reform. Where’s the evidence? His four-year term is stretching into its 20th year. Even as the PA complains of a budget crunch, it is readying to move from glorifying the Oct. 7 attack to compensating its participants.

Why, again, does President Biden insist Israel hand over postwar Gaza to this group? Mr. Blinken also talks prematurely of giving it a state. No wonder the PA sees little reason to change.
Seth Mandel: Israel’s War Isn’t About Revenge
Necessary and winnable. True victory, then, is obligatory. To refuse to do so would be to knowingly subject your fellow citizens to wanton violence. It would diminish the freedom of the people whose freedom you have no right to diminish, and whose freedom you vowed to protect and defend.

Crucially, Cicero pointed out that to leave such an enemy intact is to increase its power. A wounded king receives pity from some and admiration from others; both provide help. And in each round, the act of rousting support for his stand against the stronger power makes the next fight more of a cause than the last, eventually including populations that otherwise have no vested interest in the war:

“And so Mithradates, after his defeat, was able to accomplish what, when he was in the full enjoyment of his powers, he never dared even to wish for.”

And so Hamas.

Every temporary defeat has left Hamas able to come back, rally a lifeline of support from countries like Iran and Qatar and Turkey, and construct a permanent base of war. And this time, after its greatest achievement was the carrying out of unimaginably barbaric atrocities, it has garnered its loftiest status as a heroic force, attested to by the throngs of marchers all over the world who were enthralled by what Hamas was willing to do to innocent Jews. Everything the world has done since Oct. 7 has incentivized Hamas—and, it should be said, other daring terrorist armies—to make Oct. 7 seem like a trial run for its next attack.

Yes, Israel has an obligation to achieve permanent victory over Hamas. Anything less would be unjust.


When Our Allies Are Hamas Allies
The point is this: Israel is an ally of the West and securing Israel’s continued existence is a declared aim of Western policy. But our countries are allied with states like Qatar and Turkey, both of whom are pledged to fatally weakening Israel. The question therefore arises as to whether we challenge or mollify them.

Disappointingly, our leaders are doing more mollifying than they are challenging. If you were to ask Blinken why this is, his answer would probably be along the same lines as the answer he gave to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell when she asked him about post-war reconstruction plans in Gaza. “There’s something that’s very powerful, and that’s changed in the last few years in the region, and this is why I think—despite the incredible challenge of this moment, despite the horrific suffering that we’re seeing—there actually is an opportunity that we haven’t seen in the past,” Blinken remarked. “And the change is this: All of these countries now want a region that’s more integrated. They want a region that includes Israel. They’re prepared to do things, to make commitments, to give assurances for Israel’s security. But that also has to include the Palestinian piece.”

In other words, the final outcome of the present conflict should be a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side, enjoying good political and commercial relations with their neighbors. But Israel cannot be asked to sign up to such a vision as long as US allies in the region—most clearly, Qatar and Turkey—cozy up to Hamas and laud it as a legitimate “resistance” organization. Both those countries need to be told by Washington that the price of inclusion in any peace process is throwing Hamas under the bus because Hamas isn’t going to be part of any post-war settlement. With a regional conflagration still very much a possibility, the time to deliver that message is very much now.


JPost Editorial: Saluting Israel's defenders
Throughout this past Thursday and Friday, a team of top experts came to The Hague to defend Israel from a ludicrous claim – that the Jewish State is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Indeed, South Africa – the complainant in the case – told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza and therefore, the court must issue an injunction stopping all Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

These claims were presented in court on Thursday with a team of top anti-Israel and terror-supporting voices standing front and center, including former UK Labor head Jeremy Corbyn and Shawan Jabarin, a former senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and some 30 Western countries.

While the list of reasons that this case is preposterous goes on and on, there is one thing that must be said, and that is that the Israeli delegation in the Hague is doing a marvelous job.

Israel's delegation in the Hauge
The reason an Israeli team went in the first place is frustrating but understandable; Israel ratified the Genocide Convention, meaning that it is harder to claim that the ICJ, which interprets that convention, has no role at all.And, while other countries defending themselves during a war are not questioned to such an extent, Israel is worried that the deaths of thousands of Palestinians at the hands of the IDF will permanently harm its reputation in the US and EU.

The Israeli delegation consisted of a legal team, accompanied by a handful of Israeli diplomats handling communications.

They argued that the court has no jurisdiction over this case, as no disputes exist between the country and South Africa. Its accuser, the country with a rough history with apartheid, claims it had sent to the Israeli Embassy numerous requests to discuss the situation in Gaza, but never received a response.
The dizzying malevolence of two days in The Hague
Its legal team disregarded the fundamental problems with such a grave allegation in order to advance that charge, whether due to willful blindness borne of a deep-seated sympathy with the plight of innocent Gazans, or, sadly far more likely, something more sinister.

Mercifully, following the tumult of the court hearings on Thursday and Friday, the tranquility of Shabbat descended soon after they ended and, writing my report en route, I took the train to Amsterdam.

But it was on Shabbat morning, during a visit for prayers at the monumental Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, that what had transpired truly hit home.

There, in a courtyard outside the magnificent synagogue, which was completed in 1675, was a plaque memorializing the 3,700 of the community’s 4,300 members — 86 percent of the prewar congregation — who were murdered in the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

And that was when the discordant notes of the previous two days rang most poignantly: In one of the countries where the Nazis tried to extinguish the Jewish people, the state of the Jews had just been tried on genocide charges — for defending its citizens from the viciously demonstrated genocidal ambitions of Gaza’s ruling terrorist army.

And, perhaps worst of all, it is by no means certain that the judges will dismiss the foul accusations for the cynical misrepresentations, distortions and omissions that they are.
South Africa’s case against Israel rooted in anti-US sentiment, close ties with Palestinian cause
Two weeks after Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president, was released from prison in 1990, he flew to Zambia to meet with leaders who supported his fight against South Africa’s apartheid system of forced racial segregation. Among the men he met was Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who greeted him with a hug and kiss on each cheek. Arafat and Mandela considered their peoples’ struggles for freedom to be similar, and it explains, in part, why South Africa has been so strong in its recent actions against Israel.

A few days after the war broke out in October, Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in Cape Town.

“We have stood with the Palestinians and we will continue to stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Mandla Mandela, now an African National Congress lawmaker, said.

Nelson Mandela led the ANC from an anti-apartheid liberation movement to a political party, and though he died in 2013, the party’s pro-Palestinian stance has remained strong.

South Africa’s charge against Israel also reflects a challenge to the U.S.-led world order, which South Africa, as well as a growing number of other countries, views as tilted away from African and non-Western interests.

“Its triumph over apartheid gives Pretoria moral authority and leads it to advocate for an international order in which developing countries can be more clearly heard,” Christopher Chivvis, director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment, recently wrote. “It thus values the rise of BRICS [an intergovernmental organization made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates] and other possible alternatives to Western power, including Beijing and Moscow.”

Chivvis added that South Africa’s stance has “caused tensions with the United States over Ukraine and featured an open row over South Africa’s alleged support for Russia’s war machine in 2023.”

“Pretoria is steadfast in staying at least nominally non-aligned with any great power, even as BRICS, which is increasingly seen as a challenger to the West, remains a cornerstone of its foreign policy,” he said.
South Africa’s claim Israel is committing genocide is ‘inverting reality’
South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is “inverting reality on its head”, says Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Director Colin Rubenstein.

Mr Rubenstein’s comments are in reference to South Africa taking Israel to the United Nations' International Court of Justice over accusations of genocide in Gaza.

“This is inverting reality on its head, if anyone’s committing genocide here it’s absolutely Hamas," he told Sky News Australia contributor Steve Price.

“It’s got genocide in its charter, written all over its face and in its actions.

“To destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.”




Bangladesh backs South Africa’s genocide claims against Israel

IDF's tech weapons evolution reveals innovative ammunition in Hamas war
There is more to war than meets the public eye. Even if it appears that advances on the battlefield are slow, processes behind the scenes can lead to innovations in military tactics, weapons, vehicles, and even the structure of military units.

During the first 100 days of the Israel-Hamas War, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has had to adjust to the demands of a months-long ground offensive that has led them deeper and deeper into the heart of Gaza.

Now, the IDF has revealed some of its innovative accomplishments over the first three months of the war. These encompass all forms of warfare: at sea, on land, and in the air, both for regular and reserve forces.

Medical innovations that save lives - even in the depth of the Strip
In recent weeks, IDF Medical Corps personnel have introduced a variety of new medical capabilities tailored to the nature of field combat and changing conditions. For example, Medics and paramedics accompanying soldiers inside the Gaza Strip will include 60,000 doses of whole blood sacks in their equipment.

Whole blood consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets suspended in plasma. Although most patients receiving transfusions do not need all of these elements, whole blood can make a huge difference when treating wounded troops on the battlefield.

Latest weaponry used in Gaza
In the depths of Gaza and in the most crowded places, new combat measures have come into use - the Iron Sting mortar, “Ido” night vision goggles, “Holit” shoulder-fired missiles, and more. IDF soldiers are using them for the first time during this conflict, and a huge effort is being made to integrate them into all necessary combat units.

Iron Sting mortar: The precision "Iron Sting" mortar entered operational use for the first time in October, as the IDF's Maglan unit used the innovative weapon to target Hamas's rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip. The 120 mm. mortar has improved accuracy and is for use against terrorists in crowded areas, helping troops avoid collateral damage. It is guided with the help of a laser and GPS.

Holit and Yated shoulder-fired missiles: The new “Holit” and “Yated” are the latest weapons to be introduced to ground troops. These shoulder-fired missiles have longer ranges, with a 50% increase in size compared to their predecessors. A multi-stage activation mechanism also makes them safer to use. These new missiles are designed for fighting in the dense, heavily built-up areas of Gaza.

Ido Night Vision Goggles: For the first time, IDF reconnaissance units operating in Gaza have renewed their night vision capabilities with a device that provides a three-dimensional image. The “Ido” enhances visibility over time and helps soldiers navigate in the area from dusk until dawn.

The Ido is modular and can be efficiently assembled on the front of a soldier's helmet. It can be used both for dual-eye or single-eye vision, aiding the soldier even in completely closed and pitch-black spaces.


From Gaza to Iran: Here is how Islamic Jihad terrorists trained on Iranian soil
The Shin Bet revealed Tuesday how terrorists from the Islamic Jihad trained on Iranian soil.

In a joint operation in December, the IDF and the Shin Bet arrested a commander of a platoon in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Basel Mahadi, who was subsequently brought to Israel for questioning.

Mahadi described the Islamic Jihad training while being interrogated by the Shin Bet. He explained how the terrorists went to a military-like training base in Iran, which was run by Iranian soldiers.

Between 15-20 PIJ terrorists from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria were on this military base.

How did they get to Iran?
“I went from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, where I stayed for about two weeks,” Mahadi explained. “From there, I went to Syria for a few days and then to Lebanon. After two weeks, we went from Syria to Iran.”

The course was 15 days long, and “it had physical fitness training and shooting training on different types of weapons,” he added.

“Four days training on a Kalashnikov at a distance of 100 meters, five days at a distance of 100 to 150 meters, six days on a Dragunov (sniper rifle),” he explained further. “We practiced shooting at stones, targets, and balloons at a distance of 300 meters.”


Hamas tunnels 100s of miles longer than thought with 5,000 entry points
Hamas’s network of terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip is even more extensive than previously thought, The New York Times cited senior Israeli defense officials as saying on Tuesday, with new assessments indicating it has upwards of 5,700 entry shafts.

In the wake of intensive counterterror combat operations in the southern Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis during recent weeks, Israel now believes the Islamist group built between 350 and 450 miles of subterranean terror infrastructure, up from a previous estimate of 250 miles.

While the figure could not be verified, the Times called Israel’s updated intelligence assessment “extraordinary,” especially given the fact that the Gaza Strip is only some 25 miles long by (at its broadest point) seven miles wide.

In one case cited by the newspaper, Israel Defense Forces soldiers who raided the residence of a Hamas terrorist discovered a spiral staircase leading to a tunnel approximately seven stories deep.

Israeli intelligence found there were about 100 miles of tunnels under the city of Khan Yunis alone, the Times noted.

Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 persons in Israel, is believed to be hiding in Khan Yunis, where he has reportedly surrounded himself with a large number of hostages, preventing the IDF from carrying out an airstrike on his location.


IDF uncovers 100 rocket launchers as operations in Gaza continue Hamas fired rocket at soldiers from inside Khan Yunis hospital

JPost Editorial: Israel is at war with Hezbollah
Since the Gaza war began, there has been a general government and military policy in place to hold off launching another front in the North and to focus most of the IDF’s attention on the effort to eliminate Hamas.

The US, wary that an escalation in the North could trigger a wider regional conflict, which would involve Iran, has been working to keep that policy in place.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his visit to the region last week, tried to keep those guns harnessed.

“It is not in the interest of anyone – Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah for that matter – to see this escalate. Israelis have been clear with us that they want to find a diplomatic way forward, a diplomatic way forward that would create the kind of security that allows Israelis to return home,” Blinken said.

A Hezbollah official in Beirut said this week that the terrorist group had taken “an oath to support the Gaza front” to the end and to reduce the pressure on it “as much as possible.”

“When Israel goes a bit deeper, Hezbollah goes a bit deeper, and that’s where the matter stops,” the official told Reuters.

Israel has followed those rules until now, including taking out senior Hezbollah commanders over the last few weeks.

Israel cannot abandon northern civilians
When the Gaza war ends and the US and the international community can broker a deal that would push Hezbollah back from the border and across the Litani River, as demanded in UN Resolution 1701 following the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, then there’s a chance that the status quo could return to the region and the residents of the North could return home.

But that’s a big if.

More likely, the day will come sooner rather than later, when, to prevent an October 7-type invasion, bring security back to the North, and allow its residents to return home, Israel will have to unleash its full firepower against Hezbollah.

We can’t abandon a huge swath of the country and leave people like Mira and Barak Ayalon in the crosshairs of Hezbollah. Civilian casualties are not acceptable and must be addressed.

If it sounds like war, that’s because it is.
Has Hezbollah flipped the equation on Israel?
Twice in four days, Hezbollah carried out two successful and significant drone attacks on Israeli positions in the North. On January 6, it was the IAF’s traffic control base on Mount Meron, while on January 9, it was the IDF’s Northern Command Headquarters in Safed. Serious tactical errors contributed to the success of both attacks, though the impact of the latter one was minor.

Then, an anti-tank missile was launched at Moshav Kfar Yuval, killing Mira Ayalon, 79, and her son Barak, 45.

What is the significance of these attacks?
What is the significance of these attacks – both tactical and strategic? Have they helped Hezbollah flip the script on Israel? Did it bring the IDF to a point where it would claim it was progressing in “convincing” Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from the border? That this level of damage is qualitatively different and new?

Tactically, the air force installation had been attacked by Hezbollah before, and is close enough to the border that it should have prepared for an anti-tank missile threat – it has only prepared for rocket threats.

In the region, the Iron Dome and other air defense capabilities do provide coverage, but those defenses only shoot down rockets, which fly higher and on an arc-like trajectory.

Anti-tank missiles fly lower and in a straight line at the target, which are usually heavily armored vehicles, but can easily destroy a house.

The IDF has the Trophy defense system, to block such threats for a single armored land vehicle, but has not deployed defenses for larger areas – like an army base.

This all puts a real dent in the IAF’s capabilities and intelligence detection.

However, The Jerusalem Post has learned that the IDF does have redundancies: surveillance operators, mobile surveillance resources, and combat fighters performing intelligence collection operations.
IDF carries out ‘significant wave’ of strikes on Hezbollah targets
Combined Israeli ground and aerial forces carried out an “extensive” series of strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Wadi Saluki district of Southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Among the targets were dozens of Hezbollah posts, military structures and weapons infrastructure.

Israel accuses the Iranian terror proxy of exploiting the Wadi Saluki area for its terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and soldiers, saying that Hezbollah hides assets and infrastructure in the forested areas.

“This morning, the Northern Command carried out a significant wave of…attacks using fighter jets and artillery, against many targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Wadi Saluki area,” said Lt. Col. Y., a ground fire officer in the IDF’s Northern Command.

“In a few short minutes, a powerful attack was carried out against dozens of positions, military buildings, infrastructure and launchers. The attack in Wadi Saluki is one of the most extensive we have carried out since the beginning of the fighting,” said Y.

“The Northern Command will continue to do whatever it takes, with determination and strength, to protect the residents of the north, and will continue to strongly damage the capabilities and infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” he added.

Overnight Monday, an Israeli Air Force craft struck a Hezbollah anti-tank missile launcher in the Kafr Kila area in Southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.

Israeli special forces also mounted an operation overnight to remove an unspecified threat in the area of Ayta ash Shab in Southern Lebanon.


Gaza terrorists launch largest rocket barrage at Israel in weeks

Victim in Ra’anana attack identified as 79-year-old Edna Blustein
A 79-year-old woman has been identified as the victim murdered in a terror attack in Ra’anana on Monday.

The car-ramming and stabbing attack left 18 Israelis injured, with Edna Blustein discovered to be the only fatality after being taken to hospital with critical injuries and later being declared dead. The suspects allegedly switched between three vehicles, one belonging to Blustein, and ran over pedestrians in several locations around Ra’anana.

Two terrorists from the Hebron region were arrested and have since been identified as Mahmoud Zidaat, 44, and Ahmed Zidaat, 24, who police have said were related. The pair worked at a car wash in the city though neither possessed a permit to be in Israel, and a forged identity card was reportedly found on one of the attackers. Their employers have also been arrested, according to Israel National News.

The Israel Security Authorities reported that both attackers were barred from entering Israel after having been caught illegally entering the country several times.

Prior to his arrest, one of the terrorists wrote on Telegram: “I have taken revenge. Allahu Akbar.”

Blustein was allegedly dragged from her car and stabbed to death before the terrorists commandeered her vehicle. They then lost control of the car, going on to steal a second vehicle which they used to continue their rampage, striking other cars and running over pedestrians.

According to Dr. Ron Brunett, The Schneider Pediatric Center's emergency medicine department director, seven children were brought into the Tel Aviv hospital for treatment. Six of them, aged between 10 and 16, are in mild condition.

The French Foreign Ministry said two French citizens were among the injured in a statement released on Monday.


Iran fires ballistic missiles into Iraqi Kurdistan
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility on Monday for firing ballistic missiles at Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which is closely affiliated with the IRGC, reported that the corps—which Washington has designated a terror group since April 15, 2019—issued a statement claiming that the missile attack aimed to eliminate “espionage centers and gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups.”

The Iraqi Kurdistan region maintains autonomous defense forces and government while still technically answering to the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad. The autonomous government has long been friendlier than the Iraqi government towards the United States, with U.S. troops in the region helping the Kurds to push back ISIS.

Israel has previously suggested that it would support Kurdish independence, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly lobbying in 2017 for protection of the Kurdistan Region federal Iraqi forces attacked it following an independence referendum.

Unconfirmed videos on social media appear to depict large explosions in Erbil, as well as the activation of a U.S. anti-missile system defending the U.S. consulate in the capital.

Local Kurdish media reported that at least two people were killed and five others injured in the attack.

“The United States strongly condemns Iran’s attacks in Erbil today and offers condolences to the families of those who were killed,” stated Matthew Miller, U.S. State Department spokesman. “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability. We support the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”


Houthis attack Greek-owned vessel in Red Sea

Stephen Pollard: The Israel haters should learn from Thomas Hand’s moral clarity
This is, of course, the same Thomas Hand who gave a gut-wrenching interview to Clarissa Ward of CNN when he was mistakenly told Emily was dead, screaming with relief and describing it as a blessing that she would be spared Hamas’ depravity and she would be at peace and at rest. Now that she is home, he told Piers Morgan that he was relieved that she wasn’t raped, as other children have been. Imagine having to be relieved that an eight year old child wasn’t raped. Please God none of us ever have to endure what he has been through.

But what makes the whole interview so compelling is the moral clarity with which Thomas Hand puts in proper perspective the distortions, the lies, the smears and the grotesque propaganda being pushed by Hamas and its allies and useful idiots.

Quite properly, Piers Morgan asks him what he has to say to those who say that the Israel is being disproportionate in its response to October 7. His reply (which is at 36’37” on the video) needs to be shown as widely and as often as possible on social media, the words of – in the best sense – an ordinary man with a message to the ignorant and the malevolent who take over London and other capital cities with their hate marches.

“They don’t know a thing. We are living it. We have been living it every day for 20 years. You have no idea. You have no right to even speak to me. Have you been to Israel, ever? Every one of you saying it’s disproportionate.

“Has any one of you come to see ‘apartheid’ in this country? It doesn’t exist, you idiots. It doesn’t exist. Look at all the road signs. Come and look at all the road signs. It’s in Hebrew , it’s in Arabic and it’s in English. All the buses’ electronic writing have Hebrew, Arabic and English

“Come to any hospital in this country, come to any school in this country, come to any city in this country. You’ll find Arabs, women, female Arabs, professors in hospitals everywhere, doctors. You’re talking out of your bottoms – you have no idea.

“You’re all chanting ‘From the river to the sea’. You don’t know what river, you don’t know your history, you don’t know your geography. If you had any idea of geography you could work out where this little country is. It’s the Mediterranean Sea. But they don’t know that. Educated Harvard students, university students and they don’t even know what river or what sea borders Israel.”

When you hear Thomas Hand, both when he is talking about the days since October 7 and the wider point about the anti-Israel brigade, you see the moral inversion not only of those on the hate marches but of the bien pensant haters like Gary Lineker who signal their virtue on social media but have not the slightest idea of what they are actually saying or doing. Last week, for example, Lineker reposted a demand for Israel to be removed from all sporting contests. (He removed the link a few days later, claiming – presumably with a straight face - that he thought it was simply news that Israel had been suspended.) But while it is tempting to dismiss Lineker and his posts as an irrelevance, they do matter. No sooner had he posted the link than the Hamas mouthpiece the Quds News Network, posted a story with the headline “Renowned English broadcaster calls for Israel to be banned from international [football]”. It does matter when fools like Lineker post their bile. It’s then used as part of the drip, drip, drip by which terrorist organisations seep their hate into the mainstream.

Thomas Hand and those in the front line – Israelis, in other words – see straight through it. They see the decadence of those in free countries who choose to target a land in which the rule of law is paramount, in which freedom is the watchword and in which – the reason, of course, why it is targeted – Jews are safe. But we see them for what they are.
Father of ex-hostage Emily Hand launches furious attack on ‘idiots’ who believe Israel is an apartheid state
Emily wiped away her father’s tears during the live interview when Thomas learned that two other hostages have been executed by Hamas.

Several minutes into the live broadcast, which marked 100 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Morgan received news that two Israeli hostages, Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky, had died in captivity, allegedly from IDF airstrikes.

“They were from Kibbutz Be’eri and Svirsky was with Emily for the whole duration of her captivity,” Thomas said, overcome by emotion at the news.

In the footage of the interview, Emily can be seen watching her father attentively, wiping away his tears and rubbing his cheek.

The Irish-Israeli girl who spent 50 days in captivity as one of over 200 hostages in Gaza is doing “incredibly well” according to Thomas. “Kids are just amazingly resilient. Her speech is almost back at full volume, she’s eating like a horse, she sleeps well, not too many nightmares. Sometimes I just watch her in the night and when I see her crunching up her face, I wake her up. Break the nightmare.”

Throughout the 43-minute interview Emily opted to sit silently beside her father, a display of closeness Morgan calls "an indication of not wanting to leave your side”.

“I’ve always been emotional, but she’s as tough as nails,” Thomas said of his daughter, who was released in late November as part of ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Emily spent her time in captivity with friend Hila Rotem-Shoshani and Hila’s mother Raaya; she had been staying over at their home in Kibbutz Be’eri for a sleepover when Hamas militants attacked on October 7.


Israel-Hamas War: 9-Year-Old Hamas Hostage Comforts Her Father During Piers Morgan Interview
Piers Morgan Uncensored is joined by Thomas Hand, the British man who thought his nine-year-old daughter Emily had been killed by Hamas - before she was returned to him after 50 days in captivity with the terror group.

In this emotional interview, Piers Morgan asks Thomas how it felt to first think his daughter was dead, before discovering she was being held captive - and then how he reacted when she was finally released back to him.

Piers also informs Thomas of the two latest hostages to have been killed by Hamas, Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky, discovering one of them was with Emily throughout her captivity.

Finally Piers asks Emily - who has wiped tears from her father's face throughout the interview - how she felt when she found out she was able to go home to her father.


Hostages in Gaza yet to receive medicines from Qataris
France has sent badly needed medicines to Qatar for Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the European nation’s embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed to the Times of Israel on Tuesday.

President Emmanuel Macron ordered the foreign ministry in Paris to make a list of medicines for 45 captives who need them and who have been hostages for more than 100 days. They were purchased, and delivered to Doha on Saturday.

The medicines have yet to reach the Gaza Strip. They are slated to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross or another third party for entry into the coastal enclave.

“We will do everything to bring everyone home; you can count on me,” Macron said in a video message on Saturday to tens of thousands of people at a rally in Tel Aviv for the hostages. “The French nation is determined that … all the hostages of the October 7 terrorist attacks are freed. France does not abandon its children. That is why we have to resume negotiations again and again for their release.”

Franco-Mexican tourist Orión Hernández Radoux, 32, is among the hostages still held in Gaza. Terrorists kidnapped him from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7.


Caroline Glick: Israel 101 Days of War and What Stands in Its Way to Victory
Caroline Glick looks at the war in Gaza after 101 days of fighting and what is preventing Israel from achieving full victory against Hamas and Hezbollah in the North namely...the State Department.




Bill Maher on the Israel Conflict with David Mamet

Jewish Reggae star Matisyahu lands in Israel, goes straight to south
Popular Reggae singer and musician Matisyahu landed in Israel today (Monday) for a performance at Reading 3 club in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The proceeds from the performance will go to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.

Matisyahu started his trip to Israel by visiting the communities of the Gaza envelope which were devastated on October 7. In the afternoon, he arrived at the scene of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of young people were murdered that morning, and heard details of the massacre.

The tour was conducted by ZAKA member Yossi Landau, who witnessed many of the horrors of that day first-hand, and by media woman Yael Tzin, who put Matisyahu and the ZAKA organization in contact.

As Landau was describing what he witnessed on October 7, Matisyahu stopped to embrace him in a hug. Tzin continued the tour in English.

“It is my privilege to continue the advocacy for Israel,” said Yael, “that an important Jewish man arrives with a lot of exposure who can tell what the State of Israel is going through and what we went through 100 days ago, thanks to dear Yossi from ZAKA who joined the delegation.”
‘Enough is enough’: Nate Buzolic slams ‘pro-Palestinian lies’
Australian actor Nate Buzolic is using his huge online platform to advocate for Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks and to fight back against rising antisemitism.

He has called the pro-Palestinian movement in Australia “hypocritical” and full of “hatred” for Jews.

Mr Buzolic sat down with Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus for his only Australian interview on a visit to Sydney.

“It’s a bizarre point in human history that we’re living in where we say racism is wrong in 2023 but racism towards Jews is going to be okay,” Mr Buzolic said.

“We either support or be complicit in a radical ideology that has no desire for peace or we actually stand up and say enough is enough.”

The Aussie actor travelled to Israel shortly after October 7 and spent weeks meeting survivors, the families of hostages, released hostages and political leaders.


Northern Israelis ‘don’t feel they’re safe’ as ’20 rockets a day’ are fired by Hezbollah
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger says Israelis in Northern Israel “don’t feel they’re safe” as “20 rockets a day” are fired by Hezbollah rebels.

According to IDF interim data on the war with Hamas, approximately 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Lebanon since October 7.

“Up here in the north of Israel, since the war started, there’s been about 20 rockets a day coming from Hezbollah,” Mr Kroger told Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin.

“Obviously, the Israelis respond as they do and as they can, but the worry about Hezbollah is that, again, they’re controlled by Iran, and they are a law onto themselves.

“They’re not a part of the government of Lebanon obviously – they’re just a rogue organisation in Lebanon in breach of one often UN resolutions which called for the armed militias to leave Lebanon.

“The problem now is the Israelis no longer feel they can live here; they don’t feel they’re safe.”


‘Hamas shattered peace in the Middle East’: Piers Morgan slams anti-Israel hate
Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan has called out anti-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters for criticising Israel’s efforts in its war against the Hamas terrorist group.

“To those now ferociously criticising the escalation in the region – remember who escalated this in the first place,” Mr Morgan said.

“Hamas shattered peace in the Middle East, and they knew exactly what the response would be.

“Make no mistake, the vile people who took these innocent people as hostages are responsible for the catalyst of horrors we’re now witnessing.

“There’s no moral defence for Hamas but many of the pro-Palestine protesters … do have a point; the civilian death toll in Gaza is testing the upper limits of proportionality.”

Mr Morgan is joined by Thomas Hand, the father of nine-year-old Emily Hand, who was kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas for 50 days before being returned to her father.


‘Not historically literate’: Penny Wong slammed for calling for Palestinian state
Former intelligence officer Paul Monk says it is “not historically literate” for Penny Wong to call for a Palestinian state when they have “rejected” the offer for statehood every time an attempt has been made.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong angered the Jewish community for her decision not to visit the sites Hamas terrorists attacked on October 7.

In a press conference on Tuesday, she called for a Palestinian state and announced more aid money for Gaza.

“On face value, her remarks sound … peacemaking and so on, but they’re decontextualised because they have no grip on what is happening,” Mr Monk told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“It’s not only that she’s not insisting that hostages should be released and she’s not visiting the sites – she’s not acknowledging the fundamental reality that this idea of Palestinians having legitimate aspirations for their own state has a very long history and every time an attempt has been made … they’ve rejected the offer.

“It’s not historically literate to talk as if it’s just unreasonable Israeli attitudes that have created this situation.”


EU sanctions Hamas chief in Gaza Sinwar

The Home Secretary’s proscription of Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a major step forward, but only a start.
So far, so good. But we have been here before. Policy Exchange has tracked counter-extremism policies towards HuT since 2006, when leaked government documents were reproduced in Martin Bright’s report ‘When progressives treat with reactionaries.’ These noted that the then Labour government was divided on whether to proscribe HuT. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was in favour, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, against. Fast forward to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition, and HuT was again facing a ban, only for it to never quite materialise.

One explanation for this is the organisation’s rather middle-class and professional composition. It has tended to invite comparison less with Al-Qaeda or Islamic State, as with the Socialist Workers Party. Its campaign focus – the establishment of a caliphate in the Middle East, and support for military coups in Muslim-majority nations to install properly Islamic governments – has at times placed it some way to the back of the grievance-driven narratives that have powered rival groups jostling for influence in what is a rather overcrowded British Islamist scene.

HuT’s political agitation on the streets of London since 7/10, and an increasingly high media profile, had given it a new centre of gravity. The Home Secretary has rather dramatically upended that progress. Yet some real difficulties remain.

In 2019, Home Secretary Sajid Javed proscribed the political wing of Hezbollah. In 2021, the political wing of Hamas met the same fate, courtesy of Priti Patel. In both cases, limited action followed, and proscription appears to have become either an end in itself or a type of glass ceiling.

In the 2023 independent review of Prevent, William Shawcross noted the failure of the Home Office’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) to produce an assessment of either Hezbollah or Hamas in this country. While the Home Office’s counter-extremism experts have cast their net ever wider when it comes to assessing elements of the broad right, a sense of purpose when it comes to getting a grip on Islamists has long been lacking.

If James Cleverly thinks he can light the touch paper, walk away, and watch the fireworks, he is very much mistaken. If the ban on HuT is to have any effect, it will be necessary in the coming weeks and months to get into the weeds of HuT, its leaders, and its footsoldiers. That will require an assessment of its properties, bank accounts, and investments in this country and overseas, and HuT’s connections to charities, businesses, and professional institutions.

Where the law has potentially been broken, the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service must then investigate and prosecute; there can be no excuses now for inaction.


GUESS WHICH LEFTIE LAWYER CHOSE TO DEFEND TERRORIST GROUP HIZB UT-TAHRIR?
Back in 2008, a leftie barrister working for Doughty Street Chambers led a team of lawyers to the ECHR in 2008 arguing that that Berlin’s prohibition of the now banned Hizb ut-Tahrir breached their rights to freedom of religion and expression. You guessed it, that lawyer was Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer…

Barristers are usually supposed to take the first case they’re offered under the “cab rank” rule. However, the rule doesn’t apply to “foreign work”. Sir Keir represented Hizb ut-Tahrir in an international case against the German government in Strasbourg. He voluntarily took up the case to defend the Islamic group that is now proscribed under the 2000 Terrorism Act…


Outright Jew-hatred and support for terrorists on display during ‘March for Gaza’ in Washington
Speakers at a “March for Gaza” in Washington on Jan. 13 promised that Israel would cease to exist and, to the cheers of thousands of attendees, accused U.S. President Joe Biden of supporting genocide against Palestinians.

Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine and the final speaker of the nearly four-hour event, promised that Palestine would be “victorious” and accused Biden of fueling Jew-hatred by supporting Israel.

“We’re not the antisemitics [sic] here,” he said. “It is you who are fueling antisemitism when you claim that Israel is the embodiment of Judaism, when you claim that the Israeli people are the embodiment of Jews. They’re not representatives of Jews.”

The march, which ran about three hours and 45 minutes in Freedom Plaza, a couple of blocks southeast of the White House, drew tens of thousands of participants. Nine organizations, including Abuirshaid’s, under the umbrella of the American Muslim Taskforce for Palestine co-sponsored the rally, which the Council on American-Islamic Relations claimed drew 400,000 people.

“If Jews were being massacred the way the Palestinians are being massacred, wallah, I’d be standing here speaking on their behalf defending them,” Abuirshaid said. (Wallah is Arabic for “I swear by God.”)

Abuirshaid did not mention Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which required Israel to defend itself. He concluded by promising to “dismantle” the Jewish state.

“Filistin will be free. Gaza will be victorious. we are not running away,” he said, using the Arabic for Palestine. “All people will live in peace when Israel, in its current form, as a current structure, will cease to exist.”

Other speakers at the rally included 2024 presidential candidates Jill Stein (Green Party), a physician who last ran for president in 2016; Cornel West (Independent), professor emeritus at Princeton University; and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink. The only elected officials to address the crowd were Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) and Iman Jodeh, a Democrat and Colorado state representative.

Dr. Mohsin Ansari, a pediatrician and president of the Islamic Circle of North America, which was one of the march’s organizers, told JNS that he was pleased to see thousands of people march to the White House.

“It was a massive turnout, obviously. People from different faiths, they agree. The majority of the American population, almost 65%, support a ceasefire right now,” he said. “They are against the policies of our current government.”

While some polls have shown significant popular U.S. support for a ceasefire in general terms, other polling suggests that given a choice between an immediate ceasefire and a ceasefire only after Hamas is disarmed and dismantled, a strong plurality of Americans support the latter.
Anti-Israel protesters target Jewish state, cancer patients in Manhattan
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.”

Anti-Israel protesters appeared to take that literally on Monday at a “Flood Manhattan for Gaza MLK Day” march for health-care event, during which they protested outside Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“Make sure they hear you. They’re in the window,” one organizer said through a bullhorn, and another in the crowd chanted, about the cancer center, “MSK, shame on you, you support genocide, too,” the New York Post reported. (The center’s mission—“ending cancer for life”—could be said to be genocidal only towards the disease.)

Three people, including a 16-year-old, were arrested during the protests, which also targeted Mount Sinai Hospital, which was said to be guilty of “supporting Zionism” and “genocide.”

“I thought I was in Germany in 1939,” a 74-year-old Jewish woman told the Post.
Thousands of anti-Israel protesters swarm NYC cancer hospital accusing of 'complicity in genocide' as patients receive urgent care - while witness says: 'I thought I was in 1939 Germany'
Former NHL player Colby Cohen wrote: 'If you are wondering what scum of the earth look like, it's these people harassing and yelling at children at Sloan Kettering getting cancer treatments. Hard to fathom there are adults that condone and support that type of behavior.'

'Protesting at Memorial Sloan Kettering is the PLO playbook. Like the Munich Olympics without the violence (yet). They want attention & are 100% ok if it is negative. Because they know that they will find sympathy among certain audiences no matter how provocatively they behave,' added another user.

Actor Yuval David added: 'The 'Pro-Palestinian' protestors are only about being anti-Jewish and anti-anything that includes Jews or has any Jewish leaders or administrators.'

Later, the demonstrators - who marched from Union Square to Grace Mansion - targeted both a McDonald's and Starbucks location and accused both companies of cooking 'meals for genocide.'

They also allegedly chanted similar sentiments at Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

Police reported scuffles between NYPD members and protesters and a 16-year-old boy was arrested with charges pending.

According to the ADL, the anti-Semitic hate wave includes 628 incidents at synagogues and Jewish community centers with about two-thirds of all incidents related to Israel's war on Hamas.
The Nation’s Palestinian Correspondent Says ‘We Must Normalize Massacres’
The Nation magazine’s Palestinian correspondent is being investigated by the London Metropolitan Police after saying "we must normalize massacres as the status quo" during an anti-Israel demonstration last weekend.

Mohammed El-Kurd, who is described as the Nation's "first-ever Palestine Correspondent" on the left-wing magazine’s website, also denounced the existence of Israel and said "we must root [Zionism] out of the world" in his speech at the London rally.

The Metropolitan Police said it was "aware of the remarks" and was "assessing the matter and as part of that assessment will be seeking to speak to the individual concerned." The U.K. has strict laws relating to discriminatory speech and incitement to violence.

El-Kurd initially mocked the police department and critics of his speech, but on Monday claimed that he misspoke and meant to say that "we should NOT normalise massacres" of Palestinians specifically.

The Nation did not respond to a request for comment.

El-Kurd’s comments came amid a spike in anti-Semitic crimes and attempted terrorist attacks. On Saturday, London police arrested six pro-Palestinian activists who were allegedly plotting an attack on the city’s stock exchange. The Anti-Defamation League has reportedly tracked over 3,200 anti-Semitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis.

While El-Kurd said on Monday that he opposes "massacres, murder and genocide," he has a long history of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments.

Last February, Princeton University's English department invited El-Kurd to speak at its Edward Said Memorial Lecture, where he defended Palestinian violence against Israelis. According to audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, El-Kurd asked the audience, "What else would you do if there is an occupying power in your backyard beating the shit out of your family?"

He appeared to defend Hamas’s slaughter of over 1,000 Israelis in October, saying it was a "response to weeks and months and years of daily Israeli military invasions into Palestinian towns."

In 2021, El-Kurd praised the "martyrs" and the "glory" of Palestinian terrorists on the 21st anniversary of the second intifada.

"Today marks 21 years since the start of the Second Intifada. Glory to those who resisted and sacrificed," he wrote in a Twitter post. "Glory to the martyrs, the women and men whose makeshift weapons confronted artilleries, the children whose stones intimidated tanks."




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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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