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Sunday, January 21, 2024

01/21 Links: Documenting the Enablers of Hamas War Crimes; Biden Admin, Qatar, Egypt Propose Hostage Deal Where Israel Loses War; Unmasking Gaza's so-called journalists

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Documenting the Enablers of Hamas War Crimes: UN Agencies, Government Aid Programs and NGOs
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: UN agencies, government aid programs and NGOs have consistently and willfully aided and abetted Hamas as it built its vast terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. They diverted aid money to Hamas to fund its terrorist activities, provided propaganda and disinformation support to Hamas in its efforts to tarnish and discredit Israel, and indoctrinated Gazan schoolchildren to hate Jews. Systematic documentation of the roles played by UN and government officials, as well as NGOs operating under the vast framework of international humanitarian aid, in enabling and cooperating with Hamas, both tacitly and actively, is vital to prevent a repetition of this abdication of responsibility and accountability.

Detailed documentation of the brutal Hamas mass slaughter of October 7, 2023, which included rape, torture and other heinous crimes, is essential in preserving the historical record, particularly in an era dominated by social media propaganda and disinformation. Documentation has begun through Israeli frameworks, both governmental and private, and also by journalists, including at The New York Times. In addition, Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation is conducting a project to document the “unspeakable brutality.”

In parallel, there is discussion of a special tribunal under the Israeli court system for trials of the perpetrators, particularly Hamas leaders who surrender or are taken alive. As in the trials of Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, the testimonies of survivors will inform future generations in the face of campaigns working to erase and deny the atrocities.

A third layer is also required: the systematic documentation of the complicity of Hamas enablers and allies. This category includes numerous UN agencies and officials operating in Gaza, governmental aid organizations and diplomats, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) claiming to promote human rights and humanitarian aid. Evidence of their involvement and behavior – specifically with respect to the large-scale theft (“diversion”) of aid for construction of the massive terror infrastructure beneath Gaza and tens of thousands of lethal rockets – is available in numerous photographs and videos from the IDF. This and other information needs to be consolidated and systematically organized and made available in different forms to the general public.

The compilation of verifiable evidence is also essential in planning for “the day after” the war in Gaza and is independent of whatever political arrangements are eventually implemented. By carefully examining the activities of the organizations operating under international humanitarian aid frameworks, policies can be formulated to prevent a repetition of this behavior.

Many of the agencies and organizations comprising the multibillion-dollar Gaza aid industry have been active since at least June 2007. At that time, Hamas violently overthrew the Palestinian Authority, which had taken control when the Israeli government unilaterally ended its presence in Gaza in 2005. These agencies and organizations allowed Hamas to devote all available resources to building the terror network underground while relying on aid providers to supply the general population with food, water and essential above-ground services. As Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk boasted in October, “We built the tunnels to protect ourselves from airplanes… The refugees, the UN is responsible for protecting them.”

Throughout the 17 years since the Hamas takeover, numerous reports have been published and videos posted detailing the growth of the terrorist capabilities inside Gaza. The frequent clashes with the IDF exposed additional information on the terror network and command centers located under and inside civilian locations, such as hospitals, mosques, schools and residential buildings. In the course of the operation that began following the October 7 attack, the IDF and journalists have added to this information, posting numerous pictures and videos showing the links between the aid operations and Hamas installations.
Accusing Israel of genocide is a perverse moral inversion
No decent person could be unmoved by the tragic suffering of innocent Palestinians. The ongoing debate about how this war can be prosecuted in a way which minimises that suffering is more than legitimate. It is vital. Yet, the enthusiastic clamour by some to declare it as something which belongs in a different moral category to the many other just wars with horrific humanitarian consequences, represents a moral failure built upon a foundation of hatred and disinformation.

That failure is compounded by the inescapable truth that if there is indeed a genocidal force in this conflict, it must surely be Hamas, whose rape, sexual mutilation and cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians, which it proudly broadcast to the world, is clear evidence of its dehumanisation of Jews. It is the leaders of Hamas who have made it clear that they will repeat their atrocities “again and again” and whose founding charter makes it clear that killing Jews is among its very reasons for existing.

The Biblical Prophet Zecharia declared, “Love truth and peace!” Sadly, truth is often the first casualty of conflict. When facts are presented selectively and truth becomes inverted, peace drifts yet further away.

Next week, on Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis simply because they were Jews, alongside millions of other victims. It is also a day when we recall more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The misappropriation of the word ‘genocide’ is an affront both to the victims and the survivors of these unspeakable crimes.

Its use in the context of this conflict is the ultimate demonisation of the Jewish State. It is a term deployed not only to eradicate any notion that Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens, but also to tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust, knowing that it will inflict more pain than any other accusation. It is a moral inversion, which undermines the memory of the worst crimes in human history.

Israel finds itself caught between the anvil of Jihadism on its border and the hammers of a global hatred whose proponents seem to care more about demonising the world’s only Jewish state and lionising terrorists, than about peace. Those are conditions which have already inspired a widespread view within Israel, that whatever it does, it can never win. If we are to yet make any meaningful contribution towards forging a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians, the world must ensure that its discourse around the conflict is far more sober and honest. The destructive and manufactured hyperbole, which reaches its nadir with the accusation of genocide, can only harm the cause of peace.
Bret Stephens: In Davos, Israel’s Hostages Get a Hearing
The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is largely an opportunity for the powerful to mingle with the even more powerful. For the most part, I’ve spent my time here listening to government leaders — Iran’s foreign minister struck me as an exceptionally talented dissembler — and schmoozing with business leaders, think tankers and officials at Davos’s famous private dinners and after-parties.

But the most moving stories I heard this week came from some of the least powerful people here.

“I open my eyes and feel my throat close,” Rachel Goldberg told me, describing her mornings over the previous 100-plus days. “I say a Jewish prayer and ask, ‘Let today be the day.’ And then I say, ‘Pretend to be human.’ And I put on this costume because, if I’m a ball on the floor, I can’t save him.”

She was speaking — with extraordinary self-composure — of her 23-year-old son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. On Oct. 7, he was attending the Nova music festival with a friend when terrorists from Hamas, arriving in paragliders and vans, murdered 364 people there in cold blood. Hersh and nearly 30 others tried to hide at a small roadside bomb shelter. Terrorists attacked it with hand grenades, then an R.P.G., killing nearly everyone inside.

Hersh survived the assault, barely. Goldberg showed me video footage, taken by Hamas, of him being put into the back of a truck and driven off to Gaza. The lower half of his left arm has been blown off, leaving a bloody stump. It’s stomach-churning to watch.


Hamas, Inc.: The Property Empire That Funded Militant Attack on Israel



Netanyahu: We reject ‘outright’ Hamas demands for hostage deal
Israel has rejected “outright” Hamas demand that the IDF end its military campaign in Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night.

“To date we have returned home 110 of the hostages,” Netanyahu said, emphasizing that Israel was “committed to returning all of them.

“This is one of the war’s objectives of the war,” Netanyahu said, adding that “military pressure is a necessary” tool to ensure the captive’s freedom.

Hamas has demanded, Netanyahu said, an end to the war, a complete IDF withdrawal from Gaza, the retention of its control of Gaza, and the release of the “murders and rapists” who participated in the October 7 attack against Israel.

In that attack over 120 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostages.

'Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel'
“If we agree to this - our warriors fell in vain. If we agree to this - we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens.

“We will not be able to return the evacuees safely to their homes, and the next October 7th attack will only be a matter of time.

“I am not ready to put up with such a fatal blow to Israel's security, so we will not agree to it,” Netanyahu said.

He spoke following the publication of a Wall Street Journal report of a renewed US drive together with mediating countries Egypt and Qatar to secure a hostage deal for the remaining 132 people held in Gaza, including a one-year baby.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a three-phase deal was on the table covering a 90-day period, in which Israeli civilians would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed by Israel.
Biden Admin, Qatar, Egypt Propose Hostage Deal Where Israel Loses War
Hamas is trying to use the hostages as leverage to avoid defeat. The Journal reports that there are rifts between Hamas’s leaders in Doha, Qatar, who are open to accepting a demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and leaders in Gaza, who want to keep on fighting.

Israel reportedly prefers a two-week pause for a hostage release that would not stop the war and would allow it to pursue its stated objectives of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities completely, so that it can never threaten Israeli communities again.

The U.S.-backed plan appears to satisfy President Joe Biden’s demand that fighting be eased to reduce Palestinian casualties. It also appears to exploit emerging political differences within Israel about how far to compromise to free the remaining hostages.

There is frustration within Israel that the military has not yet been able to locate Israeli hostages who are in tunnels underground — though the IDF revealed on Saturday that it found an underground prison where hostages, including children, were once kept.

Though Israelis broadly agree that Hamas should be destroyed, and that a Palestinian state would be a disaster (a reversal from the view a decade ago), some dissenting voices are echoing Biden administration claims that Hamas cannot be totally defeated.

Netanyahu has dismissed such claims, arguing that Israel not only has the ability to defeat Hamas, but that it is doing so, and that it has no choice but to continue the war until Hamas is defeated, because otherwise Israel will not be able to restore its security.

The fact that the U.S. plan is also backed by Qatar and Egypt will not sway many Israelis. Qatar is resented for hosting the Hamas leadership in luxurious exile, and Egypt is increasingly suspected of having helped Hamas smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.
WSJ: U.S., Arab Allies Push Hostage-Release Plan Aimed at Ending Israel-Hamas War
The U.S., Egypt and Qatar see another hostage deal as the key to bringing a prolonged halt to the fighting. Egyptian officials say that while Israeli leaders publicly take an uncompromising stance, there are divisions within the Israeli cabinet, with some calling for prioritization of hostages.

In a rare interview with Israeli television, Gadi Eisenkot, a former general who is now a nonvoting member of Israel’s war cabinet, said: “We should say bravely that it is impossible to return the hostages alive in the near future without an agreement.”

Other senior Israeli leaders disagree, saying that only continued military pressure on Hamas will compel the group to return captives.

On Tuesday in Cairo, Israeli negotiators offered another counterproposal on hostages that didn’t include a path to ending the war, Egyptian officials said. They said Egypt’s top negotiator, its intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, accused Israel’s team of not being serious about the talks.

Meanwhile, Hamas has told Egyptian and Qatari officials that the previous, short-term hostage deal was unsatisfactory, with less aid than promised reaching Gaza and many of its freed prisoners getting arrested again later.

A Qatari official said the Gulf state “continues to communicate with all parties with the objective of mediating an immediate end to the bloodshed, protecting the lives of innocent civilians, securing the release of hostages, and facilitating the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The mediators have proposed a 90-day plan that would first pause fighting for an unspecified number of days for Hamas to first release all Israeli civilian hostages, while Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw forces from Gaza’s towns and cities, allow freedom of movement in the strip, end drone surveillance and double the amount of aid going into the enclave, according to the plan.

In the second phase, Hamas would free female Israeli soldiers and turn over bodies while Israel would release more Palestinian prisoners. A third phase would involve the release of Israeli soldiers and fighting-age men Hamas considers soldiers, according to Egyptian officials, while Israel would redeploy some of its forces outside the current borders of the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it has destroyed more than half of Hamas’s fighting battalions and largely cleared the strip’s largest city, Gaza City, and its surroundings of militants. But its forces are now fighting in Khan Younis, a densely packed city in the enclave’s south, and looking ahead to clashes in the border town of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million civilians have sought refuge.

Also on the table: the formation of an international fund for the reconstruction of Gaza, and safety guarantees for Hamas political leaders, Egyptian officials said.

The plan then envisions talks for a permanent cease-fire, normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the relaunching a process to create a Palestinian state, Egyptian officials said.

Gulf countries have ruled out funding a reconstruction of Gaza—as the Israelis have called for—without a clear and irreversible path to a Palestinian state.

A particular hindrance in the talks, said Egyptian officials, has been Hamas’s internal rifts.
Hamas's Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh have not spoken in a month
Hamas's leadership may be feeling the strain of the ongoing war with Israel, as the two main leaders of the terrorist organization have not spoken in over a month, according to reports.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's leader in Gaza and the architect of the October 7 attacks, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh have not communicated in at least a month, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday, citing Egyptian sources.

The ongoing silence would make it difficult for Israel to agree to a hostage exchange deal with the Hamas leadership, the sources stated. The US, Qatar, and Egypt are spearheading efforts for a hostage deal and a ceasefire.

Sinwar is believed to be hiding deep underground in Hamas's southern Gazan tunnels complex, surrounded by Nukhba commandos who led attacks on October 7, and with Israeli hostages, using them as human shields as the IDF's noose tightens.

Haniyeh hopeful for Hamas rule to continue in Gaza
Sinwar, according to the Egyptian officials, has conveyed to mediators that Hamas considers itself victorious in the conflict, despite substantial military casualties, the WSJ reported. It is estimated that Israel has eliminated around one-quarter of Hamas's military force, according to the WSJ.

On the other hand, Hamas's political leadership, including Haniyeh, which is based in the Qatari capital, Doha, has continued to engage in talks with Qatar and Egypt, aiming to secure Hamas's relevance in the rule of post-war Gaza. This leadership has also expressed a willingness to demilitarize in Gaza, a stance strongly opposed by Sinwar, as indicated by Egyptian officials, the WSJ stated.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Unmasking Gaza's so-called journalists
We spent weeks researching the real identity of Gazan journalists. This would not of been possible without David Collier's incredible research into this field.


Jpost Editorial: It's essential that Israel also focus on terror threats in West Bank
It is essential that Israel focus on the rising terrorist threats in the West Bank. Palestinian terrorist groups are seeking to exploit the war in Gaza and tensions with Hezbollah to increase their arsenals in the West Bank and erode the Palestinian Authority.

Following the Hamas attack on October 7 there have been increased threats from the West Bank. Israel has operated to try to stymie those threats via arrests of Hamas activists and other terrorists. However, a recent upsurge in violence in the West Bank illustrates that the threat is growing and it could spill over.

The spillover from the West Bank could occur in various ways. First of all, it could affect Palestinian cities and lead to the weakening of the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Authority already faces many threats from groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It also has internal voices who backed the Hamas genocidal massacre and have tried to play both sides, by pretending to be moderates who can work toward peace, and backing Hamas terrorists.

Meanwhile the average people in the West Bank have also been force-fed propaganda about how Hamas has been able to achieve deals with Israel, such as the release of Palestinian prisoners. All of this creates a toxic mix that could lead to more support for extremist groups.

The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) eliminated terrorists in Balata camp in Nablus last week. The terrorists in Balata had planned to carry out an “imminent, large-scale terrorist attack,” the IDF said. Balata is a hot bed of terrorism, like many of the congested Palestinian former refugee camps that have become neighborhoods in various cities.

International organizations often turn a blind eye to this extremism, and as in Gaza, they have not confronted the extremism and terror threats in places like Balata. This means the tragedy of Gaza is repeated in the West Bank, as groups like Hamas, PIJ, and others prey on the people and push them to attack Israel.
'Denying Palestinians statehood is unacceptable,' Guterres says
Palestinians must have the right to statehood, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in Kampala, Uganda as he called for an immediate ceasefire to the Gaza war.

“The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood to the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said on the sidelines of the Third South Summit of the G77 plus China.

“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all,” he said.

It was a statement he issued a number of times over the weekend, including in a speech he delivered on Saturday to the Non-Aligned Movement and on Sunday to the G77 Summit.

The absence of Palestinian statehood would “indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; exacerbate polarization; and embolden extremists everywhere,” Guterres said.

Guterres insists on 2-state solution following Biden, Netanyahu back and forth
He spoke out as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his government have been publicly in their reaction to Palestinian statehood. It’s an issue that has come to the fore as the US has linked it to its efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as the reconstruction of Gaza after the war.

The United Nations has yet to grant statehood recognition to the Palestinians a move that would need the approval of the UN Security Council. The United States would need to approve such a move, given that it has veto power at the council.
UN spokesman clarifies claim global body unaware of Hamas tunnels
After coming under fire for claiming that the United Nations had no knowledge of Hamas’ tunnel system in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the global body’s chief offered a clarification to JNS.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, was asked on Wednesday whether, given the sizable U.N. presence amid a multitude of Gazan agencies, the organization had any indication the tunnels were being constructed.

“No is clearly the answer for that,” he said. “It seems to me that all this infrastructure was built in a highly secretive way.”

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, responded with a tweet containing two letters he personally wrote to Guterres documenting Hamas tunnels and their proximity to sensitive sites, including U.N. facilities.

The Israeli envoy also cited a 2022 statement by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) condemning the presence of a “man-made cavity” beneath one of its Gaza schools as a breach of neutrality and international law.

Additionally, Erdan claimed he had briefed UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini on the tunnels in 2021.

Still, Dujarric insisted on Wednesday that the United Nations was unaware of the sophisticated labyrinth of tunnels being dug and fortified throughout Gaza.

“I mean, just to see it as an observer, to think that the U.N. had any understanding of what was,” he said, “any information about those operations, I think, is: No is clearly the answer for that.”

Dujarric told JNS on Friday that he meant to say that the United Nations was unaware of any building of tunnels going on at a given moment. Conceding that the body was aware of Hamas tunnels, Dujarric said the organization had no insight as to Hamas’ building plans, and therefore could not identify construction as it was happening.


UNRWA USA claims Israel killing ‘over 2 million people’ in Gaza
According to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’s U.S. fundraising arm, more than “2 million people” in the Gaza Strip, including 1.7 million refugees, are being killed “while the world watches.”


“As of Jan. 12, deadly Israeli military airstrikes have killed more than 23,708,” the organization also claimed in its emergency appeal, using disputed figures released by Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization.

“We call for an immediate ceasefire and a full lifting of the humanitarian siege. Give now to save lives in Gaza,” added UNRWA USA, an independent nonprofit based in Washington.

“WTH?” tweeted Tamar Sternthal, director of the Israel office of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), in response, accusing the NGO of “just making stuff up.”

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the Gaza Strip is home to a total of approximately 2 million Palestinians.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, does not distinguish between terrorist and civilian deaths. Both Israel and the United States have disputed the casualty figures coming out of Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces has killed some 9,000 Palestinian terrorists in the airstrikes and ground offensive it launched following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 people, nearly all of them civilians, in Israel’s northwestern Negev region, interim data published by the military last week shows.

The IDF also killed as many as 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on and immediately following the Oct. 7 invasion.
Blaming Israel is an outrageous inversion of reality
As the Chief Rabbi writes in his Comment piece today, truth is often the first casualty in conflict. Sadly, when the world’s only Jewish state finds itself at war, Israel is too often also the first to be blamed. So it has proved in the current struggle between Israel and Hamas.

Now, in the latest topsy-turvy framing, Israel is being accused of standing in the way of Palestinian statehood.

Yet the indiscriminate savagery of October 7, which the Hamas leadership has vowed to repeat again and again, made clear what the terror group thinks about living alongside the region’s Jews. Its founding charter declares Palestine an “Islamic land”, rejects peace deals and says that Islam will obliterate Israel. Similarly, the Houthis in Yemen, currently celebrated by anti-war protesters for their attacks on Red Sea shipping, chant “Death to Israel!” – and mean it. Behind both groups stands the implacable anti-Semitism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a state on the verge of nuclear capability which is dedicated to wiping both Israel and its inhabitants from the map.

Even the so-called peace marchers, who are eager to denounce Israel week after week, do so under banners reading “From the River to the Sea”, a call for Israel’s erasure.

A two-state solution remains the obvious and ultimate answer to the tragedy of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Yet for more than seventy years, every offer to make a deal of this kind has been rejected by the Palestinians’ representatives. It is not Israel that is intransigent, but Palestinian elites and their misguided Western supporters. Even the PLO, seen by some as a more tractable partner than Hamas, was founded on an eliminationist agenda. It refuses to condemn Hamas’s massacre, and the Palestinian Authority continues to pay bonuses to the families of “martyrs”.
NGO Monitor: The South African Genocide Complaint and PFLP-Linked NGOs
On December 29, 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against the State of Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. In its 85-page submission and during public hearings on 11-12 January, South Africa relied on a number of highly biased NGOs with links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group.

South Africa’s allegations follow intensive, highly politicized NGO campaigns to attach the “genocide” label to Israel. Similarly, the framing in the submission – that “Israel’s acts of genocide” must be placed in the “broader context of Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians during its 75-year-long apartheid…” – echoes NGO rhetoric.

Members of the Delegation/Advisors
The South African delegation to the ICJ hearings included officials from the NGOs with ties to the PFLP.

Raji Sourani
Founder and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012.

In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani. Rabah Muhana, a member of the PFLP Political Bureau, delivered a speech at the prize ceremony. During the ceremony Sourani stated that “I was in the ranks of the Popular Front, and there were comrades who taught us with their own hands. This organization has given us much more. We hope that the direction and the sense of belonging that were planted inside us will remain in our minds. We don’t apologize and don’t regret our past, we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks” (emphasis added).

For more information on PCHR’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”

Shawan Jabarin
General Director of Al-Haq. Jabarin was convicted in 1985 for recruiting members for the PFLP, and was also found guilty of arranging PFLP training outside Israel. In 1994, Jabarin was again arrested for alleged links and placed in administrative detention for six months. An Israeli statement to the UN notes that he “had not discontinued his terrorist involvement and maintains his position in the leadership of the PFLP.”

Later, in a series of court cases in 2007-2009, the Israeli High Court of Justice found Jabarin to be a senior PFLP activist (2007, 2008, 2009). According to the Israeli Supreme court, Jabarin “is apparently acting as a manner of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization.

In February 2019, Jabarin participated in an event hosted by the PFLP in memory of “comrade fighter” Maher Al-Yamani. Al- Yamani was a PFLP “founder,” a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders,” and “coordinated special operations…in particular the operation against an aircraft of the Israeli company El Al in July 1968 in Greece.” Additionally, in May 2019, Jabarin attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP that centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs, including UHWC, UAWC, and Addameer. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.

According to multiple Arabic-language media sources, Jabarin represented the PFLP at a December 2011 meeting of the Follow-Up Committee for Issues of Public Liberties and Trust Building. This committee served as a reconciliatory body between Hamas, Fatah, PIJ, the PFLP, and other Palestinian factions. According to the Al-Wafd news outlet, Jabarin, a “PFLP representative on the committee” announced his resignation after he was identified by his PFLP affiliation.
Yair Rosenberg: What Did Top Israeli War Officials Really Say About Gaza?
Since ancient times, Amalek has served as Jewish shorthand for a foe that seeks to exterminate the Jewish people. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, makes regular reference to “remember what Amalek did to you,” both in its documentation and in its public exhibition. Israel’s previous president invoked Amalek when critiquing remarks made by then-President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil about the Nazi genocide. Ironically, The Hague’s own Holocaust memorial is called the “Amalek monument,” and its plaque cites the same Hebrew verse as Netanyahu did. Obviously, these allusions to Amalek refer to the Nazis, not their extended families or the entire German people. The collapsing of this traditional Jewish concept into its worst possible interpretation echoes similar misrepresentations of Muslim terminology, such as jihad. Jewish extremists have sometimes cast all Palestinians as Amalek, but that no more defines the term for everyday Jews than the use of “Allahu akbar” by Muslim terrorists like Hamas defines the phrase for everyday Muslims.

Amalek was not the only one of Netanyahu’s basic biblical references to be miscast as malevolent in the current conflict. In late October, the Israeli leader cited a verse from Isaiah at the end of a speech. “This was a biblical reference to God’s protection of the Jewish people,” wrote the Financial Times editor and columnist Edward Luce. “It also served as a dog whistle to Netanyahu’s allies in America’s evangelical movement … Such talk from Israel’s leader and America’s de facto leader of the opposition deprives Hamas of its dark monopoly on theocracy.”

Here is what Netanyahu said: “With deep faith in the justice of our cause and in the eternity of Israel, we will realize the prophecy of Isaiah 60:18—‘Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.’” Anyone familiar with the original Hebrew verse understands that Netanyahu here was not making a messianic pronouncement, but rather a play on words. In one of history’s great ironies, Hamas is the biblical word for “violence.” (This is why Israelis typically pronounce it with a guttural kh, following the Bible, to the frustration and amusement of Arabic speakers who correctly pronounce the group’s name with a soft h.) Puns are often objectionable, but they are not theocracy.

I’ve written extensively about Netanyahu’s profound failures. He welcomed the far-right into Israel’s government and gave its members titles and ministries. He has regularly refused to rebuke their extremism because he fears losing power. He is the reason Israel is reduced to arguing that it is innocent of genocidal intent, not because its politicians haven’t expressed it, but because those politicians aren’t military decision makers. In other words, Netanyahu is the one who created the context in which banal biblical references could be understood as far-right appeals. But Jewish scripture should not be distorted by journalists or jurists in an erroneous attempt to indict him.

These omissions and misinterpretations are not merely cosmetic: They misled readers, judges, and politicians. None of them should have happened. The good news is that they can be avoided in the future by making sure to check translations at their source; pressing writers to link to primary sources when possible; and placing scriptural citations from any faith into their proper theological and historical context. Certainly, no outlet or activist should be cavalierly accusing people or countries of committing genocide based on thirdhand mistranslations or truncated quotations.

Neutral principles like these can’t resolve the deep moral and political quandaries posed by the Israel-Hamas conflict. They can’t tell readers what to think about its devastation. But they will ensure that whatever conclusions readers draw will be based on facts, not fictions—which is, at root, the purpose of journalism.
South African Lawfare at The Hague
Nevertheless, it is worth examining the South African application in order to understand how poorly it is constructed as a matter of law, and how deceptive it is as propaganda. Generally speaking, motions before any court—criminal or civil, national or international—contain references to hard evidence and a careful reading of legal precedent to back the claims therein. The South African application has neither.

The application is 84 pages long and includes 574 footnotes. Its aim is not to convict any particular Israeli of genocide, but to show that a prima facie case exists that merits the ICJ’s intervention. South Africa cites the case brought in 2019 by The Gambia against Myanmar alleging the latter’s genocide of the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic group in the Rakhine state, hundreds of thousands of whom fled to Bangladesh. In that case, the ICJ ruled that a prima facie case of genocide existed, based on evidence presented in the report completed in 2018 by a UN fact-finding mission to the region. The court noted that “at least some of the acts alleged by The Gambia are capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention.” The ICJ then ordered Myanmar to halt its genocidal activities. South Africa hopes to do the same with Israel.

The UN fact-finding mission in the Myanmar case undertook a two-year investigation, during which it interviewed over 1,000 victims and analyzed documents, photographs, and videos. It recorded over 1,000 examples of anti-Rohingya hate speech on Facebook alone. It found evidence of deliberate starvation through the confiscation of fields and the killing of livestock. It found corroborating evidence of face-to-face mass killings in hundreds of villages, including murders of very young children and the throwing of infants into burning houses and rivers. The UN mission also reported widespread sexual violence, including a “notable pattern” of “mass gang rape”—indeed, the descriptions are eerily similar to the stories of sexual violence committed by members of Hamas on October 7.

The Myanmar case is mostly used to establish South Africa’s standing to bring genocide charges before the ICJ, and the ICJ's ability to intervene, but the two cases are entirely different. The Rohingya have no national charter calling for the destruction of Myanmar, they have not launched thousands of rockets at cities and villages, and they have not carried out systematic terror attacks against Myanmar’s civilians. Nor is there a global chorus at the UN vilifying the Myanmar state and calling for its eradication. Finally, the UN investigation of Myanmar was serious and painstaking, and not simply thrown together with a predetermined outcome. But the main problem with the South African argument against Israel relates not to its political context or its legal standing but to its evidentiary basis.

The application’s early pages report that other world leaders have called Israel’s actions in Gaza genocidal, including the leaders of Iran, Algeria, Turkey, Iraq, Libya, and the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. How these statements of opinion qualify as evidence of anything is anyone’s guess. The application also cites past UN fact-finding commissions to argue that Israel has been pursuing a genocide of the Palestinians for years. It ignores that the methodology of these commissions was deeply flawed. Their investigations took days, not years, and their evidentiary basis was mostly testimony from witnesses in Gaza with no knowledge of Israeli decision-making. At times, this practice is unintentionally comical, such as when South Africa cites a UN economic report from 2015 that predicted Gaza “could become uninhabitable by 2020,” but left unexplained why Gaza’s population keeps increasing.

Other uses of past UN fact-finding reports are simply disingenuous. In September 2009, the UN conducted an investigation into the 2008–09 Israeli operation in Gaza known as Cast Lead, a three-week military engagement following a barrage of Hamas rocket attacks. The South African application reproduces 19 passages from that report verbatim, including inflammatory claims that Israel used Hamas rocket attacks as a pretext to target “the people of Gaza as a whole,” and that Cast Lead was “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population.”

The 2009 report is better known as the Goldstone Report, named for the South African supreme court justice Richard Goldstone who led the UN fact-finding mission. There were numerous problems with the Goldstone report, not the least of which was that part of the “fact-finding” came from two days of televised public hearings in Gaza City. During these hearings, commission members such as Pakistan’s Hina Jilani asked witnesses leading questions such as, “Can I ask you if you’re able to give us an idea whether there was some kind of a pattern of destruction?” Other witnesses, during testimony concerning the destruction of a mosque in Jabaliya, failed to mention that the mosque had been used for military purposes. The Izz al-din al-Qassam Brigades’ own sources later revealed that those killed in the mosque were senior operatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
No one buys Cricket S. Africa's 'security concerns' for removing David Teeger as captain
The official reason for the removal was “security concerns” by Cricket South Africa, which claimed to have been told that there would be protests if David was allowed to captain.

“We have also been advised that they are likely to focus on the position of the SA Under-19 (SA U19) captain, David Teeger, and that there is a risk that this could result in conflict or even violence, including between rival groups of protesters.

“CSA has a primary duty to safeguard the interests and safety of all those involved in the World Cup and must accordingly respect the expert advice of those responsible for the safety of participants and spectators.

“In all the circumstances, CSA has decided that David should be relieved of the captaincy for the tournament. This is in the best interests of all the players, the SA U19 team, and David himself.”

THE ABOVE statement resulted from a statement that David himself made in October 2023. At the annual Jewish Achievers Awards, where David was the recipient of the Rising Star Award, he dedicated his award “to the state of Israel and its soldiers.”

Following the event, Cricket South Africa received a complaint, which it investigated. It convened an inquiry and engaged a well-known judge to adjudicate the matter.

The ruling was that David had done nothing to bring Cricket SA into disrepute.

"A young Jewish man speaking to his fellow Jews" - Judge
According to the judge, in a 44-page ruling, “He was a young Jewish man speaking to his fellow Jews. It was clear from his comments that he did not purport to speak for cricket, cricketers generally, or indeed anybody else.”

That should have been that. But it wasn’t. David was stripped of his captaincy for “security reasons,” an excuse that no one is buying.

Opposition political parties, Jewish community leadership, and even human rights commentators, not generally supportive of Israel, have expressed outrage and disbelief and have alleged political interference. Whereas that is still to be proven, considering that the ANC has supported the decision and considering their repulsion of anything remotely connected to Israel, it is likely that this will prove to be the case.

So, while South Africa, at an “away” game, stands on the soap box of the world, holding others to a high standard, back home there is another lived reality.

The Teeger story is about more than cricket. It transcends sport and has the potential to drag South Africa and its youth into an intolerant, dictatorial, and dangerous society that shuns free speech and caves to violence. In essence, a Jew with a view will not be tolerated.

The Teeger story is a perfect illustration of contrasts. South Africans are not antisemitic. They embrace diversity and are largely tolerant of each other. Further, they respect the quirkiness of a religion that demands that a cricket captain walk to a game on a Saturday.

If only they had a government that reflected the values of its citizens.


U.S. intel says IDF killed 20-30% of Hamas terrorists - report
The United States intelligence agencies believe that after over 100 days of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed between 20% and 30% of the terrorist group's operatives, said the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

Citing the U.S. officials who confirmed a classified evaluation, the report claimed that "Hamas still has enough munitions to continue striking Israel and Israeli forces in Gaza for months, and that the group is attempting to reconstitute its police force in parts of Gaza City."

According to the sources cited by the WSJ, despite Hamas suffering thousands of casualties, based on the U.S. and Israeli assessments, "it aims simply to survive this conflict."

The IDF's death toll of the ground operation on Sunday rose to 195 soldiers.

Meanwhile, Hamas' most recent conditions for hostages release seeks full ceasefire and the IDF's withdrawal from the Strip as well as international guarantees that the terrorist group could stay in Gaza.


Israel to transfer to Norway frozen PA funds for Gaza
Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday approved a decision to freeze funds from reaching the Palestinian Authority that the latter planned to send to the Gaza Strip. Instead, Jerusalem will channel the money to a third party, Norway, for safekeeping.

The decision, which enjoys U.S. backing, prevents Gaza-earmarked funds from reaching the P.A. “under any circumstances” unless approved by the finance minister, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Israel’s Finance Ministry collects taxes and customs duties on behalf of the P.A., which it transfers to the entity monthly.

The PMO declined to say whether the P.A. has agreed to accept the remainder of the funds collected on Ramallah’s behalf.

On Nov. 2, although agreeing to send the revenue to the P.A., the Security Cabinet voted to freeze funds equivalent to those the P.A. sends to the Gaza Strip. The decision came at the insistence of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, because it could end up in the hands of Hamas.

Although Hamas seized control of Gaza from the P.A. in June 2007, Ramallah still makes payments to its employees in Gaza.

The P.A. earmarks an estimated 275 million shekels, or $73 million, for Gaza each month.


‘River to the sea’ signs at far-left anti-war rally in Haifa
Protesters called for the destruction of Israel at an anti-war rally in Haifa on Saturday organized by far-left organizations and attended by hundreds of people.

“From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine will be free,” a genocidal call to replace Israel with a Palestinian state, was among the signs that the crowd carried. Other signs read, “End the war” and “Stop the genocide.”

The protest took place after the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, accepted a petition filed by organizers against a police refusal to allow an anti-Israel march amid the war in Gaza sparked by the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists of 1,200 persons in the northwestern Negev.

(Thousands more were wounded and 240 were taken captive in the brutal assault. The Hamas terrorists committed mass rape, beheadings, torture and desecration of corpses, and burned babies alive.)

An estimated 300 people attended the rally at Haifa’s Paris Square. While the flags of Antifa, the Communist Party and the PLO could be seen, the only Israeli flags were at a counter-demonstration.

Yarden Or, a counter-demonstrator, told the Times of Israel that the anti-war protest was hurting Israel and helping Hamas.
IDF soldier killed on October 7, body kept by terrorists in Gaza
The IDF named Staff Sergeant Shay Levinson as a fallen soldier on Sunday evening, the military announced in a press release.

Levinson, 19 and from Giv'at Avni, served in the 77th "Oz" Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade and was killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7.

His death, however, has only just been determined after the chief rabbinic military authority evaluated all available evidence.

According to reports, Levinson was in a tank that was caught by surprise when Hamas terrorists crossed the border in the early morning of October 7. His tank managed to kill around 15 terrorists with shells before being overwhelmed.

Although tank driver Ido Somech managed to escape with his life, the remaining members of the tank crew were killed in the battle: Levinson, shell-loader Ofir Testa, and tank gunner Ariel Eliyahu.

IDF reservist killed in southern Gaza battle
Staff Sergeant (Res.) Uriel Aviad Silberman, 23, was killed in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend and was also named by the IDF early Sunday.

Silberman, from Moshav Nahalim, served as a reserve combat officer in Battalion 7421, Kirithi Brigade.

Silberman was a graduate of the Yeshivat Hesder in Itamar, and Rabbi Yehoshua Van Dyk, head of the yeshiva, said, "Uriel did not compromise in any area, not in his studies, not in preparing for the army, and not in his willingness to serve and sacrifice for the sanctification of God's name."

Another soldier in Silberman's battalion was seriously injured.

The two deaths announced on Sunday bring the total IDF losses since October 7 to 532.


Who is winning the shadow war between Israel and Iran?
Tehran has wanted to draw real blood from Jerusalem for years and finally succeeded on October 7, as well as since then with its other proxies.

For the ayatollahs, making as many as 250,000 Israelis evacuate their homes on multiple fronts is also as much a victory as the number of Israelis its proxies have killed.

Iran has also struck back, going after Israelis in India and other countries.

Also, Iran said it retaliated against the Mossad or Mossed-aligned Kurdish groups in Iraq last week with long-range missile strikes.

All of that could have been a smokescreen for the Islamic Republic to last out against opposition groups, which it also did against groups in Syria and Pakistan.

But it showed a greater readiness by Iran to flex its military might, with less fear of the destabilizing consequences.

There is also the gradually escalating fight between the Houthis and Iranian proxies in Iraq versus the US and some allies, for their support for the Jewish state during this war.

The final front is the nuclear weapons one, where IAEA chief of nuclear inspections Rafael Grossi on Friday all but threw his arms up in exasperation at being at a dead end in trying to get Tehran to restore full transparency over its suspicious nuclear activities.

With all of the many fronts it can act on, and while neither Israel nor the US has a silver bullet answer for how to resolve the threats posed by Iran, except the nuclear front, Jerusalem and Washington DC seem to have the upper hand.

On the nuclear front, they have not come to a strategy of how to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment now for around three years running. There, America and the Jewish state for now seem to have sufficed with a threat to attack if Iran tries to cross the line to finalize production of a nuclear weapon.

Yet, on the other fronts, far more senior Iranian officials and critical assets, and those of their proxies, are going up in smoke than on the Israeli and American side.

The question that is still unanswered is: how to return stability to the region in a way that will leave Israeli security improved to avoid the possibility of another October 7 or similar repeat.
Iran vows revenge after 5 IRGC members killed in Syria

Seth Frantzman: Iranian media falsely claims to have ‘injured’ Israeli in Iraq attacks
Iranian pro-government media have spread images of an alleged “Israeli” they claimed to have injured in their attacks against Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The article was posted on Iran’s Tasnim News on Saturday.

There was one problem with their report.

The “Israeli” whose image Tasnim News in Iran used and who they claimed to have harmed was half a world away at the time of the attacks and was not in the Middle East, let alone in Erbil. The Jerusalem Post confirmed this in a conversation with him.

Iran's claims about their attacks
The Iranian claims are part of their attempt to portray their attacks on Erbil on Monday, January 15, as targeting the “Mossad” or “Israeli spies.” In fact, Iran carried out an attack on the house of a Kurdish businessman named Peshraw Dizayee and murdered him as well as three other people, including Dizayee’s infant son.

The attack also killed a Dutch citizen, and Holland summoned Iran’s ambassador following the attack.

Iran’s Tasnim News also published an article on Saturday showing Dizayee with a man who appears to be Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, but the Iranian media used the image to headline an article about a businessman being a “strategic partner of Mossad.”

This is another example of Iranian media using an image of a rabbi to imply somehow that any meeting with Jews is an example of the Kurdish businessman being linked to “spies.” This use of an image of a rabbi to “prove” links to “Mossad” is part of a wider use of antisemitic tropes by Iranian media that is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.


‘I was so naïve to think the UN would help us uncover Hamas’ rape atrocities’
Within eight days of Oct 7, she was propelled onto the global stage in response to what she – and 160 other peers, all specialists in gender politics and part of a WhatsApp group created in response to the attack – saw as silence from the United Nations (UN) and other international agencies who, despite video evidence of gender-based violence as a weapon of war, asked questions such as ‘what is your proof?’, delaying their condemnation of Hamas.

“I was so naïve,” says Elkayam-Levy. She had not questioned the fact that agencies such as the UN might not issue immediate statements honouring the murdered women and children. ‘I rise at 5am and I go to bed at midnight, but I can’t sleep’

On Oct 15, Elkayam-Levy stepped into what she and her WhatsApp group perceived as the void by establishing Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, an independent civil commission of which she is the chairman. Its aim is to gather information and meticulously log for posterity the war crimes committed against women and children.

In many ways, it was born out of the desperation and anger of those WhatsApp members, many prominent feminists, principally at UN Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The commission was – and is – a human rights response to “rape as genocide”, explains Elkayam-Levy. The silence, she has pointed out, is an echo of the way similar war crimes against women in Bosnia were ignored.

“We have a historical mission,” Elkayam-Levy explains to me. “We are not a prosecution [vehicle]. We are not an investigation. We have a different role. We are keeping all accounts, even the smallest piece of information, just a sentence perhaps that comes in about a young woman, [logged on a form] for historical purposes, to make sure that the voices of women will be heard, that this information will be kept diligently, in the most dedicated way. [The aim] is to establish an archive under the [strictest] international standard.”

It is not beholden on the commission to prove anything in a court of law, as is the case with the international war crimes tribunal. Its remit is confined to logging and verifying testimonies. This mission to build such an archive of crimes against humanity in a country founded after the Holocaust echoes a similar collective responsibility never to forget.

Elkayam-Levy, who completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, is impeccably qualified for such a task: she had already founded her own independent think tank, the Institute for Gender and Sustainability Studies, established to promote the inclusion of women in national security decision-making processes and peace-making negotiations (the civil commission is under the auspices of this institute). She was the co-author, too, of a ground-breaking report for the Israeli National Security Council that had examined the consequences of national crises and extreme events on women.

Elkayam-Levy and I speak as the commission is about to release its first preliminary report: “a summary,” she says, “of the most important things that we know at the moment. It’s not going to expose something new. That might take months, years.”

She never wanted the limelight. It’s ironic that when she set up her think tank, she stipulated that she was not to be its public figurehead. Still, in the last three months since Oct 7, she has been to the White House, spoken at the UN alongside Sheryl Sandberg and Hillary Clinton and travelled the world, taking the commission’s commitment to remember the lost women and children to new audiences: “[in the early stages] I never realised it was going to get such international attention.”
Israeli hostages at risk from deadly fungus with ‘no treatment’ in Hamas tunnel network
A mysterious deadly fungus in the Hamas tunnel network poses a new threat to the 136 hostages being held in Gaza, Israeli officials have claimed.

A member of the hostage team in Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There is a deadly fungus in the tunnels with no treatment.”

“Hamas members there are now more immune to it but there is a high chance many of the hostages are sick and deteriorating due to this fungus,” the official said.

Dr Hagai Levine, head of the medical team for the hostage families forum, said testimonies of those released confirmed the fears of medical officials.

“We know several of the hostages were severely wounded on being taken hostage and we don’t know if they have been treated properly. Several of those coming back need long-term antibiotic treatment for infections which could even still be life threatening, worsened by the fungus in the tunnels,” he explained.

Fungus claimed life of Israeli soldier
It is believed that the fungus has already claimed the life of at least one Israeli soldier.

Last month, Ichilov Hospital confirmed that a soldier who was seriously injured while fighting in Gaza died of the fungal infection. The Israeli Defence Forces says it is investigating the matter.

So far, Israeli medical teams have been unable to treat the fungal infection nor identify what type of fungus is causing it.


Qatar allegedly hired ex-CIA agent to discredit Sen. Ted Cruz, other lawmakers opposed to Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood
The oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar hired a former CIA agent’s company to discredit Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., and other lawmakers who oppose Hamas and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

The documents reveal that the alleged Qatar state-funded espionage campaign targeted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, because he had sought to have the Muslim Brotherhood designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The clandestine document, titled “Project ENDGAME” and drafted by U.S. company Global Risk Advisors (GRA), which was founded by the ex-CIA employee Kevin Chalker, reads, “High Alert: An attack on Hamas is an attack on Qatar. An attack on the Muslim Brotherhood is an attack on Qatar.”

The March 2017 Qatari-funded plan of action to torpedo anti-Hamas and anti-Muslim Brotherhood legislation and policies noted that “Sen. Ted Cruz has reintroduced his bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. Unless you act soon, your enemies will inject Qatar into this fight.”

In the month before Qatar reportedly started its attacks on adversaries of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, Fox News Digital reported on Cruz’s legislation to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since Hamas massacred some 1,200 people on October 7 in southern Israel, including more than 30 Americans, Qatar has been in the crosshairs of U.S. senators and some U.S. representatives for harboring Hamas leaders in Doha and allegedly financing it.

Cruz told Fox News Digital: “The Qatari government spends uncountable billions of dollars promoting and even funding the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other terrorist groups. They have either bought or intimidated huge parts of Washington, D.C., into silence. It’s not at all surprising they would consider the few remaining outspoken opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress to be Qatar’s enemies. It is long past time for the U.S. to reevaluate the U.S.-Qatari relationship.”

Hamas has declared itself as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.”


Joly should resign over Canada’s stance on Israel
Joly could learn a thing or two from another wise, but not-so-old friend, John Baird. When Baird served as Foreign Minister, he looked the United Nations in the eye and was unequivocal. His criticisms of the institution were founded on a belief that the UN was important and therefore deserved straight talk. That’s what wholehearted support looks like.

Joly should get a copy of Baird’s 2013 speech to the UN General Assembly and take notes on his stand on Ukraine and Israel. Heck, she might learn what taking a stand means.

And therein lies the thing that most perplexes Blake. Why would people like Joly and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seek leadership positions and then utterly refuse to lead?

That I take exception to many of the Trudeau government’s policies is neither surprising nor disheartening. It’s natural for people from different walks of life to view things differently. Heck, I don’t care where the prime minister vacations.

But I am offended when people who have the privilege of leading this country do not have the intestinal fortitude (Blake would probably use different words) to be unequivocal.

If Joly and her colleagues believe Israel is committing genocide, she should say so. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say are table stakes in leadership.

Instead, Joly and her government offer the world meaningless platitudes and empty gestures. Canadians deserve better.

The world is stumbling through any number of ancient conflicts. If the past is prologue, it is a time for courageous leadership and clarity. Joly has been unequivocal about one thing — she has neither the courage nor the skill to provide that kind of leadership. She should resign.


Warren Mundine slams pro-Palestine 'nonsense' claims
Indigenous Forum CIS Director Warren Mundine has criticised those who call the Jewish people “colonisers”.

Mr Mundine sat down with Sky News hosts Rowan Dean, James Morrow and Liz Storer to discuss the debate over Israel-Palestine.

“This insanity about saying that Jews are these colonisers of this area,” Mr Mundine said.

“Jews have been in the Middle East since a record of time.

“The idea that the Jews are just some interlopers late in history is nonsense.”




Italian FM reveals country ceased arms shipments to Israel starting October 7
Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told local media Saturday that his country had halted all arms shipments to Israel since Hamas’s brutal October 7 onslaught.

The minister’s comments, made in an interview with Italian newspapers Nazione, Giorno, and Resto del Carlino, were a response to a demand by opposition leader Elly Schlein that the Italian government stop weapons exports to the Middle East. Tajani accused her of being “misinformed.”

“Since October 7, we have decided not to send any more arms to Israel, so there is no need to discuss this point,” said Tajani, according to a report from Italian news agency ANSA.

On October 7, some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 253 hostages of all ages, while committing numerous atrocities and weaponizing sexual violence on a mass scale. The massacre triggered an unprecedented bombing campaign and ground operation in Gaza, which, according to unverified figures by the Hamas-run health ministry has claimed the lives of some 25,000 Palestinians thus far. The figures do not differentiate between combatants and civilians, and include victims of misfired Palestinian rockets.

Speaking at a Friday meeting of the center-left Democratic Party, which she heads, Schlein said that “we must face the issue of avoiding fueling these conflicts, of avoiding sending arms and exporting arms to conflicts, to the conflict in the Middle East, in this case particularly to Israel,” according to ANSA.

“We cannot risk weapons being used to commit what could be construed as war crimes,” added the opposition lawmaker.

According to Israeli news site Walla, some five percent of Israeli arms purchases over the past decade have come from Italy, which include helicopters and naval artillery.


The Israel-Hamas war will end – the anti-Semitism won’t
The open Jew hatred on display at many universities across Canada – and for that matter North America – has been fuelled by years of so-called “Israel Apartheid Week” campaigns, which actually started at the University of Toronto, along with the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which similarly seeks to demonize and delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state.

They’ve provided a twisted form of academic legitimacy for Jew hatred, which cowardly university administrators have ignored for a generation – and which is not going to go back in the bottle once a temporary ceasefire in the Hamas Israel war is achieved, because all ceasefires in this conflict are temporary.

Not when presidents of three of America’s most prestigious universities, when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their campus codes of conduct, couldn’t come up with a straight answer, retreating into a legalistic argument of “it depends.”

As for the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it’s always been more comfortable denouncing hatred coming from the far right than the far left.

In addition, the fact that according to the 2021 census there are 1.8 million Muslims living in Canada today, compared to 335,000 Jews, will always be on the minds of vote-counting politicians when it comes to commenting on what’s going on in the Mideast and Canada going forward.

Especially when it comes to simultaneously denouncing Islamophobia whenever they mention anti-Semitism, when the reality is that while both forms of hatred are repugnant and should be publicly denounced, it isn’t demonstrators who support Israel deliberately targeting Muslim neighbourhoods with marches publicly proclaiming messages of hate.

The war will end but the memory of those images won’t.
Why don’t protesters call for Hamas to surrender?
Given the size and scope of the protests, the Hamas leadership surely must believe their policies that put their own people in harm’s way are finally bearing fruit, and that the world is finally coming to its senses.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “calling for a ceasefire is calling for Israel to surrender.” And he’s right. Hamas initiated this war with a vicious massacre of 1200 Israelis as well as kidnapping 240 more to Gaza. A ceasefire without Hamas surrendering – even if it releases the remaining 130+ hostages it still holds – would amount to a Hamas victory and would vindicate the decision to storm the border on Oct. 7.

Should Hamas be permitted to continue governing Gaza, it’s likely that nearby kibbutzim and towns, such as Beeri and Sderot, which have been evacuated, will remain empty. And allowing Hamas to remain would further embolden Hezbollah in the north, whose attacks since Oct. 7 have already caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis from border towns and villages near the Lebanese border.

And this is precisely what the pro-Palestinian zealots organizing the protests really want. The people who spit out “Zionist” as an insult or worse are not interested in two-state solutions, or a prosperous Gaza (or Palestine) living side by side with Israel. They want Israel dismantled or annihilated because they consider the world’s only Jewish state to be uniquely evil, much like how Nazis and their sympathizers viewed the Jews.

It’s noteworthy that no other conflict in the world, not Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, or the re-emerging genocide in Darfur in Western Sudan, has resulted in even a fraction of the vast number of protesters we’ve seen regularly marching against Israel. China’s imprisonment of 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps has generated many articles, but few if any mass protests. During the Syrian civil war, which saw more than 600,000 civilians killed, including nearly 4,000 Palestinians, there was much concern in the West about Syrian refugees, but few if any marches demanding a ceasefire.

Why do Palestinians in Gaza seemingly attract so much sympathy? Palestinian poet laureate Mahmoud Darwish, no friend of Israel, understood that the attention focused on conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis had little to do with the Palestinians and everything to do with their enemy. In a conversation with an Israeli journalist, he famously said:
“Do you know why we Palestinians are famous? Because you are our enemy. The interest in us stems from the interest in the Jewish issue. The interest is in you, not in me. So we have the misfortune of having Israel as an enemy, because it enjoys unlimited support. And we have the good fortune of having Israel as our enemy, because the Jews are the center of attention. You’ve brought us defeat and renown.”

Darwish died in 2008, by which time he probably would have been pleased that the “unlimited support” he believed the world provided to Israel in that interview had waned significantly. I suspect he also would have been surprised to learn that feminist and LBGT groups were lining up to join pro-Hamas rallies in cities across the world.

But I doubt very much that he would have believed that Palestinian suffering was the reason Hamas terrorists were getting so much worldwide support, especially from such unlikely groups, given Islamic fundamentalist views about women and gays. He knew then what has become more apparent by the day as the Gaza war and the pro-Palestinian protests continue: That the furore about the war isn’t really about Palestinians at all. That even the dead and injured children are just weapons to be used to attack Israel. And that, once again, it’s all about the Jews.
The Police risk becoming another wing of the anti-Semitic Left
David Baddiel was right: Jews Don’t Count. Or rather, they count, but as the one group to ignore or blame. When I faced criminal anti-Semitic intimidation following pro-Israel columns, I had five Met police officers in my living room, but they said there was nothing they could do unless things kept escalating. The ratio of manpower to law-and-order-keeping was staggeringly poor.

And yet if the force can spare five officers in one go to tell a Jewish woman there’s nothing they can do about the anti-Semitic threats she is facing, why can’t they turn up for shoplifting and burglary, instead of allowing Londoners to feel like they live in a lawless land?

In this new world in which our police can appear more interested in helping pro-Palestinian activists criminalise Israel than in chasing actual criminals, there are few surprises. Even so, some of us cocked an eyebrow to learn last week that a Central Line tube driver has been allowed to return to work, evidently required only to apologise, after using his tannoy in October to lead what would have struck many Jews and Israelis as uncomfortably close to incitement to violence against them. Seemingly miffed that he hadn’t been able to attend the massive anti-Israel rally that day because he was working, he decided instead to lead the train in a mob-like chant of “Free Palestine” and “no justice, no peace”, phrases widely linked to calls for terror against Israelis and Jews.

Again: would a Tube driver who hollered white supremacist or anti-black racist chants down the tannoy – who, for instance, led carriages packed with football hooligans in a chant of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech – be let off with an apology? Would the Aslef union’s view be that the involvement of the police at all was “a ridiculous overreaction”? The answer is: of course not.

A police force that picks favourites based on ideology is one of the hallmarks of a fallen society. And at a time when Britain should be preparing to lead the world – the US will soon be embroiled in a Trump presidency – it’s the last thing we need.


Will Britain's protest menaces finally be unmasked? New laws MUST give police powers to ban face covering at rallies, review says, after pro-Palestine marches were hijacked by violent thugs singing vile anti-Semitic chants

Claudine Gay 2.0? DEI-obsessed Yale Law dean 'is in running to be college's next PRESIDENT' - despite slew of scandals that have infuriated conservatives and Jews
A Yale Law School dean, known for her 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' fervor and a tumultuous history of free-speech and anti-Semitism controversies may be the university's next president.

Heather Gerken, the current dean of Yale Law School, is now in the running to succeed Peter Salovey, five insiders told the Free Beacon.

Gerken is already causing a stir in the high-stakes race with her track record that includes shaming a conservative student via email, letting 'woke' students cancel a speaker and hiring a trainer who claimed anti-Semitic hate crimes are exaggerated.

Her relationships with wealthy alumni may also be boosting her candidacy, one source revealed to the outlet.

Additionally, in response to concerns from Jewish students following Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, Gerken had her secretary direct them to counseling services instead of addressing anti-Semitism concerns.

'I understand these are deeply challenging times,' Gerken's chief of staff, Debra Kroszner, wrote in an email to Jewish students who had been personally targeted by students who were endorsing terrorism and blaming Israel for Hamas's actions.
UMass students are BANNED from studying abroad after they staged anti-Israel sit-in on campus and were then arrested for ignoring police officers' orders to leave
A University of Massachusetts Amherst student is facing a sudden setback in his plans to study abroad in Spain after taking part in an anti-Israel sit-in on campus and defying police officers' orders to leave.

Aidan O' Neill, a junior at UMass Amherst, along with two other students, had their eligibility to study abroad revoked after their involvement in an Oct. 25 protest supporting Palestinians led to arrests and disciplinary probation.

After refusing police orders to leave the building when it closed at 6 pm, 56 students, including O'Neill, and one staff member were arrested for trespassing, and then placed on disciplinary probation until the end of the spring semester.

O'Neill's study abroad eligibility was then revoked as he had signed an agreement that prohibits students from participating in the program if they have pending legal or disciplinary actions or are on academic probation.

The initial protest on Oct. 25 involved 500 students demanding UMass sever ties with defense contractor Raytheon Technologies, a producer of missile components for Israel's Iron Dome.

The Iron Dome is an Israeli mobile all-weather air defense system that successfully intercepts upward of 90 percent of projectiles. Since Hamas's unprovoked Oct. 7 massacre, more than 11,000 rockets have been fired toward Israel.

O'Neill, along with faculty members, are now fighting back - emphasizing the right to voice opposition to what they call the university's alleged support for 'genocide.'

'To lose my abroad eligibility at the last second, that was just heartbreaking,' O'Neill said to the Boston Globe. 'I was practicing my right as a student to speak up against the university funding a genocide. It just seemed, honestly, crazy and absurd to me that the university was going that far to punish me.'

The students are arguing that their punishment is disproportionately severe due to their political views, despite the university claiming it is merely adhering to the established policies, irrespective of the protest's content.

Faculty members, including Rachel Mordecai and Jason Moralee, have rallied behind O'Neill, denouncing the denial of his study abroad opportunity as an excessive penalty for 'peaceful political expression.'

O'Neill 'was participating in a peaceful expression of his political convictions,' Rachel Mordecai, O'Neill's faculty adviser said to the Boston Globe.

'This denial of the opportunity to study abroad constitutes a disproportionate penalty for what Aidan participated in.
UCLA professor: 'Hindus serve in IDF to kill Muslims, Israel broadcasts porn on Palestinian TV'
UCLA law professor Dr. Khaled Abou el-Fadl said on a YouTube live stream on the Usuli Institute channel earlier this month that “some of the worst massacres committed against Palestinians in Gaza are by Indian soldiers serving in the Israeli army,” Memri TV reported.

“Indian Hindu nationals are volunteering to fight in the Israeli army for the joy of killing Muslims," he explained in his Friday sermon.

“Hindu nationalists openly and loudly celebrate what Israel is doing to Palestinians: ‘Israel is giving us lessons in ethnic cleansing because this is precisely what we are going to do to Muslims in Kashmir. We will send Hindu fanatics to fight side by side, raping, killing, and murdering because this is what we intend to do to Muslims.’” "Israelis broadcast pornography of Palestinian television"

Regarding Israeli media, he added, “Studies have shown that pornography makes men less religious…and think of things like martyrdom less. So the Israelis took over Palestinian channels in Hebron, took them over, and broadcasted on these channels pornography to be consumed by Palestinians.”

Late last year, in an additional live stream on the Usuli channel, reposted by Memri TV, el-Fadl equated Israelis to Nazis.

"The Germans blamed the Jews for their own slaughter. The Germans insisted that what they did in the countries they occupied wasn't their fault. It was always the fault of the occupied.

"The rhetoric of the Germans is indistinguishable from the rhetoric that Israel uses about Palestinians and from the rhetoric that the United States uses about Palestinians – and indeed, the rhetoric that so much of Europe uses about Palestinians."


Virginia’s governor pushes for antisemitism to be designated a hate crime
Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, spoke at the state’s general assembly on Jan. 12, urging legislators to go further in protecting the local Jewish community.

He suggested that the state make antisemitism a hate crime and that a bill to that end ensures that “all forms of antisemitism, not just religious bigotry, are treated as hate crimes under the law.”

Such a designation could mean that those who spray-paint swastikas, for example, be charged with a hate crime instead of vandalism.

Youngkin also called for legislation to bar government involvement with businesses that boycott Israel. “I want to challenge all of us, pass a bill which says the commonwealth of Virginia won’t do business with companies that boycott Israel.”

The governor issued an executive order with a six-point plan in October “to combat the increasing incidents and threats of antisemitism, and anti-religious and ethnic-based bigotry and violence in the Commonwealth.”
Tree of Life demolition begins, prosecutors slam Bowers’s appeal request
The man convicted of the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue that left 11 Jewish worshippers dead has filed a request for a new trial.

Robert Bowers, who was convicted on 63 federal charges and sentenced to death, has instructed his lawyers to call for an appeal on the grounds that the jury did not understand the argument that anti-immigration sentiment had driven the killings, not antisemitism.

“The jury considered the defendant’s argument at the close of the guilt phase and squarely rejected it,” prosecutors wrote in a filing.

On Wednesday, the demolition of the Tree of Life synagogue began. Plans call for the removal of approximately 80% of the building, to be replaced by a memorial for Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.

Congregation president Alan Hausman stated that “this is just another chapter in our evolution of what the Tree of Life congregation should look like, where we can do so much more than just be a synagogue.”


Antisemitic comments interrupt virtual meeting at Connecticut
A virtual Zoom meeting held by the municipality of Norwalk, Connecticut was interrupted by several unknown individuals who made antisemitic comments, Norwalk Common Council officials announced on Wednesday.

"I unequivocally condemn these ignorant, racist individuals for their antisemitic, racist statements made during last night's Ordinance Committee meeting," said the city's mayor, Harry Rilling. "These individuals are bigots, and such statements are incredibly gross, obscene and hateful and demonstrate the exact opposite of what the City of Norwalk stands for.

"We are a community that values diversity among race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality and more. Our Norwalk Police Department Detective Bureau has initiated an investigation into the comments made last night." He also stated that the city is developing new protocols by its IT and Law Departments to prevent further incidences. Investigations begin

The police department of the city additionally began investigating into the antisemitic statements that were made, with criminal charges possibly being filed to the suspects if they were motivated by hate or bias.

"While it brings us some comfort that these individuals were likely not Norwalkers, unfortunately, we are seeing a national trend among this type of vitriol," said Norwalk Common Council President Darlene Young.

The suspects who spread the antisemitic comments did so on six different occasions, local news source, The Hour, reported. Common Council member Lisa Shanahan cut short the public comment section of the meeting after the last antisemitic contact.
Getting blocked by John Cusack on X is badge of honor for Zionists
“You[r] daily reminder,” the actor John Cusack posted on Jan. 18 to his 1.8 million followers. “Bibi Netenyahu [sic] promoted and backed Hamas—to ensure a two state solution never came to pass.”

On Dec. 15, Cusack wrote that “Israel is not am [sic] occupying force” may “be the craziest thing ever said.” He added: “There is not a universe that exists—where Israel is not the occupying power in Gaza.”

Those are some of the recent anti-Israel posts, often riddled with typos, by the actor, who apologized in 2019 after posting an antisemitic cartoon.

In the drawing, a hand—emerging from a sleeve with a Star of David—squashes people below. The caption, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize,” is misattributed to Voltaire.

Bar mitzvah boy forgoes party, treats 200 IDF soldiers to dinner
Amichai Jackson, a bar mitzvah boy from the Gush Etzion community of Elazar, decided that in lieu of a party to mark the milestone event his parents should use the money to treat Israeli soldiers to dinner.

Amichai was slated to celebrate his bar mitzvah a month after the breakout of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. He was called to the Torah and received his aliyah, but decided to push off his party to quieter times.

“After deliberating, Amichai decided to do something meaningful for the soldiers. Instead of having a party with family members and friends, the caterers prepared a huge meal including a hamburger bar with all the trimmings for 200 very happy soldiers,” said his mother Ilana.

Added Amichai: “I felt that it wasn’t appropriate to have a party now. When I saw the soldiers eating and enjoying themselves, that was 1,000 times more meaningful.”

Gush Etzion Mayor and Yesha Council Chairman Shlomo Ne’eman said: “Dear Amichai, we were very moved by your decision to give the soldiers a sumptuous and festive meal instead of having your bar mitzvah party. The education you received from your parents exemplifies what it means to be Israeli. It is also a reflection of the patriotism of the next generation of youth growing up here in Gush Etzion.”




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