Tuesday, January 23, 2024

01/23 Links Pt1: 24 IDF soldiers killed in deadliest day since start of Gaza combat; Return of the Peace Process; Douglas Murray vs Mustafa Barghouti

From Ian:

24 IDF soldiers killed in deadliest day since start of Gaza combat
Twenty-four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the deadliest single day for the Israeli military since the start of its ground operation against Hamas on Oct. 27.

Twenty-one soldiers were killed in central Gaza when two buildings collapsed due to a blast, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday morning.

Three other soldiers were killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.

The incident occurred 600 meters (2,000 feet) from the Israeli border, near the northwestern Negev community of Kibbutz Kissufim, as Israeli forces were working on clearing Hamas infrastructure and buildings to establish a buffer zone.

According to Hagari, around 4 p.m., terrorists fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank securing the forces. At the same time, two two-story buildings collapsed as a result of an explosion while most of the troops were inside or near them. The blast was apparently caused by explosives placed by the Israeli forces, intended to destroy the buildings in a controlled event.

Hagari emphasized that the incident is still under investigation, including the cause of the explosion.

He added that a “very complicated” rescue operation took place involving commanders and rescue workers who quickly arrived at the scene.

“War has a very painful and heavy price. The dedicated reservists, who stood up for the flag, sacrificed the most precious of all, for the security of the State of Israel and so that we can all live here safely,” said Hagari.

War Cabinet ministers—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz—issued a joint statement about the incident on Tuesday afternoon.

“We bow our heads in memory of our fallen, and yet we do not for a moment stop striving for an irreplaceable goal—the achievement of absolute victory,” they said.




Wide swath of society: The stories of some of the 21 troops killed in Gaza blast
Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed Monday in the deadliest single incident for Israel Defense Forces troops since the ongoing ground operation began.

The tragedy occurred when the group of reservists came under RPG attack in the southern Gaza Strip, triggering a blast that collapsed two buildings with the soldiers inside them.


Fallen reservist's last text: 'We'll leave Gaza after eliminating them all'
Reserve Major Rafael Elias Mosheyoff from Pardes Hanna-Karkur, is one of the 21 soldiers who were killed by an anti-tank missile that hit an IDF force in Al-Ma'azi in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as during the collapsing of buildings. David Sianov, the father-in-law of 33-year-old Mosheyoff, told Walla! "I haven't seen him for more than three months."

He recounted, "He described how hard they work there, but they are content. Their intention was only to demolish a few houses; they placed explosives, but then a terrorist came and detonated these explosives on our children."

Sianov expressed his sorrow, "It's deeply saddening for us. It seems that grief doesn't spare anyone. He and his wife, Hadassah, had recently completed their studies at the Technion and began their careers. Just a year ago, their son, Gary, was born."

On Tuesday, Sianov, Mosheyoff 's father-in-law, told 103FM, "Rafael was a good guy - the salt of the earth. He served in the military, studied engineering at the Technion, finished his studies, got married, had one child, and just started working, and then this war began. They met there at the Technion," he said about how his daughter and Elias Mosheyoff met.
Rabbi Elkana Vizel among 21 fallen soldiers in Gaza
Married father of four, Rabbi Elkana Vizel was among 21 reservists whose deaths were announced by the IDF on Tuesday.

Vizel fell in one of the fiercest battles since the war started. The incident occurred around 4:00 p.m. in al-Muasi in central Gaza when Hamas forces fired a rocket-propelled grenade on multiple adjacent structures, along with landmines that the IDF forces had collected and brought into the buildings, which caused a total collapse that killed 19 soldiers and injured several others on Monday.

Itamar Vizel, Elkana’s twin brother (and the other half of their circus double act) wrote this heartfelt tribute to his twin on his Facebook page: “My heart refuses to believe the words I am writing. [My] twin brother - is no more. He fell heroically… in a battle in the Gaza Strip.”

He finishes with words of the song, “Shemesh” by Hanan Ben Ari: “Then you will be like the sun forever, you will be like a bird wandering in space, you, you will be my king forever, I thank you for the path you promised me."

Heartbroken friends also paid tribute to Vizel, one writing,

“I can't breathe; it is impossible to understand; the heart kicks out this hard news. Itamar - we won't forget Elkana until our last day, What a sweet man, What a heart, What a light! Unbelievable. Simply inconceivable”


Son of Filipino immigrants among 21 fallen IDF soldiers on Monday
Cydrick Garin, one of the soldiers who was killed in Gaza on January 22, struggled as a young man and as the son of immigrants from the Philippines. He received an award from Southern Command in 2021 for his outstanding role as a soldier in Givati.

When he fell in Gaza on Monday, he was a Sergeant in the 261st brigade. He was a combat soldier in the 8208th battalion of the brigade and fell along with 21 soldiers killed in a tragic attack that caused a building collapse. Most of the soldiers were from two battalions in the same brigade.

His mother, Imelda Garin, wrote on Facebook after learning of his death. “How can I cope with everything now that you're gone... I'm gonna miss you so much... I love you, my child... I won't forget you..”

Garin lived in Tel Aviv. He was 23 years old. His Facebook page, which has now been locked, says that he is from San Mateo, northeast of the capital of Manila in the Philippines, although he spent most of his life in Israel. According to Walla, he studied at the Bialik Ragozin school in south Tel Aviv, and there is now a temporary memorial at the school. Garin sought to enlist in the IDF

He sought to enlist in the IDF and joined the Givati Brigade. He received recognition from Southern Command as an outstanding soldier in the unit in April 2021. According to a post on Facebook commemorating the award and the ceremony, one person wrote a congratulatory note describing the pride that it brought to the Filipino community in Israel. A video of the ceremony in which Garin received the award and was called on stage was also posted to social media, in which he is described as a member of the Shaked battalion of Givati.

In April 2021, when he received the award, the IDF profiled him and his journey to the army. “If you had told Sergeant Cedric five years ago that he was going to be a fighter in Givati and receive an honor from the commander of Southern Command, there is no way he would have believed you,” the article notes. It describes a young man who supported his mother.

"It wasn't easy for a mother to raise a child alone in a country she barely knows," Garin told the IDF in their article about him in 2021. "To this day, it is difficult for her to speak Hebrew. She would work as a cleaner, leave early in the morning, and return late in the evening, and I would not meet her. Most of the time, I was alone.” He also took various jobs to support his family, and he had run-ins with law enforcement. In Givati, he excelled and attended a course for senior Sergeants in the unit. He was chosen for having the highest qualities in a unit of hundreds of men.


Seth Mandel: Return of the Peace Process
A deal that promised the return of the hostages and Saudi normalization up front with an “eventual” demilitarized Palestinian state is designed to poll well in Israel. Yet it doesn’t: 51 percent just isn’t very good for that plan. You need a wider base of support among Israelis if you’re going to start with a pot-sweetened version of the traditional plan. In this case, 51 percent isn’t cause for celebration, it’s a giant red flag that amounts to Israeli society saying: This is not the time.

But again, the Israelis are the least of the diplomats’ problems with this plan. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) has long found far more support among the Palestinians for a vague two-state solution than for one in which the Palestinian state would be demilitarized.

In 2016, for example, 51 percent of Palestinians said they supported a two-state solution, but only 39 percent if the deal is described as the following: “a de-militarized Palestinian state, an Israeli withdrawal to the Green Line with equal territorial exchange, a family unification in Israel of 100,000 Palestinian refugees, West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty and the Muslim and Christian quarters and the al Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount under Palestinian sovereignty, and the end of the conflict and claims.” And only 20 percent supported the specific detail of “demilitarization.”

Six months later, another poll found 22 percent support for it. In 2020, SPR found support for a demilitarized state had dropped to 12 percent. In 2022, it was 13 percent.

What is the point of this exercise, then? The point is to make Israel look like the intransigent party, to play up divisions within the unity government, and once again treat the Palestinians as if they have no agency, despite the fact that the reason a deal like this is such a longshot is because it would require the Palestinians to give up their armed struggle once and for all. Which is to say, the world is nearly back to treating Israel as if Oct. 7 had never happened.


JPost Editorial: Balancing bringing hostages home with Hamas's destruction
A premature end to the war will leave a battered Hamas still intact and able to recover and regain its stranglehold on Gaza and the Palestinians it has held hostage since 2006. And that’s something Israel can’t live with. Just ask Khaled Mashaal. The Hamas leader reiterated in an interview last week that post-October 7, “our Palestinian project is our right in Palestine from the sea to the river.”

The families of the hostages and their supporters are perfectly justified and correct in their ongoing protests and calls for a ceasefire and a deal to bring their loved ones home. Anyone with a family member who has been cruelly held captive for more than three months should be demanding action and accountability from their government.

A government must also look at the bigger picture, however, and in this case, it is the threat posed by Hamas that is the overriding factor in fueling this war.

The problem is a significant breach of trust regarding Netanyahu’s motives among a large population segment. We don’t know what they are, whether they are for country’s good, or for the survival of the government he leads, or to stave off the inevitable storm of blame that will likely sweep him away after the war.

If the current government was dissolved and new elections were held, there’s a good chance that the next prime minister would be someone other than Netanyahu – maybe Benny Gantz or Yair Lapid?

But despite the change at the helm or within the coalition’s makeup, the next prime minister would almost certainly adopt the same policy as Netanyahu: no withdrawal from Gaza and a continuation of fighting until Hamas is no longer in charge.

The IDF must be given time to carry out that mission in Gaza. But time is running out regarding the hostages. It’s up to the government, with Netanyahu as its leader or someone else, to stave off the pressure to accept a ceasefire while keeping the hostages’ return a top priority.
Hamas rejects offer of two-month ceasefire for release of all hostages
Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a two-month ceasefire in exchange for the staged release of the 136 remaining hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, a senior Egyptian official told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

The official said Hamas leaders also rejected a demand to leave Gaza and are insisting that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from the coastal enclave and allow the terrorist organization to regroup.

Israel transferred the proposal to Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries, according to an Axios report on Monday.

The report, citing two Israeli officials, said that Israel’s War Cabinet approved the far-reaching parameters of the proposal 10 days ago.

In the first phase of the deal, civilian women, men over the age of 60 and hostages in critical condition would be freed, according to Axios. The subsequent phases would see the release of female soldiers and male civilians under the age of 60, and then male IDF soldiers and the bodies of hostages who have been killed.

In return, Israel and Hamas would agree in advance on how many Palestinian security prisoners would be exchanged for each Israeli hostage in every stage. Parallel negotiations would then take place to determine which prisoners are released.

The agreement also calls for the redeployment of some IDF soldiers from major population centers in Gaza and allowing the gradual return of Palestinians to Gaza City and the northern Strip.


Caroline Glick: US pushes to reward Oct. 7th with a Palestinian State
The US and the international community continue to push Israel to create a Palestinian state in Gaza when the war is over, but is this something that Palestinians and Israelis want? Is the idea of a moderate Palestinian Authority fiction in the mind of a hopeful West?


‘Can you shut up?’: Douglas Murray clashes with Palestinian leader in fiery debate
Author Douglas Murray has clashed with Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti over the possibility of a two-state solution.

The debate between the pair erupted after Mr Murray presented the Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No 19 (2004) to Mr Barghouti and questioned the politician on whether the Palestinian Authority was paying terrorists a salary.

“Mr Barghouti doesn’t want a two-state solution because he doesn’t want a Jewish state,” he said while the Palestinian National Initiative leader rejected the claim.

“He wants the river to the sea to be a Palestinian state ruled by him and his corrupt friends.

“He cannot answer the question I have put to him repeatedly – This is the PA budget, it rewards terrorism.”

Mr Murray also refuted the claim that Israel is occupying Palestinian land.


‘No meaningful and lasting peace’ in Israel without a two-state solution: Piers Morgan
Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan says there can be “no meaningful and lasting peace” in Israel without a two-state solution.

Mr Morgan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of only seeing a “one-state solution” of full Israeli control over the country, including areas under Palestinian authority.

“There can be no meaningful and lasting peace in Israel without a two-state solution - that is surely a fundamental fact,” he said.

“It means both sides in this intractable conflict recognise another’s right to exist.

“It means that Palestinians have the same rights as Israelis enshrined in law. It douses the flames of burning resentment which rage across the Middle East and so much of the Muslim world.”


Joel Pollak: Pollak: Why Does Biden Want to Reward Hamas With a Palestinian State?
President Joe Biden continues to insist that a Palestinian state emerge at the end of Israel’s war with Hamas, despite the fact that doing so would reward Hamas for the terror attack of October 7, and encourage similar attacks — and not just against Israelis.

The idea of a Palestinian state has become something of a fetish in foreign policy circles. In the latter years of the George W. Bush administration, the conventional wisdom — uniting the old establishment right with the new anti-war left — was that resolving the Palestinian issue would solve all of the other problems in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump, too, tried to arrange the “deal of the century” and a two-state solution– before concluding that the Palestinians were not really interested. He dropped the idea.

The result: the Abraham Accords, creating peace and normal diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim states.

The lesson: a Palestinian state is not a necessary condition for peace in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia learned that lesson, which is why, on the verge of a deal with Israel, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) insisted only on improving living conditions for Palestinians, not a Palestinian state.

The only ones who did not learn were Biden and the wonks around him.

In fact, just before October 7, reports emerged that the White House was blocking a Saudi-Israeli peace deal because the Biden administration was insisting on a Palestinian state. (Notably, not one new country has joined the Abraham Accords under Biden.)

Many Israelis, too, were once enamored of the idea of a Palestinian state, believing it might represent the end of the conflict that has troubled locals for the past century. As recently as 2012, 61% of Israelis supported a Palestinians state; 30% opposed it.

Now the proportions are exactly the opposite: 65% oppose a Palestinian state, and 25% support it.


EU threatens ‘consequences’ for Israel’s opposition to Palestinian state
E.U. diplomats said on Monday in Brussels that a two-state solution is the only credible path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, after earlier threatening “consequences” if Israel continued to oppose the plan.

“We have to stop talking about the peace process and start talking about the two-state solution process,” Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs, told press at a meeting of the Council of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council.

A document circulating in European capitals ahead of Monday’s meeting called for E.U. members to “set out the consequences they envisage to attach to engagement or non-engagement” with their proposed plan—the two-state solution.

Europe is Israel’s biggest trading partner with total trade in goods in 2022 equaling €46.8 billion (~$50 billion). An unnamed senior E.U. official in Brussels suggested to the Financial Times that Europe could use this as leverage, saying, “There are incentives and disincentives.”

Foreign ministers at the meeting voiced frustration specifically with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they see as the main obstacle to the two-state vision.

“The declarations of Benjamin Netanyahu are worrying. There will be a need for a Palestinian state with security guarantees for all,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Sejourne told reporters in Brussels.
Instead of peace, the UN is working to create permanent war in Gaza
When it was established following the horrors of World War II, the UN had some incredibly noble aims. According to their foundational document, one of the key purposes of the United Nations was a commitment to “maintain international peace and security”. Nearly 80 years later, if you look at their work in Israel and the Palestinian territories, they’ve done anything but.

The UN hasn’t just failed to broker any sort of peace in more than 75 years of fighting, but has, at nearly every opportunity, made things worse.

Take its offshoot, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for example.

Every other refugee from every other conflict in the world is dealt with by one agency. But in the aftermath of Israel’s war of Independence, the UN decided that this conflict necessitated a unique solution.

Now, in 2024, the body is still the only UN group dedicated to one conflict. Never mind the millions of Syrian refugees, or the hundreds of thousands who fled Afghanistan or Ukraine, only Palestinian refugees are seen as deserving of their special attention.

No other group is treated like the Palestinians. Only Palestinians “inherit” refugee status. Someone whose great-grandfather fled the area as part of the Nakba in 1948 and ended up in the UK where their parents and grandparents laid down roots is still counted as a Palestinian “refugee”, according to their backward logic.

It is why even in Gaza and the West Bank high-rise apartment blocks are called “refugee camps” even if they are Palestinians in the area many regard as Palestine. The very fact that they are called refugees maintains the idea that they have somewhere to go “back” to. This obsession with “return” fed by UNWRA is partly what destroyed the Oslo Peace Process and has scuppered every other attempt at a peace deal.

In UNRWA schools, across both Gaza and the West Bank UN Watchdogs report that children are taught maths by looking at the angles of rockets and adding up numbers of “martyrs” killed, while reading exercises reportedly include celebrations of firebomb attacks on Jews.

They are taught that Jerusalem is “theirs”, Jews stole the land and need to die and – according to one recent video of a young boy that “we must sacrifice ourselves and become martyrs”.


UN Watch: Hillel Neuer on ILTV: Telegram group exposing UNRWA staff
Hillel Neuer appeared on ILTV to discuss the UN's response to the revelation that over 3,000 UNRWA staff celebrated the Hamas massacre on October 7th.




How can the war between Israel and Hamas ever end when so many schools in Gaza - run by a UN agency backed by our millions - teach children to hate Jews?
The tunnel yawns from the earth beneath the Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. Once, Hamas terrorists would emerge from here to commit atrocities.

For them it was just one more node in a 300-mile-long tunnel network that sprawls across subterranean Gaza devoted to a single goal: spewing terror into Israel.

Like all Hamas tunnels it is sheathed in layers of concrete bolstered by bags filled with sand.

Wedged beneath its roof, though, is one sack that stands out. Lightly coloured with blue Arabic lettering, it bears the logo of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

As an image encapsulating so much about this war, it could not be more revealing. It is also utterly unsurprising.

'I was not shocked to discover this,' said the Israel Defence Forces officer whose unit found the tunnel last month.

'After all, we have known for years that part of Hamas's method is to use aid for terror purposes.'

An Israeli soldier is clearly no impartial observer, but my investigation into UN agencies working in Gaza proves that these words cannot simply be dismissed.

Gaza is a 25-mile stretch of land that survives on international aid. Foreign cash is the mortar that binds the strip together. The World Health Organisation, World Food Programme, Red Cross, Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, to name just a few, all work here.

From 2014-2020, UN agencies alone spent $4.5 billion in Gaza. In 2019, the UNRWA's budget was $1.17 billion.

That is more than the combined budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency — charged with keeping the world safe from nuclear proliferation — the International Criminal Court, and the World Trade Organization for that year.

The theft and diversion of aid to Hamas is endemic, long-standing and well-known.


The Israel Guys: BREAKING: The Palestinians DON’T Want a Two-State Solution?!?!?!
President Joe Biden, along with the majority of world leaders want Israel to try the Gaza Experiment again. Only this time Israel needs to give them 15 times more territory and a pinky promise that they won’t rape torture and murder Israeli civilians again. While I am obviously being sarcastic here, this is the exact approach that Joe Biden, and the American administration is trying to force down Israel’s throat.

On the other hand, the Palestinians made it abundantly clear this last week that they don’t want a Two-State Solution, the question is: “Why?”




Hamas is weakening, but the campaign against it will be lengthy
While the Israel Defense Forces is gaining ground against Hamas by the day, destroying it as a military force will take time, according to former IDF officers.

Professor Gabi Siboni, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and who holds the rank of colonel (res.), told JNS that the Israeli campaign will be “very long.”

In Gaza, Hamas has built up the most fortified terror base in the world, he said, both above and below ground.

With so many homes in Gaza containing weapons and being linked to underground terror infrastructure, significant numbers of civilians are involved “in all sorts of ways and methods” in Hamas’s war machine, he said.

“Now the IDF is fighting this thing and it’s a tough war against a determined enemy. They [Hamas] are not ready to give up,” said Siboni.

The Israeli War Cabinet’s declared goal of dismantling Hamas’s military and governance capabilities is realistic and correct, he added. “It is the only way to preserve our existence—we must destroy Hamas. It’s not about standing with a stopwatch and asking ‘what’s happening’ all of the time. This fight will be long,” he added.

Furthermore, he said, the IDF has changed its order of battle in Gaza not because its objectives have changed, but because it must also take into consideration other arenas, like Lebanon and Judea and Samaria.

In recent days, the IDF has shifted from a high-intensity phase of combat to a lower intensity phase, dubbed Stage 3, in northern Gaza and Gaza city, releasing significant numbers of reservist units and decreasing the number of personnel and operations in the sector.

“The IDF operates methodically. Even as we speak, the IDF is methodically dismantling Hamas’ capabilities. This operation is ongoing and as time passes, Hamas becomes weaker and weaker. In fact, there are places where it has already lost control—but Gaza is still a combat zone,” said Siboni.


Egypt warns Israel that attempt to take over ‘Philadelphi Route’ will damage ties

US Lebanon diplomacy ‘a fool’s errand’ but still ‘has value’
It was Oct. 12, 2022, and U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein had just wrapped up a maritime border and natural gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

Hochstein tweeted that he was proud to have served as “as mediator/facilitator of an historic agreement to provide #Israel security & stability and #Lebanon long deserved opportunity, prosperity and hope.”

But just one year later, Hamas perpetrated the worst antisemitic pogrom since the Holocaust—and Hezbollah joined by attacking Israel.

Now, Hochstein has returned to the Middle East once again, this time to negotiate a land deal and distance Hezbollah from Israel’s northern border.

According to Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Hochstein “is trying to use the same playbook as before, but the two situations are completely different.”

The 2022 maritime deal drew a border between the two countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) based on a boundary known as Line 23, and awarded a disputed area of around 840 square kilometers (324 square miles) to Lebanon, while recognizing Israel’s claim to the Karish gas field and to royalties from the section of the Qana field that extends into the Jewish state’s EEZ.

Goldberg told JNS that in the case of the maritime agreement, “Israel had a figurative gun to its head from Hezbollah to resolve a border dispute with Lebanon in order to give the private sector enough confidence to move forward with gas production. Hezbollah didn’t give up anything in this deal—only the expectation that it wouldn’t attack gas platforms because Lebanon would now get a cut of the profits.”

According to Golberg, Hochstein views that negotiation “as a precedent to apply to southern Lebanon, because Hezbollah uses the land border dispute between Lebanon and Israel as a pretext for its presence there, but it’s actually a very different dynamic.”

The U.S. believed the maritime deal would reduce tensions in the north and deter Hezbollah. Instead, the opposite has proven true.

On his own X account, Biden wrote at the time that the deal would serve as “an anchor for regional stability and prosperity.”

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the deal “a tremendous achievement for the State of Israel and for the government of Israel.” The agreement “strengthens Israel’s security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats to our north,” he said.

Hochstein, Biden and Lapid could not have been more mistaken. And yet, Biden seems to have sent Hochstein back to the region to repeat that mistake.
Hezbollah fires 12 rockets at Meron air-traffic control base

Inside the army unit that handles the humanitarian needs of Gaza civilians
Inside a handful of makeshift trailers, in the heart of an expansive and bustling army base near Beersheva, a small group of standing and reserve soldiers sits in several rooms monitoring TV screens, computers and telephones trying to keep a watchful eye on the living situation for the two million Palestinian civilians inside the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Despite claims by international organizations and countries, including the U.S., that Israel is not doing enough to prevent a catastrophic humanitarian crisis within the Palestinian enclave, the soldiers at Sde Teiman are working around the clock to ensure that hundreds of trucks filled with aid cross into the Strip, that drinking water from Israel keeps flowing to the southern part of the territory, that fuel for desalination plants, hospitals and bakeries makes it inside safely, and that aid workers carrying out essential duties remain protected under international law.

The unit, officially titled the Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) for Gaza, is a division of COGAT (the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), the military body that in times of peace works with international groups and the Palestinian Authority to facilitate entry for Palestinian civilians into Israel and helps keep the tiny Palestinian economy, including in Gaza, afloat.

Now, after more than three months of war, the soldiers that make up the CLA for Gaza have become a lifeline between civilians stuck precariously in a war zone and a military that is battling an unyielding, brutal terrorist organization.

“We are carrying out our government’s policies towards the civilian population in Gaza,” Col. Moshe Tetro, who heads the CLA for Gaza, told Jewish Insider during a tour of the unit’s busy headquarters.


US-led forces hit Houthi targets in Yemen for eighth time in two weeks
United States and British forces led attacks on eight Houthi targets in Yemen late Monday night local time, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

The strikes on the Iranian-backed rebels were conducted with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands.

“These strikes from this multilateral coalition targeted areas in Houthi-controlled Yemen used to attack international merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region. The targets included missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars, and deeply buried weapons storage facilities,” CENTCOM tweeted.

A senior U.S. military official told CNN that the strikes involved fighter jets that took off from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as surface vessels and a submarine. A total of 25 to 30 precision-guided munitions were fired, including Tomahawk cruise missiles.

CNN reported on Monday that the Pentagon has retroactively dubbed the rounds of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen that began on Jan. 11 “Operation Poseidon Archer.” These strikes are separate from other actions the multinational coalition of 20 countries has been taking since the U.S. announcement of “Operation Prosperity Guardian” in December.

The new name “suggests a more organized, formal, and potentially long-term approach,” according to the CNN report.
Deaths of Navy SEALs in Red Sea a ‘profound loss for our country’: Biden
The Pentagon on Monday identified the two Navy SEALs who were lost at sea during a recent mission to confiscate Iranian weapons en route to Houthi rebels in Yemen, with President Biden calling their deaths a “profound loss for our country.”

Navy Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers, 37, and Nathan Gage Ingram, 27, disappeared Jan. 11 while attempting to board a vessel carrying weapons bound for Houthi-controlled territory, according to US Central Command.

As the team of special operators were climbing up the side of the ship, one of the SEALs slipped into the Gulf of Aden. The second SEAL jumped in after their comrade, following military protocol, but disappeared as well.

“Jill and I are mourning the tragic deaths of two of America’s finest — Navy SEALs who were lost at sea while executing a mission off the coast of East Africa last week,” the 81-year-old president said. “… These SEALs represented the very best of our country, pledging their lives to protect their fellow Americans.”

The interdiction mission — Pentagon jargon for intercepting weapons — happened at night, which some former special operators have said presents additional risks to those involved.


It’s over 100 days since you were taken hostage. Our baby girl is crawling now
Alma began crawling soon after you were taken from us. She now sits and stands as well and tries to eat on her own. She smiles and reaches for the space you once occupied as if trying to grasp a memory that slips through her tiny fingers.

I wonder, will you be free to see her walk for the first time?

I have been writing daily to you, myself and the world. Writing about our pain, our agony, our despair. I hope that you’ll return to Roni, Alma and me.

We heard that one of the released hostages told you we survived October 7 against all odds; we were rescued from the house of horrors that saw the death of loved ones, our hours-long abuse and your violent abduction.

We hope that news is true. We hope that the knowledge we are here waiting for you helps you persevere through your captivity, just as the hope of your return is what helps me persevere.

I think of Penelope’s words about Odysseus: “How I long for my husband – alive in memory, always.”

Roni has been both a beacon of light and a mirror reflecting the pain in my heart. She speaks so much now, my love, with a wisdom that transcends her years.

Her words are bittersweet, a constant reminder of your absence. She asks every night where you are, why you are still lost. She speaks of the bad people who took you away in front of our eyes. She draws you every day. And her smile reminds me of you.

Her eyes search mine for reassurance, and I try to give her the certainty she craves. But real comfort can only come when you are returned to us.

Roni’s resilience is both inspiring and heartbreaking. She found hope when Mojo, your dog, returned injured but wagging his tail. He too longs to see you! Lishay Lavi and her daughters Roni and Alma with a poster of their kidnapped husband and father Omri Miran.
‘Right now someone is being raped in a tunnel’: Knesset hears of Hamas sex crimes
Israeli women held hostage in the Gaza Strip are being subjected to regular sexual abuse, with their guards treating them like “dolls,” survivors of October 7 testified in the Knesset on Tuesday, adding to a growing body of evidence that Hamas weaponized sexual assault and is likely still violating victims in captivity.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” said former hostage Aviva Siegel, who was abducted from Kibbutrz Kfar Aza with her husband Keith on October 7 and released during a ceasefire in late November.

“I felt as if the girls in captivity were my daughters. The terrorists bring inappropriate clothes, clothes for dolls and turn the girls into their dolls. Dolls on a string with which you can do whatever you want, whenever you want,” she told a meeting of the newly established Knesset caucus on victims of sexual and gender violence in the war against Hamas.

“I can’t breathe, I can’t deal with it, it’s too hard. It’s been nearly four months and they are still there,” she said.

“I’m still there. My body is there. The boys also go through abuse — what the girls go through. Maybe they don’t get pregnant [but] they are also puppets on a string.”

Aviva’s daughter, Shir, told lawmakers that her mother’s testimony was “only the tip of the iceberg,” and expressed anger that ministers were not present to hear the accounts.

The hostages “are sitting in captivity, they have not done anything wrong! We have no right to just sit here, we need to scream for them. Right now there is someone being raped in a tunnel,” declared Shir, who was away from the kibbutz on the day of the Hamas onslaught.

“Where are the really important people? The decision makers who sit in the cabinet and aren’t hearing this?” she asked.

Aviva, whose husband Keith remains in Hamas captivity, told the Knesset’s Caucus for the Hostages earlier this month that she had personally witnessed another hostage being tortured during her time in captivity.

During her earlier testimony, Siegel described how at one point in their captivity, a younger female hostage returned from using the bathroom and looked distraught. But when she attempted to give the girl a hug, a terrorist guarding them intercepted her and prevented the embrace.

“I saw that she was withdrawn, quiet and not herself,” Siegel said. “And excuse my language, but this son of a bitch had touched her. And he didn’t even let me hug her after it happened. It’s terrible, simply terrible. I told her I was sorry.”

Hamas engaged in widespread sexual assault during its attack on southern Israel, when thousands of terrorists invaded by land, sea, and air, killing 1,200 people — a majority of them civilians — and taking 253 others hostage into Gaza.


IDF blasts Israeli radio into Gaza tunnels in bid to soothe hostages
After conquering a Hamas tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip, a group of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers went down it with some unusual kit in hand — not explosives, robot probes, or pistols for close combat, but rather old-style, dial-operated transistor radios.

Their mission was to descend until the devices could no longer receive AM transmissions from Israel. That point, they found, was at about 10 to 12 meters (32 to 39 feet) depth, generally the upper “floors” of the Hamas terrorists’ subterranean network.

The January 4 experiment was ordered by their commander at the behest of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who had just expanded the country’s most popular broadcaster, Army Radio, from industry-standard FM onto complementary AM channels.

AM’s greater range meant emergency updates had a better chance of being heard by civilians in bomb shelters. Troops in Gaza also benefitted, as they were being allowed transistor radios to keep themselves informed, after surrendering their cellphones, lest those be geolocated by Hamas.

The tunnel experiment dangled another possibility for a country tormented with worry for 132 people held hostage by Hamas in the enclave: reaching out to them with custom-composed, morale-raising Army Radio broadcasts.

“It suddenly occurred to me that maybe some of those hostages also had access to transistor radios,” Karhi told Reuters. “If they had the means to hear their families’ voices, it would have a huge value in terms of morale — and for their relatives, too.”
Grieving family members plant seedlings at site of Hamas’s Supernova massacre
Some of the bereaved families whose loved ones were killed in a Hamas rampage at the Supernova music festival joined a Jewish nature project group on Sunday for a special tree-planting event at the site.

Around 1,000 people planted about 200 seedlings in the scorched earth of the Re’im parking lot, where thousands of young people were partying in the dawn hours of October 7, when scores of armed Palestinian terrorists swept in.

At the festival, 364 people were shot, bludgeoned or burned to death at the Supernova festival in a stretch of tree-dotted brush near Kibbutz Re’im. Another 40 people were taken hostage by Hamas back to the Gaza Strip, 5 kilometers (2 miles) away.

It was the bloodiest incident in the devastating onslaught by the terror group, which killed a total of 1,200 people and triggered a major Israeli operation aimed at eliminating Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since taking over in a bloody coup in 2007.

The tree planting came days ahead of the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat, or the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, also called the Jewish new year for trees, and is marked by a festive meal featuring fruits and nuts.

The day also doubles as an ecological awareness day in Israel, marked by tree planting.

“I still can’t believe that we are planting a tree instead of hugging our child,” Ela Bahat, whose son Dror was killed at the festival, told Reuters.

Family members wept while planting trees with the Jewish National Fund, hoping to bring new life to the scene of death and desecration.

“We buried him four days after on October 11, and this was the first day of the rest of our lives,” Bahat’s father Idan said. “I really hope that in any way, that, from upstairs, they will bring some peace to earth.”
The Israel Guys: My Reaction to Visiting Kibbutz Be’eri (Two Things Were Shocking)
This week we had the opportunity to visit Be’eri, one of the most hard-hit Israeli communities from the massacre on October 7th. Even though more than 100 days have passed since the attack took place, none of Be’eri’s residents have returned to live in their homes, the physical destruction in the town is horrific, and the residents that lost friends and loved ones, and had to hide for their lives on October 7th are not okay.

Today Luke gives you his raw and first-hand reaction to visiting Kibbutz Be’eri, meeting the residents who went through the horrors of October 7th, as well as several things that shocked me.




Relatives of hostages in Gaza warn MPs: ‘Act now or Europe is next’
Relatives of some of those still held hostage in Gaza told British politicians this week that “Europe is next” in the war against terrorism — a point made forcefully and which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary David Cameron said they “understood”.

Ziv Abud, whose boyfriend Eliya Cohen was taken captive at the Nova Music festival, Eli Albag, whose 18-year-old daughter Liri is one of the youngest hostages, and Liran Berman, whose twin brothers Ziv and Gali were taken from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, were in London for the first of a round of talks with political leaders in Europe, and Washington DC.

Each has a harrowing story about their kidnapped loved ones — and part of their mission is to highlight the role played by Qatar in backing Hamas.

The families believe that Qatar could “snap its fingers” and the hostages would be released immediately. A bitter Liran Berman described Qatar’s high level investment in UK as “blood money” being used “to whitewash their image”.

Eli Albag’s daughter Liri was kidnapped from a bomb shelter near the border on October 7. Thirteen others in the shelter were murdered, eight escaped, and seven — including Liri — were taken captive.


Americans Overwhelmingly Support Israel Over Hamas: Poll
An overwhelming majority of Americans supports Israel in the Jewish state's war against Hamas, according to a poll released Monday.

Eighty percent of the 2,346 registered voters in the poll from Harvard University's Center for American Political Studies, HarrisX, and the Harris Poll said they supported Israel over the terror group, while 20 percent said they supported Hamas. Although the percentage who supported Israel over Hamas is down 1 percent, many other indicators pointed to the American people's support of the Jewish state either not changing or increasing.

Two-thirds said that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza and is just trying to defend itself and eliminate Hamas, up 3 percent since last month. A similar percentage also said they believed that Hamas could not be negotiated with and is dedicated only to the destruction of Israel. Two-thirds of the respondents also said that a ceasefire in the conflict should happen only after the release of all the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7 and after the group is no longer in power, a measure that is likewise up 3 percent from last month.

At the same time, 2 percent fewer respondents said this month than in December that Hamas needed "to be removed from running Gaza." Additionally, 30 percent said that Israel should control Gaza after the war, 31 percent said the Palestinian Authority should administer the enclave, and 39 percent said a new authority set up in conjunction with Arab nations should be in control. The percentage who wanted Israel to be in power in Gaza fell by 4 percent, while those who wanted the Palestinian Authority rose by the same number.

Younger voters are also less approving of Israel's actions in the conflict. Fifty-seven percent of voters aged 18-24 said Israel was committing genocide, as did half of those ages 25-34. Additionally, 63 percent of the former favored an unconditional ceasefire, while 54 percent of the latter felt the same way. Still, all age groups broadly agreed that Hamas wants to commit genocide against Jews in Israel and supported Israel over Hamas.

Researchers this month introduced a collection of new questions focused on attacks from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis—who 77 percent said were a terror group—on ships in the Red Sea. Almost three-quarters backed the retaliatory strikes on the group, while 84 percent said the United States and other countries should increase the strikes if the Houthis keep up their attacks. Majorities of all age groups shared those opinions.
Andrew Bolt slams Muslim lawyer who represented ‘Islamist terrorists’ for ‘Jew hatred’
Sky News host Andrew Bolt has slammed a Muslim lawyer who has represented “Islamist terrorists” for his “Jew hatred”.

Mr Houda, in a recent post on Twitter, said, ‘Please tell me this is NOT true Prime Minister !! Is the Executive Council of Australian Jewry receiving $27.5 million in Gvt grants paid for by the taxpayer?? IF IT IS TRUE THEN WHY??’

“Adam Houda is a hotshot Muslim lawyer who's represented well-known crooks and Islamist terrorists, and he’s now posted this complaint that's gone viral,” Mr Bolt said.

“If this bloke had just looked it up, he'd find that grant was to enhance security for Jewish communities – especially Jewish schools and preschools, which are now terrorist targets, not least because of Muslim extremists.

“[I] should point out, Muslims – the community leaders – actually got $25 million themselves, even though they’re in nothing like the same danger.

“If you want to see the depths of Jew hatred in the left, you just look at the comments under this guy’s posts, people abusing the government for giving money to Jews.

“And this guy’s a lawyer?”


Public school figures bringing ‘divisive Middle East conflict’ into the classroom
Sky News host Sharri Markson says public school figures are bringing the “divisive Middle East conflict” of Israel and Hamas into the classroom.

Her comments come after the group ‘Teachers for Palestine' recently made and distributed a booklet on public schools.

“In it they claim that the October 7 attacks happened in context,” Ms Markson said.

“It’s against the code of conduct by the education department to bring this conflict into the classroom and onto school grounds.”

Ms Markson was joined by Liberal MP for Vaucluse Kellie Sloane to discuss the conflict being brought into the classroom.




Qantas embroiled in scandal involving staff member wearing Palestinian flag
Qantas has been embroiled in another scandal involving a staff member wearing the Palestinian flag, with the latest incident concerning ground crew at a US airport.

A Qantas check-in staff member at Dallas Forth Worth International Airport was seen wearing a pin of the Palestinian flag while checking in passengers for a flight to Sydney on Monday night.

A 16-year-old Jewish-Australian student, who took photographs, told Sky News he approached the crew member and explained that he and other Jewish passengers could find the flag “intimidating” and “offensive”.

The boy said the employee responded with words to the effect, “this is a free country”, and quoted his "free speech” and “amendment” rights.

Sky News has confirmed the staff member is employed by a third-party ground service provider that Qantas uses for check-in at the Dallas airport.

However, he is still subject to the airline’s uniform policy, which states unauthorised badges can’t be worn.

The matter has been escalated to the third-party provider, who will counsel the employee about the airline’s policy.


Hollywood Stars Join Pro-Palestinian Protest at Sundance Film Festival: ‘Stop the Genocide’



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