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Thursday, January 25, 2024

01/25 Links Pt1: The Meaning of Gaza's Tunnels: Spare Us the Outrage, Qatar; American Troops Know: Iran Is Already at War with Us; Idan Amedi released from hospital

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The Meaning of Gaza's Tunnels
Ever since Israel withdrew its soldiers and civilians from Gaza in 2005, critics have accused it of blockading the territory - turning it into an "open-air prison." The charge was always preposterous. Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Gazans were often treated in Israeli hospitals for cancer and other life-threatening conditions. Israel provided Gaza with much of its electricity and other critical goods even after Hamas came to power in 2007.

Gaza's vast underground tunnel network has turned the territory into a gigantic military fortress. How much did it cost to build these tunnels? How much concrete, steel and electricity did it divert from civilian needs? How many millions of hours of labor were given to the effort? Hamas stole from foreign donors, subtracted billions of dollars over several years from Gaza's gross domestic product, and diverted labor from productive to destructive ends, all to feed its war machine.

Hamas could have averted this tragedy if it had turned Gaza into an enclave for peace rather than terror, if it had not started four previous rounds of war against Israel, if it had honored the cease-fire that held on Oct. 6. It could have eased it by releasing all of its hostages. It could end it now by surrendering its leaders and sending its fighters into exile. Till then, Hamas bears the blame for every death in this war.
UN Agency in Gaza Alleged To Have ‘Blood on Its Hands’ in Aftermath of October 7 Massacre of Israelis
Worse, he adds, in the early stages of the war, the IDF brass approached Unrwa officials, asking for help in removing civilians from areas where the army planned to wage battle, and usher them to proposed safe zones. The organization made a decision “at the highest levels” to refuse, as Hamas objected to losing human shields.

“Had Unrwa agreed to the IDF plan, the lives of many civilians could have been spared,” Mr. Conricus says. “Not only did they refuse to cooperate, they actively prevented the creation of safe zones. They have blood on their hands.”

Yet Secretary-General Guterres is adamant that the agency will have a role in Gaza after the war. “Unrwa plays a critical role in supporting many Palestinians on education, on healthcare and other services, and it plays a stabilizing role in the region,” Mr. Dujarric told the Sun, adding that Mr. Guterres “continues to believe that.”

Nevertheless, “Unrwa has taken the decision to commission an independent review, to look at all the allegations regarding Unrwa and its activities in Gaza,” its commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, told Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wang, last week.

After UN Watch published the trove of evidence of unethical conduct, Australia demanded an investigation. Under pressure from America’s former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, America denied funds to Unrwa. President Biden renewed America’s status as the agency’s top donor, contributing nearly $1 billion to its coffers since 2021.

“Our constituents are horrified that their taxpayer dollars may have, through Unrwa failures, supported Hamas terrorists,” the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Michael McCaul, wrote last week, inviting Mr. Lazzarini to testify.

Mr. Lazzarini takes these allegations “very seriously,” the UN spokesman, Mr. Dujarric, says, adding that Unrwa takes “disciplinary action when needed and when things are proven.” As yet, though, Mr. Lazzarini has indicated only that he would investigate “smears” against his agency, Mr. Neuer tells the Sun.
Seth Mandel: Spare Us the Outrage, Qatar
The Qatari statement is idiotic. If Netanyahu had said this publicly, one could argue that it would be a breach of diplomatic politesse. Ill-advised, at the very least. But if Netanyahu is explaining in private why the usual objections about Qatar shouldn’t disqualify them from the diplomatic process, then the reaction is thin-skinned bush-league whining.

Fact is, Qatar funds and enables Hamas. It hosts Hamas leadership. And as Jonathan Schanzer wrote here last month, “In their efforts to steer the Gaza conflict toward a permanent ceasefire, the Qataris have actively tried to help save Hamas from destruction, which is Israel’s stated war aim.”

Qatar is a major reason that Hamas has the capabilities it possesses to pull off barbaric invasions like its Oct. 7 rampage, which resulted in the hostage standoff that it is supposedly helping to solve. I’m glad they’ve played some productive role in all this, but it is the role of an arsonist putting out the flames in a few of the rooms of the building it set ablaze. The suggestion that they’re doing the world a favor is risible.

In fact, Qatar has been far less useful than it should have been throughout the hostage crisis. Israel has had to turn to the Egyptians time and again when Qatar’s gold-plated incompetence gets put on display. That ineptitude is one reason Israel is in Gaza collecting the bodies of its citizens. Qatar is very good at ensuring the money keeps flowing to its clients but not very good at predicting what, exactly, its clients are preparing to do with that largesse.

Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t say any of this, of course. Publicly, he said nothing unkind, and privately, he offered mild criticism but no objections to Qatar’s role in the hostage negotiations. Qatar should put a Band-Aid on its wounded ego and go back to helping to fix a fraction of the problems it has caused the free world.


Eli Lake: American Troops Know: Iran Is Already at War with Us
The war that began on October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel has been almost universally described in the press as another bloody chapter in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But that’s only half-true. Or rather, it is only one front of a much broader war—a war that pits Iran and its proxies against America and its allies. And a war that has already cost American lives.

Consider the following events that have taken place since October 7:
- On January 11, two Navy SEALs were on a night mission to intercept an Iranian shipment destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen. In a raid of a small boat known as a dhow, one SEAL fell into rough waters off the coast of Somalia and another dove into the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to rescue him. On Sunday, U.S. Central Command announced that the SEALs were presumed dead. Despite the casualties, the mission was a success. U.S. officials have told news outlets that the SEALs found missile components on the ship that matched the projectiles used by the Houthis in attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

- On January 15, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed credit for a missile and drone attack in Erbil—the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, home to America’s historic allies. The Iranian regime claimed the strike hit an Israeli Mossad base in response to an Israeli strike in Syria that killed one of its commanders. But Kurdish news agencies have since reported that the target was the personal home of prominent builder and businessman Peshraw Majid Agha Dizeyi, who was killed along with several of his family members including his 11-month-old daughter. The attack was the first direct Iranian strike in the region since October 7.

- At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) on January 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Asad Airbase. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others hit the base. Damage assessments are ongoing. Two U.S. personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries but are now back on duty. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.

- As those rockets were being launched, Chief Warrant Officer Garrett Illerbrunn was recovering at a hospital in Washington, D.C., from a brain injury he suffered on Christmas Day after shrapnel lodged in his skull following a drone attack on a U.S. base in the Kurdish city of Erbil. (Illerbrunn has since emerged from his coma and has begun to move his face and limbs, according to a CaringBridge journal set up by his loved ones.) The drone attack that nearly killed Illerbrunn was launched by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah.

- In response to the January 20 missile attacks on al-Asad Airbase, the U.S. launched a round of air strikes on January 23 that targeted Kataib Hezbollah. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, the air strikes hit the group’s “headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV capabilities.”

- According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, there have been more than 100 drone attacks and nearly 50 rocket attacks against U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria since October 18. By comparison, there was only one such drone attack and one rocket attack from these militias between October 2022 and October 2023. Almost all of the recent attacks have been initiated by the Iraqi militias the government in Baghdad has tried to tame. In Yemen, the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels have menaced U.S. ships in the Red Sea, launching drones, rockets, and missiles at vessels while claiming to enforce an embargo of Israel.

- Since November 18, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have launched at least 25 attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The head of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, said of the attacks: “Clearly, the Houthi actions, probably in terms of their attacks on merchant shipping, are the most significant that we’ve seen in two generations.”

Most Americans vaguely know that there is trouble in the Middle East, but they likely do not know all of these details and surely do not know the names Christopher Chambers and Nathan Gage Ingram—the two Navy SEALs who perished this month in the Indian Ocean defending the freedom of maritime navigation in the region.

That’s because these stories have barely been covered and the Biden administration has sought to downplay these incidents and lower tensions with Iran, fearing the prospect of a regional war.

But some Americans know well the cost of Iran’s ongoing aggression against America. Just ask the Farr family of California.
Col Kemp: Killing Americans and their Allies: Iran’s Continuing War against the United States and the West
Iranian-supplied weapons have led to casualties across the Western alliance for Britain, Israel, and the United States. Tehran has used its weapons deliveries to fuel a number of regional insurgencies, like the Houthi revolt in Yemen.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Hizbullah proxy serve as expeditionary forces for Iran throughout the Middle East, with the latter coordinating terror attacks and fundraising activities in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

State-of-the-art roadside bombs — Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) — from Iran in particular were undoubtedly the most lethal Iranian weapon used against British and American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus the analysis that follows by two former British officers is of extreme importance to anyone concerned with halting the destabilization of the Middle East and the future security of the region.
– Amb. Dore Gold

Executive Summary
Iranian military action, often working through proxies using terrorist tactics, has led to the deaths of well over a thousand American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade and a half.

Throughout the course of the Iraq campaign, a variety of weapons flowed into the country through direct purchases by the government of Iran. These included Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs), a shaped charge designed to penetrate armor. These weapons – often camouflaged as rocks – were identical to those employed by Hizbullah against Israeli forces. In 2006, the British Telegraph revealed that three Iranian factories were “mass producing” the roadside EFP bombs used to kill soldiers in Iraq.

In 2007, American troops discovered over 100 Austrian-made Steyr HS50 .50 caliber sniper rifles in Iraq. These high-powered rifles, which fire Iranian bullets, can pierce all in-service body armor from up to a mile and penetrate U.S. armored Humvee troop carriers. The rifles were part of a larger shipment legally purchased from the Austrian manufacturer under the justification that they would be used by Iranian police to combat drug smugglers.

Iran paid Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they killed in Afghanistan. The Sunday Times reported that a Taliban operative received $18,000 from an Iranian firm in Kabul as reward for an attack in 2010 that killed several Afghan government troops and destroyed an American armored vehicle.

Iranian President Rouhani’s so-called “moderation” was displayed when he appointed Brig.-Gen. Hossein Dehghan to be minister of defense. Dehghan played a key role in the October 1983 suicide bomb attacks in Beirut in which 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French paratroopers were killed. Meanwhile, inside Iran, Rouhani has presided over a rise in repression, including executions, torture of political prisoners, and persecution of minorities.
The Regional War the Biden Administration Sought To Avoid Is Here
If the Biden administration has articulated one goal since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, it is to prevent the outbreak of a broader regional war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on a multi-country Middle East tour in early January to make what the Wall Street Journal characterized as a "full-court press" to stop the war in the Gaza Strip from metastasizing.

As with so many of this administration's foreign policy initiatives, Iran had other ideas.

Its Houthi rebel proxies have been attacking U.S. military bases and disrupting commercial shipping routes in the Red Sea, injuring hundreds of American military personnel in the process. Over the weekend, American officials announced the deaths of two Navy SEALs in a daring raid on an Iranian weapons ship off the coast of Somalia. The ship was ferrying arms to the Houthis.

Suffice it to say, the regional war the administration sought to avoid is well underway, even if nobody is talking about it.

Like most wars, this one is exacting an economic toll: "The cost of shipping containers from China to the Mediterranean Sea has more than quadrupled," according to Bloomberg, as ships ferrying consumer goods, "from clothing and toys to auto parts, are now adding two weeks to their routes to travel around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa."

What does Team Biden have to say about it? "We are clear-eyed about who the Houthis are, and their worldview," a senior U.S. official told the Washington Post. Please. How clear-eyed could the administration that yanked the Houthis from the list of designated terrorist organizations be?
The war in Gaza from a cross-Atlantic perspective
Former National Security Advisor Dr. Eyal Hulata, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, shares insights on how the war is perceived in Washington and offers his perspective on the current Israeli administration's handling of the conflict




Tom Gross: Does the West want Gaza to be like Luxembourg or the Islamic state?

Sanction the Hamas nongovernmental organization in Turkey
The United States government has intensified its efforts to counter Hamas worldwide. Recently, that has included sanctions on entities based in Turkey. The focus is warranted. The government in Ankara offers material support to Hamas in a variety of documented ways: office space, citizenship to its key leadership, and financial support.

The government of Turkey has also enabled Hamas to establish nongovernmental organizations that help the Iran-backed terrorist group conduct outreach, public relations, and other activities. The Association of Jerusalem and Our History, or KUTAD, is one such high-profile Hamas front.

Jihad Yaghmour, a known Hamas operative based in Turkey, is the founder of KUTAD. The U.S. and British authorities sanctioned him in December for his continued role as a key official “who perpetuate[s] Hamas’s violent agenda by representing the group’s interests abroad and managing its finances.” A convicted terrorist who served jail time in Israel, Yaghmour is responsible for the murder of Nachson Waxman, an Israeli soldier from Jerusalem Hamas kidnapped and killed in 1994. In 2011, Yaghmour was released from prison and deported to Turkey as part of a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel that led to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas in Gaza since 2006.

Yaghmour’s activities on behalf of Hamas are manifold. But his NGO features prominently among them. KUTAD maintains offices in Istanbul and Ankara. As president, Yaghmour has used the organization to host high-profile Hamas leaders to speak at public events in Turkey, including Saleh al Arouri (a top military and political figure recently killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Beirut) and Ismail Haniyeh (another top Hamas leader based in Qatar). In April 2023, KUTAD’s Ankara office hosted Nesim Yassin, the nephew of Sheikh Yassin, the founder of Hamas killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2004, to present a public talk on the “life and struggles” of his uncle.

While acting as KUTAD’s president, according to one Israeli think tank, Yaghmour has operated as a “liaison to the Turkish government and the Turkish Intelligence Service MIT.” What this means is not entirely clear. But the intelligence service first helped Hamas get established in Istanbul in 2011. It continues to play a role in facilitating the terrorist group’s activities out of Turkey.
Daniel Greenfield: Israel Still Hasn’t Learned the Strategic Lessons of Oct 7
Terrorists don’t defend, they become mobile, they blend into the civilian population (which is where most of the hostages were kept) and then pop out again to carry out attacks.

This time around (unlike previous attacks on Hamas), Israel is actually thinking about how to eliminate Hamas infrastructure and control territory on the ground. That’s important, but it also creates patterns and can put IDF soldiers on the defensive.

Both of those have now been effectively exploited by Hamas.

To retake Gaza, the IDF leadership needs to think deeply about the lessons of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel’s own lessons in Lebanon where terrorists were initially weak, but focused on staying in the fight and maintaining continued attrition of civilized forces. That is the Hamas game plan in Gaza. To beat it, Israel needs to operate offensively, avoid predictability and focus on keeping Hamas on the defensive so it does not have the opportunity to regroup and carry out attacks.

This is where the proposals for any kind of truce, let alone a proposed 2-month pause to the fighting in exchange for the hostages, are disastrous. We’ve already previously seen the consequences of giving Hamas any time to regroup. In exchange for the release of some hostages, Hamas was able to move other hostages and its military assets, regroup and launch new attacks.

Victory means pushing Hamas. The more breathing room the terrorists have, the more they can settle into a new routine of pop up attacks, studying and exploiting IDF patterns, scoring occasional victories, damaging morale and building up pressure for an Israeli withdrawal.
Daniel Greenfield: Israel’s War on Hamas is the Least Deadly War in the Region
The Associated Press recently made headlines by falsely claiming that the Israeli campaign against Hamas “sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history” and was even worse than “the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II”.

The Washington Post argued that “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza” while The Wall Street Journal contended that it was “generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.”

That’s all the more impressive since even accepting the Hamas casualty figures (tainted and inflated numbers in which there are no terrorists, only civilians, and fighting age men are really children) as the media does, this is still probably one of the least violent conflicts in the region.

In 2016, the Washington Post described the Syrian Civil War, with a possible 250,000 deaths, as “the most destructive conflict in the region”. In 2020, the UN had called the Yemeni Civil War, with 150,000 deaths, “the most destructive conflict since the end of the Cold War”.

And then there’s the current phase of the war in Sudan (which the media is currently uninterested in) in which 15,000 people have been killed over the course of last year, as part of a larger conflict that may have claimed as many as 2 million lives.

The Tigray War in Ethiopia over the last three years (which you may have missed because the media chose not to hysterically cover every single bomb dropped and protesters stayed home knitting instead of blocking traffic) may have cost the lives of between 80,000 to 600,000 people.

(El Pais, Spain’s newspaper, which did report on Ethiopia’s civil war, described it as “the deadliest of the 21st century” and then had to pivot to argue later that Israel was worse in, “25,000 deaths in Gaza: Why the destruction of this war exceeds that of other major conflicts”.)

In reality, every significant war and civil war in the region had a much higher death toll than the Hamas war: including the Iraq-Iran War with an estimated 500,000 to 2 million deaths. And in nearby Africa, the Congo War has been blamed for 6 million deaths since 1996.

How does the media justify arguing that 25,000 is more than 2 million?
The IDF’s systematic approach to dismantling Hamas
On the eve of the war, Hamas possessed an estimated 30,000 armed terrorists, divided into five territorial brigades and 24 battalions across the Gaza Strip. It had a sprawling weapons production industry, much of it underground, and distributed the weapons through hundreds of miles of tunnels. It had an estimated rocket arsenal of some 15,000 projectiles, and death squads on the border preparing to conduct the worst mass murder of Jews since the Second World War.

More than 100 days into the fighting, the Hamas war machine has sustained severe damage and is being further degraded by the day. Its ability to function as an organized military force in northern and central Gaza has been eliminated, though Hamas prepared cells with the ability to function independently. These lone cells continue to attack Israeli forces as the opportunity arises, with whatever means they have to hand.

While the latest Israel Defense Forces assessment is that Hamas has thus far lost more than 9,000 fighters—a third of its fighting force—this is far from a complete picture of the true scope of damage it has sustained, not least because that figure pertains to fatalities, not overall battle casualties, which are likely far higher.

Furthermore, according to an IDF source, the Israeli military has been engaged in a gradual, ordered process of dismantling Hamas’s capabilities from the top down, starting with its command structure.

According to the source, the IDF and its divisions within Gaza focus their firepower and maneuvers first on eliminating enemy commanders, as well as their command and control capabilities—meaning the places from which they command field cells.

In the next stage, the terror group’s infrastructure is targeted, such as bases and military posts. Weapons production and storage sites comprised the next layer of targets.

It is only after these target banks are exhausted that the IDF prioritizes targeting Hamas fighters.


Giving U.S. Diplomacy a Chance in Lebanon Could Be Critical for Legitimacy of Israeli Action Against Hizbullah
On Oct. 12, 2022, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein facilitated a maritime border and natural gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon and tweeted that he was proud to have served "as mediator/facilitator of an historic agreement to provide #Israel security & stability."

Just one year later, Hizbullah joined with Hamas in attacking Israel. The U.S. believed the maritime deal would reduce tensions in the north and deter Hizbullah. Instead, the opposite has proven true.

Now, Hochstein has returned to negotiate a land deal and distance Hizbullah from Israel's northern border. Unlike the maritime dispute, in which Hizbullah didn't give up anything, "Hizbullah is being asked to disarm itself and abandon its position threatening Israel in southern Lebanon - something Hizbullah has refused to do for more than 17 years," said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This is "despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding it, and billions of dollars sent to the Lebanese Armed Forces and UN peacekeepers to enforce that resolution." Blaise Misztal, vice president of policy at JINSA, said, "There is value in the U.S. attempting a diplomatic solution." Sooner or later, Israel "will be forced to confront the Hizbullah threat, and it will be important for the legitimacy for any Israeli operation in the north to be able to say there is [UN Resolution] 1701 that says Hizbullah should not be there and the world has failed to enforce it."

"We tried diplomacy and a peaceful resolution and Hizbullah ignored it. The only option we have left to defend ourselves and our territories is to take on Hizbullah directly."
IDF strikes Iran-Hezbollah airport, launching major escalation
The IDF on Thursday attacked a key Hezbollah-Iran airstrip at Kilat Jaber for launching aerial attacks against Israel in a major escalation between the sides.

In September 2023, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed pictures showing the joint Hezbollah-Iranian terror base in southern Lebanon only 20 kilometers from the border with Israel.

Gallant said at the time that at the airport, one can see Iran’s flag flying on the runways from which the ayatollahs’ regime is using to plot against Israel.

The defense minister also said, “Put differently, the land is Lebanese, the control is Iranian, the target is Israel.”He said Israel must “remain aware and at [the] ready, with our eyes set on the binoculars and our fingers on the trigger.”

Gallant added that Iran remains the greatest threat to Israel, though sometimes it uses Hezbollah and other proxies to fight its wars against the Jewish state.

If Hezbollah “goes toward a conflict with us, they will pay a high price.”

“We will not allow Iran to turn Syria into a Hezbollah 2.0” with powerful rockets, he said.
FDD: Israel Increases Pressure on Hamas Terrorists in Khan Younis
Expert Analysis
“Defeating Hamas in southern Gaza is the key to defeating the terrorist organization. Hamas has used southern Gaza as a way to control the transit of goods, including humanitarian aid, flowing into Gaza. It also has used southern Gaza as a smuggling route. Khan Younis is the headquarters of Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar and uprooting terrorist infrastructure in the city will reduce the Hamas threat to Israel and to the region.” — Seth J. Frantzman, FDD Adjunct Fellow

“Khan Younis acts as a key hub for Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. The IDF surrounding and establishing a presence in the city are impressive operational successes. However, the process of eliminating the extensive network of terrorist infrastructure within the city is likely to be a long and arduous task, possibly lasting weeks or even months.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Rocket Fire From Gaza After Four Days of Calm
Terrorists in Gaza fired rockets toward Israeli communities on January 25, the first rocket fire in four days. The rockets set off sirens near the northern border with Gaza. Hamas and other terrorist groups have fired more than 9,000 rockets from Gaza at Israel since Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7. Rocket fire declined in January, and between January 21 and 24, no sirens were heard in Israel. The IDF estimated that 12 percent of the rockets fired by terrorists fall inside Gaza and threaten Palestinian civilians. In mid-October, a rocket fired from Gaza fell in a parking lot near a hospital in Gaza City, causing numerous civilian casualties.


IDF probing deadly strike on Gaza UN shelter, says it may have been caused by Hamas
The Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating a deadly strike Wednesday on a United Nations shelter in southern Gaza but noted it may have been caused by an errant Hamas rocket.

“Two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people — reports now 9 dead and 75 injured,” tweeted UNRWA’s Gaza director Thomas White, blaming Israel for the strike in Khan Younis where the IDF has been operating intensely, going off of intelligence indicating that Hamas’s top military leaders are hiding in tunnels underneath the city.

The Israeli army later responded to a query on the matter, saying that “after an inspection of operational systems, the IDF has now ruled out the possibility that the incident was caused by an airstrike or artillery fire by IDF forces.

“At the same time, the IDF is conducting an in-depth examination of ground forces’ activity in the area of ​​the facility,” the response from the IDF continued, ostensibly leaving open the possibility that its troops might have been behind the strike.

“The IDF is investigating the possibility that the strike was caused by Hamas fire,” the military added.

In an earlier response Wednesday, the IDF said the wider area surrounding the UN center was a significant base of Hamas terrorists.

“Dismantling Hamas’s military framework in western Khan Younis is at the heart of the logic behind the operation,” it said.

The White House decried the strike while avoiding assigning blame.

“We are gravely concerned by reports today of strikes hitting a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) facility — with subsequent reports of fires in the building — in a neighborhood in southern Gaza where more than 30,000 displaced Palestinians had reportedly been sheltering,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

“While we don’t yet have all the details on what happened and will continue to seek further information regarding today’s incidents, the loss of every innocent life is a tragedy,” Watson said.


Singer Idan Amedi released from hospital, honors fallen 'brothers-in-arms'
Calling his fellow IDF soldiers heroes, Fauda actor and singer Idan Amedi, 35, spoke emotionally on Thursday as he was released from Sheba Medical Center after being seriously injured on duty in Gaza on January 8.

“I want to share a hug with the grieving families. As someone who knows the loss up close, I know there are no words that will comfort the heart. It is important for me that you know your sons and daughters are my heroes until the end of my days,” he said at a press conference with senior hospital officials.

“ Over the past three months, I met them on various fronts – we laughed together, we went out on operations together… we allowed ourselves to cry together.”

Amedi thanks both the medical staff at Sheba and 669, the Israeli Air Force’s tactical rescue unit, for saving his life. Amedi arrived at the hospital sedated and intubated, burned and covered in soot so that he was unrecognizable, tagged as he described it, “unidentified, 22 years old.” Now, two-and-a-half weeks later, he is ready to speak. He’s wearing all black, one arm in a sling and the opposite hand bandaged.

Idan called the press conference to spread a message about those injured in war
One reason he called a press conference, Amedi says, is to share “the deep understanding of someone injured in war.” He emphasizes that if there is something “good” that has happened as a result of his injury, it is his ability to be a messenger.

During his stay at Sheba, Amedi has met with other injured patients and sees this as an opportunity to share the difficulties and challenges that they face – himself included – as he begins a lengthy outpatient rehab. “They are people like us, who are used to being independent, are used to being strong. This in itself is a challenge. To digest that, there are things that will take months to renew. And to accept that there are things that will not be again ever.”

One of the things Amedi asks of the public is that they are there for the injured. “As you supported me, support them – including when they are released from the hospital. Let them express their pain, and hug and support them. Those who ran first and didn’t hesitate – out of their love for the people and the land – into the fire, they need you now.” Their injuries are not only physical, Amedi reminds his followers, but mental.


JPost Editorial: Hamas should not be allowed to control aid in Gaza
Aid continues to flow to Gaza to enable the civilian population of Gaza to receive their needs. Israel’s war in Gaza is not with Gazans but with the terrorist group Hamas. However, Hamas has often exploited its control over Gaza to hijack aid and utilize it for its own needs. While some of the aid that reaches Gaza may also be reaching the hostages that Hamas is holding, it is essential that Hamas not be able to exploit the suffering in Gaza to regain power in the enclave.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), facilitating humanitarian aid for Gaza, recently said that the 10,000th aid truck was transferred to Gaza.

“Since the start of the war, close to 99% of coordinated trucks were approved for entry,” COGAT said. A total of around 260 trucks are crossing into Gaza each day. This is the highest number since the Hamas attack on October 7.

Hamas didn’t take into account the people of Gaza when it carried out its attack on Israel. It has also systematically exploited the civilians of Gaza by hiding in their homes, festooning civilian areas with weapons and rocket launchers, and even exploiting hospitals and schools.

COGAT has said that “there is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the Gaza Strip.” However, there are also concerns that while this aid is flowing into Gaza, Israel is not seeing the desired results in terms of hostages getting the medicine and other requirements they need. A balance must be struck so that humanitarian assistance to Gaza is closely monitored and Hamas cannot continue to exploit it. Videos showing Hamas gunmen on aid trucks are concerning. All of the aid should be monitored once it reaches Gaza to make sure it gets to the right people.


Biden Pentagon Denies It’s at War with Houthis, Despite Biden Submitting ‘War Powers’ Notifications to Congress

US Navy intercepts missiles in Red Sea while escorting Maersk ships

Jonathan Tobin: With Israel and Hamas, feminists have abandoned moral principles
There appears to be no crime—no matter how heinous, no matter how much outrage it would cause were it committed against anyone else—that can’t be ignored or excused if committed against Jews. That’s the conclusion drawn by JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin about the reaction of left-wing intellectuals and most feminists to the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7.

Tobin is joined on “Top Story” by groundbreaking psychologist and feminist author Phyllis Chesler, to whom the willingness to excuse crimes committed by those seeking to slaughter Jews is unsurprising. She traces the calumnies now routinely thrown at Israel and the Jews back to the 1970s, when the Soviet bloc employed antisemitism as a tactic during the Cold War, such as its “Zionism is racism” initiative at the United Nations.

According to Chesler, the post-Oct. 7 world demonstrates that woke ideology has caused many who supported the #MeToo movement to abandon the principle that “rape must always be condemned.” She says the willingness of some on the left to “bring down Western civilization in the misguided belief that the barbarian violent alternative is better and will preserve human rights, gay rights, women’s rights, is so suicidal. It is so irrational. It is signing on to a death cult.”

Chesler believes that “the whole [LGBT] involvement in marching against Israel has something to do with a desire for approval and acceptance at any cost, and let others pay the price.” It’s also true that “the sight of Jewish blood has always excited Jew-haters,” she adds.
'I saw a girl who was raped and set on fire': Chilling testimony from the scene of the music festival massacre
On October 7, Eden Wessely set out to look for her best friend, who had been at the Nova party in Re’im and from whom nobody had heard. She had no idea of the horrors she would find instead. (Warning: Wessely’s descriptions may be painful to read.)

Eden returned without her friend, who had been kidnapped and has been held captive in Gaza ever since. Her photographs, however, have been used to document the atrocities of that day.

“There were horrific scenes, difficult to take in,” she told Ynet. “I saw hundreds of corpses, and a girl who had been raped and [her body] burned. Things that human eyes have difficulty looking at.”

Wessely took photos of what she saw, including of the “Woman in the black dress,” which was published by The New York Times in the paper’s article on the sexual depravities committed by Hamas terrorists. The newspaper piece was based, inter alia, on Wessely’s testimony.

“We are childhood friends,” says Wessely, 30, an auto mechanic by profession, of her friend still held in captivity. “She didn’t tell anyone she was going to the party. She was supposed to go out with me that Friday night, but in the end she went to that party.

“I went out that night and was still awake when the sirens started going off. I was not yet aware that she was in any danger. She texted ‘I’ve been shot’ to another friend. I went to see her mother on Saturday night. She began to cry, saying ‘I want my daughter back.’

“I decided to go and look for her,” Wessely recalls. “Everyone told me not to go since there were terrorists still at large in the area. But I went, with three other friends, to the location she had sent us on Route 232.

“There were horrible scenes – hundreds of bodies, bodies of people half-in and half-out of cars, body parts scattered along the road. No one had come for them yet. We looked for my friend, but to my chagrin, there were only corpses along the highway. We thought we might be able to find a lead as to what happened to her, so we kept on searching.

“Suddenly, I spotted the bodies of a man and a woman. I asked my friends to stop. It looked as though she had been raped, murdered, and set afire. They shot her and also burned her body. Her hand was covering her face, she had a gunshot wound on the cheek and she had no underpants on. They had lifted her dress, raped her, and afterward torched her. It is not a sight that human eyes can bear. The people I was with grew very distressed and wanted to return home.”

Wessely did not give up and traveled back to the site of the massacre every day to look for her friend. Along the way, she helped families of the killed and missing obtain information about their loved ones.


In Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostages Square,’ a nearly 40-year-old sculpture assumes new meaning
A Shabbat table installed in Tel Aviv with some 200 empty chairs for the Israeli hostages Hamas kidnapped and dragged back into the Gaza Strip—and copycats worldwide, including near the U.S. Capitol in Washington—have garnered international press coverage.

Much less discussed are the other artworks installed in what has been dubbed Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Upon visiting the site, it was quickly clear on a Jewish studies scholars’ solidarity mission to Israel this month that the overshadowed works have also been enlisted in the fight for the Israeli hostages and that some of these works carry much broader symbolism than the table.

Art transformed
The painter and sculptor Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015) was one of the icons of Israeli art. Much of his work drew on ovine imagery, including displaying live sheep painted blue at the Venice Biennale in 1978. The Guardian, a London-based news outlet, recorded in his obituary that he brought “a shepherd’s eye for nature” to his work.

One of Kadishman’s best-known and most poignant installations is “Shalekhet” (“Fallen Leaves”) at the Jewish Museum Berlin, which describes the work as “more than 10,000 faces with open mouths, cut from heavy round iron plates” covering the floor of the museum’s ground floor “void.”

Beside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Kadishman’s 1985 cor-ten (weathered) steel sculpture “Sacrifice of Isaac” rises imposingly. The artist repeatedly, even obsessively, returned for decades to the biblical story of the binding of Isaac, and by some counts, the 1995 Israel Prize winner represented sheep thousands of times in his drawings, paintings and sculptures. The Tel Aviv sculpture, versions of which can be found in other museum collections, represents Isaac’s story in a semi-abstract fashion.

A flattened silhouette of a ram’s head—perhaps a cousin of the Chicago Bulls logo—stands upright, beside an abstracted form, with two mourning women’s faces, while a third face (Isaac) lies nearby on the ground.


The Tikvah Podcast: Hillel Neuer on How the Human-Rights Industry Became Obsessed with Israel
1948 was a landmark year in international politics. It saw the establishment of modern Israel. And it saw the General Assembly of the United Nations adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document, recognized today as a foundation stone of international human-rights law, gives voice to a range of fundamental rights meant to honor human freedom and dignity.

At the time, many of the proponents of human-rights statements and organizations were not only Jewish but proud Zionists. In the seventy-five years since, those two sorts of commitments seem to have grown in different directions, so that now, most people who work in the human-rights industry do not support but actively oppose the foundational premises and practical necessities of Jewish national freedom.

Hillel Neuer is the executive director of UN Watch, a human-rights organization based in Geneva. Together in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, he asks several pressing questions about this history, which he wrote about as a chapter in the new volume Jewish Priorities: Sixty-Five Proposals for the Future of Our People, published by Wicked Son. How did the human-rights movement and Israel start together? How did they grow apart? Can the human-rights movement change course, so that it can still highlight violations of human-rights law without falling prey to the obsession with Israel that today undermines its credibility?
Caroline Glick: Hamas DESTROYS Any Hope for Peaceful Coexistence
How do the left and right see Oct. 7th? Is the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and the aftermath putting American Jews in an uncomfortable position?


SpectatorTV: Nigel Biggar: Is Israel’s war morally right, even if civilians die?
Nigel Biggar, a theologian at the University of Oxford, joins Cindy Yu to discuss the war between Israel and Gaza. Is a war really inherently unjust if civilians die, Biggar asks.


Australian Foreign Policy on Israel - Alexander Downer, Australia's Longest Serving Foreign Minister
The Hon Alexander Downer AC, best known for his role as Australia’s longest serving Minister for Foreign Affairs discussed the changes made by the Labor government to foreign policy as it impacts Israel and the Middle East. Penny Wong's bungled visit to Israel, received some critical comments.

Mr Downer has also been outspoken in condemning antisemitism and has made particularly strong criticisms of the Greens.


Andrew Klavan: The Endemic Violence of Islamic Theology
Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch and author of Empire of God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization, joins us to discuss the realities of Islamic theology in terms of its propensity towards violence, the cyclical reemergence of Islamic extremism within secular Islamic cultures throughout history, and how the Islamization of Europe and the broader west will lead to societal downfall.


Rubin Report: Ex-CIA: What You Aren’t Being Told About the Houthis | Mike Baker
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to former CIA officer and host of “The President's Daily Brief” podcast Mike Baker about the complexities of the conflict in Yemen involving the Houthis; Sunni-Shia dynamics, Iran's involvement as a state sponsor of proxies, and the Biden administration's recent decision to label the Houthis as "specially designated global terrorists."; and much more.




Jewish Washingtonians gather at Qatari Embassy to push for hostage release
On a gray, chilly morning on the edge of Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, around 200 members of the D.C.-area Jewish community, toting U.S. and Israeli flags, the now-familiar hostage posters and a few handmade signs, gathered outside the Qatari Embassy to push for the release of the hostages being held by Hamas.

Interspersed with vigorous chants of “bring them home,” speakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Virginia Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Filler-Corn and former Cuba hostage Alan Gross urged Qatar to apply more pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages — while also expressing gratitude for the role Qatar played in the initial round of hostage releases.

Ivey said he appreciated the work Qatar had done so far, “but we need to make sure that they understand today that we’re not where we need to get to. More needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.”

Raskin also offered thanks to Qatar, the U.S. government and the International Committee of the Red Cross for helping facilitate the first hostage deal.

“We call on Qatar — which is politically and financially in a place to make things happen — to put this at the very top of the priority list,” Raskin continued. “The hostages must be returned to their families and their communities now. On behalf of the American people, we demand that the hostages be brought home and given their freedom.”

Filler-Corn, the former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said: “The Qatari government can help — it already has helped secure the release of 105 hostages in November, and they can help today. That is why I join all of you today in asking for the Qatari government to help us.”

Gross argued in his remarks that it is “within the power of the State of Qatar to effectively convince Hamas that it is in everyone’s best interests to return these hostages to their loved ones.” He called on the Qatari ambassador to tell his country’s leadership that “more needs to be done” to pressure Hamas.

The event, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington was the first major public push by the organized U.S. Jewish community targeting Qatar, but organizers were careful not to describe it as a “protest,” “rally” or “demonstration.”


Chicago mayor calls for ceasefire, Jew-hatred quadruples in France, Tlaib gets glossy ‘Nation’ treatment

What we know about man charged in shooting and homemade bomb attack on Edmonton city hall
A man accused of firing a gun and throwing homemade bombs in Edmonton city hall is facing a string of charges and is under investigation by national security police.

Police on Wednesday charged Bezhani Sarvar, 28, with six crimes including possession of incendiary material, arson, throwing explosives with intent to cause harm and reckless use of a weapon. The Commissionaires, which provides security services at city hall and other government buildings, confirmed Sarvar worked as a security guard for the company.

Edmonton city police continue to probe the incident alongside the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. In a statement Wednesday, EPS Chief Dale McFee said police are also reviewing an apparent manifesto video “that may be related to this incident.”

“Our officers are working closely with our national security partners on this investigation,” McFee said. “I would like to reassure the public that we believe there is no further threat to public safety at this time. The investigation is in its early stages, and we will continue to update Edmontonians as it progresses.”

An RCMP spokesperson confirmed INSET is “engaged and actively working with” city police on the investigation but declined to comment further.

City hall was locked down and evacuated Tuesday morning after a man armed with a long-gun entered the building through the parkade, fired shots and threw a Molotov cocktail. Councillors — some of whom were in a committee meeting at city hall — were told there was an “active shooter” in the building, while Grade 1 kids on a field trip sheltered in place or were whisked to safety.


Man asked if he was Jewish and then punched in the face in London attack
The Met Police have issued an image of a man they are seeking in connection with an antisemitic attack in Wembley.

On 13 October 2023, a man reported having been assaulted after being approached by a group of men on Kingsbury Road and asked whether he was Jewish. The man reported that he moved away and attempted to take a photo of the group, which prompted one of them to punch him in the face, according to the Met.

Officers have now released a photo of a man they would like to speak to in relation to the assault.

PC Catherine Brady, who is leading the investigation, said: “This assault left the victim incredibly shaken and we know it has caused concern within the wider community.

“Hate crime of any kind is not something we tolerate and we have been carrying out enquiries to establish who is responsible for this offence.

Police are appealing to anyone who recognises the man in the photo or has any other information about the incident to contact them.

Reports of antisemitic hate crimes rose sharply in the month following the October 7 attack on Israel, with incidents increasing by more than 13 times the number recorded during the same period a year before. The Met recorded 679 antisemitic offences from 7 October to 7 November, compared with 50 in the same month-long period of the previous year.


Teachers Want Union to Rescind Biden Endorsement Until He ‘Secures Permanent Ceasefire’ in Gaza
The Educators for Palestine have steps Biden must take to receive the NEA endorsement:
1. A permanent ceasefire!
2. Stop sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel.
3. Use diplomatic pressure to end Israel’s blockade/siege of Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, to stop Israel’s killing of journalists, and to secure the release of all political prisoners and hostages
4. Commit to demanding that Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights, including ending the occupation and dismantling of the illegal apartheid wall, equal rights for all Palestinians, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, as called for by Palestinian civil society.
5. Commit to a fair due process for asylum-seekers and refugees that follows international law, de-militarizing the border, stopping all further building of the border wall, permanently closing open-air detention centers, expanding shelters, work permits, relocation support and legal pathways to citizenship (such as DACA), ending a foreign policy that creates the economic and political instability making migration necessary, and not compromising on these commitments in exchange for military aid to Israel.

The Union and Anti-Israel Members

Illinois teacher Rahaf Othman, a Palestinian American, lost sleep after Israel started fighting back against Hamas after the terrorist group invaded and slaughtered thousands of Israelis on October 7.

Israel’s actions traumatized Othman. Many teachers felt the same way. They formed Educators for Palestine.

NEA member Olivia Katbi, a track and cross-country coach, “organizes with the Palestinian BDS National Committee.”

Katbi wants the Gaza ceasefire to become an official NEA policy.

The petition completely ignores the atrocities unleashed on Israel by Hamas. The educators ignore the hundreds of Israelis still held hostage by Hamas


Jews supporting Hamas? This event actually happened in Toronto!
'When we interviewed the protesters, we found ourselves descending into a vortex of wokeism, Marxism, delusion, and denial. It was astonishing – and disturbing,' said David.

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Woman's Antisemitic Rant Goes Viral
Someone who looks like a City of Westminster staff member, wearing the uniform, attacked a member of the public for confronting a man tearing down missing Gaza hostage posters around what looks like the predominantly Jewish Mill Hill. The woman admits to calling the member of the public a “f***ing Jew“, because “you’re committing genocide“. The response: “I’m in f***ing London…”

The woman went on to say that she herself tears down the hostage posters: “So what, I’ve torn down loads… it’s littering, stapling the trees“. Guido wonders where she got the City of Westminster uniform from…

UPDATE: Westminster City Council has released a statement: “The individual involved in the video running on social media is not, and has never been a Westminster City Council employee. They worked for a subcontractor eight years ago and they have had no connection to the Council. We have notified her former employer. As a Council, we condemn any antisemitism or hatred of any kind“.


‘Dangerous’: Activists link Palestine cause to Invasion Day activism
Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says it’s “dangerous” to link the Palestinian cause to Invasion Day activism.

It comes amid growing calls for the traditional January 26 date for Australia Day to be changed.

“It’s dangerous because it’s incorrect,” Mr Joyce told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“It’s dangerous because it inspires a fight in Australia that is not for us to fight about.

“Linking us to the Palestinian issue is just there so people from the radical left can start inspiring a really nasty fight.”






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