Sunday, February 18, 2024

02/18 Links: Eugene Kontorovich: Let Terror Victims Sue Unrwa; PA PM: We’re ready for unity with Hamas, world needs to forget October 7

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Let Terror Victims Sue Unrwa
The nature of such entities’ complicity with terror groups is different from that of states. International organizations typically don’t sponsor such groups, but they may conspire with or assist terrorists, or simply fail to prevent themselves from being infiltrated and directed by them. The right way to reconcile the principles of FSIA with the International Organizations Immunities Act is to amend the latter to allow suits by Americans against organizations that provide material support to designated terror groups.

A bill written by Sen. Ted Cruz currently being circulated in the Senate would do this. The draft bill would give victims—such as the families of the more than 30 U.S. citizens killed by Hamas on Oct. 7—an opportunity to receive the compensation they deserve. But it would also give U.N. leaders—who seem completely to have buried their heads in the sand about the conduct of their agencies in Gaza—an incentive to provide meaningful oversight and control.

Such a reform would allow the White House to maintain executive control by limiting liability to those organizations that provide support to groups on the official terrorist list. Some will howl that groups like Unrwa also do important humanitarian work, but it isn’t too much to ask of U.N. agencies that they internalize the costs of forming partnerships with designated terror groups and compensate victims.

Some in Congress are now calling to defund Unrwa. That is certainly appropriate, but if that happens, it shouldn’t be the end of the story, especially since it does nothing for American victims. Moreover, defunding by the U.S. isn’t necessarily permanent and other countries can fill the gap. Damage awards, by contrast, present more than a liquidity problem. And if other international organizations provided material support for terrorism, even short of direct participation in attacks, there is no reason they shouldn’t also be forced to pay damages to victims.
Mike Pompeo: What I Saw in Israel Proves Why We Must Support Our Ally’s Righteous Mission To Destroy Hamas
This Administration should worry less about the impression it makes with its radical, progressive base and instead consider what is right and wrong. In one kibbutz Susan and I visited, K’far Aza, 70 terrorists had infiltrated the small community and murdered at least 60 residents. These were not IDF forces or even police units Hamas was attacking; these were innocent families, many with young children and elderly. In Ra’im, Susan and I saw memorials to the hundreds of innocent people slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival and met a survivor of that massacre. In Okafim, we saw a community that managed to fight off waves of Hamas militants with only a small police force and some civilians helping – but not before over 50 innocent Israelis were brutally murdered. To walk through these streets lined with burned out cars and the blackened ruins of what once were the vibrant, colorful homes of thriving families and to walk past makeshift memorials to loved ones who were killed by Hamas simply for being Jewish – to see what these terrorists did on October 7 was to see true evil. Israel now has a righteous mission to eliminate the perpetrators of that evil so that it never happens again, and the Biden Administration should stand beside them – not criticize the Jewish state in an effort to placate its liberal Left base.

Despite the tragedy Susan and I saw across Israel’s south and the trauma felt by so many around the country, we also encountered something else that was truly remarkable: the resilience of the Jewish people. Every Israeli continues to sacrifice and give so much to help their countrymen and women and to defend their nation. In Okafim, Susan and I met with a remarkable Rabbi who has built the initiative "Standing Together" that has provided financial support for the families of victims, hospital visits to wounded soldiers and citizens, packages of essentials and toys to displaced families, Tefillin and other religious articles to soldiers and families, and charitable provisions for soldiers. We spent time with many of the soldiers this initiative has helped: men and women who have put their lives on hold to help defend their country and ensure the unimaginable horrors of October 7 never happen again.

The people we met inspired us. America must continue to support and stand by the people of Israel, not simply because Israel’s continued existence supports America’s security and interests, but because it is the right thing to do. Of primary importance is our continued support and assistance in Israel’s efforts to bring the hostages, of which eight are Americans, held in Gaza back home. Right around the time Susan and I arrived, Israeli forces undertook a successful rescue mission and saved two of those hostages; we should be doing everything we can to help Israel continue this success. Indeed, we should do everything we can to continue to stand with Israel, stand with the Jewish people, and support the resolute victory of Israel in this war against evil.
US envoy: UNRWA funding freeze is permanent
American funding to UNRWA has been stopped for good over its ties to Hamas terrorism, and alternative U.N. agencies are being considered to funnel humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, a top U.S. envoy said Friday.

The unequivocal remarks follow a bombshell Israeli intelligence report, shared with the U.S. administration, which showed that dozens of UNRWA employees actively participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, while 10% of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza are Hamas members.

The revelations prompted about 18 countries, led by the US and Germany, UNRWA’s biggest donors, to suspend funding to the agency totaling $438 million, or more than half this year’s expected funding.

At least in the case of the United States, the suspension is permanent.

“Congress has made clear…that U.S. funding for UNRWA will stop,” said U.S. special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues David Satterfield during an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Friday. “It’s not a suspension. It is a prohibition on providing further funding.”

At the same time, the United States wants UNRWA’s functions of aid delivery and support to Palestinians to continue.

“We are working aggressively as possible with the U.N. family, with U.N. agencies, to see how these key functions can be sustained, as we look at the months ahead,” said Satterfield.

On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant released new revelations of UNRWA malpractice, saying Israeli intelligence had “significant indications” that more than 30 additional agency workers joined the Oct. 7 attack. One video released this weekend showed an UNRWA worker participating in the kidnapping of a body from an Israeli agricultural community near the border with Gaza.


Cabinet measure rejects global recognition of Palestinian state
The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a statement rejecting any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, amid reports the Biden administration is considering such a move.

“In light of remarks that have been heard recently in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally force a Palestinian state on Israel, today I submit for government approval a declarative decision on the issue. I am certain that it will receive very broad support,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

His office subsequently released the text of the statement:
1. Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.
2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would prevent any future peace settlement.

According to Ynet, Netanyahu coordinated the statement with War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz and Cabinet Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Sa’ar said that the reported U.S. proposal for a “firm timeline” on the creation of a Palestinian state “would be like the sacrificing of Czechoslovakia in 1938,” referring to the Munich Agreement and West’s attempted appeasement of Hitler prior to WWII and the Holocaust.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who was foreign minister until last month, told Army Radio that “if the price of expanding [the Abraham Accords] is a Palestinian state, then I’ll give up on the peace agreements.”

He was referring to the 2020 Trump administration-brokered deals that normalized relations between Israel and four Arab countries—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
'Never said that': US has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew dismissed reports about potential US unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, as he underscored that such a future state would be demilitarized.

“We have never said that was our policy,” Lew told the Conference of Presidents when quizzed about the matter on Sunday night.

“Our policy is that there should be an over-the-horizon process” toward Palestinian statehood that involved Israel, said Lew, who took up his post in October and rarely makes public addresses.

Lew stresses 'real possibility' for Saudi peace deal
He advocated for the advancement of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that would include a two-state option.

“Now is a moment in time where there is a real possibility that by engaging with normalization negotiations with Saudi Arabia and engaging in a process of of working to reform, revamp and revitalize the Palestinian Authority, that there could be a demilitarized Palestinian state that lives side by side” with Israel, Lew said.

“If the value of having normalization” with Saudi Arabia is as important as I think it is,” it will force a conversation in Israel about this, Lew said.


PA prime minister: We’re ready for unity with Hamas, world needs to forget October 7
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the PA is still seeking unity with Hamas terror group and may hold talks with the group in Moscow on February 26.

“Russia has invited all Palestinian factions who will be meeting on the 26 of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come to the ground with us,” he says at the Munich Security Conference.

“We are ready to engage. If Hamas is not then that’s a different story. We need Palestinian unity,” he says. He adds that Hamas needs to meet certain prerequisites.

Asked about making common cause with a group that carried out atrocities on October 7, Shtayyeh indicates that the world needs to forget the massacre happened.

“One should not continue focusing on October 7,” he says.

He avoids questions about the PA making reforms sought by the West and indicates PA President Mahmoud Abbas will not transfer power to a deputy.

“It’s not about reform, it’s not about anything,” he says. “It’s about Palestinians wanting an end to occupation.”
PA used $280 million sent by Israel to pay terrorists
Almost one billion shekels ($278 million) in yearly tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) goes towards Ramallah’s “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly salaries to terrorists and their families, legal documents indicated on Sunday.

The information was revealed during a hearing brought by the parents of Dalia Lemkus, who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist at a bus stop near the town of Alon Shvut in Judea almost 10 years ago.

The terrorist, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member from Hebron, was convicted in 2015 to two life sentences, in addition to paying four million shekel ($1.1 million) in compensation to the victims’ relatives.

Lemkus’ parents subsequently took enforcement action against the P.A., the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli Finance Ministry, noting that terrorist Maher al-Hashlamoun receives a monthly “salary” of 12,000 shekel ($3,300) from Ramallah for the murder.

Jerusalem collects 600 to 700 million shekels ($166-194 million) in tax funds on behalf of the P.A. every month under the terms of the Oslo Accords, signed with PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat in the 1990s.

“As it appears from the material submitted to the court and as it has been proven, the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists and their families huge sums every month; probably close to one billion NIS a year,” Israel’s Enforcement and Collection Authority, the agency tasked with implementing court rulings, said on Sunday.

The organization’s decision also confirmed that the “Martyrs’ Fund” is enshrined in P.A. law, granting convicted terrorists or their families a “right” to receive payment from Ramallah.
The United Nations is contemptible. Here's how to fix it
Of the 192 members of the United Nations, the usually reliable human rights watchdog, Freedom House in New York considers that only 84 qualify as democratic countries. In the United Nations Human Rights Council, composed of 47 member states, only 14 of them qualify as democracies. Among those countries forming the non-democratic majority of the Council that ultimately decides human rights positions at the United Nations are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Russia. The idea that those countries have a preeminent influence in determining international human rights policy and monitoring compliance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (of which the principal author was President Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor), is a mockery and an outrage.

Judges of the International Court of Justice are selected by United Nations majorities and are therefore determined by representatives of the regimes that do not accept or purport to approve of the rule of law as it has been traditionally defined in civilized countries governed by political institutions that respect individual liberties and the democratic political process. This is true of those judges now judging Israel in its response to the Hamas invasion and terrorist actions conducted against Israel on Oct. 7. It is an elemental principle of justice that it is only as good as the judges who administer it and in this case and in these circumstances, as the intimate physical integration of the United Nations operations in Gaza with the Hamas subterranean terrorist network indicates, no court whose judges are chosen by the process used at the International Court of Justice is reliable and neither Israel nor any other responsible state should submit in advance to its authority under any circumstances.

Canada, as a founding member of the United Nations and as one of the most important western Allied contributors to victory in the Second World War after only the British and the Americans, and as a country that has never had any imperialist tendency nor waged war other than victoriously and in just causes, is admirably qualified to propose the reform so desperately needed to restore the United Nations as a serious functioning institution worthy of respect. It should become a bicameral chamber, one continuing to be an equal vote for every member, and the other house weighted according to some composite measurement of population and economic strength. The Security Council should be expanded in its permanent membership from five to at least 10 and there should be permanent memberships residing in small regional groups such as a rotating membership between Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, or between Spain, Poland, and Italy, or Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

Objective standards of conduct should be agreed upon again as they were at the founding of the United Nations, and they should be rigorously enforced on the members, suspending the vote of states that have no respect for individual rights and due process. Over the last 20 years there have been 103 resolutions condemning Israel, a functioning democracy with a respected judiciary that has had to endure war disputing its very existence since it was founded as a Jewish state in 1948. In the same time there have been no resolutions criticizing the People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela.

Canada has traditionally paid a great deal of attention to the United Nations and the present government has squandered a lot of money trying unsuccessfully to buy a temporary seat on the Security Council and we have an outstanding ambassador there in Bob Rae. He should be given a mandate to prepare, in consultation with other responsible members, a comprehensive reform of this now thoroughly dysfunctional organization that has become an insult to all civilized countries.
NGO Monitor: German Funding in Light of the October 7 Massacre
On October 7, 2023 (which was the Sabbath and a Jewish holiday), thousands of Palestinian terrorists – members of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), all EU-designated terror entities – poured across the border from Gaza into Israel, slaughtering over 1,100, and torturing, maiming, raping and kidnapping others. Gaza Palestinians also engaged in public desecration of victims’ bodies.

NGOs funded through German development programs (Entwicklungshilfe) with the stated aim to promote “human rights” and “international law” have failed to condemn these blatant violations of human rights and humanitarian principles. In fact, many are doing the exact opposite, justifying and celebrating the attacks in an attempt to legitimize terrorism in general and Hamas in particular by referring to this brutality as acts of “resistance.” Some NGOs have been explicit in defending and supporting terrorism (see the examples below), and senior NGO representatives have spread messages denying Hamas’ atrocities such as the systematic rape of Israeli women.

Like other European governments, Germany suspended aid to Palestinians in mid-October. On December 13, 2023, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced the resumption of development cooperation. According to BMZ, the internal review “has found that the safeguards are robust. No indications of the misuse of funding have been found.”

Similar reviews by the European Commission and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) reached the opposite conclusion, identifying examples of incitement to hatred and violence. Switzerland ended its contractual partnership with two Palestinian NGOs and a US-based group; and the European Commission announced the introduction of new anti-incitement contractual clauses.

Despite media reports that Palestinian NGO Al-Haq “will no longer receive funds from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development,” the German federal government has made no official statements indicating sanctions resulting from the internal review. In general, the German federal government is one of the least transparent in Europe, making it impossible to independently evaluate the scope of funding and amounts directed to the NGO recipients.

Although BMZ’s internal review found no evidence that local partners made “statements that incite to hatred and violence or deny Israel’s right to exist, and antisemitism,” the following report provides tens of examples, all easily verifiable online, from grantee NGOs that openly incite hatred and violence.

This report covers 12 Palestinian NGOs, one US-based group, and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), all of which have been recipients of German government funding originating with BMZ in the last ten years, via multiple funding channels, including German Development Cooperation (GIZ), Germany-funded NGOs, political foundations, and church aid organizations.

Many of the NGOs are linked to the PFLP terror group; some of them were designated by Israel in October 2021 as terror organizations due to these close interconnections. For more information on Germany’s funding of PFLP-linked NGOs, see NGO Monitor’s report, “Potential Abuse of German Development Resources by Terror Affiliated Palestinian NGOs,” January 2023).

The Paris-based FIDH, which also received German governmental funds, is centrally involved in the notorious campaign accusing Israel of “genocide.” Three German-funded NGO members of FIDH, which have links to the PFLP, spearheaded the antisemitic genocide campaign and served as advisers to South Africa in the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).


The True Face of Gaza Before October 7, by Roi Yanovsky



Hamas terrorists posing as doctors arrested in IDF hospital operation
Israeli forces found boxes of medicine belonging to hostages kidnapped by Hamas as well as Hamas terrorists posing as medical staff in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Sunday.

Hundreds of terrorists and suspected terrorists have been arrested from inside the hospital, including terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre.

Inside the hospital, Israeli forces found many weapons, including some hidden in a vehicle used by Hamas terrorists to conduct the massacre. Additionally, a vehicle stolen from Kibbutz Nir Oz was found in the hospital area.

Boxes of medicine with the names of Israeli hostages on them were found in the hospital. The packages were closed and had not been transferred to the hostages, in violation of commitments made by Qatar to Israel.

"The IDF continues to invest all efforts, operational and intelligence, to return the abductees and will not let up until the mission is completed," said the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.


Is the Red Cross really neutral on Israel?
In addition to an official apology the ICRC issued in 2007 for its failure during the Holocaust, in 2015 on the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps, then-ICRC-president Peter Maurer said: “In institutional terms, the ICRC also learned some hard lessons. It had failed to protect civilians, and most notably, the Jews persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime; it had failed to understand the uniqueness and inhumanity by responding to the outrageous with standard procedures; it had looked on helplessly and silently, not really trying – certainly not hard enough – to live up to the principle of humanity.

“The ICRC failed because it drew inexcusably false conclusions from perfectly valid observations. It failed as a humanitarian organization because it had lost its moral compass. This failure has become an intrinsic part of our institutional history.”

In a blog post at the time of the anniversary, the ICRC qualified it as “the greatest failure in the history of the ICRC” and acknowledged its “impotence and the mistakes it made in dealing with Nazi persecution and genocide, lacking decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution.”

“For the ICRC, the most appropriate way to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust is to fight for a world in which the human dignity of every man, woman, and child is respected without any reservations,” added Maurer.

Nevertheless, Darshan-Leitner said ICRC claims of impartiality are nothing more than “to not do anything for Jews.”

“Today they regret it. Today on their website they have a big apology for not visiting Jews in the camps, so now once again they are saying the same thing about [the Gaza hostage situation] being an internal issue.

“I know it is hard to understand, but read my lips: They hate Jews,” said Darshan-Leitner. “I can say that openly. They hate Jews, like the rest of the international organizations. It is a fact; what can you do? You can’t deny it; you can’t be politically correct. You have an international organization doing nothing for the Jews or for the Israelis. It is pure antisemitism.”




UNRWA hiring despite reports of dried-up funding

Urban warfare expert says Israeli military taking unprecedented steps to protect Gaza civilians
One of the top urban warfare experts in the U.S. believes the Israeli military is taking unprecedented measures — above and beyond what most armies do — to avoid harming Palestinian civilians as it battles the Islamist terror group Hamas in Gaza.

He adds that comparisons cannot be drawn between the intensity of the four-month-old war and other recent conflicts.

As Israel gears up for what could be the fiercest and most complicated battle in the Strip’s southernmost city, Rafah, John Spencer, chair of the Urban Warfare Studies Modern War Institute at West Point and an author of multiple books on the subject of urban warfare, told Fox News Digital the "steps that Israel has taken to prevent casualties is historic in comparison to all these other wars."

"Israel has taken more steps to avoid harming civilians than any other military in history," said Spencer, who served for more than 25 years in the U.S. military, reaching the rank of major. He says that such lengths would set a new standard that other Western militaries would struggle to follow in the future.

Israel launched its war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw some 240 people taken hostage, including babies, children, women and the elderly. Since starting its ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, however, Israel’s military has faced sharp criticism as even its close allies, including the U.S., cite a death toll based on Hamas data.

According to figures published daily by the Hamas-run Health Ministry, the number of deaths has surpassed 28,000, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. On Tuesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that at least a third of those killed, some 10,000, were Hamas terrorists, including many of the Iranian-backed group’s commanders.

"What has really blown my mind is that Israel issued maps to the civilians [in Gaza] telling them where they would be operating each day. … I've never seen a military do that"

"Despite the numbers, Israel is setting the bar very high on civilian harm mitigation steps," said Spencer, who is also host of the "Urban Warfare Project" podcast and serves as the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the New York-based Madison Policy Forum.

He outlined how the Israeli military took measures that no other military, including the U.S., has previously taken during war, such as calling and texting individuals to warn them of a forthcoming air strike and sharing maps with plans for military maneuvers in certain areas.

"We’ve never called everybody in a war environment. We’ve never actually sat down thousands of soldiers in call centers and had them call into the combat area trying to reach imams and mayors in an effort to get everybody get out of harm's way," noted Spencer.


Gantz: IDF will enter Rafah unless hostages returned before Ramadan
If the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not freed before Ramadan, which starts in approximately three weeks, the Israel Defense Forces campaign against the terror group will continue, including in Rafah, War Cabinet member Benny Gantz pledged on Sunday.

“I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages, and this way, the citizens of Gaza can celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan,” Gantz told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at their annual gathering in Jerusalem.

An Israeli triumph over Hamas consists of four elements, the former IDF chief of staff told attendees: military victory, returning the hostages, replacing Gaza’s terror rulers through a diplomatic settlement and restoring the Jewish state’s national resilience.

“Let me be clear; we are operating in Gaza not out of revenge for Oct. 7 but out of a clear conviction to secure our future—the future of Israel’s next generations. We will continue fighting, in any scenario, until we achieve our goals,” Gantz emphasized.

There are still 134 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity, 32 of whom are confirmed dead. Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and wounded thousands more during the terror group’s Oct. 7 murder spree in the northwestern Negev.

Two Israeli hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, were rescued in a daring military operation in Rafah on Feb. 11.

On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that those urging Jerusalem to forgo an operation in Rafah were effectively calling for the Jewish state to lose the war.


Seth Frantzman: Trailblazers: IDF’s engineers transform the North
The problem the North has faced since October 7 is preparing the area for a conflict. That means that the engineers have had to go to work on a variety of tasks.

One is to build berms and protective areas for tanks, artillery, and other units based in the North. Another is to build new routes to communities, and new routes for infantry and vehicles. These routes might allow soldiers or civilians to approach the border and not be easy targets for the enemy, but they can also serve as routes to evacuate people in case of war.

The unit works closely with the local communities and regional council, as well as the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). This is important because in many cases, the engineers were doing work on paths and dirt roads that may have existed in the past but needed clearing and maintaining.

Since October 8 they have built hundreds of routes, such as clearing temporary roads in various places. Some are for four-wheel drive vehicles or tanks, which have treads. Others are for private cars. It’s worth noting that tanks don’t like to drive on roads; their treads prefer dirt tracks. So making an asphalt road for civilian traffic to access a community is different than renovating a path for tanks.

The North is divided into sectors with different engineering units for each. “We all came for one purpose: to make this place as safe as possible for the civilians. That is something that is amazing about the reservists,” said the officer. The reservists are closely connected to the communities here; some of them have family from the area. They understand the needs of the people. They’ve been working around the clock to help communities such as Hanita, Shlomi, Matat, and Shtula.

Shtula, for instance, is located facing Lebanon, and often Hezbollah positions can be seen from there. The community, whose original residents were mostly Kurdish Jews, has often been targeted by anti-tank missile fire and rockets. Even though many people have been evacuated, residents continue to go to these areas to work security or deal with agriculture and animals that were left behind. Some communities have chicken coops, for instance, and someone needs to deal with cows, chickens, and beasts of burden that may be up there in the fog.


Israeli flight from Thailand faced attack by 'hostile elements' - report
"Hostile elements" attempted to take over the communication network of an El Al plane flying from Phuket to Ben-Gurion Airport on Saturday night and divert it from its destination, KAN Reshet Bet reported on Sunday. The plane reached its destination safely.

This is the second time such an incident has occurred in the past week, according to the report.

The incident took place over an area where the Iran-backed Houthis are active, although sources in Somalia told KAN that a group in the de-facto state Somaliland, which recently signed an agreement with Ethiopia, is responsible for the attempted attack.

Crew noticed the attack and thwarted it
During the incident, instructions were given to the crew that were different from their set route, raising concerns that someone was trying to damage the plane or lead it to dangerous areas, maybe even to conduct a kidnapping.

The crew disobeyed the instructions and quickly switched to alternative means of communication while also checking the data against other air traffic controllers and realizing that they were being misled.

A source in El Al told Walla that "in Somalia, there have been communication interruptions all week, not only for El Al planes, and the official authorities have issued instructions to all pilots that as soon as this happens with a certain frequency, not to listen to the instructions and to switch to another communication method."

The source told Walla that the hostile elements contacted El Al pilots twice: once on the flight between Phuket and Ben-Gurion and once on a flight to Bangkok.

"Our pilots are instructed on how to deal with this incident, such as the problematic frequency, and how to handle the flight professionally when it happens," explained the source.


Mosab Hassan Yousef: In the heart of Israel - A Journey of Defiance and Truth
In an unprecedented and raw interview, Mosab Hassan Yousef - known as the Son of Hamas - shares his compelling journey from the heart of Hamas to standing with the IDF in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. Witness the transformation of a man who once lived in the shadows of a terrorist organization to becoming a beacon of truth and freedom.

🔥 "After October 7, there was no way in honor to stand with anyone but the people," declares Mosab, as he recounts the life-altering impact of the massacre footage and his decision to publicly renounce Hamas and its sick ideology. This powerful narrative sheds light on the brutal reality of Hamas's brutality, the ideology that fuels it, and the urgent need for its demise.

✊ Mosab's candid reflections expose the deep-seated issues within Palestinian society, including the complicity with Hamas, and offer a rare glimpse into the mind of someone who has dared to think differently. From witnessing firsthand the torture and murder within Hamas prisons to condemning the genocide committed on October 7, Mosab speaks without restraint, advocating for the end of Hamas and the liberation of innocent lives from terror.


Hezbollah’s narrative on Al-Aqsa Flood: Tailored to appeal to specific Western sensibilities
Both domestically and in certain circles abroad, the Resistance Axis and its narrative are capable of attracting support due to their ability to manipulate the reasons behind the casualty count lopsided in Israel’s favor, and to frame themselves – with their relatively primitive means of warfare – as fighting an unstoppable Israeli juggernaut. Thus, every Israeli military action is labeled ‘udwan (aggression). Israel, they say, never acts in self-defense. That is only an excuse for the Jewish state to act on its inherently rapacious and aggressive intentions, its raison d’etre to wantonly shed Arab blood and steal Arab land. In his speeches since the onset for the war, for example, Nasrallah said the Palestinian body count in the current war only served as a reminder of “the barbaric…true nature of this Entity.”

The horrors of Oct. 7, documented by the assailants themselves, risked puncturing that narrative – albeit only among the morally-inclined. It gave unprecedented international imprimatur to the Israel Defense Forces to eliminate Hamas, the same way the world had rallied behind the United States’ mission to defeat Al-Qaeda after 9/11, or the global campaign to destroy ISIS. But were Israel to accomplish that goal, Hezbollah and Iran would lose the immeasurably valuable asset into which they had transformed Gaza since the 2005 Israeli Disengagement. If Israel couldn’t be stopped militarily, then appeals had to be made to world opinion to argue that Israel’s war is unjust at its core – hence the attempt to deny any of the atrocities committed by Hamas and to argue that the organizations actions on Oct. 7 were resistance activities aimed at military targets – including false attributions to Haaretz and Yediot Ahronoth of stories that “hundreds” of the Israeli victims were actually killed by Israeli forces themselves. This element of the narrative in particular reinforces both the Resistance Axis’ claim of the unjustness of Israel’s war and its claims about Israel’s inherently bloodthirsty and barbaric nature.

But this element of the narrative aims to obscure reality, and there’s a sleight of hand at play: the Resistance Axis does not recognize the concept of an Israeli civilian. Hamas, which has been trying to undo the damage to its image wrought by its October 7 rampage, has a history replete with suicide bombings and other attacks that deliberately target civilians. Hezbollah too has no qualms about harming Israeli civilians.

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a scholar sympathetic to Hezbollah, wrote in her 2002 book on the organization – Hizbu’llah: Politics and Religion – that as part of its commitment to denying Israel’s legitimacy or right to exist and commitment to destroying Israel, Hezbollah also does not recognize the existence of Israeli civilians as such and views attacks against them as legitimate. The concept of an Israeli civilian, let alone an innocent one, is anathema to the organization. “… We place quotation marks around ‘[Israeli] civilians’ because the entire [Zionist] entity is an occupier, these are occupiers…” Nasrallah recently stressed. “There is not a single innocent Jew in Palestine now,” Ghorayeb quotes longtime Hezbollah official Hussein Al-Mousawi as saying. Insofar as it views the Israeli state and Israeli society – collectively and as individuals – as identical, and identical existential threats to Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, both must be liquidated.

“There is no possibility of dialogue or reconciliation with Israeli society as there is with Western society,” writes Ghorayeb, and states that Hezbollah views violence against Israeli civilians as a legitimate means to achieving its stated desire to liberate Palestine “from the river to the sea.” In his own book, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General and most articulate communicator of the group’s ideology, justifies attacking Israeli civilians as a means of eroding Israel’s national will and international legitimacy. Chillingly, according to Ghorayeb, this legitimization of attacks against Israeli civilians extends to Israeli children – enjoined by no less an authority than sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, the chairman of Hezbollah’s Judicial Council, the body tasked with determining religiously permissible actions.
Part II – Hezbollah’s narrative on Al-Aqsa Flood: Tailored to appeal to specific Western sensibilities
It seems perplexing then, for Hezbollah to be appealing to the ICC. However, when convenient, Hezbollah and the rest of the Resistance Axis will not make appeals to “human rights” and “international legitimacy [al-shar’iyya al-duwaliyya],” – and this instance is no different.

Hezbollah and its partners have adopted a goal – mentioned above – to stop the Israeli war effort in Gaza. Their goal, stated by Nasrallah, is that “the Palestinian resistance, specifically Hamas, be victorious in Gaza…” But, their bombast aside, Hezbollah recognize the Israel Defense Force’s military superiority, and the very real likelihood that – left to its devices – the IDF will defeat Hamas and its partners. So they have adopted a strategy of concentric circles that mixes both psychological and kinetic elements to halt the IDF’s advance.

The innermost circle is kinetic pressure on the IDF itself, carried out by Hamas and its partners. The second circle leans on the fact that Israel is a democracy, where the military answers to the political echelon – which, in turn, is answerable to the electorate. Here is where the Gazan terrorist organizations are using the hostages, to try to induce the Israeli public to call for a ceasefire. In part, this second tier of this strategy also relied upon making the Israeli Home Front feel unsafe through continued rocket attacks. While those have largely abated from Gaza, Hezbollah has picked up the slack by rocketing the north and displacing an additional 80,000 citizens. The third circle involves pressure and attacks on the United States, raising the stakes for Washington for Israel’s continued war effort – which can then, in turn, theoretically bring Israel to heel by direct pressure, halting weapons resupplies, or allowing a UN Security Council-sponsored ceasefire to go into effect. Failing that, the final circle involves pressure on and from the international community. This is where Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping come into play, as well as legal pressure.

Taking Israel to court over exercising self-defense has the benefit of delegitimizing the very concept of Israel exercising force in self-defense. This goal is accomplished by putting Israel or its actions on trial. To that end, commenting on the ICJ case, Nasrallah said, “the outcome is irrelevant,” saying what was important was “the sight of the Enemy Entity as a defendant in front of the sight of the entire world, having a list of legal accusations presented against it based on truths and damning evidence.” In effect, Israel will be condemned in the court of public opinion by the very fact of – say – being accused of genocide, irrespective of a complicated legal argument or outcome which most won’t bother to read. This, too, increases pressure on Israel to adopt an immediate ceasefire. Hampering Israel’s very ability to exercise force in self-defenses also furthers Hezbollah’s stated goal of destroying Israel in phases, by preventing it from responding to or silencing the Resistance Axis’ unyielding assaults and the threats they pose to its citizens.
Part III – Hezbollah’s narrative on Al-Aqsa Flood: Tailored to appeal to specific Western sensibilities
This part of the narrative is meant to sanitize Hamas and its ideology, and make it particularly palatable to Western audiences who abhor systemically discriminatory systems, fear democracies, and – on some level – find antisemitism distasteful. But such a position is belied by their own words.

Even a cursory reading of Hamas’ Charter demonstrates its staunch anti-Judaism stance. It frames its struggle as being “against the Jews,” and calls “Israel, Jews, and Judaism” a “challenge to Islam and the Moslem people.” The group also says that it “aspires to the realization of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take, that ‘The Day of Judgment will not come until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O [Servant of God], there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…” In other words, Hamas views it as part of its current mission to bring into effect one of the more distasteful elements of classical Islamic eschatology.

As for Hezbollah, its leadership routinely disparages Israel in terms reserved in classical Islam for Jews. Nasrallah, for example, routinely refers to Israelis as “killers of the prophets” – an accusation made by classical Islamic sources against the Jews. Hezbollah’s description of Israelis as inherently cowardly also stems from anti-Jewish stereotypes in classical Islamic sources.

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, in her aforementioned book, devotes an entire chapter to demonstrating that Hezbollah abhors “Judaism as a religion, irrespective of its Zionist offshoot,” and that that “its strong aversion to Judaism is unrelated to its abomination of Zionism, and hence exists irrespective of the existence of Zionism,” but exists because, “according to Hizbu’llah…from time immemorial Jews have continuously demonstrated their quintissentially evil nature…”

In an Oct. 2002 speech, Nasrallah confirmed this understanding, and even expressed (33:53-34:32) what can only be described as Hezbollah’s genocidal aspirations towards Jews – based on the same hadith as the Hamas Charter. “In Islamic prophecies, and not just in Jewish prophecies, [Israel] must arise – and Jews gathered from all corners from the world to Occupied Palestine. Not so their false Messiah can rule the world. Instead, God Almighty wants to spare you pursuing them [lit. going to them] in all corners of the world – so they will congregate in one place…[and] the decisive and final battle will occur. And yes, history is ordered to flow in this direction.”


Scott Morrison tells rally that pro-Palestine demonstrations reveal the 'dark heart of anti-Semitism'
Scott Morrison has told a rally of about 10,000 people that some Palestinian supporters chanting phrases like 'from the river to the sea' are 'ignorant' of the meaning of those words and are being anti-Semitic.

Speaking at Sydney's Never Again is Now rally in The Domain on Sunday, the former prime minister suggested there had been instances of anti-Semitism in Australia rather than support for Israel following the attack from Hamas on October 7.

'Instead of support, we have seen those living under the freedom of democracy in this country calling for the extinction of the State of Israel from the river to the sea,' he said.

Mr Morrison drew cheers as he said people were 'ignorant of the real meaning of those words', and of the 'violent and anti-Semitic nature of those statements'.

'Our presence here today is to bear witness to these acts of anti-Semitism, and call them out and express solidarity with Jewish people across Australia and around the world,' Mr Morrison said.

'To remove the cloak of sentiment, self-declared respectability and asserted moral superiority, and reveal the dark heart of anti-Semitism that continues to linger below the surface, both here in Australia and elsewhere.'


New York governor sorry for suggesting Israel would be justified in wiping out Gaza
New York Governor Kathy Hochul apologized for remarks she made at a Jewish philanthropy event in New York City that went viral on social media and which suggested Israel had justification to destroy Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror attack.

“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a portion of her speech on Thursday at an event for the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York. “That is a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”

On October 7, Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel. Thousands of terrorists burst through the border with the Gaza Strip and rampaged murderously through southern Israel, slaughtering those they found, and perpetrating wholesale atrocities, including multiple gang rape, torture and mutilation. The killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages.

Israel responded to the attack with a military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in Gaza and release the hostages.

On Friday, in a statement cited by The New York Times, Hochul said she regrets her “inappropriate analogy” and apologized for her “poor choice of words.”

“While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense, I have also repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided and that more humanitarian aid must go to the people of Gaza,” she said in the statement.
Netanyahu slams Brazil’s president for likening Hamas war to Holocaust
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed Brazil's president for comparing the Israel Defense Forces' operation against Hamas in Gaza to the Nazis' mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust, saying Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's remark "crosses a red line."

"The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming. This is about trivialising the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself," Netanyahu's office said.

"Israel fights for its defense and securing its future until complete victory and it does so while upholding international law," the premier stated, adding that he consulted with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and decided to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a "stern reprimand."

Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the 37th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, earlier on Sunday, Lula claimed that "what's happening in the Gaza Strip isn't a war, it's a genocide.

"What's happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn't happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews," added the far-left president.

The Brazilian envoy has been called to the foreign ministry in Jerusalem for a reprimand on Monday, Katz tweeted on Sunday afternoon, vowing to let "no one" harm the Jewish state's right to self-defense.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Lula "supports a genocidal terrorist organization—Hamas—and in doing so brings great shame to his people, and violates the values of the free world."


Palestinians carjack far-left activist’s vehicle in Jordan Valley
A far-left Israeli activist was robbed of her car by Palestinians in the Jordan Valley.

Hagar Gefen, 71, had traveled to the Jordan Valley with the “Looking the Occupation in the Eye” group on Saturday to “protect” Arab shepherds from purported “settler violence” in the area, the Ynet news site reported on Sunday.

On her way back from the pro-Palestinian protest, Gefen stopped at the Petsa’el Junction on Route 90, near the Israeli community of Ma’ale Efraim. A group of Arabs appeared, violently pulling her out of her vehicle before taking off in the direction of Nablus in central Samaria.

Security personnel arrived at the scene and opened an investigation, Israel’s Channel 14 News reported, noting that the left-wing activist refused to file a police report regarding the carjacking.

Video footage of the incident went viral on social media.


Egyptian FM blasts Hamas, declares it 'outside of Palestinian
Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry sharply criticized Hamas on Saturday, saying that "the organization is outside the Palestinian consensus, which recognizes Israel and wants to reach negotiations with it, because [Hamas] is not ready to give up its support for violence."

Shoukry made these comments at a press conference held at the Munich Security Conference. He also said that "we must give an account of how Hamas gained power in the Gaza Strip, and why it received financial support to increase the division between it and the other peacekeeping Palestinian factions – whether these are the Palestinian Authority, the PLO or the Palestinian public itself."

Referring to a possible IDF operation in Rafah and to the report that Egypt is building a buffer zone on its border where it could take in Palestinian refugees, the Egyptian minister said: "We have no intention of providing safe areas for the Palestinians, but if necessary, we will deal with it with the necessary humanity."

In parallel, North Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shosha emphasized that the Egyptian army established the buffer zone to receive humanitarian aid for the residents of the Strip.

Egypt reportedly setting up area for Palestinians in Sinai
Last week, it was reported that Egypt began building an eight kilometer deep buffer zone on the border with the Gaza Strip, and that the Egyptian army advanced soldiers and armored vehicles toward its border out of fear of an influx of Palestinian refugees into Sinai.

According to the report, it is possible that Egypt will allow a limited entrance of no more than 60,000 people, Egyptian officials said.

However, Shosha denied the reports of the construction of a refugee camp in the Sinai territory. Palestinians who enter the closed territory will not be allowed to leave unless their destination is another country, Egyptian officials said, outlining contingency plans discussed in Cairo.


Brooklyn pol appears at anti-Israel event sponsored by group being probed for supporting Hamas
Socialist Brooklyn Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher attended an anti-Israel phone bank sponsored by a group whose leaders have espoused vile antisemitic rhetoric and is under investigation by Virginia’s attorney general for potentially funding terrorists.

On Tuesday, Gallagher spoke at the online event organized by local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America, and “guest sponsored” by the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine.

The group’s parent body is being probed in Virginia for allegedly fundraising for Hamas.

“It’s painful to watch this war continue and it’s painful to feel solidarity with people who are struggling so much right now, but we cannot stop,” Gallagher, who represents Williamsburg, home to a large Hasidic Jewish population, said on the Zoom call Tuesday.

Former Brooklyn City Councilman David Greenfield, who runs the Met Council, the Big Apple’s largest Jewish charity, blasted the radical pol for her appearance.

“It’s shocking that Emily Gallagher, who represents one of the largest Jewish communities in America, would partner with people that are known for spreading actual blood libels about Jews,” Greenfield told The Post.

AMP’s national leaders have repeatedly demonstrated hatred for the Jewish people and Israel over the years.

The group’s chair and founder, Hatem Bazian, previously shared a cartoon featuring an Orthodox Jew with the caption “I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians” and has on several occasions pushed the claim that Israel harvests people’s organs.
The sinister transformation of Greta Thunberg
This green alliance extends beyond France. Just Stop Oil protestors are among the protestors marching through London each Saturday in the Palestinian cause, as are Extinction Rebellion (XR). They released a rambling statement a month after the Hamas attack, in which they demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, and blamed the conflict on Britain: ‘The climate and ecological emergency has roots in centuries of colonial violence, exploitation and oppression – for which the UK bears a disproportionate share of responsibility.’

XR have expressed their ‘solidarity’ with the climate activists who, along with the Free Palestine Coalition, occupied the British Museum at the weekend. They did so to ‘demand that the British Museum end its ten-year partnership with British Petroleum, an energy company profiting from Israel’s colonial genocide’.

British environmental groups target any company and any individual who they regard as pro-Israeli, including government ministers. In November Michael Gove had to be rescued by police after he was confronted by protestors in Victoria station.

In 2019 Gove, then Energy Secretary, listened with rapt attention when Greta Thunberg addressed MPs in Westminster. She excoriated Britain for giving the world the Industrial Revolution, what the Swede described as a ‘mind-blowing historical carbon debt’. Thunberg also snarled that the government’s support of shale gas fracking and the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields was ‘beyond absurd’.

Thunberg received a thunderous ovation at the end of her tirade. ‘Your voice – still, calm and clear – is like the voice of our conscience,’ Gove told the 16-year-old. ‘I am of your parents’ generation, and I recognise that we haven’t done nearly enough to address climate change and the broader environmental crisis that we helped to create… When I listened to you, I felt great admiration, but also responsibility and guilt.’

Does Gove still admire Thunberg in the light of her recent position on Israel? Does he still feel a responsibility to act given that environmentalists are becoming increasingly violent, what Gerald Darmanin has labelled ‘eco-terrorism’?
Anti-Israel activists push over Australian man at Adelaide demonstrations
Activists clad in Palestinian keffiyehs and flags pushed over an Australian man during a heated confrontation at an Adelaide protest on Sunday.

The protesters allegedly became irate when the passerby began to film the rally with his phone as he tried to get past the march.

Two men pushed the man to the ground in front of the Scots Church Adelaide and across the Adelaide Business School.

Police intervention and response
The police intervened and separated the man from the march by sitting him down on the steps of the church. An eyewitness said that the police took no action against the assailants. The South Australia Police did not immediately reply to the inquiry.

The march was reportedly part of a series of Sunday marches organized by the Australian Friends of Palestine Association and Students for Palestine.

At the protest, activists called for the freeing of “Palestine, from the river to the sea.” In addition to Palestinian flags, South African and Yemeni flags can also be seen. Yemen’s Houthi movement, an Iranian proxy, has been participating in the conflict by engaging in maritime terrorism against cargo vessels passing their coast.

The assault follows another aggressive incident by pro-Palestinian activists on Thursday at the University of Sydney.

Three women grabbed an Israeli flag hanging at the Australasian Union of Jewish Students orientation week stall and threw it into the garbage bin. The incident was reported to campus security.


Doctor who led Israel protests could damage faith in profession, admits medical regulator
The medical regulator has admitted that a doctor who is still free to see patients, despite leading an Islamist group until its ban last month, could damage public faith in the profession.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has launched an investigation into Dr Wahid Shaida after he led protests featuring calls for “jihad” against Israel, The Telegraph can reveal.

Dr Shaida was formerly leader of the UK branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) until its proscription as a terrorist organisation last month.

The GMC admitted that his freedom to continue practising “does raise potential fitness to practise concerns” and “may affect the public’s perception of the medical profession as a whole”.

Dr Shaida, who, using the name Abdul Wahid, chaired HT Britain before its ban by the Government, was until recently a GP with Harrow-based practice GP Direct, in north-west London.

He has already been suspended by NHS England, but remains registered with the GMC meaning he could still practise privately. He is no longer listed on his GP surgery’s website. ‘Extremist comments’

Among those raising concerns about Dr Shaida was the National Secular Society (NSS), which complained to the GMC that he had made “extremist comments” appearing to condone the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel.

The group said that in a YouTube interview, which has since been removed, Dr Shaida described the attack as giving “the enemy a punch on the nose, all right, and it’s a very welcome punch on the nose”.

Dr Shaida addressed a rally outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in London shortly after the attacks during which he told the crowd: “Victory is coming and everyone has to choose a side. Whose side are you going to be on?”

A video clip showed people in the crowd chanting “Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!” after the speeches. The Met found no offences were identified in the clip.


'Don't eat murder burgers': Conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn is filmed ranting outside McDonald's calling for boycott on fast-food joint for 'giving free food to Israeli Army'
Conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn has called for Brits to boycott McDonald's for 'giving free food' to the Israeli Army, branding the fast-food products 'murder burgers'.

The elder brother of the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was filmed outside a McDonald's restaurant in London as he ranted through a megaphone, telling passersby: 'McDonald's gives free food to the Israeli Army. That is why we are here.'

The 76-year-old anti-vaccine activist was flanked by two other demonstrators, holding up signs that read 'Free Palestine' and 'Boycott McDonald's! Do not eat murder burgers'.

McDonald's triggered huge backlash after the franchise decided to hand out thousands of free meals last October to IDF troops during the the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Pro-Palestine protests have swept the world, with major western chains including McDonald's and Starbucks targeted by activists over their perceived pro-Israeli stance and alleged financial ties to Israel.


Rise in Anti-Semitism Related to the Proliferation of DEI Doctrine
Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital is now receiving increased police protection following a pro-Palestinian protest held outside its doors on Feb. 12. It was reported that protesters blocked access—an offence under the Criminal Code—and chanted in support of the terrorist group Hamas.

Organizers of the protest have denied that Mount Sinai was targeted because of its links to Toronto’s Jewish community (it was founded by the city’s Jews when Jewish doctors were facing public discrimination). However, that claim has been met with skepticism.

Even Justin Trudeau, who tends to “not see” abuses that fall outside of his ideological lens (think burning churches), publicly condemned the protest as clear evidence of hate against Jews.

The intimidation witnessed at Mount Sinai Hospital is part of larger rise in the targeting of Jewish-run organizations and businesses by lone wolves and angry mobs. Taking into account individual cases, Toronto Police report that in 2023 antisemitic hate crimes more than doubled from 2022.

What’s flagged as precipitating the growing anti-Jewish action and rhetoric is Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in which Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 of its civilians and kidnapped 240 more. In an effort to retrieve the hostages, Israel’s military routinely pounds Hamas strongholds in the Palestinian territories, leading to casualties.

Some feel Israel’s response lacks proportionality. Their anger against Israel is thus transferred onto individual Jews leading to a general rise in anti-Semitism.

That explanation holds to a degree.

However, I think if you truly want to understand the growing anti-Semitism in Canada today, you have to look beyond an abrupt geopolitical event in the Middle East to an ongoing ideological project now deeply rooted in all institutions of the West.

That is, I believe there is a connection between rising Jew-hatred in Canada (and the United States) and the proliferation of diversity, equity, and inclusion material and training in our education system, corporations, and government.

I can back up my claim. I just authored a research report that provides ample evidence that DEI instruction, while doing nothing positive, can plant the seed from which hatred and discrimination—including anti-Semitism—can can grow.
The torment of British Jews
The fact that the pro-Palestinian marches started before Israel actually retaliated was a big tell; these people weren’t marching against Israel defending itself, but in favour of Israel being attacked. Unless they all had access to a big old time-travel machine, of course.

Another component of anti-Semitism is envy; those with little to be proud of – be they the groomers of Rochdale or the spoilt scions of the ruling class – suddenly have the chance to feel special. Too afraid to take on the actual ruling classes – indeed, many of the pro-Palestine youth belong to that class, and I’m sure they’ll be availing themselves of their inheritances when the time comes – they have found in the Jews a handy group of proxies to torment, a group with very little history of violence or fighting back. (Until, pushed to the limit, they do, when the inevitable cries of ‘overreaction!’ occur.) The recent events at the Soho Theatre – not a place you’d generally expect to see Jews driven out by a baying mob – proved that this fashionable anti-Semitism is attractive to all sections of society. All they need in common is to be grudging and mediocre. And there are such a lot of them. The latest figures on anti-Semitism are the highest since records began 40 years ago. For the first time, which seems particularly sinister, CST recorded at least one incident in every police region in the UK, which means that anti-Semitism now exists in regions even where there are next to no Jews. That’s when it stops being ‘personal’ and becomes a political belief. We know what comes next.

Of course, the half-wits having such a good time tormenting British Jews are doing exactly what you’d think they didn’t want to happen: encouraging Jews to migrate back to their ancestral homeland. This has always been a hard one for the mouth-breathers of anti-Zionism to get their heads around, hence the observation of Amos Oz that ‘When my father was a young man in Vilna, every wall in Europe said, “Jews go home to Palestine.” Fifty years later, when he went back to Europe on a visit, the walls all screamed, “Jews get out of Palestine.”’

It’s interesting to compare the reaction of the British left to Israel with the state of Pakistan, founded a year before. ‘The Land of The Pure’ – to give it its Urdu name – is given a remarkably free ride. The inability of its founders to countenance living in a multi-religious nation caused the loss of immeasurable lives; their current persecution of Christians borders on the frenzied, while women live what can barely be described as ‘lives’ as we understand the word, with Pakistan ranking at 145 out of 146 countries on the Global Gender Gap Report 2022. (Only Afghanistan is lower!) Yet I see no concerned crowds marching in the street about the human rights abuses of millions of Pakistani people. No Jews, no news – no Jews, no abuse.

Looking back, I was unrealistic to believe that it couldn’t happen here; these islands certainly saw enough persecution of the Jews in ancient times. But I thought we’d left those times behind us. Now a new Medieval mob now stalks our streets, looking for the Jews. ‘Our ancestors didn’t fight and die for British Jews to be told to hide their Star of David in the street, for Rabbis to be chased into hiding. Nor did they fight and die for a country that arrests Christians silently praying or preaching in the street. We are betraying them’ wrote Emma Webb of the Free Speech Union recently.
Stephen Daisley: Britain’s Jews aren’t safe
‘The speed at which antisemites mobilised in the UK following Hamas’ attack shows that, initially at least, the significant increase in anti-Jewish hate was, if anything, a celebration of Hamas’ massacre by people whose own hatred was emboldened and, in their minds, legitimised by the brutality enacted on civilians in southern Israel.’

The CST has been producing annual statistics on antisemitism in the UK since 1984. Its methodology is rigorous, relying on a narrower, evidence-based definition of antisemitic incidents than the ‘perceived by the victim or any other person’ standard used by the police. CST figures don’t include the general activities of antisemitic organisations and nor does the organisation trawl social media for abusive comments. It limits itself to reports received from victims or witnesses where evidence of antisemitic motivation can be found. Research shows that only 21 per cent of British Jews report incidents to police or other organisations, so while the CST’s data is gold standard it captures only a portion of the antisemitism faced by Jews in the UK.

There is no glossing over things; the outlook is bleak. The report confirms antisemitism as a grave and growing problem in this country. The targeting of British Jews during Israeli military operations in Gaza, something seen in 2014 and 2009, has been joined by another disturbing phenomenon: attacks on Israeli Jews inspiring antisemitism against British Jews. Especially troubling are incidents involving schools, synagogues, businesses and those in religious garb. These confirm that outward signs of Jewishness act as a target. Inevitably, some Jews will become wary, as some already are, of being visibly Jewish in public. That British citizens are even having to think in these terms is abhorrent but it is the country we now find ourselves with.

The CST notes that none of the incidents documented last year were designated as ‘extreme violence’, which refers to stabbing, shooting, kidnapping, bombing or arson at an inhabited property. I don’t wish to be a Cassandra, nor do I say this lightly, but the risk of extreme violence in the short to medium term has to be considered heightened. Not only because of the trends identified in this report but because this is a country where an MP was murdered partly over his membership of Conservative Friends of Israel while another has just been intimidated into standing down over his pro-Israel views. I hope and pray that I’m wrong but I fear an extreme incident is only a matter of time.

Which leaves us with a question: do we want to be this sort of country? A country where Jews are pelted with bricks and beaten with bars, where Jewish children are targeted on their way to school, where synagogues and even cemeteries are desecrated. I don’t want us to be this sort of country. One of the most admirable qualities of the British is their tolerance of even the most obnoxious ideologies. We need to become much less tolerant – hotly intolerant, in fact – when it comes to antisemitism.
Government must be ‘faster and bolder’ in tackling anti-Semitism, warns extremism tsar
The Government could “go faster and be bolder” in tackling anti-Semitism, Britain’s counter extremism tsar has said.

Robin Simcox, the UK’s Commissioner for Countering Extremism, said there had been “caution” and “timidity” from the Government in using its powers to crack down on extremists.

He said that he also believed that “things are getting worse” in terms of the prevalence of extremism in the UK over the past three years.

It comes as figures from the Community Security Trust in February revealed that reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK reached a record high in 2023.

Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about the Government’s handling of anti-Semitism, Mr Simcox said: “I think that the Government has done a lot, rhetorically I think the Prime Minister has been very good and they’ve made steps like giving more money to the Community Security Trust, the anti-BDS Bill, some of the legislation around protests, but I do think there’s a chance to go further, to go faster and be bolder.”

He added: “Sometimes we think about the legislative question, and there is obviously a question around the glorification of terrorism, which is ongoing and whether it’s currently in the right place, but also using powers we already have.”


Anti-Zionist Jews are fringe voices – it’s time we ignore them
Get two Jews in a room, get three opinions. True of most things, but one thing most Jews agree on is that Israel is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people and that their connection to it is a core tenet of their Jewish identity. Despite this majoritarian view, there is a loud minority of radical anti-Israel Jewish voices. Although unrepresentative of the broad Jewish community, our detractors and the media weaponize them, turning them into “token Jews” used to attack Israel and sow division within the Jewish community. It’s time we ignore them.

From the Soviet Union to the Arab League Boycott, from the Iranian Revolution to October 7th and anti-Israel protests today, antisemites attempt to hide their anti-Jewish bigotry behind politically acceptable “anti-Zionism”. Jews who support this charade willingly provide political cover for this generation’s loudest and proudest antisemites.

The normalization of anti-Zionist Jews in public life has three glaring issues:

1. Israel-hatred doesn’t exempt you from the Jewish collective future
Jewish life in the diaspora is directly dependent on the continued survival and flourishing of the Jewish state. Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and If Not Now (INN), deploy and weaponize their Jewish identity in their anti-Israel activism. The effect? The re-assurance of non-Jewish groups that anyone can target Israel without fear of alienating the “Jewish community”. JVP and INN are a collection of radical left, mostly Jewish ideologues who use their ancestry to leverage attacks against Israel. They cite Jewish ritual, reference texts, and use our people’s language to validate their radical attacks against the homeland of the Jewish people, the state of Israel.

What they fail to realize is that their misplaced activism allows virulent antisemites to turn them into useful idiots. They’re ephemeral political fronts weaponized by antisemites until they no longer serve their purpose. Antisemites hate all Jews – “good Jews” or “bad Jews”, those from the right and from the left alike. So, if Israel ceases to exist, as JVP and INN desire, where will these Jews turn when antisemites inevitably turn on them? By normalizing and validating the progressive movement’s exclusion of Zionist Jews (most Jews) they are essentially digging their own graves.

JVP and INN should forever be contextualized properly and referred to for what they are – useful jesters for Jew haters around the globe. And once contextualized, they should be ignored.


Socialist Sunday school accused of making ‘anti-Israel propaganda’ magazine with children
A “socialist Sunday school” in Scotland has been accused of producing an anti-Israel magazine featuring the controversial “from the river to the sea” slogan.

The magazine from the Red Sunday School in Glasgow argues that it is impossible to be “neutral” on the subject of Palestine because this means “siding with the oppressor”.

The Red Sunday School is a voluntary organisation that describes itself as a “space for children and young people to think for themselves, play with freedom, question the world around them and change it”.

Meeting monthly, the school’s website says it is “organised on the principles of socialism and solidarity” and “encourages active participation in the great struggles of our day: anti-racism, the climate crisis, feminism and the revolutionary transformation of capitalism”.

It is run by a group of “activists, educators, parents, carers and cultural workers” and takes inspiration from the Socialist Sunday School movement which developed in Glasgow in the late 19th century.

In October, it produced a self-published “zine” which it claimed was “by the children of Glasgow Red Sunday School” and would serve as a “resource to help people understand what is happening in Palestine”.

The magazine opens by posing the question “what actually is the fighting all about?”.

It goes on: “When a state decides to take land from another state and say that it’s now theirs, this is called an occupation. Palestine has been an occupied state for nearly 100 years.


Al-Qaeda resurfaces in Afghanistan with new training camps, Islamic schools
The al-Qaeda terrorist organization is having a resurgence in Afghanistan under the ruling Taliban, setting up eight new training camps alongside five madrasas, Islamic educational institutions, around the country, a report from the UN Security Council in late January has revealed.

The report said that the training camps are located in various provinces, including Ghazni, Laghman, Parwan, and Uruzgan. It also listed sites used by al-Qaeda to move its operatives in and out of neighboring Iran, and said that a new base to stockpile weaponry has been established in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital, Kabul.

"The group maintains safe houses to facilitate the movement between Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the provinces of Herat, Farah, and Helmand, with additional safe house locations in Kabul," the report said.

"This accommodation of al-Qaeda within Afghanistan has validated longstanding fears voiced by many observers regarding the country once again becoming a safe haven for terrorist organizations under Taliban rule," Shahin Modarres, an international security analyst specializing in Iran affiliated with the Center for Middle East and Global Order think tank, told The Media Line.

Modarres said that al-Qaeda and the Taliban, which retook rule over Afghanistan in 2021 as US-led coalition forces left the country, have a shared history of collaboration and ideological alignment. He said that throughout their insurgency against the coalition forces, both organizations maintained deep-seated ties rooted in a common jihadist worldview and mutual support for each other's objectives.


State Department Inspector General probing suspension of Biden’s Iran envoy
The State Department’s Inspector General has opened an internal investigation into the steps leading up to and after the suspension of the Biden administration’s special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley.

On January 23, the Inspector General’s office informed members of Congress about the probe in response to growing questions from U.S. lawmakers about Malley’s status and the reasons behind the Diplomatic Security Service’s decision to revoke his security clearance last April, according to correspondence seen by Semafor. Malley continued to perform some of the duties of the special envoy for nearly three months before the State Department officially placed him on unpaid leave in late June.

“The scope of the special review of the suspension of Robert Malley’s clearance will include the procedures the Department used in suspending the clearance as well as actions taken by the Department following the suspension,” Ryan Holden, the Inspector General’s director of congressional and public affairs, wrote in the letter. “This will include whether the Department followed proper procedures in suspending his clearance, determining what access to information he could maintain, and deciding the status of his employment.”

Holden added in his letter: “The special review will also examine which officials were involved in these decisions and how the process compares to that used for other types of employees.”

The Inspector General is interviewing State Department staff and reviewing documents and emails as part of the investigation, he said. A report will eventually be made public.

The State Department informed Malley last April 21 that it had “received information regarding you that raises serious security concerns and can be disqualifying under National Security Adjudicative Guidelines.” Semafor reported in July that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also investigating Malley for potentially mishandling classified information.


On Iranian commander's request, Iraqi terrorists dial down attacks on US
A visit by the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force to Baghdad has led to a pause in attacks on US troops by Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, multiple Iranian and Iraqi sources told Reuters, saying it was a sign Tehran wants to prevent a broader conflict.

Esmail Qaani met representatives of several of the armed groups in Baghdad airport on Jan. 29, less than 48 hours after Washington blamed the groups for the killing of three US soldiers at the Tower 22 outpost in Jordan, the sources said.

Qaani, whose predecessor was killed by a US drone near the same airport four years ago, told the factions that drawing American blood risked a heavy US response, 10 of the sources said.

He said the militias should lie low to avoid US strikes on their senior commanders, destruction of key infrastructure, or even a direct retaliation against Iran, the sources said.

While one faction did not initially agree to Qaani's request, most others did. The next day, the elite Iran-backed group Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending attacks.

Since Feb. 4 there have been no attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, compared to more than 20 in the two weeks before Qaani's visit, part of a surge in violence from the groups in opposition to Israel's war in Gaza.

"Without Qaani's direct intervention it would have been impossible to convince Kataib Hezbollah to halt its military operations to deescalate the tension," a senior commander in one of the Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups said.


South African Christians to hold nationwide prayer for Israel
Hundreds of South African Christians are expected to gather in significant towns nationwide next Sunday to offer prayers for both South Africa and Israel. They intend to show solidarity with the Jewish state and to disassociate themselves from what they perceive as South Africa's unfounded accusation of genocide against Israel.

"Many of the Christian community are deeply unhappy about the allegations being leveled by our government on Israel," explained Philip Rosenthal, director of ChristianView Network, who will participate in the afternoon of prayer. "We believe in Genesis 12 that this will bring a curse on South Africa unless we distance ourselves from it. So we will do that, and we have been doing that very strongly."

The February 25 afternoon of prayer is organized by Time2Rise South Africa and will begin at 4 p.m. at various locations throughout the country. Each session will include a prayer for Israel, a declaration against the International Court of Justice case against the Jewish state, and a prayer for Divine intervention in South Africa.

Sessions are already scheduled in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, and Potchefstroom, and more are expected to follow.

Last month, ahead of the International Court of Justice trial, Christian leaders throughout South Africa sent an open letter to the government in opposition of its decision to take Israel to court on charges that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The letter writers accused their government of "victim blaming" and "direct support of Hamas's tactics."

The Christians received a response from South Africa's Justice Minister, Ronald Lamola, who represented that country's case in The Hague, and were offered a meeting. However, that meeting has yet to take place.


Brett Gelman in the Holy Land
“We really don’t have any other place.”
WATCH: ‘Stranger Things’ actor Brett Gelman and his fiancée, singer Ari Dayan, recently visited Jerusalem, where they spoke of their unwavering connection to the Jewish people’s holiest city and to Israel as a whole.




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