Saturday, March 09, 2024

03/09 Links: Mossad: Hamas toughening demands for hostage deal, seeks Ramadan escalation; Families of Hostages Receive ‘Sign of Life’

From Ian:

Dermer to JNS, Part I: ‘We are sending Hamas to dustbin of history’
Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is a member of Israel’s small five-member war cabinet, a team that includes three high-ranking generals and Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Dermer himself never served in the Israel Defense Forces. Further, Dermer is an unelected official who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to years of longstanding trust.

Dermer was a longtime senior adviser to the prime minister before being appointed as ambassador to the United States, where he served for eight years. He is widely considered to be among Israel’s most gifted diplomats and a master strategist. He was a key architect and negotiator of the 2020 Abraham Accords normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Senior diplomats in other countries know that when they are speaking to Dermer, they are speaking with someone who has the prime minister’s full backing to execute matters on his behalf, and they understand that he knows the prime minister’s thinking better than anyone else. In many ways, Dermer is Israel’s unofficial vice premier.

As Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Dermer was tasked with three primary portfolios: to expand the regional circle of peace, including normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, the seat of Sunni Islam; to counter Iran and prevent the Shi’ite Islamic Republic from completing the development of illicit nuclear weapons; and to manage Israel’s diplomatic relationship with the United States. This in addition to any other projects he and the prime minister deem to be of major strategic importance.

Each of Dermer’s portfolios has played a major role in the lead-up to the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and its aftermath. As a minister, member of the war cabinet, and trusted adviser, Dermer is one of the key strategists navigating a complex war that includes multiple military and diplomatic fronts, and endless challenges. And despite all of the domestic and international criticism relentlessly hurled at Netanyahu, most Israelis are satisfied with the prime minister’s handling of the war and the pressures associated with it.

This week, JNS sat with Dermer at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, ahead of a stormy cabinet meeting, and conducted a wide-ranging, deep dive into the strategic challenges Israel is facing.
Dermer to JNS, Part II: ‘Anybody talking about Palestinian state right now is living on another planet’
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the war has been the overbearing calls for a pathway to Palestinian statehood in the aftermath of the worst terror massacre in Israel’s history.

In the 1993, Israel entered into the ill-fated Oslo Accords designed to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution. While Israel is a relatively tiny country, without much land to give, the Jewish state was prepared to cede strategic tracts in exchange for quiet coexistence with its Palestinian neighbors. The formula, simple enough for a child to understand, was called “land for peace.”

The accords called for the establishment of a provisional Palestinian Authority, to be led by thrice-exiled arch-terrorist PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Many argued that the accords were doomed to fail. The P.A. never prepared its people for coexistence, continuously inciting its public to violence on television and school textbooks, and naming public squares after terrorists. To this day, the government provides stipends to terrorists sitting in Israeli jails, as well as to families of terrorists killed while in the act of attempting first-degree murder on Israelis. The terror financing scheme is dubbed “pay for slay.”

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew 8,500 Jewish residents and all military infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

The Strip, the control of which was handed over to the P.A., was the pilot project for an independent Palestinian entity. Within two years, control of the Strip was wrestled away by Hamas. Since then, Israel has suffered countless attacks, including the firing of more than 50,000 rockets at Israel, the building of a 500-mile-long underground terror tunnel infrastructure, the kidnapping of Israeli citizens, and the worst massacre in Israel’s history on Oct. 7.

The massacre proved Israeli fears correct—that an independent Palestinian state would be a launchpad for continuous terror and an existential threat to the Jewish state. And yet the international community is now doubling down on calls for Palestinian statehood, regardless of the Palestinians’ inability to deliver Israel peace in exchange for the land it seeks.

In Part II of an exclusive interview with JNS, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and member of a five-man war cabinet, Ron Dermer discusses plans for “the day after” the war in the Gaza Strip; the need for deradicalization of the Palestinian society; and why Palestinian statehood in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 would be a “historic mistake.”
Josh Frydenberg: It’s in Australia’s interest for Hamas to be decisively defeated
Hamas’ intentions are clear. Their stated objective is to achieve the destruction of Israel. To state the blindingly obvious, this leaves no room for negotiation or compromise.

Hamas may have launched its jihad attack under the false flag of freedom, but in reality what it has achieved is the opposite of that. It has damaged the Palestinian cause and its legitimate claim for self-determination. Israel’s war is with Hamas, not the Palestinian people who are now suffering greatly as a result of Hamas’ terrorist attack.

At a regional level, Hamas’ survival would also embolden its sponsor, Iran, and send a message to other proxies in the region that terrorism pays. It would guarantee that the Houthis and Hezbollah would continue with their provocations – provocations that have already seen more than 10 per cent of the world’s seaborne trade which passes through the Red Sea disrupted and the prospect of an all-out war in Lebanon become more likely. The momentum of the Abraham accords, which have already brought so much hope and promise to the region, will be dealt a severe blow.

The alignment between Israel and its Muslim neighbours stems in part from a common interest in countering the nefarious influence of Iran. A weakened Israel will have less chance of encouraging Saudi Arabia to normalise ties and the follow the path paved by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

At a global level, anything less than a crushing defeat for Hamas will strengthen the hand of those, including Vladimir Putin’s Russia, who are aggressively seeking to undermine the US-led global order. An international order that has delivered stability and prosperity for close to 80 years, benefiting many including Australia.

We need America to remain strong so that it can provide the leadership and resources we need in our part of the world. As the conflict in Gaza continues into its sixth month the focus will rightly be on ensuring the hostages are returned, humanitarian aid delivered and civilians protected.

But in doing so we must not lose sight of the need for Hamas to be comprehensively defeated. If we don’t support the advancement of this critical strategic objective, our national interest will be harmed.

Most Australians would never have heard of Kibbutz Be’eri as it is thousands of kilometres from our shores. But Israel’s ability to respond effectively to the atrocities committed there on October 7 very much matters to us here at home.
Boris Johnson: Anti-Semitism on our streets. A brutal dictator menacing his neighbours. We must heed the lesson of the 1930s... democracy is always more fragile than we think
Looking at the state of the world today, it is tempting to blame it all on a kind of collective amnesia. There are not many people alive who can remember the 1930s.

There aren’t many people who can remember the Europe of the dictators. People have forgotten the demands of Adolf Hitler — how he would endlessly use the alleged sufferings of German-speaking communities as a pretext for invasion of other countries.

There aren’t many of us who can remember the pre-war culture of casual anti-Semitism that was to be found in so many supposedly civilised European cities.

We know about it generally from watching documentaries, or films, or from reading books. But for the vast majority of the population it is not something that chimes in the memory. We don’t personally hear the echoes and the alarm bells that should be going off in our mind — because we no longer viscerally remember this stuff, and where it can lead.

It must be amnesia, because otherwise it is hard to explain how we fail to draw the comparisons between Hitler and Putin — both of them with their narrative of betrayal and the alleged injustices suffered by the speakers of his own language; both of them with their bogus interpretation of history; both of them claiming that they are committed to peace, and then using barbaric violence to further their demands; both of them habitual liars.

It must be a kind of mass amnesia about the horrors of the 1930s, because otherwise it is hard to explain how we can tolerate the upsurge in anti-Semitism — not just in continental Europe, this time, but also on the streets of our own capital.

We have Jewish people sitting peacefully on the Tube and told that ‘your religion kills people’.

We have SS signs daubed on the walls of synagogues.

We have students jeering at Jewish Society stalls at universities and we have huge crowds demonstrating, week in, week out, in major European capitals — including London — and calling for the homeland for the Jews to be wiped out, ‘from the river to the sea’.

According to the Community Security Trust, there has been a massive increase in anti-Semitic incidents of all kinds. So in the face of this memory loss — this weird senior moment on the part of humanity — let us remember where this all leads.

Look back at the 1930s, and remember the denouement of that low, dishonest decade. The 1930s climaxed with an appalling global conflict that cost millions of lives; they ended with the gas chambers and the Holocaust.


'The massacre that took place in Israel may be just a prelude to what awaits the whole world'
As someone who grew up in a fanatical Muslim family and was forced into marrying an al-Qaida senior operative, Yasmine Mohammed has no illusions about the dangers Islam poses to Western civilization.

"I feel that since October 7, humanity has been in a very delicate and dangerous transitional state. Everything I've been shouting and warning about for years has suddenly come out all at once for the whole world to see through the GoPro cameras of the Hamas terrorists," says Yasmine Mohammed, one of the world's leading activists for the rights of Muslim women and support for ex-Muslims.

"If the West sobers up and realizes who it is up against and how the worst versions of Islam entered the most important Western institutions, and if it then proceeds to tackle it at the core, then there could remain a chance to correct course," she says, "but if Western liberals continue to play the role of useful idiots for Muslims who use them to promote their ideology, then things will get much worse. The massacre that took place in Israel may be just a prelude to what awaits the whole world."

She does not disclose her current place of residence, and even her exact age is confidential. These security measures, along with various other precautions she takes, stem from the fear that radical Muslims will try to harm her. Given the fate of not a few Muslims or ex-Muslims who dared to publicly criticize Islam, she certainly has something to fear. Just two years ago, the world was shocked when, during a conference in New York, a Lebanese-American stabbed and wounded author Salman Rushdie. In his 1989 bestseller "The Satanic Verses," Rushdie presented unflattering depictions of the Prophet Mohammed and Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution. Since then, he has become a target for radical Muslims worldwide.

Naturally, Mohammed does not want to enter these bloody statistics, "especially for the sake of my two daughters." Nevertheless, she gives interviews and acts with a sense of urgency, warning in harsh terms about the dangers posed by Muslim civilization. "The West is facing an obstacle called Islam," she states. "If we are afraid and do not say this truth, the price is that we will lose the free world. The risk is certainly worth it, even my personal risk."

For her, it is not a theoretical matter, but a personal life experience. Tears יסמי


Pasi Turunen interviews Colonel Richard Kemp | Subtitles in Finnish
Colonel Richard Kemp is a well-known commentator in the international media, e.g. BBC, and he has also testified at the UN. He has been following the situation in Israel and Gaza on the ground for years. In this expert interview from Israel for the special broadcast of the Israel Now episode, Kemp sheds light on the ongoing war in Gaza and its exceptional features compared to previous conflicts in Gaza and its challenges for Israel, as well as reactions in the media and the world. Why did sympathy for Israel disappear within a couple of weeks after the brutal October 7 attack by Hamas? According to Kemp, no country in the history of modern warfare has done as much to avoid civilian casualties as Israel. Based on his own extensive military career and experience, Kemp takes a position on accusations of the disproportionate use of force by Israel and also analyzes the geopolitical aspirations of Russia and Iran in the Middle East. How far is victory over Hamas and what does it look like? The broadcast is subtitled in Finnish.

Richard Kemp has served as a front-line commander of British forces in some of the world's most difficult places, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked in the British Prime Minister's Office and headed the counter-terrorism group in the Joint Intelligence Committee. At the same time, he chaired the strategic intelligence group COBRA of the United Kingdom's National Crisis Management Committee. Reported by Pasi Turunen


No Ramadan Ceasefire
While it would unfortunately affect Palestinian noncombatants in Gaza as well, from a moral standpoint, granting terrorists temporary amnesty during Ramadan would be unacceptable. Strategically, allowing Hamas time to re-arm and re-organize before inevitably reneging on the ceasefire whenever it sees fit is foolish. Considering that the Hamas-led October 7 massacre was executed on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, such suggestions are offensive.

This Ramadan, like others before it, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups are using the false charge of Israeli misdeeds at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the need to “liberate” the compound as a pretext to threaten further violence. This is the Palestinians’ go-to excuse for terror. In fact, it’s the same one they used to justify the October 7 massacre itself—which they dubbed the “Al-Aqsa Flood”—even though sources close to Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades allege that initial planning for the attack began as early as 2014. It’s even the same faux excuse the Palestinians used to launch the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, a murderous uprising during which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered.

Hamas, now essentially the leading voice for Palestinian factions, seeks to utilize Ramadan to galvanize support amid Israel’s highly effective military campaign. Given the group’s limited options in its final stronghold of Rafah, Hamas is desperately trying to leverage the holiday to counter Israel’s military pressure.

Israel’s security should remain paramount, however, even in the face of international pressure. Conceding would not only embolden Hamas but also set a dangerous precedent, potentially inviting further aggression during religious periods.

Instead of pressuring Israel for concessions, the Jewish state’s allies, particularly the Biden administration, should recognize and reject terror groups’ manipulative tactics during Ramadan. Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, regardless of the season, is crucial in maintaining its security and stability in the region.
Mossad: Hamas toughening demands for hostage deal, seeks Ramadan escalation
The Mossad spy agency said Saturday that the Hamas terror group prefers an escalation of violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to a hostage deal, adding that Mossad chief David Barnea met CIA Director Bill Burns this weekend as part of efforts by mediators to reach a temporary truce.

In the rare statement, carried by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Mossad said Barnea met on Friday with his American counterpart, “as part of the ceaseless effort to advance another deal for the return of the hostages.” The meeting reportedly took place in Amman, Jordan.

“At this stage, Hamas is fortifying its position as if it is not interested in a deal, and it strives to ignite the region during Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip,” the Mossad said.

The Mossad added that “the talks and cooperation with the mediators continue all the time in an attempt to narrow the gaps and advance agreements.”

The statement came as US, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators scrambled to secure a six-week truce in the five-month-old war in Gaza before Ramadan. Those efforts have been ongoing for weeks and are based on a framework reached in Paris last month.

The Paris framework, thus far rejected by Hamas, would see 40 children, women, elderly and sick hostages released in the six-week first phase, in exchange for some 400 Palestinian security prisoners, with the possibility of further releases to be negotiated.

Israel has said any ceasefire must be temporary and that its goal remains the destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages. The terror group says it will release the hostages it has been holding since October 7 only as part of a deal that ends the war.


Qatar poised to expel Hamas from Doha amid stalled deal negotiations
A report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday detailed the challenges in negotiations over the release of kidnapped Israelis held in the Gaza Strip. Husam Badran, a senior official in Hamas' political bureau, reiterated the organization's demands, which include ending the war, withdrawing all IDF forces from Gaza, returning displaced individuals to the north of the Strip, and creating a rehabilitation plan.

The report, based on a source in Hamas and several Egyptian sources, also mentioned that Qatar threatened to expel senior Hamas officials residing in Doha if they failed to convince the Gaza Strip leadership to reach an agreement with mediators and Israel.

Badran, speaking from Hamas' offices in Doha, expressed the group's desire to continue negotiations to end the war. However, he warned that failure to reach an agreement could lead to escalation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The report also mentioned that Arab mediators in the negotiations plan to meet on Sunday to try to promote a short two-day ceasefire before Ramadan, which is expected to start on Monday or Tuesday.

The report also highlighted that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Strip, demands that Israel commit to ending the war, a position that puts him at odds with other senior officials in the movement. This information comes alongside an unusual announcement by Mossad about a meeting held on Friday by the head of the organization, Dadi Barna, in Jordan with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns. The announcement stated, "At this stage, Hamas is entrenched in its position as someone who is not interested in a deal. He is striving to ignite the region during Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. All the time, contacts and cooperation continue with the mediators in an attempt to narrow the gaps and promote agreements."
WSJ: In Israel, Jews and Arabs Alike Reject the "Equity" Ideology Sweeping the West
During a visit to Israel in February organized by the UCLA School of Medicine, Jewish and Arab Israelis told me that the ideology of "diversity, equity and inclusion" sacrifices the merit that has helped Israel survive in a sea of hostility. Israelis talk about DEI differently, most notably by excluding or redefining the E. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is committed to "diversity and inclusion." Ditto the Israel Institute of Technology, or Technion. Tel Aviv University keeps the E, but instead of equity, it emphasizes "equality and diversity."

Instead of lowering standards in pursuit of equity, the Technion is reaching out to Arab communities to find more qualified students. Its efforts have increased the number of Arab undergraduate students by about 80%, from 500 in 2020 to more than 900 in 2023, while the dropout rate has decreased. At Hebrew University, an Arab woman who works as a diversity official said her school demands equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.

Michael Halberthal, director general at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, told us that "people get promotion into their position according to their abilities, not about their religion, not about their gender, not about anything else. And it works." Halberthal said it is the only hospital in the Middle East where an Arab woman heads the nephrology, or kidney disease, unit. After Oct. 7, the hospital's Arab employees showed up en masse to treat the expected influx of patients.

I asked an officer who briefed us at Nevatim Airbase if the Israeli Air Force has any initiatives to increase diversity in its ranks. The officer said that while there are efforts to recruit a broad swath of Israeli citizens, assignments and promotions are based on ability. A person has to earn the pilot's seat in an F-35, because when Israel is at war, Israel must win. It can't afford to embrace such a divisive and destructive ideology
Daniel Greenfield: Biden Will Send 1,000 Troops to Bring Aid to Gazans, 0 to Retrieve Hostages
Are any of those personnel going to be in danger?

Official word from the administration is that there will be no ‘boots on the ground’, just in the water. That’s borderline meaningless. And it’s not just Hamas there. The Houthis and Hezbollah have taken to lobbying rockets around and the presence of a sizable contingent of vulnerable U.S. personnel will draw them like flies.

Two months is a whole lot of time in which to plan and execute an attack.

Biden has sent 0 troops to rescue the hostages from Hamas, but he’s sending 1,000 into a war zone to provide aid to Hamas supporters.

He’s also refused to use the military to secure our border by ending the flow of migrant invaders across it.

But once again, Biden has found a way to use the military to aid our enemies. He won’t use the military to protect America, but he’ll use it to send aid to Hamas.
Seth Frantzman: America's floating pier for Gaza brings new challenges off-shore
As plans take shape for the US to play a greater role in supporting humanitarian aid to Gaza, the idea of a floating pier to sit off the coast of Gaza to bring in the aid is the latest initiative.

The US is mobilizing to construct a kind of floating dock that would enable aid to be brought to Cyprus. This follows US airdrops that have also brought in food to Gaza. This is an unprecedented attempt by the US to aid locals on the ground and it brings together many unique capabilities that the US has.

On the one hand, it was unexpected this would happen in Gaza, but it is also a good chance for the US to conduct these operations and work out any problems that may occur.

On the other, this illustrates that even though the US wanted to pivot away from the Middle East, the conflict in Gaza has now drawn the US back in.

The challenges faced by the United States
Now, some of the challenges will be working with different groups and NGOs to bring in the aid. According to VOA, “a US charity said it was loading aid for Gaza onto a boat in Cyprus, the first shipment to the war-ravaged territory along a maritime corridor the EU Commission hopes will open this weekend. The Spanish-flagged vessel Open Arms docked three weeks ago in the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, the closest European Union country to the Gaza Strip.”

The report notes that "World Central Kitchen teams are in Cyprus loading pallets of humanitarian aid onto a boat headed to northern Gaza," the charity said Friday in a statement. "We have been preparing for weeks alongside our trusted NGO partner Open Arms for the opening of a maritime aid corridor that would allow us to scale our efforts in the region," it said.

This is important because it’s essential that different charities, rather than the usual suspects, work in Gaza. It has been shown that aid entering southern Gaza is generally hijacked by Hamas gunmen. Many international organizations in the past partnered with Hamas. It is not known if Hamas keeps the aid or even purposely slows down delivery to create a crisis. An independent way to bring aid to Gaza is important.
ExplainerHow the US military plans to build a floating dock for urgently needed aid to Gaza
What are the challenges?
A key question will be what Israel is prepared to do to support the aid delivery effort.

The airdrops have been an unusual workaround by the Biden administration, which for months has appealed to Israel to increase the delivery of aid to Gaza and provide access and protection for trucks carrying the goods.

According to Biden, the Israeli government will maintain security at the pier and protect it from any attacks by Hamas.

And there may also be a need for crowd control, in case residents try to storm the pier to get the desperately needed food.

While officials said they don’t likely need security on the sea route to Israel there will be a requirement for allies and private ships to deliver the aid along the maritime corridor.

It is also unclear who will be unloading the aid at the dock and moving it to shore.

What are other nations and aid groups doing?
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides offered the use of his country’s port in Larnaca months ago for a possible sea route for aid deliveries to Gaza, a 230-mile (370-kilometer) journey.

Cyprus invited authorities from Israel, the US and other European countries to join Cypriot agents in vetting all shipments so nothing could be used by Hamas against Israel. The offer received strong interest from the Americans, Europeans and others, and extended planning followed.

The European Commission said Friday that a ship bearing humanitarian aid was preparing to leave Cyprus and head for Gaza.

The vessel belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group will make a pilot voyage to test the maritime corridor in the coming days. The ship has been waiting at Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.

The UAE ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, told the AP the exact timing of the pilot shipment by sea depended on conditions, but said Sunday looked favorable. The UAE funded the operation and worked directly with the Israelis in getting the shipment ready without issues, he said.

World Central Kitchen prepared the boat in Cyprus with 200 tons of rice, flour and proteins that will soon be ready to leave for Gaza, and an additional 500 tons of aid is in Cyprus and ready to follow, spokeswoman Chloe Mata Crane said in a statement.


Officials seek to arm Palestinians to help secure aid convoys
Senior security officials say in private conversations that as long as the humanitarian aid convoys entering Gaza are not secured by armed forces, the looting of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip will not stop, regardless of how it is delivered, Israel Hayom can reveal.

The proposal calls for arming Gaza residents who do not support Hamas who will also be part of the "day after" solution in the Gaza Strip. The security establishment has warned Israeli leaders that whoever controls the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip will ultimately control the strip and therefore those elements should be allowed to create the "humanitarian islands."

However, the issue of the identity of who will be armed for this purpose has been unresolved, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that they also cannot be Palestinian Authority members either.

As a result, the plan has been in limbo. A final discussion on the issue has not yet taken place since Netanyahu is currently delaying the decision.

Israel Hayom has learned that the security establishment has recently held discussions regarding the supply convoys and the need to separate them from Hamas, which has been diverting them for its own needs.

The issue arose as an urgent need after hundreds of Palestinians attacked humanitarian aid trucks on their way to the northern strip earlier this month, resulting in dozens of Palestinian deaths from overcrowding and trampling. The international community blamed Israel for this, despite the IDF presenting (with a 10-hour delay) a video clearly showing the cause of the Palestinian deaths.
Ryan McBeth: Why the JLOTS Won't Work in Gaza
YouTube Demonetized this video, so here it is as a substack exclusive. If you have the $5 to become a paid member, I would really appreciate it.

A sea-based delivery system like JLOTS might not work in Gaza, mainly due to force protection issues. Who protects the American military while they are building it, and once it is built, HAMAS may attack it. However, we can take a page from the coalition idea called the "Sons of Iraq" where we paid Sunni men to form a trained militia, giving them a reason to believe in a stable Iraq.

Israel could create and fund this militia force which could take the fight to HAMAS and later become the seed of a new democratic Palestinian government.

Nothing stops a bullet like a job.


IDF brigade commander, cousin of Bezalel Smotrich, killed in southern Gaza
The IDF announced on Saturday the death of Major (res.) Amishar Ben David in combat on Friday in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ben David was 43 years old, from Eli in Samaria, and a commander in the Oz Commando Brigade.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed on Saturday evening that Ben David was his cousin, mourning his loss in an X post.

“My dear cousin, Amishar, a hero of Israel, fell in the battle in Gaza,” the finance minister wrote. “We grew up together. Relatively few cousins with a strong and special bond.”

Smotrich shared a photo of the two from a family barbecue event held last summer, writing: “Who would have dreamed that this would be the last picture? The pain is immense. An indescribable loss.”


Families of hostages, Oct. 7 survivors file lawsuit against major UNRWA donor
Survivors of the October 7 Hamas massacre and families of hostages abducted to Gaza by the terrorist group filed a lawsuit with a U.S. court against a major UNRWA donor, claiming its contributions indirectly supported the murderous attack.

"[N]onprofit organizations generally do good work... But on some very rare occasions, a nonprofit organization finances an international terrorist plot that kills over 1,200 innocent people. This case involves one of those rare occasions," the plaintiffs, represented by the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), argued in a filing with a Delaware court against UNRWA-USA, the largest private donor in the United States to the United Nations' Palestinian relief agency.

Over the past year, UNRWA-USA has transferred about $3.8 million to the agency, including over $600,000 for UNRWA's education system, which the lawsuit claims "glorifies and teaches terrorism."

The lawsuit comes on the heels of similar actions taken against the Associated Press (AP) and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

UNRWA-USA has not responded to the lawsuit but said it will continue "its tireless efforts to help Palestine refugees in desperate need in Gaza. The need for international aid is more urgent than ever, and UNRWA has a critical role to play in providing it."
UN chief: Only so much we can do to screen staff for pro-Hamas sentiments
It’s not the first time that an UNRWA commissioner-general has acknowledged this threat.

In 2004 Peter Hansen, one of Lazzarini’s predecessors, said he was “sure” that Hamas members were on the agency’s payroll – though, unwisely, went further in saying that he did not see that as an issue. It was a comment that effectively ended his UNRWA career.

A different era and different geopolitical context, yet Lazzarini’s own reflection on the matter is telling: he knows that transparency and openness, not obfuscation or prevarication, is the best policy in this time of intense public scrutiny.

For the record, Lazzarini is insistent that UNRWA has invested significant resources into ensuring the neutrality of its staff. This includes: social media training programmes; the development of a neutrality framework, which is “more robust than anything alike in the rest of the UN system”; and in-person training for teachers and school supervisors, with regular refreshers.

“We have invested a lot in awareness, in policies, in prevention … because our staff have a dual identity,” says Lazzini. But, even then, he accepts there is only “as much as you can do,” adding that the agency “cannot screen what you think at night in your private circle”.

More thorough vetting of the roughly 1,000 new recruits who join the agency each year would be one potential solution.

Currently, UNRWA has just one international officer, alongside a team of local staff in Gaza, dedicated to screening new hires. As such, there is an acknowledgement among former and current employees that “there is no real capacity” for spotting the ‘bad apples’.

“To strengthen neutrality further, the agency would need half a dozen international staff to do systematic screening of prospective candidates for agency employment,” said one source.


UNRWA report claims some agency employees admitted Hamas ties under Israeli coercion
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees claimed that some Gazan employees released from Israeli detention reported having been coerced into stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the October 7 massacre.

The assertions are contained in a report by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reviewed by Reuters and dated February 2024, which detailed allegations of mistreatment in Israeli detention made by unidentified Palestinians, including several working for UNRWA.

Reuters could not independently confirm the accounts of coercion of UNRWA staff and mistreatment of detainees, although the allegations of ill-treatment accord with some descriptions by Palestinians freed from detention in December, February and March reported by Reuters and other news media.

UNRWA declined a Reuters request to see transcripts of its interviews containing allegations of coerced false confessions.

In addition to the alleged abuse endured by UNRWA staff members, Palestinian detainees more broadly described allegations of abuse, including beatings, humiliation, threats, dog attacks, sexual violence and deaths of detainees denied medical treatment, the UNRWA report said.


Trudeau restores funding to UNRWA, meaning Canada funds Hamas
In an incredibly cowardly move, the Trudeau Liberals made a late Friday afternoon announcement that they would restore funding to UNRWA. The announcement, made in Mississauga, wasn’t communicated ahead of time to the Parliamentary Press Gallery, no advisories were posted to the Government of Canada’s website, major media outlets in the GTA were not informed.

The announcement, from International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen, was also made after 3:30 p.m. to limit the ability of major Jewish groups to respond before the Sabbath began just over two hours later. Some had already shut their offices for the weekend.

If there was any doubt that Team Trudeau is part of Team Hamas, then doubt no more. Their denunciations of Hamas’ actions mean little when they are funding Hamas proxies like UNRWA.

The Trudeau government has been presented with evidence, including fresh evidence this week, that employees of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, participated in the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel. This isn’t just a few bad apples; Israel has documented more than 450 UNRWA employees who are military operatives for Hamas or other terror organizations in Gaza.


Families of Hostages Receive ‘Sign of Life’ from Loved Ones
In a glimmer of hope amidst the ongoing crisis, families of Gaza hostages have received signs of life from more than a dozen of their loved ones held captive by Hamas, as reported by N12 channel on Friday.

The news, while offering some relief, is shrouded in secrecy due to Israeli military censorship, preventing further details from being disclosed at this stage.

The plight of the hostages, who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, continues to haunt their families and the wider public. With more than 134 hostages still in captivity, the news of signs of life brings both anguish and determination to the forefront.

On Friday, family members of the hostages took to the streets, blocking Highway 1 linking Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a poignant demonstration aimed at drawing attention to the suffering endured by their loved ones. The hostages, who have been held for 154 days, are described as “rotting in hell,” a stark reminder of the urgent need for their release.

As the families demand action, a new demonstration is scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, specifically focusing on the plight of the 19 women still held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. This gathering follows International Women’s Day and seeks to amplify the voices of those who have been silenced by captivity.


Reckoning with October 7: Panel 3, "Sexual Violence, Feminism, and the Hamas Massacre"
"Sexual Violence, Feminism, and the Hamas Massacre" is the third webinar in the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute's yearlong series reckoning with the response to the atrocities on October 7. This panel features Mariam Memarsadeghi, Batya Ungar-Sargon, and Nina Power, and it was moderated by Gabriel Noah Brahm. The discussion took place on March 7, 2024. For more information about TPPI's Israel Initiative, visit our website at https://www.telosinstitute.net/israel....

Mariam Memarsadeghi is a leading proponent for a democratic Iran and founder and director of the Cyrus Forum for Iran's Future, an initiative to foster dialogue and thought leadership for Iran's democratic transition. Her political commentary and analysis have appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Tablet, the National Interest, The Hill, the Globe and Mail, the Jerusalem Post, Bulwark, Al Arabiya, American Purpose, Quillette, Caravan, and other publications. She is a frequent speaker at universities and think tanks worldwide and provides commentary on TV news programs, including Iranian, Arab, and Israeli channels. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @memarsadeghi.

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the Opinion Editor of Newsweek. She is the author of Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women (currently in press with Encounter Books) and Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy (2023). The former Opinion Editor of the Forward, the largest Jewish media outlet in the United States, she has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books Daily, and Foreign Policy. She has also appeared frequently on MSNBC, NBC, the Brian Lehrer Show, and National Public Radio. She attended high school in Israel and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @bungarsargon.

Nina Power, author of One Dimensional Woman (2009) and What Do Men Want? Masculinity and Its Discontents (2022), is Senior Editor and columnist at Compact magazine. She holds a Ph.D. from Middlesex University and was formerly Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at University of Roehampton. She currently serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Global Centre for Advanced Studies (GCAS). Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @Nina_Compact.




Hamas claims IDF fire on Gaza killed seven hostages in psychological
Hamas published a video on Saturday evening in which the Gaza terror group claimed that seven hostages had been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.

Chaim Gershon Peri, 79, Yoram Itak Metzger, 80, and Amiram Israel Cooper, 85, were again featured after being shown in a similar psychological terror-motivated video sent by Hamas earlier this month.

All three men were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

Hamas also claimed that four other hostages, Eliyahu Margalit, Ronen Engel, Alex Danzig, and Itzhak Elgarat, were killed by Israeli fire, without providing evidence.

The IDF had previously informed the families in December of last year that both Engel, 54, and Margalit, 75, had been murdered in Gaza during their captivity by Hamas.

According to a statement published by the Israeli government’s Hostages Directorate, the families of all the hostages mentioned in Hamas’s video were contacted.

The Directorate confirmed that there is no evidence to support Hamas’s claims, and affirmed that the publication of the video was carried out as part of intense psychological warfare.


UK Guardian Laments Lack of ‘Sanitary Pads’ for Palestinians; Ignores Female Israeli Hostages
Mousa failed to mention the female Israeli hostages, who are likely suffering more than other women in Gaza.

Israel provides for the transfer of thousands of tons of aid each and every day into Gaza, including food, water, fuel, and medicine, including sanitary products.

Unfortunately, the United Nations is failing to distribute aid, and Hamas terrorists are known to steal the bulk of it.

Friday, March 8, is also International Women’s Day, which the Israeli government marked by reminding the world about the female hostages still in Gaza.

Israel includes in that number those female hostages who were murdered but whose bodies have not been returned to Israel.
Relatives criticise Michelle Obama for silence over female hostages on Women’s Day
Relatives of Israeli hostages have blamed “cancel culture” for the failure of female megastars who spoke up for the hostages of Boko Haram in 2014 to lend the same support to the women being held by Hamas.

Michelle Obama, Salma Hayek, Malala Yousafzai, The Rock, Emma Watson, Ellen DeGeneres and Alicia Keys all shared photos of themselves holding up the slogan “Bring Back Our Girls” after 276 schoolgirls were taken by the African jihadi group ten years ago.

Gili Roman, whose sister-in-law, Carmel Gat, 39, is among the women hostages still being held captive by Hamas, told the Mail, “I am 100 per cent sure that Michelle Obama thinks it is wrong to take hostages. So, the only question is why doesn’t she talk about it?”

The Israeli went on, “What I've learned from my visits in the US is the level of cancel culture. It’s basically a bullying tactic to keep people quiet, and it works.”

Jewish mother-of-three, Lori Hudaly, 42, said: “I feel very angry and horrified how many people have stayed silent about it.”

A photo of then First Lady Michelle Obama with the “Bring Back Our Girls” sign helped the campaign go viral.

Now, families of hostages have blamed “cancel culture” for the silence of the celebrities.

Today, on International Women’s Day, a “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign has been launched on social media by grassroots activists to call for the return of the 19 women –as well as the 113 men – who are still being held by Hamas.


Pro-Palestine demonstrators chanting 'Gaza, Gaza' flood NYC on International Women's Day, storming the Oculus, as troubling video shows one protestor  surrounded by cops knocked out cold
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have flooded the streets of New York as part of a rowdy demonstration on International Women's Day which saw them storm the Oculus near the World Trade Center.

Footage shows the demonstrators clutching Palestinian flags shouting and cheering after they successfully squeeze into the shopping center on Friday.

Once inside they formed a drumming circle and waved banners which read: '30, 878 dead and Joe is eating ice cream' in reference to the president nonchalantly slurping on an ice cream cone while being grilled about the situation between Israel and Gaza recently.

Other disturbing footage shows one protester knocked out cold in the streets. The activist is seen lying face down on the ground while surrounded by cops. It is unclear how he got knocked out.

In the background a woman is heard screaming, 'get him an ambulance, f*** the cops, he's passed out' as police attempt to coax a response from his limp body.


Inside London's Little Palestine: Jews hounded out by a climate of fear. Synagogues under guard. And Palestinian flags hanging from council lamp-posts
The London borough of Tower Hamlets, once the preserve of the sort of salt-of-the-earth British working-class types portrayed in the BBC’s 1950s drama Call The Midwife, is not a nice place to be any more. Especially if you are Jewish.

Today, the streets are festooned with red, white, green and black Palestinian flags, which hang from lamp-posts alongside buildings daubed with crude graffiti attacking Israel — even denying its right to exist.

Yet, as the Mail discovered this week, most of the citizens of the borough, which has the highest proportion of Muslim residents in the UK, just get on with their daily lives.

Women in burkas shop for vegetables on the busy borough’s main artery, Ben Jonson Road. And the local mosques, 47 of them at the last count, hosted thousands of worshippers at Friday prayers yesterday.

At the town hall, the 45-strong council is dominated by male Bangladeshi Muslims. Many quit Labour for the Aspire Party formed five years ago by controversial borough mayor Lutfur Rahman, who loudly demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

According to one worried councillor, many officials are so politicised that they sport pro-Palestinian lanyards handed out to them by their trade unions.

And Tower Hamlets is not an isolated case. What is happening in the borough dubbed ‘Little ­Palestine’ has implications for all of Britain. It is a microcosm of the mayhem that has consumed our national politics following the murderous invasion of Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas on October 7 last year.

Only yesterday Robin Simcox, the Government’s counter-terrorism tsar claimed that pro-Palestine ­protesters are turning London into a ‘no-go zone for Jews’.


Tom Tugendhat Speech Disrupted by Screeching Palestine Protestor
A pro-Palestine protestor invaded the stage for security minister Tom Tugendhat’s speech at a cross-ideology speaking event in Coventry today. Tugendhat got up to start speaking at the Onward and Labour Together event as a masked protestor ran up to him and brandished a flag, shouting “stop starving children“. Things got screechier as security tried to remove her…

Over at Cambridge protestors have taken to slashing a prized painting of Arthur Balfour. Tom, meanwhile, kept his cool and talked over the protestor’s shouting: “I look forward to the release of 120 hostages“. Dismantled…




Met Police arrest man carrying 'Hamas is terrorist' placard at Gaza demo after pro-Palestine protesters turn on him as they march through London
A counter-protester has been arrested at a pro-Palestinian march through central London today after displaying a placard reading 'Hamas is terrorist'.

Iranian Niyak Ghorbani, 37, waved the sign in the middle of the rally, which saw thousands of demonstrators gather in the capital, before protesters turned on him leading to a large brawl.

Police said he was arrested for assault before being de-arrested after officers reviewed footage.

Demonstrators carrying Palestine flags charged towards Mr Ghorbani and attacked him before police stepped in to arrest the counter-protester.

Mr Ghorbani was then hauled away from the scene as pro-Palestinian marchers continued to hurl abuse at him, shouting 'shame on you'.

Five further arrests were made at the march, including a man accused of carrying a shield and wearing a helmet, a woman said to be holding an an offensive placard, two men alleged to be chanting offensive slogans and one man for assault.

A Met spokesperson said: 'A video has been posted on X alleging officers arrested a man for having an anti-Hamas placard.

'This isn't accurate. He was arrested after an altercation was ongoing, and officers intervened to prevent a breach of the peace. He was arrested for assault.

'Officers then fully reviewed footage provided of the incident, and he was later de-arrested.

'The arrest was not made in relation to the placard.'

Mr Ghorbani said that he would make a complaint after today's incident and that he was not given back his sign.

He said: '[Police] told me that it is a danger for [my] life and for the people when they see maybe attack [me].


Anti-Israel protesters shout 'Go back to Europe' outside synagogue north of Toronto
Members of the Jewish community expressed their growing anxiety after anti-Israel protesters picketed a Toronto-area synagogue with chants of “Go back to Europe” and burned an Israeli flag.

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, the leader of the institution in Thornhill, said religious sites should be exempt from such demonstrations.

“A civil Canadian knows that there is a line, and that line is you don’t encroach on a house of worship. You worship the same God, and this is not right,” Korobkin told National Post in the midst of the demonstrations outside his synagogue, which was hosting an Israeli real estate event Thursday afternoon.

“It makes me sad. This should never have been allowed. It’s not right. We would never do this to a Muslim mosque. We would never encroach on their property,” the rabbi continued, noting that some Canadian mosques have praised Hamas. “This is a violation of the criminal code in Ontario,” Korobkin said, as an anti-Israel protester chanted “they are demonic and we can be louder.”

At other times, anti-Israel demonstrators shouted, “Go back to Europe!” “Intifada, revolution!” and burned an Israeli flag.

“We’re in your neighbourhood and you’re not doing nothing about it,” a demonstrator yelled repeatedly, according to a video posted to X.


Nothing appropriate about protesting at a synagogue or place of worship
Fights, threats, hate, intimidation and police.

Lots and lots of police. Not just York Regional Police, whose jurisdiction this was in. Peel Regional Police and Toronto Police sent troops over too, including TPS’s mounted unit.

Surreal to witness. The war is not just happening in Gaza but here in the GTA – all happening in a usually quiet and lawful Vaughan neighbourhood Thursday.

It was mayhem there and a glimpse into what anarchy across the country would look like. This was a powderkeg waiting to blow. While there were a few flare-ups, police managed to keep it from becoming a full explosion. But man, this was close.

This is Canada now.

“The truly appalling scene permitted to unfold yesterday in Thornhill is a stain on the moral fabric of the entire country,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Research and Advocacy director. “Canadians do not harass and intimidate their fellow citizens on the precipice of their houses of worship and in front of their own homes.

“To do so is an affront to our national values and an abuse of our hard-earned freedoms. To travel to a Jewish neighbourhood to villainize its residents is not exercising your rights. It is an act of heinous anti-Semitism.”

Here’s a question for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford: What would happen if Jewish people from the GTA descended on an Islamic centre and mosque like pro-Hamas supporters did at a synagogue here Thursday?
Stop the insanity! Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Thornhill synagogue call for genocide of Jews
While reporting on the protest, Reporter David Menzies was kicked in the groin without cause, and cameraman Lincoln Jay was accosted and had his iPhone stolen, though it was later recovered.


Students at NYC high school terrorized by antisemitic teens blame social media for ‘horrible’ behavior
Brooklyn high schoolers who spewed antisemitic, Hitler-loving hate toward Jewish teachers and classmates are being radicalized by disturbing social media content and their own families, students at the school told The Post.

Their observations come a week after The Post revealed horrifying antisemitism at Origin High School in Sheepshead Bay, where students told a Jewish teacher they wished she was killed, and video captured a teen wearing a Hitler mustache while making a Nazi salute.

“It definitely comes from social media … it’s just one-sided perspectives,” said an Origins freshman.

Racist rhetoric is common in the hallways and all over teens’ social media feeds, with students pushing hate anonymously on burner accounts, according to two sophomores at a charter school co-located in the building.

“There was a video on Instagram that was going viral — it was a group of Jewish boys in a park and [another] group of boys were doing Nazi things while the [Jewish] kids were trying to play basketball,” said one of the sophomores. “It’s horrible.”
Seattle teacher EXPOSED for raising money for radical Palestinian cleric who denies Hamas' Oct 7 carnage and says sex slaves are 'permissible'
A Seattle teacher urged a colleague to wire money to a charity led by a radical Palestinian cleric who denies Hamas atrocities and says sex slaves are 'permissible', DailyMail.com can reveal.

Sobia Sheikh, a math teacher at Mariner High School, suggested a co-worker send funds to Waqforever late last year in an email thread about helping Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.

The charity is fronted by Ali Hammuda, a bearded UK-based Islamic cleric, whose extremist views include endorsing sex slaves and denying Hamas atrocities in Israel on October 7.

Sheikh, who has served on the National Education Association (NEA) teachers' union board, shares her own hard-line views, including Facebook posts that compare Israel to Nazi Germany.

Her email was uncovered in a public records request by Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, a conservative group that works to keep politics out of classrooms.

'It is shocking that an American teacher would tell a coworker to donate to a charity run by a man who denies that the 10/7 terror attacks took place,' Neily told DailyMail.com.

Sheikh's social media posts were 'alarmingly antisemitic,' added Neily, who probes links between teacher unions and anti-Israel sentiment.

Sheikh and Mariner High School, in Everett, Washington — part of Mukilteo School District — did not answer our request for comment.
Sister of actor Tom Hollander says she does not want to ‘interact’ with Jews
Opera director Julia Hollander, whose brother is acclaimed actor Tom Hollander, cancelled a talk to Jewish students because she did not wish to “interact with any Jewish community” during Israel’s war against Hamas.

Hollander had agreed to give a talk to members of Oxford University’s Chabad society at which she would promote the upcoming paperback release of her book Why We Sing.

In an email, the author told Rabbi Eli Brackman that she would be “honoured” to speak to the Jewish student society.

At the beginning of February, however, Hollander emailed again to say that she would not be able to appear.

“There are just too many competing elements in my life at present,” she wrote. “I do hope we can organise something another time.”

When Rabbi Brackman responded to ask if Hollander might be able to hold an informal Q&A session for students, she replied with the real reason for her cancellation.

“I’m sorry but this is not a good time for me to interact with any Jewish community,” she wrote. “I hope you understand.”

After Rabbi Brackman asked the author to clarify what she meant, Hollander added: “Over the past four months I have found it increasingly difficult to express my agony over the massacre of the population of Gaza when in the company of people who are practising Jews.

“I understand that they too are experiencing their own agony, but am extremely troubled by the killing of tens of thousands of Gazans, and the impact this has on the rest of the world.

“I meant to say nothing of this to you, but am concerned that you don’t leap to any assumptions. I am ardently against discrimination of any sort.”

Jojo Sugarman, President of the Oxford University Chabad Society said he found Hollander’s comments “hurtful”.
More Antisemitic Shit from London Review of Books
The London Review of Books has a long history of Israel demonisation which crosses the line into antisemitism. The latest example is a 7437 word piece of trash by Pankaj Mishra. Unbelievably it has been endorsed on X/Twitter by Louis Theroux who has 2.2m followers. Also unbelievably a Church in London (St James’s Church, Clerkenwell) hosted Mishra for the ‘lecture’ on which the article is based. The Barbican Centre had refused to host the talk.

(In an earlier LRB piece in January Mishra wrote this: ‘Israel: an ethnonational state that violates international legal, diplomatic and ethical protocols with its language of ethnic homogeneity, unwavering policy of territorial expansion, extrajudicial killings and demolitions‘).

His antisemitic theme is simple and one beloved of antisemites for years: that Israel references the Holocaust to justify Nazi-equivalent crimes against the Palestinians. It’s not just ‘Holocaust Inversion’, it’s Double Holocaust Inversion. He even refers to ‘Jewish supremacism’. ‘Jewish’ not ‘Zionist’, note …. (he did the same in his January LRB piece, op cit).

Like Thomas Suarez, Mishra sprays pseudo-academic references – the problem being that they are either to antisemites or they are misleadingly selective quotes. An example is his reference to the the Austrian writer Jean Améry, whom he cites extensively at both ends of his piece of shit. What he DOESN’T tell you is that Améry published several essays on the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. ‘Anti-Zionism contains antisemitism like a cloud contains a storm’, he wrote in the German newspaper Die Zeit in 2005.

Another clue to the pseudo-academic nature of Mishra’s piece of drek is his failure to reference most of the citations!


Harris: Israelis deserve security, don’t ‘conflate’ them with the Israeli government
US Vice President Kamala Harris drew a distinction between Israelis and their government in a TV interview on Friday, saying the two should not be conflated.

Israelis deserve security and the United States will continue to “stand for the security of Israel and its people,” Harris told CBS, when asked whether Jerusalem was at risk of losing support from Washington over its management of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel.

Pointing to the Hamas onslaught, Harris specifically mentioned Israeli victims who were “horribly abused and raped, rape being a tool of war,” days after a UN expert report presented evidence of systematic sexual violence crimes by terrorists during the brutal October 7 killing spree.

“It’s important for us to distinguish or at least not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people. The Israeli people are entitled to security – as are the Palestinians. In equal measure,” she said in the interview with CBS News.

“And our work as always as the United States is to do what we must, and what we always have, to stand for the security of Israel and its people, and also to do what we have done behind closed doors and in public around forcing a better path forward in terms of what’s happening currently in Gaza.”

Her comments reflected the increasing public friction between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition amid the Israel-Hamas war, with President Joe Biden having warned 10 days earlier that if Israel continued with the “incredibly conservative government they have, and [far-right National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and others… they’re going to lose support from around the world. And that is not in Israel’s interest.”

The question on support for Israel came after Biden was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying that he and Netanyahu would need to have a “come to Jesus” meeting — an American expression for having a blunt conversation — on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
SNP leader Humza Yousaf blames 'Islamophobia' after he's criticised for giving £250,000 of taxpayer cash to Gaza aid agency while his in-laws were in war zone
Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has hit out at 'Islamophobic attacks' on his family after he was accused of creating a conflict of interest by directing £250,000 of taxpayer cash to the UN's Gaza aid agency while his in-laws were trapped there.

Mr Yousaf stepped in to suggest giving £250,000 to UNRWA after officials recommended making a maximum £200,000 donation to children's agency Unicef; he was due to meet UNRWA officials in Edinburgh shortly after the exchange.

Meanwhile, his Scottish mother-in-law and her Palestinian husband were trapped in a settlement near Gaza City. They were given safe passage to Egypt the day after the UNRWA donation was announced but Mr Yousaf denies any link.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he said he had spent his 'political life... battl(ing) insinuations from sections of the media desperate to link me to terrorism'; the UNRWA has been accused by Israel of harbouring Hamas sympathisers.

The claims, for which Israel has provided no substantial evidence, have crippled the aid agency after 16 countries withdrew financial support following the allegations in January. The EU, Canada and Sweden have since vowed to resume donations.

Mr Yousaf has described the implication, first reported in the Telegraph, that he was trying to help his family with the use of public money as an 'outrageous smear' and a 'far right conspiracy' that sought to link him to terrorism.

He posted on X, formerly Twitter: 'Most of my political life, I've battled insinuations from sections of the media desperate to link me to terrorism despite campaigning my whole life against it.

'To be clear, the Scottish Government gave money to Gaza, like virtually every Government in the West, because of the unarguable humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded there.

'Whether funding was given to Unicef or UNRWA, both of course UN agencies, it was always for the people of Gaza.

'Funding to UNRWA was deemed the most flexible way of ensuring money got to where it was needed. Hence why so many governments, including the UK, gave millions to them.'

Mr Yousaf's parents-in-law, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, travelled to Gaza in early October shortly before Hamas terrorists breached the Israel border and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, on October 7.


Erdogan: 'Netanyahu earned his place alongside Hitler, Stalin'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered another antisemitic speech, during which he compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fascist leaders on Saturday.

In the speech, Erdogan compared Netanyahu to historical fascist leaders, stating that "Netanyahu earned his place alongside Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin."

The Turkish President also refused to condemn Hamas's actions on October 7 and even stood by the terrorist group in his rhetoric. Erdogan accused Israel of acting as "the Nazis of our time while committing humanitarian crimes in Gaza." He refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization: "We cannot be coerced into designating Hamas as a terrorist organization. We communicate with them openly and stand behind them." Israeli response to Erdogan's fiery rhetoric

In response, Netanyahu said, "Israel observes the laws of war and will not be subject to moral preaching from Erdogan, who supports murderers and rapists of the Hamas terrorist organization, denies the Armenian genocide, massacres Kurds in his own country, and cracks down on regime opponents and journalists."

National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz weighed in on this exchange, criticizing Erdogan for his support of Hamas. "Erdogan standing with Hamas makes him a supporter of crimes against humanity, and comparing the Prime Minister of Israel to dictators is the height of hypocrisy," Gantz stated in a post to X.

"The fact that Erdogan believes that Hamas is not a terrorist organization explains his conduct towards his own citizens. Israel will continue to adhere to international law even in a war against those who have proven to have no humanity."


MEMRI: George Galloway, Former MP Who Won Rochdale Byelection, Returns To UK Parliament: 'Palestine Is One, From The River To The Sea', Iran Has Right To Nuclear Power – From The MEMRI Archives

Hamas leader says donations to Gaza are not humanitarian aid but ‘financial Jihad’

Indiana passes bill defining antisemitism after removing text opposed by Israel critics
Indiana lawmakers have come to a compromise to pass a bill defining antisemitism in state education code.

The bill — meant to address antisemitism on college campuses — stalled this month amid persistent disagreement between lawmakers in the legislative session’s final days. The final version accepted by both the House and Senate chambers makes concessions in language that was opposed by critics of Israel.

Indiana House Republicans passed House Bill 1002 two months ago after listing it among their five priorities for the 2024 session. The legislation would broadly define antisemitism as religious discrimination, claiming it would “provide educational opportunities free of religious discrimination.”

This is the second time the House has tried to pass the legislation, but an identical bill died last year after failing to reach a committee hearing in the state Senate. The legislation rose to new importance this session in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The House bill used the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, and explicitly included “contemporary examples of antisemitism” provided by the alliance, which make references to Israel. These have been adopted by the US Department of State.

State senators, however, passed an amended version of the bill Tuesday that removed language opposed by critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The amended version still includes the IHRA’s broad definition of antisemitism but deleted the alliance’s name and examples that include explicit references to Israel.

Opponents argued that such direct references would stifle criticism of Israel in academic settings and advocacy on campuses for Palestinians in a worsening humanitarian crisis. Support of the bill virtually flipped once the changes were made.
Oscars advert dramatizes real-life bomb threat to US synagogue during a bar mitzvah
A real-life synagogue bomb threat of the type that plagued Jewish congregations for much of last year will be dramatized in an ad during Sunday’s Academy Awards, the most-watched non-football television broadcast in the United States.

The spot has been placed by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which also ran an ad during last month’s Super Bowl. Both adverts depict relations between Jews and other groups, in keeping with the foundation’s mission of raising awareness of antisemitism among non-Jewish audiences.

The 60-second Oscars ad depicts what happened in Attleboro, Massachusetts last fall, when Congregation Agudas Achim, a Reconstructionist synagogue, was evacuated because of a bomb threat. A nearby church took the congregation in, allowing a bat mitzvah service to continue after an interruption.

The ad, titled “Neighbors,” begins with a bar mitzvah being called to the Torah by two rabbis, played by real-life rabbis Michael Dolgin and Aviva Rajsky. The opening words of the Torah blessing are chanted as police sirens fade in, and the sanctuary fills with flashing lights. The rabbi instructs everyone to evacuate and police officers storm the building, a bomb-sniffing dog in tow.

It is nighttime. A newscaster’s voice can be heard explaining: “The threat says, ‘Bombs will blow up tonight. Jews will die. They deserve to die.’” The congregants gather outside, carrying the Torah scrolls from the service, until the pastor from the church across the street tells the rabbi, “Just come to our church.”

Once inside, the bar mitzvah boy, whose name is Elliott, appears dispirited until a boy about his age from the church community sits down beside him in a show of solidarity. The ad concludes with Elliot preparing to resume his bar mitzvah under the shadow of a stained-glass window with a cross at its center. A message appears on the screen: “Hate loses when we stand together.”




For 3rd time, Matisyahu concert canceled amid threat of pro-Palestinian protests
A third Matisyahu concert has been canceled in response to the threat of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests, the American Jewish reggae musician shared on his Instagram Friday afternoon.

The show had been scheduled for Friday night at House of Blues Chicago.

“While my fans and I are deeply hurt by this, please know we will not cower to these bullies and the pressure they exert,” Matisyahu wrote.

The cancellation comes three weeks after the artist had concerts canceled in Tucson, Arizona, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both venues for those shows cited staffing shortages and safety concerns after having been targeted by protesters, who said Matisyahu’s history of performing for Israeli soldiers and pro-Israel groups in the United States should disqualify him from performing. Matisyahu is known for his peace anthem “One Day,” which he performed at the massive pro-Israel rally in Washington, DC, in November.

“While the true details surrounding this decision remain opaque, and while the responsible parties all point fingers at one another over the decision; I can assure you there have been no threats of violence received by our security team who have been vigilant in knowing what is happening in each city,” Matisyahu wrote on his Instagram Friday about the Chicago show.

Matisyahu said the venue had paid him for the cancellation and that he would donate the proceeds to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum “to help the families of the hostages and in honor of International Women’s Day to acknowledge the women and girls still held captive by Hamas” and to the emergency medical service United Hatzalah Israel.




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