Tuesday, March 12, 2024

03/12 Links Pt1: Biden’s Alienating Strategy; The Road to Ceasefire Leads Through the Rafah Offensive; What's Behind the Propaganda War Against Israel

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Biden’s Alienating Strategy
Joe Biden is used to talking to Israel-skeptics who insist their beef isn’t with the Israeli people but with their government, and claim that their resentment isn’t aimed at the Jewish state’s existence but at the lack of a Palestinian state alongside it. The problem is, those folks are gone. Or, to put it more precisely, the people protesting Biden’s support for Israel no longer rely on polite arguments. Now they come right out and say they object to Israel’s very existence.

Biden refuses to address this new reality. It’s the primary reason why his attempts to mollify his party’s base on Gaza have fallen flat. They are talking right past each other.

Biden’s MSNBC interview with Jonathan Capehart on March 10 made it clear the administration has settled on the talking point that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the problem. “In my view,” the president said, “[Netanyahu] is hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world—it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”

What is the “it” here? Biden tried to explain that Bibi is not, apparently, paying enough “attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”

That didn’t make it any clearer, but his discussion of the war in Gaza followed this pattern: he brought it back it back to Bibi.

Vice President Kamala Harris took a more explicit route to the same destination. “I think it’s important for us to distinguish, or at least to not conflate, the Israeli government with the Israeli people,” Harris said. “The Israeli people are entitled to security, as are the Palestinians. In equal measure.”

This is the sort of thing the administration says about the Palestinians and Hamas. The moral equivalence is egregious, but another problem with it is this: Whom are they talking to? Who is the audience for this?

Vilifying Bibi was edgy a decade ago, maybe, especially as a way of saying Israel might conceivably have the right to defend itself but not this way. Today, the activists powering the pro-Hamas protest movement don’t believe and don’t claim that “the Israeli people are entitled to security.” They are, instead, saying that the Israeli people are colonizers, that decolonization is necessarily violent, and that Israel doesn’t have the right to security and self-defense from the people it supposedly oppresses.

Biden and Harris are arguing with a ghost.
Jacob Stoil & John Spencer: The Road to Ceasefire Leads Through the Rafah Offensive
Chair of Applied History at the West Point Modern War Institute; chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point

When Hamas attacked and invaded Israel, it did so knowing there would be a massive response by Israel and an operation into Gaza. It knew many Gazan civilians would die, indeed they counted on it, referring to their population as a "nation of martyrs." Hamas' hope is that repeated attacks like Oct. 7 will eventually break the will of the Israeli population. To do that, Hamas would need to survive the war.

Hamas saw that if the U.S. could be made uncomfortable enough with the continuing war, it would put more pressure on Israel to wind down operations. Hamas believes the U.S. will keep Israel out of Rafah, enabling Hamas to walk away with a strategic victory and emerge as the only Palestinian organization to defeat Israel.

Without the realistic threat of an Israeli operation in Rafah, Hamas has no reason to seek a ceasefire, and given Hamas' strategy, there can be no truly lasting ceasefire if Hamas can return to control Gaza. Hamas' unwillingness to negotiate is entirely dependent on the U.S. acting as Hamas wants.
What's Behind the Propaganda War Against Israel
What does Israel have to do to be allowed by the rest of the world to defend itself? The insistent effort by some governments, officials and much of the media in the U.S. and Europe to get the Jewish state to relent against enemies that actively seek to destroy it gives rise to the suspicion that for too many of them, perhaps Israel doesn't deserve the right to exist at all. Fortunately, Israel doesn't need the West's permission to save itself.

The president feels obliged to balance his support of Israel with a rhetorical campaign of increasingly shrill, daily denunciations of Israel's efforts in Gaza. He told MSNBC that the offensive in Gaza was "hurting Israel more than helping Israel...and I think it's a big mistake."

Even after the horrors of Oct. 7, Israel is tagged as the aggressor in the media. Israel is said to have - either recklessly or out of genocidal intent - massacred tens of thousands of innocent civilians. But in the process of extirpating Hamas it was inevitable civilians would be killed. This wasn't simply because there is "collateral" damage in any large-scale warfare, but because Hamas intended it that way. To the terror group, the propaganda value of a dead Palestinian child is as great as that of an Israeli.


Netanyahu at AIPAC: Wrong to hold Israel to standards no one else is held to
The international community must stop applying double standards when it comes to IDF actions during the Israel-Hamas war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Tuesday in a virtual address.

“You can not say you support Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas and then oppose Israel when it takes the action necessary to achieve that goal,” Netanyahu stated.

“You can not say that you oppose Hamas’s strategy of using civilians as human shields and then blame Israel for the civilian casualties that result from this Hamas cynical strategy.

“For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. For Hamas, every civilian death is a strategy,” he said.

“It is wrong and immoral to hold Israel to a standard for avoiding civilian casualties that no other country on earth is held to,” he stated.

Growing tension between Netanyahu's government and Biden administartion
Netanyahu spoke amid growing tension between his government and the Biden administration over Israel’s policies concerning the Gaza war.

The US had hoped to finalize a six-week pause to the war, that would allow for the release of some 40 out of the remaining 134 hostages held in Gaza and to expand the absence of those hostilities into a deal for a permanent ceasefire.

Instead, the continuation of the war into the holy month of Ramadan, which began on Sunday night Ramadan, has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the enclave and increased the risk that combat in Gaza could spark a regional war.

The international community has increasingly pressed Israel to halt the war, even though it has not achieved its goal of destroying Hamas, a goal many countries, including the United States, support.
Richard Goldberg: Biden should draw red lines for Hamas — not Israel
Biden today is wielding Hamas disinformation as a weapon in pressuring Israel not to enter Rafah.

An estimated 1 million Palestinians who fled south during the war have taken refuge there, and the White House claims it has seen no plan from Israel to safely evacuate that population before commencing major operations against Hamas.

Washington and Saudi Arabia could put pressure on Egypt to open its border and allow for temporary tent cities to be established in the Sinai.

The Saudis could finance this with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees coordinating aid.

This would be the easiest way to minimize civilian harm, yet Biden chooses to pressure Israel into a Hamas victory instead of threatening American aid to Cairo if Egypt doesn’t comply.

In the face of Egyptian intransigence, Israel is reportedly planning to establish 15 sites with medical field clinics across the southwestern part of the Gaza Strip.

It did everything possible to enable civilian evacuation in every other major city where it defeated Hamas — and it will surely do the same in Rafah.

A recent poll found 75% of Israelis from across the political spectrum support completing the takedown of Hamas in Rafah.

They know the alternative puts an egg-timer on Israel’s future.

When given the order, Israel’s military will do what it does best: destroy the enemy, minimize civilian casualties and defend the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he has his own red line: that Oct. 7 never happens again.

With 34 Americans dead and six held hostage, that should be America’s red line, too.
Biden’s Rafah ‘Red Line’ Sets Up Historic Crisis in U.S.–Israel Relations
You’d think that a president who had a front-row seat in the Obama administration might be a bit more careful about issuing ad hoc red lines on foreign policy that he knows will be crossed. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what President Biden has done in issuing a red line on an Israeli invasion of Rafah, which is a necessary step to defeating Hamas. In the process, he has set up a historic crisis in the United States relationship with Israel.

Biden, asked by MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart if an Israeli invasion would be a red line, said, “It is a red line, but I am never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there is no red line I am going to cut off all weapons, so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.” He went on, “But there’s red lines that if he crosses . . .” As his thought trailed off, he then said (citing dubious Hamas casualty figures), “you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

That Biden said he wouldn’t cut off “all weapons” and mentioned the Iron Dome system that intercepts rockets heading to Israel left open the possibility that there would be some weapons transfers he would end if Israel enters Rafah. The category of non–Iron Dome or not purely defensive weapons is large. For instance, that category could include stopping the resupply of parts that allow Israel to maintain its fleet of U.S.-made aircraft.

While Biden and his administration have tried to draw a distinction between Netanyahu and Israel in general, the reality is that when it comes to the basic goals and strategy of defeating Hamas, there is not a distinction. Specifically, a poll released over the weekend found that nearly three-quarters of Jewish Israelis, and 65 percent of Israelis overall, believe Israel should expand its military operations into Rafah, the final holdout of Hamas in southern Gaza.


US agencies ‘expect’ protests to force Netanyahu to resign
Washington expects that large demonstrations will force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation and bring about the replacement of his right-wing government with a “more moderate” coalition, according to a report prepared by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The “2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” released on Monday, is meant to reflect the “collective insights” of Washington’s intelligence agencies, including the CIA. It claims that the Israeli prime minister’s “viability as leader … may be in jeopardy.”

“Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility,” the report states.

The intelligence agencies noted that the longtime Israeli leader has “publicly stated his opposition to postwar diplomacy with the Palestinian Authority (PA) toward territorial compromise.”

In recent months, the Biden administration has been pushing for the Palestinian Authority to return to power in Gaza as a first step towards a Palestinian state. The White House has reportedly threatened unilateral recognition amid broad opposition to the move in Israel.

Regarding the current war in the Gaza Strip, which was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, Monday’s document predicts that Israeli forces will face “lingering armed resistance … for years to come.”
Aviva Klompas: Israel’s real goal must be to deradicalize Gaza, not just to demilitarize it
The Oslo narrative of peace competed with this alternative narrative of hate without even acknowledging it. Looking back, it never had a chance. In both cultures, Oslo has since become a derogatory word for stagnation that contains the worst of all worlds.

Palestinians, of course, never established a state. The land is still divided as it was during the interim period of the accords. Leadership remains committed to terrorism, both in Gaza under Hamas and in Judea and Samaria and under the Palestinian Authority, which still stands by its “pay to slay” policy of financially rewarding terrorists and their families.

This radicalized ethos has relegated Palestinians to a life of constant incitement and poverty. It led thousands of Palestinians to pour through the border into rural communities and attack Israeli families in their homes on October 7. It explains why recent polls in Gaza and the West Bank show that only 10 percent of Palestinians believe those attacks constituted war crimes.

Israel must develop more than just military plans for after the war. It must work with international partners to marginalize the forces that foster, fund, and incite hate. If the “Day After” plans don’t thoroughly address the root of the hateful ideology, yet another generation of Israelis and Palestinians will be doomed to bloodshed and tragedy.

In concrete terms, that means increasing oversight of how aid dollars are used in the Strip, so there are mechanisms and incentives to mitigate further radicalization. It means overhauling Palestinian education systems and curricula so that they do not dehumanize Jews or call for Israel’s destruction. It means clamping down on institutions that are poisoned by ideology, including cultural events that portray the Middle East without Israel, sports events named after terrorist “martyrs,” or Friday sermons that glorify the murder of Jews.

We cannot revert to this Oslo-like reality where Israel has security control, but Gaza is populated by an aggrieved civilian population that regards Israelis as subhuman. Instead, we must demilitarize and deradicalize.
Seth Frantzman: Egyptian activist tells ‘Post’ she condemns Hamas and October 7 massacre
“I am keeping my voice heard and fighting Islamists, and I also support Israel. I believe Israel is leading this war on behalf of all of us in the Middle East region,” says Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian writer and civil rights activist. She is the executive director of the Center for Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Studies (MEEM) and the founding chair of the Liberal Democracy Institute.

She took a stand after the Hamas attack on October 7 and condemned it. At the time, this appeared in line with Egypt’s official view as well, which has been against terrorism. However, she faced harsh criticism and threats at home and became a target.

Ziada says her only option was to flee to the US. She says it’s not just about fighting Hamas terrorism but fighting terrorism in the region, “including Hezbollah, Houthis, and all Iran’s proxies. That is, I believe, the most important thing that Arab countries need to understand. I will keep working on that and keep the pressure [going], and I will keep working on Middle Eastern issues. I could have been killed by some extremists or imprisoned back in Egypt. So here I am, trying to keep things moving forward.”

A week before October 7, Ziada was in Washington, speaking at the Atlantic Council about Eastern Mediterranean issues. She takes a deep interest in regional issues, including relations between Egypt and neighboring states and other countries, such as Turkey. It’s hard to remember now, she concedes, but before October 7, the big story in the region was the integration of various countries. This included Israel-Turkey reconciliation and the route linking Israel and the Abraham Accords countries.
MEMRI: Port of Hope in Gaza: The Beginning of the End of the War
The American initiative to build a temporary port off the coast of Gaza carries far-reaching military, political, and strategic implications.

It suffices to see who is against this humanitarian move - Qatar and its ally Iran. Anything that disables the grip of Hamas and Qatar on the Gazan population is something Iran will oppose.

Official Iranian media outlets describe the port as a plot against Hamas.

The port initiative will cut off the Hamas-Qatar control of the supplies that until now came through the Rafah crossing, and from there were stolen by Hamas.

The port will enable Israel to carry out the absolutely necessary military operation in Rafah with minimal civilian casualties since the population will move again to where there is a secure and constant flow of food thanks to the U.S. and the Emirates.
Top Republican presses Biden on 'grave' concerns with Gaza aid port as Pentagon warns there is 'certainly a risk' that Hamas could fire on U.S. troops during the operation
A top Republican is sounding the alarm about 'grave' consequences of President Biden's plan to establish an emergency floating port off Gaza to help get more humanitarian into the war-torn region.

During his State of the Union address, Biden ordered the U.S. military to send thousands of American troops on ships with armed escorts to build a temporary pier off Gaza.

'I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters,' the president stated last week.

'No U.S. boots will be on the ground,' Biden pledged. 'A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.'

However, former Special Forces officer Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., fired off a letter to Biden obtained by DailyMail.com stating that he 'cannot easily imagine a more potentially catastrophic U.S. policy towards Gaza. The risk seems immense.'

He says the main problems remain with the distribution of the aid as Hamas terrorists are likely to intercept it before it gets into the hands of civilians.

'The problem has been distribution, and distribution is what matters. This is a product of, if you will, commercialization of the assistance: criminal gangs are taking it, looting it, reselling it,' Waltz wrote.

In addition, the congressman, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, is also questioning how the military will be able to 'maintain security' over shipments at the dock, including intercepting lethal Iranian aid and missile components.

'This type of smuggled lethal aid is precisely the reason Israel is at such danger from Hamas, and why we must make every effort to ensure that additional Iranian weapons do not reach Gaza,' he says, calling the operation a 'vast misprioritization of U.S. military resources.'

'It is unclear how this operation will address the six remaining US citizens among the more than 134 hostages still in the hands of Hamas,' he adds.


Israeli Foreign Minister to UN Security Council: Why Has the UN Never Condemned Hamas for Its Brutal Crimes?
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the UN Security Council on Monday:

I have come here to protest, as loudly as I possibly can, against the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas murderers, carried out with the clear approval of their religious leaders to terrorize Israeli society. These murderers were so proud of abusing and raping our poor victims that they took pictures and broadcasted their terrible deeds live.

The United Nations has been silent regarding the actions of Hamas for too long. Over the past five months, since October 7, the United Nations has convened 41 times and has neither condemned nor denounced the brutal crimes of Hamas.

Hamas is the sole entity responsible for the crimes committed against humanity. Hamas killers breached the borders and attacked innocent Israelis who were peacefully in their homes and beds in kibbutzim, villages and cities.

Young people, boys and girls, came from all over the world to participate in the Nova Festival, a festival of peace and happiness. Hundreds of them were surrounded, attacked from all sides and brutally slaughtered. According to the UN report, this was not an act of war. These acts were the highest level of crimes against humanity.

Hamas' crimes are even more severe than the acts of terror perpetrated by al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations that have been sanctioned by the United Nations. Do not turn your head away from the facts: Hamas must be declared a terrorist organization and face the harshest sanctions.

I demand that the UN Security Council exert as much pressure as possible on the Hamas organization to immediately and unconditionally release all the abductees, who today, as we speak, are being abused and assaulted, and are in great danger.
Israeli FM to UN Secretary-General: ‘You’ve brought world body to all-time low’
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz sent a sharply worded letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, charging him with a blatant disregard for the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Jewish people on Oct. 7.

“Your dismissal of the heinous acts as documented in the recent U.N. report—acts which are still being perpetrated—is not only inadequate but also offensive,” wrote Katz.

“The world has been waiting five months for your actions. The necessity to declare Hamas as a terrorist organization, and to impose severe sanctions similar to those placed on Al Qaeda and Daesh, is critical and indisputable,” he added.

“Your reluctance to lead a decisive international stance against these atrocities, instead fixating on criticism on Israel—a nation in self-defense after a barbaric massacre—signals a distressing bias.

“If the victims would not have been of Jewish or Israeli descent, your office would have responded in a much [more] vigorous way,” the letter continues.

“Any moral leader” would have taken steps to immediately secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, wrote Katz, noting that Guterres’ office had not even “ensured that U.N. sub-bodies provide necessary medical care to the hostages.”

What’s more, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian Arabs, was “implicated” in the massacre, Katz said, adding that UNRWA’s corruption has been long documented, but that Guterres had “neglected to take appropriate actions.”

Katz also called attention to the delay in addressing a report on Hamas’s barbarous acts, “barring one brief mention in a footnote—your call for a Security Council session under Article 99, which ironically included an attack on Israel’s response.”


Hamas Weaponized Sexual Assault to Deliver a Nessage
The world was shocked on Oct. 7 not just by the scale of the Hamas attack on Israel but by its brutality and the sexual atrocities committed against women. The tactics involving extreme sexual violence and barbarous acts meted out against Israeli women, children and babies were new and deliberate. It is likely that these terrorists, intensively trained and rehearsed, had been purposely instructed to perform outrageous acts of sexual violence and to publish them on social media.

Hamas leaders may have believed that these outrages, if publicized graphically, would cause debilitating fear and traumatize all Israelis, and that this new level of horror would persuade a significant segment of the Israeli population to feel defeated and leave their country. We believe it is more likely that Hamas leaders gambled that without the outrage caused by their brutality, they would not succeed in luring Israel into what they believed would be an unwinnable urban war in Gaza.


Experts slam leaked UNRWA report claiming Israel coerced workers into making false statements: 'Ridiculous'
Peter Gallo, an international lawyer and former Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigator at the U.N., provided Fox News Digital with his detailed analysis of the UNRWA report based on the Reuters article and Touma’s comments, calling them laughable.

Gallo said, "Even more hilarious is the statement by the UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma, who told Reuters that anyone with information on the allegations against UNRWA staff were encouraged to share it with the investigation. That has to be a contender for the best joke of the week."

Gallo said, "These people live in Gaza, where every aspect of their lives since 2006 has been controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization that has no political opposition, because the penalty for opposing them is death and Juliette Touma thinks that ordinary Gazans should provide information – to an Organization that cannot protect them and that has been manipulated by Hamas for years – about individuals who, in the service of Hamas were involved in the murder, rape and mutilation over 1,400 unarmed civilians."

Jonathan Conricus, senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former IDF spokesperson, said, "UNRWA staff have been exposed as members of Hamas and other terror organization in Gaza, as well as active participants in the atrocities of October 7."

"As long as UNRWA exists in the Gaza Strip, there will be no peace, no Palestinian self-definition, no stability, but only poverty, despair, and a tremendous waste of human potential."

The former Israeli army spokesperson said, "UNRWA should be dismantled, and the international community should instead invest in building local organizations focused on the future prosperity of Palestinians in Gaza, instead of indoctrinating children to be terrorists, and forcing Palestinians to live in a perpetual state of victimhood and misery."

He added, "UNRWA has failed Palestinians in Gaza, has failed in its humanitarian mission, has failed to implement its mandate, and has been exposed to be little more than a facade for the continued rule of Hamas over the Gaza Strip."

According to Conricus, "UNWRA should be held accountable for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, since UNRWA knowingly decided not to evacuate civilians and not to establish a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza when Israel requested it to do so. It has implemented a policy of prioritizing the continued oppressive rule of Hamas over the needs of the civilian population."

David Bedein, director of the Center for Near East Policy Research and an expert on UNRWA's curriculum, called the UNRWA report "ridiculous" in an interview with Fox News Digital. He cited a 2009 report on his organization’s website that noted, "Since 1990 Hamas has dominated UNRWA’s unions in the Gaza Strip. In the elections held in June 2003, the Islamic Block affiliated with Hamas won 23 of the 27 seats, Hamas’s fourth consecutive victory in the UNRWA elections. That gave Hamas complete control of education, since the Islamic Block won all 11 of the teachers’ seats."

Bedein claimed Hamas’ domination of UNRWA’s unions in the Gaza Strip continued after 2009.


Gallant to troops: Iran smuggling arms into West Bank, gird for Ramadan terror
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Iran is seeking to promote major terror attacks by smuggling weapons into the West Bank.

“We must prepare for an increase in terror during Ramadan,” Gallant says to troops of the elite Duvdevan unit.

“Iran is working to up the severity of attacks by smuggling in many weapons,” he says, describing the arms as “high-quality.”

Israel has previously announced that it had foiled attempts to smuggle Iranian-made explosives into Israel and the West Bank from Jordan.


IDF: Replacement for Hamas Won't Work while Sinwar Lives
Replacing Hamas as Gaza's ruler will not work until Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is dead, say IDF sources.

The current Israeli plan to replace Hamas with local clans can potentially work on a limited neighborhood basis, but to restore Gaza into a functioning fabric, Gazans will need to be convinced that Hamas cannot return by Sinwar's removal.

Plans that pretend there are large groups of Gazans who already feel free of Hamas are ignoring current realities, say IDF sources.

One change taking place is the downgrading of UNRWA as the main humanitarian aid organization in Gaza.

The World Food Program (WFP) has taken over 50% of food deliveries in Gaza, and the IDF says it can take on an even larger role in the future.

The UN has moved $300 million in food purchases to the WFP for the future.

The IDF said there are a variety of other organizations that can replace different aspects of what UNRWA has done in Gaza, such as World Central Kitchen, KfW, Japan International Cooperation Agency, UNMAS, and USAID.
American-Israeli IDF soldier killed on Oct. 7, body held hostage by Hamas
IDF St.-Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, from Netanya, was killed on October 7, the IDF confirmed on Tuesday. His body is being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was devastated to learn that Chen, who was a dual US-Israel citizen, was killed at the Nahal Oz military base. Biden says he's devastated to learn of killing of US-Israeli citizen on Oct. 7

Itay’s father, Robby, said that the family “received new intelligence as to Itay’s fate, after he was killed. We decided our mission is not over; we are waiting for his return to sit shiva [traditional week-long Jewish mourning period]. We will continue to fight for the return of all hostages now. Right now, we are faced with an opportunity to lighten the suffering of all the hostage families; I am calling on the prime minister and the government to do everything in their power to bring our loved ones home.”

The family added that “the chief military rabbi determined his death after examining all the findings and based on reliable information.”

“I reaffirm my pledge to all the families of those still held hostage: we are with you. We will never stop working to bring your loved ones home,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.


Gazans Barely See the Aid that Enters
In Gaza, as armed men surround aid trucks, residents point fingers at both Israel and Hamas for exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, with vital supplies scarce amid ongoing conflict

The dire shortage of food and essential humanitarian supplies in the Gaza Strip has captured global attention, yet some of the Palestinians living in the enclave are debating the root of the crisis. While most attribute the hardships faced by Gaza’s residents to Israel, others point towards Hamas.

Five months following Hamas’ invasion of Israel—which resulted in the deaths of 2,000 Israelis and 30,000 Palestinians and the abduction of more than 250 Israelis and foreign nationals—the dire scarcity of essentials for nearly 2 million Palestinians is altering the narratives.

In response to the intense international pressure, the US airdropped 38,000 meals and just approved building a floating pier to deliver two meals daily to the Palestinian people. However, Israel claims that Hamas has taken food staples and other packages at the Rafah crossing and is reselling them to their people.

The Media Line spoke with Gazans about the current situation. Some names are obscured to protect their identity.

“In the last few days, we have only had a few trucks carrying food items, but these trucks are not allowed to enter Gaza City at this time,” Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, told The Media Line. “This is a big catastrophe we are witnessing at this time. There are 2.3 million people, most of whom are children, women, elders, and injured people who need food and have lost their income and resources.”

“There is no work, there is nothing. We are just looking for food, water, and medicine, and we have this limited quantity with such restrictions, which leads to a higher death toll among the children.”


Israel’s Mental Health Tsunami
Ask mental health professionals why more Israelis require mental health treatment despite not directly experiencing the Oct. 7 attacks, and one verb consistently emerges, stated in English within conversations otherwise held in Hebrew: “triggering.” By triggering, they mean that Hamas’ rampage exacerbated, even revived, one’s emotional pain from previous traumas—including rape.

That’s the case in the clinic the Lev Hasharon hospital set up post-Oct. 7 to provide therapy for those who endured sexual trauma at the Nova festival. But none of the clinic’s current 25 or so patients were raped, or witnessed rape, by Hamas that day; they are survivors of trauma, including sexual trauma, prior to the Hamas attack.

“For sexual-trauma survivors, [Oct. 7] is very triggering,” said Brenner, the director of Lev Hasharon’s sexual-trauma clinic, which is known as the Nova Anchor.

A report called “Silent Cry: Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War,” published on Feb. 21 by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers of Israel, covered testimonies and evidence related to four locations where rape and genital mutilation were perpetrated against men and women: the Nova festival, Gaza-area communities, Israel Defense Forces bases, and places in the Gaza Strip where Hamas brought those it kidnapped from Israel.

For Hamas, “sexual abuse was not an isolated incident or sporadic cases but rather a clear operational strategy,” it stated.

Orit Sulitzeanu, the association’s chief executive officer, said that many who call and receive care “are undergoing triggering due to Oct. 7.” She’s spoken with first responders and others in emotional distress from witnessing the victims of Hamas’ sexual assaults: police officers, paramedics, soldiers, those retrieving body parts, and forensics investigators.

“Whoever is resilient is resilient. Whoever isn’t, it’s very hard. Someone with trauma in the past will be triggered by what happened,” she said.

Levi-Belz said that some of his other findings have not been published. For example, he and his co-authors determined that since Oct. 7, twice as many Israeli women than men feel fearful, which he attributed to news reports of the sexual crimes perpetrated that day.


Caroline Glick: Biden's Mic Drop and the Worst Crisis in US/Israel Relations
The Biden administration goes on a full-on assault on Israel saying Netanyahu needs a "coming to Jesus" moment. announces a port that will deliver lots of aid into the hands of Hamas, and continues to work to overthrow the Israeli government.


How Biden May Have Just Doomed Hostages & Helped Hamas | David M. Friedman
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to David M. Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, about the current state of Israel and its resilience amid conflict; the fear and trauma experienced by Israelis during the war as well as their determination and resilience; how the Biden administration has weakened Israel's ability to rescue hostages and prolonged the conflict; his concern for the state of the U.S.; the border crisis and the influence of left-wing ideologies; how a return to Judeo-Christian values could provide a path forward for both Israel and the U.S.; and much more.




Maryland rabbis urge Van Hollen to change course on Israel rhetoric
The letter criticizes Van Hollen for failing to call out the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s ties to Hamas and Hamas’ yearslong record of stealing international humanitarian aid.

“Anything less than the removal of Hamas from power will only lead to more war, more violence, more civilians killed at the hands of the terrorists,” the letter reads. “We ask you that you take these threats seriously and stand up to hate in Maryland, Israel and around the world.”

The signatories called on Van Hollen to take the threat that Hamas’ continued power poses “seriously and stand up to hate in Maryland, Israel and around the world.”

The letter was organized by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Rabbi Chai Posner of Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore, Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Rabbi Dana Saroken of Beth El Congregation in Baltimore and Rabbi Shmuel Silber of Suburban Orthodox Congregation in Baltimore.

The letter is a signal of growing in-state discontent with Van Hollen — who was the favored candidate of Maryland’s pro-Israel community in his 2016 Senate primary — over his increasingly vocal stances on Israel since Oct. 7.

Weinblatt told Jewish Insider that many of the signatories have known Van Hollen “for years if not decades, and respect much of the work he has done for the State of Maryland, and the Jewish community” but see his comments on Israel as “misguided” and serving “no purpose other than to inflame an already tense situation, while also making our jobs as religious leaders in the Jewish community that much harder.”

He said that Van Hollen’s comments and actions have been “almost insulting” given the steps Israel takes to avoid civilian casualties, adding that there’s “an increasing recognition” in Maryland’s Jewish community that Van Hollen’s comments are “outright unhelpful” because “it really only encourages Hamas, which prolongs the war and leads to more suffering.”

Weinblatt said the rabbis “would welcome a change in course, or a conversation about why his rhetoric has taken such a turn.”


Call Me Back PodCast: My ‘Come to Jesus’ Moment with Haviv
Hosted by Dan Senor
As Ramadan begins, many analysts are speculating on what this means for Israel’s coming military operation in Rafah. There is a threat from Hamas to deter a Rafah operation. There is a threat from the Biden administration seemingly designed to encourage Israeli’s War Cabinet to re-think the operation. Are these real threats? How does Israel evaluate these threats? This is what we unpack in our weekly check-in with Haviv Rettig Gur.

Then we discuss whether President Biden is beginning a turn against Israel. Is it real or is it performative? Is there a difference? What are the implications?


Israel 'losing the propaganda war' as pressure mounts to resume UNRWA funds
The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says Israel is “losing the propaganda war” against Hamas as global pressure mounts for the West to resume funding for UNRWA.

“I don’t understand why we fund UNRWA at all – UNRWA is full of Hamas activists,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News Australia.

“Israel and Gaza are surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs, including some of the richest states in the world.

“If they can’t stump up the couple hundred of million bucks that UNRWA needs, why are Australian taxpayers being required to do this?

“It all seems a bit weird to me.”


Israel-Gaza conflict ‘would be over in hours’ if Hamas released hostages
Former Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma says Israel’s conflict with Gaza would be “over in a matter of hours” if Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages and laid down their weapons.

Mr Sharma said there is too much focus on Israel’s actions and “nothing about the party that started this war”.

“You need two parties to secure a ceasefire,” he told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“Hamas doesn’t seem to be interested in a ceasefire.

“They seem to be interested in something they can sell as a victory.”




Israel will ‘continue mission’ regardless of what Joe Biden has to say: James Paterson
The Israeli people will continue to support the mission of annihilating Hamas regardless of any criticism from US President Joe Biden, Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson has reported from Jerusalem.

Mr Paterson’s follow Joe Biden's criticism of Israel's war tactics saying they are ‘hurting Israel, more than they are helping them.’

“People here in Israel would like to have the full-throated support of friends and allies around the world,” Mr Paterson told Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny.

"But if they are forced to choose between public criticism and losing a public relations battle and giving up on their military battle and loosing that battle, well I think it’s a very clear choice that they would make.

“Everyday of the week they will continue to pursue this mission.”


Albanese facing growing pressure to restore funding to UNRWA
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing growing pressure to restore funding to UNRWA.

This comes as a quarter of Gaza’s population is estimated to be facing starvation.

Mr Albanese said his government is looking at the “range of support that can be given in terms of essential food” including through other means.

According to their website, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees provides relief to Palestinian refugees.

Sky News Australia was joined by Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham to discuss the potential return of UNRWA funding.


Former foreign minister calls for reinstated UNRWA funding despite ‘links with Hamas’
Sky News host Rowan Dean says Gareth Evans calling for UNRWA funding to be restarted is providing “moral and popular propaganda support” for Hamas.

Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans wants the government to reinstate funding to UNRWA.

This was despite Israeli intelligence that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attacks.

Mr Dean told Sky News host Rita Panahi that UNRWA have “proven links with Hamas”.

“If he can live with that on his conscious, good luck to him.”




'Go back to Auschwitz!': What some pro-Palestinian protesters really mean
While walking between buildings at the Jewish National Fund (JNF) conference in Denver last December, I was part of a group accosted by a protester who angrily shouted at us to “Go back to Auschwitz!”As deplorable as it was to hear a person wish another human be sent to the Nazi gas chambers, there was something noteworthy about this protester: He told you exactly what he wants.

Too many other anti-Israel protesters want the same thing but obfuscate their messages behind false veneers to make them palatable to Western tastes.

Shouts of, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” are presented innocuously – who can object to freedom, especially when packaged in a cute rhyme? The Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are Israel’s borders. This shout really means that Israel, and by extension the Jewish people, should not exist.

It’s an indirect way of saying, “Go back to Auschwitz!”

Instead of legitimately calling for the rights of Palestinians, for a peace process, or for co-existence, many anti-Israel protesters scream, “Globalize the Intifada!” and “One solution: Intifada revolution!”

Apologists will say this is a call for peace. Nonsense.

Ask any Israeli who has lived through an Intifada and you’ll hear about bus bombings, rock- throwings, mass shootings, and pervasive terror attacks.

Calls for Intifada, even when they rhyme, are not calls for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation: They are calls for the Jews to go back to Auschwitz.
Baying Jew-haters hurl abuse at little Jewish girl coming to opening of Holocaust museum in Amsterdam
At a Dutch museum dedicated to preserving the consequences of Jew-hate, a small girl got to experience that hate, too, as baying mobs waving Palestinian flags screamed out their hatred for Jews at the child.

Here is what was seen on Twitter:

The picture was curiously redolent of Norman Rockwell's famous masterpiece about desegregation of schools titled "The Problem We All Live With," in this illustrative painting:
Here's the best account of the context -- from The Guardian of all places:
Three-quarters of the Dutch Jewish population – 102,000 people – were killed by the Nazis during the second world war, the highest proportion in western Europe. But, unlike some other countries, the Netherlands has never had a national museum devoted to those horrors.

That changed on Sunday when, eight decades after the second world war and in the presence of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, the Dutch king opened the country’s first Holocaust museum on the site of an Amsterdam creche and former teaching college where 600 children were smuggled to safety.

Wearing a kippah, the monarch, Willem-Alexander, said: “There is no excuse for not knowing, no room for perspective. Ifs and buts are not appropriate here. Knowing about the Holocaust is not optional. This museum shows us what happened. And not so very long ago.”

Herzog, whose attendance sparked protests amid Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza, said the museum sent “a clear and powerful statement: remember, remember the horrors born of hatred, antisemitism and racism and never again allow them to flourish.”

“Unfortunately never again is now, right now. Because right now, hatred and antisemitism are flourishing worldwide and we must fight it together,” added the president.

Waving Palestinian flags and banners, protesters in a square close to the museum voiced their anger at his visit, chanting “ceasefire now”. The human rights group Amnesty International, meanwhile, put up detour signs around the museum to direct Herzog to the international court of justice in The Hague.

The little girl was a great grandchild of one of the few Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust of Dutch Jews.
Charlotte Church says it is ‘difficult to know full truth of October 7’
Welsh singer and activist Charlotte Church has questioned “the full truth” of October 7 in an online post where she also claims she “will never be an antisemite”.

The former child star was responding to allegations of Jew-hate that were levelled against her after she sang “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” with a village hall choir and marched at a Stop the War rally on Saturday.

Two weeks after she was accused of antisemitism, Church marched at the front of the rally organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and addressed the crowd.

The singer said she marched for a future “which isn’t completely reliant upon or completely in submission to capitalist interest”.

Interviewed by Novara Media, the 38-year-old said, “Something that is happening here is striking at the very heart of all of our freedoms and our ability to call for something better.”

According to Church, the “fight” for Palestinian liberation is “the biggest spiritual quest of our time”.

The classic music singer suggested other public figures were not speaking about Palestine because of “the risk of being labelled an antisemite almost immediately”.

In a blog post after the march, Church went on to cast doubt on the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, writing: “It is difficult to know the full truth of what happened that day, and hopefully with the fullness of time we will have a better perspective”. She also said she “condemned” Hamas and the attack on Israel.


Court LIFTS suppression order in shocking Melbourne assault
The Melbourne Magistrates' Court has ordered the lifting of the suppression order surrounding a high-profile case involving a shocking assault.

Rebel News has spearheaded the campaign to have the suppression order lifted, advocating for transparency and accountability. Mainstream media outlets joined the fight, highlighting the importance of public access to information.

The case revolves around the alleged kidnapping and brutal assault of a 31-year-old Melbourne man by pro-Hamas activists.

It can now be reported that Melbourne-based anti-Israel activist, Laura Allam, was apprehended on charges ranging from kidnapping to assault. Her alleged accomplice Mohammad Sharab can also now be named.

However, the court ruled in favour of suppressing other specific details surrounding the case.

Allam is well known for her activism against Israel and is a prominent member of Australia's Muslim-Lebanese community and reportedly has close ties to feminist activist Clementine Ford.

She allegedly has links to a range of prominent left-wing powerbrokers including Greens senators David Shoebridge, Janet Rice, Jordan Steele-John, Dorinda Cox and Mehreen Faruqi.

Allam had previously claimed to be the CEO of an Islamic relief charity named the Al Jannah Foundation. However, media investigations have revealed that the foundation ceased operations back in 2023.
Palestine activist Laura Allam allegedly stomped on kidnapping victim's head after luring man into her vehicle via WhatsApp
The prominent Melbourne activist currently on bail for kidnapping and assault charges has been identified as 27-year-old pro-Palestine campaigner Laura Allam.

Ms Allam is the CEO of Al Jannah Foundation, a non-profit that aims to “raise Lebanon back to its feet” and has drawn the outrage of Jewish groups in recent months for publicly celebrating the deaths of Israelis in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Now, it can be revealed that police allege last month Ms Allam messaged a man via WhatsApp to meet for dinner before orchestrating his violent kidnapping and torture with the help of three accomplices.

Police allege Ms Allam arrived at the victim’s home at 9.50pm on February 16 and picked up the man in her Volkswagen Golf.

But she only travelled a short distance down the road before stopping.

Court documents claim Ms Allam said she was "bloated", that her pants were too tight and undid the button on them.

She then got out of the Volkswagen and the victim was immediately surrounded by three masked men.

The victim was allegedly dragged out of the vehicle where he was repeatedly kicked and stomped on, including to his head and back, before being thrown into a white ute.

Ms Allam allegedly participated in the violent assault and stomped on the victim’s head, before the activist and her accomplices forced the victim to hand over a mobile phone and an Apple watch, breaking his finger in the process.

The badly beaten victim allegedly recognised a former flat mate, Mohammad Sharab, 37, as one of his attackers.

Mr Sharab is regularly seen speaking at pro-Palestine rallies around Melbourne’s CBD.

A passerby found the victim staggering the streets of Braybrook after the bloody attack and took him to Sunshine Hospital.

The victim phoned his boss from his hospital bed and warned his employer that the attackers may use sensitive information on his stolen phone to attack the company.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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