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Thursday, April 11, 2024

04/11 Links Pt1: New Video showing Hamas capturing IDF women ‘worse than what we imagined’; Israel to normalise relations with Indonesia; The Stunning Hypocrisy of Blinken and Power

From Ian:

New video showing Hamas capturing IDF women ‘worse than what we imagined’
Newly emerged video shot by Hamas terrorists showing the capture of female Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border has been described as “hard to watch” by Israeli media.

In the video, parts of which have not been shared with the public, Hamas terrorists are initially seen with five female IDF spotters, with two more later added.

“We will exchange you for our people,” the terrorists say.

Another terrorist forces one of the soldiers to show him how to dial a Gaza number from her cell phone. The terrorists later put the soldiers into stolen Israel Defense Forces vehicles for transport to Gaza.

Shira Albag, the mother of the kidnapped soldier Liri Albag, 19, watched it several weeks ago.

“I watched the video. They showed it to us three weeks ago. The IDF spokesman called us and showed us a video from the day of the kidnapping, something we had not seen and did not know about.

“We all only imagined what happened to the girls on Oct. 7, and unfortunately this video proved to us that it was even worse than we imagined,” she said.

According to a recent report by the Times, a number of new female IDF recruits have refused to serve as observer soldiers out of fear that “what happened to them could happen to me,” as one young Israeli recruit, Romi Fisher, told the Times.

At least 15 female soldiers were killed at Gaza border army bases on October 7 with roughly six others taken as hostages by Hamas, including Liri, who was reportedly working her third shift as an observer soldier when she was kidnapped.
Israel to normalise relations with Indonesia
Israel is set to normalise relations with Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, Ynet reported on Thursday.

The move comes after three months of secret talks between Jerusalem and Jakarta. In exchange for establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, Jerusalem will reportedly lift its opposition to Indonesia becoming the 39th member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann sent a letter to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz around two weeks ago, with Jakarta approving the wording.

“I am happy to announce that the Council has officially agreed to the early, clear and explicit condition that Indonesia maintain diplomatic relations with all members of the organisation before any decision to accept [it in] the OECD,” the letter states.

“Moreover, any future decision to accept Indonesia as a member of the organisation will require unanimous agreement among all the members, including Israel. I am convinced that this provides you with security on this important point,” the letter continues.

In a reply letter that Katz sent on Wednesday night and which was seen by Ynet, the minister wrote that “I share your expectation that this process will be a change for Indonesia, as I expect a positive change in its policy towards Israel, and in particular a renunciation of the discriminatory policy towards Israel, towards the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the parties.”

Indonesia has spoken out against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and supported South Africa’s lawsuit at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. However, on Tuesday an Indonesian aircraft participated in an airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, marking the first time that an Indonesian aircraft has flown through Israeli airspace.

Indonesia was one of the Muslim-majority countries that Jerusalem was working to add to the Abraham Accords in the months before the Hamas-led invasion of October 7.
Stephen Pollard: How Israel secured diplomatic relations with Indonesia
The Jewish Insider report was clearly correct. But the principal reason for Indonesia’s change of heart since 2020 is based almost entirely on Indonesia’s self-interest – and is far more prosaic than the era-changing vision of the Abraham Accords and. Indonesia is set to begin formal diplomatic relations with Israel because of one acronym: OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Indonesia has been trying to join the OECD for the past few years but in recent months, as its progress towards membership has speeded up, an obstacle emerged. New members require the approval of all 38 existing members – one of which is Israel.

Israel appears to have used this requirement to secure something of a diplomatic triumph. It has been reported that OECD secretary general Mathias Cormann had initially made clear to Israel that it expected it "not to object" to Indonesia’s application to join, but Israel refused – a stance hardened by Indonesia’s criticism of the Gaza war and its moves against Israel at the ICJ in The Hague.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz is said in response to the OECD to have demanded that Indonesia show a “gesture of goodwill”. Fearing that the long-planned membership of Indonesia would be blocked by Israel, the OECD secretary general agreed to insist that diplomatic relations were established.

This was not quite the demand it might seem, however, as negotiations towards such an agreement had been proceeding for some months, with both sides anticipating a successful outcome before October 7 derailed everything.

Reports suggest that this normalisation of relations would have been agreed last autumn. A Memorandum of Understanding which is said to have included a commitment towards Indonesia joining the Abraham Accords process was signed in September.

But whilst this new diplomatic process has come as a surprise to many, there have been long been economic ties. The exact amount of trade is impossible to quantify as much of it is via third countries, but it is estimated by one analyst as “the high end of hundreds of millions of dollars a year”, most of which is said to be Indonesian agri-tech exports - and there has been an Israel-Indonesia Chamber of Commerce in Tel Aviv since 2009.


Israel Is Demonstrating What the West Will Have to Do to Defend Its Civilization
Six months after Oct. 7, the Israel-Hamas war has made everyone more aware of the preciousness of life. They are determined not to allow it to be taken. They are saddened by the vicious hatred of Israel's enemies and those enemies' willingness to commit horrendous atrocities. They are determined to fight those enemies more intensely than ever.

Each day, there are new stories of unprecedented courage and faith. Israel has been fighting a long and difficult war provoked by the worst attack suffered by Jews since the Holocaust. This war has forced us to accept that hatred is stronger than any attempt at coexistence and tolerance, stronger than concessions like the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel is demonstrating what the West will have to do to defend its civilization. Fearless soldiers have lost some 500 of their comrades - and thousands have been wounded. These soldiers have demonstrated that when massacre strikes a democratic nation, that nation can fight back while still protecting its values.

And it can do so with all its citizens on board. From the moment the Oct. 7 attack began, everyone rushed to put their lives on the line. They are fighting a war of survival. They know millions of people, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and their own families are depending on them. One soldier told me, "My grandfather was in Auschwitz, my father fought in the Yom Kippur War in '73, now 'never again' is me."
Benny Morris: Israel's Security Depends on Rafah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is right that it's crucial for Israel to conquer Rafah and destroy the Hamas battalions ensconced in that city. If this does not happen, Hamas will survive to fight and murder and rape another day - and its leader, Yahya Sinwar, will emerge from his hiding place declaring victory. For Palestinian-Israeli peace to have any chance, Hamas must be obliterated.

Assaulting Rafah will inevitably cause many civilian casualties, despite assurances by Israel that it will move the civilians out of harm's way before launching the offensive. The additional civilian casualties and the attendant disruption of humanitarian aid through the Egypt-Gaza border will ratchet up condemnation of Israel's conduct by its Western allies, led by the U.S.

Yet, Israel must take Rafah if it wants to demolish Hamas as a military and governing organization. For Israel, that potential outcome outweighs the many risks. Above all, an Israeli failure to take Rafah and smash Hamas will paint Israel, in its enemies' eyes, as a weak, defeated polity, easy prey for the next potential assailant.

Zionism came into this world some 140 years ago to end the 2,000 years of Jewish humiliation and oppression, and to provide the Jews, at last, with a haven. To now allow the badly mauled Hamas to emerge victorious will underline Zionism's failure. Invading Rafah is vital to eliminating Hamas and restoring that safe haven.
Jake Wallis Simons: Hamas has all but won
From the point of view of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, this is a dream come true. His strategy – to resist Israel’s assault until the international community tied its hands – is working wonderfully. What motivation has he to release any hostages now? What leverage is left to the Israelis?

According to reports, Sinwar’s messianic tendencies are now in full flow as he revels in ecstasy underground. This weird trait of his used to be described as ‘pathological or out of touch with reality.’ It now seems anything but.

To be fair to the Americans, beleaguered Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t made things easy. Far from it. His power rests on the far-right members of his coalition, who have vetoed both attempts to secure more aid for Gaza and any plan for the governance of the Strip that would involve Palestinian forces. On Thursday, a searing telephone conversation with President Biden caused Netanyahu to allow supplies to pass through the Erez crossing and authorise shipments directly from the port of Ashdod, both measures which his far-right bedfellows had blocked. But this is too little, too late. The Americans have been tearing their hair out while demanding better planning from the Israelis, but political deadlock continues to paralyse Jerusalem.

It is true that the IDF – which has fought bravely and effectively, losing relatively few soldiers and keeping civilian casualties relatively low – has been allowing 200 aid trucks a day into the Strip. This is more than was provided before the war (though domestic production has been severely reduced during the hostilities). But specific shipments, of flour for instance, have become snarled up in political brinkmanship. And without a plan for ‘the day after’, the distribution of aid has been chaotic.

A proposal from the defence establishment – which involved the West Bank intelligence chief Majed Faraj selecting 6,000 Fatah men from Gaza for training in Jordan to enable them to secure the Strip – was vetoed by Netanyahu, under pressure from his extremist flank. This was an imperfect solution, but at least it was a solution. Without it, there is a power vacuum which can only be filled by terrorists. The sporadic Hamas attacks even in the north are testament to the fragility of the IDF’s domination when it has no local component. The contrast between the impressive armed forces and their woeful political masters has never looked so stark.

Even this seems outdated now. Netanyahu promised ‘total victory’, saying it was ‘only a step away’. As the troops come home, Hamas celebrates and anti-government protesters take to the streets of Israel in increasing numbers, these words ring especially hollow. Whether the catastrophic political divisions ushered in by Netanyahu led Hamas to launch October 7 is unknown. But it is certain that Israel’s enemies are looking at the rallies on the streets of Tel Aviv and sharpening their knives.

For the West, however, it is the big picture that is of crucial importance. Whatever our frustrations with the appalling administration in Jerusalem, the way in which Washington and London have played out their hostilities in public – and have now apparently deprived Israel of victory – sends a dangerous signal to the world. Whether seen from Tehran, Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang or Rafah, the message is clear: we may be more powerful than our enemies, but we no longer possess the resilience to stand up to them. Our allies see this equally clearly. Saudi Arabia would only sign a peace accord with Israel if a meaningful American defence pact was on the table. Will they trust such a deal now?

We need to open our eyes, and fast. The war in Gaza is not about Netanyahu. It is not even about Israel in itself. It is about the future of the West. For you and me and our families, the outlook has never looked more dangerous.
Seth Mandel: Iran’s Plans for an October 7 in the West Bank
There is also the captivating reporting by Shlomi Eldar of Hamas’s plans for a post-Israel Israel. “One day,” a prominent Palestinian who fled from Gaza to Egypt tells Eldar, “a well-known Hamas figure calls and tells me with pride and joy that they are preparing a full list of committee heads for the cantons that will be created in Palestine. He offers me the chairmanship of the Zarnuqa committee, where my family lived before 1948.” This Palestinian’s response? “You’re out of your minds.”

But enough Palestinians in Gaza, mostly aligned with Hamas, didn’t think it was so crazy. And October 7 was such a successful blow against Israeli national security that there was no doubt, none at all, that Iran would try again.

So, back to our earlier question: What are we doing about it? We know what Israel is doing about it. We also know that the “human rights” organizations, perhaps the group of people least interested in Palestinian human rights in the entire region, are up and running interference for Iran. The European Union this week confirmed it was dropping its sanctions on an Iranian company still sanctioned by the U.S. for aiding Tehran’s vast censorship regime.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was unimpressed by the EU’s move: “ArvanCloud is a key player in the Iranian regime’s project to cut off the Iranian people from the global internet and surveil them.… ArvanCloud maintains a close relationship to Iran’s ministry of intelligence and security, and senior managers of ArvanCloud are either current or former affiliates of the ministry of intelligence and security. So ArvanCloud remains sanctioned by the United States.”

Yet the Biden administration, for its part, is waiving billions in sanctions on Iran, and has been intervening diplomatically to ease pressure on Hamas in Gaza, which signals to Tehran that its current course of action is working. The cognitive dissonance required by the West’s current set of policies toward Iran and the Palestinians is headache-inducing. But if Iran succeeds in what it’s planning, that’ll be the least of the pain felt by the free world.
Netanyahu: ‘Whoever harms us, we will harm them’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Jewish state would respond in kind to any attack.

Speaking during a visit to the Tel Nof Air Base, he said, “We are in challenging times. We are in the midst of the war in Gaza, which is continuing at full force, even as we are continuing our relentless efforts to return our hostages.”

However, he continued, “We are also prepared for scenarios involving challenges in other sectors. We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively.”

Washington and its allies believe a major attack on Israel by Iran is imminent and may be launched in the coming days.

According to U.S. and Israeli sources, an Iranian attack has become a matter of when, not if, the officials said, warning that the expected assault “may not necessarily come from Israel’s north.”

The Islamic Republic’s response to the killing of an Iranian general in Syria on April 1, which Tehran has blamed on the Jewish state, could involve high-precision missiles being launched at Israel.

Israel’s allies have reportedly been told that government and military structures may be targeted but civilian facilities are not expected to be.
Seth Frantzman: Worried about an Iranian attack? That's exactly what it wants
A week of Iran’s threats to attack Israel has caused social media to lurch from one theory to another about when Iran’s supposed attack may come. Iran has threatened to “punish” Israel since it accused Israel of an April 1 strike on Damascus that killed a key IRGC commander.

On the evening of April 10, there were rumors that Iran had closed its airspace and told commercial flights to avoid Tehran. There were also stories about Iran testing a missile near Qom and that it was activating new air defenses. Hen, there were more rumors about how Iran would carry out its strike at exactly 1:20 am because this is when the US killed IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport in 2020.

There was more scrambling as well. Iran’s Foreign Minister called counterparts in Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. clearly, this was the prelude to Iran’s claims it would attack Israel. Iran’s own Fars News media on April 11 made the calls seem routine.

Amir Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan held a telephone conversation on Wednesday during which they stressed the necessity of continued consultations between Tehran and Riyadh over bilateral ties and regional and international developments,” Fars News said.

The Iranian top diplomat also called UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Iranian diplomat referred to the continuation of Israeli crimes in the month of Ramadan, especially during Eid Al-Fitr, against the fasting Palestinian people in the blockaded territory and the West Bank,” Fars News said. Mir Abdollahian called Fuad Hussein and Hakan Fidan in Iraq and Turkey.
Col Kemp: If Iran strikes, Britain must take it on
This strategic ineptitude by the US and Britain, as well as other Western countries, has contributed a great deal to the violence engulfing Israel today. It’s important to understand that the latest threats from Iran follow the IDF’s entirely legitimate air strike against an IRGC headquarters in Damascus that killed Iranian military commanders.

Iran has several options for retaliation, including bombing Israeli embassies, launching missile and drone strikes from Lebanon deeper into Israel and unleashing a direct attack from Iranian territory. To counter that the IDF has a highly capable air defence system. This may be enhanced by additional US assets in the region.

Despite that, here in Israel, where I’m currently staying, the population is demonstrably apprehensive, especially given the possibility that precision strikes either from Lebanon or Iran could inflict far more significant casualties than have been sustained from the huge number of rockets they have faced so far.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, says that any strike will be followed by a strong response on the territory of the attacker. That is of course absolutely vital. Timidity and restraint may feel more comfortable in the short term but failure to meet violence with even greater violence always encourages the aggressor, as we have seen repeatedly from Iran’s actions in the Middle East and beyond over many years.

The endless hand-wringing and unjustified harsh rebukes against Jerusalem in recent weeks and days from both Washington and London serve only to embolden and even provoke Iran and Israel’s other enemies. Standing aside now, while our ally in the Middle East becomes increasingly isolated and embattled is against not just Israel’s interests but our own as well.

It leaves the Arab countries that also fear Iran feeling exposed and vulnerable, ready to look elsewhere for protection. That means to Russia and China, both of which are watching how we respond in the Middle East with an eye on their territorial ambitions elsewhere. As well as our own culpability here, that is why, if Iran does attack Israel, both US and British forces should do whatever is needed to help them fight back.


Can Israel Win the Information War?
Watch any knowledgeable political pundit on TV and they will likely say was horrific to see Israelis savagely slaughtered on Oct. 7 by Hamas and it is also horrific that Palestinian civilians have been killed in the subsequent war. This makes sense. Every innocent person killed is a tragedy.

What Douglas Murray, Ben Shapiro and Hillel Fuld explained early on is that intent matters, understanding that Hamas was banking on the international media showing a moral equivalence between a terrorist attack and an army defending itself. When one Hamas leader was asked why he did not build bomb shelters for Palestinians, his response was that it was the responsibility of the UN. While another said they would do an Oct. 7 attack again and again.

Can Israel possibly win the information war, which will not be over even when the current military one is?

“Absolutely,” Fuld told the Journal. “We need to unify our narrative. Our enemies have a very clear concise and easy to digest narrative. ‘You’re oppressing us. Free Palestine.’ Very easy. Our narrative is completely fragmented. Some bring up antisemitism, some talk about the war, some talk about double standards. We need to unify under one narrative. And that narrative should be that the world we live in is a very dark world and the Jewish people have been nothing but a source of light to the world.”

Fuld, an Israeli tech guru and marketing expert, stopped what he was doing after Oct. 7 to focus on defending Israel. He was personally touched by tragedy when his brother, Ari was stabbed in the back by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist in September of 2018.

When questioned about Hamas, anti-Israel pundits have attempted to shift the blame to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. According to Fuld, however divided Israel had been on judicial reform, Israel is united in realizing they have to win this. “Media tricks are not effective at all but it’s all they have” because there is no moral way to defend the brutal attack of Hamas. Fuld added that while the Israeli Army is currently being castigated, when all the facts come to light, it will be clear that the Israeli Army is not only more moral than other armies, but their urban warfare tactics will be studied by other armies.

Irina Tsukerman, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and geopolitical analyst told the Journal she is aware many say Israel can’t win the information war.

“I think that is a lazy argument for people who don’t know what they are doing and have failed,” Irina Tsukerman said. “Unfortunately, people don’t really think about what strategies will be effective … There is a great to need to galvanize young Americans, Jewish and not Jewish. That will not happen only by showing the Jew only as the victim. It will happen by showing Jews as impactful people while celebrating the pluralistic voices and experiences. It will happen by showing the new generation that big parts of the story are being hidden from them. Show them the Hamas leaders who have billions of dollars and live abroad in luxury while their people are starving and left to die. When they talk of ceasefire, show them the clips of the Hamas leader who admits said he wants to do October 7 again and again.” She added that effective commercials, articulate speakers, events and social media campaigns pointing out facts were among several things that should be done.

Coleman Hughes Tells Joe Rogan It’s Not a Genocide and the Numbers are False
On “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, host Joe Rogan repeated the Gaza Health Ministry’s report of 32,000 dead. (In late October President Joe Biden said he did no confidence in the numbers of the Gaza Health Ministry.)

Author Coleman Hughes said that he believes Israel has killed 13,000 Hamas members and 19,000 civilians have died. He believed the ratio was similar to American soldiers who fought ISIS in Mosul. Referring to Hamas, he said it would make “no sense at this point to stop before you’ve cut out the last 20% of the cancer … It’s very, very, distinct from genocide, cause genocide is when you’re trying to maximize civilian casualties. I think Israel, however imperfectly, is trying to minimize civilian casualties.”

While he agreed the deaths of Palestinians are tragic he blamed Hamas for embedding itself among civilians.

“We can say one of two things, we can say ‘well Israel doesn’t have a clean shot. And so, they have to let Hamas get away with it because it’s too much to bear. But then we are essentially creating a situation where terrorists have found the perfect solution, which is that you can cross the border, go house top house slaughtering your enemies, and then hide behind your own people and they can do nothing about it. It’s a perfect strategy. Can we live in a world where we allow that to be an acceptable strategy? I don’t think so and it’s very ugly to watch. It’s heartbreaking to watch and I completely understand why people don’t think the way I think when they see the videos …”
John Spencer: Antony Blinken's Ahistorical Advice for Israel
The Biden administration is keeping the pressure on Israel not to invade Hamas' final stronghold in Rafah. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that Israel could defeat Hamas by using "targeted operations with a smaller number of forces." But could it? A strategy dependent on raids and airstrikes alone has never been effective in defeating a large enemy.

U.S. thinking about the war is plagued by the mistaken belief that raiding alone can constitute a military strategy. In their new book, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, Gen. David Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts argue that intelligence-driven special-ops raids aren't enough to wage successful counterinsurgency campaigns. There is no historical evidence that commando raids or a series of precision strikes have defeated a deeply entrenched urban defender.

Commando raids and precision strikes are a tactic, not a strategy to win a war, no matter how much Washington argues to the contrary.
Seth Mandel: The Stunning Hypocrisy of Blinken and Power
Grouping Israel in with oppressor states is bad enough, but as you can see, Blinken specifically linked Palestinians with Muslim victims of genocide in Burma and China. This, too was intentional.

And here is where the Power and Blinken statements meld into one sugary blend of hypocritical, sanctimonious asininity.

You see, Power knows a great deal about the Muslim suffering mentioned in Blinken’s statement. She watched it happen from up close, and in some cases enabled it.

“I knew I was tired of being a professional foreign-policy critic, opining and judging without ever knowing whether I would pass the moral and political tests to which I was subjecting others,” Power wrote in her memoir of the moment she accepted Obama’s invitation to join the National Security Council. “I wanted to be on the inside, to try to influence this new administration’s actions.”

In 2012, she had a perfect chance to do so. The Burmese junta had eased some of its dictatorial policies and President Obama wanted to give the junta’s thuggish leaders a presidential visit so he could claim credit for influencing them. Power met on Obama’s behalf with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning dissident. Suu Kyi told Power a presidential visit with the junta was a terrible idea. Power pushed her to support it anyway. Suu Kyi proved correct: By the time Obama visited, a campaign of regime-backed ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority was looming, and not even Suu Kyi seemed bothered by it. The situation continued to deteriorate after that visit until the sporadic violence turned into a full-fledged genocide.

Power had spent her early professional years in journalism constantly trumpeting the courage of U.S. officials who resigned in protest over various administrations’ blasé response to ethnic cleansing and said she’d wished she could have been there to resign along with them. But when Obama refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, Power simply accepted it. She stuck around after the Rohingya debacle too. And she did the same after she and others pleaded with Obama to strike Syria in retaliation for Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons and Obama demurred, choosing instead to placate Assad’s Iranian sponsors with a nuclear deal while half a million died in Syria’s brutal civil war.

In 2021, as USAID administrator, Power went to Ethiopia amid that country’s ethnic cleansing campaign against its Tigrayan citizens. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed refused to meet with her. The following year, President Biden invited Abiy to a leaders’ summit in Washington, humiliating Power.

Nevertheless, she persists. Blinken, meanwhile, should be ashamed of himself for lumping Israel in with a genocidal Burmese junta and an authoritarian China and Syria. He, too, has allowed Abiy to get away with his crimes against the Ethiopian people. Yet genocide to these diplomats is a soapbox, and famine is a political football. They pat themselves on the back for pulling the fire alarm only when there is no fire. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds, as they are once again reminding us all.
Jason D. Greenblatt: The US State Department Is Amplifying the Smear Campaign Against Israel
While Hamas engages in its losing battle to destroy the Jewish state through bloodshed against Israelis, inflicting much suffering on Palestinians as part of its strategy, others across the globe are attacking Israel through a smear campaign accusing the country of doing what Hamas does: targeting civilians and attempting to perpetrate a genocide.

Now the U.S. State Department is amplifying that campaign by using it to pressure Israel to call off a ground operation in Rafah before Hamas is eradicated from the southern Gaza city—Hamas' last stronghold and a major access point for Hamas' weapons smuggling. But Israel assesses that without a ground campaign in Rafah, Hamas will be able to regroup and survive the war, directly undermining the stated US commitment to seeing Hamas destroyed.

Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo wrote in a recent memo that Israelis are blind to the "major, possibly generational damage to their reputation" over the "unpopular" Gaza offensive, to the extent that this blindness constitutes "a major strategic error." Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that an Israel Defense Forces' ground offensive in Rafah "risks further isolating Israel around the world," and thereby "jeopardizing its long-term security."

Leave alone the nonsensical implication that Israelis can't read the international press well enough to identify the global antipathy directed at them. Set aside also the very reasonable possibility that Israel has made a calculated decision to place safeguarding Israeli lives above safeguarding Israel's image.

Instead, observe how these statements accept as logical, and perhaps even correct, that Israel is behaving beyond the pale in Gaza. But that assertion is inaccurate—grossly so. Repeating it constantly doesn't make it more accurate, just more normalized. The truth is that Israel's Gaza operation will go down as one of the most—if not the single most—precise urban warfare campaigns in history; in other words, minimizing civilian deaths in its attacks on the enemy.

The leading U.S. expert on modern urban warfare, West Point's John Spencer, wrote last week that, by his analysis, "Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the US did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

When American public officials are discussing plain facts, rather that engaging in State Department posturing, they confirm Israel's strong record. Despite President Joe Biden saying that Israel has engaged in "indiscriminate bombing," Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander last week testified before Congress that the IDF upholds the same "high standard" as the United States and avoids civilian casualties wherever possible. She affirmed under oath that there is no evidence that Israel deliberately targets civilians.


Trump: Jewish Biden voters need heads checked
Former U.S. president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday that U.S. President Joe Biden “has totally lost control of the Israel situation.”

“Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined,” he said, ahead of an Atlanta fundraiser.

“He has no idea where he is and who he’s supporting,” Trump added of the U.S. president. “He doesn’t know if he’s supporting the Palestinians. But he knows one thing: He is not supporting Israel. He has abandoned Israel.”

Trump made similar remarks on Tuesday in an interview with Real America’s Voice—a right-wing cable and satellite TV channel—saying, “Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel and, frankly, should be spoken to.”

“Jewish Americans do not need to be ‘spoken to’ or threatened by Donald Trump,” James Singer, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, stated. “This is what Trump does, using division and hate as political weapons while seeking power for himself. Voters of all stripes will reject his chaos, violence and unhinged threats once again in November.”

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused Biden of turning against Israel.

“Democrats are weak on Israel,” the Louisiana Republican said. “It’s rather stunning to us that there’s this dramatic shift. Hamas is holding more than 130 hostages, as you know, including Americans.”


House speaker: Biden ‘transformed into an anti-Israel president’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday accused U.S. President Joe Biden of turning against Israel to appease the far-left flank of the Democratic Party.

“Democrats are weak on Israel as well, and it’s their support for Israel. It’s rather stunning to us that there’s this dramatic shift. Hamas is holding more than 130 hostages, as you know, including Americans,” the 52-year-old Republican said at a press conference in Washington.

“These people are languishing at the hands of barbaric terrorists, and Joe Biden is meanwhile giving ultimatums to Israel, not Hamas. And shamefully, since Oct. 7 Joe Biden has transformed into an anti-Israel president,” the congressman continued.

Biden is “more concerned with placating the antisemitism in his base than standing with our historic and vitally important ally.”

Johnson also slammed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for “meddling in Israel’s elected leadership,” alluding to Schumer’s widely panned speech on the Senate floor last month calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “obstacle” to peace and suggesting that Israel should hold unscheduled elections.

The House Speaker said the hostility to Israel extends beyond Biden and Schumer to other elected Democrats, citing 50 House Democrats recently calling for Biden to withhold arms transfers to Israel as the Jewish state fights a war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. Jerusalem is also battling on other fronts, including Hezbollah to its north, another terrorist proxy of Iran.

“It’s wrong and it’s dangerous, and it shows that Democrats are losing their moral clarity on the issue,” he said.


RFK Jr. Admonishes Biden for Turn Against Israel, Would Rather ‘Lose Election’ Than ‘Get This Issue Wrong’
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has issued a sharp rebuke of President Biden over the latter’s turn against Israel in recent weeks. Mr. Kennedy told the Sun that he would rather “lose the election” than come down on the wrong side of the issue.

The third-party candidate said Tuesday that Mr. Biden’s “failure to make the moral case for Israel” has “allowed the Democratic Party to drift away from 80 years of support for Israel.” It has also “driven the rising tide of antisemitism nationally,” Mr. Kennedy said.

After months of vocal support for Israel in the wake of the surprise Hamas attacks on October 7 — during which more than 1,200 persons were slain — the Biden administration has taken a harsher tone toward the Jewish state since the end of last month.

In late March, America abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, allowing the resolution to pass. The resolution did not call for the release of the 134 hostages held by Hamas as a precondition, infuriating Israel.

The White House has also pressured the Jewish state into enacting a cease-fire and to refrain from entering Rafah, where the remaining Hamas battalions are located. American officials have also pushed Israel to pursue a deal with the terror group and have harshly criticized Israel’s humanitarian efforts in the coastal enclave.

Mr. Biden’s “most disappointing deficiency,” Mr. Kennedy told the Sun, has been “his unwillingness or his inability to forcefully explain to the American public the many reasons that our support for Israel is in our national interest, in the interest of humanity globally, and a moral necessity.”

The result of Mr. Biden’s “tentative support for Israel,” Mr. Kennedy fears, is “a more protracted war.” The plight of the people of Gaza, he said, “is heartbreaking for me.” He is confident that the “only long-term solution for reducing bloodshed is the elimination of Hamas.”
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: What I’ve Heard From Gaza
When I tried to convince the people I met that Hamas had committed atrocities on October 7, they responded with open disbelief. Almost everyone denied it, claiming that these were false allegations or that the Israelis had killed their own people. I offered to show them videos of the atrocities, including ones that I’d privately obtained, showing beheadings and executions, and was told the footage must have been fabricated. Approximately half of those I spoke with eventually conceded that Hamas had, in fact, committed terrible atrocities against Israeli civilians, something that is unethical and inconsistent with the Muslim faith and warfare rules. The other half, however, seemed shocked and confused, unable to make sense of what I was telling them, which was entirely at odds with their understanding of the war.

Unfortunately, a large number of Palestinians and their allies in the Middle East and the diaspora do not regularly read news stories or analyses about the conflict from mainstream outlets. In the Middle East, Al-Jazeera Arabic continues to be a substantial source of information, and it spreads Hamas’s resistance narrative and its propaganda. People who form their views from TikTok videos, rumors, misinformation-laden social-media posts, and Al-Jazeera Arabic’s pro-Hamas coverage will have a skewed understanding of October 7 and the war. They’re also unlikely to understand the history of the region, of Hamas, of the peace process, and of the Palestinian leadership’s failures and mistakes.

Andrew Exum: Is the destruction of Gaza making Israel any safer?
My conversations gave me hope that it is possible to challenge preconceived notions through persistent engagement. However, revising deeply held beliefs that undermine healing, coexistence, reconciliation, and peace will be an immense and difficult undertaking. This war has made it abundantly clear that Palestinians and Arabs on one side, and Israelis on the other, live in parallel worlds that are informed by entirely disconnected sets of facts, reducing their ability to find common ground or pragmatic solutions. Even people who dislike and despise Hamas struggle, for a variety of reasons, to reconcile their own sense of historical injustice with what a resolution to the conflict would entail.

The war in Gaza has worsened already deep fissures between the Palestinians and the Israelis and their respective allies. We need to stop the war, free all the Israeli hostages, address the humanitarian crisis, and initiate political transformation in Gaza to prevent Hamas from remaining in power. That will require both sides to recognize their mutual humanity and commit to building a shared future, because the Palestinians and the Israelis are both here to stay. They must abandon their zero-sum thinking, and instead pursue partnership and cooperation.

For the Palestinians, this will require abandoning unrealistic goals, violent resistance, and incendiary rhetoric, all of which have failed them for 75 years. For the Israelis, it will require acknowledging that they cannot achieve lasting safety and security through military force, occupation, settlement expansion, separation walls, or denial of the historic injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

For every loud, hateful, and violent voice in this toxic and divisive discourse, a dozen unheard ones are calling to stop the bloodshed and dehumanization. The people of Gaza are desperately ready for a change, and eager to end the dominion of both Israel and Hamas over their lives.


Israelis Demanding Total Defeat of Hamas | Jerusalem Dateline - April 9, 2024
Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to a Rafah invasion, analysis from Jonathan Conricus on the pullout in S. Gaza. Hostage families' painful wait and how U.S. politics affect American policy towards Israel. Dan Gordon's documentary on October 7.




IDF eliminates key Hamas financier amid ‘targeted’ ops in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces eliminated a prominent Hamas terrorist responsible for funding operations of the terror group’s “military” wing in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the IDF announced on Thursday.

In December alone, Nasser Yakob Jabber Nasser transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars towards terrorist activities in Rafah, according to the military and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

Following the IDF’s withdrawal of almost all ground forces from Gaza on Sunday, the army has shifted into the targeted raids phase of the war against Hamas, which in recent days saw forces enter the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya and Nuseirat in the central Strip.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told IDF soldiers that the decision to withdraw troops was made in preparation for the looming offensive in Rafah, where Hamas’s final battalions are concentrated and where the senior leadership and remaining hostages are believed to be.

“The forces came out [of the Gaza Strip] and are preparing for their future missions, we saw examples of such missions in action at Shifa, and also for their future mission in the Rafah area,” Gallant stated.


The Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Iranian Threat
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Iran is said to be preparing or on the verge of a direct strike on Israel, and it’s not clear Americans know about it. They will when it happens, and we discuss why they’d do it and what Joe Biden has done to suggest to them it might be worth the cost. Republicans in the House continue to display paralysis. Sonia Sotomayor continues to serve on the Supreme Court despite liberal efforts to get her to quit. And the Japanese prime minister is here!


Australia’s response to WCK tragedy looks increasingly irrational
Australia’s extraordinary self-authorizing decision to appoint a Special Advisor to interfere in a foreign country’s domestic investigation is unprecedented in military review and discipline. The diplomatic insult, implying Israel is incapable of conducting a professional investigation without outside supervision, might well blow back against Australia. Binskin was commander of air operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where hundreds of innocents died.

Several other countries’ civilian nationals have been accidentally harmed by past Australian Defence Forces (ADF) operations – including those of Afghanistan and Indonesia. Can they now demand their own special advisors’ access to and oversight of ADF investigation and disciplinary processes? And would Australia let them?

In Afghanistan, it took years for Australia to fully investigate and accept responsibility for civilian casualties ADF caused. By contrast, Israel took responsibility almost immediately and then completed an independent investigation within five days.

Israeli reports make it clear this tragedy happened against a background of high IDF alertness to combat Hamas’ repeated practice of stealing aid shipments and of keeping the spoils for its fighters and selling the surplus. The IDF was monitoring gunmen who had waited several hours for the WCK aid trucks.

Toyota pickup trucks, commonly used by Hamas, arrived, from which people wearing bullet-proof vests emerged, whom the IDF believed to be Hamas, and appeared to enter a hangar, as did the WCK convoy. The IDF field unit erroneously presumed the WCK vehicles returning from the convoy leaving the hangar contained Hamas fighters. It was nighttime, and the drone unit observing these events via thermal imaging could not see WCK signage on the vehicles’ roofs.

After repeated attempts to contact the aid workers in the convoy, and calls to WCK, who also could not contact them, local commanders decided that a previous order – not to hit the unidentified group of vehicles for fear it might contain aid workers no longer applied – and launched aerial strikes. This was a violation of IDF rules of engagement – which is why the officers responsible were fired.

Efforts to do better are essential, but mistakes are inevitable. IDF soldiers are also paying a huge price in their own lives for similar errors. Friendly fire incidents are reportedly responsible for 20% of IDF casualties.

Moreover, Israel’s investigations have produced lessons to prevent similar tragedies, including the establishment of a joint situation room to coordinate between the regional command and the local Fire Control Centre, and a special humanitarian aid command centre where aid NGOs would liaise directly with Israel’s Southern Command.

The bottom line is the IDF has been operating in a uniquely complex, dense and tense urban combat environment, with Hamas tunnel entrances and weapons caches concealed everywhere – in homes, apartments, schools, mosques, clinics, and shops.

The subtext of the Foreign Minister’s chant that Israel must comply with international law, implying it is not, is one of antagonism and a lack of trust in a fellow democracy.

If Israel wanted to stop aid deliveries by killing aid workers, why are Israeli authorities now begging the WCK to resume humanitarian operations? Why is more aid than ever flowing into Gaza? Why did the US State Department state last week that there is no evidence of any incidents where Israel has violated international humanitarian law?

The Foreign Minister’s double standards diminish Australian credibility as a security partner that can be relied upon to uphold international legal norms.
‘Profoundly disappointed’: Greg Sheridan on Penny Wong’s calls for Palestinian statehood
The Australian Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan is “profoundly disappointed” in the Foreign Minister for her speech calling for a two-state solution.

The Opposition leader has taken aim at Penny Wong’s calls for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

In a speech at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday night, Peter Dutton labelled the move reckless and blamed Labor for a rise in anti-Semitism in Australia.

“I was profoundly disappointed in this speech,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“I’ve had a lot of respect and admiration for Penny Wong previously, but this speech, although it was carefully worded, there’s a kind of undergraduate silliness to this speech as if she’s the first person who’s ever discovered a two-state solution.”


Penny Wong ‘damaged’ Australia’s relationship with Israel
There’s “no doubt” Foreign Minister Penny Wong has “damaged” Australia’s relationship with Israel, according to Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham.

Mr Birmingham’s remarks come after the Foreign Minister suggested Australia is open to recognising Palestine’s statehood.

“There’s no doubt that Australia’s relationship with Israel has been damaged through the Foreign Minister’s actions this week,” he told Sky News Australia.

“There’s also no doubt that the Foreign Minister’s speech and actions this week were contrary and counter to the very message that, for example, the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was urging the world to deliver.

“Instead of putting pressure on Hamas, Penny Wong was doing the exact opposite.”


Peta Credlin blasts Labor’s ‘appalling pivot’ on Palestinian statehood
Sky News host Peta Credlin discusses the Labor government’s “appalling pivot” on recognising Palestinian statehood.

Senator Wong, during an ANU conference on Tuesday, signalled the Albanese government is considering recognising Palestinian statehood.

“In terms of both domestic politics at play but more broadly, internationally,” Ms Credlin said.

“Because it speaks to the growing anti-Semitism across the West.

“That frankly, we all would have thought was unthinkable just a year ago.”


Gaza list of demands found in Melbourne hospital a ‘seven-million-dollar wish list’
Sky News host Peta Credlin says the “confidential” ten-page document found inside Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital is a “seven-million-dollar wish list”.

“This confidential ten-page document that has been found inside a secure area of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital,” Ms Credlin said.

“It is a seven-million-dollar wish list of medicines and … equipment.

“A lot of the demands are written in Arabic.

“The very existence of this document raises serious questions.”




Biden Co-Chair Clyburn: It ‘Will Rectify All the Mistakes’ if Israeli People Remove Netanyahu
On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said that the approach to Israel’s war against Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attacks is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “most recent mistake.” He added that “Israel must win, but Netanyahu must go. That, to me, will rectify all the mistakes, if the people of Israel get rid of Netanyahu. He is a mistake.”

Host Wolf Blitzer asked Clyburn about President Joe Biden’s criticism of Netanyahu’s approach to the war and if parts of the Democratic Party will be satisfied with anything short of an immediate ceasefire.

Clyburn answered, “All of this, I would say, is Netanyahu’s most recent mistake. He has made mistake after mistake after mistake. He emboldened Hamas in Gaza. He negotiated for Qatar…to fund them. Those were mistakes. It was a mistake for him not to embrace a two-state solution, which he has never embraced. So, this is his most recent mistake. And I agree with a headline I saw this morning, Israel must win, but Netanyahu must go. That, to me, will rectify all the mistakes, if the people of Israel get rid of Netanyahu. He is a mistake.”


Lahav Harkov: Tucker Carlson’s ‘pastor from Bethlehem’ is ‘the high priest of antisemitic Christianity’
Among the antisemitic statements made at the conference over the years, collected by NGO Monitor, an organization that researches the activities and funding of nonprofits relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict, are: “If God wanted the Jews to have the land…I didn’t want that God anymore!” “If you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu [through a DNA test], you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.” “Jews who reject Jesus Christ are outside the covenant of grace and are to be regarded as children of Hagar,” as opposed to Abraham and Sarah. The final quote is from Stephen Sizer, a British pastor who has engaged in Holocaust denial and blaming Israel for 9/11.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, said that “those of us who track these things know that Munther Isaac has long been the high priest of antisemitic Christianity; sadly, he spreads his hate from the city of Jesus’ birth.”

“Since Oct. 7,” Moore added, “Isaac seems to have graduated from being an anti-Zionist Lutheran preacher to a terror sympathizer. There’s really just no other way to describe him.”

Jonathan Elkhoury, a Christian Lebanese refugee granted Israeli citizenship, said he was “appalled and ashamed” at Carlson’s choice to invite Isaac onto his show, preferring “rhetoric of lies and misinformation about Israel or its treatment of minorities” rather than “a voice that speaks about Christian life in the Holy Land.”

“Tucker Carlson should have taken his platform more seriously, and not invite political activists, in the disguise of a religious robe, to support the ongoing dehumanization of Israelis and the denial of the right of Israel to exist,” he said.

In his introduction to the interview with Isaac, Carlson said that Christians suffer disproportionately in wars in which the U.S. supplies weapons.

However, the Christian population in the West Bank and Gaza declined significantly in recent decades since coming under Palestinian control, amid pressure from the PA and attempts to Islamize the city, in addition to difficulties relating to Israel’s security control of the area experienced by Palestinians regardless of religion.

Elkhoury said that when Israel had control over Bethlehem, the city had a population that was over 60% Christian. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, which gave the PA control of the city, the number of Christians has since declined to about 12%.

There were 3,000 Christians in Gaza when Israel withdrew from the coastal enclave in 2005, a number that fell to about 1,100 as of last year, he said.

“Hamas prevented Christians [from] celebrat[ing] their holidays freely under its control since taking power, and Christians under the PA have faced many ongoing threats and attacks,” Elkhoury said. “The last one of them was an attack on the Jacob’s Well monastery in Nablus by a Palestinian mob last January.”

Israel’s Christian community, which is about 2% of the country’s population, has been rising steadily for the past few years, and is the only growing Christian population in the Middle East. Arab Christians are also the most educated population group in Israel, with a higher percentage of university graduates than Jewish or Muslim Israelis.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said Carlson’s take on Israel’s treatment of Christians is “nonsense,” calling the former Fox News host “a cowardly, know-nothing elitist who is full of shit.”

“Tucker’s MO is simple: defend America’s enemies and attack America’s allies,” Crenshaw wrote on X. “There isn’t an objective bone left in that washed up news host’s body. Mindless contrarianism is his guiding principle…He uses his platform to sow doubt and paranoia and false narratives.”
Dumisani Washington: The Arsonist
The real story to be told here is the demographics. Christians in Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born, represented more than 80% of the population when the territory was controlled by Israel. Since the Palestine Liberation Organization took over in late 1995, it is now over 80% Muslim. The Christian population of the West Bank and Gaza has plummeted to roughly 1%. This is in keeping with the larger trend in the region, where Christian communities have largely been driven out and disappeared after two millennia of faithful presence.

Many of those who remain in Muslim countries live as “dhimmis,” second-class citizens under the mercy, and whims, of Muslim rule. Every year, thousands are murdered, abducted, tortured, enslaved, or displaced. Jihadists routinely raid Christian villages in places such as Iraq, Syria, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sudan, kidnapping their children, raping and enslaving their woman, and burning them and their homes and churches. Such horrific persecution has been documented extensively.

Alternately, Palestinian Christians flee to Israel seeking safety. Those from the West Bank reveal a hostile environment where churches and monasteries are attacked, graffitied with Islamic slogans, vandalized and looted, and PLO flags draped over crosses. By contrast, Israel is the only place in the Middle East where the Christian population has been steadily increasing. They are not only free of persecution, but among the most successful and accomplished in Israeli society, with several Arab Christians having been appointed Supreme Court Justices. Just last year, a former slave from South Sudan, a country in which up to 1.5 million citizens were massacred by Muslim terrorists and many enslaved, visited Israel to show his support of the “one nation [who] helped us with arms, tactical, and military support.”

A simple Google search by Tucker or his team could have easily found all of this. But Tucker chose to mislead his viewers. By his own “America First” standard, shouldn’t he be reporting on the “Death to America” chants that poured out of a Muslim protest in Michigan this week? If he actually cared about Christians, shouldn’t he be informing his audience about the Idaho teen who just planned to execute an attack on a local church in loyalty to ISIS, or draw attention to Nigeria, the world’s most dangerous place to be a Christian, where nearly 90% of all Christians killed for their faith in 2023 occurred there? And if he were truly an honest journalist, why did he omit critical biographic facts that reflect the Pastor’s political worldview?

But that wasn’t the point of the interview. Instead, Tucker set fire to a delicate relationship between two faith-communities, fraught with a long history of Jewish forced conversions, pogroms, inquisitions, and a Holocaust, who managed, only in recent decades, to finally come together in mutual trust, co-exist, and support one another.

For someone who talks with such revulsion about the horrors of war, Tucker sure seems interested in starting one.
The Ignorant Arguments Happening on the Right About Christians and Israel, with Victor Davis Hanson
Megyn Kelly is joined by Victor Davis Hanson, author of "The End of Everything,” to discuss the ignorant arguments we're seeing on the right about Christians and Israel, why America has an interest to support Israel, how Ukraine and Israel are totally different conflicts, and more.


The Israel Guys: Tucker Carlson Went Too Far | Debunking the Claim that Israel Persecutes Christians
Tucker Carlson just dropped a bombshell interview on X, an interview that he conducted with an anti-Israel Arab pastor from Bethlehem who claims that Jesus was Palestinian, not Jewish.

In the interview, Tucker and Isaac Munther, go to great lengths to prove that Israel persecutes Christians, is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, and that Christians in the west don’t care at all.

Luke debunks all these wild claims and more, here on the Israel Guys.




Gutfeld On "Death To America" Chants: Why Are We Respecting Anti-American Behavior? Leftism Encourages This
GUTFELD: It took us a long time to move on. I use that phrase probably loosely to move on from 9/11. We remembered it every single day, every single day we built and we did everything. 6 months since October 7th, and history is already history. There are people that are already denying what went on. It has gotten in many minds smaller and smaller. Their respect for what Israel is doing is getting smaller. But it's not Israel's fault. Your respect for what Israel does is related to the legacy of the Holocaust.

If you actually believed that since the Holocaust, Israel has a right to defend itself, then this is the moment to prove it. This is the moment. If everything you said about Israel in the past, that they have a right to defend themselves, and now you are criticizing them, then nothing you said was worth it. Because it is supposed to matter now. It's not supposed to mar in skirmishes or when there some kind of political beef or an election. It is about when it actually comes -- which it did on October 7th. And if all of a sudden you are saying, whoa, hey, you guys should slow down, a little humanitarian stuff, then you are not respecting the legacy of the Holocaust. Because this is where it counts, you know.

I get the impression with the "Death To America" stuff that we are on a slow roll toward our own little Gazas. These little islands of unrest in the country. These were places that were sacrificed to leftism. Leftisms, where laws were discarded. Identity and division became the currency. Look at Minneapolis since George Floyd. It's never been the same. It's all these enclaves. We were supposed to be a melting pot. But that requires melting. And instead what we are seeing is a hardening. It is a hardening. And we are always accused of xenophobia if we exalt our country's awesomeness or make fun of another country's customs. Fair enough. I get it. But it's a two-way street. If you come here and reject assimilation, free speech, cooperation with people different than you. Those are our values and if you reject them, you are xenophobic, you are anti-American. It's not illegal, I guess. But why are we respecting it and why are we encouraging it? Leftism encourages this sort of behavior. It's time for the adults to enter the room and basically change the conversation or these cities are gone.


Toronto Demonstrators Urged to "Live Up to the Example" of Hamas
After six months of routine anti-Israel rallies in Toronto, weekend demonstrations featured a notable increase in pro-terror rhetoric and extremist symbology.

On April 5, speakers were recorded telling cheering crowds to emulate the example of Gazan or Yemeni terrorist groups.

"On Oct. 7, we saw the potential for a Palestine liberated from Zionism by the forces of the resistance," said Charlotte Kates of Samidoun, a Vancouver-based non-profit with close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Gazan terror group whose members participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.

She urged attendees "to live up to the examples that every fighter in the brigades and every Yemeni marine are showing on a daily basis." The "Yemeni marines" are in reference to Houthis, a Yemeni terror group that has been attacking civilian shipping in the Red Sea for the last several months.

Kates spoke on Al Quds Day, a holiday conceived by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the explicit purpose of calling for Israel's destruction, first declared by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
Fears that Muslim prisoners are being ‘groomed’ by extremists
A militant campaign group linked to the Iranian regime has provided spiritual guidance and religious materials to hundreds of Muslim prisoners in British jails, including at least one book written by an Islamist extremist, a JC investigation reveals.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which is a registered charity, organised Friday’s Quds Day parade in London at which speakers glorified the October 7 massacre as a “liberation”, demanded an “end” to Zionism and pledged support for Hamas.

Its chair of trustees, Raza Kazim, the chief steward responsible for maintaining order at the rally, was one of 12 people arrested by the Metropolitan Police on the day.

Videos show violent scuffles breaking out after Kazim intervened while officers were leading another man away in handcuffs, telling him “don’t say anything”.

This week, the IHRC sent religious welfare packages to Muslims in prisons across the country, to help them celebrate the Eid festival that marks the end of Ramadan. It is not known whether any of the recipients are convicted terrorists.

The packages, which are provided several times a year, are distributed with the assistance of the Muslim Chaplains Association, the officially-recognised body that represents prison imams.

Despite the IHRC’s relationship with the Iranian regime and frequent expressions of support for terror groups, the Ministry of Justice has allowed its contact with prisoners since it began to send them Eid packages in 2013.

Along with sweets, beads, perfume and religious books, this year’s Eid packs contain a card with a message from the IHRC’s London leader Massoud Shadjareh, who has said he is “inspired” by the late Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani and “aspires to be like him”.

In his Quds Day speech, Shadjareh promised “we are going to be victorious” in Gaza and urged his audience to fulfil the “vision” of Ayatollah Khomeini. At earlier events, he has been photographed wearing Hezbollah insignia. He has described Israel as a “Zionist cancer” that must be “removed from the earth”.

The IHRC has previously run campaigns to support convicted terrorists such as Omar Abdel Rahman, the “blind sheikh” who blew up the New York World Trade Centre in 1995 and Abu Hamza, the notorious Finsbury Park imam.

A police spokeswoman revealed that Kazim and the other suspects had been bailed until July on suspicion of offences including threats to kill, inciting racial hatred, assault and refusing to comply with conditions imposed on the parade under the Public Order Act.

It comes just days after the Iranian opposition TV presenter Pouria Zeraati was stabbed near his London home. In an interview with the JC (see P4), he said: “If this was a state-backed plot, the main Iranian organisation involved in these things is the IRGC Quds Force.”
Asylum seeker ‘carried out murder in revenge for deaths of Palestinian children’
A Moroccan asylum seeker told police he knifed a pensioner to death in the street and stabbed a Christian convert out of “revenge” for Israel killing children in the Palestinian conflict, a court heard.

Ahmed Alid’s actions, the week after the Hamas attacks, were motivated by “the conflict in Gaza and to further his desire that Palestine would be free from the Zionists”, Teesside Crown Court was told.

He denies murdering Terence Carney, 70, in Hartlepool town centre, as well as the attempted murder of his housemate Javed Nouri, 31, and assaulting two female police officers who had interviewed him after his arrest.

Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said Alid armed himself with two knives in the early hours of October 15 when he attacked Mr Nouri, who was asleep, at their shared house in Wharton Terrace, Hartlepool.

Alid shouted “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is great”, as he stabbed sleeping Mr Nouri in the chest, before he went on to fatally stab Mr Carney, who was out walking in the town centre.

He had initially thought Mr Nouri was a Muslim, but was angered when he realised he was attending church and had converted to Christianity.
Pro-Palestine video game accused of promoting terrorism and anti-Semitism is blocked in Australia: 'Straight out of the Hamas playbook'
A video game accused of promoting terrorism and anti-Semitism has been blocked from access in Australia after Sky News revealed it was being promoted on a site boasting more than two million local accounts.

Sky News reported on Wednesday there were calls to ban two new games, Toofan al-Aqsa and Sound of Silence, amid accusations they would incite violence against Jews.

Toofan al-Aqsa was released on the site late last month, free to download, and being promoted as a “shooter game about protecting Al-Aqsa and Palestine”.

Al-Aqsa is a mosque in Jerusalem, Israel, that is considered one of the holiest sites for Muslims and situated on a compound called Temple Mount, which is sacred to Jews. Jewish Australians living ‘in fear’ in ‘their own communities’: Jane Hume

The blurb on the site reads: “… kill the enemies faster. Finish all levels and free Palestine.”

A trailer for the game depicts graphic scenes as a shooter guns down Israeli soldiers outside the mosque.

Sound of Silence has not yet been released, but is described on the site as a game about a protagonist Jihad who “tries to free his little sister Marwa from under the debris of their shelled home” from Israeli airstrikes.

The developer of another controversial game congratulated the makers of Sound of Silence on the game’s Steam page.

Nidal Nijm, the developer of Fursan al-Aqsa, wrote: “I am rooting for your success… the games industry needs more of these kind of games…”

Nijm, who is Palestinian-Brazilian, previously caused controversy over Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, another highly graphic game in which players can role-play Palestinian terrorists gunning down and blowing up Israeli soldiers.

Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dr Dvir Abramovich said he was disgusted by the games.

“This is radicalisation, incitement to violence and recruitment to terrorism by stealth,” Jewish rights advocate Dr Abramovich said.

“As someone who has lost a family member to Palestinian terrorism, I'm sick to the stomach of these dangerous and evil games that are straight out of the Hamas playbook and normalise antisemitism.”

He said he was concerned a Jewish person in Australia would be abused or assaulted as a result of the games.

“The mission of this game is to go and kill Jews and we need to make sure that no one here in this country is allowed to play this game because if anything happens, the creator of this game, the Steam platform, anybody else who has allowed this game to be sold, to be downloaded or to be played in this country will have blood on their hands,” Dr Abramovich said.




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